Part 11

GUANAJUATO, or GUANAXUATO, an inland state of Mexico, bounded N. by Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, E. by Queretaro, S. by Michoacan and W. by Jalisco. Area, 11,370 sq. m. It is one of the most densely populated states of the republic; pop. (1895) 1,047,817; (1900) 1,061,724. The state lies wholly within the limits of the great central plateau of Mexico, and has an average elevation of about 6000 ft. The surface of its northern half is broken by the Sierra Gorda and Sierra de Guanajuato, but its southern half is covered by fertile plains largely devoted to agriculture. It is drained by the Rio Grande de Lerma and its tributaries, which in places flow through deeply eroded valleys. The climate is semi-tropical and healthy, and the rainfall is sufficient to insure good results in agriculture and stock-raising. In the warm valleys sugar-cane is grown, and at higher elevations Indian corn, beans, barley and wheat. The southern plains are largely devoted to stock-raising. Guanajuato has suffered much from the destruction of its forests, but there remain some small areas on the higher elevations of the north. The principal industry of the state is mining, the mineral wealth of the mountain ranges of the north being enormous. Among its mineral products are silver, gold, tin, lead, mercury, copper and opals. Silver has been extracted since the early days of the Spanish conquest, over $800,000,000 having been taken from the mines during the subsequent three and a half centuries. Some of the more productive of these mines, or groups of mines, are the Veta Madre (mother lode), the San Bernabe lode, and the Rayas mines of Guanajuato, and the La Valenciana mine, the output of which is said to have been $226,000,000 between 1766 and 1826. The manufacturing establishments include flour mills, tanneries and manufactories of leather, cotton and woollen mills, distilleries, foundries and potteries. The Mexican Central and the Mexican National railway lines cross the state from N. to S., and the former operates a short branch from Silao to the state capital and another westward from Irapuato to Guadalajara. The capital is Guanajuato, and other important cities and towns are Leon, or Leon de las Aldamas; Celaya (pop. 25,565 in 1900), an important railway junction 22 m. by rail W. from Queretaro, and known for its manufactures of broadcloth, saddlery, soap and sweetmeats; Irapuato (18,593 in 1900), a railway junction and commercial centre, 21 m. S. by W. of Guanajuato; Silao (15,355), a railway junction and manufacturing town (woollens and cottons), 14 m. S.W. of Guanajuato; Salamanca (13,583). on the Mexican Central railway and Lerma river, 25 m. S. by E. of Guanajuato, with manufactures of cottons and porcelain; Allende (10,547), a commercial town 30 m. E. by S. of Guanajuato, with mineral springs; Valle de Santiago (12,660). 50 m. W. by S. of Queretaro; Salvatierra (10,393), 60 m. S.E. of Guanajuato; Cortazar (8633); La Luz (8318), in a rich mining district; Penjamo (8262); Santa Cruz (7239); San Francisco del Rincon (10,904), 39 m. W. of Guanajuato in a rich mining district; and Acambaro (8345), a prosperous town of the plain, 76 m. S.S.E. of Guanajuato.

GUANAJUATO, or SANTA FE DE GUANAJUATO, a city of Mexico and capital of the above state, 155 m. (direct) N.W. of the Federal capital, on a small tributary of the Rio Grande de Lerma or Santiago. Pop. (1895) 39,404; (1900) 41,486. The city is built in the Canada de Marfil at the junction of three ravines about 6500 ft. above the sea, and its narrow, tortuous streets rise steeply as they follow the ravines upward to the mining villages clustered about the opening of the mines in the hillsides. Guanajuato is sometimes described as a collection of mining villages; but in addition there is the central city with its crowded winding streets, its substantial old Spanish buildings, its fifty ore-crushing mills and busy factories and its bustling commercial life. Enclosing the city are the steep, barren mountain sides honeycombed with mines. The climate is semi-tropical and is considered healthy. The noteworthy public buildings and institutions are an interesting old Jesuit church with arches of pink stone and delicate carving, eight monasteries, the government palace, a mint dating from 1812, a national college, the fine Teatro Juarez, and the Pantheon, or public cemetery, with catacombs below. The Alhondiga de Granaditas, originally a public granary, was used as a fort during the War of Independence, and is celebrated as the scene of the first battle (1810) in that long struggle. Among the manufactures are cottons, prints, soaps, chemicals, pottery and silverware, but mining is the principal interest and occupation of the population. The silver mines of the vicinity were long considered the richest in Mexico, the celebrated Veta Madre (mother lode) even being described as the richest in the world; and Guanajuato has the largest reduction works in Mexico. The railway outlet for the city consists of a short branch of the Mexican Central, which joins the trunk line at Silao. Guanajuato was founded in 1554. It attained the dignity of a city in 1741. It was celebrated for its vigorous resistance to the invaders at the time of the Spanish conquest, and was repeatedly sacked during that war.

