776 



DESNA 



DESTOUCHES 



Liberty ends ; ' and with the words, ' Oh my poor 

 wife ! ' he laid his head under the fatal knife. A 

 fortnight later Lucile followed him to the same 

 doom, dying with the heroic courage of the martyr. 

 Their story is nobly told in Jules Claretie's Camille 

 Desmoulins and his Wife (trans, by Mrs Caehel 

 Hoey, 1876). 



Desna* a river of Russia, rising in the pro- 

 vince of Smolensk, and flowing south-eastward to 

 Briansk, and then south^yestward till it falls into 

 the Dnieper, almost opposite Kiev. It has a course 

 of 550 miles, navigable nearly throughout, and is 

 the channel of a large trade ; its low banks are 

 frequently inundated in spring. Its chief affluents 

 are the Seim and the Snov. 



De Soto, FERNANDO, Spanish discoverer, born 

 at Jeres de los Cavalleros, in Estremadura, about 

 1496, of a good but impoverished family, accom- 

 panied Pedrarias Davila to Darien in 1519, served 

 on the expedition to Nicaragua in 1527, and after- 

 wards assisted Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, 

 returning to Spain with a fortune of ' an hundred 

 and fourscore thousand ducats.' Charles V. now 

 gave him permission to conquer Florida at his 

 own expense, and appointed him governor of Cuba ; 

 and in 1538 he sailed from San Lucar with a richly 

 equipped company of 600 men, 24 ecclesiastics, and 

 20 officers. The fleet anchored in the bay of 

 Espiritu Santo (now Tampa Bay) on 25th May 

 1539 ; the ships were sent back to Cuba, and the 

 long search for gold was begun. For three years, 

 harassed by hostile Indians, lured onward by 

 reports of wealth that lay beyond, the ever- 

 decreasing company continued their toilsome march 

 over a route that cannot now be very clearly traced. 

 In 1541 the Mississippi was reached and crossed, 

 and the third winter was spent on Washita River. 

 Returning to the Mississippi in the spring, De 

 Soto, worn out by disappointments, died of a fever 

 on its banks in June 1542 ; and that his death 

 might be concealed from the Indians, his body, 

 wrapped, in a cloak, was lowered at midnight into 

 the waters of the great stream he had discovered. 

 In the following year his companions, reduced to 

 half their original number, sailed down the river 

 in seven frail boats, and finally reached the town 

 of Panuco, in Mexico. See Lives by Wilmer ( Phila. 

 1858 ), Abbott ( N. Y. 1874 ), and Shipp ( Phila. 1881 ). 



Despard, EDWARD MARCUS, conspirator, was 

 born in Queen's County, Ireland, in 1751, and at 

 fifteen obtained an ensigncy. From 1772 till 1790 

 he did good service in the West Indies, both as a 

 soldier and as superintendent of the new territory 

 of Yucatan. He was then recalled on the most 

 frivolous charges, which for two years were kept 

 hanging over him ; nor, when they were dismissed, 

 could he get the least compensation. His com- 

 plaints brought him two years' imprisonment ( 1798- 

 1800), on his release from which he engaged in 

 a crackbrained conspiracy to assassinate the king 

 and to seize the Tower and Bank of England. For 

 this, with six of his associates, he was drawn on a 

 hurdle, hanged, and beheaded, 21st February 1803. 

 His brother, JOHN DESPARD (1745-1829), British 

 general, was present at twenty-four engagements, 

 mostly during the American War of Independ- 

 ence. 



Despenser, HUGH LE. See EDWARD II. 



Des Purlers, BONAVENTURE, one of the most 

 interesting prose-writers of the Renaissance period 

 in France, was born at Autun in Burgundy about 

 the year 1500. Little is known regarding his life 

 beyond the fact that he was a member of the court 

 of men of letters assembled by Marguerite of 

 Navarre. In 1537 he published the Cymbalum 

 Mundi, a work in dialogue, in which, under the 

 pretence of attacking the superstitions of the 



ancients, he satirised the religious beliefs of his 

 own day. The book raised a storm of indignation, 

 against which Marguerite seems to have been 

 powerless to shield Des Periers, who, rather than 

 fall into the hands of his persecutors, is said to 

 have killed himself in 1544. His Nouvelles Recrea- 

 tions et Joyeux Devis were published in 1558. 

