Gibraltar and Spain. 'O Word, so powerful and so true, 321 Certain other aspects of Arndt's intellectual exertions we cannot fitly at present indicate. To his professional career at Greifswald and Bonn, and his labours in the fields of philosophy and history, as well as to the external incidents of his life, we have not attempted, even in passing, to allude. Our object was, partly, to exhibit the more popular and influential phase of his peculiar poetic genius; mainly, to present him in the character of devotional poet; and in doing both, to pay a tardy but heartfelt tribute of respect to the memory of the illustrious dead. Requiescat in pace; and not in peace only, but renown. His birthplace was by the many-sounding waters of the stormy Baltic: he died beside the glorious Rhine, the river he loved so well. True types of all his poetry, the scenes of his nativity and decease! In that poetry the rude, indomitable power of the half-Saxon, half-Scandinavian north is beautifully blended with southern warmth and sweetness, and the spirit of the Rhine and the spirit of the Baltic are felt to embrace and commingle. But whatever may be the view taken of the general significance and value of his poetry, only a single opinion, as experience has proved, can be entertained of his patriotic effusions: that they possess transcendent merit. Through them he has left an undying name behind him, and through them he has stamped the impress of his own noble spirit deep on the national heart of Germany. Finally, in that section of his works which we have been more minutely considering, he has superadded the palm of the Christian to the laurel of the bard and the hero, and proved how rich a hymnology may flower forth from the soul of one who, like Arndt, is simultaneously a poet, a patriot, and a believer. ART. IV. The History of Gibraltar, and of its Political Relation to Events in Europe, from the Commencement of the Moorish Dynasty in Spain to the Last Morocco War. By CAPTAIN SAYER, Civil Magistrate at Gibraltar. London: Saunders, Ottley, & Co. IN the present position of Europe, and more especially in the unsettled condition of the countries watered by the Mediterranean Sea, any history of the fortress of Gibraltar must possess for a maritime nation no common interest. To England the history of the rock fortress is of nearer concernment. Gained by the valour of her soldiers and sailors, it has been in the possession of the crown of England for nearly one hundred and sixty years; and after undergoing one of the most memorable and lengthened sieges of which there is any record in history-a siege which lasted three years, seven months, and twelve days -it is still possessed by that nation whose destiny it has been, and we trust it will ever be, to hold the trident of Neptune. No fortress in ancient or modern times has sustained so many sieges as Gibraltar. This alone would render the rock memorable in the annals of history. But when it is considered that the most protracted of these sieges has been sustained by Great Britain against the united arms of France and Spain, the interest of the volume before us becomes, so to speak, more personal and absorbing. We dwell on the details with a satisfaction not unmixed with a proper and justifiable pride, and we become more and more desirous of learning the earlier history of a place which has been beleaguered some fourteen or fifteen times by Moor, Spaniard, Englishman, and Gaul. Few are the works which have been written on Gibraltar in the English language. The records of its early history, under Mahometan rule, may be collected in the works of Gayangos, Condé, Ayala, and Montero, and there is a good deal touching its condition in the pages of the Jesuit Mariana, whose great history of Spain was originally written in Latin. But these are sealed books to the majority of English readers, and the folio edition of Mariana, printed in English a century and a half ago, is now rarely met with. Captain Stevens's work on Spain, in which some mention is also made of Gibraltar, is as difficult of procurement as Mariana; and we are acquainted with no other works than these, concerning the Mons Calpe, in the English language, if we except the 'History of the Herculean Straits,' given to the public by Colonel James in 1771, and Drinkwater's graphic 'History of 'the Siege,' published about fifteen years later, a work which had become very scarce till Mr. Murray ventured on a reprint, in 1845 or 1846, in a half-crown volume. Under these circumstances it was a happy thought of Captain Sayer to undertake the work at present before us. He has been for many years Civil Magistrate at Gibraltar, and in that capacity has had the fullest access to papers, records, and official documents of all kinds. Many original and unpublished letters from the Prince of Hesse, Sir George Eliott, the Duc de Crillen, Collingwood, and Lord Nelson, have been thrown open to him, and of these he has made a judicious use. Nor has he been content with such materials as he could find in the strong boxes of the rock itself. He has searched the Egerton, Leake, King, and other MSS., in the British Museum, and these papers have supplied Gibraltar most needful at this moment. 323 much interesting information relating to the sieges of the rock since its seizure by Sir George Rooke in 1704. Captain Sayer has also put Coxe's histories of the Bourbon Kings of Spain, and his memoirs of Sir R. Walpole, and the Chatham Correspondence, likewise under contribution, and from these and other sources he has gathered together into a compact form a mass of materials hitherto widely diffused through many separate volumes. There are certainly no new or striking views in this considerable and creditably executed history. But on the whole, though somewhat diffusely, Captain Sayer has executed his task with sagaciousness and judgment, rather than with brilliancy. There is no attempt at ornament or fine writing in these pages. The style, notwithstanding some repetitions, is generally clear and forcible without being laboured or overlaid, and is such as might have been expected from a well-educated practical soldier. Though the details here made known to us are in great part connected with ancient and mediæval history, yet they derive an attractive, we had almost said an absorbing interest, from the attempts now making by more than one European power to acquire maritime influence in the Mediterranean. France, it is well known, has ever since the days of Colbert sought to secure a preponderancy in that inland sea; and Spain, which during the last ten years has, thanks to foreign capital, made greater material