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 
 stru<r<rle, amonsr them Generals Grant and Sherman and 
 
 DO ' O 
 
 Admiral Farragut. Of course a soldier is always interested 
 in a fortress, for it is in the line of his profession; and the 
 greatest fortification in the world could but be regarded 
 with a curious eye by old soldiers like those who had led 
 our armies for four years; who had conducted great cam- 
 paigns, with long marches and battles and sieges — battles 
 among the bloodiest of modern times, and one siege (that 
 of Richmond) which lasted as long as the famous siege of 
 Gibraltar. 
 
 But perhaps no one felt a keener interest in what he
 
 ENTERING THE STRAITS. 9 
 
 saw here than the old sea-dog, who had bombarded the 
 forts at the mouth of the Mississippi six days and nights ; 
 had broken the heavy iron boom stretched across the 
 river; and run his ships past the forts under a tremen- 
 dous fire ; only to find still before him a fleet greater than 
 his own, of twenty armed steamers, four ironclad rams, 
 and a multitude of fire-rafts, all of which he attacked 
 and destroyed, and captured New Orleans, an achieve- 
 ment in naval warfare as great as any ever wrought by 
 Nelson. To Farragut Gibraltar was nothing more than 
 a big ship, whose decks were ramparts. Pretty long 
 decks they were, to be sure, but only furnishing so 
 many more port-holes, and carrying so many more guns, 
 and enabling its commander to fire a more tremendous 
 broadside. 
 
 Talking over these things fired my patriotic breast till 
 I began to feel as if I were in " mine ain countrie," and 
 among my American kinsmen. And as I walked from 
 the Consul's back to the Royal Hotel, I did not feel quite 
 so lonely in Gibraltar as I felt an hour before. 
 
 As the afternoon wore away, the Spaniards who had 
 come in from the country to market, to buy or sell, began 
 to disappear, and soon went hurrying out, while the be- 
 lated townsmen came hurrying in. At half-past five the 
 evening gun from the top of the Rock boomed over land 
 and sea, and with a few minutes' grace for the last strag- 
 gler, the gates of the double line of fortifications were 
 closed for the night, and there was no more going out or
 
 10 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 coining in till morning. It gave me a little uncomfortable 
 feeling to be thus imprisoned in a fortress, with no possi- 
 bility of escape. The bustling streets soon subsided into 
 quietness. At half -past nine another gun was the signal 
 for the soldiers to return to their barracks; and soon the 
 town was as tranquil as a New England village. As I 
 stepped out upon the balcony, the stillness seemed almost 
 unnatural. I heard no cry of " All's well " from the sen- 
 tinel pacing the ramparts, as from sailors on the deck, nor 
 the " Ave Maria santissima " of the Spanish watchman. 
 Not even the howling of a dog broke the stillness of the 
 night. The moon, but in her second quarter, did not shut 
 out the light of stars, which were shining brightly on 
 Rock and Bay. Even the heavy black guns looked peace- 
 ful in the soft and tender light. It was the last night of 
 the year — and therefore a holy night, as it was to be 
 marked by a Holy Nativity — the birth of a New Year, a 
 " holy child," as it would come from the hands of God 
 unstained by sin. A little before midnight I fell asleep, 
 from which I started up at the sound of the morning gun. 
 The Old Year was dead ! lie had been a long time dy- 
 ing, but there is always a shock when the end comes. 
 And vet in that same midnight a new star appeared in the 
 bringing fresh hope to the poor old world. Life 
 and death are not divided. The very instant that the old 
 year died, the new year was born; and soon the dawn 
 came " blushing o'er the world," as if such a thing as 
 death were unknown. The bugles sounded the morning
 
 ENTERING THE STRAITS. 
 
 11 
 
 call, as they had sounded for the night's repose. Scarcely 
 had we caught the last echoes, that, growing fainter and 
 fainter, seemed to be wailing for the dying year, before 
 a piercing blast announced his successor. The King is 
 
 dead ! Long live the King ! 
 
 Moorish Castle.
 
 CHAPTER TT. 
 
 CLIMBING THE ROCK. 
 
 [~T was a bright New-Year's morning, that first day of 
 18S7, and how could we begin the year better than by 
 climbing to the top of the Rock to get the outlook over 
 land and sea ? The ascent is not difficult, for though the 
 Rock is steep as well as high, a zigzag path winds up its 
 side, which to a good pedestrian is only a bracing walk, 
 while a lady can mount a little donkey and be earned to 
 the very top. If yon have to go slowly, so much the bet- 
 ter, for you will be glad to linger by the way. As you 
 mount higher and higher, the view spreads out wider and 
 wider. Below, the bay is placid as an inland lake, on 
 which ships of war are riding at anchor, " resting on their 
 shadows," while vessels that have brought supplies for the 
 garrison are unlading at the New Mole. Nor is the side 
 of the Rock it -elf wanting in beauty. Gibraltar is not a 
 barren cliff: its very crags are mantled with vegetation, 
 and wild flowers spring up almost as in Palestine. Those 
 who have made a study of its flora tell us that it lias no 
 less than five hundred species of flowering plants and 
 ferns, of which but one-tenth have been brought from
 
 ZF^%- 
 


 
 CLIMBING THE ROOK. 13 
 
 abroad; all the rest are native. The sunshine of Africa 
 rests in the clefts of the rocks ; in every sheltered spot the 
 vine and fig-tree flourish, and the almond-tree and the 
 myrtle ; you inhale the fragrance of the locust and the 
 orange blossoms ; while the clematis hangs out its white 
 tassels, and the red geranium lights up the cold gray 
 stone with rich masses of color. 
 
 Thus loitering by the way, you come at last to the top 
 of the Rock, where a scene bursts upon you hardly to be 
 found elsewhere in the world, since you are literally pin- 
 nacled in air, with a horizon that takes in two seas and 
 two continents. You are standing on the very top of one 
 of the Pillars of Hercules, the ancient Calpe, and in full 
 view of the other, on the African coast, where, above the 
 present town of Ceuta, whose white walls glisten in the 
 sun, rises the ancient Abyla, the Mount of God. These 
 are the two Pillars which to the ancient navigators set 
 bounds to the habitable world. 
 
 On this point is the Signal Station, from which a con- 
 stant watch is kept for ships entering the Straits. There 
 was a tradition that it had been an ancient watch-tower of 
 the Carthaginians, from which (as from Monte Pellegrino, 
 that overlooks the harbor of Palermo) they had watched 
 the Roman ships. But later historians think it played 
 no great part in history or in war until the Rock served 
 as a stepping-stone to the Moors in their invasion and con- 
 quest of Spain. When the Spaniards retook it, they gave 
 this peak the name of "El Hacho," The Torch, because
 
 14 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 here beacon-fires were lighted to give warning in time of 
 danger. A little house furnishes a shelter for the officer on 
 duty, who from its flat roof, with his field-glass, sweeps the 
 whole horizon, north and south, from the Sierra Nevada in 
 Spain, to the long chain of the Atlas Mountains in Africa. 
 Looking down, the Mediterranean is at your feet. There 
 go the ships, with boats from either shore which dip 
 their long lateen-sails as sea-gulls dip their wings, and 
 sometimes fly over the waves as a bird flies through 
 the air, even while large ships labor against the wind. 
 As the current from the Atlantic flows steadily into 
 the Mediterranean, if perchance the wind should blow 
 from the same quarter, it is not an easy matter to get out 
 of the Straits. Ships that have made the whole course 
 of the Mediterranean are baffled here in the throat of the 
 sea. Before the days of steam, mariners were subject 
 to delays of weeks, an experience which was more pictu- 
 resque than pleasant. Thirty years ago a friend of mine 
 made a voyage from Boston to Smyrna in the Henry Hill, 
 a ship which often took out missionaries to the East, and 
 now had on board a mixed cargo of missionaries and rum ! 
 Whether it was a punishment for the latter, on her return 
 she had head winds all the way ; but in spite of them was 
 able to make a slow progress by tacking from shore to 
 shore, for which, however, she had less room as she came 
 into the Straits, through which, as through a funnel, both 
 wind and current set at times with such force as in this 
 letained the Bostonian^d weeks ! "The captain,"
 
 CLIMBING THE ROCK. 15 
 
 says my informant, " was a pretty good-natured man, but 
 as he was a joint-owner of the ship, this long detention 
 was very trying. But to me" — it is a lady who writes — 
 " it was quite the reverse. I found it delightful to tack 
 over to the side of Gibraltar every morning, and drift 
 back every evening to the shores of Africa, with the little 
 excitement from the risk of being boarded by pirates in 
 the night ! I never tired of the brilliant sunsets, the gor- 
 geous clouds, with the snow-capped mountains of Granada 
 for a background. But for the captain (even with mission- 
 aries on board, who were returning to America) the head 
 winds were too much for his temper, and after vainly striv- 
 ing day after day to get through the Straits, he would take 
 off his cap, scratch his head, and shake his fists at the clouds ! 
 
 " After tacking for three weeks off Gibraltar, wearing 
 out our cordage and exhausting our larder, we put into the 
 bay and anchored. Here we were surrounded by vessels 
 from all parts of the world, and were so near the town that 
 we could almost exchange greetings with those on shore. 
 One Sunday the Spaniards had a bull-fight just across the 
 Neutral Ground ; but I preferred a quiet New England 
 Sabbath on shipboard. 
 
 "After lying at anchor in the bay for two weeks I went 
 on shore one day to lunch with an American lady. Re- 
 turning to the ship in the evening, I betook myself to my 
 berth. Ac midnight I heard unusual sounds, clanking of 
 chains, and sailors singing ' Heave ho ! ' From my port- 
 hole I could see an unusual stir, and dressing in haste went
 
 16 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 on deck. Sure enough the wind had changed, and all the 
 ssels in the bay were alive with excitement. The cap- 
 tain was radiant. I could see his beaming face, for it was 
 clear and beautiful as moonlight could make it. lie in- 
 vited me to stay on deck, sent for a cup of coffee, and 
 made himself very agreeable. We were soon under way. I 
 was in a kind of ecstasy with the novelty and the beauty 
 of it all. The full moon, the grand scenery, the Pillars 
 of Hercules, solemn in the moonlight, and the added 
 charm of six hundred vessels, from large to small craft, 
 all in full sail, made a rare picture. I sat on deck till 
 morning, and certainly never saw a more beautiful sight 
 than that fleet spreading its wings like a flock of mighty 
 birds, and moving off together from the Mediterra- 
 nean into the Atlantic." 
 
 Such picturesque scenes are not so likely to be wit- 
 nessed now ; for since the introduction of steam the plain 
 and prosaic, but very useful, "tug" tows off the wind- 
 bound bark through the dreaded Straits into the open 
 sea, where she can spread her wings and fly across the 
 wide expanse of the ocean. 
 
 To-day, as we look down from the signal station, we see 
 ii" gathered ships below waiting for a favoring breeze ; the 
 wind .-earcely ripples the sea, and the boats glide gently 
 whither they will, while here and there a great steamer 
 from England, bound for Naples, or Malta, or India, ap- 
 the horizon, marking its course by the long line 
 smoke trailing behind it.
 
 CLIMBING THE EOCK. 17 
 
 To this wonderful combination of land and sea nothing 
 can be added except by the changing light which falls 
 upon it. For the fullest effect you must wait till sunset, 
 when the evening gun has been fired, to signal the depart- 
 ing day, and its heavy boom is dying away in the distance, 
 
 " Swinging low with sullen roar." 
 
 Then the sky is aflame where the sun has gone down in 
 the Atlantic ; and as the last light from the west streams 
 through the Straits, they shine as if they were the very 
 gates of gold that open into a fairer world than ours. 
 2
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 
 
 TF Gibraltar were merely a rock in the ocean, like the 
 Peak of Teneriffe, its solitary grandeur would excite 
 a feeling of awe, and voyagers up and down the Mediter- 
 ranean would turn to this Pillar of Hercules as the 
 great feature of the Spanish coast, a " Pillar " poised be- 
 tween sea and sky, with its head in the clouds and its 
 base deep in the mighty waters. But Gibraltar is at the 
 same time the strongest fortress in the world, and the in- 
 terest of every visitor is to see its defences, in which the 
 natural strength of the position has been multiplied by 
 all the resources of modern warfare. 
 
 A glance at the map will show what is to be de- 
 fended. The Rock is nearly three miles long, with a 
 breadth of half to three quarters of a mile, so that the 
 whole circuit is about seven miles. But not all this re- 
 quires to be defended, for on the eastern side the cliff is 
 ho tremendous that there is no possibility of scaling it. 
 It is fearful to stand on the brow and look down to 
 where the waves are dashing more than a thousand feet 
 below. The only approach must be by land from the
 
 1 OJ
 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 19 
 
 north, or from the sea on the western side. As the lat- 
 ter lies along the bay, and is at the lowest level, it is the 
 most exposed to attack. Here lies the town, which could 
 easily be approached by an enemy if: it were not for its 
 artificial defences. These consist mainly of what is called 
 the Line- Wall, a tremendous mass of masonry two miles 
 long, relieved here and there by projecting bastions, 
 with guns turned right and left, so as to sweep the face of 
 the wall, if an enemy were to attempt to carry it by 
 storm. Indeed the line defended is more than two miles 
 long-, if we follow it in its ins and outs ; where the New 
 Mole reaches out its long arm into the bay, with a line of 
 guns on either side ; followed by a re-entering curve round 
 llosia Bay, the little basin whose waters are so deep and 
 still, that it is a quiet haven for unlading ships, but where 
 an enemy would find himself in the centre of a circle of 
 fire under which nothing could live ; and if we include the 
 batteries still farther southward, that are carried beyond 
 Europa Point, until the last gun is planted under the 
 eastern cliff, which is itself a defence of nature that needs 
 no help from man. 
 
 Within the Line- Wall, immediately fronting the bay, 
 are the casemates and barracks for the artillery regi- 
 ments that are to serve the guns. The casemates are de- 
 signed to be absolutely bomb-proof, the walls being of 
 such thickness as to resist the impact of shot weighing 
 hundreds of pounds, while the enormous arches overhead 
 are made to withstand the weight and the explosion of
 
 20 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 the heaviest shells. Such at least was the design of the 
 military engineers who constructed them : though, with 
 the new inventions in war. the monster guns and the new 
 explosives, it is hard to put any limit to man's power of 
 destruction. This Line-Wall is armed with guns of the 
 largest calibre, some of which are mounted on the para- 
 pet above, but the greater part are in the casemates be- 
 low, and therefore nearer the level of the sea, so that 
 they can be fired but a few feet above the water, and 
 thus strike ships in the most vital part. 
 
 The latest pets of Gibraltar are a pair of twins — two 
 guns, each of which weighs a hundred tons ! These are 
 guarded with great care from the too close inspection of 
 strangers. No description can give a clear impression of 
 their enormous size. In the early history of artillery, the 
 Turks cast some of the largest pieces in the world. Those 
 who have visited the East, may remember the huge can- 
 non-balls of stone, that may still be seen lying under the 
 walls of the Round Towers on the Bosphorus. But those 
 were pebbles compared with shot that can only be lifted 
 to the mouth of the guns by machinery. The bore of 
 these monsters would delight the soul of the Grand Turk, 
 for, (as a man could easily crawl into one of them,) if the 
 barbarous punishment of the old days were still reserved 
 for great offenders, a Pasha who had displeased the Sul- 
 tan might easily be put in along with the cartridge, and 
 be rammed down and tired off! 
 
 The guns had recently been tried, and found to be per-
 
 . . ( 
 
 i by J.Ccdiiaa, 
 
 I - ELIOTT, LORD HEATHFIELD, BARON GIBRALTAR. 
 
 [Th« «1 ,. raltai n 1187, when he was the hero 
 
 i-.Mi egninat ii background of the clouds of war, with the cannon pointing 
 
 Rock j while In- holdi firmly in hi* hand tin- key of the furtre-i 
 
 ' . ii he iliil not fear 
 
 • . a feature whkU 
 
 difl mil _ ■
 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 21 
 
 feet, though the explosion was not so terrible as had at 
 first been feared. There had been some apprehension 
 that a weapon which was to be so destructive to ene- 
 mies, might not be an innocent toy to those who fired it ; 
 that it might split the ear-drums of the gunners them- 
 selves. Some years ago I was at Syra, in the Greek Archi- 
 pelago, when the English ironclad Devastation was lying 
 in port, which had four thirty-five-ton guns, (the mon- 
 sters of that day,) and one of her officers said that they 
 " never fired them except at sea, for that the discharge 
 in the harbor would break every window in the town." 
 But here the effect seems not to have been so great. 
 One who was present at the firing of one of the hundred- 
 ton guns, told me that all who stood round expected to be 
 deafened by the concussion. Yet when it came, they 
 turned and looked at each other with a mixture of sur- 
 prise and disappointment. The sound was not in propor- 
 tion to the size. Indeed our Consul tells me that some of 
 the sixty-eight pounders are as ear-splitting as the hun- 
 dred-ton guns. But an English gentleman whom I met 
 at Naples gave me a different report of his experience. 
 He had just come from Malta, where they have a 
 hundred -ton gun mounted on the ramparts. One day, 
 while at dinner in the hotel, they heard a crash, at 
 which all started from their seats, and rushed to the win- 
 dows to throw them open, lest a second discharge should 
 leave not a pane of glass unbroken. But this came only 
 as they left the harbor. When about three miles at sea,
 
 22 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 they saw the flash, which was followed by a boom such as 
 they never heard before. It was the most awful thunder 
 rolling over the deep in billows, like waves of the sea, fill- 
 ing the whole horizon with the vast, tremendous sound. 
 It was as " the voice of God upon the waters." 
 
 But, of course, with the hundred-ton guns, as with any 
 other, the main question is, not how much noise they 
 make, but what is their power of destruction. Here the 
 experiment was entirely satisfactory. It proved that a 
 hundred-ton gun would throw a ball weighing 2,000 pounds 
 over eight miles ! * With such a range it would reach 
 every part of the bay, and a brace of them, with the 
 hundreds of heavy guns along the Line-Wall, might be 
 relied upon to clear the bay of a hostile fleet, so that 
 Gibraltar could hardly be approached by sea. 
 
