text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/499

 ex-Uitlanders held 26 seats in the Transvaal parliament, and were able to exercise an effective influence over legislation.

Both the war of 1899–1902 and the grant of self-government to the new colonies were necessary preliminaries to the success of any unification scheme, but the causes which now led to the question of closer union being raised were not political but economic. Since the development of the diamond and gold mining industries the coast colonies had unduly neglected their own resources and had relied chiefly on the forwarding trade. Hence there was jealousy and competition between the Cape and Natal and a tendency to use the railways (which were state owned), by means of rebates, to counteract the effects of common customs dues. Then, too, an increasingly important factor was the competition of Lourenço Marques for the Rand trade. In a time of acute trade depression this commercial rivalry was disastrous to the welfare of South Africa. In March 1906 the customs convention was provisionally renewed (on a strongly protective basis, and with preference for British goods) but there was a distinct prospect of a tariff war when the convention expired in 1908. Again it was known that the Transvaal and Orange River colonies on their attainment of self-government would each demand full control of their own resources, to the detriment of the unitary services which Lord Milner had established. There were, moreover, dangerous differences on such questions as Asiatic immigration, the status of natives, mining, agriculture, &c. Thus the antagonism between the various states on economic lines was at the end of 1906 greater than any racial divisions. The leading South African statesmen realized that unless an effort to remedy this condition was made without delay affairs would go from bad to worse. In these circumstances Dr Jameson, as premier of Cape Colony, took the first overt step to reopening the question of federation. In a minute dated the 28th of November 1906 the Cape ministry declared its belief that the questions which were causing so much friction should be capable of solution “by some duly constituted South African authority responsible to all parties in the country,” and it appealed to Lord Selborne, as high commissioner, to review the situation in such a manner that the people of South Africa might form a competent judgment on the question. In answer to this appeal, which was backed by the Natal ministry, Lord Selborne drew up a despatch (dated Jan. 7, 1907) in which the whole case for closer union was set forth in a masterly manner. For insight and breadth of view the despatch ranks with that which Sir George Grey drew up in 1858. In the fifty years that had elapsed the case for closer union had become overwhelming and the dangers of isolation much greater. Four or five administrations, the despatch pointed out, were pursuing rival interests, whereas the country had but one interest. Reviewing one by one the questions on which rivalry existed, Lord Selborne showed that the internal self-government which each colony enjoyed accentuated the difficulty of dealing with these questions as a whole. Stability—the thing which South Africa required above everything else—was unattainable so long as there were five separate governments developing different systems in all branches of public life, but no national government with power to harmonize the whole. “The people of South Africa … are not self-governing in respect to South African affairs because they have no South African government with which to govern.” Only by the creation of a central government could South Africa be wisely and successfully governed.

The opportunity for testing the strength of the movement for closer union came with the meeting of an inter-colonial conference in May 1908 to consider the thorny questions of tariff and railway rates. In the meantime the Jameson ministry had given place to the Bond nominee ministry with Mr Merriman as premier (see : History), but the movement initiated by Jameson had received the support of the Bond as well as that of the Botha administration. The delegates at the conference were all representative of the parties in power; that is, with the exception of the Natal delegates, they all represented Dutch ideals in politics. Nevertheless they unanimously resolved “that the best interests and the permanent prosperity of South Africa can only be secured by an early union, under the crown of Great Britain, of the several self-governing colonies,” and they recommended the calling of a national convention entrusted with the task of drawing up a draft constitution. Thus for the first time for two generations both the chief white races of South Africa were found working in cordial cooperation. No appeal was made to the electorate, but the colonial parliaments rightly interpreted public opinion in endorsing the recommendations of the conference. Delegates representative of all parties were appointed, and the national convention to consider the question of union met at Durban in October 1908.

The most prominent members of the convention were Sir Henry de Villiers, chief justice of Cape Colony (president), ex-President Steyn (vice-president), Generals Botha, de Wet and Delarey, Messrs Smuts, Schalk Burger, Merriman and F. R. Moor (premier of Natal), Dr Jameson, Sir George Farrar and Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, the last two the leading representatives of the Transvaal Progressives (i.e. the ex-Uitlanders). The greatness of the opportunity was rightly stated by the governor of Natal (Sir Matthew Nathan), who declared that the convention might create a commonwealth which should add to and not draw upon the strength of the empire—a commonwealth which in culture as in power would be among the foremost nations of the world. After sitting at Durban for a month, the convention adjourned to Cape Town and concluded its elaboration of a draft constitution by February 1909. The fundamental points which the delegates had to settle concerned (a) the basis of parliamentary representation, (b) the status of the natives with respect to the franchise, (c) the position of the Dutch language, (d) the form of government.

The adjustment of tariff and railway rates gave little trouble when once it was agreed to consider the country as a unit. Points (a) and (b) both concerned the franchise, but each had its separate issue (a) raising the question of representation as it concerned the white population only. Suspicions had been raised that the attempt would be made to force union on a Dutch Afrikander basis, which might have resulted had the basis of representation adopted been the total European population. To this the Progressive party would not agree, and they gained support from Botha, Smuts and other prominent Dutch delegates for their contention that “equal rights” could only be secured by making the basis of representation the number of voters as distinct from the number of European inhabitants of any given area. As finally settled, the number of European male adults was chosen as the basis of representation. As the Transvaal and Orange colonies already possessed manhood suffrage, and as the property qualifications in the coast colonies were low, this alteration made little difference. Point (b) raised a graver issue still. The Cape delegates found themselves in isolation in advocating the extension of the electoral system which prevailed in their colony, where there was no colour bar to the exercise of the franchise. The merits of the Cape system—to minimize the differences between the white and native races, typified in the declaration of “equal rights to all civilized men”—or that of the opposite system (as warmly advocated by the Natal delegates as by those from the ex-Boer republics), which would keep the native races in permanent inferiority, cannot here be discussed; it may be stated, however, that the admittance of Kaffirs to the franchise in the Cape had not been attended with the evil consequences feared. At the convention a way out of the difficulty—for a time at least—was found in a compromise, namely, that in the state about to be created the franchise in each constituent part should be that which existed before union was effected. Thus in the Cape the Kaffir would have a right to the franchise, but not in the other divisions of the country. Point (c) was decided by placing, for all official purposes, the English and Dutch languages on a footing of perfect equality. As to point (d) the

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/499


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/70

Rh

the night was nearly elapsed and that Roland had long with-drawn with his troop into the distance, the little escorting band of Camisards was suddenly surprised, out of an ambush, by a considerable multitude of royalists. It was in the direction to Florac, where Vila with his friend had intended to seek a place of refuge, which he deemed safe. The confusion was general, and it seemed, that the destruction of the little troop of Camisards, as well as that of the travellers, was absolutely inevitable. During the firing and cries, Vila sprang from the carriage with pistols in his hand, and the Counsellor of Parliament followed him, without knowing clearly what was going to happen. By the grey light of the

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/71

Rh morning it was discovered that the attack was given from a valley lying sideways; the travellers were on the heights. The Counsellor of Parliament, who had quitted the carriage the last, saw immediately, that all were engaged in a mélée, the royalists seemed to give way, when a second troop rushed out of the underwood of whom it was difficult to decide whether they were soldiers, or rebels. Before however the Counsellor was able to gain any certainty, or to form any resolution, the coachman laid hold of him, pressed him urgently to get into the carriage, and as he saw the old man’s hesitation, he lifted him into it almost forcibly. "Better without the master, than to perish here with him, he will soon find us again," cried he in the utmost anxiety, and whipped the horses, so that they started off snorting in full gallop over hill and dale. After sometime the Lord of Beauvais recovered his recollection and with much argument and dispute, he compelled the obstinate man to stand still again. On


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/177

THE DESERT CAPITAL some Latin, in addition, of course, to her native Aramean. She drew up for her own use an epitome of history, delighted in reading Homer and Plato, and beguiled her leisure by discussing philosophy with the famous scholar Longinus, whom she persuaded to take up a permanent residence at her court.

Her physical endurance was remarkable. While her husband was living, she was accustomed to accompany him on his hunting expeditions. After the death of Odenathus, she habitually rode at the head of her armies on a fiery stallion, from which, however, she would often dismount, so that she might share the fatigue of the march with the common soldiers. It is no wonder that such a leader—beautiful, pure, brave, queenly yet friendly—inspired in her armies an intense personal loyalty and an unquestioning assent to her most daring plans. Without a murmur they followed their beloved queen into the fearful struggle with the world-empire.

At the very beginning of her reign, she threw down the gauntlet to Rome. The sway of Palmyra already extended over Armenia and Mesopotamia. An army of 70,000 men now defeated the Roman legions by the Nile and annexed Egypt. Zenobia next pushed her victorious banners northward to the very shores of the Bosphorus. When the newly elected emperor Aurelian insisted that she should formally acknowledge his sovereignty, her answer [ 135 ]


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/233

N the Second Part of Henry IV, Shakespeare makes his hero, Prince Hal, behave with splendid generosity to Judge Gascoigne, who had committed him to prison for striking him in open court.

The King says to him:—

The Chief Justice replies:—

Shakespeare makes King Henry V recognize that Gascoigne was in the right.

But here Shakespeare has not been true to history. His ideal king was not so generous as he represented him. In fact, directly on his accession Henry displaced 181


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/72

Rh the summit of a mountain, from whence they could overlook the whole surrounding country, they awaited the one, who had remained behind. Of the combat nothing more was to be discovered: it seemed as if far in the distance a band of fugitives was flying; but nothing could be clearly distinguished. At length they espied two riders emerge from a copse, who pursued the same road. They approached nearer and the doctor was now seen waving a handkerchief and working his way up to the summit, mounted on a little horse. A young lad with his head bound up was following him. "You did well," cried he, when he arrived at the top, "to retreat immediately at the commencement of the battle; that is dull, insipid business, which does not suit us civilians."

