BIOGRAPHICAL. There are few employments more pleasing and useful than that of paying a just tribute to those who have honorably distinguished themselves in the service of their country. It is pleasing, because it gives opportunity for the indulgence of merited admiration; and useful, inasmuch as it serves to stimulate others to similar exertions, that they may obtain similar distinctions. Although the materiais for Biographical writing are plenteous in our country, few appear to have leisure or inclination hitherto, to bestow much upon it. In the infancy of our country, the struggle for Independence, brought to view many eminent and patriotic men, whose lives ought to be prepared for the perusal of the rising generation. value which arises to the young generation by the perusal of such works, can scarcely be estimated. How many, perhaps, have felt the first spark of ambition rising in their minds as they conned over the exquisite Biography of Franklin. The lives of Washington, Franklin, Lee, Ames, Hamilton, and several others, are written with much talent and discrimination. The life of Otis by Tudor, that of Quincy by his son,and latterly, the biography of Pinckney by Wheaton have added much to the stock of American literature. Under this The head we intend publishing sketches of characters, who have been distinguished among this people; and in doing which we would solicit the assistance of those who have leisure and the means to contribute. We commence by giving some account of JOHN DUNTON, whose writings have been frequently quoted in the early History of Boston. 'He was born at Graffham, Huntingdonshire, in England, his father was fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and rector of Graff ham. Dunton was brought up to the bookselling business in London; where he entered extensively into the trade; and, in the course of time, became a very considerable book publisher. He had a general correspondence with the booksellers of England, Scotland, Ireland and Boston. But fortune did not always He lost a large smile on Dunton. sum through becoming surety for his brother in law; and was a great sufferer by the troubles of England in 1685, insomuch that his circumstances became embarrassed. On the death of Charles II. his brother, James II. ascended the throne of England; who being a great enemy to the duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II. he caused him to be expelled from Holland, by the prince of Orange; and, was the occasion of his being persecuted in Brussels. Being a favorite with the people of England, he was stimulated by that consideration, and by a principle of revenge, to make an attempt to dethrone James, and place the crown of England on his own head. He landed in England, raised a small army, which was defeated; and, he was beheaded in consequence of this rebellion. His adherents fled; and, Dunton, being one of these fugitives, escaped to Boston, where the sum of five hundred pounds sterling-a considerable object in the deranged state of his circumstances-was due to him; and, his design in going there was to collect his debts. The management of his affairs in London, he intrusted to his wife, who, according to his own account, was a most excellent woman, and he had a great affection for her. He embarked on board a ship then lying at Gravesend, and took with him books suitable for the Boston market, to a large amount. He put others to the value of five hundred pounds sterling on board another vessel, destined to the same port. The ships were overtaken by foul weather, before they cleared the British channel. That which bore the consignment was lost, but the other, in which Dunton had embarked, weathered the storm. ter a tedious passage of more than four months duration, he arrived in Boston. Dunton had taken the precaution of procuring letters of recommendation to the most emi Af nent clergymen in Massachusetts, || and to the principal gentlemen in Boston; in consequence of which, he was kindly received and politely treated on his arrival. He procured a warehouse, where he exposed his books for sale, and found a good market for them. At the expiration of seven or eight months, he had a considerable number of books unFold; but he opened a store in Salem, where he soon disposed of the same. During Dunton's residence in Boston, he visited the governor, lieutenant governor, the principal magistrates, &c. and dined with them in the "town hall," on the day of election. He paid his respects to all the clergy, in and about Boston, Dr Increase Mather, the Rev Cotton Mather, Messrs Willard, Allen, Eliot, Higginson of Salem, and many other ministers. Dr Mather he calls the "metropolitan clergyman, of the country." When he had sold off his books, he took leave of his friends, and returned to England. As a kind of drawback on Dunton's fame, it