mmitted suicide from grief at the disgrace; and the adventurer
withdrew in 1833 to Brazil, and proceeded to make explorations in the
valley of the Amazon. According to Dr G. Gardner, in his _Travels in the
Interior of Brazil_ (1846), he was murdered in 1837 on the banks of the
Sao Francisco for charging too high for his medical assistance. Douville
may well have explored part of the province of Angola, and Sir Richard
Burton maintained that the Frenchman's descriptions of the country of
the Congo were lifelike; that his observations on the anthropology,
ceremonies, customs and maladies of the people were remarkably accurate;
and that even the native words used in his narrative were "for the most
part given with unusual correctness." It has been shown, however, that
the chief source of Douville's inspiration was a number of unpublished
Portuguese manuscripts to which he had access.

DOUW (or DOW), GERHARD (1613-1680), Dutch painter, was born at Leiden on
the 7th of April 1613. His first instructor in drawing and design was
Bartholomew Dolendo, an engraver; and he afterwards learned the art of
glass-painting under Peter Kouwhoorn. At the age of fifteen he became a
pupil of Rembrandt, with whom he continued for three years. From the
great master of the Flemish school he acquired his skill in colouring,
and in the more subtle effects of chiaroscuro; and the style of
Rembrandt is reflected in several of his earlier pictures, notably in a
portrait of himself at the age of twenty-two, in the Bridgewater House
gallery, and in the "Blind Tobit going to meet his Son," at Wardour
Castle. At a comparatively early point in his career, however, he had
formed a manner of his own distinct from, and indeed in some respects
antagonistic to, that of his master. Gifted with unusual clearness of
vision and precision of manipulation, he cultivated a minute and
elaborate style of treatment; and probably few painters ever spent more
time and pains on all the details of their pictures down to the most
trivial. He is said to have spent five days in painting a hand; and his
work was so fine that he found it necessary to manufacture his own
brushes. Notwithstanding the minuteness of his touch, however, the
general effect was harmonious and free from stiffness, and his colour
was always admirably fresh and transparent. He was fond of representing
subjects in lantern or candle light, the effects of which he reproduced
with a fidelity and skill