( Ob 
D E S 
D E S 
was able to-teach them, not only in the fchool of the 
Piarifts, but at the feminary of Raab. After difcharging 
various offices in the department entruded to him, he 
was invited to Rome, where he was eledted a cardinal. 
Here he' had an opportunity of colledting, in different 
libraries, and particularly that of the Vatican, a variety 
of important materials for his work refpedting the origin 
of the Hungarians. After this, he was fent by pope Be¬ 
nedict XIV. on an embaffy to the hofpodar of Wallachia, 
Condantine Maurocordatus. On returning to his na¬ 
tive country, he made choice of Waifen as the place 
of his refidence, where, notwithdanding the bad date 
of his health, he employed himfelf with diligence 
in preparing his works for the prefs. He died of a le¬ 
thargic complaint in 1765, in the fixty-third year of 
his age. The mod important of his works are : 
Pro cullu Lit ter arum in Hungaria, ac fpeciatim. civitate Diocce- 
Jique vindicatio, Roma\ 1741, 4to. ; De Initiis ac majoribus 
Hungarorum Commentaria, 5 vols. folio, from 174S to 1760; 
Hijlona Epifcopatus Dioeccjis et civitatis Vacienfis, una cum re¬ 
bus fynchronis, 1763, folio. 
DE'SERT,/; [defertum, Lat.] A wildernefs ; folitude; 
wade country ; uninhabited place : 
He, looking round on every fide, beheld 
. A pathlefs defert, du(k with horrid (hades. Milton. 
There are many wade and barren deferts mentioned by 
travellers, in different parts of the world ; but the mod 
confiderable we know of are thofe of the African and 
Afiatic continents. The driking feature of Africa cer¬ 
tainly confids in its immenfe deferts, which perhaps com- 
prife nearly one-half of its whole extent. The chief is 
that called Sahara, or the Defert, by eminence, dretching 
from the fnores of the Atlantic, with few interruptions, 
to the confines of Egypt, a fpace of more than forty-five 
degrees, or about 2500 geographical miles, by a breadth of 
twelve degrees,or 7 20 geographical miles. This prodigious 
expanfe of red fand and fanddone rock, prefents, as it 
were, the ruins of a continent ; and perhaps gave rife to 
the fable of Atlantis, a region at firll conceived to be 
feated in the fandson the weft of Egypt, and afterwards 
to have been fwallowed up by the ocean. This empire 
.of fand bids defiance to every exertion of human power 
orindudry; but it is interfperfed with various fertile 
diftricts, and iflands of different fizes, of which Fezzan is 
the chief which has hitherto been explored. The dan¬ 
gers and difficulties encountered by travellers in paffing 
over various parts of this frightful wade, are recorded 
by many authors of credit and refpedt. Thefe dangers 
arife not fo much from the want of fudenance, as from 
the attacks of robbers and ferocious animals; a circum- 
dance which, for greater fafety, introduced the cuf- 
tom of travelling by large companies or caravans. See 
the article Cara van, vol.iii. p.786. A recent travel¬ 
ler in Morocco, Lempriere, fays, that caravans frequent¬ 
ly pafs from Tafilet to Tombut or Tombudtoo, by the 
country of the Mohafres and Thouat. The city of 
Thouat is in the interior parts of the country, about 
thirty days journey from Tafilet. From Thouat, the ca¬ 
ravans proceed directly to Tombut; for there is much 
greater danger in paffing the two deferts between Tafilet 
and Thouat, than between the latter place and Tom¬ 
but. Thouat feems to be the Toudeny of fome re¬ 
cent maps ; and the vad defert of Sahara, indead of 
being more jultly confidered in the aggregate, is divided’ 
into portions of diftindt appellations, as the travellers 
happen to meet with illands, faline pools, or other local 
circumdances. In the fouthern parts of Africa, towards 
the European fettlenients, there are other deferts of great 
extent ; but, it feems probable, that the central ridges 
of mountains, mentioned by Browne and Park, and liip- 
pofed to be continuous wholly acrofs the continent, pre- 
ferve vegetation where they extend ; and it is under- 
lfood that the Portuguefe are prevented from paffing 
from Congou to Zanguebar by ranges of mountains full 
of the mod ferocious animals, and impeded by that thick 
thorny underwood which is peculiar to the African fo- 
reds. Yet there is probably a wide defert table-land 
between the ead and wed ranges, pervaded by the Gia- 
gas or Jagas, who feem to be the Tartars of fouthern 
Africa, and who are faid fometimes to have roamed from 
Mozambique to the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. 
