in canal-boats, and took possession of Fort Erie. A skirmish ensued the next day, but Gen. Grant, with a considerable force of U. S. troops, having arrived in Buffalo and issued orders that no addi- tional Fenians be permitted to cross the river, O'Neill's party was left without ammunition or supplies, and by his order left the encampment and retreated to the American shore. Seven hundred Fenians were intercepted and arrested by the U. S. gun-boat " Michigan," and the remainder were dis- banded and ordered to their respective homes. In September of the same year O'Neill was a delegate to the Fenian congress, and was elected inspector- general of the Fenian forces. After his second invasion of Canada in 1870 he was imprisoned for several months. He subsequently engaged in lec- turing and in organizing a movement for the colonization of his couiitrvmen in Nebraska.
O'NEILL DE TYRONE, Arthur, Marquis del
Norte, Spanish soldier, b. in Dublin, Ireland, 8
Jan., 1736 ; d. in Madrid, Spain, 9 Dec, 1814. He
emigrated with his parents to Spain when he was
a boy, and began his military career in 1752 as a
cadet in the Irish infantry regiment. He took
part in 1762 in the campaign in Portugal and the
expedition to Algiers. At" the beginning of next
year he volunteered for the expedition to Brazil
under Gen. Cevallos and led a hazardous attack
on Fort Santa Cruz in the island of Santa Catha-
rina, of which he was appointed governor. Toward
the end of that year he volunteered again for the
expedition to Martinique under Gen. Navia, which
was frustrated by the dispersion of the fleet in a
storm, and later he went with Bernardo de Galvez
iq. V.) to Louisiana. He accompanied the latter
in the siege of Pensacola in 1781, repelled several
sallies of the garrison, and after the surrender of
the city on 9 May was appointed its governor,
which post he occupied till 10 Dec, 1793, when
he was appointed captain-general of the province
of Yucatan. He planned and commanded in 1798
the expedition against Belize and the English pos-
sessions in the Bay of Honduras. At his request
he was relieved in 1802, and in the next year he
was appointed a member of the supreme military
court. In 1808, during the invasion of the French,
notwithstanding his advanced age, he entered the
service again, led the second division of the army
of Old Castile, and in the defence of Madrid com-
manded the batteries of the Gate de los Pozos.
ONESIME, Charles Stanislas de Montigny (o-nay-seem), better known as Friar Onesime,
French missionary, b. in Riberac in 1641 ; d. in
Capesterre, Guadeloupe, in 1699. He went to Gua-
deloupe as a missionary in 1665, contributed to-
ward building up the colony, and, acquiring influ-
ence among the Caribs, taught them to love French
rule, and quieted several insurrections that were
incited by English and Spanish agents. As he
had some engineering skill, he directed the con-
struction of dams and canals, and opened roads
across the mountains. He also ascended the vol-
cano La Souf riere, and supervised works to prevent
the disastrous effects of eruptions. He published
" Relation de la mission du Pere Onesime aux iles
du Vent, con tenant I'histoire des colonies frangoises
et des decouvertes qui s'y sont faites jusqu'a nos
jours, suivie d'un sommaire des expeditions des
flibustiers de I'ile de la Tortue, avec leurs etonnantes
aventures" (2 vols., Paris, 1691), a curious work,
which contains also an account of the French es-
tablishments in southern Louisiana.
ONIS, Luis de (o'-nees), Spanish diplomatist, b.
in La Mancha, Spain, in 1769 : d. in Madrid about
1830. He was trained in the diplomatic service.
employed in the state ministry when the French
invaded the peninsula in 1809, and is believed to
be the author of the famous manifest of Ceballo.
The supreme junta of Cadiz appointed him envoy
to the United States, but, notwithstanding his re-
peated efforts. President Madison refused him
recognition, under the pretext that, as the crown
of Spain was in dispute, the American government
could not pronounce in favor of either of the bel-
ligerents. Onis, however, remained in this coun-
try, where he rendered great service to his govern-
ment by communicating events in Spanish America
and transmitting orders to the governors and
commandei's in those countries. After the return of
Ferdinand VII. to Spain in 1814, Onis applied again
for recognition to Washington, and it was finally
given in December, 1815. He renewed his former
protests against the American occupation of Pen-
sacola, Mobile, and part of Florida, and against
the fitting out of expeditions for the Independents
of South America in Baltimore and other parts of
the Union, but obtained, however, only evasive
answers, and in order to avoid further complica-
tions, seeing no hope for the recovery of Florida,
he used his best efforts to bring about an advan-
tageous treaty for its cession to the United States,
the abandonment of the American claims for in-
demnity, and the fixing of the boundary between
Louisiana and Texas. The treaty was signed in
Washington in February, 1819, and Onis returned to
Spain to hasten its ratification by his government,
which was delayed by court intrigues- till 1821.
Onis meanwhile had been appointed minister to
Naples and afterward to England, whence he was
recalled in 1823, when the absolute power of King
Ferdinand was re-established. He published in
1810-'12 in the United States, under the pen-name
of " Verus," satirical letters, in which he attacked
the conduct of the U. S. government toward
Spain ; and he also wrote '• Memorias sobre las
negociaciones entre Espaila y los Estados Unidos
de America, que causaron el tratado de 1819 ; con-
teniendo una estadistica del ultimo pais " (Madrid,
1820; English translation, with notes by Tobias
Watkins, Baltimore, 1821).
OORT, Piet Van (ort), Dutch adventurer, b. in
Dordrecht about 1615; d. in the province of Mi-
nas Geraes, Brazil, in 1663. He was a soldier and
served in -the Brazilian expedition of the Prince of
Nassau-Siegen {q. v.), but deserted, lived with an
Indian tribe for several years, and acquired a per-
fect knowledge of their language. On his return
to Guiana he was employed as interpreter, but,
having learned from the Indians that gold existed
in the Amazon valley, he set out in 1652 with two
companions and ascended the Amazon for sev-
eral hundred miles to a place that an old Indian
hunter had told him was rich in gold. He found
little of that metal, but several petrified bodies, for
whose peculiar form and features he was unable to
account. He was afterward employed as interpre-
ter by the Portuguese in the province of Minas
Geraes, where he died. Nothing more was thought
at that time of Van Oort's discovery, although
later several authors mentioned it as a curiosity ;
but the modern anthropological science has given
it due credit, and the fossil deposit that was found
in 1867 in the Amazon valley by the American ex-
pedition is probably the same as the one that was
discovered bv Van Oort.
OPDYCKE, Emerson, soldier, b. in Hubbard, Trumbull co., Ohio, 7 Jan.. 1830 ; d. in New York city, 25 April, 1884. His father served in the war of 1812, and his grandfather was a captain in the
Revolution. He engaged in business in California
