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Browsing named entities in Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing). You can also browse the collection for Asia or search for Asia in all documents.

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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Arctic exploration. (search)
Arctic exploration. During almost four hundred years efforts have been made by European navigators to discover a passage for vessels through the Arctic seas to India. The stories of Marco Polo of the magnificent countries in Eastern Asia and adjacent islands — Cathay and Zipangi, China and Japan--stimulated desires to accomplish such a passage. The Cabots [John Cabot; Sebastian Cabot (q. v.)] went in the direction of the pole, northwestward, at or near the close of the fifteenth century, and penetrated as far north as 67° 30′, or half-way up to (present) Davis Strait. The next explorers were the brothers Cortereal, who made three voyages in that direction, 1500-02. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby set out to find a northwest passage to India, but was driven back from Nova Zembla, and perished on the shore of Lapland. In 1576-78 Martin Frobisher made three voyages to find a northwest passage into the Pacific Ocean, and discovered the entrance to Hudson Bay. Between 1585 and 1587
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Bickmore, Albert Smith, 1839- (search)
kmore, Albert Smith, 1839- Educator; born in St. George, Me., March 1, 1839: graduated at Dartmouth College in 1860, and studied under Professor Agassiz at the Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge, Mass. In 1865-69 he travelled in the Malay Archipelago and in eastern Asia. Returning, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at Madison University. In 1885 he became professor in charge of the Department of Public Instruction in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He Professor Agassiz at the Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge, Mass. In 1865-69 he travelled in the Malay Archipelago and in eastern Asia. Returning, he was appointed Professor of Natural History at Madison University. In 1885 he became professor in charge of the Department of Public Instruction in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is the author of Travels in the East Indian Archipclago; The Ainos, or Hairy men of Jesso; Sketch of a journey from Canton to Bangkok, etc.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Civil service, United States colonial. (search)
ivil service candidate should devote himself to the following groups of studies: Geography and ethnology, history, economics and law, languages, religions, and folk psychology. The work in geography should cover the physical features, climate, plants, and economic resources of our dependencies, and the principles of tropical hygiene. Under the head of ethnology, the elements of the comparative study of the races of man would be followed by a more thorough examination of the peoples of eastern Asia and Polynesia. The next group would deal with the history of the relations of Europeans with the East, and, in particular, with the history of the colonial systems of England, France, Holland, and Spain; with the tariffs and financial systems; and, finally, with the principles of administration, including the study of the civil law as developed in the Spanish codes, Mohammedan law, and the legal customs of the native tribes. Between customs and religions the dividing line is really invi
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Cremation, (search)
Cremation, The disposition of the dead by burning. The practice has come down from great antiquity, having prevailed in eastern Asia and western Europe, and also among many North and South American Indian tribes. Among the Romans it was practised during the last years of the republic, and under the empire till near the end of the fourth century, when it was abandoned. It was also at one time the custom of the Chinese. Marco Polo, who travelled in China during the latter part of the thirteenth century, saw a crematory in every town he visited. The custom has long been abolished in China, although it is universal in Japan, where it was introduced by the Buddhists. Even in northern Europe cremation prevailed, according to the statement of Caesar, who relates that the Gauls burned their dead, and placed the ashes in urns which were then buried in mounds. The ancient method was to cremate the corpse upon a funeral pyre, upon which oil, spices, and incense, and, frequently, food
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Indians, American (search)
Indians, American Believing the earth to be a globe, Columbus expected to find India or Eastern Asia by sailing westward from Spain. The first land discovered by him—one of the Bahama A modern Comanche. Islands—he supposed to be a part of India, and he called the inhabitants Indians. This name was afterwards applied to all the nations of the adjacent islands and the continent. Origin. There is no positive knowledge concerning the origin of the aborigines of America; their own traditions widely vary, and conjecture is unsatisfying. Recent investigations favor a theory that, if they be not indigenous, they came from two great Asiatic families: the more northern tribes of our continent from the lighter Mongolians, who crossed at Bering Strait, and the more southerly ones, in California, Central and South America, from the darker Malays, who first peopled Polynesia, in Indian War-clubs. the southern Pacific Ocean and finally made their way to our continent, gradually
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Jews and Judaism. (search)
some more secular bond must be found which should unite the Jews of various persuasions for common and concerted action. The first attempt in this direction was nobly made by Narcisse Leven, Eugene Emanuel, Charles Netter, and a few others, in founding (1880) the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris, whose object it was to aid in removing Jewish disabilities wherever they might exist, and to raise the spiritual condition of their coreligionists in northern Africa, eastern Europe, and western Asia by the founding of schools. From these small beginnings the Alliance has grown to be an important factor in the conservation of Jewish interests. Faithful to its programme, it has established a large number of elementary and technical schools, and has intervened actively in Algeria, Morocco, the Turkish Empire, and Persia whenever Jews or Jewish interests were in any way threatened. Its attempt, however, to represent the whole Jewish people has not been successful; for the reason that
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Yankee Doodle, (search)
liers. A macaroni was a knot in which the feather was fastened. In a satirical poem accompanying a caricature of William Pitt in 1766, in which he appears on stilts, the following verse occurs: Stamp Act! le diable! dat is de job, sir: Dat is de Stiltman's nob, sir, To be America's nabob, sir, Doodle, noodle, do. Kossuth, when in the United States, said that when Hungarians heard the tune they recognized it as an old national dance of their own. Did Yankee Doodle come from Central Asia with the great migrations? A secretary of the American legation at Madrid says a Spanish professor of music told him that Yankee Doodle resembled the ancient sword-dance of St. Sebastian. Did the Moors bring it into Spain many centuries ago? A Brunswick gentleman told Dr. Ritter, Professor of Music at Vassar College, that the air is that of a nursery-song traditional in the Duchy of Brunswick. A surgeon in the British army, who was with the provincial troops under Johnson at the head