V I F 



V I G 



England, Holland, and France, and alfo to the couvt of 

 Rome. For the fervices rendered in thefe mifiions he was 

 offered a bifhopric, which he dechned accepting, and re- 

 quefted only to be employed as a miflionary among the 

 favages in the forefts of Maragnan. The king demurred 

 againft acceding to this propofal, but urged him to accept a 

 biihopric, which he ftill refufed ; but with fome other 

 Jefuits he embarked in a (hip, in order to proceed to Ma- 

 ragnan. Soon after his arrival there in 1653, he was fent 

 to Portugal, in order to obtain an order from the king, that 

 the Portuguefe fettled in the Brafils (liould treat the Indians 

 with lefs cruelty. He fucceeded in the objeft of his miffion, 

 but he was not allowed to return to America, though he 

 went thither fome time after ; and in lefs than fix years, in 

 a diftridl more than 600 miles in extent, he formed an efta- 

 bUfhment fimilar to that in Paraguay. There the Indians 

 were indrufted, and availing themfelves of their knowledge, 

 began to live like men, and to praftlfe the virtues which 

 Chriftianity taught them. The Portuguefe refiding in 

 Brafil were alarmed, and could not bear that the Indians, 

 whom they treated as flaves, (hould enjoy the bleffings of 

 hberty : they, therefore, feized Vieyra and his attendants, 

 and tranfported them to Portugal, under a charge of their 

 joining the Dutch in forming a plan for expelling all the 

 Portuguefe from Brafil. Vieyra and his affociates were able 

 to prove their innocence, and fucceeded in obtaining the re- 

 inftatement of all their bretlireii in the colleges and other 

 ellablilhments of Maragnan. Vieyra remained in Portugal, 

 aud, at the defire of the queen and minifters of ilate, drew 

 up a remonftrance, which was prefented to king Alphonfo, 

 refpeCting the irregularities and abufes that prevailed in the 

 kingdom. The king's favourites were incenfed, and, in 

 1663, thofe who were attached to the queen, and who 

 wiflied to promote the welfare of the nation, were fent into 

 bani{hment. Vieyra was firil conveyed to Oporto, and foon 

 after to Coimbra ; and for the more certain and fpecdy de- 

 cifion of his fate, he was committed into the hands of the 

 inquifition. Many charges were alleged againft him ; how- 

 ever, in 1667, when the influence of the favourites termi- 

 nated, he was freed from the inquifition, and fent to Lifbon. 

 He was merely forbidden to preach ; but this prohibition 

 was revoked, when the queen, Maria Ifabella of Savoy, 

 and the infant Don Pedro, then regent of the kingdom, 

 exprefled a wifh to hear liim. In 1669 he was called to 

 Rome, and preached before queen Chriftina of Sweden, 

 who was fo much pleafed that fhe invited him to the con- 

 verfaziones held in her palace, and requefted him to become 

 her confefTor. But finding the air prejudicial to his health, 

 he returned to Lifbon, after having obtained from pope 

 Clement X. a letter of exculpation, freeing him from the 

 jurifdiftion of the inquifition, and rendering him immediately 

 amenable to the college of cardinals. Vieyra, upon the re- 

 covery of his health, fet fail for Brafil ; and being incapable, 

 on account of his advanced age, of fuperintending the mif- 

 fion of Maragnan, of which he had been long fuperior 

 general, he fpent his time in revifing his writings, and pre- 

 paring for the termination of his hfe, which happened at 

 Bahia in 1697, when he had attained nearly the 90th year 

 of his age. His interment was conduced with great pomp, 

 his coffin being borne to the grave by the viceroy and his 

 fon, and other perfons of diftinftion. The Portuguefe con- 

 fider Vieyra as the heft writer their country ever produced. 

 His works were publithed at Lifbon between 1679 ^""^ 

 1718, in 14 quarto volumes. Gen. Biog. 



