Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/325

Rh Villeraye went to organize the expedition in San Francisco, where he was subsequently joined by Raousset, and on 1 June, 1852, they landed at Guaymas with 270 armed men, mostly Frenchmen, and two field-guns. Gen. Blanco, the Mexican com- mander in Sonora, prohibited their entrance into the country: but they marched to Hermosillo, stormed the place, and plundered stores and pri- vate houses, thus causing the whole country to rise in arms against them. Raousset sent Villeraye to negotiate the withdrawal of the expedition from So- nora, but Gen. Blanco demanded an unconditional surrender. The French attacked the Mexican lines at the rancho of San Jose, 4 Nov., but were driven back after a desperate action, and compelled to capitulate. Raousset, Villeraye, and a few offi- cers returned to San Francisco, but afterward went back to Mexico, where they were well received by Santa- Anna. Villeraye sought to enter the Mexi- can military service, but the successful expedition of William Walker to Lower California induced him to join Raousset in San Francisco in November, 1853, where he took the command of the re-enforce- ments that were sent by the latter to Walker. He landed at Guaymas, where he was surrounded and compelled to capitulate to the Mexican forces ; but his party was released through the intervention of the commander of the British sloop " Dido," on the plea that they had arrived in a British mer- chant vessel. Nearly the whole party was after- ward shipped back to San Francisco, but Villeraye and a few others entered a battalion of foreigners that had been mustered by the Mexican authori- ties for the protection of the state. The strength of this battalion was afterward increased by re- cruits sent purposely by Raousset, and when the latter landed, 1 July, 1854, at Algodones, near Guaymas, Villeraye was commander of one of the companies of the foreign battalion. Being secretly devoted to the cause of his former commander, he went over to him with the foreign legion at his at- tack on Guaymas, 13 July, 1854, and was killed in the midst of the action.

VILLERE, Joseph Philippe Roy de (vil-ray), soldier, b. in France : d. in Louisiana in 1769. He was an officer in a French regiment that was sta- tioned in Canada, his father having come to Louisi- ana with Iberville's first expedition. Afterward he was naval secretary of Louisiana. In 1769 he headed an insurrection against the Spanish authorities, and was arrested, and killed. — His son, Jacques, gov- ernor of Louisiana, b. near New Orleans, La., 28 April, 1761 ; d. there in 1831, was a major-gen- eral of volunteers under Gen. Andrew Jackson in 1814-'15, and counselled him to accept the prof- fered services of Pierre Lafitte and his outlaws, and to flood the ground on which the British troops were encamped by cutting the dikes of the Mis- sissippi. He was the second governor of Louisi- ana, succeeding William C. C. Claiborne in 1818, and continuing in office four years, and did much to diminish the friction between the French popu- lation and the U. S. authorities and English-speak- ing emigrants. — Jacques's son, Gabriel, soldier, b. in Louisiana, 15 March 1785 ; d. in New Orleans, La., 6 July, 1852, held a major's commission in the militia, and at the time of the British invasion was detailed to watch the Bayou Bienvenu. The ene- my, landing at Fisherman's Village, captured him, but he escaped and reached New Orleans, giving Gen. Jackson warning of their approach.

YILLERMET, Jules Gtuillauine Ferdinand de (veel-air-may), French scientist, b. in Landerneau in 1802 ; d. in La Union, Salvador, in 1859. He held for several years an office in the colonial department at Paris, and in 1854 was given a mission to Mexico and Central America. After exploring southern Mexico and Lower Cali- fornia, where he suffered great hardships, he tried to enter Sonora, but was prevented by the political condition of the state. He visited Panama, Costa Rica, and Salvador, studied the volcanoes of Que- zaltenango, Izalco, and San Miguel, and prepared a valuable geological chart of Central America. He died from yellow fever just before leaving for France. Villermet's explorations were continued by the scientific expedition of Auguste Dolfus and Eugene de Montserrat, and, from his notes and the materials he had collected, his brother published " Voyage dans le San Salvador, suivi d'une etude sur les volcans de l'Amerique Cen- trale " (2 vols., Geneva, 1860).

VILLIERS, Jean Pierre (veel-yair), French missionary, d. in Cayenne in 1672. He sailed in 1664 with Lefevre de la Barre and established the first missions in Guiana. In 1669 he returned to France for supplies, and, arriving in the follow- ing year, he founded a convent in Cayenne, with seven missionaries, and built a church in that city. He came into collision with the French company by interfering in their transactions with the Indians, and was imprisoned, but obtained his release on promising not to offend again. Villiers wrote " Etablissements de la foi fondes dans la Nou- velle France du Sud, des sauvages qui l'habitent, etc., avec un vocabulaire de la langue de ces peu- ples " (Beauvais, 1690).

VILMOT, Charles Stanislas (veel-mo), French author, b. in St. Nazaire in 1749 ; d. in Nantes in 1794. He held an office in the quartermas- ter's department of Count Rochambeau's army in 1780-'2, and when Marquis de Vaudreuil embarked the French contingent for Santo Domingo, he chose to remain in the United States, and after- ward engaged in business in Philadelphia. He re- turned to France in 1786, and came again to this country to establish a ship-building yard at Phila- delphia for French speculators, but the scheme failed, owing to the French revolution. During the reign of terror he was accused of being a party to the noted " pacte de famine," and was drowned in Nantes in one of the famous " noyades " organ- ized by Jean Baptiste Carrier. He wrote " Obser- vations sur les services administratifsdu gouverne- ment des Etats-Unis de l'Amerique du Nord " (Nantes, 1786) ; " Journal de campagne, notes prises pendant la guerre de l'independance de l'Amerique" (1789); and "Notes et esquisses sur les Etats- Unis de l'Amerique du Nord " (1792).

VIN, Moyse Van, Flemish buccaneer, b. in Flanders about 1627; d. in Panama in 1678. He was a sailor on a Flemish vessel trading with Santo Domingo, but deserted about 1650, joined the buccaneers in Tortuga, and rose rapidly through his valor. But his total want of education prevented him from commanding large expeditions, and he acted as lieutenant of Grandmont, Van Graaf, Morgan, and Jacques Nau, with whom he was successively associated after 1660. He followed the last-named in all his expeditions after 1666, but early in 1670 abandoned him, when he was planning the attack on Guatemala, and, joining Henry Morgan, he served in the division which carried the fortress on Chagres river, and assisted in the capture of Panama. After Morgan's flight with the spoils, Van Vin mustered about 200 men and five vessels, made a raid on Puerto del Principe, and even attacked Porto Bello. He ravaged the coast of Cam peachy, and acquired enormous riches ; but he did not, however, enjoy them, as,