and “until no arms or elements of war should be left to it.” This agreement was literally carried out. The war which ensued, lasting until the 1st of April 1870, was carried on with great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes, though with a steadily increasing tide of disasters to Lopez (see Paraguay). In 1868, when the allies were pressing him hard, his mind, naturally suspicious and revengeful, led him to conceive that a conspiracy had been formed against his life in his own capital and by his chief adherents. Thereupon several hundred of the chief Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers, bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with more than two hundred foreigners, among them several members of the diplomatic legations. Lopez was at last driven with a mere handful of troops to the northern frontier of Paraguay, where, on the 1st of April 1870, he was surprised by a Brazilian force and killed as he was endeavouring to escape by swimming the river Aquidaban.
LOPEZ DE GÓMARA, FRANCISCO (1510?–1555?), Spanish
historian, was educated at the university of Alcalá, where he
took orders. Soon after 1540 he entered the household of the
famous Cortés, who supplied him with most of the material for
his Historia de las Indias (1552), and Crónica de la conquista de
Nueva España (1552). The pleasing style and novel matter
enchanted the Spanish public, but the unmeasured laudation of
Cortés at the expense of his lieutenants and companions brought
about a violent reaction. Though the Historia was dedicated to
Charles V., both works were forbidden on the 17th of November
1553, and no editions of them were issued between 1554 and 1727.
Italian and French versions of his books were published in 1556
and 1578 respectively.
LOP-NOR or Lob-nor, a lake of Central Asia, in the Gobi
Desert, between the Astin-tagh (Altyn-tagh) on the south and
the Kuruk-tagh on the north. Previous to 1876 it was placed in
nearly all maps at 42° 30′ N., a position which agreed with the
accounts and the maps of ancient Chinese geographers. In the
year mentioned the Russian explorer Przhevalsky discovered
two closely connected lake-basins, Kara-buran and Kara-koshun,
fully one degree farther south, and considerably east of the site of
the old Lop-nor, which lake-basins he nevertheless regarded as
being identical with the old Lop-nor of the Chinese. But the
water they contained he pronounced to be fresh water. This
identification was disputed by Baron von Richthofen, on the
ground that the Lop-nor, the “Salt Lake” of the Chinese
geographers, could not be filled with fresh water; moreover,
being the final gathering basin of the desert stream, the Tarim, it
was bound to be salt, more especially as the lake had no outflow.
Przhevalsky visited the Lop-nor region again in 1885, and
adhered to his opinion. But ten years later it was explored anew
by Dr Sven Hedin, who ascertained that the Tarim empties part
of its waters into another lake, or rather string of lakes (Avullu-köl,
Kara-köl, Tayek-köl and Arka-köl), which are situated in 42°
30′ N., and thus so far justified the views of von Richthofen, and
confirmed the Chinese accounts. At the same time he advanced
reasons for believing that Przhevalsky’s lake-basins, the southern
Lop-nor, are of quite recent origin—indeed, he fixed upon 1720 as
the probably approximate date of their formation, a date which
von Richthofen would alter to 1750. Besides this, Sven Hedin
argued that there exists a close inter-relation between the northern
Lop-nor lakes and the southern Lop-nor lakes, so that as the
water in the one group increases, it decreases to the same proportion
and volume in the other. He also argued that the four lakes
of northern Lop-nor are slowly moving westwards under the
incessant impetus of wind and sandstorm (buran). These conclusions
were afterwards controverted by the Russian traveller,
P. K. Kozlov, who visited the Lop-nor region in 1893–1894—that
is, before Dr Sven Hedin’s examination. He practically only
reiterated Przhevalsky’s contention, that the ancient Chinese
maps were erroneously drawn, and that the Kara-koshun, in
spite of the freshness of its water, was the old Lop-nor, the Salt
Lake par excellence of the Chinese. Finally, in 1900, Dr Sven
Hedin, following up the course of the Kum-darya, discovered—at
the foot of the Kuruk-tagh, and at the E. (lowest) extremity of
the now desiccated Kuruk-darya, with traces of dead forest and
other vegetation beside it and beside the river-bed—the basin of
a desiccated salt lake, which he holds to be the true ancient
Lop-nor of the Chinese geographers, and at the same time he
found that the Kara-koshun or Lop-nor of Przhevalsky had
extended towards the north, but shrunk on the south. Thus the
old Lop-nor no longer exists, but in place of it there are a number
of much smaller lakes of newer formation. It may fairly be
inferred that, owing to the uniform level of the region, the
sluggish flow of the Tarim, its unceasing tendency to divide and
reunite, conjoined with the violence and persistency of the winds
(mostly from the east and north-east), and the rapid and dense
growth of the reed-beds in the shallow marshes, the drainage
waters of the Tarim basin gather now in greater volume
in one depression, and now in greater volume in another; and
this view derives support from the extreme shallowness of the
lakes in both Sven Hedin’s northern Lop-nor and Przhevalsky’s
southern Lop-nor, together with the uniformly horizontal level
of the entire region.
