The rising of the people of Spain against their rulers coincided in point of time with the accession of the Austrian dynasty in the person of Charles V. In the Castilles it was a very noble attempt of the towns, under the leadership of patriots such as Padilla, to preserve the constitutional liberties of the people. It failed, but the best feeling of the country will always look back to it with approval and with pride. The picture of the execution of Padilla now has an honoured place in the hall of the Cortes at Madrid, and the story of the Comunidades of Castille has occupied the pen of one of Spain’s most accomplished historians.
But in the risings of so-called Comuneros in Valencia and in Majorca there is no such noble story to tell. These were mere insurrections of artisans and peasantry, goaded on by the violent harangues of leaders as ignorant as themselves, without fixed aims or objects, and influenced only by envy and jealousy of those who were placed above them. From Valencia the contagion spread to Majorca in 1521. The people, called pageses, and inhabitants of the country towns, complained that the nobles, living in their palaces at Palma, oppressed them with taxes and misgoverned the country. The insurrection began with a meeting of artisans in a house near the church of San Nicolas in Palma, where an inflammatory speech was addressed to them by a man named Juan Crespi. The movement rapidly spread, and came to the notice of the Viceroy, Don Miguel de Gurrea. He called a meeting of officials, but the only result was the arrest of a shoemaker named Pedro Begur and three others. The Viceroy had no sufficient force at his command, and the arrests only infuriated the mob, who flew to arms and liberated the prisoners. The Viceroy then rode through the streets with some attendants, calling on the rioters to disperse, and promising to listen to their complaints. The insurgents then occupied the public buildings, seized all the arms they could find, and chose Juan Crespi to be their captain. This was in the end of January 1521. Crespi’s title was ‘Instador del beneficio comun’; and the Viceroy, to gain time, actually issued a decree conferring it upon him. In February both the Viceroy and the insurgents sent letters to the King, giving different versions of what had taken place. In March the insurgents had organised a force of 1,800 men and had got possession of all the gates of the city. Many of the nobles were killed, and the rest escaped to Alcudia, a fortified town. The Viceroy escaped to the island of Iviça.
The Jurados, consisting of Juan de Puigdorfila, Jayme Marti, and two others, were allowed to remain in office nominally; but fifteen ‘Conservadores’ were elected by the insurgents to introduce the reforms they demanded. In April a reply came from the King to the ‘Instador’ and the ‘Conservadores,’ ordering them to obey the Viceroy, who would do them justice. They declared the letter to be a forgery, and proceeded to acts of violence, beheading all who openly opposed them. The movement spread to the country towns, and the loyal people were in a state of terror. Some of the nobles had taken refuge in the castle of Belver, under the protection of Pedro Pax, the castellan. On July 29 the insurgents began the siege of the castle, which was gallantly defended until all the ammunition was expended. The place was then taken by assault. The insurgents beheaded the castellan and several others. The castle was gutted and left in charge of three men to guard it.
There is a long list of nobles who were put to death at Palma, including a Cotoner, five Puigdorfilas, and a Despuig. Pedro Juan Zaforteza took refuge in Valdemosa, whence he escaped, in the disguise of a friar, to Alcudia, where the rest of the nobles had taken refuge. In November 1521 the insurgents formed an army of six thousand men, including cavalry, and six siege pieces, to lay siege to Alcudia. The town was surrounded on November 20, 1521, the besiegers being busy constructing scaling ladders and a battery for their artillery. The nobles made a very resolute sally, capturing the battery with its guns and stores, which disheartened the besiegers, upwards of a hundred being killed. Antonio Sureda especially distinguished himself in this sally, and the hopes of the besieged rose high. Pedro Pax, son of the castellan of Belver, was chosen to command at Alcudia. He found that provisions were running short, and resolved to attack the enemy with his whole force, numbering 1,080. The battle was long contested, but at last the insurgents broke and fled, thus raising the siege. Their provisions and stores were captured, and the scaling ladders and other siege appliances were burnt.
In August Charles V. sent Dr. Francisco Ubaque as Regent to restore order, the Viceroy being still in the island of Iviça. He landed at Alcudia. The insurgents were then in occupation of the neighbouring town of Puebla. They resumed the siege of Alcudia in September, but they were again repulsed after a very desperate attempt to carry the place by assault.
The Emperor was at Brussels, and at last he was induced to attend to the deplorable condition of Majorca. An expedition was ordered to be fitted out in the Catalonian ports to restore order and punish the delinquents. Four large galleys, thirteen ships, and several smaller vessels were fitted out, and 1,200 men were embarked under the command of Don Francisco Carroz and Don Juan Velasco. The expedition first went to Iviça to embark the Viceroy, Don Miguel de Gurrea or Urrea.
On October 15 the fleet entered the port of Pollenza. The rescuers were received with great joy at Alcudia, where the Viceroy proclaimed a general pardon to those who laid down their arms and returned to obedience. Many came in, surrendering under the terms of the proclamation; but others held out. At Palma there was great confusion, the Bishop, Dr. Pont, working incessantly to induce the people to submit.
At Pollenza the insurgents made a desperate resistance and there was great slaughter, no quarter being given. Very few escaped to the mountains. On November 5 the Viceroy, with all the chief officers and three thousand soldiers, left Alcudia and advanced to Puebla, where they only found two labourers and a priest. Other towns were found without inhabitants. At Inca the people came out with their priests to meet the Viceroy, singing a Te Deum. On March 1, 1523, the Viceroy invested Palma with his army. Priamo de Villalonga had held out in the castle of the Templars, then called the Royal Castle, for many months. He was now relieved, and this disastrous insurrection approached its end.
The last act of this melancholy drama was performed and described by young Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman in his very entertaining autobiography. He was ordered by the Viceroy of Valencia to take command of five hundred men, and to sail from Murviedro, to reinforce the army that was employed in re-establishing order in Majorca. But the five hundred men refused to embark until they had received their arrears of pay. After a great deal of trouble he at length persuaded them to go on board, and they sailed to join the army in Majorca in nine small vessels. Arriving off Palma at nightfall, Don Alonzo, a young man in his twenty-third year, but with an amount of self-assurance beyond his age, announced the arrival of a very important reinforcement. The report was spread that his force consisted of five thousand men. Captain Crispin, the leader of the rebels, came out of the town with a guard of fifty men and sought speech with Don Alonzo. He besought the young commander to mediate between him and the Viceroy and induce him to consent to a deputation being sent to the Emperor. He proposed that, while the deputies were going and coming, Don Alonzo should remain in the city with thirty men, Crispin promising to deliver the place to whomsoever the King should command.
Don Alonzo, with the approval of the Viceroy, agreed to this and entered the city, the Viceroy’s army being encamped outside. After a month the deputies returned, reporting that the Emperor had listened to them every day for two hours during eight days, and that they were very well satisfied. Nine days afterwards an order came to Don Alonzo from the Emperor, and another from the Viceroy, which were delivered to him through the closed gates. The Emperor instructed him to obey the Viceroy. The order of the Viceroy was that he should seize the person of Crispin and those of the thirteen members of his Council, and open the gates at four o’clock that afternoon, being March 7, 1522. If the people would not let him do so, he was to come out himself.
