The Republican journal., 1899-11-16

the unwary voyager who forgets the
Kentucky advice against mixing his
beverages is liable to lose himself under
the table, AT eight O'Clock comes supper;
and just before turning i'll for the night,
mug of cocoa, chocolate or tea is handed
| IN. Strange to say, thcle is almost no
sea sickness under this generous regime,
which seems to show that NAL de mer is
best prevented by keeping the nerves of
the stomach, which cause the trouble,
busy in digesting food. as pleasant occu-
patton is said TO stave of hysteria in ner-
vous females.
1t is only seven days from New 7 ork to
Oporto- hardly time enough to get ones
sea-legs on, as the sailors say,-to learn
what time it is at ''eight bells and ''five
bells and the meaning OF 'starboard'
and ''larboard' and other nautical terms.
BY the way, we are bound for the lands
whence came those time honored words.
The early navigat0rs, who crossed the
Western Ocean to hunt up America, said
questa borda when they meant this side'
and buela borda; and naturally the clumsy
| English tongue corrupted them to the
words in present use. They sound SO
much alike that frequent errors accur-
red, sometimes causing serious accidents;
therefore the Admiralty, some years ago,
substituted the word sport for larboard.
! Land-lubbers on their first voyage may
''starboard is the right hand side of the
ship and its color is green, while port is
the left and its color red.
In these days of rapid transit, one ap-
| proaches the opposite hemisphere regret
ting that the voyage is no longer. To be
rushed into new lands, without giving the
! Imagination time to daily on the borders
OF the unknown, is to rob oneself of half
j the delights of a foreign tour. Spain and
Portugal are one in history, and in the
i habits and traditions of their people-al
most one in language, saving few extra
h S and q S in the westward provinces. The
very thought of sunny Spain, land of vine
yards and olive groves and fandangoes, of
guitars and gypsies, brigands, senoritas
and caballeras, warns the heart like a
draught from its famous vintages. When
| Washington Irving made a similar journey
he wrote: "We set out with a genuine dis
position to be pleased. With such dis
position, what country is Spain for the
| traveller, where the most miserable inn is
/ as full of adventure as an enchanted castle
and every meal is in itself an achieve
ment." In similar frame of mind, we
| hurried on deck before sunrise of misty
morning to watch the passage of the bar
| at the mouth of the Rio Douro. The
great river, navigable for smaller crafts
more than a hundred miles above, stretch
es away across Portugal to the borders of
! France. The Pyrenees form upon its up
per waters, and somewhere along it's banks
is the Valladold of song and story, and
! Braganza, celebrated in opera bouffe. O
Porto, Portuguese fer ''The Port''), lies
three miles up the Douro, and entrance
to its so-called harbor is between the Scylla
and Charybdis of dangerous rocks and
shifting sands, which hinder incoming
vessels for hours. Were it Oh our side of the
world it would have been cleared out long
| ago, for the famous old midland manufac-
turing city, the Manchester of the Iberian
| Peninsula, has for years enjoyed an enor-
nous commerce. Whatever may be the
/ feelings of the 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 beyon d, in the village of Sac Joao
| da Foz, and around the circuit of surbur-
ban hamlets, Campanha, Parahos, Zordil-
| la, to the city that was old in the middle
ages. High walls enclose the latter, flank
ed with towers and protected by a fort;
while nearer to seaward you may distinct
| ly trace remains of the ancient fortifica-
tions of the Goths and Romans. This is
the site of Portus Gale, you remember,
afterwards Porto Gale, from which the
kingtown derived it's name. Early as $40
A. D. it had fourishing trade, when
Leovogild, the Visigoth, came down and
took possession. Two centuries later the
Moors, under Abdul Hassan, conquered
the region. Then the Christians over
threw the Moors, and the Moors the Chris
tians, alternately, in nearly even strug-
| gle for supremacy which lasted, off and
on, four hundred years; until 1902, when
Don Alfonso FREDERICK finally brought the
Peninsula under Catholic dominion. From
struggling with hazy recollections of his