MAJORCA(Mallorca), the largest of the group of Spanish islands in the Mediterranean Sea known as the Balearic Islands (q.v.). Pop. (1900), 248,191; area, 430 sq. m. Majorca has the shape of a trapezoid, with the angles directed to the cardinal points; and its diagonal, from Cape Grozer in the west to Cape Pera in the east, is about 60 m. On the north-west the coast is precipitous, but on the other sides it is low and sloping. On the north-east there are several considerable bays, of which the chief are those of Alcudia and Pollensa; while on the south-west is the still more important bay of Palma. No fewer than twelve ports or harbours are enumerated round the island, of which may be mentioned Andraitx and Sóller. In the north-west Majorca is traversed by a chain of mountains running parallel with the coast, and attaining its highest elevation in Silla de Torrellas (5154 ft.). Towards the south and east the surface is comparatively level, though broken by isolated peaks of considerable height. The northern mountains afford great protection to the rest of the island from the violent gales to which it would otherwise be exposed, and render the climate remarkably mild and pleasant. The scenery of Majorca has all the picturesqueness of outline that usually belongs to a limestone formation. Some of the valleys, such as those of Valdemosa and Sóller, with their luxuriant vegetation, are delightful resorts. There are quarries of marble of various grains and colours—those near Santañy, in the district of Manacor, being especially celebrated; while lead, iron and cinnabar have also been obtained. Coal of a jet-like character is found at Benisalem, where it was first worked in 1836; at Selva, where it has been mined since 1851; near Santa Maria and elsewhere. It is used in the industrial establishments of Palma, and in the manufacture of lime, plaster and bricks near the mines. A considerable quantity is also exported to Barcelona.
The inhabitants are principally devoted to agriculture, and most of the arable land is cultivated. The mountains are terraced; and the old pine woods have in many places given way to the olive, the vine and the almond tree, to fields of wheat and flax, or to orchards of figs and oranges. For the last-mentioned fruits the valley of Sóller is one of the most important districts,the produce being largely transmitted to France. The yield of oil is very considerable, and Inca is the centre of the oil district. The wines are light but excellent, especially the Muscadel and Montona. During the summer there is often great scarcity of water; but, according to a system handed down by the Moors, the rains of autumn and winter are collected in enormous reservoirs, which contain sufficient water to last through the dry season; and on the payment of a certain rate, each landholder has his fields flooded at certain intervals. Mules are used in the agriculture and traffic of the island. The cattle are small, but the sheep are large and well fleeced. Pigs are reared for export to Barcelona, and there is abundance of poultry and small game. Brandy is made and exported in large quantities. Excellent woollen and linen cloths are woven; the silkworm is reared and its produce manufactured; and canvas, rope and cord are largely made, from both native and foreign materials.
The roads are excellent, the four principal being those from Alcudia, Manacor, Sóller and Andraitx to the capital. Forty-eight miles of railway were open at the beginning of the 20th century. The main line runs from Palma to Manacor and Alcudia. The telegraphic system is fairly complete, and there is regular steam communication with Barcelona and Alicante. The principal towns include—besides Palma (63,937), Felanitx (11,294) and Manacor (12,408), which are described in separate articles—Andraitx (6516), Inca (7579), Llummayor (8859), Pollensa (8308), Santañy (6692) and Sóller (8026).
MAJORIAN(Julius Valerius Majorianus), emperor of the West from 457 to 461. He had distinguished himself as a general by victories over the Franks and Alemanni, and six months after the deposition of Avitus he was declared emperor by the regent Ricimer. After repelling an attack by the Vandals upon Campania (458) he prepared a large force, composed chiefly of barbarians, to invade Africa, which he previously visited in disguise. Having during his stay in Gaul defeated and concluded an alliance with Theodoric the Visigoth, at the beginning of 460 he crossed the Pyrenees for the purpose of joining the powerful fleet which he had collected at Carthagena. The Vandal king Genseric, however, after all overtures of peace had been rejected, succeeded through the treachery of certain officers in surprising the Roman fleet, most of the ships being either taken or destroyed. Majorian thereupon made peace with Genseric. But his ill-success had destroyed his military reputation; his efforts to put down abuses and improve the condition of the people had roused the hatred of the officials; and Ricimer, jealous of his fame and influence, stirred up the foreign troops against him. A mutiny broke out in Lombardy, and on the 2nd of August 461 Majorian was forced to resign. He died five days afterwards, either of dysentery or by violence. Majorian was the author of a number of remarkable laws, contained in the Theodosian Code. He remitted all arrears of taxes, the collection of which was for the future placed in the hands of the local officials. He revived the institution ofdefensores, defenders of cities, whose duty it was to protect the poor and inform the emperor of abuses committed in his name. The practice of pulling down the ancient monuments to be used as building material, which was connived at by venal officials, was strictly prohibited. He also passed laws against compulsory ordination and premature vows of celibacy.
See Sidonius Apollinaris,Panegyric of Majorian; Gibbon,Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi. (where an outline of the “novels” of Majorian is given); J. B. Bury,Later Roman Empire, bk. iii.
See Sidonius Apollinaris,Panegyric of Majorian; Gibbon,Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi. (where an outline of the “novels” of Majorian is given); J. B. Bury,Later Roman Empire, bk. iii.
