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which runs into the Schuylkyll, N. lat. 40° 7'. W. long. 



75° 3°'- 



Vally Forge, a place in Pennfylvania, near the union of 



Vally Creek with the Schuylkyll. Here general Wafhing- 



ton lay encamped in the winter of 1777, 1778; 20 miles 



N.W. of Philadelphia. 



VALMAROSSA, a town of Iftria ; 8 miles E.S.E. 

 of Capo d' Iftria. 



VALMASEDA, a town of Spain, in the province of 

 Bifcay ; 1 3 miles S. W. of Bilbao. 



VALMIKI, in Biography, the name of a very celebrated 

 Hindoo poet, author of that extraordinary poem in the San- 

 fcrit language, entitled Ramayana, under which word we 

 have given fome account of its contents. Sir William Jones, 

 in his ninth anniverfary difcourfe to the Afiatic Society of 

 Calcutta, dehvered February 1792, gives his opinion that the 

 Cufh of Mofes and Valmiki were the fame perfonage. ( See 

 Ramayana and Triveni.) But we are not in poffeffion 

 of any biographical particulars refpeding him. His great 

 work, the Ramayana, is efteemed the earlieft epic poem, and 

 is cited as nearly equal in authority with the moft facred of 

 the Hindoo books, fuch as the Purana and feda, afcribed 

 to Vyafa. See thefe articles. 



VALMONT DC BoMARE, James Christopher, was 

 born at Rouen, in September, 1731- He was intended for 

 the bar, but his inclination to natural hiftory induced him to 

 de\;ote himfelf entirely to that purfuit, and having obtained 

 an order from the duke d'Argenfon, the minifter at v.-ar, to 

 travel for the improvement of fcience, with fufBcient funds 

 for the purpofe, he fpent feveral years in «fiting the princi- 

 pal cities of Europe, and examining the moft famous col- 

 leftions in natural hiftory. Mines and metallurgic eftabli(h- 

 ments engaged his particular attention ; having vifited Lap- 

 land and Iceland, he defcribed its volcanoes ; and returned, 

 with many curious objefts, to Paris in Julyi756. He then 

 began a courfe of leftures on natural hiftory, which were 

 continued till the year 1788. Thefe leSures contributed 

 to eftablifh his reputation, and he had many advantageous 

 offers from the courts of Ruffia and Portugal, the acceptance 

 of which he declined. His works are as follow : viti. " Ca- 

 talogue d'un Cabinet d'Hiftoire Naturelle," 1758, izmo. ; 

 " Extrait Nomenclature du Syftem complet de Minera- 

 logie," 1759, l2mo. ; and " Nouvelle Expofition du Regne 

 Mineral," 1761, 1762, 2 vols. 8vo. But his capital work 

 was his " Diftionnaire raifonne Univerfel d'Hiftoire Natu- 

 relle," in 6 vols. 8vo. This has pafTcd through feveral 

 editions in Svo. and 4to., and being the firft of its kind, 

 ferved as the bafis of all the diftionaries of natural hiftory 

 that have appeared fince that lime. One of the lateft edi- 

 tions appeared at Lyons in 1800, 15 vols. 8vo. This cele- 

 brated naturalift died at Paris, in Auguft, 1807. Gen. Biog. 



Valmont, or Vallemont, in Geography, a town of France, 

 in the department of the Lower Seine ; 6 miles E. of 

 Fecamp. 



VALMONTONE, a town of the Popedom, in the 

 Campagna di Roma ; 6 miles S. of Paleftriua. 



VALNDORF, a town of Hungary ; 5 miles S.W. of 

 Szeben. 



VALOE, an ifland of Sweden, in the bay of Chriftiania; 

 7 miles S.S.E. of Tonfljerg. 



VALOGNES, a town of France, and principal place 

 of a diftrift, in the department of the Channel. In 1 346, 

 it was pillaged by the Englifh ; 7^ pofts N. of Coutances. 