"There Martin, for such is your name, take the nag again to yourself and do what you will with him." With these words he dismounted, and betook himself to the carriage, where he was first obliged to


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/73

Rh listen to many self-praises from his coachman, who wished to appropriate to himself the whole credit of this clever retreat, and on account of whose over-haste, the Lord of Beauvais abashed, entreated the pardon of his old friend. "It was no over-haste," cried Vila, "but the most prudent that could have occurred, I ought to have remained sitting in the carriage, for my little bit of firing was like a drop in the stream compared to the bravery of the Camisards; with them none of us can engage. These knaves understand no reason, whether balls fly, or swords glitter, it is to them mere pastime, and the smallest boys, who are scarcely weaned from their mother’s breast, are just as much infatuated with this devilry as any of the oldest grey beards. I have seen that, for once quite close, which I could not have believed by hearsay; but now that I have witnessed it, it is enough for the rest of my life."

They stopped at a lonely inn to refresh the horses, and while they were enjoying their breakfast the doctor proceeded to relate


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/234

182 Gascoigne from the Chief-Justiceship, and elevated to his place the Devonshire lawyer Sir William Hankford, Knight of the Bath.

Prince, indeed, in his Worthies of Devon, claims that it was Hankford who committed Prince Hal to prison; but this is a mistake, the brave and resolute judge was Sir William Gascoigne, who was displaced, and Sir William Hankford installed as Chief Justice in his room by Henry V eight days after his accession.

Sir William was probably born at Hankford, the ancient seat of the family, in the hamlet of Bulkworthy, a chapel-of-ease to Buckland Brewer. He was made Serjeant-at-law in 1391 in the reign of Richard II, and was advanced to be one of the lords-justices in the Court of Common Pleas in 1397. He was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry IV, and, as already said, he was called up higher to be Chief Justice by Henry V on his accession to the throne. He retained his office for part of a year under Henry VI, so that he served under four kings. He moved from Hankford, the family seat, to Annery, in the parish of Monkleigh, near Great Torrington, a beautiful spot on the Torridge. Here he had a stately mansion "famous for a large upper gallery, wherein might be placed thirty standing beds, fifteen of a side, and yet not one to be seen there. Nor could you from one bed see another: for this gallery being very long and wainscotted on each hand, there were several doors in it, which led into little alcoves or apartments, well plaistered and whited, large and convenient enough for private lodgings."

Annery still stands in its beautiful park, but the gallery has disappeared; it was pulled down in the year 1800.

Towards the end of his days Hankford fell into deep


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/74

Rh the sequel of the event to his old friend. "How fortuuate," he commenced, "that you were not present at our battle, for only think, your Edmond continued to accompany us, he would not be dissuaded from attending in person to your safety. When the scene now opened he was ever foremost. There was a young lad, who then came forward. 'From whence come you?' shouted the Camisards.—'What’s that to you,' answered the impudent fellow.—'You are a traitor.'—'Wherefore insult,' cried the little man, 'honest people act not thus.'—'Hew him down!' cried another.—'Hew me down;' said the hop of my thumb, 'when I would sacrifice my life for you.'—'Who art thou?' was again reiterated.—'My name is Martin, further it is not necessary for you to know.'—Inquiry was cut short by firing and hewing down. It came near me, and I felt a goose-skin all over my body. I had already spent my powder without, perhaps, having hit any one, when the gigantic Lacoste took compassion


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van der Vaart, Jan


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van de Velde, Willem (1610-1693)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van de Velde, Willem (1633-1707)


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/75

Rh on my trouble, and hewed down the knaves together as if they had been merely poppy heads. But Edmond who tried to cut his way through to me, got into a desperate mélée. Two dragoons fell upon him, and struck furiously; but before they were able to hit, behold, my dear friend—the little rascal Martin, cut down one of them from his horse, and shot the other at the same moment almost through the breast, as if the urchin had been accustomed to nothing else all his life long. The stout Lacoste, the dog as he styles himself, was not tardy either, and your son lost neither courage nor strength; the Camisards were like so many devils, and thus those of the true faith were obliged to leave the field to us, on which a great number of their friends remained lying.—I could not discern my poor, dear son; he may very likely have gone with the main body of the troops; if they have not already slain, or taken him prisoner."

"And Martin! the boy, of whom you spoke, who so valiantly saved my son’s life?" inquired the Lord of Beauvais.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Diest, Adriaen


text: Page:Short History of Paper Money and Banking.djvu/4


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Dyck, Anthony


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vandyke, Peter


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Frances Anne


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/235

Rh fits of depression in retirement at Annery, where, weary of life and despondent at the prospect of the new reign with an infant as king, and with furious rivalries ready to break forth and tear the kingdom to pieces, he was impatient that death might end his troubles.

"On a fit time for the purpose, he called to him the keeper of his park, which adjoined his house at Annery, and charged him with negligence in his office, suffering his deer to be killed and stolen; whereupon he left it in strict charge with him, that he should be more careful in his rounds by night, and that if he met any one in his walk that would not stand and speak, he should shoot him, whoever he was, and that he would discharge him (i.e. free him of blame). This the keeper directly promised, and too faithfully performed. The judge having thus laid the design, meaning to end his doleful days, in a dark tempestuous night, fit for so black an action, secretly conveyed himself out of the house, and walked alone in his park, just in the keeper's way; who being then in his round, hearing somebody coming towards him, demanded, Who was there. No answer being made, he required him to stand; the which when he refused to do, the keeper shot and killed him upon the place: and coming to see who he was, found him to be his master."

So relates Prince, following Baker's Chronicle, 1643, and Risdon and Westcote. But Sir Richard Baker's account is full of errors: he makes Hankford die in the reign of Edward IV, whereas he died in the same year as Henry V (1422). Prince objects that the story may not be true or only partly true. That Sir William was killed by his keeper is a fact not to be disputed, but that he purposely contrived his own death is very doubtful—it is a conjecture and no more.

Sir William was a liberal and religious man: he built


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/76

Rh "Martin;" cried the doctor aloud: "where then do you hide yourself? yes, that’s true indeed, you are both indebted to the stripling. He wore, when he entered, a thick handkerchief round his head, it may have been from a blow that reached him; after he had rescued your son, he received a right deep cut in the head again from a sabre, so that a stream of blood gushed out. As if for a change, he wiped his nose and without ceremony bound a second turban over the first, though he turned ghastly pale from it.—Martin! Where then is the rascal!" But there was no one to answer his call. "Thus is it with foolish youth," said the doctor vexedly: "he has misunderstood me about taking back the horse, and in his simplicity returned immediately. Poor youth! I trust no fever may be added to it."

"It would make me miserable," said the Counsellor, "if I should not be able to testify my thanks to the dear boy. If I were pursuaded that he was suffering, ill,


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Henry (1589-1655)


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/500

 issue was between a federal and a unitary form of government. Federation was supposed to afford protection to the smaller communities—Natal and the Orange River Colony—and in Natal there was much anxiety lest its interests should be overborne. Nevertheless the advocates of unification gained a complete victory and a form of government was agreed to which made the union of South Africa as close as that of the United Kingdom.

Among the other decisions of the convention were: the choice of Pretoria as the seat of administration and of Cape Town as the seat of the legislature, the renaming the Orange River Colony, Orange Free State Province; the provision of three membered constituencies and of proportional representation and the safe-guarding of the smaller communities by giving Natal and the Orange River colonies more members of parliament than they were entitled to on the voters basis.

The draft constitution was made public on the 9th of February 1909, and was adopted by the Transvaal parliament in its entirety. The Orange River parliament also approved with only slight alterations; the Natal parliament made some amendments, but they were of a minor character. The opposition to union among an influential number of old Natalians—intensely zealous for local independence—was however so marked that it was decided that before Natal was committed to union a referendum on the subject should be taken. Apart from this doubtful attitude of Natal, the chief danger to the draft constitution came from the Cape Dutch. The draft act, with its “one vote one value” principle, its three-membered constituencies and its scheme for proportional representation, threatened Dutch supremacy in the rural districts, and aroused the opposition of Hofmeyr, who secured the passage of amendments through the Cape parliament which destroyed the principle of equal rights. Such was the position when the convention reassembled in May at Bloemfontein to consider the amendment of the various legislatures. Through the firmness of the Transvaal delegates, supported by the Progressives, the principle of equal rights was retained; the concession made to the Cape was the abandonment of proportional representation, while one-membered constituencies were substituted for three-membered constituencies. The document embodying the alterations in the draft act was signed on the 11th of May and the convention dissolved. In June the referendum on union was taken in Natal, and resulted in a complete rout of the separatists. There voted, for the draft act 11,121, against it 3701—majority for union 7420.

South Africans had thus after seventy years of discord agreed upon union. It was a momentous step, the essential preliminary to that fusion of the white races of South Africa upon which the prosperity of the country depends; and a step rendering easier the ultimate attainment of imperial union. A delegation carried the draft act to England, and, recast in the form of an imperial bill, it was submitted to the parliament at Westminster. The imperial government made but one alteration of consequence—that explicitly placing the control and administration of matters “specially or differentially affecting Asiatics” in the sole control of the union parliament. The bill passed through parliament unaltered, the only jarring note in the debates in either house concerning the exclusion of natives from the franchise (save in the Cape province). This decision was deplored by all parties in the British parliament, but it was recognized that to alter a decision deliberately come to by South African statesmen would wreck the union. The measure, known as the South Africa Act 1909 received the Royal Assent on the 20th of September, and subsequently the 31st of May 1910—the eighth anniversary of the signing of the articles of peace at Pretoria—was fixed as the date for the formal establishment of the Union.

The interval between the passing of the South Africa Act and the establishment of union was employed by the various colonies in putting their houses in order. This task, on the economic side, was rendered easier by the gradual return of commercial prosperity. An agreement between the Transvaal and the Portuguese governments, concluded in April 1909, while the fate of the draft constitution was still in doubt, assigned to Lourenço Marques 50 to 55% of the import trade to the Rand, and (with certain exceptions) provided for free trade in native products between the Mozambique province and the Transvaal. The Portuguese further agreed to facilitate the recruitment of natives in their territory for work in the Rand mines, and in consequence Kaffirs were obtained in sufficient numbers to replace the Chinese coolies as they were repatriated. The agreement was to last ten years, and provision was made for its recognition by the government of the Union. The native protectorates, Basutoland, Swaziland and Bechuanaland had been left by the South Africa Act under direct imperial control. As to Natal and Zululand, there was a disposition to leave to the new government the task of dealing with the natives there but both the Transvaal and Natal adopted an Asiatic exclusion policy which gave rise to much friction. In the Orange River Colony, General Hertzog aroused much opposition by administering the education act in a way which forced the teaching of Dutch in a rather arbitrary fashion. This was a point of importance, inasmuch as, by the Act of Union, elementary education was left (for five years) in the hands of the provinces. The divergence of views was so great that shortly after the union had been established private schools were opened in opposition to those of the provincial administration.

