Fort de France, Martinique, in 1783. He became a midshipman in 1771 and a lieutenant in 1779. serving in the West Indies during the war of 1778-'83. He accompanied de Grasse in Chesa- peake bay in 1781, and fought with the marines in the assault on Yorktown in October, 1781. Hav- ing captured the English frigate " Isis " in Chesa- peake bay, 12 April, 1782, he was promoted com- modore and appointed to the command of a divis- ion, with which he defeated the English off Mar- tinique. He died from yellow fever a few weeks after the conclusion of peace in 1783.
MORTIER, Edouard Louis (mor-te-ay),
French naturalist, b. in Mulhouse in 1801 ; d. in
Rio Janeiro in 1852. He was sent in 1835 on a
scientific mission to South America, and explored
the Guianas, the United States of Colombia, Vene-
zuela, Peru, and Brazil, returning to France in
1840. In 1843 he settled in Brazil, and became
professor of botany and natural history in the Col-
lege of Rio Janeiro, which post he held till his
death. He published "Des origines des Indiens
habitant I'Ameriquedu Sud " (Paris, 1841) ; " Traite
du tabac et du cacao " (1841) ; " Historia planta-
rum circa Cayenne sponte crescentium " (1843) ;
^' Prodomus florae Brasilicae, sistens enumerationem
plantarum cellularium quae in insuht Santa Cati-
lina crescent " (2 vols., Rio Janeiro, 1849) ; " His-
toria generalis plantarum Americanarum in qua
famili;e per tabulas disponuntur " (2 vols., 1850) ;
and several other works.
MORTON, Alexander, inventor, b. in Darvel,
Ayrshire, Scotland, 8 March, 1820 ; d. in New
York city, 12 Oct., 1869. He came to this country
in early life, and entered Yale in 1844, but failing
health prevented his graduation. He began the
manufacture of gold pens in New York city dur-
ing the summer of 1851, and between that year and
1800 invented automatic processes for pointing,
tempering, and grinding them, which had pre-
viously been done unequally, and often imperfectly,
by hand. His pens attained a high reputation, and
he amassed wealth and gave generously in aid of
the National government during the civil war.
MORTON, Charles, clergyman, b. in Pendavy,
Cornwall, England, in 1627; d. in Boston, Mass.,
11 April, 1698. He was descended from Thomas
Morton, secretary to Edward 111., was educated at
Oxford, of which he became a fellow, took holy
orders, and for some time was a royalist, but on
his conversion to Puritanism was ejected from his
living, under the act of conformity of 1662. He
then retired to the parish of St. Ives, where he
preached to a small non-conformist congregation,
and after the great fire of Ijondon established a
boys' academy at Alwington Green, where, among
other youths, he taught Daniel Defoe. At length
the annoyances that he sufliered under the processes
of the bishop's court induced him to emigrate to
New England. With his pupil, the future histo-
rian, Samuel Penhallow, he arrived in Charlestown,
Mass., in 1686, and a few months afterward he was
chosen to the pastorate of the church there, which
he held until his death. It was at first suggested
that he be appointed president of Harvard, but a
person so obnoxious to the government was judged
unsuitable to occupy that post, and the office of
vice-president was therefore created for him. He
also read lectures on philosophy to a large class of
students, but, by the order of the corporation, they
were discontinued. Morton had great learning
and much influence with his students. He was
an enemy of large volumes, and therefore com-
paratively little record is preserved of his busy
life. One of his manuscript pamphlets, entitled
" Compendium physicale ex auctoribusextractum "
is in the library of the American antiquarian so-
ciety, and another, " A Complete System of Natu-
ral Philosophy in General and Particular," is
in that of Bowdoin college. His published works
include "A Discourse on Improving the Country
of Cornwall," a part of which, on the use of sea
sand as manure, is printed in the " Philosophical
Transactions " for April, 1675 ; " The Ark. its Loss
and Recovery " ; and a " System of Logic," long a
text-book at Harvard (Charlestown, 1693).
MORTON, or MOURT, George, author, b. in
York, England, in 1585; d. about 1628. He
became a Puritan in 1600, and was one of the earliest
Pilgrims that settled in Leyden, Holland, where
he married in 1612, and until 1620 was the agent
of those of his sect that lived in London. At the
latter date he emigrated to New England, arriving
in Plymouth on the “Ann,” and bringing
re-enforcements to the Pilgrims. After a residence of
several years he returned to England, according
to some authorities, but others assert that he died
in Plymouth. Morton is the author of the first
book that was published in Great Britain that
gave an account of the planting of Plymouth colony.
This work, known as “Mourt's Relation of
the Beginning and Proceeding of the English
Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England,”
is full of valuable information and is an authority
even at the present day (London, 1622; abridged
and reprinted in Massachusetts historical collection;
2d ed., with notes by Rev. George B. Cheever,
entitled “Journal of the Pilgrims,” Boston,
1845; 3d ed., with notes by William T. Harris,
New York, 1852; 4th ed., with notes by Rev.
Henry M. Dexter, Boston, 1865). — His son,
Nathaniel, author, b. in Leyden, Holland, in 1613;
d. in Plymouth, Mass., 16 June, 1685, came with
his father to this country, and after the death of
his parents was brought up in the family of Gov.
William Bradford, who had married Nathaniel's
maternal aunt. He early became Bradford's
assistant in the management of public affairs, and
by annual popular vote was secretary of the colony
from 7 Dec., 1647, until his death. Almost all
the records of the Plymouth colony are in his
handwriting. He read extensively, and took great
pains to note down the incidents of the early days
of the colony, which he published under the title
of “New England's Memorial, or a Brief Relation
of the most Memorable and Remarkable Passages
of the Providence of God manifested to the Planters
of New England” (Cambridge, Mass., 1669;
reprinted in England the same year, with supplement
by Josiah Cotton, Boston, 1721; 3d ed.,
Newport, R. I., 1772; 4th ed., containing, besides the
original work and the supplement, large additions
with marginal notes, and a lithographic copy of
an ancient map by John Davis, Boston, 1826; 6th
ed., by the Boston Congregational board of publication,
1855). This work, compiled at the request of
the commissioners of the four united colonies, was
chiefly attested as correct by the most eminent
survivors of the earlier generations. Until the
recovery of Bradford's own history in 1855, Morton's
was the chief early authority for the history
of Plymouth colony. He also wrote a “Synopsis
of the Church History of Plymouth” (1680), which
is preserved in Ebenezer Hazard's “Historical
Collections” and published by Alexander Young in
his “Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the
Colony of Plymouth” (Boston, 1841); and he was
the author of numerous verses in commemoration
of the virtues of the Pilgrims, the best specimens of
which are those on the death of his aunt, Mrs.
Brad-
