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MAKSIMILIAN AUGUSTI MYHRBERG

Suomeksi kokoon pannut

J. KROHN

Werner S?derstr?m, Porwoo, 1881.

Ruotsinwallan aikana oli hywin tawallista ett? ruotsalaisia miehi? l?hetettiin meid?n maalle wirkamiehiksi. Sill? lailla my?s saapui Suomeen wiime wuosisadan lopulla ruotuw?en kapteeni Antti Myhrberg, joka sai tulliherran paikan Raahen kaupunkissa. Eik? aikaakaan, niin kiintyi h?n uuteen kotiinsa wiel? lujemmilla kuin wirkawelwollisuuden siteill?; h?nen n?et onnistui saada omaksensa kaunis ja moniawuinen neiti Kristiina Sowelius, jonka suku -- perisuomalaista Sowioin kantaper?? -- oli Raahen wanhimpia, rikkaimpia. Yht?hywin muutti kapteeni Myhrberg sotawuonna 1808 takaisin synnyinmaallensa, lieneek? h?nen sitten, niinkuin muutamat kertowat, t?ytynyt soturina rient?? paikalleen armeijassa wai joku muu syy ollut waikuttimena. H?nen waimonsa ei kuitenkaan seurannut h?nt? Ruotsiin; h?n j?i lasten kanssa -- niit? oli wiisi poikaa ja yksi tyt?r -- asumaan Knuuttilan tilalle likell? Oulua, miss? kaupungissa kapteeni wiime aikoina oli tulliwirkaansa toimittanut.

Merkillist? ja sangen huwittamaa on kuulla kuinka n?m?t ?idin kertomukset aiwan eri lailla, kunkin erilaista luonnetta my?ten, waikuttiwat lapsiin. Muut weljekset -- joista useammat sitten tuliwat merikatteineiksi -- kuulteliwat mielimmin juttuja Kolumbus'esta tai muista matkaajoista kaukaisilla mailla. Mutta kolmas poika ei tyytynyt ennen kuin sai ?idin tarinoimaan Kreikan ja Rooman urhoista; silloin h?n wasta kuulteli koko syd?mmest??n, suu auki, silm??k??n r?w?ht?m?tt?.

Noin kaikin puolin warustauneena l?ksi h?n er??ss? Suomen laiwassa Lissabon'iin, josta sitten jatkoi matkansa maata my?ten Espanjaan. H?nen olostansa t?ss? maassa owat tiedot sangen w?h?iset ja h?m?r?t, wiel?p? ristinriitaiset. Muutaman kertomuksen mukaan oli h?nen perille joutuessaan kapina juuri tullut kukistetuksi kuninkaalle awuksi rient?neen franskalaisen armeijan kautta. Toinen, niinkuin wasta saamme n?hd?, luotettawampi tarina sit? wastoin wakuuttaa h?nen wiel? saaneen ottaa osaa Riegon wiimeiseen urhoolliseen wastarintaan. Myhrberg joutui wangiksi. Ulkomaalaisena h?n pelastui niist? armottomista rangaistuksista, joilla kuningas Ferdinand kosti wapauden toiwojille; h?n wietiin waan ulos maasta Marseillen kaupunkiin.

Akka tielt? k??nteleikse, Eip? mies pahempikana,

Myhrberg tiesi ett? noiden kurjain Kreikkalaisten lapset ja lastenlapset, jos wapaudessa saisiwat synty? ja kaswaa, jo tulisiwat ihan toisenlaisiksi ihmisiksi, ja t?m?n wapauden puolesta oli h?n walmis kaiiki woimansa ponnistamaan, wiimeisenkin werenpisaransa wuodattamaan.

Pari juttua l?ytyy, jotka mainitsewat Myhrberg'in olleen l?sn? Missolonghin toisessa piirityksess?, joka kesti Huhtikuun lopusta Lokakuun keskipaikoille 1825. T?m? seikka on kuitenkin ep?ilt?w?. Toinen noista jutuista, niinkuin wasta saamme n?hd?, ei nimitt?in ollenkaan sowi t?h?n tilaisuuteen, ja toinen on yht? mahdollisesti woinut tapahtua muualla. Se kumminkin on jokseenkin warma, ett? me jo kauan aikaa ennen piirityksen loppua tapaamme Myhrberg'in kaukana Missolonghista, Korean niemimaalla.

