Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 05.djvu/410

LEFT KIDERLEN 342 KIEL pirates who infested the Indian Ocean, and Coote, Earl of Bellomont, was sent out by William III. as governor of New York and Massachusetts with special in- structions to suppress the pest. A ship of 30 guns was fitted out by a private company in London and given to Kidd to act against the French and cap- ture pirates. In January, 1697, he reached Madagascar, the chief rendez- vous of the pirates, but ere long reports reached England that Captain Kidd was playing the game of pirate himself. After a two years' cruise he returned to the West Indies, and a few months later had the temerity to go to Boston. He was arrested and sent to England, where he was tried for piracy, found guilty, and hanged at Execution Dock, London, May 24, 1701. He had buried a store of treasure on Gardiner's Island, off Long Island, which was seized, amounting with what was found elsewhere to $70,000. KIDERLEN-WAECHTER, ALFRED VON, a German diplomat. Born in 1852, he entered the foreign service in 1879, and from then until 1888 was succes- sively secretary of the German embassies in St. Petersburg, Paris, and Constanti- nople. Served in the foreign office until 1894, when he became minister to Den- mark and later to Rumania. In 1911 he became Imperial Foreign Secretary, a position he held until his death. Dur- ing his term the Moroccan crisis be- tween Germany and England and France occurred, and it reqcired all of his talent to prevent it from causing a European war. He also managed to secure for Germany important concessions in the Congo region, in return for a recognition of French rights in Morocco. He died in 1912. KIDNAPPING, the act of forcibly ab- ducting or stealing human beings; man stealing, child stealing. KIDNEY, the secreting organs of the urine, two in number, situated in the lumbar region on each side of the spine, which they approach on their upper ex- tremities. The kidney is from four to five inches long, about two and a half broad, somewhat more than one in thick- ness, and from three to five ounces in weight. Covered by a layer of fat, they rest on the diaphragm, the right, on ac- count of the liver, being somewhat lower than the left. The anterior surfaces are convex, the posterior flat. KIDNEY BEAN, the genus Phaseolus. The common kidney bean is P. vulgaris; the scarlet kidney bean, the scarlet run- ning kidney bean, or scarlet runner, is P. multiflorus ; its roots are narcotic, as are those of the royal kidney bean, P. radiatus; and the underg^round kidney bean is Arachis hypogsea. KIEFF, OR KIEV, formerly a gov- ernment of Russia, but as the result of the World War now part of the Republic of Ukraine. Its area is about 20,000 square miles of closely wooded, swampy country. The district is particularly noted for the excellent breed of horned cattle raised on the steppes of the prov- inces. The sugar-refineries have as- sumed the leading place among its in- dustries. Pop. about 4,500,000. KIEFF (ke'ef), or KIEV (ke'ev), one of the oldest towns of Russian Ukraine, and ecclesiastically one of the most im- portant; on the Dnieper. According to tradition it was founded before the Christian era. In 882 it was made the capital of the Russian principality, and remained so until 1169. Here in 988 Christianity was first preached in Russia by St. Vladimir; and ever since that date Kieff has been one of the chief ecclesias- tical and intellectual centers of Russia. The town was captured and nearly de- stroyed by the Mongols in 1240, and it remained in their hands for 80 years. From 1320 to 1569 it was in the posses- sion of Lithuania, then of Poland down to 1654, in which year it was annexed to Russia. The most notable institution in the town is the Petchersk monastery, which is visited by more than 250,000 pilgrims annually. Underneath the mon- astery are a number of caves containing tombs of the chief saints of the Russian Church. The cathedral of St. Sophia, erected in 1037 on the spot where Yaroslaff defeated (1036) the Petche- negs, contains the tombs of the grand- dukes of Russia and a magnificent altar ornamented with beautiful mosaics; the interior of the cathedral resembles a labyrinth. The cathedral church of the Assumption harbors the bones of seven saints brought from Constantinople, and has a beautiful belfry with a peal of 12 bells. There is a university, transferred from Vilna in 1833. The industry is un- important, except tanning and the manu- facture of wax candles. Considerable trade is done, especially at the fairs, the most celebrated of which is held during the last half of January. The fortress of Kieif was begun by Peter the Great in 1706. The town was the scene of a terrible massacre of the Jews in 1905. It is the capital of Ukraine. Pog. about 650,000. KIEL (kel), a town of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein ; 66 miles from Hamburg, at the head of a deep