MAJORITY(Fr.majorité; Med. Lat.majoritas; Lat.major, greater), a term signifying the greater number. In legislative and deliberative assemblies it is usual to decide questions by a majority of those present at a meeting and voting. In law, majority is the state of being of full age, which in the United Kingdom is twenty-one years of age. A person attains his majority at twelve o’clock at night of the day preceding his twenty-first birthday (seeInfant;Age).
MAJUBA(properlyAmajuba, Zulu for “the hill of doves”), a mountain in northern Natal, part of the Drakensberg range, rising about 7000 ft. above the sea and over 2000 ft. above the level of the surrounding country. It overlooks the pass through the Drakensberg known as Laing’s Nek, is 8 m. S. of the Transvaal border and 18 m. N. of the town of Newcastle. The railway from Durban to Johannesburg skirts the base of the mountain. During the Boer War of 1880-81 Majuba was occupied on the night of the 26th of February 1881 by some 600 British troops under Sir George Pomeroy Colley. On the following morning the hill was stormed by the Boers under Piet Joubert and the British routed, Colley being among the slain.
MAKALAKA,a general designation used by the Bechuana, Matabele and kindred peoples, for conquered or slave tribes. Thus many of the tribes subjugated by the Makololo chief, Sebituane, about 1830 were called Makalaka (see David Livingstone’sMissionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, London, 1857). By early writers on south-central Africa certain of the inhabitants of Barotseland were styled Makalaka; the name is more frequently used to designate the Makalanga, one of the tribes now classed as Mashonas (q.v.), who were brought into subjection by the Matabele.
MAKARAKA,orIddio(“Cannibals”), a negroid people of Central Africa, closely related to the powerful Azandeh or Niam-Niam race, occupying the Bahr-el-Ghazal west of Lado. They came originally from the country of the Kibas, north of the Welle. Dr W. Junker described them as among the most trustworthy, industrious and intelligent people of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. They are a reddish-black, with nose less flat and cheek-bones less prominent than the ordinary negroes, and, unlike the latter, do not extract the incisors. Their long silky hair is built up in the most fantastic form by means of vegetable substances. They are well-known for strength and staying power.
See W. Junker,Travels in Africa(1890-1892).
See W. Junker,Travels in Africa(1890-1892).
MAKART, HANS(1840-1884), Austrian painter, born at Salzburg, was the son of an inspector of the imperial castle. He has been aptly called the first Germanpainterof the 19th century. When he, as a youth, entered the Vienna Academy German art was under the rule of Cornelius’s cold classicism. It was entirely intellectual and academic. Clear and precise drawing, sculpturesque modelling, and pictorial erudition were the qualities most esteemed; and it is not surprising that Makart, poor draughtsman to the very last, with a passionate and sensual love of colour, and ever impatient to escape the routine of art-school drawing, was found to be “devoid of all talent” and forced to leave the Vienna Academy. He went to Munich, and after two years of independent study attracted the attention of Piloty, under whose guidance he made rapid and astonishing progress. The first picture he painted under Piloty, “Lavoisier in Prison,” though timid and conventional, attracted attention by its sense of colour. In the next, “The Knight and the Water Nymphs,” he first displayed the decorative qualities to which he afterwards sacrificed everything else in his work. With the “Cupids” and “The Plague in Florence” of the next year his fame became firmly established. “Romeo and Juliet” was soon after bought by the Austrian emperor for the Vienna Museum, and Makart was invited to come to Vienna, where a large studio was placed at his disposal. In Vienna Makart became the acknowledged leader of the artistic life of the city, which in the ’seventies passed through a period of feverish activity, the chief results of which are the sumptuously decorated public buildings of the Ringstrasse.
The enthusiasm of the time, the splendour of the fêtes over which Makart presided, and the very obvious appeal of his huge compositions in their glowing richness of colour, in which he tried to emulate Rubens, made him appear a very giant to his contemporaries in Vienna, and indeed in all Austria and Germany. The appearance of each of his ambitious historical and allegorical paintings was hailed with enthusiasm—the “Catherina Cornaro,” “Diana’s Hunt,” “The Entry of Charles V. into Antwerp,” “Abundantia,” “Spring,” “Summer,” “The Death of Cleopatra” and the “Five Senses.” He reached the zenith of his fame when, in 1879, he designed, single-handed, the costumes, scenic setting, and triumphal cars of the grand pageant withwhich the citizens of Vienna celebrated the silver wedding of their rulers. Some 15,000 people participated in the pageant, all dressed in the costumes of the Rubens and Rembrandt period. Makart died in Vienna in October 1884.
Unfortunately Makart was in the habit of using such villainous pigments and mediums that in the few decades which have passed since his death, the vast majority of his large paintings have practically perished. The blues have turned into green; the bitumen has eaten away the rich glow of the colour harmonies; the thickly applied paint has cracked and in some instances crumbled away. And this loss of their chief quality has accentuated the weaknesses of these pictures—the faulty drawing, careless and hasty execution, lack of deeper significance and prevalence of glaring anachronisms. Important examples of his work are to be found at the galleries of Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart. For the Vienna Museum he also executed a series of decorative lunettes.
