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6-' S

This On

HJC7-4K6-ZC1H

Court of Lions, Alhambra.

THE

MEDITERRANEAN

AND ITS BORDERLANDS

BY JOEL COOK

author op "prancb: historic and romantic "bngland: picturbsqub and dbscriptivb**

ILLUSTRATED

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

WESTERN COUNTRIES

THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.

PHILADELPHIA

Copyright, iqio. by The John C. Winston G).

INTRODUCTION

The great Mediterranean Sea has, in recent years, grown increasingly attractive to a vast aggregation of American visitors. They go, in large numbers, to visit its famous borderlands and historic shores, and the noted islands of the sea, so that the Mediter- ranean Tour has become a favorite route for the pleasure traveller, and those in search of knowledge. Many of the best ocean steamships are now employed in this popular service, and the leading lines are all providing for the constantly enlarging stream of travel.

This book is designed to give an outline descrip- tion of that wonderful inland ocean, — which the an- cients named from their belief that it was in " the midst of the earth," — and of its islands, and sur- rounding shores, with their romance and history ; and also to present some account of their present condi- tion and appearance. The narrative opens with the islands oS the Mediterranean entrance, and grad- ually progresses from the comparatively modem re- gions of the western sea, to the older lands of the Levant, some of them displaying the relics of the

INTRODUCTION

most ancient civilizations of the world. These ven- erable countries are now just dawning into a new life, with the awakening that naturally comes from the infusion of modem American and European ideals.

CONTENTS

VOLUME I.

CHAPTER I. The Pillars of Hercttles. page

Fabled Atlantis — The Western Islandn — Madeira — The Peak of Teneriffe — Iberia — The Great River — Se- ville and the Cid — The Ancient Moorish Capital — Cadiz and Trafalgar — Entering the Gibraltar Strait . 3

CHAPTER 11.

The Fortress and the Palace.

The Rock of Gibraltar — History of the Fortress — The Great Siege — The Fortress To-day — Ronda and Malaga — Going to Grannda — The Alhambra Palace . 83

CHAPTER III.

The Barb art Coast.

Entering Africa — Morocco — The Atlantic Seaboard — A Moslem Town — The Morocco Capital — Ceuta and the Tetiian — The Riffs — Algeria — The African Paris — Constantine Province — Tunisia — Ancient Carthage — Holy Kairoiian — Tripoli — The Vast Sahara . . 155

CHAPTER IV.

The Iberian Shore.

Almeria and Cartagena — Murcia and Alicante — Tlie Kingdom of Valencia — Approaching the Ebro — Tor- tosa to Saragossa — Tarragona — Montserrat — Bar- celona— To the Pyrenees 273

vi CONTENTS

. CHAPTER V.

The Rivieba. p^Q^

The River Rhone — Marseilles — The Naval Station of France — Cannes to Nice — The Comiche Road — Monaco and Monte Carlo — Mentone to San Remo — Approaching Genoa — The Chief Seaport of Italy . 414

CHAPTER VI.

Islands of the Sea.

The Balearic Archipelago — Corsica — Sardinia — Malta — The Italian Islands — Capri 473

CHAPTER VII.

Campania.

The Gulf of Salerno — The Magnificent Bay — The City of

Naples — The Great Volcano — The Buried City . . 522

CHAPTER VIII.

Tbinacbia.

Stromboli — Scylla and Charybdis — The Land of Earth- quakes— The World's Greatest Tragedy — Messina to Catania — Mount Etna — Messina to Palermo — Pa- lermo — Western Sicily — Agrigentum — Southeastern Sicily — Syracuse 609

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I.

PAGE

CouBT OF Lions, Alhambba Frontispiece

Alcazab, Seyille 52

Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova 64

Interior of the Mosque, Cordova .66

Cadiz 72

Malaga 118

The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro . 124

Tower of the Seven Floors, Alhambra 150

Lighthouse, Cape Spartel 156

Entrance to a Mella, or Jewish Quarter . .174

A Garden in Morocco 202

A Bit of Old Biskra 236

A Moorish Interior 240

Street in Saragossa 312

Cathedral of Our Ladt of the Pillar, Saragossa . .318

Barcelona 344

X6tre Dame de la Garde — Marseilles 368

Casino — Monte Carlo 388

Gambung Room, Casino — Monte Carlo 304

Habbob Entbance and Fobt Bicasoli, Malta . . . 446

Capbi, the Landing Place 470

Amalfi 47«

The City and the Bay of Naples 486

The Forum at Pompeii r>18

.The Cathedral, Palermo 572

• •

Vll

•

THE PILLARS OF HERCULES

THE MEDITERRANEAN

AND ITS BORDERLANDS

THE PILLARS OF HERCULES

The Strait of Gades— Hercules—Iberia— Tartessus— The For- tunate Islands — Fabled Atlantis — The Sargasso Sea — The Azores — Flores — Corvo — Fayal — Horta — Pico — St. George — Tereeira — Graciosa — St. Michael's — Ponta Delgada — Ma- deira— Funchal — The Canaries — Teneriflfe — Pico de Teyde — Ferro — Cape St. Vincent — Portugal — Sagres — Lagos — the Guadiana — Badajos — Rio Tinto — Palos — La Rabida — Huelva — Tharsis — the Guadalquivir — Bonanza — San Lucar — Anda- lusia— Jer^z — The Moors — Seville — The Cathedral — The Gi- ralda — The Alcazar — The Cid — Almodovar— Cordova — ^The Great Mosque — Carvajales — Cadiz — Cape Trafalgar — Nel- son's Victory and Death — ^Tarifa — Strait of Gibraltar — Calpe and Abyla — Pillars of Hercules.

FABLED ATLANTIS.

Time was, when the Pillars of Hercules bounded the end of the world for the ancients. Now, for the modem visitor coming from the West, they mark the entrance to what, for him, is almost a new world. In the view of the ancient Greeks, these

3

4- THE xMEDlTEHRANEAX

mythical guardian pillars of the Strait of Gades, had nothing but " the all-encircling ocean-river ly- ing beyond." This strait was believed to be the southern entrance to the ocean^ while the channel between France and England was the northern en- trance. The Phoenicians had coasted along the shores outside, and found to the southward what were known in a hazy sort of way, as the " Fortunate Islands," while northward they had gone as far as Gaul and Britain, bringing back tin to mix with. Spanish copper to make bronze, and also weird tales of the hyperborean regions of the far north and their long winter nights. They had made a settlement on the northern shore beyond the strait which they called Gades, now Cadiz, and Herodotus described Gades as " on the ocean outside the Pillars of Her- cules."

The mythological hero of Greece, Hercules, is said to have been the first of the Hellenic immortals who ventured into the unexplored ocean to the westward, going there in the performance of some of his great " labors." He found a ponderous mountain enclos- ing the Mediterranean, but he cleft it down and tore the ridge asunder, thus opening the passage to the Atlantic, leaving massive promontories on either side, and erecting upon each, a pillar in commemora- tion. These pillars are now represented in the heraldic emblems supporting the Spanish national arms, with the motto non plus ultra — " no more

FABLED ATLANTIS 5

beyond," indicating the end of the mortal world, as anciently believed. They were similarly used on the silver Spanish pillar dollar, and united by a scroll — >$ — became afterward the dollar mark of the United States. The early Greeks in the distant Levant vaguely called the region about the pillars Iberia; which finally came to be the designation of the Spanish peninsula; and the Phcenicians named it Tartessus, supposed by some to be the origin of the name of Tarshish of Scripture. Beyond, in the mythical Grecian idea, was the remote region of the extreme West, a land of mystery and enchant- ment, known vaguely by the reports of adventurous Phoenician mariners, imagined to be the unlimited domain of the setting sun, and the " Land of Prom- ise." They saw in the evening how gorgeously the sun sets —

Through the Hesperian gardens of the West And shuts the gates of Day.

To this unknown, yet admired region went the powerful Hercules for his tenth labor, when he brought back the famous oxen of Geryones, from Ervthia, one of the mvtliical islands of the remoto ocean ; while for his eleventh labor he was " climb- ing trees in the Hesperides," where he got the golden apples from the garden of the daughters of Hes- perus and slew the dragon which guarded them. Earth had given these apples to Hera, at her mar-

6 THE MEDITERRANEAN

riage with Zeus, the garden being described as far away in the West, at the borders of ocean, in the " Fortunate Islands," and near the point of Heaven, where the sun sets. Claudius Ptolemy, the famous Alexandrine astronomer of the second century, who expounded the theory of the earth being the centre around which the solar system revolved, in his treatises and plans indicated vaguely these islands on the edge of the Atlantic beyond the Mediter- ranean entrance. The ancient thought has been prettily used by Joaquin Miller in his sonnet. The Fortunate Isles.

You sail and you seek for the Fortunate Isles, The old Greek isles of the yellow-bird's song,

Then steer straight on through the watery miles. Straight on, straight on, and you can't go wrong.

Nay, not to the left, nay, not to the right. But on, straight on, and the isles are in sight. The Fortunate Isles where the yellow-birds sing And life lies girt with a golden ring.

These Fortunate Isles, they are not so far. They lie within reach of the lowliest door;

You can see them gleam by the twilight star. You can hear them sing by the moon's white shore.

Nay, never look back! Those leveled grave-stones They were landing steps, they were steps unto thrones Of glory for souls that have sailed before. And have set white feet on the fortunate shore.

And what are the names of the Fortunate Isles? Why, Duty and Love and a large Content;

FABLED ATLANTIS 7

Lo, these are the isles of the watery miles That God let down from the firmament.

Lo, Duty and Love and a true man*s Trust; Your forehead to God, though your feet in the dust; Lo, Duty and Love and a sweet babe's smiles, And these, 0 friend, are the Fortunate Isles,

The Pillars of Hercules were upon the two rocky promontories, Calpe, on the northern side of the Strait — now Gibraltar — and across on the African coast, Abyla, near Ceuta, now known by the English name of Apes Hill. Out somewhere beyond, yet located very indefinitely in the imagination of the ancient world, was the fabled island of Atlantis. Homer, Horace and other classical writers, called it the " Garden of the Hesperides " and the " Ely- sian Fields," and it was believed to be the Home of the Blessed. There was a general idea among most of the ancient races of Europe, that Heaven was across the unexplored western sea. As to the real existence of Atlantis, and its actual character, there were differing opinions, leading to many dis- putes. It was described as a Continent, lying over against the Pillars of Hercules, in extent greater than Lybia and Asia put together, and Plato said that it was the passage to other islands, and another extensive continent, of which the Mediterranean was only the harbor. Thus, even at that early time was vaguely hinted the existence of America. Plato wrote that the Egyptian priests at Saos had given

8 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Solon a description of Atlantis, and of the great power of its people. The legend ran, that nine thou- sand years before the time of Plato, Atlantis was populous and powerful, and had conquered the west- ern portions of Europe and Africa. At one time, its whole power was arrayed against the nations bor- dering the Mediterranean, and all yielded to the mastery of the inraders excepting the Athenians. Solon is quoted by Plato as saying that he had heard the most famous of all the Athenian exploits was the overthrow of Atlantis, " Then did your city bravely," said Solon, " and won renown over the whole earth. For at the peril of her own ex- istence, and when the other Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her own ac- cord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A little while afterward there was a great earth- quake, and your warrior race all sank into the earth, and the great island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea." This traditionary submergence took place long before historic times, some say at least eighty thousand years, and was attributed to the interven- tion of the gods coming to the rescue of the peoples, the legend being one of the most interesting of the ancient myths. The bottom of the Atlantic ocean is formed of two deep basins, one on each side of a broad and shallow central plateau, extending from the Hebrides southward to the Azores, thence turn- ing southwest, and finally northwest to Bermuda.

IHE WESTERN ISLANDS 9

This may have been the configuration of the fabled island. The ocean is very deep between the Azores and Madeira, and between both groups of islands and Portugal, averaging fifteen thousand feet.

THE WESTEBJ^ ISLA^'DS.

The voyage across the Atlantic, eastward from the United States to the Mediterranean, goes over the supposed location of fabled Athuitis, which gave the ocean its name. It is a pleasant journey, quickly bringing the traveller across summer seas. The Mediterranean entrance is in latitude 36° north, and opposite Kittyhawk, in front of Albemarle Sound, Xorth Carolina. The distance from New York to Gibraltar is about 3215 miles. The jour- ney is usually marked by gorgeous sunsets, pleasant days and lovely nights when the bright moon shines, and one soon enters a region of warmer weather than on the American coast. It has been well described as " the picturesque route to Europe " by an ocean thoroughfare which is becoming more and more travelled. The location of fabled Atlantis is still marked by many outlying islands, dotted about the region environing the Mediterranean entrance, which are really the tall summits of mountains rising from the bottom of the ocean, and from the great dividing submerged plateau of the North Atlantic They are in three groups — the Azores, the Madeiras, and southward, off the African coast, the Canaries,

10 THE MEDITERRANEAN

The route from Xew York, at about 2300 miles dis- tance, passes directly through the archipelago of the Azores, or Western Islands, and thence to Cape St. Vincent, the southwestern buttress of the Iberian peninsula, and along the coasts of Portugal and Spain, to Gibraltar. The steamer's prow is pointed a trifle south of east when leaving Sandy Hook heading for the island of Fayal, and one of the new attractions the sea provides as the Azores are approached, are the fleets of the nautilus, those lit- tle " Portuguese men-of-war " as they are popularly called, sailing gaily on the water in the evening like bubbles blown by the wind. Another peculiarity of the voyage is its route near the northern verge of what is known as the " Sargasso Sea." Between the Antilles and the Azores appears this vast float- ing mass of seaweeds, covering several hundreds of square miles of the ocean, and drifting about in rafts or islands, as they may be, veered by the varying currents of the Gulf Stream. The mass sometimes becomes so dense as to retard navigation. It was passed through by Columbus on his first voyage of discovery, he and subsequent Spanish navigators calling it the Mar de Sargaco, the weeds being known as the Sargassum. They seem to live and propagate themselves on the surface of the water and the float- ing masses sustained by little air-filled berries give permanent homes to many small pelagic animals and

THE WESTERN ISLANDS 11

others seeking them for food. Cornelius George Fen- ner has based upon this his pretty sonnet :

A weary weed tossed to and fro,

Drearily drenched in the ocean brine, Soaring high and sinking low,

Lashed along without will of mine; Sport of the spoom of the surging sea,

Flung on the foam afar and anear; Mock my manifold mystery, —

Growth and grace in their place appear.

I bear round berries, gray and red.

Rootless and rover though I be; ^ My spangled leaves, when nicely spread,

Arboresce as a trunkless tree; Corals curious coat me o'er.

White and hard in apt array; *Mid the wild waves' rude uproar.

Gracefully grow I, night and day.

Hearts there are on the sounding shore.

Something whispers soft to me. Rootless and roaming for evermore.

Like this weary weed of the sea; Bear they yet on each beating breast

The eternal type of the wondrous whole; Growth unfolding amid unrest,

Grace informing with silent soul.

The Azores are a group of nine islands stretch- ing in an oblique line for about four hundred miles from northwest to southeast, between latitudes 40^ and 36° north and longitudes 31° and 25° west. They are eight hundred miles oflf the Portuguese

12 THE MEDITERRANEAN

coast, to which nation they belong, and are in three chisters. The westernmost pair, Flores and Corvo, are to the northward of the usual track of vessels which are bound to the central cluster, the five islands of Fayal, Pico, St. George, Terceira and Graciosa, while another pair, St. Michael's and Santa Maria, are to the southeastward. The earlv discoverers found numerous hawks and buzzards on these islands, whence come their name, derived from the Portuguese word Aqor, meaning " a hawk." The Arabian geographers who first knew them made special mention of these birds. The Flemish navi- gator, Vanderberg, in 1432, was driven on them by stress of weather, and this attracted attention at Lisbon, leading to subsequent Portuguese and Span- ish possession. Tliey became the convenient ren- dezvous of the fleets going to and from the Indies, and a calling place for voyages in all directions across the Atlantic. These islands are elevated and un- dulating in outline, rising into peaks, and having almost continuously high and precipitous coasts; the whole archipelago being of volcanic origin, and there having been numerous eruptions and earth- quakes, especially in St. Michael's, Villa Franca, the capital, having been thus destroyed, with six thou- sand people, in 1522. Frequent eruptions have oc- curred since, the worst being in 1841, and they were sometimes accompanied by subterranean outbursts, of which a remarkable one appeared in June 1811,

THE WESTERN ISLANDS " 13

off the western end of St. Michael's, a conical crater of ashes and lava rising three hundred feet above the sea but soon disappearing. This volcanic island was seen to arise by the crew of the British war- ship Sabrinaj and the commander named it after his ship. There is an equable and most lovely climate, although severe storms often rage around the islands. The area of the group is about nine hundred square miles, and their population approxi- mates 255,000. When first visited by the Portu- guese, there were no human inhabitants found, and only a few animals, but plenty of hawks. The be- nign and somewhat humid atmosphere clothes them with luxuriant vegetation, which the natural fertility develops in perfection.

The remote northwestern pair of islands of the Azores, being distant from the usually travelled route, are seldom visited but are attractive. Flores got its name and world-wide fame from the abun- dant luxuriance of its flowers, and is also known for its fine poultry and attractive though diminutive cattle. It is 1708 miles east-southeast of Halifax, and 1176 miles west of Cape Roca, the most western part of the coast of Portugal. Little Corvo is a quaint gem, seventeen miles to the northward of Flores, a beautiful island, bold in outline and cov- ered with the most delicious green. It is about five miles long and almost an oval. This diminutive island has various privileges of government, its own

14 ' THE MEDITERRANEAN

mayor and senate, and the peasant proprietors who sit as senators owti their lands. They have been very exclusive, but of late years have intermarried with the people of Flores and some have even mi- grated to Brazil. The story is told that seldom wearing shoes or stockings, the dignified senators of Corvo usually attended the sessions barefooted, but had a sharp lookout kept, so as to be warned of boats arriving from Flores in time to adjourn the session and not be caught by the visitors when sit- ting with uncovered feet.

It was almost at the foot of a cliif a thousand feet high on the southern coast of Flores, and upon jagged rocks known to the natives as the " Mouth of Hell," that the Cunardcr Slavonia went ashore in a fog, June 9, 1909, and was wrecked, though every life was saved, the passengers being taken to the Mediterranean by ships quickly summoned through the agency of the wonderful alarm calls of the wire- less telegraph. A special memory of Flores, how- ever, comes from Tennyson's Ballad of the Fleet, which begins with the line " At Flores in the Azores, Sir Richard Grenville lay." It was off Flores in 1591 that this British vice-admiral had his famous sea fight of " the one and the fifty-three." Grenville was one of Sir Walter Ealeigh^s captains and colonists, who made various voyages to Carolina and the West Indies. When the Spanish Armada came in 1588 to attack England, Queen Elizabeth

THE WESTERN ISLANDS 15

made him a member of her council to devise means of defence, afterward appointing him vice-admiral, and he was among the sea dogs that in subsequent years kept watch on the Spanish fleets after the Armada had dispersed. Off Flores in 1591 in his ship Revenge he encountered a Spanish squadron of fifty-three vessels with ten thousand men aboard. The Revenge, of 500 tons, had thirty guns and a crew of one hundred with a small body of gentlemen volimteers. The San Philippe, her chief antagonist, was of 1500 tons with seventy guns. He promptly went out to give battle, the contest beginning at three o'clock in the afternoon, and fought all night till daybreak, Grenville beating off the Spanish ships sixteen times, sinking four of them and killing a thousand Spaniards.

Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons

came. Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder

and flame; Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead

and her shame.

Grenville was wounded early in the fight, but re- fused to go below, crying, " Fight on, Fight on ! " Afterward he was shot through the body and car- ried into his cabin, and soon nothing was left but a shattered hulk, with masts shot off and powder almost gone, most of the crew being slain, but he declined to surrender, saying:

16 THE MEDlTEKRAyEAX

Sink me the ship, Master Gunner, — sink her, split her in

twain ! ^all into the hands of God, not into the hands of Spain!

But as he lay dying, the few survivors, too weak to fight longer, surrendered, and the doughty ad- miral was taken aboard a Spanish ship, where he soon afterward expired, thus fitly closing the remark- able contest.

The steamer from the United States usually enters the archipelago in the central group of islands, ap- proaching the western extremity of Fayal at Point Comprado and coasting along the northern shore past Cedros Point. This island, named for its prev- alent indigenous shrub, the " f ayo," a species of beech, presents an impressive appearance^ its sur- face sloping grandly down from the mountain, 3,600 feet high, which is the prominent feature of the view. It is nine miles long and has a picturesque coast, under the contrasting colors of light and shade made by the brilliant morning sun, with all parts of the tillable surface carefully planted and cultivated. The island is quickly passed and the steamer rounds the northeastern buttress into the harbor of the Villa de Horta, the great port of call for vessels passing through the Azores. This village of about eight thousand people scattered over the hill slopes, bor- ders a fair roadstead some two miles long upon the Fayal channel separating Payal from Pico, the next island to the eastward. The little harbor is bravely

THE \VEJ<TERN 1SL.\NDS 17

defended by two old castles down at the waterside and a wall; but in the onward world progress, such antique works are more for show than strength. Behind these medieval defences, the flat-roofed adobe houses glisten brightly in the sunlight^ with high cliffs towering above them.

But the grander view is the outlook from Horta upon the island across the channel, Pico, or " the peak," only three miles away. This is a most re- markable island, composed chiefly of an immense conical mountain of volcanic formation, rising 7,613 feet, its soil being pulverized lava, and the lower slopes well cultivated. It is the great attraction of the Azores. Bising boldly from the deep blue sea, and standing in faultless outline sharply cut against the sky, the white surf-line fringing the deep green below, and fleecy clouds sailing slowly above, this beautiful cone is elevated a mile and a half above the water, faint smoke from its internal fires es- caping from the summit. This smoke is regarded by the people as a harbinger of safety. When it ceases to appear they are in alarm, fearing an erup- tion and disturbance, and take refuge in the low structures scattered about, which are called " earth- quake houses." Pico is a grand sight in the ap- proach from the west in the early morning, with the sun just rising behind it, the white smoke jet at the top plainly visible, the clouds floating below

the whitened summit, tinted with the rose, while the Vol. 1—2

18 THE MEDITERRANEAN

sloping sides are still enveloped in a semi-darkness that intensifies their deep green shades. Passing northward of Pico, the steamer sails eastward through the broad channel dividing it from the long and narrow island of St. George. Gradually cross- ing this channel, the coast of St. George is ap- proached nearer, the hill slopes from the long central mountain backbone forming it, falling off gracefully to the sea, displaying pasture and grain fields, vine- yards and forest. This island is almost thirty miles long, and its chief town nestles along the shore, the Villa de Vellas, the " city of the watch-towers," its houses rising in terraces, encircled by green or- chards and vineyards in the surrounding amphithe- atre of hills.

Sailing beyond the promontories marking the east- em end of St. George, the steamer crosses the inter- vening strait to the picturesque island of Terceira, so named because it was the third island of the group in the order of discovery, and being central in position it has been made the capital of the Portuguese province of the Azores. Steaming slowly along its rock-bound coast, the capital city of Angra is passed in review, a little port upon a comparatively fair harbor. This white-walled town is in a romantic situation, nestling closely beside the sea, the land sloping upward in steep acclivities be- hind, and encircling it from the west around to the north, so that the town faces toward the southeast.

THE WESTERN ISLANDS 19

A short low isthmus connects with a southern pro- truding promontory having three rounded summits, rising some eight hundred feet, the southern extrem- ity presenting a perpendicular wall to the breakers beating at its base. At the edge of this promontory toward the town are the battlements of an old for- tress crumbling in picturesque ruin, and thence a sea-wall extends to the little harbor. Behind the town is the mountain chain forming the backbone of Terceira, and from its central peaks spreading oflE into bold promontories at either extremity of the island. To the northwest of Terceira and north- ward of St. George, is Graciosa, so named from the extreme beauty of its scenery. It is very attractive, and has a port Santa Cruz, but is off the customary route of vessels. Out in the ocean between Graciosa and Terceira is the spot where an eruption in June 1867 threw up a volcanic island that afterward dis- appeared.

Stretching from Terceira to St. Michael's, the largest of the Azores, and about one hundred miles to the southeast, the bottom of the sea is a sub- merged plateau generally at two hundred fathoms depth, while outside it the water is at least ten times as deep. Sailing over this stretch, with the bril- liantly colored shores of Terceira diminishing in the distance, the traveller cannot help thinking that here at least may be sunk a part of the lost Atlantis. Then the widely spreading shores of St. Michael's

20 THE MEDITERRANEAN

come in sight, changing from blue to gray and then to green with the approach. Rounding the western extremity rising like a vast truncated cone sending its perpendicular cliflFs down to the sea, the capital of Ponta Delgada presents at the waterside a thick cluster of white buildings with red-tiled roofs, en- circling a small open bay in the curving shore, with gardens on the higher ground and conical-topped hills behind. On the one hand bold rocks rise from the sea backed by the elevated crater of the Cidades, while on the right a long curve of shore broken only by the jutting cliff of the Dog's Head has beyond it the crowning mountain of tho island, the stately Serra d'Agoa da Pau, elevated over 3000 feet. The little harbor protected by a breakwater is formed by the projection of a point of land giving the place its name of Ponta Delgada, the " sharp point." Out in front there is said to be no known land between it and the South Pole, and hence the need of the pro- tective breakwater.

The island of St. Michael's covers about two hun- dred and twenty-four square miles, rising into a cen- tral mountain range stretching from east to west and culminating in the central Serra d'Agoa da Pau. These mountains have a rich and wooded appearance, their flanks falling gradually off to the sea all around, but presenting the finest scenery in the bold western cliffs which culminate in the Serra Gorda, 1574 feet high. There are numerous hot springs in

THE WESTERN ISLANDS 21

the island, and vapor issues from various crevices, particularly in the Valley of the Furnas, near the western verge, where there are boiling fountains, spouting up in jets, dissolving into clouds of steam. Some of these liot springs have valuable medicinal qualities, and this with the balmy climate has made the island a popular health resort. Among its products is tea, which is grown for the Lisbon market, whither a good deal is sent. Ponta Delgada, the capital, has about sixteen thousand population, and is a resort for many vessels, mostly fishermen and tramp steamers coming for salt and coal, with mail boats arriving twice a month from Portugal and also steamers crossing to and from the Mediter- ranean, although it is not regarded as being as con- venient a port of call as Ilorta. The two prominent buildings from the water view are a huge yellow prison, and the white cathedral with a heavy square tower. There are a couple of quays, and the churches seem to have all been built of basalt cov- ered with pinkish stucco. A picturesque triple arch built in 1785, which is the entrance to the quays, has behind it the Praca or public square, on which fronts the cathedral or " ]\Iatriz," as it is called, built dur- ing the reign of King IManuel, the son-in-law of Ferdinand and Isabt^lla, and the patron of the noted navigator Vasco da Gama, who carried the Por- tuguese flag to the uttermost parts of the then known world. There is also a peaceful and most inoffen-

22 THE MEDITERRANEAN

sive looking semi-ruinous old fort that may have been built in that heroic time. At the end of the square opposite the cathedral is the ancient Town Hall, bearing the Moorish coat-of-arms, and between them is the fashionable promenade. Low shops with red-tiled roofs border the square, and on these roofs are usually spread to dry the bags of coffee coming from Brazil, which provide much trade. A liber- ally supplied fountain pours out its copious jets in the centre of the square, and here the populace get their drinking water in all kinds of casks and other vessels. The houses of the spreading town are usually built in gardens, so that the place is a mass of luxuriant vegetation, some of the gardens being famed for their growth of fruits and flowers. Thus Ponta Delgada is attractive as well as antique, and it adds to the picturesque beauties so bountifully displayed throughout these pleasant islands.

MADETRuV.

The group of the Madeira islands is nearer the African coast, about five hundred miles southeast from St. Michael's in the Azores, and three hundred and sixty-five miles from Africa, in latitude 32° north and longitude 17° west; and this group is also an appanage of Portugal. The characteristics are much similar to the Azores, but the group is more compact, the chief island being Madeira, about thirty miles long and thirteen miles wide in the ex-

MADEIRA 23

treme breadth, its bold wooded shores naturally giving the original name, Materia, meaning " wood." The smaller island of Porto Santo is about twenty- five miles to the northeast, and in the southeastern ofiing are three rather spacious but practically un- inhabited rocks called the Desertes, these being con- spicuous objects in the sea view from Funchal on the southern coast, which is the capital, and port of call for many vessels bound to the Mediterranean. The Madeira group embraces about five hundred square miles of surface and has 160,000 population, the submarine telegraph line from Lisbon to Brazil being laid through it.

Madeira island is traversed from east to west by a mountain chain, rising generally to about 4000 feet elevation, forming a substantial backbone, but cut down by various deep ravines which penetrate the ridge from both coasts. The highest summit, Pico Rurvo, rises 6100 feet in tlie centre of the island, and several adjacent summits of the ridge are but little lower in elevation. The narrowness and startling depth of the ravines, the loftiness of the rugged peaks towering above, the many beautiful sea vistas and bold coast precipices, make scenes of striking grandeur and picturesque beauty that con- stantly change to the eye of the moving tourist. The high ridges between the ravines mostly terminate in lofty headlands of dark basalt, falling oiF pre- cipitously to the sea, and some rising almost two

24 THE MEDITERRANEAN

thousand feet. Tims much of the coast is bounded, the northern side, having been most exposed to the sea erosion, displaying the wilder scenery and hav- ing bolder precipices than the southern shores. Some of the deep valleys on the northern side still grow fine trees, but on the southern slope little is left of the original fgrest giving the island its name. The eastern extremity of the island is an elongated, nar- row and comparatively low promontory, with sandy adjuncts known as the " Fossil Bed," and upon an inlet off this promontory is Madeira's only lighthouse, having a flashing light visible for twenty-five miles to ap})roaching vessels.

Tradition indicated that the wandering Phoe- nician mariners first discovered Madeira very long ago, and Pliny mentions the Purple or Mauretanian islands, which may have been this group. Prior to the fourteenth century the Portuguese found them, and there is a romantic story of two eloping lovers fleeing from England to France in 1346, who were driven far southward bv a violent storm and cast on the coast of the uninhabited Madeira, at a place afterward given the name Machico, after the fleeing Romeo, whose name was Robert Machin. This episode seems to have given Portugal the idea of taking possession, and while without population then, they are considered to now be too densely peopled in relation to the amount of cultivable sur- face, which is comparatively small. A vast amount

MADEIRA 25

of labor has been expended upon the soil, partly in erecting stout walls to prevent its being washed away by the torrential rains, and also in building up spa- cious terraces to lessen the steep slopes. Numerous water courses have been constructed to provide a comprehensive system of irrigation, without which the island could not produce a hundredth part of its present yield. The rocky character, elevation and steep inclination of the higher parts of the island are a bar to all successful tillage. The chief access to the interior, which is obstructed by the many deep ravines, is obtained by a road constructed around the entire coast, that in many places displays most picturesque scenery, the route being often between lofty cliffs, or along the front of precipices over- hanging the deep blue sea.

The approach to Funchal on the southern coast is beautiful. The town of white houses with red- tiled roofs, tier above tier, spreads upon the curving shore and slopes of a large bay, being backed by an imposing amphitheatre of lofty mountains. It is irregularly built, with narrow, winding streets, and out in front projects an old castle commanding the roadstead in the ancient days, perched on the top of the steep black basaltic cliff called the Loo Rock, which is surrounded by the sea at high water. Ris- ing above and behind the town, numerous country houses with terraced gardens and vineyards adorn the slopes, with occasional patches of sugar cane,

26 THE MEDITERRANEAN

giving attractions to the pleasant landscape, while among these on an eminence is a larger fortress of more modem huild, that is the chief defence. The harbor is poor, however; vessels have to lie in an open anchorage, passengers are taken off in boats and cargo is lightered; and when the wind blows freshly from the south, they risk being driven ashore unless they slip their cables and put out to sea. There is ample protection, however, from other winds. The entire produce of the island, mostly wine, sugar and fruits, intended for export, is shipped from Funchal. The wine is chiefly the Madeira, and kno\\'n in the trade as " London particular,'' but this wine trade has declined in recent years. There have been gathered in Funchal a population of about twenty thousand, and upon landing here, as in other Portuguese ports, the traveller is introduced to the surprising mysteries of the Portuguese currency. The unit of account is the reis (ray), about the value of one mill of Ameri- can money, nominally, but owing to the depreciation of the currency since the national bankruptcy of 1892, the disappearance of gold and cff most silver coins, and the excess of paper, the actual value is even less. The visitor is startled by a hotel bill based on three thousand to four thousand reis per day, and tips requiring one to two hundred reis, but when it is all ciphered out in the American equivalent the actual financial damage done is about

MADEIRA 27

the same as elsewhere in Europe. One thousand rcis make one milrei, which is popularly the dollar, and was the chief coin, when they circulated.

The methods of Funchal are somewhat primitive. Wheel carriages are scarce, and goods are trans- ported either on the backs of mules, a necessity on account of the steep mountain paths, or on sledges drawn by bullocks, while the common people carry heavy burdens on the head and shoulders. The visitor upon landing at the stone steps of the old breakwater, which extends out to a rock so as to partially protect the harbor, is taken upon an observa- tion tour around the town. This is done on a low sled with cushioned seats, drawn by a pair of bul- locks, without reins, the driver being loud-voiced and frequently using a prodding stick. He also has a bunch of greasy rags which he throws under the sled runners as a lubricant when the friction upon the stone pavement becomes too harsh. Behind the town a funicular railway climbs tlie mountain-side to the place of grand outlook above. When returning from the ride, the sled without the bullocks . glides like a toboggan for about two miles do\vn the slippery stones of the steep road, thus making a rapid and sometimes sensational descent.

The equable climate has made Madeira a favorite resort for invalids, and its merit is warmly praised. Sir James Clark, a celebrated English authority, saying, " The climate of Madeira is the finest in the

28 THE MEDITERRANEAN

northern hemisphere," because of the mildness of the winter and the coolness of the summer. Al- though these islands are of volcanic origin, and are the summits of very lofty mountains having their bases in an extremely deep ocean, these Madeira volcanoes were long ago extinct, there being at the present day neither live craters nor smoking crevices. They were built up by the emission of material from craters long ago, and by upheavals rising thousands of feet, but these geological processes ceased in the distant past.

THE PEAK OF TENERIFFEw

The most extensive of the groups of islands out- lying from the Mediterranean entrance are the supposed partly mythical *' Fortunate Islands " of the ancients, the Canaries, which are off the African coast some distance to the southward. There are thirteen in the group, seven being large islands, and the others mainly rocks. With an aggregate surface of over twenty-eight hundred square miles, this archipelago has a population of 350,000, and here was originally found the canary bird which has been so universally domesticated by all civilized nations. The nearest of the group to the African coast, Fuertevontura Island, is distant about fifty miles, and the largest of the islands, Teneriffe, is two hun- dred and fifty miles south-southeast from Madeira. The archipelago is in latitude 27° to 29° north, and

THE PEAK OF TEXERIFFE 29

13° to 18** longitude west. The ancient ideas of these " Fortunate Islands," believed to be the Home of the Blessed, were put into a sort of form by both Plutarch and Ptolemy, such knowledge as then ex- isted coming from tlie reports of the wandering Phoenician mariners. Pliny mentions " Canaria, so called from the multitude of dogs of great size," and " If ivaria, taking its name from the perpetual snow and covered with clouds," from which was derived the name of Teneriffe. In 1334, they were rediscovered, and Spain took possession, still con- trolling them. Like the other groups, these islands are the summits of mountains, rising from an ocean of great depth, and the two largest are Teneriffe, covering 877 square miles, and the Grand Canary, with a surface of 718 square miles. The chiefly visited island is Teneriffe, which is about sixty miles long and has a breadth in the widest part of thirty miles, although not over one-seventh of the surface can be cultivated. A mountain chain traverses it in the direction of greatest length, and in the middle of the broadest part of the island rises its celebrated peak, which has world-wide celebrity.

The Pico de Teyde, the famous Peak of Teneriffe, with its ample supports and outlying space, occupies two-thirds of the island. It has a double top, the highest summit, El Piton, rising 12,200 feet, and the other, Chehorra, connected with the first by a short narrow ridge, elevated 9880 feet. Both are orifice?

30 THE MEDITERRANEAN

in the same grand dome of trachyte, though neither reaches the line in that latitude of perpetual snow, but there is a natural cavern about 11,000 feet above the sea, where snow is presented all the year; and snow remains for about four months on the upper parts of the summits. The Peak rises from what are known as the Pumice Stone Plains, and the ad- jacent ridge with the volcanic cone above, resembles in aspect a colossal fortress with circular ramparts and an enormous ditch. The immense ramparts en- circling the cone are about eight miles in diameter, and in some places tower fully five hundred feet above the ditch. These rocks are of very old construc- tion, and the more modem cone is a pile of ashes, pumice and lava, that has been thrown up during more recent centuries from an ancient crater, but this famous peak has been practically quiescent for over two hundred years. Both El Piton and Chehorra have craters on their summits from which now issue steam and a little sulphurous vapor, as gentle reminders of the active past. The El Piton crator is about seventy feet deep and three hundred feet across. Chehorra's crater, at a lower level, is much larger, being four thousand feet in diameter and over one hundred and fifty feet deep. There is no account in history of serious eruptions from either peak, but in 1795 there was an outpouring of lava from vents at lower elevations on the eastern side of the mountain, though since 1798 no eruption had

THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE 31

occurred until 1909. In June there was a slight earthquake shock on the western coast, while in Kovember there were more shocks, and lava poured out from five vents for several days, causing alarm among the people.

Under shadow of the enormous peak, on the southern coast is the chief town and capital of Teneriffe — Santa Cruz de Santiago — where the Spanish Governor-General of the Canaries resides. It is defended by several batteries on the edge of the sea, and probably the greatest fame the place has ever achieved was the one honor of defeating an at- tack by Admiral Lord Nelson, the famous sea-fighter of England, in 1797, on which occasion he lost his arm by a shot from one of these batteries. Several English flags then captured still hang in the church. The view of the town and the approach are superb. Humboldt has written that he " never beheld a pros- pect more varied, more attractive, more harmonious, in the distribution of the masses of verdure, and of rocks, than the western coast of Teneriffe." The date palms are an impressive feature of the land- scape.

During half the year, from April to October, a northern or northeastern wind of more or less strength blows upon these islands from ten o'clock in the morning until five or six o'clock in the after- noon. During the summer this colder wind produces a dense stratum of sea-cloud, about a thousand feet

32 illK MEDITEKRAXEAN

thick, its under side being elevated three thousand feet above the sea level at Teneriffe. This cloud, however, only covers the sea and does not reach up to the higher mountains inland, which at the same time have on every side a cloud stratum of their own about five hundred feet thick, its lower surface being twenty-five hundred feet above the sea level. Between the two distinct cloud strata, there is usually a narrow gap, through which the visitor on a vessel approaching the island may obtain a glimpse of the mass of the mountain, while above the higher cloud rises the cone-like summit in the clear air, sharply outlined against the sky. The visitor ascending the mountain when these clouds are formed, looks down upon their white, fleecy masses which conceal the sea and distant islands of the group, excepting where the mountain tops may pierce through. The view from El Piton, when no clouds intervene, is magnificent, and most extensive, including the whole Canary archipelago and display- ing a horizon one hundred and forty miles distant, as the mountain rises nearly two and one-third miles. The Island of Madeira, and the African coast, how- ever, are beyond the range of vision. In 1856, Charles Piazzi Smyth, the British astronomer, con- structed his observatory and placed his telescope on the Peak, at Alta Vista, 10,700 feet above the sea. Here he made various observations and, as he said, verified Xewton's surmise of years before, that a

THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE 33

"most serene and quiet air may perhaps be found on the tops of the highest mountains, above the grosser clouds."

The Peak of TenerijBFe is the highest mountain in the world which rises directly from the sea, and one of the noted displays unfolded by its ascent is its elongated shadow, when the observer is able to get the view in a clear morning at sunrise. The sun then comes up over the dry African desert through an atmosphere of unrivalled clearness and his rays as they flood the broad expanse of the Atlantic meet their only obstruction in this mighty mountain. A traveller who was thus fortunate describes the view, having got to the summit before the dawn, lie writes that in the clear gray light preceding the dawn, the whole of the islands of the Canary group were visible with more distinctness than after the sun had risen, while fifty miles distance in such an atmosphere seemed almost nothing, so that the Grand Canary to the eastward and Los Palmas looked close below, and one was almost tempted to throw a stone upon Gomcra, thirty miles away. Then the sun appeared and slowly rose, so that turning the eyes westward, there in long dim out- line the gigantic shadow just crossing the northern point of Gomera was laid across the sea, stretching to the horizon and seeming to extend fully two hun- dred miles. The Peak's shape is clearly seen,

though shadowy, but each minute as the sun rises Vol. 1—3

34 THE MEDITERRANEAN

higher and the rays grow stronger, the reality in- creases. The shadow seems to lift itself up from the sea, on which at first it lay, until, a quarter of an hour after the sunrise, there apparently stands be- side us another peak, not rose-colored as the real one, but dark and threatening, seeming substantial, yet showing through it far away the island and the clouds that hang above the sea. The flood of light increases, but this lessens the clearness of the dis- tant view, while bringing out each object on the little island beneath, disclosing each house and tree, and displaying all around the clear-cut, sea-washed boundaries of Teneriffe itself, with its sixty miles of length, and every creek, ravine and coast-headland depicted as clearly as on a map, but here and there the forming clouds begin to break the outline, though the summit from which one looks is nine thousand feet above them. Upon the summit crater, too, this morning light has splendid effect. The delicate yellow of the sulphur fumes mingles with pale pink, both softened by a creamy white, making a beauti- fully chaste coloring in striking contrast with the miles of rugged dark bro^\^l lava from which the crater-surmounted cone springs several hundred feet below. Jets of hot steam puff from the sulphurous cracks, and here are cooked the eggs for breakfast in a steam-heated oven ready at hand among the lava beds and supplied by fires perhaps at lower levels than those which prepare the breakfasts of

THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE 35

the people down in Santa Cruz. The view is sub- lime and the morning shadow of the great mountain over the unobstructed sea is probably the greatest that the world discloses.

The smallest island of the Canary archipelago is Hierro or Ferro, and it is the most westerly of the group, shaped somewhat like a crescent and located ninety-two miles west-southwest of Tencriffe. The high and steep rocks bounding its shores give the coast line an impressive appearance. Ferro was best known to the world in earlier times as the point of the " first meridian," ancient European geog- raphers taking it as the initial measure for longitude, as it was the most westerly land they knew. The longitude they assigned to Ferro was, however, too far west in the original maps. It is interesting to recall that Ptolemv made Fuerteventura, the nearest of the Canaries to Africa, his first meridian, and that this island was originally adopted by Mercator, but the latter afterward changed to Corvo, in the Azores, because he there more nearly ap- proached the true indication of the magnetic needle. The Dutch, when they became a maritime power, adopted the Peak of Teneriffe for the first meridian. In 1630, Cardinal Richelieu called a congress of scientists who considered the subject, and they adopted the meridian of Ferro for the first meridian, it being officially promulgated by Louis XIII in April, 1634. Thus the "longitude of Ferro,"

36 THE MEDIXERRAXLAN

fonnally established, came into almost universal use, continuing until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when England, coming to the front as the leading sea power, through Xelson's victories over the French and Spanish navies, adopted Greenwich for the first meridian.

IBEBIA.

The traveller crossing the Atlantic, approaching the Mediterranean entrance from the Azores, usually sights the first land in the bold cliflFs of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, the southwestern buttress of the Iberian peninsula. This was the Promontorium Sacrum of the ancients and a powerful light guides the mariner past it. Steep and almost inaccessible cliffs rise up from the sea to form this massive buttress, which is the abrupt termination of the mountain range of the Serra de Monchigue. The lighthouse is on the brow of the promontory, standing amid the ruins of an ancient convent. The neigh- boring coasts, however, are generally low and sandy. Cape Roca, to the northward, outside of Lisbon and the mouth of the Tagus, is, however, the most western land of Portugal, protruding somewhat be- yond Cape St. Vincent. This is ancient Lusitania, a noted region, first colonized by the Phcenicians, who seem to have covered almost all the Portuguese and Spanish coasts in the early days. Then it was conquered by the Carthaginians; overrun by the

IBERIA 37

Vandals and Visigoths; occupied by the Moors in the eighth century; and in the eleventh century made a fief of Count Henry of Burgundy, which began the active history of the county, afterward the kingdom of Portugal. The name came from its capital, then called by the Latin title of Partus Cale, though this city has since been known by its popular name of O Porto, or " the port." Grow- ing to great power, Portugal divided with Spain the colonization of the world in the fifteenth century, though King John II made the mistake in 1485 of dismissing Columbus as a visionary. John outfitted the expedition of the famous Vasco da Gama, how- ever, who during the subsequent reign discovered the sea route to India. It was during the reign of John II, in 1494, that the pope issued his famous bull, dividing the undiscovered parts of the world between the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Emmanuel the Fortunate succeeded John, and then Vasco da Gama made his important discoveries in the East Indies, and Pedro Cabral found Brazil, while on his way westward to find India, Amerigo Vespucci discov- ered the Eio Plata and Paraguay; and Portugal thus secured vast conquests in the East Indies, China and South America.

Before the days of Columbus the Portuguese Prince Henry, who was called " The Navigator," on account of his zealous encouragement of ocean exploration, had founded on Cape St. Vincent, the

38 THE MEDITERRANEAN

town of Sagres, with sbij^yards and a maritime school, which became the headquarters of the Portu- guese exploring voyagers. To the eastward was de- veloped in the seventeenth century, the port of Lagos on the coast, and it is still an active seaport with the old fortifications of that time. The great- est fame of Cape St. Vincent, however, comes from the naval battle fought in the adjacent waters, February 14, 1797, w^hen Admiral Jervis, ably seconded by Xelson, defeated the Spanish fleet. In this engagement the British Mediterranean squadron of twenty-four vessels fought the enemy's fleet of thirty-nine, almost annihilating it, and capturing four of the largest ships. For this victory, Jervis was created Earl St. Vincent. To the eastward of the cape, the steamer skirts the southern shore of Portugal along the province of Algarve, a region growing cork trees, fruit and wines, and having various ancient villages on the shallow harbors in- dented in the coast, that are still showing evidence of their Moorish origin. Beyond the shore sweeps around the wide circle formed by the Bay of Cadiz, and here flows in at the boundary between Portugal and Spain, the grand river Guadiana, the Moorish Wadi Ana, the ancient Anas of the Romans, which follows a course of five hundred miles from its source in the elevated and sterile Spanish plateau of La Manclia, through Estramadura, west and south- west to the sea. La Mancha is derived from an

IBERIA 39

Arab word meaning the " desert." The Guadiana breaks out of the mountain ranges of the Sierra Morena in a series of foaming rapids, so that it is only navigable for about forty miles of its lower course. On its way, the river passes the famous frontier fortress of Badajos, known as the " key of Portugal," scarred by many battles and sieges, its last capture being by Wellington in 1812, who took it from the French, to whom it had been surrendered by treachery the previous year.

The Spanish coast to the eastward of the Guadi- ana is generally flat, and at a short distance the Eio Tinto enters the Atlantic in a region of the liveliest historical interest. On the eastern river bank is the magnificent little white village shining in the simlight — Palos de la Frontera — from which Christopher Columbus sailed August 3, 1492, with his three little vessels, the SaiUa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, on the voyage that discovered America; and here he landed on his return, March 15, 1493. Cortes also landed at Palos in 1528, re- turning from his conquest of ^lexico. Just below the village is the Convent of Santa Maria la Eabida. It was here that Columbus retired in 1485 in despair after John IT of Portugal had declined to be his patron, and the prior of the monastery, Peres de Marchena, who had been Queen Isabella's con- fessor, subsequently took interest in his plans and got the Queen to consider the arrangement for his

40 THE MEDITERRANEAN

voyage, induced by the hope of spreading Chris- tianity in the new world to be discovered. The contract was signed at Santa Fe, near Granada, April 17, 1492, the Queen providing the cost of the expedition, about $7000, out of which Columbus got a salary of $320. The broad river Odiel comes into the Kio Tinto opposite La Eabida, and a little way up this stream is Iluelva, the chief town of the neighborhood, with a spacious harbor, the shipping port of the famous Rio Tinto copper mines, that have an output approximating a value of $20,000,000 annually. Here is preserved the log book made by Columbus on his voyage, his ships having been out- fitted at the port, and in 1892 the four hundredth anniversary of the event was marked by unveiling a colossal monument by Velasquez. The Kio Tinto mines are about fifty miles up that river and are among the most valuable in existence. The Phoe- nicians and the Eomans worked them, but they were but little used until 1872, when a syndicate of bank- ers bought them from the Spanish Government for $20,000,000. They occupy a large area, producing ores of iron pyrites containing a large proportion of sulphur and three to four per cent of copper. To the northwestward is another group of similar character, the mines of Tharsis. Tliese Kio Tinto mines employ about ten thousand workmen, are served by sixtv miles of railwav both above and below

THE GREAT RIVER 41

ground, and produce annually twenty thousand tons of copper, mostly going to England.

THE GREAT RIVEK.

From the entrance of the Kio Tinto, the Arenas Gordas, a chain of sand dunes, extends along the Spanish coast, which gradually curves southeast toward the mouth of the broad Guadalquivir. Far back into the land stretch the marismas or salt marshes, with pastures w^here bulls for the arena are grazed, and in the dry time of summer the surface appears as a dark-bro\vn heath. Through this mo- notonous region the river flows in three brazos or branches, but the navigation has been improved by canals which shorten the distance. These branches uniting, the river enters the ocean, having on the northern side of the entrance the village of Bonanza, named after the chapel of the " Virgin de la Bonanza," meaning " good weather." Across the broad river mouth is the busy port of San Lucar de Barrameda, where there are twenty-five thou- sand people. Both of these settlements are very ancient, and present relics of Bom an and even earlier domination. San Lucar, however, did not grow much until ^after the American colonization began, and then its trade expanded. From here sailed in 1519 the Portuguese mariner Magellan, for his journey of wonderful discovery around the

42 THE MEDITERRANEAN

world. There are outlying villas with orange groves and palm trees and defensive forts protecting the port, while upon the neighboring sand-dunes grow the vines that jiroduce Manzanilla wine.

All of the region upon which we look in passing the Guadalquivir entrance is the famous Spanish province of Andalusia, the southernmost district of Spain, extending eastward from the Portuguese boundary for over three hundred miles along the shores of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and having a breadth northward of over one hundred miles. The name was originally Vandalusia, the *^ land of the Vandals." Celebrated for fertility and picturesque scenery, it is traversed throughout by high mountain ranges, enclosing the most beautiful valleys. Upon its pastures are raised the best horses in Spain, and the most prized bulls for the arena in the Spanish national sport of bull fighting. The ranges of mountains that traverse the province from west to east are the Sierra Morena, along the northern border, and the higher mountains of Granada and Honda in the southeastern and southern regions, the most famous of these ranges being the Sierra Xevada of Granada, the " snowy mountain," the highest in Spain: a chain over fifty miles long and about twenty-five miles broad, its culminating sum- mit being Mulhacan, elevated 11,420 feet; the Picacho de Veleta rising 11,3S5 feet, with other peaks exceeding 10,000 feet, all having their noble

THE GREAT RIVER 43

crests above the perpetual snow line. Between these mountain ranges is the valley of the Guadalquivir, which drains them through its many affluents and thus becomes the main river of Andalusia. In the mountain chains both north and south of it are deep transverse valleys with rounded basin-shaped heads or cirques among the jxjaks. The northern slope of the Sierra Xevada falls off precipitously toward the river valley, making magnificent scenery. The Guadalquivir is about three hundred and fifty miles long, its vale having a small upper basin, of con- siderable elevation among the mountains, where it is formed by three streams in Jaen province, while the chief lower tributary is on its southern side, the Jenil, coming in from Granada. The lower course of the Guadalquivir is through a very broad valley. It passes Cordova and Seville, and then for fifty- four miles to the sea, flows through the lowlands of the marismas, a wide, level and to large extent un- healthy deposit of alluvium.

This river valley is one of the most ancient and famous in Spain. It was the province of Baetica in the Roman days, when tliey called the river the Bae- tis, and navigated it up to Ilispalis, now Seville, and thence to their more remote settlement of Corduba now Cordova. They found it then, as now, the only Spanish river which at all seasons of the year is a full-bodied stream, being fed in winter by the rains, and in summer by the profusely melting snows

'44 THE MEDITERRANEAN

of the Sierra Nevada. The Vandals and the Visi- goths came, overpowered the Eomans, and settled in the fertile valleys of this noble river, the Visigoths holding it until the beginning of the eighth century, but in the meantime becoming enervated by too close contact with Boman luxury. Meanwhile, after the death of Mohammed, and the rise of the Moslems, that new religion had extended its won- derful power throughout the Mediterranean, and controlled all the African shores to the Pillars of Hercules. Anxious for further conquest, in 711, Tarik crossed the strait at the head of about five thousand Moors, and with ease and rapidity ac- complished the overthrow of the Visigoths, defeat- ing Roderick, " the last of the Goths," in a battle near Jerez de la Frontera about fifteen miles south- east of San Lucar, on the Guadalete river. This town of sixty thousand people is now one of the wealthiest in Spain, its fortune being made from the exportation of Sherry wine, the name coming from Jerez, which is pronounced " hereth." The battle fought southward from the town is said to have continued several days. The affix "de la Frontera," which is placed on several of these towns of Spain, was given later, in the fourteenth century, when they became Christian outposts in the long-pro- tracted conflicts on the borders of the Moorish pos- sessions. The chief shows of Jerez to-day are the extensive Bodegas where the Sherry wines are stored.

THE GREAT RIVER 45

and the vineyards around the place where they are grown, covering about three hundred square miles.

Tarik, after his victory, overran the Guadalquivir valley with little opposition, making himself master as far as Corduba and even crossing the mountains beyond to Toledo near Madrid. The full current of the river led the Moors to name it ^Yadi-el'Kebir, or the " Great River," and this for the subsequent five centuries was the central province of their Spanish possessions. They made the stream navi- gable for barges up to Corduba, which was their capital, but in the later period of neglect, the lower reaches became silted up, and it has only recently been canalised and deepened sufficiently for vessels of moderate draft to pass up to Seville. After the invasion of Tarik and the Moors had established themselves along the river, they quarrelled, and this enabled Abderrahman I to place his dynasty of the Omayyades in full control of the river in 756. It was this prince who in his constant warfare with numerous enemies was opposed by Charlemagne, who had sent an army into Spain to help them. But on its return through the Pyrenees, in 778, its rear guard was almost annihilated in the famous battle of the Pass of Jloncesvalles, where Roland the Paladin, one of the great heroes of chivalry, was slain.

Thus began the famous Moorish dynasty that for three centuries made the Guadalquivir the chief seat of Moslem power in Spain, and Corduba, the

46 THE MEDITERRAXEAX

capital, its name gradually changing afterward to Cordova. The most powerful sovereign of this family was Abderrahman III, reigning in the tenth century, who advanced his title from Emir to Caliph, made Cordova one of the wealthiest cities of Europe, completed its noble mosque, the greatest of the Moorish era, and was one of the most potential rulers of the then known world. In his day the " Great River'' is said to have had on its banks and in its extensive basin, eight large cities, three hundred towns and twelve thousand populous villages, while Cordova alone had two hundred thousand houses and six hundred mosques, and its caliph not only con- trolled Spain and Portugal, but through his power- ful fleets was the master of the entire shores of the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic coasts of Europe and Africa. After this caliph's death in 961, his successors were w-eak men, and his caliphate split into factions, so that in the later tenth century there were three separate and generally hostile emirates in the valley, with their capitals at Seville, Cordova and Granada. Then came the era of the Crusades, under which the Christian dominion in Spain ex- panded, so that excepting at Granada, most of the Moorish power was destroyed, the whole lower river being conquered and taken from them in the latter half of the thirteenth centurv. But Granada was maintained as a Moorish stronghold for over two centuries longer by the dynasty of the Nasrides,

SEVILLE AND THE CID 47

whose sovereign, Mohammed I, began the Alhambra in the thirteenth century. This kingdom had a compact Moorish population in a region easily de- fended by its natural advantages, and the dynasty conducted skillful diplomacy as between the Chris- tian rulers of Spain and the ^Jloors of Morocco and the Mediterranean. But Ferdinand and Isabella began the final war against them in 1481, and com- pleted the conquest of Granada, January 2, 1492. Since then the Christian governing powers of Spain have controlled the " Great Eiver."

SEVILLE AXD THE CID.

Fifty-four miles up the river Guadalquivir, low- lying on its eastern bank, is Seville, the capital of Andalusia. The tawny river, discolored by the vast amount of alluvium its tinged current brings down from the mountains, divides the city from its suburb of Triana, on the southwestern bank, from time im- memorial the home of the gypsies, and the location of the potteries for which Seville is noted, especially in majolica and plates with metallic lustre. The legend is that Saints Justa and Kufina, in the early Christian church, who were martyred because they would not sacrifice to Venus, had here a potter's shop. All the land surfaces are flat, but the sur- rounding district is very fertile, and the people proudly call it the land of Maria Santisima, while .their houses are so comfortable that there is an old

48 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Gennan saying that "He whom God loves has a house in Seville." The city is generally a laby- rinth of narrow streets, a Moorish heritage, but it is relieved by many open spaces planted with oranges, palms and other attractive trees. It is bright and gay, and always was popular, being regarded as pre- eminently the Spanish " city of the guitar, the fan, the song and fandango." It has a large representa- tion of the careless yet attractive Bohemian class of southern Spain, who are said generally " to sleep on the steps of churches, breakfast on a glass of water, and dine on an air of the guitar." So marked was its ancient fame that Dante in the In- ferno makes Odysseus mention only Ceuta and Savilla as seen by him when he passed the Pillars of Hercules. Like other Spanish cities, everything is clothed in dazzling white, the hlanquedor or whitewasher constantly laboring upon the walls of the buildings and the curbs of the streets. The dwellings are mostly low and they follow the Moor- ish style of being built around open inner courts with arcaded borders, central fountains and marble pave- ments, having an awning above. The Seville sum- mers are very hot, but the winter climate is delight- ful. There are one hundred and fifty thousand people in Seville and during the Moorish domina- tion when at its time of greatest prosperity in Al- Motamid's reign in the eleventh century, it eclipsed Cordova, which had then declined, it had four

SEVILLE AND THE CID 51

Faith bearing the banner of Constantino and turn- ing around to face every wind and storm. This celebrated Giralda, regarded as the most splendid tower in Europe, is under the special protection of Saints Justa and Eufina, depicted in one of Murillo's noted paintings in the Seville Museum.

The cathedral has five stained glass windows, and in the nave is the tombstone of Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, who died in 1540, giving the Cathedral Chapter his extensive library, still preserved, numbering thirty thousand volumes, many being printed books of that period relating to the dis- covery of America. It also contains the monument of Columbus, which was removed from the Havana Cathedral in 1899. In the Capilla Eeal in a silver shrine, is the body of St. Ferdinand III, King of Spain, the captor of Seville from the Moors after six months' siege, on St. Clement's Day, November 3, 1248, who died in 1252, and also the tombs of £ing Alfonso the Learned, who died in 1284, and his mother, Beatrice of Suabia. Upon the high altar here is the statue of the Vergen de los Eeyes, given to St. Ferdinand by St. Louis of France, a figure with removable golden hair, and covered with splendid vestments, though the golden crown was stolen- in 1873. The two keys of Seville captured by St Ferdinand are in the Treasury — the silver key of the Moors — with the inscription: "May Allah grant that Islam may rule eternally in this

52 THE MEDITERRANEAN

city"; and the iron-gilt key of the Jews, with the words, " The King of Kings will open, the King of the Earth will enter." There are also many paint- ings in the chapels by the great masters, among them Murillo's masterpiece, St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Holy Child, painted in 1656. In November, 1874, the kneeling figure of the saint was cut out of this canvas, and taken to America, where it was recovered in New York three months afterward. It has been very skilfully replaced in the picture.

The Alcazar, the residence of the Spanish sovereigns since the capture of Seville by St. Fer- dinand, rises in embattled towers and massive masonry, a medieval castle on the southern side of the Plaza del Triunfo. Here was the Prsetorium of the Roman days and on its ruins the Moorish kings had their palace or Alcazar, a huge citadel, the strongest fortification of the city, originally con- structed for Abu Yakub Yusuf. Very little re- mains of his structure, however, the nucleus of the present one being built by Pedro the Cruel, others wise called Pedro the Judge, in the fourteenth cen- tury, the most popular king of Seville, his surnames having been given according to the point of view of the observer. Within the Alcazar, Pedro mur- dered his brother Fadrique, and also his guest, Abu Said of Granada, the latter crime being com- mitted to secure the Moor's valuable jewels. One

52 THE MEDITERRANEAN

city"; and the iron-gilt key of the Jews, with the words, " The King of Kings will open, the King of the Earth will enter." There are also many paint- ings in the chapels by the great masters, among them Murillo's masterpiece, St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Holy Child, painted in 1656. In November, 1874, the kneeling figure of the saint was cut out of this canvas, and taken to America, where it was recovered in Xew York three months afterward. It has been very skilfully replaced in the picture.

The Alcazar, the residence of the Spanish sovereigns since the capture of Seville by St. Fer- dinand, rises in embattled towers and massive masonry, a medieval castle on the southern side of the Plaza del Triunfo. Here was the Prsetorium of the Roman days and on its ruins the Moorish kings had their palace or Alcazar, a huge citadel, the strongest fortification of the city, originally con- structed for Abu Yakub Yusuf. Very little re- mains of his structure, however, the nucleus of the present one being built by Pedro the Cruel, other- wise called Pedro the Judge, in the fourteenth cen- tury, the most popular king of Seville, his surnames having been given according to the point of view of the observer. Within the Alcazar, Pedro mur- dered his brother Fadrique, and also his guest, Abu Said of Granada, the latter crime being com- mitted to secure the Moor's valuable jewels. One

Alcazar, Seville,

SEVILLE AND THE CID 51

Faith bearing the banner of Constantine and turn- ing around to face every wind and storm. This celebrated Giralda, regarded as the most splendid tower in Europe, is under the special protection of Saints Justa and Kufina, depicted in one of Murillo's noted paintings in the Seville Museum.

The cathedral has five stained glass windows, and in the nave is the tombstone of Ferdinand, the son of Columbus, who died in 1540, giving the Cathedral Chapter his extensive library, still preserved, numbering thirty thousand volumes, many being printed books of that period relating to the dis- covery of America. It also contains the monument of Columbus, which was removed from the Havana Cathedral in 1899. In the Capilla Eeal in a silver shrine, is the body of St. Ferdinand III, King of Spain, the captor of Seville from the Moors after six months' siege, on St. Clement's Day, November 3, 1248, who died in 1252, and also the tombs of King Alfonso the Learned, who died in 1284, and his mother, Beatrice of Suabia. Upon the high altar here is the statue of the Vergcn de los Reyes, given to St. Ferdinand by St. Louis of France, a figure with removable golden hair, and covered with splendid vestments, though the golden crown was stolen- in 1873. The two keys of Seville captured by St Ferdinand are in the Treasury — the silver key of the Moors — with the inscription: "May Allah grant that Islam may rule eternally in this

52 THE MEDITERRANEAN

city"; and the iron-gilt key of the Jews, with the words, " The King of Kings will open, the King of the Earth will enter." There are also many paint- ings in the chapels by the great masters, among them Murillo's masterpiece, St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Holy Child, painted in 1656. In November, 1874, the kneeling figure of the saint was cut out of this canvas, and taken to America, where it was recovered in Xew York three months afterward. It has been very skilfully replaced in the picture.

The Alcazar, the residence of the Spanish sovereigns since the capture of Seville by St. Fer- dinand, rises in embattled towers and massive masonry, a medieval castle on the southern side of the Plaza del Triunfo. Here was the Prsetorium of the Roman days and on its ruins the Moorish kings had their palace or Alcazar, a huge citadel, the strongest fortification of the city, originally con- structed for Abu Yakub Yusuf. Very little re- mains of his structure, however, the nucleus of the present one being built by Pedro the Cruel, other- wise called Pedro the Judge, in the fourteenth cen- tury, the most popular king of Seville, his surnames having been given according to the point of view of the observer. Within the Alcazar, Pedro mur^ dered his brother Fadrique, and also his guest, Abu Said of Granada, the latter crime being com- mitted to secure the Moor's valuable jewels. One

Alcazar, Seville.

SEVILLE AND THE CID 53

of these, a large ruby, was given by Peter to the English Black Prince, and is now included in the regalia of the British crown. The Alcazar suffered from fires, was at various times enlarged, embel- lished and restored, and is to-day one of the great show *buildings of Spain. Its " Court of the Maidens," a cloistered space about sixty feet square, adorned by exquisite Moorish arches, the fine fagade of the Patio de la Montera, a richly adorned struc- ture in the Persian style ; and the " Hall of the Ambassadors," a magnificent room thirty-three feet square surmounted by a dome, are its chief adorn- ments. On the walls of the latter are the portraits of the kings of Spain down to Philip III. The Alcazar has attractive gardens, and adjoining them is a vaulted gallerv'^ w^here Maria de Padilla, the morganatic wife of King Pedro, used to bathe. The chronicler of that time tells us solemnly that Don Pedro's courtiers displayed their gallantry by drinking the water. The Seville Museum has many paintings by the old masters collected from the ancient convents and now housed in the Convent of la Merced, w^hich St. Ferdinand founded. The noted Seville University was established by King Alfonso the Learned in 1256, and was greatly en- larged in subsequent reigns.

Among the attractions of Seville are the famous church festivals which are part of the official life of the city and draw great crowds of visitors. The

54 THE 3kIEDITERRANEAN

chief festivals are at Corpus Christi, the Conception, on the three carnival days, All Saints' Day, Christ- mas, and during Holy Week. The culminating celebrations are during the latter period, the Semana Santa, when Seville is crowded to overflowing, and prices are high. There are magnificent processions of the Confradias, or Keligious Brotherhoods, car- rying through the streets gorgeously adorned statues of saints upon litters illuminated by many candles. In front are the soldiers, guards and gendarmes, followed by the brotherhood members wearing masks, white-robed girls, the town council and bands of music. The Lord ]Mavor of Seville reviews them as they pass the City Hall — the Senor Alcalde Presi- dente — and they proceed to the cathedral, large crowds witnessing the march. The first procession is on Palm Sunday in the afternoon, and others on Wednesday, Thursday and Good Friday, there being both an early morning and an afternoon procession on Friday. There are elaborate ceremonials within the cathedral. On Wednesday, the Velo Blanco, the " Veil of the Temple," is rent in twain with an accompaniment of thunder; the oil is consecrated on Thursday in the presence of the Cathedral Chapter, towTi council and other functionaries, with the " Washing of the Feet " in the evening. There are sen'ices throughout Friday, and early Saturday morning the Cirio Pascual is consecrated, a gigantic candle twenty-five feet long and weighing about eight

SEVILLE AND THE CID 55

hundred pounds. The " Revelation of the High Altar" follows through the rending of the Velo Xegro, accompanied by the Gloria in Excelsis with peals of thunder and the ringing of all the church bells. There is also a curious " Dance of the Six Boys," usually performed in front of the high altar, reproducing the Israelitish dance before the ark, the boys appearing in fantastic dress of the sixteenth century. The Easter music and solemn high mass attract an enormous congregation.

In the Chapel of Granada, alongside the entrance to the Seville Cathedral, are kept various relics, among them a huge elephant's tusk and the Lagarto, from which the cathedral entrance is named the Puerta del Lagarto, meaning ^^ the lizard." This is a stuffed crocodile that was sent in 1260 by the Sultan of Egypt to King Alfonso the Learned, ac- companying a request for the hand of his daughter. Here hangs also the alleged bridle of Babie^a, the horse of El Cid, the national romantic and chiv- alrous hero of Spain, who appeared at Seville dur- ing the height of the ^Moslem power, in the reign of Motamid, to collect tribute for the king of Old Castile, Alfonso, and when El Cid came here he found Motamid in straits, for Abdallah the king of Granada had brought a large army against Motamid and was laying siege to the city. The chivalrous hero at once attacked Abdallah, defeated him under the walls of Seville with great slaughter, and re-

56 THE AlEDITERRAXEAN

turned to his king Alfonso at Burgos, the capital of Old Castile, with many prisoners and rich booty. But Alfonso turned against him, El Cid was ac- cused of attacking the Moors without authority, and of keeping back part of the Seville tribute, and was banished from Old Castile. Then began the great Spanish hero's picturesque and romantic life that has been described during subsequent centuries by an endless catalogue of minstrels, romancers and song writers, enveloped in myth and story, expand- ing with the lapse of time, until it has made him the impersonation of Spanish chivalry and renown, col- ored with marvellous attributes and achievements.

Eodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who thus became the most prominent figure in medieval Spanish literature, was bom at Vivar, north of Burgos, about 1030, and as he became the foremost man of that heroic period in Spain and the greatest warrior produced in the long struggle between the Christian and the Moslem, his titles were given him by the Moors, El Seid, meaning " the lord," and El Campeador, or " the champion," for in a trial at arms by single combat, he had slain the enemy's champion. He served King Ferdinand I of Old Castile and his sons, in their campaign against the Moors of the Guadalquivir, and on Ferdinand's death was the champion of his son Sancho I. When the latter was slain, and his brother Alfonso aspired to the throne. El Cid made him take a solemn oath that he

SEVILLE AND THE CID 49

hundred thousand population, the walls having a circumference of ten miles, being pierced with twelve gates. A second era of great prosperity came after the discovery of America, when Seville was one of the chief Spanish ports and had been given the monopoly of the transatlantic trade. The two lead- ing Spanish artists were bom in Seville, Velasquez in 1559 and Murillo in 1617, and it was also the birthplace of Cardinal Wiseman in 1802, while in the Roman days, when it was a favorite home of the patricians, three emperors were bom at Itabica in the suburbs, Hadrian, Trajan and Theodosius.

The escape of Seville from the great earthquake which demolished Lisbon, Xovember 1, 1755, is com- memorated by a procession on the anniversary, and by a monument in the chief public square, the Plaza del Triunfo, not far from the river. Front- ing this square are its two greatest buildings, the Cathedral on the northern and the Alcazar on the southern side. The grand Cathedral of Santa Maria, the greatest church in the world next to St. Peter's at Eome, has its splendid front, the Capilla Real, rising from the square, flanked at the northeastern angle by the famous Giralda, the most conspicuous landmark, as it is the oldest and most beautiful structure in Seville. The Moors built here the great Mosque of Abu Yakub Yusuf, and the Giralda was its minaret or prayer tower. When

the Christians drove the Moors out of Seville, they Vol. 1—4

50 THE IklEDITERRANEAN

made the mosque their cathedral. Then in the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries they built the present cathedral on the site of the mosque, preserving the Giralda. Various earthquake shocks having weakened the cathedral, a thorough restoration is now being ac- complished. It is nearly four hundred feet long and two hundred and fifty feet wide, ha\'ing a nave, double aisles, and two rows of side chapels, and in addition the fronting Capilla Real, ninety-two feet long and one hundred and thirty feet high, while the nave rises two feet higher. The entire area cov- ered is 124,000 square feet. The magnificent Giralda, named from the Spanish word girar, " to turn round," referring to the giraldillo or weather- cock surmounting it, is forty-nine feet square at the base, the walls being eight to ten feet thick, and was originally two hundred and thirty feet high, the upper walls ornamented with Arabesque-like sunken panels, niches and windows, that had been highly decorated. An embattled platform then crowned it with an iron standard and four enormous balls of brass, which the muezzin sounded for the prayer-calls. These were overt hro\vn by an earthquake in 1395. Subsequently the tower was repaired, and a belfry built above with another tower on top, and capped with a small dome, on which stands the famous weathercock, three hundred and eight feet from the ground. This is a bronze female figure thirteen feet high and weighing over a ton, representing

THE ANCIENT MOORISH CAPITAL 59

conquest^ when this had been a Christian church. The mosque was again made a church and is called " the Christ of the Light," the image, which is still preserved over the altar, having real hair and a beard. There was an unsuccessful effort made by the Span- ish king, Philip II, to have El Cid canonized as the impersonation of the heroic national life of Spain, but objection was made at Rome. All sorts of romances have been interwoven in his life during the centuries, and he is still invoked by good Span- iards in every national crisis. His fame has been sung by the Spanish minstrels for generations, in ballads full of the most extravagant laudation and mythical exploits, while not a few Spanish grandees are proud to know that his blood courses through their veins.

THE ANCIENT MOOEISH CAPITAL.

The Guadalquivir comes to Seville from the north- east through a plain, from which in looking back at that city the great cathedral is seen to tower above the lower white buildings, as Gautier has expressed it, " like an elephant standing amid a flock of rest- ing sheep." The river flows in a fertile valley, re- ceives many tributaries, and among them about fifty miles from Seville, the sturdy Jenil coming west- ward with the ample tribute of the Sierra Xevada snows from Granada, this river being the Singibis of the Romans and the Shenil of the Moors. There

60 THE MEDITERRANEAN

are rapids below the Jenil mouth, where old Moorish mills are located. Beyond, at some distance, rises high above the Guadalquivir the fine Moorish castle of Almodovar del Rio, with its detached tower on a hill, which King Pedro the Cruel is said to have used as his treasure house in the fourteenth century. About seventy-five miles northeast of Seville, the river makes a sharp curve at the base of the Sierra de Cordoba, a projecting spur of the Sierra Morena, and here at an elevation of about four hundred feet above the sea, on a plain sloping gently upward from the Guadalquivir, is the ancient capital of the Moors, the city of Cordova, with about sixty thousand peo- ple. But outside of the cathedral, the former mosque, which has been seriously defaced, there are few relics of that time. The public squares are small, the streets narrow and rough, the old walls in ruins, the houses low and whitewashed and the homes of the powerful nobles deserted, but Cordova still possesses its noble views of the mountains be- hind it and the splendid valley of the " great river " in front, to the southward.

The Moorish Omavvades of the Abderrahman dynasty in the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, built its great mosque, or JMesdjid, still the most imposing monument of the Moorish domination in Spain, which made Cordova the Moslem !Mecca of the West, and a city that was the home of students from all nations and among the greatest and wealth-

THE ANCIENT MOORISH CAPITAL 61

iest in Europe. This mosque was built on the site of a Roman temple, and was the Mesdjid aJ-Djamij or " chief place of prayer," their largest religious structure in Spain, and second in size to that of Mecca alone, among all the Mosques of Islam. When the Moors came they found here near the north bank of the river, the Visigothic Christian Church of St. Vincent, of which they got possession, and here Abderrahman I in 785 began the construc- tion of the Zeca, or " House of Purification," made of ten rows of columns taken mostly from Christian churches and occupying about one-fifth of the site of the present building. These columns divided it longitudinally into eleven aisles, and transversely into twelve. The central aisle, somewhat wider than the others, had a short prolongation beyond the enclosing wall, forming the Mihrab or " prayer- recess." To this structure was added on the north the Haram or " Court of Ablutions " completed shortly after his death, and his successor Ilisham I placed there a fountain, and also built the ancient tower for the Muezzin^ or " prayer-crier." Every ruler afterward added extensions to the mosque, with more columns, aisles and adjunct buildings, and its growth attracted pilgrims from all parts of Islam, 80 that the population of Cordova was largely in- creased by accessions from Arabia, Syria and Africa. The Caliph Abderrahman III did a great deal, and his successor Ilakim II doubled its size so that

!62 THE MEDITERRANEAN

in the later tenth century Arabic writers, in admira- tion, recorded of this mosque that " in all the lands of Islam there was none of equal size, none more admirable in point of work, construction and dura- bility." Then came Caliph Hisham II, who made further additions by adding more rows of columns, widening the structure, and about the year 990 it was practically completed with nineteen aisles, giv- ing the profound impression of endless space to the visitor, as he gazed through the long vistas of ap- parently innumerable rows of columns.

The period of greatest magnificence in Cordova was during the long reign of Abderrahman Annasis Ledinallah, knoA\Ti as Abderrahman III, from 912 to 961. His seraglio is said to have numbered 6,300 persons and he was attended in the field by twelve thousand horsemen, " whose belts and scimitars were studded with gold." Gibbon, who records this, men- tions a memorial the Caliph had written, which was found after his death, in which he spoke of his long reign " in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot ; they amount to fourteen. O man, place not thy confi- dence in this present world." The line of the

THE ANCIENT MOOKISH CAPITAL 63

Omayyades of the Abderrahman dynasty became ex- tinct in 1031.

St. Ferdinand captured Cordova in 1238, and the renowned mosque then became the Christian Church of the Vergen de la Asuncion. The space occupied is about 240,000 square feet, equal to tliat of St. Peter's in Kome, and is a rectangle five hun- dred and seventy feet long and four hundred and twenty-five feet wide, of which the mosque covers two-thirds and the large court one-third. An em- battled wall thirty to sixty-five feet high, standing on ponderous terraces and having massive buttresses, surrounds it, there having originally been twenty- two gates, of which ten are still preserved, though there were none at any time on the southern side. Like most Moorish structures, the exterior thus is a mass of monotonous masonry looking much like a fortress. The gates were surmounted by decorated horseshoe arches and had bronze-mounted doors and knockers. The word Deus is inscribed in Gothic characters, with the Arabic inscription " the lordship belongs to Allah and his protection." The Bell- Tower, taking the place of the Moorish minaret, rises three hundred feet, having been largely reconstructed in the sixteenth century to resemble the Seville Giralda, and it is surmounted by a weathercock fig- ure of St. Raphael, the patron saint of Cordova. From the top there is an admirable view over the city and its splendid surrounding? of mountain and

64 THE meditp:hranean

river scenery. Within the enclosure the " Court of Ablutions " is now called the " Court of Oranges," its fountains, palms and orange trees giving an ex- cellent representation of oriental repose, the rows of orange trees reproducing the nineteen aisles of the mosque in continuation, although the nineteen arched gateways are now reduced to three. There were various alterations made in the mosque that marred its symmetry and beauty, but it still resembles the older mosques, and though of moderate height, thirty-eight feet, and with much of the perspective vistas destroyed by the changes made, it gives the visitor the impressive idea in the subdued light, of an endless forest of columns. There are still over eight hundred and fifty columns standing, in mar- ble, jasper, breccia, porphyry and other materials of diverse styles, and said by tradition to have been gathered from many churches in towns captured by the ]\roors, and brought from everywhere they made conquests, but the modern investigators have found that most of them came out of Andalusian quarries. They are about thirteen feet in height with a double row of arches between their capitals and the roof, the lower arches horseshoes, and the upper resting on slender pillars imposed on the columns, giving a singularly beautiful effect by the interlaced crossings above. The ornamented roof originally was open work made of larchwood, and the florid Arabic writ- ers tell of the more than seven thousand lamps which

Court of Oranges, Mosque of Cordova.

THE ANCIENT MOOIUSH CAPITAL 65

hung from nearly three hundred chandeliers to light the interior, and the vast amount of oil consumed, saying, " The gold shines from the ceiling like fire; it blazes like the lightning when it darts across the clouds."

There were many alterations made in the mosque, involving the removal of large numbers of columns and the destruction of the superb Moorish ceilings when the changes came in the sixteenth century that then established a high-roofed church choir in the centre of the mosque, and those changes marred much of the elaborate beauty for which the structure was famous. The holy Mihrab, its axis directed toward the south, to face Mecca, is the culminating point in the decoration of all mosques. The earliest Mihrab is gone; the second is mutilated; but the third, built by Hakim II, is preserved and is the gem of the building to-day. This is a seven-sided, chapel-like structure, about thirteen feet in diameter, having a large vestibule (now the Chapel San Pedro) and two side rooms. The Mihrab became the sacristy to the chapel. The dome of this Moor- ish vestibule — now the chapel — is in the form of a pineapple, below which interlacing arches rest upon marble columns, brilliantly colored mosaics adorn- ing tlie walls that also bear Arabic inscriptions. These mosaics were executed a thousand years ago by workmen sent with the materials from Constanti- nople, and they faded, but now are rather poorly Vol. 1—5

66 THE MEDITERRAXEAN

restored. The Milirab itself has a ceiling twenty- eight feet above the floor, made of a white marble block hollowed to form a shell. The splendid arch- way entrance leading from the vestibule rests upon two green and two blue columns, that were removed from the earlier Mihrabs, and the walls are panelled with richly carved marbles. When the Christian church first took possession they named this the Chapel of the Zancarron, or the " bare bone," as the tradition was that a bone of Mohammed had been preserved in it. The pavement of white marble within the septagon is worn by the Moslem pilgrims, who in unending troops made a sevenfold circuit of the little enclosure on their knees. A splendid Moorish pulpit was formerly in the side-room toward the east — a desk upon wheels w^hich bore the sacred copy of the Koran, said to have been written by the Caliph Omar, the second in descent from Moham- med, and to have been sprinkled with his blood. This central church in the mosque which displaced so many columns is about two hundred and fifty feet long with its chapels, and has short transepts. There is also a parish church constructed in the south- eastern corner of the cathodral-mosque, and in vari- ous parts are forty-five other chapels.

Cordova has an extensive Alcazar, partly of Moor- ish construction, near the river, and southwest of the cathedral. Here sat the Inquisition, and in it is now the prison. The triunfo, erected in honor of

Interior of the Mosque, Cordova.

THE ANX'lENT MOORISH CAPITAL 67

St. Raphael, is south of the cathedral, having in front Philip ll's gateway, a Doric triumphal arch, the Puerta del Puente, leading to the ancient Moor- ish bridge across the Guadalquivir, its sixteen arches standing on Koman foundations. From this bridge there is a good view of the mosque, its sombre en- closing wall dominated by the high central church walls and belfry, with the noble background of the mountains to the northward. The road to Seville begins at the southern end of the bridge, which is protected by a massive fortified gateway. Cordova in the Roman days was the birthplace of Lucan the Stoic and of the two Senecas. The noted Kabbi Moses Maimonides was bom here in 1139, and also the painter Pablo de Cespedes in 1538 and Juan de Valdes Leal in 1630. The famous " Gran Capitan " Gonzales of Cordova, the conqueror of Xaples from the French in the late fifteenth century, was bom at Montilla, about thirty miles southeast of Cordova, in 1453. He was one of the greatest Spanish gen- erals at the time of the kingdom's highest power, and the leader of the armies of Ferdinand and Isa- bella, being active in the defeat of the Moors and conquest of Granada, and the negotiator of the sur- render of Boabdil, their last caliph, in January, 1492. Farther eastward among the mountain spurs near Martos rises the steep precipice of the Carva- jales. The tradition is tliat in the early fourteenth century Ferdinand IV ordered the brothers Carvajal,

68 THE MEDITERRANEAN

unjustly condemned without trial for murder, to be thrown from this height. Before their death on August 8, 1312, they solemnly summoned the king to meet them at the judgment seat of God in thirty days. Ferdinand suddenly died one month after- ward on September 7 and was consequently called El Emplazado, " the summoned," in later times.

CADIZ AND TR.VFALGAB.

South of the Guadalquivir delta, the low Spanish shore made by its deposits protrudes to the west- ward, with hills in the background, the plain being largely occupied by vineyards and market gardens. Beyond these the Bay of Cadiz is deeply indented, and farther southward the Isle of Leon is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. From this island there extends northwestward a long, narrow, rocky peninsula, broadening at its northern termina- tion, and almost completely enclosing the spacious harbor of Cadiz, the city being built upon this penin- sula. As the steamer moves along, the dazzlingly white city rises apparently from the water, like a castle in mid-ocean, surmounted by the dome-topped cathedral, and the entrance to the harbor opens to the eastward with forts dotted about on every de- fensive eminence. There are other ports upon the extensive bay into which the pretty river Guadalete, i?oming out of the hills past Jerez, empties. All of the?e ports are very ancient settlements, mostly an-

CADIZ AXD TRAFALGAR 69

tedating the Bomans. Among them is the Portus Menesthai and the Puerto de Santa Maria, devoted to fisheries and the wine trade, Portus Gaditanus, now Puerto Real, which deals in salt and has some- what lost its ancient renown through modern eclipse, and within the hay old Isla de Leon, at present called San Fernando, and the chief Spanish naval station. To the southward of the latter, on an eminence, for- merly stood the Temple of the Tyrian Hercules, a work of the Plia?nicians which was highly venerated afterward by the Komans. All about the broad bay the low shores display lagoons and salt marshes, the landscape being decidedly Venetian, and dominated far away across the water as seen from every point of view, by " fair Cadiz rising o*or the dark blue sea."

Upon the rock of limestone, almost completely surrounded by the ocean, terminating the peninsula of the Isle of Leon, is the great seaport and naval station of Spain, the place of earliest Iberian settle- ment on the Atlantic coast. The powerful waves might wash it away were it not for the massive pro- tecting walls about twenty feet thick and sometimes fifty feet high which buttress it all around. The origin is involved in the mystery of prehistoric times, but it is kno^\^l that the Phoenician adven- turers brought their tin and amber from the northern seas to this Tyrian Gadir or " castle," more than a thousand years before the Christian era. Carthage

70 THE ]MEDITERRANEAN

got possession 500 B. C. and made a wealthy settle- ment here, equipping their fleets and armies. Then it became Gades and the Romans possessed it, the Tarshish of Scripture, the Greek writers marvelling at the great Atlantic tides, rising six to ten feet, a surprising daily cliange in level unknown to the Mediterranean. Ca?sar and Pompey disputed for it, and in the days of Augustus it was famed for wealth and luxury, and became the exporting mart for the rich products of the fertile valley of the Guadalquivir. Then the barbarians came, it fell in decadence, and as the Djezirat-Kadls of the Moors it had little history, they making Seville and Cor- dova their chief ports and cities. Alfonso the Learned captured the almost abandoned settlement in 12C2 and had to re-people it. The discovery of America and the " silver fleets of the Indies " re- stored it to some prosperity, and then the Barbary corsairs attacked it in the sixteenth century. Drake bombarded it in 1587, burning the shipping, and in 1596 Essex in reprisal for the Spanish Armada cap- tured and plundered the town and destroyed thirteen Spanish warships and forty galleons in the harbor, causing ruin and a long bankruptcy. The English made several subsequent attempts at capture, being not then possessed of Gibraltar, but despite these attacks the enormous imports of silver from Amer- ica poured into this " silver saucer," as the towns- folk called their city, averaging $25,000,000 an-

CADIZ AND TRAFALGAK 71

nually, restored prosperity, and in 1770 it was ac- counted wealthier than London. Cadiz has had various vicissitudes since and is now suffering from the rivalry of Seville, having considerably declined in the nineteenth century, but it still has much trade, and a population of seventy thousand, being one of the strongest fortresses of Spain.

The siege and capture by Essex in 1596 almost entirely destroyed the older town, so that nearly everything of antiquity is gone, and it has since been practically rebuilt, and excepting some narrow, crooked streets mostly adjacent to the cathedral, the Cadiz of to-day is modem. The chief impression is of the dazzling whiteness — a plaster of Paris city — all the buildings being covered with whitewash thickly bestowed, and one writer, De Amicis, in describing it asserted that the best impression would be given by writing the word " white," with a white pencil on blue paper to represent the water and sky. The flat-roofed houses are topped by miradores or view-towers, and the Spaniards followed the Moors in the methods of construction and in the lavish in- terior decoration with marble, and also quoting from the Moors they have likened their city to the " dish of silver." The restricted area of the peninsula has precluded either Avide streets or large open squares and has also compelled the building of the houses higher than is usual in southern Spanish towns. The point of outlook is the Tavira, or Watch Tower,

72 THE MEDITERRANEAN

in the centre of the city, rising one hundred feet above the elevated plateau, the signal station for the shipping, and giving a splendid view over ocean, bay and the distant eastern mountains. The new cathedral is modem, and not very large, being sur- mounted by a ponderous dome rising one hundred and seventy feet. The old Capuchin convent, now an insane asylum, has in its Church of Santa Cata- lina the last and one of the best paintings by Murillo, the Betrothal of St. Catharine. Before he had en- tirely completed it he had a fall from the scaffold resulting in his death in April, 1CS2, another artist giving the painting its finishing touches. In the Cadiz Botanic Garden is an attractive collection of sub-tropical plants, and a dragon-tree five centuries old.

It was from Cadiz that tlie Spanisli fleet sailed out to fight the fateful battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805, and the tomb of its defeated Admiral Gravina is in one of the Cadiz churches. South- ward from the city, the coast is generally low and trends toward the southeast to Cape Trafalgar, a sandy point guarding the northern side of the Medi- terranean entrance. It terminates in two headlands and has a powerful lighthouse, visible for twenty miles at sea. This was the Roman Promontorium Junonis, and about twenty-eight miles across the sea, a little east of south, is the corresponding head- land at the northwestern extremity of Africa, Cape

Cadiz.

CADIZ AND TRAFALGAR 73

Spartel, guarding the entrance on that side, the Promontorium Ampeliisia, with an even more power- ful light maintained on this Moroccan coast by the maritime powers of Europe, and having a sea range of twenty-five miles. The Moorish title of Trafal- gar, from which its present name is derived, was Tarf-al-agharr, the " Cape of the cave," in allusion to a neighboring grotto.

