HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
MEMOIRS OF PRINCE RUPERT AND THE CAVALIERS. BY ELIOT WARBURTON.
Numerous Fine Portraits. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s.
THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. By the Author of “Hochelaga.” 2 vols., 8vo.,
28s.
CORRESPONDENCE OF SCHILLER WITH KÖRNER. From the German. By LEONARD
SIMPSON. 3 vols., 31s. 6d.
THE FAIRFAX CORRESPONDENCE: MEMOIRS OF CHARLES THE FIRST. Part
II.--THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. By ROBERT BELL. 4 vols., 8vo., 60s.
⁂ Either Part may be had separately.
A HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY. By Sir HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G. 2 vols.,
8vo., 28s.
A HISTORY OF THE JESUITS, FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THEIR SOCIETY. By
ANDREW STEINMETZ. 3 vols., 8vo., 45s.
LOUIS XIV., AND THE COURT OF FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By
Miss JULIA PARDOE. Third Edition. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s.
THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, THE CATHOLICS OF
SPAIN. By W. H. PRESCOTT. Second Edition. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s.
HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO, WITH THE LIFE OF THE CONQUEROR,
HERNANDEZ CORTES. By W. H. PRESCOTT. Fourth Edition. 2 vols., 8vo.,
32s.
THE CONQUEST OF PERU. By W. H. PRESCOTT. 2 vols., 8vo., 32s.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND LITERARY ESSAYS. By W. H. PRESCOTT. 8vo., 14s.
MEMOIRS OF THE REIGNS OF EDWARD VI. AND MARY. By PATRICK FRASER
TYTLER. 2 vols., 8vo., 24s.
NAVAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, WITH A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY TO
THE PRESENT TIME. By W. JAMES. Numerous Portraits, &c. 6 vols., 8vo.,
54s.
MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. By HORATIO LORD ORFORD. Edited,
with Notes, by Sir DENIS LE MARCHANT, Bart. 4 vols., 8vo., 56s.
BENTLEY’S COLLECTIVE EDITION OF THE LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE. 6
vols., 63s.
LETTERS TO SIR HORACE MANN. By HORACE WALPOLE. (Second Series). 4
vols., 8vo., 56s.
CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES OF ENGLISH SOCIETY, POLITICS, AND LITERATURE,
COMPRISED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO THE COUNTESS OF OSSORY. By HORACE
WALPOLE. Edited by the Right Hon. R. VERNON SMITH, M.P. 2 vols., 8vo.,
30s.
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND DURING THE REIGN OF THE STUARTS. By J.
HENEAGE JESSE. 4 vols., 8vo., 56s.
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF ENGLAND UNDER THE HOUSES OF NASSAU AND
HANOVER. By J. HENEAGE JESSE. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s.
MEMOIRS OF THE CHEVALIER AND PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD, OR THE PRETENDERS
AND THEIR ADHERENTS. By J. HENEAGE JESSE. 2 vols. 8vo., 28s.
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.
GEORGE SELWYN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES; WITH MEMOIRS AND NOTES. By J.
HENEAGE JESSE. 4 vols., 8vo, 56s.
MEMOIRS OF EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS. BY CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D. 3
vols., 8vo., 42s.
MEMOIRS OF KING HENRY V. By J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D. 2 vols., 8vo., 21s.
A HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME; COMPRISING MEMOIRS OF THE COURTS OF
ELIZABETH AND JAMES I. By DR. GOODMAN, BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER. Edited by
J. S. BREWER, M.A. 2 vols., 8vo., 18s.
MARSH’S ROMANTIC HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS; OR, THE PROTESTANT
REFORMATION IN FRANCE. 2 vols., 8vo., 30s.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH HISTORY, IN A NEW SERIES OF ORIGINAL LETTERS;
NOW FIRST PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
STATE PAPER OFFICE, &c. By SIR HENRY ELLIS. 4 vols., post 8vo., 24s.
MEMOIRS OF THE TWO REBELLIONS IN SCOTLAND IN 1715 AND 1745; OR, THE
ADHERENTS OF THE STUARTS. By MRS. THOMSON. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE KINGDOM OF CAUBUL AND ITS DEPENDENCIES IN PERSIA,
TARTARY, AND INDIA. By THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE. 2
vols., 8vo., 28s.
A CENTURY OF CARICATURES; OR, ENGLAND UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER. By
THOMAS WRIGHT. 2 vols., 8vo., 30s.
SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. By MISS BERRY. 2 vols., small 8vo.,
21s.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC, PRODIGIES, AND APPARENT MIRACLES. FROM THE
FRENCH. Edited and illustrated with Notes by A. T. THOMSON, M.D. 2
vols., 8vo., 28s.
AN ANTIQUARIAN RAMBLE IN THE STREETS OF LONDON, WITH ANECDOTES OF
THEIR MOST CELEBRATED RESIDENTS. By JOHN THOMAS SMITH. Second Edition.
2 vols., 8vo., 28s.
DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JAMES HARRIS, FIRST EARL OF MALMESBURY.
EDITED BY HIS GRANDSON, THE THIRD EARL. 4 vols., 8vo., 60s.
MEMOIRS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON; TO WHICH ARE NOW FIRST ADDED A
HISTORY OF THE HUNDRED DAYS, OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, AND OF
NAPOLEON’S EXILE AND DEATH AT ST. HELENA. By M. BOURRIENNE. Numerous
Portraits. 4 vols., 8vo., 30s.