Unfortunately Makart was in the habit of using such villainous pigments and mediums that in the few decades which have passed since his death, the vast majority of his large paintings have practically perished. The blues have turned into green; the bitumen has eaten away the rich glow of the colour harmonies; the thickly applied paint has cracked and in some instances crumbled away. And this loss of their chief quality has accentuated the weaknesses of these pictures—the faulty drawing, careless and hasty execution, lack of deeper significance and prevalence of glaring anachronisms. Important examples of his work are to be found at the galleries of Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart. For the Vienna Museum he also executed a series of decorative lunettes.
MAKING-UP PRICE,a term used in the London and other British Stock Exchanges, to denote the price at which speculative bargains are carried over from one account to the next. The carrying over of a “bull” position in Eries, for example, implies a sale for cash and a simultaneous repurchase for the new account, both bargains being done at the making-up price. This is fixed at noon on carry-over day, in accordance with the market price then current (seeAccount;Stock Exchange). The term is also used in New York, where the making-up prices are fixed at the end of a day’s business, in accordance with the American system of daily settlements.
MAKÓ,a town of Hungary, capital of the county of Csanád 135 m. S.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 33,701. It is situated near the right bank of the Maros, and is a typical Hungarian town of the Alföld. The most noteworthy building is the palace of the bishop of Csanád, whose usual residence is in Temesvár. The town possesses numerous mills, and the surrounding country is fertile. The communal lands are extensive; they afford excellent pasturage for horses and sheep and also for large herds of horned cattle, for the size and quality of which Makó has obtained a high repute.
MAKRAN,orMekran, a province of Baluchistan, fringing the Arabian Sea from Persia almost to Sind for about 200 m. It is subject to the khan of Kalat under British political supervision. Estimated area, 26,000 sq. m.; estimated pop. (1903), 78,000. The long lateral valley of Kej is usually associated with Makran in early geographical records. The Kej-Macoran of Marco Polo is the Makran of to-day.
The long stretch of sandy foreshore is broken on the coast-line by the magnificent cliffs of Malan, the hammer-shaped headlands of Ormarah and Gwadar, and the precipitous cliffs of Jebel Zarain, near Pasni. Within them lies the usual frontier band of parallel ridges, alternating with narrow valleys. Amongst them the ranges called Talana and Talur are conspicuous by their height and regular configuration. The normal conformation of the Baluchistan frontier is somewhat emphasized in Makran. Here the volcanic action, which preceded the general upheaval of recent strata and the folding of the edges of the interior highlands, is still in evidence in occasional boiling mud volcanoes on the coast-line. It is repeated in the blazing summit of the Kuh-i-taftan (the burning mountain of the Persian frontier) which is the highest active volcano in Asia (13,000 ft.), and probably the farthest inland. Evidence of extinct mud volcanoes exists through a very wide area in Baluchistan and Seistan. Probably themiri, or fort, at Quetta represents one of them. The coast is indented by several harbours. Ormarah, Khor Kalmat, Pasni and Gwadar are all somewhat difficult of approach by reason of a sand-bar which appears to extend along the whole coast-line, and which is very possibly the last evidence of a submerged ridge; and they are all subject to a very lively surf under certain conditions of wind. Of these the port of Gwadar (which belongs to Muscat and is therefore foreign territory) is the most important. They all are (or were) stations of the Indo-Persian telegraph system which unites Karachi with Bushire. With the exception of the Kej valley, and that of the Bolida, which is an affluent of the Kej, there are no considerable spaces of cultivation in Makran. These two valleys seem to concentrate the whole agricultural wealth of the country. They are picturesque, with thick groves of date palms at intervals, and are filled with crops and orchards. They are indeed exceedingly beautiful; and yet the surrounding waste of hills is chiefly a barren repetition of sun-cracked crags and ridges with parched and withered valleys intersecting them, where a trickle of salt water leaves a white and leprous streak amongst the faded tamarisk or the yellow stalks of last season’s grass. Makran is the home of remnants of an innumerable company of mixed people gathered from the four corners of Asia and eastern Africa. The ancient Dravidians, of whom the Brahui is typical, still exist in many of the districts which are assigned to them in Herodotus. Amongst them there is always a prominent Arab element, for the Arabs held Makran even before they conquered Sind and made the Kej valley their trade highway to India. There are negroes on the coast, bred from imported slaves. The Meds of the Indus valley still form the greater part of the fishing population, representing the Ichthyophagi of Arrian. The old Tajik element of Persia is not so evident in Makran as it is farther north; and the Karak pirates whose depredations led to the invasion of India and the conquest of Sind, seem to have disappeared altogether. The fourth section includes the valleys formed by the Rakshān and Mashkel, which, sweeping downwards from the Kalat highlands and the Persian border east and west, unite to break through the intervening chain of hills northward to form the Mashkel swamps, and define the northern limits of Makran. In these valleys are narrow strips of very advanced cultivation, the dates of Panjgur being generally reckoned superior even to those of the Euphrates. The great Mashkel swamp and the Kharan desert to the east of it, mark the flat phase of southern Baluchistan topography. It is geologically part of an ancient inland lake or sea which included the present swamp regions of the Helmund, but not the central depression of the Lora. The latter is buttressed against hills at a much higher elevation than the Kharan desert, which is separated from the great expanse of the Helmund desert within the borders of Afghanistan by a transverse band of serrated hills forming a distinct watershed from Nushki to Seistan. Here and there these jagged peaks appear as if half overwhelmed by an advancing sea of sand. They are treeless and barren, and water is but rarely found at the edges of their foothills. The Koh-i-Sultan, at the western extremity of the northern group of these irregular hills, is over 6000 ft. above sea-level, but the general level of the surrounding deserts is only about 2000 ft., sinking to 1500 ft. in the Mashkel Hamun and the Gaod-i-Zirreh.