VIF, Fr., in Mujc, lively. See ViVACE. This word, 

 fays RoufTeau, impUes a movement, gay, cheerful, and ani- 

 mated ; and requires a bold execution, full of fire. 



10 



ViF, in Geography, a town of France, m the department 

 of the Ifere ; 9 miles S. of Grenoble. 



VIFALU, a town of Hungary; 16 miles S.S.E. of 

 Ketflvemet. 



VI G, a lake of Ruflia, in the government of Olonetz. 



N. lat. 63° 30'. E. long. 34° 14' Alfo, a river of Ruffia, 



which pafles through lake Vig, and runs into the White fea, 

 20 miles S. of Kemi. 



VIGAN, Le, a town of France, in the department of 

 the Lot ; 17 miles N. of Cahors. — Alfo, a town of France, 

 and principal place of a diftrift, in the department of the 

 Gard ; 36 miles W.N.W. of Nifmes. N. lat. 43° 59'. E. 

 Jong- 3" 40'- 



VIGANONI, Giuseppe, in Biography, a tenor finger 

 in the Italian opera, firft arrived in England in 1782, as firft 

 man in tlie comic opera, in which part Lovatini had rendered 

 us very difficult to be pleafed. Trebbi, his immediate fuccef- 

 for, was a very ufeful performer, as he occafionally had a part 

 alTigned him in the ferious opera ; but he excited no raptures 

 in either ferious or comic parts. And Jermoh and Tafca, 

 his fucceffors, were ftill lefs interefting. The fame might 

 perhaps be faid of Viganoni, with a fmall diminution of 

 praife. His finging did not appear to us in a ftyle of ex- 

 preffion tliat was genuine Italian ; it feemed to favour of 

 German or French expreffion, or of both. 



On his fecond arrival in London, he had lefs voice than 

 when he came here firft ; but more knowledge of mufic, a 

 greater variety of embelhfhments, and more ufe of the ftage. 

 His voice was never powerful, and now he had more falfet 

 than real notes in his fcale ; and fuch a rage for gracing and 

 changing paffages, that he fcarcely ever let the audience 

 hear a fingle paffage as it was written by the compofer. He 

 certainly knew his bufinefs, and was a good mufician ; but 

 his ftyle of finging was what painters would call maniere : 

 for with all his riffioramenti, or embelliihments, of which he 

 was fo lavifh, his performance feemed monotonous. 



VIGASIO, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the Ve- 

 ronefe ; 10 miles S. of Verona. 



VIGENNE, a river of France, which runs into the 

 Saone, at Talmey. 



VIGEOIS, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Correze, on the Vezere ; 4 miles S. of Uzerches. 



VIGER, an ifland in the North fea, on the coaft of 

 Norway ; 10 miles round. N. lat. 62° 35'. E. iQng. 

 (P 30'. 



VIGESIMA, among the Romans, a tax of the twentieth 

 part of the yearly incomes of all inheritances. It was firft 

 eftabhfhed by Auguftus. 



ViGESiMA was likewife a cuftom paid for flaves fold, as 

 alfo for one made free. 



VIGESIMARIUS, among the Romans, an officer who 

 had the management of collefting the vigefima. 



VIGEVANO, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the 

 department of the Gogna, capital of a fmall diftrift, in the 

 principality of Piedmont, lying between the Novarefe and 

 the Lumelline, on the Tefin, the fee of a bifhop, fuffragan 

 of Milan ; 13 miles S.E. of Novara. N. lat. 45° 19'. E. 

 long. 8° 53'. 



VIGGIANO, a town of the ifland of Corfica, in the 

 diftrid of Tallano. 



VIGHIZZOLA, a town of Italy, in the Paduan, near 

 a lake which abounds in fifti, efpecially eels; 16 miles S. 

 of Padua. 



VIGIA, a town of Brafil, in the government of Para ; 

 50 miles N.N.E. of Para. — Alfo, a rock near the fouth 

 coaft of Cuba, N. lat. 21° 32'. W. long. 84'" 32' — Alfo, 



a rock 



