[1] [Hebrew: agaf] _Agaph_, a word peculiar to Ezekiel, Clarendon
Press _Heb. Lex._
[2] A. Jeremias, _Das A.T. im Lichte des alten Orients_, pp. 145 f.
GOMERA, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, forming part of the Spanish
archipelago of the Canary Islands (q.v.). Pop. (1900) 15,358; area 144
sq. m. Gomera lies 20 m. W.S.W. of Teneriffe. Its greatest length is
about 23 m. The coast is precipitous and the interior mountainous, but
Gomera has the most wood and is the best watered of the group. The
inhabitants are very poor. Dromedaries are bred on Gomera in large
numbers. San Sebastian (3187) is the chief town and a port. It was
visited by Columbus on his first voyage of discovery in 1492.
GOMEZ, DIOGO (DIEGO) (fl. 1440-1482), Portuguese seaman, explorer and
writer. We first trace him as a _cavalleiro_ of the royal household; in
1440 he was appointed receiver of the royal customs--in 1466 judge--at
Cintra (_juiz das causas e feitorias contadas de Cintra_); on the 5th of
March 1482 he was confirmed in the last-named office. He wrote,
especially for the benefit of Martin Behaim, a Latin chronicle of great
value, dealing with the life and discoveries of Prince Henry the
Navigator, and divided into three parts: (1) _De prima inventione
Guineae_; (2) _De insulis primo inventis in mare (sic) Occidentis_; (3)
_De inventione insularum de Acores_. This chronicle contains the only
contemporary account of the rediscovery of the Azores by the Portuguese
in Prince Henry's service, and is also noteworthy for its clear
ascription to the prince of deliberate scientific and commercial purpose
in exploration. For, on the one hand, the infante sent out his caravels
to search for new lands (_ad quaerendas terras_) from his wish to know
the more distant parts of the western ocean, and in the hope of finding
islands or _terra firma_ beyond the limits laid down by Ptolemy (_ultra
descriptionem Tolomei_); on the other hand, his information as to the
native trade from Tunis to Timbuktu and the Gambia helped to inspire his
persistent exploration of the West African coast--"to seek those lands
by way of the sea." Chart and quadrant were used on the prince's
vessels, as by Gomez himself on reaching the Cape Verde Islands; Henry,
at the time of Diogo's first voyage, was in correspondence with an Oran
merchant who kept him informed upon events even in the Gambia
_hinterland_; and, before the discovery of the Senegal and Cape Verde in
1445, Gomez' royal patron had already gained reliable information of
_some_ route to Timbuktu. In the first part of his chronicle Gomez tells
how, no long time after the disastrous expedition of the Danish nobleman
"Vallarte" (Adalbert) in 1448, he was sent out in command of three
vessels along the West African coast, accompanied by one Jacob, an
Indian interpreter, to be employed in the event of reaching India. After
passing the Rio Grande, beyond Cape Verde, strong currents checked his
course; his officers and men feared that they were approaching the
extremity of the ocean, and he put back to the Gambia. He ascended this
river a considerable distance, to the negro town of "Cantor," whither
natives came from "Kukia" and Timbuktu for trade; he gives elaborate
descriptions of the negro world he had now penetrated, refers to the
Sierra Leone ("Serra Lyoa") Mountains, sketches the course of this
range, and says much of Kukia (in the upper Niger basin?), the centre of
the West African gold trade, and the resort of merchants and caravans
from Tunis, Fez, Cairo and "all the land of the Saracens." Mahommedanism
was already dominant at the Cambria estuary, but Gomez seems to have won
over at least one important chief, with his court, to Christianity and
Portuguese allegiance. Another African voyage, apparently made in 1462,
two years after Henry the Navigator's death (though assigned by some to
1460), resulted in a fresh discovery of the Cape Verde Islands, already
found by Cadamosto (q.v.). To the island of Santiago Gomez, like his
Venetian forerunner, claims to have given its present name. His
narrative is a leading authority on the last illness and death of Prince
Henry, as well as on the life, achievements and purposes of the latter;
here alone is recorded what appears to have been the earliest of the
navigator's exploring ventures, that which under Joao de Trasto reached
Grand Canary in 1415.
Of Gomez' chronicle there is only one MS., viz. _Cod. Hisp._ 27, in
the Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich; the original Latin text was
printed by Schmeller "Uber Valentim Fernandez Alemao" in the
_Abhandlungen der philosoph.-philolog. Kl. der bayerisch. Akademie der
Wissenschaften_, vol. iv., part iii. (Munich, 1847); see also Sophus
Ruge, "Die Entdeckung der Azoren," pp. 149-180 (esp. 178-179) in the
27th _Jahresbericht des Vereins fur Erdkunde_ (Dresden, 1901); Jules
Mees, _Histoire de la decouverte des iles Acores_, pp. 44-45, 125-127
(Ghent, 1901); R. H. Major, _Life of Prince Henry the Navigator_, pp.
xviii., xix., 64-65, 287-299, 303-305 (London, 1868); C. R. Beazley,
_Prince Henry the Navigator_, 289-298, 304-305; and Introduction to
Azurara's _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_, ii., iv., xiv.,
xxv.-xxvii., xcii.-xcvi. (London, 1899). (C. R. B.)
