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the age of eleven. While lieutenant of a frigate he was captured by a British ship in 1742, and confined in England until he was exchanged. He served under La Galissoniere during the Seven Years' war, and assisted in taking Minorca. He was engaged under D'Ache in three actions with Pococke in the East Indies, and toward the end of the war was made captain. In 1779 he was given the command of a squadron, and, joining the fleet of Count d'Estaing in Martinique, assisted, 6 July, 1779, in the engagement oflE Grenada with Byron. Later he assumed command of the first division of D'Estaing's fleet, and in 1780 joined Count de Guichen, who had superseded D'Estaing in com- mand. He participated in the engagements with Rodney in the channel of Dominique, 17 April and 15 and 19 May, 1780. At the beginning of 1781 he was appointed to command a French fleet to assist the Americans against the British, and, although much younger than Count de BaiTas, he was made superior in command, with the title of lieutenant- general. On 28 April, 1781, he defeated Admirals Plood and Drake off Port Royal, Martinique, and

on 2 June assisted in the capture of Tobago. When Cornwallis was fortifying York- town, and Wash- ington was uncer- tain what course to pursue, the intelligence was despatched from Count de Barras that Grasse would sail from Cap Francois, W. I., on 13 April, for the mouth of the Chesapeake, with twenty-nine sail and 3,000 troops under the Marquis St. Simon. Grasse blockaded

York and James

rivers and debarked his men, to cut off Cornwal- lis's retreat. The first encounter residted in a vic- tory for the French. On 17 Sept., Washington vis- ited Grasse on his flag-ship " La Ville de Paris," ofE Cape Henry, to make arrangements with regard to the attack upon Cornwallis at Yorktown. During this engagement the American troops were sta- tioned on the right wing, the French on the left, and Grasse remained in Lynn Haven bay to prevent naval assistance from reaching Cornwallis. When Washington announced the victory, congress voted honors to him, to Rochambeau, and to Grasse, with especial thanks to the French troops, as " victory had twined double garlands around the banners of France and America." At the close of the Virginia campaign Grasse embarked for the West Indies, receiving two horses as a token of personal esteem from Washington. On his arrival he established the naval power of France, recaptured and restored St. Eustatius to the LTnited Provinces, and took St. Christopher Nevis and Montserrat. On 19 Feb., 1782, Rodney, who had been carefully watching his movements, appeared at Barbadoes with re-enforee- ments. In order to cope with him, Grasse decided to unite with the Spanish squadron, and on 8 April, 1782, he sailed for Hispaniola. An engagement took place on 9 April at St. Domingue, and three days later Rodney, by skilful movements, drew the French into a broad expanse of waters between several small islands. Having the advantage of ships in good repair and finely disciplined men, as well as advantage in numbers, he began the attack. Although the French handled their guns well at a distance, they needed jiresence of mind for a close engagement, and about the middle of the day the battle was concluded by a ship-to-ship encounter, and the " Ville de Paris " foundered. Grasse lost the favor of the king after this defeat, and lived unhappily until his death, six years later. Wash- ington, alluding to the death of Grasse in a letter to Rochambeau, writes : " His frailties should now be buried in the grave with him, while his name will be long deservedly dear to this country on ac- count of his successful career in the glorious cam- paign of 1781."

GRASSI, John, clergyman, b. in Verona, Italy, 1 Oct., 1778 ; d. in Italy, 12 Dec, 1849. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1799, and in 1810 was sent to Maryland as superior of Jesuit missions. He was recalled to Italy in 1817, and afterward held sev- eral important offices in the order. He was rector of the College of the propaganda, and at the time of his death assistant of Italy. He wrote on his return to Italy " Notizie varie sullo Stato presente della Repubblica degli Stati Uniti dell' America Settentrionale scritte al principio del 1818 " (Rome, 1818 ; Turin, 1822).

GRATACAP, Louis Pope, naturalist, b. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 1 Nov., 1850. He was graduated at the College of the city of New York in 1869 and at the Columbia school of mines in 1876. Sub- sequently he received the appointment of assistant curator in paleontology and mineralogy in the American museum of natural history in New York, where the arrangement of the specimens in the present building was largely conducted under his supervision. Mr. Gratacap "has also held the office of chemist to the Metropolitan gaslight company in New York for many years. He has been a large contributor to scientific journals, and, besides bo- tanical notes in the " Bulletin of the Torrey Botan- ical Club," has published a series of papers on " The Ice Age " in the " Popular Science Monthly " for 1878, a series on " Gas and Gas-Making " in the " Scientific American Supplement " (1880), and a valuable series on archteology in the " American Antiquarian " (1883-'4). Mr. Gratacap is also the author of " Philosophy of Ritualism, or Apologia pro Ritu " (New York,"'l887).

GRATIOT, Charles, soldier, b. in Missouri in 1788; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 18 May, 1855. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1806, and entered the army as 2d lieutenant of engineers. He was appointed captain in 1808, and served with distinction in the war with Great Britain as chief engineer of Harrison's army in 1813-'14, when he was brevetted colonel. He was engaged in the defence of Fort Meigs in 1813. and in the attack on Fort Mackinac in 1814. In 1815 he was appointed major of engineers, and superintended the fortifications on the Delaware river, and subsequently those in Hampton Roads, Va. He became lieutenant-colonel in 1819, and colonel and principal engineer in charge of the engineer bureau of Washington, D. C, in 1828. He was brevetted brigadier-general, 24 May, 1828, and appointed to be inspector of West Point, which office he held mitil 6 Dec, 1838, when he was dismissed by the president for having failed to pay into the treasury certain balances of money placed in his hands for public purposes. After holding a clerkship in the land-office in Washington, D. C, from 1840 till 1855, he went to St. Louis, where he died