DEFIANCE
5*5
DELAGOA BAY
There are a public library and a good high-school. South Deerfiela, a village in the township, has some importance in history as the scene in colonial times of several conflicts with the Indians. Here, in 1675, occurred the Bloody Brook Massacre which is commemorated by a marble monument. In 1703 De Rouville with his French and Indians burned the place. In Old Deer-field there is a fine monument to the soldiers.
Defiance, Ohio, a city, the county seat of Defiance County, 50 miles southwest of Toledo. It is situated at the forks of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers, on the Miami & Erie Canal and on the Wabash and Baltimore & Ohio railways. It is in a good farming and stock-raising region, and, besides flour-mills, has many important manufactures, machine-shops, wagon-works and hoop, stave and barrel-shops. It is the seat of Defiance College, and has a public library. Population, 7,327.
Definitive Nucleus (in plants),^ a peculiar cell of the embryo-sac of angiosperms, which gives rise to the endosperm. See EMBRYO-SAC.
Defoe (de /<?')> Daniel, famous as the author of Robinson Crusoe, was born at London, most likely in 1661, and was the son of a butcher. He at first intended to become a minister, but instead engaged in business. Little is known of his early life; but it seems he was with Monmouth's army and also in King William's army in 1688; later on, he traveled in France and Spain and became bankrupt; but afterward he paid all or most of his debts. Toward the close of William Ill's reign, he became noted as an able and busy writer of pamphlets in favor of the king's policy. His poem, The True-born Englishman, was written to apologize for the king's being a Dutchman, by showing that the English themselves were descended from various races. Defoe was a dissenter, and as such wrote his pamphlet, The Shortest Way with Dissenters. The house of commons ordered the book to be burned. Defoe was tried and sentenced to pay a fine, to stand thrice in the pillory and to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure. He stood in the pillory on the last three days of July, 1703, in the midst of a mob of friends who protected him from insult and even drank his health. While in prison, he kept on writing, and founded his Review, at first a weekly. In August, 1704, he was let out of prison, through the efforts of Harley, whose fortunes he followed from that time on, serving him well as a writer of political pamphlets. In 1719 he issued the first volume of Robinson Crusoe, which at once leaped into that popularity which it will never cease to keep. Others of his books are Captain Singleton, a work of much brilliancy; Memoirs of a Cavalier, perhaps the most real and truthful of all
historical romances, which the great Chatham accepted as genuine history; The Fortunes of Moll Flanders; and A History of the Plague^. Defoe died on April 26, 1731. See Lives, by Minto, Chadwick and Lee.
Dehis'cence (in plants), the opening of a spore-vessel or seed-vessel to discharge spores or seeds. Almost all sporangia dehisce in some way to discharge their spores, and very many fruits dehisce to discharge their seeds.
De Kalb, John, Baron, was born in Alsace on June 29, 1721. He entered the French army, and rose to be brigadier-general. In 1768 he was sent to America on a secret mission by his government. With Lafayette he joined the American army under Washington, in 1777, with the rank of major-general. In 1780 he was sent to re-inforce General Lincoln, who was then besieged at Charleston, but failed to reach him in time. At the battle of Camden he was second in command to General Gates, and was at the head of the Maryland and Delaware troops. He held his ground till Cornwallis sent against him his whole force. During the last charge he fell pierced with n wounds. He died three days later, Aug. 19, 1780.
De Koven, Henry L. Reginald, A.meri-can musical composer, was born at Middle-town, N. H., April 3, 1859, and studied at Stuttgart and Florence. Returning to America, he for a time was a musical critic on New York periodicals, but soon began a career as composer of songs and operas. His chief compositions are Robin Hood, Don Quixote, The Mandarin, The Highwayman, The Three Dragoons, etc.
Delacroix (de-ld'krwaf), Eugene, a French painter, chief of the romantic school, was born at Charenton-Saint-Maurice, near Paris, April 26, 1799. In 1822 he exhibited his first work, Dante and Vergil. Other paintings are The Massacre of Scio and Blind Milton Dictating Paradise Lost. He died at Paris on Aug. 13, 1863.
Delagoa Bay (del'd-go'd bd), a now important inlet on the southeast coast of Africa, in the Portuguese province of Lorenzo Marques. It is available for vessels of large tonnage. The Olifant or Limpopo River flows into it, north of the town of Lorenzo Marques. A railway runs inland for 57 miles through the colony, and is continued through the Transvaal, 290 miles distant, to Pretoria. The Beira railway has a length of 204 miles in the colony, and is continued from the British frontier to Bulawayo. The coast region is swampy and malarial. There is telegraphic communication with the Transvaal system. It is stated that Britain, in view of the situation of affairs in South Africa, desires to purchase the Portuguese possessions in East Africa, Britain, it is under-
