267 



VAN CEULEN, LUDOLPH. 



VANCOUVER, GEORGE. 



Vanbrugh's piece of that name, which was first brought out there. 

 Congreve very soon retired from the concern, nor was it long before 

 Vanbrugh himself was glad to get rid of his share in it. 



It was at this period that the nation voted, as a monument of its 

 gratitude to the first duke of Marlborougb, a palace, to be named after 

 the victory at Blenheim. The architect of Castle Howard was ap- 

 pointed as the fittest person for so important an occasion. Yet if the 

 distinction and the reputation since derived to him from the building 

 itself have shed lustre on Vanbrugh's name as an architect, the affair 

 turned out for him a very vexatious and also a losing one. " The 

 secret history of the building of Blenheim," in D'Israeli's ' Curiosities 

 of Literature,' shows in what difficulties the architect was involved in 

 consequence of no specific fund or grant for the work having been pro- 

 vided by parliament, and being afterwards refused. The queen fur- 

 nished the necessary supplies for what was built during her life; but 

 at her death difficulties increased, and on that of the duke, his wife 

 Sarah, " that wicked woman of Marlborough," as Vanbrugh calls her, 

 discharged him from his post of architect, and refused to pay what 

 was due to him as salary. The structure was however finally com- 

 pleted according to the original model, and as long as it stands it will 

 be a monument honourable to Vanbrugh. Yet it was a long time 

 before its architectural merits were appreciated. Reynolds was almost 

 the first who ventured to express his approbation of Vaubrugh's style, 

 and to bear his testimony as an artist to the picturesque magnificence 

 of Blenheim. Such authority, aud afterwards that of Sir Uvedale 

 Price and others, removed the prejudices that had been excited by 

 former critics, and by the ridicule thrown upon Vanbrugh by Swift 

 and Pope. But, in changing, public opinion ran almost from one 

 extreme into the other : as it had been the fashion to see in Van- 

 brugh's architecture nothing but heaviness, it now became the fashion 

 to see in it nothing but picturesque effect. His works certainly are 

 heavy ; and although solidity and massiveness are far from beiug 

 faults in architecture, they may be carried too far. Vanbrugh's build- 

 ings are to be studied both with diligence as to their merits and with 

 caution as to their defects. 



Sir John died at his house at Whitehall (erected by himself ), March 

 26, 1726, leaving a widow, many years younger than himself, but no 

 family, his only son having been killed at the battle of Tournay. 

 Notwithstanding the licentiousness of his pen, his private character 

 appears to have been amiable, and his conduct tolerably correct ; aud 

 even his enemies Swift and Pope admitted that he was both "a man of 

 wit and man of honour." 



VAN CEULEN, or KEULEN, LUDOLPH, a Dutch mathemati- 

 cian, who lived in the latter part of the 16th and the beginning of the 

 17th century, and whose name indicates that his family came originally 

 from Cologne. He was born at Hildesheim, but neither the year of 

 his birth nor the manner in which he was educated is known ; and it 

 can only be surmised that his taste led him early to the study of 

 elementary geometry aud algebra. He taught the mathematics at 

 Breda, and subsequently at Amsterdam; but his fame rests chiefly on 

 the effort which he made to express by numbers the ratio which the 

 circumference of a circle bears to its diameter. The determination of 

 this ratio has engaged the attention of mathematicians from the time 

 of Archimedes; and during the 16th century, Metius, Vieta, Adrian 

 Romanus, and Van Ceulen laboured, by extending the approximative 

 processes, to reduce the error within narrower limits. The diameter 

 being supposed to be the unit, Romanus obtained an expression for the 

 circumference in numbers consisting of seventeen decimals, and Van 

 Ceulen computed one which differs from the truth only at the thirty- 

 fifth decimal. It may be observed that the approximation has since 

 been carried to a much greater extent by means of the well-known 

 series for the value of a circular arc in terms of its tangent. 



Van Ceulen published at Delft, in 1596, a tract on the circle, in 

 Dutch ; and a translation of it, in Latin, was published by Suellius in 

 1619, under the title ' De Circulo Adscriptis.' The method pursued 

 in the investigation is described in this work; and though extra- 

 ordinary labour must have been undergone in the performance of the 

 arithmetical computations, it may be seen that this was not accom- 

 panied by any display of genius ; since, beginning with the known 

 chord and the sagitta of one-sixth of the circumference, the process 

 consists in computing the lengths of the chords and tangents of the 

 arcs formed by continual bisections. As a monument of patient 

 industry the determination has great merit; and it may be presumed 

 that the computer estimated his labour highly, for, according to 

 Snellius, he requested that the numerical expression of the circum- 

 ference of a circle might be inscribed on his tomb. 



Besides the work which has been mentioned, Van Ceuleu published 

 two others, in Dutch, on mathematical subjects, both of which were 

 also translated in Latin by Snellius, and published at Leyden in 1615, 

 under the titles ' Fundamenta Arith metiea et Geometrica,' and Zete 

 mata (seu problemata) Geometrica.' From these works it may be 

 seen that the author possessed considerable skill in the management 

 of algebraic quantities. 



He died at Leyden in 1610, and was interred in the church of St. 

 Peter in that city. 



