e original inhabitants of that inhospitable region, who are
mentioned by authors[G] as being a Celtic nation, fabulously conjectured
from their name [Greek: leipontio][H] to have been left there by
Hercules in his expedition into Spain.

The new adventurers had no sooner climbed over the highest precipices,
but thinking themselves secure from the pursuits of their rapacious
enemies, they fixed in a valley which, from its great fertility in
comparison of the country they had just passed, they called
Domestica[I]. They intermixed with the old inhabitants, and built some
towns and many castles, whose present names manifestly bespeak their
origin.[J] They soon after spread all over the country, which took the
name of Rhaetia from that of their leader; and introduced a form of
government similar to their own, of which there are evident traces at
this day, especially in the administration of justice; in which a
_Laertes_ or president, now called landamman or ministral, together with
twelve _Lucumones_[K] or jurors, determine all causes, both civil and
criminal:[L] and Livy,[M] although he erroneously pretends that they
retained none of their ancient customs, yet allows that they continued
the use of their language, though somewhat adulterated by a mixture with
that of the Aborigines.

I must here interrupt the thread of this narration by observing, that
the only way to account for the present use of a different language in
the centre and most craggy parts of the Grey League, is by allowing that
the Tuscans, who, from the delicacy of their constitutions and habits,
were little able, and less inclined, to encounter the hardships of so
severe a climate and so barren a soil, never attempted to mix with the
original and more sturdy inhabitants of that unfavoured spot; but left
them and their language, which could only be a Celtic idiom, in the
primitive state in which they found them.[N]

But to proceed;--several Roman families, dreading the fury of the
Carthaginians under Hannibal, and perhaps, since during the rage of the
civil wars, and the subsequent oppressive reigns, interior commotions
and foreign invasions, forsook the Latium and Campania, and resorted for
a peaceful enjoyment of their liberty, some into the islands where
Venice now stands, and many into the mountains of the Grisons, where
they chiefly fixed their residence in the Engadine,[O] as appears not
only from the testimonies of authors,[P] but also from the name