Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-07-17
GIBR ALTAR.
The Rock.Upon Which Great Britain
Has Built Her Stronghold.
London Standal


Has Built Her Stronghold
London Standard
"What hid'st thou. in thy treasured
caves and cells, Thou ever sounding
and mysterious main?" A partial
answer to Mrs. Heman's inscruTabJe
question has Just been supplied by a
bav whose waters cover many long
forgotten wreck. and whose floor
should be strewn with as many me-
mentoes of sea battles as any spot in
the worl. over which the waves ebb
and flow. For scores of centuries the
straits and bay of Gibraltar, or Gebel
Tark-the chill of Talk" a Saracenic
gen eral-have witnessed their full
share of fighting among various races
of combative and maritime battles in
which it is probable that the Pheni-
clans must have often engaged during
the. three centuries which saw the
lands and coasts Of the Mediterranean
thlckly covered with their forts, their
factories. From about thirteen hun
dred down 10 thousand years before
the Christian era the ships of these
interchangeable mariaers plowed the
waters of every known sea,
and carried the commerce of
the world to every port which their
restless spirit Of adventure had open
ed to naval and commercial enterprise
We know that. having colonizeG the
whole coast of Spain, they left the pill
lars Of Hercules behind them, and
pushed boldly into the Atlantic until
they had discovered the Tin islands,
which they call the Sicilies, and made
their way to the southern shores of
Britain itself. They were the univer-
sal traders and carriers of the ocean
in days when these islands were Occu-
pied by barbarous savages, and it is
even related by DiOdorus that, embar-
raised with the multitude of the pre-
cIous metals which they found ia the
mines of TWtessus. the Phmnicians
made their very anchors of silver.
not knowing how to store its super
abundant treasure away IN the holds
Of their pUny vessels. Tyre and Sidon
grew, under their enlightened rule, to
be the greatest and richest marts of
commerce in the world, and an ALI
ance with Hiram, the king of Tyre,
was eargerly sought by Solomon, the
Wlsest and greatest of IsraelitIsh
kings. Who can say, indeed, wheth-
er, among the long lost treasures lying
at the bottom of Gibraltar bay, sill
yer anchor, belonging to the former
mistress of the seas, may not itself be
included? Its recovery would be not
less precious, IN the eyes of our mod
ern antiquarians, than the evidences
Of the ancient Troy which DR..
Schlieman believes he has excavated at
Hlssarhk, or than the seven brancbed
candlestick brought from Jerusalem
to Rome by the Emperor Titus, and
alleged by DIR. Dyer to be IN prOba-
blIlty, lying buried at this moment In
the yellow mud at the bottom of the
Iiber Leaving behind US the dim
and misty revelations OF ancient his
tory, which speak Of the pillars Of
Hercules as the western boundary of
the world, we now come to times when
Gibraltar and its lion -couchant-like
rock were gazed at with envy by more
recent invaders of Spain. ''Who can
doubt" says a recent writer, that
such leaders as Hamilcar and
Hannibal must have been
awake to the Importance of Gibraltar
as q permanent stronghold for mari
time nation when they made their ex-
petitions from Africa into Europe2"
The Romans may have cast wistful
eyes at its strength when they were
fighting with Carthage for possession
Of Spain. All, however, that we
know for certain is that about eleven
centuries since the Saracens invaded
Spain, under their great general,
Tarik Ion Sayid, and seized upon the
rock of Gibraltar, which they fortified
as the base of their operations against
the kingdom of the Visigoths.