M A H 
der their foliation dangerous. In general they are con- 
Rrufted with tafte ; many of them are terminated in the 
Italian dyle by a terrace, and almoft all of them have a 
cidern, The parifh-church and three convents are tole¬ 
rably well buiit, though without any exterior ornament. 
The hofpital is large enough to accommodate fixty inva¬ 
lids; and there are fome private fchools for both fexes. 
The dreets are narrow, rough, uneven, and badly paved 
■with flints. Mahon was formerly furrounded with walls, 
fuppofed to have been ereffed by the Moors; but of thefe 
there is nothing left but one of the gates. The place of 
arms is fquare, large, and handfome ; having on one fide 
a barrack, capable of containing 1200 foldiers ; and the 
other three fides are furrounded with houfes. The alamtda 
is an alley of trees, and this is the only promenade. The 
port has been long celebrated ; and it is reckoned one of 
the fined, fafeft, and mod convenient, in the Mediterra¬ 
nean : a large fleet of (flips of the line can enter and lie 
at anchor in it very conveniently. Hence has arifen the 
proverb: June, July, Augufl, and Port Mahon, are the 
belt ports in the Mediterranean. At the entrance there 
are fome (hoals, but within the (hips are flickered from 
all winds. It is near a league and a half in extent, 
and contains four iflands : viz the King’s Ifle, where is 
a neat hofpital built by the Englifh ; the Ifle of Quaran¬ 
tine; the Ifle of Lazaret; and the Ifle Redonda, which 
is a circular mafs of rocks. Stocks for (hip-building are 
edablilhed on the right bank of the port. The Cabo 
Mola, or promontory, fituated on the eafl, at the entrance 
into the mouth of the port, is very high, and joins the 
ifland by a narrow mafs of (and. At a (hort diflance from 
Cape Mola (lands the fignal-tower, to correfpond with 
Mount Toro, which is connected with other points. The 
lignals are conveyed during the night by fires, and in the 
day-time by flags. Fort St. Philip was famous in the ma¬ 
ritime wars of the lad century. This fortrefs occupied a 
Ipace of about a league in circumference; but the whole 
was blown up and dedroyed, by order of the Spanifti go¬ 
vernment, in 1805. Lar. 39. 52. N. Ion. 4. 52. E. 
MAHO'N, a river of Ireland, in the county of Water¬ 
ford, which runs into the fea eleven miles ead of Dun- 
garvon. 
MAHO'NE, a bay on the coad of Nova Scotia, fepa- 
rated from Margaret’s bay by the promontory, on which 
k the high land of Afpotagoen. 
MAHO'NE, f. A large Turkifh (hip. AJh. 
MAHO'NING, a town of New York: twenty-five miles 
jesd-fouth-ead of Cayuga. 
MAHONOY', a to wnfliip of Sufquehanna river, in 
Pennfylvania, having 1102 inhabitants. 
MAHO'NY, a town of Hindooitan, in the circar of 
Sdhagepour : twenty miles north of Sohagepour. 
MAHO'NY, a mountain of Pennfylvania: thirty miles 
eaft of Sunbury. 
MAHO'NY CREE'K, a river of Pennfylvania, which 
.runs into the Sufquehanna in lat. 40. 44. N. Ion. 77. 55. W. 
MAHO'TE, or Mahou't, yi [Indian.] A trainer and 
-driver of elephants. 
MAHOU', a city of China, of the fird rank, in Se- 
tchuen, on the Kincha: 930 miles Couth-welt of Peking* 
Lat. 28. 32. N. Ion. 103. 51. E. 
MAHOW'LY, a town of Hindoodan, in Oude: twenty- 
nine north-welt of Kairabad. 
«' MA'HR HAN'NA, a town of Syria, where the Greek 
catholics have a convent and a printing-office: eighteen 
miles north-ead of Bairout. 
MAHR AJEGUN'GE, a town of Hindoodan, in Bahar: 
eleven miles ead of Hajypour.—-Another, twenty miles 
iouth of Benares. 
MAHRAJEGUN'GE, a town of Bengal: thirty miles 
north-ead of Purneah. 
MA'IiRAS, a town of Tunis: fixty miles Couth of 
Cairoan. 
