[4]
Their language however was driven into the remotest eastern corner of
their former extensive territory; and is there, and only there, still
to be heard. We speak of the province called Lusatia, situated between
Saxony, Bohemia, Silesia, and Brandenburg, of which the greatest part
is at present under the Prussian dominion, and the smallest but
richest portion under that of Saxony.
_Lushitze_, Lusatia, Germ. _Lausitz_, signifies in Slavic, a low
marshland. This name was formerly applied only to the north-eastern
part of this province, or Lower Lusatia, which is, or was at least at
the time of the Vendish settlement, a country of that description. At
a later period, the name was carried over very improperly to the
south-western part, or Upper Lusatia, a beautiful and mountainous
region. Lusatia was given by Henry I, as a fief, to the margrave of
Meissen. In the course of the following centuries, its two parts were
repeatedly separated and reunited, alternately under the dominion of
the last named margrave, of Poland, or of Bohemia, without however
belonging to the German empire. In the fourteenth century it was at
length incorporated with Bohemia, and remained so for nearly three
hundred years. To this circumstance alone the partial preservation of
the Vendish language is to be ascribed.
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