82 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



distant rises considerably above the nearer verdant 

 hills, which gently ascending, rest on the steeper 

 and more naked ridges of the others, and inter- 

 sected by many little valleys, extend without any 

 abrupt declivities towards the sea. On two of 

 the extreme points of this cape there are still 

 standing some Moorish watch-towers, and further 

 to the west, we saw the sandy cape of Trafalgar, 

 celebrated for the victory of Nelson. A blue 

 streak higher towards the N. W. which terminates 

 in the narrow Cabo de S. Sebastian, was the last 

 point of the European continent which we were 

 able to see. The mountains on the African side 

 of the strait were, for the most part, enveloped in 

 mist ; they, however, appeared to us in their gene- 

 ral outline to resemble those of the Spanish coast. 

 At four o'clock we passed Tangiers at a distance 

 of three or four leagues ; we could clearly dis- 

 tinguish tlie town with its small, flat-roofed houses, 

 surrounded with walls, and low square towers, 

 behind which are steep limestone hills, and here 

 and there detached masses of rock. At five 

 o'clock, Cabo Spartel lay about six leagues distant 

 in E.S.E. ; the thought of leaving two quarters of 

 the world to proceed to a third, affected us all. 

 The vicinity of ancient Africa, which has remained 

 the same for centuries, without improvement, the 

 recollections of the boundaries which antiquity 

 believed were set by these straits to its enterprises ; 

 the tradition of the happy Atlantis, which we 



