GAMBIA....GANGES.

G.

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GAMBIA, a deep river of Africa, which empties

into the Atlantic Ocean, between thirteen and fourteen degrees north latitude, and, like the Nile, overflows its banks. It is navigable for sloops six hundred miles up the country; its banks are planted with towns, inhabited by various nations; it abounds with crocodiles and sharks, and here also resides the hippopotamos, or river horse. Mr. Brue, principal factor for the French African Company, in the account of a voyage he made up the river Gambia, says, that he was surprised to see the land so well cultivated; scarce a spot lay unimproved; the low lands, divided by small canals, were all sowed with rice; the higher ground planted with millet, Indian corn, and pease of different sorts; their beef excellent; poultry plenty and very cheap, as well as all other necessaries of life.

GANGES, a celebrated river of Asia: more than two thousand miles in length, and in its annual inundation, overflowing the country to the extent of more than a hundred miles in width. The tides of the Ganges are prodigiously rapid. The channels, which the stream of this river has formed in the sand banks at its mouth, are in some places not more than half a league wide; in entering them, during the south-west monsoon, the force of wind and tide together will carry a vessel at the rate of six leagues an hour: in this state a single false stroke of the helm will throw her too much to one side, and, by losing the exact direction of the channel, expose her to the greatest danger, often to the inevita ble fate of being wrecked. The Ganges, dispensing fertility in its progress, and affording the means of commercial intercourse, has obtained the adoration of the Hindoos, or Gentoos, who inhabit its banks; and has been worshipped as a divinity since the period when, according to tradition, Dourga plunged herself into it, and disappeared. They relate that this woman was their legislator, that in her old age she descended to the bottom of the Ganges, and still lives there. Accordingly the greatest happiness of life is that of bathing in this river, and drinking its waters, which are believed to

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GAZETTE....GEORGIA.

have the virtue of purifying both body and soul. If they happen to be drowned in the Ganges, they are sure of Paradise.... Grandpre.

GAZETTE, a newspaper.

The first gazette is said to have been printed in Italy, at Venice, in the year 1536; and to have derived its name from the name of a little coin called gazetta, which was the common price of one of these papers. The first regular gazette published in England was in 1622, entitled "The certaine News of the present Weeke." The first gazette in France was in 1631; the first in America was the Boston NewsLetter, commenced at Boston, 1704, by B. Green; the first in Pennsylvania was in 1719; the first in New-York was in 1725; the first in Rhode-Island was in 1732; the first in Connecticut was in 1755; and the first in NewHampshire in 1756. The number of papers, issuing annually from the presses in Great Britain, at the close of the 18th century, are computed to have been considerably more than fifteen million. The number of gazettes in the United States, at the beginning of the 19th century, was about two hundred; and the number of papers which they circulated annually, are calculated to be twelve or thirteen million....Miller.

GEORGIA, one of the United States of America ; situated between 30° 37' and 359 north latitude; extending about 600 miles in length, and on an average 250 in breadth; bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, by East and West-Florida, by the river Missisippi, and by North and South-Carolina, and the state of Tennessee. This state produces rice and cotton in great abundance. In some parts of the state, the heat, in summer, is excessive. In a letter from Henry Ellis, Esq. formerly governor of Georgia, dated at Savannah, July 17, 1758, he remarks, "I think it is highly probable, that the inhabitants of this place breathe a hotter air than any other people on the face of the earth. I have travelled a great part of this globe, not without giving some attention to the peculiarities of each climate, and I can fairly pronounce, that I never felt such heats any where as in Georgia."

GEORGIA....GERMANY.

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GEORGIA, a country of Asia, between the Caspian and Black Sea: it is the ancient Colchis. This country (including Circassia) has been for many ages a nursery for slaves; it furnished the Greeks, Romans, and Asiatic nations with them. From the time of the Moguls, (whose empire commenced in the beginning of the 13th century,) the slave trade has been carried on here in the same manner as it is carried on in Africa, by the wars among the numerous tribes, and by the misery of the inhabitants, who sell their own children for a subsistence. Multitudes of these slaves are carried to Constantinople and to Egypt. We read in Herodotus, that the ancient Colchis (now called Georgia) received slaves from Egypt; that is, from the same country into which they now sell their children. What an extraordinary reverse of circumstances !.... Volney.

