PART I

In the spring of 1906 we found ourselves with three months to devote to foreign travel, and after some deliberation we decided to spend them in exploring those “Iles oubliées” of the Mediterranean—Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza—and in ascertaining for ourselves whether they were worth visiting and what were the possibilities of a stay there.

Their names, it is true, lingered in our memories like some familiar echo from far-off schoolroom days, but with regard to all practical details we were extremely ignorant, and it was without knowing a soul in the islands or a soul who had ever been there, that we set out on the last day of January to visit the Balearics—those homes of famous slingers.

A railway journey of twenty-two hours takes the traveller from Paris to Barcelona by way of Toulouse. The change from France to Spain is an abrupt one. After racing through flat lands of vine, through sand dunes and salt lagoons, one crosses the frontier into a dry place ofred and orange hills, where stone villages stand bare and unshrinking in the strong sunlight, and here and there a palm—solitary outpost of the south—waves her dusty plumes; and the night falls suddenly upon a sky crystal clear, as the sun slips in glory behind the strong outline of the purple Pyrenees.

An old writer has left it on record that the thing which chiefly repented him in his life was having gone anywhere by sea when he might have gone by land. Since it is decreed, however, that islands shall be reached by water, one subject of remorse was spared us as we boarded the steamshipMiramarat half-past six on the evening of February 5th. And so great is the power of comparatives to cheer, that though the worst of sailors, we derived a certain happiness from the reflection that we had at any rate chosen the lesser evil in sailing from Barcelona instead of taking the twenty-four hour crossing from Marseilles.

Behold us then at dawn gliding into the Bay of Palma and gazing around us with that undefined expectancy that even in these prosaic days of travel tinges with romance the landing on an unknown shore.

A lovely view of Palma“From the grounds round the Castle of Bellver a most lovely view of Palma is obtained through the pine-trees....”(page31)

“From the grounds round the Castle of Bellver a most lovely view of Palma is obtained through the pine-trees....”

(page31)

Porto Pi tower“...the little harbour of Porto Pi, guarded by an old Moorish signal tower.”(page32)

“...the little harbour of Porto Pi, guarded by an old Moorish signal tower.”

(page32)

Here is nothing of the wild and rugged mountain scenery that meets the eye on approaching Ajaccio. Rather like some Fortunate Isle safe from the reach of tempests does Majorca lie serene and dreaming upon the water. The great bay opening to the south is enclosed upon the east by a level shore terminating far out at sea in the blue headland of Cape Blanco, while closer at hand the western coast line is indented with many a rocky promontory and wooded headland curving down to the harbour’s rim. A low cliff of orange sandstone encircles like a sea wall the head of the bay, and upon this cliff stands Palma, a sea of colourless houses massed upon the water’s edge and stretching backwards to the wide plain—deep blue and level well-nigh as the sea itself—that forms the background to the town and to the great cathedral that towers high above all other buildings.

At its eastern rim the plain rises slightly to the double peaks of the Puig de Randa, far inland; on the west the panorama is closed by a distant range of sapphire blue mountains, the Sierra of the interior.

We land, and are rattled quickly away in an omnibus to the Grand Hotel—but a few minutes distant from the quay. It was no small relief to find that we were spared a further encounter with the Spanishdouane, for the ruthless violation of our trunks at the frontier station of Port Bou was still fresh in our memory, while the very hour of our sailing from Barcelona had been marked by a last attempt at extortion. A Customs official who was patrolling the wharf in all the glory of helmet and sword, took upon himself to detain a packing case of ours, containing a saddle, and, on the ground that he could not see what was inside, he forbade it to be put on board.

It was late—it was dark—the boat was about to sail, and we had retired to our cabin. Our hired porter ravedand shrieked upon the quay, then came to us and said we must have the case opened or it would be left behind. I stumbled upstairs again, my Spanish deserting me at such a rate that by the time I reached the shore my vocabulary was literally reduced to the one word,sombrero—which, unhappily, did not bear upon the matter. Thedouanierwas polite, but firm. With shrugged shoulders he said the Senorita would comprehend that with the best will in the world he could not see through a deal board.

At that moment the gleam of a street lamp fell upon an upturned palm protruding from beneath the military cape—and into it I slipped a peseta, which produced such a furious access of shrugging and protestation that for one brief moment I thought I had insulted the man. But on looking round I saw that all was well, porter and case being already half-way on deck—and with a sense of deep annoyance at having tipped a person I would willingly have fined, I followed them and went to bed.

On the Palma quay all is peace. By a simple arrangement involving a certain annual subsidy to the Customs officials, the proprietor of the Grand Hotel has ensured protection for his guests’ luggage, which escapes even the most nominal examination. The hotel omnibus merely draws up for a moment in front of theDouaneon entering the town; the officials, armed with long probing rods, saunter out, open the carriage door and wish us good day—and on we go again.