In 1804, Napoleon was busily preparing for the invasion of England, collecting an enormous army at Boulogne in the winter of 1804-5 to cross the channel and land on the Englisli coast under pro- tection of his fleet, to which Spain, then in Bona- partist control, lent all its naval aid. But Lord Nelson crushed the combined Erench and Spanish fleets in the victory at Trafalgar, paying with his own life for a success which at that time destroyed the naval power of both France and Spain. For nearly two years prior to March, 1805, the French fleets had been bottled up by the English in Brest and Toulon. But during March the French Admiral Villeneuve escaped from Toulon, his mission being to join Gravina's Spanish squadron, cross the Atlan- tic to the West Indies, and then returning, relieve the other French and Spanish fleets blockaded in various ports, and go to the English Channel with a vast armada of over fifty ships of the line, so as to cover the crossing to England of the French invading army from Boulogne. Nelson had chased the

7-4 THE I^IEDITERRANEAN

French ships in various directions but lost track of them for much of the time. Villeneuve and Gra- vina, after spreading terror through the West Indies, returned to Cadiz, anchoring in the Spanish harbor, where Xelson, who had been given the supreme com- mand, soon found them, and he came outside Cadiz ready for the attack in September, 1803, with a fleet including thirty-three ships, Villeneuve and Gravina having about forty vessels, of which thirty-three were ships of the line. Xelson tried his best to get them to come out for a fight, and the situation became such that Villeneuve resorting to various expedients to avoid a battle, Xapoleon finally stigmatized him as a feeble coward, and sent peremptory orders to him to go out and give Xelson battle, as everything depended upon it. Xelson kept most of his ships oif shore so as not to be seen, and finally a false report coming to Cadiz that there were only twenty British ships in the offing, the French and Spanish fleets sailed out of Cadiz harbor, October 20.

Xelson planned to break the enemy's line at two points, by dividing the British fleet into two col- unms, the northern headed by himself in the Vic- iory, and the other by Admiral Colling wood, in the Boyal Sovereign, When the enemy came out from Cadiz they found a broad, crescent-shaped line com- posed of two rows of ships, the rear ships covering the spaces inten^ening between those in the front line. At daybreak on the morning of the 21st, Vil-

CADIZ AXD TRAFALGAR 75

leneuve's fleet was sighted coming down the coast off Cape Trafalgar to engage the British. Nelson at once ordered his columns to advance toward the enemy, and deafening cheers broke from the British crews when he hoisted the famous signal on the flag- ship Victory, " England expects that every man will do his duty," a signal of which Southey said in his life of the hero, that it " will be remembered as long as the language, or even the memory, of England shall endure." It is said that Villeneuve when he heard the vigorous shouting was much affected by it, so that he lost heart before the combat began and exclaimed to his officers, " All is lost." The Royal Sovereign being the swiftest sailer, Colling- wood's ship advanced ahead of Xelson's, and also of the rest of the fleet, and became the first engaged, penetrating the centre of the enemy's line. As Nel- son saw this, he pointed to the advancing ship, and said, " See how that noble fellow Collingwood car- ries his ship into action." Almost at the same in- stant a remark of Colling\vood's to his ca]>tain was recorded, made as if in response to that of his com- mander, " What would Nelson give to be here ? " The valor and skill shown by CoUingw^ood had a powerful influence. His ship closed with the Spanish Admiral Gravina's flagship, the Santa Anna, pour- ing in such rapid and unerring broadsides that she was on the eve of striking almost before another British ship had fired a gun. Several of her con-

76 THE 3HEDITERRAXEAN

sorts seeing the peril of the Spaniard came to her assistance and hemmed in the Royal Sovereign on all sides, but the latter was soon relieved by the more tardy squadron coming up, and then the Santa Anna struck her colors. The French and Spanish line was quickly pierced, most of their ships scarcely firing a shot. Divided, scattered and overpowered at every point, the allied fleet was soon a disabled and helpless mass of fragments, pursued by the conquerors. It was one of the most crushing naval defeats in his- tory, almost two-thirds of the allied fleet being either destroyed or captured, and the French and Spanish navies were for the time swept from the ocean. But in his hour of greatest triumph, Nelson was killed. A musket ball fired from one of the Redoubtable' s tops, with which ship the Victory was engaged, in- flicted a mortal wound on Xelson about an hour after the battle began, and toward evening, he died. Thus cut off in his prime, at the early age of 47, the death of the greatest naval hero England had produced, caused a profound sensation. His remains were taken to London and interred in St. Paul's Cathedral the following January, and as a superb memorial the Xelson Column, bearing his statue, and guarded by the four famous British lions, was erected in Trafal- gar Square in the heart of the English capital.

A few days before the battle Xelson planned it practically as it was fought, writing a " General Memorandum," which was given to his ship captains.

CADIZ AND TRAFALGAR 77

The original draft of this famous document in Nel- son's handwriting came into possession of Admiral Munday, who prior to his death gave all his papers to his valet in an old desk, which the valet in turn bequeathed to his son, a London omnibus driver. In October, 1005, the Trafalgar Centenary was cele- brated in England, causing much talk, and a pas- senger on the omnibus happened to ask the driver a question about Xelson, which drew the answer that he had a letter which Xelson had written. The passenger asked to see it and offered $50 and a suit of clothes for it. The wary driver, how^ever, did not sell for that, but talked to other passengers, the result being that he had it offered at Christie's auc- tion in London and in March, 1906, it was sold there for $18,000, and it is understood will go ultimately to the British Museum. The log of Xelson's ship Victory thus recorded his death on October 21, 1905 : " Partial firing continued until 4.30, when, a vic- tory having been reported to the Eight Honourable Lord Viscount Xelson, K. B., and Commander-in- Chief, he then died of his wound." Nelson is re- garded by the people of England as the greatest of the nation's heroes. Sir Cyprian Bridge said he was " the only man who has ever lived, who by universal consent is without a peer." Lord Eoseberry said, " There is no figure like his among those who have ploughed the weary seas," and that he is " the great- est of our heroes and the dearest to ourselves; we

Y8 THE MEDITERRANEAN

feel this in the marrow of our bones though we cannot so readily explain it." Captain !Mahan, the American naval authoritv, has written that he is

t/ 7

" the embodiment of the sea power of Great Britain." The result of this crushing blow of Trafalgar was that Xapoleon abandoned his project for invading England. This wonderful military genius then con- ceived the idea of taking the army he had gathered at Boulogne, and by quick movement crossing the Khine aud attacking his enemies of Russia and Aus- tria. On Docombor 2, 1805, he confronted them, commanded by their emperors, on the field of Aus- terlitz in Moravia, each side having about eighty thousand men in this noted conflict, often called the " Battle of the Three Emperors." In the early morning the " Sun of Austerlitz " shone brightly over the battlefield, giving Xapoleon a good omen, of which he often afterward spoke; he completely de- feated the allied army, and enforced a treaty of peace which was thorou":hlv disastrous to Austria.

ENTEKIXG THE GIBRALTAR STRAIT.

Beyond Cape Trafalgar, the Spanish coast trends to the eastward, behind the shallow Barbate Bay, while farther east the interior land surface rises in the hills of the Sierras de la Luna, and de los Gazules, which become almost mountains. The coast is al- most entirely treeless, but dotted by numeroua atalayaSj the ancient watch-towers, put here J)y the

ENTERING THE GIBRALTAR STRAIT ' 79

Moors, and later by the Si)aiiiards to spy out the invading forces so often coming over from Africa, the coast of Morocco now being in full view. The mountain chain projects in the Punta Marroqui, the southernmost point of Europe, while far away over the water, in Africa, are seen the white houses of Tangier off to the southwest, fringing a pleasant, curving bay. At the base of the Punta Marroqui is the ancient Moorish town of Tarifa, its fortifications obsolete and in partial decay, with a picturesque Moorish castle on the point, and a guiding light- house. Here the Moors levied revenue from vessels passing the Strait of Gibraltar, the Spaniards con- tinuing this toll until the result of protracted wars abolished the dues. From the name of Tarifa and its tribute levy is derived the significant word " tariff " now in such general use.

Rounding Tarifa the steamer is within the strait, and the Spanish coast tlien trends northeast toward the bay of Gibraltar, the African coast running al- most parallel, and the passage between them being about eight miles wide at tlie narrowest point be- tween Tarifa and Siris in Africa, to the southeast. High hills are behind both shores, and the navigation between is generally difficult, on account of the eddy- ing, changeable winds from the land, and the strong currents. The surface water alwavs flows from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean and often with a speed of five miles an hour. The current beneath is

80 THE MEDITEURAXEAN

more salt and heavier, having its set westward. The Gazules hills rise on the northern shore, while on the African side are the Sierra Bullones, higher hills culminating in the famous hill of Abyla, elevated 2,710 feet. Rounding the Punta Carnero into the Bay of Gibraltar the gigantic Eock comes into full view. Thus we see the " Pillars of Hercules," the Calpe of Europe and the Abyla of Africa, about twelve miles apart, the ancient guardians of the Mediterranean, westward bevond which was then the land of the unknown, but now the gateway to the wonderful scenery and wealth of the Orient. Dante described this gateway as

Tlie straight pass where Hercules ordained The boundaries not to be overstepped by men.

THE FORTRESS AND THE PALACE

II

THE FOETEESS AXD THE PALACE

The Mediterranean Sea — The Rock of Gibraltar — ^The Neutral Ground — La Linea — Gibraltar Town — Algcciras — The Rock's Defences — Its History — Its Fourteen Sieges — The Great Siege— Old Eliott— The Final Attack and Repulse of Sep- tember, 1782— The Fortress To-Day— Ronda—Bobadilla— Malaga^-r-Antpquera — ^Tlie Jen il — ^Lo j a — A Iha ma — lUora — Fi- nos Puente — Santa F^ — Granada — The Darro — The Albaicin ^^The Alha'mbra Palace^ — The AlcazaBa — The "Alameda^^ The Generalife — ^Attractions of the Alhambra — Charles V-'s Palace — Granada Cathedral — ^Downfall of the Moslems — Boabdil's Flight— Last Sigh of the :^Ioor.

THE ROCK OF GIBKAl.TAR.

Thou arttlfe Rock of Empire, set mid-seas ■ - Betweenthe East and West, that- God has built;

Advance thy Roman borders where thou wilt, While run thy armies true with liis decrees. Law, justice, liberty'-^ great gifts are these. -. Watch' th*at-tlH»y spread where English blood is spilt, -

Lest^ mixed and sullied with his country's guilt. The soldier's life-stream How, and Heaven displease!

In the olden time, the peoples living on the shores of the Mediterranean believed their great inland sea was the centre of the universe. They knew it was the centre of the earth for them and hence came its JL»me^ -ThevPh«ni&ian8^Gr<Beks- aml-Beman&ba^

83

84 THE MEDITERRANEAN

gradually extended their explorations and voyages over the neighboring and even more distant regions of land and water, and this confirmed their belief, especially as their erroneous astronomical theories made the sun, moon and stars all revolve around the earth, of which this great sea was the centre. The Mediterranean extends from Gibraltar at the west to Syria at the east, about twenty-one hundred miles, with a varying width of two hundred and fifty to five hundred miles, the coast being much indented by auxiliary seas and bays, and it covers a surface of about one million square miles. The shallowest depth is off the entrance fifty miles west of Gibraltar, where a ridge extends across from Spain to Africa, less than two hundred fathoms beneath the surface. This ridge falls sharply off westward toward the At- lantic, but eastward slopes more gently, reaching a thousand fathoms depth about one hundred and twenty miles east of Gibraltar, and sixteen hundred fathoms off the coast of Algiers. The deepest water is in the widest portion of the sea, between Malta and Crete, the maximum depth being twenty-one hundred and fifty fathoms. The Mediterranean waters are heavier and much salter than the Atlantic, as the ex- treme dryness of the atmosphere over the sea pro- motes evaporation, while the amount of fresh water contributed by the rainfall and the inflowing rivers is comparatively small. The evaporation is esti- mated as being at least double these supplies, and it

THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR 85

constantly tends to reduce the level of the surface, thus producing the strong inflow current of lighter and less salt water through the Strait of Gibraltar, preserving both the level and the relative salinity of the Mediterranean waters. The tidal changes are small, unlike the large tides in the Atlantic. The vast body of Avater in that extensive sea, which in reality ranks as an ocean, has a controlling influence in preserving the equalization of temperature on the adjacent shores.

Guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean stands the huge rock of Gibraltar like an enormous re- cumbent lion crouching on the sea, with his head pointed northward toward Spain. This is the great- est fortress in the world, and for more than two cen- turies has been held by England. To the arriving visitor, coming in from the Atlantic, the dark gray rock, while rising majestically from the water, pre- sents a bare and almost barren aspect, especially when the summer suns have dried up the verdure. Nearly three miles long, it is outlined against the blue sky, with the standard of England flying from the top- most ridge. But on nearer approach there is dis- closed a considerable covering of verdure, with here and there a grassy glen giving shelter to a group of trees, and luxuriant gardens surrounding some of the villas nestling at its base. In January and Febru- ary, gladdened by the rains, portions of the enormous rock present a charming sight from the profusion and

86 THE MEDITERRANEAN

beauty of the wild flowers. Many visitors have ad- mired and described it. Thackeray said it was " the very image of an enormous lion, crouched between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and set there to guard the passage for its British mistress." The German Kaiser William on his visit in March, 1904, bad his first view of the rock, and said it quite reached his expectations, adding, " It is grand, like everything English ; I am not surprised tliat Gibraltar is impregnable " ; and the Kaiser made a second visit in March, 1905.

The famous Eock is a long and comparatively narrow peninsula projected almost due southward, between the Mediterranean on the eastern side, and the bay of Gibraltar or Algeciras on the west. It is only about three-quarters of a mile broad at the widest part, and is almost entirely surrounded by water, being united to Spain by a flat sandy isthmus less than two miles long and only a half-mile wide. To the south, adjoining the Rock, this isthmus is British territorv ; then the fortified line of outer de- fence is constructed across, beyond which northward is the " Xeutral Ground," extending about sixteen hundred feet between the British and Spanish fron- tiers, and adorned by rows of sentry boxes, occupied by the respective outposts. To the northward, on this border line, is the undefended and somewhat strag- gling Spanish frontier town of La Linea de la Con- ception, whose population cultivate the vegetable gar-

THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR *87

dens supplying Gibraltar, and also provide laborers for the post. Stretching along the Bay of Gibraltar on the narrow surface at the base of the Rock, at its northwestern and western sides, is the town of Gi- braltar, and here is being constructed the elaborate new" harbor and dockyard for the post. At the north- em verge of the town on an elevation is the old Moor- ish castle, the earliest defensive work of the noted fortress, dating from the eighth century, and having a charming outlook. Out in front of it and far be- low, among the cemeteries, camps and gardens on the lower ground, and starting from the harbor's edge, runs due northward the " Koad to Spain," a highway with a history covering a dozen centuries. The Bay of Gibraltar to the westward of the Bock is a curving inlet from the sea about seven miles long and four to five miles wide, but only an indifferent harbor, being exposed both to southwest and easterly winds, so that the Gibraltar post has to be protected by artificial breakwaters and moles. Across this bav is the white to^\^l of Algeciras, the Moorish Al-Gezira-al-Kahdra or the " Green Island," nestling under the foothills of the Sierra do los Gazules. Algeciras came into prominence in 190G, the Moroccan Conference of the European Powers meeting there in the spring, which on April 7 signed the convention that arranged for the policing and control of that disturbed country. In front of the town is the ancient " Green island," now the Spanish Isla Verde. There are some Moor-

88 THE MEDITERRANEAN

ish survivals in this settlement, which was among the earliest made by the Moslems in Spain, but various wars practically destroyed the place, and two cen- turies ago it was repeopled by Spaniards, who left Gibraltar upon the English occupation. The greater port of the Gibraltar Eock, however, has entirely eclipsed it, and now it has no trade to speak of, ex- cepting a small export of cork from the adjacent for- ests. To the eastward of the Eock is the broad Mediterranean, and to the southward, off its termina- tion at Europa Point, is the Strait, and twelve miles away, but in full sight, the African coast and its hills culminating in the other Pillar of Ilercules, now called the Hill of Apes. Gibraltar has a good trade, and is the popular port of call for Mediterranean shipping, several thousand vessels passing annually. The basic rock of Gibraltar is for the most part a construction of Jurassic grayish white limestone of compact texture. Above the limestone are a series of dark grayish blue shales, with veins of sandstone and limestone, breccia and beds of sand. The geo- logical theory about it is, that anciently it formed part of an isthmus connecting Europe with Africa, with long periods of elevation and depression, the final depression having produced the present inter- vening strait. Like all limestone formations, the Rock is honcvcombed with caverns and subterraneous passages, so that it has been given also the popular title of the " Hill of Caves." This peculiarity of

THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR 89

formation has been availed of in the construction of galleries for defence of which there are many miles within the rock, and particularly at its northern end facing toward Spain. The Eock rises in a longitudi- nal ridge, elevated at the north in Mount Rockgun, 1356 feet, on the lion's head, then having an inter- vening lower saddle, and to the southward El Ilache, the signal station, 1295 feet, and the highest point, 1396 feet, and finally at the southern end of the ridgo O'Hara's Tower, 13G1 feet high, where it falls off to a plateau, and then a lower level terminating in Eu- ropa Point. The northern face toward Spain and the eastern side toward the Mediterranean, are almost vertical precipices needing no special defences, as it is apparently impossible to scale them, though the northern face is elaboratelv protected bv the extensive galleries making that front bristle with cannon point- ing over the " Xcutral Ground," and thus defending the to^vn and post from an attack. The southern and western sides descend more gradually in step- like terraces. Cactus plants overrun many of the slopes, and here live rabbits and some Barbary partridges, while a troop of a score or two of little Barbary apes or Magots have made their homes on the Eock and are said to be the onlv wild monkevs in Europe. These little pets are highly prized and carefully protected, and the rare case of a birth among them is duly chronicled in the society intelli- gence of the newspapers. So greatly esteemed are

90 • THE MEDITERRANEAN

they that the Gibraltar proverb is " Better kill the Governor, than the ' Major/ " who is their venerable chief.

The Rock is defended in the most elaborate way and is regarded as thoroughly impregnable. There are mounted in its casemates and batteries over two thousand guns, including the heaviest and most pow- erful cannon of modern construction, some of which are placed upon the highest elevations, whence they can bring to bear in action, a plunging fire down upon the decks of attacking ships; and having a range of eight or ten miles, the weakest part of the most powerful armored battleship is thus at the mercy of the gunners. In addition, the harbor and dockyard improvements are making Gibraltar an auxiliary naval station of the first class for the rein- forcement of the fortress in controlling the passage of the strait. The garrison in peace is five thousand to six thousand men, but in time of war the numbers can if necessary be greatly enlarged, for there are stores and water-cisterns ample to supply a hundred thousand men for over two years. The guns bristle at the base and all about the upper parts of the huge Rock, while ample batteries defend Europa Point, the southern termination, which is crowned by a lighthouse. This " Key to the Mediterranean " is a fortress, winter-resort, town and seaport combined, controlling the passage to Egypt, the Levant and the Orient, and the important traffic of the Suez Canal.

THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR 91

The town has narrow streets and crowded houses, terraced up the slopes of the Kock, to a height of nearly three hundred feet above the water, and de- veloping into the attractive villas of its southern suburb, where the bahny air favors the growth of shrubbery and flowers, decking the window-sills, nod- ding over the walls, and climbing up the cliffs around the casemates of the guns. There are huge oleanders and cactus plants, tall hedges of geranium and helio- trope, and almost all the time a delicious bloom and fragrance. The Alameda, the only parade ground, though restricted, occupies a good deal of surface and has attractive gardens. There is in the to\\Ti a de- velopment of all nationalities, with relics of the Moorish rule, though it has a distinctively Spanish aspect. British soldiers in bright scarlet jackets and little nobby caps hanging jauntily on the side of the head, bra\\Tiy Highlanders in kilts, and numerous yellow-slippered, bare-legged Moors with brilliant tur- bans and loose flowing costimies, and Portuguese and Spanish donkey drivers predominate and color the scene. Mounting to the top of the famous Rock, there is a gorgeous view. To the southwestward over the water, the ocean meets the sea where the distant Punta Marroqui protnules beyond the hills at Tarifa, while southward beyond the strait are the distant coast and hills of Africa, far away. Nearer, across the western bay, the white cottages of Algeciras nestle along the shore with the Gazules hills behind

92 THE MEDITEimAXEAX

them, and the railroad going out to the northward that is the traveller's route into Spain, The harbor works and quays and shipping are at one's feet, and northward to the right, the little town of Gibraltar fades away past cemeteries and gardens into the Neutral Ground with its distant rows of sentry boxes for the outposts, and the white village of La Linea beyond. Then the Spanish Mediterranean shore runs off to the far northeast, with the distant ranges of mountains culminating in the snowy outlines of Spain's highest peaks, in the far-away Sierra Nevada of Granada. The limitless Mediterranean spreads to the horizon eastward, and all about its surface are dotted moving vessels, the steamers leaving long trails of black smoke to mark their paths.

HISTORY OF THE rOKTRESS.

With the dawning of historical records the Phoe- nicians came here and made their settlement of Calpe in what is now the Bay of Gibraltar, while the Car- thaginians were also known in this region anterior to the Christian era, but the locality got its first fame, and the Rock its name, from the Moorish invasion of 711, their earliest appearance in Spain. Musa, the African viceroy over in Mauritania, of the Caliph of Damascus, sent across the strait a plundering expedi- tion under the Arab Tank ibn Zijad, landing near Algeciras. From this the Rock was given the name of Jehal al Tarik, the " hill of Tarik," which has

HISTORY OF THE FORTRESS 93

been gradually changed to Gibraltar. Two years later Tarik built the first defensive work on the Rock, and it was extended and strengthened during a score of years subsequently, making the present somewhat battered Moorish castle in the town of Gibraltar. For six centuries the Moors held it, enlarging the fortifications and defensive walls, and it was first captured by the Christians in the reign of Ferdinand IV, who held it twenty-three years, when the Moors recaptured it in 1333, and were again in possession more than a century. Duke Guzman of Medina Sidonia, the district to the northward, ousted them in 1462, and it was afterward a Spanish possession. The Algerian pirates attacked and plundered it, but the Spaniards greatly strengthened the works in the middle of the sixteenth century, extending them to the crest of the Eock. Prior to the eighteenth cen- tury it had undergone ten sieges and seen many mas- ters, and then it came under English control. The long " War of the Spanish Succession " had begun, in which England had taken the side of an Austrian archduke, proclaimed as king Charles III of Spain. In this contest, Admiral George Rooke in 1704, had taken an English fleet into the Mediterranean, in con- junction with Dutch allies led by Prince George of Hesse. After cruising about and accomplishing lilr tie beyond landing Charles on Spanish soil, the Admiral got the idea of trying his hand on Gibral- tar. There was a small Spanish garrison of about

94 THE MEDITERRANEAN

one hundred and fifty men when he came along and practically surprised them, and they made a good though hrief defence against overpowering numbers. After he had in this eleventh siege thrown about fif- teen thousand cannon shot at the works during two days, and occupied the town, they surrendered, and Eooke took possession for Charles III on August 4, 1704. nis opponent, Philip V (who ultimately suc- ceeded to the Spanish throne, the war ending in 1714, by the failure of the adherents of Charles), no sooner heard of this British occupation of Gibral- tar then he sought to recapture it, and thus began the twelfth siege in 1704-5.

The ^combined forces of France and- Spain- were sent against the Rock with a large army and fleet, and the attack was begim by a desperate attempt to- scale it. The tremendous cliff on the eastern face toward the Mediterranean rises almost sheer from the water, over twelve hundred feet There is indented here near ..the northern extremity of the Rock the- ahaJlow Catalan. Bay,, which, was- lined with fisher- men's huts,.and their boats, landed on a narrow- beach. This part of the cliff has. never- been fortified-,- bui at that time a Spanish goatherd had found a steep and tortuous path from the beach, up which he offered to lead a storming party through the clefts and fissures to the top of the Rock, and five hundred men volunteered for the attempt. They prepared for the^ desperate ..enterprise .r.by . solemn- r^igious

HISTORY OF THE FORTRESS 95

services, partook of the sacrament, and bound them- selves by oath to capture the fortress or perish in the attempt. The start was made at night, in darkness and silence. They toiled up the face of the cliff by a zigzag route, going gradually higher and south from the bay, until they reached St. Michael's Cave, at an elevation of nearly eleven hundred feet. This cave opens toward the eastward and is the largest of the stalactite caves on the Rock, being nearly three hundred feet long and sixty-five feet high, and it is almost under the highest part of the crest of the Eock, and is south of the surmounting signal sta- tion. Here they lay concealed until daybreak, when they sallied out, and part of tliem mounted to the top, surprising and killing the guard at the station. With ropes and ladders thoy then aided the others to ascend and stormed the wall which the Spaniards had earlier built from the town on the western side up to the hill-crest. By this time, however, the English garrison was fully aroused and the grenadiers from below came rushing up the hill. They were met by a galling fire and many fell, but reaching the top they charged with fury upon the invaders, killing a large number, and forcing the others over the preci- pice where they fell into the sea. The Spanish com- mander and two hundred men were taken prisoners, including the wounded, and the others were either killed or drowned. This was the first and last at- tempt to take Gibraltar by scaling the Eock. This

96 THE MEDITERRAXEAN

siege continued six months, but was abandoned after a loss of ten thousand men. The Peace of Utrecht in 1714 ended the " War of the Spanish Succession," leaving Gibraltar in English possession.

Another war broke out, and another siege began in 1727, the thirteenth of the series, a Spanish force beleaguering the Rock for five months with twenty thousand men but without success, and the treaty of Seville ended that conflict in 1729, with the fortress still held by the English. There were no further conflicts involving it during a half century, until 1779, when what is known as the " Great Siege " be- gan, continuing nearly four years and ending as the others, in English success. It is a fact regretted to this day by many in England that the original posses- sion of the fortress was tarnished in title, as it was taken ostensibly for the Austrian Prince who claimed to be " His Catholic Majesty of Spain," and as Spanish property, which when the claim was aban- doned, ought possibly to have reverted to Spain. The post was but lightly defended in those days, and the English premiers at home did not seem to value it much, for twice during the conflicts of the eight- eenth century they proposed to return Gibraltar to Spain in recompense for that country not continuing the alliance with France, and the second of these re- jected proposals was an English effort by the gift of Gibraltar to prevent Spain ceding Florida to France at Napoleon's behest. To-day, however, the

THE GREAT SIEGE 97

British statesman who would seriously propose giv- ing up Gibraltar does not exist, the determination being constantly emphasized that the holding of the Eock is essential to British supremacy. The London Times says : " That watch-tower we still hold. Its enforced surrender would be the doom of our sea- power, and even its voluntary exchange, except on terms of overwhelming strategical advantage, would be something like an act of political insanity." Yet to this day Gibraltar is claimed by the sovereign of Spain as part of his dominions, though recognized as " temporarily in the possession of the English," and all persons born on the Eock are entitled to the privi- leges of Spanish subjects. England rules Gibraltar both as a military post and as a colony, with a Gov- ernor, and the pleasant fiction of the " temporary possession " is carried out by various ceremonial vis- its between that official and the Spanish functionaries across the " Xeutral Ground."

THE gri:at siege.

The severest test to which the English possession

was ever put was in the " Groat Siege " beginning

in 1779. The French alliance with the American

colonies, and Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in

1778, prompted the attack, Spain then being at war

with England. But the fortress, imlike previous

occasions, had a strong garrison of over five thousand

men, with ninety-six cannon and a manly Governor, Vol. 1—7

98 THE MEDITERRANEAN

George Augustus Eliott, bom in Roxburghshire in 1718, a veteran in the military service, who had been given command of the Kock in 1775. He was sturdy and rugged and was familiarly called " Old Eliott " ; and to his skill and resource, much of the vigor and success of the long defence were due. In June, 1779, by order of the king of Spain, all inter- course with Gibraltar was cut off, but matters lay dormant for months. The Spanish plan was to starve out the garrison, so. they built a rampart across the " Xeutral Ground," preventing access by land, and sent a large fleet to maintain a blockade. They could readily shut off supplies by land, but found it difficult to do so by sea, the Kock having a circuit of seven miles and many adventurous craft taking advantage of fog and darkness could get in under cover of the gims with provisions. The blockade, however, worked so well that the garrison soon were on very short supply and food prices in the town became high. Hunger was the rule, but the noble old Governor shared all the privations of his men, and on one occasion actually lived for eight days on four ounces of rice daily to show them what he could do, taking neither meat nor wine. The blockade had continued until January, 1780, before the garrison had their eyes gladdened by sue- cor from a British fleet. This squadron had de- feated the Spanish fleet which went out into the Atlantic to meet the enemv, and could the British

THE GREAT SIEGE 99

ships have remained at Gibraltar the siege might have ended. A large supply of stores was landed, but the fleet had to sail away for service elsewhere, taking home to England a large company of women, children and the sick. Then the Spaniards got their warships together again and renewed the blockade more completely than before. But " Old Eliott " had learned a lesson ; with the opening season of 17S0 he set his troops at work cultivating every available patch of soil on tlie llock and thus raised needed vegetables, so that afterward they were not so near the starvation point, though ilhiess caused by the meagre diet put many in the hospitals, and there were also serious attacks of smallpox and scurvy, from the excessive use of salted meats. Just then a Dutch vessel loaded with oranges and lemons came out of ^Malaga, and a bold boat's crew capturing her, the cargo of fruit distributed in the hospitals was ravenously devoured, and the sick were cured. Thus matters continued until the spring of 1781, when England sent another fleet, convoying merchant ships, with supplies, arriving in April and again giving relief from the impending starva- tion.

This second succor roused the Spaniards, and con- vincing them that they could not hope to reduce Gibraltar by blockade, they decided upon a bom- bardment. Extensive batteries had been placed along the adjacent bay shores, with somt5 two -hun-

100 THE :HEDITERRAXEAN

dred and fifty cannon and mortars mounted, and a terrific firing began and was continued six weeks, with only two hours' intermission in the twenty- four. The cause for the two hours of silence is in- teresting. Ko Spanish gentleman under any cir- cumstances can be deprived of his noontide siesta, that being the national custom before which even war necessities must yield. The cannonade be- gan at daybreak and continued till noon — then the gunners went to sleep, and at two o'clock they woke up and began firing again, continuing until nightfall. The mortars then took up the fusillade until daybreak, for as they need not be aimed accurately they could be worked in the dark. Thus the booming roar of the guns continued, the town was soon burnt, and the garrison were in constant peril, bombs exploding at the casemates, and the soldiers kept busy dodging shells, of which dozens at a time were shrieking through the air. The Spanish vessels sailed aroimd Europa Point each night, and gave it a deadly fusillade. The British troops were shelled out of their quarters and their families had to abandon the town and the settlements on the Point, and they sought refuge in caves and fissures, behind rocks and in tents. Besides the hail from the guns, terrific rain-storms also poured down upon them, for it was the wet season, and they had a most forlorn 'time. But these ills were not without their compensations. The rains replenished

THE GREAT SIEGE 101

their water supply, and the gales occasionally cast a Spanish ship on the Rock, an abandoned wreck, which gave them supplies and what was sadly needed, fuel for the camp-fires. " Old Eliott " was every- where encouraging the disheartened and sustaining the spirits of his men.

There was not much reply made to the terrific bombardment, for the brave commander, always anxious to husband his resources, saw that it was useless and onlv a waste of ammunition. The Spaniards therefore relaxed the intensity of their fusillade, which had made no serious breach, and organized an assault. They had been over two years at the siege and the Rock still defied them, so they constructed by prodigious labor a stupendous parallel across the " Xeutral Ground," built of heavy timbers and other materials, to cover an attack which was to be aided by their heaviest guns. " Old Eliott " had watched this rampart gradually creep across the isthmus and knew what was in- tended. Soon he made up his mind that affairs were getting ripe for an offensive movement on his part. About this time a couple of discontented Walloons from Belgium, who wore in the camp of the besiegers, deserted and managed to get within the English lines. Tlicy were brought to the Governor, and he found one of them very intelligent. Going with the man to an outlook on the Rock where they could look down into the Spanish camp,

102 THE 3^IEDITERRANEAN

" Old Eliott " questioned liini. The deserter told the Governor that the parallel was nearly completed, and the Spaniards were planning an assault, but just at that moment, the construction being unfinished, it was sparsely guarded, the enemy not imagining it would be attacked. This information decided the Governor upon instant action. lie had the deserter confined so no one could talk with him, and called his lieutenants together, ordering an attack made that very night. At midnight two thousand men were under arms on the Alameda, tlien called the " Red Sands," eacli having " thirty-six rounds of ammuni- tion, with a good flint in his piece, and another in his pocket." Only two drums were to go with each regiment, and no volunteers, as he did not want any inexperienced men ; " no person to advance before the front, unless ordered by the officer commanding the column, and the most profound silence to be observed." It took nearly three hours to get all in readiness.

About three o'clock on the morning of !Jfovember 26, 1781, the moon having just set beyond the western bay, and all being dark and still, the march began, led by two famous regiments that twenty- two years before had fought together in the battle of !Minden, Westphalia, defeating the French in 1759. When the troops emerged from the town, they had about three-quarters of a mile to go across the isthmus to reach the enemy's works. It was

THE GREAT SIEGE 103

not long before their tramp was heard by the Spanish sentries, and a few desultory shots told they had been discovered. The advance was quickened; in a very few minutes they were at the Spanish works; and it was an almost complete surprise. They rushed over the parapet, bayoneting the few Spaniards who did not flee, and sj)iked the mounted gims. At once tlic parai)et was set on fire, for which they had brought a mass of inflammable material. " Old Eliott," who was in the van, got anxious about the Spanisli wounded in the works, for the flames were mounting high, and he per- sonally brought out a mortally wounded officer whose guard at a battery had run away, but the Spaniard demurred at the rescue, saying he would die at his post, and in a few moments expired. Within an hour the whole of the parallel was ^vrapt in flames, brilliantly illuminating the isthmus and the Kock, and then the Governor ordered a retreat. As the English returned within their gates the Spanish powder magazines exploded, and the flames spread- ing, devoured their camp, the fire continuing four days, the bewildered besiegers not knowing what to do to check it, so that finally it burnt out when noth- ing was left to destroy. This was the famous " Gibraltar Sortie."

The siege was continued with its blockade and renewed bombardments, and it had attracted the attention of the entire world. Elsewhere, the

104 THE IklEDITERRAXEAN

French, Spanish and other arms that were com- bined against England, had achieved great victories. The American Revolution was won at Yorktown, in October, though the formal treaty of independence had not yet come, and the Allies against England were anxious to make an impression upon Gibraltar. So the French came to the help of the Spanish, and the command of the besiegers was changed, the Due de Crillon, who had recently captured Minorca, being made general of the forces, and a noted French engineer, the Chevalier d'Argon, was given every facility to construct the most formidable naval armament to reduce the fortress that had ever been created. The garrison had their ninety-six guns, the best of which carried a shot occasionally two miles and a half, which was considered a wonderful per- formance in those days. There were no naval ships at that time able to withstand these shots, so the blockading fleet was kept out of range. The Chevalier, however, conceived the plan of construct- ing " battering ships," which could withstand this gun fire, and therefore venture near enough for an attack that would make a breach sufficient to permit a storming party to mount the walls, and he was sure the French grenadiers, who had been constant victors everywhere else, would then succeed. Ten of the largest Spanish three-decked naval ships were taken, their huge towering bulwarks cut down, and a strengthening method adopted which

THE GREAT SIEGE 105

reduced them to one broad deck, and in a way seemed to anticipate the American invention nearly a century later of the iron-clad. The Chevalier made one deck over the ship from stem to stem, on which his guns were placed, this deck being strengthened by triple thickness beneath of stout oaken beams braced against the sides of the hulls, and having a copious layer of sand in which the cannon-balls were to burv themselves. Then he lined the structure with a wall of cork-wood, which being elastic was to offer the best resistance to the shot. To protect the crews, the decks were roofed over with heavy timbers covered by ropes and hides, as the ancients did to shield their as- saulting parties in sieges from showers of stones. Thus thoroughly protected, the men could work their guns, and the Chevalier proudly declared that his floating fortresses " could not be burnt, nor sunk, nor taken." All this preparation on the bay shores to the westward was in full view of the garrison, and they could see the busy workmen and the long lines of mules bringing to the yards the supplies and ammunition, while the deserters told of the elaborate preparations that went on for months. As the work progressed, the confidence of the be- siegers grew, and the fever of expectation spread throughout Spain and France, while the Count of Artois (afterward Charles X of France), brother of the French king, Louis XV I, came from Paris to

I

106 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Gibraltar to witness the anticipated surrender of the fortress. The Chevalier expected this result to come twenty-four hours after the attack, and ridi- culed the suggestion of the more experienced army commander, the Due de Crillon, that as much as two weeks might elapse before the Eock was actually captured. While the preparations were going on, the British Admiral Eodney in April, 1782, gained a victory in the West Indies over Count de Grasse, which almost annihilated the French fleet, and the tidings of the victory greatly inspirited the long be- leaguered Gibraltar garrison.

The siege had continued over three years when the besiegers' preparations for the grand final assault were completed; and all the available naval power of France and Spain being concentrated upon Gibraltar, there came to the strait an additional fleet of thirty-nine ships of the line, arriving September 12th, 1782. This made a besieging naval force which was the largest since the Spanish Armada — fifty line of battle ships, with many frigates and smaller vessels, and also a land army of forty thousand men, and hundreds of cannon in batteries along the bay shore at every point of vantage. " Old Eliott " had to bring against it his ninety- six cannon and about seven thousand soldiers and sailors, but he also held possession of his stout castle, the famous Rock. The world was watching the expected performance, and as the besiegers were

THE GREAT SIEGE 107

only awaiting the arrival of the ships, the attack was ordered for the following day. Soon after sun- rise on September 13tli, the fleet of battering ships was seen getting nnder way from across the bay, while the Spanish grandees and their French guests with other spectators were posted on high ground within the Spanisli lines to see the fortress captured. The garrison was ready, too. Their gims were all shotted and '' Old Eliott " stood on the best point of outlook, the " King's Bastion" to give his orders. The Spaniards feeling sure that their battering ships were shot- proof, no longer cared about keeping at long range, but came within half-gun shot of the Kock, and moored in line of battle. ^Many large boats were in waiting full of troops, ready to land when the g\ms on the Eock were silenced. Everything was quiet till the Governor from the *' King's Bastion " thought it time. to begin work, and he ordered fire opened on the Spanisli ships. The firing having started, the ships answered from their whole line, the Spanish shore batteries took up the fire, and soon there were four hundred guns playing on the town and ramparts of the fortress, the Rock reechoing the infernal din which came back in responsive echoes from the hills behind Algeciras. It required some time for the Spanish guns to get the proper range, but by noon their fire was powerful and well-directed, so that some of the casemates were penetrated, guns

u

108 THE MEDITERRANEAN

were dismounted, and English soldiers killed and wounded. " Old Eliott " remained on the " King's Bastion," and concentrated all his firing on the Span- ish ships, and would not permit any ammunition to be w^asted upon the shore batteries — it was the ships he was fighting and not the noisier and more nu- merous gims on land, which could do him no serious harm. The defence, however, made little impression on the ships. Though fired at short range, the balls from the thirty-two pounders, the best guns, could not pierce the ships' stout Bides, and the shells re- bounded from the roofs without doing much damage. If this had been the only available defence, Gibraltar might then have fallen, the besiegers being in such overwhelming force.

The sturdy commander of the fortress, however, had learnt from the successful sortie the value of fire as an auxiliary, and he had begun, days before, the preparations for using hot shot. Furnaces had been placed beside the batteries and fuel served out, and these were got to a white heat, the heavy balls being dropped into them and kept there until they were glowing red. Comers of old houses were also availed of in the town where the balls were piled up and surrounded with firewood. Some of these furnaces could bring a hundred balls to a red heat in a little over an hour. Having found that the ordinarj" cannon shots did little execution the firing of these hot balls was started. They were carefully

THE GREAT SIEGE 109

lifted from the furnaces and rolled into the muzzles of the cannons, it being found that only a very slight elevation of the gun was necessary, and the ball was rolled in by gravity. The Spanish ships had been moored just at the right distance for this, and the ball had no sooner rolled into the gim when the heat ignited the cartridge and it was almost instantly dis- charged at the enemy. At first the rain of hot shot made little impression. The French engineer, fully expecting them, had pumps working on the ships, pouring water upon the decks and the layers of sand where the red-hot balls buried themselves and were soon made harmless. They were fired by scores, and occasionally smoke was seen issuing from the ships, but the crews quickly extinguished the flames. The firing had continued until late in the afternoon before there was any appreciable effect, and then, about nine hoxirs after the cannonade began, flames were seen issuing from the Spanish Admiral's ship, and soon the fire grew, and as night came was so fierce that the crew lost control, the blaze lighting up the entire Spanish line and thus helping the aim of the gunners on the fortress. Several other ships caught fire and sent up rockets or distress signals, so that boats came from consorts for their relief. The hot balls were doing their work, and by midnight the bay presented a fine spectacle, almost every Spanish ship being in flames. Then a panic came upon the Spanish sailors, the flames mounting the rigging, and making

110 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the decks intolerable, so the men began jumping overboard. One of the ships was in such a blaze that the p<5wder magazine had to be flooded to pre- vent an explosion. Xine of the ten Spanish floating batteries were on fire, lighting up all the bay shores and the sombre Kock, and adding to the vast pall of smoke overhanging the scene. As the crews in panic had abandoned their gims and jumped into the sea for safety, the firing upon the fortress had ceased, the shrieks of the wounded and drowning filled the air, and the scene became awful beyond description. Boats put off from the shore to pick up the struggling men in the water, and in this rescue the English heartily joined. One Spanish ship blew up just as an English boat got alongside and its coxswain was killed and several of the oarsmen wounded, but the other men stuffed their jackets in the broken sides of the craft, and kept her afloat. The English res- cued over three hundred and fifty of the Spaniards, caring for the wounded in the hospitals of the for- tress. Thus ended the great attack by the ships which was to have captured Gibraltar. The bay was covered with wrecks as next morning's sun rose on the frightful scene, but the bombardment con- tinued in desultory fashion a few days longer, though the battle was over.

The siege went on afterward, but without any se- rious conflict. Ko one appeared with further sug- gestion as to a. method of taking the fortress, and the

THE GREAT SIEGE 111

English flag floated over it until the Treaty of Ver- sailles in 1783, by which England acknowledged the independence of the United States, and the treaty at tho same time formally declared the English title to Gibraltar — England, France and Spain then uniting in making peace. The besiegers got the first news of this treaty and sent word to the garrison; and soon afterward a British frigate came into the bay and confirmed it. Since then the grim Rock has been at peace, the world conceding that it cannot be captured. General Eliott was made Lord Heathfield and Baron Gibraltar for his stout defence during nearly four years of the great siege, and he was called home to England in 1787, the national hero. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait, holding firmly in his hand the key of the fortress, while in a background of the clouds of war are seen the cannon pointing do\vnward as he had fired them from the famous Eock. " Old Eliott's " mon- ument, a rather indiiferent bust, stands in the gar- dens of the Alameda, and along with it is that of Wellington, while near by it is mounted a one hun- dred ton gun, one of the two which the armament of Gibraltar now includes. Down in the town in the court of the old sixteenth century Franciscan Con- vent, which is the Governor's residence, is a curious statue of Eliott carved from the bowsprit of the Span- ish ship San Juan which was captured at Trafalgar. The panels of some of the doors of the banquet room

112 THE MEDITERRANEAN

within the Convent are made of cedar wood from the WTecks of the Spanish battering ships engaged in the bombardment of the Kock fortress in 1782. In the Convent garden is a dragon-tree believed to be a thousand years old.

THE FORTRESS TO-DAY.

Gibraltar is a complete fortress-town. The sun- rise gun begins the day, and the simset gun ends it, while the evening gun at half-past nine orders the soldiers into their barracks. The ceremony of lock- ing the gates at sundown goes on now as it has for centuries. The " Keeper of the Keys," clad in the uniform of the troops, marches through the streets in the centre of a military guard, led by a regimental band. The keys of enormous size are borne before him. Arriving at the gates, the band plays, the guard salutes, the huge doors are slowly closed and locked, and then the procession marches back to the Convent and deposits the keys in the Governor's keep- ing. As the only approach for an enemy is from the north or west, these are the sides that have the chief fortifications. The main work is the Line Wall, a ponderous mass of masonry over two miles long, with bastions projecting where the guns turn in either direction to sweep the approaches to the face of the wall. The Moles stretch out in the bay, with additional lines of cannon defending the

THE FORTRESS TO-DAY 113

harbor and its entrance. Other lines of batteries are carried around the western face southward to Europa Point. The casemates and barracks for the artillery are within the Line Wall, the thick walls and arched roofs of the casemates being designed to resist the heaviest shot and shells. Most of the guns are in the casemates not far above the water-level, but some are on the parapet. Other batteries are in the rear of the town, in the galleries hewn out of the rock, which fire over the housetops, and as one mounts the Rock it bristles with gims, seen in every direction, while the crest is similarly defended by some of the most powerful cannon of latest type. The batteries of Europa Point are also thoroughly equipped. The biggest guns — the two 100 ton Armstrongs — are nearly thirty-three feet long, and with a cliarge of four hundred and fifty pounds of gimpowder fire a projectile of eighteen inches diameter weighing two thousand pounds about eight miles. The boom and crash, when such a gun is fired, are something terrific. But these big guns are not now regarded as the most powerful. The later gimnery improvements are said to demonstrate that twelve inches is the maxi- mum diameter of rifled bore for eifective work, and eight inches bore produces the best results in a rapid fire breech-loader with a projectile weighing

two hundred and fifty pounds that can be fired six Vol. 1—8

114 THE MEDITKIUIANEAX

times a minute. The object now is to combine quick firing Avith the highest initial velocity and the great- est penetrating power against attacking ships.

The special feature of Gibraltar is the rock gal- leries, which were mostly constructed during the Great Siege. The besiegers then with their cannon balls reached all parts of tlie Ifock, their shells flying in every direction and being thr<nvn so successfully that the Englisli gim on the highest pinnacle was twice dismounted. To secure safety and a better defence these rock galleries were hewn out. They are excavated along the northern face, about six hundred feet above the sea level, much like a railway tunnel, having at short intervals the port holes for the cannon, and extend over a mile in two tiers one above the other. At the end, they are enlarged into an oi)en space called the Hall of St. George, where Xelson was once feasted bv the officers of the garrison, this function being a great memory at the post. The cannon thrust out tli rough the i)ort holes of these galleries, all point northward toward Spain, and they were the principal bulwark of defence dur- ing the (Jreat Siege when tlie attack from that direc- tion was most feared. High above them, on the pinnacle of the lion's head, is mounted the " Itock Gun " which the besiegers were then able to dismount by their shells. On tlie King's birthday this gim gives the signal for the lion's roar at Gibraltar, when from all parts of the Kock the cannon fire the an-

THE FORTREJtjS TO-DAY 115

nual salute to the soveiTign. Proiiiinent in the western defences overlooking the bay is the ^* King's Bastion," where ''Old Eliot t" .stood on the day of the final attack upon tlie Itock in the Great Siege. Beyond the South2K)rt Gat(; and l)cr\veen it and the Alameda is the '"Bagged Staff Stairs/' where Ad- miral Booke's forces landed wlien the English first took the town and the Bock in 1701.

Since the groat modern development of naval ships and guns there has been much serious dis- cussion as to the value of (libraltar as a fortress. It is contended in France that a hostile fleet, by hugging the ^Moroccan coast at night, can easily pass between the ^^[editerranean and the Atlantic. It is also contended that tlie harbor on the- west side of the Bock is entirely at the mercy of tiie Spaniards should tliey be hostile, as tliey can jdaiit batteries on the range of hills on the western side of the bay, be- ginning behind Algeciras and stretching northeast- ward around the bay head ami (►ver to the high hill of Carbonera, known as-the- -*" Queen -of . Spain-s jChair,"-.w]iich -is not fa^? awav fr«nn> the ^Jled iter- rajiean to tlvG nav4'U4>astwar(K -Thus -tlie -harbor ami town can boceawmandcMl by-modern guns- mounted oii Spanish, territory. 'During the' past • few years England has been greatly strengtliening the Gibral- tar defences and makiuii: the harbor a much more elaborate naval and coaling stali(»n, expending upcm these-- imp^rm'oman(s>- ^u --iimidiuU.. 4)f4')voximati»g

116 THE MEDITERRANEAN

$25,000,000, while at the same time her diplomatic power is fully enforced to prevent the construction of any offensive works in Spanish territory or across the strait of Morocco. The English authorities are fully alive to the need of maintenance of the great fortress in the front rank it has so long occupied.

BOXDA AND MALAGA.

Brisk little steamers carry the visitors westward from Gibraltar across the bav to the white houses of Algeciras, past the green island which is out- lying, and giving superb views backward at the stupendous Rock. A railway leads northward from Algeciras, climbing gradually up to higher levels on the hills, which is the main route of the modem traveller from Gibraltar into Spain. It runs among the Sierras and through forests of cork trees, the chief staple of this region, past villages and over ravines, and at numerous turns gives constantly higher but more distant views of the Rock fortress down by the sea. One of these villages is Gaucin, perched 2,000 feet high in the mountain, the little cluster of houses with the prominent jail being long visible as the train approaches, and described as looking " like a grain of salt sparkling in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill." Although Gibraltar is over thirty miles away, it is distinctly visible, and also the opposite African coast. Entering the Sierra de Ronda, the line makes its crooked route through

RONDA AND MALAGA 117

the long narrow pass of the Angostura, once noted for brigands, thus going iij) the picturesque ravine of the Guadiaro, by many tunnels and bridges ; and after sixty-seven miles of circuitous travelling, ever mounting higher, it reaches the ancient and romantic town of Eonda at twenty-five hundred feet elevation, once a Moorish stronghold, and now celebrated for " its bridge, its bull fights and its fair." Nestling amid a magnificent amphitheatre of mountains, some rising in peaks more than a mile high, and built on a hill rent in twain by the Tajo river chasm which is nearly four hundred feet deep, this place, dating from the Eoman time, now has an Old Town built by the Moors on the southern part of the hill, and a I^Tew Town on the northern side, which the Catholic Kings of Spain constructed when thev captured Eonda in 1485 after a twenty days' siege; and there is a population of about twenty thousand in both settlements.

This is a singularly picturesque and curious place, most of it apparently hanging on the edges of the Tajo or gorge, cleft down in the hill by volcanic action, and having the river torrent rushing through it far below, while at the narrowest part, where the width is only about two hundred and thirty feet, the bold single span stone bridge, the Puente Xuevo, is thrown across it, giving splendid views of the chasm and the torrent. An underground staircase, the Mina, descends to the bottom of the gorge, its

118 TIIK MEDITEllKANKAX

stops having been liewn out of the solid rock in lo4r'2 by Christian shivc^, the floors having thus constructed it Avhen attacks Avere frequent, to avoid a water famine in case of siege. Two ancient ]Moorish bridges also sj^an the gorge.. Tlio hanging gardens of the Alameda on the verge of the ravine are among tho attractions, and alx) the spacious stone bull-ring in tlie Plaza de Toros Avliere it is said some of the best bull fights of Si)ain are exliibited at the May fair, the ring being large enough to accommo- date an au<lience of ten thousand. The natives, be- cause of their isolation, have retained in their original purity the ancient Andalusian habits and. attractive costumes, and they inchide some of the best horse tamers in southern S2)ain, which accounts for their skill in bull-fighting. The mountain elevation of lionda gives it an admirable climate, and this with its varied attractions have made it a popular summer resort. It was in the neighborhood of liOUihi, 11. C. 45, in the IJoman wars, that Ciesar defeated the sons of Pompey on the field of Mimda, a settlement wliich long ago disaj)peared.

About fortv miles northeast of Ponda, this rail- way route to (Jranachi intersects the road coming southward from Cordova to Malaga, at Pobadilhi, whicli has thus l)(»come an imjunMant Spanisli rail- way junction. Tlie route to Alahiga goes over to the Mediterranean coast, wliicli is fcn-ty miles dis- tant, following the valley of the Guadalhorce all the

Malaga.

RONDA AND MALAGA 119

way down to the sea. It gets out of the mountains through the gorge of the Iloyo, or " hole," cut deeply into the slaty strata of the coast range, a wild ravine traversed bv the aid cf many tunnels and bridges, and emerging amid the palms and orange groves of the sub-tropical region in the widened

valley nearer tlie sea coast. The Guadalhorce is

t/

left, the railroad crosses the fertile Tcgn, and soon Malaga is reached, spread around its beautiful harbor and ui)on the hill spurs projecting from the various Sierras to the northward. Jn the centre rises, at an elevation of nearly six hundred feet, the Gibralfaro of Malaga, the most prominent object of this noted citv of one liundred and thirty them- sand people. Tlie Plid'nicians first settled the place as a station wliere they cured \\wir fisli, and named it Malaca, from the word mahic meaning " to salt." Vespasian made it a Koman city, the Vislgotlis took it, and then tlie ]\[oors got possession when they overran Spain in Til. It ultimately became one of the chief seaports of tlieir kingdom of Granada, thus continuing until captured l)y Ferdinand and Isabella in 1487, after which it lost much of its importance. Malaga is now a leading Spanish port on the !J[editerranean, altliough the harbor is shallow from silting, so tliat deep draft vessels have to lie in the outer roadstead. It is in magnificent posi- tion, the beautiful bay a re])roducti()n in miniature of the bay of Xaples, and in the backgnumd a dis-

120 THE MEDITERRANEAN

tant amphitheatre of mountains environs the land and fertile Vega, formed by the extensive delta of the Guadalhorce. This plain spreads to the westward, the city being built upon the banks of a smaller mountain stream at the eastern verge of the plain, the Guadalmedina, meaning " the river of the town," which is crossed by several bridges and has the inner harbor to the eastward of its mouth. Malaga has a delicious climate, a splendid outlook over the blue sea, and is becoming a popular winter resort.

The great hill of the jehel pharos, the " hill lighthouse," its Moorish name being since developed into the Gibralfaro, dominates the view from all parts of the city. Upon it is the castle, the ex- tensive buildings covering the summit, and enclosed by a ponderous wall. This was the Moorish strong- hold, constructed in the thirteenth century, and from it the extensive view seaward is far across to the hills of Africa at Ceuta, the Hill of the Apes, Abyla, being distinctly traceable in fair weather at the distant horizon. A spur of the Gibralfaro to the southwestward, the Alcazaba, is said to have origi- nallv been the site of the Phoenician defensive work, and the Moors converted it into a palace-fortress, of which portions yet remain. It was this hill that was stormed when the Spaniards captured Malaga from the !Moors in August, 1487, and there is yet preserved the Torre de Vola, on which Pedro of

GOING TO GRANADA 121

Toledo then planted the Christian standard when they drove out the infidels. The place now is a maze of small tenements and ruins occupied by gypsies and a poorer class of population. Down on the lower ground at the southwestern base of the hill was the great Moorish mosque, which the captors then converted into a Christian church. This edifice was superseded afterward by the Malaga Cathedral, which was built in bits during four centuries, a dazzling white limestone structure nearly four hun- dred feet long and two hundred and fifty feet high, one of its towers being elevated two hundred and eighty feet, and the other incomplete. The interior is imposing, the massive nave rising one hundred and thirty feet, and the pavement is flagged with white and red marbles. Malaga does not have many attractive buildings, but it is a thorough Andalusian city, its people enjoying their splendid outlook and fine climate, while the ample exports of the fertile surrounding district give it a good trade.

GOIXO TO GRANADA.

From Bobadilla it is seventv-seven miles eastward to Granada, the railway at first following up the valley of the Guadalhorce, then crossing a dreary plateau making the watershed between this stream and the Jenil, and afterward following that vigorous torrent up to the Sierra Nevada. The route dis- plays prolific remains of the ^Nfoorish rule, and all

122 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the towns still exhibit ruins of their strongholds and castles captured in the gradual encroachment of the Spanish Catholic sovereigns upon the Moorish domain. At Antequera, ten miles from Bobadilla, the Arch of Hercules was erected in 1595, and adorned with Eoman inscriptions brought from several of their ancient settlements in the neighbor- hood, this being done in honor of the Spanish king, Philip II. Its Church of San Sebastian is sur- mounted by a colossal bronze armor-clad angel, wear- ing around the neck a reliquary with relics of St. Euphemia, the patron saint of Antequera. In the suburbs is the famous " Rock of the Lovers," its romantic legend being told in Southey's Laila and Manuel. The Moorish maiden and the Spanish knight, pursued and unable to escape, jumped from the cliff, locked in each other's arms. Emerging from a tunnel in the hills the railwav suddenly over- looks the fertile and pleasant valley of the Jenil, and far off to the eastward are seen the snowy Sierra Xevada peaks. Here is Loja by the riverside, the Moorish Losha, which with Alliama, twelve miles southeast, both being at the entrance to mountain passes, wTre the two " Keys of Granada." Loja was captured by the Christians after thirty days' siege in 1488 and its ancient ^Moorish ca^^tle is a ruin. Alhama stands on a terrace high above the deep gorge of a little stream, and was captured in February, 1482. Its fall was bewailed in a ballad

GOING TO GRANADA 123

of the time, which Byron trauslateJ in his poem. Woe is me, Alhama. Xow it is best known from its warm sulphur baths. The railway following up the Jenil passes lUora, its mined Moorish castle on the mountain side having been the " Eye of Granada." A few miles beyond is Pinos-Puente, an original Eonian settlement, of not much importance now, but noted as the place which was the turning point of the fortunes of Columbus.

Having failed in his efforts with King John of Portugal, Columbus had appealed for assistance to Ferdinand and Isabella, conducting a long negotia- tion for aid in fitting out his expedition to dis- cover the western world. They had then captured Granada, and he had gone to the camp in the Spring of 1492, but meeting repeated rebuffs, had left in despair and was returning on the road down the Jenil, with the lialf-formod idea of going to France in the forlorn hope of interest ing that country's king in his project. Queen Isabella, liowever, changed her mind, and sent messengers to bring him back, and they overtook him at Pinos-Puente. He was taken four miles iip the river to the camp at Santa Fe, where he met the Queen, and on April 17, 1492, the famous contract was made with him upon which his voyage of discovery was founded. This region is the celebrated Vega of Granada, the beautiful and fertile broadening of the Jenil valley in the midst of the mountains, and Queen IsaMla during

124 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the siege of Granada had constructed here the Spanish camp in eighty days. Its form was that of a regular Roman encampment, its streets crossing at right angles, and here was signed the capitulation of Granada. The original document is still preserved in the Spanish archives at the castle of Simancos near Valladolid. Santa Fe is now a small and deserted village, yet near it was one of the earliest kno^\^l settlements in Spain, long ago dis- appeared, the Illiberis of the ancients, which the Eomans foimd on their arrival, and which the Moors destroyed. The chief present curiosity in Santa Fe is the trophy above the church door, showing a lance with a sheet of parchment, bearing the words Ave Maria. During the siege of Granada, a bold knight, Ileman Perez del Pulgar, managed on the evening of December 18, 1490, to enter that city through a conduit up the Darro, and going to the principal mosque, pinned to the door with his dagger a scroll inscribed Ave Maria, afterward regaining the camp at Santa Fe unharmed. The Moors were highly indignant at this insult, and sent their champion Zegri Tarfe with the scroll back to the Christian headquarters, where he defied them to single combat. Don Garcilaso de la Vega promptly accepted the challenge and slew the Moor, whereat there was great rejoicing and the trophy was placed on the church as a memorial. A few miles beyond,

The Alhambra and the Valley of the Darro.

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 125

the railway enters the station at the northwestern outskirts of Granada.

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE.

The river Jenil comes from the southeast, a mountain torrent copiously fed by the melting snows of the Sierra Xevada, the noble peaks of this giant range rising grandly along the southeastern horizon. This stream, as already stated, was the Moorish Shenil, its name derived from the earlier title of Singilis given by the Eomans. It goes off to the westward down the valley of the beautiful Vega of Granada, through w^hich we have gradually ascended to an elevation of twenty-two hundred feet above the sea. The famous city of Granada stretches over the plain southward from the railway station down to the banks of the Jenil, and also spreads upward upon the high hills to the eastward, culminating in two noble eminences abruptly rising five hundred feet, and having higher elevations beyond. Between these two hills is a deep ravine, through which flows the Moorish Hadazzo, now called the Darro, curving around from west to south as it passes through a vaulted channel under various streets in the heart of the city to reach the Jenil ; but being without much current, as most of its waters are drained for irriga- tion of the regions passed in its upper course. This stream used to bring down gold in its sands, before

126 THE IklEDITERRANEAX

the waters were diverted, and its valley made Granada, the " city of the pomegranates," the city arms still bearing the stalked pomegranate supported by the Pillars of Hercules. Granada has a pictur- esque situation at the base of the two mountain spurs, with the splendid Sierra K'evada for its southeastern outlook, but the city is only the ghost of its former self, now still and even mournful^ liv- ing on the memories of the great past, for it has barely seventy-five thousand people where it had over a half-million, when the Moors, driven from Cor- dova, Seville and the many settlements on the Guadalquivir, came to this mountain fortress as a last refuge and maintained themselves for over two centuries. It was then they built the greatest palace and ruin that Spain has to show.

The northern of the two projecting hills to the eastward of the city, is the long ridge of the Albaicin, the name being derived from an Arab phrase meaning the ." quarter of the falconers." Here livjed the Moorish nobles .in the former days, and it^ is the -oldjcst . part.- of the. city, the .Roman Garnatay. though now Ofccupied mostly by gypsies and the poorer classes. . To the sou thwarxltlie. hill falls? off in the deep ravine of the Darro, and south of thig steeply rises the other hill of tlic Alhambra — the Moorish Medinet-al-liamra, or the "Hod To^\ti," — 80 eallod from the. reddish-colored stone used in the outer walls. The Romans had a small village on

THE alha:^ibra palace 127

this hill, and the !Moors vrhen they first came to Spain in the early eighth century, built their Kasaha al-kadlma, or " old citadel," on Albaicin, but after- ward reinforced it by constructing the Kasaha al- djedida, or "new citadel," on this hill. These eminences were the site of the original town, but after the decline of the Caliphate of Cordova began in the eleventh century, through gradual Christian conquest, the refugee Moors flocked into this moun- tain fortress, being encouraged to come by the Zirites djTiasty then in power, and the rapidly ex- panding settl(»ment, in the subsequent period spread down the hill slopes and over the lower plain, thus making the latter district the chief part of the greatly enlarged city, and it ultimately became the most important section. Thus were formed various new districts, among them Antequcruela or "little Antequera," originally peopled by refugees from that city, and now the part of Granada which covers the banks and stream bed of the Darro. From 1031 until 1492 Granada was the great Moorish kingdom of Spain, its power expanding under various dynasties, chiefly the Xasrides, begim by Mohammed I, who was the sovereign when St. Ferdinand captured Cordova in 1236 and Jaen in 124G. For over two centuries after^vard, though often rent by internal factions, this Moorish kin^ dom was maintained, imtil Ferdinand and Isabella got possession of Granada, January 2, 1492, an

128 THE MKDlTERRAXiJlAN

event still celebrated on the anniversary, by a pro- cession to the cathedral in the morning, and the ascent of the Torre de la Vela of the Alcazaba, the , western termination of the Alhambra, by a deputa- tion of the young girls of the city, who in con- tinuance of an ancient custom, sound the bell for an hour in the afternoon " in order to secure a husband." It was upon this high Moorish Ghafar or " watch-tower " on the afternoon of the Christian occupation that Ferdinand displayed his " banners of the Catholic kings " in token of possession. It was in Mohammed I's reign that the Alhambra was begun. His predecessors had their royal seat on the Albaicin hill, with fortifications on the Alhambra Hill. Mohammed I, who reigned forty years, and was the originator of the Moorish motto so ex- tensively displayed in the buildings, which trans- lated means, " There is no conqueror but the Most High God," selected the Alcazaba for his residence. On this bold western outlook over the Vega valley, the Alhambra construction modestly began. His successors continued it, spreading the structure all over the hill, the finest portions being built in the fourteenth century by Yusuf I and ]\Iohammcd V.

When the surrender was made to Ferdinand and Isabella, they restored and presers'ed the Alhambra, but afterward Granada dwindled in importance, the population diminished, and many changes came in the Alhambra that destroyed much of its beauty.

TU£ ALHAMBRA PALACE 139

The greatest potentate of Europe in the first half of the sixteenth century was the Emperor Charles V, who succeeded his grandfather Ferdinand as king of Spain in 1516. The process of expelling the Moors from Castile and Granada had been going on vigorously. Ten years after his accession, Charles came to Granada, and had many parts of the Alhambra pulled do^^^l to mak(? room for a new l)alace within the walls. Somewhat later a powder explosion did great injury, only partially repaired. In the eighteenth century the revenues usually assigned for the maintenance of the buildings were taken away by Philip V, and for nearly two hun- dred years the palace was almost totally neglected and fell into decav. The French held it in Xapoleon's time but upon evacuating in 1812 blew up several towers of the fortress. In the later nineteenth century the Spanish government made extensive restorations, and while the Alhambra is not now the splendid ^Moorish palace it was in the fifteenth century, it is still the greatest structure in magnificent attractiveness that Spain can show, hav- ing been well described as the " gem of the delicate fancy of the Moor; the realized vision of the Ara- bian Xights." Much of the romance surrounding it has been the result of Washington Irving's visit to Spain and long sojourn at Granada, in his interest- ing work The Alhambra published in 1832.

The hill of the Alhambra is divided into two Vol. 1—9

130 THE MEDITERRANEAN

parallel ridges by a gorge which the Moors called Assahica, where are now the gardens and groves of the Alameda of the Alhambra. To the southward of this gorge, which stretches from the west toward the higher ranges eastward, the hill is called Monte Mauror, the " district of the water carriers," and is surmounted by the Torres Bermejas, erected by the Moors on its western verge — the " Vermilion Towers," — now a military prison, the view over the city and Vega with the grand environment of moun- tains, being most charming. In the Alameda the trees are mostly elms, brought from England and planted there by the Duke of Wellington after the English occupation in 1812, and watered by an irri- gation stream from the river Darro, coming from its upper course. The nmning waters are murmuring all the time, the noble trees with their thick mass of foliage are the nesting places of thousands of sing- ing birds, and the lovely vale is a place of most at- tractive retirement, a sacred grove reproducing the restful sylvan beauty it had when it was the Mah- hara or cemetery of the Moorish kings, until Boabdil, the last of the race, took their remains awav.

Xorth of the Alameda gorge rises the higher and bolder hill of the Monte de la Assahica, on w^hich is the Alhambra. Its western front overlooking the city at an elevation of nearly five hundred feet dis- plays the Alcazaha or citadel, the hill faces all

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 131

around, excepting on the eastern side, rising pre- cipitously, which gave additional strength to this Moorish fortress. There are only scant remains of the original huildings, and the enclosing walls and towers are rather dilapidated. The interior of the ancient structure is now a garden. Originally a wall crossed the gorge from the Alcazaba to the Torres Bermejas, thus guarding the entrance to the Alameda, and here stood the gate to the Alhambra, the Moorish Bih Alaujar, both wall and gate being now for the most part removed, and on the site of the gate is the triumphal arch of the Puerta de los Granadas, erected to glorify Charles V, and having carved at the top three open pomegranates, repre- sentative of the city. Eastward of the Alcazaba, the hill summit is a plateau about a half mile long and six hundred feet wide, on which the Alhambra buildings are constructed. Farther east this plateau is cut off by a ravine, separating it from the higher Cerro del Sol, towering above the plateau, and upon the Cerro is the Generalife Palace, at an elevation of nearly two hundred feet more, this having been the summer residence of the ]Moorisli kings. Its cypress groves and garden extend farther up the hill slope, where a Mirador tower has been recently built for the outlook. Behind this and yet higher, is the summit of the eminence, the Sella del Moro, where there was a mosque in the Moorish days, and from it

132 THE MEDITEKRAXEAN

is a grand view over the Alhambra and the deep gorge of the Darro to the right; with the city and, spreading far away westward, the Vega.

Ascending the hill slope from the Alameda, the Alhambra enclosure is entered by the imposing tower gateway, the Puerta Judiciaria built by Yusef I in 1348, the Moorish Bih Kliarca or " Gate of the Law." This is a tower building nearly seventy feet high and fifty feet wide, having an outer and inner gate connected by a passage which was made tortuous for a better defence. The horseshoe-topped outer gate rises about half way up the front, and has carved above it a hand with outstretched fingers, the Moorish symbol used to avert the " evil eye." Above the inner arched gate is similarly carved a key, the symbol of power, and the superstitious be- lief was that Granada would defy all foes until the outer hand had seized this inner kev. After the conquest, a wooden figure of the Virgin was placed on the inner gate. The massive wooden doors are shod with iron. Within the gate and at the top of the hill, is the spacious Plaza de los Al jibes, the " Place of the Cistern," this extensive water storage receptacle one hundred feet long being filled with filtered waters from the Darro. Beautiful hedges of myrtle adorn the Plaza, and on its eastern side are the Moorish Alhambra, now called the Casa Beal, and the more modem palace of Charles Y, which adjoins the former on the southwest; while on the

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 133

western side of the Plaza is the imposing fagade of the Alcazaba with its towers. To the northward the Plaza is bounded by the deeply cut ravine of the Darro. The walls of the Alcazaba, which are among the few relics left of the original structure, have in parts Eoman work. The ancient citadel stands high on the top of the western extremity of the bold hill, and its famous Ghafar^ already re- ferred to, is the outpost watch-tower overlooking Granada and on the very verge of the cliff. The pinnacle of this, the Torre de la Vela, is a turret containing a huge bell of twelve tons weight. This bell is rung at night to regulate the opening and shutting of the irrigation channels conveying the Darro water through the Vega. The tower presents a splendid view of the ancient city spreading far be- low, of the Torres Bermejas rising beyond the Alameda gorge on the one side, and the Albaicin hill beyond the Darro ravine on the other; while far away westward is the green and fertile Vega enclosed by brown hills making an almost circular background. All around, in the distance, are the higher Sierras, with the conspicuous snow-clad peaks of the elevated Sierra Xevada toward the southeast. Eastward is the Alhambra, in the foreground across the Plaza, backed by the higher Generalife and the towering summit of the Cerro del Sol. Such is the introduction to the Alhambra.

The Moorish builder's and decorator's art was

134 THE MEDITERRANEAN

in its earlier development when the Cordova mosque and the Seville Giralda were erected, while the Al- hambra was a later and more finished construction. Like all Moorish buildings, the exterior is unpre- tentious, and eclipsed by the later and much more imposing palace of Charles V alongside. The Arab house always has its rooms opening upon an inside court, and such was the system of constructing the Alhambra, as successive kings of Granada enlarged it by building new courts and surrounding rooms, so that it is really a series of palaces each with separate court and entrance. This was, however, altered by the changes after the conquest, so that now the entrances are in some respects differently ar- ranged. The present modem entrance is low-lying and alongside Charles' Palace, the Estrada Moderna, at the termination of a passageway, and leads into the Court of the !irvrtles, which is the central court of the great Palace of Comares constructed by Yusuf I and his successor Mohammed V, in the fourteenth century. Yusuf also built the red enclosing wall around the entire hill, with twenty-three towers. It was in this Palace of Comares that the Moorish kings sat in state, receiving embassies and holding councils. The Spanish names of the famous court are Patio de la Alberca, derived from the extensive dlherca, or water-pool, in its centre, for which the Arab title was birkeh; and Patio de los Array anes, or Court of the Myrtles, named from the myrtle

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 135

hedges or arrayanes surrounding the pool. The court is one hundred and twenty feet long and seventy-five feet wide, but has lost much of its original beauties through indifferent restoration, so that the first view is rather disappointing. In this connexion it is interesting to recall the observations of an artistic visitor, who has traced the Moorish art development culminating in the Alhambra.

The Moors in decoration worked largely in wood and plaster, and their object seemed to be the re- production of the tent of the nomad Arab. The fragile and thin marble columns, on which rest large and apparently heavy masses of masonry, imitate the tent poles; the brilliantly colored orna- mentation echoes the gay patterned carpets with which the tent interiors were draped; while the stalactite, honeycombed vaulting of the domes seems due in its regular step-like formation to a sort of mathematical calculation. The iloorish fancy is be- wildering in the blending of geometrical figures and foliage and other forms in endless convolutions, but there is no sculpture, as they do not reproduce living creatures. Inscrij)tions, mainly in the old Cufic characters, are liberally used for borders, usually religious or poetical, and the latter are eulogistic of the Moorish kings. To get the full idea of the Alhambra, the visitor needs to use some of the imag- inative powers, in reviving the coloring of the plaster walls, getting the waterless fountains to play again,

136 THE MEDITEHRAXEAX

picturing the empty rooms as gaily decorated and illuminated, while the lovely natural surroundings seen through the open windows add to the harmony. The sides of the Court of the Myrtles are at present plain, but beautiful arcades adorn the ends, each borne by six slender marble columns and paved with marble slabs. The southwestern arcade is the finest. The northeastern arcade has alcoves on either side with stalactite vaulting originally colored blue, and the motto " There is no conqueror but the Most High God," originated by Mohanmied I, and also another, describing ilohamnied V as the dbnqueror of Algeci- ras in Algiers in 13G8, and lavishly praising him for building this palace. Thus, one of these inscrip- tions is translated " Thou givest safety from the breeze to the blades of grass, and inspirest terror in the very stars of Heaven; when the shining stars quiver, it is through dread of thee, and when the grass of the field bends do^\^l, it is to give thee thanks."

This palace is named from its tower, the Torre de Comares, said to have been constructed by Moorish workmen from Comares do^\Ti by Malaga. In the northeastern end of the Court of the Myrtles there is an imposing horseshoe arch over the gateway which connects with the entrance hall of the tower, this being an elaborate vestibule, narrow, but stretch- ing about seventy-five feet across the palace — the Sala do la Barcn, — thus called because the vaulting

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 137

of the ceiling, some time ago destroyed by fire, origi- nally resembled the hull of a boat. Niches of marble, on either side of the entrance, were made for water vessels, and similar niches across the vesti- bule adorn the arched exit, beyond, which leads through the massive wall of the tower to its chief apartment, the " Hall of the Ambassadors," occupy- ing the whole interior. This splendid Ilall is sixty feet high and tliirty-seven feet square, and was the reception hall of the Moorish kings, the throne being opposite the entrance. High above rises the noble tower, elevated almost one hundred and fifty feet, the battlemented top being of modem construction. There are many inscriptions in the vestibule ami Hall, Yusuf I being indicated as the builder. Among them are verses in Arabic testifying the goodness and nobleness of Allah, of which this is one: "He who comes to me tortured by thirst, will find water, pure and fresh, sweet and unmixed; I am like the rainbow when it shines, and the sun is my lord." The thick walls of the Hall are pierced by deeply recessed windows, giving fine views over the city and the Darro ravine, while high above is a domed ceil- ing of larchwood, resembling in its carvings a splen- didly cut precious stone. The ornamentation has red and blue as the predominant colors, and is among the finest in the palace, there being many varying patterns. The mournful tale is told of the last as- semblage of the ^foors, summoned to meet in this

138 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Hall by the unfortunate Boabdil, which decided upon the surrender of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella.

As the Torre de Comares is upon the northeastern side of the Court of Myrtles, on its southeastern side is the noted Court of the Lions. Its vestibule along- side the former court is the Sala de los Mocarahes, thirteen feet wide and sixty-five feet long, with deco- rations in blue, red and gold and a modem roof of barrel vaulting, the original ceiling having been de- stroyed by a powder explosion in the sixteenth cen- tury. The Court of the Lions is ninety-two feet long and about fifty feet broad, surrounded by an arcade of one hundred and twenty-four columns, supporting stilted arches. These columns are single and in pairs alternating, with groups of three or four at the comers, while at each end there project grace- ful pavilions. The walls are of wood and plaster and the ceiling is a charming wooden construction in the " half-orange " form. The decoration of fret- work is exquisite, looking as if carved in ivory and giving a most elegant impression. The ceiling is jnodem, and the floor of marble slabs, with blue and white tile paving in the arcades. At the centre is a large fountain-basin, borne by twelve weather- beaten lions of marble, whence comes the name of the Court. Originally, the Court of the Lions was the chief feature of the winter-palace of the kings, and its construction was begun by Mohammed V in

THE ALIIAMBRA PALACE 139

the late fourteenth centurv. The central fountain basin is about ten feet in circumference, and there are also smaller fountains at the ends of the Court, the overflow of all coming to the centre. These fountains play on the great festival days.

There are elaborate and attractive apartments all around the Court of the Lions. On its southwestern side is the " Hall of the Abcncorrages," named from that noble family which became very powerful in Granada in the middle of the fifteenth century. We are told that King Abu Xasr triced to curb them, by securing the murder of their chief Seid Yusuf, but the result was that in 1402 Abu Xasr lost his throne to his son Muley Abu Hasan. Then !Muley's first wife Aisha became jealous of her husband's atten- tions to a charming Spanish slave Isabel de Solis, who had become a Moslem under the captivating title of Zorayah, or the " Morning Star," and when the king made her his favorite wife, Aisha caused trouble. Aisha saw that the right of succession of her son Mohammed Abu Abdallah, kno\\Ti as Boab- dil, and even his life were endangered, and the Abencerrages sympathized with her. There was an- other powerful family, the i^gris, who took up the cause of the king ^luley and his charmer, the " Morning Star." Violent dissensions arose, culmi- nating in 1482, and these were the direct cause of the downfall of the ^loorish kingdom of Granada, for Ferdinand and Isabella, whose great mission was

140 THE MEDITKRRAXEAX

the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, took advan- tage of the quarrels, and in a few years became suc- cessful. They captured Alhama in 1482, and Muley afterward went down the Jenil with an ex- pedition to try and recover it. While he was gone, the tradition is that Aisha lowered herself and her sons Boabdil and Yusuf from a window in the Torre de Comares and fled with them across the Darro ravine to the Albaicin hill, and then northeastward up through the mountain passes to Guadix, the Moorish Wadi-Ash, the "water of life." Here Boabdil was at once proclaimed king of Granada — El Rey Chico — and after a fierce struggle he next year dethroned his father Muley, who retired with the "Morning Star" to Malaga. Then Boabdil took the field against Ferdinand, but venturing too far down the Jenil, the Spaniards in 1483 defeated and captured him at Lucena. Boabdil thereupon made a treaty, acknowledging tribute to Ferdinand and thus held the Granada throne. In 1485 Muley died, his brother Ez-Zagal succeeding, and the next year, Boabdil returning to his Moorish fealty re- signed Granada to Ez-Zagal, who was the last of the heroic leaders of the Moors. Again Boabdil battled with the Spaniards at the remaining stronghold do^vn the Jenil, Loja, which with Alhama were the " Keys of Granada." Once more he was captured, and submitting, again pledged fealty to Ferdinand and returned to Granada, Ez-Zagal having gone to

THE ALHAMBKA PALACE 141

the relief of Malaga. One after another of the Moorish strongholds fell, Ez-Zagal was entirely de- feated, and then Ferdinand required Boabdil to give up Granada. After another final desperate effort he was forced to abandon the place, which was agreed upon by the treaty of l-iOl, and January 2, 1492, the Spaniards took possession of the Alham- bra. In Boabdil's vacillating and unheroic career, he had many internal dissensions to cope with. He is said to have discovered a tryst of his Queen Morayma with Ilamet, the chief of the Abencerrages, and this led to a horrible tragedy. He brought the principal members of that powerful family into this superb hall by inviting them to a banquet, and had them beheaded in his presence, whence came its name. Thus he got the enmity of the whole clan which helped precipitate his downfall.

The Hall of the Abencerrages is a magnificent apartment though comparatively small. Opposite the grand entrance, which has beautiful doors, re- cently restored, the central part rises in three stages, into an elaborate fountain, while above are a ceiling and dome, the ceiling being star-shaped and adorned with stalactites. There are reddish-brown stains on the marbles of the fountain, which tradition says were made by the blood of the decapitated Abencer- rages. The overflow waters of the fountain run off through the entrance to the Court of the Lions. At either end of the Hall are flat-roofed alcoves,

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while beyond are cai^acloiis water cisterns, and be- hind is the Rauda, a sepulchral chapel, where were discovered in 1574 the alabaster tombstones of three of the Moorish kings. I'pon the southeastern side of the Court of the Lions is the " Hall of Justice," also called the " Hall of the Kings," the tradition being that here they dispensed justice. The en- trance is by three separate archways, each divided by two columns. The ends are alcoves, and the ceil- ing is separated into sections, roofed by stalactite arches. These arches with the honeycombed vault- ing make it look like a curious and fantastic grotto. There are some early fifteenth century paintings on the walls, done on leather bv ^[oorish artists, and the central one represents ten bearded ^loslems said to be portraits of the kings of Granada from Mo- hammed I to Abu the Red who reigned in the four- teenth century. There are also preserved here the alabaster slabs taken from the kings' tombs in the Rauda.

The " Hall of the Two Sisters " is an upper story on the northeastern side of the Court of the Lions. It opens at a somewhat higher level into the " Hall of the Ajimeces " to the northeast, and farther north- east is the Mirador of Daraxa, which looks out upon the Court of Daraxa. These three apartments were the residence of the Sultana, and are a suite of great magnificence. The " Hall of the Two Sisters " is named from two large slabs of white marble in the

THE ALHAMBIU PALACE 143

pavement, and this is regarded as the most finely decorated apartment in the Alham])ra. It has elabo- rate wall adornments in stucco and beautiful doors, but the great achievement is the ceiling. This is composed of honeycombed vaulting, and is said to be the largest existing ^loorish roof of tliis character. There are five thousand colls, all differing, yet. all combining in a plan of bewildering yet symmetrical beauty. Xiches in the Avails are flanked by grace- ful columns, and at each corner fantastic cell-foun- tains and stalactite pendants hang from the roof. Above rises the impressive dome, with its innumer- able cells of tiny construction in every variety of form, as if a swarm of bees had been at work, one cell breaking into another, climbing above it, and being in turn used as a base for a third to rise higher. These cells and little domes soar upward in the most curious way, the roof doubling back upon itself and forming large vaults in its fantastic and involved combinations until the top is reached. The walls are fanciful and picturescpie, dados covering the lower parts with convolutions in red, green and blue, and having above on a ground of plaster lace-work bril- liant displays of embroidery. In this Hall stands the famous Alhambra Vase, with two handles, and enameled in white, gold and blue in exquisite fash- ion, displaying animals supposed to be gazelles. It is about four and a half foot high, dating from the early fourteenth century, the tradition being that at

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the conquest it was found in the palace filled with gold. The Hall of the Ajimeccs also has a fine ceil- ing, and opens into the Mirador de Daraxa, which has three tall windows cut down almost to the floor and looking out upon the Court of the Daraxa. The name of Daraxa means the " Vestibule," and it was here that Irving located the boudoir of his romantic Moorish beauty Lindaraja. In the Mirador is an inscription, which translated reads : " In these rooms so much magnificence presents itself to the gazer that the ej'e is taken captive and the mind confused. Light and color are so distributed here, that you may look upon them at the same time as one and yet as different." The Court of the Daraxa is shaded by orange trees, and has a fountain brought here by Charles V from the older part of the Al- hambra, the " Court of Mexuar." Beyond the Court of the Daraxa to the nortlieast is the Torre de Peinador, built by Yusuf I, giving an admirable view. Its upper story was converted by Charles V into the Peinador de la Eeina, the " Queen's Boudoir."

The Spaniards about the middle of the seventeenth century constructed the small but attractive "Court of La Eeja," named from its upper story window grilles, between the Daraxa and the Torre de Comares. In it are cypress trees, a favorite adorn- ment of the Alhambra gardens, and a central foun- tain. An elaborate staircase conducts to the Hall of

THE ALllAMnitA PALACE 145

the Ambassadors in the Torre, while the Viaducto, an underground passage, leads from this Court be- low the Sala de la Barca, over to the Mexuar. It also gives entrance to the cellars below the Torre, where the ancient palace keepers had their apart- ments, and to the extensive and luxuriant baths built by Yusuf I, adjoining the Court of the Myrtles. Here are halls for dressing rooms and for repose after the bath, alcoves for couches, and a gallery for singers who entertained the royal bathers. There were warm and cold baths with marble tubs, a rich mosaic flooring and beautiful fountain, while superb columns, slender and most artistic with the surmounting Moorish arches, support the super- structure. To the westward is the most ancient part of the Alhambra, the Court of the Mexuar, and the Mexuar itself on the western side of this Court, its name derived from the Arab meshivar, meaning a " council chamber,'' it being now a chapel. Here was the king's audience chamber, and adjoining it the mosque built by Mohammed V, its mihrab, or prayer recess, facing the southeast toward Mecca, being the most holy part. The Spaniards made the Mexuar a chapel in 1629, its altar coming from Genoa. The level of the older part of the Alhambra is consider- ably below that of the larger Courts of later construc- tion.

When Charles V determined to build his Alham- bra palace, he removed a largo portion of the south- VOL. I— 10

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western part of the Moorish structure, and here was planned a building forming an impressive quad- rangle over two hundred feet square, and fifty-three feet high, with five entrances on the southern and western sides. The elalx)rate facade of this struc- ture far outshines the lower and less attractive outer walls of the Moorish Alhambra buildings, though the new palace was never entirely completed, and building went on at intervals for a century. It was to have liad a high domed cliapel at the northeastern angle, rising above any building or tower in the Al- hambra, and also a huge triumphal arch on the southern side glorifying Charles, but neither got be- yond the original i)lans of the architects, nor was the roof entirely finished. The cost of building was defrayed originally by tribute levied on the Moors who remained in Spain, but the supply of money ran out, and subsequent Spanish sovereigns had other plans in view elsewhere. The palace is built in two lofty stories, with various rooms around a central circular court of about one hundred feet diameter. Arcades surround this court, the lower stage bc»ing of Doric and the upper of Ionic columns. To the southeast of this palace was tlie Mezquita Real, originally the small mosque of Mohammed III, in which the first Christian mass was celebrated after the fall of Granada, it being then made a chapel. In the late sixteenth century, however, this mosque building became insecure and was taken away and a

THE ALHAMBRA PALACE 147

new church constructed on the site. To the south- ward is the first convent built in Granada, San Francisco, begun in 1498, the year after the Span- ish possession. Here were buried the Catholic kings of Spain until their removal to the Cathedral of Granada in 1521. In the garden of the Gt^neralife, on the higher hill, east of the Allianibra, is the Court of the Cypresses, its central pond shaded by gigantic trees of great age. Und(»r the *' Cypress of the Sul- tana," said to be six hundred years old, tradition tells of the tryst of lioabdil's queen and Haniet, Chief of the Abencerrages, which had so much to do with the quarrels leading to the fall of Granada.

The Alhanibra is the attraction of Granada, but the city itself, while to an extent neglected and presenting evidences of decay and dilapidation, is also interesting. The capture of Granada, which drove the Moors from their last stronghold in Spain, caused the most extensive rejoicing throughout Christendom and it was marked by special Te Deums in the churches evervwhere. It was natural that the devout sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isa- bella, " the Catholic kings," should desire to mark their great victory by the erection of an imposing cathedral in the ^foorish capital, as the memorial of conquest. But their architects were unable to adapt the Alhambra or the mosques or other build- ings in the city to the purpose, and these sovereigns died without the realization of the project. Charles

148 THE MEDITERRANEAN

V began it, however, and laid the cornerstone in 1523, where the chief mosque stood, on the higher ground of the Segrario, alongside the Darro ravine, of the Cathedral of Santa Maria of the Incarnation, a Gothic structure consecrated, when still incomplete, in 15G1. It was two centuries building, and is one of the most impressive churches of Spain. It is nearly four hundred feet long and about two hun- dred and twenty feet wide in the interior, the west- ern fagade having been designed to rise in two towers, of which the southern was never built, while the northern tower is constructed in three stages, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, to a height of about one hun- dred and ninety feet, having been intended to rise eighty feet higher. Above the principal entrance is a large relief of the Incarnation. The interior of the cathedral is a nave with double aisles and out- lying chapels, having a handsome marble pavement, decoration chiefly in white and gold, and massive piers supporting the vaulting one hundred feet above. The great Capilla Mayor, east of the nave, is nearly one hundred and fifty feet long, and one hundred and fifty-five feet high, surmounted by a lofty domed roof borne on massive Corinthian colunms, having at their feet colossal statues of the Apostles, while above are paintings representing scenes in the life of the Virgin, and admirable stained glass windows. TJelow are kneeling figures of the Catholic kings of Spain.

THE ALHAMBRA PAL^VCE 149

On the south side of the cathedral, toward the west, is the Scgrario, now used as a parish church, and occupying the site of the principal mosque of Granada, which had been the Christian church down to the time of the consecration of the cathedral. It was on the door of this mosque? that the knight Ileman Perez del Pulgar in 141)0 pinned with his dagger the scroll bearing the words Ace Maria, and the Capilla de Pulgar at the corner of tlie Scgrario now marks the spot. On the south side of the cathe- dral, and east of the Scgrario, is the Capilla Keal, the burial chapel of the Catholic kings. This was a modest structure erected bv Ferdinand in the earlv sixteenth centurv, but Charles V declared it '* too small for so great glory " and had it enlarged. Here are the monuments of Ferdinand and Isabella, the king wearing the Order of St. (ieorgo and the queen the Cross of Santiago; also the monuments of their daughter Johanna, and her husband Philip the Handsome of Austria, who wears the Order of the Golden Fleece, the parents of Charles, who had them interred here. The demented Johanna used to carrv her husband's leaden coffin about with her in her joumeyings, and a few stops descend to the vault, where this coffin is seen, and also hers, a duplicate. There are two fine reliefs in carved wood, one repre- senting the baptism of jMoors by Spanish priests, and the other, the unfortunate Poabdil surrendering the key of the Alhambra to the Cardinal Mendoza in

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the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella. In the sacristy are kept Ferdinand's sword and Isabella's sceptre, crown and reliquary, the memorials of the " Catholic kings," and also her missal, which is laid on the high altar on the festival day, January 2, and the standard which the queen is said to have em- broidered and which was raised over the conquered city.

