advantages make it one of the principal commercial cities in the state. Its shipments of lumber are of special importance, and it has also a large transshipment trade in salt and iron ore. The total factory product in 1905 was valued at $6,314,226. The municipality owns and operates its water-works system. Michigan City was first settled about 1830, was incorporated as a village in 1837, and was first chartered as a city in 1867.
MICHMASH, a place in Benjamin, about 9 Roman miles north of Jerusalem (Onom, ed. Lag., p. 280), the scene of one of the most striking episodes in Old Testament history (1 Sam. xiv.). Though it did not rank as a city (not being mentioned in Joshua xviii. 21 seq.), Michmash was recolonized after the exile (Neh. xi. 31), and, favoured by the possession of excellent wheat-land (Mishna, Men. viii. 1), was still a very large village (Μαχμάς) in the time of Eusebius. The modern Mukhmas is quite a small place.
The historical interest of Michmash is connected with the strategical importance of the position, commanding the north side of the Pass of Michmash, which made it the headquarters of the Philistines and the centre of their forays in their attempt to quell the first rising under Saul, as it was also at a later date the headquarters of Jonathan the Hasmonaean (1 Macc. ix. 73). From Jerusalem to Mount Ephraim there are two main routes. The present caravan road keeps the high ground to the west near the watershed, and avoids the Pass of Michmash altogether. But another route, the importance of which in antiquity may be judged of from Isa. x. 28 sqq., led southwards from Ai over an undulating plateau to Michmash. Thus far the road is easy, but at Michmash it descends into a very steep and rough valley, which has to be crossed before reascending to Geba.[1] At the bottom of the valley is the Pass of Michmash, a noble gorge with precipitous craggy sides. On the north the crag is crowned by a sort of plateau sloping backwards into a round-topped hill. This little plateau, about a mile east of the present village of Mukhmas, seems to have been the post of the Philistines, lying close to the centre of the insurrection, yet possessing unusually good communication with their establishments on Mount Ephraim by way of Ai and Bethel, and at the same time commanding the routes leading down to the Jordan from Ai and from Michmash itself.
See further C. R. Conder, Tentwork ii. 112 seq.; and T. K. Cheyne in Encyc. Bib., s.v. (R. A. S. M.)
MICHOACÁN, or Michoacán de Ocampo, a state of Mexico
touching on the Pacific, bounded N. by Jalisco and Guanajuato,
E. by Mexico and Guerrero, S. by Guerrero and the
Pacific, and W. by the Pacific, Colima, and Jalisco. Pop.
(1900), 935,808, chiefly Indians and mestizos. Area, 22,874
sq. m. Its territory is divided into two nearly equal parts by
the eastern branch of the Sierra Madre Occidental, the northern
part belonging to the great central plateau region, and the
southern to an extremely broken region formed by the diverging
branches of the Sierra Madre, with their wooded terraces and
slopes and highly fertile valleys. The general slope of the
southern part is southward to the river Balsas, or Mescala,
which forms its boundary-line with Guerrero. The narrow
coastal zone on the Pacific is only 101 m. long and has no ports
or towns of importance, the slopes of the Sierra Madre del
Pacifico being precipitous and heavily wooded and the coast-belt
sandy, hot and malarial. The Lerma, on the northern
frontier, and the Balsas on the southern, are the only rivers
of importance of the state, their tributaries within its boundaries
being small and swift-flowing. There are several large and
beautiful lakes in the state, the best known of which are Patzcuaro
and Cuitzéo. Lake Chapala lies on the northern boundary.
Michoacán lies within the most active volcanic region of Mexico:
Jorullo (4262 ft.) is near its southern line, and Colima (12,750 ft.)
is northwest of it in the state of Jalisco. Earthquake shocks
are numerous, and Colima was in violent eruption in 1908–1909.
The highest summit in the state is Tancitaro (12,660 ft.). The
climate is for the most part temperate and healthy, but it is
hot and unhealthy on the coast. Michoacán is essentially
a mining region, producing gold, silver, lead and cinnabar,
and having rich deposits of copper, coal, petroleum and sulphur.
