Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/378

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
354
ENCALADA
ENCISO

turned to St. Christopher, where he took possession of the land he had abandoned three months before. The colony soon flourished, and D'Enanibuc pre- pared to colonize the neighboring islands. He sent his lieutenants to Guadeloupe, and set out in 1685 for Martinique, where he built Fort Saint Pierre. The colonies thrived, and D'Enauibuc was about to found others when he died.


ENCALADA, Manuel Blanco (en-cah-lah'-da). South American soldier, b. in Buenos Ayres, 21 April, 1790 ; d. in Santiago, Chili, 5 Sept., 1876. He was the son of Blanco Ciceron, a Spaniard, who for some time acted as judge of tiie sui)reme courts in Peru, La Plata, and Bolivia. Blanco En- calada was sent to Spain in 1803, entered t^e "Seminariode Nobles" at Madrid, and from there went to the naval academy of the island of Leon. In 1807, when the French blockatled the jwrt of Cadiz, Encalada distinguished himself as second gunner on board the " Carmen." Wisiiing to re- turn to America, he was sent in 1808, tlirough the influence of his uncle, the Count of Villa Palma, to the port of El Callao as an ensign, which rank he had obtained as a reward for his conduct at Cadiz. In 1811 he began to show revolutionary ideas, and was sent to Spain by the Viceroy Abascal, but re- turned to Montevideo at the end of two years. Soon afterward he left his post, and, after flying to the woods and overcoming great dangers, swam across the Uruguay river and rode 240 miles to Buenos Ayres, whence in 1813 he started for Chili, arriving there in March, at the same time of the landing of Pareja in Talcahuana. Encalada was appointed captain of artillery, and in March, 1814, had been promoted lieutenant-colonel for his ser- vices to his party. About that date he was taken prisoner by the royalists, degraded as a deserter from Montevideo, and confined to a garrison, whence, in March, 1817, he was liberated by the revolutionary forces of Chacabuco. In July, En- calada entered the Chilian army as sergeant-major of artillery, and on 19 March, 1818, at the attack of Cancha Rayada, which was so disastrous for the liberal forces, he had under his charge twelve pieces of artillery. He was promoted to lieutenant-colo- nel, and in the following June was given command of the naval force that captured, in the month of December, five ships belonging to the Spanish ex- pedition against Chili. Soon afterward he was made rear-admiral, and appointed second to Lord Cochrane, who had begun his Pacific campaign. In 1820 Encalada was appointed major-general of in- fantry. In August, 1821, after having been a sena- tor, he was tried for bringing charges against the government, but was absolved by O'Higgins. In January, 1822, Encalada served under Bolivar in the expeditions from Guayaquil and El Callao, greatly contributing toward the victory of Ayacu- cho in December, 1824. In July, 1825, he was ap- pointed general-in-chief of the navy of Chili. In July, 1826, Encalada became president of the repub- lic of Chili, but tendered his resignation two months afterward, and during the civil war of 1827-'80 took no active part in public affairs. He was in the Chi- lian expedition against Peru in 1837, after which he again disappeared from public life for ten years, visiting Europe in 1844-'6. In 1847 he was ap- pointed governor of Valparaiso, and contributed greatly to the progress of that city, laying in 1852 the first rail of the railroad between it and Santiago. He was appointed Chilian minister to France in 1853, but returned in 1858, and retired again to private life. In 1865, notwithstanding his age, he protested against the so-called war with Spain. To commemorate his services for his adopted country. the Chilian government had in 1875 a powerful iron-clad of 3,560 tons named " Blanco Encalada," which, together with her sister ship " Almirante Cochrane," took a conspicuous part in the war against Peru and Bolivia in 1879 and 18S0.


ENCISO, Martin Fernandez de, Spanish cos- mographer, b. in Seville about the middle of the 15th century ; d. ni the same city about 1525. It is not known in what year or in what capacity he went to America, but he had established himself in 1508 in the island of Santo Domingo, where he made a fortune as a lawyer, and had the title of "bachiller y letrado." Tlie government of that part of America along the isthmus of Darien and east of tlie gulf of Uraba had just been granted to Ojeda, but, to get possession of the lands which were granted and to colonize them, money was needed, and he addressed Enciso, who had then the repu- tation of being rich and adventurous. A bargain was soon made between them ; Ojeda gave Enciso the title of alcalde mayor of his government, and the latter agreed to furnish a ship with provisions and men. After a visit to the gulf of Uraba, where he found his companions a prey to famine, Ojeda determined to return to Santo Domingo and hasten the arrival of the succors promised by En- ciso, leaving Francisco Pizarro in the new colony. Nearly two months had passed, when Enciso ap- peared at last in the liarbor of Cartliagena with a ship loaded with provisions, and having on board twelve mares, several stallions, sows and boars, ammunition, spears, swords, and other arms, and over 150 men. At Carthagena he was joined by a ship, under the orders of Pizarro, which had left Uraba some fifty days after the departure of Ojeda and was carrying to Santo Domingo the few colon- ists who had survived the famine. After many ad- ventures from shipwreck and with hostile savages the party reached Darien (1510), and set about building a city, when Enciso excited a mutiny by forbidding them to trade with the Indians for gold under pain of death, and was finally deposed by Vasco Nunez de Balboa (see Balboa). Enciso sailed for Spain (1512), brought the arbitrary con- duct of Balboa before the court, and Pedrarias Davila was sent out as governor of Darien (1514), with instructions to do justice between the con- testants. Enciso accompanied him as alguacil mayor, and after his arrival obtained a decree con- demning Balboa to pay him a large sum as an indemnity for the wrongs he had suffered. In 1515 he was sent at the head of an expedition into the province of Cenu, where it was reported there was much gold, and unsuccessfully tried first to persuade and then to force the caciques to sub- rait to the king of Spain. Shortly after this event he returned to Spain and devoted his time to the arrangement and publication of the materials which he had gathered during his stay in the New World. He published a memoir in favor of the commanderies established and about to be estab- lished in the West Indies, which met with much opposition from the Franciscans, and " Suma de geografia que trata de todos las partidas y pro- vincias del mundo ; en especial de las Indias y trata largamente del arte de marear " (Seville, 1519; new editions, 1530 and 1549). " Enciso," says Navar- rete, " has embraced in this work all that was then known of the theory and practice of pilotage." He gives a dissertation on the sphere according to the Ptolemaic system, with tables of declination, the method of taking the height of the polar star and its use, and the construction of the mariner's com- pass with thirty-two rhumb-lines. Enciso was not ignorant of the inaccuracies that resulted from