VOLUME XI SLICE IV G to Gaskell Elizabeth (continued 6)
Reading edition
The government of the municipality was long vested in a council of ward aldermen, controlled by a “machine,” which was proved corrupt in 1894 by an investigation undertaken at the personal expense of the mayor; it gave place in 1895 to a city council of aldermen at large, which by 1901 had proved its inefficiency especially in the crisis following the storm of the preceding year. Government then seemed a business question and was practically undertaken by the city’s commercial experts, the Deepwater commission, whose previous aim had been harbour improvement, and who now drew up a charter providing for government by a board of five appointed by the governor of the state. A compromise measure making three members appointees of the governor and two elected by the voters of the city was in force for a time but was declared unconstitutional. A third charter was adopted providing for five commissioners, chosen by the people, dividing among themselves the posts of mayor-president and commissioners of finance and revenue, of water-works and sewerage, of streets and public property, and of police and fire protection, each commissioner being held individually responsible for the management of his department. These are business departments carefully systematized by their heads. The legislative power is vested in the commission as a whole, over whose meetings the mayor-president presides; he has a vote like every other commissioner, and has no veto power. The success of this commission government has been remarkable: in 1901-1908 the city, without issuing bonds except for grade raising, paid off a large debt, raised the salaries of city employees, paid its running expenses in cash, planned and began public improvements and sanitary reforms, and did much for the abolition of gambling and the regulation of other vice. The Galveston Plan and similar schemes of government have been adopted in many other American cities.
Galveston’s manufactories, the products of which in 1900 were valued at $5,016,360, a decrease of 12.4% from 1890 (value of products under “factory system,” $3,675,323 in 1900; $2,996,654 in 1905, a decrease of 18.5%), include cotton-seed oil refineries, flour and feed mills, lumber mills, wooden-ware factories, breweries, cement works, creosoting works, ship-yards and ice factories. There are extensive cotton warehouses, coal and grain elevators, and large wholesale supply depots. The Gulf Fisheries Company has its fleet’s headquarters and large packing-houses at Galveston. It is as a commercial port that Galveston is chiefly important. In 1907 it was the second port in the United States in the value of its exports (domestic and foreign, $196,627,382, or 10.22% of the total), being surpassed only by New York City; and was the first of the Gulf ports (having 45.43% of the total value), New Orleans being second with $164,998,540. Galveston’s imports in 1907 were valued at $7,669,458. Galveston is the greatest cotton-exporting port in the Union, its exports of cotton in 1907 being valued at $163,564,445. Other exports of great value are cotton seed products (oil and cake, $10,188,594 in 1907), Indian corn ($3,457,279 in 1907), wheat ($9,443,901 in 1906), lumber and flour. The electric lighting and water-supply systems are owned and operated by the municipality.
The harbour of Galveston seems to have been named about 1782 by Spanish explorers in honour either of José de Galvez, Marquis of Sonora, or his nephew Bernardo, governor of Louisiana; and in the early days of the 19th century was the principal rendezvous of a powerful band of buccaneers and pirates, of whom, for many years, the notorious Jean Lafitte was chief. After much difficulty these were finally dispersed about 1820 by the United States authorities, and in 1837 the first settlement from the United States was made on the site of the present city. The town was incorporated by the legislature of the Republic of Texas in 1839. On the 8th of October 1862 the city was taken by a Federal naval force under Commander William B. Renshaw (1816-1863). After a sharp engagement a Confederate force under General John B. Magruder (1810-1871) retook the city on the 1st of January 1863, one of the Federal ships, the “Harriet Lane,” falling into Confederate hands, and another, the “Westfield,” being blown up with Commander Renshaw on board. Thereafter Galveston remained in Confederate hands, although rigidly blockaded by the Federal navy, until the close of the war. On the 8th of September 1900 the city was seriously damaged by a West Indian hurricane, which, blowing steadily for eighteen hours, reached a velocity of 135 m. an hour. The waters of the Gulf were piled up in enormous waves that swept across a large part of the city, destroying or badly damaging more than 8000 buildings, entailing a loss of about 5000 lives, and a property loss estimated at about $17,000,000. Liberal contributions came from all over the country, and the state partially remitted the city’s taxes for 17 years. The city was rapidly rebuilt on a more substantial plan.
GALWAY, a county in the west of Ireland, in the province of Connaught, bounded N. by Mayo and Roscommon; E. by Roscommon, King’s County and Tipperary; S. by Clare and Galway Bay; and W. by the Atlantic Ocean. The area is 1,519,699 acres or about 2375 sq. m., the county being second in size to Cork among the Irish counties.
The county is naturally divided by Lough Corrib into two great divisions. The eastern, which comprehends all the county except the four western baronies, rests on a limestone base, and is, generally speaking, a level champaign country, but contains large quantities of wet bog. Its southern portion is partly a continuation of the Golden Vale of Limerick, celebrated for its fertility, and partly occupied by the Slievebaughty Mountains. The northern portion of the division contains rich pasture and tillage ground, beautifully diversified with hill and dale. Some of the intermediate country is comparatively uncultivated, but forms excellent pasturage for sheep. The western division of the county has a substratum of granite, and is barren, rugged and mountainous. It is divided into the three districts of Connemara, Jar-Connaught and Joyce’s Country; the name of Connemara is, however, often applied to the whole district. Its highest mountains are the grand and picturesque group of Bunnabeola, or the Twelve Bens or Pins, which occupy a space of about 25 sq. m., the highest elevation being 2695 ft. Much of this district is a gently sloping plain, from 100 to 300 ft. above sea-level. Joyce’s Country, farther north, is an elevated tract, with flat-topped hills 1300 to 2000 ft. high, and deep narrow valleys lying between them.
Galway possesses the advantage of a very extended line of sea-coast, indented by numerous harbours, which, however, are rarely used except by a few coasting and fishing vessels. At the boundary with the county Mayo in the north is Killary Harbour which separates the two counties. The first bay on the western coast capable of accommodating large ships is Ballynakill, sheltered by Freaghillaun or Heath Island. Next in succession is Cleggan Bay. Off these inlets lie the islands of Inishbofin and Inishark, with others. Streamstown is a narrow inlet, within which are the inhabited islands of Omey, Inishturk and Turbot. Ardbear harbour is divided into two inlets, the northern terminating at the town of Clifden, with excellent anchorage; the southern inlet has also good anchorage within the bar, and has a good salmon fishery. Mannin Bay, though large, is much exposed and little frequented by shipping. From Slyne Head the coast turns eastward to Roundstone Bay, which has its entrance protected by the islands of Inishnee and Inishlacken. Next in order is Bertraghboy Bay, studded with islets and rocks, but deep and sheltered. Kilkieran Bay, the largest on this coast, has a most productive kelp shore of nearly 100 m.; its mouth is but 3 m. broad. Between Gorumna Island and the mainland is Greatman’s Bay and close to it Costello Bay, the most eastern of those in Connemara. The whole of the coast from Greatman’s Bay eastward is comprehended in the Bay of Galway, the entrance of which is protected by the three limestone islands of Aran, Inishmore (or Aranmore), Inishmann and Inisheer.
The rivers are few, and, except the Shannon, of small size. The Suck, which forms the eastern boundary of the county, rises in Roscommon, and passing by Ballinasloe, unites with the Shannon at Shannonbridge. The Shannon forms the south-eastern boundary of the county, and passing Shannon Harbour, Banagher, Meelick and Portumna, swells into the great expanse of water called Lough Derg, which skirts the county as far as the village of Mount Shannon. The Claregalway flows southward through the centre of the county, and enters Lough Corrib some 4 m. above the town of Galway. The Ballynahinch, considered one of the best salmon-fishing rivers in Connaught, rises in the Twelve Pins, passes through Ballynahinch Lake, and after a short but rapid course falls into Bertraghboy Bay. Lakes are numerous. Lough Corrib extends from Galway town northwards over 30,000 acres, with a shore of 50 m. in extent. The lake is studded with many islands, some of them thickly inhabited. The district west of Lough Corrib contains a vast number of lakes, about twenty-five of them more than a mile in length. Lough Rea, by the town of the same name, is more remarkable for scenic beauty than for extent. Besides these perennial lakes, there are several low tracts, called turloughs, which are covered with water during a great part of the year. Loughs Mask and Corrib are connected by a salmon ladder, and contain large trout. Galway, with the Screab Waters, draining into Camus Bay, a branch of Kilkieran Bay, with Recess and the Ballynahinch waters, are the best fishing centres. On account of its scenic beauty, both coastal and inland, together with its facilities for sport, county Galway is frequented by summer visitors. Though for long the remoter parts were difficult of access, as in the case of Donegal, Mayo, Clare and the western counties generally, the Galway and Clifden railway assisted private enterprise to open up the country. The western mountains, broken by deep landlocked and island-sheltered bays, as well as by the innumerable small loughs of the Connemara districts, afford scenes varying from gentle slopes occasionally well wooded along the water’s edge to wild, bare moorlands among the heights, while the summits are usually bold and rocky cones. Several small fishing villages have acquired the dignity of watering-places from the erection of hotels, which have also been planted in previously untenanted situations of high scenic attractions; among these may be mentioned Leenane at the head of Killary harbour, Renvyle House at its entrance, Letterfrack on Ballynakill Bay, Streamstown and Clifden, and Cashel on Bertraghboy Bay. Inland are Recess, near Lough Derryclare, and Ballynahinch, on the lough of that name, both on the railway, at the foot of the Twelve Pins.
Geology.—The east of this county lies in the Carboniferous Limestone plain, with domes of Old Red Sandstone rising near Dunmore and Mount Bellew. As Galway town is neared, the grey rock appears freely on the surface, and Lough Corrib spreads itself over almost level land. Its west branches, however, run up into “Dalradian” hills, which rise abruptly on the threshold of Connemara. A broad mass of ice-worn gneiss and granite lies between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, cut off so sharply at the sea as to suggest the presence of an east-and-west line of fracture. The Twelve Bens owe their supremacy to the quartzites, which are here well bedded and associated with limestone and mica-schist. Silurian conglomerates and sandstones, with andesitic lavas, overlie the Dalradians, with marked unconformity, south of Leenane and round Lough Nafooey. The surfaces of the hard rocks admirably record the action of ice throughout the county. There is black Carboniferous marble at Menlough near Galway; and the well-known “Connemara Marble” is a banded serpentinous crystalline limestone in the Dalradians at Recess, Ballynahinch and Streamstown. Compact red granite is worked at Shantallow, and the region west of Galway contains many handsome porphyritic red varieties.
