Part 84

177-. BRUCE, the traveler, in passing the Taranta mountain, in Abyssinia, encountered an extraordinary phenomenon. The mountain tops were hid in the clouds, and loud thunder was heard. The river scarcely ran at the time of passing it, when suddenly a noise was heard in the mountain above, louder than the loudest thunder. His guides flew to the baggage, and removed it to the top of a green hill, which was no sooner done than the river was seen coming down in a stream about the height of a man, and the breadth of the whole bed it used to occupy. An antelope, surprised by the torrent, was driven to the station where they stood.

1775. Americans, under colonel Easton, took at the point of Sorel river, Canada, 11 British vessels with stores.

1782. EDWARD DRINKER, a quaker of Philadelphia, died, aged 103. He had been the subject of seven crowned heads, and lived to see a village become a great city.

1793. Battle of Sarbruck; the Prussians defeated by the French under Pichegru.

1794. N. DUGOMIER, a French revolutionary general, killed at the battle of St. Sebastian, in which his army was victorious over the Spaniards. His name was inscribed in the Pantheon.

1794. JAMES BENTHAM, an English prelate and historian, died. He also directed his attention to the introduction of turnpike roads, against the popular prejudice, and to the rendering of unfruitful into valuable fields by drainage.

1795. ALEXANDER ABERCROMBY died; a Scottish jurist, and a cooperator with Mackenzie in establishing the _Mirror_ and _Lounger_, to which he contributed.

1800. Battle of Mincio, in Italy; the Austrians defeated by the French under general Brune, with the loss of 24 cannon, and 4,000 men.

1804. Launch of the Hibernia, at Plymouth, England, of 130 guns; length of keel 167 feet, tonnage 2499--the largest man-of-war that had ever been built in England.

1812. Battle of Koutovo, near Krasnoy, in Russia; the Cossacks under Miloradovitch surrounded the French under Davoust, and defeated them with horrible slaughter. The French general, however, maintained his reputation for bravery, and cut his way through, with the loss of 4,000 killed, and 9 prisoners, and 70 cannon. The wretched beings who escaped the swords and bayonets of their conquerors sought shelter in the woods which skirt the Dnieper, and there, wounded, starving and naked, died in great numbers.

1812. British gun boats cannonaded Ogdensburgh.

1818. CHARLOTTE, queen of England, died, aged 75.

1823. THOMAS ERSKINE, an English nobleman, and one of the most celebrated of modern forensic orators, died.

1832. THOS. TAYLOR, styled the patriarch of the states-right party of South Carolina, died at Columbus.

1835. Remarkable aurora borealis; in extent and magnificence one of the grandest forms of this mysterious phenomenon. It attracted notice throughout the United States and Canada, and on the 18th was seen in Europe.

1854. DUDLEY COUTTS STUART died at Stockholm, Sweden, aged 51; well known in England and elsewhere, for his devotion to Poland and the Polish exiles.

NOVEMBER 18.

1247. ROBIN HOOD, the leader of a band of robbers who infested the recesses of Sherwood forest, England, died. The chief, with his formidable band, continued their plundering life with success, and with little opposition, from the year 1189 to 1247. It has been attempted to identify him with Robert, earl of Huntington, whom the malice of his enemies banished from the court of Richard I. The following epitaph is said to have been engraven upon his tombstone at Kirklees:

Hear undernead dis laitl stean laiz robert earl of huntington nae arcir ner as hie sae geud an pipl kauld im Robin Heud sick utlawz as he an is men vil England nivir si agen obit 24 kal. dekembris 1247.

1518. CORTEZ sailed from Cuba for the discovery and conquest of Mexico. His force consisted of 10 vessels, 10 pieces cannon, 18 horsemen, 600 infantry--13 only of whom were musqueteers, and the rest cross bowmen.

1558. REGINALD POLE, an English cardinal, died. He entered college at the age of 12, and took his first degree at the age of 15. Refusing to sanction the divorces of Henry VIII, he was obliged to reside in Italy for safety. On the accession of Mary, however, he was restored.

1559. CUTHBERT TONSTALL, a learned catholic bishop of London, died, aged 85.

1624. JACOB BOEHMEN died; a noted Teutonic philosopher and visionary.

1636. King CHARLES I restored to sir Hugh Middleton a portion of his private property, expended on bringing a supply of water into the city of London. Middleton survived this event but a short time.

