M I S 
continent of North America, and affords an amazing in¬ 
let for commerce to the places near which it paffes in its 
progrefs. But the circumftance of its being choaked up 
at its mouth is much to be regretted, where the fands 
and fhoals form a bar that has not more than feventeen 
feet upon it, and in fome particular feafons not more 
than twelve feet; but there is not lefs than a hundred 
fathoms within the bar, and it is free, to a great extent, 
from fhoals and cataraCts, and of a good depth through¬ 
out. Neither is the current to be confidered as rapid, fo 
that its navigation is no way hazardous, unlefs at the 
feafon of the year when it overflows, at which time it be¬ 
comes extremely rapid and dangerous. 
The country on each fide of the mouths, of this river 
is quite uninhabitable, on account of the frequent inun¬ 
dations, as well as from the barrennefs of the foil, that 
produces nothing but rufhes, canes, and fome kinds of 
trees, of which a great part lie rooted-up by the force of 
the water; but it is a delightful country a few leagues 
higher towards the ifland, and covered with vines and all 
forts of fruit-trees, and the ground produces plenty of 
Indian corn, pulfe, and other grain, and yields two crops 
in the year. That mouth which is known by the name 
of the Pafs of Balize is moft frequented by flopping, and 
on that account is commanded by a fort ereCted on a fmall 
ifland at the entrance, probably what is called Fort Creve- 
cceur; and the bar, formed by the mud of the river, is 
three-quarters of a league broad. Ships muft be within 
two leagues of the land, and in four fathoms water, before 
they can perceive the land, being fo very flat and low 
near the fliore. To the fall or cataraCt of St. Antonie, or 
St. Anthony of Padua’s Leap, it is 800 leagues, where it 
is thirty fathoms deep, and in lat. 46° N. which cataraCt 
is formed by a flat rock that is more than feven fathoms 
in height, and ftretches acrofs the river, to the breadth 
of 250 yards. Malliam's Naval Gaz. —For an account of 
the nations inhabiting the banks of the Miffiflippi and 
Mifl'ouri rivers, fee the article Louisiana, vol. xiii. 
Mississippi Territory, an improving diftriCl, which, 
it is prefumed, will be divided into two Hates, the Tom- 
bigby being the bopndary. It is lituated between lat. 30. 
15. and 35. N. and Ion. 8. o. and 14. 32. W. from Wafhing- 
ton city; and bounded on the north by Tennefl'ee, on the 
fouth by Louifiana, Weft Florida, and the Gulf of Mexico, 
on the eaft by Georgia, and on the weft by Louifiana and 
the Mifl'ouri Territory. Its extent from north to fouth 
is 312 miles,and from eaft to weft 324miles; and its area 
comprehends 89,000 fquare miles, or 56,960,000 acres. 
Its general al'peCt is, towards the fouth, level; to the 
north, elevated and beautifully diverfified; and on the 
north-eaft are fome fpurs of the Alleghany mountains. 
The foil, generally good, and in many places excellent, 
produces cotton, corn, rice, wheat, rye, oats, fome fugar, 
and indigo. The climate is much commended; the win¬ 
ters being mild, and the fummers not warmer than feve- 
ral degrees to the northward. It contains the following 
Counties. 
Population. 
Chief Towns. 
Adams - - 
10002 
Natches I 
Amite - - - 
Baldwin - 
4 - 75 ° 
1427 
Liberty. 
Claiborne 
Clarke. 
3102 
Gibfonfport. 
Franklin 
Green. 
2016 
Franklin. 
Jefferfon 
Madifon 
Marion. 
Monroe. 
- 4001 
- 4-699 
Greenville. 
Warren - - 
~ II 14 
Warren. 
Wafliington - 
Wayne 
- 2920 
’ 1^53 
Fort Stoddart. 
Wilkir.fon 
- 5068 
40 352 
Woodville. 
Vol. XV. No. 1067. 
