5S6 M I S 
Missouri Territory, an improving country, which 
may probably be fubdivided into diftinCt dates, is fitu- 
ated between lat. 96. o. and 45. 37. N. and Ion. 12. o. and 
29. 30. W. It is bounded on the north by an unfettled 
country ; on the louth by Louifiana and the Gulf of 
Mexico ; on the call, by Upper Canada, the North-Well 
Territory, and Louifiana; on the well by the Pacific 
Ocean ; and on the fouth-wefl by the Spanilh internal pro¬ 
vinces. Its extent from north to fouth is about 1380 
miles, and from call to weft about 1680 miles ; and its area 
contains 1,580,000 l'quare miles, or 1,011,200,000 acres. 
The afpeCl of the country, fouthward, is level, in many 
places overflowed by rivers; to the north, elevated, fwell- 
ing out into large hills ; and to the north-weft and weft, 
very lofty mountains. The rivers of the territory are the 
Mifliffippi, Mifl'ouri, Kanfes, Grand, Ofage, Maramee, 
St. Francis, White, Arkanfaw, Wachitta, Red, Sabine, 
Moines, Rio Colorado, Rio Bravos de Dios, Rio Guada- 
loupe, Rio del Norte, &c. Its minerals are abundant, 
particularly lead, the mines of which near St. Genevieve 
are extend ve and valuable. The foil is various in quality, 
but much of it is rich and fertile; and produces grain, 
grafs, fruit, cotton, and fome fugar and indigo. The 
climate is, in the fouth warm, in the middle temperate, 
to the north and weft cold, on the Pacific Ocean tempe¬ 
rate. 
Diftri£ls. 
Population. 
Chief Towns. 
Cape Girardeau 
3888 
Cape Girardeau. 
New Madrid 
- 2103 
New Madrid. 
St. Charles 
3 S °5 
St. Charles - 450 
St Louis 
- 5667 
St. Louis - 1600 
St. Genevieve - 
Settlements of Hope 
Field and St. Francis 
Ditto on Arkanfaw - 
4620 
| 188 
874 
20,845 
St. Genevieve. 
To MISSPE'AK, v. a. To fpeak wrong; 
Then as a mother which delights to hear 
Her early child mijfpeah half-utter’d words. Donne. 
To MISSPE'AK, v. n. To blunder in fpeaking: 
It is not fo ; thou haft mijfpohe, mifheard. 
Be well advis’d, tell o’er thy tale again. Shahefpeare. 
MISSU'RA, J. in the Romifh church, the ceremonies 
ufed to recommend and difmifs a dying perfon. 
MISSU'RIUM, f. A diih in which meat is ferved up 
for the table. Phillips. 
MISS'US, f. in the Circenfian games, were the matches 
in horfe or chariot races. The ufual .number of mijfus, 
or matches, in one day, was twenty-four; though the 
emperor Domitian prelented the people with a hundred. 
The laft match was generally at the expenfe of the peo¬ 
ple, who made a collection for the purpofe; hence it was 
called mijj'us ar arias, a fubfcription-plate. 
MIST, J. [from miprian, Sax. to darken.] A low thin 
cloud ; a i’mall thin rain not perceived in Angle drops.—. 
A cloud is nothing but a mijl flying high in the air, as a 
mjt is nothing but a cloud here below. Locke. 
Old Chaucer, like the morning liar. 
To us difcovers day from far; 
His light thofe mijts and clouds diffolv’d. 
Which our dark nation long involv’d. Denliam. 
Any thing that dims or darkens.—My people’s eyes once 
blinded with fuch mijts of fufpicion, they are milled into 
the mcft defperate actions. King Charles. 
His paftion call a mijl before his fenfe, 
And Other made or magnify’d the offence. Dryden. 
The bluifli mill which we fometimes fee on our fields 
and paftures in a morning, though often innocent, yet 
has been in fome places found to be the actual caufe of 
MIS 
murrain, and other fatal difeafes among the horned cattle. 
Dr. Winklar gives, in the Philofophical TranfaCtions, an 
account of a murrain affeCting the cattle in Italy and 
other places, which was evidently feen to fpread itfelf 
over the countries in form of a blue mill. Wherever this 
was perceived, the cattle were fure to come home fick: 
they appeared dull and heavy, and refufed their food; 
and many of them would die in four-and-twenty hours. 
Upon dilfeClion there were found large and corrupted 
fpleens, fphacelous and corroded tongues ; and in fome 
places thofe people who were not careful of themfelves in 
the management of their cattle, were infeCted, and died 
as faft themfelves. The principal caufe of this difeafe 
feems to be the exhalation of fome unwholefome fleams, 
from the earth ; and it was obfervabie, that there had been 
three earthquakes in Italy the year before it happened. 
The method of cure which fucceeded bell was this : As 
foon as any beaft appeared to be fick, they examined the 
tongue; and if aphtha, or little blifters, were found on 
it, they fcraped it with a filver inftrument made with fharp 
teeth at the fides, till it bled in all thofe parts where the 
aphthae were; the blood was then wiped away with a 
cloth, and the whole tongue walked feveral times with 
vinegar and fait. After this the following medicine was 
given internally: Take of foot, brimftone, gunpowder, 
and fait, of each equal parts: mix thefe in as much water 
as will make a mixture thin enough to be fwallowed, and 
let a fpoonful be given for a aofe three or four times a- 
day. The cattle which were in health had this medicine 
given them, as well as the fick ; and the confequence 
was, that very few died in Swiflerland, while almoft all 
died in other places. 
It was very remarkable that the contagion, on this 
occafion, feerned \'o travel llowly but regularly on : it 
came at the rate of about two German miles in twenty- 
four hours; this it kept regularly to during the whole 
time of its raging, and never appeared in very diftant 
places at the fame time. The whole furface of the earth 
emitting thefe effluvia, no cattle efcaped them in the 
courfe of their way; but thofe which were kept within 
doors at rack and manger, fell ill at the fame time, and 
in the fame manner, with thofe in the open fields. Phil. 
TranJ. N° 145. 
To MIST, v. a. To cloud ; to cover with a vapour or 
fleam.—An ineffectual lazinefs is the feminary both of 
vice and infamy; it clouds the metalled mind, it mijts 
the wit, and choaks up all the fciences. Fellham. 
Lend me a looking-glafs; 
If that her breath will mijl or ftain the ftone. 
Why then fhe lives. Shakefpeare's King Lear. 
To MISTA'KE, v. a. To conceive wrong; to take 
fomething for that which it is not.—-Fancy paffes for 
knowledge, and what is prettily faid is midaken for folid. 
Locke. 
Fools into the notion fall. 
That vice or virtue there is none at all: 
Aik your own heart, and nothing is lb plain ; 
’Tis to mijtake them colls the time and pain. Pope. 
This dagger hath mij'ta'en, forlo! the Iheath 
Lies empty on the back of Montague, 
The point mislheathed in my daughter’s bofom. Shahejp. 
To MISTA'KE, v. n. To err; not to judge right.— 
Seldom any one mijlahes in his names of Ample ideas, or 
applies the name red to the idea green. I.ocke. 
To be Mistaken. To err. [To mijlahe has a kind of 
reciprocal fenfe ; I mijlahe, “ Je me trompe.” I am mij- 
tahen, is erroneoully taken to mean I mifconceive, I am in 
an error; more frequently than I am ill uuderjtood; but. 
My opinion is mijiahen, means My opinion is not rightly 
underjtood. ]—The towns, neither of the one fide nor the 
other, willingly opening their gates to Itrangers, nor 
ftrangers willingly entering, for fear of being mij'tahen. 
> 'Sidney. 
You 
