, and an efficient military school. American Presbyterians began
mission work in the city in 1873; it is also the see of a Roman Catholic
bishop.

CHINCHA ISLANDS, three small islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 12 m.
from the coast of Peru (to which country they belong), opposite the town
of Pisco, and 106 m. distant from Callao, in 13 deg. 38' S., 76 deg. 28' W.
The largest of the group, known as the North Island or Isla del Norte, is
only four-fifths of a mile in length, and about a third in breadth. They
are of granitic formation, and rise from the sea in precipitous cliffs,
worn into countless caves and hollows, which furnish convenient
resting-places for the sea-fowl. Their highest points attain an
elevation of 113 ft. The islands have yielded a few remains of the
Chincha Indian race. They were formerly noted for vast deposits of
guano, and its export was begun by the Peruvian government in 1840. The
supply, however, was exhausted in 1874. In 1853-1854 the Chincha Islands
were the chief object in a contest known as the Guano War between
President Echenique and General Castilla; and in April 1864 they were
seized by the Spanish rear-admiral Pinzon in order to bring the Peruvian
government to apologize for its treatment of Spanish immigrants.

CHINCHEW, or CHINCHU, the name usually given in English charts to an
ancient and famous port of China in the province of Fu-kien, of which
the Chinese name is _Ch'ueanchow-fu_ or _Ts'ueanchow-fu_. It stands in 24
deg. 57' N., 118 deg. 35' E. The walls have a circuit of 7 or 8 m., but
embrace much vacant ground. The chief exports are tea and sugar, tobacco,
china-ware, nankeens, &c. There are remains of a fine mosque, founded by
the Arab traders who resorted thither. The English Presbyterian Mission
has had a chapel in the city since about 1862. Beyond the northern
branch of the Min (several miles from the city) there is a suburb called
Loyang, approached by the most celebrated bridge in China.

Ch'ueanchow, owing to the obstruction of its harbour by sand banks, has
been supplanted as a port by Amoy, and its trade is carried on through
the port of Nganhai. It is still, however, a large and populous city. It
was in the middle ages the great port of Western trade with China, and
was known to the Arabs and to Europeans as _Zait[=u]n_ or _Zayton_, the
name under which it appears in Abulfeda's geography and in the Mongol
history of Rash[=i]ddud[=i]n, as well as in Ibn B