Braga

“ At the railway station at Braga, in the outskirts of the city, a noisy, assertive little steam-train of several carriages is waiting in the street, and with much puffing and whistling, it carries the travellers up the slope into the narrow thoroughfares of the town. It is Sunday, and the streets are thronged with gaily-dressed people, the women, heavily decked with the ancient gold jewellery, long earrings, heavy neck chains, and crosses upon the white shirt that covers the bosom. ”

“ From the door of the hotel in the Campo Sant’ Anna the tyrannical little street train that bullies Braga several times a day carries us to the foot of the Bom Jesus on the spur of Mount Espinho. For nearly two miles of continuous gentle ascent the road passes through a long stretching suburb of humble houses; and then a quarter of a mile through a close grove of shady trees brings us to the outer portico of the sanctuary, a white gateway at the head of a flight of steps, backed apparently by a dense luxuriant wood. ”

“ In passing through Braga, he was openly reviled in the streets by some of the ordenanzas; and, as the latter plainly discovered their murderous intention, he left the army; but he was seized on the 17th, at a village behind Braga, and brought back: what followed is thus described by baron Eben, in his official report to sir John Cradock:—
“I did not reach Braga until nine o’clock in the [192] morning of the 17th. I found every thing in the greatest disorder; the houses shut, the people flying in all directions, and part of the populace armed with guns and pikes. ”

“ Braga far more than the ordinary courtesy extended to a stranger. I had informed him that Mr. St. John, then following the course of the Rio San Francisco, on his way to the province of Piauhy, would arrive in Maranham at the close of his journey. When he reached that city he was very seriously ill with fever. Dr. Braga took him into his house, where he was attended by him and his family as if he had been one of their kindred. I have, indeed, little doubt that my young friend owed his recovery to the considerate care with which he was treated under their kindly roof.—L. A. ”

“ Not far from Aquasantas there is the Church of San Pedro del Mezquita, and thirty kilometres distant from Orense there is the parish church of Junquera de Ambia, now a small village, but once an important Roman settlement close to the military road that connected Braga with Astorga. A milestone bearing the name of Hadrian was excavated there towards the close of the nineteenth century, it belonged to the year 133 A.D., and its inscription stated that the distance to Braga was seventy-four miles. ”

“ Bishop Sequin and the Bishop of Braga were friends, having both been educated at the monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, and they did their best to bring the dispute to an amicable end, but the feelings of the Portuguese were so violent that the only resource open to the bishops was to harness a couple of untamed oxen to the cart and let the animals decide for themselves whether the saint should be carried to Orense or to Braga. ”

“ Bragi was followed as an Icelandic name. Its etymology is uncertain; some make it cognate with Brahma; others with braga, to shine; others with brain. Braga was poetry, and thence, from the manner of recital, noun, has formed the uncomplimentary verb, to brag, and the braggart.
Iduna, or more properly, Idhuna, Ithuna, is a myth of spring reft away by winter, who dies of the warmth of the flame of the summer gods. Her name does not seem to have been adopted in the North; but it is almost certainly the origin of Idonea, which is very common in old English pedigrees. ”

“ Soult now expected to reach Braga without further opposition, and caused his artillery, guarded by Laborde’s division, to enter the pass of Venda Nova; but the ordenanza, reinforced by some men from the side of Guimaraens, immediately re-assembled, and, clustering on the mountains to the left of the column of march, attacked it with great fierceness and subtlety.
The peasants of the northern provinces of Portugal, unlike the squalid miserable population of Lisbon and Oporto, are robust, handsome, and exceedingly brave. Their natural disposition is open and obliging ”

“ Most generals would have moved by the direct route upon Guimaraens to Braga; but he, with a long reach of mind, calculated, from the slackness of pursuit after he passed Vallonga, that the bulk of the English army must be on the road to Braga, and would be there before him; or that, at best, he should be obliged to retreat fighting, and must sacrifice the guns and baggage of Loison’s and Lorge’s corps in the face of an enemy—a circumstance that might operate fatally on the spirit of his soldiers, and would certainly give Noble’s Campagne de Galice. opportunities to the malcontents ”