Climate and Industries.—The climate is mild and healthy but variable, and violent winds from the west are not uncommon. Frost or snow seldom remains long on the western coast, and cattle of every description continue unhoused during the winter. The eastern part of the county produces the best wheat. Oats are frequently sown after potatoes in moorish soils less adapted for wheat. The flat shores of the bays afford large supplies of seaweed for manure. Limestone, gravel and marl are to be had in most other parts. When a sufficient quantity of manure for potatoes cannot be had, the usual practice is to pare and burn the surface. In many places on the seashore fine early potatoes are raised in deep sea-sand manured with seaweed, and the crop is succeeded by barley. Those parts of the eastern district less fitted for grain are employed in pasturage. Heathy sheep-walks occupy a very large tract between Monivea and Galway. An extensive range from Athenry, stretching to Galway Bay at Kinvarra, is also chiefly occupied by sheep. Over half the total acreage of the county is pasture-land, and cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry are extensively reared. The proportion of tillage to pasturage is roughly as one to four; and owing to the nature of the country fully one-third of the total area is quite barren.
Manufactures are not carried on beyond the demand caused by the domestic consumption of the people. Coarse friezes, flannels and blankets are made in all parts and sold largely in Galway and Loughrea. Connemara has been long celebrated for its hand-knit woollen stockings. Coarse linen, of a narrow breadth, called bandle linen, is also made for home consumption. There is a linen-weaving factory at Oughterard. The manufacture of kelp, formerly a great source of profit on the western shores, is still carried on to some extent. Feathers and sea-fowls’ eggs are brought in great quantities from the islands of Aran, the produce of the puffins and other sea-fowl that frequent the cliffs. Fishing affords occupation to many of the inhabitants, the industry having as its centres the ports of Galway and Clifden.
The Midland Great Western main line enters the county at Ballinasloe, and runs by Athenry to Galway, with an extension to Oughterard (Lough Corrib) and Clifden. The Great Southern & Western line from Sligo to Limerick traverses the county from N. to S., by way of Tuam, Athenry and Gort.
Population and Administration.—The population of county Galway (211,227 in 1891; 192,549 in 1901) decreased by more than half in the last seventy years of the 19th century, and the decrease continues, as emigration is heavy. About 97% of the population are Roman Catholics, and a somewhat less percentage are rural. The Erse tongue is maintained by many in this remote county. The chief towns are Galway (pop. 13,426), Tuam (3012), Ballinasloe (4904) and Loughrea (2815), with the smaller towns of Portumna, Gort, Clifden, Athenry, Headford, Oughterard and Eyrecourt. The county is divided into four parliamentary divisions (returning one member each); north, south, east and Connemara, while the town of Galway returns one member. There are eighteen baronies. Assizes are held at Galway, quarter-sessions at Galway, Ballinasloe, Clifden, Gort, Loughrea, Oughterard, Portumna and Tuam. The county comprises parts of the Protestant dioceses of Tuam and of Killaloe; and of the Roman Catholic dioceses of Elphin, Galway, Clonfert and Killaloe.
History.—The history of county Galway is exceedingly obscure, and nearly every one of its striking physical features carries its legend with it. For centuries local septs struggled together for mastery undeterred by outside influence. The wreck of part of the Spanish Armada on this coast in 1588 left survivors whose influence is still to be traced. The formation of Galway into a county was effected about 1579 by Sir Henry Sydney, lord deputy of Ireland. In the county at Aughrim (q.v.) the decisive battle of the English Revolution was fought in 1691. Among the antiquities are several round towers. The only perfect one is at Kilmacduagh, a very fine example 112 ft. high, leaning considerably out of the perpendicular. Raths or encampments are numerous and several cromlechs are to be seen in good preservation. The ruins of monastic buildings are also numerous. That of Knockmoy, about 6 m. from Tuam, said to have been founded in 1180 by Cathal O’Connor, was adorned with rude fresco paintings, still discernible, which were considered valuable as being the best authentic representations existing of ancient Irish costumes. Ancient castles and square towers of the Anglo-Norman settlers are frequently met with; some have been kept in repair, but the greater number are in ruins. The castle of Tuam, built in 1161 by Roderick O’Connor, king of Ireland, at the period of the English invasion, is said to have been the first building of this description of stone and mortar in Ireland. The remains of a round castle, a form of building very uncommon in the military architecture of the country, are to be seen between Gort and Kilmacduagh. The extraordinary cyclopean and monastic ruins on the Aran Islands (q.v.) must be mentioned; and the town of Galway, Athenry, and the neighbourhood of Ballinasloe all show interesting remains. The small church of Clonfert, in the south of the county, with a fine Romanesque doorway, is a cathedral, the diocese of which was united with Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Killaloe in 1833.
GALWAY, a seaport, parliamentary borough and the county town of county Galway, Ireland, on the north shore of Galway Bay, and on the main line of the Midland Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 13,426. Some of the streets are very narrow, and contain curious specimens of old buildings, chiefly in antique Spanish style, being square, with a central court, and a gateway opening into the street. The most noteworthy of these is the pile known as Lynch’s Castle. This residence takes its name from the family of whom James Lynch Fitzstephen, mayor of Galway in 1493, was a member; whose severity as a magistrate is exemplified in the story that he executed his own son, and thus gave origin (according to one of several theories) to the familiar term of Lynch law. The principal streets are broad and contain good shops. St Nicholas church is a fine cruciform building founded in 1320, and containing monuments, and a bell, one of a peal, which appears to have been brought from Cavron in France, but how this happened is not known. The church was made collegiate in 1484, and Edward VI. created the Royal College of Galway in connexion with it; but the old college buildings no longer serve this purpose, and the church ceased to be collegiate in 1840. There are remains of a Franciscan friary founded in 1296. St Augustine’s church (Roman Catholic) is modern (1859). The town is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese. There are grammar, model and industrial schools, the first with exhibitions to Trinity College, Dublin; but the principal educational establishment is University College, a quadrangular building in Tudor Gothic style, of grey limestone. It was founded as Queen’s College, with other colleges of the same name at Belfast and Cork, under an act of 1845, and its name was changed when it was granted a new charter pursuant to the Irish Universities Act 1908. The harbour comprises an extensive line of quays, and is connected for inland navigation with Lough Corrib. The shipping trade is considerable, but as a trans-Atlantic port Galway was exploited unsuccessfully. The fisheries, both sea and salmon, are important. The chief exports are wool, agricultural produce and black marble, which is polished in local mills. Other industrial establishments include corn-mills, iron-foundries, distilleries, and brush and bag factories. The borough, which returned two members to parliament until 1885, now returns one.
Galway is divided into the old and new towns, while a suburb known as the Claddagh is inhabited by fishermen. This is a curious collection of small cottages, where communal government by a locally elected mayor long prevailed, together with peculiar laws and customs, strictly exclusive inter-marriage, and a high moral and religious standard. Specimens of the distinctive Claddagh ring, for example, were worn and treasured as venerated heirlooms. These customs, with the distinctive dress of the women, died out but slowly, and even to-day their vestiges remain.
The environs of Galway are pleasant, with several handsome residences. The most interesting point in the vicinity is Roscam, with its round tower, ruined church and other remains. Salthill, with golf links, is a waterside residential suburb.
Little is known of the history of Galway until after the arrival of the English, at which time it was under the protection of O’Flaherty, who possessed the adjoining district to the west. On the extinction of the native dynasty of the O’Connors, the town fell into the hands of the De Burgos, the head of a branch of which, under the name of M’William Eighter, long governed it by magistrates of his own appointment. After it had been secured by walls, which began to be built about 1270 and are still in part traceable, it became the residence of a number of enterprising settlers, through whom it attained a position of much commercial celebrity. Of these settlers the principal families, fourteen in number, were known as the tribes of Galway. They were of Norman, Saxon or Welsh descent, and became so exclusive in their relationships that dispensations were frequently requisite for the canonical legality of marriages among them. The town rapidly increased from this period in wealth and commercial rank, far surpassing in this respect the rival city of Limerick. Richard II. granted it a charter of incorporation with liberal privileges, which was confirmed by his successor. It had the right of coinage by act of parliament, but there is no evidence to show that it exercised the privilege. Another charter, granted in 1545, extended the jurisdiction of the port to the islands of Aran, permitted the exportation of all kinds of goods except linens and woollens, and confirmed all the former privileges. Large numbers of Cromwell’s soldiers are said to have settled in the town; and there are many traces of Spanish blood among the population. Its municipal privileges were extended by a charter from James I., whereby the town, and a district of two miles round in every direction, were formed into a distinct county, with exclusive jurisdiction and a right of choosing its own magistrates. During the civil wars of 1641 the town took part with the Irish, and was surrendered to the Parliamentary forces under Sir Charles Coote; after which the ancient inhabitants were mostly driven out, and their property was given to adventurers and soldiers, chiefly from England. On the accession of James II. the old inhabitants entertained sanguine hopes of recovering their former rights. But the successes of King William soon put an end to their expectations; and the town, after undergoing another siege, again capitulated to the force brought against it by General Ginkell.
