Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/609

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OLAVIDE
OLDENDORP

nand VII. and the independence of upper Peru from the viceroyalty. On 8 Feb. he occupied Chuquisaca, and there the patriots, feigning to be his ardent sympathizers, instigated him to open hostilities against La Serna. The latter sent a force to oppose his progress, but on 9 March an agreement was made, by which Olaneta was to be left undisturbed in his province, and to give a monthly tribute and some auxiliary troops to La Serna. But this agreement was never kept, and when the forces of the viceroy were concentrated against the Independents, Olaneta left them with- out help. When the battles of Junin, on 6 Aug., and Ayacucho, on 9 Dec, were lost by the Royal- ists, Olafieta refused to accept the terms of capitu- lation, and gathered his forces with the hope of reaching the south of Chili and making there a last stand for the royal cause. While he was in Tumusla, hearing that one of his battalions had pronounced for independence, he left the town to subdue them. A bloody engagement followed, and Olaneta was shot by one of his own soldiers, dying the same day of his wound. Olafieta has been unjustly accused of selling himself to the In- dependents, but this extraordinary man was, by his harsh and arbitrary nature, a stanch supporter of absolutism, and the king appointed him captain- general and viceroy of La Plata, which commission arrived after his death, on 27 May, 1825.


OLAVIDE, Pablo Antonio Jose (o-lah-vee- deh), Peruvian statesman, b. in Lima in 1725; d. in Baeza, Spain, in 1803. He studied in his native city, was graduated in his seventeenth year as doc- tor of sacred law in the University of San Marcos, and in 1745 was appointed judge of the supreme court of Lima. In the earthquake of 28 Oct., 174G, he lost his parents, a sister, and a great part of his fortune, but he rendered great service in saving victims and property from the ruins. He assisted with great zeal in the restoration of the city, even expending part of the remnant of his fortune for that purpose, but the interest that he took in re- building the theatre, in preference to the church of Socorro, offended the clergy, and they accused him of having perverted for that object funds that he held in trust from some victims of the earthquake. Their clamors became so loud that at last King Ferdinand VI. ordered him to appear in Madrid in 1749. He was imprisoned, and his trial began, but on account of sickness he was banished to Leganez, where he married a wealthy lady, and with her fortune probably bribed his judges not to take up the case. His house became a meeting- place of philosophers and artists, and the Count de Aranda called him to Madrid, commissioned him to form a project for the education of youth, and appointed him director of the hospital of Seville. Count Aranda afterward took him as his secretary on his mission to Paris, and on his return he re- mained the chief adviser of that minister. The decree of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish possessions in South America was probably due to Olavide's influence. In 1768 he was ap- pointed superintendent of the newly established colonies in Sierra Morena, where he worked assidu- ously, but, as he had admitted Protestant colonists from Germany and Switzerland, contrary to law, and strenuously opposed the establishment of monastical institutions, the clergy began soon to spread accusations of heresy against him. His communications with Holbach, D'Alambert, Dide- rot, and other philosophers were brought up against him, and Charles III. and his minister, Count Plorida-Blanca, did not dare to interfere when Olavide was brought before the tribunal of the In- quisition. His trial lasted from 1776 till 1778, and on 24 Nov. of the latter year he was condemned to eight years' imprisonment, but in 1780 he escaped from the Capuchin convent of Burgos to France. In 1781 he was to be extradited by demand of the Spanish court, but escaped to Switzerland, and did not return to France till after the revolution. In 1798 he received permission to return to Spain, and, obtaining a pension, lived in retirement in Baeza. He wrote : " Hipermenestra " and " Zelmira," trage- dies ; '• El desertor trances," a comedy ; " Naneta en la corte " and " El pintor enamorado de su mo- delo," operettas — all published in Madrid (1754-'6), and first represented in a private theatre in his house. He also wrote " Evangelio en triunfo " (Valencia, 1797 ; translated into French, Lyons, 1805) ; " Poemas Cristianos " (Madrid, 1799) ; and " Salterio Espanol " (1800 ; Lima, 1803 ; Lyons, 1845).


OLCOTT, Simeon, senator, b. in Connecticut, 1 Oct., 1735 ; d. in Charlestown, N. IL, 22 Feb., 1815. He was graduated at Yale in 1761, studied law, and practised at Charlestown. In 1784 he was appointed chief justice of the court of com- mon pleas, and in 1790 a judge of the superior court, of which he was made chief judge in 1795. On the resignation of Samuel Livermore, he was elected to the United States senate, serving from 7 Dec, 1801, till 3 March, 1805.


OLDEN. Charles Smith, governor of New Jersey, b. in Princeton, N. J., 19 Feb., 1799; d. there, 7 April, 1876. He was educated at Lawrence- ville, N. J., left school early to work in his father's store, entered a mei'cantile house in Philadelphia in 1823, and in 1826 went to New Orleans, where he became a successful merchant, retiring from business in 1834 and returning to Princeton. As treasurer of Princeton college, he aided in extri- cating it from financial embarrassment after the destruction of Nassau hall by fire. He represented his county in the state senate from 1844 till 1850. In 1859 he was elected by the Republicans gover- nor of New Jersey, and was efficient in organizing and equipping the state's quota of troops. He at- tended the "Peace congress in 1861. His service as governor ended in 1863, and he subsequently filled the offices of judge of the court of errors and appeals, member of the court of pardons, riparian commissioner, and presidential elector.


OLUENDORP, Christian Georg Andreas (old'-en-dorp), German missionary, b. in Grossen-Laffert, near Hildesheim, 8 March, 1721 ; d. in Ebersdorf, 9 March, 1787. He was the son of a clergyman, received his education in Jena, and, being converted to the Moravian faith, united with their community at Marienborn in 1743. He held for some time the chair of rhetoric in various colleges, and in 1766 was appointed visitor of the Moravian establishments in North and South America. He visited successively the communities in St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, and the establishments of his church in Pennsylvania and New York, which then numbered thirteen. On his return to Europe in 1769 he became predicator of Marienborn, and in 1784 of Ebersdorf, where he remained till his death. He published several pamphlets in prose and verse, and " Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Briider auf den Caraibischen Inseln, S. Thomas. S. Croix, und S. Jean " (2 vols., Barby, 1777). This is full of interesting information, giving the natural history of the countries that were visited by the author, and the history of the Moravian establishments that were founded in the Danish West Indies from 1732 to 1768. A vocabulary of twenty negro dialects, which is inserted at the end of the work, has proved