Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/405

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

KOGET ROIILFS 389 idea may be obtained from the volumes of his "Table Talk" published by the Rev. Alexan- der Dyce (1856), and a similar collection by his nephew William Sharpe (1859). ROGET, Peter Mark, an English author, born in London in 1779, died there, Sept. 13, 1869. He graduated in medicine at the university of Edinburgh in 1798, and after a tour to the continent settled in 1804 in Manchester, where he was appointed physician to the infirmary, lunatic asylum, and fever hospital. In 1808 he went to London, and was for many years secre- tary of the royal society, and one of the Ful- lerian lecturers on physiology at the royal in- stitution. His best known work is the -"The- saurus of English Words and Phrases" (1852; 9th ed., revised, 1860 ; American ed. by Barnas Sears, D. D., New York, 1854). He also wrote " Animal and Vegetable Physiology," a Bridge- water treatise (2 vols. 8vo, 1834; 3d ed., 1840), " Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, and Elec- tro-magnetism " (1848), &c. ROHM, Louis Rene Edonard, prince de, a French cardinal, born Sept. 25, 1734, died at Ettenheim, Baden, Feb. 17, 1803. He was des- tined for the church, and became while very young the associate of his uncle the bishop of Strasburg. In 1772 he was ambassador from Louis XV. to Vienna, was recalled in 1774 on account of his giving offence to the empress Maria Theresa by scandalous luxury and polit- ical meddling, aud appointed after his return to various places of distinction and emolument. In 1778 he was made a cardinal, and in 1779 bishop of Strasburg. He was imprisoned in 1785 for his part in the affair of the diamond necklace, which so gravely compromised Marie Antoinette (see LAMOTTE-VALOIS), and was released in 1786, but dismissed from court ut- terly disgraced. In 1789 he was a deputy of the clergy of Hagenau to the states general ; but being accused of disloyal conduct, he re- signed his seat, and retired to his estate on the Rhine beyond the jurisdiction of France. In 1801, in consequence of the concordat, he re- signed the bishopric of Strasburg. ROIHLCIM), the country of the Rohillas, in British India, TV. of Oude, 1ST. and E. of the Ganges, and S. of Kumaon and Gurhwal, now comprised in a commissionership or admin- istrative division of the Northwest Provinces bearing the same name, and in the native principality of Rampoor, which is surrounded by the six districts composing the division. These districts are Bareilly, Bijnoor, Budaon, Moradabad, Shahjehanpoor, and Terai (Kashi- poor) ; total area, about 11,500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 5,435,550. The country is drained by several tributaries of the Ganges, of which the Ramganga is the largest. Sugar, cotton, cot- ton cloth, and timber are the principal articles of exportation. A good deal of rice is raised in the Terai region, which is irrigated by a large number of small canals and hill dams. The Rohillas, from whom this territory derives its name, are descendants of the Afghan sol- diery who established themselves in the vicin- ity of Delhi, and on the dissolution of the Mo- gul empire in the middle of the 18th century became independent. About 1770 they were attacked by the Mahrattas, and sought assis- tance from the vizier of Oude, who afforded them but little aid, and subsequently demanded an enormous sum in payment for it. In 1774 British troops were sent against the Rohillas by Warren Hastings, to enforce this demand, and the country was brought under subjection to the vizier, who in 1801 ceded to the English the entire territory with the exception of Ram- poor. In 1857 the sepoys mutinied at every station in Rohilcund, and the country was a prominent seat of military operations. ROIILFS, Gerhard, a German traveller, born at Vegesack, near Bremen, April 14, 1834. He studied medicine at Heidelberg, Wurzburg, and Gottingen, went to Algeria, enlisted in the foreign legion of the French army, served in the conquest of Kabylia, and attained the high- est rank open to a foreigner. Having there learned the Arabic language and the mode of life of the inhabitants, in 1861 he went to Mo- rocco, where in the character of a Moham- medan physician he acquired the friendship of the grand sherif, and under his protection travelled through the country, traversing the Morocco portion of the Sahara from W. to E., and exploring the whole course of the wady Draa. On this journey he was treacherously attacked by his guides, robbed, and left for dead in the desert, with a broken arm. In 1864 he travelled still further in Morocco, and crossed the Atlas mountains to the oasis of Tuat. His description and map of the country were the first ever made from personal obser- vation and with scientific knowledge. After a short visit to Germany in 1865 he returned to Africa, and traversed the continent disguised as an Arab from Tripoli to Lagos, by way of Moorzook in Fezzan, Bilma, Kuka, the chief city of Bornoo, the river Benoowe, the Niger, and the Gomba country. The journey occupied altogether about two years, and obtained him the medal of the royal geographical society of London. Rohlfs's detailed account of it is con- tained in the Ergdmungsheft No. 34 to Peter- mann's Geographische Mittheilungen (Gotha, 1872). At the close of 1867, by order of the king of Prussia, he joined the English expe- dition against Abyssinia. He returned to Tri- poli in 1868, and in 1869 traversed the desert from Tripoli to Alexandria, visiting the oasis of Siwah, the ancient Ammonium. In 1873, with an expedition of 100 camels and 90 men, organized under the patronage of the khedive of Egypt, he explored the Libyan desert W. of the chain of oases which skirt the valley of the Nile, and discovered that the depression called the Bahr Bela-ma (river without water) marked on many maps of the desert does not exist. The progress of the expedition S. W. of the oasis of Dakhel was stopped by hills of loose sliding sand, which the camels were un-