ants, who number about 2600, are partly engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel, and carry on a trade with Hamburg in chestnuts. The foundation of the town is ascribed to the early kings of Navarre, and in 1153 it obtained the rank of a countship. The decree by which Don Carlos in 1839 ordered all foreigners taken in arms
against him to be shot was issued from Durango.DURANGO, sometimes called Ciudad de Victoria, or Guadiana, a city of Mexico, the capital of the state of Durango, lies near the foot of the south-eastern slope of the Sierra Madre, at a height of 6847 feet above the sea, in 24 25 N. lat. and 105 55 W. long. It is the centre of a Roman Catholic bishopric, and possesses a cathedral, ten parish churches, a hospital, Government-buildings, a peni tentiary, a state prison, a bull-ring, and a large cock-pit. Formerly the seat of a Jesuit college, it still maintains an episcopal seminary, and an institute with literary, legal, and scientific departments. It is well supplied with water by thermal and other springs, which not only satisfy the demands of nine public baths, but also fill considerable channels along the streets. Trade is carried on with the northern and north western states ; and, besides a mint, a gold refinery, and other offices connected with the mining operations, there are glass works, printing-presses, and factories for cotton and woollen goods, leather, and tobacco. Durango was founded in 1559 or 1560 by Alonso Pacheco, an officer of the Viceroy Velasco, as a military post for the control of the Chichimecas. It was soon after made an episcopal see, but did not attain any great importance till the discovery of the rich deposits of Guarisamey ; and most of its public buildings were erected at the expense of Zambrano, the owner of the mines. In 1783 it had no more than 8000 inhabitants; about 1850 they were estimated at 30,000 or 40,000; in 1868 they were reduced to 12,449.
DURANTE, Francesco, a celebrated Italian composer, and one of the founders of the so-called Neapolitan school of music, was born at Frattamaggiore, in the kingdom of Naples, and not, as has been erroneously stated, in the city of that name. The date of his birth is generally given nine years too late. In reality he was born on March 15, 1684. At an early age he entered the Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesu Cristo, at Naples, where he received lessons from Gaetano Greco ; but soon he attracted the attention of the celebrated Alessandro Scarlatti, at that time the head and ornament of another great music school of Naples, the Conservatory of St Onofrio. Under him Durante studied for a considerable time, and left him only to go to Rome, where, during further five years, he completed his vocal studies under Pitoni. On his return to Naples he obtained the position of chapel-master at the school of St Onofrio, which he occupied till 1742, when he succeeded Porpora as head of the Conservatorio Sante Maria di Loretto, also at Naples. This post he held for thirteen years, till his death in 1755. His fame as a teacher was all but unrivalled, and the most celebrated masters of the earlier school of Italian opera are amongst his pupils. Only Jomelli, Paesiello, Pergolesi, Piccini, and Vinci may be mentioned here. Under him the Neapolitan school of music reached its climax of celebrity, and it was in this school that the great traditions of Italian vocal art were established, the last remnants of which are rapidly dis appearing from the modern stage. As a composer Durante adhered to the severe style of the early Italian masters. The structure of his choral pieces is surpassed by Handel alone amongst his contemporaries. His instrumentation also shows many new and beautiful effects. A complete collection of Durante s works, consisting all but exclusively of sacred compositions, was presented by Selvaggi, a Neapolitan lover of art, to the Paris library. A catalogue of it may be found in Fe tis s Biographie Universelle. The imperial library of Vienna also preserves a valuable collec tion of Durante s manuscripts. Two requiems, several masses (one of which, a most original work, is the Pastoral Mass for four voices), and the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah are amongst his mot important settings.
DURÃO, Jose de Santa Ritta, a Brazilian poet, was born at Marianna, in the province of Minas Geraes, in 1737, and died at Lisbon in 1784. He studied at Coimbra, in Portugal, graduated as a doctor of divinity, became a member of the Augustinian order of friars, and obtained a great reputation as a preacher. Having irritated the minister Pombal by his defence of the Jesuits, he retired from Portugal ; and, after being imprisoned in Spain as a spy, found his way to Italy, where he became acquainted with Alfieri, Pindemonte, Casti, and other literary men of the time. On his return to Portugal he delivered the open ing address at the university of Coimbra for the year 1778; but soon after retired to the cloisters of a Gratian convent. At the time of his death he taught in the little college belonging to that order in Lisbon. His principal poem, entitled Caramuru, poema epico do descubrimento da Bahia, appeared at Lisbon in 1781, but proved at first a total failure. Its value has gradually been recognized, and it now ranks as one of the best poems in Brazilian literature—remarkable especially for its fine descriptions of scenery and native life in South America. The historic institute of Rio de Janeiro offered a prize to the author of the best essay on the legend of Caramuru ; and the successful competitor published a new edition of Durao s poem. There are two French translations, one of which appeared in 1829 in 3 vols. 8vo.
DURAZZO, the ancient Dyrrachium, or Epidamnus, in Turkish Dratsh, and in Slavonian Durtz, a seaport town of European Turkey, in Albania, about fifty miles south of Scutari, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop and a Greek arch bishop, but in every respect has greatly declined from its former prosperity. The walls are dilapidated; plantain trees are growing on the gigantic ruins of its old Byzantine citadel ; and its harbour, once equally commodious and safe, is gradually becoming silted up. The only features worthy of notice are the quay, with its rows of cannon, and the bridge, 750 feet long, which leads across the marshy stretch along the coast. Such trade as it still possesses is mainly carried on with Trieste, and consists in the export of grain, skins, wool, wood, and leeches. The population is estimated at 9000.
DURBAN, or more correctly D'Urban, a town of South Africa, in Natal, in the county of Durban, situated on a sandflat about a mile to the north of the bay of Port Natal, in 29 52 S. lat. and 31 2 E. long. It is well laid out with wide tree-shaded streets, carries on a considerable export and import trade, and possesses an Episcopalian church, two Wesleyan chapels (one for natives and the other for Europeans), a Government school, a prison, a custom-house, a literary institution, and an agricultural and horticultural society. Durban was founded in 1834 as the capital of the republican colony of Victoria, and its name was bestowed in honour of Sir Benjamin D Urban, the governor of the Cape. The population, mostly English, was in 1866, 4991.
the province of the Rhine, on the right bank of the Roer, at a railway junction eighteen miles east of Aix-la-Chapelle. Besides two Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, it possesses three nunneries, a gymnasium, a mining school,
and a blind asylum—the Elizabeth Institution—which was