ought, perhaps, candidly to be mentioned, that he had the misfortune to be introduced into Pope's Dunciad, where the present of the goddess Dulness to Curl is represented as "A shaggy tapestry, worthy to he spread The note of the Scriblerus Club, on this passage, runs thus-"John Dunton was a broken bookseller, and abusive scribbler; he writ Neck or Nothing, a violent satire on some ministers of state; a libel on the duke of Devonshire, and the bishop. of Peterborough, &c." In justice to Dunton, it must be observed, that this severity was, perhaps, wholly unmerited, and produced solely by a difference of opinion; as the works, which the club calls libels, might be strictly conformable to truth, and, probably, met the applause of those who thought like Dunton. During his second run of business, Dunton lost his wife; and, married another, whose fortune, though considerable, was not payable till a younger brother became of age.After ten years of success in business, the tide again turned, and through losses in trade, and other misfortunes, Dunton again became embarrassed. On this occasion he pressed his wife's mother to enable him to pay his debts, but could not prevail, although he thought, and attempted to enforce compliance, by abstaining from the usual intercourse with his wife. To these means he added entreaty and argument; but they proved equally ineffectual; and Dunton, who formerly wrote for profit and fame, was now obliged to write for his daily subsistence. At this period, anno 1705, he published, "The Life and Errors of John Dunton, late citizen of London; written by himself in Solitude." He gives an account of his voyage to Boston in 1686, of his business here, and of his travels in Holland and Germany. He characterizes up On his arrival there he was apprehensive of a prosecution, for which reason, after remaining some time incognito, he went to Holland, Germany and Ireland. A revolution having been effected in England, in 1688, Dunton returned to London, and recommenced business on the very day the prince of Orange arrived in that city. Dunton again launched forth into extensive business; and, published many works, among which were four that were periodical, viz. "The Athenian Gazette," afterward denominated "The Athenian Mercury." This work was continued several years, and the editors of it, among whom Dunton was the principal, were highly complimented in poetical and prosaic essays, by Gildon, Motteux, De Foe, Richardson, and the celebrated poet laureat, N. Tate, who was concerned in a version of the Psalms, which is well known in America. His other periodical works were, "The Post Angel," & "The Night Walker."wards of a thousand persons them He living, among whom were the book- | sellers of most note in Boston, many of the clergy and other eminent persons he visited, or with whom he was acquainted, together with several of his male and female customers, in and about "the metropolis of NewEngland;" after which he proceeds to the authors for whom he published, all the printers, binders, engravers on wood and copper, whom he had employed, the whole company of stationers in London; and, he concludes with the most conspicuous of his London customers. was an adept in writings of this kind, and appeared to engage in it with peculiar pleasure and ease. In this work there is a singular mixture of humor, anecdote and religion, and it is, perhaps, a true picture of the mind and disposition of the author. At the conclusion of it he observes, "could I not compose a few sheets for the press, I might now starve; but it is well known that in the course of a few years I shall be able to pay all I owe to a half farthing." seller; and was sensible, humorous and religious.' CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Believing every thing relating to the discovery of this country will be read with much interest by every American, we have been led to publish the following letter from Christopher Columbus, to the King of Spain, dated Jamaica, 1503. It shows in a very conspicuous manner the deprivations and hardships the discoverer had to endure. It was extracted from an old book of manuscript in the Island of Jamaica, containing also Venable's Narrative, with colonial and political discussions and memoirs during the century. Mr Long, in his valuable survey of Jamaica, has made copious quotations from this book. The letter bears evident marks of authenticity, appears to have been written during his fourth and last voyage, when he lay in a most deplorable situation on the coast of Jamaica, where, after having completed his richest and most valuable discoveries of Veragua, Mexico, and the whole coast of Terra Firma, from the Gulph of Honduras to the mouth of the River Oronoque, he was forced to run his ships on shore, being so rotten and worm eaten that he Dunton had a patent from king William and queen Mary, for the solę printing and publishing an Eng-could no longer keep them above water.