The town is still half asleep, and as we drive up to the hotel its shutters are being unshipped by yawningfaquins. We find a large and handsome five-storied building with an imposing façade, and balconied windows that look out upon the small central square of the town. The interior conveys a truly southern impression of silence and space, due to the great expanses of marble pavement and to the cool stone walls and passages which prevent the conveyance of sound. The dining hall is immense; so are the lobbies that run round the central well of the house, and off which the bedrooms open. We go upstairs, and within an hour of our arrival have becomepensionnairesof the hotel at 10s. a head a day, and are installed in two excellent rooms on the third floor, comfortably furnished, fitted with electric bells and light, heated by hot water, and reached by a lift, while our wants are being ministered to by a cheerful white-capped chambermaid answering to the name of Dolores.

With brains still jumbled by travel it is almost impossible to realise, in the midst of such up-to-date comfort, that we are really and actually in Majorca—an island that might, for all we knew to the contrary a few weeks ago, have proved an inhospitable rock. Memories recur of nights spenten routeat Paris and Toulouse, and we go to the window half-expecting to see a vista of wide boulevards and to hear the familiar clanging of electric trams as they glide up and down some arcaded street of cafés and shopfronts.

We are sharply recalled from such visions: a sea of pale yellow-ochre tiles, unbroken, though intersected by narrow crevasse-like streets, stretches down to a strip of brilliant blue water in the harbour below. On flat house tops lines of wet linen flap wildly in sun and wind. Jutting up above the mass of irregular roofs are fantastic turrets and aviaries, painted blue and red, the homes of innumerable pigeons now wheeling in flocks over the town, their wings singing as they cleave the air above our heads. From scattered belfrys and towers unmelodious bells clash out wildly for a few moments and then relapse into silence; and like a running accompaniment to the murmur of the streets is heard the gobble, gobble of many turkeys, and the bright eye of one of these birds is seen watching us fixedly through the Venetian shutters of a small upper room across the way. No, truly! this is all very unlike a northern city.

Majorca is in fact a stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, where the East and West—rather than the north and south of her geographical position—may be said to meet.

She has had many masters in her day: the earliest colonists of whom we have any record were the sea-faring Rhodians, who were said to build “as though for eternity.” But not the faintest trace of their occupation survives. Their successors were the Carthaginians, who left footprints in Minorca by founding Mahon, the capital, the reputed birthplace of Hannibal. Then came the Romans, who in 123B.C.founded Palma and Pollensa;Balearic slingers fought under Julius Cæsar in Gaul as they had done under Hannibal at Cannæ. Five hundred years later the islands were captured by the Vandals—were retaken by the Byzantine general Belisarius, and fell subsequently with the greater part of Spain into the hands of the Visigoths.

In the eighth century came the resistless tide of the Saracens, who held the island for an uninterrupted period of nearly five hundred years, and might have kept it longer had they not strained the patience of their Christian neighbours to breaking point by their piratical habits. They had become such a menace to the marine commerce of Europe that the then Pope preached a crusade against the Balearic bandits, and an allied fleet sailed from Pisa and Catalonia in the twelfth century. The pirates’ nest was smoked out, Palma succumbing after a long and stubborn siege. The allies, however, proved unable to retain their prize, and the island relapsed to the Moors, who so far took their lesson to heart as to somewhat amend their ways.

But the great assault was yet to come. On Sept. 6, 1229, Don Jaime I—King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona—destined to live in history by the title ofEl Conquistador, set sail for Palma with 150 galleys and 18,000 soldiers, besides a great company of Spanish knights aflame with religious zeal, the lust of conquest, and the hope of glory. We are told that the Christian host encountered a great storm on the way, and that they were grievously sick before they landed near Porto Pi to the west of the town.

Here the infidels attacked them, but were beaten back and besieged within the city, which fell some three months later after a desperate resistance, and was entered by the victorious Spanish army on December 31, 1229.

From that memorable day may be said to date modern Palma. Everything around one testifies to the break that separates the history of the town since the conquest from the old period of Arab domination. The names of the streets immortalise the Conqueror and succeeding sovereigns or notables of the invading race. The scutcheons that ornament the public buildings display the arms granted to Palma by Don Jaime—a castle in the sea, with a palm-tree issuant, quartered with the arms of Aragon and surmounted by the Bat, cognisance of the Counts of Barcelona.

The town houses of the aristocracy are the old palaces of the nine noble families whose ancestors accompanied the Conqueror and settled in the island. The Governor’s residence stands where did the Moorish sheikh’s palace; the Cathedral occupies the site of the principal mosque. So thorough were the invaders in destroying or converting to other uses the Moorish buildings, so fierce was their Christian zeal—“which spared not even stones”—that hardly a trace remains of the oriental Palma, that city crowned with minarets and peopled with 80,000 souls, which attained under the Moors a glory and magnificence that have never since been equalled.