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR CHRISTOPHER HATTON, K.G, By SIR
HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G. 8vo., 15s.
HOWITT’S HOMES AND HAUNTS OF THE BRITISH POETS. Numerous Fine
Engravings. 2 vols., 8vo., 21s.
THE PROSE WRITERS OF AMERICA, WITH A SURVEY OF THE HISTORY, CONDITION,
AND PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. By R. W. GRISWOLD. 1 vol., 8vo.,
18s.
THE LIFE AND REMAINS OF THEODORE HOOK. By THE REV. R. D. BARHAM.
Second Edition. 2 vols., post 8vo., 21s.
ROLLO AND HIS RACE; OR, FOOTSTEPS OF THE NORMANS. By ACTON WARBURTON.
Second Edition. 2 vols., 21s.
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
THE
PILLARS OF HERCULES;
OR
A NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS
IN
SPAIN AND MOROCCO
IN 1848.
BY
DAVID URQUHART, ESQ., MP.,
AUTHOR OF
“TURKEY AND ITS RESOURCES,” “THE SPIRIT OF THE EAST,” ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1850.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY and HENRY FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
INTRODUCTION.
I did not visit Morocco or Spain on any settled plan. I was on my way
to Italy by sea, and passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, was so
fascinated by the beauty and mysteries of the adjoining lands, that I
relinquished my proposed excursion for the explorations which are here
recorded.
Barbary, to the attraction of the unknown and the original, which
it shares in common with China and Japan, adds that of association
with the country which, of all others, has a claim on our
affections--_Canaan_. With Barbary also is interwoven the history
of various races, great, ancient, and mysterious: the _Canaanite_,
the _Hebrew_, the Highland _Celt_, and the _Saracen_. It has become
the last refuge of the Philistine. The Jews, in other countries, by
adopting the habits of strangers, have lost their type, which is to be
seen alone in Barbary, where Judæa, effaced in Asia, doubly survives.
Here must we seek the living interpretation of the Scriptures; here may
we find insight into early things.
The connexion of the Scotch clans with Barbary depends on no
ethnographic affinity, but their passage through, and sojourn in,
this land, reveal the history of their wanderings, and explain the
peculiarities of their race. Here are to be found to-day the people
who made Spain a garden, taught it at once the arts of war and peace;
and thence spread that knowledge to the rest of Europe. That stream
which then overflowed, has retired to its fountain, where it lies deep,
but not changed.
Spain and Morocco present treasures unknown, in those regions which
have been subject to repeoplings and fundamental changes. “The life of
nations,” says Erchhoff, “manifests itself in their language, which is
the faithful representative of their vicissitudes. Where chronology
stops, and the thread of tradition is broken, the antique genealogy
of words that have survived the ruin of empires comes in to shed
light on the very cradle of humanity, and to consecrate the memory
of generations long since engulfed in the quicksands of time.” The
unchanged tongue here gives additional force to that genealogy--here
history is nearly mute. The same monumental character, however, belongs
to manners, costume, and tradition. I have not, therefore, hesitated
to devote considerable space to these inquiries, as, indeed, they
constituted the chief attraction of the excursions, which seemed to be
less through new countries than remote ages.
I have to bespeak the reader’s indulgence for inviting him often to
accompany me with his attention through homely paths. I have brought
him in presence of the most trivial practices. I have not described,
as a stranger would, a different manner of life; but endeavoured, as
a native, to explain matters from which we might derive benefits
in health, comfort, happiness, or taste, from their old experience.
Wherever I have drawn comparisons, it has been for our advantage, not
for theirs. It has, therefore, been their merits, not ours, that I have
placed in evidence.
I have no expectation that my suggestions will modify the lappet of a
coat, or the leavening of a loaf; but there is one subject in which I
am not without hope of having placed a profitable habit more within the
chance of adoption than it has hitherto been--I mean the bath.
Cleanliness, like inebriety or intemperance, may be at once a fashion
and a passion. Appearing amongst us under both shapes, it has also
assumed that of charity. As soon as it was felt that it was shameful
to be dirty, it became a work of charity to wash the filthy, no less
than to feed the hungry. These dispositions offer an opportunity of
reviving the bath in all its classic grace, and investing it with all
its Eastern attractions; but the occasion may be lost--that is, we may
rest satisfied with what we have done, and the new wash-houses may
pass current as achievements of economy and models of cleanliness. The
occasion can be put to profit only by the knowledge of the bath in its
bearings on the individual and on society; and I have made the attempt
to describe it, so that it shall be understood in its uses, enjoyments,
and construction.
We have recently been imitating barbarous times in church architecture.
These times offer to our admiration usages as well as forms. Shall
we have eyes for a Gothic spire, and none for a Roman bath? Nations
may have refinement, and yet be destitute of common sense; they may be
possessed of sense, and yet be without refinement. A people without the
bath can lay claim to neither.
Morocco calls attention to the past; Spain directs it to the future.
We pass from dreams to delusions, from poetry to politics. Belgium
has been termed the battle-field of Europe--Spain is its bone of
contention. The Italian Peninsula is the field of the rivalries of
France and Austria, which England balances and adjusts. In the East,
England and France are united by the advance of Russia; in the Spanish
Peninsula they are alone in presence of each other: the aim of each is
to gain ascendancy, and thence a constant source of irritation.
