SAN DIEGO GIBRALTAR F GIBRALTAR BY Henry M. Field ILLUSTRATED LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited. 1889. \All rights reserved.] TR0W8 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, NEW YORK. 2To $&t> jFricnti antr XcijjPoc IN THE BERKSHIRE HILLS, JOSEPH H. CHOATE, WHO FINDS IT A RELIEF NOW AND THEN TO TURN FROM THE HARD LABORS OF THE LAW TO THE ROMANCE OF TRAVEL : I SEND AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT A STORY OF FORTRESS AND SIEGE THAT MAY BEGUILE A VACANT HOUR AS HE SITS BEFORE HIS WINTER EVENING FIRE. PREFACE. The common tour in Spain does not include Gibraltar. Indeed it is not a part of Spain, for, though connected with the Spanish Peninsula, it belongs to England ; and to one who likes to preserve a unity in his memories of a country and people, this modern fortress, with its English garrison, is not " in color " with the old picturesque king- dom of the Goths and Moors. .Nor is it on the great lines of travel. It is not touched by any railroad, and by steamers only at intervals of days, so that it has come to be known as a place which it is at once difficult to get to and to get away from. Hence easy-going travellers, who are content to take circular tickets and follow fixed routes, give Gibraltar the go-by, though by so doing they miss a place that is unique in the world — unique in position, in picturesqueness, and in history. That mighty Rock, " standing out of the water and in the water," (as on the day when the old world perished ;) is one of the Pillars of Hercules, that once marked the very end of the world ; and around its base ancient and modern history flow to- gether, as the waters of the Atlantic mingle with those Viii PREFACE. of the Mediterranean. Like Constantinople, it is throned (.n two seas and two continents. As Europe at its south- eastern corner stands face to face with Asia; at its south- western it is face to face with Africa : and these were the two points of the Moslem invasion. But here the nat- ural course of history was reversed, as that invasion be- gan in the "West. Hundreds of years before the Turk crossed the Bosphorus, the Moor crossed the Straits of Gibraltar. His coming was the signal of an endless war of races and religions, whose lurid flames lighted up the dark background of the stormy coast. The Bock, which was the " storm-centre " of all those clouds of war, is surely worth the attention of the passing traveller. That it has been so long neglected, is the sufficient reason for an attempt to make it better known. CONTENTS. PAGE I. Entering the Straits, .1 II. Climbing the Rock, 12 III. The Fortifications, 18 IV. Round the Town, 29 V. Parade on the Alameda, and Presentation op Colors to the South Staffordshire Regiment, . . .35 VI. The Society of Gibraltar, 48 VII. A Chapter of History— The Great Siege, . . .63 VIII. Holding a Fortress in a Foreign Country, . . 110 IX. Farewell to Gibraltar— Leaving for Africa, . . 128 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Alameda Parade, Frontispiece. FACING PAGE The Lion Couchant, 4 General View op the Rock, 12 The Signal Station, 14 The New Mole and Rosia Bay, 19 The Saluting Battery, . 27 Walk in the Alameda Gardens, 62 Catalan Bay, on the East Side of Gibraltar, . . .65 Plan of Gibraltar, 71 "Old Eliott," the Defender of Gibraltar, . . . 108 Windmill Hill and O'Hara's Tower, 132 Europa Point, 143 CHAPTER I. ENTERING THE STRAITS. HEARD the last gun of the Old Year fired from the top of the Rock, and the first gun of the New. It was the very last day of 1886 that we entered the Straits of Gibraltar. The sea was smooth, the sky was clear, and the atmosphere so warm and bright that it seemed as if winter had changed places with summer, and that in De- cember we were breathing the air of June. On a day like this, when the sea is calm and still, groups of travellers sit about on the deck, watching the shores on either hand. How near they come to each other, only nine miles dividing the most southern point of Europe from the most northern point of Africa ! Per- haps they once came together, forming a mountain chain which separated the sea from the ocean. But since the barrier was burst, the waters have rushed through with resistless power. Looking over the side of the ship, we observe that the current is setting eastward, which would not excite surprise were it not that it never turns back. The Mediterranean is a tideless sea : it does not ebb and flow, but pours its mighty volume ceaselessly in the same 2 CilimALTAK. direction. This, the geographers tell us, is a provision of nature to supply the waste caused by the greater evapora- tion at the eastern end of the Great Sea. But this satis- fies as only in part, since while this current flows on the surface, there is another, though perhaps a feebler, cur- rent flowing in the opposite direction. Down hundreds or fathoms deep, a hidden Gulf Stream is pouring back into the bosom of the ocean. This system of the ocean currents is one of the mysteries which we do not fully understand. It seems as if there were a spirit moving not only upon the waters, but in the waters; as if the great deep were a living organism, of which the ebb and How were like the circulation of the blood in the human frame. Or shall we say that this upper current represents Stream of Life, which might seem to be over-full were it not that far down in the depths the excess of Life is relieved by the black waters of Death that are flowing darkly beneath ? Turning from the sea to the shore, on our left is Tarifa, the most southern point of Spain and of Europe — a point far more picturesque than the low, wooded spit of land that forms the most southern point of Asia, which the "globe-trotter" rounds as he comes into the harbor of pore, for here the headland that juts into the sea is clowned by a Moorish castle, on the ramparts of which, in the good old times of the Barbary pirates, sentinels kept watch of ships that should attempt to pass the Straits from either direction: for incomers and outgoers ENTERING THE STRAITS. 