The whole of this country has been surveyed by Indian surveyors and the boundary between Persian and British Baluchistan was demarcated by a commission in 1895-1896. In 1898 a column of British troops under Colonel Mayne was despatched to Makran by sea, owing to a rebellion against the authority of the khan of Kalat, and an attack made by some Makran chiefs on a British survey party. The campaign was short and terminated with the capture of the Kej citadel. Another similar expedition was required in 1901 to storm the fort at Nodiz. The headquarters of the native governor, under the khan of Kalat, are at Turbat, with deputies at Tump, Kolwa, Pasni and Panjgur. A levy corps, with two British officers, is stationed along the western frontier. The port of Gwadur forms an enclave belonging to the sultan of Muscat.
Baluchistan District Gazetteer, vol. vii. (Bombay, 1907).
Baluchistan District Gazetteer, vol. vii. (Bombay, 1907).
(T. H. H.*)
MAKSOORA,the term in Mahommedan architecture given to the sanctuary or praying-chamber in a mosque, which was sometimes enclosed with a screen of lattice-work; the word is occasionally used for a similar enclosure round a tomb.
MALABAR,a district of British India, in the Madras Presidency. Geographically the name is sometimes extended to the entire western coast of the peninsula. Properly it should apply to the strip below the Ghāts, which is inhabited by people speaking the Malayalam language, a branch of the Dravidian stock, who form a peculiar race, with castes, customs and traditions of their own. It would thus be coextensive with the old kingdom of Chera, including the modern states ofTravancore and Cochin, and part of Kanara. In 1901 the total number of persons speaking Malayalam in all India was 6,029,304.
The district of Malabar extends for 145 m. along the coast, running inland to the Ghāts with a breadth varying from 70 to 25 m. The administrative headquarters are at Calicut. Area, 5795 sq. m. Malabar is singularly diversified in its configuration; from the eastward, the great range of the Western Ghāts, only interrupted by the Palghāt gap, looks down on a country broken by long spurs, extensive ravines, dense forests and tangled jungle. To the westward, gentler slopes and downs, and gradually widening valleys closely cultivated, succeed the forest uplands, till, nearer the seaboard, the low laterite table-lands shelve into rice plains and backwaters fringed with coco-nut palms. The coast runs in a south-easterly direction, and forms a few headlands and small bays, with a natural harbour in the south at Cochin. In the south there is considerable extent of table-land. The mountains of the Western Ghāts run almost parallel to the coast, and vary from 3000 to 7000 ft. in height. One of the most characteristic features of Malabar is an all but continuous chain of lagoons or backwaters lying parallel to the coast, which have been formed by the action of the waves and shore currents in obstructing the waters of the rivers. Connected by artificial canals, they form a cheap means of transit; and a large local trade is carried on by inland navigation. Fishing and fishcuring is an important industry. The forests are extensive and of great value, but they are almost entirely private property. The few tracts which are conserved have come into government hands by escheat or by contract. Wild animals include the elephant, tiger, panther, bison,sambhar, spotted deer, Nīlgiri ibex, and bear. The population in 1901 was 2,800,555, showing an increase of 5.6% in the decade.
The staple crop is rice, the next most important product being coco-nuts. Coffee is grown chiefly in the upland tract known as the Wynaad, where there are also a few acres under tea. The Madras railway crosses the district and has been extended from Calicut to Cannanore along the coast. There are eleven seaports, of which the principal are Calicut, Tellicherry, Cannanore and Cochin. The principal exports are coffee, coco-nut products and timber. There are factories for cleaning coffee, pressing coir and making matting, making tiles, sawing timber and weaving cotton.
SeeMalabar District Gazetteer(Madras, 1908).
SeeMalabar District Gazetteer(Madras, 1908).
MALABARI, BEHRAMJI(1853- ), Indian journalist and social reformer, was born in 1853 at Baroda, the son of a poor Parsi in the employment of the state, who died shortly after his birth. His mother took him to Surat, where he was educated in a mission school, but he never succeeded in gaining an academical degree. Coming to Bombay, he fell under the influence of Dr John Wilson, principal of the Scottish College. As early as 1875 he published a volume of poems in Gujarati, followed in 1877 byThe Indian Muse in English Garb, which attracted attention in England, notably from Tennyson, Max Müller, and Florence Nightingale. His life work began in 1880 when he acquired theIndian Spectator, which he edited for twenty years until it was merged in theVoice of India. In 1901 he became editor ofEast and West. Always holding aloof from politics, he was an ardent and indefatigable advocate of social reform in India, especially as regards child marriage and the remarriage of widows. It was largely by his efforts, both in the press and in tours through the country, that the Age of Consent Act was passed in 1891. His account of his visits to England, entitledThe Indian Eye on English Life(1893), passed through three editions, and an earlier book of a somewhat satirical nature,Gujarat and the Gujaratis(1883), was equally popular.