progress than most European nations in the improvement of her army and navy, and in the development of her fine natural resources, again dreams of re-possessing a fortress which she occupied during the more brilliant periods of her history. Russia, crippled in the Black Sea by the result of the Crimean campaign, also seeks some indemnification in the Mediterranean; and the kingdom of Italy has already directed its best energies and aspirations to the creation of a fleet which may be a worthy counterpart of its considerable, distinguished, and improving army. Under these circumstances it behoves our country to be watchful. Never at any period of our history was the possession of Gibraltar more needful to us; never, indeed, was it so needful as at this moment. There is no record to prove that the Mons Calpe of the ancients-mentioned by both Greek and Roman authors, and more minutely described by Strabo, and Pomponius Mela, who was born at Tangier-or the Jebel Tarik of the Moors, was inhabited till 711, when it was occupied by Tarik, with his romantic, enterprising, and energetic Arabs and Berbers. It was not until this period of the Mahometan invasion that Gibraltar occupied a place in the history of the world. From this rock it was that the first footsteps of the Moslem host were planted. Hence streamed the mighty armies which crushed a powerful Christian monarchy, and established an infidel dynasty in Spain for upwards of eight centuries. It is not our purpose to dwell here on the history of the invasion of Spain by the Saracens, or on those prolonged struggles which resulted in the overthrow of the Gothic dynasty and the establishment of the Moorish dominion. Much of this so-called history is wrapt in the mist of fable; and it were as absurd to trust to the traditions of the Christians, as to the romantic and highly-coloured rhapsodies of the Arabians. This at least is probable, if not certain, that the first incursion into Spain was made by Ilyian, who landed at Algesiras; the second by Tarif, who landed at the present Tarifa; and the third and final one by Tarik, who disembarked at Gibraltar. At the time of Tarik's landing, Roderick, King of the Goths, was in the north of Spain, quelling an insurrection in the Basque provinces. He hastened southward with an army of 60,000 men. The two hosts came in sight of each other on the banks of the Guadalete. Various engagements took place for six days, with varying success; but on the seventh day the Christians at length gave way, fled in disorder, and were pursued without mercy by the relentless Moors. With this protracted and sanguinary struggle ended the dynasty of the Goths and Christian power in Spain for the long space of 800 years. Tarik rapidly overran the country, and penetrated to the capital, Toledo, which he captured and sacked. City after city presently surrendered to him, and ere the year had closed the Moorish dynasty was established. In 1086 Gibraltar was in the possession of Yusef ben Taxfin, a caliph of the Almoravides. The struggles between this leader and Alphonso of Castile throw no light on the history of Gibraltar; and the contests between Yusef and the Spanish Moors which resulted in the conquest of Tarifa, Algesiras, Granada, Seville, Badajoz, and Zaragoza, though considerable episodes in Spanish history, have little interest for the English reader. It was in 1309 that the rock was for the first time exposed to a regular siege. At this period Ferdinand IV. of Castile resolved to dislodge the Moors, and directed a large portion of his army, under Alonzo Perez de Guzman (el Bueno), against the fortress. After protracted operations and many engagements, the garrison, which consisted of 1,200 men, surrendered. In 1312 Ferdinand died, and was succeeded by Alonzo ΧΙ., under whose reign a religious chief, who prosecuted the war against the Christians with fanaticism, laid siege to Gibraltar; Various Fortunes and Sieges of Gibraltar. 325 but after an attack of short duration, he abandoned his efforts to regain a position which was already recognised as the key of Spain. In 1324 a Gallican knight, Vasco Perez de Meirà, was Governor of the fortress. He was a man of some military repute; but his most eminent defect was avarice, and during his term of office he embezzled the greater portion of the money appropriated for defence. After four months and a half of struggle the garrison capitulated, and the fortress was surrendered once more to the Infidels, after the Christians had held it for twenty-two years. On the 20th of August, 1462, after a comparatively bloodless siege, it again reverted to the dominion of the Christians. The success of this siege, and the important event of the annexation of Gibraltar to Spain, is attributable to Alonzo de Arcos. In 1464 King Henry, desirous of becoming acquainted with his new acquisition, set out from Seville to visit the fortress, already famous throughout Europe, but he was suddenly recalled by seditious outbreaks in his dominions. The ninth siege of Gibraltar was in 1466. For ten months the besieged held out with heroic courage. Enraged at the obstinacy of the defence, and resolved to conquer, the Duke of Medina Sidonia sent his son, Don Enrique de Guzman, from Seville with reinforcements. At length the besieged were reduced to the most terrible privations. Grass and roots were their only food, and when these were consumed they had recourse to their shoes and leather girdles. The men, prostrate with despair, began to desert, and Estevan de Villacrees, the Lieutenant-Governor in command of the garrison, finding himself without hope, delivered up the fortress in June, 1467, to Don Enrique de Guzman, after a most memorable defence. Gibraltar remained in the hands of the family of Medina Sidonia until Queen Isabella annexed it to the Spanish crown in 1501-2. In 1552, during the reign of Charles V., a celebrated engineer (Calvi, of Milan) traced out various works for the protection of the fortress; and in 1575 the gloomy and fanatical son of the abdicated Charles (Philip II.) sent an Italian engineer, named El Fratino, to increase the fortifications of the place. Several new batteries were at this period commenced and finished. In 1598 the son of Philip succeeded to the throne, and it was during his reign that the last remnant of the Moorish dynasty was expelled from Spain. From Gibraltar, where nine centuries before Tarik had landed with his victorious host, a fleet of galleys embarked the last of the exiles, and cast them destitute upon the shores of Africa. Thus, after the lapse of 900 years from the time when the battle of Guadalete extinguished the Visi |