Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

200

SANTANDER.

Cavada and Liergams. The coast has some excellent harbors. The principal town, Santander (10,000 inhabitants), has a safe and commodious and easily accessible harbor, and was formerly one of the privileged ports (puertos habilitados) which were allowed a free trade with South America. Its commerce with the north of Europe, to which it exports much wool, is considerable. It is the see of a bishop.

SANTANDER, Francisco de Paula, was born at Rosario de Cucuta, in New Grenada, April 2, 1792, and received the best education which his country afforded. He commenced his studies in the place of his birth, and completed them at the college of Bogotá. During his course of study in philosophy and law, he was distinguished for his application, industry, and aptness in acquiring whatever he undertook. He received his degree in 1809, at the very time when the revolution began to agitate the country; and, like most other young men of spirit and talent, immediately embarked in the cause of independence. At first, he was merely an ensign in the militia of New Grenada; was afterwards selected as an aid by Manuel Castillo, military commandant and political chief of the province of Mariquita, and soon became attached, in the same capacity, to general Baraya. When Bolivar projected his first invasion of Venezuela, Castillo was employed to drive the Spaniards, under Correa, from the defiles of La Grita; and Santander, with two companies, was ordered to turn the defile by ascending the neighboring heights. He was successful, and, in consequence, Correa was obliged to destroy his baggage and retreat in disorder. Santander was next commissioned to defend the valley of Cucuta. He had but three hundred men. The Spaniards poured in a force ten times stronger than his own, and compelled him to evacuate Rosario, where they afterwards committed the most horrible atrocities, and succeeded in destroying Santander's little army. MacGregor was then sent to the succor of the province; and Santander commanded his vanguard. They recovered the province; and Santander, being made a colonel, was again charged with its defence. He was attacked, but repulsed the assailants; and was subsequently appointed to the more important post of Ocana. Having scarcely five hundred men under his command, he was about to be attacked by a greatly suor body of troops, but, by a bold and manœuvre, rejoined Urdaneta vira, and the relics of the patriot

divisions. He was now made second in command under general Serviez, who was posted at Puente Real. But the force of Murillo was overwhelming; and New Grenada became the prey of the Spaniards. Santander retired into Venezuela, and prepared to second the efforts of Bolivar. He was employed to organize the militia of the province of Casanare. To spatched a force, under Barreiro, of 2500 prevent this, the viceroy Samano demen, who were harassed by the few troops under Santander, until the latter at Bojaca terminated in the total defeat of was joined by Bolivar. An engagement Barreiro. This campaign restored Bogota to the patriots, and Santander was immediately appointed, by Bolivar, vice-president of Cundinamarca. He contributed, bling of the congress of Cucuta; and that more than any other person, to the assembody elected him vice-president of Colombia. He took the oaths of office October 3, 1821. From that period, he is to be considered as the actual head of the executive; because Bolivar, the titular president, being engaged in prosecuting the tration of affairs entirely to the vice-presiwar in Quito and Peru, left the adminisdent. Like Bolivar, he was elected to a uary 1, 1827. He seems to have acted, second term of office, to commence Janall things considered, with judgment, prudence and ability, in the arduous task of balancing factions, giving effect to a new system, and healing the wounds of a country bleeding from a long war of the most terrible character. Until the insurrection of Paez in Venezuela, which broke out in May, 1826, Santander's sucing the residue of that year, he became cess corresponded to his patriotism. Durextensively known as the great champion of that republican constitution which he came the object of unmitigated abuse. was sworn to support, and, of course, befrom the disorganizers and insurrectionists of Venezuela. He ended actual hostilities with Paez, and left the insurrection to be quieted by Bolivar, to whom the disaffected appealed. In 1827, Santander entered upon his second term of office. and from that time was opposed to Bolivar, and was the rallying point of the constitutional and republican party. In September, 1827, Bolivar entered upon the duties of the office of president, and, of course, the executive authority ceased to be vested in Santander, who was now re garded as the personal enemy of Bolivar: but, in fact, was hostile only to the design of the liberator to suspend or subvert the