— ligh translation of "The History of the Edict of Nantz, in four volumes." During the life of his first wife he made a will, and appointed his provisions exhausted, and the natives her sole executrix, and desired her to bury him the seventh day after his death, and not before, lest he should come to life, as his mother had done on the day appointed for her funeral. This circumstance, respecting his mother, he relates at the beginning of his "Life," &c. Having been sick, she, to all appearance, died. "After lying three days, her friends were about to put her into a coffin for interment, when to their astonishment she revived from the trance in which she had fallen, and was thus mercifully restored; in a year after she died in earnest." Here he suffered the extremest misery.Seized with the most excruciating pains of the gout, deserted by most of his crew, his enemies, he had no resource but the bare chance of a trusty servant's finding his way to St. Domingo in an Indian canoe, which he providentially accomplished, entrusted, as it should seem, with the following letter, and the papers therein men tioned. SIR, Diego Mendes, and the papers I send by him, will show your Highness what rich mines of gold I have discovered in Veragua; and how I intended to have left my brother at the river Berlin, if the judgments of Heaven, and the greatest misfortunes in the world, had not Dunton was a man of a singular prevented it. However, it is sufficharacter. He appears to have cient that your Highness and succesbeen a complete, enterprising book-sors will have the glory and advan the empty titles of Perpetual Viceroy and Admiral render me obnoxious to the Spanish nation. It is visible enough, that all methods are made use of to cut the thread that is breaking; for I am in my old age op the gout, and am now languishing and expiring with that, and other infirmities, among savages, where I have neither medicines nor provisions for the body; priest nor sacrament for the soul; my men mutinying; my brother, my son, and those that are faithful, sick, starving and dying; the Indians have abandoned us; and his Grace of St. Domingo, 0bando, has sent rather to see if I am dead, than to succor us, or to bury me alive here; for his boat neither delivered a letter, or spoke, or would receive any from us. I therefore conclude your Highness' officers intend that here my voyage and life tage of all, and that the full discovery and settlement are reserved for happier persons than the unfortunate Columbus. If God be so merciful to me, as to conduct Mendes to Spain, I doubt not but he will make your Highness and my great Mis-pressed with insupportable pains of tress understand that this will not only be a castle and law, but a discovery of a world of subjects, lands, and wealth, greater than man's unbounded fancy could ever comprehend, or avarice itself covet. But neither he, this paper, nor the tongue of mortal man, can express the anguish and afflictions of my mind and body, nor the misery and dangers of my son, brother, and friends. For here already we have been above ten months lodged on the open decks of our ships, that are run on shore and lashed together.Those of my men that were well have mutinied under the Perras of Seville; my friends that were faith-should end. Oh blessed Mother of ful are now sick and dying. We God! who compassionates the most have destroyed the Indians' provi- miserable and oppressed! why did sions, so that they abandon us all; not Cenell Bouvadella kill me, therefore we are like to perish by when he robbed me and my brother hunger; and these miseries are ac- of our dearly purchased gold, and companied with so many aggravat-sent us to Spain in chains, without ing circumstances, that it renders me the most wretched object of misfortune this world shall ever see; as if the displeasure of Heaven seconded the envy of Spain, and would punish as criminal these undertakings and meritorious services. Good Heaven, and you Holy Saints, that trial, crime, or shadow of one?These chains are all the treasures I * This man, a Spanish Knight, and a favorite at Court, when Columbus was Governor of Hispaniola, was sent out with a commission to inquire into his conduct. He had been represented to his Sovereign, Ferdinand and Isabella, as cruel, covetous, corrupt, ambitious, and tyrannical; but it was thought his greatest crime was, that of being immensely rich. He was charged with work dwell in it, let the King Don Ferdi-ing the gold mines within his jurisdiction clandestinely, nand, and my illustrious Mistress Donna Isabella, know, that I am the most miserable man living, and that my zeal for their service and interest hath brought me to it, for it is impossible to live and have afflictions equal to mine. I