Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/170

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PUYSEGUR
PYNCHON

were known to have no canoes, made sure of their destruction. Du Puys gave orders to have small light boats built secretly in the garret of the house of the Jesuit missionaries, and, eluding the savages, reached Montreal in fifteen days. There was great joy at his escape, but he expressed his indignation at being forced to abandon so important a settle- ment for want of succor. He was commissioned to act as governor of Montreal in 1665 during the absence of Maisonneuve.


PUYSECUR. Antoine Hyacinthe, Count de Chastenet de. French naval officer, b. in Paris, 14 Feb., 1752; d. there, 20 Feb., 1809. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1766, and during a journey to Teneriffe in 1772 discovered, in caverns that had been used by the Guanchos as cemeteries, well-preserved mummies which afforded to anthro- pologists the means of determining the relationship between the extinct Guanchos and the Indians of South America. During the war for American independence he served under D'Estaing in 1778-'9, was present at the siege of Savannah, held after- ward an important post in Tobago, and served for the remainder of the campaign in the West In- dies. After the conclusion of peace in 1783 he vu- attached to the station of Santo Domingo, and in 1786. at the instance of Marshal de C'astries, sec- retary of the navy, he made a survey of the coast of Santo Domingo, and of the currents around the island. He emigrated to Germany in 1791, served for some time in the army of the Prince of Conde, joined the Portuguese navy in 1795 with the rank of vice-admiral, and in 1798 saved King Ferdinand, of Naples, and conveyed him safely to Sicily. In 1803 he returned to France and recovered his for- mer estates, but refused the offers of Napoleon to reinstate him in the French service. He published " Detail sur la navigation mix cotes de Saint Do- mingue, et dans ses debouquements " (Paris. 1787; revised ed., 1S',M>.


PYLE, Howard, artist, b. in Wilmington, Del., 5 March, 1853. He studied art in a private school in Philadelphia, and in 1876 came to NYw York. After spending three years in that city writing and illustrating for various magazines, he returned to Wilmington, where he has since resided. Besides furnishing illustrations for various books and peri- odicals, he has written and illustrated numerous articles, most of them for the publications of Har- per Brothers. He is the author of the text ami drawings of "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" (1883); "Pepper and Salt " and "Within the Capes " (1885) ; and " The Wonder Clock " and " The Rose of Paradise " (1887). Mr. Pyle is favor- ably known as a writer of juvenile fiction, in his illustrations for which he has adopted a quaint style of design.


PYNCHON, William, colonist, b. in Spring- field, Essex, England, in 1590 ; d. in Wraysbury. Buckinghamshire. 29 Oct., 1662. He came to New England with Gov. John Winthrop in 1630. Prior to his emigration to this country he had been named by Charles I., in March, 1629. as one of the paten- tees in the charter of the colony of Massachusetts bay. In the same charter he was selected as one of the eighteen assistants, and was connected with the government of the company before its removal to New England, and its treasurer. He was active in founding Roxbury, Mass., as well as in the or- ganization of its first church. When the Massa- chusetts colony was in danger of being overstocked with people, in May, 1634, the general court granted leave to such inhabitants as might desire " to re- move their habitations to some convenient place." In the spring of 1(536 William Pynchon with his wife and children and a small party of attendants established a new plantation upon the Connecticut river, at the mouth of the Agawarn, from which the settlement took its name. One of their first efforts was to obtain a minister, and in the year following they se- cured Rev. George Moxon, a personal friend of Mr. Pyn- chon and a gradu- ate of Sidney col- lege, Cambridge, who remained only as long as Mr. Pynchon. It was supposed at tirst that the new settlement was within the limits of Connecticut, and Mr. Pynchon sat in the legisla- ture at Hartford, but he soon with- drew, in conse-

quence of various

differences, and received a commission from Massachusetts with authority to govern the colony, and subsequently it was shown that Agawam was included in the Massachusetts patent. In April, 1640, the inhabitants assembled in general town-meeting and changed the plantation name from Agawam to Springfield, as a compliment to Mr. Pynchon and his birthplace. Mr. Pynchon succeed succeeded admirably in preserving friendly relations between the Indians and his colony by a conciliatory policy. One part of it was to treat them as independent, as far as their relations with one another were concerned. The Indians had confidence in him, and were ready to be guided by his wishes. In 1650 Mr. Pynchon visited London, and while there published his most famous work, entitled " The Meritorious Price of our Redemption "(London, 1650), which is now exceedingly rare. There is one copy in the British museum, one in the Congregational library of Boston, and one, elegantly bound, in the Brinley library, was sold for $205. The book, which opposed the Calvinistic view of the atonement, made a great excitement in Boston, and it was spoken of a- rr- roneous and heretical. The author was received on his return with a storm of indignation. The general court condemned the book, ordered that it should be burned by the public executioner, and summoned the author to appear before them, at the meeting in May, 1651. Rev. John Norton was also deputed to answer the book. Mr. Pynchon acknowledged the receipt of their communication, and said that he had convinced the minister.-, ih.n they had entirely misconceived his meaning. This letter was complacently received, and he was requested to appear before them again in October of the same year. Not appearing in October, he was requested to do so in the following May; but to this he paid no attention, and so the case ended. However, in consequence of this violent action of the authorities and the ill-treatment to which he had been subjected, he returned to England in September, 1052, leaving his children as permanent residents of New England, lie established himself at Wraysbury on the Thames, near Windsor, where In- -pent the 'last ten years of his life in the enjoyment of an ample fortune, engaged in theological writing, and in entire conformity with the Church of England. His works include a revised edition of In- I k. entitled "The Meritorious Price of