ABOUSHEHR, generally called Bushire, is a town on the Persian Gulf. N. Lat. 28. 57. E. Long. 60. 52., and now the principal seaport on these waters.

ABOUSIR, a place in the Egyptian Delta (N. Lat. 30. 55.), near the left branch of the Damietta bank of the Nile.

ABOVE SAWADDE, a town in Caermarthenshire. Pop. 803.

ABOVE TOWN, a town and division in Lancashire. Pop. 591.

ABOYNE and GLENTANNER, a parish in Aberdeenshire. Pop. 1163.

ABRAHAMSDORF, a village in Hungary, in the circle of Nether Theiss, one of 16 which were formerly part of Poland, but, in 1772, united with Hungary, in consequence of which they all enjoy some peculiar rights of exemption from Austrian taxation and judicatories. ABRACUNNUS, in ancient geography, the name of a promontory and river of Galloway, in Scotland, so called from the name Aber, the mouth of a river, or the junction of two rivers.

ABRAM, a town in Lancashire. Pop. 511. ABRANTES, a fortified town on the Tagus, in Portuguese Estremadura, 45 miles E. Lis

bon.

AERIES, a town in France, in the department of the Upper Alps. It was at one time a portion of Savoy. Population 2030.

ABROTONUM, in ancient geography, a town and harbour in the Mediterranean, one of the three cities that formed Tripoli.

ABRUCENA, a town in the district of Guadix, in the province of Granada, in Spain, between the Sierra Nevada and Jaen.

ABRUZZO, one of the four great provinces of the kingdom of Naples, bounded east by the Adriatic, north and west by the States of the Church, and south by the provinces of Terra di Lavoro and Capitanata. It is divided into two districts, separated by the river Pescara; the one called Abruzzo Citra, the other Abruzzo Ultra. Population 587,719.

ABSONWITH, a parish in Gloucestershire. Pop. 824.

AEU-ARISCH, a walled city of Arabia, in a principality of the same name, 80 miles N. Loheia. Long. 42. 30. E. Lat. 16. 45. N.

ABURY, a village of England, in Wiltshire, 6 miles from Marlborough. Population 750. ABUS, in ancient geography, a river of Britain, now the Humber.

ABUSIB, a town of Egypt, 12 miles to the west of Alexandria. It is in a ruinous condition, with the remains of an ancient temple, and many scattered vestiges of former extent and population.

ABUSCIO, a town in Russia, in the circle of Lergalsch and government of Rish-egerod.

ABUTIGE, a considerable market town in Upper Egypt, on the site of the ancient Abo

miles S. Cairo. Lat. 26. 50. N.

ABYDOS, in ancient geography, a seaport town built by the Milesians in Asia, on the Hellespont, where it is scarce a mile broad, and nearly opposite to Sestos, on the European side. It was famous for Xerxes's bridge, and for the loves of Leander and Hero. This is the scene of a poem of Lord Byron's.

ABYDOS, in ancient geography, an inland town in Egypt, between Ptolemais and Diospolis, famous for the palace of Memnon and temple of Osiris.

ABYLA, one of Hercules' pillars on the African coast, opposite to Calpe, in Spain, the other pillar; supposed to have been formerly joined, but separated by Hercules, and thus to have given entrance to the sea called the Mediterranean, the limits of the labours of Hercules.

ABYSSINIA, an extensive kingdom of Africa, bounded E. by the Red Sea, N. by Sennaar, and S. partly by Sennaar and Kordofan, and partly by vast and barbarous regions, of which It is the names have scarcely reached us. estimated at about 770 British miles in length, and 550 in breadth.

The ancients had but a very imperfect knowledge of Abyssinia. Several enterprises were sent to this country by the Portuguese in the course of the 14th century; but it was chiefly brought into notice by the celebrated Mr Bruce, who, by personal intrepidity and vigour of character, made his way through all the dangers which attended an expedition through this wild and savage region, and brought home a much fuller and more interesting account of the striking features which it presented, than any preceding traveller. The two succeeding journeys of Mr Salt in 1805 and 1809, however, have also made important additions to our knowledge of this country; and this knowledge has been still further extended by the missionaries sent out especially under the patronage of the Geographical Society in 1830 to 1839.

