MAGALDÁN, a town in the northern part of the province of Pangasinan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, about 2 m. from the shore of the Gulf of Lingayen. Pop. (1903), 15,841. In 1903 the adjacent municipality of Mapandan (pop. in 1903, 4198) was annexed to Magaldán. Most of its inhabitants are engaged in rice culture. The principal language is Pangasinan; Ilocano is also spoken.
MAGALLANES (Spanish form of Magellan), a territory of southern Chile extending from 47° S. to Cape Horn and including the mainland from the Argentine frontier to the Pacific coast, the islands extending along that coast, the Fuegian archipelago, and the western half of Tierra del Fuego. Area, about 71,127 sq. m.; pop. (1895), 5170. It is one of the most inhospitable regions of the world, being exposed to cold westerly storms for most of the year. The islands are barren, but the mainland is covered with forests, practically inaccessible to exploitation because of the inclement climate and the wet spongy soil. The coast is indented with bays and fjords and affords remarkable scenery. There is little animal life on land, but the coast is frequented by the seal and sea-otter and the sheltered waters by countless sea-fowl. The only permanent settlements are at Punta Arenas, the capital, on the Straits of Magellan, Palomares on Otway Water, Mina Marta on Skyring Water, and Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) on the east shore of Worsley Sound. All are east of the Andean ranges and partially sheltered from the westerly storms. In this sheltered region there are open plains where sheep are grazed. A few sheep ranges have been established on Tierra del Fuego. Some nomadic tribes of Indians inhabit Tierra del Fuego and the extreme southern end of the mainland, but their numbers are small. Coal has been found in the vicinity of Punta Arenas, and gold occurs.
See The Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle (1839).
MAGAZINE, primarily a warehouse for goods or merchandise (Arab. makhzan, a storehouse, from khazana, to store up). In Morocco makhzan (or maghzen) has come to be used as the name of the government. The Spaniards adopted the Arabic in the form magacen, and the English form comes through the older French magazin, modern magasin. The meaning of a storehouse or large shop, common in French, is rare in English except in the military use of the term for a building for the storage of explosives and ammunition. It is applied to the chamber of a repeating rifle or machine-gun containing the supply of cartridges. The name as applied to a periodical publication containing articles on various subjects was first used in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1731), described as “a monthly collection, to treasure up as in a magazine” articles on the subjects with which it was proposed to deal.
MAGDALA (more correctly Makdala), a natural stronghold in the country of the Wollo Gallas, Abyssinia, about 250 m. W. of Jibuti on the Gulf of Aden, in 11° 22′ N., 39° 25′ E. The basaltic plateau of which it consists rises 9110 ft. above the sea. It is about three-quarters of a mile in length by less than half a mile in breadth, and lies more than a thousand feet higher than the neighbouring plain of Arogié. Chosen about 1860 by the emperor Theodore of Abyssinia as his principal stronghold in the south, Magdala owes its celebrity to the fact that, as the place of imprisonment of the English captives, it became the goal of the great English Expedition of 1868. At the time of its capture it contained huts for a population of about three thousand. The whole rock was burned bare by order of the commander of the British force, Sir Robert Napier, who, on being raised to the peerage for his services on this occasion, took the title of Lord Napier of Magdala. The plateau was subsequently refortified by the Abyssinians.
See Clements Markham, History of the Abyssinian Expedition (1869); and H. Rassam, British Mission to Theodore (1869).