572 N MIS 
.MISINFER'RING, f. The aft of inferring wrong. 
To MISINFOR'M, v. a. To deceive by falfe accounts.— 
Some belonged to a man of great dignity, and not as that 
wicked Simon had mifinformed. a Macc. iii. 11.—By no 
means truft to your fervants, who mifiead you, or mi/in- 
form you; the reproach will lie upon yourfelf. Bacon . 
Bid her well beware, 
Left, by fome fair-appearing good furpriz’d, 
She diftate falfe; and mifvnform the will 
To do what God exprefsly hath forbid. Milton. 
To MISINFOR'M, v. n. To make falfe information.— 
You mijinform againft him for concluding with the pa- 
pifts; you find it not in him. Montagu's Appeal to Cafar. 
MISINFORMATION, f. Falfe intelligence ; falfe ac¬ 
counts.—Let not fuch be difcouraged as deferve well, by 
mifinformation of others, perhaps out of envy or treachery.. 
Bacon. —The vengeance of God, and the indignation of 
men, will join forces againft an infulting bafenefs, when 
backed with greatnels, and let on by mijinformation. 
South's Sermons. 
MISINFOR'MER, f. One who fpreads falfe informa¬ 
tion.—I plainly told the lord archbilhop of Canterbury, 
that rather than be obnoxious to thole flanderous tongues 
of his mifinformers, I would call up my rochet. Bp. Hall. 
MISINFORMING, f. The aft of giving wrong infor¬ 
mation. 
To MISINSTRUC'T, v. a. To inftruft improperly; to 
teach to a wrong purpofe.—Touching them for whom 
we crave that mercy which is not to be obtained, let us 
not think that our Saviour did mifivJlruB his dilciples, 
willing them to pray for the peace even of fuch as Ihould 
be uncapable of fo great a bleffing. Hooker. 
MISINSTRUC'TION, J'. Inftruftion to an evil pur¬ 
pofe.—They include the' idolatries, and all other mif- 
carriages, which they know not themfelves guilty of, by 
reafon of the blind mijhftrudions of their church. Mores 
Antidote aguinjl Idolatry. 
MISINTEL'LIGENCE, /! Mifunderftanding; difagree- 
ment.—He lamented the mijintelligence he oblerved to be 
between their majefties. Clarendon. —Mifinformation ; falfe 
accounts. 
To MISINTER'PRET, v. a. To explain to a wrong 
fenfe, or wrong intention.—The gentle reader rells happy 
to hear the worthieft works mifinterpreted, the cleared 
aftions obfcured, and the innocenteft life traduced. Ben 
Jvnjhn: —-After all the care I have taken, there may be 
feveral paflages mifquoted and mifmterpreted. Arbuthnot 
on Coins. 
MISINTERPRETATION, f. Wrong explanation.—• 
Their mifinterpretation of the law, alluded unto, argues 
no lefs. Bp. Hall's Cafes of Conference. 
MISINTER'PRETERjJ! One who explains to a W'rong 
fenfe, cr wrong intention.—Whom as a mifnterpreter of 
Chrift I openly proteft againft, and provoke him to the 
trial of this truth before all the world. Milton. 
MISINTER'PRETLNG, f. The aft of interpreting 
wrong. 
To MISJOI'N, v. a. To join unfitly or improperly: 
In Reafon’s abfence, mimic Fancy wakes 
To imitate her; but, misjoining drapes, 
Wild work produces oft, and moll in dreams ; 
Ill-matching words, and deeds, long pall, or late. Milton. 
MISJOI'NING, / The aft of joining wrong. 
MISITH'EUS, a Roman, celebrated for his virtues and 
his misfortunes. He was father-in-law to the emperor 
Gordian, whofe counfels and aftions he guided by his 
prudence and moderation. He was facrificed to the am¬ 
bition of Phiiip, a wicked fenator, who fucceeded him as 
prefedl of the prtetorian guards. He died A. D. 243, and 
left all his poffeffions to be appropriated for the good of 
the public. 
