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ther, Allan, was a merchant, who travelled wide- ly and cultivated literary tastes. Herman shipped as a sailor before the mast in 1837 for a voyage to Liverpool. Four years later he sailed round Cape Horn in the " Dolly " for a whaling cruise in the south Pacific. But the treatment of the captain was so harsh, and the state of affairs on board was so bad in every re- spect, that Melville and a companion resolved to leave the ship. While she lay in the har- bor of Nukahiva, in the Marquesas islands, in the sum- mer of 1842, they made their escape. The island, about twenty miles long by ten miles broad, is mountainous in the centre, the high- est peak rising

nearly 4,000 feet,

with alternate ridges and valleys radiating to the sea. One of these valleys is inhabited by the Typees, a war-like tribe of cannibals, and the next by the Happars, a friendly tribe. Com. David Porter {q. v.), while refitting his ships here in 1813-'14, had taken part with the Happars in a war against the Typees, which he described in his published jour- nal. Melville and his companion, with great labor and many narrow escapes, climbed the mountains, intending to descend into the Happar valley, but lost their way and finally found themselves among the Typees. While still uncertain where they were, they were surrounded by a group of savage chiefs, one of whom sternly demanded whether they were friendly to Happar or to Typee. " 1 paused for a second," writes Melville, " and I know not by what impulse it was that I answered ' Typee.' The piece of dusky statuary nodded in approval, and then murmured ' Mortarkee ? ' [good ?] ' Mor- tarkee.' said L without further hesitation — ' Typee mortarkee.' The dark figures around us leaped to their feet, clapped their hands in transport, and shouted again and again the talismanic syllables, the utterance of which appeared to have settled everything." Melville was held in captivity for four months, treated in most respects as an hon- ored guest, but constantly watched to prevent his escape. His companion soon got away, and at length Melville himself was rescued. An Austral- ian whaler, short of men, visited the harbor of Nukahiva, where the captain learned that there was an American sailor in the Typee valley, and accepted the offer of a native to obtain him. The native made his way to Melville, and guided him to the beach, where a boat from the whaler was in waiting, and Melville was taken ofl: after a bloody fight. He spent two years more in the Pacific, and on his return home published " Typee : a Peep at Polynesian Life during a Pour JMonths' Residence in a Valley of the Marquesas " (New York and London, 1846). This work, in which the story of his romantic captivity is told with re- markable vividness, had an immediate success and rapidly passed through several editions. It was dedicated to Chief-Justice Lemuel Shaw, of Massa- chusetts, whose daughter Mr. Melville afterward married. He removed to Pittsfield, Mass., in 1850, but subsequently returned to New York and was appointed to a place in the custom-house. His re- maining works are " Omoo, a .Narrative of Adven- tures in the South Seas" (1847); " Mardi, and a Voyage Thither," a philosophical romance (1848) ; " Redburn," a novel (1849) ; " White-Jacket, or the World in a Man-of-War" (1850); " Mobv Dick, or the White Whale" (1851); "Pierre, or'the Am- biguities " (1852) ; " Israel Potter, his Fifty Years of Exile" (1855); "The Piazzi Tales" (1856); "The Confidence Man " (1857) ; " Battle-Pieces, and Aspects of the War," a volume of poems (1866); " Clarel, a Pilgrimage in the Holy Land " (1876) ; " John Marr " (1888) ; and " Timoleon " (1891).

MELVILLE, Robert, British soldier, b. in Monimail, Scotland, 12 Oct., 1723; d. in Edin- burgh, 29 Aug., 1809. He served in the West Indies in the seven years' war, aided in the capture of several French islands, including Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Dominica, and became their gov- ernor, with the rank of brigadier-general. He afterward attained note as an antiquary.

MEMBERTOU, Henry, Micmac sagamore, b. about 1510; d. in 1611. He is said to have seen Jacques Cartier in his youth, received De Monts and his colonists on their arrival in Acadia in 1604 in a most friendly manner, and, being the most powerful chief on the coast, was ever after- ward of great assistance to them. When the French were threatened by hostile Indians, he gathered 400 of his tribe in a palisaded village near the French post for their defence. In 1607 he led a large Micmac force against the Armouchi- quois Indians, near Merrimack river, and defeated them. Lescarbot commemorated his victory in a Frencli poem. Membertou was hastily baptized, with his wife and three sons and sixteen others, 24 June, 1610, and seemed to endeavor to live a Christian life, though his excessive zeal led him to wish to make war on all tribes that refused to em- brace Christianity. In the autumn of the follow- ing year he was brought in a dying condition to Port Royal, and, though carefully attended by the missionaries, soon expired at the reputed age of more than a, century.

MEMBRE, Zenobie, French missionary, b. in Bapaume, France, in 1645 : d. in Texas in 1687. He was the first novice in the RecolJet province of St. Anthony, and was sent as a missionary to Canada in 1675. In 1679 he accompanied La Salle on the latter's expedition to the west, remained at Fort Crevecoeur with Henry de Tonti, and aided him in securing peace between the Iroquois and Illinois. He descended the Mississippi with La Salle in 1682, returned to France the same year and wrote a history of the expedition, which was published by his co^usin. Father Christian Le Clerq, in his work, " Etablissement de la foi dans la Nouvelle France " (1691). He was warden of a convent at Bapaume for a short time, and accom- panied La Salle in his final expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684. He was left by La Salle in Fort St. Louis, Tex., where he and his companions were massacred. Membre was es- teemed for his mildness and many virtues. His narrative was plagiarized by Hennepin in 1697, and by some authorities is said to have been writ- ten by La Salle himself.

MEMMINGER, Charles Gustavus, financier, b. in Würtemberg, Germany, 9 Jan., 1803; d. in Charleston, S. C., 7 March, 1888. His mother, a widow, emigrated to Charleston, S. C., when he was an infant, and soon died. At the age of nine years he was adopted by Gov. Thomas Bennett. He was graduated at the South Carolina college in 1820, began to practise law in Charleston in 1825, and