by their reception among the archives of fo refpectable a Society, might lead the fearching Antiquary into endless faults and abfurdities." It is a pity this little anecdote is not farther illuftrated by the name of the actual member, in honour of whose difcernment it is recorded: as it feems to caft a reflection on the whole Royal Society; whofe reputation fhould not be wounded through the fides of its ftraggling members; among which there are fome fuch ftrange fticks of wood, that the learned body might with propriety reverse the ancient adage, and take for its motto, Ex quovis ligno fit Mercurius! As a fpecimen of the accuracy of Mr. Carter's observations and descriptions, we fhall felect a few paffages that may afford fome information, and cannot be difpleafing, to any kind of reader. On the tract of country in general Mr. Carter makes the following panegyrick. "Of all the countries in the known world, there is not perhaps any one province fo worthy of our attention and curiofity, as that part of the kingdom of Granada which we are going to traverse; none bleft with a richer or more luxuriant climate; none more famous in Ancient History; and none that can be compared with it, even in these our days, for any of those natural gifts and bleffings which are allowed to contribute to the pleasure and happiness of mankind. "To the beauty of its climate all the Roman Authors bear testimony. Lucan the Poet fpeaks with complacency of the ferenity and perpetual clearnefs of the fky about Gibraltar, and Pliny, who refided here many years, in the last words of his Natural History, after having through a laudable partiality given the preference to his native Italy, renders juftice to the Southern coast of Spain, and affirms that only of all others can be compared with it. Strabo likewife celebrates the great fertility and abundance of this country, which he ftiles marvellous; and informs us that in his days not only Italy, but feveral other provinces of the Roman Empire, were hence yearly fupplied with large quantities of wine, the very best wheat, and finest oil; the fuperior qualities of which articles are much extolled by the Poet Statius. “Julius Cæfar †, in his excellent Commentaries, calls Spain a most healthy region; and Juftin the Hiftorian paffes great encomiums on its mildness, obferving that it was placed in a happy temperature, not fo hot as Africk, nor fubject to the cold winds of France; and true it is, in no part of the globe you breathe a purer air, where the winters are more moderate, or the fummer's fun more benign: and whoever obferves this coat with attention, will find its vallies plenteous and abundant beyond comparison: its gardens and orchards full of all manner of pleafant fruits, and its mountains teeming with gold and filver, and univerfally cloathed with the rich vine. The fea that bounds it is * Lib. iii. famous for its fifh; and the very rivers are not only falubrious, but have their fands enriched with gold +. I will fum up the just pane gyrick of this country in the words of a learned Fleming, who travelled over it in the year 1560. "Quaqua enim verfus ex ea profpexeris, habes quod Naturæ ac "Dei bonitatem, agrique Granatenfis felicitatem admireris, ita ut in"credibili oblectatione oculorum fenfum afficiat.” "The Phoenicians ftyled this province Tartefides ||; after them the Greeks called all the South of Spain Iberia; and, as a mark of their esteem, placed in it the river Lethe and the Elyfian fields. "The Carthaginians, a nation greedy of gain, extremely coveted the mines they found here; and after them the Romans were fo charmed with this province, that they abandoned their native country in troops, establishing in it no less than eight colonies, and among them numbers of fenatorial families. In the days of Strabo were found in the city of Cadiz alone five hundred of the equestrian order, so that the country became infenfibly peopled with Roman citizens, from whose most noble progeny fprung renowned philofophers, celebrated poets, great statesmen, and even the worthieft emperors of Rome. "Quid dignum memorare tuis Hifpania terris "Vox humana valet? Dives equis, frugum facilis, preciofa metallis, "Flaccillam §, Mariamque daret, pulcramque Serenam **. * Vitellius the Roman Emperor used to have veffels of three banks of Dars continually employed-to fetch the delicate fifh of the Streights of Gibraltar. "Murænarum lactes, a Carpatheo ufque fretoque Hifpaniæ per "navarchos ac triremes petitarum commifcuit.' Sueton. lib. ix. + Strabo affures us that the rivers of Spain run upon golden fands, and that grains of the finest gold were found in them; fuch the Romans called Palas. He adds, that out of the very ftones of the rivers they frequently extracted pieces of gold as big as nuts. Ambrofio Morales informs us, he faw a grain of gold taken out of a river, that was as large as a Garavanzo pea. The Darro at Granada was called in Latin Dat Aurum from the quantities of gold grains found in its fands. The golden altar of the parish church of San Gil at Granada is entirely compofed of them; and that city, when the