Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/209

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MAZATLAN 167 MEADE Recalled two years later, he entered the service of the French king in 1639, and was sent ambassador to Turin. In 1641 he was made a cardinal, and on the death of Richelieu, at the end of the following year, succeeded him as prime minister. Under Mazarin the influence of France among the nations was increased, and in the internal government of the country those principles of despotism were estab- lished on which Louis XIV. afterward acted. It is admitted that as a financial administrator he was far inferior to Richelieu. Mazarin was said to have privately married Anne of Austria. He died in Vincennes, France, March 9, 1661. MAZATLAN (ma-sat-lan') , a seaport in the State of Sinaloa, Mexico, at the entrance of the Mazatlan river, which falls into the Gulf of California, 230 miles S. E. of Sinaloa; is a well-built, picturesque town, the houses nearly all of one story, and possesses a cathedral, custom house, barracks, cotton factory, foundries, etc. ; chief exports, silver, dye- woods, and mother-of-pearl. Pop. about 22,000. MAZEPPA, IVAN STEPHANOVICH (ma-zep'pa), hetman of the Cossacks; born in Mazepintzi, in 1644. He was de- scended from a poor but noble family of Fodolia, and became a page at the court of John Casimir, King of Poland. A Polish nobleman, having surprised him in an intrigue with his wife, caused him to be stripped naked, and bound on his own horse, lying on his back, and with his head to its tail, and let the animal loose, leaving Mazeppa to his fate. The horse carried him, senseless from ex- haustion, to its native wilds of the Ukraine, according to the usual account. He won the confidence of Peter the Great, who loaded him with honors, and made him Prince of the Ukraine; but he con- ceived the idea of throvnng off the sovereignty of the czar, and for this purpose entered into negotiations mth Charles XII. of Sweden. Mazeppa's hopes perished in the disaster of Pul- towa, and he fled with Charles to Ben- der, where he died miserably, Sept. 22, 1709. MAZURIAN LAKES, BATTLE OF, one of the first encounters of magni- tude between the German and Russian forces after the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. The lakes, numerous small sheets of water in a vast marsh, south of Konigsberg, East Prussia, constituted very difficult ground for an invading army. It was his personal knowledge of this terrain that caused General von Hindenburg to be recalled from the retired list, to command the German forces which were sent to retrieve the initial defeat of the German forces, after they had been driven back by the Rus- sians, under General Rennenkampf, on Aug. 20, 1914. Arriving in the field a few days later, Von Hindenburg, with a much inferior force, attacked the Rus- sian forces under Samsonoff, numbering nearly 250,000, near Tannenberg, and through his intimate knowledge of the swamps, maneuvered the enemy into such a position that he was hopelessly defeated. Thousands of the Russians were engulfed in the mire, their escape cut off by the strategy of the German commander, Samsonoff himself being among the slain. One hundred thousand were taken prisoners. Practically this whole Russian army was annihilated, so that Von Hindenburg was able to turn his attention to the main Russian forces and force their retirement beyond the frontier. MAZURKA, orMAZOURKA (-zor'ka), a Polish dance of lively grotesque char- acter, with a peculiar rhythm. MAZZINI, GIUSEPPE (mat-se'ne), an Italian patriot; born in Genoa, June 28, 1805; was graduated at the Univer- sity of Genoa (1826) ; admitted to the bar there. After six months' imprison- ment on the charge of conspiring against the government, he left Italy and resided in succession in Marseilles, Paris, and London, whence he agitated for the liber- ation of Italy. At the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he returned to Italy, where he became a member of the tri- umvirate in the republic of Rome, but was again exiled at the restoration of the papal power (1849). He afterward organized risings in Mantua (1852), Milan (1853), and Genoa (1857), though in the unification of Italy (except Venice and the "Patrimony of Peter") under Victor Emmanuel (1861) his part was subordinate. In 1870 he engaged in an insurrection at Palermo and was cap- tured, but afterward released at the gen- eral amnesty after the occupation of Rome. He wrote much in English and French. His "Memoirs" were printed in 1875; "Complete Works" (18 vols. 1861- 1891). He died in Pisa, Italy, March 10, 1872. MEAD, a fermented liquor made from honey. The Latin name is Hydromel. MEADE, GEORGE GORDON, an American military officer; born in Cadiz, Spain, where his father was United States naval agent, Dec. 31, 1815; was graduated at the United States Military