 They consist of 129 short stories, both comic and 

 romantic, and are admirable examples of narrative 

 art, though the laxity of the Renaissance is 

 frequently apparent in the writer's choice of sub- 

 jects. The style is vivacious and elegant ; indeed, 

 Des Periers is one of the greatest masters of French 

 prose whom the 16th century produced. Besides 

 writing the Cymbalum Mundi and the Joyeux 

 Devis, it is by many critics believed that Des 

 Periers was part author of the Heptameron associ- 

 ated with the name of Marguerite. See MARGARET 

 OF NAVARRE, and the edition of Des Periers' works 

 by Lacour (2 vols. Paris, 1866). 



Despoblado (Span., 'desert'), a treeless, un- 

 inhabited plateau, nearly 10,000 feet above the sea, 

 on the Bolivian and Argentine frontier to the north- 

 east of Antofagasta. 



Despoto l>agh. See RHODOPE. 



Despreaux. See BOILEAU. 



Dessalines, JEAN JACQUES, emperor of Hayti, 

 was born about 1758 in Guinea, Africa, and was at 

 an early age imported thence into Hayti as a slave. 

 He was bought by a French planter, whose name he 

 afterwards assumed, and early became a prominent 

 leader in the insurrection, second only to Toussaint 

 L'Ouverture. In the struggle with the French he 

 was always distinguished by his agility and swift- 

 ness of movement, as well as by his fearlessness 

 and ferocious cruelty. After the first compromise 

 he became governor of the southern part of the 

 island, but soon began the war anew, and, after 

 infamous cruelties, compelled the Frencli to evac- 

 uate the island in October 1803. He was created 

 governor in January 1804, when the people of the 

 island declared themselves independent, and on 8th 

 October had himself crowned as emperor of Hayti, 

 under the name of Jean Jaques I. ; but his despot- 

 ism, debauchery, and cruelty soon alienated from 

 him the sympathy and support even of those who 

 were formerly his firmest adherents. In 1806, while 

 trying to repress a revolt, he was cut down by 

 Christophe (q.v.), who succeeded him as emperor 

 of Hayti. 



Dessail, a town of North Germany, capital 

 of the duchy of Anhalt, is situated on the left 

 bank of the Mulde, not far from its junction with 

 the Elbe, 70 miles by rail SW. of Berlin. It 

 is in general well built. Among the principal 

 buildings are the ducal palace, a noble structure, 

 built in 1748, and improved in 1875, with a valu- 

 able picture-gallery and library ; a town-hall, an 

 elegant theatre, and several churches. The Phil- 

 anthropinum of Basedow (q.v.) was here. The 

 manufactures are sugar, woollen cloth, machinery, 

 carpets, and there is a large trade in grain. Moses 

 Mendelssohn was a native. Leopold, Prince of 

 Anhalt-Dessau ( 1676-1747), a famous soldier in the 

 wars of the 18th century, is popularly known as 

 der alte Dessauer ( ' the old Dessauer ' ) ; his statue 

 adorns the market-place. Pop. (1890) 34,658. 



DestOlldies, PHILIPPE, one of the chief comic 

 dramatists of France in the 18th century, was 

 born in 1680. He wrote seventeen comedies, two of 

 which, Le Philosophe Marie ( 1727 ), and Le Glorieux, 

 his masterpiece (1732), are of a very high order of 

 excellence. He died in 1754. His characters are 

 truthfully drawn, and his plots interesting. In his 

 style he imitated Boileau rather than Moliere, and 

 his verse has occasionally a happy epigrammatic 

 turn. In his language he avoided the freedom 



