wanting philanthropists to remind us that it rightfully belongs to Spain, and that our possession of it is an insult to a friendly power. Had we surrendered it, however, it would probably have been seized by France; and it is not so much for our own interests we hold it as for those of Europe. While the British flag waves from its summit, it is a sign and symbol that the Mediterranean will be the free highway of all nations.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROCK.
O the earliest navigators who penetrated westward the Rock must have been a conspicuous landmark, and we have seen what fables were gradually associated with it. Suddenly rising, erect and defiant, from the mainland, with the waters whitening in surf at its very base, and apparently defining the boundary of the inhabitable world, it is no wonder that men learned to invest it with a certain mystery and awe. Its records, however, at the outset, are vague and conjectural. We are told that the Phœnicians called it “Alabe,” which the Greeks corrupted into “Calpe;” but the true meaning of the name is quite uncertain. According to an ancient writer, it signifies “a lofty mountain;” and some modern authorities connect it with the well-known root Alp. Others identify it with a word which in the south of Spain occurred in the various forms of Carp-e, Cart-eia, and Tartessus.
Strabo speaks of a city of Calpe, situated about four and a quarter miles from the Rock, which was formerly an important naval station of the Iberians. Some say, he adds, that it was founded by Heracles, and anciently named Heracleia; and that the great circuit of its walls and its docks could be seen in his time. It is a moot point with antiquaries whether Calpe and Carteia were one and the same city.
The present name of the Rock is derived from Jebel-Tarik, or “hill of Tarik,”—so called from the Moorish conqueror who landed here, April 30, 711.
Every reader of Southey will be familiar with his tragic poem of “Roderick, the Last of the Goths,” and will remember the story on which it is founded,—how that Roderick, the Gothic king of Spain, betrayed the daughter of Count Julian, the governor of Ceuta; and how that the latter, to revenge his dishonoured house, allied himself with Muza, the Moorish ruler of West Africa, to accomplish the conquest of his native land:—
“Mad to wreak
His vengeance for his violated child
On Roderick’s head, in evil hour for Spain,
For that unhappy daughter and himself,
Desperate apostate, on the Moors he called;
And like a cloud of locusts, which the South
Wafts from the plains of wasted Africa,
The Mussulmen upon Iberia’s shore
Descend.
Muza, having obtained the sanction of the Caliph Al Walid Ebn Abdalmslik, sent over a small force of 100 horse and 400 foot to examine the country, and the best line of operations for an army. This advanced guard was commanded by Tarik Ebn Zarca, a veteran warrior of high repute, who crossed the Strait, accompanied by Count Julian, and landed on the Spanish shore near the present Spanish town of Algesiras. Meeting with no opposition, he ravaged the neighbouring towns, and, loaded with plunder, returned to Africa.