NOVEMBER 9.
2348 B. C. The great flood began, according to Polyhistor, from Berosus, upon the 15th, or the ides, of the Assyrian month Doesia, agreeing with this day. This event was prefigured to the patriarch in a vision, when the deity enjoined him to commit to writing a history of all things, which he was to bury in the city of the sun, at Sipara. The same uninspired authority informs us, that Noah was the tenth king of the Chaldea, and that he reigned 18 sari.
1606. Jerome Mercurialis died; an Italian physician of great abilities, and author of several works.
1616. Argal returned to Virginia from his expedition against the French settlements in Acadia. At St. Savior he broke in pieces the cross which the Jesuits had erected, and set up another inscribed with the name of the king of Great Britain; at St. Croix he destroyed all the remains of De Monts' settlement; at Port Royal the entire settlement was reduced to ashes in the short space of two hours.
1620. The pilgrims, after a boisterous passage, at break of day discovered the land of cape Cod. Finding that they had been carried north of their destination (see [Sept. 6]) they sailed southward; but falling among shoals, and the season being late, the captain gladly took advantage of their solicitude to put about, for he had been clandestinely promised a reward by the Dutch if he would not carry them to Hudson's river. Steering northward again they were clear of the danger before night, and the next day, a storm coming on, they dropped anchor in cape Cod harbor.
1623. William Camden, an illustrious English historian, died. He is styled the Pausanias of England.
1641. Francis de St. Preuil, a distinguished French officer, and governor of Arras, beheaded at Amiens.
1677. Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, died. It appeared, after his death, that he had bestowed, during 14 years, about $250,000 in private and public charities.
1704. Admiral Leake obliged the French and Spanish blockading squadron to retire from Gibraltar.
1732. Robert Stephens died; an eminent English antiquary and historiographer royal.
1775. Arnold, at the head of 1,000 men, arrived before Quebec. The unexpected appearance of an army, emerging out of the depths of an unexplored wilderness, threw the city into the greatest consternation; but want of boats to cross gave the citizens time to rally, and the critical moment was lost. The sufferings of this detachment were incredible. They ate their horses and dogs, and, after soaking their cartouch boxes, belts and leather breeches, absolutely ate them.
1794. The Jacobin society attacked by the Parisian mob, and several persons severely wounded by stones thrown into the windows of the hall of their sitting.
1794. Maastricht, after a bombardment of some days, capitulated to the French; 8,000 men surrendered prisoners of war. The place was invested on the 10th Sept. by 50,000 republicans, and the first parallel was opened on the 23d October.
1799. The celebrated but bloodless revolution at Paris, of the 18th Brumaire, which, dissolving the directory, invested Bonaparte with the supreme authority. "You are the wisdom of the nation;" he addressed the council, "I come, surrounded by the generals of the republic, to promise you their support. Let us lose no time in looking for precedents. Nothing in history resembles the close of the 18th century—nothing in the 18th century resembles this movement. Your wisdom has devised the necessary measure; our arms shall put it in execution."
1802. Thomas Girten, an English artist, died. He introduced the practice of drawing upon cartridge paper, by which he avoided certain appearances incident to the drawings on white paper.
1803. Benjamin Ledyard, an officer in the revolutionary war, died at Scipio, N. Y. He was a meritorious soldier; at the
time of his death held the office of clerk of Cayuga county.
1806. Eleazer Brooks, an officer of the revolution, died at Concord, Mass. He commanded a regiment at White Plains and Stillwater, and distinguished himself by his cool courage and determined bravery.
1806. Bonaparte levied a contribution on the Prussian dominion and its allies of 160,000,000.
1812. Bonaparte, on his retreat from Moscow, had his head quarters at Smolensk. When he left Moscow his army amounted to 100,000; it now scarcely numbered 60,000.
1813. British repulsed in an attack on Ogdensburgh.
1813. Commodore Chauncey's squadron, the whole carrying but 36 guns, again discovered the Royal George, 26 guns, and chased her under the batteries, which he engaged one hour and forty-five minutes. He had 1 killed and 3 wounded.
1839. Gilbert Y. Francis died at New Orleans, of yellow fever. His life was romantic and eventful. He was in early life attached to the navy; then to the stage; had traveled over the four quarters of the globe; was two years a prisoner in the great desert of Arabia; a slave to the bashaw of Tunis; lieutenant of a guerilla party in Spain; master of a Dutch luggar trading to the Malaccas; overseer of a sugar estate in Jamaica; a cutter of logwood in the forest of Campeachy; a prisoner among banditti in Mexico; a captive among the Camanches; ransomed by some Oregon fur traders; employed by the governor of the Russian settlements to command a brig in the wheat trade with Chili; married in Virginia; and was extensively engaged in the Texan operations when death arrested him.
1848. The king of Prussia prorogued the general assembly, at Berlin, naming Brandenburgh as the place of next meeting.
1848. Blum, a distinguished publisher at Leipsic, shot, at Vienna, as an insurrectionist and deputy for Frankfort.
1851. William Croswell, an episcopal clergyman of Boston, died, aged 47. He was a man of eminent ability, piety, modesty and worth, and his poetical productions are of a high order of merit.
1853. The ceremony of inaugurating the Washington aqueduct took place at the great falls of the Potomac, president Pierce turning the first turf.
1854. Elizabeth Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, died at Washington, aged 93. She was a daughter of general Philip Schuyler, of Albany; married lieutenant colonel Hamilton, then an aid of general Washington, in 1780, with whom she lived 24 years, and survived him nearly half a century.
1856. N. Cabet, founder of the Icarian community at Nauvoo, Illinois, died at St. Louis, aged about 69.