M E N 
100 
it drops from the rocks. The bridge is broad enough to 
admit of three or four carts abreaft. Near it is another 
bridge, called the bridge of the Incas, betwixt two rocks, 
and elevated a great height from the river. 
MENDO'ZA (Don Inigo Lonez de, Senor de Hita y 
Buytrago, firft Marquis de Santillana, and Conde del Real 
de Manzanares), was born in Augult 1398 ; he married 
in 1418 Dona Catalina de Figueroa, and died in 1458. 
During the reign of Juan II. his courage wasconfpicuous, 
and his prudence Hill more fo, as he aggrandized himfelf 
without injuring his reputation. He is mentioned not 
only as a contributor to the literature of his own coun¬ 
try, but as an early patron of it. His works are as fol¬ 
low : 1. Maxims of Morality in verfe, written by defire 
of Juan II. for the inftruftion of his fon Henrique. This 
book has palled through ten editions at leaft,' and is ftill 
reckoned one of therareft in that language. 2. Proverbs 
which Old Women repeat by the Fire-fide. This is fup- 
pofed to be the oldelt collection of proverbs in any mo¬ 
dern language. 3. A letter addrelfed to Don Pedro, (on 
of the Infant Don Pedro of Portugal. This letter, which 
the marquis fent with a collection of his own poems, is 
regarded as one of the moll valuable documents for the 
literary hiftory of Spain, as containing an account of all 
the Spanilh poets, whofe works the writer had either feen 
or heard of. Befides thefe, many of the marquis’s poems 
are in the “ Cancionero General,” and others in manu- 
fcript; among them is a poem upon the Creation, con¬ 
fiding of 333 danzas, in the lame metre as the Trezienta of 
Mena, which fee. He fird introduced the fonnet into 
Spanilh poetry. 
MENDO'ZA (Don Diego Hurtado de), fon of Lopez 
de Mendoza, fird marquis de Mondejar, was born at 
Granada about 1503, and there, during his childhood, he 
acquired a praClical knowledge of Arabic, which he con¬ 
tinued to cultivate through life. He dudied the Greek 
language very fuccefsfully at Salamanca, and wasafoldier 
in the Italian wars. While engaged in the military fer- 
vice, he fpent every winter, while the troops were inac¬ 
tive and in quarters, at Rome, or Padua, or fome other 
Italian univerfity, where he could enjoy and profit by the 
fociety of learned men. He was employed as ambaflador 
by Charles V. in the mod important tranfaClions of his 
whole reign, at the council of Trent, at Venice, and at 
the papal court. At Venice he exerted himfelf to recover 
Greek manufcripts: he obtained from Solyman emperor 
of the Turks, many of the writings of St. Bal'd the Great, 
and of Gregory Nazianzen, the works of Cyril of Alex¬ 
andria, and the more valuable remains of Archimedes, of 
Hero, and of Appian ; all thefe, with copies all'o of car¬ 
dinal Befarion’s and of other colleftions, he left to the 
Efcurial library. Don Diego was fuperfeded at Rome in 
1551, to fatisfy the papal court. He continued fome years 
•one of Philip's counfellors, but was at length banilhed 
from his court. He retired to Granada, and there upon 
the fpot compofed his Hidory of the War againd the Mo- 
rifcoes ; and here he amufed himfelf with literature dur¬ 
ing the remainder of his life. In 1574 he obtained leave 
to return to Madrid, but died in a .few days after his ar¬ 
rival. None of his works were pubiilhed during his life¬ 
time. In 1610 a volume of his poems was collefted by 
J. D. Hidalgo, the king’s chaplain, who fupprefied the 
comic and latiric pieces, which were numerous. His 
Hidory of the Morhcoes was publidred the fame year by 
Luis Tribaldos ; part of the third book, having been lod, 
was fupplied by the count de Portalegre, Don Joam de Silva. 
It has been reprinted l’everal times, and is reckoned the 
very bed fpecimen of hidorical compofition in the Spanilh 
language. The facetious dory of Lazarillp de Tormes, 
which has been trandated into almod every 'European 
tongue, is attributed to this author as a youthful work, 
written at Salamanca. Others impute it to Juan de Ortega. 
Gen. Biog. 
