The New Gresham Encyclopedia Part 12

The campaign in German South-West Africa was held up at first by the revolt in South Africa, which had to be crushed before General Botha was free to give his undivided attention to the task which he had offered to undertake in proof of the Union's loyalty. A preliminary move had been made in September by the occupation of the coastal harbours, Luderitz Bay and Swakopmund, from which the Germans retired to concentrate in Windhoek, their capital inland. A 'regrettable incident' occurred on 26th Sept., 1914, when a British patrol was attacked at Sandfontein and a small relief force compelled to surrender. This was followed by news of the revolt of Maritz, who had been partly responsible for the reverse at Sandfontein; and the small civil war which followed in South Africa, though nipped in the bud by the sterling loyalty of most South Africans, served to postpone the conquest of German South-West Africa until the following year.

When the campaign began in earnest in the spring of 1915, the whole south-eastern part of the German colony had already been cleared by Colonel van Deventer, whose desert march with three separate columns in these preliminary operations was one of the outstanding achievements of the campaign. In the great converging march which followed, led in the south by General s.m.u.ts, and in the north by General Botha, with columns consisting largely of mounted burghers from the Transvaal and Orange Free State, the Germans were outfought and outmanoeuvred throughout. The advance began on 27th April, and by 5th May Botha, building a light railway with supplies behind him, entered Karibib without opposition, and Windhoek a week later, the Germans, 5000 strong but greatly outnumbered, withdrawing the bulk of their forces to the north. Twice they proposed an armistice, offering terms, but the only terms that Botha would agree to implied unconditional surrender. Having rested and refitted his men after this trying trek across country from Swakopmund, he proceeded to enforce these terms by a series of remarkable marching feats, with his own columns in the centre and those of Brits and Myburgh to left and right respectively, starting on 18th June. In less than a week Botha's force had covered 100 miles and captured Otyiwarango; on 1st July, after a brief rest, his infantry were in touch with the enemy's main force, entrenched from Otavi to Tsumeb, with Brits and Myburgh sweeping round on either side. On 8th July all resistance collapsed with the total surrender of the Germans under Colonel Franks, the military commandant. The whole campaign in South-West Africa did not cost us more than 140 lives, and total casualties amounting to 1200.

The conquest of German East Africa was a very different affair. It was opposed by a force which, at its maximum, could muster 25,000 well-drilled troops--2000 of them Europeans--with 60 guns and machine-guns, and sufficient supplies of ammunition; the whole commanded by von Lettow-Vorbeck, a leader of resource and inflexible determination. When, at the outbreak of war, the British cruisers _Astraea_ and _Pegasus_ bombarded Dar-es-Salaam and destroyed the wireless station, the Germans retaliated by crippling the _Pegasus_, then lying at Mombasa, with their fast cruiser _Konigsberg_, which had fled to East Africa after escaping the fate of the rest of von Spee's squadron off the Falkland Islands. They also raided the Uganda railway, occupied Taveta on the British East African border, and threatened an advance on Mombasa along the coast. This was checked by the arrival of British reinforcements, naval and military, the naval units of which forced the _Konigsberg_ to seek the shelter of the Rufigi River, where, as already stated, she was afterwards destroyed.

A second expeditionary force under General Aitken was brought from India in the closing months of the year, and ordered to land at the northern German port of Tanga, with the object of cutting off the enemy troops operating on the British border. The magnitude of the task had been gravely under-estimated. Landing on 4th Nov. in difficult bush country--familiar enough to the defenders, but an impenetrable maze to the landing force--the attempt ended in disaster, costing some 800 casualties before the expedition re-embarked. Another blow was dealt by von Lettow-Vorbeck early in 1915 (19th Jan.) when he recaptured Ja.s.sin, gallantly held to the last by Indian troops under Colonel Ragbir Singh; but in the same month he lost one of his chief ports on Victoria Nyanza; in the following May other British forces captured Sphinxhaven after an action by armed steamers; and a blockade was declared of the German East African coast, where the Island of Mafia, off the mouth of the Rufigi River, was also seized. Several blockade-runners succeeded in getting through to von Lettow-Vorbeck with much-needed supplies of ammunition; and with Britain's hands full to overflowing with other campaigns, the main German forces in East Africa had perforce to be left until Botha had completed the conquest of South-West Africa, and the Union was free to lend a hand in expelling the Germans from the last and most valuable of their colonies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map ill.u.s.trating the blockade of the German East African Coast--the shaded area--and the military operations early in 1915]

