DKKWKNT 



I>KS< AKTI:S 



771 



devote their thought.- in poverty and retirement to 

 KM oontemplation of (lod. In this SCUM-, po\.- 

 recommended by Mohammed in the Koran, though 

 momichism is ilistincily repudiated. Trail i lion 

 refers the origin of these orders to the earliest times 

 of Islam, making the califs Ahu-lx>kr and '.Mi 

 found sucli brotherhoods ; Imt most of thtin are of 

 much later date. See Lane, Modern h'i/;/i>tiiin.t, 

 chap, x.; Hughes, Diet, of Islam ; D'Olisson's Tul>l. 

 t!> n. de I' tint /lire Ottomane. 



Derwent. the principal river of Tasmania, 

 issues from Lake St Chur, in the centre of the 

 island ; Hows tortuously to the south-east ; and 

 enters Storm Bay at Hobart by an estuary 4 

 mill-* wide, after a course of about 130 miles. Up 

 to Hobart the Derwent is navigable for ships of any 

 burden. 



Derwentwater, a sheet of water, stretching 

 south from Keswick, the most beautiful of the 

 Cuml>erland lakes. Lying^ 238 feet above sea-level, 

 and engirt by steep wooded crags and hills, it is 

 3 miles long by 1 broad, and 72 feet deep at the 

 deepest. Near its foot rises Castle Head (530 feet), 

 commanding an exquisite view ; whilst at its head 

 are the celebrated Lodore Falls and Borrowdale 

 ( (\. v. ). This lake is an enlargement of the Derwent 

 River, which traverses it ir its course towards the 

 Irish Sea at Workington. It has several wooded 

 isles, besides a remarkable floating isle (see FLOAT- 

 ING ISLANDS). Perch are plentiful in the lake. 



Derwentwater, JAMES RADCLYFFE, EARL 

 OF, one of the leaders in the rebellion of 1715, was 

 born in 1689, and educated in France. He suc- 

 ceeded as third earl in 1705, on the death of his 

 father, who had married Lady Mary Tudor, Charles 

 II. 's daughter by Moll Davis. On the eve of the 

 insurrection, at the close of 1714, warrants were 

 issued on suspicion against several gentlemen in 

 the north of England, and one, among others, 

 against the young Catholic earl ; but having been 

 previously warned, he fled from Dilston, his seat in 

 Northumberland, and found refuge in the cottage 

 of one of his dependents. He soon afterwards 

 placed himself at the head of a few retainers, under 

 the impression that the whole body of the Jacobites 

 either liad risen, or were about to rise. From this 

 point the history of the Earl of Derwentwater 

 becomes the history of the Rel>ellion of 1715 (see 

 JACOBITES), which ended in the disastrous en- 

 counter at Preston, where Derwentwater bore him- 

 self with the utmost heroism, but, with most of the 

 rebel leaden, was taken prisoner, and conveyed to 

 the Tower of London. Impeached of high treason 

 at the opening of parliament, he was brought to 

 trial in Westminster Hall, when he pleaded guilty, 

 and threw himself upon the mercy of the king. 

 His appeal was unavailing, and lie was condemned 

 to die. Every possible ettort was mode by his kins- 

 folk and friends to obtain a pardon, but their exer- 

 tions were fruitless, and he was beheaded on Tower 

 Hill, 24th February 1716. His youth and amia- 

 bility, his rank and valour, combined to excite 

 great sympathy for the hapless earl. He is the 

 hero of a touching ballad of the day, and of Dorothy 

 Forstcr, Sir Walter Besant's charming romance. 



Derzliavin, GABRIEL ROMANOWICZ, the great 

 poet of the age of Catharine, was born at Kasan, 

 3d July 1743 (o.s.), studied at the gymnasium of 

 his native city, and in 1762 entered the army as a 

 private soldier. His talents and superior edueat ion 

 soon procured him promotion. In 1791 he l>ecanie 

 Secretary of State ; in 1800, Imperial Treasurer ; 

 and in 1802, Minister of Justice. He died 9th July 

 1816. His poetry shows a vigorous imagination 

 and strong power of expression, though his imagery 

 at times verges on bombast. His lyric pieces are 

 full of lire. His noblest, as well as his most popu- 



l.u <1>-, i- IMM Aililreu to the /*//. which ha*> 

 tnuiMlat.'d into the western language*. His col- 

 lected work* have often IMMMI repuldi*lie,| MUC- 1798. 