The political experiment which is at present being made in Spain,
consists in applying European terms to a country where there are no
European ideas, and European institutions to a state of things wholly
unlike Europe. The following fragment of a conversation with a leading
statesman conveys that contrast in the fewest words.
_Spaniard._--I am sorry that you see Spain in such a distracted
condition.
_Author._--I am rejoiced to find her in one so flourishing.
_Sp._--I wish it were so. Surely you are not in earnest?
_A._--I wish my country were in the same condition as yours.
_Sp._--But your country is rich, powerful, united. We are poor, weak,
and distracted.
_A._--I am thinking of the contrast between your people and ours.
_Sp._--In what does that contrast consist?
_A._--In a larger share of comforts, and fewer political evils.
_Sp._--As to the former, I think you are right. I do not think that the
people of France have so much of the enjoyments of life as ours; but as
for our being freer from political evils than England, I cannot agree
with you.
_A._--If you will permit me to take them separately, I think we shall
find no difficulty in agreeing.
_Sp._--Certainly.
_A._--The chief source of our animosities springs from differences in
religion.
_Sp._--We are not troubled with these in Spain.
_A._--The next is difference of race.
_Sp._--We are free from this too.
_A._--Have you two great organized interests, commercial and
agricultural?
_Sp._--From these too we are free.
_A._--Have you two powerful opinions, monarchical and republican, as
those which divide France?
_Sp._--We have not.
_A._--Have you been brought to within an hour of revolution and
bankruptcy by an “ideal standard?”
_Sp._--Spain has no financial difficulties of an abstract kind.
_A._--Do you suffer from the despotic power of a sovereign?
_Sp._--No.
_A._--Have you to fear the turbulence of a mob?
_Sp._--No; the people of Spain are docile, _when left alone_.
_A._--Are there oppressive privileges belonging to the aristocracy?
_Sp._--No.
_A._--Is the power of the Church excessive, and misapplied, or its
wealth inordinate?
_Sp._--No, we have none of these evils in Spain.
_A._--Have you pauperism?
_Sp._--No;--nevertheless we are distracted.
_A._--It is, therefore, my turn now to ask, why?
_Sp._--I should like to hear your reasons.
_A._--They are contained in the fact, that it is I who ask these
questions, and you who reply.
_Sp._--Our distractions would not subside, if I thought as well of
Spain as you do.
_A._--My meaning is, that the imitation of Europe is the source of the
troubles of Spain.
Since this conversation occurred, Spain has justified these
conclusions, by remaining unmoved amidst the storm of opinion which has
swept over Europe.
LONDON, _October, 1849_.
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
BOOK I.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR 1
CHAPTER II.
THE CURRENTS OF THE STRAITS 21
CHAPTER III.
GIBRALTAR OF THE MOORS 32
CHAPTER IV.
EXCURSION ROUND THE STRAITS 51
CHAPTER V.
ALGECIRAS--TARIFA 60
CHAPTER VI.
CEUTA 85
CHAPTER VII.
CEUTA--BOMBARDMENT OF TANGIER 114
CHAPTER VIII.
CADIZ 126
CHAPTER IX.
EXCURSION ROUND THE STRAITS 145
CHAPTER X.
EXCURSION IN THE STRAITS--CADIZ POLITENESS 172
CHAPTER XI.
CARTEIA--TYRE AND HER WARES--GLASS 188
CHAPTER XII.
THE STONE OF HERCULES 204
BOOK II.
THE COUNTRY OF THE ROVERS.
CHAPTER I.
OFF SALEE 254
CHAPTER II.
RABAT 277
CHAPTER III.
THE JEWS AND JEWRY IN RABAT 299
CHAPTER IV.
THE BAÏRAM 317
CHAPTER V.
THE SULTAN: HIS COMMERCIAL SYSTEM 332
CHAPTER VI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN RABAT 339
CHAPTER VII.
CONNEXION BETWEEN MAURITANIA AND AMERICA 353
CHAPTER VIII.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOORS 364
BOOK III.
THE ARAB TENT.
CHAPTER I.
HUNTING EXPEDITION TO SHAVOYA 377
CHAPTER II.
KUSCOUSSOO 398
CHAPTER III.
THE HAÏK 416
CHAPTER IV.
A BOAR-HUNT 440
THE
PILLARS OF HERCULES.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR.
“Nullus amor populi nec fœdera sunto:
Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor,
Qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos;
Nunc, olim, quocunque dabunt se tempore vires.
Littora littoribus contraria, fluctibus undas
Imprecor, arma armis, pugnent ipsique nepotes.”
To thread one’s way through a narrow gap from the outer Ocean into
a basin spread between Asia, Africa, and Europe, is an occasion
which even books of geography cannot render wholly uninteresting and
common-place.
This sea has, at each extremity, a narrow entrance; through both the
water rushes in: each forms the point of junction of two quarters
of the globe,--Europe there meeting Asia--here, Africa. The first
is acknowledged to be the most important position of the globe. The
land and sea there reciprocally command each other. A capital, an
emporium, and a fortress, combined in one, are placed at the meeting
of two continents and two seas, “like a diamond,” to use the words
of a Turkish annalist, “between two emeralds and two sapphires, the
master-stone in the ring of empire.”
Had the western entrance received the slightest pressure at its
formation, had one of the hills since slipped down into its channel,
the Gut of Gibraltar would not be the Ring on the finger, but the rod
of Empire in the hand of whoever possessed it. Happily, however, no
guns can cross, and no batteries command, the passage through which
flows the commerce of the world, and, at times, the food of nations.
