or 8228 pounds avoirdupois more than the aeroli thos discovered at Olumpa in the Tuscuman, by M. Rubin de Celis. The population of Durango is 12,000; it is 170 leagues from Mexico to the n. n. w. and lies in long. 103° 38' . and lat. 24° 23' n.]

Bishops who have presided in Durango. 1. Don Fray Gonzalo de Hermosilla, of the order of San Augustin, native of Mexico, professor of writing in the university of that capital; elected as first bishop in 1620; a man renowned for his virtue, literature, and labours; he died at the visitation of Cinalóa, in 1631.

2. Don Alonso Franco y Luna, native of Madrid, collegiate-major of San Ildefonso de Alcalá, and curate of the parish of San Andres in his country; elected bishop in the aforesaid year of 1631; he visited all his bishopric, and was promoted to that of La Paz in 1639.

3. Don Francisco Diego de Evia y Valdes, of the order of San Benito, native of Oviedo, master and professor of arts in that university, and prelate in different monasteries of his order; presented to the bishopric of Durango in 1639; he governed 13 years, in which time he passed over more than 1000 leagues in the visitation of his bishopric, and was promoted to that of Oaxaca in 1654.

4. Don Pedro Barrientos Lomelin, a celebrated chanter of the holy church of Mexico, provisor and vicar-general of the archbishopric, chancellor of that university, and commissary apostolic of the holy crusade; he took possession of the bishoprie in 1656, and died in 1658.

5. Don Juan de Gorospe and Aguirre, a man of great talent and literature; elected in 1660; he died in 1671.

6. Don Juan de Ortega Montañés, presented to this bishopric in 1674 ; and without taking possession, promoted to that of Guatemala in the following year, 1675.

7. Don Fr. Bartolomé de Escañuela, of the order of San Francisco; promoted from the bishopric of Puertorico in 1776; he visited his bishopric, made synodical constitutions, and died in 1684.

8. Don Fray Manuel de Herrera, of the order of the minims of San Francisco de Paula, preacher to the king; presented to this bishopric in 1686; he died in the town of Sombrerete in 1689.

9. Don Garcia de Segaspi y Velasco, curate of the city of San Luis de Potosi, canon of the holy metropolitan church of Mexico, treasurer and archdeacon to the same, abbot of the congregation of San Pedro, chaplain of the college of Las Doncellás, and judge for the sacred congregation of

Ritos, in the cause of beatification of the venerable Gregorio Lopez; elected bishop of Durango in 1692, and promoted to that of Valladolid in 1700. 10. Don Manuel de Escalante Colombres y Mendoza, morning and evening lecturer of the sacred canons, four times rector of the royal university of Mexico, medio racionero, canonical treasurer, superintendant of the royal fabric of its church; re-elected five times abbot, and afterwards perpetual minister of the congregation of San Pedro, founder of its hospital, college, and house of entertainment, primiciero or eldest of the archicofradia of the most holy Trinity, commissary apostolic, sub-delegate-general of the holy crusade, judge, provisor, and vicar-general of the archbishopric; he took possession of the bishopric in 1701, and was promoted to that of Valladolid in the same year.

11. Don Ignacio Diaz de la Barrera, doctor in the sacred canons, abogado of the royal, audience of Mexico, first professor in its royal university, visitor-general of the archbishopric, curate of the parish of La Santa Vera Cruz, medio racionero and racionero of the church of the Puebla de los Angeles, synodical examiner of its bishopric, and canon of Mexico; elected bishop in 1705; he died in 1709.

12. Don Pedro Tapis, abbot of Santa Maria del Burgo, of the city of Alfaro, vicar of the same city and of the district of Agreda, visitor-general of the bishopric of Taragona; presented to this of Durango in 1711; he died in 1722.

13. Don Benito Crespo, of the order of Santiago, collegiate and rector of the college of the king in Salamanca, professor of philosophy and theology, visitor for the council of ordenes of the convent of Uclés, and of the convents of the nuns of Sancti-Spiritus in Salamanca and Santa Cruz in Valladolid, dean of the church of Oaxaca ; elected in the year 1723; he governed until 1734, when he was promoted to the bishopric of La Puebla de los Angeles.

14. Don Martin de Elizacochea, collegiate of La Madre de Dios de Teólogos of Alcala, professor of philosophy in that university, chancellor of that of Mexico, canon, school-master, chanter, archdeacon, and dean of its holy metropolitan church, synodical examiner of the archbishopric, comissary-general and sub-delegate of the holy crusade, vicar and chaplain-major of the Madres Capuchinas; he took possession of the bishopric of Durango in 1736, and governed until 1747, when he was promoted to that of Mechoacán.

