Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/650

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
616
SOUZA
SOWER

tugal, being; also commissioned to give a detailed report to King John. On the division of the land into captaincies on 28 Sept.. 1532, he was awarded two tracts of twenty-five leagues, and sailed in 1533 with a party of colonists to occupy the northern division between Parahiba and Pernambuco, but, meeting with opposition from a neighboring tribe, the Petiguares, he went to Europe to collect more abundant means for colonization, fie was offered the command of a fleet to the East Indies, and. hop- ing to obtain funds from his brother, he accepted, but perished on his return voyage by shipwreck on the coast of Madagascar. The manuscript of his report to King John III. lay in the royal archives till it was published by Adolpho de Varnhagen under the title " Diario" de navigagao da Armada, que foi a terra do Brazil em 1530" (Lisbon. l^_".i),


SOUZA, Thom de, first governor-general of Brazil, b. in Souza, Beira. early in the 16th century ; d. in Lisbon about 1560. In the hereditary cap- taincies that had been established in Brazil abuses soon became general, so that King John III., on 7 Jan., 1549, ordered the organization of a general government, abolishing the extraordinary privileges that he had granted to the captains. For the exe- cution of this difficult and important work the royal choice fell upon Thome de Souza, a natural son of one of the first families, a prudent and enlight- ened-officer and statesman, who had achieved re- nown in the wars of Africa and India. He sailed from Lisbon on 2 Feb., 1549, with a squadron of six vessels, having on board six hundred volunteers, four hui idivd pardoned convicts, several families as colonists, some artillery officers, engineers, mechan- ics, and six Jesuits under the lead of Father Manoel de Nobrega. On 29 March he entered the harbor of Todos os Santos. The aged Diogo Alvares Cara- muru (see PARAGUASSC) hastened to welcome the governor-general, and his allies, the Tupinambas. offered their services. There Souza founded a city, naming it Sao Salvador, which was afterward (.-hanged to Hah in de todos os Santos. The as- sistance that he received from the Tii]iin:imU-i- hastened the progress of building, and soon the cathedral, the governor's palace, a Jesuit college, and one hundred houses had been completed. He organized the administration by appointing a chief justice and other authorities. The colony flourished under Souza's prudent administration, and numer- ous emigrants arrived, founding new villages. In 1551 a bishopric was established in Bahia. with jurisdiction over the whole Portuguese colony. Souza. weakened by the fatigues of his responsible office, solicited relief, and on 13 July, 1553, his successor, Duarte da Costa, arrived, to whom he delivered the government and sailed for Portugal.


SOWARDS, Joseph, scout, b. in eastern Ken- tucky about 1840 ; a. there about 1863. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and at the beginning of the civil war occupied, with his aged father, a small farm in the upper part of Johnson county. Ky. He was a decided Unionist. The threats of his neighbors caused him to take refuge in the woods. While he was thus in hiding a party demanded of his father his place of concealment, and, on the lat- ter' s refusal to disclose it, Judge Cecil, one of the number, shot the old man dead before his own doorway. So wards now enlisted in the 8th Ken- tucky regiment in the National army, and in De- cember. 1861, was selected by Gen. James A. Gar- field as a scout. Sowards rendered important services, among others going, at imminent risk. into Marshall's camp on the eve of the battle of Middle Creek and reporting to Garfield an ambus- cade into which he would doubtless have fallen but for this timely information. On Marshall's retreat from that battle, Judge Cecil was captured, and Sowards upbraided him with the death of his aged father. A taunting reply caused Sowards to lose his self-control, and he shot Cecil as Cecil had shot his father. A court-martial sentenced Sow- ards to death: but Garfield .was careful to enjoin upon his colonel to select as his guard only such men as were especially friendly to the pri.-oner, who naturally was allowed to escape. After this he performed the most important services, hang- ing about Garfield's camp and giving constant in- formation as to the movements of the enemy. No one knew how he lived or where he could be found, but he was sure to appear whenever he was wanted. Through him Garfield was enabled to drive the last organized body of Gen. Humphrey Mar- shall's men from Kentucky. They had strongly intrenched themselves at Pound Gap, and were fast receiving re-enforcements from Virginia, when Sowards penetrated their camp, learned their strength and position, and then returned to Gar- field's lines with the suggestion that he should fall upon and destroy them. The result was the Pound Gap expedition, which Sowards guided over a hun- dred miles of rough road and through a blinding snow-storm. He was so thoroughly disguised that Garfield, though he knew Sowards was with the troop, did not recognize him until he disclosed himself on the eve of the battle. This is the last that is certainly known of Sowards, but he is re- ported to have been killed in the following year by a band of Confederate guerillas.


SOWER, Christopher, printer, b. in Laasphe, near Marburg, Germany, in 1693; d. in Germantown, Pa., 25 Sept., 1758. He wrote his name Christophe Saur on his German publications. He was a graduate of a German university, and studied medicine at Halle. He came to Philadelphia in 1724 and settled in Lancaster county as a farmer, but removed in 1731 to Germantown, where, in the same year, he built a large dwelling (see engraving) for his residence. In order to supply the needs of his countrymen who were liberally educated, especially in theology, he first supplied them with Bibles and religious works from Germany. In 1738, having obtained a printing-press and materials, he issued an almanac, in German, of twenty-four pages, which was continued by his descendants till 1798. In 1739 he brought out the first number of “Der Hoch-Deutsch Pensylvanische Geschichts-Schreiber,” a religious and secular journal, a small folio, nine by thirteen inches, which attained a circulation of nearly ten thousand, and had great influence among his countrymen. It was the first of its kind that was published in a foreign language in Pennsylvania. This was followed by a number of larger works and in 1743 by a quarto edition of the Bible in German, Luther's translation, which was limited