found the territory on the left of the Rhine mainly tenanted by tribes of
the Celtic family. That large division of the Indo-European group which
had already overspread many portions of Asia Minor, Greece, Germany, the
British Islands, France, and Spain, had been long settled in Belgic Gaul,
and constituted the bulk of its population. Checked in its westward
movement by the Atlantic, its current began to flow backwards towards its
fountains, so that the Gallic portion of the Netherland population was
derived from the original race in its earlier wanderings and from the
later and refluent tide coming out of Celtic Gaul. The modern
appellation of the Walloons points to the affinity of their ancestors
with the Gallic, Welsh, and Gaelic family. The Belgae were in many
respects a superior race to most of their blood-allies. They were,
according to Caesar's testimony, the bravest of all the Celts. This may
be in part attributed to the presence of several German tribes, who, at
this period had already forced their way across the Rhine, mingled their
qualities with the Belgic material, and lent an additional mettle to the
Celtic blood. The heart of the country was thus inhabited by a Gallic
race, but the frontiers had been taken possession of by Teutonic tribes.

When the Cimbri and their associates, about a century before our era,
made their memorable onslaught upon Rome, the early inhabitants of the
Rhine island of Batavia, who were probably Celts, joined in the
expedition. A recent and tremendous inundation had swept away their
miserable homes, and even the trees of the forests, and had thus rendered
them still more dissatisfied with their gloomy abodes. The island was
deserted of its population. At about the same period a civil dissension
among the Chatti--a powerful German race within the Hercynian forest--
resulted in the expatriation of a portion of the people. The exiles
sought a new home in the empty Rhine island, called it "Bet-auw," or
"good-meadow," and were themselves called, thenceforward, Batavi, or