The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-03
HAVE NEVER SEEN CONQUERED.
The Heroic Bsrqucs snd Their Many D-s-
persse Wars with InvaSers-

The heroic BSscCcs 9nG Lnet- N3ny De-
perzee Wars with Invaders
But these people of Spain. and yet
not Spaniards, who are the? Models OF
ancient manners, untainted by time. 50
marked. so seParate-as distinct II
racial characteristics from their rear
est neighbors as from the most remote
so rooted to this soil. how shall We
account for them? Velasco, their own
historian, gravely:tracest their descent d.
rectly from Tubal-Cain. says the Cosmo-
politan- Humboldt calls them Celt-l6e-
rians Theory on theory, each one dis
proving the last with equal learning.
has been advanced to account iCr this
phenomenon Nothing now seems
more probable than that they are =
remnant of the troglodytes of the age
of stone. the same with the llen whose
bones are found in the cavsrns of tho
Alps and Pyrenees, beside those Of the
huge animals they hunted In this
case their unwritten history dates from
twenty centuries before the Christian
era
There are confused Basque traditions
Of the coming of the Phenieiaus to
their mountains, and the earliest Ro-
man writers have painted in glowing
colors the noble bearing, patrisrchal
customs and wise old laws the Phoni-
clans found there. They discovered the
gold and silver mines and vanished
away in their great star-guided ships.
Wars and dissensions followed; then
silence again till Caesar came. His
lieutenant Crassus reduced Spain 20 o
Roman province, but Cesar says: "A
few petty people higher up in the
mountains did not make their subrnis-
sion and sent hostages" Roman
poets expand the picture and describe
the Iberians, as they named the
Basgues, as objects of terror 20 ell the
world, whom neither hunger. heat nor
cold could conquer, who only gloried
in labors and perils.
Pushed by the Romans. they retreat
ed to their fortified towns; pressed by
siege, they withdrew to the highest
rocks, watched the confagration Of the
towns, and threw themselves, shouting,
from the craigs, 10 be dashed in pieces
rather than surrender. Mothers
drowned their sons rather than have
them become slaves. The story of their
steady resistance is nearly incredible.
Taken prisoners, they preferred cruel
6xion to subsection, and died singing n
paean of JOY. Again and again, after
thinking them conquered, the Roman
projects encountered fresh outbreaks,
till st last the Caesars were wise enough
to abandon the effort and secure them
Es allies
As allies, the Basques proved. from
the first, rs faithful as they had before
been stubborn. More than once their
unconquerablec courage turned the for
tune Of battles. They went 20 Sicily
with Hannibal, leaving traces Of them
selves in italy, in names Of towns such
as Urbine and Orvieto. Later they
joined steadily for two centuries IN the
strife against the Visigoths. A.
Rencesvallss, in rs. the Franks touched
them, and the fash that followed still
lights the pass and the cliffs, though
ten centuries have passed since false
Ganelon betrayed Roland and tho furi-
Gus Basques fell on Charlemagnc's rear
guard and crushed them with rocks In
the dehle OF bones between Ilgatson
and AltabiScar.