Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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The three vessels set sail in April, and by June were off the coast of
Brazil and on their way to the Straits of Magellan. Near the La Plata river
Cabot found three Spaniards who had formed part of De Solis's expedition of
1515. These men gave such glowing accounts of the riches of the country
watered by this river that Cabot was at length induced, partly by their
descriptions and in part by the casting away of his flag-ship, to forgo the
search for Tarsis and Ophir and to enter the La Plata, which was reached in
February 1527. All the way up the Parana Cabot found the Indians friendly,
but those on the Paraguay proved so hostile that the attempt to reach the
mountains, where the gold and silver were procured, had to be given up. On
reaching Seville in August 1530, Cabot was condemned to four years'
banishment to Oran in Africa, but in June 1533 he was once more reinstated
in his former post of Pilot Major, which he continued to fill until he
again removed to England.

As early as 1538 Cabot tried to obtain employment under Henry VIII., and it
is possible he was the Sevillian pilot who was brought to London by the
king in 1541. Soon after the accession of Edward VI., however, his friends
induced the Privy Council to advance money for his removal to England, and
on the 5th of January 1549 the king granted him a pension of L166, 13s. 4d.
On Charles V. objecting to this proceeding, the Privy Council, on the zist
of April 1550, made answer that since "Cabot of himself refused to go
either into Spayne or to the emperour, no reason or equitie wolde that he
shulde be forced or compelled to go against his will." A fresh application
to Queen Mary on the 9th of September 1553 likewise proved of no avail.

On the 26th of June 1550 Cabot received L200 "by waie of the kinges
Majesties rewarde," but it is not clear whether this was for his services
in putting down the privileges of the German Merchants of the Steelyard or
for founding the company of Merchant Adventurers incorporated on the 18th
of December 1551. Of this company Cabot was made governor for life. Three
ships were sent out in May 1553 to search for a passage to the East by the
north-east. Two of the vessels were caught in the ice near Arzina and the
crews frozen to death. Chancellor's vessel alone reached the White Sea,
whence her captain made his way overland to Moscow. He returned to England
in the summer of 1554 and was the means of opening up a very considerable
trade with Russia. Vessels were again despatched to Russia in 1555 and
1556. On the departure of the "Searchthrift" in May 1556, "the good old
gentleman Master Cabot gave to the poor most liberal alms, wishing them to
pray for the good fortune and prosperous success of the 'Searchthrift'; and
then, at the sign of the Christopher, he and his friends banqueted and made
them that were in the company good cheer; and for very joy that he had to
see the towardness of our intended discovery, he entered into the dance
himself among the rest of the young and lusty company." On the arrival of
King Philip II. in England Cabot's pension was stopped on the 26th of May
1557, but three days later Mary had it renewed. The date of Cabot's death
has not been definitely discovered. It is supposed that he died within the
year.

See G.P. Winship, _Cabot Bibliography, with an Introductory Essay on the
Careers of the Cabots_ (London, 1900); and H.P. Biggar, "The Voyages of the
Cabots to North America and Greenland," in the _Revue Hispanique_, tome x.
pp. 485-593 (Paris, 1903).

(H. P. B.)

[1] Nothing further is known of Lewis and Santius.

[2] The dates are conjectural. Richard Eden (_Decades of the Newe Worlde_,
f. 255) says Sebastian told him that when four years old he was taken by
his father to Venice, and returned to England "after certeyne yeares;
wherby he was thought to have bin born in Venice"; Stow (_Annals_, under
year 1498) styles "Sebastian Caboto, a Genoas sonne, borne in Bristow".
Galvano and Herrera also give England the honour of his nativity. See also
Nicholls, _Remarkable Life of Sebastian Cabot_ (1869), a eulogistic
account, with which may be contrasted Henry Harrisse's _John Cabot and his
son Sebastian_ (1896).

CABOTAGE, the French term for coasting-trade, a coast-pilotage. It is
probably derived from _cabot_, a small boat, with which the name Cabot may
be connected; the conjecture that the word comes from _cabo_, the Spanish
for cape, and means "sailing from cape to cape", has little foundation.