The orders came to Don Alonzo at ten in the forenoon. He at once proceeded to the Plaza de Cort, where he found Crispin with his guards and five of his councillors. He told them that he had received orders to deliver up the city to Don Miguel de Urrea, the Viceroy, and expressed a hope that they would keep faith and give evidence to the Emperor that they were honest men. Crispin replied that he would be the first to obey the orders of his Majesty. The rest all said the same.
Don Alonzo then went to dinner in the Almudaina, and each man departed to his own house. After dinner he called an assembly, ordering no one to bring his arms. Then, with many kind words, he put Crispin and all his councillors in irons. This manœuvre having been safely accomplished, he formed processions, with all the women and children barefooted on one side and all the men barefooted on the other, and made them go to the gates and open them, with loud cries for mercy. The Viceroy and Don Juan de Velasco entered at the head of their troops, Don Alonzo meeting them with the keys of the city, and saying: ‘The gates are now open, and the desires of the people are turned to serve the King and your Lordship. They seek for pardon.’
The Viceroy did not answer. He entered the city and executed what he called justice. Crispin was cut into four quarters, as were all his thirteen councillors. The number of persons who were hanged and quartered was 420.
Such is the account of the surrender of Palma given by an eyewitness and actor in the sanguinary drama.22 One side seems to have been every bit as bloodthirsty as the other. Time alone could heal the wounds. Don Alonzo was sent to Iviça with his five hundred men, where he did good service against Barbarossa and his pirates.
From the first rising to the restoration of order, the troubles had lasted for more than two years.
Don Miguel de Gurrea or Urrea, the Viceroy, who had shown so much prudence at the commencement when he was powerless, and so much courage as soon as he had troops at his disposal, sent the keys of the kingdom to the Emperor. Keys finely worked in gold were sent in their place, which the descendants of Gurrea preserve to this day. Alcudia received the title of ‘the most faithful city.’
The principal nobles who valorously resisted the rebellion and restored order were Priamo de Villalonga, Alfonso Torrella, Salvador Sureda, Jayme Oleza, Matias Fortuñy, Mateo Togores, Albertin Damato, Antonio Gual, Zaforteza, Despuig, Cotoner—all names which appear in the annals of their country, from generation to generation, down to this day.
The insurrection caused great misery and destruction of property, and it was quite a century before the islanders can be said to have recovered from its evil effects, either morally or as regards their industries and general well-being.
With the war of the ‘Comunidades’ the romance of Majorcan history ends. During the seventeenth century the country was very slowly recovering from the effects of that disastrous rising; but it was long before the good relations between the different classes of the people were restored. The island was governed under the Kings of the House of Austria by Viceroys, of whom five were natives of Majorca. The names of Moncada, Fuster, Pax, Zaforteza, and Sureda occur in the list.
But though the making of history seemed to be dead, the work of recording the glorious annals of Majorca under her own kings was zealously undertaken by natives of the island. The first official chronicler, appointed by the Jurados, was Don Juan Dameto. He wrote the ‘Historia General del reino Balearico’ between 1621 and 1631, and died prematurely in 1633. His work commences with the earliest Roman times and is brought down to the death of Jayme II. Dameto had travelled much and was an accomplished scholar. His work is by no means a mere chronicle. The style is agreeable and full without being prolix, and shows a sense of proportion and of the relative importance of events.
Don Vicente Mut, who was born at Palma in 1614, was the continuator of Dameto. He was a military man and major of the militia of his island, an accomplished mathematician, as well as a student of history. He searched the archives with great diligence, and gives valuable details respecting the administration of the island at different periods. His history covers the ground from the accession of King Sancho to the suppression of the ‘Comunidades,’ and contains spirited accounts of the raids of Barbary pirates and histories of the monasteries and hospitals. Mut died in 1687.
With him our accessible island histories end, for the history of Geronimo Alemany, which would bring the record down to the death of Charles II., the last King of the House of Austria, is still in manuscript. We have to thank Don Miguel Moragues Pro and Don Joaquim Maria Bover for having edited the histories of Dameto and Mut, with very copious notes. The three thick volumes were published at Palma in 1841, and a fourth volume containing the history by Alemany was promised. Visitors to Palma who take an intelligent interest in the history of the island will desire to possess and to read them. They will find the three volumes at the excellent book-seller’s shop of Don Felipe Guasp, No. 6 Morey Street, the first turn to the right after crossing the Plaza de Santa Eulalia.
The eighteenth century opened with the war of succession. The French claimant was a grandson of a sister of Charles II. The German claimant was a grandson of Charles’s aunt. Catalonia and Majorca espoused the cause of the German archduke, while the rest of Spain proclaimed the French prince as Philip V. On October 1, 1706, Majorca was occupied by the troops of the Archduke Charles, and all adherents of the French claimant were persecuted or banished. Even after the fall of Barcelona the Majorcans held out. But all was in vain. In June 1715 a large army landed and besieged Palma, which capitulated after a siege of seventeen days, and the Bourbons forced the islanders to submit to their yoke. All the ancient privileges and grants of the Aragonese monarchs to the Majorcans were abolished, with their form of government. Captains-general were substituted for the Viceroys, and the present fortifications of Palma were constructed in the reign of Philip V. Majorca suffered from the misgovernment of Bourbon rule with the rest of Spain. From that time the people have had to rely upon their own virility, energy, and skill for any advance in civilisation and well-being, and not in vain. The Majorcans steadily progressed, while their old families, claiming descent from the soldiers of King Jayme, became distinguished in arms and letters and were ennobled, several as early as the times of the Austrian kings. In 1625 the title of Marquis of Bellpuig was given to the family of Dameto y Cotoner, in 1632 that of Santa Maria de Formiguera to the family of Burgues Zaforteza y Villalonga, in 1634 that of Count of Ayamans to the family of Togores (formerly Moncada), in 1658 that of Count of Montenegro to the family of Despuig, and in 1717 that of Count of Ariañy to the family of Cotoner. Several titles were also conferred on Majorcan families during the eighteenth century; generally well deserved.23
Among the distinguished sons of the Cotoner family was Rafael Cotoner, who was Grand Master of Malta from 1660 to 1663. He built Fort Ricasoli and the lines which are still known as the Cotonera. His brother, Nicolas Cotoner, was Grand Master from 1663 to 1680. An almost equally distinguished member of this family was the late General Cotoner, who was Governor of Porto Rico, and was devotedly attached to his native island and her interests.
