NAUTILUS..NEW-BRITAIN..NEW-CASTLE. 259

NAUTILUS, a wonderful little sea animal that abounds in the Mediterranean, and navigates itself in the manner of a boat or ship. It has a shell, which seems no thicker nor stronger than a piece of paper. When it is to sail, it extends two arms on high; and between them supports a membrane, which it throws out on this occasion; this membrane serves for its sail; and the two arms it hangs out of the shell, serve as oars; the tail being the rudder to steer by. When a storm arises, they draw in their sails and oars, and take in such a quantity of water as makes them sink; and when they would rise again, they expel this water through holes of which their legs are full. It has been imagined that men first learned the art of sailing in vessels from what they saw practised by this surprising animal....Encyclopædia.

NEW-BRITAIN, a country in the northern parts of America, inhabited by the Esquimaux, a species of Indians who have a sallow olive colour. It lies round Hudson's Bay and comprehends Labrador, and New North and South Wales, and is attached to the government of Lower Canada. The Esquimaux are a people remarkably different from the Indians who occupy the other parts of the continent of America. There is not much room to doubt that they were derived from the north-west parts of Europe; that they are the same people with the Greenlanders, Laplanders, Zemblans, and Samojeds; and that, like them, they were descended from the Tartars in the east.... Williams.

NEW-CASTLE, a noted town in England, on the river Tyne it is situated in the centre of the great collieries, which have for centuries supplied London, all the eastern, and most of the midland and southern parts of the kingdom, with coal. The first charter which was granted to this town for digging coal was by Henry III. in 1239; but, in 1306, the use of coal for fuel was prohibited in London, by royal proclamation; chiefly because it injured the sale of wood, great quantities of which were then growing about that city. This prohibition, however, did not continue long; and we may consider coal as having been dug and exported

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from New-Castle more than five hundred years. This trade and navigation, which employs fifteen hundred vessels, is one of the greatest nurseries of seamen.... Walker.

Sec

NEW ENGLAND, the northern and eastern portion of the United States; lying between forty-one and about forty-eight degrees north latitude; and comprehending the states of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rode-Island, and Connecticut. The three following things are particularly remarkable respecting New-England, or some parts of it. First, All the incorporated towns (particularly of Massachusetts and Connecticut) are bound by law to support schools within themselves. These schools are supported by the joint expense of the inhabitants of each corporation or town, who are taxed for the maintenance of the same, in proportion to the quantum of every man's estate. Accordingly a poor man with a large family of children has but little to pay for their schooling; while a rich man who is childless must pay a considerable annual tax for the education of the children of the poor. ond, This is the most populous portion of the United States; although it has had far the least accession to its population from abroad; as foreigners emigrating to our country, seldom settle in that part of it, unless in some of the principal sea-port towns. Third, A part of New-England, namely, Massachusetts, is, by reason of the fisheries, the great and perpetual nursery of seamen. And of what vast importance this circumstance might be to the whole federal union, in maritime warfare, provided it had an adequate navy, will appear from what has already happened, as well during the war of revolution, as in the late brilliant achievements of our frigates. It is stated in the American Museum, as a fact proveable by public records, that there were taken, brought in, and libelled in the maritime court of three counties of Massachusetts, during the revolutionary war, one thousand and ninety-eight vessels with their cargoes, belonging to Great Britain; those three counties comprising the ports of Boston, Salem, Beverly, Newburyport, Marblehead, Gloucester, Haverhill, and Ipswich. As, by an all-wise and superintending Provi

NEW-HAMPSHIRE....NEWFOUNLAND. 261

dence, good is often educed from evil: so, in particular, the first settlement of New-England was enforced, as it were, by religious persecution. A congregation of dissenters in England, exposed to the penalties of the ecclesiastical law, and extremely harassed, first sought refuge in Holland; and, after twelve years abode there, they, to the number of a hundred and one persons, embarked for America, and planted themselves at Plymouth in Massachusetts, December, 1620. The hardships they suffered and the fortitude and patience with which they surmounted them, can scarce find a parallel in the pages of history.

NEW HAMPSHIRE, one of the United States of America; situated between 42° 41′ and 45° 11′ north latitude; extending in length, from the northern to the southern extremity, one hundred and sixty-eight miles : its greatest breadth measured from the entrance of Pascataqua harbor to the mouth of West river, which falls into Connecticut river, is ninety miles. It is bounded on the south by Massachusetts proper; on the east by the district of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean, but has only about eighteen miles of sea-coast; on the north by the British province of Lower Canada; and on the west by Connecticut river, which separates it from Vermont: its chief town is Portsmouth. As New-Hampshire has but a narrow strip of sea-coast, and only one port, and is in a manner embosomed in the other states, the most of her trade is engrossed by her neighbors.... Winterbotham.

