u 





C AY 



extruding from the eastern limits of India to the 

 .-, inline:, of IVi^ia, and probably as far as the Euxine 

 Mediterranean Seas. Captain Wilford informi 

 in, (Asiatic Hcseurr/ies, vol. vi. p. l.W.) that the 

 as are often mentioned in the sacred books of 

 the Hindoos. Their descendants still inhabit the 

 same regions, and continue to be called by the same 

 name. They belonged to the class of warriors, but 

 they have been degraded, agreeably to the institutes 

 'lenii, in consequence of their omission of the 

 holy rites, and of seeing no Bramins. Isidorus (Orig. 

 ]. Ik c. 28.) says, that Caucasus, in the eastern lan- 

 guages, signifies white ; and that a mountain close to 

 it is called Casis by the Scythians, in whose language 

 it signifies snow and whiteness. See Pallas's Travels 

 through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Em- 

 pire in the years 179.'5-4, vol. i. Tooke's View of 

 the Itussian Empire, vol. i. Campenhausen's Tra- 

 vels through xi it / a! 1'rnrinccs nfthe Russian Empire, 

 &c. ; and De Bieberstein's Tableau ties jntwinces Oc- 

 cident, dc la Mer Caspienne, Petersburg, 1798. (K) 



CAVEAT. See PATENT. 



CAVERNS. See ANTIPAROS, DERBYSHIRE, 

 Isle O/SKY, <?cc. 



CAVIAR, the name of a kind of food prepared 

 from the roes of fish, and forming an important ar- 

 ticle of Russian commerce. See the article CASPIAN 

 SEA. 



CAULINIA, a genus of plants of the class Mo- 

 ncccia, and order Monandria. See BOTANY, p. 319. 



CAULTS. See BOTANY, p. 37. 



CAULOPHYLLUM, a genus of plants of the 

 class Hexandria, and order Monogynia. See BOTA- 

 NY, p. 194-. 



CAUSATION. See METAPHYSICS. 



CAUSTIC. See SURGERY. 



CAUSTIC CURVES. See OPTICS. 



CAUST1S, a genus of plants of the class Trian- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 113, 

 and Brown's Prodromns Plantaritm Nov. Hoi/and. 

 &c. p. 239. 



CAYENNE, or FRENCH GUIANA, a province of 

 South America, situated between l^ and 5:^ N. 

 Lat. and 51 and 54- i W. Long. It is bounded on 

 the west by Surinam, on the north and east by the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and to the southward by the Por- 

 tuguese territories, whence, as far as its boundaries 

 have been defined, it is separated by the course of 

 the Oyapoco. The extent of this province is com- 

 puted to be 350 British miles in length, by 240 in 

 breadth. Its immediate limit towards the west is 

 the small river Amano, and on the east that called 

 Aracara. 



The project of forming a settlement here was first 

 entertained in the year 1635. A report had prevail- 

 ed for some time before, that, in the interior parts of 

 Guiana, there was a country known by the name of 

 El Dorado, which contained immense riches in- gold 

 and precious stones, more than had been found even 

 in Mexico and Peru. This fable having fired the 

 imaginations of every nation in Europe, it is suppo- 

 sed that it was in quest of the ideal country which 

 it brought into view that Sir Walter Raleigh pro- 

 ceeded on his last voyage. The French were not be- 

 hind their neighbours, m their endeavours to find out 

 so desirable a country ; and in the progress, or in 

 the result of the attempts set on foot for this pur- 



VOL. V. PART II. 



C A^Y' 



pose, a substitute, however inadequate, was fuui.d 

 by the adventurers, in the possession of a part of the *"" i~*~ 

 province of Cayenne. Merchants of Rouen were 

 the chief patrons of the scheme of colonising this 

 province. The contempt for justice, which ap- 

 peared in the conduct of the French, waa here fatal 

 to their interests. The native Indian;', expelled from 

 their lands, without even ar attempt at consent or 

 purchase, robbed of their huts for the accommoda- 

 tion of strangers, deprived of the society and labour 

 cf their women by the seductions or violence of the 

 whites, and often compelled to toil for their oppre*- 

 sors, conspired against the intruders, murdered the 

 governor, and greatly harassed and thinned the set- 

 tlers. A new company was established ; but unfor- 

 tunately, the Abbe de Marivault, a man of great vir- 

 tue, who had been a principal mover in this business 

 and who was to succeed to the office of governor, 

 was drowned as he was stepping into his boat. P.oi- 

 ville, who was to have sustained the part of general, 

 was assassinated during the passage. Those who ar- 

 rived at Cayenne displayed there the same insubordi- 

 nation and atrocity which had broke loose on ahip- 

 board. They quarrelled with each other, with t!. 

 former settlers, and with the natives. Many died of 

 wounds, more of the climate. The garrison desert- 

 ed to the Dutch. The savages, roused by number- 

 less provocations, fell upon the remainder, so that 

 those who clung longest to their properties were ob- 

 liged to fly, and thought themselves happy in being 

 able to escape to one of the leeward islands in an 

 open boat and two canoes. The settlement thus aban- 

 doned, fell for a short time into the hands of the 

 Dutch, but it was, in 1663, on the formation of a 

 new company, wrested, through the vigorous inter- 

 ference of the French government, out of their pos- 

 session. In 1667, it was taken by the English, and 

 again by the Dutch in 1676. Finally, it was resto- 

 red to the French on the conclusion of a peace. Soon 

 after this period, some pirates, laden with the spoils 

 they had gathered in the South Seas, came and fixed 

 their residence here, resolved to employ the treasures 

 they had acquired in the cultivation of the lands. In 

 1688, Ducasse, an able seaman, having arrived with 

 some ships from France, proposed to those people 

 the plundering of Surinam. They were, without 

 much difficulty, induced to enter anew upon their 

 early mode of life ; and many of the other colonists 

 took part also with them in the expedition. It wa 

 however unfortunate ; some of the assailants fell in 

 the attack, the rest were taken prisoners, and sent 

 to the French Caribbee Islands, where they settled, 

 a loss which the colony did not afterwards reco- 

 ver. Soon after the peace of 1763, the court of 

 Versailles, influenced by the Duke of Choiseul, used 

 vigorous endeavours to restore or to increase the im- 

 portance of this province. For that purpose, 12,000 

 men, engaged in France as labourers, were landed in 

 the adjacent isle du Salset, and on the banks of the 

 Kourou. But no habitation or proper provision ha- 

 ving been prepared for this multitude of people, and 

 arriving, as they did, at their places of destination in 

 the commencement of the most rainy season of the 

 year, when they could neither find subsistence nor 

 employment, great numbers of them quickly fell vic- 

 tims, as was then alleged, to the insalubrious cli- 

 mate. A million sterling was uselessly expended on 