VANCOUVER, GEORGE, was born, according to the author of his 

 Life in the ( Biographic Uuiverselle,' about 1750, but probably some 

 years later. Vancouver himself states, iu the introduction to the 



narrative of his Voyage round the World, that he entered the navy in 

 bis thirteenth year; and John Vancouver, who edited the work, states 

 that hie brother's first appointment was to the Resolution, by Captain 

 Cook, in 1771. 



George Vancouver served as midshipman on Cook's second voyage 

 (1772-1775) ; and on the third voyage, in which that great navigator 

 lost his life (1776-1780). His name only occurs once in the history of 

 bhese two voyages : Captain King mentions hU having sent Mr. 

 Vancouver to Captain Clerke for instructions the morning after the 

 murder of Captain Cook. When Captain King was promoted from 

 being first-lieutenant of the Resolution to be captain of the Discovery, 

 Captain Gore permitted him to take with him " four midshipmen who 

 had made themselves useful to me in astronomical calculations, and 

 whose assistance was now particularly necessary, as we had no Ephe- 

 meris for the present year." Of this number it is almost certain that 

 Vancouver must have been one, for of the six original midshipmen of 

 the Resolution, the two eldest had by that time been promoted in 

 consequence of the death of Captains Cook and Clerke. A better 

 school for a seaman than the two principal voyages of so accurate a 

 navigator and surveyor, eo strict a disciplinarian as Cook, can scarcely 

 be imagined. Captain King has borne testimony to the merits of the 

 young officers in the expedition of 1776-80 : " The two ships never lost 

 sight of each other for a day together, except twice; which was owing, 

 the first time, to an accident that happened to the Discovery off the 

 coast of Owhyhee; and the second, to the fogs we met at the entrance 

 of Awatska Bay. A stronger proof cannot be given of the skill and 

 vigilance of our subaltern officers, to whom this share of merit almost 

 entirely belongs." 



The Resolution and Discovery reached the Nore on the 4th of 

 October 1780, and on the 9th of December following Vancouver was 

 created a lieutenant and appointed to the Martin sloop. He continued 

 on board this vessel until he was removed to the Fame, one of Lord 

 Rodney's fleet in the West Indies, where he remained till the middle 

 of the year 1783. In 1784 he was appointed to and sailed in the 

 Europe to Jamaica, and remained at that station till the vessel 

 returned to England, in September 1789. 



When Vancouver arrived in England, he found that a voyage had 

 been planned by the government for exploring the Southern regions. 

 A vessel, named the Discovery, had been purchased for this service, 

 and Captain Henry Roberts, who had served under Cook during his 

 two last voyages, had been named to the command. Commodore 

 (afterwards Admiral) Sir Alan Gardner, under whose flag Vancouver 

 was then serving, recommended him to the Admiralty, and he was 

 solicited by the board to accompany Captain Roberts. Having been 

 intimate friends while on board Captain Cook's ship, the arrangement 

 was agreeable to both officers. Towards the close of April the 

 Discovery was nearly ready to proceed down the river, when intel- 

 ligence arrived of depredations committed by the Spaniards on dif- 

 ferent branches of British commerce on the north-west coast of Ame- 

 rica. The equipment of the Discovery was suspended, aud Vancouver 

 resumed his professional career under his old captain, Sir Alan 

 Gardner. 



The high prices obtained by the sailors of the Resolution and 

 Discovery, at Canton, for the ill selected, half worn furs which they 

 had brought from the north-west coast of America, had attracted a 

 horde of adventurers to that region. Their loose observations, pub- 

 lished by ignorant book and map compilers, had given currency to the 

 most inaccurate and contradictory accounts of the coast. The dis- 

 coveries of Cook had also stimulated the Spaniards to resume their 

 long-suspended maritime activity. A survey of the north-west coa^t 

 of America by Spanish officers of marine was commenced in 1775, 

 and prosecuted with intermissions for several years with skill and 

 dexterity. In April 1789, an attempt was made by some British 

 subjects to establish themselves at Nootka : the attempt gave umbrage 

 to the Spanish officers engaged in the survey; the settlement was 

 forcibly broken up, and some commanders of British merchantmen 

 made prisoners, and their vessels and cargoes seized. The court of 

 Spain yielded to the representations made by the British resident, 

 and at his request a letter addressed to the Spanish commandant at 

 Nootka, instructing him to deliver up possession of the country and 

 buildings to the British officer by whom the letter should be delivered 

 to him, was transmitted to the court of St. James's by Count Florida 

 Blanca. The Discovery was again put in commission ; the Chatham, 

 an armed tender, destined to accompany her; and in March 1791, 

 Vancouver was appointed to command these vessels on an expedition 

 to the north-west coast of America. His instructions were, to receive 

 the surrender of Nootka by the Spaniards; to rnnke an accurate 

 survey of the coast from the 30th degree of N. lat. northwards; and 

 to inquire after any communications, by inlets, rivers, or lakes, between 

 the coast and Canada. The summers of 1792-93 were allowed for 

 the execution of the survey; the intervening winter was to be spent 

 in completing the examination of the Sandwich Islands. After the 

 completion of the survey, the vessels were to retui'u to England by 

 Cape Horn, aud, if practicable, to examine the west coast of South 

 America, from the south point of the island of Chiloe, supposed to 

 be about 44 S. lat., in order to ascertain which was the most southern 

 Spanish settlement, and what harbours there were south of that 

 settlement. 