6 alike had to lower their flags, and pay tribute to those who counted themselves the rightful lords of this whole wa- tery realm. I wonder that the Free-Traders do not ring the changes on the fact that the very word tariff is derived from this ancient stronghold, at which the mariners of the Middle Ages paid " duties " to the robbers of the sea. If both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar were to-day, as they once were, under the control of the same Moslem power, we might have two castles — one in Europe and one in Africa — like the " Castles of Europe and Asia," that still guard the Dardanelles, at which all ships of commerce are required to stop and report before they can pass ; while ships-of-war carrying too many guns, cannot pass at all without special permission from Constantinople. But the days of the sea-robbers are ended, and the Mediterranean is free to all the commerce of the world The Castle of Tarifa is still kept up, and makes a pictu- resque object on the Spanish coast, but no corsair watches the approach of the distant sail, and no gun checks her speed ; every ship — English, French, or Spanish — passes unmolested on her way between these peaceful shores. Instead of the mutual hatred which once existed between the two sides of the Straits, they are in friendly inter- course, and to-day, under these smiling skies, Spain looks love to Barbary, and Barbary to Spain. While thus turning our eyes landward and seaward, we have been rounding into a bay, and coming in sight of a mighty rock that looms up grandly before us. Although 4 GIBRALTAR. it was but the middle of the afternoon, the winter sun hung low, and striking across the bay outlined against the sky the figure of a lion couchant — a true British lion, not unlike those in Trafalgar Square in London, only that the bronze is changed to stone, and the figure carved out of a mountain ! But the lion is there, with his kingly head turned toward Spain, as if in defiance of his former mas- ter, every feature bearing the character of leonine majesty and power. That is Gibraltar ! It is a common saying that " some men achieve great- ness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The same may be said of places ; but here is one to which both descriptions may be applied — that has had greatness thrust upon it by nature, and has achieved it in history. There is not a more picturesque spot in Europe. The Rock is fourteen hundred feet high — more than three times as high as Edinburgh Castle, and not, like that, firm-set up- on the solid ground, but rising out of the seas — and girdled with the strongest fortifications in the world. Such great- ness has nature thrust upon Gibraltar. And few places seen more history, as few have been fought over more times than this in the long wars of the Spaniard and the Moor : for here the Moor first set foot in Europe, and name to the place (Gibraltar being merely Gebel-el- Tarik, the in.. in. tain of Tarik, the Moorish invader), and departed from it, after a conflict of nearly eight hun- : _\<-ar-. Tin; steamer anchors in the bay, half a mile from shore, ENTERING THE fci'RAITF 5 and a boa f takes us off to the quay, where ~ter being duly registered by the police, we are permitted to pass under the missive arches, and through the heavy gates * double line of fortifications, and enter Waterport i ! the one and almost only street of Gibraltar, where wc quarters in that most comfortable refuge of the travel, the Royal Hotel, which, for the period of our stay, is tv be our home. When I stepped on shore I was among strangers : even the friend who had been my companion through Spain had remained in Cadiz, since in coming under the Engl it 1 flag I had no longer need of a Spanish interpreter, and I felt a little lonely ; for inside these walls there was not a human being, man or woman, whom I had ever seen be- fore. Yet one who has been knocked about the world as I have been, soon makes himself at home, and in an hour I had found, if not a familiar face, at least a familiar name, which gave me a right to claim acquaintance. Headers whose memories run back thirty years to the laying of the first Atlantic Cable in 1858, may recall the fact that the messages from Newfoundland were signed by an operator who bore the singular name of De Sauty, and when the pulse of the old sea-cord grew faint and flut- tering, as if it were muttering incoherent phrases before it drew its last breath, we were accustomed to receive daily messages signed " All right : De Sauty ! " which kept up our courage for a time, until we found that "All right" was "All wronsr." The circumstance afforded much G GIBRALTAR. amusement at the time, and Dr. Holmes wrote one of his wittiest poems about it, in which the refrain of every verse was " All right : De Santy ! " Well, the message was true, at least in one sense, for De Sauty was all right, if the cable was not. The cable died, but the stout-hearted operator lived, and is at this moment the manager of the Eastern Telegraph Company in Gibraltar. This is one of those great English companies, which have their centre in London, and whose "lines have" literally "gone out through all the earth." Its " home field" is the Mediterra- nean, from which it reaches out long arms down the Red Sea to India and Australia, and indeed to all the Eastern world. Its General Manager is Sir James Anderson, who commanded the Great Eastern when she laid the cable suc- cessfully in 1866. I had crossed the ocean with him in '67, and now, wishing to do me a good turn, he had insisted on my taking a letter to all their offices on both sides of the Mediterranean, to transmit my messages free! This was a pretty big license; his letter was almost like one of Paul's epistles "to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting." It contained a sort of general direction to make myself at home in all creation ! Willi such an introduction I felt at home in the tele- graph office in Gibraltar, and especially when I could take l»y the hand our old friend De Sauty. lie has a hearty grip, which speaks for the true Englishman that lie is. If any «»f my countrymen had supposed that he died with the cable, I am happy to say that he not only " still lives," ENTERING THE STRAITS. 7 but is very much alive. lie at once sent off to London a message to my friends in America — a good-bye for the old year, which brought me the next morning a greeting for the new. From the telegraph office I took my way to that of the American Consul, who gave me a welcome such as I could find in no other house in Gibraltar, since his is the only American family ! When I asked after my countrymen (who, as they are going up and down in the earth, and show themselves everywhere, I took for granted must be here), he answered that there was "not one! " He is not only the official representative of our country, but he and his children the only Americans. This being so, it is a happy circumstance that the Great Republic is so well represented ; for a better man than Horatio J. Sprague could not be found in the two hemispheres. He is the oldest Consul in the service, having been forty years at this post, where his father, who was appointed by Gen- eral Jackson, was Consul before him. He received his ap- pointment from President Polk. Through all these years he has maintained the honor of the American name, and to-day there is not within the walls of Gibraltar a man — soldier or civilian — who is more respected than this soli- tary representative of our country. Some may think there is not much need of a Consul where there are no Americans, and yet nearly five hundred ships sailed from this port last year for America: pity that he should have to confess that very few bore the 8 GIBRALTAR. American flag! Thus the post is a responsible one, and at times involves duties the most delicate and difficult, as in the late war, when the Sumter was lying here, with three or four American ships off the harbor (for they were not permitted to remain in port but twenty-four hours) to pre- vent her escape. At that time