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many are aware. After visiting the fortifications, and several of the extensive galleries and passages cut through the rock, we walked to the signal rock, from which there is a fine view of the African coast. One of the men there lent us his telescope to look at an eagle's nest fully 1,000 yards distant, which was quite invisible to the naked eye, but which the telescope seemed to bring close to us. After looking a short time the old bird came. The two eaglets were nearly fledged. We then descended along the west side of the hill, which is thickly overgrown with briars and brambles, forming a complete thicket and safe shelter for the wild monkeys of Gibraltar. It is the only place left in Europe where monkeys are still living in a wild state.

Tuesday, 4 May, 5 a.m. The sun rose about an hour ago, and is now shining on the other side of the great rock; the golden splendour which it is shedding everywhere—except on ourselves and the west side of the great rock of Gibraltar, with the white neat-looking town nestling beneath it, which are all in shade-makes the scene very impressive. "Red in the morning is the shepherd's warning," and after so golden a sunrise it is hardly likely to be fine all day.—We start at 5.30, our Captain, with our Admiral's permission, taking a schooner in tow-it left Carthagena fourteen days. ago bound for England, and has been here two days weather bound, unable to make headway against the tide, current, and strong west wind that has been blowing through the Straits for some days. From the signal rock, yesterday, we counted 66 sailing vessels similarly weather bound, in the bay, on the Mediterranean side of Gibraltar. We steam out of the harbour as if making for the Atlas range and Pillar of Hercules, on the African side of the Straits, which look very imposing this is done to give a sunken rock, called the Pearl Rock, a wide berth. The strong sunlight on the Atlas mountains makes them appear quite near, although they are really five miles off. We see the little town of

Ceuta nestling beneath them on the sea shore, It was here

d

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STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR.

the fierce army of the followers of Mahomet appeared in 711 A.D., when 140,000 of them crossed over and invaded Spain like locusts, the immense host carrying all before them. Their landing was an event the more appalling as it was unexpected.

The Captain now steers along the Spanish coast, to avoid the strong current which continually flows inward from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean to supply the loss of water by evaporation in the latter. The evaporation would continually increase its saltness if it were not for the fresh waters of the Nile and other rivers pouring into it.

It is now seven o'clock, and the sun is quite hot—it has as much power at this early hour as in England at mid-day in summer-the sea is deep blue and almost perfectly smooth. The Spanish coast looks very green compared with that on the other side of Gibraltar, evidently caused by the mists and rain brought by the west winds from the Atlantic. At halfpast nine we were through the Straits, when the schooner Martha Lloyd was let go, and the Captain put up a signal of thanks, his crew giving a hearty British cheer three times. repeated.

We are now in sight of the lighthouse of Trafalgar; and our Admiral related to us some of the principal incidents of this great naval engagement, the greatest of the present century, in which Nelson was mortally wounded. He had been seeking the French fleet, and hoped to have been able to attack it before it was joined by the Spanish fleet, but he was not able to effect this, for they had already joined forces in the Mediterranean and were in the Bay of Trafalgar before he sighted them. This bay lies between Gibraltar and Cadiz. They were ranged in curved lines, with their bows towards the ocean when Nelson saw them, and although their strength was so vastly superior he did not hesitate a moment, but plunged into the attack, passing between the French men-of-war, and thus was able to fire down upon their sterns, while they were firing into each other-not able

THE KEARSAGE AND ALABAMA.

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to see from the blinding smoke, and supposing each other to be the enemy. One of the eye-witnesses stated that Nelson never spoke after he was mortally wounded, and that the remainder of the conflict was conducted by others. The battle was a crushing defeat to Napoleon, and England's naval superiority has been practically unchallenged since. The fact that Napoleon was able to keep back from the French people the news of the defeat for seven years is a striking contrast to our knowledge of passing events at the present day.

This conversation led us to ask Mr. Lancaster for an account of the battle between the Kearsage and Alabama, of which he was an eye-witness.

