369 A TOUR FROM GIBRALTAR TO CONSTANTINOPLE. * * * * * LETTER I. TO CAPTAIN SMITH. Carthagena, August 14th. MY DEAR FRIEND, In compliance with your request, I I have kept a regular Journal of my Voyage, which I now inclose you: Tuesday, August 7th, Noon. At eight o'clock, yesterday morning, we left Gibraltar, with a contrary wind; and, on the first tack, we passed Ceuta, a place of no great intrinsic value, but an indifferent port. It is situated on a peninsula of Africa, which, with Gibraltar, Spartel and Trafalgar, forms the Straits, and is so strongly fortified by Nature, that, although the Moors have often besieged it, it has withstood all their efforts. Count Julian was Governor of this place, at the time Roderigo ravished his daughter, the beautiful _Cava_. The Count, inflamed with rage at the dishonor perpetrated on his family, and distracted at the ruin of his own child, forgot his duty to his country, which no private injuries can excuse, and engaged to put the Moors in possession of Spain, if they would revenge him on his abandoned Monarch. It is not easy to determine who were the first inhabitants of Spain. We know that it was subdued by the Carthaginians before the Christian æra, and that they were conquered by the Romans; who, in their turn, yielded to the Goths, from whom Roderigo was descended. At this time, the Saracens (the name the followers of Mahomet assumed) emigrating from Arabia, had overrun the neighbouring parts of Africa, which they have kept possession of ever since. To these people, Count Julian, with great truth, represented Roderic as a Prince universally detested, and whose tyranny promised a general insurrection among the Goths. The Saracen Chief at first doubted the Count's sincerity, but at last sent over a large army, which gained a [Sidenote: A. D. 712] complete victory over Roderigo, who was killed in the action; and the whole country submitted to the Moors. Divisions arising among the conquerors, the natives, in less than six years, again appeared in arms, and the Saracens gradually declined for near two centuries. Almanzor then arose, and, by his repeated victories, revived the affairs of his countrymen: But, on the death of this great General, the Christians again made head, and reduced the Moors to such straits, that, although Mahomet Ben Joseph, Sovereign of Barbary, came over to their assistance with all his forces, he was entirely defeated. A. D. 1212.