medial breadth; the centre of the island lies in about 18° 12' north latitude. Besides free negroes, people of colour, and Maroons, there are in Jamaica thirty thousand whites, and two hundred and fifty thousand slaves. The native inhabitants of this island, to the number of sixty thousand, on the most moderate cstimate, were whally cut off and exterminated by the Spaniards, not a single descendant, of either sex, being alive when the English took the island in 1655. Port Royal, once the capital of Jamaica, was formerly a place of the greatest wealth and importance in the West-Indies; but is now reduced, by repeated calamities, to three streets, containing about two hundred houses. This place was distinguished for its rapid rise, extensive prosperity, deplorable wickedness, and fatal catastrophe. In the month of June, 1692, happened that tremendous earthquake, which, in two minutes time destroyed a great part of the town of Port Royal, and sunk the houses in a gulf forty fathoms deep. Two or three hundred openings in the earth might be seen at a time; in some whereof the people were swallowed up; in others the earth closing, caught them by the middle, and thus crushed them instantly to death. Others opening still more dreadful than the rest, swallowed up whole streets; and others, more formidable still, spouted up whole cataracts of water, drowning such as the earthquake had spared. One man miraculously escaped; and on his tomb-stone, at Green Bay, in Jamaica, is the following inscription. "Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, esq. who departed this life, at Port Royal, the "22d of December, 1736, aged eighty. He was born at Montpelier in France, but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island, where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake, in the 66 year 1692, and by the providence of God, was by an"other shock thrown into the sea, and miraculously "saved by swimming, until a boat took him up. He "lived many years after, in great reputation, beloved "by all who knew him, and much lamented at his "death."....Goldsmith, Bryan Edwards.

JANIZARIES, an order of infantry in the Turkish armies; reputed the grand seignior's foot guards.

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JANUS....JAPAN.

About the year 1360, the sultan Amurath, grandson of Othman, the founder of the Turkish empire, in order to create a body of devoted troops that might serve as the immediate guards of his person and dignity, commanded his officers to seize annually, as the imperial property, the third part of the young males taken in war. After being instructed in the Mahometan religion, inured to obedience by severe discipline, and trained to warlike exercises, these youths were formed into a regular band, distinguished by the name of Janizaries, or New Soldiers. Their number is about forty thousand; they are of a superior rank to all other soldiers: at the same time they are arrogant and factious; and this military body is formidable to all orders of the state. When the Janizaries were first organised, Hagi Bektaski, a man highly reputed among the Mahometans for his holiness, gave them his blessing, and cutting off one of the sleeves of the fur-gown which he had on, put it on the head of the leader of this new militia; from which time they still wear the fur-cap.

JANUS, a Roman deity, represented with two faces, looking different ways; symbolically denoting (as some say) political prudence, examining, at the same time, the past, and the probable future, and weighing the consequences to be hoped or feared from any public measure. In the reign of Numa, about seven hundred years before our Saviour's nativity, a temple was built to Janus, at Rome. This temple was shut in peace, and left open during war: at the time when the Prince of Peace was born into the world, the temple of Janus was shut.

JAPAN, an empire, consisting of three large, and many small islands, lying eastward of China. The gov ernment is ancient, regular, and despotic; the country is fertile, rich, and populous; the people ingenious, industrious, and commercial, but invincibly attached to home. The commodities which these islands yield are the same that are brought from China; namely, the finest of porcelain, varnish and teas, silk and cotton manufactures, medicinal roots and gums, gold, pearls, coral, and ambergris. Postle waite affirms, that the teas of Ja

JAQUAR....JAVA.

191

pan are free from the adulterations practised in China. The Japanese are said to be the grossest idolaters, shy of strangers, rigorous in all their dealings with them, and detesters of the name of Christians.

About the middle of the sixteenth century, popish missionaries from Portugal and Spain, were sent to Japan, and met with surprising success in converting the Japanese to the Catholic faith; which spread through most of the provinces of the empire, and was openly embraced by many of the princes and lords. This bright prospect was at length overcast; and the issue was most tragical. The missionaries were accused of treasonable plots to subvert the state; and against them and all their proselytes and adherents a bloody persecution arose, which continued for many years, and ended in their utter extermination. The Christian religion has ever since that time been held in the utmost abhorrence at Japan.

