Guyenne

“ It is quite certain that people lived here in the Middle Ages, and they might do so now but for the difficulty of bringing up water. The security which the position afforded could hardly have been lost sight of in the days when the inhabitants of Guyenne were in constant dread of being attacked. One must therefore be guarded against wild talk about prehistoric man in connection with these rock dwellings, which in many cases were used as fortresses during the three hundred years' struggle between the English and French in Aquitaine. ”

“ But the most interesting consolidation was in the south of France. Formerly Upper Languedoc, in which were Nîmes, Montpellier, and Beziers; Lower Languedoc, comprising Upper Guyenne, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Quercy, Rouergue, Armagnac, and Upper Auvergne; Provence; Dauphiné, and Cevennes-Gévaudan had each formed separate “provinces.” But in 1563 this immense territory was all united to form the great Huguenot province of Languedoc. The only ancient provinces which remained unchanged in 1563 were Normandy, [1115] Béarn, and Lower Guyenne, with Périgord and Limousin. ”

“ The duchy Aquitaine, or Guyenne, as held by Eleanor's predecessors, consisted, roughly speaking, of the territory between the Loire and the Garonne. More exactly, it was bounded on the north by Anjou and Touraine, on the east by Berry and Auvergne, on the south-east by the Quercy or County of Cahors, and on the south-west by Gascony, which had been united with it for the last hundred years. The old Karolingian kingdom of Aquitania had been of far greater extent; it had, in fact, included the whole country between the Loire, the Pyrenees, the Rhone and the ocean. ”

“ But Guyenne, Gascony, and Upper Languedoc were isolated from the Catholic north by a broad Protestant strip running southeastward from La Rochelle to Montpellier through Saintes, Cognac, Angoulême, Chalais, Bergerac, Montauban, Albi, Castres, Béziers, and Montpellier, which united Saintonge on the seaboard with Provence and Dauphiné. ”

“ As the news of his landing in the Médoc spread, men rushed to arms and raised the old battle-cries of the English in Aquitaine. Bordeaux opened its gates immediately to the veteran leader, and the example was quickly followed by Libourne, Castillon, St. Émilion, and other strong places in the district. This was in the month of October, 1452. It was not until May of the following year that Charles VII. decided to risk the fortunes of war with the two armies which he had mustered—one on the Garonne, and the other on the Charente. By that time the whole of Western Guyenne was again English. ”

“ A métairie is seldom so large as to be beyond the working capabilities of a man and his family. In Guyenne an estate of a few hundred acres, if the land is productive, is often divided up into several métairies.
Farm labourers are not an overfed or overpaid class in Périgord. Food that is almost bread and vegetables, and a wage of one franc a day, are the ordinary conditions on which men work from sunrise to darkness. Lodging is not always included. ”

“ Charles VII. and his advisers employed the leisure afforded by the truce in preparing for a renewal of the struggle. They were the first to begin it again; and from 1449 to 1451 it was pursued by the French king and nation with ever-increasing ardor, and with obstinate courage by the veteran English warriors astounded at no longer being victorious. Normandy and Aquitaine, which was beginning to be called Guyenne only, were throughout this period the constant and the chief theatre of war. ”

“ Sixty miles from the western end of the island is the mountainous land of German New Guinea; and sometimes, when the air is clear and the south-east trade wind blows, the savages on Berara can see across the deep, wide strait the grey loom of the great range that fringes the north-eastern coast of New Guinea for many hundred miles. Once, indeed, when the writer of this true story lived in New Britain, he saw this sight for a whole week, for there, in those beautiful islands, the air is very clear at certain seasons of the year. ”

“ On the 17th of January I set out to cross the border into French Guinea. Our road lay along small mountain-paths, more like goat tracks than roads, which wound laboriously [46] up the precipitous, rocky slopes. The scenery here is very wild and beautiful. As far as the eye can reach there rise up a series of rugged peaks, clothed in light bush and tall elephant-grass. Numerous mountain torrents rush down in their headlong course to the plains of Sankaran, which can but faintly be discerned many miles below in French Guinea. ”