GOMEZ DE AVELLANEDA, GERTRUDIS (1814-1873), Spanish dramatist and poet,
was born at Puerto Principe (Cuba) on the 23rd of March 1814, and
removed to Spain in 1836. Her _Poesias liricas_ (1841), issued with a
laudatory preface by Gallego, made a most favourable impression and were
republished with additional poems in 1850. In 1846 she married a
diplomatist named Pedro Sabater, became a widow within a year, and in
1853 married Colonel Domingo Verdugo. Meanwhile she had published _Sab_
(1839), _Guatimozin_ (1846), and other novels of no great importance.
She obtained, however, a series of successes on the stage with _Alfonso
Munio_ (1844), a tragedy in the new romantic manner; with _Saul_ (1849),
a biblical drama indirectly suggested by Alfieri; and with _Baltasar_
(1858), a piece which bears some resemblance to Byron's _Sardanapalus_.
Her commerce with the world had not diminished her natural piety, and,
on the death of her second husband, she found so much consolation in
religion that she had thoughts of entering a convent. She died at Madrid
on the 2nd of February 1873, full of mournful forebodings as to the
future of her adopted country. It is impossible to agree with Villemain
that "le genie de don Luis de Leon et de sainte Therese a reparu sous le
voile funebre de Gomez de Avellaneda," for she has neither the monk's
mastery of poetic form nor the nun's sublime simplicity of soul. She has
a grandiose tragical vision of life, a vigorous eloquence rooted in
pietistic pessimism, a dramatic gift effective in isolated acts or
scenes; but she is deficient in constructive power and in intellectual
force, and her lyrics, though instinct with melancholy beauty, or the
tenderness of resigned devotion, too often lack human passion and
sympathy. The edition of her _Obras literarias_ (5 vols., 1869-1871),
still incomplete, shows a scrupulous care for minute revision uncommon
in Spanish writers; but her emendations are seldom happy. But she is
interesting as a link between the classic and romantic schools of
poetry, and, whatever her artistic shortcomings, she has no rivals of
her own sex in Spain during the 19th century.
GOMM, SIR WILLIAM MAYNARD (1784-1875), British soldier, was gazetted to
the 9th Foot at the age of ten, in recognition of the services of his
father, Lieut.-Colonel William Gomm, who was killed in the attack on
Guadaloupe (1794). He joined his regiment as a lieutenant in 1799, and
fought in Holland under the duke of York, and subsequently was with
Pulteney's Ferrol expedition. In 1803 he became Captain, and shortly
afterwards qualified as a staff officer at the High Wycombe military
college. On the general staff he was with Cathcart at Copenhagen, with
Wellington in the Peninsula, and on Moore's staff at Corunna. He was
also on Chatham's staff in the disastrous Walcheren expedition of 1809.
In 1810 he rejoined the Peninsular army as Leith's staff officer, and
took part in all the battles of 1810, 1811 and 1812, winning his
majority after Fuentes d'Onor and his lieutenant-colonelcy at Salamanca.
His careful reconnaissances and skilful leading were invaluable to
Wellington in the Vittoria campaign, and to the end of the war he was
one of the most trusted men of his staff. His reward was a transfer to
the Coldstream Guards and the K.C.B. In the Waterloo campaign he served
on the staff of the 5th British Division. From the peace until 1839 he
was employed on home service, becoming colonel in 1829 and major-general
in 1837. From 1839 to 1842 he commanded the troops in Jamaica. He became
lieutenant-general in 1846, and was sent out to be commander-in-chief in
India, arriving only to find that his appointment had been cancelled in
favour of Sir Charles Napier, whom, however, he eventually succeeded
(1850-1855). In 1854 he became general and in 1868 field marshal. In
1872 he was appointed constable of the Tower, and he died in 1875. He
was twice married, but had no children. His _Letters and Journals_ were
published by F. C. Carr-Gomm in 1881. Five "Field Marshal Gomm"
scholarships were afterwards founded in his memory at Keble College,
Oxford.
GOMPERS, SAMUEL (1850- ), American labour leader, was born in London
on the 27th of January 1850. He was put to work in a shoe-factory when
ten years old, but soon became apprenticed to a cigar-maker, removed to
New York in 1863, became a prominent member of the International
Cigar-makers' Union, was its delegate at the convention of the
Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and
Canada, later known as the American Federation of Labor, of which he
became first president in 1882. He was successively re-elected up to
1895, when the opposition of the Socialist Labor Party, then attempting
to incorporate the Federation into itself, secured his defeat; he was
re-elected in the following year. In 1894 he became editor of the
Federation's organ, _The American Federationist_.
