DAVIS.

to the Union, and when on the secession of Mississippi in 1861 he left the Senate, it was with real sadness that he set forth his principles in a farewell speech to which a crowded audience listened with deep attention.

On February 9, 1861, Mr. Davis was elected President of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy by the Congress assembled at Montgomery, Ala. He was chosen because his course throughout had been marked by consistency and moderation in comparison with the other secession leaders. The choice was made without in

triguing, and was eminently popular. The inauguration took place February 18, 1861. At the expiration of the first year of the Provisional Government a new Congress was elected, and on February 22, 1862, Davis was again inaugurated, entering upon a term which was set for six years by the Constitution. His career as President takes in nearly all of Confederate history, his side of the matter being given ably and fully in his Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (2 vols., 1881). The military training which he had had made him desire a close control over his generals, and he seems in consequence to have made not a few mistakes. The unanimity with which he and General Lee worked would have been impossible had not the latter been so void of selfish ambition. Davis's statesmanship was rather doctrinaire, and when he had actually to assume almost a dictatorship as the war progressed, he was not found well fitted for the eminently executive task of financing and controlling the Confederacy. He strove earnestly to inspirit his people; he set his face against barbarity in the conduct of the war; he tried to alleviate the sufferings of prisoners; and, on the whole, he maintained his dignity and self-respect under ordeals that would have crushed a man less

resolute or less sincere.

After the surrender of Lee and of Johnston,

Davis, with a few friends who volunteered as an escort, started for Washington, Ga., for the purpose of making his way to the trans-Mississippi region. A report that his wife was in danger led him to change his course to join her, and on May 10, 1865, he was captured at Irwinville, Ga. The story of his assuming woman's dress as a disguise has been shown to be untrue. He was confined in Fortress Monroe and subjected to the useless degradation of manacles. He earnestly desired a public trial, and feared that he would die before refuting the charge of complicity in the assassination of Lincoln. An indictment was found against him for treason, but he was admitted to bail, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, and other prominent Northerners going on his bond, and later the proceedings were quashed. After his release he visited Canada and England, and went into business at Memphis, Tenn. In 1879 he finally retired to Beauvoir, near Biloxi in Mississippi, resisting all efforts to induce him to try to reënter politics, and devoting his time to writing and study. He retained the confidence of most of the Southern people, and his conduct during his retirement was dignified and consistent. He died of a congestive chill on December 6, 1889, and was buried with imposing ceremonies at New Orleans. In 1893 the body was removed to Richmond. A full and valuable biography of Mr. Davis was written by his second wife, a Miss Howell, whom he married in 1845. She died in 1906. See also a brief autobiographical

article published in Bedford's Magazine for January, 1890, and W. P. Trent's Southern Statesmen of the Old Régime (1897). The earlier biographies by Alfriend and Pollard are respectively eulogistic and condemnatory. For full accounts of Davis's period consult Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (New York, 1892 et seq.), and Dodd, Jefferson Davis (Philadelphia, 1905).

DAVIS, JEFFERSON C. (1828-79). An American soldier, born in Indiana. He served as a volunteer in the Mexican War, subsequently becoming lieutenant in the regular army, and was stationed at Fort Sumter during the bombardment of April 12-13, 1861. During the Civil War he served as brigadier-general, and played an important paic in the battle of Pea Ridge, the siege of Corinth, the battle of Stone River, and Sherman's Atlanta campaign. He was brevetted major-general United States Army in 1865, and became a colonel in the regular service in the following year. In 1873, after the murder of General Canby, he suppressed the Modoc uprising in northern California.

northwest

DAVIS, or DAVYS, JOHN (c. 1550-1605). An English navigator, born at Sandridge, near Dartmouth. He is principally distinguished for having, between 1585 and 1588, undertaken three voyages to the northern seas in search of a passage. In the first of these he discovered the strait which bears his name; in the last, he sailed up this strait as far as 72° 12′ N. coast as far as what is now Upernavik, and His voyages extended along the West Greenland along the coast of the American side of the strait He from Cape Dyer to southern Labrador. afterwards made five voyages to the East Indies, in the last of which he was killed in a fight with Japanese pirates on the coast of Malacca. He wrote The World's Hydrographical Description (1595) and The Seaman's Secrets (1594), which were republished by the Hakluyt Society in 1880. He is often confounded with John Davis of Limehouse, another navigator and author.

