ALICANTE, a modern province of Spain, fanned of the southern portion of the kingdom of Valencia and a small part of Murcia, is noted for its fertility and industry. The in. habitants are very industrious, and cultivate the land with great care : irrigation is much and successfully employed. Wheat is little cultivated, but rice, oranges, citrons, figs, al monds, and dates, are grown in large quanti ties ; barilla, the stmt.-cane, the cotton tree, and all plants flourish. The quantity of wine produced is considerable, and of the best quality, especially that grown in the environs of the city of Alicante. Linen, broadcloth, soap, paper, and worsted-yarn are manufactured : there are several brandy dis tilleries in the province. Great attention is paid to the rearing of silk-worms and bees, and the tunny, anchovy, and other fisheries on the coast are very productive. Nearly 1000 ships, Spanish and foreign, enter the harbour of Alicante town yearly. The greater part of its foreign trade consists of imports of linen from France and Genoa, tobacco from the United States of America, and cod-fish from Newfoundland ; its exports are, barilla and almonds to England and Ireland, and wine to Brazil and the coast of Barbary. A
considerable quantity of wine is also shipped to the port of Cette, in Languedoc, whence it is sent to Bordeaux, to be mixed with the in ferior Medoc wines. Alicante likewise exports oil, olives, brandy, and soap : the quality of the last-mentioned article is much esteemed. The communications between the town and the contiguous country arc for the most part kept up by means of small coasting vessels of from 20 to 70 tons burthen, the roads being so exceedingly bad, that such goods as are sent by land must be conveyed on the backs of mules and asses. All cotton manufactures being prohibited, a great contraband trade is carried on from Gibraltar, Algiers, and Oran, chiefly by Spanish fishing-boats