DARGAI 



DAKIKN SCHEME 



679 



ami Bailie abound. Tlio 3,000,000 or *<> i>f inhabi- 

 tants are iiuiiiily Fulahs (q.v.). Dar-Fur, long a 

 centre of the slave-trade, was annexed to Egypt 

 iii IS74 75, luit snMered \\itli Hi,- rest of the Soudan 

 from the desolating tyranny of the Mahdi (q.v. ) 

 and \n* successor the Khalifa, till tlie defeat of the 

 1,-itl'T in I vis. By the treaties with Germany ami 

 Italy in IS'.HI 91, 'and with France in 1899, it is 

 recip-_;ni>ed as part of the Egyptian Soudan and 

 under British intluenee. See EGYPT, SoUDAX. 

 ^ Dnrgni, a plateau in the Afridi country on the 

 N\V. Indian frontier, taken in a fight in which 

 Gurkha- and (iordon Highlanders specially dis- 



tilr.'iii-hed themselves, 'Jl-t October 1897. 



\VII.I.IAM, railway projector, was 

 born at Carlow, 28th February 1799, spent some 

 time in a surveyor's office, and for a time was 

 employed under Telford. He was a successful 

 contractor, and became one of the first capitalists 

 in Ireland. It was he who in 1831 contracted for the 

 first railway ever executed in Ireland (the Dublin 

 and Kingstown), and he was afterwards connected 

 with most great Irish undertakings, such as the 

 making of railways, canals, tunnels, and embank- 

 ments. He was also an extensive holder of rail- 

 way stock, a steamboat proprietor, flax-grower, 

 farmer, ami the main promoter of the Dublin exhi- 

 bition of 1853, when he declined a baronetcy. He 

 died 7th February 1867. 



D'Argens, JEAN BAPTISTE DE Bo YER, MARQUIS, 

 born at Aix, in Provence, 1704, at the age of fifteen 

 entered the army, but disabled in 1734 by a fall 

 from his horse, and disinherited for his follies, he 

 went to Holland and tried his fortune in author- 

 ship. Fredeiick the Great, then crown prince of 

 Prussia, was attracted by his writings, and on his 

 accession invited him to the court of Prussia. The 

 king appointed him chamberlain .and a director of 

 the fine arts. When almost a sexagenarian he 

 renewed the adventures of his youth by again fall- 

 ing a victim to the charms of an actress, whom he 

 married without Frederick's permission. Deprived 

 of his pension, he returned to Provence, and died 

 near Toulon, 1771. His works fill 38 volumes. See 

 his M '(moires (new ed. Paris, 1807). 



D'Argenson, MARC PIERRE, COMTE, a cele- 

 brated trench statesman, was born in 1696, the 



younger son of the Marquis d'Argenson ( l(>r>2-1721 ) 

 who created the secret police and established the 

 lettres de cachet. After holding a number of inferior 

 offices, he became war minister in 1743, at a time 

 when the very political existence of France was 

 imperilled, and by his vigour and lucky choice of 

 generals changed the fortunes of the war in the 

 course of a single year. After the peace of Aix-la- 

 Chapelle ( 174S), he devoted himself to the improve- 

 ment of the military system, and in 1751 established 

 the Eoole Militaire. He was an illustrious patron 

 of literature. Diderot and D'Alembert dedicated 

 to him their great Encycloptdie ; and to Voltaire, 

 whose fellow-student he had been, he furnished 

 materials for his Sidcle de Louis XIV. In 1757 he 

 w;is banished to his estate by the machinations of 

 M.idame Pompadour ; but on her death he returned 

 to Paris, where he die,d in 17U4. 



Ilarir. a Persian gold coin named after Darius, 

 weighing rather more than a sovereign. 



Dariel. See CAUCASUS. 



Darirn. a name formerly applied to the entire 

 isthmus now generally known as Panama (q.v. ). 

 It is now more properly confined to the heavily 

 wooded bill-country lying between the Gulfs of 

 Uraba on the north and San .Miguel on the south. 

