M A L 
the fame proportion, and at the age of twenty-eight his 
weight was 584-lbs. this was thelaft time he was weighed ; 
but lie was manifeltly bigger at the time of his death, his 
weight mult then have been upwards of 6oolbs. His height 
was live feet nine inches and a half; and his circumference, 
round the belly, fix feet eleven inches. He died in 1750, 
aged 39 ; after his death feven men were buttoned in his 
waiftcoat. Till within a year or two of his death he was 
comparatively an aCtive man ; but afterwards his extreme 
corpulency rendered his life burthenfome. He was, how¬ 
ever, exceeded in weight, aiftivity, and age, by a perfon 
who died lately. See Lambert, vol. xii. p. 98, 9. 
The market here is weekly on Saturday, principally for 
corn, See. which is bought and fold by (ample; and a 
great part of it is bought by millers and corn-dealers to 
be lent to London ; there are all'o great quantities of horfe 
and tick beans with clover fold here.- The fair is on the 
18 th of September. Eaft and fouth from Malden, for fifteen 
or twenty miles, they grew large quantities of [coriander 
and carra way-feeds, and teal'el. Maiden is famous for 
fait; the grain is hard and large. It has alfo a great trade 
in coals, deals, and iron. Malden is fix miles from Wit- 
liam, ten from Chelmsford, lixteen fouth-fouth-welt of 
Colcheller, and thirty-feven eaff-north-enft of London. 
Lat. 51. 45. N. Ion. o. 40. E. 
A little beyond Malden, Blackwater-bay begins, fa¬ 
mous for the Wallleet-oylters. St. Ofyth, in Maldon- 
water, or Blackwater River, is fo covered with wild fowl 
at certain leafons, that many people come hither from 
London for the pleafure of (hooting them, who often re¬ 
turn with an Elfcx ague. This illand is in the parifh of 
Totham-Magna. On the (hore here, where the colliers 
unload, are many burrows of earth, fuppofed to have been 
the graves of the Saxons and Danes. 
Hevbridge is on the river, oppolite to Malden ; it was 
granted by king Athelltan to St. Paul’s cathedral in Lon¬ 
don ; and had this privilege, in the reign of Edward II. 
that no purveyor in the king’s houfehold Ihould take any 
corn in its precinfts. 
Nearly one mile welt from Malden Hood Bileigh-abbey, 
founded, in the year 1180, by Robert de Mantell, for 
monks of the preinonllratenfian order. Some parts of the 
monadic buildings ltill remain, and are now connected 
with a fmall farm. The chapel is the mod perfect part; 
its roof is formed with very fine-grained lime-done, and 
lias groined arches, fupported by three (lender Pur-beck 
columns. Henry Bourcher, earl of Efl'ex, who died April 
4, 1483, and Ifabel his wife, were buried here. Beauties 
of England and Wales. England's Gazetteer. Wilkes's Bri- 
tijh DireElory, vol. iii. 
M AL'DEN, near Kingfton, in Surry. See vol. xi. p. 749. 
MAL'DEN, a town of Zutphen, in Holland ; feven* 
miles call of Borkeloe. 
MAL'DEN., a new fettlernent of Lower Canada, on the 
ead fide of the river Detroit: eighteen miles below the 
town of Detroit. 
MALDENAN'TRE, a fmall ifland near the coad of 
Sardinia. Lat.40.1-N. Ion. 8. 13. E. 
MALDISAN'T, f. [from the Fr. mal, ill, and difant , 
fpeaker.J A backbiter. Cole. 
