20 January
We sighted the coast of Africa on Tuesday night (the 17th) at the entrance to the Straits, and during the night we passed right through into the Mediterranean sea, where we hove to until Saturday morning early, then steamed into the Bay of Gibralter.
The rock looks very grand and imposing from the sea, it is 1500 feet high, and has 1873 guns mounted, varying from 9 pounders to 18 and 25 ton guns (which command the straits!) The small guns protect it from theSpanish side, and there is one for each year, the one for 1873 is now being mounted--a 25-ton gun.

From the top of the rock I had a walk into Spain, past the line of British pickets across the 500 yards of neutral territory, past the Spanish pickets and into the adjoining towns. The Spanish soldiers are worse than the Portuguese, they wear blue coats, green trousers, and cocked hats, and look about as fierce as maggots.

There are two towns, English town, and Spanish town both under the English governor. There was plenty of gambling going on yesterday morning among the Spaniards.