AKERBLAD ALABAMA. 



77 



and the epistle to Curio, a satire on Pulteney. After 

 having unsuccessfully attempted the practice of his 

 profession at Northampton and Hampstead, he was 

 invited to London by his friend Mr Dyson, from 

 whom he received a pension of 300 a-year. Here 

 he became a fellow or the royal society, was admitted 

 into the college of physicians, and read the Gulsto- 

 nian lectures in anatomy, but never obtained a very 

 extensive practice. He was, however, nominated 

 physician to the queen. While at London, he wrote 

 little poetry, but published several medical essays 

 and observations. His discourse on the dysentery 

 (1764) has been much admired for the elegance of 

 its Latinity. He died in 1770, in the 49th year of 

 his age, of a putrid fever. A. was a man of religion 

 . and strict morals ; a philosopher, a scholar, and a 

 fine poet. His conversation is described to liave 

 been of the most delightful kind, learned and in- 

 structive, without any affectation of wit, cheerful and 

 entertaining. Yet his pride, insolence, and irasci- 

 bility involved him in frequent disputes, and prevented 

 his success in the practice of his profession. His 

 favourite authors were Plato and Cicero among the 

 ancients, and Shaftesbury and Hutchinson among 

 the moderns. The ridicule cast upon him by Smol- 

 lett, 'in the novel of Peregrine Pickle, where he 

 figures as the giver of a feast after the manner of the 

 ancients, is well known. The odes of A. do not 

 entitle him to a very high rank in lyric poetry ; his 

 epistle to Curio is written in a tone of vigorous and 

 poignant satire. He is particularly distinguished as 

 a didactic poet, and has left in his Pleasures of Ima- 

 gination one of the most pleasing didactic poems in 

 our language. The periods are harmonious, the 

 cadence graceful, and the measure dignified. It is 

 replete with elevated sentiments, with images of 

 poetic beauty and high philosophy. The sentences 

 are sometimes extended to too great length, splendid 

 imagery too much accumulated, and the thought 

 sometimes too thickly overlaid with words. These 

 faults he endeavoured to correct in the new edition, 

 in which many other changes are introduced ; but 

 the original will always be more read and admired. 

 AKERBLAD, John David ; by birth a Swede. When 

 very young, he accompanied the Swedish embassy 

 to Constantinople in the capacity of secretary. The 

 leisure which his station afforded, he employed in 

 travelling through the East. He visited Jerusalem 

 and the Troad in 1792 and 1797 ; and has offered 

 some suggestions respecting the situation of the city 

 of Troy, in the German translation of Le Chevalier's 

 travels, which display both the classical scholar and 

 the learned orientalist. For some time, about 

 the year 1800, he lived in Gottingen, and then went 

 to Paris, as Swedish charge d'affaires. Discontent 

 at the changes in his native country is said to have 

 induced him to throw off all connexion with Sweden, 

 and retire to Rome, where he received from the 

 duchess of Devonshire, and other friends of litera- 

 ture, the means of living in literary leisure. He 

 died at Rome, Feb. 8, 1819. His writings display 

 a great knowledge of the oriental and western lan- 

 guages, which he could speak as well as interpret. 

 Among them are his Lettre a M. Silvestre de Sacy, 

 sur PEcriture cursive Copte (Mag. Encyc., 1801, 

 torn, v.), the Lettre a M. de Sacy, sur Plnscription 

 Egyptienne de Rosette (id. 1802, torn, iii.), his 

 famous explanation of the inscriptions on the lions at 

 Venice, Notice sur deux Inscriptions en Caracteres 

 Runiques, trouvees a Venise et sur les Varanges, 

 avec les Remarques de M. d'Ausse de Villoison. 

 Equally important, both for the knowledge of an- 

 cient writings and of inscriptions, is the Inscrizione 

 Greca sopra una Lamina di piombo Trovato in un 

 Sepolcro nelle Vidnanze d'Atene (Rome, 1813. 



