MALAGA--EXCURSION TO MARBELLA AND
MONDA--CHURRIANA--BENALMAINA--FUENGIROLA--DISCREPANCY OF OPINION
RESPECTING THE SITE OF SUEL--SCALE TO BE ADOPTED, IN ORDER TO MAKE
THE MEASUREMENTS GIVEN IN THE ITINERARY OF ANTONINUS AGREE WITH THE
ACTUAL DISTANCE FROM MALAGA TO CARTEIA--ERRORS OF CARTER--CASTLE OF
FUENGIROLA--ROAD TO MARBELLA--TOWERS AND CASA FUERTES--DISPUTED
SITE OF SALDUBA--DESCRIPTION OF MARBELLA--ABANDONED MINES--DISTANCE
TO GIBRALTAR.
We found Malaga a deserted city, for the dread of cholera had carried
off half its inhabitants; not, however, to their last home, but to
Alhaurin, Coin, Churriara, and other towns in the vicinity, in the hope
of postponing their visit to a final resting-place by a temporary change
to a more salubrious atmosphere than that of the fetid seaport.
Our zealous and indefatigable consul, Mr. Mark, still, however, remained
at his post, and his hospitality and kindness rendered our short stay as
agreeable as, under existing circumstances, it well could be.
Understanding that a vessel was about to proceed to Ceuta in the course
of a few days, we resolved to take advantage of this favourable
opportunity of visiting that fortress--the Port Jackson of Spain; and
having already seen every thing worthy of observation in Malaga (of
which due notice has been taken in a former chapter), we agreed to
devote the intervening days to a short excursion to Marbella, Monda, and
other interesting towns in the vicinity.
Leaving, therefore, the still hot, but no longer bustling city, late in
the afternoon, we took the road to the ferry near the mouth of the
Guadaljorce, and leaving the road to _El Retiro_ to the right on gaining
the southern bank of the river, proceeded to Churriana.
We were disappointed both in the town and in the accommodation afforded
at the inn, for the place being much resorted to by the merchants of
Malaga, we naturally looked forward to something above the common run of
Spanish towns and Spanish posadas, whereas we found both the one and the
other rather below par. The town is quite as dirty as Malaga, but,
perhaps, somewhat more wholesome; for the filth with which the streets
are strewed _not_ being watered by a trickling stream, to keep it in a
state of fermentation throughout the summer, is soon burnt up, and
becomes innoxious.
The town stands at a slight elevation above the vale of Malaga, and
commands a fine view to the eastward.
We left the wretched venta betimes on the following morning, and
proceeded towards Marbella, leaving on our left the little village of
Torre Molinos, situated on the Mediterranean shore (distant one league
from Churriana), and reaching Benalmaina in two hours and a half. The
road keeps the whole way within half a mile of the sea, and about the
same distance from a range of barren sierras on the right. No part of it
is good but the ascent to Benalmaina (or, as it is sometimes, and
perhaps more correctly written, Benalmedina), is execrable.
This village is surrounded with vineyards, and groves of orange and fig
trees; is watered by a fine clear stream, which serves to irrigate some
patches of garden-ground, as well as to turn numerous mill-wheels; and,
from the general sterility of the country around, has obtained a
reputation for amenity of situation that it scarcely deserves.
In something less than an hour, descending the whole time, we reached
the Mediterranean shore, and continuing along it for a mile, arrived at
the Torre Blanca--a high white tower, situated on a rugged cliff that
borders the coast, and in the vicinity of which are numerous ruins. Some
little distance beyond this the cliffs terminate, and a fine plain,
covered with gardens and orchards, stretches inland for several miles.
Nature has been peculiarly bountiful to this sunny valley, for the river
of Mijas winds through, and fertilizes the whole of its eastern side;
whilst the western portion is watered by the river Gomenarro, or--word
offensive to British ears--Fuengirola.
The plain is about two miles across, and near its western extremity; and
a little removed from the seashore is the fishing village of Fuengirola.
