neighbouring mainland (see Cameroon). The Jesuits who succeeded the Baptists were also expelled, but mission and educational work is now carried on by other Roman Catholic agencies, and (since 1870) by the Primitive Methodists. In 1879 the Spanish government recalled its officials, but a few years later, when the partition of Africa was being effected, they were replaced and a number of Cuban political prisoners were deported thither. Very little was done to develop the resources of the island until after the loss of the Spanish colonies in the West Indies and the Pacific, when Spain turned her attention to her African possessions. Stimulated by the success of the Portuguese cocoa plantations in the neighbouring island of St Thomas, the Spaniards started similar plantations, with some measure of success. The strategical importance and commercial possibilities of the island caused Germany and other powers to approach Spain with a view to its acquisition, and in 1900 the Spaniards gave France, in return for territorial concessions on the mainland, the right of pre-emption over the island and her other West African possessions.
The administration of the island is in the hands of a governor-general, assisted by a council, and responsible to the ministry of foreign affairs at Madrid. The governor-general has under his authority the sub-governors of the other Spanish possessions in the Gulf of Guinea, namely, the Muni River Settlement, Corisco and Annobon (see those articles). None of these possessions is self-supporting.
See E. d’Almonte, “Someras Notas ... de la isla de Fernando Póo y de la Guinea continental española,” in Bol. Real. Soc. Geog. of Madrid (1902); and a further article in the Riv. Geog. Col. of Madrid (1908); E. L. Vilches, “Fernando Póo y la Guinea española,” in the Bol. Real. Soc. Geog. (1901); San Javier, Tres Años en Fernando Póo (Madrid, 1875); O. Baumann, Eine africanische Tropeninsel: Fernando Póo und die Bube (Vienna, 1888); Sir H. H. Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo ... and Notes on Fernando Pô (London, 1908); Mary H. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, ch. iii. (London, 1897); T. J. Hutchinson, sometime British Consul at Fernando Po, Impressions of Western Africa, chs. xii. and xiii. (London, 1858), and Ten Years’ Wanderings among the Ethiopians, chs. xvii. and xviii. (London, 1861). For the Bubi language see J. Clarke, The Adeeyah Vocabulary (1841), and Introduction to the Fernandian Tongue (1848). Consult also Wanderings in West Africa (1863) and other books written by Sir Richard Burton as the result of his consulship at Fernando Po, 1861–1865, and the works cited under Muni River Settlements.
FERNEL, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1497–1558), French physician,
was born at Clermont in 1497, and after receiving his early
education at his native town, entered the college of Sainte-Barbe,
Paris. At first he devoted himself to mathematical and astronomical
studies; his Cosmotheoria (1528) records a determination
of a degree of the meridian, which he made by counting the revolutions
of his carriage wheels on a journey between Paris and
Amiens. But from 1534 he gave himself up entirely to medicine,
in which he graduated in 1530. His extraordinary general
erudition, and the skill and success with which he sought to
revive the study of the old Greek physicians, gained him a great
reputation, and ultimately the office of physician to the court.
He practised with great success, and at his death in 1558 left
behind him an immense fortune. He also wrote Monalosphaerium,
sive astrolabii genus, generalis horarii structura et
usus (1526); De proportionibus (1528); De evacuandi ratione
(1545); De abditis rerum causis (1548); and Medicina ad
Henricum II. (1554).
FERNIE, an important city in the east Kootenay district of
British Columbia. Pop. about 4000. It is situated on the Crow’s
Nest branch of the Canadian Pacific railway, at the junction of
Coal Creek with the Elk river, and owes its importance to the
extensive coal mines in its vicinity. There are about 500 coke
ovens in operation at Fernie, which supply most of the smelting
plants in southern British Columbia with fuel.
FERNOW, KARL LUDWIG (1763–1808), German art-critic
and archaeologist, was born in Pomerania on the 19th of
November 1763. His father was a servant in the household of
the lord of Blumenhagen. At the age of twelve he became
clerk to a notary, and was afterwards apprenticed to a druggist.
