buildings are the caravanserais, which consist of
long galleries supported by marble pillars, and
surrounding a large square court. The castle is
like a little town, having its own Streets and hous-
es : and the famous Damascus steel was kept here
in a magazine. The mosques, of which there
are about 200, are extremely handsome edifi-
cies, the most stately of which was a Christian
church. One street runs across the city and sub-
urbs in a direct line, on each side of which are
shops, where all sorts of rich merchandise are
sold. Several manufactures are carried on here,
among which that of sabres and knives has been
the most famous. Damascus is one of the most
ancient places existing; it is mentioned by Abra-
ham 1917 years before the Christian era, as the
place near which he encountered the forces of
Chedorlaomer king of Elam, (Persia,) and res-
cued his nephew Lot with considerable treasure,
which the Elamites had taken from the cities of
the plain. It afterwards became the capital of
an independent kingdom, and at a later period
became subject to the Jews. It was conquered
by the Romans; and after the fall of the Roman
empire, Damascus became the seat of the grand
caliph of the Saracens, who surrendered it to the
Turkish emperor Selim, the third of the Otto-
man dynasty about 1515. It has continued sub-
ject to the Turks since that time. The pachalic
which extends from the desert of Arabia, through
five degrees of latitude to Aleppo, is considered
the most valuable and important of all the Turk-
ish possessions. The pacha makes an annual
journey to Mecca, as the representative of the
grand seignior. (See Syria.) Damascus is seated
sixty miles from the sea, at Bernt, in the lat. of

33. 30. N., 130 miles N. N. E. of Jerusalem, and
170 S. hy W. of Aleppo.

Damascus, towns in Wayne Co. Pa., Frederick
Co. Md., and Logan Co. Ohio.

Damaun, a sea-port of Hindoostan, in the
country of Baglana, at the entrance of the Gulf
of Cambay. Aurungzebe besieged it about the
middle of the seventeenth century, with an army
of 40,000 men; but the garrison sallying out on
a part of his camp, guarded by 200 elephants, so
terrified those animals by their fire-arms, that they
turned on their masters, and trampled to death
half his army. The Persees (see Bachu) have a
celebrated temple here. It is subject to the Por-
tuguese. and is sixty miles south of Surat. Long.

72. 47. E., lat. 20. 18 N.

Damegan, or Damgan, a town of Persia, seated
near the south shore of the Caspian Sea, in the
district of Mazenderan. It is supposed once to
have been the seat of government of the Parthian
empire. It is 90 m. east by south of Ferrabad,
and 300 north by east of Ispahan.

Damgimin. or Damgard, a town of Hither
Pomerania, with a castle-seated at the mouth of
the Recknitx. 18 m. W. of Stralsund.

Damietta. a town of Egypt, and a Greek arch-
bishop's see. with a good harbour, at one of the
eastern months of the Nile. It has several
squares, various grand mosques, and public baths
faced with marble. The rice mezelaoui, the
finest in Egypt, is cultivated in the neighbouring
plains. Here are likewise Indian stuffs, silk, sal
ammoniac, wheat, &c. The Christians of Aleppo
and Damascus carry on the principal trade, the
Turks being indolent, and contenting themselves
with occasional extortions. During the crusades,
Damietta was frequently an object of contention.
It surrendered to the French in 1798, since which
period it has been on the decline. It is about
ninety miles east of Alexandria, the sam*
distance north by east of Cairo, in the lat. of 31.

26. N,, and 31. 50. of E. long. Pop. about 30,000.

Damm, a town of Further Pomerania, which
has a considerable trade in steel manufactures. It
is seated at the south end of a lake of the same
name, near the mouth of the Oder, 8 m. E. S. E.
of Stettin. Pop. about 2,000.

Damme, a town of the Netherlands, in Flan-
ders, seated on the canal between Sluys and
Bruges, 5 m. N. by E. of Bruges.

Damme, or Appingedam, a town of Holland, in
Groningen, seated on the Damster, near the
mouth of the Ems, 14 miles N. E. of Groningen.

Dampier's Land, in the lat. of 19. S., on the
west coast of NewNHolland, so called from a nav-
igator of that name, who visited it in 1688, and
who reported having discovered a large river or
deep inlet of the sea in that part, but tye assertion
yet remains to be confirmed.

Dan, a river of North Carolina, rising in Vir
ninia and falling into the Roanoke near Mecklen
burg.

Dana, t.Worcester Co. Mass. Pop. 623.

Danbury, a village in Essex, England, 5 m. E.
of Chelmsford, and 16 W. of the seq. It stands
on the highest ground in the county, and the
spire of the church serves as a sea-mark. Pop. in
1821, 1,005.

Danbury, t. Grafton Co. N. H. 93 m. from Bos-
ton. Pop. 786.

Danbury, a town of Connecticut, in Fairfield
County. This town, with a large quantity of
military stores, was burnt by the British in 1777.
It is 20 miles N. N. W. of Fairfield, and 65 N. N
E. of New York. Pop. 4,325.

Danby, ph. Rutland Co. Vt. Pop. 1,362.

Dancali, a country in the east part of Abyssinia,
at the entrance to the Red Sea. The soil is un-
productive; and its chief riches consist in fossil
salt and honey. It is governed by a prince nomi-
nally tributary to the. negus, or emperor of Abys-
sinia. Bailor is the principal town.

Dandridge, ph. Jefferson Co. Ten.

Danielsville, p.v. Spotsylvania Co. Va. and Mad-
ison Co. Geo.

Danger, Isles of, three islands in the Pacific
Ocean, seen by Byron in 1765, but so surrounded
by rocks and breakers, that it was unsafe to land.
The commodore supposed them to be the islands
seen by Quiros, in the beginning of the seven-
teenth century, and named Solomon’s Islands.
Long. 169. 28. W., lat. 10. 15. S.

Dannemora, or Dammora, the most celebrated
iron mine in Sweden. It produces from four to
five thousand tons of iron of the very best quality
annually. It is about thirty miles N. of Upsal.

DannenJburg, a town of Lower Saxony, in the
duchy of Luneburg, capital of a district of the
same name; seated on the Jetze, near the Elbe,
30 m. E. by S. of Luneburg.

Dansville, ph. Steuben Co. N. Y. Pop. 1,728.

Dantzic, a city of Europe, very advantageously
located on the west bank of the Vistula, about five
miles above its entrance into the Baltic Sea, in
the lat of 54. 21. N., and 18. 38. of E. long. It
is supposed to have been first founded by the
Danes in the twelfth century, and for some time
continued a free and independent city. In 1454
it became subject to Poland, retaining, however,
all its municipal institutions, and long continued
to rank as the chief commercial city of the north
of Europe, included in the Hanseatic league. At