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 CHIOGGIA

689

CHIOS

were at best rather hazy, and the readiness with which their females fell preys to unprincipled whites does not speak well of their consideration for chastity. Practically their first contact with the whites dates from the visit of Captains Lewis and Clarke in 1805. Their numbers were then estimated at no less than 16,000. Though their first intercourse with the strangers was of a peaceful nature, they lost no op- portunity later on to pilfer from the Astorian traders who established themselves among them in 1812. In 1829, however, their arrogance was somewhat curbed by the visitation of an epidemic which carried off four-fifths of their entire population.

Through the French Canadians in the employ of the Pacific Fur Company, they had heard of the Christian religion; and the Rev. F. N. Blanchet (later Archbishop of Oregon City) even tells us that "very old crucifixes were found among them" when first visited by the Catholic priests (Memoire present e a la S. Congregation de la Propagande, p. 12). Tliis was in 1838, when, accompanied by the Rev. M. Demers (later Bishop of the Diocese of Vancouver) he arrived in the valley of the lower Columbia. The Chinooks who, by this time, had acquired most of the vices of the whites, did not show any particular en- thusiasm for the creed of the missionaries. On the other hand, the latter were too few, and they had to limit their ministrations to the French Canadians with their large half-breed families, and to such of the natives as were sufficiently well disposed. Oc- casionally, however, some Chinooks would come to see them at Fort Vancouver, more out of curiosity than through a desire for instruction. In 1839 Father Demers speaks of "their abominable lives", and it was only the following year (1840) that he could visit them at their homes, which he reached on 22 May, as a band of Methodist preachers were landing at Astoria. During a stay of three weeks' duration, he instructed the adults and baptized the children, but they soon relapsed into indifference. In 1851 another special effort was made, with little success, to reclaim them from their degenerate condition. Gradually 'vice and disease further thinned tlicir ranks, and it actually came to pass that the Lower Chinooks became extinct, while what remained of the upper part of the family, being scattered abroad, was soon more or less mixed with the neighbouring tribes and shared with them in the spiritual assistance prof- fered. To-day, there are not more than 300 Chinooks extant, who are found mostly on the Warm Springs, Yakima, and Grande Konde reservations in Oregon.

Dl Smet, Letters and Sketches (Philadelphia. 1843); DoFLOT,

l»E Mufkas, Exploration du territoire de I Oregon (Paris. 1844);

Lewis ami ('i.aukf,, Hist, of the Expedition (Toronto, s. d.J;

Iikmeks. Chinook Dictionary, Catechism, Prayers and Hymns

I, 1871).

A. G. Morice.

Chioggia (Chiozza), Diocese of (Clodiensis). — Chioggia is a sea-coast city in the province of Venice. It Ikis an important harbour and extensive fisheries. In antiquity it was known as Fossa Clodia; in the Middle Ages as Clugia. In 452 it offered a safe refuge to the inhabitants of the neighbouring cities of Mon- selice and Kste who fled before Attila. Later, how- ever, it shared the political vicissitudes of that region, falling successively into the power of the Goths, the Lombards, and finally of Pepin, King of Italy, son of Charlemagne. During the tenth and eleventh cen- turies it became a republic. It was ruined and sub- jugated by the Genoese during their war with the Venetians, but was freed by the Venetian general Zeno (1378-81), and Boon flourished under the rule of

In llOfi, Enrico Grancarolo, Bishop of the island of Malamocco, then nearly deserted, trans- ferred his see to Chioggia. Other noteworthy bishops are: the Dominican Marco Medici (1578), a famous theologian at the Council of Trent, and his successor

III. 44

Gabriello Fiamma (1584), one of the greatest orators of his time. Cardinal Pietro Bembo was a canon of the cathedral. This cathedral is remarkable for its magnificent pulpit and baptistery. The Diocese of Chioggia is a suffragan of Venice; it has 93,500 in- habitants, 31 parishes, 2 religious houses for men and 1 1 for women.

