ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION 



263 



ANNAPOLIS 





of whom only 1,900 are Europeans, exclusive 

 of the military forces maintained by France. 

 It was formerly governed by a monarch whose 

 power was absolute, but in 1914 the king was 

 compelled to abdicate in favor of his- son, a 

 boy of fourteen. Though nominally still a 

 monarchy, all the power is vested in French 

 officials. 



Education and Religion. Under French 

 supervision the educational advantages are 

 improving, but mostly for the benefit of boys; 

 while there are over fifty schools for them, 

 there are only seven for girls. The Anna- 

 mese are principally of Mongolian stock, but 

 are smaller and less robust than the Mongo- 

 lians found farther north. Their language is 

 similar to Chinese, and their religion is Budd- 

 hism, though the educated classes have largely 

 become followers of Confucius. Like the Chi- 

 nese, the natives do not take readily to Chris- 

 tianity, but flourishing missions are maintained 

 by the Roman Catholics and the leading 

 : Protestant churches. 



Resources. The mineral wealth of the coun- 

 try is considerable, and has been greatly devel- 

 oped recently. Gold, iron, copper and zinc 

 are extensively mined, and coal of fair quality 

 is found. The soil is fertile and produces rice, 

 maize, tobacco, sugar, many kinds of fruit, 

 coffee, areca nui and medicinal plants. A 

 large area of unprofitable land has been re- 

 claimed, the Phanrany River being dammed 

 to irrigate 10,000 acres, and many other irri- 

 gation works have been erected elsewhere in 

 the province. The mulberry tree is exten- 

 sively cultivated for its leaves, on which the 

 silk worms feed, the raw silk export forming 

 one of the most important items of commerce. 

 Cattle raising is one of the principal occupa- 

 tion--. 



Imports and Exports. The imports consist 



chiefly of cotton and paper goods, tea, tobacco 



and petroleum. The exports, in addition to 



raw silk (three-fourths of the production of 



which is exported), are sugar, rice, cotton and 



paper. Most of the trade is carried on with 



ice and its foreign possessions. The cap- 



il HMI-. with :i population in 1912 of 60,611. 



The chief ports are Tourane and Fai-Foo. 



ANNAP'OLIS CONVENTION. Soon after 

 thr Articles of Confederation were adopted 

 by the thirteen American colonies, which had 

 been fighting for independence, Virginia and 

 Maryland had a dispute about the navigation 

 of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac H 



difficulty finally led Virginia to ask the 



other states to send delegates to Annapolis, 

 Md., to discuss changes in the Articles of Con- 

 federation, especially to cover defects in those 

 parts referring to commerce and navigation. 

 The delegates met September 11, 1786, but 

 only five states were represented New York, 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Vir- 

 ginia. 



It was evident almost at once that the 

 Articles of Confederation were inadequate 

 not only in relation to commerce, but in many 

 other respects. The convention, urged on by 

 Alexander Hamilton and John Dickinson, in- 

 vited all the states to send delegates to a 

 second convention for the purpose of adopting 

 a new constitution. This second convention 

 met at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and finally 

 adopted the present Constitution. The story 

 of this immensely important document is told 

 in the article, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 

 STATES. See, also, ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 



ANNAPOLIS, MD., is the state capital and 

 the county seat of Anne Arundel County, 

 twenty-six miles south by east of Baltimore, 

 thirty miles directly east by north of Washing- 

 ton, D. C. It is on the southwest bank of 

 the Severn River, two miles from its entrance 

 into Chesapeake Bay, and is served by boats 

 to Baltimore and other cities on the bay, and 

 by the Maryland and the Annapolis, Wash- 

 ington & Baltimore electric railways. The 

 population in the years 1910 and 1914 was 

 8,609 and 8,643, respectively. 



Annapolis is best known as the seat of the 

 United States Naval Academy (which see). 

 It is a small, quaint place, one-half square 

 mile in area, and retains many evidences of 

 Colonial days. The state house, the corner 

 stone of which was laid in 1772, occupies a 

 hill in the center of the town (see MARYLAND, 

 for illustration). Other interesting features 

 are the state treasury building, Saint Anne's 

 Protestant Episcopal Church, Saint John's 

 College (founded in 1789), the marine bar- 

 racks and naval experiment station and 

 statues of Chief Justice Taney and General 

 DeKalb. Extensive oyster-packing establish- 

 ments serve a large foreign and domestic 



tia.lr. 



A settlement called Providence was made on 

 the site of Annapolis in 1649 by a company 

 of Puritans from Virginia. After having 

 adopted various names, that of Annapolis was 

 chosen in 1694 in honor of Princess (later 

 Queen) \nn.. The plaoe became the capital 

 of the province in 1694, and in 1708 became 