GERMANY, a large country of Europe. Ancient Germany included the north of France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, part of Turkey in Europe, and of Muscovy, or Russia. The Romans were able to conquer only a part of Germany. The Danube was the boundary of the ancient Roman empire; for though the emperor Trajan, at the beginning of the second century, conquered Dacia, which was situated north of the Danube, and built a bridge over the river, yet the Romans held that province for no long time, and were at last compelled to destroy the bridge, to prevent the irruptions of the northern barbarians. This country was called the Northern Hive; for thence issued numerous swarms of warlike and barbarous people, called Goths, Vandals, and Huns, who overthrew the western Roman empire, changed the face of the civilized parts of Europe, and laid the foundations of most of the European monarchies and aristocracies which now subsist. ern Germany is six hundred miles in length and five hundred and twenty in breadth; is situated between about forty-five and fifty-five degrees of north latitude; borders upon the German Ocean, Denmark, the Baltic Sea, Poland, Swisserland, the Alps, the Netherlands, and France ; and is computed to contain about twentyeight million inhabitants. Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was the founder of the German empire, in the

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year 800.

GIANT....GIBRALTAR.

Before the French revolution there were in all Germany, about two hundred independent sovereignties; all confederated under one common head, namely, the Emperor.

GIANT, a person of prodigious stature and dimensions of body. The iron bedstead of Og, king of Bashan, was nine cubits, or about sixteen feet. Goliath of Gath, the champion of the Philistines, measured six cubits and a span; which, according to Bishop Cumberland, is eleven feet English. The body of Orestes, according to the Greeks, was eleven feet and a half. The giant Galbara, brought from Arabia to Rome under Claudius Cæsar, was near ten feet. Maximus, the Roman emperor, was nine feet high. Dr. Cheselden speaks of a skeleton, discovered in a Roman camp, near St. Albans in England, which he judged to have been eight feet and four inches. Byrne, the Irish giant, who died since the middle of the eighteenth century, measured eight feet and two inches. Edward Malone, another Irishman, was seven feet and seven inches; and his stature and size were exceeded by Daniel Cordanus, a Swede. Patrick O'Brien, who died in England, 1806, was full eight feet high....Encyclopædia, et cet.

GIBRALTAR, a famous promontory, or rather pe ninsula of Spain; lying in latitude 35° 50 ́. To the ancients it was known by the name of Calpe, and was called one of the Pillars of Hercules: it faces the mountain of Abila, on the African shore, which is the other Pillar of Hercules. These two eminences were, among the ancients, considered as the limits of navigation; and to pass them and enter the Atlantic Ocean, was thought a most daring adventure. The strait, upon which this fortress stands, connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic, and divides Europe from Africa; it is twenty-four miles in length, and fifteen in breadth. Through this strait a strong current always runs from the Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. The whole promontory, upon the summit of which the fortress is built, is a vast rock, rising perpendicularly several hundred feet, measuring from north to south about two English miles, but not above one in breadth from east to west.

GINGER-ROOT....GIN-SENG.

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Nature and art have done every thing to render it as strong as possible. Gibraltar was captured from Spain, in 1704, and has ever since been held by the British crown. Although this impregnable fortress is the key of the Mediterranean, it has been the opinion of some, particularly of Adam Smith, that its capture and detention have been injurious to the interest of Great Britain, by occasioning an implacable enmity in the minds of the Spaniards, who otherwise might have been among the number of England's most profitable commercial customers. That enmity is now done away, by the effectual assistance given by Great Britain to Spain, during her noble struggles for independence.

GINGER-ROOT, an aromatic root that grows plentifully in the West-Indies, and is ground into gingerflour. In the cultivation of this root no greater skill or care is required than in the propagation of potatoes, and it is planted much in the same manner.

When

ripe, it is dug and exposed to a hot sun for drying.— These roots, taken up while their fibres are tender and full of sap, make an admirable sweetmeat....Bryan Edwards.

GIN-SENG, a valuable plant that grows spontaneously in China, and in some parts of the United States. The root of Gin-seng is white and rough; its stem is smooth and very round, and of a deep red colour. Its height is various, according to the vigor of the plant. From the extremity of the stalk proceeds a number of branches, equally distant one from the other, and, in their growth, never deviating from the same plan. Each branch bears five small leaves full of fibres, the upper parts of which are of a dark green, and the lower. of a shining whitish green. This plant decays and springs up every year. It is the most esteemed of all the plants of China; where it is found, on the declivities of mountains, between the thirty-ninth and fortyseventh degrees of north latitude. Gin-seng was formerly thought to be a plant indigenous only to China and Tartary. In 1720, it was discovered by the Jesuit Lasiton, in the forests of Canada; and in 1750 it was found in the western parts of New-England. It grows