The Palma of the present day is a prosperous town of some 60,000 inhabitants. She has burst her ancient limits, and her eastern outskirts are thick with factories and windmills extending to the plain, while outside her western fortifications has sprung up a large residential suburb, and the wooded slopes above the bay are thronged for miles with villas and summer residences. Only the town that lies inside the walls is the old Palma, and this—in its main features—has probably altered little since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Puerta Santa Margarita“The gateway by which Don Jaime is said to have made his triumphal entry into Palma in the year 1229.”(page10)

“The gateway by which Don Jaime is said to have made his triumphal entry into Palma in the year 1229.”

(page10)

Puerta Santa Catalina“The Riéra is seen flowing beneath the bridge that leads from the gate of Santa Catalina to the suburb of the same name.”(page9)

“The Riéra is seen flowing beneath the bridge that leads from the gate of Santa Catalina to the suburb of the same name.”

(page9)

A wide thoroughfare divides the town into the upper and lowerVillas, and starting from the harbour, takes a right angle near the Grand Hotel and makes its exit through the Porte Jésus in the north-west walls. This is the principal artery of the town, and was originally—like the Rambla of many another Spanish city—the bed by which the river found its way to the sea; but in the year 1403 a disastrous flood, causing the loss of hundreds of houses and lives, so alarmed the inhabitants that the river was turned from its course and conducted into the moat that surrounds the town. Spanish rivers are proverbial for their lack of water, and it is difficult to credit the Riéra—which in its normal state suggests nothing more dangerous than a gravel pit after rain—with such powers of destruction in bygone days.

The gigantic scale of Palma’s encircling fortifications may perhaps best be realised by a glance at the accompanying picture, where the Riéra is seen flowing beneath the bridge that leads from the gate of Santa Catalina to the suburb of the same name.

The fortifications date from very different periods. The completed design of moat and rampart as it now stands was originated in the sixteenth century and only finished a hundred years ago; but remains of the old Moorish defences still exist, though they suffered severely in the great siege of 1229, and were strengthened and largely rebuilt by the Spanish conquerors.

A picturesque gateway on the north of the town, now called Santa Margarita, but dubbed by the Moors the Gate of the Christians, is pointed out as having been the one by which Don Jaime made his triumphant entry into Palma. This gateway, like the other survivals of the ancient fortifications, stands some way within theMurallaof the present day, which encompasses the town as with a raised highway—one might almost say a common, so incredibly vast are the earthworks within the walls. Hither the townsfolk ascend at evening to enjoy the sea breeze and the glorious view over land and sea. Cows graze peacefully along the ramparts, surrounded by children at play; and wheeling flights of pigeons execute aerial manœuvres overhead, while squads of new recruits march unendingly backwards and forwards from morning to night in the dry bed of the moat below, and the bastions re-echo the sharp words of command.

The moat on the eastern side is devoted to rope-making, and there men are seen walking backwards all day long, spinning as they go, and the dull thud of heavy mallets is heard as they beat out the bundles of esparto grass.

View from the Grand Hotel“...thePlaza del Mercádo,lying in the shadow of the old hexagonal tower of San Nicolas, and flanked by the great balconied house of the Zafortéza family.”(page12)

“...thePlaza del Mercádo,lying in the shadow of the old hexagonal tower of San Nicolas, and flanked by the great balconied house of the Zafortéza family.”

(page12)

Sentry Box on the Ramparts“At intervals along the ramparts stand ancient sentry boxes of weathered sandstone....”(page11)

“At intervals along the ramparts stand ancient sentry boxes of weathered sandstone....”

(page11)

On the southern ramparts overlooking the harbour and immediately beneath the cathedral, is the broad terraced walk that forms Palma’s most beautiful promenade. At intervals along the low parapet stand ancient sentry-boxes of weathered sandstone, and one looks past them out to sea, with a bird’s-eye view of the harbour and its shipping backed by the white suburb of Santa Catalina and the pinewoods of Bellver. Above us rise clustered houses, with here and there a group of slender palm-trees leaning from some garden, and crowning all stands the great cathedral, rich with pinnacles and flying buttresses, and turning to the harbour a cliff-like face of sandstone deep tanned by centuries of sun and sea.

Small wonder that the townspeople love to stroll on their beautifulMuralla de Mar. It is probably the only portion of the ramparts that will survive the work of destruction now proceeding—for the doom of the fortifications is sealed. The last part they played in history was during the Spanish war of succession in 1715, when Palma hotly espoused the cause of the Austrian archduke and was reduced by General Aspheld with an army of 10,000 men. Modern science has rendered the old walls useless as a defence—modern hygiene considers them an undesirable barrier to fresh air.