See Delmar Morgan’s translation of Przhevalsky’s From Kuja across the Tian-shan to Lop-nor (London, 1879); Von Richthofen’s “Bemerkungen zu den Ergebnissen von Oberst-Leutenant Prjewalskis Reise nach dem Lop-nor” in Verhandl. der Gesch. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin (1878), pp. 121 seq.; Sven Hedin’s Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899–1902 (vols. i. and ii., Stockholm, 1905–1906), where Kozlov’s share of the controversy is summarized (cf. ii., 270-280). (J. T. Be.)
LOQUAT, Japanese Plum or Japanese Medlar, known
botanically as Eriobotrya japonica, small evergreen tree
belonging to the natural order Rosaceae, with large thick
oval-oblong leaves borne near the ends of the branches,
and dark green above with a rusty tomentum on the
lower face. The fruit is pear-shaped, yellow, about 112 in. long
and contains large stony seeds; it has an agreeable acid
flavour. The plant is a native of China and Japan, but is widely
grown for its fruit and as a decorative plant. It is a familiar
object in the Mediterranean region and in the southern United
States.
LORAIN, a city of Lorain county, Ohio, U.S.A., on Lake Erie,
at the mouth of the Black river, and about 25 m. W. by S. of
Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 4863; (1900) 16,028, of whom 4730
were foreign-born and 359 negroes; (1910 census) 28,883.
Lorain is served by the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, and the
Baltimore & Ohio railways, by the Lake Shore Electric railway,
and by several of the more important steamboat lines on the Great
Lakes. It has a Carnegie library, the Lake View Hospital and
the Saint Joseph’s Hospital. There is a good harbour, and the
city’s chief interests are in the shipping of great quantities of
coal, iron-ore, grain and lumber, in the building of large steel
vessels, in railway shops, and in the manufacture of iron pipes,
gas engines, stoves and automatic steam shovels. The value of
the factory products increased from $9,481,388 in 1900 to
$14,491,091 in 1905, or 52.8%. The municipality owns and
operates the waterworks. A Moravian mission was established
here in 1787–1788, and a trading post in 1807, but no permanent
settlement was made until several years later. In 1836 the place
was incorporated as a village under the name “Charleston”;
in 1874 the present name was adopted, and in 1896 Lorain became
a city of the second class.
LORALAI, a town and district of India, in Baluchistan. The
town, which is situated 4700 ft. above the sea, 35 m. by road from
the railway station of Harnai, was occupied as a military station
in 1886, and has quarters for a native cavalry and a native
infantry regiment. Pop. (1901) 3561.
The District of Loralai was formed in 1903. It consists of a series of long, narrow valleys, hemmed in by rugged mountains, and bordered E. by Dera Ghazi Khan district of the Punjab. Area 7999 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 67,864, of whom the majority are Afghans. The principal crops are wheat and millet; but the chief wealth of the inhabitants is derived from their herds of cattle, sheep and goats.