MISl'TRA, or Mis'tra, a town of European Turkey, 
in the Morea ; defended by a caftlc on a rock, which is 
M I S 
faid to be impregnable. The Chriftians have here feveral 
churches, the Jews three fynagogues, and the Turks a fu- 
perb mofque and hofpital. It is the fee of a Greek arch- 
biflrop ; and the refidence of a bey, an aga, and a way- 
wode. It is forty miles fouth-fouth-weft of Argos, forty 
eaft-north-eaft of Navarin, and fixty fouth of Corinth. 
Lat. 36. 55. N. Ion. 23. o. E. 
Mr. Galt is the lateft traveller from whom we have a 
defcription of this claffic ground. He informs us, that 
Miftra, though generally deferibed as the fucceffor of the 
ancient Sparta, Hands at the diftance of two or three miles 
from extenfive piles of ruins which are properly confi- 
dered as the remains of that more famous city. The mo¬ 
dern town itfelf is alfo fall becoming anobjeft of curiofity 
for the wandering antiquaries. Not above the fourth 
part of it is inhabited ; and churches, mofques, and pri¬ 
vate houfes, are tumbling to pieces. The church, which 
the Greeks call Perileptos, and which, with their innate 
propenfity to exaggeration, they fay was one of the moll 
beautiful in the world, is far gone into decay, and never 
could have been an objeft of admiration to any traveller 
from the weftward. Before the late Ruffian war, in which 
the Morea was attacked, the population of Miftra was rec - 
koned at twelve thouland fouls, (Mr. Pouqueville fays 
15,000.) and, from the apparent extent of the town, I 
Ihould think this eftimate not greatly beyond the truth. 
At prefent, the number of two thoufand is fufficient to 
include everyone in the town and fuburbs. Among the 
ruinous buildings of Miltra, feveral fragments of fculp- 
ture, the works of the claffic ancients, are feen. We were 
lhown a magnificent larcophagus, adorned with figures, 
and the fruit and foliage of the vine: it ferves as the 
trough to a fountain, and has been much defaced by the 
pitchers of the water-carriers. The governor’s apartment, 
in which he was fitting, in company with feveral other 
Turks, was a fair fpecimen of the condition of the town. 
The windows were falling from the falhes; and, the greatell 
part of the panes being broken, the vacancies were fup- 
plied with paper. The fituation of the archbilhop’s pa¬ 
lace is Angularly fine : it Hands high, on the fide of the 
hill On which the town is built, and commands a view of 
the whole long hollow' valley of Sparta, the moll fertile 
and beautiful traft of the Morea. Mr. Galt of courfe 
went to fee the ruins of Sparta. The imagination, with¬ 
out much effort, in furveying the environs, may form an 
idea of an extenfive town; though the remains are co¬ 
vered with grafs. The city of the Hern and warlike 
Spartans has become a w'alk for harmlefs ffieep. “ The 
ruins which we examined have been, originally, buildings 
conftrufted with the fragments of more ancient and 
fplendid-edifices. We faw, flicking in one of the walls, 
feveral broken pieces of elegant fluted columns, and part 
of a frize, ornamented with grapes and wheat-ears, that, 
probably, once belonged to a temple of Ceres.” 
M. Pouqueville’s “ Travels” were made more than ten 
years previous to Mr. Galt’s “ Voyages and Travels,” 
though publilhed after them. From him we learn, that 
the Eurotas is here between one and two hundred feet 
wide, and is croffed by a Hone-bridge of fix arches. In 
fummer, it almoft hides itfelf among the reeds growung 
on its banks ; but in winter, on the melting of the fnow 
in the mountains, or on the occurrence of heavy rain, its 
bed is foon filled, and it ruffies down with a grand and im¬ 
petuous torrent. The lofty chain of Taygetus fupplies 
the ftreams which feed the Eurotas, and may be ccnfidered 
as the great natural bulwark of Laconia on the weft. 
This ridge, in its whole length from the centre of the 
Peloponnelus to Cape Tenarus or Matapan, extends near¬ 
ly feventy miles. The modern Greeks give it the name 
of Pentcdaktylon, from the confpicuous appearance of five 
particular fummits. Two leagues fouth of the. iite of 
Sparta, is a celebrated defile or paifage called “ The Gates,” 
by w’hich the Lacedaemonians were accuftomed to march 
their troops to the invafion of Meffenia; and a pals, fome- 
wliat fimilar, divided on the north the refpeft.ive territo¬ 
ries 
