1775. The daily consumption of pulque, the fermented juice of the maguei, in the city of Mexico, according to the custom house record, was 6000 arrobas (150,000 lbs.), and the daily consumption of tobacco for smoking, was reckoned at 1250
crowns. The population then exceeded 200,000.
1779. St. Vincents surrendered with considerable stores, to the Americans under Col. Clarke. British taken, 79.
1780. Action between the British ship Resolution, 74 guns, and French ship La Prothee, 64 guns, which resulted in the capture of the latter.
1792. Joshua Reynolds, the English painter, died in London, aged 69. He rapidly acquired opulence by his profession, and on the institution of the royal academy, was elected president. The lectures which he delivered before this society have become a standard work.
1796. Nicholas Stofflet, the celebrated Vendean chief, shot at Angers. At the beginning of the French revolution he was a private soldier, but became one of the most intrepid and daring chiefs of the royal army of La Vendee, and had been in no less than 150 actions, 10 of them pitched battles; and in more than 100 of them he proved victorious. He met his fate with characteristic fortitude.
1796. Bonaparte appointed commander-in-chief of the army of Italy.
1798. Rockland county N. Y., erected.
1798. The pope withdrew from Rome to Sienna, having been deprived of his temporal possessions by the French.
1800. Joseph Warton, an English prelate, died. He was also an ingenious poet and critical writer.