Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/663

 SAHARA highway between Yedo and Yokohama hy a party of English gentlemen and a lady, who were attacked by his procession, and Mr. 0. L. Richardson, a merchant from Hong Kong, was killed. The British government demanded and obtained from the shogunate an indemni- ty of 100,000, and after the bombardment of Kagoshima, Aug. 13, 1863, the Satsuma men paid to the British an indemnity of 25,000. In 1868 the clan led the coalition that over- threw the shogunate, restored the mikado, or- ganized the new government, and led the van at the battle of Fushimi. Satsuma has sent more students to foreign countries and fur- nished more able men than any other prov- ince. The clan also led the way in the aboli- tion of the feudal system in 1872. SAHARA, or Satara. I. A collectorate in the southern division of the province of Bombay, British India, separated by the Western Ghauts from the Indian ocean, and situated S. of the district of Poonah ; area, about 11,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 1,028,520. The country forms part of the table land of the Deccan, and the surface is generally much broken and rugged. It is drained by the head waters of the Kistnah and its tributaries. The soil is generally bar- ren, and in the western or more elevated part of the country the climate is cool and exces- sively moist. The Mahratta race predominates, and it was here that the great chieftain Sevajee rose to power in the middle of the 17th cen- tury. The state passed from his successors to the peishwa, whose territory was occupied by the British at the close of the Mahratta war of 181 7-' 18. In 1819 they replaced the rajah, a descendant of Sevajee, upon the throne of hjs^ancestors, under British protection. In consequence of certain intrigues he was de- posed by his protectors in 1839, and his broth- er elevated in his place. The new rajah gov- erned with great wisdom, and died in 1848 without issue, but adopted a boy distantly re- lated to him a few hours before his death. It was decided by the British authorities that a dependent principality could not pass to an adopted heir without the consent of the para- mount power; and Sattara was annexed to British India. "Within its limits is the po- litical agency of Sattara, superintending four native principalities, each governed by a de- scendant of a Mahratta chief or courtier, viz. : the Pant Pratinidhi, the Pant Sacheo, the Min- balkar of Phalkan, and the Daflekar, with areas respectively of 350, 500, 400, and 700 sq. m. II. A town, capital of the district, 115 m. S. 8. E. of Bombay, in lat. 17 41' N., Ion. 74 1' E., among the hills of the Deccan, E. of the ridge of the Ghauts. The fort is on the summit of a steep mountain, E. of the town, about 800 ft. high. Sattara was taken from the Mussulmans by Sevajee in 1673, block- aded and captured by Aurungzebe in person in 1700, and retaken by the Mahrattas five years later. It was the residence of the rajah after his restoration by the British. 725 VOL. xiv. 41 SATURN 639 SATURDAY (Saturn's day), the seventh and last day of the week, and the Roman dies Saturni. It is the Jewish sabbath, and in the Catholic breviary is called dies sablati. SATURN (SATUBNUS), an ancient mythical king or deity of Italy, to whom was ascribed the in- troduction of agriculture and civilization. Ac- cording to tradition, he reigned on the Capito- line hill, hence also called the Saturnian hill, and after his death was translated to the abodes of the gods. His reign was called the golden age of Italy. With his wife, Ops, the repre- sentative of plenty, he was regarded as the protector of agriculture and of all vegetation which tended to the benefit of man, and he carried in his hand a crooked pruning knife. The Greek deity Cronus, with whom he was frequently identified, was the youngest son of Heaven and Earth, and the father of Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, and Pluto. He usurped the sovereignty of Heaven (Uranus), and institu- ted a reign of peace and plenty, called by the poets the golden age, to which succeeded the rule of Jupiter, who deposed and imprisoned his father. In later times his name was iden- tified with xpfoos, time, and in the character of the destroyer he was represented as bearing a scythe, and as devouring his own offspring. SATURN, the sixth planet in order of distance from the sun, the third of the superior planets, and in ancient systems of astronomy the outer- most member of the planetary system, but now known to travel within the orbits of two planets at least, Uranus and Neptune. Saturn moves at a mean distance from the sun amount- ing to 872,137,000 m. The eccentricity of his orbit being considerable, his greatest and least distances are respectively 920,973,000 m. and 823,301,000 m., the difference, 97,672,000 m., exceeding by fully 6,000,000 m. the earth's mean distance from the sun. The eccentricity of the orbit is 0*055996. Since the earth's mean distance from the sun is 91,430,000 m., it follows that when in opposition to the sun Saturn is at a distance from the earth of about 732,000,000 m. when nearest to the sun, and of about 829,500,000 m. when furthest from the sun. It appears therefore that not- withstanding his relatively enormous distance, which necessarily operates to diminish the changes of his apparent dimensions on account of the earth's motions, Saturn is seen under very different conditions in different opposi- tions. For, remembering the difference of solar illumination when Saturn is in aphelion and perihelion, as well as the variation in the apparent size of his disk on account of his varying distance from the earth, we perceive that he must be more favorably placed for ob- servation in a perihelion than in an aphelion opposition, in the ratio of (829,500,000)" x (920,973,000)" to (732,000,000)' x (823,301,- 000) a ; that is, approximately as 8 to 5. This ratio would also represent the range of varying brightness of Saturn in different oppositions were it not for the rings, which greatly modify