In the autumn of 1909 it became known that Lord Selborne, whose services in bringing about the union were generally recognized, would not remain to represent the Crown in inaugurating the new form of government, and the choice of the British government fell on the home secretary, Mr Herbert Gladstone (who was in March 1910 created Viscount Gladstone of Lanark) as first governor-general of the Union. Lord Gladstone had the responsibility of summoning the first prime minister of the Union—a task rendered more difficult as the decision had to be taken before the first election to the Union parliament was held. There had been a strong agitation for a coalition cabinet, and negotiations took place to this end between General Botha and Dr Jameson. These efforts ended in failure. They had met with the determined opposition of Mr Merriman (the Cape premier), of the Orange Free State Boers, and of the Bond, which had lost the counsel of Hofmeyr. That typical leader of the Cape Afrikanders had died in London, whither he had gone as one of the delegates to lay the draft constitution before the British parliament. Towards the end of May, Lord Gladstone called upon General Botha to form a ministry, which was constituted from the ranks of the existing cabinets and included Natal ministers as well as strong Boer partisans like Mr Fischer and General Hertzog. Mr Merriman declined to serve under General Botha. The formal proclamation of the Union took place on the 31st of May.

The first general election, held on the 15th of September, was, perhaps inevitably, fought to a large extent on racial lines. The Dutch Afrikander candidates stood as “Nationalists,” while their opponents took the name of Unionists. In Natal the British section of the electorate (four-fifths of the whole) preferred to maintain an independent attitude. The elections, which resulted in a Nationalist majority of 13 over all other parties, showed that the Unionists were stronger than had been thought. They secured 37 seats, while 13 were held by Natal Independents. The polls were remarkable for the defeat of three ministers—General Botha (by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick) at Pretoria East, Mr Hull (by Sir George Farrar) on the Rand, and Mr Moor in Natal. General Botha decided to retain office, and seats for him and Mr Hull were found by means of by-elections. Mr Moor was nominated to the senate, as were, among others, Mr W. P. Schreiner and ex-President Reitz (who became president of that body). On the 4th of November the first session of the Union Parliament was opened by the duke of Connaught.

—I. General descriptions, travel and exploration. Besides the works of De la Caille, Le Vaillaint, Thunberg, Barrow, Lichtenstein, Burchell and others quoted in, § Bibliography, see Sir J. E. Alexander, An Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa (2 vols., 1838); R. Moffat, Missionary Labours and Scenes in S. Africa (1842); Sir F. Galton, The Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa (1853); C. I. Anderson, Lake Ngami … Wanderings in the Wilds of South-Western Africa (1856); David

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/500


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Attempt

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Attempt


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Henry (1613-1662)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, Thomas


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vane, William Harry


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Haecken, Joseph


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Huysum, Jacob


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/77

Rh, or dying, I should weep tears of blood."

"It will not turn out so bad as that," muttered Vila chagrined: "Why should the oaf run off thus, as if—Aye! Aye! at least I would have bound up his wounds for him. But now, the devil will not catch him directly. Such Camisard webs are usually formed of very tough materials."

They were compelled to proceed again, in order to reach with safety the solitary village in the mountain heights. "You must know," said the doctor, when they were again seated in the coach, "that it is merely to an old maidservant of mine I am now conducting you, a simple person, who served me long, but who is, however, so faithful and honest, that it is almost a scandal, what perhaps many free thinking exquisites would say of her. She has married a gardener, or peasant, who also plays the surgeon in the mountains. There you will pass for an old invalid cousin, whose house and farm the Camisards have set fire


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vankoughnet, Philip Michael Scott


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Laun, Henri


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Leemput, Remigius


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/236

184 the chapel at Bulkworthy, as well as the Annery Aisle to Monkleigh Church. In this latter he lies interred, and a noble monument was erected over him, with the epitaph: "Hie jacet Willielmus Hankford, Miles, quondam Capitalis Justiciarius Domini Regis de Banco, qui obiit xx die mensis Decembris, Anno Domini MCCCCXXII. Cujus Animae propicietur Deus. Amen."

He is represented kneeling in his robes alongside of his wife. Out of his mouth proceeds this prayer: "Miserere mei Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam." A book in his hand is inscribed with "Miserere mei Deus secundum magnam justiciam divinam," and over his head is "Beati qui custodiunt judicium et faciunt justiciam omni tempore."


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Lemens, Balthasar


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Mildert, William


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/78

Rh to; you will find your daughter there already, the intelligent child however must not betray you; the husband and wife would suffer themselves to be torn to pieces rather than give out any thing else of you. If you will but sit half an hour in the room with Barbara, she herself will take you for her cousin, and there will be no further necessity for lying. That is why such things often succeed better in this class than in a higher one: education they have none, but they possess the proper capacity for belief. Only lose not courage yourself, and in that solitude there do not become a timid hare’s foot. All may yet be well." With these and similar conversations they, at length, arrived in the afternoon at the village in the centre of the mountains. The houses lay dispersed midway, or above the declivity of the mountain; each had a garden and shrubbery attached to it, and the church situated on the highest point, looked down on the lowly cottages. The little dwelling, after which


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/501

 Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857); W. E. Oswell, William Cotton Oswell, Hunter and Explorer (2 vols., 1900); T. Baines, Explorations in South-West Africa (1864); K. Mauch, Reisen im Inneren von Süd-Afrika, 1865–1872 (Gotha, 1874); E. Holub (Eng. trans. E. E. Frewer), Seven Years in South Africa, Travels … between the Diamond-fields and the Zambesi, 1872–1879 (1881); E. Manheimer, Du Cap au Zambèse (Geneva, 1884); G. Fritsch, Südafrika bis zum Zambesi (1885); H. Blink, Aardrijksunde van Zuid-Afrika (2 vols., Amsterdam, 1889); F. C. Selous, Travel and Adventure in South East Africa (1893); E. & O. Reclus, L’Afrique australe (Paris, 1901); A. H. Keane, Africa, vol. ii., South Africa (new ed., 1904); W. Kültz, Deutsch-Südafrika im 25ten Jahre deutscher Schutzherrschaft (Berlin, 1909); A. S. & G. G. Brown, The Guide to South Africa (yearly).

II. Geography (physical), geology, Climate, flora and fauna.—Sir C. P. Lucas and H. E. Egerton, Geography of South and East Africa (Oxford, 1904); W. P. Greswell, Geography of Africa South of the Zambesi (Oxford, 1892); S. Passarge, Südafrika, eine Landes- Volks- und Wirtschaftskunde (Leipzig, 1908); J. C. Brown, The Water Supply of South Africa (Edinburgh, 1877); Sir W. Willcocks, Report on Irrigation in South Africa (1901); Proceedings 1st South African Irrigation Congress (Cape Town, 1909); R. Marloth, Das Kapland, insonderheit das Reich der Kapflora, das Waldgebiet und die Karroo, pflanzengeographisch dargestellt (Jena, 1908); F. H. Hatch & G. S. Corstorphine, The Geology of South Africa (2nd ed., 1909); ''Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Africa (Cape Town); W. Flint and J. D. F. Gilchrist (eds.), Science in South Africa (Cape Town, 1905); Reports of the S. A. Assoc. for Advancement of Science (Johannesburg); J. D. F. Gilchrist (ed.), Marine Investigations in S. Africa (3 vols., Cape Town, 1902–1905); Sir David Gill, Report on the Geodetic Survey of South Africa (3 vols., Cape Town, 1896–1905); W. C. Scholtz, The South African Climate … the Country as a Health Resort (1897); W. T. Thiselton-Dyer (ed.), Flora Capensis'', vols. i.–vii. (1896–1900); H. Harvey, The Genera of South African Plants, 2nd ed., edited by Sir J. D. Hooker (Cape Town, 1868); G. Henslow, South African Flowering Plants (1903); W. L. Sclater, The Fauna of South Africa (4 vols., 1900–1901); F. Le Valliant, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique (6 vols., Paris, 1805–1808); F. L. Layard and R. Bowdler Sharpe, The Birds of South Africa (1875–1884); R. Trimen, Rhopalocera Africae australis; a Catalogue of South African Butterflies (Cape Town, 1862); R. Trimen and J. H. Bowker, South African Butterflies, a Monograph of the Extra-Tropical Species (3 vols., 1887–1889); G. B. Sowerby, Marine Shells of S. Africa (1892–1897); R. Trimen, Insect Life in South Africa (Cape Town, 1869); E. E. Austen, A Monograph of the Tsetse Flies (1903); J. A. Nicolls and W. Eglinton, The Sportsman in South Africa (1892); The following books are specially noteworthy for their accounts of the larger wild animals: Sir W. C. Harris, The Wild Sports of Southern Africa … Narrative of an Expedition … during 1836 and 1837 from the Cape … to the Tropic of Capricorn (Bombay, 1838; 5th ed., London, 1857); R. Gordon-Cumming, Five Years of a Hunter’s Life in the Far Interior of South Africa (2 vols., 1855); F. C. Selous, A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa (1st ed. 1881; 5th ed., 1907), and African Nature Notes and Reminiscences (1908); H. A. Bryden, Nature and Sport in South Africa (1897); P. Selous and H. A. Bryden, Travel and Big Game (1897).

