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 ALBURNUM ALCAMENES 259 suance of peremptory orders from home, he now (1513) led an expedition to the Red sea for the purpose of breaking up the commerce between India and Egypt, in order that the In- dian trade might be monopolized by Portugal. Repulsed in an attack upon Aden, he re- turned to Ormuz in 1515, and secured it with- out a blow, Portugal retaining possession until 1622, when Shah Abbas recovered it. Many attempts had been made by intriguers at home, jealous of his fame, to injure him, and more than one commander had been sent out to su- persede him ; but he disregarded the orders of the court. He was, however, at length recall- ed (1515), and his health having suffered in the climate of the Red sea and Persian gulf, his vexation at his disgrace so operated on his en- feebled frame that he sank under it, and died in his 63d year. He was buried at Goa. His loss was deplored as a national calamity, and the king endeavored to atone for his previous ingratitude by honor to his memory after his death. In his personal habits he was mod- erate, and such was his reputation for justice, that half a century afterward both Mohammed- ans and Hindoos visited his tomb to pray for his protection against the extortions and oppres- sions of his successors. The celebrated Com- mentarios do grande Affonso d 1 Alboquerque was edited from his papers by his natural son Affonso, minister of finance under John III. Of the original edition there are only three copies extant, one of which is in the royal li- brary of Portugal. The best edition was ex- ecuted at the royal printing office, Lisbon, in 1774 (4 vols. 8vo). ALBURNUM, that part of the stem of trees which timber merchants call sap wood, in con- tradistinction to heart wood. It is the newly formed wood, lying next below the bark, and is a delicate fibrous tissue, the principal use of which is to convey the crude sap from the roots to the leaves. It is, therefore, a necessary part of all exogenous trees'. But it is of a very perishable nature, and only loses that quality when, being enveloped within exterior layers of the same substance, it becomes combined with other secretions, which solidify it and con- vert it into duramen, or heart wood. Most plants, and all trees valuable as timber, have the sap wood and heart wood distinct, the one forming the external- layer, the other the core. Some, how.ever, consist of alburnum only, and are known as whitewood, which are useless, or of use only for the most temporary purposes. ALCJEUS, a Greek lyric poet and warrior, a native of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, flour- ished toward the close of the 7th century B. C. He served in the war which took place in 606 between the Athenians and Mitylenians for the possession of Sigeum, on the coast of Troas. He was a partisan of the nobles in their feuds with the people of Mitylene, and shared the exile of his faction, after a futile attempt to re- establish himself in his country by force of arms. His poems, originally consisting of ten books, are said to have exhibited the ^Eolian lyric hi its highest perfection, but only frag- ments have come down to us. Some were warlike or patriotic ; some bacchanalian or erotic songs ; while others were hymns, or epigrams, or poems addressed to individual friends. He is considered the inventor of the Alcaic metres. Horace admired and imitated him. The best collection of the extant fragments of Alcseus will be found in Bergk's Poetas Lyrici Orceci (Leipsic, 2d edition, 1853.) There were two other Greek poets of the same name, of Athens and Messene, and of the 3d and 4th centuries B. C., of whose writings some fragments also remain ; but they are of little importance. ALCAIDE, an executive officer among the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Moors, appointed to take charge of a castle or fort, or to super- intend a prison. (See ALCALDE.) A UAL A, the name of several towns in Spain, derived from the Moorish El JHialaat, the castle. ! Alcalfi de Heuares (anc. Complutuni), a town on the river Henares, in New Castile, 17 m. E. N. E. of Madrid ; pop. about 9,000. It is celebrated for its university, instituted by Cardinal Ximenes in 1510, which was long a famous school of law and divinity, but in 1836 was suppressed, and the library removed to Madrid. The Complutensian polyglot Bible was issued from it at the expense of its illus- trious founder. (See POLYGLOT.) It has a mili- tary school, a magnificent church, a number of convents, and a palace of the archbishop of To- ledo. Alcala was the birthplace of Cervantes, the historian Antonio Solis, the naturalist Bus- tamente de la Camera, the emperor Ferdinand I., and many other famous men. It was in pos- session of the Moors until the 12th century, when it was recovered by Don Bernardo, arch- bishop of Toledo. II. Alealfi la Real, a small town of Andalusia, 27 m. S. S. W. of Jaen, on a plateau 2,804 feet above the sea; pop. about 7,000. It was the scene of a victory by Sebastiani over the Spaniards in Jan- uary, 1810, which resulted in the capture of Granada by the French. ALCALDE, in Spanish, the title of a civil dig- nitary,- either judicial or administrative, with which alcaide is sometimes confounded. (See ALCAIDE.) Both terms are probably derived from the Arabic al-cadi. The alcalde mayor is a local judge who presides over the tribunals, and is distinct from the municipal alcalde or corregidor, who is not a lawyer. The alcalde pedaneo is a justice of th.8 peace, and is elected by the people. Alcaldes de casa y corte form a bench of judges for the trial of criminal or civil causes within certain circuits, to whom an appeal lies against the decision of any indi- vidual of their number. ALCAMENES, a Greek sculptor, flourished in the latter half of the 5th century B. C. He was the most famous pupil of Phidias, and is said to have unsuccessfully competed with him in a statue of Minerva. His masterpiece was a statue of Venus, now lost.