CALABAR is a district of somewhat indefinite boundaries, situated on the West Coast of Africa, in the Bight of Biafra, between 4° 20' and 6° N. lat., and between 6° 30' and 9° E. long. The name corresponds to no geographical or political unity, but is convenient as provisionally comprehending a stretch of country of considerable commercial importance. The coast line is frequently regarded as extending from the Nun mouth of the Niger, to the neighbourhood of the Cameroon Mountains, and thus includes the estuaries of the Brass River or Tuwon-Toro, the San Nicholas or Kola Toro, the New Calabar, and the Bonny, which are all deltaic branches of the Niger, as well as the San Pedro or Kan Toro, and the important embouchure of the united streams of the Cross River, the Old Calabar, and the Great Qua River. The interior of the country is still unexplored, and the inland boundary is left completely vague. The soil of the whole country, for 150 miles or further from the sea, is purely‘alluvial; and the surface is literally covered with bush except in the very limited areas under cultivation. Further inland, especially in the direction of the Cameroon Mountains, the elevation increases, the soil becomes more varied and decidedly rocky, and the forest grows clearer of underwood. This higher region is rich in natural productions, furnishing—besides the palm-oil which forms the main article of foreign trade on the coast—ebony, bamboos, sugar, pepper, yams, Indian corn, plantains, and a variety of woods....
Leaving the western portion which belongs to the delta of the Niger for treatment in the article on that river, we will confine our attention here to the district watered by the Old Calabar, the Cross River, and the Qua, which more particularly deserves the name of Calabar. The common estuary of these three rivers enters the ocean about 5° N. lat. and 8° 20' E. long. It is about 10 or 12 miles wide at its mouth, and maintains nearly the same width for about thirty miles above the bar. At the junction with the Cross River the Old Calabar forms quite a labyrinth of channels and islands, and it is also united with the Qua by a number of creeks.
The exact position of the sources of these rivers has never been ascertained, but, according to native report, that of the Old Calabar is situated in the neighbourhood of Iko, which is not very far beyond Uyanga, the furthest point inland reached by Captain Hopkins and the Rev. Samuel Edgerley in their journey of exploration in 1872. The truth of this report is rendered almost certain by the diminished size of the stream in the vicinity of Uyanga; and it is thus probable that the mountains in which both it and its sister streams take their rise are the Rimsby range, forming a western extension of the Cameroons. The Qua River is comparatively small, and navigation is impeded, at no great distance up, by sand-banks and fallen trees. Further inland its course is also broken by rapids and several cataracts.
The country watered by these rivers is occupied by a great number of separate tribes, such as the Efik, the Ekoi, the Ibami, the Oköyöng, and the Aqua, who are politically independent of each other and speak separate languages. Of these the most important are the Efik, or people of Calabar in the strictest sense of that word, which was originally applied by the Portuguese discoverers to the tribes on the coast at the time of their arrival, when as yet the present inhabitants were unknown in the district. It was not till the early part of the 18th century that the Efik, owing to civil war with their kindred the Ibibio, migrated from the neighbourhood of the Niger to the shores of the Old Calabar, and established themselves at Ikoritungko or Creek Town. In order to get a better share in the European trade at the mouth of the river a body of colonists from this city migrated further down and built Obutöng or Old Town, and shortly afterwards a rival colony established itself at Aqua Akpa or Duke Town..
For a time it seemed as if Creek Town would disappear before its younger competitors, but it was again raised to power by King Eyo Eyo, who defied the interference of his rivals. The only political bond of union between the various towns is the Egbo, a kind of secret society into which admittance is obtained on the payment of a certain fee to each of the existing members. The power of this association is almost unlimited, and is used principally for the benefit of its members. Formerly it was one of the greatest curses of the country, from the barbarous customs mingled with its rites; but it is, under European direction, being turned into a means of promulgating a more civilized code of laws through the various towns, and it forms a kind of constitutional defence against the despotism of individual kings. However unsatisfactory the condition of the country still is, there is no doubt European influence of a beneficial kind is gradually making itself felt. The universal belief in the most terrible kinds of witchcraft is slowly being shaken; the use of the esere or Calabar bean as an ordeal, and for purposes of religious purgation, is becoming much less frequent; the murder of twin children is no longer a national custom; and the massacre of his slaves on the death of a king has been abolished. The present king of Creek Town is at least nominally a Christian: and, according to Consul Livingstone, “hundreds of decently-dressed natives of both sexes regularly attend divine service” at the mission stations. These number five or six, and are supported by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which began its labours here in 1846.
