FERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOVA, Diego. marquis of Guadalcazar and count of Posadas, viceroy of Mexico and Peru. b. in the last quarter of the 16th century (place unknown); d. in Guadalcazar about 1650. He was a descendant of Gonzalo de Cordova, and was educated for a military career. In his youth he fought valiantly in the wars of Flanders, and in 1612 was appointed viceroy of Mexico. During his administration in 1613, the engineer Adrian Boot began the works for the drainage of the valley of Mexico, in 1614 the city of Lerma was founded, and in 1616 the Tepehuan Indians revolted, killing their missionaries, but Fernandez soon conquered them. During 1614 there were rumors of the approach of a Dutch fleet in the Pacific, and Fernandez fortified the port of Acapulco.
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He also equipped three war-ships there, which, after the fears of war had been dispelled, he sent in March, 1615, on an exploring expedition to the coast of California. In 1620 the aqueduct of the city of Mexico was finished, consisting of 900 arches and costing 250,000f. In 1621, shortly before the death of Philip III., Fernandez was appointed viceroy of Peru, but the sickness and death of his wife detained him for some time, and he did not reach Lima till 25 July, 1622. In 1623, when the war between Spain and Holland was renewed and there was danger of an invasion by a Dutch fleet, the viceroy ordered all important points to be fortified with the greatest activity, and gave a military organization to all the inhabitants of the coast. Fernandez remained personally for four months in Callao, and put everything in good state of defence. Early in 1624 the Dutch fleet, consisting of eleven vessels with 294 guns and 1,600 troops, under command of Admiral Jacob Clerk, appeared before Callao, and anchored at the island of San Lorenzo. The Dutch admiral sent a fire-ship against the boom and chain at the entrance of the harbor, but an unfavorable wind took it to the beach at some distance from the town, where it exploded without doing great damage. Repeated attacks and bombardments of the port were successfully repulsed by the forts and two men-of-war, the "Loreto" and "San Bartolomé," anchored in the bay. Admiral Clerk sent several expeditions against other points of the coast without notable results, and died on board his fleet. His successor, after five months of fruitless hostilities, abandoned the coast and returned to Europe. During the rest of the year Fernandez applied himself to the improvement of his government, founded the monastery of Santa Catalina in Lima, and ordered barracks to be built at Callao for the lodging of negro-slaves arriving from Africa, who had previously been kept by their importers in open camps till their sale. In 1625 he appointed his nephew, Luis de Cordova y Arce, governor of Chili, and when, in 1626, the order arrived from Madrid to take up again the warfare against the Araucanians, Fernandez sent re-enforcements and ammunitions to Chili from Callao. In 1625, Fernandez also succeeded in quelling the civil warfare between the rival factions of the Biscayans and Vicuñas in Potosi, which had lasted for three years, and on 19 Oct. of the same year the new cathedral at Lima, which had been finished by the viceroy, was consecrated. Fernandez also hastened during his administration the construction of the cathedrals of Cuzco, Arequipa, and Guamanga. In 1626 he established the university of San Pedro Nolasco, and in the same year regulated the mail service. He had the bridge over the Apurimac river established at the most convenient point, constructed another at Chancay, and also ordered a yearly visit by one of the supreme judges through the court district to remedy the abuses committed by the judges, priests, and Spaniards generally against the Indians. Fernandez collected all official letters, informations, orders, and consultations during his administration in Mexico and Peru from 1612 till 1628 in three volumes, and sent them to the council of the Indies, besides the official information given to his successors. On 14 Jan., 1629, the new viceroy arrived, and Fernandez delivered to him the government and returned to Spain, where he resided in a palace which he had built in the town of Guadalcazar, near Cordova.
FERNÁNDEZ DE PIEDRAHITA, Lucas, South American historian, b. in Bogota in 1624; d. in Panama in 1688. He studied in his native city in the Jesuit college of San Bartolomé, and finished his education in the University of Santo Tomas, where he was graduated as doctor of theology in 1647. During his academical years he published several dramas, which have not been preserved. In 1654 he was appointed prebendary of the cathedral of Bogota, became successively its canon, treasurer, and precentor, and was vicar-general and governor of the archbishopric during the vacancy of the see. He was at the same time the favorite preacher of the city, and this, with his literary merit, obtained for him the friendship of the president of New Granada, Dionisio Pérez Manrique, who arrived from Spain in 1654. In 1660 he was elected dean of the cathedral of Popayan, and in 1663 went to Spain on a commission from the president, staying in Madrid for six years and employing his leisure time in writing his work "Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada," for which he, as a descendant on the maternal side of the Peruvian Incas, had a special vocation. His work is considered, together with Garcilaso de la Vega's, as the most reliable history of the conquest and of the 17th century, especially as regards New Granada and Ecuador. It was not completed, as after the publication of the first part (Antwerp, 1688) the author died, and it is not known what became of his manuscript. In Spain he was offered the bishopric of Santa Marta, confirmed by the pope, and in 1669 sailed for Cartagena, where he was consecrated. He began to visit, evangelize, and partly civilize the savages in his diocese, and began to rebuild in stone his cathedral which had been constructed of wood and straw. He distributed his whole revenue in charities, and lived in poverty. In 1676 he was promoted to the bishopric of Panama, but before he could leave Santa Marta this city was taken and sacked by the buccaneers Duncan and Cos. The churches were pillaged, the bishop taken prisoner, and the pirates, believing his poor apparel to be a sign of avarice and miserly habit, subjected him to torture, to find out the hiding place of his money and jewelry. As he was unable to pay his ransom he was carried as a pris-
