V A L 



V A L 



of Beira, fituated about half a leagae from the Duero ; 1 2 

 miles W. of St. Joao de Pefqueira. 



VALENCE, a town of France, and principal place of 

 a diftridt, in the department of the Lot and Garonne ; 12 



miles S.W. of Agen. N. lat. 44° 6'. E. long. 0° 59' 



'Alfo, a city of France, and capital of the department of 

 the Drome, on the left fide of the Rhone ; anciently a 

 Roman colony, called Juha Augufta. Before the revolution 

 it was the fee of a biftiop, and capital of a principality called 

 Valentinois. An univerfity was brought hither from Gre- 

 noble in the year 1454; l6| pofts N. of Avignon. N. lat. 

 44° 55'- E. long. 4° 59'. ' 



Valence en Albegeols, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the Tarn ; 1 2 miles N.E. of Alby. 



VALENCIA, a province of Spain, bounded on the N. 

 by Aragon and Catalonia, on the E. and S.E. by the 

 Mediterranean, on the S.W. by Murcia, and on the W. by 

 New Caftile, about 220 miles in length from N. to S. ; the 

 breadth is unequal, from 20 to 45. Valencia is, in propor- 

 tion to its extent, one of the beft. peopled provinces of Spain, 

 and contains feven cities: has four fea-ports, the moft con- 

 fiderable of which is that of Ahcant ; the foil is extremely 

 fertile, although divided by mountains. Thefe contain 

 mines of finopica, or blood-ftone, iron, and alum. There 

 are alfo found quarries of marble, jafper, plafter, lapis 

 calaminaris, and potter's-clay, of which different kinds of 

 earthen vefTels are made. The climate is mild and pleafant, 

 but there is fomething enervating and faintilh in the air ; 

 vegetables with the finell outward fliow imaginable are not 

 good to the taftc. No women work in the iields ; but this 

 may proceed from their conftant employment within doors, 

 as much as from any remains of Moorifh jealoufy, though 

 the Valencians ftill retain much of the features and manners 

 of their old Saracen mafters. To this day the farmers will 

 not allow their wives to fit at table, but make them Hand 

 at their elbow and wait upon them. The inhabitants of 

 this province are faid to have more of the filth and fullen 

 unpolifhed manners of the old Spaniards, and to have 

 adopted lefs of foreign improvements in civilization, than 

 moll other parts of Spain. This kingdom and city were 

 conquered by the Moors under Abdallah Cis, and recovered 

 in 1094, when the famous Cid Ruy Dias de Vivar, taking 

 advantage of the confufion and civil war that raged in 

 Valencia, after the murder of Sultan Hiaya, made himfelf 

 mafter of the city by ftorm, at the head of a chofen band of 

 vahant knights. This was the laft exploit of that hero, fo 

 long the terror of the Muflulmen. A few days after his 

 death, the king 6f Caftile, finding it too far diftant from his 

 other dominions to be conveniently fuccoured in cafe of a 

 fudden attack, thought proper to withdraw his troops, and 

 iuffer the Moors to repoffefs themfelves of it. It was again 

 taken from them by James I., king of Aragon, in the year 

 1238, and for ever united to that crown, the fate of which 

 it has ever fince followed through all its various revolutions. 

 In the beginning of the reign of Charles V. this province 

 ■was diftrafted by civil commotions and ftruggles between 

 the nobihty and commons. The population of the whole 

 kingdom of Valencia amounts to 79,22 1 vecinos, or 716,884 

 fouls, reiident in 570 towns and villages. The manufac- 

 tures of filk are the caufe of a population that may be 

 reckoned confiderable, if compared with that of other pro- 

 vinces of Spain. The produce of this article, on an average 

 of one year with another, amounts to about 900,000 pounds, 

 worth a doubloon per pound, in the country. Government 

 has prohibited the exportation of Valencia raw filk, in order 

 to lay in a ftock to keep the artificers conftantly employed 

 in bad years ; for it has fometimes happened, that half the 

 Vol. XXXVI. 



