was erected. The palace appropriated to this lyceum was burned down in 1820. ZAUNER, Francis de, was born at Feldpatan, in German Tyrol, in 1746. He early evinced a decided taste for sculpture. In 1766, he went to Vienna, where he worked for five years with professor Schletterer. He studied with great zeal; and, a proposal having been made to set up some statues at Schönbrunn (q. v.), he offered to cast them. Prince Kaunitz (q. v.) ordered him to bring within fifteen days a model for a spring, representing the three largest rivers of Austria. The model met with approbation. It was executed on a large scale; and the empress Maria Theresa took the artist into favor. Zauner received, in 1776, assistance from the government to go to Rome, where he studied for four years. In 1781, he was made professor of sculpture in Vienna. He improved the manner of studying this art in the Austrian capital, and executed a number of works; among others, the colossal statue of the emperor Joseph II, which the emperor Francis II caused to be erected, in honor of his uncle, in the Joseph square, in 1807. It is one of the largest statues in Europe. Zauner cast the statue in a manner invented by himself, which succeeded perfectly. He also executed the monument of the emperor Leopold II, in white marble, in the church of St. Augustine. There are many busts, statues and bass-reliefs by this artist. Zauner died in 1822, in Vienna. ZEA. (See Maize.)

ZEA, Francisco Antonio, was born at Medellin, in the province of Antioquia, in New Grenada, Oct. 20, 1770. He studied at the university of Bogotá, and, at an early age, attained very distinguished academic honors there. When the government undertook to explore the vegetable riches of the country, young Zea was associated with the learned Mutis in this commission. In 1794, he was imprisoned in consequence of the freedom of his observations upon political subjects, at the same time with don Antonio Nariño and other lovers of liberty. The particular offence of which he was accused, was having participated in certain seditious meetings and compositions, tending to the independence of New Grenada. His trial lasted several years, during which he was held in confinement, first in America, and subsequently in Spain, whither the decision of the cause was transferred; and, at the expiration of that time, he was discharged, it being considered that his long imprisonment had sufficiently punished

him for his imprudence. But, when restored to liberty, he was not permitted to return to America, being obliged, on va-, rious pretexts, to reside in France, with a pension of 6000 francs. In 1802, he returned to Spain, and was made adjunct director of the botanic garden of Madrid, and, in 1804, director-in-chief, and professor of natural sciences, notwithstanding his anxiety for permission to revisit his native country. The revolution of Aranjuez, which found him engaged in scientific researches, drew him into the public service. He was nominated a member of the junta of notables, which met at Bayonne in 1808. Afterwards he had the direction of a part of the ministry of the interior, and, finally, was prefect of Malaga until the retreat of the French army. This event enabled him to terminate his banishment. In 1814, he embarked from England, and hastened to join Bolivar in his expedition against the Spaniards of Venezuela. Thenceforth, Zea became a party to all the exertions of the struggling patriots, as the friend, the adviser, and the political guide of Bolivar. He was successively intendant-general of the liberating army, president of the congress of Angostura, and vice-president of the republic of Colombia, and, finally, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to all those courts in Europe to which he might think proper to address himself, being invested with the whole representation of Colombia, for every species of affairs. His commission is dated Dec. 24, 1819. Zea appeared in London in 1820, invested with these unlimited powers, and, although he did not succeed in obtaining an acknowledgment of the independence of his country, yet he was every where heard with respect, and negotiated a loan for £2,000,000 sterling with a company of English bankers at Paris, March 13, 1822. The terms of the loan were, as might be expected, rather unfavorable to the new republic, and, in the sequel, drew much obloquy upon Zea. Rumors arose that his powers were defective; but a full examination proved that the report was wholly unfounded, and the loan, although censured by the Colombian congress, was recognised and confirmed. The financial embarrassments of the republic ought not to occasion any reflections upon the memory of Zea, who did every thing for the interest of his country which circumstances would permit. He died at Bath, of an aneurism of the heart, Nov. 28, 1822, aged fifty-two years.