CABRA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Cordova, 28 m. S.E. by
S. of Cordova, on the Jaen-Malaga railway. Pop. (1900) 13,127. Cabra is
built in a fertile valley between the Sierra de Cabra and the Sierra de
Montilla, which together form the watershed between the rivers Cabra and
Guadajoz. The town was for several centuries an episcopal see. Its chief
buildings are the cathedral, originally a mosque, and the ruined castle,
which is the chief among many interesting relics of Moorish rule. The
neighbouring fields of clay afford material for the manufacture of bricks
and pottery; coarse cloth is woven in the town; and there is a considerable
trade in farm produce. Cabra is the Roman _Baebro_ or _Aegabro_. It was
delivered from the Moors by Ferdinand III. of Castile in 1240, and
entrusted to the Order of Calatrava; in 1331 it was recaptured by the
Moorish king of Granada; but in the following century it was finally
reunited to Christian Spain.

CABRERA, RAMON (1806-1877), Carlist general, was born at Tortosa, province
of Tarragona, Spain, on the 27th of December 1806. As his family had in
their gift two chaplaincies, young Cabrera was sent to the seminary of
Tortosa, where he made himself conspicuous as an unruly pupil, ever mixed
up in disturbances and careless in his studies. After he had taken minor
orders, the bishop refused to ordain him as a priest, telling him that the
Church was not his vocation, and that everything in him showed that he
ought to be a soldier. Cabrera followed this advice and took part in
Carlist conspiracies on the death of Ferdinand VII. The authorities exiled
him and he absconded to Morella to join the forces of the pretender Don
Carlos. In a very short time he rose by sheer daring, fanaticism and
ferocity to the front rank among the Carlist chiefs who led the bands of
Don Carlos in Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia. As a raider he was often
successful, and he was many times wounded in the brilliant fights in which
he again and again defeated the generals of Queen Isabella. He sullied his
victories by acts of cruelty, shooting prisoners of war whose lives he had
promised to spare and not respecting the lives and property of
non-combatants. The queen's generals seized his mother as a hostage,
whereupon Cabrera shot several mayors and officers. General Nogueras
unfortunately caused the mother of Cabrera to be shot, and the Carlist
leader then started upon a policy of reprisals so merciless that the people
nicknamed him "The Tiger of the Maeztrazgo". It will suffice to say that he
shot 1110 prisoners of war, 100 officers and many civilians, including the
wives of four leading Isabellinos, to avenge his mother. When Marshal
Espartero induced the Carlists of the north-western provinces, with Maroto
at their head, to submit in accordance with the Convention of Vergara,
which secured the recognition of the rank and titles of 1000 Carlist
officers, Cabrera held out in Central Spain for nearly a year. Marshals
Espartero and O'Donnell, with the bulk of the Isabellino armies, had to
conduct a long and bloody campaign against Cabrera before they succeeded in
driving him into French territory in July 1840. The government of Louis
Philippe kept him in a fortress for some months and then allowed him to go
to England, where he quarrelled with the pretender, disapproving of his
abdication in favour of the count of Montemolin. In 1848 Cabrera reappeared
in the mountains of Catalonia at the head of Carlist bands. These were soon
dispersed and he again fled to France. After this last effort he did not
take a very active part in the propaganda and subsequent risings of the
Carlists, who, however, continued to consult him. He took offence when new
men, not a few of them quondam regular officers, became the advisers and
lieutenants of Don Carlos in the war which lasted more or less from
1870-1876. Indeed, his long residence in England, his marriage with Miss
Richards, and his prolonged absence from Spain had much shaken his devotion
to his old cause and belief in its success. In March 1875 Cabrera sprang
upon Don Carlos a manifesto in which he called upon the adherents of the
pretender to follow his own example and submit to the restored monarchy of
Alphonso XII., the son of Queen Isabella, who recognized the rank of
captain-general and the title of count of Morella conferred on Cabrera by
[v.04 p.0924] the first pretender. Only a very few insignificant Carlists
followed Cabrera's example, and Don Carlos issued a proclamation declaring
him a traitor and depriving him of all his honours and titles. Cabrera, who
was ever afterwards regarded with contempt and execration by the Carlists,
died in London on the 24th of May 1877. He did not receive much attention
from the majority of his fellow-countrymen, who commonly said that his
disloyalty to his old cause had proved more harmful to him than beneficial
to the new state of things. A pension which had been granted to his widow
was renounced by her in 1899 in aid of the Spanish treasury after the loss
of the colonies.

(A. E. H.)

CACCINI, GIULIO (1558-1615?), Italian musical composer, also known as
Giulio Romano, but to be distinguished from the painter of that name, was
born at Rome about 1558, and in 1578 entered the service of the grand duke
of Tuscany at Florence. He collaborated with J. Peri in the early attempts
at musical drama which were the ancestors of modern opera (_Dafne_, 1594,
and _Euridice_, 1600), produced at Florence by the circle of musicians and
amateurs which met at the houses of G. Bardi and Corsi. He also published
in 1601 _Le nuove musiche_, a collection of songs which is of great
importance in the history of singing as well as in that of the transition
period of musical composition. He was a lyric composer rather than a
dramatist like Peri, and the genuine beauty of his works makes them
acceptable even at the present day.

