The record-union., 1892-01-30
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
Union. CopYrigflt. 1927

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright. 1921
TANGIER, Morocco, Jan. II, 1892.
At Tavira we had no difficulty in Sc
curing passage in a stanch coasting
steamer, plying between Lisbon and Ca
diZ. After a day in the latter, once the
emporium of the world and still the most
winsome and beautiful city of Spain, we
sailed on a smaller vessel, little better
than ferry-boat, for the African coast,
touching for an hour at Tarifa, the south
crnmost city of continental Europe, but
fifteen miles southwest Of Gibraltar.
In this less than one hundred miles
from Cadiz there are innumerable scenes
and memories of wondrous impressive
ness. Cadiz Itself was the Tarshish OF
Bible history, Juno's wondrous island.
and the glorious iberia of Anacreon and
Homer. At the end of the fourth cen
tury it was the richest, most brilliant and
most profigate city in the world. Then
the Goths andthe Arabs possessed it, the
latter for 800 years from the eighth CEN
Cury, when Alfonso the Learned retook
1t in 1862. What a vision of riches and
pillage comes with vanishing sight of the
beautiful city, when its American treas
ure is remembers The old writers tell
that in the one year OF 1892 the gold and
silver imported at Cadiz from America
amounted to Sl25, 100000; and away back
OF this, when the English Lord Essex
sacked and pillaged Cadiz, the booty
amounted to forty great galleons and
thirteen ships of war laden with Ameri-
can gold
In an hours time you have come
QhraaS II of ffaraa fTf.ata loar Nnnr
er's course is through the very waters
where Nelson won his immortal victory
over the combined fleets of Gravina and
Villeneuve. All the mighty paintings
you have seen, all the majestic monu-
mentS TO Nelson underneath whose shad-
ows you have stood, all the thrilling
prose and verse you have read upon this
inspiring theme, fill and thrill your mind
and heart, until the air is dimmed with
smoke, the hoarse bellowings of cannon
deaten you, the sheets of flame from those
two solid columns OF warShips blind you,
the shrieks of wounded and dying and
the crashing of masts add to the coniured
horror-all for an instant, may be; but no
poet or painter has ever brought its glory
and savagery TO your comprehension SO
nlatchlessly as your own brief presence
there.
And now Tarifa is reached; Tarifa,
celebrated of all cities of the Latin race
1OI the ldJd1 beauty OI 1IS WOMEN; 1dTlId,
where the beSieging MOOrS put to death
the son OF Don Alfonso before his eyes in
All attempt TO affect the citY's surrender
where mighty battles between the Kings
of CASTLE and Spain against the MoorS
were fought beneath its walls; where
once 1900 Roman sons came and took to
themselves their pick of Spanish women ;
where the BerberS first met the dispirited
armies of Roderick, last OF the Cloths
Tarita, with its ScOresof towers and gates,
labrynthine streets, balconies hidden be-
hind masses of flowers. and it's half
Spanish, half-Moorish scenes and life,
which taunt and tempt ravishingly to
dallying and delay.
From this point, as your course is set
to the southwest for Tangier almost
straight across the Strait of Gibraltar,
the scene on every hand is one of match
less beauty and grandeur. Back to the
northwest stretches the Spanish coast
line to Trafalgar, low lying along the sea,
but with a background of undulating
foothills, breaking into deep gorges, ana
capped by lofty Sierras, the whole check
cred by vineyards and dotted with cities
and hamletS, in the distance as white as
flakes Of snow. Back across the waters
to the northeast looms gray old Gibraltar,
line OF fishing villages, arSenals, quays
and moles at its base like slender rib
bon OF foam, its thousands OF threatening
cannon above hidden and submitted by
terraces bright and vines and gardens
fair.
Before you is Africa, warm and glow
ing beneath a midwinter sun. Away to
the southeast is the shadowy peak of
Apes Hill, at whose base Ceuta lies. A
grand and diversified coast stretches
westward, past as yet invisible Tangier
TO Cape Spartel, the northwesternmost
point in Africa. Portions of the coast are
grandly precipitous. Again great forests
sweep from noble nights into slumbrous
valleys which undulate softly to the sea.
The lights and shades are strange The
green of the middle strait blends into a
rosy puce toward land, this into a brill
liant blue further on, and the coast line al
the waters edge seems like a thread OF
lustrouS onyx. Above this, brown, then
purple, then emerald; and beyond, there
is glowing of faint orange, as though
the valleys palpably flung back the sun
light which fingered lovingly above. Be
yond this, line Of tender purple, jagged
with feathery, misty fronds. This is
where the Atlas Mountains are. And
then between the mountain passes and
peaks and the sky is a faint thread OF
satfrony pale pink, something like a
gauZe of lavender laid on bank of roses.
That gleam of color flashes the mental
vision to the vast Sahara and the far
Soudan.
Feasting with eager and selfish delight
upon the glorious shore OF two conti-
nents, had lost sight of honest Dobrado;
Dobrado who was to have returned to his
place by the babbling fountains of Lis
bon, from Beja, should persist in tramp
ing thence to Tavira and the sea; DobradC
who was now sworn servitor and friend:
Dobrado broad of grin as Gargantua, and
of beam of QuiXote's no less faithful
squire; Dobrado whom found with low
ering eyes and hideous face, as rapt as |
had been, scowing with unutterable hate
at the fair land of the Moors. In his atti-
tude, looks, mutterings and unconscious
gesticulations, increasing every moment
IN rapidity and intensity, the whole story
OF the lrrevocable vengefulness of Chris
tlan against MoSlem, and Moslem against
Christian, was told 1t was theme fol
poet; subject for artist-Europe. the i'm
placable foe of Africa; the Cross against
the Crescent; incarnate Hate, the out
growth of incarnate Love, burning tc
annihilate Fanaticism; Christian savagery
thirsting for the life of Moslem bar
bariSm.
touched the Gallegan gently upon the
shoulder, and my eyes sought his inquir-
lngly. He trembled and was wofuily
confused for moment. Then his great
blue eyes saddened and he said softly and
slowly, as though his heart meanwhile
travelled long and bitter way:
There is not a choza tcabin) from Fin
isterre to Palencia in which there does
not hang some forefather's gaita or ho7
tsickle) or sword upon the wall, under
which the Gallegan boy is not daily
Observation-Disclosures