When at length the new expeditionary force was nearly ready, the command was given to General Smith-Dorrien, but he was forced to relinquish it through ill-health shortly after landing in Africa. His place was filled by General s.m.u.ts, who arrived on the scene in Feb., 1916, and started his campaign in the following month by clearing the enemy from the British borderland and the Kilimanjaro district. Much valuable spade-work had been previously done in this direction by General Tighe as a preliminary to sweeping the enemy's main forces southwards, while the Belgians from the Belgian Congo cleared his north-western province of Ruanad, and British forces drove his garrisons from the sh.o.r.es of Victoria Nyanza. The first stage in the new campaign was closed when s.m.u.ts established his head-quarters at Mos.h.i.+, where he reorganized his force in three divisions, one (British and Indian) under Hoskins, the other two (South African) under van Deventer and Brits. Van Deventer's force had the hardest task in clearing the Germans from Kondoa Irangi on his march to the central railway, von Lettow-Vorbeck making his one great defensive stand in this direction. Van Deventer, however, was too quick for him; beat off his counter-attack after the capture of Kondoa Irangi (19th April, 1916); and struck hard when he attempted to bar the progress of s.m.u.ts's other two columns, which, after clearing the Gare and Usambara mountains in May and June, had pushed into the Nguru hills from Kangata. By this time the Germans realized that they were outmatched both in strategy and numbers, and the bulk of them would probably have shortened the war but for von Lettow-Vorbeck, who was determined to hold out, if possible, until the fate of Germany's 'place in the sun' had been decided on the battlefields of Europe. More than once it seemed as though he could not escape the wide net which s.m.u.ts flung out to trap him, but he proved as elusive as De Wet in the South African War, usually escaping with his diminis.h.i.+ng forces through tracks unknown to his pursuers.

All the railways and ports were lost during the remainder of 1916.

Dar-es-Salaam, the capital, surrendering on 3rd Sept. Towards the end of that year the Belgians from the Congo under General Tombeur drove the enemy from Tabora, on the central railway; British troops under General Northey helped in the converging movement from Northern Rhodesia--which had been invaded by the Germans at the beginning of the war--by advancing as far as Iringa. In the extreme south some Portuguese had also joined in the movement by an advance across the Rovuma River, but were forced back by a German column, and punished by raiding parties in their own territory.

The campaign seemed practically over at the beginning of 1917, when General s.m.u.ts was summoned to Great Britain to share in an imperial conference, and General Hoskins was left to account for the remainder of the enemy, now hemmed in on nearly all sides in the south-eastern corner of the colony, with von Lettow-Vorbeck's head-quarters at Mahenge. Torrential rains came to the Germans' rescue, and little progress had been made before Hoskins, called away to another theatre of war, was succeeded by General van Deventer in May (1917). Guerrilla warfare continued throughout the year, in which both sides suffered heavily, but it was not until 1st Dec. that van Deventer could report that the former Germany colony was at length clear of the enemy. Forced out of Mahenge (occupied by the Belgians on 9th Oct.), the Germans retired in two main bodies towards the Portuguese frontier, one under Tafel, which was cut off and compelled to surrender on 26th Nov., and the other under von Lettow-Vorbeck, which contrived to escape across the border and continue the war in Mozambique for nearly another year. Allied columns pursued the remnants unceasingly, but could never get to real grips with them in the difficult bush country between the Rovuma and the Zambesi.

