Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

GUALEGUAY, a flourishing town and river port of the province of Entre Rios, Argentine Republic, on the Gualeguay river, 32 m. above its confluence with the Ibicuy branch of the Parana, and about 120 m. N.N.W. of Buenos Aires. Pop. (1895) 7810. The Gualeguay is the largest of the Entre Rios rivers, traversing almost the whole length of the province from N. to S., but it is of but slight service in the transportation of produce except the few miles below Gualeguay, whose port, known as Puerto Ruiz, is 7 m. lower down stream. A steam tramway connects the town and port, and a branch line connects with Entre Rios railways at the station of Tala. The principal industry in this region is that of stock-raising, and there is a large exportation of cattle, jerked beef, hides, tallow, mutton, wool and sheep-skins. Wood and charcoal are also exported to Buenos Aires. The town was founded in 1783.

GUALEGUAYCHU, a prosperous commercial and industrial town and port of the province of Entre Rios, Argentine Republic, on the left bank of the Gualeguaychu river, 11 m. above its confluence with the Uruguay, and 120 m. N. of Buenos Aires. Pop. (1892, est.) 14,000. It is the chief town of a department of the same name, the largest in the province. A bar at the mouth of the river prevents the entrance of larger vessels and compels the transfer of cargoes to and from lighters. The town is surrounded by a rich grazing country, and exports cattle, jerked beef, mutton, hides, pelts, tallow, wool and various by-products. A branch line running N. connects with the Entre Rios railways at Basavilbaso. The town was founded in 1783.

GUALO, CARDINAL (fl. 1216), was sent to England by Pope Innocent III. in 1216. He supported John with all the weight of papal authority. After John's death he crowned the infant Henry III. and played an active part in organizing resistance to the rebels led by Louis of France, afterwards king Louis VIII. As representing the pope, the suzerain of Henry, he claimed the regency and actually divided the chief power with William Marshal, earl of Pembroke. He proclaimed a crusade against Louis and the French, and, after the peace of Lambeth, he forced Louis to make a public and humiliating profession of penitence (1217). He punished the rebellious clergy severely, and ruled the church with an absolute hand till his departure from England in 1218. Gualo's character has been severely criticized by English writers; but his chief offence seems to have been that of representing unpopular papal claims.

GUAM (Span. _Guajan_; _Guahan_, in the native Chamorro), the largest and most populous of the Ladrone or Mariana Islands, in the North Pacific, in 13 deg. 26' N. lat. and 144 deg. 39' E. long., about 1823 m. E. by S. of Hong Kong, and about 1450 m. E. of Manila. Pop. (1908) about 11,360, of whom 363 were foreigners, 140 being members of the U.S. naval force. Guam extends about 30 m. from N.N.E. to S.S.W., has an average width of about 6-1/2 m., and has an area of 207 sq. m. The N. portion is a plateau from 300 to 600 ft. above the sea, lowest in the interior and highest along the E. and W. coast, where it terminates abruptly in bluffs and headlands; Mt Santa Rosa, toward the N. extremity, has an elevation of 840 ft. A range of hills from 700 to nearly 1300 ft. in height traverses the S. portion from N. to S. a little W. of the middle--Mt Jumullong Mangloc, the highest peak, has an elevation of 1274 ft. Between the foot of the steep W. slope of these hills and the sea is a belt of rolling lowlands and to the E. the surface is broken by the valleys of five rivers with a number of tributaries, has a general slope toward the sea, and terminates in a coast-line of bluffs. Apra (formerly San Luis d'Apra) on the middle W. coast is the only good harbour; it is about 3-1/2 m. across, has a depth of 4-27 fathoms, and is divided into an inner and an outer harbour by a peninsula and an island. It serves as a naval station and as a port of transit between America and the Philippines, at which army transports call monthly. Deer, wild hog, duck, curlew, snipe and pigeon are abundant game, and several varieties of fish are caught. Some of the highest points of the island are nearly bare of vegetation, and the more elevated plateau surface is covered with sword grass, but in the valleys and on the lower portions of the plateaus there is valuable timber. The lowlands have a rich soil; in lower parts of the highlands raised coralliferous limestone with a light covering of soil appears, and in the higher parts the soil is entirely of clay and silt. The climate is agreeable and healthy. From December to June the N.E. trade winds prevail and the rainfall is relatively light; during the other six months the monsoon blows and produces the rainy season. Destructive typhoons and earthquakes sometimes visit Guam. The island is thought to possess little if any mineral wealth, with the possible exception of coal. Only a small part of Guam is under cultivation, and most of this lies along the S.W. coast, its chief products being cocoanuts, rice, sugar, coffee and cacao. A United States Agricultural Experiment Station in Guam (at Agana) was provided for in 1908.