DeMajfuade'ro ('channel' or 'millet'), the 

 name of various waters in South America, of whi-h 

 the principal in the Uio Dewvguudero in Bolivia 



(q.v.). 



Desalx de Yeygoux, Louis CHARLH Av- 



TOINK, a famous 1 n-m li general, wan born of a 

 good old family at St Miliiin- d"A\at, in Auxfrgne, 

 August 17, 1768. Entering tin- army at fifteen, in 

 1796 he covered himself with glory by bin heroic 

 conduct in Moreau's funmu- retreat through the 

 Black Forest Behind the ruinous fortress of 

 Kehl, Desaix resisted the Austrian army for more 

 than two months, only capitulating in January 

 1797, when his ammunition was SJKMH. Ilia great- 

 est achievement was the conquest of I piwr 

 Kgypt, which he accomplished in 1799, alter 

 an eight months' campaign. Hi* own soldiers 

 used to compare him to Bayard, while the inhabit- 

 ants named him 'the Just Sultan.' Desaix re- 

 turned from Egypt just in time to take part in 

 the battle of Marengo, in which he was killed by 

 a musket-bullet, June 14, 1800. 



Desaugiers MARC, a once popular poet, 

 whom some critics have set above Beranger, was 

 born in 1772. After travelling abroad, he settled 

 in Paris, where he became a writer of songs and 

 vaudevilles. His subjects are generally love and 

 wine ; his verse is sweet and flowing. ' He is,' 

 says Mr Saintsbury, ' the best light song-writer of 

 France, with the single exception of Beranger.' 

 He died in 1827. 



Desbarres, JOSEPH FREDERICK WALLET, mili- 

 tary engineer, was lorn 1722 in England, of Hugue- 

 not parentage, and in 1756 sailed as lieutenant 

 in the 60th foot for America, where he raised, and 

 for a time commanded, a corps of field artillery. 

 In 1757 he gained over the Indians who had cap- 

 tured Fort Schenectady ; and at the siege of Qucltec 

 he was aide-de-camp to Wolfe, who wa- mortally 

 wounded while Desbarres was making a report. 

 He conducted the subsequent engineering opera- 

 tions during the conquest of Canada, and wan 

 quartermaster-general in the expedition that retook 

 Newfoundland (1762). He made a survey of the 

 coast of Nova Scotia in 1763-73, ami afterwards 

 prepared charts of the North American coa>t for 

 Lord Howe. He was lieutenant-governor of Caje 

 Breton (1784-1804), and of Prince reward Island 

 (1805-13), having attained the rank of colonel mlv 

 in 1798. He died at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nth 

 October 1824, at the age of one hundred and two. 

 His principal publication was the Atlantic \tptune 

 (4 vols. 17 1 7), a splendid collection of chart*. 



Des'onnt, in medieval music, was the art of 

 adding a part or parts to a melody or subject. The 

 latter being almost invariably given to tin- t nor. 

 descant came to signify generally the upper i*rt, or 

 air, of a piece. See O'ofM M:r>ixr. 



Desrartes. K'NB (Latinised into 1 

 CARTESH-.S), generally regarded as the father of 

 modern philosophy, was liorn March 31, K r >6, nt tin- 

 village of La Have, near Tours. He was sent ut 

 the age of eight to the Jesuit College at La Fleche, 

 where he SIM.H Ix-cume dNtingui.-hed for his k 

 ness of intellect, and made great and rapid progress 

 in languages, mathematics, and astronomy. It 

 was not long, however. K-fore he Ufam- 

 tied with the doctrines and method of scholasticism, 

 and felt it impossible to acquiesce in what had 

 hitherto Iron regarded as knoiclolge. The first 

 thing that he did after leaving college, as we are 

 informed in his treatise on Method, was to abandon 

 books, and endeavour to efface from his mind ail 