It is a small and particularly dirty place, but contains a population of
1000 souls. The distance from Malaga is reckoned by the natives five
leagues, "three long and two short," according to their curious mode of
computation; but, I think, in reducing them to English miles, the usual
average of four per league may be taken. The last league of the road is
very good. The town of Mijas, rich in wine and oil, is perched high up
on the side of a rugged mountain, about four miles north of Fuengirola.
A _trocha_ leads from thence, over the mountains, into the valley of the
Guadaljorce, debouching upon Alhaurinejo; and to those in whose
travelling scales the picturesque outweighs the breakneck, I would
strongly recommend this route from Malaga in preference to the tamer,
somewhat better, and, perhaps, rather shorter road, that borders the
coast.
The old and, alas! too celebrated castle of Fuengirola, or Frangirola,
occupies the point of a rocky tongue that juts some way into the sea,
about half a mile beyond the fishing village of the same name. It is a
work of the Moors, built, as some say, on an ancient foundation,
imagined to be that of Suel; whilst others maintain, that the vestigia
of antiquity built into its walls, were brought there from some place in
the neighbourhood.
That _Suel_ did not stand here appears to me very evident; for though
the actual distance from Malaga to Fuengirola exceeds but little that
given in the Itinerary of Antoninus from Malaca to Suel, viz.,
twenty-one miles--calculating seventy-five Roman miles to a degree of
the meridian;--yet, as the Itinerary makes the whole distance from
Malaca to Calpe Carteia eighty-nine miles,[172] whereas, even following
all the sinuosities of the coast, it can be eked out only to eighty (of
the above standard), it seems clear that the length of the mile has been
somewhat overrated.
That I may not incur the reproach of "extreme confidence," in venturing
to publish an opinion differing from that of various learned antiquaries
who have written on the subject, I will endeavour to show that my doubt
has, at all events, some reasonable foundation to rest upon.
Supposing that the distances given in the Itinerary between Malaca and
Calpe Carteia were respectively correct, but that the error--which, in
consequence, was evident--had been made by over-estimating the length of
the Roman mile in use at the period the Itinerary was compiled, I found,
by dividing the _actual_ distance into eighty-nine parts (following such
an irregular line as a road, considering the ruggedness of the country,
might be supposed to take), that it gave a scale of eighty-three and a
third of such divisions to a degree of the meridian; a scale which, as I
have observed in a former chapter, is mentioned by Strabo, on the
authority of Eratosthenes, as one in use amongst the Romans.
Now, by measuring off twenty-one such parts along the indented line of
coast from Malaga westward, to fix the situation of Suel, I find that,
according to this scale, it would be placed about a mile beyond the
Torre Blanca; that is, at the commencement of the fertile valley, which
has been mentioned as stretching some way inland, and at the bottom of
the bay, of which the rocky ledge occupied by the castle of Fuengirola
forms the western boundary; certainly a much more suitable site, either
for a commercial city, or for a fortress, than the low, rocky headland
of Fuengirola, which neither affords enough space for a town to stand
upon, nor is sufficiently elevated above the adjacent country, to have
the command that was usually sought for in building fortresses previous
to the invention of artillery.
Proceeding onwards, and measuring twenty-four divisions (of this same
scale) from the point where I suppose Suel to have stood, along the yet
rugged coast to the westward of Fuengirola, the site of Cilniana, the
next station of the Itinerary, is fixed a little beyond where the town
of Marbella now stands; another most probable spot for the Phoenicians
or Romans to have selected for a station; as, in the first place, the
proximity of the high, impracticable, Sierra de Juanel, would have
enabled a fortress there situated to intercept most completely the
communication along the coast; and, in the second, the vicinity of a
fertile plain, and the valuable mines of Istan (from whence a fine
stream flows), would have rendered it a desirable site for a port.
The next distance, thirty-four miles to Barbariana, brings me to the
_mouth_ of the Guadiaro, (which _can be_ no other than the Barbesula of
the Romans, if we suppose that the road continued, as heretofore, along
the seashore); or, carries me across that river, and also the
Sogarganta, which falls into it, if, striking inland, _as soon as the
nature of the country permitted_, we imagine the road to have been
directed by the straightest line to its point of destination.
