one of those three provinces in the north-east part of Spain distinguished by the name of Provincias Vascongadas, and the easternmost of the three. It is bounded by France on the east, where the Bidassoa separates the two kingdoms; on the north it is on the seacoast of the Bay of Biscay; its eastern boundary is the province of Biscay; and its southern the province of Avila. It contains by far the most dense population of any part of Spain, being fifty-two square leagues in extent, and containing 104,491 inhabitants. If the whole of Spain were as thickly peopled as this province is, instead of 10,350,000 souls, it would contain 30,150,000.

It is watered with various springs and rivulets, which fertilize the soil, and, forming the six rivers Deva, Urola, Oria, Urumea, Oyarzun, and Bidassoa, each of short course, enter the ocean. The agriculture of the province is by no means equal to the supply of its population; for though it yields wheat, maize, barley, for food, and some cattle, and apples, of which they make much cider, yet they draw supplies for their subsistence of wine from Navarre and Rioja, of oil from Castille and Andalusia, and of cattle from the adjoining provinces of France.

Although the province is deficient in agriculture, yet its extensive manufactures fully compensate for that deficiency. It is the Birmingham of Spain, in which every kind of ironmongery goods that the kingdom or the Atlantic provinces require is furnished. The machinery yet introduced to lessen labour is very limited, and the articles they produce are very rude, though excellent of their kind, in some measure owing to their iron being remarkably tenacious and elastic. The nails, of which great quantities of every size are made, are always preferred wherever they can be obtained.

The industry of the province is proverbial, and it is visible in the dwellings, the roads, and the farms, as well as in the countenances and dress of the inhabitants. This province is one of those which is exempt from the ordinary system of taxation that prevails in the rest of Spain; and, like the people of Biscay, all the natives lay claim to the prerogatives of nobility, and assert their equality to the highest families of the rest of Spain.