Towards the end of September, 1918, von Lettow-Vorbeck dashed back, recrossed the Rovuma, and coolly marched across the south-western corner of German East Africa into Northern Rhodesia, where he was being finally rounded up when news arrived of the Armistice. It was not, however, until 12th Nov. that the German leader was able to comply with the Armistice terms of unconditional surrender on his part, tendering his submission to the British magistrate at Kasama. In recognition of their "gallant and prolonged resistance", von Lettow-Vorbeck and his officers were permitted by General van Deventer to retain their swords, while the European rank and file were allowed to carry their arms as far as Dar-es-Salaam.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Earl French, _Despatches_; Earl Haig, _Despatches_ (edited by Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Boraston); Sir Julian Corbett, _The Official History of the War: Naval Operations_; Viscount Jellicoe, _The Grand Fleet, 1914-1916_, and _The Crisis of the Naval War_; Filson Young, _With the Battle Cruisers_; F. A. Mumby and others, _The Great World War_ (9 vols.); _The Times History and Encyclopedia of the War_ (21 vols.); A. F. Pollard, _A Short History of the Great War_; Lord Edward Gleichen, _Chronology of the War_; Thomas G. Frothingham, _A Guide to the Military History of the World War, 1914-1918_; Sir James Willc.o.c.ks, _With the Indians in France_; W. T. Ma.s.sey, _How Jerusalem was Won_, and _Allenby's Final Triumph_; John Masefield, _Gallipoli_; Sir Ian Hamilton, _Gallipoli Diary_; Sir Charles Townshend, _My Campaign in Mesopotamia_; V. J. Seligman, _The Salonica Side-Show_; Angus Buchanan, _Three Years of War in East Africa_; Boyd Cable, _Airmen o' War_; J. F. C. Fuller, _Tanks in the Great War; Germany's Violation of the Laws of War, 1914-1915_ (translated from the French Official Records); _Ypres, 1914_ (published by order of German General Staff, translated by G. C. W.); Theobald Bethmann-Hollweg, _Reflections on the World War_ (translated by G. Young); General Ludendorff, _My War Memories, 1914-1918_; Marshal von Hindenburg, _Out of my Life_ (translated by F. A. Holt); Count Czernin, _In the World War_.

EUROTIUM. See _Plectascineae_.

EURYDICE ([=u]-rid'i-s[=e]), in Greek mythology, the wife of Orpheus (q.v.).

EUSE'BIUS, of Caesarea, the father of ecclesiastical history, a Greek writer, born in Palestine about A.D. 265, died about 340. About 315 he was appointed Bishop of Caesarea. When the Arian controversy broke out, Eusebius showed considerable sympathy with Arius. At the Council of Nicaea (A.D.

325), when Arian doctrines were condemned, he took a leading part. His ecclesiastical history (_Historia Ecclesiastica_) extends from the birth of Christ to 324. Amongst his other extant works is a life of Constantine the Great, which may be said to continue his ecclesiastical history to within a few years of the writer's own death.

EUSPORANGIATE FERNS, those in which the sporangium is a ma.s.sive organ arising from several cells, whereas in leptosporangiate ferns it is a more delicate structure derived from a single superficial cell. The bulk of living ferns are leptosporangiate, the eusporangiate cla.s.s comprising only two living families, viz. the Marattiaceae and Ophioglossaceae, as well as many extinct types. The eusporangiate types include the more primitive ferns; all the other main groups of Pteridophytes, and the seed-plants are also eusporangiate.

EUSTACHIAN TUBE, in anatomy, a ca.n.a.l leading from the pharynx to the tympanum of the ear.

EUSTACHIO, Bartolomeo, Italian physician and anatomist, born soon after 1500, died about 1574. He devoted himself to medical science and in particular to anatomy, which he much enriched by his researches. Amongst his discoveries were the _eustachian tube_ and the eustachian valve of the heart.