GOMPERZ, THEODOR (1832- ), German philosopher and classical scholar,
was born at Brunn on the 29th of March 1832. He studied at Brunn and at
Vienna under Herman Bonitz. Graduating at Vienna in 1867 he became
_Privatdozent_, and subsequently professor of classical philology
(1873). In 1882 he was elected a member of the Academy of Science. He
received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy _honoris causa_ from the
university of Konigsberg, and Doctor of Literature from the universities
of Dublin and Cambridge, and became correspondent for several learned
societies. His principal works are: _Demosthenes der Staatsmann_ (1864),
_Philodemi de ira liber_ (1864). _Traumdeutung und Zauberei_ (1866),
_Herkulanische Studien_ (1865-1866), _Beitrage zur Kritik und Erklarung
griech. Schriftsteller_ (7 vols., 1875-1900), _Neue Bruchstucke Epikurs_
(1876), _Die Bruchstucke der griech. Tragiker und Cobets neueste
kritische Manier_ (1878), _Herodoteische Studien_ (1883), _Ein bisher
unbekanntes griech. Schriftsystem_ (1884), _Zu Philodems Buchern von der
Musik_ (1885), _Uber den Abschluss des herodoteischen Geschichtswerkes_
(1886), _Platonische Aufsatze_ (3 vols., 1887-1905), _Zu Heraklits Lehre
und den Uberresten seines Werkes_ (1887), _Zu Aristoteles' Poetik_ (2
parts, 1888-1896), _Uber die Charaktere Theophrasts_ (1888), _Nachlese
zu den Bruchstucken der griech. Tragiker_ (1888), _Die Apologie der
Heilkunst_ (1890), _Philodem und die asthetischen Schriften der
herculanischen Bibliothek_ (1891), _Die Schrift vom Staatswesen der
Athener_ (1891), _Die jungst entdeckten Uberreste einer den Platonischen
Phadon enthaltenden Papyrusrolle_ (1892), _Aus der Hekale des
Kallimachos_ (1893), _Essays und Erinnerungen_ (1905). He supervised a
translation of J. S. Mill's complete works (12 vols., Leipzig,
1869-1880), and wrote a life (Vienna, 1889) of Mill. His _Griechische
Denker_: _Geschichte der antiken Philosophie_ (vols. i. and ii.,
Leipzig, 1893 and 1902) was translated into English by L. Magnus (vol.
i., 1901).
GONAGUAS ("borderers"), descendants of a very old cross between the
Hottentots and the Kaffirs, on the "ethnical divide" between the two
races, apparently before the arrival of the whites in South Africa. They
have been always a despised race and regarded as outcasts by the Bantu
peoples. They were threatened with extermination during the Kaffir wars,
but were protected by the British. At present they live in settled
communities under civil magistrates without any tribal organization, and
in some districts could be scarcely distinguished from the other natives
but for their broken Hottentot-Dutch-English speech.
GONCALVES DIAS, ANTONIO (1823-1864), Brazilian lyric poet, was born near
the town of Caxias, in Maranhao. From the university of Coimbra, in
Portugal, he returned in 1845 to his native province, well-equipped with
legal lore, but the literary tendency which was strong within him led
him to try his fortune as an author at Rio de Janeiro. Here he wrote for
the newspaper press, ventured to appear as a dramatist, and in 1846
established his reputation by a volume of poems--_Primeiros
Cantos_--which appealed to the national feelings of his Brazilian
readers, were remarkable for their autobiographic impress, and by their
beauty of expression and rhythm placed their author at the head of the
lyric poets of his country. In 1848 he followed up his success by
_Segundos Cantos e sextilhas de Frei Antao_, in which, as the title
indicates, he puts a number of the pieces in the mouth of a simple old
Dominican friar; and in the following year, in fulfilment of the duties
of his new post as professor of Brazilian history in the Imperial
College of Pedro II. at Rio de Janeiro, he published an edition of
Berredo's _Annaes historicos do Maranhao_ and added a sketch of the
migrations of the Indian tribes. A third volume of poems, which appeared
with the title of _Ultimos Cantos_ in 1851, was practically the poet's
farewell to the service of the muse, for he spent the next eight years
engaged under government patronage in studying the state of public
instruction in the north and the educational institutions of Europe. On
his return to Brazil in 1860 he was appointed a member of an expedition
for the exploration of the province of Ceara, was forced in 1862 by the
state of his health to try the effects of another visit to Europe, and
died in September 1864, the vessel that was carrying him being wrecked
off his native shores. While in Germany he published at Leipzig a
complete collection of his lyrical poems, which went through several
editions, the four first cantos of an epic poem called _Os Tymbiras_
(1857) and a _Diccionario da lingua Tupy_ (1858).
A complete edition of the works of Dias has made its appearance at Rio
de Janeiro. See Wolf, _Bresil litteraire_ (Berlin, 1863); Innocencio
de Silva, _Diccionario bibliographico portuguez_, viii. 157; Sotero
dos Reis, _Curso de litteratura portugueza e brazileira_, iv.
(Maranhao, 1868); Jose Verissimo, _Estudos de literatura brazileira,
segunda serie_ (Rio, 1901).
