CUR 



509 



C U R 



The principal towns of Curacoa are one of the same 

 name, and Wil'iamstadt. The city of Curacoa is well 

 situated ; its buildings are large, convenient, and mag- 

 nificent; it is full of store-houses and shops, well pro- 

 vided with every species of merchandize, and of all 

 kinds of manufactories. In its port, which, though 

 dangerous and difficult to be made, is abundantly se- 

 cure, vessels from all parts are continually lying. There 

 is something also done here in the ship-building trade. 

 The entrance to the port is defended by a castle, 

 which, with the city, was in 1714 bombarded, but with- 

 out success, by the French under the command of M. 

 Caissar. The commanding ship of his squadron Was 

 wrecked upon the coast. There is in the city a syna- 

 gogue for the conveniency of the many Jews by whom 

 it is inhabited, and who are the principal merchants. 



In Williamstad, which is considered to be the chief 

 town of the island, or on the opposite side of the har- 

 bour, there are scarcely any white inhabitants besides a 

 few merchants. Such as have any lands live upon them, 

 and the public officers and servants of the company live 

 in or near the fort. Houses are built so close to the 

 walls of this fort, that -a ladder from the upper stories 

 would be sufficient to get within the walls. A remark- 

 able blunder, also, of the engineer is noticed, who, in 

 building a stone battery, turned the embrasures in- 

 wards instead of outwards ; while in the front of that 

 battery, which is intended to command the entrance of 

 the harbour, there has been built a range of warehou- 

 ses, which are not only themselves exposed to the fire 

 of an enemy, but so impede the use of the guns of the 

 fort, that it would be necessary to level them to a cer- 

 tain height before its shot could reach a hostile force. 

 The powder-magazine also was placed at a distance 

 from the fort, and in such a situation as to expose 

 the road or access to it to the fire of any ship coming 

 round on that side. The town, harbour, and fort, might, 

 however, by the use of proper precautions, be rendered 

 in a great measure impregnable to any attacks either 

 by land or from the sea. The inhabitants of Williamstad 

 are a mixture of Jews, Spaniards, sailors, free mulat- 

 toes, free negroes, Musquito and other Indians. The 

 hative population is become extinct, with the exception 

 of three or four aged people at Curacoa, and a few per- 

 sons residing at Bonaire; while of whites, there are 

 hardly half a dozen families who have not intermarried 

 with Indians or negroes on the intermediate coasts. 

 The religious houses of this city are a Dutch reformed 

 church, a Lutheran church, a Roman-catholic chapel, 

 and a Jewish synagogue. 



A great deal has been said of the vices, and the dis- 

 orderly manner of living, which, at former periods, are 

 stated to have been in an extreme degree prevalent at 

 Curacoa. To the Jews who traded in it were attri- 

 buted all the rapacity and bad faith, which, in any 

 other instance, have been alleged to be characteris- 

 tic of this people. The trade of the island in general, 

 it has been represented, was a frightful tissue of piracy 

 and pillaging : while manners were on a similar foot- 

 ing as commerce; libertinism, debauchery, robberies, 

 murders, assassinations, being under no restraint, and 

 no such thing as either justice or any regular system of 

 police known. No respect or deference was paid to any 

 authority subsisting on the island, military, civil, or ec- 

 clesiastical. The only formality of marriages was a cer- 

 tificate given by the public notary, and which stood at 

 once instead of civil convention, and of nuptial bene- 

 diction. The excesses of debauchery, it has been add- 

 eJ, to which the people of this island gave way were 



such, that it Was well for them that the air which they Curatdl* 

 there breathed was not of that insalubrious character I! 



that it might appear to be, and had sometimes been re- Cu " i ' st '' n - 

 presented : had the case been otherwise, it must soon ' v — 

 have been entirely depopulated. The licentiousness of 

 the negro slaves, owing to various causes, was in full 

 proportion to that of the other parts of the community; 

 while in their case there was a farther and a peculiar 

 subjection to suffering. In the event of a scarcity of 

 provisions, the distress of course fell chiefly on them ; 

 and in respect of the absurd principle adopted as to 

 their manumission, which was that of a small fine being 

 paid by the proprietors to government for their emanci- 

 pation, generally when they were too old to work, they 

 must then either obtain a precarious subsistence by beg- 

 ging, or be exposed to perish from want. See Peuchet's 

 Dictionnairc de la Geog. Commercante. Raynal's History 

 of the East and West Indies. Voyages interessans dans 

 differentes Colonies Franc. Espagn. Angl, &c. Thorn-, 

 son's Alcedo, vol. i. Descript. de I' Isle de Curacoa, &c. 



00 



CURATELLA, a genus of plants of the class Poly- 

 andria, and order Digynia. See Botany, p. 237. 



CURCULIGO, a genus of plants of the class Hex- 

 andria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 186". 



CURCULIO. See Entomology. 



CURCUMA, a genus of plants of the class Monail- 

 dria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 81. 



CURD. See Dairy. 



CURDISTAN, or Kurdistan, a country of Asia, 

 comprehending the whole of Assyria Proper, with part 

 of Armenia and Media. In a general view, this coun- 

 try may be considered as bounded on the east by the 

 mountain Coatrus and the river Surokh, which sepa- 

 rates it from Irak, Azerbijan, and other parts of Per- 

 sia ; on the west by the Tigris, which divides it from 

 Mesopotamia and Chaldea ; on the south by Irak, and LimiCs - 

 on the north by Turcomania. Towards the south it is 

 narrow, scarcely exceeding 100 miles in breadth; but 

 northwards it stretches near 500 miles, from east to 

 west, i. e. from the 39th to the 47th degree of east 

 longitude ; and from north to south it reaches from 

 about 34,° or 35° to from 87° or 38° north latitude. 

 The limits of this country do not appear, however, 

 to have been very precisely ascertained. Indeed, tribes 

 of the people called Curds are found widely disper- 

 sed over many parts of the empires both of Turkey 

 and of Persia. They are met with in the Persian pro- 

 vinces of Khorassan and Armenia, as well as Ardelan and 

 the pachalick of Bagdad, and dispersed also in the Diar- 

 bekr, and over the plains of Arzroum, Erivan, Sivas, 

 Aleppo, and Damascus. They have been gradually 

 extending themselves over the Lower Asia, and in 

 other directions, particularly within these last hundred 

 years ; great numbers, as is alleged, of tribes and fami- 

 lies having been detached from the nation, in conse- 

 quence of the disputes inseparable from the anarchical 

 state of their feudal government, in which each village, 

 it is said, had its chief, and the whole country was par- 

 celled out among a number of different and indepen- 

 dent factions. There are, however, two principal and 

 well recognised portions of territory which enter into 

 the description of Cufdistan, namely, the Lower Cur- 

 distan, or that portion of the pachalick of Bagdad 

 which is situated beyond the Tigris, and which corre- 

 sponds nearly to the whole of ancient Assyria Proper ; 

 and the province of Ardelan, which forms the eastern 

 division of it. The first of these extends from Arme- 

 nia, and the territories of the chief of Julamerick, to 