Zea-Bermudez, don Francisco de, a Spanish statesman, had the advantage, in his youth, of the instructions of his relative, the celebrated Jovellanos (q. v.), whose writings he collected for publication, although circumstances have prevented the execution of his design. Ďuring the peninsular war, he resided in Malaga, and engaged in mercantile speculations. He was then sent, by the cortes, ambassador to St. Petersburg, where, under the authority of the regency at Cadiz, and in the name of Ferdinand VII, he concluded with the Russian chancellor, count Romanzoff, a treaty of amity and alliance (July 20, 1812), in which the emperor Alexander acknowledged the legality of the ordinary and the extraordinary cortes assembled at Cadiz, and the constitution adopted by them, and bound himself to support the Spanish government against France. This treaty is contained in Schöll, Traités des Pair (tenth volume), but is omitted by Martens. When, however, this constitution was revived, in 1820, count von Nesselrode addressed a note to don Zea-Bermudez, expressing Alexander's disapprobation of the revolution and the constitution. Ferdinand soon after sent Zea ambassador to the Porte; but he was recalled in 1823, and, as the Russian court signified its unwillingness to receive him as Spanish minister at St. Petersburg, he was sent to the court of St. James. In 1824, on the fall of the minister count d'Ofalia, count Zea-Bermudez was recalled, and placed at the head of the ministry. The great objects of his policy were, to moderate the violence of the apostolical party, to cover the deficit of upwards of 300,000,000 reals, to meet the requisitions of France, amounting to 58,000,000 francs, and to restore the public credit. But he found himself surrounded with difficulties. His attempts to procure a loan were unsuccessful, and the absolutists, who hated him for his moderate views, accused him of favoring the constitutionalists and the free-masons. In this emergency, the minister requested permission to retire; but the king would not consent to receive his resignation, and he continued to rise in the estimation of his sovereign, particularly after the suppression of a conspiracy of the Carlists, in August, 1825. (See Spain.) The severe measures now taken against the absolutists, and especially the execution of Bessières and his accomplices, who were declared royalists, for rebellion in August, exasperated the apostolical party to such a degree that the king

finally yielded to the storm, and Zea-Bermudez was dismissed in October, 1825. The apostolical faction now assumed unlimited control of the administration, at the head of which was placed the duke del Infantado. (q. v.) Zea, though a man of ability, as well as of moderation and liberality, having no personal connexions, family influence or party to support him in his measures, had been forced into a vacillating policy, which was ill-adapted to restore tranquillity to the distracted country. His dismission was accounted for, by some, on the supposition that be had lost the support of the French and English governments, by not procuring the acknowledgment of the independence of the American colonies; while others, with more probability, have attributed it to his urging that measure. Zea was now sent on an embassy to the court of Dresden, and remained there till 1828, when he was appointed minister at London. In October, 1832, Ferdinand being supposed to be at the point of death, the apostolical party prematurely disclosed their design of setting aside the ordinance by which he had abrogated the Salic law, in favor of his infant daughter, and supporting don Carlos, brother of the king, as suc cessor to the throne. In consequence of this discovery, the apostolical party were immediately removed from the high of fices of the administration, and their places were filled by men of moderate and hberal principles. Zea-Bermudez was appointed minister of foreign affairs, Vives of war, Imas of finances, &c. By another decree, the university, which had been suppressed, was reestablished. These changes give hope for the regeneration of Spain.

ZEALAND, or ZEELAND; a province of the Netherlands, comprising the ancient county of Zealand and Dutch Flanders, composed chiefly of islands at the mouth of the Scheldt, namely, Schowen, Duive land, Tholen, Walcheren, North and South Beveland, and Wolfersdyk. The continental part consists merely of a strip lying along the south bank of the Hond, or West Scheldt. The province is bounded north by the Hond, or West Scheldt, east and south by East Flanders, and west by West Flanders and the sea; population in 1829, 123,184; square miles, 625. The chief towns are Middleburg, Flushing, and Zierick-see. The surface is level, and lies so low that it is necessary to protect the country from inundation by strong dikes, which are kept up at great labor and expense. These

