Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/502

AMATI. valued. He also made a number of beautiful tenors and violoncellos. His label reads: Nico- laus Amati Creinonens. Hieronimi filius Antonii nepos fecit amio 16——. Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri were his pupils, and the Jacobs of Am- sterdam and Grancino of Milan were among his most successful imitators. With Geronimo, his son, the family of Amati ends. He followed their trade, but made indifferent instruments. For a further discussion of the family and their mu- sical inventions see under.

AM'ATITLÁN'. A department, town, and lake of Guatemala, Central America. The town, the capital of the department, situated on the shores of the lake 12 miles southwest of Guatemala city, is also known as St. Juan de Amatitlán. It was founded by Jesuits, who formerly engaged here in extensive sugar-cane cultivation. The gathering of cochineal now constitutes the chief industry, and there is a trade in salt, raw silk, and fruit. Salt and alum wells and hot springs exist in the neighborhood. The lake has a length of nine miles and an extreme breadth of three. The population of the town in 1893 was 8408; of the department, 35,387.

AM'ATON'GALAND. See.

AM'AURO'SIS (Gk., a darkening, from , amauros, hardly seen, dim, obscure). A term applied to absolute blindness, with no discoverable changes in the eye. It is also used to include all other cases of total blindness. See.

AMAURY, ft'mo're'. The title of two kings of Jerusalem. Amaury I. was born in 1135, and reigned from 1162 to 1173. He was the brother of Baldwin III. In 1168 he invaded Egypt, but was driven out by Saladin, who carried the war into Amaury's country in 1170. Amaury II., born 1144, was King of Cyprus (1194-1205), and titular King of Jerusalem in 1198, but never made good his claim to the latter kingdom. He died at Acre in 1205.

AMAURY OF CHARTRES. See.

AMAXICHI, a'maks-e'ke, or. The capital of the Ionian island of Santa Maura, or Leucadia (Map: Greece, B 3). It is the residence of a Greek metropolitan, and is built on the edge of the shallow lagoons that separate the northeast part of the island from the mainland, which narrows down less than a mile north to 3500 feet. It has two harbors. Amaxichi derives its name from Gk. , amaxai, cars, which the Venetian garrison employed in bringing down the oil and wine from the inland districts to the point nearest the fort of Santa Maura, where, subsequently, houses began to be erected. Pop., 6000.

AM'AZI'AH (Heb., "whom Yahweh strengthens"). Eighth king of Judah. He succeeded Joash (or .lehoash). and his reign has by some been fixed approximately at 797-779 B.C. Amaziah undertook two wars, against Edom and against Israel, respectively. In the first he was successful, despite the fact that he had dismissed his mercenaries and thus weakened his army (II. Chronicles xxv : 10). Edom was defeated in the Valley of Salt, and Selah (the modern Petra) was captured (II. Kings xiv:7). Elated by his success, he challenged Joash, King of Israel, who accepted the challenge only when compelled to. Amaziah was defeated (II. Kings xiv : 12) and taken prisoner to his own capital. Amaziah survived his defeat by fifteen years (II. Kings xiv : 7), when he was killed by conspirators at Lachish (II. Kings xiv : 19). The biblical narrator has a word of praise for Amaziah, because in punishing the murderers of his father, Joash, he did not harm the children of the conspirators (II. Kings xiv : 6).

AM'AZON. A river of South America, formerly called the Orellana, after a Spanish soldier of that name, who first explored it (Map: ../South America/, D 3). The name Amazon is said to be derived from an Indian word meaning &ldquo;boat-destroyer,&rdquo; from the dangerous action of the tidal waves at the river's mouth. The native name of the river from the mouth of the Negro to the junction of the Marañon and the Ueayali, is Solimõens.

The head waters of the Amazon, the Marañon and the Ueayali rivers, rise in the central and northern Peruvian Andes, and after a northerly course parallel with these mountains unite in about long. 74° W., and the united waters pursue an almost easterly course between lat. 5° S. and the equator to the Atlantic, which is reached in long. 50° W., where this meridian intersects the equator. The Marañon, which rises in long. 76° 30' W. and lat. 10° 30' S., is properly the head stream of the Amazon, as it is furthest west; but the Ueayali is slightly the larger, and has its source farther south in the Andes in long. 72° W. and lat. 16° S. From long. 70° W., where the Amazon leaves Peru, its course is confined to Brazil.

The total length of the Amazon from the head waters of the Ueayali is about 3300 miles. It is between one and two miles wide where it enters Brazil, and gradually increases in breadth, enlarging to a width of fifty miles at its main mouth; and where it enters the sea the distance across it, from headland to headland, is fully one hundred and fifty miles.

The total area drained by the Amazon is about two and one-half millions of square miles, a territory equal in extent to about 85 per cent. of that of the United States (exclusive of Alaska), and embraces most of the South American continent west of long. 50° W. and between lat. 3° N. and lat. 17° S., except a comparatively narrow strip along the Pacific coast, and a somewhat broader one on the Atlantic. The latitudinal zone drained by the rivers from the north averages only 6° or 7° in width, while that on the south has a breadth of 13° or 14°.

The chief rivers flowing into the Amazon from the north are the Napo, Putumayo, Yapura. and Rio Negro. These rivers flow in a direction more or less parallel with that of the Amazon, and thus they drain but a narrow longitudinal belt.

The chief affluents from the south (in addition to the Huallaga, an affluent of the Marañon, and the Ueayali) are the Javari, Juruá, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, and Xingu. The Tocantins River practically belongs to this system of southern branches, being connected with the Amazon by an arm of that river, which cuts off the large island of Marajó.

The basin of the Amazon lies almost wholly within the belt of remarkably uniform equatorial heat, so that there is an uninterrupted plant growth throughout the year. There is a moderately heavy rainfall over the whole of the basin, except in the western part, where, east of