LOCUST....LOLLARDS.

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tion; but the first account we have of any variation in its direction, was by Columbus, in the year 1492, in his first voyage to America. From that time the variation began to be observed, and became more and more known. For the last century and an half, mathematicians have made it a regular part of their business to observe it, in different parts of the earth; with the annual alterations that are constantly taking place. In the year 1723, a very accurate observer, G. Graham of London, discovered that the magnetic needle had a diurnal, as well as an annual variation. And it is now well known, that from about eight o'clock in the morning, the magnetic needle varies to the west, until about two o'clock in the afternoon. The effects of these variations are at all times such, that the magnetic needle can never give to the surveyor who follows its direction, a straight and accurate line....Encyclopædia, Miller, Williams.

LOCUST, an insect about three inches long; having four wings, and two horns about an inch in length. There is no animal upon earth that multiplies so fast as these, or that is so dreadful a scourge to the human race famine and plague are often the consequence of their invasion. Africa is the native climate of locusts; whence they fly into Asia and the southern parts of Europe, desolating whole countries, and putrifying the air with their dead bodies. Mr. Park informs us, that while he was in the interior of Africa, he saw locusts in such immense quantities that the trees were quite black with them; that they devoured every vegetable that came in their way, and in a short time completely stripped a tree of its leaves; that the noise of their excrements falling upon the leaves and withered grass, very much resembled a shower of rain; and that when a tree was shaken or struck, it was astonishing to see what a cloud of them would fly off.

LOLLARDS, the followers of Wickliffe, a secular priest, educated at Oxford in England; who, in the fourteenth century, preached the doctrines of the reformation from popery: his followers were called Lollards in way of derision and contempt. Wickliffe died

in peace; but the council of Constance ordered his bones to be burnt, forty years after his death. A bloody persecution against those reformers was begun in England, in the year 1400, in the reign of Henry VII. A law was then enacted, that when any heretic, who relapsed or refused to abjure his opinions, was delivered over to the secular arm by the bishop or his commissaries, he should be committed to the flames by the civil magistrate, before the whole people. The first that suffered under this statute, was William Sautre, a clergyman in London. He had been condemned by the convocation at Canterbury; his sentence was ratified by the house of peers; and he was burned at the stake, because he could not think as the Romish church directed. The execution of Sautre was a prelude to future horrors of persecution.... Russell.

LONDON, the metropolis of Great Britain, and one of the largest and most opulent cities in the world: it is mentioned by Tacitus as a considerable commercial place even in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero. London spreads itself on each side of the river Thames; extending seven miles in length, (including Westminster and Southwark) and about three miles in its greatest breadth; and containing no less than nine hundred thousand people. Its situation on a fine navigable river that is seldom obstructed by frost, gives it every advantage that can be derived from a sea-port, without its dangers; and, at the same time, it enjoys a very extensive communication with the internal parts of the country, which supply it with necessaries, and, in return, receive from it such commodities as they require. the seventeenth century, two dreadful events befel the city of London, in rapid succession. In 1665, the great plague cut off ninety thousand people; and in 1666, thirteen thousand houses were consumed by fire. During the plague, pits were dug to receive the dead; one of these pits was forty feet long, sixteen wide, and about twenty feet deep. There were instances of mothers carrying their own children to those public graves, and of people delirious, or in despair for the loss of their friends, who threw themselves alive into those pits. It has been recorded to the immortal honor of Sir John

In

Lawrence, the then lord mayor, that he continued the whole time in the city; heard complaints and redressed them; enforced the wisest regulations then known, and saw them executed. The day after the disease was known for certainty to be the plague, above forty thousand servants were dismissed, and turned into the streets to perish, as no one would receive them into their houses; and the villagers near London drove them away with pitchforks and fire-arms. Sir John Lawrence supported them all, as well as the needy who were sick; at first by expending his own fortune, till subscriptions could be solicited and received from all parts of the nation.... Walker, Darwin.

