

CAPOC CAPSTAN. 



43 



jealousy and impatience of restraint of the chiefs, 

 Capo d'lstria speedily became extremely unpopu- 

 lar; and the islands and the province of Maina 

 placed themselves, hi the spring of 1831, in the at- 

 titude of open resistance to the government. Mi- 

 aulis, Mavrocordato, and Conduriottis demanded 

 a convocation of the national assembly, the estab- 

 lisliiiH'iit of the liberty of the press, and the release 

 of certain state prisoners, among whom was Mavro- 

 uiichalis. A provisional government was establish- 

 ed, under these leaders, and the insurgents took pos- 

 session of Poros, with the Hellas and the rest of the 

 Greek fleet lying in that harbour. In August, a 

 Russian fleet appeared off Poros, which stooa in to 

 attack the ships, while the troops of the president 

 attacked the town. Miaulis, however, blew up the 

 ships, to prevent their falling into the hands of the 

 Russians ; and the troops or the president, which 

 found Poros deserted by its inhabitants, reduced it 

 to ashes. Meanwhile, the Mainots were acting 

 against the government by land ; but the appearance, 

 or the Russian fleet in the gulf of Coron obliged 

 Miaulis, who had been co-operating with the Main- 

 ots with a small squadron, to destroy it, as he had 

 previously done the Greek fleet in Poros. In Octo- 

 ber, George, the son, and Constantine, the brother 

 of'Pietro Mavromichalis, repaired to Napoli di Ro- 

 mania, for the purpose of assassinating the president ; 

 and they accomplished their object on the ninth, at 

 the door of the church. The one discharged a pistol 

 at his head, the other stabbed him in the back, and 

 he fell dead upon the spot. Constantine was imme- 

 diately put to death by the bystanders, and George 

 was detained in custody. 



CAPOC ; a sort of cotton, so short and fine that 

 it cannot be spun. It is used in the East Indies to 

 line palanquins, to make beds, mattresses, &c. 



CAPONIER, or CAPONNIERE, in fortresses ; a 

 place which is covered against the fire of the enemy, 

 on the sides, sometimes also above, and serves for 

 the connexion of two works, or for maintaining an 

 important point. In particular 1. a passage se- 

 cured by two parapets, in the form of glacis, which 

 leads through the dry ditch, from one work to ano- 

 ther ; for instance, from the chief wall to the ravelin. 

 If danger is to be apprehended only from one side, 

 and consequently only one parapet is made, it is 

 called a demi-caponniere : if it is covered above with 

 hurdles or with wood, it is called a coffer : but this 

 word is often used indifferently for caponniere. 2. 

 Small block-houses in the covered way, for its de- 

 fence. Coehorn laid out similar, but less useful 

 works below the glacis, and Scharnhorst proposes 

 them, under the name of field-caponnieres, for the 

 salient angles of field fortification. 



CAPPADOCIA, in antiquity; one of the most 

 important provinces in Asia, once a famous king- 

 dom ; bounded W. by Lycaonia, S. by Cilicia and 

 Syria, E. by Armenia, and N. by the Pontus Euxi- 

 nus. In the period of the Persian government, Cap- 

 padocia comprehended all the country between the 

 Halys and Euphrates. By the former river, it was 

 separated from Phrygia and Paphlagonia; by the 

 latter, from Armenia: therefore the region after- 

 wards called Pontus was comprehended in this ter- 

 ritory. The Persians divided it, according to Strabo, 

 into two satrapies, which bore the name of Cappado- 

 cia Magna, afterwards Cappadocia Proper ; and Cap- 

 padocia Minor, afterwards Pontus. This division, 

 however, was not always strictly observed. The 

 Persian satraps governed, at a later time, under the 

 title of kings, and sometimes made themselves inde- 

 pendent. At the time of the famous retreat of the 

 10,000 Greeks, both the Cappadocias seem to have 

 been under the rule of Mithridates, who Irnd partici- 



pated in the conspiracy of Cyrus the Younger, but 

 retained his government, and became, after the de- 

 feat of Cyrus, again dependent upon the kings or 

 Persia. Cappadocia Magna was a poorly cultivated 

 country, little favoured by nature, the plains of 

 which were only fit for breeding sheep. The climate 

 was rough, and, wood being scarce, the habitations 

 of the people were low and mean. Even the capital, 

 Mazaca, was more like a camp than a city. The 

 Cappadocians, also called Leukosyri (the White Sy- 

 rians), because they had a language resembling the 

 Syrian, were considered stupid and ill-tempered. 



CAPREA, or CAPRE^E. See Capri. 



CAPRI ; an island in the beautiful gulf of Na- 

 ples, which contributes not a little to the charms of 

 this favourite scene of nature. Capri, five miles long 

 and two broad, lies at the entrance of the gulf, and 

 consists of two mountains of limestone, remarkable 

 for their picturesque shape, and a well-cultivated 

 valley. The inhabitants, amounting to 3000, are 

 occupied in the production of oil and wine, in fishing 

 and in catching quails, which come in immense num- 

 bers from Africa to the shores of Italy. Every spot 

 on the island which can be made productive, is cul- 

 tivated. In fact, agriculture all around Naples is in 

 the highest state 01 perfection. The town of Capri 

 (Ion. 14 8' E. ; lat 40 11' N.) is the seat of a bish- 

 op, to whom all the quails belong. A high rock 

 separates Capri from Anacapri, 1600 feet high, with 

 3500 inhabitants, to which a stairway in the rock, of 

 522 steps, leads from the lower part of the island. 

 With the Romans, Capri was called Caprece. Au- 

 gustus obtained it by exchange from the Neapolitans, 

 and made it a place of agreeable retreat, but never 

 made use of it. Tiberius spent here the last seven 

 years of his life in degrading voluptuousness and in- 

 famous cruelty. The ruins of his palace are still 

 extant, and other nuns are scattered over the island. 



CAPRICCIO. Caprice is the name applied to a 

 sort of musical composition, hi which the composer 

 follows the bent of his humour. The capriccio may 

 be used with propriety in pieces for exercise, in 

 which the strangest and most difficult figures may be 

 introduced, if they are not at variance with the na- 

 ture of the instrument or of the voice. 



CAPRIFICATION. See Figs. 



CAPSICIN. Cayenne pepper contains a peculiar 

 substance, discovered by Forchhammer, and called 

 capsicin by Dr C. Conwell, which, according to the 

 latter, when perfectly pure, is tasteless, inodorous, 

 and crystallizes in acicular fragments. It is neither 

 acid nor alkaline. 



CAPSTAN, iu shipping (in French, cabestan ; 

 Dutch, kapstani) ; a strong, massy column of tim- 

 ber, in the form of a truncated cone, and having its 

 upper extremity divided into several squares, with 

 holes in them to receive bars or levers. Those used 

 in ships are let dcrws^perpendicularly through the 

 deck, and fixed in such a manner that the men, by 

 turning them horizontally with their bars, are able 

 to weigh the anchors, and to perform other work 

 requiring great exertion. A very simple and effec- 



tive form of this machine is represented by the ac- 

 companying cut; where AD is a barrel composed of 



