The  inhabitants  wonder  at  the  persistence  of  fevers,  but  one  has
only  to  visit  the  old,  maritime  quarter  of  the  town,  with  its  damp,
dark  houses,  and  ill-smelling,  narrow  streets,  without  air  and  almost
without  light,  to  see  the  primary  causes  of  the  unhealthiness  of  Iviza.
The  very  flowers  and  fruit  that  grow  so  luxuriantly  on  the  rich,
decomposing  soil,  are  poisoned  in  their  germination.
In  some  streets  of  the  upper  town  it  is  nothing  unusual  to  sec
chickens,  pigs,  and  even  .sheep,  tethered  to  the  doorways,  where  they
are  reared  on  vegetable  and  other  household  refuse.
Nevertheless,  the  upper  town  is  clean  compared  with  the  repul-
siveness  of  the  maritime  quarter.
I  should  probably  not  have  stayed  in  Iviza  longer  than  I  could
help,  except  that  I  was  virtually  a  prisoner,  as  the  steamer  for
Palma  only  calls  once  in  ten  days,  and  not  as  often  as  that  in  rough
weather.
The  only  means  of  communication  between  the  upper  town,  or
fort,  and  the  harbour  district,  which  is  outside  the  ramparts  and  of
more  recent  origin,  is  through  the  ancient  fortified  gate  of  /as  Tablas,
built,  as  its  inscription  attests,  in  1585,  in  the  reign  of  "Philip  11.^
Catholic  and  most  invincible  King  of  Spain  and  the  East  and  West
Indies."


AN    INFERNAL    MACHINE.
119


Hither,  at  early  morning,  come  crowds  of  market-folk  with  baskets
of  fruit  and  vegetables,  and  the  aguadores,  or  water-carriers,  who  are
indispensable  at  Iviza,  where,  except  for  the  rain-tanks  in  a  few
private  houses,  the  only  water  supply  is  an  old  well  near  the  harbour.
In  the  niches  of  the  gateway  are  two  marble  statues,  dating  from
Roman  times,  one  of  a  senator,  the  other  of  a  priestess  ;  but  both  are
mutilated.
