194 LETTERS FROM SPAIN. s ■* ) LETTER XXIX. ISLA DE LEON PANTHEON PUENTE DE ZUARZOS SALT PITS CHICLANA-- GAME CORTOS CHURCH OF ST. ANNA MINERAL SPRINGS AT CHICLANA CHRISTMAS PARTY STROLLING PLAYERS. Cadiz, dec. lSog. I HAVE been spending some days at Chiclana, a delightful place, about sixteen miles hence, where the merchants of this city have their country houses. We went in a herlin, with four good horses. The road is very fine, and is raised on a parapet, with the sea on both sides; on the left the bay of Cadiz, and on the right the main ocean, with the shore stretching towards Cape Trafalgar. In two hours we reached the Isla de Leon, a city containing be tween forty and fifty thousand inhabitants; but from its extent, in cluding St. Carlos, capable of holding double that number. The streets are wide, the houses large, and, like other Spanish towns, it displays a mixture of grandeur and poverty, quite charac teristic of the nation. As this place is soon destined to become the seat of government, I saw it with more interest than it would other wise have excited. It is at present inhabited chiefly by officers of the navy, and by different persons employed in the dock-yard of the Caraccas ; but the expected convocation of the Cortes has increased