 But these are not the whole of its defences * they are 
 only the beginning. There are batteries in the rear of 
 the town, as well as in front, that can be fired over the 
 tops of the liouses, so that, if an enemy were to effect a 
 landing he would have to fight his way at every step. As 
 you climb the Hock, it fairly bristles with guns. Yoir 
 cannot turn to the right or the left without seeing these 
 open-mouthed monsters, and looking into their murder- 
 
 * The exact figures of this Armstrong Gun are : Weight, 101.2 tons. 
 Length, 32.65 feet. Length of bore, 30.25 feet. Diameter of bore, 17.72 
 inches. Length of charge of powder, 5 feet. Weight of charge, 450 pounds. 
 Weight of shot, 2,000 pounds. Velocity at the muzzle, 1,548 feet per second. 
 At such velocity, a ball of such weight would have a "smashing effect" of 
 33.230 " foot-tons," and would penetrate 24.9 inches of wrought iron. Range, 
 when fired at the highest elevation, over 8 miles.
 
 THE FOKTIFICATIONS. 23 
 
 ous throats. Everywhere it is nothing but guns, guns, 
 guns ! There are guns over your head and under your 
 feet— 
 
 " Cannon to the right of you, 
 Cannon to the left of you ;" 
 
 and what is still more, cannon pointed directly at you, till 
 you almost feel as if they were aimed with a purpose, 
 and as if they might suddenly open their mouths, and 
 belch you forth, as the whale did Jonah, though not upon 
 the land, but into the midst of the sea ! 
 
 But my story is not ended. It is a good rule in de- 
 scription to keep the best to the last. The unique feature 
 of Gibraltar — that in which it surpasses all the other 
 fortresses of Europe, or of the world — is the Rock Galle- 
 ries, to which I will now lead the way. These were begun 
 more than a hundred years ago, during the Great Siege, 
 which lasted nearly four years, when the inhabitants had 
 no rest day nor night. For, though the French and 
 Spanish besiegers had not rifled guns, nor any of the im- 
 proved artillery of modern times, yet even with their 
 smooth-bore cannon and mortars they managed to reach 
 every part of the Rock. Bombs and shells were always 
 flying over the town, now bursting in the air, and now fall- 
 ing with terrible destruction. So high did these missiles 
 reach, that even the Rock Gun, on the very pinnacle of 
 Gibraltar, was twice dismounted. Thus pursued to the 
 very eagle's nest of their citadel, and finding no rest
 
 24 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 above ground, the besieged felt that their only shelter 
 must be in the bowels of the earth, and gangs of convicts 
 were set to work to blast out these long galleries, which 
 we are now to visit. 
 
 As it is a two miles' walk through them, we may save 
 our steps by riding as far as the entrance. It is an easy 
 drive up to the Moorish Castle, built by the African in- 
 vader who crossed the Straits in 711, and finding the south 
 of Spain an easy conquest, resolved to establish himself 
 in the country, and a few years later built this castle on 
 a shoulder of the hill, where it has stood, frowning over 
 land and sea for nearly twelve centuries. 
 
 Here we present an order from the Military Secretary, 
 and the officer in charge details a gunner to conduct us 
 through the galleries. The gate is opened, and we plunge 
 in at once, beginning on the lower level. The excavation 
 is just like that of a railway tunnel, except that no arches 
 are required, as it is for the whole distance hewn through 
 the solid rock, which is self-supporting. 
 
 But it is not a gloomy cavern that we are to explore, 
 through which we can make our way only by the light of 
 torches, for at every dozen yards there is a large port-hole, 
 by which light is admitted from without, at all of which 
 heavy guns are mounted on carriages, by which they can 
 be swung round to any quarter. 
 
 After we have passed through one tier, perhaps a mile 
 in length, we mount to a second, which rises above the 
 other like the upper deck of an enormous line-of-battle
 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 25 
 
 ship. Enormous indeed it must be, if we can imagine a 
 double-decker a mile long ! 
 
 Following the galleries to the very end, we find them 
 enlarged to an open space, called the Hall of St. George, 
 in which Nelson was once feted by the officers of the gar- 
 rison. It must have been a proud moment when the de- 
 fenders of the Great Fortress paid homage to the Con- 
 queror of the sea. As they drank to the health of the 
 hero of the Battle of the Nile, they could hardly have 
 dreamed that a greater victory was yet to come ; and still 
 less, that it would be a victory followed by mourning, 
 when all the flags in Gibraltar would be hung at half- 
 mast, as the flagship of Nelson anchored in the bay, 
 with only his body on board, one week after the battle of 
 Trafalgar. 
 
 As we tramped past these endless rows of cannon, it 
 occurred to me that their simultaneous discharge must be 
 very trying to the nerves of the artilleryman (if he has 
 any nerves), as the concussion against the walls of rock is 
 much greater than if they were fired in the open air, and 
 I asked my guide if he did not dread it ? He confessed 
 that he did ; but added, like the plucky soldier that he 
 was : " We've got to stand up to it ! " 
 
 These galleries are all on the northern side of the 
 Rock, which, as it is very precipitous, hardly needs such 
 a defence. But it is the side which looks toward Spain, 
 and is intended to command any advance against the for- 
 tress from the land. Keeping in mind the general shape
 
 26 GIBEALTAE. 
 
 of the Rock as that of a lion, this is the Lion's head, and 
 as I looked up at it afterward from the Neutral Ground, 
 I could but imagine these open port-holes, with the sav- 
 age-looking guns peering out of them, to be the lion's teeth, 
 and thought what terror would be thrown into a camp of 
 besiegers if the monster should once open those ponderous 
 jaws and shake the hills with his tremendous roar. 
 
 It is not often that this roar is heard ; but there is one 
 day in the year when it culminates, when the British 
 Lion roars the loudest. It is the Queen's birthday, when 
 the Rock Gun, mounted on the highest point of the 
 Rock, 1,400 feet in air, gives the signal ; which is imme- 
 diately caught lip by the galleries below, one after the 
 other ; and the batteries along the sea answer to those 
 from the mountain side, until the mighty reverberations 
 not only sweep round the bay, but across the Mediterra- 
 nean, and far along the African shores. Nothing like 
 this is seen or heard in any other part of the world. The 
 only parallel to it is in the magnificent phenomena of 
 nature, as in a storm in the Alps, when 
 
 "Not from one lone cloud, 
 But every mountain now liath found a tongue, 
 And Jura answers from her misty shroud 
 Back to the joyous Alps that call to her aloud." 
 
 This is magnificent: and yet I trust my military friends 
 will not despise my sober tastes if I confess that this 
 " roar," if kept up for any length of time, would greatly 
 disturb the meditations of a quiet traveller like myself.
 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 27 
 
 Indeed it would be a serious objection to living in Gibral- 
 tar that I should be compelled to endure the cannonad- 
 ing, which, at certain times of the year, makes the rocks 
 echo with a deafening sound. I hate noise, and especially 
 the noise of sharp explosions. I have always been of 
 Falstaff's opinion, that 
 
 " But for those vile guns I would be a soldier." 
 
 But here the " vile guns " are everywhere, and though 
 they may be quiet for a time, it is only to break out after- 
 ward and make themselves heard in a way that cannot but 
 be understood. 
 
 As I have happened on an interval of rest, I have been 
 surprised at the quietness of Gibraltar. In all the time 
 of my stay I have not heard a single gun, except at sunrise 
 and sunset, and at half-past nine o'clock for the soldiers 
 to return to their barracks. There has not been even a 
 salute, for, although there is on the Alameda a saluting 
 battery, composed of Russian guns taken in the Crimean 
 "War, yet it is less often used than might be supposed, for 
 the ships of war that come here are for the most part 
 English (the French and Spaniards would hardly find the 
 associations agreeable), and these are not saluted since they 
 are at home, as much as if they were entering Portsmouth. 
 
 For these reasons I have found Gibraltar so quiet that 
 I was beginning to think it a dull old Spanish town, fit 
 for a retreat, if not for monks, at least for travellers and 
 scholars, when the Colonial Secretary dispelled the illu-
 
 28 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 sion by saying, "Yes, it is very quiet just now; but wait 
 a few weeks and you will have enough of it." As the 
 spring comes on, the artillerymen begin their practice. 
 The guns in the galleries are not used, but all the batte- 
 ries along the sea, and at different points on the side of 
 the Rock, some of which are mounted with the heaviest 
 modern artillery, are let loose upon the town. 
 
 But this is not done without due notice. The order is 
 published in the Chronicle, a little sheet which appears 
 every morning, and lest it might not reach the eyes of all, 
 messengers are sent to every house to give due warning, 
 so that nervous people can get out of the way ; but the 
 inhabitants generally, being used to it, take no other pre- 
 caution than to open their windows, which might other- 
 wise be broken by the violence of the concussion. Lord 
 Gifford, soldier as he is, said, "It is awful," pointing 
 to the ceiling over his head, which had been cracked 
 in many places so as to be in danger of falling, by the 
 tremendous jar. He told me how one house had been 
 so knocked to pieces that a piece of timber had fallen, 
 nearly killing an officer. This is an enlivening experi- 
 ence, of which I should be sorry to deprive those who 
 like it. But as some of us prefer to live in " the still air 
 of delightful studies," I must say that I enjoy these ex- 
 plosions best at a distance, as even in an Alpine storm I 
 would not have the lightning flashing in my very eyes, 
 but rather lighting up the whole blackened sky, and the 
 mighty thunder rolling afar off in the mountains.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROUND THE TOWN. 
 
 A CCITSTOMED as we are to think of Gibraltar as a 
 Fortress, we may forget that it is anything else. 
 But it is an old Spanish town, quaint and picturesque as 
 Spanish towns are apt to be, with twenty thousand in- 
 habitants, in which the Spanish element, though subject 
 to another and more powerful element, gives a distinct 
 flavor to the place. Indeed, the mingling of the Spanish 
 with the English, or the appearance of the two side by 
 side, without mingling, furnishes a lively contrast, which 
 is one of the most piquant features of this very miscel- 
 laneous and picturesque population. 
 
 Of course, in a garrison town the military element is 
 first and foremost. As there are always five or six thou- 
 sand troops in Gibraltar, it is perhaps the largest garrison 
 in the British dominions, unless the troops in and around 
 London be reckoned as a garrison. But that is rather 
 an army, of which only a small part is in London itself, 
 where a few picked regiments are kept as Household 
 Troops, not only to insure the personal safety of the sove-
 
 30 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 reign, but to keep up the state and dignity of the court ; 
 while other regiments are distributed in barracks within 
 easy call in case of need, not for defence against foreign 
 enemies so much as to preserve internal order ; to put 
 down riot and insurrection ; and thus guard what is not 
 only the capital of Great Britain, but the commercial cen- 
 tre of the world. 
 
 Very different from this is a garrison town, where a 
 large body of troops is shut up within the walls of a for- 
 tress. Here the military element is so absorbing and con- 
 trolling, that it dominates the whole life of the place. 
 Everything goes by military rule ; even the hours of the 
 day are announced by "gun-fire ;" the morning gun gives 
 the exact minute at which the soldiers are to turn out of 
 their beds, and the last evening gun the minute at which 
 they are to "turn in," signals which, though for the sol- 
 diers only, the working population of the town find it con- 
 venient to adopt; and which outsiders must regard, since 
 at these hours the gates are opened and shut ; so that a 
 large part of the non-military part of the population have 
 to " keep step," almost as much as if they were marching 
 in the ranks, since their rising up and their lying down, 
 their goings out and their comings in, are all regulated 
 by the fire of the gun or the blast of the bugle. 
 
 The presence of so large a body of troops in Gibraltar 
 gives a constant animation to its streets, which are alive 
 with red-coats and blue-coats, the latter being the uniform 
 of the artillery. This is a great entertainment to an
 
 ROUND THE TOWN. 31 
 
 American, to whom such sights in his own country are 
 rare and strange. A few years ago we had enough of 
 them when we had a million of men in arms, and the 
 land was filled with the sound of war. But since the 
 blessed days of peace have come we seldom see a soldier, 
 so that the parades in foreign capitals have all the charm 
 of novelty. In fondness for these I am as much " a boy " 
 as the youngest of my countrymen. Almost every hour 
 a company passes up the street, and never do I hear the 
 " tramp, tramp," keeping time to the fife and drum, that 
 I do not rush to the balcony to see the sight, and hear the 
 sounds which stir even my peaceful breast. 
 
 There is nothing that stirs me quite so much as the 
 bugle. Twice a day it startles us with its piercing blast, 
 as it follows instantly the gun-fire at sunrise and sunset. 
 But this does not thrill me as when I hear it blown on 
 some far-off height, and dying away in a valley below, or 
 answered back from a yet more distant point, like a 
 mountain echo. One morning I was taking a walk to 
 Europa Point, and as the path leads upward I came upon 
 several squads of buglers (I counted a dozen men in one of 
 them) practising their " calls." They were stationed at 
 different points on the side of the Bock, so that when one 
 company had given the signal, it was repeated by another 
 from a distance, bugle answering to bugle, precisely like 
 the echoes in the Alps, to which every traveller stops to 
 listen. So here I stopped to listen till the last note had 
 died away in the murmuring sea ; and then, as I went on
 
 32 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 over the hill, kept repeating, as if it were a spell to call 
 them back again : 
 
 " Blow, bugles, blow, 
 Set the wild echoes flying ! ' 
 
 As the English are masters of Gibraltar, I am glad to 
 see that they bring their English ideas and English cus- 
 toms with them. Nothing shows the thoroughly English 
 character of the place more than the perfect quiet of the 
 day of rest. Religious worship seems to be a part of 
 the military discipline. On Sunday morning I heard the 
 familiar sound of music, followed by the soldiers' tramp, 
 and stepping to the balcony again, found a regiment on 
 the march, not to parade but to church. Gibraltar has the 
 honor of being the seat of an English bishop, because of 
 which its modest church bears the stately name of a Ca- 
 thedral ; and here may be seen on a Sunday morning 
 nearly all the officials of the place, from the Governor 
 down ; with the officers of the garrison : and probably 
 the soldiers generally follow the example of their officers 
 in attending the service of the Church of England. But 
 they are not compelled to this against their own prefer- 
 ences. The Irish can go to mass, and the Scotch to their 
 simpler worship. In all the churches there is a large dis- 
 play of uniforms, nor could the preachers address more 
 orderly or more attentive listeners. The pastor of the 
 Scotch church tells me that he is made happy when a 
 Scotch regiment is ordered to Gibraltar, for then he is
 
 BOUND THE TOWN. 33 
 
 sure of a large array of stalwart Cameronians, among 
 whom are always some who have the "gift of prayer," 
 and know how to sing the " Psaumes of Dawvid." These 
 brave Scots go through with their religious exercises al- 
 most with the stride of grenadiers, for they are in dead 
 earnest in whatever they undertake, whether it be praying 
 or fighting ; and these are the men on whom a great com- 
 mander would rely to lead a forlorn hope into the deadly 
 breach; or, as an English writer has said, "to march first 
 and foremost if a city is to be taken by storm ! " 
 
 Besides the garrison, and the English or Spanish resi- 
 dents of Gibraltar, the town has a floating population as 
 motley in race and color as can be found in any city on 
 the Mediterranean. Indeed it is one of the most cosmo- 
 politan places in the world. It is a great resort of politi- 
 cal refugees, who seek protection under the English flag. 
 As it is so close to Spain, it is the first refuge of Spanish 
 conspirators, who, failing in their attempts at revolution, 
 flee across the lines. Misery makes strange bedfellows. 
 It must be strange indeed for those to meet here who in 
 their own land have conspired with, or it may be against, 
 each other. 
 
 Apart from these, there is a singular mixture of char- 
 acters and countries, of races and religions. Here Span- 
 iards and Moors, who fought for Gibraltar a thousand 
 years ago, are at peace and good friends, at least so far as 
 to be willing to cheat each other as readily as if they 
 were of the same religion. Here are long-bearded Jews
 
 34 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 in their gabardines ; and Turks with their baggy trousers, 
 taking up more space than is allowed to Christian legs ; 
 with a mongrel race from the Eastern part of the Medi- 
 terranean, known as Levantines; and another like unto 
 them, the Maltese ; and a choice variety of natives of 
 Gibraltar, called " Rock scorpions," with Africans blacker 
 than Moors, who have perhaps crossed the desert, and 
 hail from Timbuctoo. All these make a Babel of races 
 and languages, as they jostle each other in these narrow 
 and crowded streets, and bargain with each other, and, I 
 am afraid, sometimes swear at each other, in all the lan- 
 guages of the East. 
 
 Here is a field for the young American artists, who 
 after making their sketches in Florence and Rome and 
 Naples, sometimes come to Spain, but seldom take the 
 trouble to come as far as the Pillars of Hercules. As an 
 old traveller, let me assure them that an artist in search 
 of the picturesque, or of what is curious in the study 
 of strange peoples, may find in Gibraltar, with its neigh- 
 bor Tangier, (but three hours' sail across the Straits) sub- 
 jects for his pencil as rich in feature, in color, and in cos- 
 tume, as he can find in the bazaars of Cairo or Constanti- 
 nople.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. PRESENTATION OF COLORS TO 
 THE SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENT. 
 
 rjIHE garrison of Gibraltar, in time of peace, numbers 
 five or six thousand men, made up chiefly of regi- 
 ments brought home from foreign service, that are sta- 
 tioned here for a few months, or it may be a year or two, 
 not merely to perform garrison duty, but as a place of 
 rest to recover strength for fresh campaigns, from which 
 they can be ordered to any part of the Mediterranean or 
 to India. "While here they are kept under constant 
 drill, yet not in such bodies as to make a grand mili- 
 tary display, for there is no parade ground large enough 
 for the purpose. Gibraltar has no Champ de Mars on 
 which all the regiments can be brought into the field, 
 and go through with the evolutions of an army. If 
 the whole garrison is to be put under arms, it must be 
 marched out of the gates to the North Front, adjoining 
 the Neutral Ground, that it may have room for its mili- 
 tary manoeuvres. When our countryman General Craw- 
 ford, who commanded the Pennsylvania Reserves at the 
 Battle of Gettysburg, was here a few years since, the Gov-
 
 36 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 ernor, Sir Fenwick Williams, gave him a review of four 
 thousand men. But that was a mark of respect to a distin- 
 guished military visitor, and presented a sight rarely wit- 
 nessed by the ordinary traveller. It was therefore a piece 
 of good fortune to have an opportunity to see, though on 
 a smaller scale, the splendid bearing of the trained soldiers 
 of the British Army. One morning our Consul (always 
 thoughtful of what might contribute to my pleasure) sent 
 me word that there was to be a parade of one of the regi- 
 ments of the garrison for the purpose of receiving new 
 colors from the hands of the Governor. Hastening to the 
 Alameda, (which is the only open space within the 
 walls at once large enough and level enough even for 
 a single regiment,) I found it already in position, the 
 long scarlet lines forming three sides of a hollow square. 
 Joining a group of spectators on the side that was open, 
 we waited the arrival of the Governor, an interval well 
 employed in some inquiries as to the corps that was to re- 
 ceive the honors of the day. 
 
