The Pyrenees, West and East / by Charles Richard Weld.

  • Charles Richard Weld
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Pyrenees, West and East / by Charles Richard Weld. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/454 (page 60)
    — all I can say is that I saw but one vessel, I’lm- maculee Conception, loading with cork and wool, and beside her lay the Coligny, a small frigate generally stationed at Bayonne when the Emperor is at Biaritz. The paucity of shipping is probably due to the dangerous bar at the mouth of the Adour. Within the bar ships are safe, as the name Bayonne, derived from the Basque words baia and ona, good hay or harbour, implies. Works are now in progress, having for their object the removal of this bar; but although the Church solemnly inaugurated the undeidaking in the most approved Roman Catholic fashion, it is very doubtful whether engineering will triumph over the difficulties, which are extremely great. Provided with an order to see the fortifications — without which hope not to pass the sentinels — I went over the fortress and citadel. These have always been famous, and now, with recent additions and alterations, are deemed impregnable; so that the motto of Bayonne — nunquam qJoUuia, from its never ha^fing been taken, though fi'cquently besieged — is not likely to be erased from its flag. The citadel is regarded by military authorities as one of Vauhan’s master works, hut I am afraid that the sergeant who guided me tlirough its perplexities