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the Ruffians are under the arclibidiop of Ekatarinoflaf and 

 Cherfoncfotaurida; and in bis abftnce under his vicar the 

 bilhop of Ftodofia and Mariupol. The other religious 

 communions are governed by their own fpiritual prefects. 



Azof, Sea of, called by the ancients Palus ^ixotis, for- 

 merly by the Ruffians the Putrid fea, and in fonie maps 

 Zabache fea, is a gulf in the Euxine, to which it is joined 

 by a ftrait.' It is fituate-in the dominions of Ruffia. Long. 

 52° to 57°eaftFerro; lat. 45° 20' to 47° 20' N. It is 

 about 210 miles in length, and from 40 to 60 in breadth. 

 It has fix harbours : Taganrok, Mariupole, and the little 

 fort of Petrofdv clofe to the- ftiore, Azof, Nartiitfhevan, 

 and fort St. Dmitri near the mouth of the Don. Of all 

 thefc, Taganrok has the greateft trade in exports ; being 

 nest to that of Cherfon in the Euxine. Azof at prefent 

 is not by far of fo much confequence as it formerly vifas, 

 Ruffia having now fo many harbours on the Turkifti waters, 

 and as that arm of the Don, on which Azof lies, is gra- 

 dually filling with fand from year to year. The other har- 

 bours arc for the mofl part of little tignificance as to foreign 

 comm.erce. From Taganrok, in 1793, ^^ere exported bar- 

 iron, tallow and tallow-candles, butter, wheat, a;id wheat- 

 nieai, linen, peltry, tow and cordage, wax and wax-candles, 

 n(h, caviar, leather, morfh bones and teeth, honey, foap, 

 faikloth, (heeps wool, &c. to the amount of 428,087 ru- 

 bles. It is mollly inliabited by Armenians, who fled hither 

 from the Crimea, in ijiio; and at prefent contains feveral 

 excellent manufactories of filk, cotton, &c. The amount 

 of the exports from the other ports is not known ; proba- 

 bly it is but fmall. The importation confills in raw and 

 wrought filk and cotton, mudins, Turkifh ilufFs and car- 

 pets, wool and angora goats hair, Greek wines, oil, va- 

 rious kinds of fruit, tobacco and fnufF, fpiceries, faffron, 

 opium, medicinal drugs, pearls, precious (tones, gold and 

 filver, &c. The whole northern coaft of the fea of Azof, 

 from the Don to Ptrekop, is laid out in fifheries, to which 

 occupation thefc dillricts are extremely favourable. They 

 fifh with nets that have in the middle a conical bag, in 

 which the filh alTcmble ; and one fingle draught, which ge- 

 nerally lafts only fix hours, yields 60,000 fifli ; among 

 which, however, are found but few fturgeons, (liads, and 

 other large kinds of iidi. The falted and fmoaked niacka- 

 rel, called by the Turks (l<umri, are an important article 

 of trade in the Crimea, and are frequently lent from Feo- 

 dofia and Balaklava to Conllantinople, and to all the ma- 

 ritime towns of Natoha and Romelia. Thefe fiiti are tranf- 

 ported in barrels, and a thoufand of them are fold on the 

 fpot for three and a half or four piaftres. Tooke's View of 

 the Ruffian Empire, iii. 72. 



AZOGA Ships, in Commerce, are thofe SpaniHi (hips 

 commonly called the quichfeher fi'ps, from their carryii'g 

 quickfilver to the SpaniOi Weft Indies, in order to extrad. 

 the (ilver out of the mines in Peru and Mexico. But it is a 

 great miilake to imagine that thefe (hips are abfolutely laded 

 with quickfilver only ; for though ftridtly fpeaking, they are 

 to carry no goods unlefs on the king of Spain's account, 

 they are ufually full laden, notwithftanding this regulation, 

 by reafon that the merchants procure fpecial licences of the 

 king to load, upon paying a conlideration for fuch licences. 



AZONI, derived from the privative a, and fom, i:.one, or 

 coun/ry, in Mythology, a term anciently apphed to fuch of 

 the gods as were not the peculiar divinities of any particular 

 country or people, but v/cre acknowledged as gods in every 

 eountrv, and worfliipped by every nation. See GoD. 