1665. BLAISE FRANCIS DE PAGAN, a valiant French officer and eminent mathematician, died. He lost his eyesight in the service of his country, after which he devoted himself to study, and wrote several works on fortifications, astronomy, &c.

1682. JOHN FINCH (_Heneage?_), earl of Nottingham and lord high chancellor of England, died. He was distinguished for his wisdom and eloquence and styled the English Cicero.

1751. ABRAHAM VATER died; an eminent German physician and anatomist, famous for his anatomical preparations, which form a curious cabinet at Wirtemberg.

1755. A great earthquake, extending from New England to the West Indies, damaging the houses throughout the whole extent of the coast. In the harbor of St. Martin the sea withdrew leaving the vessels dry and the fish on the banks; when it came in the water overflowed the lowlands.

1776. Fort Lee, near Haversack, N. Y., evacuated by the Americans under general Greene. The British, 6000 men under Cornwallis, advancing to its reduction, it was found that the conflict would be too unequal to attempt its defence. The British took several hundred barrels of flour, most of the cannon, baggage, &c.----Same day congress agreed upon a lottery to defray the expenses of the campaign, being the first lottery they sanctioned.

1777. Fort Mercer at Red Bank, on the Delaware, evacuated by the Americans on the approach of the British under Cornwallis.

1777. The British under governor Tryon burnt the houses at Philip's manor, N. Y., with circumstances of great barbarity; the women and children being turned out in a severe cold night, almost naked, and the men made prisoners and led with halters round their necks in triumph to the British camp.

1777. WILLIAM BOWYER, an eminent English printer, died. He was noted for the accuracy of his editions, and was a distinguished member of the antiquarian society, whose transactions he enriched with many valuable communications.

1784. M. LE ROY fixed a conductor on the Etoile galley, being the first conductor of lightning that had ever been placed on a French ship.

1785. Mrs. KELLY, the noted Irish fairy, died. She was only 34 inches long. Her child, which lived only two hours, was 22 inches.

1789. JOHN ELWES, the celebrated English miser, died, worth nearly five millions of dollars. This singular man, although he denied himself the necessaries of life, served twelve years in parliament, a most independent and incorruptible member. He would travel a whole day, eating only a hard boiled egg, and at night play for thousands in the most splendid apartments from whence he has been known to issue at four in the morning, and stand in a cold rain to dispute with a butcher for a shilling a head on his cattle.

1793. Battle of Bliescastle; the French general Pichegru stormed the Prussian camp.

1793. Battle of Dol; the French royalists defeated the conventional troops.

1803. Cape Francois surrendered to the blacks under Christophe.

1804. PHILIP SCHUYLER, a major general in the revolutionary army, died at Albany, aged 73. He was a member of the old congress, and of the federal congress.

1809. The French under Suchet attacked the Spaniards under Gen. Blake, posted on the heights of Beclhithe, and forced them to fall back.

1811. All differences between the United States and Great Britain on account of the attack made on the United States frigate Chesapeake amicably adjusted.

1813. Americans under general White, with a few Cherokee Indians, attacked Grayson's Farm, one of the Hillibee towns, of 20 houses, which they burnt, and killed 60 Creek warriors and captured about 256 more, without the loss of a man.

1824. Destructive hurricane on the coast of England. The river Neva overflowed its banks, and damaged the city of St. Petersburg.

1832. Violent eruption of mount Etna; the town of Bronte, containing 10,000 inhabitants, destroyed.

1848. The great dam at Hadley Falls, in Massachusetts, near Springfield, carried away by a flood.

1849. BENJAMIN SMITH, a very eminent and industrious American statesman, of Rhode Island, died at North Kingston.

1851. ERNEST AUGUSTUS, duke of Cumberland and king of Hanover, died, aged 81. He was the fifth son of George III, and distinguished himself as an officer on the continent during the last century.

1852. Duke of WELLINGTON'S funeral obsequies took place at London, with great pomp. The religious ceremonies were observed in St. Paul's cathedral, which was elaborately decorated for the purpose. The body was deposited in the crypt near that of Nelson.

1852. A convention was signed at London by England, France, Prussia, Bavaria and Greece, by which none but a prince of the Greek religion was thereafter to ascend the throne of Greece.

1854. GEORGE WILLIAM MAREBY, inventor of several kinds of apparatus for saving lives in shipwreck, died in England, aged 89.

