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DAVIS 



of the war of 1861-65 (see UNITED STATES). In 

 May 1865, after the collapse of his government, 

 Davis was captured by a force of Union cavalry. 

 After two years' imprisonment in Fort Monroe he 

 was released on bail, and though he had been 

 indicted for treason, was never brought to trial, a 

 nolle prosequi being entered in his case in 1868. 

 After 1879 he resided on an estate bequeathed 

 to him in Mississippi ; and in that year he was 

 specially excepted in a bill to pension veterans of 

 the Mexican war. In 1886 he dedicated a Confed- 

 erate monument in Montgomery. He published 

 The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government 

 (2 vols. 1881). Died Dec. 6, 1889. See his Life by 

 Alfriend (1868) and Pollard (1869) ; also Craven, The 

 Prison-life of Jefferson Dams (1866). 



Davis, JOHN, an English navigator, was born 

 at Sandridge, near Dartmouth, about 1550, and is 

 principally distinguished for having undertaken in 

 1585 and the two following years three voyages to 

 the Arctic Seas in search 01 a north-west passage. 

 In the last voyage, he sailed with a bark of 

 apparently not over twenty tons, as far north as 

 the 73d degree of latitude, and discovered the strait 

 which bears his name. He next made two ill-fated 

 voyages towards the South Seas, and as pilot of a 

 Dutch vessel bound to the East Indies. In his 

 last voyage as pilot of an English ship of 240 tons 

 he was killed in a brush with some Japanese pirates 

 at Bintang, near Singapore, 30th December 1605. 

 His writings, The World's Hydrographical Descrip- 

 tion (1595) and The Seaman's Secrets (1594), were 

 edited for the Hakluyt Society in 1878 by Captain 

 A. H. Markham, with a biographical introduction. 

 Here it is pointed out that Davis is often confounded 

 with John Davis of Limehouse, a navigator to the 

 East Indies, who died at Batavia in 1622, and pub- 

 lished in 1618 A Ruter or Briefe Direction for Readie 

 Sailings into the East India, which will be found in 

 Part I. of Purchas his Pilgrimes. 



Davis* THOMAS, Irish poet and patriot, was 

 born at Mallow, 14th October 1814, the son of an 

 army surgeon. At Trinity College, Dublin, he 

 read hard and graduated, and, after spending nearly 

 three years in London and on the Continent, was 

 called to the bar after his return to Dublin in 1838. 

 Next year, though a Protestant, he joined the Repeal 

 Association, and in 1841 became for a short time 

 joint-editor with John Dillon of the Dublin Morning 

 Register. In the July of 1842, with Dillon and 

 Dutfy, he founded the famous Nation newspaper, 

 the chief aim of which was ' to direct the popular 

 mind and the sympathies of educated men of all 

 parties to the great end of nationality.' It was 

 the first time that conspicuous literary ability 

 had been devoted to the cause, and ere long its 

 bright vigorous articles and stirring as well as 

 pathetic songs, many of them from the pen of 

 Davis himself, made the pages of the Nation dear 

 to Irishmen all over the island. Davis started a 

 projected series of Irish orators with the Speeches of 

 Curran (1844), and wrote a good 'Essay on Irish 

 Songs' for Barry's Songs of Ireland (1845). But 

 his bright and promising career was soon closed by 

 his premature death of fever, in Dublin, September 

 16, 1845. His Poems were published in 1846 in 

 'Duffy's Library;' his Esscn/s in 1847. See the 

 Memoir by Sir C. G. Duffy (1890). 



Davis Strait washes the western coast of 

 Greenland, and connects Baffin Bay with the 

 Atlantic Ocean. At its narrowest point, immedi- 

 ately north of the Arctic circle, it measures about 

 200 miles across. In 1888 the identity between 

 Ginnunga Gap, referred to in the Sagas, and the 

 present Davis Strait was demonstrated. 



