Part 19

1676. Attack on Groton, Mass., by a body of 400 Indians, who had concealed themselves as usual in every part of the town during the night, in order to shoot down the inhabitants as they issued from their doors. The town was gathered into five garrisons, as those houses were called which were palisaded and otherwise protected from assault. Every man went constantly armed; and thus on a moment's warning, two of the enemy having been accidentally discovered, pursuit was made until they were drawn into an ambush and compelled to retreat. Another ambush in the meantime fell upon the opposite part of the town, and the flames arose from every unprotected building. Having pillaged every thing that fell in their way, and cast every indignity upon the bodies of their victims, they gave the garrison two or three volleys and disappeared. About 40 dwellings were burnt, with their outhouses; the town soon after broke up, and the inhabitants scattered to other settlements of greater safety.

1695. JOHN DE LA FONTAINE, the French poet, died. His compositions are characterized by a faithfulness to nature, and are totally unaffected.

1695. PETER MIGNARD, an eminent French painter, died. He was director and chancellor of the royal academy of painting.

1717. JOHN BELL, the traveler, arrived at Ispahan, the residence of the Persian court, being in the retinue of the Russian ambassador, in the quality of physician. They were nearly two years on their journey from St. Petersburgh.

1726. MICHAEL BERNARD VALENTIN, a German botanist and professor of medicine at Giessen, died. He was an author on both sciences.

1775. GEORGE III gave his assent to the act restraining the commerce of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.

1778. CHARLES LE BEAU, an eminent French scholar, died. He was professor of belles lettres at Paris, and author of a history of the lower empire, in 22 vols.

1779. KERIM KHAN, king of Persia, died a natural death, an extraordinary circumstance in the modern history of that country. He was of the family of an obscure tribe of robbers, the Zunds of Kirdistan.

1781. HERSCHEL discovered the planet which bears his name, then the most distant of all the known planets, its revolution round the sun occupying a period of not less than 83 of our years. He had devoted 18 months in surveying the heavens star by star, with a seven feet reflector when he made the discovery of this primary planet.

1798. The body of a hair dresser at Newport, England, was buried in the highway; reason assigned, his gluttonous eating, whereof he died.

1799. A fire broke out at Constantinople which destroyed 1300 houses, including the hotels of the British minister, and Austrian internuncio, and several other magnificent edifices.

1801. Battle near Lake Maadie in Egypt, between the British and French forces, in which the former were the greatest sufferers, losing 143 killed and 946 wounded.

1808. CHRISTIAN VII of Denmark, died. He may be said to have been virtually dead for many years.

1813. EDWARD LONG died. During a residence in the West Indies he collected materials for his _History of Jamaica_, in 3 vols. quarto. It contains a large mass of valuable information, and many spirited delineations of colonial scenery and manners. He returned to England and spent the remainder of his long life in literary pursuits.

1815. The allied powers engaged to aid Louis XVIII and declared Bonaparte to be without the pale of social and civil relations.

1815. General JACKSON having received the ratification of the treaty of peace, revoked his order relative to martial law, ordered a final cessation of hostilities, and granted a general pardon for all military offences. The British took with them 199 negroes.

1824. SOPHIA LEE, an English dramatic writer and poetess, died, aged 74. The profits of her comedy of the _Chapter of Accidents_, were of great benefit to herself and sisters.

1835. A remarkable eruption of Vesuvius took place.

1845. JOHN FREDERICK DANIEL, who contributed so much to lighting the cities of Europe with gas, died of apoplexy while attending a meeting of the royal society, in London.

1848. AMBROSE SPENCER died at Lyons, Wayne co., N. Y.; one of those jurists who gave such a preeminence to the supreme court of the state of New York.

1852. Ninety-five Americans who were engaged in the Lopez expedition against Cuba, and captured and sent to Spain, arrived in New York, having been pardoned by the queen and sent home.

1853. The funeral of Madame RASPAIL, at Paris was the occasion of a formidable socialist demonstration; 40,000 persons marching in procession to Pere la Chaise.

1854. A convention signed between England, France and Turkey, against Russia.

1855. The floor of the new town hall, at Meredith, N. H., gave way, while 800 persons were present attending an election; 300 were precipitated below, several killed and a large number had their bones broken.

