Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/457

LEFT AZOTE 367 AZTECS uninhabited; but that they had been vis- ited by the Carthaginians is proved by Punic coins found on Corvo. They seem to have been known to the Arabian geographer Edrisi in the 12th century; and they are marked distinctly on a map of 1351. The Portuguese colo- nists called the whole group Azores, from acor or azor, a hawk; and they named two individual islands, Corvo and Sao Jorge, from Corvi Marini and San Zorze, which, according to a map of 1375, had been previously seen in the Western ocean. In 1466 Alfonso V. made a life grant of the island of Fayal to his aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy, and from this circumstance many set- tlers migrated thither from Flanders. The total area of the group is 919 square miles, and the pop. about 260,000. The capital is Angra, in Terceira; but Ponta Delgada, in Sao Miguel, is a larger town. The Azores are of volcanic origin, and with the exception of Corvo, Flores, and Graciosa, are still liable to eruptions and violent earthquakes, the worst of 21 shocks since 1444 having been those of 1591, 1638, 1719, and 1841. Hot mineral springs are numerous; and the baths of Furnas, in Sao Miguel, are much resorted to by invalids. The islands have a considerable trade in fruit with Portu- gal, England, Brazil, and other countries. The greatest want of the group is a good harbor. The Azores are regarded as a province, not a colony, of Portugal, and as belonging to Europe. AZOTE, a name formerly given to nitrogen; hence substances containing nitrogen and forming part of the struc- ture of plants and animals are known as azotized bodies. Such are albumen, fibrine, casein, gelatine, urea, kreatine, etc. AZOTINE, a substance procured by decomposing wool by the action of steam at 150° C. under a pressure of five at- mospheres; the product, afterward dried by evaporation, contains nitrogen com- pletely soluble in water. Azotine is mixed with dried blood for a fertilizer. AZOV, a town in the S. of Russia, on the left bank of the Don, 7 miles from its mouth. The inhabitants depend mostly on fish-curing. Pop. about 30,000. Azov was built 9 miles from the site of the ancient Greek colony of Tanais; and when, in the 13th century, it was taken possession of by the Genoese, they al- tered its name to Tana. They were driven out of it by Timur (Tamerlane) in 1392. In 1471 it was taken by the Turks, and in 1696 by Peter the Great; and it was finally ceded to Rugsia in 1774. AZOV, SEA OF, named after the town, is a large gulf of the Black Sea. formed by the Crimean peninsula, or rather an inland lake connected with the Black Sea by the Strait of Yenikale or Kertch (ancient Bosporus Cimmerius), 28 miles long, and barely 4 wide at the narrowest. The intricate Siwash or Putrid Sea, which is just a succession of swamps, is cut off from the W. portion of the Sea of Azov by the long, narrow slip of low, sandy land called the Peninsula of Ara- bat. The ancient name of the Sea of Azov was Palus Maeotis or Miotic marsh, from the Maeotoe dwelling on its shores; by the Turks it is called Balik-Denghis, or fish sea, from its abundance of fish. The water is almost fresh. The whole sea is shallow, from 3 to 52 feet deep; and measuring 235 by 110 miles, it occu- pies an area of 14,500 square miles. The largest river emptjdng into it is the Don. During the Crimean War, an expedition, having on board 16,500 English, French, and Turks, was sent to the sea in May, 1855, which bombarded the ports, and cut off supplies intended for Sebastopol, AZPEITIA (ath-plt'ya), a town in the Spanish province of Guipuzcoa,, in a fine valley on the Urola, 18 miles S. W. of San Sebastian. A mile from it is the famous convent of Loyola, now converted into a museum (1683). It comprises a tower of the Santa Casa, in which St. Ignatius of Loyola, the great founder of the Jesuits, was born in 1491. Here every year in July a great festival is held in his honor, to which pilgrims flock from all quarters. AZRAEL, the name given to the angel of death by the Mohammedans. AZREK, BAHR-EL, or the BLUE RIVER, the principal stream of Abys- sinia, which, after a winding course through Abyssinia and Sennaar, falls in- to the Nile above Gerri. AZTECS, a race of people who settled in Mexico early in the 14th century, ul- timately extended their dominion over a large territory, and were still extending their supremacy at the time of the ar- rival of the Spaniards, by whom they were speedily subjugated. Their political organization, termed by the Spanish writers an absolute monarchy, appears to have consisted of a military chief ex- ercising important, but not unlimited, power in civil affairs, in which the coun- cil of chiefs and periodic assemblies of the judges had also a voice. Their most celebrated ruler was Montezuma, who was reigning when the Spaniards ar- rived. Slavery and polygamy were both legitimate, but the children of slaves