Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/405

Rh as commander of gun-boats, fighting under shelter of the forts, for which he was promoted post- captain. In 1874 lie was sent by President Pardo against Pierola. who had risen in the south, and defeated that leader at Los Angeles and Arequipa, for which he was promoted rear-admiral. He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate against Gen. Prado in 1876. and was senator for Piura when the war against Chili began in 1879. He was sent by Prado to fortify Arica, and after the president had left the country in November was in command of the allied army, but on the arrival of the Bolivian president, Campero, the latter took the supreme command, and under him Montero led the Peru- vian contingent in the unfortunate battle of Tacua, 26 May. 1880, and retired with his force to Torata. Under Pierola he served in the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores, 13 and 14 Jan., 1881. and, after the final defeat, was appointed to superintend the operations in the north, where he continued the war against the Chilians. He accepted the vice- presidency under Garcia Calderon in March. 1881, without abandoning his position in Cajamarca, and, after the imprisonment of Garcia, claiming the presidency, went in August, 1882, to Arequipa and formed a government. After the evacuation of Arequipa, 29 Oct.. 1883, he went to Bolivia, but re- turned to Peru on its abandonment by the Chilians and submitted to Iglesias. In 1885 he was elected deputy to congress, and in the same year became senator for the province of Piura.

MONTES DE OCA, Ignacio (mon-tes-day-o'- ka), Mexican R. C. bishop, b. in Guanajuato, 26 June. 1840. He was sent in 1852 to England, where he received his primary education, returned in 1856 to Mexico to study in the university, and afterward went to Rome, where he was graduated in theology in 1862. He was ordained in 1863, and, after serving for a short time as parish priest of Ipswich, England, he returned again to Rome, where he was chaplain of the papal troops, became a member of the Academy of Arcadians under the name of Ipandro Aeaieo, and received the degree of LL. D. in 1865. He returned to Mexico in the same year, was appointed to the parish of Guana- juato, and in 1866 became honorary chaplain to the Emperor Maximilian. After his fall he re- turned to Rome, was appointed bishop of Ciudad Victoria de Tamaulipas and consecrated by the pope, 6 March, 1871, and went immediately to Mexico to take possession of his see. In 1878 he was transferred to the bishopric of Linares, and in November, 1884, the see of San Luis Potosi was also given him. He is a member of the Royal academy of Madrid and of the Mexican geographi- cal and statistical society, and has published " Poe- tas Bucolicos Griegos," a version of the Greek original in Spanish verse (Monterey, 1877) ; " Ocios Poeticos,"' a collection of poems (1878) ; and a Spanish translation of Pindar's odes (1882).

MONTESINOS, Antonio de (mon-te-see'-nos), clergyman, b. in Spain in the 15th century. While sub-prior of the convent of St. Stephen of Sala- manca, he determined to engage in missionary work in America, and went to Rome, in 1510, to ask permission and the necessary powers for his future field of labor. He arrived in Santo Domingo the following year, bringing with him a number of Dominicans, with whom he established schools for the colonists and the natives. But, as soon as he attempted to free the Indians from the slavery to which the Spaniards had reduced them, he became an object of persecution. At first he tried quietly to make the conquerors understand the injury they were doing the king and country by their tyranny ; but when this failed he denounced their crime in a sermon before the governor and the principal authorities of the colony. This discourse excited great indignation, and he was accused of preaching heresy. As his superiors refused to interfere, and as he was more vehement in his denunciations in his other sermons, the proprietors of the island re- solved to denounce the Dominicans to King Ferdi- nand, and sent a Franciscan monk with a letter to the Spanish court. As soon as Father Montesi- nos was informed of the charges against him and his order, he went to plead his own cause, and to enlighten the king on the abuses of which the In- dians were the victims. On his pa'rival at Madrid he found every one against him, and had the great- est difficulty in obtaining an audience with the king. When he finally succeeded. Ferdinand re- fused to settle the question himself, and referred it to an extraordinary council. This body decided that, while in principle the Indians were free, the interests of the colony required that matters should remain as they were for a time. Although all his hopes were destroyed by this decision, Montesinos returned to Santo Domingo, whence he was sent to the continent with two other Dominicans. Dur- ing the passage he became very ill, and was landed at Porto Rico. As he showed no signs of recovei'- ing. his companions continued their voyage. He finally recovered, and resolved to remain in Porto Rico. He became the first apostle of this island, and converted the greater portion of the inhabi- tants to Christianity.

MONTESINOS, Fernando, Spanish historian, b. in Osuna in 1593; d. in Seville in 1655. He emi- grated to Lima in 1610, received an appointment under the government, and became afterward coun- cillor of the viceroy and visitor of the audiencia of Charcas. During the whole of his career he showed himself very humane to the Indians, and won the friendship of their caciques, who furnished him with valuable historical information. He obtained also the manuscripts of the learned Luis Lopez de Soils, bishop of Quito, who died in 1628, and utilized them in his works. He was reputed the ablest of Peruvian archaeologists, and made also a particular study of the mines of Peru. He published " Ophyr de Espaiia, 6 anales de los reynos de Quito y Lima " (2 vols., Lima, 1640); '"Memorias historicas del an- tiguo reyno de Quito" (1652); and works on Peru- vian metallurgy, since reprinted in Henry Ternaux- Compans's collection (1850), and in the second edi- tion of Leon Pinelo's " Epitome de la Biblioteca Oriental y Occidental " (Madrid, 1737).

'''MONTESQUIOU-FEZENSAC. Philippe Andre Francois''', Comte de (mon-tes-kew), French soldier, b. in the castle of Marsan, near Auch. in 1753 ; d. in Paris, 7 Feb.. 1833. He became a colonel in 1780, served in Tobago and Martinique in 1781, and was appointed in 1792 brigadier-general and governor of the southern provinces of Santo Domingo, which he administered with firmness and severity for eighteen months. He quelled negro insurrections, though he had to contend with difficulties of all kinds, which were increased by the commissioners of the convention, who excited the negroes to rebellion, and pretended to organize in the colony an impossible state of social equality. Montesquiou deserves great praise for his able conduct under these difficult circumstances. He was arrested and imprisoned by the commissioners, but escaped in 1794 to the United States, where he became a professor of French, returning to Paris in 1800. At the accession of Louis XVIII. he was commissioned lieutenant-general, and commanded a division for a few months, but retired in 1817.