15. Don Aselmo Sanchez de Tagle, native of the town of Santillana, in the mountains of Bur

gos; he was collegiate-major of San Bartolomé el Viejo in Salamanca, eldest inquisitor of the holy tribunal of the inquisition of Mexico; elected bishop in 1747, promoted to the church of Mechoacán in 1757.

16. Don Pedro Tamarón, native of the town of Guardia, in the archbishopric of Toledo; he passed over to New Spain as familiar to the Señor Don Juan Joseph de Escalona y Calatayud, bishop of Charcas; he graduated doctor in sacred canons, was first professor of this faculty, and curate of the tabernacle of the holy cathedral church, where also he obtained the titles of school-master and chanter; he was presented to this bishopric, of which he took possession, in 1758; he visited the most remote provinces of his diocese, and died in the settlement of Bomoa in 1768. 17. Don Fray Joseph Vicente Diaz Bravo; elected in 1769; he died in 1772.

18. Don Antonio Macarulla; promoted from the archbishopric of Comayagua the aforesaid year; he died in 1782.

19. Don Estevan Lorenzo de Tristán; elected in 1783.

[DURANGO, Intendancy of. This intendancy, better known under the name of New Biscay, belongs, as well as Sonora and Nuevo Mexico, to the Provincias Internas Occidentales. It occupies a greater extent of ground than the three united kingdoms of Great Britain, and yet its total population scarcely exceeds that of the two towns of Birmingham and Manchester united. Its length from s. to . from the celebrated mines of Guarisamey to the mountains of Caraay, situated to the n. w. of the Presidio de Yanos, is 232 leagues; its breadth is very unequal, and near Parral is scarcely 58 leagues.

The province of Durango, or Nueva Biscaya, is bounded on the s. by La Nueva Galicia, that is to say, by the two intendancies of Zacatecas and Guadalaxara; on the s. e. by a small part of the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, and on the w. by the intendancy of Sonora ; but towards the n. and especially the e. for more than 200 leagues, it is bounded by an uncultivated country, inhabited by warlike and independent Indians.

The struggle with these Indians, which has lasted for centuries, and the necessity in which the colonist, living in some lonely farm, or travelling through arid deserts, finds himself of perpe. tually watching after his own safety, and defending his flock, his home, his wife, and his children against the incursions of wandering Indians; and, in short, that state of nature which subsists in the midst of the appearance of an an

cient civilization, have all concurred to give to the character of the inhabitants of the n. of New Spain, an energy and temperament peculiar to themselves. To these causes we must, no doubt, add the nature of the climate, which is temperate, an eminently salubrious atmosphere, the necessity of labour in a soil by no means rich or fertile, and the total want of Indians and slaves who might be employed by the whites for the sake of giving themselves up securely to idleness and sloth. In the Provincias Internas the development of physical strength is favoured by a life of singular activity, which is, for the most part, passed on horseback. This way of life is essentially necessary, from the care demanded by the numerous flocks of horned cattle, which roam about almost wild in the savannas. To this strength of a healthy and robust body, we must join great strength of mind, and a happy disposition of the intellectual faculties. Those who preside over seminaries of education in the city of Mexico, have long observed that the young people who have most distinguished themselves for their rapid progress in the higher sciences were, for the most part, natives of the most n. provinces of New Spain.

The intendancy of Durango comprehends the n. extremity of the great table-land of Anahuac, which declines to the n. e. towards the banks of the Rio Grande del Norte. The environs of the city of Durango are still, however, according to the barometrical measurement of Don Juan Jose d'Oteyza, more than 2000 metres, or 6561 feet, elevated above the level of the ocean: this great elevation appears to continue till towards Chihuahua, for it is the central chain of the Sierra Madre, which near San Jose del Parral runs in a direction n. n. w. towards the Sierra Verde and the

Sierra de las Grullas.

The population, in 1803, amounted to 159,700, and the extent of surface in square leagues was 16,873.

There are reckoned in La Nueva Biscaya one city, (Durango), six towns, (Chihuahua, San Juan del Rio, Nombre de Dios, Papasquiaro, Saltillo, and Mapimi), 199 villages or settlements, 75 parishes, 152 farms, 37 missions, and 400 cottages or ranchos.

