Ceuta

“ Every person who is acquainted with the situation of Ceuta, the rival of Gibraltar, must be very much astonished, that it should still be permitted to remain in the possession of the Spaniards, since a squadron of men of war, and a flotilla of gun and bomb vessels, might reduce it, even without the assistance, of the Moors; and thereby England would be sole mistress of the entrance to the Mediterranean. Convoys could collect in safety at Ceuta, and our trade in this sea be comparatively secure from annoyance. ”

“ They must suffer much in cold and rainy weather, as they have no other protection than a slight screen of branches, interlaced with straw or reeds.
Ceuta stands upon a narrow promontory that forms the eastern extremity of a spur projecting from the high range of Ape’s Hill. As this promontory is only the last in a series of conical summits that gradually diminish in height as they approach the Mediterranean, the fortress is completely commanded on the land side. ”

“ It is now a strong regular fortified town. Ceuta is thirty miles from Tangiers, and nearly opposite to the entrance of the bay of Gibraltar. It is nominally still in the hands of the Spaniards; but it is confidently rumoured, and believed, to have been ceded by treaty to the French. This important fortress has been, and is still, occasionally most awfully distressed for want of provisions; insomuch, that if closely besieged by land, by the Moors, and blocked up by the English by sea, it could not hold out any considerable time in possession of the French. ”

“ The little town that forms the kernel of these vast fortifications far surpassed our expectations. Say what we will, there is a vast gap between the condition of the least advanced countries of Europe and the barbarism from which no Mohammedan State has yet contrived to raise itself. Ceuta, however, is a very favourable sample of a Spanish town, and is far superior in aspect to most places of equal importance in the mother-country. ”

“ And as to the profit of our world from this achievement, East and West alike are good witnesses thereof, since their peoples can now exchange their goods, without any great peril of merchandise—for of a surety no one can deny that Ceuta is the key of all the Mediterranean sea. In the which conquest the Prince was captain of a very great and powerful fleet, and like a brave knight fought and toiled in person on the day when it was taken from the Moors ”

“ He assembled round him every pleasure and gratification that boundless wealth could purchase, but all in vain. He had no relish for the dainties of his board; music had no charm wherewith to lull his soul, and remorse drove slumber from his pillow. He sent to Ceuta for his wife Frandina, his daughter Florinda, and his youthful son Alarbot; hoping in the bosom of his family to find that sympathy and kindness which he could no longer meet with in the world. ”

“ As a coal store for the Royal and mercantile marine, as a dockyard for the refitting of vessels, as a free port for the storage of merchandise, Ceuta would offer the same advantages as Gibraltar in time of peace. As a dépôt for trade with Barbary, it would obviously possess many advantages over the Rock. Nor was this last argument to be despised, when the immense resources of Morocco [235] as a grain-producing country are considered. ”

“ Ceuta is the great Botany Bay of the Spaniards. There were here recently three thousand five hundred convicts; but two thousand have been sent off to Castille to work on some canal there; those left are the worst class, transported for not less than ten years and “retention,” which means that they may be kept as much longer as the governor thinks fit. After five years’ residence, they are hired out. ”

“ Most men had thought Ceuta too precious to be parted with, not because it was a Christian town, but because it was a strong fortress; and Enrique had the unspeakable pain of finding himself on the same side with men who cared nothing for his brother; and whose principles he despised.
“The king resolves,” he said, “on the strictest economy, to make this possible. He has changed his mode of living, and cut off his few pleasures, for our brother’s sake. He hopes that his nobility will follow his example.” ”

“ The streets of Algeciras are wide and regularly built, remarkably well paved, and lined with good houses; but it is a sun-burnt place, without a tree to shelter, or a drain to purify it. Being the port of communication between Spain and her presidario, Ceuta, as well as the military seat of government of the Campo de Gibraltar, it is a place of some bustle, and carries on a thriving trade, by means of felucas and other small craft, with the British fortress. The population may be reckoned at 8,000 souls, exclusive of a garrison of from twelve to fifteen hundred men. ”

“ A traitor came to his aid. Count Julian was governor of Ceuta, a Spanish city on the African coast. His daughter Florinda was maid of honor to the queen of Don Roderic. But word from the daughter came to the father that she had suffered grievous injury at the hands of the king, and Count Julian, thirsting for revenge upon Roderic, offered to deliver Ceuta into the hands of the Arabian warrior and aid him in the conquest of Spain. To test the good faith of Julian, Musa demanded that he should first invade Andalusia himself. ”

“ A war with the infidel never came amiss, and was in fact regarded as a sacred duty; moreover, Ceuta was a nest of corsairs who infested the whole Mediterranean coast. Up to the nineteenth century the seaports along the African coast of the Mediterranean were the hives of pirates, whose small rapid vessels were the terror of every unarmed ship that sailed in those waters, and whose descents upon the coasts of Spain, France, and Italy rendered life and property constantly insecure. ”

“ The high cultivation, the mutual affection, the deep piety, all the peculiar characteristics of the Princes of Avis, are matters of history, and I have only found it impossible to do justice to them. The personal appearance of the three eldest, and the special line taken by all of them with regard to the cession of Ceuta, indeed the whole tragical story, I found ready to hand, the only imaginary incidents being the meeting of Enrique and Fernando at Arzella, and the presence of the two boy princes at the siege of Ceuta. ”

“ Before Tangier.
“Who is there that wishes for more men from England!”
On the 22nd of August the fleet of the Infantes set sail from Lisbon, fourteen thousand men having been decided on as the number necessary for the expedition, and in due course arrived at Ceuta, where Dom Enrique, who had hitherto exercised but little personal superintendence, proceeded to review them, and to examine into their efficiency, Fernando assisting him. The sight of Ceuta recalled to them both that first campaign—so brilliant, so prosperous, so well-planned and executed. ”

