has been reprinted by Henry Ternaux-Compans in his " Recueil de pieces sur la Floride." It is en- titled " Copie d'une lettre venant de la Floride " (Paris, 1565). It is the more valuable as, except Le Moyne's and Laudonniere's, it is the only nar- rative that exists of the colony that was destroyed by Menendez de Aviles.
VIGO, Francis, fur-trader, b. in Mondovi, Sar-
dinia, in 1747; d. near Vincennes, Ind., 22 March,
1835. He entered the Spanish army as a private
and served at Havana and New Orleans. He left
the army and went to St. Louis when he was about
twenty-five years old, and engaged in the fur-trade
with the Indians, with whom he was on very
friendly terms. When Col. George Rogers Clark,
with his scantily supplied army, visited Kaskaskia,
Vigo furnished them with food and clothing to
the value of $20,000, taking his pay in Virginia
Continental money. By the depreciation of the
latter and the confiscation of his property by or-
der of Gov. Hamilton, the British commandant, he
became poor. When Col. Clark was at Kaskaskia,
Gov. Hamilton left Detroit with the purpose of
capturing him and his army. They proceeded as
far as Vincennes and were quartered at Fort Sack-
ville. Clark determined to capture Hamilton, and
sent Vigo, accompanied by one man, to reconnoitre
the fort. Vigo was arrested as a spy when he was
within seven miles of it, but, being a Spanish sub-
ject, was discharged, returned to St. Louis, and re-
i'oined Clark, who soon afterward took the fort,
n 1786, Vigo employed Pierre Menard, afterward
the first lieutenant-governor of Illinois, as an In-
dian-trader. They became great friends, and in
1789 both visited Gen. Washington at Carlisle, Pa.,
and consulted him in reference to the best means
of defending the country.
VILAS, William Freeman (vy'-las), postmas-
ter-general, b. in Chelsea, Vt., 9 July, 1840. He
went to Wisconsin, when eleven years old, with his
parents, who settled in Madison. He was gradu-
ated at the State university in 1858, and at the
Albany law-school in 1860. He practised in Madi-
son till the civil war began, when he entered the
army as a captain in the 23d Wisconsin volunteers.
He rapidly rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel,
and commanded his regiment during the siege of
Vicksburg and for two months afterward. Re-
signing his commission in August, 1863, he re-
turned to the practice of his profession. He be-
came a lecturer in the law department of the
University of Wisconsin, and a regent of the insti-
tution. He was appointed by the supreme court
in 1875 one of the board that for three years was
engaged in revising the state constitution. He
declined to be a candidate for governor in 1879.
In 1884 he was elected to the legislature. The
same year he attended the Democratic national
convention as a delegate, and was chosen perma-
nent chairman. On 5 March, 1885, President
Cleveland made him postmaster-general, and in
December, 1887, he was transferred to the portfolio
of the interior to succeed Lucius Q. C. Lamar, who
had been appointed to the bench of the United
States supreme court.
VILLADARIAS, Manoel Duarte Caldeiras Centenera de (veel-lah-dah-ree'-as), Portuguese administrator, b. in Alentejo, Portugal, in 1690 ;
d. in Lisbon in 1759. He was appointed assistant
governor of Maranhab, and in 1745 captain-general
of the provinces of Itamaraca, Parahiba, and Rio
Grande do Norte in Brazil, which greatly im-
proved under his administration, as he developed
agriculture and opened roads to facilitate com-
merce. He built the government palace in Para-
hiba, constructed a hospital, collected and classi-
fied all documents that relate to the discovery of
those provinces, and wrote two valuable works,
which were published after his death, " Relacao das
capitanias de Itamaraca, Parahiba, e Rio Grande
do Reino do Brazil " (Coimbra, 1761), and " Relacao
das Victorias que alcancaram as armas portuguezas
contra as de Mauricio de Nassau" (1761).
VILLAFANE, Angel de (veel-yah-fahn'-yay),
Spanish navigator, b. in the beginning of the 16th
century; wrecked on the Florida coast in 1548.
He was a skilful navigator, and had made voyages
to Santo Domingo and to Mexico when he was
appointed toward the end of 1547 commander of
an expedition that sailed from San Juan de Ulua to
explore the coast of Florida. He began the first
Spanish settlement in that country, but had diffi-
culties with the Indians, and, being short of pro-
visions, re-embarked to find a more convenient
place to plant a colony. During the voyage he
was wrecked, and perished with most of his men,
only a few of whom found their way to Santo Do-
mingo. The papers relating to his expedition
have been published by Henry Ternaux-Compans
in his " Recueil de pieces sur la Floride." See
also Francis Parkman's "Pioneers of France in
the New World " (Boston, 1865).
VILLAGRA, Gaspar de (veel-yah'-grah). Span-
ish soldier, b. in Alcala about 1550 ; d. in Mexico
about 1620. He served in Mexico, and as captain
of infantry participated in the expedition that was
sent by the viceroy, the Count de Monterey, in
1600, to conquer New Mexico, under command of
Juan de Onate. He was an educated man, and on
his return to Mexico, where he lived after retiring
from service, he wrote an account of the expedi-
tion in verse, under the title "Historia del Nuevo
Mexico " (Alcala, 1610).
VILLAGUTIERREZ Y SOTOMAYOR, Juan de (veel-yah-goo-te-air'-reth), Spanish soldier, lived in the end of the 17th and the beginning of the
18th centuries. Very little is known about his life
except that he participated in 1697 as an officer in
the expedition that, under Gen. Melchor de Men-
cos marched from Guatemala against the province
of Peten, and conquered the capital of the Itzas, on
an island of the Lake of Peten. Villagutierrez
wrote a history of this expedition, under the title
of " Historia de la Conquista de la Provincia del
Itza" (Madrid, 1701), which is valuable, and re-
lates the interesting fact that in one of the tem-
ples were found the bones of Cortes's war-horse,
which was left sick in the custody of one of the
caciques, and after its death was worshipped by
the natives. They also sculptured a colossal statue
of the animal, which is still to be seen, partly sub-
merged in the lake.
VILLALOBOS, Ruy Lopez de (veel yah-lo-bos), Spanish navigator, b. in Toledo about 1500 ; d. in Amboina, Moluccas, in 1544. Little is known
of his early life, but in 1540 he was famous in Mexico as a skilful navigator, and therefore was chosen by the viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, to command the expedition to discover Spice islands, that were still unoccupied by the Portuguese. He left Acapulco in 1542 in command of four vessels, dis-
covered the Caroline and Pelew groups, and sighted a large island, which he called Caesarea Caroli, and which is supposed to be Luzon. Finally he found an island which he called Antonio or Saragan, and there established a colony, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the natives. Soon his provisions and ammunition began to fail, and he despatched three of his vessels for a supply to Mexico; but they were wrecked in
