62 M O S 
to tread upon them, as if it had been a hill to climb up; 
and that which did augment our trouble was, that in 
treading upon them their arms and legs broke like glafs: 
the poor limbs of thefe creatures being calcined by the 
vehement heat of the fire; and, our feet finking into thofe 
xniferable bodies, the blood and the filth did Iquirt in our 
faces, which begot fuch a flench all the town over, that it 
was impoffible to fubfifl in it. 
“ The 25th of May, in the evening, as we expected, in 
great perplexity, what the Tartarians would attempt 
againft us, who were about four hundred in the caltle ; 
the Tartarians, whom we had faluted with our guns, and 
killed fome of them that were coming too near one of the 
■caftle-gates, began to go back the fame way that they came 
in, with fo much fpeed, that the next morning all that 
torrent was drained up ; for which having given God 
thanks, and fet our bufinefs in order as well as the-prefent 
calamity would permit, we went away from that defolate 
place.” 
An eminence, called Sparrow-hill, fituated about four 
or five miles from Mofcow, commands the bell view of 
the city; and from thence the land about it may be per¬ 
ceived to be low and fwampy, abounding with pools of 
ftagnant water, and of courfe unhealthy. The climate is 
alfo dangerous from fudden tranfitions. The rapidity of 
vegetation is here very ftriking. In and about Mofcow 
the rivers freeze about the middle or latter end of No¬ 
vember, and break up in March or the beginning of 
April. The birch-trees come out in May, and filed their 
leaves in September. Fahrenheit’s thermometer flood at 
68° on May aoth, and at 44 0 April 16th, and between 
thefe periods at intermediate degrees. At London on the 
fame days it flood at 6i° and 55 0 . 
The monaflery called Troitjkoi Klojler , or the Monaflery 
of the Holy Trinity, is diilin guiflied in the annals of Ruflia 
as the afylum for the Ruffian fovereigns in cafes of infur- 
reition ; and is more particularly known to foreigners on 
account of the refuge which it afforded to Peter the Great, 
when he put an end to the adminillration of his filler So¬ 
phia. This monaflery is about forty miles from Mofcow. 
At a little diflance, this monaflery bears the appearance of 
afmall town, and like many other convents in this country 
is furrounded with high brick walls, ftrengthened with 
battlements and towers. The parapet is roofed with 
wood, and the walls and towers are provided with embra- 
fures for muikets and cannon ; the whole is furrounded 
by a deep ditch. This place has withftood feveral fieges, 
and particularly baffled all the efforts of Ladiflaus prince 
of Poland, who attacked it at the head of a large army. 
Befides the habitation for monks, the walls enclofe an 
imperial palace, and nine large churches conftrudled by 
different fovereigns, which are fplendid, and very rich in 
gold and filver ornaments, and coftly veftments. The 
library of the convent contains a curious collection of 
books. 
Mofcow is 348 miles fonth-eaft of Peterfburg, fix hun¬ 
dred eaft-north-eaft of Warfaw, and feven hundred north- 
call of Cracow. Lat. 55. 45. 45. N. Ion. 37. 21. E. Coxe's 
Travels in Rujfia. Tooke's Hifi. of the Ruffian Empire. 
Richter's Sketch of Mofcow. Porter's Travels in Rujfia 
and Sweden. Dr. Clarke's Travels. Harleian MiJ'cellany, 
vol. iii. 
MOS'DORF, a town of the duchy of Luxemburg: four 
miles eaft of Dicrich, and lixteen north-north-eafl of 
Luxemburg. 
MOSE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Mayne and Loire : nine miles fouth of Angers. 
MOSE, an illand in the Eallern Indian Sea, about thirty 
miles in circumference. Lat. 6. 20. S. Ion. 132. 2. E. 
MOSE, or Villa del Mose, a town on the bank of 
the river Tabafco, in the bottom of Campeachy Gulf, 
from which great quantities of cocoa are Ihipped for Spain. 
MOSE'CHE, a province of Angola, on the north bank 
<&£ the Coanza. 
M O S 
MO'SEK. See Mauscheid, vol. xiv. 