Davits, on shipboard, are upright columns of 

 forged iron, curved at their upper ends, which pro- 



DAVOUT 



ject, or may be made to project, over a vessel's 

 side or stern, and are used as a kind of crane to 

 hoist, suspend, or lower a boat. They are arranged 

 in pairs, one for each end of the boat. See BOAT- 

 LOWEBING GEAR. 



Davitt, MICHAEL, founder of the Irish Land 

 League, the son of a Mayo peasant, was born 

 near Straid, County Mayo, in 1846. Evicted from 

 their small holding, the family emigrated to 

 Hastingden in Lancashire (1851); and here six 

 years later the boy lost his right arm through 

 a machinery accident in a cotton-factory. In 

 1866 he joined the Fenian movement, the result 

 being that he was sentenced in 1870 to fifteen 

 years' penal servitude. He was released in 

 1877 ; and, supplied with funds from the United 

 States, began some two years later an anti- 

 landlord crusade in Ireland, which culminated 

 in the foundation of the Irish Land League 

 (October 21, 1879). Davitt was thenceforward in 

 frequent collision with the government, and from 

 February 1881 to May 1882 was imprisoned in 

 Portland for breaking his ticket-of-leave. His 

 Leaves from a Prison Diary were published in 1885. 

 The views of the ' Father of the Land League ' on 

 the subject of land therein take a Socialistic form, 

 and accordingly, though a strong Home Kuler, on 

 the question of land nationalisation he found him- 

 self in opposition to the Parnellites. After the 

 split in the party, he opposed the continued leader- 

 ship of Mr Parnell (q.v.), and was returned to 

 parliament in 1892 as anti-Parnellite, but unseated 

 on petition, on the ground of clerical and other 

 intimidation. He was returned unopposed for 

 South Mayo in 1895, but resigned in 1899. 



Davos' (Romansch Tavau) is a small valley 

 lying amongst the Alps of the Eastern Grisons, 16 

 miles SE. of Coire. The village of Davos-Platz 

 stands 5105 feet above sea-level; but the valley, 

 inclosed by lofty hills, has become famous as a health- 

 resort in winter, especially for such as suffer from 

 chest disease. The air is still and dry, and through- 

 out the winter there is a great deal of bright, 

 warm sunshine. Till lately mere out-of-the-way 

 hamlets, the villages of Davos-Platz and Davos- 

 Db'rrli have now eight or ten hotels, numerous villas 

 and chalets, several doctors, and daily posts. The 

 3561 inhabitants of the valley, which till 1848 was 

 one of the 26 independent republics of the Grisons, 

 are mostly German Protestants. See works by 

 Wise (1881) and Muddock (1884); and J. A. 

 Syrnonds, Our Life in the Swiss Highlands (1892). 



Dav out (not DAVOUST), Louis NICOLAS, French 

 marshal, was born 10th May 1770, at Annoux, in 

 Burgundy ; was educated along with Bonaparte at 

 the military school of Brienne ; and in 1788 became 

 lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. During the 

 revolutionary wars he rose-to the rank of general. 

 He accompanied Bonaparte to the East, where he 

 mainly contributed to the victory at Aboukir, and 

 otherwise distinguished himself both in Upper 

 and Lower Egypt. On his return to France, he 

 was named general of division in 1800, commander- 

 in-chief of the consular grenadier guards in 1800, 

 and marshal of the empire in 1804. He acted a 

 brilliant part in the great victories obtained by the 

 French at Austerlitz ( 1805) and Auerstadt, and was 

 created by the emperor Duke of Auerstadt (July 2, 

 1808 ). On the renewal of the war with Austria in 

 1809, Davout rendered useful service at Eckmiihl 

 (22d April); and at Wagram, where he com- 

 manded the right wing, he succeeded in turning 

 the enemy's left, and so first checked the Austriaiis 

 attack. In 1811 he was created Prince of Eckmiihl. 

 Appointed governor of Poland, he ruled that 

 country in a spirit of the harshest despotism, and 

 provoked the reproaches of the emperor, but, 



