[1] Hansen found there were three species of spore-bearing
Saccharomycetes and that these could be subdivided into varieties.
Thus, _S. cerevisiae_ I., _S. cerevisiae_ II., _S. Pasteurianus_ I.,
&c.
FERMO (anc. _Firmum Picenum_), a town and archiepiscopal see of the
Marches, Italy, in the province of Ascoli Piceno, on a hill with a fine
view, 1046 ft. above sea-level, on a branch from Porto S. Giorgio on the
Adriatic coast railway. Pop. (1901) town, 16,577, commune 20,542. The
summit of the hill was occupied by the citadel until 1446. It is crowned
by the cathedral, reconstructed in 1227 by Giorgio da Como; the fine
facade and campanile of this period still remain, and the side portal
is good; the beautiful rose-window over the main door dates from 1348.
In the porch are several good tombs, including one of 1366 by Tura da
Imola, and also the modern monument of Giuseppe Colucci, a famous writer
on the antiquities of Picenum. The interior has been modernized. The
building is now surrounded by a garden, with a splendid view. Against
the side of the hill was built the Roman theatre; scanty traces of an
amphitheatre also exist. Remains of the city wall, of rectangular blocks
of hard limestone, may be seen just outside the Porta S. Francesco;
whether the walling under the Casa Porti belongs to them is doubtful.
The medieval battlemented walls superposed on it are picturesque. The
church of S. Francesco has a good tower and choir in brickwork of 1240,
the rest having been restored in the 17th century. Under the Dominican
monastery is a very large Roman reservoir in two storeys, belonging to
the imperial period, divided into many chambers, at least 24 on each
level, each 30 by 20 ft., for filtration (see G. de Minicis in _Annali
dell' Istituto_, 1846, p. 46; 1858, p. 125). The piazza contains the
Palazzo Comunale, restored in 1446, with a statue of Pope Sixtus V. in
front of it. The Biblioteca Comunale contains a collection of
inscriptions and antiquities. Porto S. Giorgio has a fine castle of
1269, blocking the valley which leads to Fermo.
The ancient Firmum Picenum was founded as a Latin colony in 264 B.C.,
after the conquest of the Picentes, as the local headquarters of the
Roman power, to which it remained faithful. It was originally governed
by five quaestors. It was made a colony with full rights after the
battle of Philippi, the 4th legion being settled there. It lay at the
junction of roads to Pausulae, Urbs Salvia and Asculum, being connected
with the coast road by a short branch road from Castellum Firmanum
(Porto S. Giorgio). In the 10th century it became the capital of the
_Marchia Firmana_. In 1199 it became a free city, and remained
independent until 1550, when it became subject to the papacy.
(T. As.)
FERMOY, a market town in the east riding of Co. Cork, Ireland, in the
north-east parliamentary division, 21 m. by road N.E. of Cork, and 14 m.
E. of Mallow by a branch of the Great Southern & Western railway. Pop.
of urban district (1901) 6126. It is situated on the river Blackwater,
which divides the town into two parts, the larger of which is on the
southern bank, and there the trade of the town, which is chiefly in
flour and agricultural produce, is mainly carried on. The town has
several good streets and some noteworthy buildings. Of the latter, the
most prominent are the military barracks on the north bank of the river,
the Protestant church, the Roman Catholic cathedral and St Colman's
Roman Catholic college. Fermoy rose to importance only at the beginning
of the 19th century, owing entirely to the devotion of John Anderson, a
citizen, on becoming landlord. The town is a centre for salmon and trout
fishing on the Blackwater and its tributary the Funshion. The
neighbouring scenery is attractive, especially in the Glen of Araglin,
once famed for its ironworks.
FERN (from O. Eng. _fearn_, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf.
Dutch _varen_, and Ger. _Farn_; the Indo-European root, seen in the
Sanskrit _parna_, a feather, shows the primary meaning; cf. Gr. [Greek:
pteron], feather, [Greek: pteris], fern), a name often used to denote
the whole botanical class of Pteridophytes, including both the true
ferns, Filicales, by far the largest group of this class in the existing
flora, and the fern-like plants, Equisetales, Sphenophyllales,
Lycopodiales (see PTERIDOPHYTA).