EUSTATIUS, ST., or ST. EUSTACHE ISLAND, a Dutch island in the W. Indies, one of the Leeward Islands, 11 miles north-west of St. Christopher's, pyramidal in form; area, 8 sq. miles. Sugar, cotton, and maize are raised; but the princ.i.p.al production is tobacco. The climate is healthy, but earthquakes are frequent. Pop. 1431.

EUTER'PE, (1) one of the Muses, considered as presiding over lyric poetry, the invention of the flute being ascribed to her. She is usually represented as a virgin crowned with flowers, having a flute in her hand.

(2) In botany, a genus of palms, natives of South America, sometimes nearly 100 feet in height.

EUTHANASIA, literally, a painless or easy death, a term often used in connection with the theory or proposal that it should be lawful to administer drugs to bring about a painless death, in the case of persons suffering from painful and hopeless diseases.

EUTRO'PIUS, Flavius, a Latin historian, who flourished about A.D. 360. His abridgment of the history of Rome (_Breviarium Historiae Romanae_) is written in a perspicuous style, and is often read, or rather spelled out word by word, by beginners in Latin. It is of little or no authority as a history.

EUTYCHES ([=u]'ti-k[=e]z), a Greek heresiarch who lived in the fifth century after Christ. He was superior of a monastery near Constantinople, and his heresy consisted in maintaining that after the incarnation there was only a divine nature in Christ under the appearance of a human body.

The doctrines of Eutyches were condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and he was expelled from his monastery. He died not long afterwards.

His followers were often called Monophysites (Gr. _monos_, single, _physis_, nature) as well as Eutychians.

EUXANTHINE, a substance supposed to be derived from the bile or urine of the buffalo, camel, or elephant. It comes from India under the name of purree or Indian yellow, and is used as a pigment.

EUX'INE (_Pontus Eux[=i]nus_), the ancient name for the Black Sea.

EVANGEL'ICAL, a term often used to qualify certain theological views, especially strict views on the question of the atonement, justification by faith, the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, and allied doctrines. In England the so-called Low Church party is evangelical in its views. In a more general sense the word implies a peculiar fervency and earnestness in insisting on such doctrines as regeneration and redemption.

The 'Evangelical Church' is the official t.i.tle of the Established Church of Prussia, formed in 1817 by the union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, an a.s.sociation of members of different sections of the Christian Church, organized in London in 1845, to lend its influence in favour of evangelical doctrines, religious union and liberty, and against superst.i.tion and unbelief. The Alliance, incorporated in 1912, has branches throughout the world, the American branch being especially strong, and has held meetings at Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Geneva, New York, Copenhagen, Florence, and London. A week of united prayer is held in London in the early part of January each year. The organ of the Alliance, _Evangelical Christendom_, is published in London.

EVANGELICAL a.s.sOCIATION, a body of American Christians, chiefly of German descent, established about the beginning of the last century. In form of government and mode of wors.h.i.+p it generally agrees with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

EVANGELICAL UNION, the name of a religious sect, also familiarly known as the Morisonians, from the Rev. James Morison, its originator. It took rise in Scotland in 1840, and three years afterwards organized itself as a separate Christian denomination. The Morisonians maintain the universality of the atonement, combining with this the doctrine of eternal personal and unconditional election, and denying that anyone will be condemned for Adam's fall. In point of government the individual Churches are independent. The body has now only a few adherents, the majority having united in 1896 with the Congregationalists.

EVAN'GELISTS, the writers of the history or doctrines, precepts, actions, life, and death of Christ; in particular, the _four evangelists_, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The ancient symbols of the four evangelists are: for Matthew, _a man's face_; for Mark, _a lion_; for Luke, _an ox_; and for John, _a flying eagle_.