See R. P. Karkaria,India, Forty Years of Progress and Reform, (London, 1896).
See R. P. Karkaria,India, Forty Years of Progress and Reform, (London, 1896).
MALABON,a town of the province of Rizal, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 1 m. inland from the shore of Manila Bay and 3 m. N. of the city of Manila, with which it is connected by an electric tramway. Pop. (1903), 20,136. The leading industries are the refining of sugar, fishing, trade, the weaving of jusi cloth, the making of cigars, and the cultivation of ilang-ilang-trees (Cananga odorata) for their flowers, from which a fine perfume is distilled; ilang-ilang is one of the principal exports, mostly to France. Tagalog and Spanish are the principal languages. Malabon was formerly known as Tambóbong.
MALACCA,a town on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, in 2° 14′ N., 102° 12′ E., which, with the territory lying immediately around and behind it forms one of the Straits Settlements, and gives its name to the Straits which divide Sumatra from the Malay Peninsula. Its name, which is more correctly transliteratedmĕlāka, is that of a species of jungle fruit, and is also borne by the small river on the right bank of which the old Dutch town stands. The Dutch town is connected by a bridge with the business quarter on the left bank, which is inhabited almost exclusively by Chinese, Eurasians and Malays.
Malacca, now a somnolent little town, a favourite resort of rich Chinese who have retired from business, is visited by few ships and is the least important of the three British settlements on the Straits which give their name to the colony. It has, however, a remarkable history. The precise date of its foundation cannot be ascertained, but there is strong reason to believe that this event took place at the earliest in the 14th century. The Roman youth Ludovigo Barthema is believed to have been the first European to visit it, some time before 1503; and in 1509 Diogo Lopez de Siqueira sailed from Portugal for the express purpose of exploiting Malacca. At first he was hospitably received, but disagreements with the natives ensued and word was brought to Siqueira by Magellan, who was one of his company, that a treacherous attack was about to be made upon his ships. Siqueira then sent a native man and woman ashore “with an arrow passed through their skulls” to the sultan, “who was thus informed,” says de Barros, “through his subjects that unless he kept a good watch the treason which he had perpetrated would be punished with fire and sword.” The sultan retaliated by arresting Ruy de Araujo, the factor, and twenty other men who were ashore with him collecting cargo for the ships. Siqueira immediately burned one of his vessels and sailed direct for Portugal. In 1510 Mendez de Vasconcellos with a fleet of four ships set out from Portugal “to go and conquer Malacca,” but d’Alboquerque detained him at Goa, and it was not until 1511 that d’Alboquerque himself found time to visit Malacca and seek to rescue the Portuguese prisoners who all this time had remained in the hands of the sultan. An attack was delivered by d’Alboquerque on the 25th of July 1511, but it was only partially successful, and it was not until the 4th of August, when the assault was repeated, that the place finally fell. Since that time Malacca has continued to be the possession of one or another of the European Powers. It was a Portuguese possession for 130 years, and was the headquarters of their trade and the base of their commercial explorations in south-eastern Asia while they enjoyed, and later while they sought to hold, their monopoly in the East. It was from Malacca, immediately after its conquest, that d’Alboquerque sent d’Abreu on his voyage of discovery to the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, which later were the objective of Magellan’s voyage of circumnavigation. During the Portuguese tenure of Malacca the place was attacked at least twice by the Achinese; its shipping was harried by Lancaster in 1592, when the first British fleet made its way into these seas; it was besieged by the Dutch in 1606, and finally fell to a joint attack of the Dutch and the Achinese in 1641. It was under the Portuguese government that St Francis Xavier started a mission in Malacca, the first Christian mission in Malayan lands.
The Dutch held Malacca till 1795, when it was taken from them by Great Britain, and the Dutch system of monopoly in the straits was forthwith abolished. The colony was restored to the Dutch, however, in 1818, but six years later it came finally into the hands of Great Britain, being exchanged by a treaty with Holland for the East India Company’s settlement of Benkulen and a few other unimportant places on the westerncoast of Sumatra. By this treaty the Dutch were precluded from interference in the affairs of the Malay Peninsula, and Great Britain from similar action in regard to the States of Sumatra, with the sole exception of Achin, the right to protect that state being maintained by Great Britain until 1872 when it was finally abandoned by a treaty concluded with Holland in that year. The Dutch took advantage of this immediately to invade Achin, and the strife begun in 1873 still continues and is now a mere war of extermination. It was not until 1833 that the whole territory lying at the back of Malacca was finally brought under British control, and as late as 1887 the Negri Sembilan, or Nine States, which adjoin Malacca territory on the east and north-east, were completely independent. They to-day form part of the Federated Malay States, which are under the protection of Great Britain, and are governed with the assistance and by the advice of British officers.
