Germany

Germany is presented through Ricote’s account as a hoped-for refuge from exile, a place he associates with greater freedom of conscience, and the destination to which he plans to bring his family. Its role in the narrative is shaped by movement between countries: Ricote leaves Spain, settles near Augsburg, and later travels back with German pilgrims, carrying the hope of recovering both buried wealth and the family separation has taken from him.

A Refuge in Ricote’s Account

Ricote describes a route from Spain through France and Italy to Germany. France received the exiles kindly, but he wanted to see more of the world; after reaching Germany, he concluded that its inhabitants seemed able to live with greater freedom because, in many parts, little attention was paid to matters of conscience. This is Ricote’s own assessment, offered in the context of his search for somewhere his community might live after expulsion. Germany is not represented as a simple restoration of home, but as a place where he believes life may be less restricted.

He takes a house in a town near Augsburg. That detail gives his refuge a specific, settled form: Germany is not merely a country he passes through, but the place where he establishes a household while his wife and daughter remain elsewhere. The separation complicates the idea of safety. Ricote has found a place to live, yet the people he most wants to protect are not with him, and the narrative makes his plans for them a continuing reason to move again.

A Route Between Exile and Spain

Ricote’s account places Germany within a wider geography of displacement. He says that exiles who expected welcome in Barbary and elsewhere in Africa instead faced insult and ill-treatment there. He also describes many Spanish-born exiles as longing to return, even when return means leaving family members behind. Against that background, Germany offers Ricote a temporary base, not an uncomplicated substitute for Spain. His attachment to his birthplace persists alongside his attempt to find a tolerable place to live abroad.

The distinction between refuge and home becomes concrete in his plan to bring his wife, Francisca Ricota, and daughter, Ricota, from Algiers to a French port and then onward to Germany. He believes they are Catholic Christians and hopes to gather them into the life he has established. The proposed journey also shows that Germany’s importance depends on connections beyond its borders: the family’s intended route runs through Algiers and France, while Ricote considers writing to them or crossing from Valencia to arrange their passage. His plan remains contingent; the account presents it as a purpose he is trying to carry out, not as a completed migration.

German Pilgrims and the Return Journey

Germany also enters the story through the pilgrims who travel from there to Spain each year to visit shrines. Ricote joins their company, using their established journey as a way to return to the country from which he has been expelled. He describes the pilgrims as moving widely through Spain, receiving food and drink and collecting money during their travels. They bring their savings back to their own country, concealing the money in hollow staffs, patches in their cloaks, or other devices despite searches at guarded posts and passes.

This account makes the pilgrims’ route both religious and practical. Their visits to shrines provide the regular passage through Spain that Ricote can join, while their methods of carrying money reveal how travel and material gain coexist on the same journey. Ricote’s own purpose differs from theirs: he hopes to recover treasure that he left buried outside his town and to find his family. Germany is therefore connected to Spain not only as a destination for return, but as the pilgrims’ home country and the point toward which they carry what they have gathered.

Treasure, Family, and the Limits of Return

Ricote’s plan brings together two forms of recovery. He intends to retrieve his buried wealth and to find a means of bringing his wife and daughter to Germany. When he eventually appears in Barcelona among the pilgrims, he has recovered the treasure, but his reunion with Ana Félix matters more to him. He presents his daughter as the treasure that makes him truly rich. The scene gives the earlier German refuge a family dimension: the country had been the intended place where they might live together, although the reunion itself takes place in Spain.

Germany consequently remains a projected destination rather than the setting of the family’s final reunion in the evidence given. Ricote had settled near Augsburg and hoped to bring his wife and daughter there; instead, the story’s immediate resolution is their recognition and embrace in Barcelona. The contrast does not erase Germany’s significance. It shows how exile repeatedly redirects the family’s plans: Germany offers a possible future, while the search for kin draws Ricote back through Spain and brings father and daughter together there. For Ricote, refuge, return, and belonging do not coincide in one place; Germany holds the promise of shelter, but family reunion becomes the more precious recovery.