 "What did you tell me was the name of this Regi- 
 ment?" "The South Staffordshire!" But that is merely 
 the name of a county in England, which conveys no 
 meaning to an American. And yet the name caught my 
 ear as one that I had heard before. " Was not this one 
 of the Regiments that served lately in the Soudan?" 
 It was indeed the same, and I at once knew more of it 
 than I had supposed. As I had been twice in Egypt, I 
 was greatly interested in the expedition up the Nile for
 
 PAKADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 37 
 
 the relief of Khartoum and the rescue of General Gordon, 
 and had followed its progress in the English papers, 
 where, along with the Black Watch and other famous 
 troops, I had seen frequent mention of the South Staf- 
 fordshire Regiment. As the expedition was for months 
 the leading feature of the London illustrated papers, they 
 were filled with pictures of the troops, engaged in every 
 kind of service, sometimes looking more like sailors than 
 soldiers, from which, however, they were ready, at the 
 first alarm, to fall into ranks and inarch to battle. Many 
 of the comrades who sailed from England with them left 
 their bones on the banks of the Nile. 
 
 With this recent history in mind, I could not look in 
 the faces of the brave men who had made all these 
 marches, and endured these fatigues, and fought these 
 battles, without my heart beating fast. It beat faster 
 still when I learned that the campaign in Egypt was 
 only the last of a long series of campaigns, reaching over 
 not only many years, but almost two centuries ! The 
 history of this regiment is worth the telling, if it were 
 only to show of what stuff the British Army is made, and 
 how the traditions of a particular corps, passing down from 
 sire to son, remain its perpetual glory and inspiration. 
 
 The South Staffordshire Regiment is one of the oldest 
 in the English Army, having been organized in the reign 
 of Queen Anne, when the great Marlborough led her 
 troops to foreign wars. But it does not appear to have 
 fought under Marlborough, having been early transferred
 
 38 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 to the Western Hemisphere. After four years' service 
 at home it was sent to the West Indies, where it re- 
 mained nearly sixty years, its losses by death being made 
 good by fresh recruits from England, so that its organiza- 
 tion was kept intact. Returning home in 1765, it was 
 stationed in Ireland till the cloud began to darken over 
 the American Colonies, when it was one of the first corps 
 despatched across the Atlantic. As an American, I could 
 not but feel the respect due to a brave enemy on learning 
 that this very regiment that I saw before me had fought 
 at Bunker Hill ! From Boston it was ordered to New 
 York, where it remained till the close of the war. No 
 doubt it often paraded on the Battery, as to-day it pa- 
 rades on the Alameda. After the war it was stationed 
 several years in Nova Scotia. 
 
 From that time it has had a full century of glory, serv- 
 ing now in the West Indies, and now at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and then coming back across the Atlantic to the 
 River Plate in South America, where it distinguished it- 
 self at the storming and capture of Monte Video, and af- 
 terward fought at Buenos Ayres. But the " storm cen- 
 tre " in the opening nineteenth century was to be, not 
 in America, North or South, nor in Africa, but in 
 Europe, in the wars of Napoleon. This regiment was 
 with Sir John Moore when he fell at Corunna, and after- 
 ward followed the Iron Duke through Spain, fighting in 
 the great battle of Salamanca, and later with Sir Thomas 
 Graham at Vittoria, and in the siege and storming of San
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 39 
 
 Sebastian. It was part of the army that crossed the 
 Bidassoa, and made the campaign of 1813-14 in the 
 South of France. After the fall of Napoleon it returned 
 home, but on his return from Elba was immediately or- 
 dered back to the Continent, and arrived at Ostend, too 
 late to take part in the Battle of Waterloo, but joined the 
 army and marched with it to Paris. 
 
 When the great disturber of the peace of the Conti- 
 nent was sent to St. Helena, Europe had a long rest 
 from war ; but there was trouble in other parts of the 
 world, and in 1819 the regiment was again at the Cape 
 of Good Hope, fighting the Kaffirs ; from which it went 
 to India, and thence to Burmah, where it served in the 
 war of 1821-26. This is the war which has been made 
 familiar to American readers in the Life of the Mis- 
 sionary Judson, who was thrown into prison at Ava, (as 
 the King made no distinction between Englishmen and 
 Americans), confined in a dungeon, and chained to the 
 vilest malefactors, in constant danger of death, till the ad- 
 vance of the British army up the Irrawaddi threw the ty- 
 rant into a panic of terror, when he sent for his prisoner 
 to go to the British camp and make terms with the con- 
 querors. England made peace, but the regiment was half 
 destroyed, having lost in Burmah eleven officers and five 
 hundred men. 
 
 The ten years of peace that followed were spent in 
 Bengal. When at last the regiment was called home, it 
 was stationed for a few years in the Ionian Islands, in Ja-
 
 40 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 maica, Honduras, and Nova Scotia. Then came the Rus- 
 sian War, when it was sent to Turkey, and fought at the 
 Alma and Inkerman, and through the long siege of Sebas- 
 topol. Only a single year of peace followed, and it was 
 again ordered to India, where the outbreak of the mutiny 
 threatened the loss of the Indian Empire, and by forced 
 marches reached Cawnpore in time to defeat the Sepoy 
 army ; from which it marched to Lucknow, where it was 
 part of the fiery host that stormed the Kaiser-Bagh, where 
 it suffered fearful loss, but the siege was raised and Luck- 
 now delivered; after which, in a campaign in Oude, it 
 helped to stamp out the mutiny. 
 
 Its last campaign was in Egypt, where it went up the 
 Nile as a part of the River Column, hauling its boats over 
 the cataracts, and was the first regiment that reached 
 Korti. From this point it kept along the course of the 
 river toward Berber (while another column, mounted on 
 camels, made the march across the desert), and with the 
 Black Watch bore the brunt of the fighting in the battle 
 of Kirbekan, in which the commander of the column 
 and the colonel of the regiment both fell.* 
 
 * A letter received from Sir Charles Wilson, who was in the col- 
 umn that crossed the desert, and who went up the Nile and arrived 
 in sight of Khartoum only to learn that the city had fallen and 
 Gordon been killed, speaks warmly of both these officers, his old 
 companions in arms. He says : " General Earle, who was killed 
 at Kirbekan, was a regimental officer in the Guards, and had been 
 on the staff in Canada and India — in both cases, I think, as mili- 
 tary secretary to the Viceroy. He was much beloved by every one. 
 Colonel Earle, who commanded the South Staffordshire Begi-
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 41 
 
 Such is the story of a hundred and fifty years. Of 
 the hundred and eighty-four years that the Regiment 
 lias been in existence, it has spent a hundred and thirty- 
 four — all but fifty — in foreign service, in which it has 
 fought in thirty-eight battles, and has left the bones of 
 its dead in every quarter of the globe. Was there ever a 
 Roman legion that could show a longer record of war and 
 of glory ? 
 
 And now this British legion, with a history antedating 
 the possession of Gibraltar itself, (for it was organized in 
 1702, two years before the Rock was captured from 
 Spain,) had been brought back to this historic ground, 
 bringing with it its old battle-flags, that had floated on so 
 many fields, which, worn by time and torn by shot and 
 shell, it was now to surrender, to be taken back to Eng- 
 land and hung in the oldest church in Staffordshire as 
 the proud memorials of its glory, while it was to receive 
 new colors, to be borne in future wars. The rents in its 
 ranks had been filled by new recruits, so that it stood 
 full a thousand strong, its burnished arms glistening as if 
 those who bore them had never been in the heat of battle. 
 In the hollow square in which it was drawn up were its 
 mounted officers, waiting the arrival of the Governor, who 
 presently rode upon the ground, with Major-General 
 Walker, the Commander of the Infantry Brigade, at his 
 
 ment, was also killed at Kirbekan. He originally rose from the 
 ranks, and was looked upon as one of the best regimental officers 
 up the Nile.
 
 42 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 side ; followed by other officers, who took position in the 
 rear, according to their rank. The band struck up " God 
 save the Queen," and the troops, wheeling into column, 
 began the "march past," moving with such firm and even 
 tread that it seemed as if the regiment had but one 
 body and one soul. After a series of evolutions it was 
 again formed in a square, for a ceremony that was half 
 military and half religious, for in such pageants the 
 Church of England always lends its presence to the scene. 
 I had read of military mass in the .Russian army, when 
 the troops drawn up in battle array, fall upon their knees, 
 while the Czar, prostrating himself, prays apparently 
 with the utmost devotion for the blessing of Almighty 
 God upon the Russian arms ! Something of the same ef- 
 fect was produced here, when the Bishop of Gibraltar in 
 his robes came forward with his assistant clergy. At 
 once the band ceased ; the troops stood silent and rever- 
 ent. The silence was first broken by the singing of a 
 Hymn, whose rugged verse had a strange effect, as given 
 by the Regimental Choir. I leave to my readers to imag- 
 ine the power of these martial lines sung by those sten- 
 torian voices : 
 
 When Israel's Chief in days of yore, 
 
 Thy banner, Lord, flung out, 
 Old Kishon's tide ran red with gore, 
 
 Dire was the Pagan ront. 
 
 And later, when the Roman's eye 
 Turned upward in despair,
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 43 
 
 The Cross, that flickered in the sky, 
 Made answer to his prayer. 
 
 So, Lord, to us Thy suppliants now, 
 
 Bend Thou a gracious ear, 
 And mark, and register the vow 
 
 We make before Thee here. 
 
 Through fire and steel, 'mid weal or woe, 
 
 Unwavering and in faith, 
 Where'er these sacred banners go, 
 
 We'll follow, to the death. 
 
 We'll follow, strengthened by the might 
 
 That comes of trust in Thee, 
 And if we conquer in the fight, 
 
 Thine shall the glory be : 
 
 Or if Thy wisdom wing the ball, 
 
 And life or limb be riven, 
 The Cross we gaze on as we fall 
 
 Shall point the way to Heaven. 
 
 When this song of battle died away, the voice of the 
 Bishop was heard in a prayer prepared for the occasion. 
 Some may criticise it as implying that the God of 
 Battles must always be on the side of England. But 
 such is the character of all prayers offered in time of war. 
 Making this allowance, it seems as if the feeling of the 
 hour could not be more devoutly expressed than in the 
 following : 
 
 Almighty and most merciful Father, without whom nothing is 
 strong, nothing is holy, we come before Thee with a deep sense 
 of Thine exceeding Majesty and our own unworthiness, praying
 
 44 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 Thee to shed upon us the light of Thy countenance, and to hal- 
 low and sanctify the work in which we are this day engaged. 
 
 We beseech Thee to forward with Thy blessing, the presenta- 
 tion to this Regiment of the Colors which are henceforth to be 
 carried in its ranks ; and with all lowliness and humility of spirit, 
 we presume to consecrate the same in Thy great name, to the 
 cause of peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety. 
 "We humbly pray that the time may come when the sound of War 
 shall cease to be heard in the world ; but forasmuch as to our 
 mortal vision that blessed consummation seems still far distant, 
 we beseech Thee so to order the course of events that these colors 
 shall be unfurled in the face of an enemy only for a righteous 
 cause. And in that dark hour may stain and disgrace fall upon 
 them never; but being borne aloft as emblems of loyalty and 
 truth, may the brave who gather round them go forward conquer- 
 ing for the right, and maintaining, as becomes them, the honor of 
 the British Crown, the purity of our most holy faith, the majesty 
 of our laws, and the influence of our free and happy constitution. 
 Finally, we pray that Thy servants here present, not forgetful of 
 Thine exceeding mercies vouchsafed to their regiment in times 
 gone by, and that all the forces of our Sovereign Lady the Queen, 
 wherever stationed and however employed, may labor through 
 Thy grace to maintain a conscience void of offence towards Thee 
 and towards man, always remembering that of soldier and of civil- 
 ian the same account shall be taken, and that he is best prepared 
 to do his duty, and to meet death, let it come in what form it may, 
 who in the integrity of a pure heart is able to look to Thee as a 
 God reconciled to him through the blood of the Atonement. Grant 
 this, O Lord, for Thine only Son Jesus Christ's sake ! Amen. 
 
 Then followed the usual prayer for the Queen : 
 
 O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, 
 Lord of lords, the only Boiler of princes, who dost from Thy throne 
 behold all the dwellers upon earth, most heartily we beseech Thee 
 with Thy favor to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lady Queen 
 Victoria, and so replenish her with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit 
 that she may always incline to Thy will and walk in Thy way ; en-
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 45 
 
 due her plenteously with heavenly gifts ; grant her in health and 
 wealth long to live ; strengthen her that she may vanquish and 
 overcome all her enemies ; and finally, after this life, she may at- 
 tain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord ! 
 Amen. 
 
 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and 
 the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore ! Amen. 
 
 The service ended, the Governor, dismounting from 
 his horse, took the place of the Bishop in a service which 
 had a sacred as well as patriotic character. Two of- 
 ficers, the youngest of the Regiment, advancing, surren- 
 dered the old flags, which had been carried for so many- 
 years and through so many wars, and then each bend- 
 ing on one knee, received from his hands the new colors 
 which were to have a like glorious history. As they rose 
 from their knees, the Governor remounted his horse, 
 and from the saddle delivered an address as full of 
 patriotic sentiment, of loyalty to the Queen and country, 
 and as spirit-stirring to the brave men before him, as if 
 they were to be summoned to immediate battle. With 
 that he turned and galloped off the ground, while the 
 Regiment unfurling its new standards, with drums beat- 
 ing and band playing, marched proudly away. 
 
 As it wound up the height, the long scarlet line had a 
 most picturesque effect. It has been objected to these 
 brilliant uniforms that they make the soldiers too conspic- 
 uous a mark for the sharpshooters of the enemy. But, 
 however it may be in war, nothing can be finer on pa-
 
 46 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 rade. Our modern architects and decorators, who attach 
 so much importance to color, and insist that everything, 
 from cottage to castle, should be "picked out in red," 
 would have been in ecstasies at the colors which that day 
 gleamed among the rocks and trees of Gibraltar. 
 
 Indeed, if you should happen to be sauntering on the 
 Alameda just at evening, as the sunset-gun is fired, and 
 should look upward to see the smoke curling away, you 
 might see above it a gathering of black clouds — the sure 
 sign of the coming of the terrible East wind known as 
 the "Levanter"; and if at the same moment the after- 
 glow of the dying day should touch a group of soldiers 
 standing on the mountain's crest (where colors could be 
 clearly distinguished even if figures were confused), it 
 might seem as if that last gleam under the shadow of the 
 clouds were itself the red cross of England soaring against 
 a dark and stormy sky. 
 
 This was the brilliant side of war: pity that there 
 should be another side ! But the next day, walking near 
 the barracks, I met a company with reversed arms bear- 
 ing the body of a comrade to the grave. There was no 
 funeral pomp, no waving plumes nor roll of muffled 
 drums: for it was only a common soldier, who might 
 have fallen on any field, and be buried where he fell, with 
 not a stone to mark his resting-place. But for all that, he 
 may have been a true hero ; for it is such as he, the un- 
 known brave, who have fought all the battles and gained 
 all the victories of the world.
 
 PARADE ON THE ALAMEDA. 47 
 
 Turning from this scene, I thought how hard was the 
 fate of the English soldier : to be an exile from the land 
 of his birth, " a man without a country " ; who may be or- 
 dered to any part of the world (for such is the stern ne- 
 cessity, if men are to defend " an Empire on which the 
 sun never sets ") ; serving in many lands, yet with a home 
 in none ; to sleep at last in a nameless grave ! Such has 
 been the fate of many of that gallant regiment which I 
 saw marching so proudly yesterday. Their next cam- 
 paign may be in Central Asia, fighting the Eussians in 
 Afghanistan, amid the snows of the Himalayas. If so, I 
 fear it may be said of them with sad, prophetic truth, as 
 they go into battle : 
 
 " Ah ! few shall part where many meet ; 
 The snow shall be their winding-sheet ,• 
 And every turf beneath their feet 
 Shall be a soldier's sepulchre."
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBRALTAR. 
 
 THE best thing that I find in any place is the men that 
 are in it. Strong walls and high towers are grand, 
 but after a while they oppress me by their very massive- 
 ness, unless animated by a living presence. Even the 
 great guns, those huge monsters that frown over the ram- 
 parts, would lose their majesty and terror, if there were 
 not brave men behind them. And so, after I had sur- 
 veyed Gibraltar from every point of land and sea ; after 
 I had been round about it, and marked well its towers and 
 its bulwarks ; to complete the enjoyment I had but one 
 wish — to sit down in some quiet nook and talk it all over. 
 There is no man in the world whom I respect more than 
 an old soldier. He is the embodiment of courage and of 
 all manly qualities, and he has given his life to his coun- 
 try. And if he bears in his person the scars of honorable 
 wounds, I look up to him with a feeling of veneration. 
 Of such characters no place has more than Gibraltar, 
 which perhaps may be considered the centre of the mili- 
 tary life of England. True, the movements of the Army 
 are directed by orders from the Horse Guards in London.
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBRALTAE. 49 
 
 But here the military feature is the predominant, if not 
 the exclusive, one; while in London a few thousand 
 troops would be lost in a city of five millions of inhabi- 
 tants. Here the outward and visible sign is ever be- 
 fore you j regiments whose names are historical, are 
 always coming and going; and if you are interested in the 
 history of modern wars, (as who can fail to be, since it is 
 a part of the history of our times ?) you may not only 
 read about them in the Garrison Library, but see the very 
 men that have fought in them. Here is a column coming 
 up the street ! I look at its colors, and read the name of 
 a regiment already familiar through the English papers ; 
 that has shown the national pluck and endurance in 
 penetrating an African forest or an Indian jungle, or in 
 climbing the Khyber Pass in the Himalayas to settle ac- 
 counts with the Emir of Cabul. There must be strange 
 meetings of old comrades here, as well as new companion- 
 ships formed between those who have fought under the 
 same royal standard, though in different parts of the 
 world. A regiment recalled from Halifax is quartered 
 near another just returned from Natal or the Cape of 
 Good Hope ; while troops from Hong Kong, or that have 
 been up the Irrawaddi to take part in the late war in 
 Upper Burmah, can exchange experiences with their 
 brother soldiers from the other side of the globe. Almost 
 all the regiments collected here have figured in distant 
 campaigns, and the officers that ride at their head are the 
 
 very ones that led them to victory. To a heart that is 
 4
 
 50 GIBRALTAK. 
 
 not so dead but that it can still be stirred by deeds of 
 daring, there is nothing more thrilling than to sit under 
 the guns of the greatest fortress in the world, and listen 
 to the story as it comes from the lips of those who were 
 actors in the scenes. 
 