Malacca, in common with the rest of the Straits Settlements, was administered by the government of India until 1867, when it became a crown colony under the control of the Colonial Office. It is to-day administered by a resident councillor, who is responsible to the governor of the Straits Settlements, and by a number of district officers and other officials under his direction. The population of the town and territory of Malacca in 1901 was 94,487, of whom 74 were Europeans and Americans, 1598 were Eurasians, the rest being Asiatics (chiefly Malays with a considerable sprinkling of Chinese). The population in 1891 was 92,170, and the estimated population for 1905 was 97,000. The birth-rate is about 35 per thousand, and the death-rate about 29 per thousand. The trade of this once flourishing port has declined, most of the vessels being merely coasting craft, and no large line of steamers holding any communication with the place. This is due partly to the shallowness of the harbour, and partly to the fact that the ports of Penang and Singapore, at either entrance to the straits, draw all the trade and shipping to themselves. The total area of the settlement is about 700 sq. m. The colony is wholly agricultural, and the land is almost entirely in the hands of the natives. About 50,000 acres are under tapioca, and about 9000 acres are under rubber (hevea). This cultivation is rapidly extending. There are still considerable areas unoccupied which are suitable for rubber and for coco-nuts. The settlement is well opened up by roads; and a railway, which is part of the Federated Malay States railway system, has been constructed from the town of Malacca to Tampin in the Negri Sembilan. There is a good rest-house at Malacca and a comfortable seaside bungalow at Tanjong Kling, seven miles from the town. Malacca is 118 m. by sea from Singapore and 50 m. by rail from Seremban, the capital of the Negri Sembilan. There is excellent snipe-shooting to be had in the vicinity of Malacca.
SeeThe Commentaries of d’Alboquerque(Hakluyt Society);The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto(London, 1653);An Account of the East Indies, by Captain Alexander Hamilton (Edinburgh. 1727); Valentyn’sHistory of Malacca, translated by Dudley Hervey;Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; “Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India,” by the same author,ibid.;Further India, by Hugh Clifford (London, 1904);British Malaya, by Sir Frank Swettenham (London, 1906).
SeeThe Commentaries of d’Alboquerque(Hakluyt Society);The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto(London, 1653);An Account of the East Indies, by Captain Alexander Hamilton (Edinburgh. 1727); Valentyn’sHistory of Malacca, translated by Dudley Hervey;Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; “Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India,” by the same author,ibid.;Further India, by Hugh Clifford (London, 1904);British Malaya, by Sir Frank Swettenham (London, 1906).
(H. Cl.)
MALACHI,the name assigned to the last book of the Old Testament in English (the last of the “prophets” in the Hebrew Bible), which according to the title (Mal. i. 1) contains the “word of Yahweh to Israel by the hand of Malachi.” In form the word means “my messenger.” It could be explained as a contraction of Malachiah, “messenger of Yahweh”; but the Septuagint is probably right in not regarding it as a proper name (“by the hand of His messenger”). Not only do we know nothing from internal or external evidence of the existence of a prophet of this name,1but the occurrence of the word in the title is naturally explained as derived from iii. 1: “Behold, I send my messenger” (cf. ii. 7). The prophecy must, therefore, be regarded as anonymous; the title was added by the compiler who wrote similar editorial titles to the anonymous prophecies beginning Zech. ix. 1, xii. 1.
The contents of the prophecy fall into a series of clearly marked sections, as in the paragraph division of the Revised Version. These apply, in various ways, the truth emphasized at the outset: Yahweh’s love for Israel in contrast with his treatment of Edom (i. 2-5). Israel’s response should be a proper regard for the ritual of His worship; yet any offering, however imperfect, is thought good enough for Yahweh’s altar (i. 6-14). Let the priests, who are responsible, take warning, and return to their ancient ideals (ii. 1-9). Again, the common Fatherhood of God should inspire a right relation among fellow Israelites, not such conduct as the divorce of Israelite wives in order to marry non-Israelite women (ii. 10-16).2The prevalence of wrong-doing has provoked scepticism as to righteous judgment; but the messenger of Yahweh is at hand to purge away indifferentism from worship and immorality from conduct (ii. 17-iii. 6). The payment of tithes now withheld will be followed by the return of prosperity (iii. 7-12). Religion may seem useless, but Yahweh remembers His own, and will soon in open judgment distinguish them from the irreligious (iii. 13-iv. 3). The book closes with an appeal to observe the law of Moses, and with a promise that Elijah shall come before the threatened judgment.3
The topics noticed clearly relate the prophecy to the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Temple had been rebuilt (i. 10; iii. 1, 10), the province of Judah was under a Persian governor (i. 8), and there had been time enough for the loss of earlier enthusiasm. The majority of modern scholars are agreed that the prophet prepares for the work of those reformers (Ezra, 458; Nehemiah, 444, 432B.C.). The abuses of which he particularly complains are such as were found rampant by Ezra and Nehemiah—marriage with foreign women (ii. 11; cf. Ezra ix.; Neh. xiii. 23 seq.; Deut. vii. 3) and failure in payment of sacred dues (iii. 8 seq.; cf. Neh. x. 34 seq.; xiii. 10 seq.; Deut. xxvi. 12 seq.). The priests have fallen into contempt (ii. 9) and have neglected what is still one of their chief trusts, the oral law (ii. 6 seq.). The priestly code of written law was not promulgated until 444B.C.(Neh. viii.-x.); “Malachi” writes under the influence of the earlier Code of Deuteronomy only,4and must therefore belong to a date prior to 444. The independent character of the attack on current abuses also suggests priority to the work of Ezra in 458. The prophecy affords an interesting and valuable glimpse of the post-exilic community, with its various currents of thought and life. The completion of the second Temple (516B.C.) has been followed by disillusionment as to the anticipated prosperity, by indifference to worship, scepticism as to providence, and moral laxity.5In view of these conditions, the prophet’s message is to reassert the true relation of Israel to Yahweh, and to call for a corresponding holiness, especially in regard to questions of ritual and of marriage. He saw that “the disobedience ofhis time was the outcome of a lowered morality, not of a clearer spiritual vision.”6A strong sense of the unique privileges of the children of Jacob, the objects of electing love (i. 2), the children of the Divine Father (ii. 10), is combined with an equally strong assurance of Yahweh’s righteousness notwithstanding the many miseries that pressed on the unhappy inhabitants of Judaea. At an earlier date the prophet Haggai had taught that the people could not expect Yahweh’s blessing while the Temple lay in ruins. In Malachi’s time the Temple was built (i. 10) and the priests waited in their office, but still a curse seemed to rest on the nation’s labours (iii. 9). To Malachi the reason of this is plain. The “law of Moses” was forgotten (iv. 4 [iii. 22]); let the people return to Yahweh, and He will return to them. It was in vain to complain, saying, “Every one that doeth evil is good in the eyes of Yahweh,” or “Where is the God of judgment?”—vain to ask “Wherein shall we return?” Obedience to the law is the sure path to blessing (ii. 17-iii. 12).