But it was to members of the ancient family of Despuig that Majorca owed its fame as a place of cultured learning during the eighteenth century. Descended from Bernardo Despuig, a companion of the Conqueror Jayme I., the family has always been closely connected with the history of the island. Among them Juan Bautista Despuig served at Lepanto and in Flanders; but his best title to fame was that he devoted his wealth to the promotion of the well-being of his poorer neighbours and won the title of ‘Father of the Poor.’ His grandson did such good service as a military commander that in 1658 he was created Count of Montenegro. The first Count’s son, Bernardo, was Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem at Malta from 1736 to 1741. Juan Despuig, the second Count of Montenegro and also Count of Montoro by right of his mother, espoused the Bourbon side in the War of Succession, and suffered a long imprisonment in the castle of Belver from 1706 to 1715, the period of the Austrian occupation of the island. Many other members of the family were distinguished for their services to the State. The best-known is Dr. Don Antonio Despuig, who was Archbishop of Valencia and of Seville and Cardinal of San Calisto, a prelate not more famed for his learning than for the love he always showed for his island home.
Cardinal Despuig has left many memorials which will ever secure for him an honourable place in the island’s history. He devoted both time, money, and a cultivated taste to enriching the country seat of his nephew, the Count of Montenegro, as well as his palace in Palma, with the most precious literary and artistic productions of Italy and Spain.
The country seat of Raxa is a place of enchantment at the foot of the mountains, approached from Palma through miles of almond-groves in full blossom during February. In Moorish times it was called Araxa, and was granted by King Jayme I. to the Count of Ampurias, becoming the property of the family of Despuig in 1620. Raxa is a large house of three storeys, built round a courtyard, with an ancient elm-tree in the centre. The rooms are exceedingly numerous, and all the furniture is of a date at least 150 years ago. There are many beautiful Florentine cabinets, some good pictures, and fayence. The dining-room has a carved oak ceiling in squares, with an old fayence plate let into each. One room is full of valuable Vatican engravings, another of paintings of Rome as it was 150 years ago. One side of the house has balconies, with arcades, looking on the garden and over a lovely view. The great glory of Raxa is the museum of Roman sculpture. Cardinal Despuig acquired a site near Albano, where once had stood the superb temple to Egeria, built by the Emperor Domitian. Between 1787 and 1796 the Cardinal conducted excavations which brought to light many statues, busts, altars, and other remains, which he sent to Majorca to adorn his nephew’s country seat. There is a very fine statue of Trajan, others of Caligula, Hercules, a gladiator, &c. A full descriptive list is given in Bover’s ‘Noticias Historico-topograficas.’24 Opposite to the door of the museum is that of the chapel, where there is a picture of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria.
There is a charming garden, with fountains, in front of the house, and orange-groves beyond. Behind there are garden terraces up the mountain side, and two very large tanks. A long flight of steps, with statues on either side and water flowing down in masonry channels, leads up to loftier terraces with flower-beds and groves of cypress, pine-trees, and laurustinus. It is like fairyland; and from a summer-house there are views of the sea of almond-blossoms extending to Palma on one side, and of the pine-clad mountains and serrated peaks on the other.
Many of the treasures collected by the Cardinal are in the Montenegro palace in the city of Palma. This palace, in the street of the same name, has a courtyard with palm-trees, whence a wide stone staircase leads to a gallery, where is the front door. The rooms are large and lofty, richly furnished, and warmed by braseros. At the back of the house there is a good-sized garden with palm-trees and an evergreen oak. In this palace are more of the treasures collected by the Cardinal. The famous portolano of Valseca has already been fully described. At the top of the house is the magnificent library, arranged in subjects. One of the most valuable books is a manuscript ‘Nobiliario’ of the Aragonese nobility of the fifteenth century, with coats of arms beautifully painted. Here, too, is the original manuscript of Alemany’s history. The poetical and historical works are the most numerous, including fine editions of ‘Don Quijote.’ The room is of great length, and at the end was the cabinet of coins, Roman Consular and Imperial, Spanish-Arabian, Gothic, and Aragonese kings. According to Bover, the finest collection of Majorcan coins is in the cabinet of the Count of Ayamans.
Cardinal Despuig, who was an intimate friend of Pope Pius VI., died at Lucca on May 2, 1813, leaving to his country a thousand memorials which will give his name an honoured place in the Balearic fasti. His nephew, for whom all these collections were made, died in the same year. This Count’s son, Ramon, fifth Count of Montenegro, was Captain-General of Majorca, and died in 1848. The present Count, to whose great courtesy our knowledge of Raxa and the Cardinal’s treasures is due, is a grandson of the Captain-General, and is the seventh Count of Montenegro.
Majorca boasts other country houses almost as beautiful, though not quite so interesting as Raxa. Alfavia has already been described, and Canet, the home of the Torrellas, has been mentioned. Another charming country seat is La Granja de Esporla, the home of the Fortuñy family. It is in a valley, with mountain-spurs on either side and abundant supplies of water. The house is built round a courtyard, one side having a wide stone passage on the upper storey, with open colonnades. Over the archway into the courtyard there is a stone coat of arms of Fortuñy (argent five pellets, two, two, and one; quartering Gual, Despuig, and Zaforteza). There is a very large stone-paved hall, hung with pictures, which opens on to a narrow garden leading to terraces up the mountain-side, fountains, and artificial grottos. In front there is a long pergola of roses, orange and lemon groves, and a splendid old yew-tree. The mountains are clothed with ilex as well as pine-trees.
There are great advantages in the chief people of the island living in their country houses during the summer and having personal intercourse with their people. It encourages enterprise. Thus at Esporlas there are extensive cloth-factories, and at Canet, under the patronage of the Torrellas, there is a fayence-manufactory, producing vases with very beautiful designs.
The romance of Majorcan history seemed to have come to an end with young Jayme IV. and his sister; but it was renewed in the career of the Marquis of Romana, the most distinguished of later Majorcans.
Like many other noble families of the Peninsula, the Caros derive their coat-armour from an incident in the memorable battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.25 Juan Caro accompanied En Jayme in the conquest of Majorca. His descendants were in the conquest of Almeria, the wars of Flanders, the battle of Los Gelves, the sea-fight of Lepanto, and many other combats against the enemies of Spain. They held estates in Orihuela, Elche, Crevillente, and Novelda, and the feudal castle of Maza, as well as extensive property in Majorca. Don José Caro was created Marquis of La Romana and Viscount of Benaesa in 1739 for his great services during the War of Succession. Don Pedro Caro, the third Marquis, was born at Palma in 1761, and lost his father, a very distinguished naval officer, when he was only fourteen. The third Marquis entered the navy, rising to the rank of captain of a frigate, but exchanged into the army in order to serve under his uncle, General Ventura Caro, in the first war with revolutionary France. He had risen to the rank of lieutenant-general when Mr. Hookham Frere came to Madrid as Ambassador from England in 1803. They at once became great friends, the Marquis being of immense use to the English diplomatist in explaining to him the state of parties at the Spanish Court. Southey says of Romana that he was ‘a man whose happy nature had resisted all the evil and debilitating influences of the age and rank in which he was born. He possessed a rare union of frankness and prudence, while he read with unerring intuition the characters of others. Spain has never produced a man more excellently brave, more dutifully devoted to his country, more free from the taint of selfishness, more truly noble.’