constitution, and assume the dictatorship of Colombia. This object he constantly and firmly resisted. After the dissolution of the convention of Ocaña in 1828, when the suffrages of the army placed Bolivar above the constitution, Santander sought to leave the country, but was unable to do it. At length, he was accused as an accomplice in an attempt to assassinate Bolivar. Although nothing was proved against him, except the general fact that he was the head of the republican party; and although his character and standing alone were enough to negative the presumption of his guilt; yet he was pronounced guilty, and sentenced to be banished. A fresh charge of correspondence with malcontents in Popayan occasioned his confinement in the prison of Boca Chica; but, at length, he regained his liberty, and departed from his country. Af ter spending some time in Europe, he came to the United States in 1831, preparatory to returning to South America, where the death of Bolivar and the respect of his co-patriots have removed the obstacles to his influence. (Revue Amér., No. 3, p. 450.) In May, 1832, commissioners arrived in Philadelphia to inform him that he had been elected president of Colombia.

SANTEE; a river of South Carolina, formed by the union of the Congaree and Wateree. It flows into the Atlantic by two mouths, twenty miles below Georgetown. It affords good navigation, at some seasons, nearly three hundred miles, to Morgantown, in North Carolina. It is connected with Cooper river by a canal. The main branch in North Carolina is called Catawba,

SANTIAGO, the capital of Chile, is situated in a pleasant plain on the Mapocho, thirty leagues distant from the Pacific, seven from the Andes, fifty-five miles south-east of Valparaiso; lat. 33° 26 S.; lon. 70° 44′ W. The population of the city and environs is about 40,000. Among the principal buildings are the mint, the cabildo, government-house, cathedral, and other churches, and several convents. The private houses are mostly built of elay baked in the sun; the churches and other principal buildings of brick or stone. The streets are straight and regular, and the city contains a number of handsome squares. (See Chile.) SANTIAGO, or ST. JAGO. (See Jago, St.) SAP. (See Plants.)

SAP GREEN. This pigment is prepared by mixing the juice of the ripe berries of the buckthorn (rhamnus catharticus) with

alum. The juice of the unripe berries has the color of saffron, and is used for staining maps or paper; and if the berries be gathered late in the autumn, the juice is purple. The buckthorn is a large shrub, with inconspicuous greenish flowers, somewhat resembling the privet when in fruit, which grows wild throughout Europe, and is naturalized in some parts of the U. States. The bark affords a beautiful yellow dye. The berries are small, globular and black, and possess purgative properties, but are chiefly employed in color-making, and sometimes in dyeing: they enter into commerce under the name of French berries.

SAPPARE (cyanite; disthene; rhætizite). The primary form of this mineral is a doubly-oblique prism, of which the terminations are nearly rhombs. The angles of the prism are 106° 15′ and 73° 45'; of the terminal plane on the prism, in one direction 100° 50′ and 79° 10′, and in the other 93° 15' and 86° 45'. It ordinarily occurs in four or eight sided prisms of considerable length, and destitute of regular terminations. The cleavage is highly perfect, parallel with the broader faces of the prism, but less distinct in the direction of the narrower lateral face, and that of the terminal plane. Lustre vitreous; color generally some shade of blue, occasionally very intense berlin-blue; it is also green, gray and white; streak white, transparent or translucent; hardness not inferior to that of feldspar; on the solid angles, equal to quartz; specific gravity 3.6. The massive varieties consist of large, broad, columnar individuals; sometimes straight lamellar, often curved, variously aggregated; having their faces of composition, in most cases, irregularly streaked. Three varieties of the present species, analyzed, the first by Saussure, the second by Laugier, the third by Klaproth, have yielded,

[blocks in formation]

Crystals and large cleavable varieties are found at St. Gothard in Switzerland, the Zillerthal in the Tyrol, the Sau Alps in Carinthia,at Chesterfield in Massachusetts,and Litchfield, Connecticut, in the U. States. The variety of a white color in fine, interlacing prisms, called rhætizite, comes only from Pritsch in the Tyrol. Thin lamine of sappare are sometimes employed as a support in blow-pipe experiments with minerals. Blue transparent varieties are cut and polished, and then sometimes sold as an inferior kind of sapphire.