the Consul was constantly on the watch, only to see the privateer get off at last by the transparent device of taking out her guns, and being sold to an English owner, who immediately hoisted the English flag, and put to sea in broad daylight in the face of our ships, and made her way to Liverpool, where she was fitted out as a blockade-runner ! Those were trying days for expatriated Americans. However, it was all made up when Peace came, and Peace with Victory — with the Union restored and the country saved. Since then it has been the privilege of the Consul at Gibraltar to welcome many who took part in the great strun earth, it must be on that height, more HOLDING A FOKTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 113 than a thousand feet in air, looking down on the petty human creatures below, all of whom he could destroy with one breath of his nostrils. It was indeed a glorious sight. But how do the Span- iards like it ? How should we like it if we were in their place ? This was a very inconvenient question to be asked just at that moment, as we were crossing the Neu- tral Ground. But if I must answer, I cannot but say that, if I were a Spanish sentinel, pacing back and forth in such a presence and compelled at every turn to look up at that Lion frowning over me, it would be with a very bitter feeling. I might even ask my English friends who are masters of Gibraltar, how they would like to see the flag of another country floating over a part of their country ? Of course, the retention of Gibraltar is to England a matter of pride. It is a great thing to see the red cross flying on the top of the Rock in the sight of two conti- nents, and of all who go sailing up and down in these waters. But this pride has to be paid for by a good many entanglements of one kind and another. For example : It is a constant source of complaint on the part of Spain that Gibraltar is the headquarters for smuggling across the frontier. This is not at all surpris- ing, since (like Singapore and perhaps other distant places in the British Empire) it is a "free port." Its deliverance from commercial restrictions dates back to the reign of Queen Anne, in the beginning of the last century — an im- 8 114 GIBRALTAR. inunity wliich it has enjo} r ed for nearly two hundred years. A few years since a light restriction was placed upon wines and spirits, probably for a moral rather than a commercial purpose, lest their too great abundance might lead to drunkenness among the soldiers. But with respect to everything else used by man, trade is absolutely free ; whatever is brought here for sale is not burdened with the added tax of an import duty. Though Gibraltar is so near Tarifa, there is no tariff levied on merchan- dise any more than on voyagers that go up and down the seas. Not only English goods, but French and Italian goods, all are free; even those which, if imported into England, would pay duty, here pay none, so that they are cheaper than in England itself. Thus Gibraltar is the paradise of free-traders, since in it there is no such " ac- cursed thing " as a custom-house, and no such hated of- ficial as a custom-house officer ! This puts it at an ad- vantage as compared with any port or city or country which is not free, and they have to suffer from the differ- ence. Especially does Spain, which is not yet converted to free trade, suffer from its close contact with its more liberal neighbor. The extraordinary cheapness on one side of the Neutral Ground, as compared with the dear- ness on the other, is a temptation to smuggling which it requires more virtue than the Spaniards possess to resist. The temptation takes them on their weakest side when it presents itself in the form of tobacco, for the Span- iards are a nation of smokers. The manufacture and HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 115 sale of tobacco is a monopoly of the Government, and yields a large revenue, amounting, I believe, to fifteen millions of dollars. It might amount to twice as much if every smoker in Spain bought only Spanish tobacco. But who will pay the price for the Government cigars and cigarettes when they can be obtained without paying duty ? Smuggling is going on every day, and every hour of the day; and the Spaniards say that it is winked at and encouraged by the English in Gibraltar ; to which the latter reply that whatever smuggling is done, is done by the Spaniards themselves, for which they are not re- sponsible. A shopkeeper in Gibraltar has as good a right to sell a pound of tobacco to a Spanish peasant as to an English sailor. What becomes of it after it leaves his shop is no concern of his. Of course the Spanish police are numerous, and are, or are supposed to be, vigilant. The Carabineros are stationed at the lines, whose duty it is to keep a sharp look-out on every passing vehicle ; whether it be a lordly carriage rolling swiftly by, or a market wagon ; to poke their noses into every little cart ; to lift up the panniers of every donkey ; and even to thrust their hands into every basket, and to give a pinch to every suspicious-looking parcel. And yet, with this great display of watchfulness, which indeed is a little overdone, somehow an immense quantity slips through their fingers. Many amusing stories are told of contrabandists. One honest Spaniard- had a wonderful dog that went through miraculous transformations : he was sometimes fat and 116 GIBRALTAR. sometimes lean, nature (or man) having provided liim with a double skin, between which was packed a hand- some allowance of tobacco. This dog was a model of do- cility, and would play with other dogs, like the poor inno- cent that he was, and then dart off to his master to " un- load " ano! be sent back again ! It was said that he would make several trips a day. In another case a poor man tried to make an honest living by raising turkeys for market ; but even then fate had a spite against him, for after he had brought them into town, he had no luck in selling them ! The same ill-fortune attended him every day. But one evening, as he came out of the gates look- ing sad and sorrowful, the Carabineros took a closer in- spection of his cart, and found that every turkey had been prepared for another market than that of Gibraltar, by a well-spiced "stuffing" under her motherly wings ! Of course the Spanish officers are indignant at the du- plicity which permits this smuggling to take place, and utter great oaths in sonorous Castilian against their treacherous neighbors. But even the guardians of the law may fall from virtue. The Governor, who took of- fice here but a few weeks since, tells me that when the Governor of Algeciras, the Spanish town across the bay, came to pay his respects to him, the officers of his suite, while their horses were standing in the court of the Con- vent [the Government House], filled their pockets with tobacco ! Fit agents indeed to collect the revenue of Spain ! HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 117 But smuggling is not the worst of the complications that arise out of having a fortress in