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 VANDAMME considered them a mixed people of Suevi, Slavs, and Celts, and others have held that they were Wends or Sarmatians ; but the best authorities classify them as a purely Germanic race, and generally as Goths. They first appeared on the northern coasts of Germany, whence they migrated S., settling in the Riesengebirge, which from them were called Vandal moun- tains, and subsequently in Pannonia and Dacia. At the beginning of the 5th century A. D. they turned west, traversed Germany, Gaul, and the Pyrenees, and about 410 settled in N. Spain by the side of the Suevi. Shortly after- ward they marched further south, and founded a powerful kingdom in ancient Baetica, which took from them its present name Andalusia (Vandalusia). In 429, under Genseric, they crossed over into Africa with a powerful fleet, and, although numbering not more than 50,000, conquered the whole of the northern coast as far as Tunis, and subsequently gained posses- sion also of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Baleares. In 455 they sacked Rome. (See GENSERIO.) Having adopted the Arian creed, they persecuted the orthodox Christians. For more than a century they maintained their power in Africa, with Carthage as capital, until it was overthrown by Belisarins, the gen- eral of the emperor Justinian, who conquered their last king Gelimer in 534. After this de- feat they disappeared from history, but some suppose that descendants of them are still to be found among some of the Berber tribes "with blue eyes and blonde hair. Many of the atrocities and cruelties of which the Vandals have been accused are probably fables. VAJTDAMME, Dominique, count, a French sol- dier,, born in Cassel, French Flanders, Nov. 5, 1770, died there, July 15, 1830. In 1788 he enlisted in a regiment at Martinique, returned to France in 1790, and in 1792 became com- mander of the Mont Cassel or Vandamme chasseurs. He distinguished himself in the army of the north (1793-'4), in that of the Rhine (l795-'7), and in most of the campaigns of the republic, the consulate, and the empire. In 1805 the emperor rewarded his services at Austerlitz with the grand cross of the legion of honor, and in 1808 he was made count. In 1809, under Davoust, he covered himself with glory at Eckmuhl. Early in 1812 he was placed in command of Westphalian troops against Rus- sia, but his differences with Jerome Bonaparte, his military superior, led to his withdrawal, and he took no part in that campaign. In March, 1813, he was restored to active service on the Elbe. After the French victory at Dresden (Aug. 27) he was ordered by the em- peror to resist Schwarzenberg's advance from Bohemia; but he was surrounded by the al- lies at Kulm, and after a bloody struggle was obliged to surrender (Aug. 30) with three other generals and 10,000 men. (See KTTLM.) He was a prisoner in Russia till September, 1814, when he returned to France, but was ordered by Louis XVIII. to remain at Cassel. On Na- VANDERBILT 257 poleon's return from Elba he was made a peer and commander of a corps, with which he con- tributed to the victory over Blucher at Ligny ; and he defeated the enemy at Wavre during the progress of the battle of Waterloo, after which he covered the retreat of the right wing of the army to Paris, and received the thanks of the chambers. Louis XVIII. banished him, and he lived in the United States till the close of 1819, when he returned home ; and in 1820 he was restored to his military rank. On Jan. 1, 1825, he retired from the army. See Le gene- ral Vandamme et sa correspondance, by Baron P. E. Albert du Casse (2 vols., Paris, 1870). VANPERBILT, Cornelius, an American capi- talist, born near the present Stapleton, Staten Island, N. Y., May 27, 1794. He was averse to education, and at the age of 16 he bought a boat with which he plied between the island and New York. At 18 he owned two boats and was captain of a third. At 19 he married, removed to New York, and bought boats, sloops, and schooners ; and at 23 he was free from debt and worth $9,000. In 1817 he assisted Thomas Gibbons in building th'e first steamboat ever run between New York and New Bruns- wick, N. J., and became captain of her at a salary of $1,000 a year. In 1818 he took com- mand of a much larger and better boat on the same line, his wife at the same time keeping the hotel at New Brunswick and making much money. In 1824 Vanderbilt had full control of the Gibbons line, and brought it up to pay- ing $40,000 a year. In 1827, while still super- intending the Philadelphia route, he leased for 14 years the ferry between New York and Elizabethport, N. J., put on new boats, and made it very profitable. In 1829 he left Gib- bons, and in the following 19 years till 1848 he built and operated steamboats on the Hudson, on Long Island sound, on the route to Boston, and on the Delaware from Bordentown to Philadelphia. He would put on new and su- perior boats in opposition to an old line, till he was bought off or drove off his competitors so that he had the monopoly and profits. In 1848-'9 he built the steamship Prometheus, in which in 1850 he sailed for the isthmus of Da- rien. He had already purchased a controlling interest in the "American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company," which projected a ca- nal across the isthmus; but for this scheme Vanderbilt substituted a transit route from Greytown at the mouth of the San Juan to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, which had the advantage over the old transit from Cha- gres to Panama of saving 700 m. between New York and San Francisco. In 1851 he put three steamers on the Atlantic side and four on the Pacific side, and went into competition with the "United States" and the "Pacific Mail" com- panies. In 1852, with three more steamers, he started a branch line from New Orleans to Greytown. In 1853 he went to Europe in his steam yacht North Star, and while he was abroad C. K. Garrison and Charles Morgan,