“ Oporto, the chief manufacturing centre, and second city for commerce, is at the mouth of the Douro. Braga was once the capital. Coimbra, on the Mondego, is the rainiest place in Europe. There are good roads between the chief towns, 1200 m. of railway and 3000 m. of telegraph. The people are a mixed race, showing traces of Arab, Berber, and Negro blood, with a predominance of northern strains. They are courteous and gentle; the peasantry hard-working and thrifty. Roman Catholic is the national faith, but they are tolerant of other religions. The language is closely akin to Spanish. ”

“ The archbishop of Braga, trembling with passion at the expressions of Norogna, snatched a sword from a soldier who stood near him, and endeavoured to force his way through the conspirators, to revenge the insults offered to the vice-queen. This effort was on the point of costing him his life, when don Michel d’Almeida closely embracing him, earnestly begged him to reflect on the danger to which he exposed himself ”

“ Another Jew, Abraham, son of Don Samuel Dortas or de Orta, printed the earliest books [121] of Leiria, The first book, the Proverbs of Solomon, with a commentary, was issued in 1492; and other books appeared in 1494 and 1496. The third and last town in Portugal where we find a printing press in the fifteenth century was Braga. Here, in 1494, a certain German named John Gherlinc, who seems to have printed later at Barcelona, printed a Breviary according to the use of the church of Braga. No other book is known to have been printed in this important town for the next forty years. ”

“ It is worth following up this river, which inspired the poet Diogo Bernardes with his tenderest verses, and to which his thoughts turned longingly when a captive in Africa after the battle of Alcacer Kebir, for it really is beautiful, and the quintas and villages most interesting. The capital of Minho, Braga, has few old buildings besides the Cathedral, which is said to date from the first years of Portugal’s existence, and preserves the tomb of Count Henry of Burgundy, father of Portugal’s first King. ”

“ The peasants gathered in its defence are even less disciplined than those at Braga, and Soult will, after two or three minutes' fighting, capture the place. Were you there you could not prevent such a result. You might hold the spot at which you were stationed, but if the French broke in at any other point you would be surrounded and killed to a man. What use would that be to Portugal? You can do more good by living and fighting another day. ”

“ General Freire having reached the Cavado, with a small body of regular troops, was immediately joined by fourteen or fifteen thousand militia and ordenanzas. Fixing his head-quarters at Braga, he sent detachments to occupy the posts of Salamonde and Ruivaens in his front; and, unfortunately for himself, endeavoured to restrain his Appendix, No. 3, section 6. troops from wasting their ammunition by wanton firing in the streets and on the roads. ”

“ In the next century many famous humanists took up their abode in Portugal. Nicholas Cleynarts taught the Infant Henry, afterwards cardinal and king, and lectured on the classics at Braga and Evora, Vasaeus directed a school of Latin at Braga, and George Buchanan accompanied other foreign professors to Coimbra when King John III. reformed the university. ”

“ Les villes de Braga, Oporto, Bacellos, Viana, Villa de Conde, Povoa de Barcim, Feira, et Ovar, eurent exprimé leurs vœux, des nombreuses deputations se rendirent à Oporto pour les remettre au marechal Soult et le prier de le faire parvenir à l’empereur. Des adresses qui renfermaient l’expression de ce vœu étaient couverts de plus de trente mille signatures du clergé, de la noblesse, des négocians, et du peuple.”—“Pendant son séjour à Oporto. Le M. Soult fit des proclamations et rendit divers arrêtés sur l’administration et la police de la province Entre Minho e Douro. ”

“ The fields are divided from the path by granite walls, gate-posts, trellis standards, and even telegraph poles are slender granite monoliths, and the cottages themselves are granite built, solid and weather-proof. Many people meet us on their way to Braga: men in 56velvet jackets, wide, brown, homespun trousers, often with inserted patterns of other coloured cloth, and broad brimmed hats ”