workmen have been idle for want of materials. The great 

 nurferies of mulberry plants in the plains of Valencia are 

 produced from feed, obtained by running a rope of Efparto 

 over heaps of ripe mulberries, and then burying the rope 

 two inches under ground. As the young plants come up, 

 they are drawn and tranfplanted. The trees, which are all 

 of the white kind, are afterwards fet out in rows in the 

 fields, and pruned every fecond year ; in Murcia only every 

 third year ; and in Granada never. The Granada filk is 

 efleemed the beft of all, and the trees are all of the black 

 fort of mulberry. The fruit exported from Valencia to the 

 N. of Europe may be eftimated, commiiniius ann'is, at two 

 millions of pefos, about 334,000/. flerling. The annual 

 crop of hemp may be worth 300,000 pefos, at three pefos 

 per arroba: 140,000 loads of rice, at 10 pefos a load, make 

 1,400,000 pefos. The vintage of 1767 produced 4,309,000 

 meafures of wine, which, at three reals a nieafure, come to 

 861,133 pefos. There is alfo much cotton made in this 

 province from the cotton-plant, which rifes to the height of 

 three feet at moll, and very much refembles the rafpberry, 

 bufh. They make in good years 450,000 arrobas, worth 

 1,350,000 pefos, and in middhng years 285,600 arrobas. 

 Notwithilanding all this abundance, nothing can be more 

 wretched than the Valencian peafantry, who can with diffi- 

 culty procure food to keep their families from flarving. 

 Valencia is watered by 35 rivers, all of which run towards 

 the E. It was formerly inhabited by the Celtiberians, the 

 Turdetani, the Lufoni, &c. &c. Valencia was erefted into 

 a kingdom, in the year 788, by Abdalla, governor of 

 Valencia, who revolted from the king of Cordova, but was 

 however obhged to pay an annual tribute of 17,000 mara- 

 vedis. This kingdom continued till the 13th century, 

 when the laft king, Zahen, was difpofTeffed of his capital, 

 and compelled to leave his dominions with 50,000 Moors. 



Valencia, a city of Spain, and capital of the province fo 

 called. Its ancient name is unknown ; but it is faid to have 

 been taken and fortified by Scipio, deftroyed by Pompey, and 

 rebuilt by Caefar. It was taken from the Romans by the 

 Goths, and from the latter by the Moors, who twice- pof- 

 feffed it 230 years; for it was taken in 1094, by the 

 famous Cid Ruy Diaz de Vivar, and bore, during four 

 years, the name of Valencia of the Cid. The Moors retook 

 it, but it was finally conquered in 1238, by the king Don 

 Jayme, and embelhfhed as well as enlarged by Don Pedro IV. 

 king of Aragon. It is about half a league in circumference, 

 and the walls are built for ornament rather than defence. 

 Mariana the hiftorian fays, that in Valencia cheerfulnefs 

 enters at the doors and windows : the defcription he gives 

 of this city is in many refpe£ts devoid of truth, and fuch 

 that the author proves himfelf more a poet than an hiftorian. 

 Several geographers who have had impUcit faith in Mariana, 

 have even exaggerated his account of Valencia, and faid the 

 houfes here are all palaces, on which*account the name of Bella 

 was given to the city, an epithet difficult to reconcile witli 

 narrow, crooked, and unpaved ftreets, impaffable after rain ; 

 and in which there are but two or three houfes built with 

 tafte, and a few churches diftinguifhed by their architefture. 

 It is the fee of an archbifhop, and an univerfity, inftituted 

 in the year 1470. Here is a tribunal of inquifition, with a 

 royal audience, in which the governor, the captain-general 

 of the province, and a royal regent, prefide. The number 

 of inhabitants is eftimated at 100,000, but perhaps 80,000, 

 or between both, is nearer the truth ; 170 miles E.S.E. ot 

 Madrid. N. lat. 39' 27'. W. long. 0° 27'. 



Accounts arc kept at Valencia in Lbras of 20 fueldos, 



or 240 dineros ; alfo in reals of new plate of 24 dineros. 



The libra of Valencia is equal to the pcfo of plate, 



4 A »'• 



