Lusitania that have not been tramped over by British soldiers, many of whose descendants still live in the country.
The sentiment engendered by such a retrospect should be tinged with sympathy and magnanimity, the due prerogatives of a country which once outrivalled England as controller of the high seas, and the possessor of vast colonies comprising the fabled wealth of the two Indies. The English traveller who regards Portugal and its people from this point of view will enter readily into the spirit of past and present times in viewing the numerous objects of picturesque, historical and social interest.
Two cities in Portugal dominate the whole country—Lisbon and Oporto. They are the power houses from which emanates the movement carrying life and activity into the provinces. Both of them are seaports, but Lisbon is the seat of government, and possesses the superior advantage of offering navigation one of the finest natural havens of the world, an important bourne of the great Ocean in touch with the seas of the north and the Mediterranean.
Montesquieu, in speaking of the port of Marseilles, said: "Marseille où tous les vents commandent d'aborder." What a Frenchman remarked of the port of Lisbon a century ago can be repeated with even more justice today: "Lisbonne où tous les intérêts invitent à se rendre." He summed up the conditions evoking the enconium in these words: "Agreeable mooring places, sure anchorage, resources of all kinds for the use and convenience of man, for the needs of vessels, for the sale of merchandise, there is no advantage which is not offered by this port situated so happily, besides that it seems to be a natural point of repose on the ocean for ships setting out from Europe to all parts of the world, or returning."
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