JAQUAR, a very formidable animal that infests some of the southern parts of America. It is rather larger than a panther, with hair of a bright tawny colour.The top of the back is marked with long streaks of black; the sides beautifully variegated with irregular oblong spots. It is found in the hottest parts of SouthAmerica, is very fierce, and when pressed with hunger, will sometimes venture to seize a man: the Indians are much afraid of it, and think it prefers them to white people. In travelling through the deserts of Guiana, (or Surinam) they light great fires in the night, of which these animals are much afraid.... Winterbotham.

JAVA, an island in the Indian Ocean; upwards of six hundred miles in length, and from sixty to eighty in breadth; lying about midway on the most frequented road from Hindostan to China and Japan. The natives, who resemble the Chinese, are considerably numerous. The island yields immense quantities of pepper; it produces, of flowers and fruits, whatever can regale the senses in the mean time it abounds with venomous serpents, monstrous tigers, and other beasts of prey.On the coasts the Dutch have several establishments,

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JERSEY, NEW....JERUSALEM.

the principal of which are Batavia and Bantam. See BATAVIA.

JERSEY, NEW, one of the United States of America, situated between 39° and 41° 24′ north latitude; bounded by Hudson's river and the ocean, and by Delaware bay and river, which divide it from the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania; extending about 150 miles in length, and 52 in breadth. The inhabitants are a collection of Low Dutch, Germans, English, Scotch, Irish, and New-Englanders, and their descendants. "The Swedes, (says Adam Smith) established themselves in New-Jersey; and the number of Swedish families still to be found there, sufficiently demonstrates, that this colony was very likely to have prospered, had it been protected by the mother country. But being neglected by Sweden, it was soon swallowed up by the Dutch colony of New-York, which again, in 1674, fell under the dominion of the English."

JERUSALEM, 66 a city of Palestine in Asia; situated about forty-five miles south-east of the Mediterranean Sea. It is supposed to have been founded by Melchezedec, and then called Salem. It was formerly the capital of Judea; it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews its inhabitants, led captive to Babylon. Sev-.. enty years after the nativity of our Saviour, it was taken and destroyed by the Romans; when more than a million wretched Jews perished in the siege and capture of the city. Near the ruins of the ancient Jerusalem, the emperor Adrian built a new city, which was taken by the Persians, in 614, and by the Saracens (or Arabians) in 636. In the year 1099, it was taken by the crusaders from Europe, who founded a new kingdom, which lasted eighty-eight years, under nine kings. Saladin, king of Egypt and Syria, gained possession of Jerusalem, in · 1187. The Turks drove out the Saracens, in 1217, and have kept possession of it ever since. It is now inhab ited by Turks, Arabs, Jews, and Christians. It is situated on a rocky height, with steep ascents on every side, except towards the north: it is about three miles in circumference, and includes Mount Calvary, which was formerly without the walls." The siege of Jeru

JESUITS....JESUITS' BARK.

193

salem by the Romans, its capture and entire destruction, were foretold by our blessed Saviour, circumstantially, and with the utmost exactness.

JESUITS, a monastic order, instituted by the Pope of Rome, in the year 1536; Ignatius Loyola being at that time head of the fraternity. While other monks spent their time in cloisters, these were remarkable for their activity and free intercourse with the world; and none were admitted into the order but persons of superior cunning and parts. The Jesuits, by their subtle arts and intrigues, had obtained immense influence in all the popish kingdoms. To them was generally committed the education of the children of the princes and nobility; they were consulted in all important matters of church and state; they were sent abroad as missionaries; they carried on a lucrative traffic in South America and the East-Indies; and being always united among themselves, and seeking incessantly the aggrandizement of their order without regarding means, they became a most powerful and dangerous body. In the year 1762, the government of France demanded of the Jesuits the rules of their order, which they had hitherto carefully concealed. That mysterious book was found to contain maxims subversive of all government, and even of the fundamental principles of morals. In consequence of that discovery they were banished the kingdom. They had been banished from England in 1604; from Venice, in 1606; from Portugal, in 1759; they were expelled Naples, 1768; and in 1773, the order was abolished by the Pope: it revived in Russia, 1783.

JESUITS' BARK, or Peruvian Bark, an invaluable drug, used with great success in intermittent fevers. The tree which produces it, grows chiefly in Quito, a province of Peru. It is about the size of a cherry tree, and bears a kind of fruit resembling an almond; but it is only the bark that possesses those excellent qualities for which it is so much celebrated. It is said that the medicinal virtue of this bark was discovered in the following manner. Several of the trees were felled for other purposes into a lake, when an epidemic fever of a very mortal kind prevailed at Loxa, in Peru; and the

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