The Cruise of the Frolic

by William Henry Giles Kingston

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

  CINTRA--THE TAGUS--LISBON--CADIZ--GIBRALTAR--SANDGATE AGAIN--OLDFRIENDS--NEWS OF MY HEROINE.

  Two days after our narrow escape, as the rising sun shed his bright raysover the world of waters, we again made the land a little to thenorthward of the Rock of Lisbon. We could see with our glasses the vastconvent and palace of Mafra, built by that debauched devotee, Don JohnV. He had a notion, not uncommon at the present day, that, by rearingedifices of brick and mortar, he might thus create for himself a fewstepping-stones towards heaven. The building shows a front of sevenhundred feet at least towards the sea, with a lofty portico in thecentre, and is capable of quartering all the troops in the kingdom.When monks dwelt there they must have had ample space for exercise.

  Soon afterwards we came under the rocky heights of Cintra. Theysurround a perfect oasis, rising from the arid plains about Lisbon.Every one knows Cintra on account of its Convention, not over creditableto its executors; its convent cut out of the rock, and lined with corkto keep the old monks warm; and its palace, built by the talented andeccentric Beckford, now a mass of ruins. We just got a glimpse througha break in the rocks of its cork, orange, and citron groves, surroundedwith sweet-scented shrubs.

  Passing the Bay of Cascaes, a fresh breeze carried us by the whitecircular Bugio Fort, standing on a rock at the mouth of the Tagus, andwith a fair tide we ascended the river.

  In our company were a number of craft of all sorts, carrying flags ofall nations. Iron-moulded and weather-stained Indiamen, and Brazilianships surrounded by boats full of people, who had come out to welcomerelations and friends after a long absence; men-of-war, with theirpolished sides and snowy, wide-spreading canvas; heavily laden andheavy-looking English merchant-brigs, more esteemed for capacity thanfor speed, like London aldermen; tub-shaped, yellow-sided Dutchmen,laden with cargoes more formidable in appearance than in reality.Instead of being bomb-shells or round-shot, proving, on nearerinspection, to be Dutch cheeses, to be dreaded only by those of weakdigestion.

  Contrasted with the heavy-looking foreign vessels were the Portugueserascas, employed chiefly in the coasting trade, with their graceful,high-pointed, lateen sails, sharp bows, and rounded decks, and thenative schooners or hiates, with hulls not destitute of beauty, butrigged with masts raking at different angles, and gaffs peaked atunequal heights. There were also numberless sloops, and schooners, andboats of various sorts, the most curious being the Lisbon fishing-boat,shaped like a bean-pod, curving up at stem and stern, with a shortrounded deck at either end, and a single high lateen sail. A pilot whomwe received on board off the Bugio Fort took us close to the white towerof Belem, and its Gothic church at the western end of Lisbon, andbrought us to an anchor among a crowd of other vessels off BlackhorseSquare. Lisbon rising on several hills from the waters of thewide-flowing Tagus--here many miles across--is noted as a verypicturesque city; its white buildings glittering in the sun, crowned bythe dark frowning castle, and surrounded by suburbs intermixed withgardens filled with richly-tinted orange-trees and flowers of many hues.

  Gold and Silver Streets are handsome streets; and there are some finepalaces, and the Opera House is a respectable edifice, and has,moreover, a very good opera; but, though improved of late years, we weretold, in cleanliness, it is still a very dirty city, and the lowerorders have a marked inferiority to those we saw at Oporto. They are adarker, smaller race, with much Moorish blood in their veins, withoutany mixture of the nobler Gothic stream from which the inhabitants ofthe north have sprung. They are the fellows who have gained for thePortuguese the character of being assassins and robbers, which certainlythose in the north do not deserve. However, a strong government,liberal institutions, and a street police have pretty well put a stop tosuch proceedings even there.