And so they are to go.

For the last thirty years the work of pulling them down has proceeded with but occasional pauses from lack offunds. Already a wide breach has been made on the side next the sea; to the north a large section of the moat has been filled in and converted into a square with gardens; and workmen are now engaged in throwing down the eastern walls. The outer casing of masonry is being gradually stripped off and the vast earthworks shovelled into the moat. To the onlooker it seems as if ants had been set to remove a mountain as he watches one trolley-load of rubbish after another slide down to the glacis below without making the slightest perceptible difference.

Yet it is only a question of a few years before walls and moat alike shall have vanished. Gone will be the old entrance gates with their scutcheons and turrets and their deep archways of black shadow where lurks thedouanierwatching for his prey. Gone will be the bridges with their ceaseless stream of passengers plying to and from the town. Gone—alas! will be one of Palma’s most picturesque features.

A cheerful scene greets the eye of the stranger who starts out on a voyage of exploration the morning after his arrival at the Grand Hotel. Facing him, as he emerges into the street, is thePlaza del Mercádo, lying in the shadow of the old hexagonal tower of the church of San Nicolas, and flanked by the great balconied house of the Zafortéza family. If it happen to be a Saturday morning a busy throng is congregated on the square; the ground is strewn with displays of glass and crockery, of coarse green and brown pottery and graceful waterjars, while the sellers of young orange-trees, of toys and jewellery, of cheap rocking chairs and folding trestle bedsteads, vie with one another in attracting the attention of possible purchasers.

Patio with Banana Clump“Thepatioin some houses is merely a plain courtyard enclosed by whitewashed walls, with perhaps a clump of bananas growing in the centre.”(page14)

“Thepatioin some houses is merely a plain courtyard enclosed by whitewashed walls, with perhaps a clump of bananas growing in the centre.”

(page14)

Street in Palma“Long flights of steps lead to the higher part of the town, some broad and shallow, the playground of innumerable boys....”(page13)

“Long flights of steps lead to the higher part of the town, some broad and shallow, the playground of innumerable boys....”

(page13)

Long flights of steps lead to the higher part of the town—some broad and shallow, the playground of innumerable boys; others steep and so narrow that the tall houses almost meet overhead.

The cobbled streets of the oldest and most aristocratic quarters of Palma resemble ravines, and are barely wide enough to admit of the passage of the heavy two-wheeled carts that come lumbering through, scraping either wall with their axles and compelling foot passengers to seek the shelter of the nearest archway. An oriental atmosphere of mystery hangs about the massive, fortress-like walls of the great houses that tower on either side, turning to the outer world a blank and inscrutable face of reserve that offers not the faintest indication of the life existing within. External windows are represented by a few heavily-barred apertures high overhead, but if you chance to find the great nail-studdedporte-cochèrestanding open you are at perfect liberty to go in and look about you.

The universal plan of all the better houses is that inherited from the Arabs—of apatioor open courtyard in the centre of the building, from which a staircaseascends to the dwelling rooms on the first floor. In some houses thispatioconsists of nothing more than a plain courtyard enclosed by whitewashed walls, with perhaps a clump of bananas growing in the centre; but in the palaces inhabited by the nobility and dating back some centuries the courtyard is frequently of great beauty and constitutes the chief architectural feature of the house.

The residence of the Oleza family in theCalle de Moréyhas a fine courtyard in Rénaissance style; handsome pillars of red marble support the vaultings of the house, and the gallery that spans the marble staircase rests upon a wide flattened arch bearing the family coat of arms. The ground floor is devoted to stables, coach-house, and domestic offices, and in the court stands that characteristic feature of Moorish and Spanishpatios—the well, from which the household draws its water supply. The bucket is lowered from a wrought-iron support in the form of a crozier, and on being brought up brimming its contents are upset into the font-shaped receptacle of stone close by, from which they flow through an orifice into the water jar placed on a slab below.

The palace of the Marquis de Vivot in theCalle Zavellais not as ancient as many another, dating as it does from the beginning of the eighteenth century only, but itspatiois the largest in Palma and certainly one of the most beautiful. It is approached by fineportes-cochèresand has in the centre a paved space where carriages stand at the foot of the great staircase. From eight beautiful marble columns spring the graceful arches that uphold the house, and in brilliant relief against the black shadows of the recess stands out the clear red of two immense oil-jars containing palms.

Patio with Well“In the court stands that characteristic feature of Moorish and Spanishpatios—the well.”(page14)

“In the court stands that characteristic feature of Moorish and Spanishpatios—the well.”

