A L G 



fi»ye*, i5,occ J«w«, and 100,000 Mahometans. But (ince 

 his time the number has bce.< much reduced ; and the num- 

 ber of inliabitants is now cllimated at about So,coo, in 

 which number arc included fcveral t)ioufaiid [ewifli faniihcs. 

 It is furrouiided by high walls, 12 feet thick, flanked with 

 fquare towers, but fo decayed as to afford very little de- 

 fence. A ditch, 20 feet wide and feven deep, formerly en- 

 compaffid the whole city, but is now alrr.oft filled with 

 mud. It has five gates, which are open from fun-rife to 

 fnn-fct ; and without the walls fevcn caftles or forts, of 

 which tlie grcateft is that on the mole, all which arc fupplied 

 with cannon. Its belt defence is towards the fea. The 

 rvile, the work of Hayradin, the fon of Barbarofla, is built 

 on the fmall ifland that faces the town, in form of a large fe- 

 r.iicircle, with a liandfome opening into the haven, which is 

 1 ^o fathoms long, and 80 broad, and where the largeil 

 velTels may ride fo as to be fecure from the violence ot the 

 waves. The mole is defended by a caille, which flands upon 

 tiie folid rock, and which alio fervcs as a light-houfe. It has 

 three batteries of cannon. At the fouth end of the ifiand is 

 another fort, confiding of three batteries, to defend the en- 

 trance of the harbour. There are alfo other forts along the 

 coaft. In the town there is but one handfome ilieet, which 

 reaches from the eaft to the v.-eft end, and in which are the 

 bed ihops, the houfes of the principal merchants, and the 

 market for com and all provifions. All the other ftreets are lo 

 narrow that two perfons cannot walkabreall, and the middle 

 being much lower than the fides for the reception of water and 

 tilth, the palTage of camels, horfcs, mules and afles, renders it 

 Uill more inconvenient and dilagrecable for foot paffengers. It 

 is llill more dangerous to meet with a TurkliTi foldier, to whom 

 the wcalthieil Chrillian mud give way, or be likely to feel the 

 elTeils of his brutal refentmcnt. The houlcs are fuppofcd 

 to be placed thus near to each other, either to flielter them 

 from the fun, or for the convenience of mutual fupport, by 

 means of props, when earthquakes occur. They are 

 built of brick or ftone, mollly fquare, with a paved court in 

 the middle, fomewhat like our old inns ; round this court 

 there are galleries fupporttd by columns, and over thele a fe- 

 cond range, and upon this upper gallery are the terraces, 

 which ferve for walking or drying linen. Their chimnies 

 rife in the form of a cupola on the four corners of the ter- 

 race, and their houfes are whitewadied evei-y year. As the 

 houfes are contiguous, a perfon may walk from one end of 

 the town to the other along the terraces, and in this way 

 they keep up an iirtercourfe with each other. The houfes 

 of private people are within meanly fitted up and furnidied, 

 but thofe of the rich are incruded with marble, fupported on 

 columns, and have their cielings finely canred, painted and 

 gilt. The mod magnificent building is the palace of the 

 Dey, in the midll of the city, which has two fpacious halls, 

 in one of which the douwan meets thrice a week. The bar- 

 racks for the Turkilh foldiery are likewife grand edifices, 

 and each of them contains about 600 ; their mofques are nu- 

 merous, of which the larger are feven, and the baths are 

 many and fpacious, but they are of different kinds, for the 

 accommodation of perfons of every rank and condition. Be- 

 fides the public baths and thofe appropriated to women, 

 tliere are others called baf'ios, which are loathfome prifons, 

 and in which their flaves deep every night. There are fome 

 handfome edifices without the walls of the town, and a great 

 number of tombs, fome of which are adorned with chapels 

 and oratories, to which the men and women retort every Fri- 

 <hy. The city of Algiers, which had formerly neither wells 

 Bor fountains, is now fupplied with excellent water by two 

 a(|Ufdnfts, which convey it from the adjacent mountains to 

 a bumber of fountains at convenient diftancee from one ano- 



A L G 



ther. The ten-ilory about Algiers is very firtiJe ; the hills 

 and vallics are every where ornamented with pendens, grove-s, 

 and country -feats, whither tiie riclicr foils retire during th« 

 lummer feafou. Their villas are little white lioufcs, fhaded. 