To the northwcj^t of the cathedral is the old Con- vent of San Geronimo, founded soon after the con- quest, and now a cavalry barracks. Its churcli was the burial place of the famous Spanish general, who led Ferdinand and Isabella's armies, the " Gran Capitan " — Gonsalvo de Cordova. Above the en- trance is his coat-of-anns, and within, the tomb of Gonsalvo and his widow Maria Mearique. The hero captured seven hundred banners in his wars, and these formerly all surrounded the tomb. There are at the altar, kneeling figures of Gonsalvo and Maria, and statues clad in full armor of four of his promi- nent officers. During the Carlist troubles in 1836 a mob plundered the convent, dug up the tombs and cast out the bones of the hero. When the Christians entered Granada, after their long campaign, which had been planned largely by Gonsalvo, they came by the Moorish gate south of the city, leading from the valley of the Jenil, — the liib-onexde, — which the Spaniards afterward called the Puerta de los Molinos, — to which the road led up from the bridge

Tower of the Seven Floors, Alhambra.

THE ALHA^HBRA PALACE 151

crossing the river at the Bomba Mills, whence came the name of the gate. The defeated Boabdil de- spairingly left the Alhanibra at the gate on its south- ern side in the iii)per part of the Alameda, — the Puerta de los Siete Siiclos — ■ the *^ Gate of the Seven Floors " then called the Bib-al-Godor bv the Moors. It stood on a bastion and had very tall towers at that time, with subterranean passages and coffers, which gave the basis for some of Irving's tales of hidden treasures. Boabdil's mournful request that this gate should be walled up after his departure was granted by the conquerors. Boabdil retreated up the Jenil valley among the lofty Sierras, the snowy line of peaks marking the entire southeastern hori- zon, and giving the Alhambra its grandest view. The range rises in the Picacho de Veleta, 11,385 feet, and the massive summit of the Cerro de Mul- hacen, the " Mount of ^luley Hassan," 11,420 feet, the highest mountain in Spain. The tradition is that Boabdil, as he entered the Sierra Xevada range, southeastward of Granada, turned at a point where the road crossing the foot-hill gave the final view of Granada to take a last despairing look at the beauti- ful palace he was compelled to leave. His eyes filled with tears, and his lamentations were heart- rending, but his mother Aisha, made of sterner stuff, rebuked him, saying: "Weep not like a woman, for what you could not defend like a man." This place on the road is called the " T^st Sigh of the

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Moor," and when the unfortunate Boabdil passed beyond, there ended forever the Moorish rule in Spain, which had continued nearly eight centuries. This ending of the dynasty of Islam and the entry of the Christian, prompted Lockhart's lines in his Spanish Ballads:

There was crying in Granada when the sun was going down; Some calling on the Trinity — some calling on Mahoun. Here passed away the Koran ; there, in the Cross was borne : And here was heard the Christian bell, and there the Moorish horn.

THE BARBARY COAST

Ill

THE BAEBARY COAST

Entering Africa — ^Abyla — Barbary Pirates — ^Morocco — Cape Spartel — The Atlas Mountains — Larache — Rabat — Casablan- ca— ^^logador — Tangier — Moorish Life — El Islam — Raisuli — Bu Hamera — Fez — Abdul Aziz — ^Mulai Ilafid — Ceuta — ^Tetuan — The Riffs — Penonde Velez — ^Al Mazoninia — ^rdilla — Algeria — Oran — Tlemcen — Mansoura — Mostaganem — Algiers, the Af- rican Paris — Blidah — Ancient Numidia — Kabylia — Bougie — Philippeville — Bona — Constantine — Lambessa — Timgad — Bis- kra— Sidi Okba — Touggourt — Tunisia — ^The Mejerda — Cape Bon — Cape Blanc — Tunis — La Goulette — ^The Bardo — Ruir.j of Carthage — The Byrsa Hill — Ancient Utica — Biserta — Susa — ^Kairouan — Thj'sdros — Sfax — Syrtes Minor and Syrtes Major — Syrtica — ^Tripoli — Fozzan — ^Moorzook — Barca — Beng- hazi— Tolmeta — ^Apollonia — Cyrene — The Sahara — The Si- rocco— The Simoom — Sahcl — Lybian Desert — ^The Oases — Siwah — Fountain of the Sun — Bahryeh — Dahkel — Khargeh — Tafilet— Tuat— The Tauregs— Ship of the Desert.

EXTERIXG AFRICA.

From the Eock of Gibraltar the outlook south- ward across the Strait is upon the hills of Africa, culminating in the limestone masses of the Sierra Bullones. These hills rise in the summit of Abyla, the African Pillar of Hercules, elevated 2,710 feet and far outtopping Gibraltar. The ancient classic name of Abvla was chanced bv the Moors to the

155

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Gebel Musa^ the " hill of Musa," who was the Mos- lem ruler of that region when the Moors invaded Spain, and gave the other Pillar its name of Gebel Tarik, from the leader of the invasion. The Sierra projects in the promontory overlooking Ceiita and forming the northeastern buttress of the coast, which then courses off southeastward into the Riffs, a par- tially explored range of hills running down in cliffs to the coast and forming the Mediterranean border for two hundred miles or more. The Anjera, a wild race of Berbers, occupy the part of the coast opposite Gibraltar and pretend to obsen'e a sort of nominal allegiance to the Sultan of Morocco. Westward the coast of the Strait in front of the Bullones extends to Cape Malabata, beyond which is the beautifully indented bay of Tangier, having on its farther side Cape Spartel, the northwestern projection of Africa. A small and pudgy-shaped steamer usually makes daily journeys across the strait from Gibraltar south- westward to the white houses of Tangier, fringing the hills and shores of its beautiful bav, and on this voyage, occupying barely three hours, takes the trav- eller away from modern civilization into the land of the Moors, and sets him backward at least a thou- sand years.

The whole of the Mediterranean coast, stretching from the Atlantic eastward to the desert adjoining Egypt, is the ancient land of Earbary, extending in- land southward to the almost indeterminate borders

Lighthouse, Cape Spartel.

ENTERING AFRICA 157

of the great Sahara desert. The Romans called it Libya. It includes the Moslem states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli and Barca, and its name comes from its most ancient inhabitants, the Berbers, who were the primitive people of northern Africa, occupying the country before the Arab invasion, and from the mixed descent afterward came largely the present partially dominant race, the Moors. This Barbary coast, since the middle ages, has been best knowTi to the world as the base for the most extensive and complete systems of piracy and brigandage that ever existed, and from this the term " the Barbary Coast " has been used as a synonym for the locale of piratical forms of business. During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the governments and peoples of this region were the common foes to Mediterranean commerce and travel, ahnost their en- tire subsistence being the produce of piracy, either through captured property, ransoms for prisoners, or the blackmail levied on maritime nations for im- munity. The piratical system, which had been previously in vogue in various ways, seems to have been first made a scientifically conducted business by the Barbarossa brothers, a couple of Greek rene- gades who became Moslems, and were bom at Mitylene, Lesbos, in the later fifteenth century. Barbarossa means the ^^ red beard," and these brothers who were corsairs, entered the service of Turkey and became the terror of the Mediterranean.

158 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Arudj, the older brother, was invited by the Emir Selim Eutemi of Algiers, in 1516, to aid him against the Spaniards. lie soon made himself master of Algiers, murdered the Emir, and gained headway against the Spaniards, but afterward was besieged and captured by Charles V's troops and executed in 1518. Subsequently, the younger brother, Khair- ed-Din, obtained the assistance of Sultan Selim I at Constantinople, and managed to recover Algiers. He was put in command of the Turkish fleet, forti- fied Algiers, and conquered Tunis and almost the whole coast, for the Turks. In 1535, Charles V retook Tunis, but Barbarossa with his stronghold at Algiers, was in full control of the Mediterranean, aided the French against Charles, ravaged the Ital- ian coasts and defeated their admiral Andrea Doria of Genoa, making in 1543 a wholesale foray along the French and Italian Riviera shores, in which he captured many thousands of prisoners and took them to Constantinople, where he died in 1546.

The piratical methods of the Barbary powers, thus organized upon an effective system by these princely corsairs, continued practically unchecked until the early nineteenth century. Few attempts were made to oppose them by force. The more important Eu- .ropean governments paid these pirates regular an- nual tributes, because this gave them the monopoly of the valuable Mediterranean trade, as against « the smaller countries that could not afford to pay, and

ENTERING AFRICA 159

were afraid of the corsairs. In the later period England was paying about $280,000 a year, and put the price high to prevent rival bids, the tribute be- ing supplemented by constant concessions and pres- ents. Part of the tribute was always demanded in armed vessels, ammunition and naval stores, so that thus in practice, the civilized nations were actually furnishing the means for plundering themselves. The ransom of captives, of whom many were taken, was usually a matter of public and private charity, and collections were frequently taken in churches for this object. Algiers was always the piratical headquarters, and in 1786 there were about twenty- two hundred captives held there. The breaking up of this system came primarily through the efforts of the United States. After the revolution, the Ameri- can vessels in the ^Mediterranean were no longer pro- tected by the British tributes, and the pirates began attacking them. In July, 1785, the Algerines cap- tured two American vessels with twenty-one men, which caused excitement. Congress in 1784 had ap- propriated $80,000 to buy immunity, after the Eu- ropean plan, and various sums were paid imtil 1795 without satisfactory results, when Congress voted $092,463 to pay Algiers for peace and the ransom of all the American prisoners. This tribute in- cluded a thirty-six-gun frigate costing nearly $100,000 and about $100,000 more in stores and ammunition. Treaties were also made with other

160 T»K MEDITEKRAXEAX

Barbary states, and do\vii to 1802 the cost had been over $2,000,000 to the United States, without secur- ing a satisfactory result, for while the tribute was taken, the treaties were repeatedly broken. The feeling became acute, and a period of desultory war- fare followed, continuing until 1815, when Commo- dore Decatur went to the ^loditerranean with a strong naval fleet, captured Algiers, forced the Dey to sign a treaty and surrender all captives without ransom, and then compelled the rulers of Tunis and Tripoli to make similar treaties, releasing all Chris- tian prisoners of whatever race. This energetic campaign induced England to take similar action the next year, Algiers being bombarded and twelve himdred Christian slaves released. But Tunis and Tripoli did not fully abandon piracy until 1819, and Algiers continued it in a desultory way until 1829, when France finally compelled it to cease, blockading the city and capturing it in 1830. This closed over three centuries of piracy along the Bar- bary coast, although the nomadic tribes of the Kiff and others elsewhere, still keep up a warfare, with clandestine wreckage upon the shore and successful brigandage in the interior.

MOROCCO.

When the Arabs, in the wonderful expansion of their conquests, following the death of Mohammed,

MOROCCO 161

overran the whole of northern Africa, they called the region toward the Atlantic Maghreb-el-AJcsa, " the extreme West." From this came the name of their city in this region of Marrakesh, now corrupted into Morocco, and the name of the State. This country gives probably the best present-day ex- hibition of the nomadic Arab tribal svstem and of resultant misrule, which the ^loslcin lands present, in its constant feuds and changes of rulers. The in- terior boundary of the country of Morocco is only vague lines toward the south (the Sahara desert) and the east, bordering Algeria. The latter bound- ary begins on the Mediterranean at the mouth of a small stream called the Skis, and then is extended across the interior in a generally south-southeastern direction. It is well said that the southern bound- aries of this rather indeterminate country, " expand and contract according to the power and activity of the central authorities." In fact, the allegiance of many of the nomadic tribes within the recognized boundaries is questionable and intermittent, while ac- curate information about the topography and char- acter of the interior is scarce and defective, with little known beyond a few miles on either side of the routes that have for centuries been travelled by cara- vans, occasionally including Europeans. This land was the Roman Mauritania, previously first settled by the Phoenicians, and afterward controlled by

Carthage. It was conquered by the Vandals upon Vol. I— 11

1G2 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the downfall of Eome, and is full of Roman remains, there still being snr\'ivals of the Eonian roads con- structed south from Tangier. Belisarius recovered it from the Eastem Empire in the fifth century, and then came the Arab invasion. The Arabs, however, were sturdily resisted by the Berbers, who are still the inhabitants of the hilly districts of Morocco, and the more numerous portion of the population. After the seventh century, the Moorish dynasties, success- ively in control of Spain, were usually in power in Morocco. The Portuguese, in their colonial expan- sion, made conquests in the early fifteenth century, occupying a good deal of the coast, and subsequently, the Spaniards, English and Dutch secured posses- sions. In the later period, France and Spain have been practically the arbiters of the country, England assenting, and Germany seeking a foothold. Mo- rocco in the earlier times of Moorish power had a much larger population than now, the estimates at present b(Mng uncertain and varying from five to seven millions of people of all races. Their uni- versal unrest makes somewhat of a paradox, their national salutation, " May peace be in your path," and so defective is their system of agriculture that less than one per cent of the arable land is under cultivation. ^Nforocco is, liowever, the great Moslem stronghold of the present time, with a virile, unruly and fanatical j)()j)ulation, most of them animated by the hope of some day having revenge against the

MOROCCO 163

enemies of Islam, and particularly against Spain, the nation which banished the ]!Jloors from Southern Europe.

Westward from the Bay of Tangier, the coast of Morocco is prolonged in the Jebcl Kcbcr, a ridge rising nearly nine hundred feet, its seaward extrem- ity, the northwestern coast of Africa, being Cape Spartel, known to the ancients as Ampelusia, or Cotes Promontorium. Its lighthouse, which is main- tained at the joint expense of England, France, Spain and Italy is almost the only one on the west- ern coast of Morocco. Southward, this Atlantic coast extends for eight hundred miles, without pic- turesque feature, being remarkable for its regularity and monotonous sameness, there not being a single gulf or estuary of any size throughout its whole length, and few and only feebly marked capes. Southward from Cape Spartel the shore sinks grad- ually and almost to the sea level, the development of commerce at most of the small ports being re- tarded by the treacherous roadsteads, and the uncer- tainty of communication between ship and shore during some seasons of the year. There is an oc- casional town or ruined village of long ago along the inland hills, with a background of higher plateaus and summits off toward Fez, the capital. The in- terior of the country is composed largely of undulat- ing steppes, varied by low hills, and is traversed by ranges of mountains stretching from the' west. to the

164 THE MEDITERRANEAN

east, the impressive backbone of Morocco being the Great Atlas, a range about 5,000 feet high at its western extremity, then falling off, but to the east- ward rising to 10,000 feet elevation, while beyond the lower Pass, sixty miles from the sea, which leads from the City of Morocco, it rises to 11,500 feet. Farther east there are other passes and low parts, and then it culminates in peaks rising 13,500 feet. Snow remains as late as June on some of the higher Atlas summits. Pliny said that in his time the people called these mountains the Dyren, and they are still the Daren of the Berbers. Viewed from the lower regions at the northward, the Atlas range pre- sents an impressive and august appearance, appar- ently rising in abrupt and even steep ascents, but actually the slope from base to summit on that side is about fifteen miles. These mountains are the source of a generous rainfall, and the Moroccan pro- verb is that " Famine never comes with wet feet." The Morocco rivers all rise in the Atlas mountains, their summer current (the dry season) being com- paratively feeble, but the rains of winter and the melting snows of spring make streams of great vol- ume as shown by their broadened beds. The best known river is the Muluya, which the French are anxious to make the western Algerian boundary. This was the ancient Mulucha and Melva, to which Pliny refers, but its course has been only scantily explored. Pliny also referred to the Tamuda, which

THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD 165

Ptolemy called the Tlialiida, and this is now the Martil, flowing into the Bay of Tetuan. As not more than a hundredth part of the available surface of Morocco is cultivated, it is still true as quoted by Addison, that the Moors " seldom reap more than will bring the year about." Thus the failure of a single harvest usually makes a famine. In the primitive transportation methods of the country, the patient camel is the chief beast of burden, though some mules and asses are thus employed, but the sympathetic Arab and chivalrous Berber never puts his noble horse to such base uses as carrying a pack, and he thoroughly despises a railroad.

THE ATLANTIC SE^VBOABD.

As there are no railroads in Morocco, the ancient caravan routes from the interior which have ex- isted from time immemorial have their outlets at various small and generally indifferent ports on the Atlantic coast. Under the Algociras Convention, all these ports, as well as those on the Mediterranean shore, are in French and Spanish control. The first port beyond Cape Spartel is Larache, held by the Spaniards. This is about forty miles southwest of Tangier, at the mouth of the Wadi el Khos, and was the ancient Lixus, there being remains of a Phoenician settlement. It was here that some of the old time chroniclers located " in the remote West and beyond the Pillars of Hercules " the island and

166 THE MEDITERRANEAN

garden where that hero got tlie golden apples of the iresi)erides. Xear the mouth of the river is a nar- row island, about six hundred feet long, and for centuries this was the abiding 2)lace of a daring horde of Barbary pirates, against whom the Austrian war- ships were sent in 1829, destroying the settlement and the last pirate fleet of ^Morocco.

A little way farther is Kabat, held by the French, and the special port of Fez. To this place in Sep- tember, 1007, the then Sultan, Abdul Aziz, made a journey at the head of his army, over the desert from Fez, not having ventured outside his capital for five years previously. This enabled his brother, the rival Sultan, Mulai Ilafid, who had been previously proclaimed in Southern Morocco, to get possession of Fez. !Mulai's su2:)porters were o])posed to the European control and innovations, and hence their revolt. Abdul Aziz abandoned his capital and came to Rabat really for the protection of the French war- ships, upon which he depended ior maintaining the semblance of power. Here he remained several months, making occasional incursions against hostile tribes in the interior, and in the summer of 1908, being emboldened by some temporary advantages gained in skirmishes, he marched out to oppose Mulai Ilafid, wliose forces were some distance south- ward toward ^larrakesh, (Morocco City). In Au- gust he met the enemy, but in the most surprising way, though not unusual in Moroccan warfare, his

THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD 167

forces nearly all deserted to Mulai, leaving him with only a handful of adherents, and then Alulai was proclaimed as Sultan at Tangier and elsewhere throughout the country. Abdul Aziz in a few days accepted the situation, disbanded his forces, and told them to go whither they willed. Thus the sovereign was changed, and Mulai was generally ac- cepted as Sultan by the European Powers, as ho promised obedience to the Algeciras Convention, and the protection of Europeans. His heritage from Abdul Aziz was an empty treasury, about $30,000, 000 of debts, and a restless and turbulent country through the rivalries of the tribal chiefs in different localities. One correspondent, writing from Tan- gier, significantly described the situaticm: "Abdul Aziz inherited a throne: he has left his successor a footstool with all the stuffing taken out."

At Eabat the river Burckrag, coming down from the mountains, makes a sort of bay at its outlet, with an indifferent harbor, and here was made on the bluff shore a settlement known as early as the thirteenth century, and which long was notorious as a nest of pirates. Peyond, down the coast, is Casablanca, now under joint French and Spanish control, and farther souHiwest are Mazagan, Saffi and Mogador, under French control, tlie latter being the seaport of !^^arrakesh. In the summer of 1007 the frequent outbreaks caused French and Spanish warships to be sent to all these ports, their guns con-

168 THE MEDITERRANEAN

trolling the wild tribes that since have shown a more peaceful inclination after the severe treatment some of them received.

Casablanca, the " White House," is a town of about seven thousand people, having a poor harbor that is being improved by building a protective breakwater for which Europeans provide the funds. Abdul Aziz, after his sudden downfall, came here in September, 1908, bringing his harem and a small retinue, and settling on a farm outside the town under French protection. During the outbreaks at- tending the rivalries of the two Sultans, this place was very turbulent. The Moors generally hate the Jews, who are the leading traders at the Moroccan ports, and in April, 1907, a Portuguese Jew was killed at Casablanca by a negro in the pay of a Moor, the murderer receiving for his crime an amount of money equivalent to about nineteen cents. Efforts were made for punishment, and there began a period of disturbance, resulting in a raid into the town in July by various unruly Arab tribes from the interior, who wished to exterminate the Jews and other traders, drive out the Europeans, and stop the harbor improvements. They massacred nine for- eigners, mostly Frenchmen, and the result was a visit by the warships and bombardment and partial destruction, early in August, 1907, of the Arab town, over a thousand being slain, and the French troops

THE ATLANTIC SEABOARD 169

landing and establishing a fortified camp. There were fierce and ahnost constant Arab attacks through- out August and early September, and the troops might have been driven into the sea had not the ships' guns defended them, cutting off the raiding parties with great slaughter. Tlie picturesque Arab cavalry, mounted on tlieir sup(»rb horses, galloped in repeated charges, waving their weapons and chanting texts from the Koran, but while their bullets wrought havoc among the French soldiers, yet the well-aimed shells from the ships always ploughed through the Arab squadrons and broke up these charges. Maza- gan, farther down the coast, was also bombarded and seriously damaged in August, 1907, to punish out- breaks against the European residents. Casablanca since has been generally quiet. Soon after Abdul Aziz arrived here, however, in September, 1908, there was a disturbance of a new character which came near embroiling Europe. On Sej^tember 25, six soldiers of the French foreign legion that was hold- ing the tovm, deserted, and two, being Germans, secured protection from the German Consul, who sent them aboard a German vessel in the harbor. The French would not stand for this, but seized them while being taken to the German ship, and they were confined in a French prison. This made a great sensation, producing an ugly feeling both in Germany and France, but the tension was gradually

170 THE MEDITERRANEAN

relieved. Abdul Aziz, in the latter part of 1908, be- came reconciled to bis brother Abdul Ilamid, and thereafter made Tangier his home.

Mogador, or Sairah, is the best iloroccan port on the Atlantic coast, being behind a small island which protects the roadstead. This was an early settlement of Portuguese traders who built a fort on the bluffs along the shore, surrounded by sandy lowlands over- flowed by the sea at high tide. This is the seaport of Af arrakesh which is about one hundred and thirty miles inland. Mogador, coming under iloorish con- trol in the eighteenth century, was enlarged and for- tified with walls and towers, and is reallv two towns — the Citadel, inhabited by the Moors, and the Mellah, which is the Jews' quarter. In the Citadel are dungeons, where in times past the Sultan's political prisoners have been confined. This port was placed under control of the French by the Algeciras Convention. It was here that the unrest and general disturbance prior to the 1907 outbreaks led to the first proclamation of Mulai Ilafid as a rival Sultan, he getting a sort of allegiance from the wandering tribes of the western coast engaged in the outbreaks. Mulai to strengthen himself at onco married four wives, and stopped the Jewish per- secutions, preferring to take their tribute. About the same time Bu Hamera, called El Roghi, the " Pre- tender," claiming to be Sultan in Eastern Morocco, who for years had enjoyed a sort of authority, again

A MOSLEM TOWN 171

became active; and Eaisuli, the "Eob Eoy of Morocco," resumed his spectacular brigandage, so that this peculiar country had four rival rulers, in different localities, with numerous smaller chieftains of nomadic fame, holding temporary sway in various regions, so long as some stronger force did not come along and cai)ture them or drive them out.

A MOSLKM TOWN.

The bay of Tangier, while a rather indifferent harbor, is by far the best roadstead possessed by Morocco, and hence Tangier has become its chief conmiercial town. The i)ort is in a most picturesque situation, upon the hills of the western margin of the shallow semicircular bay, and it is one of the oldest settlements in the world, the Tingis of the Eoman time. The white houses are surrounded by a wall with ancient towers and gates, the Kasba, or Citadel, rising on the highest elevation. It is a thoroughly Moslem town, and the nearest place to America and western Europe, where the oriental civilization mav still be seen unchan*xed and un- adulterated. What has to be largely imagined in the former Moorish lands of Cordova and Granada, is seen in present reality in Tangier and Morocco. The brief journey across the Strait from Gibraltar puts the visitor in the midst of Islam. The approach is beautiful; a white town, occupying the sides of two hills, one projecting boldly into the sea. The

172 THE MEDITERRANEAN

battlemented walls rise from the narrow beach along the shore, and mount the tops of precipitous rocks. Some batteries display guns frowning over the har- bor, and above are the terraces forming the town, everything being dazzlingly white, though here and there a green tree appears as if to make the white- ness more impressive. The high minaret of the chief mosque, curiously painted, is in front, with a banner flying at the top. Away toward the east run off the hills of the Bullones, culminating in the distant Jebel Musa, while to tlie westward rises the breezy elevated plateau of the Marshan, its eastern verge being the Kasba, and the surface occupied by pleasant villas and a large cemetery, having near it the remains of old Phcrnician tombs cut in the living rock. The plateau boldly culminates in the sea- viewing hill known as Mount Washington, from which there is the grand prospect across the Strait that Browning tells about in his Home Thoughts From the Sea:

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the northwest died away; Sunset ran, one glorious blood-rod, recking into Cadiz Bay; Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay; In the dimmest northeast distance dawned Gibraltar, grand

and gray; Here and there did England help me: how can I help Eng^

land ? — say, Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and

pray While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa.

A MOSLEM TOWN 173

Farther westward, about nine miles from the town, is the promontory of Cape Spartel. A rough mule path leads thither and it displays a beautiful land- scape of rock and ocean, with moorland inland, stretching off to a horizon of mountains.

In Tangier is seen the home life of the Moor. The narrow and uneven streets are impassable for wheeled vehicles, and scarcely afford room for the camels and beasts of burden. The one-story houses, their rooms all facing on small interior courts, present only bare walls to the streets, although they are gradually being rephiced with taller and more modem structures constructed by Europeans and generally in Spanish style. There is a great attrac- tion in wandering through these narrow, crooked streets and getting glimpses through the half-opened doors leading directly into the living and work rooms. Then the street crowds display the solemn, monk- like Moors, stalking by in white or colored robes, brilliant fez or turbans, and yellow slippers; the swarthy Jews in sombre black ; the Kabyles from the Berber villages; the negro slaves from the interior; and the white muffled figures of the women. From the first morning call of the muezzin to prayers, the town is busy as a swarm of bees, especially down by the harbor and in the market-places, and everything that is done has to be accompanied by a vast amount of yelling and apparently of quarrelling. But the

174 THE MEDITEKRAXEAN

streets are filthy, there being no sanitary arrange- ments, and the place is redolent with unsavory odors, though not unhealthy, for its magnificent climate has made it a health resort, which attracts many who avoid these drawbacks by living in the suburbs. The shipping lie off the port and most of the cargo has to be lightered ashore. There is a pier, but it is a modest affair, onlv recently constructed for the use of small boats which bring the passengers from the outlying ateamci's. Before it was built, the pas- senger was conveyed from the boat to the beach, usually on the back of an industrious Jew, for it is well known tliat no Moslem will demean himself by carrying an infidel, even for " baksheesh." Scat- tered over the harbor surface are many feluccas, as the native boats are called, the sea waves tossing their three-c*ornered sails from side to side. There is little done in Tangier to attract the visitor, it hav- ing neither theatres, casinos, brilliant cafes nor bands of music, as at most watering places ; but the population presents a variety show of infinite interest, and in the market-places, catering to the crowds, are jugglers and snake charmers; story-tellers and a breed of most importunate beggars; camels and asses; fierce-looking coast pirates from the Eiff, hav- ing the single long lock of hair by which they expect to be hoisted into Heaven when the resurrection comes; and a great conglomeration of all kinds of people, most of whom on the smallest pretence clamor

Entrance to a Mellk, or Jewish Quarter.

A MOSLEM TOWN 175

for the universal tribute of all Moslem lands, the " baksheesh." There is nothing like it seen in western Europe, and as no such thing as either local government or police supervi^^ion is dreamed of, outside of a sort of vague consular protection for visitors who get into trouble, the condition may be imagined. Blondin is said to have once remarked that walking on a tight-rope is easier than getting through this kind of streets. At the same time it is these verj things that make Tangier a favorite haunt of artists and travellers in search of the picturesque and curious.

The Kasba, rising about ioxir hundred feet above the town, is the principal structure, a citadel of the fifteenth century, but now only a group of un- impressive and dilapidated buildings. There are included a mosque and the Governor's residence and prison. Some of the rooms imitate the Alhambra decorations, and the Pasha's Harem is visited some- times by ladies, who ingratiate themselves with the inmates by presents, usually of candies. The Great Mosque is not far from the harbor, and on the southern side, its tower built in Giralda-like archi- tecture, and having a handsome entrance. The town has few other attractive buildings. Originally Tangier was a Phaaiician settlement, and grew in importance under the Koman domination. It fell into Arab possession about the year 700, and was their capital of the extreme western province of the

176 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Damascus caliphate. Portugal got possession in 1471, and England in 1GG2, when it came as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, but the English abandoned it in 1684, since which time the government of Morocco has nominally con- trolled it. The present somewhat antiquated forti- fications are of Spanish construction. The German Emperor William recently set longing eyes upon it, and made a flying visit in March, 1005, the Moors giving him a rousing welcome, and the Sultan of Morocco sending his band from the capital to lead the landing procession. William found in Tangier a noble looking Moor, nearly seven feet tall and large in proportion, and this Moor he took away as a trophy to Berlin, where he joined the company of tall soldiers in the First Guard Regiment, and carried the bell-tree for the band at a salary of five cents per day.

Among the suggestions made to the visitor who first ventures among the Moslems are these: Do not exercise yourself about the care of your animal or servant, or ask unnecessary questions. Xever under any circumstances point at a man with the finger; or ask after your host's family; or blow out a light — it should be extinguished by passing the hand rapidly over it. Staring at a Moor when going through his devotions must also be avoided, as the Moslem regards this as an insult. Xever in asking for a light for a cigar use the literal expression " Give me

A MOSLEM TOWN 177

a light," for this Arabic phrase is Djib lee ennar, and the word ennar also signifies " hell," so that the consequences may be imagined. The proper phrase is Djib lee afia — " Give me peace." Photo- graphing and sketching shock the Arab's religious prejudices, and sometimes, especially if the sketch is of a mosque, rough treatment may follow. A very calm and impassive demeanor is recommended, as this evidence of dignity is impressed upon the Moor.

The religion of the Moors — Mohammedanism, or as they call it, " El Islam," — is based upon the fundamental principles that *' There is but one God " and " Mohammed is his prophet ; " and the era of Islam dates from the Ilcgira, or the Prophet's Flight to Medina, in the year G22 A. D. They believe that God sent six great prophets into the world — Adam, Xoah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed — the last, in their view, having been the greatest. Each of these prophets, they hold, represented the will of God for a certain dispensa- tion, and each in turn was superseded. The Jews therefore they recognize as having been true believers from the time of Moses to Jesus. Thev denv, how- ever, that the existing versions of the books of Moses, the Psalms and Gt)spels, are authentic, only the Koran they say having come down unaltered from its first composition, though this as an actual fact

is doubtful. The Moslems accept the doctrines of Vol. 1—12

178 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

future reward and punishment and the immortality of the soul; but the more enlightened among them regard figuratively the descriptions of the joys of Heaven as depicted in the Koran. The admission to Paradise is got, not by merit, but by the mercy of God and by his absolute decree, and they believe generally in predestination, holding that some are elect to eternal happiness, whom they call welees, or " the chosen." The result of their belief in pre- destination is that in times of distress the men dis- play exemplary patience, and in affliction a remark- able fortitude. There are, strictly speaking, no priests in the mosques. The chief religious officer attached to a mosque is the Nasir or Warden, who is trustee of the endowments, and appoints all the other officials. These are the Imaums, who lead the services, the Khatehs who preach on Friday, the Moslem Sabbath, and the Muezzins who sonorously chant the prayer calls from the minarets.

Almsgiving, fasting, prayer and pilgrimage, with frequent purifications by washing, are scrupulously enjoined upon all true believers by Mohammed. Yearly, in the month Eamadan, the great fast is held, but as the ^Moslem year is only 354% days, this and other fasts and feasts constantly shift. Prayer is always preceded by ablutions, as prayer is not accepted from an unclean person. It is proper to lay a carpet on the ground when praying, and these rugs or carpets the faithful carry with them^

A MOSLEM TOWN 179

and the dress should also be clean. The Moslem entering a mosqne leaves his shoes outside, performs his ablutions at the water basin in the court, if not already purified, and then turning toward Mecca — the direction being indicated by the prayer recess in the wall, performs his various prostrations and orisons. On Friday, the reading chair and pulpit are brought into use; portions of the Koran are recited, and a sermon is preached by the Kliateh, who sits on the top step of the pulpit stairs. In the intervals of prayer on Fridays, the faithful may transact worldly business. Every day the devout Moslem has five periods for the repetition of prayers; First, Maghreh, a little after sunset; second Asha, nightfall, about an hour and a half after sunset; third, Subli, daybreak; fourth, Duhr, midday; and fifth, Asr^ afternoon, about three o'clock. These periods of prayer also serve to mark the divisions of the day, which begins at sunset. The sonorous call of the muezzin^ however, sufiices for the prayer of most of the people, which they repeat after him. This call, in the Arabic, when translated is " Allah is Great ! " repeated three times. " I testify that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah ! " repeated twice ; " Come to prayer ! " repeated twice. In the desert, where water is unobtainable, the faithful are permitted to use sand for their ablutions. The worshipper, facing Mecca, begins by holding his

180 THE MEDITERRANEAN

hands to the lobes of his ears, and then a little below his girdle, and as he recites passages from the Koran, he pauses to make repeated prostrations.

The great fast in the month of Kamadan is scrupulously observed, from daybreak to sunset, all eating and drinking being prohibited, and the most devout even avoid swallowing their saliva. There are prolonged repasts in the night, as a compensa- tion. !XIany offices and shops are entirely closed during this month, which is a lunar cycle. Alms- giving is a religious duty, certain alms being com- pulsory and others voluntary, but considered highly meritorious. The pilgrimage to Mecca is the fourth great duty, which all good Moslems try to make at least once in their lives, though this is very difficult from a country as distant as Morocco. The boys are sent to school to read the Koran, but general educa- tion is scant. The girls are not sent to school, nor is their attendance at Mosque regarded as essential or even desired, and from most mosques women are excluded. They are commanded however to visit the tombs of their deceased relatives, and keep them in repair. The Moslem believes that the spirit of every true believer goes to a place of happiness, to await the resurrection; when reunited to the body, it will enter into Paradise; and in the meantime the soul every Thursday visits the grave of the body. For this reason many females go on that day to the cemeteries, and commune with the spirits of the dead

A MOSLEM TOWN 181

as though actually present, telling them all the news and family gossip. The Koran says in the 43(1 verse of the 40th Hurah (chapter) " Whosoever per- forms good works and believes, men as well as women, shall enter Paradise." The pilgrimage to Mecca is undertaken in tlie last month of the Moslem year, called Dhulhijjeh, or *' the month of the pilgrimage." This event culminates at Mecca in a great sacrificial feast, when sheep are slaughtered, and this feast, called the Great Beiram, is observed in all Mohammedan countries. The Moslems have the worship of saints at their tombs, the same as at the tomb of Mohammed at ^ledina in Arabia, and there are few towns w^hich do not have such shrines.

The Koran was a revelation of supernatural origin to Mohammed, w-hose name means " the praised." He was born about 570 A. D., and before reaching his fortieth year had a dream on Mount liira, near Mecca, which gave him the original impulse to op- pose the vanity of idolatry. His first converts were in his own family, and in G22 A. I), they migrated to Medina, w^iere the new religion made great progress. The name of Koran means the '' re- hearsal " or " reading," and the first revelation vouchsafed him, was on what he called the " blessed night" in the year 609, and the revelation of the book continued, with interruptions, for twenty-three years, until the whole of it, wliicli had already existed

182 THE MEDITERRANEAN

on the " well-preserved table in lleaven," had been communicated to the prophet. It is divided into parts or chapters called surahs. The Koran is re- garded as the masterpiece of Arabian literature, and the Moslem prayers consist almost entirely of the recitation of passages from it. The translation of the Koran is prohibited, and therefore in other lands than where the Arabic language is spoken, it is taught the children entirely by rote. Mohammed built the first mosque at Medina, in a yard planted with date trees — a square, capacious structure with brick and earthen walls, the trunks of the date trees being the columns supporting the roof which was a thatch of palm leaves. There were three doors, and Mohammed was buried nearby. This was afterward replaced by a larger but similar building, the Mesdjid-en-NeJcy, or " Mosque of the Prophet," which became the model for all mosques. The minaret for the muezzin was added about a half century after the Ilegira. There are two classes of mosques: those of rectangular form, where the court is surrounded by arcades of columns; and those where the court, whether rectangular or cunei- form, is surrounded by closed spaces. The larger, or cathedral mosques, where sermons are preached on Friday and prayers offered for the sovereign, are called Jami, Each of these has a court of con- siderable size, usually uncovered, in the centre being

A MOSLEM TOWN 183

the fountain for the ablutions. Adjoining the east side of the court .is the Mahsura, covered "with carpets or mats, and containing the holy vessels. In the Mahsura is the Mihrah or prayer recess facing towards Mecca, called Kihla; the Mimhar or pulpit to the right of the Milirah, from which the preaching is done; the Kurd or desk on which the Koran lies open during the service (being kept at other times in a cabinet) ; and the DilcTceh, a pedestal on columns and enclosed by a low railing, from which the as- sistants repeat the words of the Koran for the hearing of those at a distance. There are also various lamps. Adjacent to the Maksura usually is the monument of the founder of the mosque; wliile alongside the larger court is a smaller one with a central basin, this generally being entered first by the worshipper. The ^foslems also perform their devotions at the grated windows of the mausoleums of their saints, called ^Yeli. Within is seen a catafalque covered with bright-hued carpets, although the saint's remains mav not be there. These Welis are numerous in all ^loslcm countries, being some- times built into the houses. They are dome-covered and cubical in fonn and generally whitewashed. Most mosques have considerable endowments for purposes of benevolence, education and piety, and while unadorned by paintings or sculptures, like the Christian churches, yet the Saracenic art is invoked

184 THE MEDITERRANEAN

to attain elegance of decoration in form and color, although Islam is a foe to all representations of liv- ing creatures.

Many are the revelations and proverbs attributed to the prophet. One of the most significant describes the devastation of the locust, yet indicates its limit. The Arabs tell us the locust thus addressed Moham- med: "We are the army of the Great God; we pro- duce ninety-nine eggs : if we produced a hundred we should consume the whole earth and all that is in

it." A locust actuallv lavs more than a hundred

I. 1/

eggs, and multiplies amazingly, yet here is indicated the limit to its enormous progeny, which saves the earth from devastation.

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL.

There are few Europeans in ]\Iorocco, outside of Tangier and the other coast settlements. The Arabs are proud of this, and they often speak of Tangier as " the city afflicted of Allah with dogs and infidels." To go into the interior, the visitor has to travel with guides and tent equipage, and the journey also re- quires guards, for there is risk from the nomadic brigands who wander over the country and are not content alone with " baksheesh." It was in 1905, that the American citizen who resided in a beautiful villa on the mountain at the western verge of Tangier, Ton Perdicaris, was kidnapped with his stepson from the villa itself, and carried off by a band of brigands

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 185

under the leadership of the picturesque outlaw, Kaisuli, and taken into the interior. The prisoners were treated all right, being held for ransom, and Perdicaris described his captor as " a man of in- domitable courage, with polished manners and cul- tivated mind." All sorts of threats were made to secure release, and an American fleet of warships was sent to the Moroccan coast, while the English, French and United States Governments used every pressure, but the enterprising brigand made his point and did not release the prisoners until the demanded ransom $70,000 was paid down by the then Sultan Abdul Aziz, who also sent to Eaisuli the appointment of Governor over the nomadic tribes that wander in the regions between Tangier and Fez, the northern capital, where that Sultan had chiefly resided until he went to Rabat in 1907. Fez is distant about one hundred and seventy-five miles southeastward from Tangier.

Eaisuli would have been an impossibility in almost any other country than Morocco. He is Mulai Ahmed ben Mohammed er-liaisuli, born about 1866, a Shereef, or direct descendant of the Prophet, who received an excellent education in religious law and the Koran at Tetuan, and when he came to manhood, took up the lucrative, adventurous and somewhat risky trade of a cattle-robber. This is a calling by no means despised in Morocco, but it requires courage, of which he has plenty. He soon became celebrated,

186 THE MEDITERRANEAN

he and his band earning much money and liberally spending it. But the cattle-stealing led to other crimes, and murders followed, life being held cheaply in this wild country, and the dead soon forgotten. But on one occasion, another Shereef, who had mar- ried his sister, proposed to take a second wife, which Eaisuli could not prevent, and on the night of the new marriage, amid the festivities, Eaisuli and his men entered the house and murdered the bride and her mother. His crimes became so notorious that the Sultan ordered his arrest, and he was sent to the dun- geons of Mogador where he remained in chains nearly five years, once escaping, but being recaptured in a few hours. Ultimately released through a friend's intercession, he went to Tangier to live peageably, but found that his property had been confiscated, and be- ing unable to recover it, he resumed his old profession and became a brigand, capturing anyone whose pos- session gave liope of ransom. lie is tall, robust, handsome, wath very white skin, black eyes, short dark beard and mustache, eyebrows that form a straight line across the forehead, a cruel mouth, and a Grecian rather than Semitic profile. His voice is soft and low, his expression sad and his manner quiet and charming, but to his followers his demeanor is usually haughty.

After the Perdicaris release, Eaisuli became a despot and his actions were almost unbearable. He was a strong Governor, but he overdid it, disregard-

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 187

ing all treaties, blackmailing everyone who could be reached, and becoming so intolerable, that at the re- quest of the Euroi^ean representatives, who were sec- onded by a formidable fleet of warships in the Bay of Tangier, the Sultan was compelled to remove him from the Governorship at the close of 190G. But the resourceful bandit bided his time. lie retired from Tangier to the mountains to the eastward, started an- other negotiation to try and make an arrangement for pardon, and thus induced the chief adviser of the Sultan, the Englishman, Kaid General Sir Harry McLean, to come to him for consultation. When McLean came in July, 1907, Raisuli promptly made him a prisoner, took the horses and tents that were sent as presents, and then demanded for McLean's ransom $200,000, the rebuilding of his house which had been burnt, his reappointment as Governor, and the additional post of Commander of the Police of Tangier. McLean was a British army officer, the virtual commandant of the Sultan's forces, and the most influential man in ^Morocco, so that his capture was the bandit's master-stroke. It was said, how- ever, of Raisuli, that after the manner of his imagi- native race " he begins by asking for the moon, but would be content with a few of its beams." The Moroccans could do nothing with him, and then the British Government took up the negotiation for Mc- Lean's release, Raisuli finally restoring him to liberty for what might be regarded as very substantial moon-

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beams. After seven months' captivity, in February, 1908, the prisoner was brought back to Tangier and liberated. Eaisuli, as the result of the negotiation, secured $100,000 ransom, and fifty-six of his ad- herents who had been captured in various raids were restored to him. The British also guaranteed pro- tection to Eaisuli and twenty-eight of his relatives, who had got into trouble. To insure the future good behavior of the bandit, however, $75,000 of the ran- som remained in bank under British control, but Eai- suli is paid $250 monthly interest on this fund. Since the adjustment he has been peaceably disposed and Kaid McLean returned to England. After the accession of Sultan Mulai Ilafid, Eaisuli presented him w^ith $25,000 of the British ransom, thus get- ting the new Sultan's friendship, who made Eaisuli the Governor of Djebala Province, controlling about a dozen Arab tribes in northern Morocco, in the spring of 1909.

When Mulai Ilafid was first proclaimed in West- ern Morocco as a rival sultan to his brother Abdul Aziz, he at once liberated all the political prisoners Abdul had incarcerated at Mogador and Morocco City, declaring he would oppose any concessions to Europeans. His financial necessities, however, soon caused him to change this unfriendly policy. Mulai's other rival Bu Ilamera had been in evidence for several years. This Pretender, known as El Eoghi, claimed a divine inspiration, calling him-

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 189

self El Moghreb Bu Hamera, which may be trans- lated as " the patriarch who rides upon a she ass." He secured a strong foothold in Eastern Morocco, getting great influence over the Eiff tribes of the Anjera district east of Tangier, who usually are at war with the Europeans and Moors alike. He had always aspired to the Sultanate, and in the summer of 1909 marched inland to capture Fez and dethrone Mulai. Several conflicts were fought outside the walls witliout positive result for either, and in July, El Roghi made a close sioge, forcing his way into the city and pillaging the shops. But one of those curious changes, so common among these people, came in August, El Roghi was defeated and fled, but was captured and brought into Fez, being taken through the streets confined in an iron cage strapped on the back of a swaying camel. He sat erect, dis- regarding the popular jeers, and was conducted into Mulai Hafid's presence, who closely questioned him about his crimes and his property and then had him confined in a dungeon in the palace. There followed a series of horrible tortures, to mitigate which El Roghi gave up all his treasures that had been placed in European banks, but in vain. Some fifty de- capitated heads of his followers were displayed in public places about Fez, as a warning to rebels. El Roghi himself was thrown into a den of wild beasts and horribly wounded, and on September 12 was slain in the presence of the Imperial harem. L:

190 THE MEDITERRANEAN

tervention by the foreign representatives stopped further cruelties.

Several years ago, when some roving bands of the An j eras helped Abdul Aziz's troops capture a party of Eaisuli's horsemen in the lliff region, that astute brigand heard that the correspondent of the London Times had gone out of Tangier on a shooting ex- pedition, and swooping down out of the hills, cap- tured him. There was a great commotion caused by this coup, the British warships were again in- voked, and Eaisuli was given back sixteen of his captured followers as a ransom for the correspondent.

Valiente is another picturesque bandit who wan- ders and robs at will throughout the country, being related to the Anjeras. He had thirty-six wives, and Madame du Gast, a French lady fond of ad- venture, sometime ago visiting Morocco, says that he offered them all to her as slaves if she only would marry him. She describes Valiente as " a most adorable bandit," adding that all of the thirty-six ladies were presented for personal inspection, and immediately prostrated themselves before her, im- ploring her to stay and rule over them. Valiente on account of his numerous robberies and murders was complained of by the Europeans and Sultan Abdul Aziz had him imprisoned. Soon afterward, however, the Anjeras captured two British officers, and to ransom these Valiente was liberated. When the German interest in Morocco became acute in

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 191

1905, their bankers made a loan of $2,250,000 to Abdul Aziz, and his first investment of the money remitted was to send $3,000 to Kgypt to bring a party of dancers from Alexandria to install in his palace at Fez. In 1907 he liad to pawn his jewels and the crown regalia at the Mont de Piete in Paris to raise $240,000 for repayment of loan charges, and these gems were put up for sale in December, 1909, but Mulai Ilafid redeemed them in January, 1910 at a cost of $300,000 including interest, stopping the sale. Thus is gotten some idea of the strange sort of government ^lorocco enjoys. The French government in 1910 arranged to make a loan of $16,000,000 to Mulai ITafid, to repay his pressing debts including $12,000,000 Casablanca indemnity, and will be reimbursed by the customs and other revenues.

There has been very little European travelling into the interior of Morocco since 190G, the disturbed condition of the country preventing it. Under ordi- nary circumstances, formerly, detachments of jMoroc- can soldiers were provided as guards for visitors journeying into the country, and the traveller al- ways had to obey the government requirement to abstain from going into assemblies of Mohammedans engaged in their religious observances, and w^as thus excluded from the mosques. The journey from Tan- gier to Fez, the one most frequently taken, occupies a week. This is the largest city of Morocco, and

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its most important interior community, with hardly a dozen European residents, out of a population ap- proximately of a hundred thousand. It is a real^ oriental city and as yet entirely imtouched by European influences.

The great plateau forming Western Morocco comes up to the Atlas mountain range, and through it the river Seboo flows out of the mountains to the Atlantic. On the eastern edge of this plateau, Fez is situated, in the valley of a little afliuent, the Wad Fas, composed of two streams uniting in the town, and then dashing down the deeply indented vale to the Seboo, about six miles away. Sultan Muley Edris, who lived in the ninth century, was the founder and patron saint of Fez. He came along with his caravan one day, and halting in the pictur- esque valley, decided to make it the site of his capi- tal. So he turned the first sod, and as he did so, said " Here I plant my hoe." The Arabic word Fds means a hoe, and thus came the name of the Moorish city Fas, which we know as Fez. The tedious journey across the country from Tangier is without much interest, unless the brigands may be about, and as the capital is approached, the route is over a level grain-growing district, with the rugged foot-hills of the Atlas range to the southward, and behind them the unexplored snow peaks that are its higher summits. Then a long line of gray walls, marked by battlemented towers, appears, having

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 193

within the white buildings of the Sultan's Palace and some tall minarets of the mosques. These walls are dilapidated, about four miles in circuit, and the route comes to an end at the Bab Scgma, a rather unpretentious archway in the walls, which is really the main entrance gate to the city. Here lived until 1907 the recently deposed Sultan, Muley Abdul Aziz, who was born in 1879 and ascended the throne of his absolute empire in 1894, while yet a minor. He is of the Shereefian race, a descendant of Mo- hammed.

Another gateway to the right, in the wall where it adjoins the palace gardens, leads out to the Msala, one of the sacred places. Through this gateway the Sultan passes on the great religious days, to pray at the Msala on the hill-slope, a short white-topped wall with a mihrah or prayer recess facing the east, toward Mecca. Then, standing alone, costumed in white, the Sultan loads the prayers of the faithful, congregated around by thousands, they and their horses clad in the gaudiest hues of the rainbow. A recent visitor to Fez, describing some of the pecul- iarities of Abdul Aziz, said he was very fond of jewels, for which he paid fancy prices, and was anxious to accumulate various things which he re- garded as representing modern progress. For this reason he went in for gold-handled bicycles, cameras and hansoms, motor cars and grand pianos. He had

about two himdred bicycles in the palace including Vol. 1—13

194 THE MEDITERRANEAN

many of most expensive make, with gold and silver fittings. He was a great trick rider on the bicycle and delighted in riding at full speed up narrow in- clined planks. lie is an excellent piano player but a very reckless motor driver, and has had some serious mishaps. He was very much determined in col- lecting taxes, as he was always in debt, and he would go out with his troops to enforce the payment. He had a short way of dealing with tax-resisters, whose heads were promptly cut off. He is a strict Moham- medan, keeping all the tenets of the faith, and neither smokes nor gambles. A pack of cards he regarded as belonging only to the infidel, and he would not touch them. He was a very early riser, going first to the mosque and then consulting his ministers, and after a meal taking a short siesta before receiving visitors. He is amiable, kind and friendly, but was regarded as too weak to be a good ruler in time of emergency. The oldest brother of Abdul Aziz, Prince Muley Mohammed the " one-eyed," should of right have followed his father Mulai Hassan upon the throne. But through the machinations of Abdul's mother, a favorite Circa.^sian slave, he was supplanted. The ancient tradition of Morocco was that a one-eved ruler was to be the restorer of all the former glory and greatness of the Moroccan throne. Abdul tliroughout his reign kept Muley a close prisoner. After Abdul left Fez, for Kabat, it looked for a while as if Muley Mohammed might be enthroned,

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 195

but the TJlemas of El Islam met and were induced to declare that the younger brother, Mulai Hafid, had more legal and actual right to the throne than either Muley ^^lohammed or Abdul Aziz. The result was that Mulai with liis forces took possession of Fez without serious opposition, and the one-eyed brother was kept in prison. This continued until January, 1909, when he mysteriously died, with rumors of poisoning. Mulai Ilafid sought earnestly to get recognition from France and Spain, and promising everything required, ultimately secured it. Upon his proclamation, he at once married another wife, and announced that European innovations, such as automobiles, bicycles and the aggregation of stuflF which Abdul Aziz had collected were no longer to be tolerated. These, which had cost so enormously a^ to help to bankrupt Abdul, Mulai proceeded to de- stroy in order to get room in the palace where they had been stored. The Sultan's crown and jewels, which Mulai diligently sought, were gone however, for Abdul as already stated had sent them away to pawn for the German loan.

Fez is much crowded, there being an " old " and a " new " town, both of them ancient, and both having narrow and dirty streets, while the houses are gen- erally of brick with galleries and flat roofs. The city formerly had several hundred mosques, and still contains about one hundred, two being quite large. The chief mosque was founded by Sultan Muley

196 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Edris and is his shrine as a saint, being also for this reason a sanctuary for criminals. The other large mosque, El Kairuin, has the unusual adjunct of a covered court in which the women pray. In the sixteenth century, Fez was a famous seat of Arab learning and it has a University called the House of Science, with colleges and schools, and a library of rare manuscripts, among which are said to be the lost books of Tacitus. On account of its abundance of mosques and sacred relics, Fez is the holy city of the Western Arabs. It is also a centre of the caravan trade, these camel processions going and coming across the Great Desert, many of them to Timbuctoo, a route requiring about five months for the round trip, beginning usually in March and October. The city has some profitable manufactures, and particu- larly makes the bright colored woolen caps, called " fez," which are dyed red from the juice of a berry found nearbv. The finest red morocco also comes from Fez, and it has skilful artisans in goldsmith's work and jewelry. Its caravans collect from the in- terior, for export, gums, ivory, spices, ostrich- feath- ers, and similar articles^ and the city has many caravansaries.

Within the gate, the route leads to the oblong square adjacent to the palace, this being also sur- roimded by walls, and having gateways at either end. In front is the " Gate of the Lion," a fine archway highly colored in modern Moorish style, and at this

THE MOKOCCAN CAPITAL 197

gate daily waits a Governor of Fez to dispense jus- tice. He sits cross-legged in a deep niche in the gateway, attended by his secretaries, and having squatting in a semicircle in front, his numerous de- tachment of red-turbaned and white-robed soldiers. Before him kneel the plaintiff and defendant in the suit being heard, of whom it is well said by an observer that they are " both talking volubly at the same time, and each calling upon Allah to witness that the other is a liar — which is probably true." Beyond this gateway is another square, with the en- trances opening upon it of the private precincts of the palace, and here is usually found another guard of soldiers, often fast asleep. From this second square the routes leading to old and new Fez divide, the latter on the upper hill-slope containing the palace and official district and the Jews' quarter, or the Mellah, but not displaying much of interest. The old town is the most attractive. A wide road- way from this second square, bounded by the high walls encircling the Sultan's garden, leads into Bu Jelud, a large open space, and at once we are amid the promiscuous crowds of the city. Here the snake- charmers and story-tellers congregate, and the dev- otees of various Moslem sects go through their religious ecstasies for " baksheesh." The hill-slope is steep below Bu Jelud, and there is the greater part of the old town, upon the slopes, winding along the course of the Wad Fas, coming from the higher

198 THE MEDITERRAXEAX

plateau down through the palace enclosures, and then going off into old Fez farther below. When the gateway out of Eu Jelud is passed, the genuine old Fez is entered, with all its original oriental attrac- tions, its peeps into the sunny courts of mosques, its crowded bazaars and narrow streets.

The Talaa, the long main street of the city, goes through its heart, from Bu Jelud down to the great Kairuin Mosque, at the bottom of the hill. Here is always a varied crowd : *' shereefs," the rich and aristocratic descendants of the Prophet; officials mounted on saddle mules and attended by black slaves, pushing their way through the people, and crying halaJc, which is polite Arabic for " get out of the way " ; coal black negroes bought from African tribes; fair Fezzis, having pink eyelids fringed with yellow lashes: a veritable medley of humanity, dis- playing every shade of flesh and color, and every hue of raiment. Then the buildings are curious, for ruin and decay have everywhere j^laced their stamp, and even the modern stmctures seem to display the general tendency to crumble. There are two struc- tures in the Talaa exhibiting great beauties, both be- ing mosques and sanctuaries, and therefore forbidden ground to the Christians. The mosque and college of Bu Ainan, to the outside view shows an exterior more decorated than usual, and having a beautiful display of old plaster work and mosaic tiling. The wood- car\'ing of the projecting beams and their supporting

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 199

brackets is excellent in design and workmanship. The doorway of the mosque gives a passing glimpse of the open interior court, its marble floor and capacious central fountain, with the border of deep shaded arcades, presenting a handsomely decorated facade. The other mosque, lower down the hill, is the little sanctuary of the Shrebelein, its square tower exqui- sitely decorated in mosaics of tiles with geometrical patterns elaborately displayed between the project- ing edges of bricks. This beautiful little mosque stands partially out in the Talaa, giving a better view of the tower, the green tiled roof, exterior arches and buttresses, making a perfect specimen of medieval Moorish art.

Upon the Attarin, a view can be hurriedly got, through the door of the sanctuary' of Muley Edris, but it has to be quickly seen, for a Christian stopping to look in would soon be hustled bv the crowds of believers, horrified at such an infidel profanation of the holy place. The transitory peep discloses a pic- ture of dazzling color, mosaics of tiles of every hue, gorgeously painted and can-ed woods, delicate plas- ter work, a marble and tile floor and plashing foun- tain. This is only a little court, the building not be- ing of large size, but the most skilled and famous Moorish workmen have been employed in its decora- tion, making a perfect art gem of the tomb and of this outer court. AVithin, everything is similarly gor- geous, the wonderfully carved and painted roof pro-

200 THE MEDITERRANEAN

tecting the rich draperies of the walls and the splendid velvet covering of the saint's sarcophagus. From the dome hang in profusion, lanterns, lamps and glass chandeliers, which when illuminated must give splendid eflFect. This is the tomb of Muley Edris II, which with that of his father in the moun- tains of Zarahun, are the most renowned tombs of saints in all Morocco. These tombs of the saints have a great hold on the population, being the objects of frequent pilgrimages, and each saint having his special feast day, when vast crowds come, sacrificing sheep to his memory, and making merry. If ear the door of this mosque of Muley Edris is the chief caravansary of Fez, called the Fondak en Najjarin. A grand arched gateway leads into the courtyard, its panels of rich tiling and wonderful overhanging roof of tier upon tier of carved wood, being regarded as perhaps the finest in the empire. Tall grayish- vellow walls rise above and all around this architec- tural gem. Upon the right hand side is a drinking foimtain. In the interior of the caravansary, three tiers of galleries surround the courtyard, the balus- trades being of the finest workmanship in cedar, which has turned dark with age. White columns di- vide the panels of these balconies, supporting the tier above and having capitals of finely moulded plaster. The upper tier is almost entirely enclosed by small horseshoe arches in cedar wood, delicately carved. The shops and offices of the best class of

THE MOROCCAN CAPITAL 201

Fez merchants surround the courtyard, where their business is carried on, and caravans of camels coming from afar, enter the grand gateway to kneel and dis- charge their loads of merchandise. Xearby in a bazaar the cedar-wood carpenters ply their trade, making the whole region sweet with the scent of the wood.

A little farther do^^^l the hill is El Kairuin, said to be the largest mosque in Africa and the great University of Fez. The mosque, excepting for size, is not specially attractive, but this was the famous University, renoA\Tied in the middle ages throughout Europe, and to which not a few Christians were then sent for an education. Its great library, however, has almost disappeared, though the University still educates nearly all the scholars of note in Morocco, who pass through its colleges of medicine, divinity and the law. Thus Kairuin issues the diplomas to the law students which are a requisite to practice. Beyond, and lower down the slope, are the braziers' quarters, and the street of the dyers, their silken skeins of every hue hanging in the sunshine, while the workmen who are almost as gaudy as the silks themselves, stir the spacious vats of seething liquids, chiefly blue and red. This makes a naturally charm- ing street, and here are produced the brilliant Fez caps which are prominent in all oriental lands. Then the highway goes steeply do^^^l to a bridge crossing the river, where the torrent rushes between

202 THE MEDITERRANEAN

rocky walls, surmounted by tall houses, and turns many a little mill-wheel in its vigorous descent. On the other side the highway again moimts the hill among more sho2)s, and a district of dwellings. Here at an elevation, on the southern river bank, is the Andalus mosque, its magnificent gateway towering high above the flat roofs of the neighboring houses. This gateway stands boldly at the upper end of a street, and resembles the gateway of the great Cara- vansary, though more airy and delicate in decoration and construction. Higher up the hill are the fur- naces where the noted Fez decorative tiles are made. This tile-making survives as cflFcctively as in the greatest days of Moorish power and constructive skill. The tiles are baked in monochrome squares from which the mosaics are chipped out by hand with a small sharp hammer. The process makes a number of small tiles of various sizes and shapes, cut with the most exact edges, which when fitted together form tlie exquisite designs of the dados, floors and foun- tains of the Moorish houses. So exact are surface, edge and color, that when arranged in position it is almost impossible to feel or see the division between the tinv mosaics, so skilfullv is the work done.

Everywhere in Fez is the sound of plashing foun- tains and running waters, the special solace of the Moors. There is an entire district of the most deli- cious gardens gi'owing lemons and oranges, apricots and pomegranates, and having in all directions

A Garden in Morocco.

CEUTA AXD TETUAN 203

diminutive streams passing over fern-covered rocks, bubbling in the fountain basins, and making the air savory with the moisture and perfume. This is on the higher surface, away from the narrow crowded streets of the lower town, and here the rich Fez mer- chants have their arbor-shaded and vine-embowered rural homes. Going out the gales and up on the hills overlooking the city, the visitor gets a lovely view of the winding valley that encloses the long and narrow place, with its glistening wliite roofs and bor- der of groves and gardens, looking like a broad streak of white embedded in a border of the most vivid green. High on the summit of the ridge, north of the Bab el Gizet gate, where are the ruins of the tombs of the ancient Beni Merin dynasty who ruled Fez and !^Iorocco, is got a grand view over the deeply indented valley of the town, as it slopes toward the wider intervale of the Seboo to the eastward, which can be traced far away over the western plateau as it carries the waters of the Atlas mountains out to the distant Atlantic.

CEUTA AND TETUAX.

The beautiful bay of Tangier is bordered on its eastern side by tlie protruding headland of Cape IVFalabata. Beyond, the coast of the Gibraltar Strait trends northeastward in front of the Sierra Bullones, rising into the African Pillar of Hercules, the Elephas of Strabo, the rTebel !Musa of the Moors, and

204 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the Apes Hill of the English. This noble peak towers above all the adjacent heights, its truncated top being often hid in clouds. Farther northeast- ward a low and narrow isthmus terminates in Mount Acho, about four miles oflF, its extremity being the end of the Gibraltar Strait. This peninsula jutting out north-northeast, is almost exactly opposite the Kock of Gibraltar, and upon the isthmus is the town and fortress of Ceuta, a Spanish possession, but a very ancient settlement, being the Roman Septa, and the Moorish Sebta. Upon Mount Acho is its cita- del, capable of sheltering a garrison of five thousand men. This stronghold has a Spanish military gov- ernor, and is the chief of what are known as the Presidios, the five Spanish convict establishments on this part of the African coast, the governor of Ceuta controlling them all. These settlements have a popu- lation of some twelve thousand convicts, and are variously located, their reservations covering over thirty-two hundred square miles. The town is well built, and has a cathedral and several convents, but the trade is restricted, the harbor being unsafe. It was from Ceuta that the Moors under Tarik first crossed over the Strait to invade Spain, and in 1415, John I of Portugal captured Ceuta from the Moors, the place subsequently passing under Spanish con- trol.

The Moroccan coast trends southward from Ceuta to Cape Negro, while beyond is Cape Mozari, the

CEUTA AND TETUAX 205

immediate shore between these headlands being low- lying, and giving the appearance of a bay, though the indentation is only slight. Just visible from the sea, on the hill slope, with an environment of cliffs and high hills inland, is Tetuan, its so-called Bay of Tetuan in front, and having at the little Martil river entrance its port and harbor of ^Marteen. The situ- ation is picturesque. The bold Kiff mountains, beginning behind the town, stretch southward along the coast for nearly two hundred miles, and Tetuan is built upon the slopes of an outlying spur of this range. It is about forty-four miles southeast, over- land, from Tangier, and the usual route to it for visitors is by a horseback or muleback journey from that city. This monotonous ride takes all day and sometimes more, if the Moorish military guard ac- companying the party (being paid by the day) persists in slow walking. When some fifteen miles off, the procession mounts the last hill which borders the broad Tetuan plain, and thus is got far away, the first view of this beautiful city, its walls, towering minarets and dazzlingly w^hite houses being seen ahead, high on the ridge, and overhung by the en- vironment of precipitous mountains. Upon the sum- mit of the hill on which the city rests is the castle where the governor resides, and to the southward the surface rises into a ridge elevated three thousand feet above the sea. Upon nearer approach, the place is found to be surrounded by walls, fianked with

206 THE MEDITERRANEAN

towers and defended by the castle. This is the Moorish Tettawin, said to have been founded in 1492 by refugees expelled from Granada by the Spaniards. The high society of Tetuan are the de- scendants of these refugees, proud of their pedigree, and some of them still hoping to ultimately return to their original family abode, so much so that they yet preserve as heirlooms the title deeds and keys of the old Granadan homes on the Jenil. Tetuan was briefly in English possession, when it was part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese queen of Charles II, but it was subsequently given back to the Moors who held it continuously until taken by storm by Marshal O'Donnell, in 1860, for which achievement Spain made him Duke of Tetuan, but they too gave it back to Morocco when peace came in the following year. There are about twenty-five thousand people in Tetuan, including a considerable number of Spaniards. There are forty mosques, several being fine structures, but the streets are nar- row and dirty. The harbor is poor, being an open roadstead, unprotected toward the east, whence comes the full rush of the Mediterranean waves, it being on the western verge of- the great sea. Only small ves- sels can "enter, and thus traffic by w^ater is restricted, being chiefly supplying provisions to Gibraltar. It has, however, a lucrative caravan trade with Tangier, and inland to Fez and beyond. There are also man- ufactures of leather and firearms, with swords and

THE RIFFS 207

daggers. The Tetuan market-place displays the cus- tomary oriental features — groups of squatting camels attended by villainous looking Riffs in dirty embroidered robes; donkeys loaded with vegetables, throngs of dignified Moors, stalwart negroes, half- naked children, with the inevitable snake-charmer, story-teller and juggler, the money-changer and fruit huckster, but the men far outnumber the women in the crowds. There are quaint booths and covered ways in the Tetuan bazaar, where curios may be found that were not made in civilized lands, and profuse supplies are offered of the interesting Morocco goods of the natives. Tetuan is an admirable winter resort, the mild climate being attractive, and its picturesque environment and pure oriental flavor are specially appealing to artists.

THE RIFFS.

Morocco has neither railways nor telegraphs, and its roads are very poor, being mainly caravan tracks on the chiefly travelled interior routes, and wayward mule paths that have been used for centuries and never improved. Thus the methods of transportation are thoroughly primitive, and are not much better now than when the Arabs came along as conquerors under the great Sidi Okba, in the days immediately succeeding the death of IMohammed. Xor were the habits of the nomadic tribes much changed dur- ing the centuries of Moorish rule, for Morocco

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gives the great powers of the world constant trouble on account of lawlessness and brigandage. Beyond Totuan, at first southward, and then curv- ing around to the eastward the coast of Morocco, toward the Mediterranean, presents all the way to the Algerian boundary the rugged profile of the Riff mountains, still largely unexplored, which generally terminate in lines of cliffs, broken at intervals by narrow sweeps of sandy beach, but oc- casionally by open vistas of beautiful and fertile valleys, with evidence of tillage and good cultivation. Upon this coast, after it curves to the eastward, is the Spanish fortress crowning the rocky island of Penon de Velez, one of the penal settlements, while inland, in the valley off which it mounts guard, was the Arab town of Badis, or Velez de Gomera, as it was called down to the sixteenth century. Farther east- ward is another Spanish presidio, occupying Al Mazemma, the larger of the group of Alhucemas islands, in the fine semicircular bay of that name, which is at the seaward end of one of the most beautiful valleys in the Riff, clothed by verdure and dotted with hamlets. These islands were the Ad Sex Insulas of the Romans. Beyond, projects the bold and rocky peninsula which has on its eastern side the fortified town and presidio of Melilla, held by the Spaniards since 16r)3, having on the heights be- hind, its chief defensive work. Fort Rosario. Still farther eastward are lakes and salt marshes, the low

THE RIFFS 209

and sandy shore stretching a long distance to Capo dal Agiia. Out in front is yet another group of is- lands, dry and barren, which were the Koman Ad Tres Insulas, and are now known as the Zafarines, their name being derived from the Beni Jafar, an Arab tribe occupying the adjacent mainland from the time of the conquest. These islands belong to Spain, also being used for a presidio, and their protective barriers form the best roadstead upon the Riflf coast. About two miles eastward the great river Muluya flows out to the sea, and a short distance bevond is the Algerian l)oundary.

The nomadic dwellers along these Riff hills are among the worst tribes of ^lorocco for lawlessness and savagery on land, and jiiracy and wreckage on the sea. In fact these Anjeras are said to commit every atrocity of aboriginal Africans, excepting cannibal- ism. Their mountain fastnesses are practically un- explored, and although Melilla is right in front of them, its Spanish possessors have never been able to control these tribes, and are forced to maintain as strict guard against them as when first conquering the port in the seventeenth century. The Spanish pos- sessions extend but a short distance inland, and there the frontier is marked bv a line of whitewashed stones, and a popular pastime of the Riff has been to hide near this boundary and shoot at any Spaniard that may cross it. Occasionally Spain has sent an

expedition into the mountains to punish the lawless. Vol. 1—14

210 THE MEDITERRANEAN

but they are not to be conquered. Neither do the Kiff tribes pay tribute to the Sultan of Morocco, and if he attempted to send his toll-gatherers into the mountains they would be massacred. The main Kiff industry, so far as the outside world knows it, is the practice of brigandage, and the wreckage of luckless vessels that come on the coast, the currents out of the strait being so strong that they are easily cast upon sunken reefs. The captured crews are often slaugh- tered without chance of ransom. Once in a while these crimes are disclosed, and then a gunboat may be sent to shell the lairs of the mountain pirates and force surrender of booty, and if possible of prisoners. Quick action of this kind has saved some crews, who have been put on bare rocks far from the shore to be taken off by the rescuers. There are beautiful val- leys and pretty coves coming out on these shores in- dented between superb headhmds, where the wreckers draw up their canoes. These boats are painted green, the better to enable the pirates to sail unseen over the bright green waters.

The Marquis de Segouzac, who some time ago ventured among these people, and has told us much that we now know of them, had to go there disguised as a nomad. Ilis hair was shaven, all but a small tuft, which the Eiff wears on the top of his head, the easier to be pulled into Paradise. A short tunic fastened at the waist by a belt, was worn, his legs being bare and his feet sandalled. His turban was

THE RIFFS 211

made of leather thongs, the sandals woven of alfalfa grass, and the tunic striped brown and black. The Marquis spent about six weeks in these mountains, and then made his way out, going to Fez, where tho French consul received him as a real Riff. He told of the food of the tribes, which is mostly honey used in many ways; and of their utensils that are in similar forms with those found in Egyptian and old Afro-Eoman cities. Their dwelling places are built upon most inaccessible spurs of the mountains, con- structed of rock, and much like caves and timnels. These coverts are ancient, having been used for many generations. The men are big, and owing to their repeated forays and captures, each soldier is liberally supplied with rifles, swords, daggers and pistols. As man-hunting is a popular occupation, the Marquis says the Riff women disdain a warrior who has not slain a foe or captive, these ladies taking active part with their husbands in all the fights, serving as skirmishers, defending the forlorn hope, and helping the wounded, while if a Riff shows anv backwardness in combat they ridicule and sometimes even maltreat him. Their last and final expression of contempt and derision is shown by tying wisps of straw to the tail of the coward's horse. The ambition of each Riff warrior is said to be the possession of three wives, their proverb being: "Two wives in one house is hell; three are paradise.'' But they mis- trust each other, so universal is the desire for com-

212 THE MEDITERRANEAN

bat and pillage. The lone traveller is usually waylaid and robbed, even the women joining in this, so they generally will not travel excepting in cara- vans, and these take them and the multitude of beggars to new fields for foray and plunder. Such is one of the Moroccan races, existing now as for over a thousand years, and which the world as yet is un- able to civilize.

In the summer of 1909 the Eiff tribes attacked the Spaniards at !Melilla with such vigor that for a while it looked as if the fortress might fall. The efforts of the Spanish government to recruit troops for its rein- forcement were the cause of the riotous outbreaks at Barcelona which for a time were so portentous. There are valuable iron and lead mines among the RiflF hills, and when El Eoghi was in power there, he sold concessions to work these mines and thus amassed his large fortune, but his downfall clouded the Spanish titles and made disputes, that on July 9 caused an outbreak in which four Spanish workmen were killed. The commandant at Melilla sent out troops to punish the murderers, and this was the sig- nal for assembling all the wild tribes of the region who attacked the fortress July 18, when its garrison was about 8,000 men. By occupying the caves and slopes of Gurogu mountain, which rises to an elevation of 3,000 feet, a short distance southeast of the town, the Moors got into such strong position they could not be dislodged. For two weeks fighting continued

ALGERIA 213

with heavy loss on both sides, when reinforcements hurried from Spain bect;me available. The entire Spanish navy — one battleshij) and nine cruisers — came to the harbor and coast, the warships shelling the villages and haunts of the Kiff trilK?s, causing much havoc, while the military force was enlarged to 38,000 men. Late in August this army managed to turn the Kiflian position on !Mount (Jlurogu and thus got the upper hand. This was not accomplished, however, without severe fighting. Later, through the adoption of a more conciliatory policy, hostilities were suspended, and while a strong garrison still oc- cupies !Melilla and its outposts, and the sj)irit of unrest continues, active hostilities ceased. The dis- turbed conditions all about Morocco keep European diplomatists constantly on the alert to prevent a general embroilment that might involve the great powers.

ALGERIA.

The French province of Algeria adjoins Morocco on the eastward, extending about five hundred and fifty miles along the ilediterranean coast, and pos- sibly four hundred miles inland, the southern lK)und- ary not being accurately determined, as, like Morocco, it fades indefinitely into the great Sahara, llie region adjoining ^Morocco is the Algerian province of Oran, stretching practically from the ]\Iuluya river, about one hundred and eighty miles eastward along the coast to the mouth of the river ShelliflF.

21-4 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Into this province the Eiff hills come some distance beyond the border, and fade gradually away, and it extends south from the sea to the Atlas mountain range, being also traversed by various ridges of the Little Atlas. A large part of the surface is forest, and the soil where cultivated is mostly fertile, and it has a considerable Spanish poj^ulation, increasing by immigration. There flows out of the hills a small stream called the Wad-el-Eakhi, at the foot of the peak of St. Croix, into Oran bay, and on the river banks is Oran city, with about fifty thousand people. The town, now under French control, is well fortified, and in general substantially built. This settlement was long a subject of contention between the Moors and Spaniards, and the latter, under Cardinal Ximenes, took it in 1509, retaining it until the early eighteenth century, when the Algerians expelled them. The Spaniards regained j^ossession in 1732, but subsequently gave up the town. It has no good anchorage immediately at the city, but the large harbor of jMars-el-Kebir is three miles distant, and defended by a castle which the Spaniards then re- tained. The French when they conquered Algeria, got control of Oran in 1SJ31. The city has a castle and an arsenal, a hospital and two good churches, one built by the Spaniards in the time of Charles V, and the other fonnerly a mosque. There are few other attractions, and much of the surrounding coun- try IS arid and barren.

ALGERIA 215

The general aspect of the Province of Algeria from the Mediterranean coast back to the Little Atlas range is a surface rising in various smaller ranges like so many ascending steps, wliile the Little Atlas itself does not reach much elevation comparatively. Behind it, however, tlie (Jreater Atlas system, border- ing the Sahara, rises in summits, some of which reach 7,000 feet. A railwav has been constructed into this region, southwestward from Oran to Tlemcen, the Roman Pomaria, about seventy miles, this being the great French fortress controlling the Moroccan frontier of Algeria. It is an ancient city in a most picturesque situation, about thirty miles south of the Mediterranean. Built on the mountain slope ad- joining a valley at about two thousand feet elevation, there are large mountains rising behind it, while in front spreads the beautiful and fertile valley, its orchards and grain fields extending as far as the eye can see, until lost in the hills at the horizon. It was originally called Jidkoh, and for several centuries had a population of over one hundred thousand, when it was an independent state under Arab rulers. It fell to the Turks in the sixteenth century and they gave it to the Dey of Algiers, but in 1G70 the people revolted and the city was burned. The French cap- tured it in 1842, and have since greatly strengthened the fortifications, there being about twenty-five thousand population and a large French garrison, while the recent development of the place has been

216 THE MEDITERRANEAN

in the construction of many modem French build- ings. It is an ancient walled town, with citadel and elaborate towered gates. The citadel is now the bar- rack and hospital for the troops, and the minaret of its mosque, ninety feet high, overlooks the rest of the city. It was within this citadel, on a gallery paved with marble and onyx, there stood a famous tree of solid silver, on which were many rare singing birds of gold and silver, whose warblings were attuned by in- genious mechanisms. Tlemcen had seventy mosques in its day of greatest splendor and now there are over thirty. The Jami-el-Kebir built in the twelfth century covers an acre, and is the chief mosque of Tlemcen. The mosque of Sidi Bon Medin has splendid bronze doors, rare decorations in Moorish lacework and mosaic flooring, being some distance outside the walls, where it was built at the tomb of the saint, who was a noted Arab scholar in the twelfth century and a learned expounder of the Koran.

When Tlemcen was in the height of its glory it was attacked and besieged by a rival Arab chieftain, Abou Yakub, who conducted his siege for seven years before he succeeded, and he built on the valley plain his fortified camp and city about three miles away. This is jMansoura, interesting though a ruin, and which for a long period was a rival of Tlemcen. Its fortified walls enclosed about throe hundred acres, and its mosque with a minaret tower rising a hundred

ALGERIA 217

and thirty feet was a splendid structure. The mosque is in ruins, but the tower well preserved with its green porcelain tiling. Much of the old walls remain, but a large portion are crumbling and most of the original city enclosure is now a rich vineyard, the vines bearing large white grapes and running up the walls and spreading around the base of the tower. Abou Yakub did not live to enjoy his vic- tory, for he was assassinated just about the time Tlemcen surrendered. Xow, the ruins of !Mansoura show that Tlemcen ultimately and in reality con- quered, and the French who hold it and have made it a miniature Paris, as well as a fortress, are sure they will in time become the masters of all north- western Africa. Already the unrest of the Moroccan tribes gave them the chance in the spring of 1907 to march over the boundary and occupy Ujda, which is on the eastern plain bordering the great Muluya river, an important port where they held the Pre- tender Bu Ilamera in check.

The maritime region of Algeria, eastward of Oran, has numerous narrow valleys, each carrying down to the sea its mountain stream. In some places the hills rise abruptly from the ^Mediterranean shore, while in others, tracts of lowlands intervene near the coast, the surface being mostly marshy, but with portions that are fertile and well cultivated. The Bay of Algiers is about in the centre of the Algerine coast, and upon its eastern side is one of the most

218 THE MEDITERRANEAN

extensive of the fertile plains, the Metidja, stretch- ing inland, south and west, for about sixty miles, with a breadth of ten to twelve miles. As much of the Algerine coast is steep and rocky, abounding in capes and reefs, it is deficient in good harbors, and even in secure roadsteads, all being exposed to the strong north and northeast winds crossing the Med- iterranean. The Algerine rivers are numerous but small, being usually torrents rushing down short courses, through deeply worn and rocky channels from the mountains to the sea, and greatly swollen in the winter rainy season. The most important of these rivers is the Shellif. To the northeastward of Oran is a deeply indented bay having Cape Ivi as its eastern boundary, and within the cape the town of Mostaganem. Ilere the Shellif flows into the Mediterranean, coming from the eastward among the mountain ranges, its course being some three hundred and seventy miles. Much of the marshy surfaces, especially near the larger towns, have been drained since the French occupation, making the climate more healthv, and the fertile. land which is well cultivated, is almost all near the sea. Farther inland, the country is largely a pasture land, though growing fruits. There is still a Dey in Algiers, who nominally governs the Turkish and Arab tribes, while the French hold the civil government. To conquer and keep this peculiar country and its no- madic peoples have cost the French dearly, and down

ALGERIA 219

to 1864, according to a Ministerial statement made in the French Assembly at Paris, Algeria had re- quired an expenditure of $000,000,000 French money and 150,000 lives, while a French army of 60,000 men is maintained in the Province.

This noted region has been fought for during many centuries. It was long held by Carthage, after the original Pha?nician settlement, and the Romans got possession when they defeated Hannibal, placing it under a native ruler who was entitled King of Xumidia. Julius Ctrsar made it a Roman province, and in the fifth century the Vandals drove the Romans out, they in turn being expelled in 533 by the Emperor Justinian's general Belisarius. The Saracens in their wonderful western conquests after the death of Mohammed made themselves the masters in the middle of tlie seventh centurv, but afterward the region divided into a number of tribal states under various petty chiefs, and relapsed into bar- barism. Then followed the powerful ^Moorish Almoravides dynasty in the eleventh century, who for several successive generations ruled all Barbary, and most of Spain, being succeeded by other Moorish chiefs, and then it was again cut up into petty states. Ferdinand of Spain captured Algiers in 1505, hold- ing it until his death, when the Moors, as heretofore told, invited the pirate Arudj Barbarossa to come and aid them, establishing the system of piracy which continued until the French occupation in 1830.

220 THE MKDITEKRAXEAN

After the Spaniards had captured and beheaded Arudj, his brother Khair-ed-Din became the Pasha, and ultimately by Turkish aid drove out the Span- iards. He strongly fortified Algiers and built a mole to protect the harbor, employing thirty thousand Christian captives for three years in this ■work. Then the Algerian pirates with their fortified stronghold became the dreaded scourge of all nations. Then Pope Paul III persuaded Charles V to under- take an expedition against them, issuing a bull, offer- ing full remission of sins and a crown of martyrdom to all who either fell in battle or were captured and made slaves. Charles sailed against Algiers with twenty galleys, one hundred and twenty ships, and thirty thousand chosen men. They landed on the coast, and were proceeding to invest and attack the city, when a terrible storm came, and on the night of October 28, 1541, destroyed fifteen galleys and eighty-six ships with their crews and stores, so that the army on shore w^as deprived of subsistence. It was soon fallen upon by the Algerines, killing many and taking a large number of prisoners, Charles himself and the remnant of his defeated forces es- caping with difficulty.

The Turkish power ruled Algiers until the seven- teenth century, being reinforced by many of the Moors expelled from Spain, who flocked hither in large numbers, and being exj)ert sailors they greatly strengthened the Alger ine fleet. Their piracies be-

ALGERIA 221

came so audacious that in the seventeenth century all the European nations, one after another, attacked them — the I'rench, English, Venetians and others — destroying part of their fleets. In 1682, Louis XIV sent a Erench army which bombarded and burnt Algiers, but it was not until the English held Gibral- tar that they were again got under partial control. In the eighteenth century the j)olicy of paying tribute checked the piracies, but the cruelties prac- tised upon Christian slaves and the faithlessness of the pirates provoked the United States to the attack and capture of Algiers in 1815. This was done by the fleet of Commodore Decatur, who sailed into the harbor in June, and sent the message to the Dey, demanding the release of all Americans held in captivity. The Dey replied that he would liberate the captives in exchange for a tribute which included gunpowder. To this the Commodore promptly answered that " If the Dey wants powder he must take the balls with it." The bombardment began and quickly the prisoners were released without tri- bute. This was followed by the British expedition of 1816, which destroyed the Algerine fleet and liberated all the slaves, when the pledge was made that piracy and slavery should cease forever. The treaty was broken as usual, however, and again the Algerines defied the world. Ultimately a dispute arose about a debt, and in the discussion the Dey of Algiers publicly struck the Erench Consul in th^

222 THE JklEDITERRANEAN

face, an insult which prompted the French expedi- tion of 1830. It landed on the coast, defeated the Algerine army, bombarded and captured Algiers, wliich surrendered on July 4tli. The Turkish troops then left the country and the Dey and his retinue went to Xaples. Subsequently, with the English acquiescence, Algeria was made a colony of France, but tho native tribes did not submit, and a long, desultory and most destructive war ensued. It was about this time that the famous Abd-el-Kader, who was bom in 1807, appeared upon the scene. Placing himself at the head of the Arab tribes, he conducted his campaign with such skill that he was recognized by the French in 1834 in a treaty made with him as the Emir of Massara Province. More conflicts fol- lowed, and another treaty in 1837, but again the war was renewed, the French placing one hundred thousand men in the field. Twice, when pursued, Abd-el-Kader crossed the border into Morocco, and got that country embroiled with France. The war con- tinued until 1848, when, beaten on all sides, Abd-el- Kader surrendered to the French and was imprisoned in France at first at Pan, and afterward at Amboise. In 1852 he was liberated and went to Asia Minor and ultimately to Arabia, dying at Mecca in 1873. After his capture there were frequent disturbances, until the French civil government was establislied in 1871, with a large standing army, but while it has been a costly process, France has since managed to rule

THE AFRICiVN PARIS 223

Algiers with only occasional rebellions. The popula- tion of this leading colony of France is about 5,000,000.

THE AFRICAN PARIS.

When the French got full possession of Algiers they created out of the old piratical town a sumptuous resort upon the edge of the ilcditerranean, which came into fame among travellers as the " African Paris." Between the bold projecting Capes Caxine and Malifan is indented the beautiful harbor, en- circled by an amphitheatre of high hills in a most delightful situation. The first view, on the approach from the sea, is most picturesque. In the front of the city is the superb new Boulevard de la Repub- lique, extending along the shore and bordered by stately buildings of Parisian style. Towering over this newer town, the older Algiei*s of narrow and steep streets rises tier above tier upon the hill slopes, to the crowning citadel, the Kasbah. The white stone arcaded walls supporting the Boulevard, having above the cluster of white houses, stand out in strong relief against the background of dark green wooded hills, and as the Arabic description tells us, they glisten in the sun like " diamonds set in emeralds." Thus this beautiful city has a special charm in the first view, for those who seek it as a winter resort. It is the Al Jczireh of the Arabs, meaning " the island " because originally there was

224 THE MKDITKjmANEAN

an island in front of the town, which was joine^ to it bj a mole. The city is built in the form of an amphitheatre, on the western shore of Algiers bay, mainly occupying the northern slope of an abruptly rising hill, which it ascends somewhat in the form of an irregular triangle, the apex being the Kasbah, the ancient fortress of the Deys, elevated about five hundred feet above the water. Everything is built of white stone, and seen from a distance, its strik- ingly beautiful appearance has been compared to an old time ship imder full sail. The ancient walls have been demolished, and the present defence, which is very strong toward the sea, also has been recently strengthened on the landward side by a line of forts occupying the edge of Mount Busmea at over thirteen hundred feet elevation. The enclosed port has been much improved and the harbor protective jetties ex- tended, the guiding lighthouse having a revolving light visible fifteen miles at sea. The regular service of steamers to France is across the Mediter- ranean northward to Marseilles, about five hundred miles away.

The newer French to\vn, on the lower slopes along the shore, has impressive streets and squares and quite a Parisian aspect, with the Place du Government in the centre, a large and handsome square, planted with orange and lime trees and having a central fountain. Here is the Government House. All the modern streets are spacious, and the buildings

THE AFRICAN PARIS 225

are adorned with arcades, a protection against both the hot suns and rains. The old town, occupying the higher slopes, is entirely oriental, with the usual narrow, winding and dirty streets and Moorish houses, square and substantial looking buildings, presenting to the street the bare walls, and having only a few narrow slits, protected by iron gratings, in place of windows. Each house has an interior quadrangular open court, entered by a low and nar- row doorway. Upon this court all the rooms open. The Moor is in constant evidence, but there is a cosmopolitan mixture of peoples, including many French Chasseurs and Zouaves. In these ancient streets, usually only from five to a dozen feet wide, the Moors abound, and in the deep fissures which these passageways make between the high and sombre house walls, the odors are not alwavs the latest French perfumes. There are not many attractive buildings. Visitors may occasionally venture bare- footed into the Grand ^Mosque, the Djama Kehir, a plain building fronted by a row of white marble columns, where the beautiful courtyard is sur- rounded by arcaded galleries supported on elabo- rately carved marble columns. Its central fountain is generally the focus of a crowd of the faithful, performing their ablutions preliminary to worship. Near by is the Jardin Marengo, the most attractive public square of the city, having a fine outlook over

the sea and adjacent shores and hills, and adorned Vol. 1—15

226 THE MEDITERRANEAN

by a column in memory of Xapoleon which is in- scribed with his victories. Just above this pleasant square in a picturesque location is another mosque, consecrated to the Moslem Saint Sidi Abd-er-Kah- man, and having his tomb which is a great place of pilgrimage. It is also the sepulchre of several of the Deys. This mosque is splendidly decorated and displays the most exquisite horseshoe arches con- structed of the purest white marble. Another ancient mosque is now the Cathedral of Algiers, its oriental character being well j^reserved. In it is the sarcoph- agus containing the famous block of concrete which inclosed the remains of the Arab martyr Geronimo. lie was put to death in 15 G9 as a Christian renegade, by being buried alive in this block of concrete, which was then used in building a fort, the block being discovered several centuries later. There is a plaster cast of the body in the Algiers Museum. This structure, formerly a palace of !XIustapha Pasha, is regarded as the best si)ccimen of Moorish architecture in the city. The palaces of the Gov- ernor-General and the Archbishop are also impressive buildings.