LONGEVITY, length of life. The following, extracted from Mr. Whitehurst and Dr. Fothergill, are among the most remarkable instances of longevity dur. ing the two last centuries. Thomas Parre of Shropshire in England, died November 16, 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two years. Henry Jenkins, of Yorkshire in England, died December 8, 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine years. James Sands, of Staffordshire, in England, died about the year 1670, aged one hundred and forty years. The countess of Desmond, and the countess of Eccleston, both of the kingdom of Ireland, died about the year 1691, the former aged one hundred and forty, and the latter one hundred and forty-three years. Col. Thomas Winslow, of Ireland, died August 26, 1776, aged one hundred and forty-six years. Fráncis Consist, of Yorkshire in England, died, Jan. 1768, aged one hundred and fifty years. Christopher J. Drakenberg, of Norway, died June 24, 1770, aged one hundred and forty-six years. A. Goldsmith, of France, died June, 1776, aged one hundred and forty years. Louisa Truxo, a negress, of Tucomea, in South America, was living, October 5, 1780, aged one hundred and seventyfive years. It is observable that but few persons live to extreme old age in crowded cities; and that the most remarkable instances of longevity have been found among that class of people who had nothing but plain, coarse diet, and were accustomed to daily labor n the open air. Old Parre, for instance, had been

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LONG-ISLAND....LONGITUDE, &c.

used all his life to the coarsest fare.... British Encyclopædia.

LONG-ISLAND, an island belonging to the state of New-York; extending north-east from near the city of New-York, almost to the western bounds of the coast of Rhode-Island; and is separated by the sound from Connecticut, whence it was first settled: it is one hundred and forty miles long, and its medial breadth not above ten miles. Dr. Mitchill mentions it as a probable opinion, that Long-Island and the adjacent continent were, in former days, continuous, or only separated by a small river; and that the strait which now divides them, was formed by successive inroads of the sea from the eastward and westward. Because the fossil bodies

on both shores have a near resemblance; because the rocks and islands lying between, are formed of similar materials; because in several places, particularly at White Stone and Hell Gate, the distance from land to land is very small, &c.

LONGITUDE, the distance, east or west, from any given point, called the first meridian. By the French, Paris is made the first meridian: the English make the meridian of London, or rather the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the first. There are one hundred and eigh ty degrees of longitude; a degree at the equator being sixty geographical miles, but constantly decreasing from the equator to either of the poles. In order for ascertaining longitude, the British parliament, about the year 1760, decreed the reward of twenty thousand pounds sterling to the inventor of a time piece, which should err less than ten leagues (thirty miles) in the space of about six weeks. Mr. Harrison's time piece, in his first voyage, going and returning, erred only one minute, fifty-four and an half seconds, in one hundred and forty-seven days. In consequence of this, he had a moiety of the reward, though by the letter of the law he was entitled to the whole.... Gentleman's Magazine.

LONG KNIFE INDIANS, the Virginia savages, who procured to themselves this name by a most horri ble massacre of the whites. On the 22d day of March,

LOOKING GLASS....LOUISIANA.

223

in the year 1622, the Virginia Indians, having concerted the plan with the utmost secrecy and subtlety, were distributed in parties through the colony, to attack every plantation, at the same hour of the day, when the men should be abroad and at work. Three hundred and forty-nine people fell in this general massacre; of which number six were members of the council. The unrelenting severity with which the subsequent war was prosecuted by the colonists against the Indians, transmitted mutual abhorrence to the posterity of both; and procured to the latter the name of long knife, by which they are still distinguished in the hieroglyphic language of the natives.... Belknap.

LOOKING GLASS, a glass mirror, which being overspread on the inside with quicksilver, exhibits the images of such objects as are placed before it, apparently at the same distance behind. About the beginning of the fourteenth century, these mirrors were made no where in Europe but at Venice; nor was it till lately that large ones were found, unless in the houses of the very rich. We are informed in Cooke's voyages, that nothing could exceed the pleasing astonishment of Le Boo, the young prince of Pelew, when he first saw himself i. a large looking glass. He walked backward and forward, to the right and to the left; he threw himself into various attitudes, still fixing his eyes upon the image that seemed to mimic all the changes of his motions; he took a peep at the backside of the glass, to see if there were nobody behind it. It was all enchantment to the imagination of this untaught but sensible son of nature.

LOUISIANA, a large region, lately belonging to the crown of Spain, but purchased by the government of the United States of America; bounded by the Missisippi, on the east; by the Gulf of Mexico, on the south; by New-Mexico, on the west; and extending indefinitely to the north: New-Orleans is the capital. The extent of this territory, on the western banks of the Missisippi, from the bay of Mexico to the mouth of the Missouri, is about twelve hundred and thirty miles; and from the mouth of the Missouri at the Missisippi,