  The best account I have ever read of Lisbon and its people, as they werebefore the French Revolution changed affairs not a little in most of thecountries of Europe, is to be found in Beckford's "Visit to the Conventsof Alcobaca and Batalha," and in his "Tour to Italy and Portugal."There is a rich, racy humour in his descriptions, which has seldom beensurpassed. At one of the convents a dance is proposed for theentertainment of the illustrious strangers, and while a few act asmusicians, the greater number of the oleaginous, obese monks tuck uptheir frocks, and begin sliding and whirling and gliding about with asmuch gusto as a number of school-girls at play. But we must be off tosea again.

  We lionised Lisbon, and paid a visit to Cintra, but as no adventureoccurred worthy of note to any of our party, I will not enter intodetails.

  Once more the "Frolic" breasted the waves of the Atlantic, her coursebeing for fair Cadiz. On the third day after leaving the Tagus, wedropped our anchor off that bright, smiling city. Its flat-roofedhouses give it somewhat of an eastern look, but it is far cleaner thanany eastern city. The houses are built after the Moorish fashion, andvery like the residences excavated at Pompeii. The colouring of theoutside is more in accordance with the taste of the luxurious Romans inthe days of their degeneracy, than with that of the ancient Greeks,which made them satisfied with softer hues; while the interior, on theother hand, is as cool and simple as the purest taste can make it. Nosooner had we furled sails than all hands were eager to go on shore, tohave a glimpse at the often talked of mantilla-wearing, fair, flirting,fascinating Gaditanas. The gig was lowered, and on shore we went.

  We were not disappointed in the appearance of Cadiz. The streets arenarrow, that the sun of that torrid clime may not penetrate into them,and those only who have lived in a southern latitude can appreciate theluxury of having a cool, shady road in which to walk. Verandas in frontof every window reach nearly half-way overhead; they are closely barred,and sometimes glazed, so that no impertinent eye can penetrate theirrecesses. These verandas are full of flowers, and overhung with ivy orother luxuriant creepers.

  The fronts of the houses are ornamented with various colours, as red,blue, yellow, green, and other tints; while the separation between eachhouse and each floor is marked by lines of red, thus giving the wholestreet a singularly bright and cheerful appearance.

  The gateway is the pride of a Cadiz house. Many we passed were veryhandsome. It was pleasant to look through them into the interior, wherethe column-surrounded patios with cool, sparkling fountains in theircentres, and shrubs and flowers of every hue, were indeed mostrefreshing to the senses. Every house is a square, with one or morepatios in the centre, their only roof the bright blue sky. Into thiscourt of columns all the rooms of the house open. Shade and coolnessare the great things sought for in that clime.

  We wandered up and down the narrow streets till we began to wish thatsome one would take compassion on us and ask us in; but nobody did, andour only satisfaction was the belief that we created a mighty sensationin the bosoms of numberless lovely damsels whose bright eyes we sawflashing at us through the thickly-barred jalouses.

  "Ah, my good fellows, but you did not see their small noses, thick lips,and swarthy skins," observed that unsentimental fellow, Bubble, thuscruelly depriving us of the only consolation we enjoyed. The fact wasthat at that early hour of the day no one goes abroad who can stay athome, except, as the Spaniards say, dogs and Englishmen, putting thecanine tribe before the biped. Fatigue drove us into a cafe, where wetook some refreshment, and in the evening we were somewhat repaid bywatching the crowds of bewitching damsels and gay cavaliers, whosauntered forth to enjoy the cool air, and each other's conversation.

  Cadiz is joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of sand, deprived ofwhich it would be an island. Opposite to it, across the bay, is PortSt. Mary's, the port of Xeres, where the sherry wine is embarked.

  The next day we visited that place to taste some of its celebratedwines. We were much captivated with some deliciously dry Mansanilla,inferior as it is in flavour, however, to the still more valuableAmontillado.

  But interesting as was our visit to Cadiz to ourselves, attractive aswere its far-famed dames, and delicious as were its win
es, my readerswill undoubtedly rather hear some of the more stirring events of ourcruise.

  Away, away, once more we went, bounding over the blue ocean. We were,however, destined not to find ourselves so soon inside the Mediterraneanas we expected. A dead calm came on, and for many hours we laysweltering under a sun not much less fierce than that of the tropics.