The inhabitants are of the Chamorro (Indonesian) stock, strongly intermixed with Philippine Tagals and Spaniards; their speech is a dialect of Malay, corrupted by Tagal and Spanish. There are very few full-blood Chamorros. The aboriginal native was of a very dark mahogany or chocolate colour. A majority of the total number of natives live in Agana. The natives are nearly all farmers, and most of them are poor, but their condition has been improved under American rule. Public schools have been established; in 1908 the enrolment was 1700. On the island there is a small colony of lepers, segregated only after American occupation. Gangrosa is a disease said to be peculiar to Guam and the neighbouring islands; it is due to a specific bacillus and usually destroys the nasal septum. The victims of this disease also are segregated. There is a good general hospital.

Agana (or San Ignacio de Agana) is the capital and principal town; under the Spanish regime it was the capital of the Ladrones. It is about 5 m. N.E. of Piti, the landing-place of Apra harbour and port of entry, with which it is connected by an excellent road. Agana has paved streets and sewer and water systems. Other villages, all small, are Asan, Piti, Sumay, Umata, Merizo and Inarajan. Guam is governed by a "naval governor," an officer of the U.S. navy who is commandant of the naval station. The island is divided into four administrative districts, each with an executive head called a gobernadorcillo (commissioner), and there are a court of appeals, a court of first instance and courts of justices of the peace. Peonage was abolished in the island by the United States in February 1900. Telegraphic communication with the Caroline Islands was established in 1905; in 1908 there were four cables ending at the relay station at Sumay on the Shore of Apra harbour.

Guam was discovered by Magellan in 1521, was occupied by Spain in 1688, was captured by the United States cruiser "Charleston" in June 1899, and was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris on the 10th of December 1898.

See _A List of Books (with References to Periodicals) on Samoa and
Guam_ (1901; issued by the Library of Congress); L. M. Cox, "The
Island of Guam," in _Bulletin of the American Geographical Society_,
vol. 36 (New York, 1904); Gen. Joseph Wheeler, _Report on the Island
of Guam_, June 1900 (War Department, Document No. 123); F. W.
Christian, _The Caroline Islands_ (London, 1899); an account of the
flora of Guam by W. E. Safford in the publications of the National
Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution); and the reports of the naval
governor.

GUAN, a word apparently first introduced into the ornithologist's vocabulary about 1743 by Edwards,[1] who said that a bird he figured (_Nat. Hist. Uncommon Birds_, pl. xiii.) was "so called in the West Indies," and the name has hence been generally applied to all the members of the subfamily _Penelopinae_, which are distinguished from the kindred subfamily _Cracinae_ or curassows by the broad postacetabular area of the pelvis as pointed out by Huxley (_Proc. Zool. Society_, 1868, p. 297) as well as by their maxilla being wider than it is high, with its culmen depressed, the crown feathered, and the nostrils bare--the last two characters separating the _Penelopinae_ from the _Oreophasinae_, which form the third subfamily of the _Cracidae_,[2] a family belonging to that taxonomer's division _Peristeropodes_ of the order _Gallinae_.

