Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/361

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BOWDEN
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as captain under Cagigal, after whose defeat he took up a position at El Calabozo, and with 500 men defeated Mariiio. dictator of the eastern prov- inces. His band being increased by vagabonds and fugitives from justice, he worsted the inde- pendents twice, slaughtered all his prisoners, and gained for his force the name of the infernal di- vision. He was routed by Rivas, when many of his men were captured and put to death ; but in 1814 he defeated Bolivar and Marino at La Puerta, and captured Valencia after a blockade, and, in violation of a solemn pledge, ordered the republi- can officers and many of the soldiers to be shot. Boves, co-operating with Morales, was again victo- rious at Angiiita, obliged Bolivar to retreat to Car- tagena, and entered Caracas. He fell in the bat- tle of Urica, and was buried while his victorious troops were massacring their captives.


BOWDEN, John, clergyman, b. in Ireland, 7 Jan., 1751 ; d. in Ballston Spa, N. Y., 31 July, 1817. He came to America early in life, studied at Prince- ton for two years, returned to Ireland with his father (who was in the army), and came back to America in 1770. He was graduated at King's college in 1772, studied for orders, went to Eng- land, and was ordained in London in 1774, and on coming back to New York the same year was ap- pointed an assistant minister in Trinity church. At the beginning of the revolution he retired to Norwalk, Conn. While here he was warned by some patriots of that place to leave the town, and, escaping to Long Island in a boat, he returned to New York, then occupied by the British. Trouble with his voice prevented his resuming his charge in that city, so he removed to Jamaica, L. I., where he officiated occasionally. In December, 1784, he accepted the rectorship of the church in Norwalk, and in 1789 went to St. Croix, W. I. Not obtaining the benefit to his health which he sought, he returned in about two years and settled at Stratford, Conn. Soon afterward he took charge of the Episcopal academy at Cheshire, Conn., and held that place for six years. In October, 1796, he was unanimously chosen bishop of Connecticut, but, on account of physical disability, he declined undertaking so arduous a work. In April, 1802, he became professor of moral philosophy, belles- lettres, and logic in Columbia college, the duties of which chair he discharged during the remainder of his life. He received the degree of S. T. D. from Columbia in 1797. Dr. Bowden's works include two letters to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale col- lege, " Concerning Church Government" (1788), and " An Address to the Episcopal Church in Strat- ford " (1792), successfully urging the adoption of the altered " Book of Common Prayer," to which the rector of Stratford, Rev. James Sayre, was vio- lently opposed. He was also the author of '* A FuU-Length Portrait of Calvinism," " The Essen- tials of Ordination," " The Apostolic Origin of Episcopacy " (2 vols., New York, 1808), " Observa- tions on the Catholic Controversy," and other con- troversial letters and writings.


BOWDEN, Lemuel Jackson, senator, b. in Williamsburg, Va., 16 Jan., 1815; d. in Washing- ton, D. C, 2 Jan., 1864. He was gi'aduated at William and Mary, was admitted to the Virginia bar, and became prominent in his profession. He was three times chosen to the state legislature, was a member of the state constitutional conventions of 1849 and 1851, and was a presidential elector in 18G0. When the civil war began he remained true to the union, and in the early part of the war his estate suffered much at the hands of the confeder- ate army. When the national troops were at Will- iamsburg he did a great deal for their comfort, and when a state government was oi'ganized for eastern Virginia, in 1863, Mr. Bowden was chosen U. S. senator.


BOWDITCH, Nathaniel, mathematician, b. in Salem, Mass., 26 March, 1773 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 16 March, 1838. When only ten years old he left school to work in the shop of his father, who was a cooper, and soon afterward he became clerk in a ship-chandlery. In his school-days he had shown aptness for mathematics, and now, in the intervals of work, he continued his studies. After master- ing arithmetic and elementary algebra he was taught the elements of navigation by a retired sailor. Wishing to read the " Principia " of New- ton, he began in 1790 to study Latin without an instructor. He afterward learned to read French for a similar reason, and shocked his teacher, for some time, by altogether neglecting the pronun- ciation. Anxious to pursue a course of reading, and having no one to guide him, he read Ephraim Chambers's " Cyclopjedia " (2 vols., folio) from be- ginning to end. Although so fond of mathemat- ics, he did not neglect other subjects ; from youth he was an ar- dent admirer of Shakespeare.was familiar with the Bible, and in later life stud- ied Spanish, Ital- ian, and German, that he might enjoy the liter- ature of those languages. He made a rule nev- er to let his studies interfere with business, and early formed the methodical habits that dis- tinguished him through life. On 11 Jan., 1795. Bowditch sailed

from Salem as clerk to Capt. Prince, of the ship "Henry," and before 1804 had made five long voyages to the East Indies, Portugal, and Medi- terranean ports, serving as supercargo and after- ward as master. During this time he industri- ously continued his studies, and it is related that during his third voyage, when the vessel was chased by a French privateer, Bowditch, who had been ordered to hand powder on deck, was seen quietly seated on a powder-keg, working out a problem with slate and pencil. He became proficient in navigation, and on his last voyage distinguished himself by bringing his vessel into Salem harbor in the midst of a snow-storm, with no guide but his reckoning and a single glimpse of Baker's island light. He undertook to correct Moore's work on navigation, but found so many errors that he concluded to publish one of his own, and the result was his " New American Prac- tical Navigator " (1802), which became the stand- ard work on the subject in this country and also, to a large extent, in England and France. During this year, chancing to be present at the annual commencement of Harvard, he was astonished to hear that the degree of master of arts had been conferred upon him, which pleased him more than any of his subsequent honors. After giving up the sea, he became president of the Essex fire and