Both banks of the Bosphorus are under the same dominion, and inhabited
by the same people. The channel bisects an Empire and traverses a
Capital. Two people, so dissimilar, occupy here the opposite shores,
that they might belong to different planets. No fishing-boat ventures
across, and if so driven, they take care if they can to anchor beyond
musket-shot. As to neighbourhood, the whole Atlantic might as well roll
between them. As to intercourse, they might as well belong to distinct
orders of creation. They hold each other like to those unsightly and
malignant monsters to which ancient mythology consigned the western
portions of the world. If intercourse is rendered necessary, there is
a preliminary parley and a flag of truce, and even the ceremonial of
a friendly meeting records the accomplishment of Dido’s prophecy and
curse.
Yet this is no forbidding land. There are neither sands nor precipices.
There are neither rudeness and asperity, nor barrenness and waste.
There are lowly vales and verdant plains, as well as gigantic
mountains. This great, this beautiful country--this corner of a mighty
continent--almost touches Europe. One-half of our whole trade passes
along it; yet it is sealed against us more effectually than China or
Japan.
European enterprize, by lust of conquest, love of gain, or spirit of
proselytism, has made the wide world its vineyard; and, combining its
various engines, has, far and near, shattered thrones, and subjugated
or extinguished races. How is it that Morocco stands unmoved and
unassailed?
All the nations which formed part of the Roman Empire, and have become
Mussulmans, have fallen under the sway of Constantinople, Morocco alone
excepted. All the barbarous States, which have attracted the cupidity
of Europeans, have fallen under their sway, Morocco alone excepted. But
the breakers of her shores, the sands of her deserts, the valour of her
sons, the wildness of her tribes, have not alone done this. Threatened
now by a new enemy and a new danger, the past is worth sifting, in
order to anticipate whether or not she will hold her own; or if
she fall, whether she will rot away, or sink brightly and bravely,
preserving
Genio y figura
Hasta la sepultura.
It is an old story, and we have forgotten it, that on Morocco our
first and greatest essays of conquest were made. England expended upon
the fortification of Tangier more than all she ever advanced for the
conquest of India. Portugal and Spain, who had found it necessary to
separate, by half the globe, their other enterprizes, here combined,
and expended more lives, ships, and treasure in their fruitless
attempts than in the subjugation of the East Indies and the West.
Neighbourhood, political hatred, religious animosity, combined with
the prospects of dominion, and the hope of obtaining supplies of the
precious metals, to urge them to make and continue these attempts.
Elsewhere, by their wonderful successes, unknown adventurers--a
Cortez, a Pizzaro, and an Albukerque--were converted into heroes.
Here Princes of the State and Church, Kings and Emperors, were the
leaders--to experience only failure and disgrace. Elsewhere handfuls
of men conquered myriads. Here mighty armaments have been annihilated
by despised foes. Elsewhere a native power had to do with but one
European assailant. Morocco numbered amongst her assailants every
European power. She holds the bones of English peers, of Turkish beys,
of Portuguese princes, Andalusian kings. She has foiled an Emperor of
Austria, and discomfited in succession the warlike operations, or the
political plans of Cardinal Ximenes, of Philip II., Don Sebastian, and
Barbarossa. Spain has some fortified points upon the coast, but they
are _blockaded_; and this smothered warfare is a living record of our
aggressions, and her delivery.
That event is one of the most remarkable of revolutions.[1] The
Spaniards were in possession of all the north country. The Portuguese
had extended themselves along the whole of the seaboard of the west,
down as far as Suz. The native troops in their pay at one time exceeded
100,000. The four kingdoms of which Morocco is now constituted,
were then distinct, and the various courts rivalled each other in
pusillanimity and corruption, exhibiting every symptom of dissolution,
from the disorders within and the power that threatened from abroad.
It was then that a family of mendicants and fanatics issued like lions
from the desert, upset the ruling dynasties, re-kindled the flame of
patriotism, rallied the sinking people, drove forth the invaders,
constructed a common Empire out of these divided States, and placed
their Dynasty upon the throne, which it occupies to this day.
From that time only have Europe and Africa become strangers to each
other; and so Morocco has maintained the independence so strangely won.
What renders this non-intercourse surprising is neighbourhood; yet that
is its explanation. Here Europeans could not be taken for Children of
the Sun, nor supposed to be quiet traders seeking only commerce: the
watchfulness of this people was not, as in India, overreached, nor
their affections, as in America, surprised.
The men who, in times of difficulty, have made themselves immortal
names, have done nothing more than endeavour to arouse their countrymen
from false security, or to guard them against mistaken confidence. The
Moor is deficient in polite literature and is ignorant of Greek; but he
already was in himself what the wisest words of Demosthenes might have
taught him to be, and was prepared to do what the loftiest strains of
Tyrtæus might have inspired. From the beginning the African has been
preyed upon by the other quarters of the globe. His wrongs have been
stored up in his retentive breast.[2] Thence that hate which is his
life; by it he has anticipated the lessons of wisdom, and by it he is a
match for science and power.[3]
Morocco has consequently been in this distinguished from the other
countries that surround the Mediterranean--she has not till now
furnished to France and England fuel or field for rivalry and
contention. Now she is brought again within the vortex of European
politics, and identified in interest with Spain by having the same
neighbour, and that neighbour the rival of England. We may again see
rehearsed on the same arena, the drama of Rome and Carthage.
