a F R A 
“FRANKLIN Collége. ‘See Lancastin.: 
Franks, Fort, was erected in 1787 in Alleghany oo 
FRA 
ment: was the moft pleafing to their ears. Accordingly the ey. 
a’ antl affumed, they maintained the honourable epi: 
thet 
ty, Per nfylvani the poit called Venango, in order t of “ Franks,’’ or “ freemen,’’ which cgncealed, thou 
Ri at aie lahat = Rae ed it_did not arc the edeor aes names of the feveral take 
a ieaarne Indians. It is feated on S.W. bank - AL of the confederacy. T'acit confent, and mutual advantage, 
ghany river, oppofite to the mout the French creek ; dittated the. firft laws of ae union ; and it was gradually ce- 
i ee es S.S. - of Prefque nae and 63, northward of Pi ttl mented by habit and experience his league of the Franks 
o _N. lat. 41° y' 40". orig. 79° 41!. in.fome refpects refembles that of the bo n 
[FRA 4 A, in Botany, named by Marfhall in ho- which every canton, ae its independent fovereignty, 
our of the celebrated Dr. aa asics Franklin. See Gor- confults with its brethren inthe on without 
DONIA : knowledging the siiodiy of any fupreme head, or repre~ 
NKS, in Geography, a town of Huntingdon county, 
” Pennfylvania, on the Frankftown branch of Juniatta river, 
20 miles W. of- Huntingdon, and containing 743 inha- 
ANKS, Francs, Frankis, or Franquis, a name which 
the Turks, Arabs, ani 8y &c. give to all the people of 
‘thé weftern parts o e. 
The appellation is ene fuppofed to have had its rife 
ime of the croifades, w hen the French made 
he Chriftians of Europe ; and 
ealled Europe itfelf Fr ankiftan, 
T bad eects and’ igucavaers fays M. d’Herbelot, al 
he | anks, only to the French, (to whom the n 
origi aoa my 5 but alfo to the Latins and Europeans i in 
gen 
0 
‘thes. n her ori -of t 
greater eres than ie former. He o 
Greeks at firft confined the name to 
rane aoe who had fettled pa le in France or 
Gaul, but afterwards they gave the fame name to the 
Axpulians and Calabrians, after they had oe conquered by 
the Normans ; ae at length the name was farther extended 
to all the Lati 
In. = tek is the 7 ufed by divers Greek writers, as 
Comne c. who, to diftinguifh the . French, call them 
the welleri Franks. 
e adds, that about the time of aa ee 
they diftinguithed eaftern France, weftern France, Latin 
Roman France, and German ee which was the ancient 
ete afterwards called Franconia. 
The origin and confederacy of the Franks, whofe pofte- 
nity, in procefs of time, conquered Gaul, and impofed their 
name on the country (fee are have been the fub- 
feet of ‘learned inveftigation, and of various conjectures and 
Sie It hasbeen fuppofed that ppeene oe ies 
art to 
s. At leng 
vol. i.) the mott aa critics, rejecting ne fictitious 
emigrations of Posse oS - ve acquiefced in a fenti- 
ment, w rise are da erfua s of its truth. - They 
Luppofe, chat aici the see ne under the reign: 
of Gordian III. a new pera was formed under the 
name of Franks, by the old inhabitants of the Lower Rhine, 
andthe Wefer. The diftri& which they originally inha- 
bited was bounded on-the N. he ocean, on the W. by 
the o¢ean-and the “Rhine, on t ; e Ma 
the E: by the Wefer: fo cording to this defeription 
x power and -author rity, animated. b 
the love of fiberty, ‘ona the enjoyment of it their richeit 
qreafure f and of courfe the word that exprefled this enjoy-. 
ks, Abyflinians, se ufea by 
fentative 2 imbl bly. But the principle of the two confe- 
the moft fo enn treaties, ifgrnce 
n 
fafeguard of the provinces, proved to be mperfe 
i i {pirit of en “a which —- 
Franks were actuated ; their rapid devattations ftretched from 
the river to the foot of the Pyrenées-; nor were they ftopped 
thefe mountains. ere which had never dreaded, Was 
Lats to refift, the inroads of the Germ mans. Ns = ex- 
t elze 
ee h nia 
Gaul ae repulfed by Au ene when 
of the fixth legion, when 700 of th em were. killed, and. 300 
made ee and fold for flaves ; and agai ain, in the fourth 
year of Valerian they made another excurfion, and were de- 
feated by Gallienus ; and after the captivity of Valerian, 
they again invaded Gaul, and having ravaged the moft wealthy 
provinces, made an irruption into taly. At the death of 
nea lia an, t the Franks, and fome other German tribes; crofled 
_ matters thec 
bout A. D. 211, 
were driven back into their moraffes ; from which defcriptive 
circumftances we may infer, that the confederacy known b 
the appellation of « baa already occupied the flat maritime 
country, interfeted, and almoit overflown by the -ftagnating 
; of the Rhine, and that feveral tribes of the Frifia 
Batavians h ; i 
not fatisfied with driving them out of Gaul, om 
acrofs the Rhine, laid wafte ree territories, ra built ee 
forts in théir cone ; but upon their fu for eace, 
obtained. it on eandiion of their fupplyi ing 0 Romans Bens 
with a quantity of corn, and finding 16,coo men to 
ferve i in the Rom Some of thefe Franks were efta- 
fell into their hands, they refolved. through unknown feas, 
to explore their way from the mouth of the Phafis to that.o 
the Rhine. 'They-eafily efcaped thr hike the Bofphora us an 
the Fiellefpont, and cruizing along the Mediterranean, in- 
dulged their appetite for ‘revenge and plunder, by frequent 
ea on the unfufpetting fhores of Afia, Greece, and 
rica. The opulent city of Syracufe was facked by a 
feadall of barbarians, who maffacred the greateit mes of . 
the b Sis ng inhabitants 
om the ifland of Sicily the ied parece to the 0. 
eee of Hercules, ecicd themfelve e ocean; coafted 
round Spain and-Gaul, and fteering ia ae courfe 
derough the .Britifh channel, at length finifhed their 
furprifing voyage, by. landing in fafety on the Batavian 
or 