SAPPHIRE. (See Corundum.)

SAPPHO, a distinguished Greek poetess, was born at Mitylene, on the island of Lesbos, and flourished about 600 B. C. Alcæus, like her, a lyric poet, and a native of the same island, is said to have loved her; but his passion was not returned. The brilliant fame which she enjoyed seems to have subjected her to calumny, and even to persecution, on account of which she left Lesbos. She is particularly accused of unnatural love to her own sex; hence the expression Sapphic love. She must not be confounded with a later Sappho, also a native of Lesbos, the place of whose birth was Eresus, famous for having thrown herself from the Leucadian rock, in despair, on account of her unrequited love for a youth named Phaon. Ovid, however, confounds the two.-See Welker's Sappho vindicated against a prevailing Prejudice (Gottingen, 1816). The ancients ascribe various poems to the elder Sappho,-hymns, odes, elegies, epigrams.-of which only fragments have come down to us: these display deep feeling, glowing imagination, and a high finish. She is said to have invented several metres; at least one still bears her name, and has been used by ancient and modern poets:—

[ocr errors]

SARABAND; a dance, said to be derived from the Saracens. The tune is written in or time, and consists of two parts. Its character is grave and expressive. It originated in Spain, where it was formerly danced to the castanets.

SARACENIC STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. (See Architecture, vol. i, p. 342.)

SARACENS (Orientals); the name adopted by the Arabs after their settlement in Europe, as the term Arabs (people of the

West), which indicated their geographi cal situation in Asia, was improper in Europe.

SARAGOSSA (in Spanish, Zaragoza): ↑ city of Spain, capital of Arragon, lying i a fertile plain on the Ebro, one hundred and seventy-five miles north-east of M.drid; lon. 1° 42′ W.; lat. 41° 38 N. Its an old town, built on the site of the ar cient Roman colony Cæsar Augustus, of which the present name is a corruptics. The streets, with the exception of the long and wide Coze, and a few others are narrow and crooked. There is a ti... stone bridge, six hundred feet long, over the Ebro. Previous to 1808, it had 55,00€ inhabitants, eighteen churches, and forty monasteries. Among the churches, in of Our Lady of the Pillar (Vuestra Se ñora del Pilar) is celebrated for its mirarulous image of the virgin, to which p grimages are made from different parts of Spain. The canal of Arragon, nearly a hundred miles in length, which affords Navarre and Arragon a communication with the Mediterranean, approaches th city. The present population of the city is 45,000. Saragossa has gained celebrity by the two sieges which it sustained ir 1808 and 1809. The adjoining provinces of Catalonia and Navarre were over." by the French troops; Saragossa cc:tained not more than two hundred an twenty regulars, and was unfortified; an the public treasury was empty. Wher the people were seeking for a leader, the rank of Palafox, and the favor which he was known to have enjoyed with Ferdinand, directed their choice to him, and accordingly, May 25, 1808, he was proclaimed by them governor of Saragossa and of all the kingdom of Arragon. H was then in his eight and twentieth year and had but a scanty portion of military knowledge. He immediately called in service all the half-pay officers, formed several corps, composed, in part, of the students of the university, took other measures to sustain a siege, and, May 31 declared war against the French, in a proclamation remarkable for its energy This paper was hardly issued, before a French corps of 8000 men marched attack Saragossa. The French generi was, however, met by the Spaniards, and, after a hard struggle, was compelled to retire. Palafox took advantage of this to quit the city for a while, in orde to collect troops and organize the defence of the rest of the province. He returned with about 1500 men, who had retreated from Madrid, and was soon in

