The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-10-10

beast has ever scaled. 1t is Catalan,
the loneliest fishing village in Europe,
if not in the whole wide world. A thou
sand years or more ago, some Genoese
fishermen were wrecked there and man.
aged to climb upon the narraw shelf of
and clinging to it like barnacles, made
a precarious home for themselves and
their descendants. They are the only
things of life on Gibraltar's Mediter-
ranean shore. Occasionally a few tons
of rock loosen from above and slide
down upon their village, crushing their
houses like egg-shells and killing scores
of people: but such is the tenacity of
their class that the survivors 60 on as
before, needing such accidents as little
as they would siege and the thunder
of guns above them.
More than all else. the narrow strait,
dividing the two continents, interests
you, with a stately procession of the
trade argosies of the world always COM
ing and going upon it. So long as Eng
land holds Gibraltar, the trade of the
Orient is peacefully open-not only to
Great Britain, but to every civilized
nation. Nothing more beautiful and
picturesque can be imagined than the
irJ' nf 70 ho hoy
from the heights above Every manner
of craft that floats is crowded in the
bay, from leviathan men of war to
lateen-sailed feluccas. Just opposite
the so-called pinnacle" which marks
the western horn of its crescent, the
Old Mole, OF breakwater, extends eleven
hundred feet into the bay. About mid
way between the Pinnacle and Europa
Point, new Mole has been lately push
ed thousand feet into the sea. Here
is safe anchorage for every battleship
and merchant vessel owned by Britain,
and any day you may see among them
several hundred craft floating the flags
of all nations.
Though all is peaceful enough on top
of Gibraltar heights, where compare
lively few cannon are placed and pretty
little foot and donkey-paths wind down
to shaded roadways and the town far,
far below,-you are yet profoundly i'm
pressed with the preparations for war,
so evident on every side. The whole
great rock is honey -combed with miles
of galleries in which cannon are mount
ed, and its base is completely girdled
with cannon. From top to bottom of
the tremendous hill, cannon thrust their
iron Threats through bastions and out
works. Hundreds of them are behind
portfolios cut in the solid rock, in hewn
chambers beneath the mountain, tier
on tier, while other chambers are ex-
haustless magazines Of powder, shot
and shell. Every crag and precipice is
! literally peppered with cannon, from
submerged batteries to the topmost
peak. AT every angle out of the noun
tain of stone can be poured more awful
destruction than ever issued from the
, craters of 1Etna or Vesuvius. Again
and again, during the two centuries that
England has held Gibraltar, it has been
stormed and besieged; but so far with
out avail. Whether it could withstand
twenty-century ornaments remains to
be tested. Land batteries, fleets and
/. iron-clads could render the spot per
feet hell for those imprisoned on the
rock. On the other hand, no labor and
expense have been spared to bring it's
defenses up to the highest pitch of
modern excellence. Engineers are al
ways at work adding new Notifications
and the latest quirks in the science of
killing, while gunners are constantly
practicing their deadly art and weapons
of greater calibre succeed others SEEM
ingly invincible. But in case of siege,
the greatest danger would not lie in the
adversary's strength. During the long
years OF peace large native popula-
ton has grown up on Gibraltar, and un-
less they could be quickly deported,
starvation would compel surrender.
The Saracens were first to recognize
the value of this rock as strategic
point. Long, long before, the Pheni-
clans, trading here, named it Alube,
and as Roman province it was known
only as a Pillar of Hercules which
marked the boundaries OF the civilized
world, all to the westward being mys-
terry and darkness. The Goths succeed
ed the Romans in its possession; and
they were followed by the fiery Mos
lens, under Tarek 1bn Zeyad, the one
eyed chief of Tangiers, who was as
brave as blood thirsty. He landed