Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/372

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344
ILLOWY
IMHOFFER

the southern coasts of Cuba. Sailing thence for Puerto del Principe in 1667 with twelve ships car- rying only 1,700 men, they defeated an army of 4,000 Spanish, and for six days pillaged and burned the city. The booty amounted to over 400,000 pi- astres. In the following year Illigen, with Michel Le Basque, besieged Maracaibo, and imposed a ran- som of 700,000 piastres. Morgan united his forces in 1669 with those of Illigen, and together they at- tacked Maracaibo again with 900 men. The city, defended by a garrison of 3,000 men and protected by three forts, resisted for one month and then surrendered. The victors imposed an enormous contribution, and Illigen remained to collect it, while Morgan ransacked San Antonio de Gibraltar. They left Maracaibo two months later, and, on sailing, destroyed the fleet of Admiral Espinosa, which blockaded the bay. In December of the same year, Illigen joined Morgan again at Cape Tiburon, Santo Domingo, and, heading the first division of the fleet, landed on the isthmus and es- tablished himself in Fort San Lorenzo on the river Chagres, after defeating a Spanish army of 2,000 men ; but he died there of a fever a few days later.


ILLOWY, Bernhardt, clergyman, b. in Kolin, Bohemia, in 1814; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 22 June, 1871. After studying at Pressburg and Pesth he was called to Hesse-Cassel as a rabbinical candi- date, but, the reactionary ministry of the interior not favoring his appointment, he came to the United States and officiated as rabbi in New York, St. Louis, Syracuse, Baltimore, New Orleans, and Cincinnati. He was a Talmudist of distinction, and well known for his conservative views, an ac- complished linguist, and an orator of power. His command of Hebrew was notable.


IMECOURT, Antoine d' (e-may-koor), Spanish soldier, b. in Moirans, Franche-Comte, in 1503 ; d. in Patagonia in 1550. He commanded the " Espi- ritu Santo " in Admiral Camargo's expedition to the Straits of Magellan in 1539, and acted as chief -of-staff of the expedition. They sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda in August, 1539, and anchored on 20 Jan., 1540, near the Cape of the Vir- gins. A few days later they crossed the bar, sig- nalled the Indians that had been left in those countries by Magellan, and had already arrived in sight of Port Famine when two vessels foundered in a storm, among * them the " Espiritu Santo." Imecourt managed to reach the coast in a small boat with a few men, and they waited anxiously for the return of the admiral ; but the latter, driven by gales, was only too glad to enter Islay, the port of Arequipa, Peru, after one of the most perilous voyages on record. Imecourt understood, after a few days of vain expectation, that all hopes of re- lief were gone for the present, and he resolved to establish a Spanish colony. He left the coast, and, advancing as far as ninety miles inland, built Fort San Tomas on the banks of a stream ; but his re- sources were few, and he could rely only on hunt- ing and fishing for subsistence. Little by little discouragement spread in the colony and no relief came, as the navigators who heard from Indians of the existence of a European settlement near by disbelieved the information. In 1550 Imecourt died of exhaustion, and after his death the colony dissolved. The survivors mingled with the Indi- ans and forgot civilized life. A few of them, after a tedious journey, reached the Spanish possessions in Chili, and in Santiago told of their sufferings and of the destruction of the colony. They were at first considered impostors, but the truth was as- certained afterward. Considering that Imecourt and his companions had neither tools, arms, nor provisions, their energy in founding a colony that lasted ten vears is unparalleled in history.


IMFREVILLE-BAUDRY, Louis, Comte d' (am-fray-veel'), French administrator, b. in Fort Royal, Martinique, in 1731 ; d. there in 1780. He entered the colonial administration in 1750, held several offices in Santo Domingo, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, and in 1762 was appointed lieutenant of the king at Fort Royal. After the treaty of Paris in 1763. the French government resolved to compensate the loss of Canada by improving the colonies of Guiana and the West Indies. Count d'Imfreville was asked to report on the best means to promote emigration from France to those countries, and was appointed commissioner and charged with the establishment in Guiana of 7,000 colonists, principally from Alsace. But the scheme of the colonial administration was not a practica- ble one, and the commissioner demanded permis- sion to deal with the emigrants as he thought fit. This was denied, and he resigned, returning to Fort de France to resume his old office in 1764. The new " France equinoxiale " in Cayenne proved a failure, the greater part of the emigrants re- turned home, but a few went to Martinique under the direction of Count d'Imfreville, where they settled and contributed to the prosperity of the colony. Imfreville built a magnificent court-house in Fort de France, and devoted his great wealth to the benefit of the people, establishing, at his own expense, a botanical garden and founding a hospi- tal for disabled sailors. He published many works on agriculture and history, including " Memoire k sa majeste tres Chretienne sur la colonisation de la Guyane " (1763) ; " Du regime interieur des es- claves aux Antilles francaises " (Fort de France, 1767); "Statistique historique de la Martinique" (3 vols., 1769) ; and " De la fabrication du sucre aux colonies" (1776), which is yet a guide of the agri- culturist in French West Indies.


IMHOFFER, Gustav Melchior, Brazilian explorer, b. near Graetz, Styria, in 1593; d. in Bahia de Todos os Santos in 1651. He became a Jesuit, and was attached in 1624 to the missions of South America. He resided many years in Peru, crossed the Andes to the headwaters of the Amazon. in 1636, and descended that river from the Napo to its mouth in 1637, two years before the expedition of Texeira. He arranged his notes in Para, prior to his leaving for Spain when the expedition of Texeira arrived in that city, 1639, and. hearing that Acunha, who had accompanied Texeira, proposed to go to Madrid and present the council of the Indies with a relation of the expedition, he asked leave from his superiors to sail in advance of Acunha, arriving in Madrid in November, 1639, and published immediately the relation of his own journey, " Descubrimiento del Rio de las Amazonas" (2 vols., with charts, Madrid, royal printing-office, 1640). In an introduction the author urged the king of Spain to conquer and civilize the vast country that he had explored. Acunha, who had arrived in Madrid in the mean while, published his own narrative, trying to cast discredit upon that of Imhoffer, and succeeded so well that, although the latter's narrative is better and more complete than that of Acunha, his name is scarcely known, and many historians have forgotten that he was the first European to describe the Amazon. Gomberville, who gave a French version of Acunha's voyage (4 vols., Paris, 1682), published also a version of Imhoffer's narrative (3 vols., Paris, 1687), and the latter was also translated into English under the title " A Relation of a Journey along the River Amazon " (London, 1689).