D A R 
Careio .—*As larks lie dar’d to Ihun the hobby’s flight. 
Diyden. J 
DARE,./I Defiance; challenge: 
Sextus Pompeius * 
Hath given the dare to Caefar, and commands 
The empire of the fea. Shakefpeare. 
An Edex word for harm or pain ; as, It does me no dare, 
i. e. no harm. It dares me , it pains me. 
DARE'A,/! in botany. See Trichomanes. 
DA'REC, a town of Perfia, in the province of Segef- 
tan : fixty miles fouth of Zareng. 
DA'REC de CAMUNA, a town of Perfia, in the pro¬ 
vince of Mecran : 1S0 miles weft of Kidge. 
DA'REFUL, adj. Full of defiance : not in life: 
We might have met them darefil, beard to beard, 
And beat them backward home. Shakefpeare. 
DA'REL HAMARA, a town of Africa, in the king¬ 
dom of Fez, faid to have been built by the Romans ; the 
trade is principally in corn and oil. Lat. 34. 20. N. Ion. 
9. E. Ferro. 
DA'REN, a river of Wales, in the county of the 
Caernarvon, which runs into the fea fifteen miles louth- 
weft ot Pulhely. 
DA'RENT, a river of England, in the county of Kent, 
which runs into the Thames three miles north of Dart- 
ford. The mouth near the Thames is called Dartford 
Creek. 
DA'RES, a Phrygian, who lived during the Trojan 
war, in which he was engaged, and of which he wrote 
the hiftory in Greek. This hiftory was extant in the age 
of A£lian ; the Latin tranflation, now extant, is univer- 
fally believed to be fpurious, though it is attributed by 
fome to Cornelius Nepos. The bell edition is that of 
Smids cum not., yam 4to. & Svo. Aral 1702. Homer. — 
One of the companions of Aineai, celebrated as a pu- 
gilift, and defeended from Amycus. He was killed by 
Turnus in Italy. Virgil. 
DAREW', a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of 
Novogrodek: thirty-four miles fouth-fouth-eaft of No- 
vogrodek. 
DAR'GAN, a town of Afia, in the country of Cha- 
rafm, fituated on the Gihon. 
DAR'GEL, a river of Ireland, in the county of Wick¬ 
low, which runs into St. George’s channel, nine miles 
fouth-fouth-eaft of Dublin. 
DARGESIN', a town of Perfia, in the province of 
Irac Agemi: forty-eight miles north-eaft of Amadan. 
DAR'GIES, a town of France, in the department of 
the Somme : five miles fouth of Poix. 
DA'RIC,y. An ancient piece of gold, coined by Da¬ 
rius the Mede about 538 years before Chrift ; probably 
during his ftay at Babylon, out of the vaft quantity of 
gold which had been accumulated in the treafury. From 
thence it was difperfed over the eaft, and alfo into Greece; 
fo that the Perfian daric, which was alfo called Jiater , 
was the gold coin belt known in Athens in ancient times. 
According to Dr. Bernard, it weighed two grains more 
than one of our guineas; but, as it was very fine, and 
contained little alloy, it may be reckoned worth about 
twenty-five (hillings of our money. Plutarch informs us, 
that the darics were (tamped on one fide with an archer, 
and on the reverfe with the effigies of Darius. All the 
other pieces of gold of the fame weight and value that 
were coined of the fucceeding kings, both of the Perfian 
and Macedonian race, were called darics , from Darius, 
in whole reign this coin commenced. Greaves fays that 
the daric is 1 (till found in Perfia; but it is very l’carce, 
and perhaps of doubtful antiquity. 
DA'RIEN, or Terra Firm a- Proper, is the.northern 
diviliou of Terra Firma, or Caftile del Oro. It is a nar¬ 
row ifthmus, that, properly (peaking, joins North and 
South America together; but is generally reckoned as 
part of the latter. It is bounded on the north by the 
Vol, Vo No. 299. 