see, and with horror apprehend my own, and (for my sake) these unfortunate and deserving people's destruction. Alas! Piety and Justice have retired to their regions above; and it is a crime to have done or have promised too much. As my misery makes my life a burthen to myself, so I fear and concealing from the officers of the crown those that were the most valuable. As his ruin was predetermined, it was easy to find accusers. He was therefore seized, divested of his government, put in irons, his whole property confiscated, and thus impoverished he was sent prisoner to Spain. Here he found means to get admittance to the royal presence, and was again taken into las vor, probably on a promise of making still more valuable discoveries. In pursuit of which, on the 9th of May, 1502, he set sail with four small barks, and touching at the port of St. Domingo, on the apprehension of an approaching tempest, he was there refused entrance; his knowledge of the coast enabled him to escape its fury by taking timely shelter in a commodious creek; where he had the satisfaction to learn, before his departure, that his inveterate enemy Bouvadella, with nineteen ships, chiefly laden with the property of which he (Columbus) had been robbed, had perished miserably. per to my great Mistress; she knows how much I have suffered for her glory and service, and will be so just and pious as not to let the sons and and brothers of him, who has brought Spain immense riches, and added to it vast and unknown kingdoms and empires, want bread or alms! She, if she lives, will consider that cruelty and ingratitude will provoke Heaven, and that the wealth that I have discovered will stir up all mankind to revenge and rapine, so that the nation may chance to suffer hereafter for what envious, malicious, and ungrateful people do now. CITY RECORD. BOARD OF ALDERMEN. Thursday, July 27.-The invitaCity, that the Board attend the Eution of the young Gentlemen of the logy, to be delivered before them by SAMUEL L. KNAPP, Esq. having been received, it was have, and they shall be buried with me, if I chance to have a coffin or grave; for I would have the remembrance of so unjust and tragical an act die with me, and for the glory of the Spanish name be eternally forgotten. Had it been so (oh Blessed Virgin!) Obando would not have found us for ten or twelve months perishing through malice as great as our misfortunes. Oh! let it not bring a further infamy on the Castilian name, nor let future ages know there were wretches so vile in this as to think to recommend themselves to Don Ferdinand by destroying the unfortunate and miserable Christopher Columbus, not for his crimes, but for his pretences to discover and give to Spain a new world! It was you, oh Heaven, that inspired and conducted me to it! do you therefore weep for me, and shew pity; let the earth, and every soul in it that loves justice and mercy, weep for me; and you, oh glorified saints of God; who know my innocence, and see my sufferings, have mercy en this present age, which is too envious and obdurate to weep for me! Surely those who are unborn will do it, when they are told, that Christopher Columbus, with his own for-tee of Arrangements for the City tune, at the hazard of his own and brother's lives, with little or no expense to the Crown of Spain, in twenty years and four voyages, rendered greater services than ever mortal man did to prince or kingdom; yet was suffered to perish without being charged with the least crime, poor and miserable, all but his chains being taken from him: so that he who gave Spain another world, had neither in that, nor in the old world, a cottage for himself or his wretched family! But should Heaven still persecute me, and seem displeased with what I have done, as if the discovery of this new world be fatal to the old, and as a punishment bring my life in this miserable place to its fatal period; yet, oh good angels! you that succor the oppressed and innocent, bring this pa tain a very respectful consideration Resolved, That this Board enterof the design of these young Gentlemen who have undertaken this Eulogy, but that a majority of the Board are Members of the Commit Celebration, and it will be probably necessary for the whole Board to be in Session on business connected with the City Celebration in the course of the forenoon of the day, the necessary attention to which will render their attendance as requested, as a Board, impracticable. Year. Constables appointed for the ensuing Thomas Holden, Horatio Bass, Josiah Baldwin, Elisha Copeland, George Reed, Solomon B. Morse, Jedidiah Sawtell, and Thomas Wallace, William Dinsmore, Michael Riley, Mitchell Lincoln, Joseph Clark, Abraham Lansing. The Report of the Committee on the subject of the Washington Monument, came too late for insertion this week;-It shall appear in our next number. |