Luultawasti oli Boggarin surma tapahtunut t?m?n ankaran taistelun edellisen? y?n?. Gordon'in historiassa n?et on kerrottu, ett? Jadwier'n ratsuw?ki silloin oli l?htenyt er??sen laaksoon hein?? hewosilleen niitt?m??n. Siin? joutuiwat he kuitenkin pahaan pulaan, koska Turkkilaiset piiritt?w?t heid?t, ymp?rill? olewille jyrkille wuoriseinille kawuttuaan. T?in tuskin waan p??siw?t kreikkalaiset ahtaan solan kautta ulos, menetetty??n kuitenkin muutamia miehi?, joilta Turkkilaiset hakkasiwat p??t poikki ja weiw?t pois woitonmerkiksi.

T?h?n aikaan, josta nyt t?ss? wiimein on ollut puhe, ei Myhrberg muuten ollutkaan en?? Kreikanmaalla. H?n joutui pian riitaan omaa woittoa pyytelew?n Capo d'Istrian kanssa ja luopui wirastaan. H?n meni nyt Maltan saareen, jossa oleskeli jonkun aikaa sotakumppalinsa ja yst?w?ns?, usein jo mainitun historioitsijan Gordon'in luona, seuraten sitten my?s t?m?n kanssa matkalla Espanjan kautta.

Ensimm?iset waarat ja wastukset kohtasiwat h?nt? jo t??ll?, ennenkuin h?n wiel? oli sotatanterellekaan saapunut. It?walta ja Preussi n?et, pel?ten omiakin Puolan jaossa saatuja alusmaitansa, eiw?t suinkaan suoneet menestyst? kapinalle, waan kokiwat kaikin tawoin est?? awun tuontia ulkoa.

W. 1852 tuli h?n j?lleen Suomeen, enon kuoltua h?nelle j??nytt? omaisuutta perim??n. Niill? asioilla Pohjanmaalla k?ydess??n, tapasi h?n yhden lapsuutensa talonpoikaisista leikkikumppaleista Knuuttilan omistajana. Is?nt?, puheltua kaikellaisia muinaisista ja nykyisist? ajoista, ehdoitti hyw?ntahtoisuudessaan wiimein ainoan tytt?rens? puolisoksi Myhrberg'ille; sill? laillahan t?m? tai kumminkin h?nen perillisens? saattoi j?lleen saada h?nen entisen kotitalonsa omakseen. Myhrberg kiitti, mutta sanoi asian waatiwan tarkempaa miettimist? -- warsinkin tyt?n puolesta. Seuraawat wuodet wietti h?n weljens? luona Espoon kartanosa samannimisess? pit?j?ss? liki Helsinki?. Mutta kun It?maansodan aljettua Englannin ja Franskan sotalaiwastot saapuiwat meid?n rannoille, joutui h?n j?lleen ep?luuloin alaiseksi niin ett? h?nen t?ytyi l?hte? takaisin Ruotsiin, josta ei koskaan palannutkaan en?? t?nne.

In Gibraltar, there is little trade except contraband; the natural commerce having been systematically discouraged, that the martial departments might not be troubled, and with the view of reducing it to a mere military establishment. The fiscal regulations of Spain, which sustain this traffic, would long since have fallen but for its retention by England. We, therefore, lose the legitimate trade of all Spain for the smuggling profits at this port.

Gibraltar does not command the Straits. It does not present means of repairs for the navy. It does not afford shelter for shipping in case of war. It does not advantage, but seriously incommodes our trade. It does not afford the means of invading or of overawing, or even in any way annoying Spain, however much it may irritate her; for no fertile country, populous region, or wealthy city is exposed to it, and there is no highway by land or sea which it can command.

Gibraltar was all that England did get out of that war, and as this robbery went a great way to ensure her discomfiture, and to establish Philip the Fifth upon the throne, we may consider Gibraltar as the cause of the first of those ruinous wars which, made without due authority, and carried on by anticipations of Revenue, have introduced among us those social diseases which have counterbalanced and perverted the mechanical advancement of modern times.

Gibraltar was confirmed to us at the Treaty of Utrecht, but without any jurisdiction attached to it, and upon the condition that no smuggling should be carried on thence into Spain. These conditions we daily violate. We exercise jurisdiction by cannon shot in the Spanish waters . Under our batteries, the smuggler runs for protection; he ships his bales at our quays; he is either the agent of our merchants, or is insured by them; and the flag-post at the top of the Rock is used to signal to him the movements of the Spanish cruisers.

