56 
M O S 
tvith a large pin of gold. The men wore their hair long, 
and divided in what is called the Nazarene form'; while 
that of the women was loofe, and darkened by‘art; the 
greateft affront being to cnt off their hair. Both fexes 
were handfome, and of good difpofitions. Their wea¬ 
pons were flings, fwords of hard wood, and light darts. 
They believed in a Great Author of Nature ; and adored 
the fun, Zuhi, and the moon, Chia, as his reprefentatives. 
Their immortality was material, according to the cuf- 
tomary opinion among favages ; and they buried the dead 
with ornaments of gold, and the precious emeralds of 
their country. They were in conftant warfare with the 
Muzos and Colinas, but were feared and refpedted by all. 
The Mufco language, called Chibaha, was general through¬ 
out the kingdom; but it is now adulterated, and nearly 
loft, though mod of the converted tribes of the kingdom 
of New Granada belong to this nation. They are generally 
of generous difpofitions, bold, faithful, and robuft, though 
inclined to ebriety. Pinkerton, vol. iii. 
The account given of thefe people by Dr. Robertfon is 
as follows : They fubfifted chiefly by agriculture. The 
idea of property was introduced among them, and its 
rights fecured by laws, handed down by tradition, and 
obferved with great care. They lived in large towns; 
they were decently clothed, and their houfes, compared 
with thofe of furrounding tribes, might be termed com¬ 
modious. Government had affumed, in this ftate of ci¬ 
vilization, a regular form ; and a jurifdifition was eftablilh- 
ed, which took notice of different crimes, and punifhed 
them with rigour. They were acquainted with the dis¬ 
tinction of ranks, and their chief reigned with abfolute 
authority. He was attended by various officers and 
guards, carried with much pomp in a fort of palanquin, 
and the road w'as fwept before him and ftrewed with 
flowers. For the Support of this expenfe, taxes were le¬ 
vied on the people, who regarded their prince with vene¬ 
ration, and feldom approached him but with an averted 
countenance. One of the chief caufes of that obfequious 
Spirit, which prevailed among the people, was the influence 
of fuperftition. The refpeft they paid to their monarchs 
■was infpired by religion ; and the heir apparent of the king¬ 
dom was educated inthe innermoft recefs of their principal 
temple, under fuch auftere difcipline, and with fuch pe¬ 
culiar rites, as tended to fill his fubjefts with high Senti¬ 
ments concerning the fluidity of his character, and the 
dignity of his ftation. This fuperftition, which, in the 
rudeft period of Society, is either altogether unknown, or 
waftes its force in childifh unmeaning pradices, had ac¬ 
quired fuch an afcendant over thole people of America 
who had made fome little progrefs towards refinement, 
that it became the chief inftrument of bending their 
minds to an untimely Servitude, and fubjeded them, in 
the beginning of their political career, to a delpotifm 
hardly lefs rigorous than that which awaits nations in 
the laft ftage of their corruption and decline. The Mofcos 
(as well as the tribe of the Natchez) had advanced be¬ 
yond the other uncultivated nations of America in their 
ideas of religion, as well as in their political inftitutions. 
They had temples, altars, priefts, Sacrifices, and that long 
train of ceremonies, which fuperftition introduces where - 
ever the has fully eftablilhed her dominion over the minds 
of men. But the rites of their worftiip were cruel and 
bloody; they offered human vidims to their deities, and 
many of their pradices relembled the barbarous inftitu¬ 
tions of the Mexicans. Hiji. America, vol. ii. 
MOS'COVY. See Muscovy. 
MOS'COW, the capital of the province or government 
of Molkovlkaia, and till the beginning of the prefent 
century the metropolis of all Ruffia, is Situated in a Spa¬ 
cious plain on the banks of the river Moikva. 
