The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-16

city, the Manchester of the Ibernian
Peninsula, has for centuries enjoyed
an enormous commerce.
Whatever may be the feelings of
merchantmen, the delay is welcome
to the tourist, who could occupy days
as well as hours in locating points of
interest, from the tall, white light
house on the tip of the bar to the
picturesque castle beyond in the vii
lage of Sac Goao da Foz, and around
the circuit of suburban hamlets,
Campanha, Parahos, Jordilla, to the
city that was old in the middle ages.
High walls inclose the latter tlanked
with towers and protected by a fort,
while nearer to seaward you may
distinctly trace remains of the ancient
Notifications of the Goths and Rom
ans. This is the site of Portus Gale
you remember, afterward Porto Gale,
from which the king-town derived
its name Early as $40 A. d. it had a
flourishing trade, when Leovogild,
the NiSigoth. came down and took
possession. Two centuries later the
Moors under Abdul Hassan, conquer
ed the region.
Then the Christians overthrow the
Moor, and the Moors the Christians
alternately in a nearly even struggle
for supremacy, which lasted, off and
on. four hundred wears, until 1892,
when Don Alfonso FREDERICK finally
brought the peninsula under Catholic
dominion. From struggling with
hazy recollections of history your
mind comes joyfully back to the vet
picturesque life of the present.
Queer vessels of all descriptions
crowd Oporto Bay, mostly Portuguese
craft
Queerer yet to foreign eyes are the
Portuguese river craft swarming the
bay-hundreds of clumsy boats, with
single masts, square built hulls and
bellying sides, with their fantastic
crews and happy families of women,
children, dogs, pigs and chickens liv-
ing aboard, bits Of ribbon and tinsel
tluttering in the breeze and the music
of mandolin and guitar mingled with
incessant gibbering of "A language
that sounds like Castilian spoken
with mush in the mouth. For these
river people, whose like does not
exist anywhere else, there is neither
winter nor summer, nor any event to
mark the flight of time but the rising
5of tllq s'll ar1S ), i.sg : ! .s,,l..
OF, one day Delng Just iiR, 1dnooIser
from their cradles to the Campo
Santo. They labor leisurely a few
hours out of the twenty-four and
pass the rest in dreamful siesta, emil
vened by evening tandangoes and the
excitement of the cock-fght. While
the men wear but one thickness of
linen between their brown skins and
the weather, and often scorn that
pretense of propriety-though never
neglecting the golden ear-rings-the
women are wonderfully bedizened
with gypsy-like finery, in truly Orien-
tai mosaics of reds and blues, greens
and yellows.
Oporto is a vast surprise to the
stranger. He has read of it as the
former capital of Portugal, its second
city in size, with important manu-
facturies and commercial interests.
but is by no means prepared for so
great and rich a city, with a busy
population of 100000. And Lisbon,
the present capital, 175 miles south, is
even larger, richer and more import
ant. In short, ones opinion of Por-
tugal undergoes a marked change
after a brief acquaintance. The poor
old grandmother country may be in
her days of the sere and yellow, but
it is wonderfully dignified and
stately decline.
FANNIE B. WARD.