Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/429

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NANAIMO 367 NANKING bacco. With the exception of the pic- turesque citadel (1784), the old fortifica- tions have been razed since 1866, their place being taken by a cordon of seven forts. The town itself has suffered so much by war that it offers little of inter- est — the cathedral, completed in 1772, with the grave of Don John of Austria; the Jesuit Church of St. Loup (1653), a large military school, an antiquarian museum, monuments of Leopold I. and the geologist Omalius d'Halloy (1783- 1875), etc. Namur was captured by Louis XIV. in 1692, but recaptured in 1695, after a 10 weeks' siege, by William III. It was captured, after a brief re- sistance, by the Germans in 1914, and with its fall began the Great Retreat to the Marne. Pop. about 35,000. NANAIMO, a city of British Columbia, the capital of the Nanaimo electoral district. It is situated on Departure Bay, on the east coast of Vancouver Island and on the Esquimault and Nanaimo railway, about 73 miles N. W. of Vic- toria. Opposite the mainland is Van- couver City, with which there is daily steamboat communication. The city is the center of the coal-mining and fish- ing industries of British Columbia. It has a handsome county building, a cus- tom house and a Roman Catholic con- vent. It has manufactories of bricks, machine-shop products, and lumber products. The city was the site of the Hudson's Bay Company block house, built in 1833. Pop. about 10,000. NANA SAHIB, the name under which Dundhu Pairth, adopted son of the ex- peshwa of the Mahrattas, became known as the leader of the Indian Mutiny in 1857; born about 1825. He was the son of a Brahmin in the Deccan, and educated as a Hindu nobleman. He was industrious in fanning discontent with the English rule, on the outbreak of the mutiny he was proclaimed peshwa, and was responsible for the massacres at Cawnpur (see India). After the suppression of the rebellion he escaped into Nepal. He died about 1860. NANCHANG, a city of China, the cap- ital of the province of Kiangsi. The surrounding country is very fertile and the city has important trade in porce- lain and other manufactures. Pop. about 150,000. NANCY (non^r-se'), a town of France; capital of the department of Meurthe- et-Moselle, on the Meurthe, 220 miles E. of Paris. It comprises, besides several suburbs, the old and new towns, and contains many fine squares and impos- ing edifices. Here are statues of Stan* islas Leszczynski (1677-1766), twice King of Poland, General Drouot, Thiers, and others, and among its noted in- stitutions are the city hall, bishop's palace, theater, cathedral (1742), nu- merous churches, the 16th-century ducal palace, a university, etc. Nancy, which has grown much in importance since the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, has manufactures of cotton and woolen goods, artificial flowers, iron, tobacco, etc.; but its staple industry is em- broidery on cambric and muslin. Dat- ing from the 12th century, Nancy was the capital of the duchy of Lorraine. Here occurred the death of Charles the Bold (1477), and the birth of Callot and Claude Lorraine. Nancy was in the war zone in the World War, and suf- fered severely, chiefly from German aerial raids. Pop. about 120,000. NANKEEN, or NANKING, CLOTH, a fabric made of a kind of cotton grown in China which is naturally of a buff- yellow color, and this is also the color of the cloth. The plant which yields it is a mere variety of Gossypium her- baceum. In the first half of the 19th century nankeen cloth was much used for ladies' and children's attire, and also for men's trousers, but now the name, when applied to certain kinds of cotton goods, is not confined to fabrics resembling genuine nankeen cloth. NANKING, capital of the province of Kiangsu, formerly the capital of China, on the Yangtse river, 130 miles from its mouth. Its name signifies the southern capital. Since the removal of the seat of government to Peking (northern capital), in the beginning of the 15th century, the official name has been Kiangning, though the old name is popu- larly preferred. From 1853 to 1864 it was the capital of the Taiping rebels, who destroyed nearly all the magnificent public buildings for which the city was once famous. Previous to that time the walls inclosed an area nearly 20 miles in circumference, and reached in many places an elevation of 70 feet. The most memorable of the ruined buildings were the Porcelain Tower, the summer palace, and the tombs of the kings, with remarkable sepulchral statues. After its recapture by the Chinese imperial- ists, Nanking resumed its position as the seat of the viceregal government, and an arsenal was established. In 1842 it was captured by the British. Though specified in the treaty of Tient- sin (1858) as a river port to be opened to foreign trade, little has come of this concession. Pop. estimated 270,000.