MAL'DIVE I'SLANDS, a cluder of iflands in the In¬ 
dian Sea, fituated about 2170 miles to the fouth-welt of 
Cape Comorin 1. the number is laid to amount to a thou- 
fand or more, but they are for the molt part fmall and un¬ 
inhabited. The inhabitants appear to be a mixture of 
Arabs and Indians of Malabar. They fupply veffels with 
fails and cordage, cocoa-nuts, oil, and honey, dry fifh, 
tortoife-lhell, and efpecially cowries. They were difeo- 
vered in 1508, by the younger AJmeyda, and conquered 
by the Portuguefe from the Moors, who had ufurped the 
fovereignty of them from the natives, who probably came 
originally from the adjacent coad of Malabar. The Eu¬ 
ropeans did not long maintain poffeffion. The Portuguefe 
bad obtained leave to ereCt a fort on one of the illes 5 but 
■they, were foon cut off. by the Maldivians, and their fort 
MAL 191 
demolilhed. They are divided into thirteen attollons, or 
provinces, and are governed by one king ; but each at- 
tollon has its particular governor, who rules with great 
oppreffion. The fubjeCts are miferably poor; and none 
dare wear any clothing above the vvailf, except a turban, 
without a particular licenfe. The king alTumes tne mag¬ 
nificent title of Sultan of-the Maldives, King of Thirteen 
Provinces and Twelve Thoufand Ifles. From Mr. Dal- 
ry in pie’s chart of the Maldives, they feem divided into 
thirteen groups, each pretty nearly equi-diftant, and each 
with its proper name; their form is mod lingular; they 
are reprelented as reefs of fmall and very low' iflands, re¬ 
gular in their form, and Unrounding a clear fpace of fea, 
with a very (hallo^v portion of water between them. The 
chief is called Atoll Maldivas ; they have only four ports, 
in which their few articles of commerce are collected. 
They lie in lat. 5. 30. to 7. 5. N. Ion. 72. 30. to 73. 45. E. 
MALDON A'DO, a town of South America, in the go¬ 
vernment of Buenos Ayres, on the river Plata : 190 miles 
wed of Buenos Ayres. Lat. 34. 50. S. Ion. 53. 36. W. 
MALDONA'TUS (John), a very learned Spanilh jefuit 
and celebrated divine, was of noble defeent, and born at 
Las Cafas de la Reina, near Lerena, in Edremadura, in 
the year 1534. He purfued his Rudies at the univerfity 
of Salamanca ; and, when he had gone through his courfe 
of languages and belles lettres, and attended fome leCtures 
in civil law, he devoted himfelf entirely to the Itudy of divi¬ 
nity. After he had finilhed his divinity-courfe, he taught the 
Greek language, philofophy, and divinity, at Salamanca, 
with uncommon fuccefs and applaufe. Here he entered 
into the fociety of Jefuits, but did not affume the- habit 
of the order before the year 1562, when he was at Rome. 
In the following year his fuperiors lent him to Paris, to 
fill the chair of philofophy in the college which the Je¬ 
fuits had juft obtained in that city. To this courfe lie 
devoted three or four years ; and then commenced a courfe 
of divinity in the fame feminary, which occupied him for 
about four years. Thefe courfes were attended by a pro¬ 
digious concourfe of fcholars; and the writers of the fo¬ 
ciety affirm, that his Rearers, leff they ffiould-be difap- 
pointed of places, ufed to throng to the hall where he de¬ 
livered his leCtures, two or three hours before he mounted 
the chair; and that frequently they were fo numerous,, 
that he was obliged to lecture in the court of-the college,, 
or in the lireet. In the year 1570, he was lent with nine 
other Jefuits to Poitiers,where he read lectures in Latin, 
and preached.in French ; but, as he was not able to form 
a good eltabiifhment of his order in that city, he returned 
to Paris, after having maintained fome dilputes againlt 
the proteflants. Two years afterwards, at the requeft of 
the cardinal de Lorraine, who was founding an univerfity 
at Pont-a-Mouflon, he was fent thither,, where he gave a 
courfe of leCtures; and in paffing through .Sedan, he dis¬ 
puted with more than twenty proteftant minilters. Upon 
his return frorq. this excurfion to Paris, he refumed his 
leCtures with the fame reputation as formerly, and com¬ 
menced a defign of giving a fuller courfe of divinity than 
before; but the purluit of this more ample plan was in¬ 
terrupted, by different accufations which were preferred; 
againlt him. One was, that he had artfully employed his 
influence over the weak.mind of the prefident de Sr. An¬ 
dre, on his dying bed, to obtain a fraudulent will, by 
which his eftates were bequeathed to. the Jefuits, This 
charge was made the fubJeCt of inveliigation. before the 
parliament of Paris, which pronounced our author inno¬ 
cent of the alleged crime. Another accuiation..charged 
him with herefy, for maintaining, in contradiction to the 
fentiments of the faculty of divinity at Paris, that the 
doctrine of the immaculate conception of the holy Virgin 
was not a point of faith. The particulars of the proceed¬ 
ings againlt him may be feen in Bayle or Dupin; and w e 
need only obferve, that of this charge alio he was ac¬ 
quitted. The troubles in which thefe accufations in¬ 
volved him, determined him to relinquiffi his lectures 
and to retire to the college of the Jefuits at Bourges^ 
3- where.. 