III. Ethnology, archaeology, art and languages (see also works cited under racial headings and ). G. Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Südafrikas (Breslau, 1872); G. W. Stow, The Native Races of South Africa (1905); W. H. Bleek, A Brief Account of Bushman Folk-lore and other Texts (1875); D. Kidd, The Essential Kafir (1904); Savage Childhood (1906), and Kafir Socialism and the Dawn of Individualism (1908); J. P. Johnson, Stone Implements of S. Africa (1907), Pre-Historic Period in S. Africa (1910); A. P. Hillier, Antiquity of Man in S. Africa (1898); Bushman Paintings, copied by M. Helen Tongue, preface by Henry Balfour (Oxford, 1909), reproductions in colours; D. Randall-Maclver, Medieval Rhodesia (1906); R. N. Hall, Prehistoric Rhodesia (1909); A. H. Keane, The Gold of Ophir (1901); C. Peters, The Eldorado of the Ancients (1902); W. H. Bleek, Comparative Grammar of the South African Languages (1862–1869); J. Torrend, A Comparative Grammar of the South African Bantu Languages (1891); A. C. Madan, An Outline Dictionary intended as an Aid to the Study of the Languages of the Bantu and other Uncivilized Races (1905); C. Meinhof, Die Sprache der Herero, a grammar and vocabulary (Berlin, 1909); G. M. G. Hunt, English-Afrikander: Afrikander-English (1901); W. K. Viljoen, Beiträge zur Geschichte der cap-holländischen Sprache (Strassburg, 1896); D. C. Hesseling, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der nederlandsche taal in Zuid-Afrika (Leiden, 1899); H. Effers, Practische hollandsche Spraakkunst (Cape Town, 1894), and Elementary Grammar of the Dutch Language (Cape Town, 1898).

IV. History and Politics. (i.) Sources.—The Cape archives are full and complete from 1652 onward. Selections from them have been published by H. C. V. Leibbrandt and G. McCall Theal; the last named has also published records of the Cape from MSS. in the Record Office, London (see : § Bibliography). See Theal’s Records of South East Africa, (9 vols., 1897–1904); The Record … Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, parts 1 to 5 (1649–1809), edited by Donald Moodie, late Protector of Slaves (Cape Town, 1838), the same writer’s The Evidence of the Motives and Objects of the Bushman Wars, 1769–77, &c. (Cape Town, 1841); also Treaties with Native Chiefs … entered into by … British Authorities … between 1803 and 1854 (Cape Blue Book, 1857); Engagements subsisting between (Great Britain) and any States or Native Tribes in S. Africa (British Parliamentary Paper, 1884); A. N. Macfayden, South African Treaties … subsisting on the 1st of Sept. 1898 (Cape Blue Book, 1898) and Hertslet’s Map of Africa by Treaty (1909 ed.). Lists of the British Parliamentary papers concerning South Africa will be found in the Colonial Office List (yearly). The Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State official publications should also be consulted. (ii.) Histories.—G. McCall Theal, History and Ethnography of Africa south of the Zambesi from … 1505 to … 1795 (3 vols., 1907–1910) and History of South Africa since Sept. 1795 (5 vols., 1908); these two series represent the final form of Dr Theal’s history (valuable bibliographies), but the main narrative is not carried beyond 1872; Sir C. P. Lucas, The History of South Africa to the Jameson Raid (Oxford, 1899); Frank R. Cana, South Africa from the Great Trek to the Union (1909), a political history covering the period 1836–1909, with bibliography; P. Wlast, Südafrika; Entwicklungsgeschichte und Gegenwartsbilder (Berlin, 1900); De Geskidenis von ons Land (Paarl, 1895); W. Greswell, Our South African Empire (2 vols., 1885). For special studies see: H. P. Retief, Datums van Gebeurtenissen uit de Geschiedenis van Zuid Afrika van 1486 to 1895 (Paarl, 1895); H. Dehérain, Cap de Bonne Espérance au XVIIe siecle (Paris, 1909), and L’Expansion des Boers au XIXe siecle (Paris, 1905); J. Bird, Annals of Natal, 1495–1845 (2 vols., Maritzburg, 1888); C. de Mello, Os Inglezes na Africa austral (Lisbon, 1890); E. B. Watermeyer, Three Lectures on the Cape of Good Hope under the Gdvernment of the Dutch East India Co. (Cape Town, 1857); Selections from the Writings of Watermeyer (Cape Town, 1877); H. Cloeté, Five Lectures on the Emigration of the Dutch Farmers to Natal (Cape Town, 1856), republished in London (1899), as The Great Boer Trek; J. Noble, A Short History of the European Settlements at the Cape (1877); G. E. Cory, The Rise of South Africa … to 1857, deals with eastern Cape Colony (4 vols., 1910 sqq.); J. C. Voight, Fifty Years of the History of the Republic in South Africa [1795–1845] (2 vols., 1899); J. Cappon, Britain’s Title in S. Africa (1901); J. Nixon, The Complete Story of the Transvaal (1885); H. Rider Haggard, Cetywayo and his White Neighbours (1882); W. J. Leyds, The First Annexation of the Transvaal (1906); Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, The Transvaal from Within (1899); F. E. Garrett and E. J. Edwards, The Story of an African Crisis [the Jameson Raid] (1897); A. Wilmot, The History of Our Own Times in South Africa [1872–1898] (3 vols., 1897–1899); P. F. Hone, Southern Rhodesia (1909); Rev. J. Philip, Researches in S. Africa, illustrating … the condition of the Native Tribes (2 vols., 1828); South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903–1905, Reports and minutes of evidence (5 vols., Cape Town, 1904–1905); Sir Godfrey Lagden, The Basutos (1909); “The Times” History of the War [of 1899–1902] in South Africa (7 vols., 1900–1909); British Official History of the War in South Africa (4 vols., 1906–1910). (iii.) Lives.—Valuable historical information will be found in the Lives of W. E. Gladstone, the 2nd Earl Granville, Sir Harry Smith, Sir George Grey, Sir Bartle Frere, Sir G. Pomeroy-Colley, Cecil Rhodes, Paul Kruger and Lord Milner. See also P. A. Molteno, Life and Times of Sir J. C. Molteno (2 vols. 1900); A. Wilmot, The Life and Times of Sir Richard Southey (1904); Sir J. Robinson, A Life Time in South Africa (1900); W. D. Mackenzie, John Mackenzie (1902); Coillard of the Zambesi (1907). (iv.) Miscellaneous.—E. A. Pratt, Leading Points in South African History 1486 to March 30th 1900 (1900); J. A. Froude, Two Lectures on South Africa (new ed., 1900); J. Bryce, Impressions of South Africa (2nd ed., 1899); A. R. Colquhoun, The Afrikander Land (1906); A. P. Hillier, Raid and Reform (1898) and South African Studies (1900); Lionel Phillips, Transvaal Problems (1905); Paul Botha, From Boer to Boer and Englishman (Cape Town, 1900); Sir Bartle Frere, The Union of British South Africa (1881); P. A. Molteno, A Federal South Africa (1896); The Government of South Africa (2 vols., Cape Town, 1908); The Framework of Union (Cape Town, 1908); R. H. Brand, The Union of South Africa (Oxford, 1909).

V. Economics and Commerce.—Statistical Year Books or Registers; Census Reports; Reports of the Statistical Bureau (since 1905); Annual Trade Returns and other official publications, especialy those on native affairs, mining, agriculture and railways; Argus Annual and South African Directory (Cape Town); L. V. Praagh (ed.), The Transvaal and its Mines (1907); S. J. Truscott, The Witwatersrand Goldfields (2nd ed., 1902); A. Wilmot, Book of South African Industries (Cape Town, 1892); F. Blersch, Handbook of Agriculture (Cape Town, 1906); S. Ransome, The Engineer in South Africa (1903); Gardner F. Williams, The Diamond Mines of South Africa (revised ed., New York, 1905); A. R. E. Burton, Cape Colony for the Settler (1903); (account of urban and rural industries—their probable future development), “Indicus,” Labour and other Questions in South Africa (1904); (designed to bring to light “the disabilities under which the coloured races … suffer,” &c.). W. Bleloch, The New South Africa (1902).

VI. Church, Law, &c.—Bishop A. H. Baynes, Handbooks of English Church Expansion: South Africa (1908); Sir G. W. Cox’s Life of Bishop Colenso (1888); Church of the Province of South Africa; Constitution and Canons (Cape Town, 1899 ed.); J. Stewart, Lovedale (1884) and Dawn in the Dark Continent (1903); the Reports on the

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/501


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/79

Rh the travellers were obliged to inquire, stood at the extremity of the village, immediately over a rapidly flowing brook, a kitchen-garden was in front and a few chesnut, ash, and plaintain trees spread a shade and freshness around. When the travellers alighted, the rather elderly hostess advanced to the little vestibule to meet them. "Welcome! right we1come!" said she half jestingly, but with the heartiest good will: "So the old gentleman is my cousin? I rejoice in the acquisition of his relationship?" "Where is my daughter?" asked the Lord of Beauvais.

"Hush! hush!" said Barbara with a significant look; "my little cousin sleeps in the room above—which you too will now inhabit, my much honoured cousin."

"That’s all right," said the doctor: "only study nicely your expressions; and what is sick Joseph doing?"

"Ah, heaven!" said the old woman, "he did not get over his fright, the poor man


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Caius, John (fl.1480)


text: Devonshire Characters and Strange Events/Sir William Hankford


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Caithness, Earl of


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/80

Rh has died at the next village below there, for when he was obliged to make off so quickly, helter skelter with my little cousin, and had lost his master, who had taken another road, and that the police officers became so troublesome, and the militia would also interfere, then all that affected his liver and spleen, and he died of it."

"Poor Joseph!" sighed the Counsellor.

"But pray, make yourselves comfortable," pursued the old hostess,—sit down then cousin, poor man, there on that soft chair; you must now forget, that you were formerly accustomed to anything better."

"Well," asked Vila, "and the household, how fares it? what is your husband doing?"

"Thanks for the kind inquiry," answered the chatterer; "Ah! dear God! nothing can be done with him, he will remain a boaster his life long."

"Wait until he comes a little to years," said Vila, "his petulance will then pass away."


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/81

Rh "Ah good heaven!" exclaimed she, "he is already past fifty; it does not depend upon that, God has permitted him to arrive at years of discretion, youth no longer oppresses him, but he is past all hope of amendment."

