It Was Not Without Reason That The Latins Gave The Name Of
Finnisterrae To This District.
We had arrived exactly at such a
place as in my boyhood I had pictured to myself as the termination
of the world, beyond which there was a wild sea, or abyss, or
chaos.
I now saw far before me an immense ocean, and below me a
long and irregular line of lofty and precipitous coast. Certainly
in the whole world there is no bolder coast than the Gallegan
shore, from the debouchement of the Minho to Cape Finisterra. It
consists of a granite wall of savage mountains, for the most part
serrated at the top, and occasionally broken, where bays and firths
like those of Vigo and Pontevedra intervene, running deep into the
land. These bays and firths are invariably of an immense depth,
and sufficiently capacious to shelter the navies of the proudest
maritime nations.
There is an air of stern and savage grandeur in everything around,
which strongly captivates the imagination. This savage coast is
the first glimpse of Spain which the voyager from the north
catches, or he who has ploughed his way across the wide Atlantic:
and well does it seem to realize all his visions of this strange
land. "Yes," he exclaims, "this is indeed Spain - stern flinty
Spain - land emblematic of those spirits to which she has given
birth. From what land but that before me could have proceeded
those portentous beings, who astounded the Old World and filled the
New with horror and blood:
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