a foreign country. Another is that Gibraltar becomes the resort of all the characters that find Spain too hot to hold them. Men who have committed offences against Spanish law, flee across the lines and claim protection. Some of them are political refugees, who have escaped from a Government that would persecute and perhaps imprison them for their opinions, and find safety under the English flag. The necessity for this protection is not so great now as in for- mer years, when the Government of Spain was a despot- ism as absolute and intolerant as any in Europe. Even so late as thirty years ago, Castelar would have been shot if he had not escaped across the frontier into Switzerland ; as his father, twenty years before, had been sentenced to death, and would have been executed if he had not made haste to get inside of Gibraltar, and remained here seven years. In his case, as in many others, the old fortress was a bulwark against tyranny. "Within these walls the laws of national hospitality were sacred. No Spanish pa- triot could be taken from under this flag, to be sent to the dungeon or the scaffold. All honor to England, that she has a City of Refuge for the free and the brave of all lands, and that she has so often sheltered and saved those who were the champions, and but for her would have been the martyrs, of liberty ! But the greater number of those who seek a refuge here have no claim to protection, since they are not 118 GIBRALTAR. political refugees, but ordinaty criminals — thieves, and sometimes murderers — who have fled here to escape the punishment of their crimes. In such cases it is easy to say what should he done with them : they should be given up at once to the Spanish authorities, to be tried bv Spanish law and receive the just reward of their deeds. If all cases were like these, the disposition of them would be a very simple matter. But they are not all so clear ; some of them, indeed, are very complex, involving questions of international law, which an army officer, or even a civil officer, might not understand. A man may be accused of crime by the Spanish authorities, and yet, in the eve of impartial judges of another country, be guilty of no greater crime than loving his country too well. But the Spanish Government demands his surren- der. The case is referred to the Colonial Secretary, as the highest authority in Gibraltar next to the Governor. It is a grave responsibility, which requires not only a dis- position to do what is right and just, but a knowledge of law which a military or a civil officer may not possess. The present Secretary is Lord Gifford, and a more hon- orable English gentleman it would be impossible to find. Hut though a gallant soldier, brave and accomplished as he is, he may not be familiar with all the points which he may have to decide. lie tells me that this matter of ex- tradition is the most difficult duty that is laid upon him. He said, " I have two cases before me to-day," in the de- HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 119 cision of which he seemed a good deal perplexed. With the most earnest desire to decide right, he might decide wrong. His predecessor had been removed for extradit- ing a man without proper authority. He told me the in- cident to illustrate the responsibility of his position, and the extreme difficulty of adjudicating cases which are of a doubtful character. It was this : The island of Cuba, as Americans know too well, is in a chronic state of insur- rection. In one of the numerous outbreaks, a man who was implicated made his escape, and took refuge in Tan- gier, and while there asked of some visitors from Gibral- tar if he would be safe here, to which they promptly re- plied, " Certainly ; that he could not be given up," and on the strength of that assurance he came ; but the Span- ish agents were watching, and somehow managed to in- fluence the officers here to surrender him. The English Government promptly disavowed the act, and claimed that the man was still under their protection, and should be brought back. This Spanish pride did not permit them to do. However, he was sent to Port Mahon, in the Balearic Islands, and there (perhaps by the conniv- ance of the authorities, who may have thought it the easiest way to get rid of a troublesome question) he was not so closely guarded but that he was able to make his escape, and so the matter ended. But the Colonial Secre- tary who had permitted his extradition was promptly re- called, in disapprobation of his conduct. With such a warning before him, as well as from his own desire to do 120 GIBRALTAR. justice, the present Secretary wished to act with due pru- dence and caution, that he might not share the fate of his predecessor. I could but admire his patience and care, and yet a stranger can but reflect that all this complica- tion and embarrassment comes from holding a fortress in a foreign country ! But while this is true, yet what are such petty vexa- tions as smuggling and extradition ; what is the million of dollars a year which it costs to keep Gibraltar ; in a mat- ter which concerns the majesty and the colossal pride of England — the sense of power to hold her own against the world ? A hundred years ago Burke spoke of Gibraltar with exultation as "a post of power, a post of superiority, of connection, of commerce — one which makes us invalu- able to our friends and dreadful to our enemies;" and the feeling has survived to this day. Not an Englishman passes through the Straits whose heart does not swell within him to see the flag of his country floating from the top of the Bock, from which, as he believes, the whole world cannot tear it down. Every true Briton would look upon the lowering of that flag as the abdica- tion of Imperial power. But is not this an over-estimate of the value of Gib- raltar to England ? Is it worth all it costs ? Would it weigh much in the balance in a great contest of nations for the mastery of the world ? The object of this Rock- fortress is to command the passage into the Mediterra- nean. The arms of Gibraltar are a Castle and a Key, to HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 121 signify that it holds the key of the Straits, and that no ship flying any other flag than that of England can enter or depart except by her permission. But that power is already gone. England may hold the key of the Straits, but the door is too wide to be bolted. The hundred-ton guns of Gibraltar, even if aimed directly seaward, could not destroy or stop a passing fleet. I know this is not the limit of construction in modern ordnance. Guns have been wrought weighing a hundred and twenty tons, which throw a ball weighing a ton over ten miles ! Such a gun mounted at Tarifa might indeed hurl its tremendous bolt across the Mediterranean into Africa. But Tarifa is in Spain, while opposite Gibraltar it is fourteen miles to Ceuta, a point not to be reached by any ordnance in ex- istence, even if the last product of modern warfare were mounted on the height of O'Hara's Tower ; so that a fleet of ironclads, hugging the