Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/41

LEFT RHODES 23 shoes, red leather, and umber. Its ex- ports are wax, honey, figs, and other fruits. Imports — colonial produce, wool- ens, iron, nails, shot, soap, cordage, hard- ware, coal, horses, cattle, carpets, and corn. By the terms of the Treaty of Peace with Turkey, Rhodes was assigned to Italy. RHODES, the capital of the island of Rhodes, situated at its N. E. extremity. It is defended by towers about 800 feet distant from each other, while in the center of the mole there is a square bas- tion 120 feet high. Rhodes presents at present very few vestiges of its ancient grandeur; its streets are narrow and winding, and devoid of elegance or regu- larity. It has two good harbors, sepa- rated only by a mole running obliquely out into the sea. The principal manu- factures are red leather and shoes. It was at the entrance to the harbor of this city that stood the celebrated Colossus op Rhodes (q. v.). Pop. about 3,000. About half are Greeks; the rest Turks and Jews. The ancient Rhodes was taken possession of by a branch of the Doric race, who held it at the time of the Tro- jan War, 1184 B. C. It was of small po- litical importance among the states of Greece till the city of Rhodes was built and made the capital of the island, 408 B. c. In the war between Cassar and Pom- pey, the Rhodians, who had long held supremacy at sea, took part with the former 50 B. C. ; and continuing their aid to Cassius, were defeated by the Romans and completely subjugated, 42 B. c. They then held their liberties by the caprice of the emperors, and their city was made, by Constantine I., the metropolis of the Provincia Insularum in 330. It was taken by Chosroes II., King of Persia, in 316; by the Saracens in 651 ; and by the Knights of St. John, Aug. 15, 1309. Mo- hammed II. besieged it ineffectually in 1480, and the Sultan Solyman I. compelled it to capitulate after a vigorous siege and brave defense that lasted from June to December, 1522. An earthquake which occurred in Rhodes, April 22, 1863, de- stroyed 2,000 houses, and swallowed up or otherwise killed and wounded thousands of the inhabitants. RHODES, CECIL JOHN, a South African statesman; born July 5, 1853. He was the fifth son of the vicar of Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, and after attending the local grammar school was sent for his health to Natal, where his brother was a planter. He subse- quently went to the Kimberley diamond diggings; there he soon became conspicu- ous and amassed a fortune. He came back to England and entered at Oriel College, Oxford, and though his residence RHODES was cut short by ill-health, he ultimately took his degree. He entered the Cape House of Assembly as member for Barkly. In 1884 General Gordon asked him to go with him to Khartum as secretary; but Rhodes had just taken office in the Cape ministry, and decided to remain in South Africa. He sent $50,000 to Mr. Parnell to CECIL JOHN RHODES forward the cause of Irish Home Rule. In 1890 he became prime minister of Cape Colony; but even before this he had be- come a ruling spirit in the extension of British territory, and in securing the charter for the British South African Company. His policy may be described as the ultimate establishment of a federal South African dominion under the British flag, and, as one of the first steps toward the accomplishment of this scheme, he was an earnest advocate of the construc- tion of a railroad "from Cairo to the Cape." He died in Cape Town, South Africa, March 26, 1902. In his will Mr. Rhodes left about $10,000,000 to found a number of three-year scholarships ten- able at Oxford, England. The income for each scholarship was $1,500 a year, and two were offered to every State and Territory in the American Union, to every English-speaking colony; while five were set apart for students of German descent. See Rhodesia.