knowledge, colonel of the first Mississippi regiment of volunteers. He immediately resigned his place in congress, and led his regiment to the Rio Grande to reinforce General Taylor. At Monterey he distinguished himself, but more especially on the bloody field of Buona Vista, where his regiment stemmed the tide of battle, at one time adverse, and lost half of its number; and he was himself severely wounded, though he kept his saddle throughout the day. Through the latter part of the war he served with much credit, and was offered, but declined the rank of brigadier-general, towards its close. Immediately after his return he was elected a senator of the United States, and continued in office till 1851. When President Pierce formed his cabinet, General Davis became secretary-at-war, but on Mr. Buchanan's election, he gave up office, and was restored to a seat in the senate. On the breaking out of the late civil war he was chosen president of the confederate states, and during its progress his administration displayed great but fruitless energy. After the capture of Richmond he was taken prisoner, but was liberated on bail in the autumn of 1867.—F. B.
DAVIS, John, a famous English seaman of the sixteenth century, was born at Sandbridge, near Dartmouth, Devonshire, and in 1585 undertook the command of an expedition for the discovery of the north-west passage. Upon June 7th, 1585, he set sail from Dartmouth with two small barques, the Sunshine, of fifty tons burden, carrying twenty-three men, in which he hoisted his own flag; and the Moonshine, of thirty-five tons burden, carrying nineteen men, and commanded by Captain Bruton. After encountering many icebergs, he reached the passage named after its discoverer Davis' Straits; but, being overtaken by contrary winds, only proceeded along it thirty or forty leagues, returning to England upon September 29th. The next year, being greatly encouraged by Secretary Walsingham, Davis undertook a second voyage, with a view of searching through the straits he had before discovered, and set sail upon 7th May, 1586, with the Mermaid, of one hundred and twenty tons burden, and a pinnace, the North Star, of ten tons, in addition to his old ships. About the beginning of June, in latitude 60°, Davis divided his little fleet, despatching the Sunshine and the North Star to seek a passage northward between Greenland and Iceland, while he proceeded with the Mermaid and the Moonshine to discover the north-west passage. The North Star was lost; the Sunshine returned to England with seal skins; while the crew of the Mermaid, being frightened at the quantity of ice, refused to proceed further with the voyage of discovery. Davis then boldly determined to advance alone with the small barque. Moonshine, but was ultimately compelled by storms to return home. Being supported by Lord Treasurer Burleigh and many merchants, Dans started for the third time. May 19th, 1587, upon the same search. Two ships were sent with him for cod-fishing, and he himself proceeded with the Helen along Davis' Straits as far as 73° latitude. He then went west and north-west, and upon this journey is said to have really discovered Hudson's Straits. He returned to England with increased faith in the north-west passage; but the death of his great patron, Walsingham, and the war with Spain prevented any further investigation. He accompanied Cavendish as rear-admiral, upon the expedition to the South Sea; and continuing in his own ship when Cavendish returned, discovered Davis' Southern Islands, and only reached England after the loss of the greater part of his men. Subsequently he acted as pilot in several voyages to the East Indies, on one occasion conducting a Dutch ship. In 1605 he was associated with Sir E. Michelbourne in a journey to the Indies, and during the return was slain in a fight with some Malay pirates upon the coast of Malacca, December 27th, 1605. Accounts of some of Davis' voyages, apparently written by himself, are to be found in Hakluyt. His discoveries were of great importance in extending both the cod and whale fisheries; and his skill and courage, his achievement of great results with ships which to day would only be esteemed as playthings, entitled him to rank as one of the sea-kings of England.—L. L. P.
DAVIS, John, LL.D., an eminent jurist and scholar of Massachusetts, U.S.A., was born at Plymouth, Mass., January 25, 1761. He practised law in his native town, whence he was repeatedly elected to the legislature of the state. In 1791 President Washington appointed him comptroller of the United States treasury, and soon afterwards district attorney for Massachusetts, when he removed his residence to Boston. In 1801 President John Adams made him judge of the district court, an office which he filled with honour and ability for full forty years. He died January 14, 1847, aged nearly eighty-six. He was deeply interested in historical and antiquarian pursuits, and was one of the founders and chief supporters of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His new edition of Morton's New England Memorial, with copious marginal notes and an appendix, is an invaluable contribution to the history of the old Plymouth colony. His minor publications were numerous.—F. B.
DAVIS, John, LL.D., governor of Massachusetts, and a senator of the United States, born in Northborough, Mass., in 1790; graduated at Yale college in 1812. He began the practice of law at Worcester, Mass., where he was successful both at the bar and in politics, being a zealous federalist. On the subsequent amalgamation and re-formation of parties, he became a national republican and a whig; the two names successively applied, after that of federalist, to the great conservative party. Always popular and upright, he was long known by the familiar name of "Honest John." He was a representative in congress from 1825 to 1833, where he was distinguished for his familiar knowledge of financial and commercial subjects, and where he actively supported the protective policy. In 1833, and again the following year, he was elected governor of the state. From 1835 to 1840 he was a senator of the United States, then governor again till 1845, and then again senator till 1853. Twenty-eight years thus passed in public service, made him thoroughly acquainted with all public questions. He was not a brilliant debater, but an upright, industrious, and sagacious statesman, who had fairly earned the popularity which he enjoyed. He had accurate knowledge of all the details of legislative business, and was much trusted in them. He died suddenly at Worcester, April 19, 1854.—F. B.
* DAVIS, Sir John Francis, first baronet, born in 1795, is the eldest son of an experienced civil servant, afterwards director of the East India Company, and one of whose achievements in connection with the so-called "Massacre of Benares" he has commemorated in a little volume, "Vizir AH Khan," &c., published in 1844. Sir John Davis accompanied Lord Amherst to Pekin in 1816, and seven years later came before the literary world as a Chinese scholar, by the publication of an edition and English version of the "Chinese Maxims," London and Macao, 1823. Resident for many years subsequently in official capacities at Canton, he contributed several valuable translations of Chinese novels, &c., to the publications of the Oriental Translation Fund. He succeeded the late Lord Napier as chief superintendent of trade at Canton—an office created after the abolition of the company's exclusive right to trade with China. He was afterwards governor of Hong Kong, and for his services in China received a baronetcy in 1845. His well-known work on "The Chinese," a title which has in later editions been altered to "China," was first published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1836. Sir John Davis is also the author of "China during the War and during the Peace," London, 1852.—F. E.
DAVIS, Matthew L., an American printer and publisher and self-taught man of letters, born in New York about 1766. For a while he was associated with the poet Freneau in editing and publishing the Timepiece, a tri-weekly literary newspaper, which was begun in 1797. Davis became a zealous politician, and wrote frequently for the public journals. He was the author of letters from Washington, published in the New York Courier and Enquirer under the signature of "The Spy in Washington," and of letters from America which appeared in the Times at London, signed a "Genevese Traveller." His most important work was "Memoirs of the Life of Aaron Burr," whose letters and journal he also edited and published. He had been deep in Burr's confidence, was intrusted with all his papers after his death, and was able to supply much of his secret history. He died in Manhatanville, N.Y., June 21, 1850.—F. B.
DAVIS, Thomas Osborne, was born in 1814 at Mallow in Ireland. From his earliest years he was distinguished by a passionate love of country; and though of an ardent temperament, he was of a deeply reflective nature. In 1835 he graduated in Trinity college, Dublin, with distinction, winning a junior moderatorship in ethics, and acquiring a high character as a laborious scholar and a man of a vast range of knowledge. Mathematics, physics, and above all politics and modern history, were his favourite pursuits. Davis, like most able youths of