Now, in the first case, the discovery of numerous vestigia, and
inscriptions at a spot two miles up from the mouth, on the eastern bank
of the Barbesula, (i. e. Guadiaro) have clearly proved that to be the
position of the city[173] bearing the same name as the river. We must
not, therefore, look in its neighbourhood for Barbariana; especially as
the vestiges of this ancient town are twelve _English_ miles from
Carteia, whereas the distance from Barbariana to Carteia is stated in
the Itinerary to be but ten _Roman_ miles.
In the second case, having crossed the Sogarganta about a mile above its
confluence with the Guadiaro, we arrive, at the end of the prescribed
thirty-four miles from Cilniana, at the mouth of a steep ravine by which
the existing road from Gaucin and Casares to San Roque ascends the
chain of hills forming the southern boundary of the valley, and this
spot is not only well calculated for a military station, but exceeds by
very little the distance of ten miles to Carteia, specified in the
Itinerary.
I suppose, therefore, that Barbariana stood here, where it would have
been on the most direct line that a road _could take_ between Estepona
and Carteia, as well as on that which presented the fewest difficulties
to be surmounted in the nature of the country.
I will now follow the Roman Itinerary as laid down by Mr. Carter, in his
"Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga."[174]
The first station, Suel, he fixes at the Castle of Fuengirola; the
second, Cilniana, at the ruins of what he calls Old Estepona. These he
describes as lying _three leagues_ to the eastward of the modern town of
that name, and upwards of a league to the westward of the Torre de las
Bovedas, in the vicinity of which he assumes Salduba stood; but this
very site of Salduba (i. e. the Torre de las Bovedas) is little more
than _two leagues_ from modern Estepona, being just half way between
that place and Marbella--the distance from the one town to the other
scarcely exceeding four leagues, or sixteen English miles--so that, in
point of fact, he fixes Cilniana at _four miles_ to the eastward of
Estepona, instead of three leagues.
Passing over this error, however, and allowing that his site of Cilniana
was where _he wished it to be_, Mr. Carter, nevertheless, still found
himself in a difficulty; for he had already far exceeded the greater
portion of the _actual_ distance between Malaga and Carteia, although
but half the number of miles specified in the Itinerary were disposed
of; so that twenty-five miles measured along the coast now brought him
within the prescribed distance of Barbariana from Carteia (ten miles),
instead of thirty-four, as stated in the Itinerary!
To extricate himself, therefore, from this dilemma, he carries the road,
first to the town of Barbesula, situated near the mouth of the river of
the same name, and then _eight miles up the stream_ to Barbariana.
The objections to this most eccentric route are, however, manifold and
obvious. In the first place, had the road visited Barbesula, that town
would assuredly have been noticed in the Itinerary of Antoninus, because
it would have made so much more convenient a break in the distance
between Cilniana and Carteia, than Barbariana.
In the next,--had the road been taken to the mouth of the Guadiaro, it
would _there_ have been as near Carteia as from any other point along
the course of that river, with nothing in the nature of the intervening
country to prevent its being carried straight across it: every step,
therefore, that the road was taken up the stream would have
unnecessarily increased the distance to be travelled.
Thirdly,--had Barbariana been situated _eight miles_[175] up the river,
the road from Barbesula must not only have been carried that distance
out of the way to visit it, but, for the greater part of the way, must
actually have been led back again towards the point of the compass
whence it had been brought; and the town of Barbariana would thereby
have been situated nearly eighteen miles from Calpe Carteia, instead of
ten.
Mr. Carter probably fell into this error, through ignorance of the
direction whence the Guadiaro flows, for though the last four miles of
its course is easterly, yet its previous direction is due south, or
straight upon Gibraltar; and, consequently, taking the road up the
stream beyond the distance of _four miles_, would have been leading it
away from its destination. And if, on the other hand, we suppose that
Mr. Carter's mistake be simply in the name of the river, and that, by
two leagues up the Guadiaro, he meant up its tributary, the
Sogarganta;[176] still, so long as the road continued following the
course of that stream, it would get no nearer to Carteia, and was,
therefore, but uselessly increasing the distance.
