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 VALTELLINA mercial advantages, and it is the chief port in the South Pacific. It is the headquarters of foreign men-of-war in the Pacific, and is con- nected with Panama and intermediate ports by an English and a Chilian line of steamers, and with Hamburg by a German line. It is connected with Santiago by railway. During the year ending Sept. 30, 1874, the port was entered by 1,585 vessels, of 973,090 aggre- gate tonnage. Of these 611 were British, 276 Chilian, 161 Nicaraguan, 103 German, 101 French, 99 Guatemalan, 87 American, 67 orien- tal, and 46 Italian. The total value of exports to the United States during that year was $1,041,697 ; of imports from the United States, $1,999,476. Valparaiso was founded in 1544; taken by Drake in 1578, and again in 1596 by Hawkins's expedition; and sacked in 1600 by the Dutch corsair Oliver van Noort. It was nearly destroyed by earthquakes in 1730 and 1822. On March 31, 1866, it was bombarded by a Spanish squadron under Admiral Nunez, and a large part of it ruined. (See CHILI.) VALTELLINA (from the It. Val Tellina ; Ger. Veltellin or Veltliri), a valley of Lombardy, in the province of Sondrio, separated by the Rhae- tian Alps from the Engadine, bounded N. by the Swiss canton of Grisons, N. E. by Tyrol, from which it is separated by the Ortler and the Stilfser Joch, S. by the provinces of Bres- cia, Bergamo, and Como, and W. by the lake of Como and the valley of Chiavenna. The val- ley of Valtellina proper is 45 m. long, and with its continuation, the valley of Bormio, 55 m. Together with the valley of Chiavenna it con- stitutes the province of Sondrio ; and the three valleys are sometimes collectively called Val- tellina. It is remarkable for fertility, the chief products being wine, grain, fruit, and cheese. The three valleys belonged in the latter part of the middle ages to the dukes of Milan. They became part of Grisons in 1512, and through the influence of France remained in possession of the Swiss despite the efforts of Austria during the thirty years' war to secure the territory. In 1797 Valtellina became part of the Cisalpine republic, and in 1804 of the French department of Adda. In 1814 it came under Austrian rule as part of Sondrio, and in 1859 under Italian rule. Besides Sondrio, the capital of the province, the most noted local- ities are Teglio, formerly the capital of Valtel- lina; Grossotto, where a fearful massacre of Protestants took place on July 19, 1620, known as the Valtellina massacre ; and Morbegno, where the inquisition took up its headquarters after this episode, and which derived its name from the prevailing malaria. ViMBERY, Arminins, a Hungarian traveller, of Jewish parentage, born at Szerdahely, county of Presburg, in 1832. He was intended for a tailor, but studied at Presburg, Vienna, and Pesth, supporting himself in the intervals as a private teacher. He finally went in this capa- city to Constantinople, where he familiarized himself with eastern languages. To acquire a VAN 251 knowledge of those of central Asia, he went in 1862 to Persia with the aid of the Pesth academy. In the disguise of a dervish he joined in 1863 Yarkand pilgrims returning from Mecca, and in that and the following year he explored parts of Turkistan, visiting the cities of Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand. On his return to Pesth he became oriental professor at the university, which post he 'still holds (1876). His works include a Turkish- German pocket dictionary (1858); "Travels in Central Asia" (1865); Cagataische Sprach- studien (1867), one of the first works writ- ten on the Turkish of the East, but the ac- curacy of which is contested; "Wanderings and Adventures in Persia " (1867), to which he added in 1868 "Sketches of Central Asia;" UiguriscJie Sprachmonumente und das Kudat- Tcu-Bilik (1870); Magyar-tdrolc szohasonlatok, a comparison of Hungarian and Turkish words (1870); "History of Bokhara or Transoxiana, from the Earliest Period down to the Pres- ent" (1878); "Central Asia and the Anglo- Russian Frontier Question " (1874); and "The Islam in the Nineteenth Century" (1875). His principal works were translated by himself into English, and published simultaneously in English and German, and have been translated into other languages. Vambery is friendly to England, where his writings are very popular ; but Russian and other authorities tax him with inaccuracies of statement, some of them going so far as to allege that he had never visited Samarcand and other places of which he gives elaborate descriptions. He has in press (1876) a work on the history, traditions, languages, and literatures of the various Turkish tribes in Asia and Europe. VAMPIRE, in zoology. See BAT. VAMPIRE, a fabulous creature of popular be- lief, especially in Greece, Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, Poland, and Russia. The ghouls of the Persians and Arabians, subjects of a like cre- dulity, seem closely related to the fabled vam- pire, and may have suggested it. Vampires were described as persons who for a consider- able time after death leave their tombs to dis- turb the living, usually their young relatives, sucking their blood, appearing to them, making strange noises, and often causing death. The fatal epidemics prevalent in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the sudden deaths or languor and exhaustion which marked their severity, fostered this superstition. Many bodies dis- interred, being found undecayed and with liquid blood and fresh complexion, were for these reasons deemed undoubted vampires ; and to prevent their fatal activities sharpened stakes were driven through them and their hearts and heads were severed and burned. VAN. I. A town of Turkish Armenia, in the vilayet and 145 m. S. E. of the city of Erzerum, near the E. shore of Lake Van ; pop. about 35,000. It is in a beautiful region of fruit trees and gardens. The streets are in a miserable condition, and there are no notable