The surmounting Kasbah, the ancient palace of the Deys, and citadel of tho city, crowning the older town, is the chief attraction of Algiers, being now used for the military headquarters and barracks. It is well preserved and has a large central court, paved with white marble and surrounded by arched

THE AFRICAN PARIS 227

galleries. The ancient throne-room of the Deys is on one side, and here is preserved the chain on which, in the piratical times, were exposed the heads of decapitated Christian slaves. Alongside is also the historic i)avilion, wherein was given the blow to the French Consul in 1^27 by Hussein, the last Dey, which precipitated tlie French invasion and lost him the throne. The name of the Kasbali is also generally given to the Arab quarter, the older town, the line dividing it from the newer French city being the Kue de la Lyre. " Cross this street," writes a visitor, " and you step back a thousand years; in no Eastern town is the transi- tion so abrupt, and at few Eastern cities can one see oriental life in such perfection." The narrow streets are largely of stairs on the hill slopes, going np to the cathedral, or down to the newer town. Here the " Arabian Xiglits " are reproduced, and in the bazaars the an(»ient diplomatic method of purchase goes on now mucli as then. Solemn bar- gaining is an indispensable preliminary to pur- chasing, and it is well said that in the necessary amount of talk and chaffering, '* the buying of a brass trav or embroidered saddle-cloth is a solemn treaty, and the bargain for a lamp a diplomatic event not to be lightly undertaken or hurriedly concluded." The Algiers' amusements, which culminate at the carni- val, are given a novel tinge by these Arabs and their negro auxiliaries, who enter into the festivity with

228 THE MEDITERRANEAN

their tom-toms in full blast, and the quaintest music, the sheiks appearing in their gorgeous robes. The Spahis, or native Arab cavalry, who are an adjunct to the French military establishment, and are mounted on superb steeds, also go through specially interesting manoeuvres. Among the recent events that gave a great day to Algiers was the visit of King Edward VI I and Queen Alexandra in April, 1905, calls being exchanged with the Governor, and the people enjoying a royal holiday.

Unlike Morocco, which has no railways, Algiers has quite an extensive system developed under the French management, which has opened up various attractions of the interior of the country. Among the famous monuments near the city, and a most conspicuous landmark, is the colossal mausoleum of the ancient Mauritanian sovereigns Juba II and his queen, who was Cleopatra's daughter. It is a huge truncated cone, about one hundred feet high and having a circumference at the base of six hundred feet. The entrance to this mausoleum was recently discovered, but it was found that the tomb had long ago been rifled. All along the coasts and in the interior there are Roman remains, showing an extensive population in their time, with ruins of baths, temples and amphitheatres, and these relics extend throughout Algeria and Tunis. Southward from Algiers is Blidah, famous for its orange groves, and beyond is the splendid Gorge of the Chiffa,

COXSTANTJNE PROVINCE 229

stretching for ten miles through the Atlas range with most romantic scenery, the enclosing mountains ris- ing about 5,000 feet. Southward, and sixty miles from Algiers, is the picturesque mountain town and military post of iledceh, one of the French outposts defending the api)roach to the Pass at an elevation of 3,000 feet.

COXSTANTINK PROVINCE.

The chief railway system of Algeria is con- structed eastward from Algiers to Tunis, with various brandies. This system goes through the Province of Constantine, corresponding very nearly to the ancient kingdom of Numidia, which in early times was occupied by nomadic tribes from whom the name was derived through Greek sources. It is also the haunt of wild animals, frequently brought to Rome to adorn the triumphs of conquerors and for the combats in the Colosseum. The Xumid- ians were famous horsemen and before the Roman conquest, when tributary to Carthage, they gave Hannibal his powerful cavalry squadrons. After- ward thev entered into coalitions with the Romans and aided them in overcoming Carthage. Its down- fall was due to the final defeat of Hannibal by Scipio, at Zama in Xumidia, where the terror caused by an unexpected eclipse of the sun made a panic among his mercenary allies. The Province of Constantine is now the whole eastern portion of

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Algeria, extending to Tunisia, and stretching inland from the ^lediterranean southward a long distance to the Sahara, where the indefinite limits gradually shade off into the desert, in regions occupied by practically independent native tribes. In fact a very large part of the population of the whole province is composed of bands of these nomadic people. The Atlas ranges traverse it toward the east- ward, the mountain spurs sloping to and being broken off in rocky precipices along the Mediterranean coast. The splendid mountain region known as the Algerian Switzerland lies eastward from Algiers, and is penetrated by a railway through the district of Kabylia, where the mountain spurs stretch out to the coast for many miles, in protruding capes, with the spacious Gulf of Bougie on their eastern verge. On the summit of the chief mountain overlooking this superb bay is a great French fort at over three thousand feet elevation amid grand scenery, which has become a popular centre for tourist travel. Upon the shore of the bay about a hundred miles east of Algiers, is the capital of Kabylia, the town of Bougie, which was the ancient Saldie, its road- stead being the safest on the Algerine coast. Up on the mountain wliere the fort crowns the summit was a place of pious Arab pilgrimage for many centuries, which got for Bougie the title of the " Little Mecca." This w^as the capital in the fifth century, of Gen- seric, the king of the Vandals, and it came under

CONSTANTINE PROVINCE 231

Arab control three hundred years later. After the Spanish conquest in the early sixteenth century it declined, but in recent years the French have been improving it.

Farther eastward is the fortified town and sea- port of Philippeville, about two hundred and thirty miles from Algiers, which the French established in 1838, naming it after their king Louis Philippe. The old harbor of Bona, about forty miles farther along the coast, was dangerous and unsatisfactory. This was the very ancient Arab town of Eas Skiada, known to the Romans as Eusicada, and the new set- tlement was built on its site and partly with its materials. It is in a beautiful situation in the deeply indented Gulf of Stora, and its population is mostly European, though there is a mosque, and many Arabs are settled here. The port enjoys a considerable trade from Europe, passing through it on the caravan routes to the city of Constantino and the eastern Sahara. There is a fertile surround- ing district and abundant forests with many cork trees.

To the eastward the river Scibous, coming down from the mountains, flows into the sea, behind the protruding Cape Garde, and here in a shallow har- bor, was the ancient Hippo Eegius, one of the residences of the Xumidian kings, which the Vandals captured and destroyed in the early fifth century. This city was famous as the episcopal see of St. Au-

232 THE MEDITERRANEAN

gustine, who was born near Carthage in November, 354. He ministered at Hippo Kegius for thirty- five years until his death in 430, at the time when Genseric and his Vandal fleet and army began the siege. When subsequently the Arabic invaders ar- rived in the seventh century, they named the place Beled-el-Anib, or " the town of grapes," its vine- yards being very productive. From this title came the name of Bona, which was built along the western verge of the harbor and about a mile northward from the scanty remains of ancient Hippo. The relics of St. Augustine are preserved in the Cathedral at Pavia, and in the nineteenth century the bone of his right arm was brought over with solemn cere- mony and deposited in the church at Bona. This fortified settlement has a splendid environment of hills, and nestles at their bases, having been modern- ized and embellished since the French occupa- tion, although much of the former trade has been diverted to the more modem harbor at Philippeville. The old walls are flanked by four square towers and pierced by four gates, one on each side, while high on the hill is the defensive citadel built by the Spaniards under Charles V, when they got possession in 1535. Bona was captured from the Moors in 1832, by one of the most brilliant movements of the French Algerine invasion, and for more than a half century it has been a French prison for deported malefactors.

CONSTAXTINE PKO\ INCK 233

There are extensive coral fisheries, and some manu- factures, including silk and tapestry. A spacious marsh adjoining the town on the Seibous is supposed to have been the harbor of ancient Hippo Regius.

The French, for strategical purposes, have con- structed a railroad from Philippeville southward through Constantino Province, traversing all the mountain ranges, and going out over the Sahara desert, which is designed to extend several hundred miles soTithward from the city of Constantino. The river Rumel, coming through the defiles of the Atlas ranges, flows northward to the Mediterranean, and about tw*o hundred miles east-southeast fnjm Algiers, is crossed by the main line of the East Algerian railway from Algiers to Tunis, and at the same place by the other strategical road, southward from Philippeville to the Sahara. At this river ford and crossing, the ancients built the town of Cirta, in a strongly defensive position, upon an eminence closed in on three sides by the Eumel, this encircling by the river giving the place its name. Upon the fourth side the position is connected by a low ridge with the adjacent mountains. Originally this settlement was a dependency of Carthage, cap- tured by the Romans, and almost destroyed by the Vandals in the early fifth century. The Emperor Constantino the Great was attracted bv its romantic and strategic situation, rebuilt tlio town and named it Constantino. The Aral)a conquered it in their in-

I.

»

234: THE MEDITERRANEAN

vasion of Xorthem Africa, and strengthened the defences by building substantial walls constructed of sculptured marbles taken from the extensive Roman ruins, and they also built a citadel as the crowning work of the defences. A venerable Arabian bridge, built of thesie sculptured stones, crosses a deep ravine alongside the town. During the Moslem domination, Constant ine belonged to Tunis for several centuries, but the Algerines captured it in 1520, holding possession until the place came under the nominal French control in 1830, when they occupied Algeria, though in fact it successfully held out against them until 1837, when it was captured after a long and destructive siege. Within the citadel there is en- closed an ancient church in the Byzantine style of architecture, and the town and its neighborhood are filled with Eoman relics. Although Constantine is the chief city of the Province, yet it is not very attractive, the streets being narrow and dirty and the buildings inferior, but since the French occupation it has been improved. There is a good deal of trade with the Algerine ports and Tunis, and also by railway and caravans with the southern desert. This region is subject to earthquake shocks, a good deal of damage being done at Constantine by a violent earthquake August 4, 1908.

The railway southward from Constantine to the Sahara passes through a region filled with Roman remains. At Batna it crosses the entrance to a

COXSTANTINE PROVINCE 235

valley, going off westward among the mountains, and having within it the ruins of the famous cities of the Eoman era, Lambessa and Timgad. Lambessa or Lambsesa, which the French call Lambese, is about five miles up the valley and fifty-five miles southwest from Constantino, and is now used as a penal colony of which the chief modern building is the extensive prison. This was an important Xumidian city and an extensive Eoman camp. The ruined walls and gates are several miles in circumference. Forty gates have been located and fifteen are still in good preservation. There are remains of an amphitheatre. Temple of Esculapius, a triumphal arch erected by Septimus Severus, two forums, and baths from which have been taken some beautiful mosaics. The Vandals, as else- where, destroyed it in the fifth century, and the site was completely lost, imtil rediscovered by the French in 1844. There is a large military station here. About twenty miles farther westward along the valley are the ruins of the extensive city of Timgad, which are being excavated under French Government aus2)ices, the great mounds covering the buildings being removed, and many columns brought into light by carting away the debris. The Emperor Trajan built Thoumgadi, and it w^as a c'tadel and large commercial mart at the intersection of various Roman roads, until the Arabs destroyed it. About one-third of the ancient citv has been disclosed, un-

236 THE MEDITERRANEAN

covering the residential section, with streets twenty feet wide, crossing at right angles, paved with huge blocks of limestone measuring three by four feet, and in which the chariot wheels have worn deep ruts. Sewers run beneath each street and the whole city is underdrained, nearly every house having its sewer connexion. The principal streets are bordered by huge marble columns, though many are broken and others are missing. On some streets, as notably the street of Decumanus Maximus, the visitor can look through these ruined colonnades for a long distance. This street leads from the triumphal arch of Trajan to the Forum, and on both sides are many acres of ruined buildings in all stages of picturesque destruction. Many of the houses gave evidence of beautiful decorations in mosaic and fresco, depicting mythological subjects. There were a spacious market-place, extensive baths, a gymnasium, large theatre, library and forum. Temples of Jupiter and Victory, and the arch erected in honor of the Emperor Trajan, partly in ruins, was a hundred feet high, built of sandstone with marble columns. The many relics here re- covered are preserved in a museum, and make an interesting display, the articles being in most cases similar to those found at Pompeii, the foundation of Thoumgadi having been shortly after the destruction of that unfortunate citv.

The railway leading to the Sahara goes south-

A Bit of Old Biskra.

A Bit of Old Biskra.

CONSTAXTINE PROVINCE 237

ward to the Oasis of Biskra, now a noted French winter resort which is practically in the desert, about 175 miles south of the jMeJiterranean. Biskra was first brought into notice as the " Beni Mora " in the novel of The Garden of Allah. Here is the stony bed of the Oued or dry river Biskra, which becomes a flood in the rainy season, the town being built on a plateau about three hundred feet above the river, with the sand-hills of the desert stretching southward, and the Atlas ranges towering over a mile high in almost perpendicular cliffs to the northward. Here come thousands of visitors for a winter home, so that many large hotels and lodging houses have been built, and all the amusements of fashionable watering place life are provided. There are native Arab villages among the palm trees and the fruit gardens, a fort and church, and this green spot amid the desolation is known as the " Queen of the Sahara " and the " City of the Palm Trees." The cool winter winds from the Atlas mountains temper the heat of the sands and the atmosphere is very dry and clear. To the north- ward, back whence the railway comes, the view is of a clean-cut rugged outline of mountain ridges against the light blue sky, while to the southward stretches the apparently endless desert which in the distance shines beyond the yellow sands, like a vast, yet still, blue ocean. The winds at times blow wildly here and raise much dust, so that in summer

238 THE MEDITERRANEAN

all the sojourners flee northward to avoid the heat. There is a modem French town, enclosed by walls and entered by gates, and an Arab town of a half- dozen mud villages scattered among the extensive plantations of date palms. Street-car lines connect them, and the whole settlement is a French military post, being their chief station for the eastern Sahara. The oasis is fed by springs from the river, which is dry most of the year, but wells have tapped these springs and provide a supply, the water being slightly alkaline. Tiie pahn groves produce five thousand tons of dates every year, an average tree yielding over one hundred pounds. Xot far away are the sulphur baths long frequented by the Arabs, the Hamman Salahin or " Baths of the Saints."

Out in the desert, a dozen miles from Biskra, is the oasis of Sidi Okba, another plantation of palm trees, with an Arab town of mud walls, its gates strictly closed at nightfall. Sidi Okba was the famous Moslem saint and conqueror, who sub- jugated all of northern Africa in the first great Arab invasion, and was the creator of " Kairouan the Holy," his shrine in Tunisia. As he progressed in Iiis victorious career, he converted all the nomadic peoples, by telling them they should surely die unless thev embraced El Islam, and when he reached the shores of the Atlantic he is said to have ridden into the surf on his Arabian steed, declaring that were it not for this barrier, he would make

CONSTANTINE PROVINCE 239

the people of every region beyond, worship Allah or die. Many places have been named after this Mohammedan hero, and this oasis has one of his shrines, an ancient mosque, regarded as the oldest Moslem building in Africa. To it the faithful make pilgrimages as to !Mecca. Upon this oasis is the Kaid's Garden, a wilderness of aloes and palms, frequented by many of the natives, who have no homes and sleep out doors. These white-gowned Arabs sleep with their heads covered as a protec- tion against the flies that are in swarms in all these green spots of the desert. And as the homeless Arab thus goes to sleep amid these little tormentors, ho breathes a prayer for the Caliph Adalma, the terror of the flies, to drive them away. This old Caliph had a breath fatal to flies, so that they dropped dead whenever they flew over his mouth. A favorite sport of the Arabs is racing with their fleet-footed camels, wliich are so tall and lean that they seem to be mostly legs and can readily run fifteen miles an hour. The usual course is between Biskra and the French outpost station of Touggourt, one hundred and thirty miles southward, and at the end of the railway route on the desert. Here are found several thousand of the Arab nomads around the military station, and there is presented a true oriental picture of their mode of life on this outer frontier of civilization, in the vast expanse of utter desolation making the Sahara.

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TUNISIA.

As the traveller moves eastward through Con- stantine Province, and across the boundary into Tunisia, the whole country discloses a most extensive and varied display of relics and ruins of the Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman periods. It shows remains of many cities of tliose days, when there must have been a very large population. This region seems to be strewn with Eoman survivals, almost as much as Italy itself, and some of the ancient Koman houses still existing are even yet in possession of the roofs built at that time, and are preserved practically unchanged by their Arab occupants. Tunisia adjoins the Constantine Prov- ince on the eastward, beyond the Gulf of Bona, and like Morocco and Algeria is crossed by the Lesser Atlas mountain ranges, which fall sharply off at the seacoast. The Mediterranean shore is pro- longed northeastward, with protruding headlands formed by these ranges, and has between two of the long promontories the Gulf of Tunis. Upon its western verge was the location of the renowned city of Carthage, and a little way to the southward at the head of the Gulf is the modem city of Tunis. Forming the southeastern border of this Gulf is the far projecting Cape Bon, and beyond, the shore, turning shar])ly from the east, trends southward for a long distance. It stretches for

A Moorish Interior.

TUNISIA 241

about three hundred miles to the Gulf of Gabes and makes the widest part of the Mediterranean, by the extensive Sea of Syrtes, thus extended far into the African coast. The prolongation east- ward of the two Atlas chains beyond Algeria to the seacoast with the intervening valleys make the regency of Tunisia, which has been a dependency of France since ISSl, and is about one hundred and fifty miles wide and three hundred miles long. Between the Lesser and the Greater Atlas lies the extensive valley of the river Mejerda, the ancient Bagradus, the most important river of northern Africa, which after a winding course of nearly three hundred miles, receiving many tributaries from the Atlas fastnesses, falls into the Gulf of Tunis at its northwestern corner near the steep limestone cliffs of Cape Farina. The East Algerian railway coming through the mountain ])asses from Constan- tine, traverses this vallev to Tunis, and it is a very fertile intervale, displaying many important re- mains, indicating its prosperity in the time of Carthage and of Kome, the river flowing through the valley to the westward of where Carthage was built. The southern wall of the Mejerda valley and of the Gulf of Tunis is formed bv a branch coming up northeastward from the southern Atlas chain, connected by the plateau of Tabessa with Mount Aures, and then stretching out to form the

ponderous extremity of Cape Bon, where the massive Vol. I— 10

242 THE MEDITERRANEAN

promontory falls off abruptly into the sea, and makes the northeastern corner of Tunisia. In this range the highest summits are elevated over 5,000 feet. Another range extends from the southern side of Mount Aures toward the Gulf of Gabes, which was the Roman Syrtes Minor. This fertile and prolific region was one of the most valuable granaries of Ilome, it being but a short sea voyage over to Italy. The I3ey of Tunis had an independent control of his country until 18S1, when to punish cattle thieving a French force came over the border from Algeria and compelled him to accept a French regency and protectorate. Since then his dignity is observed, but his power is gone. Cape Blanc, the northern extremity of Tunisia, is a headland thrust out into the ^Mediterranean northwest of Tunis, which is the most northern point in Africa.

The city of Tunis, the capital of the regency, is some distance westward from the Gulf of Tunis, being connected with its port, La Goulette, ten miles off, on the Gulf, by a canal. The city is mostly low-lying and built upon an isthmus between two salt lakes, the shallow Boheira or Lake of Tunis to the northeast, and a marshy enclosure toward the southwest. The Boheira is about twelve miles in circumference, and through it, the wide and deep canal recently dug, goes over to La Goulette, piercing the narrow strip of land separating the lake from the sea, and thus providing the passageway for an

TUNISIA 243

extensive commerce. Xortliward of the canal, in the shallow lagoon, is Shikly island, with the re- mains of a castle of the time of Charles V, and now the home of flamingoes and other wild birds. The older Arab town of Tunis, of which the walls have mostly disappeared, lies between two more modem suburbs on the north and south, which a century ago were also protected by walls. This older to\vn is called Medina, the northern suburb Bab-Souika, and the southern Bab-Dzira, and they have the usual Arab characteristics of enclosed houses and narrow streets, though the latter are now paved. Since the French occupation, a modern quarter, with wider streets and an European appearance, has sprung up on the side next the harbor, displaying buildings of a superior class. To the westward, on the highest ground of the city, is the Kasbah, an extensive citadel, now used as barracks by the troops, and also dating from the time of Charles V. Within the enclosure is the mosque built on this elevation by Abu Zakariya, who founded the Moorish Ilafsita dynasty in 1232, then making Tunis his capital. Afterward Tunis was held by the various Moorish dynasties ruling northern Africa, and in the sixteenth century came under the sov- ereignty of the Sultan of Turkey, which continued until the French took possession. The city has a population of about 170,000 and the whole Tunisian regency approximates 2,000,000. The Bey has

244 THE MEDITERRAKEAN

French officials at the head of all government depart- ments, and the country is garrisoned like Algeria by French troops, although he has a native force of a few hundred men for a guard of honor. Besiding at La Marsa, over toward the northeast, on the site of ancient Carthage, the Bey comes into to\vn every Monday to transact business, travelling on a special railway train and coming and going with great pomp, including the exchange of formal salutes with the French officers.

His palace, the Dar el Bey has a number of beautifully decorated rooms, in Moorish arabesque stucco, and fronts a small square with gardens on the street leading to the Kasbah. There is a fine view from the flat palace roof over the white buildings of the city, and the minarets of the many mosques. Some of these mosques are spacious and famous. In the centre of the city is the grand Mosque of the Olive Tree, founded by Abu Zakariya, having many minarets and domes, with a special cloister and library, and it is at the same time a college for about five hundred Moslem students. To the northward, near the walls of the old town, rises the massive dome of Sidi Mahres, the largest mosque in Tunis, named after this renowned saint who lived in the fifth century after the Hegira, and whose tomb gives the mosque the right of sanctuary for debtors. A chief attraction of the city is the bazaars which retain their oriental character un-

TUNISIA 245

impaired. These adjoin the street leading to the Kasbah, and consist of narrow lanes, vaulted or covered with planks, which are known as Suks, signifying the various divisions, each of which is usually devoted to the sale of articles of a particular kind. Here is great chance for successful bar^ gaining, and the one who has been to these bazaars suggests, that for the dearer articles, only about one-fourth the amount first asked should be offered as a proper basis for satisfactory negotiation. The suburbs of Tunis are attractive, abounding in beautiful views, and from a hill southeast of the city is given a good outlook, as also from the Belvedere eminence two miles to the northward, where there was a very ancient fortress. The south- western hill, called the Fort de la Manoubia, pro- vides a wide view over the city, the lake, the port of La Goulette and the ruins of Carthage, with the distant blue sea for the eastern background, and the mountain ranges on the landward side. To the northeastward, and coming out of the western hills, can be traced the ancient aqueduct which sup- plied Carthage with water. The old palace of the Bardo is about two miles northwest of Tunis, an extensive group of buildings which includes a palace of the Bey that has fallen in some decay. Here are some excellent specimens of carved and painted ceilings of tiles, and reproductions of the carved stucco work which is seen in perfection at the

246 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Granada Alhambra. There is also an attractive " Lion Court." In the Museum are Carthaginian and Itornan antiquities in a government collection, with si^ecimens of Eoman mosaics and Saracenic art. At the port of La Goulette is a convict prison on the cliffs, where in June, 1905, seventeen armed con- victs managed to dig their way through the walls and escape. The sentries sounded an alarm, and a force of wardens went after them making a desperate battle on the terrace adjoining the prison on top of the cliffs. One convict was killed and another dashed to pieces by falling over the rocks. Six who were wounded were captured and the others escaped.

ANCIENT CABTHAGE.

To the northeast of Tunis, about fifteen miles, is the most famous locality of remote memory in Northern Africa, the ruins of Carthage. The steamer coming across the sea to Tunis enters the Gulf of Tunis, its waters given a yellowish tinge by the overflow of the great river Medjerda, and rounding Sidi Boa Said, on Cape Carthage, passes the Byrsa or Castle-hill of Carthage, now surmounted by a large modern Cathedral. A little way to the southward was the ancient harbor, down by the sea, where the coast is now fringed with various villas and palaces. The Phoenicians were the early settlers of Carthage, long before the

ANCIENT CARTHAGE 24:T

foundation of Eome, it being the Keroth-Hadeshothj or "new city." The tradition is that about 878 B. C, Dido, fleeing from ancient Tyre, landed on this part of the coast, and was welcomed by the in- habitants, who agi'eed to give her as much land as could be compassed by an ox-hide. The enterprising lady cut the hide into narrow thongs, and fastening them together, made a long cord with which she enclosed a large tract of land. Dido was the sister of Pygmalion, the king of Tyre, and he had murdered her husband Acerbas before the altar, in order to seize his wealth. But Dido thwarted this by suddenly setting sail from Tyre, with all her possessions and her faithful companions, bound for tlie Tyrian colony of Utica, which was on the ancient river Bagradus near where she landed. Here she built the original citadel on the Byrsa hill, and founded Carthage, of which she became the queen, and where she was afterward worshipped as a goddess. The place grew, and its power extended over all the shores of the western Mediterranean. As it expanded, it came into conflict at first with the Greeks, who then held the neighboring island of Sicily, and afterward with the Romans. The latter called its people the Punici, referring both to the " red men " living in the region, and the palms growing luxuriantly there, while the Carthaginians themselves styled their tribe as Canaanites, or " dwellers on the plain." For five centuries or

248 THE MEDITERRANEAN

more it was the greatest Mediterranean power, and under Hannibal and Hanno, its troops almost ex- terminated Rome. But the latter ultimately con- quered, Scipio, 146 B. C, capturing and destroying the famous city. The Emperor Augustus made it a Roman colony, and the great fertility of the Bagradus valley gave it such prosperity that it be- came the third city in the Roman empire. When that empire fell to pieces, the Vandals got posses- sion, and it became Genseric's capital. Belisarius took it, and then the Mohammedan invasion in the seventh century again captured and destroyed the city. Continuing under Arab rule, the pi- rate brothers Barbarossa conquered it in the six- teenth century, and when France got Tunisia its ruins came into the possession of that country.

There are extensive Roman remains, distributed over a large surface, but owing to the repeated destructions, the actual outline of the ancient city is no longer visible, while even the site itself has undergone repeated changes. At present, the most conspicuous objects are the buildings of modem construction on the hill of the Byrsa. St. Louis, the King of France died here in 1270, while en- gaged in a crusade against the Moors in Tunis, and in 1841 the French erected the small chapel of St. Louis in his memory. Cardinal Lavigeric, who was subsequently in charge of the mission, built the present cathedral, which stands up prominently in

ANCIENT CARTHAGE 249

the architectural guise of an oriental Moorish music hall, the Cardinal's idea being that if he made his cathedral as much as possible like a highly ornamented and floridly showy mosque, he might the more easily induce the Arabs to worship in it. There are. also a large hotel on the hill, and a French chalet, built in imitation of a castle donjon. This hill of the ancient citadel, with its surmounting cathedral, is a conspicuous object seen from afar, and it gives a wide view over a splendid landscape of mountain, plain, lake, orchards, gardens and the broad sea. There is a museum of Phoenician art antiquities and Roman and Byzantine remains. Spacious cemeteries cover the adjacent surfaces, and here are buried in layers the ancient Byzantines, Komans and Carthaginians, the latter, who were of Phoenician extraction, being at the bottom. Ex- tensive excavations begim in 1892 under the auspices of the church prelates have disclosed much of the ancient ruins. There are traceable the remains of an amphitheatre and circus, fragments of the old city walls, aqueducts and many cisterns used for water storage. The harbor was about a half mile south of the Byrsa hill, composed of two ports, a commercial and a naval haven, and it was here that Scipio landed and had his chief contest, fighting through the narrow streets as he advanced to the storming and capture of the citadel on the hill. To the northeastward stretches the Peninsula of Cape

250 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Carthage, rising nearly four hundred feet above the sea, where the extremity abruptly ends, its high lighthouse giving a grand outlook.

The original Phoenician settlement in Tunisia, the ancient Utica, is twenty-one miles northwest of Tunis, on the estuary of the Medjcrda. Here was founded the original Pha?nician seaport colony 1100 B. C, then connected with the sea by the Bagradus, but the river's course has since been deviated eastward, so that the scant remains of Utica are now fully five miles from the sea. This was the seat of a Roman proconsul, and here, when Cflcsar overthrew Pompey, the younger Cato killed himself 46 B. C. Out on the coast, farther north- west, is the Arab to\vii of JBiserta, on the most northern land in Africa, the ancient Hippo Diar- rhytos. The French have strongly fortified its har- bor where Charles V built a fortress in the sixteenth century. Off Biserta in October, 1906, the French submarine boat Lutin was sunk with a crew of fifteen officers and men, all of whom were drowned, though some had survived under water for thirty hours judging by the signals they made.

HOLY KAIROUAN.

The mountains of Zaghouan, to the southward, supply Tunis with water, as they did ancient Car- thage, and extensive remains still exist of the aqueduct leading thence in the Koman days. The

HOLY KAIROUAN 261

highest smninit, the Djebol Zaghouan, rises 4,245 feet. To the southward is the large town of Susa or Suisse, as the French call it, in a district that is the home of various nomadic tribes, while to the southwest is the famous city of Kairouan. This, regarded by the Mohammedans as the most holy city in Africa, is about eiglity miles south of Tunis, and was founded by the great leader and saint, Sidi Okba, who, as heretofore stated, led the over- whelming Moslem invasion in the seventh century, which captured for the followers of the Prophet, the whole northern part of the continent. It is sit- uated upon a height some distance inland from the sea, that commands an extensive sandy plain, and has to the eastward the Kairouan Lake, its feeding stream flowing past the city. As usual with the Arab settlements, the original town is surrounded by walls and has a gate on each side. It is well built and contains various stately structures includ- ing mosques and tombs. It is one of the few places where the stranger is admitted to the mosques, this privilege being secured by the endorsement of the French ruler of the city. The great Akbar mosque, founded by Sidi Okba, and supposed to be his shrine and actual burial place, occupies a large part of the enclosed city, the roof being supported by over three hundred antique columns of marble, granite and porphyry, its minaret towering in three stories, and there being a large interior court and imposing

253 THE MEDITERRANEAN

prayer hall. The smaller Amer-Ahbada mosque has six domes, while outside the walls, beyond the north- eastern gate, is the mosque of Sidi Sahab, a com- panion of Mohanmied, whose magnificent Arabic tomb is an object of pilgrimages. It is here that the perfonnances take place on certain fixed days by the flagellant Moslem sect of the Aioussa, while on other days they are not unwilling to go through the self-inflicted stripes for a fee of thirty francs. The water supply of Kairouan comes from the hills and is collected in an open reservoir, built as a polygon of sixty-four sides, each extending eighteen feet and called the cistern of Ibrahim ben Aglab. This ven- erable cityj founded about the year 670, grew with rapid strides, and in the ninth and tenth centuries was the capital of all the Moslem conquests in Xorth- em Africa. Its population then exceeded sixty thousand, but is estimated now only at twenty thousand. Their Moslem rule is still very strict and they forbid merchants of other faiths from becoming permanent residents. The place is reached by cara- vans and the modern autocars over good roads, and the prominent manufactures are yellow morocco boots and slippers.

About forty miles south of Susa and near the coast is the ancient Roman Thysdros, now known as El Djem, a little Arab village of mud huts, having near it an enormous amphitheatre, almost as big as the Koman Colosseum, the greater part of which is still

TRIPOLI 253

standing. It covers about six acres, and would have accommodated sixty thousand peoj)le, and for cen- turies has been a stone quarry for all the plundering races who ruled the land and sought building stone. Thysdros was a large Koman city in the third cen- tury, but the Arabs destroyed almost everything after the Moslem conquest, and the mosaics from the enormous amphitheatre have been taken away to various museums, the spacious mosaic which covered the arena being on the Bey's Palace at Tunis. Ex- tensive excavations are being made and restorations planned here under French auspices. Farther south and on a good harbor is Sfax, the capital of Southern Tunisia, which has fifty thousand people including some Europeans, a city surrounded by huge walls and entered through imposing gates, as are all the Arab towns of Tunisia. The streets are narrow and crooked, the houses of the usual Arabian style, and the people are very jealous of the Christians. The French maintain a garrison for their protection. This whole country is full of Roman remains and was very populous in their day of greatest power.

TRIPOLI.

The sea to the eastward of the northern extremity of Tunisia, between its coasts and Sicily and Malta, is known as the Sicilian Sea. Southward of this, the Mediterranean has a long projection into North- em Africa, making its widest part, and this i?

254: THE MEDITERRANEAN

the Sea of Syrtes, which was a part of the ancient Libyan Sea, the portion of the Mediterranean, now regarded as its eastern half, stretching from the coast of Tunisia to Crete and Egypt. The Sea of Syrtes spreads in two large gulfs, the southwestern being the Gulf of Gabes, and the southeastern and more ex- pansive, the Gulf of Sidra. In the early records these are frequently written about, and were known as the Syrtes Minor and the Syrtes Major. They were very dangerous to old-time navigators, because of shallowness, quicksands, and the uncertainties of tides. The Gulf of Gabes, named from the town on its shore, indents the southern portion of the Tunis- ian east coast, and is about one hundred miles wide, between Caput Vadorum, the Ras Kapudiah, on the north and Jerbah island on the south. The larger Gulf of Sidra, on the northern coast of Tripoli, to the eastward, extends for about two hundred and seventy miles, between the promontory of Cephalse, now the Ras Kasr Ilamet on the west, and the prom- ontory of Boreum, the Ras Teyonas on the east, and it stretches inland over one hundred miles. The region between the two gulfs is mostly a narrow sandy or marshy strip of land, anciently known as Syrtica. Its original people were various nomadic Libyan tribes living inland, with Egyptians and Phoenicians on the coast. To the west was Carthage, and to the east Cyrene^ and they long contended for its mastery, Carthage ultimately succeeding, it is

TRIPOLI 255

said, through the self-sacrifice of the brothers Philseni.

The land bordering the Sea of Syrtes, eastward from Tunisia, is now the Turkish vilayet or regency of Tri2)oli. The headland of the lias Agir, is the Tunisian frontier on the west. For some distance eastward, the low and sandy shores of ancient Syrtica, along this coast, are regarded as really a part of the great Sahara, thus stretching up to the sea, though the actual desert is not strictly considered as being nearer than about eighty miles southward. Farther eastward are the deeply indented shores of the wide Gulf of Sidra, while beyond is the Libyan desert, ex- tending over to the Egyptian frontier. Before 700 B. C, the enterprising Phcrnicians had founded on these coasts three. great cities — CEa, Sabrata, and Leptis ]\ragna, and from these the region became kno^vn as Tripolitana. Later, Qia, which was be- tween the two others, was made the capital of a province, that was then called Tripolis, or " the three cities," thus combined into one, and this name has been retained since the Roman times. Tripoli is consequently one of the oldest places in the world, and its business stability has been largely due to its advantageous position on the sea coast over against Sicily, and at the northern termination of the great historic caravan routes, leading into the heart of Africa, and to the various oases of the eastern Sahara and Libyan deserts. The province is composed of

256 THE MEDITERRANEAN

a strip of fertile soil adjacent to the sea, with ex- tensive sandy plains, and parallel chains of rocky mountains inland, which are extensions of the Atlas, ranges coming over from Tunisia. The city of Tripoli is on a promontory, forming the southwest side of a small crescent-shaped bay, that is partly sheltered from the northern winds coming across the Mediterranean, by a chain of low reefs. The road- stead is sliallow, while the bar makes it inaccessible for vessels of very deep draught. A partly crum- bling crenellated enceinte wall surrounds the older town, in tlio form of an irregular pentagon; and a line of small half-ruined forts is supposed to pro- tect one side of the harbor, and the governor's old- time castle, the other. There is a population es- timated at thirty thousand within the walls, and about an equal number of semi-nomad Arabs and negro freedmen in the suburban districts outside. The desert almost touches the city on its western verge, while to the eastward spreads the verdant and fertile oasis of Meshiga, with a nomadic population who pay great respect to the tombs there, of the ancient Tripolitan beys and their sultanas. Within the city are several prominent mosques, of which six have lofty and attractive minarets built in Turkish style. There is not much to attract, however; it is a typical Moorish city, with narrow, dirty and un- paved streets.

Southward from Tripoli, to which it is tributary,

TRIPOLI 257

and enclosed all around by the Sahara, is Fezzan, tho ancient Phazania, the land of the Geramentes. It is an extensive region, and practically a desert, al- most barren of vegetation because of the want of moisture and the great lieat. With ill-defined boundaries, it extends southward from latitude 31°N to 23°N. The depressed table land of Moorzook occupies the central and southern portion of the dis- trict, being at a lower level than the surrounding desert. Moorzook has about three thousand i)opula- tion and is the Sultan's i)lace of residence. Fezzan has the reputation of intense heat in summer, the mercury sometimes rising to 133". It has no run- ning streams of water, rain sel(h)m falls, and the climate is unhealthy for Europeans. As the caravan route from the coast to the interior of Africa passes through, the people depend upon this trade for a live- lihood. It requires about twenty-five days for a cara- van to traverse the route from Tripoli to Moorzook and forty days more to go on to Cairo. The natives are mostly Berbers, who have very little idea of arithmetic, and reckon everything by making dots in the sand, ten in a line, with Spanish coins and grain as their medium of exchange. The Roman proconsul of Africa, before the Christian era, Cor- nelius Balbus, penetrated into Phazania, and it dis- plays many remains of the Roman occupation, in the form of columns and mausoleums. The Arabs got

possession in the seventh century, and it has since Vol. 1—17

258 THE MEDITERRANEAN

been generally tributary to some Moslem potentate, the present allegiance to Tripoli beginning in 1811. It has been a favorite haunt, in more recent times, of exploring African travellers, though they do not seem to have gleaned much information or trophies of special interest, and chiefly report the great heat. To the eastward of the deeply indented Gulf of Sidra is IJarca, which was the ancient Cyrenaica, its western boundary being the Syrtcs Major. This in its early history was one of the most flourishing colo- nies of the Greeks, Battus, a Dorian from the island of Thera, having founded the original settlement of Cyrene in the seventh century 13. C, his dynasty ruling for more than two hundred years. It after- ward was subject to Egypt and then became a province of the Byzantine empire, being conquered by the Arabs in 541. Barca extends eastward to the frontier of Egypt, and its southern border fades into the great Libyan desert. There are about 400,000 people in the country, generally Berbers and nomadic Arabs. The northwestern district, toward the coast, is elevated and fertile wdth a healthy climate, but the remainder of the surface is sandy, barren, and gradually merges by an indefinite boundary into the desert. The Barcan beys are tributary to Tripoli. Its most important town is Benghazi, on the north- western coast, the ancient Berenice, at the southern extremity of a headland projecting into the Gulf of Sidra, which formerly enclosed a spacious natural

TRIPOLI 259

harbor, now filled up and almost inaccessible for large vessels. Xortlieastward from Benghazi, the coast abounds in extensive ruins left by the ancient civilizations. Here was the old town of Ptolemais, which passed away after the second century, the place being now a collection of ruins known as Tolmata. Farther eastward is ^lersa Susa, the an- cient Apollonia, which was the port of Cyrene, now Grenna, to the southward. This port it is proposed to restore, there having been removed to the healthy and fertile adjacent district, many of the Turkish inhabitants of the island of Crete, who were dissatis- fied with its modern government. The famous city of Cyrene, was built upon a high plateau about nine miles inland from the coast at Apollonia, being founded around a copious fountain, the native name of which was Cyre. The spring supplied the settle- ment with water, and was consecrated to Apollo. There are still visible extensive ruins of streets, tem- ples, theatres, tombs, art remnants, a vast necropolis, and the road over the rocky plateau connecting the city with the harbor. Cyrene was at the height of its prosperity in the time of Herodotus, and then covered an extensive surface, its ruined walls and towers.. ha vii^. a circuit of five miles;. Here flour- ished the CjTenaic school of philosophy, founded in the fourth century E. C. by Aristippus, who taught that personal enjoyment was the highest object, and that virtue consisted in producing the greatest pos-

260 THE MEDITERRANEAN

sible development of agreeable feelings, by living with a moderate activity, in the enjoyment of art and literature, and the careful avoidance of pain. The astronomer Eratosthenes was a native of Cyrene.

THE VAST SAHARA.

We have thus traced the Rarbary Coast from the Atlantic eastward to the borders of Egypt, and find that the fertile districts fringing the Mediterranean shore, everywhere, as they extend southward, gradu- ally merge into the vast African desert. This groat Sahara occupies an area of over 2,100,000 square miles, stretching across northern Africa, from the Atlantic three thousand miles to the Valley of the Nile, with a width of about a thousand miles from the Barbary states southward to the Soudan. The sterile region is renewed eastward of the Xile, and it extends northward into Algeria along the southern base of the Atlas, closely approaching the Mediter- ranean coast west of the Gulf of Gabes. Here are extensive marshy sections known as Shotls, which constitute a basin, into which, as it is at a lower level, a plan has been projected for admitting the waters of the sea by a canal. There are also continuations of the Sahara, extending east and north, through Arabia, Persia and Central Asia, into Mongolia, terminating there in the desert of Gobi. Extensive tracts of treeless pasture lands skirt the northern Sahara boundary along the base of the greater Atlas

THE VAST SAHARA 201

ranges, and the desert also reaches the Mediterranean shore on the Gulf of Sidra. Kain is unknown in this great desert, excepting in the oases and the bor- dering mountain regions, and a climate of burning aridity pervades. When rain falls on the borders on rare occasions, it is with such violence as to pro- duce torrents, suddenly pouring through the valleys and as suddenly disappearing. The Sahara sterility is attributable to the fact that the northeastern trade winds, blowing over its surface — the prevailing air currents — bring it no moisture, having been almost drained of vapor in their long journey over Europe and Asia. These winds deposit on the Atlas moun- tains, south of the ^lediterranean, more moisture than they have collected in their brief passage over that sea, and when they reach the heated desert be- yond, where the absorptive capacity of the air is greatly increased by the higher temperature, they actually carry away moisture instead of bringing it, and this is not condensed into clouds and rains, until the wind currents reach the colder surface of the mountains of Central Africa. The Sahara is subject to the highest temperature on the globe, the mercury, as in Fezzan, reaching 133°. This terrific heat, with the loose and burning sands, imparts their dreaded characteristics to the two hot and deadly winds blowing off. the desert, the sirocco and the simoom. The sirocco is a southeastern wind of a suffocating and parching heat, which at intervals, es-

262 THE MEDITERRANEAN

pocially in spring and autumn, blows with violence from the Sahara, over the Mediterranean coast and islands and southern Italy, continuing for two or three days, and sometimes for a week, with most pernicious influence on animal and vegetable life. It is hottest in Malta and Sicily, though generally of short duration on these islands. While having little effect either on temperature or barometer, the sirocco produces a sensation of terrible heat and suffo- cation, copious perspiration and general jn'ostration. The even more deadly simoom gets its name from the Arabic word somma " to poison." It is a hot, dry wind, characterized by excessive heats and suffocat- ing effects, often fatal to animal life, but rarely last- ing over an hour. During its prevalence, the people of oases shut themselves up in their houses, and those who are on the desert go into tents or pits. The parching heat is derived from the sands, which are whirled up by the advancing wind, and the air is filled with an extremely penetrating and subtle dust. When this deadly wind blows in squalls, death is often suddenly produced by actual suffocation with severe hemorrhages. Persons exposed to it, protect themselves by stopping the nose and mouth with handkerchiefs, and the camels instinctively bury their nostrils in the sands.

The surface of the Sahara presents an alternative of immense burning wastes of loose and moving sands, with plains of stony gravel and tracts of bar-.

THE VAST SAHARA 263

ren rock, mucli of it covered with salt deposits. There are elevated and rocky plateaus, rising into mountains, with spreading valleys and great expanses of sand between them. The Sahara has an average elevation above sea level, estimated at fifteen hun- dred feet, although in many places the surface is de- pressed far below .the ocean. The most mountainous portion is along the caravan mutes from Tripoli southward and southeastward, where the culminating summits are in the mountains of the Asbea oasis, rising 5,000 feet. The desolate region of the west- ern Sahara, known as SaJiel or '^ the plain," has the greatest expanse of sand and salt desert. Its hills stretch out to the Atlantic, and it has but few oases and these are small, there being little travel over it. Eastward of Fezzan, the Sahara is known as the Libyan desert, being comparatively level, and sloping toward the Mediterranean with a gentle descent, and here the oases are most numerous. Despite the difficulties of travel, the desert is being constantly crossed in all directions bv caravans of traders on various routes. The theory of the geologist is that at one time a large portion of the Sahara was sub- merged beneath the sea. Marine shells have been discovered south of the Atlas, and lines of sea beach are traceable, showing that in a not very remote geo- logical period these plains were an ocean bed. Sir Charles Lyell has said that the Sahara, between 20° and 30° north latitude, was under water during the

264 THE MEDITERRANEAN

glacial epoch, so that then there Tvas a water con- nexion between the southern part of the Mediterra- nean, and the Atlantic ocean west of the African coast. A project has been formed for converting this part of the Sahel, covering about 126,000 square miles, into an inland sea, by cutting a canal through the fringe of sandhills, forming the western desert border south of Morocco.

The oasis is the relief for the desert, and these at- tractive places are the beloved havens of the wander- ing Arabs who slowly cross the sands. The name of the oasis is derived from the Coptic word Uah signi- fying an inhabited place, and was the title given anciently to the fertile spots where the caravans stopped. They were then supposed to be islands ris- ing from an ocean of sand, but in fact they are gen- erally depressions in the midst of a table land, resting usually on a bed of limestone, whose precipitous sides encircle the hollow plain, in the centre of which is a stratum of sand and clay, retaining the waters flow- ing from the surrounding cliffs. Most of the best known oases are in the Libyan desert, in fertile tracts supporting a moderate population, and nearly all having an extensive growth of date palms and also grain fields. These Libyan oases were early occu- pied by the Greeks and Eomans, and usually then were places of banishment for State criminals, while afterward they became refuges from persecution. There are a multitude of small, and more than thirty,

THE VAST SAHARA 265

large oases in the Sahara, about twenty being in- habited, the best known being in the Libyan desert, over toward the Egyptian frontier.

Perhaps the most famous oasis is Siwah, the an- cient Ammonium, in the disputed Libyan territory between Tripoli and Egypt, about one hundred and sixty miles from the Mediterranean and three hun- dred and thirty miles west-southwest of Cairo. There are several detached fertile tracts, the princi- pal being about eight miles long and three miles wide. The surface is undulating and rises to the northward into high limestone hills. There are numerous springs and ponds, both salt and fresh, the climate being delightful, and the land very fertile, with the chief product dates. The people are all Moslems, and are Berbers and negroes, there being about eight thousand of them, and they are tributary to Egypt. There are various villages, the chief be- ing Siwah el-Kebir, defended by strong walls, with the citadel crowning a rock, divided into an upper and a lower town, the streets, as in all Moorish towns, being irregular and narrow. It is said that no stran- ger is admitted to the upper town, nor are the native bachelors permitted to live there. This was the an- cient site of the famous spring — " the foimtain of the sun " — whose waters were cold at noon, and hot at evening, midnight and morning, and here was the temple of Jupiter Ammon. The ruins of this tem- ple, now called Om Baydah, are about three miles

266 THE MEDITERRANEAN

southeast of the village, there being among the re- mains various sculptures of Ammon, ^vith the deline- ations of the ram-headed goat. Xearby is the pool, which is supposed to be the ancient fountain, springs copiously feeding the basin which is about three hundred feet in circumference. The waters are said still to be warmer by niglit than by day, and they are heavier than those of the Xilc. There are other ruins in the neighborhood, with Greek, Roman and Egyptian inscriptions. In the olden time, this oasis was celebrated as the seat of the oracle of Amnion, and besides the temple, with its images of Jupiter Amnion set with precious stones, it had a royal castle surrounded by three walls. The great Cambyses made an unsuccessful attempt to take the temple, and f331 B. C. Alexander the Great marched over the desert to visit the oracle, and the priest addressed him as the son of the god Jupiter. The Emperor Justinian built here a Christian church, but every- thing now is Moslem. To the southeast of Siwah is the ancient Oasis Minor, now Bahryeh, which has temples and tombs belonging to the era of the Ptolemies. This, in the Roman times, was famed for its wheat, but now produces chiefly fniits. Farther south is the Oasis Trinvtheos, the modern Dahkel, which has Roman remains. Still farther south, and about ninety miles west of the Xile, is the largest of all, the Oasis Magna, the modern Khargeh, which stretches over a surface eighty miles long and

THE VAST SAHARA 267

ten miles broad. Tins is sometimes ealled the Oasis of Thebes, which is to the northeast. Josephns called it "the Oasis" and Herodotus ''the Citv Oasis" and the " island of the b'.essed." There was an an- cient temple of great size here, dedicated to Am- mon-Ra, and after the (liristian era it became noted for the number of its churches and monasteries.

In the western Sahara, the most important oasis is Tafilet, which in reality is a number of separate oases that have numerous fortified Arab villages enclosed by walls, and inhabited by a warlike race of fanatical Moslems. This oasis is situated southeast of the Atlas mountains, on the borders of ^lorocco and the Sahara, the population being estimated at a hundred thousand. In 1648, a ruler of Tafilet founded the dynasty which now attempts to govern ^forocco, but the present chiefs of the oasis are usually in opposi- tion to the ^loroccan Sultan, defvin^ his authority. It is a fertile region, watered by two rivers, both losing themselves in the desert sands outside its bor- ders. Kain seldom falls. Grain is raised on the banks of the rivers and there are extensive planta- tions of date palms, producing the best dates of the Sahara, which are in demand everywhere. Large flocks of sheep and goats are kept, and woolens and carpets are woven. There also are mines of lead and antimony. The capital, Abuam, which has the largest market in the western Sahara, is about two hundred and fortv miles east-southeast from ^Morocco

268 THE MEDITERRANEAN

City. There is a good trade with Algeria, and twice a year an immense caravan crosses the desert to Tim- bnctoo, a thousand miles southward. Another great oasis, almost in tlie centre of the western Sahara, is Tuat, composed of five large groups of green spots, with one himdred and twenty thousand Arab and negro population. It raises opium, tobacco and cot- ton, as well as grain. Tliis group, controlled by the French, is about eight hundred miles south of Al- giers. The French control is gradually covering the whole of the Western Sahara. The wandering tribes of the Tauregs, the special nomads of the desert, whose tradition says they came originally from Canaan, are the race of Arabs whose bands are chiefly found in this part of the Sahara. They are bold, warlike and predatory, living mostly on booty and tribute levied on caravans crossing the desert, and they have given the French endless trouble. They possess excellent firearms and go about always with veiled faces, riding swiftly on their meharis or long- legged racing camels. Until the French adopted these swift camels for their cavalry, they were utterly unable to cope with the Tauregs, but now they can move with the same celerity as these wily nomads, and can overtake and circumvent them. Thus many of these wild bands have been tamed and brought into subjection. The French are gradually estab- lishing stations at various points in the desert, and are contemplating an extension of the railway south-

THE VAST SAHARA 269

ward beyond Biskra and Touggourt, to Tuat, and possibly ultimately across the Sahara to Timbuctoo. The Sahara, while a burning desert waste, is only so because of the want of water. If water could be supplied in ample volume this would become one of the earth's most luxuriant gardens. Its soil is highly charged with fertilizers, and the Arabs say that if you will plant a stick in the desert and water it, you will soon have a tree. The hopes, however, of chang- ing the desert, can hardly be realized, until some nat- ural phenomenon may intervene to produce moist winds and copious rains. The Arab nomads will probably continue indefinitely as its inhabitants, and it will be a long while before the two or three months' caravan journey between the Barbary States and the Soudan can be replaced by a railway train crossing in three or four days. The picturesque Arab is en- abled to wander over the wastes of the Sahara, only by the assistance of his patient servant, the camel, which has been well termed in the florid oriental style, the " ship of the desert.'* Its clumsy-looking wide-spreading feet, prevent it from sinking too far into the sand, and they give it an elastic and silent gait that is peculiar to itself. Its nostrils may be closed at will, to exclude the wind-driven sands of the deadly simoom. The hump on the back is a store- house of food, which is slowly reabsorbed during the long marches, and protects it from starvation in the unavoidable privations of the desert journeys. It

270 THE MEDITERRANEAN

is also able to fill interior cavities of the stomach with water, to the amount of several quarts, thus car- rying within itself a supply for its own wants that will last without replenishment about a week, and which it occasionally yields with its life to save its master. Thus this patient and most wonderful ani- mal has enabled the desert to be explored and trav- ersed, and has given mankind probably the best lessons known of exemplary patience and protracted endurance to hardships. To those who traverse the Sahara's trackless wastes the absence of moisture is probably the most impressive, and it recalls Byron's lines in Don Juan:

Tin taught by pain.

Men really know not what good water's worth; If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,

Or with a famished boat's crew had your berth, Or in the desert heard the camel's bell.

You'd wish yourself where Truth is — in a well.

THE IBERIAN SHORE

THE IBERIA:^ shore

The Iberi — Almeria — Aguilas — Lorca — C'iipe Palos — ^La Union — Cartagena — ^The Despoblado — Murcia — ^Torrevieja — The Segura — Orihuela — Elehe — Alicante — Kingdom of Valencia — Irrigation Works — Alcoy — Concentaina — Monte Mongo— Denia — Gandia — Jativa — The Borgias — The Albufcra — Va- lencia— Sagunto — Segorbe — Alnicnara — ^Villareal — Castellon Peniscola — Morella-^Uldecona — Cape Tortosa — The Ebro — Tortosa — Alcaniz — Imperial Canal of Aragon — Saragossa — St. James — Virgin del Pilar — Maid of Saragossa — Cata- lonia— Tarragona — Hens — LC>rida — Cardona — Montana de Sal — Montserrat — Barcelona — Tlie Bull Ring — Bes^s Valley — Vich — Ripoli — Gerona — The Ampurdan — Figueras — Gulf de Rosas — Emporise — The Pyrenees.

ALMEBIA AND CAHTAOENA.

Eastward from the Rock of Gibraltar to Cape Gata, and then northeast past Cape Palos, the Med- iterranean coast of Spain stretches seven hundred and seventy miles to the Pyrenees and the French boundary. From Gibraltar to Cape Palos it is mostly a rocky shore with little elevation, but has in the background the noble summits of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada range set boldly against the northern sky. Beyond the cape, the coast line is alternately high and low, part of it lined with lagoons, along Vol. 1—18 273

274 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

which are various salt works. Eastward from Malaga, the coast borders the province of Al- meria, to its deeply indented bay where Cape Gata forms the eastern buttress. The Pha?nicians were the first to visit these shores, and thev were soon fol- lowed by the Greeks, who established colonies, and found the primitive inhabitants to be the tribes whom they named the Iberi, and thus this region came to be the Iberian shore, a title afterward extended over the whole Spanish peninsula. These Iberi were the peo- ple of Spain at the dawn of history, and in the earli- est period of which tradition has told, and they then gave the rivers, mountains and towns many of the names they still bear. They were a fierce race, whose power and characteristics were never entirely broken by any of the numerous invading peoples that in subsequent times occupied the rest of the country, and they laid the foundation for the proud and brave Castilian race. The Celts also came early and oc- cupied the mountainous districts of central Spain, first fighting and then uniting with the Iberians of the coast, to form the race known as Celtiberians. The Greeks upon their arrival settled Saguntum in Valencia and Emporise on the northeastern coast of Catalonia, soon commingling with the native Iberians, who were then active in commerce with the Cartha- ginians across the Mediterranean Sea. Their coun- trv's chief fame in the earlv davs was its riches in gold, silver, copper and other metals, and the people

ALMERIA AND CARTAGENA 275

•were diligent miners and noted for artistic skill in working precious metals. They had a language and an alphabet, and also made their own coinage, many of these ancient coins being still preserved in museums. The great river of the Iberian shore, the Iberus, is now the Ebro flowing eastward into the Mediterranean at Cape Tortosa.

The display of Iberian wealth attracted the Cartha- ginians, and they came over from Africa to occupy the country and foimd colonies on the coast, led by their generals Ilamilcar and Ilasdrubal. This inva- sion was not relished, and the Iberians and Greeks of Saguntum and other places asked the Komans to help them. The result soon produced the first Punic War between Eome and Carthage, and led finally to the famous siege and destruction of Sagimtum by Han- nibal 219 B. C, which opened the second Punic War, the end of which was the expulsion of the Carthagin- ians from Spain. Then came the era of Eoman domination over the Iberians, accompanied by va- rious revolts and contests, but in the period immedi- ately preceding Christian times, they began gradually adopting the Roman manners, dress and language, and ultimately became an integral part of the lioman empire. As a race, however, they were always re- nowned for their unyielding disposition and obstinate courage, which are prominently the Castilian charac- teristic now.

Down out of the Sierra Xevada through a most

276 THE MEDITERRANEAN

picturesque valley rushes the swift Almeria torrent, its lower intervale broadening into one of the most fertile and luxuriant vegas in southern Spain. The extensive province of Almeria, through which it flows, is broken by mountains and ravines, containing mines of silver, lead, copper and coal, making it rich in minerals, so that mining is a prominent industry, though the mines are still usually worked in a most primitive way, and the delvers in them to-day learn that they had been worked in a remote age, there be- ing found the round shafts anciently operated by the Phoenicians and the square shafts of the Moors. The fertile vegas in the valleys are well irrigated by sys- tems originally established by the Moors, and it is said these irrigation canals and waterwheels remain substantially as then in most cases, and thoroughly overcome the prolonged droughts that prevail nearly every summer in the districts of Malaga and Almeria. The river flows into the deeply indented Gulf of Almeria, and at the embouchure, about a hundred miles east of Malaga, is the ancient city of Almeria, formerly the chief port on this coast, and a very pros- perous city in the Moorish era. Environed by high mountains, which rise over 6,500 feet in the back- ground, this city is beautifully situated, the enclosing Sierra running off at a height of 1,680 feet toward the southeast, where it terminates in the bounding buttress of the bay on that side, the ponderous Cape Gata. The Iberians were established here when the

ALMERIA AND CARTAGENA 277

town's history began^ and their successors, knowing the importance of the port, made it prosperous in the days of the Carthaginians and the Romans, the latter calling it XJrci. It grew in wealth imder the Moors, and for three centuries the Christians tried to capture it. Alfonso VII of Castile briefly held it in the twelfth century, but it was not finally taken until 1481, when Ferdinand the Catholic captured it, the last stronghold of El Zagal of Granada. An ancient Moorish Alcazaba, with impressive towers enlarged by the Spaniards, and a partly decayed Castle of St. Christopher, dominate the town, where there are about fifty thousand population. There is a massive cathedral built like a fortress, with embattled walls and belfry tower, and castellated apse, a work of Charles V; and the principal mosque is now super- seded by the Church of San Pedro. The harbor is small, but safe, and from it are shipped large amounts of ores from the mines, and fruits and nuts from the luxuriant vega, including enormous consignments of the famous Almeria grapes.

Rounding the ponderous Cape Gata, the coast trends northeast, and is a series of cliffs, fronting the Sierras which stretch for miles, until finally they re- cede from the shore, and here is the port of Aguilas, whence are exported various cargoes of the mineral output of these mountains. In the interior, behind the coast ranges, is Lorca, finely situated on their northwestern slopes and having sixty thousand people.

278 THE MEDITERRANEAN

This was the Eoman Eliocroca, a name which the Moorish successors condensed into Lorca, and in the midst of the narrow streets and crowded houses of the older town rises the Moorish castle. Here came the robust king Alfonso in 124-i and captured the place from the Moors, the city arms displaying his bust and a tower, named from him the Alfonsina. The mines and the vineyards give the people employment. To the eastward of Lorca, the foothills, which are the last of the Sierra Xevada ranges, stretch out toward the sea, and prolong the coast into the protruding Cape Palos, surmounted by an excellent lighthouse. From this there extends northward a flat sand-spit with some rocky islets for about twenty-five miles, which enclose the extensive salt lagoon of the Mar Menor, spreading back for a width of about twelve miles to the higher level. To the southward, and be- hind Cape Palos, there is a deep bay among the hills, and here is the noted port and Spanish naval strong- hold of Cartagena. About five miles away, and en- closed in the Sierra de Cartagena, which terminates in Cape Palos, is La Union, the port of that extensive mining district which sends out silver, lead, tin and large amounts of manganese and iron ores. A popu- lation of thirty thousand are employed in these mines, which were known to the Carthaginians and the Eomans, and wore visited and described by Poly- bius in the second century B. C.

The Iberians were here from time immemorial,

ALMERIA AND CARTAGENA 279

and in their trading with the Carthaginians across the sea, the fame of the silver and other mines be- came a marvel. This led Ilasdrubal, the son-in-law and successor of Hamilcar, to come over from Car- thage and explore the region. He found a harbor much resembling that of his own capital, and admir- ing the situation, took possession and established at the Iberian settlement the New Carthage, 221 B. C, which afterward became a Roman stronghold, the Kartadjena of the Moors and the Spanish Cartagena. This was intended to be the new royal capital, and the citadel of Carthaginian power in Iberia, and they held it until it was captured by the Romans under Scipio Africanus ]\rajor, about twelve years later. Polybius came with Scipio the younger in 151 B. C, and has left an accurate description of the town and harbor, its castle of Ilamilcar Barca and the Temple of Esculapius. The Romans made it the richest and largest town of their province of Hispania, and a colony, and it was one of the last supports of the Byzantine empire in Spain, being successfully de- fended, in the later sixth century, against the attacks of the barbarians. The Moors, however, ultimately got possession, and held it until Jaime I of Aragon became the captor in 1276. Cardinal Ximenes sailed from Cartagena in 1509, for his attack on Oran and Algiers on the Barbary coast, and the Eng- lish admiral Drake sacked it in 1585. The to^vn had many Roman and other ancient inscriptions, but

280 THE MEDITERRANEAN

they have been mostly removed to the Madrid Museum. The old harbor, which resembles that of Carthage, is now the Darsena or Basin of the Arsenal, this being the chief attraction of the city, and .an extensive naval construction of the later nineteenth century. High hills surround the town, and the deeply indented bay into which this basin opens is well protected by forts. On either side of the entrance, rise the Ilill of Galeras, 650 feet, crowned by a castle, and the Castle of St. Julian, 920 feet, both being precipitous volcanic cliffs, sur- mounted by strong forts. Ui)on the former was an- ciently the Castle of Hamilcar Barca, and upon the latter the Temple of Esculapius. Alongside the Arsenal is the hill of the Conception, 230 feet, cov- ered with many ruins, and having on the summit and slope the strongest of the forts, completely command- ing the harbor entrance in front. To the northeast, in the background, is another fort, the Castle of the !^[oors, while on either side of the city are more de- tached forts. Escombrera island off the entrance, the ancient Scombraria, or " place of mackerel fish- ing," makes a complete natural protective breakwater. There are probably 100,000 people in this Spanish naval stronghold of the Mediterranean.

MUECIA AXD ALICANTE.

To the northward from Cartagena, the railway traverses the plain, and runs between the hills and

MURCIA AND ALICANTE 281

the extensive Mar Menor, gradually mounting the Sierra ; and crossing it through the low Pass of San Pedro, the route goes over an elevated despoblado. This is a waste surface of hill, moor and saltmarsh, in which this region abounds, for we have come into Murcia, the province known as the reino serenissimo, one of the brightest, but at the same time, hottest districts of Spain. Its summer temperature will rise frequently to 110° or 120° Fahrenheit, while the winters are cold with severe frosts that destroy the young plants in early spring. Its scanty water supply and general barrenness are due to its south- eastern location, being swept by the parching sirocco coming across the Mediterranean from the Sahara. This wind, kno\\Ti locally as Leveche, is most stifling and enervating, covering everything with dust, and causing men and animals to sink exhausted. It makes the calina, or heat-haze, which in summer girdles the horizon, gradually extending over the firmament, and not disappearing until October. It also produces the treeless surfaces and these despo- blados, which grow only saltwort and esparto grass, and cover most of the region. There are some fer- tile vegcLS in the valleys, maintained by irrigation, the chief being along the Segura, the only river of any size, which flows out from the Sierra Morena, or Brown Mountains of the interior, through this province to the sea. The chief occupations of the people are mining and the making of salt and

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soda, a large part of the mountain districts be- ing honeycombed with silver, lead, iron and other mines. So rich was the silver product in ancient times, that tradition tells how the Phoenicians, when their ships were full-laden, made their anchors of sil- ver so as to carry more. The province has a large population of Moorish descent, and is styled the Spanish Boeotia, it being a native proverb that Adam on his return to earth found here his old home in un- changed condition — el cielo y suelo es hueno, el en- tresuelo malo — " while the sky and soil are good, all between is evil," Descending from the despo- blado, the railway approaches the valley of the Segura, and turning westward reaches the city of Murcia, stretching broadly along the river, in a fer- tile, well cultivated and irrigated district.

The Iberians carlv made a settlement on the Tader, as the river was anciently called, flow^ing off toward the northeast through the beautiful and blooming liucrta thirty miles to the sea. It grew, but was not known much in history until the Moorish era, they calling the river Shekura, whence comes its present name, and the town Medinet Mursiya. The Moors were conquered by Ferdinand III in 1243, and since then it has been Christian, while presenting a semi- oriental character, and it has gathered a population of over one hundred thousand. The city has a fa- mous cathedral — Santa Maria — a Gothic structure begun in 1358 on the site of a mosque, its elaborate

MURCIA AND ALICANTE 283

tower rising four hundred and eighty feet, the sum- mit giving a splendid view along the valley of the Segura and the guarding mountains to the north- ward, with the beautiful Fuensanta mountain and its convent to the south. This cathedral tower is the prominent landmark in all views of approach to the city. The cathedral fagade is an attractive baroque work of the eigliteenth century. The structure has a lofty Renaissance dome, and in the Capilla Mayor is a casket containing the heart of King Alfonso the Learned. There is a large gypsy settlement in the western suburbs, and the Segura, which falls over a dam and provides water power for some mills, is skirted by the !Malecon or quay, which is the finest public promenade, though strangely lacking shade trees in a climate where the summer heat is known to rise to 120°. This quay has however its use, in protecting from river inundations a large expanse of lowlands where are orange groves, palms and gardens. Hot as are the Murcia summers, the win- ters however are not tempered as effectively as in the regions more nearly adjoining the sea. Being back in an environment of mountains, the winter mercury often falls below freezing, and the cold mistral or north wind is very piercing. Young plants have to be well protected against frost in the early spring and the fig and other trees seldom put forth leaves before late in ]March. l"p the Segura towards the northwest, about twelve miles away, is

284 THE MEDITEKRAXEAN

the Eoman llorci, where the Scipios were defeated by Masinissa ; and farther up, where the river breaks through the mountain ranges, are valuable sulphur mines, Avhieh were worked by the Romans and are now the property of the Spanish government. In this region are extensive plantations of esparto grass, the leaves being used for paper manufacture, ropes, matting and baskets.

Northeastward from ]!^Iurcia, the railway into the sea coast kingdom of Valencia proceeds through the rich huerta, following down the Segura, which ulti- mately seeks the sea to the eastward. Below its mouth, and behind the Cape of Carvera, with an environment of salt lagoons, is the little seaport of Torrevieja. Alongside the Segura, on the edge of the huerta, rises the majestic Monte Agudo, which is reproduced in the Murcia huerta' s heraldic emblem, a massive mountain of trap rock, thrust boldly up from the plain, and surmounted by a Moorish castle in ruins. There rises to the northwest of Murcia, with the Segura washing its base, the Sierra Orihuela, and spreading along the river bank about fourteen miles from !Murcia, is the Moorish Oryul, now the Spanish Orihuela, where thirty thousand people get their living from the rich meadows, fields and gar- dens adjoining the river — the famous Segura huerta, of which the Spaniards say llueva o no lluevay trigo a Orihuela — " rain or no rain, there is wheat in Orihuela." On the hillside overlooking the town

MURCIA AND ALICANTE 285

IS another mined Moorish castle. The ancient Moorish town of Callosa is on the elevation beyond the Orihuela grain fields, and has many of its primi- tive dwellings built into the rocks likes caves. Be- yond, from the northward, the rapid Vinalapo comes down out of the mountains, seeking the sea, but losing most of its waters, when the tide is up, in a lagoon, the Albufera de Elche, of fresh water. Here is the town of Elche, near the river above the lake, and one of the purest of the original Moorish settle- ments remaining in Spain, its narrow streets, white- washed, windowless dwellings, minarets, domes, palms, and even the faces of the people, recalling the Arabic ancestry, whose buildings and habits still survive. Its fame comes from the palm grove ad- joining the town, irrigated by the Vinalapo waters, which are gathered in a pantano or reservoir, within the mountain gorge about three miles northward, and then led through a maze of canals to do the work of irrigation, continued to-day just as it was done by the Moors centuries ago.

This town was the Iberian Ilelike and the Eoman Ilici, and here the Carthaginian Hamilcar met de- feat at the hands of the sturdy inhabitants. It has a church of Santa Maria with a beautiful blue-tiled dome, and an elevated tower which visitors ascend to overlook the famous palm grove. In the latter are over a hundred thousand date palms, many being more than eighty feet high, planted in rows at in-

286 THE MEDITERRANEAN

tervals of about six or seven foot, with running water all about and under them, and standing as the Arabs say, " their feet in water, tlieir head in the fire of heaven." A tree will produce a crop of about seventy-five pounds of dates, bearing each alternate year, and ripening in the winter. The palm leaves are cut for Easter, made up into bundles which are blessed by the priests, and sent to the faithful throughout Spain, who fasten them to buildings as a sure preventive of damage by lightning. This palm grove extends a considerable distance eastward from Klohe, and boyond it was the necropolis of the Ilici, who anciently peopled this district, that has yielded various antiquities. We have now come into the Kingdom of Valencia, and its southern province of Alicante, wliicli stretches northward from the Segura. The whole of this region was originally under the sea, but the process of uphc^aval made it dry land, along the coast, with an inland border of rugged and weatherworn mountains, denuded of trees, and almost without water. A. few streams emerge upon tlie plains, and their scant outflow is at once damned for irrigation, being gathered in the mountain gorges during the winter and spring, and saved for use in the parched summer and autumn. Thus bv artificial means a desert is reclaimed, and exuberant crops in the valley huertas reward the in- dustrious people.

The railwav reaches the sea coast northeast of

MURCIA AND ALICANTE 287

ElcLe, and runs along it to the provincial capital of Alicante. Two protruding capos enclose a small bay opening toward the south, and here a harbor has been made by the aid of a couple of long moles, while on the northeastern verge, and dominating the city, is a high and rocky broA\Ti and almost bare hill, surmounted by the frowning Castle of Santa Bar- bara, at an elevation of over five himdred feet, and seen from afar. Its environment is a maze of walls, buildings and bastions, the slopes everywhere over- grown with cactus. It is an ancient fortification, and has a grand view over the town, stretching off from the base of the hill to the encircling mountains, and displaying the fertile lowlands and the ]Mediter- ranean coast, extending far away to the distant Cape Palos. The Iberians and the Eomans both fortified this hill, the Roman settlement of Lucentum being a little to the north, while the ]Moors made their port of Lekant, down on the shore of the bay, where the city now is. There is a population of fifty thousand, and they export fruits, oil, liquorice, esparto grass and also the noted wines of Alicante, which are grown in neighboring vineyards and include the Fondellol, the heady Aloque and Moscatel. The harbor is fronted by the most attractive promenade, the Paseo de los Martires, which is an avenue of double rows of closely planted date palms. The chief church is dedicated to the patron saint of the province, San Xicholas de Bari, begim in 161 <>, but still unfinished.

288 THK MEDITERRAXEAX

There is a fertile district all about Alicante, thoroughly irrigated from the mountain streams, their waters gathered by capacious dams in the gorges. The chief of these is the Pantano de Tibi, in the gorge of the Cosco, a tributary of the Castella, which flows a short distance northward of Alicante. A wall sixty feet thick, and nearly one hundred and fifty feet higli, built about two hundred and forty feet across the canyon, thoroughly intercepts the waters of the stream, which are doled out during the dry season, and taken by canals over to the huerta. Here are still seen the compuertas, or ancient Moorish sluice-gates. Xear the sea, and about two miles to the northeast of Alicante, is the Convent of Santa Clara, which contains as a precious relic the Santa Faz, one of the three napkins which St. Veronica, at Jerusalem, used to wipe the Saviour's face before the Crucifixion, the others being in the Cathedral of Jaen and in Rome.

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA.

The district of Spain, stretching along the Med- iterranean coast, northeastward from the Segura to the Ebro, is the most fertile and one of the most populous regions of the monarchy. It was united with Aragon in the thirteenth century, but was specially permitted to retain its ancient title of the " Kingdom of Valencia." It embraces the narrow littoral plains, between the Spanish central plateau

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 289

and the coast, through which a score of rivers of various calibres flow out of the hills to the sea. Xature made it almost a desert, by the influence of the prevalent dry winds coming over from Africa, that brought much heat with little moisture, but the industrious Moors, who long held it, dammed up the rivers at the outlets of the hill gorges, and by a com- plete system of irrigation, conveyed their waters through thousands of cliannels over the lowlands, making a veritable garden land which their succes- sors have developed in the highest degree. The contrast, between the irrigated and non-irrigated surfaces, is that of the oasis and the desert, the former raising crops of exuberant fertility ; and the necessi- ties of the dense population, approximating two mil- lions, have compelled the most rapid agricultural system, crops being raised, by successive rotations, several times a year, while the luxuriant alfalfa is made to rapidly grow, and yield a dozen to fifteen times in the twelvemonth. The strongest fertilizers are liberally applied; wheat sown in November is reaped in June ; rice is then planted and inundated, being soon harvested, when the land is planted in grain, fodder, or root crops ; and thus the rapid rota- tion goes on. The Arab originally said, what the Spanish proverb now repeats : " Valencia is a land of God ; rice grows to-day where yesterday was corn." The huertas display expansive and monotonous fields

of wheat in the spring, followed by vast plantations Vol. 1—19

290 THE MEDITERRANEAN

of rice in the lower grounds, with diversified orange and palm groves, and apricot, mulberry and almond trees.

The country is dotted with towns and villages, and irrigation canals flow everywhere, though the Valencian prefers rain if it can be got, saying " the water of Heaven is the best irrigation." There are few rainy days in this region, and the rainfall averages but sixteen to nineteen inches in a year, the air being very dry and the winter-sky usually an unclouded blue. Much of the rain is in sudden and torrential downpours, that run away in destructive freshets. The four most noted exports of the dis- trict, other than cereals, are the naranjas, or famous Valencia oranges, the stemless Valencia raisins, the palms of Elche and the wines of Alicante. Its peo- ple, while descended from the original Iberians, the Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans, who successively held the country, are also largely Moorish, and to this ancestry they owe their agricultural skill and industry. The Moors held it practically from the early eighth century, until the conquest by the King of Aragon in 1238, excepting a brief tenure by the Cid, at. the end of the eleventh century. When united with Aragon, the kingdom had a population mostly of full-blooded Moors, with a mixed race of the Mozarahs, who were Christians that had adopted the Arab customs and languages, and for use in their churches had to have the Bible translated into Arabic.

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 291

In the later years, many of the Moors nominally be- came Christians, but in the terrible persecutions of the early seventeenth centuiy fully two hundred thou- sand of these Moriscoes were sent into exile.

Northeastward from Alicante, the mountainous region, out of which the little streams flow down that furnish the water sui^plies, is i)roJGcted far into the sea, in the double capes of Xao or St. ^Martin and San Antonio. The rocky strata extend under the Mediterranean as a submarine ridge still farther northeastward, reapi)earing in the isles of Ibiza and Formentera of the Pityuse archipelago, and beyond them in the extensive group of the Balearic islands. Over the Sierra, to the northward of Alicante, is the factory town of Alcoy, on the hillside overlooking the Alcoy vale, a fertile region, for which this group of mills makes woolen fabrics, pai)er for cigarettes and some iron manufactures. Farther down the valley is ancient Concentaina, still surroimded by old Roman w^alls which the Moors rebuilt, and having the interesting tower-surmounted Palace of the Duke of Medinaceli. Out on the sea-front of the Sierras, is the noble and almost isolated Monte Mongo, rising 2,500 feet, at first by gentle ascent from the west toward the east, the huge mass of limestone then falling off abruptly to the sea, this termination being Cape San Antonio with its lighthouse. On the top there is a building in ruins, where Arago and his companions made various scientific observations at

2S5 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the beginning of the nineteenth century. A superb view is had from the summit, over the extensive in- land mountain ranges that run parallel with the coast, and across the blue sea to the distant Balearic islands.

Deep down at the northern base of this mountain, flows the little Vergel river, its waters mostly drawn off for irrigation, and on the hill slopes all around are raised the fruitful Valencia raisins. Here is Denia, the port whence these raisins are shipped to America and England. This is one of the most ancient settlements of the Valencian coast, the Grecian Ilemeroskopeion, founded upon an earlier Iberian settlement, said to have been originally colonized by the Phoenicians. When the Eomans came they called it Dianium, and built their castle on top of the hill, around which the town now clusters on the slopes. There are remains of the Roman and Moorish town walls, and also, on the hillside, a remnant of the Temple of Diana said to have been built in imitation of that at Ephesus. The Eomans made it a naval station, and the Moors held it afterward, when it was a most prosperous city with fifty thousand people. It was captured by the Christians in the thirteenth century, but the harbor afterward silted up with sand, restricting trade, and the expulsion of the Moriscoes also gave a serious setback. It suffered many sieges, the last and one of the most famous, being the brave defence by the

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 293

French garrison in 1813, where they held the castle, now in ruins on the hilltop, during five months of almost incessant bombardment, until, reduced to about one hundred almost starved survivors, they capitulated with all the honors of war, and were al- lowed to go in freedom. Its houses are Moorish, their flat tops and whitewash being picturesque among the green foliage of the hill slopes, while the outlook everywhere displays fascinating views.

About fifteen miles to the northwest, the river Alcoy flows into the sea, with the little harbor of El Crao at its mouth, the port for Gandia, which is about two miles up the stream. In Valencia, famous for the fertility of its well-irrigated river valleys, this vale of the Alcoy is noted as the richest and most populous huertaj and Gandia is its chief town. High above rise the striking peaks of the Monduve, elevated 2,800 feet. In the early times this place gave the title to the Dukes of Gandia, and their former palace is one of its show places. These Dukes were of the family of Borgia, who lived here and at Jativa, among the hills to the westward, an Iberian town which became the Roman Saetabis, and then made linens, which elicited the warm praises of Pliny, when he visited Ilispania. The Borgias originated at the town of Borja, where their ances- tral castle still exists, among the desolate mountains adjoining the Ebro, some distance above Saragossa. They came dovm to Jativa and Gandia, a more

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prosperous region, acquired wealth and power, entered the church, and gave it two popes, in the fifteenth century, Alfonso Borgia, who was Pope Calixtus III, and Eodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI. The latter had the notorious Caesar Borgia for his natural son, and Lucretia Borgia for his natural daughter. Another son of Pope Alexander, Juan Borgia, who was Duke of Gandia, had for his son San Francisco de Borgia, who became head of the Jesuit order in the sixteenth century. Ca?sar Borgia being expelled from Rome in 1504, went to Xaples, but the " Gran Capitan " Gonsalvo of Cordova, acting for King Ferdinand, sent him a prisoner to the Castle of Jativa. He escaped to France two years later, taking refuge with the King of Xavarre, and was slain in battle in 1507.

To the northward, the river Jucar, the most con- siderable stream in this region, the Sucre of the Eomans, flows out to the sea, through a pleasant and well tilled intervale, with many orange and palm groves, and an extensive surface of rice swamps. High above rises the Sierra de CuUera, having on top a conspicuous chapel of the Virgin, and the ruins of a castle. Just beyond the mouth of the Jucar, is the most extensive lake in Spain, the Albufera of Valencia, extending about ten miles just at the edge of the sea, from which it is divided by the narrow strip of land, formed of pine-covered sand dunes nowhere over twenty feet high, which is called the

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 295

Dehesa. This lake has, on the inner side, a curving shore stretching about eighteen miles, and its name comes from the Arabic Al-huliera, meaning a " lagoon." The waters have long been fresh, but this is said to be the last relic of the sea which originally covered the coastal plain of Valencia. Eeed-banks and rice fields adjoin the lake, and it is connected by a canal with the sea, the waters having numerous fish and waterfowl. In 1812, Xapoleon gave this lake to Marshal Suchet, who captured the Valencian shore for France, at the same time making him the Due de Albufera. It is Spanish govern- ment property, but leased to a company that pumps the waters from various stations, mainly to irrigate the adjoining rice fields.

The Arab Wad-al-abyad, or the "White river," so called from the color of the detritus it brought down from the mountains, is now the Guadalaviar river, popularly shortened into the Turia, and it comes from the northwestward to the sea, through the fertile liuerta of Valencia. Here is the great city of the Valencian kingdom, about two miles from the coast, which has over two hundred thousand popula- tion and a large commerce, conducted from its harbor at the river's mouth, the Grao, thus named from the Latin Gradus, or the " step " to the sea. This harbor, on the northern side of the river, is sheltered by two large breakwaters, and is divided into an outer and an inner basin. Six thousand

296 THE MEDITERRANEAN

vessels will call here annually, the chief exports being rice, oranges, raisins and wine, but the foreign trade is lessening through the competition of other ports. The city spreads broadly upon the Southern river bank (the bed being usually dry) the brilliant tiled domes of its churches, in blue, gold and white, rising above the mass of houses in its narrow busy streets, adding to the oriental appearance, while over all is the deep blue sky of sunny Spain. The Moors were very proud of Valencia, calling it Medenat-al-turat the " city of the fertile soil," and in their florid style had an ancient proverb, which translated means, " one would take it for a piece of heaven upon earth." Its climate is mild and very dry, most of the winds bringing heat without mois- ture, and only the east wind, coming along the axis of the Mediterranean, providing rain. Its great festival day is April 5th, the day upon which its patron saint was baptized, St. Vincent, born in 1419 in a house that is still preserved as a chapel, the martyred saint being canonized in 1455. It was a Roman settlement, taken and destroyed in the wars between Sertorius and Pompey, but rebuilt by Augustus, though there are only sparse remains of Eoman walls and gates. The Moors made its greatest prosperity, and it was the capital of their Valencian kingdom, which extended along the Med- iterranean from Almeria to the Ebro. Valencia was taken by the Cid in 1095, but after his death the

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 297

Moors recovered it, and it was not finally secured by the Christians until 1238, when Jaime 1 of Aragon took possession. Suchet captured it for the French in 1812, his reward from Kapoleon being the Albufera Lake and Dukedom, but the English took it the next year. The first printing press in Spain is said to have been used in Valencia in 1-^74, and its chief recent event was the signing by Queen Christina of her abdication of the Spanish throne, in October, 1840. The ancient city walls erected by the Moors were removed in 1871, and replaced by fine boulevards, two of the old gates, however, being pre- served. The oldest is the North Gate, near a bridge crossing the river, for the northern road, to Sagunto, the Torres de Serranos, two massive towers flanking a central structure in Gothic, and resting on Roman foundations. It is now a city prison and has been well restored. This was built in the fourteenth century, and the other old gate, erected about one hundred years later, is the West Gate, the Torres de Cuarte, also a prison, a massive double-towered structure.

The older town, with its narrow and irregular streets, has the cathedral for its centre, this being the most famous structure in Valencia, La Seo the name derived from the Latin sedes, " a seat," and dedicated to the Virgin. Upon its site originally stood the temple of Diana, which was followed in the later Roman time by a Christian church, and

298 THE MEDITERRANEAN

then upon the Moorish conquest by a mosque. After the capture of the city by the King of Aragon, the cathedral was designed, the foundation laid in 1262, and it was over two centuries building. The in- terior is three hundred and twenty feet long and two hundred feet wide across the transept, there being a nave and aisles and a pentagonal capilla mayor, with radiating chapels, and an impressive Gothic bell-tower of the fourteenth century, adjoining the main fagade, this being called El Miguelete. The name comes from the bell, first hung on the feast of St. Michael, to commemorate the entry of Jaime I into the city, which was on September 28, 1238, St. Michael's eve. This bell is solemnly struck by a hammer on the outside, and the bell-strokes are the signals regulating the sluices that control the flow of water in irrigating the huerta. The tower is eight sided and about one hundred and fifty feet in circumference, while its height is one hundred and fifty-two feet, the original intention having been to build much higher. There is a view from the top, over the flat-roofed houses and beautiful tiled domes of the cathedral and other structures, the deep and narrow streets looking like canyons in the ground. The two old city gates and other towers are also in full view; while a wide expanse of the neighboring country is disclosed almost all around stretching over the fertile liuerta and its mountain environ- ment, northward to the distant castle-hill of Sagunto,

THE KINGDOM OF VALENCIA 299

and far across the wide and placid waters of the Albufera southward, to the isolated Monte Mongo. The tradition is that when the Cid entered Valencia, he took his wife to the top of the Moorish minaret of the mosque that stood here, to proudly show her the paradise he had won. There are attractive paintings in the cathedral, and among its precious relics are the Staff of St. Augustine, the ivory Crucifix of St. Francis de Sales, and upon a pillar near the high altar hangs the Armor of King Jaime I of Aragon, its founder.

Adjoining the cathedral is the Plaza de la Seo, with a tasteful fountain and a pleasant garden. In this Plaza is a semicircular divan, whereon assembles the most venerable judicial institution of the prov- ince, the court known as the Tribunal de Aguas, or the " Water Tribunal." This organization was created during the Moorish era, and is retained in its original simplicity and honest methods, exercising full control over all the irrigation districts, and hearing cases every Thursday by verbal procedure. The decision is made as soon as the litigants and witnesses testify, and the judgment is summary, there being no appeal, and the condemned suitor re- ceiving no water for his field until he satisfies the judgment. Peasant proprietors, selected from each district, compose the court. Fronting the Plaza is the imposing Audiencia, which was formerly the Chamber of Deputies for the Kingdom of Valencia.

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Their Assembly Hall is a splendid apartment, "with many portraits of old dignitaries, including works by Zarinena and Peralta. The Valencian school of art flourished here from the fourteenth to the seven- teenth centuries, and many of their pictures, gathered chiefly from suppressed convents, are displayed in the Provincial Museum, which occupies the building of a former convent. Here are works by Eibalta, Espinosa, Zarinena, Peralta, Velasquez, Eibera and others, the great artist of this school being Joso Bibera, known popularly as Spagnoletto, who was born at Jativa in 1588, and died in Xaples, 1656. He was a pupil of Coravaggio, whose style he fol- lowed, excelling in gloomy subjects and chiaroscuro. Francesco Eibalta was bom at Castellon in 1552 and lived until 1628, and he introduced the Italian man- ner into the Valencian school. Eibera was his pupil before going to Italy and he also taught Espinosa, who was bom in 1600 and lived until 1680. The Museum contains a noble collection of over fif- teen hundred paintings, mostly by these older Valen- cian masters and their pupils.

There are other paintings by Eibalta in the cathedral, and the spacious Colegio del Patriarca, a Eenaissance structure which was built in the late sixteenth century by Juan de Eibera, then the Arch- bishop and Viceroy of Valencia. Part of this structure is the Church of Corpus Christi, its dome decorated with frescoes representing the life of St.

THE KINGDOM OP VALENCU 801

Vincent, while a chapel contains Eibalta's painting of the appearance of Christ and the Saints to St Vincent on his sick-bed. Every Friday morning, in this church, the Miserere is celebrated, and ladies cannot attend unless dressed in mourning and wear- ing a mantilla. Eibalta's painting of the Last Sup- per, alongside the altar, is then lowered by machinery, and its place taken by curtains in successive colors, the last black one, when removed, disclosing the dying Saviour on the cross. The Valencian University is opposite the Colegio, and is a fifteenth century foundation, which instructs about two thousand students and has a large library, especially rich in the romances of chivalry. The city front on the northern river bank is mostly occupied by the Alameda, the fashionable tree-lined driveway and promenade. On the southern side, in the Plaza de Tetuan, is the old citadel, which Charles V built to resist the incursions of the Barbarossa pirates, but the French in their attack in 1812, destroyed most of the structure. There remain a gateway and tower, with other spacious buildings, which are now artillery barracks and an arsenal, and include the Captain General's residence. The charming pleasure ground of the Glorieta adjoins the Plaza de Tetuan, this being the site of old fortifications, while at the outer verge is the spacious government tobacco factory, employing four thousand persons, nearly all women, who are expert in making cigars.

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The finest public square is the Plaza del Mereado, where the picturesquely costumed peasantry attend the morning markets. Here were held for centuries, the public festivals and tournaments, and the tradi- tion is that the Cid buried alive the luckless pasha Ahmed in this square, when he captured the town, because the pasha would not reveal the spot where the Moorish king Yahya had buried his treasures. The Alcazar faced its northern side, and here lived tlie Cid's wife Ximena. Its site is now occupied by the fine Gothic Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange, a construction of the late fifteenth century, recently restored. The facade is nearly one hundred and eighty feet long, with a central tower. One wing is a museum of antiquities, and the other is the Ex- change Hall, the richly vaulted ceiling borne by rows of pillars looking like palms, while around the upper part of the walls, runs a Latin inscription re- citing that the house was fifteen years building, and that the merchant who neither cheats nor takes usury will inherit eternal life. In the Valencian suburbs are the factories of Manises, making the beautiful square glazed and brilliantly colored tiles, called azulejos, so extensively used in adorning the build- ings; and also the Xella Mosaic factory at Meliana. At iBurjasot northwest of the city arc the famous ]\[oorish Mazmorras which are silos used as re- ceptacles for keeping grain. There are forty-one of these underground vaults, built like huge jars and

APPROACHING THE EBRO 303

lined with stone, their roof, made of blue and black flagstones, being a popular promenade for the local- ity, which now is a picnic ground.

APPROACHING THE EBRO.

