APRIL 10.
879. Louis II. of France, died. He is characterized as a weak prince, who had not sufficient firmness to maintain his rights.
1534. James Cartier sailed from France with two small ships and 122 men, with a view to the establishment of a colony. He arrived at Newfoundland in May, and named the gulf St. Lawrence, from his entering it on the day of that festival. He returned without effecting a settlement.
1563. The city of Goa in India introduced printing.
1599. Gabrielle d'Estrees, a mistress of Henry IV, died. She was descended from an illustrious house, and was 20 years of age when her beauty captivated the king. He procured a divorce from Margaret of Valois, in order to raise Gabrielle to the throne; but her sudden death, probably by poison, frustrated the plan, and plunged him in excessive grief. Her amiable disposition, gentleness of character and modesty, won her general favor, and she was universally lamented by the French.
1603. A couple of vessels, fitted out by the mayor and aldermen of Bristol, under the command of Martin Pring, to make discoveries on the north of Virginia, and collect sassafras, sailed for the American coast. The sassafras, which was greatly overrated for its medicinal virtues, formed a profitable article of traffic, and is still extensively exported to Great Britain. Of this, they procured a cargo near Bristol, Rhode Island.
1606. The colony of Virginia, as it was called, divided by the king into two colonies. Although 109 years had elapsed since the discovery of the country by the Cabots, in the service of Henry VII, the English had made no effectual settlement in the new world. Twenty years had elapsed since Walter Raleigh attempted the settlement of a colony in Virginia, but not an Englishman was now to be found in the country.
1630. William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, died. He was the son of the illustrious Mary Sidney, and united in himself the virtues of his mother with the manners and accomplishments of a scholar. He is the author of a volume of poems.
1651. Birthday of Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhausen, an ingenious Lusatian mathematician, and founder of the celebrated Dresden porcelain manufactory. He also constructed, about the year 1687, an extraordinary burning mirror.
1653. Oliver Cromwell, having turned out the long parliament, locked the doors upon them.
1703. Andrew Morel, a Swiss antiquary died. He was a diligent and curious collector of medals, and in a work published in 1683 promised to give a description of twenty thousand medals, exactly designed. A part of this great work appeared after his death, in two vols., folio, describing 3,539.
1728. Robert Woodcock, an eminent English musician and composer, died. He also excelled as a painter of sea pieces.
1736. Francis Eugene, prince of Savoy, died, aged 73. He was born at Paris, and destined for the church, against his own inclinations. He applied to the king for a company of dragoons, and on being refused, entered the Austrian service. His first campaign was in capacity of a volunteer against the Turks; where he acquitted himself with so much distinction, that he was appointed to the command of a company of dragoons. He finally rose step by step to the rank of commander in chief of the Austrian army, and achieved a succession of brilliant victories and enterprises in Europe, which humbled the arms of the French, and rendered his name immortal in the annals of fame. His successful campaign in conjunction with
the duke of Marlborough, rendered him so popular in England, that a maiden lady bequeathed him £2500, and a gardener £100. [By some authorities, 21st.]
1741. Battle of Molwitz, between the Prussians and Austrians. The latter were defeated with the loss of 7000 men and 180 officers. The Prussians took 1200 prisoners; their loss was 1500 killed, and 3000 wounded.
1752. William Cheselden, an eminent English surgeon and anatomist, died. He acquired great professional reputation, and published several popular works. He was the first foreigner admitted into the French royal academy of surgery.
1756. Joseph Vaissette, a French ecclesiastic, died. He published a History of Languedoc, and a Universal Geography.
1774. John Saas, a French canon and librarian, died. He wrote an abridgment of the French Historical Dictionary, and other works.
1786. John Byron, the English admiral, died. He enjoys a high and merited reputation for courage and professional skill.
1794. The islands of the Saints, in the West Indies, captured by the British.
1795. Action between the British ship Astrea, Capt. Pawlet, and French ship La Glorie, 24 guns: the latter was captured.
1796. Battle of Montenotte, which was attacked by the Austrians under Beaulieu, and defended by the French under Rampon, with such desperate resistance that Bonaparte had time to come up and obtain a victory, taking 2000 prisoners.
1797. Miss Farren, the actress, took leave of the stage, after the performance of her part in the School for Scandal, to marry the earl of Derby.
1798. Bernadotte, the French ambassador at Vienna, in obedience to the Directory, displayed the tri-colored flag at his lodgings; but the populace in a rage tore it down. Not receiving the satisfaction he desired, he left the court.
1806. Horatio Gates, a distinguished officer in the revolutionary war, died. He came over from England as a soldier, and at the defeat of Braddock, 1755, was shot through the body. He joined the American army in 1775, and in 1777 captured Burgoyne. He was afterwards defeated by Cornwallis, at Camden. In 1790 he liberated his slaves in Virginia, and removed to New York, where he died.
1813. Von Berger and Fink executed at Oldenberg, Germany. When the Russians approached the town, the French magistrates fled, leaving a committee of regency of which the above were members. This committee were summoned before a court martial, at which Vandamme presided, and these two excellent men were unjustly condemned to death, although their accuser had only proposed their imprisonment.
1813. Joseph Louis Lagrange, a Sardinian mathematician, died. He went to Paris 1787, where he met with great favor, and under Bonaparte was invested with honors and dignities. His chief work is the Méchanique Analitique.
1814. Battle of Toulouse, at which the French under Soult were defeated by Wellington.
1816. The bank of the United States incorporated by act of congress, with a capital of $35,000,000.
1818. John Cleves Symmes, "of Ohio, late captain of infantry," promulgated "to all the world," his theory that the earth is hollow, containing a number of solid concentric spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees. His theory amused the world for a number of years.
1823. Charles Leonard Reinhold, an Austrian philosopher, died. He was sent to study with the Jesuits, whose order was abolished while he was a student. In 1787 he settled at Jena, which owes much of its reputation to him, and in 1797 at Kiel, where he died. His works are numerous.
1835. Jacob Schmuck, a distinguished officer in the war of 1812 with England, died. He was a native of Pennsylvania, died at St. Augustine.
1842. John Sutherland, commonly called Killyman, died at Merigonisbe, aged 116. He was born in the last year of the reign of George I, and consequently lived under all the sovereigns of the house of Hanover, six in number. He emigrated to Nova Scotia about 1822, and continued to wear the kilt to the end of his life, declaring that he would never disgrace his country by adopting a foreign garb.
1856. The Americans under Lieut. Green attacked 200 Costa Ricans, killed 27 of them and dispersed the rest. American loss 1 killed and 2 wounded.
1856. A company of 208 men left New York to join Gen. Walker in Nicaragua.