One Sunday morning in June, 1864, he was in his yacht, the Deerhound, in Cherbourg Harbour, when news was brought in that an engagement between the two vessels was imminent. At first he hesitated whether to go out; so put the question to the vote, when it was carried by a majority of one. They steamed near enough to the ships to watch them without running any great risk of danger. The battle lasted for one hour and two minutes, when the Alabama struck its flag and it was over. Mr. Lancaster ordered his yacht to draw near to the Kearsage, and asked the commander if he could be of any service. No! was the reply; but for God's sake save those in the Alabama. They were nearing the sinking vessel when, just before it went down, Captain Semmes, 13 officers, and 26 men leaped into the water. The Deerhound was then within a hundred yards of it, and Mr. Lancaster succeeded in saving Captain Semmes and nearly 60 of his crew. He took them to Southampton, where orders were given for them to be cared for. If it had not been for this prompt assistance, Captain Semmes and his comrades would have been lost. Although Mr. Lancaster had tendered his services to the Kearsage, in the first instance, he was unfairly charged by some with being a partisan of the South, and the fact that Messrs, Laird & Co.

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THE KEARSAGE AND ALABAMA.

were builders both of the Alabama and the Deerhound gave colour to this idea. It certainly was considered to be so by the Americans themselves, for Mr. Markham told us that long after, when the toast of the Confederate States was drunk, the name of Mr. Lancaster was always coupled with it in recognition of his services.

Mr. Lancaster made a sketch of the scene, which is engraved in the Illustrated London News of the 2nd July, 1864. He wrote, at the same time, the following description of the extraordinary spectacle:-"I have endeavoured to take the sketch just at the moment the Alabama was going down. We were then about one hundred yards from the sinking vessel and about twice that distance from the Federal ship, and between the two. Our two boats were a little ahead of us and pulling towards the wreck and crew, most of whom had jumped overboard, and were floating about on loose spars and other things. One of the Alabama's boats, after having taken the wounded on board the Kearsage, returned and picked up another boatful and then came alongside the Deerhound, where, to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Federals, she was sunk by some of the Alabama's men. The sides of the Kearsage were very much cut up, nearly all the chain-plates being exposed on the starboard side. Just as the Alabama went down, the mainmast, which had been struck by a shot, fell. The Kearsage boats were not lowered until after the Alabama had disappeared altogether." Captain Winslow, the commander of the Kearsage, wrote, that the officers of the Alabama told him that before she went down she "was a complete slaughter-house, and completely torn to pieces." Mr. Lancaster parted with the Deerhound, subsequently, for a larger yacht; but it was a great favourite of his. It is a very superior three-masted vessel built of steel, of about 190 tons (builders' measurement,) and when in usual trim could steam twenty knots— about two knots beyond the speed of the Alabama. He tells us that after the battle an unexploded shell was found

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in the stern of the Kearsage, firmly wedged in, and that if it had exploded it would probably have turned the fortunes of the day; such are the uncertainties of naval warfare.

We now see Cape Trafalgar disappearing behind us, and the plain of Zeres is not far distant, where the desperate battle between the Goths and Moors occurred in 712, the year after they landed, when, after three days fighting, the latter were victorious, and Roderic, the last Gothic King, either was killed or fled into Portugal never to return. We have just had some tremendous showers, succeeded by the finest rainbows possible, lasting an hour or more-three bows at once, the brightest almost close to us, with all the prismatic colours displayed to perfection; above, another less brilliant; and above these, a third with fainter outline. The rain and black clouds across the whole of our south-east horizon shew that the red morning was a true warning. The wind has changed, and a strong breeze has set in against us.

Wednesday, 5 May. We have had a wild night, and it makes us all the better pleased to be in smooth water in the Tagus. The sea outside is very rough, and the wind blowing a gale from the north. If we were to plough on against it our progress would be very slow, and though we should have enough coals to carry us to England, by the time we reached the stormy Bay of Biscay so little ballast would be left that, although perfectly safe, our vessel would become too buoyant and lively to be agreeable. Our Admiral, accordingly, has decided to coal at Lisbon, so that the Red Rose may carry us home more soberly and steadily. Upon dinner being ordered for us at the Braganza Hotel, the waiter asks—“ Are the giants come again?" alluding to three or four of us who literally seem giants compared with the ordinary population of Lisbon.

Thursday, 6 May. This is Ascension Day: a splendid cloudless day, and a grand festival of the Church. Our fine old English gentleman has been to church, and reports sixty

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