dikes are from twenty to thirty yards in breadth at the bottom, and of sufficient width at the top for two carriages to pass abreast; yet the country has been exposed to heavy calamities from the sea's breaking over the dikes in storms. The soil is a rich, black mould, excellent for pasturage, and for the culture of madder, flax, cole-seed, &c. The exports are corn, madder, flax, salt, meat, linen yarn, rape seed and oil. The air is damp from exhalations of fresh water, productive of bilious complaints and agues. The majority of the inhabitants are Calvinists; there are, also, some Catholics, Lutherans, and Mennonists. (See Netherlands.)

ZEALAND, OF SEELAND; the largest of the Danish islands between the Cattegat and the Baltic, separated from Sweden by the Sound, and from Funen by the Great Belt; about sixty-five miles long from north to south, and sixty from east to west; square miles, 2800; population, 296,350. It has no mountains; but the surface is finely variegated, having small hills and fields of a fertile soil, intersected by canals, resembling, in some parts, in summer, when the ground is covered with vegetation, the country of Lombardy. It produces large crops of corn, and has excellent pasture. Besides several towns of considerable importance, it contains the fortress of Elsinore, or Helsingör, and the capital and royal residence, Copenhagen. (See Denmark, and Copenhagen.)

ZEALAND, NEW; two islands in the South Pacific ocean, discovered by the Dutch navigator Tasman, in 1642. He sailed along the eastern coast, and supposed it to be a part of the southern continent, then imagined to occupy these unknown regions. From the Dutch the newly-discovered country received the name of New Zealand. In 1769, Cook first discovered the strait which bears his name, and separates the two islands from each other, the northernmost of which is called Eaheinomauwe, and the southernmost Tavai-Poenamoo. They extend from 34° to 47° S. lat., and from 167° to 179° E. lon., with an area estimated at about 95,000 square miles. Lying about 300 leagues east of the eastern shore of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, these islands have recently become the theatre of an active commerce between the New Zealanders and the British colonists in that region. During the year 1830, the total tonnage of vessels cleared out from New South Wales for New Zealand was 5888 tons; and of seventy-eight

vessels cleared out from Sydney, fiftysix were for New Zealand. These voyages were undertaken chiefly for the purpose of procuring New Zealand flax ; but it has also been customary for the vessels to land parties on different parts of the coast, to prosecute the whale and seal fisheries in the bays, which are frequented, at certain seasons of the year, by the black whale and the seal. Establishments have also been formed for the purpose of procuring spars for shipping, and timber for housebuilding; and several large vessels have been built here by English mechanics, assisted by the natives. (Busby's Authentic Information relative to New South Wales and New Zealand, London, 1832.) The church missionary society and the Wesleyan missionary society have both had settlements on the northern island for a number of years. The stations of the former are at the Bay of Islands and Kidee Kidee, sixteen miles from that place. About a dozen missionaries, with their families, reside here, and have established schools for the instruction of the natives. These circumstances, and the difficulties occasioned by the conduct of runaway convicts from New South Wales, have led the British government to establish an agent or resident in New Zealand. The latest accounts of New Zealand are to be found in Cruise's Journal of ten Months' Residence in New Zealand (London, 1823); Earle's Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand, in 1827 (London, 1832); and the work of Busby, above mentioned.—The fifth volume of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled the New Zealanders, contains a full and interesting view of the islands and their inhabitants. The language of the New Zealanders is radically the same with that spoken in Otaheite, in the Sandwich group, and in many other islands of the South sea. Its principal characteristic is the simplicity of its grammatical forms: it has no distinction of gender; declension and conjugation are effected, as in English, by particles, and superlatives are made by reduplication. A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, compiled by professor Lee of Cambridge, was published by the church missionary society, in 1820. The English alphabet is used in this work, but is much less suitable for that purpose than the Indian alphabet of Mr. Pickering (of which an account is given in our article Writing). The New Zealanders are, perhaps, superior in vigor of mind and in forecast to all other savages who have

