Granada has a considerable gypsy population. From the Alhambra one can see their dwellings on an opposite hillside. The rooms are hewn out of the stone, with only the door visible. All in all, Granada offers as much of variety as one can find anywhere in Europe and more glimpses of the oriental life of the past than can be seen anywhere else west of the Bosphorus.
The rock of Gibraltar has no advertising matter on it. In this respect only does it differ from the photographs with which every reader is familiar. It is, however, larger than the pictures indicate. It is an immense limestone formation rising abruptly from the water to a height of fourteen hundred feet. It is about three miles long and at the widest point three-quarters of a mile across. It is evident that it was once an island, for the low, flat strip of ground which connects it with the main land seems to have been formed by the washing in of the sand. The triangular face of the rock, which is usually photographed, looks toward the land instead of toward the sea, the water front being much less imposing. A town of twenty-six thousand inhabitants has grown up around the base of the rock, fully twenty per cent of the population being made up of the English garrison. It is strictly a military town and the government does not encourage the settlement of civilians there. The rock is full of concealed cannon and is supposed to be impregnable. It seems to be perforated with galleries and one sees the nose of a cannon poked out at every commanding point. When the wind is from the east a cloud hovers over the rock, sometimes concealing its summit. While the harbor at Gibraltar is not an especially good one, it is one of the most frequented in the world, and the dry docks will accommodate the largest ships. Just beyond the rock of Gibraltar there is a strip of neutral ground, one side sentineled by the British, the other by the Spanish. Several thousand Spaniards enter the city every morning, for all the manual labor is done by them, and return to their homes at night. Just across the bay or harbor is the Spanish city of Algeciras and, from both Algeciras and Gibraltar, boats cross the strait to Tangiers, the Morocco capital.
We had planned to make this trip, but were deterred partly because a revolution in Tangiers made it uncertain that we would be able to land, and partly because unfavorable weather threatened to delay our return.
I found at Gibraltar an instance of hereditary officeholding which is not often paralleled among our people. The position of American consul has been in one family for eighty-four years consecutively. The present occupant, Mr. Sprague, is the third of his line to represent our government, his father, who held the office for over fifty years, in turn succeeding his father. The present consul, Sprague, is intensely American, notwithstanding the long residence of his family outside the country.
As the traveler leaves Gibraltar for the west he bids farewell to Africa and to Europe at the same time—Gibraltar and a somewhat similar rock on the opposite side of the channel, the two, anciently known as the Pillars of Hercules, stand out in bold relief against the sky. These rocks are not the last land, however, although the most striking features. There is a point a few miles farther west known as Tarifa which, according to tradition, was once occupied by bold robbers who exacted tribute from all who passed by. It is even said that our word tariff traces its origin to this Tarifa; if it be true that the two words are related it is fitting that Tarifa should be the last thing seen by the traveler on his departure, for the tariff is the first thing which he encounters upon his arrival in America.
RESIGNATION.