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Mr Brandram wrote to Borrow: "With regard to forming a Bible Society in Madrid, and appointing Dr Usoz Secretary, it is so out of our usual course that the Committee, for various reasons, cannot comply with your wishes of the desirableness of forming such a Society at present, you and your friend must be the best judges.
He formed a friendship at Madrid with the Spanish scholar, Luis de Usoz, afterwards editor of "The Early Spanish Reformers," who became a member of the Bible Society, helped Borrow in editing the Spanish Testament, and looked after his interests while he was away from Madrid. At St. James' itself he made a friend and a co-operator of the old bookseller, Rey Romero, who knew Benedict Moll.
The Testaments had not sold to any considerable extent, for which "only circumstances and the public poverty" were the cause, as Dr Usoz explained. To awaken interest in his campaign, Borrow planned to print a thousand advertisements, which were to be posted in various parts of the city, and to employ colporteurs to vend the books in the streets.
Dr Usoz not only became a member of the Bible Society, but earned from Borrow a splendid tribute in the Preface to The Bible in Spain. In Madrid chaos reigned as a result. Now that no obstacle stood in the way of the printing of the Spanish New Testament, Borrow was requested to return to England that he might confer with the authorities at Earl Street.
Dr Usoz also addressed a letter to the Society asking to be considered as a correspondent and entrusted with copies of the Scriptures, which he was convinced he could circulate in every province of Spain. The advantage of having one of the editors of the principal newspaper of Spain on the side of the Society did not fail to appeal to Borrow.
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