The most remareable places are, Durango, Chihuahua, San Juan del Rio, Nombre de Dios, Pasquiaro, Saltillo, Mapimis, Parras, San Pedro de Batopilas, San Jose del Parral, Santa Rosa de Cosiguiriachi, Guarisamey, which see.]

DURANGO, a large river of the province and government of Esmeraldas, which runs n. w. and enters that of Bogotá, in lat 51′ n.

DURAS, a point of land in the Malvine or Falkland isles, near the great bay of Dacarrón. DURCINÓ, a settlement of the province and government of Santa Marta in the new kingdom of Granada. It was great and populous in former times, but to-day much reduced.

DURE, a river of the province and government of Louisiana, which runs s. and enters the Maligne or Stabloniere, near where this river runs into the sea.

[DURHAM, a township in Cumberland county, district of Maine, on the s. w. bank of Androscoggin river, which separates it from Bowdoin on It was incorporated in 1789, contains 724 inhabitants, and lies 145 miles n. e. of Boston. Lat. 43° 55' n.]

the n. e.

[DURHAM, a post-town in Strafford county, New Hampshire, on Oyster river, near where it joins the Piscatagua; 16 miles w. of Portsmouth. It was incorporated in 1639, and contains 1247 inhabitants. It was formerly a part of Dover, which adjoins it on the n. and was called Oyster river. On the top of a hill in this town is a rock, computed to weigh 60 or 70 tons, so exactly poised on another rock as to be easily moved by one's finger. Its situation appears to be natural.]

[DURHAM, a township in New Haven county, Connecticut, settled from Guildford in 1698, and incorporated in 1708. It is about 22 miles s. w. of Hartford, and 18 miles n. e. of New Haven. It was called Caginchague by the Indians; which name a small river, that chiefly rises here, still bears.]

[DURHAM, a township in Bucks county, Pennsylvania.]

[DUROT, a bay on the n. side of the s. peninsula of the island of St. Domingo.]

[DUTCH AMERICA. The only possession which the Seven United Provinces, lately called the Batavian Republic, held on the continent of America, was the province called Dutch Guayana. The islands in the W. Indies which belonged to the republic were St. Eustatius and Curaçoa, the small island of Saba near St. Eustatius, and the islands Bonaire and Aruba; which are appendages to Curaçao, and chiefly improved in raising cattle and provisions for that island.

Dutch Guayana, in South America, is bounded n. by the Atlantic ocean; e. by Cayenne; s. by an unexplored country, called Amazonia; w. by Orinoco, a Spanish settlement. It lies between lat. 5° and 7° n. extending along the coast from the mouth of Orinoco river to the river Marowyne. These settlements were esteemed by Admiral Rodney, who captured them in 1780, as an acquisi

tion of more value to the British empire than all their West India islands. It is divided into three distinct governments, viz. Surinam, Berbice, Essequebo, and Demerara. The two last are two districts, forming one government. A number of fine rivers pass through this province; the chief of which are Essequebo, Surinam, Demerara, Berbice, and Canya. Essequebo is 21 miles wide at its mouth, and is more than 300 miles in length. The others are navigable, and are described under their different names. The chief towns are Paramabiro and Staebroeck.

As the

In the months of September, October, and November, the climate is unhealthy, particularly to strangers. The common diseases are putrid and other fevers, the dry belly-ache, and the dropsy. One hundred miles back from the sea you come to quite a different soil, a hilly country, a pure, dry, wholesome air, where a fire sometimes would not be disagreeable. Along the sea-coast the water is brackish and unwholesome; the air damp and sultry. The thermometer ranges from 75° to 90° through the year. A n. e. breeze never fails to blow from about nine o'clock in the morning through the day in the hottest seasons. days and nights throughout the year are very nearly of equal length, the air can never become extremely heated, nor the inhabitants so greatly incommoded by the heat, as those who live at a greater distance from the equator. The seasons were formerly divided regularly into rainy and dry; but of late years so much dependence cannot be placed upon them, owing probably to the country's being more cleared, by which means a free passage is opened for the air and vapours. The water of the lower parts of the rivers is brackish and unfit for use; and the inhabitants are obliged to make use of rain water, which is here uncommonly sweet and good.