He calls the people to repentance, and he enforces the call by proclaiming the approach of Yahweh in judgment against the sorcerers, the adulterers, the false swearers, the oppressors of the poor, the orphan and the stranger. Then it shall be seen that He is indeed a God of righteous judgment, distinguishing between those that serve Him and those that serve Him not. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth on those that fear Yahweh’s name; they shall go forth with joy, and tread the wicked under foot. The conception of the day of final decision, when Yahweh shall come suddenly to His temple (iii. 1) and confound those who think the presumptuous godless happy (iii. 15), is taken from earlier prophets, but is applied wholly within the Jewish nation. The day of Yahweh would be a curse, not a blessing, if it found the nation in its present state: the priests listlessly performing a fraudulent service (i. 7-ii. 9), the people bound by marriage to heathen women, while the tears of the daughters of Israel, thrust aside to make way for strangers, cover the altar (ii. 11-16), all faith in divine justice gone (ii. 17; iii. 14 seq.), sorcery, uncleanness, falsehood and oppression rampant (iii. 5), the house of God deprived of its dues (iii. 8), and the true fearers of God a little flock gathered together in private exercises of religion (perhaps the germ of the later synagogue) in the midst of a godless nation (iii. 16). That the day of Yahweh is delayed in such a state of things is but a new proof of His unchanging love (iii. 6), which refuses to consume the sons of Jacob. Meantime He is about to send His messenger to prepare His way before Him. The prophet Elijah must reappear to bring back the hearts of fathers and children before the great and terrible day of Yahweh come. Elijah was the advocate of national decision in the great concerns of Israel’s religion; and it is such decision, a clear recognition of what the service of Yahweh means, a purging of His professed worshippers from hypocritical and half-hearted service (iii. 3) that Malachi with his intense religious earnestness sees to be the only salvation of the nation. In thus looking to the return of the ancient prophet to do the work for which later prophecy is too weak, Malachi unconsciously signalizes the decay of the order of which he was one of the last representatives; and the somewhat mechanical measure which he applies to the people’s sins, as for example when he teaches that if the sacred dues were rightly paid prosperous seasons would at once return (iii. 10), heralds the advent of that system of formal legalism which thought that all religious duty could be reduced to a system of set rules. Yet Malachi himself is no mere formalist. To him, as to the Deuteronomic legislation, the forms of legal observance are of value only as the fitting expression of Israel’s peculiar sonship and service, and he shows himself a true prophet when he contrasts the worthless ministry of unwilling priests with the pure offering of prayer and praise that rises from the implicit monotheism of even Gentile worship7(i. 11), or when he asserts the brotherhood of all Israelites under their one Father (ii. 10), not merely as a ground of separation from the heathen, but as inconsistent with the selfish and cruel freedom of divorce current in his time.8The book is a significant landmark in the religious history of Israel. Its emphasis on the observance of ritual finds fullest development in the Priestly Code, subsequently promulgated; its protest against foreign marriages is made effective through the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah;9the influence of its closing words on later expectation is familiar to every reader of the new Testament.10
The style of Malachi, like his argument, corresponds in its generally prosaic character to that transformation or decay of prophecy which began with Ezekiel; and Ewald rightly called attention to the fact that the conduct of the argument already shows traces of the dialectic manner of the schools. Yet there is a simple dignity in the manner not unworthy of a prophet, and rising from time to time to poetical rhythm.
Literature.—Nowack,Die kleinen Propheten(1897; 2nd ed., 1904); Wellhausen, id. (iii. 1898); G. A. Smith,The Book of the Twelve(ii. 1898); A. C. Welch, art. “Malachi” in Hastings’sDict. of the Bible, iii. 218-222 (1900); C. C. Torrey, id. inEncy. Bib.iii. c. 2907-2910 (1902); Marti,Dodekapropheton(1904); Stade,Biblische Theologie des Alten Test.§ 141 (1905); Driver,The Minor Prophets, ii. (Century Bible, 1906).