We take it for granted that Gibraltar has been honourably, some will even say chivalrously, won in fair fight; that it has been secured by treaty and is retained on duly observed conditions; or, perhaps, we never trouble ourselves about such matters, and imagine, therefore, that other nations are equally indifferent; but if any one of us would take the trouble to imagine the fortress of Dover in the possession of France, or Austria, or Russia, he would then comprehend why Napoleon said that "Gibraltar was a pledge which England had given to France by securing to herself the undying hatred of Spain."

Now let us see the cost. The first item in the account is the Spanish War of Succession. From the consequences of that war and the retention of Gibraltar, the family compact of the Bourbons arose. The subsequent European wars are thus partly the cost-price of Gibraltar.

We have had experience of Gibraltar for a century and a half: we have carried on great wars during that time, maritime and territorial combined. The Mediterranean, as much as the ocean, has been the field of our operations. Spain has been the arena of contest. In the history of time, there has been no series of events so calculated to bring out the value of this fortress, if it had any , yet what have we to show?--Merely a position which we have defended. We have never acted from it; we have never invaded Spain by it; we have never supported Spain through it; we have never refitted at it. It has figured in war solely in consequence of operations against it, or by the necessity of accumulating and locking up there our resources for its protection.

Gibraltar is the very point where it would be desirable for Spain that an invader should land. It is the apex of a rocky province, well defended and destitute of towns and subsistences. Without the command of the sea, you cannot attack Spain from the sea; and having that command it is the plains of the Guadalquiver you would seek, the open entrances into Grenada and Valencia. It would be the towns of Malaga, Cadiz, and Barcelona--there the vital parts are exposed.

The Carthaginians attacked Spain from Africa. The Romans, like the English, supported Spain; at least, they began by doing so. Yet neither Carthaginian nor Roman fixed upon Gibraltar. Scipio has told the whole story, and Livy has preserved his words, yet no one seems to have read them. They are of special value; for the contest for Spain, and through Spain, for the world, was not so much between Rome and Carthage, as between two families, the Scipios and the Barcas. The passage I refer to, is in Scipio's speech to the soldiers before the walls of Carthagena, the spot where Spain was most vulnerable from Africa, and where Africa might be most heavily struck from Spain.

Gibraltar now lives on its former credit. There are no Scipios or Hannibals now-a-days, nor even Napoleons or Walpoles. We are now men learned in facts. Gibraltar being a place of great strength, it is assumed to be a place of great value, and we are perfectly content with having for the sake of it disturbed Europe, endured the abomination and the load of public debt, sullied our name, and squandered our treasure. And yet this cost would not be wholly vain, if the word "Gibraltar," could but bring some of that blood to the cheek of the Englishman, which it causes to rush to the heart of the Spaniard. No doubt there is for the Spaniard, a conflict of disgusts, and he has severally been under obligations to England and France, when spoiled by the other; but that has been, as regards him only, a temporary relaxation of wickedness and perfidy, and in aiding him, each has only been opposing its own antagonist.

GIBRALTAR AS EXHIBITED IN MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK.

FOOTNOTES:

The last one disappeared while I was at Gibraltar.

This Vandalism was gazetted, and the turret termed "Stanley Tower."

Afterwards, at Madrid, Don P. Gayangos referred me to Ibn Batuta as fixing the date in the fourteenth century. On consulting that traveller, I find that he spoke of repairs under Abn El Haran, who ascended the throne of Fez in 1330. An inscription which existed in the last century, and of which a fac-simile is given in Col. James's History of Gibraltar, seems to fix the date at A.D. 750. The following is the passage from Ibn Batuta:--"A despicable foe had had possession of it for twenty years, until our lord the Sultan Abn El Haran reduced him; he then rebuilt and strengthened its fortifications and walls, and stored it with cavalry, treasure, and warlike machines."

There is nothing more amusing than to hear a merchant of Gibraltar speaking about "right" and "treaties." It is the only place where you hear such words. Yet their commerce is smuggling, which is here alone on earth interdicted by treaty.

ALGECIRAS--TARIFA.

Towards the end of August I determined to profit by the last of the fine weather, and to take a cruise in and about the Straits, shaping my course by the will of the winds. Police and quarantine regulations are in this neighbourhood perplexing; so I first sailed to Algeciras to get letters of introduction, and such papers as would admit me at Ceuta, and the other Spanish Presidios on the African coast.

