Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/275

Rh with Robert L. Stevens, had charge of the " Phoe- nix " in her voyage from New Y^ork to Pliila- delphia, which was the first trip that was ever made on tlie ocean by a steam-vessel. Subse- quently he coniuiandcd the first steamer that went from Charleston to Savannah. In 1818 he was employed by Scarborough & Isaacs to pur- chase a hull in which he was to have built an en- gine in order to made a trial-trip across the At- lantic. This vessel was christened " Savannah," and he was made her captain and engineer. She left Savannah. Ga., on 28 March, 1819, and went by way of New York to Liverpool, where she ar- rived on 18 June, thus being the first steam-vessel to cross the ocean. After his return C'apt. Rogers built and commanded the " Pee Dee," plying be- tween Georgetown and Cheraw, S. C.

ROGGEWEN, Jacob (rog -geh-ven), Dutch navigator, b. in Zeeland in l(i6U ; d. in Amster- dam in 1733. His father was a well-known pilot, and young Jacob, after following the sea, became, in 1715, a director of the West Indian company, and proposed to that body to undertake an expe- dition to the South sea. Sailing from Texel, 16 July, 1721, he steered to the southwest, and dis- covered land, in 50 south latitude and 62° west longitude, which he named Austral Belgium (now the Falkland islands). He afterward doubled the strait of Lemairc, was the first to reach 62° 50' south latitude, coasted Chili and Peru for several hundred miles, preparing charts of the South American continent, visited the island of Juan Feniandez, and discovered, on 6 April, 1722. the island of Pascua. He sought vainly for a southern continent, but discovered the island of Carshoff, and, being blown in a gale to the southwest, de- scried the Paliser and the Bowmann archipelagos, and discovered the Groninguen or Roggewen isl- ands. In Batavia he was imprisoned by Georg Spielbergen iq. v.) for committing a breach of privilege in navigating in the South sea without permission from the Kii.st Indian company, but on nis return to Holland. II July. 1723, he was dis- charged and obtained heavy damages. There are two narratives of Roggewen's expedition, one in Dutch (Dordrecht, 1728) and one in Latin, written bv Herman Behrens, of Mecklenburg, commander of the marines in Roggewen's expedition (Leip- sie, 1738). The latter is better Known by the French version, entitled " Relation de Irois Vais- seaux envoyes par la Compngnie dcs hides Occi- dentales aux Terres Australes"(The Hague. 1739), which wastran.slated into English by John Harris and published in •' Xavigantium Bibliotheca" (2d ed., 2 vols., folio, Lon<lon. 1744).

ROLFE, John, colonist, l^plized at Heacham, Norfolk, 6 Mav, 1585; d. in Virginia in 1622. He wa.s ilescenuwl from an old Norfolk family, and Heacham Hall is still occupied by re|)resenta- tives of the Rolfe family. His twin-brother, Eu.staciu8. did not survive childhooti ; but John, having arrived at nianhooil, was married in Eng- land in 1608. In June, 1609, he sailed with his wife for Virginia, but the vessel was wrecked on the Bermudas, where his wife gave birth to a daughter. This daughter was baiiiized by the Rev. Richard Buck, and did not long survive. In May, 1610. the parents reached Virginia, and here Rolfe's wife soon after died. He has the distinc- tion of having been, in 1612. the first Englishman to introduce the cultivation of tobacco in Vir- ginia. But his prominence in history is due to nis having marrii'il. on 5 -April. 1014. Pocahontas (or Matoaka), the younger daughter of the Indian potentate Powhatan. Whether he married her for her grace and beauty or, as was said, on gen- eral principles, " for the good of the plantation," it is ditlicult to decide; yet we know that he was in England with his Indian bride in 1616-'17, and had by her a son named Thomas. Pocahontas was royally received iu London and mingled with the notables, and. although reluctant to return to Virginia, pined under an English sky, and died at Gravcsend on 21 March, 1617. Rolfe returned to Virginia, where he became a member of the first Virginia council in 1619. He married a third time Jane, daughter of Willii m Pierce, who, with children, survived him. His will, dated 10 March, 1621, was witnessed by his old friend. Rev. Richard Buck, who had so often served him. ROMERO, Felix (ro-may'-ro), Mexican states- man, b. in Oaxaca. Mexico,' 31 March. 1831. He pursued his studies in the Conciliar seminary of that city, from which he entered the Scien- tific institute. Soon after graduating as a member of the bar. he attracted the attentior of ex-President Juarez, who was the governor of the state of Oaxaca at the time, and he intrusted to him sev- eral difficult missions. Ijater he established a newspaj)cr in which he maintained the reform- ist principles, and he continued his vigor- ous campaign in sever- al other journals. He was elecled a member of the national congress for the state of Oaxaca in 185(J-'7. Since that time he has participated in all the principal political events of his coun- try. When the republican government triumphed in the state of Oaxaca after a series of battles against the French he was the first to establish there the compulsory and gratuitous education of the ficople. In Oaxaca he has occupied the fol- lowing official positions: president of the miinici- [lal government, city attorney under five different atlministrations, general director of public instruc- tion, secretary of war with Gen. Rosas Landa, and provisional governor of the state of Oaxaca. In the city of Mexico he has been a member of several congresses, president of the senate, mem- lier of the supreme court of justice, and also its president (1898). vice-president of the geographi- cal and statistical societv, and active or honorary member of many scientific societies, both national and foreign. His literary works, also his political and forensic speeches, are well known. Prominent among the first are his " Invocation to Cuauhte- moc"and his poems, esjiecially the collection of his .sonnets. The speecli made by Mr. Romero before the Mexican geographical and statistical society, July, 1873, in commemoration of Copernicus, is a model in its clas.s, and fully equal in merit to liis admirable address of October, 1892, before the same society in honor of Columbus.

'''ROONEY. John Jerome''', broker, b. in Bing- hamton. N. Y.. 19 March, 1866. Upon the death of his father his family removed to Philadelphia. He wns graduated at Mount St. Mary's college in 1884 at the head of his class, and received the degrecsof A. B. and A.M. He had been a constant contributor to periodicals during his college days, and after graduation he became connected with