(page14)

Patio in the Calle Zavella“Thepatioin the palace of the Marquis de Vivot is one of the most beautiful in Palma....”(page14)

“Thepatioin the palace of the Marquis de Vivot is one of the most beautiful in Palma....”

(page14)

I am not competent to enter into the details of wrought work and sculpture with which thepatiosof Palma abound, but even to the visitor unversed in architecture a voyage of discovery in the older quarters is full of interest. The meanest back street may produce a richly-carved window frame or a staircase with a stone balustrade of quaint and original design. TheCalle de Solboasts a house front in purest Rénaissance style, five big windows on the first floor being wreathed in gargoyles and strange stone monsters.

In theCalle de la Almudainawe come upon an ancient machicolated archway spanning the street. This once formed part of the wall that encircled the very kernel of the old Moorish city, and is the only survival of the five gateways that afforded entrance to the Citadel.

Not far from here is the equally ancient Moorish Bath, a small building some twenty feet square standing in an orange garden. It is in the Byzantine style, and is built of small bricks scarcely thicker than the intervening layers of mortar. The circular basin which no doubt occupied the floor of the building has disappeared, and the interior contains nothing but twelve much-worn pillars standing in a square, the eight centre ones supporting the cupola of the roof, while the four corner columns are by an ingenious—and I believe very unusual—arrangementomitted from the circle and left standing back in the angles of the building.

An air of incredible age pervades this blackened and cobwebbed relic of Islamism that lingers, unaltered and half forgotten, in the very heart of the Christian city. It forms—with the Almudaina arch and the signal tower of Porto Pi—the only authentic memorial of the race which occupied Majorca for a period of five hundred years.

The churches of Palma are many. One of the oldest is that of Monte Sion, which is said to have adopted both the site and the name of a still older Jewish synagogue: as one skirts its walls, huge, blank, and dungeon-like, one is quite unprepared for its exquisite doorway—one of the richest pieces of sculpture in Palma. It is a fine specimen of rococo, dating from 1683, and constituting in its delicacy of detail and beauty of proportion one of the finest of the many beautiful church doors for which Palma is famed.

Scarcely less magnificent is the west front of the great church of San Francisco, with its immense doorway in late Rénaissance style, surmounted by an exquisite rose window. This church contains the tomb of a scion of a noble Catalonian house—the famous Rámon Lull, warrior, scholar, and saint—who in the reign of Jaime II. founded a college for the instruction of twelve monks in oriental tongues, and was himself martyred in Algeria by the infidels whom he went forth to convert. His body was secured by some Genoese fishermen, who set sail for Italy with their precious burden; but when off the coast of Majorca their boat refused to advance till the martyr’s body was brought on shore, where it was laid to rest in its native soil by the monks of San Francisco.

Arab Baths“An air of incredible age pervades this blackened and cobwebbed relic of Islamism....”(page16)

“An air of incredible age pervades this blackened and cobwebbed relic of Islamism....”

(page16)

Door of Montesion Church“The exquisite doorway of Montesion is one of the richest pieces of sculpture in Palma.”(page16)

“The exquisite doorway of Montesion is one of the richest pieces of sculpture in Palma.”

(page16)

The tomb is a beautiful Gothic monument of red marble, but the effigy of Rámon Lull, surrounded by fretted canopies and fantastic heraldic beasts, is only dimly visible in the deep gloom of the church.

A trap door leads down to an immense crypt, where a huddled-up human skeleton is pointed out and the story told of a bloody tragedy enacted in the church in the year 1490. Two of Palma’s greatest families were at deadly feud, and while attending the ceremonies of theJour des Morts, upon some slight pretext came to blows. The church became a slaughter-house, and before swords were sheathed more than three hundred dead and wounded were left on the field of battle.

Whether the skeleton in the crypt is one of those that fell that memorable day may be doubted; but it is not improbable, for the church and its monastery were founded shortly after the conquest—by monks of the order of St. Francis of Assisi—and were from earliest times one of the chief places of burial for the nobility. The walls of the adjoining cloisters are thick with scutcheons and memorial tablets to those who were once the greatest in the land.

A beautiful colonnade of slender Gothic pillars encloses the monks’ garden, where two geese—sole occupants of theParadiso—chatter angrily at the intruder. No other sound but the soft rustlings of palm branches and the whispers of the wind in the orange-trees breaks the silence of the long galleries and deserted cells.

From the upper corridor with its broken pavement chequered with dazzling patches of sunshine one looks out from under the deep overshadowing eaves to where the cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the city. The atmosphere of infinite peace that pervades these cloisters—the sense of seclusion, although so near the busy life outside the walls—must have appealed deeply to the brown-frocked friars who once paced these beautiful walks “revolving many memories.”

Bitter must have been the day of expulsion when this monastery, like all the others in the island, was suppressed in 1835.