I observed also at Algeciras, that a black cord tied to a walking stick, is the mark of judicial authority, whether civil or military, and is said to be a practice of the Goths.

We walked in very pretty gardens of a social kind--at once public and private; they are laid out in stars, the paths diverging from centres. The gardens are separated from the path by a small ditch and a low hedge, enough to keep out an intruder, but not to intercept the view; so that each person has the profit of his own grounds, and the sight of all the others.

Algeciras was rased immediately on its capture, and has never been restored. That event preceded, by two years, the battle of Cressy, which England gained partly by her first use of gunpowder. Was this art, then, learned at Algeciras? There were English auxiliaries in the ranks of the besiegers.

The Chinese, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, used not merely gunpowder, but bombs, against the Moguls. Nothing can be more clear than the description of the latter in the Turkish writers quoted by D'Ohsson in his history of the Mogul conquests. From China and the Tartars, the discovery might have passed, as paper did, to the Arabs. The link was established between Pekin and the Amoor, the Amoor and the Oxus, the Oxus and Bagdad, Bagdad and Cordova. But indisputably the Saracens were working their way towards the discovery--the granulation of that composition, which was all that Friar Bacon, the pupil of the Moors, wanted to convert his crackers and squibs into cartridges.

This region has been fertile in destructive inventions. Gunpowder was first used for mining by the Spaniards at Baza, about 1480, superseding the old practice detailed in Timour's Memoirs, which was, to set fire to the beams which supported the roof of the mine after it had been carried under the walls.

It was in the Straits of Gibraltar, before Ceuta, that artillery was first introduced afloat, in 1518, by Don Gonzalo Zarto, in the service of Don John of Portugal.

It was at the last siege of Gibraltar that shells were thrown horizontally, and that red-hot shot were first used. But antiquity also furnishes her share of discoveries. It is not travelling too far to set down as belonging to the same list, the sling of the Balearic Islands, and the leaden bullets which, as AElian tells us, the Romans obtained from Morocco. The battering-ram was first used at Cadiz, during the short struggle between the Phoenician colonists and their unnatural brothers of Carthage. The Iberian sword borrowed by Rome, may also be recorded in presence of the first Roman colony--Carteia.

We were under weigh at daylight with a light wind; but were baffled all day by the currents. There was no room to complain of detention with such a panorama--so many monuments of man to recall, and such a phenomenon of Nature as the currents to pry into. Close on the right were the brows and bays of Andalusia bearing strange-looking towers. On the left the bold and beautiful mountains of Abyla. Behind, the rock of Gibraltar presents itself as a point isolated from the land, and in the middle of the Mediterranean. Before us opened the ocean, from which rushed in the never-tiring stream. In the bay which we had quitted stood Carteia, founded and peopled by the inhabitants of the coast of Palestine. On the African shore, opposite its rival in antiquity, if not in splendour, Ceuta. On the western coast of the African strait, the Bay of Tingis, the country of Danaus and Antaeus, and round the European shore, opposed to it, Gadera, and the enchanted island of Circe. On the one side the gardens of Hesperus, on the other the fields of Hades, and between, the road to the Cassiterides. I saw before me the worshipper landing to visit the sacred groves of Calpe, and then threading his way through the then narrow passages of the channel, I could read in his thoughts and catch from his tongue the names of Atlas and of Hercules, as he saluted the one and invoked the other. Not Greece alone, nor Phoenicia, nor Egypt; not the known only, or the imagined, but all these together, seemed to converge to this passage and to settle on this spot. The great shades of the past wandered among the clouds, and the memory of every people floated upon the bosom of the stream. Had that forehead of Africa been adorned with its ancient clusters of the vine; had it borne hamlets, villages, and towns; had the ploughman and the herdsman been there, I might have admired the richness of the landscape, but should not have known its power.

I landed on Pigeon's Island to fish, but was soon lost in the problem, what becomes of the water which pours in? But I have already bestowed upon the reader my thoughts on this subject. Suddenly the wind veered round to the north-east, so we were immediately on board, and dashing away for Ceuta; but the wind dropping as suddenly, we again made for the European coast, and, aided by the tide, about midnight reached the rocky island of Tarifa, which projects into the Straits at nearly the narrowest part, and is joined by a causeway to the land. Scarcely had we come to an anchor under the rock, when it began to blow heavily from the east, the current running strongly from the west. We were entirely sheltered from both, but not from the roll of the sea; yet in the midst of this raging storm and boiling sea, stunned by the one, and tossed by the other--we felt not a breath of wind.

