¡ i f i i !
The religion of the country being catholic, it truly appears, from their manner of
acting, that the tender state of their consciences so entirely engrosses their mindsi as
to make them neglect every other consideration; for, in fact, never have I passed
through the Lower Valíais, which has been often, without being obliged to fall into the
suite of some sacred procession or other.
The town of St. Maurice may most assuredly boast of its antiquity s and though at
present inconsiderable, was certainly very different in the time of the Romans, by
whom it was known by the name of Tamada, or Tarmue, according to Antoninus j for
that of Agaunum does not appear to have been given to it till after the massacre of the
Theban legion, which took place the 22d of September, in the year 266 of thé Christian
s r a . This legion, which some treat as fabulous, was composed, as is said, of six thousand
six hundred catholics, who dared to refuse obeying Maximian, the Roman general,
who commanded them to march into Gallia Narbonensis, to stop the progress of
Christianity, and who, in order to punish that disobedience, first began by decimating
them, and then concluded by a general massacre. Indeed some historians have supposed
it given at that very epoch, from the word agminum, deriving it from the Greek
uywy, an appellation given by the Roman emperors to the victims sacrificed previous to
their undertaking any expedition. This city has likewise been called Fanum Sancti
Mauritii, after the chief of that legion, who suffered martyrdom with the rest of his
companions. •
Here is also a noble abbey, dedicated to St. Maurice, founded in 360 by Theodore,
bishop of the Valíais ; and an ancient inscription, still extant in the church-yard, which
seems to have been addressed to the emperor Augustus by the Nantuates : so that this
may literally be styled classic ground. In the church, near the altar, is a beautiful mosaic
pavement, well preserved, and highly executed; as also three antique columns, of
good proportion, and much taste. There have likewise been found, in the environs,
many vestiges of antiquity, which suiiciently prove that the Romans, perfectly sensible
of its important situation, to, defend the Pennine and Lepontine Alps, had not only
embellished, but fortified it, and made it one of their strong places or deposits of arms.
At St. Maurice was also held the council of Hippona, where St. Augustin preached in the
year 393 ; and there Rodolphus I. was crowned king of Burgundy in 888, from the Valíais
being at that time considered as making a part of the kingdom. It afterwards passed
under the dominion of the German empire, and to the House of Savoy, from whom it
vras taken, in H75, by the people of the Upper Valíais, aided by three thousand Swiss,
who, on becoming masters of it, began to destroy the fortifications and châteaux heretofore
belonging to the dukes of Savoy, and divided the province into seven bailliages,
of which St. Maurice is the principal.
The republic of tlie Upper Valláis, which is entirely independent, and allied to the
Swiss, being partitioned into seven departments (in German, zindhen), the government
has settled, tliat cach department shall send a bailiíT, every two years, to govern the
Lower Valíais ; though it might probably have been more advantageous to the inhabitants
of the latter, had the governor of the Upper Valíais followed, in that instance,
the custom of the Bernese, and appointed the bailiffs for six years instead of two. The
country of the Lower Valíais is certainly fertile, though it frequently suffers by inundations,
caused by torrents which precipitate themselves from the summits of the Alps
on the melting of the snows. The inhabitants cultivate saffron in small quantities,
which they dispose of.
From St. Maurice to Martignie, a town seated nearly at the basis of the Great
St. Bernard, the distance may be computed from ten to twelve English miles ; but the
road and the country are so varied, and the prospects so quickly succeed each other,
that the distance appears trifling : and as it is not at present my intention to enter into
a minute and lithological description of the various species of mountains which screen
this valley, and form as it were its rampart, I shall merely notice, that there reigns,
throughout, so great confusion and disorder in their structure and the direction of their
strata, as well as extreme abruptness in their form, that, were we only to consider the
above circumstances, they would be sufficient to evince that the valley cannot possibly
owe its present state to any thing but causes similar to those mentioned in the preceding
description, as there exists every visible appearance that it was originally a gallery to
some subterraneous fires, the vaulted roof of which suddenly gave way, and the fragments
have since been in great part covered by others from the primitive mountains, carried
thither by the sea during its last retreat : but as for those in the neighbourhood of St. Maurice,
they appear to be calcareous, or of the third order, having thick strata, and being
wooded nearly to their summit. At three miles from the town, in the vicinity of the village
of Juviana, I found myself entering among the primitive and secondary mountains,—
these being mostly composed of a species of steatites, containing particles of quartz,
mica, and feldspath, in thin strata, which easily divide into paral le lopipeds of different