MARCH 14.

1262. HUGO DE ST. CARO, a Dominican, died. He deserves to be placed in the first rank of sacred critics and patrons of literature. The Dominicans are indebted to him for their celebrated _Correctorium Bibliorium_, and the first concordance of the Bible, that is of the Latin Vulgate; a comment on the old and new testament, and for the division of the Bible into chapters. He undertook to procure a union of the Greek and Roman churches.

1369. PETER THE CRUEL, king of Castile, killed. He manifested the most wanton inhumanity in his private and public life, by which he became odious to the people, and was killed by his brother.

1471. EDWARD IV of England returned from exile, and landed at Ravenspur; in his bonnet he wore an ostrich feather as prince of Wales; and his Fleming followers carried hand-guns, which is the first account of them in England.

1519. FERNANDO CORTEZ, having taken possession of the Indian town of Tabasco on the day of his landing in the country of Mexico, now marched out with his troops to a plain, where he was attacked by an immense body of Indians, who wounded above seventy of his soldiers at the first discharge of their weapons. The Spanish artillery did great execution, but when the cavalry came to the charge, the Indians, imagining the horse and rider to be one, were extremely terrified, and fled to the woods and marshes, leaving the field to the Spaniards.

1640. MANASSES DE PAS died; a French general, distinguished for his valor. His abilities were equally displayed in the cabinet, as ambassador to the courts of Sweden and Germany. He died of the wounds he received at the siege of Thionville.

1644. ROGER WILLIAMS having been sent to England as agent for Rhode Island and Providence, obtained of the earl of Warwick a patent for the incorporation of the towns of Providence, Newport and Portsmouth, with the power of governing themselves, but subject to the laws of England.

1660. WILLIAM LEDRA, a quaker, hanged by the puritans of Massachusetts, on conviction of having returned from banishment, to which he had been condemned for his faith.

1676. Attack on Northampton, Mass., by a body of Narraganset Indians, of Philip's party. The town had been fortified by palisades, set up a little while before for their better security against the savages. The Indians broke through these in three places, and succeeded in killing six persons and firing a few dwellings; but a company of soldiers being at that time quartered in the town, the enemy were speedily repulsed with the loss of many of their lives.

1710. MICHAEL BEGON, a French _avocat_, died. He also distinguished himself in the marines, and as governor of the French West India islands.

1712. MARY, countess of Falconberg, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, died. She possessed great beauty, spirit and activity; and on the deposition of her brother, exerted herself for the restoration of Charles II.

1745. Fort Augustus blown up by the forces of the pretender to the crown of England.

1754. PETER CLAUDE NIVELLE DE LA CHAUSSE, an admired French poet, died. Though favored by fortune, he preferred the honors of literature to all other distinctions, and acquired celebrity by his dramatic pieces, which possess great merit.

1757. JOHN BYNG shot at Portsmouth. He served under his father admiral George Byng, and rose to the same rank himself. His attempt to relieve Fort St. Philip in Minorca proving abortive, when blockaded by a French fleet under La Glassionere, and his hesitation in engaging the enemy when a bold attack might perhaps have gained him the victory, excited the clamor of the nation against him, and he was doomed to meet the penalty of cowardice.

1758. GENERAL WADE died. In 1715, he commanded against the forces of the pretender to the throne, and remained in Scotland as commander-in-chief after the war was ended. It was during this period that he cut the celebrated military road through the highlands, which facilitated the improvement and civilization of the country more than all the measures resorted to before the reign of George I. It was he who introduced the bill into parliament which disarmed and changed the dress of the highlanders.

1793. Battle of Tirlemont, in which the prince of Saxe Coburg defeated the French under Dumourier, who lost 33 cannon and 3,000 men.

1795. Action off Genoa between the British and French fleets, in which the latter were defeated, with the loss of the Caira, 80 guns, 3,000 men, and the Censeur, 74 guns, 1,000 men.

1799. WILLIAM MELMOTH died. He distinguished himself as the translator of the Epistles of Pliny and Cicero, and was the author of poems, letters and memoirs.

1800. DAINES BARRINGTON, an English lawyer, antiquary, and miscellaneous writer, died. He abandoned his offices, which he discharged with great dignity, to devote himself to literary pursuits, which he loved. His writings are numerous.

