Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/910

DARIEL. from Vladikavkaz to Titlis, and is the Porto Cau- casia of Strabo and the Duriallan of Oriental au- thors.

DA'BIEN. A city and port of entry, and the county-seat of Jlclntosh County, Uu., (iO nliles south by west of Savannah, on the Altanialia Kiver 12 miles from the ocean, and on the Darien and Western Railroad (Map: Georgia, K 4). It ex- ports large quantities of pine lumber, cross-ties, rice, fish, and garden produce. Settled in 1736, Darien was incorporated as a town in 1810, and was chartered as a city in 1818. The government is administered b' a board of five persons selected by the grand jury and confirmed by the Governor of the State, one of these five being chosen as chairman of the council and ex-officio mayor. Population, in 1890, 1491; in 1900, 1739.

DARIEN'. Aa open-mouthed gulf of the Caribbean Sea on the western part of the north coast of South America, separating the two Colombian departments of Panama and Bolivar (Map: Colombia, B 2). Its southern extension, called Gulf of Uraba, alTords good anchorage. The rainy coastland is hilly and thickly over- grown. The chief affluent is the Atrato ( q.v. ). The name Darien was also applied to the Isthmus of Panama (q.v.) and to a province in the Republic of New Granada, corresponding to the present State of Panama in Colombia. One of the earliest Spanish settlements on the mainland was in Darien, the region being then also called by the Spaniards Castilla de Oro ('the Golden Castile') and forming the best-known part of their Tierra Firme. In 1513 Balboa, Governor of the Darien settlement, crossed the Isthmus with 290 men, and on September 25 first caught sight of the Pacific.

DARIEN SCHEME. A scheme projected by William Paterson (q.v.) in 1095, for the pur- pose of forming a settlement on the Isthmus of Darien for controlling the trade between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. It was one of the most disastrous connnercial speculations in history. Nine hundred thousand pounds were q)iiekly subscribed, a large part of it by Scot- tish merchants, and in 1608 1200 colonists, re- cruited in Scotland, proceeded to the Isthmus to lay the foundations for their prospective commercial centre 'New Caledonia.' Their number was rapidly reduced, however, by starvation and disease, and in June, 1699, the survivors returned. Soon afterwards the Scotch sent' out another company, of 1300, but this like- wise was soon forced to return, and a third com- pany, which arrived in February. 1700. was al- most immediately driven away by the Spaniards. For a brief account of the enterprise, consult H. H. Bancroft, History of Central America, vol. ii. (San Francisco, 1883).

DA RIMINI, da re'me-ne, Francesca (?- 1389). A woman of extraordinary beauty, daughter of Guido Jlinora. a nobleman of Ravenna. She was married to Gianciotto Malatesta of Rimini, a dwarf, who, detecting her in criminal re- lations with his brother. Paolo, killed them both. The story has formed a favorite theme for poets. It forms the basis of one of I he most famous epi- sodes of Dante's Divina Commedia (Inf.. v.. 73- 142); Leigh Hunt wrote a poem, the .S7o)v of Rimini (1819); Silvio Pellico and D'Annunzio have each found in the tale the subject of a tragedy, and so also has the English poet Stephen Phillips (q.v.) in his Paolo and francesca.

DARI'US. The name of several Persian kings, and, like the Egjptian Pharaoh, titular and not personal. According to Herodotus (0. 98). AapEibs signifies one who. restrains; but the old Persian form, Uaruya-ra(h) us shows that it signifies upholding what is good. The most fa- mous of the name is called D.Rius 1., or D.ril>; Hystaspis, from his father's name. (See IIy.s- TASPEs.) He was born B.C. 558, and was a Per- sian and of the Achsemenian line. On the death of Cambyses (B.C. 522), he leagued himself with six other nobles to murder Smerdis the Magian, who had usurped the throne. The conspirators were successful in their plot, and Darius was chosen King. An account of these occurrences is given in the great Behistun inscription, which serves to supplement or correct the narrative of Herodotus. His position at first was very in- secure, but his caution, skill, and energj' enabled him to govern his vast dominions for thirty-si.x years. To strengthen him.self. he married the daughter of Otanes, who had been the head of the conspiracy, and likewise took three wives from the royal liousehold — viz. two daughters of Cyrus and one of (.'yrus's son. Smerdis. He then divided his empire into twenty satrapies, and determined the exact amount of the taxation to be borne by each. In some of the remoter prov- inces great confusion seems to have prevailed after the death of Smerdis the Magian: and a proof of how little Darius could efl'ect at first is afforded by the conduct of Oroetes, the Gover- nor of Sardis, who for some lime was quite defiant of his authority. The inscriptions of Darius contain the account of no fewer than nine or ten rebellions against his sway. Babylon also revolted, and Darius besieged the city un- successfully for two years. At last, however, it was taken by an extraordinary stratagem of his general, Zopyrus (510). It is more likely, however, that the account of the conquest of Babylon, as given by Herodotus ( 3, 150 ), belongs to the first siege of the cit.y. In the year B.C. 514 Darius is thought to have begun the great rock inscription of Behistun, which records the events of bis reign. In 513 Darius, with an army of 700.000, crossed the Bosporus by a bridge of boats, marched to the mouths of the Danube, crossed the river, and advanced against the Scythians. The expedition proved a failure. Darius retreated, but detached from his main force an army of 80,000 men, under Megabyzus. to conquer Thrace, while he himself returned to Asia, whence he extended his authority in the east as far as the Indus. About 501 B.C. the Ionian cities rose in revolt against Persian do- minion. They were unsuccessful, the final vic- tory of the Persians being achieved in the naval battle at Lade and the taking of ililetus (494). The assistance given by the Athenians and Ere- trians to the lonians. and the part which they had taken in the burning of Sardis, determined Darius, who was also influenced thereto by the banished Hippias, to attempt the subjugation of the whole of Greece. In 492 he sent Mardonius with an army into Thrace and Macedonia, and at the same time dispatched a fleet against the islands. The former was routed by the Rrygi in Tlu"ace, the latter was shattered and dispersed hv a storm when rounding the promontory of Mount