The Mediterranean: Its Storied Cities and Venerable Ruins — John Shaqi
The Mediterranean: Its Storied Cities and Venerable RuinsAllen, Grant
History
The Mediterranean: Its Storied Cities and Venerable Ruins
Allen, Grant
Europe, Southern -- Description and travel; Mediterranean Region -- Description and travel
And so after all it is to the "line-wall"--to that formidable bulwark of
masonry and gun-metal which fringes the town of Gibraltar from the Old
Mole to Rosia Bay--that one returns as to the chief attraction from the
historical point of view, of the mighty fortress. For two full miles it
runs, zigzagging along the indented coast, and broken here and there by
water-gate or bastion, famous in military story. Here, as we move
southward from the Old Mole, is the King's Bastion, the most renowned of
all. Next comes Ragged Staff Stairs, so named from the heraldic insignia
of Charles V.; and farther on is Jumper's Battery, situated at what is
held to be the weakest part of the Rock, and which has certainly proved
itself to be so on one ever memorable occasion. For it was at the point
where Jumper's Battery now stands that the first English landing-party set
foot on shore; it was at this point, it may be said, that Gibraltar was
carried. The fortunes of nomenclature are very capricious, and the
name of Jumper--unless, indeed, it were specially selected for its
appropriateness--has hardly a better right to perpetuation in this fashion
than the name of Hicks. For these were the names of the two gallant
officers who were foremost in their pinnaces in the race for the South
Mole, which at that time occupied the spot where the landing was effected;
and we are not aware that history records which was the actual winner. It
was on the 23rd of July, 1704, as all the world knows, that these two
gallant seamen and their boats' crews made their historic leap on shore;
and after all, the accident which had preserved the name of one of them is
not more of what is familiarly called a "fluke" than the project of the
capture itself, and the retention of the great fortress when captured. It
is almost comic to think that when Sir George Rooke sailed from England,
on the voyage from which he returned, figuratively speaking, with the key
of the Mediterranean in his pocket, he had no more notion of attacking
Gibraltar than of discovering the North-West Passage. He simply went to
land England's candidate for the Spanish throne, "King Charles III.," at
Lisbon; which service performed, he received orders from the English
Government to sail to the relief of Nice and Villa Franca, which were
supposed to be in danger from the French, while at the same time he was
pressed by Charles to "look round" at Barcelona, where the people, their
aspirant-sovereign thought, were ready to rise in his favor. Rooke
executed both commissions. That is to say, he ascertained that there was
nothing for him to do in either place--that Barcelona would not rise, and
that Nice was in no danger of falling; and the admiral accordingly dropped
down the Mediterranean towards the Straits--where he was joined by Sir
Cloudesley Shovel with another squadron--with the view of intercepting the
Brest Fleet of France, which he had heard was about to attempt a junction
with that of Toulon.
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