ii.] [Footnote 87: M.de Voltaire, tom.xiv.p.297, unsupported by either fact or probability, has generously bestowed the Canary Islands on the Roman empire.] Having now finished the circuit of the Roman empire, we may observe, that Africa is divided from Spain by a narrow strait of about twelve miles, through which the Atlantic flows into the Mediterranean.

The columns of Hercules, so famous among the ancients, were two mountains which seemed to have been torn asunder by some convulsion of the elements; and at the foot of the European mountain, the fortress of Gibraltar is now seated.

The whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea, its coasts and its islands, were comprised within the Roman dominion.

Of the larger islands, the two Baleares, which derive their name of Majorca and Minorca from their respective size, are subject at present, the former to Spain, the latter to Great Britain.

[871] It is easier to deplore the fate, than to describe the actual condition, of Corsica.