GONCHAROV, IVAN ALEXANDROVICH (1812-1891), Russian novelist, was born
6/18 July 1812, being the son of a rich merchant in the town of
Simbirsk. At the age of ten he was placed in one of the gymnasiums at
Moscow, from which he passed, though not without some difficulty on
account of his ignorance of Greek, into the Moscow University. He read
many French works of fiction, and published a translation of one of the
novels of Eugene Sue. During his university career he devoted himself to
study, taking no interest in the political and Socialistic agitation
among his fellow-students. He was first employed as secretary to the
governor of Simbirsk, and afterwards in the ministry of finance at St
Petersburg. Being absorbed in bureaucratic work, Goncharov paid no
attention to the social questions then ardently discussed by such men as
Herzen, Aksakov and Bielinski. He began his literary career by
publishing translations from Schiller, Goethe and English novelists. His
first original work was _Obuiknovennaya Istoria_, "A Common Story"
(1847). In 1856 he sailed to Japan as secretary to Admiral Putiatin for
the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty, and on his return to
Russia he published a description of the voyage under the title of "The
Frigate _Pallada_." His best work is _Oblomov_ (1857), which exposed the
laziness and apathy of the smaller landed gentry in Russia anterior to
the reforms of Alexander II. Russian critics have pronounced this work
to be a faithful characterization of Russia and the Russians. Dobrolubov
said of it, "Oblomofka [the country-seat of the Oblomovs] is our
fatherland: something of Oblomov is to be found in every one of us."
Peesarev, another celebrated critic, declared that "Oblomovism," as
Goncharov called the sum total of qualities with which he invested the
hero of his story, "is an illness fostered by the nature of the Slavonic
character and the life of Russian society." In 1858 Goncharov was
appointed a censor, and in 1868 he published another novel called
_Obreev_. He was not a voluminous writer, and during the latter part of
his life produced nothing of any importance. His death occurred on 15/27
September 1891.
GONCOURT, DE, a name famous in French literary history. EDMOND LOUIS
ANTOINE HUOT DE GONCOURT was born at Nancy on the 26th of May 1822, and
died at Champrosay on the 16th of July 1896. JULES ALFRED HUOT DE
GONCOURT, his brother, was born in Paris on the 17th of December 1830,
and died in Paris on the 20th of June 1870.
Writing always in collaboration, until the death of the younger, it was
their ambition to be not merely novelists, inventing a new kind of
novel, but historians; not merely historians, but the historians of a
particular century, and of what was intimate and what is unknown in it;
to be also discriminating, indeed innovating, critics of art, but of a
certain section of art, the 18th century, in France and Japan; and also
to collect pictures and bibelots, always of the French and Japanese 18th
century. Their histories (_Portraits intimes du XVIII^e siecle_ (1857),
_La Femme au XVIII^{e} siecle_ (1862), _La du Barry_ (1878), &c.) are
made entirely out of documents, autograph letters, scraps of costume,
engravings, songs, the unconscious self-revelations of the time; their
three volumes on _L'Art du XVIII^e siecle_ (1859-1875) deal with Watteau
and his followers in the same scrupulous, minutely enlightening way,
with all the detail of unpublished documents; and when they came to
write novels, it was with a similar attempt to give the inner,
undiscovered, minute truths of contemporary existence, the _inedit_ of
life. The same morbidly sensitive noting of the _inedit_, of whatever
came to them from their own sensations of things and people around them,
gives its curious quality to the nine volumes of the _Journal_,
1887-1896, which will remain, perhaps, the truest and most poignant
chapter of human history that they have written. Their novels, _Soeur
Philomene_ (1861), _Renee Mauperin_ (1864), _Germinie Lacerteux_ (1865),
_Manette Salomon_ (1865), _Madame Gervaisais_ (1869), and, by Edmond
alone, _La Fille Elisa_ (1878), _Les Freres Zemganno_ (1879), _La
Faustin_ (1882), _Cherie_ (1884), are, however, the work by which they
will live as artists. Learning something from Flaubert, and teaching
almost everything to Zola, they invented a new kind of novel, and their
novels are the result of a new vision of the world, in which the very
element of sight is decomposed, as in a picture of Monet. Seen through
the nerves, in this conscious abandonment to the tricks of the eyesight,
the world becomes a thing of broken patterns and conflicting colours,
and uneasy movement. A novel of the Goncourts is made up of an infinite
number of details, set side by side, every detail equally prominent.
While a novel of Flaubert, for all its detail, gives above all things an
impression of unity, a novel of the Goncourts deliberately dispenses
with unity in order to give the sense of the passing of life, the heat
and form of its moments as they pass. It is written in little chapters,
sometimes no longer than a page, and each chapter is a separate notation
of some significant event, some emotion or sensation which seems to
throw sudden light on the picture of a soul. To the Goncourts humanity
is as pictorial a thing as the world it moves in; they do not search
further than "the physical basis of life," and they find everything that
can be known of that unknown force written visibly upon the sudden faces
of little incidents, little expressive moments. The soul, to them, is a
series of moods, which succeed one another, certainly without any of the
too arbitrary logic of the novelist who has conceived of character as a
solid or consistent thing. Their novels are hardly stories at all, but
picture-galleries, hung with pictures of the momentary aspects of the
world. French critics have complained that the language of the Goncourts
is no longer French, no longer the French of the past; and this is true.
It is their distinction--the finest of their inventions--that, in order
to render new sensations, a new vision of things, they invented a new
language. (A. Sy.)