In regard to its physical structure, Abyssi nia is entirely a country of mountains. A lofty range, called Lamalmon, bars the entrance from the Red Sea. The mountains of Samen, between the Tacazzé and the Coror, are still more elevated. To these we may add the mountains of Gojam, which give rise to the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Abyssinian Nile; the high land of Efat; and finally, a lofty range, which is said to run along the whole of its southern frontier, and forms probably a branch of the Mountains of the Moon. From recent observations, it seems clear that these mountains, if they do not attain, at least approach to the limit of perpetual congelation.

These mountains pour down rivers of great magnitude, which traverse nearly the whole of Abyssinia. The largest and most celebrated is the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue river, which rises from two fountains near Geesh,

in the country of the Agows, and in lat. 16. unites with the Abiad, or principal branch of the Nile. The next great stream is the Tacazzé, which rises a little to the west of Antalo, and pursues a north-west course through Sennaar to the Nile. Other rivers of minor importance are the Arequa and Mareb, which fall into the Tacazzé; the Dender and Maleg, which fall into the Bahr-el-Azrek; and the Hanazo and the Hawash, which direct their streams towards the Red Sea, though the latter is lost in the sands, before reaching that receptacle.

The climate of Abyssinia is on the whole fine, the ranges of mountains with which it is every where intersected tempering the extreme heat, and affording a supply of water sufficient to maintain fertility. Wheat is raised in considerable quantity on the higher grounds. Teff, on the contrary, which is a herbaceous plant, grows on every soil, and affords the bread which is in universal use. On the lowest grounds is raised a plant called tocusso, which yields a black bread for the lowest classes. Other important vegetable products are the papyrus, so celebrated among the ancients, as the original material of paper. The balsam, myrrh, sassa, and opocalpasum, are produced along the coast of the Red Sea, but more copiously beyond the limits of Abyssinia, from Zeyla to Cape Guardafui, which may be considered as the native country of these juicy and odoriferous woods. In some swampy districts, where excess of moisture would prevent the raising of grain, its place is supplied by a plant called Ensete, the stalk of which, when stripped of its green covering, is said by Bruce to be the very best of all vegetable food. Abyssinia contains, besides, many rare trees, plants, and flowers, and affords an unexhausted field of study to the botanist. Mr Salt, in his two journeys, added to science eight genera, and 128 species; and an ample harvest doubtless remains for future labourers.

Abyssinia, from the great variety of its surface, and the uncultivated state of some of its districts, produces a great variety of wild animals. Of these, the most numerous and characteristic is the hyena. The elephant and rhinoceros are numerous in the low grounds, and in places full of moisture. There is a species of rhinoceros, with two horns, found only in a few districts. The antelope species also is very numerous. The buffalo is here cne of the most ferocious of animals. Hippopotami and crocodiles abound in all the rivers. The lion is found only occasionally. There are several species of the leopard. The zebra is frequent in the southern provinces of Fazuclo and Narea, where its mane adorns the collars of the war horses. A small animal, called jerboa, about the size of a rat, burrows in the fields, both here and in Barbary. The domestic animals are not very different from those of Europe. The most remarkable is a species of Galla oxen, bearing horns of an

enormous magnitude. Mr Salt saw one four feet long, and 21 inches in circumference at its root. Mr Bruce is said to be mistaken, however, in representing this as a disease. It is the characteristic of a species, though one not very common. Abyssinian horses are strong and beautiful. The feathered creation in Abyssinia bears more than its usual proportion to the other species. The vast profusion of insects, grains, and plants, even the waste and destruction attending the continual wars, afford them an uncommon supply of food. The nisser, or golden eagle, perhaps the largest bird of the old continent, and a beautiful species called the black eagle, are particularly noticed by Mr Bruce. To these Mr Salt adds a new species, called goodiegoodie, the size of the common falcon. Storks, snipes, pigeons, and swallows, occur in great number and variety. Mr Bruce never saw a woodcock, sparrow, magpie, or bat. Among insects, the most numerous and useful are bees. Honey constitutes every where an important part of the food of the people. veral provinces, particularly that of the Agows, pay a large proportion of their tribute in this article. The honey assumes different appearances; sometimes black, sometimes blood-red, according to the plant on which the insect feeds. Of a very different character is the locust, which commits here ravages nearly as terrible as it does in all the other countries of Northern Africa.