"Is he idle then? or does he squander your substance?"

"No," continued she quickly, "that must not be said against him, he spends nothing on himself, scarcely will he allow himself the extreme necessaries, and as to running about, working and lending a hand, he is not remiss, but he lays by no store. Indeed times are no longer as they were formerly."

"You get no profit then?"

"Just so, most respected doctor. Look you, here among us in the country, my old husband is called nothing, far and wide, but the clever man. Where an animal is sick, where a man is infirm, there is he called, and it must be true, that heaven has placed a very peculiar blessing in his hands, for


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Caius, John (1510-1573)


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/82

Rh almost whatever he merely touches becomes better. Where his misicaments, or his proscriptions fail, he is then compelled to have recourse to symphonies, or what you call the sympathretical system, and that is always among the peasantry most liked and most fructifying."

"You have then learned something from him," observed Vila.

"Should not something have devolved to me in so many years?" replied she modestly. "But if he would only not do so much without remuneration, all would be well and good. Look you, instead of planting cabbage, our little garden is full of learned rampons, and horse radish and onions with Latin names, which he then mingles or distils, as he calls it, and economises powders and opiates out of them that cannot be equalled. But they know already throughout the whole neighbourhood that he is a fool, for they frequently knock him up at midnight and summon him to a sick child,


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/83

Rh or to a tom-cat or taby-cat that has eaten or drank too much. And when they are to pay, the service is forgotten and there is no money in the coffers. 'They are poor people,' says the good-for-nothing fellow, 'they have already misery enough; and God be praised, we have never yet been in want of bread.'"

"Thus was he ever," remarked Vila. "I thought he would become more reasonable, and learn to think a little of himself He was always too devout."

"Devout!" exclaimed the wife: "ah heavens! your honour, me now come in earnest to the foul spot, No, Monsieur Vila, religion, or what people so call christianity, he is utterly deficient in."

"How then has he thus fallen into error?" asked the old man.

"The Lord knows best," answered she, "who has created him so confused. He will ruin himself yet with his curing. Look you, it is not alone his companions of the faith, the Catholic Christians that he


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Art and Part


text: Devonshire Characters and Strange Events/.Robert Lyde and the "Friend's Adventure"


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/84

Rh without remuneration, if they only give him the least hint of poverty; nay also—God be with us—the Huguenots and even the Camisards he attends, as one of us, if he can find an opportunity. The wounded whom they ought to have taken off to Florac swarmed here; look you, the God-forgetting man quartered, healed and fed them and occupied himself so much with them, that they were able afterwards to run of in health, and I will not answer for it, that he did not also give them money and the worth of money to take with them on the road. No, not a spark of true genuine faith and of proper christianity is in the man."

"He is probably a sort of Samaritan," said Vila affected.

"You are right, good sir," continuedi Barbara, "Samariter, or Samoid, and if he only does not turn out an anibaptist in his old days. Would you believe it, six weeks ago, when they gave up so many of those poor sinners to justice at Florac,


text: Devonshire Characters and Strange Events/Robert Lyde and the "Friend's Adventure"


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/85

Rh did he run the first, and bound up the wounds of the sick and set their broken limbs. Husband, said I, they will certainly be put to the wheel, and hanged, there is nothing more to heal in them. Then said the simple fellow, God or nature had taken so much pains to suffer their joints, bones, muscles, and I know not what else to grow, that one is obliged out of charity to spare and take care of them as long as they will last. Look you, he has such enthusiasm stuff in his head that, as the saying is, he is Jack in every corner, where there is only any thing to doctor, should it even be the greatest criminal, there he is."

"I shall read him a sermon on that point," said Vila.

"That’s right!" cried she joyfully, "scold him a skin full, for he always says, that I am too stupid; and my persuasions tend to nothing." The woman had got up several times to look at the little bed. "Perhaps, you have a sick child there?" asked


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/86

Rh the doctor.—"Child!" answered she somewhat mockingly! "quite otherwise! only look at the present!—when she removed the cushion, there lay a cur dog with bandaged paws.—"The history," commenced the narrator, "correcterises exactly the simple man. The people about here often make him their laughing stock, because he is such a good-humoured, easy fellow; and so the smith at length gave him his dog to doctor, having in a passion broken its hind-paws in two with a hammer. My Godfred wrapped up the dog and dragged it home to me, bound up its wounds himself, laid him down, raised him up, suffered him not to run about, bound the cushion tight over him, made him a kind of maskinnery for his legs, because he said the dog would not be taken proper care of at home, and that he must have it under his own eyes. Well, my good smith’s dog became healthy again, and went off without saying good day, or by your leave. That may be about two months ago; last week, towards evening,


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/844

HAVE seen a water-colour drawing made by a great-aunt of mine, Miss Marianne Snow, of Belmont, near Exeter, of Torquay before it was "invented" and turned into a fashionable winter residence and watering-place. It was a quiet fishing-village, consisting of a few cottages, under richly wooded hills.

In one of these cottages, at the close of the eighteenth century, at the time when this water-colour was made, lived a sailor named Robert Bruce.

Bruce is not a Devonshire name, and we may shrewdly suspect that he was a Browse, and that his shipmates called him by the better-known Scottish name, which sounds almost identical with Browse. The Browses formed a considerable clan about Torquay and Teignmouth. But whether of Scotch origin or not, he was a native of Torquay. When he reached the age of thirty he became first mate of a ship sailing between Liverpool and St. John, New Brunswick. On one of these periodical voyages westwards, after having been at sea six weeks, and being near the Banks of Newfoundland, the captain and mate, after having taken an observation, went below into the cabin to calculate their day's work.

The mate, Robert Bruce, absorbed in his reckonings, which did not answer his expectations, had not noticed that the captain had risen and left the cabin as soon as he had completed his calculations. Without


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/178

SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON was a bold defiance and a proclamation of herself and her son as supreme rulers of the whole East.

Aurelian, however, was of different stuff from his weakling predecessors. In the year 272 he brought an immense army to Syria, defeated the forces of Zenobia at Antioch and then, following quickly after the retreating Palmyrenes, routed them again near the city of Emesa (modern Homs) and demanded of Zenobia that she surrender. The haughty answer was that her enemy had not yet even begun to test the valor and resources of Palmyra.

So the great army of Rome laid siege to the desert stronghold. The winter and spring wore on, and Zenobia was still unconquered. Whenever Aurelian summoned her to capitulate, she responded with another bold defiance. But at last it became clear that her capital was doomed; so the queen, escaping the vigilance of the Roman sentries, slipped away from the city and fled across the desert toward the Euphrates. Just as she reached the bank of the river, however, she was overtaken and brought back captive. Yet her proud spirit remained unbroken. When Aurelian reproached her for her obstinate and useless rebellion, she answered with calm dignity that the course of events had indeed proved his supremacy, but that the previous emperors had not shown themselves to be superior to her, and she had therefore been justified in opposing their authority.

In spite of the stubborn resistance of the city,  [ 136 ]


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/179

THE DESERT CAPITAL did not now destroy Palmyra or treat its inhabitants cruelly. But when he reached the Bosphorus on his way back to Rome, word came that the Palmyrenes had already revolted and had slain the Roman garrison left by the conqueror. Thereupon he quickly retraced his march and recaptured the city without difficulty. This time the enraged emperor ordered the beautiful capital to be razed and allowed his soldiers to engage in an awful massacre. Neither women nor children were spared, and when the avenging army finally left the unhappy city, its splendid buildings were but heaps of dusty rubbish, among which hid a miserable remnant of its heartbroken inhabitants. Thus departed forever the glory of Palmyra.

The heart of the world has been touched by the pathetic spectacle of proud, beautiful Zenobia led captive through the streets of Rome to grace Aurelian's triumphal procession. Yet the emperor seems to have treated his captive with unusual consideration and respect, and he generously bestowed upon her a large estate near Tivoli. There, in the company of her two sons, she passed the rest of her days quietly, though we dare not hope happily.

Palmyra was afterwards partially rebuilt by Diocletian and was fortified by Justinian, who made it a garrison town; but it never regained its former prosperity. The city was overrun by the desert Arabs, and suffered severely during the conflicts among the [ 137 ]


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/87

Rh something came scratching at our room door; come in! no one opened; but the scraping and scratching continued: so my Godfred opened the door and looked out, in springs our old smith's dog like a fool and behind him came hobling the diseased thing, the cur there with a broken leg dragging behind him, and the smith's dog danced and sprang, round my husband, as if to beg, and thus supplicated him that he would also doctor his comrade. In my rage, I seized the botanix stick from my old man to cudgel the curs out of the room. But he, as if affected, said, "Never could I have imagined so much understanding and gratitude in a dog," and immediately took him in his arms, examined his foot, bandaged it, and busied himself about the animal. "Gratitude!" cried I, "you call it thus, if the bull dog recommenders you to the cur which will afterwards spread the story about among all the dogs in the country, so that finally with all the fame of dog-pratix, you will no longer be able to stand,


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/845

Rh raising his head, he called out, "I say, cap'n, I make the latitude and the longitude to be so-and-so. Not what it ought to be. What is your reckoning?"

As he received no reply, he repeated the question, and glancing over his shoulder and seeing, as he supposed, the captain figuring on his slate, he asked a third time, and again without eliciting a reply. Surprised and vexed, he stood up, and to his inexpressible astonishment saw that the seated man, engaged on the slate, was not the captain, but an entire stranger. He noted his features and his garments, both wholly different from those of his superior officer. At the same moment the stranger raised his head and looked him full in the eyes. The face was that of a man he had never seen before in his life. Much disturbed, he slipped up the ladder, and seeing the captain, went to him, and in an agitated voice told him that there was a total stranger in the cabin, at the captain's desk, engaged in writing.

"A stranger!" exclaimed the captain. "Impossible! You must have been dreaming. The steward or second mate may have gone down for aught I know."

"No, sir; it was neither. I saw the man occupying your arm-chair. He looked me full in the face, and I saw him as plainly as I see you now."

"Impossible!" said the captain. "Do you know who he is?"

