Certainly If
There Be A Land And A Spot Where The Name Of That Good Patriot Is
Not Sometimes Mentioned And Sung, That Land, That Spot Is Modern
Spain And Modern Tarifa.
I have heard the ballad of Alonzo Guzman
chanted in Danish, by a hind in the wilds of Jutland;
But once
speaking of "the Faithful" to some inhabitants of Tarifa, they
replied that they had never heard of Guzman the faithful of Tarifa,
but were acquainted with Alonzo Guzman, "the one-eyed" (el tuerto),
and that he was one of the most villainous arrieros on the Cadiz
road.
The voyage of these narrow seas can scarcely fail to be interesting
to the most apathetic individual, from the nature of the scenery
which presents itself to the eye on either side. The coasts are
exceedingly high and bold, especially that of Spain, which seems to
overthrow the Moorish; but opposite to Tarifa, the African
continent, rounding towards the south-west, assumes an air of
sublimity and grandeur. A hoary mountain is seen uplifting its
summits above the clouds: it is Mount Abyla, or as it is called in
the Moorish tongue, Gibil Muza, or the hill of Muza, from the
circumstance of its containing the sepulchre of a prophet of that
name. This is one of the two excrescences of nature on which the
Old World bestowed the title of the Pillars of Hercules. Its
skirts and sides occupy the Moorish coast for many leagues in more
than one direction, but the broad aspect of its steep and
stupendous front is turned full towards that part of the European
continent where Gibraltar lies like a huge monster stretching far
into the brine.
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