Se

The political condition of Abyssinia is as unfavourable as can be conceived. The country is the continual prey of intestine confusion, and the most sanguinary hostility. It presents a scene of perpetual bloodshed, not from frontier hostilities, but from such as are carried on in the very bosom of the country; nor is a single district for a moment secure from its devastation. This perpetual state of civil war and confusion, seems to be the main cause of that peculiar barbarism and brutality by which the manners of Abyssinia are characterised. All the feelings by which man is restrained from shedding the blood of his fellows, seem entirely blunted. Human life seems scarcely to be respected more than that of the brutes. Mr Bruce seldom went out at Gondar without seeing dead bodies lying in the streets without being even allowed the rites of sepulture, but left to be devoured by the dogs and hyenas. But the circumstance which seems to place the Abyssinians below even the most savage tribes, is the extreme coarseness of their festive indulgences, on which occasions they devour the raw flesh of animals, as it is immediately cut in slices from the animal alive, which is described by Mr Bruce as in the mean time roaring under the pain of the wound. Mr Salt affirms that the animal is first killed. It is also the practice to cut steaks from a living animal, then to close up the wound, and to continue driving him on. This was also contradicted by Mr Salt; but in his second

journey, he was himself a witness to this brutality. At their feats, their manners are grossly licentious. The Abyssinians profess Christianity, with a large admixture, however, of Judaical observances.

The only display of architectural magnificence in Abyssinia, is in the churches. The houses of the sovereign and grandees are also large and commodious; though, in this warlike country, the camp is considered as his more proper residence. All the other houses are mere hovels of a conic form, with a thatched roof. Their dress consists chiefly of a large piece of cotton cloth, about 36 feet long, and one and a half broad, which they wrap round them like a mantle, to which they add close drawers, reaching to the middle of the thigh, with a girdle of cloth. Their food consists of honey, the different species of grain already enumerated, and raw meat at festivals. The most general drink is bouza, a species of sour beer, made from the fermentation of their cakes, particularly those left at entertainments. Hydromel is also made in great quantities. Wine is produced only in one district. Their agriculture is very rude and imperfect; as also their manufactures, which chiefly consist of cloths, arms, and instruments of iron and brass. Sheep skins are tanned in some quarters; at Axum they are made into parchment. The foreign commerce of Abyssinia is carried on entirely by way of Massnah, whence the communication with the interior is maintained by the channel of Adowa. The imports are chiefly lead, block tin, gold foil, Persian carpets, raw silk from China, velvets, French broad-cloths, coloured skins from Egypt, glass beads and decanters from Venice. The exports consist of gold, ivory, and slaves. The slaves are reckoned more beautiful than those which come from the interior of Africa.

This country is now formed into three great divisions. 1. Tigré, comprehending the tract between the Red Sea and the Tacazzé. The principal districts are Tigré Proper, Agame, Enderta, Wojjerat, Wofila, Lasta, Avergale, Samen, Zemben, Sire, and the kingdom of the Baharnegash. The chief towns are Adowa, Antalo, Dixan, and Axum. 2. Amhara, comprehending the provinces west of the Tacazzé. The principal are Amhara proper, Dembea, Damut, Gojam, and Begemder. Gondar, the capital, and Emfras, are situated in this division. 3. This division consists of the southern provinces of Shoa and Efat, which are now, as already noticed, under an Abyssinian government, but entirely distinct from that which reigns in Tigré. Ankober and Tegulet seem to be the principal towns.

With regard to the population of Abyssinia, there seems scarcely to exist data on which we can form even a conjecture.-(See Transactions of the Geographical Society.)