As I floated down this river, of which the Atlantic is the fountain,
and the Mediterranean the sea, remembering the Dardanelles, I felt with
Cicero, that he indeed was happy who could visit, on the one hand, the
Straits of Pontus, and on the other, those
“Europam Lybiamque rapax ubi dividit unda.”
And that Atlas, sustaining the heavens on his shoulders,[4] no less
than Prometheus fixed upon the Caucasus, might convey in fables early
and divine truths.
This is a spot which has influenced the destinies and formed the
character, not of one but of many people: it is the home of the fleeing
Canaanite, the bourne of the wandering Arab; it was the limit of the
ancient world. That world of mystery and of poetry, was not like ours.
It was not crammed into a Gazetteer, nor were its laws a school-boy
lesson learned by rote. These Straits,[5] then the peculiar domain of
mythology, were approached with natural wonder and religious awe. The
doubtful inquirer came hither to see if the sky met and rested upon the
earth--if Atlas did indeed bear a starry burden--to discover what the
world was--whether an interminable plain, or a ball launched in space
or floating on the water--whether the ocean was a portion of it or
supported it--whether beyond the “Pillars”[6] was the origin of present
things, or the receptacle of departed ones--whether the road lay to
Chaos or to Hades.
And something, too, of these feelings crept over me, even although I
came hither merely to ruminate on the past deeds of men, the shadows
of which I looked for on the face of that watery mirror, which was
the centre of their solid globe--the resolver, the adjuster of all
their contests. The Mediterranean has made the world such as it is.
Ancient history has been balanced on its bosom; and without the passage
connecting it with the ocean, none of the events of recent history
could have happened.
To the dwellers on the skirt of Palestine she was a handmaid for
a thousand years, affording a liquid way for the wares which they
scattered over half the globe: From her bosom rose on all sides those
sea-kings of the south, the Pelasgi. She bore the Etruscans to their
Ausonian homes. She furnished to the African daughter of Tyre the
elements of the power by which she was enabled to compete for the
dominion of the world. Transferred by the struggle of a few hours, and
by the sinking of a few craft--she carried with her that dominion to
Rome, and fixed it there for centuries.
When the course of that Empire was run, and barbarism had spread over
the land, she fitted up new and beautiful things upon her shores;
nurtured Amalphi and Venice and Pisa, and built up Genoa and Barcelona.
Then opened a new order. Seamanship, by magnetic touch endowed with
wings, dared to lose sight of earth: issuing from these portals, it
gave to the princes of the Peninsula the knowledge of a new world, and
the title of lords of the eastern and western hemispheres.
Maritime power, now no longer pent up within the land, was successively
competed for and attained by Holland and by England: it conferred upon
the one independence at home--upon the other, dominion in the remotest
regions of the earth. Here are connected the first enterprizes of man
and his last struggles. Hence was the path sought to Britain. Here now
floats Britain’s standard. The ruins of the Temple of Hercules saw
Trafalgar’s fight. Here the hero of the Phœnix, prince, navigator,
trader, conqueror of monsters, fertilizer of lands, found again the
tides of his early home in the Indian ocean,[7] and set up his
Pillars. His mighty shade has its resting place on the spot which is
honoured with his name.
The next stage of discovery brings us to Columbus and Gama: this was
the goal of the enterprise of the Phœnician--it was the starting-post
of the Ligurian. In the unexplored waste a second Thule succeeded, and
a new Peru supplied the exhausted one of old. “The stone of Hercules”
and the “cup of Apollo”[8] showed the way to the regions towards
which the one had travelled and where the other set. But the modern
adventurers had the problem solved for them, not in the reasonings
only, but in the poetry of the ancients.[9] They had divided the earth,
by degrees--fixed their number and measure--they knew the length of the
day--they knew how many hours the sun spent over the regions they were
acquainted with. Fifteen twenty-fourths of his time they could account
for. Nine hours remained unexplored to complete the circle.[10]
But whilst Don Henry was daily gazing over the unmeasured expanse to
the west, the use of the globes and the rationale of geography were
being taught in Italy in verse. The sun must be expected, Pulci sings,
there whither he hastens; where he sets, it cannot be night: space is
not useless because to us unknown, nor that ocean without shores beyond
which washes ours. Then there are continents bordering the deep, and
islands studding its bosom; nor are these barren of herbs, nor are
herbs and fruits given in vain: there, too, there must be men, who have
gods like us, the work of their hands, and sorrows the fruit of their
will. Read his vaticination.
“Passato il fiume Bagrade ch’io dico,
Presso a lo stretto son di Gibilterra,
Dove pose i suoi segni il Greco antico
Abila e Calpe, a dimostrar ch’egli erra
Non per iscogli o per vento nimico,
Ma perchè il globo _cala de la terra_
Chi va più oltre, e non trova poi fondo,
Tanto che cade giu nel basso mondo.
“Rinaldo allor riconosciuto il loco,
Perche altra volta I’aveva veduto,
Dicea con Astarotte: dimmi un poco.
A quel che questo segno ha proveduto?
Disse Astarotte: un error lungo e fioco
Per molti secol non ben conosciuto,
Fa che si dice d’Ercol le colonne,
E che più là molti periti sonne.
“Sappi che questa opinione è vana;
Perchè più oltre navicar si puote
Però che _l’acqua in ogni parte è piana_,
_Benchè la terra abbi forma di ruote_:
Era più grossa allor la gente umana:
Tal che potrebbe arrossirne le gote
Ercole ancor d’aver posti que segni,
_Perchè più oltre passerano i legni_.