GAMA, VASCO DA (c. 1460-1524), Portuguese navigator and discoverer of the sea-route to India, was born at Sines, a small seaport in the province of Alemtejo. Of da Gama’s early history little is known. His descent, according to the Nobiliario of Antonio de Lima, was derived from a noble family which is mentioned in the year 1166; but the line cannot be traced without interruption farther back than the year 1280, to one Alvaro da Gama, from whom was descended Estevão da Gama, civil governor of Sines, whose third son Vasco was born probably about the year 1460. In that year died Prince Henry the Navigator, to whose intelligence and foresight must be traced back all the fame that Portugal gained on the seas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Explorers sent out at his instigation discovered the Azores and unknown regions on the African coast, whence continually came reports of a great monarch, “who lived east of Benin, 350 leagues in the interior, and who held both temporal and spiritual dominion over all the neighbouring kings,” a story which tallied so remarkably with the accounts of “Prester John” which had been brought to the Peninsula by Abyssinian priests, that John II. of Portugal steadfastly resolved that both by sea and by land the attempt should be made to reach the country of this potentate. For this purpose Pedro de Covilham and Affonso de Payva were despatched eastward by land; while Bartholomeu Diaz (q.v.), in command of two vessels, was sent westward by sea (see Abyssinia, 14). That there was in truth an ocean highway to the East was proved by Diaz, who returned in December 1488 with the report that when sailing southward he was carried far to the east by a succession of fierce storms, past—as he discovered only on his return voyage—what he ascertained to be the southern extremity of the African continent. The condition of John’s health and concerns of state, however, prevented the fitting out of the intended expedition; and it was not till nine years later, when Emanuel I. had succeeded to the throne, that the preparations for this great voyage were completed—hastened, doubtless, by Columbus’s discovery of America in the meanwhile.
For the supreme command of this expedition the king selected Vasco da Gama, who had in his youth fought in the wars against Castile, and in his riper years gained distinction as an intrepid mariner. The fleet, consisting of four vessels specially built for this mission, sailed down the Tagus on the 9th of July 1497, after prayers and confession made by the officers and crews in a small chapel on the site where now stands the church of S. Maria de Belem (see Lisbon), afterwards built to commemorate the event. Four months later the flotilla cast anchor in St Helena Bay, South Africa, rounded the Cape in safety, and in the beginning of the next year reached Malindi, on the east coast of Africa. Thence, steering eastward, under the direction of a pilot obtained from Indian merchants met with at this port, da Gama arrived at Calicut, on the Malabar coast, on the 20th May 1498, and set up, according to the custom of his country, a marble pillar as a mark of conquest and a proof of his discovery of India. His reception by the zamorin, or Hindu ruler of Calicut, would have in all probability been favourable enough, had it not been for the jealousy of the Mahommedan traders who, fearing for their gains, so incited the Hindus against the new-comers that da Gama was unable to establish a Portuguese factory. Having seen enough of India to assure him of its great resources, he returned to Portugal in September 1499. The king received him with every mark of distinction, granted him the use of the prefix Dom, thus elevating him to the rank of an untitled noble, and conferred on him pensions and other property. In prosecution of da Gama’s discoveries another fleet of thirteen ships was immediately sent out to India under Pedro Alvares Cabral, who, in sailing too far westward, by accident discovered Brazil, and on reaching his destination established a factory at Calicut. The natives, again instigated by the Mahommedan merchants, rose up in arms and murdered all whom Cabral had left behind. To avenge this outrage a powerful armament of ten ships was fitted out at Lisbon, the command of which was at first given to Cabral, but was afterwards transferred to da Gama, who received the title admiral of India (January 1502). A few weeks later the fleet sailed, and on reaching Calicut da Gama immediately bombarded the town, treating its inhabitants with a savagery too horrible to describe. From Calicut he proceeded in November to Cochin, “doing all the harm he could on the way to all that he found at sea,” and having made favourable trading terms with it and with other towns on the coast, he returned to Lisbon in September 1503, with richly laden ships. He and his captains were welcomed with great rejoicings and he received additional privileges and revenues.
Soon after his return da Gama retired to his residence in Evora, possibly from pique at not obtaining so high rewards as he expected, but more probably in order to enjoy the wealth and position which he had acquired; for he was now one of the richest men in the kingdom. He had married, probably in 1500, a lady of good family, named Catherina de Ataide, by whom he had six sons. According to Correa, he continued to advise King Emanuel I. on matters connected with India and maritime policy up to 1505, and there are extant twelve documents dated 1507-1522 which prove that he continued to enjoy the royal favour. The most important of these is a grant dated December 1519 by which Vasco da Gama was created count of Vidigueira, with the extraordinary privileges of civil and criminal jurisdiction and ecclesiastical patronage. During this time the Portuguese conquests increased in the East, and were presided over by successive viceroys. The fifth of these was so unfortunate that da Gama was recalled from his seclusion by Emanuel’s successor, John III., and nominated viceroy of India, an honour which in April 1524 he left Lisbon to assume. Arriving at Goa during September of the same year, he immediately set himself to correct with vigour the many abuses which had crept in under the rule of his predecessors. He was not destined, however, to prosecute far the reforms he had inaugurated, for, on the Christmas-eve following his arrival, he died at Cochin after a short illness, and was buried in the Franciscan monastery there. In 1538 his body was conveyed to Portugal and entombed in the town of Vidigueira. In 1880 what were supposed on insufficient evidence to have been his remains were transferred to the church of Santa Maria de Belem. His voyage had the immediate result of enriching Portugal, and raising her to one of the foremost places among the nations of Europe, and eventually the far greater one of bringing to pass the colonization of the East by opening its commerce to the Western world.
Bibliography.—Vasco da Gama’s First Voyage, by Dr E. Ravenstein (London, Hakluyt Society, 1898), is a translation with notes, &c., of the anonymous Roteiro (Journal or Itinerary), written by one of Vasco da Gama’s subordinates who sailed on board the “S. Raphael,” which was commanded by the admiral’s brother Paulo da Gama. This is the most important of the original authorities; five accounts of the voyage in letters contemporary with it are appended to the Hakluyt Society’s translation. See also J. de Barros, Decadas da India (Lisbon, 1778-1788, written c. 1540); F.L. de Castanheda, Historia do descobrimento da India (Coimbra, 1551, largely based on the Roteiro); The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and his Viceroyalty, by Gaspar Correa (Hakluyt Society, 1869), chiefly valuable for the events of 1524; The Lusiads of Camoens, the central incident in which is Vasco da Gama’s first voyage; Calcoen (i.e. Calicut), a Dutch Narrative of the Second Voyage of Vasco da Gama, written by some unknown seaman of the expedition, printed at Antwerp about 1504, reprinted in facsimile, with introduction and translation, by J. Ph. Berjeau (London, 1874); Thomé Lopes, narrative (1502) in vol. i. of Ramusio.
GAMALIEL (גמליאל). This name, which in Old Testament times figures only as that of a prince of the tribe of Manasseh (vide Num. i. 10, &c.), was hereditary among the descendants of Hillel. Six persons bearing the name are known.
1. Gamaliel I., a grandson of Hillel, and like him designated Ha-Zāqēn (the Elder), by which is apparently indicated that he was numbered among the Sanhedrin, the high council of Jerusalem. According to the tradition of the schools of Palestine Gamaliel succeeded his grandfather and his father (of the latter nothing is known but his name, Simeon) as Nasi, or president of the Sanhedrin. Even if this tradition does not correspond with historic fact, it is at any rate certain that Gamaliel took a leading position in the Sanhedrin, and enjoyed the highest repute as an authority on the subject of knowledge of the Law and in the interpretation of the Scriptures. He was the first to whose name was prefixed the title Rabban (Master, Teacher). It is related in the Acts of the Apostles (v. 34 et seq.) that his voice was uplifted in the Sanhedrin in favour of the disciples of Jesus who were threatened with death, and on this occasion he is designated as a Pharisee and as being “had in reputation among all the people” (νομοδιδάσκαλος τίμιος παντὶ τῷ λαῷ). In the Mishna (Giṭṭin iv. 1-3) he is spoken of as the author of certain legal ordinances affecting the welfare of the community (the expression in the original is “tiqqun ha-‘ōlām,” i.e. improvement of the world) and regulating certain questions as to conjugal rights. In the tradition was also preserved the text of the epistles regarding the insertion of the intercalary month, which he sent to the inhabitants of Galilee and the Darom (i.e. southern Palestine) and to the Jews of the Dispersion (Sanhedrin 11b and elsewhere). He figures in two anecdotes as the religious adviser of the king and queen, i.e. Agrippa I. and his wife Cypris (Pesahim 88 b). His function as a teacher is proved by the fact that the Apostle Paul boasts of having sat at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts. xxii. 3). Of his teaching, beyond the saying preserved in Aboth i. 16, which enjoins the duty of study and of scrupulousness in the observance of religious ordinances, only a very remarkable characterization of the different natures of the scholars remains (Aboth di R. Nathan, ch. xl.). His renown in later days is summed up in the words (Mishna, end of Soṭah): “When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder died, regard for the Torah (the study of the Law) ceased, and purity and piety died.” As Gamaliel I. is the only Jewish scribe whose name is mentioned in the New Testament he became a subject of Christian legend, and a monk of the 12th century (Hermann the Premonstratensian) relates how he met Jews in Worms studying Gamaliel’s commentary on the Old Testament, thereby most probably meaning the Talmud.