 with a variety of fruit-trees and evcr-greens, which, hcfides 

 thelliade and retirement, afford a beautiful proipecl toward* 

 the fea. Tlic gardens are flocked with plenty of tniit-trecs, 

 melons, and pot-herbs, and well watered by a riiultitudc of 

 fountains and rivulets. Algiers, although it has many forts, 

 and though in former times it has couuteracled the affaultr 

 of fome of the greatefl powers of Cliriilcndom, is but weakly 

 defended, and incapable of fudaining a regular ilcge. The 

 Spaniards, however, attacked it in I 775, both by land and 

 fea, with a force confiding of about 20,000 foot, and 2000 

 horfe, 47 king's ITiips of different rales, and 346 tranfports^ 

 and were repuUcd with great lofs. In 17S3 and 1784 their 

 attacks were renewed, but without fucccfs. N. lat. 36*" 

 49' 30". E. long. 2° 12' 45'. Thehay of Algiers lies to the 

 ead of the city, and the mole that forms the harbour is 500 

 paces long, and here is anchorage in 18 to 25 fathoms water. 

 Cape Matifou lies to the north-cad extremity of the bay^ 

 and Cape Caxines to the north-wed of the city, and the 

 wedern limit of the bay. 



ALGOA Bay, or Zwartiops, a bay ©f South Africa, 

 fituate in S. lat. 35° 56'. E. long. 26^ 53', and didant from> 

 the Cape of Good Hope 500 miles. Mr. Barrow, a late 

 traveller, fuggells, that from the vicinity of this place to the 

 falt-pans, from the cafe of procuring bullocks in good condi- 

 tion, and from the abundance of excellent fi(h on the coad,. 

 great benefits would accrue to the Ead India company, if 

 au eftablilliment was formed for tlie preparation of faked 

 beef and filh. The river Zwartkops flows through a valley, 

 in which our traveller found a fpeeies of antelope, called the 

 r'let-bok, or red-goat, hitherto undeicribcd by naturalifts. 



ALGODONALES Islascs he on the coad of Peru, 

 in S. lat. 21° 56', and W.long. 72° 50', eight leagues north 

 from the harbour of Cobijah, and aflord fredi water. 



ALGODRES, adidricl of Beira, in Portugal, contain- 

 ing eight paridies and 450 inhabitants. 



AI-GOIDES, in Bdtany, a name given by Va'Uant to a 

 genus of plants, called by Michcli and Linnaeus Zannj- 



CHELLIA. 



ALGOL, or Medufa's Head, in yijlronomy, a dar of the 

 fecond magnitude, in the condellatioii Perfeus. This dar 

 has been fubjecl to fingular variations, appearing at different 

 times of different magnitudes, from the fourth to the fe- 

 cond, which is its ufual appearance. Thefe variations were 

 noticed at the clofe of the lad century by Montanari and 

 Maraldi ; alfo by Flamllead, 1696 and 171 1 ; but they 

 have been more accurately obfervcd by Mr. Goodricke, at 

 York, in 1783, who has, by comparing a great variety of 

 obfervations, determined the period of their return to be 2*, 

 20'', 48', 56". As to the caufe of this variation, Mr. Good- 

 ricke conjectures, that it may be owdng either to the interpo- 

 fition of a large body revolving round Algol, or to fome mo- 

 tion of its own, in confequence of which, part of its body, 

 covered with fpots or fuck like matter, is periodically turned 

 towards the earth. M. de la Laiide, comparing his own ob- 

 fervations with thofe of Mr. Goodricke, and M. Wurms, of 

 Nurtingen, determines the period oF variation to be 2'', 20'', 

 49', 2"- Mem. Acad. Sc. Paris, 1788. See Phil. Tranf. 

 vol. Ixxiii. p. 474. Vol. Ixxiv. p. 287. 



ALGOMEIZA, a name given to the dar Procyon. 



ALGONQUINS, in Geography, an Indian nation of 

 North America, which formerly polfefTed confiderable trafts 

 of land along the north-weil fhores of the river St. Lawrence, 

 in Canada. As hunters and warriors they had no rivals, and 



were 