GUANCHES, GUANCHIS or GUANCHOS (native Guanchinet; _Guan_=person, _Chinet_ = Teneriffe,--"man of Teneriffe," corrupted, according to Nunez de la Pena, by Spaniards into Guanchos), the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands. Strictly the Guanches were the primitive inhabitants of Teneriffe, where they seem to have preserved racial purity to the time of the Spanish conquest, but the name came to be applied to the indigenous populations of all the islands. The Guanches, now extinct as a distinct people, appear, from the study of skulls and bones discovered, to have resembled the Cro-Magnon race of the Quaternary age, and no real doubt is now entertained that they were an offshoot of the great race of Berbers which from the dawn of history has occupied northern Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic. Pliny the Elder, deriving his knowledge from the accounts of Juba, king of Mauretania, states that when visited by the Carthaginians under Hanno the archipelago was found by them to be uninhabited, but that they saw ruins of great buildings. This would suggest that the Guanches were not the first inhabitants, and from the absence of any trace of Mahommedanism among the peoples found in the archipelago by the Spaniards it would seem that this extreme westerly migration of Berbers took place between the time of which Pliny wrote and the conquest of northern Africa by the Arabs. Many of the Guanches fell in resisting the Spaniards, many were sold as slaves, and many conformed to the Roman Catholic faith and married Spaniards.

Such remains as there are of their language, a few expressions and the proper names of ancient chieftains still borne by certain families, connect it with the Berber dialects. In many of the islands signs are engraved on rocks. Domingo Vandewalle, a military governor of Las Palmas, was the first, in 1752, to investigate these; and it is due to the perseverance of D. Aquilino Padran, a priest of Las Palmas, that anything about the inscription on the island Hierro has been brought to light. In 1878 Dr R. Verneau discovered in the ravines of Las Balos some genuine Libyan inscriptions. Without exception the rock inscriptions have proved to be Numidic. In two of the islands (Teneriffe and Gomera) the Guanche type has been retained with more purity than in the others. No inscriptions have been found in these two islands, and therefore it would seem that the true Guanches did not know how to write. In the other islands numerous Semitic traces are found, and in all of them are the rock-signs. From these facts it would seem that the Numidians, travelling from the neighbourhood of Carthage and intermixing with the dominant Semitic race, landed in the Canary Islands, and that it is they who have written the inscriptions at Hierro and Grand Canary.

The political and social institutions of the Guanches varied. In some islands hereditary autocracy prevailed; in others the government was elective. In Teneriffe all the land belonged to the chiefs who leased it to their subjects. In Grand Canary suicide was regarded as honourable, and on a chief inheriting, one of his subjects willingly honoured the occasion by throwing himself over a precipice. In some islands polyandry was practised; in others the natives were monogamous. But everywhere the women appear to have been respected, an insult offered any woman by an armed man being a capital offence. Almost all the Guanches used to wear garments of goat-skins, and others of vegetable fibres, which have been found in the tombs of Grand Canary. They had a taste for ornaments, necklaces of wood, bone and shells, worked in different designs. Beads of baked earth, cylindrical and of all shapes, with smooth or polished surfaces, mostly black and red in colour, were chiefly in use. They painted their bodies; the _pintaderas_, baked clay objects like seals in shape, have been explained by Dr Verneau as having been used solely for painting the body in various colours. They manufactured rough pottery, mostly without decorations, or ornamented by means of the finger-nail. The Guanches' weapons were those of the ancient races of south Europe. The polished battle-axe was more used in Grand Canary, while stone and obsidian, roughly cut, were commoner in Teneriffe. They had, besides, the lance, the club, sometimes studded with pebbles, and the javelin, and they seem to have known the shield. They lived in natural or artificial caves in their mountains. In districts where cave-dwellings were impossible, they built small round houses and, according to the Spaniards, they even practised rude fortification. In Palma the old people were at their own wish left to die alone. After bidding their family farewell they were carried to the sepulchral cave, nothing but a bowl of milk being left them. The Guanches embalmed their dead; many mummies have been found in an extreme state of desiccation, each weighing not more than 6 or 7 lb. Two almost inaccessible caves in a vertical rock by the shore 3 m. from Santa Cruz (Teneriffe) are said still to contain bones. The process of embalming seems to have varied. In Teneriffe and Grand Canary the corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult of access, or buried under a tumulus. The work of embalming was reserved for a special class, women for female corpses, men for male. Embalming seems not to have been universal, and bodies were often simply hidden in caves or buried.