The predominant language, not only among the people of Calabar proper, but also of the various tribes on both sides of the Cross River, is Efik, which bids fair to be the common commercial speech of the whole district. It is really a modified Ibibio, and presents traces of what is known as alliterative concord, though this is by no means a universal characteristic. It has been reduced to writing by the missionaries, who have employed the ordinary English alphabet. Considerable progress has been made in the formation of an initiatory literature; no fewer than 65 volumes having proceeded from the mission press. Most important of these are the Efik translation of the New Testament by Ξ. Goldie (1862), the translation of the Old Testament by Dr A. Robb (1868), and a Dictionary of the Efik by H. Goldie, published in 1862. Captain James Broom Walker of Duke Town, who has explored various parts of the country, presented several charts to the Royal Geographical Society, which are reproduced in the United Presbyterian Missionary Record for 1872 and 1875.
See Hope Μ. Waddell, Twenty-nine Years in the West Indies and Central Africa, 1866; “Details of Explorations of the Old Calabar River,” by Captain Becroft in Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., 1844; W. Nicholas Thomas in Proceed, of Roy. Geogr. Soc. on “The Oil Rivers of West Africa,” 1873.
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CALABAR BEAN, the seed of a leguminous plant, Physostigma venenosum, a native of tropical Africa. The plant has a climbing habit like the scarlet runner, and attains a height of about 50 feet, with a stem an inch or two in thickness. The seed pods, which contain two or three seeds or beans, are 6 or 7 inches in length; and the beans are about the size of an ordinary horse bean but much thicker, with a deep chocolate brown colour. They constitute the E-ser-e or ordeal beans of the negroes of Old Calabar, being administered to persons accused of witchcraft or other crimes. In cases where the poisonous material did its deadly work it was held at once to indicate and rightly to punish guilt; but when it was rejected by the stomach of the accused, innocence was held to be satisfactorily established. A form of duelling with the seeds is also known among the natives, in which the two opponents divide a bean, each eating one-half; that quantity has been known to kill both adversaries. Although thus highly poisonous, the bean has nothing in external aspect, taste, or smell to distinguish it from any harmless leguminous seed, and very disastrous effects have resulted from its being incautiously left in the way of children. The beans were first introduced into England in the year 1840; but the plant was not accurately described till 1861, and its physiological effects were investigated in 1863 by Dr Thomas R. Fraser. In that year an alkaloid was isolated from the seeds to which the name physostigmine was applied; and under the name eserine another alkaloid was prepared from them; but it is not yet quite certain that the two substances are essentially different. Dr Fraser’s investigations, which were conducted with an alcoholic extract of the seeds, showed that the active ...principles exerted a remarkable influence in contracting the pupil of the eye, and in counteracting the influence of atropine. The antagonism of physostigmine and atropine and its relations to many other alkaloids have subsequently been the subject of very numerous investigations. A committee of the British Medical Association under Professor Hughes Bennett found that the antagonism between sulphate of atropine and extract of Calabar bean exists only within narrow limits, so that for practical purposes atropine is useless as an antidote to Calabar bean. The investigation of the same committee into the relations of hydrate of chloral and Calabar bean, however, proves that they are mutually antagonistic, but as the toxic influence of the Calabar bean is very rapid, it is necessary to administer the chloral as soon as possible after the Calabar bean is taken. Calabar bean in the form of powder and extract is used in medical practice. It has been chiefly employed by ophthalmists to produce contraction of the pupil, but it is also used in tetanus, neuralgia, and rheumatic diseases.
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CALABOZO, or Calaboso, a town of Venezuela, formerly capital of the province of Caracas, but now of that of Guarico, is situated 120 miles S.S.W. of the city of Caracas on the left bank of the River Guarico. It lies so low that during the rainy season it is frequently surrounded by the floods; and in the summer it is exposed to extreme heat, the average temperature being 88° Fahr. It is well built, with streets running at right angles, and it has several fine churches, a college, and public schools. Its situation on the main road from Aragua to Apure makes it the seat of a considerable trade; and the surrounding country affords extensive pasture for cattle. There are thermal springs in the neighbourhood. Originally a small Indian village, Calabozo owes its existence as a town to the Compania Guipuzcoana, who made it the seat of one of their mercantile stations in the beginning of the 18th century. In 1820 it was the scene of a battle in which Bolivar and Paez beat the Spanish general Morales. Population in 1873, 5618.