When Napoleon got possession of the resources of Spain and was able to issue his decrees through the corrupt government of Godoy, he sought to weaken those resources in order that Spain might fall an easier prey when the time was ripe. With this object the Marquis of Romana was ordered to march with fourteen thousand men, being the best troops in the Spanish army, to the other end of Europe. This was in August 1807, when Romana’s force was quartered at Hamburg and Lubeck. The Spanish contingent was intended to form part of a Franco-Danish army under Bernadotte for the invasion of Sweden. The Spanish regiments were then placed in garrisons at Aarhuus, Ebeltoft, Mariager, Aalborg, and Randers in Jutland, in the island of Funen, and two regiments in Zeeland. They were closely watched and cut off from all intercourse with Spain. But an English squadron under Saumarez effectually prevented an invasion of Sweden.
When the whole of Spain rose against the usurping government of Joseph Bonaparte it became a matter of the utmost importance to communicate the news to Romana and his troops, and to restore them to their country. But it was a service of extreme difficulty. The French cut off all communication and vigilantly intercepted letters; while the Spaniards in Denmark were informed that all their countrymen were unanimous in their allegiance to Joseph. A priest named Robertson, an accomplished linguist, was selected by Mr. Frere to convey the news to Romana. To give him written credentials was too dangerous; but Mr. Frere hit upon a way of convincing Romana that the message was genuine. Robertson was to quote to him a line from the poem of the ‘Cid,’ with an emendation. When Romana and Frere were at Madrid together, the former advised his English friend to read that poem. One day Romana called upon his friend, when Frere had just made a suggested emendation in the line:
Frere suggested merezcades, and Romana concurred in its propriety. No one but Romana and Frere knew of this; so that, on quoting it, the Marquis was convinced that Robertson came from Frere. Romana then first heard the real situation of his country. They conversed in Latin. The Spanish general at once resolved to effect his escape from Denmark with his troops, if he could obtain the help of the British naval commanders. So Robertson found his way to H.M.S. Victory, the flagship of Admiral Saumarez in the Baltic, and told his story. The Admiral at once saw that the matter was urgent, and sent a squadron under Keats, his second in command, to communicate with Romana.
It was necessary to maintain the utmost secrecy while arranging for all the Spanish garrisons to concentrate for embarkation, in defiance of French and Danes. Romana and Keats worked in concert, but the operation was extremely difficult. The various garrisons in Jutland were to seize vessels in the different harbours, and come to the island of Funen, where Romana had occupied the town of Nyborg on the Great Belt. Here Admiral Keats waited with his ships.
All went well. The Jutland garrisons arrived and were embarked, in spite of some opposition from two Danish gunboats. The Spanish troops were taken to Gottenburg, where transports had been provided to convey them to their native country. They were landed at Santander.
The Marquis de la Romana himself went to London to confer with the British Government. He accompanied Mr. Hookham Frere to Spain, who had been accredited as Envoy to the Central Junta. Both arrived at Coruña on October 20, 1808, and Romana proceeded to take command of the Spanish forces in Galicia. Here the indefatigable Majorcan maintained an unequal contest with Soult and Ney. Routed in February 1809 at Monterey, he still kept the field, aroused the whole country by his proclamations and by the sight of his patriotic zeal, and in the following April captured the French garrison at Villa Franca.
Finding that Ney was collecting a great force to annihilate him, Romana crossed the mountains at the passes of Cienfuegos and marched into the Asturias. Leaving his army at Navia de Suara, the general went on to Oviedo to organise the civil government of the province. Ney then conceived a plan of surprising the troops at Navia de Suara and securing the person of Romana. He sent Kellermann by forced marches to Oviedo, but the Marquis was not to be caught. He galloped down to the port of Gijon with his staff and returned by sea to Galicia. His troops also retreated safely across the mountains.
In 1809 Romana was appointed to be a member of the Central Junta at Seville, and he bade farewell to his faithful troops, who had escaped with him from Denmark and shared all his desperate campaigning work in Galicia. As a member of the Central Junta the Marquis drew up a very able State paper for the better government of the country, which had the concurrence both of Mr. Frere and of his successor, Lord Wellesley. In January 1810 he was appointed to command the Spanish army in Estremadura, where he did excellent service and saved Badajos at least for the time. When Lord Wellington retreated behind the lines of Torres Vedras, Romana joined him with four thousand men, and they then first became acquainted.
Wellington concerted his plans with Romana, who was, in the ensuing campaign, to keep open communications with Badajos, behind the Gevora. The Marquis began his march thither, but died very suddenly of heart-disease on January 23, 1811. A small edition of Pindar was found in his pocket. His death was most disastrous, for the troops had no confidence in his successor, and Badajos was lost.
Wellington appreciated the great qualities of this illustrious Majorcan soldier. He recorded his sense of Romana’s services in the following tribute to his memory: ‘In Romana the Spanish army has lost its brightest ornament, his country their most upright patriot, and the world the most strenuous and zealous defender of the cause in which we are engaged. I shall always acknowledge with gratitude the assistance which I received from him, as well by his operations as by his counsel, since he had been joined with this army.’26 The body of the great Majorcan was conveyed to his native island. The funeral took place with all possible solemnity on June 4, 1811, and a monument was voted by the Cortes.
The monument is on the east wall of one of the northern side-chapels in the cathedral. The recumbent figure of the Marquis of Romana rests on a tomb, all in white marble, and beside it is another figure, pointing upwards, supposed to be the Duke of Wellington. Below there is a bas-relief with Romana and Admiral Keats superintending the embarkation of Spanish troops and baggage at Nyborg, in the island of Funen.
The son of the great general, also named Pedro, succeeded as fourth Marquis of Romana, and married Doña Tomas Alvarez de Toledo y Palafox, Duchess of Montalto. He died in 1848, and was succeeded by Don Pedro Caro, the fifth Marquis, who married a Hungarian lady of rank, Isabel Szechenyi Zichy-Ferraris. She built the castle of Bendinat, as has already been mentioned; but afterwards disposed of all the Caro property in Majorca, and went to Madrid, where her son, the present and sixth Marquis of La Romana, now resides.
Every visitor to Palma should go to the tomb of the illustrious Majorcan, whose splendid career was so closely connected with most interesting episodes in English history. Romana was the intimate friend of Hookham Frere, one of the most distinguished among the diplomatists and men of letters of the last century; and he won the esteem and friendship of the great Duke of Wellington.
At the same time that the corrupt government of Godoy sent the Marquis of Romana and fourteen thousand patriotic soldiers to Denmark, an equally illustrious man was sent a prisoner to Majorca. Jovellanos is connected with the island, not as a native, but as one whose iniquitous imprisonment won for him the warm sympathy of the islanders.
Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos was born at Gijon, the chief seaport of the Asturias, in 1744, and received a liberal education. After a close study of civil and canon law, he became a judge at Seville, and afterwards at Madrid. He was a student of political economy and history, while he also attained eminence as a poet. His prose writings proved him to be a philosophical statesman as well as a very able man of letters. His liberal views were not acceptable to the favourite of Charles IV., and Jovellanos was sent into exile in his native province of Asturias. In 1797 he was recalled and became Minister of Justice. But Godoy still hated his enlightened opinions, and in the following year he was again banished to the Asturias.
