Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/673

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
PAINE
PALAFOX Y MENDOZA

America. He removed to Salem, Mass., in 1787, and in 1793 to Worcester.


PAINE, William, physician, b. in Chesterfield, Mass., in 1821. He became professor of the princi- ples and practice of medicine and pathology in the Eclectic medical college of Pennsylvania, at Phila- delphia, and became editor of the " Eclectic Medi- cal Journal " in that city, and of the " University Journal of Medicine and Surgery." He is the au- thor of " Epitome of the American Eclectic Prac- tice of Medicine " (Philadelphia, 1857) ; " American Eclectic Practice of Surgery, Obstetrics, and Dis- eases of Women and Children " (1859) ; and " The Domestic Practice of Medicine " (1869).


PAINTER, Gamaliel, jurist, h. in New Haven, Conn., 23 May, 1743; d. in Middlebury, Vt., 21 May, 1819. He received a common-school educa- tion, and erected the first house in Middlebury, Vt., in 1773. He served as a captain and quartermaster in the war of the Revolution, and was a delegate to the convention that, in 1777, declared the inde- pendence of Vermont. He was a representative in the Vermont legislature, a judge of the county court, and a councillor in 1813-'14, and a member of the first constitutional convention of Vermont in 1793. He was the principal founder of Middle- bury college, to which he left a bequest of $10,000 at his death.


PAKENHAM, Sir Edward Michael, British soldier, b. in Pakenham Hall, County Westmeath, Ireland, 19 March, 1778 ; d. near New Orleans, La., 8 Jan., 1815. He was the second son of the Earl of Longford. His early education must have been that of a mere school-boy, for he became a lieuten- ant in the 92d foot on 28 May, 1794. and a captain in the same regiment on 31 May of the same year. On 6 Dec. he was made a major in the 33d dra- goons, and on 1 Jan., 1798, he was transferred to the 23d dragoons. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-colonel, 17 Oct., 1799, brevet-colonel, 25 Oct., 1809, and major-general, 1 Jan., 1812. Pakenham served in the peninsula and the south of France under his brother-in-law, the Duke of Wellington, in various capacities. After com- manding first a battalion and then a brigade, he became adjutant-general, and finally was placed at the head of the division that broke the French centre at the battle of Salamanca. The duke used to say that this was the best-manoeuvred battle in the whole war. The two armies faced each other, and moved in parallel lines for three days. They saw clearly from opposite rising grounds whatever went on in either camp, the valley that divided them measuring not more than half a mile across. Gen. Marmont's object was to interpose between Wellington and Badajoz ; Wellington's object, to prevent this. In their eagerness to gain their point, the French leading divisions outmarched those that followed, and thus caused a vacant space in the centre, of which the duke took instant advantage. " Now's your time. Ned." he said to Pakenham, who stood near him. The hint was enough. Pakenham kissed his brother-in-law, and, giving the word to his division, moved on, and won the battle.

The death of Gen. Ross before Baltimore led to the selection of Pakenham to command the British force that had hitherto operated in the Chesapeake, but which were now to be used in an expedition against New Orleans. He ought to have joined it in Jamaica, to which re-enforcements were sent, but adverse winds detained him, and he did not reach his command till after the landing had been effected below New Orleans and an action had iaken place in which each side had lost more than

men. He found the army in a false position 

on a narrow neck of land flanked on one side by Mississippi river, and on the other by an impass- able morass. He had opposed to him one of the ablest of the generals that the United States has produced. (See Jackson, Andrew.) After a costly reconnoissance, Pakenham erected bastions of hogs- heads of sugar, and mounted thirty guns, but on 1 Jan., 1815, these defences were destroyed by the American fire. In the week that followed both sides were re-enforced. It is just possible that if Pakenham had been patient enough to wait the development of his own plans he might have carried the American lines and entered New Orleans. It was his intention to attack on both sides of the river before chiwn on 8 Jan. But there was delay in crossing, and he impatiently sent up the signal rocket before his men on the west side of the river were ready. He was killed in the unsuccessful assault that followed.


PALACIO, Diego Garcia de (pah-lah'-the-o), Spanish soldier, b. in Santander, Spain, about 1530; d. after 1580. Little is known of his early life, except that he was auditor of Guatemala in" 1576, according to a report that was made by him to the king of Spain in that year, and published in 1860 by Ephraim G. Squier in his '• Documents concern- ing the Discovery and Conquest of America," under the title of " Carta dirigida al Rey." His name is found again on a contract that was made with Diego Lopez of Trujillo. Honduras, on 4 Dec, 1576, for the conquest and colonization of the province of Teguzigalpa, from Cape Camaron to San Juan river. In another letter to the king, dated 8 March, 1578, which is in the archives of Seville, he offered to conquer and pacify the Philippine islands at his own expense, and urged the change of the transit between the Atlantic and Pacific, from Mexico and Panama, to the route through Hon- duras, from Puerto Caballos to the Bay of Fonseca. On 30 April, 1679, he addressed another letter to the crown from Nicaragua about the pillaging of the coast of Peru by Francis Drake. In 1580 he was ordered as auditor to Mexico, and he was given in 1581 the degree of LL. D. by the university of that city, of which he afterward became rector. He was appointed commander of the fleet that was despatched from Acapulco against the English corsairs of the South sea, and his commission, which is in the archives of Mexico, gave him great lati- tude, Ijut the result of the expedition is not known, and his name does not appear again. He wrote " Dialogos Militares " (Mexico, 1583) and " In- struccion Nauthica para el uso de las Naos " (1587).


PALAFOX Y MENDOZA, Juan (pah-lah-foh'), Mexican archbishop, b. in Fitero, Navarre, 24 June, 1600; d. in Osma, Spain, 1 Oct., 1659. He was a son of the Marquis of Ariza, studied law in the University of Salamanca, and was appointed by King Philip IV. attorney of the supreme council of war, and afterward of the council of Indies. Subsequently he was oixlained priest, went with the Princess Mary to Germany as almoner, and on his return was made bishop of Puebla de los An- geles. In 1640 he went to Mexico in company with the newly appointed viceroy, the Marquis de Vil- lena. The latter, who belonged to a family of Portuguese origin, did not inspire great confidence at court, and by his arbitrary conduct caused many complaints against him in Madrid, and therefore Palafox was ordered by a secret despatch to take charge of the government. As he had been pro- moted archbishop of Mexico, he went to thp capital under the pretext of assuming his see, and during the night of 9 Jime. 1642, he convoked the authori-