It is quite unreasonable, however, to suppose that the Romans, who were
in the habit of making their roads as straight as possible, should have
so unnecessarily departed from their rule in this instance, and not only
have increased the distance by so doing, but also the difficulties to be
encountered; for, in point of fact, a road would be more readily carried
to the Guadiaro by leaving the seashore on approaching Manilba, and
directing it straight upon Carteia, than by continuing it along the
rugged and indented coast that presents itself from thence to the mouth
of the river.
Objections may be taken to the sites I have fixed upon for the different
towns mentioned in the Roman Itinerary, from the absence of all vestiges
at those particular spots; but when the ease with which all traces of
ancient places are lost is considered, particularly those situated on
the seashore, I think such objections must fall to the ground: and,
indeed, Carter himself, who found fault with Florez for supposing the
town of Salduba[177] _could_ have entirely disappeared, furnishes a
glaring instance of the futility of such objections, when he states that
not the least remains of Barbesula were to be traced, whereas, _now_,
they are quite visible.
The castle of Fuengirola--to which it is time to return from this long
digression--has lately undergone a thorough repair; the whole of the
western front, indeed, has been rebuilt, and the rest of the walls have
been modernised, though they still continue to be badly flanked by small
projecting square towers, and are exposed to their very foundations, so
that the fortress _ought not_ to withstand even a couple of hours'
battering.
From hence to Marbella is four leagues. During the first, the road is
bad enough, and, for the remaining three, but indifferently good. The
last eight miles of the stony track may, however, be avoided by riding
along the sandy beach, which, when the sun is on the decline, the breeze
light and westerly, and, above all, when the _tide is out_, is pleasant
enough. I may as well observe here, that the Mediterranean Sea really
does ebb and flow, notwithstanding anything others may have stated to
the contrary.
The whole line of coast bristles with towers, built originally to give
intelligence by signal of the appearance of an enemy. They are of all
shapes and ages; some circular, having a Roman look; others angular, and
either Moorish, or built after Saracenic models; many are of
comparatively recent construction, though all seem equally to be going
to decay.
These towers can be entered only by means of ladders, and such as are in
a habitable state are occupied by Custom-house guards, or, more
correctly, Custom-house defrauders. Here and there a _Casa fuerta_ has
been erected along the line, which, furnished with artillery and a small
garrison of regular troops, serves as a _point d'appui_ to a certain
portion of the _peculative_ cordon, enabling the soldiers to render
assistance to the revenue officers in bringing the smugglers to _terms_.
Marbella has ever been a bone of contention amongst the antiquaries;
some asserting that it does not occupy the site of any ancient city;
others, that it is on the ruins of _Salduba_. Of this latter opinion is
La Martinière, who certainly has better reason for maintaining than
Carter for disputing it. For if that city "stood on a steep headland,
between which and the hill" (behind) "not a beast could pass," it could
not possibly have been on the site where our countryman places it, viz.,
at the ruins near the _Torre de las Bovedas_ (seven miles to the
westward), where a wide plain stretches inland upwards of two miles.
In fact, there are but two headlands between the river Guadiaro and
Marbella, where a town could be built at all answering the foregoing
description; namely, at the _Torre de la Chullera_ and the _Torre del
Arroyo Vaquero_, the former only three, the latter ten miles from the
Guadiaro: and a far more likely spot than either of these is the knoll
occupied by the _Torre del Rio Real_, about two miles to the _eastward_
of Marbella.[178]
Marbella stands slightly elevated above the sea, and its turreted walls
and narrow streets declare it to be thoroughly Moorish. Its sea-wall is
not actually washed by the waves of the Mediterranean, so that the town
may be avoided by such as do not wish to be delayed by or subjected to
the nuisance of a passport scrutiny; and the Spanish saying, "_Marbella
es bella, pero no entras en ella_,"[179] significantly, though
mysteriously, suggests the prudence of staying outside its walls; but
this poetical scrap of advice was perhaps the only thing some luckless
_contrabandista_ had left to bestow upon his countrymen, and we, being
in search of a dinner and night's lodging, submitted patiently to the
forms and ceremonies prescribed on such occasions at the gates of a
fortress.
