le but fair wind
which succeeded, we regained in three days and nights almost all our
lost way, and were on the point of doubling the Cape Gata. Here we
remained stationary in a dead calm during another three days, after
which an almost imperceptible movement in the air in the wished-for
direction bore us to within sight of Gibraltar.

This progress along the southern coast lasted three days more, and
introduced me to the climate of Andalucia. At the end of November it was
still a splendid summer--but with just sufficient air to prevent our
suffering from the heat. The blue Mediterranean at length vindicated her
fair fame, and proved that one of her smiles had the power of throwing
oblivion over all the harm of which she was capable during her moments
of fretfulness. As you will easily imagine, I passed these delicious
days, and nearly the entire nights on deck. Our view consisted of the
magnificent precipices which terminate, at the shore, the Alpuxarras
chain of mountains. These are coloured with the various tints peculiar
to the ores and marbles of which they are formed; and now showed us all
their details, although we never approached within twenty-five miles off
shore. The purity of the atmosphere added to their great elevation, gave
them the appearance of being only four or five miles distant. The only
means of proving the illusion consisted in directing the telescope along
the line of apparent demarcation between the sea and the rock, when the
positions of the different towns situated on the shore were indicated
only by the tops of their towers. Among others, the tower of Malaga
Cathedral appeared to rise solitarily from the water, the church and
town being hidden by the convexity of the sea's surface.

With the bright blue sea for a foreground, varied by continually passing
sails, these superb cliffs formed the second plan of the picture; while
over them towered the Granada mountains of the Sierra Nevada, cutting
their gigantic outlines of glittering snow out of the dark blue of the
sky, at a distance of twenty leagues. The evenings more particularly
possessed a charm, difficult to be understood by the thousands of our
fellow creatures, unable to kill that fragment of time without the aid
of constellations of wax-lights, and sparkling toilettes,--not to
mention the bright sparks which conversation sometimes, but not always,
sprinkles o'er the scene. Now I do not pretend to speak with disrespect
of _soirees_, no