Connecticut and New York met to treat with representatives of
the Five Nations and to plan a system of colonial defence.
During the 18th century there was a great influx of English
colonists, and in 1714 the first English church was erected.
During the French and Indian wars Albany was a starting-point
for expeditions against Canada and the Lake Champlain
country. In June 1754, in Dursuance of a recommendation
of the Lords.of Trade, a convention of representatives of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New
Vork, Pennsylvania and Maryland met here for the purpose of
confirming and establishing a closer league of friendshiq with
the Iroquois and of arranging for a Dermanent union of the
colonies. The Indian affairs having been satisfactorily
adiusted, the convention, after considerable debate. in which
Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hopkins and Thomas Hutchinson
took a leading part, adopted (July 11) a plan foraunionof the
colonies, which was in great part similar to one submitted
to the convention by Franklin. This plan provided for a
representative governing body to be known as the Grand Council,
to which each colony should elect delegates (not more than
seven or less than two) for a term of three years. This body
was to have control of Indian affairs, impose taxes, nominate
all civil officers, authorize the opening of new lands to
settlement, and in general have charge of colonial defence,
and of the enlistment, equipment and maintenance of an army.
An executive or viceroy, to be known as the president-general,
was to have the veto power over the acts of the Grand Council
and the right of appointment of military officers. Finally,
it was provided that the acts of the Grand Council should
be valid unless vetoed by the crown within a period of three
years. Neither the British government nor the growing party
in the colonies which was clamouring for colonial rights
received the plan with favour--- the former holding that
it gave the colonies too much independence, and the latter
that it gave them too little. 4.he strategic importance of
Albany was fully recognized during the War of Independence,
and it was against Albany that Burgoyne's expedition was
directed. Albany became the permanent state capital in
1797. In 1839 it became the centre of the ``Anti-Rent
War,'' which was precipitated by the death of Stephen
van Rensselaer (1764-1839), the last of the patroons; the
attempt of his heirs to collect overdue rents resulting
in disturbances which necessitated the calling out of the
militia, spread into several counties where there were large
landed estates, and were not entirely settled until 1847.
See William Barnes, The Settlement and Early History of
Albany (Albany, 1864): J. Munsell, The Annals of Albany
(10 vols., Albany, 1859-1859: 2nd ed., 4 vols., 1869-1871);
E. B. O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New
York, vol. iii. (Albany, 1850): A. J. Weise, The History
of the City of Albany (Albany, 1884); G. R. Howell and J.
Tenney, Bi-centennial History of Albany (New York, 1886);
Amasa I. Parker, Landmarks of Albany County (Syracuse,
1897); and Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles; or Albany
Mayors anid Contemporaneous Chronology (Albany, 1907).
ALBANY, a municipal town in the county of Plantagenet, West
Australia, on Princess Royal Harbour, a branch of King George
Sound, 352 m. by rail and 254 m. directly S.S.E. of Perth. Pop.
(1901) 3650. It is the chief health resort of the state, and
its climate is one of the finest in Australia; it has a mean
annual temperature of 58.6 deg. F., and the summer heat is never
excessive. One of the features of the town is the Marine
Drive, some 5 1/2 m. in circuit around the hills overlooking the
harbour. Albany has several flourishing industries, of
which the chief are brewing, coach-building, printing and
tanning. In addition it has the finest harbour in West
Australia. A pier extends for 1700 ft. into the sea, giving
safe accommodation to the large steamers which call at the
port. The Great Southern railway has a line to the seaward
end of the pier, and affords direct communication with the
interior of the colony. The harbour is protected by forts
and there is a garrison in the town. King George Sound,
of which Albany is the township, was first occupied in 1826
and a penal settlement was established. No attempt was made
to colonize the locality until after this settlement was
given up in 1831. Albany became a municipality in 1871.
ALBATEGNIUS (c. 850--929), an Arab prince and astronomer,
correctly designated Mahommed ben Gebir al Batani, his surname
being derived from his native town, Batan in Mesopotamia. From
his observations at Aracte and Damascus, where he died, he was
able to correct some of Ptolemy's results, previously taken on
trust. He compiled new tables of the sun and moon, long
accepted as authoritative, discovered the movement of the sun's
apogee, and assigned to annual precession the improved value of
55'' Perhaps independently of Aryabhatta (born at Pataliputra
on the Ganges 476 A.D.), he introduced the use of sines in
calculation, and partially that of tangents. His principal
work, De Motu Stellarum, was published at Nuremberg in 1537
by Melanchthon, in a blundering Latin translation by Plato
Tiburtinus (fl. 1116), annotated by Regiomontanus. A reprint
appeared at Bologna in 1645. The original MS. is preserved
at the Vatican; and the Escorial library possesses in MS. a
treatise of some value by him on astronomical chronology.
Albategnius takes the highest rank among Arab astronomers.
See Houzeau, Bibliographie astronomique, i. 467; M. Marie, Histoire
des sciences, ii. 113; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie,
p. 67; Delambre, Hist. de l'astr. au moyen age, ch. ii.;
Phil. Trans. 1693 (913), where E. Halley supplies corrections
to some of the observations recorded in De Motu Stellarum.
