Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/97

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
THEVENARD
THIBAUDIN

in 1643, accompanied by his two brothers and his son. One of his brothers and his son were killed, but he escaped, during a hunting expedition of the Iroquois, and reached Three Rivers, where he preached some remarkable discourses to his coun- trymen, who had come to congratulate him on his escape. After his return to his own coun- try he formed one of a convoy of 100 warriors who went down to Quebec. He was wounded in an attack that was made on the town by the Iro- quois, but succeeded in escaping to the woods. He was discovered by a band of hostile Indians, who were so touched by his discourse that they saved his life and nursed him. When the Hurons were driven from their country in 1649 he went to live in St. Joseph's island, and afterward took a large part of his tribe to Quebec. They formed a settle- ment close to the city, where Theondechoren edified both the Indians and French by the sanctity of his life, and astonished the latter by his eloquence.


THEVENARD, Antoine jean Marie (tay- veh-nar), Count, French naval officer, b. in Saint Malo, 7 Dec, 1733; d. in Paris, 9 Feb., 1815. He entered the service of the East India company as a cabin-boy in 1747, assisted in three combats with the English, and rose rapidly in rank. In 1754 he was sent with a sloop-of-war to Newfoundland, and destroyed all the establishments and fisheries along the northern coast of that colony. After the conclusion of peace, he became a naval engineer. He was a commodore in the East India fleet in 1767, but in 1769 joined the royal navy, was made captain of a frigate in 1770. and promoted first captain and knight of Saint Louis in 1773. When France sent aid to the United States in 1778, he was given command of a squadron, and carried troops and supplies to the Antilles and to this country. He made successful cruises along the coast of New England, and for his services was promoted briga- dier-general of the naval forces in 1782, and chef d'escadre in 1784. Assuming command of the station of South America in 1785, he was made vice-admiral in 1792, and he was successively mari- time prefect at Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort in 1792-3, and again at Toulon in 1801. He was created a senator and a count in 1810, and made a peer of France, 4 June, 1814. He was a member of several learned societies of Europe and America, of the Royal academy of marine in 1773, and of the Paris academy of sciences after 1785. He pub- lished " Memoires relatifs a la marine " (4 vols., Paris. 1800), which is still a standard work.


THEVENAU, Charles Etienne (tay-vay-no), West Indian naturalist, b. in St. Lucia in 1758 ; d. in Paris in 1820. He took part as an ensign in the war of 1778-83 in the West Indies, and after the conclusion of peace held an office in the magistracy of St. Lucia. At the beginning of the French revolution he went to Paris, where he became noted as a journalist; but he strongly opposed the en- franchisement of the slaves, and for his attacks against the club called " Les amis des noirs " was imprisoned during the reign of terror. Being re- leased after the reaction of 1794, he returned to St. Lucia and devoted himself to agriculture and sci- ence. After the restoration of Louis XVIII. he settled in Paris. His works include " Observations sur des poissons recueillis dans un voyage a la Baie de Samana, et description des especes nouvelles et peu connues " (St. Lucia, 1788) ; " Monographie des ignames " (Paris, 1790) : " Historia naturalis plan- tarum quas in insula Santa Lucia crescent " (3 vols., 1802 -'9); " Enumeratio plantarum cellularium quas in insula Santa Lucia a Thevenau collectas de- scribit" (3 vols., 1807-12) ; " Fasciculus plantarum rariarum et exoticarum" (1813); "Essai sur les simples veneneux des Antilles " (1814) ; and " Traite des arbres fruitiers des Antilles" (2 vols., 1816).


THEVET, Andre (tay-vay), French historian, b. in Angouleme in 1502; d. in Paris, 23 Nov., 1590. He united with the Gray Friars, and in 1555 accompanied Admiral Villegaignon to Brazil, but returned to France in the following year and was appointed in 1558 chaplain to Queen Catherine de Medicis and historian and cosmographer to the king. He enjoyed royal favor under Charles IX. and his successors, and composed for their amuse- ment several works which have since been held in high esteem. They include " Les singularitez de la France antarctique, autrement nomme Ame- rique, et de plusieurs terres et isles decouvertes de notre temps" (Paris, 1558); " Cosmographie uni- verselle, illustree de diverses figures des choses plus remarquables vues par l'auteur" (2 vols., 1771); and "Vrais portraits et vies des homines illus- tres, Grecs, Latins et Paiens " (2 vols., 1584). The last is a curious work, containing the biography and portraits of several Indian caciques, emperors of Mexico, and incas of Peru, and, although some doubts have been expressed as to their authenticity, they have never been proved spurious. The vet's work had many editions and has been translated into several languages. He wrote also " Histoire naturelle et generale des Indes Occidentales " and •' Voyage dans les Indes australes," which are pre- served among the manuscripts in the National li-


THIBAUD, Pierre (tee-bo), French scientist, b. in Pithiviers in 1739 ; d. there in 1804. He was for many years a professor in Paris, and was also employed by the French academy of literature in making linguistic researches. In 1788 he was elected secretary of the Academy of Caen, but re- tired to his native city during the revolution. Thi- baud devoted himself principally to the study of the migrations of men, to the descent of nations, and their travels through the world ; he was also the first to advance the theory that the Indians of America migrated from Asia in remote antiquity, and through patient research was enabled to give a nearly complete history of the Aztec nation since their first appearance in the basin of Mexico about 500 b. c. Thibaud's works contain some errors, but he was a pioneer in the field of Indian history. He Sublished " Origine des Indiens de l'Amerique du ord, contenant une description de leurs manieres, avec une etude sur lour religion, lour langage, et leur maniere de se vetir" (Caen, 1787); "Histoire et migrations de la nation Aztec ou Mexicaine depuis le cinquieme siecle de notre ere jusqu' a la chute de la dynastie de Montezuma" (1796); and " Origine des Indiens de l'Amerique du Sud " (Pithiviers, 1801).


THIBAUDIN, Gaston Louis (tee-ho-dang), French explorer, b. in Dunkirk in 1727; d. in Lima, Peru, in 1796. He studied botany in Paris under Buffon, was employed afterward by the Academy of sciences, and at the request of that body was given by Louis XVI. in 1776 a mission to South America. His instructions were to collect in Chili, Peru, and Cuba specimens of medicinal plants that could be naturalized in France. He landed in Concepcion early in February, 1777, journeyed for months through the pampas and the mountains, and formed a rich herbarium. After visiting Santiago and the large cities, he went to Callao, making also a voyage to the island of Juan Fernandez. Toward the end of 1780 his herbarium numbered about 1,500 specimens, including many new ones, when he left for the West Indies, but, owing to the war