"Never saw the man in my life before—an utter stranger."

"You must be gone daft, Mr. Bruce. Why, we have been six weeks at sea, and you know every man Jack who is on board."

"I know that, sir; but a stranger is there, I assure you."


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/180

SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON rival Moslem conquerors of Syria. In the year 745 it was again destroyed; in the eleventh and twelfth centuries it suffered from severe earthquakes; in 1401 it was plundered by the Tartar Tamerlane; in the sixteenth century it was taken by the Druses, and in the seventeenth it was razed by the Turks. For many generations the ancient city on the oasis was completely unknown to the Western world, though the wandering Bedouins delighted to talk of the marvelous ruins in the midst of the great desert.

Modern Tadmor—for it has taken again its old Semitic name—is but a wretched Arab hamlet of perhaps three hundred inhabitants, whose mud-plastered hovels lie in the midst of imposing ruins. Fully a square mile of the plain is strewn with the débris of temples, palaces and majestic colonnades. Many columns are still standing, after having braved the wars and earthquakes of sixteen centuries; but by far the greater number of them lie prone on the ground, half buried by the drifting dust.

The most prominent object that meets the eye is the Great Temple of Baal, the sun-god, which stands on a high platform overlooking the plain. Although Aurelian himself had this edifice restored after the final subjugation of Palmyra, it has since been badly damaged by earthquakes and defaced by the fanaticism of Moslem iconoclasts. Yet eight of its tall fluted columns and practically all of one side-wall enable us to guess what must have been the beauty of [ 138 ]


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/88

Rh or walk? But all in vain! there is the beast, and I must attend to it, when the old fool is not at home."

The husband now returned, his arm full of herbs, which he immediately carried into a closet; he then saluted this guests quietly and affably, and before he sat down he looked after his four-legged patient, which in gratitude licked his hands, and looked fondly in his face. With the greatest composure and as if there was nothing a remarkable in it, he rebandaged the foot, placed the invalid again in its bed, which he also bound fast, then pressed its head down on the cushion, as if to intimate that it must now go to sleep. The dog seemed also to understand him, for he only blinked a few times up at his benefactor, and then resigned himself to sleep.

"Your wife here," commenced the doctor, "complains of you, that you do not think enough of your own concerns, you cure every body, even dogs and cats, and receive nothing for it, for this dog as little as for


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/181

THE DESERT CAPITAL this structure when it was the chief sanctuary of Zenobia's capital.

Other ruins rise above the intricate mass of fallen columns which cover the area occupied by the ancient city. This huge pile of carved stones surmounted by a broken portico was once the royal palace. Yonder curving colonnade includes the fragments of the theater. Smaller temples are recognized here and there, and on the hillside at the edge of the oasis can be seen a number of the tall, square towers which were built as burial-places for the wealthier families.

But the chief architectural glory of ancient Palmyra was its far-famed Street of Columns. This imposing avenue stretched from the western edge of the oasis to the Temple of the Sun, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. On each side of it was a continuous, elaborately carved entablature, supported by nearly four hundred columns of reddish-brown limestone. About two-thirds of the way up these columns were corbels which, as the inscriptions still show, bore statues of prominent citizens. At every important crossing, whence other colonnaded avenues stretched to the right and left, four massive granite pillars supported a vaulted tetrapylon or quadruple gate.

Over a hundred of the columns of this beautiful avenue are still standing in their places, and large portions of the entablature remain unbroken. One can easily follow the course of the colonnade and [ 139 ]


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/182

SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON understand its relation to adjoining structures; and the traveler must be sadly lacking in imagination who cannot sometimes, as the light of the twentieth century day grows dimmer, see a dream city of wondrous, unbroken beauty stand proud again beneath the calm, still gleaming of the desert stars. Not shattered stones but well-built homes and busy bazaars spread far outward from the foot of the mountain; a multitude of graceful pillars stand upright around the palaces and temples of a mighty capital, and between the long lines of statues on the reddish shafts of the great colonnade a splendid vista reaches to the triumphal arch and then, through its triple portals, to where the Temple of the Sun keeps silent watch over a city of imperial grandeur and a queen who sees visions of world-wide dominion.

The few hundred residents of Tadmor are of Arab blood, but the Bedouins of the surrounding desert consider them a poor, degenerate race, as doubtless they are. Shortly before we visited the village, its sheikh had made a wonderful trip to Paris as guest of a French lady who had previously traveled through the desert under his guidance. It seemed very strange, in this lonely little hamlet among the ruins of a vanished people, to hear an Arab sheikh tell stories—and he loved to tell them—about his adventures in the most modern of twentieth century capitals.

We were so fortunate as to be invited to a great [ 140 ]


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/846

720 "Go down again, Mr. Bruce, and ask his name."

The mate hesitated. "I'm not a superstitious man," said he; "but, hang it, I don't relish the idea of facing him again alone."

"Well, well," said the captain, laughing, "I don't mind accompanying you. This is not like you, Bruce, not like you at all—you're not in liquor. It is a mere delusion."

The captain descended the stairs accompanied by the mate; and, sure enough, the cabin was empty.

"There you are, convicted of dreaming," said the former. "Did not I tell you as much?"

"I can't say how it was, sir," replied Bruce, "but I could take my oath on the Gospels that I saw a man writing on your slate."

"If he wrote, there must be something to show for it," said the captain, as he took up the slate, and at once exclaimed, "Why—good God! there is something here. Is this your fist, Mr. Bruce?"

The mate examined the slate, and there in plain, legible characters stood the words ""

"You have been playing tricks," said the captain impatiently.

"On my word as a man and a sailor, sir," replied Bruce, "I know no more about this matter than just what I told you."

The captain mused, seated himself, and handing over the slate to the mate, said, "You write on the back of this slate, Steer to the Nor’-West."

Bruce did as required, and the captain narrowly compared the two writings; they differed entirely.

"Send down the second mate," he ordered.

Bruce did as required. On entering the cabin, the captain bade him write the same words, and he did so.


text:
Page:The Rebellion in the Cevennes (Volume 2).djvu/89

Rh the former; have they not paid your bills yet?"

"I made none for them," said the old man with the driest gravity.

"Then I must make them out for you, you negligent fellow!" exclaimed Vila vehemently: "What; write out prescriptions for nothing? truly you degrade our whole art. Take this then on account of what the poor sinners, the wounded, the beggar-train, and the oppressed race of animals owe you up to the present."—He threw to the astonished and perplexed individual a heavy purse of gold, and without waiting for his thanks, he hastened out, and was already seated in the carriage before the rustic practioner had recovered from his astonishment. The Lord of Beauvais gazed with emotion after his rapidly departing friend.


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/183

THE DESERT CAPITAL feast which the sheikh gave the entire village in honor of his birthday. Feeding the poor in this wholesale way is regarded by the Arabs as a deed of great merit. A slaughtered camel provided the pièce de résistance of the banquet. In the center of the room was placed an enormous tray piled with a mountain of burghul, or boiled wheat, into which had been inserted huge pieces of camel's meat. A large funnel-shaped depression had been scooped out in the top of the pile and filled with melted butter. This percolated through the mass and added the final touch of flavor to what was—if you liked it—a most rich and delicious repast. The anxious villagers were then admitted in groups of eight or ten. They immediately squatted around the tray, thrust their hands into the mass, grasped as much as they could, plunged it into their mouths and, in order not to lose any time, swallowed it with as little mastication as possible. One greedy fellow got an unusually large chunk of camel's meat into his throat and, as a consequence, nearly choked to death before his comrades relieved him by strenuous blows upon his back.

In order to visit Hama, we returned from Palmyra by another route; and, as a large part of this journey was to be across a trackless, waterless and absolutely uninhabited desert, we engaged a Bedouin to act as our guide.

Not long after setting out, we passed through a gap in the hills a quarter of a mile wide, whose sides [ 141 ]


text: The Rebellion in the Cevennes/Volume 2/Chapter V


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/847

Rh The handwriting was again different. Next, the steward was sent for, as also every one of the crew who could write, and the result was the same. At length the captain said, "There must be a stowaway. Have the ship searched. Pipe all hands on deck." Every corner of the vessel was explored, but all in vain. The captain was more perplexed than ever. Summoning the mate to attend him in the cabin, and holding the slate before him, he asked Bruce what he considered this might mean.

"That is more than I can say, sir," replied Bruce, "I saw the man write, and there you see the writing. There must be something in it we don't understand."

"Well," said the captain, "It does look like it. We have the wind fine, "and I have a good mind to keep her away and see what comes of it all."

"If I were in your place, sir, that is what I would do. It's only a few hours lost, at the worst."

"It shall be so. Go and give the course Nor’-west, and, Mr. Bruce, have a good look-out aloft; and let it be a hand you can depend upon."

The mate gave the required orders; and about 3 p.m. the look-out reported an iceberg nearly ahead, and shortly after, that he observed a vessel of some sort close to it. As they approached, by aid of his telescope, the captain discerned a dismantled ship, apparently wedged into and frozen to the ice, and he was able to distinguish a good many human beings on it. Shortly after, he hove to, and sent out boats to the relief of the sufferers.

The vessel proved to be one from Quebec, bound to Liverpool, with passengers on board. She had become entangled in the ice, and finally frozen fast, and had been in this condition for several weeks. She was stove in, her decks swept, and was, in fact, a mere


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Israeli, Isaac ben Solomon


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/184

SYRIA, THE LAND OF LEBANON were almost as perpendicular as if they had been walls shaped by the hand of man. The locality is called Marbat Antar, that is, "Antar's Hitching-place." Antar is the hero of many a fabulous exploit among the Arabs, much as was Hercules among the Greeks; and the prodigies of valor which he performed in defense of his tribe are celebrated in song and story. Among other wonderful feats, he is said to have leaped his horse across this deep ravine from cliff to cliff.

The first day's journey homeward brought us to el-Wesen, a well where we had expected to lay in a supply of water for the long ride across the arid wilderness; but, to our intense disappointment, we found the water foul with dead locusts. Our Arabs, however, swallowed the nauseating fluid with great gusto, apparently rejoicing that they could obtain both food and drink in the same mouthful; and, as it was a case of necessity, we managed to cook some food with the water, and even drank a little of it in the form of very strong tea which disguised somewhat the insect flavor.

