646 



PORT PORT ROYAL DES CHAMPS. 



large tuns, in which it remains till winter, when it 

 is racked into pipes, and conveyed to Oporto. To 

 that intended for exportation, brandy is added when 

 it is deposited in the stores, and an additional quan- 

 tity when it is shipped, generally about a year after 

 the vintage. It is then of a dark purple colour, a 

 full body, with an astringent bitter-sweet taste, and 

 a strong flavour and odour of brandy. After re- 

 maining some years in the wood, the sweetness, 

 roughness, and astringency of the flavour, abate ; 

 but it is not until it has been kept ten or fifteen 

 years in bottle that the odour of the brandy is sub- 

 dued, and the genuine aroma of the wine is develop- 

 ed. When a very large portion of the extractive and 

 colouring matter is precipitated in the form of a 

 crust, the wine becomes tawny, and loses its flavour 

 nnd aroma. This is very apt to be the case in the 

 wim-s made from white grapes, and coloured with 

 elder berries or other materials a common practice 

 when there is a deficiency of the black grapes. 

 Port wines of excellent quality are often so highly 

 adulterated with brandy as to be entirely deprived 

 of their flavour and aroma ; and the stronger kinds, 

 which are not irretrievably ruined by this admix- 

 ture, only regain their flavour after being allowed 

 to mellow for many years. Port wine (if the liquor 

 thus described may be so called) was introduced 

 into very general use in Britain by the Methuen 

 treaty (1703), and the frequent and protracted 

 hostilities between Britain and France kept it in 

 vogue till the peace of 1815, since which the taste 

 for light wines has been revived there, so as materi- 

 ally to lessen the consumption of the strong wines 

 of Portugal. The Port wines, abounding in the 

 astrigent principle, and deriving additional potency 

 from brandy, may be serviceable in disorders in 

 which gentle tonics are required ; but gallic acid 

 renders them unfit for weak stomachs, and the ex- 

 citement they produce is of rather a sluggish na- 

 ture. See fVines ; see, also, Henderson, on wines 

 (London, 1824.) 



PORT ; a harbour or haven on the sea-coast. 



Free Port is one open and free for merchants of 

 all nations to load and unload their vessels in, with- 

 out paying any duty or customs ; such are the ports 

 of Genoa and Leghorn. 



Free Port is also used for a total exemption and 

 franchise which any set of merchants enjoy, for 

 goods imported into a state, or those of the growth 

 of the country exported by them. 



PORT is also a name given, on some occasions, 

 to the larboard or left side of the ship, as Port the 

 helm the order to put the helm over to the lar- 

 board side of the vessel, when going large. This 

 word appears intended to prevent any mistakes 

 happening from the similarity of sounds in the 

 words starboard and larboard, particularly when 

 orders are given relating to the helm. 



PORT, OR PORT HOLE. The embrasures or 

 openings in the side of a ship of war, wherein the 

 artillery is ranged in battery upon the decks, above 

 and below, are called ports, or port holes. 



Gun-room ports are situated in the ship's counter, 

 and are used for stern chases, and also for passing 

 a small cable or a hawser out, either to moor, head 

 and stern, or to spring upon the cable, &c. 



Lower-deck ports are those on the lowest eun- 

 deck. 



Middle-deck ports are those on the second or 

 middle gun deck of three-deckers. The port holes 

 are shut up in storms, to prevent the water from 

 ilriving through them. 



Port lids ; a sort of hanging doors, to shut in the 

 ports at sea. They are fastened by hinges to the 

 upper edges of the ports, so as to let down when 



the cannon are drawn into the ship, whereby the 

 water is prevented entering the lower decks. 



Port hooks ; hooks over the ports, to which the 

 port hinges are nttached. 



PORT-AU-PRINCE. See Port Rfpublicain. 



PORT JACKSON. See New South Wales, and 

 Sydney. 



PORT MAHON. See Mahon. 



PORT REPUBLICAIN ; formerly Port-au- 

 Prince, capital of the republic of Hayli, on the 

 western side of the island, at the south-east extremi- 

 ty of the bay of the same name ; lat. 18 33' N. ; 

 Ion. 72 27' W. It is built in a low and unhealthy 

 spot, with broad but unpaved streets, and contains 

 the president's palace, several literary institutions, 

 a lazaretto, and other public buildings. Besides 

 the military school, the pupils of which are instruct- 

 ed gratuitously, there are several monitorial schools. 

 Commerce is the principal occupation of the inha- 

 bitants. In 1824, 131 American, 18 English, 6 

 German, and 33 French vessels entered the port, 

 and the value of the imports amounted to 16,500,000 

 francs. The amount of exports coffee, cotton, 

 Campeachy wood, &c.< was much greater. The 

 population, which, in 1790, was 15,000 (of whom 

 12,000 were blacks), is now estimated at 30,000. 

 The city was founded in 1745, and was completely 

 destroyed by an earthquake in 1770. In 1830, it 

 experienced several shocks, some of which did con- 

 siderable damage. 



PORT ROYAL ; a seaport of the island of Jam- 

 aica, (q. v.) 



PORT ROYAL DES CHAMPS ; a cistercian 

 convent, founded in 1233, not far from Versailles, 

 and about six leagues from Paris, played an im- 

 portant part in the Jansenistic controversy. (See 

 Arnauld and Jansenius.) The abbess Angelica, 

 sister of Antony Arnauld, had brought it into closer 

 connexion with the theologians of Paris by found- 

 ing a new convent in the suburb of St Jacques in 

 Paris (1626), which, in distinction from the parent 

 establishment, was called Port Royal de Paris. She 

 had also revived the monastic austerity in the two 

 houses. The nuns of Port Royal adhered, "under 

 the influence of their protector, Jean de Vergier du 

 Havranne, abbot of St Cyran, to the Jansenists, 

 and their house in the country became the sanctuary 

 of the party, when the most eloquent theologians 

 and defenders of Jansenism Nicole, the brothers 

 Arnauld and Lemaitre took up their residence at 

 Port Royal des Champs, in a separate building, 

 called Les Granges. Here they participated in the 

 penances and labours of the nuns, and set up a 

 school, in which, in opposition to the lax system of 

 the Jesuits, they inculcated a purer morality, and 

 aimed at a more thorough course of study, with use- 

 ful improvements in the method of instruction. The 

 celebrated Anne of Bourbon, duchess of Longue- 

 ville, came into the neighbourhood, and became 

 their patroness ; Boileau was their friend, and 

 Racine their grateful pupil. The latter wrote a 

 history of Port Royal. This society presented a 

 union of great talents, profound learning and sin- 

 cere piety, which has rarely been equalled : peni- 

 tents of all conditions joined it, and the fame of its 

 sanctity spread over the Catholic world. Trusting 

 to their reputation, the nuns refused to subscribe 

 the bull of Alexander VII. against the disputed doc- 

 trines of Jansenius, and sustained themselves, after 

 their protectors had been expelled, through nume- 

 rous humiliations, until the beginning of the eigh- 

 teenth century, when their continued adherence to 

 the Jansenist doctrines, which had gone out of 

 vogue, resulted in the suppression and complete 

 destruction of the abbey by the Paris police (1709.) 