As morning broke, a dismal prospect presented itself--the water white with foam, and the heavens black. We were close under the rock, with a sort of cave or cavern abreast of us: boats were lying within, for their masts appeared over a breakwater of loose rocks. We durst not attempt to weather the point, and every moment were exposed to the utmost peril by the slightest shift of wind or current. The long and varied sweep of the Moorish battlements became visible through the sleet, lighting up gradually, and changing as if presented on a stage: suddenly a long boat, well manned, emerged as if from under water, and casting us a line, towed us into the entrance, which looked landwards, and had hitherto been concealed from us. We struck once or twice on a bar, and the very moment that we cleared the jetty, a sudden gust from the north laid us on our beam-ends, and swinging inside instead of out, we were not dashed to pieces.

We had to stand nearly two hours, dripping and shivering, till the necessary sanitary formalities were gone through, and the permission of the governor to enter the town, received. Of this we availed ourselves with more alacrity than speed, in drenched clothes and water-logged boots, over soft wet sand. We entered this strange town through the gate of Guzman the Good.

I found myself at the Posada for the first time, under a gipsy roof. The author of "The Gipsies in Spain" has selected this house as the scene of the most salient incident of his work. In it he exhibits the gipsy race with diabolical features, and under circumstances scarcely credible. Nevertheless, the story tended rather to diminish my distrust, than to augment it, for here it was no midnight adventure; no meeting with an unarmed person in a nameless street--the names are all given. Little did I expect, at the time of reading the story, to have the opportunity of verifying it.

It is the misfortune of Spain to be misrepresented. She has been the subject of two standard and classical works--Don Quixote and Gil Blas. The former, by its sterling worth, has made its way into the literature of other countries. Being a satire upon a particular temper and habit of mind, the scene and personages of which are Spanish, it is accepted as a description of Spain. As well might England be studied in "Dr. Syntax." Those peculiarities which it is intended to ridicule, and those extravagancies which are exaggerated in order that they may be exposed, are to the stranger the instructive portion of the work.

"Gil Blas" is a romance by a Paris bookmaker. It owes its celebrity to an admirable sketch of a great minister, another of his successor, and an episode portraying Spanish manners. The Barber, Olivarez, the Count-Duke, the Barber, and the story of the adventurer himself, in his retirement, are all taken from the Spanish, and give to the work its value. It is then dressed up with Spanish peculiarities, and Madrid or Paris morals, and passes from hand to hand as a mirror of the Spanish mind.

In reviewing the catalogue of recent works, I can point, as really influencing opinion or as referred to by travellers, only to Blanco White's Letters, and the work out of which these remarks originated.

Blanco White is a man who, writing upon any foreign country, could not fail to perplex the judgment. How much more in respect to his own, when describing it to another, where he had made himself at home? In some parts, by keeping distinct the Englishman and the Spaniard, he has been able to translate the one to the other. Those parts are the domestic only. In all the rest he has jumbled the two characters, and has made the prejudices of the one override the simplicity of the other; falsifying the commonest facts, distorting the plainest conclusions. The effect is to puff up the Englishman and to degrade the Spaniard.

To Mr. Ford's book, however disagreeable the task, I had intended to devote a special chapter; but understanding that the two volumes are, in the second edition, reduced to one, I must infer that the author has anticipated my conclusion--that the work might be made valuable by cutting out the slang, ribaldry, opinions, and false quotations.

Notwithstanding the war which the Spanish Government has for centuries waged against every vestige of the race who made Spain the strongest, most learned, chivalrous, and polished country in Europe, the women of Tarifa appear in the streets muffled up as Mussulman women, and expose but one eye.

They were endeavouring to begin where we had left off. That which was abuse to us, and therefore, capable of remedy, came to be to them principle. "After all," said one of them, "look at the cloth you wear," putting his hand on my sleeve; "we make none such. Probably you have a penknife in your pocket;--at all events, you have shaved with a razor this morning: it is far beyond anything that we can make. We owe you a great deal of money, which you have lent us out of your superfluity." I replied that there was no connexion between individual dexterity and collective wisdom. They made the mistake of attributing our prosperity--the result of private industry--to our political institutions; and we, in like manner, attributed their disorders--the results of the political theories which they had copied from us--to their individual character.

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