The _Penelopinae_ have been separated into seven genera, of which _Penelope_ and _Ortalis_, containing respectively about sixteen and nineteen species, are the largest, the others numbering from one to three only. Into their minute differences it would be useless to enter: nearly all have the throat bare of feathers, and from that of many of them hangs a wattle; but one form, _Chamaepetes_, has neither of these features, and _Stegnolaema_, though wattled, has the throat clothed. With few exceptions the guans are confined to the South-American continent; one species of _Penelope_ is however found in Mexico (e.g. at Mazatlan), _Pipile cumanensis_ inhabits Trinidad as well as the mainland, while three species of _Ortalis_ occur in Mexico or Texas, and one, which is also common to Venezuela, in Tobago. Like curassows, guans are in great measure of arboreal habit. They also readily become tame, but all attempts to domesticate them in the full sense of the word have wholly failed, and the cases in which they have even been induced to breed and the young have been reared in confinement are very few. Yet it would seem that guans and curassows will interbreed with poultry (_Ibis_, 1866, p. 24; _Bull. Soc. Imp. d'Acclimatation_, 1868, p. 559; 1869, p. 357), and what is more extraordinary is that in Texas the hybrids between the chiacalacca (_Ortalis vetula_) and the domestic fowl are asserted to be far superior to ordinary game-cocks for fighting purposes. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Edwards also gives "quan" as an alternative spelling, and this
may be nearer the original form, since we find Dampier in 1676
writing (Voy. ii. pt. 2, p. 66) of what was doubtless an allied if
not the same bird as the "quam." The species represented by Edwards
does not seem to have been identified.

[2] See the excellent _Synopsis_ by Sclater and Salvin in the
_Proceedings of the Zoological Society_ for 1870 (pp. 504-544), while
further information on the Cracinae was given by Sclater in the
_Transactions_ of the same society (ix. pp. 273-288, pls. xl.-liii.).
Some additions have since been made to the knowledge of the family,
but none of very great importance.

GUANABACOA (an Indian name meaning "site of the waters"), a town of Cuba, in Havana province, about 6 m. E. of Havana. Pop. (1907) 14,368. Guanabacoa is served by railway to Havana, with which it is connected by the Regla ferry across the bay. It is picturesquely situated amid woods, on high hills which furnish a fine view. There are medicinal springs in the town, and deposits of liquid bitumen in the neighbouring hills. The town is essentially a residence suburb of the capital, and has some rather pretty streets and squares and some old and interesting churches (including Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, 1714-1721). Just outside the city is the church of Potosi with a famous "wonder-working" shrine and image. An Indian pueblo of the same name existed here before 1555, and a church was established in 1576. Already at the end of the 17th century Guanabacoa was the fashionable summer residence of Havana. It enjoyed its greatest popularity in this respect from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. It was created a _villa_ with an _ayuntamiento_ (city council) in 1743. In 1762 its fort, the Little Morro, on the N. shore near Cojimar (a bathing beach, where the Key West cable now lands), was taken by the English.

GUANACO, sometimes spelt Huanaca, the larger of the two wild representatives in South America of the camel tribe; the other being the vicugna. The guanaco (_Lama huanacus_), which stands nearly 4 ft. at the shoulder, is an elegant creature, with gracefully curved neck and long slender legs, the hind-pair of the latter bearing two naked patches or callosities. The head and body are covered with long soft hair of a fawn colour above and almost pure white beneath. Guanaco are found throughout the southern half of South America, from Peru in the north to Cape Horn in the south, but occur in greatest abundance in Patagonia. They live in herds usually of from six to thirty, although these occasionally contain several hundreds, while solitary individuals are sometimes met. They are exceedingly timid, and therefore wary and difficult of approach; like many other ruminants, however, their curiosity sometimes overcomes their timidity, so as to bring them within range of the hunter's rifle. Their cry is peculiar, being something between the belling of a deer and the neigh of a horse. The chief enemies of the guanaco are the Patagonian Indians and the puma, as it forms the principal food of both. Its flesh is palatable although wanting in fat, while its skin forms the chief clothing material of the Patagonians. Guanaco are readily domesticated, and in this state become very bold and will attack man, striking him from behind with both knees. In the wild state they never defend themselves, and if approached from different points, according to the Indian fashion of hunting, get completely bewildered and fall an easy prey. They take readily to the water, and have been observed swimming from one island to another, while they have been seen drinking salt-water. They have a habit of depositing their droppings during successive days on the same spot--a habit appreciated by the Peruvian Indians, who use those deposits for fuel. Guanaco also have favourite localities in which to die, as appears from the great heaps of their bones found in particular spots.