“E puossi andar qui ne _l’altro emisperio_,
Però che _al centro ogni cosa reprime_;
Si che la terra per divin misterio
Sospesa sta fra le stelle sublime,
_E là giù son città, castella e imperio,
Ma nol cognobbon quelle genti prime:
Vedi che il sol di camminar s’affretta,
Dove io ti dico che là giù s’aspetta_.
“E come un segno surge in oriente,
Un altro cade con mirabil’ arte,
Come si vede qua ne l’occidente,
Però che il ciel giustamente comparte;
Antipodi appellata è quella gente;
Adora il sole e Juppiterra e Marte
_E piante e animal come voi hanno,
E spesso insieme gran battaglie fanno_.”[11]
This remarkable passage has been esteemed a prognostication of the
discovery of America; it should rather be called directions to find it
out.[12]
But what were the Pillars of Hercules, and where are we to look for
them? Are they really the rocks which frown or smile across the
Straits, such as it has pleased the imagination of poets to picture
them? If so, then might the fable be deemed an extravagance. As Jacob
set up his stone at Bethel, and called it the house of God;[13] as
Joshua set up in Jordan pillars for the tribes of Israel, so did
Hercules set up his altars, when he had reached the ocean. Over them
in subsequent times the temple which bore his name was raised, but
there was no image;[14] none of the child-sacrifices of Baal; none of
the lasciviousness[15] of Bætica, and of the worship of Astaraoth.
They worshipped, indeed, deities unknown, or consecrated thoughts,
and services contemned elsewhere. Three altars were there to Art, Old
Age, and Poverty. From a Greek tourist, who, thaumaturgist as he was,
comprehended very little of what he saw, I quote the following:--
“In this temple, two Herculeses are worshipped without having statues
erected to them. The Egyptian Hercules has two brazen altars without
inscriptions, the Theban but one. Here we saw engraved in stone the
Hydra, and Diomedes’ mares, and the twelve labours of Hercules,
together with the golden olive of Pygmalion, wrought with exquisite
skill, and placed here no less on account of the beauty of its
branches, than on that of its fruit, of emeralds, which appeared as
if real. Besides the above, the golden belt of the Telamonian Teucer
was shown to us.... The Pillars in the temple were composed of gold
and silver; and so nicely blended were the metals as to form but one
colour. They were more than a cubit high, of a quadrangular form,
like anvils, whose capitals were inscribed with characters _neither
Egyptian, nor Indian_, nor such as could be deciphered. These Pillars
are the chains which bind together the earth and sea. The inscriptions
on them were executed by Hercules in the house of the Parcæ, to
prevent discord arising among the elements, and that friendship being
interrupted which they have for each other.”[16]
There was no Hercules, but the Tyrian worshipped here. The temple was
Tyrian, the rites were Tyrian, and the Tyrians did not borrow from the
Greeks. What I say is but the repetition of what Appian, Arrian[17] and
others have said. In fact, there was but one Hercules. The writing
could only be Phœnician. By the testimony of Greek travellers, the
pillars were _square stones_; and the tradition of their being the
links which bind together the earth and the sea, again connects these
with the occasion upon which they were erected: they were both in
Europe.[18]
To call Calpe and Abyla “The Pillars of Hercules” was a license,
and might be a poetic one; but to assume these mountains to be so
geographically, was to withdraw the license by destroying the poetry.
This solecism modern philosophy has adopted![19]
Out of this error arose the dull plagiarism of the Bœotian Charles,
who gave to the presumptuous arms, in which those of the Peninsula
were quartered with those of the Empire, two Pillars as supporters,
which are to stand for the traditional altars and the figurative
hills. The motto was “plus ultra,” taken from “ne plus ultra,” both
equally meaningless after the discovery of America. The dropping of the
particle _ne_ announced the unlimited ambition of his nature, and the
narrow limits of his mind and scholarship.[20]
The Two Columns are still often heard of throughout the Mediterranean,
and sometimes seen in the shape of the dollar of Charles V., which is
superior in value to those of his successors, and is known by the name
of _Colonato_. Strange vicissitude! The Phœnician Melcarth’s votive
offering become a money-changer’s tale! The story is now ended, and the
circle complete. Bright-eyed poetry--strong-handed enterprise, have
descended to ambition and solecism, vulgarity and gain, and having
begun with virtue idolized, we end with gold become the idol.
I have been speculating on the influence exercised by this passage on
human events: the physical condition of the globe offers a parallel
field.
Let us suppose, that the gap had been just wide enough to supply the
water lost by evaporation, for which the thousandth part of the present
passage would suffice:--the Mediterranean would have been a salt-pan.
The yearly deposit would have been an inch, the yearly produce 80
millions of cart loads, or 50,000 times the quantity of earth displaced
in constructing the London and Birmingham Railway. Supposing then this
evaporation to have gone on since the deluge, the result would be,
a field of 750,000 square miles of salt, fifty fathoms thick--that
is, the Mediterranean would be a tank of brine, and perhaps we should
have a fresh-water ocean outside in lieu of a salt one.[21] This has
been prevented by the straits being wide and deep enough to allow an
admixture of the waters.
In all other geological facts, there are presented subordinate effects
only. You may reason from the completeness of the whole, and the
adaptation of the parts to a supreme creating Will. But this adjustment
of the forms of nature to the use of man, appears less a geological
incident than a specimen of animal organization.