DAVIS, JOHN CHANDLER BANCROFT (1822 - An American diplomatist. He was born in Worcester, Mass., graduated at Harvard in 1840, studied law, and practiced in New York. He was secretary of the United States Legation in London from 1849 to 1852, was the American correspondent of the London Times from 1854 to 1861, and from 1869 to 1871 was Assistant Secretary of State, which position he resigned to act as United States agent at the Geneva Court of Arbitration (see ALABAMA CLAIMS), after having served as secretary of the commission which concluded the Treaty of Washington. From 1874 to 1877 he was United States Minister to Germany, and from 1878 to 1881 was a judge in the United States Court of Claims at Washington. He became reporter of the United States Supreme Court in 1883. Among his publications, in addition to the reports of Supreme Court decisions, are: The Massachusetts Justice (1847); The Case of the United States Laid Before the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva (1871); and Treaties of the United States, with Notes (new ed. 1873).

DAVIS, JOHN D. (1854-). An American Orientalist and biblical scholar. He was born at Pittsburg, Pa., and was educated at the Col

DAVIS.

tral America (1896); Cuba in War Time (1898); The Cuban and Porto Rican Campaign (1898); and With Both Armies in South Africa (1900). His novels are: The Princess Aline (1896); The King's Jackal (1899); Soldiers of Fortune (1897), dramatized and presented with great favor in 1902; Captain Macklin: His Memoirs (1902); Ransom's Folly, a collection of stories (1902); The Bar Sinister (1904), and Kits and Outfits (1905). His later plays include: The Taming of Helen (1903); Ransom's Folly (1904); The Dictator (1904); Miss Civilization, a oneact piece produced by amateurs in New York (1905); Galloper (1905).

DAVIS, THOMAS OSBORNE (1814-45). An Irish poet. He was born at Mallow, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1841 he became associate editor of the Dublin Morning Register, and in the following year, in collaboration with Duffy and Dillon, he founded the Nation newspaper, an organ of Nationalist tendencies, which acquired an immense popularity-due largely to the patriotic poems occasionally contributed to it by Davis. Notwithstanding his Protestant faith and early Tory affiliations, Davis earnestly endeavored to allay the discords between the Catholic and Protestant elements. He was gifted with a remarkable capacity for work, and was universally respected for his sterling integrity and the fidelity with which he adhered to his convictions. One of his noteworthy achievements was his founding of the party known as 'Young Ireland.' His Poems, which include the fine verses entitled "Máire Bhán a Stoír," "The Sack of Baltimore," and "The Flower of Finae," were collected and published after his death. Consult Duffy, New Irish Library (London, 1893 et seq.).

DAVIS, VARINA ANNE JEFFERSON, known as "The Daughter of the Confederacy' (1864-98). An American author. She was the daughter of President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate

States of America, and was born in Richmond, Va. She was educated abroad, and was known as a musician, painter, and writer. Her works include a Sketch of the Life of Robert Emmet (1888); The Veiled Doctor (1895); and A Ro

mance of Summer Seas (1898).

DAVIS, WILLIAM MORRIS (1850-). An American geographer and meteorologist. He was born in Philadelphia, and was educated at the Lawrence Scientific School and at Harvard University. In 1866 he made an observation of a new star, T. Corona Borealis, of which at the time only one other astronomical observation was made in the United States. He also rendered valuable service as assistant astronomer in the Argentine National Observatory at Córdoba from 1870 to 1873. He taught astronomy and geology at Harvard for fourteen years, and in 1890 became professor of physical geography there. His works include: Elementary Meteorology (1894); Physical Geography (1899); Whirlwinds, Cyclones, and Tornadoes (1884); and "Journey Across Turkestan," in Pampelly's Explorations in Turkestan (1905).

DAVIS STRAIT. The sheet of water separating Greenland on the east from Baffin Land on the west, and connecting Baffin's Bay with the Atlantic (Map: North America, N 3). It is from 180 to 500 miles wide, and was discovered in 1585 by John Davis, whence its name.

It has soundings exceeding 5000 feet in the northern and southern portions, but not reaching 2500 feet in the intervening region. It has two powerful currents-one (of drift ice) on the west, toward the south, and one on the east, toward the north.

DAV'IT (formerly davitt, david, from David, the custom of giving implements proper names being a frequent one). A derrick of various forms, depending upon the use to which it is put. Boat-davits are used in hoisting boats, the catdavit in catting the anchor, and the fish-davit in fishing it. In modern ships fish-davits are seldom used. The cat-davit is usually placed amidships between the bower anchors, and is long enough to reach both. It consists of a heavy pivoted base against which the heel of the iron spar or derrick rests, held in place by a large bolt. On the other side of the base there is a heavy projecting lug. To this is secured the backbone of the derrick, which consists of two iron bars extending up to the head. By taking down these bars the davit may be laid nearly flat on deck, so as to be out of the way of gunfire.