In his will Edmond de Goncourt left his estate for the endowment of an
academy, the formation of which was entrusted to MM. Alphonse Daudet
and Leon Hennique. The society was to consist of ten members, each of
whom was to receive an annuity of 6000 francs, and a yearly prize of
5000 francs was to be awarded to the author of some work of fiction.
Eight of the members of the new academy were nominated in the will.
They were: Alphonse Daudet, J. K. Huysmans, Leon Hennique, Octave
Mirbeau, the two brothers J. H. Rosny, Gustave Geffroy and Paul
Margueritte. On the 19th of January 1903, after much litigation, the
academy was constituted, with Elemir Bourges, Lucien Descaves and
Leon Daudet as members in addition to those mentioned in de Goncourt's
will, the place of Alphonse Daudet having been left vacant by his
death in 1897.
On the brothers de Goncourt see the _Journal des Goncourt_ already
cited; also M. A. Belloc (afterwards Lowndes) and M. L. Shedlock,
_Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, with Letters and Leaves from their
Journals_ (1895); Alidor Delzant, _Les Goncourt_ (1889) which contains
a valuable bibliography; _Lettres de Jules de Goncourt_ (1888), with
preface by H. Ceard; R. Doumic, _Portraits d'ecrivains_ (1892); Paul
Bourget, _Nouveaux Essais de psychologie contemporaine_ (1886); Emile
Zola, _Les Romanciers naturalistes_ (1881). &c.
GONDA, a town and district of British India, in the Fyzabad division of
the United Provinces. The town is 28 m. N.W. of Fyzabad, and is an
important junction on the Bengal & North-Western railway. The site on
which it stands was originally a jungle, in the centre of which was a
cattle-fold (_Gontha_ or _Gothah_), where the cattle were enclosed at
night as a protection against wild beasts, and from this the town
derives its name. Pop. (1901) 15,811. The cantonments were abandoned in
1863.
The district of Gonda has an area of 2813 sq. m. It consists of a vast
plain with very slight undulations, studded with groves of mango trees.
The surface consists of a rich alluvial deposit which is naturally
divided into three great belts known as the _tarai_ or swampy tract, the
_uparhar_ or uplands, and the _tarhar_ or wet lowlands, all three being
marvellously fertile. Several rivers flow through the district, but only
two, the Gogra and Rapti, are of any commercial importance, the first
being navigable throughout the year, and the latter during the rainy
season. The country is dotted with small lakes, the water of which is
largely used for irrigation. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857, the
raja of Gonda, after honourably escorting the government treasure to
Fyzabad, joined the rebels. His estates, along with those of the rani of
Tulsipur, were confiscated, and conferred as rewards upon the maharajas
of Balrampur and Ajodhya, who had remained loyal. In 1901 the population
was 1,403,195, showing a decrease of 4% in one decade. The district is
traversed by the main line and three branches of the Bengal &
Northwestern railway.
GONDAL, a native state of India, in the Kathiawar political agency of
Bombay, situated in the centre of the peninsula of Kathiawar. Its area
is 1024 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 162,859. The estimated gross revenue is
about L100,000, and the tribute L7000. Grain and cotton are the chief
products. The chief, whose title is Thakur Sahib, is a Jadeja Rajput, of
the same clan as the Rao of Cutch. The Thakur Sahib, Sir Bhagvat Sinhji
(b. 1865), was educated at the Rajkot college, and afterwards graduated
in arts and medicine at the university of Edinburgh. He published (in
English) a _Journal of a Visit to England_ and _A Short History of Aryan
Medical Science_. In 1892 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. of
Oxford University. He was created K.C.I.E. in 1887 and G.C.I.E. in 1897.
The state has long been conspicuous for its progressive administration.
It is traversed by a railway connecting it with Bhaunagar, Rajkot and
the sea-board. The town of Gondal is 23 m. by rail S. of Rajkot; pop.
(1901) 19,592.
GONDAR, properly GUENDAR, a town of Abyssinia, formerly the capital of
the Amharic kingdom, situated on a basaltic ridge some 7500 ft. above
the sea, about 21 m. N.E. of Lake Tsana, a splendid view of which is
obtained from the castle. Two streams, the Angreb on the east side and
the Gaha or Kaha on the west, flow from the ridge, and meeting below the
town, pass onwards to the lake. In the early years of the 20th century
the town was much decayed, numerous ruins of castles, palaces and
churches indicating its former importance. It was never a compact city,
being divided into districts separated from each other by open spaces.