The next morning we were ready for the start at four o'clock and traveled all day through a rolling, treeless country, which in summer is absolutely bare of vegetation. At sunset we halted for two hours in order to rest and feed the animals. Then we mounted again for an all-night ride; for we did not dare sleep until we had come to water. There was no trail [ 142 ]


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/848

722 wreck. All her provisions and almost all her water had been consumed, and crew and passengers had despaired of being saved, and looked out for a watery grave. Their gratitude for this unexpected deliverance was proportionately great.

As one of the men, who had been brought away in the third boat that had reached the wreck, was ascending the ship's side, the mate, catching a glimpse of his face, started back in astonishment. He recognized the identical face that he had seen in the cabin, three or four hours before, looking up at him from the captain's desk. When the man stood on the deck, Bruce examined him closely. Not only was the face the same, but in person and dress he corresponded exactly with his vision.

So soon as the exhausted crew and passengers had been fed and cared for, and the bark was on her course again, the mate called the captain aside, and said, "That was no ghost, sir, that I saw this morning. The man is here, alive, and on board our boat."

"What do you mean?"

"Sir," said Bruce very gravely. "One of the passengers we have just saved is the very same person that I saw writing on your slate at noon. I would swear to the identity in any court of justice."

"This is becoming more strange and inexplicable every minute," said the captain; "let us go and have a look at the man."

They found him in conversation with the captain of the derelict vessel, when both expressed their warmest gratitude for deliverance from a terrible fate, either starvation and exposure, or drowning should the iceberg capsize.

The captain replied that he had done no more than was his duty, and that he was quite sure that they


text:
Page:Syria, the land of Lebanon (1914).djvu/185

THE DESERT CAPITAL visible to us, but our guide held steadily on through the darkness. During the long night we could see ahead of us his white camel, keeping straight on the course with no apparent aid save the twinkling stars above. There was such danger of falling in with one of the robber tribes which infest this district that we were warned not to speak above a whisper. The poor donkeys also received a hint not to bray. Each of them had a halter looped tightly around his neck. As soon as an animal was seen to raise his nose in preparation for an ecstatic song, some one would quickly tighten the noose and, to our amusement and the donkey's very evident disgust, the only sound to issue from his throat would be a thin gurgling whine.

As the night drew on we became so sleepy that we could hardly sit in the saddles, and before morning dawned we were burning with thirst. Our guide led us to another spring. Not only was it full of long-dead locusts, but a wild pig was wallowing in the filthy water! Even the Arabs refused to drink from the pool that had been defiled by the unclean beast. There was nothing to do but to push on again. We had been twenty-six hours in the saddle, with nothing to drink save "locust-tea," when at last we came to a little village by a running stream of clear, limpid water—and our desert journey was safely over. [ 143 ]


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/849

Rh would have done the same for him under similar circumstances; and then he requested both to step down with him into his cabin.

When that was done, turning to the passenger he said: "Will you excuse the liberty I am taking with you, if I desire you to write a few words on the slate?"

"Certainly I will do so," said the passenger. "What shall I write?"

"Nothing more than this: Steer to the Nor’-West."

The passenger looked amazed and puzzled; however, he held out his hand for the slate. This the captain extended to him, with that side uppermost on which Bruce and the crew had written, and which writing he had effaced with a sponge. The man wrote the required words. The captain took back the slate, stepping aside whilst the passenger was not observing, turned the slate over, and presented it to him, with the side uppermost on which was the mysterious inscription.

Tendering the slate again to him, he said: "You are ready to swear, sir, that this is your handwriting?"

"Of course it is; you saw me write."

"Look at it attentively and make sure that it is the same."

"I have no doubt about it. I make my s in the midst of a sentence in the old-fashioned way, long. And there it is, attached to the t at steer and west."

"And this also?" asked the captain, turning the slate over.

The passenger looked first at one writing, then at the other, quite confounded. "I don't understand what this can mean," said he; "I wrote the words once only. Who wrote the other?"

"That, sir, is more than I can say. My mate


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/502

 synods of the Dutch Reformed Church, those of the London Missionary Society and of other missionary bodies. J. W. Wessels, History of the Roman-Dutch Law, (Grahamstown 1908); G. T. Morice, English and Roman-Dutch Law (Grahamstown, 1903); W. H. S. Bell and M. Nathan, The Legal Hand Book of Practical Laws … in British South Africa (Grahamstown, 1905); C. H. van Zyl, The Judicial Practice of … South Africa generally (Cape Town, 1893); A. F. S. Maasdorp, The Institutes of Cape Law (Cape Town, 1903); E. H. Crouch, A Treasury of South African Poetry and Verse (2nd ed., 1909).

VII. Bibliographies.—H. C. Schunke Hollway, “Bibliography of South Africa … with special reference to geography. From the time of Vasco da Gama to … 1888,” ''Trans. S.A. Phil. Soc., vol. v. pt. 2 (Cape Town, 1898); Catalogue of the Books relative to Philology in the Library of Sir George Grey, vol. i. pt. i. The Dialects of South Africa (Cape Town, 1858); Books, Pamphlets and Articles on British South Africa (Birmingham Free Library, 1901), Mendelssohn’s South African Bibliography'' (2 vols. 1910). See also : Bibliography.

 SOUTHALL NORWOOD, an urban district in the Brentford parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, suburban to London, 12 m. W. of St Paul’s Cathedral, on the Great Western railway. Pop. (1891), 7896; (1901), 13,200. Brickfields, flour-mills and chemical works are established in the district, which is also largely residential. The Grand Junction Canal serves Southall. Cattle markets are held weekly under a grant of William III. The Elizabethan manor-house of Southall remains, and the parish church of Norwood, though greatly restored, has Early English and Decorated portions, a canopied tomb dated 1547 and brasses of the 17th century.  SOUTH AMBOY, a city of Middlesex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on Raritan Bay at the mouth of the Raritan river, about 27 m. S.W. of New York City. Pop. (1900) 6349 (1700 foreign-born); (1910) 7007. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Central of New Jersey, and the Raritan River railways. A railway drawbridge and a traffic bridge across the river connect the city with Perth Amboy. South Amboy is an important point for shipments of coal from the Pennsylvania mines. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Susquehanna Coal Company have coal docks here and the latter has great storage yards. Among the city’s industries are the mining of clay and sand, and the manufacture of terra cotta. South Amboy, originally a part of South Amboy township (incorporated in 1798), was laid out in 1835, was incorporated as a borough in 1888, and became a city under a general state law in 1908.  SOUTH AMERICA. The early physical history of the South American continent as recorded in the rocks has been extensively obliterated or greatly obscured by the events of its later history. The early land areas are supposed to be only approximately suggested by the present exposures of granite and gneisses. The largest of these old land areas is along the east of the continent, extending with a few interruptions from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to within a short distance of the mouth of the Amazon river. North of the present Amazon valley and occupying the present highlands of Guiana, north-east Brazil, and south-east Venezuela was another one of these old land areas—a large island or a group of islands. A chain of islands extended from the Falkland Islands along what is now the entire west side of the continent. Upon these ancient shores were laid down the sedimentary beds of the Cambrian seas. At the close of the Cambrian period the continent was elevated, many of the former islands were joined together, and the continental land area was considerably enlarged. The Silurian seas, however, still covered the basin of the Paraguay, extending from the Serra do Mar on the Brazilian coast to the axis of the Andes on the west, and covering at the same time a considerable part of the basin of the Rio São Francisco, filling the straits between the Andes and the Matto Grosso highlands and opening east through the region now occupied by the lower Amazon valley.

During the Devonian period there was a still further enlargement of the continent through elevation and the joining of islands, and the disappearance of the old Silurian sea in the basin of the Rio São Francisco on the east of the continent. In early Carboniferous times the sea still covered a narrow belt through the lower part of the Amazon valley, and part of what is now the Andes lying south of the equator. During Permian times the basin of the Paraguay and the south-east coast of Brazil was covered with lagoons and swamps in which here and there coal beds were laid down. At the close of this period molten lavas broke through the earth’s crust and flowed over and buried large areas in what is now Paraguay and south Brazil.

There was a general depression of the continent during the Cretaceous period and the ocean covered most of the continent as we now know it. The Serra do Espinhaço along the east coast of Brazil was above water and the coast line between the Rio de la Plata and Cape St Roque was little different from what it is at present. But through the highlands of Brazil from near Pernambuco west there was a broad sound containing many islands extending to the base of the Andes and possibly connecting with the Pacific Ocean. In the extreme north there were also many islands, bays and sounds, while a continental mass occupied the region of the Antilles. To the south the Atlantic Ocean filled most of the lower Paraguay basin and washed the eastern bases of the Andes. There was shallow-water connexion during this period between South America and southern India, through the Antarctic regions, probably by way of Australia.

In Early Tertiary times great changes took place in the geography of South America. The continent rose much higher than its present elevation, the coast-lines were extended oceanward, and the continent was considerably larger than it is at present. The Abrolhos Islands on the east coast of Brazil were then a part of the mainland and the Seashore was some 200 m. further east. The Falkland Islands were also at that time a. part of the continent, and South America had land connexion through the Antarctic regions or through the south Pacific Ocean with New Zealand and Australia, and through the West Indies region with Cuba and North America. Toward the close of Tertiary times the continent sank again beneath the ocean and salt water flowed into the Amazon and Orinoco valleys, turning the Guiana highlands again into an island or group of islands, and again separating the continent from land connexion with other continents. The valleys of Rio Magdalena, Rio Cauca and Lake Maracaibo were bays that covered large areas of adjacent territory.

