MENANT, Joachim, French Assyriologist and jurist: b. Cherbourg, 16 April 1820; d. Paris, 30 Aug. 1899. Having studied law he was appointed to the magistracy of the civic tribunal in the city of Havre, but soon turned his attention to deciphering the old Assyrian in scriptions, for which he was elected a member of the Academie des Inscriptions. Chief among his works are (1844); 'Recueil d'Alphabets des Ecritures cunei formes) (1860) ; 'Elements d'Epigraphie as syrienne) (1860) ; (Inscriptions assyriennes des briques de Babylone> (1860); de Hammourabi, roi de Babylone au XVI siecle avant noire ere) (1863) ; des Elements de la Grammaire Assyrienne) (1868) ; 'Lecons d'epigrapbie assyrienne professes aux libres de la (1873) ; a collection of texts, (Annales des rois (1874), and 'Babylone et la Chaldee) (1875); de la langue assyrienne) (1880).
MgNARD, Michel Branamour, American pioneer: b. Laprairie, Lower Canada,
1805; d. 1856. He was of French parentage, and after working some time for a Detroit fur trading company entered the service of his uncle, also a fur-trader, in Missouri. The Shawnees made him their chief, and he ac quired great power among various Indian tribes. Soon after 1830 he went to Texas, where he continued fur-trading with the Indians, and also dealt with Mexicans. When the Texans re volted against Mexico he held the Indians in check and kept them from acting against the in surgents. As a member of the convention at which the Texans declared their independence, and afterward of the Congress of Texas, he exerted an influence in the formation of that State. The greater part of the site of Galveston was included in a purchase made by him in 1836, and of that city he, more than any other man, is to be considered the founder.