The wretched favourite of Charles IV. was not yet satisfied. In 1801, in violation of law and decency, the illustrious statesman was seized in his bed, hurried across Spain like a common criminal, and sent a prisoner to Majorca. At first he was confined in the Cartuja at Valdemosa, but after a year he was removed to a prison in the castle of Belver. He was treated with such rigour that almost all communication with the outer world was cut off.
Latterly he was allowed to receive papers, and was even enabled to make researches in the archives. We are indebted to Jovellanos for an excellent account of the building of the cathedral and for learned pamphlets on the ‘Lonja’ and on the castle of Belver.
At last came the fall of the favourite and the abdication of Charles IV. This at once led to the liberation of Jovellanos, who was welcomed back and received the admiration of his countrymen for his great services and for the calm patience with which he had endured his unjust sufferings. He represented Asturias in the Central Junta at Seville, and on its dissolution he returned to his home in the hope that he would be allowed to end his days in peace. He was at Gijon, his native town, when the French made the sudden incursion into the Asturias in the hope of capturing the Marquis of Romana. He sought safety on board a small vessel, which landed him at the little port of Vega. There he died on November 27, 1811, at the age of fifty-seven. Ticknor, who was well acquainted with the writings of Jovellanos, wrote of him that ‘he left behind him few men, in any country, of a greater elevation of mind, and fewer still of a purer or more irreproachable character.’27
The old castle of Belver continued to be misused during the dark times of recent Spanish history for the imprisonment of Carlist and other political victims. But the interesting building is now declared to be ‘patrimonio real,’ is inhabited by courteous and intelligent guardians, and is pen to the public.
In the gloomy vaulted room where Jovellanos was imprisoned for six years his island admirers have put up a marble tablet recording the fact and commemorative of his patriotic virtues.
The story of Majorca has, in the course of its detailed narration, included attempts to describe the scenery of various localities of the island, the capital in ancient times, the mountains and caves, the towns and country houses. With the conclusion of the story we turn to the island as it is at present. We find areas of forest-covered mountains, which are calculated to contain 25,000 acres of pines, 12,000 acres of ilex, and 2,000 of carob-trees; at least, this was the calculation twenty years ago. The best account of the geology of these mountains will be found in the work of M. Hermite.28
Turning to the trees grown to support the people in the fertile plains, the same authority gives an area of 50,000 acres as covered by vines and 33,000 by almond-trees, besides apricots. The olives cover 86,000 acres—70,000 in the mountains, and the rest for the most part near their bases. The flora of the island is abundant and beautiful; and there is an excellent book on the subject by Don Francisco Barcelo y Combis.29
The people are the descendants of men who fought with En Jayme, increased by a certain amount of immigration—Catalans who speak a dialect of the Catalan language among themselves, but who nearly all understand Spanish. Among the upper classes the names of Moncada or Togores, Sureda, Cotoner, Fortuñy, Zaforteza, Despuig, Torrellas, Truyolls, Villalonga, are as prominent now as they were six hundred years ago and have been ever since. After a visitor has seen the cathedral and churches, the Lonja with its slender pillars, and the handsome Casa Consistorial with its frescoes and portraits of Majorcan worthies, nothing can be more interesting than to saunter through the streets and look at the old palaces of the nobility, with their quaint architecture, coats of arms, and picturesque courtyards. In front of the ‘Mercado’ is the great palace of the Burgues Zaforteza family. In a street of the same name is the Montenegro palace. In the narrow Fortuñy Street there is an ancient house with the name of Priamo Villalonga carved over the lintel of the door. Here lived the gallant defender of the royal castle against the rebels in 1522. The Villalongas are no longer there, having moved to a more modern abode in another part of the town. In nearly every street there is a palace or some other building which is interesting either for its architecture or its associations.
Among the leading people of Palma the name of Don Bartolomé Bosch y Cerda, His Britannic Majesty’s Vice-Consul, cannot be overlooked, for his courtesy and kindness and his thorough knowledge of the island have largely increased the pleasure derived by many visitors from a sojourn in Majorca.
The best-known visitor—if His Highness ought not rather to be called a resident—was the Archduke Luis Salvator, whose magnificent monograph of the Balearic Islands is well known. Miramar has been mentioned as the abode of King Sancho, and afterwards as the place where Raimondo Lulio founded his college. But it is better known as the spot which the Archduke turned into an earthly paradise. He rebuilt the house which existed on the site of the former convent, laid out the lovely garden, and constructed roads and paths. He filled the house with old Majorcan furniture and Majolica ware, some of it with the metallic lustre for the manufacture of which the island was once famous. The Archduke also restored a little chapel in the garden, which contains an ancient picture of Raimondo Lulio. But it is now more than twelve years since the Archduke has visited the island.
The Majorcans excel as masons and carpenters. The mole, which forms the harbour, is as fine a piece of masonry work as is to be found in the Mediterranean. All the ashlar work of public buildings is remarkable for the fineness and exactness of the points of junction; and the vaulting, especially in the churches, displays no small mechanical skill, and even genius. Carpenters’ work is equally good; and it is interesting to see them at work, with their shops open to the streets. There are many factories in the island; and while one member of a family works on a farm, others at trades, the rest can get employment in factories. All help, and the cottage in which the family lives generally has a small garden of flowers and vegetables. All the people are decently dressed and shod and have sufficient food. The Majorcans are certainly a handsome race, the men strongly built and well set up, the young women comely and graceful.
There are no beggars, except a few cripples. Begging or seeking presents is not the habit of the people. If boys are offered small change received in a shop they will generally refuse it, saying that they have done nothing for it. The cathedral carpenter sent his boy up a tree, at the request of a stranger, to get a leaf, and he was given a shilling for want of change. Some time afterwards the same stranger was passing, and the carpenter came out with the difference between a shilling and a peseta, saying he thought that the present was intended to be a peseta and not a shilling. Information respecting land tenures, mode of cultivation, exports, and other statistics will be found in Mr. Bidwell’s ‘Balearic Islands.’30
The story of Majorca is necessarily very closely connected with the general history of Aragon and its various dependencies. It is full of chivalrous deeds and wonderful adventures, as well as of evidence of those more solid and steady efforts which indicate fine qualities in a race. Thus, in the course of centuries, the existing islanders have been formed, and they are very much what might have been expected from their history. It is a history which should have a place in the study of European progress and development; for, small though the island is, the Majorcans have been in the forefront during the Middle Ages, and even in later times, alike as men of the sword and men of the pen. A knowledge of the island’s story will furnish a number of historical associations which will, as it were, clothe the beautiful scenery with living interest. It thus appeals alike to the student who remains at home and to the traveller who visits the island.