2. Gamaliel II., the son of Simon ben Gamaliel, one of Jerusalem’s foremost men in the war against the Romans (vide Josephus, Bellum Jud. iv. 3, 9, Vita 38), and grandson of Gamaliel I. To distinguish him from the latter he is also called Gamaliel of Jabneh. In Jabneh (Jamnia), where during the siege of Jerusalem the scribes of the school of Hillel had taken refuge by permission of Vespasian, a new centre of Judaism arose under the leadership of the aged Johanan ben Zakkai, a school whose members inherited the authority of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem. Gamaliel II. became Johanan ben Zakkai’s successor, and rendered immense service in the strengthening and reintegration of Judaism, which had been deprived of its former basis by the destruction of the Temple and by the entire loss of its political autonomy. He put an end to the division which had arisen between the spiritual leaders of Palestinian Judaism by the separation of the scribes into the two schools called respectively after Hillel and Shammai, and took care to enforce his own authority as the president of the chief legal assembly of Judaism with energy and often with severity. He did this, as he himself said, not for his own honour nor for that of his family, but in order that disunion should not prevail in Israel. Gamaliel’s position was recognized by the Roman government also. Towards the end of Domitian’s reign (c. A.D. 95) he went to Rome in company with the most prominent members of the school of Jabneh, in order to avert a danger threatening the Jews from the action of the terrible emperor. Many interesting particulars have been given regarding the journey of these learned men to Rome and their sojourn there. The impression made by the capital of the world upon Gamaliel and his companions was an overpowering one, and they wept when they thought of Jerusalem in ruins. In Rome, as at home, Gamaliel often had occasion to defend Judaism in polemical discussions with pagans, and also with professed Christians. In an anecdote regarding a suit which Gamaliel was prosecuting before a Christian judge, a converted Jew, he appeals to the Gospel and to the words of Jesus in Matt. v. 17 (Shabbath 116 a, b). Gamaliel devoted special attention to the regulation of the rite of prayer, which after the cessation of sacrificial worship had become all-important. He gave the principal prayer, consisting of eighteen benedictions, its final revision, and declared it every Israelite’s duty to recite it three times daily. He was on friendly terms with many who were not Jews, and was so warmly devoted to his slave Tabi that when the latter died he mourned for him as for a beloved member of his own family. He loved discussing the sense of single portions of the Bible with other scholars, and made many fine expositions of the text. With the words of Deut. xiii. 18 he associated the lesson: “So long as thou thyself art merciful, God will also be merciful to thee.” Gamaliel died before the insurrections under Trajan had brought fresh unrest into Palestine. At his funeral obsequies the celebrated proselyte Aquila (Akylas Onkelos), reviving an ancient custom, burned costly materials to the value of seventy minae. Gamaliel himself had given directions that his body was to be wrapped in the simplest possible shroud. By this he wished to check the extravagance which had become associated with arrangements for the disposal of the dead, and his end was attained; for his example became the rule, and it also became the custom to commemorate him in the words of consolation addressed to the mourners (Kethub. 8 b). Gamaliel’s son, Simon, long after his father’s death, and after the persecutions under Hadrian, inherited his office, which thenceforward his descendants handed on from father to son.
3. Gamaliel III., son of Jehuda I. the redactor of the Mishna, and his successor as Nasi (patriarch). The redaction of the Mishna was completed under him, and some of his sayings are incorporated therein (Aboth ii. 2-4). One of these runs as follows: “Beware of those in power, for they permit men to approach them only for their own uses; they behave as friends when it is for their advantage, but they do not stand by a man when he is in need.” Evidently this was directed against the self-seeking of the Roman government. Gamaliel III. lived during the first half of the 3rd century.
4. Gamaliel IV., grandson of the above, patriarch in the latter half of the 3rd century: about him very little is known.
5. Gamaliel V., son and successor of the patriarch Hillel II.: beyond his name nothing is known of him. He lived in the latter half of the 4th century. He is the patriarch Gamaliel whom Jerome mentions in his letter to Pamachius, written in 393.
6. Gamaliel VI., grandson of the above, the last of the patriarchs, died in 425. With him expired the office, which had already been robbed of its privileges by a decree of the emperors Honorius and Theodosius II. (dated the 17th of October 415). Gamaliel VI. was also a physician, and a celebrated remedy of his is mentioned by his contemporary Marcellus (De Medicamentis, liber 21).
(W. Ba.)
GAMBETTA, LÉON (1838-1882), French statesman, was born at Cahors on the 2nd of April 1838. His father, a Genoese, who had established himself as a grocer and had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie, is said to have been his son’s prototype in vigour and fluency of speech. In his sixteenth year young Gambetta lost by an accident the sight of his left eye, which eventually had to be removed. Notwithstanding this privation, he highly distinguished himself at the public school of Cahors, and in 1857 proceeded to Paris to study law. His southern vehemence gave him great influence among the students of the Quartier Latin, and he was soon known as an inveterate enemy of the imperial government. He was called to the bar in 1859, but, although contributing to a Liberal review, edited by Challemel Lacour, did not make much way until, on the 17th of November 1868, he was selected to defend the journalist Delescluze, prosecuted for having promoted the erection of a monument to the representative Baudin, who was killed in resisting the coup d’état of 1851. Gambetta seized his opportunity and assailed both the coup d’état and the government with an eloquence of invective which made him immediately famous.
In May 1869 he was returned to the Assembly, both by the first circumscription of Paris and by Marseilles, defeating Hippolyte Carnot for the former constituency and Thiers and Lesseps for the latter. He elected to sit for Marseilles, and lost no opportunity of attacking the Empire in the Assembly. He was at first opposed to the war with Germany, but when satisfied that it had been forced upon France he did not, like some of his colleagues, refuse to vote supplies, but took the patriotic line of supporting the flag. When the news of the disaster at Sedan reached Paris, Gambetta called for strong measures. He himself proclaimed the fall of the emperor at the corps législatif, and the establishment of a republic at the hôtel de ville. He was one of the first members of the new government of national defence, becoming minister of the interior. He advised his colleagues to leave Paris and conduct the government from some provincial city. This advice was rejected from dread of another revolution in Paris, and a delegation to organize resistance in the provinces was despatched to Tours, but when this was seen to be inefficient Gambetta himself (7th October) quitted Paris in a balloon, and upon arriving at Tours took the supreme direction of affairs as minister of the interior and of war. Aided by M. de Freycinet, then a young officer of engineers, as his assistant secretary of war, he displayed prodigies of energy and intelligence. He speedily organized an army, which might possibly have effected the relief of Paris if Metz had held out, but the surrender of Bazaine brought the army of the crown prince into the field, and success was impossible. After the defeats of the French near Orleans early in December the seat of government had to be transferred to Bordeaux, and when Paris surrendered at the end of January, Gambetta, though resisting and protesting, was compelled to submit to the capitulation concluded with Prince Bismarck. He immediately resigned his office. Elected by nine departments to the National Assembly meeting at Bordeaux (on the 1st of March 1871) he chose to sit for Strassburg, which by the terms of the treaty about to be submitted to the Assembly for ratification was to be ceded to Prussia, and when the treaty was adopted he resigned in protest and retired to Spain.
He returned to France in June, was elected by three departments in July, and commenced an agitation for the definitive establishment of the Republic. On the 5th of November 1871 he established a journal, La République française, which soon became the most influential in France. His orations at public meetings were more effective than those delivered in the Assembly, especially that made at Bordeaux on his return, and that at Grenoble on the 26th of November 1872, in which he spoke of political power having passed to les nouvelles couches sociales. When Thiers, however, fell from power in May 1873, and a Royalist was placed at the head of the government in the person of Marshal MacMahon, Gambetta gave proof of his statesmanship by unceasingly urging his friends to a moderate course, and by his tact and parliamentary dexterity, no less than by his eloquence, he was mainly instrumental in the voting of the constitution in February 1875. This policy he continued during the early days of the now consolidated Republic, and gave it the appropriate name of “opportunism.” It was not until the 4th of May 1877, when the peril from reactionary intrigues was notorious, and the clerical party had begun a campaign for the restoration of the temporal power of the pope, that he delivered his famous speech denouncing “clericalism” as “the enemy.” On the 16th of May Marshal MacMahon, in order to support the clerical reactionaries, perpetrated his parliamentary coup d’état, and on the 15th of August Gambetta, in a speech at Lille, gave him the alternative se soumettre ou se démettre. He then undertook a political campaign to rouse the republican party throughout France, which culminated in a speech at Romans (September 18, 1878) formulating its programme. MacMahon, equally unwilling to resign or to provoke civil war, had no choice but to dismiss his advisers and form a moderate republican ministry under the premiership of Dufaure.
When the resignation of the Dufaure cabinet brought about the abdication of Marshal MacMahon, Gambetta declined to become a candidate for the presidency, but gave his support to Grévy; nor did he attempt to form a ministry, but accepted the office of president of the chamber of deputies (January 1879). This position, which he filled with much ability, did not prevent his occasionally descending from the presidential chair to make speeches, one of which, advocating an amnesty to the communards, was especially memorable. Although he really directed the policy of the various ministries, he evidently thought that the time was not ripe for asserting openly his own claims to direct the policy of the Republic, and seemed inclined to observe a neutral attitude as far as possible; but events hurried him on, and early in 1881 he placed himself at the head of a movement for restoring scrutin de liste, or the system by which deputies are returned by the entire department which they represent, so that each elector votes for several representatives at once, in place of scrutin d’arrondissement, the system of small constituencies, giving one member to each district and one vote to each elector. A bill to re-establish scrutin de liste was passed by the Assembly on 19th May 1881, but rejected by the Senate on the 19th of June.
But this personal rebuff could not alter the fact that in the country his was the name which was on the lips of the voters at the election. His supporters were in a large majority, and on the reassembling of the chamber, the Ferry cabinet quickly resigned. Gambetta was unwillingly entrusted by Grévy on the 14th of November 1881 with the formation of a ministry—known as Le Grand Ministère. He now experienced the Nemesis of his over-cautious system of abstinence from office for fear of compromising his popularity. Every one suspected him of aiming at a dictatorship; attacks, not the less formidable for their injustice, were directed against him from all sides, and his cabinet fell on the 26th of January 1882, after an existence of only sixty-six days. Had he remained in office his declarations leave no doubt that he would have cultivated the British alliance and cooperated with Great Britain in Egypt; and when the Freycinet administration, which succeeded, shrank from that enterprise only to see it undertaken with signal success by England alone, Gambetta’s foresight was quickly justified. His fortunes were presenting a most interesting problem when, on the 31st of December 1882, at his house in Ville d’Avray, near Sèvres, he died by a shot from a revolver which accidentally went off. Then all France awoke to a sense of her obligation to him, and his public funeral on the 6th of January 1883 evoked one of the most overwhelming displays of national sentiment ever witnessed on a similar occasion.
