says Bozzy, "a friendly and very hospitable man. Both he and his wife, who had been celebrated for her beauty though upon the stage for many years, maintained a uniform decency of character; and Johnson esteemed them, and lived in as easy an intimacy with them as with any family he used to visit." It was in the back parlour of Tom Davies' shop in Russell Street, Covent Garden, that on the 16th of May, 1763, occurred the first interview between Johnson and Boswell.—F. E.
DAVILA, Arrigo Caterino, was born at La Pieve del Sacco in the territory of Padua, on the 30th October, 1576. His father, who belonged to the noble family of Avila of Spain, and was constable of Cyprus, named him after Henry III. of France and Queen Catherine de Medicis, who were his patrons. When he was seven years old he was sent to Normandy, where he was placed under the care of his father's brother-in-law, Jean d'Hanery, marshal of France. His education was carefully attended to, and being removed to Paris, he was made one of the royal pages, and the time that his companions spent in court dissipation, he devoted to improving his talents and making observations upon the important events that were occurring around him. He entered the army at eighteen, and for four years associated with some of the distinguished warriors of the day, had a horse shot under him at the siege of Honfleur, and was dangerously wounded at Amiens. The peace of 1598 changed his destiny. War might have made him a marshal; peace gave the world a great historian. The death of his father, which occurred shortly after under painful circumstances, affected him much, and he gave himself up wholly to study. Being desirous of knowing and consulting the literary men of the country, he went to Parma in 1616, where, having a dispute in the Academy of the Innominati with Thomas Stigliani, a duel was the result. The latter was severely wounded, and Davila fled to Venice, entered the service of the republic, and conducted expeditions against Candia, Dalmatia, and other places. Meanwhile he never lost sight of his great project—the "History of the Civil Wars of France," which he published at Venice in 1630. So great was the reputation he acquired, and such was the consideration in which he was held both by the Venetian government and the learned, that he was decreed a place in the senate beside the doge, to which his ancestors were entitled as constables of Cyprus. He did not live long to enjoy his honours. In 1631 he was appointed governor of Crema. On his way thither, at the town of St. Michael, he demanded the conveyances ordered for him by the republic. The postmaster, "a brutal man," as Tiraboschi states, refused to comply. What further occurred is not stated; but the ruffian shot him dead in the presence of his wife and children, the eldest of whom avenged his father's death by slaying his murderer. Davila's history is confessedly the best account of the eventful period of which it treats. It has stood the test of time, being more and more esteemed as it was better known. It was translated into most European languages, and commanded an unprecedented sale. The length of time which Davila passed in France, his intimacy with the leading characters of the times, and his personal acquaintance with places and events, give his work the stamp of authenticity and truth. The history is divided into five books, and embraces the period between the death of Henry II. and the peace between Henry IV. and the catholics in June, 1598. His style is easy, clear, and orderly, and the book, says Tiraboschi, "is not only a valuable, but a most delightful one to read." Apostolo Zeno has prefixed a carefully written life of Davila to the first edition of his works published by him at Venice in 1733.—J. F. W.
DAVILA, Francesco, a Spanish theologian, born at Avila; died in 1604. He took a prominent part in the disputes between the jesuits and dominicans, and published a work "De Gratiâ et libero arbitrio," and another "De Confessione per litteras sive per internuncium."—F. M. W.
DAVILA Y PADILLA, Augustin, a Spanish dominican monk, afterwards bishop of St. Domingo, and preacher to Philip III., died in 1604. His "History of the Island of St. Domingo" contains some curious facts relating to the early history of America.—F. M. W.
DAVIS, David, an eminent physician, who practised in London chiefly as an accoucheur; and it is for his discoveries in this department of medical science that his name deserves to be remembered. He was born near Caermarthen in South Wales in 1777, and graduated in the university of Glasgow in 1801. In 1811 he became fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and two years afterwards a licentiate of the London College of Physicians. In 1815 he gave his first course of lectures on midwifery, and in 1816 was elected physician to the royal maternity charity, which office he held till his death. At this period he especially devoted his attention to instrumental midwifery, and by his inventions and careful investigations, the results of which he published in his work on the subject in 1825, he has done more than any other practitioner to throw light on the safe and judicious use of instruments in cases where life would otherwise be sacrificed. In 1827 he was appointed to the chair of midwifery in University college, and on the institution of the hospital he was elected obstetric physician. He continued his responsible services connected with these appointments until the 4th of December, 1841, when he was attacked with an illness which, after a few weeks' confinement, proved fatal. He was in full mental vigour to the last. Dr. Davis filled the distinguished office of physician accoucheur to the duchess of Kent, on the occasion of the birth of her present majesty Queen Victoria, and he was honoured by the friendship and regard of the duke of Kent as long as he lived. Dr. Davies is worthily represented by his son. Dr. John Hall Davis, who adds to the advantages derived from the experience and teaching of his father indefatigable industry, patient investigation, and great powers of original observation.—E. L.
DAVIS, Edward, an English sailor, who was chief of a company of buccaneers, lived about the close of the seventeenth century. He served on board the Revanche, a privateer of thirty-six guns, commanded by John Cook, in company with the celebrated Dampier. Cook died at the Gallapagos isles, and Davis was elected in his room. Having received a reinforcement of French buccaneers, they penetrated into the South Sea with ten ships, and committed great ravages on the coast of Peru. They were repulsed, however, at Panama by a Spanish squadron, but on the 3rd of November, 1684, they attacked Payta, and reduced it to ashes after a siege of six days. In the following year they ravaged the most fertile parts of the coast, and seized a number of merchant ships. Dampier quitted them at Guatemala to follow Captain Swan, and Davis continued his depredations along the coasts of Peru and Chili, and then proceeded to the Gallapagos to divide his booty. He subsequently joined a band of French buccaneers who had just captured the town of Guayaquil, and obtained a share of their immense plunder. Davis availed himself of an amnesty by James II. to return to England in 1688, and died at an advanced age.—J. T.
DAVIS, Edward, a painter and engraver, native of Wales, and born in 1640. His studies were prosecuted in Paris, but his fame earned in England, where, especially by his engraved portraits of the last of the reigning Stuarts, and of many amongst the leading men of the court of William of Orange, he deserved and obtained a great amount of admiration. His pictures are not generally known, and it is therefore argued that their merit must have been entirely eclipsed by the greater success of his works as an engraver.—R. M.
DAVIS, Rev. Henry Edwards, was born at Windsor in 1756. He was educated at Balliol college, Oxford, of which he became fellow and tutor. When only twenty-one years of age, he published an "Examination of the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." This performance, in which he charges Gibbon with misrepresentations of authors cited, and with inaccuracy in his statements, was reckoned so considerable as to require an answer from the pen of the historian himself Davis wrote a rejoinder to Gibbon's vindication. He died in 1784 in the firm belief of the faith which he had defended.—R. M., A.
* DAVIS, Jefferson, recently secretary-at-war of the United States, and now a senator in congress, was born in Kentucky about 1805, but was taken by his parents while yet an infant to Mississippi, which has ever since been his home. Upon graduating at Westport military academy he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the army, and served in that capacity during what is called the "Blackhawk war," in the northwest. For two years afterwards he served on the western frontier against the Camanche and Pawnee Indians. In 1835 he resigned his military commission to become a cotton-planter in Mississippi, and engage in politics in connection with the democratic party. In 1845 he was elected to congress; but the Mexican war having broken out, he was chosen, while yet at Washington and without his