ALBATROSS (from the Port. Alcatraz, a pelican), the name
of a genus of aquatic birds (Diomedea), closely allied to the
petrels, and belonging, like them, to the order Tubinares.
In the name Diomedea, assigned to them by Linnaeus, there
is a reference to the mythical metamorphosis of the companions
of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. The beak is large,
strong and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in
a large hook; the wings are narrow and very long; the feet
have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely
webbed. The best known is the common or wandering albatross
(D. exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern
Ocean. It is the largest and strongest of all sea-birds.
The length of the body is stated at 4 ft., and the weight at
from 15 to 25 lb. . It sometimes measures as much as 17 ft.
between the tips of the extended, wings, averaging probably
from 10 to 12 ft. Its strength of wing is very great. It
often accompanies a ship for days--not merely following it,
but wheeling in wide circles round it---without ever being
observed to alight on the water. and continues its flight,
apparently untired, in tempestuous as well as in moderate
weather. It has even been said to sleep on the wing, and
Moore alludes to this fanciful ``cloud-rocked slumbering''
in his Fire Worshippers. It feeds on small fish and on the
animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess
at times that it is unable to fiy and rests helplessly on the
water. The colour of the bird is white, the back being
streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the wings
dark. Sailors capture the bird for its long wing-bones, which
they manufacture into tobacco-pipe stems. The albatross lays
one egg; it is white, with a few spots, and is about 4 in.
long. In breeding-time the bird resorts to solitary island
groups, like the Crozet Islands and the elevated Tristan
da Cunha, where it has its nest--a natural hollow or a
circle of earth roughly scraped together--on the open
ground. The early explorers of the great Southern Sea cheered
themselves with the companionship of the albatross in its
dreary solitudes; and the evil hap of him who shot with his
cross-bow the bird of good omen is familiar to readers of
Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Several species of
albatross are known; for the smaller forms see MALLEMUCK.
ALBAY, a city and the capital of the province of Albay,
Luzon, Philippine Islands, near an inlet on the W. shore
of the Gulf of Albay, 215 m. by wagon-road S.E. of Manila.
Pop. (1903) 14,049; in October 1907 the towns of Daraga (pop.
1903, 18,695) and Legaspi (pop. 1903, 9206) were merged with
Albay, making its total population, on the basis of the 1903
census, 41,950. Albay is one of the most important cities
of the Philippine Islands. It is built on level ground
near the S. base of Mount Mayon, a beautiful volcanic peak,
7916 ft. high, from which it is sheltered by the Linguin
hills. The surrounding country is one of the most important
hemp-producing districts in the Philippines; sinamay is woven
here, and large quantities of hemp are shipped from here to
Manila. Cocoa, copra, sugar and sweet potatoes are other
important products of the district. The language is
Bicol. The old town, called Cagsaua, which stood a short
distance E.N.E. of the new, was completely destroyed by an
eruption of the volcano in 1814 (about 1200 people being
killed), and the new town was almost entirely destroyed by
the insurgents in February 1900, an ancient stone church of
much beauty (in what was formerly Daraga) being left standing
on an elevated site commanding a view of the surrounding
country. The town was rebuilt on a larger scale by Americans.
ALBEDO (from Lat. albus, white), ``whiteness,''
a word used principally in astronomy for the degree
of reflected light; the light of the sun which is
reflected from the moon is called the albedo of the moon.
ALBEMARLE, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The name Albemarle, which
now forms the title of the earldom held by the English
family of Keppel, is an early variant of the French Aumale
(Lat. Alba dlarla), other forms being Aubemarle and
Aumerle, and is described in the patent of nobility granted
in 1696-1697 by William III. to Arnold Joost van Keppel
as ``a town and territory in the dukedom of Normandy.''
The fief of Aumale (q. v.) was granted by the archbishop
of Rouen to Odo of Champagne, brother-in-law of William the
Conqueror, who erected it into a countship. On Odo's death
his son Stephen succeeded not only to the countship of Aumale,
but to the lordships of Holderness, of Bytham in Lincolnshire,
&c., which were subsequently known as the ``Fee and Honor of
Albemarle.'' Stephen, who as a crusader had fought valiantly at
Antioch, died about 1127, leaving by his wife Hawise, daughter
of Ralph de Mortimer, a son---William of Blois, known as
``le Gros.'' William, who distinguished himself at the battle
of the Standard (1138), and shared with King Stephen in the
defeat of Lincoln (1141), married Cicely, daughter of William
FitzDuncan, grandson of Malcolm, king of Scotland, who as ``lady
of Harewood'' brought him vast estates. He founded abbeys
at Meaux in Holderness and at Thornton, and died in 1179.
His elder daughter and heiress Hawise married (1) William de
Mandeville, 3rd earl of Essex (d. 1189), (2) William de Fortibus
(de Fors, de Fortz or des Forts1), (3) Baldwin de Betun or
Bethune, all of whom bore the title of earls of Albemarle.
Soon after the deathpf Baldwin (October 13, 1213), William de
Fortibus, Hawise's son by her second husband, was established
by King John in the territories of the countship of Albemarle,
