894 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



usually topped by a broad-brimmed vel- 

 veteen hat, for the pork-pie hat of the 

 north has been left behind now. 



the: great PAI.ACE: AT CINTRA 



Like the similar mountain of Busaco, 

 the "Rock of Lisbon" is scored by 

 ravines and dells innumerable, sheltered 

 valleys open to the soft sea-breezes 

 charged with grateful moisture, and 

 from time immemorial the luxuriance 

 and variety of its vegetation have been 

 proverbial. At a time when Lisbon, only 

 some 15 miles away, is sweltering and 

 breathless within its south-facing semi- 

 circle of hills, the slopes of the moun- 

 tain of Cintra are fresh and invigorating, 

 and some of its gardens are a veritable 

 paradise all the year round. 



The village of Cintra lies in one of the 

 folds of the great hill, at perhaps a third 

 of its height up the side. 



Sheer aloft upon a precipice a thou- 

 sand feet and more above its roofs there 

 stretch the mighty battlements and mass- 

 ive keeps of a huge castle of fawn- 

 colored stone — a castle so immense as to 

 dwarf Thomar, Leiria, and even Obidos 

 almost to insignificance. Long lines of 

 crenellated walls following the dips and 

 sinuosities of the crest of the peak ap- 

 pear to grow out of the mighty rounded 

 boulders, some of these great masses of 

 rock seeming to hang over perilously, as 

 they must have done for thousands of 

 years, top-heavy and threatening. 



The fortress must have been impreg- 

 nable by force, and indeed was only 

 gained at last from the Moors by trea- 

 son, the gate having been bought by the 

 Christians from an unfaithful guardian. 

 A narrow path cut on the face of the 

 precipice is the only practicable approach 

 to the fortress, and leads soon to yet 

 another gate flanked by a strong tower 

 built upon one vast, solid boulder. Yet 

 another strong gate tower we pass 

 through, and with a sudden turn we are 

 inside the fortress, on the right of us a 

 ruined chapel, once a mosque, and on the 

 left a watch-tower, with, at its foot, a 

 monument on which the cross is graven 

 surmounting the crescent, emblematical 

 of the fate of the adjoining chapel. 



To describe in detail this prodigious 

 ruin would be impossible in any reason- 

 able space. The summit of the crag 

 consists of two separate peaks at some 

 distance from each other, the higher one 

 occupied by the main keep, "the royal 

 tower," and long battlemented walls 

 reach from one point to the other, with 

 bastions at intervals and massive square 

 keeps at the salient angles. On all sides 

 within the great enclosure formed by the 

 battlements, covering the whole summit^ 

 remains of towers and buildings of vari- 

 ous sorts are scattered amidst the dense 

 growth of trees and brushwood that have 

 intruded upon the space. The battle- 

 ments are strong and perfect still, aud- 

 it needs but little imagination to people 

 them again with the turbaned and mailed 

 warriors, sheltered snugly behind them^ 

 watching for the advancing hosts of the 

 Christian king, certain that, so long as 

 Islam was true to itself, no force could 

 take this stronghold of their race. 



Upon the highest point of the rock of 

 Lisbon was King Manuel the Fortunate 

 wont to linger for hours and days for 

 many months together, climbing up from 

 his palace in the town below, that he 

 might gaze far out upon the Atlantic, 

 watching and praying for the return of 

 Vasco da Gama from his voyage to India 

 round the African continent, the route 

 that in two generations the impetus of 

 Prince Henry the Navigator had opened. 



There was but a tiny Jeronomite her- 

 mitage or penitentiary here in this savage 

 eyrie to shelter the anxious king, and 

 during his vigil he vowed that if the great 

 explorer came home successful he would 

 build upon the spot a worthy monastery 

 of the order in memory of the event. 

 The work must have been a prodigious 

 one, for even now the place is hardly 

 accessible by carriages, and the quantity 

 and the weight of material necessarily 

 brought from below was enormous. 



This monastery, like the rest, was dis- 

 established and secularized by the state 

 in 1834, and King Ferdinand, the consort 

 of the Queen of Portugal, and a first 

 cousin of Queen Victoria and Prince 

 Albert, bought the building for conver- 

 sion into a royal palace. 