1803. FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK, died. He was born at Quedlinburg, 1724; studied the languages, became familiar with the classic writers, and formed the resolution of writing a great epic poem. In 1745 he studied theology at Jena, where he commenced in solitude the first canto of _The Messiah_. This work he finished about 1790. It procured him great celebrity in the north of Europe, so that he was received with great respect and veneration wherever he went. His funeral was attended by the principal men of Hamburg, in 126 carriages.

1813. Delaware river blockaded by the British ships Poictiers, Belvidere, &c.

1813. On this and the preceding day snow and hail of a red color, with much red dust and red rain fell over all Tuscany.

1823. General DUMOURIER, a name that fills some interesting pages of modern history, died in his 85th year, at Turville park, near London.

1835. Treaty with the Cherokee Indians, by which they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi, and agreed to retire to a territory guarantied to them in Arkansas, in consideration of the sum of $5,262,251.

1836. JOHN MAYNE, a Scotch poet, died near London, at an advanced age. His chief poem is _The Siller Gun_, four cantos.

1854. Steam boat Reindeer burst a flue at Cannelton, Indiana, by which 50 persons were killed.

1855. The new suspension bridge at Niagara falls crossed for the first time by a locomotive and train of cars.

MARCH 15.

44 B. C. CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR, the Roman general, assassinated in the senate house. He perished at 5 o'clock in the afternoon by 23 wounds. As a _soldier_, he was unquestionably the greatest except one in the history of mankind; his character as a _citizen_ is variously stated by different factions. He is said to have fought 500 battles, conquered 300 nations, taken 800 cities, defeated 3,000,000 men, and slain 1,000,000 on the field of battle.

35. LONGINUS, the penitent, who is said to have pierced the side of Christ, was killed at Cappadocia, probably in this year.

1079. A reformation in the Persian calendar effected by a general assembly of the Eastern astronomers. It is called the Gelalean era, but is only a renovation of that of Zoroaster, which had been neglected after the fall of the Magian empire.

1527. Pope CLEMENT VII concluded a treaty with Lannoy, viceroy of Naples, which the duke of Bourbon disregarded, and marched for Rome.

1573. MICHAEL DE L'HOSPITAL died. Few French statesmen were more liberal than him. He narrowly escaped the Bartholomew massacre, and his daughter, who had embraced the reformed religion was saved by the widow duchess of Guise, who concealed her.

1617. THOMAS EGERTON, an eminent and learned English lawyer, died. He was chancellor under James I.

1655. THEODORE MAYERNE, an eminent physician, died. He was born in Switzerland, studied in France, and settled in England in the service of James I, where he died.

1660. Dr. WREN, bishop of Ely, released after fifteen years' imprisonment.

1665. JAMES, duke of York, established at Gunfleet the first regular system of naval warfare in England.

1672. The famed act of indulgence, passed by Charles II, containing a clause for liberty of conscience.

1743. JOHN BAPTIST MOLINIER died; a distinguished preacher and theological writer of Toulouse.

1754. DENYS FRANCIS SECOUSSE, a learned Frenchman, died. He was one of the first pupils of Rollin, and left the bar for the study of literature.

1781. Battle of Guilford court house, in North Carolina, in which 4,400 Americans, principally militia, under Gen. Greene, were defeated by 2,400 British regulars under Cornwallis. Loss of the Americans 400 killed; British loss 532 killed.

1784. THOMAS FRANKLIN, an English scholar and divine, died. He was possessed of no inconsiderable share of learning and poetical abilities, and was long a favorite in the literary world; translated Sophocles, Phalaris, Lucian and Voltaire, and is the author of a comedy and two tragedies, which were received with great applause.

1798. Chenango co., N. Y., erected; and the following year (1799) Oneida was formed.

1804. The Duke D'ENGHIEN seized by a party of French cavalry and hurried away to Paris, where he was tried in the night by a military tribunal, and condemned on vague and unsubstantial charges of carrying on a correspondence with the enemies of the republic, and shot immediately.

1809. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IV, king of Sweden, arrested and deprived of his functions of government. (By some authorities, March 12.)

