The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-01-18

marvellously beautiful land! Orange and
lemon groves fill the air with fragrance,
blossoms showing on the branches amid
fair, ripe fruit, like ''goiden lamps in a
twilight of leafage.' Fields are dark
green with the rank luxuriance of grow
ing crops; the air is soft and warm: birds
are singing in the trees; acknowledgement,
almond, pear and cherry-abound, and
every inch of uncultivated ground is
radiant with wild flowers. Only geology
can explain this amazing change. On
one side of the ridge are the alluvial
sandtlats of some ancient sea; on the
other, the rocks, clays, schist and lime
stones of the oolites. And then such
trumphs of Natures masonry in cliff and
mountain, such strangely contorted peaks
and intensely REQ rock surfaces, such har-
monies of gray and puppies, greens and
blues! On massive cliff, commanding
the six miles of fertile valley between the
ridge and Setubal, stands the ancient
Moorish stronghold of Palmilla-still no
mean fortress, with it's square towers and
tall battlements
Setubal, lying close to the beach, has
its own hill-fortress, that of st. Philip,
built by Philip ILL., besides five other
picturesque forts, stretched along the
river. The town, which the English
who have murdered SO many Latin names
in cold blood-miss- call Saint Ubz, is
few miles from the Atlantic, on the north
side OF great river, (the Sado), whose
broad estuary forms magnificent har-
Dor, though INSTRUCTED by sand banks
near its entrance. Never was seen more
beautiful city, as approached in the late
afternoon--its white houses glitterng in
the sun, in strong contrast to the dark
green orange groves surrounding them
and the bright blue bay in front. In the
west, overlapping town, valley and lesser
heights, stretches the great Arrabida
range, peak above peak, to the "Western
ocean, Somewhere in the foot hills of
those red, treeless mountains, two or
rare old closter of Arrabida within whose
stalactite caverns, since time immemorial,
body of Gray Friars have passed lives of
austere devotion, visited once a year by
pious pilgrims from all parts of Portugal
Like other Monks, these mountain Friars
are buried in unmarked graves, and it is
said that if the hunter inadvertently steps
upon the place of holy dust his earthly
blessings are numerous forever after
wards.
Setubal stretches three miles or more
along the river bank, faced with broad
quays and spacious warehouses; Though
] its population is less that 20, 600, it is
/ Portugal S fourth city in size and third in
/ commercial Importance - owning chiefly
/ to its extensive trade in Muscate and
! White wines Considerable quantities of
oranges, lemons and cork bark are also
/ exported. 1t is the emporium of the
/ Porting csc salt ks too. mined a few
miles 10 the eastward. The salt is said
! to be the finest for curing fish and meat.
and is principally shipped to Scandinavian
ports. Its pilchard and other fisheries
are also of great value. There are num-
Der of quaint old churches in the town.
several converts, a theatre, a bull ring,
an arsenal and handsome monument to
the poet, Bocage, who was born in
Setubal, the name, by the way, being
pronounced as if spelled Say too VAIL
Among its other notable public buildings
the Bomtin with its beautiful fountain.
the Fonte Nova and the Annunciata Re
mains of ancient walls enclose the town
on its landslide and the whole valley is
completely commanded by forts on the
hills. This is the site of the old Roman
city, Cetobriga. Some Jealous authors
give it still greater antiquity and ascribe
its origin to Tubal, a near descendant of
Noah!
Far more interesting than the city of to-
day is the remains of ancient ''Troia.' ,
in the sand-hills of "a low-lying promon-
tory in the bay. Early in the present
| century an unusually heavy rain fall I'm
covered the ruins, and in 1850 an anti
quarian society began researches, which
have later been carried on by the Dukes of
Palmilla, the richest and most influential
family of Estramadura province. A beau
| tiful Roman house has been unearthed.
almost entire, and many Roman coins
and other antiqities, which furnish con-
elusive evidence tn It the place dates back
! to 800 to 400 A. d. GU may easily visit it.,
sailing across the bay from Setubal; and
| in the nearby palace of the Duke of Pal
milla-if SO fortunate as to gain an invi
tation, you may see lachrymatories and
cinerary urns of glass, Saguntine vases,
bronze and earthenware lamps, ampho-
ras, styla of bone, bits of mosaic pave
ment and columns of colored marble, and
great number of coins, Roman and
Phoenician. 1t is a significant fact, as
indicating dates, that while Trajan, An
tonius Plus and Julian, the Apostate,