Before the industry of man had harnessed the wayward streams this hot land must have been little better than an arid wilderness, yet it has been inhabited from the remotest times, and its possession was keenly contested between the great powers of antiquity. The natives were known to the ancients as the Mastiani, and are credited with the virtues which were so long supposed to have been characteristic of primitive man. This simple, blameless race fell an easy victim to the wily Phœnicians, who scented the precious metals within these barren hills. Elche, Guadix, and Jijona betray in their etymology a Semitic origin. Next came the Greek Vikings from Samos and Rhodes and Phokaia, establishing themselves at many points along the eastern shore of the Iberian land. The rivalry between the Phœnician and Hellenic colonies precipitated a contest between their respective allies, the Carthaginians and the Romans. Hasdrubal founded the port of New Carthage, the name of which is still preserved in Cartagena, whence, with a host of 90,000 foot and 12,000 horse, Hannibal started on his famous march to Rome. The fall of the city, which was bravely defended by Mago against Scipio, entailed the destruction of the Punic power in Spain.
Under the Roman yoke Carthago Nova became the capital of the vast province of Tarraconensis, and the adjoining district in consequence felt the full force of all the attacks made by rebels and barbarians on the tottering empire. Under the Visigoths it was erected into a duchy by the name of Aurariola. The Duke Theodomir, unlike most of his peers, offered a strenuous resistance to the Moslem arms, and when defeated in battle and besieged in Orihuela, succeeded by a stratagem in preserving his territory. By disguising all the women as warriors and parading them on the walls, he so deceived the Moors as to the strength of the garrison as to obtain from them a recognition of the independence of the duchy, subject to the suzerainty of the khalifa.
The province became known after its chief by the name of Todmir. It endured as an autonomous state for some sixty-eight years, its final absorption in the Moslem empire being brought about by the last dukes espousing the cause of Charlemagne or his Moorish allies. Arabic colonists poured in and soon out-numbered the Christian inhabitants. The last province of Spain to bow before the Crescent became rapidly the most Moorish of any.
Cartagena and Orihuela, the old Visigothic centres, declined, and Murcia, practically a Mohammedan foundation, took their place. The city rivalled Toledo and Cordova as a manufactory of arms and munitions of war. It underwent the usual vicissitudes of Moorish states, forming now part of one kingdom, now of another, at times independent, more often subject to Valencia, Granada, or Cordova. Finally, in 1243, Abu Bekr, the titular amir of Murcia, acknowledged the suzerainty of Castile, only to repudiate it in 1252. The war lasted some time, but the desertion of Al Ahmar of Granada left Abu Bekr at the mercy of the Christians. Murcia was taken in 1266 by Don Jaime of Aragon, who immediately handed over his conquest to his son-in-law, Alfonso of Castile. The step, though probably not dictated by motives of policy, was a wise one, for it left a sort of buffer state between Aragon and Granada, and preserved the frontiers of the former kingdom from molestation by the Moors for the next two centuries.
The town of Murcia has completely rid itself of all outward evidences of its erstwhile subjection to Islam. Gone is the Alcazar, where the amirs mimicked the state of Cordova and Toledo, gone is the wall which kept the Christian out, gone is the mosque wherein thousands of turbaned heads were bowed daily towards Mecca. Yet in the narrow dark streets like the Sierpes of Seville, across which awnings are stretched, we might recognize something of the East, were not such thoroughfares equally characteristic of the Christian South. The Calles de la Traperia and de la Plateria, however, irresistibly recall Smyrna. They lead into one of those dazzling white, dusty squares which every Southern and Eastern city boasts, and which is always named in Spain after the Constitution, in Italy after Victor Emmanuel, and in France after the Republic. Murcia is hotter than Seville, and the passage of this plaza between eleven in the forenoon and five in the afternoon requires the courage of a Mutius Scævola. In the evening you may join the citizens in their promenade upon the Malecon, which affords a charming view of the rich "huerta" or vale of the Segura. This is described by Mr. Brunhés as "an admirable zone of model agricultural establishments. The soil is levelled and prepared for irrigation with geometrical precision. To each particular crop corresponds a design with little shelving beds of special forms." Not an inch of ground is wasted; on the summit of the slopes, for instance, sweet potatoes are planted at regular intervals. The cereals and vegetables are tended with special care, almost individually. The melons are protected by coverings. No one can visit the environs of Murcia without being impressed by the extraordinary industry and thriftiness of its people. And field labour in this climate must be arduous in the extreme. But no doubt the mythical "dolce far niente" Spaniard will continue for many years to haunt the back streets of literature in company with the big-toothed English girl, her red-whiskered parent, and other creations of ignorance and prejudice.
Murcia cannot be called an interesting town. It has only one "sight"—and that not of first-class interest—the Cathedral. This occupies, as usual, the site of the mosque, and dates in its oldest part from 1368. The west front was restored in the seventeenth century, fortunately before the decay of Spanish art had become too conspicuous. The interior produces a good effect, though robbed of much of its interest by a fire some sixty years ago. The choir stalls are good, as they generally are in this country of clever wood-carvers, and came from a suppressed monastery in the neighbourhood. The reredos is modern and poor. With a glance at the urn containing the internal organs of Alfonso the Learned, we pass on to the beautiful and interesting Junteron Chapel. This was founded in 1515 by the Archdeacon of Lorca, Don Gil Junteron, and is in the most exuberant Renaissance style. It is astonishing that where the figures and designs are so numerous, so intermingled, and so complicated, each should be sculptured with such exquisite skill and correctness. The Velez Chapel is a little earlier, and was evidently modelled on the Constable's Chapel at Burgos. The style, as might be expected, reminds one also of the Chapel Royal at Granada. Parts of it, says Don Rodrigo Amador de los Rios, evidence the painful caprices and aberrations which announce the death agony of a powerful art in its decline. It would be dangerous to express such an opinion in Murcia, where the chapel is accounted the eighth and greatest wonder of the world. In somewhat more restrained terms the sacristan will call your attention to the panelling and lockers in the Sacristy, which occupies the centre of the graceful steeple, and certainly deserves the epithet of sumptuous, so liberally bestowed in Spain.
Much older than Murcia, Cartagena has preserved even fewer monuments of antiquity, though it has not lost the military character first impressed upon it by its founder Hasdrubal. For this is the first arsenal of Spain, and perhaps its strongest fortress. Its splendid sheltered harbour is defended by powerful forts and formidable batteries. Their fire has not always been directed upon the enemies of Spain. For many months in the year 1873 over them waved the red flag of the "Intransigentes," the extreme communistic republicans, who, simultaneously with the Carlists of the north, threatened ruin to Castelar's government at Madrid. The acquisition of the great national arsenal without firing a shot was, of course, of the utmost advantage to these determined revolutionaries. They disposed of 583 pieces of ordnance, including twenty-eight Krupp guns, with 180,000 shells and 4,332 quintals of powder. In addition they were supported by the ironclad frigates Numancia, Vittoria, Tetuan, and Mendez Nuñez. The garrison, in addition to the enthusiastic population, included several revolted battalions of regular troops under the command of General Contreras. The communist Junta was presided over by Don Antonio Gálvez.