It seems desirable to conclude with some information for the latter class of readers respecting accommodation at Palma. The hotel, which was opened a few years ago by Señor Albareda, faces the old church of St. Nicholas and the Zaforteza palace; while the avenue called the ‘Rambla’ is on one hand, and the ‘Paseo del Borne,’ leading to the port, on the other. It possesses every comfort and convenience, is admirably managed, and has a well-informed and most obliging landlord. This ‘Grand Hotel’ has a pleasant annex in the country, at Porto Pi, and the hotel in the beautiful valley of Soller is also comfortable and well managed. The visitor to Majorca is thus able to make himself acquainted with the lovely scenery, the history, and present condition of the island under the most advantageous conditions.
MAJORCA
PART II
Minorca
The sister island of Minorca is some twenty miles E.N.E. of Majorca, and is about the size of the Isle of Wight, twenty-one miles in length by eight broad. But its smaller size and more exposed situation deprive it of advantages enjoyed by its more favoured sister. Minorca is in the shape of an irregular parallelogram, lying W.N.W. to E.S.E., and has an area of 683 square kilometres. The island is divided into two distinct regions of almost equal extent by a line running east and west. The northern half is covered with hills, for the most part bare, with two culminating points. Near the centre of the island is ‘Monte Toro,’ rising in the form of a sugarloaf to a height of 1,150 feet. Farther west is the Monte de Santa Agueda, 850 feet high. The rock consists of slates, with strata generally much contorted and of Devonian age, but capped in some places by Jurassic rocks which contain fossils and numerous impressions of plants.
Owing to the frequent northerly gales, especially in the winter, the arboreal vegetation of the northern region, and indeed of the whole island, is scanty. There are some woods of ilex and Aleppo pines in sheltered places, and the shrub vegetation consists of myrtle, a Phillirea (wild olive?), and three species of Erica.
The southern region is more sheltered and more fertile. It consists of an undulating tableland cut by profound ravines and sloping from the hills to the southern coast, where it terminates in rocky cliffs. The formation is a good building limestone of Miocene age with nearly horizontal strata. In this southern region the shrubby vegetation consists of a buckthorn (Rhamnus Alaternus) and the lentisco (Pistacia Lentiscus). But there are few trees, and the ground is excessively stony. In the ravines the vegetation becomes richer and more varied.
There are no rivers or streams, and the people are entirely dependent on wells and cisterns for their supply of water. The rocks abound in caves, some natural, but many excavated in prehistoric times. There is one vast stalactitic cave near the western coast, with smaller branch caverns, and several other caves of the same kind on a smaller scale.
One of the principal features of interest in Minorca is the number of prehistoric remains scattered over the southern region. There are a few similar remains in Majorca, but they have been used almost entirely for building materials; and in Minorca they are far more numerous and less injured.
The primitive inhabitants appear to have been cave-dwellers. The buildings may have belonged to a later period. They have been described by several observers, notably by M. Emile Cartailhac in his ‘Monuments primitifs des Iles Baléares’;31 but never more clearly, and with more competent knowledge of similar monuments in other parts of the world, than by Dr. Guillemard in his very able paper read before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Dr. Guillemard divides the Minorcan prehistoric buildings into four classes: (1) the so-called towns, (2) the Naus or ship-like edifices, (3) the Taulas or Bilithons, (4) the Talayuts.
The towns, really the size of small hamlets, are surrounded by a wall with a megalithic gateway, and sometimes with small towers on the walls, which consist of large blocks of limestone. Inside there are the remains of small square buildings, with underground low and narrow passages or caves.
The Naus is a building with a supposed resemblance to a ship, one end being pointed and the other square. There are only a few on the island. Cartailhac mentions nine. Their length is from twenty-five to forty feet, height fifteen to eighteen. The finest, called ‘Nau d’Es Tudons,’ is near Ciudadela. It consists of large blocks of stone dressed with a hammer. The entrance is three feet square, leading to a sort of vestibule, whence another door opens into the main chamber, which is supported by pillars down the middle. These edifices are carefully built, and were evidently the tombs of great men.
The Taulas are two massive stones joined by a deep tenon and mortise and cut with remarkable care. The lower one is upright, and bears the upper one horizontally, like a table. They are in the centre of a building in the form of a semicircle forty feet across, the two ends being joined by a wall. Some twelve or fourteen taulas remain. They must almost certainly have been altars, or the main features of temples. These taulas appear to be closely allied to such edifices as Stonehenge or those at Avebury. In that case, they may be considered to date from about the same period, a date which has been ascertained astronomically by Sir Norman Lockyer—2000 B.C. The race of men who built them extended over Europe. They had dolichocephalic heads of average capacity, oval faces, aquiline noses, low foreheads, exactly like the skulls from the Basque provinces. They were not only spread over Europe, but established themselves in Mauritania (Morocco) and were probably the ancestors alike of the Guanches of Tenerife and the Baleares of these islands.
The fourth class of prehistoric edifices consists of the Talayuts, so called from the Arabic ‘Atalaya’ or scout, hence watch-tower. Their height is usually not more than twenty feet. The largest, called ‘Torre Llafuda,’ is forty feet high. They are often forty feet in diameter at the base and six or seven feet less at the top. In 1818 Ramis gave a list of 195 of them, of which 142 were in fair condition. Since that time many have been used for limekilns or as quarries in building houses. They are all built of the rough vesicular limestone of the surrounding land, and the stones are generally roughly dressed and laid in courses. The walls are of enormous thickness, with a circular chamber in the centre, supported by a pillar of massive stones. There is usually a doorway on the south side.
Their object has been a puzzle. They were not watch-towers from the positions of many of them; not fortresses, not dwellings, not temples, not tombs, for no bones are found. I believe that Dr. Guillemard, whose excellent descriptions of the Minorcan prehistoric remains I have been quoting, has hit upon the right solution. The fields are covered with stones, and one of the principal occupations of the husbandman is to clear the stones off the cultivable land. In modern times they make stone walls, for something has to be done with them. Dr. Guillemard holds that the talayuts are the stones cleared from the fields by the ancient people. They built these very solid towers with them, which served to house pigs and sheep at night; perhaps also as a look-out place, where their positions would serve such a purpose. But clearing the fields of stones was the primary object.
The Minorcan builders of stone temples, tombs, and dwellings, and pilers up of stones were prehistoric beyond any doubt, and may have worked and worshipped them four thousand years ago. The Phœnicians probably found their descendants on the island, and they became subject to the Semitic traders and their Carthaginian offshoots, who held the Balearic Islands while they were dominant in Spain. Minorca was best known as possessing the most capacious and safest harbour in the Mediterranean, and its name of Port Mahon makes the giver of that name an important factor in the story of the island.