EV'ANS, Sir Arthur John, born in 1851, son of Sir John Evans. He was educated at Harrow, Oxford, and Gottingen, is a distinguished archaeologist, as well as an investigator into the history and affairs of Eastern Europe, and in particular has made important investigations and discoveries in Crete. He has travelled in Finland, Lapland, and the Balkan countries, and has written works connected with these travels and with his archaeological researches. From 1884 to 1908 he was keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He was knighted in 1911, and was president of the British a.s.sociation 1916-7. Among his works are: _Through Bosnia_, and _Scripta Minoa_.

EVANS, Sir George de Lacy, a British general, born at Moig, in Ireland, in 1787, died 9th Jan., 1870. After some years of service in India, he joined the army of Wellington in the Peninsula in 1812, where he served with distinction. In 1814 he was sent to America, and was present at the battles of Bladensburg and New Orleans, returning to Europe in time to take part in Waterloo. In 1830 and 1831 he was elected member for Rye, and in 1833 for Westminster. In 1835 he was appointed to the command of 10,000 troops raised in Britain on behalf of the Queen of Spain. Under the training of Evans this force became an excellent army, and several times defeated the Carlists. During the Crimean War he distinguished himself as commander of the second division of the English army, and received the thanks of the House and other honours.

EVANS, Sir John, English archaeologist, born in 1823, died in 1908, was an active member of a firm of paper-makers, but eventually retired from business and devoted himself chiefly to scientific pursuits, being distinguished as a geologist, numismatist, and antiquarian. From 1878 till 1896 he was treasurer of the Royal Society; in 1897 he was president at the Toronto meeting of the British a.s.sociation. He was created a K.C.B. in 1892. His chief works are: _The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland_; and _The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland_.

EV'ANSTON, a city of the United States, Illinois, 13 miles from Chicago. It is pleasantly situated on Lake Michigan. It is the seat of the North-Western University and other inst.i.tutions. Pop. 37,215.

EV'ANSVILLE, a town in the United States, in Indiana, pleasantly situated on a height above the Ohio. It contains some handsome buildings, including custom-house and post office. Coal and iron abound in the vicinity, and there are numerous factories, flour-mills, and iron-foundries, and a large s.h.i.+pping trade. Pop. 85,264.

EVAPORATION, the process of changing a liquid into vapour, which goes on at the surface of the liquid. When evaporation takes place into a closed s.p.a.ce above the liquid, a state is reached in which the s.p.a.ce is saturated with vapour, and no further change is apparent. Certain conditions influence the rate at which evaporation takes place in the open, such as the extent of the exposed surface, the dryness, pressure, and temperature of the air, and the presence or absence of wind. The farmer looks for a drying wind to dry his corn-sheaves before they are carted from the field. Evaporation is always accompanied by an absorption of heat by the vapour, namely the latent heat necessary for the change of state from liquid to vapour. This heat is abstracted from the liquid, which, as a consequence, falls in temperature, and neighbouring bodies may also be cooled. A bather emerging from the water experiences this cooling as the water evaporates from his skin. In hot countries, water is kept cool by being placed in porous earthenware jars: the evaporation which takes place at the outer surface prevents the water in the jar from becoming too warm. The continual evaporation from land and water surfaces is the cause of the presence of water in the atmosphere, whether in the form of invisible vapour or of cloud, mist, fog, rain, hail, or snow. The cooling caused by evaporation is applied in industry in the case of the ammonia compression machine, in working refrigerating plant for the preservation of food-stuffs, and in the manufacture of artificial ice. When evaporation takes place at the surface of a dry solid, the process is called sublimation, and it may be observed in the cases of iodine, camphor, and ice.

