Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/741

ESPIRITO SANTO peared at Barcelona in 1618, and has since passed through several editions in Spain. An English translation was made by Algernon Langton (London, 1816), and Tieck wrote an imitation in German (Breslau, 182Y). Vol- taire accused Le Sage of plagiarism, and de- nounced the "Gil Bias" as taken entirely from Espinel's " Marcos de Obregon." ESPIRITO SANTO, a S. E. province of Brazil, on the Atlantic, bounded N. by the province of Bahia, S. by that of Rio de Janeiro, and W. by Minas Geraes; area, 14,049 sq. m. ; pop. about 65,000. A very large proportion of the inhabitants are savages, dwelling in the inte- rior, mostly descendants of the ancient Tupis and Aimores, the latter being called Boto- cudos. The capital is Victoria. A branch of the Serra do Mar, here called Serra dos Ai- mores, forms the natural western boundary, and throws off in regular succession a number of spurs, some of which gradually lower down to the coast, where they form abrupt rocky bluffs. The valleys between these hills are often very little broader than the rivers by which they are drained. There are some streams of considerable magnitude, the princi- pal of which are the Mucury, which separates the province from that of Bahia, and the Doce. But few of the rivers are favorable to naviga- tion, owing to their rapidity, irregular depth, and many cataracts. There are numerous lakes, mostly in connection with the rivers which empty directly into the ocean. There are few ports worthy of the name, Benevente being the best, and able to receive ships of considerable tonnage at any time of the tide. Victoria has an excellent harbor, but, on account of the barrenness of the surrounding country, will probably never be of much im- portance; and the mouth of the Doce is so dangerous as to render it useless for a port. Impervious forests cover the regions adjacent to the rivers ; the plains toward the coast are pretty equally divided into meadow land and marsh ; and altogether but little of the country has been brought under cultivation, notwith- standing the fertility of the soil, particularly IT. of Victoria and S. of the Itapemirim. The chief products are maize, beans, coffee, man- dioca, cotton and sugar in small quantities, and cacao, which is principally planted in the low grounds. Various attempts have been made to colonize the Doce, where is a great agricul- tural region; the chief cause of failure has been the ferocity of the aboriginal tribes. The rivers afford a plentiful supply of fish, nowhere surpassed for numbers of species and delicacy of flavor ; and hosts of turtles are found along the coast. Rosewood is extensively exported, with some beans and other produce, and some coffee and sugar. The climate is generally hot, humid, and unhealthy. ESPY, James P., an American meteorologist, born in Washington co., Pa., May 9, 1785, died in Cincinnati, O., Jan. 24, 1860. He early manifested a fondness for meteorological sci- ESQUIMAUX 729 ence, and after some years of investigation announced a theory of the origin and causes of storms, one of the features of which was the possibility of producing rain on a large scale by artificial means, which led to pro- tracted discussions on the subject in the scien- tific journals. In 1841 his "Philosophy of Storms " was published simultaneously in Bos- ton and London. He had previously com- municated to the British association a paper on storms, and another on the " Four Daily Fluctuations of the Barometer." In 1843 he was assigned by the war department at Wash- ington to a post in connection with the obser- vatory, that he might prosecute meteorological investigations, and collated the reports from the different observers throughout the country. The information thus obtained was published in several quarto volumes by the department. ESQUIMAUX, or Eskimos, the most northerly of the American native tribes, residing chiefly above lat. 60 N., and occupying Greenland, Labrador, the shores of the Arctic ocean, and the coast on the Pacific down to the peninsula of Aliaska, and also a portion of the adjacent Asiatic coast. They are generally divided by writers into the Karalits or Greenlanders, the eastern or Labrador Esquimaux, the Iglulik or central, the Kotzebue sound or western, and the Tchuktchis in Asia. They call themselves Innuit (men). The name Esquimaux, applied to them by the Algonquins, means raw fish eaters. The early Norwegian settlers in Greenland called them Skroellings. They finally expelled the Norwegians from their country about the 14th century. Cartier heard of them, and his successors before the end of the 16th century traded with them on the Labrador coast ; but the Basques by violence provoked them to war. They were in constant hostilities with the Algonquins, who at last drove them from the gulf of St. Lawrence, where Champlain places them on his map. They worshipped Torngak, an old man, god of the sea, and Sup- peruksoak, goddess of earth. They are hardy, ingenious, active, and industrious, showing considerable skill. Crantz describes the Green- landers as small but well proportioned, broad- shouldered, generally less than 5 ft. high, with high cheek bones, flat faces, small lustreless black eyes, round cheeks, small but not flat noses, small round mouths, long, straight, coal- black hair, large heads and limbs, and small soft hands and feet. They root out the beard, and are inclined to corpulence. Their body is of a dark gray color, but the face brown or blue. This brown color seems not altogether natural, because their children are born as white as others, but it is due in part to their habits ; for they are constantly handling grease, and seldom wash themselves. Lesson de- scribes them as superstitious to excess. Po- lygamy is practised, and women are regarded as creatures of an inferior order, to be disposed of by the men according to their pleasure. Their dwellings are almost invariably near