NOVEMBER 19.

1231. ELIZABETH OF THURINGIA, a saint of the church, died. She was distinguished by the mild virtues of her sex, and when the country was oppressed with famine and pestilence, she caused hospitals to be erected, and fed and clothed a multitude of the poor, wandering about in a humble dress relieving the sorrows of the wretched. She was regarded as a saint during her life, and four years after her death was canonized. Her monument is one of the most splendid remains of Gothic architecture in Germany.

1530. The diet at Augsburg issued a severe decree against the protestants, which was sanctioned by the emperor Charles V.

1590. JEROME ZANCHIUS, a German protestant theologian, died. His commentaries on St. Paul's epistles were published after his death. He was a professor of theology at Heidelburg, and sustained the character of a learned, pious and benevolent man.

1628. JOHN FELTON, the assassin who killed the duke of Buckingham, favorite of Charles I of England, executed at Tyburn. The king proposed the rack previous to execution, that his accomplices might be discovered. But the judges unanimously declared that the English law did not allow of torture. This was the first adjudication on this subject.

1649. CASPAR SCIOPPIUS, a learned German, died, aged 73. He acquired the name of the grammatical cur, from his indiscreet attacks upon every person of eminence. His talents and acquirements were extraordinary, and his works more numerous than his years.

1665. NICHOLAS POUSSIN, an eminent French painter, died. He was long unable to maintain himself by his pencil, till his genius finally burst through the clouds of prejudice, and established his character as a great and sublime artist.

1672. JOHN WILKINS, bishop of Chester, died; a most ingenious and learned English theologian, critic and mathematician.

1674. SAMUEL DANFORTH, the colleague of John Elliot, the Indian missionary, died at Roxbury, Mass. When he was contracted in marriage the celebrated John Cotton preached the sermon, customary in New England on such occasions, before the nuptial ceremony. He published several almanacs, and an astronomical account of the comet which appeared in 1764.

1677. FRANCIS JUNIUS, a German linguist, died in England. He was highly distinguished for his skill and researches in the Anglo Saxon and Gothic languages, which he pursued at Oxford, England.

1703. THE IRON MASK (_Masque de Fer_), died at the Bastile in Paris, after an imprisonment of forty-two years. This mysterious personage is supposed to have been the twin brother of the king, and various authors have attempted to prove his identity with other characters of that day. It was at first believed that the mask which he was compelled to wear constantly on pain of instant death, was made of iron. But it was composed of black velvet, strengthened with whalebone, and fastened behind the head with a padlock. He was confined for imperious reasons of state, but was treated with the utmost deference and respect.

1731. WILLIAM EDIE, bellman of Canongate, in Edinburgh, died, aged 120. He had buried the inhabitants of Canongate thrice. He was 90 years a freeman, and married his second wife, a young woman, after he was 100 years old.

1741. ANTHONY BANIER, a celebrated French mythologist, died. His _Mythology and Fables of the Antients_ has been translated into English.

1744. A single battalion of Prussians under Wedel disputed the passage of the Elbe at Solnitz for five hours, against the whole Austrian army; and, under the fire of fifty cannons, thrice repulsed the Austrian grenadiers. Wedel lost two officers and 100 men killed, and acquired the title of Leonidas.

1761. NOEL ANTHONY PLUCHE, a French writer on natural history, died. His _Spectacle de la Nature_ is known to all the world.

1789. Junction of the Thames and Severn rivers by canal; an important event in English inland commerce. This canal ascends the vale of Calford to the height of 343 feet by 40 locks; there entering a tunnel through the hill of Saperton, for the length of two miles and three furlongs, and descends to the Thames by 22 locks.

1790. JAMES HAY BEATTIE died; a Scotchman of eminent talents, who was made assistant professor of moral philosophy and logic at Aberdeen at the age of 19.

1793. A number of persons met in Edinburgh and held a _convention_ similar to that in France, but were arrested and sent to prison.

1794. The treaty signed at London between England and America, called Jay's treaty.

1801. JOSEPH DE BEAUCHAMP, a French theologian and astronomer, died. During a residence in the Levant, he made many astronomical observations, constructed a map of the Tigris and Euphrates, and surveyed the Black sea.

1806. RICHARD WESTON died; an English thread hosier, who became eminent as a horticulturist, and published some useful tracts on that subject.

