Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/602

568 was made for a partial confederation of San Sal- vador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, he was chosen supreme delegate with executive power. He avert- ed a war declared against Guatemala, and retired in 1844. Subsequently he became civil and mili- tary governor of Nicaragua, and in 1851 secretary ot the treasury ; and, after the outbreak in August which drove Pineda from power, he succeeded him as general-in-ehief. Being the leader of the con- servative party, then powerful, he was elected chief magistrate or supreme director in April, 1853. A few months afterward Bishop Viteri, of Nicaragua, died 'suddenly, and rumors were spread to the effect that the prelate had been poisoned by con- spirators of the liberal party. Chamorro believed it, and caused some of the prominent liberals to be persecuted and banished. These went to Hon- duras, organized an army, gained several victories, and besieged Chamorro at Granada, but he resisted them for nine months, and the besiegers retired from the contest, 10 Feb., 1855.

CHAMPE, John, soldier, b. in Loudon county, Va., in 1752 ; d. in Kentucky, about 1798. He was .sergeant-major of Henry Lee's cavalry legion, and, just after Arnold's treason, was sent to New York as a spy by Lee, at Washington's request. His mission was to discover whether another American officer (supposed to have been Gen. Gates) was also a traitor, and to capture Arnold, if possible, and bring him before Washington. Champe fled as a deserter from the American camp at Tappan, at eleven o'clock in the night, was hotly pursued, and gained the British galleys at Paulus Hook. He was taken to New York, and, after being examined by Sir Henry Clinton, was sent by him to Arnold, who made him sergeant-major in a legion he was raising. Champe was able to send to Washington complete proofs of the suspected general's inno- cence, but he was not so successful in the other part of his mission. Discovering that Arnold walked in his garden every night, he formed a plan with a comrade to seize and gag him, to drag him, as a drunken soldier, to a boat on the Hudson, and de- liver him to a party of horsemen on the New Jer- sey shore. On the appointed night, however, Arnold moved his quarters, and the legion to which Champe belonged was sent to Virginia. Champe afterward escaped from the British army and joined Greene's troops in North Carolina. Wash- ington discharged him from further service, lest he should fall into the hands of tlie British and be hanged. In 1798 Washington wished to make him captain of an infantry company, but learned that he had died in Kentucky some time before. See Henry Lee's " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States " (Phila- delphia. 1812; 2d ed., Washington, 1827).

CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de, French navigator, b. in Brouage, Saintonge. on the bay of Biscay, in 1507; d. in Quebec, 25 Dec, 1685. His father was a ship-captain, and the son received a careful edu- cation as a navigator. Early in life he entered the ai-my and became quartermaster of cavalry. His uncle, acting as pilot-general of the Spanish fleets, conducted back to their own country the Spanish soldiers who had served in France, and was accom- panied by his nephew, who took command of the " St. Julien." In January, 1599, he sailed in com- mand of this vessel for the West Indies, and dur- ing two years and a half visited many of the islands, landed at Vera Cruz, proceeded inland as far as the city of Mexico, and returned by way of Panama, where he conceived the plan of a ship- canal across the isthmus, reaching Spain in March, 1601. A record of this voyage, with views and charts, was written by him, and was first printed under the title of " Bref discours " (Quel)ec, 1870). though a translation had been previously printed in the publications of the Ilakluyt society. On his return to France he received a pension from Henry IV., and, upon being urged by commander De Chaste, governor of Dieppe, to explore territory granted to him in North America by the king, with a view to founding a colony, he sailed, on 15 March, 1603, in the ship of Pontgrave. On 24 May they anchored at Tadoussac, where the Saguenay joins the St. Lawrence; and soon afterward he, Pontgrave, and a few men, proceeded up the river in a boat, until stopped by the rapids of St. Louis above Montreal, which was the limit of Cartier's discoveries in 1535. Returning to Tadoussac, Champlain examined both sides of the river, and subsequently explored the St. Lawrence down to Gaspe. He sailed for France in August, and pub- lished the same year his first volume, " Des sau- vages," giving an account of his explorations and discoveries. The commander, De Chaste, having died in the mean time, his privileges were trans- ferred to Du Guay, Sieur de Monts, who made an engagement with Champlain, with the intention of founding a settlement in Acadia, and they sailed together, arriving at Sable island 1 May, 1604. Coasting along Nova Scotia, they finally determined to form a settlement on the island of St. Croix, so named by Moats, in the river of the same name, which divides New Brunswick from the United States. Not finding the place suitable, after passing a winter there they re- moved to Port Royal, adjacent to the present An- napolis. During 1604-'6 Champlain explored the coast as far as Cape Cod, making careful surveys and maps as he progressed. He returned to France in 1607, and, having suggested to De Monts the im- portance of establishing a trading-post on the St. Lawrence, he and Pontgrave were sent out in 1608, and, after reaching Tadoussac, they continued up the St. Lawrence to a place called by the Algon- quins Quebec, or the Narrows. Champlain decided upon forming a settlement here, but had scarcely begun to clear the ground for the erection of build- ings when a plot to assassinate him was discovered. At Quebec he erected houses, sowed grain, and did all he could to develop thefur trade, and in a short time the settlement began to grow. Having be- come friendly with the Montagnais, an Indian tribe on the St. Lawrence, in 1609 he joined them in an expedition against the Iroquois. While in pursuance of this project, they were met by a party of Algonquins and Hurons, and, accompanied by them, ascended Sorel river until they arrived at the Chambly rapids. Having at this point sent back his boat and crew, Champlain proceeded in a canoe, and entering a lake, gave it his own name. Champlain and his Indians meeting a large force of the Iroquois on the lake, both parties landed and threw up barricades of trees. On the follow-