382 



HONDURAS. 



HOPKINS, ALBERT. 



at Amapala, September 15th. The consuls 

 and the vessels in the bay hoisted their flags, 

 and the cura said mass in a chapel adorned 

 with palm-leaves. Various patriotic speeches 

 were delivered on the occasion, all ending by 

 cries of " Viva la America Central! " 



The port of Amapala was, it was said, to be 

 given up to San Salvador, but still to remain, 

 however, a free port. 



On the 21st of September, General Streber, 

 commanding the departments of Oholuteca 

 and Paraiso, was received with much enthu- 

 siasm at Amapala. The general visited the 

 schools, and took measures to favor the In- 

 dians, especially in the culture of indigo. The 

 Government gave $500 to aid in rebuilding 

 their church, which had been burned by the 

 soldiers of ex-President Medina. 



Bands of robbers infested that part of the 

 frontiers near Nicaragua. 



El Centinela, of September 30th, published 

 a long article on the neutrality of the Pacific 

 Mail Steamship Company, in the question of 

 the delivery of arms to the Provisional Gov- 

 ernment of Honduras. 



By a decree of September 8th, the Order of 

 the Knights of Santa Eosa and the Civilization 

 of Honduras, established by a law of 1868, has 

 been abolished. 



Dr. Venero was appointed Minister of For- 

 eign Relations. 



Tobacco pays an export duty of $1.00 per 

 quintal (100 Ibs.). 



President Arias expressed his thanks to the 

 allied forces of Guatemala and San Salvador 

 fbr their services on behalf of Honduras. 



A correspondent of a London newspaper 

 writes, under date of September 30th, as fol- 

 lows: 



" The news received by this mail from Hon- 

 duras states that Medina is entirely defeated ; 

 that having paid to the allies San Salvador and 

 Guatemala the sum of $54,000 as a ransom for 

 his life, they afterward ignored it, and took 

 him by force from the Spanish consul's house, 

 and he is now in Guatemala in chains. 



" It is stated the allied powers, San Salvador 

 and Guatemala, are urging upon the new Presi- 

 dent Arias to get rid of the gigantic railroad 

 debt by a compromise with the British bond- 

 holders, and if possible to offer 5s. in the pound 

 to do so, and to make an offer. To enable Hon- 

 duras to make this offer, the entire rolling-stock 

 of the railway, etc., has been offered to Mr. 

 Meiggs, the contractor for the Costa Rica Rail- 

 way, for one-third of its cost, or any price that 

 Mr. Meiggs may be disposed to give for it. It 

 is considered impossible to proceed with the 

 undertaking. It now appears that, instead of 

 fifty miles of the railway said to be completed, 

 in reality only twenty-eight miles of lines laid 

 are in working order. 



" Information from Belize, British Honduras, 

 says there has been great excitement here some 

 time past, or rather, in Spanish Honduras. Un- 

 til very recently fighting has been going on 



without intermission, and business, conse- 

 quently, entirely suspended. The ex-Presi- 

 dent's wife is here, but her unfortunate hus- 

 band has been carried off a prisoner. There 

 are, it is said, some fifteen candidates for the 

 Presidency. Another account says, 'Medina 

 is made prisoner; it is expected he will be 

 shot.' " 



Toward the end of the year, the Govern- 

 ment resumed its task of organizing the public 

 administration ; the country was at peace ; 

 and the President began to take great inter- 

 est in the establishment of primary schools 

 throughout the republic. This condition was 

 about to be disturbed, according to the Official 

 Bulletin of the 30th of December, by some 

 refugees from Belize and Kingston, who had 

 been accumulating arms in these places, and 

 preparing an invasion in union with some ref- 

 ugees of Guatemala. The attempt was nipped 

 in the bud by the English authorities. 



President Arias had received congratulatory 

 autograph letters from the late President Mo- 

 rales of Bolivia, President Garcia Morena of 

 Ecuador, and Don Amadeo, on his elevation 

 to the provisional presidency of Honduras. 



A correspondence had commenced between 

 the British minister in Honduras, Mr. Corbet, 

 and the Government, asking reasons why the 

 payment of the English debt had been ordered 

 to be suspended. 



HOPKINS, Rev. ALBEET, LL.D., F.R. S., a 

 distinguished astronomer and physicist, for 

 forty years an instructor in Williams College, 

 born in Stockbridge, Mass., July 14, 1807 ; died 

 in Williamstown, Mass., May 24, 1872. He 

 was the younger son of Captain Archibald 

 Hopkins, a cavalry-officer, the grandson of 

 Mark Hopkins, a revolutionary officer, and a 

 brother of Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., 

 President of "Williams College from 1836 to 

 1872. He was prepared for college by his un- 

 cle, Rev. Jared Curtis, entered Williams Col- 

 lege in 1824 in an advanced class, and gradu- 

 ated in 1826. The first year after his graduation 

 was devoted to the study of agriculture and 

 engineering. In the autumn of 1827 he was 

 appointed tutor in Williams College, and in 

 1829 elected Professor of Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy there. In 1834 he visited 

 Europe, almost entirely at his own expense, to 

 procure philosophical and chemical apparatus 

 for the college. The next year he commenced 

 on his own responsibility the erection of an 

 astronomical observatory for the college, the 

 first ever established in this country in connec- 

 tion with an American college, and the pioneer 

 of the many which now rank with the best in 

 the Old World in their magnificent equipment 

 and their valuable observations. This humble 

 building, though equipped with a telescope and 

 other instruments of but moderate power, 

 under Prof. Hopkins's management, ^made 

 many discoveries which aided in establishing 

 a high reputation for American scientists. In 

 1838 his professorship was changed to one of 



