4 
DAR 
B. C.; probably during bis ftay at Babylon, out of the vaft 
quantity’ of gold which had been accumulated in the treafury : 
but as qthers fay, by Darius > of Hyftafpes, who began 
his reign 521 years sm i 
"Y Phe hiftor eee pd 
g "ATrinds was equal to the daric, and 
{peak of gold mines oe ane urium ; but no ancient writer 
mentions fuch a coin, and all agree that the mines at Lau- 
rium were filver. ‘That they had no gold, even at the be- 
ginning of the Peloponnefian war, appears “from the account 
n by Thucydides, (lib. xi. c. 13.) of the drachma, then 
ithe Acropolis, which conhitted of chy in coin, and old 
sep filver bullion : 
$ very 
clothed in a long robe, and crowned with a {piked crown, 
holding a bow in his left hand, and an arrow in his right ; 
and on the other fide with the effigies of Darius. All the 
other pieces of gold of the fame weight and value, that were 
coined by the fucceeding kings both of the Perfian and 
Macedonian race, were called darics, from Darius, in whofe 
n this coin commenced. O : efe there were whole 
darics and half darics: and they are called in thofe parts of 
Scripture written after the Pa oni captivity, erlang 
and by the Talmuditts, rake oth. Greaves fays t t the 
daric is ftill found in Perfia 
ut - is certainly a on 
Thefe moftly 
melted down by Alexander the et pia ae conquel of 
which weighs 129 grains, and fhew ein: to ieee been di- 
drachms on the Eubee or poe andar Suidas i Acpse- 
xos. Bernard de Ponder p- 171. Prideaux’s Conn. 
vol. i. p. 182,°&c. Phil. Traot vel. ‘is. oo 2. art. 4%. 
Pinkerton’s Eff.-on Medals, vol. i. fe&t. i 
DARIADSA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Afia, in 
‘the interior of Media. 
DARIDNA, atown of Paphlagonia. Steph. Byz. 
DARIEN, in Geography, a poft-town of America, in 
M‘Intofh county and ttate of Georgia, near the heights of 
which the north channel of Alatamaha river flows, about 
"20 a above Sapalo ifland, and ro a fort Barrington ; 
47! mil es S.S.W. of Savannah. N. lat, 31° 23’. W. ‘long. 
80° 
Das RIEN, Gulf of, the mouth of a large river, or an 
arm of the fea, in a province of South America, of the f 
name, running up iato the land for a confiderable diftance, 
and opening into the Caribbean fea, or Spanifh main; 
about N. lat. 8°, and W. long. 76° 30’. In ae gulph are 
three iflands of conliderable fize, viz. Golden ifland; another, 
hae ire. cf the three, and the ifland of Pines, befides fome 
ma 
3 
» Likmus of, a province of the vice-royalty of 
New Gane in South America; and the northern part of 
DAR 
Terra Firma 3 s extending on both fides of the gulf of the 
however narrow eile ifthmus, in the part . it which pe 
to or includes Panama, fometimes called the Ifthmus of Pa- 
nama, it was firm land, or belonged to the continent: or 
rather, becaufe the name was applied indifferently to this and 
the adjacent province of Veragua in North America,afligned 
as a dukedom to Colon or Columbus, and difcovered by that 
great navigator to be certainly continental, when he ex- 
plored the harbour of Portobello, on his fourth voyage in 
1502. This province, which is the largeft of thofe in Terra 
Firma, is about 260 miles in length, and about 80 miles in 
medial breadth, forming a kind of bow or crefcent about the 
great bay of Panama, in the Pacific ocean, or South fea. 
Its Geel is only about 37 miles from Portobello to Pana. 
. Thisn 
cky mountal 
ticability of acana?; but b afcending to a higher ie 
northwards, and joining the head of Nicaragua lake to 
{mall river, which runs into the Pacific ocean, a communica- 
tion might be formed between the two feas; and by dig gging 
30 miles through a level low anal a tedious ravgaton 
2 10,000 miles round cape . 
ns; inw cafe the all ora being turned into a 
different cael, mignt ceafe, and a voyage round the world 
be much expe edited. Neither o 
upon the fhores, but are ap ie many valua- 
ble iflands, cae lie {cattered along the fas both in the bay 
of Panama, and in the gulf of Darien. mountains of 
Darien are covered with ack inacceffible cae From the 
tops of fome of thefe the Spaniards firft difcovered the South, 
or Great Pacific ocean, in the year 1513, and called it the 
South fea, becaufe they croffed the ilthmus from the North 
in reality the Pacific ocean lies weft of the 
main land of America. Valleys in that moift climate, 
where it rains two-thirds of the year, are marfhy, and fo fre= 
quently overflowed, that the aabivene find it neceflary, 
in many nei to build their houfes upon trees, in order to 
elevate them a 
e high grounds. 
region thin - inhabit g favages, fin- 
ay wild and SS oe ha - of indy has done 
nes or nuthing to mitigate or correct thefe natural’ difad- 
Althou h ome of the rivers which water this 
— courfe is very fhort. The river of Darien, indeed, is 
ery large; but its dept corre efpond 
aed ata of its om, though ‘farther in it is of fufs 
fie epth. But from thence to Chagre, through the 
ae i aon of thiz coaft, the rivers are little better than 
brooks. 
