236 



FORSTER FORTIFICATION. 



the worlil with Cook. 17721775. In 1777, he 

 vent to Paris with the intention of settling there, 

 hut soon after went to Holland, and was on hi- way 

 to Berlin when the landgrave of Hesse offered him 

 the chair of natural history in an academy in Cassel. 

 He held that office till 1784, when he accepted an 

 invitation to become professor of natural history at 

 Wilna. Here he received the degree of doctor of 

 medicine. The empress Catharine, in 1787, formed 

 the design of a voyage round the world, and For- 

 ster was named historiographer of the expedition. 

 The war with Turkey interrupted the project, and 

 Forster, unwilling to remain idle, returned to Ger- 

 many, and published several treatises on natural his- 

 tory and literary subjects. In 178S, the elector of 

 -Mentz appointed him his first librarian. Forster 

 occupied this post with great reputation, till the 

 Freneli entered the city, in 1792. He had warmly 

 embraced revolutionary principles, and was sent to 

 Paris, by the republicans of Mentz, to request a union 

 with France. While absent on this commission, the 

 Prussians recovered the city. By this event, he lost 

 all his property, with his books and papers. He thus 

 found himself completely ruined. He now separated 

 from a beloved wife, who, at his request, married his 

 friend Huber, and adopted the resolution of going to 

 India. With this view he began the study or the 

 Oriental languages, but sank under the repeated 

 shocks of the last year, and died at Paris, January 

 12, 1794. Forster is considered by the Germans one 

 of their classical writers. In his prose he united 

 French lightness with English force. His transla- 

 tions are numerous. The excellent account of Cook's 

 second voyage round the world he wrote in connexion 

 with his father. He also wrote Essays on Moral and 

 Natural Geography, Natural History, Practical Phi- 

 losophy, 6 vols. and excellent Views of the Lower 

 Rhine, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, England, arid 

 France, in 1790, 3 vols. He has also the merit of 

 having transplanted into the German soil the cele- 

 brated Indian drama, the Sacontala of Kalidas. 



FORSTER, GEORGE; an English traveller, who 

 Ins been confounded with the subject of the last arti- 

 cle, and of whose personal history, unconnected with 

 his travels, very little information can be obtained. 

 He was, in 1782, engaged in the civil service of the 

 East India company. He spoke Hinduvi with un- 

 common correctness and fluency. Persic was familiar 

 to him. In Sanscrit he had made some progress, and 

 in that dialect of it spoken by the Mahrattas he was 

 much more conversant. Thus qualified, in August, 

 1782, he commenced a journey from Bengal to Per- 

 sia, and thence through Russia to England. Some 

 account of'Mr Forster's expedition appeared in 1790 ; 

 but a fuller narrative was published in 1798, under 

 the title of a Journey from Bengal to England, through 

 the Northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, 

 and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian Sea, 

 2 vols. 4to; which work was translated into French. 

 The author travelled chiefly in the character of a 

 Mohammedan merchant, which his knowledge of the 

 Asiatic languages and customs enabled him to support. 

 His information was derived rather from inquiry and 

 observation than from books ; and when he relates 

 what he had seen, his veracity may be trusted ; but 

 his historical disquisitions are frequently inaccurate. 

 He returned to India, and was preparing for further 

 researches in that part of the world, when his death 

 took place at Allaliabad, in 1792. 



FORT ; a small fortified place, surrounded with a 

 ditch, rampart, and parapet, for the purpose of de- 

 fending a pass, river, road, harbour, &c. Forts are 

 made of different forms and extent, according to the 

 exigencies of the case. 



FORTE VENTURA, or FUERTE-VENTURA, 



one of the Canary islands, about fifty miles in length, 

 ami from eight to twenty-four broad. The soil is 

 in general, fertile in corn, roots, and fruits, and beau- 

 tifully diversified with hills and valleys, well watered, 

 and supplied with a variety of timber. The princi- 

 pal towns are La Villa, in the centre of the island, 

 and Olivia, near the northern extremity; besides 

 which there are on the east coast three sea-ports, 

 called Langla, Terrafata, and Pozzo Negro. There 

 are also several villages. The climate of this island, 

 and of Lancerotta, is exceedingly wholesome. Lat. 

 28 4' N. ; Ion. 14 32' W. ; population, according 

 to Minano, in 1826, 12,451. 



FORTH, a large and beautiful river of Scotland, 

 which takes its rise from a spring in the north side of 

 Benlomond mountain, in Stirlingshire, and, running 

 from west to east, nearly the whole breadth of the 

 kingdom, forms that firth, or arm of the German 

 ocean, to which it gives its name. It traverses Stir- 

 lingshire for ten miles, under the appellation of the 

 water of Duchary, augmented, as it proceeds, by a 

 number of mountain streams. It then enters Perth- 

 shire, where it unites with the water from Lochard 

 in Aberfoyle. The northern branch issues from a 

 beautiful lake called Loch Chon, from which it is 

 precipitated, in full stream, over a perpendicular 

 rock ; it then forms another expansion, a third, and 

 a fourth, before it descends into the low country, to 

 unite with the other branch. When united, it as- 

 sumes the name of the.Avondow or Black river, 

 and, after a course of about five miles, it becomes the 

 boundary of Stirlingshire at Gartmore, where it as- 

 sumes the name of the Forth. It is augmented by 

 the Goodie at the bridge of Frew, and, about two or 

 three miles above Stirling, by the rivers of Teath 

 and Allan, then it enters that extensive plain, which 

 is termed the Carse of Stirling and Falkirk. Through 

 this valley the river forms a variety of beautiful 

 windings or links. Some idea may be formed of its 

 windings, when it is mentioned, that, by land, the 

 distance from Stirling to Alloa is only six miles, while 

 by water it is said to be twenty-four. After pass- 

 ing Alloa, it expands into a considerable bay, up- 

 wards of twenty miles in length, but of unequal 

 breadth. At the Queensferry it contracts consider- 

 ably, being not more than two miles over ; hi the 

 middle of which is the small island of Inchgarvie, 

 with its fortifications. For three or four miles it 

 continues contracted, till, passing the island of Cra- 

 mond and Inverkeithing bay, it expands gradually 

 into a firth, which, opposite to Leith, is nine miles in 

 breadth. It continues of nearly the same breadth 

 for several miles, forming many safe harbours and 

 bays on the Fife coast ; till, opposite to Dunbar and 

 Crail, it loses itself in the German ocean. 



FORTIFICATION ; the science of strengthening 

 positions in such a way that they may be defended 

 by a body of men much inferior in^iumber to those 

 by whom they are attacked. The works constructed 

 lor this purpose are also called fortifications. The 

 nature of the works is difierent, according to the 

 objects for which they are intended, and the engines 

 by which the attack will probably be made. Against 

 an enemy without artillery, a simple wall would be 

 sufficient, which a single battery might soon demo- 

 lish. The first species of fortification was, of course, 

 very simple, consisting merely of an earthen mound 

 or of a fence of palisadoes. With the increase and 

 improvement of engines of attack, the defensive 

 works were likewise made stronger, and constructed 

 with more art. A ditch was added to the wall ; 

 round or square towers were then introduced, placed 

 at such intervals as to be capable of affording assist- 

 ance to one another. This was the whole art of 

 fortification practised by the ancients. Vcgetius 