D A R 601 
gulf of Mexico; on the fouth by the South Sea; on the eaft 
by the river or gulf of Darien ; and on the weft by'anothcr 
part of the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean, and the province of 
Veragua. It lies in the form.of a bow or crefcent, about 
the great bay of Panama, in the South Sea, and is 300 miles 
in length. Its breadth has generally been reckoned fixty 
miles from north to fouth ; but it is only thirty- feven 
miles broad from Porto Bello to Panama, the two chief 
towns of the-province. The former lies in lat. 9. 34. 35. 
N.lon. 81.52.W. the latter in lat. 8. 57.48. N. Ion. 82.W. 
This, province is not the richeft, but is of the greateft 
importance to Spain, and has been the feene of more ac¬ 
tions than any other in America. The wealth of Peru 
is brought hither, and from hence exported to Europe. 
Few of the rivers in. this country arc navigable, having 
(hoals at their mouths. Some of them bring down gold 
duft ; and on the coaft are valuable pearl filheries. "Nei¬ 
ther of the oceans fall in at once upon the fhore, but are 
intercepted by a great many valuable illands that lie (bat¬ 
tered along the coaft. The illands in the bay of Panama 
are numerous : in the gulf of Darien are three of confider- 
able iize, viz. Golden Ifland ; another, the largeft of the 
three, and the ifland of Pines ; befides fmaller ones. The 
narrowed part of the ifthmus is called fometimes the 
ifthmus of Panama. The country about it is made up of 
low lickly valleys, and mountains of fuch ftupendous 
height, that they (eem to be placed by nature as eternal 
barriers between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which 
here approach fo near each other, that, from thefe moun¬ 
tains, the waters of both can be plainly feen at the lame 
time, and feemingly at a very fmall diftance. The rocky 
mountains here forbid the idea of a canal j but, by going 
into twelve degrees north latitude, and joining the head of 
Nicaragua lake to a fmall river, which runs into the Pa¬ 
cific Ocean, a communication between the two feas be¬ 
comes practicable ; and, by digging thirty miles through a 
level low country, a tedious navigation, of ten thouland 
miles, round Cape Horn, might'be laved. What would 
be the confequences of luch a junction, is not eafy to fay ; 
bat it is very probable, that, in a length of years, fuch 
a junction would wear away the earthy particles of the 
ifthmus, and form a broad ftrait between the oceans : in 
which cale the gulf ftream would ceafe, being turned 
into a different channel; and a voyage round the world 
become an inconfiderable thing. 
The Scotch had once fo juft an idea of the great im¬ 
portance of this ifthmus, that they got po tie (lion of a 
part of the province in 1699, and though among the 
pooreft nations in Europe, attempted to form an eftablifh- 
ment more ufeful and of more real importance, all tire 
parts of the plan-confidered, than had perhaps ever been 
undertaken by ,the greateft nation in the world. The 
projector and leader of this Darien expedition was,a cler¬ 
gyman, of the name of Paterfon. The rife, progrefs, 
and cataftroplie, of this well-conceived, but ill-fated un¬ 
dertaking, has been deferibed, in a very interefting man¬ 
ner, by fir John Dalrymple, in the fecond volume of his 
memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland. The fund fub- 
feribed,. for carrying the project into effect, amounted 
to 900,000!. fterling, viz. 400,000!. fu-b.fcribed by the 
Scotch, 300,000!. by the Englilh, and 200,0001. by the 
Dutch and Hambrfrghers. The Darien council aver, in 
their papers, that the right of the company was debated 
before king William III. in the prefence of the Spanilh 
ambaffador, before the colony left Scotland ; and while 
the eftabliihment of the colony had been in agitation, 
Spain had made no complaints to England or Scotland 
againft it. In fine, of 1200 brave men, only thirty ever fur- 
viVed war, Ihipvvreck, and difeafe, to return to Scotland. 
The ruin of this unhappy colony happened through the 
lhameful partiality of William III. and the jealoufy of 
the Englilh nation. The ftrong country, where the Co¬ 
lony fettled and built their forts, was a territory never 
polleffed by the Spaniards, and inhabited by a people 
continually at war with them. It was a: a place called 
7 O Actttj 