About 70 miles from the sea, on the river Surinam, is a village of about 40 or 50 houses, inhabited by Jews. This village, and the towrS above mentioned, with the intervening plantations, contain all the inhabitants of this colony, which amount to 3200 whites and 43,000 slaves. The buildings on the plantations are many of them costly, convenient, and airy. The country around is thinly inhabited with the native Indians, a harmless, friendly set of beings. They are, in ge. neral, short of stature, but remarkably well made, of a light copper colour, straight black hair, without beards, high cheek-bones, and broad shoulders.

In their cars, noses, and hair, the women wear ornaments of silver, &c. Both men and women go naked. One nation or tribe of them tie the lower]

[part of the leg of the female children, when young, with a cord bound very tight, for the breadth of six inches above the ancle, which cord is never afterwards taken off but to put on a new One; by which means the flesh, which should otherwise grow on that part of the leg, increases the calf to a great size, and leaves the bone below nearly bare. This, though it must render them very weak, is reckoned a great beauty by them. The language of the Indians appears to be very soft. They are mortal enemies to every kind of labour; but nevertheless manufacture a few articles, such as very fine cotton hammocs, earthen water-pots, baskets, a red or yellow dye, called roucau, and some other trifles, all of which they bring to town, and exchange for such articles as they stand in need of. They paint themselves red, and some are curiously figured with black. Their food consists chiefly of fish and crabs and cassava, of which they plant great quantities, and this is almost the only produce they attend to. They cannot be said to be absolutely wandering tribes; but their huts being merely a few cross sticks, covered with branches, so as to defend them from the rain and sun, they frequently quit their habitations, if they see occasion, and establish them elsewhere. They do not shun the whites, and have been serviceable against the runaway Negroes.

Ön each side of the rivers and creeks are situated the plantations, containing from 500 to 2000 acres cach, in number about 550 in the whole colony, producing at present annually about 16,000 hhds. of sugar, 12,000,000 lbs. coffee, 700,000 lbs. cocoa, 850,000 lbs. cotton: all which articles (cotton excepted) have fallen off of late years, at least one-third, owing to bad management, both here and in Holland, and to other causes. Of the proprietors of these plantations not above 80 reside here. In the woods are found many kinds of good and durable timber, and some woods for ornamental purposes, particularly a kind of mahogany, called copic. The soil is perhaps as rich and as luxuriant as any in the world; it is generally a rich, fat, clayey earth, lying in some places above the level of the rivers at high water, (which rises about eight feet), and in most places below it. Whenever, from a continual course of cultivation for many years, a piece of land becomes impoverished, (for manure is not known here), it is laid under water for a certain number of years, and thereby regains its fertility, and in the mean time a new piece of wood-land is cleared. This country has never experienced those dreadful Scourges of the West Indies, hurricanes; and

droughts, from the lowness of the land, it has not to fear; nor has the produce ever been destroyed by insects or by the blast. In short, this colony, by proper management, might become equal to Jamaica or any other. Land is not wanting; it is finely intersected by noble rivers and abundant creeks; the soil is of the best kind, it is well situated, and the climate is not very unhealthy, and is growing better, and will continue so to do, the more the country is cleared of its woods and cultivated.

The rivers abound with fish, some of which are good; at certain seasons of the year there is plenty of turtle. The woods abound with plenty of deer, hares, and rabbits, a kind of buffalo, and two species of wild hogs, one of which (the peccary) is remarkable for having something like its navel on the back.

The woods are infested with several species of tigers, but with no other ravenous or dangerous animals. The rivers are rendered dangerous by alligators from four to seven feet long, and a man was a short time since crushed between the jaws of a fish, but its name is not known. Scorpions and tarantulas are found here of a large size and great venom, and other insects without number, some of them very dangerous and troublesome; the torporific eel also, the touch of which, by means of the bare hand or any conductor, has the effect of a strong electrical shock; serpents also, some of which are venomous, and others, as has been asserted by many credible persons, are from 25 to 50 feet long. In the woods are monkeys, the sloth, and parrots in all their varieties; also some birds of beautiful plumage, among others the flamingo, but few or no singing birds.

The river Surinam is guarded by a fort and two redoubts at the entrance, and a fort at Paramaribo, but none of them of any strength, so that one or two frigates would be sufficient to make themselves masters of the whole colony; and never was there a people who more ardently wished for a change of government than the inhabitants of this colony. The interior government eonsists of a governor and a supreme and inferior council; the members of the latter are chosen by the governor from a double nomination of the principal inhabitants, and those of the former in the same manner. By these powers, and by a magistrate presiding over all criminal affairs, justice is executed, and laws are enacted, necessary for the interior government of the colony; those of a more general and public nature are enacted by the directors, and require no approbation here by the court.