Iforthward from Valencia, the railway crosses the fertile huerta, and with the sea on the right hand, the train soon comes into full view of the castle-crowned hill of ancient Sagunto, eighteen miles away. The little river Palancia rushes from the mountains out to the sea, in the springtime, but its waters at other seasons are drained off for irrigation. A mountain spur is thrust across the Valencian plain south of the river, its precipitous sides rising nearly six hundred feet. On the top is the castle, while at the northern base along the river is the little town. It was one of the earliest Iberian settlements on this shore, the Greeks coming and mingling with the original inhab- itants, and the youthful Hannibal essaying to take it, 219 B. C, so as to restrain the progress of the Komans who approached from the northward, he desiring to make it a Carthaginian stronghold. The attack he made upon the castle-cro^vned hill, was one of the famous sieges of ancient times. The be- siegers used battering rams, but were repeatedly driven off and Hannibal was wounded. The walls were breached, but the Carthaginians, after a battle in the streets, were driven out, and a new wall built. This too was breached, when they built a second, and

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a third^ and finally a fourth wall, across the narrow ridge, which gave the only practicable approach to the hilltop from the western side. But the defend- ers gradually perished in these combats, and finally, a handful only being left, Hannibal, after eight months' siege, entered and burnt the city, most of the remaining garrison suffering a voluntary death in the flames. This protracted siege began the sec- ond Punic War, and 214 B. C. the Romans joining the Iberians took the fort, and it was rebuilt, being kno\vn as Saguntum. They also constructed a cir- cus, theatre, and temples, but the town was never as important afterward. When the Moors got posses- sion they held it until driven out by the Cid, and it was then called Murbiter, from the Latin muri veteres, meaning " old walls," and after^vard became Murviedro, until recently the official name was changed to Sagunto. In the later centuries, the re- mains of the Boman buildings were used chiefly as a quarry for modem constructions, so that an Arago- nese poet in the seventeenth century wrote about it indignant lines, which translated read that " with marbles bearing dignified inscriptions, formerly the theatre and altars, they now build in Saguntum taverns and pot-houses" — {tdbernas y mesones).

The ancient Boman circus site, alongside the river, is covered by gardens. It was about fifteen hundred feet long and there are some remains, including traces, at the western end, of a bridge. The theatre

APPROACHING THE EBRO 305

to the southward, about half-way up the hill, is the best preserved antique of Sagunto. The semicircu- lar auditorium, largely hewn out of the rocky hillside, was about one hundred and sixty-five feet in diame ter and could seat eight thousand spectators. Be- hind and above the theatre, on the long ridgy summit of the hill, is the castle, covering two heights with a depression between. The foundations are Roman, but most of the present construction is Moorish. On the western height, the tower of San Pedro defends the southern and southwestern slopes, and the ap- proach along the ridge from the west, was the direc- tion whence Hannibal made his attacks. The sum- mit is higher, and here is the main work, the Castle of San Fernando, the top being called the Palo de la Bandera or the " Flagstaff." There is a spacious Moorish cistern, and in the castle walls are built ancient sculptures and inscriptions, evidently taken from earlier works. Upon the eastern height are the ruins of the old citadel of Saloquia, with the remains of a Roman Temple. To the southward the preci- pice falls suddenly off into an abyss clad with cactus, while the view over land and sea is superb, embracing the wide plain of Valencia, from the distant Mongo and mountains of Alicante far southward, around to the hills of Benicasion, nearly forty miles to the north, and the valley of the Palancia stretches a deli- cious green paradise to the northwest. This broad

and beautiful intervale extends away among the hills. Vol. 1—20

JJOG THE MEDITERRANEAN

beyond the boundaries of Valencia, nntil lost in the bleak and barren steppes of Aragon. About twenty miles HID the river, surrounded by mountains, is an- cient Segorbe, which was the Celtiberian Segobriga, according to traditions that tell of the Eoman and Carthaginian struggles there. At Segorbe is a palace of the Duke of Medinaceli, with Doric columns of the Koman period, while one of the churches contains Kibalta's painting of Christ in Hades.

To the northward of the wide Palancia valley, the surface rises into hills forming the northern boundary of the great Valencia j)roviiice. This is the hill dis- trict of Almenara, and on a high eminence west of the railway is the old jMoorish castle holding the pass, where King Jaime I of Aragon defeated them in 1238, and thus was enabled to overrun and capture the rich Valencian towns and huerias. Beyond these hills, the ^lijaros torrent comes out of the mountains to the northwest, its waters diverted through a maze of canals for the irrigation of the fertile liuerta of the Villareal. The chief of these works is the Moorish Castellon Canal, which is as good to-day as when built, probably a thousand years ago. The town of Villareal is environed by orange groves, among which its blue tiled cupolas and towers prettily rise. We are in the province of Castellon de la Plena, and upon another pleasant liuerta, three miles northward, is its capital, Castellon, about four miles inland from the sea coast, the birthplace of the artist Ribalta.

APPROACHING THE EBRO 307

Prosperous hamlets are scattered liberally along the coastal plain, despite the fact that the mountains here come closer to the sea, but the wonderful stimulant of the irrigation systems from the numerous streams, makes a fertility that keeps the dense population busy. On a high, rocky islet just off the coast, and connected by a narrow sand strip, is the stronghold of Peniscola, called the " Gibraltar of Valencia," which Jaime I, after a vigorous siege, took from the Moors in 1233, paving the way to his conquest of Valencia. He gave the islet to the Knights Templar, and it afterward passed into the possession of the Order of Montesa, founded in 1318 to succeed them, and named for the old castle on the river Montesa, now Jativa, which was ruined by the earthquake of 1748. When this Montesa order became extinct in the fif- teenth century, Peniscola was made crown property, and it was captured by the French in 1811. This was the place of refuge of Pope Benedict XIII in 1415, when the Council of Constance dethroned him. The little summer-dry river Cenia is crossed, the boundary of the old kingdom of Valencia, and the train enters Catalonia, the northeastern province of Spain, extending to the Pyrenees. Westward, among the mountains, is the fortress of Morella, the Roman Castra JElia, which was the stronghold protecting the Valcncian frontier against Aragon, but fell into the hands of Jaime I, with the rest of the coveted Moorish kingdom, in the

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thirteenth century. It displays ancient castle towers and a church of Santa Maria, built in 1317, with a choir elevated upon arches to which the clergy ascend on a winding staircase, and in it is Kibalta's painting representing the conquering Jaime I, holding in his hand a piece of the True Cross. The first Catalonian town entered is Ulde- cona, and in this district the irrigation method is var- ied by the appearance of norias, or wheels that raise the waters. Far away to the east, the flat land spreads out to the distant Cape Tortosa, at the delta of the great river, w^liile the lofty Sierras continue to bound the western view. Then the route comes to the huge Monte Caro, rising nearly three thousand feet, and we reach the valley of the Ebro at Tortosa.

TORTOSA TO SARAGOSSA.

The river Ebro is one of the greatest in Spain, and its tributaries collect the waters of the larger portion of the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. Its head springs are in the mountains of Santander on the northern border, and it flows southeast between lofty and picturesque Sierras, separating Xavarra from Old Castile, intersects Aragon, and after a course of about four hundred miles, empties into the Mediter- ranean through a double mouth, eastward of Tortosa in Catalonia. The huge mountain chain forming the western border of the province, and dividing it from Aragon, is broken down for the river passage at

TORTOSA TO SARAGOSSA 309

Mequinenza^ making a romantic defile, and the geolo- gists tell us this mountain range was formerly a bar- rier, damming up the waters in a vast lake that cov- ered most of Aragon. Above the defile, it receives the most considerable tributary from the northward, the Segre, coming down from the eastern Pyrenees. Farther up, it has the inflow from the north of the Gallego near Saragossa, and the Aragon which named that kingdom, and also the Guadaloupe, Jalon and Oca coming in from the south. Like all Spanish rivers, the Ebro abounds with shoals and rapids, im- peding navigation, but a canal from below Saragossa to Tudela in Xavarra, aids the passage of boats to the upper waters. The lower river has been im- proved below Tortosa, and the coast harbor of Alfa- ques or the " sand banks," is made south of the delta, behind a protecting peninsula, to which the San Car- los Canal leads. The chief commerce of the Ebro is the floating down of timber from the mountain for- ests, and the transport of grain. This noted river was anciently the border, between the Moorish posses- sions and the Christian empire of Charlemagne. Its delta is covered with many canals and ponds, and through it the two mouths flow to the sea, the Gala del NoHe and the Gola del Sur, enclosing the sandy island of Buda. At the northern mouth is the loftv lighthouse of Cape Tortosa, seen far over the sea and the lowlands.

In the fertile valley of this great river, about

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twenty miles from its mouth, is Tortosa, just where the stream emerges from the hill country to the broad coastal plain. This place was regarded as the key to the control of the Ebro, and was early made a Boman stronghold as Dertosa, while afterward it was long fought for by Christian and Moor. Charlemagne's son Louis captured it, but the Moors regained posses- sion in 811, and it then became a i:)iratical headquar- ters preying upon the Mediterranean commerce, so that Pope Eugenius proclaimed a special crusade against the place, and it was attacked by the allied Knights Templar, the Genoese and others from Italy, and cai)tured in 1148, coming under control of Kamon Berenguer IV of Barcelona. The next year the Moors made a ferocious attack, but were beaten off by the help of the women, so that in gratitude Kamon gave them the investiture of the red sash of the order La Hacha " the axe," authorizing them to take precedence of the men at marriages, and to im- port their wedding trousseau free of duty. There are various Moorish remains, including the Al- mudena or tower of the Cathedral, tlie sacred edifice built in the fourteenth century, being on the site of Abderrahman's mosque of the tenth century. Tor- tosa is peaceful now, and the ruins of the grim old castle overlook the town from the hill slopes. The Ebro comes from the northward to Tortosa, break- ing through the moimtains that divide Catalonia

TORTOSA TO SARAGOSSA 311

from Aragon, and flowing in deep ravines along the Sierra de Mequinenza, where it receives its chief affluent, the Segre. Above their union, it comes from the west, and at Caspc rec(?ives the Guadaloupo from the southward. On this stream is Alcaniz, which was the Iberian Anitorgis, where Ilasdrubal the Carthaginian, 212 B. C, defeated the Romans, killing tlie two generals, the brothers Gnicus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, the earliest of that illus- trious family. The Ebro, alx)ve Caspe, flows through a broad and fertile inten-ale from the north- west. At Fuentes de Ebro, the Ginel comes in, and here is the Canal Imperial of Aragon terminus. This canal was started bv Charles V in the sixteenth century, but never finished, and it follows the right bank of the river for about sixty miles, being ton feet deep. Originally intended for commerce, it has been long superseded by the railways and is now used for irrigation, bringing down an enormous volume of water from the higher river reaches, which makes great fertility on that side of the river. It is constructed on a verv uneven surface, and has various waterfalls to lower levels, while in places it is very much higher than the Ebro, passing through Saragossa along the southern hill slope at an elevation of one hundred and twenty feet over the river level. Eighteen miles above the canal terminus is Saragossa, the Spanish Zoragoza, the

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capital of Aragon, with about a hundred thousand population, and the dominant city of the Ebro valley.

St. James the Elder, the son of Zebedee, is the patron saint of Spain; the tradition being that he came here as a missionary. Santiago de Compostela, in the northwestern part of the kingdom, claims pos- session of his bones. The tradition adds that after he was beheaded in Judea, his remains were brought to Spain, but their whereabouts forgotten, till in the ninth century, a brilliant star pointed out the spot on the site of the present Santiago Cathedral. All through the long wars of the Christians against the Moors, the faithful frequently saw their patron saint, clad in gleaming armor, encouraging and helping in the battles against the infidels. While Santiago is his shrine, Saragossa has a memory and a relic fully as attractive to the devout. When engaged in his Spanish missionary work, the Virgin here ap- peared to St. James, standing on a sacred pillar. The day was October 12, still kept as the sacred day of Saragossa, and the revered pillar is in the Cathedral of the Virgin del Pilar, a relic that brings crowds of pilgrims to the city. Many have been the marvels and miracles surrounding the Spanish mem- ory of St. James, and in 1595 the " Gospel of St. James " was discovered upon a moimtain of the Sierra Nevada range, inscribed upon lead. For nearly a century this relic attracted the liveliest at-

Street in Saragossa.

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tention of the church, but in 1692, after exhaustive investigations, Pope Innocent XI declared the leaden gospel to be spurious.

Aragon is a somewhat desolate region, its stony wastes, (debarred of moisture by the coast mountains keeping out the rain-bearing winds), being in sharp contrast with the fertility of the eastern districts of Catalonia and Valencia along the sea, and the rich oasis of the Ebro which extends through the desert steppes. In the usually thirsty acres of Aragon, it was a proverb, that the people could more easily mix their mortar with wine tlian with water, so few and scant are the streams. The Aragonese are a sombre people, reproducing many of the traits of their re- mote Iberian ancestors, and being passionately de- voted to the memory of the Virgin del Pilar. Her image is in every home, and it hangs as a jewel upon almost everyone's neck. She is the protector of the whole kingdom, and especially of Saragossa. This city was the original Iberian settlement of Salduba, at the crossing of the Ebro, where the Romans early took possession, as it controlled not only that river, but also the Gallego coming from the north, and the Huerva and Jalon from the south. Augustus made here the Roman Colonia Ccesar Auguste from which was derived the city's name, and there are some relics of the Roman walls yet preserved. Charle- magne tried unsuccessfully to take it from the Moors, and being compelled to raise the siege in 778, his

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forces retreated northward and through the Pyre- nees, where their rear guard was cut off in the Pass of Koncesvalles, and the famous Eoland, the Paladin, was slain. After a long siege in 1118, however, Al- fonso I of Aragon took the city from the Moors, and it became his capital. For over three centuries it was very prosperous, but on the marriage of Ferdi- nand of Aragon to Isabella, and the subsequent re- moval of the capital to Castile, the queen's kingdom, its importance declined.

The great event of Saragossa is the sieges by the French in 1808-9. It was practically an unforti- fied town when the people determined to oppose the French invasion, and on May 25, 1808, organized for resistance under their own leaders, who had less than three hundred soldiers. Hastily erecting de- fences, the French attacked them in June, and after a siege from June 15 to August 14 were repulsed with great loss. The French returned and began a second siege with about eighteen thousand men, De- cember 20, which continued until February 21, 1809, the besiegers being largely reinforced, when the town surrendered after one of the most desperate defences in history, yielding to famine and pestilence, after baffling four marshals of France at the head of great armies. The French held the place imtil July, 1813. During these sieges, fifty-four thousand persons within the town perished, of whom only about six thousand were killed by the enemy, the others dying

TORTOSA TO SARAGOSSA 317

substantially unchanged, but the city has spread over a large surface of new and modem streets that are very attractive. Several bridges cross the Ebro, which is bordered by broad quays. The oldest of these bridges dates from the fifteenth century, and crosses in frunt of the Town Hall and the Lonja, or Exchange, the latter a fine Ilenaissance structure of the middle sixteenth century, having a great hall oc- cupying most of the interior. On eitlier side of the public buildings are the two cathedrals, which are the most notable structures. To the eastward is the venerable Gothic cathedral dedicated to the Saviour, and built between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, La ScOj the seat of the archbishop, a large quad- rangular edifice, wuth an octagonal four-storied tower. The construction has developments of Moorish style, and the interior with its double aisles and rectangu- lar choir, appears much like a mosque, there being slender clustered pillars, with elaborately sculptured capitals and richly adorned vaulting. In the midst of the choir is a tabernacle, having black and white twisted columns, and placed to mark the spot where tradition savs the " Cristo de la Seo " addressed one of the canons. There are statues of St. Lawrence and St. Vincent, and here King Ferdinand, the Cath- olic, the conqueror of Granada, was baptized in 1456. The noted Spanish inquisitor, Pedro Arbues, was murdered in this cathedral in 1485, and is buried

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with other prelates in one of the chapels. He was aftenvard made a saint^ and his kneeling figure is reproduced on the monument.

The famous cathedral of the Virgin del Pilar is west of the Town Hall and near the river, above which rise its brilliantly colored tiled cupolas and domes. The sacred pillar, on which the Virgin ap- peared to St. James, stood here, not far from the river, and in early times was enclosed by a small chapel, which afterward was surrounded by other chapels and cloisters. In the late seventeenth cen- tury the present cathedral was begun, and work was continued until the nineteenth century, some of the towers being yet unfinished. It is about four hun- dred and forty feet long and two hundred and twenty feet wide, being in fact two churches with their high altars standing back to back. Chapels are all around the interior, which in the rather larger western por- tion is the cathedral, with nave, choir and altar; and to the eastward is the other church, its high altar be- ing in the Chapel of the Virgin at the western end. Rows of columns divide the aisles from the naves, while above the aisles are tiled cupolas. The central dome rises over the cathedral high altar, and the Virgin's chapel is surmounted by a still larger dome. The cathedral altar is a splendid Gothic work in alabaster, from the quarries of Escatron, down the Ebro, and is adorned elaborately with scenes from the Virgin's life. At the top angels support her, and

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, Saragossa.

TORTOSA TO SARAGOSSA 319

below are statues of St. James and St. Braulio, the devout pilgrims' kisses having partly worn away their hands. The chief attraction is the Chapel of the Virgin, which is rectangular, and surmounted by an oval dome, borne on marble columns. Above is a higher cupola adorned with frescoes by Velasquez. In the western wall are three recesses, with altars lighted by silver lamps, and here masses are said during all the mornings. Above the central and left- hand altars are marble groups, one being the Virgin with angels, and the other St. James and his disci- ples. Above the right-hand altar is the prized, but almost invisible. Pilar, and a wooden image of the Virgin and child, blackened by incense. Behind the wall is an aperture, through which the pilgrims may kiss the Pilar, contained within. Upon October 21, 1905, there was presented to the Virgin del Pilar a magnificent set of crown jewels, ordered by Queen Maria Christina of Spain and a Committee of La- dies, in testimonv of the veneration in which the Virgin is held throughout the kingdom. There is a crown and corona for the Virgin, and a smaller crown for the child. There are ten thousand diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires, and other precious stones in this national offering which cost $150,000. It was exhibited at the royal palace of the Escurial, also in Madrid, and was taken to Rome by a deputation of the ladies, to be blessed by the Pope, before the pre- sentation at Saragossa.

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Southward some .distance from the cathedral, and in the heart of the city, is the old Church of Santiago, which was built at the place where St. James, ac- cording to the tradition, passed the night after the Virgin's appearance to him, in vigil and prayer for the success of his mission work. Another pious tra- dition of the Ebro, relates to the martyrdom of Saints Celedonius and Emetcrius. About seventy-five miles up the river is the ancient Iberian town of Calahorra, where the Komans beheaded these saints in the third century, throwing their heads in the Ebro. They floated past Saragossa down to the ilediterranean, and all around the Spanish peninsula, to Santander on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, where they were cast ashore and thus became the patron saints of that noted Spanish watering place, the high altar of the Santander Cathedral enshrining these precious relics.

TARRAGOXA.

We have entered Catalonia in the region of the lower Ebro, the famous Roman province of Hispania Torraconensis, which became part of the kingdom of the Franks, as the land of the " Spanish Mark," until Wilfred the Shaggy in the ninth century established its independence. It got its code of laws from Ra- mon Berenguor T of Barcelona in the eleventh cen- tury, and afterward was united with Aragon. The Catalan is regarded as the best business man in Spain, and in the middle ages he was among the boldest and

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mos^skilful mariners of Europe. It is a mountain- ous district, with the lower coastal regions, along the Mediterranean, made extremely fertile by irrigation. Northward of the wide Ebro delta, the mountains draw near the coast. The promontory of the massive Cape Salou projects into the sea, surmounted by a watch-tower, while bcvond is the harbor of Tarra- gona, a stronghold of the Iberians, and one of the most interesting survivals of the ancient times. A mole, nearly a mile long, slielters the harbor from the sea, while the hill formerly crowned by the citadel, and now by the cathedral, rises over five himdred feet above the town, which is built upon its slopes and along the water's edge. This mole, having a light- house at the end, was originally constructed in the fifteenth century, largely of stones taken from the old Roman theatre, and has since been extended. It is the chief promenade of the townsfolk. The city now has a population of about thirty thousand, but in the days of its prosperity, as the chief Roman stronghold of Hispania, the report is that it had a million peo- ple.

Tarraco originated in mystery. When tradition first tells about it, the Iberian tribe of Kessetanians . had tlieir stronghold on the hill. They built its Cy- clopean walls, which are still the greatest curiosity of the city, and encircle the lower part of the hill in a circumference of about two miles; and their coins and other relics have been dug up in the neigh-

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borliooJ. During the second Punic WtOtf the Konians came about 218 B. C, under the Scipios, and captured it. They were seeking a base from which to oppose the Carthaginians, who had estab- lished Cartagena, and were attracted by the special defensive features of the port and hill. They made a harbor and citadel, and the town was extended all over the hill slopes and lower grounds, becoming ul- timately the capital of llispania in the time of Au- gustus, who made it his winter residence B. C. 26. Then it was adorned with splendid structures, and the peoj^le erected a temple to him, which Hadrian afterward restored and enlarged. It became the greatest Eonian settlement in Spain, Pliny testifying to its prosperity and attractions and the celebrity of its wines. But the Goths attacking, drove out the Romans in the fifth century, making great havoc, and the Moors under Tarik in the early eighth century destroyed it. During nearly four hundred years subsequently, this great city with its million people of the Roman perit)d, had so completely degenerated^ that it became almost uninhabited. The Counts of Barcelona, however, in the twelfth century took some interest in it, but the decay continued, and its trade had gone to the Christians of Barcelona on the one side, and the Moors of Valencia on the other. It revived somewhat dn the middle ages, when various Church Councils were held here, and in 1811 the French under Suchet captured and plundered it.

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The old walls exist, the fortifications are ruined, but it is a most interesting antiquarian gem, with many- Iberian and Roman remains, the houses being largely constructed of the materials taken from their old buildings, and the harbor has a good trade, particu- larly in the wines of the district, the vintages being stored for ripening in the large underground bodegas. Surmounted by the archbishop's palace and the cathedral, the hill lias on its slopes, the irregular and narrow streets of the old town, the base being enclosed by the " cyclopean walls," and having on its south- eastern verge, toward the sea, tlie ancient Roman cir- cus. To the southwest spreads the new town, on the lower surface around the harbor and beyond. The old walls are well preserved on three sides of the hill, but on the western side only the foundafions now ex- ist. The height of these walls is in some places thirty-five feet, and the lower courses, which were placed by the Iberians, are of enormous stone blocks thirteen feet long, six feet wide and five feet high. They are built in primitive fashion, strengthened by square towers, and six of the ancient gates remain* Higher courses were added by the Romans under the Scipios, while there is still later work of the Augustan era. These well-preserved walls of. the olden time, are the chief curiosity of the city. To the north- ward of the hill, but several miles away, is the valley of the Gaya, a stream bringing down a good deal of water from the mountains, and its upper

JJ21 THE MEDITERRANKAN

reaches were the source of supply in the Soman days, by an aqueduct of which there are imposing remains. This aqueduct, twenty-two miles long, has a partly subterranean course, and was restored for use in the early nineteenth century. It crosses high above a valley about two miles from the city, by two tiers of arches, this structure, known as the Devil's Bridge, being about seven hundred feet long. There are eleven arches in the lower tier, the range being forty-three feet high, while the splendid upper tier has twenty-five arches, and is over one hundred feet high. On the road out to the Gaya, is a Koman monument, known as the " Tomb of the Scipios," built in the first century, a square structure in two stages above a platform, and rising twenty-seven feet. The brothers Gnseus and Publius Cornelius Scipio, who were slain at Alcaniz by Hasdrubal, the Carthaginian, are said by tradi- tion to be buried here, but the story is doubted, the inscriptions on the monument being illegible. The remains of the Roman Theatre adjoin the old city walls on the southeastern side, and here a fine prome- nade has been constructed, the Paseo de Santa Clara, upon the walls, giving a pleasant outlook upon the harbor, coast and sea. Overlooking the shore, at one end, is the statue of Admiral Roger de Lauria of Tar- ragona, who defeated the French fleet of Charles of Anjou off Xaples in the thirteenth century. One of the many traditions of Tarragona is that Pontius

TARllAGONA 325

Pilate was born hero, and his name is preserved in an old tower, supposed to have been a Roman fortifica- tion, the Torreon de Pilatus, now a prison, not far from the eastern end of tlie promenade. Upon the very top of the hill, and part of the archbishop's pal- ace, there rises another ancient fortified tower, which is the landmark and commands a splendid view.

When the Counts of Barcelona essayed to restore this ancient and deserted citv, thcv founded a cathe- dral, where a mosque had stood on the hilltop, in 1118, but work had hardly begun a half-century later, and the construction was continued at intervals during six hundred years. It is, however, a splendid specimen of the late Romanesque, and is greatly ad- mired. The building is about three hundred and twenty feet long with nave and aisles, and the tran- septs extend one hundred and sixty feet. The nave is one hundred and sixty-three feet long, the transepts are fifty feet wide, and the capillo mayor extends* ninety-three feet further. An octagonal steeple rises over two hundred feet, and cliapels surround almost the whole structure. The interior is majestic, the roof being borne by fourteen huge piers, each about thirty-five feet in circumference, and strengthened by half-columns, with sculptured capitals, from v.'hich the roof-arches rise. Here is the tomb of the great King of Aragon, Jaime I, the " Conqueror," erected in the nineteenth century, of the materials brought from his monument at St. Poblet, the noted

326 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Cistercian Abbey, among the Prades mountains north of the city, and the old-time burial place of the Kings of Aragon. The patron saint of Tarragona, St. Tecla, has his relics in one of the side chapels, and on his festival day, September 23, the cathedral is himg with tapestries depicting his career. There are well-preserved cloisters adjoining the cathedral, with groined roofs, and Moresque ornamentation, the open garth in the centre being planted with oleanders and other sub-tropical plants. Curious carvings appear on the capitals of some of the columns, and it is here that the sculptor, in his exuberant fancy, has repre- sented a funeral procession of rats, carrying the cat on a bier, which suddenly springing up has scattered the rodent mourners. Flights of steps descend from the western fagade of the cathedral to the street, which goes steeply dovm the hill to the Plaza de la Fuente, on its southwestern slope, where was the Eoman circus, its shape being reproduced in the Plaza. Here is an interesting museum of antiqui- ties, including many Iberian, Pha?nician and Koman coins. This most ancient place in Spain, is to-day a quiet but charming resort, its hill looking out upon one of the most beautiful scenes on the Mediterra- nean.

About ten miles west of Tarragona is Ecus, a town of mills, where there is an industrious but somewhat turbulent population of about thirty thousand who work in cotton, silk and other factories. They keep

TARRAGONA 327

in the town hall the sword of the noted General Juan Prim, the Count of Eeus, who was bom here in 1814, and it was also the birthplace of the artist Mariano Fortuny in 1839, who died in 1874, leaving his masterpiece unfinished, the Battle of Tetuan, in the Barcelona City Hall. Across the Prades Mountains, some sixty miles northwest of Tarragona, is liirida, the ancient Roman stronghold of Ilerda, which com- mands the mountain passes to the plateau of Aragon, at the crossing of the ancient Sicoris, now the Segre river, winding down from the Pyrenees to the Ebro. It was here that Julius Caesar defeated Pompey's legates B. C. 49, and across the Segre the Eomans built a bridge, the foundations of which have been preserved, and support the present bridge. In this rapid river, tradition tells that Salome, daughter of Herodias, met retribution. She had danced before Herod, and the grateful king, saying he would grant any request she made, she demanded the head of John the Baptist on a charger. She married a Boman general, who went to Spain, and was made Governor of Lerida. The girl was fond of skating, and going upon the Segre she broke through the thin ice, and it closed in upon her, the sharp edges cutting off her head, which wont dancing down the rapid stream for several miles Ix^fore it could be recovered. Lerida stretches along the water's edge and up the hill slopes, to the spacious castle occupying the sum- mit. Upon the winding street leading to it, is the

328 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Church of San Lorenzo of the thirteenth century, the nave originally a Moorish temple and afterward a mosque. The old cathedral is within the castle ramparts, and for nearly two centuries past, the once sacred edifice, which was founded by Pedro II of Aragon in 1203, has been used as barracks by the garrison. Its tower and campanile are conspicuous in the view, while a new cathedral was built in the eighteenth century lower down and nearer the river.

MONTSERBAT.

The vale of the Segre is bordered on the eastward, by the high mountain ranges dividing Aragon from Catalonia, and crossing the summit at 2,400 feet ele- vation, the railway from Aragon out to the Mediter- ranean coast, descends to the valley of the Llobregat, flowing into the sea to the southward of Barcelona. Its tributary, the Cardonar, comes from the moun- tain fastnesses to the northwest, the waters being brackish, especially after a rain, for up that stream is the famous Montana de Sal of Cardona. This river, in its course, almost encircles a lofty hill, on which is the old town of Cardona, dominated by a castle. Between the river and the castle is the Salt mountain, about three miles in circumference, and rising nearly three hundred feet, being the property of the Duke of ^fedinaceli. This mass of the purest rock-salt was kno\vn to the Romans, and is men- tioned bv Strabo. It is worked like a mine, some

MONTSERRAT 329

of tbe shafts being very deep, and one of them, the Furad Mico or " squirrel's hole " is a mile long. The sun shining on the salt crystals, makes them sparkle brilliantly, and the miners carve out of the salt, various curious objects, which they sell to vis- itors. Along the Llobregat valley, on its western side, rises the famous Montserrat, its long summit seen conspicuously against the horizon, being cut down by the deep fissure of the Valle Malo, inter- secting the top. The Llobregat winds around the northeast and southeast bases of the mountain, through a deep valley, and then flows off southeast- ward among the hills to the coastal plain at Barce- lona. From the village of Monistrol, a mountain railway crosses the river, and ascends circuitously to the monastery, by the cog-wheel system, the distance being about five miles.

This celebrated mountain is a mass of rock, about fifteen miles in circumference, its axis extending from southeast to northwest, and the enormous precipices forming the edges, seeming to make the summit almost inaccessible. Its highest peak of San Jeronimo, at the northwestern end, rises 4,070 feet, while at the eastern end, the fissure of the Valle Malo, with a torrent rushing down it, descends in huge terraces to the river. Upon a promontory about two-thirds of the way up, overlooking one of these terraces, is the monastery. The fissure gives it the name of Montserrat, the " serrated mountain,"

1 i i

330 THE MEDITERRANEAN

and it is one of the most celebrated places in Spain. Its fantastic formations sharply outlined as the mountain rises in almost complete isolation from the plain, were called by the Moors, the gislares or " stone watchmen." The serrated sky-line was com- pared by de Amicis, to " a chain of slender triangles, or a royal crown drawn out till its points resemble the teeth of a saw, or so many sugar loaves ranged in a row." The Catalans have always known it as their Montsagrat or " sacred mountain," while the Ger- man traditions of the middle ages located here their Monsalwatscli, which bore the Castle of the Holy Grail. It is a curious fact that the romantic litera- ture of the middle ages connected the Holy Grail with the struggles of the Spanish Christians against the Moors, it being invoked in aid of the former, so that the populace believed it to have really been brought to this mountain. It was the central object in the prophecies of Merlin, being the bowl used by the Saviour at the Last Supper, in which he changed the wine into his blood, and it was preserved by Joseph of Arimathea, when it received the blood flowing from the wound in the side of the Saviour on the cross, Joseph — his life prolonged by the posses- sion — taking it throughout the world in subsequent centuries according to the traditions.

The Montserrat Monastery, which is in a superb situation at about 2,900 feet elevation, is one of the oldest and most celebrated convents in Spain. The

\

MOXTSERRAT 831

Benedictines are believed to have been here before the Moors came, and the tradition is that St. Luke made La Santa Imagen, a small wooden figure of the Virgin, which was brought about A. D. 50 to Barce- lona by St. Peter, and found its way here. When the Moors captured the niountaiu in 717, this image was hidden to prevent its falliug into their hands, and all trace of it lost. In 880, however, some peasants who were tending their sheep in the Valle Malo, below the convent, discovered it in a grotto, and started to take it to Mauresa, a village farther up the river. When they had gone a little way, the miraculous image refused to be carried beyond a spot near the convent, w^hich is now marked by a cross, and the miracle led to the erection of the chapel, for the preservation of this sacred relic, which afterward became, by enlargements, the great monastery. A chapel also was built over the grotto where the image was found. The monastery was placed in charge of the Benedictines, in the tenth century, who brought a company of monks from Rapoli in the mountaius north of Barcelona. It be- came very wealthy, but lost its possessions in the Napoleonic wars. There are about twenty monks now in the establishment, and they have many thou- sands of visitors, mostly pilgrims.

The ancient monastery is in ruins, there remain- ing however an unfinished bell-tower, the fagade of the church and the cloisters, relics of the fifteenth

332 THE MEDITERUANEAX

century. The later buildings of the new monastery surround an arcaded court, three sides being occu- pied by the secular houses, and the fourth by the church, a Benaissance structure begun in 1560, under Philip II, and completed during that century, an apse in Eomanesque having recently been added. The church is only a nave, having no aisles, and this nave is remarkable, being about fifty feet wide and two hundred and twenty-five feet long, rising almost one hundred and ten feet, so that the interior view is imposing. On each side are six chapels, while above the high altar, and in the most sacred place, is the prized relic La Santa Imagen, blackened by age. Four candles surround it and are kept always burn- ing. Each morning at ten o'clock this crucifix is shown to visitors, while the monks chant. In the sacristy are kept the valuable wardrobe and jewels belonging to the image. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, when he determined in 1521 to abandon the life of a soldier, came here and hung up his weapons before the holy relic, taking a vow to devote himself to the service of Christ and the Virgin. There are walks in various directions from the monastery, disclosing superb views. The route to the highest peak, San Jeronimo, at the north- western verge of the mountain, goes at first down into and crosses the Valle Malo and its rapid stream, the torrent of St. Mary. This remarkable fissure is believed by the people here, to have been cut into the

BARCELONA 333

mountain when Christ died on the cross. The ridges on either side are topped by fantastic pinnacles of weather-worn rock, several hundred feet high, which are known as the Penascos or '' Guardians of the Holy Grail." One group represents a procession of monks, others are like fingers and flutes, and there are also reproductions of a saddle and a skull. The summit, called the ^Mirador, is reached by a danger- ous climb over slippery stones, which is rewarded by a glorious view extending from the snowy range of the Pvrenees in the north, far over the Mcditer- ranean south and east, with the Balearic islands visible on clear days along the southeastern horizon. All about are the Catalonian plains and mountains, shut in on the west by the sombre ranges bounding Aragon.

BARCELONA.

About twenty-five miles southeast of Montserrat is the greatest Spanish city and seaport of the Mediter- ranean, Barcelona, having a half million population and the reputation of being the wealthiest munici- pality, of the Kingdom. The Llobregat intervale broadens into a fertile plain as it approaches the sea, while to the northeast the river Besos flows out through another extensive hueria. Between them, and enclosing a third intervale, are ranges of hills, the basin they environ being about six miles long and three to four miles wide, with a small har-

334: THE MEDITERRANEAN

bor at its seaward end, the outlet of a little stream, the Eiera de Malla, tbat flowed through the basin. Such an attractive haven early had a colony on its shores, but the first establishment was prehistoric, and mythological tradition attributed it to Hercules, when he came over the sea to explore these lands, and clove down the Strait of Gades to make the Pil- lars of Hercules. The Iberians were here, and the Phoenicians, and tlie town dawned upon history in the Carthaginian era as Barcino. The Bomans made it a colony, which grew until it outranked all others on this coast, their town occupying the shores of the harbor, and the slopes of an oval hill behind, known as !Monte Taber, wliere stood their citadel and temple, and wliere remains of Roman walls and gates, with some Corinthian columns, are still preserved. They called the place Barcenona, and the Moorish conquest in the eighth century made it Bardjaluna. They held it about ninety years, when the Franks took it, and the town again became Christian under the Carlovingian empire of the Franks, but Wilfred the Shaggy, its governor under Charles the Bald, re- belled in the later ninth century, and established its independence as the Countship of Barcelona, his suc- cessors holding it and Catalonia, until, through mar- riage alliances, it warf united with Aragon. The ^'^ crown of nine points," worn by the sovereign, rul- ing the County of Barcelona and of Catalonia, is a highly prized memory and is reproduced every-

BARCELONA 335

where in the city decorations, the nine i)ointed croAvn in golden tips adorning dwellings, lamps and every- thing in the municipality, and recalling its former greatness.

This was the period of its highest prosperity, when Spain had forty millions of people, and Barce- lona and its suburbs nearly a million, its commerce making it one of the greatest Mediterranean sea- ports, rivalling Venice and Genoa, and controlling a large part of the lucrative trade with the Levant. It then owned much of the shi2)ping of the great sea, and Prescott says the port " thronged with foreigners from every nation, became a principal emporium in the Mediterranean for the spices, drugs, perfumes, and other rich commodities of the East, whence they were diflfused over the interior of Spain and the European Continent." In the thirteenth century Jaime I of Aragon gave it the famous Consulado del Mar, or code of maritime law, knowTi as the " Code of the Maritime Customs of Barcelona," which was the commercial and maritime legal authority of Europe throughout the middle ages. Afterward the discovery of America and the changes in trade routes affected its maritime supremacy, and Barcelona de- clined. The transfer of the Spanish capital from Aragon to Castile, and the rivalries of the Spanish ports on the Atlantic, made the people discontented, as they blamed their misfortunes on the Spanish Government. They repeatedly revolted, sympa-

336 THK MEDITERRAKEAX

thized with France, and in 1715, the Spanish Eourbon king built a citadel on the northeastern verge to control them. This was always a sore point with the people, who became, as their commerce de- clined, more and more a manufacturing community, and for over a century, the city's history was chequered by insurrections, street-fights and out- breaks, the object being to got rid of the hated citadel. Barcelona and Catalonia generally have always cherished an antagonism to the Castilians, and hence, they have always helped the various Carlist uprisings. They did not get rid of the citadel until 18G9, when its site, much to the popular gratification, and through the kindly intervention of General Prim, was converted into a public park.

The city is beautifully located. The undulating basin, in which it is built, slopes from the harbor gradually upward to a range of hills at the northwest, of which the highest, Tibidabo, is elevated nearly 1,800 feet. On either side, this basin is bounded by other hills, the Montanes Malas to the northeast, and the Montjuich, nearly 700 feet high, a long ridge to the southward, rising coflSn-shaped from the valley of the Llobregat, and gradually ascending toward the eastern front, where it falls off precipitously to the sea. Upon the eastern and higliest summit is the pres- ent great defensive fortress of Barcelona, the Castillo de Montjuich, which can accommodate a garrison of ten thousand men. This height was scaled and

IJAHCKLUNA 337

captured by a brilliant movement in 1703, by Lord Peterborough, shortly after the English had taken Gibraltar. This famous hill, originally the Roman Mons Jugi, the '* mountain of the yoke," gives ex- quisite views, and on its southwestern slope, away from the city and facing the Llobregat, is one of the chief city cemeteries. On the western side of the mountain, the lowlands stretch off to the Llobregat.

'The extensive plain with the enclosing hill slopes is now covered by the groat city, having a splendid mountain environment. Palaces, factories, houses, gardens and groves, make a striking combination, as they are spread over the wide surface, upon which the interested visitor can look down from various high elevations of the many surrounding hills. The older citv had its walls and fortifications all removed in 1860, and replaced by attractive boulevards, known as the Rondas. This was an irregular hexa- gon-shaped town, down through which came the Riera de Malla, which has been covered over and made into a wide and attractive tree-shaded street called the Rambla, from the river bed. This

stretches back northwestward through the town from

the harbor, and northward from its central part

rises Monte Taber, where now stands on the highest

point the great Barcelona Cathedral.

There is pointed out on the Columbus Promenade,

a bust of the famous author IMi^u'l Cervantes, upon

a house standing on the site whore formerly was his Vol. 1—22

338 THE MEDITERRANEAN

residence. Cervantes was bom in 1547, but when he lived in Barcelona is not stated. He wrote his great work late in life, finishing it at Madrid in 1614, dying there the same day as Shakespeare, April 23, IGIG, St. George's Day. The immortal hero of romantic Spanish chivalry, whom Cervantes created, Don Quixote, must have come naturally by his admiration for Barcelona, which he describes as " the seat of courtesy, the haven of strangers, the refuge of the distressed, the mother of the valiant, the champion of the wronged, the abode of true friendship, and unique both in beauty and situation." This Columbus Promenade, phmted with palms and about one hundred and forty feet wide, is the north- western boundary of the harbor, which made the greatness of the medieval city, despite its restricted size, for it is barely three hundred acres in extent, being about a mile long, and having its sea entrance from the south, a thousand feet wide. Two moles shelter it from the sea, one being nearly a mile long, and both forming popular promenades. Statues adorn the Columbus Promenade, erected to noted shipowners and admirals, while at its southwestern end, in the Plaza de la Paz, which forms the south- eastern termination of the Bambla, is a splendid monument to Columbus erected in the later nine- teenth century. Upon an iron column, at two hun- dred feet elevation, is a gilded ball, which supports a colossal statue of the discoverer, twenty-three feet

BARCELONA 339

high. The base is a stone platform, adorned with bronze reliefs of scenes from his life, medallions of his patrons, and allegorical figures of Catalonia, Castile, Leon and Aragon, and having eight bronze lions on guard around it. From this monument, stretches the wide tree-shaded Kanibla, the princi- pal street, nearly a mile northwest, a most attractive highway leading through the heart of the old city. Here are the hotels, banks, theatres, cafes, and many of the principal buildings, while to the westward of the Plaza de Cataluna, at its termination, is the Barcelona University with modern buildings, about 2,500 students, rich scientific collections, and a library approximating 200,000 volumes. Alfonso V founded this Univei*sity in 1450, but it was taken away to Cervera in the early eighteenth century, and not reopened here until 1842. It is now in pros- perous condition. The old Rambla is extended far to the northwest, through the newer city, as the Rambla de Cataluna, and to the eastward and parallel, is another splendid tree-lined street, two hundred feet wide, and nearly a mile long, also extending north- west from the Plaza de Cataluna, the Paseo de Gracia.

It was upon the Rambla, in the latter part of July, 1909, the recent outbreaks began that for a short time threatened to extend throughout Catalonia. The restless people of Barcelona, on July 26, de- clared a general strike, as a protest against the

340 THE MEDITERRANEAN

recruiting of Spanish troops to go to Morocco to defend Melilla, and the government immediately de- clared martial law. The first collisions, with many killed and wounded, occurred that day on the Rambla, but the populace soon triumphed, and by the next day were in full possession of the city. Barricades were erected, the authorities driven out, and the in- surrection became almost universal. But the an- archists soon got in control, and the mobs turned to plundering and burning convents and churches, forcing the monks and nuns to flee. There were thirty-five of these sacred edifices destroyed within two days. The government sent warships into the harbor, and brought large numbers of troops from the neighboring country, while from the heights of Montjuich a constant cannonade was directed at the districts held by the rebels. Soon the arriving troops drove them out of most places, and they made their final stand in one of the public squares, where they were mowed down by machine guns and trampled by cavalry, being overpowered July 29, after a ter- rible contest. During the riots there were about one hundred people slain and a thousand wounded. Over four hundred captives were taken to the fort- ress, and about two hundred of the leading rebels were summarily tried, condemned and shot. The rebellion was thus suppressed, and the city quieted under government control early in August. It was the execution of Professor Francisco Ferrer bv court

BARCELONA 841

martial, as the leader who inspired this rebellion, that caused Socialistic outbreaks during the summer in various parts of Europe.

Monte Taber rises to the eastward of the Hambla, and very nearly in the centre of the ancient city. Upon its highest part, the Eonians built a temple which was dedicated to Hercules, and afterward the Moors had a mosque. Kow, it is occupied by the cathedral, dedicated to Santa Eulalia, the patron saint of Barcelona, not a very large edifice, but re- garded as one of the noblest existing creations of the Spanish Gothic architecture. There was a church here in the eleventh century, of which some parts remain, and this structure, at first called the Holy Cross, was begun in 1298, the crypt being finished in 1339, and dedicated to Santa Eulalia. It took an- other century to build the church, but it was not en- tirely finished at that time, and the northwestern fagade was only coniplet(?d in 1890. This is fronted by a plaza on the sloping hill, and approached by a wide flight of steps, making a very impressive view. Two towers rise one hundred and seventy feet above the transepts. The structure is two hundred and seventy-five feet long, and about one himdred and twenty feet wide, the nave being eighty-two feet high and forty-two feet wide, separated by lofty clustered columns from the aisles, which have many chapels built out from them. The windows are very small, but display splendid fifteenth century stained

342 THE MEDITERRANEAN

glass, giving fine scenic effects, particularly in the late afternoon, but the interior is dark, though thus adding to its impressive solemnity. The coro is adorned with reliefs, depicting scenes from the life of Santa Eulalia, and has above the stalls, coats- of-arms recalling the Chapter of the Order of the Golden lleece, held here by Charles V in March, 1519, which was a very brilliant gathering. The northeastern doorway, entering between the nave and the Capilla 3Jayor, has over it a relief depicting the fight between Vilardell and the Dragon. The legend was that the Moors let loose a huge dragon upon the Christians, when the knight Vilardell bravely attacked and slew it. Vainly boasting of his victory, he held his sword aloft, whereupon some drops of the dragon's poisonous blood trickled down upon him and he died.

In the Capilla Mayor is a sarcophagus of St. Severus, and a flight of steps descends to the crypt, containing the tomb of Santa Eulalia, in an ala- baster shrine of the early fourteenth century. St. Sevenis' remains were transferred here from a chapel nearer the harbor, in 1330. In the other chapels are various tombs and monuments of ecclesiastics. In one of them is the Christ of Lcpanlo, the image with a bowed hea<l which Don John of Austria had in his ffagship, at the noted battle against the Turks, in October, 1571, the popular belief being that the sacred image bent its

BARCELONA 343

head to avoid a Turkish bullet. A huge Saracen's Head is placed below the organ, in the northwest transept. Four Gotliic cloisters, finished in the fifteenth century, adjoin the cathedral on the south- west, having on that side a row of chapels backing against the row within the cathedral. In the inner court are foliage plants, and there is an equestrian statuette of St. George, forming a fountain. A sarcophagus in one of the chapels contains the re- mains of Alfonso III of Aragon, who died in 1291. The adjacent Episcopal Palace dates from the tenth century, and incorporates some Itoman remains. In the court of a house near bv, are built in the wall three Corinthian colunms, fifty feet high, taken from the portico of tlie Temple of Hercules which stood on this hill. On the Plaza del Eey, not far away, is the iluseum of Antiquities, in a Gothic church of the thirteenth century, and the General Archives, erected in the reign of Charles V, containing over five millions of documents, including many precious manuscripts, 2:)rocured from old convents, when they were disestablished. The Plaza de la Constitution, southeast of the catliedral, is fronted by fine old buildings. Here is the Palace of the Provincial Deputies, with a splendid fifteenth century Gothic fagade, the interior halls adorned with paintings by Fortuny and other Sj)anish artists, including por- traits of all the Counts of Barcelona. The City Hall, on the other side of the Plaza, has a handsome

344 THE MEDITERRANEAN

salon ninety feet long and forty-five feet high, and on the second floor is the hall of the Municipal Archives. Its great decoration is an altar piece, painted in the fifteenth century, depicting the five town councillors of that time being presented to the Madonna by Santa Eulalia and St. Andrew.

There are many attractive old churches in the city. Xcar the Kambla is San Pablo del Campe, partially bunit in the outbreak of July, 1909. It was built in the early tenth century outside the town, and hence the suffix " del Campe." This was the gift of Count Wilfred II for a Benedictine convent, and above the portal has the symbols of St. John and St. Matthew, with a hand in the attitude of benedic- tion. Those are regarded as among the first attempts at sculpture in Spain. Santa Maria del Pino, built in the fifteenth century, with a huge Catalonian nave, but without aisles, has a lofty detached tower, in which, on Palm Sunday, a consecrated pine bough is hung up, the tradition being that the church's image of the Virgin was found in the trunk of a pine tree. Our T^dy of Belon, adjoining the Bambla, was built by the Jesuits, in the late seven- teenth and early eighteenth centuries, and in it is kept as a precious relic, the sword of Ignatius Loyola, which he originally deposited at Montserrat. The old church of Santa Ana, modollod after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was built near the Plaza de Cataluna, in the twelfth centurv, bv the Patriarch

Barcelona.

BARCELONA 345

of Jerusalem. It was at first cniciform, with four arms of equal size, but the western arm was after- ward extended. Here is the tomb of Marshal Miguel Boera, an ancient Spanish commander in the reigns of Ferdinand and Charles V. Near the harbor originally stood the Chapel of Santa Eulalia, and it was replaced by the Gothic Church of Santa Maria del Mar, built in the fourteenth century, and having a splendid late Gothic fagade, with large doorway and rose window, two slender octagonal towers rising above. The nave is forty-two feet wide and one hundred and twelve feet high, making a most im- posing interior. Xarrow aisles flank the nave, and there are chapels on either side, and also radiating from the apse. This church has several fine paint- ings, and also the sarcophagus of Santa Eulalia, which is in the Baptistery, and is now used as a font. It is one of the best attended churches in Barcelona, but had a horrible tragedy on Jime 7, 1896. The elaborate Corpus Christi procession had come to the church, and was just entering, when a bomb was thrown into the crowd by an anarchist, twelve persons being instantly killed, and fifty in- jured, several afterward dying.

The Plaza de Palacio, which is southeast of Santa Maria del Mar, is an open square finely decorated, around which are various buildings, devoted to the maritime industry of the city, which here centres. A handsome marble fountain plashes on the square,

346 THE MEDITERRANEAN

and it is fronted by the Custom House, Exchange, and various warehouses and shipping offices. The Exchange, or Lonja, was built in the fourteenth century, and modernized in the eighteenth, its grand hall, one hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide, — the Sala de Contrataciones, — being the centre of active business in the afternoons. The har- bor and shipping are in front of this Plaza, with the maritime suburb of Barceloneta, to the eastward, on a peninsula projecting into the sea, the Mediter- ranean surf washing its southeastern verge. To the northward of the Plaza, rises the hill where the hated citadel stood, now a pleasant park of seventy- five acres, having at its main entrance, in grateful memory of the man who secured the removal, a bronze equestrian statue of General Prim. There are palm houses, a conservatory, museums and zoological garden. This is the chief holiday resort for the people. From its northwestern side extends the grand Salon de San Juan, a wide promenade, with four rows of trees and adorned with statues of prominent Catalans. Here is the modem Palace of Justice, the most elaborate of the new buildings of the city. The Salon has, at its northwestern termina- tion, an Arch of Triumph, erected in 1888, at the entrance of the Barcelona Exhibition. To the east- ward, and overlooking the sea, is the Eastern Ceme- tery. It is divided by high walls into sections, these walls having rows of oblong niches, one above the

BARCELONA 347

Other, their narrow ends turned toward the walks. The coffins are put in these niches, the openings being then closed. If the niches are not purchased from the city, the remains of the dead are only per- mitted to remain four years, when they are removed to a potter's field. ^lany of the tombs of the wealthy have elaborate monuments.

To the southward of the Park is the Plaza de Toros, the great '" J^ull Ring " of the city, which will accommodate over fifteen thousand spectators. These bull-fighting arenas, whore are exhibited the great national amusement of the Spaniards, are found in all the j)rominent cities and towns, while in smaller communities the fights usually are in the mar- ket squares, the country having over four hundred such places for bull-fighting. The Barcelona arena is encircled by seats for the spectators, the higher places being the choicest, and a barrier about five feet high encloses the arena, having a narrow passage around it. There is a liosi)ital, and also a chapel attached, where the fighters partake of tlie sacrament and have prayers before entering the combat. The fights are under the municipal guidance, and one of the city officials presides, and gives the signal to begin. This national pastime of the Spanish people, despite its brutality, has such a strong hold upon their affections, that it cannot be abolished, neither the government nor the church being able to make head- way against it. A survival of the Koman and Moor-

348 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

ish times, these fights were an aristocratic preroga- tive for festal occasions, down to the sixteenth century, and mounted knights then did the fighting, usually with lances, and fatal wounds were frequent. Now, the method is less dangerous for the man, but more cruel for the bull, and its adoption dates from about the seventeenth century, after which time the sport gradually fell into professional hands. Sun- days and holidays are the bull-fighting days, and the performance is generally omitted in winter. Andalusia raises most of the bulls, and the Duke of Veragua, the descendant of Columbus, is a prominent bull raiser. They are valued at $200 to $300, and for several hours previous to the fight, are kept in dark stables or dens, being goaded into a state of excitement before being driven into the arena. The most agile bull-fighters also are generally Andalu- sians and popular espadas or matadors enjoy large incomes, usually $2,000 to $3,000, while some celeb- rities receive much more. The luck of Bafael Guerra of Cordova is often cited, who was thirty-two years of age in 1894, and during that season his in- come was $75,000, having killed two hundred and twenty-five bulls.

When the fight begins, the alguaciles, or police, ride around the arena, to the sound of trumpets, and clear it of people, after which the bull-fighters enter in procession, the band playing a march. The espadas walk first, followed by the bander illeros, the

BARCELONA 349

picadors mounted, and the chulos or attendants on foot, with the mule team used in dragging out the dead horses and bulls. A salute is given the official chief, and he then throws into the ring, the key of the bull-den, the toril, which being opened, an excited bull rushes out into the arena. There are three acts in the bull-fight. In the first, the mounted picador receives the attack of the bull, prodding him in the neck with a pike, and trying to withstand his onset, though generally the worn-out horse the picador bestrides is wounded and overthrown by the bull, both horse and rider falling in the sand. The chulos on foot, to worry the bull and distract him, dexterously wave their red cloaks, to draw him off to the other side of the arena, and enable the picador to escape. This is repeated, and when the bull is sufficiently wearied by the picadors and chulos, the second act begins, the attack of the banderilleros. These young and very active gentlemen meet the bull at full charge, jump cleverly out of his way, occa- sionally vaulting over the barrier to escape his horns, and do everything possible to infuriate him. They stick their banderillos in his neck when passing, these being barbed darts, having streamers of colored papers, and they do it from the side, or even from the front, sometimes sitting in a chair and nimbly avoiding the attack. Explosive fire-crackers are often used with these darts, and everything pos- sible is done to anger and at the same time

350 THE MEDITERRANEAN

fatigue the bull. They vault over his back with a pole, leap between his horns, and do the most au- dacious and apparently reckless acts, the bull, all the while, becoming more and more angry and ex- hausted. This having proceeded long enough in the opinion of the presiding officer, the signal is given for the third and last act. The espada then appears, armed with a short straight sword and a red cloth; presents himself in front of the official box, and an- nounces the death of the bull in the president's honor. The object of the espada, who begins teasing the tired and very angry bull with his red cloth, is to get him into position for the death blow. When the proper time comes, the espada, stepping quickly aside as the bull rushes at him, plunges the sword into his neck in passing, the stroke going downward to the heart. If this is successfully done tlie bull falls. The first stroke, however, rarely succeeds, and it has to be repeated. Sometimes the espada receives the direct rush of the bull, the animal running on the extended point of the sword. The attendants bring in the team, and the dead bull and horses are dragged out; the show being soon renewed with a fresh bull. The exhibition continues until twilight ends it, several bulls being killed. This butchery, while pop- ular with the people, is disgusting to many visitors, and most tourists who once witness a bull fight are amply satisfied, and do not attend a second exhibition of the national game.

BARCELONA 351

The true Catalan regards Barcelona, not only as the greatest city of Spain, but also as the best in the world. Its later development has been chiefly in industrial pursuits, and the large factories are in the suburbs. These huge mills intermingle with the country-houses and gardens in the northern suburbs, stretching off to the pretty valley of the Besos, which has cloven a passage through the high ridge of -Monte Tibidabo, northwest of the city, to get out to the plain and the sea, most of its waters being diverted, how- ever, for the uses of the great municipality. For miles these suburbs and their mills are passed, on the railways going toward the northern Spanish bor- der. Here are Badalona, the Eoman Baetvlo, Mon- gat with its battle-scarred castle, Vilasar with the atalaya towers on the coast, built long ago as look- outs for pirates, Mataro, which was the Iluro of the Romans, the warm springs of Caldetas, Arenys de Mar, where the Barcelona merchants maintain a nautical school, and other industrious villages, the coast railway piercing tlie great headlands that here come out to the sea, through tunnels and amid superb scenery. The river Ter flows down, out of the moun- tains, from among the coal and iron mines of San Juan, and up this stream are Vich, on a tributary, with its ancient cathedral of the eleventh century, and magnificent cloisters ; and Eipoli, now a town of coal-mines, but formerly the scat of the renowned Benedictine Monastery of Eipoli, not long ago sup-

352 THE MEDITERRAXEAK

pressed. Wilfred the Shaggy built its great church for the burial place of the Counts of Barcelona, beginning the work in the ninth century, which was not completely finished until the fifteenth. The Ter, flowing through its splendid valley south- ward from Eipoli to near Vich, turns eastward to seek the sea at the Gulf de Eosas. Its diversion is caused by meeting the northern spurs of the great ridge of the Montseny rising about 5,700 feet, the imposing serrated top being seen from long distances in every direction.

TO THE PYRENEES.

Farther down the Ter is Gerona, in a valley sur- rounded by hills, formerly a fortress, the town now spreading over the plain and up the slopes of the Montjuich from the river to the fortified heights above, the picturesque balconied houses hanging over the stream and its tributary, the Ona. The Bomans had their camp and settlement of Gerunda here, and the Moors capturing it, the name became Djerunda. Charlemagne took it, and the Moors again got pos- session, but it afterward fell into the hands of the Count of Barcelona. It is noted for the heroic de- fence against the French in 1809, when a small Spanish and English garrison stood a siege for seven months by an army of thirty-five thousand, finally being starved out after their ammunition was all gone, and surrendering in December, the French

TO the: PYRENEES 353

losing fifteen thousand men during the protracted contest. Gerona, in its palmy days, had a popular university, and its cliief relic to-day is the cathedral, begun in the early fourteenth century. The nave is unusually wide, seventy-three feet, flanked by huge buttresses supporting the roof, and having side chapels between them. Beyond Gerona, the railway follows down the fruitful valley of the Ter, crosses it, and turning northward goes over the watershed to the Fluvia vale. The snowy range of the eastern Pyrenees bounds the northern horizon, and we recog- nize its famous peaks, the Canigou, rising 9,135 feet, being conspicuous, while there is cleft dovra in the top of the range the gap of the Col de Portus, where Hannibal crossed B. C. 218. The railway traverses the wide and luxuriant plain of the Ampurdan, watered by several streams, its vineyards noted for their wines. Its chief town is Figueras, having the Castle of San Fernando occupying a hilltop. This place makes wine and is said to be exposed to fevers. There is, in the spring, a pilgrimage procession, la tramoniana, to a mountain shrine fifteen miles north- ward, the services continuing three days. In 1612 we are told such a pilgrimage had the effect of bring- ing the tramontana, the " north wind," which chased away a fever epidemic, and the ceremony has been an annual duty ever since.

Down at the sea, the various streams flow into the

semicircular verge of the wide and deeply indented Vol. 1—23

354 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Gulf de Bosas^ its northern shore being the great terminating buttress of the Pyrenees, Cap Creus. Beyond Figueras, the railway pierces the ridge by a tunnel, and thus crossing the boundary enters France, bound to Perpignan, Xarbonne and the north. On the border of the sea, at the Gulf do llosas, was a place of earliest settlement of this Iberian shore. Ten miles east of Figueras, imder the shadow of the great ridge terminating in the boundary cape, is the little port of Kosas, naming the Gulf, to which the Greeks came, calling it Bhode. On the shore to the southward, was the Greek colony of lilniporion, while inland upon a hill, still survives the castle succeeding that which the Iberians had when the Greeks ar- rived, now known as the Castellon de Anipurias, and thus naming the Ampurdan. Various relics of these original settlements have been taken to Gerona, and are in the museum there. They were all afterward incorporated into the Boman Emporia^, though very little remains of these early Iberian and Greek colo- nies but a memory. Over the waters of the broad bay, watches now, as in the earliest times of ancient Iberia, tlie great nortliern buttress wall of the Pyre- nees, its snowy summit line contrasting most beauti- fully with the charming blue of sky and sea.

See the mountains kiss hi|rh heaven And the waves clasp une another.

THE RIVIERA

THE RIVIERA

The River Rhone — Camargue — Aries — Saintea Maries — ^Ai- gues Mortes — Languedoc — Mont pel lier — Cette — ^Agde — Bezi- ers — ^Narbonne — Estagel — Perpignan — Prades — ^the Canigou — Cap Cr^us — Marseilles — If — Toulon — Hyeres — Fr^jus — St. Raphael — Liguria — Cannes — lies de L^rins — Antibes — Nice — Cimiez — Villefranche — Comiche Road — Beaulieu — Eze — ^Turbia — ^Monaco — ^lonte Carlo — Roccobruna — Mentone — Ventimiglia — Bordighera — San Remo — San Lorenzo — Porto Maurizio — Oneglia — Andrea Doria — Alassio — Albenga — Sav- ona — A bbissola — Cogoletto — Christopher Columbus — Pegli — Genoa.

THE BIVEB RHONE.

Thou Royal River, bom of sun and shower In chambers purple with the Alpine glow. Wrapped in the spotless ermine of the snow

And rocked by tempests ! — at the appointed hour

Forth, like a steel-clad horseman from a tower. With clang and clink of harness dost thou go. To meet thy vassal torrents, that below

Rush to receive thee and obey thy power.

And now thou movest in triumphal march, A king among the rivers! On thy way

A hundred towns await and welcome thee;

Bridges uplift for thee the stately arch,

Vineyards encircle thee with garlands gay And fleets attend thy progress to the seal

The river Rhone, thua apostrophized by Longfel- ioWj^ is a mighty stream. Beyond the mountain

357

358 THE MEDITERRANEAN

boundary between Spain and France, the Mediter- ranean is indented far northward, in the Gulf of Lyons, to receive this great river. Beginning high up in tlie Alps, the Klione sources are near those of the Rhine. It rushes a mountain torrent into the Lake of Geneva, which purifies its turgid waters, and flowing out a lim2)id stream, is soon defiled again by the muddy Arve, and one river after another, adding further silt to its swelling current. It breaks through a deep gorge between the Jura and the Alps, comes to Lyons, receives the Saone, and turns south- ward a noble waterway, carrying vast commerce. Flowing in a fertile plain, between enclosing hills and beautiful shores, it passes many cities, and be- low Avignon receives the Durance bringing more Al- pine silt. Then it comes to Aries, and divides into two channels, the Grand Khone flowing southeast, and the Petit Rhone southwest to the sea. Enclosed between them is the flat delta island of Camargue, of about three hundred square miles area, largely lagoons and marshes, and constantly growing from the vast alluvial deposits the river carries down. A new delta is also forming, out in the Gulf, at the estuary of the Grand Rhone, and both it and the Petit Rhone have their mouths obstructed by sand- bars. The Froncli coast, both east and west, is a series of lagoons, and these are availed of by the shipping, which get into the river by means of ship canals, the wide delta spreading far away on either

THE RIVER RHONE 359

hand. It was here the Phoenicians established a belt of colonies, along the coast and in the lower Khone, some dating as early as the nineteenth cen- tury B. C. It was by this route into the Alps that Hannibal 218 B. C. crossed the mountains, attacking the Eoman empire at its centre. The Rhone and Saone were Caesar's great natural barriers, defending Gaul against the invading Ilelvetii, and the whole country hereabouts displays Roman remains.

Aries was the Roman Arelate, rivalling Marseilles in the days ol the Ca?sars, when it was known as the Gallic Rome, and had a hundred thousand popula- tion. Here lived Constantino, and he completed the Roman theatre which Augustus began. Its vast am- phitheatre, one of the largest in France, is an oval 450 feet long, built in two stories of sixty arches, Doric surmounted by Corinthian, and accommodates twenty-six thousand spectators. It was converted into a citadel afterward, four towers being built, of which three still stand, and its chief use now is for Sunday bull fights. The theatre is in partial ruin, for the people took away much of its materials to build churches. Here was found, in the seventeenth century, the Venus of Aries, now in the Louvre at Paris. A Roman obelisk of grey granite, forty-nine feet high, stands in the Place de la Ropublique, sur- mounting a fountain, and adorned with bronze lions. Constantine's fourth century palace is down by the Rhone. The Roman cemetery on the eastern verge

360 THE MEDITERRANEAN

of the town — the Aliscamps — became so popular for interment in medieval days, that bodies were brought here from great distances, Dante's Inferno referring to it. It was long neglected, but recently has been partially restored. St. Paul's disciple, Trophimus, introduced Christianity, and the Cathe- dral of St. Trophimus was built in the seventh cen- tury, several times rebuilt, and its interior walls are hung with old tapestries. Here was crowned, in 1178, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

Aries looks out over the flat broad delta of the Rhone, full of water courses, and having Eoman re- mains everywhere. Upon the low Mediterranean shore of the Camargue, twenty-four miles southward, is the quaint village of the Saintes Maries, named for the three Marys — Mary Magdalen, Mary of Beth- any, and Mary the mother of Jesus. The tradition tells that they landed here, along with Lazarus, St. Maximin, and their black sen^ant Sara. Their relics are in the church, and in May and October come popular pilgrimages to the shrines, while the gypsies also flock here in honor of the servant Sara. To the northwest about twenty miles, on a lagoon connected by a canal with the Khone, is Aigues Mortes, named from the Latin title of the district AqucB Mortua, or the " dead waters," referring to the swamps and ponds. Here embarked the French king St. Louis, in 1248, in his crusade to the Holy Land, and again, in 1270, on his second crusade. He founded the

THE RIVER RHOXE 861

port, and his son Philip tlie Bold, in 1272, began the extensive fortifications, perfected by succeeding kings, which now are a great curiosity. They are on the level land, a rectangle of 1800 by 500 feet, with two gates, twenty towers, and embattled walls, rising in places 33 feet. The Tower of Constance, founded by St. Louis, rises from the citadel at one corner, while at the opposite conier is the Tower of the Burgimdians, who seized the town in 1421, but afterward were overpowered, slain, and their bodies thrown into this tower for a tomb, being covered with salt. The place is quiet and gloomy now, almost the only relief being a bronze statue of St. Louis, in the public square.

The region westward from the Rhone, stretching to the Spanish boundary, at the Pyrenees, was the Province of Languedoc, and the Gallia Narbonensis, which the Romans conquered and settled before the days of Caesar. Its people, in the course of time, came to speak a dialect of poetical rhythm and soft accents, now unfortunately fading away. This dia- lect named the province, for it was called the Langue d*oc, because they used the word oc for " yes " in- stead of Old as spoken by the northern French. To the westward in Languedoc, and some distance inland from the Mediterranean, is Montpellier, with eighty thousand people, one of the most prosperous cities of Southern France, a centre of the wine trade and maker of textiles and chemicals, chief among tliose

362 TiiK meditp:hranean

being verdigris made by oxydizing copper plates be- tween layers of grape hulls. Seven miles away, on a strip of beach fronting the sea, with a lagoon behind it, is the ruined town and old cathedral of Maguelone. Here was an ancient seaport, which the Saracens, coming from Spain, seized and held until Charles ilartel, in 737, captured and destroyed it. The j)lace recovered, but Louis XIII not liking it, in 1C33 completely destroyed it, leaving only the cathe- dral. Charles Martel, when he captured Maguelone, built Montpellier inland, to avoid the sea rovers, but it languished, until its Medical College w^as founded in the twelfth century, bringing it fame and wealth, and still existing in celebrity, as a University Avith fifteen hundred students, half being in medical classes. In the religious wars about all the churches in Montpellier were destroyed. It was a Calvinist stronghold when taken by Louis XIII, in 1622, and when he entered, the king said he could find no church in which to say his prayers. There were about sixty churches, the Calvinists first demolish- ing those of the Catholics, and the latter afterward retaliating. Montpellier has greatly prospered in recent years, and in its bright atmosphere the ap- pearance is pleasing, the place rising from the plain as a grand amphitheatre sloping upward to nearly 200 feet elevation, the high background being the splendid promenade of the Peyron. This was an ancient forum and stronghold, now completely

THE RIVER RHONE 363

transformed, and having the imposing Chateau d'Eau, a most copious fountain, to which the water is brought from the hills eight miles away, by an aqueduct terminating in a double tier of arches, seventy feet high and extending a half mile. The aqueduct supplies the city, and from the fountain, the hill falls off sharply on three sides, giving a grand outlook over the spreading city below, upon the broad plain of green meadows and many lakes, stretching off to the distant silver streak of the Mediterranean.

Cette, the port of Montpellier, is about eighteen miles southwest, on a strip of land, between the ex- tensive lagoon, called the 3^]tang de Thau, and the sea. Here is the ancient Mons Setius, rising about 600 feet, and now called Mont St. Clair, upon which the city is built. Cette is mostly modern, and its harbor is composed of three basins, connecting with the Etang, being the terminal port of the noted Canal du Midi, constructed at the end of the seven- teenth century, to connect the Atlantic through southern France with the Mediterranean. To the southwest, beyond the Etang, projects the Cape d'Agde, and nearby flows the river Ilcrault into the sea, having within, the harbor and port of Agde, three miles inland, through which goes the canal. An extinct volcano, on the edge of the town, pro- vided the lava blocks of which it is built. This was the ancient Agatha, there being remains of old forti-

364 THE MEDITERRANEAN

ficationsy and its castellated cathedral, looking more like a fortress than a church. It suffered in the wars of more than a dozen centuries, its chief history being a horrible story of sieges and sackings by Goths, Vandals, Saracens, Franks, and religious crusaders of various faiths. The Canal du Midi climbs up eighty feet, by a series of locks, to the higher level, and goes through Beziers, whose greatest townsman was Paul Kiquct, the builder of the canal, his statue standing in the Public Square. This was the Boman Biterra, and was the scene of an awful Albigensian massacre in 1209, when it was captured, and over twenty thousand inhabitants killed or burnt at the stake. To-day it has forty thousand people, and a prosperous wine and brandy trade.

Fifteen miles southwestward is Xarbonne, the ex- tensive lagoon, the Etang de Sijeon, here adjoining the Mediterranean. This was ancient Xarbo, colon- ized by the Pomans in the second century B. C, but becoming a decayed town because its port silted up, and living now mainly upon its history of over twenty centuries, and a brisk trade in the highly esteemed " honey of Xarbonne." It is built on a plain about five miles back from the shore, with a . canal leading out to the sea. In the Poman era it was surrounded by lakes, having ample communica- tion with the Mediterranean; it gave the name to Gallia Xarbonensis; and in the chronicles of that time, was described as a large city, with temples,

THE RIVER RHONE 865

theatres, baths, triumphal arches and other elaborate structures, of which little remains. The Visigoths held it, till the Saracens took it, and were able to beat off Charles Martel, but Pepin, through treason, got possession for France. The name gradually de- veloped from Xarbo to Xarbonne, but it could not overcome the closing of the port. The old Cathe- dral of St. Just is crowned ^yiih double battlements, rising 130 feet, and the Archbishop's palace along- side, is a medieval fortress, having three ponderous towers. Southwestward from Xarbonne stretch the Corbieres, an outlier of the Pyrenees, and on one of the summits, rising 2,000 feet, the Visigoth king Alaric had a castle, but only scant ruins remain.

The valley of the Agly, to the southward, separates the Corbieres from the Pyrenees, and here at Estagel was the home of the family of Arago, the famous seven brothers, the town having a statue of Frangois Arago, the most noted, born here in 1786. Beyond, comes out the river Tet, draining the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, and almost dry in summer. This region was Eoussillon, and its ancient capital Perpignan, a strong fortress about seven miles from the sea, defends the entrance to the Tet. Here lived, in the twelfth and later centuries, the kings of Majorca, this being part of their domain. King Sancho of Majorca built its massive Castillet in 1319, now a prison. He also began the Cathedral of St. Jean, which is still incomplete. The huge

366 THE MEDITERRANEAN

nave is 230 feet long and 90 feet high, the altars are gorgeously decorated, and the rercdos of the main altar is a splendid work in white marble, depicting scenes in the life of St. John. Perpignan, while a French city, has distinctively Spanish characteristics, having been attached to Aragon for several centuries. It has statues of Arago and of Eigaud the painter, born here in 1G59. Up the fertile valley of the Tet is Prades, whence various roads go through the moun- tain passes. To the southward of Prades, rises the noble peak of tlie Canigou, 9,135 feet, its summit, a narrow stone platform about 25 feet long, com- manding a superb view eastward over the Med- iterranean, displaying the coast all the way from Barcelona to Montpellier, a hundred miles off to the northeast. Cap Creus, twenty-five miles southeast of Perpignan, is the great terminating buttress of the Pyrenees, protruding into the sea, the boundary be- tween France and Spain.

MARSEILLES.

To the eastward of the Rhone delta, on a well protected bay, is the great French port of Marseilles. Hills separate the river from this bay, and while there is some canal connexion, it is not satisfactory, and a great work is projected, tunnelling through the rocks for over four miles, at a cost of $7,000,000 to make a modern canal between the great river and the port. The harbor early attracted the navigator.

MARSEILLES 367

but the origin of the settlement, probably by the Phoenicians, is dim in antiquity. The location is most beautiful, magnificently surrounded by a mountain amphitheatre, the luxuriantly fertile land- scape fronting upon the glinting sea. The records go back GOO years 13. 0. when Greek colonists from Asia Minor controlled the shore, their settlement within the bay being called Massalia, and in 1899, the 2500th anniversary of the colony was celebrated with great pomp. The port afterward made alliance with the Komans to control the sea, and also colonized the adjacent shores and the African coast. Then Julius Ca>sar took possession for Rome, and the greatly enlarged city became a seat of Greek learn- ing, whither the patricians sent their sons. There had been an early pagan altar erected to Baal, and this was superseded by a temple to Diana, while Xeptune had one on the shore. Lazarus, the brother of !Mary and Martha, is said to have come here and lived in caves, that became the catacombs, over which a church Avas built, named afterward for St. Victor, who arrived as a missionary preaching Christianity. Eome fell, the Visigoths succeeded, the Franks drove them out, and then the Saracens captured the city, whose name all the while was changing, and in the tenth century was called Mar- seilles. It went ultimately to France, adhered to the lost cause of the King in the Revolution, and was savagely punished. The mob from Marseilles

;]68 THE MEDITERRANEAN

journeyed to Paris, led the attack on the Tuilerics in 1792, then first singing the war song of Rouget de I'Isle, which thus was called the Marseillaise, and became the Revolutionary battle hymn, and ulti- mately the French national anthem. The conquest of Algiers by France, and the opening of the Suez Canal, gave the city a great impetus, and the popula- tion exceeds a half million.

Until 1850, the port was the " Old Harbor," a basin of about seventy acres surface on the edge of the bay, but since there have been vast improvements. This old harbor, completely landlocked, has ancient forts at the entrance ; St. Nicholas, built by Vauban on a promontory at the left hand side, and Grasse- Tilly, opposite, an inscription on its tower recording the founding of the first settlement. Out beyond St. Nicholas, on another promontory, is the Pharo Castle, a palace given the city by the Empress Eugenie, and now a medical school. A canal be- hind Grasse-Tilly, leads northward to the spacious " New Harbor," with the protective breakwater of the great Jetee in front facing the sea, over two miles long and costing $10,000,000. Almost the only old building remaining in Marseilles, which is now almost entirely modern, is the Church of St. Victor, under the verge of St. Nicholas. This church is a relic of an Abbey founded in the fifth century, its crypt dating from the eleventh century, and the battlemented towers from the fourteenth.

Notre Dame de la Garde — Marseilles.

Notre Dame de la Garde — Marseilles.

MAKSKILLES 869

Tlie " Grotto of St. Lazarus " is in the crypt, and contains a blackened statue of the Virgin, attributed to St. Luke, and a cross which legend says was the one on which St. Andrew was martyred. Pilgrims devoutly reverence these relics. Xotre Dame de la Garde rises steeply to the southward, with a bare and fortified summit, where a modern church has succeeded an ancient chapel, and has a large bell tower 150 feet high, upholding a colossal statue of the Virgin, the special landmark of arriving sailors. This elevation gives a good view over the city and harbor, with the grand amphitheatre of mountains on the landward side, and the broad and beautiful sea beyond.

Upon the terrace overlooking the " Xew Harbor," where once was Diana's Temple, is now " The Major," the modern Romanesque-Hyzantine Cathe- dral of Ste. Marie Majeure, not j'ct completed, a splendid structure of green and white marbles, 4C0 feet long and costing over $4,000,000. Its interior has an imposing nave, the aisles surmounted by galleries, and the decoration is rich in marble, mpsaic and fresco. The bronze statue of Bishop Belsunce, the most revered prelate of Marseilles, stands in the adjoining square, recalling how he re- mained manfully, and practically alone, at his post during the appalling plague of 1720, which de- stroyed forty thousand lives. The modem Palais

de Justice is a splendid building, its vestibule Vol. 1—24

370 THE MEDITERKANEAN

adorned with relief figures of four law-makers, Solon, Justinian, Charlemagne and Xapoleon. The bronze statue of Advocate Berryer, who died in 1808, is in front. The finest streets begin at the ^' Xew Harbor," the Cannebiere, (named from the Greek cannabis, meaning " hemp," which designated an ancient " rope-walk " on the site) and its pro- longation, the Hue Xoailles, leading eastward through the heart of the city. At their junction is the Cours St. I^uis, Avhere another series of fine streets crosses at right angles. These main thorough- fares divide the city into four grand quarters. The Bourse is on the northern side of the Cannebiere, having a magnificent Corinthian portico of five arches, adorned with sculptures, and an interior Exchange Hall hirgcr than the Paris Bourse. The older town, northward from the Bourse, is a laby- rinth of small streets, adjoining the " Old Harbor," through which modern thoroughfares have been opened, their intersection at the Place d'Aix, having a grand triumj^lial arch, to commemorate the French victory of the Trocadero, near Cadiz, in 1823. It has reliefs of Xapoleon's victories, and a later in- scription, testifying that Marseilles recognizes the French Republic. The city is proud of two of her sons, and their memorials are universal — Pierre Puget, the sculptor and painter of the seventeenth century, and President Adolphe Thiers.

Marseilles gets its water supply through a great

MARSEILLES 371

aqueduct, bringing it from the river Durance, ninety- four miles, by canals, tunnels and aqueducts to the northeastern verge, terminating in the grand Palais de Longchamp. Its centre is a splendid arch, con- necting spacious side buildings, containing a museum of art, natural history and antiquities, the arch rising nearly 130 feet. The Palais has extensive pleasure grounds, and its front, on a hill slope facing south- west, enabled the builders to construct an impressive cascade flowing down a flight of steps into a spacious basin. The arch, with its colonnades, rises high above, giving a view over the city and the sea. In the basin, a colossal group represents the Durance, be- tween the Vine and the Wheat, upon a chariot drawn by four bulls. A large part of the water, brought by the canal, is used for irrigation, so that during recent years, the arid soil around Marseilles has been changed to prolific verdure and fertility. The people have myriads of little gardens outlying the city, where they erect cdbanons of two or more rooms, and spend Sundays and holidays, there being much rivalry in cultivation, and the adornment of these toy houses.

There, are islands off the shore, the best known being the smallest, If, about two miles out in front of the " Old Harbor." Its ancient castle, the Chateau d'lf, was made famous by Alexander Dumas in Monte Christo, the keep, built in the early six- teenth century, being long used as a prison. The

372 THE MEDITERRANEAN

visitor goes out in a steamboat, and is shown the dungeons, the elevated top of the old keep giving a good outlook back at the great city.

THE NAVAL STATION OF FRANCE.

Beyond Marseilles, the coast extends far south- ward, terminating in the rocky point of Cape Sicio, and behind this, and forty-two miles from Marseilles, is the great naval port of Toulon. Sicie is thrust boldly into the sea, with protective forts upon its cli£Fs, and nature made, on its eastern side, a mag- nificent roadstead. A rock-ribbed projection east- ward forms Cape Cepet, while to the northeast. Cape Brun extends southward from the mainland, the outer harbor entrance being between them. Pointe Pipady projects within, and partly closes the en- trancej a jetty beyond making an effective break- water. This spacious harbor has Toulon on its northern shore, there being five principal basins, made by the peculiar embayed form of the shore line, all used for naval purposes, excepting a small commercial harbor. The Grande Bade and the Petite Bade, give ample anchorage, defended by the batteries on the eminences all around, the enclosing mountains rising sharply to the Faran summit, 1,800 feet, and the Condon, 2,300 feet, both crowned by forts. Toulon is thus a fortress of the first class and was always well defended. The old town of Six Fours is on an isolated hill, out on Cape Sicie,

THE NAVAL STATION OF FKAXCE 373

being named for six medieval forts, built to defend as many routes of approach, but now replaced by one modem work. The ancient pilgrimage chapel of Xotre Dame de la Garde, is at the end of the cape, at nearly 1,200 feet elevation, a landmark having the signal tower announcing the arrival of ships.

In the dim past, the Phcenieians are said to have made their famous purple dyes on these shores, and then the Greeks came, naming the place Telonion, their Eoman successors calling it Telo Martins. It was of little pretension, however, till the eighteenth century. In 1707 it successfully resisted Prince Eugene and the Anglo-Dutch fleets, and was strongly fortified afterward, but in the French Revolution, the Eoyalists holding it, gave possession to the English, in August, 1793. The French conducted a vigorous six weeks' siege in the autumn, capturing it in De- cember, Napoleon, then an artillery oflSicer, winning his first distinction in these operations. In 1902, in reconstructing the barracks, were found the bones of over a thousand soldiers stretched in layers, without trace of coffins, the victims of the siege. An elabo- rate modem fountain has been erected, in memory of these wars, in the chief public square, the Place de la Liberte. While the population exceeds a hundred thousand, Toulon has little to show besides the naval works. The Hotel de Ville, fronting the old quay, has sculptures by Puget, and in its squares, a colossal bronze, the Genius of Navigation. The venerable

374 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Cathedral of Ste. Marie Majeure, built in the eleventh century, has a modern fagade and belfry, with some of the interior decorations also by Puget. The extensive arsenal, planned by Vauban, and be- gun by Louis XIV, covers about a square mile, and employs ordinarily fifteen thousand operatives. Every kind of naval work is done here, and numerous warships usually are in the harbor. The spacious Seamen's Hospital of St. Mandrier is on Cape Cepet, nestling under a high hill, which gives a fine view over the harbor. The French naval manoeuvres are usually conducted in the extensive roadstead, of over sixty square miles surface, formed by the four lies d'llyeres, stretching to the eastward, lying off and beyond the long peninsula of Giens, projecting far into the sea.

In a bay on the mainland of this roadstead, bordered by salt marshes, is the town of Hyeres, protected from the northern winds by wooded hills behind, rising northeastward into the Maures moun- tains, an outlier of the Maritime Alps. This is the oldest of the Mediterranean coast winter resorts, pos- sibly now outshone by the more fashionable Eiviera towns farther east, but having many sojourners. It is a quiet place, with magnificent gardens of oleanders, palms, olive and orange trees, and is a prolific supplier of Paris with early vegetables, strawberries and flowers, chiefly violets. The date palm is numerous in the street adornments, but the

THE NAVAL STATION OF FRANCE 375

dates do not ripen. An imposing avenue of palms leads from the railway station to the town, and the public square, similarly adorned, has a pyramid erected to its great benefactor. Baron Stulz, a Ger- man tailor who made a London fortune, which he benevolently invested at Ilyeres. The townsman of chief renown, however, was the preacher Massilon, bom in 1GG3, his bronze statue standing in the Place de la Eepublique. All about, the hills and shores are dotted with villas and hotels, and from an elevation of 700 feet the ruins of the ancient castle overlook the to\\Ti. Off the extensive roadstead, and enclosing it, are the four lies d'Or, which were the ancient Stoechades, all fortified, but having scant population. The Mediterranean coast trends north- east from Ilyeres, with many winter resorts along the strand, and rising behind them is the Maures range. On its side, are the ruins of the great Saracen stronghold, Le Fraxinet, built to control this district in the ninth century, and most of the villages were originally Saracen settlements. Near the northeastern extremity of the range is Le Muy, the tower held by the Provengals in 1536, when they tried to kill Charles V, who was besieging it. They fired at him, as they supposed, but killed instead the noted Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega, whose gor- geous costume made them think he was the king.

Fiftv miles northeast of Ilvores, and a mile back from the sea, is Frejus, famous for Roman remains.

376 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the mountain torrent of the Argens having silted up the ancient harbor. It was Julius Casar's strong- hold, the Forum Julii, which Augustus extended, sending here the galleys captured from Antony at Actium, 31 B. C. It has dwindled to a town of about four thousand people, the old walls enclosing a very much larger space than now populated. Septimus Severus built the amphitheatre, of which the foimdations and part of the gallery are preserved. There are Roman baths, and the Porte Doree, lead- ing to the harbor, lias been restored. The Butte St. Antoine, a large mound built to protect the harbor from the northwest winds blowing down the Argens gorge, still exists with three towers, one having been a lighthouse, and a similar mound is at the eastern verge of the filled-up harbor. There are also ample remains of the old aqueduct on arches sixty feet high, which brought the water twenty-five miles from the northeastern mountains. At Frejus were bom Agricola the general, Koscius the actor and Cornelius Gallus the poet. The adjacent village of St. Eaphael is a popular watering place, with a grand sea-front of villas and foliage-bordered promenades, extend- ing over two miles. Here Napoleon landed on his return from Egypt in 1799, and here he embarked when exiled to Elba in 1814. The Esterel stretches down to the coast beyond, with splendid cliffs, a volcanic formation of red and gray rocks bearing forests of pine and corkwood. In it is the diminu-

CANNES TO NICE 377

tive but deeply indented harbor Agay, which was Ptolemy's Agathon, the bold headland of Cape Eoux rising 1,500 feet, one of the best outlooks from the Esterel.

CANNES TO NICE.

The coast, to the northeastward, makes a grand semicircle around the pleasant Gulf of Xapoul, and we have come to ancient Liguria. This was the strip of land along the shore from the Esterel to Genoa, enclosed by the Maritime Alps and the Appenines, and now called the Riviera, meaning literally " the shore." It is mountainous throughout, the high ranges at the back sending down their foothills, promontories and deep valleys to the water's edge, and leaving here and there a few comparatively level spaces at the valley oj)enings and the mouths of the torrents. It is rugged, but fertile, has a grand moun- tain environment, and displays magnificent scenery. The climate is superb and the slopes facing the south- ward have luxuriant vegetation, growing varieties of fruits, and especially the olive tree, which is culti- vated in terraces upon the lower mountain sides. Charming villages nestle in the valleys, but the streams, which are torrents in winter and spring, are usually dry and rocky canyons in summer. Its salubrity and beauty have given the Riviera world- wide celebrity, its winters are genial, it has many visitors, and there have been developed famous water-

378 THE MEDITERRANEAN

ing places along the shore, attracting the health- seekers and fashionables who make a whirl of gaiety throughout the season.

Spreading along the magnificent hills enclosing the Gulf of Xapoul, its hotels and villas surrounded by gardens, is Cannes, looking out upon the sea and the lies de Lerins, beyond the bold Pointe de la Croisette in front. A breakwater keeps off the waves, which occasionally get so fierce as to batter the sea-wall protecting the Boulevard de la Croisette, the admirable esplanade skirting the harbor. The attrac- tive Alices de la Liberte extend from its western end into town, being adorned with a marble statue of Lord Chancellor Brougham of England, who began com- ing to Cannes in 1834, made its fashionable reputa- tion, and died here in 1868. Projected into the sea, to the westward, is the elevated Mont Chevalier, giv- ing a superb view, having around it old Cannes, before it got fame, and without much change since, this being its picturesque quarter, the Suquet. The quaint thirteenth century church of Xotre Dame de I'Esperance, and the ruins of a tower and castle, are on the summit. Cannes has great antiquity, the Sar- acens destroyed it in the eighth and tenth centuries, but it was revived and colcmized from Genoa. All around the town the hill slopes are dotted with villas, the country is beautiful and highly cultivated, and a paradise of semi-troi)ical vegetation. Oranges, lemons, figs, almonds, peaches and olives grow in

CANNES TO NICE 379

profusion, the gardens blooming with flowers and shrubs, from which perfumes are made. In a magni- ficent valley about seven miles from the sea, open to the southward and sheltered from cold winds, is Grasse at a thousand feet elevation, the resort of many delicate invalids, who cannot stay near the coast. It is on an eminence, with steep and narrow winding streets, quaintly picturesque, having tradi- tions going back to the sixth century, and next to Paris, is the chief manufactory of French perfumes. About sixty thousand acres, in the vales and on the favoring hill slopes, are devoted to the cultivation of flowers, there being annually grown about two million pounds of roses and four million pounds of orange flowers. One French litre of essence is said to require twenty-five thousand pounds of roses and sells for $450.

The two lies de Lerins, in the offing, are now pleasure resorts. On St. llonorat, the outermost, is the Cistercian Monastery of Lerins which that saint founded in the fifth century, now an orphan asylum, having been disestablished. An old keep, among the buildings, was long used as a refuge from pirates. Ste. Marguerite, the inner and much larger island, is stocked with pheasants, has a i)icturesque surface, and commands an excellent view of Cannes and the grand environment of mountains. Upon its northern side is the chateau and j)rison-fort where the myste- rious " ]\ran with the Iron ^lask " was confined for

380 THE ^lEDlTERRANEAN

eleven years until in 1698 he was taken to the Bastille in Paris, where he died in 1703. Marshal Bazaine, when court-martialled by the French in 1873 for the downfall of Metz, was sent here a prisoner, but managed to escape in August, 1874.

