GIBRALTAR.
"Is not this a German vessel?" asked a passenger of the first officer,
as they stood conversing near the gymnasium on the upper deck the
morning after we left Funchal.
"Most surely it is," he replied, astonished at the question.
"Then," pointing to the red ensign floating at the top of the foremast,
"why does the Moltke fly the British colors?"
"The British flag at our foremast indicates that this ship is bound for
a port that belongs to Great Britain," explained the mate. "When we sail
from Gibraltar the Union Jack will be replaced by the French tri-color
to show that we are then on the way to a French port. The emblem on the
fore-mast will be changed many times before we return to New York. But
there," turning and pointing to the rear, "in its place at the stern is
the German standard, the flag of our fatherland. There it will remain
throughout the cruise. Above us, too, on the mast nearest the stern, the
white pennant bearing the letters H. A. P. A. G., the insignia of the
company that owns the Moltke, will constantly fly."
The evening we sailed from Funchal each lady found beside her plate at
the dinner table a bunch of violets, a memento from the flower gardens
of Madeira; and on St. Valentine's Day each found there a package
containing a pretty fan with the compliments of the Captain. At this
dinner on the fourteenth of February much merriment prevailed during the
dessert course, when favors containing caps and bonnets were
distributed. Formality was dropped for the time. Each diner donned his
headgear and the comical appearance of the wearers drew forth many
pleasantries and much laughter.
[Illustration: THE ILLUSTRATIONS REPRESENT A SOMBER MOUNTAIN.]
The Captain, with a huge paper sun-bonnet on his head, rose to make a
few remarks.
"Silence! listen to what our old mother has to say!" cried a humorist.
Amid laughter the captain began, but the laughter quickly ceased and his
words were listened to with attention.
"Fellow voyagers," said he in conclusion, "you will find on the bulletin
board to-night some information and advice relative to your trip to
Granada. For the past ten days you have been under my charge and I have
looked after your welfare, but to-morrow you leave the vessel for two
days. I wish you a pleasant excursion and a safe return to shelter under
the care of your 'Old Mother.'"
After the applause had subsided and a response had been made by one of
the passengers, the orchestra played as a finale Liebe's "Auf
Wiedersehen."
Then we, after securing pencil and paper, hastened to join the crowd
around the bulletin board to make notes of the directions for the trip
into Spain. The notice read as follows:
"The Moltke will arrive at Gibraltar to-morrow, February
fifteenth, before daylight. Breakfast will be served at an early
hour and tenders will be alongside the steamer at seven o'clock to
take the tourists to the dock. There guides will be in waiting and
three hours will be spent in Gibraltar.
"At ten o'clock the tourists will be conveyed in the steam ferry
across the bay to the railroad station at Algeciras, from which
place the train will start for Granada. During the ferry passage a
box containing luncheon to be eaten on the train will be given to
each person.
"Dress warmly or take heavy wraps, as it is sometimes cold at
Granada at this season of the year.
"Call at the office at the news-stand on main deck for railroad
tickets and hotel assignments.
"The excursion party returning will leave Granada at four o'clock
Monday afternoon and arrive at the steamer about midnight. The
Moltke will then sail for Algiers."
"Let us go to the office at once. The giving out of tickets may require
considerable time," said my room-mate.
Others were of the same opinion, it seemed, for many were ahead of us,
but there was no delay, each applicant receiving promptly with his
railroad ticket a card bearing the name of the hotel in Granada to which
he was assigned. The managers of the tour, having arranged in advance
for the required number of rooms at the principal hotels, were prepared
to make the allotment before leaving the vessel, so avoiding confusion
and delay on our arrival at our destination, and securing for us prompt
attention at the hotels.
Some of our friends who had already received their envelopes rejoiced to
see on their cards "Hotel Washington Irving," a hotel which they knew
from description to be beautifully situated on the heights near the
Alhambra.
"Hotel Victoria," I read on mine. I was disappointed at first, but on
the following day I found that the central location of the "Victoria"
gave opportunities to see much of the life of the city that might have
been missed had the assignment been to the hotel in the suburbs.
When we awoke the next morning the Moltke was lying quietly at anchor.
We hastily dressed and ascended to the deck.
Any one who has seen pictures of the huge rock that guards the entrance
to the Mediterranean will recognize Gibraltar at sight if he approaches
the rock from the right point of view. The illustrations, however,
represent a somber mountain. The picture we saw showed white houses, red
roofs, green trees, patches of lawn, groups of shrubbery, and plots of
flowers, all contrasting with gray rocks; these with blue sky overhead,
and white sails in the foreground gave life and color to the scene.
As we gazed for some time from the vessel's deck at the strong fortress
which has been held securely in the grasp of Great Britain for two
hundred years, we thought of the many unsuccessful attempts that have
been made during those two centuries to wrest it from British control;
most noted of all, the long siege by the French and Spanish forces that
continued for four years when Napoleon was supreme in France. What might
have been the result, if England's grasp on the rock had been broken by
Napoleon; or what the outcome, if Napoleon's fleet had been victorious
in the conflict on the near-by Trafalgar Bay!
[Illustration: THE ROCK HAD A PEACEFUL LOOK.]
The rock had a peaceful look, but we knew that the cactus plants, which
grew rank on the slope of the mountain, concealed powerful batteries,
and that on the summit of the rock were mounted cannons of the largest
calibre, which, if required, could hurl projectiles to the far side of
the strait, a distance of twelve miles.
On one of the highest points of the rock stands the Signal Tower. To
this tower the officers of the Moltke had signaled the news of our
arrival when the steamer entered the harbor, and before we had stirred
from our berths, that information had been flashed over the cable to
London and New York. On the following morning our friends at home read
in the shipping news of their daily paper, the following item:
"Arrived out; Feb. 15, Gibraltar, Moltke, from New York."
