Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/466

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FERREIRA DE ARAUJO GUIMARAES
FERRER

1792, and in March, 1793, to Lisbon, where he was employed in the ministry of marine. He was named in 1796 administrator of the royal cabinet of natural history at Lisbon, and of the botanical gardens attached to it, which he established. But he felt the confinement of this new mode of life, his health failed, and he died suddenly in 1815. The Portuguese government had spent large sums of money in designs and engravings for the works of Ferreira on the Amazons. His death put a stop to their publication, but during more than half a century ethnographical designs taken from his manuscripts continued to appear. Almost all the maps and several of the memoirs, prepared by Fer- reira himself, are now lost. His manuscripts, de- posited in the archives of the Academy of sciences of Lisbon, have been stolen. The published en- gravings and maps of his travels now form a part of the collection made by Dom Pedro IL, emperor of Brazil. Ferreira is often called the " Brazilian Humboldt." His memoirs include " Descripgao da gruta do Inferno, fcita em Gnyaba" ; " Propriedade e posse das terras do Cabo do Norte pe la Coroa de Portugal ; memoria escripta no Para em 1792 " ; and " Viagem a gruta das Oncas."


FERREIRA DE ARAUJO GUIMARAES, Manuel (fer-i-ay'-e-rah), Brazilian soldier and author, b. in Bahia, 5 March, 1777; d. there. 24 Oct., 1838. He went to Portugal to finish his education, and was matriculated at the royal naval academy in 1798. As soon as he had finished his course he was appointed assistant professor of that school, and given the commission of lieutenant. Subse- quently he lectured on mathematics, worked for the military society, and published a translation of the work " Analyse de Cousin," but afterward re- turned to Bahia, where the captain-general of Bra- zil took him under his protection. Soon afterward he was called to Rio Janeiro and appointed cap- tain of the engineer corps. He organized the naval academy, and opened its classes on 1 March, 1809, and in 1811 became director of the military acade- my. Hi 1813 he was promoted to major, and be- gan the editorship of " La Gaceta do Rio de Ja- neiro " and " Patriota." In 1821, when he had attained the rank of colonel, he asked to be re- lieved from the direction of the academy, and also ceased his connection with the " Gaceta." Wishing to dedicate himself to the cause of independence, he began the publication of the paper " Espelho." In 1823 he was elected to the Brazilian legislature as a representative from Bahia, was a member of the navy and war commission, and took charge again of the military academy. In 1824 he was made chief of the topogra])hieal committee. In 182G he again became edit i ir (if t he " Gaceta do Rio de Janeiro," and was promoted brigadier of engineers. Although Ferreira had retired from public service in 1831, the government of Bahia persuaded him to accept the chair of geometry and mechanics at the naval school. On 7 Nov., 1837, a republican revolution began, and, although Brigadier Ferreira remained loyal to his government, his son took part in the movement and was court-martialed, 23 June, 1838. Young Ferreira was ably defended by his father, but was sentenced to death and executed, and the elder Ferreira did not long survive him. He published text-books on astronomy and geodesy (1811), geometry, and applied mechanics (1835).


FERREL, William, scientist, b. in Bedford,, now Fulton, county. Pa., 29 Jan., 1817; d. in May- wood, Kansas, 18 Sept., 1891. He studied at Mar- shall, and was graduated at Bethany college in 1844. In 1857 he became assistant in the office of the "American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac," which place he retained for ten years. Subse- quently, until 1882, he held a special appointment in the U. S. coast survey for the discussion of the tidal observations. In 1882 he was made assistant, with the rank of professor, in the signal service bureau, where he remained until October, 1886, after which he made Kansas City, Mo., his home. He invented the maxima and mininui tide-predict- ing machine, which is now used by the coast sur- vey in predicting tides. A full description of this machine is given in Appendix 10 of the " Report of the Coast and Geodetic Survey " (1883). Pi-of. Ferrel received honorary elections to Austrian, English, and German meteorological societies, and in 1868 was elected to membership in the National academy of sciences. His contributions to science include " Motions of Fluids and Solids relative to the Earth's Surface " (1859) ; " Determinations of the Moon's Mass from Tidal Observations" (1871); " Converging Series expressing the Ratio between the Diameter and the Circumference of a Circle" (1871); "Tidal Researches "(1874); "Tides of Ta- hiti " (1874) ; " Meteorological Researches," Parts I. (1875), II. (1878), and III. (1881); "Tempera- ture of the Atmosphere and the Earth's Surface " (1884) ; and also " Recent Advances in Metcor- ology," being Part II. of the " Report of the Chief Signal Officer" (Washington, 1883).


EERRELO, or FERRER, Bartolonie, Spanish navigator, b. in Bilbao, Spain (according to Loren- zana, in Coimbra), in 1499 ; d. in Mexico in 1550 (according to Herrera, in 1548). He was the pilot of Joao Rodrigo Cabrillo, a Portuguese captain in the service of Spain, who was sent with two ships in 1542 by Mendoza, the viceroy of Mexico, to make discoveries to the north of California. The expedi- tion started on the 27th of June from the port of La Navidad, and sailed along the coast up to Punta del Ano-Nuevo, 37° 10' north of Monterey. The vessels were tossed about, and often separated from each other by the bad weather, and Cabrillo died, on 3 Jan., 1543, on the island of San Bernardo, near the channel of Santa Barbara ; Init Ferrero, who succeeded him in command, continued his discov- eries northward up to lat. 43°, where he saw the coast of Gape Blanco, called by A^ancouver, Cape Orford. Excessive cold, want of provisions, sick- ness, and the unsoundness of his vessel, forced him to return without I'eaching the parallel jnentioned in his instructions. At 41 ~ 30' he perceived a point of land to which, in honor of the viceroy, he gave the name of Cape Mendocino. From this point he sailed back to La Navidad, situated at 19° 45', where they arrived, 14 April, 1543, and established the fact that the coast was one continuous line between these two points. In this voyage the Spaniards often saw the natives of the country, who were almost naked, painted their faces, lived by fishing, and inhabited large houses. A full account of the expedition is found in the " History of the Indias," by John van Laet. Humboldt, in his work on Mexico, corrects several erroneous statements of the Dutch historian, which were drawn from the works of old Spanish writers, basing his correc- tions on certain documents that he had occasion to examine in Mexico.


FERRER, Rafael (fer-rer'), Spanish missionary, b. in Valencia in 1570 ; d. in San Jose, Peru, in 1611. He entered the order of the Jesuits, against the wishes of his father, who wished his son to follow a military career. He went to Quito in 1593 and became a missionary among the Cofanis, a warlike mountain tribe, who had done much damage by their frequent incursions. In 1601, with no other arms than his cross and his