Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/545

ELIZABETH CITY ELIZABETH PETROVNA 537 The chief productions in 1870 were 10,820 bushels of wheat, 78,046 of Indian corn, 6,717 of oats, 15,024 of Irish and 15,879 of sweet potatoes. There were 280 horses, 107 mules and asses, 416 milch cows, 242 other cattle, 1 34 sheep, and 2, 1 2 1 swine. Capital, Hampton. ELIZABETH CITY, the county seat of Pas- quotank co., North Carolina, on Pasquotank river, 20 in. from its mouth, and 40 m. S. of Norfolk, Va. ; pop. in 1870, 930, of whom 421 were colored. It communicates with Norfolk by means of the river, which is navigable by small vessels, and of the Dismal Swamp canal. It has considerable trade, chiefly in lumber and other products of the pine, and contains a flour mill, four saw mills, three schools, a weekly newspaper, and several churches. Several con- federate war vessels, which had escaped to this point after the occupation of Roanoke island by the Union forces, were captured or de- stroyed by a fleet under Commander Rowan, Feb. 10, 1862. ELIZABETH FARNESE, queen of Spain, born Oct. 25, 1692, died in 1766. She was a daugh- ter of Edward II., prince of Parma, and of the duchess Sophia Dorothea of Neuburg. Her ungainly appearance and headstrong dis- position alienated from her the affections of her mother, and her education was neglected; but those who proposed her as a consort to Philip V. in the hope of making her their tool were greatly disappointed. The king of Spain on becoming a widower in 1714 resigned him- self to the guidance of the French princess des Ursins, the favorite of his late beloved queen, and desired to follow her advice in the choice of a second wife. The princess selected Eliza- beth on account of her apparent disqualifica- tion for an exalted position, and she was mar- ried to the king before the end of the year. But the first act of the new queen was to cause the dismissal of the princess, and she soon gained a complete mastery over her weak- minded husband and over the affairs of Spain. By her ambition and intrigues, and the great schemes of her minister, Cardinal Alberoni, Europe was thrown into confusion. Her eldest son Don Carlos obtained possession of the Two Sicilies. (See CHARLES III. of Spain.) Car- lyle, in his " History of Frederick the Great," characterizes her as " a termagant, tenacious woman, whose ambitious cupidities were riot inferior in obstinacy to Kaiser Karl's, and proved not quite so shadowy as his." ELIZABETH ISLANDS, a group, of 16 small isl- ands, constituting the town of Gosnold, Dukes co., Mass., lying between Vineyard sound on the S. E. and Buzzard's bay on the N. W., and extending about 16 m. S. W. from Cape Cod, from which they are separated by a narrow channel known as Wood's Hole ; pop. in 1870, 99. The principal islands, commencing at the north, are Naushon, about 8 m. long by 1 to 2 m. wide; Pasque, about 2 m. long; Nasha- vvena, 3 m. ; and Cuttyhunk, 2 m. ; they are separated from each other by narrow channels. They were discovered in May, 1602, by Bartho- lomew Gosnold, after whom the town is named ; he called the last mentioned island Elizabeth, in honor of the queen, a name since transferred to the group. On a rocky islet situated in a pond on this island a fort and storehouse were built, and the foundations of the first colony in New England were laid. Upon the return of Gosnold, about a month later, the colonists refused to remain, and the design of effecting a settlement was abandoned. Until 1864 the group formed a part of the town of Chilmark. The islands are noted for their beauty, have a delightful summer climate, and afford rare opportunities for fishing. On the E. shore of Naushon is Tarpaulin cove, a harbor much frequented by wind-bound vessels on the pas- sage from Boston to New York. This island, which is well wooded and contains an abun- dance of deer, was the favorite residence, in the early part of the century, of James Bowdoin, the diplomatist, who had here a fine mansion furnished with a large library, philosophical apparatus, and a picture gallery. It is now the property of a Boston gentleman, who has here his summer residence ; and it is much re- sorted to by artists. Pasque and Cuttyhunk are occupied by New York clubs for boating and fishing purposes. About 2 m. N. and W. of Cuttyhunk and Nashawena is Penikese, comprising about 100 acres, formerly owned and occupied as a summer residence by John Anderson of New York, who in April, 1873, gave the island with the buildings and furni- ture (reserving the right of residing on a prom- ontory of about 15 acres at the E. extremity) to Prof. Agassiz as a site for a summer school of natural history. He also gave to the insti- tution the sum of $50,000 as a fund for its maintenance. The school, known as the "An- derson School of Natural History," was opened in the summer of 1873, and is to be carried on in connection with the museum of comparative zoology at Cambridge. ELIZABETH PETROVNA, empress of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine I., born in 1709, died Jan. 5, 1762. After the death of her parents, her nephew, Peter II. (1727-'30), son of Alexis, and her cousin Anna Ivanovna (1730-'40), daughter of the elder brother of Peter the Great, successively occu- pied the throne of Russia, for which she show- ed little desire, the pleasures of love,' as she used to say, being her supreme good. Anna appointed Ivan, son of Anthony Ulrich, duke of Brunswick, a child but a few months old, heir to the crown under the tutelage of his mother Anna, and the regency of Biron, the fa- vorite of the empress. Thus Elizabeth was for a third time excluded from the throne of her father, but even her freedom was now menaced by the jealousy of the mother of the infant czar, who wished to get rid both of the regent and the princess, and advised the latter to take the veil. Under these circumstances her surgeon and favorite, Lestocq, brought about a con-