3-053-455 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Tangier Bay, Morocco: H.M.S. Aurora firing a salute in honour of the new emperor, 1873. 'The port of Tangier, on the Morocco coast of North Africa, is almost forgotten by most Englishmen; but it once belonged to England, having been part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese Princess who married our Charles II. in 1662, and its abandonment in 1684 by the English Government was a very unpopular act of his declining reign. It is situated in the narrowest part of the Strait of Gibraltar, not directly opposite that fortress, but thirty miles west-south-west of it, and was possessed alternately by the Moors and the Portuguese during centuries of frequent warfare. The city, picturesquely seated on the east slope of a hill which overlooks the harbour and bay, is built in a square form, with a, surrounding wall flanked by towers; its square masses of white masonry, surmounted by domes and minarets, and relieved by the olive or the palm, have a pleasing aspect viewed from the harbour. A sketch of Tangier, with H.M.S. Aurora firing a Royal salute, on the 27th September, in honour of the accession of the new Emperor of Morocco to his throne, has been sent us by Mr. R. E. Galindo'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.