The following is a remarkable communica tion, contained in the Transactions of the

London Geographical Society, of great interest, so far as it relates to Abyssinia and the Nile, with which the article closes :

A. Todd Holroyd, in 1836, visited Sennaar and Kordofan, and also New and Old Dongolah, and sailed up the Blue River. Having staid at Sennaar a fortnight, he crossed the desert to the White Nile at Mengarah and El Obeia, the capital of Kordofan, on 30th March 1837, where he lived fourteen days, and returned, by a different route, to Mengarah, on the river Nile, which he descended to Khantum. In his way, he visited some remarkable antiquities, passing Old and New Dongolah, and reached Wadi Halfah on 16th August 1837. He remarked that Old Dongolah was in ruins, and the houses almost covered with drifted sand. In his journey he met with some cities, lately villages, that have recently sprung up, and now containing 15,000 inhabitants. Sennaar stands on

the western bank of the Bahr-el-Azrek river. It has a daily bazaar; the inhabitants are of a dark brown colour, and are active and industrious. El Obeia, the capital of Kordofan, is a scattered town, standing on a plain, with about 40,000 inhabitants. The chief employment of the troops is to penetrate into the interior, after the roving dealers in slavery, and collect the handsome young women who are sold to the Turks and Arabs. The inferior women and children are given to the soldiers for pay, who sell them for the best price they can get. Holroyd says, they are hawked about the bazaar, and sometimes sold by auction. Beautiful Darfur girls are held in great repute, and sell for £15 or £20. Mr Holroyd brought a boy from Kordofan, whom he had recovered from slavery, about fourteen years of age, who is supposed to be the only native of that kingdom that ever came to England.

ACA, ACE, or Acox, in ancient geography, a town in Phoenicia, on the Mediterranean, afterwards called Ptolemais, now Acre.

ACAD, or ACHAD, in ancient geography, the town in which Nimrod reigned, situated in Babylonia, on the eastward of the Tigris.

ACADIE, OF ACADY, a name formerly given to Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, America. ACAMENTIS, the ancient name for the island of Cyprus.

ACAPALA, a town in the province of Chipiapaun, in New Spain, situated on Tobasco river.

ACAPULCO, or Los REGES, a town of New Mexico, and capital city of the goverment of New Spain, situated on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, with an excellent bay and harbour. Its port, which is one of the finest in the world, and capable of containing any number of vessels in perfect safety, is an immense basin, cut out of the granite rocks, and encloses a space between three and four miles in breadth. The small island of Roqueta or Grifo lies at the entrance of the port of Acapulco, and

forms two entrances, the one on the west of the island, between 700 and 800 feet in breadth, and the other between a mile and half a mile, with from 24 to 33 fathoms of water. The town stands on a bay north-west from the road, formed by the curvature of the coast and a small promontory, on which is situated the castle and royal fort of San Diego, mounted with 31 pieces of artillery, for the defence of the port. In the bay to the northwest, ships may ride at anchor two cables' length from the shore, and be sheltered from the storm by the point of land under the fort. This bay contains, in its whole extent, but one shallow, which is not above 100 feet deep. There is another little bay to the south-east, which is still safer than the former, and therefore frequented by such vessels as have occasion to winter at Acapulco. The principal trade of Acapulco is with Manilla, one of the Philippine islands, to which it has for a long period sent out annually a large vessel. The lading from Acapulco to Manilla generally consists of silver, a very small quantity of cochineal from Oaxaco, of cocoa from Guayaquil and Caraccas, wine, oil, and Spanish wool. Its cargo from Manilla consists of muslins, printed calicoes, coarse cotton shirts, raw silk, china, silk stockings, articles of jewellery from Canton or Manilla, by Chinese artists; spices, and aromatics.

Acapulco, though it has been celebrated for its trade with the East, is but a miserable town, with only 4000 inhabitants, mostly people of colour, which are increased to 9000 by the resort of strangers to the annual fair, held at the time of the arrival of the Manilla galleon. It is surrounded on all sides by a lofty chain of rocky mountains, which, by reflecting the sun's rays, and excluding the air, add greatly to the suffocating heat of the climate. To give a freer circulation to the air, a passage has been actually cut through the chain of mountains which surrounds the town, and this improvement, by giving a free access, during the heats of summer, to the sea breeze, has not been without its utility. But Acapulco, owing to its position, is still extremely unhealthy; and the unfortunate inhabitants, besides being tormented with earthquakes and hurricanes, breathe a burning air, full of insects, and vitiated by putrid emanations. Bilious fevers, and the cholera morbus, are very frequent; and the Mexicans, who descend from the table land to purchase goods on the arrival of the galleon, are frequently the victims of those mortal diseases. The natural insalubrity of the climate is greatly increased by the poisonous vapours which exhale from a marsh situated to the east of the town. The stagnant water of this marsh disappears every year, which occasions the death of an innumerable quantity of small fishes. These, rotting in heaps under the ardour of a tropical sun, diffuse their pestilential emanations through the neighbouring air, and are