Gambetta rendered France three inestimable services: by preserving her self-respect through the gallantry of the resistance he organized during the German War, by his tact in persuading extreme partisans to accept a moderate Republic, and by his energy in overcoming the usurpation attempted by the advisers of Marshal MacMahon. His death, at the early age of forty-four, cut short a career which had given promise of still greater things, for he had real statesmanship in his conceptions of the future of his country, and he had an eloquence which would have been potent in the education of his supporters. The romance of his life was his connexion with Léonie Léon (d. 1906), the full details of which were not known to the public till her death. This lady, with whom Gambetta fell in love in 1871, was the daughter of a French artillery officer. She became his mistress, and the liaison lasted till he died. Gambetta himself constantly urged her to marry him during this period, but she always refused, fearing to compromise his career; she remained, however, his confidante and intimate adviser in all his political plans. It is understood that at last she had just consented to become his wife, and the date of the marriage had been fixed, when the accident which caused his death occurred in her presence. Contradictory accounts have indeed been given as to this fatal episode, but that it was accidental, and not suicide, is certain. On Gambetta the influence of Léonie was absorbing, both as lover and as politician, and the correspondence which has been published shows how much he depended upon her. But in various matters of detail the serious student of political history must be cautious in accepting her later recollections, some of which have been embodied in the writings of M. Francis Laur, such as that an actual interview took place in 1878 between Gambetta and Bismarck. That Gambetta after 1875 felt strongly that the relations between France and Germany might be improved, and that he made it his object, by travelling incognito, to become better acquainted with Germany and the adjoining states, may be accepted, but M. Laur appears to have exaggerated the extent to which any actual negotiations took place. On the other hand, the increased knowledge of Gambetta’s attitude towards European politics which later information has supplied confirms the view that in him France lost prematurely a master mind, whom she could ill spare. In April 1905 a monument by Dalou to his memory at Bordeaux was unveiled by President Loubet.
Gambetta’s Discours et plaidoyers politiques were published by J. Reinach in 11 vols. (Paris, 1881-1886); his Dépêches, circulaires, décrets ... in 2 vols. (Paris, 1886-1891). Many biographies have appeared. The principal are J. Reinach, Léon Gambetta (1884), Gambetta orateur (1884) and Le Ministère Gambetta, histoire et doctrine (1884); Neucastel, Gambetta, sa vie, et ses idées politiques (1885); J. Hanlon, Gambetta (London, 1881); Dr Laborde, Léon Gambetta biographie psychologique (1898); P.B. Gheusi, Gambetta, Life and Letters (Eng. trans. by V.M. Montagu, 1910). See also G. Hanotaux, Histoire de la France contemporaine (1903, &c.). F. Laur’s Le Cœur de Gambetta (1907, Eng. trans., 1908) contains the correspondence with Léonie Léon; see also his articles on “Gambetta and Bismarck” in The Times of August 17 and 19, 1907, with the correspondence arising from them.
(H. Ch.)
GAMBIA, an important river of West Africa, and the only river of Africa navigable by ocean-going boats at all seasons for over 200 m. from its mouth. It rises in about 11° 25′ N. and 12° 15′ W., within 150 m. of the sea on the north-eastern escarpment of the Futa Jallon highlands, the massif where also rise the head-streams of the Senegal and some of the Niger tributaries, besides the Rio Grande and many other rivers flowing direct to the Gulf of Guinea. The Gambia, especially in its lower course, is very serpentine, and although the distance from the source to the mouth of the river is little more than 300 m. in a direct line, the total length of the stream is about 1000 m. It flows first N.N.E., receiving many left-hand tributaries, but about 12° 35′ N. takes a sharp bend N.W. and maintains this direction until it leaves the fertile and hilly region of Bondu. The descent to the lower district is marked by the Barraconda rapids, formed by a ledge of rock stretching across the river. Between 30 and 50 m. above the falls the Gambia is joined by two considerable affluents, the Nieriko from the north and the Kuluntu or Grey river from the south. From the Barraconda rapids to the Atlantic the Gambia has a course of about 350 m. Throughout this distance the waters are tidal, and the river is navigable all the year round by boats drawing 6 ft. of water. At Yarbatenda, a few miles below Barraconda, the river has a breadth, even at the dry season, of over 300 ft., with a depth of 13 to 20 ft. From the falls to McCarthy’s Island, a distance of 200 m., the river valley, which here presents a park-like appearance, is enclosed by low rocky hills of volcanic character. For 50 m. below the island, where the stream is about 800 yds. wide, the banks of the river are steep and thickly wooded. They then become low and are fringed with mangrove swamps. From Devil’s Point, a sharp promontory on the north bank—up to which place the water is salt—the river widens considerably and enters the Atlantic, in about 13½° N. and 16½° W., by a broad estuary. Near the mouth of the river on the south side is St Mary’s Island (3½ m. long by 1½ broad), and opposite on the north bank is Barra Point, the river being here contracted to 2½ m. Eighteen miles lower down the distance from shore to shore is 27 m. There is a sand-bar at the entrance to the river, but at the lowest state of the tide there are 26 ft. of water over the bar. The Gambia is in flood from November to June, when the Barraconda rapids are navigable by small boats. Above the rapids the stream is navigable for 160 m. Politically the Gambia is divided between Great Britain and France—Britain possessing both banks of the river up to, but not including, Yarbatenda.
The Gambia was one of the rivers passed by Hanno the Carthaginian in his famous voyage along the west coast of Africa. It was known to Ptolemy and the Arabian geographers, and was at one time supposed to be a mouth of the Nile, and, later (18th century), a branch of the Niger. It was possibly visited by Genoese navigators in 1291, and was certainly discovered by the Portuguese c. 1446, but was first explored for any distance from its mouth (1455) by the Venetian Alvise Cadamosto (q.v.), who published an account of his travels at Vicenza in 1507 (La Prima Navigazione per l’Oceano alle terre de’ Negri della Bassa Ethiopia). Afterwards the Gambia became a starting-place for explorers of the interior, among them Mungo Park, who began both his journeys (1795 and 1805) from this river. It was not until 1818 that the sources of the Gambia were reached, the discovery being made by a Frenchman, Gaspard Mollien, who had travelled by way of the Senegal and Bondu. The middle course of the river was explored in 1851 by R.G. MacDonnell, then governor of the Gambia colony, and in 1881 Dr V.S. Gouldsbury also navigated its middle course. No native craft of any kind was seen above Barraconda. The more correct name of the river is Gambra, and it is so called in old books of travel.
See Mungo Park’s Travels (London, 1799); G. Mollien, Travels ... to the Sources of the Senegal and Gambia ..., edited by T.E. Bowdich (London, 1820); the account of Dr Gouldsbury’s journey in the Blue Book C 3065 (1881); also under the country heading below.
GAMBIA, the most northerly of the British West African dependencies. It consists of a stretch of land on both sides of the lower Gambia. The colony, with the protectorate dependent upon it, has an area of about 4000 sq. m. and a population officially estimated (1907) at 163,000. The colony proper (including St Mary’s Island, British Kommbo, the Ceded Mile, McCarthy’s Island and other islets) has an area of about 69 sq. m. The protectorate consists of a strip of land extending ten kilometres (about 6 m.) on each side of the river to a distance of about 200 m. in a direct line from the sea. The land outside these limits is French. Within the protectorate are various petty kingdoms, such as Barra, to the north of the Gambia, and Kommbo, to the south. The breadth of the colony near the coast is somewhat greater than it is higher up. The greatest breadth is 39 m.
Physical Features, Fauna and Flora.—The colony, as its name implies, derives its character and value from the river Gambia (q.v.), which is navigable throughout and beyond the limits of the colony, while large ocean-going ships can always cross the bar at its mouth and enter the port of Bathurst. Away from the swamps by the river banks, the country is largely “bush.” The region above McCarthy’s Island is hilly. Much of the land is cleared for cultivation. The fauna includes lions, leopards, several kinds of deer, monkeys, bush-cow and wild boar. Hippopotami are found in the upper part of the river, and crocodiles abound in the creeks. The birds most common are bush-fowl, bustards, guinea-fowl, quail, pigeon and sand-grouse. Bees are very numerous in parts of the country. The flora resembles that of West Africa generally, the mangrove being common. Mahogany and rosewood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) trees are found, though not in large numbers, and the rubber-vine and oil-palm are also comparatively scarce. There are many varieties of fern. The cassava (manioca) and indigo plants are indigenous.
Climate.—The climate during the dry season (November-June) is the best on the British West African coast, and the Gambia is then considered fairly healthy. Measures for the extermination of the malarial mosquito are carried on with good effect. The mean temperature at Bathurst is 77° F., the shade minimum being 56° and the solar maximum 165°. Upriver the variation in temperature is even greater than at Bathurst, from 50° in the morning to 100°-104° at 3 P.M. being common at McCarthy’s Isle. The average rainfall is about 50 in. a year, but save for showers in May and June there is rarely any rain except between July and October. The first instance of rain in December in twenty-six years was recorded in 1906. The dry east wind known as the harmattan blows intermittently from December to March.
Inhabitants.—The inhabitants, who are both thrifty and industrious, are almost entirely of Negro or Negroid race, the chief tribes represented being the Mandingo (q.v.), the Jolof and the Jola. Numbers of Fula (q.v.) are also settled in the country. Fully four-fifths of the natives are Mahommedans. The few European residents are officials, traders or missionaries.
Towns and Trade.—Bathurst, pop. about 8000, the chief town of the colony, in 13° 24′ N., 16° 36′ W., is built on St Mary’s Island, which lies at the mouth of the river near its south bank and is connected with the mainland by a bridge across Oyster Creek. It was founded in 1816 and is named after the 3rd earl Bathurst, secretary of state for the colonies from 1812 to 1827. Bathurst is a fairly well-built town, the chief material employed being red sandstone. It lies about 12 to 14 ft. above the level of the river. The principal buildings face the sea, and include Government House, barracks, a well-appointed hospital, founded by Sir R.G. MacDonnell (administrator, 1847-1852), and various churches. The market-place is shaded by a fine avenue of bombax and other wide-spreading trees. There are no other towns of any size in the Gambia. A trading station called Georgetown is situated on McCarthy’s Island, so named after Sir Charles McCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone, who in 1824 was captured and beheaded by the Ashanti at the battle of Essamako. Albreda, a small port on the north bank of the river, of some historic interest (see below), is in the Barra district.