African coast, would be quite safe from the English fire, which could not prevent the entrance of a French or German or Russian fleet into the Mediterranean, if it were strong enough to encounter the English fleet. The reliance must be therefore on the fleet, not on the fortress. Of course the latter would be a refuge in case of disaster, where the English ships could find protection under the guns of the fort. But the fortress alone could not bar the passage into the Mediterranean. As to the fleet, England has been mistress of the seas for more than a century ; and yet it does not follow that 122 GIBRALTAR. she will always retain this supremacy. Her fleet is still the largest and most powerful in the world, and her sea- men as skilful and as brave as in the days of Nelson ; but the conditions of naval warfare are greatly changed. The use of steam for ships of war as well as for commerce, and the building of ironclads mounted with enormous guns, tend to equalize the conditions of war. Battles may be decided by the weight of guns or the thickness of defen- sive armor, and in these particulars other nations have ad- vanced as well as England. France, Germany, and Russia have vied with each other as to which should build the most tremendous ships of war. Even Italy has within a few years risen to the rank of a first-class naval power, as she has some of the largest ships in the world. The Italia, which I saw lying in the harbor of Naples, could probably have destroyed the whole fleet with which Nel- son won the battle of Trafalgar ; and hence the Italian fleet must be counted as a factor of no second importance in any future struggle for the control of the Mediterra- nean. And yet some military authorities think too much im- portance is attached to these modern inventions. Farra- gut did not believe in iron ships. He judged from his own experience in naval warfare, and no man had had greater. He had found wooden ships good enough to win his splendid victories. In his famous attack upon Mobile he ran his fleet close under the guns of the fort, himself standing in the round-top of his flag-ship to overlook the HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 123 whole scene of battle, and then boldly attacked ironclads, and sunk them in the open bay. His motto was: "Wooden ships and iron hearts!" Ships and guns are good, but men are better. And so I do not give up my faith in English prowess and skill, but hold that, what- ever the improvements in ships or guns, to the last hour that men meet each other face to face in battle, the issue will depend largely on a genius in war ; on the daring to seize unexpected opportunities ; to take advantage of sud- den changes ; and thus by some master-stroke to turn what seemed inevitable defeat into victory. In the year 1867 I crossed the Atlantic in the Great Eastern, then in command of Sir James Anderson. Among the passengers was the Austrian Admiral Tegett- hoff, who had the year before gained the battle of Lissa, with whom I formed a pleasant acquaintance ; and as we walked the deck together, drew from him some particu- lars of that great victory. He was as modest as he was brave, and did not like to talk of himself ; but in answer to my inquiries, said that before the battle he knew the immense superiority of the Italian fleet ; and that his only hope of victory was in disregarding all the ordinary rules of naval warfare : that, instead of drawing up his ships in the usual line of battle, he must rush into the centre of the enemy, and confuse them by the suddenness of his attack where they did not expect him. The manoeuvre was successful even beyond his own expectation. The He d? Italia, the flagship of the Italian Admiral, which had 124 GIBRALTAR. been built in New York as the masterpiece of naval archi- tecture, was sunk, and the fleet utterly defeated ! What Tegetthoff did at Lissa, the English may do in future battles. Of this I am sure, that whatever can be done by courage and skill will be done by the sons of the Vikings to retain their mastery of the sea. But it would be too much to expect of any power that it could stand against the combined navies of the world. If Gibraltar be thus powerless for offence, is it alto- gether secure for defence ? Is it really impregnable ? That is a question often asked, and on which only mili- tary men are competent to give an opinion, and even they are divided. Englishmen, who are most familiar with its defences, sa}>-, Yes ! Those defences have been enormous- ly increased even in our day. In the Great Siege we saw its powers of resistance a hundred years ago. Yet Eliott defeated the French and Spanish fleets and armies with less than a hundred guns. Ninety years later — in 1870 — there were seven hundred guns in position on the Rock, the smallest of which were larger than the heaviest used in the siege. And yet since 1870 the increase in the size of guns and their weight of metal, is greater than in the hundred years before. In the siege it was counted a wonderful shot that carried a ball two miles and a half. Now the hundred-ton guns carry over eight miles. Putting these things together, English officers maintain that Gib- raltar cannot be taken by all the powers of Europe com- bined. HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 12D On the other hand, French and German engineers — fa- miliar with the new inventions in war, and knowing that they can nse dynamite and nitro-glycerine, instead of gun- powder, to give tremendous force to the new projectiles — would probably say that there is no fortress which cannot be battered down. To me, who am but a layman in such matters, as I walk about Gibraltar, it seems that, if all the armies of Europe should come up against it, they could make no impression on its rock-ribbed sides; that only some convulsion of nature could shake its " everlasting foundations." And yet such is the power of modern ex- plosives to rend the rocks and hills, with a new invention every year of something still more terrible, that we know not but they may at last almost tear the solid globe asunder. What wreck and ruin of the works of man may be wrought by such engines of destruction, it is not given us to foresee. Meanwhile to the Spaniards the English possession of Gibraltar is a constant irritation. It is of no use to re- mind them that they had it once, and might have kept it; that is no comfort ; it only makes the matter worse ; for they are like spoiled, children, who grieve the most for that which they have thrown away. Again it was offered to them by England, with only the condition that they should not sell Florida to Napoleon ; but as he was then in the height of his career, they thought it safer to trust to his protection ; albeit a few years later they found out his treachery, and had to depend on an English army, led 126 GIBRALTAR. by Wellington, to drive the French out of Spain. And still these spoiled children of the South will not recognize the English sovereignty. To this day the King of Spain claims Gibraltar as a part of his dominions, though