M I S 581 
MISSISSIPTI, f. The name of an unlawful game, 
which, with billiards and others, is interdicted by 30 
Geo. II. and a. penalty is impofed on any publican who 
keeps a table in his houfe for the purpofe of playing. It 
is played upon a table, made in the form of a paral¬ 
lelogram, and much refembling the modern billiard-ta¬ 
ble, excepting that, inftead of pockets, it has a recefs 
at one end, into which the balls may fall. This recefs 
is faced with a thin board, equal in height to the ledge 
that furrounds the table; and in it are fifteen perfora¬ 
tions, or fmall arches, every one of them furmounted by 
a number from one to fifteen inclufive, the higheft being- 
placed in the middle, and the others intermixed on either 
fide. The players have four or fix ivory balls, (fome 
red and fome white, to diftinguiih the different players,) 
which they call alternately, one at a time, againft the lides 
of the table, whence they acquire an angular direction, 
and, rolling to the arches, Itrike againft the intervening 
parts, or pafs by them. In the firft inftance the call is of 
no ufe; in the fecond, the value of the numbers affixed 
to the arches through which they run is placed to the 
fcore of the player; and he who firft attains one hundred 
and twenty wins the game. Strutt’s Sports and Paflimes. 
MISS'IVE, adj. [French.] Such as is lent.—The king- 
grants a licence under the great feal called a conge d’eflinf, 
to eleCt the perfon he has nominated by his letters mijive. 
Ayliffe's Par ergon. —Ufed at diftance.—Ink is the great 
mi (jive weapon in all battles of the learned. Swift's Battle 
of the Books. 
In vain with darts a diftant war they try: 
Short, and more fliort, the mijive weapons fly. Dryden. 
MISS'IVE, f. [French.] A letter fent: it is retained 
in Scotland in that fenle.—Great aids came in to him; 
partly upon mi Jives, and partly voluntary from many parts. 
Bacon's Hen. VII.—A meffenger.—Whiles I flood wrapt 
in the wonder of it, came mi Jives from the king, who all- 
hailed me thane of Cawdor. ShakeJ'peare's Macbeth. 
Rioting in Alexandria, you 
Did pocket up my letters; and with taunts 
Did gibe my mi Jive out of audience. Shakefpeare. 
MISS'ON (Maximilian), a French writer, was a coun- 
fellor in the parliament of Paris at the time of the revo¬ 
cation of the ediCl of Nantes, which event occafioned 
him, as a proteftant, to quit his country and retire to 
England. In 1687 he travelled to Italy with an Englifh 
gentleman, to whom he was governor; and on his return 
lie publifhed the fruits of his oblervations in a work en¬ 
titled “ Nouveau Voyage d’ltalie,” 3 vols. izmo. of which 
the beft edition is that of the Hague in 1702. Thefe tra¬ 
vels were looked upon as a faithful and lively picture of 
the countries defcribed; but the Catholics took offence 
at the reprelentations given of the’ceremonies and popu¬ 
lar fuperftitions prevalent among them, which they charge 
with exaggeration and unfaithfulnefs. Addifon, in the 
preface to his Travels, fays of Miffon, that “his account 
of Italy in general is more correct than that of any writer 
before him, as he particularly, excels in the plan of the 
country, which he has given in true and lively colours.” 
Miffon wrote alfo, 2. Memoires d’un Voyageur en Angle- 
terre, 12010. 1698. 3. Le Theatre facre des Cevennes, on 
Recit des Prodiges arrives dans cette partie du Langue¬ 
doc, et des petits Prophetes, 8vo. 1707. He died in an 
advanced age at London, in 1721. Addifon's Travels. 
MISSOlJ'RI, a river of North America, in Louifiana, 
which falls into the Miffiflipi from the weftward, eighteen 
miles below the mouth of the Illinois, and about i 160 
miles from the Balize, or Mouths of the Miffiflippi, in the 
Gulf of Mexico. 
The courfe of the Miffouri river to its fource was ex¬ 
plored in the years 1804, 5, and 6, by the very interefting 
Travels of Capts. Lewis and Clarke, by order of the Ame¬ 
rican government. It will be in the recolleClion of molt 
of our readers, that Bonaparte, when in 1803 his fchemes 
of aggrandizement were unexpectedly oppoled by our ai- 
7 I fuming 
