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Royal, Jamaica, in 1721. Her parents kept a sailors' boarding-house, and at the age of twelve she eloped with a boy named William Read, dressed in her brother's clothes, and with Read shipped as a sailor on a merchantman that was ap- parently bound for the West Indies. The ship proved to be a slaver, and was captured near Tor- tugas island by buccaneers, who murdered the crew, except a few who enlisted among them. William and Mary were spared for their youth, and served four years with the pirates, who would have remained in ignorance of Mary's sex but for a wound she received in an engagement with a Spanish man-of-war. When her wound was healed she resumed female attire, but her position in the ship became unbearable, as on her account quar- rels spread among the crew, in which, in 1695, young Read lost his life, and in 1696 she agreed to marry his murderer, the second mate of the ship, named Harry Walter. They lived afterward several vears in Panama, where they kept a lodging-house, but after Walter's death, in 1707, Mary resumed man's attire, and armed a privateer, with which she ransacked and pillaged Les Caves in Santo Do- mingo, and the coasts of Venezuela and Jamaica, securing large spoils. She soon became famous among the corsairs, as she coolly murdered those who fell into her hands, boasting that she had her- self slaughtered 600 Spaniards. At last a man-of- war was specially despatched from New Spain to capture her, and, after eluding pursuit for months, she was taken near Jamaica, with the aid of an English ship, and hanged in that island. ISAACS, Samuel Myer, clergyman, b. in Leeuwarden, Holland, 4 Jan., 1804; d. in New York city, 19 May, 1878. He went to London with his family in 1814, was called to the pastorate of a New York syna- gogue in 1839, and, on a division in the congregation in 1845, a new body was or- ganized, of which he was minister until his death. Mr. Isaacs was successful in arous- . ing his community to philanthropic work, and he was among the first to labor for the establishment of Jewish institutions in New York, like the Mount Sinai hospi- tal, the Hebrew free schools, and the Unit-

ed Hebrew charities.

He was a popular speaker, and was often called to consecrate synagogues throughout the country, and was a frequent orator at public assemblies. In 1857 he established the " Jewish Messenger," as an organ of conservative Judaism, and advocated his views with warmth and ability. He was a life-long friend and correspondent of Sir Moses Montefiore. A brief biography of him was published by his sons on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the " Jew- ish Messenger" in Januarv, 1882.

ISAMBERT, Henry (e-zam'-bair), French sol- dier, b. in Cahors in 1749; d. in Santo Domingo in December, 1800. He served in the colonial troops from 1769 till 1792, and commanded the Royal Martinique regiment in Santo Domingo at the beginning of the French revolution in 1789. He took an active part in the repression of the troubles that the new democratic principles caused in the island among the slaves, advising the sum- mary execution of the rioters, and sometimes de- nying them even a trial. He was recalled in 1792, and imprisoned during the reign of terror on sus- gicion of being a royalist; but the downfall of Robespierre, which happened the day before his proposed execution, saved him, and he was after- ward released. He was elected a member of the council of the ancients in 1796, but was again ar- rested and transported, with other distinguished victims of the reaction, to Guiana. His faithful wife, a Creole of Martinique, joined him, and he bought an estate to avert suspicion, but in June, 1798, escaped to the Dutch city of Paramaribo and sailed for London. Having obtained his par- don in the following year, Isambert returned to France, where Bonaparte reinstated him in the army with the rank of major-general, and attached him to the staff of Gen. Rochambeau, who was preparing to sail for Santo Domingo. There he distinguished himself against the rebel negroes, and was killed in an engagement near Caves. He published " Journal des faits relatifs a la journee du 18 f ructidor, du transport, du sejour et de Inva- sion des deportes, suivi d'un abrege historique sur la Guiane Francaise" (2 vols., London, 1799), and " Histoire de Saint Domingue, l'element noir et la colonisation Francaise " (Sinnimari, 1798).

ISELIN, Jacob Christian (e-ze-leen), Swiss explorer, b. in Basle in 1753; d. in Freiburg in 1811. He studied in Geneva, and was professor of history in the University of Basle, when, in 1785, he inherited a large estate from an uncle, and resolved to explore the New World. He visited the Canary islands, Brazil, Chili, Peru, the Marquesas islands, Pomata, and Tahiti, and afterward went by land from California to Texas, descended thence to Mexico and via the isthmus of Panama to South America, where he remained altogether twenty-two years. He returned in 1806 to Europe with a large number of documents, maps, and notes, which he deposited in the public library of his native town, and devoted the remainder of his life to researches among the public libraries of Europe, thus gathering a huge collection of original documents on America. He published “Analecta Peruviana seu genera et species plantarum in Peruvia crescentium” (2 vols., Geneva, 1808); “Monografía de las voces compuestas de Chile” (2 vols., Basle, 1809); “Ascencion du Pichincha et Chimborazo” (Geneva, 1810); “Du mouvement religieuse dans l'Amérique du Sud” (Basle, 1809); “Histoire de la conquête et de la domination Espagnole dans l'Amérique du Sud,” which was for a long time a standard work on the conquests and explorations of European adventurers (6 vols., Basle. 1811, with charts).

ISERT, Paul Edmond (e'-zert), Danish traveller, b. in Copenhagen in 1757; d. in Guinea, Africa, in 1789. He went to Africa in 1783 in the capacity of chief surgeon, resided for three years at Fort Christiansborg, on the Guinea coast, and after exploring the country of the Ashantees em- barked on a slaver bound for the Antilles. During the voyage a part of the negroes revolted, and he was dangerously wounded. He landed at Santa Cruz, visited successively St. Eustache, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Porto Rico, and Cuba, and sailed for Europe in 1788. He was afterward sent to Africa by the Danish government to found a colony on an island in the river Volta. He published "Reise nach Guinea und den Caraibischen Inseln" (Copenhagen, 1788; reprinted at Berlin and Leipsic, 1790; and translated into Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, and French, Paris, 1793).