Andorra

Andorra, the Republic of the Pyrenees, has been preserved intact since the days when Charlemagne crossed the almost impassable mountains to aid in driving back the Saracens, or Moors. He gave, in 805 A. D., to a brave handful of mountaineers, supposed to be Visigothic refugees, a Charter for the Valley of Andorra in return for the protection and assistance rendered to him and to his armies. Content with their mountain territory, they enacted laws and formulated a republican form of government, and built settlement, calling their small capital Andorra. When the Passes of the Pyrenees resounded on all sides with the noise of war, the Andorrans tended their flocks and cultivated their fields, and observed a strict neutrality, which has never been violated. Even Napoleon turned aside, and, when asked why he spared Andorra, replied, "I reserve that little Republic as a political curiosity." The mountains enclosing the valley, about six miles long and a mile wide, are rich in valuable ores; but the mines have never been worked. They say: "We must remain poor, as our fathers have been. If we become rich the French will want our lead and the Spaniards our silver, and then we will lose our independence." For the same reason they remain ignorant; not one out of a hundred can read. They are Christians, however, and have a few "learned men" as priests among them. They are very hospitable in their simple pastoral way; any stranger can enter any one of their houses and obtain food and lodging without question. The great object of interest in Andorra is a massive chest built into the wall of the Council Hall. The chest has six iron locks connected by a chain; one key is given to a consul from each of the six parishes, or districts, and the chest can never be opened unless the six consuls are present. No stranger has ever been allowed to see the contents of this box, but Andorrans believe that it contains the Charter of Charlemagne written upon sheets of lead. A singular fact is that, through all the centuries, the population has not materially changed, being about 5000. The Government is chiefly patriarchal; the inheritance descends from the father to the oldest child; and if a daughter inherits and marries, her husband takes her maiden name. Thus in this beautiful valley, high up in the Pyrenees, with a rugged pathway of miles leading down into France, and another, almost impassable, into Spain, there lives a people speaking, with rather a German accent, the language of both nations; an active, intelligent, industrious, healthful and moral people, who for a thousand years, apart from the great onward march of the world's progress, have maintained their independence, civil and religious, because of their ignorance and poverty.