Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) reductions, Span. reducciones, settlements of indigenous peoples in colonial Latin America, founded (beginning in 1609) to utilize efficiently native labor and to teach the natives the ways of Spanish...

(Encyclopedia) North Arlington, borough (1990 pop. 13,790), Bergen co., NE N.J., a residential and industrial suburb of Newark, on the Passaic River; settled 1700s, inc. 1896. ...

(Encyclopedia) Streep, Meryl, 1949–, American actress, b. Summit, N.J., as Mary Louise Streep. She attended Yale Drama School and appeared in many Broadway and off-Broadway productions during the early 1970s. Movi...

(Encyclopedia) North Vancouver, city (1991 pop. 38,436), SW British Columbia, Canada, on Burrard Inlet of the Strait of Georgia, opposite Vancouver, of which it is a suburb. Shipbuilding, woodworking, and the shippi...

(Encyclopedia) blowgun, hollow tube from which a dart or an arrow is blown by a person's breath. The arrow was usually tipped with a poison, such as curare, which would stun or kill the struck prey. Blowguns were wi...

(Encyclopedia) North Canton, city (1990 pop. 14,748), Stark co., NE Ohio, a suburb of Canton; settled c.1815, inc. as a city 1961. Vacuum cleaners and industrial die castings are among the city's manufactures. ...

(Encyclopedia) Burlin, Natalie Curtis bûrˈlĭn, bərlĭnˈ [key], 1875–1921, American writer and musician, b. New York City, studied music in France and Germany. She was one of the leading transcribers of the in...

(Encyclopedia) Carvajal, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō dā kärvähälˈ [key], 1464?–1548, Spanish conquistador. For 40 years he fought in European wars before going to Mexico and subsequently to Peru, where he ai...

(Encyclopedia) North Bay, city (1991 pop. 55,405), SE Ont., Canada, on Lake Nipissing. It is the transportation and commercial center of lumbering and mining districts and a popular summer resort. Mining equipment i...

(Encyclopedia) horse chestnut, common name for some members of the Hippocastanaceae, a family of trees and shrubs of the north temperate zones and of South America. The horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum, a...