388 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



philosophical patience and generosity of the supposed debtor, 

 became the admiration of all. 



At length he drew up a memorial, addressed to the viceroy, 

 in which, styling himself the Hercules of geography, and the 

 prodigy of the mathematics, he beseeched him, as an ardent 

 lover of the sciences, and of their progress, to transmit his 

 discovery to Paris, and to demand for him the reward, to 

 which he thought himself justly entitled. When in the a6t of 

 presenting it, he w^as suddenly snatched off by death, towards 

 the close of the month of December 1790 ; and this toil of 

 fifty years, contained in a prodigious heap of papers, was what 

 he left as an inheritance to a natural daughter. Thus perished 

 miserably this laborious investigator of the quadrature of the 

 circle. 



His case brings to our recolle6tion another of a similar 

 nature, but having a different objedt. Don Manuel de Tor- 

 quemada, formerly principal equerry to the viceroy, the Mar- 

 quis of Casteldosrius, augmented the number of maniacs. 

 This man, polished, discreet, and highly agreeable in conver- 

 sation, finally concentrated the whole of his ideas in the con- 

 stru6tion of a machine, simply consisting of a slab and muUer, 

 similar to those employed by the apothecaries in levigating 

 their powders ; with which he asserted that he could refine all 

 the ores in Peru, and pave the streets of the capital with bars 

 of silver. This persuasion took so strong a hold of him, that 

 his society at length became tiresome and painful, as he could 

 speak of nothing but his incomprehensible discovery. 



LONGE 



