Vol. XLII, No. 1 



WASHINGTON 



July, 1922 



NATDONAL 

 APMDC 

 AGAZI 



COPVRIGHT.I 922. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON. D, C. 



CAMARGUE, THE COWBOY COUNTRY OF 

 SOUTHERN FRANCE 



By Dr. Andre Vialles 



With Illustrations from Photographs by Clifton Adams, Staff Photographer, 

 National Geographic Magazine 



WHEN the Roman legions were 

 encamped in Gaul the delta of 

 the Rhone was the granary of 

 the imperial armies. Today desert wastes 

 and malarial swamps have so enveloped 

 the Camargue that its dashing herdsmen 

 and beautiful horsewomen have not yet 

 fully rescued it. 



Given over to herds of horses, cattle, 

 and sheep, this cowboy land is little 

 known, even by the people of France, al- 

 though some of the most distinguished 

 French men of letters have paid tribute 

 to its simple folk. 



At Aries the hitherto swift Rhone di- 

 vides into two sluggish streams, whose 

 floods, combined with the waves of the 

 tideless Mediterranean, have built up an 

 alluvial plain which is inherently rich, but 

 which was despoiled by Louis XIV in 

 much the same way that the fertile fields 

 of Babylonia, ruined by Assyrian and 

 Persian, became the desolation of modern 

 Mesopotamia. 



History clusters richly about the Ca- 

 margue. Phoenician traders came hither 

 to trade with the Ligurians even before 

 the Greeks founded Marseille. When 

 that port was threatened, appeal was made 

 to the Romans, who thereupon invaded 

 Gaul, and from the Provincia Romana, 

 Provence gained its name. In the third 

 century of the Christian era St. Trophi- 

 mus established a church at Aries, which 



two centuries later became the capital of 

 Gaul. 



Then came the Visigoths and Ostro- 

 goths to build Carcasonne, and the Franks, 

 whom the Arabs later held in subjection 

 until the advent of Charles M artel. Italy 

 extended its power to the Rhone, and later 

 the House of Barcelona added Camargue 

 to its domain. Under Raymund of St. 

 Gilles the people took so important a part 

 in the First Crusade that the word "Pro- 

 vencal" came into common speech. 



WHERE THE LANGUAGE OE THE TROUBA- 

 DOURS DEVELOPED 



With the fall of Rome the language of 

 Cicero gave way to the vernacular of the 

 slave, and this rude speech, passed on 

 by word of mouth, not only triumphed 

 over the Latin of the cloisters, but also 

 developed into the rich language of the 

 Troubadours. 



With the dispersal of the Albigenses 

 came the unification of France, in which 

 the geography of the north fought on the 

 side of centralization, and the topography 

 of the south, which fostered provincial 

 pride, prevented such united strength as 

 would avail against the kings of the north. 

 Today, Camargue is a loyal part of the 

 Republic, but proud of its own institu- 

 tions and language. 



Were it not for the intense pride and 

 love of their home land on the part of 



