Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-14

| mau-of-war to the lateen sailed feliuca, IN
/ Guiding a half dozen American schooners
and barkS with their shapely hullS aud
| slender spars, and rests beyond the waters
! of the bay upon the circling Spanish shore.
| There is Cabrita Point, darkening grlmly
against background of fame where the
setting sun foods the entrance from the At
| lautic. Around to the northwest Algeciras
| gnostike lifts through the purpling pail.
| To the north score of villas and villages,
| pink or white as the light and shadows
| changefully play upon them, show, like the
| ivory beads of rosary, against ranges of
! alOes and masses of vineyards; the whole
I with q background of billowy foothill.
| dark, then blue, then purple, and finally
an opaline misty dream where the peaks Of
the Spanish sierras blend with the far
horizon of the North.
AL this is what one can see at FL Hacho
upon the heights of Gibraltar: but what
| wraiths OF history, mythic and real, crowd
from the past upon the wondrous scene!
This spot where you stand, and towering
Apes Hill, across the strait in Africa, were
the Olden Pillars of Hercules. Down be-
meath YOU at Europa Point is the very spot
where the divine bull rested from his fight
with Europa, to whom the continent owes
its name. Just across the strait, at Ceuta,
the traltOrous Count Julian, outlaw from
Roderick's Hcentious Toledo court, first be-
trayed Spain to the Moslems. The resultant
invasion under command of Tarek ibn Ze-
yad, then chief of the garrison of Tangier,
gave to the rock the name, Gibel-al-Tarek,
mountain of Tarek, corrupted to the Glib
raltar of to-day
Then for 200 years it was a mount of
death and glory for Spaniard and Moor i'll
their desperate contentious; while the
treasure and lives it has cost since first the
cross Of St. George waved above it, in 1104,
would enrich and people a a kingdom. One
knows anew, with startling clearnesS, the
history of European and Moslem struggles
in the musings and memories of such
spot. But the sunset gun has belched its
flame and thunder toward the red Allan
tics breast; the lights twinkle from the
Spanish villages around the bay, and, cir
cling TO the mountains base, bring rosy
glow to city and harbor craft beneath. You
wend your way downward to the terraced
town past briskly moving sentlnels, crisp
with duty and challenges, leaving the grim
mountain tops behind melodious with bugle
notes echoing and re-echoing their songful
mimicry of war from harbor side to dark
ened clefts Of bleak and serried heights.
If Gibraltar were not unique and the
most gigantic fortress in the world, it
would still be q spot of rarest interest and
charm TO the traveller. The scenic beauties
from any portion of the embattled noun
tain are not surpassed in the whole 20OO
miles reach of the Mediterranean. Two
continents and three kingdoms are here
within cannon shot of wherever you may
stand. The rides and drives into the most
luxuriant and fruitful portion of Southern
Spain all within days journey bring
within observation and enjoyment every
feature Of high or low Spanish life which
could be studied in a Journey from France
to Portugal.
And then the rock and city Of Gibraltar
themselves, contrary to prevalent notions,
are each in their way wonderful and win
some studies of still and human life. The
botauist can find upon the sides OF this one
rock over five hundred distinct species of
vegetable life in flower shrub, Hchen, moss
and vice. The tiny gardens are ablaze
even in winter with gorgeous color and
bloom Far up the heights the walled and
winding roadways are bOrdered with
masses of green and blossom. The wash
erwomen dry their clothes on hedges of
geranium. The prickly pear and cactus
grow to enormous size. The aloe rears it's
central shoots, with lateral branches. like
spears Of gigantic asparagus. Huge ole
anders glow above every terraced garden
wall The night blooming cereus grows in
splendid luxuriance, resembling mammoth
water-lillies with delicate anthers of gold.
Everywhere with leaves of glossy green,
flowers of bridal white and Cfruit of gold,
the orange-tree, limiting of tropical cline,
beStoWs its welcome shade and delicate
scents, wanton in the prodigality with
hLlCu jill uGLlEE utLE SetlAl5 u EAhtA MS
toric interest and grand, surprising scene.
And of the city2 II has 10000 souls
exclusive of the 5000 to GOO officers and
men of the garrison Terrace on terrace it
threads along the waters edge. 1t is a
mass of archways, stairs, subteranean
thoroughfares, spiral passages, viaducts,
vaulting footways, narrow vistas broken by
quaintest corners, angles, balconies, and
roofs, and altogether the strangest, most
curious and winsome tumble Of human
habitations raud thoroughfares men ever
built 20 shelter men and trade. Then OF
the folk of Gibraltar: were you TO get
together from all Spanish cities their most
characteristic lowly; bring from Genoa
and Naples their most picturesque fisher
men; hunt Tangier and Fee for weir6est
Berber, Kahbayle, Moor and jew; and
dragnet the entire Mediterranean shoals
for waterside folk that looked the fisher,
smuggler and pirate in one; and thread
among all these the scarlet and blue of
thousands OF the soldiery and srtillerymen
of the great fortress, you VIII still have a
no more varied, changeful weird and
eolorful scene than at any hour of any day
your eyes may behold, from the Almeda
garden below the Moorish Tower, down
through the waterproof street IL this Mcor-
fsh-built, Spanish-dnished md English
held olden fortress town.
EDGAR l. lWAKENLS