DA'VITT, MICHAEL (1846-1906). An Irish journalist and political leader, the founder of the Irish Land League. He was born in Straid, Mayo, where his parents, poor peasants, were evicted from their farm when Davitt was four years of age. While engaged as a boy in a cotton factory at Haslingden, Lancashire, he lost his right arm in the machinery. From the age of fifteen to twenty-two he worked in a printingoffice, and educated himself. He joined the Irish revolutionary movement in 1867, and was presDetected ent at the attack on Chester Castle. transporting arms into Ireland in 1870 he was sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude; but after serving half the sentence was released on a ticket of leave in 1877, and visited the United funds to carry on a crusade against Irish landStates on a lecturing tour. He obtained the lordism, and on October 21, 1879, at his birthplace, organized the Land League movement, country in 1880, to superintend the organization which spread over Ireland. He again visited this

He was

of an American branch of the Land League, but hurried back to England on account of the prosecution of the Land League executive. arrested under the Coercion Act and reimprisoned to finish his old sentence. He was leniently treated during fifteen months, and again released on a ticket of leave. He revisited America to advocate the revival of the Land League, and on his return to Ireland organized the National League. In 1883 he was imprisoned for three months for a seditious speech. In 1882, while in prison, he had been elected member of Parliament for Meath, but was disqualified on the grounds of his unexpired ticket of leave. Elected in 1892 to the House of Commons for Westmeath and unseated, he was returned unopposed for North East Cork, but shortly afterwards was compelled to vacate through bankruptcy. In 1895 he was returned unopposed for East Kerry and South Mayo, but resigned in 1899. In 1889 he was implicated in the "Parnellism and Crime" prosecution instigated by the London Times, and conducted his own defense in an effective speech which received the commendation of the presiding judge. Although a strong Home Ruler, he

was opposed to Parnell's land nationalization scheme, and at that leader's deposition in 1890 Davitt became a prominent Anti-Parnellite. After a visit to Australia, he published his Impressions of Australasian Democracy, in 1898, and the same year wrote letters to The Times contending that the dominating English-speaking race in America is largely of Celtic origin, and therefore anti-Saxon in feeling. He visited South Africa during the Boer war and investigated the massacre of Kishineff in 1903. Besides a vast number of journalistic articles, including "Prisons Revisited" in the Daily Chronicle (1889), his works include Leaves from a Prison Diary (1884); Defence of the Land League (1891); The Boer Fight for Freedom (1902); Within the Pale (1903); The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland (1904); Pageant of London (1905). Consult Cashman, Life of Michael Davitt (Boston, 1881).

DAVOS, däʼvos. A Rhætian-Alpine valley in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, 5115 feet above sea-level. Stretching about 20 miles from east to southwest, between wooded mountains, it is traversed by the Davos Landwasser, which flows from Lake Davos; the lake has an area of onefifth of a square mile, and a depth of 175 feet. The sheltered situation and pure, dry air of the valley have made it a favorite winter and summer resort for invalids, especially consumptives.

Davos Platz and Davos Dorf, its former villages, are now thriving and fully equipped health resorts with hotels, sanatoriums, etc. Davos Platz (population, in 1900, 8334) is the chief town of the district, and in the fifteenth century was the capital of a confederation of ten Grison republics. Consult Symonds, Our Life in the Swiss Highlands (London, 1892).

DAVOUT, då'voo', LOUIS NICOLAS, Duke of AUERSTÄDT and Prince of ECKMÜHL (1770-1823). One of Napoleon's most celebrated marshals. He was born May 10, 1770, at Annoux, in Burgundy, of a noble provincial family. After being educated at Brienne he entered the army as lieutenant of cavalry in 1788, but his revolutionary leanings led to his dismissal in 1790. He soon reappeared, however, in the Army of National Defense, and during the Revolutionary wars served with distinction under Dumouriez, Pichegru, and Moreau. In 1798 he rose to be general, and accompanied his chief, Desaix, to Egypt. There he soon attracted the attention of Bonaparte by the skillful way in which he handled his troops at Abukir. On returning to France in 1800, Davout was made a general of division and commanded the cavalry in the Italian campaign of that year. Shortly afterwards he became inspector-general of cavalry and commander of the Consular Guard. Soon after the Empire was proclaimed he became a marshal of France (1804), a member of the Legion of Honor (1805), and commander of the Third Army Corps. In all of Napoleon's campaigns Marshal Davout distinguished himself. At Auerstädt (1806) his generalship won the day against superior forces. After the Peace of Tilsit Davout was left as Governor of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. His harsh administration provoked numerous complaints on the part of the inhabitants; but he appears to have merely carried out the instructions of Napoleon, who, in 1808, created him Duke of Auerstädt. The brilliant victory won at Eckmühl in 1809 earned for him the

