AKANJUEZ ARAUCANIANS. 



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ever, succeeded in inducing the king to send him on 

 an embassy to France. In Paris A. lived nine years ; 

 then returned to Madrid, as counsellor of state, and 

 lived in a sort of disgrace, till the queen, not con- 

 tented with the count Florido Blanca, in 1792, gave 

 his place to A. Some months after, he was succeed 

 ed, greatly to the displeasure of the court and nation, 

 by don Manuel Godoy (q. v.) A. continued president 

 of the council of state till he declared his opinion 

 respecting the war against France, when he was ban- 

 ished to Arragon. He died here, A. D. 1794, leav- 

 ing a young widow, and no children. Madrid was 

 obliged to him, in a great degree, for its security, 

 good order, and the abolition ot many abuses. 



ARANJUEZ ; a village and palace, with splendid 

 gardens, beautiful walks shaded with elms, and a 

 park for hunting, in the Spanish province of Toledo, 

 in a charming shady vale of the Tagus, which re- 

 ceives here the waters of the Xarama; thirty miles 

 from Madrid, to which a Roman road, built by Fer- 

 dinand VI., leads ; every mile of which cost 3,000,000 

 reals, about 1 47,000 dollars. A. lies in Ion. 3 36' 

 W., lat. 41 5' N. The court usually resides here 

 from easier till the close of June, when the number 

 of people increases from 2600 to about 8000. Charles 

 V. marked out this vale as the seat of a royal resi- 

 dence. Philip II. founded the palace and garden. 

 His successors, particularly Ferdinand VI., Charles 

 HI., and Charles IV., improved and greatly enlarged 

 it. The village is built in the Dutch style, and has 

 broad and straight streets, which cut each other at 

 right angles. The palace has marble stairs, superb 

 mirrors from the manufactory of St Ildefonso, rich 

 works of art ; and both the church and the monastery 

 are adorned with many fine paintings by Spanish and 

 Italian masters. The casa del labrador was designed 

 by Charles IV. with great richness and splendour. 

 The palace of A. has been often celebrated by Span- 

 ish poets, and is renowned for its gardens, shaded 

 walks, and water-works. The gardens are in the 

 form of a star. The chief walk, overshadowed by 

 elms, is 600 or 700 paces long, twelve feet wide, and 

 is bordered by a quick-set hedge. Every seventy or 

 eighty paces, there are resting-places, in the form of 

 a hexagon, cooled with fountains. Twelve passages, 

 shaded by elm-trees, unite in forming a large, round 

 area. The royal stud, the herds of mules and buffa- 

 loes, the grounds under tillage, the orchards and 

 gardpiu here, were formerly in a good condition. 

 There is a fountain in the neighbourhood, from which 

 a sort of Glauber's salts is obtained. A. has become 

 celebrated, of late years, by the revolution of March 

 18, 1808. See Spain. 



ARARAT ; a mountain in Armenia, in the pachalic 

 of Erzerum. It stands on an extensive plain, and is 

 connected by low hills with mount Taurus. Its 

 summit, covered with perpetual snow, in the form of 

 a sugar-loaf cut into two peaks, presents a formidable 

 iippeurance with its craggy cliffs and deep precipices. 

 Its highest peak, Mazis, is in the Persian province of 

 Iran, rising to the height of about 9500 feet. It is 

 the greatest elevation in the whole region, and 

 sacred history affirms that Noah's ark settled upon it. 



ARARAT, or PILOT MOUNTAIN ; a mountain of North 

 Carolina, on the N. side of the Yadkin about sixteen 

 miles N. of Salem. It is about a mile in height, and 

 rises in the form of a pyramid, with an area of an 

 acre at top, on which is a stupendous rock 300 feet 

 high. From the summit of this rock there is an ex- 

 tensive, variegated, and delightful prospect. It is 

 seen at the distance of seventy miles, and served ;is 

 a beacon or pilot to the Indians in their routes. 