1806. Hameln, on the Weser, captured by the French, who took Von Schoeler and five other generals, 9,000 Prussians, some other troops, and great quantities of ammunition and stores.

1806. MORTIER entered Hamburg and confiscated all British property found there.

1806. NICHOLAS CLAUDE LEDOUX, a fortunate though vain French architect, died.

1809. Battle of Ocana; the French under Soult defeated 50,000 Spaniards. Joseph Bonaparte commanded in person in this battle under Soult.

1812. Battle of Koutovo; the French under Ney attacked in the defiles near Krasnoy, on the very spot where Davoust had been defeated two days before. Although the French fought with the greatest courage and most desperate intrepidity, they were defeated with terrible slaughter, and the loss of all their cannon, baggage and colors. Scarcely had this second victory been obtained, when the last columns of the rear guard appeared in sight, and were compelled to surrender, 100 officers and 11,000 men.

1812. Americans under colonel Pike made an incursion into Canada, assaulted and carried a British post, burnt their blockhouse, and returned with only five wounded.

1813. American Com. PORTER took possession of an island in the South sea, called by the natives Nooaheevah, which he called _Madison's island_, in honor of the president.

1816. Eclipse of the sun observed at Paris. It was total at Copenhagen.

1818. ABDULLAH IBN SAUD, the last emir of the Wahhabis, was beheaded at Constantinople, which put an end to the temporal power of that sect.

1835. CHARLES COOTE, an English author, died. He was for some years editor of the _Critical Review_, and wrote various historical and other works of merit.

1850. RICHARD M. JOHNSON, a Kentucky soldier and statesman, died at Frankfort, aged 70.

1853. SAMUEL H. CRAFTS died at Craftsbury, Vt., aged 84. On the organization of the town, which was settled by and named in honor of his father, in 1792, he was chosen town clerk, and held the office 37 years; and he filled every public office in the gift of Vermont during some part of his lifetime.

1855. THOMAS COPELAND, an eminent English surgeon and medical writer, died at Brighton, aged 74.

1855. THEODRIC ROMEYN BECK, an eminent medical writer, died at Albany, N. Y., aged 64. He was one of the originators and most ardent supporters of the geological survey of the state; but is best known by his _Medical Jurisprudence_. He was a member of many scientific societies at home and abroad, and his whole life was one of uninterrupted and efficient labor.

NOVEMBER 20.

63. Shipwreck of ST. PAUL. It was a fortnight from the fast, and about the present day, that Paul, by the occular testimony of Luke, was cast upon the shores of Malta, where they wintered three months until the period of navigation in March. Josephus, the Jewish historian, was wrecked in the same sea, and in or very near the same year.

303. DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIAN celebrated in a grand triumph their victories and those of the two Cæsars, their associates, in Persia and Britain, on the Rhine, the Danube and the Nile; the last spectacle of the kind that Rome ever beheld.

870. EDMUND (_the Saint_), king of East Anglia, murdered by the Danes, who had him tied to a tree and shot to death with arrows. His kingdom comprised the present counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and part of Cambridgeshire.

1185. ABDURRAHMAN, surnamed Abn Zeyd, died. He was a Moslem divine and poet, and left several valuable works.

1191. BALDWIN, archbishop of Canterbury, died at Acre, in Palestine, whither he had followed the crusaders, whose cause he had exerted himself to promote.

1347. STEPHEN COLONNA defeated and killed at Rome by the tribune Rienzi.

1411. JOHANNES CANTACUZENUS, a Byzantine historian, died. His knowledge in literature and arms was so great that he became the favorite of the court and the people, and was finally persuaded to accept the throne, from which he retired again on the restoration of order.

1481. The _Last Siege and conquest of Jerusalem_, translated from the French "by me simple person, William Caxton," was printed at London in the Abby; one of the earliest specimens of English typography.

1497. The Portuguese admiral, VASQUEZ DE GAMA, doubled the cape of Good Hope, which, until then, had been considered the utmost boundary of navigation, and called the cape of Tempests.

1549. KETT, a tanner, rebelled against Edward, and was taken by Dudley, earl of Warwick, and hung in chains on the top of Norwich castle.

1571. The field of Craibstone stricken by John Master of Forbes, and Adam Gordon, brother to lord Huntley, where the said John lost the field, and was taken, and sundry of his friends slain, to the number on both sides of three score, or thereby, and good Duncan Forbes slain the same day.