further title of Prince. At Wagram (q.v.) he practically won the battle by turning the enemy's left. He took a prominent part in the Rus sian campaign of 1812, gaining a victory at Mohilev and being wounded at Borodino. After the retreat he was made commandant of the Thirty-second Military District, with headquar ters at Hamburg; but after defending the city for several months against 80,000 Germans, he surrendered and made his submission to Louis XVIII. His loyalty, however, was not proof against the return of Napoleon, and during the Hundred Days he acted as Minister of War and showed remarkable genius in organizing troops and procuring supplies. After Waterloo he was forced to surrender the command he had assumed under the walls of Paris, and for a time was in deep disgrace and deprived of his titles and estates. Nevertheless he protested vigor ously against the proscription of 1815, and made praiseworthy efforts to save Ney's life. In 1817 his rank was restored to him, and in 1819 he took a seat in the House of Peers, where he fre

quently protested his loyalty to the Bourbon line. He died in Paris, June 1, 1823. Consult: Blocqueville, Le maréchal Davout (Paris, 187980); Correspondance du maréchal Davout, ed. Mazade (4 vols., Paris, 1885); Jomini, Life of Napoleon, trans. by Halleck (5 vols., New York,

1864).

DA'VUS (Lat., a Dacian). The name of the conventional slave in Latin comedy.

DA'VY, Sir HUMPHRY (1778-1829). A celebrated English natural philosopher. He was wall, where his father was a carver in wood. born December 17, 1778, at Penzance, in CornAt the school of Truro, where he was educated until he was fifteen, he showed little relish for classical learning, but was distinguished for a highly retentive memory and an early passion for poetry, which never forsook him. In 1795 he became apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary at Penzance. At the same time he entered upon a course of study all but universal: "speculations on religion and politics, on metaphysics and morals, are placed in his note-books in juxtaposition with stanzas of poetry and fragments of romance." A system of mathematical study, skeptical philosophy, Scotch metaphysics, and German transcendentalism successively engaged his attention. The study of natural philosophy brought him nearer to that department which was to be his own; but it was not till he had reached his nineteenth year that he entered seriously upon the study of chemistry. He now made the acquaintance of Dr. Beddoes, who had established a pneumatic institution at Bristol, and who took him as his assistant. Here Davy carried out a course of experiments on the curative effects of different gases, in which he had more than once nearly sacrificed his life. He thus discovered the singular exhilarating effect of nitrous oxide (laughing-gas). The account which he published of his researches established his repu tation, and led to his appointment, at the age of twenty-two, as lecturer at the Royal Institution of London. He delivered his first lecture in 1801, and his eloquence, and the novelty and variety of experiments, soon attracted large and brilliant audiences. In 1802 he was made professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. In 1803 he began researches connected with agri

DAVY.

culture, and during ten years lectured before the Board of Agriculture on agricultural chemistry. His lectures were published in 1813, under the title of Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. The discoveries, however, on which Davy's fame as a chemist chiefly rests, took their origin in the views which he developed in 1806 in the Bakerian lecture, On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity. This essay was universally regard ed as one of the most valuable contributions ever made to chemical science, and obtained the prize of the French Institute. According to Davy, chemical affinity is nothing but the mutual electrical attraction of the ultimate particles of matter, and chemical combination is caused by the equalization of electric potentials. Davy's electrolytic experiments led to the establishment on a firm scientific basis of Lavoisier's idea that bases are compounds of oxygen with metals, and to the extension of this idea to caustic potash and soda, which Lavoisier had regarded as elements. In 1807 Davy succeeded in decomposing potash. When he first saw the globules of the new metal potassium, his delight is said to have been so ecstatic that it required some time for him to compose himself before he was able to continue the experiments. He next decomposed soda, strontia, and magnesia, and would have decomposed lime and baryta if he had not been prevented from doing so by a severe illness, during which those alkaline earths were decomposed by Berzelius and Pontin. In 1809 he demonstrated the elementary nature of chlorine, and proved that hydrochloric acid is a compound of chlorine and hydrogen. It thus became clear that oxygen was not by any means an essential constituent of acids.

