See Costa e Silva, Ensaio biographico critico, v. 5-112, for a critical examination of Lobo’s writings; also Bouterwek’s History of Portuguese Literature.
(E. Pr.)
LOBO, JERONIMO (1593-1678), Jesuit missionary, was born in Lisbon, and entered the Order of Jesus at the age of sixteen. In 1621 he was ordered as a missionary to India, and in 1622 he arrived at Goa. With the intention of proceeding to Abyssinia, whose Negus (emperor) Segued had been converted to Roman Catholicism by Pedro Paez, he left India in 1624. He disembarked on the coast of Mombasa, and attempted to reach his destination through the Galla country, but was forced to return. In 1625 he set out again, accompanied by Mendez, the patriarch of Ethiopia, and eight missionaries. The party landed on the coast of the Red Sea, and Lobo settled in Abyssinia as superintendent of the missions in Tigré. He remained there until death deprived the Catholics of their protector, the emperor Segued. Forced by persecution to leave the kingdom, in 1634 Lobo and his companions fell into the hands of the Turks at Massawa, who sent him to India to procure a ransom for his imprisoned fellow-missionaries. In this he was successful, but could not induce the Portuguese viceroy to send an armament against Abyssinia. Intent upon accomplishing this cherished project, he embarked for Portugal, and after he had been shipwrecked on the coast of Natal, and captured by pirates, arrived at Lisbon. Neither at this city, however, nor at Madrid and Rome, was any countenance given to Lobo’s plan. He accordingly returned to India in 1640, and was elected rector, and afterwards provincial, of the Jesuits at Goa. After some years he returned to his native city, and died there on the 29th of January 1678.
Lobo wrote an account of his travels in Portuguese, which appears never to have been printed, but is deposited in the monastery of St Roque, Lisbon. Balthazar Telles made large use of the information therein in his Historia geral da Ethiopia a Alta (Coimbra, 1660), often erroneously attributed to Lobo (see Machado’s Bibliotheca Lusitana). Lobo’s own narrative was translated from a MS. copy into French in 1728 by the Abbé Joachim le Grand, under the title of Voyage historique d’Abissinie. In 1669 a translation by Sir Peter Wyche of several passages from a MS. account of Lobo’s travels was published by the Royal Society (translated in M. Thévenot’s Relation des voyages in 1673). An English abridgment of Le Grand’s edition by Dr Johnson was published in 1735 (reprinted 1789). In a Mémoire justificatif en réhabilitation des pères Pierre Paez et Jérôme Lobo, Dr C. T. Beke maintains against Bruce the accuracy of Lobo’s statements as to the source of the Abai branch of the Nile. See A. de Backer, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (ed. C. Sommervogel, iv., 1893).
LOBSTER (O.E. lopustre, lopystre, a corruption of Lat. locusta, lobster or other marine shell-fish; also a locust), an edible crustacean found on the coasts of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. The name is sometimes loosely applied to any of the larger Crustacea of the order Macrura, especially to such as are used for food.
The true lobsters, forming the family Homaridae, are distinguished from the other Macrura by having the first three pairs of legs terminating in chelae or pincers. The first pair are large and massive and are composed of six segments, while the remaining legs are each composed of seven segments. The sternum of the last thoracic somite is immovably united with the preceding. This last character, together with some peculiarities of the branchial system, distinguish the lobsters from the freshwater crayfishes. The common lobster (Homarus gammarus or vulgaris) is found on the European coasts from Norway to the Mediterranean. The American lobster (Homarus americanus), which should perhaps be ranked as a variety rather than as a distinct species, is found on the Atlantic coast of North America from Labrador to Cape Hatteras. A third species, found at the Cape of Good Hope, is of small size and of no economic importance.
Both in Europe and in America the lobster is the object of an important fishery. It lives in shallow water, in rocky places, and is usually captured in traps known as lobster-pots, or creels, made of wickerwork or of hoops covered with netting, and having funnel-shaped openings permitting entrance but preventing escape. These traps are baited with pieces of fish, preferably stale, and are sunk on ground frequented by lobsters, the place of each being marked by a buoy. In Europe the lobsters are generally sent to market in the fresh state, but in America, especially in the northern New England states and in the maritime provinces of Canada, the canning of lobsters is an important industry. The European lobster rarely reaches 10 pounds in weight, though individuals of 14 pounds have been found, and in America there are authentic records of lobsters weighing 20 to 23 pounds.
The effects of over-fishing have become apparent, especially in America, rather in the reduced average size of the lobsters caught than in any diminution of the total yield. The imposition of a close time to protect the spawning lobsters has been often tried, but as the female carries the spawn attached to her body for nearly twelve months after spawning it is impossible to give any effective protection by this means. The prohibition of the capture of females carrying spawn, or, as it is termed, “in berry,” is difficult to enforce. A minimum size, below which it is illegal to sell lobsters, is fixed by law in most lobster-fishing districts, but the value of the protection so given has also been questioned.