made so little advance in the arts of civilized life: they are remarkable for their energy and self-denial in the pursuit of distant advantages; and their discernment in appreciating the benefits of civilization is equally striking. They are also remarkable for the ferocity with which they engage in the perpetual wars that the different tribes wage with each other; for a contempt of human life, which is the natural result of a warfare that aims at the extermination or captivity of the hostile tribe; and for the revolting practice of eating the flesh of the enemies they have slain, and even of their own slaves when pressed by hunger. It has been stated, in palliation of the character of the New Zealander, that this is a superstitious observance; but those who are best acquainted with them affirm that it is also the result of a preference for that sort of food. Their chiefs are hereditary, and of different ranks, forming, with their connexions, a kind of aristocracy, the principal members of which enjoy different degrees of authority; but the power of the principal chief of the tribe is absolute; and the great body of the people are in a state of slavery, and at the entire disposal of their masters, who put them to death on the slightest occasion, or from mere caprice. The food of these islanders consists of the root of the fern (pteris esculenta), which grows to a large size, and in the greatest abundance, in every part of the islands, and of potatoes, which are cultivated by the slaves. Many of the chiefs also possess herds of swine, but seldom or never use the flesh of the latter as an article of food, when they can dispose of it in trading with Europeans. (Busby, p. 60.) The New Zealander does not, like some savages, despise the habits of civilized life; nor is he, like others, incapable of appreciating its advantages. The use of fire-arms has become general among these islanders, and the whale fishery is carried on in canoes manned wholly by natives. They are also acquainted with the practice of agriculture, the art of weaving, and have some musical wind instruments. The dress of both sexes is the same, and consists of an inner mat or tunic, fastened, by a girdle, round the waist, and an upper cloak, both of which are made of the native flax. They are generally tall, strong, active, and well-shaped; the hair commonly straight, and the complexion brown. The practice of tattooing is common (see Tattooing); and the taboo (q. v.) also prevails here, as in many of the South

sea islands. Of their religious opinions we have no accurate account: they are said to have no temples, and do not appear to assemble together for purposes of worship. The face of the country is ir regular and broken, presenting many lofty and steep mountains, interspersed with fertile valleys and lovely plains. Much of the land is covered by lofty trees; and where there is no wood, the prevailing plant is the fern, which rises to the height of six or seven feet. The climate is temperate, suffering from neither extreme of heat or cold: the soil is, in general, rich, as the profuse vegetation with which it is covered, and the extraordinary vigor of its productions, prove. (For an account of two of the most important vegetable productions, see Flar, New Zealand, and New Zealand Spinage.) The native land animals are not numerous: the most common is an animal resembling the fox-dog, which is sometimes eaten; the rat and bat are also found. The birds are very numerous, and almost all peculiar to the country; and the shores abound with fish. (See Australia.)

ZEALOTS, among the Jews; those who were zealous for the honor of God and his temple, and not unfrequently went so far that they stoned, or otherwise destroyed, supposed blasphemers, or Sabbath-breakers.

ZEBRA. (See Horse.)

ZECCHIN (in Italian, zechino, from zerra. the mint where the money is coined; the gold coin of the former republic of Venice. Certain gold coins of other countries. such as the papal dominions, some other Italian states, and Turkey, are also called zecchins. The Florentine zecchins are called gigliati, from the lilies of the grandducal arms impressed on them; and the Austrian zecchins, or ducats, particularly those of Cremnitz (q. v.), are called, in tialy, ungheri. The Venetian zecchins were equal to the Hungarian ducats in actual value, but stood from four to five per cent. higher in Venice. The Italian ducat, a silver coin, is to be distinguished from the zecchin. Gold ducats are rarely coined in Italy.

ZECHARIAH, OF ZACHARIAH; one of the twelve minor prophets, of whose history little is known. We are ignorant both of the time and the place of his birth. He is called the son of Barachiah, and was commissioned by God to exhort the Jews to undertake the restoration of the temple. Like the other prophets, he also preaches moral reformation. His obscurity bas