TOPOGRAPHY OF GIBRALTAR. 



CHAPTER I. 



GIBRALTAR, considered either as one of Nature's 

 fanciful works, or as the key to the entrance to the 

 Mediterranean, has an interest associated with it 

 which is perhaps possessed by no other spot of 

 equally limited dimensions. For many centuries in 

 the possession of the Moors, it was maintained as a 

 stronghold, affording every facility for protecting their 

 interest in this part of Spain. After the fall of the 

 Moslem empire in Spain, Gibraltar belonged to the 

 Spaniards until the year 1 704, when it was captured 

 by Sir George Rooke, under the command of the 

 Prince of Hesse d'Armstadt, and since then it has 

 not been out of the hands of Great Britain. Many 

 were the attempts made to recover it from its present 

 possessors, and history records the severe sieges it 

 has sustained, the ever memorable one which lasted 

 three years seven months and twelve days, terminating 

 on the 2nd of February, 1 783, will be related as one 

 unequalled in the annals of ancient or modern war- 

 fare. Gibraltar has always been of importance to 

 Great Britain, but this is much increased since the 

 establishment of steam communication between the 

 mother country and India. 