The church of San Nicolas contains a statue of Santa Catalina, a Majorcan saint of great fame, and—incorporated in the outer wall, is the rock on which she was sitting in the bed of the Riéra at the moment when she was informed of her admission into the convent of St. Magdalen. The interiors of these southern churches are so dark that it is with difficulty possible to make out the statues that occupy the side chapels; here may be seen a black Madonna and child of miraculous power; there a group of saints laden with ex-votos in the shape of flat silver images of men and women and models of human limbs, hung upon their arms by grateful devotees; in another niche is a life-sized Christ upon the cross—wearing a fringed crimson petticoat to the knees and a broad silver girdle with a bunch of artificial roses stuck in it, while matted locks of real hair straggle out from beneath the crown of thorns.

Cloisters of S. Francisco“In the ancient monastery of S. Francisco a beautiful colonnade of slender gothic pillars encloses the monks’ garden....”(page18)

“In the ancient monastery of S. Francisco a beautiful colonnade of slender gothic pillars encloses the monks’ garden....”

(page18)

Cloisters, Upper Corridor“From the upper corridor one looks out to where the cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the city.”(page18)

“From the upper corridor one looks out to where the cathedral spires rise dim and distant across half the city.”

(page18)

In the Cathedral the darkness is so intense by contrast with the blinding light outside that it is some considerable time before one’s eyes become sufficiently accustomed to the gloom to perceive the details of the rich interior. The roof of the nave rises 150 feet above the level of the pavement, and is divided from the side aisles by fourteen great columns 70 feet in height, slender and stately as the shafts of forest trees. High overhead—where the delicate ribs of the vaulting cross—are carved the armorial shields of knights, who for this privilege paid heavy sums in bygone days towards the building of the church. Eight chapels, gorgeous with statues and gilding, occupy either side aisle, and above them are Gothic windows—so little suited to this land of fierce light that they have had to be bricked up, with the exception of a few tiny apertures through which the sun shoots golden arrows. The faint light that penetrates the rich rose windows above the choir lies in jewelled stains upon the pavement, and does little to dispel the solemn gloom.

From the dim east end, far away, where wreaths of incense rise and the high altar is outlined in brilliant points of light, comes the distant chanting of priests and the response of choir boys—and suddenly a greatrush of harmony fills the cathedral as the voice of the organ sinks and swells like a storm-wind among the columns, and dies trembling away in the uttermost recesses of the great building.

Worshippers move to and fro in constant succession; men spread their handkerchiefs upon the stone floor and remain upon their knees in prayer, wholly oblivious of the coming and going around them. Women, dressed in deepest black, kneel motionless at thegrillesof the various chapels, where lamps burn with a dull red spark before the image of saint or Saviour. A statelySuissein wig and gown paces up and down and receives the visitor desirous of seeing the treasures of the sacristy; here are exhibited heavy silver candelabra, embroidered vestments, jewelled crosses, and reliquaries—and in company with these may be seen, bedizened with tawdry velvet and sham ermine, the mummified body of Majorca’s second king, Don Jaime II., who died in the year 1311.

It was in the old church of Santa Eulalia, not far away, that in 1256 a general assembly was called to proclaim this Don Jaime—the second son of the Conqueror—heir to the crown of Majorca, his elder brother’s inheritance being the throne of Aragon, which carried with it a merely nominal suzerainty over the island kingdom. Before long, however, a dispute arose over the terms of allegiance due to the King of Aragon, and in 1285 Don Jaime was dispossessed of his kingdom by Alfonso III. for thirteen years, after which time it was restored to him by the usurper’s son, and retained till his death.

Staircase of Private House“Thepatiosof Palma abound in sculpture and wrought-iron work....”(page15)

“Thepatiosof Palma abound in sculpture and wrought-iron work....”

(page15)

Street of the Almudaina“The machicolated archway spanning the street of the Almudaina is the only survival of the five gateways that afforded entrance to the Citadel.”(page15)

“The machicolated archway spanning the street of the Almudaina is the only survival of the five gateways that afforded entrance to the Citadel.”

(page15)

He was succeeded by his son Sancho, who died without children, and the crown then passed to his uncle, the fourth son of the Conqueror, and through him to Don Jaime III., the last King of Majorca, who fell upon the field of Lluchmayor in 1349, in a last attempt to regain the crown wrested from him by Pedro IV. of Aragon.

So ended—within little more than a hundred years of its creation—the independent monarchy founded by Jaime the Conqueror, and the islands have from that time been incorporated with the kingdom of Aragon.