Thefe azoni were a degree above th* vifible and fenfible 

 gods, which were called zono'i, who inhabited fome parti- 

 cular part of the v.orld, and never llirred out cf the dillrict 

 or zone that was afligned them. Such in Egypt were Se- 



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tapis, Ollris, and Bacchus ; and in Greece, the Sun, Mars, 

 the Moon, and Pluto. They were called by the Romans 

 dii communes. 



AZOOPHAGUS, from a, ^mv, animal, and ^ayw, / 

 eal, in Natural Hijlory, a term' ufed by authors to cxprefs 

 fuch infects or animals as feed on herbs, never eating the 

 tlcdi of any liviug creature. 



AZOR, or AiON, in yincient Geography, a town of the 

 northern part of Paleftine, to the foutli of Dan. 



AZORES, in Geography, called alfo JVeJIejn I [lands, from 

 their fituation, and 'Terceras from the name of the principal 

 illand, are a group of iflands lying in the Atlantic ocean, 

 between 36° and 40° N. lat. and 25° and 33" W. long. 

 Geographers have frequently claflTed them among the Afri- 

 can iflands ; but they more properly belong to Europe, as 

 they are about 13° diltant from Cape St. Vincent, in Por- 

 tugal, and about one degree more remote from the African 

 (bore. Befides, their latitude connefts them more naturally 

 with Europe than with Africa, and they were firlt peopled 

 by Europeans. They are feven in number, viz. St. Michael, 

 Sta. Maria, Tercera, Gratiofa, St. George, Pico, and Fayal, 

 bolides the fmalkr ones of Flores and Corvo, which lie at a 

 coufiderable diftancc to the weft, but as they all belong to 

 the government of Portugal, they are all now included under 

 the fame general appellation. Thelc iflcs were all difcovered 

 by the Portuguefe, but the precife period is a fubjeft of 

 difpute. According to the account infcrihed on his globe 

 by the celebrated geographer Behaim, or Bchem, they were 

 difcovered in 1431 ; but Murr fays, that they were explored 

 fucceffively from 1432 to 1449. It is certain, however, 

 that they were (irft difcovered by the Portuguefe, before tiie 

 year 14-19 ; and they are fa'id to have given them the name 

 of Azores, from agor, a falcon, on account of the number 

 of goftiawks, which were here remarkably tame, there being 

 neither man nor quadruped to difturb them. In 1466, they 

 were given by the king of Portugal to his fifler the duchefs 

 of Burgundy. They were colonized by Flemings and Ger- 

 mans, among whom was Job de Huerter, the father-in-law 

 of the geographer Behaim, and lord of Moikirchen, being 

 driven from Flanders by war and famine. Huerter after- 

 wards refided at Fayal, and appears to have had a grant of 

 the arms from the duchefs ot Burgundy. Although the 

 fubfequent hiftory of thefe iflands is rather obfcure, the 

 Flemilli inhabitants feem always to have acknowledged the 

 king of Portugal. The Azores are difcovered at a great 

 diltance Irom the fea, on account of a high mountain called 

 the Pico, or Peak (fee Pico), of a conical form, refcmbling 

 the peak of Tenerllfe. They are generally mountainous, 

 and expoftd to earthquakes and eruptions of volcanos, one 

 of which occurred July 9th, 1757, when St. George's, Pico, 

 and Fayal, which form a clofer group than the others, be- 

 ing fcarcely five leagues afunder, and Tercera, though at 

 twice that diftance from St. George's, were fuddenly difturbed 

 at the fame inftant, and ffiaken to their foundation by terri- 

 ble convulfions of the earth. The firft (liock laflcd two 

 minutes. On this occafion the ocean overflowed, many 

 perfons loft their lives, and thefe iflands were covered with 

 ruins. The confequence of this dreadful convulhon of na- 

 ture was the production of eighteen little iflands, that rofe 

 infenfibly from beneath the fea, at the diftance of about ten 

 yards from the north coaft of St. George's. 'I'iiey difap- 

 peared in a few months, as thoie produced by t"he volcano 

 of St. Michael had done before. It was obferved, that 

 Flores, Corvo, St. Michael, and St. Mary's, were not at all 

 afleCled by this eruption of St. George's, and that Gratiofa 

 fulfered very litile. They are fubjeCl alfo to violent winds, 

 and the fury of the waves, which are frequently vei"y inju- 

 rious, by overflowing the low grounds, fwetping oli whole 



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