“ Feeling that I am very ignorant and uneducated, I am going to have a look for myself and to try to learn something—though I sigh to think there is so much to learn in the world, and so little time to do it in!
In Sydney they told me I was mad to want to go to New Guinea; the natives murdered and dined on every one they could; the coast fevers and malarias killed off the remainder—and German New Guinea of all places! The very idea of visiting those Germans who had dared to set up a colony of their own so near British possessions! ”

“ On New Year’s Day we first descried the land of New Guinea, which appeared to be high land, and the next day we saw several high islands on the coast of New Guinea, and ran in with the main land. The shore here lies along east-south-east and west-north-west. It is high even land, very well clothed with tall flourishing trees, which appeared very green, and gave us a very pleasant prospect. ”

“ GUERNSEY Jersey, with larger acreage and a bigger population, is content to form a kingdom by itself; Guernsey is fain to ally itself with its immediate neighbour, Sark, and even seek bonds of union with Alderney, twenty miles away. The diversity maintained jealously in these little islands, which an Englishman is too hastily accustomed to regard in a lump, is complex and even amusing. ”

“ No sooner was Normandy his own than he turned vigorously upon Guienne, a province far more English in its people and its feelings; a region which had belonged to England from the days of its heiress, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Henry II. But the present miserable condition of England, where a factious nobility were quarrelling, seeking each others' destruction, instead of the good of the nation, and where a feeble king was guided by a self-willed and un-English queen, gave the people of Guienne no hope of effectual aid in their struggle. ”

“ As this was the principal Part of all the Guinea Coast for the Slave Trade, the frequent Intercourse that Nation had for many Years carried on with [3] the white People (a) had rendered them so civilized, that it was a Pleasure to deal with them.
(a) So they call the Europeans, in Opposition to the Negroes.
The greatest Inconvenience we were exposed to, was the Thievery of the common People, which it was hardly possible to guard intirely against; so bold and dextrous were they at it: Tho’ if taken in the Fact, they became our Slaves. ”

“ Now on the mainland and in the islands plantations have been established and tobacco and cotton have been successfully grown. Three German mission societies formed settlements on New Guinea, with a branch one on the Gazelle peninsula. The protectorate is included in the Universal Postal Union; each harbour has its post office, also a leading official with a number of assistants to control the natives and the revenue. It is divided into two districts with separate administrations, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago ”

“ Guinea affords an easy living to its inhabitants, with but little toil. The climate agrees well with the natives, but extremely unhealthful to the Europeans. Produces provisions in the greatest plenty. Simplicity of their housholdry. The coast of Guinea described from the river Senegal to the kingdom of Angola. The fruitfulness of that part lying on and between the two great rivers Senegal and Gambia. Account of the different nations settled there. Order of government amongst the Jalofs. Good account of some of the Fulis. ”

“ Moreover, the Inland People are very jealous of those Negroes, who are under the Protection of the Factories; so that the account I have received from both when at peace (which has brought some of the former to the Sea side) has seemed so fabulous and contradictory, that it could not be depended upon; for the Negroes are very apt to impose on us. However, in this part called the Gold Coast, the Natives near the Sea side are much civilized, by their conversing with the Europeans, at their Settlements; and by going on board so many Ships to trade, as frequent this part of the Coast. ”

“ They share faithfully in the national development, and honourably serve the welfare of the whole Dominion—sometimes with a too careful and unsympathetic reserve—but within their own beloved province they retain as zealously and more jealously than the most devoted Highland men their language and their customs, and faithfully conserve the civil laws which mark them off as clearly from the English provinces as Jersey and Guernsey are distinguished from the United Kingdom. ”

