Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania

by Jewett C. Gilson

To six of the caves distinct names have been given. One of the caves is three hundred feet below sea level. About three miles of passageways, exclusive of many storage chambers, have been hewn so as to connect the different caves and natural passages, and so large have they been made that a wagon can be drawn through them. Within this rock are stored supplies of ammunition and sufficient provisions to last several years. In clambering about the rock we find cannon carefully concealed in scores of different places ready for use when needed.

In places the rock is overlaid with thin soil which produces a variety of vegetation. There are grassy glens, with trees, and luxuriant gardens surrounding pretty English cottages. During the rainy season wild flowers in great profusion spring up in all directions, but in the summer the rock presents a dry, barren aspect.

This strong and impregnable place is the Rock of Gibraltar and the city nestling at its base, Gibraltar. The city has a population of twenty-five thousand, of whom several thousand are soldiers forming the garrison. The garrison with their artillery, two pieces of which weigh one hundred tons each, reinforced with the strongest of fortifications, are thought to be capable of withstanding the combined hosts of Christendom.

Early in the eighth century the Moors, perceiving the strategic importance of the promontory, took possession of it and erected fortifications. During the succeeding nine hundred years the fortress was besieged no less than twelve times, and on several occasions was captured by invaders.

At length it became a possession of Spain, and so strongly was it fortified by the Spanish that it was thought to be impregnable. During the War of the Spanish Succession, however, the combined forces of England and Holland laid siege to it, and after a stubborn resistance the garrison was forced to surrender. Forthwith the English took possession in the name of Queen Anne and, strengthening the fortifications, have held the fortress ever since.

Spain was greatly mortified by the loss of this stronghold which she deemed rightly belonged to her. Several times during the ensuing seventy-five years, single-handed, she laid siege to the citadel in the endeavor to win it back, but each time she signally failed.

A seemingly auspicious time arrived in 1779 when she secured the co-operation of France. For the succeeding four years a relentless siege was laid to the fortress by the combined land and naval forces of Spain and France. Both nations summoned to their aid their ablest generals and admirals, using every conceivable device and strategy to capture the fortress, but all in vain.

During the first years of this siege the supreme command of both land and naval forces rested with the Spanish, but, having met with failure after failure, they were ready at length to give way to the French, who promised to capture the stronghold by constructing a powerful fleet of battering-ships, enabling them to fight at close range, so that gun to gun and man to man should decide the contest.

The French engineer who prepared the armament cut down the huge bulwarks of the sides of ten of the Spanish battle-ships and proceeded to reconstruct them within and without. The reconstructed ships were much like the Merrimac, that did such destructive work in our Civil War, except that they were not armored with iron. Triple beams of heavy oak with layers of sand and cork between them were used for encasing these huge hulks. For protecting the crews heavy timbers covered with rope and hides were used.

On September 12, 1782, fifty line-of-battle ships flying flags, together with a fleet of smaller vessels, lined up before the town. This formidable fleet was supported on land by an army of forty thousand men reinforced with batteries of the heaviest ordnance stretched along the shore. To oppose these the English commander, General Eliott, had ninety-six pieces of artillery and seven thousand men. So confident was the enemy of success that the triple-armored battering-ships moved boldly up to within half-gunshot range.