FERNANDEZ, ALVARO, one of the leading Portuguese explorers of the
earlier 15th century, the age of Henry the Navigator. He was brought up
(as a page or esquire) in the household of Prince Henry, and while still
"young and audacious" took an important part in the discovery of
"Guinea." He was a nephew of Joao Goncalvez Zarco, who had rediscovered
the Madeira group in Henry's service (1418-1420), and had become
part-governor of Madeira and commander of Funchal; when the great
expedition of 1445 sailed for West Africa he was entrusted by his uncle
with a specially fine caravel, under particular injunctions to devote
himself to discovery, the most cherished object of his princely master,
so constantly thwarted. Fernandez, as a pioneer, outstripped all other
servants of the prince at this time. After visiting the mouth of the
Senegal, rounding Cape Verde, and landing in Goree (?), he pushed on to
the "Cape of Masts" (Cabo dos Matos, or Mastos, so called from its tall
spindle-palms), probably between Cape Verde and the Gambia, the most
southerly point till then attained. Next year (1446) he returned, and
coasted on much farther, to a bay one hundred and ten leagues "south"
(i.e. S.S.E.) of Cape Verde, perhaps in the neighbourhood of Konakry and
the Los Islands, and but little short of Sierra Leone. This record was
not broken till 1461, when Sierra Leone was sighted and named. A wound,
received from a poisoned arrow in an encounter with natives, now
compelled Fernandez to return to Portugal, where he was received with
distinguished honour and reward by Prince Henry and the regent of the
kingdom, Henry's brother Pedro.
See Gomes Eannes de Azurara, _Chronica de ... Guine_, chs. lxxv.,
lxxxvii.; Joao de Barros, _Asia_, Decade I., bk. i. chs. xiii., xiv.
FERNANDEZ, DIEGO, a Spanish adventurer and historian of the 16th
century. Born at Palencia, he was educated for the church, but about
1545 he embarked for Peru, where he served in the royal army under
Alonzo de Alvarado. Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, marquess of Canete, who
became viceroy of Peru in 1655, bestowed on Fernandez the office of
chronicler of Peru; and in this capacity he wrote a narrative of the
insurrection of Francisco Hernandez Giron, of the rebellion of Gonzalo
Pizarro, and of the administration of Pedro de la Gasca. The whole work,
under the title _Primera y segunda parte de la Historia del Piru_, was
published at Seville in 1571 and was dedicated to King Philip II. It is
written in a clear and intelligible style, and with more art than is
usual in the compositions of the time. It gives copious details, and, as
he had access to the correspondence and official documents of the
Spanish leaders, it is, although necessarily possessing bias, the
fullest and most authentic record existing of the events it relates.
A notice of the work will be found in W.H. Prescott's _History of the
Conquest of Peru_ (new ed., London, 1902).
FERNANDEZ, JOHN (_Joao_, _Joam_), Portuguese traveller of the 15th
century. He was perhaps the earliest of modern explorers in the upland
of West Africa, and a pioneer of the European slave- and gold-trade of
Guinea. We first hear of him (before 1445) as a captive of the Barbary
Moors in the western Mediterranean; while among these he acquired a
knowledge of Arabic, and probably conceived the design of exploration in
the interior of the continent whose coasts the Portuguese were now
unveiling. In 1445 he volunteered to stay in Guinea and gather what
information he could for Prince Henry the Navigator; with this object he
accompanied Antam Goncalvez to the "River of Gold" (Rio d'Ouro, Rio de
Oro) in 23 deg. 40' N., where he landed and went inland with some native
shepherds. He stayed seven months in the country, which lay just within
Moslem Africa, slightly north of Pagan Negroland (W. Sudan); he was
taken off again by Antam Goncalvez at a point farther down the coast,
near the "Cape of Ransom" (Cape Mirik), in 19 deg. 22' 14"; and his
account of his experiences proved of great interest and value, not only
as to the natural features, climate, fauna and flora of the
south-western Sahara, but also as to the racial affinities, language,
script, religion, nomad habits, and trade of its inhabitants. These
people--though Mahommedans, maintaining a certain trade in slaves, gold,
&c., with the Barbary coast (especially with Tunis), and classed as
"Arabs," "Berbers," and "Tawny Moors"--did not then write or speak
Arabic. In 1446 and 1447 John Fernandez accompanied other expeditions to
the Rio d'Ouro and other parts of West Africa in the service of Prince
Henry. He was personally known to Gomes Eannes de Azurara, the historian
of this early period of Portuguese expansion; and from Azurara's
language it is clear that Fernandez' revelation of unknown lands and
races was fully appreciated at home.