Little is known of the religion of the Guanches. They appear to have been a distinctly religious race. There was a general belief in a supreme being, called Acoran, in Grand Canary, Achihuran in Teneriffe, Eraoranhan in Hierro, and Abora in Palma. The women of Hierro worshipped a goddess called Moneiba. According to tradition the male and female gods lived in mountains whence they descended to hear the prayers of the people. In other islands the natives venerated the sun, moon, earth and stars. A belief in an evil spirit was general. The demon of Teneriffe was called Guayota and lived in the peak of Teyde, which was the hell called Echeyde. In times of drought the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleatings would melt the heart of the Great Spirit. During the religious feasts all war and even personal quarrels were stayed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--S. Berthelot, _Antiquites canariennes_ (Paris, 1839); Baker Webb and S. Berthelot, _Histoire naturelle des iles Canaries_ (Paris, 1839); Paul Broca, _Revue d'anthropologie_, iv. (1874); General L. L. C. Faidherbe, _Quelque mots sur l'ethnologie de l'archipel canarien_ (Paris, 1875); Chil y Naranjo, _Estudios historicos, climatologicos y Patologicos de las Islas Canarias_ (Las Palmas, 1876-1889); "De la pluralite des races humaines de l'archipel canarien," _Bull. Soc. Anthrop. Paris_, 1878; "Habitations et sepultures des anciens habitants des iles Canaries," _Revue d'anthrop._, 1879; R. Verneau, "Sur les Semites aux iles Canaries," and "Sur les anciens habitants de la Isleta, Grande Canarie," _Bull. Soc. Anthrop. Paris_, 1881; _Rapport sur une mission scientifique dans l'archipel canarien_ (Paris, 1887); _Cinq annees de sejour aux iles Canaries_ (Paris, 1891); H. Meyer, _Die Insel Tenerife_ (Leipzig, 1896), "Uber die Urbewohner der canarischen Inseln," in _Adolf Bastian Festschrift_ (Berlin, 1896); F. von Luschan, _Anhang uber eine Schadelsammlung von den canarischen Inseln_; R. Virchow, "Schadel mit Carionecrosis der Sagittalgegend," _Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellschaft_ (1896); G. Sergi, _The Mediterranean Race_ (London, 1901); _The Guanches of Tenerife ..._, by Alonso de Espinosa, translated by Sir Clements Markham, with bibliography (Hakluyt Society, 1907).

GUANIDINE, CN3H5 or HN:C(NH2)2, the amidine of amidocarbonic acid. It occurs in beet juice. It was first prepared in 1861 by A. Strecker, who oxidized guanine with hydrochloric acid and potassium chlorate. It may be obtained synthetically by the action of ammonium iodide on cyanamide, CN.NH2 + NH4I=CN3H5.HI.; by heating ortho-carbonic esters with ammonia to 150 deg. C.; but best by heating ammonium thiocyanate to 180 deg.-190 deg. C., when the thiourea first formed is converted into guanidine thiocyanate, 2CS(NH2)2=HN:C(NH2)2.HCNS+H2S. It is a colourless crystalline solid, readily soluble in water and alcohol; it deliquesces on exposure to air. It has strong basic properties, absorbs carbon dioxide readily, and forms well-defined crystalline salts. Baryta water hydrolyses it to urea. By direct union with glycocoll acid, it yields glycocyamine, NH2.(HN):C.NH.CH2.CO2H, whilst with methyl glycocoll (sarcosine) it forms creatine, NH2.(NH):C.N(CH3).CH2.CO2H.