The chief quarters were those of the Abun-Bed or bishop, the Etchege-Bed
or chief of the monks, the Debra Berhan or Church of the Light, and the
Gemp or castle. There was also a quarter for the Mahommedans. Gondar was
a small village when at the beginning of the 16th century it was chosen
by the Negus Sysenius (Seged I.) as the capital of his kingdom. His son
Fasilidas, or A'lem-Seged (1633-1667), was the builder of the castle
which bears his name. Later emperors built other castles and palaces,
the latest in date being that of the Negus Yesu II. This was erected
about 1736, at which time Gondar appears to have been at the height of
its prosperity. Thereafter it suffered greatly from the civil wars which
raged in Abyssinia, and was more than once sacked. In 1868 it was much
injured by the emperor Theodore, who did not spare either the castle or
the churches. After the defeat of the Abyssinians at Debra Sin in August
1887 Gondar was looted and fired by the dervishes under Abu Anga.
Although they held the town but a short time they inflicted very great
damage, destroying many churches, further damaging the castles and
carrying off much treasure. The population, estimated by James Bruce in
1770 at 10,000 families, had dwindled in 1905 to about 7000. Since the
pacification of the Sudan by the British (1886-1889) there has been some
revival of trade between Gondar and the regions of the Blue Nile. Among
the inhabitants are numbers of Mahommedans, and there is a settlement of
Falashas. Cotton, cloth, gold and silver ornaments, copper wares, fancy
articles in bone and ivory, excellent saddles and shoes are among the
products of the local industry.
Unlike any other buildings in Abyssinia, the castles and palaces of
Gondar resemble, with some modifications, the medieval fortresses of
Europe, the style of architecture being the result of the presence in
the country of numbers of Portuguese. The Portuguese were expelled by
Fasilidas, but his castle was built, by Indian workmen, under the
superintendence of Abyssinians who had learned something of architecture
from the Portuguese adventurers, helped possibly by Portuguese still in
the country. The castle has two storeys, is 90 ft. by 84 ft., has a
square tower and circular domed towers at the corners. The most
extensive ruins are a group of royal buildings enclosed in a wall. These
ruins include the palace of Yesu II., which has several fine chambers.
Christian Levantines were employed in its construction and it was
decorated in part with Venetian mirrors, &c. In the same enclosure is a
small castle attributed to Yesu I. The exterior walls of the castles and
palaces named are little damaged and give to Gondar a unique character
among African towns. Of the forty-four churches, all in the circular
Abyssinian style, which are said to have formerly existed in Gondar or
its immediate neighbourhood, Major Powell-Cotton found only one intact
in 1900. This church contained some well-executed native paintings of St
George and the Dragon, The Last Supper, &c. Among the religious
observances of the Christians of Gondar is that of bathing in large
crowds in the Gaha on the Feast of the Baptist, and again, though in
more orderly fashion, on Christmas day.
See E. Ruppell, _Reise in Abyssinien_ (Frankfort-on-the-Main,
1838-1840); T. von Heuglin, _Reise nach Abessinien_ (Jena, 1868); G.
Lejean, _Voyage en Abyssinie_ (Paris, 1872); Achille Raffray, _Afrique
orientale; Abyssinie_ (Paris, 1876); P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, _A
Sporting Trip through Abyssinia_, chaps. 27-30 (London, 1902); and
_Boll. Soc. Geog. Italiana_ for 1909. Views of the castle are given by
Heuglin, Raffray and Powell-Cotton.
GONDOKORO, a government station and trading-place on the east bank of
the upper Nile, in 4 deg. 54' N., 31 deg. 43' E. It is the headquarters
of the Northern Province of the (British) Uganda protectorate, is 1070
m. by river S. of Khartum and 350 m. N.N.W. in a direct line of Entebbe
on Victoria Nyanza. The station, which is very unhealthy, is at the top
of a cliff 25 ft. above the river-level. Besides houses for the civil
and military authorities and the lines for the troops, there are a few
huts inhabited by Bari, the natives of this part of the Nile. The
importance of Gondokoro lies in the fact that it is within a few miles
of the limit of navigability of the Nile from Khartum up stream. From
this point the journey to Uganda is continued overland.
Gondokoro was first visited by Europeans in 1841-1842, when expeditions
sent out by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, ascended the Nile as far as the
foot of the rapids above Gondokoro. It soon became an ivory and
slave-trading centre. In 1851 an Austrian Roman Catholic mission was
established here, but it was abandoned in 1859. It was at Gondokoro that
J. H. Speke and J. A. Grant, descending the Nile after their discovery
of its source, met, on the 15th of February 1863, Mr (afterwards Sir)
Samuel Baker and his wife who were journeying up the river. In 1871
Baker, then governor-general of the equatorial provinces of Egypt,
established a military post at Gondokoro which he named Ismailia, after
the then khedive. Baker made this post his headquarters, but Colonel
(afterwards General) C. G. Gordon, who succeeded him in 1874, abandoned
the station on account of its unhealthy site, removing to Lado.
Gondokoro, however, remained a trading-station. It fell into the hands
of the Mahdists in 1885. After the destruction of the Mahdist power in
1898 Gondokoro was occupied by British troops and has since formed the
northernmost post on the Nile of the Uganda protectorate (see SUDAN;
NILE; and UGANDA).