Products.—Ground-nuts (Arachis hypogaea), rubber, beeswax, palm kernels, rice, cotton, and millet are the chief productions. Millet and rice are the staple food of the people. The curing of hides, the catching and drying of fish, boat-building, and especially the weaving of cotton into cloths called “pagns,” afford employment to a considerable number of persons. Formerly the principal exports, besides slaves, were gold-dust, wax and hides, the gold being obtained from the Futa Jallon district farther inland. Between 1830 and 1840 from 1500 to 2000 oz. of gold were exported annually, but shipments ceased soon afterwards, though small quantities of gold-dust can still be obtained from native goldsmiths. The export of hides received a severe check in 1892-1893 through the death of nearly all the cattle, but after an interval of seven or eight years the industry gradually revived. The value of hides exported increased from £520 in 1902 to £9615 in 1907. The collection of rubber was started about 1880, but the trade has not assumed large proportions. In 1907 the value of the rubber exported was £4602. The export of wax, valued at £37,000 in 1843, had dwindled in 1907 to £2325. The cultivation of the ground-nut, first exported in 1830, assumed importance by 1837, and by 1850 had become the chief industry of the colony. In 1907 the value of the nuts was £256,685, over 11⁄12 of the total exports (exclusive of specie). Nearly the whole male population is engaged in the industry for eight months of the year. Planted in June, after the early rains, the crop is reaped in October or November and exported to Europe (4⁄5 to Marseilles) for the extraction of its oil, which is usually sold as olive oil. A feature of the industry is the appearance at the beginning of the planting season of thousands of men from a distance, “strange farmers,” as they are called, who are housed and fed and given farms to cultivate. In return they have to give half the produce to the landlords. As soon as he has sold his nuts, the “strange farmer” goes off, often not returning for years.
Apart from the cultivation of the ground-nut, the agricultural resources of the country are undeveloped. Large herds of cattle are kept by the Fula, and in cattle rich natives usually invest their wealth. Land can be hired for 2d. an acre per annum for twenty-one years. All land lying vacant or unused, or to which the occupier is unable to produce any title, is vested in the crown. A botanical station was opened in 1894, and the cultivation of American and Egyptian cotton was taken in hand in 1902. The experiment proved discouraging. Great difficulty was experienced in getting farmers to grow cotton for export, as unless carried on on highly scientific lines its cultivation is not so profitable as that of the ground-nut. The principal imports, of which over 2⁄3 come from Great Britain or British colonies, are cotton goods, kola-nuts (from Sierra Leone), tobacco, rice, sugar and spirits. In the ten years 1898 to 1907 the average annual value of the exports was £301,000, of the imports £316,000. There are no mines in the colony, nor any apparent mineral wealth, except ridges of ironstone in the regions above McCarthy’s Island. Bathurst is in telegraphic communication with Europe and the rest of Africa. There are no railways in the colony, but it is traversed by well-made roads of a uniform width of 18 ft. The Liverpool mail steamers call at the port every fortnight. A government steamer runs regularly from Bathurst to McCarthy’s Island, and a smaller boat plies on the upper river. The shipping trade is chiefly British; French and German tonnage coming next.
Surrounded on all sides, save seawards, by French territory, the colony largely depends, economically, upon France, to which country most of the exports go. A considerable entrepôt trade is also done with the neighbouring French colonies. The extent of French influence is indicated by the fact that the five-franc piece, locally known as a dollar, is largely circulated throughout the protectorate, and is accepted as legal tender, although the currency in the colony proper is the English coinage.
Administration, Revenue, &c.—The Gambia is administered by a governor, assisted by an executive and a legislative council. On the last-named body nominated unofficial members have seats. The colony is self-supporting and has no public debt. The revenue, which in 1906 for the first time exceeded £60,000, is mainly derived from customs. A company of the West African Frontier Force is maintained. Travelling commissioners visit the five districts into which, for administrative purposes, the protectorate is divided, and in which the native form of government prevails. From the native law-courts appeal can be made to the supreme court at Bathurst. There is also at Bathurst a Mahommedan court, established in 1906, for the trial of cases involving the civil status of Moslems.
Primary schools are maintained by the various religious denominations, and receive grants from government. The Wesleyans have also a secondary and a technical school. There is a privately supported school for Mahommedans at Bathurst. The Anglicans, Wesleyans and Roman Catholics have numerous converts.
History.—Of the early history of the Gambia district there is scant mention. At what period the stone circles and pillars (apparently of a “Druidical” character), whose ruins are found at several places along the upper Gambia, were erected is not known. Those at Lamin Koto, on the right bank of the river opposite McCarthy’s Island, are still in good preservation, and are an object of veneration to the Mahommedans (see Geog. Journ. vol. xii., 1898). The country appears to have formed part, successively, of the states of Ghana, Melle and Songhoi. The relations, political and commercial, of the natives were all with the north and east; consequently no large town was founded on the banks of the river, nor any trade carried on (before the coming of the white man) by vessels sailing the ocean. About the 11th century the district came under Mahommedan influence.
The Portuguese visited the Gambia in the 15th century, and in the beginning of the 16th century were trading in the lower river. Embassies were sent from the Portuguese stations inland to Melle to open up trade with the interior, but about the middle of the century this trade—apparently mostly in gold and slaves—declined. At the end of the century the river was known as the resort of banished men and fugitives from Portugal and Spain. It was on the initiative of Portuguese living in England that Queen Elizabeth, in 1588, granted a patent to “certain merchants of Exeter and others of the west parts and of London for a trade to the river of Senega and Gambra in Guinea.” This company was granted a monopoly of trade for ten years. Its operations led to no permanent settlement in the Gambia. In 1618 James I. granted a charter to another company named “The Company of Adventurers of London trading into Africa,” and formed at the instigation of Sir Robert Rich, afterwards earl of Warwick, for trade with the Gambia and the Gold Coast. This company sought to open up trade with Timbuktu, then believed to be a great mart for gold, which reached the lower Gambia in considerable quantities. With this object George Thompson (a merchant who had traded with Barbary) was sent out in the “Catherine,” and ascended the Gambia in his ship to Kassan, a Portuguese trading town, thence continuing his journey in small boats. In his absence the “Catherine” was seized and the crew murdered by Portuguese and half-castes, and Thompson himself was later on murdered by natives. Two years afterwards Richard Jobson, another agent of the Company of Adventurers, advanced beyond the falls of Barraconda; and he was followed, about forty years later, by Vermuyden, a Dutch merchant, who on his return to Europe asserted that he had reached a country full of gold.
The Company of Adventurers had built a fort near the mouth of the Gambia. This was superseded in 1664 by a fort built by Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir Robert) Holmes on a small island 20 m. from the mouth of the river and named Fort James, in honour of the duke of York (James II.). This fort was built expressly to defend the British trade against the Dutch, and from that time the British remained in permanent occupation of one or more ports on the river. In 1723 Captain Bartholomew Stibbs was sent out by the Royal African Company, which had succeeded the earlier companies, to verify Vermuyden’s reports of gold. He proceeded 60 m. above the falls, but the land of gold was not found. The French now became rivals for the trade of the Gambia, but the treaty of Versailles in 1783 assigned the trade in the river to Britain, reserving, however, Albreda for French trade, while it assigned the Senegal to France, with the reservation of the right of the British to trade at Portendic for gum. This arrangement remained in force till 1857, when an exchange of possessions was effected and the lower Gambia became a purely British river. In the period between the signing of the treaty of Versailles and 1885 the small territories which form the colony proper were acquired by purchase or cession from native kings. St Mary’s Isle was acquired in 1806; McCarthy’s Isle was bought in 1823; the Ceded Mile was granted by the king of Barra in 1826; and British Kommbo between 1840 and 1855. During this period the colony had gone through an economic crisis by the abolition of the slave trade (1807), which had been since 1662 its chief financial support. The beginning of a return to prosperity came in 1816 when some British traders, obliged to leave Senegal on the restoration of that country to France after the Napoleonic wars, founded a settlement on St Mary’s Isle. From that year the existing colony, as distinct from trading on the river, dates. The Gambia witnessed many administrative changes. When the slave trade was abolished, the settlement was placed under the jurisdiction of the governor of Sierra Leone, and was formally annexed to Sierra Leone on the dissolution of the Royal African Company (1822). It so remained until 1843, when the Gambia was made an independent colony, its first governor being Henry Frowd Seagram. Afterwards (1866) the Gambia became a portion of the officially styled “West African Settlements.” In 1883 it was again made a separate government, administered as a crown colony. Between the years last mentioned—1866-1888—the colony had suffered from the retrograde policy adopted by parliament in respect to the West African Settlements (vide Report of the Select Committee of 1865).
In 1870 negotiations were opened between France and Great Britain on the basis of a mutual exchange of territories in West Africa. Suspended owing to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War the negotiations were resumed in 1876. “Definite proposals were at that time formulated by which the Gambia was to be exchanged for all posts by France between the Rio Pongas (Pongo river, French Guinea) and the Gabun. This would have been a comprehensive and intelligible arrangement, but so strong a feeling in opposition to any cession of British territory was manifested in parliament, and by various mercantile bodies, that the government of the day was unable to press the scheme.”1 Nothing was done, however, to secure for the Gambia a suitable hinterland, and in 1877 the 4th earl of Carnarvon (then colonial secretary) warned British traders that they proceeded beyond McCarthy’s Isle at their own risk. Meantime the French from Senegal pushed their frontier close to the British settlements, so that when the boundaries were settled by the agreement of the 10th of August 1889 with France, Great Britain was able to secure only a ten-kilometre strip on either side of the river. This document fixed the frontier of the British protectorate inland at a radius of 10 m. from the centre of the town of Yarbatenda; which town is situated at the limit of navigability of the Gambia from the sea. By Art. 5 of the Anglo-French convention of the 8th of April 1904, Yarbatenda was ceded to France, with the object of giving that country a port on the river accessible to sea-going merchantmen.