1818. HECTOR MCNEIL, a most deservedly popular poet of Scotland, died. _Scotland's Scaith_ or the _Waes of War_, met with the unprecedented sale of 10,000 copies in one month.

1820. Maine entered the confederacy of the United States.

1823. JOHN JERVIS, earl of St. Vincent, an English admiral died, aged 90. He entered the navy at the age of 10, and gradually arose to the highest rank, and was raised to the peerage. His courage, skill and activity rendered him an admirable officer.

1838. The city of Bahia, in Brazil, taken from the rebels or insurgents, by the imperial troops, with loss of blood on both sides. The rebels fired the city; about 3000 of them were taken prisoners.

1839. Battle of Tuspan; the Mexican government troops, (Centralists) under Gen. Cos, defeated at Tuspan by the Federalists under Gen. Mexia, with a loss of 300 killed and several hundred prisoners.

1840. JAMES RILEY, an American sea captain, died at sea, aged 63. He is well known as the author of _Riley's Narrative_, which contains an account of his captivity and sufferings in Northern Africa.

1856. The steam ferry boat, New Jersey, while crossing the Delaware from Philadelphia to Camden, took fire and a large number of persons perished.

MARCH 16.

404 B. C. Athens was taken by Lysander and the tyranny of the 30 commenced.

37. CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO TIBERIUS, emperor of Rome, died. On his accession to the throne, he gave promise of a wise and happy reign, but soon became unrestrained in his conduct, and after a reign of 23 years, died in odium with the people.

455. FLAVIUS PLACIDUS VALENTINIAN, emperor of Rome, assassinated. He was a profligate and licentious ruler.

1190. The Jews of York lawlessly massacred for their wealth by the citizens.

1286. ALEXANDER III king of Scotland, killed. He succeeded his father, Alexander II, at the age of eight years. An enterprising and virtuous ruler; he introduced many good regulations of government, and under his sway the country seems to have enjoyed a tranquility to which she had long been a stranger. As he was riding in a dark night between Bruntisland and Ringhorn, on the banks of the frith of Forth, he was thrown with his horse over a precipice and killed on the spot.

1532. JOHN BOURCHIER died at Calais in France, of which he was the English governor. He translated Froissart's _Chronicle_ into English.

1621. The Plymouth colonists received the first Indian visit to their town. This was Samoset, sagamore of a country lying five days' journey from thence, called Patuxet. He informed the English that all the inhabitants had died of an extraordinary plague about four years before, and that there was neither man, woman or child remaining. Of course there was no one to dispute their possession.

1649. An army of 1000 Iroquois armed with guns fell upon the Huron village at the eastern extremity of the lake, and nearly massacred the entire population. The Hurons defended themselves bravely, but were forced to yield before the fire arms and superior numbers of the Iroquois, who lost more than a hundred of their best warriors. The French missionaries, Brebeuf and Lallemant, who labored with the Hurons, were taken, and suffered death by torture.

1660. The long parliament dissolved by its own act.

1675. Under a pair of stairs in the tower of London two bodies were found, supposed to be those of Edward V and his brother, whom their uncle Richard III murdered nearly two hundred years before.

1680. The first assembly of New Hampshire met at Portsmouth; John Cutts first president.

1689. The Habeas corpus act suspended for the first time in England.

1691. JACOB LEISLER, who had exercised the office of governor of New York nearly two years by the election of the freeholders and the consent of the British ministry, was barbarously executed by some malcontents, as a traitor.

1738. Captain JENKINS, the master of a Scottish ship, exhibited his ear in a piece of cotton, which he affirmed had been torn off by a guarda costa. This is alluded to by Burke as the fable of Capt. Jenkins.

1751. JAMES MADISON, fourth president of the United States, born.

1781. Action off cape Henry between the British fleet, admiral Arbuthnot, and French fleet under d'Estouches. Both sides claimed the victory. British loss, 30 killed and 73 wounded.

1781. French surrendered the island of St. Bartholomews to the British.

1782. Action off cape Spartel, between British frigate Success and Spanish frigate Santo Catalina, 34 guns. The latter was captured, having 25 killed. British loss 1.

