Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/119

Rh was the publisher of Robert Fraud's "History of Pennsylvania" (1797-'8), the mystical works of William Gerar de Bram, and other valuable books. He was a founder and president of the Philadel- phia society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons, and a member and benefactor of various other benevolent associations. He was also for twenty-one years librarian of the Library company of Philadelphia, six years its treasurer, and thirty- two years a director, and his portrait, by Thomas Sully, hangs in its hall in that city.

POUNDMAKER, Indian chief, b. near Battle- ford, Northwest territory, British America, in 1826: d. at Gleichen, near Calgary. 4 July, 1886. As chief of the Cree nation, he first came into public notice in connection with the tour of the Marquis of Lome, governor - general of Canada, and his party through the northwest in 1881, when he acted as their guide from Battleford to Calgary. Believing that the Canadian government was false to its promise of relief to the Indians, he was in- duced by Louis Riel (q. v.) to take the field with the warriors of his nation. At the battle of Cut Knife Creek, thirty -five miles from Battleford, with 350 Indian warriors, he displayed great bra- very in holding the regular troops under Lieut.-Col. Otter at bay for more than four hours. Though the fight was indecisive and the losses about equal, Lieut.-Col. Otter thought it expedient to retire to Battleford. On another occasion Poundmaker surprised and captured a supply-train that was carrying provisions to the troops. After the battle of Batache and the capture of Riel, Poundmaker, after giving up the prisoners that he held, surren- dered himself to Gen. Middleton. He was subse- quently sent to Regina, tried for the part he took in the rebellion, and sentenced on 18 Aug., 1885, to three years' imprisonment in the Stony Moun- tain penitentiary. In reply to a question by the judge, Poundmaker said : " I am a man, do as you like. I am in your power. I gave myself up; you could not catch me." After sentence was pro- nounced, he asked to be hanged at once, as he pre- ferred death to imprisonment. He was released after a year's confinement, and died while on a visit to Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot Indians, his relative by marriage. He was of genial dispo- sition, possessed considerable intellectual force and keenness of perception, and was devotedly at- tached to his race and people.

'''POURTALES. Louis Francois de''' (poor-tah-lays), naturalist, b. in Neuchatel, Switzerland, 4 March. 1824 ; d. in Beverly Farms, Mass., 19 July, 1880. He was educated as an engineer, but an early predilection for natural science led to his becoming a favorite pupil of Louis Agassiz, whom he accompa- nied in 1840 on his glacial explorations among the Alps. In 1847 he came with Agassiz to the United States and made his home in East Boston, and then in Cambridge, Mass. Pourtales entered the U. S. coast survey in 1848, and continued attached to that service until 1873. In 1851 he served in the tri- angulation of the Florida reef, and at that time collected numerous gephyreans and holothurians, which led to his special study of the bed of the ocean. He was the pioneer of deep-sea dredging in this country, and he lived to see that he had paved the way for similar researches both here and abroad. On the Hassler expedition from Massa- chusetts bay through the Straits of Magellan to California he had entire charge of the dredging operations. In 1854 he was placed in special charge of the field and office work of the tidal division of the coast survey, where he remained until his resignation. His most valuable work was in connection with marine zoology, and the large collections that he made were deposited in the Museum of comparative zoology in Cambridge. Their examination has resulted in special reports upon echinoderms, corals, crinoids, foraminifera, sponges, annelids, hydroids, bryozoa, mollusks, and Crustacea, by the" most eminent investigators of America and Europe, which were published principally in the bulletins of the museum. Pour- tales became assistant in zoology at the museum in 1873, and on the death of Louis Agassiz became its keeper. His name has, been given to the genus Pourtalesia, a variety of sea-urchins. He was a member of various scientific societies, and had been elected to membership in the National acad- emy of sciences. His writings are largely con- tained in the reports of the coast survey, but, in addition to valuable scientific papers in the " Pro- ceedings of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science " and the " American Jour- nal of Science," he published, under the direction of the Museum of comparative zoology, " Contribu- tions to the Fauna of the Gulf Stream at Great Depths" (part i., 18(57; part ii.. 1868); "List of the Crinoids obtained on the Coasts of Florida and Cuba in 1867-'9 " (1869) ; " List of Holothu- ridae from the Deep-Sea Dredgings of the U. S. Coast Survey " (1869) ; " Deep-Sea Corals " (1871) ; "The Zoological Results of the Hassler Expe- dition," with Alexander Agassiz (1874) ; " Reports on the Dredging Operations of the U. S. Coast- Survey Steamer ' Blake ' " ; " Corals and Crinoids " (1878)'; and "Report on the Corals and Antipa- tharia " (1880).

POUSSIN, Guillanme Tell Lavallée (poos- sang), French soldier, b. in France about 1795 ; d. after 1850. He accompanied Gen. Simon Bernard to the United States after the fall of Napoleon, and mi ii March, 1817, became assistant topographical engineer in the U. S. army, with rank of captain, and aide to Gen. Bernard. He was promoted topo- graphical engineer, with rank of major, 15 Jan., 1829, but resigned, 31 July, 1832. He had become a naturalized citizen of this country, but returned to France, where he took an active part in the estab- lishment of the republic of 1848, and in 1848-'9 he was its minister to the United States. Among other works he published "Travaux d'ameliorations in- terieures projetes ou executes par le gouvernement general des Etats-Unis d'Amerique de 1824 a 1831 " (Paris, 1834) ; " Considerations sur le principe demo- eratique qui regit 1'Union Americaine, et de la pos- sibilite de son application a d'autres Etats " (1841) ; and " De la puissance Americaine : origine, institu- tions, esprit, politique, ressources des Etats-Unis " (2 vols., 1843 ; English translation by E. L. Du Barry, M. D., Philadelphia, 1851).

POUTRINCOURT, Jean de Biencourt (poo-trang-koor), Sieur de, French soldier, b. in France in 1557 ; d. in Mery-sur-Seine in 1615. He followed De Monts to Canada in 1603, and was subsequently made lieutenant by the latter. He obtained a grant of Port Royal in 1604, but gave his principal attention to trading with the Indians, and neglected the colony that he had established there. He returned to France in the following year, and, in pursuance of an agreement with De Monts, equipped a vessel with supplies for the settlers, and sailed from La Rochelle on 13 May, 1606. After fortifying Port Royal, he accompanied Champlain on an exploring expedition as far as Port Fortune (Chatham), which was not productive of many useful results. He returned to France, his grant of Port Royal was confirmed by the king in 1607, and he was desired at the same time to work for the conver-