The beautiful Gulf Juan is east of Cannes, bounded by the verdant and villa-crowned Cape An- tibes, projecting far into the sea. Xapoleon, when ho returned from Elba in 1815, landed in this Gulf, a column at Vallouris village marking it. Antibes, on the eastern side of the Cape, is a seaport created by Louis XIV, at the Roman town of Antipolis, Vauban having constructed its breakwater, and also the picturesque castle, Fort Carre, overlooking the harbor. The coast trends northeastward from Antibes to Xice, a dozen miles away, and the splendid esplanade of the Front de Mer, gives a magnificent outlook over the sea, as far as Xice, with the enclos- ing range of distant snow-covered Alps. The tor- rent of the Var rushes down a pretty gorge, the most important river of the I.igurian shore, and the eastern French boundary before Xice was annexed. Eastward of the Var, the widespreading Baie des Anges receives, through a broad and stony bed, a small stream called the Paillon. An encircling am- phitheatre of hills rises to the northward, culminat- ing in Mont Chauve, protecting the bay shores from the northern winds, and making a most delicious and equable winter climate. In this superb location is

CANNES TO NICE 881

Nice, the great resort of the Eiviera, having a hun- dred thousand permanent population, swollen in the season by the vast numbers of invalids and tourists, who seek refuge from the inclemency of Xorthem Europe. The fashionable period begins with the Nice races, early in January, and closes with the Nice regatta in April, but the place is filled with visitors from October until May, though all vanish when sum- mer comes. The culmination is during the carnival festivities preceding Lent. The temperature aver- ages 60°, being 49° in winter and 5G° in spring.

Marseilles colonists came to this shore, overpow- ered the Ligurians and named their settlement Xicsea. It was an active Roman seaport, suffered from Goths and Saracens, and afterward in the Provengal wars, ultimately becoming part of the king- dom of Sardinia, but in 18G0 being annexed with Savoy to France. The Chateau, a steep and isolated limestone hill, rising over 300 feet, and extending back some distance from the shore, is the nucleus of the older town. Formerly there was a cro\\Tiing cas- tle, one of the strongest forts of this coast, but it was destroyed by the English in 1706, the ancient Tour Bellanda being a relic. Its plateau, now a pleasure ground, gives a fine outlook, the precipitous southern slope descending abruptly to the sea, and from the gusts of wind around it, being called the Rauba Capeu, or the " hat robber." The Quai du Midi ex- tends westward from this hill along the sea fmnt.

382 THE MEDITERRANEAN

being prolonged toward the Var in the Promenade des Anglais. Famous sons of Nice, of whom the city is proud, were Marshal Massena, bom in 1758, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in 1807.

At the eastern base of the Chateau hill, is the small harbor called Port Lympia, from a spring on its verge, the sea entrance being protected by break- waters. Charles Felix, king of Sardinia, made the harbor, and his marble statue adorns the shore, under shadow of the hill. The older to^vn is built all around, and on the eastern bank of the Paillon, but the original contracted lanes are replaced by better streets and buildings near the shore. The modern city extends westward, and the broad bed of the little river has been availed of as a site for most of the public resorts, the stream being completely covered in, while to the northward it is bordered by fine boulevards leading to the suburbs. Upon its bed are an extensive Casino, the Square Massena, with the Marshal's bronze statue, the Square Garibaldi with that hero's monument, and the Public Garden, stretching to the sea, and having the Centenary Mon- ument, commemorating the first union of France with Xice in 1792. This region of elaborate artis- tic and horticultural development, is the chief resort of the hosts of visitors. From the. Place Massena, known popularly as the " Stranger's Quarter," be- tween the Casino and the Public Garden, the Eue Massena extends, westward, prolonged as the Eue de

CANNES TO NICE 383

France, Where they join is the " Marble Cross " marking the spot where Pope Paul III brought to- gether the Emperor Charles V and King Francis I, in 1538, to make a peace. Everywhere, luxuriant foliage and flowers adorn the strt?ets and gardens. The Promenade des Anglais is a magnificent es- planade, fronting the newer town, curving with the shore and bordered by grand hotels and splendid villas, that have a fine outlook over the sea. It was built by the English residents in lb'22 and later, to give work for the unemployed and hence the name.

The Roman town of CV'menelum was on the northern hills, and here are Konian remains, in- cluding an ampliitheatre and baths, and a Temple of Apollo. There also was a Temple of Diana, and on its foundations the Capuchin monastery of Cimiez, the present name, was built in the sixteenth century. Xow, the town is an aggregation of hotels and board- ing houses. St. Pons monastery is up the Paillon, built on the spot where the Koman Senator St. Pontius was martyred in the third century. Farther northward is the nuignificent outlook of Chateauneuf, elevated 2,300 feet, and now imoccupied, but said to have been originally constructed by the Xicians as a refuge from the barbarians. The huge Maritime Alps, back of Xice, rise in peaks 10,000 feet high,

and are the Italian boundarv.

«■

The ponderous marble j)romontory of Montboron, elevated COO feet, the termination of a mountain

384 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

ridge, separates the harbor of Nice from the land- locked roadstead of Villefranche, to the eastward, while the railroad connecting them goes through a ^ tunnel in the marble a mile long. Montboron is strongly fortified, and behind it is the higher hill of Montalban with sixteenth century defences. Far- ther northward, the hill rises 1,200 feet as the Vin- aigrier, so called from the sour grapes it produces. To the northeast, on Mont Gros, is the famous observatory, with one of the largest refracting tele- scopes in Europe, a thirty inch lens. The magnifi- cent bay of Villefranche is the real harbor of Xice, and the mecca of all the navies, when their squadrons go to this attractive coast for evolutions during the fashionable season. Villefranche nestles deeply down amid the encircling hills, and oif the quaint little town the squadrons execute their practice drills, all hands enjoying an almost perpetual picnic, marked by receptions and balls and the important frivolities of the social world. Thus this splendid district has a seductive charm for the pleasure seekers of all nations.

THE CORNICHE BOAD.

The Mediterranean coast eastward from Nice, fronts the Maritime Alps, and is formed of bold headlands and deeply indented bays, their surround- ing precipitous hills rising in the background into towering mountains. Climbing the Montboron

THE CORNICHE ROAD 385

ridge at the edge of the sea, begins the celebrated Comiche Eoad, from 2s ice to Genoa, the " Eoute of the Cornice." It is a splendid highway, mainly a broad ledge cut out of the rocky faces of the steep marble mountains, and running along but high above the beautiful shore. These cliffs slope precipitously down to the water, their luxuriant foliage contrasting with the deep blue of the Mediterranean. The route originally was little more than a mule path trod for centuries, but for military reasons Napoleon made it a great highway, so that his armies could turn the Alps and march into Italy. Thus was constructed the renowned Road of the Cornice, which the Riviera visitors so much admire. It winds a steep zigzag up the eastern heights from Nice, amid luxuriant vegetation, and looks down in retrospect upon the town and the stony Paillon ravine, and sea- ward far awav tow^ard the distant shores of Corsica.

t/

Then crossing the top of the promontory, it rounds the grand bay to the peninsula of St. Jean beyond, projecting far into the sea, and having on its eastern side another wide bay.

Here is Beaulieu, a newer resort of handsome villas, mostly on a promontory facing eastward toward the sea, and so balmy and even warm is the winter climate that ordinary hothouse plants flourish in the open air in January. One part of the settle- ment is so hot all winter that it is called " Little

Africa." The late Lord Salisbury and the Grand Vol. 1—25

386 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Duke Peter of Eussia set the fashion for Beaulieu. Dark green olive trees flourish here throughout the year, living to a great age, and some are of enormous size. The Peninsula of St. Jean gets its name from a fishing village at the outer end, founded in the sixteenth century by the Knights of St. John who had been expelled from Ehodes. A narrow and crooked subsidiary peninsula projects eastward, St. Hospice, having an old chapel and statue of the Virgin. The famous road winds along above the sea, eastward from Beaulieu, reaching the village of Ezc, on a steep hill of toilsome ascent. Here is a ruined fort, said to have been a Saracenic strong- hold. Farther along, the rocks again project at Cap d'Ail, or " Garlic Point " where there are more pleasant villas. The Corniche road steadily climbs upward, reaching 1,800 feet elevation, and being somewhat back from the shore, upon the elevated slope, and here it comes to old Turbia, whence the visitor can look far across at Monaco, down by the shore, like a tiny model city on the edge of the deep blue sea. At Turbia, in picturesque ruin, is the Roman tower of Tropaca Augusti, built by Augustus, 6 B. C. to mark the boundary between Italy and Gaul, and the subjection of the Ligurians. The present tower in dilapidation, was built upon the other as a foundation, in the thirteenth century. A mountain railway brings the people up here from Monaco and Monte Carlo, to tlie Corniche road to

MONACO AND MONTE CARLO 387

get the magnificent view over the sea and adjacent shores stretching all the way from Cannes to Ven- timiglia. This view is universally admired, and Tennyson in the Daisy, telling the story of his wed- ding tour, wrote :

What Koman strength Turbia showed In ruins by the mountain road;

How like a gem beneath, the city Of little Monaco, basking, glowed!

MONACO AND MONTE CABLO.

The famous cliff of Monaco, a curious and cir- cumscribed peninsula of solid rock, is thrust into the sea about nine miles east of Nice. It is little more than two miles long, and from one-third to two- thirds of a mile wide, being elevated 200 feet above the water, with an adjacent domain along the shore, making about six square miles of territory for the sovereign principality of Monaco, the little capital with its gardens and adornments being terraced on the rock, a miniature town defended by ancient ram- parts. Standing anywhere in this diminutive king- dom, one can shoot a rifle ball over the boundary. Scions of the ancient Genoese house of Grimaldi rule it, Albert I being the Prince who heads the sovereign state, which issues its own coinage and postage stamps, and has a standing army of five generals and one hundred and twentv other officers and men. It also has a cathedral with a bishop, papal delegate, vicar

388 THE MEDITERRANEAN

general, several monsignors and numerous priests. There are about sixteen thousand population, and a million and a half visitors Avill come in some sea- sons to see this place which has been described as " wonderful and wicked." The Prince owes alle- giance to France, which purchased control, when Xice was annexed in 18 GO, paying $G00,000. The situation is magnificent, the sun seeming almost al- ways shining, the vegetation profuse, and sky and sea alike of the richest and deepest blue.

The Phoenicians first settled here, and then came Greeks from Marseilles, who built on the rock a temple to Hercules Monikos, meaning the " isolated home," whence the name of Monaco is derived. At first, the figure of Hercules was in its armorial bear- ings, but a monk was afterward substituted. The Saracens got control, and when their power waned, the first Grimaldi, Lord of Antibes, and his valiant son Giballin, drove them from the Ligurian shore, and the German Emperor Otho T, in gratitude, granted them the Lordship of Monaco. But their chivalry retrograded, and the rock became a nest of pirates, levying toll upon all commerce, a right not given up until the close of the eighteenth century. The legend of Monaco, for centuries has been : " En- throned on a rock, I neither sow nor reap, yet I live long." It is said that Xapolcon, when he landed on this coast, returning from Elba in 1815, encountered

Casino, Monte Carlo.

MONACO AND MONTE CARLO 389

Prince Honore IV of Monaco travelling toward his capital, and said to him: " Ha! you are here; you go to Monaco to be enthroned ; I go to the Tuileries." Thus Monaco has always existed by preying upon others. The original Griuialdi has been described as more of a pirate than a prince, and for seven centuries, his successors had their galleys roaming the sea, their income arising from the tolls and ran- soms of vessels. Their rocky home growing little food, these adventurers had a varied existence, being often in dire distress. Finally, Genoa, ^ice and Marseilles united in opposing their piracies and com- pelled cessation. For over a half century, the Grim- aldis waited half starved on their rock for some- thing to turn up, and it came in 1800, when the noted M. Blanc, driven from Ilomburg with his gaming tables, found an asylum and renewed fortune at Monaco. He got a concession, running until 1913, agreeing to support financially the Prince and his Government, built his gambling palace of Monte Carlo upon the rocky slopes of the Speliigues, a short distance eastward on the shore, and converted the place into a paradise. The Prince devoted most of his enlarged revenues to the decoration of his old capital, restored the palace, built the sumptuous cathedral and various beneficent structures. Thus Monaco still lives, the world yet contributing to the Grimaldis, and after 1913 some other method of doing this will

390 THE MEDITERRANEAN

probably be devised. Every new attraction is availed of, and in 1909 the modern quay of the little port was fitted up for aviators.

Monaco proper, the older town, is situated pic- turesquely on the promontory, while the new settle- ment is around the bay, a much larger to^\^l of huge hotels and villas, stretching along the shore to and beyond the Monte Carlo Casino. Everywhere are orange groves and luxuriant gardens, while behind the town and promontory rise the towering heights of the Mont Tete de Chien, elevated 1,900 feet, and the Mont de la Justice. Thus the background is magnificently terraced up to Turbia and the Comiche Bead, the mountain railway climbing up there along the slope of a pretty ravine. Upon the Monaco rock, the Prince's palace occupies the landward end, with the town to the southward. This palace has crenel- lated towers, but has been modernized, and there is a splendid view from the parapet. The interior is superbly decorated, the frescoes representing the feats of Hercules and also of the Grimaldis, with a triumphal procession of Bacchus by Caravaggio. The Duke of York's suite of rooms, is named for the brother of George III, who died here. In the palace square are ancient guns presented by Louis XIV, and here the entire standing army is regularly mustered in review, for the delectation of the visitors — the soldiers in the Grinialdi colors, light blue with red and white facings, and the gendarmes in dark

MONACO AND MONTE CARLO 391

blue with cocked hats and swords. The old town is a collection of quaint buildings on narrow and crooked streets, with solid ramparts crowning the rock, numerous churches and shrines, the noble cathedral, and a fine road winding down the eastern slopes to the settlement and harbor below. Monaco is regarded as the cleanest and best policed city of the Riviera.

Gambling is prohibited by law in Monaco, and the law is strictly enforced, for the good reason that the right is sold for a concession which keeps the whole government in operation. About a mile east of the capital is the precipitous slope of the flat- headed cape where most of the old-time pirates dwelt, and called from time immemorial the Spelugues, or the " Plain of the Robbers." It then was a mass of barren rocks, but a road was opened to Mentone, and convict labor employed to carry soil thither, and on it in 1858 the Casino was bcgim, supervised by Charles Gamier from Paris, and it has been de- veloped with great magnificence. It was named Monte Carlo from the Prince of that name, Charles III, who for twenty-five years before his death in 1889 was blind, living most of the time a recluse. To the gaming establishment, thus set up, came the rich, the gay and the frivolous from all the world. It is a magnificent establishment, mounted high on the rock, the beautiful terrace and gardens having a superb outlook over the sea. All around and be-

392 THE MEDITEIIRAXEAN

hind, on the shore, the eminences and slopes, are hotels and villas, mostly white structures embosomed in verdure, and having to the northward the enclos- ing border of the distant gray Alpine peaks.

When M. Blanc died he left a fortune of $12,000,- 000, and in November, 1907, his granddaugliter and heiress. Princess 3i[arie Bonaparte, married Prince George, the second son of the King of Greece, then the high Commissioner of the European Powers in Crete. The Casino is now owned by a corporation with $3jOOO,000 capital, the shares being listed on the Paris Bourse. !Xo ilonaco inhabitant can gam- ble, only strangers being admitted to the gaming tables. The railway brings the visitors to the foot of the rock, and they mount to the terrace and gar- dens, by a grand stairway or an excellent road. Ad- mission is free, but the stranger must present his card ; the games played are " Koulette " and ** Trente et Quarante " ; and the stakes are limited — in the former not less than 5 francs nor more than 6,000 francs, and 20 to 12,000 francs in the latter. The gaming is profitable for the bank, despite the expense of keeping up the establishment. The corporation owning the Casino is the " Societe des Bains de Mer et Cercle Etrangers," which is translated to mean the " Society of Sea Bathing and Foreigners' Club." In 1005 it did business producing $8,000,000 revenues and expended $2,400,000, so that $5,000,000 profit

MONACO AND MONTE CARLO 893

remained. The shares are $100 par, quoted up to $700 at times and paying dividends of $10 to $50. There are no taxes in Monaco as this company pays all expenses of government, provides free schools, fire protection, courts, light, water and sewage, sup- ports the whole official staff, army, gendarmes and police, gives $r)0,000 to the manngcr of the theatre, a similar amount to the orchestra, and about $300,- 000 to the croupiers and other employes of the Casino. It does all the j)olicing and cleaning of the town, sup- ports the jail, and makes all the improvements. The Prince gets $;]r)0,000 annual " rent," the Tresident of the Casino $20,000, the Director General $8,000, and the other Directors $1,000. The army and court expenses are provided for by $125,000 ad- ditional, $500,000 are devoted to amusements, and to keep up the buildings and gardens costs $150,000 more. There are over sixty-five hotels in the place, but the visitors support all these, and building lots sell at prices rivalling Broadway and Fifth Avenue in Xew York, or Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

The " Societe " has its official newspaper organ, the " Rouge et Noir," reporting the doings of the gay world at ilonte Carlo, and it also gives a " sub- vention to the press " for keeping quiet, of $100,000 to $150,000 annually, out of which one Paris journal is said to draw about $15,000. Pensions are also

394 • THE MEDITERRANEAN

paid once rich ^len who lost their fortunes at the ta- bles, and to people who go broke and cannot get home unless helped. One Englishman is referred to, who lost $400,000 and gets $50 a week. There also is a mysterious tale at Monaco of an " etranger " who came from Chicago, played all day, won $100,000, and then got out of town, giving them no chance to win back. The people who come to Monaco with schemes to " break the bank " are myriad, but some- how they do not do it. Xo finer place exists in the world, for the " Societo " knows it must keep up the attractions. All this goes along in a region of sur- passing beauty, which Tennyson years ago described as " a gem, basking, glowing in the sunlight." The buildings and grounds are embellished in every way. There are reading and conversation rooms, a picture gallery, winter garden, tennis courts and all kinds of amusements, while outside the Casino entrance aro imposing statues of Music, executed by Sara Bern- hardt and Dancing by Gustavo Dorc. The gaming proceeds amid the most gorgeous beauties of nature, developed in the richest glow of light and color, with the scent of magnolias and orange blossoms, plashing fountains, the sound of delicious music, and the gen- tle murmur of the deep blue Mediterranean dowTi by the curving shore. This paradise has been well described as the Garden of Eden of the modern world, but the thought of how it is maintained gives a force- ful reminder of Poe's " City in the Sea " :

Gambling Room, Casino; Monte Carlo.

MEXTOXE TO SAN REMO 395

When, amid no earthly moans

Down, down, that town shall settle hence.

Hell, rising from a thousand thrones, Shall do it reverence.

MENTOXE TO SAN REMO.

Cape Martin is another bold promontory east of Monte Carlo, through ^vhich the railway passes in a tunnel, while the Corniche Koad, approaching nearer the sea, zigzags over tlie top. Here is Itoccabruna, surrounded by orange and lemon groves, and having high above a ruined castle. Fine old trees cover the cape, making a park for tlie hotel on its extremity, a signal tower being on its highest point, with the re- mains of an ancient convent. The Villa Cyrnos, overlooking the sea from the western slope, is one of the homes of Emi)ress Eugenie. Another ridge pro- jects to the eastward, with a gentle bay on either hand, and here upon the summit and its slopes is Mentone, the little harbor having a protective break- water with a lighthouse. Small torrents have cut down picturesque ravines in the enclosing hills, and the beauty of the situation has made another popular Riviera resort, onibosoniod in lemon and orange groves, with figs and olives, and sometimes selling a crop of forty million lemons. This place was originally held by the Grimaldis, but became inde- pendent in 1848, and now belongs to France. Steep and tortuous streets on the top and sides of the ridge, make the older town, with St. ]\Iichacrs Church con-

396 THE MEDITERRANEAN

spicuous, reconstructed after its partial ruin by the earthquake of 1887. The magnificent tropical gar- dens, covering sixty acres, on the slopes stretching down to the sea, are the finest on the Riviera. Along the bay east of the ridge, is the Garavan, and here are the partly destroyed grottoes of the Kochers- Rouges, or tlie " Red Rocks," where prehistoric skeletons were found tliat are exhiluted in the Hotel de Ville.

The torrent of St. Louis rushes down into this East bay, the Corniche Road being carried over the gorge by an airy bridge more than 200 feet high. This torrent is the boundary between France and Italy, and beyond it, the railway train goes through the marble ridges by repeated tunnels, with the famous road mounting by successive inclines and windings over their tops, and the Italian fortress of Ventimig- lia is reached where the customs officers appear. Its name is a corruption of its Roman title, Albium In- termilium, when it was the ancient capital of the Ligurian tribe, the Intermolii. Two streams, the Roya and Xeuri, flow over wide stony beds, insignifi- cant during most of the year, but raging torrents when the mountain snows are melting, and Ventimig- Ha grandly covers the hill top rising from their ravines, the cathedral crowning the summit, and on a commanding height beyond being the ruins of the old Castle d'Appio, once their chief defence.

Bordighera, famous for its palms, is three miles

MEXTOXE TO SAX KEMO 397

eastward. It proudly crowiis the rocky elevation of the Capo di Ampeglio, its memory being of the time when it was a republic, and ruled several subject towns. Xow it is a favorite winter resort, and its hotels and villas spread along tlio shore below the heights, excelling in flower gardens and date palms, their branches, supplied to the churches for Palm Sunday, being its largest product. Some of these palm trees are a thousand years old, and there are more of them in these magnificent groves than in Judea, where ihey were so numenms that they be- came the national emblem. The palm leaves annu- ally blessed at St. Peter's in Rome are supplied from here, this service originating when the obelisk of Ileliopolis was brought from Egypt to Rome in 15S6, by Pope Sixtus V, to be erected in the Piazza of St. Peter's. A great crowd gathered, and silence was enjoined under penalty of death. At the critical moment when being swung in place, the ropes were strained and it was feared the obelisk would fall. Then a sailor in the crowd — Bresca of San Remo — disregarding the penalty, shouted " Acqua alle funi " — " Wet the ropes I " This was done, the ropes contracted, and the monolith was saved and placed in its present position. The bold sailor was pardoned, and asked what reward he wished. lie desired to provide the Easter palms at Rome, and the privilege is still held by his descendants at Bordi- ghera.

398 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Beyond the villa-bordered bay of Ospedaletti, rises the high promontory of Cape Nero, having an- other beautiful bay on the farther side. Here, be- tween the ravines of two mountain streams, is San Remo, the special refuge of the most delicate in- valid, as it has the balmiest climate on this favored shore. Olive groves, with houses embosomed, cover the valleys and lower slopes, and forests and moun- tain flora are above, the ranges rising in the back- ground to about 8,000 feet. The old towTi is on the hill between the torrents, the narrow and stair-like streets descending the slopes, wdth tall houses, some painted in gay colors, having flying buttresses and arched gateways, while flights of steps abound. High above some of the streets, the tops of the houses are connected by masonry arches, designed to keep them from being thrown down by earthquakes, frequent on this coast. The newer town along the shore and on the enclosing hills, is all the growth of the last half-century. Its gorgeous modem street, the Via Vittorio Emanuele, is resplendent with shops. The small harbor has a protecting break- water, and on the hill, the landmark for the mariner, is the white and dome-crowned church of Madonna della Costa, the venerated shrine of the ancient town.

San Eemo was the Grecian Leucothea, and the Roman Matistra, being early Christianized by St.

MENTOXE TO SAN REMO 399

Ormisdas and St. Sirus, its Cathedral of St. Siro being named after the latter. The barbarians got it, and then the Saracens, but when they were expelled from Liguria, the place took the name of San Romolo from a sixth century bishop, his saint's day, October 13th, being its special fete. The name finally was changed to San Eemo, and the Genoese got posses- sion in the eighteenth century. Proud of their de- scent from the ancient Ligurians, the people are patriotic, and though many emigrate to seek fortunes elsewhere, they usually return to end their days on these sunny shores. Several villas, adorned with the gayest colors, have been built by townsmen who got a competence in far-away America. To the eastward is the high, foliage-covered i)romontory of Capo Verde, surmounted by the conspicuous church of the Madonna della Guardia, seen from afar, the railroad being tunnelled through the marble cliff beneath. Bevond, the shore line trends to the northeast and olive groves are everywhere, the oils being the chief export. This district was devastated by earthquakes during the last century, the worst one in 1887. Back of the cape, up a broadening valley, and on an emi- nence, are the ruins of Bussana, then destroyed. The coast has at intervals low and ponderous towers, built a thousand years ago, for defence against the Saracens, and some are dwellings now. Numerous torrents flow out through wide and stony ravines,

400 THK MEDIIKKUANKAN

and alongside one is San Lorenzo, on a cliff bc^ side the sea, with its tall campanile tower, of which Tennyson wrote in the Daisy:

What slender campanilii grew By bays, the peacock's neck in hue, While here and there, on sandy beaches, A milk-belled amaryllis blew!

Beyond, and each with a busy harbor, are Porto Maurizio and Oncglia, which export the finest olive oils, the entire country abounding in olive groves. The rude Mediterranean coasters move about, with their picturesque lateen sails, and manned by dark- eyed swarthy sailors, apparently the same now as during remote centuries. Oneglia was the birthplace in 1460 of the famous Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, who served the French king Francis I, but afterward, in 1528, delivered Genoa from the French rule. He then assembled the populace, and sacrific- ing personal ambition, recommended the formation of the Genoese republic, which continued till 1815. Doria was made Censor for life, with the title of " Father and Liberator of his Country." lie con- ducted many campaigns, conquered the pirates, de- feated the Turks, and after a very active life, made his last voyage when 85 years old. Doria was the great Christian champion on the Mediterranean, and the unrelenting foe of the iloslem. In 155C, at the age of 90, he resigned all his offices, and died in 1560

APPROACHING (iKXOA 401

aged 94. Ariosto sang bis praises^ and he passed his later years in and near Genoa.

APPHOACIIIXG GENOA.

The magnificent curve of the Gulf of Genoa, in its enclosure of mountains, grandly rounding from the northwest to the southeast, presents a most beautiful view over the Mediterranean. Here is Alassio, named from the daughter of the Emperor Otho, who fled here to be near her cliosen lover. Albenga, be- yond, was the Koman Albingaunum, and has the ruins of a bridge built by Hadrian, which now spans only a dry meadow where then was a stream. Its noble cathedral, with impressive fagade and crowning towers, stands on the site of a heathen temple. There are unhealthy marshes here, so that the expression is used of the "Albenga face," for anyone whose ap- pearance is commiserated. In all the villages along this shore are churches and hospitals built by the generosity of the Dorias. Twenty-seven miles from Genoa is Savona, the largest tovai in this part of the Kiviera, having a handsome cathedral and a busy harbor, protected by a fort. Xearby, the torrent Senscobbia flows out with Abbissola on its shores, where Popes Sixtus IV and Julius II were born. Seven miles farther, among the rocks, are the ship- yards of Varrazze, building vessels for Genoa, about in the same way as for centuries. In these shipyards

Columbus is said to have flrst been inspired to become Vol. 1—20

402 THE MEDITERRANEAN

a sailor. At Cogoletto, adjacent, his birthplace is claimed, and a monument was erected in 1888, though this claim is probably erroneous, as he is be- lieved to have been born in Genoa, about 1426. When he was very young, however, the family re- moved here. The old house, claimed as his birth- place, bears this inscription :

Travellers, stop at this house!

It was here that Christopher Columbus,

The greatest man in the world,

First saw the light,

Here in this humble house!

There was only one world:

This man spoke and there were two.

A noisy torrent rushes through the village, and ser- pentine rocks environ it. Tennyson was here, and in the Daisy pays his devoirs to the Columbian memory :

Now, pacing mute by ocean's rim; Till in a narrow street and dim, I stayed the wheels at Cogoletto, And drank, and loyally drank, to him.

The Milk River, the Fiume di Lette, pours wildly dowTi the marble hills, and out through the opening is got a splendid view of the quays and palaces of " Genova La Superba," seen far over the water, and up the heights behind. We are practically in the city suburbs, and come at Pegli to about the last resort on this noble Riviera shore, where the winter sojourner lingers. Luxurious villas are dotted on the Pegli hills in lovely grounds, originally homes of the

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY 403

Grimaldis, the Dorias, the Pallivicini and others, who retired here from the city. The decoration is in the florid Italian fashion, and the landscaj^e garden- ing shows that the aim in this warm climate, is to create luxuriant shade and ample moisture, with fountains of running waters amid the delicious vege- tation. Here is the famous Villa Doria where the Admiral passed the evening of his days, its grounds stretching down to the border of the sea, and dis- playing most lovely views of mountain, coast and city. A castle crowns the summit of the Villa Palli- vicini, the surface decorations representing a siege, with a mausoleum for the fallen heroes.

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY.

The grand semicircular Bay of Genoa is thrust far up from the Ligurian Sea, into the very bosom of the Alps. At the apex is the little harbor which made the port of Genoa, and the noble shores stretch- ing for miles away toward the southwest and south- east, on either side of the famous city, look out upon each other, and are known as the Riviera di Ponente, or the " setting sun," toward the west ; and the Riviera di Levante, the " rising sun," toward the east. The approach to Genoa from the sea is mag- nificent. The original little port has been extended by artificial breakwaters, and is crowded with ves- sels, while along the narrow strip of comparatively level land upon the shore, the city spreads from the

404 THE MEDITERRANEAX

noble lighthouse on the west, to the ravine of the Bisagno on the east. From this strip, there rises on the hill slopes a mass of marble palaces, gardens, streets and houses, stretching far away to the cul- minating point of the " Spur " on Monte Peraldo, elevated 1,650 feet, where is the great fort of Sperone. The higher distant Alps form the splendid background to this noble view, which is enhanced by the many palaces, erected on numerous eminences by the Genoese patricians during centuries of commer- cial success. The city is the chief port of Italy and the queen of the Riviera, controlling the commerce of the greater part of the kingdom, and has over 250,- 000 population. We are told that while other Ital- ian cities devoted themselves to art and intrigue, the whole energy of the Genoese was concentrated on commerce and the pursuit of gain. Several times both the city and the port have been enlarged, and it is now regarded as an impregnable fortress, a line of ramparts and defensive works extending for ten miles, from the lighthouse point on the west around to the ravine of the Bisagno, all the important parts defended by batteries, and there being about a dozen detached forts. The harbor has been repeat- edly enlarged by new breakwaters, and there are now going on works at a cost of $15,000,000 to give more dock space, which were formally begun by King Victor Emmanuel in October, 1905, in the presence of a half million people and forty-three warship?

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY 405

from all nations. The great lighthouse which guides into the port, stands on a rocky headland, its lantern elevated 384 feet and showing twenty miles at sea.

When Genoa began, or by whom it was first settled, no one now knows. The name seems to have been de- rived from the curving shore resembling the bended- knee — geniu It was Roman, and the chief town of the Ligurian shore, and for centuries afterward it maintained itself against various barbarians and the Saracens, finally coming into a great rivalry with Pisa, w^hich ended in the Genoese victory of 128G, from which Pisa never recovered, but Venice defeated Genoa in 1380. The city acquired control of much of the Mediterranean commerce, and particularly with the Levant, from which great wealth was ac- cumulated. Disputes about this treasure and trade, made much factional strife between the rival pa- tricians, who built their sumptuous marble palaces and quarrelled almost all the time, until Doria se- cured the organization of the Eepublic, which repre- sented Genoa's most successful period and subsisted until the French Eevolution. At times, however, the city was captured and held by both the French and the Austrians, but its independence finally fell, after the battle of Marengo in ISOO, when the French took it. In 1815 it became part of Sardinia, and after- ward joined the kingdom of Italy. The city, besides Columbus, has two heroes — the boy Balilla, who in 1748, when aged fifteen years, threw a stone at an

40ft THE MEDITERRANEAN

Austrian soldier, which began a popular uprising that ended in driving the Austrians out, and Joseph Mazzini, who had so much to do with the Italian revolution in 1848, and died at Pisa in 1872, after a life spent in efforts to revive Italian independence and the Genoese republic.

The older Genoa is a picturesque medley of nar- row streets and alleys, with stairways climbing the steeper slopes, and bridges spanning the valleys. Large portions are inaccessible to ordinary carriages, and some of the more important streets have scant room for traffic, porters and chairs taking the place of cabs, and goods being carried on the backs of mules. Some wider streets have been opened through the older town, while the newer sections of course have modern improvements, with fine avenues and attractive public promenades and gardens. From near the harbor, the busy street of San Lorenzo goes through the city southeast to the famous Cathedral of San Lorenzo, founded in the tenth century, and repeatedly restored and enlarged. The lower facade is built of alternate courses of black and white mar- ble, and while intended to have two towers, only one has been completed. The legend says that the foun- dation of the first church on this site was contem- porary with St. Lawrence himself. The interior contains sixteen Corinthian columns, that were built in the original structure in the twelfth century. In one of the finest of the chapels, erected in the fif-

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY 407

teenth century, and now illumined by electric lights, are the relics of John the Baptist, and it is said that on only one day in the year are women permitted to enter this chapel, because it was a woman, Salome, the daughter of Ilerodias, who procured his death. These relics, which were brought here from Palestine during the Crusades, were contained in a beautifully carved sarcophagus of alabaster, about four feet long. In explanation of this, it is said that he was of small stature, and that the head was not recovered. This sarcophagus has been in the church from its begin- ning, nearly a thousand years ago, and stands upon a pedestal at the side of the chapel, the carvings upon it representing the baptism of Jesus and incidents in the Baptist's career. The relics, however, are now enclosed in a case of lead, and deposited in a cavity chiseled in a large marble block over the altar. This case is brought out once a year, on the Saint's day, and carried in solemn procession around the church. There are relics of John the Baptist elsewhere, a fore- arm at Madrid, parts of a hand at St Petersburg, and several fingers in Kome.

The great treasure of San Lorenzo is in the sac- risty, the Sacra Catino, or the Holy Grail. This was the wonder working cup, the legend being that it was brought by Joseph of Arimathea to Britain, a shallow bowl from which Jesus and his disciples partook of the Paschal Lamb at the Last Supper. Joseph after the crucifixion, having obtained leave from Pilate to

408 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

take down the body from the cross, went first to the upper room where the supper was served and there found this vessel ; and then as he took down the body he received into it many drops of blood still issuing from the wounds in the hands, feet and side. The treasure was lost, and was long sought and fought for by King Arthur and his Knights of the Eound Table. On account of the sins of men it was said to have van- ished from Britain, and " to achieve the Holy Grail," that is to find or see it, became the height of chival- rous ambition, but the legend told that among all Arthur's knights, only one. Sir Galahad, the son of Lancelot, was sufiiciently pure in heart to be favored with the sublime vision. The cup was finally dis- covered at Csesarea in Palestine, and captured by the Genoese, who brought it here in 1101, and it was supposed to be made out of a large emerald about four inches high, and held the contents of a claret glass. Xapoleon took it to Paris, where it was ac- cidentally broken, and then it was found to be only of glass. It is octagonal in shape, was bound to- gether skilfully and returned to Genoa in 1822 ; and is one of the most sacred relics of the Catholic Church. Paganini, the violinist, was a native of Genoa, and sang in the choir of San Lorenzo, his name being carved on a chapel seat.

There are a hundred churches in Genoa, and the oldest was St. Ambrose and St. Peter, near the cathe- dral, said to have been founded in the sixth century,

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY 409

and now replaced by the Jesuit Church of St. Am- brozio, built in the sixteenth century. San Siro, the original cathedral, was built by the Benedictines in the eleventh century, and rebuilt in the sixteenth. The Annunziata is one of the largest and wealthiest Genoese churches, a huge cuneiform structure with a fine dome. Santa Maria della Vigne dates from the ninth century, and has a thirteenth century campanile, most of the present structure having been erected in the sixteenth century. Santo Stefano, dating from the tenth century, also has its ancient campanile, but has been several times rebuilt, mostly in the fourteenth century. It contains, above the high altar, Romono's famous painting of the Stoning of Stephen, carried oflF to Paris by Napoleon in 1811, but restored to the Church in 1815. San Matteo, a small Gothic structure, was the church of the Doria family of which it contains many memorials, the fagade bearing inscriptions in their honor. Mon- torsoli, the sculptor of Florence, who was brought to Genoa by Andrea Doria, executed the sculptures with which it is adorned, and also Doria's tomb, which is in the crypt below the high altar, his sword presented by the Pope being hung above. Doria's statue, in front of the church, was greatly mutilated in the Ee volution of 1797.

On the Piazza Acquaverde, in the western part of the city, and embosomed in palm trees, is the marble statue of Columbus, almost the first object greeting

410 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the visitor upon leaving the railway station. Amer- ica kneels at his feet, and the pedestal is adorned with ships' prows, the surrounding allegorical fig- ures representing Religion, Science, Strength and Wisdom, having between them reliefs of the discov- erer's history. To the westward is the Palace of Doria, presented to him by the city. It is a long and spacious structure, and in the court is a large fountain with a statue of Doria as Neptune. The Ducal Palace, which was the residence of the Genoese doges, is on the Piazzo Kuevo to which the street of San Lorenzo leads. It was completely rebuilt after a fire in the eighteenth century, and now contains the government offices and law courts. The marble palaces of the Genoese patricians are famous for their sumptuous architecture and artistic collections. The Palazzo Rosso (the Red) was the home of the Duke of Galliera, the chief modem ship owner of Genoa, and was presented to the city in 1874. It contains a fine art collection. Opposite, and named by way of contrast, is the Palazzo Bianco (the White) of the sixteenth century, bequeathed to the city in 1889, by the Duchess of Galliera and now an attractive museum. The Municipal Palace was also built in the sixteenth century, for the Dukes of Turin, and is on an inclined site to which its handsome staircase and court have beer skilfully adapted. In the court is a statue of !Mazzini, and the vestibule is adorned with frescoes illustrating the Doge Grimaldi. Its

THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF ITALY 411

•

chief relic is a bronze tablet of the second century, recording a judgment in a dispute between Genoa and a neighboring castle; this tablet was not discov- ered until the sixteenth century. There are also the papers of Columbus, his portrait in mosaic, and a famous violin of Paganini — a Guarneri. The Royal Palace, built in the seventeenth century for the Durazzo family, was acquired by Victor Em- manuel in 1817 and greatly improved afterward. It stands in a commanding position, and from the bal- conies anfi terrace gives a good view over the city and harbor. There are scores of marble palaces dotted all about the city which add splendor to the scene. On the hills which rise at the back of Genoa, there has been laid out a series of fine streets, curving in and out with the ravines and cliffs, known as the Via di Circonvallazione, which provides one of the most superb drives in this charming region.

While the city has many memorials of Columbus, yet it is not positively known that he was bom here. The honor is claimed for a small house in Via Dritto del Ponticello, one of the narrow streets of the older town, this house having been occuj)ied by his parents when he was a child. A Latin tablet over the door says : " No house better deserves an inscription. This is the paternal home of Christopher Columbus wherein he passed his infancy and youth." In 1473, Columbus signed a deed relinquishing his claim upon this house in favor of his brothers, and in his will he

412 THE MEDITERRANEAN

wrote, " I was born in Genoa." When he sailed on his last voyage in 1502, he deposited all his papers with the famous Genoese Bank of St. George, which was then regarded much as the Bank of England is to-day, in the estimate of the world of business and commerce. This bank was founded in 1407, but in 1740 the Austrians, and again in 1800 the French, seized its treasure, and it ceased to exist. This was the first bank that issued circulating notes. The bank building still stands in the older town, having been used for the Custom House, and its hall is now occupied by a sumptuous collection of statues of emi- nent Genoese. When the Bank went out, the Colum- bus papers were sent to the Municipal Palace, where Xapoleon found them, and they were taken to Paris. They were returned in 1827.

The great Genoese cemetery is the Campo Santo, occupying a spacious site on the northern slope of the Bisagno ravine back of the city, and is regarded as one of the finest in existence. This " Sacred Camp " contains a wonderful collection of costly monuments, the ambition of the people being to be buried here. It is surroimded by brick walls twenty to thirty feet high, and arranged inside for oven-like vaults, con- taining rows of cells, which admit coffins, and are sealed with marble slabs when filled. These cells can be bought or rented, but if the rent is not promptly paid, the bodies are cast out and buried in the pot- ters' field. The custom is to purchase a group of

THE CHIEF SE.\PORT OF ITALY 413

these vaults, and place in front a common monu- ment, and the rivalry in decoration has brought into the Campo Santo a wonderful display of statuary. Mazzini's tomb is in this cemetery, but the one most noticed contains the life-size figure of an old woman, who for over forty years sold fruit and cakes in the city. She had no family, and long before her death, determined she would be buried in the Campo Santo, and have a monument as good as the best of them. She saved her money and employed the most noted Genoese sculptor, who made a faithful reproduction of the lady in the garb she wore when selling her wares, selecting before h^r death and buying one of the best locations for her tomb. In the Protestant Cemetery, up on the hills, is buried James Smithson, who died in Genoa in 1829, the Englishman who'be- queathed his fortune to the United States to found the Smithsonian Institution at Washington.

From the high hills which so grandly environ Genoa, the visitor looks down at the town and far away over the wonderful expanse of the Mediter- ranean. It seems subdued and quiet under the bril- liant sun, or broken into gentle ripples by the zephyrs, and what -^schylus called its " multi- tudinous smile." Its glorious outlook and wonderful history recall Byron's apostrophe to the grent sea in Childe Harold:

Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee — Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?

414 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Thy waters washed them power while they were free. And many a tyrant since; their shores obey The stranger, slave or savage; their decay

Has dried up realms to deserts. Not so thou. Unchangeable, save to thy wild wave's play;

Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow;

Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now.

ISLANDS OF THE SEA

VI

ISLANDS OF THE SEA

Balearic Archipelago — Iviza — Formentcra — Majorca — Palma— Miramar — SoUer — Minorca — tlie Taluyets — Port Mahon — Cabrera — Corsica — Monte Kotondo — Ajiiecio — Napoleon — Corte — Paoli — Bastia — Honifacio — Caproru — Garibaldi — Sardinia — the Krucu Spina — Terranova — the Xuraghi — Sas- sari — Porto Torres — Macomor — the Campidano — Oristano — Iglesias — San Pietro — San Antioco — Cagliari — Xora — Malta — Calypso — ^the Knights of Malta — Valetta — Citto Vethia — St. Paul's Bay — Comino — Gozzo — Elba — Porto Ferrajo^ Napoleon — Porto Longone — Capreja — Gorgona — Pianosa — Monte Cristo— Giglio — Ventatene — Procida — Ischia — the Ep- omeo— Casamicciola — Lacco — Forio — Capri — the Blue Grotto.

THE BALEARIC ARCHIPEI^VGO.

These leafy isles upon the ocean thrown. Like studs of emerald o'er a silver zone.

Within the spacious boundaries of the Mediter- ranean are various islands long known to fame. From the protruding buttress cliffs on the eastern coast of Spain, Capes San Antonio and. San Martin, the rocky strata of the Andalusian mountain system, extend far northeastward in submarine- ridges. These reappear above the surface in the islands of the Balearic archipelago, where the highest summit in Minorca rises to more than five thousand feet Vol. 1—27 417

418 THE MEDITERRANEAN

elevation. There are two groups of Las Islas BaleareSj the name being derived from a Greek word, meaning " to throw," and thus anciently designating them as " the islands of the throwers," referring to the skill of their warriors as slingers. Early settle- ments were made by the Phoenicians and Cartha- ginians, and during the varying fortunes of the Punic Wars, the people served as slingers, in the armies both of Carthage and of Eome. The island group nearest the Spanish coast was the Pityusse, the " isles of pines," named from the dense forest growth upon their shores. The chief of these was the Carthaginian Ebusus, about sixty miles from Cape San Martin, now known as Iviza, a mountain- ous oval, about twenty-five miles long and thirteen miles wide in the broadest part, the ridge stretching through it northeastwardly and culminating in the summit of the Atalayasa, rising 1,5 GO feet. Upon the southeastern shore is the pleasant little port of Iviza, its most prominent structures, the old castle and cathedral, picturesquely fronting a background of steep green hills. To the southward, a short dis- tance, is the comparatively flat and fertile island of Formentera, its present name coming from the prolific production of wheat. This was the Ophiusa of the Greeks, and the Roman Celubrario. It is shaped not unlike a rather lean mutton chop, and its coasts enclose nearly forty square miles. Farther northeast is the second and largest Balearic group,

THE BALEARIC ARCHIPELAGO 419

its chief island, about fifty miles from Iviza, being Majorca, or Mallorca, a trapezoid, with its angles directed toward the cardinal points of the compass, and its longest diagonal being sixty miles. Twenty- seven miles farther northeast is Minorca, or Menorca, covering about three hundred square miles of surface. Ji^ their names imply, these are the major and minor islands of the greater group.

These were ancient regions. When the Cartha- ginians came, they founded Port Mahon, the chief town of Minorca, its founder, whose name is thus reproduced, being Mago, the brother of Hannibal. The subsequent Eoman conquest was by Csecilius Metellus, who was made the Consul, and sumamed Balearicus, 123 B. C. He founded on Majorca, its chief city on the w^estern coast, Palma, the " palm of victory," and on the northern shore, PoUentia, " the powerful," now the small but pretty town on its beautiful bay of Pollensa. The Vandals cap- tured the islands, then the Visigoths, and finally the Moors, Charlemagne, however, being in posses- sion for a few years. Jaime I of Aragon, the " Con- queror," expelled the Moors in 1230, and after his death for about seventy years, the archipelago formed the Kingdom of Majorca, but was united with Ajagon in the fourteenth century. These islands have a delightful climate, and are quite fertile, but agriculture is primitive, and their breeding of swine and mules is a considerable industry. They export

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fruit, wines, marble and salt. The people, number- ing nearly 400,000, are a Catalan race, and speak a dialect composed of that language and other words borrowed from the varied tongues of their many masters at different periods.

The northwestern coast of Majorca is an array of precipitous cliffs, formed by the long mountain ridge that stretches from the western to the northeastern extremity of the island, with many noble precipices and projecting capes, rising in numerous summits of which the highest is the Puig de Torrella, 4,740 feet, about the centre of the range. To the east and south of this great backbone, the surface is comparatively level, though broken by isolated peaks, and the coasts on that side are mostly low, and slope away from the interior table lands. The mountains are of lime- stone, and their cliffs, ravines and valleys present beautiful scenery. The steamer coming from Barcelona approaches the precipitous northwestern coast, surmounted by its many ancient watch-towers, and rounds the cliffs at the western extremity of the island, finally entering the superb and deeply in' dented bay of Palma, on the southwestern coast. This bay is thrust for twelve miles into the land, and has at its head, picturesquely spread over the top and on the sides and base of a hill, the capital city of the province, ancient Palma, where there are some seventy thousand people. Tt is a commercial and manufacturing community.

11IE BALEA.R1C ARCHIPELAGO 421

and as the steamer approaches, the noble cathedral on the eastern side of the harbor dominates the view, while adjoining is the venerable castle of the Almudaina, which represents, though in some decadence, the old time royal glory of the king- dom of Majorca. Jetties protect the little harbor, and on the quay is the Gothic sandstone Lonja, with Moorish castellated top and corner turrets, which was the Exchange in former days. The cathedral was begun by King Jaime I of Aragon in 1230, and was nearly two centuries building, its golden-brown sandstone flying arches, towers and elaborate facade being impressive. It is nearly three hundred and sixty feet long and one hundred and eighty-five feet wide, the nave being one hundred and forty feet high and about sixty-three feet wide at the vaulting, one of the largest spans existing. Slender columns, seven on either side, separate the nave from the wide aisles, on the outside of which are rows of chapels. In the chief chapel behind the high altar, enclosed in a black marble sarcophagus, are the remains of King Jaime II, who died in 1311. Bishop Gil Munoz, who died in 1424, and was elected the anti- pope Clement VIII, is also interred in the cathedral. There is an elaborate candelabra in the treasury, which cost $30,000. From the plaza in front of the cathedral, there is a magnificent view over the har- bor and the distant sea. Among the interesting private houses in Palma is the Casa Bonaparte, that

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famous family tracing descent from Hugh Bonaparte, a native here in the fifteenth century, who is said to have been a governor of Corsica.

The fertile Iluerta of Palma, watered by various small streams coming do^\Ti out of the mountains, stretches northward from the city; and among the enclosing hills, with a grand view over the sea to the northwest, is the splendid domain of Miramar, improved in the later nineteenth century by the Austrian Archduke Louis Salvator for a winter re- treat. Adjacent is the old and ruined Carthusian convent of Valldemosa, where George Sand came in. 1838 and occupied a cell. Some distance northeast- ward is the beautiful vale of Soller, opening out upon the sea and having at its entrance, embosomed in orange groves, the little tovra of Soller, which has a good deal of trade with the French and Spanish Mediterranean ports in wines, fruits and olive oil. The great Puig de Torella, the highest peak of Majorca, rises to the eastward of the town and gives it a noble background.

Minorca island, to the northeastward, has a gen- erally flat surface in the southern part, but rises irregularly toward tlie centre, where is the highest summit of the archipelago, !Mount El Toro, the name evidently derived from the Arabic Tor meaning a height, though the people have a legend that it comes from the Spanish ioro, a bull. This peak reaches an altitude of 5,250 feet. To the outer world.

THE BALEAIUC ARCHIPELAGO 423

Minorca is chiefly known from its admirable harbor of Port Mahon, and its mysterious prehistoric monu- ments called the talayets. The various small hold- ings of land arc separated by stone walls, and these with the many windmills, are a characteristic feature of the surface. There rise everywhere also the curi- ous talayets, gloomy, tower-like buildings, having the entrance far above the ground, which are sometimes fifty feet high, and are believed to have been in days long agone, either sepulchral monuments or fortified dwellings. The seamen approaching the shores gave them this name, meaning '* great atalayas " or watch-towers. Port Malion, on the eastern shore, is the capital, having about twenty thousand people, its harbor stretching three miles into the land and form- ing several bays, being a spacious, safe and much prized anchorage that is easily defended. This is regarded as probably the best harbor of the Mediter- ranean, and the grim old Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria, who often took advantage of it, had a proverb that " June, July, August and Port Mahon, are the best ports of the Mediterranean." In the long series of wars between England and France, this harbor was several times in English possession. General Stanhope in 1708 captured it, having scared the inhabitants by shooting arrows into the town, bearing messages threatening hard labor in the mines if they resisted. England held it nearly a half century, and through the neglect of duty of Admiral

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Byng, for which he was court-martialled and exe- cuted, the French and Spanish retook it in 1756. England recovered it a few years later, but surren- dered it to Spain in 1782. It was again captured in 1798, but in 1802 went back to Spain, which still possesses the island. The town has many English characteristics, and their occupation also added some English words that continue in the Minorcan lan- guage. The most pathetic recent tragedy of Min- orca, was the wreck on the rocks off the northwestern coast, near Ciudadela, of the French steamer General Chanzy, bound from Marseilles to Algiers. She was driven ashore in a wild storm on the night of Febru- ary 9, 1910, the boilers exploding. One hundred and fifty-six of the ship's company perished. There was a single survivor, who clung to a piece of the wreck, was tossed insensible on the rocks, revived next morning and wandered into the village, to tell the hor- rors of the night. There are some smaller islands in the Balearic archipelago, and among them, south of Majorca, is Cabrera, or Goat Island, which has many caverns in its limestone rocks, and is used as a place of banishment for criminals.

CORSICA.

About two hundred and fifty miles northeast of Minorca, is the Mediterranean island, which was the Greek Cyrnos, and became the modem French Corse, famous as the birthplace of Napoleon. This noted

CORSICA 425

island, which we call Corsica, lies at the entrance of the Ligurian sea, where the Mediterranean extends far up northward into the land as the Gulf of Genoa, and makes the attractive encircling shores around it, of the French and Italian Eiviera. It is about one hundred miles south of Genoa and of the Mari- time Alps of which it is probably an extension ; and fifty miles west of the Italian shore of Tuscany. Its northern extremity is the long peninsula formed by the Serra ^Mountains, extending for twenty-five miles, in a narrow and high ridge, elevated over 4,000 feet, and terminating in the famous Promon- torium Sacrum of the ancients, now called the Cape Corso. From here to Bonifacio at the southern termination, where the strait about eight miles wide separates Corsica from Sardinia, the island is about one hundred and sixteen miles long, its greatest breadth being about fifty-two miles. It has nearly thirty-four hundred square miles of surface, largely mountainous, and nearly three hundred thousand population. The eastern coast facing Italy is gen- erally low, and of regular outline, made by abundant alluvial deposits brought by many small and rapid streams doA\Ti out of the mountains. The western coast is high and rugged, rising precipitously from the sea, in numerous abrupt promontories, having intervening bays and harbors, disclosing magnificent scenerv. Behind this bold shore, the interior is traversed by a broad chain of granite and limestone

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nioiiiitains, occupying the greater part of the island, and rising in several suniniits exceeding 7,000 feet. The approach from the westward, over the sea, gives a grand view of these peaks, which are generally clothed in snow, the range cuhninating about the centre in Monte Kotondo rising 8,775 feet, with its attendant peaks Monte Cinto to the northward 8,- 890 feet and Monte d'Oro, southward, 7,850 feet. These mountains and their foothills are clothed with forests, and the timber here grown, which was in high esteem among the Romans, is yet exported to France and Italv for vessel masts. The island is famous for its scenic attractions, as well as for its woods and fruits, but the greatest of its productions was Xapoleon Bonaparte.

The remote origin of the Corsicans is said to have been Iberia, and the Phoenicians, driven out of Asia, came here in the sixth century B. C, but the Italian Etruscans and Carthaginians soon got possession, the latter holding it until the Romans conquered in the third century B. C, though it took them nearly a hundred years to reduce the sturdy islanders to sub- jection. Then Corsica was used as a place of ban- ishment, and here Seneca spent eight years when exiled by Claudius. lie and Strabo, and others of that time, left very unfavorable reports of the people, Strabo describing them as untameable and vindic- tive. The barbarians overran it, and the Moors ulti- mately got possession, and in the fourteenth century

CORSICA 427

ft

Genoa became tlie conqueror, holding it until the eighteenth century, when the heroic Pasquale Paoli a])peared as the deliverer of his country, and in 1796 it fell to France, which has since held the sovereign power. The wild and romantic character of the country has been reproduced, during all these periods, in its people. They are brave and hospit- able, but vindictive and passionate, and still have that insatiable thirst for revenge, which has become a world proverb in the Vendetta. Brigandage flourished until recent times, the romantic and pic- turesque brigands lurking in the dense mountain thickets of arbutus and similar plants, known as the maquisy and living when in hiding, upon the meal formed by ground chestnuts, a most abundant product, which is still the staple food of the moun- taineer. The island has no art treasures, and few antiquities. Most of the rural population yet live in the rude cottages constructed by their remote an- cestors, usually on steep hillsides, and being often but little more than four bare walls, with a single opening, serving alike for door and window, having occasionally an upper loft to which access is got by a ladder. There are no fireplaces, and the furniture is as uncouth as the house. Tliese people are very devout, each village having its church, and in many are highly prized relics. In one of the interior hamlets is a tiny church, which displays in its reliquary, the horn said to have been used by Moses

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in calling together the children of Israel in the desert, a tuft of Esau's red hair, the sling wherewith David threw the stone that slew Goliath, two of the thirty pieces of silver that bribed Judas, and the bridle of the ass that bore the Holy Family into Egypt.

A broad and splendid bay, environed by moun- tains, is deeply indented in the western shore of the island, and here is the Corsican capital and most noted city, Ajaccio, the harbor being upon its northern verge, having the houses to the westward, and the ancient citadel upon a tongue of rock pro- truding southward into the bay. This beautiful place, with its superb outlook over the sea and the surrounding and usually snow-covered mountains, was chosen by the Genoese for their port and strong- hold in the fifteenth century, while Xapoleon made it the capital, at his mother's request, in 1811. He always admired its tropical luxuriance of vegeta- tion, and the fragrance of its almond and orange groves. The chief streets are bordered by rows of acacias, citrons and orange trees, and one highly pleased German writer, Gregorovius, tells of these trees " stretching out their golden fruit, those dar- lings of the Ilesperides, to welcome the enchanted visitor to this favored isle." The climate is mild and equable, and the atmosphere almost always clear, while the mercury, during the season from November to April, is rarely below 50° or above C0°. The

CORSICA 429

scenery of the island is among the finest in the world, and a charmed visitor, writing in the Alpine Clvb Journal, says he knows of " no such combination of sea and mountains, of the sylvan beauty of the north with the rich colors of the south; no region where, within so small a space, Nature takes so many sublime and exquisite aspects as she does in Corsica. Orange groves, olives, vines and chestnuts, the most picturesque beech forests, the noblest pine woods in Europe, granite peaks, snows and frozen lakes — all these are brought into the compass of a day's journey. Everything is as novel to the Alpine climber, as if, in place of being on a fragment of the Alps, severed only by a hundred miles from their nearest snows, he was in a different continent."

The Ajaccio citadel on the protruding tongue of rock, which, with a projecting mole, protects the southern verge of the harbor, is the chief structure of the older town, and the newer portions are northward, across the broad Place des Palmiers, a pleasure ground adorned with palms and other fine trees. The sojourner soon finds that everything in Ajaccio has to do with Napoleon and his family, the great Emperor being the tutelary genius of the place. An elaborate fountain in the Place des Palmiers is surmounted by Xapoleon's statue as first Consul. Fronting the Place is the Hotel de Ville, containing a museum of Bonaparte relics. The streets-leading from the Place are the Boulevard du Roi Jerome (his brother),

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the Eue Fesch (his uncle), the Rue Napoleon leading to the Bonaparte Mansion where he was bom, and the Avenue du Premier Consul, extending south- west to the Place Bonaparte, which is adorned by an equestrian statue of the Emperor with his four broth- ers afoot, by Barye, unveiled in 1865. They are marching toward the sea, indicating that they left the island to seek their marvellous fortunes. To the southward of the Place des Palmiers is the small Place Letizia (his mother) and here is the great at- traction of the town, the modest four-story house, of unpretentious appearance, where he was bom, bear- ing the inscription in French, " Napoleon was bom in this house August 15, 1769." It contains various relics and reminiscences of the family. His father was Carlo Maria Bonaparte, a native of Ajaccio, a lawyer, and his mother Ixjtizia Eamolino. They had thirteen children, Napoleon being the second son and Joseph the oldest. The French had conquered Corsica just before his birth. The cathedral is but a short distance from the house, and the tradition is that his mother, being taken in labor while attending Mass, she hastened home, and he was bom on a piece of old tai)estry, whereon were depicted the events of the Iliad. Accompanying his father, he .visited the Continent when very young, and in his tenth year was sent to the Frencji military school at Brienne. His father died in 1785, but his mother long sur- vived him. During his days of greatest power, he

CORSICA 431

paid little attention to Corsica, his last visit there having been on his return from Egypt, in September, 1799. But when in exile at St. Helena, he often spoke of his birthplace, and once said : " What memories Corsica has left me! I still think with pleasure of its mountains and its beautiful scenery; I still remember the fragrance which it exhales." His last companions, his physicians and confessor, were Corsicans. The old dining-room is kept as it was in his youth, with the ancient table and chairs, and primitive china setting, and also the modest bed- room that was his as a child, and where he last slept on his return from Egypt

Upon the Rue Fesch, is the College Eesch, now a library and picture gallery. Cardinal Fesch was the half-brother of Napoleon's mother, and his bronze statue adorns the interior court. In the chapel are his tomb, and also that of Xapoleon's mother, she dying in Rome in 1836, the chapel having been con- structed by Xapoleon III as his memorial. In the Ajaccio Cathedral, a modem structure, is the font where Napoleon was baptized in July, 1771. A foil to the universal celebrity of Xapoleon, in Ajaccio, is the small palace of the Pozzo di Borgo, on the Rue Napoleon. Carlo Pozzo di Borgo, bom here in 1768, was at first among Napoleon's greatest ad- mirers, and an adherent of PaoH, but afterward his bitterest enemy, removing to Russia, where he be- came a Coimcillor of State, a count, and an ambassa-

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dor, devoting all his energies to checking Napoleon's ambitious projects. He died in Paris in 1842. A popular visit, in the suburbs of the town, is to climb Monte Salario, about three miles inland, and from the summit, at nearly one thousand feet elevation, enjoy the admirable view over the harbor, mountains and sea. About seven miles northwest is the summit of the ridge, where the Counts of Pozzo di Borgo have a castle, built from various remains of the Paris Tuileries, reproducing its central pavilion, and here, from an elevation of 2,600 feet, is a splendid pano- rama of the peninsula, stretching into the Mediter- ranean west of Ajaccio, and of the grand mountain ranges in the interior of the island, their snowy sum- mits being seen far to the northeast. Facing south- ward toward the sea, and about two miles west of Ajaccio, in a situation of wondrous beauty, is the cemetery. Here on the picturesque hill slopes, amid olive and orange groves, are the highly decorated mortuary chapels of the rural necropolis.

Railroads have been opened in Corsica, and the chief one leads among the mountains, from Ajaccio northeastward to and beyond the old capital of Corte. It passes through the forest of Vizzavona, famous for its splendid beeches, chestnuts and firs, and display- ing some of the best mountain and forest scenery of the island. To the westward rises the noble summit of the Monte d'Oro, and a little way beyond, the massive Monte Rotondo. Its top is a wilderness of

CORSICA 4X)

blucks of granite, with a snow-capped crater-shaped summit, from which is displayed a grand landscape view over the rocky masses of this mountainous island, shut in toward the south, however, by Monte d'Oro. Upon these high surfaces browse the dark- brown mufftonej the curious wdld horned sheep of Corsica. Koimding the extensive flanking buttresses of Monte Ilotondo, piercing tunnels and crossing high above romantic ravines, the old capital of Corte is reached, about fifty-two miles from Ajaccio, its lofty citadel commanding the town. As Ajaccio reveres the memory of Xapoleon, so does this place worship at the shrine of the patriot Pasquale Paoli, and the principal square, the Place Paoli, displays his bronze statue. lie was lx)rn in 1724 at Stretta, a small village among the mountains to the north- eastward, his father having been a leader of the Cor- sicans in their struggles against the Genoese and the French. Young Paoli, after service in these wars, went to Holland, and finally to England, where he lived several years. After a long while he returned, led the Corsicans in their successful revolt, became the ruler, and made Corte the headquarters of his government, the Bonaparte family being then among his followers. At the Palace are still shown his study with cork-lined window shutters, and his coun- cil chamber. The Bonapartes ultimately separated from him, and Paoli seeking English aid, they con- quered the island in 1794. In 1796 the French got Vol. 1—28

434 THE MEDITERRANEAN

possession, and Paoli retired to London, where he died in 1807. Surrounded on all sides bv moun- tains, including the highest peaks of Corsica, Corte is in a most striking situation, its scenery rivalling the greatest Alpine valleys, and strangely contrasting the bleak rocks and snow with a most luxuriant vege- tation.

To the northwest rises Monte Cinto, the most ele- vated Corsican mountain, and passing some distance from its eastern base, the railroad beyond skirts the noble forest region known as the Castagniccia, or the *' land of chestnuts." About twenty miles from Corte is Ponte Xuovo, where Paoli was finally over- come by the French. The river Golo is followed down to the flat coast district of the eastern shore, Avhich has much marsh and many lagoons, and here at the river's mouth, on the plain, are the remains of ]^[ariana, the Koman colonv that ^larius founded. The most extensive lagoon, stretching along the coast northward of Mariana, is the Etang de Biguglia, and on its shore was the Genoese capital, when they ruled the island. Farther on, and beyond this lagoon, is the harbor of Bastia, the chief Corsican seaport. The Genoese founded it in the fourteenth century, building a strong castle to defend the port, and from this, known as the " bastion," came its name. The old town and castle overlook the newer settlement, encircling the harbor, where there is a good trade, the city having about twenty-five thousand popula-

CORSICA 435

tion. All around the Corsican coasts, excepting on the low-lying but fertile eastern shore, are romantic cliffs, and attractive resorts upon the many rock- bound harbors. The southern extremity of the island is a prominent and lofty rock, to which came in the ninth century, after a naval victory over the Moors, the Tuscan chief Bonifacio, to land his cap- tives and plunder. The result was a settlement and a castle on the rock, which the Pisans and the Genoese subsequently fortified. On top of the rock, near the citadel, is the Torrione, a massive watch- tower Bonifacio is said to have built, and at its foot descends the King of Aragon's staircase to the edge of the sea. King Alfonso T of Aragon besieged the place in 1420, and it made a most gallant defence. During the siege, the king's soldiers, unknown to the besieged, cut this flight of over two hundred steps in the face of the precipitous cliffs. There are wonder- ful caves in the limestone rock, most of them hung with beautiful stalactites, while a marine fungus, which clings to the limestone, reflects upon the water, in a guise that gives it the appearance of being cov- ered by a lacework of jewels. These caves, in places, almost undermine the rock, and many of the houses on the top overhang the edges in a startling yet pic- turesque way. Various ancient churches, and other old buildings, surmount the massive promontory, and from its southern verge there is a beautiful view across the blue waters of the strait and its dotted

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islands, to the distant shore of Sardinia eight miles away.

SABDINIA.

The geologists tell us that the granitic mountains of Corsica, were originally extended across the Strait of Bonifacio into the land to the southward, but that in some remote age, a natural convulsion cut down the water passage, and made this another island. As it is to-day, many rocky islets are dotted over the strait, and lie off the bold Sardinian shores of which the northern extremity is the Punta del Falcone. Among these attendant islands around the pictur- esque coast of Sardinia, is Caprera, off the north- eastern shore, covering about ten square miles, where the Italian patriot Garibaldi made his home, during the later years of his memorable .contest for Italian liberty and unity. The Grecian Sardo, which the Italians call Sardegna, and we know as Sardinia, is a mass of mountain ranges, mostly of granite, and including various extinct volcanoes, covering over nine thousand square miles, and is about one hundred and seventy-two miles long and seventy miles wide. These mountains have many peaks and ridges, mak- ing a rough country, and culminating about the cen- tre of the island in the summit of the Bruncu Spina, elevated 6,280 feet. This is in the Gennargentu range, its southern slopes being the wildest part of Sardinia, where the people still boast that their re-

SARDINIA 437

mote ancestors never yielded to Carthaginian, Koman or Moor, and it still is unsafe for visitors to travel without a military escort. The original people were Iberians, and the first foreign settlers were Phoeni- cians, who sought the harbors on the southern coast, as havens for their ships, when on the way to western Tarshish. The projecting northern coast of Tunis, in Africa, comes comparatively near, and thus con- tracts the sea passage, while to the eastward is Sicily, and the triangular gulf thus enclosed by Sicily, Sar- dinia and Italy is the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Cartha- ginians early invaded and subdued part of the island, and next came the Romans, though the interior tribes were never subdued by either. Much of the coast of Sardinia is uninteresting, and on the plains and in the river valleys, the conquerors had extensive grain fields which supplied both Carthage and Rome, though now the land is largely uncultivated, and cattle-raising and mining are the chief occupations for the export trade. The Romans sent their crim- inals and Christian slaves to work in the mines, but themselves shunned Sardinia, because they regarded the climate as unhealthy, and the people as proud, independent and unconquerable. Their Sardinian captives were generally taken to Rome and sold cheaply for slaves, as even then they were too spirited for their taskmasters, whence came the expression Sardi venolas, *' as cheap as a Sardinian." The Vandals and Moors subsequently overran the island,

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but the native princes were never subdued, and they recognized the Pope as their protector, so that John VJIl in the early eleventh century, preached a cru- sade against the infidels, which resulted in their ex- pulsion by the Genoese and Pisans. These, with many interposed quarrels, ruled for two centuries, and then the kings of Aragon under papal patronage came into power. The Spaniards were rulers for three centuries, and afterward the island came to the House of Savoy, the King of Sardinia, in 1861, becoming the king of united Italy.

The visitors to the island usually sail from Civite Vecchia in Italy, to Cape Piguri, bounding the Gulf of Terranova, on the northeastern coast, from whence the main railway system leads throughout Sardinia. This is a rocky district, without much habitation, but it was a very early settled region, the spacious and attractive gulf having been the ancient Portus Olbianses, with remnants of the Roman town of Olbia on its inner shore, now the little port of Ter- ranova-Pausania. The railroad crosses the island to Sassari, near the northwestern coast. On its way is passed a volcanic hill, vrhere is traceable an old stream of lava, and alongside a ravine is the Nuraghu Xieddu, or the " black nuraghe," a lava- built tower, consisting of several chamlxTS one above the other. This is a relic from a prehistoric epoch, far antedating cither Carthaginian or Phoenician. Many of these mysterious structures are scattered

SARDINIA 439

over Sardinia^ and the antiquarians describe them as tombs, temples, forts and dwellings, their real ob- ject not being accurately knowTi, though it is prob- able the early inhabitants built them as places of refuge when attacked. They are conical, with truncated summits, thirty to sixty feet high, and sometimes as much as one hundred feet in diameter at the base, built of blocks of stone or lava, put to- gether without mortar, and placed usually on eminences or mountain slopes. The interior is composed of two or three conically vaulted chambers, one above the other, a winding stairway being built within the thick walls, to reach the upper rooms. Sassari, the capital of the northern Sardinian prov- ince, has about forty thousand people, with St. Gavinus as its patron saint, a Roman centurion who embraced Christianity during the persecutions of Diocletian. His equestrian statue adorns the foun- tain of the copious spring, on the eastern side of the city, which supplies it, the Fontana del Eosello, the water being carried through the streets in small barrels slung on the backs of donkeys, the same as during centuries gone by. The tomb of St. Gavinus is in the church at Porto Torres, on the northern coast, the seaport of Sassari, which is a single long street on the shore, having Eoman remains of the ancient Tunis Libyssonis. From an antique column at the harbor's edge, an ancient highway of the Romans extends all the way throughout the island,

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to Cagliari on the southern coast, where its end is marked by another column. Here are seen an old Roman bridge of seven unequal arches, crossing the stream flowing into the harbor, and also inter- esting remains of tlie Temple of Fortune. In this remote portion of Sardinia, the peasant women, as of yore, wear most picturesque and attractive cos- tumes.

The branch of the railway proceeding southward through the island, is constructed nearer the western shore, and generally upon high plateaus, giving ex- tensive views over the barren mountains. The modem engineers who built the line, on most portions have followed the route of the ancient Eoman road. At Macomer, it passes through a district containing a large number of the Xuraghi monuments, the most elaborate being Santa Barbara, north of the town, an impressive cone constructed upon a high square base. To the southward, the route descends to a fertile plain, bordering the intervale of the Tasso, the chief Sardinian river. This is the Campidano plain, through which, in marshy meadows, the Tasso flows into the Gulf of Oristano, on the western shore, where its delta covers a large surface bordered by salt lagoons here called " stagno." The Eoman port of Othoco was in this region, its successor being now Oristano, with attractive towers of the early fortifications still carefully preserved. This was the noted district of Arborea, and its native ruler.

SARDINIA 441

the Grand Duchess Eleanora, who died in 1404, successfully contended with the king of Aragon, the principal square being embellished with Eleanora's marble statue. Eleanora gave the people a charter of liberty, known to medieval fame as the " Carte de Logu," and the remains of the castle where it was granted are on the shore of the salt lagoon to the westward of the town. Beyond, are the scanty remains of the Phoenician settlement of Tharros. On the fertile slopes to the northward of Oristano, sheltered from the winds by the moun- tain ranges, are extensive orange and lemon planta- tions, their fragrance perfuming the air, and displaying groves of the finest trees in existence. To the southward is Sanluri, where, after Eleanora's death, her husband and successor, Brancaleone Doria, was defeated in 1409, by Martin, king of Sicily, who belonged to the house of Aragon. This is in a region noted for the cultivation of saffron.

Near the western coast of Sardinia is Monte Murganai, elevated 3,010 feet, which is ascended for its superb view. Around the southern base, is the most important mining district of Sardinia, the central town being Tglesias, where there are 12,000 people, its name derived from the large number of churches, while so many fragrant gardens are in the suburbs, that it has gotten the popular Italian title of flore di mundu or " the flower of the world." The Pisans built the town walls, of which there are

442 THE MEDITERRANEAN

interesting remains of towers and battlements. They also constructed the cathedral in the thirteenth century, while the Aragonese, when they got pos- session in the next century, built the old castle, now in partial ruin. The mines to the west and north of the town were worked in the most remote times, and the ruins of the Temple of Antas, are among the northern mines, the people calling it the " Ilouse of St. Gregory." Montcponi, to the southwestward, rises about 1,100 feet, and contains the richest lead and zinc ores in Sardinia. Off the coast is the island of San Pietro, the ancient Enosis, a mass of trachyte, with fissured and columnar cliffs around its shores, the adjacent waters having prolific tunny fisheries, this favorite food of the Italians being taken in large nets during May and June, and some of the fish being of great size. To the southward is San Antioco island, connected by a chain of low sand-pits with the shore. Its present small town of San Antioco, occupies the location of the Phoeni- cian settlement of Sulci, afterward a Eoman colony, and displaying many antiquities, among them the necropolis of both those nations, and a spacious Eoman cistern. Off the southern coast rise three steep and peculiar island rocks, which the natives have named the Calf, the Cow and the Bull.

The southern Sardinian coast is picturesque, hav- ing deeply indented into it the Gulf of Cagliari, with the projecting cape of Santa Elia bifurcating its

SARDINIA 443

inner shore, a bold rock rising about 500 feet from the sea. The wide and fertile plain that stretches from the Gulf of Oristano to the Gulf of Cagliari, known as the Campidano, is rich in corn, wine and oil, and well populated, though lacking rain it be- comes very hot in summer from the African winds, and is exposed to malarial influences. Tall hedges of cactus enclose the fields, and most of the village houses are built of bricks dried in the sun. Thirty-two miles eastward from Iglesias runs the railway, which turns southeast through this plain, and goes out to the gulf shore at Cagliari, the chief city and capital of Sardinia, spreading over the plain as it stretches toward the sea, and having to the eastward, the projecting ridge ter- minating in Cape Santa Elia. It is noted for its sweet cakes, which are an almost universal food of the people, and for the salt produced by convict labor from the extensive lagoons surrounding the city; and it is also regarded as a very hot place during most of the year. A precipitous hill rises 290 feet high between two broad lagoons, and on its slope the city is built. The Stagno di Cagliari, on the western side, down to the middle ages was a bay, and on its low inner shore, between the beach and the hill slope, northwest of the present city, the Phoenicians made their first settlement that became the Roman Carales, from which the present name is derived. The older town then was built on the

444 THE MEDITERRANEAN

hill, the newer towTi being on the slopes to the east and south, and now there are about fifty thousand population. A tree-shaded street, the Via Eoma, fronts the harbor, and is the fashionable promenade. From this another broad street, the Largo, goes inland, through the modern town, to the central square, the Piazza Yeune, in the centre of which is the ancient column marking the termina- tion of the Roman road leading northward, through the island, to Porto Torres. Hero, at the end of the Largo, is a statue of King Charles Felix I. From the Piazza dowTi to the coast, stretches the busiest street of Cagliari, called in various parts the Via Manno, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and in the lower portion, the Via Garibaldi. The Castello, or older town, is on top of the hill, enclosed by its ancient walls, with their gates and towers, and here are the palaces of the nobles and the principal buildings, while terraces on the verge of the hill, replacing the old bastions, that were removed, have a pleasant view. Steep streets and flights of steps, give access and add to the picturesque- ness. Here is the cathedral, built by the Pisans in the early fourteenth century, though modernized, and in it is the Tomb of Martin II of Aragon, who died in 1409. The University was founded by Philip III of Spain, in the sixteenth century, and has a large library, and a museum established by King Charles Felix in 1S06. The ancient

MALTA 445

Boman amphitheatre, excavated in the rock, slop- ing toward the sea, is well preserved, while there are numerous Roman houses, tombs and other sur- vivals, including the ancient aqueducts and reser- voirs, Carales having been entirely dependent on rain-water for its supply. In the neighborhood of Cagliari is produced the Malvagiu, or malmsey wine. The western shore of the Gulf of Cagliari extends far away to tlie southward, and down there are the remains of the oldest town in Sardinia, the Phoenician Xora, where there are traces of a theatre, aqueduct, tombs, and some ruined houses, over- flowed by the sea. Here is the church of Santa Efisio, and at the festival at the beginning of May, the remains of the Saint are brought in solemn procession, eighteen miles from Cagliari, and ex- hibited in the church, the ceremonial continuing two days. The extreme southern coast of Sardinia faces the Mediterranean, in the bold capes Spar- tivento and Teulada, but the distance is not very far across the sea to Tunisia in Africa.

MALTA,

From the African coast, the depressed strata of the Atlas mountains, submerged under the sea, cross the comparatively narrow waterway interven- ing between Africa and the shore of Sicily to the northeast, and stretch to the eastward also. These strata occasionallv rise above the surface, in various

446 THE MEDITERRANEAN

islands, the most famous being the precipitous and originally sterile rock, that the ancients called Melita, and which we know as Malta. The Mal- tese group, composed of Malta, Gozzo, Comina, and some other uninhabited rocks, is near the centre of the Mediterranean basin, and they appear as the remains of an ancient chain of islands, much worn and still wearing away by the sea. In the approach by steamer, there being no very high hills upon it, Malta, when first sighted at a distance of a dozen miles, has the appearance of a barren and low- lying shore. Soon the island changes, and seems like a rock of yellow sandstone, rising out of the sea, and made the more plainly visible by the rays of the setting sun. Approaching nearer, it is found to be a mass of white, gray, reddish and yel- low sandstone, the blue sea running up into various bays of the brown and yellow land, diversified by valleys and steep hills, and relieved by the patches of deep green in the fields, though the general aspect of the surface is bare, there being no woods, while all the fields are enclosed by stone walls. Sailing still closer, the mass of yellow rocks and colored sandstone, gradually resolves into a grand city, ascending abruptly out of the water, with church spires, watch-towers, lofty buildings, and a network of enormous forts all around it. The strong defences rise one above another, the sentries, in their English red-coats, pacing the parapets, and

Harbor Entrance and Fort Ricasoli, Malta.

MALTA 447

black guns peeping over the edges, and through many portholes in the sandstone. The steamer passes in front of the forts, turns around a sharp angle of high rock, hearing the huge castle of St. Elmo, and then hy a comparatively narrow inlet enters the grand harbor, and anchors. Here, amid a fleet of warships, and surrounded by forts, with another harbor running up into the land, where the merchant shipping moor, a wild horde of Maltese boatmen, with scarlet caps and sashes, in their gaily painted and white awning-covered gondolas, surround the anchored ship, and noisily clamor to get pos- session of the passengers for landing.

Malta is about seventeen miles long and nine miles wide, with a surface of less than one hundred square miles. It has little water; no river, brook, or lake exists; there is neither forest nor brush- wood; and the rocky surface, exposed for centuries to the parching winds of the African desert, is but thinly covered with an artificial soil, most of which is said to have been originally brought over from Sicily. This soil is often terraced upon the sides of the hills, to guard against washing away by the winter rains. It is carefully cultivated, and made to yield two or three crops annually. Cotton, grains, hay and fruits are grown, the olive, orange and fig being renowned, wliile early potatoes are raised for the English market. The flowers of Malta are famous, and Cicero mentions the cushions stuffed

448 THE MEDITERRANEAN

with roses sent from Malta and used by Verres in Sicily. In summer the heat is excessive, day and night, but the winter climate is delightful. The atmosphere is so clear, that at all times of the year the distant summit of Mount Etna, northward, in Sicily, may be seen with its faint smoke cloud during the rising or setting of the sun, though it is one hundred and thirty miles away. The north- em and eastern coasts of the island are broken by deep indentations and bays, and at the southeastern corner is the bay of Scirocco, which is said to have been gradually scooped out during the ages by the African sirocco, continually blowing against that shore with unbroken force. The high- est point of Malta is in a cluster of the Bingomma hills, remarkable for their steeply conical shapes, which are near Deagli, and look out upon the southern sea, this elevation being 845 feet. A little way off is Citta Vechia, the ancient capital, on another steep height. Upon the western and southern coasts, the cliffs rise sheer from the sea, three to four hundred feet, while to the northward, the rocks are generally shelving toward the water's edge, though the harbor of Valetta and St. Paul's bay are exceptions. There is a population in the group of islands of about 180,000, including the English and foreign residents, numbering about 10,000, while the English garrison also is usually about that number. The natives are a mixed race,

MALTA 449

tlie descendants of the different peoples who have at various times controlled these islands, their lan- guage being an Arabic dialect mingled with Italian, though English is used in official life. They are an enterprising, commercial and seafaring race, who conduct trade throughout the ^Mediterranean. Its central position gives Malta great strategic im- portance in controlling the sea, and its admirable harbor of Valetta, guarding the Mediterranean route to the East, makes it and Gibraltar the prin- cipal bulwarks of English naval supremacy.

In the northwestern part of the island, between St. Paul's bay and ^Melleha bay, in a ridgy hill extending back from the sea, are several caves, one of which, having a ck'ar spring of water, is known as Calypso's grotto. This nymph, who was the daughter of Atlas, enslaved Odysseus, and Homer calls the island Ogygia in telling the story. This is the earliest mention of !Malta, and the first known settlers in the historic period were the Phoenicians from Sidon. Afterward, in the eighth century B. C, the Greeks came, it being then known as Melita. There have l>een various prehistoric re- mains explored, in 1907 and since, which show the very early history of the island — great megalithic structures which were temjdes in the bronze ago, at Ilagiar Kim, Gigantio and Mnaidra, with Cor- adino and Ilalsaftieni excavated in the rock near

Valetta, the latter a burial place where much ancient Vol. 1—29

450 'I'HE MEDITERRANEAN

pottery was found. The Carthaginians captured Malta, and then the Romans, 212 B. C, the latter erecting temples to Apollo and Proserpine, and other structures, of which traces still exist. St. Paul, in the year Gl, was wrecked in what is now called St. Paul's bay, on the northern coast, and while here, made several converts to Christianity. lie is said to have lived for three months, in a grotto about six miles southward, now part of Citta Vechia, a church having been built over it. The Vandals, the Goths and Belisarius, were subsequently the successive masters, and the Arabs came in the ninth century, and the Xormans from Sicily in 1090, after which the island for several centuries was part of the kingdom of Sicily, over which, as the heir of Aragon, the Emperor Charles V ruled in 1530, when he j)resented Malta to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who had been expelled from

Khodes bv the Turks. Their rule continued until

«

1798, during which era !Malta achieved its greatest fame.

This noted order first appeared in the eleventh century at Jenisalem, where a hospital for men had been established, bearing the name of St. John the Almoner, a native of Cyprus and the Patriarch of Alexandria, who had lived in the sixth century and had given great aid to the people of Jerusalem. Those in charge of this hospital, displayed such heroic charity when Jerusalem was captured by the

MALTA '451

crusaders in 1099, that several noble knights then joined them. The Order growing, the Pope approved its objects, and hospitals for pilgrims were estab- lished at various places. In the twelfth century the Knights extended their sphere of duty, and armed themselves, for the protection of the pilgrims and Christians of Jerusalem, against the Moslems. This attracted the young nobility from all parts of Europe, and they took a vow for the defence of Christians from insult and wrong, and built at Jerusalem a magnificent new church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, after whom they called the Order. Their influence was largely extended, they took part in various crusades, and incurring the special enmity of the Turks, they were attacked by Saladin, and almost overwhelmed, when the Moslems captured Jerusalem. Tliey revived, but were de- feated at Gaza, and again at Acre, when they retired to Cyprus, and in 1309 secured the island of Rhodes, which became their headquarters, and was held for two centuries against repeated attacks by the Turks. In 1522, after a gallant defence, they were driven out of Rhodes, and wandqred through Candia, Sicily and Italy, when in 1530, Charles V gave them an abid- ing place in Malta. The Mediterranean had then become a chief theatre of warfare between the Chrisr tians and the Turks, and the Knights made the island one of the strongest places in the world, and it was regarded as the great bulwark of Christendom, the

452 THE MEDITEKRAXEAN

Order assuming the title of Knights of Malta, with Citta Vechia as their capital.

The Turks attacked them in 1551, and were driven off, but came again in 15G5, making the most fearful siege of that era, continuing nearly four months, be- fore they were repulsed. The Grand Master of the Order was Jean Parisot de La Valette, who was bom in 1494, and chosen to the office in 1557, dying in Malta in 1568. The Sultan Solyman the Mag- nificent, determining upon their annihilation, sent an expedition on May 18, 15G5, of one hundred and eighty Turkish war vessels, carrying thirty thousand troops, and added repeated reinforcements. La Valette, anticipating their coming, had built new fortifications on the northeastern extremity of the peninsula in the harbor where Valetta now is, and his garrison was only seven hundred Knights and eighty-five hundred soldiers, including the armed in- habitants, yet with these he withstood the terrific siege imtil September 8, when a force of eight thou- sand men came to his help from Xaples, compelling the Turks to take refuge in their ships. They re- newed the attack shortly afterward, but were de- feated with great slaughter, and retreated in disor- der. The Turkish losses were said to have been fully thirty thousand during the siege, while the Knights, at the end, had only about six hundred men remaining out of all their combatants. La Valette rebuilt and strengthened the fortifications, and

MALTA 453

founded here the town of Valetta, to which he re- moved the capital, and these foriitications have been extended and improved, so that Valctta is now re^ garded as an impregnable fortress. On June 17, 1798, Xapoleon was at Malta with the French expe- dition to Egypt, and he got possession by treachery and stratagem, practically bribing the Grand Master Ilompesch, who abdicated. The Order afterward dwindled, being protected for awhile by the Emperor Paul of Russia, but since 1805 its affairs have been administered from Itome. The French, however, did not long hold possession of ^lalta, for in Septem- ber, 1798, the English began a siege, lasting two years, and in September, 1800, they captured the island, which they have since controlled.

In November, 1908, ilalta had its terrible mod- ern tragedy, in the burning of the steamship Sar- dinia, which had come from Liverpool and leaving Valetta early on the 2r)th to sail to Egypt, caught fire when going out of the harbor, and within sight of the population Avho lined the shores, was burnt, there being 140 passengers roasted to death, many of them being Arab pilgrims going to Mecca. The brave captain was burnt at the helm.

Valctta, in its admirable harbor, and surrounded on all sides by the great defensive forts, is one of liie most extraordinary places in the world. A ca- pacious bay opens toward the northeast, on that side of !^^alta. All around the bay are high ridges, which

454 THE MEDITERRANEAN

stretch forth in tongues of land with intervening waterways, while protruding through the centre, like another huge tongue thrust out of a mouth, toward the sea, is the elevated rocky ridge of Monte Sceher- ras, dividing the bay into two spacious harbors. At the entrance from the sea, on either hand the en- closing borders turn inward toward the central tongue, making comparatively narrow passages, and on the inland peninsulas of the eastern or Great Har- bor, are built the various towns, kno^vn familiarly as the " Three Cities," Vittorlosa, the home of the working people; Burmula, the naval station and dockyard ; and Senglea, on the opposite shore of the dockyard creek. High above them, on the outer ex- tremity of the central tongue of land, is Valetta, its steep streets running up from the quays at the waterside all around, to the plateau on top, many of them being long staircases. At the outer end, and facing the sea, is the formidable Castle of St. Elmo, while across the narrow entrances on either hand, on the terminating headlands enclosing the bay, are Fort Kicasoli to the eastward, and Fort Tignete to the westward, the latter reinforced on another pro- truding rock peninsula, just inside, across the inter- vening estuary of Sliema Creek, by the powerful Fort Manoel, set at the opening to the interior Mar- samuchetto Harbor, on the northwest side of the central tongue. For about a mile, upon the sum- mit plateau of this tongue, Valctta spreads back

MALTA 456

from the sea, its Cathedral of San Giovanni, and the less impressive Palace of the Governor, formerly the Grand Master's headquarters, dominating the sum- mit. On the land side are additional elaborate de- fensive works, between the town and the Floriana suburb, access being cut off on that side, by the most spacious fosse existing in Europe. Huge 100-ton guns are mounted on Sr. Elmo and Eicasoli, defend- ing the approach to the Great Harbor; the British flag flies from the staffs on b<3th forts and on the Governor's Palace ; the whole place is conducted as a military post and naval station, the morning and evening gims noting the beginning and ending of the ofiicial day; and thus is the English control of the Mediterranean, signalled at the centre of the famous sea, the same as at Gibraltar, guarding the entrance. Since history began, the race at the time controlling the Mediterranean, has held Malta as its strong- hold.

Valetta is a wonderful place to visit, albeit the visitor may be fatigued by climbing its staircase streets, to get from the harbor up to the town. It disputes with Venice the title of the " City of Pal- aces." Lord Eeaconsfield wrote of it, " Malta is cer- tainly a most delightful station. Its city, Valetta, equals in its noble architecture, if it does not even excel, any capital in Europe. If that fair city, with its streets of palaces, its picturesque forts and mag- nificent church, only crowned some green and azure

456 THE MEDITERRAXEAX

island of the Ionian sea, Corfu for instance, I really think that the ideal of landscape would be realized." Malta is the great halting place for vessels, going in every direction through the Mediterranean, and this makes the cosmopolitan character of the people seen in the streets of Valotta, which first impresses the visitor. Having run the gauntlet of the screech- ing and brigand-looking boatmen, who quarrel for the chance to take the passenger and baggage ashore, and having been landed, the streets present a diversi- fied population, Turks, Syrians, Persians, Greeks, wearing their national costumes, native ^laltese and dark Italians, with negroes from Africa, English uniformed officers, red-coated soldiers and sauntering sailors, many priests and religious processions, while the women almost universally wear black dresses and hoods, without any relief in color. The legend ex- plaining this is, that when Malta was sacked by the French troops, the women vowed that in memory of their brutal treatment, they would for a hundred years dress in black and wear a distinctive hood, the faldoita, popularly known as the " hood of shame," and though the century has passed, the custom still exists. This is a huge bonnet, with a long skirt reaching to the waist, and totally black without orna- ment.