“ Soon afterwards they travelled undisturbed to England, where the king was received by the duke of Orleans. Throughout Portugal the proclamation of a republic was either welcomed or accepted without further resistance. A provisional government was formed under the presidency of Dr Theophilo Braga (b. 1843) , a native of the Azores, who had since 1865 been prominent among Portuguese men of letters (see Literature, below) . The new government undertook to carry out part of the Republican programme before summoning a constituent assembly to remodel the constitution. ”

“ Sometimes the whole front or side of a house is covered with blue or yellowish brown tiles, a characteristic of Portuguese cities—it is frequent in Oporto and Braga—which has come down from401 Moorish times. But a still greater contrast between this and southern Brazil is found in the population. In São Paulo there are few negroes, in Rio not very many, but here in Bahia all the town seems black. One might be in Africa or the West Indies. It is the same in Pernambuco and indeed all the way to the mouth of the Amazon. ”

“ To the left-rear of the Monte Adaufé, pressed in between its slopes and the river, is a third village, Ponte do Prado, with a bridge across the Cavado, which is the only one by which the position can be turned. The town of Braga lies three miles further to the rear. The invaders halted on seeing the whole range of hills, some six miles long, crowned with masses of men in position. Franceschi would not take it upon himself to attack such a multitude, even though they were but peasantry and militia, of the same quality as the horde that had been defeated near Chaves a few days before. ”

“ Across the shoulders of most of them there is a brilliantly 38coloured silk handkerchief, whilst their full-pleated short skirts are usually of some thick dark-coloured cloth, and upon their heads here in Braga they often wear, like their sisters in Oporto, the peculiar round cloth pork-pie hat, with the curling silk fringe on the top of the rim. The men are less picturesque in their Sunday trim, for many of them wear felt wide-brimmed hats instead of the workaday bag cap ”

“ GALICIA is the least known and the least written about of all the little kingdoms that go to the making of Spain. Her boundaries have been greatly reduced since the days when the Romans divided the Peninsula into five provinces and called one of them Galicia. In the fourth and fifth centuries, when the Sueves and the Vandals poured into Spain, they made Galicia their centre, and their kingdom extended into what is now the kingdom of Portugal, while Braga, now a Portuguese town, was for a long time the residential city of their kings. ”

“ The greater part of the north and west can only be reached by road, and even the chief highways are ill-kept. In these regions the principal means of transport is the springless wooden cart, drawn by one or more of the tawny and under-sized but powerful oxen, with immense horns and elaborately carved yoke, which are characteristic of northern Portugal. For administrative purposes the province is divided into three districts: Vianna do Castello in the north, Braga in the centre, Oporto in the south. ”

“ The ringleaders of the mutiny, which, in its consequences, had given Soult possession of Porto, were brought to trial and condign punishment; and after the most impartial examination of his467 conduct, General Bernardim Freire de Andrada, who had been murdered at Braga, was declared to have served his country faithfully and well, and the memory of those unfortunate men who perished in the same tumult was cleared of all imputation. An army more numerous than Portugal had ever before possessed was formed, equipped, and disciplined ”

“ NE. of Oporto, Portugal; the residence of the Primate; the capital of Minho.
Braganza, capital of Traz-os-Montes, in Portugal; gives name to the ruling dynasty of Portugal, called the House of Braganza, the eighth duke of Braganza having ascended the throne in 1640, on the liberation of Portugal from the yoke of Spain.
Bragi, the Norse god of poetry and eloquence, son of Odin and Frigga; represented as an old man with a long flowing beard and unwrinkled brow, with a mild expression of face; received in Valhalla the heroes who fell in battle. ”

“ If the Portuguese dared to offer battle they would be scattered to the winds.
Silveira’s levies were not the only force in arms on the frontier. The populous province of the Entre-Douro-e-Minho [270] , roused to tumultuous enthusiasm by the bishop of Oporto, had sent every available man, armed or unarmed, to the front. A screen of militia and regulars under General Botilho was watching the line of the lower Minho: a vast mass of Ordenanza, backed [p. 224] by a very small body of line troops lay in and about Braga, under General Bernardino Freire ”