vested by the French, who had received powerful reinforcements, and a train of artillery. The besiegers carried the post of Torrero and some other exterior works, not without great loss, pushed forward their attacks against the gates of El Carmen and El Portillo, began to bombard the city, July 22, and, August 4, forced their way into the place, by the gate of Santa Engracia, and, at length, made themselves masters of nearly half of Saragossa. The French general now summoned Palafox to surrender. His summons was contained in the following laconic sentence: "Head-Quarters, St. Engracia, capitulation." With equal laconism, Palafox instantly replied, "Head-Quarters, Saragossa. War at the point of the knife." August 5, the brother of Palafox had opened a passage into the city, with 3000 regular troops. A council of war was now held, in which it was resolved that the remaining quarters of the city should be contested inch by inch, and that, should they be lost, the people should retire across the Ebro into the suburbs, destroy the bridge, and defend the suburbs to the last man. This resolution was unanimously applauded by the Saragossans. They did not, however, content themselves with resting on the defensive. They fell upon the besiegers with unequalled and irresistible fury. The struggle continued for eleven days, almost without intermission. Every day the people gained ground, till, at last, the enemy held only a narrow space within the walls. Convinced that there was no longer any hope of success, the French general abandoned the siege, which had lasted sixty-one days, and cost him several thousand men. Palafox availed himself of the breathing-time thus obtained to increase his force, and construct additional works. He was not allowed a long respite. To reduce Saragossa to submission was, on many accounts, an object of great importance to the French. In November, therefore, a large ariny, under marshals Mortier and Moncey, marched to recommence the siege. Palafox was defeated at Tudela, and again under the walls of Saragossa, and the place was invested. Being summoned to surrender, he replied and acted with the same energy as before. The approaches were vigorously carried on by the French, and a furious bombardment was incessantly kept up. Almost hourly combats took place between the besiegers and the besieged, in which the latter displayed a desperate valor. At length, January 27, a general assault was made, and

the French established themselves on the breaches. Once more they penetrated, by degrees, into the city, and once more they met with the most obstinate and sanguinary resistance. Old men, women and children, all took a part in endeavoring to stop the progress of the besiegers. Not only street by street, but house by house, and even room by room, was contended for, like the outworks of a fortress, and frequently lost and recovered. The besiegers finally resorted to mining to win their way, their progress by open force being bought at too dear a rate. In this way they became masters of about one fourth of the surface of the city. Saragossa, however, would long have resisted all their efforts, had it not been assailed by a force more terrible than the besiegers. An epidemic fever raged in the place, and spread destruction among the ranks of the Saragossans, there being neither hospitals, nor medicines, nor even shelter for the sick. Palafox himself was attacked by it, and, February 20, was obliged to give up the command to general St. Marc, by whom the capitulation was signed on the following day. The garrison was reduced to less than 12,000 men, who, when they marched out of the city, had more the appearance of spectres than of human beings. During this second siege, 54,000 of the besieged perished, of whom a fourth were soldiers. (See Spain.)

SAR LOUIS. (See Saar Louis.)

SARATOGA; a post-township of New York, in Saratoga county, on the west side of the Hudson, thirty miles north-byeast from Albany; population in 1830, 2461. Saratoga is memorable as the place where general Burgoyne surrendered the British army, consisting of 5791 men, to general Gates, October 17, 1777. In 1819, Saratoga township was divided, and the western part was named Saratoga Springs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS is an incorporated village, containing celebrated mineral waters, and is situated seven miles north-east of Ballston Spa, and thirty-two north of Albany; population in 1830, 2204. Here are extensive establishments for the accommodation of the numerous invalids and people of fashion, who resort hither during the summer season. The surrounding country has very few charms. The springs are very numerous, and several of them are very large. The Congress Spring is the most celebrated, and great quantities of the water are bottled and sent to all parts of the union. (For the ingredients of this water, see Congress Spring.)

