Bandit Trails. Seville, Cadiz

Bandits —besides being the leading characters of romantic dramas and very much to the taste of European writers— were the terror of Andalusian roads. The usual lines of communications, whether through the countryside or the mountains, were held up by these men who knew the land and their chances. Their degree of specialisation was such that they used different, suitably trained horses depending on whether they would have to gallop across open countryside, chased by Migueletes, or escape up-mountain, leaping over precipices and climbing steep slopes.

Sometimes seen as popular heroes, their fame shook the life and imagination of the many villages affected by their rapid assaults. The famous Niños de Ecija, who won their everlasting reputation in the short period between 1814 and 1818, ruled over the countryside and mountains of Cordoba and Seville. Utrera —a walled city with a castle— also suffered from the threat of bandits on its rich estates, scattered throughout the extensive plains and hills that belonged to it.

Further south, their exploits reached the Ronda mountains; the thick cork oak forests of Jimena de la Frontera and the bright whiteness of Medina Sidonia. As fast as the wind in the Strait and as slippery as the rivers that flow through the jagged Andalusian mountains, the bandit hid himself in the varied scenery of the land from which he was born.