Many derivatives of guanidine were obtained by J. Thiele (_Ann._, 1892, 270, p. 1; 1893, 273, p. 133; _Ber._, 1893, 26, pp. 2598, 2645). By the action of nitric acid on guanidine in the presence of sulphuric acid, nitroguanidine, HN:C(NH2).NH.NO2 (a substance possessing acid properties) is obtained; from which, by reduction with zinc dust, amidoguanidine, HN:C(NH2).NH.NH2, is formed. This amidoguanidine decomposes on hydrolysis with the formation of semicarbazide, NH2.CO.NH.NH2, which, in its turn, breaks down into carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrazine. Amidoguanidine is a body of hydrazine type, for it reduces gold and silver salts and yields a benzylidine derivative. On oxidation with potassium permanganate, it gives azodicarbondiamidine nitrate, NH2.(HN):C.N:N.C:(NH).NH2.2HNO3, which, when reduced by sulphuretted hydrogen, is converted into the corresponding hydrazodicarbondiamidine, NH2.(HN):C.NH.NH.C:(NH).NH2. By the action of nitrous acid on a nitric acid solution of amidoguanidine, diazoguanidine nitrate, NH2.(HN):C.NH.N2.NO3, is obtained. This diazo compound is decomposed by caustic alkalis with the formation of cyanamide and hydrazoic acid, CH4N5.NO3=N3H+CN.NH2+HNO3, whilst acetates and carbonates convert it into amidotetrazotic acid,

N--N. // H2N.C ||. \\ NH--N

Amidotetrazotic acid yields addition compounds with amines, and by the further action of nitrous acid yields a very explosive derivative, diazotetrazol, CN6. By fusing guanidine with urea, dicyandiamidine H2N.(HN):C.NH.CO.NH2, is formed.

GUANO (a Spanish word from the Peruvian _huanu_, dung), the excrement of birds, found as large deposits on certain islands off the coast of Peru, and on others situated in the Southern ocean and off the west coast of Africa. The large proportions of phosphorus in the form of phosphates and of nitrogen as ammonium oxalate and urate renders it a valuable fertilizer. Bat's guano, composed of the excrement of bats, is found in certain caves in New Zealand and elsewhere; it is similar in composition to Peruvian guano. (See MANURES AND MANURING.)

GUANTA, a port on the Caribbean coast of the state of Bermudez, Venezuela, 12 m. N.E. of Barcelona, with which it is connected by rail. It dates from the completion of the railway to the coal mines of Naricual and Capiricual nearly 12 m. beyond Barcelona, and was created for the shipment of coal. The harbour is horseshoe-shaped, with its entrance, 1998 ft. wide, protected by an island less than 1 m. off the shore. The entrance is easy and safe, and the harbour affords secure anchorage for large vessels, with deep water alongside the iron railway wharf. These advantages have made Guanta the best port on this part of the coast, and the trade of Barcelona and that of a large inland district have been transferred to it. A prominent feature in its trade is the shipment of live cattle. Among its exports are sugar, coffee, cacao, tobacco and fruit.

GUANTANAMO, the easternmost important town of the S. coast of Cuba, in the province of Santiago, about 40 m. E. of Santiago. Pop. (1907) 14,559. It is situated by the Guazo (or Guaso) river, on a little open plain between the mountains. The beautiful, land-locked harbour, 10 m. long from N. to S. and 4 m. wide in places, has an outer and an inner basin. The latter has a very narrow entrance, and 2 to 2.5 fathoms depth of water. From the port of Caimanera to the city of Guantanamo, 13 m. N., there is a railway, and the city has railway connexion with Santiago. Guantanamo is one of the two ports leased by Cuba to the United States for a naval station. It is the shipping-port and centre of a surrounding coffee-, sugar- and lime-growing district. In 1741 an English force under Admiral Edward Vernon and General Thomas Wentworth landed here to attack Santiago. They named the harbour Cumberland bay. After their retreat fortifications were begun. The history of the region practically dates, however, from the end of the 18th century, when it gained prosperity from the settlement of French refugees from Santo Domingo; the town, as such, dates only from 1822. Almost all the old families are of French descent, and French was the language locally most used as late as the last third of the 19th century. In recent years, especially since the Spanish-American War of 1898, the region has greatly changed socially and economically. Guantanamo was once a fashionable summer residence resort for wealthy Cubans.