In the fine sixteenth-century town hall is preserved a full-length portrait of the Conqueror, which represents him as a grave-faced man with a pointed beard and hair cut square upon the shoulders, robed in crimson mantle, ermine collar, crown, and sword. For many centuries it was the custom to celebrate the anniversary of the capture of Palma by exhibiting this portrait outside the town hall, surmounted by the royal standard of Aragon and surrounded by the portraits of eminent Majorcans.

The town contains innumerable other features of interest, but before leaving this portion of my subject I must not omit a mention of theLónja—the Exchange—a large building standing near the harbour, and one of thefirst objects to attract the attention of the traveller as he nears the quay. Its keep-like walls and turreted parapets are usually the subject of much admiration, but I must confess that to us the great building seemed too symmetrically square and too conspicuously new to awaken in us any enthusiasm for its exterior.

Severely rectangular it undoubtedly is—but its appearance of newness is misleading, for it dates from the fifteenth century, when it was the custom for Spanish towns to vie with one another in the splendour of their Exchanges; its claim, therefore, to be one of the finestLónjasin Spain is a legitimate source of pride.

It is said to have been begun in 1409, when the merchants of Palma, having rendered the King of Aragon great aid in the conquest of Sardinia, received permission to levy a tax on all the outgoing and incoming wares of foreigners and pirate persons; and so large was the sum accruing from this protective toll that after applying part of it to the defence of their commerce at sea they devoted the remainder to building this splendid Exchange—a testimony to future generations of the extent and prosperity of Palma’s trade in the Middle Ages.

The interior is extremely striking, containing nine fluted and twisted columns of great height, their delicate groinings spreading in palm-like tracery over the roof. The building has long been disused, and the light that enters as the shutters are flung wide of the great windows looking out to sea discloses nothing but some old paintings upon the walls and a jumble of sculptured fragments piled upon the stone seats that surround the hall.

Lonja“The interior of the Lonja—Palma’s ancient Exchange—contains six fluted columns of great height....”(page22)

“The interior of the Lonja—Palma’s ancient Exchange—contains six fluted columns of great height....”

(page22)

Door of S. Francisco“The great church of S. Francisco has a doorway in late Rénaissance style....”(page16)

“The great church of S. Francisco has a doorway in late Rénaissance style....”

(page16)

It will perhaps be thought strange that a town so comparatively easy of access as Palma, and possessing so much to attract the artist and the antiquarian, should be so little known to the world at large. Yet if we reflect how small a distance from the beaten track will suffice to deflect ninety-nine per cent of the travelling public, it is no subject for wonder that Majorca is still an unknown isle.

A certain number of travellers pass through Palma on their way to and from Algiers, but the island in general is as yet barely aware of the existence of the tourist, and he is quite a recent institution even in Palma itself, where the opening of the Grand Hotel three years ago may be said to have inaugurated a new era.

Viewed in the light of a tourist resort the old town is so far behind the times that she brings me in mind of some old-fashioned châtelaine who with dignity offers her guests of her best, without in any way altering her mode of life to suit the standard of modern requirements. I can recall but two shopkeepers in Palma who knew any language but Spanish, and at the Bank a special clerk is hastily summoned if an Englishman chances to enter the door. An English church—the earliest sign of a recurring visitors’ season—is as yet only represented by a mission-room in the suburb of Santa Catalina, where theChurch of England service is read every Sunday by a Wesleyan minister.

To the globe-trotter it will come as a surprise to find that he is no longer under the world-wide ægis of Thomas Cook, and that that name by which he has hitherto conjured conveys nothing whatever to a Majorcan official. The foreigner who visits the remoter villages of the interior is still looked upon as something of a curiosity; he will have to drive in native carriages, live on native food, and bid a temporary farewell to that cosmopolitan standard of comfort provided for all who travel the world’s highways. But he will at least be sure of one thing—an unfailing welcome by an island race noted for its charming manners.

I think the courtesy of the natives is one of the first things to strike the new-comer in Palma. Many a time as we rambled about the labyrinthine streets of the town did a Spanish lady come out of her way to ask if she could be of any use in directing us; in any difficulty you may apply without hesitation to one of the common soldiers with which the town swarms, and with all the instinct of a well-bred man he will immediately do his utmost to be of assistance, nor would his own colonel more deeply resent the inference of inferiority conveyed by the offer of a tip.

The bow with which a native gentleman asks you to enter hispatioand photograph what you will is only equalled by that of the peasant who rises from table at a wayside cottage to ask the passing stranger to be seated and to share his meal.

In a country where manners cease to form a distinction between the classes social intercourse becomes easy and natural. A market-woman will enter the democratic tram, dragging with her an unmanageable and overflowing basket, and the gentleman seated next her will without hesitation accept half of it on his knees, hand it after her when she rises, and raise his hat as she turns to thank him. There is neither thought of condescension on his part nor of presumption on hers.