SARCOLATRE. (See Apollinarians.) SARCOPHAGUS (from cao, flesh, and dayw, I eat); originally a species of limestone, found in the neighborhood of Assor, in Mysia, which, according to Pliny (Hist. Natur. ii, 96, and xxxvi, 17), had the power of destroying, within forty days, the corpses put into it, so that nothing remained entire except the teeth. Hence the name. This quality brought the stone into use for coffins, and thus the name came to be applied to all coffins of stone, though often used for a contrary purpose to that which the name expresses. The ancients, who embellished every thing, soon adorned the sarcophagi and often placed them upon the monuments which were originally erected over graves, to protect them against violence (monumentum, i. e. munimentum). Under the Roman emperors, this custom became more general, and rare species of stone were used. The Egyptian coffins of granite and alabaster served as models. Of the great number of sarcophagi which have come down to us, several are known by particular names; thus the sarcophagus of Homer, in the Besborodko gardens at St. Petersburg, and that of Alexander, in the British museum, once in the mosque of St. Athanasius at Alexandria, taken by the British from the French, during their campaign in Egypt. English archæologists have labored to prove its genuineness, and it is known that the body of Alexander was removed from the temple of Jupiter Ammon to Memphis, and afterwards to Alexandria, where Augustus and Septimius Severus (202 A. D.) saw it. The tomb, it is supposed, was so magnificent that the Christian destroyers spared it (though not the body), and changed it into a church of St. Athanasius. The sarcophagus, it is said, was used as a cistern. The statement of Chrysostom (Opera x, 625, ed. Montfaucon) seems to be inconsistent with this opinion, which, however, derives some support from an Oriental tradition. Clarke describes this sarcophagus, which is covered with hieroglyphics, in his Tomb of Alexander (Cambridge, 1805, 4to.). The form of these sarcophagi was ordinarily a parallelopipedon, or an oblong square, similar to our coffins. Sometimes the angles were rounded, thus assuming an elliptical shape. Some sarcophagi were not intended to contain the whole body, but only an urn.

SARD, or SARDOIN; a variety of carnelian, which exhibits, by reflected light, a dull reddish-brown color, but by trans

mitted light appears of a rich blood-red color.

SARDANAPALUS, or TONOSKONKOLEROS (supposed to be the Esar-Haddon of Scripture), whose name proverbially denotes effeminate softness and wantonness, was the last king of Assyria. He is said to have been a prince of great power and immense wealth, who, according to an inscription on his tombstone, built the cities of Tarsus and Anchiale in one day. Immersed in sensual gratification, he lived inactively and ingloriously, in women's clothes, among his concubines, and thereby excited against him the discontent of his subjects. Arbaces, a Median satrap, and Belesis, a Babylonian priest, together raised an army against him; whereupon Sardanapalus marched out to meet them, and overcame them in three battles. In the belief that he was perfectly secure, he returned anew to his pleasures, and prepared a splendid banquet for his victorious army. But Arbaces, aided by the Bactrians, attacked his camp by night, gained a great victory, and pursued the fugitives to the very gates of Nineveh. Here Sardanapalus defended himself for two years, while all his provinces in the mean time revolted. An inundation of the Euphrates at length destroyed a part of the city walls, and thereby rendered it impossible to continue the defence of Nineveh. In this desperate state of affairs, Sardanapalus set his palace on fire, and consumed himself, together with all his wives, servants and treasures, in the twenty-first year of his reign. His destruction is usually considered as having taken place in the year 888 B. C., but, according to Volney, it should be placed in the year 717.

SARDES, OF SARDIS; the ancient capital of Lydia, on the river Pactolus, not far from the mount Tmolus. Under the Persians, it was a magnificent city, and a great market for slaves, on the commercial route from Asia to Europe. The Greeks conquered and burned it 500 B. C. An earthquake again destroyed it, but Tiberius rebuilt it. A small village stands at present on its site, and considerable ruins still attest its ancient grandeur.

SARDINIA; an island in the Mediterranean sea, having the title of kingdom, with a superficial area of 9100 square miles, and a population of 490,050. It contains nine towns, fifteen villages, and 377 hamlets, and is separated from Corsica on the north by the straits of Bonifacio. The soil is fruitful, yielding corn, wine, oil, figs, and other southern fruits. There is an abundance of wood on the mountains,

« ForrigeFortsett »