Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/305

Rh ing public attention to valuable phosphate-mines. He first attracted notice as a meteorologist in the autumn of 1876, when he predicted a "green" Christmas and a rainy New- Year's day, which pre- diction was verified. At the same time he began the publication of " Vennor's Almanac," which he continued till his death, and which, it was claimed, attained a larger circulation than that of any simi- lar publication in the world. He made a study of the course of storms for many years, and attained his results chiefly by comparing atmospheric con- ditions at the time with similar ones in the past. He published " Our Birds of Prey " (Montreal, 1875). The remainder of his writings appear in the " Reports " of the geological survey, the " Ca- nadian Naturalist," and the "British American Magazine." In 1882-'3 he supplemented his al- manac with " Vennor's Weather Bulletin."

VENTADOUR, Henry de Lévis-La Voute, Duke de, third viceroy of Canada, b. in the castle of Moustier Ventadour, near Tulle, Correze, about 1595 ; d. in Paris in 1651. He was the second Duke of Ventadour, and, after serving for several years in the army, retired and took holy orders. In 1625 he bought for 20,000 livres from his uncle, Henry, Duke de Montmorency, the viceroyalty of Canada. According to the historian, " it was no worldly motive that prompted this young noble- man to assume the burden of fostering the infancy of New Prance. For trade and colonization he cared nothing ; the conversion of infidels was his sole care. The Jesuits had the keeping of his con- science, and in his eye they were the most fitting instrument for his purpose." The Recollet friars that had arrived in Canada a few years before had already established five missions. To please De Ventadour they applied for the assistance of the Jesuits, and the duke sent to Canada, in 1625, Charles Lalemant, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf. They were followed in 1626 by Noirot de la Noue and twenty other laborers. Emery de Caen had then the monopoly of trade and com- merce in Canada, but, as he was a Huguenot, Ven- tadour endeavored to limit his privilege, and went so far as to prohibit Emery's followers from prayer and singing. Ventadour sent one ship to Canada in 1626 to explore his new dominion, but denied the colonists any support, under the pretence that they were Protestants, and when Richelieu in 1627 compelled Ventadour to sell his viceroyalty to the newly organized company of the Hundred asso- ciates, the fifty inhabitants of Quebec were nearly starving. Pointe Levis had been named after the third viceroy of Canada. Ventadour continued to the end of his life to interest himself in the conver- sion of infidels, and he sent succor several times to the missions that had been established by the Jesuits in New Prance.

VERA-CRUZ, Alonso de la, Spanish monk, b. in Caspueilas, Guadalajara, in 1504 ; d. in Mexi- co, 6 July, 1584. He studied at the universities of Alcala and Salamanca, and was from 1533 till 1537 tutor of the children of the Duke del Infan- tado. In 1537 he accompanied Father Francisco de la Cruz to New Spain, and in 1538 entered the Augustinian order at Vera Cruz. He was provin- cial of the order in 1550, and founded in 1551 the University of Mexico, being its first professor of Holy Scripture. When Vasco de Quiroga, bishop of Michoacan, went to the council of Trent, he left Vera-Cruz in charge of his diocese and asked him for a full report of the missions in New Spain to lay before the council. This report was long discussed in that body, as it severely criticised the Spanish administration and begged the king to prevent cruelty toward the Indians. Vera-Cruz was in consequence ordered to appear at court in 1561, but he justified himself and became visitor of the order in New Castile. He refused in 1565 the bishoprics of Tlaxcala and Michoacan, and, being permitted to return to New Spain in 1573, brought with him seventeen friars, and established successful missions among the Tarascos. He was thoroughly acquainted with the native languages, and left, besides many published works, several valuable manuscripts, which are mentioned by Jose Mariano Beristain in his " Biblioteca Hispano- Americana Septentrional."

VERANDRYE, Pierre Gautier de Varenlies de la, Canadian explorer, b. in Three Rivers, Lower Canada, 17 Nov., 1685; d. in Quebec, 6 Dec, 1749. His father, Rene Gautier de Varennes, a native of France and lieutenant in the regiment of Carignan, was governor of Three Rivers. The son entered the French army, fought in the war with Great Britain, received several wounds in the battle of Malplaquet, and was left for dead on the field. After his recovery he returned to Canada, and in 1712 married the "daughter of the seignieur of He Dupas. Like many others, Verandrye cher- ished the hope of discovering a northwest passage to Cathay, and on his imparting his belief to Father Gonor, the latter persuaded De Beauharnois, then governor of Canada, to give Verandrye fifty men and a missionary to carry out his intended explo- rations. In 1731 he crossed Lac de la Pluie 160 miles west of Lake Superior, built Fort St. Peter near the present Fort Francis, and in 1732 erected Fort St. Charles on the western shore of the Lake of the Woods. In 1733 he passed down Winnipeg river into the lake of that name, and is supposed to have erected a fort south of Assiniboine river near its junction with Red river, from which the pres- ent Fort Rouge is named. He and his sons shortly afterward built Fort de la Reine upon the site that is now occupied by Portage la Prairie, and subse- quently continued their explorations westward un- til they had discovered the Rocky mountains. In 1736 one of his sons, the Jesuit Pere Anneau, and twenty others were massacred by Sioux on an isl- and of the Lake des Bois. In 1749 Verandrye as- cended Saskatchewan river to the forks, where he erected Fort Dauphin, and afterward returned to Quebec, hoping to obtain a further pecuniary grant, but died as he was about to resume his journey. While on his tour of exploration he found among massive pillars a small stone that bore on two sides graven characters of an unknown language. The stone was afterward sent to Paris, and there the resemblance the characters were thought to bear to Tartaric was regarded as supporting the hypothesis of an Asiatic emigration into America. The king of France conferred the cross of St. Louis upon Verandrye, and at the time of his death he was about to resume, by the king's desire, his attempt to reach the Pacific ocean. Alexander Tache, the first Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Boniface, Manitoba, who was a relative of Verandrye, laid in 1885 the foundation of a monument to com- memorate him at St. Boniface.

VERBECK, Guido Fridolin, missionary, b. in Zeist, near Utrecht, Holland, 23 Jan., 1830. He was graduated at the Moravian academy in Zeist in 1848, at Auburn theological seminary in 1859, and was licensed by the presbytery of Cayuga the same year. .He went to Japan in May, 1859, as a missionary of the Reformed church, was connected with the government of that country in its education and translation departments in 1869-78, and earlv in 1869 was invited to Tokio to help in