 But it would be a mistake to suppose that the society 
 of Gibraltar is confined to men. The home instincts are 
 strong in English breasts ; and wherever they go they 
 carry their household gods with them. In my wander- 
 ings about the world, it has been my fortune to visit por- 
 tions of the British Empire ten thousand miles away 
 from the mother country ; yet in every community there 
 was an English stamp, a family likeness to the old island 
 home. Hence it is that in the most remote colony there 
 are the elements of a good society. Whatever country 
 the English may enter, even if it be in the Antipodes, as 
 soon as they have taken root and become established they 
 send back to England for their wives and daughters, that 
 they may renew the happy life that they have lived be- 
 fore, so that the traveller who penetrates the interior of 
 Australia, of New Zealand, or Yan Dieman's Land, is sur- 
 prised to find, even " in the bush," the refinement of an 
 English home. 
 
 This instinct is not lost, even when they are in camps 
 or barracks. If you visit a "cantonment" in Upper In- 
 dia, you will find the officers with their families about 
 them. The brave-hearted English women " follow the 
 drum " to the ends of the earth ; and I have sometimes
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBRALTAR. 51 
 
 thought that their husbands and brothers owed part of 
 their indomitable resolution to the inspiration of their 
 wives and sisters. 
 
 It is this feature of garrison life, this union of "fair 
 women and brave men," which gives such a charm to 
 the society of Gibraltar — a union which is more complete 
 here than in most garrison towns, because the troops stay 
 longer, and there is more opportunity for that home-life 
 which strangers would hardly believe to exist. Most 
 travellers see nothing of it. Indeed it is probable that 
 they hardly think of Gibraltar as having any home -life, 
 since its population is always on the come and go ; living 
 here only as in a camp, and to-morrow 
 
 " Folding its tents like the Arabs, 
 And silently stealing away." 
 
 This is partly true. Soldiers of course are subject to 
 orders, and the necessities of war may cause them to be 
 embarked at an hour's notice. But in time of peace they 
 may remain longer undisturbed. Regiments which have 
 done hard service in India are sometimes left here to re- 
 cruit even for years, which gives their officers opportun- 
 ity to bring their families, whose presence makes Gibral- 
 tar seem like a part of England itself, as if it were no 
 farther away than the Isle of Wight. This it is which 
 makes life here quite other than being imprisoned in a 
 fortress. I may perhaps give some glimpses of these in- 
 teriors (without publicity to what is private and sacred),
 
 52 GIBRALTAR 
 
 which I depict simply that I may do justice to a place to 
 which I came as a stranger, and from which I depart as a 
 friend. 
 
 Just before I left America, I was present at a breakfast 
 given to M. de Lesseps on his visit to America to attend 
 the inauguration of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty. As I sat 
 opposite the " grand Francais," I turned the conversation 
 to Spain, to which I was going, and where I knew that he 
 had spent many years. He took up the subject with all 
 his natural fire, and spoke of the country and the people 
 in a way to add to my enthusiasm. Next to him sat 
 Chief Justice Daly, who kindled at the mention of Spain, 
 and almost " raved " (if a learned Judge ever " raves ") 
 about Spanish cathedrals. He had continued his journey 
 to the Pillars of Hercules, and said that "in all his travels 
 he had never spent a month with more pleasure than in 
 Gibraltar." He had come with letters to the Governor, 
 Lord Napier of Magdala, which at once opened all doors 
 to him. "Wishing to smooth my path in the same way, 
 the English Minister at Madrid, who had shown me so 
 much courtesy there, gave me a letter to the Colonial Sec- 
 retary, Lord Gilford, who received me with the greatest 
 kindness, and took me in at once to the Governor, who 
 was equally cordial in his welcome. 
 
 The position of Governor of Gibraltar is one of such 
 distinction as to be greatly coveted by officers in the Eng- 
 lish army. It is always bestowed on one of high rank, 
 and generally on some old soldier who has distinguished
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBKALTAE. 53 
 
 himself in the field. Among the late Governors was Sir 
 Fenwick Williams, who, with only a garrison of Turks, 
 under the command of four or five English officers, de- 
 fended Kars, the capital of Armenia, in 1855, repelling an 
 assault by the Russians when they endeavored to take it 
 by storm, and yielding at last only to famine ; and Lord 
 Napier of Magdala, who, born in Ceylon, spent the earlier 
 part of his military life in India, where he fought in the 
 Great Mutiny, and distinguished himself at Lucknow. 
 Ten years later he led an English army (though composed 
 largely of Indian troops, with the Oriental accompaniment 
 of guns and baggage-trains carried on the backs of camels 
 and elephants) into Abyssinia, and took the capital in an 
 assault in which King John was slain, and the mission- 
 aries and others, whom he had long held as prisoners and 
 captives, were rescued. He was afterward commander- 
 in-chief of the forces in India, and, when he retired from 
 that, no position was thought more worthy of his rank 
 and services than that of Governor of Gibraltar, a fit ter- 
 mination to his long and honored career. 
 
 The present Governor is a worthy successor to this 
 line of distinguished men. Sir Arthur Hardinge is 
 the son of Lord Hardinge, who commanded the army 
 in India a generation ago. Brought up as it were in a 
 camp, he was bred as a soldier, and when little more than 
 a boy accompanied his father to the wars, serving as aide- 
 de-camp through the Sutlej campaign in 1845-46, and 
 was in the thick of the fight in some hard-fought battles,
 
 54 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 in one of which, at Ferozeshah, he had a horse shot un- 
 der him. When the Crimean War broke out he was or- 
 dered to the field, and served in the campaign of 1854-55, 
 being at the Alma and at Inkerman, and remaining to the 
 close of the siege of Sebastopol. Here he had rapid pro- 
 motion, besides receiving numerous decorations from the 
 Turkish Government, and being made Knight of the 
 Legion of Honor. Returning to England, he seems to 
 have been a favorite at court and at the Horse Guards, 
 being made Knight Commander of the Bath, honorary 
 Colonel of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and Extra 
 Equerry to the Queen, his honors culminating in his pres- 
 ent high position of Governor and Commander-in-chief of 
 Gibraltar. 
 
 The politeness of the Governor did not end with his 
 first welcome: it was followed by an invitation to his New 
 Year's Reception. It was but a few weeks since he had 
 taken office ; and, wishing to do a courtesy to the citizens 
 of Gibraltar as well as to the officers of the garrison, both 
 were included in the invitation. The Government House 
 was the one place where all — soldiers and civilians — could 
 meet on common ground, and form the acquaintance, and 
 cultivate the friendly feeling, so important to the happi- 
 ness of a community shut up within the limits of a fort- 
 ress. Although I was a stranger, the Consul desired me 
 to attend, as it would give me the opportunity to see in 
 a familiar way the leading men of Gibraltar, civil and 
 military, and further, as, owing to the recent death of his
 
 SOCIETY IN" GIBRALTAR. 55 
 
 son, lie could not be present nor any of his family, so that 
 I should be the only representative of our country. 
 
 It was indeed a notable occasion. The Government 
 House is an old Convent, which still retains its ancient 
 and venerable look, though the flag floating over it, and 
 the sentry marching up and down before the door, tell 
 that it is now the seat of English power. To-night it 
 took on its most festive appearance, entrance and stairway 
 being hung with flags, embowered in palms, and wreathed 
 with vines and ferns and flowers ; and when the officers 
 appeared in their uniforms, and the military band filled 
 the place with stirring music, it was a brilliant scene. 
 
 The gathering was in a large hall, part of which was 
 turned to a purpose which to some must have seemed 
 strangely incongruous with the sacred associations of the 
 place : for in the old Spanish days this was a Convent of 
 the Franciscan Friars, who, if they ever revisit the place 
 of their former habitation, must have been shocked to 
 find their chapel turned into a place for music and danc- 
 ing, and to hear the " sound of revelry by night," where 
 they were wont to say midnight mass, and to offer pray- 
 ers for the quick and dead ! 
 
 While this was going on in one part of the hall, at the 
 other end the Governor sat on a dais, quietly enjoying 
 the meeting of old friends and the making of new 
 ones. It was my good fortune to be one of the group, 
 which gave me the best possible opportunity to see the 
 society of Gibraltar : for here it was all gathered under
 
 56 GIBKALTAR. 
 
 one roof. Of course it was chiefly military. There was a 
 brilliant array of officers — generals, colonels, and majors; 
 while in still larger number were captains and lieuten- 
 ants, in their gay uniforms, who, if they did not exactly 
 realize my idea of 
 
 " Whiskered Pandours and fierce Hussars," 
 
 looked like the brave and gallant Englishmen they were. 
 Nor were they alone : for there were civilians also — mag- 
 istrates and lawyers and judges; and, better still, the 
 lovely English women, who are the ornament of every 
 English colony. All received me with a manner so cor- 
 dial as assured me that I was not to be treated with cold 
 formality as a stranger. If I had come into a camp of 
 American officers, I could not have had a more hearty 
 welcome. 
 
 At length the clock struck the hour of midnight, and I 
 rose to take leave of the Governor ; but he answered, 
 " No, that will never do ; you must take a lady out to 
 supper." Being under military orders, I could but obey, 
 and, essaying for the first time the part of a Spanish cav- 
 alier, conducted a Spanish lady into the dining-hall. This 
 is a historical apartment, in which have been feted all the 
 royalties that have visited Gibraltar. On the w r alls are 
 hung the portraits of the Governors from the beginning 
 of the English occupation in 1704, among which every 
 visitor looks for that of "Old Eliott," the defender of 
 the place in the great siege. He was followed by a long
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBRALTAR. 57 
 
 succession of brave men, who, in keeping Gibraltar, felt 
 they were guarding the honor of England. 
 
 After this pleasant duty had been performed, I re- 
 turned to the Governor to "report" that "I had obeyed 
 his orders," and that " in taking leave, I could only ex- 
 press the wish that Gibraltar might never be attacked in 
 any other way than it had been that evening," adding 
 that "if he should treat all my countrymen as he had 
 treated me, I could promise him on their part, as on mine, 
 an unconditional surrender ! " 
 
 Thus introduced, I found myself at home in a circle 
 which included men who had seen service in all parts of 
 the world. Next to the Governor I was attracted by a 
 grand old officer whom I had observed on the parade, his 
 breast being covered with decorations won in many wars. 
 This was Major- General Walker, who has been in the 
 army for a large part of the reign of Queen Yictoria. As 
 long ago as the Anglo-Russian war, he was an adjutant in 
 one of the regiments sent to the Crimea, where he fought 
 at the Alma and at Inkerman, and took part in the long 
 siege of Sebastopol. Eager to be in the post of danger, 
 he volunteered for a night attack, in which he led a party 
 that took and destroyed a Russian rifle-pit. Soon after 
 he was dangerously wounded in the trenches, and his right 
 arm amputated, for which he was promoted and received 
 a number of decorations. He afterward served through- 
 out the campaign of 1860, in China.* 
 
 * War Services of General Officers, in Hart's Annual Army List for 1882.
 
 58 GIBEALTAE. 
 
 Lord Gifford, though too young for service dating so far 
 back, and of such slender figure that he looks more like a 
 university student than like a soldier, was the hero of the 
 Ashantee War, who led his men through forest and jungle, 
 in the face of the savage foe, to the capture of Coomassie, 
 for which he received the Victoria Cross, the proud dis- 
 tinction of a British soldier. 
 
 A little volume published in England, entitled "The 
 Victoria Cross in the Colonies," by Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Knollys, F.R.G.S., gives the following sketch of this gal- 
 lant officer. 
 
 " The hero of the Ashantee "War, 1873-74, was undoubtedly 
 Ederic, third Baron Gifford. Born in 1849, he entered the Eighty- 
 third Begiment as ensign in 1869, became lieutenant the follow- 
 ing year, and in 1873 was transferred to the Twenty-fourth Begi- 
 ment. He was one of the body of volunteers who accompanied 
 Sir Garnet Wolseley to the Gold Coast. Appointed to train and 
 command the TVinnebeh company of BusselTs native regiment, he 
 took part in the defence of Absacampa and the defeat of the Ash- 
 antee army. He subsequently, for several weeks, performed the 
 duties of adjutant to Bussell's regiment. When the Ashantee ter- 
 ritory was invaded, to Lord Gifford was assigned the command of 
 a scouting party. This party was fifty strong, and composed of 
 men from the West India Begiment of Houssas, Kossos, and 
 Bonny natives. 
 
 "Early on the morning of January 6th, 1874, Gifford, with 
 his scouts, crossed the Prah in canoes, and explored the coun- 
 try on both sides of the road to Coomassie. The rest of the 
 army crossed by the bridge the same day. Marching some five 
 miles ahead of the advance guard, he reached a village called Es- 
 siaman, and found that it was occupied by an Ashantee detach- 
 ment, which, on advancing, he at once attacked and put to flight, 
 losing only one man severely wounded. Advancing to a village
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBEALTAR. 59 
 
 called Akrofumin, he discovered that it was held by the Ashan- 
 tees ; but not being able to ascertain their strength, which he be- 
 lieved to be superior to his own, he prudently contented himself 
 with observing them. 
 
 "After remaining in this critical position for several days, he 
 had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy retire. He then pushed 
 on — indeed never left off pushing on in the most daring yet skil- 
 ful manner till Coomassie was reached — always keeping well 
 ahead. His scouts were devoted to Lord Gifford, 'whose docile 
 savages,' writes an historian of the campaign, 'worshipped the 
 English gentleman for his superior skill and spirit in climbing 
 that steep barrier range, the Adansi Hills, dividing the Assin from 
 the Ashantee country. The night previous to the action at Amoa- 
 ful, he carefully reconnoitred the enemy's position, and during the 
 fight he was, with his gallant Little band, as usual, well in advance. 
 
 " The next day he was sent to reconnoitre the village of Bec- 
 qua. He had got close up when some twenty Ashantees sprang 
 up in the bush and fired, but providentially without effect. On 
 receipt of his report Sir Garnet Wolseley despatched a strong 
 force to capture the place. Gifford's scouts led, followed by a 
 body of Houssas, Bussell's Kegiment, and the Xaval Brigade, the 
 Forty-second Highlanders, and a company of the Twenty-third 
 Boyal Welsh Fusileers acting as supports. As soon as the firing 
 began, Gifford, followed by his handful of scouts, rushed on, and 
 dashed into the town, though it was occupied by a thousand Ash- 
 antees. The Houssas, for once, could not be induced to charge ; 
 they persisted in lying down and firing unaimed shots into the 
 bush. 
 
 " In the meantime Lord Gifford and his party were exposed to 
 the concentrated fire of the defenders. His best scout was killed, 
 and he and all his men were wounded. In fact, he was in an 
 almost desperate situation. On this he shouted to the Naval Bri- 
 gade to come to his assistance. "With a cheer the gallant fellows 
 replied to the appeal, and at their charge the enemy fled. 
 
 " Three days later the action of Ordahsu took place, Coomassie 
 was entered, and the campaign was virtually at an end. 
 
 "From that time Lord Gifford, there being no further need for 
 his services as a scout, acted as aide-de-camp to Sir Garnet Wolse-
 
 60 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 ley. During the whole war this young, slight, modest-looking lad 
 had displayed the greatest enterprise and inti^idity, and rendered 
 the most valuable services. Fortune had in this case certainly 
 favored the brave ; for notwithstanding unremitting exertions and 
 constant exposure both to climate and the bullets of the enemy, 
 he escaped disease, and was only once wounded. Modest as he 
 was brave, he never sought to make capital out of his exploits. 
 They were, however, too conspicuous to escape notice, and he was 
 repeatedly mentioned in despatches. 
 
 "On his return to England, he paid a visit to his regiment, the 
 Twenty-fourth, then stationed at Aldershot. He was received 
 with the greatest enthusiasm by both men and officers. The for- 
 mer carried him shoulder-high into camp, and the latter enter- 
 tained him at dinner ; yet he was as unaffected and simple as if he 
 had only returned from an ordinary duty. For his daring con- 
 duct on the Gold Coast he was granted the Victoria Cross." 
 
 It was a privilege to spend an hour with General 
 Walker at his own table, and to draw him into conversa- 
 tion on the wars in which he had taken part, and the great 
 soldiers who had been his companions in arms. Of his 
 own part in these events he spoke very modestly, like the 
 true soldier that he is; though no modesty could hide the 
 story told by that empty sleeve of the arm that he had 
 left in the trenches at Sebastopol. From the South- 
 eastern corner of Europe to the eastern coast of Asia, is 
 a long stretch round the globe, but here, when the scene 
 of war was transferred from Russia to China, we find the 
 same gallant officer among the foremost in the storming 
 of the Taku forts, and with the combined French and 
 English army that fought its way to Peking. 
 
 As the house of the Major General stands on the Line-
 
 SOCIETY IN GIBRALTAR. 61 
 
 Wall, it is close to the enormous batteries in the case- 
 mates below, (while one of the hundred-ton guns is 
 mounted near the Alameda, quite " within speaking dis- 
 tance,") and must be rudely rocked by the thunder which 
 shakes even the solid ground like an earthquake. "What 
 do you do at such a time ? " I asked of the ladies of the 
 family, to which they answered gayly, " Oh, we don't 
 mind it." They took good care, however, to take down 
 their mirrors, and to lay away their glass and china, lest 
 they should be shattered in pieces. Then they threw 
 open their windows, and let the explosion come. For me 
 this would be a trifle too near, and with all my love for 
 Gibraltar, I do not think I should choose a hundred-ton 
 gun as a next-door neighbor. 
 
 As I rose to leave, I found horses saddled and bridled 
 at the door, on which the General and his niece were 
 about to take their afternoon ride, for the officers in Gib- 
 raltar are not so shut up within its walls, that they cannot 
 take their pleasure as if they were in the field. True, the 
 Rock does not offer a very wide space for excursions, but 
 the gay troopers of both sexes have but to ride out of the 
 Northern gate, and cross the Spanish lines, and the whole 
 country is before them. One day I met the Governor 
 coming in at full speed, with his staff behind him ; and 
 almost daily there are riding parties or hunting parties, 
 which go off for hours, and come back with the ruddy 
 English glow of health upon their faces. 
 
