The city, under the name of Cambaluc, was constituted into an archiepiscopal see by Pope Clement V. in 1307, in favour of the missionary Franciscan John of Montecorvino; but though some successors were nominated it seems probable that no second metropolitan ever actually occupied the seat.
Maps of the 16th and 17th centuries often show Cambaluc in an imaginary region to the north of China, a part of the misconception that has prevailed regarding Cathay (see China). The name is often in popular literature written Cambalu, and is by Longfellow accented in verse Cámbălú. But this spelling originates in an accidental error in Ramusio’s Italian version, which, till lately, was the chief channel through which Marco Polo’s book was popularly known. The original (French) MSS. all agree with the etymology in calling it Cambaluc, which should be accented Cămbáluc.
CAMBAY, or Kambay, a town of Western India, in Guzerat, or the northern division of the province of Bombay, and forming the capital of the native state of the same name, which has an area of about 350 square miles, and a population of about 175,000. It is situated on the River Mahi, at the upper part of the Gulf of Cambay, 230 miles N. of Bombay, in 22 18 N. lat. and 72 39 E. long. It is supposed to b>3 the Camanes of Ptolemy, and was formerly a very flourishing city, the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of silk, chintz, and gold stuffs; but owing principally to the gradually increasing difficulty of access by water, its commerce has long since fallen away, and the town has become poor and dilapidated. The tides rise upwards of 30 feet, and at high water ships anchor near the town. The trade is chiefly confined to the export of cotton. The town is celebrated for its agates and carnelians, which are wrought into a variety of trinkets of reputation principally in China. The houses in many instances are built of stone (a circumstance which indicates the former wealth of the city, as the material had to be brought from a very considerable distance) ; and a brick wall, three miles in circumference, surrounds the town, enclosing four large reservoirs of good water and three bazaars. To the south-east there are very extensive ruins of subterranean temples and other buildings half-buried in the sand by which the ancient town was overwhelmed. These temples belong to the Jains, and contain two massive statues of their deities, the one black, the other white. The principal one, as the inscription intimates, is Pariswanath, or Parswanatha, carved in the reign of the Emperor Akbar ; the black one has the date of 1651 inscribed. It is supposed that Cambay about the 5th century was the capital of the Hindu emperors of Western India. In 1780 it was taken possession of by the army of General Goddard, was restored to the Mahrattas in 1783, and was afterwards ceded to the British by the Peishwa under the treaty of 1803. The nawab, who is one of the 153 feudatory princes of British India by Sunn-ud or patent, pays 5876 of annual tribute to the viceroy of India from his revenue of 35,000. His military establishment consists of 800 horse and foot, who are employed indiscriminately in revenue, police, and miscellaneous duties ; and a few pieces of ordnance complete his resources.
The Gulf of Cambay, which is shallow and abounds in shoals and sand-banks, penetrates the coast of India for about 80 miles. It is supposed that the depth of water in this gulf has been decreasing for more than two cen turies past. The tides, which are very high, run into it with amazing velocity, but at low water the bottom is left nearly dry for some distance below the latitude of the town of Cambay. It is, however, an important inlet, being the channel by which the valuable produca of central Guzerat and the British districts of Ahmedabad and Broach is exported; but the railway from Bombay to Baroda and Ahmedabad, near Cambay, is gradually attracting the trade to itself. The gulf extends between 21 and 22 10 N. lat., and 71 50 and 72 40 E. long.
CAMBERT, Robert (1628-1677), the earliest composer of French operas, was born at Paris in 1628. His master for the clavecin, and probably also for composition, was Chambonnieres. He was organist of the church of St Honore", and also held the office of musical superintendent to Queen Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. His earlier works, the words of which were furnished by the Abbd Perrin, continued to be performed before the court at Vincennes, till the death of his patron Cardinal Mazarin. Displeased at his subsequent neglect, and jealous of the favour shown to Lulli, who was musical superintendent to the king, he went, in 1673, to London, where he was appointed soon after his arrival master of the band to Charles II. One at least of his operas, Pomone, was performed in London under his direction, but it did not suit the popular taste. His principal operatic pieces were entitled Ariadne ou les Amours de Bacchus, Pomone. and Les Peines et les Plaisirs de I Amour. Cambert died in London about 1677.
CAMBODIA, more properly Camboja, or Kamboja, a very ancient kingdom of South-eastern Asia, still subsisting in decay. As now limited the territory of Camboja forms a rough parallelogram, consisting in large part of alluvial plain, lying athwart the lower course of the Mekong or Great Camboja River, just above the Delta. The greatest length of the territory runs from W. to E., covering a little more than 3/ of longitude, viz., from about 103 E. long, to 106 40 . The mean breadth from S. to N. is a little over 2 of latitude, extending on the western coast from 10 30 K lat. to 11 45 , and on the little known eastern frontier from about 11 35 to 13 40 . On the N. it is bounded by provinces which the Siamese have wrested from Camboja ; on the E. by Cochin-Chinese territory ; on the S. by the Delta Provinces first taken by Cochin-China from Camboja, and then by the French from Cochin-China ; on the W. by the Gulf of Siam, along which it extends for 200 miles, now its only seaboard.
Both the ethnology and the early history of Camboja partake of the obscurity that hangs over Indo-China generally. But traditions of the ancient grandeur of the kingdom are borne out by the recent exploration of numerous architectural remains of extraordinary extent and magnificence within its former limits. Some important notices are found in Chinese annals, and more information is to be expected when numerous existing inscriptions shall have been successfully interpreted.
The name given by the people of Camboja to their own race is Khmer, a name which was known and used by early Arab voyagers and geographers under the form Komdr, and noted by them as a country famous for aloes-wood ; it has, however, been imbroiled in much confusion both by them and by their commentators. There is a persistent and apparently well-founded tradition among the Khmer, that before their own immigration, as they say from the north, the Tsiam or Champa race were in possession of the soil, whilst the Khme"r themselves seem to have preceded the descent of the Thai race, to which the people of Siam and Laos belong.
early immigrations from Gangetic India. We know that the Pali-Bucldhistical annals of Ceylon record that at the conclusion of the third great synod of the Buddhist church, held at Palibothra, in the year 302 after Buddha (corresponding, according to ordinary Ceylonese reckoning, to 241 B.C., but as corrected by Professor Max Miiller to
175 B.< .), a mission was despatched to the region of