Emperor Charles V. paid them a vifit in 1526, prefented him with a fumptuous crown, the ore of which was likewife fished out of the fame river. The waters of the Darro were by the Moors accounted very wholefome; and to this day the phyficians efteem its banks and air of peculiar fervice to decayed conftitutions; the very cattle are faid to receive inflant benefit, when difordered, by drinking in it. Georgius Hoffnagal, Civitates Orbes Terræ. Cologne. "This region was called Tartefides which the Turduli now inhabit." Strabo, iii. Flacilla wife of Theodore the Great, Maria wife of Honorius, and Serena wife of Stilico. ** Claudian. Pan. Reg. Serena. M m 2 Of Of the present state of Gibraltar, our author gives the following account. "Gibraltar is joined to the Continent by a neck of low and deep fand, of the fame breadth with itself, but which widens confiderably towards the Spanish lines: this ifthmus is near a league long, and, with the oppofite coaft of Spain, forms a noble and safe bay eight miles over, in which ride vaft fleets of merchant-men, who repair from all parts of the Mediterranean, and are here obliged to wait for an eastern wind, without which no fhip can fail out of the Streights. "The hill is of fuch an irregular form, that, when you are near, you can never fee it all from any one part: its head clearly faces the East; thence to the castle, and beyond Crouchet's garden, it fronts the North; forward as far as the Signal-house the North-Weft, where it takes a fharp turn, and continues to Europa Point due South: by reafon of which oblique fituation, when you approach the town from the inundation, you can fee no farther of the rock than the castle, and even in the town your fight is bounded by Charles V's wall; again, after you have past the South gate and got upon the red fands, the town vanishes from you, and all the hill with it to the North of the Signalhoufe. The back of the rock is fcalped and inacceffible, and it is this peculiar circumstance that forms its chief ftrength. "The head of the rock of Gibraltar is almoft perpendicular, and compofed of a white flone which they burn for lime. The batteries facing Spain appear next: the Spaniards call this part of the hill, Una Boca de fuego. The remains of the Moorish castle are close to them; directly under is Crouchet's house and garden, where I refided fifteen months; lower down, and level with the water, is the grand battery, under which is the land gate; above the town appears the hofpital for the army, and in it Bethlem barracks, formerly a convent of Nuns; the admiralty-houfe, in the time of the Spaniards a monastery of White Friars; and further on that of St. Francis *, where refides the gover nor; the Spanish church is between them: lastly, under Charles the Vth's wall is the armory and new mole, of use in time of war; the red fands are very confpicuous. Mrs. Webber's pleasant house lies next on an eminence near the new barracks; between which and the naval hofpital is the vineyard; the wind-mills and Europa Point finish the landfcape. "This place having never been inhabited before the Mahometan æra, no Roman antiquities can be expected in it: however, when we cross the river Guadiaro, I shall have occafion to take notice of two infcriptions brought thence, and employed fomewhere by the Spaniards in the walls of the town. There are those who affirm they are placed in the fountain on the grand parade with the letters inwards: but this I know not how to credit, as the fountain has been frequently taken *It is a plain building, more convenient than elegant, but pleasantly fituated near the fea, with a large garden; the church of the convent is kept open for divine fervice, and the only one in the town, a'l the other chapels and places of worship having been turned into store-houses, to the great scandal of the Spaniards, and inconvenience of the Proteftants: the bells of the Tower, incommoding the governor, were, by his order, unhung, so that the inhabitants are forced to repair to church by beat of drum. down down and repaired fince the refidence of the English; and furely our military gentry, though feldom men of letters, could not have been fo totally illiterate, as to follow the barbarous custom of the Moors by inverting these infcriptions, the fole monuments exifting of an ancient, town, and burying them in mortar and oblivion on a rock abounding with plenty of ftones, that coft only the explosion of a little gunpowder. "Of the Arabs, the building moft deferving our attention, and which indeed first prefents itself to our view, is the Castle, fituated pretty eminent on the north fide of the hill. It confifted formerly, after the manner of the Moors, of a triple wall, defcending down to the water fide, the loweft of which has been long fince entirely taken away, and the grand battery and water-port built on its fite. Of the fecond wall only the foundations are to be traced; on them were erected Crouchet's house and garden and a line of private ftorehouses: the higher walls would have long fince shared the fame fate, had they not been found by experience of infinite