"You can see this rocky promontory for yourselves," continued the captain. "It is about three miles long by three-quarters of a mile wide on the average; but it does not form the southern extremity of Spain, as some of the books have it, for Tarifa holds that position. As you noticed yesterday when we came into the bay, it looks like a detached rock; but it is connected with the mainland by a low isthmus, the portion of which nearest to the town is called 'The Neutral Ground,' and is, as its name implies, common to both Spanish and English.
"The rock is honeycombed with tunnels and casemates, and the galleries contain no end of guns of all calibre. You will see as many of these as you desire, for a permit can be obtained for the purpose, and I shall not attempt to describe it. The fortress has the reputation of being the strongest in the world; but of late years no nation has meddled with it, and its strength has not been tested with modern implements of war. Not a few Englishmen doubt whether it is as important a possession to their country as it is commonly represented to be.
"It can hardly be said to command the strait, which is about eight miles wide in the narrowest place, and Farragut or Porter would have made nothing of passing through. But the fortress may be reasonably regarded as impregnable, though it costs about a million and a half of dollars a year to pay its expenses.
"The highest point on the rock is fourteen hundred and thirty-nine feet above the water. It is a little odd that this is the only place in Europe where the monkey in his wild state exists. They may occasionally be seen in the vicinity of the Signal Tower. Some people, who must be rather credulous, believe that there is a tunnel under the strait, and that the monkeys come over from Africa through it. These animals are something of an institution here, and efforts have been made to protect them from gunners who sometimes stroll about here. At one time they were reduced to a very small number; but the last I ever heard about them, they had increased to about thirty.
"The town of Gibraltar is said to contain about twenty thousand inhabitants, besides about five thousand troops, which is the usual garrison of the Rock. They are a mixed set of people, consisting of English, Spanish, Jews, and Moors. It is not much of a city. The Club House Hotel used to be the principal one, but I believe there is a more modern one, called the Royal; but as we shall have no use for any of them, we need not look into the matter.
"Waterport Street is the chief thoroughfare, and is nearest to the water. There are only two other streets of any consequence, and all of those in the place are narrow and crooked. It is a walled town, and the regulations are very strict, and are carefully enforced. No foreigner can reside here unless the consul of his country, or a householder in the city, becomes his surety. A police-magistrate can issue a permit for ten, fifteen, or twenty days' residence in the city; and a military man can introduce a friend for thirty days. The gates are opened at sunrise in the morning, and closed at sunset in the evening; and there is no getting in or out after they are closed for the night. Two guns are fired, the first of warning, so that it is not necessary to get caught on the wrong side if one is reasonably careful.
"The ancients believed the Rock was the end of the world, as they did in regard to a number of other places. The Pillars of Hercules marked this western extremity of creation—the Rock was one of them and Apes Hill, on the opposite side of the strait, was the other.
"The Rock appears in history at a very early date. The navigators from Phœnicia called it Aluba, which the Greeks twisted into Calpa, which the professor will tell you is the classic name for it. Hannibal and other Carthaginian generals must have known about the Rock, for they made expeditions into Spain. It does not appear that it was ever used as a fortress until the year of our Lord 711, which is longer ago than any of us can remember, when Tarik Ibn-zeyad (don't forget the name) fortified it. He was a Saracenic general on his way to conquer some of the nations of Europe, and this seemed to be a convenient place for a base of operations, as it was easy of access from Africa.
"After this chief the Rock was named Gebel-Tarik, or the hill of Tarik, and this compound word was corrupted into Gibraltar. They say that one of the towers of the castle he built can still be seen; but I never saw it, and I will not say anything more about it. For six hundred years it remained in possession of the Moors, who had obtained a stronghold in Spain; but it was captured in 1309 by Don Antonio de Guzman.
"Additional works and a dockyard were then constructed, and the Old Mole, which may still be seen at the north end of the city, was built at the same time. The Spaniards and Moors continued to hold and lose it for the next hundred and fifty years. In 1462 the Spaniards captured it through the treachery of a renegade Moor. Even in the seventeenth century the holders of the fortress had so strengthened it that it was regarded as impregnable.