 Indeed if one had to go about on foot, he need not feel
 
 62 GIBRALTAR, 
 
 as if he were shut up in a fortress-prison, for there are 
 pleasant walks over the Rock, leading to many a nook, 
 from which one may look off upon the sea, where, if he 
 has an agreeable companion, the hours will not seem long. 
 If for a few months the climate has a little too much of 
 the warmth of Africa, there is a delightful promenade 
 along the, Alameda, where friends may saunter on sum- 
 mer evenings, inhaling the fresh breezes ; or sit under 
 the trees, and (as they listen to the bands playing the 
 familiar airs of England) talk of their dear native island.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 
 
 A LTHOUGH Gibraltar is the greatest fortress in the 
 world, if it were only that, it would not have half 
 the interest which it now has. The supreme interest of 
 the Rock is in the record of centuries that is graven on its 
 rugged front. For nearly eight hundred j^ears it was the 
 prize of war between the Spaniard and the Moor, and its 
 legends are all of battle and of blood. Ten times it was 
 besieged and passed back and forth from conqueror to 
 conqueror, the Cross replacing the Crescent, and the Cres- 
 cent the Cross. Ten times was the battle lost and won. 
 When, at last, in 1598 the Spaniards drove the Moors out 
 of Spain, they remained masters of Gibraltar, and held it 
 with undisputed sway for a little more than a hundred 
 years. They might have held it still but for a surprise, 
 hardly worthy to be called a siege ' r for the place was 
 taken by a coup de main, that is one of the strangest in- 
 cidents of history. It was the War of the Spanish Suc- 
 cession, waged by half Europe to determine which of two 
 incompetents should occupy the throne of Spain. The 
 English sent a squadron into the Mediterranean, under Sir
 
 64 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 George llooke, who, after cruising about and accomplish- 
 ing little, bethought himself, in order not to return in com- 
 plete failure, to try his hand on Gibraltar. The place was 
 well fortified, with a hundred guns, but inside the walls 
 only a hundred and fifty men (a man and a half to a 
 gun !), so that it could offer but a brief resistance to a 
 bombardment, and thus the Spaniards lost in three days 
 what they spent more than three years to recover, and 
 spent in vain. 
 
 Though the place was taken by an English fleet, it was 
 not taken for England, but in the name of an Archduke 
 of Austria, whom England supported as a pretender to 
 the Spanish throne ; and had he succeeded in gaining it 
 the place would doubtless have been turned over to him 
 (as on a visit to Gibraltar he was received by the garrison 
 as lawful sovereign of Spain, and proclaimed King by the 
 title of Charles III.), but as he was finally defeated, Eng- 
 land thought it not a bad thing to keep the place for 
 herself. 
 
 Hardly had it slipped from their hands before the 
 Spaniards realized the tremendous blow which had been 
 given to their power and their pride, and made desper- 
 ate endeavors to recover it. The very same year they 
 attacked it with a large army and fleet. At the begin- 
 ning an attempt was made which would seem to have been 
 conceived in the heroism of despair. The eastern side of 
 Gibraltar terminates in a tremendous cliff, rising fourteen 
 hundred feet above the sea, which thunders against the
 
 CATALAN BAY, ON THE EAST SIDE OF GIBRALTAR. 
 [Cliff Scaled by the Spaniards in an Attempt to Take the Rock by Surpr
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 65 
 
 rocks below. This side has never been fortified, for the 
 reason that it is so defended by nature that it needs no 
 other defence. One would as soon think of storming El 
 Capitan in the valley of the Yosemite as the eastern side 
 of the Rock of Gibraltar. Yet he who has followed a 
 Swiss guide in the Alps knows that with his cool head and 
 agile step he will climb heights which seemed inaccessible. 
 And so a Spanish shepherd, or goatherd, had found a path 
 from Catalan Bay, up which he offered to lead a party 
 to the top, and five hundred men were daring enough to 
 follow him. They knew that the attempt was desperate, 
 but braced up their courage by religious enthusiasm, devot- 
 ing themselves to the sacrifice by taking the sacrament, and 
 binding themselves to capture Gibraltar or perish in the 
 attempt. In the darkness and silence of the night they 
 crept slowly upward till a part had reached the top, and 
 concealed themselves in St. Michael's Cave until the break 
 of day ; when with the earliest dawn they attacked the 
 Signal Station, killing the guard, and then by ropes and 
 ladders brought up the rest of the party. Following up 
 the momentary success, they stormed the wall of Charles 
 V., so called because constructed by him. But by this 
 time the garrison had been awakened to the fact that there 
 was an enemy within the walls. The roll of drums from 
 below summoned the troops to arms, and soon the grena- 
 diers came rushing up the hill. Exposed to the fire from 
 above, many fell, but nothing could check their advance, 
 
 and reaching the top they charged with such fury that 
 5
 
 66 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 half of the party that had scaled the heights soon fell, 
 some of whom were driven over the cliff into the sea. An 
 officer who was present during the whole of the siege tells 
 how they made short work of it. " Five hundred Span- 
 iards attacked the Middle Hill but were soon repulsed, 
 and two hundred men with their commanding officer 
 taken. The rest were killed by our shot, or in making 
 their escape broke their necks over the rocks and preci- 
 pices, which in that place are many and prodigiously high." 
 
 So ended the first and last attempt to take Gibraltar in 
 the rear. But still the Spanish army lay encamped be- 
 fore the town, and the siege was kept up for six months 
 with a loss of ten thousand men. No other attack was 
 made during that war, though the war itself raged else- 
 where for seven years more, till it was closed by the treaty 
 of Utrecht, in which Gibraltar was finally ceded to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 But the Spaniards did not give it up yet. In 1727 they 
 renewed the struggle, and besieged the place for five 
 months with nearly twenty thousand men, but with the 
 same result as before, after which it had rest and quiet 
 for half a century, till the time of the Great Siege, which 
 I am now to describe. 
 
 It seems beginning a long way off to find any connec- 
 tion between the siege of Gibraltar and the battle of Sara- 
 toga ; but one followed from the other. The surrender of 
 General Burgoyne (who had marched from Canada with a 
 large army to crush the Rebellion in the Colonies) was the
 
 THE GKEAT SIEGE. 67 
 
 first great event that gave hope, in the eyes of Europe, 
 to the cause of American independence, and led France 
 to join it openly, as she had before favored it secretly. 
 Spain followed France, having a common hatred of Eng- 
 land, with the special grievance of the loss of Gibraltar, 
 which she hoped, with the help of her powerful ally, to 
 recover. 
 
 In such a contest the chances were more evenly bal- 
 anced than might be at first supposed. True, England 
 had the advantage of possession, and if possession is nine 
 points of the law, it is more than nine points in war, es- 
 pecially when the possessor is intrenched in the strongest 
 fortress in the world. But as an offset to this, she had to 
 hold it in an enemy's country. Gibraltar was a part of 
 the territory of Spain, in which the English had not a 
 foot of ground but the Rock on which they stood ; while 
 it was much nearer to France than to England. Thus the 
 allied powers had facilities for attacking it both by land 
 and sea, and brought against it such tremendous forces 
 that it could not have held out for nearly four years, had 
 it not been for the British power of resistance, animated 
 by one of the bravest of soldiers. 
 
 To begin with, England did not commit the folly by 
 which Spain had lost Gibraltar — in leaving it with an in- 
 sufficient garrison. It had over five thousand troops in 
 the fortress — a force by which it was thoroughly manned. 
 
 But its power for defence was doubled by having a 
 commander, who was fitted by nature and by training
 
 68 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 for the responsibilities that were to be laid upon him. 
 c . .George Augustus Eliott was the son of Sir Gilbert Eliott, 
 of Roxburghshire, where he was born in 1718. Scotch 
 families in those days, like those of our ISew England 
 fathers, were apt to be large, and the future defender of 
 Gibraltar was one of eleven children, of whom but two 
 were daughters, and of the nine sons George was the 
 youngest. After such education as he could receive at 
 home, he was sent to the continent, and entered the 
 University of Leyden, where, with his other studies, he 
 acquired a knowledge of German, which was to be of 
 practical use to him afterward, as he was to serve for a 
 year in a German army. But France was the country 
 that then took the lead in the art of war ; and from Hol- 
 land he was sent to a famous military school in Picardy, 
 founded by Vauban, the constructor of the French for- 
 tresses, where he learned the principles which he was to 
 apply to the defence of a greater fortress than any in 
 France. lie gave particular attention also to the practice 
 of gunnery. As Napoleon learned the art of war in the 
 artillery school of Brienne, so did Eliott in the school of 
 La Fere. An incidental advantage of this French educa- 
 tion was that he acquired the language so that he could 
 speak it fluently, a knowledge which was of service to him 
 afterward when he had so much to do with the French, 
 even though it were as enemies. 
 
 From France Eliott travelled into other countries on a 
 tour of military observation, and then enlisted for a year
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 69 
 
 in the Prussian army, which was considered the model in 
 the way of discipline. Thus equipped for the life of a 
 soldier, he returned to Scotland, where (as his father 
 wished that he should be further inured to the practice of 
 arms), he entered a Welsh regiment then in Edinburgh as 
 a volunteer, and served with it for a year, from which he 
 went into the engineer corps at Woolwich, and then into 
 a troop of " horse grenadiers," that, under his vigorous 
 training, became famous as a corps of heavy cavalry. 
 When it was ordered to the Continent, he went with it, 
 and served in Germany and the Netherlands, where he 
 took part in several engagements and was wounded at 
 the battle of Dettingen. 
 
 In this varied service Eliott had gained the reputation 
 of being a brave and capable officer, but had as yet no 
 opportunity to show the extraordinary ability which he 
 was afterward to display. He had, however, acquired 
 such a mastery of the art of war, that he was fitted for 
 any position. In those days, however, promotion was 
 slow, and he had served in the army (which he entered 
 at the age of seventeen,) forty years, and was fifty-seven 
 years old, and had yet reached only the grade of a Lieuten- 
 ant-General, when, in 1775, he was placed in command of 
 the fortress of Gibraltar. This was four years before the 
 siege began, by which time he was a little turned of sixty, 
 so that he was familiarly called " Old Eliott." But his 
 good Scotch frame did him service now, for he was hale 
 and strong, with a heart of oak and a frame of iron ; ask-
 
 70 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 ing no indulgence on account of his years, but ready to en- 
 dure every fatigue and share every danger. Such was the 
 man who was to conduct the defence of Gibraltar, and to 
 be, from the beginning to the end, its very heart and 
 soul.* 
 
 It was in the year 1779, and on the very longest day 
 of the year, the 21st of June, that Spain, by order of the 
 Kins, severed all communication with Gibraltar. But 
 this was not war ; it was simply non-intercourse, and not 
 a hostile gun was fired for months. It is an awkward 
 thing to strike the first blow where relations have been 
 friendly. It had long been the custom of the Spaniards 
 to keep a regiment of cavalry at San Roque, and one of 
 infantry at Algeciras, across the bay, between which and 
 the garrison there was a frequent exchange of military 
 courtesies. Two days before this abrupt termination of 
 
 *The above outline is derived chiefly from Chalmers' Bio- 
 graphical Dictionary, a work in thirty-two octavo volumes, pub- 
 lished in London more than seventy years ago (in 1814). I have 
 sought for fuller information from other sources, but without re- 
 sult. The " Encyclopaedia Britannica," in its article on Gibraltar 
 refers to a" Life of Eliott," but I have not been able to find it 
 either in the United States or in England. After a fruitless search 
 in the Astor Library, with the aid of the Librarian, I cabled 
 twice to London, the second time directing that search be made 
 in the British Museum, but received reply that the book could 
 not be found. The American Consul at Gibraltar writes me that 
 he cannot find it there. Can it be possible that there is not in ex- 
 istence any full and authentic record of one of the greatest heroes 
 that England has produced? Has such a man no place in English 
 history except to furnish the subject of an article in a Biographi- 
 cal Dictionary ?
 
 PLAN OF GIBRALTAR.
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 71 
 
 intercourse, the Governor had been to pay his respects to 
 General Mendoza, and found him very much embarrassed 
 by the visit, so that he suspected something was wrong, 
 and was not surprised when the order came down from 
 Madrid to cut off all friendly communication. The Span- 
 iards had resolved to make a fresh attempt to recapture 
 Gibraltar, thinking at first that it might be done by a 
 blockade, without a bombardment. There are two ways 
 to take a fortress — by shot and shell, or by starvation. 
 The latter may be slower and not so striking to the im- 
 agination as carrying a walled city by storm, but it is 
 even more certain of success if only the operation can be 
 completely done. But to this end the place must be 
 sealed up so tightly that there shall be no going out nor 
 coming in. This seems a very simple process, but in ex- 
 ecution is not so easy, especially if the fortress be of large 
 extent, and has approaches by land and sea. The Span- 
 iards began with a vigor that seemed to promise success, 
 by constructing a parallel across the isthmus which con- 
 nects the Rock with the mainland. This was itself a 
 formidable undertaking, but they seemed not to care for 
 cost or labor. Putting ten thousand men at work, they 
 had in a few weeks drawn a line across the Neutral 
 Ground, which rendered access to the garrison impossible 
 by land. Any supplies must come by sea. 
 
 To prevent this, the Spaniards had a large fleet in the 
 Bay and cruising in the Straits. But with all their vigi- 
 lance, they found it hard to keep a blockade of a Rock,
 
 72 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 with a circuit of seven miles, when there were hundreds 
 of eyes looking out from the land, answered by hundreds 
 of watchers from the sea. In dark nights boats with muf- 
 fled oars glided between the blockading ships, and stole 
 up to some sheltered nook, bringing news from the out- 
 side world. And there were always daring cruisers ready 
 to attempt to run the blockade, taking any risk for the 
 sake of the large reward in case of success. Sometimes 
 the weather would favor them. A fierce " Levanter " 
 blowing from the east, would drive off the fleet, and fill 
 the Straits with fog and mist, under cover of which they 
 could run in undiscovered. At another time a bold pri- 
 vateer would come in, in face of the fleet, and if sighted 
 and pursued, would set all sail, and rush to destruction 
 or to victory. Once under the guns of the fortress she 
 was safe. Thus for a time the garrison received irregu- 
 lar supplies.* 
 
 But in spite of all it was often in sore and pressing 
 need. The soldiers required to be well fed to be fit for 
 duty, and yet not infrequently they were half starved. 
 Six thousand capacious mouths made havoc of provisions, 
 
 * The incidents so briefly told in the following sketch are de- 
 rived chiefly from " A History of the Siege of Gibraltar," by 
 John Drinkwater, a Captain in the 72d Regiment, which formed 
 part of the garrison, and who was therefore a witness and an actor 
 in the scenes he describes. His narrative, though written in the 
 plain style of a soldier, yet being " compiled from observations 
 daily noted down upon the spot," is invaluable as a minute and 
 faithful record of one of the greatest events in modern war.
 
 THE GEE AT SIEGE. 73 
 
 and a brig-load was quickly consumed. As if this was 
 not enough, the hucksters of the town, who had got hold 
 of the necessaries of life, secreted them to create an ap- 
 pearance of greater scarcity, that they might extort still 
 larger prices from the famine-stricken inhabitants. Drink- 
 water, in his " History of the Siege," gives a list of prices 
 actually paid. 
 
 "The hind-quarter of an Algerian sheep, with the head and 
 tail, was sold for seven pounds and ten shillings ; a large sow for 
 upwards of twenty-nine pounds ; a goat, with a young kid, the 
 latter about twelve months old, for near twelve pounds. An Eng- 
 lish milch cow was sold for fifty guineas, reserving to the seller a 
 pint of milk each day whilst she gave milk ; and another cow was 
 purchased by a Jew for sixty guineas, but the beast was in such a 
 feeble condition that she dropped down dead before she had been 
 removed many hundred yards." 
 
 But it was not only meat that was wanted : bread was 
 so scarce that even biscuit-crumbs sold for a shilling a 
 pound ! The economy of flour was carried to the most 
 minute details. It was an old custom that the soldiers 
 who were to mount guard should powder their hair, like 
 the servants in the royal household ; but even this had to 
 be denied them. The Governor would not waste a thim- 
 bleful of the precious article, which he had rather see 
 going into the stomachs of his brave soldiers than plas- 
 tered on their hair. 
 
 A brief entry in a soldier's diary, tells how the pinch 
 came closer and closer : " Another bakery shut up to-day.
 
 74 GIBRALTAE. 
 
 No more flour. Even salt meat scarce, and no vege- 
 tables." 
 
 Shortly after this an examination of supplies revealed 
 the fact that no fresh meat remained, with the exception 
 of an old cow, which was reserved for the sick. A goose 
 was sold for two pounds, and a turkey for four. 
 
 In such a condition — so near to the starvation point — 
 there was but one thing to do. It was a hard necessity, 
 but there was no help for it, and an order was issued for 
 the immediate reduction of the soldiers' rations, already 
 barely sufficient to sustain life. 
 