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CALABRIA, the name given by the Romans to the peninsula at the south-eastern extremity of Italy, and now given to the peninsula at the south-western extremity. The former district was called by the Greeks Iapygia and Messapia, though these terms were variously used, and sometimes also included all the south-east of Italy, from Lucania to the Garganian promontory. In the time of Augustus, Calabria was the district south and east of a line drawn from the neighbourhood of Tarentum to that of Brundisium, corresponding to the modern Terra d’ Otranto. The principal cities were Tarentum (Taranto), Brundisium (Brindisi), and Hydruntum (Otranto), all of which are ports. The inhabitants were Sallentines and Calabrians or Messapians, both probably of Pre-Hellenic or Pelasgic race; Niebuhr, however, considered the Calabrians to be Oscan intruders distinct from the other tribes.
Ancient Calabria was a country, of low hills with very gentle ascents, having a soil of Tertiary limestone formation, no rivers, and scarcely any small streams, and, during summer, a climate of intolerable heat, but exceedingly fertile, producing the olive and vine....
Owing to its position Calabria was long defended by the Greeks against the Goths, Lombards, and Saracens, and was the last portion of Italy lost by the Byzantine emperors. In the time of the Norman monarchy, in the 11th century, there took place a curious change in the application of the name, the cause and exact date of which are not known with any certainty. An explanation possessing some probability is, however, given. The Byzantines, it is likely, extended the name Calabria to all their possessions in Southern Italy; and when their possessions in the southeastern peninsula became greatly inferior in importance to that in the south-western (Bruttium) they applied the name to the latter instead of the former. It was not, however, till after the Norman Conquest that the name was universally employed in this the modern sense.
In modern times Calabria, until the consolidation of the Italian kingdom, was the name of one of the four provinces into which the continental part of the kingdom of Naples, or of the Two Sicilies, was formerly divided; and it is now the name given to three out of the sixty-nine provinces of the present division of Italy. It is the most southern part of Italy, being bounded on the N. by the province of Basilicata, on the E. by the Gulf of Taranto, on the W. by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and on the S. by the Ionian. It extends from Cape Spartivento (37° 56' N. lat.) to Monte Pollino on the southern border of Basilicata (40° 0' N. lat.)
The territory is well watered, and exceedingly rugged and mountainous; but the summits of the hills are covered with extensive forests of oak, beech, elm, and pine, and towards the coast the branches of the Apennines open up into fertile valleys. Earthquakes and violent storms are very common; and there is extreme heat during the summer season, on the approach of which the wealthier inhabitants migrate annually to the lofty table-land of La Sila, where their flocks are fattened in the extensive pastures. The agriculture of Calabria is in a very rude and barbarous condition, a circumstance which is partly attributable to the extreme fertility of the soil. The principal productions are corn, wine, raw silk, olivp oil of an inferior quality, cotton, rice, liquorice, and saffron. Manna, collected from the manna-ash (Ornus rotundifolia), was at one time a somewhat important article of com merce; but very little is now collected. Oranges, lemons, figs, mulberries, honey, and tobacco are also produced. The horses of Calabria are remarkable for their high spirit and compact form. There are considerable fisheries of the tunny, the swordfish, the anchovy, and mullet.
The three provinces into which Calabria is now divided are Calabria Citeriore, Calabria Ulteriore Seconda, and Calabria Ulteriore Prima.
Calabria Citeriore, or Cosenza, is the most northern of the three provinces, and has an area of 2613 square miles, with a population in 1871 of 440,468. The southern and central districts are covered by the vast forests of La Sila, which furnished timber for the navies of antiquity. The principal rivers are the Crati, which after a course of 60 miles falls into the Gulf of Taranto, and the Neto, which rises in the heart of La Sila, and falls into the Adriatic. The principal towns are Cosenza, Rossano, Paola, and Castrovillari.
Calabria Ulteriore Seconda, or Catanzaro, on the south of Calabria Citra, having a coast line from the Punta dell’ Alice to the Callipari on the east, and from the Savuto to the mouth of the Messina on the west, has an area of 2100 square miles. Population (1871) 412,226. At Catanzaro is a manufactory of silk; at Maida there are some seams of coal, antimony, and alabaster, which might be made available for exports. The principal towns are Catanzaro, Cotrone, Nicastro, and Monteleone.
Calabria Ulteriore Prima, or Reggio, the most southerly province of Italy, contains an area of 1250 square miles, with a population (1871) of 353,608. On the northern frontier are the mines of Lo Stilo, from which the iron is obtained for the Government foundries. The principal towns are Reggio, Gerace, and Palmi. A railway line now runs from Reggio to Taranto, along the coast of the Ionian Sea and the Gulf of Taranto.
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a city of Assyria, built by Ashur, Gen. x, 12. From it the adjacent country, on the north-east of the Tigris, and south of the Gordian mountains of Armenia, was called Callachene, or Callacine.