“ Ceuta is included in the province of Cadiz. In 1900 the kingdom (exclusive of its colonies) had a population of 18,607,674, and a total area of 194,700 sq. m. It is thus rather more than twice the size of Great Britain, nearly 50,000 sq. m. larger than Japan, and nearly 85,000 sq. m. larger than Italy and Sicily. Exclusive of the Canaries its area is 191,893 sq. m. On all sides except that of Portugal the boundaries of continental Spain are natural, the Peninsula being separated from France by the Pyrenees and on every other side being surrounded by the sea. ”

“ Across the straits lies the rocky coast between Tangiers and Ceuta, a rampart of that vast continent, the last home of mystery, which has played so great a part in the lives of the present generation of Englishmen. And the Rock itself, detached, impregnable, is rich in English memories from Blake to our own day.
Yet to him who has preserved some shreds of his classical learning, the passage from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean has a still deeper significance. It marks the separation of the old and the new worlds. At the Pillars of Hercules the old world ended ”

“ For the excursion to Ceuta a passport visé by the Spanish consul at Tangier or Tetuán is required. A local boat crosses daily from Ceuta to Algeciras (p. 56) in 2 hrs.
From the Outer Market we follow the Fez road (Pl. C, 3–5; Camino de Fez) to the S., passing at some distance from the stone huts of the Berber villages (Duâr) in the fertile hill-country of the province of El-Fahs. Nearing the village of Aïn-Dalia, we pass below it, ride to the S.E. in view of the steep peak of Jebel Zinat, crowned with the ruined house of Raisuli, and ascend in the fertile valley of the Wâd Marhar (Tahaddart) . ”

“ It is well known to your Highness how the dwellers in this our town, from the time that Ceuta was taken even unto this present, have always rendered service, and do still render service, with their bodies and ships, in the war against the Moors, for the service of God and of the King our lord. And so in the time of the other kings, when the coast of this kingdom was harassed by the Moors, our ships were the first to arm against them, as it is found in writings and remembered in the memories of men of great age. ”

“ Dom Pedro was now regent, ruling for Duarte's [Pg 127] little son, Alfonso V., and besides the view which he had always held that the honour of the country demanded the surrender of Ceuta, he felt bound to carry out the late king's will, which directed him to deliver Fernando at any cost. But now it was not Ceuta that Lazuraque wanted, but a huge ransom, impossible for Portugal to raise, and till this was forthcoming the horrors of the prisoners' captivity were increased. ”

“ Some of these States had special quarters reserved for them at Tunis, Ceuta, and other towns; and all had their consuls in the thirteenth century, who were protected in a manner that the English agent at Algiers would have envied seventy years ago. The African trade was especially valuable to the Pisans and Genoese, and there was a regular African company trading at the Ports of Tripoli, Tunis, Bujēya, Ceuta, and Salē. Indeed, the Genoese went so far as to defend Ceuta against Christian crusaders, so much did commerce avail against religion ”

“ His earlier essays in exploration had been attempts, like the unconnected and occasional efforts of Spanish and Italian daredevils. It is from this year that continuous ocean sailing begins; from the time of his stay in Ceuta, Henry works steadily and with foresight towards a nearer goal well foreseen, a first stage in his wider scheme which had been traversed by men he had known and talked with. They had come into Ceuta from Guinea over the sea of the desert; he would send his sailors to their starting-point by the longer way, over the desert of the sea. ”

“ On the westernmost point—Almina, 476 ft. high—is a lighthouse with a light visible for 23 m. Ceuta consists of two quarters, the old town, covering the low ground of the isthmus, and the modern town, built on the hills forming the north and west faces of the peninsula. Between the old and new quarters and on the north side of the isthmus lies the port. The public buildings in the town, thoroughly Spanish in its character, are not striking: they include the cathedral (formerly a mosque) , the governor’s palace, the town hall, barracks, and the convict prison in the old convent of San Francisco. ”

“ Universal honor attended the name of the Constant Prince, the Portuguese Regulus; and seldom as the Spanish admire anything Portuguese, a fine drama of the poet Calderon is founded upon that noble spirit which preferred dreary captivity to the yielding up his father's conquest to the enemies of his country and religion. Nor was this constancy thrown away; Ceuta remained a Christian city. It was held by Portugal till the house of Aviz was extinguished in Dom Sebastiao, and since that time has belonged to the crown of Spain. ”

“ John on the throne, and the constant expense of maintaining the fortress of Ceuta, the country was too poor to be able to undertake a fresh expedition, and then the plague had carried off so many men that he did not know where the army was to come from. But the match had been put to the wood, and Enrique secretly went to the queen and asked for her help to persuade the king, promising that when he and Fernando should have conquered the north of Africa, they would go and live there, and leave their possessions in Portugal to her children. ”

“ Nisa told him the danger which threatened him, and Pamphilus having recourse to the remedy, took a speedy resolution to leave Spain. Nisa promised to follow him through seas and lands, (howsoever unknown) and a Portuguese knight who had a company in Ceuta offered to conduct him. Ceuta is a frontier tower of the Moors in Africa, not far from Tetouan, and as it were placed to confront Gibraltar, as the uttermost bound of Europe: by which place it is said the Moors entered, who under the leading of Julian conquered Spain. There remained our two lovers for some time in great peace ”

“ The estimated area and population of the Spanish possessions in Africa, exclusive of Ceuta, are shown below:—
Its extraordinary lack of population differentiates Spain from every other country possessed of equal natural advantages and an historic civilization. Spain occupies an unsurpassed geographical position; its resources are rich, varied and to some extent unexploited; its inhabitants include the Basques and Catalans, noted for their commercial enterprise, and the Galicians, noted for their industry. ”