The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 99

CABALLERO, FERNAN, the _nom de plume_ of Cecilia Boehl, a popular Spanish auth.o.r.ess, born in Switzerland, of German descent; a collector of folk tales; wrote charmingly; told stories of Spanish, particularly Andalusian, peasant life (1797-1877).

CABANEL, ALEXANDRE, a French painter, born at Montpellier (1828-1889).

CABANIS, PIERRE JEAN GEORGE, a celebrated French medical man, born in Cosnac, in the dep. of Charente Inferieure, a p.r.o.nounced materialist in philosophy, and friend of Mirabeau; attended him in his last illness, and published an account of it; his materialism was of the grossest; treated the soul as a nonent.i.ty; and held that the brain secretes thought just as the liver secretes bile (1757-1808).

CABEL, a celebrated painter of the Dutch school, born at Ryswick (1631-1698).

CABET, eTIENNE, a French communist, born in Dijon; a leader of the Carbonari; provoked prosecution, and fled to England; wrote a history of the First Revolution, in which he defended the Jacobins; author of the "Voyage en Icarie," in description of a communistic Utopia, which became the text-book of a communistic sect called "Icarians," a body of whom he headed to carry out his schemes in America, first in Texas and then at Nauvoo, but failed; died at St. Louis broken-hearted (1788-1856).

CABI'RI, certain mysterious demonic beings to whom mystic honours were paid in Lemnos and elsewhere in Greece, in connection with nature-worship, and especially with that of DEMETER and DIONYSUS (q. v.).

CABLE, GEORGE WASHINGTON, a journalist, born at New Orleans, has written interestingly on, and created an interest in, Creole life in America; _b_. 1844.

CABOT, GIOVANNI, a Venetian pilot, born at Genoa, settled in Bristol, entered the service of Henry VII., and discovered part of the mainland of N. America, at Labrador, about 1497: _d_. 1498.

CABOT, SEBASTIAN, son of the preceding, born either in Venice or Bristol; accompanied his father to N. America; sought service as a navigator, first in Spain then in England, but failed; returned to Spain; attempted under Charles V. to plant colonies in Brazil with no success, for which he was imprisoned and banished; was the first to notice the variation of the magnetic needle, and to open up to England trade with Russia (1474-1557).

CABRAL, PEDRO ALVAREZ, a Portuguese navigator, sailing for the Indies, drifted on the coast of Brazil, on which he planted the Portuguese flag, 1500, and of which he is accounted by some the discoverer, continued his course, and established a factory at Calicut in 1501 (1460-1526).

CABRE'RA, one of the Balearic Isles, used as a penal settlement by Spain, produces wild olives.

CABRERA, a Spanish general, born at Tortosa, Catalonia, a zealous supporter of the claims of Don Carlos, took up arms in his behalf; died in England; he was an unscrupulous adversary (1810-1877).

CABUL', or KABUL (50), cap. of a province of the name in Afghanistan, in a mild climate, on an elevated plateau of great fertility, 6000 ft. in height, on the high route between Central Asia and the Punjab, a great highway of trade, and a depot for European goods.

CACCIA, Italian fresco-painter, did altar-pieces; his best work, "Deposition from the Cross," at Novara; _d_. 1625.

CACERAS (350), a Spanish province in the N. of Estremadura; the name also of its capital (14), famous for its bacon and sausages, as the province is for cattle-rearing.

CACHAR (313), a great tea-growing district in a.s.sam.

CACHE, name given in Canada to a hole in the ground for hiding provisions when they prove c.u.mbersome to carry.

CACHET, LETTRE DE, a warrant issued in France before the Revolution, under the royal seal, for the arrest and imprisonment of a person, often obtained to gratify private ends; abolished in 1790.

CA'CUS, a mythological brigand of gigantic stature who occupied a cave in Mount Aventine, represented by Virgil as breathing smoke and flames of fire; stole the oxen of Hercules as he was asleep, dragging them to his cave tail foremost to deceive the owner; strangled by Hercules in his rage at the deception quite as much as the theft.

CADASTRE, a register of the landed proprietors of a district, and the extent of their estates, with maps ill.u.s.trative called Cadastral Maps.

CADE, JACK, an Irish adventurer, headed an insurrection in Kent, in 1450, in the reign of Henry VI.; encamped with his following on Blackheath; demanded of the king redress of grievances; was answered by an armed force, which he defeated; entered the city, could not prevent his followers from plundering; the citizens retaliating, he had to flee, but was overtaken and slain.

CADEMOSTO, a Venetian in the service of Portugal, discovered the Cape de Verde Islands in 1457; wrote the first book giving an account of modern voyages, published posthumously (1432-1480).