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CALAHORRA, the capital of the judicial district and diocese of the same name, in the province of Logroño, Spain, 24 miles S.E. of Logroño, in 42° 12'N. lat., 2° 0' W. long. It occupies an elevated site on the left bank of the River Cidacos, near its junction with the Ebro, and contains a cathedral in the mixed Gothic style, dating mainly from the 15th century, an episcopal palace, and several conventual and other schools. The climate is cold and damp, but the soil in the neighbourhood produces in abundance grain, pulse, flax, wine, and oil. Population in 1860, 7106. Calahorra is the ancient Calagurris Nassiea, celebrated for its extraordinary fidelity to Sertorius in his war with Pompey and Metellus; and in the suburbs may still be traced the remains of an ancient Roman circus, an aqueduct, and a naumachia. Under the empire it was a municipium, and enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship. It was the birthplace of Quintilian.
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CALAIS, a town of France, capital of a canton of the same name, in the arrondissement of Boulogne and the department of Pas de Calais, 26 miles E.S.E. of Dover, and 185 miles by rail from Paris, in 50° 57' 45" N. lat., 1° 51' E. long. Calais is a fortress of the first class, and was formerly a place of great strength, but it would now probably not be able to defend itself long against modern artillery. It is built in a rectangular form, having one of its longer sides towards the sea, while on the E. and S. it is surrounded by low and marshy ground which can be flooded to strengthen its defences. Overlooking the town on the W. is the citadel, erected in 1641 by Cardinal...
Richelieu. In the centre of the town is the great marketplace, in which stands the Hôtel de Ville (rebuilt in 1740, restored in 1867), with busts of Eustache de St Pierre, the Due de Guise, and Cardinal Richelieu. Near the Hôtel de Ville is the Tour du guet, or watch-tower, used as a lighthouse until 1848. The Church of Nôtre Dame was almost entirely rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, during the English occupancy of Calais; its lofty tower serves as a landmark for sailors. At the end of the Rue de la Prison is the Hôtel de Guise, built as a guildhall for the English woolstaplers. It was given to the Due de Guise as a reward for the recapture of Calais, and hence its name. The building which was formerly the Hôtel Dessin, immortalized by Sterne in the Sentimental Journey, is now used as a museum. The harbour of Calais is shallow, admitting vessels of from 400 to 500 tons only at high water. The French Government contemplates the construction of a large harbour of refuge near Calais. There are two lighthouses at the entrance to the harbour, and a still larger one on the fortifications, with a revolving light visible 20 miles off. The principal institutions are the schools of design, hydrography, and artillery, a public library with 10,000 volumes, and public baths. The imports are chiefly from Great Britain, and consist of coal, iron, woollen and cotton fabrics, linen, skins, machinery, and colonial produce. Of late years the importation of timber from Norway has greatly increased. The exports comprise corn, wine and spirits, eggs, silk, fruit, vegetables, glass, and sugar. The fisheries are much less important than those of Boulogne. The manufacture of tulle or bobbin-net was introduced from Nottingham by the English in 1818, and is one of the main sources of the prosperity of the town and suburbs. Calais communicates with Great Britain by submarine telegraph, laid down in 1851. Steamers carrying the mails cross twice a day to Dover and back. It is the principal landing-place for English travellers on the Continent. The number of passengers who crossed both ways was 208,432 in 1875, being an increase of 66 per cent, in the last ten years. The terminus of the proposed tunnel beneath the channel is near Sangatte, a village six miles west of Calais. The project has received the sanction of the French and English Governments. Population (in 1872) 12,843; the adjoining manufacturing suburb of St Pierre les Calais had 20,409 inhabitants in 1872, more than 1800 of whom were English.
Calais was a petty fishing-village, with a natural harbour at the mouth of a stream, till the end of the 10th century. It was first improved by Baldwin IV., count of Flanders, in 997, and afterwards, in 1224, was regularly fortified by Phillip of France, count of Boulogne. It was besieged in 1346, after the battle of Crécy, by Edward III., and held out resolutely by the bravery of Jean de Vienne, its governor, till famine forced it to surrender. Its inhabitants were saved from the cruel fate with which Edward menaced them by the devotion of Eustache de St Pierre and six of the chief citizens, who were themselves spared at the prayer of Queen Philippa. The city remained in the hands of the English till 1558, when it was taken by the duke of Guise at the head of 30,000 men, from the ill-provided English garrison only 800 strong, after a siege of seven days. It was held by the Spaniards from 1595 to 1598, but was restored to France by the treaty of Vervins.
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