Cappelletti, Le chiese d" Italia, X, 341-415; Bdllo, Delia Cittadmanza di Chioggia, etc., in Archivio Yeneto, 1875-82.

U. Benigni.

Chios (Gr. X/ot, It. Scio, Turkish, Sakiz Adassi), one of the Sporades in the ./Egean Sea, separated from the mainland of Asia Minor by a strait five miles wide in its narrowest part; also the chief town of this island. Its origin is lost in the remotest antiquity. In historical times it became a rich Ionian colony with a great navy, and took an important part in the Medic wars. Allied with Athens during the Pelopon- nesian War, it was conquered by Lacedsemon, wavered in allegiance between Philip of Macedon and the Per- sians, entered into an alliance with the Romans, and at last became a Roman possession (70 b. a). Under the Byzantine Empire it was ravaged by the Arabs in the eighth century, and by the Turkish pirate, Tsachas, in 1089. The Venetians occupied it from the beginning of the thirteenth century till 1261, and the Genoese from 1346 to 1566, when it was conquered by Piali Pasha. Since then it has remained a Turkish possession, except for a short occupation by the Tus- cans in 1595, and by the Venetians in 1694. In 1822, on the occasion of the Greek insurrection, 30,000 Greeks were killed or sold as slaves, and 20,000 fled from the island, most of them to Syros, where they built Hermopolis. On 22 March, 1881, a great earthquake afflicted the island. With some neigh- bouring islets Chios forms a sanjak of the archipelago vilayet. The population is said to be 60,000: 1500 Mussulmans, 400 Catholics, 250 Jews, and the rest Greeks. The town itself (Scio) has 15,000 inhabi- tants. Chios is a metropolitan see for the Greeks (see the episcopal list in Lequien, " Oriens Christianus ", I, 931); they have several churches and schools, and a library. There is also a Latin bishopric, a suffragan of Naxos, which has three churches served by some ten priests. The religious are the Capuchins, Brothers of Christian Doctrine, and Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, with schools. The list of Latin bishops since the fourteenth century is in Lequien, op. cit. , II, 1062; more complete in Gams (448) and Eubel, I, 191; II, 141. The diocese also includes the island of Samos, with 100 Catholics, a church, and school conducted by Fathers of the African Missions from Lyons.

The fertile valleys of Chios are like vast orchards, in which grow oranges, lemons, and other fruits. The island also produces wine, mastie, resin of a lentiscus, used chiefly in perfuming the raki, turpentine, silk and cotton, wax, marble, and antimony. In extreme length the island is about thirty-two miles, north to south, and at its widest part eighteen, narrowing down to about eight miles. Chios is one of the sites that lay claim to the honour of Homer's birthplace; the Dascalopetra, or Homer's school, a rock where he is said to have taught, is still shown. Chios is also the birthplace of the tragic poet Ion, the historian Theo- pompus, the philosopher Metrodorus, and many artists; of the Catholics, Giustiniani, a defender of Constantinople in 1453, Allatius (q. v.), and Pepanos; the Greeks, Coresios, Corals, and others.

Cramer, A Geogr. and Ilistor. Description of Asia Minor (Ox- ford, 1832), II. 395-402; Smith. Diet, a) Greek nnd Roman • : . I. fi9; Tozer. The Islands of the .Fgran (Oxford, 1890). 139 166; Cl imt, Turouie d'Asie, I. 406; Oiurtiniani, La Scio sacra del rito latino descritta (16581; Blabtos, Chiaca, or II, to,,, of the Island of Chios Kir ); I'm I v WlSSOWA, Real- Encyc. III. 2286-2297 (important bibliography); Hocbbaye, file de (7u.i. in Heme des l>,„, Mondes i ISM i. \ I. VI. 82-103; Pernot, En pays lure: Vile de Chio (Paris, 1903).

S. Petrides.