GONDOMAR, DIEGO SARMIENTO DE ACUNA, COUNT OF (1567-1626), Spanish
diplomatist, was the son of Garcia Sarmiento de Sotomayor, corregidor of
Granada, and governor of the Canary Islands, by his marriage with Juana
de Acuna, an heiress. Diego Sarmiento, their eldest son, was born in the
parish of Gondomar, in the bishopric of Tuy, Galicia, Spain, on the 1st
of November 1567. He inherited wide estates both in Galicia and in Old
Castile. In 1583 he was appointed by Philip II. to the military command
of the Portuguese frontier and sea coast of Galicia. He is said to have
taken an active part in the repulse of an English coast-raid in 1585,
and in the defence of the country during the unsuccessful English attack
on Corunna in 1589. In 1593 he was named corregidor of Toro. In 1603 he
was sent from court to Vigo to superintend the distribution of the
treasure brought from America by two galleons which were driven to take
refuge at Vigo, and on his return was named a member of the board of
finance. In 1609 he was again employed on the coast of Galicia, this
time to repel a naval attack made by the Dutch. Although he held
military commands, and administrative posts, his habitual residence was
at Valladolid, where he owned the Casa del Sol and was already
collecting his fine library. He was known as a courtier, and apparently
as a friend of the favourite, the duke of Lerma. In 1612 he was chosen
as ambassador in England, but did not leave to take up his appointment
till May 1613.
His reputation as a diplomatist is based on his two periods of service
in England from 1613 to 1618 and from 1619 to 1622. The excellence of
his latinity pleased the literary tastes of James I., whose character he
judged with remarkable insight. He flattered the king's love of books
and of peace, and he made skilful use of his desire for a matrimonial
alliance between the prince of Wales and a Spanish infanta. The
ambassador's task was to keep James from aiding the Protestant states
against Spain and the house of Austria, and to avert English attacks on
Spanish possessions in America. His success made him odious to the
anti-Spanish and puritan parties. The active part he took in promoting
the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh aroused particular animosity. He was
attacked in pamphlets, and the dramatist Thomas Middleton made him a
principal person in the strange political play _A Game of Chess_, which
was suppressed by order of the council. In 1617 Sarmiento was created
count of Gondomar. In 1618 he obtained leave to come home for his
health, but was ordered to return by way of Flanders and France with a
diplomatic mission. In 1619 he returned to London, and remained till
1622, when he was allowed to retire. On his return he was named a member
of the royal council and governor of one of the king's palaces, and was
appointed to a complimentary mission to Vienna. Gondomar was in Madrid
when the prince of Wales--afterwards Charles I.--made his journey there
in search of a wife. He died at the house of the constable of Castile,
near Haro in the Rioja, on the 2nd of October 1626.
Gondomar was twice married, first to his niece Beatrix Sarmiento, by
whom he had no children, and then to his cousin Constanza de Acuna, by
whom he had four sons and three daughters. The hatred he aroused in
England, which was shown by constant jeers at the intestinal complaint
from which he suffered for years, was the best tribute to the zeal with
which he served his own master. Gondomar collected, both before he came
to London and during his residence there, a very fine library of
printed books and manuscripts. Orders for the arrangement, binding and
storing of his books in his house at Valladolid take a prominent place
in his voluminous correspondence. In 1785 the library was ceded by his
descendant and representative the marquis of Malpica to King Charles
III., and it is now in the Royal Library at Madrid. A portrait of
Gondomar, attributed to Valazquez, was formerly at Stowe. It was
mezzotinted by Robert Cooper.
AUTHORITIES.--Gondomar's missions to England are largely dealt with in
S. R. Gardiner's _History of England_ (London, 1883-1884). In Spanish,
Don Pascual de Gayangos wrote a useful biographical introduction to a
publication of a few of his letters--_Cinco Cartas politico-literarias
de Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuna, Conde de Gondomar_, issued at Madrid
1869 by the _Sociedad de Bibliofilos_ of the Spanish Academy; and
there is a life in English by F. H. Lyon (1910). (D. H.)
GONDOPHARES, or GONDOPHERNES, an Indo-Parthian king who ruled over the
Kabul valley and the Punjab. By means of his coins his accession may be
dated with practical certainty at A.D. 21, and his reign lasted for some
thirty years. He is notable for his association with St Thomas in early
Christian tradition. The legend is that India fell to St Thomas, who
showed unwillingness to start until Christ appeared in a vision and
ordered him to serve King Gondophares and build him a palace. St Thomas
accordingly went to India and suffered martyrdom there. This legend is
not incompatible with what is known of the chronology of Gondophares'
reign.
GONDWANA, the historical name for a large tract of hilly country in
India which roughly corresponds with the greater part of the present
Central Provinces. It is derived from the aboriginal tribe of Gonds, who
still form the largest element in the population and who were at one
time the ruling power. From the 12th to as late as the 18th century
three or four Gond dynasties reigned over this region with a degree of
civilization that seems surprising when compared with the existing
condition of the people. They built large walled cities, and accumulated
immense treasures of gold and silver and jewels. On the whole, they
maintained their independence fairly well against the Mahommedans, being
subject only to a nominal submission and occasional payment of tribute.
But when the Mahratta invaders appeared, soon after the beginning of the
18th century, the Gond kingdoms offered but a feeble resistance and the
aboriginal population fled for safety to the hills. Gondwana was thus
included in the dominions of the Bhonsla raja of Nagpur, from whom it
finally passed to the British in 1853.
