The martial zeal of the men of ancient Galicia is constantly referred to by historians: they were a foe against whom both Julius Cæsar and D. Brutus were proud to have waged war; and later, in the days of the Saracen invasion, they were the only Spaniards that the Moors could not conquer. And what about their courage and endurance in modern times? What did the Duke of Wellington think of the fighting qualities of the Gallegans who fought under his banner against the French invaders? So pleased was the Iron Duke with his Gallegan soldiers, that before leaving the country he issued a proclamation in honour of the fourth Spanish army:—
“Warriors of the civilised world! Learn heroism from the individuals of the fourth army, which it has been my good fortune to lead into the field. Every one of its soldiers has merited more justly than myself the command that I hold.... Strive all of you to imitate the inimitable Gallegans. Let their intrepidity be remembered to the end of the world, for it has never been surpassed....”
The fourth army was composed of Gallegans and Asturians, each of which received their separate meed of praise from the Duke. This proclamation was issued at Lesata, and bears the date September 4, 1813.
And now a final word about the reputed stupidity of the Gallegans. Galicia has from time immemorial produced more great intellects, more literary men, and more poets, than any other province in the Peninsula. Not only can Galicia boast of having a first Golden Age and a second Golden Age, but she can also produce a long list of glorious names reaching right up to the present day. I have mentioned a few of these, but space has not allowed me to refer to more than a few. I have said nothing of Saavedra, or of Martin Garcia Sarmiento, both born in Pontevedra; of that famous woman, Maria Francisca de Isla y Lozada, born in Santiago, who was called by Bossuet “the pearl of Galicia”; of the seventeen eminent cardinals who were natives of Galicia; and of the innumerable other illustrious sons whom Galicia has given to Spain. Señor Cabeza Leon, professor of International Law at Santiago University—whose kind assistance in connection with my research work has been invaluable—tells me that he has already collected and verified the names of more than a thousand famous Spaniards who came from Galicia.
And how does Galicia stand to-day? I can answer without hesitation that she stands well to the front. A large proportion of the intellects that are governing Spain from Madrid at the present moment have come from this province. Two of Spain’s greatest living archæologists, Villa-Amil y Castro and Lopez Ferreiro, are sons of Galicia; and “the best authoress that Spain has produced during the present century,”[308] Doña Emilia Pardo Bazán, is Galicia’s daughter. So much for the stupidity of the Gallegans.
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Fare thee well, Galicia! Thou art a land where railways have preceded roads, and where motor-cars have arrived before trains; thou art a land whose peasants are oppressed by bad government, usury, and their own crass ignorance; thou art a land where glorious monuments of mediæval architecture are left to fall into melancholy ruin and decay, when they should be guarded amongst the most precious treasures of the nation, a book in which the Spanish youth might read and learn of the achievements and aspirations of their ancestors; thou art a land that for the wonderful richness of thy soil and the exuberance of thy vegetation might be made the Garden of Europe. All these thou art, and more; yet not only art thou practically unknown to the rest of the world, but thou art forgotten even by Spain: thy own Peninsula is almost unconscious of thy existence, though thou art the spot which has provided her with her most sacred traditions, her poetry, her trovadors, and her Patron Saint. Thy beautiful mountains, thy pine-clad peaks, thy waterfalls, thy torrents and thy rias, thy smiling valleys and thy mossy ravines, thy terraced slopes and thy limpid streamlets, are separated from the rest of Europe by the waters of the River of Oblivion.
It may be that some of the prominent men who are thy children would hesitate to own that thou hadst given them birth; but thy simple peasants, when they cross the wide seas to seek their fortune in a distant land, carry their passionate love for Galicia to those far-off shores, and sometimes, sometimes—they die of the anguish that is called homesickness.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Agapito y Revilla, Don Juan. “La Basilica Visigoda de San Juan Bautista en Baños de Cerrato (Palencia).” Valladolid.