The Ruffian antiquaries differ considerably in their 
opinions concerning the firft foundation of Mofcow; the 
following relation, Mr. Coxe fays, is generally efteemed 
by the belt authors the molt probable account. Kiof was 
the metropolis, when George, fori of Vladimir Monomaka, 
M O S 
afcended in 1154. the Ruffian throne. That monarch, 
being infulted in a progrefs through his dominions by a 
rich and powerful nobleman named Stephen Kutchko, 
put him to death, and confifcated his domains, which 
confifted of the lands now occupied by the city of Mof¬ 
cow and the adjacent territory. Pleafed with the fitua-, 
tion of the ground lying on the conflux of the Moikva 
and Neglina, he laid the foundation of a new town, which 
he called Mojkva, from the river of that name. Upon the 
demife of George, the new town was not negle&ed by 
his fon Andrew; but it fell into fuch decay under his 
immediate fucceifors, that when Daniel, fon of Alexander 
Nevlki, received, in the divifion of the empire, the duchy 
of Mufcovy as his portion, and fixed his refidence upon 
the conflux of the Moikva and Neglina, he may be faid 
to have founded the town anew. The Spot now occupied 
by the Kremlin was at that time oveiffpread with a thick 
wood and a morals, in the midft whereof was a fmall 
illand, containing a Single wooden hut. Upon this part 
Daniel conftru&ed churches and monafteries, and various 
buildings, and enclofed it with wooden fortifications: he 
firft affumed the title of Duke of Mofcow; and was fo 
attached to this Situation, that, when in 1304. he fucceeded 
his brother Andrew Alexandrovich in the great duchy 
of Vladimir, he did not remove his court to Vladimir, 
but continued his refidence at Molcow, which then be¬ 
came the capital of the Ruffian dominions. His fucceifors 
followed his example; among whom his fon Ivan consi¬ 
derably enlarged the new metropolis, and in 1367 his 
grandfon Demetrius Ivanovitch Donlki Surrounded the 
Kremlin with a brick wall. Thefe new fortifications, 
however, were not ftrong enough to prevent Tamerlane, 
in 1382, from taking the town after a Ihort fiege. Being 
foon evacuated by that defultory conqueror, it again came 
into the pofleffion of the Ruffians; but was frequently 
invaded and occupied by the Tartars, who in the four¬ 
teenth and fifteenth centuries overran the greateft part of 
Ruffia, and who even maintained a garrifon in Mofcow 
until they were finally expelled by Ivan Vaffilievitch I. 
To him Mofcow is indebted for its principal Splendour, 
and under him it became the principal and moll consider¬ 
able city of the Ruffian empire. 
Mofcow continued the metropolis of Ruffia until the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, when, to the great 
dilfatisfadtion of the nobility, but with great advantage 
probabiy to the ftate, the feat of empire was transferred 
to Peterlburgii. But, notwithftanding the predilection 
which Peter conceived for Peterlburgii, in which all the 
lucceeding fovereigns excepting Peter II. have fixed their 
refidence, Mofcow, according to Mr. Coxe, is ltill the 
moll populous city of the Ruffian empire. Here the chief 
nobles who do not belong to the court refide -. they here 
lupport a larger number of retainers; they love to gratify 
their tafte for a ruder and more expensive magnificence 
in the ancient ftyie of feudal grandeur; and are not, as 
at Peterlburgii, eclipfed by the Superior Iplendour of the 
court. 
Mofcow is reprefented as the largeft town in Europe; 
its circumference within the rampart, which enclofes the 
Suburbs, being exaftly 39 verlts, or 26 miles; but it is 
buiit in fo ftraggling and disjointed a manner, that its 
population in no degree correfponds to its extent. Some 
Ruffian authors ftate its inhabitants at 500,000 fouls, a 
number evidently exaggerated. According to a compu¬ 
tation, which Mr. Coxe fays may be depended upon, 
Mofcow contains within the ramparts 250,000 fouls, and 
in the adjacent villages 50,000. The llreets of Molcow 
are in general exceedingly long and broad ; fome of them 
are paved; others, particularly thofe in the fuburbs, are 
formed with trunks of trees, or are boarded with planks 
like the floor of a room; wretched hovels are blended 
with large palaces; cottages of one ltory ftand next to 
the molt: fuperb and ftately manfions. Many brick ftruc- 
tures are covered with wooden tops ; fome ot the wooden 
houfes are painted; others have iron doors and roofs. 
2 Numerous 
