Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/292

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CAY—CAY

little. His temper seems to have been strongly conserva tive ; he delighted in the glories of chivalry, and declared that he would rejoice in a new crusade which should pre vent its decay. This disposition was also displayed in his great slowness to adopt reforms in typography. He appears to have been a shrewd and courtly man of business, and a scholar of considerable attainments, for he was acquainted with French, Latin, and Dutch, and was master of an English style which is both pleasant and vigorous. For an account of his typography, see Printing. His life has been written by Oldys in the Biographia Britannica, by Lewis (1738;, by Charles Knight, and by

Mr Blades.

CAYENNE, an island of South America. See Guiana.

CAYENNE, a seaport town, and the capital of French Guiana, on the north-west extremity of the island of Cayenne, and near the mouth of the river of that name, in 4 56 5" N. lat. and 52 20 W. long. The town forms an almost perfect square, and has clean and well-macada mized streets. The houses, mostly of two stories, are of wood, strengthened on the first and ground floors by brick work. In the old town, which contains the Government- house and Jesuits College, the streets are not so regularly and well built as in the new. The Place d Armes, a fine quadrangular space, lies between them. The streets are lighted with oil lamps, which burn for nearly twelve hours. Cayenne has a parish church, three Roman Catholic chapels, a nunnery, and two schools ; also a bank and savings bank under Government supervision, military and civil hospitals, and a hospital for leprosy ; but it has no hotel, theatre, club, reading-room, or any place of amuse ment. To the right of the governor s house is Mount Ce pe ron, on which stand Fort St Michell, the marine barracks, the signal station, and the light-house. Here, too, are the capacious reservoirs for the water-supply of the town, the source of which is a lake to the south of the island. The harbour is shallow at its entrance, but sufficiently deep within to float vessels of 800 tons burthen ; craft drawing much water are obliged to load and unload at a distance of seven or eight miles from the town. There is no dock for the repair of vessels ; and the quay is small, though of sufficient size to meet requirements. The principal exports of Cayenne are native gold, raw sugar, arnotto, cocoa, coffee, limes (in brine), rum, molasses, isinglass, cotton, hides, woods, and spices. In 1873 the gold which paid export duty weighed 2206 ft troy. The imports are French wines, spirits, and liqueurs ; vinegar, silk and cotton stuffs, tobacco, hardware, glass, earthen ware, clothing, preserved meat, fish, and vegetables, maize, flour, hay, bran, oils, and cattle. The value of the total exports in 1873 was 120,014, of the imports 282,808, the import trade having increased and the export trade sensibly diminished during the preceding thirty-five years. In 1872 the vessels cleared were 90, tonnage 19,688 ; the vessels entered, 87, tonnage 18,530. There is a regular mail service between Cayenne, the West Indies, and Europe, once a month. The ports trading with Cayenne are Mar tinique, Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, and Salem in the United States. Cayenne is the seat of the Government of French Guiana, and a penal settlement for political offenders. It is provided with an efficient police force, and is well governed. Food as well as clothing is exorbitantly dear, the only cheap articles of consumption being bread and French wines. The temperature of Cayenne is between 76 and 88 Fahr. throughout the year ; but the heat is tem pered by easterly winds. Between December and March a north wind blows, unfavourable to weak constitutions. Yellow and other fevers often attack the inhabitants of the town, which, owing apparently to the vast swamp that flanks one side of it is far from healthy. The death-rate amongst the coolies is especially high. Population, about 7000.

CAYENNE PEPPER, Guinea Pepper, Spanish Pepper, Chilly, a preparation from the dried fruit of various

species of Capsicum, a genus of the Natural Order /Sola- nacece, to which belong also the potato, tomato, and bittersweet. The true peppers are members of a totally distinct order, the Piperaceoe. The fruits of plants of the genus Capsicum have all a strong pungent flavour. The capsicums bear a greenish -white or violaceous flower, with a wheel-shaped corolla, five anthers (connivent and dehiscing lengthwise), and an obtuse stigma. The ovary becomes a pod, consisting of an envelope at first fleshy and afterwards leathery, within which are the spongy pulp and several seeds. The leaves are entire, and alternate, or in pairs near one another; the peduncles are extra-axillary. There are many kinds of capsicums, ranked by botanists either as distinct species or as varieties. Don, in his General System of Gardening and Botany, gives a list of thirty- three species. They are chiefly natives of Brazil, the West and East Indies, and China. They are now grown in various parts of the world, both for the sake of the fruit and for ornament. In England the annual sorts are sown from March to the middle of April, under a frame. They can be planted out when 2 or 3 inches high, and in June may be transferred to a light rich soil in the open garden. They flower in July or August, and produce pods from August till the end of September. The perennial and shrubby kinds may be wintered in a conservatory. Several species or varieties are used to make Cayenne pepper. The annual or common capsicum (C. annuum), the Guinea Pepper plant, was brought to Europe by the Spaniards, and was grown in England in 1548. It is indigenous to South America, but is now cultivated in India, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, with the other species of capsicum. It is a hardy herbaceous plant, which attains a height of 2 or 3 feet, and bears a pod usually of an ovate shape, and yellow, red, or black in colour. The Spur or Goat Pepper (C. frutescens) has been an inmate of English gardens since 1656. It is a dwarf shrub, a native of the East Indies, which produces a small pod, having very pun gent properties. C. tetragonum, or Bonnet Pepper, is a species much esteemed in Jamaica ; it bears very fleshy fruits. Other well-known kinds of capsicum are the Cherry Pepper (C. ccrasiforme] ; Bell Pepper (C. grossum), which has thick and pulpy fruit, well adapted for pickling ; and Berry or Bird Pepper (C. baccatum). The last men tioned has been grown in England since 1731 ; its fruit is globular, and about the size of a cherry. The West Indian stomachic Man-dram is prepared by mashing a few poda of bird pepper and mixing them with sliced cucumber and shallots, to which have been added a little lime-juice and Madeira wine. Chillies, the dried ripe or unripe fruit of capsicums, are used to make chilly-vinegar, as well as for pickles. Cayenne pepper is manufactured from the ripe fruits, which are dried, ground, mixed with wheat flour, and made into cakes with yeast ; the cakes are baked till hard like biscuit, and then ground and sifted. The pepper is sometimes prepared by simply drying the pods and pounding them fine in a mortar. Cayenne pepper is occasionally adulterated with red lead, vermilion, ochre, salt, ground-rice, and turmeric. The taste of the pepper is impaired by exposure to damp and the heat of the sun. Chillies have been in use from time immemorial ; they are eaten in great quantity by the people of Guiana and other warm countries, and in Europe are largely consumed both as a spice and as medicine. Their hot and biting taste is due to the presence of the alkaloid Capsicine, a reddish body, having a balsamic and extremely acrid and irritating

odour. The Cayenne pepper plants, with the rest of the