It was during the Tertiary period that the continent took on its most characteristic features. Volcanic activity culminated; the Andes rose from low ridges and islands near sea-level to be one of the greatest mountain systems of the globe. This elevation was partly due to the uplifting of the continent en masse, partly to faulting and folding of the rocks, and partly to the pouring out of lavas and the accumulations upon the surface about vents of other volcanic ejectments. This volcanic activity was not confined to the main range of the Andes, but extended into Venezuela and the islands along the north coast, to the plains of Patagonia, the highlands of the Paraná basin and as far east as the islands of Fernando de Noronha. In recent times volcanic activity has greatly diminished over the continent and has entirely ceased along its eastern and north-eastern parts. The great elevation and depression of the continent deeply affected the climate over certain large areas. For example, along the east coast, where winds blew on-shore, the rainfall was greatly increased during the elevation, while the later depression brought about a corresponding diminution of the rainfall. In Pleistocene times the south of the continent stood somewhat lower than it does at present, so that the ocean covered the plains of Patagonia and La Plata. During the glacial epoch the south of the continent and as far north as latitude 27° on the west coast was covered with glaciers that flowed down from the high mountain ranges. On the east side of the mountains the glaciers did not extend so far north as they did on the west side. The glaciers through the high Andes were also larger and longer than they are at present; there were no glaciers in the eastern or Brazilian portion of the continent.

Physical Geography.—The South American continent rises abruptly from the ocean floor along nearly all of its coast, but the steepness of the continental margin is more marked on the

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/502


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/850

724 me that you wrote it, sitting at my desk at noon to-day."

"That is impossible. I was on the wreck miles away."

"I saw you there writing it, as distinctly as I see you now," put in Bruce.

The captain of the wreck turned to the passenger, and said: "Did you dream that you wrote on a slate?"

"Not that I can recall," replied he.

"Now you speak of dreaming," said the skipper, "may I inquire what the gentleman was about at noon to-day?"

"Captain," said the other, "he had become greatly exhausted, and fell into a heavy sleep, some time before noon, and remained in that condition for over an hour. When he awoke he said to me, 'Captain, I am confident that we shall be relieved this very day. When I asked him his reason for so saying, he replied that he had dreamt that he was on board a vessel, and that he was convinced she was coming to our rescue. He described her appearance and outward rig, and, to our astonishment, when your vessel hove in sight, she corresponded exactly to his description. We had not, I must admit, much confidence in his assurance. As it has happened, it looks uncommon like as if Providence had interfered to save us in a very mysterious manner."

"There can be no doubt about that," replied the other captain. "It is due to that writing on the slate, however it came about, that all your lives are saved. I was steering at the time considerably south of west, and I altered my course to nor'-west, on account of the writing on the slate." Then, turning to the passenger, he inquired, "Did you dream of writing on a slate?"

"Not that I am aware of. I have no recollection of that; but I may say that everything here on board


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Southall Norwood


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/South Amboy


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/851

Rh seems to me familiar; yet I am certain that I was never in your vessel before. It is very perplexing, May I ask what your mate saw?"

Thereupon Bruce related the circumstances already detailed.

The above extraordinary account was related to Mr. Robert Owen, formerly American Minister at Naples, by Captain J. S. Clarke, of the Julia Hallock, a schooner trading in 1859 between New York and Cuba, who had received it directly from Robert Bruce himself. They sailed together for nearly two years, in 1836 and 1837; so that Captain Clarke had the story from the mate about eight years after the occurrence. Bruce after that became master of the brig Comet, trading to New Brunswick, and she was eventually lost at sea, and Bruce is believed to have perished in her.

In reply to a question as to the character which Bruce bore for uprightness, Captain Clarke replied: "As truthful and straightforward a man as ever I met in my life. We were as intimate as brothers; and two men can't be together, shut up for nearly two years in the same ship, without getting to know whether they can trust one another's word or not. He always spoke of the circumstance in terms of reverence, as of an incident that seemed to bring him nearer to God and to another world than anything that had ever happened to him in his life before. I'd stake my life upon it that he was speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in the very extraordinary account which I have related to you just as he delivered it to me."

Such is the story, and it is much to be regretted that there is no confirmation or other testimony from the two captains, or from any others who were in the vessel.

It is given by the Rev. Bourchier Wrey Savile, in his Apparitions: a Narrative of Facts. London, 1874.


text: Devonshire Characters and Strange Events/Steer Nor'-West


text:
Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/326

 SYRIA, the name given generally to the land lying between the easternmost shore of the Levantine Gulf and a natural inland boundary formed in part by the Middle Euphrates and in part by the western edge of the Hamād or desert steppe. The northern limit is the Tauric system of mountains, and the southern limit the edge of the Sinaitic desert. This long strip extends, therefore, for about 400 m. between 38° and 31° N. lat. with a mean breadth of about 150 m. Since, however, the steppe edge on the east is somewhat indefinite, some early Moslem and other geographers have included all the Hamād in Syria, making of the latter a blunt-headed triangle with a base some 700 m. long resting on. the north Arabian Nefud. But Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy, as well as the better Moslem geographers, drew the eastern frontier obliquely from the Gulf of Akeba to Rakka (Raqqa) on Euphrates, and thus placed the Hamād in Arabia.

The name Syria is not found in the Hebrew original of the Scriptures; but it was used by the Septuagint to translate Aram. Homer knows only, but Herodotus speaks of “Syrians” as identical with Assyrians, the latter being, he thinks, a “barbarian” form, and he applies the name very widely to include, e.g. north Cappadocians (“White Syrians” of Pteria). Syria, however, is probably the Babylonian Suri, used of a north Euphratean district, and a word distinct from Assyria. Generally the ethnic term, Syrians, came to mean in antiquity the Semiti peoples domiciled outside the Mesopotamian and Arabian areas: but neither in pre-Greek nor in Greek times had the word Syria any very precise geographical significance, various lands, which we include under it, retaining their distinctive status, e.g. Commagene (Kummukh), Cyrrhestica, Phoenicia, Palestine, &c. It is

only under the Graeco-Roman administration that we find a definite district known as Syria, and that was at first restricted to the Orontes basin. Later, all that we understand by Syria came to be so known officially to the Romans and Byzantines; but the only province called simply Syria, without qualification, remained in the Orontes valley. Under the present Ottoman distribution “Syria” is the province of Sham or Damascus, exclusive of the vilayets of Aleppo and Beirut and the sanjaks of Lebanon and Jerusalem, which all fall in what is called Syria is the wider geographical sense.

Taking Syria as the strip limited by the sea, the edge of the Hamād, the Taurus and the Sinaitic desert, we have a remarkably homogeneous geographical area with very obvious natural boundaries; but these, for various reasons, have proved very ineffective in history, especially on the south and east. Syria happens to lie on the line of least resistance for communication between the early subtropic seats of civilization in the Nile and Euphrates valleys and the civilizations of Europe. Its eastern boundary is in great part a steppe, which breeds population, but, unable to nourish increase, sends it over its boundaries in a constant stream of migration. Consequently south Palestine has been continuously “Arabized”; and indeed the whole of Syria has been characterized by racial and religious fusions, and by civilization of a singularly syncretic and derived kind, of which the ancient Phoenician is a sufficient example.

The surface configuration of almost all the strip is remarkably uniform. With the exception of the extreme north (Commagene), which is shut off by a barrier of hills and belongs to foreign hydrographic systems, the whole country is roughly a gable-shaped elateau, falling north and south from a medial ridge, which crosses Syria at about its central point. This gable is tilted eastwards, and its two long slopes are defined by bordering mountain chains

title: Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/326


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Eve

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Eve


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/614

508 another attack upon Glanvill, but no copy of it is now known to exist.

Whilst preparing for the publication of Freedom he lost his mother and wife, and this delayed its issue.

Brice took advantage of every Sunday, a day on which debtors could not be arrested, to walk abroad. Many attempts were made to seize him, but all failed. He kept himself too close, and was too much on his guard. On one occasion a bailiff named Spry disguised himself as a clergyman and entered his office under pretence that he had got a book he desired to have published by Brice; but that worthy did not allow himself to be seen.

The profits from the sale of his poem on "Freedom" were said to have been sufficiently large to enable him to compound with his creditors and regain his liberty. After this he opened a printing press at Truro, the first in Cornwall. But the venture did not succeed, and he soon gave it up.

From the outset of his career Brice had exhibited a strong partiality for the drama, and when players came to Exeter they were hospitably received at his table.

In 1743, John Wesley visited Exeter for the second time, and preached in the open air. He probably produced considerable effect, for some time after this visit the local comedians were prosecuted as vagrants and forced to give up their theatre in Waterbeer Street. Thereupon the Methodists purchased it and converted it into a meeting-house. Brice at once took up the cause of the players, and in 1745 published a poem entitled "The Play-house Church, or new Actors of Devotion." In consequence of this, says the early biographer of Brice, "the mob were so spirited up that the Methodists were soon obliged to abandon the place to its former possessors, whom Mr. Brice now protected


text:
Page:Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.djvu/613

Rh by, what appeared to him to be, the gross injustice and cruelty of the keeper of St. Thomas's Ward. His enthusiasm never wavered in the support of what he deemed to be a good cause; and no subject did he prosecute more vigorously than that of rendering some assistance to the confined debtors. Under such circumstances, trouble, expense, and future consequences were never considered by him."

Brice could not and would not pay his fine; and it has been asserted that he was sent to prison. This, however, seems not to have been the case. He retired into his own house, and remained there in voluntary confinement for seven years; where he still continued to produce his Journal. That of 27 February, 1730, contains some information about him in a leading article. After alluding to "the vile Prosecution commenced against" him "near Two Years and a Half since," he thus refers to the consequences of the action: "I've the sad Choice of paying that other Honourable Man, my gentle Adversary above a Hundred Pounds, go to Gaol (the Den of Legion Woe), or retire from and guard against the horrid Catchpoles' rapacious Clutches. The first none who can't instruct me honestly to get the Sum will, I presume, advise me to comply with; the second I've a natural Antipathy against; and therefore the latter, how much soever it may rub against the grain, I'm forced to submit to." Then follows the first announcement of a poem he had composed during his retirement, entitled Freedom; and this had appended to it a notice of another poem, "already printed, to be published very soon," entitled ", or, The horrid bloody Monster of St. Thomas's (an Island scituate directly under the Æquinoctial Line, between Guinea and Lower Æthiopia, subject to the Portuguese)." This, of course, was


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Scale Insect