The Gonds, who call themselves Koitur or "highlanders," are the most
numerous tribe of Dravidian race in India. Their total number in 1901
was 2,286,913, of whom nearly two millions were enumerated in the
Central Provinces, where they form 20% of the population. They have a
language of their own, with many dialects, which is intermediate between
the two great Dravidian languages, Tamil and Telugu. It is unwritten and
has no literature, except a little provided by the missionaries. More
than half the Gonds in the Central Provinces have now abandoned their
own dialects, and have adopted Aryan forms of speech. This indicates the
extent to which they have become Hinduized. The higher class among them,
called Raj Gonds, have been definitely admitted into Hinduism as a pure
cultivating caste; but the great majority still retain the animistic
beliefs, ceremonial observances and impure customs of food which are
common to most of the aboriginal tribes of India.
GONFALON (the late French and Italian form, also found in other Romanic
languages, of _gonfanon_, which is derived from the O.H. Ger.
_gundfano_, _gund_, war, and _fano_, flag, cf. Mod. Ger. _Fahne_, and
English "vane"), a banner or standard of the middle ages. It took the
form of a small pennon attached below the head of a knight's lance, or
when used in religious processions and ceremonies, or as the banner of a
city or state or military order, it became a many-streamered rectangular
ensign, frequently swinging from a cross-bar attached to a pole. This is
the most frequent use of the word. The title of "gonfalonier," the
bearer of the gonfalon, was in the middle ages both military and civil.
It was borne by the counts of Vexin, as leaders of the men of Saint
Denis, and when the Vexin was incorporated in the kingdom of France the
title of _Gonfalonier de Sant Denis_ passed to the kings of France, who
thus became the bearers of the "oriflamme," as the banner of St Denis
was called. "Gonfalonier" was the title of civic magistrates of various
degrees of authority in many of the city republics of Italy, notably of
Florence, Sienna and Lucca. At Florence the functions of the office
varied. At first the gonfaloniers were the leaders of the various
military divisions of the inhabitants. In 1293 was created the office of
gonfalonier of justice, who carried out the orders of the signiory. By
the end of the 14th century the gonfalonier was the chief of the
signiory. At Lucca he was the chief magistrate of the republic. At Rome
two gonfaloniers must be distinguished, that of the church and that of
the Roman people; both offices were conferred by the pope. The first was
usually granted to sovereigns, who were bound to defend the church and
lead her armies. The second bore a standard with the letters S.P.Q.R. on
any enterprise undertaken in the name of the church and the people of
Rome, and also at ceremonies, processions, &c. This was granted by the
pope to distinguished families. Thus the Cesarini held the office till
the end of the 17th century. The Pamphili held it from 1686 till 1764.
GONG (Chinese, _gong-gong_ or _tam-tam_), a sonorous or musical
instrument of Chinese origin and manufacture, made in the form of a
broad thin disk with a deep rim. Gongs vary in diameter from about 20 to
40 in., and they are made of bronze containing a maximum of 22 parts of
tin to 78 of copper; but in many cases the proportion of tin is
considerably less. Such an alloy, when cast and allowed to cool slowly,
is excessively brittle, but it can be tempered and annealed in a
peculiar manner. If suddenly cooled from a cherry-red heat, the alloy
becomes so soft that it can be hammered and worked on the lathe, and
afterwards it may be hardened by re-heating and cooling it slowly. In
these properties it will be observed, the alloy behaves in a manner
exactly opposite to steel, and the Chinese avail themselves of the known
peculiarities for preparing the thin sheets of which gongs are made.
They cool their castings of bronze in water, and after hammering out the
alloy in the soft state, harden the finished gongs by heating them to a
cherry-red and allowing them to cool slowly. These properties of the
alloy long remained a secret, said to have been first discovered in
Europe by Jean Pierre Joseph d'Arcet at the beginning of the 19th
century. Riche and Champion are said to have succeeded in producing
tam-tams having all the qualities and timbre of the Chinese instruments.
The composition of the alloy of bronze used for making gongs is stated
to be as follows:[1] Copper, 76.52; Tin, 22.43; Lead, 0.62; Zinc, 0.23;
Iron, 0.18. The gong is beaten with a round, hard, leather-covered pad,
fitted on a short stick or handle. It emits a peculiarly sonorous sound,
its complex vibrations bursting into a wave-like succession of tones,
sometimes shrill, sometimes deep. In China and Japan it is used in
religious ceremonies, state processions, marriages and other festivals;
and it is said that the Chinese can modify its tone variously by
particular ways of striking the disk.
The gong has been effectively used in the orchestra to intensify the
impression of fear and horror in melodramatic scenes. The tam-tam was
first introduced into a western orchestra by Francois Joseph Gossec in
the funeral march composed at the death of Mirabeau in 1791. Gaspard
Spontini used it in _La Vestale_ (1807), in the finale of act II., an
impressive scene in which the high pontiff pronounces the anathema on
the faithless vestal. It was also used in the funeral music played
when the remains of Napoleon the Great were brought back to France in
1840. Meyerbeer made use of the instrument in the scene of the
resurrection of the three nuns in _Robert le diable_. Four tam-tams
are now used at Bayreuth in _Parsifal_ to reinforce the bell
instruments, although there is no indication given in the score (see
PARSIFAL). The tam-tam has been treated from its ethnographical side
by Franz Heger.[1] (K. S.)