See Azurara, _Chronica de ... Guine_, chs. xxix., xxxii., xxxiv.,
xxxv., lxxvii., lxxviii., xc., xci., xciii.
FERNANDEZ, JUAN (fl. c. 1570), Spanish navigator and discoverer. While
navigating the coasts of South America it occurred to him that the south
winds constantly prevailing near the shore, and retarding voyages
between Peru and Chile, might not exist farther out at sea. His idea
proved correct, and by the help of the trade winds and some currents at
a distance from the coast he sailed with such rapidity (thirty days)
from Callao to Chile that he was apprehended on a charge of sorcery. His
inquisitors, however, accepted his natural explanation of the marvel.
During one of his voyages in 1563 (from Lima to Valdivia) Fernandez
discovered the islands which now bear his name. He was so enchanted with
their beauty and fertility that he solicited the concession of them from
the Spanish government. It was granted in 1572, but a colony which he
endeavoured to establish at the largest of them (Isla Mas-a-Tierra) soon
broke up, leaving behind the goats, whose progeny were hunted by
Alexander Selkirk. In 1574 Fernandez discovered St Felix and St Ambrose
islands (in 27 deg. S., 82 deg. 7' W.); and in 1576, while voyaging in
the southern ocean, he is said to have sighted not only Easter Island,
but also a continent, which was probably Australia or New Zealand if the
story (rejected by most critics, but with reservations as to Easter
Island) is to be accepted.
See J.L. Arias, _Memoir recommending to the king the conversion of the
new discovered islands_ (in Spanish, 1609; Eng. trans., 1773); Ulloa,
_Relacion del Viaje_, bk. ii. ch. iv.; Alexander Dalrymple, _An
Historical Collection of the several Voyages and Discoveries in the
South Pacific Ocean_ (London, 1769-1771); Freville, _Voyages de la Mer
du Sud par les Espagnols_.
FERNANDEZ, LUCAS, Spanish dramatist, was born at Salamanca about the
middle of the 15th century. Nothing is known of his life, and he is
represented by a single volume of plays, _Farsas y eglogas al modo y
estilo pastoril_ (1514). In his secular pieces--a _comedia_ and two
_farsas_--he introduces few personages, employs the simplest possible
action, and burlesques the language of the uneducated class; the secular
and devout elements are skilfully intermingled in his two _Farsas del
nascimiento de Nuestro Senor Jesucristo_. But the best of his dramatic
essays is the _Auto de la Pasion_, a devout play intended to be given on
Maundy Thursday. It is written in the manner of Encina, with less
spontaneity, but with a sombre force to which Encina scarcely attained.
Fernandez' plays were reprinted by the Spanish Academy in 1867.
FERNANDINA, a city, a port of entry, and the county-seat of Nassau
county, Florida, U.S.A., a winter and summer resort, in the N.E. part of
the state, 36 m. N.E. of Jacksonville, on Amelia Island (about 22 m.
long and from 1/2 m. to 1-1/2 m. wide), which is separated from the
mainland by an arm of the sea, known as Amelia river and bay. Pop.
(1900) 3245; (1905, state census), 4959 (2957 negroes); (1910) 3482.
Fernandina is served by the Seaboard Air Line railway, and by steamship
lines connecting with domestic and foreign ports; its harbour, which has
the deepest water on the E. coast of Florida, opens on the N. to
Cumberland Sound, which was improved by the Federal government,
beginning in 1879, reducing freight rates at Fernandina by 25 to 40%.
Under an act of 1907 the channel of Fernandina harbour, 1300 ft. wide at
the entrance and about 2 m. long, was dredged to a depth of 20 to 24 ft.
at mean low water with a width of 400 to 600 ft. The "inside"
water-route between Savannah, Georgia and Fernandina is improved by the
Federal government (1892 sqq.) and has a 7-ft. channel. The principal
places of interest are "Amelia Beach," more than 20 m. long and 200 ft.
wide, connected with the city by a compact shell road nearly 2 m. long
and by electric line; the Amelia Island lighthouse, in the N. end of the
island, established in 1836 and rebuilt in 1880; Fort Clinch, at the
entrance to the harbour; Cumberland Island, in Georgia, N. of Amelia
Island, where land was granted to General Nathanael Greene after the War
of American Independence by the state of Georgia; and Dungeness, the
estate of the Carnegie family. Ocean City, on Amelia Beach, is a popular
pleasure resort. The principal industries are the manufacture of lumber,
cotton, palmetto fibres, and cigars, the canning of oysters, and the
building and repair of railway cars. The foreign exports, chiefly
lumber, railway ties, cotton, phosphate rock, and naval stores, were
valued at $9,346,704 in 1907; and the imports in 1907 at $116,514.
