Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/726

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LEMPEREUR
LENOIR

Sept., where the favorable account which he gave of the disposition of the Iroquois excited great ex- ultation. On the petition of the Mohawks he was assigned to them in 1656. He was the first to dis- cover the salt-springs of Onondaga, an account of which he gave to Dominie Megapolensis, of New Amsterdam. He visited the latter city in 1658, and was received with much kindness. After his return to the north he wrote three polemical trea- tises in favor of the claims of the Roman Catholic church, which he forwarded to the Dutch clergy- man. The vessel conveying the long rejoinder that the latter sent to Quebec was wrecked on the way. In 1661 he was asked by the governor to go again among the Iroquois, who were inflicting heavy losses on the French. He left Montreal on 21 July, and, although Mohawk parties threatened his life as he ascended the St. Lawrence in his canoe, he at last reached Onondaga and was wel- comed by the sachems. He prevailed on them to send deputies to Montreal to make peace, and with them nine of the French prisoners. He spent the winter at Onondaga, where he visited the sick as- siduously during an epidemic. He also visited Cayuga, and his missionary labors extended as far as the Seneca country. He was sent back to Que- bec in the summer of 1662.


LEMPEREUR, Jeannot (lom-peh-rur), Hay- tian revolutionist, b. in Quartier Morin in 1763 ; d. near Cape Francais in December, 1791. He was a slave when the insurrection began in Santo Domin- go in 1790, and, escaping from his master, assem- bled in the mountains a body of followers with which he committed many outrages. He went to Port au Prince in January, 1791, and, haranguing the negroes on the streets, acquired such an influ- ence over them as to receive offers of support from the different parties that divided the colony. On 4 March he instigated the riots in which several officers were murdered, and in June, joining the mulatto chief, Jean Francois, gathered a force of negro slaves and marched on Cape Francais. He carried as a standard the body of a white infant on a spear, and murdered and devastated as he marched, rill he reached the neighborhood of the town; but he was soon defeated by the united forces of the whites, although he managed to es- cape. The crimes that he afterward committed with his band almost pass the limits of credibility, but they are verified by many authorities. At last even his followers revolted. They chained and carried him to Jean Francois, who ordered him to be shot. See Berlioz d'Auriac's " La guerre noire, souvenirs de Saint Domingue " (Paris, 1860).


LEMPIRA (lem-pee'-rah), Central American cacique, b. in the latter part of the 15th century ; d. in 1537. He was the King of Coquin, afterward called Gracias a Dios, and his name signifies " Lord of the Mountains." At the beginning of the con- quest the Spaniards were unmolested, but later the Indians revolted, on account of their cruelties, under the leadership of this chief. He had long been a terror to the settlers and a warrior of note among his own countrymen, and was said to bear a charmed life. He had been attacked in his stronghold of Cerquin, close to Gracias a Dios. by Alvarado with a strong party of troops and 2.000 friendly natives; but the assault was unsuccessful. Lempira now proposed to annihilate the invaders, and, gathering a large army, opened hostilities at once. Montejo, governor of Yucatan and Hondu- ras, sent a force to quell the movement, whereupon Lempira retired to his stronghold and siege was laid to the place : but, although assistance was summoned from Comayagua and San Pedro del Puerto de Caballos, the Indians made good their defence. For six months the Spaniards beleaguered the fortress, and, seeing no prospect of taking it, had recourse to a stratagem. A horseman was or- • dered to approach within arquebus-shot of the rock and summon Lempira to a colloquy, under pretence of opening negotiations for peace, while a foot- soldier who accompanied him, screened from view by the mounted man, shot the unsuspecting chief- tain as he appeared on the cliff. His lifeless body rolled over the rock, and his followers, panic- stricken, made no further resistance.


L'ENFANT, Peter Charles (lon-fon'), engineer, b. in France in 1755 ; d. in Prince George's county, Md., 14 June, 1825. He was a lieutenant in the French provisional service, and came to this country with Lafayette in 1777. He entered the Continental army in the autumn of that year as an engineer, was made captain, 18 Feb., 1778, and at the siege of Savannah was wounded and left on the field. He afterward served under the immediate com- mand of Washington, became a major, 2 May, 1783, was employed as an engineer at Fort Mifflin in 1794, and appointed professor of engineering at the U. S. military academy in July, 1812, but de- clined. He drew the plan for the city of Wash- ington, and was architect of some of its public buildings. He designed a dwelling for Robert Morris in Philadelphia on such a scale that the latter coidd not afford to complete it.


LENNOX, Charlotte Ramsay, author, b. in New York city in 1720 ; d. in London, England, 4 Jan., 1804. She was sent by her father, Col. Ramsay, lieutenant-governor of the colony, to England when fifteen years of age to receive her education, married in that country, and lived there for the remainder of her life. After she was left a widow in straitened circumstances, she resorted to her pen for a livelihood, having previously published a volume of " Poems on Several Occasions" (London, 1747). She enjoyed the friendship of Samuel Richardson and of Samuel Johnson, who had a high opinion of her talents. Her principal work was " Shakespeare Illustrated," of which two volumes were first issued (1753), and a supplementary volume shortly afterward (1754). It is a collection of the novels and tales on which Shakespeare's plays were founded, translated from the original authors, with notes designed to show that the dramatist perverted the stories, introducing absurd intrigues and improbable incidents. Some of these observations were ascribed by Edmond Malone to Dr. Johnson, who wrote the dedication to the Earl of Orrery. Her other works include " Memoirs of Harriet Stuart" (1751); "The Female Quixote" (1752); "Henrietta," a novel that was much read (1758): a translation of the Duke of Sully's "Memoirs " (1761 ; new ed., 1854-'6): "Sophia," a novel (1763); "The Sisters," a comedy (1769); "Old City Manners," a comedy (1773) ; "Euphemia," a novel (1790); and " Memoirs of Henry Lennox " (1804).


LENOIR, William, soldier, b. in Brunswick county, Va., 20 April, 1751 ; d. in Fort Defiance, Wilkes co., N. C, 6 May, 1839. When he was eight years old his father removed to Tarborough, N. C. He received a limited education, married at the age of twenty, and settled near Wilkesborough. In the beginning of the Revolution he was an active Whig and clerk of the Surry county committee of safety. He suffered severe hardships as a lieutenant in Gen. Griffith Rutherford's campaign against the Indians in 1776, and was afterward engaged, as a captain in Benjamin Cleveland's regiment, in subduing the Tories. At the battle of King's Mountain he was wounded in the