MAHRAT', or Marhat', the country of the Mah¬ 
rattas, in the Deccan, See Mahrattas, 
MAH 
MAHRAT'TAS, a powerful people of Hindoodan, 
who have had a great fhare in the modern hidory of that 
country. Tire name is derived, as fome fay, from Makrat , 
a province of the Deccan, mentioned by Feriflita, and 
comprehending Baglana, or Bogilana, and other diftritts, 
which at prefent form the mod central part of the Mah- 
ratta dominions. We learn alfo from an earlier authority 
than that of Feriflita, viz. from Nizam-ul-Deen, an officer 
in the court of Akbar, who wrote a general hidory of 
Hindoodan, brought down to the 40th year of that em¬ 
peror, that one of the kings of Delhi made an excurfion 
from Deogur, or Dowlatabad, into the neighbouring pro¬ 
vince of Marhat. This relation occurs alfo in Ferifhta’s 
hidory of Hindoodan. It was in the reign of Alla I. ia 
1312. From a paper publiftied in the Afiatic Refearches, 
vol. ix. we learn that it is aflerted in India, that the Mah¬ 
rattas are foreigners, and that they acknowledge this to 
be their origin. A tribe called Ranas, related to the Mah¬ 
rattas, fay, that they are defeended from Nufliirvan ; and 
the Parfees, in India, fix the time of their emigration in 
the reign of Abu-Becr, which laded only two years, ia 
632 and 633. Some of thefe emigrants left Perfia at dif¬ 
ferent periods, in confequence of the fanatic zeal of the 
Muflulmen, and their perfecutjng fpirit; but the emigra¬ 
tion of the children of Nulhirvan is the mod ancient. 
Of thefe emigrants, fome retained their ancient religion, 
and are called Parfees; others turned Hindoos, and are 
called Ranas and Mahrattas. The Mahrattas are called 
Maha-Ra/Iitras in Sanfcrit: Maha is great and illudrious, 
and Rajht-ra, fynonymous with Rajah-putra, implies their 
royal defeent; and their name alfo indicates, that they 
were acknowledged to belong to the fecond clafs on their 
arrival in India, and of courfe that they were not Brah¬ 
mans. When the new adventurers obtained power and 
influence, thevaflumed the title of Ma/ia-RaJ/itras, and by 
ftriking out fuch letters as became ufelefs, when brought 
to the dandards of the dialers in ufe, they acquired the 
name of Maha-rata, Mahrata, and Mahretor. The founder 
of the Mahratta empire may be confidered as Sevajee, who 
was born in 1628 This hero derived his lineage from the 
rajahs of Cheitore, who pretend that their defeent is from 
Porus. He took advantage of the troubles which arofein 
his time in the kingdom of Vifiapour, and again, during 
the wars between Aurungzebe and his brothers. He ex¬ 
tended his conqueds from Baglana, near Surat, to the Por- 
tuguefe diflrifts near Goa, a little beyond the foot of the 
Ghauts. His capital was Poonah, an open town ; but he 
kept his archives in Poorundar, a fortrefs on the fummit 
of a mountain; he died in 1680. His conqueds had been 
the fruits of hardy and perfevering valour; partly acquired 
in defpite of Aurungzebe, then in the zenith of his power. 
See the article Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 52. His fon Sam- 
bajee fell a facrifice to his debauchery, having been feized 
on treacheroufly, in one of his licentious excurfions, and 
cruelly put to death by Aurungzebe in 1689. The Mah¬ 
rattas, however, remained unfubdued, and increafipg ill 
power. Sahoo, or Sahoojee, fucceeded his father Sam- 
bajee, at a very early age; and, as he inherited the ability 
and vigour of mind of his immediate ancedors, and reigned 
more than fifty years, during a period favourable to the 
aggrandizement of a rifing date, the Mahratta power grew 
up to a wonderful height. The confufions occafioned by 
the difputed fucceflion among Aurungzebe’s fons, and 
their defeendants, opened a wide field to all adventurers; 
and particularly to thofe hardy and enterprifing people, 
who had contended even with Aurungzebe himlelf; and 
it would be matter of furprife that Sahoojee made Co many 
conqueds, if we did not confider that Hindoodan abounds 
with military adventurers, who readily enlid themfelves 
under a chief who holds out to his followers u profpeft 
of plunder. At the time of Sahoojee’s death, in 1740, the 
Mahratta date had fwallowed up the whole tra< 5 l from the 
Wedern Sea to Orifla, and from Agra to the Carnatic; 
and almod the remaining portion o( Hindoodan, Bengal 
excepted, had been over-run and plundered. From this 