  It was very tantalising to remain thus almost in sight of the entranceof that classic sea we all wished to behold, and yet not be able to getthere. Once within the influence of that strange current which from ageto age has unweariedly flowed into that mighty basin, and yet never hasfilled it, we should have advanced with sufficient rapidity. Anotherwhole day tried our patience, and Hearty had begun to declare that,after all, he thought the Mediterranean could not be worth visiting,when, on the morning of the third day, a breeze sprung up, and thecutter began to slip through the water towards the Straits.

  The chief strength of the current is in the centre, far out of reach ofshot and shell from the shore on either side. I mention this becausemany people have a notion that the fortress of Gibraltar defends theentrance to the Straits. The fact is, that the narrowest part is sevenand a quarter miles wide; but that narrowest part we passed through at adistance of fifteen miles from Gibraltar, before we reached it. We didnot, indeed, see the Rock before we had passed the Narrows.

  The distance from the Rock to Ceuta, opposite to it on the Africancoast, is twelve miles.

  Gibraltar is formed by a tongue of land three miles long and one broad,with a sandbank joining it to the main, and terminating with a highpromontory. No one ever expected to make it defend the Straits, evenbefore steamers were introduced. The heaviest guns are turned towardsSpain; at the same time the sea-side is made inaccessible by scarping.Below the Rock is a belt of level land, on which the modern town isbuilt. The Rock has the form of a lofty ridge with three elevations onit, one at each end, and one in the centre. That in the centre is thehighest, and has the flagstaff planted on it. When we landed, we wentthrough the wonderful galleries excavated in the Rock. Theseexcavations have been going on since the time of the Moors, who, Ibelieve, made by far the largest number of them.

  They were wonderful fellows, those Moors. I have always felt a vastrespect for them when I have beheld their remains in the south of Spain.The reason of their success is, that they were always in earnest inwhatever they undertook. However, I don't want to talk here about theMoors. Gibraltar is a very curious place, and well worth a visit; withits excavated galleries, its heavy guns, its outward fortifications, itszig-zag roads, its towers and batteries, its narrow streets, its crowdedhouses, its ragged rocks, and its troops of monkeys, the only specimensof the family of simia, which reside, I believe, in a wild state inEurope. Gibraltar, in reality, from its geological formation, belongsrather to Africa than to Europe, it being evidently cut off from theAfrican mountains, and having no connection with those of Europe.

  It is a question for naturalists to solve how the monkeys came there--Idon't pretend to do so. We brought up in Gibraltar Bay, where the yachtlay very comfortably, and so do now our men-of-war. Should, however, awar break out with Spain, they would find the place too hot to holdthem, as the bay is completely commanded by the Spanish coast, wherebatteries could speedily be erected, nor could the Rock afford the shipsany protection.

  Now I have talked enough about Gibraltar; I'll however just describe it,like a big tadpole caught by the tail as it was darting away towardsAfrica. We spent some pleasant days there, and were very hospitablytreated by some military friends in the garrison. Malta, the Isles ofGreece, and the Levant, was our destination. I did not fail to makeinquiries respecting Sandgate; and, curious enough, I fell in with amerchant who had in his youth fought in the Greek War of Independence.He told me that a youth of that name, and who in every way answeredSandgate's description, had come out from England and joined the patriotforces. He was a brave, dashing fellow, but most troublesome from hisunwillingness to submit to any of the necessary restraints ofdiscipline, and utterly unprincipled. He had, however, plenty oftalent, and managed to ingratiate himself with some of the Greek chiefs,though the more respectable, as did the English Philhellenes, stoodaloof from him.

  "The truth is," said my friend, "many of those Greek chiefs had beennotorious pirates themselves, and I have no doubt Sandgate learned histrade from them."

  "I suspect very strongly that the man you describe and Sandgate are oneand the same person," I remarked. "It is curious that I should so soonhave gained a clew to him."