MENDO'ZA (Peter Gonzalez de), a Spanilh cardinal, 
.and archbilhop of Toledo, was born in 1428. He ac- 
M E N 
quired his high preferments in the church by his talents 
as a datefman. Pope Sixtus IV. made him cardinal. He 
died in 1493. As a literary man, he is laid to have tranfi- 
lated the Iliad and ZEneid, all'o Sallult, into the Spanilh. 
Another perfon of the fame name, anAugudine friar, was 
fent by the king of Spain as ambafiador to the emperor of 
China in 1584. After obtaining feveral indances of pre¬ 
ferment, he was appointed, in 1608, billiop of Popayan 
in the Wed Indies. He is known as an author by a Hif¬ 
tory of China, written in the Spanidi language. Moreri. 
MEN'DRA, a fmall illand in the Indian Sea, near the 
coad of Africa. Lat. 2. 15. S. 
MEN'DRAH, a town and didrift of Africa, in the 
country of Fezzan. Though much of its land is a con¬ 
tinued level of hard and barren foil, the quantity of trona 
a fpecies-of folfil alkali, that float's on the furface, or fet¬ 
tles on the banks of numerous l'moking lakes, has given it 
a higher importance than that of the moll fertile didrifts. 
Of this valuable produce, great quantities are annually 
brought by the merchants of Fezzan to Tripoli, from 
whence it is Ihipped for Turkey and 'Funis, and the do¬ 
minions of the'emperor of Morocco. The people of the 
latter employ it as an ingredient in the red dye of the lea¬ 
ther, for which they are famous; and in that of the wool¬ 
len caps that are worn by the Arabs and the Moors, as the 
bafis of their turbans. It is fixty miles fouth of Mour- 
zouk. 
MENDRIS'IO, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Verbano, late capital or’ a bailiwick, which lies be¬ 
tween the lakes of Como and Lugano, containing nine¬ 
teen parilhes, and about 16,000 inhabitants. The town 
contains feveral convents, and is the refidence of the bai- 
lifl’. It is feven miles wed of Como. Lat. 45.45. N. Ion. 
9. o. E. 
MENDS, for amends. —’Let her be as die is. If die be 
fair, ’tis the better for her: and, if the be not, ihe has the 
mends in her own hands. Shahefpeare. 
MENDURAGU', a towm of Rufila, in the government 
of Viburg, on the borders of Finland .- forty-eight miles 
wed-north-wed of Vilmandrand. 
MENEC'RATES,'a phyiician of Syracufe, famous foi» 
his vanity and arrogance. He was generally accompanied 
by fome of his patients whofe diforders he had cured. He 
difguifed one in the habit of Apollo, and another in that 
of ZEfculapius, while he referved for himfelf the title and 
name of Jupiter, whofe power was extended over thefe in¬ 
ferior deities. He crowned himfelf like the mafler of the 
gods; and, in a letter which he wrote to Philip king of 
Macedon, he began with thefe words, il lenecrates Jupiter 
to lung Philip, greeting. The Macedonian monarch an- 
lwered, Philip to il lenecrates, greeting, and better fenfe. 
Philip all’o invited him to one of his feafts; but, when the 
meats were ferved up, a table was put fieparate for the phy- 
lician, on which he was ferved only with perfumes and 
frankincenfe, like the father of the gods. This entertain¬ 
ment dilpleafed Menecrates ; he remembered that he was 
a mortal, and hurried away from the company. He lived 
about 360 years before the Chriftian aera. The book which 
he wrote on cures is loft. JEUan x. 51.. 
NIEN'ECY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Seine and Oife : three miles fouth-weft of Corbeil. 
MENED'EMUS, a Greek philofopher, who flouriflied 
towards the clofe of the fourth century before Chrift, was 
a native of Eretria, in the ifland of Eubcea. He was of 
the Eliac School, which he afterwards transferred to his 
native city, and gave it the name of Eretrian. Menede- 
mus, though nobly defcended, was obliged, through po¬ 
verty, to fubmit to a mechanical employment, either as a 
tent-maker or amafon. He formed an early intimacy with 
Afclepiades, who was a fellow-labourer with him in his 
humble occupation. Having minds more adapted to 
ftudy than manual labour, they relolved to devote them- 
lelves to the purfuit of phiiofophy. For this purpole 
they left their native country, and went to Athens, where 
Plato jpreiided in the academy. Not long after their ar- 