MOSEL'I.E, a river of France, which rifes in the moun¬ 
tains of the Volges, palfies by or near to Remiremont, Epi- 
nal, Chatel fur Mofelle, Cbarmes, Toul, Pont a Moufflon, 
Metz, Thionville, Gravenmacheren, Treves, Traarbachj 
&c. and joins the Rhine at Coblentz. 
MOSEL'LE, a department of France, bounded on the 
north by the duchy of Luxemburg, on the north-eaft by 
the late department of the Sarre, on the eaft by the late 
departments of Mont Tonnerre and the Sarre, on the 
fouth-eaft by the department of the Lower Rhine, on the 
weft by the department of the Meufe, and on the fouth 
by the department of the Meurthe. Its population, 
amounts to 562,700. Metz is the capital. This depart¬ 
ment is fertile in grain, wine, fruits, and paftures. It has 
alfo mines of iron and coal. 
MOSE'NIA, a town of Perfia, in Chufiftan: thirty-fix 
miles fouth-weft of Suiter. 
MOSERA'DA, a town of Italy, in the Trevifan ; fix 
miles north-north-eafl of Trevigio. 
MOS'EROTH, [Heb. difcipline.j The name «f a place. 
Numb. 
MO'SES, the great prophet and legillator of the Hebrew 
nation, was the Ion of Amram, the grandfon of Levi, by 
Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, his own aunt; and was 
born in Egypt, in the year 1571 B. C. He was their third 
child, they having had before him a daughter called 
Miriam, and a fon named Aaron. Some time before the 
birth of Mofes, a cruel edift had been promulgated by 
Pharaoh king of Egypt, intended to effeftuate the gradual 
extirpation of the Ifraelites, which enafted, under the 
feverell penalties, that every Hebrew male child which 
was born Ihould be call into the Nile, and that none but 
the females Ihould be fullered to live. This edift even, 
enjoined the parents to become the executioners of their 
own fons, or to difcover them when born, that they might 
be drowned by the Egyptians. The reafon of this decree, 
according to Jofephus, was the prediction of an Egyptian 
prophet, that a Hebrew child was about to be born who 
would hereafter diminilh the power of Egypt, and increafe 
that of the Ifraelites. Though there is no authority for 
this in the facred fcriptures, which will be our chief re- 
fource in this article, yet it does not appear at all impro¬ 
bable that the king’s mind was impreffed with fome lucli 
notion when he ilfued his commands. 
At the birth of Mofes, it is faid that the natural re¬ 
luctance of his parents to obey fuch a decree, was in- 
creafed by the fuperior lovelinefs of the child; though 
niothers, probably, always fee beauty in their new-born 
infants, which, for obvious reafons, is a very wife pro- 
villon of Providence; and they ventured to keep him in 
concealment during the fpace of three months. (Exodus, 
ch. ii.) At length, the extreme danger of a difcovery, 
which would have proved fatal to themfelves as well as 
the infant, reduced them to the cruel necelfity of expofing 
him. His mother, therefore, took a fmall ark made of 
the ligneous part of the papyrus, and, having befineared 
it with bitumen, to render it water-tight, placed the in¬ 
fant in it, and fet it down among the fedges on the marlhy 
brink of the river. Anxious, however, about his fate, 
ftie placed her daughter Miriam at a proper diftance, to 
obferve what Ihould become of him. Soon after this, the 
daughter of Pharaoh, coming to the river with her female 
attendants in order to bathe, difcovered the ark, and fent 
one of them for it. Upon opening it, fhe was furprifed 
at finding its contents to be a beautiful boy, whofe crying 
irrefiftibly excited her pity and compafflon. Concluding 
him to be the child of one of the opprefled Hebrew' race, 
who was left to perifh under her father’s tyrannical pro- 
fcription, ihe thought him deferving of a better fate, and 
determined to refcue him from deftruCtion. At.this 
moment Miriam approached the princefs, and made an 
offer of bringing a Hebrew nurfe to fuckle the child 5 
which flie was ordered to do. Accordingly, Are called her 
3 mother 