ARATDS ; a Greek poet, born at Soli (PompeiopoK 1 ,), 

 Tn Cilicia. He flourished about 270 B, C., was a fa- 

 vourite of Ptolemy Philadelphia, and a firm friend to 



Antigonus Gonatas, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, 

 We know him only from his poem Phanamenv, m 

 which he has given us, in correct and elegant verse, 

 all that was then known of the heavens, with their 

 signs and appearances, although there is reason to 

 believe that he was not himself an astronomer. The 

 esteem which the ancients had for this work, appears 

 from the fact that it was translated by Cicero, Csesar 

 German : cus, and Avienus. Eratosthenes, with many 

 other great astronomers, wrote commentaries on it. 

 The best editions are by Fell, Oxford, 1672; by 

 Buhle, Leipsic, 17931801, 2 vols.; and by Matthiae, 

 Frankfort, 1817 18. It has been translated into 

 German by J. H. Voss, Heidelb, 1824, and published 

 with the Greek text and illustrations. 



ARATUS of Sicyon, son of Clinias, was born 273 

 B. C. His father fell in a tumult excited by Aban- 

 tidas, and A. fled, without knowing it, into the house 

 of the tyrant's sister, who, struck with the circum- 

 stance, saved the life of the boy, then seven years 

 old. Afterwards he was sent to Argos, and the ex- 

 iles from Sicyon expected in him their future restorer. 

 When he had scarcely reached his twentieth year, he 

 delivered Sicyon from the tyrant Nicocles. He would 

 not stain the liberty of his native city with the blood 

 of any citizen, but met with much difficulty in the ad- 

 ministration of its affairs, as, besides a large party in 

 the city, the king of Macedon also espoused the cause 

 of the deposed Nicocles. Under these circumstances, 

 he deemed it best to join Sicyon to the Achaean 

 league, the only remaining support of freedom in 

 Greece. By his influence with Ptolemy, king of 

 Egypt, he obtained a sum of money sufficient to set- 

 tle the various claims of the returned citizens, and, 

 being vested with the supreme constitutional power 

 in Sicyon, he governed with justice and moderation. 

 In due time, being made general of the Achaean 

 league, he recovered the almost inaccessible fortress 

 of Corinth from the king of Macedon, by a plan 

 which is one of the most admired instances of ancient 

 military stratagem. In the end, however, owing to 

 a hostile league against the Achaans between the 

 jEtolians and Spartans, A., in opposition to his own 

 principles, was obliged to call in the assistance of 

 Antigonus, king of Macedon. This turned the tide 

 of affairs for a while, but, on the death of Antigonus, 

 similar difficulties occurring, his successor, Philip, 

 was in the same manner called to the aid of the 

 Achseans. At first, Philip highly esteemed A., but 

 was gradually estranged from him, and it was 

 thought that he had caused a slow poison to be ad- 

 ministered to him, for A., spitting blood in the pre- 

 sence of a friend, exclaimed, " Behold the friendship 

 of kings!" He died in his fifty-seventh year, 216 

 B. C., and was interred with the highest honours. 

 A. was one of the most virtuous and noble-minded 

 men that shed lustre on the declining days of Greece. 

 Polybius speaks in high terms of Commentaries, writ- 

 ten by A. on his own actions and the affairs of the 

 Achaeans, which, it is much to be regretted, have not 

 reached posterity. The chief materials for his his* 

 tory are to be found in Polybius and Plutarch. 



ARAUCANIANS. This is a South American nation, 

 of 400,000 inhabitants, in the southern part of Chile. 

 They occupy a territory containing 64,000 square 

 miles, and stretching from 33 44' to 39 50' of S. lat. 

 They have maintained their independence against 

 the Spaniards to the present time. Bounded on the 

 N. by the river Bio-Bio, on the S. by the river Gal- 

 lacally, on the E. by the Andes, and W. by the 

 Pacific ocean, they live under a free, though aristo- 

 cratical form of government, agreeably to common 

 laws and customs. They dwell in villages, and em- 

 ploy themselves in agriculture and raising cattle. 

 The woollen dress of the men is a shirt and a dark- 



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