MIAMI, a city and the county-seat of Dade county, Florida, U.S.A., in the S.E. part of the state, on the N. bank of the Miami river and on Biscayne Bay. Pop. (1900), 1681; (1905), 4733; (1910), 5471. It is served by the Florida East Coast railway and by lines of coastwise steamships, and is the point of departure of the P. & O. steamships for Nassau and Havana. Miami is the centre of a farming country in which citrus fruits, especially grape-fruit, pineapples and winter vegetables are raised for northern markets. There is excellent rod-fishing; Spanish and king mackerel and blue-fish are shipped from Miami in large quantities; and in Biscayne Bay there are important sponge fisheries. An alligator “farm” and the Subtropical Laboratory of the U.S. government are points of interest. In the city is Fort Dallas (now abandoned), where American troops were quartered during the Seminole War; and Miami is still the trading point of the Seminole Indians, being immediately south of the Everglades, their home. In 1909 a project was on foot to cut a channel from Miami to Lake Okechobee and from the other side of that lake west to the Gulf at Fort Myers, thus providing an inland waterway and draining much swampy but fertile land. In 1896 there were only two dwellings and one storehouse within the present corporate limits, but in that year the place was chosen as the southern terminal of the Florida East Coast railway, which was afterwards extended towards Key West. Soon afterwards Henry M. Flagler (b. 1830), the owner of the railway, began the construction of the magnificent Royal Palm hotel, and Miami became a popular winter resort. Then came the development of commerce by the improvement of the harbour, by donations from Mr Flagler and grants by the United States government.
MIAMI, a tribe of North American Indians of Algonquian
stock. The English called them Twightwees, a. corruption of the
native name, which meant the cry of the crane. They
were first found in south-eastern Wisconsin, and in 1764
numbered about 1750. Their civilization was advanced and they
lived in stockaded towns. They took part in Pontiac's
conspiracy in 1764 and in the American War of Independence and
American War of 1812 they fought on the English side. At the
close of this war they were greatly reduced in numbers. A
few Miami still live on a reservation in Oklahoma and in
Wabash county, Indiana.
MIANTONOMO ( ? –1643), chief of the Narraganset tribe of
North American Indians, nephew of their grand sachem, Canonicus
(d. 1647). He seems to have been friendly to the English
colonists of Massachusetts and Connecticut, though he was
accused of being treacherous. In 1636, when under suspicion,
he went to Boston to prove his loyalty to the colonists. In the
following year he permitted John Mason to lead his Connecticut
expedition against the Pequot Indians through the Narraganset
country, and in 1638 he signed for the Narraganset the tripartite
treaty between that tribe, the Connecticut colonists and the
Mohegan Indians, which provided for a perpetual peace between
the parties, and he agreed to take under his jurisdiction eighty
of the two hundred troublesome Pequot. In 1643 a quarrel
broke out between the Mohegan and the Narraganset, and
Miantonomo led his warriors against those of Uncas, the Mohegan
sachem. He was defeated and captured at what is now Norwich,
Conn., was turned over to the Connecticut authorities, and
was later tried at Boston by the commissioners of the United
Colonies of New England. A committee of five clergymen, to
whom his case was referred, recommended that he be executed,
and the commissioners accordingly sentenced him to death and
chose Uncas as his executioner. Miantonomo, who was kept in
ignorance of this sentence, was taken to the scene of his defeat
and was there tomahawked in cold blood by Wawequa, the
brother of Uncas. There is a monument to Miantonomo in
Sachem's Park, Norwich, Conn.