 The effect of this continued privation upon the morale 
 of the garrison was very depressing. Hunger, like dis- 
 ease, weakens the vital forces, and when both come to- 
 gether they weigh upon the spirit until the manliest 
 give way to discouragement. That this feeling did not 
 become general was owing chiefly to the personal in- 
 fluence of the Governor, whose presence was medicine to 
 the sick, and a new force to the well, making the brave 
 braver and the strong stronger. When famine stared 
 them in the face he made light of it, and taught others to 
 make light of it by sharing their privations. At the be- 
 ffinnins of the siesre he had formed a resolution to share 
 all the hardships of his men, even to limiting himself to 
 the fare of a common soldier. His food was of the plain- 
 est and coarsest. As a Scotch boy he had perhaps been 
 brought up on oatmeal porridge, and it was good enough 
 for him still. If a blockade-runner came in with a cargo
 
 THE GEEAT SIEGE. 75 
 
 of fresh provisions, lie did not reserve the best for him- 
 self, but all was sold in the open market. If it be said 
 that he had the means to buy which others had not, yet 
 his tastes were so simple that he preferred to share the 
 soldier's mess rather than to partake of the richest food. 
 Besides, he had a principle about it. To such extent did 
 he carry this, that, on one occasion, when the enemy's 
 commander, as a courtesy not unusual in war, sent him a 
 present of fruit, vegetables, and game, the Governor, 
 while returning a polite acknowledgment, begged that the 
 act might not be repeated, for that he had a fixed resolu- 
 tion "never to receive or procure, by any means whatever, 
 any provisions or other commodity for his own private 
 use ; " adding, " I make it a point of honor to partake 
 both of plenty and scarcity in common with the lowest of 
 my brave fellow-soldiers." Once indeed when the stress 
 was the sharpest, he showed his men how close they could 
 come to starvation and not die, by living eight days on 
 four ounces of rice a day ! The old hero had been pre- 
 paring for just such a crisis as this by his previous life, 
 for he had trained himself from boyhood to bear every 
 sort of hardship and privation. The argument for total 
 abstinence needs no stronger fact to support it than that 
 the defence of Gibraltar was conducted by a man who 
 needed no artificial stimulus to keep up his courage or 
 brace his nerves against the shock of battle. "Old 
 Eliott," the brave Scotchman and magnificent soldier, was 
 able to stand to his guns with nothing stronger to fire his
 
 76 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 blood than cold water. Chalmers' Biographical Diction- 
 ary says: 
 
 " He was perhaps the most abstemious man of the age. His 
 food was vegetables, and his drink water. He neither indulged 
 himself in animal food nor wine. He never slept more than four 
 hours at a time, so that he was up later and earlier than most other 
 men. He had so inured himself to habits of hardness, that the 
 things which are difficult and painful to other men were to him 
 his daily practice, and rendered pleasant by use. It could not be 
 easy to starve such a man into a surrender, nor to surprise him. 
 His wants were easily supplied, and his watchfulness was beyond 
 precedent. The example of the commander-in-chief in a besieged 
 garrison, has a most persuasive efficacy in forming the manners of 
 the soldiery. Like him, his brave followers came to regulate 
 their lives by the most strict rules of discipline before there arose 
 a necessity for so doing ; and severe exercise, with short diet, be- 
 came habitual to them by their own choice." 
 
 Thus the old Governor, by starving himself, taught his 
 men how to bear starvation. After that a soldier, how- 
 ever pinched, would hardly dare to complain. 
 
 He might not indeed care for himself, but he could not 
 help caring for those dependent on him. The cruel hard- 
 ship of it was that the suffering fell not on the soldiers 
 alone, but on women and children. The Governor had 
 tried, as far as possible, to send away all non-combatants. 
 But it was not always easy to separate families. There 
 were soldiers' wives, who clung to their husbands all the 
 more because of their danger. If a Scotch grenadier 
 were to have his legs carried off by a cannon-ball, or 
 frightfully torn by a shell, who could nurse him so well as 
 his faithful wife, who had followed him in the camp and
 
 THR GREAT SIEGE. 77 
 
 in the field ? And so, for better, for worse, many a wife, 
 with the courage of womanhood, determined to share her 
 husband's fate. It was a brave resolution, but it only 
 involved them in the common distress. There were so 
 many more mouths to feed, when the supply even for the 
 soldiers was all too little. The captain who has recorded 
 so faithfully the heroisms and the privations of the siege, 
 says : 
 
 " Many officers and soldiers had families to support out of the 
 pittance received from the victualling office. A soldier and his 
 wife and three children would inevitably have been starved to 
 death had not the generous contribution of his corps relieved his 
 family. One woman actually died through want, and many were 
 so enfeebled that it was not without great attention they recov- 
 ered. Thistles, dandelions, and wild leeks were for some time the 
 daily nourishment of numbers." 
 
 Another account tells the same pitiful tale, with ad- 
 ditional horrors : 
 
 " The ordinary means of sustenance were now almost exhausted, 
 and roots and weeds, with thistles and wild onions, were greedily 
 sought after and devoured by the famished inhabitants. 
 
 ' ' Bread was becoming so scarce that the daily rations were 
 served out under protection of a guard, and the weak, the aged, 
 and the infirm, who could not struggle against the hungry, im- 
 petuous crowd that thronged the doors of the bakeries, often re- 
 turned to their homes robbed of their share : " * 
 
 " AncelPs Journal," kept during the siege, thus records 
 
 the impressions of the day: 
 
 "It is a terribly painful sight to see the fighting among the 
 people for a morsel of bread at an exorbitant price ; men wrest- 
 ling, women entreating, and children crying, a jargon of all lan- 
 
 * Sayer's History of Gibraltar, pp. 297, 298.
 
 78 GIBRALTAE. 
 
 guages, piteously pouring forth their complaints. You would 
 think sensibility would shed a tear, and yet when we are in equal 
 distress ourselves our feelings for others rather subside." 
 
 While tliis slow and wasting process of starvation was 
 going on, the garrison were in a fearful state of suspense. 
 Sometimes it seemed as if England had forgotten them, 
 but again came tidings that the nation was watching their 
 defence with the utmost anxiety, and would speedily send 
 relief. The time of waiting seemed long as the months 
 passed — summer and autumn and part of winter, and 
 no help appeared. The blockade began in June, 1779, 
 and it was January, 1780, before the fleet of Admiral 
 Rodney, after gaining a battle over the Spanish fleet off 
 the coast of Portugal, bore away to the south. To those 
 who were watching from the top of the Rock, probably 
 no event of their lives ever moved them so much as when 
 they first caught sight of the English ships entering the 
 Straits of Gibraltar. Men, women, and children, wept 
 aloud for joy, for the coming fleet brought them life from 
 the dead. And when it anchored in the bay, and the 
 ships began to unload, they brought forth not only guns 
 and ammunition, but more priceless treasures — beef, pork, 
 butter, flour, peas, oatmeal, raisins, and biscuits, as well 
 as coals, iron hoops, and candles ! Revelling in such 
 abundance, could they ever want again ? It was indeed a 
 timely relief, and if the fleet could have remained, it 
 might have put an end to the siege. But England was 
 then carrying on wars in two hemispheres ; and while the
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 79 
 
 French fleet was crossing the Atlantic to aid the Ameri- 
 can colonies in gaining their independence, she could not 
 afford that her largest fleet should lie idle in the Bay 
 of Gibraltar. As soon, therefore, as the stores could 
 be landed, Admiral Rodney returned to England. The 
 Governor seized the opportunity to send home great 
 numbers of invalids and women. It was necessary that 
 the garrison should " strip for the fight," as there were 
 darker days to come. 
 
 Gibraltar had been saved from the jaws of famine by 
 the arrival of the English fleet. But as soon as it left, 
 the Spanish ships remained masters of the bay, and the 
 blockade was closer than ever. The garrison had had a 
 narrow escape. That it might not be caught so again, 
 the Governor, with his Scotch thrift, put his men upon a 
 new kind of service, quite apart from military duty. 
 The Rock is not wholly barren. There are many nooks 
 and corners that are bright with flowers, and anything 
 that the earth can yield will ripen under that warm south- 
 ern sky. Accordingly the soldiers, in the intervals of fir- 
 ing the big guns, were put to do a little gardening ; and 
 turned patches of ground here and there to cultivation ; 
 and where the hillside was too steep, the earth was raised 
 into terraces and banked up with walls, on which they 
 raised small quantities of lettuce or cabbages ; so that 
 afterward, although they still suffered for many of the 
 comforts, if not the necessaries, of life, they never came 
 quite so near absolute starvation.
 
 80 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 This " home produce " was the more important as the 
 garrison was now to be cut off from its principal resource 
 outside. For a time it had been able to obtain supplies 
 from the Barbary Coast. At first the Moors were all on 
 the side of England, for the Spaniards were their hered- 
 itary enemies, who had fought them for hundreds of 
 years, and finally driven them out of Spain, for which the 
 Moors took a pious revenge by thronging the mosques of 
 Tangier to pray that Allah would give the victory to the 
 arms of England ! But after a time they saw things in a 
 new light. It could not be Christian charity that soft- 
 ened their hearts toward their old enemies, for they hated 
 the very name of Christian, but some secret influence 
 (was it Spanish gold ?) so worked on the mind of the Sul- 
 tan of Morocco that he became convinced that Allah was 
 on the side of the besiegers — a discovery which he an- 
 nounced in a manner that was not quite in the usual style 
 of diplomatic intercourse. Thus, without any warning, 
 
 "A party of black troops that were quartered in the vicinity of 
 Tangier, came to the house of the British Consul, and being in- 
 troduced, informed him that they had orders from their master to 
 abuse and insult him in the grossest manner, which they immedi- 
 ately put in execution by spitting in his face, seizing him by the 
 collar, and threatening to stab him with their daggers ! " 
 
 Fortunately he escaped with nothing worse than this 
 gross outrage ; but the serious part of the business was 
 that it cut off all communication of Gibraltar with the 
 Barbary Coast ; for the Sultan prohibited the export of
 
 THE GKEAT SIEGE. 81 
 
 provisions, and as the supplies brought by the convoy- 
 were exhausted in a few months, the garrison was again, 
 not indeed at the starvation point, but in sore need 
 of what was for its health and vigor. The meagre diet 
 threatened to produce a pestilence. At one time there 
 were seven hundred men in the hospitals ; at another the 
 small-pox broke out ; and at another the garrison was so 
 reduced by the scurvy, caused by the use of salt meats, 
 that strong men became weak as children, and hobbled 
 about on crutches. This threatened a great disaster, 
 which was averted only by lemons ! In the moment of 
 extremity a Dutch " dogger " coming from Malaga was 
 captured, and found to be laden with oranges and lemons, 
 " a freight which, at such a crisis, was of more value to 
 the garrison than tons of powder or magazines of ammu- 
 nition." The lemons were instantly distributed in the 
 hospitals. The men seized them and devoured them 
 ravenously, and the restoration was so speedy as to seem 
 almost miraculous. 
 
 And yet this relief was only temporary. Soon we 
 have this picture of the condition of the garrison : 
 
 "As the spring of 1781 advanced, the situation assumed the 
 most distressing aspect. The few provisions which remained were 
 bad in quality, and having been kept too long were decomposed 
 and uneatable. The most common necessaries of life were exor- 
 bitantly dear ; bad ship biscuit, full of worms, was sold at a shil- 
 ling a pound ; flour, in not much better condition, at the same 
 price ; old dried peas, a shilling and fourpence ; salt, half dirt, 
 the sweepings of ships' bottoms and storehouses, at eight pence ; 
 old salt butter, at two shillings and sixpence ; and English far-
 
 82 GIBRALTAE. 
 
 thing candles cost sixpence apiece. Fresh provisions commanded 
 a still higher price : turkeys sold at three pounds twelve shillings, 
 sucking pigs at two guineas, and a guinea was refused for a calf's 
 pluck. 
 
 " The English government, aware of this condition of things, 
 had for months turned their attention to the relief of the fortress ; 
 but the many exigencies of the war, and the extensive arena over 
 which it was spread, caused so many demands upon the navy 
 that it had hitherto been impossible to provide a fleet for the 
 succor of Gibraltar. But the relief of the garrison was indispen- 
 sable, and the honor of England required that it should be exe- 
 cuted. Accordingly the government made extraordinary efforts 
 to equip a squadron to convoy a flotilla of merchantmen to the 
 Bock."* 
 
 But with all their efforts, it was more than a year be- 
 fore the second fleet arrived. "When it came, it was 
 loaded with all conceivable supplies, which took ten days 
 to unload. The joy of the beleaguered garrison knew no 
 bounds. And yet this new relief only precipitated a 
 calamity which had been long impending. The scene of 
 the arrival is thus described by an eye-witness : 
 
 " At daybreak, April 12th, the much-expected fleet, under the 
 command of Admiral Darby, was in sight from our Signal -house, 
 but was not discernible from below, being obscured by a thick 
 mist. As the sun, however, became more powerful, the fog grad- 
 ually rose, like the curtain of a vast theatre, discovering to the 
 anxious garrison one of the most beautiful and pleasing scenes it 
 is possible to conceive. The convoy, consisting of near a hun- 
 dred vessels, led by several men-of-war, their sails just enough 
 filled for steerage ; whilst the majority of the line-of-battle ships 
 lay-to under the Barbary shore, having orders not to enter the 
 bay lest the enemy should molest them with their fire-ships. The 
 ecstasies of the inhabitants at this grand and exhilarating sight 
 
 * Sayer's History of Gibraltar, pp. 346, 347.
 
 THE GEEAT SIEGE. 83 
 
 are not to be described. Their expressions of joy far exceeded 
 their former exultations fat the arrival of the fleet under Admiral 
 Bodney]. Alas! they little dreamed of the tremendous blow that 
 impended, which was to annihilate their property, and reduce 
 many of them to indigence and beggary." * 
 
 What this blow was, at once appeared. The arrival of 
 the second fleet from England convinced the Spaniards 
 that it would be impossible to reduce Gibraltar by block- 
 ade, and determined them to try the other alternative of 
 bombardment. Enormous batteries, mounting 170 guns 
 and 80 mortars, had been planted along the shore ; and 
 now (before even the English ships could be unladen of 
 their stores) was opened all round the bay a feu d'en- 
 fer, which was kept up for six weeks ! Only two hours 
 out of the twenty-four was there any cessation, and that 
 for a singular reason. National customs must rule in war 
 as in peace. The Spaniards began their fire at daybreak, 
 and continued it without intermission till noon. Then 
 suddenly it ceased, and the camp of the besiegers relapsed 
 into silence : for that the officers, if not the men, were 
 asleep! What Spanish gentleman could be deprived of 
 his siesta? At two o'clock precisely they woke up and 
 went to fighting again. At nightfall the cannon ceased, 
 but only that the mortars (which did not need to be aimed 
 with precision," and therefore could be fired in darkness 
 as well as in daylight) opened their larger throats, and 
 kept up the roar till daybreak. Thus, with only the time 
 
 * Drinkwater, p. 68.
 
 84 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 of the siesta, there was not an hour of day or night that 
 the Rock did not echo with tremendous reverberations. 
 The town was soon set on fire, and completely destroyed. 
 There was no safety anywhere, not even in the casemates. 
 If a bomb-proof withstood a falling shell, it would some- 
 times explode at the open door, wounding those within. 
 Men were killed sleeping in their beds. The scene at 
 night was more terrible than by day, as the shells were 
 more clearly seen in their deadly track. Sometimes a 
 dozen would be wheeling in the air at the same moment, 
 keeping every eye strained to see where the bolts w r ould 
 fall, and the bravest held their breath when (as was sev- 
 eral times the case) they fell near the powder maga- 
 zines ! 
 
 Again, the soldiers were not the only ones to suffer : 
 their wives and children were their partners in misery. 
 When the town was on fire, the people fled from it, and 
 at a distance watched the flames that rose from their 
 burning dwellings, in which all their little property was 
 consumed — the roofs that sheltered them, and even the 
 food that fed them. For six weeks they had not a mo- 
 ment's rest, day nor night. Although they had fled to 
 the southern end of the Rock, destruction pursued them 
 there. The Spanish ships had a custom of sailing round 
 Europa Point, and firing indiscriminately on shore. This 
 was generally at night, so that the poor creatures who had 
 lain down to snatch a moment of forgetfulness, were 
 roused at midnight and fled almost naked to seek for
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 85 
 
 shelter behind rocks and in holes in the ground, in which 
 they cowered like hunted beasts, till the storm of fire had 
 passed over them. 
 
 The troops were not quite so badly off, for though they 
 were shelled out of their old quarters, and had not a roof 
 to cover them, yet English soldiers and sailors are inge- 
 nious, and getting hold of some old ship canvas they 
 rigged up a few forlorn tents, which they pitched on the 
 hillside. But again they were discomfited. Gibraltar is 
 subject at certain seasons to terrific storms of thunder and 
 lightning, and now the rains poured down the side of the 
 Rock in such floods as to sweep away the tents, and leave 
 the men exposed to the fury of the elements. It seemed 
 as if the stars in their courses fought against them. But 
 they were to find that the stars in their courses fight for 
 those who fight for themselves. 
 
 Sometimes the storms, so terrible in one way, brought 
 relief in another. There had been a scarcity of fuel as 
 well as of food. A soldier could hardly pick up sticks 
 to make his pot boil, and cook his scanty meal ; so that 
 when a furious gale wrecked a ship in the bay, and cast 
 its fragments on the shore, which furnished fuel for their 
 camp-fires for some weeks, they counted it a providential 
 interposition for their deliverance ; and as the firelight 
 cast its ruddy glow in their faces, they thanked God and 
 took courage. 
 
 But with all their courage, kept up by such occasional 
 good fortune, it was a life-and-death struggle, as they
 
 86 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 fought not only with the enemy, but with hunger and 
 cold, and every form of privation. 
 