GUANAJAY, a town of western Cuba, in Pinar del Rio province, about 36 m. (by rail) S.W. of Havana. Pop. (1907) 6400. Guanajay is served by the W. branch of the United railways of Havana, of which it is the W. terminus. The town lies among hills, has an excellent climate, and in colonial times was (like Holguin) an acclimatization station for troops fresh from Spain; it now has considerable repute as a health resort. The surrounding country is a fertile sugar and tobacco region. Guanajay has always been important as a distributing point in the commerce of the western end of the island. It was an ancient pueblo, of considerable size and importance as early as the end of the 18th century.

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.

The giver of a guarantee is called "the surety," or "the guarantor"; the person to whom it is given "the creditor," or "the guarantee"; while the person whose payment or performance is secured thereby is termed "the principal debtor," or simply "the principal." In America, but not apparently elsewhere, there is a recognized distinction between "a surety" and "a guarantor"; the former being usually bound with the principal, at the same time and on the same consideration, while the contract of the latter is his own separate undertaking, in which the principal does not join, and in respect of which he is not to be held liable, until due diligence has been exerted to compel the principal debtor to make good his default. There is no privity of contract between the surety and the principal debtor, for the surety contracts with the creditor, and they do not constitute in law one person, and are not jointly liable to the creditor (_per_ Baron Parke in _Bain_ v. _Cooper_, 1 Dowl. R. (N.S.) 11, 14).

No special phraseology is necessary to the formation of a guarantee; and what really distinguishes such a contract from one of insurance is not any essential difference between the two forms of words _insurance_ and _guarantee_, but the substance of the contract entered into by the parties in each particular case (_per_ Romer, L.J., in _Seaton_ v. _Heath_--_Seaton_ v. _Burnand_, 1899, 1 Q.B. 782, 792, C.A.; _per_ Vaughan Williams, L.J., in _In re Denton's Estate Licenses Insurance Corporation and Guarantee Fund Ltd._ v. _Denton_, 1904, 2 Ch., at p. 188; and see _Dane_ v. _Mortgage Insurance Corporation_, 1894, 1 Q.B. 54 C.A.) In this connexion it may be mentioned that the different kinds of suretyships have been classified as follows: (1) Those in which there is an agreement to constitute, for a particular purpose, the relation of principal and surety, to which agreement the creditor thereby secured is a party; (2) those in which there is a similar agreement between the principal and surety only, to which the creditor is a stranger; and (3) those in which, without any such contract of suretyship, there is a primary and a secondary liability of two persons for one and the same debt, the debt being, as between the two, that of one of those persons only, and not equally of both, so that the other, if he should be compelled to pay it, would be entitled to reimbursement from the person by whom (as between the two) it ought to have been paid (_per_ Earl of Selborne, L.C., _in Duncan Fox and Co._ v. _North and South Wales Bank_, 6 App. Cas., at p. 11). According to several codes civil sureties are made divisible into conventional, legal and judicial (Fr. and Bel., 2015, 2040 et seq.; Spain, 1823; Lower Canada, 1930), while the Spanish code further divides them into gratuitous and for valuable consideration (art. 1, 823).

