Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/58

Rh 44 V A L V A L Here lie was well received at court and treated as the shah s guest. On his return to Ispahan he was occupied with political schemes hostile to the Turk, the alliance of Persia with the Cossacks and the king of Poland, and also with a project for the foundation of a Catholic colony in Persia ; at the same time he diligently continued his Oriental studies and observations. He now began to think of returning by India rather than adventure himself again in Turkey; but the state of his health, and the war between Persia and the Portuguese at Ormuz, created difficulties. In October 1621 he started from Ispahan, and, visiting Perse- polis and Shiraz, made his way to the coast ; but, after long delay and many troubles his wife dying at Mina he was forced to return to Shiraz, after the capture of Ormuz, and it was not till January 1623 that he found passage for Surat on the English ship &quot; Whale.&quot; In India he remained till November 1624, his headquarters being Surat and Goa. He was at Muscat in January 1625, and at Bussorah in March. In May he started by the desert route for Aleppo, and, after a short stay there and a visit to Antioch, took ship at Alexandretta on a French vessel. Touching at Cyprus and doing quarantine at Malta, he reached Rome on 28th March 1626, and he was received with much honour, not only by literary circles, but by Pope Urban VIII., who appointed him a gentleman of his bedchamber. The rest of his life was uneventful ; he married as second wife a Georgian orphan of noble family, Mariuccia (Tinatin de Ziba), whom his first wife had adopted as a child, and who had accompanied him in all his journeys. By her he had fourteen sons. He died at Rome on 21st April 1652. In Pietro della Yalle s lifetime there were printed (1) a Funeral Oration on his Wife Maani, whose remains he brought with him to Rome and buried there (1627) ; (2) an Account of Shah Abbas, printed at Venice in 1628, but not published ; (3) the first part of the letters describing his Travels (Turkey, 1650). The Travels in Persia (2 parts) were published by his sons in 1658, and the third part (India) in 1663. An English translation appeared in 1665 (fol.). Of the Italian text the edition of Brighton, 1843 (2 vols. 8vo), is more esteemed than the other reprints. It contains a sketch of the author s life by Gio. P. Bellori (1622). Della Valle s story is often prolix, with a tendency to the rhetorical. He has no turn for incident, an absolute want of humour, and little real literary faculty of any kind ; but he is clear and exact, well informed, and very in structive, so that his work still possesses high value. VALLEJO, a city of Solano county, California, United States, is situated on the shore of San Pablo Bay, near the western end of the Straits of Carquinez. It has an ex cellent harbour, and railroad communication by a branch of the Central Pacific Railroad. The city contains large flour-mills; the population in 1880 was 5987. Vallejo, which takes its name from the Mexican general M. G. Vallejo, who took the country from the Indians in 1835, was in 1854 the capital of the State of California. VALLOMBROSzi, ORDER OF. See MONACHISM, vol. xvi. p. 708. VALLS, a town of Spain, in the province of Tarragona, 11 miles to the north of that town, on a height near the Francoli. It is an old town and its walls and towers still remain. The usual Catalonian industries of wool and cotton spinning and weaving, as well as dyeing, distilling, paper-making, and tanning are carried on with considerable activity. The population within the municipal boundaries in 1877 was 13,250. VALPARAISO, a city of Chili, the chief town of the province of the same name, and one of the principal com mercial ports on the west coast of South America, is situated on a fine bay of the South Pacific Ocean, in 33 2&quot; S. lat. and 71 41 15&quot; W. long., 70 miles north-west of Santiago, with which there is communication by a cir cuitous railway of 115 miles. The city lies at the south part of the bay, which is 2^- miles wide, semicircular in P! Angel form, and well sheltered, except towards the north. There is good anchorage in the roadstead. There are two float ing docks, capable of accommodating vessels of from 1400 to 3000 tons. The city is situated at the base of a range of barren hills, varying from 1000 to 1400 feet in height, which have a narrow strip of low land between them and the sea ; on this and on sites formed by cutting away the cliffs most Of the houses are Plan of Valparaiso. built. Further space is afforded by the deep dells or water courses between the hills. These open towards the sea, and are on both sides covered with houses. Much of the fore shore has been raised by earthquakes. The erection of an extensive embankment was begun in 1885. The older por tion (Puerto) of the city, in which are the principal public and commercial buildings, is separated from the newer por tion, called the Almendral, by a projecting point. The city is defended by a chain of forts, begun in 1866. The prin cipal public buildings are the Government palace, the cus tom house, the large bonded Government warehouses, the hospital, the city hall, and two theatres. The educational institutions include a theological seminary, a naval academy, and a lyceum ; the last-named had 415 students in 1884 and 481 in 1885. The commercial enterprise of the city is largely dependent on the foreign merchants, especially Englishmen, Americans, and Germans. It is the com mercial capital of Chili, and the principal residence of the foreign consuls. The principal industrial establishments are the Government railway shops, a large foundry and machine shops, coach-building and wheel-wright works, and a very large sugar refinery, the raw material for which is obtained from Peru. The population (97,737 in 1875) was 95,000 in 1885, of whom about a tenth were foreigners. The number of vessels in the foreign trade that entered the port in 1885 was 587 of 582,066 tons, the number that cleared 348 of 373,551 tons. More than half of the tonnage was British, Chilian, German, and French following in the order named. In the coasting trade the number of vessels that entered in 1885 was 781 of 434,480 tons, the number that cleared 1050 of 640,138 tons. About nine- tenths of the tonnage was British and Chilian, the latter having a slight advantage. The following table shows the value of the import and export trade during five years, 1881 to 1885 : Year. Imports. Exports. Total. 1881 18S2 1883 1884 1885 & x. d. 7,437,545 8 2 8,51)3,050 17 4 9,673,618 13 6 9,414,841 1 6,620,326 18 2 s. d. 7,891,783 10,713,660 (i 8 11,441,571 7 4 9,441,757 1 8 8,324,446 17 8 s. d. 15,329,328 8 2 19,277,320 4 21,115,190 10 18,856,598 2 8 14,944,773 15 10 The foreign trade is chiefly with Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, the value of the exports to these countries in 1885 being 1,356,583, 110,312, 262,065, and 15,424 respect ively, and of the imports 1,787,310, 911,080, 900,066, and 318,629 respectively. The principal exports are metals (nitrate, bar copper, silver produce, copper and silver regulus, and gold and silver specie), wheat, barley, flour, wool, nuts, hay, beans, honey, iodine, coal, hides, and guano ; and the imports include iron, steel, wire, nails, machines and tools, sugar, rice, cashmeres, prints, shawls, wines, and beer. Valparaiso was founded in 1536 by the Spanish officer Juan de Saavedra, who named it after his birthplace near Cuenca in Spain. In 1578 the city was captured by Drake, the exact date of his ap pearance before it being 5th December ; and it was again taken by Hawkins s expedition in 1596. In 1600 it was sacked by the Dutch corsair, Van Noort. It was visited by severe earthquakes in 1730 and 1822, and by earthquake shocks in 1839 and 1873. It suffered from fire in November 1858 ; and on 31st March 1866 it was bom barded by the Spanish fleet under Admiral Nunez, when a large part of the town was laid in ruins.