Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/159

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TORIBIO
TORNOS

through the valley, he halted after several actions «t the command of Gen. Sheridan, and fought the cavalry battle at Tom's river on 9 Oct., completely routing Gen. Thomas L. Rosser's command, and pursuing it many miles. On 19 Oct., at Cedar Creek, Gen. Torbert assisted the 6th corps in hold- ing the pike to Winchester against desperate as- saults. He commanded at Liberty Mills and Gor- donsville on 22-23 Dec, 1864, when his active ser- vice ended. After his return from a leave of ab- .sence on 27 Feb., 1865, he was in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, 22 April till 12 July, 1865, of the district of Winchester till 1 Sept., and of southeastern Virginia till 81 Dec. On 13 March, , he was brevetted brigadier -general, U. S. .army, for Cedar Creek, and major-general for gal- lant and meritorious services during the war. He was mustered out of the volunteer service, 15 Jan., •1866, and resigned from the regular army, 31 Oct., . He was appointed in 1869 minister to San iSalvador, transferred as consul-general to Havana •two years later, and filled the same post at Paris from 1873 till his resignation in 1878. He lost his life, while on his way to Mexico as president of a mining company, on the steamer "Vera Cruz," which foundered off the coast of Florida.


TORIBIO, Saint, or MONGROVEJO, Toribio Alfonso, Spanish - American archbishop, b. in Mayorga, Spain, 6 Nov., 1538 ; d. in Sana, Peru, 23 March, 1606. After finishing his studies in Valladolid, he led a life of the severest asceticism, •until he was summoned to a professorship in the •College of San Salvador in 1575. He became a favorite with Philip II., and, after occupying many important offices, was made chief magistrate of •Granada. In 1580 the Spanish monarch nominated him to the vacant see of Lima, although he was .at the time a layman. At first he refused, but it was believed that Toribio was needed in America to bring about a reformation in the lives of the Spanish colonists, whose profligacy was making the .conversion of the natives almost impossible. He received, therefore, all the holy orders requisite for a priest on four successive Sundays, was af- terward consecrated bishop, sailed for Peru, by way of Panama, entered Lima on 24 May, 1581,

and soon afterward made a formal visitation of

his immense diocese, which extended along the coast for nearly 400 miles, and was almost desti- tute of means of communication. He proclaimed himself the protector of the natives, and resumed the contest with their persecutors, from which Las Casas had retired in despair. In 1583 he held a provisional council at Lima, in which the plans that he suggested for the reformation of morals and for the amelioration of the condition of the Indians met with violent opposition from sev- eral of his suffragan bishops. He had also serious difficulties with Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, vice- roy of Peru, and his conduct was censured by Philip II. Nevertheless he continued to befriend the Indians. His charity was without bounds, and not only his money, silver plate, etc., were devoted to the relief of the needy, but he was often known to take the shirt from his back and bestow it on a native. He learned at an advanced age several of • the Indian idioms, and spoke Quechua, the language of the incas, as it has been called. He established missions in the most remote and inac- cessible places, and founded several churches, semi- naries, and institutions for the poor and sick. He was on his third diocesan visitation when he learned that part of his diocese, several hundred miles from Lima, was devastated by the plague. Hurrying .thither to give the sufferers spiritual and physical aid, he over-exerted himself, and fell a victim to exhaustion in Sana. His body was taken to Lima, he was beatified in 1679 by Pope Innocent XL, and canonized by Benedict XIII. in 1726. His life was written by Antonio Leon Pinelo (Madrid, 1653).


TORICES, Manuel Rodriguez (to-re'-thays), Colombian patriot, b. in Cartagena, 24 May, 1788 ; d. in Bogota, 5 Oct., 1816. He received his edu- cation in the College of Rosario in Bogota, where he was graduated in law, but, being fond of scien- tific investigations, he did not practise his profes- sion, and, retiring to his native city, devoted himself to meteorological observations. When the revo- lution of 1810 began, the governing junta com- missioned him, with Fernandez Madrid, to edit the patriotic paper " Argos Americano." He was elected a member of the municipal council in 1811, and in 1812 president of the constituent assembly of the state, and, in consequence of the governor's resignation, was elected by the assembly, 25 March, 1812, to the executive, with dictatorial powers. When Santa Marta declared in favor of the Span- iards, Torices sent state troops, under command of the French adventurer Labatout, to retake the city, which was occupied on 6 Jan., 1813 ; but on 5 March a counter-revolution put the place again in the hands of the Spaniards. Torices now marched at the head of re-enforcements against Santa Marta, but was defeated on 10 and 11 May. Af- ter the defeat and capture of Nariiio by the Span- iards in 1814, the Federal congress of Tunja re- solved to confide the national executive to a trium- virate, consisting of Restrepo, Rovira, and Tori- ces, and in January, 1815, the last-named went to Bogota, and was elected to the presidency of the triumvirate. He commissioned Bolivar to march against Santa Marta ; but, the state government of Cartagena refusing to co-operate, the expedition was prevented, and Bolivar sailed for Jamaica on 8 May, the royalists obtaining great advantages for want of combined action by the patriot chiefs. In November of that year the triumvirate was su- perseded by the election of Dr. Camilo Torres as president ; but Torices, as vice-president, remained one of his principal advisers, and when, after the defeat of Garcia Rovira at Cachiri, and the ap- proach of the royalist troops, the evacuation of the capital was decided upon, Torices fled with Torres and others, was captured at Buenaventura, taken to Bogota, and shot by order of Gen. Morillo.


TORNOS, Alberto de, educator, b. in Carinena, Aragon, Spain, 9 April, 1821 ; d. in New York city, 22 March, 1887. His father, Andres de Tornos y Beltran, was a well-known lawyer. The son became a teacher, and, after holding several offices in Spain, went to Porto Rico in 1845, where he was appointed by royal order director of the seminary of teachers of the island. On 19 May, 1845, he received his diploma as a graduate of the normal school at Mad- rid, with the title of professor and director of normal schools of the kingdom of Spain. As director of the Central military academy of Porto Rico he was given the title of captain. After occupying many posts in Porto Rico, Cuba, and Mexico, he came to the United States about 1848. He held the office of professor of languages at Spring Hill college, Ala., for three years, and a similar post at the University of Louisiana, where he remained for many years. He wrote for Hie press on educational topics, and did much to promote public instruction. He was professor of Spanish at the New York evening high-school about twenty years, he published "De Tornos's Combined Spanish Method," and of which more than 20.000 copies have been sold (New York, 1867), wrote a book of Spanish