Alcalá de Guadaira, to the south-east of Seville, supplies the latter with bread, and its delicious springs feed the aqueduct known as Arcos de Carmona, thus called because it runs parallel with the old Roman road leading to Carmona (Carmo).

The towns to the south of Seville are no longer of importance. Utrera, the most considerable amongst them, is a great railway centre, where the line to the marble quarries of Moron, and that passing through the fertile districts of Marchena and Osuna, branch off from the Andalusian main line. The town is well known to aficionados, or sportsmen, on account of the wild bulls which pasture in the neighbouring marismas. Lebrija, with its fine tower imitated from that of Giralda, is still nearer to these marshes, which extend almost to the mouth of the Guadalquivir. {410}

Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, with its white and pink houses shaded by palms, is not now the great port it was in the time of the Arabs. It may justly boast of having sent forth, in 1519, the first vessel which circumnavigated the globe, but it is now rather a pleasure resort than a place of commerce. Jerez de la Frontera, in the basin of the Guadalete, is the busiest town between Seville and Cádiz. It is a neat and showy place, surrounded by immense bodegas, or wine vaults, in which are stored the wines grown in the fertile valley of Guadalete, and known as sherry. Near Arcos de la Frontera, in the upper part of the valley, is pointed out the site upon which was fought the famous battle which delivered Spain to the Mussulmans.

The Bay of Cádiz, so well sheltered against winds and waves by the tongue of land which begins at the island of Leon, is surrounded by numerous towns, forming, as it were, but a single city. Rota, on the northern coast of the bay, is encircled by walls of cyclopean aspect. It is the resort of fishermen, and its vintners, though reputed Bœotians, produce one of the best wines of Spain. Farther south, at the mouth of the Guadalete, is the Puerto de Santa María, with its wine stores, at all times a bustling place. Puerto Real, the Portus Gaditanus, lies in a labyrinth of brackish channels, and is now merely a landing-place. The neighbouring dockyard, known as Trocadero, and the arsenal of Carraca, are frequently inhabited only by galley-slaves and their gaolers. The salt-pans near that place are most productive.

San Fernando is the most important town on the island of Leon, to the south of Cádiz. The initial meridian of Spanish mariners is drawn through its observatory. Looking across the navigable channel of San Pedro, which separates the island from the main, we perceive the villas of Chiclana, famous as the training-place of the toreros, or bull-fighters, of Andalusia. Turning to the north, we reach the narrow ridge of the Arrecife, which may be likened to a stalk with Cádiz as its expanded flower. Boatmen point out the supposed ruins of a temple of Hercules, now covered by the sea; and thus much is certain, that the land is at present subsiding, though this subsidence must have been preceded by an upheaval, as the peninsula upon which Cádiz has been built rests upon a foundation of shells, oysters, and molluscs.

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Fig. 156.—CADIZ AND ITS ROADSTEAD.

We pass several forts, cross the ramparts of the Cortadura, erected in 1811, and at length find ourselves in the famous city of Cádiz, the heir of the Gadir of the Phœnicians, called Gadira by the Greeks, and Gades by the Romans. Cádiz was the leading city of Iberia when that country first became known. Like other cities, it has known periods of decay, but its great geographical advantages have always enabled it to recover quickly. It is the natural outlet of an extensive and fertile region, and its position near the extremity of the continent enables it successfully to compete with Lisbon for the trade of the New World. Palos may boast of having sent forth the caravelas which discovered the West Indies, but it was Cádiz which reaped all the advantages of this discovery, more especially since the Tribunal of the Indies was transferred to it from Seville (1720). In 1792 Cádiz exported merchandise valued at £2,500,000 sterling to America, {412} and received precious metals and other articles of a value of £7,000,000 in return. Soon afterwards Spain paid for a commercial monopoly maintained during three centuries by the sudden loss of her colonies, and Cádiz found itself dependent upon its fisheries and salt-pans. But recently fortune has again smiled upon the city, and its harbours are crowded with merchantmen.[145] Cádiz, with the towns surrounding its bay, has a population of 200,000 souls. The site of the city proper is limited by nature, and its houses have been built to a height of five and six stories. The inhabitants are fond of pleasure, vivacious, and quick at repartee. They have at all times shown themselves to be good patriots, and it was on the island of Leon that the Cortes met to protest against the occupation of the country by the French.

Almería, on the Me­di­ter­ra­nean coast of Andalusia, rivalled Cádiz in importance as long as it remained in the possession of the Moors, but prosperity fled the place immediately the Spaniards occupied it. Subsequently the town suffered greatly from the pirates of Barbary, as is proved by the fortress-like cathedral built in the sixteenth century. The aspect of the place, with its narrow streets and old kasba, is quite oriental.