Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/813

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CEUTA—CEVENNES
777

August 1882. He remained in England less than a month, during which time the government (the second Gladstone administration) announced that they had decided upon his restoration. To his great disappointment, however, restoration proved to refer only to a portion of his old kingdom. Even there one of his kinsmen and chief enemies, Usibepu, was allowed to retain the territory allotted to him in 1879. Cetywayo was reinstalled on the 29th of January 1883 by Shepstone, but his enemies, headed by Usibepu, attacked him within a week, and after a struggle of nearly a year’s duration he was defeated and his kraal destroyed. He then took refuge in the Native Reserve, where he died on the 8th of February 1884. For a quarter of a century he had been the most conspicuous native figure in South Africa, and had been the cause of long and bitter political controversy in Great Britain.

His son Dinizulu afterwards attempted to become king, was exiled (1889) to St Helena, permitted to return (1898), and granted the position of a chief. In December 1907 Dinizulu was imprisoned at Maritzburg, being suspected of complicity in the revolt which had occurred in Zululand the previous year. He was kept many months waiting trial, there being considerable friction between the colonial government and the British government over the incident. He was eventually brought to trial in November 1908 before a special court, his defence (to the cost of which the British government contributed £2000) being undertaken by Mr W. P. Schreiner. The trial was not concluded until March 1909. The charge of high treason was not proved, but Dinizulu was convicted of harbouring rebels and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.

The Life of Sir Bartle Frere, by John Martineau, vol. ii. chaps. 18 to 21, contains much information concerning Cetywayo.


CEUTA (Arabic Sebta), a Spanish military and convict station and seaport on the north coast of Morocco, in 35° 54′ N., 5° 18′ W. Pop. about 13,000. It is situated on a promontory connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. This promontory marks the south-eastern end of the straits of Gibraltar, which between Ceuta and Gibraltar have a width of 14 m. The promontory terminates in a bold headland, the Montagne des Singes, with seven distinct peaks. Of these the highest is the Monte del Hacko, the ancient Abyla, one of the “Pillars of Hercules,” which faces Gibraltar and rises 636 ft. above the sea. On the westernmost point—Almina, 476 ft. high—is a lighthouse with a light visible for 23 m. Ceuta consists of two quarters, the old town, covering the low ground of the isthmus, and the modern town, built on the hills forming the north and west faces of the peninsula. Between the old and new quarters and on the north side of the isthmus lies the port. The public buildings in the town, thoroughly Spanish in its character, are not striking: they include the cathedral (formerly a mosque), the governor’s palace, the town hall, barracks, and the convict prison in the old convent of San Francisco. Ceuta has been fortified seaward, the works being furnished with modern artillery intended to command the entrance to the Mediterranean. Landward are three lines of defence, the inner line stretching completely across the isthmus. These fortifications, which date from the time of the Portuguese occupation, have been partly modernized. The citadel, El Hacho, built on the neck of the isthmus, dates from the 15th century. The garrison consists of between 3000 and 4000 men, inclusive of a disciplinary corps of military convicts. Of the rest of the population about 2000 are civilian convicts; and there are colonies of Jews, negroes and Moors, the last including descendants of Moors transferred to Ceuta from Oran when Spain abandoned that city in 1796.

Ceuta occupies in part the site of a Carthaginian colony, which was succeeded by a Roman colony said to have been called Ad Septem Fratres and also Exilissa or Lissa Civitas. From the Romans the town passed to the Vandals and afterwards to Byzantium, the emperor Justinian restoring its fortifications in 535. In 618 the town, then known as Septon, fell into the hands of the Visigoths. It was the last stronghold in North Africa which held out against the Arabs. At that date (A.D. 711) the governor of the town was the Count Julian who, in revenge for the betrayal of his daughter by King Roderick of Toledo, invited the Arabs to cross the straits under Tarik and conquer Spain for Islam. By the Arabs the town was called Cibta or Sebta, hence the Spanish form Ceuta. From the date of its occupation by the Arabs the town had a stormy history, being repeatedly captured by rival Berber and Spanish-Moorish dynasties. It became nevertheless an important commercial and industrial city, being noted for its brass ware, its trade in ivory, gold and slaves. It is said to have been the first place in the West where a paper manufactory was established. In 1415 the town was captured by the Portuguese under John I., among those taking part in the attack being Prince Henry “the Navigator” and two of his brothers, who were knighted on the day following in the mosque (hastily dedicated as a Christian church). Ceuta passed to Spain in 1580 on the subjugation of Portugal by Philip II., and was definitely assigned to the Spanish crown by the treaty of Lisbon in 1688. The town has been several times unsuccessfully besieged by the Moors—one siege, under Mulai Ismail, lasting twenty-six years (1694–1720). In 1810, with the consent of Spain, it was occupied by British troops under General Sir J. F. Fraser. The town was restored to Spain by the British at the close of the Napoleonic Wars. As the result of the war between Spain and Morocco in 1860 the area of Spanish territory around the town was increased. The military governor of the town also commands the troops in the other Spanish stations on the coast of Morocco. For civil purposes Ceuta is attached to the province of Cadiz. It is a free port, but does little trade.

See de Prado, Recuerdos de Africa; historia de la plaza de Ceuta (Madrid, 1859–1860); Budgett Meakin, The Land of the Moors (London, 1901), chap. xix., where many works dealing with Spanish Morocco are cited.


CEVA, a town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 33 m. E. by rail from the town of Cuneo, 1270 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 2703. In the middle ages it was a strong fortress defending the confines of Piedmont towards Liguria, but the fortifications on the rock above the town were demolished in 1800 by the French, to whom it had been ceded in 1796. Its cheese (caseus cebanus) was famous in Roman times, but it does not seem ever to have been a Roman town. It lay on the road between Augusta Taurinorum and Vada Sabatia. A branch railway runs from Ceva through Garessio, with its marble quarries, to Ormea (2398 ft.), 22 m. to the south through the upper valley of the Tanaro, which in Roman times was under Albingaunum (Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscr. Lat. v. (Berlin, 1877), p. 898). From Ormea a road runs south to (31 m.) Oneglia on the Ligurian coast.


CÉVENNES (Lat. Cebenna or Gebenna), a mountain range of southern France, forming the southern and eastern fringe of the central plateau and part of the watershed between the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins. It consists of a narrow ridge some 320 m. long, with numerous lofty plateaus and secondary ranges branching from it. The northern division of the range, which nowhere exceeds 3320 ft. in height, extends, under the name of the mountains of Charolais, Beaujolais and Lyonnais, from the Col de Longpendu (west of Chalon-sur-Saône) in a southerly direction to the Col de Gier. The central Cévennes, comprising the volcanic chain of Vivarais, incline south-east and extend as far as the Lozère group. The northern portion of this chain forms the Boutières range. Farther south it includes the Gerbier des Joncs (5089 ft.), the Mont de Mézenc (5755 ft.), the culminating point of the entire range, and the Tanargue group. South of the Mont Lozère, where the Pic Finiels reaches 5584 ft., lies that portion of the range to which the name Cévennes is most strictly applied. This region, now embraced in the departments of Lozère and Gard, stretches south to include the Aigoual and Espérou groups. Under various local names (the Garrigues, the mountains of Espinouse and Lacaune) and with numerous offshoots the range extends south-east and then east to the Montagne Noire, which runs parallel to the Canal du Midi and comes to an end some 25 m. east of Toulouse. In the south the Cévennes separate the cold and barren table-lands