30 
LETTERS FROM 
we steered direct for Cape de Gata, a pro¬ 
montory in Spain, about two hundred miles 
from Gibraltar. This course earned us a 
considerable distance from the land, but we 
were near enough to have a most magnificent 
view of the mountains of Granada, and espe¬ 
cially of the Sierra Nevada, or snowy moun¬ 
tain, so named from its summit being gene¬ 
rally, if not always covered with snow'. One 
of our fellow-passengers informed us that this 
mountain is the highest land in Spain. 
At eleven at night we were off Cape de 
Gata, or “ Cape de Gatt,” as it is usually 
called by sailors, who give this headland an 
ill name, and believe, or pretend to believe, 
that a misfortune of some kind almost always 
befalls them when they pass it. In proof of 
this, they are fond of repeating two fines: 
“ Oft’ Cape de Gatt 
I lost my hat.” 
