Amboyna

the chief, though not the largest. of the Molucca or Spice Islands, in the Eastern Archipelago (lat. 3° 45’ S., long. 128° 15’ E.). It is 32 miles long by 5 or 6 broad, and has an area of 280 square miles. A narrow isthmus divides the island into two halves, Hittoo and Leitimor, the capital town, Amboyna, being in the latter, The country is hilly, but covered with vegetation. ‘The cultivation of cloves forms the principal industry. In good years the crop reaches a million pounds in weight. Cinnamon, coffee, indigo, and sago are also grown. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1515, Amboyna was taken by the Dutch in 1605, The English took the island in 1706, and again in 1814, but restored it to Holland, to which country it now belongs. Ambrose, SAINT, of Milan, one of the Fathers of the Latin Church, born 340 A.p. The son of a Prefect of Gaul, and himself holding similar office in Liguria and Emilia, he was, for his many good qualities, chosen Bishop of Milan in 374. He opposed the Arian heretics at the council of Aquileia, and he refused to allow the Mmperor Theodosius to enter his church until he had done penance for a ma acre at The alonica, Chanting was borrowed by him from the Pagan rites, and one of the recognised liturgies was his composition. The Ze Deum has been by some ascribed to his authorship. He wrote several treatises, ¢.g. on the duties of priests, and on virginity, besides a letter to Val ent in i an against Symmachns, but his works are more remarkable for subtlety and fancy than for solid merit and good taste. He died in 397. The great library at Milan bears his name, and the Milanese church still employs the Ambrosian use or liturgy, which some hold to be the use upon which that of the English church is founded. Ambrosia, 2 term used in Greek mythology to denote sometimes the food and sometimes the drink of the immortal gods. In Homer and the later writers the word is used for the food, and nectar for the drink of the dwellers on Olympus, bat in Sappho and Alcman these meanings are reversed. Both ambrosia and nectar were fragrant, ) Amendment. | and are said to have been employed as perfumes and unguents.