Going a step further, let us suppose the ocean shut out altogether.[22]
What sights should we then have seen? Since the Deluge the evaporation,
at the present rate, would have reduced by this time the level 8,000
or 10,000 feet; but in proportion as it sunk, and the shallow borders
became dry land, the temperature would rise, and the moisture of the
atmosphere diminish. The evaporation would be more and more rapid, and
the surface of the Mediterranean might have sunk as far beneath its
present level as Mont Blanc soars above it.[23]
It is singular that the Tartarus of Virgil and Dante is cast in this
very region; but it would then have been no fabled terrors: natural
objects would have outstripped their fancies. The breath of this
furnace would not have been pent up in its caverns, but have spread its
blight over the finest regions of Africa, Europe, and Asia, blasting
in their bud the glories of the Capitol, the eloquence of the Bema,
the sculptures of the Parthenon, the trophies of the Memnonium, the
enterprise of Tyre, and the wealth of Carthage; and these fair and
fertile shores would have been a wilderness, overhanging an abyss
of death. The Chinese, the Hindoo, or, perchance, the Seminole
philosopher, would have been journeying here to visit the bowels of the
earth laid open to the sun.
What observations and experiments to make on the converse phenomena to
ours--on the increase of intensity of heat and pressure on the powers
of men or animals! What speculations on the old orders of the animal
and vegetable kingdoms under new conditions! What new ones called
into existence! What magnetic and electric phenomena to reward the
Empedocles who ventured into this crater of 4,000 miles circumference!
Imagine Lebanon or Etna rising 30,000 or 60,000 feet, and Cyprus, a
plateau, suspended a mile and a half above the plain of burning salt or
boiling brine! What treasures for the historian--the exuviæ of animals
and men--the refuse of centuries washed down by the streams--the dead
of extinguished races buoyed up and floating through each other in the
brine, or caught and cured in the salt as the mammoth in the ice! The
geologist would then have enjoyed the sight of strata unmodified by a
retiring deluge, and feasted his eyes on the reality of chaos, and an
earth fitted for salamanders, megalosauri, cheirotheria, and mastodons.
The Simoon would have extended its empire from the Zahara to the plains
of Languedoc, and, cherished by his breath, the locust would have
asserted her sway up to the English sea. Such, horrid and inane, must
have been the “sweet south,” had not this channel been dug, and this
purple sea poured in--reflecting the heavens above,--dispensing around
moisture to the fields, health to the people,--yielding its body to
their keels, its breezes to their sails. For this were these portals
opened, which man so long has deemed a mystery denying his scrutiny,
and a barrier defying his adventure.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Ferdinand of Castile, after the death of Isabella, and the
conclusion of the Neapolitan war, joined the Portuguese in the
conquest of Morocco, on which they were then engaged, and settled
the distribution of future conquests. The Spaniards were to have all
eastward of Tetuan, the Portuguese all westward of Ceuta. Ferdinand
himself led a great expedition of a hundred thousand men; and a second,
equally powerful, sailed under Cardinal Ximenes. Millella, Penon de
Velez, Oran, Tremcen, Fidelitz, Mostagan, Algiers, Bugia, Tunis, and
finally Tripoli, were captured, or occupied on the flight of the
inhabitants; so that the Kings of Spain were in possession of the whole
coast of Africa, from Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar; while the
distracted Moorish State was vigorously attacked by the Portuguese on
the other side, where they had obtained either permanent or temporary
possession of Ceuta, Tangier, Arzilla, Larache, Salee, Azymore,
Mogadore; and their conquests extended beyond the Ha Ha spur of the
Atlas into Suz.
[2] “EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCE IN AFRICA.--A letter from Gerli (Gerba),
regency of Tunis, recounts a strange scene of recent occurrence.
There exists at Gerli a sort of pyramid, constructed of the heads of
decapitated Christians, principally Maltese, Sicilians, and Spaniards,
who fell or were taken prisoners at the battle of the 29th of July,
1560. At the request of Sir T. Reade, the British Consul, and the Vicar
Apostolic of Terrara, the Bey sent orders to the Governor for the
demolition of this lugubrious monument. Saturday, the 7th of August,
was the day fixed for the ceremony. All the authorities were assembled.
No sooner, however, had the masons commenced operations, than some
Zouavian soldiers and other armed individuals rushed into the arena,
and with yells of rage shouted that the time was come for substituting
the skulls of the Christians present on the spot for those of which
the pyramid was constructed. The Governor attempted in vain to appease
these fanatics. He was so ill-treated as to be compelled to retire. It
is hoped that Sir T. Reade will be called upon to obtain satisfaction
for this outrage.”--_Paris paper._
[3] “Africa, in its interior, is the least known quarter of the
globe, and perhaps fortunately for its inhabitants will long remain
so.”--HEEREN, _Carthag._ c. iv.
[4]
Ἐπεί με χ’ ἁἱ κασιγνήτου τύχοι
Τείρουσ’ Ἄτλαντος, ὁς πρὸς ἑσπέρους τύπους
ἔστηκε, κίον’ ούρανοῦ τε καὶ χθονὸς
ὤμοιν ἐρείδων, ἄχθος οὺκ εὐάγκαλον.
ESCH. _Prom._
[5] The Straits were the pivot of Cicero’s cosmography. In the Tusculan
Disputations, commemorating the wonders of nature, he speaks of “_the
globe of the Earth standing forth out of the Sea_, fixed in the middle
space of the universal World, habitable and cultivated in two distant
regions; that which we inhabit being placed under the axis towards
the seven stars; the other region, the Australian, unknown to us; the
remainder uncultivated, stiffened with cold, or burnt up with heat.”
