GIRELINES GICHTEL. 



443 



most valuable part is the Memoirs of his Life and 

 Writings, which are written with much apparent 

 frankness. The merits and defects of his great his- 

 tory, its elegance and research, as well as its occa- 

 sional indecency of allusion, and its sneers at revealed 

 religion, are too well known to need comment. 

 Niebuhr, the celebrated Roman historian, professes 

 to wish only to bring down his history to the com- 

 mencement of Gibbon's. 



GIBEUNES. See Guelfs. 



GIBRALTAR, a rocky promontory, from 1200 to 

 1400 feet above the level of the sea, lies at the 

 southern extremity of the Spanish province of Anda- 

 lusia, at the entrance from the Atlantic to the Medi- 

 terranean, on a strait about fifteen miles across ; lat. 

 36 7' N. ; Ion. 5 19' 4" W. It is seven or eight 

 miles in length, from north to south, and, in the 

 widest part, not half a mile in breadth. It is every- 

 where precipitous, and in some parts perpendicular. 

 Nature and art have conspired to make it an impreg- 

 nable fortress. It belongs to Great Britain, and is 

 kept up at a yearly expense, in time of peace, of 

 2OO,OOO. The revenue drawn from it is about 

 .40,000. The great works are on the western 

 front. The other sides, from their shape, bid com- 

 plete defiance to attack. The name is formed from 

 the Arabic words gibel al Tarif (the height, or rock 

 of Tarif), since Tarif Abenzaca, the general of the 

 caliph Walid, at the time of the irruption of the 

 Arabs into Spain (A. D. 711, et seq.), landed at the 

 foot of this rock (known as the Calpe of antiquity), 

 where he took the town of Heraclea. This town 

 undoubtedly owed its name to the story that this 

 rock, and the corresponding African promontory, 

 were called by Hercules his pillars, to indicate the 

 termination here of his various adventures. This 

 fortification has a numerous garrison. It was taken 

 from the Arabians by Ferdinand, king of Castile, in 

 1302. In 1333, they retook it, and were finally de- 

 prived of it in 1462, by Henry IV. The upper wall 

 of the Moorish castle, upon the north side of the 

 rock, which was surrounded by a triple wall, in the 

 Moorish fashion, has been suffered to remain to pro- 

 tect the town against artillery upon the landward 

 side. The site of the lowest wall is occupied by the 

 large battery, which was erected to protect the gate 

 upon the north : that of the second, or middle wall, 

 is occupied by private warehouses. The German 

 engineer Speckel, of Strasburg, in the reign of the 

 emperor Charles V., substituted, for the old Moorish 

 fortifications, works in the European style. In the 

 war of the Spanish succession, the Spaniards were 

 obliged to surrender this fortress, August 4, 1704, to 

 the British admiral Rooke, and prince George of 

 Darmstadt, then imperial field-marshal and viceroy 

 of Catalonia, who appeared unexpectedly before this 

 fortress in May of the same year. King Philip of 

 Anjou caused it to be attacked on the land side, 

 October 12, 1704, with 10,000 men, at a point where 

 the fortification is connected with the main land by a 

 narrow sandy neck, so fortified by the British that 

 the Spaniards called the works puerta defuego (the 

 gate of fire). At the same time, Gibraltar was 

 blockaded by sea by admiral Poyes, with twenty-four 

 sail of vessels. Just when it was reduced to extre- 

 mity, it received assistance from the Britisli and 

 Dutch fleet, under admiral Leake. The blockade by 

 land continued without any results, till the conclu- 

 sion of the peace of Utrecht, in 1716. Since this 

 time, nothing lias been omitted by Britain to render 

 this fortress, which is the bulwark of her Mediter- 

 ranean trade, absolutely impregnable. As, however, 

 the increasing value of the place rendered the pos- 

 session of it more desirable to Spain, the siege of it 

 was commenced March 7, 1727, but raised upon the 



