M A IT 
557 
■M A U 
Ides, wns captured in April 1810 by the Englifh, after their 
previous occupation of Cephalonia and Zante. The caftle, 
which was garrifoned by 800 French and Italian troops, 
held out for nine days, the blockade and bombardment 
being continued vigoroufiy during the gjeater part of that 
time. Major Clarke, of the 35th regiment, fell in this 
fiege, and was buried within the fortrefs : a marble tomb- 
lfone, erefled by the officers of the regiment, records at 
once his merits and his fate. The ftrengfh of the cattle 
has been much increafed tince the Englifh obtained pof- 
feffion of it ; and thefe improvements are flill progreffive. 
The population of this itland does not exceed 18,000 
fouls ; its trade, which has been fomewhat increafing of 
late, confifts chiefly in the export of fait, of which between 
five and fix thoufand tons are faid to be annually made in 
the itland : oil and wine are the other principal exports ; 
the annual produce of the former being etlimated at about 
3000 barrels ; of the latter at 1000. The itland may be 
faid alfo to traffic in manual labour, as a great number of 
the peafants pafs over every year to the fouthern parts of 
Albania, to affitt in the cultivation of the land ; for which 
fervice they are chiefly paid in produce. The cattle and 
grain required for the confumption of the itland, are drawn 
almott entirely from the continent. The other imports 
are chiefly of cloth, fugar, coffee, hardware, and other 
manufactured articles, but all in very trifling quanri’y. 
The revenue of Santa-Maura varies at prefent f rom 30,000 
to 34,000 dollars per annum, which leaves fome furplus, 
after paying the civil expenfes of the itland. Lat. 39. 4. N. 
Ion. 20. 39. E. Holland's Travels in the Ionian IJles, 1813. 
On the 5th of November, 1815, a treaty was figned at 
Paris, between Great Britain, Rulfia, Autlria, and Pruffia, 
by which St. Maura, and the reft of the Ionian Itles, namely, 
Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Ithaca, Cerigo, and Paxo, with 
their dependencies, are placed, as an independent ftate, 
under the immediate and exclufive protection of Great 
Britain, who is to place a high commifficner there. (This 
commiffioner, or governor, is to be Gen. Maitland.) They 
are to alfume the title of the United States of the Ionian 
IJlands. A legiflative aflembly is to be convened, and (un¬ 
der the direction of the governor) a Confiitutional Charter 
is to be drawn up for their government. The treaty goes 
on to Hate, that the trading-flag of thefe United States is 
to be acknowledged by all the contradling parties as the 
flag of a free and independent ftate. It is to carry with 
the colours, and above the armorial bearings thereon dif- 
jplayed before the year 1807, fuch other as his Britannic 
inajefty may think proper to grant, as a mark of the pro- 
teftion under which the faid Ionian States are placed ; and 
the commerce between the United Ionian States and the 
dominions of his Imperial and Royal Apoftolic Majelty, 
is to enjoy the fame advantages and facilities as that of 
Great Britain with the faid United States. 
It is unneceflary to fay how brilliant is the ancient fame 
and hiftory of thefe iflands, and how large a part they 
afted in the hiftory of Greece at a period when Greece was 
the miftrefs of nations. Corfu is the ancient Corcyra ; and 
Cerigo the Iftand of Cythera . The value of this ceffion 
(for fuch it is on the part of RvJJia ) we regard to be two¬ 
fold ; in the firft place, as a new military and commercial 
ftation in the Mediterranean ; and fecondly, as refeuing 
fome portion of the Itappieft part of the globe from the 
barbarous dominion of the Turks. In the firft point of 
tiew, every one may readily underftand how important it 
is to poftefs the Mediterranean Sea, and therein a conftant 
and feenre communication, in peace and in war, with the 
fnoft fertile countries in the world. Gibraltar has no 
other value than as it commands the entry of this fea, and 
thereby always fecures to its poflelfor the power of enter¬ 
ing itagainft the combined force of Europe. 
