Towards noon of the fifth day, we saw the dark, rugged mountains that guard the north-western corner of the Spanish Peninsula.  We passed the Bay of Corunna, and rounding the bold headland of Finisterre, left the Biscayan billows behind us.  But the sea was still rough and the sky clouded, although the next morning the mildness of the air showed the change in our latitude.  About noon that day, we made the Burlings, a cluster of rocks forty miles north of Lisbon, and just before sunset, a transient lifting of the clouds revealed the Rock of Cintra, at the mouth of the Tagus.  The tall, perpendicular cliffs, and the mountain slopes behind, covered with gardens, orchards, and scattered villas and hamlets, made a grand though dim picture, which was soon hidden from our view.

On the 4th, we were nearly all day crossing the mouth of the Bay of Cadiz, and only at sunset saw Cape Trafalgar afar off, glimmering through the reddish haze.  I remained on deck, as there were patches of starlight in the sky.  After passing the light-house at Tarifa, the Spanish shore continued to be visible.  In another hour, there was a dim, cloudy outline high above the horizon, on our right.  This was the Lesser Atlas, in Morocco.  And now, right ahead, distinctly visible, though fifteen miles distant, lay a colossal lion, with his head on his outstretched paws, looking towards Africa.  If I had been brought to the spot blindfolded, I should have known what it was.  The resemblance is certainly very striking, and the light-house on Europa Point seemed to be a lamp held in his paws.  The lights of the city and fortifications rose one by one, glittering along the base, and at midnight we dropped anchor before them on the western side.

I landed yesterday morning.  The mists, which had followed me from England, had collected behind the Rock, and the sun, still hidden by its huge bulk, shone upwards through them, making a luminous background, against which the lofty walls and jagged ramparts of this tremendous natural fortification were clearly defined.  I announced my name, and the length of time I designed remaining, at a little office on the quay, and was then allowed to pass into the city.  A number of familiar white turbans met me on entering, and I could not resist the temptation of cordially saluting the owners in their own language.  The town is long and narrow, lying steeply against the Rock.  The houses are white, yellow and pink, as in Spanish towns, but the streets are clean and well paved.  There is a square, about the size of an ordinary building-lot, where a sort of market of dry goods and small articles is held The “Club-House Hotel” occupies one side of it; and, as I look out of my window upon it, I see the topmost cliffs of the Rock above me, threatening to topple down from a height of 1,500 feet.