MAC 



MAC 



divides it from the jurifdiilion of Rio Bamba and Cuenija. Its 

 chief town bears the fplcndid title of the city of Macas ; and 

 this is better known tlian its proper ancient name of Sevilla 

 del Ore. It lies in S. lat. 2 '30', 40' E. of Quito. Its houfes, 

 which do not exceed 130, are built of timber, and thatched. 

 Its inhabitants are reckoned at about 12,000, who, as well 

 as thofe of the whole dill rid, are generally Mellizos with 

 Spaniards. The other towns belonging to this jurifdiftion 

 are San Miguel dc Narbaes, Barahonas, Yuquipa, Juan 

 Lopez, Zuna, Payra, Copueno, and Aguayos. The fpi- 

 ritual government of all thefe towns is lodged with two 

 priclls ; one of whom, refiding in the city, has the care of 

 the four firft ; and to the latter, who lives at Zuna, belongs 

 that town and the three others. At the conqueft, and for 

 fome time after, this coimtry was very populous, and, in 

 honour of the great riches drawn from its capital, was dif- 

 tinguifhed by the name ot Sevilla del Oro ; but at prefent 

 only the memory of its former opalence remains. The 

 proximity of Macas to the Cordillera of the Andes occa- 

 fions a fenliblc difference betwixt its temperature and that of 

 Quixos adjoining to it. The winter here begins in April, 

 and la.ls till September, which is the time of fiimmer be- 

 twixt the Cordilleras ; and at Macas the fine feafon is in 

 September, and is the more delightful on account of the 

 winds, which are then mollly northward. In grains and 

 other products, which require a hot and moid temperature, 

 the country is very fruitful ; but one of the chief occupa- 

 tions of the country people here is the culture of tobacco, 

 which, being of an excellent kind, is exported in rolls all 

 over Peru. Sugar-canes alfo thrive well, and likewife cot- 

 ton. Among the infinite variety of trees, which crowd the 

 woods of this country, one of the moil remarkable is the 

 ftorax, diftinguiflicd by the cxquifite fragrancy of its gum. 

 The territory belonging to Macas alfo produces cinnamon 

 trees of an excellent quality. Great quantities of copal are 

 brought from Macas, and alfo wild wax of little value, be- 

 caufe it never indurates, and the fmell of it, wlien made into 

 candles, and thefe are lighted, is very ftrong and difagree- 

 able. Juan and de UUoa's Voyage to South America, 

 vol. i. 



Macas, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Hoval, 

 near the mouth of the Senegal. — Alfo, a river of Portugal, 

 which runs into the Atlantic, N. lat. 38 51'. W. long. 



9 25:'- 



MACASIN, a town on the S. coaft of the ifland of 

 Midnanao. N. lat 7 45'. E. long. 124' 16'. 



MACASSAR, or Macasser, a fea-port town of the 

 ifland of Celebes, and the principal fettlement of the Dutch 

 in this ifland. It gives name to one of the two great 

 kingdoms into which the ifland is divided, and the ifland 

 itfelf is fometimes diHinguifhed by this appellation. Under 

 the article Celebes, the reader will find a particular ac- 

 count of it. Of the town captain Carteret, who vifited 

 it in 1768, gives the following account. (See Hawkef- 

 worth's Voyages, vol. i.) It is built upon a kind of 

 point or neck of land, and is watered by a river or two, 

 which either run through or very near it. It feems to be 

 large, and there is water for a fhip to come within half 

 Gannon-fhot of the walls : the country about it is level, 

 and has a moft beautiful appearance : it abounds with plan- 

 tations and groves of cocoa-nut trees, with a great number 

 of houfes interfperfed, by which it appears to abound with 

 people. At a diftauce inland, the country rifes into hills of 

 a great height, and becomes rnde and mountainous. The 

 town lies in S. lat. 5 1', or 5 ' 12'. E. long, by account, 

 ilf 28'. 



