one of the three provinces into which the ancient kingdom of Seville has been divided, lying between 36° 2' and 37° 0', N. Lat., and between 5° 6' and 6° 21' W. Long. It is bounded north by Huelva and Seville, east by Malaga, south by the Straits of Gibraltar, and west by the Atlantic. The eastern part, intersected by numerous sierras, which separate it from Malaga, is rocky and sterile; the western part is more level and fertile. The only river of any importance in the province is the Guadalete, which rises in the Sierra Ronda, and falls into the Bay of Cadiz. The climate is for the most part mild and equable, and epidemics are of less frequent occurrence in this than in most of the provinces of Spain. Its industry is chiefly occupied with agricultural produce, such as grain, fruits, wine, and olives, and with the rearing of horses, asses, mules, and pigs; but in most of the maritime towns there are considerable manufactures of coarse linen and woollen goods. Pop. (1849) 358,446.

(Latin Gades), the capital of the above province, is built on the extremity of a tongue of land projecting about five miles into the sea, in a direction N.W. from the Isla de Leon, in N. Lat. 36° 31', W. Long. 6° 17'; 70 miles south of Seville, and 60 N.W. of Gibraltar. The city, which is six or seven miles in circumference, is surrounded by a wall with five gates, one of which communicates with the isthmus, and is connected with the mainland by the ancient work the Puente do Zuzzo. Seen from a distance off the coast, it presents a magnificent display of snow-white turrets rising majestically from the sea; and for the uniformity and elegance of its buildings, it must certainly be ranked one of the finest cities of Spain, although, being hemmed in on all sides by the sea, its streets and squares are necessarily contracted. The most characteristic feature of Cadiz is the marine promenades, fringing the city all round between the ramparts and the sea, especially that called the Alameda on the eastern side, commanding a view of the shipping in the bay and the ports which line the opposite shore. The principal square is the Plaza de San Antonio, surrounded by handsome houses with elegant façades, the centre pleasantly shaded with trees, and furnished with numerous ornamental seats of marble. Communicating with it is the principal street, in which are the exchange and houses of the nobility. The houses are generally lofty and well-built, with open central courts, surmounted by turrets and flat roofs in the Moorish style; but from the continual decrease of the population, some quarters of the city are falling into disrepair. The principal public buildings are the two cathedrals (one built in 1597, the other begun in 1720, but not completed till 1840); the Hospicio o Casa de Misericordia, adorned with a marble portico, and having an interior court with Doric colonnades; the Plaza del Toros, or bull-arena, the two theatres, the new prison, and the lighthouse of San Sebastian on the western side, rising 172 feet from the rock on which it stands. Besides the Hospicio already mentioned, which sometimes contains 1000 inmates, there are numerous other charitable institutions, such as the Hospicio de Mujeres, the Casa de Expositos, the admirable Hospicio de San Juan de Dios, for sick men, &c. Gratuitous instruction is given to upwards of 1000 children; and there are several mathematical and commercial academies, maintained by different commercial corporations. There is also a flourishing medical school, and an Academia de Nobles Artes, founded in 1789, principally by the exertions of Governor O'Reilly. There are several public libraries attached to the various educational establishments, but none of any note. Cadiz is the see of a bishop, who is suffragan to the archbishop of Seville; but its chief conventual and monastic institutions of regulars have been suppressed.

It has a museum filled only with wretched copies of ancient masterpieces; but in one of the chapels is an unfinished picture by Murillo, the last effort of his pencil, as he met his death by falling from the scaffold on which he was painting.

Its noble bay, more than 30 miles in circuit, and almost entirely land-locked by the isthmus and the headlands which lie to the N.E., has principally contributed to the importance of Cadiz. The outer bay stretches from the promontory of Rota to the mouth of the Guadalete; and the inner bay, closed by the forts of Matagorda and Puntales, affords generally good anchorage, and contains a harbour formed by a projecting mole, where vessels of small burden may discharge their cargoes. The entrance to the bays is rendered somewhat dangerous by the low shelving rocks (Cochinos and Las Puecas), which encumber the passage, and by the shifting banks of mud deposited by the Guadalete and the Rio del Santi Petri. On the mainland, at the mouth of the Santi Petri, is the Caracca, once a flourishing naval arsenal and dockyard, but now almost deserted.

The commercial greatness of Cadiz has long been on the wane. At one time it was the great focus of commercial intercourse between Spain and the Spanish colonies, and from 1720 to 1765 it enjoyed a monopoly of the traffic with Spanish America. Its prosperity began to decline when the trade of St Domingo, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the other islands was opened up to the greater ports of Spain, and decayed almost entirely in the beginning of the present century, when the colonies achieved their independence. An attempt was made by the Spanish government in 1828 to restore its former greatness, by making it a free warehousing port; but this valuable privilege was withdrawn in 1832, and commerce relapsed into its former depressed condition. By far the greatest obstacle in the way of its future prosperity is the oppressive commercial restrictions imposed by government on all imports—a policy which throws three-fourths of the trade of Spain into the hands of contrabandistas. The principal exports are wine (from Xeres) to the amount of 30,000 pipes annually, quicksilver, brandy, oil, provisions, flour, salt, wool, &c. The imports consist chiefly of sugar and coffee from the Havannah and Porto Rico, cocoa, hemp, flax, linens, dried fish, hides, cotton and woolen manufactures, rice, spices, indigo, staves, and timber. The total value of cargoes entered in 1846 was L637,396; of cargoes cleared L973,416, but not more than half of these were in Spanish vessels. The principal manufactures of Cadiz are soap, glass, coarse woollen, cotton and silk stuffs, and hats. There are also some sugar refineries and tanneries. A considerable stimulus to industry is given by the Sociedad economica de Amigos del pais, which introduced the cochineal plant, and grants medals for improvements in manufactures.

Cadiz is strongly fortified with ramparts and bastions, crowned by the forts of San Sebastian, Santa Catalina, the Muelle de San Felipe, and the Muelle Principale; the isthmus is defended by an intrenchment called the Cortadura; but the fortifications are gradually falling into disrepair.

From its almost insular position, it enjoys a mild and serene climate, the mean annual temperature being about 64° Fahr., while the mean summer and winter temperatures vary only about ten degrees above and below this point. From the same cause it labours under a great deficiency of water, which must either be collected in cisterns from the tops of the houses, or brought at great expense from Santa Maria on the opposite coast. Pop. (1845) 53,922.

Cadiz is identical with the ancient Gadir or Gaddi, which was a flourishing Phoenician colony long before the beginning of classical history, and continued in the hands of the Carthaginians, though somewhat disaffected to them, till after the Punic wars, when Spain became a Roman province. C. Julius Caesar conferred the status of Rome on all its citizens; and under Augustus, when it was the residence of no fewer than 500 equites, it was made a municipium under the title of Augusta Urbs Gaditana, and its citizens ranked next to those of Rome. After the fall of Rome it was destroyed by the Goths, and remained in obscurity under the Moors, from whom it was retaken by Alonso el Sabio in 1202, but emerged again with the discovery of America, and was a vast market for colonial produce. In more recent contests Cadiz has been subjected to several disasters. It was taken and pillaged in 1596 by the British fleet, under Essex and Howard, in revenge for the Spanish Armada. It was attacked, but without success, by Lord Wimbledon in 1626, and by the Duke of Ormond and Sir George Rooke in 1702. It was bombarded by Nelson in 1800. In 1808, the Spanish patriots in Cadiz brought the French fleet, which lay in the bay blockaded by Admiral Collingwood, to a surrender; and they were in turn subjected to a protracted siege of two years by