1813. The Chesapeake frigate, Capt. Evans, returned to Boston from a cruise, having captured during an absence of four months, 2 British brigs and 1 ship, 1 American brig with a British license, and a schooner.
1831. Battle near Siedlce, in Poland, in which the Russians were defeated.
1854. The English and French vessels on the coast of Thessaly were directed to search all vessels suspected of having munitions of war on board, and to seize such as were so found.
1855. All the English and French batteries opened on Sebastopol, and continued incessantly through the night and following day. The Russian loss was acknowledged by Gortschakoff at 833 killed and wounded.
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.