Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/617

Rh vested Mobile with his combined forces, and in Feb., 1780, captured Fort Charlotte, forcing the city to surrender. His army, with the organized militia, soon rose to 14,000 men, and he invaded the north- western part of Florida, defeating the British in several encounters, and besieged Pensacola, but, be- ing unable to attack it from tire sea-side for want of siege artillery and a fleet, went in January, 1781, to Havana, and returned in February with the neces- saiy material. The British capitulated on 9 May, and, together with 800 prisoners and the armament, the whole west coast fell into the hands of the Spanish. This feat of Galvez was celebrated by M. de Poydras in a poem which was published at the expense of the king of France. After the signature of peace at Versailles, 3 Sept., 1783, Galvez was re- warded by the title of count and the rank of lieu- tenant-general, and was appointed captain-general of Cuba. On the death of his father he was pro- moted viceroy of Mexico, taking charge of the government, 17 June, 1785. He improved the work- ing of the mines, augmenting the crown revenue from them, while at the same time he protected their owners from the unjust exactions of the rev- enue officers, rebuilt the old theatre, and repaired the causeways of the Piedad and Tlalpam. In 1785 a famine desolated the province, and an epi- demic broke out in the following year, and Galvez did all in his power to alleviate the public suffer- ings, giving large contributions from his private purse for the relief of the pooi-. He also con- structed on the site of the ancient summer palace of the Montezumas, Chapultepec, a palace for him- self and his successors at the expense of over $300,000, and, as it was built like a strong fortress with bastions and heavy artillery, his enemies ca- lumniated him at the court, insinuating that he in- tended to declare himself independent of Spain. The home government began to manifest some dis- trust, and this preyed on Galvez's mind. He became melancholy and reserved, seeking his only distrac- tion in the chase. In consequence of violent over- exertion he fell ill and died after a few days in the archiepiseopal palace of Tacubaya.

GALVEZ, Mariano, b. in Guatemala in the lat- ter part of the 18th century ; d. in Mexico about 1850. He was a foundling, and was adopted by a rich family, whose name he assumed. He received his early education in the convent-school of Guate- mala, but afterward studied law in the university of that city, and was graduated as doctor in 1819. He was private counsellor of Gov. Gainza (q. v.), and it is probably due to his influence that the latter did not oppose the popular movement for liberty. Galvez favored the annexation of Guatemala to Mexico, but when the first Federal congress of Central America met in Guatemala in 1825, he was one of the deputies, and became president. In the civil war of 1826, Galvez took part with the Federalists, and headed a revolutionary movement against the Unitarian government, which, although promptly suppressed, hastened the invasion of Guatemala by Morazan, whose forces Galvez joined in Ahuacha- pam. On 24 Aug., 1831, Galvez was elected chief of the state of Guatemala, and under his admin- istration science, arts, and education were fostered, and many public improvements made. In Febru- ary, 1835, he was re-elected for a second term, dur- ing which the Asiatic cholera afflicted the country, and the reactionary party persuaded the unedu- cated people of the interior that the disease was caused by the poisoning of the springs by order of the government. Several revolutionary move- ments began, and in January. 1838, the city of An- tigua, Guatemala, pronounced against Galvez's gov- ernment. On the 13th the revolutionary forces of Sacatepeque occupied the city of Guatemala, and Galvez left the country for Mexico, where he prac- tised law for some years with distinction.

GAMA, Antonio Leon de (gah'-mah), Mexican astronomer, b. in the city of Mexico in 1735; d. there, 13 Sept., 1802. He studied in the College of San Ildetonso, early showing a taste for astron- omy. As the means for a course in that science were wanting in Mexico, he instructed himself by reading the works of Newton. Woebler, Grave- sand, Muschembrock, Bernaulis, La Caille, and other eminent writers. He was for many years a clerk in the office of the secretary of the supreme court, and nothing would have been known of his scientific work if the astronomer La Lande had not published in his " Connaissement des temps" Gama's name as that of the author of the first exact observation of the longitude of Mexico, and eulogized his calculation of the eclipse of the sun of 6 Nov., 1771, which he promised to publish in the memoirs of the Academy of Paris. At the same time he commissioned Gama to take observations of the satellites of Jupiter, and of the tides on the Pacific coast from Acapulco to Valparaiso. This called the public attention to the merits of Gama, and the scientist Joaquin Velasquez de Leon, at the foundation of the Mining school, appointed him professor of mechanics, pyrotechnics, and aerometry, and commissioned him to make observations upon the impending eclipse of the sun and other celes- tial phenomena. The viceroy, Manuel Flores, who was himself a distinguished mariner and geogra- pher, commissioned him to calculate the probable date of appearance of a comet, which had been predicted by the London astronomers for 1788. The necessity of providing for his family forced Gama to give time to mechanical pursuits, which would have been better employed in the service of science. But he still found leisure to write on ex- perimental physics, medicine, mathematics, and Mexican antiquities, of which he exhibited pro- found knowledge. When in 1790 the Aztec calen- dar-stone was cfiscovcred, he wrote an essay about it, " Historical and Chronological Description of Two Stones that were found in the Plaza of Mexi- co upon the Occasion of laying the New Pave- ment" (Mexico, 1832), explaining its use among the Indians. Also, a treatise on their arithmetic, gnomonics, and hieroglyphics. Prescott praises Gama as treating his subject, not with the accus- tomed credulity of the antiquarian, but with the caution of a mathematician, who demonstrates whatever he asserts. Gama's only work preserved in book-form is " Descripcion Orografica del Eclipse del Sol, el 24 de Junio de 1778" (Mexico, 1778).

GAMA, Jose Basilio da, Brazilian poet, b. in the district of Rio-das-Mortes, Brazil, in 1740; d. in Lisbon, Portugal, 31 July 1795. He belonged to a poor family, was brought to Rio Janeiro at an early age by "a monk of St. Francis, and was educated by the Jesuits, who afterward received him into their order. He was reduced to great poverty after the missionaries were expelled from Brazil, but finally succeed(d in entering a seminary, where he studied the scholastic philosophy. He then went to Portugal, and from there to Italy. He returned to Portugal in 1775, being called by the marquis of Pombal to celebrate the unveiling of an equestrian statue of king Jose I., in an ode, which was awarded the prize, and Gama was given a place in the department of state and a patent of nobility. After the downfall of Pombal, Gama lost his office and went to Brazil, where he founded an academy of Arcadians modelled after that of