472 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



teries. He stayed in England, on Confederate business, till 

 the surrender of Lee, when he despatched a letter to the United 

 States officer commanding the squadron of the Gulf, declaring 

 that he regarded himself in the relation to the United States 

 substantially of a prisoner of war. He then offered his services 

 to Maximilian in Mexico, and accepted the position of Director 

 of the Imperial Observatory. A plan he had conceived for the 

 formation of a colony of Virginians in Mexico was accepted by 

 Maximilian, and he was appointed Imperial Commissioner for 

 Colonization. The scheme was, however, abandoned as soon as 

 Maury left Mexico to return to England. His course in this 

 matter was not approved by his friends, either in Europe or in 

 America. It is claimed that he performed one great service 

 for Mexico during his short career there, in introducing the 

 cultivation of the cinchona tree. 



Returning to England in March, 1866, whither most of his 

 family had preceded him, Maury was given a testimonial, by 

 naval and scientific men, in recognition of his scientific worth 

 and service. He was employed in Paris, by Napoleon III, to 

 instruct a board of French officers in his system of defensive 

 sea mining. Returning to London, he opened a school of in- 

 struction in electric torpedoes, which was attended at the ex- 

 pense of their governments by naval officers of Sweden, Hol- 

 land, and other nations. At the instance of Mr. C. B. Richard- 

 son, a New York publisher, he undertook a series of geographical 

 text-books, saying as he went to his task, " I could not wind up 

 my career more usefully (and usefulness is both honour and 

 glory) than by helping to shape the character and mould the 

 destinies of the rising generation." He also wrote a popular 

 book on astronomy, which has never been published. 



In 1868 Maury received the degree of LL. D. from the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge, along with Alfred Tennyson, Max Miil- 

 ler, and Mr. Wright, the Egyptologist. In the same year he 

 declined an invitation from Napoleon III to the directorship of 

 the Imperial Observatory of France. Taking advantage of the 

 general amnesty act to return to the United States, he de- 

 clined the superintendency of the University of the South at 

 Suwanee, Tenn., to accept the professorship of Meteorology at 

 the Virginia Military Institute. Pending his entrance upon the 

 duties of this position, he considered a scheme for establishing 

 a line of steamers between Norfolk and Flushing in Holland. 



