DARDANELLES DARIEN. 



597 



the castles to their former condition; and he rendered i 

 them, in a short time, impregnable. But the Turks ( 

 were too indolent to preserve them long in this con- 

 dition ; for, in 1798, Eton, an Englishman, who was 

 for a considerable time resident in Turkey, in a de- 

 scription of this empire, declared that, at that tune, 

 a fleet might easily pass the Dardanelles. " These 

 castles," he says, "may be beaten down by batteries 

 erected on shore, or by sea, from situations where the 

 great artillery cannot bear on ships. There are, on 

 each side of the water, fourteen great guns, which 

 fire granite balls.. These guns are of brass, with 

 chambers like mortars, 22 English feet long, and 28 

 niches diameter of the bore. A gentleman who lias 

 measured them since I did, says they are only twenty- 

 three niches in diameter : one of us must have made 

 a mistake. They are very near the level of the sur- 

 face of the water, in arched port-holes or embrasures, 

 with iron doors, which are opened only when they are 

 to be fired. The balls cross the water from side to 

 side, as they are a little elevated. These monstrous 

 cannon are not mounted, but lie on the paved floor, 

 with their breech against a wall. They cannot be 

 pointed, and the gunner must wait till the vessel he 

 intends to fire at is opposite the mouth ; and they are 

 at least lialf an hour hi loading one of these guns." 

 That this account is accurate there is no doubt, for 

 it is confirmed by admiral Duckworth, an Englishman, 

 who, on the 19th of February 1807, with eight ships 

 of the line and four frigates, together with fire-ships 

 and gun-boats, effected a passage through the Dar- 

 danelles without loss, and appeared, on the next day, 

 before Constantinople, which, till then, had never 

 seen an enemy's fleet. Their presence was intended 

 to influence the negotiations then in progress, but was 

 of little avail, for the Turks, during the course of the 

 discussions, under the direction of the French ambas- 

 sador Sebastian!, were zealously employed hi fortify- 

 ing Constantinople, and repairing the castles of the 

 Dardanelles; so that Duckworth, on the 2d of March, 

 could not return without Joss, &c., according to his 

 own confession. If lie had^epiained but eight days 

 later, his return would Have been quite impossible. 



The new castles are much less strong than the old 

 ones, which are generally understood when the Dar- 

 danelles simply are spoken of. The latter are called 

 Chcfna Kalissi (said to mean pottery castles, from a 

 pottery near them), or, more elegantly, Sultanei Ka- 

 lissi. The new castle on the Asiatic side is called 

 Koum Kale, or castle in the sand, from the character 

 of the shore in that place. In the immediate vicinity of 

 Koum Kale, the ruins of theTroad are, by the common 

 opinion of travellers at the present day, supposed to 

 be found. The old castle, on the Asiatic side, is the 

 residence of the governor of the four castles, and at 

 this place there is an ill-built jlut considerable Turk- 

 ish city, called Chana Kalissiw The environs of this 

 town are beautiful, particularly a fine promenade of 

 plane-trees on the banks of the Rhodius, supposed 

 to be one of the nine Homeric rivers which descend 

 from mount Ida. The old castle on the Asiatic side 

 'is poorly defended on the land quarter, and might 

 easily be surprised by a small force disembarked 

 above or below. Large quantities of marble balls, 

 made from the ruins of the city of the Troad, are 

 piled up for use in the courts of the fortress. A pon- 

 derous shot of this kind, which struck one of the 

 masts of admiral Duckworth's ship, was brought 

 home by that officer, and made th pedestal of a 

 table. So firmly persuaded are the Turks that these 

 castles are impregnablej-that they believed the go- 

 vernor was bribed by admiral Duckworth, and De- 

 headed him accordingly. Commodore Bainbridge, in 

 the American frigate George Washington, passed the 

 Dardanelles, under cover of the smoke of a salute, in 



February, 1801. This is the only American ship of 

 war that ever passed this strait. 



DARDANUS, in mythology, the progenitor of the 

 Trojan kings, and the son of Jupiter and Electra, the 

 daughter of Atlas, emigrated from Samothrace (ac- 

 cording to others, from Arcadia, Crete, &c.), and 

 settled in Phrygia, in the country which was after-- 

 wards called Troas. Here he built a city, which, 

 Vom him, was called Dardanum, or Dardanus. By 

 Bateia, the daughter of Teucer, who had previously 

 emigrated hither from Attica, he had a son called 

 Erichthonius. His descendants are called, by the 

 joets, Dardanians. It has been lately supposed, that 

 ,his is the name of an Arcadian tribe whose history 

 is related in the fable Dardanus. 



DARFUR, or DARFOOR (Country of Poor) ; a 

 considerable kingdom of Central Africa, occupying a 

 arge portion of the wide interval between Abyssinia 

 and Bomou, the most eastern part of Nigritia. It is 

 difficult to fix its limits, as it is known to us almost 

 solely by the journey of Mr Browne, one of the most 

 nterprising of modern travellers. On the east, it 

 has Kordofan, and the country of the Shillux, which 

 separate it from Sennaar and Abyssinia ; on the west, 

 Bergoo. which divides it from Begherme and Bornou ; 

 while the regions to the south are occupied by bar- 

 barous nations, extending to and inhabiting the 

 mountains of the Moon. With respect to its climate, 

 productions, the animals it contains, and also the 

 manners of its inhabitants, and its government, it 

 nearly resembles other countries in Africa. The 

 people are semi-barbarous ; their government is a des- 

 potism, and their occupation chiefly agriculture. The 

 mechanical arts are at a low ebb, and their houses 

 are rudely constructed of clay, with a coating of plas- 

 ter, and with proportionably scanty accommodations. 

 Its commerce is extensive. The grand intercourse 

 is with Egypt, and is carried on entirely by the Afri- 

 can system of caravans. There is no regular caravan, 

 as between Fezzan and Cairo. The motions of that 

 from Fur are extremely uncertain, and two, or even 

 three years sometimes elapse without one. The cara- 

 van going to Egypt consists often of 2000 camels and 

 1000 men. Among the exports, the most important 

 are slaves, male and female, taken in the Negro 

 countries to the south ; camels, ivory, the horns, teeth, 

 and hide of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, ostrich 

 feathers, gum, pimento, parroquets in abundance, and 

 a small quantity of white copper. The imports are 

 extremely various, comprising beais of all sorts, 

 toys, glass, arms, light cloths of different kinds, 

 chiefly made in Egypt, with some of French manu- 

 facture, red Barbary caps, small carpets, silks, 

 wrought and unwrought shoes, and a considerable 

 quantity of writing paper. The Darfoor people sub- 

 mit their daughters to excision. They are Moham- 

 medans, but, hi spite of the prophet, much given to 

 intoxicate themselves with a certain beverage called 

 merissah. Unlimited polygamy is allowed, and the 

 nearest relationship is no obstacle to marriage. 

 Fathers often marry their daughters, and brothers 

 their sisters. The army is calculated at 70 000 men. 

 The soldiers endure thirst and fatigue with uncommon 

 patience. 



DARIA, or DERIA, signifies river, in the Tartar 

 languages ; as Kizil-daria, red-river. 



DARIEN, GULF OF ; on the coast of tlie province 

 of Darien ; 26 leagues from N. to S., and nine from 

 E. to W. Several rivers flow into it, the largest of 

 which is the Atrato. The coast is full of sliarp and 

 inaccessible shoals, and only towards the west and 

 south are there fit places for disembarking. The 

 limits of the gulf are sometimes extended to the sea 

 that washes the shores of the provinces of Panama 

 and Darien. 