The harbour of Fernandina was known to the early explorers of Florida,
and it was here that Dominic de Gourgues landed when he made his
expedition against the Spanish at San Mateo in 1568. An Indian mission
was established by Spanish priests later in the same century, but it was
not successful. When Georgia was founded, General James Oglethorpe
placed a military guard on Amelia Island to prevent sudden attack upon
his colony by the Spanish, and the first blood shed in the petty warfare
between Georgia and Florida was the murder of two unarmed members of the
guard by a troop of Spanish soldiers and Indians in 1739. The first
permanent settlement was made by the Spanish in 1808, at what is now the
village of Old Fernandina, about 1 m. from the city. The island was a
centre for smuggling during the period of the embargo and
non-importation acts preceding the war of 1812. This was the pretext for
General George Matthews (1738-1812) to gather a band of adventurers at
St Mary's, Georgia, invade the island, and capture Fernandina in 1812.
In the following year the American forces were withdrawn. In 1817 Gregor
MacGregor, a filibuster who had aided the Spanish provinces of South
America in their revolt against Spain, fitted out an expedition in
Baltimore and seized Fernandina, but departed soon after. Later in the
same year Louis Aury, another adventurer, appeared with a small force
from Texas, and took possession of the place in the name of the Republic
of Mexico. In the following year Aury was expelled by United States
troops, who held Fernandina in trust for Spain until Florida was finally
ceded to the United States in 1821. Fernandina was first incorporated in
1859. In 1861 Fort Clinch was seized by the Confederates, and Fernandina
harbour was a centre of blockade running in the first two years of the
Civil War. In 1862 the place was captured by a Federal naval force from
Port Royal, South Carolina, commanded by Commodore S.F. Du Pont.
FERNANDO DE NORONHA [_Fernao de N._], an island in the South Atlantic,
125 m. from the coast of Brazil, to which country it belongs, in 3 deg.
50' S., 32 deg. 25' W. It is about 7 m. long and 1-1/2 wide, and some
other islets lie adjacent to it. Its surface is rugged, and it contains
a number of rocky hills from 500 to 700 ft. high, and one peak towering
to the height of 1089 ft. It is formed of basalt, trachyte and
phonolite, and the soil is very fertile. The climate is healthy. It is
defended by forts, and serves as a place of banishment for criminals
from Brazil. The next largest island of the group is about a mile in
circumference, and the others are small barren rocks. The population is
about 2000, all males, including some 1400 criminals, and a garrison of
150. Communication is maintained by steamer with Pernambuco. The island
takes name from its Portuguese discoverer (1503), the count of Noronha.
FERNANDO PO, or FERNANDO POO, a Spanish island on the west coast of
Africa, in the Bight of Biafra, about 20 m. from the mainland, in 3 deg.
12' N. and 8 deg. 48' E. It is of volcanic origin, related to the
Cameroon system of the adjacent mainland, is the largest island in the
Gulf of Guinea, is 44 m. long from N.N.E. to S.S.W., about 20 m. broad,
and has an area of about 780 sq. m. Fernando Po is noted for its
beautiful aspect, seeming from a short distance to be a single mountain
rising from the sea, its sides covered with luxuriant vegetation. The
shores are steep and rocky and the coast plain narrow. This plain is
succeeded by the slopes of the mountains which occupy the rest of the
island and culminate in the magnificent cone of Clarence Peak or Pico de
Santa Isabel (native name Owassa). Clarence Peak, about 10,000 ft.
high,[1] is in the north-central part of the island. In the south Musolo
Mt. attains a height of 7400 ft. There are numerous other peaks between
4000 and 6000 ft. high. The mountains contain craters and crater lakes,
and are covered, most of them to their summits, with forests. Down the
narrow intervening valleys rush torrential streams which have cut deep
beds through the coast plains. The trees most characteristic of the
forest are oil palms and tree ferns, but there are many varieties,
including ebony, mahogany and the African oak. The undergrowth is very
dense; it includes the sugar-cane and cotton and indigo plants. The
fauna includes antelopes, monkeys, lemurs, the civet cat, porcupine,
pythons and green tree-snakes, crocodiles and turtles. The climate is
very unhealthy in the lower districts, where malarial fever is common.