The " Great Harbor," which has ample space and depth of water, also has on its southeastern side, op- posite the central tongue of Valetta, no less than five

MALTA 457

deep waterways thrust far into the land, with inter- vening peninsuhis, and here are the ^* Three Cities " and the great station and dockyard which is the Brit- ish naval headquarters in the Mediterranean, with its huge docks, repair shops, fcmndries, storehouses and bakery. Valetta, from its high hill, looks out upon this busy scene. The Castle of St. Elmo, at the sea front, has its beacon lights to guide the ships, and from it, southwest through the city, stretches the chief street, displaying attractive shops, the Strada Eeale, to the Porta Iieale, the gateway at the huge fosse, separating Valetta from Floriana. In the cen- tre of the city, this street expands into the open promenade of St. (ieorge's Square, where the mili- tary band plays in the afternoons. Along one side is the spacious Palace of the (jovernor, a somewhat plain structure built around two courts, the interior halls containing various relics of the Knights of Malta, with a corridor of portraits of their Grand ^Masters. There are a librarv and a museum of Maltese antiquities in the adjunct buildings, and a marble statue of Queen Victoria adorns a smaller piazza alongside. To the southwest is the richly decorated cathedral of San Giovanni, built by the Knights in the sixteenth century, and containing many of their tombs, including those of L'Tsle Adam, the first Grand ^Faster at l^^alta, and La Valette. There is a painting of the beheading of St. John, by ^richael Angelo, in one of the chapels, and va-

i58 THE MEDITERRANEAN

rioiis tower-keys taken from the Turks are preserved as relics, particularly the keys of Jerusalem, Acre and Khodes. Each nationality of the Knights, of which there were seven, had a separate chapel in the catliedral, the l\jrtuguese, Spaniards, Provengals, Austrians, Italians, Frenchmen and Bavarians. The interior is richly decorated, notwithstanding the fact that when the French captured the city in 1798, they carried off the most valuable church possessions, jewels, golden vessels, statues, vestments and art works, it being said that Xapoleon himself took a diamond ring from the finger of the jeweled glove covering the hand of St. John, and also the diamond- mounted sword of Grand Master La Valctte. In the church tower is a chime of ten bells, and its clock has a triple face, one dial showing the hour of the day, another the day of the week, and the third the day of the month. Each nationality of the Knights also had their Auberges or homes in the city, now con- verted into hospitals, barracks and hotels, etc., the most interesting of these being the Auberge de Cas- tile (the Spaniards), now^ the combined mess of the British artillery and engineers, and described as the '' finest mess-house in the world." The military Malta Union Club occupies the Auberge of the Provencals. Some of the bastions and former mili- tary parades are now laid out as gardens, and this is especially done where they have a fine outlook over the harbor, the adornments being statues of the Grand

MALTA 459

Masters aud British GovcTiiors. One of the best of these gardens is the Piazza Kegina fronting the Auberge de Castile. This coniniands a si)lendid view of the harbor, nearly two hundred feet below, with its five separate basins, tlie docks and stores of the naval station, and the fortified "' Three Cities," surrounding and si)roading u]) the heights behind.

On the western side of Vah^tta, across Marsamu- chetto bay, with its four protruding peninsulas and enclosed intervening basins, are more fortifications and towns, Pieta, IMisida, San Giuliano and Sliema, which are residential suburbs. Over there is also an aqueduct begun by the Knights in 1(110, which brings water to Valetta from the higlier western parts of the island, and the Malta railway, which runs to Citta Vechia, the ancient capital, known as La Notabile. This town of Citta Vechia is well fortified and oc- cupies a high eminence, a steep road mounting the hill to the fortress. It is an ancient place, and its cathedral is said to occupy the site of the house of Publius, the Roman governor of the island, who gave a hospitable rece])tion to the shipwrecked St. Paul. Cannon are mountiMl in front, thus continuing the custom of the Knights, aud the interior has many rel- ics of their rule, including a silver crucifix brought from Rhodes. In the southern part of the town, the Church of St Paul is built over the grotto where he is said to have sojourned. There are various Roman relics and remains of structures of that age,

460 THE MEDITERRANEAN

and the Catacombs, partly of Komaii origin, are quite extensive. Among other curious places is the Chapel of human skulls and bones, artistically ar- ranged, having been collected from various sepul- chres. The monks held services in an adjoining chapel. To the southward of the town are the ruins of the ancient Pha»nician temple of Ilagiar Kim, while a favorite excursion is northward to St. Paul's bay, the locality where the Apostle was shipwrecked, and curious little shells are found, which the Maltese call " St. Paul's Teeth." Comino, an island which has scarcelv anv inhabitants, is northwest of Malta, and beyond is the larger island of Gozzo, the ancient Gaulus. The steamer voyage thither gives a good view of the cliffs and bavs of the Malta coast, and of the rocky grottoes, scooped out by the sea, in the western promontories of Comino. The chief relic of Gozzo is the Torre de Giganti, a Phoenician con- struction built of blocks of st(me without mortar.

THE ITALIAN ISLANDS.

There are several attractive islands in the Mediter- ranean off the Italian western coast. To the east- ward of Corsica, the promontory of Piombino is ex- tended from the Tuscan shore of Italy, and about five miles away is the imposing mountain group mak- ing the island of Elba, famous as the place of Napo- leon's exile. It was the Greek ^Ethalia, and the Roman Ilva, noted from the earliest times for rich

THE ITALIAN ISLANDS 461

deposits of iron ore. Elba is about eighteen miles long and averages seven miles wide, its picturesque coasts rising inland into masses of mountains, of which the highest summit Monte Capanne is elevated 3,300 feet. The chief towTi is Porto Ferrajo, on the northern shore, upon a splendid bay enclosed by an amphitheatre of mountains, its name coming from the iron it exports. The mountainous surface makes the whole environment of Elba a series of deep bays and bold promontories, forming a very irregular outline, the breadth in some places not exceeding three miles, while the enclosed valleys are fertile. The iron mining, however, more than agriculture, has been its chief industry, the ores being mainly found in a mountain near the eastern coast, two miles in circumference, fully five hundred feet high, and the ores yielding fifty to seventy-five per cent of the

metal. The earlv mine shafts of the ancients are

t/

still visible. Various Italian cities controlled Elba in the middle ages, and it finally came to Charles V, who presented the island to Duke Cosimo of Florence, who fortified Porto Ferrajo in the six- teenth century, constructing Forts Stella and Falcone on the heights commanding the harbor entrance. The French got possession in ISOl, and Napoleon united Elba with the new kingdom of Etruria, which he then formed on the Italian shore. In 1814, upon Xapoleon's abdication, the island was made into a special sovereignty for him, and he came here in

462 THE MEDITERRANEAN

May. The Villa San Martino, which he occupied, is now the show place of Porto Ferrajo, on the hill between the forts, and contains a museum of Napo- leonic relics. During his brief sovereignty, Napo- leon constructed a road through the mountain passes to Porto Longane, on the eastern shore, near the iron deposits, a picturesque stronghold which the Span- iards first built. NajKdeon renuiined in Elba initil February 20, ISIT), when, having fomented discon- tent in France, he sailed away over the northern sea, landed at Cannes, had a triumphal march to Paris and conducted liis wonderful ^* Campaign of the Hundred Davs " tliat ended with his final overthrow at Waterloo. Then Elba reverted to the Grand Duko nf Tuscany, and it is now part of the Kingdom of Ttalv. Elba is the clii(»f island of what is known as the Tuscan Archij)elago. To the northwest is the small wine-growing island of Capreja, the " Isle of (ioats," a name coming down from the Roman days, and farther off is sterile Gorgona, inhabited also by wild goats, with a few fishermen. About seven miles southwest of Elba is the low and comparatively level island of Pianosa, anciently named Planasia, because of its flatness, and to which the Emperor Augustus banished his grandson Agrippa Postumus. The granite rock of Monte Cristo, about six miles in circumference, and having the ruins of a monas- tery which Barbarossa's pirates destroyed, is twen- ty-five miles south of Elba. A submarine ridge

THE ITALIAN ISLANDS 463

runs eastward from it to the Italian shore, where it rises into the imposing promontory of Monte Argen- tario, extending far into the sea, and ahiiost detached from the land. The sunmiit of ^J^Ionte Cristo has two peaks, about 2,100 feet high, on one of which is a monastery. Directly in front, and about nine miles away, the submarine ridge rises in the moun- tain island of Giglio, elevated 1,700 feet. This was the noted Roman summer resort of Tgileum and there are ruins of various palaces of that time.

Farther down tlie Italian coast is the group of Pontine or Ponza islands, between Sardinia and Italy, a half-dozen volcanic fnrmations, which are still used as in the Roman times, as a place of ban- ishment for convicts. The best known is Ventotene on the eastern verge of the group, the Roman Panda- taria of melancholy fame, whitlier Augustus sent his abandoned daughter Julia, and Tiberius banished Agrippina the daughter of Julia, and Xero his wife Octavia, whom he had divorced. About twice a week a steamboat comes out to these islands from Naples.

The magnificent mountain-enclosed Gulf of Xa- ples is guarded on either liand by noble promontories, each having in the offing famous islands. Cape Miseno on the western verge has extending beyond it and evidently part of the same formation, the is- land of Procida and farther out Tscliia, both of vol- canic formation, while Point Campanella at the

464 THE MEDITEKKANEAX

southeastern verge, the rock on which Ulysses built his Temple of Minerva, has three miles out at sea, the celebrated Capri isle. The island of Procida, the ancient Prochyta, was gradually built up of pumice stone and lava, cast out of three craters, one now forming the gorge of a creek, while the other two, wliicli are much larger, have had their margins on one side washed awav bv tlio action of the sea, and make two spacious semicircular bays on the Italian side of the island. Originally there was an- other larger crater, tlirough which the sea has com- pletely washed, and has thus detached from Procida the little olive-clad island of Vivara, on its western side. Procida is about two miles long and has a large population who cultivate it thoroughly, rais- ing fruits and wines. Its town of Procida is on the northeastern shore, the glistening, white flat- roofed houses contrasting with the environment of green, as the steamer a])proaches, and the old de- fensive castle on the extremity of the island being the niosfcons])icuous structure. This castle which has a fine view of the Gulf of Xaples is now a prison. Beyond Procida is beautiful Ischia, its splendid hills rising behind the town and castle of Ischia, and culminating in the noble summit of the Epomeo, elevated 2,800 feet, near the centre of the island, now an extinct volcano, whose ernptions in past ages sub- stantially formed it. The town stretches along the shore of a pretty bay, having out in the sea at the

THE ITALIAN ISLANDS 4G5

southern edge, a picturesque eastle on a high and isolated rock of volcanic tufa and ashes. Alfonso I of Xaples built it in the fifteenth century, and a stone pier, connecting the rock with the land, par- tially protects the harbor. The town has about seven thousand inhabitants, and tlie island twenty-five thousand, who cultivate wines and fruits, and some also get a livelihood by fishing, while from remote times they have made mnitoui (tiles) and other pot- tery from the gray clay found here. Ischia was the ancient Pithecusa and ^Enaria and the Iscla of the middle ages. Its coasts are steep and rocky, and its form an oblong, about twenty miles around, the vallevs beinff of unusual fertilitv. The massive Epomeo has encircling it, twelve other and smaller extinct volcanoes, and the s(»enery of intervening mountain and vale is very beautiful. This volcano, the Epomeus of antiquity, was in active operation in prehistoric times, and much earlier than its neighbor Vesuvius, on the mainland of Italy. Because of the repeated eruptions, the early (Jreek colonists de- serted the island in the fiflli century 1>. C, and several severe eruptions also occurred during the Roman era. The mythological story was that the giant Typhopus, transfixed by tlie tliunderbolts of Jupiter, was buried beneath tlit^ mountain, his suflFer- ings causing periodical groanings, uproar and fearful outbursts of fire. The last eruption was in 1302,

and it is believed that the volcanic activity was then Vol. 1—30

466 TUK MEDITERRANEAN

transferred to Vesuvius. The great lava stream, then descending to the sea near Ischia, can be readily traced, not yet being fully covered by the vegetation. A terrific earthquake occurred in July, 1883, which broke a largo mass from the moimtain, and for awhile visitors shunned Ischia, but now they are re- turning. The island has been part of the Neapoli- tan kingdom (now Italy) since the thirteenth cen- tury. Ischia was the birthplace of the Marquis Pescara in 1489, and his widow Vittoria Colonna, famous for her talent and beauty, retired to the castle in 1525, to mourn his loss. She was the poetical friend of !^Iichael Angelo.

Ischia, from the most remote period, was noted for its warm sjmngs and bathing. A road crossing the lava stream of 1302 leads northward to Porto d'Ischia, one of the bathing establishments, with warm salt springs. The circular harbor, which is an extinct crater, was formerly a lake, but an open- ing has been made to the sea, that gives access to vessels. About three miles away, on the northern coast, and on the lower slopes of Epomeo, are the warm alkaline and saline baths of Casamicciola, the most famous on the island. This town was almost entirely destroyed by the earthquake of July, 1883, but has been rebuilt by the government, and has many visitors between !May and August. The prin- cipal spring, the Gurgitello, rises on the foothills of the mountain, at a small elevation, with water at

CAPRI 467

147° temperature. In the suburbs is the Campo Santo, where the seventeen hundred victims of the earthquake were buried. At Laeco, to the westward, are more hot springs, providing vapor baths, rising in the gardens of a former monastery. The Church of Santa Rcstituta, the patroness of Ischia, is in the village. On the westcm coast is Forio, the chief town, with about eight thousand people, and a little port where passing steamers touch. From every- where, the island is dominated by the massive Epomeo, rising almost perpendicularly on the north- em side, but falling off more gently on the other slopes. Hewn in the volcanic tufa rock of the sum- mit is the Hermitage of San Xicola, and from a Belvedere, on the pinnacle of the mountain, there is a superb view over the blue ^Mediterranean, and the Italian coast bordering the Gulfs of Gaeta and Xa- ples, with their background of noble mountains, Ve- suvius smoking in the distance.

CAPBI.

Off the southeastern verge of the Gulf of Naples, beyond the l)old Point of (^ampanella, is another " island of goats," the ancient Caprece, which camo in time to be called Capri the " Isle of Sirens." This famous island is not verv far from the main- land, and in the approaching view, it appears as a cluster of dark mountain summits. It is of most picturesque outline, bounded by imposing and often

468 THE MEDITERRANEAX

fantastic coast cliffs, and covers barely six square miles of surface. This mountain mass is so well en- closed, that at only two places can boats land the visitors, while on the eastern side the huge cliffs rise nearly a thousand feet, almost vertically from the sea, and the rugged island culminates toward the west, in the summit of Monte Solaro, elevated 1,920 feet. From the landing place up to the town of Capri, on the eastern side, is a climb by devious paths among the rocky precipices, while to the other vil- lage near the western side — Anacapri — the route is steeper still, the road winding through the defiles, and displaying gorgeous scenery. There are about six thousand inhabitants of this most attractive island, of which Capri and Anacapri are the chief villages, and in recent years it has become a popular resort of tourists, one of whom however has \vTitten that " the industries of Capri are fishing, especially for coral, vine-dressing, and begging — the last be- ing pursued with great diligence." It was the sum- mer and winter retreat of the Roman Emperors, Au- gustus and Tiberius, who lived here in every luxury and indulgence, the latter especially practicing the most frightful cruelties and excesses, and here were sown the early seeds that produced the conditions leading to the decline of the great Roman Empire. Capri came under historical notice in the reign of Augustus, who made it his favorite retreat, construct- ing palaces, baths and various public works. He

CAPRI 469

first visited the island 20 B. C, when he was about thirty-three years old, and he died in the year 14- A. D. Tiberius, who was born 42 B. C, was his stepson, and was made heir and successor, beconiinp^ Emperor when lifty-six years old. lie made Capri his favorite abode, building here twelve villas, in honor of twelve of the Eoman deities, the greatest being the Villa Jovis. In the year 27 A. D. he finally retired permanently to Capri, where he lived for ten years until Iiis death in March, 37, at the age of seventy-nine, iluch of the stnictures reared by these Emperors still exist. Cai)ri became, in the time of Tiberius, the scene of the most horrid ex- cesses and debauchery, and his favorite Sejanus, who induced him to give himself up to a life of sensual pleasures, and held the reigns of government at Rome during his retirement, did not hesitate to incite in his half-crazed master, the W(jrst cruelties and licen- tiousness. Tiberius became the most wretched of men, suifering all the torments of excessive dissipa- tion. Finally, he found that Sejanus was plotting to become Emperor, and got the Senate to have him killed by strangidation A. I). 31, the populace tear- ing his body to pieces. When Tiberius came to death himself, bent double and inflicted with a myriad ills, the people hailed their deliverance with delight. During his reign Christ was crucified at Jenisalem, and this has always been regarded as bringing a judgment on Tiberius. High above the

470 THE MEDITERRANEAN

water, on the northeastern cliiFs, are the ruins of the villa where he lived, and the legend is that from the brink of a neighboring preeii)ice, the tyrant hurled his victims into the sea.

The usual landing place is at the beach of the Marina Grande, in a small bay on the northern shore, and from here the steep routes ascend to Capri and Anacapri. About half the poi)ulatic)n live in Capri, which is the capital, and is at nearly five hundred feet elevation. Hills surmounted by ruins surround the village, on one of which is the old castle, the Castiglione, which was the defensive fortress in the middle ages. The jutting northeastern promontory was the site of the Villa Jovis, and is known as the Capo, and here is the bold rock elevated 745 feet, the Salto di Tiberio, from which the legend says Tiberius threw his victims. There is now a plat- form on its summit, with a railing, from which a stone may be dropped into the water far below. Alongside are remains of the ancient lighthouse, which was the beacon on the cape. There are ex- tensive ruins of the villa, mostly vaulted corridors and chambers, used as stables for cattle, and on the highest point, a small chapel with a hermit's cell, there being an admirable view across the blue sea to the barren rocky Point of Campanella, and the coasts of Italy with their noble mountain background. The limestone rocks, forming the cliff walls enclosing the island, have been here worked out bv the water

Capri, the Landing Place.

CAPRI 471

into arches and grottoes, and do^vn by the waterside is the Grotto of Mitroniania, which was the famous shrine of Mithras, " the god of the sun," worshipped throughout the Konian empire during the time of the later Emperors. Turning inhmd, the route to Ana- capri mounts to higher elevations in its elaborate windings, constantly disclosing beautiful views. Over it frown the ruins of the medieval Castle of Barbarossa, which has been named after the Barbary pirates, who destroyed it in the sixteenth century. Besides this winding road, an ancient flight of about seven hundred stejis leads up to Anacapri, where live most of the other inhabitants of the island. This village is scattered over a comparatively level plateau, sloping toward the west, at nearly 900 feet elevation. To the southward rises the highest surface of the island, culminating in ^lonte Solaro, which ascends abruptly from the sonthem sea, its summit cro\\Tied by a mined castle. Here is a magnificent view all around the horizon, with sea and land spreading away in all directions, the Italian Campagna being enclosed in the distance by the grand background of the Apennines.

The prevalent limestone rocks of Capri have been worn by the sea and weather into the strangest forms, so that gorges and caves are numerous. All around the precipitous coasts are splendid rock formations, and there are grottoes in white, yellow, green and blue, the most famous being the Grotta Azzurra, or

472 THE MEDITERRANEAN

" Blue Grotto," on the northern coast about a mile westward from the Marina Grande. It is a beauti- ful voyage by boat along the bases of the precipitous rocks, passing the practically submerged ruins of the Baths of Tiberius. The entrance to the cave is barely three feet in height above the water, but within, the roof rii^es to over forty feet in height, and the cave is a lumdrcd feet wide and nearly two hun- dred feet long. This grotto is said to have been connected with one of the villas of Tiberius by a passage through the rocks, but the grotto seems to have been entirely forgotten during the middle ages, and was not rediscovered until 1826. The low and narrow gateway passed, the visitor is in a fairy hall. The daylight is excluded from everywhere, excepting by the ilhiniination refracted through the small open- ing, the Hglit being intc^mally reflected from the very clear waters. The effect of the blue refraction of the light is most exquisite, and at first the eye is completely dazzled. Everything is tinged with sil- ver and blue. Sapphire lights twinkle from the rocky roof, and go glancing down into the watery depths. A stone thro\\Ti in makes myriads of bril- liant blue bubbles. The dripping oar becomes a blade of frosted silver tinged with blue. A boy jumps into the water for a small fee, and he is at once encased in tlie most gorgeous suit of blue and silver amior, set with brilliant jewels. The boatmen row the visitor all around the island, and to other

CAPRI 473

grottoes, among them the " Green Grotto " in the base of the towering Aloiite Sohiro, displaying simi- lar gorgeous views in brilliant emerald green. The cliffs are noble, many of them wTought into inter- esting forms, and among the most majestic are the Foraglioni, near the town of Capri, where the central cliff has a grand archway tlirough which the boat passes. But the " Blue Grotto '' is the gem of the much admired island, and William Gibson thus sings its praises:

Many an arched roof is bent

Over the wave, But none like thine, from the firmament To the Hhells tliat at thy threshold lave. What name shall shadow thy rich blue sheen — Violet, sapphire, or ultramarine —

Beautiful cave?

Blue — all blue — may we not compare it

With Heaven's hue, With the pearl shell, with burning spirit, Or with aught that is azure too? No! for in ghostly realms alone Is the like of thy lustre shown —

Cave of blue!

CAMPANIA

VII

CAMPANIA

Gulf of Salerno — Pwstum— Salerno — ^Monte St. Angel Amalfi — Capri — Canipanella — Bay of Naples — Portici — Re- sina — Herculaneum — ^Torre del Greco — Cafltellammare — Sta- bise — ^Meta — Sorrento — Cape of Minerva — Phlegroian Fields — Pozzuoli — ^The Solfatara — ^Monte Nuovo — Lucrine Lake — Lake Avernus — Cumce — Baia — Cape Miseno — luchia — Par- thenope — Naples — Grotto of Poailipo — Virgil's Tomb — St, Januarius — Vesuvius — Pompeii — Byron's Invocation to Italy.

THE GULF OF SALERNO.

The approach to the bay of Naples, of which Ischia and Capri are the outer guardians, is beauti- ful. This is Campania, its coast strikingly bold and rocky, being carved into deep bays guarded by noblo headlands, and dotted with historic places. The hilly Campanian district, including Salerno and Naples, is largely volcanic, extremely fertile, and has a most equable climate, the people being so proud of its attractions, that they call it Campagna felice. On the shore of the Salerno Gulf, are the remains of Pffistum, now called Pesto, the Greek city of the sixth century B. C, which the Romans extolled for its rose gardens, none now existing however. But amid the ruins, still grow wild some of the famous

477

478 THE MEDITERRANEAN

PflBstum roses, rich in perfume, and blooming twice a year. This was the ancient Poseidonia, the city of Poseidon or Xeptune, on the border between Cam- pania and Lucania. The Moslems destroyed it in the ninth centurv, and it afterward fell into decav, the locality being malarious, and the green plain along the sea was almost entirely abandoned. There remain, however, the massive Doric temples, which are regarded as the best survivals of Greek archi- tecture outside of Athens. These are the Temple of Xeptune, 190 feet long, with thirty-six massive columns, 28 feet high and over seven feet in diame- ter; the Basilica, 180 feet long and having fifty columns; and the smaller Temple of Ceres, 105 feet long, with thirty-four columns. There are extensive and well-preserved ruins of towers and walls, enclos- ing a space about three miles in circuit, one of the tower gateways, fifty feet high, being almost per- fect, and all about are indications of this great city of the Greeks.

At the head of the Gulf, and rising steeply on the hill slopes is the old town of Salerno, the ancient Salernum, also a Greek settlement, famous in the middle ages as the greatest medieval school in Eu- rope, but now depending, for its chief celebrity, upon its venerable Cathedral of St. Matthew, built in the eleventh century by the Xormans, and the tradition says, on the spot where his remains were interred.

THE GULF OF SALERNO 479

after having been brought here from the East in the year 930. This is a region of limestone cliffs, and the white houses of Salerno are gathered along the shore and slopes, overlooked by the gray old castle of the Lombards, crowning the projecting ridge, at 900 feet elevation. These hills sweep around southward in graceful outline, far away to the Point of Licosa, blue in the distance, beyond the green plain of Pses- tum. The ruins of this ancient city were freely drawn upon for materials for the Salerno Cathedral, its front having an atrium surrounded by twenty- eight antique columns, while there are many vener- able sarcophagi, which originally held the corpses of noble Eomans and Greeks of Piestum, but were brought into the cathedral, with their pagan orna- mentation unchanged, for the later burial of promi- nent Christian counts and prelates.

The northern verge of the Gulf of Salerno, is the long and elevated ridge of Monte St. Angelo, the Sorrento peninsula, extending westward to the abrupt promontory of Point Campanella, beyond which is the beautiful island of Capri. The sum- mit of St. Angelo is the most elevated height around the Gulf. Along the face of the limestone cliffs is constructed a wonderful road, which can be traced from Salerno out almost to the Point, hewn in the rock, supported by galleries and going over airy viaducts, now up, now down, cut out of the cream-

480 TllK MEDITEURAXEAX

colored limestone, covered by shrubbery in places, and having dotted along it, here and there, pictur- esque white villages of flat-roofed houses, perched among the crags, and apparently guarded by the old time martello towers, once used on these coasts as a l)rotection from pirates. Upon this road, about mid- way between Salerno and the Point, is the famous haunt of artists, Amalfi. A deep ravine opens out to the sea, rocks rise precipitously on either hand, and the little town, wedged into the gorge, also runs up the cliffs, and stretches out over a diminutive beach in front, where in times past, a good deal of the place stood, but has been engulfed and washed into the sea. Xarrow paths are hewn into the face of the rocks, sometimes supported on arches, and terraces are built up in walls to give a chance to plant the vine, the orange and the lemon. On top of all, from a prominent crag, an old round tower looks out over the water. A stream rushes down the ravine, receiving little brooks from either side, and here are numerous old mills that make paper, while the people also manufacture macaroni and soaps. In a superb situation on the hill, at 230 feet elevation, with a grand outlook, is the old Capuchin monasterv, now used as a hotel. Paestum has con- tributed building materials here also, and there are Koman sarcophagi and columns in the Cathedral of St. Andrew, where they are said to have in the crypt the body of the apostle, which was brought from Con-

THE MAGNIFICENT BAY 481

stantinople in the tliirtcenth ccutury. Everywhere are gems of scenery that attract the artists from all over the world.

THE MAGNIFICENT BAY.

The approaching steamer crosses the wide Gulf of Salerno, and heads for the strait, through the open- ing broken down between the bold promontory of Campanella and Capri beyond. This high and rocky island has the brilliant morning sunlight shin- ing upon its steep shore, up which the zigzag road runs between the villages at base and sunnnit. Tlie steamer sails between the island and the mainland and then the beautiful Hay of Xaples is opened, with that noted citv on its distant northern shore, and Vesuvius with the rising smoke column far off to the northeastward. This renowned bav, one of the most beautiful existing, is twenty miles across, having the outlying islands of Capri and Ischia ^ guarding its extremities, and is surrounded by a magnificent girdle of mountains, being indented fully fifteen miles into the Campania coast. As the steamer glides northward over the bright blue waters, the grand semicircular sweep of the enclosing moun- tains is impressive. Off to the northeast, in the mid- dle of the semicircle, and the dominant feature of the splendid scene, is the double cone of Vesuvius,

1 The islands of Capri and Ischia are described in the pre- ceding chapter on " Islands of the Sea." Vol. 1—31

482 THE MEDITEHHANEAN

backed by the distant snowy summits of the Ap- ennines. From the level plain to the right of Ve- suvius, there extends grandly out southwestward, the projecting rocky limestone peninsula of Sorrento, with majestic Monte St. Angelo its culminating summit, the ridge descending abruptly to the bold headland of Campanella that has just been passed. At the base of the cliffs, along the bay, and in their gorges, nestle a group of villages, prominent among them bei^ng Castellammare, ^leta and Sorrento. To the westward of V(?suvius, there s})reads a series of hills, having part of Xaples built on their spurs, but they appear totally different from the limestone formation to the southward, being a series of long curving ridges and low flat-topped cones. Tliese ex- tend to the volcano of !Monte Xuovo, over near the sea, and terminate in the bold headland guarding the northwestern ver«:e of the bav, bevond which is Ischia with its grand Monte Epomeo. This group of volcanic hills forms the famous Phlegra?an fields of the ancients.

As the steamer swiftly moves northward over the water, there gradually develops with the nearer view ahead, a white mass looking much like a spacious marble quarry, having a long low white line running off southeastward to the ba^*e of Vesuvius. This, on approaching, gradually dissolves into Xaples, and on the right hand side, into tlie almost continuous line of villages extending along the curving shore be-

THE MAGNIFICENT BAY 483

tween Vesuvius and the sea, which various eruptions and destructions have made familiar to the world, in the names of Fortici, Itesina and Torre del Greco. Tho white mass of tlie city, stretching from the water's edge up the slope, culminates in the Castle of St. Elmo, crowning the ridge overlooking Xaples, and a striking object in the scene. 1 hit the dominant feature of all is Vesuvius, its lower slopes a rich carpet of gardens and foliage, having high above the gray and broken encircling cliffs of Monte Somma, and the loftier cone of ashes upholding the crater, from which rises the steam and smoke cloud blown away slowly by the wind. Creeping down the flanks of the mountain are dark stains that spread out in deep purple amid the verdure below, the lava torrents which in past times have overwhelmed the stricken villages. This grand bay of Xaples presents one of the most gorgeous views in Europe, and it is no won- der that the enthusiastic sons of Italy, beholding it, made the proverb which has l)ecome one of the city's mottoes, Ycdi Xapoli e poi mori! — ^'See Xaples and then die."

The villages that fringe this splendid bay are in- teresting. Portici is the railway station for Eesina near by, which is built over the lava beds and scoria that in the first century of our era engulfed Ilercu- laneum. This was the Grecian lleracleia, said to have been founded bv Hercules. It became a favo- rite site for the villas of wealthy Romans and was

484 THE MEDITERRANEAN

totally destroyed by the first eruption of Vesuvius in the year 79. Subsequent eruptions buried it to a depth in some parts of one hundred feet of lava and ashes. In 1719, the sinking of a well revealed the site of the ancient theatre, about eighty-five feet be- low the surface. Extensive excavations have since been made with interesting results, and many relics were removed to the nuiseum in Xaples. The ex- cavations were renewed in 1907, under the auspices of the Italian and other governments, upon a plan involving the purchase of the surmounting buildings of Kesina, so that the whole ancient city may be ultimately uncovered. Ilerculaneum was alongside the sea originally, but the later lava streams have ex- tended the shore line. It is exactly in front of Ve- suvius. The railway train moving beyond it, crosses the great lava stream of 1794, about a half mile wide and forty feet thick, and comes to Torre del Greco, which is built upon the earlier lava streams of 1631, that destroyed the greater part of the older to^vn. The eruptions in 1737, 1794 and 1861 greatly dam- aged the place, and it was rudely shaken by an earth- quake in 1857. The showers of ashes, the flow of lava, the upheaval of the groimd, and the fissures that opened, did their destructive work, but could not frighten the people away, as they always returned and rebuilt their houses. The vast mass of Vesuvius overhangs the village, its entire base being covered l>y the marks left from these catastrophes.

THE MACiXlFlCENT BAY 485

Beyond, stretches southeastward the splendid peninsula of Sorrento, indented by various bays, the first being that of Castellamniare. This town is on a spur of Monte St. Angclo, and is built over an- cient Stabile, which was destroyed at the same time as Herculaneuni and l\)nii)oii. Here perishetl the elder Pliny, while observing the eruption, being suf- focated by the ashes and sulpliur fumes. Some exca- vations were made in the eighteenth century, but the work has been abandoned. The town, having over thirty thousand people, extends more than a mile along the beautiful curving bay, and has a busy har- bor and a dockvard. The ruins of the old thirteenth century castle, which gave the place its name are high on the hill to the southward. This is a fa- vorite summer resort of the Neapolitans, and the entire neighboring coast has many American and English winter visitors. The road leading beyond, is carried along steep rocky slopes, sometimes down near the sea, and then high on the cliffs, with long circuits inland, rounding the deep ravines. High above rise the limestone crags, clothed with olives, and the road goes over the bold promontory of the Punta di Scutolo, almost ov(M'lying the sea, having a little tower perched at its end. Then the route descends toward Meta, with the beautiful Piano di Sorrento beyond, a luxuriant plain sheltered among the moimtains, a sort of shelf, sloping gently down from the bases of rugged limestone crags, and termi-

486 THE MEDITERRANEAN

nating abruptly above the sea, in steep cliffs of dark rock. From its groves and orchards rise groups of pink and white houses. Far over the sea are views of the grand bay, of Capri's rocks and the distant mountain of Ischia, with the smoking crater of Ve- suvius always in sight, ^feta stretches along the sand, around two little harbors, its Church of the Madonna being built where once was a temple of Minerva, and its deep ravine incised back boldly into the side of Monte St. Angelo, rising 4,735 feet above, the highest summit around the Bay of Xaples, and commanding a superb view.

Up from the strip of beach along the water, rise the old buildings of Sorrento, anchored on crags and nestling amid the rocks. Its hotels are in gar- dens on the cliff terraces, and have private stairs descending to the sea where there are bathing houses. This is ancient Surrentum, in a splendid situation, and is called by the people La Gentile. Here was born the poot Tasso in 1544, and the public square is adorned with his statue, but the house where he saw the light and the rock on which it stood, have been engulfed by the sea. The road beyond goes out to the promontory, at the extremity of the penin- sula, the bold rock overgrown with olives and myrtles, now crowned by a lighthouse, which was the ancient Cape of ^linerva, so called because Ulysses here erected a temple in her honor. The modern name of the Punta di Campanella, has been given from the

The City and the Bay of Naples.

THE MAGNIFICENT BAY 487

bells of its watch-tower, erected by Charles V as a protection against the IJarbarv pirates, who con- tinued their raids on this coast until the early nine- teenth century. Its western outlook is upon Capri, about three miles away.

Upon the northern shore of the Bay of Xaples are the volcanic Phlegnran I'iehls, where were made the first Grecian settlements in tliis regi(m, the poems of Homer and Virgil investing them with special in- terest. To the westward of ]Saples, its tall houses appearing in various colors, and clustered on a steep headland, is Pozzuoli, wliere St. Paul on his journey to Rome, " found brethren," and was " desired to tarry with tliem seven days." It was then the chief trading seaport of Italy, called Puteoli, and the special port of Kome, but it is dilapidated as well as picturesque now, though the broken masses of masonry down in the water, wliich are all that re- main of the piers of the [Mole (»f Caligula, testify to its maritime greatness in the Roman days. It is full of the ruins of that tinu*, and in the public square they have the statue of a Roman senator, headless when found in the ruins, but on which they have ingeniously put another statue's rescued head so as to complete it. The cathedral occupies the site of a Temple of Augustus, some of its Corinthian columns still standing. There are ruins of temples of Serapis, Diana and Xeptune, and also a fine am- phitheatre, which was excavated in 1838. It was

488 THE MEDITERRANEAN

here that Xero had gladiatorial contests, and Diocletian sent St. Januarius into the arena to be devoured by wild beasts, but they refused to rend him, whereupon he afterward suffered martyrdom outside the city gate, and became the patron saint of Xaples. All about this neighborhood are volcanic craters, and vents whence steam jets and mephitic vapors emerge, the chief being the Solfatara, on the edge of the town, a crater enclosed by hills of pumice stone, and having various fissures. This had its last eruption in the twelfth century, but the volcanic forces are still working in the hollow ground beneath, and health-seeking patients climb up to it, and sit in the hot and bad-smelling sulphurous vapors, which give relief in cases of consumption and asthma. Much of the ruins of Pozzuoli have been lowered under the sea level by earthquake and volcanic con- vulsions. Here lived Cicero in the villa Puteolan- eum and composed some of his works, while Hadrian died and was temporarily interred here.

To the westward rises the volcanic cone of the Monte Xuovo, about 450 feet high, this " new moun- tain," in the form of an obtuse cone with a deep crater, having been suddenly upheaved by a violent earthquake on September 30, 1538. Close by is the Lucrine Lake, adjoining the sea, with an an- cient embankment under the water, across which the tradition says that Hercules, in one of his labors, bringing the oxen of Geryones from Erythia, drove

THE MAGNIFICEXT BAY 489

them through the swamps; while inland about a half-mile northward, is the famous Lake Avernus, filling an old crater, embanked by lava covered hills and about two miles in circumference. The sombre environment of this dismal lake, caused the ancients to regard it as the entrance to the infernal regions, and such were its mephitic exhalations, that no bird could fly across it and live. The guides show now the " Grotto of the Sybil," and another small open- ing, which they say is the actual " Entrance to Avernus." This lake was connected with Lucrine by the Ivomans, and made a naval harbor, much ex- tolled by Virgil and Horace, but the upheaval of the Monte Xuovo destroyed all their work, and also half filled up Lucrine with debris. The legends tell us that this, in the remote past, was a region of the gods and sirens to whom IHvsses came for counsel. Homer describes it as the abode of the dismal, sunless Cimmerii. Virgil tells how ^Eneas came from Troy to visit the Sybil of Cumae, and descended with her, tlirough the dark groves on the bank of Avernus, to the lower W(irld. There is a project now afoot, to again connect these lakes with the sea, and establish shipbuilding yards and docks, for which purpose a Belgian syndicate bought the territory in 1908.

Over the hill, on the outside of the peninsula, and adjoining the sea, are the remains of Cumae, the Greek Kyme, the first settlement on this coast, founded in the eleventh centurv B. C. From here

490 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Rome got the mysterious sibylline books. It was an important seaport at first, but declined after the Romans took it, and was destroyed by pirates in the thirteenth century. Fragments remain of the walls and the Acropolis, the rock on which this castle stood being perforated with many passages, leading in every direction. This is believed to have been Vir- gil's " Grotto of the Sibyl," w^hich had a hundred entrances, " whence resound as many voices, the oracles of the prophetess."

To tlie southward, the peninsula narrows, and here on a deep indentation of the bay is Baia, the ancient Baia», overlooking the magnificent Bay of Xaples, and in its day of greatest prosperity the most famous watering place of Rome, but now a little village try- ing to regain some importance as a seaside resort. Here came Augustus, Xero and Hadrian, and it was then a centre of the greatest luxury and profli- gacy. Horace describes in his first epistle, a wealthy Roman, who wishes to build a splendid villa here, and exclaims " Xothing in the world can be com- pared with the lovely bay of Baije." A little way south is the Villa Bacoli, on the coast, where Nero in 59 A. D. plotted the murder of his mother Agrip- pina, a crime soon carried out at her villa on the Lucrine Lake, and his tomb was near the villa of Julius (/Spsar on the heights above. Beyond is the site of Misenum, where Augustus established his naval harbor in connection with the works at Lucrine

THE CITY OF NAPLES 491

Lake^ the town having long after been destroyed by the Saracens. Here was the villa of Luciilliis, where Tiberius afterward died. The ])eninsiila ends in the promontory of Cape !Miseno, an isolated mass of tufa-rock, rising 300 feet, and connected with the mainland by a narrow strip of coast, stretching be- tween the sea and a lake, and fully a mile long. This peculiar rock of Miscno, l(X)king like an ancient tumulus, was described by Virgil in the ^neid, as the burial place of the trumpeter ^lisenus, whence came the name. It is surmounted by a lighthouse and a picturesque watch-tower of the olden time, and from the summit has a grand outlook over the water and the land, with the pointed summit of' ]\[onte Epomeo on Ischia, out in front. Ovid in his Meta- morphoses tells of the journey of the god of healing, who came to Rome through this charming region.

Minerva's Cape they leave, and Caprea;*s isle, Sorrentum, on whose liills the vineyards smile, The city, which Alcides' spoils adorn, Naples, for soft delight and pleasure born. Fair Stabise, with Cumsean SibyPs seats. And Daiffi's tepid baths and green retreats.

THE CITY OF NAPLES.

After the ancient Cumjc had existed for some time, a Greek colony migrated across the peninsula, and founded on a spur of the hill of St. Elmo, a new settlement, called, according to Pliny, Parthenope, after the tomb of a Cunui*aii siren of that name.

492 THE MEDITEKRANEAN

This colony, receiving accessions from Greece, and spreading in the progress of years, came to be known as Neapolis or the " new city," while the original settlement was called Pala^opolis, or the " old city." Thus began the name of Xaples, the population con- tinually enlarging by further arrivals from Greece. The Romans conquered it, in the fourth century B. C, and its attractiveness drew many of the Koman magnates hither. LucuUus possessed gardens, where the city is now built, and in them in the year 476 A. D., died Romulus Augustulus, the last feeble mon- arch of the Western Roman empire. All the Roman emperors were residents, and most of them bene- factors of the city, while Virgil lived in the suburbs, completing here some of his last works. In the fifth century of our era, the barbarians attacked and devastated the town; it fell before Belisarius; and the Goths also took it by storm. Then it became independent, and was ruled by its own Dukes for several centuries, until captured in 1130, after a long siege, by the Norman Roger. Charles of An- jou made it the capital of his kingdom, it afterward fell to Ferdinand of Aragon, was ruled in the six- teenth centurv bv Don Pedro of Toledo as vicerov, and in the eighteenth century it came to the Bourbons. All these princes greatly extended and embellished the city. Resisting the despotic control of Ferdi- nand (Bomba), in the nineteenth century, it re- belled under Garibaldian inspiration. Bomba was

THE CITY OF NAPLES 493

overthrowTi, and Xaples was annexed to the newly formed kingdom of Italy. The population is about a half million, its antiquities are few, but it retains several picturesque castles of the middle ages.

The landing, after crossing the beautiful Bay of Xaples, and passing the fine lighthouse on the Molo, the latter dating from 1302, pr(»duces a sad disap- pointment. The city has little attraction in the lower districts, and the noisy and wrangling boat- men, put the visitor ashore at a poor little quay, sur- rounded by dirty streets and s(|ualid quarters, w^ith squabbling porters and cab drivers, numerous beg- gars and a scene of wTctchedness, noise and general demoralization, w^hich for the moment, gives a more serious meaning to ihe proverb : " See Xaples and then die." Most of the people seem to live in the streets. The view after landing is not very satis- factory. The Castle of St. Elmo was impressive on the approach, and there was a picturesque flavor in the quaint Castello dell' Ovo, so called from the oval shape of the rock on which this old-fashioned fort rises from the sea to defend the dockvard in front of the town. But the houses themselves are generally uninteresting, and to an extent monotonous in out- line, being mostly oblong constructions of masonry, with flat roofs, excepting where an occasional low dome may rise, giving a slightly oriental aspect. There appear only a few towers, high domes or steeples rising above the general level.

494 THE MEDITERRANEAN

The Castello dell' Ovo was begun in the twelfth century, but was practically completed in its present form, by the viceroy Don Pedro of Toledo, about the middle of the sixteenth centurj'', and is now a barrack. The small rocky island on which it stands, to the left of the harbor, was the Megaris of Pliny, and is the outlier of a range of hills, dividing Xaples into two unequal portions. The Pizzofalcone hill, on which was the Palieopolis, rises behind this island, and from it the ridge ascends northeastward, into the heights of St. Elmo, elevated 875 feet above the sea, where is the impregnable fortress of the Castello Sant* Elmo, built by the Xormans and their successors, and now a military prison. Funic- ular railways ascend the hill slope to it from the lower town. Thence northward, the surface further rises to the eminence of Capidomonte, where, in an attractive garden, is a Royal Palace, which is now a museum of paintings, porcelains and ancient armor, and on this elevation are the water reservoirs for the city, while the summit is crowned by an astronomical ob:i?ervatorv. Here was the Koval Porcelain factorv established by Charles III in the eighteenth century, which was abandoned in 1820. The hills rise higher toward the northwest, and there, at 1,500 feet elevation, is the old monastery of Camaldoli, giving the most charming outlook near Xaples. The city, which fronts for about three miles on the bay, and spreads inland northward for

THE CITY OF NAPLES 495

two miles, over the plain and the hills, is thus divided into a higher and a lower town. To the eastward of the ridge of hills, and on the lower ground, is the greater part of old Xaples, while the newer part is on the western hills and their slopes, facing the bay to the southward. In the older town, a large population is closely crowded, and the nar- row streets are lined with very high buildings, that are tenement houses, with families on every floor and in almost every room. The children swarm tbe streets below, and the goats, that are the property of the people, wander about at will, and are ac- customed to going up stairs in these tenements to be milked, sometimes to the sixth or seventh story, and the clatter of the hoofs upon the stairs, the Xeapolitans say, is quite nuisical.

Along the eastern bases of these hills, is the chief street of Xaples, the Toledo, running from the har- bor northward to the heights of C^aj^idomonte. This street has various names, and is the main artery of trafiic, always presenting a busy scene. Its con- struction was begun in 1540 by Don Pedro of Toledo, but since the unification of Italy, it has been officially named the Via Konia. Midway in its course is the great Xational ^luseuni of Xaples, where are collected the archtx?oL»gieal relics of ller- culaneum, Pomj)eii and other ])laces, besides a vast number of treasures from Iu»me and elsewhere throughout Italy. Down near tlie shore there goes

496 THE MEDITERRANEAN

westward from the Via Roma the broad carriage road and promenade of the Chiaja, in front of which is the spacious and tasteful pleasure ground of the Villa Xazionale, facing the sea. Xear the centre of this stands the large white building of the famous Aquarium, one of the best in the world. Back on the hill slopes are villas and hotels, having a grand outlook over the splendid bay. To the westward of this district, the rocky ridge again projects to the shore in the bold promontory of the Mergellina, through which is excavated a tunnel, a half mile long, called the Grotto of Posilipo. This passage has existed since the time of Augustus, having been mentioned by Seneca, in the reign of Xero, as a narrow and gloomy pass, and being viewed with superstitious awe in the middle ages, as having been constructed through the agency of magical incanta- tions by Virgil. Various sovereigns have improved it, and now it is forty feet wide and as high, the eastern entrance facing the city being much higher, and it is used by the railwav and main road to Pozzuoli. Everything going through the tunnel makes a deafening noise, and it seems to delight the Neapolitans greatly, to beguile their passage within this cavern, by unearthly yells and bowlings to awaken the echoes. In a vinevard on the rock above is the enclosure called the ^^ Tomb of Virgil," who died at Enrndusium in B. 0. 19, while return- ing from a visit to Greece, when he expressed the

THE CITY OF NAPLES 497

wish to be buried here, where he had lived and com- posed his works. Petrarch planted a laurel, and the tomb was in good preserv^ation as late as the fourteenth century, but has entirely disappeared. It was described then as containing an urn sur- rounded by nine small pillars.

The shore of the bay of Naples turns northeast- ward on the eastern side of the Castello dell' Ovo, and here are the arsenal, dockyard and harbor of the port. This was formerly guarded by the Castel Xuovo, a massive work begun by Charles of Anjou in the thirteenth century, and subsequently enlarged, the outer walls and bastions having been removed in later years. This castle was, for a long time, the residence of the sovereigns of Xaples. The en- trance to the castle is through a lofty triumphal arch, regarded as the finest monument in the city, a Corinthian gateway erected in the fifteenth century, to commemorate the entry of Alfonso I of Aragon on June 2, 1442. Since the early seventeenth century, the sovereigns of Xaples have resided in the newer Eoyal Palace, which adjoins the castle enclosure on the southwest, and overlooks the arsenal alongside the harbor below. The splendid facade of this palace extends nearly six hundred feet, and in its three stories of colonnades displays the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian architecture. Eight marble statues, in niches, represent the Xeapolitan

dynasties for eight centuries, beginning with Koger Vol. 1—32

498 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the Xorman, and closing with Victor Emmanuel the first king of United Italy.

Xaples possesses about three hundred churches, of which the chief is the Cathedral of San Gennaro (St. Januarius) the patron saint, built on the north- em verge of the older town, and standing on the site of a temple of Xeptune, this cathedral being an edifice in Flamboyant Gothic, with lofty towers and pointed arches. Charles of Anjou began the structure in 1272, and it was over forty years building. An earthquake nearly destroyed it in the fifteenth century, but Alfonso rebuilt it, and there has recently been a thorough restoration. It contains the tomb of Charles I of Anjou, Charles Martel and Andreas, Kings of Hungary, Popes Innocent IV and Innocent XII, and other distinguished j)crsonages. The gem of the cathedral is the Chapel of St. Januarius. Its construction was due to a vow made during the plague of 1527, which the Saint is believed to have stayed, although the chapel was not built until the seventeenth century, and it then cost a million ducats, equivalent to about $1,125,000. The chapel is a Greek cross, the interior decorated with marbles and gold, and it has eight altars, mag- nificent doors, forty-two broccatello columns, and various paintings and frescoes representing scenes in the saint's life. Among the collections in the cathe- dral treasury are a silver bust of tlie saint executed in 1306, and in the tabernacle of the high altar, are

THE CITY OF NAPLES 499

kept two small phials containing his blood. Beneath the altar, in the richly decorated crypt, is his tomb.

St. Januarius was bom in 272, it is supposed at Benevento, sixty miles northeast of Naples, of which he became bishop about 303. lie was beheaded by order of Diocletian at Pozzuoli, September 19, 305, and his remains were interred there, but the two small phials containing his blood, taken at the place of the execution, were preserved and afterward' pre- sented to Bishop St. Severus of Naples, who had his body brought from Pozzuoli to Naples during the reign of Constantipe. It is said that on this occasion the liquefaction of the blood first took place. The body was taken to Benevento in the ninth century, but after some other removals, was on January 13, 1497, finally brought back to Naples with great pomp. The anniversary of his martyr- dom, September 19, is the great festival day of the city. Many miracles were attributed, by the early church annalists, to the exhibition of the saint's robes on various occasions, in the staying of the plague and of eruptions of Vesuvius. It has long been customary to expose the blood to the veneration of the faithful, on September 19, the saint's festival day, on the first Sunday in May, marking the bringing back of the body to the city, and on Decem- ber 16, which commemorates his protection of Naples from damage by an eruption of Mount

600 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Vesuvius. On these solemn occasions, the bust of the saint is exhibited, clothed in magnificent vest- ments. The reliquary, containing the two phials, is an oval about two inches long and six inches wide, the sides being of glass, so that the phials are in plain view. These are of different forms, though of the same length, the larger one containing pure blood and the smaller one blood mixed with clay or sand. An observer, who watched the ceremony, in 1006, describes how the reliquary was brought out, and placed on the altar table before the congrega- tion. The prelate, after looking at it, said to the people, *' Eduro!" (it is solid). Then he exhibited it to them, reversing it to show that the blood was hardened. Afterward, the reliquary was brought close to the bust, but the liquefaction did not follow, and this movement was repeated, while many prayers were said, and a half hour elapsed. Finally the liquefaction came, and the reliquary was presented to each one near the altar, to be kissed. A most remarkable change had taken place; the dark sub- stance, previously as solid as wax, and not affected by the motion of the reliquary, became red and al- most limpid, and was then following the motion, as the phial was turned up or down ; the blood also seemed to live and move, it bubbled, boiled and throbbed, like that in an artery, and had all the ap- pearance of human blood. This liquefaction some- times will continue for the week, during which 'the

IHE CITY OF NAPLES 501

ceremonies are repeated, and it lias been investigated by many scientists without exjilanation. It is the great religious event in Xaples.

Some other churches are of interest. Adjoining the cathedral is Santa Eestituta, an earlier church of the seventh century, on the site of a temple of Apollo, of which some of the (.Corinthian colunms are preserved, tliis having been the first Neapolitan cathedral. San Domenico Maggiore, built in the thirteenth century, after the cathedral, is the finest church in Xaplc*s, has twenty-seven chapels and twelve altars, belonging to the most distinguished !!feapolitan families, many of these richly decorated. Its Chapel of the Crocefisso is the most noteworthy, containing a relief of the ^liracle of the Crucifix, which, according to the tradition, talked to St. Thomas Aquinas, who lived in the monastery ad- joining. He was professor of philosophy there in the thirteenth centurv, his cell and lecture room being still preserved. St. Thomas Aquinas was the famous religious instructor and author, whose services were so useful to Pope Urban IV. When at college, it is said that, from his bigness and usual silence, his fellow-students called him the " Dumb Ox." But the promptness of his answers, and the acuteness of his intellect, led the master one day to surprise them by remarking, " This dumb ox will give such a bellow in learning as all the world shall hear."

502 THE MEDITERRANEAN

In Sante Cliiara is the monument of King Robert the Wise, over forty feet high, and in Sante Maria del Carmine, that of Maximilian II of Bavaria. St. Giovanni a Carbonara contains the monument of King Ladislaus, behind the high altar, supporting the king's equestrian statue, a magnificent structure erected by his sister Johanna II. In Santa Maria la Nuovo is a chapel erected in 1G04 by Gonsalvo de Cordova — " le Gran Capitan," his nephew Ferdin- and having placed on each side of the altar, the monuments of his two most noted enemies, Xovarro, who strangled himself, and the Frenchmen Lautrec, the general of Francis I, who died of the plague in 1528, while besieging Xaples. In the monastery connected with Santi Severino e Sosio, are the valuable archives of the Kingdom of Naples, includ- ing 40,000 manuscripts, some of them as old as the seventh century, and written in Greek, and many volumes of documents. The frescoes here represent scenes in the life of St Benedict, who planted in the central court a buttonwood tree, on which is grafted a fig tree. San Francesca di Paola, near the Eoyal Palace, has its high altar inlaid with jas- per and lapis hizuli, thirty-two Corinthian marble columns supporting the splendid dome, and a special gallery for the royal family. In front of this church, are equestrian statues of Kings Charles III and Ferdinand I. In San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, built by Don Pedro of Toledo, is his splendid tomb

THE CITY OF NAPLES 503

behind the altar, adorned with reliefs representing his achievements, statues of the cardinal virtues, and having the viceroy and his wife in kneeling posture.

The University of Naples, founded by the Em- peror Frederick in the thirteenth century, occupies the buildings of the Jesuits' College in the old town. It has a fine library and natural history col- lection, its faculties including about one liundnMl professors and there are usually five thousand students. Xew buildings are being constructed for it in the eastern suburbs. Xaples is celebrated for its San Carlo Theatre, one of the largest opera houses in Ttalv, where most of the famous works of Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini had their first per- formances. This theatre adjoins the Royal Palace. During recent years, there have been great improve- ments made in the densely populated quarters of the old towTi, by opening now and wider streets, with modem buildings, this being done, both for the health of the people, and to secure better police pro- tection. This older town is overlooked from the western hills, and the finest point of observation is from the high eminence of Camaldoli, to which there is a somewhat toilsome ascent. From this elevation of 1,500 feet, is got one of the grandest views in Italy, embracing the broad bay of Naples and the regions far north and south, the city cluster- ing around the lieights of St. Elmo, which conceal

504: THE MEDITERRANEAN

part of the lower town. Tlie long western peninsula, beyond Pozzuoli, goes out toward Procida and Iscliia; the grand southern barrier of the Sorrento peninsula, has Monte St. Angelo rising high above it, and Capri as its rocky outpost. The luxuriant plain, covered with delicious gardens and orchards, stretches from the city toward Vesuvius, and that massive cone, with its smoke column rising to the southeastward, is the sombre but dominant feature in all views at Xaples.

THE GBEAT VOLCANO.

Far, vague and dim,

The mountains swim,

While on Vesuvius' misty brim.

With outstretched hands

The gray smoke stands,

Overlooking the volcanic lands.

Massive Vesuvius rises almost in isolation, from the plain to the eastward of Xaples, its slopes com- ing down at the western base almost to the edge of the sea. It has a variable height, depending on the damage done to the cone by the successive erup- tions. The summit gradually ascends when the volcano is quiescent, but an eruption usually blows off the top of the crater's rim. It has reached an elevation of 4,450 feet, but now rises about 4,075 feet, the last eruption in 1906 having reduced the height of the crater 375 feet. Around the north- eastern base of the cone there is a crescent-shaped

THE GREAT VOIXANO 505

ridge, called Monte Somma, of which the Punta del Xasoiie, the most elevated portion, rises 3,730 feet, thus being lower than the volcanic cone, and having between a semicircular vallev, called the Atrio del Cavallo. To this vallev, the sides of Monte Somma descend almost perj)endicularly, \vhile the cone has a slope of atxjut 35°, the surface of the lower moun- -tain having a more gradual slope. Vesuvius is the southeastern extremity of the volcanic district which embraces the Solfatara, Monte Xuovo and Mount Epomeo on Iscliia, but the others have had no eruptions for three centuries, though in very ancient times they were the active volcanoes. Be- fore the Christian era, the form of Vesuvius was entirely different from its appearance now. Strabo wrote in the time of Augustus that it was covered with beautiful meadows with the exception of the summit. That was quite sterile with rocks of ashen hue and sootv consistencv, as if thev had been con- sumed bv fire. Strabo concluded from this that " the mountain had once burned, and possessed fiery abysses, and had become extinguished when the material was spent." Its height then w^as less than now, and its outline a wide blunt truncated cone, lowest on the southern side, where the Vesuvius cone now rises. There was a very broad crater on the summit, but no tradition even existed that an eruption had ever occurred. The floor and sides of the crater were overgrown by trees and

506 THE MEDITERRANEAN

shnibbery, with ivy and wild vines running up the walls. This crater was made historical, when the Capuan gladiators sheltered themselves within its natural fortress, from which they came out about 74 B. C. under the lead of Spartacus, to begin the Roman Servile War, he ruling Campania for two years. In the later first century came premonitory earthquakes, beginning in the year 63, when Ifero reigned, and occasionally repeated until 79, when the first great and unexpected eruption destroyed Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabia?. This was then described, as at first a huge dark cloud, rising from the crater to three or four times the height of the mountain, followed by an eruption of red-hot scoria and ashes, lasting all night, accompanied by suc- cessive earthquake shocks. In the morning, when the air cleared, it was seen that the southwestern half of the ancient crater Avail had been thrown down, leaving the curving ridge on the other side, now called Somma. The cities were buried under ashes, lava and mud, and the ground, as far as Cape Miseno, was white with fallen ashes, looking as if covered with deep snow.

The younger Pliny described this eruption in let- ters to Tacitus, and recorded the universal terror, as most people believed the end of the w^orld had come. Outbreaks have occurred since, during which the present cone has l)een built up, within the ancient crater, and more than once partially de-

THE GREAT VOLCANO 507

stroyed. There was a serious eruption in 203 A. D., and another in 472, when the ashes were blown as far as Constantinople. Xine eruptions had been recorded do\\Ti to 1500 and the volcano was quiet until 1631, Etna laboring in the meanwhile, and Monte Xuovo being thrown up in 1538. The Vesuvius crater had again become entirely covered with woods and undergrowth, when on December 16, 1631, there came a terrible eruption, the earth being convulsed by earthquakes, large stones thrown fifteen miles, and the ashes blown all over southern Italy. The villages on the seaside of the mountain base were overwhelmed, and three thousand persons perished. There were six serious eruptions in the eighteenth century, that of 1794 killing four hundred people. Seven eruptions in the nineteenth century, occurred previously to that of April, 1872, which lasted seven days, lava bursting out on every side, and one stream issuing with such suddenness, in the Atrio del Cavallo valley, on April 26, that it overtook a crowd of spectators watching the spec- tacle, and twenty perished. The next serious eruption was in 1895, and then the mountain was quiet until 1903, when it became restless, and was more or less disturbed until the last great outburst began on April 4, 1906. Early that morning, a fissure opened on the southeastern side of the cone, at about 3,600 feet altitude, and a stream of lava flowed down, while large stones were thrown out.

608 THE MEDITERRANEAN

In the afternoon, that side of the cone fell in, and d dense column of smoke rose above the crater, black ashes falling in Xaples in the evening. Next day a second fissure opened at a lower level, and another lava stream flowed more than two miles down the mountain. On April 6, came copious lava out- pourings, and in the evening, the main crater be- gan hurling out huge blocks, at w^hite heat, with loud detonations, vivid light flashes, and a rain of ashes, which destroyed Ottajano and San Giuseppe at the eastern base, the earthquake shocks being frequent. The ashes, by the 8th, had changed in color from black to reddish gray, the fall being copious, and covering Xaples with a dense pall, the cloud which arose from the mountain, shaped like a huge pine tree, being blown a hundred miles north- ward by the wind, with ashes falling throughout Switzerland, and being noticed even in Paris.

The eruptions continued a couple of days after- ward, and then the volcano quieted. The smoke cloud rising from the volcano was measured by ob- servers out at sea, its height being estimated at two miles above the mountain, while the sharp pointed summit of the cone had disappeared, the top being flatter, and the crater much wider and more open- mouthed. It was found, by subsequent examina- tion, that the whole top of the cone had been blown ofi^, so that it was about 875 feet lower than before the eruption. AH the villages, at the base of the

THE GREAT VOLCANO 509

mountain on the seaside, were abandoned, being covered with scoria and ashes, though the lava cur- rents, which in some places were twenty-five feet thick, had become viscid and ceased to move before reaching any of these settlements. There were about two hundred lives lost, twenty thousand people Avere made refugees, causing vast distress, and the damage by the eruption was calculated at $5,000,000. The amount of ashes and scoria thrown out was calculated at one hundred millions of cubic vards.

A railroad carries the visitor from Xaples to the mountain, and up its sides, going almost to the summit of the cone. The upper portion of this road was much disturbed by the 1906 eruption, but it was again put in working order. The route passes over some of the great lava streams of former eruptions. The lava color is a deep purple or brownish-black, the surface being somewhat glassy, but roughened, with small projections. It has been congealed into strange forms, sometimes like twisted cables, then wrinkled, with curving lines of viscous flow, wave spreading over wave in one part, and in another having an apparently petrified spray leap- ing up. Huge blocks are toppled over and held fast, and deep fissures are rent in the mass. Upon the lower plain and slopes, where there is a luxurious vegetation and many vineyards, the native product, the famous Lacrimce Christi wine — "the tears of Christ," — is offered for sale. As the road mounts

510 THE MEDITERRANEAN

upward, a beautiful view is disclosed, and soon the route comes to the little hermitage and observatory at 2,220 feet elevation, where tliere also is a hotel. These are perched on a spur of the mountain, mak- ing a narrow crest on the western side, between two shallow gorges, down which the lava currents flow, as they emerge from the Atrio del Cavallo, between the curving, craggy wall of Somma and the central cone. This has been a safe position, from which, for over fifty years, scientific observations have been made of the erui)tions. Beyond the obsen-a- tory, the railway is laid over the lava fields to the base of the cone, and thence a funicular railway ascends part way to the crater. The cone, which has to be climbed on foot, is a huge cinder heap, a steep hill of loose slag and ashes, having here and there a little lava stream that has hardened, which gives a better hold to the feet, wearied by sinking into the dusty and unstable ashes. Some visitors are aided by the guides, who help them by pulling up with sticks or straps which they catch hold of, and it is also possible to get carried up in a sort of chair.

Upon reaching the summit, a dense steam cloud appears in front, and a strong odor of sulphur and alkali prevails. This makes respiration difficult, but by moving around the side of the crater to wind- ward, a location can be obtained, where the cloud is blown to the other side. Creeping along and peer-

THE GREAT VOLCANO 511

ing over the edge, the abyss may be looked into, though little can be seen of the interior. The dark and stained walls go steeply down, but are soon lost to view in the steaming and bad-smelling cauldron below. In rifts in the lava the stones are hot, and the pungent vapor quickly fills the eyes with tears, and it will ruin clothing in only a brief exposure. Metals are blackened, and fabrics soon turn rust-color. A very brief view is entirely sat- isfying, and the visitor, who might at any moment have the cauldron heave upward, with a shower of stones thrown upon him, an outburst which comes frequently, is soon willing to turn about and descend the cone. The coming down is much easier than the going up. Starting on a half-run with the heels set firmly in the cinders, you and a small avalanche of cinders slide down together. Through- out the ascent and the descent, there is an admir- able view westward over the rich plains and the city, for the hot steam jet speedily rises high above the mountain, and is carried off by the wind, so that the outlook is unobscured. The landscape is superb, embracing the broad blue bay and its splen- did borders, with the far-spreading Mediterranean bounded by the western horizon. The sight of Vesuvius is the great feature of the visit to Naples, grand when in eruption, always interesting, and similar to-day to its exhibition about a century ago, when Bvron saw it and wrote thus:

512 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Vesuvius shows liis binzo, an usual sight

For gaping tourists, from his hackney'd height.

THE BUBIED CITY.

The journey to Pompeii, twelve miles from Naples, is also by railway, and the view of the recently uncovered city, at the southeastern base of Vesuvius, with the exhibits in the Museum at Naples, are the chief source of information we have of the Roman mode of life at the beginning of the Christian era. The relics found at Pompeii have been placed in the Museum, and make an extensive disi)lay. Tlicre are statues, bronzes, paintings, mosaics, furniture, ornaments, tableware and kitchen, utensils, toilet articles and jewelry, and even the children's money boxes and toys, also bread, com, fruit, vegetables, wines, and practically everything connected with the daily life of the people. These relics were found in the houses and public places, and form a remarkable exhibition. The city itself is about one-half excavated, and the work progresses but slowly. Pompeii had about 25,000 people and was a Roman seashore resort, its walls and Greek Temple showing it to have had great antiquity. In the year 63 A. D., it was seriously damaged by the premoni- tory earthquake that preceded the great eruption of Vesuvius in 70, which came unexpectedly, when the people were restoring their buildings, many of the stnictures being found unfinished. The eruption be-

_•

THE BURIED CITY 513

gan August 24, 79, at first with a dense shower of ashes, covering the towTi to a depth of about three feet, so that most of the population had a chance to escape. Many, however, returned, and then the place was covered with another shower of red-hot fragments of pumice stone, which fell to seven or eight feet thickness, and were succeeded bv more ashes and more pumice stone, so that altogether, the city was covered to a depth generally of twenty feet, part of this being formed, however, l)y later eruptions. The number who perished is estimated at two thousand. The city was an irregular oval of nearly two miles circumference, and the sea then came to its walls, and through the river Samo, which flowed by it, provided much maritime trade. But the eruption of 79 made great changes, so that the course of the river was deviated, and the sea coast receded over a mile.

The site of Pompeii was completely lost after the fifth century, and during the middle ages its memory passed into oblivion, the Campus Pompeius becom- ing an undisturbed and uninhabited plain. In the sixteenth centurv a subterranean conduit was con- structed, from the Sarno, directly over the buried Pompeii, to supply Torre Annunziata with water, yet the city was not discovered. In 1748, a peasant, sinking a well, found several statues and ancient bronze utensils, and this led King Charles III of

Naples to make excavations, w^hich in 1755 exhumed Vol. 1—33

614 THE MEDITERRANEAN

the amphitheatre and other buildings. All the rulers of Xaples and Italy have continued the work. Murat uncovered the Forum, town walls and the " Street of Tombs," outside the gates, on the road to Ilerculaneum. During the later nineteenth cen- tury a systematic plan has been pursued, the de- sign being to uncover the entire city, which it is thought may be done by the middle of the twentieth century. This work, it is estimated, will cost $1,000,000, and to the fund, the visitors' entrance fees of two lire, about thirty-eight cents each, and amounting to $8,000 annually, are devoted, the Government also contributing.

Entering by the Marine Gate, there being eight gates in the walls, the visitor walks through a veri- table city of the dead. The wooden roofs of the buildings are gone, having been burnt or crushed by the weight upon them, but the walls remain, and also the streets, and the frescoes and mosaic pavements inside the buildings. These were preserved by the covering of ashes, and were found in almost as good condition as at the time of the eruption. In the later work, the newly excavated buildings are pro- tected by enclosing and roofing them, so that the beautiful Pompeian colors, largely red and blue, are retained. The shops, on the streets, look just like many of those in old Xaplos to-day. The highways are bordered by narrow sidewalks, and are not over twenty-four feet in width, while many of them are

THE BURIED CITY 515

only fourteen feet wide. They are paved with large lava blocks, and at intervals, especially at the street corners, are high stepping-stones, so that pedestrians could keep out of the rain water and dirt. The paving blocks are worn into ruts by the Roman chariot wheels, but these ruts being not much over four feet apart, show that the ancient vehicle was not so wide as the modern. Public fountains are at several street corners. There are public offices, inns, law-courts, temples, residences, baths, prisons, villas, two theatres, a forum and large amphitheatre, and the city discloses everything of interest in the daily life of the Pompeians. The architecture is not striking, nor were the materials generally valuable. There is much stucco and other light construction, and the building method seems to have been very like the modern Italian way, the walls and columns being usually of rubble or brick, and coated with plaster. As the upper portions of the buildings are destroyed, only the lower stories remain, but there are staircases, show- ing that the houses might have been two or three stories high. The absence of glass made a difference in construction, because there are few openings in the outer walls, as the people usually remained in the interior, and thus their houses generally have the oriental system of construction. The entrances from the street, to the houses, are usually by a nar- row passage to the large interior court, which had

516 THE MEDITERRANEAN

an opening above to admit light and air, and into this court the interior rooms opened, most of these apartments being very small. The water supply was distributed much as now, leaden pipes conduct- ing it through the streets and into the houses, with bronze inlets and outlets at the baths, and bronze stopcocks at the public fountains.

The highway leading northwestward outside the gate, toward Ilerculaneum, is the excavated " Street of the Tombs," being lined on both sides with tombs. These vary in design, and as cremation was then in practice, a whole family could be put into a limited space, an ordinary urn being large enough for the last resting place of even the most important Pompeian. The interior of the cremation tomb, has a number of shallow recesses like a dovecote, whence came its name of Columbarium. In these the urns were generally placed, either on a shelf, or let into the wall, with the name of the deceased and his virtues recorded on a tablet. Some of these tombs belong to the earlier period, when the dead were buried instead of being burned, and had painted vessels of terra cotta interred with them. Some skeletons were found in these. The most famous tomb is that of Diomedes, adjoining which is his villa, so vividly described in Bulwer Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii. This is a spacious place, with a garden over one hundred feet square, surrounded by fl colonnade, and having beneath, a vaulted cellar.

THE BURIED CITY 517

Here were found the bodies of eighteen women and children, who had provided food, and sought pro- tection from the eruption, in the vault. They had their heads wrapped up, and were half buried in the ashes that had penetrated the openings. Near the garden door was found the skele- ton of tlie proprietor Diomedes, with the key in his hand. There are skeletons still occasionally found in the process of excavation, and about one hundred have been recovered. In some cases, the volcanic dust had solidified so as to form an exact model of the original figure. By running plaster into this natural mould, a cast is made, and the person is thus reproduced in most painful accuracy. The casts show that death was not easy, the arms and legs being drawn up, and the fingers often partly clenched, as if in agony. One girl of graceful shape, and about seventeen years old, lies on her face, with her eyes pressed against her arm, as if she had fallen in despair, and wished to shut out the horrid sight. There is also a dog's body, bent almost double, as if dying of convulsions. Some of these casts are preserved in the Pompeian Museum, which is near the Marine Gate.

The forum was over 500 feet long and 100 feet wide, was decorated by statues, and its colonnade of Doric, surrounded by Ionic, had been injured by the earthquake. Adjoining it, or near it, are Temples of Jupiter, Apollo, ^lercury, Isis and

518 THE MEDITERRAXEAX

Esculapiiis, with also the Basilica and Macellum, that were markets and law-courts, and the building of the Priestess Eumachia, which was the wool mar- ket, and contained her statue. The amphitheatre, at the soutlieastern edge of Pompeii, was about 450 feet long, and had accommodations for twenty thou- sand spectators. There is also a theatre with seats for five thousand, and an adjoining smaller theatre with fifteen hundred seats. These structures were open to the sky, but had awnings for protection against the sun and rain, and these were sprayed with water for cooling. Announcements were found, much as now, of contemplated performances, inscrip- tions showed that pavements, statues and other deco- rations, were gifts of benefactors and officials, and it was indicated that seats '' in the shade " were at a premium then, just as they always have been since. In the adjacent quarter, reserved for the gladiators, several skeletons were foimd in the cells. The public baths, or Tliorma?, were large establishments, admir- ably arranged and heated, there being separate apart- ments for the men and women, extensive dressing rooms, and a swimming bath. The private houses are of much interest, the walls being usually painted in bright colors, mostly red, blue and yellow, with also manv mosaics. The finest residence is the " House of the Faun," so called because a statuette of a dancing girl was found here. This house is 262 by 125 feet, and in it was the celebrated mosaic of

The Forum at Pompeii,

THE BURIED CITY 51i)

the " Battle of Alexander," which was taken to the Naples Museum. This work represents the contest at Issus, just as Alexander is charging Darius with his cavalry, and forces the defeat and retreat of the Persians, and somehody has counted 1,374,516 small mosaic cubes in this grand picture. Another elegant residence is the " House of the Tragic Poet," thus named because in it was the rej)resentation of a poet reading, and also a mosaic of a theatrical rehearsal where the choragus is instructing the actors. On its threshold was the mosaic dog, with the inscription Cave Canem, — " beware of the dog." These, with several paintings, were taken to the Xaples Museum, this house having provided the greatest variety of beautiful paintings.

The " House of Sallust " is one of the largest, and most complete in its adornment, in Pompeii. Its interior stucco is painted to imitate marble, with bright red and blue colors, and it has in the rear a garden. The " House of Castor and Pollux " was built as two structures, but connected by a large peristyle adorned all around with paintings. This is finely decorated within and without, and has nu- merous mythological pictures. The " House of Marcus Lucretius " was richly adorned with pictures, mosaics, bronzes, vases, ornaments and coins, most of which have gone to the IMuseum. The name of the owner was learned from a letter painted on the wall, with his address. The " House of Siricus "

620 THE MEDITERRAXEAX

had a large adjacent bakehouse, of which he was pro- prietor, and here loaves of bread were found. The " House with the Balcony " has three rooms project- ing on the upper floor, that were preserved by care- fully replacing the charred woodwork with new beams. In the " House of the Vettii," which was. gaudily ornamented, and had many paintings, all have been left as they were found, and they make a fine display. The " House of Pansa," the magis- trate, occupied an entire block, 319 by 124: feet, and embraced sixteen shops and dwellings, facing two of the streets. Here was found, on the threshold, the famous mosaic with the greeting Salve. The " House of the Anchor " was named for an anchor in mosaic at the entrance. The " House of Adonis " had a life size fresco, in the garden, of the wounded Adonis, attended by Venus and Cupids. The " House of the Surgeon," constructed of massive limestone blocks, is regarded as the oldest house in the city, and was named from a number of surgical instruments found in it. The Temple of Isis, ac- cording to an inscription over the entrance, had just been restored, after the earthquake of 63, by a boy six years old who paid for the work. It has a court, surrounded by columns, with several altars, and an aperture for the deposit of remains of sacrifices, and chambers for the priests. A secret stairway de- scended to a cistern. A statuette of Isis, found in the portico, was taken to the Xaples Museum.

THE BURIED CITY 521

When this temple was excavated, there were re- mains of sacrifices on the altars, and several bodies were found, including the skeleton of a priest with an axe. There are many other structures, and as the work of excavation slowly proceeds, new buildings are uncovered and interesting discoveries made. There have also been found, and placed in the Museum, a beautiful painting of Aphrodite, and nimierous representations of Xarcissus, who was a favorite of the Pomj)eians. In 1873, there was discovered a painting of Laocoon, regarded as one of the most important si)ecimens of ancient art yet brought to light.

As one wanders through the narrow streets and curious old houses of this resurrected city, the view off to the northwest always discloses the huge volcano which wrought its ruin, more tlian eighteen hundred years ago, the smoke cloud blowing far away before the wind. It gives the impression, that is almost in- effaceable, of the resistless powers of nature, and the vast changes that come in the world. Yet these tombs and excavated houses are ever contributing their relics, to the wonderful art collections of Italy, probably the greatest in the world, the contemplation of which, with the country's grand development of natural fertility and beauty, so impressed Lord By- ron, that in Childe Harold he pronounced his noble invocation :

522 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Fair Italy! Thou art the garden of the world, the home Of all Art yields and Nature can decree; Even in thy desert, what is like to thee? Thy very weeds are beautiful, thy waste More rich than other clime's fertility; Thy wreck a glory, and thy ruin graced With an immaculate charm which cannot be defaced.

TRINACRIA

VIII TRIXACEIA

Lipari Islands — Stromboli — Lipari — Vulcano — Salina — Panaria — ^The Faro — Scylla — C'harybdia — The LAnd of Earthquakes — ^Messina — Keggio — Taormina — XaxoH — Aci Reale — ^The Cy- clops— Acis and Galatea — The Faraglioni — Catania — ^Mount Etna — Moio — Bronte — Milazzo — Tyndaris — ^The Fata Mor- gana— Cefalu — llimera — Termini Inierese — ^The Conca d'Oro — ^Monte Pellegrino — Palermo — Santa Rosalia — Monreale — Castellammare — Calatafimi — Segesta — Monte San Giuliano— Eryx — Trapanl — ^iEgadian Islands — Marsala — ^Mazara — Sali- nus — Sciacca — ^Porta Empedocle — Girgenti — Sulphur mines — Castrogiovanni — Lake IVrgusa — Agira — Diodorus — ^Licata — ^Terranova — Gela — ^\^ittoria — Seeglatti — Comiso — ^Modica — The Cava d'Ispica — Palazzolo Acreide — Cape Passero — Syra- cuse— ^Dionysius — Hiero — Archimedes — Fountain of Arethusa — Fountain of Cyane — Papyrus.

STBOMBOLI.

Sicily is the largest island in tlie Mediterranean. Its English name is Sicily, while the Italians call it Sicalia, and it was anciently known as Trinacria from its triangular form. Bordering the northern coast is the group of Lipari Islands, their outpost being fa- mous Stromboli. As the visitor approaches, on the steamer coming from Xaples, there rises into view, as the first Sicilian landmark, the isolated cone-like summit of Stromboli, a perpetual cloud of black

525

526 THE MEDITERRANEAN

smoke carried away from its top by the wind, and ex- tending for a long distance in the air. It stands out, about forty miles westward from the mainland of Italy, on an almost circular island, the northernmost of the Lipari group, which is an archipelago of vol- canic rocks, rising in bare and rugged glory, steeply from the sea, their lava formed peaks being a sort of uniting chain between Mounts Epomeo and Vesuvius, to the northward, and Etna down in Sicily, and thus scattered promiscuously off the Sicilian and the Calabrian shores. Stromboli, for much more than two thousand years, has been discharging lava. It is the great beacon of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and in the olden time was regarded as the seat of -^olus, the god of the winds, for Pliny said the weather could be foretold for three days by the smoke of this vol- cano. It was customary in the middle ages to de- scribe great warriors and tyrants, who disappeared from earth, as being banished into Stromboli's crater, for this was regarded as the entrance to Purgatory. The returning Crusaders from the Holy Land, sailing by, said that they distinctly heard the lamentations of the tortured souls, imploring the intercessions of the monks for deliverance. The peak is elevated 3,020 feet, the crater being just northward of the summit. It is in perpetual activity, though not exactly in con- tinuous eruption. Flashing out at brief intervals with regularity and brightness, it throws up showers of stones, almost all falling back within the crater.

STJiOMBOLI 527

The brink can be safely approached, and the interior surveyed, when the smoke is not too dense. Strom- boli, in its regularity of eruption, appears much like the intermittent gleam of a flashing lighthouse, and as it stands just where such a lighthouse is needed, guiding into the Strait of ^Messina to the southward, it entirely fulfils that duty, the flash being visible for a great distance. The volcanic light, however, is different, being larger and less brilliant, and radiat- ing equally in all directions. On a dark night the observer sees not only the flash of light, but also a pale phantom cone, starting up from the sea sud- denly in phosphorescent outline, and then as quickly vanishing. There is no actual flame, but the display is much like a flame. Climbing up to the edge of the crater, to examine the inner workings, down within is Been a lake of glowing melted rock, the surface being a skin of semi-solidified lava. Water has be- come mixed into the seething mass far below, and in the form of latent steam, exerts a great expansive pressure. It forces its way upward, beneath the skin of semi-solid lava on the lake within the crater. This it lifts in a large bubble, which soon breaks with a vast upward rush of steam. The outburst makes the eruptive flash, its luminosity being due to tlie reflection of the light from the fiery lake below, upon the steam that is condensed into cloud above the vol- cano. But the visitor, who is peeping over the edge, must be careful when he sees the bubble rising to

528 THE MEDITERRANEAN

near the bursting point, and must duck low to avoid the rush of scalding steam, and afterward nimbly dodge the falling lava stones.

There are seventeen islands in the Lipari group, ten being smaller rocks, and all of them mountainous. They are of volcanic origin, scattered off the northern shore of Sicily, and being from twelve to forty miles distant. The ancient Greek mythology had various legends of these islands, where -^olus ruled the winds, and their history is replete with records of storms and earthquakes. Ulysses came here in his wanderings, and the Greeks were early settlers. The Romans were shy of them, on account of the volcanic disturbances, and about 200 B. C, Vul- canello island was upheaved, while frequent erup- tions occurred afterward, and they also suffered severely in the great earthquake of 1783, and some- what in that of 1908. The Romans used them as a place of exile. The largest island, Lipari, covers about ten square miles surface, and its central sum- mit ridge' is elevated 1,050 feet. It has nearly thirteen thousand population, and supplies Europe with pumice stone, of which the surface is almost wholly composed. It was the ancient Meligimis, and its chief town of Lipari is on a rocky plateau on the eastern coast, where a harbor exists, and be- hind the tovm, the surface rises in an amphitheatre, toward the central summit of Monte St. Angelo, an extinct volcano. Here is the old castle built by

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 529

Charles V, about the middle of the sixteenth century, as a defence, after the place had been plundered by the Barbarossa pirates. There are remains of Eoman baths, and of a temple they erected to Diana, and in the modem town, a cathedral, and the store- houses of the merchants who deal in the pumice stone, sulphur, currants and Malmsey wine, the is- land's products. Southward from Lipari is Vulcano island, connected by a narrow isthmus with the up- heaved smaller island of Vuleanello. Vulcano's crater is constantly smoking, its greatest diameter being about sixteen hundred feet, and the precip- itous interior walls are covered with incrustations of sulphur. A boiling hot sulphur spring issues from the lower rocks near the shore. This volcano, in the olden time, was believed to be Vulcan's workshop. Salina island, formerly known as Didyme, or " the twins," is composed of the cones of two extinct vol- canoes, Monte Vergine rising 2,820 feet, and Monte Salvatore, 3,155 feet. It produces Malmsey wine. A small island group lies northeast of Lipari, of which the largest is Panaria; this group, formerly one island, burst into the present fragments as the result of an eruption, 12G 13. C. The volcanic sum- mit on Panaria is elevated 1,380 feet.

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.

We approach the entrance to the Strait of Messina,

the Italian mainland of Calabria stretching far away Vol. 1—34

530 THE MEDITERRANEAN

on the eastern horizon, while in front, to the south- ward, is Sicily. The southern extremity of Italy is formed very much like a foot, with Calabria as the toe and instep, off which is Sicily, separated by the comparatively narrow strait. The approach to the entrance is heralded by the splendid cone of Etna, with its smoke column, seen rising to the southeastward, while the beautiful Sicilian shores, spreading far away westward, have a noble back- ground of mountain ranges, with summits exceeding 6,000 feet elevation, and snow-covered during nearly half the year. The grand array of spacious bays and picturesque headlands, making this northern Sicilian coast, stretches from Cape Faro westward to the limestone mass forming the Monte San Giul- iano, rising 2,485 feet, which was the ancient Eryx. On the eastern side, the Messina strait, gradually broadening, as it extends southward in front of Etna, separates Sicily from Calabria.

At the entrance, the Strait of Messina is barely two miles wide. The Calabrian shore rises, in the background, as the wild ridge of Aspromonte, culmi- nating in Montalto, 6,420 feet high. The impress- ive slopes, well seen from the opposite Sicilian coast, are overgrown with pines and beeches, this extremity of the toe of Italy having almost barren rocky sum- mits, snow-capped during much of the year, and con- trasting finely with the semi-tropical luxuriance of the lower foreground. The northern entrance to the

SGYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 531

Messina Strait is almost entirely concealed. On the huge toe of Italy, there is projected a rocky " corn," which is the celebrated Scylla, while to the north- ward, the opposite coast of Sicily extends in the promontory and Cape of Faro overlapping the Scylla rock and hiding the entrance. It is an old tradition that Hannibal, when escaping from the Romans, sailed southward for Africa, his galley having a native pilot named Pelorus, who said he knew a channel that made a shorter course than sailing around Sicily. Steering toward it, Hannibal saw no opening; the pilot renewed his assertion, and sailed closer in shore ; still there was no channel and apparently only a landlocked bay. Believing him- self betrayed, and about to be put ashore and deliv- ered to his enemies, Hannibal struck down the pilot with his sword. Then, just a moment too late, the Cape of Faro was rounded, and the entrance to the strait revealed. This cape was called the Promon- torium Pelorum, after the unfortunate pilot. There is the ruin of an ancient tower, wliich looks over at Scylla on the opposite toe of Italy, and this is tradi- tionally described as the site of a monument, which the remorseful Hannibal erected to his memory. In the ^neadj Helenus, the prophet, tells iEneas of Scylla and Charybdis:

They say these places leapt apart of old,

Rent by the force of huge catastrophe —

Such power to change doth times long old possess —

532 THE MEDITERRANEAN

When, end to end, each land was only one, The sea with forceful might athwart it came, And severed with its waves the Hesperian side From Sicily, and washed with narrow tide, 'Twixt fields and towns apart on either shore. Upon the right hand Scylla sits on guard; Insatiate Charybdis on the left; Who daily thrice in her deep whirlpool pit Sucks the vast billows to a sheer abyss. And rears tliem high aloft by turns again. And smites the constellations with the spray.

Scylla is a bold headland, two hundred feet high, the rocks at the base being deeply scooped out by the action of the waves, and it is crowned by the ruined castle dominating the modern town, noted for its product of silks and wines, and has the mournful memory of the earthquakes of February, 1783 and of December, 1908, each of which almost destroyed it. The whirlpool and currents, at the strait entrance, were always dreaded by the ancient navigators, but they have given little fear in modem times. The Scylla rock and the Charybdis whirlpool were fa- mous, though the actual location of the latter is not known, but is believed to have been the Garafolo current, seven miles to the southward, off the Mes- sina harbor " sickle," there thrust out into the strait. In the Grecian mythology, Charybdis and Scylla were two voracious monsters, dwelling opposite each other. Charybdis occupied a rock on the Sicilian shore, and thrice every day gulped down the waters of the surrounding sea, and thrice cast them up

SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 533

again. Scylla, whose den was on the Calabrian shore, was represented as a beautiful virgin above, but a terrible monster below, having a wolfs body and a dolphin's tail. It had twelve feet and six long necks and moutlis, each of which took a victim from every ship passing wdthin reach. Homer in the Odyssey tells of these monsters, and the fears of the ancient mariners. But tlie modem sailor traverses this great highway of commerce undaunted. From the mountain chains adjoining its northern coast, the surface of Sicily is generally an elevated tableland, cut into by broad and shallow valleys, sloping do^vn to the Mare Africanus off the southern shore, which stretches in almost a straight line from northwest to southeast, and has neither promontories nor good natural harbors. The geologists say the is- land, in early times, was here connected by a flat tableland, with the present African coast of Tunis, having been afterward separated as the result of some convulsion, the interposed sea being shallow, and having various islands rising from it. Tunis is but ninety-five miles away, and the dim outline of the Atlas mountains can be traced over there in clear weather. The prehistoric races inhabiting Sicily, seem to have become solidified into a people known as the Sicani, who were superseded, at least ten centuries before the Christian era, on the eastern shores of the island, by the Sikcli, coming from the mainland of Europe, the others retiring westward.

534: THE MEDITERRANEAN

Then the Elyiui, supposed to be descended from the Trojans, and the Phoenicians, arrived and founded colonies, the Elymi having their sanctuary of Aphro- dite upon Eryx. The Greeks came upon the coast of the Messina Strait 735 B. C, founding Kaxos, closely followed by settlements at Syracuse, Zancle (near ]\Iessina), Catania, and elsewhere on the strait. Later, Greek settlements were made all around the island, and in the fifth century B. C, the Cartha- ginians appeared in the west, producing many con- tests, which ultimately, in the third century B. C, brought in the Romans, who got full possession 210 B. C, and made it a province. St. Paul landed at Syracuse when on his journey to Kome, and Chris- tianity prevailed generally in the third century A. D. The barbarians came, and then the Moors, the latter in the ninth century, and holding sway until the Normans appeared in the eleventh century, under Robert and Roger de Ilauteville, the former being sumamed Le Guiscard or " the shrewd." Their line became the sovereigns of Sicily, and in the thirteenth century, the island went to the House of Aragon, united ultimately with Spain and Naples, followed by the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in 18 CO becoming part of the Kingdom of Italy.

THE LAND OF EAKTIIQUAKES.

