ASTYAGES ASUNCION mer in the mountains.^Astnrias is famous in Spanish history as the refuge and stronghold to which the Christian Visigoths and their lead- ers fled when the Moors had gained possession of nearly all the rest of the peninsula, and had routed the Christian army in the battle of the Guadalete, in 711. The Christians held the province until, under the leadership of Pelayo, they gained a victory in 718, and, aided by the Prankish successes elsewhere, gradually drove back the Moors. Pelayo founded the kingdom of Asturias, over which he and his descendants ruled till 757, after which they were called kings of Oviedo. In 914 the court was transferred to Leon, that large district having been generally freed from Moorish rule and joined with Asturias. The title king of Leon was now borne by the reigning sover- eign, and the history of Asturias became iden- tical with that of the larger territory. The title of prince of Asturias was created for the Spanish heir apparent by John I. in 1388, at the wish of the duke of Lancaster, whose daughter the prince was about to marry ; and the crown prince of Spain was thus designated until the expulsion of the Bourbon dynasty in 1868. ASTYAGES, son of Cyaxares, the last king of Media and grandfather of Cyrus, by whom, ac- cording to Herodotus, he was dethroned after a reign of 35 years (594-559 B. 0.). (See CYRUS.) ASliAY, or A/,n:iy, the largest of the three departments of Ecuador, occupying the whole eastern and southern portions of the country, between lat. 1 N. and 5 S., and Ion. 68 and 80 W. ; area, about 200,000 sq. m. ; pop. about 250,000. In the western portion is an ele- vated desert, called the Paramo or desert of Asuay, being a plateau formed by the intersec- tion of the Andes by two chains of mountains running E. and W. The eastern parts, however, are fertile, being well watered by the Napo, Putumayo, and other affluents of the Amazon ; and the inhabitants here are engaged in agricul- ture and cattle breeding. On the edges of the western table land grow cinchona trees, whose bark forms one of the few exports of the coun- try. The principal towns are Cuenca and Loja. ASUNCION, ni'slra Sefiora de la Asuncion, or As- sumption, the capital of the republic of Paraguay, on the E. bank of the river Paraguay, in lat. 25 16' S., Ion. 57 42' W., 650 m. N. of Buenos Ayres ; pop. in 1857, including suburbs, 48,000. It was founded in 1536 by Juan de Ayolas, and until 1620 was the capital of all the Spanish pos- sessions on the Rio de la Plata. The streets are regularly laid out, but unpaved, and only a few of them have narrow flagged sidewalks. The dwellings are mostly of a single story, the bet- ter class built of adobes, with tiled roofs and projecting eaves. In building the ordinary nouses, posts are driven into the ground to support the beams and rafters, then strips of bamboo are placed transversely, and the whole chinked and plastered with mud. The finest pub- lic building is the cathedral, rebuilt in 1842-'5. There are two other churches, in one of which the dictator Francia was buried, but one night his monument was destroyed, and his bones removed, no one knows whither. The cahildo or city hall, in which the congress meets, is a respectable structure; the government palace is a building of one story with a double front and portico. There is a stone quay bordering the river, upon which stand the arsenal and some workshops, mainly for ship building. The principal suburbs are La Eecoleta and Lam- barfi, where are the cemeteries ; but until re- cently the dead were buried in the churches. The climate is healthy, although in summer the thermometer frequently rises above 100. In I _- Asuncion