he recognizes it as " temporarily in the possession of the English," and all who are born on the Rock are entitled to the rights of Spanish subjects ! But whether Gibraltar can be " taken " or not by siege or storm, in the course of human events there may be a turn of fortune which shall compel England to surrender it. If there should come a general European war, in which there should be (what the first Xapoleon endeav- ored to effect) a combination of all the Continental powers against England, she might, standing alone, be reduced to such extremity as to be obliged to sue for peace, and one of the hard conditions forced upon her misrht be the surrender of Gibraltar! But while we may speculate on such a possibility of the future, it is not a change which I desire to see in my daj 7 . The transfer of Gibraltar to Spain might satisfy Spanish pride, but I fear that it would be no longer what it is if it had not the treasury of England to supply its numerous wants. The Spaniards are not good managers, and Gibraltar would ere long sink into the condition of an old, decayed Spanish town. Further than this, I confess that, as a matter of sentiment, it would be no pleasure to me to visit it if the charm of its present society were gone. I should miss greatly the English faces, so manly HOLDING A FORTKESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 127 and yet so kindly, and the dear old mother tongue. So while I live I hope Gibraltar will be held by English sol- diers. " After me the deluge ! " No : not the deluge, but universal peace ! Let the old Rock remain as it is. Lover of peace as I am. I should be sorry to see it dismantled. It would not be the same thing if it were to become another Capri — a mere resort for artists, who should sit upon Europa Point, and make their sketches ; or if lovers only should saunter in the Alameda gardens, whispering softly as they look out upon the moonlit sea. The mighty crag that bears the name of Hercules should bear on its front something which speaks of power. Let the Great Fortress remain as the grim monument of War, even when men learn war no more ; as the castles on the Rhine are kept as the monu- ments of mediaeval barbarism. If its guns are all silent, or unshotted, it will stand for something more than a symbol of brute force : it will be a monumental proof that the blessed age of peace has come. Then, if there be any change in the flag that waves over it ; if the Red Cross of England, which has never been lowered in war, should give place to an emblem of universal peace ; it may be a Red Cross still — red in sign of blood, but only of that blood which was shed alike for all nations, and which is yet to unite in One Brotherhood the whole Fam- ily of Mankind. CHAPTER IX. FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR— LEAVING FOR AFRICA. A LL too swiftly the days flew by, and the time of my visit to Gibraltar was coming to an end. But in travel I have often found that the last taste was the sweetest. It is only when you have come to know a place well that you can fully enjoy it ; when emancipated from guides, with no self-appointed cicerone to dog your foot- steps and intrude his stereotyped observations ; when, in short, you have obtained " the freedom of the place " by right of familiar acquaintance, and can wander about alone, sauntering slowly in favorite w T alks, or sitting under the shade of the trees, and looking off upon the purple mountains or the rippling sea, that you are fully master of the situation. " Days of idleness," as they are called, are sometimes, of all days, at once the busiest and the happiest, when, having finished up all regular and routine work, and thus done his duty as a traveller, one devotes himself to " odds and ends,' 1 and gathers up his varied impressions into one delightful whole. These are delicious moments, when the pleasure of a foreign clime — > " Blest be the time, the clime, the spot ! " — FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAE. 129 becomes so intense that we are reluctant to let it go, and linger still, clinging to that which is nearly exhausted, as if we would drain the cup to the very last drop. Such is the feeling that comes in these last days, as I go wandering about, full of moods and fancies born of the place and the hour. There is a strange spell and fas- cination in the Rock itself. If it be proper ever to speak of respect for inanimate things, next to a great mountain, I have a profound respect for a great rock. It is the em- blem of strength and power, which by its very height shelters and protects the feebleness of man. How often on the desert, under the burning sun, have I espied afar off a huge cliff rising above the plain, and urging on my wearied camel, thrown myself from it, and found the in- expressible relief of "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land ! " So here this mountain wall that rises above me, does not awe and overwhelm so much as it shelters and protects ; the higher it lifts its head, the more it carries me upward, and gives me an outlook over a wider horizon. If I were a dweller in Gibraltar, I would seek out every sequestered nook upon its side, where I could be away from the haunts of men, and could " dream dreams and see visions." Often would I climb to the Signal Station, or O'Hara's Tower, to see the glory of the sunrisings and sunsettings ; and, as the evening comes on, to see the African mountains cast- ing their shadows over the broad line of coast and the broader sea. 9 130 GIBRALTAR. Next to the Rock itself, the oldest thing in Gibraltar — the very oldest that man has made— is the Moorish Cas- tle on which the Moslem invader planted the standard of the Crescent near twelve centuries ago, making this his first stronghold in the land which he was to conquer. And now I must look upon its face again, because of its very age. American as I am, coming from a country where everything is supposed to be " brand new," I feel a strange delight in these old castles and towers, and even in ruins, gray with the moss of centuries. I know it is a " far cry " to the time of the Moors, but we must not think of it as a time of barbarism. The period in which the Moors held Gibraltar was that of the Moorish rule in Spain, when they were the most highly civilized people in Europe, and the Goths were the barbarians. In that day the old Moorish town must have been a very picturesque place, with the domes of its mosques, and the slender minarets rising above them, from which at the sunset hour voices called the faithful to prayer ; and very pic- turesque figures were those of the turbaned Moors, as they reverently turned toward Mecca, and bowed them- selves and worshipped. Nor did the romance die when the Spaniards followed in the procession of races, for they were only less pictu- resque than the Moors. They too had their good times. A life which would seem tame and dull to the modern Englishman had its charms for the children of the sun, whether they were children of Europe or of Africa. FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR. 