We have come into a region of dense population and frequent earthquakes. The Messina Strait has

THE LAND OF EARTHQUAKES 535

most beautiful shores, yet it is directly upon the line of contact of the primary and secondary geological formations, between Vesuvius and Etna. But, despite the earthquakes, the people have remained, cultivating the fertile soils, with their fruits and vines, in all the primitive ways of their remote an- cestry. The men and women, alike, dig the fields with peculiar long-liandled spades, the laboring force standing in a line so as to make a furrow and ridge of the turned-over soil, the same as is done by a plough in most other lands. These people have al- ways lived in dread of seismic ui)heavals, which have repeatedly ravaged both sides of the strait. In Sep- tember, 1692, some four hundred towns and villages of Sicily were engulfed, and a hundred thousand lives lost. In 1783, another earthquake ravaged both sides of the strait, and almost entirely destroyed Messina, and every other city and village on its shores. There were no less than seven earthquakes during the nineteenth century, and most of them with frightful results. On September 8, 1905, Calabria was again shaken, premonitory warnings having been given by Vesuvius and Stromboli as early as August 30, when both burst out in unusual eruption, the subsequent earthquake destroying many villages and thousands of lives, and resulting in the formation of a new volcano near Montalto. Again an earthquake came to the neighborhood of Reggio, across the strait from Messina, on October 23, 1907,

536 THE MEDITERRANEAN

and destroyed a thousand lives. But the crowning cataclysm of all was the earthquake of December 28, 1908, destroying Messina, Eeggio and a score of other towns on both sides of the strait, and killing nearly two hundred thousand people, the greatest earthquake the world has ever known.

About seven miles southward from Cape Faro on the Sicilian shore, is Messina, and Eeggio is op- posite, a little farther south. A peculiar elbow-like and low-lying tongue of rock juts out in front of Messina, enclosing a rounded bay, and looking al- most as if it had been built by human hands, as a breakwater for a spacious harbor. The Sikeli set- tled here, and it was natural that the roving Greeks, many being pirates, who early sailed the strait, should have selected it for a colony. The rocky tongue enclosing the harbor, which is one of the best in the world, was kno^\^l as the Zancle, or " sickle," from its peculiar shape. On this " sickle," also known as " St. Raniero's Arm," grew the town, and it was covered bc'fore the earthquake with ware- houses, offices and other buildings, having on the extreme end the old-time terminal citadel and light- house. The settlement spread over the inner shores of the harbor, which are splendidly encircled by a grand amphitheatre of rugged peaks. There were a hundred thousand people in this busy port of Mes- sina, and its trade extended to all parts of the world. But its history is full of calamities, arising from

THE LAND OF EARTHQUAKES 537

war, pestilence, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, so that the relics of antiquity were few, though the environment is most charming. On the approach, the white walls of the houses looked bright and dazzling in the sunshine; while southwestward, in the distance, rises the giant volcano, Etna, the high- est in Europe, with the attendant cloud of smoke, gathering above the crater at the summit of the noble cone, and carried away lightly by the wind.

The dawn of history in Messina was in the eighth century B. C, when the Greek and Chalcidian pi- rates came along, and found the Sikelian settle- ment of the Zancle, which they occupied. It had all sorts of masters afterward, and attracted many Messanians from the Peloponnesus, so that ulti- mately they preponderated, and it thus got the name of Messana. The Carthaginians then appeared upon the scene, captured and destroyed the town, and after two centuries of war and comparative ruin, the Romans came by invitation of the Mamartines, or " Sons of Mars," who had held it until Hannibal captured the castle, and this call for help began the first Punic War. The Eoman possession was se- cured in the third century B. C, and they held it until the fall of the Empire. The Saracens got con- trol in 842, and the Crusaders in their joumeyings to the East, passing through the Messina Strait, so valued the harbor that it led to the ^Norman occupa- tion, with great resulting prosperity. For five

538 THE MEDITERRANEAN

centuries afterward Messina was a practically inde- pendent city with high privileges. In the sixteenth century Charles V presented many gifts, in memory of which a street was named after his son, Don John of Austria, on his return from the victory of Lepanto over the Turks, John's statue erected in 1572 being among the civic adornments. Then there were quar- rels between the aristocrats and the citizens, which resulted in the downfall of the privileges of the citi- zens after a long strife, an attack by the French in the late seventeenth century, and conflicts that re- duced the population from 120,000 to about one- tenth the number. The citadel was erected at that time to control the town, but the prosperity of the place disappeared. It had subsequent calamities from the plague of 1740, killing 40,000 people, the earthquake of 1783, which almost entirely destroyed it, the bombardment of four days in September, 1848, the visitation of cholera in 1854, with six- teen thousand victims, another destructive earth- quake in 1894, with a less violent shock in 1905, and the final disaster of 1908.

The Messina Cathedral, called La Matrice, was a Norman construction, begim in the eleventh cen- tury and completed under King Roger II. Fires had burnt and earthquakes damaged it, so that little remained of the original building. It was a Latin cross three hundred feet long and one hundred and forty-five feet wide across the transepts, the fagade

THE LAND OF EARTHQUAKES 539

being early Gothic. In the interior, twenty-six granite columns supported the roof, and are said to have been brought from a temple of Xeptune, once standing on the Faro, at the entrance to the Messina Strait. This cathedral is the shrine of Madonna della Lettera, referring to a celebrated epistle said to have been sent to the people by the Virgin Mary, and brought by St. Paul in the year 42. The faith- ful believe that this epistle is kept in a receptacle in the High Altar, and in its honor there is held a great festival June 3d. This altar, built in 1628, was richly decorated, and then cost about $950,000. A Papal investigation, however, has shown that this epistle, with other alleged sacred documents, were forgeries of the fifteenth century. There are sarcophagi of the Emperor Conrad IV and of Al- fonso the Generous, w4io died in 1458. The cathe- dral had various mosaics, and the pedestal support- ing the vessel containing holy water at an entrance to the nave, was an ancient (Jreek work, with an inscription showing that it bore a votive offering to Esculapius and Ilygeia, then the patnms of the town. A splendid fountain of the sixteenth century stood on the piazza fronting the cathedral. Messina had many other churches. The oldest Xorman church, the Annimziata dei Catalani, was near the cathedral, a temple of Xeptune having been origin- ally xipon the site, and afterward a mosque. In the modern church of Santa Xaddnl(»na, during the revo-

540 THE MEDITERRANEAN

lution of 1848, a bloody battle was fought between the populace and the invading Swiss troops, when the town was bombarded by King Ferdinand (Bomba) of Xaples. In the Church of St. Agostino was a painting of the Madonna, its legend being that angels brought it hither, across land and sea, from Scutari, at Constantinople. Behind the city the en- closing mountain amphitheatre rises into Monte Antennamare, elevated 3,705 feet, and giving a grand view over the ruined city, harbor, and the gleaming strait, to the mountainous Calabrian shore beyond. Over there is Keggio, also partly ruined, and almost as ancient as Messina, whose colonists originally settled it in the eighth century B. C. It was the Roman Rhegium, was rebuilt after the de- structive earthquake of 1783, and when the disaster of 1908 came, it had about 18,000 inhabitants, and was a most attractive place, its broad and handsome streets extending from the sea to the beautiful hills in the rear, which displayed many fine villas.

THE world's greatest tragedy.

The greatest earthquake on record, coming with- out premonition, Monday morning, December 28, 1908, began at 5 :20 o'clock, long before daylight, and when most of the population were asleep. It was a sudden, and at first upward, then horizontal, vio- lent shock, continuing less than a half minute, throwing down the buildings, the ground splitting

THE \V0IILJ)'S GREATEST TRAGEDY 541

open in many places, with fissures into which many houses fell. A few minutes later came other shocks, fourteen being counted in about forty minutes, and the resultant vibrations continued at intervals during about four hours. The sensation experienced by survivors was, that the ground surface appeared to be thrust upward by the first great shock, while at about the same time the l)ottom of the Messina strait seemed to rise. The latter produced an initial rush of waters, quickly followed by a great tidal wave or outrush, that swept the shores of the strait, and the monster wave rising thirty-five to forty feet, and with resistless force, dashing over all the lower por- tions of the banks, bounding up the streets, and overflowing the land to a distance of one to two thousand feet, according to the elevations. This wave receded, and then came on again, the ebb and flow of these tidal avalanches, being counted four times during the next half hour, after which the oscillations continued, though with decreasing force. Other earthquake shocks and vibrations occurred at intervals for several weeks, over sixty shocks coming in ten days, and about three hundred during Janu- ary, some being quite severe and causing further destruction to the ruined buildings.

The damage, however, was done in less than a minute, the sudden thrust along the land surface, together with the breaking up of the falling build- ings, creating enormous clouds of dense and chokinc

542 THE MEDITERRANEAN

dust, which long hung over the ruined cities, and obscured the entire region. The chief destruction was in the strait and along its shores at Messina, Eeggio and the adjacent towns and villages. The serious ruin spread for forty miles, from Castroreale in Sicily southwest of Messina, northeast to Palmi on the coast of Calabria, and back for several miles from the coasts. Damage was done from Kiposto under the shadow of Mount Etna in Sicilv, northeast up to Pizzo in Calabria, a distance of eighty-six miles, while for fifty miles off in every direction, the earthquake shocks were strongly felt. The survivors say there were most violent lateral motions and thrusts, which split open the buildings and threw down the walls, and when trying to escape, the re- peated vibrations shook them off their feet. Deafen- ing noises accompanied the destruction. Messina was destroyed for over two miles along the shore, and a mile back, up the adjacent slopes. The sea wall fronting the city was broken up, and with the prome- nade, has largely fallen, apparently being sucked into the strait and sunken under water. Debris from the ruined buildings buried the people and filled the streets, fires almost immediately beginning, some continuing nearly a week. Similarly, Eeggio was thrown down, the first great skock opening a chasm eighty feet wide near the railway station, whence gushed forth steam and boiling water, some jets thrown as high as an ordinary house, and scald-

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TRAGEDY 543

ing a number of frightened people. The tidal waves added to the destruction, along the sea fronts and on the lower slopes. Over five hundred vessels were destroyed or damaged. Torrents of rain followed, continuing intermittently during four days. Flocks of crows and ravens soon came to the stricken dis- trict, attracted by instinct to the scene of terrible destruction.

An officer upon a vessel in the harbor, described the tidal wave as a fearful upheaval of the waters, which seemed to rise like a mountain and rush to- ward the shore, where there had been noises, at first like the growling of distant thunder, followed by loud reverberations, caused by the apparent rending of rocks and falling of buildings, and as if enormous quantities of loose stones were sliding down hill. The lights everywhere had gone out, and the dark- ness became oppressive. The agitated sea seemed to grow livid and then white with foam, carrying everything with a wild rush toward shore, the ship's decks keeling over. By the time the crest of the wave had passed, occasional fires appeared on shore, and then everything became obscured in a vast eddy- ing cloud of dust that settled do^\^l, enveloping the ship like a fog-bank, and hiding both sea and shore. Afterward, when daylight came and the dust had gone, the harbor walls were seen to be demolished, the city destroyed, and the surface of the strait was covered by an enormous mass of wreckage, casks,

544 THE MEDITERRAN'EAM

boxes, broken boats and timbers, eddying about as the agitated waters washed them. The upheaval of the bottom of the strait was shown by soundings, taken between Messina and Rcggio shortly after- ward. Where the chart had a depth of 273 fath- oms, only about fifty fathoms were found, thus in- dicating an upheaval of over 1,300 feet, instantly produced by the resistless forces beneath.

The suddenness and completeness of the destruc- tion gave the stricken people no chance of escape, as the buildings fell upon and buried them, and hence the enormous loss of life. The repeated tidal waves drowned many seeking to escape at the shore. A correspondent at Messina, who had been at the siege of Port Arthur, said that its bombardment was not as ruinous as the Messina earthquake, and that six months' cannonade by all the artillery in the world could not produce the results of the few seconds of nature's wrath. Over fifty towns and villages were destroyed in Sicily and Calabria. The work of res- cue and succor speedily began, though it was in- effective in many cases, owing to the difficulty of getting victims released from the piles of stones and rubbish covering and imprisoning them. Warships from various nations went to Messina Strait to help, money and supplies being poured into Italy from both sides of the Atlantic. The Italian King Emmanuel and Queen Helena hastened to the ruined district, passing several days in giving encourage-

THE WORLD'S GREATEST TRAGEDY 545

ment, succoring the injured, and directing helpful efforts.. Rescue work at night was illumined by the searchlights of the warships, and the wounded and destitute were taken away to many towns through- out Sicily and Italy. Cold and hunger killed many survivors, and large numbers became insane. One of the most impressive scenes was the progress of the Archbishop, through the streets of destroyed Mes- sina, blessing and consecrating the ruins of build- ings, under which so many people were buried, as cemeteries, and also the improvised trenches, into which the corpses of hundreds of unknown dead had been placed and covered with quicklime. But one Messina church escaped the almost complete ruin, and this greatest of disasters was a sliock throughout the world. The universal hope was expressed, how- ever, for a recoverv.

Sicilia scourged of Fate, thy Damocles

Lost courage *neath a hair suspended blade.

Though thine a tyrant death may not appease,

A deathless Past intones: " Rise, undismayed! "

Diligent work has been proceeding for restoring the stricken city, but the recovery is slow. As the wreckage is removed, in cleaning the streets and building sites, vast treasures have been recovered, and where possible restored to the heirs of the own- ers. But the Government found some $20,000,000 in money, jewelry, securities and other valuables

for which no o^vner could be dij^covered. Vol. 1—35

546 THE MEDITERRANEAN

MESSIXA TO CATANIA.

From Messina southward to Catania is fifty-nine miles along the strait. The railway route crosses many fiutnane or torrents, usually Avide dry beds in summer, and passes through villages ruined by the great earthquake. Farther along, the cliffs that make the shore of the strait are generally of lava, and form the foothills of Mount Etna, this grand snow-covered mountain, its base nearly a hundred miles in circumference, being constantly in view. The railway goes over viaducts and through tunnels, displaying beautiful scenery. Twenty-two miles from ^[(ssina, it is tunnelled under the projecting Cape of Sant' Alessio, an admirable promontory, its hills of yellow limestone and cliffs of variegated marbles, standing out boldly in full view. On the top is a deserted fort, and nearby, a little cluster of white houses amid the green, making the village of Forza. Eeyond, there projects into the sea, the massive Taormina hill, having behind it the site of Xaxos, where the Greeks first settled upon this coast, of whicii, however, few traces remain. This hill, rising about four hundred feet, guarded the ancient Tauromanian passes, the boundary between the do- mains of ^fessana and Naxos.

The railwav bores through another tunnel, un- der the cape that tenuinntes the projecting Taormina promontory, and Ihen turns westward around the

MESSINA TO CATANIA 647

base of the hill, Avhoreon was built the ancient Tauremeniuiii. It is now a village perched on cliffs high above the shore, and consists mostly of one long street, rich in churches, but with a population that is very poor. High above, on a peninsula at 1,300 feet elevation, is the ruined castle dominating the place, that 'was the old time acropolis, founded by permission of Dionysius of Syracuse, after he had destroved Xaxos, 403 B. C. Toward the north- west, the ridge rises in the summit of Mola, about 2,100 feet, and beyond in ^lonte Venere, 2,834 feet. These elevations, dotted with modem villas, afford remarkably attractive views, especially of the splen- did snow-covered cone of Etna, occupying the south- ern horizon, and of the many lava streams, radiating from its crater, and spreading far and wide. Upon one of these summits are the ruins of the old-time theatre, the most interesting relic of Taonnina, lo- cated on the slope of the hill east of the town, and commanding a magnificent prospect. The strong position of the j^lace enabled the town to long resist the attacks of the Saracens, but they captured it with a general massacre in 902, the bloodthirsty Ibrahim-ibn Ahmed, who led them, strangling and Imming the adherents of Bishop Procopius, upon his corpse, the savage Ibrahim even proposing to de- vour the bishop's heart. The remains of the Moor- ish castle are on another lava hill, and also the her- mitage of Santa Maria della Eocca, which was built

548 THE MEDITERRANEAN

after the Xormans got possession in the eleventh century.

The theatre, elevated about 420 feet above the sea, was constructed originally by the Greeks, but the present work is largely Roman, although it since suffered from Saracenic mutilations, and the carry- ing off of building materials and ornaments to use elsewhere. It is a semicircle hewn in the rock, 357 feet in diameter, with a well-preserved stage, and provided for thirty thousand people. Southward from Taormina, one can look upon the site of Naxos down by the coast, founded by Theocles, 735 B. C. It is now chiefly a thriving plantation of lemon trees, along the edge of which flows the little river Alcan- tara. The special god of its early Greek colonists was Apollo Archagetes, and his altar stood near the river, on the road to Taormina, where the ambassa- dors of the settlement were accustomed to offer sacrifices, when leaving for the festal assemblies of their fatherland, ancient Greece. Naxos was ruined more than twenty-three centuries ago, and then Taormina rose. Naxos was traversed by one of the Etna lava streams, where now stands, as if a senti- nel of the long departed place, the Castello di Schiso. From the ruins of the Taormina theatre, the visitor, at sunset, gets a magnificent view of the atmospheric color effects, as he watches the crimson clow lingering on snow-covered Etna, with the beau- tifully tinted smokes hanging in a grand halo over

MESSINA TO CATANIA 649

the mountain. All around are gorgeous hills and mountains, stretching off to the eastern rippling sea, which purples in the twilight that gradually darkens toward the horizon.

To the southward, the route crosses many more lava streams, rising black, brown and reddish in rugged form, and making chains of rocky hills that in some places swell into grand crags at six to seven hundred feet from the seashore. These are all the products of volcanic eruptions, of which some have been comparatively recent. The older lava forma- tions are covered with rich soil produced from the disintegrated volcanic dust, w^hich is very fertile, and here flourishes the vine in luxuriance, the lava supplying the potash on \vhich the grape thrives. One of these streams, descending 396 B. C., just when the Carthaginian general Himilco had de stroyed Messana, prevented his going southward to Syracuse, and he had to make a long diverging march around the western base of Etna. The actual base of the mountain is reached at Giarre, and on its slopes near by is the gigantic chestnut tree, the Cento Cavalli. A few miles farther southward, and built on several lava streams, is Aci Eeale, nest- ling under the flanks of the mountain, noted for its medicinal springs, and for its destruction by the earthquake of 1693. It has been completely re- stored, however, and has about twenty-five thousand population.

550 THE MEDITERRANEAN

This is a region of great mythological fame, for here was the scene of the love of Acis for Galatea, and the interference of the jealous giant Polyphe- mus. We are told in the Grecian mythology, that the Cyclops were giants, having but one circular eye in the middle of the forehead. Homer describes them, in the Odyssey, as a race of cannibal shep- herds, dwelling on the shores of Sicily, whose chief was Polyphemus. Some of those Cyclops were the assistants of Vulcan, forging armor and ornaments for the gods and heroes, their Avorkshops being the volcanoes of Etna and l.ipari. They were the sons of Xeptune, and Polyphemus, the hugest and most desperate of them, dwelt in a cave on the shore near Etna. The Xeriads were the nymphs of the ]\Ied- iterranean, fifty beautiful girls, the daughters of Xereus and Doris, and especially propitious to sail- ors. Their father was a benevolent, wise and gentle old man, the most unerring weather-prophet of old, and he lived at the bottom of the sea. Among the famous Xeriads was the charming Galatea, who was beloved by Acis, the son of Faunus, but Polyphemus, wild from jealousy, crushed Acis to death under a huge rock. The mourning Galatea changed his blood into the river Acis, and on its banks is the town of Aci Reale. Ulysses, in his long wanderings, came to the island of the Cyclops, Sicily, and with twelve of his followers, entered the cave of Polyphemus, who devoured six of them. Ulysses then plied the

MESfcJlXA TO CATANIA 551

giant with wine, making him drunk, put out his single eye with a burning pole, and tying himself and his surviving companions under the bodies of the sheep, escaped when the flock was let out of the cave. Polyphemus, in his blindness, hurled rocks after them, but they escaped ovcT-the sea, and then the giant implored his father Xeptune to wreak vengeance on Ulysses, so that the remainder of his voyage was full of adventure and disturbance.

Down along the shore, and on the sea, are the Cyclopean rocks, enormous isolated lumps of lava. There are seven of these in the sea, kno^vn as the Faraglioni, the rocks which the blinded Polyphemus hurled after the crafty Ulysses. Isole d' Aci, the largest, is the most picturesque, covering about four acres, and rising into a conical summit, elevated nearly three hundred feet. It is built of columnar basalt and limestone. On one of the most prominent Cyclopean rocks, on the mainland, is the Castello d' Aci, the picturesque ruined castle upon its pin- nacle having been the scene of various sieges. This rock of Aci Castello, is said by tradition to be the identical one with which Polyphemus crushed Acis. The name of Aci is given to a dozen villages all about, which claim to stand in the identical grove where Acis and Galatea told thoir mutual loves, and raised the violent jealousy of the one-eyed giant, who, according to the later matter-of-fact investiga- tions of these myths, was really ^Eount Etna, and his

552 THE MEDITERRANEAN

single eye, the volcanic crater. The cool waters of the " harbifer Acis " of Ovid, the brook into which the swain's blood was converted, pour out from under a lava bed near by, and now known as the Acqua Grande, flow about a mile do\vn to the sea. The lava streams on which Aci Reale is built, rep- resent seven diflFerent eruptions, and flowing one over the other make a black, cinder-like precipice, more than fifty feet high, into which a staircase is cut leading to the town. For nine miles from Aci Reale to Catania, the route crosses the rugged ridges of various lava streams, that have come down from Etna to the coast, some of them terminating in bays between the cliffs, which they have partially filled up, and displaying most strikingly their strange, broken, craggy, formation. Upon the sur- face they look much like a black glacier, or a tempestuous ocean, suddenly stilled and solidified. Everywhere are dreary dark broken billows of spongy tufa, with lighter streaks and patches, sud- denly changing, on the eastern side, to the deep blue sea, and inland merging gradually into the splendid fertility of the highly cultivated flanks of Etna. Here are displayed all the climates of Europe in one view, with their characteristic vegetations on the varying elevations of the mountain slopes.

Catania, nestling under the shadow of Etna, is located about midway on the eastern Sicilian coast, and has nearly 120,000 people, being next to Pa-

MESSINA TO CATANIA 553

lermo the most populous city of Sicily. It enjoys a good trade, but is not very attractive to visitors, its antiquities being rather uninteresting, although it is among the most ancient of the early Greek settle- ments, the Chalcidians having founded Catania about five years after Xaxos. Its great charm is the view of the magnificent proportions of Etna, rising to the northward of the city. The ancient theatre, constructed by the Greeks and enlarged by the Eomans, has been almost entirely overwhelmed by lava streams, and while there are considerable excavations, the present exploration is done chiefly by torchlight underground. Its diameter is about three hundred and twenty feet. It was here that Alcibiades, by his impassioned oratory, 415 B. C, induced the Catanians to enter the league with Athens against Syracuse. The city became the Athenian headquarters in that great war, but Syra- cuse ultimately conquered, and Dionysius reduced the people to slavery. Carthage afterward held Catania, then Rome, the Goths and Saracens suc- cessively, and finally the Xormans, it subsequently following the fortunes of Sicily. The guardian volcano has frequently treated it badly. In 1169, the city was almost entirely destroyed by an earth- quake accompanying an eruption. March 8, 1669, another eruption came, upheaving Monti Rossi, northwest of the city, an outpost of Etna, and destroying Xicolosi, on its slope, about ten miles

554 THE MEDITERIIANEAN

from Catania. A loud explosion was heard, and a chasm about six feet wide and of unknown depth, suddenly opened on the mountain side, and extended up to within a mile of the summit, being fully twelve miles long. This was followed by the open- ing of five other fissures, all emitting a great light and pouring out sulphurous steam and smoke, with a noise that was heard for forty miles. The side of Etna was thus bodily split by the resistless in- ternal pressure, and the liquid contents burst out, first filling up the long and narrow fissures, and then pouring doA\Ti the slope in a stream twenty-five feet wide, which fiowed directly toward Catania, and overwhelmed fourteen villages on the way. The in- habitants, brave even in despair, built a wall sixty feet high, to check its progress, but this the lava banked up against and overfiowed, pouring in a viscous fiery cascade over the top. Then they went out in procession, headed by the bishop, and ex- tended their most precious relic, the veil of their patron St. Agatha, toward the fiery foe; when the stream was miraculously diverted, going around the western side of a Benedictine monastery. After a journey of fourteen miles, the red-hot lava reached the harbor southwest of the city, and fiowed into the water, hissing, boiling and steaming, for three miles further. Over the seething waves, the masses of lava were rolled, and tlie blackened river, solidi- fied, now stands a grim promontory nearly two

MESSINA TO CATANIA i555

thousand feet wide and forty feet deep, projecting three miles from the ancient quay walls, which still remain imhcdded in the lava. Another earth- quake and eruption in 101)3 entirely overwhelmed the city, and the present Catania has been erected upon the ruins. The great earthquake of Decem- ber, 1908, which destroyed ]Messina and Keggio, spared Catania, the townsfolk being convinced that this deliverance came through the intercession of St. Agatha. Some of them declare that after the earthquake, her apparition appeared on the summit of Mount Etna, looking like ^' an angelic dream." For many days afterward, groups of the people closely watched the glittering snowclad summit for her reappearance.

St. Agatha, the patron saint of Catania, has her shrine in the Duomo or Cathedral. She was a Christian maiden, cruelly murdered in the third century, by the Roman praetor Quintianus. Her relics are in a chapel, and Richard Coeur de Lion presented her gorgeous crown. The silver sarcoph- agus containing her remains, is borne through the city on her festival day, in ITebniar)", by men wear- ing white robes, the Catanian Senate accompanying, while all the women then cover their faces, so that only one eye is visible. In the cathedral is also the monument of Bellini, the composer, bom here in 1802, who died at the early age of 33, a towns- man of whom the Catanians are very proud. The

556 THE MEDITERRANEAN

cathedral was begun by King Roger, in the eleventh century, but was destroyed by the earthquake of 1169, so that little remains of the original structure. Most of the materials were taken from the ancient theatre, the granite columns of the facade still standing. Earthquakes have made sad havoc in the cathedral at various times, and among its frescoes is a representation of the terrible eruption of Etna in March, 1669. On the piazza in front, is a fountain, having an Egyptian obelisk of granite, borne by an antique elephant carved in lava, the latter a Roman work. Xorthwest of the cathedral is the extensive Benedictine Monastery of San Xicola, now a barracks and school, with a museum and observatory. The latter is surmounted by a huge dome, which makes a fine vista view, along the new street opened westward to the railroad station near the sea, which the Catanians have named the Via Lincoln. This street crosses the lava stream of 1669. At right angles is constructed, from the cathedral northward, the Via Stesicoro Etnea, directly toward the mountain, of which it also gives a grand vista view. The street broadens at the Piazza Stesicoro, northward of the Via Lincoln, and here is the elaborate monument to Bellini, erected in 1882, adorned with the sitting statue of the famous composer, arid having on the pedestal figures emblematic of his famous operas, Norma, Puritani, Pirata and Sonnambula.

MOUNT ETNA 557

MOUNT ETNA.

The loftiest volcano in Europe, and the highest mountain of Italy south of the Alps, is not known by the people who live near it under the name given by the rest of the world. They call it II Monte and Mongibello, the latter being the Sicilian title, com- pounded from the word monte and the Arabic term for mountain, jehel. The name Etna means " to burn," and is derived from a Greek word. It is ele- vated 10,742 feet, snow-covered, and is seen most nobly in the view from every direction, the smoke cloud rising in the calm atmosphere, or curling off as it may be blown by the wind, being visible in clear weather a hundred miles away. Etna has been a volcano from prehistoric times. The ancients called it the forge of Vulcan, and they said the restless giant Enceladus, imprisoned beneath, made the eruptions and earthquakes. A violent outbreak, before the arrival of the Greeks, caused the Sicanians to abandon the district. Pindar, who called it the " Mother of the Snows," and the "Pillar of Heaven," described an eruption 476 B. C. To the Moors it was Jehel Hathamet, the "Mount of Fire." There have been about eighty eruptions during historic times, of which that of 1669, above referred to, upheaved Monti Rossi to the southward and destroyed twenty thousand lives, while the eruption and earthquake of 1693 destroyed

558 THE MEDITERRANEAN

forty villages and towns and a hundred thousand people. There were five violent eruptions, and other weaker ones, in the nineteenth century. In May, 1886 an eruption came which had been for three years threatening, a new crater being formed on the southern slope, since called Monte Gemmelaro, near Nicolosi. The lava streams poured in the direction of that town, the terror-stricken inhabi- tants bearing the jjictures of the saints, from the churches, in a supplicating procession, while the Bishop of Catania also brought out and solemnly displayed the veil of St. Agatha. The lava stream reached the Altazelli, a building dedicated to the village patron saints, situated about a mile above it on an eminence, and the stream, three days later, was divided at the hill, going on either side and slackening its flow. Another stream came along shortly afterward, and after the people had left the village, it halted its flow when within about twelve hundred feet of the outlying houses, the eruption ending with an earthquake. A later eruption, in July, 1892, opened a new crater in Monte Gem- melaro, and the lava flowed southward, at a velocity of five hundred feet an hour, toward the apparently doomed Xicolosi. But the interposition of the saints was again invoked, and the cooling lava slackened its speed to thirty feet an hour, and ulti- mately halted before reaching the village. In May, 1908, and in March, 1910, there were earth-

MOUNT ETNA 659

quakes and eruptions, new craters opening on the mountain sides, ejecting clouds of steam, and ashes and stones, that fell upon Aci Keale and Nicolosi, with lava streams, but these outbreaks ceased without inflicting serious damage.

The fertility of the soil on the lower slopes of Etna, has made this dangerous region the home of a dense population. The orange, chiefly the blood orange, grows on the mountain flanks, up to an elevation of about one thousand feet, there being only a scant water supply at greater heights. Xearly every tree of the luxuriant plantations, however, has had the lava hewn out to get a foot- hold. The olive flourishes to an elevation of three thousand feet. The vine, is the chief cultivation, especially on the southern and eastern slopes, facing toward the sun. There are three distinct zones of vegetation. The lower, or Regione Colti- vata, on which these vines and trees, along with others, appear, is thoroughly cultivated, the vine occasionally growing at a height of thirty-six hun- dred feet. The second zone, the Regione Boscosa, extends above to about 6,800 feet, having some oaks and beeches, with pines in the lower and birches on the upper parts. Chestnuts grow at all heights up to 6,000 feet, and are cultivated both for their nuts and timber. Still higher is the third zone, the Regione Deserta, reaching to the top, and having only a stunted mountain vegetation. The forests

660 THE MEDITERRANEAN

on the slopes are less in extent than formerly, and the frequent eruptions have destroyed much of the woodland. The population very sparse above 2,600 feet elevation, is extremely dense on the lower slopes, exceeding three thousand people to the square mile, being attracted by the extraordinaiy fertility, despite the dangers. The giant chestnuts of Etna grow in this rich lava soil, and are of world wide renown. The most celebrated is the Castagna di Cento Cavalli, heretofore referred to, the " Chestnut of the one hundred horses," and stands at about 4,000 feet elevation, near Kiposto. It is a cluster of four trees, and a fifth one existed until 1852, when it was cut ofF and sold for timber. Originally they were united as one tree, though this tradition is involved in mystery, and it must have been very long ago. If there was only one trunk, it measured 200 feet in circumference, and was the largest tree existing. The name was given because, when Sicily was governed by the House of Aragon, a queen, with a retinue of a hun- dred horsemen, took refuge under the spreading branches. There are other monster chestnuts on the mountain sides, some over a thousand years old, the largest single tree being the Castagno della Galva, having about seventy-six feet girth.

The summit of Etna is a spacious region, about nine miles in circumference, from which rises the volcanic cone and crater about a thousand feet

MOUNT ETNA 561

higher. This crater, composed of piles of lava and

ashes, constantly changes form, and is diflFerently

shaped after every eruption, being from two to

three miles in circumference. Xicolosi, about nine

miles northwest of Catania, is the usual starting

point for the ascent, which is a popular excursion.

Among those who went up in April, 1904, ^yas the

Emperor William of Germany, who insisted on

walking, instead of riding a mule, and he spoke

in the highest praise of the magnificent view. The

route leads over the lava fields, and through groves

of chestnuts, oaks and beeches, until the Obsen'a-

tory is reached in the Regione Deserta, at the foot

of the crater. There are various smaller craters

of extinct volcanoes passed on the way, and hollows

filled with snow and ice, usually covered with ashes

which preserve them, so that the ice is taken down

the mountain for use in the towns below. From

the Observatory, the side of the crater is mounted

by a difficult walk over the steeply inclined

surface, through deep ashes, care being taken to

get to windward so as to avoid the sulphur fumes.

The object is to reach the top before sunrise to

enjoy the view. The sun rises behind the mountains

of Calabria, which cast their long shadows across

the Messina Strait, and only the top of Etna being

bathed in light as the beaming disk emerges, this

light, as the sun advances, gradually descending to

the lower mountain slopes, while the dark violet Vol. I--36

562 THE MEDITERRANEAN

shadow, which Etna casts to the westward over Sicily, deepens. To the southward, Catania slum- bers in the dawn, while to the westward spreads for many miles, the varied and beautiful landscape of Sicily, becoming brighter as the sun's rays enlighten it. Far to the northward, are the little cones of the Lipari group, rising from the sea, with tall Stromboli smoking in the distance. From our feet, the lava streams of many eruptions, wind in long black streaks down the mountain sides to the valleys below, and there make desolate rifts amid the almost universal green. The distant Faro at the Messina Strait entrance is distinctly seen, and two or three conspicuous peaks appear among the lower mountains of western Sicily. Turning away from this splendid view, having a horizon eight hundred miles in circumference, one can look down into the yawTiing crater. The sulphurous steam rises from the boiling bubbling abyss, and escaping above, is driven by the wind away from us. The mass within hisses, shrieks and thunders, the ash piles vibrate with shocks, and tongues of flame shoot from the seething cauldron, until the brief view satiates, and then the observer briskly descends the cone, over the ashes, to the mules waiting below. There is, on the southwestern slope, the black and desolate chasm of the Valle del Bove, three miles wide, with walls sometimes a half mile high, and having within it two cones

MESSINA TO PALERMO 563

and craters, that were in eruption in 1852. On its upper margin is the ancient watch-tower, the Torre del Filosofo, a Eoman construction said to have been the observatory of Empedocles, when, disgusted with the vanities of the world, he prepared for a sensational disappearance, by jumping into the crater of Etna. The river Alcantara flows around the northern base of the mountain, and here is the village of Moio, threatened by the lava from an eruption in 1879, which had advanced almost to the river bank, but passed, when the affrighted in- habitants brought out the statue of their patron Saint Anthony, escorted by an elaborate religious procession. Farther up the river is Randazzo, the village nearest the crater, which luckily always es- caped injury. Bronte, a town to the southward, gave to Lord Nelson the Italian title of Duke of Bronte. The name comes from a Greek word signi- fying " thunder."

MESSINA TO PALERMO.

Westward from Messina, the N'eptunian moun- tains stretch over the peninsula terminating in the Faro, while over on the northwestern side is ancient MylsB, near the port of Milazzo, its medieval castle being now a prison. The northern coast of Sicily is a succession of promontories between which run down the fiumare, or water courses, through deep ravines. Among these promontories

564 THE MEDITERRANEAN

is Cape Tindaro, a rock rising over nine hundred feet almost perpendicularly from the sea, and through it the railway pierces a tunnel. Here was the Greek colony of Tj-ndaris, founded in the early fourth century B. C, which became a thriving port in the Eoman days, and of which some traces remain. This sickle-shaped peninsula was known to the Greeks as the " Golden Chersonesus," and the Romans called it the " Island of the Sun." On the summit of the cape is the Monastery of the Madonna del Tindaro, giving a beautiful view over the sea, with the Sicilian coasts stretching away on either hand, the Lipari islands out in front, and off southeastward the noble snow-crowned cone of Etna. Tyndaris has ruins of a Grecian theatre and Eoman Gymnasium, while the Monastery is upon the site of an ancient temple, probably sacred to Castor and Pollux, who were the city's special patrons. Within the cape cliffs is the stalactite grotto of Fata Donavillo, of which the tradition is that it is the haunt of the fairy Fata Morgana, who kidnaps brides on their wedding night. The phantom palaces of this noted fairy, are said to be often seen in mirage, when approaching the Sicilian coast.

To the westward, the rocky mass of Cape Orlando stretches into the Mediterranean, and in the waters beyond, was the scene of a great naval contest in the thirteenth century, when the fleets of Catalonia and Anjou under Roger Loria vanquished Fred-

MESSINA TO PALERMO 565

erick II. For fifty miles westward, the railway runs close to the edge of the sea, crossing many fiumare, in a region of great beauty, and reaches a limestone promontory, towering high above the town of Cefalu, which spreads along the shore and has a fair harbor in front. This was ancient Cephaloedium, the original Greek settlement, for which Carthage, Syracuse and Eome warred before the Christian era, and which the Arabs captured in 838, after a long siege. Upon the towering rock are the remains of a castle and a Roman fort, with huge cisterns cut in the limestone, the outlook being magnificent. It was for this stronghold that the rival races contended during many centuries, the Normans under Roger finally getting possession. It is related that in 1129 King Roger, returning from Naples along the coast, bound to Palermo, was in danger of shipwreck, and in a fervent prayer for safety, he vowed that if permitted to land, he would erect on the spot where the vessel might touch the shore, a church to Christ and the Apostles. The wreck occurred on the strand at the base of the Cefalu rock, and he soon began the cathedral. It is one of the famous Norman struc- tures of Sicily, and around it grew the modem town. The cathedral is nearly two hundred and fifty feet long and one hundred feet high, the fagade resting upon huge stone blocks, and having two im- posing towers, connected by a colonnade, which

566 THE MEDITERRANEAN

formerly was covered with mosaics representing gifts by Roger and his successors in their generous treatment of the church. The nave is double the width of the aisles, and the vaulting above is sup- ported by noble columns mostly of granite. Admir- able mosaics, among the finest in Sicily, adorn the interior.

Farther westward, the railway leads through a richly cultivated district, where the manna tree grows, furnishing large amounts of manna for export, and the surface rises to the summit of the Gibilmanna, nearly 3,600 feet, the "manna moun- tain." In the interior, stretching off to the south- ward, are the Madonian mountains, displaying the summits of the Pizzo Antenna, 6,470 feet, and behind it, Monte San Salvatore, 6,255 feet. Out of the range, flows northwestward to the sea, one of the largest torrents of Sicily, the Fiume Grande, which was a frontier between Carthage, Syracuse and Home, when the former dominated western Sicily. The ancient name of the stream was the Himera Septentrional is, and beyond it was Himera, the westernmost settlement of the ancient Greeks on this coast, founded 648 B. C, where shortly after- ward was bom Ticias, famous for the develop- ment of the Greek chorus, for which his name was changed to Stesichorus. There are here the ruins of an ancient Doric temple, on which stand numerous houses of the modern village. It was

MESSINA TO PALERMO 667

at Himera that the Greeks surprised the Car- thaginian Ilamilcar when besieging the town, 480 B. C, annihilating his army, in consequence of ■which, to appease the wrath of the gods, Ilamilcar sought death in the sacrificial fire. Hannibal, his grandson in vengeance, captured the place 409 B. C, and destroyed it. About seven miles west- ward, in those days, was the Carthaginian outpost town of Termini, now the prosperous port of Ter- mini Imerese, famous for its macaroni, and having over thirty thousand people. Its baths were the original attraction, and the Phoenicians were the first settlers, but Hannibal, after the destruction of Himera, made it his Carthaginian outpost, con- structed on a promontory, in a very strong position. The ancient castle was often besieged in the middle ages, and was not dismantled until 1860. There are many Greek and Eoman remains, and its springs, which were praised by Pindar, are led to a bath establishment, founded by Ferdinand I, the water of 110° temperature containing Epsom salts.

The coast gradually trends to the northwest, en- circling the Gulf of Palermo, and terminating be- yond the city, in the noble heights of Monte Pel- legrino and Cape Gallo, the most northern portion of western Sicily. Under shadow of the mountain nestles the spacious city of Palermo, the domes, towers and spires of this noted capital of

568 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Sicily, rising in picturesque view on the approach, backed by the amphitheatre of hills enclosing the famous fertile plain, which on account of its form and beauty, is called the Conca d'Oro, or the " golden shell." This is the most luxuriant region of the island, being covered with groves of fruit trees, thoroughly irrigated by water systems, begun by the Romans and perfected by the Saracens, even the subterranean waters being brought to the sur- face to increase the supply. This irrigation has increased the yield of the land twenty-fold, the owners of the springs and wells enjoying a large income from the revenue produced by their out- flow. It is one of the most densely populated dis- tricts of Sicily.

PALERMO.

A shallow and restricted harbor, thrust far into the land, on the western shore of the Gulf of Palermo, originally attracted the Phoenician mar- iners to make a settlement, which when the Greeks came, they called Panormus, referring to the good anchorage, the name meaning " all harbor." Part of this harbor still remains, in the little water en- closure of La Gala, but the larger portion, then spreading inland, has been covered by the streets and buildings of the city. The two streams emptying into it are now streets, being covered over, and here was ancient Panormus, which was a

PAU^IHMO 569

Carthaginian stronghold, captured by the Romans 254 B. C. Hamilcar Barca afterward came, and placed his camp on Monte Pellegrino to the north- ward, vainly attempting to recapture the place, in a siege continuing three years. The Goths got it, and the Saracens in 830, making it their capital, and holding it over two centuries, during which it attained great prosperity, and exceeded at one time three hundred thousand inhabitants. The Nor- mans arrived under Eobert and Roger Guiscard in 1072, and it afterward was ruled by the House of Anjou, expelled in 1282 by the revolution known as the " Sicilian Vespers." Then it became Span- ish territory, and ultimately was the capital of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the final revolt against King Ferdinand of Naples (Bomba) culminating in the entry of Garibaldi with his I Mille the " thousand volunteers," on May 27, 1860, and its becoming part of the new Italian kingdom. Pal- ermo, as the name ultimately became, has suflFered from war, bombardment, pestilence, and almost every ill that can befall a town, but it has survived all, and is now the finest city of Sicily, having about two hundred and eighty thousand population, and enjoying prosperous trade under the watchful care of its patron, Santa Rosalia, its popular title being " la felice " because of the splendid climate and grand situation. The saint, who was a niece of the Norman king, William the Good, lived in the

670 THE MEDITERRANEAN

twelfth century, and in the bloom of youth became a recluse, her home being a grotto on Monte Pellegrino. Here she died in 1170, and her bones enclosed in a chest of solid silver, weighing nearly a ton, were in the cave in 1624, when the plague was raging in Palermo, and were taken to the city in solemn procession. We are told that at once the dread disease was banished, she being made from that time the patron saint, with the cathedral as her shrine, and her festival celebrated during five days in July, while armies of pious pilgrims visit the cave in the mountain every Whitmonday.

The sea front of Palermo, adjoining the harbor, is the splendid promenade of the Marina, a quay stretching for a mile from the Porta Felice, adjoin- ing the Cala, southward to the spacious Flora or public garden, one of the most elaborate parks of the island, and the great popular resort, where the townsfolk assemble to enjoy the shade, the perfumes of the foliage, and the outlook, which reaches to Mount Etna. It displays the finest sculpture in Palermo, a group of the noted Greek naval heroes, the Canaris brothers. Northwestward from this park, the Via Lincoln leads to the railway station. Inland from the northern end of the Marina, is the beautiful pleasure ground of the Giardino Garibaldi, occupying the old Piazza Marina, on the land reclaimed from the ancient harbor. Back southwestward from this Piazza,

PALERMO 571

runs the chief street of the city, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, extending inland to the Palazzo Reale, the chief citadel. Midway, it is crossed at right angles by the Via Macqueda, these streets dividing Palermo into four quarters and their intersection being the octagonal Piazza of the Quattro Centi, which is the centre of the city. The various facades of this Piazza are highly decorated churches and other buildings, and it is embellished with columns and statues of the Seasons. The Corso was known as the Cassaro, from the name originally borne, derived from the Arabic el Kasr " the castle." This castle was of Saracenic build, but the Xor- mans Eobert and Koger made additions, and sub- sequent sovereigns improved it, so that now this is the Palazzo Eeale, rising on a moderate eminence, in the spacious Piazza della Vittorio, at the termination of the Corso. Its great attraction is the Cappella Palatina, dedicated to St. Peter, and built by Eoger II in Arabic-Xorman style. This is regarded as one of the most beautiful palace- chapels existing, a gem of medieval art, and espe- cially rich in mosaics. Passing through the vesti- bule, adorned with Egj'ptian granite columns, the interior is entered, a nave w4th aisles about one hundred feet long and forty feet wide. Above the transept crossing, rises a dome seventy-five feet high. Splendid columns support the Moorish pointed arches between the nave and aisles. The

572 THE MEDITERRANEAN

dome and roof have Greek, Eoman and Cufie in- scriptions, the floor is of colored mosaic, and the walls are entirely covered with glass mosaics, in oriental splendor, representing religious subjects, most of them made during King Roger's reign. The arms of Aragon and Savoy adorn the throne. The Eoyal Observatory of the Palazzo is in one of the oldest towers, and it was here that the astronomer Piazzi, in 1801, discovered the first asteroid Ceres.

The spacious Piazza del Duomo adjoins the Corso, and has in the centre a statue of Santa Rosalia. In the Koman days, a Christian church was erected on this Piazza, which the Saracens made a mosque, and after their expulsion, it again became a Christian church. Upon the site of this original building, on the northwest side of the Piazza, is the cathedral, erected in the twelfth century by the Xormans, the architect being the noted English church builder, " Walter of the Mill." It was enlarged and improved during subsequent centuries, a dome being added in 1781. Within it are the tombs of the sovereigns, in red porphyry, including Roger, Ferdinand II, Henry VI and their queens and descendants. In the crypt are the coflins of ecclesiastics, and also that of the architect Walter. There are various chapels, the most sump- tuous being Santa Rosalia's, adjoining the choir, constructed after the diseoverv of her remains.

The Cathedral, Palermo.

PALERMO 573

in which they are kept in the famous silver chest, exhibited to the faithful on her fete days.

Palermo is noted for its many churches. San Giovanni, near the Palazzo Reale, was one of the earliest Norman churches, and originally a mosque. San Salvatore, built in the seventeenth century, is an oval with three large recesses. La Martorana was built by King Roger's admiral Antiochenos, and in it met the Sicilian parliament, after the expulsion of the House of Anjou. Given to the nuns of the Martorana convent in the fifteenth cen- tury, their name was attached to the church, w^hich is a square Byzantine building with apses. There was originally a dome, demolished by an earthquake, and removed in 1726. The vestibule contains mosaics representing Antiochenos at the feet of the Virgin, and Roger being crowned by Christ. Santa Maria della Catena is down by the old harbor La Cala, its name referring to the chain, originally used to close the harbor entrance, and fastened near the church. In Santa Maria della Vittoria, also near the harbor, is displayed in a chapel, the door through which Robert Guiscard, the Xorman, first entered the city. Santa Maria della Spasimo, nearby, is the church for which Raphael painted his Christ bearing the Cross, now in Madrid. The Magione was the church of the Teutonic order, presented them by Henry VI, and in the aisles are stone slabs covering tombs of the

574 THE MEDITERRANEAN

knights. In Santa Maria della Volta, in 1647, the revolutionary leader, Giuseppe d' Alesi, who had attacked the Spanish Viceroy's Government, was assassinated. The spacious San Domenico, built in the seventeenth century, will accommodate twelve thousand people, and contains the tombs of many eminent Sicilians. There are noted paintings and mosaics in the churches of Palermo, and their archi- tectural splendors and rich decorations are impres- sive.

One of the most famous paintings in Palermo is the Triumph of Death, It ia a fresco of the fifteenth century, in an arcade of the Palazzo Selafani, now used as a barrack, upon the eastern side of the Piazza della Vittoria. The artist is unkno\\Ti, but the tradition is that it was painted by a Fleming, confined here by sickness. Death in triumph is riding over pope, king and people: on the one hand, his arrows have stricken a fashion- able lady, and a young man in the midst of a merry party, while on the other side, the poor and wretched in vain implore him for release from their living misery: among the latter group is the artist. The city has various evidences of devotion to the memory of the Italian liberator. Garibaldi. The northern extension of the Via Macqueda, the Via della Liberta, has, at its termination, the entrance to ■ the attractive English Garden, an elaborate equestrian statue of * Garibaldi, representing him

PALERMO 575

addressing his friend Bixio, after the successful battle of Calatafimi, and announcing the march to Palermo. He had landed, with his thousand volunteers (/ Mille), at Marsala, on the western coast. May 11, 1860, and after the victory, entered Palermo, May 27, soon becoming master of all Sicily, which at the election, in the subsequent October, voted to unite with the new kingdom of Italy, He came into the city by the gate on the southern verge, since called the Porta Garibaldi, the street approaching it being now named the Corso del Mille, while the street within the gate is the Via Garibaldi, leading to the Piazza della Kivo- buzione, in the heart of Palermo, this having been the route of his march. The National Museum of Palermo contains an excellent collection of an- tiquities, paintings and sculptures, with many Phoenician, Carthaginian, Greek, Koman, Etruscan and Arabic works. Among these are the famous Metopes, from ancient Salinus, showing the de- velopment of Grecian sculpture, long before the Christian era. The pictures include the noted triptych, the Gahinetta Malvagna, a small altar- piece, preserved under glass, attributed to Mabuse, in the fifteenth century. The attractions of this beautiful capital are many. A delighted visitor tells us that nature has made Palermo a city of luxury, where the summer heat is tempered by gentle breezes from the sea, and snow can find no

576 THE MEDITERRANEAN

resting place in winter; where roses are in full bloom all the year; where fruit trees are in blossom, and green peas are gathered in January and Feb- ruary; where the sago and date palms flourish, the bamboo and sugar cane grow at all seasons in the open air; and where the vine is a weed and its precious juice a drug.

WESTERN SICILY.

The grand mountain environment of the Conca d'Oro, gives a magnificent view over the fertile plain, the city and the sea, and here, at an elevation of about a thousand feet, and five miles westward from Palermo, is llonreale, the deserted castle, on the high hill behind it, being elevated 2,500 feet. Upon this " royal mountain," William II, known as " the Good," and the grandson of Roger II, founded, in the twelfth century, a Benedictine abbey, and around its splendid church has gathered on the hill slopes, a town of nearly twenty thousand people. This cathedral is built as a cross, about three hundred and thirty feet long and one hundred and thirty feet wide, its entrance flanked by mas- sive square towers, the interior supported by granite columns, and the walls entirely covered by mosaics. These depict scriptural scenes in three classes — prophecies of the Messiah, the life of Christ, and the lives of the Apostles, and they cover about seventy thousand square feet of surface. King

WESTERN SICILY 577

William the Good is the hero in the elaborate dis- play, one mosaic, above his royal throne, represent- ing the king receiving the crown from the Saviour direct, and not from the pope, while another, above the archbishop's chair, represents the king in the act of offering a view of the cathedral to the Virgin. The tombs of William T, known as " the Bad," and William II, are in one of the transepts. Little remains of the Abbey buildings, but the cloisters are extensive and beautiful, the pointed arches being adorned with mosaics, and supported by over two hundred richly ornamented columns with varied capitals. There are some modern buildings used for school purposes.

Northward from Palermo, beyond the impressive Monte Pellegrino, Cape Gallo extends boldly into the sea. The cliff-bordered coast stretches westward, and deeply indented is the Gulf of Castellammare, with the far projecting Cape Vito beyond it. In this bay is Castellammare, the port of ancient Segesta, to the southward. The battlefield of Calatafimi, where Garibaldi won his first victory in Sicily, May 15, 1860, is not far from the noted ruins. Iforth- ward from Calatafimi flows . the Fiume Gaggera, the ancient Scamander, passing through a deep and beautiful valley on the eastern flanks of the Monte Varvaro. Here were warm medicinal springs, which seem to have attracted the first settlement of

the Greek Egesta, the origin of which is involved in Vol. 1—37

578 THE MEDITERRANEAN

mystery, but is attributed to descendants of the Trojans who came to this valley. This gave a basis for the tradition prevalent in the Roman days that the place was founded by uEneas. The people were involved in many conflicts during the Carthaginian and Roman wars, and when the latter came into possession, the name became Segesta. It is now a ruin, containing one of the best preserved Doric temples in Sicily, on a hill at 1,000 feet elevation, surrounded by a girdle of much higher mountains. This is a majestic structure, two hundred feet long and eighty-five feet Avide, enclosed by thirty-six col- umns, each about thirty feet high, including their capitals, and six feet tliick, with intervals of eight feet between. The structure, when work ceased, was incomplete, and the columns are unfluted, and the basement steps unfinished. On the liill slope of the toAvn is the theatre, hewn in the rock, the auditorium being over two hundred feet in diameter, with a stage of ninety feet width. There is a grand view, from this theatre, of the mountains rising to the northward, at the edge of the sea.

The Fiume Graggera flows down to the Fiume Sant Bartolommeo, which falls into the Gulf of Cas- tellammare, and to the westward rise the summits of the mountain range in Monte Inice, 3,490 feet, and Monte Sporagio, 3,705 feet, overlooking the sea. The ridge extends northward in the ponderous Cape Vito, while to the westward it terminates in the

WESTERN SICILY 679

isolated Monte San Giuliano, 2,485 feet high, the northwestern extremity of Sicily, from which there 18 a view over the Mediterranean and the group of ^gadian islands to the westward, with the Afri- can Cape Bon beyond at the horizon. This moun- tain was the renowned Eryx of antiquity, and by the seaside at its base is its ancient port, Trapani. The Phoenicians built, on the summit of Eryx, a tem- ple of Astarte, the goddess who was their Venus, where no blood was permitted to flow on the altar, and the Greek tradition was that this temple had been originally founded by Hercules. It was also said to have been founded by yEneas, and in the JEneid is recorded that Anchises died here, his son -zEneas instituting games in his memory. The tem- ple ultimately became a shrine of Venus, and this deity at Eryx, was worshipped by all the maritime people throughout the jS^Iediterranean. The original town was built on the moimtain slope below the temple, and in the first Punic War, Hamilcar Barca destroyed it, carrying the inhabitants as slaves down to the shore to people Trapani, then known as Dre- pana, the name meaning a sickle, and derived from the rounded shape of the projecting peninsula ad- joining the harbor. The Romans afterward cap- tured the town and held the temple, being long besieged by Hamilcar Barca, who could not drive them out. The Saracens later got possession, and constructed an Arabic castle on the summit, being

580 THE MEDITERRANEAN

ultimately expelled by King Roger, who is said to have been aided by San Giuliano appearing and put- ting the Saracens to flight, so that in gratitude the mountain was given his name. There is now a small and decaying town on the summit, with a church, and the ivy-clad castle, on top of the rugged rock, used as a prison. There also are some remains of the old Phoenician walls, large blocks of stone, the foundation of the present wall, while the ancient reservoir of the Temple of Venus is preserved in the castle garden. The port of Trapani has a good trade in alabaster, coral, cameos and other art productions, and a population approximating 40,000. The islands in the offing include ancient Iliera, now Maretemo, its ^Monte Falcone rising 2,245 feet, and ^gusa, now Favignana, elevated 1,070 feet. Their enclosing waters are a prolific tunny fishery.

About twenty miles down the coast boldly pro- trudes Cape Booo, the westernmost point of Sicily, the ancient Lilibeo, the port of Lilybseum having been on a harbor just southward. This is now the busy modern town of Marsala, noted for its Marsala wine, extensively made from the Sicilian vines and spirits. There are Phoenician and other remains of antiquity in the neighborhood. Lilybaeum was the chief Carthaginian stronghold in Sicily, and it be- came the Roman capital of the western peninsula. The Saracens gave it the present name Marsa-ali, the " harbor of Ali." Tt was here that Garibaldi

WESTERN SICILY 581

landed May 11, 1860, with his thousand volunteers, who soon got possession- of all Sicily, ultimately making it part of the United Italian kingdom. The survivors of this band of patriots were all pensioned by the Italian Government, and not so long ago it was found that the pension rolls had been " padded," there being nearly fifty times as many pensioners as there were real survivors (then numbering 238), and most of them being young men who were not bom in 1860. Dumas the elder was among Gari- baldi's band, and was his envoy who arranged the surrender of various towns.

Beyond Marsala we get into the land originally held by the Selinuntians, and about a dozen miles southeastward, along the coast, come to Mazara, one of their colonies, now a port, surrounded by an Italian quadrangular wall nearly forty feet high, and defended by square towers, which have survived from the middle ages. King Eoger built the castle at the southeastern angle, now in ruins, and also the cathedral. From the fronting promenade, the Ma- rina, there is a pleasant outlook over the sea. The coast curves gradually around to the eastward, with much of the interior surface a moor, having on its eastern verge, and not far inland from the sea, the famous ruins of Selinus, containing some of the grandest ancient temples in Europe. The Greeks founded this city in the seventh century B. C, and it was the most western of their settlements in

582 THE MEDITERRANEAN

Sicily. The conflicts the Selinuntians had with the Egestans, were the pretext that brought the Car- thaginians into Sicily, under Hannibal Gisgon, in 409 B. C, when he besieged Selinus with a hundred thousand men, put most of the inhabitants to the sword, and carried others into African captivity, only twenty-six hundred escaping. He destroyed ancient Mazara at the same time as Selinus, but the latter i)lace never recovered, and during the first Punic War, in the third century B. C, it was finally destroyed, and since then has remained practically deserted. The Selinuntians were engaged in con- structing their temples when Hannibal Gisgon began the siege, and the incomplete buildings still exist. In approaching from Mazara, the ancient quarries are passed at Campobello, whence the stones were got, and the work of quarrying, interrupted by the Carthaginians, has never been resumed. Huge drums of stone for the columns are partly severed from the rock, and others are lying at intervals, along the road to Selinus, where the transport was interrupted. These drums are about eight feet in diameter, and eight to ten feet long, and correspond with those used in one of the incomplete temples, for which they no doubt were intended.

The little Fiume Modione, the ancient river Sa- linas, flows through a narrow valley to the coast, and on its eastern side, upon a hill about one hundred and fifty feet high, the Greeks erected their Acropolis

WESTERN SICILY 583

overlooking the sea, with the town behind it. The river valley, originally a marsh, was drained in the sixth century, it is said by Empedocles, and here they founded on the hill to the westward, the sacred pre- cinct, with the temples that wore being constructed when the Carthaginians captured the city. For over two thousand years the place has been deserted, ex- cepting as hermits during the early Christian era, and sometimes since, may have lived in solitary cells among the abandoned temples, which were partially destroyed by earthquakes. The Saracens called it Rahl-el-Asnam, the " to\\Ti of the idols," but they were driven out by King Roger. The Italian Gov- ernment is making extensive excavations and restora- tions, and most of the metopes and sculptures found, have been placed in the Museum at Palermo. There are seven temples, of which two were built in the seventh century B. C, soon after the first settlement, two in the sixth century, and two in the fifth. The largest temple of all w^as building during the sixth and fifth centuries, and was unfinished when Hanni- bal came, the columns being unfluted. It was dedi- cated to Apollo, and is one of the largest Grecian temples known, being 371 feet long, and 177 feet wide, with columns sixty feet high, including their capitals. Three other temples are over two hundred feet long, and two more were about as large. These, so far as can be ascertained, were sacred to Hercules, Hecate and Hera. Much of the walls and founda-

584 THE MEDITERRANEAN

tions of buildings in the old town and the ancient necropolis have been excavated.

To the eastward of Selinus the Fiume Belice, the ancient Hypsas, flows out from the hills, and among the rocks of Menf rici beyond, the Greeks got the mar- bles for their Selinus metopes. Farther on, an abrupt eminence rises two hundred and sixty feet from the sea, and here the Selinuntians had their warm baths, the place being called Shakkah by the Saracens, which has been modernized into Sciacca. There are warm sulphur and salt springs to the east- ward of the town, and the ancients attributed them to Daedalus, while in the middle ages, San Calogero, a monk, was said to have discovered them, so that the isolated cone, out of which they come, is called Monte San Calogero, and rises in elevation 1,280 feet, about two miles from Sciacca. It was the old Sicilian fashion to attribute all such springs, wher- ever they might be, to Daedalus, while in medieval times the people attributed them to San Calogero, the name coming from a Greek word signifying a monk. Both were myths. Daedalus lived before the Trojan war, in Crete, and was a sculptor in the mythological tradition. He became an enemy of King Minos, and to escape from the island made for himself, and for his son Icarus, wings fastened on with wax. They flew over the -^gean sea, but Icarus going too near the sun, the wax melted, loosening the wings, and he

AGRIGENTUM 585

dropped and perished in what was called after him, the Icarian Sea.

Off this coast, in July, 1831, a volcanic island about five miles in circumference, with a crater, rose from the sea, but on January 18, 1832, it as sud- denly subsided and disappeared. There was another eruption in 1866, making a shoal, and a few years later a valuable coral reef was discovered at the place, which has proved a most successful coral fishery. From Sciacca the coast trends southeast, and forty miles distant is Girgenti. About half way between, the little river Platoni, the ancient Helycus, flows into the Mediterranean, this having been the site of the Greek settlement of Ileracleia Minoa, which has al- most entirely disappeared. Girgenti is among the hills, at an elevation of over 1,000 feet, and about three miles inland from the coast, its busy little har- bor down by the sea, whence its sulphur is exported, being now named after the noted philosopher, the Porta Empedocle.

ageige:n^tum.

A hill, descending abruptly on its northern face, and sloping gently southward toward the coast, is en- vironed on either hand by two small rivers, which unite into one channel outlet. These are the Draga (the ancient Hypsas) to the west, and the San Biagio (the Acragas) to the east. The abrupt hill between,

586 THE MEDITERRANEAN

remarkable for its position of strong defence, was early occupied by the Greeks, as they extended their colonization westward on the Sicilian coast, and here they founded in the sixth century B. C, Acragas, which Pindar described as " the most beautiful city of mortals." They erected temples to Athene and Zeus, the former on the eastern part of the hill, known as the Eock of Athene, and the latter on the north- western portion, where also was the Acropolis. The modem surviving town of Girgenti is in the neighbor- hood of the Acropolis and Temple of Zeus, and now has over twenty thousand people. The ancient city extended far dowTi the hill slopes, and toward the coast. The Greeks worshipped Athene and Zeus Atabyrius, tlie Moloch of Mount Tabor, and during the reign of Phalaris, in the later sixth century B. C, that cruel tyrant is said to have sacrificed human vic- tims in red-hot bulls of metal at the altar of Moloch. In the fifth century the domain of Acragas was ex- tended to the northern coast, and Ilimera was con- quered. Theron, then the tyrant, allied his forces with Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, they defeated the Carthaginians at Himera, 480 B. C, and then the aggrandizement of Acragas began. The vast army of captives taken in the battle constructed the temples, the canals and a spacious fishpond. Em- pedocles ruled subsequently, and the city, which had a great trade Avith Carthage and throughout the Mediterranean, reached the zenith of its career. The

AGRIGENTUM 587

population then exceeded 200,000, and the extensive public works, of which the remains now cover the ancient site, excited the admiration of succeeding ages. Of its grandeur and pomp, Empedocles said, *^ the Agragentians built their dwellings as though they were to live forever, and indulged in luxury as if they were to die on the morrow." But the re- nowned city fell. The Carthaginians overran west- em Sicily, captured and plundered it, 406 B. C, sending the loot, including the most valuable works of art, to Carthage. The temples were burnt, and ultimately, in the Punic Wars, the destroyed city, alternately reviving and declining, passed under Homan domination, and became known as Agri- gentum. Thereafter it was less important; the Saracens became the masters in the ninth century, and Roger with his Xormans in 1086.

As Agrigentum appears to-day, there are two hills with a depression between. The lower hill to the northwest, covered by the modem town, has on its summit, at 1,080 feet elevation, the cathedral, of which the construction began in the fourteenth cen- tury, but nearly all of it is of later date, the campa- nile being still imfinished. Xearby is the Church of Santa Maria dei Greci, containing remains of the Temple of Athene, regarded as the most ancient con- struction in the city. From the public gardens adjacent, there are grand views over the sea, far to the westward. The eastern boundarv of the town is

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a depression, beyond which rises much higher, the famous Eock of Athene, elevated 1,150 feet, and the summit enclosed by a wall. Here stood the Temple of Athene, but everything long ago disappeared. The tradition is that the depression between the hills was excavated by Enii>edocles, to admit the passage of the Tramontana, the north wind ; and thus drive out the malaria from the ancient city to the south- ward. The summit of the Rock gives a splendid out- look in every direction, over land and water. The sulphur mines in the neighborhood yield a large part of the Sicilian product, nearly a half-million tons yearly. There are remains of the extensive canal system which brought water to the city, and also of the fishpond, the site of which is now a hollow in the valley of the Drago.

The ruins of a half-dozen ancient Grecian temples are scattered over the hill slopes, the chief being the temple of Zeus, over three hundred and sixty feet long, and one hundred and eighty feet broad, with columns fifty-five feet high. This vast building was never entirely completed. It has thirty-eight columns, fourteen at the sides, and six at the ends, each twenty feet in circumference. Upon the east- em side were represented the contest of the gods with the giants, and on the western side the conquest of Troy. Portions of the walls have fallen down, and much of the stone has been removed, a good deal of it to construct a mole at the port. The Temple of

AGRIGENTUM 589

Hercules, about two hundred and forty feet long, is surrounded by thirty-eight columns. It contained the statue of Hercules, which Verres attempted to steal at night, but his mercenaries were repulsed by the citizens. Adjoining is the Porta Aurea, the old town gate leading to the harbor, by which the victori- ous Eomans entered Agrigentum, 210 B. C. The tomb of Theron is here, and farther dow^n the hill, near the confluence of the two little rivers, stood Myron's famous statue of Apollo. The Temple of Concord, nearly one hundred and forty feet long, is the best preserved of these structures, because after the Xorman occupation it Avas converted into a church, San Gregario della Eape (the turnip). It has a colonnade of thirty-four columns. The Temple of Juno Lacinia, one hundred and thirty-four feet long, had thirty-four columns, but earthquakes have damaged some, so that only twenty-five are standing, and nine half-columns have been rebuilt. All of them are much eaten by the hot sirocco blowing against their southeastern sides. The Temple of Castor and Pollux is one hundred and eleven feet long, and also had thirty-four columns, but it was almost entirely destroyed. Portions of two temples have been used in a partial restoration, by which four Doric columns w^re recently rebuilt. Its site over- looks the hollow of the fishpond. There are remains of a small Temple of Ceres, now a church, and there also w^ere temples erected to Vulcan and Esculapius.

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SOUTHEASTERN SICILY.

From Girgenti, a railway, by winding route through the mountainous district of central Sicily, goes over to Catania on the Messina Strait, and dis- plays superb scenery. Its initial path is among the zolfare, the Girgenti sulphur mines, and it soon pen- etrates the mountain fastnesses, and is constructed along the bottom of a wild and tortuous ravine, hav- ing perched high above, on the summit of the enclos- ing rocky precipices, the to^vns of Calescibotta to the north and Castrogiovanni on the south, their people looking dovm upon the railway trains in the gorge far below. The strongly fortified hill top of Cas- trogiovanni, elevated 2,600 feet, is the geographical centre of Sicily, and one of its most famous cities. The town is constructed on the flat summit, in the form of a semicircle, open toward the east, and hav- ing the noble mass of Etna in full view. Here came the Greeks from Syracuse, in their wanderings across the island in the seventh centurv B. C, and founded Enna, so called from its form and central position, as the " umbilicus of Sicily." It was the location of the worship of Demeter-Koza (Ceres) by the earlier peoples, and much of the original Sicilian mythology ' is connected with this imposing hill. The Romans got it after two years' siege, in the second century B. C, and in the ninth century A. D., the Saracens made repeated unsuccessful attacks, finally capturing

SOUTHEASTERN SICILY 591

the place by treachery in 859. They called it Kasr- Yani, from which the present name is derived. The Normans conquered in 1087, and during the sub- sequent centuries it was strongly fortified. The ancient citadel, La Eocca, occupies the topmost pin- nacle of the hill, its towers giving lovely outlooks in many directions. Here originally stood the Temple of Demeter, but no vestige remains. As the railway proceeds eastward beyond the ravine, there is a splendid retrospect of the two cities, high upon the rocky cliffs, between which the train has passed. A little way to the southward, among the hills, is the Lake Pergusa, with its caverns, the place to which Pluto is said to have carried off Proserpine. Its waters are now availed of by the hard-working peo- ple, for steeping their flax. To the northeast of Castrogiovanni, upon a hill even higher, is Agira, one of the most ancient of the Sikelean cities, and far antedating the Grecian occupation. Here was bom the historian Diodorus, who describes the place, and tells how Hercules visited it during his wanderings in the Mediterranean regions. He was worshipped as the patron then, but now the tutelary genius of Agira is St. Philip.

The coastal district to the southeast of Girgenti is full of sulphur deposits, and at fifty-three miles dis- tance is another sulphur shipping town, and the chief port of the Southern Sicilian coast, Licata. It was originally established by the Phoenicians, and be-

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came a Carthaginian stronghold, their fleet having been vanquished off the port by Kegulus, in one of the greatest naval contests in ancient times, 256 B. C. About twenty miles farther southeast, on the coast, is another seaport, Terranova. In and around the town are the remains of Gela, which the Greeks founded 689 B. C. and where ^Eschylus died 456 B. C. From here went out the colony that originally settled Acragas (Girgenti). Hippocrates was its ruler, when at the apex of its prosperity, in the fifth century, B. C, but in the latter part of that century, the Carthaginians captured and destroyed the place. There are remains of a Grecian temple erected to Apollo, and from here Ilamilcar sent the celebrated statue of that god to Tyre, where it was found by Alexander the Great. The final destruction of Gela was in 282 B. C, and the present modern town has risen from its ruins. Some distance farther is Vit- toria, on an inland hill, having its port of Scoglitti, and on the coast, down to which flows the little river Camerina, is the ancient Ilipparis. To the eastward of this stream are the extensive ruins of the Grecian city of Camarina, settled by Syracuse in 599 B. C, and afterward a colony of Gela. It had a desultory existence until the ninth century A. D., when the Saracens destroyed it. To the northward, and near Vittoria, is Comiso, where was the noted fountain of Diana, a spring whose waters refused to mingle with wine, when drawn by impure women.

SOUTHEASTERN SICILY 593

Farther southeastward, among the limestone hills, is Modica, a city of nearly fifty thousand people, built in the ravines which are cut down by streams in these elevations. From it extends for several miles toward the coast, the famous ravine of the Cava d'Ispica, one of the most noted antiquarian curiosi- ties of Sicily. The grottoes of this extended gorge are said to have been constructed by the original Sicanians, and were not only tombs, but also habita- tions. They are built as chambers, and of different stories to which access was had through interior apertures. The entrances from the outside are usu- ^ally several feet above the ground. Many of them contain graves, others are believed to have been the habitations of rock drillers, and there are inscriptions, showing that some were used for Christian burial in the fourth century. To the northward of Modica, about twenty miles distant among the mountains, at an elevation of nearly 2,300 feet, is the Grecian Acrse, founded by an early colony from Syracuse, a settlement that became the Boman Placeolum, and the Arabic el Akrat, from which names were derived its present title of Palazzolo Acreide. Its acropolis, on the top of a high hill, could be approached only from the eastward. There are here the tombs and relics of all the races that successively held this fort- ress, from the early Grecian era down to the Sara- cens. The latter destroved it, and the modem town

has gro^vn at the base of the hill. From here flows Vol. 1—38

594 THE MEDITERRANEAN

southeastward, the river Cassibile, to the sea, the ancient Cacyparis, on whose banks the General Demosthenes, with his army of defeated Athenians, retreating from Syracuse in 413 B. C, were over- come and had to surrender. A few days later, Nicias, farther southward near Noto, was defeated with the Athenian remnant, on the river Asinarius. The Syracusan conquerors erected in the river bed a monument to mark the victory, and there still stands a fragment of this column La Pizzutay rising about thirty feet, which has survived for twenty-four centuries. The limestone formations finally termi- nate in the rugged cliffs of the massive promontory, the ancient Pachynum, forming the southeastern ex- tremity of Sicily, now known as the Cape Passero.

SYRACUSE.

We come to the greatest of all the ancient cities of Sicily, where over a half million people lived in the height of its prosperity — Syracuse — which Cicero praised as ^^ the largest of Greek, and the most beautiful of all cities." To-day it is a place of about twenty-five thousand population, — the Italian Sira- cusa — confined to the island whereon was made the original Greek settlement, its trade being small, and its present fame based almost entirely upon the memories of the distant past. The southeastern shore of Sicily, some distance northward of Cape Passero, projects into the sea, in limestone masses,

SYRACUSE 695

where is scoured out a small semicircular bay, into which flows, through a low and marshy surface among the cliffs, the river Anapo, the ancient Anapos. From the mainland northward, which rises to some elevation, there extends a small peninsula, and off its end to the southward, is the rocky island of Ortygia, enclosing and protecting the eastern side of the bay, so that the entrance from the south is narrowed to about three-quarters of a mile in width. This forms an admirable harbor, now known as the Porto Grande, and its shores were early settled by the original Sikelians and the Phoenicians. The ancient city of Syracuse was extended far over the mainland, north and west, which is strewn with relics of the Grecian and Roman days. The limestone structure abounds as usual in water-worn caverns, and also in what are known as Lattamie, or open excavations, made by similar action of the water upon the limestone, and enlarged by quarrying. The harbor and its enclosing hills present a scene of great natural beauty, its at- tractions enhanced by the historical and classical fame of ancient Syracuse.

The story is that wlien the Greeks first came to Sicily, founding Xaxos in the eighth century B. C., almost under the shadow of Mount Etna, another col- ony led by Archias from Corinth, entered the bay behind Ortygia and found there the Fountain of Are- thusa, on the western shore of the island, in a region of great fertility and beauty. This latiomia is the

596 THE MEDITERRANEAN

mouth of a tunnel through the limestone, of unknown and mysterious length. The classic legend suggests that it extends beneath the sea, over to Elis in Greece, where the blushing nymptli Arethusa was surprised while bathing, by the river god Alpheus, and was pursued hither, when by the interposition of Diana, she was changed to the river, which there disappears, and here pours out a copious flow. An earthquake in the eleventh century made the waters salt. In the olden time, tliis sacred but convenient pool was the public washtub for the Syracusans, but the spring has recently been enclosed in a spacious basin, sur- rounded by papyrus plants. The Grecian colony grew in importance, and in the fifth century B. C. passed under control of Gelon, who transferred his capital hither, and after his defeat of the Carthagin- ians at Ilimera 480 B. C, Syracuse became the con- trolling power of Sicily. His brother, Iliero I, then reigned, and at his court JEschylus and Pindar flourished. Thrasybulus succeeded, but subsequently he was expelled, and a Democracy ruled the city, and then came the period of the Athenian attacks. In 414, the Athenian fleet and army under Nicias re- duced the city to extremities, almost surrounding it by a double wall cutting off succor. But help came, originally from Sparta. The Athenians were discom- fited ; disease and dissension added to their troubles. They decided upon retreat, but just when it was to begin, there was an eclipse of the moon, August 27,

SYRACUSE 597

413, and the superstition of Xieias delayed the march. This gave the Syraeusans time to prepare for the final battle, in which the Athenians were de- feated, one retreating body under General Demos- thenes being finally overcome on the Cacyparis, and shortly afterward the other under Xicias, on the Asinarius, near Xoto. Both generals were captured and executed, and the thousands of other captives after several months' confinement in the lattomie, which were used for prisons, were sold as slaves, very few getting pardon, and these only being liberated because they could skilfully recite the verses of Eu- ripedes. This defeat turned the tide of the Pelopon- nesian War, Athens lost its prestige, and Thucydides, who described the conflict, says this " event was the most important which befell the Greeks during this war, or indeed in any others in Greek history which are known to us."

In the fourth century B. C. the Carthaginians overran Sicily, and under Himilco besieged Syra- cuse. Dionysius I was then ruler, and aided by a pestilence in the camp of the besiegers, drove them off, afterward defeating their allies. He greatly ex- tended and embellished the city, ruled over the chief part of Sicily and Greece, and became one of the most powerful sovereigns of the time, his reign con- tinuing nearly forty years. He built a wall, of huge blocks of stone, around the city, erecting the northern portion about 402, and is said to have constructed

598 THE MEDITERRANEAN

about three and one-half miles of it within a period of three weeks, employing sixty thousand workmen and six thousand yoke of oxen at the task. On the rocky mainland, amid the relics of the ancient city, northwest of the island, is the Lattomia del Paradiso, a large ancient quarry over a hundred feet deep, from whicli much of the material for this wall and the buildings was taken. Adjoining is another, now known as the " Ear of Dionysius," having an enor- mous entrance, being a grotto hewn in the rock, two hundred feet deep, seventy-four feet high and about thirty feet wide, constructed in the form of the letter S, and making a limestone tunnel six hundred feet long, beyond which the roof descends. At the farther extremity of the high archway, and about sixty feet from the floor, there is a small concealed chamber excavated in the rock. This lattomia has the most remarkable acoustic properties, the slightest sound in the grotto being heard at the inner end, and the tradition is that Dionysius was wont to sit in this hidden chamber, to listen to the conversation of Ins prisoners in the grotto, as they stealthily whis- pered their plots. Other lattomie have similar prop- erties, and it is said the grim old " tyrant of Syra- cuse " used several of them for prisons. His son and successor, Dionysius II, did not have the father's force of character, and was repeatedly banished. Agathocles usurped the power in 317, ruling twenty- eight years, when he was poisoned. The final period

SYRACUSE 599

of Syracusan prosperity came in the third century, when Hiero II became king, ruling for nearly sixty years, and having among the famous men of his time Theocrites and Archimedes. At first Hiero was an ally of the Carthaginians in the Punic war, but sub- sequently became the ally of Eome.

In 216 B. C. Hieronymus succeeded, and allied himself with the Carthaginians. He was assassi- nated, and afterward the Romans, under Marcellus, made the famous siege, continuing two years, in which the defence was greatly aided by the mechani- cal and scientific genius of Archimedes. Ancient Syracuse extended over the precipitous coast, north- ward from the island of Ortygia, upon a broad lime- stone plateau called the Achradina. Its western side was defended by the wall that stretched southward to the Porto Grande, then known as the " Great Harbor," while the Porto Piccolo, or " Small Har- bor," nestled under the cliffs to the northward of the island Ortygia. Another strong wall defended the southern part of the Achradina toward the sea front. To the northwest, the plateau was called the Tyche, from a Temple of Fortune, while westward and south of the Tyche, was the terrace of Neapolis above the " Great Harbor." The plateau westward of Tyche and Ifeapolis, contracted and ascended into the Epipolse, the highest point of the ancient city, it being so named, according to the explanation of Thucydides, because it was above or on top of the

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rest of the city. Thus the ancient Syracuse em- braced distinct communities — Ortygia, the Achra- dina, the Tyche, the Neapolis, and the Epipolse, — • included in a circumference of about fourteen miles, over which the remains of its magnificence are now thickly strewn. Around this aggregated city, on the land side, Dionysius I constructed the great wall, which can be plainly traced. When Marcellus be- sieged Syracuse, he attacked both from the north and from the sea, the coast curving around from north to west, and thus enclosing the Tyche by a bay known as Tregilus harbor. While the Syracusans were cele- brating a festival, a band of Eomans, coming by sea, scaled the Tyche walls near this harbor, and pro- ceeding along the summit, captured its defensive work of Hexapylon, and being followed by large reinforcements, the Eomans soon got possession of the Tyche, N^eapolis and the crowning fortress of the Epipolse. Then they proceeded to attack the wall defending the Achradina on its western side, along Its entire length, which required the Syracusans to make a defence upon such an extended line, that their forces had to be withdrawn from the island Ortygia to provide help. This withdrawal gave the Romans opportunity to avail of the guidance of a traitor, who managed to introduce the crew of a Eoman vessel into the town, by means of the Fountain of Arethusa and its tunnel through the limestone, so that the Eoman legions soon got pos-

SYIIACUSE 601

session of the island, and crossing to the Aehradina behind the wall, captured it and became the victors. Archimedes was slain in the street by a Roman sol- dier, who did not know him, and a vast booty was carried off to Eome. Thus Syracuse fell, 212 B. C, the conquerors forbidding the people to live any longer on the island Ortygia ; the city sank from its high estate, and became thereafter only a Roman provincial town. In fact it was so reduced by the civil wars of Pompey's time that it had to be re- peopled. Belisarius captured it in the sixth cen- tury of the Christian era, the Saracens in the ninth century, and the Xormans got possession in 1085.

Syracuse was one of the earliest of the Italian cities to embrace Christianity. When the Apostle Paul journeyed to Rome, he spent three days in the city, and, according to the tradition, St. Peter sent St. Marcian hither from Antioch to preach Christianity in the year 44. The modem town, like the original Greek settlement, is on the island Ortygia, its cathedral, on the western side near the Fountain of Arethusa, being the principal building. On this site originally stood, according to the tradi- tion, a Temple of Minerva, wliich became a Chris- tian church in the seventh century and a mosque after the Saracenic conquest. This temple was de- scribed by Cicero, as a sumptuous edifice filled with the treasures which Verres plundered. It was about one hundred and eighty feet long and seventy feet

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wide, elevated on three steps forming a basement, and as it was largely availed of in the subsequent church construction, and was also altered by the Saracens, it presents a peculiar architecture. The cathedral has Moorish battlements rising above the walls, and on the northern side covering the old Doric columns, their capitals and entablature. There were originally thirty-six columns in the tem- ple, twenty-eight feet high and over six feet in diameter. Eleven of these columns are now on the northern side, while in a most curious way, nine columns on the southern side project into the church interior. There is an interesting museum of art treasures and antiquities opposite the cathedral, while to the northward are the ruins of another Greek tem- ple, popularly called the Temple of Diana, but from an inscription, recently disclosed in excavating the front, it is said to have really been dedicated to Apollo. The modern Syracuse is almost entirely confined to the island and around these ancient temples.

The five separate cities forming ancient Syracuse, are said bv Strabo to have had a circumference of twenty miles, but on much of this surface on the mainland, every trace of buildings had disappeared. Two vast aqueducts, leading from the hills to the northwest, supplied water. One of these still flows near the summit of the Epipolse, falls over a cascade by the ancient theatre, and the stream then runs

SYRACUSE 603

away to the harbor. The other, coming from an equal height, skirts the northern wall, sends several branches southward through the Achradina, and then proceeds by a subterranean passage to the sea. Near the entrance to the " Ear of Dionysius," and adja- cent to the aqueduct, is the Greek theatre, erected in the fifth century B. C, hewn in semicircular form in the rock, measuring about five hundred feet in diameter, and having forty-six tiers of seats still visi- ble, with traces of others. There are inscriptions recording the names of Hiero II, his queen Philistis, and his daughter-in-law Xereis, with also an invoca- tion to Zeus Olympius. From the hill where the theatre stands, there is a superb view over the town, the harbor and the spacious Ionian sea beyond. In the foreground is the Amphitheatre of Augustus, two hundred and thirty feet long and one hundred and thirty feet wide, a massive Eoman construction, having blocks of marble, that were taken from the ancient parapet by the barbarians, still lying in the arena. Xearby is the great altar of Iliero II, six hundred feet long and seventy-five feet wide, whereon he made sacrifices to the gods, among them the an- nual offering of hundreds of oxen, commemorating the expulsion of Thrasybulus, a ceremony observed for many years. On the higher plateau, above the theatre, stood the temples which Gelon erected to Demeter and Proserpine, with spoil taken from the Carthaginians, and here was the Temenos of Apollo,

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with the statue of the god that the citizens prevented Verres from carrying off, and which Tiberius after- ward removed to Rome. On the highest point of the northwestern plateau and the verge of the Epipola?, was the fortress angle in the enclosing wall erected by Dionysius. Five massive towers guard this angle, where the northern and western walls come together, and two deep ditches are hewn in the rock, whence various subterranean passages lead to other parts of the defences. This was the ancient Fort Euryelus, now known as Mongibellesi. The plateau summit beyond rises over six hundred feet above the sea.

The railway northward, from Syracuse to Catania and the Strait of Messina, is constructed near the coast, going around the bases of the higher hills of the Achradina. At the outset it skirts the shore of the " Small Ilarbor," north of the island Ortygia, that Dionysius formed by building a breakwater across the sea entrance, a narrow opening admitting the vessels. The whole region of the Achradina is covered with remains of ancient fortifications and buildings. Just north of the railway, and near the harbor, conspicuously rises the steeple of the Church of Santa Lucia, standing on the spot where this patron saint of Syracuse suffered martyrdom. There are extensive catacombs of the early Christian era, and these, which are among the attractions of the Achradina, stretch far to the northward, being usu-

SYRACUSE 605

ally entered from the monastery of the Church of St. Giovanni to the northwest. This church was built in the twelfth century, and has beneath, the relics of a Temple of Bacchus, out of which in the fourth century was he^vn the earliest church in Christendom, outside of the Holy Land. This work was done beneath the temple, the better to conceal its existence during those days of persecution. It is now called the Crypt of St. Marcian, who is said to have been bound to one of the granite columns, and suffered martyrdom. In the temple was found the marble mixing bowl used in the Bacchanalian orgies, having a Greek inscription, and ornamented with bronze lions as supporters, it now being used as the baptismal font in the cathedral. Steps descend to the ancient church, in which is St. Marcian's tomb. When St. Paul landed at Syracuse, the legend says that he preached in the temple, which was after- ward converted into the church. Farther westward are tombs with Grecian facades, said to be the burial places of Timoleon and Archimedes. To the north- east is a suppressed Capuchin monastery, now used for farm buildings, and nearby is the wildest and most impressive of the ancient Lattomie, the Lot- tomia de Cappuccini. This spacious quarry, dis- playing a most beautiful exhibition of luxuriant foliage, was the prison, in the time of Dionysius, of over seven thousand Athenian captives, who wasted away under privation and disease, intensified by the

606 THE MEDITERRANEAN

burning rays of an almost tropical sun, until death relieved their sufferings. Ascending to the higher plateau northward, there is a grand view got of the noble cone of the distant Mount Etna.

The ancient river Anapus, having its sources in the western hills, flows out to the " Great Harbor " in a course of about sixteen miles, and debouches amid the marshlands south of Syracuse. Upon a low hill, just beyond this little river, and rising above the swamps, stand a solitary pair of mutilated columns in a field, which are all that remains of the famous temple of the Olympian Zeus erected in the early period of Syracuse. In this temple was a statue of Zeus, which Cicero described as very beautiful, and Gelon furnished it with a golden robe, but Dionysius, who needed the gold, removed the robe, as he said, " out of regard for the comfort of the god," because it was " too cold in winter and too heavy in summer." This hill and temple be- came of military importance when Syracuse was besieged, and Xicias occupied it at the beginning of the Athenian attack, but fearing the wrath of Zeus, he did not disturb its treasures. The Carthaginians held it in their sieges, and Marcellus, in 213, found it a great point of vantage. Near the temple was the tomb of Gelon. Coming out from the south- ward, the Cyane brook falls into the Anapus on the northwestern side of the hill. Both streams are nar- row and filled with water-plants. The source of the

SYRACUSE 607

Cyane is the famous fountain of Cyane, an azure spring of the clearest water, and abounding with fish. It is thirty feet deep, yet the stones on the bottom can be distinctly seen through the completely transparent fluid. Cyane was a lovely water nymph, said to be the wife of ^Eolus, the god of the winds, who lived north of Sieilv in the ^Eolian islands. Her dearest playmate was Proserpine, w4iom Pluto carried off to Lake Pergusa and the infernal regions, and when Cyane sought to rescue her, the nymph was changed into this fountain. The ancient Syra- cusans celebrated here an annual festival in honor of Proserpine. This little stream is famous as the only place in Europe where the papyrus grows wild in its native luxuriance. The upper waters are thickly bordered by the lofty plants, some twenty feet in height, their graceful feathery tufts, particu- larly in the autumn, coming up thickly with the castor-oil plant, and giving a pleasant feature to the landscape. Upon the Saracenic occupation, these plants were brought by the Arabs from Egypt and introduced here. They provided the material of the original paper makers. At the bottom of the stalk there is about eight to ten inches of solid white, celery-like juicy stem, with parallel fibres, which can be sliced into thin strips of moist shavings an inch or two wide. These are laid side bv side on a flat surface, with the edges just overlapping, and are covered with another similar layer placed cross-

608 THE MEDITERRANEAN

wise. Pressed with a flatiron, the sap glues them together, and thus forms the sheet of paper of the ancient Egyptian, which set the fashion in paper- making for the world. From this came writing, and then printing, finally developing into the modem niewspaper with its vast influence.

Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Una wed by influence, and unbribed by gain; Here patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw. Pledged to Religion, Liberty and Law.

Sicily is a wonderful island in its grand history and scenic attractiveness, but it will probably be best remembered as the chief scene of the great earth- quake of December, 1908, the crowning catastrophe of this land of earthquakes. It will not be alone the memory of that awful tragedy, but rather of the unrivalled outburst of the world's sympathy and help that it called forth. The poet Lampton's invocation thus tells it :

Say, earthquake, when you shake

Ten thousand houses down, and crush a town;

Lay waste the fields; disturb the sea;

And hurl the helpless to eternity —

Do you imagine, oh earthquake.

That that is all you shake?

Grim, palsying monster, it is not for you to know

That further than destruction you may go;

But there is more, earthquake: You shake

The great world's heart until it pours

The best that's in it on your shores.

You shake the money from a million hands

SYRACUSE GOO

Stretched out to help from far and nearby lands;

You shake the ever-living tree of sacred human sympathy;

You shake the thoughtless into active thought

Of making good the ruin you have wrought;

You shake the multiplicity of creeds

Into one common cause of human needs;

You shake the great world's heart until it yields

Its best on stricken cities and on rivon fields.

Say, earthquake, though you shake

Much ill upon the smaller space.

You shake much good to all the Inimnn rare,

Which needs such shocks as these

To wake its nobler energies.

KNl) OF VOLUME I

Vol. T— ."^O