The New-Jersey journal — Chatham, N.J., 1782-02-27 00:00:00, page 1

A SHORT DESCRIPTION of GIBRALTAR,
WITH ANNALS of ITS TWELVE SIEGES.
GIBRALTAR is in length near a league from
north to south, and in breadth irregular, from
half to three quarters of a mile: The summit of
the rock is about 1400 feet perpendicular above the
sea. It is joined to the Continent by a neck of
low and deep sand, of the fame breadth as the hill
itfelf, but which widens considerably towards the
the Spanifli lines This Isthmus is neat a league
in length, and with the opposite coag of Spain, forms
a noble and fafe bay, eight miles over.
The head or the reck of Gibraltar is almost per
pendicular, and compokd of white done, which is
burnt for lime. IChe batteries facing Spain appear
next; on which account the Spaniards call this part
of the hill, " una Boca de Fuego, a mouth of fire."
1 he remains of the Moorish caflle are close to the
batteries ; lower down and level with the water is
the grand battery, under which is the land gate ;
above rhe town appear the army hospital, and in it
Bethlem barracks, formerly a nunnery.
I hough the rock of Gibraltar is furlouhded by
the sea, well water is to be found all over it, pretty
good, and fit to drink, though heavy, and often
brackish ; but the rain water from the mountain,
which is filtered through the red sands without the
south port, is exceedingly good and wholesome,
and remains uncorrupt along time. It is collected
into a reservoir, and from thence conduced to the
town. This aqueous was firft begun by the Moors,
and carried by earthen pipes ; in their time it reach
ed to the city, {applying the Atarafana and the ca
stle; that now exiting was planned by a Spanish
Jtfait, and only reaches to the grand parade. The
hill universally abounds with cavities, and recepta
cles for rain, which mostly center in the reservoir ;
affording an inexhaustible dock of excellent water,
greatly contributing to the health of the inhabi
tants.
Gibraltar was surprised in the year 1540 by Pau
li Hamet, an Algerine corsair; the landing was
then easy. Now it is the strongest garrison in Eu
xope.
ANNALS of GIBRALTAR.
Containing an Account of its XIL Sieges.
FROM the Bth to the 14th century, there is no
particular worth recording: The Moors remained
in quiet possession pf this hill. In 1310, Alonzo
Perez de Guzman first took it from the Infidels,
which fa enraged the Moors that they murdered
their king Mahomet, the 3d king of Grenada.
The second siege was in 1316, when Ismael, king
of Grenada, in vain attempted to retake it. The
third commenced in February, 1332, under Abo
melique, son of Jufaf Aben Jacob, emperor of Fez.
Vafco Peyrez de Meyra commanded in the place,
which was very ill provided, and had not thirty
days bread in it, Meyra having applied the king's
money to pur haling an estate at Xeres, inflead of
victualling the garrison. A Moorish veffcl loaded
with corn, wnich a storm drove under the walls,
prolonged the fi'ge for some time ; but the Spani
ards, after enduring incredible fatigue and fan'ine,
and subsiding for weeks on the leather of their
Shields, were starved into a surrender by the mid
dle of June ; though the Spanish Admiral Don
Alonzo Jufre was mailer of the sea, and from his
gabies endeavoured, by means of engines, to throw
bags of flour over the walls into the town. Don
Alonzo XL marching to fuccour it, was only four
days journey from the place, when he received the
fatal news of its surrender. Vasquez Perez de
Meyra not daring to appear before him, went over
to the Moors in Barbary.
Don Alonzo XI. began the fourth siege, the
end of June 1532. To this day may be traced the
ditch he dug from sea to sea, to defend the rear of
his army, which he divided into three divisions;
the main body occupied the sands under the hill,
from theOcean to the Mediterranean ; the second di-
Vision he sent in boats to the southward of the town,
which took poss on the red sands ; the third climb
ed up to the north of the hill above the castle, which
they incommoded by throwing down fiom engines
huge stones into it. It is amazing how the Spa
niards could drag machines up so ftcep and rugged
NEW-JERSEY JOURN A L.
