Porter Cornelius Bliss journalist and diplomat: born on the Cattaraugus Reservation, Erie County, New York of Seneca Indians on December 28, 1838; studied at Hamilton College and Yale College;traveled in Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia 1860-61, investigating the condition of the Indian tribes in behalf of societies at Boston; was employed fro some months as clerk in the Indian Bureau, and subsequently in the post-office department at Washington 1861; took part in volunteer organizations for the defense of the capital; visited England the same year; accompanied Gen. James Watson Webb as private secretary on his mission to Brazil 1861-1863; was commissioner of the Government of the Argentine Republic for the exploration of the Indian county called the Gran Chaco 1863; edited at Buenos Aires a monthly periodical, The River Platte Magazine (1864); was appointed by President Lopez historiographer of Paraguay; became secretary to Hon. Charles Ames Washburn, U.S. minister to Paraguay, 1866; aided him in collecting materials for his History of Paraguay (2 vols., 1871); was imprisoned by command of Lopez on a charge of treason and conspiracy for his assassination September 10, 1868; while in imprisoned wrote under duress a deliberately falsified account of the U.S. legation's plan, retracted after his rescue by a U.S. Navy squadron December 10, 1868; appointed translator to the State Department at Washington, March, 1869; editor of the Washington Chronicle 1869-1870; President Grant appointed him secretary of legation in Mexico 1870-74, and acting minister several months 1872-73. He afterward resided in New York, and was vice-president of the American Philological Society and an editor of the New York Herald. Died in New York, February 1, 1885. [This article incorporates text from the Universal Cyclopaedia & Atlas]