“ GUIENNE, an old French province which corresponded roughly to the Aquitania Secunda of the Romans and the archbishopric of Bordeaux. In the 12th century it formed with Gascony the duchy of Aquitaine, which passed under the dominion of the kings of England by the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II.; but in the 13th, through the conquests of Philip Augustus, Louis VIII. and Louis IX., it was confined within the narrower limits fixed by the treaty of Paris (1259) . It is at this point that Guienne becomes distinct from Aquitaine. ”

“ Although it is highly probable that in a country which is more than three thousand miles in extent from north to south, and as much from east to west, there will be barren parts, and many inhabitants more uncivilized and barbarous than others; as is the case in all other countries: yet, from the most authentic accounts, the inhabitants of Guinea appear, generally speaking, to be an industrious, humane, sociable people, whose capacities are naturally as enlarged, and as open to improvement, as those of the Europeans ”

“ The trouble is that so much of your attention in these places must be devoted to the trivial duties of the day, the eternal question of food, the care of the sick, the precautions against floods, and so on, that but little time is left over for studying the hidden wonders of the world about you. The geographers and the naturalists of the future will live in comfortable ships on the coast, whence they will fly daily into the heart of New Guinea where they will find things undreamt of now. But the time for that is not yet, and in the meantime those who plod on foot do the best they can. ”

“ Several small governments depend on plunder and the slave trade.
That part of Guinea known by the name of the Grain, and Ivory Coast, comes next in course. This coast extends about five hundred miles. The soil appears by account, to be in general fertile, producing abundance of rice and roots; indigo and cotton thrive without cultivation, and tobacco would be excellent, if carefully manufactured; they have fish in plenty; their flocks greatly increase, and their trees are loaded with fruit. They make a cotton cloth, which sells well on the Coast. ”

“ And if our men showed on their side a great desire of gaining the land, no less did the natives of it show their eagerness to receive them into it; but of the reception they offered I do not care to speak, for according to the signs they made to our men from the first, they did not intend to abandon the beach without very great loss to one side or the other. Now the people of this green land [141] are wholly black, and hence this is called Land of the Negroes, or Land of Guinea. ”

“ They cook the food, which they carry to the communal house; they also do all the work required in cultivating the gardens of yams, bananas, and vegetables. War, hunting, and fishing are the only pursuits of the men.
Three nations, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, have divided New Guinea among them. The Dutch have the eastern half of the island. The British and Germans possess each about one-quarter, British New Guinea being situated opposite to Queensland, Australia. The British own the Solomon Islands to the eastward of New Guinea, also. ”

“ Age the Coast of Guinea, is a Country as little known as any Part of the Globe. Marmol says, the Arabians in the 400 of the Hegyra, passed into Afric and divided it. This is certain, that it has many fine large Rivers, some of them navigable for Ships. Along the Banks of these Rivers, the Inhabitants abound with Millet, Rice, Pulse or, Indian-Corn. The further we depart from Morocco on this West Side, or Egypt on the East, there is always found less Industry and more Ignorance: For Governments, tho’ never so tyrannical, are better than none, extending some Improvement to Humanity. ”

“ I shall regain the Friendly Islands, and carry out the instructions I have received with regard to the northern portion of New Caledonia, to Santa Cruz de Mendana, to the land south of the Arsacides of Surville, and to the Louisiade of Bougainville, and also ascertain, if possible, whether the latter constitutes a portion of New Guinea, or is a separate continent. At the end of July, 1788, I shall pass between New Guinea and New Holland by some other channel than the Endeavour; that is to say, if there be another. ”

“ Here lay the true geological formation of the interior of Dutch New Guinea, with Red Mountain as a last outpost. Behind him lay the tremendous fault of the Great Precipice, with its chain of volcanoes resulting from that mighty crack in the earth’s surface. But before him lay all the mineral wealth of New Guinea—coal measures, iron ore, what not—that would make this vast island, the largest in the world—almost a continent—a land of the utmost value to the white race!
Coming back to earth from these explorer’s [196] dreams, Nicky got out his compass and took the mountain bearing. ”