On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
at the foot of the mountain , and stretching itself on the beach like a wolf in the sulks it looks , spitefully casting up its halfclosed and blinking eyes at yonder huge rock opposite , and at the intruding banner which flaunts there . Leaving Algesiras , and following this course of sight to the southward , we see the channel
to the Atlantic , through which we lately came , closed in by Apes Hill , with Tangier nestled in a bay at its foot . Westward from Tangier , look along the dark bulwark of the waves , and opposite to Europa Point , dimly seen in the distance , is Ceuta , the only remnant of the olden Spanish prowess and chivalry in Africa .
By the way , I know not why Gibraltar should be called the key of the Mediterranean , except that it makes up a soundin g phrase for John Bull . It locks up nothing but itself , and can prevent neither egress nor ingress to the ' great sea , ' to any comer and foer that chooses . Nor how it commands the Mediterranean , can see . If it could contrive to stride or sail about , as occasion
required , it might indeed command ; but now , all that it locks or commands , is a good huge heap of official patronage : and all that is necessary to convince grumbling John Bull of the value , utility , commercial advantage ., safety , honour , and glory , of keeping Gibraltar , is the jingle of the key in his ear ; which , to him , is sounder argument than a voice from heaven would speak . Throwing the eye off Ceuta , it rests on , or shoots round , the
expanded Mediterranean , till the meeting sky and water limit the scope of , vision . But the most perfect of the novelties which my gaze encountered , was a privateer , of the build , rig , and trim of the regular xebeque , ( the antique gajley , ) the most picturesque of all coursers of the sea , little or nothing changed in shape and action for 2000 years ; the realization of one of those ships which
we build in imagination , when reading of Actium and Pompey , Antony and Cleopatra ; but very unlike those tub-round stem and stern machines which were also then known . The high , outstretching , overhanging poop , and the low beak pointed to the horizon , and sharp as a ploughshare , to cut its passage through the waves ; painted and gilded fantastically , if not always in fine taste , with white bottom , carved quarters , sides , and prow ; from
which sides , projecting in even lines , were two rows of twenty long oars , dipping uniformly into the bright water , and lifting , with each stroke , a curving mirror of molten silver : each of her three short masts supporting a long bending yard , from which hung idly a snow-white cotton sail , a thousand times bleached in the hot sun , and showers and wind ; and of that triangular shape , ( the human scapula , ) called latine : onwards she lifted along on
the smooth highway , and passed us in ceremonial silence , except with such sounds as were made by the dipping and rumbling of the oars , and the sharp tinkle of the dropping water from the oars' blades : leaving us to > wait till the breeze should come to waft us to our destiny , she passed on , and anchored before the
Untitled Article
226 Autobiography of Prf . Verju ice .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 226, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/70/
-