CHARLOTTETOWN, a city of Canada, the capital of Prince Edward Island, situated in Queen’s county, on Hillsborough river. Pop. (1901) 12,080. It has a good harbour, and the river is navigable by large vessels for several miles. The export trade of the island centres here, and the city has regular communication by steamer with the chief American and Canadian ports. Besides the government buildings and the court-house, it contains numerous churches, the Prince of Wales College, supported by the province, the Roman Catholic college of St Dunstan’s and a normal school; among its manufactures are woollen goods, lumber, canned goods, and foundry products. The head office and workshops of the Prince Edward Island railway are situated here. The town was founded in 1750 by the French under the name of Port la Joie, but under British rule changed its name in honour of the queen of George III.
CHARM (through the Fr. from the Lat. carmen, a song), an incantation, verses sung with supposed magical results, hence anything possessing powers of bringing good luck or averting evil, particularly articles worn with that purpose, such as an amulet. It is thus used of small trinkets attached to bracelets or chains. The word is also used, figuratively, of fascinating qualities of feature, voice or character.
CHARNAY, (CLAUDE JOSEPH) DÉSIRÉ (1828- ), French traveller and archaeologist, was born in Fleurie (Rhône), on the 2nd of May 1828. He studied at the Lycée Charlemagne, in 1850 became a teacher in New Orleans, Louisiana, and there became acquainted with John Lloyd Stephens’s books of travel in Yucatan. He travelled in Mexico, under a commission from the French ministry of education, in 1857-1861; in Madagascar in 1863; in South America, particularly Chile and Argentina, in 1875; and in Java and Australia in 1878. In 1880-1883 he again visited the ruined cities of Mexico. Pierre Lorillard of New York contributed to defray the expense of this expedition, and Charnay named a great ruined city near the Guatemalan boundary line Ville Lorillard in his honour. Charnay went to Yucatan in 1886. The more important of his publications are Le Mexique, souvenirs et impressions de voyage (1863), being his personal report on the expedition of 1857-61, of which the official report is to be found in Viollet-le-Duc’s Cités et ruines americaines: Mitla, Palenqué, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal (1863), vol. 19 of Recueil des voyages et des documents; Les Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde (1885; English translation, The Ancient Cities of the New World, 1887, by Mmes. Gonino and Conant); a romance, Une Princesse indienne avant la conquête (1888); À travers les forêts vierges (1890); and Manuscrit Ramirez: Histoire de I’origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions (1903). He translated Cortez’s letters into French, under the title Lettres de Fernand Cortes à Charles-quint sur la découverte et la conquête du Mexique (1896). He elaborated a theory of Toltec migrations and considered the prehistoric Mexican to be of Asiatic origin, because of observed similarities to Japanese architecture, Chinese decoration, Malaysian language and Cambodian dress, &c.
CHARNEL HOUSE (Med. Lat. carnarium), a place for depositing the bones which might be thrown up in digging graves. Sometimes, as at Gloucester, Hythe and Ripon, it was a portion of the crypt; sometimes, as at Old St Paul’s and Worcester (both now destroyed), it was a separate building in the churchyard; sometimes chantry chapels were attached to these buildings. Viollet-le-Duc has given two very curious examples of such ossuaires (as the French call them)—one from Fleurance (Gers), the other from Faouët (Finistère).
CHARNOCK, JOB (d. 1693), English founder of Calcutta, went out to India in 1655 or 1656, apparently not in the East India Company’s service, but soon joined it. He was stationed at Cossimbazar, and subsequently at Patna. In 1685 he became chief agent at Hugli. Being besieged there by the Mogul viceroy of Bengal, he put the company’s goods and servants on board his light vessels and dropped down the river 27 m. to the village of Sutanati, a place well chosen for the purpose of defence, which occupied the site of what is now Calcutta. It was only, however, at the third attempt that Charnock finally settled down at this spot, and the selection of the future capital of India was entirely due to his stubborn resolution. He was a silent morose man, not popular among his contemporaries, but “always a faithfull Man to the Company.” He is said to have married a Hindu widow.