HONDO. 180 HONDUBAS. but incorrectly, callei". Nippon or Niphon (Map: Japan, E 0). Nippon is not the name of any one island, but of the c-ntire .lapanese Empire. The applicati,-)n of the erroneous name Nippon tc the ehiel islaml orijiinated with Kaenipfer iq.v.), the Jesuits who -wrote previously to him knowing Japanese geography too well to use the misleading term. Of late years the Japanese, studying geography in the Western fashion, and seeing the neeessi'ly of a name for their chief island, have called it Hondo. Hondo lies l)etween latitude 24° 14' and 41° .3.3' N., and longitude 130° 44' and 142° 14' E., and has an area (with its isles) ollicially computed in 18!"4 at H7.771 square miles, with a jiopulation (December 31, 1808) of 33,327.918. It comprises the circuits of Tokaido, (Jo-Kinai (or the five home prov- inces), Toziindo, Hokurikudn, 8aninilo, Sanyodo, and one province of Nankaido (the other four provinces of this circuit forming the island of Shikoku). Kor administrative i)urposes Hondo is divided into 3 fu and 34 ken (or prefectures), and contains 447 di-tricts. .34 large cities. Il).(il8 villages. Of its taxalde area in acres. 7,250.000 are in ricelields. 3.8!tS,.i.iO in arable land. 752.- 787 in building lots, and 15,4',)0,S()7 in forest, be- sides 774,743 acres of untaxed land. Its shape is a crescent, with horns toward Asia. A re- markable difference in climate is noted between the eastern and the western halves of Hondo, the former, under the inlUience of the Kuro- Shiwo, or gulf stream of the Pacific, being mild and warm"; the latter, receiving the cold winds and under the inlluenee of cold < iirniits. having a more severe climate. The i)romontories of Hondo are now dotted with well equipped light- houses, and the island is well sup|)licd with rail- ways anil tcli'graphs. HONDT, hont, HOND, or HONDIUS. A Fleniish family of painters and engravers. Jo- ix)cis or .Jos.sV; (154li-ltiU) was born at Wack- t-n. To avoid the troubles in the Netherlands, then in the throes of the war with Spain, he went to England and became an engraver of maps and a maker of mathematical instruments. He also engraved some portraits, such as those of Queen ElTzabeth. Henry IV.. Drake, and Cavendish; some plates for Mercator"s Alius Major (1005), and other works. He often added to bis signature the figure of a dog, in allusion to his name. — His son, Hendrik (1,588-1(5.58), called the Younger, was born in l-ondon. He was also an engraver. and is said to have executed many plates, but bis works are confused with those of another Hen- drick Hondt (1573 ir,4SI, born at Duffel in Bra- bant, the son of William Hondt. and a pupil of Jan Wierix. The first named opened a studio at The Hague, and during fifty years produced many plates, rncliiding a series of portraits of the great reformers, Wvclif, ^relanehtbon. Knox, Calvin, and Savonarola, and a scries of painters, besides genre and historical subjects. — . other William HoxnT ( 1 no 1-c. 10.32) w"as the son of Hendrick (1573-1048). He was born at The Hague, and is said to have been Court painter to Ladislas IV., King of Poland. His works include a portrait of the '"King, ami a number of engraved portraits after Van Dyck and others, notably one of himself after that master.— Abraham (1038-95), a paint- er and engraver, was born at Rotterdam. He was the grandson of .lodocus or .Tosse Hondt, and was known especially as a painter of dogs. He went to London while very young, and under Charles II. acquired a great reputation for his studies of the chase. He also painted torchlight .stvnea. and left .some rare water-colors. There is a ■Wild Hoar Hunt" by him in the .Melr<ii)olitan Museum of Art, New York City. HONDURAS, hiin-doCrfls, Sp. prmi, 6n-dTO'- rils. . ic pulilii- of Central America, bounded by the Caribliean Sea on the north and northeiusl, Nicaragua on the southeast, Salvador and the Pacific Ocean on the southwest, and Guatemala on the west (Maj): Central America, D 3). Area, estimated at over 40,000 square miles. It is a mountainous country, a plateau in the interior, with low coast lands. The only plains of impor- tant extent are along the coasts of both oceans, and on the lower courses of a few rivers. The w idening of river valleys in the interior results in small j)lains, many of them at a considerable ele vation. The mountains occupy a proportionately larger area than in neighboring (Juatemala, but the ranges arc inferior in extent and height, though some peaks rise to about 8000 feet. Vol- canoes have recently played a smaller role than in any other country of Central .mevica. though there" are an important number of extinct vol- canoes, one (if which formed the island of Sacate- grandc in the Culf of Fonseca. In the western half of Honduras, young eruptive rocks cover as large an area as all the other geological forma- tions together, while in the eastern half very little of the surface is formed of vobanie outpourings of recent geological limes, though the older erup- tive rocks are largely represented, partii'ularly in the north. The coasts have a long .tlantic and a small Pacific frontage. The Atlantic poris are TnijUo, Ceiba, and Puerto Cortes. Amapala has one of the best natural harbors on the Pacific coast. The water parting between the .tlaiitic and Pacific rivers is far to the south, so that most of the drainage is to the .Atlantic Ocean. Some of the .■tlnntic rivers arc navigable, among them being the Coco or Segovia (known also as the Wanks), which forms part of the boundary with Nicaragua. In the interior the climate is healthful, and on the whole temperate. The coast lands, owing to their small elevation, have a much higher tem- perature. Honduras, swept by the trade winds receives an enormous quantity of rain, and the tropical vegetation is very luxuriant. The broad Atlantic coastal lowlands, however, receive much less rainfall than the mountain regions of the in- terior, where most of the water vapor brought by the east winds is condensed. The result is that though the eastern lowlands are covered with vast forests of mahogany, cedars, and ntlicr cabi- net woods, in which also sarsaparilla and other medicinal plants abound, vegetation in the east is not so luxuriant as in the higher regions inland, where there are boundless forest-s of pines and other conifers so dense that one may travel for days without being able to sec morq than 100 yards in any direction. The Pacific coast is driest, and a'drv period prevails from November to May. The .Mlantic coast is not healthful for the white race, and its products arc mainly those of the forest and tropical fniHs. The interior. from 1500 to 7000 feet, produces tropical prod- ucts in the lower zone, coffee in the miibllc zone, and the products of temperate climates in the upper belt. Numerous relics of a former civiliza- tion are found in some districts, most of them