CADIZ (62), one of the chief commercial ports in Spain, in Andalusia; founded by the Phoenicians about 1100 B.C.; called Gades by the Romans; at the NW. extremity of the Isle of Leon, and separated from the rest of the island by a channel crossed by bridges; it is 7 m. from Xeres and 50 m. from Gibraltar, and carries on a large export trade.

CAD'MUS, a semi-mythological personage, founder of Thebes, in Boeotia, to whom is ascribed the introduction of the Greek alphabet from Phoenicia and the invention of writing; in the quest of his sister Europa, was told by the oracle at Delphi to follow a cow and build a city where she lay down; arrived at the spot where the cow lay down, he sent, with a view to its sacrifice, his companions to a well guarded by a dragon, which devoured them; slew the dragon; sowed its teeth, which sprang up into a body of armed men, who speared each other to death, all but five, who, the story goes, became the forefathers of Thebes.

CADOUDAL, GEORGES, a brave man, chief of the CHOUANS (q. v.), born in Brittany, the son of a farmer; tried hard and took up arms to restore the Bourbons in the teeth of the Republic, but was defeated; refused to serve under Bonaparte, who would fain have enlisted him, having seen in him "a mind cast in the true mould"; came over from London, whither he had retired, on a secret mission from Charles X.; was suspected of evil designs against the person of Bonaparte; arrested, and, after a short trial, condemned and executed, having confessed his intention to overthrow the Republic and establish Louis XVIII. on the throne (1769-1804).

CADUCEUS, the winged rod of Hermes, entwined with two serpents; originally a simple olive branch; was in the hands of the G.o.d possessed of magical virtues; it was the symbol of peace.

CaeDMON, an English poet of the 7th century, the fragment of a hymn by whom, preserved by Bede, is the oldest specimen extant of English poetry; wrote a poem on the beginning of things at the call of a voice from heaven, saying as he slept, "Caedmon, come sing me some song"; and thereupon he began to sing, as Stopford Brooke reports, the story of Genesis and Exodus, many other tales in the sacred Scriptures, and the story of Christ and the Apostles, and of heaven and h.e.l.l to come.

CAEN (45), a fine old Norman town, capital of Calvados, about 80 m.

SE. of Cherbourg; lace the chief manufacture; the burial-place of William the Conqueror, and the native place of Charlotte Corday; it is a well-built town, and has fine old public buildings, a large library, and a n.o.ble collection of pictures.

CAER'LEON, a small old town in Monmouthshire, on the Usk, 2 m. NE.

of Newport; celebrated by Tennyson in connection with Arthurian legend; it is a very ancient place, and contains relics of Roman times.

CaeSALPINUS, Italian natural philosopher, born at Arezzo; was professor of botany at Pisa; was forerunner of Harvey and Linnaeus; discovered s.e.x in plants, and gave hints on their cla.s.sification (1519-1603).

CaeSAR, name of an old Roman family claiming descent from the Trojan aeneas, which the emperors of Rome from Augustus to Nero of right inherited, though the t.i.tle was applied to succeeding emperors and to the heirs-apparent of the Western and the Eastern Empires; it survives in the t.i.tles of the Kaiser of Germany and the Czar of Russia.

CaeSAR, CAIUS JULIUS, p.r.o.nounced the greatest man of antiquity, by birth and marriage connected with the democratic party; early provoked the jealousy of Sulla, then dictator, and was by an edict of proscription against him obliged to quit the city; on the death of Sulla returned to Rome; was elected to one civic office after another, and finally to the consulship. United with Pompey and Cra.s.sus in the First Triumvirate (60 B.C.); was appointed to the government of Gaul, which he subdued after nine years to the dominion of Rome; his successes awoke the jealousy of Pompey, who had gone over to the aristocratic side, and he was recalled; this roused Caesar, and crossing the Rubicon with his victorious troops, he soon saw all Italy lying at his feet (49 B.C.); pursued Pompey, who had fled to Greece, and defeated him at Pharsalia (48 B.C.); was thereupon elected dictator and consul for five years, distinguishing himself in Egypt and elsewhere; returned to Rome (47 B.C.); conceived and executed vast schemes for the benefit of the city, and became the idol of its citizens; when he was a.s.sa.s.sinated on the Ides (the 15th) of March, 44 B.C., in the fifty-sixth year of his age; _b_.100 B.C.

CaeSAREA, a Syrian seaport, 30 m. N. of Joppa, built in honour of Augustus Caesar by Herod the Great, now in ruins, though a place of note in the days of the Crusades. Also C. PHILIPPI, at the source of the Jordan, whence Christ, on a.s.suring Himself that His disciples were persuaded of His divine sonship, turned to go up to Jerusalem, and so by His sacrifice perfect their faith in Him.