 During all this dreadful time the old Governor was 
 magnificent. Going among the families that were house- 
 less and homeless, for whom he felt the utmost sympathy 
 (for with all his rugged strength he had a very tender 
 heart), he allayed their fears ; terrified and miserable as 
 they were, it was impossible to resist the sunshine of that 
 kindly Scotch face.* 
 
 Then he turned to his soldiers, who may well have 
 
 * It is a common saying that the brave are generous, but this is not always 
 so. Some of the bravest men that ever lived have been cold-hearted and 
 cruel. But Eliott, though he had an iron frame and iron will, was as soft- 
 hearted as a woman. Nothing roused his indignation more than an act of in- 
 humanity on the part of a superior toward an inferior. Hence he was the pro- 
 tector not only of women and children, but of prisoners who fell into his 
 hands, and who might otherwise be exposed to the license of soldiers demoral- 
 ized by victory. He repressed all pillage and stood between the victors and 
 the vanquished, as the defender of the defenceless. So noted was he for his 
 hnmanity that those who were in trouble sought his protection, and his re- 
 sponse to their appeals sometimes took them by surprise. An amusing illus- 
 tration of this occurred some years before at the capture of Havana : A 
 Frenchman who had suffered greatly by the depredations of the soldiery, 
 came to him, and begged in bad English that he would interfere to have his 
 property restored. But his wife, who was a woman of high spirit, was an- 
 gry at her husband that he should ask any favor of an enemy, and turned 
 to him sharply, saying, " Comment pouvez vous demander de grace a un 
 homme qui vient vous depouiller ? N'en esperez pas." The husband per- 
 sisting in his application, the wife grew more loud in her censure, and said, 
 "Vous n'e'tes pas Francais ! " The General, who was busy writing at the 
 time, overheard the conversation, and as he spoke French perfectly, turned 
 to the woman, and said smiling, " Madame, ne vous uchauffez pas ; ce que 
 votre mari demande lui sera aecorde." At this she broke out again, as 
 if it were the last degree of indignity, that the Englishman should speak 
 French : "Oh, faut-il pour surcroit de malheur, que le barbare parle Fran- 
 cais I " The General was so much pleased with the woman's spirit that he 
 not only procured them their property again, but also took pains to accommo- 
 date them in every respect. — Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary.
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 87 
 
 been appalled by the tremendous fire, which wrought such 
 wreck and ruin. If they were troubled and anxious, he 
 was calm. He shunned no danger, as he had shunned 
 no privation. Indeed danger did not affect him as it did 
 other men, but only roused the lion in his breast. The 
 more the danger grew, the higher rose his unconquerable 
 spirit. He was constantly under fire, and his perfect 
 coolness tended to produce the same composure in others 
 equally exposed. Terrible as the bombardment was, not 
 for one moment did he admit the possibility of surrender. 
 But now came a new danger, not from without, but 
 from within. The fire which swept the town uncovered 
 cellars and other hiding-places in which the hucksters 
 had concealed provisions and other stores to double their 
 price, and extort the last penny from the half -fed popula- 
 tion. When their storehouses were destroyed little sym- 
 pathy was felt for them. Indeed, there was a general 
 feeling of savage exultation ; and as here and there sup- 
 plies of food were found, they were seized without scruple 
 and appropriated to the common use. Men who have 
 been living on short allowance are apt to be led into ex- 
 cesses by sudden plenty, and the soldiers could hardly be 
 blamed if for once they gave themselves a generous sup- 
 ply. From the extreme of want they went to the ex- 
 treme of waste. In some cases incredible profusion 
 prevailed. Drinkwater says : " Among other instances 
 of caprice and extravagance, I recollect seeing a party of 
 soldiers roast a pig by a fire made of cinnamon ! "
 
 88 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 If this had been all, there would not have been so much 
 to regret. But in the stores were casks of wine and bar- 
 rels of spirits, which were now knocked on the head, and 
 the contents distributed with no restraint, till soon a large 
 part of the garrison was in such a state of intoxication as 
 to be utterly unfit for duty. " As the enemy's shells 
 forced open the secret recesses of the merchants, the sol- 
 diers instantly availed themselves of the opportunity to 
 seize upon the liquors, which they conveyed to haunts of 
 their own. Here in parties they barricaded their quarters 
 against all opposers, and insensible of their danger, re- 
 galed themselves with the spoils." For a time this sud- 
 den madness ran riot in the streets, threatening the over- 
 throw of all order and discipline. 
 
 It can hardly be matter of surprise that the reaction 
 from this long tension of feeling, with the sudden tempta- 
 tion to drunkenness, should show itself in wild extrava- 
 gances. An incident related in " Ancell's Journal," shows 
 the soldier in the mood of making sport of his dangers : 
 
 "April 15, 1781. — Yesterday I met a soldier singing in the 
 street with uncommon glee, notwithstanding the enemy were fir- 
 ing with prodigious warmth, 
 
 • A soldier's life is a merry life, 
 From care and trouble free.' 
 
 He ran to me with eagerness, and presenting his bottle, cried : 
 
 ' D n me if I don't like fighting, with plenty of good liquor 
 
 for carrying away. 'Why, Jack,' says I, 'what have you been 
 about?' 'Faith,' says he, 'I scarce know myself. I have been
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 89 
 
 constantly, on foot and watch, half-starved and without money, 
 facing a parcel of pitiful Spaniards. I have been fighting, wheel- 
 ing, marching, counter-marching, sometimes with a firelock, 
 sometimes with a handspike, and now with my bottle.' 
 
 "A shell that instant burst, apiece of which knocked the bottle 
 out of his hand. ' Jack,' says I, ' are you not thankful to God 
 for your preservation ? ' ' How do you mean ? ' says he ; ' fine 
 talking of God with a soldier whose trade and occupation is cut- 
 ting throats. Divinity and slaughter sound very well together ; 
 they jingle like a cracked bell in the hands of a noisy crier. My 
 religion is a firelock, open touch-hole, good flint, well-rammed 
 charge, and seventy rounds : this is military creed. Come, com- 
 rade, drink ! ' " 
 
 Such license as this would soon demoralize the best 
 troops in the world. Had the Spaniards known the de- 
 gree to which it existed at that moment, and been able to 
 effect an entrance into the fortress, Gibraltar might have 
 been lost. 
 
 The insubordination was suppressed only by the most 
 strenuous efforts of the Governor and the vigorous en- 
 forcement of discipline. An order was issued that any 
 soldier caught marauding should be "executed imme- 
 diately,'''' and this summary judgment was put in force in 
 several cases, where men were not only executed without a 
 moment's delay, but on the very spot where the crime was 
 committed. This timely severity, with the personal in- 
 fluence of the Governor, at length brought the soldiers to 
 their senses, and order was restored. Perhaps they were 
 brought back to duty in part by the continued roar of 
 that terrific bombardment, for in a true soldier nothing 
 rouses the martial spirit like the sound of the enemy's
 
 90 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 guns. Danger and duty go together: and many of those 
 who had been carried away by this temporary frenzy, 
 when they " came to themselves," were among the brav- 
 est who fought in the conflicts that were yet to come. 
 
 It was now a struggle of endurance — firing and coun- 
 ter-firing month after month, with exciting incidents now 
 and then to relieve the monotony of the siege. Of these 
 episodes the most notable was the sortie executed on the 
 night of November 26, 1781. The siege had lasted more 
 than two years, and the Spaniards, boastful and confident 
 as they are apt to be, by this time appreciated the enor- 
 mous difficulty of attacking the Rock of Gibraltar. To do 
 them justice, instead of being daunted by the greatness of 
 the task, their military ardor rose with the vastness of the 
 undertaking, and they had been engaged for months in 
 rearing a stupendous parallel across the Neutral Ground, 
 to be mounted with the heaviest battering artillery. The 
 Governor had kept his eye upon the progress of the work, 
 and as he saw its lines spreading out wider and wider, 
 and rising higher and higher, he could not but feel anxi- 
 ety for the moment when these batteries should open, and 
 rain shot and shell upon the devoted garrison. The way 
 in which he met the new danger showed that he had the 
 promptness in action of a great commander. 
 
 From the beginning of the siege he had observed the 
 utmost economy in the use of his resources. He was 
 sparing of his ammunition, and sometimes reproached his 
 officers with great severity for wasting it in unimportant
 
 THE GEEAT SIEGE. 91 
 
 attacks. He saved his powder as he saved his men. In- 
 deed he was sparing of everything except himself. Yet 
 " he never relaxed from his discipline by the appearance 
 of security, nor hazarded the lives of his garrison by wild 
 experiments. Collected within himself, he in no instance 
 destroyed, by premature attacks, the labors which would 
 cost the enemy time, patience, and expense to complete ; 
 he deliberately observed their approaches, and seized on 
 the proper moment in which to make his attack with suc- 
 cess." For months he had been waiting and watching: 
 the time for action had now come. 
 
 During the siege there had been frequent desertions on 
 both sides. Now and then soldiers of the garrison, 
 wearied with the interminable siege (and thinking it bet- 
 ter to take the chances of instant death than to be shut 
 up in a fortress-prison and perish by inches), let them- 
 selves down by ropes over the face of the Rock. Some 
 escaped to the enemy, and some were dashed on the rocks 
 below. On the other side there were among the Spanish 
 soldiers a good many Walloons from Belgium, who had 
 no interest in the contest, and were as ready to fight on 
 one side as the other. Occasionally one of these would 
 stray out of the camp, as if without intention, and when 
 he had got at a distance which he thought gave him a 
 chance of escape, would take to his heels and run for the 
 gates of the fortress. If discovered, he was immediately 
 fired at, and a mounted guard started in pursuit, and if 
 overtaken, he was brought back, and the next day his
 
 92 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 body, hanging from the scaffold, in full sight of the Rock, 
 served as a ghastly warning alike to the besiegers and the 
 besieged. 
 
 But, in spite of all, desertions went on. One day a 
 couple of deserters were brought to the Governor, one of 
 whom proved to be uncommonly intelligent, and gave im- 
 portant information. " Old Eliott " took him up to a 
 point of the Rock from which they could look down into 
 the camp of the besiegers, and questioned him minutely 
 as to its condition and the intentions of the enemy. He 
 said that the parallel was nearly completed ; and that as 
 soon as all was ready the Spaniards would make a grand 
 assault ; but that meanwhile the works, enormous as they 
 were, were not guarded by a large force, the besiegers not 
 dreaming that the batteries prepared for attack could be 
 themselves attacked ! The Governor instantly perceived 
 the value of this information, but kept it to himself, and 
 had the deserter closely confined lest he should incau- 
 tiously reveal to others what he had told to him. Keep- 
 ing his own counsel, he made his preparations, which he 
 did not disclose even to his lieutenants until the moment 
 for action. It was in the evening when he called them 
 together, and announced his intention to make an attack 
 on the works of the besiegers that very night, and at mid- 
 night about two thousand men were in arms on the " Red 
 Sands," now the Alameda, to carry the daring purpose 
 into execution. Their orders were of the strictest kind: 
 " Each man to have thirty-six rounds of ammunition, with
 
 THE GKEAT SIEGE. 93 
 
 a good flint in his piece and another in his pocket. No 
 drums to go out, excepting two with each of the regi- 
 ments. No volunteers will he allowed." The brave old 
 commander wanted no amateurs on such an occasion. 
 "No person to advance before the front, unless ordered 
 by the officer commanding the column : and the most pro- 
 found silence to be observed.'''' As it took two or three 
 hours to form the columns, and acquaint all with the 
 special duty to be undertaken, and the necessity for the 
 strictest obedience, it was nearly three o'clock when they 
 began to move. The moon was just setting across the 
 bay, and soon all was dark and still, as the men advanced 
 with quick but cautious steps through the silent streets. 
 The commander had picked his men for the daring at- 
 tempt. Knowing how powerful are the traditions of 
 bravery, he had chosen two regiments that had fought 
 side by side at the battle of Minden, twenty-two years be- 
 fore. The officers to lead them he had chosen with 
 equal care, and yet, when it came to the moment of 
 action, the old soldier felt such a fire in his bones that 
 he could not resist the impulse to keep them company. 
 As they emerged from the gates they had still three- 
 quarters of a mile across the plain to reach the enemy's 
 works. With all the precautions to secure silence, the 
 tramp of two thousand men, however muffled, could 
 not but reach the ears of the Spanish sentinels, and a 
 few rapid shots told that they were discovered. But 
 the alarm was given too late. It only quickened the ad-
 
 94 GIBEALTAE. 
 
 vance of the column, which, as it reached the works, 
 rushed over the parapet, bayoneting the men, such as did 
 not flee, panic-stricken by the sudden attack, and spiking 
 the guns. As the soldiers had come prepared with faggots 
 for the purpose, they immediately set the works on fire. 
 But even at this moment of terror there was one who 
 thought of mercy as well as of victory. Before the flames 
 had spread the Governor, " anxious that none of the wound- 
 ed should by any accident perish in the burning batteries, 
 went into the trench himself and found among the bodies 
 of the slain a wounded officer, whom by his uniform he 
 knew to be a captain of the Spanish artillery, to whom he 
 spoke with all kindness, and promising him every assist- 
 ance, ordered him to be removed, as the fire was now rap- 
 idly spreading to the spot where he lay. But the Span- 
 iard, raising himself with difficulty, feebly exclaimed, . 
 "No, sir, no, leave me and let me perish amid the ruins of 
 my post." In a few minutes he expired. It was afterward 
 found that he had commanded the guard of the San Car- 
 los battery, and that when his men threw down their arms 
 and fled, he rushed forward into the attacking column, 
 exclaiming, "At least one Spaniard shall die honorably," 
 and fell where he was found, at the foot of his post." * 
 
 It was now too late to talk of mercy. In an hour the 
 flames had spread into a conflagration that could not be 
 subdued. As it rose into the air, it lighted up the Rock 
 above and the plain below. Leaving the elements to com- 
 
 * Sayer's History, p. 365.
 
 THE GKEAT SIEGE. 95 
 
 plete the work of destruction, the assailants made their 
 retreat, only to hear, as they re-entered the gates, the ex- 
 plosion of the magazines. So vast was the ruin wrought 
 that the camp was like a city on fire, and continued to 
 burn for four days, without an effort on the part of the 
 Spaniards (who seemed to be stunned and bewildered by 
 the sudden attack) to subdue the flames. Thus was de- 
 stroyed at a single stroke what it had cost months of 
 labor and millions of money to construct. 
 
 And so the game of war went on for three long years, 
 until it had fixed the gaze of the whole civilized world. 
 The last act was to be inaugurated by a change in the 
 military command, and in the method of attack. Hith- 
 erto the siege had been conducted chiefly by the Span- 
 iards, as was fitting, since, if the fortress were taken, to 
 Spain would fall the splendid prize. They had fought 
 bravely, maintaining the reputation which had never been 
 shaken from the days of Alva, when the Spanish infantry 
 was more dreaded than any other on the battle-fields of 
 Europe. During the siege the officers of the garrison, as 
 they looked down from their heights into the hostile 
 camp, could not but admire the way in which both officers 
 and men exposed themselves. It was not to their dis- 
 honor if they had failed in attempting the impossible. 
 But having to confess defeat, it was but military pru- 
 dence to see if another mode of operation might not be 
 more successful. Accordingly, French skill in the art of 
 war was now called in to take part in the tremendous con-
 
 96 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 flict. Tlie Due de Crillon, who had recently distinguished 
 himself by the capture of Minorca, was put in command 
 of the combined land forces; while a French engineer, 
 tin' Chevalier d'Arcon, was to prepare an armament more 
 formidable than had ever been known in naval warfare. 
 
 The plan had certainly the merit of boldness. There 
 wi- to be no more long blockade, and no more attempt to 
 take the place by stratagem. Gibraltar was to be taken, 
 if at all, by hard fighting. But the conditions of battle 
 were unequal : for how could wooden ships be matched 
 against stone walls? No ships of the day could stand an 
 hour against guns fired from behind those ramparts. 
 But this engineer was bold enough to believe that vessels 
 could be made so strong that they would withstand even 
 that tremendous fire. He proposed to construct "batter- 
 ing ships" of such enormous strength that they could be 
 moored within short range, when he in turn would open a 
 fire equally tremendous, that should blow Gibraltar into 
 the air! All he asked was that his flotilla might be laid 
 alongside the enemy, when, gun to gun and man to 
 man, the contest should be decided. Once let him get 
 near enough to make a breach for a storming party to 
 mount the walls, and his French grenadiers would do the 
 Ir w;is bravely conceived, and to the day of battle 
 it seemed as if it might be bravely done. 
 
 To begin with, ten of the largest ships in the Spanish 
 navy be sacrificed: for it seemed like a sacrifice 
 
 to cul down the huge bulwarks of their towerimj sides.
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 97 
 
 But show was to be sacrificed to strength. The new con- 
 structor would have no more three-deckers, nor two-deck- 
 ers. All he wanted was one broad deck, reaching the 
 whole length of the ship, from stem to stern, which 
 should be as solid as if it were a part of the mainland, or 
 a floating island, on which he could plant his guns as on 
 the ramparts of a fortress. Having thus dismantled and 
 razeed the great ships, he proceeded to reconstruct them 
 without and within. His method is of interest, as show- 
 ing how a hundred years ago a naval engineer anticipated 
 the modern construction of ironclads. His battering 
 ships were in outward shape almost exactly what the 
 Merrimac was in our civil war. He did everything except 
 case them with iron, the art of rolling plates of wrought 
 iron, such as are now used in the construction of ships, 
 not being then known. But if they could not be 
 " plated " with iron on the outside, they were " backed " 
 by ribs of oak within. Inside their enormous hulls was a 
 triple thickness of beams, braced against the sides. Next 
 to this was a layer of sand, in which it was supposed a 
 cannon-ball would bury itself as in the earth. To this 
 sand-bank, resting against its oaken backing, there was 
 still an inner lining in a thick wall of cork, which, yield- 
 ing like india-rubber, would offer the best resistance to 
 the penetration of shot. 
 
 Having thus protected the hulls, it was only necessary 
 to protect the crews. For this the decks were roofed 
 with heavy timbers, which were covered with ropes, and
 
 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 next with hides, after the manner of the ancient Romans; 
 
 bat the men working at the guns were almost as se- 
 cure from the enemy's fire as if they were inside of the 
 -: casemates that the art of fortification could con- 
 •t. Thus shielded above and below — from the deck 
 to the keel — these novel ships-of-war were in truth float- 
 ing fortresses, and it was hardly presumptuous in their 
 constructor to say that they " could not be burnt, nor 
 sunk, nor taken." 
 
 These preparations for attack could not be made with- 
 out the knowledge of the garrison. From the top of the 
 Rock they had but to turn their glasses across the bay, 
 and they could see distinctly hundreds of workmen 
 .-'.vanning over the great hulks, and could almost hear the 
 sound of the hammers that ceased not day nor night. 
 Tinning to the camp of the besiegers, they could see 
 " long strings of mules streaming hourly into the trenches 
 laden with shot, shell, and ammunition." Deserters 
 brought in reports of the vast preparations, and the confi- 
 dence they inspired. The fever of expectation had spread 
 
 the capitals of Spain and France. The King of Spain 
 was almost beside himself with eagerness and impatience. 
 Every morning his first question was " Is it taken?" and 
 when answered in the negative he always kept up his 
 
 : rage by saying, " It will soon be ours." His expecta- 
 tions seemed now likely to be realized. All felt that 
 at last the end was nigh, and the Comte d'Artois, the 
 brother of Louis XVI., the King of France, had made the
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 99 
 
 journey all the way from Paris to be present at the grand 
 culmination of the surrender of Gibraltar ! 
 
 So sure were the allies of victory that they debated 
 among themselves as to " how many hours " the garrison 
 could keep up a resistance. Twenty-four hours was the 
 limit, and when the French commander, less sanguine 
 than the naval constructors and engineers, thought it 
 might be even two toeeks before the place fell, he was 
 the subject of general ridicule. 
 
 Taking for granted that the fire of the garrison would 
 soon be silenced, precise directions were given about the 
 landing of the storming party. As soon as a break was 
 made, the grenadiers were to mount the walls. It was 
 especially ordered that strong bodies "of troops should 
 advance rapidly and cut off the retreat of the garrison, 
 which might otherwise flee to the heights of the Rock. 
 and keep up for a while longer the hopeless resistance. 
 The victory must be complete. 
 
