Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/778

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734
COOTE
COPE

COOTE, Sir Eyre, British soldier, b. in 1757; d. 10 Dec, 1823. He was a nephew of Sir Eyre Coote, commander-in-chief in India, entered the British army as ensign, 15 April, 1774, and was promoted lieutenant in July, 1776. He was pres- ent at the battle of Long Island and the reduction of Fort Washington, took part in the expeditions to Rhode Island and the Chesapeake, was engaged at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and at the attack on Mud island. He became a cap- tain, 10 Aug., 1778, was engaged at the siege of Charleston and in the Virginia campaign, and was present at the surrender of Yorktown. He became a major in 1783, served under Gen. Greg in the West Indies in 1793-'5, was made a colonel in 1796, severely wounded in the Ostend expedition of 1798, promoted major-general in that year, and served in Abercromby's Egyptian expedition of 1801. He was lieutenant-governor of Jamaica from 1805 till 1808, and rose to the rank of gen- eral in 1814, but was afterward dismissed from the army for the commission of a crime.


COPAHUE (co-pah-oo'-a), Chilian cacique, flourished in the latter part of the 14th century. He made war against all other caciques of his race, defeated them, and became supreme chief of the whole Araucanian people, also reducing some tribes of northern Chili. According to the native historian Pue, in 1380 the Promancos and Pen- cones rose in arms against Copahue, gathered in large numbers, fought a battle in the Aconcagua valley, and were routed, leaving many dead upon the field, and many prisoners, who were horribly tortured. Copahue's cruelties exasperated his enemies and caused them to unite against him, with the aid of some Araucanian caciques. A battle was fought in the Llai-llai valley, in which he perished, and subsequently every tribe regained its independence. The people of his own tribe buried his remains on the top of the highest mountain in the region belonging to them, and the mountain still bears his name.


COPANO (co-pan'-yo), Chilian yoqui or cacique, b. in the Malpocho valley in 1511 ; d. early in 1548. He was chief of the Promancos, belonging to the Malpocho tribe. The caciques of neighbor- ing regions made him their generalissimo to di- rect the war against the Spaniards, who had founded the city of Santiago in 1541. During 1541 Copaho many times attacked the Spanish settlement, and caused heavy loss to the colonists. The next year, while Valdivia was absent from the city, the Indians, in great numbers, attacked it, burned the buildings, and forced the inhabitants to seek refuge in a fortress, which was also assaulted, and its defenders, under Alonso de Monroy, were com- pelled to go out and fight in the open field. The timely return of Valdivia prevented the destruc- tion of the whole colony ; and afterward Copaiio was defeated in three battles. During 1543-'4 he continued the hostilities against the conquerors, and then joined the Copiapinos, a tribe of north- ern Chili, and was proclaimed chief of all the allied forces. In 1545 he again attacked Alonso de Monroy at Copiapo, and only Monroy and one of his officers escaped, all his other men pei*- ishing at the hands of the Indians. A treaty of peace made with Valdivia in 1546 did not continue long, and Copaiio destroyed the new city of La Serena in 1547. The celebrated chief was killed by some northern Indians that declined to be commanded by a stranger.


COPE, Thomas Pym, merchant, b. in Lancas- ter county, Pa., 26 Aug., 1768; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 22 Nov., 1854. His father, Caleb Cope, a Quaker of Lancaster, Pa., protected Andre from a mob in 1775. The son entered a counting-house in Philadelphia in 1786, began business for him- self in 1790, importing his goods latterly in his own vessels, the first of which he built in 1807, and established in 1821 the first line of packets be- tween Philadelphia and Liverpool, which survived several financial crises, and continued in existence down till the beginning of the civil war. He ac- quired great wealth, and possessed in a high de- gree the respect of his fellow-townsmen. During an epidemic of yellow fever in 1793 he remained in the city to aid the sufl'erers, and took the dis- ease himself, and, when the small-pox raged in 1797, he accepted the task of ministering to the wants of the destitute as almoner, and carried food to the houses of the sufferers. He was a member of the city council about 1800, an efficient member of the committee for introducing water into the city, served in the legislature in 1807, and in the State constitutional convention, was presi- dent of the Board of trade for many years, and of the Mercantile library company from its foundation until his death, and was an executor of Girard's will, a trustee of the bank, and a director of the Girard college. He was also actively interested in completing the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, and in the construction of the Pennsylvania rail- road. The estate of Lemon Hill, the country- seat of Henry J, Pratt, which came into the pos- session of tlie old U. S. bank, was through his efforts secured to the city as a public park, instead of being utilized for factory purposes. When Mr. Cope retired from mercantile life his sons, Henry and Alfred, carried on the business, which eventu- ally passed into the hands of Francis and Thomas P., sons of Henry, who adopted the style of Cope Brothers. — Alfred's son, Edward Drinker, natu- ralist, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 July, 1840; d. there, 12 April, 1897. He was educated at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and then studied com- parative anatomy in the Academy of sciences of Philadelphia, in the Smithsonian institution dur- ing 1859, and in Europe from 1863 till 1804. He became professor of natural sciences in Haverford college in 1864, but resigned in 1867 on account of failing health. Later he became paleontologist to the U. S. geological survey, serving at first on the survey of the territories, and then on the survey west of the 100th meridian. His work in this con- nection has resulted in his discovery of nearly 1.000 new species of extinct and as many recent verte- brata. For many years Prof. Cope was secretary and curator of the Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia, and chief of the department of or- ganic material of the permanent exhibition in that city. He was a member of numerous scientific societies in the United States and Europe, and in 1879 received the Bigsby gold medal from the Royal geological society of Great Britain. In 1872 he was elected a member of the National academy of sciences, and in 1884 was vice-president of the section on biology of the American associa- tion for the advancement of science. The titles of his papers, upward of 350 in number, form a systematic record of the development of paleon- tology in the United States. They have appeared in the official reports of the government surveys, proceedings of the Philadelphia academy of sci- ences, of the American philosophical society, the American association for the advancement of sci- ence, and in numerous periodicals. Among his larger works are " Systematic Arrangement of the Lacertilia and Ophidia " (1864) ; " Primary Groups of the Batrachian Anura " (1865) ; " History of the