GIBRALTAR

THE ALAMEDA PARADE.

GIBRALTAR

BY
Henry M. Field

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited.
1889.
[All rights reserved.]

TROW'S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.

To My Friend and Neighbor
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 connectedwith the Spanish Peninsula, it belongs to England; andto one who likes to preserve a unity in his memories of acountry and people, this modern fortress, with its Englishgarrison, is not "in color" with the old picturesque kingdomof the Goths and Moors. Nor is it on the greatlines of travel. It is not touched by any railroad, and bysteamers only at intervals of days, so that it has come tobe known as a place which it is at once difficult to get toand to get away from. Hence easy-going travellers, whoare content to take circular tickets and follow fixed routes,give Gibraltar the go-by, though by so doing they missa 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 theday when the old world perished;) is one of the Pillars ofHercules, that once marked the very end of the world;and around its base ancient and modern history flow together,as the waters of the Atlantic mingle with those of the Mediterranean. Like Constantinople, it is thronedon two seas and two continents. As Europe at its southeasterncorner stands face to face with Asia; at its southwesternit is face to face with Africa: and these were thetwo points of the Moslem invasion. But here the naturalcourse of history was reversed, as that invasion beganin the West. Hundreds of years before the Turkcrossed the Bosphorus, the Moor crossed the Straits ofGibraltar. His coming was the signal of an endless warof races and religions, whose lurid flames lighted up thedark background of the stormy coast. The Rock, whichwas the "storm-centre" of all those clouds of war, issurely worth the attention of the passing traveller. Thatit has been so long neglected, is the sufficient reasonfor an attempt to make it better known.

CONTENTS.