 On the other hand, the garrison was roused to greater 
 exertion by the greater danger. Its ardor was excited 
 also by what was passing in other parts of the world. 
 "War was still raging in both hemispheres, with the usual 
 vicissitudes of victory and defeat. England had lost 
 America, but her wounded pride was soon relieved, if not 
 entirely removed, by a great victory at sea. Cornwallis 
 surrendered at Yorktown, in October, 1781, and only six 
 months after, in April, 1782, Admiral Rodney (the same 
 who had relieved Gibraltar only two years before) gained
 
 100 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 a victory in the West Indies over Count de Grasse, which 
 almost annihilated the French fleet, and assured to Eng- 
 land, whatever her losses upon land, the mastery of the 
 seas. The tidings of this great victory reached Gibraltar, 
 and fired the spirit of every Briton. The Governor was 
 now sixty-four years old, and the events of the last three 
 years might well make him feel that he was a hundred. 
 But his youth returned in the great crisis that was upon 
 him. Both Governor and garrison burned to do some- 
 thing worthy the name and fame of Old England. The 
 opportunity soon came. 
 
 Though the battering ships were regarded as invinci- 
 ble, yet to make assurance doubly sure the French and 
 Spanish fleets had been quadrupled in force. If any 
 man's heart had been trembling before, it must have 
 failed him on September 12, 1782, when there sailed 
 into the bay thirty-nine ships of the line, raising the 
 naval armament to fifty line-of-battle ships, with in- 
 numerable smaller vessels — the largest naval armament 
 since the Spanish Armada — supported on land by an 
 army of forty thousand men, whose batteries, mount- 
 ed with the heaviest ordnance, stretched along the shore. 
 
 Against this mighty array of force by land and sea the 
 English commander, mustering every gun and every man, 
 could oppose only ninety-six pieces of artillery, manned 
 by seven thousand soldiers and sailors. 
 
 A- the allied forces had been waiting only for the fleet, 
 the attack was announced for the following day, and ac-
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 101 
 
 cordingly soon after the sun rose the next morning the 
 battering-ships were seen to be getting under way. It 
 was a grand sight, at which the spirits of the besiegers 
 rose to the highest pitch. So confident were they of vic- 
 tory that thousands of spectators, among whom were 
 many of the Spanish nobility, had gathered near the 
 " Queen's Seat," in the Spanish lines, to witness the final 
 capture of Gibraltar, for which they had been waiting 
 three long years. 
 
 Even the Englishmen who lined the ramparts could not 
 but admire the order in which the ships took up their po- 
 sitions. So confident was the Spanish Admiral that they 
 were shot-proof and bomb-proof, that he took no pains 
 to keep at long range, but advanced boldly and moored 
 within half gunshot, with large boats full of men ready to 
 land as soon as the guns of the fortress were silenced. 
 To both sides it was evident that the decisive day had come. 
 
 While the ships were being ranged in line of battle, the 
 English stood at their guns in silence till " Old Eliott " 
 took his stand on the King's Bastion, and gave the signal 
 for the roar of earth and hell to begin. Instantly the 
 floating batteries answered from the whole line, and their 
 fire was taken up along the shores of the bay, till there 
 were four hundred guns playing on the devoted town. No 
 thunderstorm in the tropics ever shot out such lightnings 
 and thunderings. As the hills echoed the tremendous re- 
 verberations, it seemed as if the solid globe was reeling 
 under the shock of an earthquake.
 
 102 GIBKALTAR. 
 
 The ships at first aimed their guns a little too high, so 
 that balls and shells flew over the line-wall and fell in the 
 rear ; but they soon got the range, and lowering their 
 guns to almost a dead-level, fired point-blank. "About 
 noon their firing was powerful and well-directed." Guns 
 were dismounted, and the wounded began to fall and to 
 be carried to the rear. But others took their place at the 
 guns, and kept up the steady fire, never turning from the 
 one object directly in front. Although the batteries on 
 the land tried to divert their fire, the Governor disdained 
 to answer them with a single gun. " Not there ! not 
 there ! " was the danger. His keen eye saw that the fate 
 of Gibraltar was to be decided that day by the answer 
 given to those battering ships that were pouring such a 
 terrific fire into his lines. In the midst of it all he was as 
 cool as if on parade. A large part of the day he kept 
 his place on the King's Bastion, the centre at which the 
 enemy's fire was directed, and his presence had an inspir- 
 ing effect upon his men. To do them justice, the sol- 
 diers, who had served under such a commander for three 
 years, were worthy of their leader. As he looked 
 along the lines they were wrapped in a cloud of smoke, 
 and yet now and then, by the flashing of the guns, 
 he could see their heroic features glowing " with the 
 light of battle in their faces." On that day, as with 
 Nelson twenty-three years later, " England expected 
 every man to do his duty," and did not expect in 
 rain.
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 103 
 
 But for a time all their courage and skill seemed to be 
 without result. For hours the battle raged with doubtful 
 issue. Though the English fired at such short range, 
 they did not produce much effect. Their thirty-two- 
 pound shot could not pierce the thick-ribbed sides of the 
 battering-ships, while their heaviest shells were seen to 
 rebound from the roofs, as the shots of the Congress and 
 the Cumberland rebounded from the roof of the Merri- 
 mac. Apparently the fire of the garrison produced as 
 little impression on the ships as the fire of the ships pro- 
 duced on the rocks of Gibraltar. 
 
 The disparity of forces was so great that the allies 
 might have carried the day if that inequality had not 
 been balanced by one advantage of the besieged. They 
 had one means of destruction which could not be so easily 
 turned against land defences — in the use of hot shot. 
 The experiment had been tried on the works of the be- 
 siegers, and they now hoped it would have still greater 
 effect upon the ships. But their enemies were neither 
 surprised nor daunted by this new mode of attack. They 
 were fully aware of what the English had done, and what 
 they proposed to do, and with true Castilian pride 
 laughed at this new method of destruction. So much did 
 they despise it, that one of the Spanish commanders said 
 " he would engage to receive in his breast all the hot shot 
 of the enemy." 
 
 Meanwhile "Old Eliott" had gone on with his prepara- 
 tions. A few days before, coal had been served out to the
 
 104 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 furnaces, which had been placed beside the batteries. 
 These were now kept at white heat, and the heavy balls 
 dropped into them till they glowed like molten iron, and 
 then were carefully lifted to the guns.* 
 
 As the artillerymen sighted their guns they observed 
 with grim satisfaction that the ships had anchored at 
 the right distance, so that they had but to elevate their 
 guns very slightly, just enough to save the necessity of 
 ramming the ball with a second wadding to hold it in 
 place ; and thus not a moment was lost when moments 
 were very precious, but the ball was simply rolled into the 
 cannon's mouth, from which it was instantly hurled at the 
 foe. 
 
 Yet even the hot shot did not at first make much im- 
 pression. The French engineer had guarded against 
 them by having pumps constantly pouring water into the 
 layer of sand below, where a red-hot cannon-ball would 
 soon be rendered harmless. In fact, a number of times 
 during the day smoke was seen to issue from the floating 
 batteries, showing that the hot shot had taken effect, but 
 the flames were promptly extinguished. It was not till 
 late in the afternoon that they began to burst out, and it 
 was seen that the Admiral's ship was on fire. As the 
 
 " The Bhot were heated either in the grates and furnaces made for that 
 
 or by piling them in a corner of some old house adjoining the bat- 
 
 and surrounding them with faggots, pieces of timber, and small coal." 
 
 Afterwards " the engineers erected kilns (similar to those used in burning 
 
 lime, but smaller) in various parts of the garrison. They were large enough 
 
 npwardfl of one hundred balls in an hour and a quarter." — Drinkwater.
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 105 
 
 night drew on the flames became more visible, showing 
 the exact position of the Spanish line, and furnishing a 
 mark for the English guns. On another ship the fires 
 advanced so rapidly that they had to flood the magazine 
 for fear of an explosion. Others threw up rockets, and 
 hoisted signals of distress to their consorts, and boats 
 were seen rowing toward them. At midnight nine out of 
 the ten battering-ships were on fire. The scene at this 
 moment was awful beyond description, as the flames 
 mounted higher and higher till they lighted up the whole 
 bay and the surrounding shores. When it became evi- 
 dent that the ships could not be saved, there was a panic 
 on board ; all discipline was lost in the eagerness to es- 
 cape from the burning decks ; sailors and gunners threw 
 themselves into the sea. French and Spanish boats 
 picked up hundreds, and still there were hundreds more 
 who were perishing, whose agonized shrieks rose upon the 
 midnight air. The English heard it, and stout hearts 
 that quailed not at the roar of guns, quivered 
 
 " At the cry 
 Of some strong swimmer in his agony." 
 
 Then it was that the English showed that their courage 
 was equalled by their humanity, as the very men who had 
 fought all day at the guns pushed off in boats to save 
 their foes from drowning. This was an attempt which 
 involved the utmost danger, for the ships were on fire, 
 and might blow up at any moment. But Brigadier
 
 106 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 Curtis, learning from the prisoners that hundreds of 
 officers and men, some wounded, still remained on board, 
 forgot everything in his eagerness to save them. Care- 
 less of danger from the explosions which every instant 
 scattered fragments of wreck around him, he passed 
 from ship to ship, and literally dragged from the burn- 
 ing decks the miserable Spaniards whom their own coun- 
 trymen had left to perish. The Governor watched the 
 movement with the utmost anxiety, which rose to " an- 
 guish," to use his own word, as he saw the gallant officer 
 push his boat alongside one of the largest ships, that was 
 a mass of flames. As he stood transfixed with horror at 
 the sight, there came a tremendous explosion, and the 
 ship was blown into the air, its fragments falling far and 
 wide over the sea. That was a moment of agony, for he 
 could not doubt that friend and foe had perished together. 
 But as the wreck cleared away the little pinnace was 
 seen, by the light of the other burning ships, to be still 
 afloat, though shattered. A huge beam of timber had 
 fallen through her flooring, killing the coxswain, wound- 
 ing others of her crew, and starting a large hole in her 
 bottom, through which the water rushed so rapidly that 
 it seemed as if she must sink in a few minutes. But 
 English sailors are equal to anything, and stripping off 
 their jackets they stuffed them into the hole, and thus 
 kept the boat above water till they reached the shore, 
 bringing with them 357 of their late enemies, whom they 
 had saved from a horrible death. The wounded were sent
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 107 
 
 to the hospitals and treated with the greatest care ; and an 
 officer who died four days after, received the honors that 
 would have been paid to one of their own countrymen, 
 the grenadiers following his bier and firing their farewell 
 shot 
 
 "O'er the grave where the hero was buried." 
 
 This last act was all that was wanting to complete the 
 glory of England on that immortal day. History records 
 the heroic conduct of British seamen at the Battle of the 
 Nile, when the French Admiral's ship, the Orient, took 
 fire, and Kelson sent his boats to pick up the drowning 
 crew. While this should be remembered, let it not be 
 forgotten that sixteen years before the Battle of the Mle, 
 the garrison of Gibraltar had set the splendid example. 
 
 The next morning saw the bay covered with wrecks. 
 The victory was complete. The siege was still kept up in 
 form, and the besiegers continued firing, and for some 
 days threw into the town four, five, and six hundred 
 shells, and from six hundred to a thousand shot, every 
 twenty-four hours ! But this was only the muttering 
 thunder after the storm. The battle was over, and from 
 that day to this — more than a hundred years — the Red 
 Cross of England has floated from the Bock of Gibraltar. 
 
 The close of this long and terrible conflict was like the 
 ending of a play, when the curtain falls at last upon a 
 scene of happy reunion. Even during the years of fiercest 
 strife the courtesies of war had been strictly observed. 
 Flags of truce passed between the garrison and the camp
 
 108 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 of the besiegers ; prisoners were exchanged, and now and 
 then one or the other of the commanders paid a compli- 
 ment that was well deserved, to the courage and skill of 
 his antagonist. Especially did the Due de Crillon, true 
 Frenchman as he was, indulge in these flattering phrases. 
 In a letter written just before the attack of the battering- 
 ships, he assures General Eliott of his "highest esteem," 
 and of "the pleasure to which I look forward of becoming 
 your friend, after I shall have proved myself worthy of 
 the honor, by facing you as an enemy ! " That pleasure 
 he was now to have. He had faced the General as an 
 enemy ; he was now to know him as a friend. 
 
 For months, there had been whispers in the air of a 
 coming peace, and the attitude of the contending parties 
 was more that of armed neutrality than of active war. 
 
 At last the announcement came. The besiegers were 
 the first to receive it, and sent the news to the garrison ; 
 but "Old Eliott," true soldier as he was, waited for orders 
 from home. At length a British frigate sailed into the 
 harbor with the blessed tidings that Great Britain had ac- 
 knowledged the independence of America, and that the 
 three powers — England, France, and Spain — had sol- 
 emnly agreed to be at peace. Now all barriers to inter- 
 course were removed, and the Governor rode out to meet 
 his late enemy at a point midway between the lines. 
 Both Generals instantly dismounted and embraced, thus 
 answering a blow, or the many blows given and received, 
 with a kiss. The Duke soon after returned the visit, and
 
 THE GREAT SIEGE. 109 
 
 found the gates of Gibraltar, which had not been forced 
 in three and a half years of war, now thrown wide open 
 to his coming in the attitude of peace. He was received 
 with all the honors of war. As he rode through the gates 
 his appearance was greeted with loud huzzas, which ran 
 along the lines, and echoed among the hills, a salutation 
 which at first he did not understand, and was confused bj 
 it, as it might be interpreted as a cheer of triumph over a 
 fallen enemy ; but when it was explained to him that it 
 was the way in which English soldiers greeted one whom 
 they recognized as a hero, he was very much flattered by 
 the demonstration. As the artillery officers were pre- 
 sented to him he complimented them highly on their 
 courage and skill, saying pleasantly (no one could doubt 
 his sincerity in this) that he " would rather see them 
 here as friends than on their batteries as enemies ! '' 
 And so at last, after these long and terrible years, the 
 curtain fell on a scene as peaceful as ever ended a tragedy 
 on the stage. 
 
 Such are the heroic memories which gather round Gib- 
 raltar, and overshadow it as its mighty crags cast their 
 shadows on the sea. Let us not say, " All this is nothing 
 to us, because we are neither Englishmen, nor French- 
 men, nor Spaniards." " We are men, and whatever con- 
 cerns man concerns us." If it be indeed " beautiful to die 
 for one's country," the spot is holy ground where, for the 
 dear sake of " country," brave men have fought and 
 died.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOLDING A FORTRESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. 
 
 THERE is one thing in Gibraltar which strikes me un- 
 pleasantly, and yet (such are the contradictions in 
 our likes and dislikes) it is the very thing which has made 
 it so attractive, viz., the English occupation. For pictu- 
 resqueness of situation, the mighty Rock, standing at the 
 entering in of the seas, is unique in the world, and the out- 
 look along the shores of Africa and Europe is enough to 
 captivate the eye of the most sight- worn traveller. And 
 the people who hold this rock-fortress are worthy to be 
 its masters, for they are not only brave, as soldiers are 
 by profession, but they have all the manly qualities of 
 the English race ; they are chivalrous and generous. No- 
 where does English hospitality appear more charming. If 
 ever a man had occasion to like Gibraltar and the English 
 in Gibraltar, I have; and I shall keep them both in grate- 
 ful memory. 
 
 And yet — and yet — in this general accord of pleased 
 reflection, which comes to me in the midst of these happy 
 days, there is one thing which strikes a discordant note. 
 The English are here, not by right of birth, but of con-
 
 HOLDING A FORTEESS IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY. Ill 
 
 quest. Gibraltar is not a part of England : it is a part of 
 Spain, to which it belongs by nature, if nature has any- 
 thing to do with the boundaries of States. True, the 
 English have taken it and hold it, and by the right of 
 war it belongs to them, as a fortress belongs to the power 
 that is strongest. Yet that does not change the relation 
 of things, any more than it changes the geographical po- 
 sition of the captured fortress. And so it remains that 
 England holds Gibraltar, I will not say in an enemy's 
 country, but certainly in a foreign country — a fact which, 
 however it be disguised, it is not pleasant to contemplate. 
 The stranger does not feel this so much while he is in- 
 side the gates as when he leaves the town and goes out 
 into the country. Perhaps the reader will share my feel- 
 ing if he will give me the pleasure of his company. It 
 was a bright, crisp winter afternoon that a friend from 
 Boston and I planned an excursion on foot. But stop a 
 moment ! When I travelled in the East I learned the 
 wisdom of the old Oriental custom of " girding up the 
 loins"; and so, stepping into a shop in Waterport Street, 
 1 bought something like a soldier's belt, my only military 
 trapping, with which I braced myself so firmly together 
 that I felt " in prime marching order," and away we went 
 at a swinging gait, as merry as two New England boys 
 out of school and off for a holiday. It is not a long walk 
 to the gates, and once through them and outside the walls 
 we took a long breath as we once more inhaled the free 
 air of the country.
 
 112 GIBRALTAR. 
 
 At a little distance we came to a row of sentries — a line 
 of red-coats that kept guard over the majesty of England. 
 Then a half-mile walk across a low, sandy plain — the Neu- 
 tral Ground — and we came to another line of sentinels in 
 different uniforms and speaking a different tongue, a lit- 
 tle beyond which is Linea (so named from its being just 
 beyond the lines), a place of twelve thousand inhabitants, 
 which has the three requisites of a Spanish town — a 
 church, a market, and a bull-ring ! 
 
 Here was the situation : a double line of soldiers fac- 
 ing each other, not in a hostile attitude, not training their 
 guns on each other, bat certainly not in a position which 
 was calculated to promote friendly relations. 
 
 Strolling through the town it seemed to us (perhaps it 
 was only imagination) that there was a sullen look in the 
 faces of the people ; that they did not regard Englishmen, 
 or those speaking the English tongue, with special affec- 
 tion. Linea has a bad name for being a nest of smug- 
 glers ; but whether it is worse than other frontier towns, 
 which afford special facilities for smuggling, and there- 
 fore offer great temptations, I cannot say. It was not an 
 attractive place, and after an hour's walk we retraced our 
 steps back to our fortress home. 
 
 As we turned toward the Rock we were facing the 
 British Lion just as the descending sun was putting a 
 crown upon his royal head. Never did he wear a more 
 kingly look than in that evening sky. If the God of "War 
 has ;i throne <>n 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.
 
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