[6]
Ὑμεἴς δ’, ὥ μοῦσαι, σκολίας ἐνέποιτε κελεύθους
Ἀρξάμεναι στοιχηδὸν ἀφ’ ἑσπέρου Ὠκεανοῖο.
Ἔνθά τε καὶ στῆλαι περὶ τέρμασιν Ἡρακλῆος
Ἑστῦσιν, μέγα θαῦμα παρ’ ἐσχατόεντα Γἀδειρα,
Μακρὸν ὑπὸ πρηῶνα πολυσπέρεων Ἀτλάντων,
Ἡχί τε καὶ χάλκειος ἐς οὐρανὸν ἔδραμε κίων,
Ἡλίβατος, πυκινοῖσι καλυπτόμενος νεφέεσσι.
DIONYSIUS AFRICANUS.
[7] Philostratus, in the life of Apollonius, mentions that he himself
had seen the ebb and flow, which he ascribes to the true cause. “All
the phases of the moon during the increase, fulness and wane, are to be
observed in the sea. Hence it comes to pass that the ocean follows the
changes of the moon by increasing and decreasing with it.”
[8] By the rediscovery of the mariner’s compass, the voyage along the
Western coast of Africa became practicable, and to this is owing the
passage by the Cape to India, as well as the discovery of America.
Without Columbus that discovery would have been made. The Portuguese,
in their second expedition to India, fell on the Brazils just as the
Chinese junk on its way to England was forced to America.
[9]
Ὠκεανός τε πέριξ ἐν ὔδασι γαῖαν
Ἑἱλἰσσων.
_Song of Orpheus._
Ὁς περικυμαίνει γαίης περιτέρμονα κύκλον. _Id._
[10] Eratosthenes of Cyrene measured the terrestrial meridian by the
problem worked out from the well of Syene. To predict eclipses the
mechanism of the heavens must be known. They were predicted by the
ancients, _e.g._ Thales in the seventh century before Christ, Eparcus
of Mycea, in the second; Hellico of Cyzycus, and Eudemus. Anaxagoras of
Clasomene narrowly escaped death for explaining their cause. Among the
Romans, Sulpicius Gallus predicted an eclipse during the war against
Perseus; and Drusus, by doing so, quelled an insurrection (Tacit.
Annals. I. 28). Pythagoras taught publicly that the earth was a sphere,
and the centre of the universe; but he communicated to the initiated
its double motion round its axis and the sun. Cicero was the friend of
the man who calculated the exact distance of the moon, and approached
to that of the sun.
[11] “Morgante Maggiore,” Canto xxv. stanza 205-9.
[12] The proposition of Columbus was, “Buscar el levante por el
ponente.” To find the east by the west. This was precisely the mistake
made by the Greeks, who had gained the idea of the spherical form of
the east without the knowledge of its dimensions. It was, in fact, the
repetition of the words of Aristotle--
--Συνάπτειν τὰν, περὶ τὰς Ἡρακλείους στήλας, τόπον περὶ τῷ τὴν
Ἰνδικήν.
[13] In the Highlands the church is still called _clachan_, or the
stones.
[14] “Sed nulla effigies simulacrave nota deorum.”--SIL. ITAL.
[15] “Castumque cubile.”--_Id._
[16] Phil. in Apoll. v. 5.
[17] Καὶ τῷ φοινίκων νόμῳ ὄτι νεὼς πεποίηται τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ τῷ ἔκει καὶ
θυσίαι θύοντο.--L. 2.
[18] Ἀπὸ Ἡρακλεἴων στηλὼν τὼν εν τῇ Εὐρὡπη ἑμπόρια πολλὰ,
κ.τ.λ.--SCYLAX.
Cadiz has still retained them as her arms:--
“The Tyrian islanders,
On whose proud ensigns floating to the wind,
Alcides’ Pillars towered.”--_The Lusiad_, b. iv.
[19] There is a dispute between Mannert and Gosselin about Hanno’s
measurements, because they will not take his point of departure, viz.
“the pillars of Hercules,” but will take mounts Abyla and Calpe.
Heeren, as usual, interferes, and settles the matter thus: “The
pillars of Hercules did not so much mean Abyla and Calpe as the _whole
Straits_!”
[20] Bacon has adorned his first edition of his “Novum Organum” with
a frontispiece, where a vessel is seen sailing forth between the two
columns.
[21] I am here venturing to anticipate a future conclusion of science,
viz. that the sea is salt only to a certain depth.
[22] “How different would have been the present state of temperature,
of vegetation, of agriculture, and even of human society, if the major
axes of the old and new continents had been given the same direction;
if the chain of the Andes, instead of following a meridian, had been
directed from east to west; if no heat-radiating mass of tropical land
extended to the south of Europe; or if the Mediterranean, which was
once in connection both with the Caspian and Red Sea, and which has so
powerfully favoured the social establishment of nations, were not in
existence; that is to say, if its bed had been raised to the level of
the plains of Lombardy and of the ancient Cyrene.”--_Cosmos_, vol. i.
p. 205.
[23] “The levels of the Sea of Tiberias and the Dead Sea are
respectively 666 and 1,311 English feet below the level of the
Mediterranean.”--_Cosmos_, vol. i. p. 288.