1792. GUSTAVUS III, king of Sweden, shot by Count Ankerstroem at a masquerade.

1795. CLAUSEL, adjutant general of the army of the Eastern Pyrennes, presented to the national convention 25 pairs of colors and a standard taken from the Spaniards at Figuieres.

1797. Battle of Cainin in Italy. The French under Murat passed the Tagliamento and attacked the Austrians, who were driven from the village, where the archduke had established his head quarters.

1799. JOHN DUSSAULX died. He distinguished himself in the war of Hanover under Richelieu, after which he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He took part in the French revolution, and was among the 73 proscribed deputies.

1799. A portion of the pavement in front of the Royal exchange, London, suddenly sank and a well of water was discovered which had not been used in 600 years.

1802. A military institution established by government at West Point, which was the origin of the present academy there.

1808. JOSEPH BONOMI, an Italian artist, died at London. He was distinguished particularly by his architectural knowledge and genius, was an associate of the royal academy, and patronized by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1810. On a pane of glass at an inn near London, under this date, is the following inscription. "Thomas Mount Jones dined here, ate six pounds bacon, and drank nineteen pots beer." It is a question for discussion, whether in this frail memorial, the love of distinction and desire for fame were not as great as the love of brutal gluttony.

1813. Captain BERRESFORD of the British ship Poictiers, 74 guns, demanded of the inhabitants of Lewistown, Delaware, 25 oxen and vegetables and hay, otherwise he threatened to destroy the town. The demand was refused.

1817. WILLIAM THOMPSON, an industrious Scottish writer and compiler, died. He possessed ability, but his writings bear the marks of haste and want of care.

1838. NATHANIEL BOWDITCH died at Boston, aged 65. His father and ancestors in several generations were by profession shipmasters. Notwithstanding the very limited advantages of his education, and his laborious employment through life for the support of his family, yet by his extraordinary genius and economy of time, he made great acquisitions in learning and science, gained most of the languages, and made himself the most eminent mathematician and astronomer that America has produced. He published the _Practical Navigator_, a standard book; but the great work on which his fame will rest, is the copious and profound commentary upon the _Mechanique Celeste_ of La Place, of which he made the first entire translation, and published at his own expense in 4 vols. quarto; saying that he preferred spending a thousand dollars a year in that way to keeping a carriage.

1853. ANTHONY DUMOND STANLEY, an American mathematician, died, aged 42. Profoundly versed in the science, he had begun a series of works which would have placed his name high on the scroll of fame.

MARCH 17.

49 B. C. POMPEY abandoned Italy, and took the sea with his legions, at Brundusium.

45 B. C. Battle of Munda, in Spain, between the armies of Cæsar and Pompey, which decided the fate of the Roman republic. These men did not consider the Roman empire sufficiently large for two of them.

180. MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, surnamed the philosopher, died on an expedition against the Marcomanni. He was so extremely popular with his Roman subjects, that they placed him among the gods, and kept his statue in their houses.

464. ST. PATRICK, the tutelar saint of Ireland, died. He was carried away with many of his father's vassals by pirates, from whom he made his escape to Gaul and Italy. He received a commission from Pope Celestine to convert the Irish to Christianity, in which mission he was eminently successful.

807. A large spot noticed upon the sun's disc, which continued there eight days.

1072. ADALBERT, archbishop of Bremen, died. He became very powerful in Denmark, and even obliged the king to divorce his wife Gutha, because she was somewhat allied to him. Though intriguing and violent, he possessed some good qualities, and formed many wise regulations in civil and ecclesiastical affairs.

1562. DIEGO ESQUIVEL ALAVA, a learned Spanish bishop, died. He was at the Council of Trent, and published a work on councils.

1565. ALEXANDER ALES, a Scottish theologian, died. He first opposed the tenets of Luther, but afterwards embraced them, and suffered persecution. He wrote commentaries on some of the books of the old and new testament.

1632. Treaty of St. Germain, by which Canada and Nova Scotia were restored to the French. The capture of Quebec was unknown at the time peace was re-established, or perhaps those territories would not have been so generally given up.

1634. THOMAS RANDOLPH, an English poet, died. He was the friend of Jonson, and his works have been several times reprinted.

1640. PHILIP MASSINGER, an English dramatic poet, died. Some of his comedies still keep the stage. He was courted by the wits and learned men of his time.