131 When the church took the place of the mosque, mollahs and ulemas were replaced by priests and monks ; and the old Franciscan friars, whose Convent is now the residence of the Governor, marched in sombre procession through the streets, and instead of the call from the minaret, the evening was made hoi v by the sound of the Ave Maria or the Angelus bell. And these Spaniards had their gaye- ties as well as their solemnities. They danced as well as prayed. When their prayers were ended, the same dark- eyed senoritas who had knelt in the churches sat on bal- conies in the moonlight, while gallant cavaliers sang their songs and tinkled their guitars — diversions which filled the intervals of stern and savage war. Out of all this strange old history, with many a heroic episode that still lives in Spanish song and story, might be wrought, if there were another Irving to tell the tale, an historical ro- mance as fascinating as that of the Conquest of Granada. The materials are abundant ; all that is wanting is that they be touched by the wand of the enchanter. But as I have just now more freshly in mind the Eng- lish history of Gibraltar, I leave the Spaniards and the Moors, and betake me to the King's Bastion, on which "Old Eliott" stood on the greatest day that Gibraltar ever saw. And here we must not forget the second in com- mand, his brave companion-in-arms, General Boyd, who built the Bastion in 1773, and who, on laying the first stone, prayed "that he might live to see it resist the united fleets of France and Spain" — a wish that was 132 GIBRALTAR. gloriously fulfilled nine years later, when he took part in the immortal defence; and it is fitting that his body should sleep under his own work, at once the instrument and the monument of that great victory. Even the trees have a historic air, as they are old — at least many of them have a look of age. One would think that the constant firing of guns, the shock and "sulphurous canopy," would kill vegetation or stunt it in its growth. But there are many fine old trees in Gibraltar. Near the Alameda stands a magnificent bella soinbra (so named because its wide-spreading branches are dark and sombre, and yet strangely beautiful), which must be very old. Perhaps it was standing a century ago, and heard all the guns fired in the Great Siege, as possibly a few years later it may have heard, across the bay and away over the Spanish hills, even the thunder of Nelson at Trafalgar. On one of the last days I had engaged to take a midday dinner with the pastor of the Scotch Church, who lives in the southern part of the town. It is a pleasant walk be- yond the Alameda over the hill, where you can but stop now and then to look down on the long breakwater of the New Mole, or into the quiet dock of Rosia Bay ; or to hear the bugles waken the echoes of the hills. After dinner my friend proposed a stroll, in which I was glad to join him, especially as it took me to new points of view, from which I could look up at the Rock on its southern side, as I had already seen it on the north. Taking our way across the level plateau of Windmill WINDMILL HILL AND O'HARA'S TOWER. FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR. 138 Hill, past barracks air] hospitals that are here somewhat retired from the snore, we descended toward the sea. This end of Gibraltar is a great resort of the people in the summer time, and furnishes the only drive, unless they go out of the gates and crossing the Neutral Ground enter the Spanish lines. Here they are wholly within the Peninsula, and yet in a space so limited is a drive such as one might find along the Riviera. The road is beautifully kept, and winds in and out among the rocks, in one place crossing a deep gorge, which makes you almost dizzy as you look over the parapet of the little bridge which spans it. At each turn you get some new glimpse of the sea, and whenever you raise your eyes to look across the Strait, there is the long line of the Afri- can Coast. This is the favorite drive of officers and la- dies on summer afternoons, since here they can escape the blistering sun, and get into the cool shadows. As we come to Enropa Point we are at the very foot of the Rock, and must stop to look upward ; for above us rises the highest point of Gibraltar, O'Hara's Tower, which, as it is also nearest to the sea, is the one that first catches the eye of the mariner sailing up or down the Mediterranean. Here the old Phoenicians sacrificed to Hercules, as they were approaching what was to them the end of the habitable globe ; and here, in later ages, a lamp was always hung before the shrine of the Virgin, and the devout sailor crossed himself and repeated his Ave Maria as he floated by. 134 GIBRALTAK. Winding round Europa Point, we found our progress barred by an iron gateway ; but rattling at the gate brought a sentinel, who, seeing nothing suspicious in our appearance, allowed us to enter the guarded enclosure. Hero in this quiet spot, on a shelf of rock which hangs above the road, and is itself overhung by the mighty cliff \vh ifb rises behind it and above it, is the cottage which is the Governor's summer retreat. The Convent answers very well for a winter residence ; but in summer Gib- raltar is a very hot place, as it lias the reflection of the sun both from the sea in front and the Rock behind ; and the Convent, standing on the shore of the bay, gets the full force of both. But there are cool retreats both north and south. On the north the townsfolk pour out of the gates to get under the giant cliff which casts its mighty shadow across the Neutral Ground. A little farther to the east, they come to the sands of a beach, which seems so like a watering-place in dear Old England that they have christened it Margate. So also, turning the corner at the south end of the Rock, one is sheltered from the heat in the long summer afternoon. The cottage is with- out any pretension to ornament ; but as it has a some- what elevated perch, like a Swiss chalet, it is a sort of eyrie, in which one can look down upon the sea and catch every wind that comes from the Mediterranean. Just now this little eyrie was turned to another purpose ae a place of confinement for Zebehr Pasha, a name that brings back memories of Egypt. An Arab sheikh, FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR. 135 at the head of one of the most powerful tribes on the Upper Kile, he was at the same time one of the most famous slave-hunters of Africa. And jet such was his influence in the Soudan, that he was the one man to whom Gordon turned in his isolation at Khartoum, when neither England nor Egypt came to the rescue ; and his one message to the authorities at Cairo was : " Send me Zebehr Pasha ! " The request was refused, and we know the rest. Had it been granted, the result might have been different. But the British Government seemed to have a great fear of letting him return to the scene of his old exploits lest he should turn against them, and after the English occupation of Egypt, had him remanded for safe-keeping