GUARANA (so called from the Guaranis, an aboriginal American tribe), the plant _Paullinia Cupana_ (or _P. sorbilis_) of the natural order _Sapindaceae_, indigenous to the north and west of Brazil. It has a smooth erect stem; large pinnate alternate leaves, composed of 5 oblong-oval leaflets; narrow panicles of short-stalked flowers; and ovoid or pyriform fruit about as large as a grape, and containing usually one seed only, which is shaped like a minute horse-chestnut. What is commonly known as guarana, guarana bread or Brazilian cocoa, is prepared from the seeds as follows. In October and November, at which time they become ripe, the seeds are removed from their capsules and sun-dried, so as to admit of the ready removal by hand of the white aril; they are next ground in a stone mortar or deep dish of hard sandstone; the powder, moistened by the addition of a small quantity of water, or by exposure to the dews, is then made into a paste with a certain proportion of whole or broken seeds, and worked up sometimes into balls, but usually into rolls not unlike German sausages, 5 to 8 in. in length, and 12 to 16 oz. in weight. After drying by artificial or solar heat, the guarana is packed between broad leaves in sacks or baskets. Thus prepared, it is of extreme hardness, and has a brown hue, a bitter astringent taste, and an odour faintly resembling that of roasted coffee. An inferior kind, softer and of a lighter colour, is manufactured by admixture of cocoa or cassava. Rasped or grated into sugar and water, guarana forms a beverage largely consumed in S. America. Its manufacture, originally confined to the Mauhes Indians, has spread into various parts of Brazil.

The properties of guarana as a nervous stimulant and restorative are due to the presence of what was originally described as a new principle and termed guaranine, but is now known to be identical with caffeine or theine. Besides this substance, which is stated to exist in it in the form of tannate, guarana yields on analysis the glucoside saponin, with tannin, starch, gum, three volatile oils, and an acrid green fixed oil (Fournier, _Journ. de Pharm._ vol. xxxix., 1861, p. 291).

GUARANIS, a tribe and stock of South American Indians, having their home in Paraguay, Uruguay and on the Brazilian coast. The Guaranis had developed some civilization before the arrival of the Spaniards, and being a peaceable people quickly submitted. They form to-day the chief element in the populations of Paraguay and Uruguay. Owing to its patronage by the Jesuit missionaries the Guarani language became a widespread medium of communication, and in a corrupted form is still the common language in Paraguay.

GUARANTEE (sometimes spelt "guarantie" or "guaranty"; an O. Fr. form of "warrant," from the Teutonic word which appears in German as _wahren_, to defend or make safe and binding), a term more comprehensive and of higher import than either "warrant" or "security," and designating either some international treaty whereby claims, rights or possessions are secured, or more commonly a mere private transaction, by means of which one person, to obtain some trust, confidence or credit for another, engages to be answerable for him.

In English law, a guarantee is a contract to answer for the payment of some debt, or the performance of some duty, by a third person who is _primarily_ liable to such payment or performance. It is a _collateral_ contract, which does not extinguish the original liability or obligation to which it is accessory, but on the contrary is itself rendered null and void should the latter fail, as without a principal there can be no accessory. The liabilities of a surety are in law dependent upon those of the principal debtor, and when the latter cease the former do so likewise (_per_ Collins, L.J., in _Stacey_ v. _Hill_, 1901, 1 K.B., at p. 666; see _per_ Willes, J., in _Bateson_ v. _Gosling_, 1871, L.R. 7 C.P., at p. 14), except in certain cases where the discharge of the principal debtor is by operation of law (see _In re Fitzgeorge--ex parte Robson_, 1905, 1 K.B. p. 462). If, therefore, persons wrongly suppose that a third person is liable to one of them, and a guarantee is given on that erroneous supposition, it is invalid _ab initio_, by virtue of the _lex contractus_, because its foundation (which was that another was taken to be liable) has failed (_per_ Willes, J., in _Mountstephen_ v. _Lakeman_, L.R. 7 Q.B. p. 202). According to various existing codes civil, a suretyship, in respect of an obligation "non-valable," is null and void save where the invalidity is the result of personal incapacity of the principal debtor (Codes Civil, France and Belgium, 2012; Spain, 1824; Portugal, 822; Italy, 1899; Holland, 1858; Lower Canada, 1932). In some countries, however, the mere personal incapacity of a son under age to borrow suffices to vitiate the guarantee of a loan made to him (Spain, 1824; Portugal, 822, s. 2, 1535, 1536). The Egyptian codes sanction guarantees expressly entered into "in view of debtor's want of legal capacity" to contract a valid principal obligation (Egyptian Codes, Mixed Suits, 605; Native Tribunals, 496). The Portuguese code (art. 822, s. 1) retains the surety's liability, in respect of an invalid principal obligation, until the latter has been legally rescinded.