In 1812 Davy was knighted, married a lady of considerable wealth, and resigned the chemical chair of the Royal Institution. That he might investigate his new theory of volcanic action, he received permission from the French Government-though the two countries were then at war to visit the Continent, and was received with the greatest distinction by the scientific men of France. On returning to England, in 1815, he entered on the investigation of the nature of fire-damp, which is the cause of explosions in coal-mines. This resulted in the invention of the safety lamp (q.v.)-one of the most valuable presents ever made by science to humanity. Though the value of the invention was everywhere acknowledged, the only national reward was a baronetcy after a lapse of three years. On the death of Sir Joseph Banks, in 1820, Sir Humphry Davy was elected president of the Royal Society. His attention was shortly after called to the important object of preserving the copper sheathing of vessels from corrosion by the action of sea-water. This he effected by means of bands of zinc; but the bottoms of the vessels became so foul from the adhesion of weeds, shells, etc., that the plan had to be abandoned.

Early in 1825 Sir Humphry Davy had begun to complain of the loss of strength, and in 1826 he had a paralytic attack affecting his right side. He made two journeys to the Continent for the recovery of his health, and died at Geneva on May 29, 1829, at the early age of fifty-one. The Genevese Government evinced their respect by a public funeral. So widely spread was the repu tation of Sir Humphry Davy that he was a mem

ber of almost all the scientific institutions in the world. Cuvier, in his Eloge, says: "Mr. Davy, not yet fifty-two years of age, occupied, in the opinion of all that could judge of such labors, the first rank among the chemists of this or of any other age." Besides works already mentioned, and a great number of contributions to the Philosophical Transactions, Sir Humphry Davy published: Elements of Chemical Philosophy (London, 1812), and Salmonia, or Days of Fly-Fishing, published in 1827. His Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher (3d ed., London, 1831), appeared after his death. Consult: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy, by his brother (2 vols., London, 1836), and The Life of Sir Humphry Davy, by Dr. Paris (London, 1831). See, also, CHEMISTRY; and CHEMISTRY, AGRICULTURAL.

DAVY JONES'S LOCKER. A common phrase applied to the ocean as the grave of men drowned at sea. Davy Jones is a sailor's familiar name for a malignant sea-spirit, or for the devil.

DAVY SAFETY LAMP. See SAFETY LAMP. DAW. See JACKDAW.

DAW, SIR JOHN. A cowardly gull and butt in Jonson's Epicone. The wits, in the play, arrange a duel between him and Sir Amorous La-Foole, from which both are glad to escape with a score of kicks from their mockers.

DAWAL LA. A catfish (Ageneiosus dawalla) found in the rivers of Guiana, and highly esteemed as food. It is sometimes two and onehalf feet long, and has a snout somewhat like that of a pike, but the mouth is furnished only with very minute teeth. The skin is destitute of scales, and the colors have that brightness so often seen in tropical fishes-green, brown, and carmine.

DAWANT, då'vän', ALBERT PIERRE (1852—). A French painter, born in Paris. He was a pupil of Laurens, and both in color and composition resembles his master. His pictures include "A Choir of Boys" (1888), in the Luxembourg; "The End of the Mass" (1890); and "The Captive” (1896). One of his best historical pictures is "The Emperor Henry IV. of Germany Before Pope Gregory VII." (1880). He received a firstclass medal at the Paris Exposition in 1889, and was made Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1900. His recent works include "Distress" and "Death," exhibited at St. Louis in 1904.

DAWES, daz, CHARLES GATES (1865-). An American civil engineer, lawyer, and politician, born at Marietta, Ohio. He graduated in 1884 at Marietta College, and in 1886 at the Cincinnati Law School, became chief engineer of an Ohio railway, and practiced law at Lincoln, Neb., in 1887-94. He was a leader in the McKinley movement in Illinois which resulted in instructions for McKinley at the Springfield (Ill.) Convention of April, 1896. He was Comptroller of the Currency from 1897 to 1901. He published The Banking System of the United States (1894).

DAWES, HENRY LAURENS (1816-1903). An American politician, born in Cummington, Mass. He graduated at Yale in 1839, engaged in newspaper work for a time, studied law, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature from 1848 to 1852, and was United States district attorney