[Vol. IV.]
WEDNESDA Y, February 27, 1782.
a rock. The Moors drew al' heir gallics ashore,
and those for which there wasipt ro m in the Ata
rafaua, they covered with ltrc fr .g Iheds of timber,
to preserve them from being uruffie^ by the rocks
the Spaniards threw from their engines. Don
Alonzo Jufre, the Spanish Admiral, had orders to
burn these gallies, but the Moors prevented his ap
proach by piles driven into the sea. The kingof
ired two doubloons of gold for every stone the
miners could force out from the walls of the ciftle,
which the engines had so dimrintled, especially the
Torre del Homiaage, that the Moors could not
man the tops of the turrets. The largeness of the
reward encouraged a party of Gallegos to at erupt
extraQing the Hones, under cover of a ftr_ong ma
chine called Manta, similar to the Mufculus of the
Romans, a machine in use till the invention of gun
powder. This manoeuvre would soon have brought
the tower to the ground ; but as the Moors could
not man the battlements from the rocks thrown on
them, they broke openings inr , iides ofche tower,
and threw down on the Manta such quantities of
burning pitch, tow, and other combustibles, as set
it on fire, and forced the Gallegos to retreat. At
this time the king of Grenada, and Abomeli
que marched to its relief, and blocked up the Spa
nish king in the neck of Gibraltar, which prevented
his army receiving any provides by land ; so that
when the bad weather kept off their supplies by
sea, they experienced great want. Such numbers
deferred through hunger, and fell into the hands of
the Moors, that Chrikian slaves fold for a doubloon
each. Once a contrary wind for seventeen days
occasioned a 'dreadful famine, when Don Alonzo,
to give his familhed troops an example of patience,
abstained from tasting meat for eight days, till a
convoy arrived. At last, on the 20th of August, a
peace was concluded, and the siege was raised.
Don Alonzo again fat dow-n before it in the sum
mer 1349, and during thL ...th siege, of ate
months, had reduced the garrison to great firaits,
when the plague carried him off the 26th March
1350, in the 38th year of his age.
The emperors of Fez, neglecting their Spanifli
territories, Juzaf, 3d king of Genada, took it in
1410. This was the sixth siege; but the next
year the inhabitants drove out the Grenadines, and
put themselves under the protection of Muley Bu
cid, Emperor of Fez.
Juzaf b sieged it in form the January following,
with a fleet and army, and the garrison was starved
into a surrender towards the end of March. This
was the seventh siege.
The eighth siege was in 1438, in the reign
of Don Juan If. when Don Enrique de Guzman
Conde de Ni»la, attacked it by sea and land;
but the Moors defeated him, and he was drowned
in attempting to escape. His son got off with th#
remains of the army.
In 1462, he returned with a greater force, and
took the place, which ever since has remained in
poffeflion of the Christians. This was the ninth
siege. The Mahometans had poffefied it 748 years.
Don Enrique IV. of Caftile, then on the throne of
Spain, took tne title of king of Gibraltar.
In 1704, Gibraltar was torn, most probably for
ever, from the Spanifli domain, by the English, un
der Sir George Rooke. In a council of war, held
July 17th, on board the English fleet, about seven
leagues cart of letuao, the attack was resolved up
on. Four days after the fleet got into the bay of
Gibraltar, and 1800 English and Dutch marines
under the Prince of Hesse Darmftadt, were landed.
On the 23d, soon after day-break, the ships being
placed, tne Admiral threw out the signal for can
nonading, which was continued with great fury for
five or fix hours, 13000 shot being fired in that time
against the town, so that the enemy were soon dri
ven from their guns, especially at the South Mole
head. As the gaining that fortification would en
sure the reduction of the town, the Admiral ordered
Capt. Whitaker with all the boats immediately to
endeavour to possess it. But whilst he was pushing
for it with great alacrity, the Captains Hicks and
Jumper, who lay next the Mole, landed some men
from their pinnaces and boats before he came up.
