Corunna

Corunna, a fortified Spanish seaport, capital of the province of the same name, situated on a, peninsula in Corunna Bay, 263 miles N.W. of Leon, halfway between Capes Ortegal and Finisterre. The Upper town has walls and bastions; and the Lower town, once a fishing quarter, Pescaderia, is now the fashionable part. There is a commodious harbour, and since 1888 a quarantine harbour has been established. There are large cavalry and infantry barracks, and a notable college. A mile N.W. is the Torre de Hercules, now raised to a height of 360 feet, and used as a lighthouse with a powerful revolving light. There is considerable commerce, but the cattle trade with Portsmouth and Plymouth, which formerly employed many vessels between those places and what English sailors called "the Groyne," has fallen off. The town imports sugar, petroleum, hides, and coal. The industries are cigar-making, cotton spinning, glass-ware, and canned meat and fish, and there is some herring and pilchard fishing. Originally of Phoenician origin, the town has interesting historical associations of later date. Here, in 1386, John of Gaunt landed to claim the crown of Castile, in 1554 Philip II. embarked for England, and in 1588 the Armada refitted. In 1809 Sir John Moore covered the embarkation of his army in the face of Soult and 20,000 men, and lost his life. He was buried on the ramparts, and a monument has been raised to his memory in the garden of San Carlos.