The mean temperature on the coast is 78 deg. Fahr. and varies little,
but in the higher altitudes there is considerable daily variation. The
rainfall is very heavy except during November-January, which is
considered the dry season.
The inhabitants number about 25,000. In addition to about 500 Europeans,
mostly Spaniards and Cubans, they are of two classes, the Bubis or Bube
(formerly also called Ediya), who occupy the interior, and the coast
dwellers, a mixed Negro race, largely descended from slave ancestors
with an admixture of Portuguese and Spanish blood, and known to the
Bubis as "Portos"--a corruption of Portuguese. The Bubis are of Bantu
stock and early immigrants from the mainland. Physically they are a
finely developed race, extremely jealous of their independence and
unwilling to take service of any kind with Europeans. They go unclothed,
smearing their bodies with a kind of pomatum. They stick pieces of wood
in the lobes of their ears, wear numerous armlets made of ivory, beads
or grass, and always wear hats, generally made of palm leaves. Their
weapons are mainly of wood; stone axes and knives were in use as late as
1858. They have no knowledge of working iron. Their villages are built
in the densest parts of the forest, and care is taken to conceal the
approach to them. The Bubis are sportsmen and fishermen rather than
agriculturists. The staple foods of the islanders generally are millet,
rice, yams and bananas. Alcohol is distilled from the sugar-cane. The
natives possess numbers of sheep, goats and fowls.
The principal settlement is Port Clarence (pop. 1500), called by the
Spaniards Santa Isabel, a safe and commodious harbour on the north
coast. In its graveyard are buried Richard Lander and several other
explorers of West Africa. Port Clarence is unhealthy, and the seat of
government has been removed to Basile, a small town 5 m. from Port
Clarence and over 1000 ft. above the sea. On the west coast are the bay
and port of San Carlos, on the east coast Concepcion Bay and town. The
chief industry until the close of the 19th century was the collection of
palm-oil, but the Spaniards have since developed plantations of cocoa,
coffee, sugar, tobacco, vanilla and other tropical plants. The kola nut
is also cultivated. The cocoa plantations are of most importance. The
amount of cocoa exported in 1905 was 1800 tons, being 370 tons above the
average export for the preceding five years. The total value of the
trade of the island (1900-1905) was about L250,000 a year.
_History._--The island was discovered towards the close of the 15th
century by a Portuguese navigator called Fernao do Po, who, struck by
its beauty, named it Formosa, but it soon came to be called by the name
of its discoverer.[2] A Portuguese colony was established in the island,
which together with Annobon was ceded to Spain in 1778. The first
attempts of Spain to develop the island ended disastrously, and in 1827,
with the consent of Spain, the administration of the island was taken
over by Great Britain, the British "superintendent" having a Spanish
commission as governor. By the British Fernando Po was used as a naval
station for the ships engaged in the suppression of the slave trade. The
British headquarters were named Port Clarence and the adjacent
promontory Cape William, in honour of the duke of Clarence (William
IV.). In 1844 the Spaniards reclaimed the island, refusing to sell their
rights to Great Britain. They did no more at that time, however, than
hoist the Spanish flag, appointing a British resident, John Beecroft,
governor. Beecroft, who was made British consul in 1849, died in 1854.
During the British occupation a considerable number of Sierra Leonians,
West Indians and freed slaves settled in the island, and English became
and remains the common speech of the coast peoples. In 1858 a Spanish
governor was sent out, and the Baptist missionaries who had laboured in
the island since 1843 were compelled to withdraw. They settled in Ambas
Bay on the 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 Poo y de
la Guinea continental espanola," in _Bol. Real. Soc. Geog._ of Madrid
(1902); and a further article in the _Riv. Geog. Col._ of Madrid
(1908); E.L. Vilches, "Fernando Poo y la Guinea espanola," in the
_Bol. Real. Soc. Geog._ (1901); San Javier, _Tres Anos en Fernando
Poo_ (Madrid, 1875); O. Baumann, _Eine africanische Tropeninsel:
Fernando Poo und die Bube_ (Vienna, 1888); Sir H.H. Johnston, _George
Grenfell and the Congo ... and Notes on Fernando Po_ (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.