CACERES, a province of western Spain, formed in 1833 of districts taken
from Estremadura, and bounded on the N. by Salamanca and Avila, E. by
Toledo, S. by Badajoz, and W. by Portugal. Pop. (1900) 362,164; area, 7667
sq. m. Caceres is the largest of Spanish provinces, after Badajoz, and one
of the most thinly peopled, although the number of its inhabitants steadily
increases. Except for the mountainous north, where the Sierra de Gata and
the Sierra de Gredos mark respectively the boundaries of Salamanca and
Avila, and in the south-east, where there are several lower ranges, almost
the entire surface is flat or undulating, with wide tracts of moorland and
thin pasture. There is little forest and many districts suffer from
drought. The whole province, except the extreme south, belongs to the basin
of the river Tagus, which flows from east to west through the central
districts, and is joined by several tributaries, notably the Alagon and
Tietar, from the north, and the Salor and Almonte from the south. The
climate is temperate except in summer, when hot east winds prevail. Fair
quantities of grain and olives are raised, but as a stock-breeding province
Caceres ranks second only to Badajoz. In 1900 its flocks and herds numbered
more than 1,000,000 head. It is famed for its sheep and pigs, and exports
wool, hams and the red sausages called _embutidos_. Its mineral resources
are comparatively insignificant. The total number of mines at work in 1903
was only nine; their output consisted of phosphates, with a small amount of
zinc and tin. Brandy, leather and cork goods, and coarse woollen stuffs are
manufactured in many of the towns, but the backwardness of education, the
lack of good roads, and the general poverty retard the development of
commerce. The more northerly of the two Madrid-Lisbon railways enters the
province on the east; passes south of Plasencia, where it is joined by the
railway from Salamanca, on the north; and reaches the Portuguese frontier
at Valencia de Alcantara. This line is supplemented by a branch from Arroyo
to the city of Caceres, and thence southwards to Merida in Badajoz. Here it
meets the railways from Seville and Cordova. The principal towns of Caceres
are Caceres (pop. 1900, 16,933); Alcantara (3248), famous for its Roman
bridge; Plasencia (8208); Trujillo (12,512), and Valencia de Alcantara
(9417). These are described in separate articles. Arroyo, or Arroyo del
Puerco (7094), is an important agricultural market. (See also ESTREMADURA.)

CACERES, the capital of the Spanish province of Caceres, about 20 m. S. of
the river Tagus, on the Caceres-Merida railway, and on a branch line which
meets the more northerly of the two Madrid-Lisbon railways at Arroyo, 10 m.
W. Pop. (1900) 16,933. Caceres occupies a conspicuous eminence on a low
ridge running east and west. At the highest point rises the lofty tower of
San Mateo, a fine Gothic church, which overlooks the old town, with its
ancient palaces and massive walls, gateways and towers. Many of the
palaces, notably those of the provincial legislature, the dukes of
Abrantes, and the counts of la Torre, are good examples of medieval
domestic architecture. The monastery and college of the Jesuits, formerly
one of the finest in Spain, has been secularized and converted into a
hospital. In the modern town, built on lower ground beyond the walls, are
the law courts, town-hall, schools and the palace of the bishops of Coria
(pop. 3124), a town on the river Alagon. The industries of Caceres include
the manufacture of cork and leather goods, pottery and cloth. There is also
a large trade in grain, oil, live-stock and phosphates from the
neighbouring mines. The name of _Caceres_ is probably an adaptation of _Los
Alcazares_, from the Moorish _Alcazar_, a tower or castle; but it is
frequently connected with the neighbouring _Castra Caecilia_ and _Castra
Servilia_, two Roman camps on the Merida-Salamanca road. The town is of
Roman origin and probably stands on the site of _Norba Caesarina_. Several
Roman inscriptions, statues and other remains have been discovered.