On this the Spaniards blew up the fortifications
about the Mole, and killed 2 lieutenants and about
TH E
40 men. and wounded 60 more. Yet our men kept
possession of the great platform, and Whitaker land
ing with the seamen who had been ordered on this
service, they advanced and took a redoubt or final!
bastion, half way between the Mole and the town,
and many of the enemy's cannon ; upon which the
governor desired to capitulate, and surrendered on
honourable terms, which they did on the 24th
The Prince of Hesse, with the marines belonging
to the fleet, were left in garrison, and furnished
from the fleet with every necessary for fubfiftance
and defence, and a regular plan laid down for Ap
plying them in future from Lilben. This was the
tenth siege.
Now the eleventh siege commenced under the
Marquis de Vibadarias. He had with him all the
forces the Spaniards could colled, with some French
troops and French engineers; the letter had been
sent from France on purpose, and were chiefly re
lied on. The siege lasted four months, during
whicb ~' he ? !i ^ of H ~^ eminently diffingubhed
himself by his condud, courage, and indefatigable
application. The garrison was Applied with men
and provisions from Lisbon. At last Mons. de
Pointis came with a squadron of 20 French ships of
war to block it up by sea. Upon which Sir John
Leake was sent with a Wronger squadron to relieve
the place, and he arrived A the bay Odober 9th
In the mean time the Marshal de Teffe took the
command of the beficgers ; he . had been sent by the.
court of France, which was diffatisfied with the
condud of Vihadarias; but he had no better suc
cess, and the siege was at last abandoned in 1703
During this siege, the Spaniards made a ^fperaU
attempt to take it. On the eafl-fideofthe rock, at
Paffa de Algarovas, guided by a goal-herd, they
got up 500 men, and concealed themselves in St
Michael's Cave; the 2 d nightyey foaled Charles
the Vth wall, and surprised and. murerded the
guard at the signal house ; and at Middle-hill by
ropes and scaling ladders, they got up tome hun
dreds of the party ordered to fullain them ) but be
ing difeovered, they were all driven over that pre
cipice, which the Spaniards name '' Salta de Loba"
or the Wolf's Leap.'
In 1727, the Twelfth siege commenced; it
was carried on by the Marquis de las Torres; it is
only remarkable for a vain attempt of the Spanish
engineers to blow up the head of the hill, by means
of a mine under Will's, or Queen's battery.
Under the dominion of Great-Britain, the forti
fications have been so improved and perfected, that
joined to the natural strength of the place they ren
der it impregnable, and all likelihood of its returning
to the Spaniards improbable.—There is generally
kept in the magazines 18 months provisions. To
the Moors it was the key of Spain, and the English
deservedly reckon it the key of the Mediterranean.
The town of Gibraltar reaches near a mile from the
land gate to the south port; from the south port to
the end of the nil! at Europa are two miles more.
In 1779, an d this year 1780, the Spaniards are
carrying on the thirteenth siege.
It is 25 miles N. of Ceuta, and 45 S. E. of Ca
diz; lon. 4.15 W. lat. 36. o. N.
COMMON SENSE,
On the King of England's SP EE CH.
OF all the innocent passions which acuate the
human mind, there is none more universally
prevalent than curiosity. It reaches all mankind,
and jn matters uhich concern us, or Concern us not,
it anke provokes in us a desire to know.
Altho the Filiation of America, superior to every
effort to enslave her, and daily rising into importance
and opulence, hath placed her above the region of
anxiety, it flill left her within the circle of curiofny;
and her fancy to Ice the speech of a man who had
proudly threatened to bring her at his Let, was visibly
marked with that tranquil confidence which cared
nothing about its contents. It was enquired after
with a smile, read with a laugh, and dismissed with
disdain.
But, as justice is due, even to an enemy, it is right
to fay, that the speech is as well managed as the em
barrassed condition of their affairs could well admit of;
and though scarce a line of it is true, except the
mournful tale of Cornwallis, it may save to amuse
[Numb. CLVIII.J