to Gibraltar. His detention is made as lit- tle irksome as possible. Pie is not confined in a prison. He is even the occupant of the Governor's cottage, and has his family with him. Looking up at the windows, I saw dark faces (perhaps those of his wives), that moved away as soon as they were observed. But to be comfort- ably housed is nothing without liberty. To the lion in captivity it matters little whether he is in a barred cage, or has the most luxurious quarters in a Boyal Zoological Garden. Zebehr Pasha is a lion of the desert that has never been tamed. How he must chafe at the gilded bars of his prison, and look out wistfully upon the blue waves that separate him from his beloved Africa ! He envies the eagles that he sees soaring and screaming over the sea. If they would but lend him their wings, he J 36 GIBRALTAR. would " homeward fly," and mounting the swiftest drome- dary, taste once more the wild freedom of the desert* But all things must have an end, and my stay in Gib- raltar, delightful as it was, must be brought to a close. I was not eager to depart. So quickly does one become at home in new surroundings, that a place which I never saw till a few days before, now seemed like an old friend. My new acquaintances said I " ought to stay a month at least," and I was sure that it would pass quickly and delightfully. But travellers, like city tramps, must " move on," and it is certainly better to go regretting and regretted, than to carry away only disagreeable memories. I had taken passage for Oran on the Barbary Coast, when the Colonial Secretary, kind to the last, proposed to send me off to the ship in a government launch, an offer which my modesty compelled me to decline. But he insisted (for these Englishmen, when they do a thing, must do it * A few months after I left Gibraltar, the old Arab was set at liberty by. the British Government, but on very strict conditions. A letter from the American Consul, in reply to my questions, says : "Zebehr Pasha was released August 3, 18S7, on signing a certain docu- ment sent from the Home Government relative to his future conduct. This was an engagement ' to remain in the place which should be chosen by the Egyptian Government ; to place himself under its surveillance ; and to ab- stain from interference in political or military questions relating to the Sou- dan or otherwise.' This he signed in the presence of two British staff officers. He had arrived in Gibraltar in March, 1885, and from that time had been % iner in the Governor's cottage for about two years and a half, under charge at different times of several officers of the garrison. He left Gibraltar August 10th, for Port Said, accompanied by his household, which included two women and three men, and was attended by three male and two female servants. He also took back to his African home an infant born in the nor's cottage at Europa." FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR. 137 handsomely) till I had to submit. That evening, while dining at the Hotel, a servant brought me word that a messenger had a special message for me, and when I pre- sented myself, he put into my hands the following : " Memorandum from the Colonial Secretary to the Captain of the Port. "Dr. Field, an American gentleman, introduced here by Sir Clare Ford, is now staying at theBoyal Hotel, and leaving Friday evening by the steamer for Algiers. " His Excellency wishes every attention to be shown him : so you will send a Boarding Officer to-morrow at 6 p. M., and ask him at what hour he desires to leave from Waterport, and have a launch ready for him : the Boarding Officer making all arrangements for Dr. Field and his friends passing through the gates. Gifford." On the back of the above order was written in red ink, in very large letters : " Boarding Officer : Comply with His Excellency's wishes. "G. B. Bassadone, " For the Captain of the Port." This was the first time in my life that I had been waited upon for orders ! Having this greatness thrust upon me, I did not betray my unfamiliarity with such things by any light and trivial conduct, but kept my dignity with a sober face, and graciously announced my sovereign pleasure to depart the following evening at eight o'clock. This was really a great convenience, as it gave me a few hours more on shore, whereas otherwise I must leave be- 13S GIBRALTAR. fore sunset, when the gates are shut, not to be opened till morning. Appreciating not only the courtesy, but the distinction, I invited an American party at the Hotel to keep me company. But they had already made their ar- rangements, and went off ingloriously before "gun-fire" ; while His Republican Highness took his dinner quietly, and awaited the coming of his escort. One young lady, however, (a cousin of Mr. Joseph II. Choate, of New York, my friend and neighbor at our summer homes in the Berkshire Hills,) stood by me, and at eight o'clock in the evening we walked down "Waterport Street, attended by two stalwart defenders. The street was strangely silent, for as the outsiders leave at sunset when the gates are closed, the town is very quiet. It was dark as we ap- proached the first gate, which had been shut hours be- fore ; but the guard, having " received orders," instantly appeared to unlock it, a form which was repeated at the second line of fortifications. At the quay we found the launch ready, with steam up, and as we took our places in the stern of the boat, on the cushioned seat provided for distinguished guests, I felt as if I were a Lord High Admiral. It was a beautiful night. The moon was up, though half hidden by clouds, from which now and then she burst forth, covering the bay with a flood of light. At that moment — stern Puritan as I am, and impassible as my friends know me to be — if I had been put upon my oath, or my honor, I should have been compelled to confess, that to be floating over a moonlit sea, with a fair FAREWELL TO GIBRALTAR. 129 countrywoman at my side, was not altogether the most miserable position in which I have ever been placed in my wanderings up and down in this world. Once on the deck, the whole broadside of the Hock was before us, with the lights glimmering far up and down the heights. At half -past nine the last gun was fired, and in another half hour the lights in the barracks were put out, and all was dark and still. It was midnight when the steamer began to move. The moon had now flung off her misty veil, and risen to the zenith, where she hung over the very crest of the Rock, her soft light falling on every projecting crag. The ship itself seemed to feel the holy stillness of the night, and glided like a phantom-ship, almost without a sound, over the unruffled sea. As we crept past the long line of batteries, the great Fortress, with its hundreds of guns, was silent ; the Lion was sleeping, with all his thunders muffled in his rocky breast. Thus our last glimpse of Gibraltar was a vision not of "War, but of Peace, as we rounded Europa Point and set our faces toward Africa. 6 UC SOIJI HI UN HI (ilONAl I IHRAHY I AGILITY AA 000 908 552 3