West Africa, and was sold into slavery in 1821. Next year he was rescued, with many other captives, by H.M. ship “Myrmidon,” and was landed at Sierra Leone. Educated there in a missionary school, he was baptized on the 11th of December 1825. In time he became a teacher at Furah Bay, and afterwards an energetic missionary on the Niger. He came to England in 1842, entered the Church Missionary College at Islington, and in June 1843 was ordained by Bishop Blomfield. Returning to Africa, he laboured with great success amongst his own people and afterwards at Abeokuta. Here he devoted himself to the preparation of school-books, and the translation of the Bible and Prayer-Book into Yoruba and other dialects. He also established a trade in cotton, and improved the native agriculture. In 1857 he commenced the third expedition up the Niger, and after labouring with varied success, returned to England and was consecrated, on St Peter’s Day 1864, first bishop of the Niger territories. Before long a commencement was made of the missions to the delta of the Niger, and between 1866 and 1884 congregations of Christians were formed at Bonny, Brass and New Calabar, but the progress made was slow and subject to many impediments. In 1888 the tide of persecution turned, and several chiefs embraced Christianity, and on Crowther’s return from another visit to England, the large iron church known as “St Stephen’s cathedral” was opened. Crowther died of paralysis on the 31st of December 1891, having displayed as a missionary for many years untiring industry, great practical wisdom, and deep piety.
CROYDON, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of Surrey, England, suburban to London, 10 m. S. of London Bridge. Pop. (1891) 102,695; (1901) 133,895. The borough embraces a great residential district. Several railway stations give it communication with all parts of the metropolis, the principal railways serving it being the London, Brighton &
South Coast and the South-Eastern & Chatham. It stands near
the sources of the river Wandle, under Banstead Downs, and
is a place of great antiquity. The original site, farther west
than the present town, is mentioned in Domesday Book. The
derivation indicated is from the O. Fr. croie dune, chalk hill.
The supposition that here was the Roman station of Noviomagus
is rejected. The site is remarkable for the number of springs
which issue from the soil. One of these, called the “Bourne,”
bursts forth a short way above the town at irregular intervals
of one to ten years or more; and after running a torrent for
two or three months, as quickly vanishes. Until its course was
diverted it caused destructive floods. This phenomenon seems
to arise from rains which, falling on the chalk hills, sink into the
porous soil and reappear after a time from crevices at lower
levels. The manor of Croydon was presented by William the
Conqueror to Archbishop Lanfranc, who is believed to have
founded the archiepiscopal palace there, which was the occasional
residence of his successors till about 1750, and of which the
chapel and hall remain. Addington Park, 3½ m. from Croydon,
was purchased for the residence, in 1807, of the archbishop of
Canterbury, but was sold in consequence of Archbishop Temple’s
decision to reside at the palace, Canterbury. The neighbouring
church, which is Norman and Early English, contains several
memorials of archbishops. Near the park a group of tumuli
and a circular encampment are seen. Croydon is a suffragan
bishopric in the diocese of Canterbury. The parish church of
St John the Baptist appears to have been built in the 14th and
15th centuries, but to have contained remains of an older
building. The church was restored or rebuilt in the 16th century,
and again restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1857–1859. It was
destroyed by fire, with the exception of the tower, on the 5th
of January 1867, and was at once rebuilt by Scott on the old
lines. In 1596 Archbishop Whitgift founded the hospital or
almshouse which bears his name, and remains in its picturesque
brick buildings surrounding two quadrangles. His grammar
school was housed in new buildings in 1871, and is a flourishing
day school. The principal public building of Croydon is that
erected by the corporation for municipal business; it included
court-rooms and the public library. At Addiscombe in the
neighbourhood was formerly a mansion dating from 1702, and
acquired by the East India Company in 1809 for a Military
College, which on the abolition of the Company became the
Royal Military College for the East Indian Army, and was closed in 1862. Croydon was formed into a municipal borough in 1883, a parliamentary borough, returning one member, in 1885, and a county borough in 1888. The corporation consists of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors. Area, 9012 acres.
CROZAT, PIERRE (1661–1740), French art collector, was born at Toulouse, one of a family who were prominent French financiers and collectors. He became treasurer to the king in Paris, and gradually acquired a magnificent collection of pictures
and objets d’art. Between 1729 and 1742 a finely illustrated work
was published in two volumes, known as the Cabinet Crozat,
including the finest pictures in French collections. Most of
his own treasures descended to his nephews, Louis François
(d. 1750), Joseph Antoine (d. 1750), and Louis Antoine (d. 1770),
and were augmented by them, being dispersed after their deaths;
the collection of Louis Antoine Crozat went to St Petersburg.
CROZET ISLANDS, an uninhabited group in the Indian Ocean, in 46°-47° S. and 51° E. They are mountainous, with
summits from 4000 to 5000 ft. high, and are disposed in two
divisions—Penguin or Inaccessible, Hog, Possession and East
Islands; and the Twelve Apostles. Like Kerguelen, and other
clusters in these southern waters, they appear to be of igneous
formation; but owing to the bleak climate and their inaccessible
character they are seldom visited, and have never been explored
since their discovery in 1772 by Marion-Dufresne, after one of
whose officers they are named. Possession, the highest, has a
snowy peak said to exceed 5000 ft. Hog Island takes its name
from the animals which were here let loose by an English captain
many years ago, but have since disappeared. Rabbits burrow in
the heaps of scoria on the slopes of the mountains.
CROZIER, WILLIAM (1855– ), American artillerist and inventor, born at Carrollton, Carroll county, Ohio, on the 19th
of February 1855, was the son of Robert Crozier (1827–1895),
chief justice of Kansas in 1863–1866, and a United States senator
from that state from December 1873 to February 1874. He
graduated at West Point in 1876, was appointed a 2nd lieutenant
in the 4th Artillery, and served on the Western frontier for three
years against the Sioux and Bannock Indians. From 1879 to
1884 he was instructor in mathematics at West Point, and was
superintendent of the Watertown (Massachusetts) Arsenal from
1884 to 1887. In 1888 he was sent by the war department to
study recent developments in artillery in Europe, and upon his
return he was placed in full charge of the construction of gun
carriages for the army, and with General Adelbert R. Buffington
(1837– ), the chief of ordnance, he invented the Buffington-Crozier
disappearing gun carriage (1896). He also invented a
wire-wound gun, and perfected many appliances connected with
heavy and field ordnance. In 1890 he attained the rank of
captain. During the Spanish-American War he was inspector-general for the Atlantic and Gulf coast defences. In 1899 he was one of the American delegates to the Peace Conference at the Hague. He later served in the Philippine Islands on the staffs of Generals John C. Bates and Theodore Schwan, and in 1900 was chief of ordnance on the staff of General A. R. Chaffee during the Pekin Relief Expedition. In November 1901 he was appointed brigadier-general and succeeded General Buffington as chief of ordnance of the United States army. His Notes on the Construction of Ordnance, published by the war department, are used as text-books in the schools for officers, and he is also the author of other important publications on military subjects.
CROZIER, or pastoral staff, one of the insignia of a bishop, and probably derived from the lituus of the Roman augurs. It is crook-headed, and borne by bishops and archbishops alike (see Pastoral Staff). The word “crozier” or “crosier” represents the O. Fr. crocier, Med. Lat. crociarius, the bearer of the episcopal crook (Med. Lat. crocea, croccia, &c., Fr. croc). The English representative of crocea was crose, later crosse, which, becoming confused with “cross” (q.v.), was replaced by “crozier-staff”