While serving his time he had the misfortune accidentally to
shoot a young man who came to visit him; and although through
the intercession of his master he escaped prosecution, the untoward
event weighed heavily on his mind, and led him at the
close of his apprenticeship to quit his native place. He obtained
a situation at Lübeck, where he had leisure to cultivate his
natural taste for drawing and poetry. Having formed an
acquaintance with the painter Carstens, whose influence was an
important stimulus and help to him, he renounced his trade of
druggist, and set up as a portrait-painter and drawing-master.
At Ludwigslust he fell in love with a young girl, and followed
her to Weimar; but failing in his suit, he went next to Jena.
There he was introduced to Professor Reinhold, and in his house
met the Danish poet Baggesen. The latter invited him to accompany
him to Switzerland and Italy, a proposal which he eagerly
accepted (1794) for the sake of the opportunity of furthering his
studies in the fine arts. On Baggesen’s return to Denmark,
Fernow, assisted by some of his friends, visited Rome and made
some stay there. He now renewed his intercourse with Carstens,
who had settled at Rome, and applied himself to the study of
the history and theory of the fine arts and of the Italian language
and literature. Making rapid progress, he was soon qualified to
give a course of lectures on archaeology, which was attended
by the principal artists then at Rome. Having married a Roman
lady, he returned in 1802 to Germany, and was appointed in the
following year professor extraordinary of Italian literature at
Jena. In 1804 he accepted the post of librarian to Amelia,
duchess-dowager of Weimar, which gave him the leisure he
desired for the purpose of turning to account the literary and
archaeological researches in which he had engaged at Rome.
His most valuable work, the Römische Studien, appeared in 3
vols. (1806–1808). Among his other works are—Das Leben
des Künstlers Carstens (1806), Ariosto’s Lebenslauf (1809), and
Francesco Petrarca (1818). Fernow died at Weimar, December 4,
1808.
A memoir of his life by Johanna Schopenhauer, mother of the philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, appeared in 1810, and a complete edition of his works in 1829.
FEROZEPUR, or Firozpur, a town and district of British
India, in the Jullundur division of the Punjab. The town is a
railway junction connecting the North-Western and Rajputana
railways, and is situated about 4 m. from the present south
bank of the Sutlej. Pop. (1901) 49,341. The arsenal is the
largest in India, and Ferozepur is the headquarters of a brigade
in the 3rd division of the northern army corps. British rule was
first established at Ferozepur in 1835, when, on the failure of
heirs to the Sikh family who possessed it, a small territory 86 m.
in extent became an escheat to the British government, and the
present district has been gradually formed around this nucleus.
The strategic importance of Ferozepur was at this time very
great; and when, in 1839, Captain (afterwards Sir Henry)
Lawrence took charge of the station as political officer, it was the
outpost of British India in the direction of the Sikh power.
Ferozepur accordingly became the scene of operations during the
first Sikh War. The Sikhs crossed the Sutlej in December 1845,
and were defeated successively at Mudki, Ferozepur, Aliwal and
Sobraon; after which they withdrew into their own territory,
and peace was concluded at Lahore. At the time of the mutiny
Ferozepur cantonments contained two regiments of native
infantry and a regiment of native cavalry, together with the 61st
Foot and two companies of European artillery. One of the
native regiments, the 57th, was disarmed; but the other, the
45th, broke into mutiny, and, after an unsuccessful attempt
to seize the magazine, which was held by the Europeans, proceeded
to join the rebel forces in Delhi. Throughout the mutiny
Ferozepur remained in the hands of the English.
Ferozepur has rapidly advanced in material prosperity of late years, and is now a very important seat of commerce, trade being mainly in grain. The main streets of the city are wide and well paved, and the whole is enclosed by a low brick wall. Great improvements have been made in the surroundings of the city. The cantonment lies 2 m. to the south of the city, and is connected with it by a good metalled road.
