There is no need to tell you much more about the history of Portugal. After the reign of Dom Sebastian the days of her greatness were over. She came under Spanish rule for sixty disastrous years, during which time the enemies of Spain became her enemies also, and her trade and naval power were practically ruined by the Dutch and English. She was also made to feel the weight of Spanish oppression at home, but at last, in 1640, the plucky little country, remembering the proud traditions of her past, rose in revolt, and threw off the foreign yoke.
Since that time England, her old ally, has more than once stood by her in her day of trouble.
In the time of Napoleon it was England who enabled Portugal to maintain her place among the nations, but we must also not forget that it was largely through her help that Wellington was able to bring the long Peninsular War to a triumphant end.
At the present day the country has a constitutional Government somewhat on the same lines as our own. The Cortes, or Parliament, consists of a house of representatives elected by the people, which corresponds to our House of Commons, and of an upper chamber of grandees—fidalgos they are called—who are appointed for life by the King, and which is rather like our House of Lords. But unluckily for Portugal, there is a tendency among the officials never to do to-day what can be put off till to-morrow, and much corruption prevails.
[ CHAPTER III
] WHICH TREATS OF LISBON AND A GREAT EXPLORER
Lisbon has been the capital of Portugal ever since it was taken from the Moors by King Alfonso Henriques in 1147.
The harbour, where the River Tagus broadens out into a veritable inland sea, is one of the finest in the world. It is about ten miles from the river’s mouth, where there is only a narrow passage by which ships may pass in and out, the greater part of the entrance being blocked by the bar or great sandbank, formed by the meeting of sea and river, and which is uncovered at low tide.
Steaming up the river, the first great feature of Lisbon which one notices is the palace of the Ajuda, standing out against the sky, a huge, solid-looking building on a hill, above the western portion of the town. It is in another palace near here, that of the Necessidades, that the present King, hardly more than a boy, remained for so many weeks without daring to venture beyond the walls, after the cruel assassination of his father and elder brother in the early part of 1908. The dreadful event is still so recent that most people will remember all about it.