MIANWALI, a town and district of India in the Multan division
of the Punjab. The town is situated on the left bank of the
Indus, 653 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901), 3591. The district
was formed in 1901, after the creation of the North-West
Frontier Province, out of the Cis-Indus portions of Bannu and
Dera Ismail Khan districts. Area 7816 sq. m. Pop. (1901),
424,588, showing an increase of 6·1% in the decade. About
three-quarters of the district lies to the east of the Indus. Along
the river is a low fertile tract, liable to floods. The remaining
upland, known as the Thal, is barren and sandy, cultivable only
where irrigation is possible. In the north-east the district
includes the western flank of the Salt Range. The part of the
district west of the Indus is, a level and fairly fertile plain,
enclosed by the Chichali and Maidani hills. The chief agricultural
products are wheat and other grains and oil-seeds. Hides
and wool are also exported, together with small quantities of alum
(abundant in the Salt Range), salt (from the Salt and Maidani
ranges), and coal of poor quality, which is found at several
points. Petroleum has been discovered. The district is served
by the Multan-Rawalpindi line of the North-Western railway.
MIAOTSZE, or Miautse, one of the aboriginal tribes of southern
China. At one time they occupied a considerable portion of the
fertile lands which now form the central province of the empire,
but as the Chinese advanced southwards they were driven into
the mountain districts of the provinces of Yunnan, Kwei-chow,
Kwang-si and Kwang-tung, where they are found at the present
day. As early as the reign of King Suan (about 800 B.C.) we read
of an expedition having been sent to drive them out of Hu-nan.
The last important campaign against them was undertaken by
the emperor K'ien-lung, who, having completely subjugated the
Eleuths, attacked the Miaotsze, who suffered a crushing defeat,
and were compelled to purchase peace by swearing allegiance to
their conquerors. They still maintain a semi-independence in
their mountain-homes, but are a decaying race, gradually giving
way before the Chinese. They are allowed to govern themselves
on their own patriarchal system. The Miaotsze of both sexes
are shorter and darker-complexioned than the Chinese, their
faces are rounder and their features sharper.
See Sketches of the Miau-tsze, trans. by E. C. Bridgman; J. Edkins, The Miautsi Tribes, their History; and “Quaint Customs in Kwei-chow,” Cornhill Magazine (Jan. 1872); Playfair, The Maotzu of Kwei-chow and Yunnan (London, 1877); A. R. Colquhoun, Across Chrysé (1883).
MIAOULIS, ANDREAS VOKOS or Bokos (1768–1835), Greek admiral and politician, was born in Negropont. The surname Miaoulis, which was added to his family name of Vokos, or Bokos, is said to be derived from the Turkish word miaoul, a felucca. He settled in the island of Hydra on the east of the Morea, and when the Greek War of Independence began was known among his fellow townsmen as a trader in corn who had gained wealth, and who made a popular use of his money. He had been a merchant captain, and was chosen to lead the naval forces of the islands when they rose against the government of the Sultan. The islanders had enjoyed some measure of exemption from the worst excesses of the Turkish officials, but suffered severely from the conscription raised to man the Turkish ships; and though they seemed to be peculiarly open to attack by the Sultan's forces from the sea, they took an early and active part in the rising. As early as 1822 Miaoulis was appointed navarch, or admiral, of the swarm of small vessels which formed the insurgent fleet. He commanded the expedition sent to take revenge for the massacre of Chio (see Kanaris) in the same year. He continued to be the naval chief of the Greeks till Lord Dundonald entered their service in 1827, when he retired in order to leave the English officer free to act as commander. In the interval he had had the general direction of the naval side of the Greek struggle for freedom. He had a share in the successful relief of the first siege of Missolonghi in December 1822 and January 1823. In 1824, after the conquest of Psara by the Turks, he commanded the Greek forces which prevented the further progress of the Sultan's fleet, though at the cost of the loss of many fire ships and men to themselves. But in the same year he was unable to prevent the Egyptian forces from occupying Navarino, though he harassed them with some success. During 1825 he succeeded in carrying stores and reinforcements into Missolonghi, when it was besieged for the second time, though he could not avert its fall. His efforts to interrupt the sea communications of the Egyptian forces failed, owing to the enormous disproportion of