Mago was the youngest son of Hamilcar Barca, and when he first began to serve under his brother Hannibal in Italy, in B.C. 218, he must have been very young; but his capacity and fitness for command were soon realised by the great general. Mago was given command of the cavalry, and led his troops across the river Po, each man swimming by the side of his horse. Mago did distinguished service at the battle of Trebia, and was by his brother’s side at Cannæ. He was then detached to reduce Samnium and the Bruttii. In about B.C. 212 he was sent to reinforce his other brother, Hasdrubal, in Spain. It was a losing cause, for the Carthaginians vainly opposed the victorious career of Scipio. The brothers resisted long. At last they were hopelessly defeated by Scipio at a place called Silpia, apparently in the Sierra Morena. Mago long held out at Gades. Here he received orders to collect troops and ships, and to make a diversion by landing at Genoa and transferring the seat of war to Italy. Having diligently assembled troops and the means of transport, he left Spain for ever and made sail, shaping a course, in compliance with his instructions, from Carthage. Mago wintered in the splendid harbour at the eastern end of Minorca, which has ever since borne his name—Portus Magonis, corrupted into Port Mahon.
Eventually he landed his army at Genoa, but was defeated by Quinctilius Varro in a battle in Liguria, when he was severely wounded. Hannibal and Mago were recalled from Italy B.C. 203, and the younger brother died of his wounds on the voyage to Carthage, according to Livy. He was probably not more than thirty-two years of age. The name of this enterprising Carthaginian is immortalised in that of the harbour where he wintered, and in those of an English earl’s second title and of a Spanish dukedom.
During their occupation the Carthaginians had built three towns: the Portus Magonis; the town at the west end of the island, called Jamno, the modern Ciudadela; and one in the interior. In B.C. 121 Metellus arrived with his fleet, and the Balearic Islands passed under the dominion of Rome. For more than five hundred years the islands formed part of the Roman Empire, Minorca always sharing the fate of her larger and more important sister. These huge gaps in history leave everything to conjecture. They may have been a time of peace and prosperity, or they may have been a period of grinding oppression. The people were probably still the descendants of the prehistoric builders. Certainly no great event happened, or it would have been recorded. On the decay of Roman power, in the days of Honorius, the Balearic Islands are said to have been occupied for a time by the Vandals, from A.D. 426. It is assumed that the islands formed part of the kingdom of the Spanish Visigoths; but all that may have happened in that long period is buried in oblivion. We only know that Christianity had been introduced, and that at the Council of Toledo, celebrated in the year 675 A.D., there were bishops of the Balearic Isles, dating for at least two hundred years back, for Severo was Bishop of Minorca in 423.
Before the commencement of the ninth century the islands had fallen entirely into the hands of the Moors, and formed part of the empire of the Omeyad Khâlifas of Cordova, Minorca continuing through all the long period of Moorish domination to share the fate of the larger island. The aboriginal inhabitants must have entirely disappeared, giving place to immigrants from Africa and Muhammadan Spain, chiefly Arabs and Berbers. Minorca seems to have been ruled during a long period by a Moorish family, son succeeding father, with a title which the Spaniards called Almojarife. We have already seen how, after the conquest of Majorca, King Jayme secured the submission of the Minorcan Moors by a stratagem.32 The great king, however, dealt very leniently with the smaller island. The government of Minorca was confirmed to the Almojarife and his family on condition of loyalty to the Aragonese overlord and payment of tribute. This arrangement continued until the usurpation of young Alfonso III., a very different man from his illustrious grandfather. The Moors were established in Minorca for nearly four centuries; but, by the use of ruthless methods, it is not difficult to extirpate a whole population and to substitute another in so small an island.
The young King Alfonso III. of Aragon, having usurped the government of Majorca, as has been related in the story of that island,33 came to a sudden determination to drive the Moors out of Minorca. He made a pretext that the Almojarife had thwarted his father’s designs on the coast of Barbary by giving early information to his co-religionists. Alfonso also said that when his uncle’s dominions were restored to him, the acquisition of Minorca would make up for the temporary deprivation. This hopeful young king had not begun well. He was unjust, wayward, and sometimes cruel. He acted on the spur of the moment. Had he lived, the promised son-in-law of the great King Edward of England might have become a more stable and right-minded prince. At this time he cared very little for a pretext in making war, and his resolutions were very hastily formed.
The consequence was that he chose the stormiest period of the winter for his expedition, sending to his brother Fadrique, in Sicily, to supply him with forty well-armed galleys. He then assembled the nobles of his kingdom at Tarragona, and was granted five hundred cavalry and a large army of almogavares.34 The fleet of armed ships and transports numbered 120 sail. En Pedro Cornel was appointed general of the forces, and knights of the families of Luna, Entenza, Anglesola accompanied the King. Garcia Gorcas de Aracuri of Aragon and Acart de Mur of Catalonia were masters of the camp.
The terrible news reached the Almojarife35 of Minorca. His consternation was great, for the danger was imminent. The impulsive young king cared less than nothing for the written grant given by En Jayme to the Moorish chief. The Almojarife sent to Barbary to entreat for help from the chiefs of Bugia, Bona, Tremecen, and Constantia. In a short time 900 cavalry and 5,000 foot soldiers arrived from Africa, which would enable the Moors to face their enemies with a respectable force.
The King of Aragon left Salou with his fleet, arriving at Majorca on December 2, 1285, where he passed Christmas. Muntaner tells us that the cold of that winter was intense, and that a man might as well have been in the frozen steppes of the Don. The hands of some of the oarsmen were frostbitten, and the troops suffered from the severity of the winter.
After the Christmas festivities were over, the King ordered the fleet to make sail in the worst possible weather. The ships were scarcely clear of the land when a furious gale sprang up and scattered the fleet. Alfonso arrived at Port Mahon with only twenty galleys, and occupied one of the rocky islands in the harbour, waiting for the rest of his forces.
The Moors were ready to receive him. They had a large army, composed partly of the auxiliaries sent from Africa and partly of natives of the island. Seeing them drawn up in battle array, the impetuous young King resolved to attack them without waiting for reinforcements. He had a few companies of almogavares and four hundred horse. A very desperate and well-contested battle was the result. Alfonso was in the thick of the fight, giving many proofs of valour and dexterity as a swordsman. In spite of the great inferiority in numbers, the Catalans were victorious, the Moors retreating in confusion to a hill which, owing to the great slaughter, received the name of ‘El Degollador.’ The battlefield was situated on a plain a little to the westward of the present castle of San Felipe.
A day or two afterwards there was another fight, owing to the conduct of a young knight named Berenguer de Tornamira, who, to show his own valour, attacked the Moors without orders with a small force. If succour had not been promptly despatched he would certainly have been overwhelmed. As it was, the Moors were driven back. The Almojarife then took refuge, with the remnant of his forces, in the castle on Mount Santa Agueda. Alfonso, always hasty and violent, ordered Tornamira’s head to be cut off; but he afterwards yielded to the prayers and remonstrances of his nobles and consented to spare the young knight’s life. The losses in these two battles were very heavy, especially on the side of the Moors. By this time the rest of the fleet, with troops on board, had arrived at Port Mahon.
