Holland - The History of the Netherlands | Page 7

nature of the
country. The Roman legions retreated for the first time, and were
contented to occupy the higher parts, which now form the Walloon
provinces.
But the policy of Cæsar made greater progress than his arms. He had
rather defeated than subdued those who had dared the contest. He
consolidated his victories without new battles; he offered peace to his
enemies, in proposing to them alliance; and he required their aid, as
friends, to carry on new wars in other lands. He thus attracted toward
him, and ranged under his banners, not only those people situated to the
west of the Rhine and the Meuse, but several other nations more to the
north, whose territory he had never seen; and particularly the
Batavians--a valiant tribe, stated by various ancient authors, and
particularly by Tacitus, as a fraction of the Catti, who occupied the
space comprised between these rivers. The young men of these warlike
people, dazzled by the splendor of the Roman armies, felt proud and
happy in being allowed to identify themselves with them. Cæsar
encouraged this disposition, and even went so far on some occasions as
to deprive the Roman cavalry of their horses, on which he mounted
those new allies, who managed them better than their Italian riders. He
had no reason to repent these measures; almost all his subsequent
victories, and particularly that of Pharsalia, being decided by the valor
of the auxiliaries he obtained from the Low Countries.
These auxiliaries were chiefly drawn from Hainault, Luxemburg, and
the country of the Batavians, and they formed the best cavalry of the
Roman armies, as well as their choicest light infantry force. The
Batavians also signalized themselves on many occasions, by the skill
with which they swam across several great rivers without breaking their
squadrons ranks. They were amply rewarded for their military services
and hazardous exploits, and were treated like stanch and valuable allies.
But this unequal connection of a mighty empire with a few petty states

must have been fatal to the liberty of the weaker party. Its first effect
was to destroy all feeling of nationality in a great portion of the
population. The young adventurer of this part of the Low Countries,
after twenty years of service under the imperial eagles, returned to his
native wilds a Roman. The generals of the empire pierced the forests of
the Ardennes with causeways, and founded towns in the heart of the
country. The result of such innovations was a total amalgamation of the
Romans and their new allies; and little by little the national character of
the latter became entirely obliterated. But to trace now the precise
history of this gradual change would be as impossible as it will be one
day to follow the progress of civilization in the woods of North
America.
But it must be remarked that this metamorphosis affected only the
inhabitants of the high grounds, and the Batavians (who were in their
origin Germans) properly so called. The scanty population of the rest of
the country, endowed with that fidelity to their ancient customs which
characterizes the Saxon race, showed no tendency to mix with foreigner,
rarely figured in their ranks, and seemed to revolt from the southern
refinement which was so little in harmony with their manners and ways
of life. It is astonishing, at the first view, that those beings, whose
whole existence was a contest against famine or the waves, should
show less inclination than their happier neighbors to receive from
Rome an abundant recompense for their services. But the greater their
difficulty to find subsistence in their native land, the stronger seemed
their attachment; like that of the Switzer to his barren rocks, or of the
mariner to the frail and hazardous home that bears him afloat on the
ocean. This race of patriots was divided into two separate peoples.
Those to the north of the Rhine were the Frisons; those to the west of
the Meuse, the Menapians, already mentioned.
The Frisons differed little from those early inhabitants of the coast, who,
perched on their high-built huts, fed on fish and drank the water of the
clouds. Slow and successive improvements taught them to cultivate the
beans which grew wild among the marshes, and to tend and feed a
small and degenerate breed of horned cattle. But if these first steps
toward civilization were slow, they were also sure; and they were made

by a race of men who could never retrograde in a career once begun.
The Menapians, equally repugnant to foreign impressions, made, on
their part, a more rapid progress. They were already a maritime people,
and carried on a considerable commerce with England. It appears that
they exported thither salt, the art of manufacturing which was well
known to them; and they brought