To do the Spaniards justice, they are not usually very long in their
operations, the first offer being in most instances accepted without
haggling; and accordingly, the _peseta_ pocketed, and every thing
pronounced _corriente_, we proceeded without further obstruction to the
_Posada de la Corona_, which, situated in a fine airy square, we were
agreeably surprised to find a remarkably good inn.
Marbella, though invested with the pomp and circumstance of war, is but
a contemptible fortress. An old Moorish castle, standing in the very
heart of the town, constitutes its chief strength; for, though its
circumvallation is complete and tolerably erect, considering its great
age, yet, from the inconsiderable height of the walls, and the
inefficient flanking fire that protects them, they could offer but
slight resistance to an enemy.
A detached fort, that formerly covered the place from attack on the sea
side, and flanked the eastern front of the enceinte of the town, has
been razed to the ground, so that ships may now attack it almost with
impunity.
The town is particularly clean and well inhabited, the fishing portion
of the population being located more conveniently for their occupation
in a large suburb on its eastern side. The fortress encloses several
large churches and religious houses, besides the citadel or Moorish
castle, so that within the walls the space left for streets is but
small; the inhabitants of the town itself cannot therefore be estimated
at more than five thousand, whilst those of the suburb may probably
amount to fifteen hundred.
The trade of Marbella is but trifling; the fruit and vegetables grown in
its neighbourhood are, it is true, particularly fine, but the proximity
of the precipitous Sierra de Juanal limits cultivation to a very narrow
circuit round the walls of the town; and, on the other hand, the
valuable mines in the vicinity, which formerly secured Marbella a
prosperous trade, have for many years been totally abandoned: so that,
in fact, there is little else than fish to export.
There is no harbour, but vessels find excellent holding ground and in
deep water, close to the shore; the landing also is good, being on a
fine hard sand, and I found a small pier in progress of construction.
It seems probable that in remote times numerous commercial towns were
situated along the coast, between Malaca and Calpe, whence a thriving
trade was carried on with the East, for the whole chain of mountains
bordering the Mediterranean abounds in metallic ores, especially along
that part of the coast between Marbella and Estepona; and it is evident
that mining operations on an extensive scale were formerly carried on
here, since the tumuli formed by the earth excavated in searching for
the precious metals are yet to be seen, as well as the bleached
channels by which the water that penetrated into the mines was led down
the sides of the mountains.
The metals contained in this range of mountains are, principally,
silver, copper, lead, and iron; of the two former I have seen some very
fine specimens.
The richness and comparative proximity of these mines led the
Phoenicians and Romans, by whom there is no doubt they were worked, to
neglect the copper mines of Cornwall; for, whilst necessity obliged them
to come to England for tin, it is observable that in many places, where,
in working for that metal, they came also upon lodes of copper, they
carried away the tin only; a circumstance that has rendered some of the
recently worked Cornish copper mines singularly profitable, and leads
naturally to the supposition that the ancients procured copper at a less
expense from some other country.
In the same way that the old Roman mines in England, from our knowledge
of the vast power of steam, and of the means of applying that power to
hydraulical purposes, have been reopened with great advantage, so also
might those of Spain be again worked with a certainty of success.
Capital and security--the two great wants of Spain--are required however
to enable adventurers to embark in the undertaking.
Marbella is four leagues from Estepona, and ten from Gibraltar; but
though the first four may be reckoned at the usual rate of four miles
each, yet the remaining six cannot be calculated under four and a half
each, making the whole distance to Gibraltar forty-three miles, and from
Malaga to Gibraltar seventy-nine miles.[180]