208 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



they never hesitated boldly to seize the first op- 

 portunity of making sanguinary reprisals on their 

 enemies, and the name of more than one spot is re- 

 peated in the Basque country with as much pride as 

 that of Roncevalles. Nevertheless, in proportion as 

 the states bordering upon the Euskarian confede- 

 ration became more thoroughly developed, they 

 absorbed the members of this small body which had 

 never possessed a very homogeneous character.* But 

 we everywhere find that the sovereigns granted 

 their new feudatories exceptional privileges, and left 

 them to govern themselves according to their own 

 customs and usages. f Biscay and Guipuzcoa have 



* The Garazi district which was peopled by Navarrese Basques, 

 was re-united to the kingdom of Navarre in the year 906, by Sancho 

 the Great. Alava voluntarily recognised the sovereignty of Alfonzo 

 XI. King of Castile in 1330. Three years afterwards, this 

 sovereign received on the same conditions the submission of Gui- 

 puzcoa and Biscay. The district of Labourt, or the French Basque 

 country, remained for a long time in a wild uncultivated state. It 

 was purchased in 1106 by the Guipuzcoan Basques, who, for the 

 sum of 3,306 gold florins, obtained from Guettard, Viscount of 

 Labourt and of Marennes, the right of cultivating the soil and of 

 enjoying all the advantages attached to it. From this time Labourt 

 shared in all the vicissitudes of this part of the country, and it was 

 finally re-united to France by Charles VII. in 1451. Histoire des 

 Cantabres. 



f In France even the people of Labourt were exempted from all 

 taxes, duties and imposts, in consideration of their paying annually 

 a sum of 353 livres 10 sols, and maintaining a force of 1,000 

 militia for the purpose of guarding the frontiers. During the wars 

 of Louis XIV. Labourt voluntarily imposed upon itself a subsidy of 

 22,600 livres, on the understanding that all its privileges should be 

 preserved, and we find that they remained intact until the period of 

 the Revolution. 



