Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/44

 36 SIGOURXEY the friendly aid of a life boat. Should the baU, a long pennant, and a square flag are used, know* as "distance signals." In addi- m to the above, each national manne has a system of signals adapted to its own particular 3.- not only for holding free communica- S?w t ships of a fleet, the transmit- ting of orders, conveying of intelligence, Ac., hot to enable the corarnander-m-chief of a aaval force to signal orders to his ships for the various evolutions of naval tactics. A com- plete naval signal book comprehends therefore a svstem of evolutionary tactics. For night signals, red, green, and white lights are used to represent those colors in the flags of the day signals, the green light taking the place of the blue bunting. The night signals known as the "Coston lights" are the best in use. The greatest improvement of recent times in sig- nalling is that made by Gen. A. J. Myer, al- ready referred to. For its perfect simplicity and comprehensiveness it is now considered indispensable to both branches of the public service. The letters of the alphabet are repre- sented by combinations of the numerals 1 and 2 for spelling the words of a message. Each word is punctuated by a comma represented by the numeral 3 ; 1, 2, and 3 being repre- sented by arbitrary signs. A, for instance, is represented by 2-2, B by 2-1-1-2, by 1-2-1 &c. ; 8 indicates the end of a word, 3-3 the end of a sentence, and 3-3-3 the end of the message. There are also abbreviations. The signals commonly used to represent these num bers are as follows : The signalman, facing his correspondent, waves a flag (at night a light ed torch) to his right to indicate 1, bringing his flag to a rest in a vertical position ; to the left to denote 2 ; and to his front for 3. By waving his flag or torch to his right and lef he spells out the words of his message, using frequent abbreviations, so that two exper signalmen may transmit long communication with great rapidity and exactness. SIGW REY, Lydla Hnntfcy, an American au thoress, born in Norwich, Conn., Sept. 1, 1791 died in Hartford, June 10, 1865. In 1814 sh opened a private school in Hartford, and i 1815 published "Moral Pieces in Prose an Verse." In 1819 she married Charles Sigqur- ney, a merchant of Hartford. In 1840 she visited Europe, and recorded her reminiscences in " Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands" (1842). She published nearly 60 volumes of poems, prose, and selections. Among her works are : " Letters to Young Ladies " (1833) ; I); "The Man of Uz, and oth- ems" (1862); and her autobiography, posthuTr. iii-ly |.uMi-!u-(l mi-lor the title "Let- ters of Life" (New York, 1866). SIUKN/1 1 l.OX,OR, Urht. <le, :i M-xi,-:.n scholar, born in Mexico in 1645, died there, SIKHS uff 22 1700. He was chaplain to the arch- ishop of Mexico, and taught astronomy and mathematics in the university of that city for years. King Charles II of Spam created him royal cosmographer and mathematician Ie had several discussions on the nature of comets with Father Kuhn, the colonizer of California, and wrote histories of Texas and he Chichimecas, an account of the recovery of New Mexico after the revolt of 1680, and a history of the university of Mexico With Juan de Alva Ixtlixochitl he prepared several treatises on Mexican antiquities and early American history, which perished with his ibrary in the great fire of June, 1692. He was director of the military school of Mexico for several years, and in 1693 was appointed to accompany the expedition of Andres de Pes against the French settlements in the gulf of Mexico. He planned the fortifications of Pen- sacola, and soon afterward published maps of the bays of Pensacola (Santa Maria de Galve) and Mobile, and of the Rio de la Palizada or Mississippi. His name was subsequently given to one extremity of Santa Rosa island and to the fort erected there. He entered the society of Jesus in 1693. His principal works are: Ver Indicum, Poema sacro-epicum (8vo, Mexi- co 1668; 4to, 1680); Expositio Philosophic^ adversus Cometas (1681); TriumpTim Parthe- nicus (4to, 1684); Libra Astronomica et Philo- sophica (1690); Infortunia Alfonsi Ramirez circum per Orbem euntis (1693); Mercurius wlans et Novum Mexicum restauratum prm se ferem (1693); Descriptio Sinus Sanctai Maria de Galve (1693); and a topography of Mexico and its neighborhood, enlarged and republished by Alzate in 1786. SIHON, a name applied by some geographers to the Sir Darya or Jaxartes. (See JAXAKTES.) SIKHS (Hind, sikh, a disciple), a people of India, chiefly inhabiting the Punjaub. They were originally a religious sect, the founder of which was Nanak, a Hindoo of the warrior caste, born in 1469 near Lahore, who was a deist, advocating the worship of God without regard to form as an essential, universal tol- eration, and a fusion of Brahmanism and Mo- hammedanism, on the basis of a pure mono- theism and of human brotherhood. He died in 1539, and was succeeded by his son Angad, who wrote commentaries upon his father's sys- tem, which underwent considerable change at the hands of his successors Amardas and Ram- das. Arjoon, the son of Ramdas, compiled the Sikh doctrines in a volume called Adi-Granth, established himself at Amritsir in 1581, and organized his followers, who had hitherto been only a religious community, into a confedera- tion possessing also a political character, of which he became the sole chief. As the Sikhs rejected alike the Koran and the Yedas, they drew down upon themselves the hatred both of Moslems and Brahmans ; and notwithstand- ing the peaceable increase of the sect up to that period, Arjoon was imprisoned by the
 * Pocahontas, and other Poems" (1841) ; " Past