fervice in covering the town at the time of a fiege, the marks of balls being visible in numberless places upon those facing the Spanish lines; two other walls form an oblong fquare, afcending up the hill, and terminating in an angle at the Torre del Hominage: within them nothing is to be feen but heaps of leveled ruins, on which are now barracks for two companies of foldiers. "The Torre del Hominage, in all Moorish caftles, is the highest and most elevated tower, fo called because therein the Alcalde used at the entrance into his government to take the oaths of fealty in the hands of the king or fomebody appointed to reprefent him. That of this castle is entire, but has been long fince fhut up and made use of as a magazine for powder; under it is a parapet defended by a femicircular tower. "The few other remaining buildings are quite in ruins among those to be traced and worth our curiofity, is a little fquare building to the eastward, formerly a Mofque, which would have never been known for a place of devotion, were it not for an Arabick dedication on the wall, which imports in English: "To the God that pacifies, and the Peace-maker, to the God "To the God that lasts for ever, to the God that pacifies, and the "A neat Morifque court, adorned with a colonade of twelve groups of brick pillars, is near the chapel: they give a pleafing idea of Eastern architecture, and support a terrace twenty-four feet high, paved with brick; in this yard are two noble rooms, each twelve feet broad, and twenty-four long. "As water was a chief and capital article in ancient fortification, and here none was to be got out of the rock, the architect has taken care to cove and pave the roof, as well of the Torre del Hominage, as of the other buildings; conveying the rain-water by the means of large earthen pipes into a refervoir, conftructed for that purpose, under the apartments, twelve feet fquare, ftill entire: there are not wanting thofe, who will have this reservoir to have been a bath, and shew you another room, where they affure you was a royal hot bagnio; nay they they go fo far as to parcel out each plot and wall into kings and queens dreffing-rooms, bed-chambers, halls of audience, guard-rooms, and ali the neceffary apartments of a king's refidence; but thofe who know from hiftory, that Gibraltar never was a court, and that no prince, Chriftian or Moor, ever made in it any other than a casual refidence, landing or embarking for Barbary, will give no credit to fuch ro mances. "True it is, that Gibraltar being always esteemed by the Moors the key into Spain, this caftle was built as ftrong as poffible, and no coft fpared to render it impregnable; a proof of which is the entirenefs of the Torre del Hominage, and of the other walls ftill standing; and their having fuftained the injuries of time and frequent fieges, above a thousand years. Again, any body who has had opportunities of viewing the caftles of Cordova, Granada, and Malaga, are acquainted with the gold and azure, the Mofaic ftuccos, the fuperb infcriptions, and other pompous characteristics, of a royal Moorish palace, which they will in vain look for in Gibraltar." In his furvey of the towns furrounding the bay of Gibraltar, Mr. Carter takes notice of Carteia, the most famous, the most ancient and venerable of them all, tho' at prefent in fo deplo rable a state that it is difficult to ascertain even its local fituation. On this town he observes, "It would not be doing justice to this celebrated place, were we to pafs over in filence the very great probability of Carteia being the identical port of Tarfis, to which Solomon's fleets reforted : but at the fame time, not to tire the reader with the accumulated proofs and learned differtations which the best Spanish writers, and lately the Fathers Pedro and Rafael, Rodriguez, Mohedano *, have difplayed in favour of this opinion, we shall content ourselves with briefly examining, whether the fituation of this country and its products agree with the cargo Solomon's fleet brought from Tarfis, and then leave the facts to speak for themselves. We read in the book of Kings, that "Solomon had at fea a navy of Tharfhish, with the navy of Hiram : once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and filver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks †." "As to the two first articles, no country in the then known world, furely, could deferve the preference to the mountains of Andalucia, for their rich and inexhaustible mines, the memory of which was fo conftantly preferved among the Hebrews, that, in the eighth chapter' of the first book of Maccabees, we find the writer celebrating the acts of the Romans, and faying, "They had reduced to their dominion, the gold and filver of Spain " Their riches Diodorus Sicu *In their Hiftoria Litteraria de Espana. t Kings, x. 22. lus Julius Cæfar, when he triumphed over Gaul, Pontus, Egypt, Africk, and Spain, had the.furniture to all the others of wood, tortoiseshell, and ivory, the products of the feveral countries, but the apparatus of his Spanish triumph was of polished filver. « Cæfar |
