that of the Negus Yesu II. This was erected about 1736, at which time Gondar appears to have been at the height of its prosperity. Thereafter it suffered greatly from the civil wars which raged in Abyssinia, and was more than once sacked. In 1868 it was much injured by the emperor Theodore, who did not spare either the castle or the churches. After the defeat of the Abyssinians at Debra Sin in August 1887 Gondar was looted and fired by the dervishes under Abu Anga. Although they held the town but a short time they inflicted very great damage, destroying many churches, further damaging the castles and carrying off much treasure. The population, estimated by James Bruce in 1770 at 10,000 families, had dwindled in 1905 to about 7000. Since the pacification of the Sudan by the British (1886–1889) there has been some revival of trade between Gondar and the regions of the Blue Nile. Among the inhabitants are numbers of Mahommedans, and there is a settlement of Falashas. Cotton, cloth, gold and silver ornaments, copper wares, fancy articles in bone and ivory, excellent saddles and shoes are among the products of the local industry.
Unlike any other buildings in Abyssinia, the castles and palaces of Gondar resemble, with some modifications, the medieval fortresses of Europe, the style of architecture being the result of the presence in the country of numbers of Portuguese. The Portuguese were expelled by Fasilidas, but his castle was built, by Indian workmen, under the superintendence of Abyssinians who had learned something of architecture from the Portuguese adventurers, helped possibly by Portuguese still in the country. The castle has two storeys, is 90 ft. by 84 ft., has a square tower and circular domed towers at the corners. The most extensive ruins are a group of royal buildings enclosed in a wall. These ruins include the palace of Yesu II., which has several fine chambers. Christian Levantines were employed in its construction and it was decorated in part with Venetian mirrors, &c. In the same enclosure is a small castle attributed to Yesu I. The exterior walls of the castles and palaces named are little damaged and give to Gondar a unique character among African towns. Of the forty-four churches, all in the circular Abyssinian style, which are said to have formerly existed in Gondar or its immediate neighbourhood, Major Powell-Cotton found only one intact in 1900. This church contained some well-executed native paintings of St George and the Dragon, The Last Supper, &c. Among the religious observances of the Christians of Gondar is that of bathing in large crowds in the Gaha on the Feast of the Baptist, and again, though in more orderly fashion, on Christmas day.
See E. Rüppell, Reise in Abyssinien (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1838–1840); T. von Heuglin, Reise nach Abessinien (Jena, 1868); G. Lejean, Voyage en Abyssinie (Paris, 1872); Achille Raffray, Afrique orientale; Abyssinie (Paris, 1876); P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, A Sporting Trip through Abyssinia, chaps. 27-30 (London, 1902); and Boll. Soc. Geog. Italiana for 1909. Views of the castle are given by Heuglin, Raffray and Powell-Cotton.
GONDOKORO, a government station and trading-place on the
east bank of the upper Nile, in 4° 54′ N., 31° 43′ E. It is the
headquarters of the Northern Province of the (British) Uganda
protectorate, is 1070 m. by river S. of Khartum and 350 m.
N.N.W. in a direct line of Entebbe on Victoria Nyanza. The
station, which is very unhealthy, is at the top of a cliff 25 ft.
above the river-level. Besides houses for the civil and military
authorities and the lines for the troops, there are a few huts
inhabited by Bari, the natives of this part of the Nile. The
importance of Gondokoro lies in the fact that it is within a few
miles of the limit of navigability of the Nile from Khartum up
stream. From this point the journey to Uganda is continued
overland.
Gondokoro was first visited by Europeans in 1841–1842, when expeditions sent out by Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt, ascended the Nile as far as the foot of the rapids above Gondokoro. It soon became an ivory and slave-trading centre. In 1851 an Austrian Roman Catholic mission was established here, but it was abandoned in 1859. It was at Gondokoro that J. H. Speke and J. A. Grant, descending the Nile after their discovery of its source, met, on the 15th of February 1863, Mr (afterwards Sir) Samuel Baker and his wife who were journeying up the river. In 1871 Baker, then governor-general of the equatorial provinces of Egypt, established a military post at Gondokoro which he named Ismailia, after the then khedive. Baker made this post his headquarters, but Colonel (afterwards General) C. G. Gordon, who succeeded him in 1874, abandoned the station on account of its unhealthy site, removing to Lado. Gondokoro, however, remained a trading-station. It fell into the hands of the Mahdists in 1885. After the destruction of the Mahdist power in 1898 Gondokoro was occupied by British troops and has since formed the northernmost post on the Nile of the Uganda protectorate (see Sudan; Nile; and Uganda).
GONDOMAR, DIEGO SARMIENTO DE ACUÑA, Count of
(1567–1626), Spanish diplomatist, was the son of Garcia Sarmiento
de Sotomayor, corregidor of Granada, and governor of the
Canary Islands, by his marriage with Juana de Acuña, an
heiress. Diego Sarmiento, their eldest son, was born in the
parish of Gondomar, in the bishopric of Tuy, Galicia, Spain,
on the 1st of November 1567. He inherited wide estates both
in Galicia and in Old Castile. In 1583 he was appointed by
Philip II. to the military command of the Portuguese frontier
and sea coast of Galicia. He is said to have taken an active
part in the repulse of an English coast-raid in 1585, and in the
defence of the country during the unsuccessful English attack
on Corunna in 1589. In 1593 he was named corregidor of Toro.
In 1603 he was sent from court to Vigo to superintend the
distribution of the treasure brought from America by two
galleons which were driven to take refuge at Vigo, and on his
return was named a member of the board of finance. In 1609
he was again employed on the coast of Galicia, this time to repel
a naval attack made by the Dutch. Although he held military
commands, and administrative posts, his habitual residence was
at Valladolid, where he owned the Casa del Sol and was already
collecting his fine library. He was known as a courtier, and
apparently as a friend of the favourite, the duke of Lerma.
In 1612 he was chosen as ambassador in England, but did not
leave to take up his appointment till May 1613.
His reputation as a diplomatist is based on his two periods of service in England from 1613 to 1618 and from 1619 to 1622. The excellence of his latinity pleased the literary tastes of James I., whose character he judged with remarkable insight. He flattered the king’s love of books and of peace, and he made skilful use of his desire for a matrimonial alliance between the prince of Wales and a Spanish infanta. The ambassador’s task was to keep James from aiding the Protestant states against Spain and the house of Austria, and to avert English attacks on Spanish possessions in America. His success made him odious to the anti-Spanish and puritan parties. The active part he took in promoting the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh aroused particular animosity. He was attacked in pamphlets, and the dramatist Thomas Middleton made him a principal person in the strange political play A Game of Chess, which was suppressed by order of the council. In 1617 Sarmiento was created count of Gondomar. In 1618 he obtained leave to come home for his health, but was ordered to return by way of Flanders and France with a diplomatic mission. In 1619 he returned to London, and remained till 1622, when he was allowed to retire. On his return he was named a member of the royal council and governor of one of the king’s palaces, and was appointed to a complimentary mission to Vienna. Gondomar was in Madrid when the prince of Wales—afterwards Charles I.—made his journey there in search of a wife. He died at the house of the constable of Castile, near Haro in the Rioja, on the 2nd of October 1626.
Gondomar was twice married, first to his niece Beatrix Sarmiento, by whom he had no children, and then to his cousin Constanza de Acuña, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. The hatred he aroused in England, which was shown by constant jeers at the intestinal complaint from which he suffered for years, was the best tribute to the zeal with which he served his own master. Gondomar collected, both before he came to London and during his residence there, a very fine
