Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/59

Rh marks of decomposition became visible. Thus encouraged, the natives rebelled, but they were defeated, and the sachem fell in battle.

AGUILAR, María, Mexican author, b. in Atlixco, near Puebla, 3 March, 1695; d. 25 Feb., 1756. She entered the nunnery of Santa Rosa, of Puebla, at the age of nineteen, and in 1740 was elected abbess of her convent. Her conventional name was Sor María Águeda de San Ignacio, and she was highly esteemed for her scholarship and zeal. She wrote several religious books, which were printed in Puebla and in the city of Mexico.

AGUIRRE, José María (ah-geer'-rhe), Mexican lawyer, b. in the city of Mexico in 1778; d. in 1852. He was a priest, but the authorities gave him permission to practise law, which he had studied thoroughly. His extraordinary ability as a lawyer was such that, in fifty-two years of continuous practice at the bar, he only lost half a dozen cases. He distinguished himself specially in defending persons accused by the Inquisition.

AGUIRRE, Lope de, Spanish adventurer, b. in Oñate; d. in Venezuela in October, 1561. He accompanied Ursua in the search for Eldorado on the American continent, instigated him to seize upon the supreme command, and then murdered him and succeeded to his place. He committed a series of crimes, and finally met with a violent death.

AHUIZOTL (ah-we-sut'-l), king of the Aztecs, reigned toward the end of the 15th century; d. in 1502. He is reputed to have enlarged the empire, and built many canals and important buildings. He was constantly at war, and conquered Guatemala. According to tradition, 72,344 prisoners were immolated by his order in four days at the consecration of a temple in 1486.

AHUMADA Y VILLALON, Agustin de (ah-oo-mah'-dah), marquis of Las Amarillas, 42d viceroy of Mexico, d. 5 Feb., 1760. He assumed the office of viceroy 10 Nov., 1755, and distinguished himself by his honesty and zeal in eradicating abuses and introducing reforms. In his time happened the sudden eruption of a new volcano at Jorullo, Hear Patzcuaro, when its ashes spread in large quantities and caused a great panic among the population of Queretaro. Tie died in Cuernavaca.

AIKEN, Charles Augustus, educator, b. in Manchester, Vt.. 30 Oct., 1827: d. in Princeton, N. J., 14 Jan., 1892. He was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1846 and at Andover theological seminary in 1853. From 1859 to 1866 he was professor of Latin at Dartmouth, and from 1866 to 1869 at Princeton college. From 1869 to 1871 he was president of Union college. Subsequently he held the chair of Christian ethics and apologetics in Princeton theological seminary.

AIKEN, William, statesman, b. in Charleston, S. C, in 1806 ; d. in Flat Rock, N. C, 7 Sept., 1887. He was graduated at the college of South Carolina in 1825, and became an extensive rice-planter On Jehosse island, near Charleston. He was a member of the legislature from 1838 to 1840, state senator in 1842, governor of South Carolina in 1844, and representative in congress from 1851 to 1857. He contributed liberally to charitable and educational institutions. He took no part in secession, and was elected again to congress in 1866, but was not admitted to a seat.

AIKINS, James Cox, Canadian senator, b. in the township of Toronto, 30 March, 1823. He was educated at Victoria college, represented the county of Peel in the Canadian house of assembly from 1854 until 1861, was a member of the legislative council of Canada from 1862 until the union; became a member of the privy council 9 Dec, 1869; was secretary of state of Canada from 1869 until the resignation of the Macdonald government, 5 Nov., 1873; was appointed secretary of state a second time 19 Oct., 1878, and was called to the senate in May, 1897. Mr. Aikins is a liberal conservative.

AIKMAN, Alexander, journalist, b. in Scotland in 1755; d. at Prospect Pen, St. Andrews, Jamaica, in July, 1838. He came to Charleston, S. C, and learned the trade of a printer. When the American colonies revolted he left the country and established in Jamaica a loyalist newspaper, the "Jamaica Mercury," afterward called the "Royal Gazette." He was public printer in that colony, and sat for many years in the assembly.

AILLEBOUT, Louis d', French governor of Canada, d. in Quebec in 1660. He brought a company of colonists for the island of Montreal, and, after administering that province in the absence of Maisonneuve, was nominated governor of Three Rivers. From 1647 to 1651 he was governor of Canada. He negotiated unsuccessfully with the governors of the New England provinces for a white league against the Iroquois chiefs.

AINSLIE, Hew, Scottish-American poet, b. in Bargeny Mains, Ayrshire, 5 April, 1792; d. in Louisville. Ky., 11 March, 1878. He was sent to the Ayr academy to complete his education, but was compelled to leave that institution when fourteen years of age, in consequence of ill-health. Three years afterward he went to Glasgow and engaged in the study of law with a relative, but, as it proved uncongenial, he returned to Roslin, where his parents then resided, and engaged in landscape gardening. Soon afterward he was appointed a clerk in the register house, Edinburgh, and at intervals while so employed acted as amanuensis for Prof. Dugald Stewart, the last of whose works he copied for the press. He married in 1812, and emigrated to the United States in July, 1822. Three years after his arrival he was attracted by Robert Owen's peculiar social system as exemplified at New Harmony, Ind., but after a trial of it for a year he gave it up. He subsequently removed to Cincinnati and became partner in a brewery. A branch that he established in 1829 in Louisville was destroyed by an inundation of the Ohio in 1832, and a similar establishment erected by him the same year at New Albany was burned in 1834. Subsequently, till his retirement from business, he was employed in super-intending the erection of mills, factories, and breweries in the western states. Ainslie's best-known book, "A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns" (1820), consists of a narrative embodying a number of sparkling lyrics. A collection of his Scottish songs and ballads, edited by his friend William Wilson, was issued in New York in 1855. Ainslie is one of the minor Scottish poets represented in "Whistle Binkie" (Glasgow, 1853) and in Wilson's "Poets and Poetry of Scotland" (New York, 1876). In 1864 he visited his native land and received gratifying evidences of esteem and friendship from literary men. His best-known poems are "The Ingle Side" and "On wi' the Tartan," which were much admired by Sir Walter Scott, who by mistake handed Ainslie, at the register house, several pages of the MS. of one of his early novels in place of a legal document. Sir Walter's confidence was never betrayed. Another circumstance that Ainslie recalled with pleasure was related by him on the one hundred and twelfth anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, to a large company assembled in Louisville, over which he presided, to celebrate the day so dear to all Scotchmen—the circumstance of his having had the honor of kissing "Bonnie Jean." widow of the great poet.