The deferts of Ada, though much lefs expandve than, 
thofe above delcribed, are neverthelefs of confiderable 
extent, and too often fatal to the way-worn traveller. On 
the ead of the Tigris, a confiderable defert commences, 
which is pervaded by the river of Ahwaz, and extends 
to the north of Shufter; but, Pinkerton obferves, that 
D’Anville has fpread it too far to the ead. This 
defert may be about 140 Britiffi miles in length, from ead 
to wed, and the breadth about eighty. In his map of an¬ 
cient geography, D’Anville lias omitted this defert, 
which feems indeed unknown to claffical authority. It 
is now chiefly poffdfed by the wandering tribe of Arabs, 
called BeniKiab, a people, who, like the defert, are rather 
obfeure. The great Saline Defert extends from the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Kom to the feaof Zurra, in a line, from ead 
to wed, of about 400 Britiffi miles : the breadth, from 
north to fouth, may be 230 ; but, in the latter quarter, it 
may be faid to join with the great defert of Kerman, by 
the Nauben Dejian, which extends about 350 miles. 
Thefe two extenfive deferts may thus be confidered as 
dretching north-wed and fouth-ead fora fpace of about 
700 miles, by a medial breadth of about 200, without in¬ 
cluding in the length other 200 miles of the defert of 
Mekran ; thus interfering this wide empire into two 
nearly equal portions. This vad extent is impregnated 
with nitre and other falts, which taint the neighbouring 
lakes and rivers.; but its natural hiftory has not been in- 
vedigated with theprecifion of modern knowledge. The 
defert of Karakum, -or the Black Sand, forms the north¬ 
ern boundary of Corafan and modern Perfia. The defert of 
Margiana is placed by Ptolemy on the north-wed of Aria ; 
but it is not eafy to explain his pofitions, or reconcile 
them with modern geography. D’Anville fuppofes, 
with probability, that Margiana derived its name from 
the river Margus or Morgah, in which cafe this defert 
may be in the neighbourhood of Badkis. The defert of 
Regidan extends above a hundred miles in breadth, and 
in length reaches from near lat. 23 0 . north, almod as 
high aslat. 29°. 30 7 . This is the country of which He¬ 
rodotus fpeaks, when he fays, that the eadern part of In¬ 
dia is rendered defert by fands. Through it runs the 
Caggar, which rifes in the Daniaun chain, and flows 
from the north-ead, lofing many branches in the defert 
•fands. In paffing this defert, Humaion, father of the 
great emperor Akbar, is recorded to have lod mod of 
his faithful followers. Pennant fays, “ travelling be¬ 
neath a vertical fun on burning fands, tortured with vio¬ 
lent third, and unprovided with water, they were feized 
with frenzies, burd out into piercing fereams and lamen¬ 
tations, they rolled themfelves in agonies on the parched 
foil, their tongues hung out of their mouths, and they 
expired in mod exquilite tortures. The wind fatniel, or 
angel of death, as it is called by the Arabs, paffes over 
thefe deferts, and, with its fuffocating vapour, proves 
indantly-fatal to every being it meets. The only means 
of efcape is to fall prone on the fands the moment it is 
perceived ; for, fortunately, a difcoloured (ky is a fign 
of its approach. It is frequent about Bagdad, and all 
the deferts of Arabia ; extends to the Regidan, and even 
to the neighbourhood of Surat. 
DE'SERT, adj. [ defertus, Lat.] Wild; w»:de; folita- 
ry; uninhabited; uncultivated; untilled.—He found 
him in a defert land, and in the wade howling wilder, 
nefs. Deuteronomy, xxxii. 10. - 
I have words 
That would be howl’d out in the defert air, 
Where hearing (hould not catch them. Shahejpeare. 
To 