In England the common-law requisites of a guarantee in no way differ from those essential to the formation of any other contract. That is to say, they comprise the mutual assent of two or more parties, competency to contract, and, unless the guarantee be under seal, valuable consideration. An offer to guarantee is not binding until it has been accepted, being revocable till then by the party making it. Unless, however, as sometimes happens, the offer contemplates an express acceptance, one may be implied, and it may be a question for a jury whether an offer of guarantee has in fact been accepted. Where the surety's assent to a guarantee has been procured by fraud of the person to whom it is given, there is no binding contract. Such fraud may consist of suppression or concealment or misrepresentation. There is some conflict of authorities as to what facts must be spontaneously disclosed to the surety by the creditor, but it may be taken that the rule on the subject is less stringent than that governing insurances upon marine, life and other risks (_The North British Insurance Co._ v. _Lloyd_, 10 Exch. 523), though formerly this was denied (_Owen_ v. _Homan_, 3 Mac. & G. 378, 397). Moreover, even where the contract relied upon is in the form of a policy guaranteeing the solvency of a surety for another's debt, and is therefore governed by the doctrine of _uberrima_ fides, only such facts as are really material to the risk undertaken need be spontaneously disclosed (_Seaton_ v. _Burnand_--_Burnand_ v. _Seaton_, 1900, A.C. 135). As regards the competency of the parties to enter into a contract of guarantee, this may be affected by insanity or intoxication of the surety, if known to the creditor, or by disability of any kind. The ordinary disabilities are those of infants and married women--now in England greatly mitigated as regards the latter by the Married Women's Property Acts, 1870 to 1893, which enable a married woman to contract, as a _feme sole_, to the extent of her separate property. Every guarantee not under seal must according to English law have a consideration to support it, though the least spark of one suffices (_per_ Wilmot, J., in _Pillan_ v. _van Mierop and Hopkins_, 3 Burr., at p. 1666; _Haigh_ v. _Brooks_, 10 A. & E. 309; _Barrell_ v. _Trussell_, 4 Taunt. 117), which, as in other cases, may consist either of some right, interest, profit or benefit accruing to the one party, or some forbearance, detriment, loss or responsibility given, suffered or undertaken by the other. In some guarantees the consideration is entire--as where, in consideration of a lease being granted, the surety becomes answerable for the performance of the covenants; in other cases it is fragmentary, i.e. supplied from time to time--as where a guarantee is given to secure the balance of a running account at a banker's, or a balance of a running account for goods supplied (_per_ Lush, L.J., in _Lloyd's_ v. _Harper_, 16 Ch. Div., at p. 319). In the former case, the moment the lease is granted there is nothing more for the lessor to do, and such a guarantee as that of necessity runs on throughout the duration of the lease and is irrevocable. In the latter case, however, unless the guarantee stipulates to the contrary, the surety may at any time terminate his liability under the guarantee as to _future_ advances, &c. The consideration for a guarantee must not be _past_ or _executed_, but on the other hand it need not comprise a direct benefit or advantage to either the surety or the creditor, but may solely consist of anything done, or any promise made, for the benefit of the principal debtor. It is more frequently _executory_ than _concurrent_, taking the form either of forbearance to sue the principal debtor, or of a future advance of money or supply of goods to him.

By the Indian Contract Act 1872, sect. 127, it is provided that the consideration for a guarantee may consist of anything done or any promise made for the benefit of the principal debtor by the creditor. Total failure of the consideration stipulated for by the party giving a guarantee will prevent its being enforced, as will also the existence of an illegal consideration. Though in all countries the mutual assent of two or more parties is essential to the formation of any contract (see e.g. Codes Civil, Fr. and Bel. 1108; Port. 643, 647 et seq.; Spain, 1258, 1261; Italy, 1104; Holl. 1356; Lower Canada, 984), a consideration is not everywhere regarded as a necessary element (see Pothier's _Law of Obligations_, Evans's edition, vol. ii. p. 19). Thus in Scotland a contract may be binding without a consideration to support it (Stair i. 10. 7).