approach of admiral Wager, with eleven ships ofitia 

 line. Spain then offered two millions sterling for the 

 delivery of the place, but in vain ; and by a com- 

 pact at Seville, in 1729, it agreed to renounce all iis 

 claims upon it. Still it omitted nothing to prevent 

 all entrance into the fortification, and to separate it 

 from the main land, by constantly strengthening the 

 lines of St Roch and Algeziras. But it was easy to 

 supply the inhabitants and garrison by sea ; and a 

 fresh spring flows from the rock ; the rain too, forms 

 collections of pure and sweet water in the cavities of 

 the cliffs. Cows, sheep, and goats find in this south- 

 ern clime a constant supply of green food upon the 

 rocks, and every spot of fertile soil is filled with 

 wild and cultivated fruit trees. In the war which 

 broke out between Britain and Spain, in 1779, the 

 last attempt was made for the recovery of Gibraltar. 

 (See Eliotl.) It was secured to Britain by the 

 peace of 1783. Since that time, in the various Bri- 

 tish and Spanish, and also French wars, Gibraltar has 

 only been blockaded on the land side. 



The town of Gibraltar stands not on the promon- 

 tory, but at its foot, and on the north-west side. Its 

 bay is nine miles long and five broad, and forms a 

 convenient naval station. Though fortified in itself, 

 its chief protection is derived from the batteries on 

 the neighbouring heights, which sweep both the 

 isthmus, and the approach to the town by water. 

 The last siege displayed the power of artillery in 

 every shape. The town was then almost entirely de- 

 stroyed; but it was afterwards rebuilt, on an im- 

 proved and much enlarged plan. The houses have 

 flat roofs, and large bow windows : they are gener- 

 ally painted black, with a white strip to mark each 

 story or floor : the black is intended to blunt the 

 dazzling rays of the sun. One large street traverses 

 almost the whole town : it is nearly half a mile in 

 length, and full of shops. In other parts, the inlia- 

 bitants are too much crowded, as was fatally exem 

 plified in the rapid spreading of the contagion in 

 1804. The population of the town, exclusive of the 

 garrison, is above 12,000, partly British, partly 

 Spaniards, Italians, Jews, and even Moors, all 

 attracted by mercantile enterprise. The place is a 

 general entrepot for the manufactures of Britain, and 

 other produce, such as sugar, mm, tobacco, rice 

 flour, wine, fruits, silk, and wax. The chief public 

 buildings are the navy hospital, the victualling 

 office, the barracks, and the house of the lieutenant- 

 governor. The places of worship are an English 

 church, a Catholic chapel, and three synagogues. 

 Here is also a small but elegant playhouse; and, 

 what is of great importance to officers stationed in 

 this secluded spot, a garrison library. 16 miles N. 

 Cetita, 70 S. Seville. 



Gibraltar, Straits of, form an entrance from the 

 Atlantic into the Mediterranean. The narrowest 

 part is a little to the west of Gibraltar, and fifteen 

 miles across. The ancients called them Gaditanum 

 and Herculaneum Fretum, or Straits of Hercules. A 

 strong and constant current flows into the Mediterra- 

 nean from the Atlantic ocean, in the middle of the 

 straits, while two feeble lateral currents issue from 

 the sea. But if an anchor be cast in the straits, a 

 lower current is found to prevail, setting out into the 

 ocean. 



GICHTEL, JOHN GEORGE ; a mystic and fanatic, 

 bom in 1638, at Ratisbon, in Germany. In his six- 

 teenth year, he pretended to have divine visions. He 

 then studied law, and seemed to have forgotten his 

 visions in his professional activity ; but he afterwards 

 resumed his pretensions, owing, perhaps, to domestic 

 troubles, the consequence of an unhappy marriage. 

 He renounced his fortune, and went to join Brekling, 

 a similar fanatic in Holland, in order to fit himssli 



