Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/275

Rh advance the enterprise. A considerable village grew up around Falling creek : but in May, 1622, at a time of supposed peace, the Indians fell upon the settlement, and out of a total population of 347 persons only a boy and a girl escaped the general massacre. The iron-works and a glass-furnace were demolished, and many years passed before any attempt was made to revive these industries.

BERKELEY, Sir William, colonial governor of Virginia, b. near London, England, July, 1608; d. in Twickenham, 13 July, 1677. He was a son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, and brother of Lord John Berkeley, of Stratton, colonial proprietary. He was graduated at Oxford in 1623, and devoted himself to extensive travel in Europe. In 1630 he returned, an accomplished cavalier and courtier; was made one of the commissioners of Canada in 1632, and, returning to England with a high reputation for knowledge and experience, became a gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I. On 9 Aug., 1641, he was commissioned governor of Virginia. In 1642 he arrived, and, by various salutary measures, aided by his prepossessing manners, rendered himself acceptable to the people. During the Cromwellian disturbances in England, Gov. Berkeley took the royal side, and, when the parliamentarians gained the ascendency, he offered an asylum in Virginia to gentlemen who had been loyal to the king. The new parliament immediately sent a fleet to the colony to punish him; but, unable to offer resistance, he displayed such shrewdness as well as courage, that when the fleet appeared in James river, in 1651, he succeeded in making terms so satisfactory to both parties that, although he was forced to resign his authority, he received permission to remain on his own plantation. Through his management Virginia was among the last of the colonial possessions to acknowledge the authority of Cromwell. On the death of Samuel Mathews, governor of Virginia. Berkeley was elected to the office, and received his commission from Charles IL soon after the restoration. His conduct in reference to the so- called rebellion of Nathaniel Bacon, in refusing a commission and hampering Bacon by every means in his power; his faithlessness and obstinacy in dealing with the Indian question, which had become of vital moment to the settlers; and his extreme severity to the followers of Bacon after Bacon's death, which in itself was not without suspicion, caused him to lose popularity. This intensified his bitterness, and he caused Bacon's adherents to be arrested, tried, and executed in such a hurried and indecent manner that the assembly arose in remonstrance. The king himself is reported to have exclaimed, "The old fool has taken more lives in his naked country than I have taken for my father's murder," and in 1665 demanded his return. Nevertheless, Berkeley continued to administer the affairs of Virginia for the next eleven years. Religious tolerance was not one of his virtues, and the state papers show that he put much pressure on Quakers. A board of commissioners was sent out by royal mandate to examine into the condition of the colony, and in one of his replies he is quoted as saying, "Thank God! there are no free schools nor printing-presses, and I hope there will be none for a hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged these and other libels." Through the influence of the planters he was obliged to obey the recall, and in 1676 he returned to England, but died before he had an interview with the king. He published "The Lost Lady; a Tragi-Comedy" (London, 1638), which is included in the first and fourth editions of Dodsley's "Old Plays," and "A Description of Virginia" "(1663).

BERLINER, Emile, inventor, b. in Hanover, Germany, 20 May, 1851. He was graduated atSamson college, Wolfenbüttel, in 1865. He came to this country in 1870 and settled in Washington, D. C., in 1882. From 1879 to 1882 he was chief instrument inspector of the Bell telephone company. He discovered early in 1877 the loose contact principle of the modern telephone transmitter, independently made known by Hughes in England in the autumn of that year. He also introduced the use of induction-coils in telephone transmitters and is the patentee of other inventions.

BERMUDEZ, José Manuel (ber-moo'-deth), Peruvian scholar, b. in Tarma about 1760; d. in Lima in 1830. He was vicar of Huanecico for fourteen years, then went to Lima, filling several important offices ; was appointed canon in 1812, deputy for Tarma, and judge of the provincial deputation from 1814 till 1820, and chancellor of the university in 1819. When Viceroy La Serna organized the board of pacification during the revolutionary war, Bermudez, being a distinguished orator, thoroughly acquainted with all the questions then at issue and with the history of his country, was made a member. He made a special study of the Quechua language, and wrote a grammar, an orthographical treatise, and a correct and rich dictionary of that language. These works were published in 1793.

BERMUDEZ, Juan (ber-moo'-deth), Spanish navigator of the 16th century. His fame is chiefly due to his discovery of the Bermuda islands (1522), which are named in his honor.

BERNAL, Calixto (berr-nahl'), Cuban jurist, b. in Puerto Principe, Cuba, in 1804. He was admitted to the bar in 1822. In 1841 he went to Madrid, Spain, where he spent the remainder of his life. There he published his "Impresiones y Recuerdos" (1844); "Pensamientos sobre Reformas Sociales" (1847), published also in French under the title of "De la démocratie au xix. siècle"; "Teoria de la Autoridad" (1846); and "El Derecho " (1877).

BERNARD, Sir Francis, governor of Massachusetts Bay, b. in Nettleham, Lincoln eo., England, in 1714; d. in Aylesbury, England. 16 June, 1779. He was graduated at Oxford in 1736, studied law, and admitted to the bar at the Middle Temple, of which he afterward became a bencher. He was elected steward of the city of Lincoln, and recorder of the city of Boston in England. In 1768 he was appointed governor of the province of New Jersey, whence aft cv two years of successful rule he was transferred to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, arriving on 5 Aug., 1760. The earlier part of his administration of nine years was successful, as was shown by the salary of £1,300 voted to him, and the grant of the island of Mount Desert, off the coast of Maine, both of which were confirmed by the king. In 1764 the library of Harvard was destroyed by fire, and about 6,000 volumes were lost. Gov. Bernard took a special interest in the college, and successfully exerted himself in raising funds in its behalf. When two parties arose—the advocates for the crown, and the defenders of the rights of the people—Bernard determined to strengthen the royal authority in the colonies, and he probably did more than any other one man toward precipitating the war of the revolution. He manifested an unhappy facility for wounding the amour propre of the colonists. One of his first acts that aroused indignation was the appointment of Mr.