Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/398

378 popular vote was against him, but in tho legislature vote he secured his return by 54 to 46. Douglas paid great attention to the local affairs of Illinois, and he was the chief promoter of the Illinois Central Railroad. In he was again one of the Democratic candidates for the presidency, and received a large popular vote, but he was very feebly supported in the electoral college, On the outbreak of the civil war he denounced secession as criminal, and was one of the strongest advocates of main taining the integrity of the Union at all hazards. He delivered frequent addresses in this sense after the adjourn ment of Congress, and during his last illness he dictated a letter for publication urging all patriotic men to sustain the Union and the constitution. He died at Chicago on the 3d June.  DOUR, a town of Belgium, in the province of Hainault, nine miles south-west of Mous, to the right of the rail way from that city to Valenciennes. It owes its whole importance to its manufacturing industry, which includes iron-smelting, weaving, bleaching, and tanning, and is fostered by the existence in the vicinity of coal and iron mines. Population in, 8501.  DOUSA, [] (–), a distinguished Dutch statesman, historian, poet, and philologist, the heroic defender of Leyden, was born at Noordwyck, in the province of Holland, Decsmber 6,. Left an orphan at the age of five, he was brought up by his grandfather, after whose death an uncle took charge of him. He began his studies at Lier in Brabant, became a pupil of Henry Junius at Delft in, and thence passed successively to Louvain, Douai, and Paris. Here he studied Greek under Peter Dorat, professor at the College Royal, and became acquainted with the Chancellor L Hupital, Turnebus, Ronsard, and other eminent men. On his return to Holland in he married. His name stands in the list of nobles who in that year formed a league against Philip II.; but he does not appear to have taken any active part in public affairs till, when he was sent as head of an embassy to England. Two years later he was intrusted with the government and defence of Leyden, then besieged by the Spaniards ; and in this arduous post he displayed rare intelligence, fortitude, and practical wisdom. On the foundation of the university of Leyden by William I. of Orange, Dousa was appointed first curator, and this office he held for nearly thirty years. Through his friendships with foreign scholars he drew to Leyden many illustrious teachers and professors. After the assassination of William I. in, Dousa came privately to England to seek the aid of Queen Elizabeth, and in the following year he was sent formally for the same purpose. About the same time he was appointed keeper of the Dutch archives, and the opportunities thus afforded him of literary and historical research he turned to good account. In, being named a member of the States-General, he removed to the Hague. Heavy blows fell upon him in the deaths of his eldest son in and of his second son three years later. A bitterer trial still was the misconduct of another son. Dousa was author of several volumes of Latin verse and of philological notes on Horace, Catullus, Tibullus, Petronius Arbiter, and Plautus. But his principal work is the Annals of Holland, which first appeared in a metrical form in, and was pub lished in prose, under the title of Batavicv Hollandiceque Annales, in. This work had been begun by his eldest son. Dousa also took part, as editor or contributor, in various other publications. He died at Noordwyck, October 8,, and was interred at the Hague ; but no monument was erected to his memory until , when one of his descendants placed a tomb in his honour in the church of Noordwyck.  DOUVILLE, (–c.), a French traveller born at Hambye, in the department of Mauchc, whose asserted discoveries in Africa have in large measure been relegated to the region of romance. At an early period his imagination seems to have been fired by narratives of travel and adventure ; and accordingly, when he fell heir to a wealthy relation, he at once proceeded to gratify his desire for personal acquaintance with foreign lands. He certainly wandered far and .vide ; and, according to his own profession, he visited India, Kashmir, Khorassau, Persia, Asia Minor, and many parts of Europe. After spending some time in Paris, and being admitted a member of the Societ^ de G6ographie, he proceeded in to Brazil, with the intention apparently of carrying on scientific explorations : from this purpose, however, he was diverted by the political circumstances of the country ; and to replenish his funds he started business at Montevideo in partnership with a M. Laboissiere. Towards the close of the following year, probably in October, after a short residence at Rio Janeiro, he left Brazil for the Portuguese possessions on the west coast of Africa, where his presence in March is proved by the mention made of him in certain letters of Castillo Branco, the governor-general of Loanda. In May he reappeared in France, claiming to have pushed his explorations into the very heart of Africa, as far as the 27th degree of longitude E. of Greenwich, or, in other words, into what is now known as the great equatorial lake region. His story was readily accepted by the Societe 1 de Geographic at Paris, which hastened to recognize his services by assigning him the great gold medal, and appointing him their secretary for the year. On the publication of his narrative Voyage au Congo et dans I interieur de VAfrique cqui- noxicde which occupied four large volumes, and was accompanied by an elaborate atlas, the public enthusiasm might well run high. In company with his wife (a sister of his old Montevideau partner), and attended by about 400 native porters, the happy traveller had advanced from kingdom to kingdom rather like a monarch making a progress through his tributary states, distributing largesses and receiving homage, than like a humble adventurer defraying his expenses from his private purse. Everything went smooth for a time ; the interior of Africa was de scribed in text books and depicted in maps according to the discoveries of Douville; but in the August number of the Foreign Quarterly Review for the most sweeping charges of ignorance and fraud were launched against the author, and this attack was followed up in the If ewe des Deux Mondes for November, by Thomas Lacordairc, who asserted that, during part of the time which he claimed to have spent in Africa, Douville had been a familiar object in the streets of Rio Janeiro. The tide of popular favour turned ; and, in spite of the explanations furnished by Douville in Ma defence,, and T rente mois de ma vie, ou quinze mois avant et quinze mois apres mon voyage au Congo,, the general decision was openly against him. Mile. Audrun, a lady to whom he was about to be married, committed suicide from grief at the disgrace ; and, after vainly attempting to obtain satisfaction from Lacordaire by duel, the poor adventurer himself withdrew in to Brazil, and proceeded to make explorations in the valley of the Amazon. According to Dr Gardner, in his Travels in the Interior of Brazil, he was murdered in on the banks of the Sao Francisco for charging too high for his medical assistance. His Brazilian manuscripts fell into the hands of M. S. Rang, by whom they were transmitted to M. Ferdinand Denis. While modern exploration has done nothing to support the wider pretensions of Douville, no less an authority than Captain Burton asserts that his descriptions of the country of the Congo are life-like and 