As we started ashore on the lighters at the early hour appointed, we
realized that we should have to take in a great deal in a very little
while. We entered the city of Gibraltar by a tunnel-like entrance
through walls of great thickness. The gateway was closely guarded by
sentinels, who demanded the passes with which we had been furnished and
who told us that these would be good only until sunset, for at the
firing of the evening gun each day the gates are closed and the passes
then are useless.
[Illustration: WE DESCENDED A LONG LADDER OF FIFTY STEPS.]
The markets near the gates, where many kinds of fruits, vegetables, and
fish, unlike those seen in our home markets, were offered for sale,
first attracted our attention. Here customers carrying oddly shaped
baskets were bargaining with Moorish fishermen, Jewish peddlers, and
Spanish marketmen. Each dealer, with gesticulations and loud voice,
appeared to be asserting the superiority of his own wares. There was a
confusion of tongues. Only the pigs tied to stakes squealed, and the
chickens in wicker crates crowed, in strains familiar to our ears. The
streets through which we proceeded were clean but narrow. The sidewalks
were only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The buildings
were constructed of gray limestone similar to that of which the great
Rock is composed.
The presence of an army in this stronghold was indicated by the large
number of soldiers we met. An officer whom we questioned kindly told us
that the garrison consisted of about six thousand men, and that
provisions sufficient to feed that number for five years in case of
siege were at all times kept in storage. He advised us to visit the
"Lower Galleries" of the fortifications on the heights and obtain the
view from that point, and then to attend the afternoon band concert in
the park. But our limited stay did not permit us to follow his
suggestions.
"In some respects," said the Major, "Gibraltar is rather a dull post for
the officers stationed here; but we have a large library, billiard and
club rooms, courts for tennis, and ground for polo. We have also many
dances and riding parties, and occasionally attend the Spanish bull
fights which take place in the large bull ring across the bay at
Algeciras."
[Illustration: WALLS OF GREAT THICKNESS AND A TUNNEL-LIKE ENTRANCE.]
The great variety of uniforms worn by the soldiers of England was
particularly noticeable. We saw squads in khaki uniforms carrying
quarters of beef toward the barrack buildings on the hill; a detachment
in Scotch kilts marching to relieve the guards on sentinel duty at the
neutral ground; many smart looking corporals and sergeants in short red
jackets and little red caps placed jauntily on the sides of their heads,
carrying short canes; an elderly looking officer in spotless white
flannel, to whom the military salute was given by all soldiers who
passed him; numbers of officers in red coats and white duck trousers;
and a group of troopers in undress uniform of coarse white or grey, who
had been grooming the horses in the stables.
[Illustration: THERE IS A LITTLE MILK-MAID SERVING MILK.]
Other things of interest that the camera of our eyes snapped as we
hurried along, were yellow-slippered, bare-legged, swarthy Arabs gliding
quietly by; a neat grey-gowned nurse taking two pretty English children
to early service; Spaniards in long black cloaks and felt hats drawn
down, who looked exactly like the conspirators we see in a play; many
sailors in the garb of various nations, who appeared to be enjoying a
holiday ashore; Hebrew residents in peculiar looking coarse costumes;
well dressed English people with prayer books on their way to church;
Moors from Tangiers in snow-white turbans, and black-haired Spanish
senoritas with large pompadours, high combs, and mantillas draped
gracefully over their heads. These, with many others, met our sight;
but, among all the crowd we encountered, we were not approached by a
beggar, the soliciting of alms being forbidden by the military
authorities.
We paused to glance at the little Trafalgar cemetery, but did not enter.
"Here," said the English guide, "sleep many of the British heroes who
with our gallant Nelson gave their lives to gain the famous naval
victory of the Bay of Trafalgar, in which the French and Spanish fleets
were destroyed. Bonaparte boasted that the combined navies of the two
countries would crush our British fleet, and then his army would cross
the channel and camp in London; but our brave Admiral upset Napoleon's
plans."
Beyond the cemetery we crossed the Alameda or Park Gardens, the pleasure
ground of the people, where the military band plays in the afternoon and
evening. There we saw a luxuriant growth of subtropical vegetation,
orange trees with leaves of dark, glossy green, date palms with bunches
of unripe dates, palms with broad leaves, spreading pepper trees, and
great ash trees whose roots protruded above the ground for unwary
tourists to stumble over. The geraniums and heliotropes were of gigantic
size, and many other flowering plants were unusually large.
[Illustration: EACH COMPARTMENT SEATS EIGHT.]
Our guide persuaded us to enter a museum, as he called it; but this
proved to be a regular old curiosity shop containing a large assortment
of oddities and souvenirs with which the owner was willing to part for a
sufficient compensation.
"There is a little milkmaid serving milk. I'll take a snap-shot of her
while she is at work," said one of our party with a camera as we drew
near a young girl who was drawing milk directly from a brown-haired goat
into a customer's pitcher.
While returning to the wharf we met several herds of the brown-haired
goats driven by milkmen through the streets; and, assembled near the
dock around a group of English Salvation Army lads and lasses who were
singing familiar hymns accompanied by cornet and drum, we saw a motley
crowd of men, many of whom from their diverse and peculiar costumes were
evidently sailors from various ports of the world. Then, having
completed our hurried tramp through the city in the time allotted for
that purpose, we descended the steps at the pier to the ferry-boat that
was to carry us a few miles across the bay to the town of Algeciras.
After thirty minutes on the ferry we stepped ashore on Spanish soil. The
first special train had departed and the second was being made up.
During the short interval of waiting, the kodak carriers were busily
engaged securing their first Spanish views.