  The next day I again met my friend. "I have some further account ofSandgate to give you," said he, taking me by the button; "he'll givesome little trouble before his career is closed, I suspect. My Smyrnacorrespondent is here, and he tells me that he knew of Sandgate's beingthere, and of his selling his yacht. He served with me in the war, andknew him also: consequently, when he made his appearance he kept his eyeupon him. He traced him on board a vessel, in which he went to one ofthe Greek islands. From thence he crossed to a smaller island owned bya chief who had once been a notorious pirate, and was strongly suspectedof still following the same trade in a more quiet way. There he lostsight of him; but several piracies had been committed during the springby a craft which it was suspected had been fitted out in the island inquestion."

  "We certainly have in a most unexpected way discovered a clew to MrSandgate's whereabouts and course of life," I remarked. "It wouldalmost read like a romance were it to be put into print."

  "Oh, we have had many heroes of that description from time to time inthe Mediterranean," replied my friend. "There was that fellow Delano,who was hung at Malta a few years back, he was an Englishman--or aYankee, I believe rather. How many piracies he had committed I do notknow before he was found out, but at last he tried to scuttle a brig,which did not go down as he thought she had, so happily his intendedvictims escaped and informed against him. He was captured by aman-of-war's boat's crew, and he and his followers were carried inchains to Malta. Then there was a very daring fellow, a Greek, Zappa byname, who commanded a brig, and on one occasion attacked an Austrianman-of-war which he believed had treasure on board, and took her. Thenthere has been no end of Greek pirates of high or low degree.Gentlemanly cut-throats, princes and counts with fleets under theircommand, down to the disreputable owners of small boats which lie inwait behind headlands to rob unwary merchantmen who cannot defendthemselves. Oh! the Mediterranean has reason to be proud of theachievements of its mariners from the times of the pious Aeneas down tothe present day."

  From all I heard of Sandgate, indeed, I felt more and more thankful thatMiss Manners had so fortunately escaped from his power.

  Nothing worthy of note occurred to us during our very pleasant stay atGibraltar. The day before we had arranged to leave the place, whoshould we fall in with but Jack Piper, a lieutenant in the navy, and afriend and old messmate of Tom Mizen's. "Why, I thought we had left youat Plymouth!" I exclaimed as I wrung his hand.

  "So you did," he answered; "but I had been ordered to come out here andto join my ship. You know old Rullock, Mizen's uncle. He had justbefore commissioned the `Zebra' brig, for this station, and as she wasthe first vessel to sail, I got a passage in her. We had a fast run,and they only put me on shore here yesterday while she has gone toMalta. We had Mrs and Miss Mizen on board, and Mrs Mizen's niece,Miss Susan Simms" (Jack, I knew, rather affected Miss Susan, and helooked very conscious as he mentioned her name). "Very nice girl," hecontinued; "so kind of her, too, to come out just at an hour's notice totake care of her cousin, Miss Rullock, you know. You haven't heard,perhaps, that they are rather alarmed about Miss Laura. Caught a cold,somewhat ugly symptoms. Think her consumptive, so it was judged best tobring her out to spend a winter at Malta, and as her uncle was coming,the opportunity was a good one."

  "Ah! this news will be matter of interest to Hearty," thought I. "Weshall now see whether his feelings for Miss Mizen had any root, orwhether he was affecte
d by a mere passing fancy."

  "Poor girl! I am sorry to hear of her illness," said I aloud. "Maltais as good a place as she could come to, and I hope the change will doher good. We shall see her there, I dare say. Have you any commandsfor the ladies?"

  "Say I hope that my ship will be there before long," answered Piper,absolutely blushing through the well-bronzed hue of his cheek.

  He had been appointed as first lieutenant of the "Thunder,"sloop-of-war. She was expected at the Rock every day. Jack Piper wasnot very dissimilar in appearance and manner to Porpoise, and he was thesame sort of good-natured, frank, open-hearted fellow--just the man todo a gallant, noble action, and not to say a word about it, simplybecause it would not occur to him that it was any thing out of the way.There are plenty of such men in the service, and England may be proud ofthem.

  On quitting Piper I went on board the yacht, where we had agreed toassemble in the evening, to be ready for a start by daybreak. ShouldHearty not have heard of the "Zebra's" touching at the Rock, I resolvedto say nothing about the matter. If he really was in love with MissMizen, I might chance to spoil him as a companion, and if he did notcare about her, there was no harm done.