CACHAR, or KACHAR, a district of British India, in the province of Eastern
Bengal and Assam. It occupies the upper basin of the Surma or Barak river,
and is bounded on three sides by lofty hills. Its area is 3769 sq. m. It is
divided naturally between the plain and hills. The scenery is beautiful,
the hills rising generally steeply and being clothed with forests, while
the plain is relieved of monotony by small isolated undulations and by its
rich vegetation. The Surma is the chief river, and its principal
tributaries from the north are the Jiri and Jatinga, and from the south the
Sonai and Daleswari. The climate is extremely moist. Several extensive
fens, notably that of Chatla, which becomes lakes in time of flood, are
characteristic of the plain. This is alluvial and bears heavy crops of
rice, next to which in importance is tea. The industry connected with the
latter crop employs large numbers of the population; manufacturing
industries are otherwise slight. The Assam-Bengal railway serves the
district, including the capital town of Silchar. The population of the
district in 1901 was 455,593, and showed a large increase, owing in great
part to immigration from the adjacent district of Sylhet. The plain is the
most thickly populated part of the district; in the North Cachar Hills the
population is sparse. About 66 % of the population are Hindus and 20 %
Mahommedans. There are three administrative subdivisions of the district:
Silchar, Hailakandi and North Cachar. The district takes name from its
former rulers of the Kachari tribe, of whom the first to settle here did so
early in the 18th century, after being driven out of the Assam valley in
1536, and from the North Cachar Hills in 1706, by the Ahoms. About the
close of the 18th century the Burmans threatened to expel the Kachari raja
and annex his territory; the British, however, intervened to prevent this,
and on the death of the last raja without heir in 1830 they obtained the
territory under treaty. A separate principality which had been established
in the North Cachar Hills earlier in the century by a servant of the raja,
and had been subsequently recognized as such, was taken over by the British
in 1854 owing to the misconduct of its rulers. The southern part of the
district was raided several times in the 19th century by the turbulent
tribe of Lushais.

CACHOEIRA, an important inland town of Bahia, Brazil, on the Paraguassu
river, about 48 m. from Sao Salvador, with which it is connected by
river-boats. Pop. (1890) of the city, 12,607; of the municipality, 48,352.
The Bahia Central railway starts from this point and extends S. of W. to
Machado Portella, 161 m., and N. to Feira de Santa Anna, 28 m. Although
badly situated on the lower levels of the river (52 ft. above sea-level)
and subject to destructive floods, Cachoeira is one of the most thriving
commercial and industrial centres in the state. It exports sugar and
tobacco and is noted for its cigar and cotton factories.

CACTUS. This word, applied in the form of [Greek: Kaktos] by the ancient
Greeks to some prickly plant, was adopted by Linnaeus as the name of a
group of curious succulent or fleshy-stemmed plants, most of them prickly
and leafless, some of which produce [v.04 p.0925] beautiful flowers, and
are now so popular in our gardens that the name has become familiar. As
applied by Linnaeus, the name _Cactus_ is almost conterminous with what is
now regarded as the natural order Cactaceae, which embraces several modern
genera. It is one of the few Linnaean generic terms which have been
entirely set aside by the names adopted for the modern divisions of the
group.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Prickly Pear (_Opuntia vulgaris_). 1, Flower
reduced; 2, Same in vertical section; 3, Flattened branch much reduced; 4,
Horizontal plan of arrangement of flower.]

The _Cacti_ may be described in general terms as plants having a woody
axis, overlaid with thick masses of cellular tissue forming the fleshy
stems. These are extremely various in character and form, being globose,
cylindrical, columnar or flattened into leafy expansions or thick
joint-like divisions, the surface being either ribbed like a melon, or
developed into nipple-like protuberances, or variously angular, but in the
greater number of the species furnished copiously with tufts of horny
spines, some of which are exceedingly keen and powerful. These tufts show
the position of buds, of which, however, comparatively few are developed.
The stems are in most cases leafless, using the term in a popular sense;
the leaves, if present at all, being generally reduced to minute scales. In
one genus, however, _Peireskia_, the stems are less succulent, and the
leaves, though rather fleshy, are developed in the usual form. The flowers
are frequently large and showy, and are generally attractive from their
high colouring. In one group, represented by _Cereus_, they consist of a
tube, more or less elongated, on the outer surface of which, towards the
base, are developed small and at first inconspicuous scales, which
gradually increase in size upwards, and at length become crowded, numerous
and petaloid, forming a funnel-shaped blossom, the beauty of which is much
enhanced by the multitude of conspicuous stamens which with the pistil
occupy the centre. In another group, represented by _Opuntia_ (fig. 1), the
flowers are rotate, that is to say, the long tube is replaced by a very
short one. At the base of the tube, in both groups, the ovary becomes
developed into a fleshy (often edible) fruit, that produced by the
_Opuntia_ being known as the prickly pear or Indian fig.