 The former, a principal inlet of the Caribbean Sea, 

 is commonly called the Gulf of Darien ; and the 

 Colombians' distinguish San Miguel as the Darien 

 of the South. The southern extremity of the 



northern gulf forms the Bay of Chuco, into which 

 the river Atrato (q.v.) debouches; the southern 

 gulf receives the Tuira, after a counic of 190 mile*, 

 of which over 100 are navigable. Little of tin- 

 district, which is rich in gold, ha* yet hen ex- 

 plun-d. There IB, however, an active trade in 

 tortoiseshell, pearls, and gold-dust, which the 

 Indians readily barter for firearms and rum. 

 These natives are said to number 20,000, are un- 

 civilised, and as exj>ert with the gun as were their 

 ancestors with the bow. The capital of the district 

 is Yavi/a (3000 inhabitants). 



Darien Scheme, a disastrous speculation pro- 

 jected by William 1'aterson (q.v. ), the founder of 

 the Bank of England, was established by act of the 

 Scottish parliament, and was sanctioned by royal 

 authority in 1695. Its object was to plant a colony 

 on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, and 

 so form a commercial entrepftt )>etween the eastern 

 and western hemispheres. An entire monopoly of 

 the trade of Asia, Africa, and America, for a term 

 of thirty-one years, was granted to the Company. 

 At that time, the foreign trade of Scotland had 

 been ruined by the English Navigation Act of 1660, 

 which provided that all trade with the English 

 colonies should be conducted in English ships alone, 

 so that when Paterson opened his subscription-list, 

 the nobility, the gentry, the merchant*, and people, 

 royal burghs, and public bodies in Scotland all 

 hastened to subscribe. No less than 400,000 was 

 immediately put down on paper, of which 220,000 

 was actually paid up. Deputies in England received 

 subscriptions to the amount of 300,000 ; and the 

 Dutch and Hamburgers subscribed 200,000. The 

 English parliament, however, actuated by a feeling 

 of national antipathy, and the jealous clamours of 

 trading corporations, gave its unequivocal condem- 

 nation to the scheme. The British resident at 

 Hamburg, probably with the concurrence of 

 William III., also made various insinuations 

 against it. The result of this interference was 

 the almost total withdrawal of the Dutch and 

 English subscriptions. It must now ! admitted 

 that there was one fatal objection to the scheme 

 viz. the danger of settling on ground claimed 

 by Spain, without coming to a proper under- 

 standing with that country beforehand. Unable, 

 however, to see any sort of obstacles, incited by 

 the vehement eloquence of Paterson, and dazzled 

 by the magnificent proportions of the scheme, the 

 Scotch hurried forward their arrangements. Five 

 ships, with 1200 men on board, set sail from Leith 

 for Panama on the 25th July 1698. They reached 

 their destination in four months, near what is still 

 called Puerto Escoces ( in 8 50' N. hit. ), and having 

 bargained with the natives for a country which 

 they called New Caledonia, the colonists fixed the 

 site of what was to be their capital, New Edin- 

 burgh, and built a fort in ite vicinity, which they 

 named New St Andrews. Having thus constituted 

 their colony, they issued a proclamation of perfect 

 freedom of'crade and universal toleration in religi- 

 iiii- matters to all who should join them. For the 

 first few months they seemed to IK- on the highway 

 to success. But the climate, which wa> tolerable 

 in winter, lun-ame unU'arable in summer, and 

 many sickened under it ; their supplies failed before 

 they could derive a return from the soil ; and on 

 sending to the British colonies in America for pro* 

 visions, they learned with the deepest indignation 

 and despair that the British American colcmie-, 

 having been informed that King William had not 

 given his sanction to the ex|>edition, had resolved 

 to hold no intercourse with the new colony at 

 Panama. 



Sickly and desponding, they waited long for 

 supplies from the mother-country ; but the Com- 

 pany at home was not aware of their wretched 