The statutory requisites of a guarantee are, in England, prescribed by (1) the Statute of Frauds, which, with reference to guarantees, provides that "no action shall be brought whereby to charge the defendant upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default or miscarriages of another person, unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized," and (2) Lord Tenterden's Act (9 Geo. IV. c. 14), which by S 6 enacts that "no action shall be brought whereby to charge any person upon or by reason of any representation or assurance made or given concerning or relating to the character, conduct, credit, ability, trade or dealings of any other person, to the intent or purpose that such other person may obtain credit, money or goods upon" (i.e. "upon credit," see _per_ Parke, B., in _Lyde_ v. _Barnard_, 1 M. & W., at p. 104), "unless such representation or assurance be made in writing signed by the party to be charged therewith." This latter enactment, which applies to incorporated companies as well as to individual persons (_Hirst_ v. _West Riding Union Banking Co._, 1901, 2 K.B. 560 C.A.), was rendered necessary by an evasion of the 4th section of the Statute of Frauds, accomplished by treating the special promise to answer for another's debt, default or miscarriage, when not in writing, as required by that section, as a false and fraudulent representation concerning another's credit, solvency or honesty, in respect of which damages, as for a tort, were held to be recoverable (_Pasley_ v. _Freeman_, 3 T.R. 51). In Scotland, where, it should be stated, a guarantee is called a "cautionary obligation," similar enactments to those just specified are contained in S 6 of the Mercantile Law Amendment Act (Scotland) 1856, while in the Irish Statute of Frauds (7 Will. III. c. 12) there is a provision (S 2) identical with that found in the English Statute of Frauds. In India a guarantee may be either oral or written (Indian Contract Act, S 126), while in the Australian colonies, Jamaica and Ceylon it must be in writing. The German code civil requires the surety's promise to be verified by writing where he has not executed the principal obligation (art. 766), and the Portuguese code renders a guarantee provable by all the modes established by law for the proof of the principal contract (art. 826). According to most codes civil now in force a guarantee like any other contract can usually be made verbally in the presence of witnesses and in certain cases (where for instance considerable sums of money are involved) _sous signature privee_ or else by judicial or notarial instrument (see Codes Civil, Fr. and Bel. 1341; Spain, 1244; Port. 2506, 2513; Italy, 1341 et seq.; Pothier's _Law of Obligations_, Evans's ed. i. 257; Burge on _Suretyship_, p. 19; van der Linden's _Institutes of Holland_, p. 120); the French and Belgian Codes, moreover, provide that suretyship is not to be presumed but must always be expressed (art. 2015).

The Statute of Frauds does not invalidate a verbal guarantee, but renders it unenforceable by action. It may therefore be available in support of a defence to an action, and money paid under it cannot be recovered. An indemnity is not a guarantee within the statute, unless it contemplates the primary liability of a third person. It need not, therefore, be in writing when it is a mere promise to become liable for a debt, whenever the person to whom the promise is made should become liable (_Wildes_ v. _Dudlow_, L.R. 19 Eq. 198; _per_ Vaughan Williams, L.J. in _Harburg India-Rubber Co._ v. _Martin_, 1902, 1 K.B. p. 786; _Guild_ v. _Conrad_, 1894, 2 Q.B. 885 C.A.). Neither does the statute apply to the promise of a _del credere_ agent, which binds him, in consideration of the higher commission he receives, to make no sales on behalf of his principal except to persons who are absolutely solvent, and renders him liable for any loss that may result from the non-fulfilment of his promise. A promise to _give_ a guarantee is, however, within the statute, though not one to _procure_ a guarantee.

The general principles which determine what are guarantees within the Statute of Frauds, as deduced from a multitude of decided cases, are briefly as follows: (1) the primary liability of a third person must exist or be contemplated as the foundation of the contract (_Birkmyr_ v. _Darnell_, 1 Sm. L.C. 11th ed. p. 299; _Mountstephen_ v. _Lakeman_, L.R. 7 Q.B. 196; L.R. 7 H.L. 17); (2) the promise must be made to the creditor; (3) there must be an absence of all liability on the part of the surety independently of his express promise of guarantee; (4) the main object of the transaction between the parties to the guarantee must be the fulfilment of a third party's obligation (see _Harburg India-rubber Comb Co._ v. _Martin_, 1902, 1 K.B. 778, 786); and (5) the contract entered into must not amount to a sale by the creditor to the promiser of a security for a debt or of the debt itself (see de Colyar's _Law of Guarantees and of Principal and Surety_, 3rd ed. pp. 65-161, where these principles are discussed in detail by the light of decided cases there cited).