EV'ELYN, John, an English writer of the seventeenth century, born at Wotton, in Surrey, 31st Oct., 1620, died there, 27th Feb., 1706. After completing his course at Oxford, he studied law at the Middle Temple, visited various parts of the Continent, and in 1659 prepared the way for the Restoration. He published numerous works, amongst which are: _Sculptura, or the History and Art of Chalcography_; _Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees_; treatises on gardening and architecture. But by far his most important work is his memoirs, comprehending a diary and correspondence, which are interesting contributions to the history of the time. Evelyn's _Diary_ was first published in 1818, and an edition by Austin Dobson appeared in 1906.--Cf. H. Maynard Smith, _The Early Life of John Evelyn_.

EVENING-PRIMROSE, Oenoth[)e]ra, a genus of plants, nat. ord. Onagraceae.

_Oe. biennis_, an American species common in cottage gardens, is not infrequent as an escaped plant in England.

EV'EREST, MOUNT, the highest summit of the Himalayas and the loftiest mountain in the world, 29,002 feet. It was named after Sir George Everest (1790-1866), chief of the great Indian trigonometrical survey and Surveyor-General of India. In 1921 an expedition set out to climb the mountain.

EV'ERETT, Alexander Hill, an American diplomatist, born at Boston in 1792, died at Canton in 1847. After studying at Harvard, in 1809 he accompanied John Quincy Adams to St. Petersburg (Petrograd) as Secretary of Legation.

He afterwards filled successive diplomatic posts in the Netherlands, Spain, and elsewhere. He was the author, amongst other works, of _Europe, or a General Survey of the Present Situation of the Princ.i.p.al Powers_ (1822); and a similar work on America.

EVERETT, Edward, an American statesman and author, brother of the preceding, born at Dorchester, Ma.s.sachusetts, 11th April, 1794, died at Boston, 15th Jan., 1865. After travelling for some years in Germany and England, he returned to America in 1819 to occupy the chair of Greek literature at Harvard. He became editor of the _North American Review_, and entering the political world became successively member of Congress, Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, and Minister Plenipotentiary in England (1841-5). In 1845 he was appointed president of Harvard College; in 1852 Secretary of State; in 1853 a Senator. He wrote poems; a _Defence of Christianity_, and his speeches and orations have been published.

EVERGREEN, a plant that retains its verdure through all the seasons, as the fir, the holly, the laurel, the cedar, the cypress, the juniper, the holm-oak, and many others. Evergreens shed their old leaves in the spring or summer, after the new foliage has been formed, and consequently are verdant through all the winter season. They form a considerable part of the shrubs commonly cultivated in gardens, and are beautiful at all seasons of the year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Everlasting Flower (_Helichrysum sentii_)]

EVERLASTING-FLOWERS, a name applied to certain plants which, when dried, suffer little change in their appearance. The plants to which this name is peculiarly applied belong to the genus Helichrysum, but it is also given to members of allied genera, such as Antennaria or Gnaphalium.

EVERLASTING-PEA, a popular name for _Lathyrus latifolius_, cultivated in flower-gardens, and belonging to the same genus as the sweet-pea.

EVERSION OF THE EYELIDS (Ectropion), is a turning outward of the eyelids, and it may be congenital or acquired. The latter follows severe infection of the hair-follicles of the eyelashes.

EVESHAM ([=e]vz'am), a town in England, in the county and 15 miles S.E. of Worcester, beautifully situated on the Avon, and giving name to a parliamentary division of the county. It was the seat of a monastery as early as the eighth century. Simon de Montfort was defeated by the Royal troops at Evesham on 4th Aug., 1265. Pop. 8685.

EVICTION, the dispossession of a person from the occupancy of lands or tenements. The term occurs most commonly in connection with the proceedings by which a landlord ejects his tenant for non-payment of rent or on determination of the tenancy. In the case of eviction of tenants in Ireland, generally for non-payment of rent, the tenants are frequently readmitted as care-takers, or under some other t.i.tle. The Rent Restrictions Act, 1920, operative until 1923, severely curtails a landlord's common law rights to recover possession of certain premises at the time when, but for the Act, the tenancy would expire.