The Seven United Illands are, as we have faid, amongft 
the molt fertile regions in Europe, their climate molt de¬ 
lightful, and their foil capable of producing every fruit 
and pulfe of the temperate and tropical climates. Even 
under the fluggithnefs of their Turkifli governors, the-ir 
Vol. XIV. No. 995. 
trade and produce were not fmall; and what may they 
not be rendered under the fkilful and improved imiufiry 
of Britilh cultivation ? We think, indeed, that we be¬ 
hold the ancient days of thefe illands revive ; thole days 
when Uiyfl'es demanded ol the Phasceans how they could 
be ignorant of the fat-famed Ithaca, fo fertile in Iheep, 
herds, and horfes ; having her valleys filled with fwine, 
and her hills covered with cattle ; thofe days, when the 
delightful furface of the Ionian Sea was covered with the 
galleys of Greece going in pomp and proceffion from 
iftand to illand ; when every iftand was a garden, and 
every houfe almoft a work of confummate art. 
We have already noticed, that, from about the year 
1473, thefe iflands belonged fometimes to the Turks, but 
moftly to the Venetians, till conquered by the French in 
the year 1796. They were then (1799) formed into what 
was called the Republic of the Seven Iflands, and were 
acknowledged as an independent ftate, under the protec¬ 
tion of Rujfia , at the peace of 1802. See Cephalonia, 
vol. iv. When the kingdom of Italy was formed in 1805, 
the Ionian Ifles were confidered as a part of it. In Octo¬ 
ber 1809, the Britifh forces took poffelfion of Zrnte, Ce¬ 
phalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo ; and leftored the conftitu- 
tion of the fept-infular republic in thofe places ; and in 
April 1810, St. Maura fell into our hands. Corfu ftill 
remained to the French ; and, had Bonaparte been fuc- 
cefsful in other quarters, the reft of the illands would moft 
probably have ere this returned under his dominion, “ ei¬ 
ther by the events of the war or by the (tipulations of the 
peace.” See Ithaca, vol. xi. p. 470. 
MAURACON'DA, a town of Africa, in the Kingdom; 
of Bv.rfali. Lat. 13. 40. N. Ion. 15. 25. W. 
MAURAMA'TIA. See Messene. 
MAURAN'DIA, f. [named by Dr. Ortega, profeflor 
of botany 3t Madrid, in honour of the lady of Dr. Man- 
randy, botanical profeflor at Carthagena, faid to be an ar¬ 
dent admirer and profecutor of the fame Itudy with herhuf- 
band. Cavanilles had given the generic appellation of 
Ufteria to this plant, not being aware of its having been 
previoully bellowed on another genus by Willdenow ; for 
which reafon, joined to that of complimenting the above- 
named lady on her botanical acquirements, Ortega was 
induced to change it to Maurandya.) In botany, a genus 
of the clals didynamia, order angiofpermia, natural order 
perfonatre, Linn, (bignomiae, JvJf.) Generic charafters— 
Calyx: perianth inferior, permanent, cloven nearly to the 
bale into five linear-lanceolate, acute, ererit, almofi-equal 
fegments. Corolla : of one petal, two-lipped; tube 
Ihorter than the calyx ; throat twice as long as the calyx, 
rather deprefled, broad, with various furrows on each fide, 
fomewhat incurved : limb ringent, in five nearly-equa)^ 
roundilh, emarginate, fegments, two above and three be¬ 
low. Stamina: filaments four, thickened and hairy at 
the bafe, not fo long as the throat of the corolla, two of 
them ftiorter; anthers oblong. Piftilluin : germen fupe- 
rior, ovate, with a furrow on each fide; Ityle awl-fhaped, 
the length of the ftamens; ltigma Ample. Pericarpium: 
capfule as long as the calyx, of two cells, each opening at 
the top with five half-ovate, acute, reflexed, valves. 
Seeds : numerous, rather ovate, rough, affixed to each fide 
of the partition.— EJJential CharaBer. Calyx inferior, in 
five deep fegments; corolla ringent: tube bell-fhaped, 
furrowed; capfule of two cells, opening by five teeth at 
their fummit. 
Maurandia femperflorens, climbing maurandia, or baf- 
tard foxglove ; the only fpecies known. It is a native of 
Mexico, and an elegant greenhoufe plant, flowering for 
months together in the fummer. Root perennial, branch¬ 
ed, fending forth numerous, annual, climbing, round, 
darkifli, branched, ftems, about the thicknefs of a quill. 
Branches green, about three feet long, fomewhat divided ; 
leaves alternate, on long twining footftalks, very numer¬ 
ous, fpear-fhaped, three, five, or feven, nerved. Flowers 
folitary, drooping, on long, twifted, axillary, (talks, of a 
beautiful lilac, or purple-and-white, colour; they liavs 
7 C great 
