Scientific American Supplement, No. 711 | Page 5

century, it has preserved very little architectural evidence of its
antiquity. Rebuilt on an enlarged and improved plan after its almost
complete destruction during the great siege, it is still, on the whole, a
mean-looking town, with narrow streets and lanes and an incongruous
mixture of houses after the English and the Spanish types. As a
proprietor may at any moment be called upon to give up his house and
ground at the demand of the military authorities, he is naturally
deterred from spending his money on substantial or sumptuous
erections. The area of the town is about one hundred acres.
Gibraltar was known to the Greek and Roman geographers as Calpe or
Alybe, the two names being probably corruptions of the same local
(perhaps Phenician) word. The eminence on the African coast near
Ceuta, which bears the modern English name of Apes' Hill, was then
designated Abyla; and Calpe and Abyla, at least according to an ancient
and widely current interpretation, formed the renowned pillars of
Hercules (Herculis columnæ), which for centuries were the limits of
enterprise to the seafaring peoples of the Mediterranean world.
The strategic importance of the rock appears to have been first
discovered by the Moors, who, when they crossed over from Africa in
the eighth century, selected it as the site of a fortress. From their leader,
Tarik Ibn Zeyad, it was called Gebel Tarik or Tarik's Hill; and, though
the name had a competitor in Gebel af Futah, or Hill of the Entrance, it
gradually gained acceptance, and still remains sufficiently recognizable
in the corrupted form of the present day. The first siege of the rock was
in 1309, when it was taken by Alonzo Perez de Guzman for Ferdinand
IV. of Spain, who, in order to attract inhabitants to the spot, offered an
asylum to swindlers, thieves, and murderers, and promised to levy no
taxes on the import or export of goods. The attack of Ismail Ben Ferez,

in 1315 (second siege), was frustrated; but in 1333 Vasco Paez de
Meira, having allowed the fortifications and garrison to decay, was
obliged to capitulate to Mahomet IV. (third siege). Alphonso's attempts
to recover possession (fourth siege) were futile, though pertinacious
and heroic, and he was obliged to content himself with a tribute for the
rock from Abdul Melek of Granada; but after his successful attack on
Algeciras in 1344 he was encouraged to try his fortune again at
Gibraltar. In 1349 he invested the rock, but the siege (fifth siege) was
brought to an untimely close by his death from the plague in February,
1350. The next or sixth siege resulted simply in the transference of the
coveted position from the hands of the King of Morocco to those of
Yussef III. of Granada; and the seventh, undertaken by the Spanish
Count of Niebla, Enrico de Guzman, proved fatal to the besieger and
his forces. In 1462, however, success attended the efforts of Alphonso
de Arcos (eighth siege), and in August the rock passed once more under
Christian sway. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, a powerful grandee who
had assisted in its capture, was anxious to get possession of the fortress,
and though Henry IV. at first managed to maintain the claims of the
crown, the duke ultimately made good his ambition by force of arms
(ninth siege), and in 1469 the king was constrained to declare his son
and his heirs perpetual governors of Gibraltar. In 1479 Ferdinand and
Isabella made the second duke Marquis of Gibraltar, and in 1492 the
third duke, Don Juan, was reluctantly allowed to retain the fortress. At
length, in 1501, Garcilaso de la Vega was ordered to take possession of
the place in the king's name, and it was formally incorporated with the
domains of the crown. After Ferdinand and Isabella were both dead the
duke, Don Juan, tried in 1506 to recover possession, and added a tenth
to the list of sieges. Thirty-four years afterward the garrison had to
defend itself against a much more formidable attack (eleventh
siege)--the pirates of Algiers having determined to recover the rock for
Mahomet and themselves. The conflict was severe, but resulted in the
repulse of the besiegers. After this the Spaniards made great efforts to
strengthen the place, and they succeeded so well that throughout
Europe Gibraltar was regarded as impregnable.
In the course of the war of the Spanish succession, however, it was
taken by a combined English and Dutch fleet under Sir George Rooke,

assisted by a body of troops under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt.
The captors had ostensibly fought in the interests of Charles Archduke
of Austria (afterward Charles III.), but, though his sovereignty over the
rock was proclaimed on July 24, 1704, Sir George Rooke on his own
responsibility caused the English flag to be hoisted,