780 



VANBRUGH VANDALS. 



oxide of vanadium as a base, are, with few excep- 

 tions, of a superb azure-blue colour, when in solu- 

 tion. In the solid state, and when combined with 

 wiitcr, they are either of a deep or light-blue colour, 

 and sometimes greenish. Without water, they are 

 generally brown, and sometimes also green. Both 

 the brown and green salts give blue solutions. 

 Their taste is astringent, and rather sweetish, like 

 those of iron. The greater number of them are 

 soluble in water. The caustic alkalies occasion a 

 precipitate, which is at first of a grayish-white col- 

 our, and which afterwards becomes of a liver-brown : 

 an excess of alkali dissolves the precipitate, produc- 

 ing a solution of a brown colour. Ammonia, added 

 in excess, gives a brown precipitate, and the liquid 

 becomes colourless. The carbonates occasion 

 grayish-white precipitates: sulphureted hydrogen 

 does not render them turbid ; but the hydrosul- 

 phurets occasion a black precipitate, and, when 

 added in excess, they redissolve it, occasioning a fine 

 purple colour : ferro-cyanite of potash occasions a 

 lemon-yellow precipitate, which becomes green in j 

 the air. Infusion of galls gives a precipitate of so 

 deep a blue colour that it appears black. 



VANBRUGH, Sia JOHN, a dramatist and archi- 

 tect, descended from a Flemish family, was born in 

 England, about 1G72, and entered into the army. 

 But early in life he became a writer for the stage, j 

 In 1697, his comedy, the Relapse, was represented ; 

 and, in the following year, he produced the Provoked 

 Wife, and JEsop, afterwards altered by Garrick. { 

 When Betterton and Congreve obtained a patent ' 

 for .erecting a theatre in the Haymarket, which was j 

 opened in 1707, they were joined by Vanbrugh, ( 

 who wrote for this house his comedy the Confeder- 

 acy, the most witty as well as the most licentious 

 of his productions, which long kept possession of 

 the stage. The Provoked Husband, or the Journey 

 to London, which he left imperfect at his death, 

 was completed by Colley Gibber. As an architect, 

 Vanbrugh was selected to build the monument to 

 the duke of Marlborough, Blenheim-house ; and 

 that structure, as well as castle Howard, affords 

 proof of skill and genius. He obtained, in 1704, 

 the office of Clarencieux king-at-arms : and, in 1714, 

 he received the honour of knighthood. He was 

 also appointed comptroller of the board of works 

 and surveyor of Greenwich hospital. His death 

 occurred March 26, 1726. 



VANCOUVER, GEORGE ; a modern circumna- 

 vigator and captain in the British navy. He served 

 as a midshipman under captain Cook ; and a voyage 

 of discovery, to ascertain the existence of any navi- 

 gable communication between the North Pacific and 

 North Atlantic oceans being determined on, he was 

 appointed to command it. Of this voyage captain 

 Vancouver compiled an account, under the title of j 

 Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, 

 and round the World, in the Year 1790 5 (3 vols., 

 4to.), which was nearly ready for the press when 

 the author died, in 1798. 



VANDALS; according to some, a Sclavonic 

 tribe, there being a remnant of an ancient race in 

 Hungary, in the county of Eisenburg, still bearing 

 this name, and consisting of 40,000 souls, who 

 speak a very ancient Sclavonic dialect. According 

 to others, the Vandals are considered to be a Ger- 

 manic, tribe, one of those whose migration caused 

 the fall of the Roman empire. Their original 

 country was probably in the north of Germany, 

 between the Elbe and Vistula: the early Roman 

 writers mention them very indistinctly. After the 



third century of the Christian era, they carried OB 

 wars, in connexion with the Burgundians, against ( lie 

 Romans on the Rhine. Under the emperor Aure- 

 lian (272), they settled in the western parts of 

 Dacia, or Transylvania, and in part of the present 

 Hungary. When they were driven from these re- 

 gions by the Goths, Constantino the Great permitted 

 them to settle in Pannonia, on condition that tlu-y 

 would assist the Romans in their wars. It was a 

 great mistake of the emperors, when the Ronum 

 troops had degenerated, to admit foreigners into 

 their legions, and even to grant them the hi 

 honours. The weakness of the Romans thus be- 

 came more known to the barbarians; and, in con- 

 sequence, the latter were more disposed to under- 

 take frequent incursions into the Roman empire. 

 That there were men of talent among the Vandals, 

 is evident from the instance of Stilicho. (q. v.) In- 

 the year 406, the Vandals quitted Pannonia, and 

 proceeded, together with the Alans and Suevi, to 

 Gaul, where they committed great devastations : 

 thence they invaded Spain, passing over the Pyre- 

 nees, divided with the Suevi the possession of 

 Galicia and Old Castile, and established there an 

 empire, to which the Alans, who had previously 

 settled in Lusitania, but could not withstand the 

 attacks of the Visigoths, submitted (420). Jea- 

 lousy often gave rise to wars between the Vandals 

 and the Suevi : the former, however, retained their 

 power until they were compelled by the Romans to 

 leave Galicia, and take refuge in Baetica, the coast 

 of the present kingdom of Grenada. The Romans 

 made war against them even here, but were defeated 

 (423) ; and the Vandals were now emboldened to 

 undertake new enterprises, for which they soon 

 found opportunities. Their king, at that time, was 

 Genseric (Geiserich), a brave enterprising prince, 

 one of the greatest men of his age, who, however, 

 as he was the cause of devastating wars, and had 

 quitted the Catholic church to join the Arian party, 

 has not been justly represented by historians. 

 Northern Africa was, at that time, subject to the 

 Romans. The governor of this province, Boniface, 

 who thought himself wronged by the emperor Va- 

 lentinian III. invited the Vandals to Africa, pro- 

 mising to divide the province with them. Genseric 

 embarked with all his people (427), in the ports of 

 Andalusia, and went over to Africa. In the mean 

 time, Boniface, having become reconciled to the 

 emperor, would not perform his promise, and at last 

 attempted to drive away the Vandals by force of 

 arms. But he was conquered. Genseric gradually 

 possessed himself of all that part of Africa which 

 belonged to the Western empire, and there founded 

 a powerful empire, to which he soon added the 

 islands of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Majorca and 

 Minorca. His corsairs were masters of the whole of 

 the Mediterranean, and spread terror on the coasts 

 of Italy. The empress Eudoxia, widow of Valen- 

 tinian III. who had been compelled by Maximus, 

 the murderer of her husband and usurper of 

 the imperial throne, to marry him, was supposed 

 to have invited the Vandals into Italy from the 

 desire of revenge ; but the conduct of Genseric dis- 

 proves this supposition ; for he took the empress 

 and her daughters prisoners. Genseric made his 

 invasion in 455, actuated by love of plunder, and 

 at the head of a powerful fleet. In Rome, no pre- 

 paration had been made for defence : all fled, and 

 the emperor Maximus was killed in the first confu- 

 sion. The Vandals plundered Rome during four- 

 teen days, and took possession of all the treasures 