Literature.—Nowack,Die kleinen Propheten(1897; 2nd ed., 1904); Wellhausen, id. (iii. 1898); G. A. Smith,The Book of the Twelve(ii. 1898); A. C. Welch, art. “Malachi” in Hastings’sDict. of the Bible, iii. 218-222 (1900); C. C. Torrey, id. inEncy. Bib.iii. c. 2907-2910 (1902); Marti,Dodekapropheton(1904); Stade,Biblische Theologie des Alten Test.§ 141 (1905); Driver,The Minor Prophets, ii. (Century Bible, 1906).
(W. R. S.; H. W. R.*)
1A Hebrew tradition given in the Targum of Jonathan, and approved by Jerome, identifies Malachi with Ezra the priest and scribe.2Torrey (Ency. Bib.c. 2908) holds that the reference here is purely figurative; “Judah has dealt falsely with the wife of his youth, the covenant religion, and is wedding a strange cult.” But he assigns the book to the 4th century.3This closing prophecy may possibly be a later addition (so Marti) rounding off the prophetic canon by reference to the two great names of Moses and Elijah, and their characteristic activities. In this case, “Elijah” will represent an early interpretation (cf. Ecclus. xlviii. 10) of the “messenger,” originally conceived as a purely ideal figure. The only other passage in the book whose originality is not generally accepted is that referring to mixed marriages (ii. 11, 12).4It is the Deuteronomic law that is most familiar to him, as appears from his use of the name Horeb for the mountain of the law, and the Deuteronomic phrase “statutes and judgments” (iv. 4), from his language as to tithes and offerings (iii. 8, 10; cf. Deut. xii. 11; xxvi. 12), and especially from his conception of the priesthood as resting on a covenant with Levi (ii. 4 seq.). Malachi indeed assumes that the “whole tithe”—the Deuteronomic phrase for the tithe in which the Levites shared—is not stored in each township, but brought into the treasury at the Temple. But this was a modification of the Deuteronomic law naturally called for under the circumstances of the return from Babylon, and Neh. x. and xiii. produce the impression that it was not introduced for the first time by Ezra and Nehemiah, though the collection of the tithe was enforced by them. See further, W.R.S. inO.T.J.C.ii. 425-427.5Cf. Stade’s reconstruction,G.V.I.ii. 128-138.6Welch inD.B.iii. 220.7This remarkable utterance is sometimes (as by W.R.S.) interpreted of the worship of Jews scattered in the Dispersion: reasons for the above view are given by Driver.8In ii. 16 the Targum renders “If thou hatest her put her away.” It is characteristic of later Judaism that an arbitrary exegesis transformed the above anticipation of the doctrine of marriage laid down in the gospel into an express sanction of the right of the husband to put away his wife at will.9“The permanence of Judaism depended on the religious separateness of the Jews” (Ryle,Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 143).10Matt. xvii. 3, 4, 10-13; xxvii. 47, 49; John i. 21, 25.
1A Hebrew tradition given in the Targum of Jonathan, and approved by Jerome, identifies Malachi with Ezra the priest and scribe.
2Torrey (Ency. Bib.c. 2908) holds that the reference here is purely figurative; “Judah has dealt falsely with the wife of his youth, the covenant religion, and is wedding a strange cult.” But he assigns the book to the 4th century.
3This closing prophecy may possibly be a later addition (so Marti) rounding off the prophetic canon by reference to the two great names of Moses and Elijah, and their characteristic activities. In this case, “Elijah” will represent an early interpretation (cf. Ecclus. xlviii. 10) of the “messenger,” originally conceived as a purely ideal figure. The only other passage in the book whose originality is not generally accepted is that referring to mixed marriages (ii. 11, 12).
4It is the Deuteronomic law that is most familiar to him, as appears from his use of the name Horeb for the mountain of the law, and the Deuteronomic phrase “statutes and judgments” (iv. 4), from his language as to tithes and offerings (iii. 8, 10; cf. Deut. xii. 11; xxvi. 12), and especially from his conception of the priesthood as resting on a covenant with Levi (ii. 4 seq.). Malachi indeed assumes that the “whole tithe”—the Deuteronomic phrase for the tithe in which the Levites shared—is not stored in each township, but brought into the treasury at the Temple. But this was a modification of the Deuteronomic law naturally called for under the circumstances of the return from Babylon, and Neh. x. and xiii. produce the impression that it was not introduced for the first time by Ezra and Nehemiah, though the collection of the tithe was enforced by them. See further, W.R.S. inO.T.J.C.ii. 425-427.
5Cf. Stade’s reconstruction,G.V.I.ii. 128-138.
6Welch inD.B.iii. 220.
7This remarkable utterance is sometimes (as by W.R.S.) interpreted of the worship of Jews scattered in the Dispersion: reasons for the above view are given by Driver.
8In ii. 16 the Targum renders “If thou hatest her put her away.” It is characteristic of later Judaism that an arbitrary exegesis transformed the above anticipation of the doctrine of marriage laid down in the gospel into an express sanction of the right of the husband to put away his wife at will.
9“The permanence of Judaism depended on the religious separateness of the Jews” (Ryle,Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 143).
10Matt. xvii. 3, 4, 10-13; xxvii. 47, 49; John i. 21, 25.