Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/568

owner of the " Charleston City Gazette," which took the Union side in politics in nullification days. In 1829 he brought out another volume of poems. The Vision of Cortes." and in 1830 ' The Tricolor." His paper proved a bad investment, and through its failure, in 1833, he was left in poverty. Thenceforth he determined to devote himself to literature, and he began that long series of volumes which did not end till within three years of his death. Accordingly, he published a poem entitled " Atalantis, a Tale of the Sea " (New York, 1832). the best and longest of all his poetic works. But Mr. Simms is mainly known as a writer of fiction. His pen was never idle. The scene of his novels is almost wholly southern, and marked invaritiblv with local color; manv of them

are historical, but for the most part they aim to reproduce the various types of southern and south- western life. He spent half of the year on his plantation, " Woodlands," near Midway, S. C., seen in the illustration, where he had a beautiful home, amid the live-oaks and the long-leaved pines peculiar to his native state. Here he dispensed a wide hos- pitality, and wrote most of his works. He was for many years a member of the legislature, and in 1846 was defeated for lieutenant-governor by only one vote. Mr. Simms had immense fertility, a vivid imagination, and a true realistic handling of whatever he touched. But he was not a finished scholar, and, although Edgar A. Poe pronounced him the best novelist America had produced after Cooper, his style lacked finished elegance and accu- racy. Yet he has done much in preserving the early history and traditions and local coloring of his native state. " The Yemassee " is considered his best novel. A fine bronze bust of Simms by Ward was unveiled at White Point garden, Charleston, 11 June, 1879, but he rests in an un- marked grave in Magnolia cemetery near the same city. Besides the works already mentioned, he published "Martin Faber " (New York, 1833); " The Book of My Lady, a Melange " (Philadel- phia, 1833); "Guy Rivers" (2 vols., New York, 1834); "The Yemassee" (2 vols., 1835); "The Par- tisan " (2 vols., 1835) ; " Mellichampe " (2 vols., 1836); "Richard Hurdis" (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1838) ; " Palayo " (New York, 1838) ; " Carl Wer- ner, and other Tales " (2 vols., 1838) ; " Southern Passages and Pictures," poems (1839); "Border Beagles " (2 vols., 1840); " The Kinsman " (Phila- delphia, 1841 ; republished as " The Scout," New York, 1854); "Confession, or the Blind Heart" (2 vols., 1842) ; " Beauchampe " (2 vols.. 1842) ; " Helen Halsey " (1845) ; " Castle Dismal " (1845) ; " Count Julian'" (2 vols., 1845) : " Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies," poems (Richmond, 1845) ; " The Wigwam and the Cabin, or Tales of the South " (two series, Charleston. 1S45-'0) ; " Arrylos. or Songs and Ballads of the South " (1846) ; " Lays of the Palmetto" (1848): "Katherine Walton" (New York, 1851) ; " The Golden Christmas " (1852) ; " Marie de Berniere " (1853) ; " Father Abbott, or the Home Tourist " (1854) ; " Poems " (2 vols., 1S54) ; " The Forayers " (1855) ; " The Maroon, and other Tales " (1855) ; " Charlemont " (1856) : " Utah " (1856); and "The Cassique of Kiawah" (1860) In 1867 he edited " War Poetry of the South." He wrote a " History of South Carolina" (Charles- ton, 1840) and " South Carolina in the Revolution " (1854), and lives of Francis Marion (New York, 1844), Capt. John Smith (1846), Chevalier Bayard (1848), and Gen. Nathanael Greene (1849). He wrote two dramas, " Norman Maurice " and " Mi- chael Bonhum, or the Fall of the Alamo," which was acted in Charleston. He also wrote a " Geogra- phy of South Carolina " (1843). He edited " Seven Dramas ascribed to Shakespeare," with notes and introductions (1848), and contributed many reviews to periodicals, two volumes of which were after- ward collected (New York, 1845-'6). A collected edition of part of his works has been published (19 vols., New York, 1859). His life has been written by Prof. William P. Trent in the " American Men of Letters" series (Boston. 1892).

SIMON, Etienne, Flemish explorer, b. in Bruges in 1747; d. in Geneva in 1809. He followed the sea for several years, and afterward fixed his residence in Rio Janeiro as a merchant. In 1792 he was granted a tract of land, and set out for Europe in search of colonists, but failed in the scheme, owing to the war that then raged on the continent, and. returning to Brazil in 1795, began to travel. After spending nine years thus he returned to Eu- rope in 1804, and, settling in Switzerland, devoted the remainder of his life to arranging his n<>tr~. His works include " Recit d'une ascension au Mont Tapagavo dans I'interieur du Bresil " (Gene- va, 1805) ; " Voyage a travers les provinces de Sao Paulo et d'Espiritu Santo" (1805); "La domina- tion Portugaise au Bresil " (1806) ; " Belem Para et Rio de Janeiro " (1807) ; and " Coup d'oeil histo- rique sur les missions etablies par les Jesuites dans le Paraguay " (1808).

SIMON, Pedro Antonio. Flemish historian. b. in Cambrai about 1560: d. in Colombia, Smith America, about 1630. He entered the Franciscan order, and was sent, about 1590, as a missionary to New Granada, where he resided successively in ( hiacheta, Bogota, Serrezuela, Zipacoa. and Meucjueia, on Funza river, about fifteen miles north from the present city of Bogota. Father Simon became the historian of the Muiscas or Chibcha Indians, among whom he lived for many years. His most intiT>-i- ingwork contains a summary history of all the tribes that lived in the ancient empire of Cundinamarca, and describes their civilization, their arts, their monuments, and their manners. It contains also an analysis of the Funza dialect, which is altogether unknown to-day, and of which the only monument left is Simon's history, and of the Bogota or Chibcha dialect, which had nearly superseded the other dialects at the time of the Spanish conquest. Simon's work is the only one that gives details concerning the early history and condition of the tribes living in Cundinamarca before the conquest, as all other works that relate to that country have been lost, among them the " Historia de la Nueva Gran.-nlj " by the missionaries Medrano and Aguado. and the part of the " Elojios de Varones ilustres de Indias " of Castellanos that is devoted to Cundinamaiva. The only one left referring to Cundinamarca is the incomplete relation of Lucas Fernandez de Piednihita (<]. !.). Simon's work relating to Venezuela was published under the title "Xoticias liistoriales de las Conquistas de Tierra firme " (Madrid, 1627).