he found much congenial matter. Delacroix never went
to Italy; he refused to go on principle, lest the old
masters, either in spirit or manner, should impair his
originality and self-dependence. His greatest admiration
in literature was the poetry of Byron ; Shakespeare also
attracted him for tragic inspirations ; and of course classic
subjects had their turn on his easel.
He continued his work indefatigably, having his pictures
very seldom favourably received at the Salon. These
were sometimes very large, full of incidents, with many
figures. Drawing of Lots in the Boat at Sea, from
Byron s Don Juan, and the Taking of Constantinople by
the Christians, were of that character, and the first-
named was one of his noblest creations. In 1845
he was employed to decorate the library of the Luxem
bourg, that of the Chamber of Deputies in 1847, the
ceiling of the Gallery of Apollo in the Louvre in 1849, and
that of the Salon de la Paix in the Hotel de Ville in
1853. He died on the 13th August 1863 ; and in August
1864 an exposition of his works was opened on the Boule
vard des Italiens. It contained 174 pictures, many of
them of large dimensions, and 303 drawings, showing
immense perseverance as well as energy and versatility.
DELAGOA BAY (i.e., in Portuguese, the Bay of the Swampy Land), an inlet on the east coast of South Africa, between 25° 40' and 26° 20' S. lat., with a length from north to south of about 60 miles, and a breadth of about 20. It is protected by a series of islands stretching north from the mainland ; and in spite of a bar at the entrance, and a number of shallows within, it forms a valuable harbour, accessible to large vessels at all seasons of the year. The surrounding country is low and very unhealthy, but the island of Inyak has a height of 240 feet, and is used by the natives as a kind of sanatorium. A river 12 or 18 feet deep, variously known as the Manhissa, the Unkomogazi, or King George s River, enters at the north ; several smaller streams, the Matolla, the Dundas, and the Tembi, from the Lobombo Mountains, meet towards the middle in the estuary called the English River ; and, of greatest import ance of all, the Umzati, which has its head-waters in the Draken Berg of the Transvaal settlement, disembogues in the south. The bay was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 ; and the Portuguese post of Lorenzo Marques was established not long after to the north of the English River. A Dutch settlement was founded in 1 720 ; but in 1730 it was abandoned. In 1822 Captain Owen, finding that the Portuguese seemed to exercise no jurisdiction to the south of Lorenzo Marques, hoisted the English flag and appropriated the country from the Dundas or English River southwards ; but, when he visited the bay again in the following year, he found the Portuguese governor, Lupe de Cardenas, in posses sion, and expelled him. Between the English and Portuguese Governments the question of possession was left undecided till the claims of the republic of Transvaal brought the subject forward. In 1835 the discontented boers, under Orich, had attempted to form a settlement on the bay; and in 1868 the Transvaalian president, Martin Wessel Petronius, incorporated the country on each side of the Umzati down to the sea. The whole matter in dispute between the three powers was submitted to the arbitration of M. Thiers, the French president ; and on April 19, 1875, his successor Marshal Macmahon declared in favour of the Portuguese. In December 1876 the Lisbon Government sent out an expedition of artizans and military workmen to Lorenzo Marques, with a battery of six guns for the defence of the settlement. See Owen's "Narrative of Voyages," &c., in Journal of Roy. Geogr. Soc. 1833 ; Botelho, Mem. estat. sobre os dominios Portu- guezes na Africa Oriental, 1835 ; Report of the Min. of Marine and the Colonies of Portugal, 1863-64 ; " Baie de Delagoa," in Bulletin de la Société de Géogr. 1873.
DELAMBRE, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH (1749–1822), an
eminent mathematician and astronomer, was born at Amiens,
September 19, 1749. He commenced his studies in the
gymnasium of that town under the celebrated poet L^elille,
with whom he maintained an intimate friendship till his
death. Having obtained an exhibition founded by one of
his ancestors for the benefit of the town of Amiens, he waa
enabled to prosecute his studies for a time at the College
du Plessis in Paris. The expiry of this privilege, however,
left him to struggle with great privations. During the
interval in which he was awaiting permanent employment
he devoted himself to historical and literary studies. He
undertook extensive translations from Latin, Greek, Italian,
and English, and at the same time entered on the study
of the mathematical sciences. For about a year he
supported himself by teaching at Compiegne. On his
return to Paris in 1771 he obtained the situation of tutor
in the family of D Assy, the receiver-general of finance.
By this time he had resolved to give himself specially to
the study of physics and astronomy.
At the College of France he attended the lectures of
Lalande, on whose works he had even at that time made
a complete commentary. This was first remarked when,
in the course of instruction, an occasion presented itself
of citing from memory a passage of Aratus. Lalande
immediately intrusted to him the most complicated
astronomical calculations, and prevailed on D Assy to
establish an observatory at his house, where Delambro
applied himself to astronomical observations. In 1781 tho
discovery of the planet Uranus by Herschel led the
Academy of Sciences to propose the determination of its
orbit as the subject of one of its annual prizes. Delambre
undertook the formation of tables of its motion, and the
prize was awarded to him. His next effort was the con
struction of solar tables, and tables of the motions of
Jupiter and Saturn. He took part in the sitting of the
Academy of Sciences when Laplace communicated 1m
important discoveries on the inequalities of Jupiter and
Saturn; and he formed the design of applying the result
of that profound analysis to the completion of tables of
the two planets. Delambre turned his attention more
especially to the satellites of Jupiter an undertaking of
great difficulty and extent. He had been engaged for
several years in the composition of his ecliptical tables,
when the Academy of Sciences offered a prize for the
subject, wlroL was awarded to him. In the same year
(1792) he was elected a member of the Academy.
Immediately afterwards he was appointed, along with
Mechain, by the French section of the joint English and
French commission to measure an arc from Dunkirk to
Barcelona as a basis for the metric system. This under
taking, in itself laborious, was rendered highly dangerous
to the personal safety of those engaged in it by the events
of the Revolution. Mechain died whilst the work was
proceeding ; and its successful termination in 1799 was due
to the ability and the prudence of Delambre. A full and
interesting account of the work was published in his Base
du Systcme Metrique Decimal (3 vols. 1806-10), for which
he obtained, by a unanimous vote, the prize awarded by
the National Institute of France to the most important
work in physical science of the preceding ten years.
Delambre, who had been chosen as an associate of
almost every scientific -body in Europe, was appointed in
1795 a member of the French Board of Longitude, and in
1803 perpetual secretary for the mathematical sciences in
the Institute. In 1 807 he succeeded Lalande in the chair of
astronomy of the College of France, and he was appointed
one of the principal directors (titulaires) of the university.
