Massaua
or MASSOWA (-sou'ä), Abyssinian MUTUGNA or MUTOGNA; called by the people of Tigre Baze, a fortified seaport town in Africa; formerly capital MASSÉNA of the Italian colony of Eritrea; situated partly on the mainland and partly on a sterile coral island in the Red Sea, one mile in circumference and 200 yards from the mainland. Massaua is surrounded by islets, which make navigation very difficult; is a place of exchange for the products and merchandise of Abyssinia and the Sudan and those of India and Europe; chief trade in ivory, coffee, tobacco, and ostrich feathers. It is connected with Asmara, the capital of the colony, by railway. Formerly an Egyptian possession , it was taken by Italy in 1885.
Pop. about 2,500.
MASSÉNA, ANDRÉ (mä-sā-nä'), PRINCE OF ESSLING, DUKE OF RIVOLI, a French military officer; born in Nice, May 6, 1758. He went through the regular gradations in an Italian regiment, commencing his military career at the age of 17. After 14 years' service he obtained his discharge; but in 1792 the French revolution caused him to enter the service of the French republic. He had the chief command in Switzerland in 1799, when he finished the campaign by completely routing the Austro-Russian army under the Archduke Charles and General Korsakoff. In 1800 he commanded in Italy, but with less success than in his former campaigns. He was, however, again successful in the campaigns of 1805 and 1806, taking possession of Naples, and signalizing himself in the campaign of Poland which was terminated by the treaty of Tilsit. In 1810 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the army in Portugal. Masséna began, March 5, 1811, his celebrated retreat in Spain, entering Salamanca in the latter part of April, after having lost 30,000 men within six months. On May 5 he fought the bloody but indecisive battle of Fuentes d'Onoro; and soon after, on account of ill-health he resigned his command and returned to France. He gave nis adhesion to the Bourbons after the restoration; became Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of Paris, and died in Paris, April 4, 1817.