ISLAND OF SLINGERS
Today the island of Mallorca is known far and wide as a vacationer's Eden, combining an ideal Mediterranean climate with prices that fit a budget. Every passenger who wants a glamorous background for inexpensive living aspires to come here.
There was a time, way back in the days before the Romans landed, when visitors were not so eager to put into port. Mallorca of the Balearics honours the valour of its primitive inhabitants, who were expert “slingers.” (The Latin word for same is “baleares”.) Rome, in her struggles against her Mediterranean adversaries, hired professional slingers from this island. Stones slung by these fierce defenders were as true to their mark in the heat of combat as David's stone proved against Goliath.
Stones, however carefully aimed, could not keep the conquerors from the shores of this sought-after island. The Carthaginians ruled until the Romans came, renaming the largest city Palma, a lavish title which is translated as “Palm of Victory.” The name has been rooted in this locality for twenty-two centuries. Mallorca's name, meaning “Bigger Island”, distinguishes it from its sister islands of the Balearic Group.
Although today Mallorca is famous as a vacation resort, it is almost equally known for its oranges, its olives grown on centuries-old trees, its self-sufficient and busy people, and for its historical monuments dating from days of the Moors, Romans and the Lords of Aragon.
During her Summer Cruise to the Mediterranean your luxurious liner, Caronia, will drop anchor off the City of Victory on the Greater Island, but don't expect to find the slingers. The Balearic descendants of those ancient warriors are today lovers of peace, who lavish their energy and attentions on welcoming, not repulsing, strangers.
They are expert at holiday-making, at serving you in hotels and stores, in staging stately dances, and at greeting you with a cordiality that is as famous today as their marksmanship once was. Their aim is still as true to the mark, but it is all directed at making you come back again to this friendly sea-girt pile of mountains soaring up out of the western Mediterranean's waters.
[Produced for the Summer Mediterranean Cruise departing New York 27 August 1965]