1572. The first presbyterian meeting house in England erected at Wandsworth in Surrey.

1591. CHRISTOPHER HATTON, chancellor of England under Elizabeth, died. He was a man of learning and great integrity, and though placed in so high a situation, had not been bred to the law. It was by his advice that the unfortunate Mary submitted to her fatal trial.

1660. The bishops of England again took their seats in the house of lords, verifying the adage of the king's grandfather, "no bishop no king."

1672. The island of Tobago taken from the Dutch by the English.

1683. A book entitled _Julian the Apostate_, burnt by the hangman, and its author, Samuel Johnson, a clergyman, fined 500 marks for an alleged libel on the duke of York.

1729. NICHOLAS GERVAIS, a French missionary, massacred in Guiana with all his attendants.

1737. Queen CAROLINE of England died, aged 55. Her favorite study was theology, and she has been accused of scepticism; at her death she refused the sacrament, but joined cordially in the Lord's prayer.

1759. Naval battle off Belleisle; the French fleet under M. de Conflans defeated by the British under admiral Hawke. The French lost several large ships, and abandoned the project of invading Great Britain.

1769. CHARLES HUGH LE FEVRE DE ST. MARK, a French miscellaneous writer, died at Paris.

1773. CHARLES JENNENS died; an English gentleman of considerable fortune, who compiled the works of some of Handel's oratories, and began an edition of Shakspeare's works, which he did not live to complete.

1780. Battle of Blackstocks; the British under Tarleton attacked the American general Sumpter, but was repulsed with the loss of more than 30 killed or wounded. Sumpter and 4 others were wounded and 3 killed.

1789. RICHARD BURN, an English vicar, died; author of a work on ecclesiastical law, and on the office of justice of the peace, which have gone through several editions.

1789. North Carolina adopted the federal constitution, ayes 193, noes 75. This was the 12th pillar in the political edifice.

1789. A deputation was admitted to the French national assembly from the city of Issondein, with a patriotic offer of all the silver buckles of the inhabitants, to the value of 115 marks. Whereupon M. Dailly moved that all the members of the assembly should make a similar sacrifice, which was instantly agreed to.

1792. Battle of Cumptich, in which the French under Dumourier, after a long and bloody action, defeated the Austrians under the duke of Saxe Teschen, who exhibited great judgment and intrepidity in conducting his retreat.

1794. Figueras, an extensive and well provided fortress on the frontier of Spain, was taken by the French, when 9000 Spaniards were taken prisoners.

1798. Two French frigates attacked and captured U. S. schooner Retaliation.

1804. ARCHIBALD MACLAIN, an Irish protestant clergyman, died. He translated Mosheim's ecclesiastical history.

1804. The American expedition under Lewis and Clark went into winter quarters at fort Mandan, on the Missouri river, lat. 47° 21´ N.

1812. BONAPARTE evacuated Orcha on his retreat from Moscow. He left there 23 cannon, some prisoners, and an immense number of sick and wounded, who fell into the hands of the Cossacks.

1813. JOHN BAPTIST BODONI, the celebrated printer of Parma, and probably the most distinguished in his profession during the last century, died.

1815. France ceded to the kingdom of the Netherlands whatever it still retained of the Austrian Netherlands, particularly a rich mineral district situated in the center of the Ardennes, and the fortresses of Marienburg and Philippeville.

1840. A series of extensive hurricanes and storms, which commenced on the 13th and swept over England, Ireland and a part of France, ceased their fury. The destruction of lives and property, on land and at sea, was immense.

1843. FERDINAND RUDOLPH HASSLER, aged 74, died at Philadelphia. He was director of the United States coast survey.

NOVEMBER 21.

53 B. C. MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS, one of the triumvirs with Cæsar and Pompey, killed at Haran in Syria. He was surnamed _Dives_, the rich, on account of his vast fortune. He once gave an entertainment to the whole people, in which 10,000 tables were set, and besides distributed corn enough to last each family three months. He perished, with a great part of his army, in an expedition against the Parthians, undertaken from motives of avarice and ambition.

533. The famous institutes, or system of elementary law, were completed by the delegates of Justinian. They were divided into four books, proceeding methodically, from 1, _persons_ to 2, _things_; and from things to 3, _actions_, and 4, _private wrongs_, terminated, as in Blackstone, by the principles of _criminal_ law.