Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/342

 330 IONIAN ISLANDS IONIANS between lat. 35 48' and 40 30' N., and Ion. 19 and 23 18' E. ; aggregate area, 1,113 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 229,516. The islands are very mountainous, and mostly rise with rugged ab- ruptness from the sea, but have fine havens on their coasts. Mt. ^Enos in Cephalonia is 5,240 ft. high, and in the other islands there are ele- vations ranging from 1,000 to 3,800 ft. The geological formation is chiefly limestone, mixed with sandstone and gypsum. There are no active volcanoes. Most of the islands abound in fine natural scenery, and here and there bear luxuriant vegetation. The soil is gen- erally dry and calcareous, and about half the surface is arable. The climate is variable, but healthy. The spring is mild, the summer hot and dry, the autumn rainy, and the winter tempestuous. The sirocco is often felt, and N. winds blow violently during winter. Snow falls often, but does not last long except on the mountains. Earthquakes are not uncommon. Iron, coal, manganese, sulphate of soda, marl, clay, chalcedony, quartz, and gray marble are the most important minerals. The principal vegetable products are the olive, lemon, orange, and fig, grapes, currants, wheat, maize, barley, oats, flax, pulse, and cotton. The last is of very good quality. The celebrated currants of Zante are the fruit of a dwarf vine. The va- lonia oak (guercus aegilops) is valued for its acorns, besides being a beautiful tree. Madder grows wild, and the cactus Opuntia, which fur- nishes the food of the cochineal insect, thrives in all the islands, but is little attended to. Ex- periments in the culture of indigo have suc- ceeded. Farms are mostly small, and are gen- erally let annually on shares. Sheep and goats are the only animals reared in considerable numbers. The manufactures of these islands consist almost entirely of coarse cloths, earthen- ware, soap, salt, some silk and cotton fabrics, and filigree work. Although the coasts abound with fish, the fisheries are not prosecuted sys- tematically. A large coasting trade is carried on. The imports are sugar, coffee, drugs, raw and manufactured cotton and silk, wool and woollen cloth, glass, hardware, staves and hoops, iron, timber, wheat, Indian corn, rice, flour, cheese, salted fish, cattle, sheep, drugs, and tobacco ; the exports are currants and olive oil, also wine, brandy, liqueurs, honey, wax, valonia acorns, soap, salt, and hare and lamb skins. The natives are Greeks, with a consid- erable admixture of Albanian and Italian blood. Italian is understood in most of the large towns, and is generally spoken by the higher classes. Some thousands of the islanders cross annually to the mainland to assist in the labors of har- vest, for which they receive payment in grain. Education flourishes, and each of the islands has an academy supported by the government, at which ancient Greek, Latin, modern lan- guages, and mathematics are taught. A uni- versity was founded at Corfu in 1823. Four fifths of the population belong to the Greek church, under the archbishops of Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, Santa Maura, and Cerigo. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop of Corfu and a bishop of Zante and Cephalonia. There are several thousand Jews, living chiefly in Corfu, and enjoying rights of citizenship. In Grecian history these islands figured singly as Corcyra, Leucas, Ithaca, Cephallenia, Zacyn- thus, Paxos, and Cythera, In the 12th century they were taken by the kings of Sicily, and in the 14th fell under the jurisdiction of the Ve- netians, and so remained till the fall of Venice threw them into the hands of the French by the treaty of Campo Formio (1797). Russia and Turkey jointly expelled the French, and in 1800 erected these islands into the Septinsular republic, which, under the protection of Tur- key, failed as an experiment of self-govern- ment. By a secret article in the treaty of Til- sit in 1807 they were given to the French ; but being occupied by the British during the wars from 1809 to 1814, they were secured to that power by the treaty of Paris in November, 1815. From 1814 to 1863 the islands were a republican confederation, under the protecto- rate of Great Britain, and were called the Uni- ted States of the Ionian Islands. The govern- ment was vested in a lord high commissioner appointed by the British crown, and a parlia- ment consisting of a senate and legislative as- sembly. Attempts at insurrection in 1848 and 1849 were suppressed with rigor. In 1863-'4 they were incorporated with the kingdom of Greece, when Cerigo was united as an eparchy with the nomarchy of Argolis and Corinth, and the remaining islands were formed into three nomarchies, Corcyra (Corfu), Cephalonia, and Zante (Zacynthus). (See GREECE.) IONIANS, or laones (Gr. "Iwwf and 'laovcf), an ancient maritime race of Greek descent, hav- ing their chief seat in western Asia Minor and the adjacent islands. The name was extended to cover countries further west as Greece and the Greeks became better known, appearing in various dialectic forms, as Javan (Yavan) with the Hebrews, Yuna or Yauna with the Persians, Uinim with the Egyptians, and the Yavanas or Yonas in India. E. Curtius con- jectures that after the lonians had learned navigation and become masters of their own sea, they sailed in the track of the Phoenicians, and settled beside them in all parts of the east- ern Mediterranean. The monuments of Egypt show as early as the 18th dynasty the same group of hieroglyphs by which the Greeks were designated at the time of the Ptolemies, and it is believed that the Uinim first known to the Egyptians were the Ionian Greeks. If this is correct, the lonians were settled already about 1500 B. C. in the delta of the Nile. Cyprus is called Yavnan, the island of the lonians (vijaof 'a.6vuv when it first became known to the As- syrians in the reign of Sargon ; but in some of Sargon's inscriptions it is corrupted into Yat- nan. The Mosaic table of nations mentions the children of Javan, among whom are inclu- ded the Kittim of Cyprus ; but the name Javan,