NEWFOUNDLAND, an island of North America, belonging to Great Britain: situated on the east side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between 46° 45′ and 51° 40′ north latitude; extending three hundred and eighty-one miles in length, and from forty to two hundred and eighty-seven miles in breadth. This island is valuable chiefly, for the great fishery of cod carried on upon those shoals, which are called the banks of Newfoundland. The fishery on these banks, may be justly esteemed a mine of greater value than any of those of Mexico and Peru. Great Britain and the United States, at the lowest computation, annually employ three thousand sail of

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NEW ORLEANS....NEW-YORK.

small craft in this fishery; on board of which, and on shore to cure and pack the fish, are upwards of a hundred thousand hands; so that this fishery is not only a valuable branch of trade to the merchant, but a source of livelihood to many thousands of poor people, and a most excellent nursery for seamen....Morse.

NEW-ORLEANS, the capital of Louisiana, and now belonging to the United States of America; situated on the east side of the Missisippi, one hundred and five miles from its mouth, in latitude 30° 21′ north it was named in honor of the duke of Orleans, in whose regency it begun to be builded. In the beginning of the year 1787 this city contained about eleven hundred houses, seven-eighths of which were consumed by fire, on the 19th of March, 1788. It has been in a considerable measure rebuilt; and possesses great advantages for trade.... Winterbotham.

NEW-YORK, one of the United States of America; situated between 40° 41' and 45° north latitude; extending about three hundred and fifty miles in length, and three hundred in breadth; bounded on the east by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont; on the north by the forty-fifth degree of latitude, which divides it from Canada; on the north-west by the river St. Lawrence, and the lakes Ontario and Erie; and on the southwest and south by Pennsylvania and New-Jersey. The Dutch claimed this territory by right of discovery: captain Henry Hudson, who was in the employ of the Dutch East-India Company, having sailed up the river that bears his name, in the year 1609. They called the country Nova Belgia, or New Holland. In the year 1664, an English squadron sailed to North America, under the command of Richard Nicholas, who took possession of the Dutch settlement of Nova Belgia, afterwards called New-York, in honor of the duke of York, who had obtained a grant of it from Charles II. his broAbout the middle of the eighteenth century, the whole number of souls in the province of New-York was computed at a hundred thousand, and its militia at eighteen thousand. The settlement, at that time, was in a manner confined to York island, and narrow strips

ther.

NEW-YORK CITY....NIAGARA

263

of land on each side of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers; and the city of New-York paid about one third of the public taxes. Since the termination of the revolutionary war, the population of this state has increased with an astonishing rapidity..., Russell, Smith, et cet.

NEW-YORK CITY, the capital of the state of the same name. It is situated at the south-west point of York Island, which is fifteen miles in length, and not exceeding two miles in breadth. This city is most admirably situated for a convenient and extensive commerce; and in a manner commands the trade of a territory, about four hundred miles in length, and one hundred and thirty in breadth; a territory fertile, consisting now of more than a million people, and increasing rapidly in population and wealth. The number of inhabitants in the city of New-York, taken by order of the king of England, in the year 1697, was three thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven. The number of inhabitants.in the city and county of New-York, in 1756, was ten thousand eight hundred and eighty-one. At that period, according to Smith's history, the city was a mile in length, and not above half a mile in breadth. In 1771, the number was twenty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three; In 1786,-twenty-three thousand six hundred and fourtcen; in 1790, thirty-three thousand one hundred and thirty-one. The number of inhabitants now in the city (1810) is ninety-six thousand three hundred and seventy-two.

NIAGARA, a Strait and a Cataract. The strait or river of Niagara, which separates the state of NewYork from Upper Canada, proceeds out of lake Erie, and running about thirty miles, empties into lake Ontario; the country around the former lake being elevated about three hundred feet above that which surrounds the latter. Fort Erie is at the junction of this strait with lake Erie, and fort Niagara at its junction with lake Ontario. These two important fortresses belong to the United States. The cataract of Niagara (the most sublime and tremendous cataract in the known world) is at the distance of about seven or eight miles from lake Ontario; in all which distance a chasm is formed, which