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has been long and rough. Several vessels were much injured in the gale which we encountered, and one from New York is supposed to be lost. But we, through the hand of our God upon us for good, have been borne across the mightier ocean, to enter on "this great and

wide sea,” around whose shores, we expect to spend the remaining years of our pilgrimage.

CHAPTER II.

GIBRALTAR.

Jewish synagogue-The Rock-The town-Military works-Missionaries-Want of American chaplains abroad.

MY DEAR G.

Gibraltar, Oct. 25.

THOUGH I anticipate, if life is spared, revisiting my native land after a few years, yet, considering your advanced age and increasing infirmities, I may not find you still a sojourner below. I desire therefore, before I leave this place, where I can already look out on Jewish dwellings, and Mahometan and Catholic lands, to stop and hold another conversation with you. I wish much while I am now writing, I could reach you some of those rich grapes, almost equal to the clusters of Eshcol, which lie piled up in the market-place. I wish more, I could show you the interior of the Jewish synagogue, into which I have twice been. You might have seen me there seated in the midst of venerable men, whose flowing robes, and long descending beards, silvery as the locks now thinly scattered over

your own brow, brought to my mind the patriarchs of old. Alas! for the unbelief of these elders of Israel. Yet I felt it in my heart to pity, rather than condemn, when they rose up and turned their faces towards Jerusalem; then covered them with their hands and bowing down to the earth, exclaimed in the Hebrew tongue, "Blessed art thou, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts."

October 26.-Though almost as thread-bare a theme as the ocean, you will expect me to say something of Gibraltar. Pass up then the straits, until just where they open into the Mediterranean,and the Spanish coast bends abruptly to the north east. Loosen next from its foundations, one of your hills of secondary magnitude, say, fourteen hundred feet in height, two or three miles in length, and from three fourths, to a mile and a half in breadth at its base. Place this nearly at right angles to the straits, with its perpendicular sides to the north and east, and frightful precipices to the south; join it also on the north, by a low sandy isthmus to the European shore. That hill, with its camel-formed summit often concealed in the clouds, is the "rock of Gibraltar." The sandy isthmus is the "neutral ground,” at the extremities of which, are stations of British and Spanish guards. The portion of water, four miles in depth and about the same in breadth, embosomed by the rock and the Spanish coast, is Gibraltar Bay. At the head of the bay, is the pleasant Spanish village of St. Roque, and on the western side, the town of Algeziras. The high mountains of Spain, rise one above the oth er, far in the distant horizon.

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From the narrow ridge of the rock, in which you may observe three eminences higher than the rest, the descent towards the west, is more gradual. Upon this side also, there are some acres of a tolerable level, between the foot of the mountain and the sea. Here, then, you will look for the town of Gibraltar, with its crowded population of twenty or thirty thousand, English, Spanish, Jewish, Moorish, &c. On entering the bay from the south, you first pass the naval and military stations, and next the public gardens, in which are a few trees, a bust of the Duke of Wellington, and a statue of Gen. Elliot. The latter is holding in his hand the key of the city, which he so successfully defended against the grand attack of the Spaniards. Still farther up the harbor, is the town. This is surrounded by separate walls, and when the sun-down gun is fired, its gates are closed, and if lingering within, you are a prisoner until the morning. Yet you are a prisoner in safe keeping, for the soldiers which are posted in the streets every stone's cast, constitute a most vigilant police.

Many of the houses have a small open court in the centre, around which, are galleries, with flights of winding stairs. In some instances we observed, trees and shrubbery growing in this inner area. Into this also, the windows often open. As might be expected from the very limited extent of ground, house rent is very dear. Board at one or two tolerable hotels, is

* Since the wasting sickness of the last year, (1828,) and now that Cadiz is also become a free port, ten or twelve thousand inhabitants are said to have left the place. Probably its commercial importance will still continue to diminish.

from seven to ten dollars a week. Water in ordinary times, (of course there is a supply for the garrison in case of a siege,) is brought into the town, on the backs of mules and asses, from the neutral ground. Each one carries three kegs on a pack-saddle, resembling a sawyer's horse inverted. Fresh milk is obtained from the goats, which feed on the steep sides of the rock. In one of my walks, I have met a goat-herd, driving a flock of two or three hundred, to pasture. Within a few years, a little land has been redeemed for vegetables from the side of the mountain. Most of the provisions, however, are brought from Tangiers, thirty miles distant, on the African side, and near the entrance of the straits. You can judge of their price from a single article, that of fowls, which I heard mentioned at nine dollars a dozen. Fruit comes in abundance from the coast of Spain. As this is a free port, English, West India and American produce is comparatively cheap. The principal article of import from America is staves. These are for the wine, which the mountains of Spain pour down in copious streams. A single newspaper of small size is published here, under the particular direction of the government.

Military roads wind around at different elevations, upon the western and southern sides of the rock. I have walked this morning, several miles in the Mediterranean pass, which has been cut under the solid rock, in one place, thirty five, and in another, fifty steps. It is of sufficient dimensions for a loaded wagon to pass through.

I have visited, also, the cave of St. Michael, which is a little higher up the mountain. You may form

some idea of it, from the interior of a darkened church, without galleries. Several large stalactites of carbonate of lime, still remain suspended. Beautiful crystallizations of the same, are found in different places, and are wrought by the Catholics into trinkets of a great variety of forms. Brown compact limestone,

constitutes the basis of the rock.

The strength of the fortifications is either near the water at the foot of the western side, or half way up the mountain, in a covered way, on the north. The former are for defence against attacks by sea. In these, most of the soldiers are stationed. The highest summits of the mountain are of bare rock, with here and there, a solitary shrub growing in some cleft. On these, contrary to my anticipations, we were at liberty to climb unrestrained, far above any soldiers or military works.

The works which are most remarkable, are the excavations on the north. Owing to our short stay, and a slight lameness with which I am affected, I can only speak of them from the report of my companion. They were commenced during the reign of Napoleon, and are intended to prevent approach on the land side. The entrance is at an old Moorish castle, about four hundred feet above the sea. Thence the covered way, cut in the solid rock, ascends gradually to the north east, until it reaches the height of eight hundred feet. The breadth of the gallery may be about ten feet, its height eight or nine, its distance from the perpendicular outside, thirty, and its length several thousand feet. So gradual is the ascent, that a mule loaded with cannon balls, easily makes his way to the farthest ex

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