Since 1871 the colony had been self-supporting, but on the acquirement of the protectorate it was decided, in order to balance increasing expenditure, to impose a “hut tax” on the natives. This was done in 1895. The tax, which averages 4s. per annum for a family, met with no opposition.
In 1892 a slave-raiding chief, named Fodi Kabba, had to be forcibly expelled from British territory. In 1894 another slave-raider, Fodi Silah, gave much trouble to the protectorate. An expedition under Captain E.H. (afterwards admiral) Gamble succeeded in routing him, and Fodi Silah took refuge in French territory, where he died. During the expedition Captain Gamble was led into an ambush, and in this engagement lost 15 killed and 47 wounded. In 1900 trouble again arose through the agency of Fodi Kabba, who had fixed his residence at Medina, in French territory. Two travelling commissioners (Mr F.C. Sitwell and Mr Silva) were murdered in June of that year, at a place called Suankandi, and a punitive expedition was sent out under Colonel H.E. Brake. Suankandi was captured and, the French co-operating, Medina was also captured, Fodi Kabba being killed on the 23rd of March 1901.
The people of the protectorate are in general peaceful and contented, and slave trading is a thing of the past. Provision was moreover made by an ordinance of 1906 for the extinction of slavery itself throughout the protectorate, it being enacted that henceforth all children born of slaves were free from birth, and that all slaves became free on the death of their master.
See the Annual Reports on the colony published by the colonial office, London, which give the latest official information; C.P. Lucas’s Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. iii., West Africa (2nd ed., Oxford, 1900) (this book contains valuable bibliographical notes); and The Gambia Colony and Protectorate, an official handbook (with map and considerable historical information), by F.B. Archer, treasurer of the colony (London, 1906). Early accounts of the country will be found in vol. ii. of Thomas Astley’s New General Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1745-1747). See also Major W. Gray and Surgeon Dochard, Travels in Western Africa in 1818-1821, from the River Gambia ... to the River Niger (London, 1829). The flora has been the subject of a special study, A. Rançon, La Flore utile du bassin de la Gambie (Bordeaux, 1895). Most of the books mentioned under Gold Coast also deal with the Gambia.
1 Extract from a despatch of Lord Salisbury to the British ambassador to France, dated 30th of March 1892.
GAMBIER, JAMES GAMBIER, Baron (1756-1833), English admiral, was born on the 13th of October 1756 at the Bahamas, of which his father, John Gambier, was at that time lieutenant-governor. He entered the navy in 1767 as a midshipman on board the “Yarmouth,” under the command of his uncle; and, his family interest obtaining for him rapid promotion, he was raised in 1778 to the rank cf post-captain, and appointed to the “Raleigh,” a fine 32-gun frigate. At the peace of 1783 he was placed on half-pay; but, on the outbreak of the war of the French Revolution, he was appointed to the command of the 74-gun ship “Defence,” under Lord Howe; and in her he had an honourable share in the battle on the 1st of June 1794. In recognition of his services on this occasion, Captain Gambier received the gold medal, and was made a colonel of marines; the following year he was advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, and appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. In this office he continued for six years, till, in February 1801, he, a vice-admiral of 1799, hoisted his flag on board the “Neptune,” of 98 guns, as third in command of the Channel Fleet under Admiral Cornwallis, where, however, he remained for but a year, when he was appointed governor of Newfoundland and commander-in-chief of the ships on that station. In May 1804 he returned to the admiralty, and with a short intermission in 1806, continued there during the naval administration of Lord Melville, of his uncle, Lord Barham, and of Lord Mulgrave. In November 1805 he was raised to the rank of admiral; and in the summer of 1807, whilst still a lord of the admiralty, he was appointed to the command of the fleet ordered to the Baltic, which, in concert with the army under Lord Cathcart, reduced Copenhagen, and enforced the surrender of the Danish navy, consisting of nineteen ships of the line, besides frigates, sloops, gunboats, and naval stores. This service was considered by the government as worthy of special acknowledgment; the naval and military commanders, officers, seamen and soldiers received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, and Admiral Gambier was rewarded with a peerage.
In the spring of the following year he gave up his seat at the admiralty on being appointed to the command of the Channel Fleet; and in that capacity he witnessed the partial, and prevented the total, destruction of the French fleet in Basque Roads, on the 12th of April 1809. It is in connexion with this event, which might have been as memorable in the history of the British navy as it is in the life of Lord Dundonald (see Dundonald), that Lord Gambier’s name is now best known. A court-martial, assembled by order of a friendly admiralty, and presided over by a warm partisan, “most honourably acquitted” him on the charge “that, on the 12th of April, the enemy’s ships being then on fire, and the signal having been made that they could be destroyed, he did, for a considerable time, neglect or delay taking effectual measures for destroying them”; but this decision was in reality nothing more than a party statement of the fact that a commander-in-chief, a supporter of the government, is not to be condemned or broken for not being a person of brilliant genius or dauntless resolution. No one now doubts that the French fleet should have been reduced to ashes, and might have been, had Lord Gambier had the talents, the energy, or the experience of many of his juniors. He continued to hold the command of the Channel Fleet for the full period of three years, at the end of which time—in 1811—he was superseded. In 1814 he acted in a civil capacity as chief commissioner for negotiating a treaty of peace with the United States; for his exertions in which business he was honoured with the Grand Cross of the Bath. In 1830 he was raised to the high rank of admiral of the fleet, and he died on the 19th of April 1833.
Lord Gambier was a man of earnest, almost morbid, religious principle, and of undoubted courage; but the administration of the admiralty has seldom given rise to such flagrant scandals as during the time when he was a member of it; and through the whole war the self-esteem of the navy suffered no such wound as during Lord Gambier’s command in the Bay of Biscay.
The so-called Memorials, Personal and Historical, of Admiral Lord Gambier, by Lady Chatterton (1861), has no historical value. The life of Lord Gambier is to be read in Marshall’s Royal Naval Biography, in Ralfe’s Naval Biography, in Lord Dundonald’s Autobiography of a Seaman, in the Minutes of the Courts-Martial and in the general history of the period.
GAMBIER, a village of College township, Knox county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Kokosing river, 5 m. E. of Mount Vernon. Pop. (1900) 751; (1910) 537. It is served by the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus railway. The village is finely situated, and is the seat of Kenyon College and its theological seminary, Bexley Hall (Protestant Episcopal), and of Harcourt Place boarding school for girls (1889), also Protestant Episcopal. The college was incorporated in 1824 as the “Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Ohio”; but in 1891 “Kenyon College,” the name by which the institution has always been known, became the official title. Its first exercises were held at Worthington, Ohio, in the home of Philander Chase (1775-1852), first Protestant Episcopal bishop in the North-west Territory, by whose efforts the funds for its endowment had been raised in England in 1823-1824, the chief donors being Lords Kenyon and Gambier. The first permanent building, “Old Kenyon” (still standing, and used as a dormitory), was erected on Gambier Hill in 1827 in the midst of a forest. In 1907-1908 the theological seminary had 18 students and the collegiate department 119.
Some account of the founding of the college may be found in Bishop Chase’s Reminiscences; an Autobiography, comprising a History of the Principal Events in the Author’s Life to 1847 (2 vols., New York, 1848).
GAMBOGE (from Camboja, a name of the district whence it is obtained), a gum-resin procured from Garcinia Hanburii, a dioecious tree with leathery, laurel-like leaves, small yellow flowers, and usually square-shaped and four-seeded fruit, a member of the natural order Guttiferae, and indigenous to Cambodia and parts of Siam and of the south of Cochin China, formerly comprised in Cambojan territory. The juice, which when hardened constitutes gamboge, is contained in the bark of the tree, chiefly in numerous ducts in its middle layer, and from this it is procured by making incisions, bamboo joints being placed to receive it as it exudes. Gamboge occurs in commerce in cylindrical pieces, known as pipe or roll gamboge, and also, usually of inferior quality, in cakes or amorphous masses. It is of a dirty orange externally; is hard and brittle, breaks with a conchoidal and reddish-yellow, glistening fracture, and affords a brilliant yellow powder; is odourless, and has a taste at first slight, but subsequently acrid; forms with water an emulsion; and consists of from 20 to 25% of gum soluble in water, and from 70 to 75% of a resin. Its commonest adulterants are rice-flour and pulverized bark.
Gamboge (Cambogia) is a drastic hydragogue cathartic, causing much griping and irritation of the intestine. A small quantity is absorbed, adding a yellow ingredient to the urine and acting as a mild diuretic. Its irritant action on the skin may cause the formation of pustules. It is less active only than croton oil and elaterium, and may be given in doses of half to two grains, combined with some sedative such as hyoscyamus, in apoplexy and in extreme cases of dropsy. Gamboge is used as a pigment, and as a colouring matter for varnishes. It appears to have been first brought into Europe by merchants from the East at the close of the 16th century.
GAMBRINUS, a mythical Flemish king who is credited with the first brewing of beer. His name is usually derived from that of Jan Primus, i.e. Jan (John) I., the victorious duke of Brabant, from 1261 to 1294, who was president of the Brussels gild of brewers; his portrait with a foaming glass of ale in his hand had the place of honour in the gild-hall, and this led in time, it is suggested, to the myth of the beer-king who is usually represented outside a barrel with a tankard in his hand.