justly considered one of the principal causes of the putrid bilious fevers which prevail on the coast. In summer, the temperature of the air at Acapulco remains, during the day, almost continually between 86 and 96 degrees of Fahrenheit. It falls, however, before sunrise, to 64 and 62; to which great and sudden depression Humboldt ascribes the most fatal effects. Long., according to Humboldt, 99 46. W. Lat. 16. 50. 29. N.

ACARNANIA, an ancient division of Northern Greece. It fell under the dominion of the Romans, and subsequently under that of the Turks, and now forms one of the provinces of the modern kingdom of Greece.

ACASTER MALBIS, a parish in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Population 707. ACCRINGTON, NEW, a town in Lancashire. Population 4960.

ACCRINGTON, OLD, a town and parish in Lancashire. Population 1323.

ACELDAMA, in Scripture history, a place on the south wall of Jerusalem, called the Potter's Field.

ACEQUI, the capital of the province of that name in Italy. It is a walled city, on the banks of the Bormida. There are a cathedral, three monasteries, and a nunnery. The inhabitants, who trade chiefly in silk, are about 6600. There are some celebrated baths, known and used in ancient and modern times.

ACERENZA, a town in the kingdom of Naples, 80 miles E. from that city, containing 1800 inhabitants.

ACERNO, a town in Italy, in the citerior principality of Naples, with a bishop's see and 2400 inhabitants. It is situated 12 miles N. E. of Salerno. Long. 15. 46. E. Lat. 40. 54. N.

ACERRA, a town in Italy, in the kingdom of Naples, and in the Terra di Lavoro, situated on the river Agno, 7 miles N. E. of Naples. Population 6256. Long. 14. 13. E. Lat. 40.

15. N.

ACESINES, in ancient geography, a large and rapid river in India, which Alexander passed in his expedition to that country. According to Major Rennell, the modern Chunab is the Acesines of the ancients.

ACHAFALAYA, a river in Louisiana, in North America, or more properly a secondary channel of the Mississippi, by which a part of its waters flows off from the main trunk, and falls into the Gulf of Mexico at about 100 miles westward of the Mississippi.

ACHAIA PROPRIA, anciently a small district in the north of Peloponnesus, running westward along the bay of Corinth, bounded on the west by the Ionian sea, on the south by Elis and Arcadia, and on the east by Sicyonia, It is now called Romania Alta, in the Morea.

ACHANCROSS CASTLE, a ruin situated on a strong natural position in the parish of Kirkpatrick-Juxta, Dumfries-shire.

ACHASIB, in ancient geography, a town in

Galilee; also a town in the most southern part of the tribe of Judah.

ACHATES, a river in Sicily, now called Doinates. It is said the agate was first found in that river.

ACHEEN, a city of Asia, the capital of the kingdom of Acheen, situated near the northwest extremity of Sumatra, on the south side of a river, about two miles from the sea. It is irregularly built, containing 8000 houses, raised on posts to secure them from the sudden inundations by which the surface of the ground is overflowed. A good deal of trade is carried on in Acheen; a number of vessels resorting to it from the coast of Coromandel and the Maldives. Long. 95. 46. E. Lat. 5. 36. N. ACHELOUS, now the White river, the largest stream in Greece, was navigable in ancient times as far as Stratos, the ruins of which still remain. The Achelous rises in the lofty range of Pindus, and, flowing in a general course from north to south for 130 miles, discharges itself into the sea.

ACHER, a river in the grand duchy of Baden, rising in the Acher lake. It falls into the Rhine between the Lech and Greffin.

