500 



CORUNDUM 



CORYMB 



a haunt of fishermen, is now the centre of wealth 

 and trade. The harbour is commodious and pro- 

 tected by forts ; and in 1888 a long-desired quaran- 

 tine harbour was completed. There are large 

 cavalry and infantry barracks, and a handsome 

 new college, preparatory for the university of 

 Santiago ; but few of the other buildings are strik- 

 ing. To Englishmen the most interesting object 

 is the tomb of Sir John Moore, in the centre ' of 

 the gardens of San Carlos. One mile north- 

 west of the town stands the famous Torre de 

 Hercules, restored by Trajan, which serves as 

 a lighthouse, and is nearly 100 feet high. Coruna 

 has still a considerable commerce, but its cattle 

 trade, which once employed a small fleet to carry 

 oxen to Portsmouth and Plymouth for the British 

 army and navy contracts, has fallen off. The 

 chief imports are sugar from the colonies, and 

 American raw petroleum, dried cod, hides from 

 Argentinia, cheap German spirits, and English 

 coal. The industries of the town include the manu- 

 facture of cigars, glass-wares, and canned meats 

 and fish, as well as cotton -spinning. Pop. (1885) 

 34,202. Coruiia dates its origin from the Phoeni- 

 cians, from whom it was taken by the Romans in 

 the 1st century B.C. To Englishmen Coruna has 

 rare historic interest. Here in 1386 John of Gaunt 

 landed to claim the crown of Castile in right of his 

 wife, daughter of Pedro the Cruel ; in 1554 Philip 

 II. embarked -here for England to marry Queen 

 Mary ; and in 1588 the great Spanish Armada, 

 which had been refitted at this port, set sail for 

 the conquest of England. Here also fell gloriously 

 Sir John Moore (January 16, 1809), after having 

 with but 14,000 travel-worn men defeated no less 

 redoubtable an antagonist than Soult at the head 

 of 20,000 Frenchmen, fresh and flushed with the 

 expectation of victory. Few exploits in English 

 history are prouder than his memorable retreat, 

 closed by the brilliant victory that covered the 

 embarkation of the British troops. 



Corundum, a mineral consisting essentially 

 of mere alumina, yet of great specific gravity 

 about four times that of water and of remarkable 

 hardness, being inferior in this respect only to the 

 diamond. Mineralogists regard the Sapphire ( q. v. ) 

 as a variety of corundum, and along with it the 

 gems popularly known as Oriental Ruby, Oriental 

 Topaz, Oriental Emerald, and Oriental Amethyst ; 

 but the name corundum is more usually limited 

 to the coarser varieties. These, instead of exhibit- 

 ing the brilliancy of gems, are in general of a dull 

 and muddy appearance, and the crystals which are 

 usually six-sided prisms and six-sided pyramids 

 are externally dull and rough. The colour is 

 various, often green, blue, or red, inclining to 

 gray. Corundum is found in many parts of the 

 world, and has long been used in India for polish- 

 ing all gems except the diamond, which is too hard 

 for it. Emery (q.v.), so well known as a polishing 

 substance, is a variety of corundum. 



Corye'e is the name usually given to the 

 obligation on the inhabitants of districts to per- 

 form gratuitous labour (such as the maintenance 

 of roads) for the sovereign or feudal lord. The 

 forced labour for the aristocracy was one of the 

 grievances of the French peasantry, which led to 

 the Revolution. See FRANCE. 



Corvei (Corbeia nova), a Benedictine abbey 

 on the Weser, near Hoxter, the oldest and most 

 famous in early Saxony, founded in 822. It was 

 a colony from the monastery of Corbie in Picardy, 

 then part of the country of the West Franks. It 

 received rich endowments ; was the centre of great 

 agricultural improvement and prosperity during 

 the earlier part of the middle ages ; and the seat 

 of a school, founded by Ansgar, the Apostle of 



the North, which flourished greatly in the 9th 

 and 10th centuries, and was next in reputation 

 to Fulda. Its abbots were numbered amongst the 

 spiritual princes of the German empire. In 1794 

 it was made a bishopric by Pius VI. Its territory 

 then extended to about 20 square miles, with 

 10,000 inhabitants. In 1803 it was annexed to 

 Nassau, from which it was transferred in 1807 to 

 Westphalia, and in 1815 to Prussia. The Gothic 

 church has a magnificent interior, and contains a 

 multitude of princely monuments. The library 

 and archives or the cloister, which contained most 

 valuable records of the early ages of German his- 

 tory, were mostly destroyed the Chronicon Corbe- 

 jense, an alleged record of this abbey from its 

 foundation to the end of the 12th century (pub. 

 1823), being a forgery; but there are some 

 genuine though meagre Annales Corbeienses (648 

 to 1148) printed in the Monumenta Germanics 

 Historica. 



Corvette was a term applied to a flush-deck 

 vessel, ship or barque rigged, having only one tier 

 of guns, either on the upper or main deck. The 

 term is no longer used in the royal navy. This 

 class of vessels are now called cruisers. See NAVY. 



Corvida% a family of crow-like birds, in the 

 old order of Passeres, among which they are the 

 strongest. The family is widely distributed, and 

 includes towards 200 species. Their family feat- 

 ures may be best learned from those of the indi- 

 vidual members. See CHOUGH, CROW, JACKDAW, 

 JAY, MAGPIE. 



Corvi'nus, MATTHIAS, king of Hungary ( 1458- 

 90). See MATTHIAS. 



Corvo, the most northerly of the Azores (q.v.). 



Corwen, a town of Merionethshire, North 

 Wales, on the right bank of the Dee, at the 

 foot of the Berwyn Mountains, 12 miles NE. 

 of Bala by rail. It is a great resort of anglers, 

 and boasts traditions of Owen Glendower. Pop. 

 of parish, 2708. 



Coryate, THOMAS, was born at Odcombe, 

 Somersetshire, about 1577, entered Gloucester 

 Hall, Oxford, in 1596, but left like many better 

 men without a degree, and after James I.'s acces- 

 sion lived by his wits, or rather his wit, about court. 

 In 1608 he set out on a rambling journey on the 

 Continent, passing through Paris, Lyons, Turin, 

 Venice, Zurich, and Strasburg, and returning five 

 months later with a record of 1975 miles, mostly on 

 foot. His entertaining journal was at last pub- 

 lished in 1611, with a huge collection of commend- 

 atory verses, as Coryafs Crudities : Hastily gobled 

 up in Five Moneths' Travells in France, &c. Next 

 year, after dedicating his travel-worn shoes in his 

 native church, he started again on his travels, 

 visited Constantinople, Greece, Smyrna, Alex- 

 andria, and the Holy Land, and found his way by 

 caravan to Mesopotamia, thence through Persia 

 and Afghanistan to Agra, where he arrived in 

 October 1616. In the December of the following 

 year he died at Surat. Letters of his were printed 

 in 1616 and in 1618. 



Coryfoantes, the priests of Cybele (q.v.) in 

 Phrygia. 



Corygaum, a village in the presidency of 

 Bombay, 16 miles S. of Poona, the scene of the 

 last of the three battles which caused the subjuga- 

 tion of the Peishwa of the Mahrattas. Captain 

 Staunton, with a native force of but 300 horse and 

 500 foot and 24 European artillerymen, fought with 

 success the whole day long against 3000 infantry 

 and 20,000 cavalry (January 1, 1818). 



Coryla'ceae. See CUPULIFER^. 



Cor'ymb, a form of Inflorescence (q.v.) whioh 

 may be regarded as a raceme in which the main 



