NOVEMBER 4.
1493. Columbus discovered the island of Guadaloupe, the largest of the Carib or Cannibal islands, called by the natives Carucueria. The drinking vessels of this fierce people were formed of human skulls. They here saw the pine apple.
1611. Nicholas le Fevre (or Faber), a learned and ingenious French writer, died. He was more ready to assist others than to appear as an author himself.
1613. Edward Brereword, a learned English antiquary, died.
1631. Lady Mary, eldest daughter of king Charles I, and subsequently the wife of William prince of Orange, born.
1673. The house of commons, in England, sent for to the house of lords, and prorogued, for addressing the king against a standing army.
1677. The marriage portion of the princess Mary was £40,000. She married the prince of Orange.
1680. Joseph Glanvil, an eminent English divine, died; celebrated for his controversies.
1688. William III entered Torbay with 50 sail of the line and 400 transports.
1694. The Hannibal, of London, arrived at Barbadoes with a cargo of negroes. Of 692 captives, 320 died on the passage; the rest, Philips, the master, says, "came out £19 per head, one with another." The official return of the population, four years afterwards was, 2,330 whites, 42,000 slaves.
1698. A colony from Scotland settled at New Edinburgh, on the coast of Darien.
1702. John Benbow, a brave English admiral, died in the West Indies, after an inglorious defeat, owing to the cowardice of his officers.
1702. Edward Sherburne, an English writer, died, aged 85. Besides his original works, he translated Seneca's tragedies and other Latin authors.
1713. Francis Petit de la Croix, a French ambassador, died. He was an expert linguist in Turkish and Arabic, and rendered great services to literature by his dictionaries and other works on those languages.
1749. A ball of fire burst about 40 yards above the British ship Montague, admiral Chambers, knocking down five men, shattering the maintop mast, and otherwise injuring the ship. The ball was first visible about three miles from the ship, at mid-day, and rose before it burst.
1749. At Stoke, in Glocestershire, about 6 P. M., the inhabitants were surprised by a brilliant light surpassing that of the sun. It was seen but for a few minutes.
1764. Charles Churchill, an eminent English poet, died. He was endowed with great natural abilities, and his poems, though they have lost something by time, are still preserved from oblivion.
1788. Deborah Godfrey died at Stepney, England, aged 80; celebrated as the mother of 34 children, all of whom lived to the age of maturity.
1791. The United States army, 1,400 men, under general St. Clair, defeated by the Indians, near the Miami villages. The Indians made the attack immediately after the soldiers had been dismissed, from the parade, and with so much intrepidity, that most of the officers were killed before they could form their men. The loss of the Americans was 894, being nearly two-thirds of the force. The Indians took 7 cannon, 200 oxen and a great number of horses. Their force was between three and four thousand, and their loss only 56. (Other and more reliable accounts say 1,500 Indians instead of 3,000.)
1793. Richard Tickell, an eminent English writer, was killed by a fall from a window of his apartments.
1794. Praga carried by storm by the Russians under Suwarrow; upon which Warsaw was compelled to surrender, and a massacre of the Poles followed, which issued in blotting out Poland from the nations of Europe.
1797. Earthquake at Quito; nearly 40,000 of the natives perished, either buried under the ruins of their own houses, swallowed up in the crevices of the earth, or drowned in the lakes which were suddenly formed.
1806. George Mason, an English writer, died. He made a valuable collection of English and foreign literature.
1825. The first boat down the Erie canal, arrived at New York.
1836. Charles X, ex-king of France, died at Goritz, in Illyria, an exile. He succeeded Louis XVIII, but lost the throne by his arbitrary measures.
1837. Baron Albert died at Paris, aged 70; a celebrated French physician, and author of numerous works in his profession.
1838. Martial law established at Montreal, in consequence of a rebellion against the government, which became general, throughout Canada and caused serious disturbances.
1839. Riot of 10,000 chartists from the mines and colleries, who attacked Newport, England, led on by John Frost, an ex-magistrate. About 20 of the rioters were killed, and Frost taken prisoner.
1845. Eleazer Blackman, the last survivor of the massacre at Wyoming, died at Hanover, Pa.
1848. The new constitution of France, adopted in the general assembly, by 739 to 30.
1853. Lucien B. Webster, a United States officer, died at fort Brown, Texas. He served on the eastern frontier in the time of the Aroostook trouble, and also distinguished himself at Buena Vista.
1853. Battle of Oltenitza, between the Turks and Russians, in which the latter lost 1,200 killed and wounded.