Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/725

 GEOKGE OF TREBIZOND far from this spot is the place where the English under Lord Howe landed previous to their at- tack on Fort Ticonderoga. The ruins of that fort can be seen at the E. end of the narrow channel through which the waters of Lake George are conveyed to Lake Champlain. Steamers ply upon the lake in summer, be- tween Caldwell and Fort Ticonderoga, con- veying large numbers of tourists attracted by its beautiful scenery. Caldwell, Bolton, and other places on its banks, are favorite summer resorts. Lake George was discovered by the French from Canada early in the 17th century. Champlain knew of its existence in 1609, and saw it some time between that year and 1613. It was named by Father Jogues Lake St. Sa- crement, from the festival of Corpus Christi on which he reached it, May 27, 1646. The Eng- lish subsequently named it after King George II. By the Indians it was calledAndiatarocte, or " the place where the lake closes." Cooper in his " Last of the Mohicans " called it Hori- con, the name Horiconi being given on some old maps as that of an Indian tribe in the vicinity, probably by a misprint for Horicoui, that is, Iroquois. It bears a conspicuous place in American history. For more than a century it was a channel of communication between Can- ada and the settlements on the Hudson. In the French and Indian war it was repeatedly oc- cupied by large armies, and was the scene of several battles. On Sept. 7, 1755, occurred engagements between the French and English, near the S. end of the lake, in which Col. Wil- liams of Massachusetts, the founder of Williams college, was killed, Baron Dieskau, the French commander, severely wounded, and the French totally defeated. In 1 757 Fort William Henry, at the same end of the lake, was besieged by the French general Montcalm, at the head of 10,000 men. The garrison, after a gallant de- fence, capitulated, and were barbarously mas- sacred by the Indian allies of the French. In July, 1758, the army of Gen. Abercrombie, about 15,000 strong, passed up the lake in 1,000 boats,, and attacked Ticonderoga without success. In July, 1759, Gen. Amherst with an almost equal force also traversed the lake and took Ticon- deroga and Crown Point. The head of Lake George was the depot for the stores of the army of Gen. Burgoyne before he began his march to Saratoga. GEORGE OF TREBIZOND, a Greek scholar, born in the island of Crete in 1396, died in Rome in 1486. He arrived in Italy in 1430 at the invitation of Francesco Barbaro, a noble Venetian, and became professor of Greek lite- rature and philosophy at Venice. Pope Euge- nius IV. invited him to Rome in the same ca- pacity, and made him his secretary ; and he was continued in these functions by Nicholas V. Though he was famous throughout Italy, some of his hasty translations of the Greek au- thors into Latin drew upon him attacks from Lorenzo Valla and Theodore Gaza, and his eu- logies of Aristotle and attacks upon Plato pro- GEORGETOWN 713 voked the enmity of the Florentine admirers ot Plato, and particularly of Cardinal Bessa- non. His subsequent life was a series of dis- putes, and his writings are remarkable for vio- lent personalities. GEORGES, Marguerite Josephine, mademoiselle, a Irench actress, born at Bayeux, Feb. 23, 1787, died at Passy, Jan. 12, 1867. She was a daughter of an actress and of a military tailor, Wemmer (long erroneously called Weymer). Some juvenile performances of hers at Amiens attracted the notice of the actress Raucourt, by whose influence she was brought to Paris and educated. Her imposing beauty and powerful acting produced a great sensation at her first appearance in 1802 as Clytemnestra ; but as she desired to shine also in less austere char- acters, in which Mile. Duchesnois excelled, a contest arose which subsequently resulted in her clandestine departure for Vienna, and soon afterward for Russia. The emperor Alexander I. became so infatuated with her that he would not consent to her returning to France, and in 1808 she played before him and Napoleon in Dresden and at Erfurt. Napoleon, one of her warmest admirers, and Hortense, one of her earliest patronesses, procured her read- mission at the Theatre Francais in 1813, and the payment of her salary from the time of her entrance in 1803. Here Talma imparted great finish to her style ; but in 1816 she again broke her engagement. Excepting occasional performances in England and Germany and the French provinces, she was subsequently connected with the Odeon and the Porte St. Martin theatres from 1821 to 1847, sustaining her reputation as a most impassioned and ma- jestic tragedian. She gave farewell perform- ances in 1849, and despite increasing stout- ness she appeared once more in 1855. She was most admired as Semiramis, Merope, Di- do, Agrippina, Lucrezia Borgia, Mary Tudor, and Catharine de' Medici. She received costly presents from emperors and princes, and from a host of other admirers and lovers ; yet on re- tiring from the stage her poverty impelled her to become a teacher at the conservatory. GEORGETOWN, an E. county of South Caro- lina, bordering on the Atlantic, bounded S. W. by Santee river and intersected by the Great Pedee, Black, and Waccamaw, which unite just above the seat of justice and enter the ocean through the estuary called Winyaw bay ; area, 813 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 16,161, of whom 13,388 were colored. The surface is level and partly occupied by marshes and pine forests. The soil is generally fertile. The chief productions in 1870 were 14,094 bushels of In- dian corn, 7,644 of sweet potatoes, 5,324,970 Ibs. of rice, and 61 bales of cotton. There were 4 manufactories of barrels and casks, 5 of tar and turpentine, 1 saw mill, and 1 planing mill. Capital, Georgetown. GEORGETOWN. I. A port of entry of the District of Columbia, situated at the head of navigation on the left bank of the Potomac,