 N. lat. 49° 31'. E. long. i°23'. 



VALOIS, Henry de, or Valesius, in Biography, born 

 at Paris in 1603, and educated in the Jefuits' fchool, was ad- 

 mitted an advocate of the parliament of Paris, after having 



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previoufly ftudied the civil law at Bourges. Declining the 

 profecution of the law, he devoted himfelf to literature, and 

 particularly to the ftudy of Greek and Latin authors. The 

 affiduity of his appiicaJon imp.aired his fight, the imperfec- 

 tion of which was in fome degree counterbalanced by the 

 retentivenefs of his memory. Befidts fome prvate penfions 

 which were granted him, he was appointed, in 1660, hiftorio- 

 grapher of France, with a confiderable f^'ary. At the age 

 of fixty-one he married a lady, by whom he had feven chil- 

 dren ; and died in 1676, at the age of feventy -three years. 

 His temper was harfti and irritable; fond of piaife, and 

 fparing in beftowing it on others ; impatient and querulous 

 under bodily indifpofition, but unfeeling to the fufferings of 

 others. With many infirmities and failings, he was a learned, 

 difcriminating, and accurate critic. His principal publica- 

 tions were, an edition of the " Ecclefiaftical Hiftory of Eu- 

 febius," with a Latin verfion and notes ; the " Ecclefiaftical 

 Hiftories of Socrates and Sozomen," as well as of " Theo-j 

 doret and Evagrius ;" a valuable edition of " AmmianuS 

 Marcellinus ;" " Remarks upon Harpoeration ;" " EraenJ 

 dationum Lib. V." with other pieces, printed after his death 

 at Amfterdam, in 1740, under the care of Peter Burman.j 

 Moreri. 



Valois, Adrian de, brother of the preceding, was borij 

 at Paris in 1607, and ftudied in the Jefuils' college. AH 

 though he acquired a competent knowledge of the Greei 

 and Latin languages, he attached himfelf principally to tha 

 ftudy of French hiftory ; and in 1646 appeared the firft vol 

 lume in folio of his " Gelta Francorum," which was foM 

 lowed by two more in 1658. He began with the reign of 

 the emperor Valerian, and traced the hiftory of the Frank| 

 to the depofition of Childeric, and his work was generallj 

 admired. As a recompence, he was affociated with his bro- j 

 ther in the office of hiftoriographer, and in the penfion an'^ 

 nexed to it. In 1675 he publifhed " Notitis Gallorum,'r 

 fol. compriCng, in alphabetical order, an account of the geoj 

 graphy, towns, monafteries, &c. of France, deduced fron 

 its early records and hiftories. He followed the example oj 

 his brother, with whom he lived on teiTns of intimate union! 

 by marrying a young wife, who brought him two children! 

 He pubhfhed, befldes the works already mentioned, an edil 

 tion of two poems written in the middle ages, a fecono 

 edition of his brother's " Ammianus Marcellinus," and fomej 

 other pieces relating to antiquities. He died in 1692, 

 the age of eighty-five years. His fon, Charles mk 

 Valois de la Mare, was alfo a man of letters, and be 

 came a member of the Academy of Infcriptions and Belle 

 Lettres, and antiquary to the king. He publiftied a coUecl 

 tion of critical, hiftorical, and moral refle£tions, and Latin 

 poems under the title of " Valefiana," and edited two poft- 

 humous works of Vaillant the medallift, and wrote feveral 

 papers for the Academy, of which he was a member. He 

 died in 1747, aged feventy-Cx. Moreri. 



VAL-OMBROSO gives its name to a congregation of 

 Benediftine monks, founded in the Apennines by Gualbert 

 of Florence, in the i ith century ; who, in a fhort fpace of 

 time, propagated their difcipline in feveral parts of Italy. 



VALON, in Jncient Geography, a river of Africa, in 

 Mauritania Tingitana. Ptolemy. 



VALONA, in Geography, a fea-port town of European 

 Turkey, in Albania, on a gulf of the Adriatic, gained by- 

 the Turks from the Chriftians in the year 1464. In the 

 year 1690, it was taken by the Venetians, but retaken by 

 the Turks the year following ; 68 miles S. of Durazzo. N. 

 lat. 40=36'. E. long. 19° 28'. 



VALONGO, a town of Portugal, in the province of 

 Beira; 2i miles S.E. of Lamego. 



VALO. 