The colony is guarded farther by about 1600 re-]

[gular troops, paid by the directors. These troops, together with a corps of about 250 free Negroes, paid by the court here, and another small corps of chasseurs, and so many slaves as the court thinks fit to order from the planters from time to time, are dispersed at posts placed at proper distances on a cordon, surrounding the colony on the land side, in order, as far as possible, to defend the distant plantations, and the colony in general, from the attacks of several dangerous bands of runaway slaves, which from very small beginnings have, from the natural prolificacy of the Negro race, and the continual addition of fresh fugitives, arrived at such an height as to have cost the country very great sums of money and much loss of men, without being able to do these Negroes any effectual injury.

This colony was first possessed by the French as early as the year 1630 or 40, and was abandoned by them on account of its unhealthy climate. In the year 1650 it was taken up by some Englishmen, and in 1662 a charter was granted to Charles II. About this time it was considerably augmented by the settlement of a number of Jews, who had been driven out of Cayenne and the Brazils, whose descendants (with other Jews) compose at present one half of the white inhabitants of the colony, and are allowed great privileges. 1667 it was taken by the Dutch, and the English having got possession about the same time of the then Dutch colony of New York, each party retained its conquest; the English planters most of them retired to Jamaica, leaving their slaves behind them, whose language is still English, but so corrupted as not to be understood at first by an Englishman. At present this colony is in the possession of the British.]

In

[DUTCHESS County, in New Nork, is on the e. side of Hudson river. It has the state of Connecticut on the e. West Chester on the s. and Columbia county on the n. It is about 48 miles long and 23 broad, and contains 15 townships, of which Poughkeepsie and Fish-kill are the chief. It contains 45,266 inhabitants; of these 6013 are qualified to be electors, and 1856 are slaves. Dutchess county sends seven representatives to the assembly of the state. In the year 1792, a remarkable cavern was discovered in this county, at a place called by the Indians Sepascot, at Rhynbeck. A lad, by chance, passing near its entrance, which lies between two huge rocks, on the declivity of a steep hill, on prying into the gloomy recess, saw the top of a ladder, by which he descended about 10 feet, and found himself in a subterraneous apartment, more capacious than he

chose to investigate. He found, however, that it had been the abode of persons, who probably during the war had taken shelter here, as bits of cloth and pieces of leather were scattered about its floor. It since appears to be divided by a narrow passage into two apartments; the first being about 17 feet in length, and so low that a child of eight years old could but just walk upright in it; the breadth is about eight or ten feet. The second between 12 and 14 feet in length, but much higher and broader than the first. Like many other caverns in the United States, it possesses a petrifying quality; and the water, which is constantly percolating through the roofs of its apartments, has formed a variety of transparent and beautiful stalactites. They have the appearance of icicles, and may be broken off by the hand, if not more than two inches in circumference. But what is most to be admired is the skeleton of a large snake turned into solid stone by the petrifying quality of the water before mentioned. It was with some difficulty torn up with an axe from the rock it lay upon, and is now in the possession of the gentleman who explored the cavern. A want of free air was experienced in the inmost recesses of the cavern, by a difficult respiration, though the candles burnt very clear. The air also was very warm.]

[DUTCHMAN'S Point, a point of land on the Vermont side of lake Champlain, about 16 miles s. of the Canada line. The British held a stockaded but here, garrisoned by six soldiers, since the peace of 1783. It has since been delivered up to the United States.]

[DUXBOROUGH, a maritime township in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, incorporated in 1637. Twenty vessels, the greater part from 60 to 90 tons, are owned here. It is a healthy town, and contains 1460 inhabitants; not a greater num ber than it contained 50 years ago. It lies s. by e. of Plymouth, three miles across Plymouth bay by water, and eight round by land, and 38 s. e. by s. of Boston. Within the harbour are Clarke's island, consisting of about 100 acres of excellent land, and Sauquish island, which was formerly joined to the Gurnet by a narrow piece of sand; but the water has insulated it. The Gurnet is an eminence at the s. extremity of the beach, on which is a light-house built by the state. The Indian name of the town was Mattakeeset or Namakeeset. It was settled by Capt. Standish and his associates. The captain came to Plymouth with the first settlers in 1620.]

[DUXBURY, a township in Hillsborough county, New Hampshire, incorporated in 1763; first called Dantzick, joined with Sutton in the enu