4to), in improving which he was employed when 

 surprised by deatli. The last of his works, that 

 appeared in print, was a Lettre sur une Inscription 

 Phenicienne trouvee a Athenes (Rome, 1814, 4to.), 

 addressed to count Italinsky. The national institute 

 at Paris chose him a corresponding member of their 

 society. He lies buried near the pyramid of Cestius, 

 at Rome. 



AKERMAN, or ACKERMAN (the ancient Julia Alba 

 and Hermonoclis) ; a town in Bessarabia, a province 

 of Russia, on the coast of the Black sea, at the 

 mouth of the Dniester, 65 miles S.E. of Bender, 68 

 S.W. of Otchakow ; Ion. 30 44' E. ; iat. 46 12* N. ; 

 pop. stated very differently ; formerly at 20,000, 

 more recently at 8000. It contains a number of 

 mosques, one Catholic and one Armenian church, 

 and has some trade. A. has recently acquired some 

 celebrity by the treaty between Russia and Turkey, 

 there concluded, Oct. 6, 1826, in which the latter 

 power agreed to the 82 points of the Russian ultima- 

 tum. This treaty is a supplement to the peace of 

 Bucharest. The porte ceded to the emperor Nicho- 

 las all the fortresses in Asia of which it had pre- 

 viously demanded the restoration, and acknowledged 

 the political organization (if we dare use this ex- 

 pression for so rude a state of politics) which Russia 

 had determined on for Servia, Moldavia, and Wala- 

 chia. But the treaty was not executed till 1827, 

 and then not to the satisfaction of Russia. This 

 furnished the ostensible reason of the late war be- 

 tween the two great eastern powers. 



ALABAMA, one of the United States of America ; 

 bounded N. by Tennessee, E. by Georgia, S. by 

 Florida and the gulf of Mexico, and W. oy Missis- 

 sippi ; Ion. 85 to 88 30" W. ; Iat. 30 1Q- to 35" N. ; 

 330 miles long, from N. to S., and 174 from E. to 

 W. ; square miles, about 51,000 ; pop. in 1810, less 

 than 10,000; in 1816. 29,683; in 1818, 70,544; in 

 1820, by the imperfect census at first returned, 

 127,901 ; by the census as subsequently completed, 

 144,317; in 1827, 244,041, of whom 152,178 were 

 whites, 93,303 slaves, and 555 free persons of colour. 

 The last estimate of the number of Indians within 

 the territory of the United States, by the war de- 

 partment, in 1829, states that there are 19,200 In- 

 dians in the state of A. The number of counties 

 into which this state was divided in 1820, was 24 ; 

 and in 1828, 36. Tuscaloosa is the present seat of 

 government. Cahawba was formerly the capital. 

 Mobile is the principal port, (q. v.) The principal 

 rivers are the Alabama, Tombeckbee, Mobile, 

 Black- Warrior, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Tennessee, Cha- 

 tahoochee, Perdido, Cahawba, and Conecuh. The 

 southern part of the state, which borders on the gulf 

 of Mexico and Florida, throughout a space fifty or 

 sixty miles wide, is low and level, covered with pine, 

 cypress, and loblolly ; in the middle it is hilly, with 

 some tracts of open land or prairies ; in the northern 

 part it is somewhat broken and mountainous. The 

 Alleghany mountains terminate in the north-east 

 part. The forest-trees in the middle and northern 

 divisions are post, black, and white oak, hickory, 

 poplar, cedar, chesnut, pine, mulberry, &c The 

 sou is various, but a large part of it is excellent. In 

 the south it is generally sandy and barren ; and a 

 part of the high lands are unfit for cultivation. A 

 large portion of the country which lies between the 

 Alabama and Tombeckbee, of that part watered by 

 the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and of that on the Ten- 

 nessee, consists of very excellent land. On the mar- 

 gin of the rivers there is a quantity of cane bottom- 

 land of great fertility, generally from one-half to 

 three-fourths of a mile wide. On the outside of this is 

 a space which is low, wet, and intersected by stagnant 

 water. Next to this river swamp, and elevated ten 



