THE ASCENT OF MONT BLANC 



865 



took many a season's diligent search and 

 toil before a way was found by wiiich to 

 scale these dizzy heights. 



Courted and frequented as the regal 

 white mountain is now, until a little 

 more than a century and a half ago it 

 was scarcely known beyond the precincts 

 of its own valley. Its name cannot be 

 traced farther than 1742, though the his- 

 tory of the village and valley of Chamo- 

 nix goes back to the Norman conquest. 



Doubtless even in Roman days this 

 region was inhabited, as an inscribed 

 boundary stone of Vespasian's day is 

 still visible on the valley side of the Col 

 "de la Forclaz, probably on the old Roman 

 road over the Mont Blanc Range, which 

 connected Geneva with Aosta ; and the 

 name Chamounis, which first occurs in 

 the Mercator Atlas of 1595, is undoubt- 

 -edly a corruption of ''champs muni," the 

 French translation of "campus munitus," 

 the medieval Latin name of the valley, 

 the fortified camp being the little valley 

 with its mountain walls. 



But the first authentic date in the his- 

 tory of the valley is 1091, when Aymon, 

 Count of Geneva, bestowed on the Bene- 

 dictine abbey of St. Michel de la Cluse, 

 near Turin, the "campus munitus" ; by 

 the 13th century a priory was founded, 

 whose priors enjoyed almost absolute 

 jurisdiction over the wretched peasantry, 

 until, scarcely a century ago, the valley 

 was finally delivered from the infamous 

 rule of the canons of Sallanches, to whom 

 the priory had been transferred in 15 19, 

 .and the commune of Chamonix destroyed 

 the monastery and the Chamoniards be- 

 came free men. During the last few 

 years of this struggle travelers first began 

 to visit the wonderful sights of Chamo- 

 nix, which drew them henceforth in ever- 

 increasing streams. 



THE I.OVKR AND THE I'RIGID IvADY 



Even earlier, visitors had occasionally 

 -come to look at the "glaciers," as Mont 



Blanc was then called. One of the ear- 

 liest of whom we have any record was a 



Monsieur Pays, who wrote a letter from 

 Chamonix, May 16, 1669, to a lady whom 



he had the misfortune to over-admire. 



Upbraiding her for her coolness, he wrote 

 :in part : 



"In my despair at leaving you, I vowed 

 I would throw myself over the first con- 

 venient place. But until now, though for 

 15 days I have ascended and descended 

 the most dangerous mountains of Savoy 

 and skirted the brinks of a thousand 

 precipices, I have not thrown myself 

 over. ... I must not deceive you. 

 The pleasure of looking at your portrait 

 in this frightful country has always kept 

 me back when I proposed to execute my 

 intention. . . . Here, madame, I see 

 five mountains which are just like you. 

 Five mountains, madame, which are pure 

 ice from top to bottom." Our charming 

 lover doubtless referred to the five gla- 

 ciers on the Chamonix side of the range. 



It is therefore clear that too much 

 stress should not be laid on the "dis- 

 covery" of Chamonix by the two English 

 travelers, Pococke and Windham, in 

 1 74 1, though their visit undoubtedly 

 brought the Httle town into greater 

 prominence. Their party of eight, ac- 

 companied by five servants and many 

 pack-animals, left Geneva in June, arriv- 

 ing in Chamonix on the third day. 



As every one then supposed the valley 

 was inhabited by brigands, the party was 

 armed to the teeth and, not daring to 

 enter any house, camped out in the open 

 air, keeping up fires and watches all 

 night. Next day they had an opportunity 

 of meeting a number of these supposed 

 brigands, as several of the poor peasants 

 served them as guides to the great gla- 

 cier, known as the "Mer de Glace." After 

 a day's experience on this part of the 

 mountain, the party returned to Geneva, 

 carrying back wonderful tales of the hor- 

 rors of crevasses and avalanches experi- 

 enced in their heroic undertaking. A 

 large granite block carved with the names 

 of these two worthies and the date of 

 their visit is still to be seen near the gla- 

 cier. 



THE StIOEMAKER'S SON INTRODUCES THE 

 MOUNTAIN TO THE WORED 



Their account roused the curiosity of 

 one Peter Martel, the son of a French 

 refugee shoemaker of Geneva, who led 

 another party to Chamonix the next year. 

 In 1744 he published an account of his 



