SOUTH, one of the four cardinal points from which the winds blow.

South, Robert, an eminent divine, was the son of William South, a merchant of London, and was born at Hackney, near that city, in 1633. He was educated at Westminster school, and afterwards in ChristChurch College, Oxford. In 1654, he wrote a copy of Latin verses to congratulate Cromwell upon the peace concluded with the Dutch; and the next year a Latin poem, entitled Musica Incantans. In 1660, he was elected public orator of the university; and the following year became domestic chaplain to Edward earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England. In 1663 he was installed prebendary of Westminster, admitted to the degree of D. D., and had a sinecure in Wales bestowed on him by his patron, the earl of Clarendon; after whose retirement into France in 1667, he became chaplain to the duke of York. In 1670 he was installed canon of ChristChurch; and in 1676 attended as chaplain to Laurence Hyde, Esq. ambassador extra ordinary to the king of Poland. In 1678 he was presented to the rectory of Islip in Oxfordshire; and in 1680 rebuilt the chancel of that church, as he afterwards did the rectoryhouse belonging to it. After the revolution he took the oath of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary, though he excused himself from accepting a great dignity in the church, vacated by the personal refusal of that oath. His health began to decline several years before his death, which happened in 1716. He was interred in Westminster Abbey, where a monument is erected to his memory. He published, 1. Animadversions on Dr Sherlock’s Vindication of the Holy and ever thessed Trinity; 2. A Defence of his Animadversions; 3. Ser mons, 8 vols. 8vo. And after his decease were published his Opera Posthuma Latina, and his posthumous English Works. Dr South was remarkable for his wit, which abounds in all his writings, and particularly in his sermons; but at the same time they equally abound in ill humour,[7:20:488] spleen, and satire. He was remarkable for being a time server. During the life of Cromwell he was a staunch Presbyterian, and then railed against the Independents; at the Restoration he exerted his pulpiteloquence against the Presbyterians; and in the reign of Queen Anne was a warm advocate for Sacheverel.

South Cape, at the southern extremity of New Holland. Long. 146. 56. E. Lat. 43. 47. S.

Southeast Islands, a group of islands, forming part of Recherche Archipelago, on the south coast of New Holland. Lat. 33. 53. S.

South Island, a small island in the Eastern Seas, near the southwest coast of the island of Boutton. Long. 122. 50. E. Lat. 5. 42. S. This is also the name of a small island in the Indian Sea, near the eastern coast of Madagascar. Long. 50. 20. E. Lat. 17. S. There is another small island of this name near the south coast of the island of Celebes. Long. 120. 51. E. Lat. 5. 45. S.

South of India , a division of Hindustan, which is of a triangular figure, and has the Krishna river for its base, Cape Comorin the apex, while the sides are formed by the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar. It is 600 miles in length from Cape Comorin to the Krishna, and 500 miles in breadth where broadest. The great feature of this extensive region is the central tableland, from 3000 to 5000 feet above the level of the sea, separated by a wild, abrupt, and mountainous country, from the low plains to the east and west, which form a belt of small but unequal breadth between the hills and the sea. In this division of India may be seen the Hindu manners in their primitive simplicity, especially in Tinnevelly and the adjacent districts. The Mahommedans are few in comparison with the native Hindus, over whom twenty centuries have passed without making any change in their habits. Southern India has suffered grievously from the devastations of war, and fully as much from the cruel extortion of its rulers. The terri tories comprehended in this division of the country are, a small portion of the Bejapoor province, the Balaghaut ceded districts; the Carnatic, Northern, Central, and Southern; Mysore, Canara, Malabar, Barramahal, Coimbetoor, Din digul, Salem and Kistnagherry, Cochin and Travancore; a detailed description of which will be found under their re spective appellations.

South Sea, or Pacific Ocean, is that vast body of water interposed between Asia and America. It does not, how ever, strictly speaking, reach quite to the continent of Asia, excepting to the northward of the peninsula of Malacca; for the water interposed between the eastern coast of Africa and the peninsula just mentioned has the name of the Indian Ocean. The South Sea, then, is bounded on one side by the western coast of America, through its whole extent, from the unknown regions in the north to the Straits of Magellan and Terra del Fuego, where it communicates with the southern part of the Atlantic. On the other side, it is bounded by the coast of Asia, from the northern pro montory of Tschukotskoi Noss, to the peninsula of Ma lacca already mentioned. Thence it is bounded to the southward by the northern coasts of Borneo, Celebes, Ma cassar, New Guinea, New Holland, and the other islands in that quarter, which divide it from the Indian Ocean. Then, washing the eastern coast of the great island of New Holland, it communicates with that vast body of water en compassing the whole southern part of the globe, and which has the general name of the Southern Ocean. Thus does this vast ocean occupy almost the semicircumference of the globe, reaching nearly from one pole to the other, and about the equatorial parts extending almost 180° in 1ongi tude, or 12,500 of our miles. The northern parts of the Pacific Ocean are entirely destitute of land, not a single island having yet been discovered in it from the latitude of 40° north and upwards, excepting such as are very near the coast either of Asia or America; but in the southern part the islands are very numerous. See Polynesia. Southwest Cape, on the south coast of New Holland, in the South Pacific Ocean, northwest of South Cape. Long. 146. 7. E. Lat. 43. 32. S.

SouTHwesT Isles, a group of islands, seven in number, dependent on the Banda Islands. Kissier is the chief, which lies to the southwest of them all. They are low, and surrounded by shoals and rocks, and are inhabited by a ferocious and perfidious race, resembling those of New Guinea, who seem to have sprung from the Papuas or aborigines of that country, and the Caffres of Africa. They produce sandalwood. The Dutch had a commercial es tablishment here. Population 36,266.