The principal modern genera are grouped by the differences in the
flower-tube just explained. Those with long-tubed flowers comprise the
genera _Melocactus_, _Mammillaria_, _Echinocactus_, _Cereus_, _Pilocereus_,
_Echinopsis_, _Phyllocactus_, _Epiphyllum_, &c.; while those with
short-tubed flowers are _Rhipsalis_, _Opuntia_, _Peireskia_, and one or two
of minor importance. Cactaceae belong almost entirely to the New World; but
some of the Opuntias have been so long distributed over certain parts of
Europe, especially on the shores of the Mediterranean and the volcanic soil
of Italy, that they appear in some places to have taken possession of the
soil, and to be distinguished with difficulty from the aboriginal
vegetation. The habitats which they affect are the hot, dry regions of
tropical America, the aridity of which they are enabled to withstand in
consequence of the thickness of their skin and the paucity of evaporating
pores or stomata with which they are furnished,--these conditions not
permitting the moisture they contain to be carried off too rapidly; the
thick fleshy stems and branches contain a store of water. The succulent
fruits are not only edible but agreeable, and in fevers are freely
administered as a cooling drink. The Spanish Americans plant the Opuntias
around their houses, where they serve as impenetrable fences.

MELOCACTUS, the genus of melon-thistle or Turk's-cap cactuses, contains,
according to a recent estimate, about 90 species, which inhabit chiefly the
West Indies, Mexico and Brazil, a few extending into New Granada. The
typical species, _M. communis_, forms a succulent mass of roundish or ovate
form, from 1 ft. to 2 ft. high, the surface divided into numerous furrows
like the ribs of a melon, with projecting angles, which are set with a
regular series of stellated spines--each bundle consisting of about five
larger spines, accompanied by smaller but sharp bristles--and the tip of
the plant being surmounted by a cylindrical crown 3 to 5 in. high, composed
of reddish-brown, needle-like bristles, closely packed with cottony wool.
At the summit of this crown the small rosy-pink flowers are produced, half
protruding from the mass of wool, and these are succeeded by small red
berries. These strange plants usually grow in rocky places with little or
no earth to support them; and it is said that in times of drought the
cattle resort to them to allay their thirst, first ripping them up with
their horns and tearing off the outer skin, and then devouring the moist
succulent parts. The fruit, which has an agreeably acid flavour, is
frequently eaten in the West Indies. The _Melocacti_ are distinguished by
the distinct cephalium or crown which bears the flowers.

MAMMILLARIA.--This genus, which comprises nearly 300 species, mostly
Mexican, with a few Brazilian and West Indian, is called nipple cactus, and
consists of globular or cylindrical succulent plants, whose surface instead
of being cut up into ridges with alternate furrows, as in _Melocactus_, is
broken up into teat-like cylindrical or angular tubercles, spirally
arranged, and terminating in a radiating tuft of spines which spring from a
little woolly cushion. The flowers issue from between the mammillae,
towards the upper part of the stem, often disposed in a zone just below the
apex, and are either purple, rose-pink, white or yellow, and of moderate
size. The spines are variously coloured, white and yellow tints
predominating, and from the symmetrical arrangement of the areolae or tufts
of spines they are very pretty objects, and are hence frequently kept in
drawing-room plant cases. They grow freely in a cool greenhouse.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_Echinocactus_ much reduced; the flowers are
several inches in diameter.]

ECHINOCACTUS (fig. 2) is the name given to the genus bearing the popular
name of hedgehog cactus. It comprises some 200 species, distributed from
the south-west United States to Brazil and Chile. They have the fleshy
stems characteristic of the order, these being either globose, oblong or
cylindrical, and either ribbed as in _Melocactus_, or broken up into
distinct tubercles, and most of them armed with stiff sharp pines, set in
little woolly cushions occupying the place of the buds. The flowers,
produced near the apex of the plant, are generally large and showy, yellow
and rose being the prevailing colours. They are succeeded by succulent
fruits, which are exserted, and frequently scaly or spiny, in which
respects this genus differs both from _Melocactus_ and _Mamrmllaria_, which
have the fruits immersed and smooth. One of the most interesting species is
the _E. ingens_, of which some very large plants have been from time to
time imported. These large plants have from 40 to 50 ridges, on which the
buds and clusters of spines are sunk at intervals, the aggregate number of
the spines having been in some cases computed at upwards of 50,000 on a
single plant. These spines are used by the Mexicans as toothpicks. The
plants are slow growers and must have plenty of sun heat; they require
sandy loam with a mixture of sand and bricks finely broken and must be kept
dry in winter.

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