ACHERON, a small river in Elis, that runs into the Alpheus; another river of the same name, in Epirus, which rises in the mountain range of Pindus; and a third river, called Acheron, in southern Italy. It is frequently named the River of Fire in ancient authors.

ACHERUSIA PALUS, a lake between Cuma and the promontory of Misenum; also a lake of Epirus, through which the Acheron flows.

ACHESON'S HAVEN, a village of Scotland, in Haddingtonshire, on the Frith of Forth.

ACHIGAN (RIVER), a small river of Lower Canada, which falls into the Assumption. ACHILL, an island on the western coast of Ireland, in the county of Mayo, containing 710 houses, and 4000 inhabitants.

Асимм, ог Еснмім, a considerable town of Upper Egypt, on the left bank of the Nile. The streets are well disposed, broad, and straight, which is very unusual in Egypt; so that this would be a very handsome town, were the houses built with better materials than bricks not burned, but merely baked, and cemented with clay. This place was anciently called Panopolis or Chemmis, the former the Greek name, the latter the Egyptian. The city contains a church of some antiquity, and held in much veneration; but its chief ornament is the granite pillars taken from the ruins of Panopolis. 200 miles S. Cairo. Long. 31. 55. E. Lat. 26. 40. N.

ACHMOUNEIN, a large village of Upper Egypt. Population 5000. 120 miles S. Cairo. Long. 31. 10. E. Lat. 28. 10. N.

ACHONRY, a parish of Ireland, in the county of Sligo, which gives name to a bishoprick, now united to Killala. 16 miles W. Sligo. Population of the parish 13,050.

ACHRATHIN (LOсH), an inlet of the sea, on the west cost of Ross-shire.

ACHRAY (LOCH), a little and very beauti. ful lake which connects Loch Venacher with Loch Katrine.

ACHRY (Locп), a lake in the county of Ross, a mile long and very deep, and although it has a constant supply of water, there is no visible outlet. It is supposed there must be some subterraneous outlet.

ACHTIRKA, a city of Russia, the capital of the circle of the same name. It contains eight churches, one of which attracts many pilgrims, from the image of the virgin upon it. Houses 1138. Inhabitants 12,788, who are employed in making woollen cloth and some other articles. Long. 34. 50. E. Lat. 49. 32. N.

ACHUAR, one of the smallest of the Hebrides, lying south from Islay.

ACHYR, a strong town and castle in the Ukraine, subject to the Russians since 1667. It stands on the river Wonsthlo, near the frontiers of Russia, 127 miles W. of Kiow.

Acı, three remarkable towns, very populous, on the sea-coast, in the province of Catania, in the island of Sicily. Their names are Aci St Lucia, Aci Catena, and Aci St Filipo. They are defended by the town of St Anna. Inhabitants 9200. They are occupied in fishing and making wine.

ACKLIN'S KEYS, two small islands, about 50 miles S. W. from the Bahamas.

ACKLUM, a parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Pop. 827.

ACKWORTH, a parish in the West Riding of York, with fine wood and water. Pop. 1660. ACLE, a market town and parish in Norfolk. Population 820.

Aco, a town of Peru, in South America. It is also the name of a river in Africa, which rises in the Abyssinian mountains, runs a south-east course, and discharges itself into the Indian ocean.

ACOBAMBA, capital of Angaraes, Peru. Long. 74. 32. W. Lat. 13. 16. S.

ACOMB, WEST, a considerable town in Northumberland. Population 522.

ACOMв, a parish in East Riding of York, with good and fertile land. Pop. 882. ACOMв, a town in East Riding of York. Population 762.

ACONCAGUA, a province of the republic of Chili, which is bounded on the north by the province of Quillota, east by the Andes, south by Santiago, and on the west by the province of Quillota. Population 8000.

ACONCAGUA, a town of Chili, in the above province, formerly its capital.

ACONCAGUA, a river of the above province, which enters the Pacific ocean in Lat. 33. S.

ACONCAGUA, a mountain in Chili, said to be higher than the famed Chimborazo, being 23,200 feet in height. (See proceedings of Geological Society. vol. vi. p. 143.)

ACOSTAN, a mountainous island in the North Sea, between Asia and America, observed by Captain Cook.