Alfonso then advanced to the castle of Santa Agueda, and made preparations for a siege; but the Almojarife saw that all hope was gone, and sent four of his principal ministers to ask for the acceptance of the terms he offered. They were that he would surrender the castle and the whole island if he and his people were provided with shipping to proceed to Barbary, paying 7-1/2 doblas a head for every Moorish man or woman that embarked. The Almojarife also asked to be allowed to take his books, clothes, and fifty swords. The ship was to take him to Ceuta or some other port in Africa. The King consented to the terms, and his favourite, Blasco Jimenes de Ayerba, was instructed to make the necessary arrangement. There was a Genoese vessel at Port Mahon, which was hired and supplied with provisions, and the unfortunate chief, with his family and about a hundred other people who were able to pay the ransom, embarked. Whether the ship went down in a gale of wind, or whether there was foul play, no one will ever know. It is certain that she never was heard of again. The story of Carbonell that the unfortunate fugitives were thrown overboard by order of the King, after paying their ransoms, need not be believed.
The rest of the population was at the mercy of the conquerors, to the number of about twenty thousand. They were either forced to work at the new buildings ordered to be erected, or sent to Sicily and Barcelona to be sold as slaves.
The date of the capitulation was January 17, 1288, St. Anthony’s Day, which was ever afterwards kept as a holiday, with processions and other festivities. Alfonso remained in Minorca until the following March, leaving orders for a town to be built, with a fortified wall, at Port Mahon. He died three years afterwards at Barcelona, aged twenty-seven.
Don Juan Ramis y Ramis, the chronicler of Minorca, recorded the prowess of the young King and the conquest of the island in a poem entitled ‘Alonsiada.’
Pedro de Lesbia, a native of Valencia, was left as the first Christian Procurator-General of Minorca. The whole Moorish population appears to have been rooted out of the island and replaced by Catalan settlers. Ciudadela, at the western end, became the capital, as it was in Moorish times; while Port Mahon was the principal commercial port.
In a small island like Minorca a population could soon be extirpated by ruthless invaders without pity or remorse and actuated by unreasoning bigotry. Their cruelties were not only condoned but encouraged by their priests. It is a revolting picture. There was an industrious and happy people, engaged in cultivating a not very grateful soil, which needed much toil and no little skill to induce it to yield harvests sufficient for the wants of a frugal population. In homes endeared to them by centuries of occupation, and surrounded by their wives and children, they were living in peace and comparative prosperity, and enjoying the hard-earned fruits of their toil. The land tax, paid in kind, was the regular source of revenue in all Muhammadan countries. In Minorca the Almojarife, or collector, appears to have been the hereditary chief of the island. Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, in a few days total destruction came upon them. Thousands were killed, all their chief men with their families disappeared, all their property was seized, wives were torn from husbands, children from parents, and sold into slavery.
Turning away from the horrors of this scene of cruelty and wrong, we may assume an interval of confusion, and then the farms and villages of the Moors are occupied by Catalan families equally industrious and hard-working. The Christians were exposed to heavier exactions and suffered under a less enlightened rule, so that perhaps we should give them even greater credit than their predecessors for the way in which they extracted the means of supporting themselves and their families from the stony fields.
Minorca continued to share the fortunes of the larger island under her own kings, under the Kings of Aragon, and under the Austrian dynasty of Spain. The form of government was the same as that granted to Majorca by En Jayme.
The smaller island suffered equally with Majorca from the raids of Barbary pirates, who carried off many unfortunate people into slavery. All the islanders rejoiced at the campaign against Tunis, led by the Emperor Charles V. in person, who liberated several thousands of Christian slaves in 1535. Yet the piracies did not cease, or only for a time. Barbarossa, the piratical leader, undeterred by the fall of Tunis, fitted out a fleet of eleven galleys and made sail for the Balearic Islands. His fleet entered Port Mahon with Christian banners flying, to deceive the soldiers in the fort and the inhabitants, who were completely taken in. Bells were rung and guns fired in honour of what was supposed to be a part of the Emperor’s fleet. A boat with some Franciscan friars approached the galleys and discovered the mistake. They pulled back to the shore, raised a warning, and the gates of the town were closed.
Barbarossa landed 2,500 Moors and some guns, with which he battered the walls of the town and made a breach. His assault was, however, repulsed. The people of Ciudadela assembled three hundred men, but seeing that the enemy was so powerful they did not venture upon an attack at first. They sent a messenger to warn the besieged that they should be ready to make a sortie when the relief approached. Then most of the three hundred advanced, and occupied the attention of the enemy while the besieged hastily repaired the breaches in the walls. A second assault was gallantly repulsed, and the pirate chief began to feel rather insecure at Port Mahon, expecting the return of the Emperor’s fleet from Tunis.
Fortunately for Barbarossa, the besieged lost heart and surrendered the town to him on terms which he never dreamt of keeping. He made slaves of eight hundred of the inhabitants. The churches were pillaged and profaned. The Guardian of San Francisco had partaken of the Sacrament to save the Host from profanation. The Moors entered and seized all the valuables, but did not find the Host in the pyx. Barbarossa asked where it was, and when the Franciscan replied that he had eaten it to preserve it from profanation, he was ordered out for execution and suffered death with two other friars.
This was in the year 1536. The Governor of the island had remained at Ciudadela, and when six citizens arrived from Port Mahon, who had been released by Barbarossa because they advised the surrender, the Governor ordered them to be put to death. Barbarossa and his Moors evacuated Port Mahon and departed with his plunder and with many wretched people to be sold into slavery. The Emperor was greatly distressed at these repeated acts of piracy, and in 1541 he fitted out a second expedition, this time against Algiers. Again he led the expedition in person; but it was a failure owing to the furious gales and deluges of rain.
The islands were kept in a constant state of alarm. In 1558 a Turkish fleet of 140 vessels hove in sight. Ciudadela and Port Mahon had been put in the best possible posture of defence, when fifteen thousand Turks were landed, under a leader named Mustapha. Having occupied the open country, they laid siege to Ciudadela, which was held by a garrison of seven hundred men. A battery of artillery was planted against the walls, and, after making a breach, three assaults were delivered and gallantly repulsed. The besieged Minorcans were resolved to defend the place to the death, and they would have done so if it had not been for a disastrous accident. The magazine caught fire and all their powder was destroyed. The men proposed to their leaders, Arquimbau, the Lieutenant-Governor, and Captain Noyet, to attempt to fight their way to Port Mahon. They came out, the men of Alayor and Mercadal leading, women and children in the centre, and the rest of the garrison bringing up the rear, under Arquimbau. The Turks attacked them furiously, and only 150 got back into the town. On July 10 another assault was delivered, and at last the place was taken. Many of the besieged were killed in cold blood, and the rest were carried off to be sold as slaves. On the same day the Turks embarked and made sail.
The Viceroy, Don Guillermo Rocafull, was not in the island. He returned at once and proceeded to repair the fortifications of Ciudadela, bringing several families to re-people the place from Majorca and Valencia. The castle of San Felipe at Port Mahon was also repaired and strengthened.
The piracies continued until well into the eighteenth century, and kept the people in a constant state of terror and alarm; but confidence slowly returned, and Minorca had long been free from actual invasion when the War of the Succession broke out, after the death of Charles II., the last of the Austrian Kings of Spain.