School attendance is not compulsory in Majorca, and many of the peasants with whom we came in contact were wholly illiterate; yet in no instance had the proverbial twopence extra for manners been spared in their education. I remember how when talking to a muleteer we once regretted our inability to speak Spanish more fluently.

“Ah, but the Señora speaks well!” he said quickly; “think how difficult I should find it if it was I who had to learnherlanguage!” And an old man chimed in, “And I, Señora, cannot even write!”

Thepatoisspoken by the peasants is a dialect composed of the old Catalonian tongue alloyed with a strong dash of Provençal French, and it bears very little resemblance to the Spanish of Castile, which became the language of the educated classes after the union of Ferdinand and Isabella. The latter is, however, the tongue taught in the schools, and the stranger who can speak “castelláno” will find himself understood throughout the Balearic Islands, barring by a few of the older and more illiterate peasants.

The people of Palma are so little accustomed to Spanish-speaking foreigners that some of the shopkeepers cannot be brought to mention the price of an article to their customers, but persist in counting out the required sum into their own hand and exhibiting it in dumb show—to the exasperation of a certain German lady who objected to being “treated like a child.”

The shopping expeditions of more or less speechless tourists must necessarily be productive of many a laughable incident, yet I never saw a native betray the slightest amusement at the mistakes committed; I have indeed had my hand wrung with heartfelt sympathy by a good woman to whom I was struggling to explain myself.

The chief shopping centre for visitors is perhaps thePlatería—a narrow street occupied by working silver-smiths—where gold and silver chains are measured off and sold by the palm, and bits of old enamel and peasant jewellery, in the shape of antique pendants and crosses, are displayed in the little windows. Amongst the most fascinating objects are clusters of silver-gilt buttons set with amethyst and garnet, such as are worn by the countrywomen onfêtedays, and dozens of minute silver charms representing baskets, lanterns, tubs, and other familiar objects, reduced to the scale of a mouse’s belongings; while hanging everywhere, of all sizes and shapes, are the silver chain purses used by every Majorcan, and exported by the thousand—to be sold at double the price by fashionable jewellers in London.

Few foreigners leave Palma without a souvenir in theform of a piece of old-fashioned faïence or majolica—the latter an imitation of the Arab lustre ware—manufactured at the neighbouringfabrique, along with the pretty glazed tiles, originally introduced from Valencia, with which the Majorcans face the steps of their staircases. Other local industries include lace-making and embroidery, basket-weaving, the plaiting of complicated string seats and backs to the native chairs, tanning and shoemaking—in which latter branch a large export trade is carried on with South America. Shoes are cheap, and it is quite noticeable how neatly shod the Majorcans of all classes are.

The Majorcans are good workers, and their charges moderate. The scale of wages is low, but so is the cost of living, and it would be difficult to find a more contented and prosperous-looking race than these islanders.

Extreme cleanliness is one of their most salient characteristics; they are noted too for their good looks, and it is indeed rare to find a plain face among them; and this, combined with a sensible, cheerful expression and a natural talent for effective colouring in dress, renders them a remarkably picturesque and attractive people. The country girls still retain the muslin coif, orrebosillo, which once formed the universal female headgear, but in Palma this has given way to a handkerchief worn somewhat far back on the head over beautifully dressed hair.

Scarlet skirts are much in vogue among the working classes, but, on the whole, soft half-tones are preferred to the primary colours, and a crowd of market-womenpresents a gay kaleidoscopic scene in which lemon-yellows, sage-greens, salmon-pinks, brown-reds, and turquoise blues are worn side by side with charming and harmonious effect.

In the early morning the big market-place in the upper town is therendezvousof countless housewives, bargaining busily, basket on arm, for the day’s provisions. Under the long arcades bordering the cobbled square are installed the sellers of fruit and vegetables, with plaited ropes of garlic, pans of fresh olives, strings of scarlet capsicums and bitter tomatoes, hampers of newly picked oranges, bunches of pale Majorcan dates and still paler bananas, and masses of figs turned outen blocfrom big rush baskets lined with leaves. A neighbouring booth supplies flat fig cakes stuffed with almonds and aniseed, and slices of dark redCarne de Membrillo—an excellent quince preserve, in consistency like damson cheese.

From the fish market, where the morning’s catch is displayed upon marble slabs, rises a very babel of voices. Loud and shrill is the clamour of the fishwives as they detain the passer-by with a scaly hand, and seek to repair the mischief with a no less scaly apron. Crabs and lobsters lie sprawling upon their backs, and wave stemmy legs amongst marine creatures never seen upon a hotel table—giant shell-fish, octopuses lying in knotted heaps, jelly-like squids, ugly thorny monsters who are all head, and gorgeous little fishes coloured like macaws—scarlet, blue, yellow, or glittering with metallic greens and reds.

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