Macassar, Straij^ht of, a paffage between the iflands 



of Borneo and Celebes; There is in this pafTage a re- 

 markable point, called by captain Carteret " Hummock 

 Point," but in the French charts denominated " Stroomen 

 Point." N. lat. I*" 20'. E. long. 121 '39'. This point 

 is a good mark for thofe to know the pafTage that fall 

 in with the land coming from the eaftward, who, if pofiible, 

 fhould always make this fide of the paffage. To the fouth- 

 ward of this point there is a deep bay, full of iflands and 

 rocks, which appeared to Carteret to be very dangerous. 

 Juft off the point there are two rocks, which, though they 

 are above water, cannot be feen from a fliip till fhe is clofe 

 to the land. To the eaftward of this point, clofe to the 

 fhore, are two iflands, one of them very flat, long, and even, 

 and the other fwelling into a hill, but both were covered 

 with trees. Hawkf. Voy. vol. i. 



Maca.SSAR Poifon, in Natural Hljlory, called ippo, or 

 upas, in the MacaffaLand Maliyan tongue, is the gum of a 

 certain tree, fhiningjSsrittle, black, and every way like llone- 

 pitch, growing in the ifland of Celebes, in the South Seas; 

 with which all the natives arm themfelves in travel, having 

 a long hollow trunk of a hard red-wood like Brazil, accu- 

 rately bored, and at one end is fixed a large lance-blade of 

 iron. Then they make a fmall arrow very llraight, and 

 fomewhat bigger than a large wheaten ftravv : at one end 

 they fix it into a round piece of white, light, foft wood, 

 like cork, about the length of the little finger, juft fit for 

 the bore of the trunk, to pafs clear by the force of one's 

 breath, and to fill it fo exaftly, that the air may not pafs 

 by, but againft it, in order to carry it with the greater 

 force. At the other end they fix it either in a fmall fifli- 

 tooth for that purpofe, or make a blade of wood of the 

 bignefs of the point of a lancet, about three-quarters of an 

 inch long, and making a little notch at the end of the ar- 

 row, they ftrike it firm therein, which they anoint with 

 poifon. The poifonous gum, when gathered, is put into 

 hollow bamboos or canes, llopped up very clofe, and thus 

 brought to MacafTar. When they fit it for wk-, they take 

 a piece of fmooth turtle fhell, and a ftick cut fiat and (mooth 

 at the end : then they take green galangal root, grate it, 

 and with the addition of a little fair water, prcls the juice 

 into a clean china difh : then with a knife, fcraping a little 

 of the poifon upon the fhell, dip the end of the ftick in 

 the fore -mentioned hquor, and with this diflblvethe poifon, 

 to the confiftence of a fyrup : when this is done, they 

 anoint the fifh-tooth or wooden blade with the fame ilick 

 and lay them in the fun, fo that it may be baked hard. 

 The pointed arrows thus prepared are put in hollow bam- 

 boos, clofe fhut, and in this ftate they retain their virtue 

 for a month. Birch's Hift. of the Royal Society, vol. ii. 

 p. 44. 



Rumphius, a refpeftable author in Natural Hiftory, of 

 the 17th century, mentions a tree growing at Macaffar, to 

 which he gives the name of Toxicaria ; and relates, that not 

 only the red refin contained a deadly poifon, but that the 

 drops falling from the leaves upon the men employed in 

 colletking this refin from the trunk, produced, unlefs they 

 took particular care in covering their bodies, fwellings and 

 much lUnefs ; and that the exhalations from the tree were 

 fatal to fome fmall birds attempting to perch upon its 

 branches. But many of the particulars of this account, 

 though far removed from that of the fuppofcd Upas, or 

 poifon-tree of Java by Foerfch, who had been for fome 

 time a furgcon in Java, anti who had travelled into fome 

 parts of the interior of the country, are given not upon 

 the author's own obfervation, and may have been exagger- 

 ated. Foerfch's relation of a tree fo venomous as to be de- 

 fljruiSive, by its exhalations, at the diftance of fome miles, is 



compared 