GAME, a word which in its primary and widest significance means any amusement or sport, often combined in the early examples with “glee,” “play,” “joy” or “solace.” It is a common Teutonic word, in O. Eng. gamen, in O.H.G. gaman, but only appears in modern usage outside English in Dan. gammen and Swed. gamman. The ulterior derivation is obscure, but philologists have identified it with the Goth. gaman, companion or companionship; if this be so, it is compounded of the prefix ga-, with, and the root seen in “man.” Apart from its primary and general meaning the word has two specific applications, first to a contest played as a recreation or as an exhibition of skill, in accordance with rules and regulations; and, secondly, to those wild animals which are the objects of the chase, and their flesh as used for food, distinguished as such from meat, fish and poultry, and from the flesh of deer, to which the name “venison” is given. For “game,” from the legal aspect, and the laws relating to its pursuit and capture see Game Laws. The athletic contests of the ancient Greeks (ἀγῶνες) and the public shows (ludi) of the arena and amphitheatre of the ancient Romans are treated below (Games, Classical); the various forms of modern games, indoor and outdoor, whether of skill, strength or chance, are dealt with under their specific titles. A special use (“gaming” or “gambling”) restricts the term to the playing of games for money, or to betting and wagering on the results of events, as in horse-racing, &c. (see Gaming and Wagering). “Gamble,” “gambler” and “gambling” appear very late in English. The earliest quotations in the New English Dictionary for the three words are dated 1775, 1747 and 1784 respectively. They were first regarded as cant or slang words, and implied a reproach, either as referring to cheats or sharpers, or to those who played recklessly for extravagant stakes. The form of the words is obscure, but is supposed to represent a local variation gammle of the M.E. gamenian. From this word must, of course, be distinguished “gambol,” to sport, frisk, which, as the older forms (gambald, gambaud) show, is from the Fr. gambade, leap, jump, of a horse, It. gambado, gamba, leg (Mod. Fr. jambe).
GAME LAWS. This title in English law is applied to the statutes which regulate the right to pursue and take or kill certain kinds of wild animals (see above). The existence of these statutes is due to the rules of the common law as to the nature of property, and the interest of the Norman sovereigns and of feudal superiors in the pleasures of sport or the chase. The substantial basis of the law of property is physical possession of things and the power to deal with them as we see fit. By the common law wild animals are regarded as res nullius, and as not being the subject of private property until reduced into possession by being killed or captured. A bird in the hand is owned: a bird in the bush is not. Even bees do not become property until hived. “Though a swarm lights in my tree,” says Bracton, “I have no more property therein than I have in the birds which make their nests thereon.” If reclaimed or confined they become property. If they escape, the rights of the owner continue only while he is in pursuit of the fugitive, i.e. no other person can in the meantime establish a right of property against him by capturing the animal. A swarm of bees “which fly out of my hive are mine so long as I can keep them in sight and have power to pursue them.” But the right of recapture does not entitle the owner to follow his animals on to the lands of another, and the only case in which any right to follow wild animals on to the lands of others is now expressly recognized is when deer or hares are hunted with hounds or greyhounds. This recognition merely excepts such pursuit from the law as to criminal game trespass, and fox-hunters and those who course hares or hunt stags are civilly liable for trespass if they pass over land without the consent of the occupier (Paul v. Summerhayes, 1878, 4 Q.B.D. 9).
It is a maxim of the common law that things in which no one can claim any property belong to the crown by its prerogative: this rule has been applied to wild animals, and in particular to deer and what is now called “game.” The crown rights may pass to a subject by grant or equivalent prescription. In the course of time the exclusive right to take game, &c., on lands came to be regarded as incidental to the ownership or occupation of the lands. This is described as the right to game ratione soli. In certain districts of England which are crown forests or chases or legal parks, or subject to rights of free warren, the right to take deer and game is not in the owner or occupier of the soil, but is in the crown by prerogative, or ratione privilegii in the grantee of the rights of chase, park or free warren, which are anterior to and superior to those of the owner or occupier of the lands over which the privilege has been granted. In all cases where these special rights do not exist, the right to take or kill wild animals is treated as a profit incidental to the ownership or occupation of the land on which they are found, and there is no public right to take them on private land or even on a highway; nor is there any method known to the law by which the public at large or an undefined body of persons can lawfully acquire the right to take wild animals in alieno solo.
In the nature of things the right to take wild animals is valuable as to deer and the animals usually described as game, and not as to those which are merely noxious as vermin, or simply valueless, as small birds. Upon the rules of the common law there has been grafted much legislation which up till the end of the 18th century was framed for the preservation of deer and game for the recreation and amusement of persons of fortune, and to prevent persons of inferior rank from squandering in the pursuit of game time which their station in life required to be more profitably employed. These enactments included the rigorous code known as the Laws of the Forest (see Forest Laws), as well as what are usually called the Game Laws.
In England the older statutes relating to game were all repealed early in the 19th century. From the time of Richard II. (1389) to 1831, no person might kill game unless qualified by estate or social standing, a qualification raised from a 40s. freehold in 1389 to an interest of £100 a year in freehold or £150 in long leaseholds (1673). In 1831 this qualification by estate was abolished as to England. But in Scotland the right to hunt is theoretically reserved to persons who have in heritage that unknown quantity a “plough-gate of land” (Scots Act 1621, c. 31); and in Ireland qualifications by estate are made necessary for killing game and keeping sporting dogs (Irish Act 1698, 8 Will. III. c. 8). In England the game laws proper consist of the Night Poaching Acts of 1828 and 1844, the Game Act of 1831, the Poaching Prevention Act 1862, and the Ground Game Acts of 1880 and 1906. From the fact that the right of landowners over wild animals on their land does not amount to ownership it follows that they cannot prosecute any one for stealing live wild animals: and that apart from the game laws the only remedy against poachers is by civil action for trespass. As between trespasser and landowner the law is peculiar (Blades v. Higgs, 1865, 11 H.L.C. 621). If A starts and kills a hare on B’s land the dead hare belongs to B (ratione soli) and not to A, though he has taken the hare by his own efforts (per industriam). But if A hunts the hare from B’s land on to C’s land and there kills it, the dead hare belongs to A and not to B or C. It is not B’s because it was not taken on his land, and it is not C’s because it was not started on his land. In other words the right of each owner is limited to animals both started and killed on his own land, and in the case of conflicting claims to the animal taken (made ratione soli) the captor can make title (per industriam) against both landowners. If he is a trespasser he is liable to civil or criminal proceedings by both landowners, but the game is his unless forfeited under a statute. Another peculiar result of the law is that where trespassers (e.g. poachers) kill and carry off game or rabbits as part of one continuous transaction they are not guilty of theft, but only of game trespass (R. v. Townley, 1871, L.R. 1 C.C.R. 315), but it is theft for a trespasser to pick up and carry off a pheasant killed by the owner of the land on his own land or even a pheasant killed by an independent gang of poachers. The young of wild animals belong (propter impotentiam) to the owner of the land until they are able to fly or run away. This right does not extend to the eggs of wild birds. But the owner can reduce the eggs into possession by taking them up and setting them under hens or in enclosures. And if this is done persons who take them are thieves and not merely poachers. A game farm, like a decoy for wild water-fowl, is treated as a trade or business; but a game preserve in which full-grown animals fly or run wild is subject to the ordinary incidents of the law as to animals ferae naturae.
The classification of wild animals for purposes of sport in England is as follows:—
1. Beasts of forest are hart and hind (red deer), boar, wolf and all beasts of venery.
2. Beasts of chase and park are buck and doe (fallow deer), fox, marten and roe, or all beasts of venery and hunting.
3. Beasts of (free) warren are roe, hare, rabbit, partridge, pheasant, woodcock, quail, rail and heron.
4. Game, as defined by the Night Poaching Act of 1828 and the Game Act of 1831, is pheasant, partridge, black game, red grouse, bustard and hare. In France game (gibier) includes everything eatable that runs or flies.
5. Wild fowl not in any of the previous lists which are nevertheless prized for sport, e.g. duck, snipe, plovers, &c.
6. Wild birds not falling within class 4 are more or less protected against destruction by the Wild Birds Protection Acts, which were, however, passed with quite other objects than the game laws.
As regards class 1 no subject without special authority of the crown may kill within a forest or its purlieus or on adjacent highways, rivers or enclosures. The right to the animals in a forest does not depend on ownership of the land but on the royal prerogative as to the animals, i.e. it exists not ratione soli but ratione privilegii: and this right is not in any way altered by the Game Act 1831. A chase is a forest in the hands of a subject and a legal park (which is an enclosed chase) is created by crown grant or by prescription founded on a lost grant. The rights of the grantee are in substance the same as those of the crown in a forest, and do not depend on ownership of the soil. In the case of a free warren the grantee usually but not necessarily owns some or all of the soil over which the right of warren runs. The right of free warren depends on crown grant or prescription founded on lost grant, and involves a right of property over beasts and fowl of warren on all lands within the franchise. As will appear from the list above, some game birds are not fowl of warren, e.g. black game and red grouse (Duke of Devonshire v. Lodge, 1827, 7 B. & C. 39). Free warren is quite different from ordinary warrens, in which hares or rabbits are bred by the owner of the soil for sport or profit. Ground game in such warrens is protected under the Larceny Act 1861, s. 17, as well as by the game laws. In manors, of which none have been created since 1290, the lord by his franchise had the sporting rights over the manor, but at the present time this right is restricted to the commons and wastes of the manor, the freehold whereof is in him, and does not extend to enclosed freeholds nor as a general rule to enclosed copyholds, unless at the time of enclosure the sporting rights were reserved to him by the Enclosure Act or award (Sowerby v. Smith, 1873, L.R. 8 C.P. 514). In other words his rights exist ratione soli and not ratione privilegii. The Game Act 1831 gives lords of manors and privileged persons certain rights as to appointing gamekeepers with special powers to protect game within the district over which their rights extend (ss. 13, 14, 15, 16). The game laws in no way cut down the special privileges as to forest, park, chase or free warren (1831, s. 9), and confirm the sporting right of lords of manors on the wastes of the manor (1831, s. 10). As to all lands not affected by these rights, the right to kill or take game on the land is presumably in the occupier. On letting land the owner may, subject to the qualifications hereinafter stated, reserve to himself the right to kill or take “game” or rabbits or other wild animals concurrently with or in exclusion of the tenant. Where the exclusive right is in the landlord the tenant is not only liable to forfeiture or damages for breaches of covenants in the lease, but is also liable to penalties on summary conviction if without the lessor’s authority he pursues, kills or takes any “game” upon the land or gives permission to others to do so (1831, s. 12). In effect he is made criminally liable for game trespass on lands in his own occupation, so far as relates to game, but is not so liable if he takes rabbits, snipe, woodcock, quails or rails.