The natural products include fine cabinet and construction
woods, rubber, fruit, palm oil and fibres. The soil of the
valleys is highly fertile, and produces cereals in the higher
regions, and sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee and tropical fruits
in the lower. Though the plateau region was settled soon
after the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, there are large
districts on the southern and Pacific slopes that still belong
almost exclusively to the Indians. Besides Morelia, the capital
and largest city, the principal towns of the state are: La Piedad
(pop. 15,123), an important commercial town on the Lerma river
and on the Mexican Central railway, 112 m. N.N.W. of Morelia;
Zamora (10,373), 75 m. W.N.W. of Morelia; Uruapan (9808),
on the Mexican National, 55 m. S.W. of Morelia in a mountainous
district celebrated for the fine quality of its coffee; Puruandiro
(7782), a commercial and manufacturing town 40 m. N.W.
of Morelia; Patzcuaro (7621), on Patzcuaro lake, with a station
on the Mexican National, 7550 ft. above sea level; Sahuayo
(7408), 103 m. W. by N. of Morelia near Lake Chapala; Zitacuaro
(6052), 60 m. S.E. of Morelia on a branch of the Mexican
National, which also passes through the mining town of Angangueo
(9115) in the same district; and Tacambaro (5070),
46 m. S.S.W. of Morelia in a fertile valley of the Rio de las
Balsas basin.
MICKIEWICZ, ADAM (1798–1855), Polish poet, was born in 1798, near Nowogrodek, in the present Russian government of Minsk, where his father, who belonged to the schlachta or lesser nobility, had a small property. The poet was educated at the university of Vilna; but, becoming involved in some political troubles there, he was forced to terminate his studies abruptly, and was ordered to live for a time in Russia. He had already published two small volumes of miscellaneous poetry at Vilna, which had been favourably received by the Slavonic public, and on his arrival at St Petersburg he found himself admitted to the leading literary circles, where he was a great favourite both from his agreeable manners and his extraordinary talent of improvisation. In 1825 he visited the Crimea, which inspired a collection of sonnets in which we may admire both the elegance of the rhythm and the rich Oriental colouring. The most beautiful are The Storm, Bakchiserai, and Grave of the Countess Potocka.
In 1828 appeared his Konrad Wallenrod, a narrative poem describing the battles of knights of the Teutonic order with the heathen Lithuanians. Here, under a thin veil, Mickiewicz represented the sanguinary passages of arms and burning hatred which had characterized the long feuds of the Russians and Poles. The objects of the poem, although evident to many, escaped the Russian censors, and it was suffered to appear, although the very motto, taken from Machiavelli, was significant: “Dovete adunque sapere come sono duo generazioni da combattere . . . bisogna essere volpe e leone.” This is a striking poem and contains two beautiful lyrics. After a five years' exile in Russia the poet obtained leave to travel; he had secretly made up his mind never to return to that country or Poland so long as it remained under the government of the Muscovites. Wending his way to Weimar, he there made the acquaintance of Goethe, who received him cordially, and, pursuing his journey through Germany, he entered Italy by the Splügen, visited Milan, Venice, and Florence, and finally took up his abode at Rome. There he wrote the third part of his poem Dziady, the subject of which is the religious commemoration of their ancestors practised among Slavonic nations, and Pan Tadeusz, his longest poem, by many considered his masterpiece. A graphic picture is drawn of Lithuania on the eve of Napoleon's expedition to Russia in 1812. In this village idyll, as Brückner calls it, Mickiewicz gives us a picture of the homes of the Polish magnates, with their somewhat boisterous but very genuine hospitality. We see them before us, just as the knell of their nationalism, as Brückner says, seemed to be sounding, and therefore there is something melancholy and dirge-like in the poem in spite of the pretty love story which forms the main incident. Mickiewicz turned to Lithuania with the loving eyes of an exile, and gives us some of the most delightful descriptions of Lithuanian skies and Lithuanian forests. He describes the weird sounds to be heard in the primeval woods in a country where the trees were sacred. The cloud-pictures
- ↑ So Isa. x. 28 describes the invader as leaving his heavy baggage at Michmash before pushing on through the pass.
