wide, and is fed by small streams. The water •of both lakes is salty, and fish is scanty.
ALALONGA, al'a-lilu'ga, or ALILONGHI, al'Mun'gi. The long-finned tunny of the Mediterranean. See Tunny.
ALAMAN, ii'la-man', Lucas (1775-1855). An eminent Mexican statesman and historian. For a time he was a deputy of the colony in the Spanish Cortes, but in 182.3, upon the downfall of Iturbide, returned to Mexico. As minister of do- mestic and foreign affairs under two successive administrations he developed industry, agricul- ture, and education. In 1834 he was "director of the industrial commission appointed by Santa Anna, in whose dictatorial measures he subse- quently (1853) took part. He wrote an ex- tretnely valuable Historia de Mejico, chiefly de- voted to the nineteenth century (5 volumes, 1849-52). His further publications include Di- sertaciones sobre la Historia Mejicana (1844-49).
AL'AMANCE, Battle of. See Regulations, The.
ALAMAN'NI. See Alemanni.
ALAMANNI, a'la-man'n*. Lnoi (1405-1556). An Italian poet. He was born in Florence, and, like Dante, was destined to spend his best years in exile. The Alamanni were zealous partisans of the Medici, whose favor Luigi himself enjoyed until some fancied grievance led him to conspire against the life of the cardinal Giulio de' Jtedici, later Pope Clement VII. Being detected, he fled, and eventually took refuge at the French court, where he stood high in favor with Francis I. and afterward with Henry II., both of whom as- signed him to important embassies. Except for a brief interval, when Florence threw off the yoke of the Medici and he returned home to urge, un- successfully, that the republic should seek the protection of the Emperor. Charles V., Alamanni spent the remainder of his life in France, and there most of his poems were written. His col- lected works include translations, epigrams, plays, La collivnzione, a didactic poem in imita- tion of Vergil's Georgics ; Oyiere toscanc, vigor- ous satires which have been imitated in English by Sir Thomas Wyatt ; and two long poems based upon the Arthurian romances: Girone il Corfese, in twenty-four cantos, and the Avarchidc, in twenty-five, tlie latter being in structure the story of the Iliad, freely adapted to fit the siege of Avareo (the modern Bruges), and cliietly in- teresting as marking the transition from the complicated adventures of Ariosto's Urlaiido Ji'urioso to the classic unity of Tasso. Alamanni's Versi e prose, edited vvitli a biography, by P. Kaftaelli, was issued in two volumes (Florence, 1859).
ALAMAN'NIA. See Alemaxnia.
ALAMEDA, a'la-ma'da. A beautiful residen- tial city in Alameda Co., California. It is six miles across the bay from San Francisco, with which it is connected by ferry lines, ami is on the Southern Pacific Railroad (Map: California, B .3). The executive power of the city is vested in the president of a board of trustees, consist- ing of five members. The electric light plant is owned and operated by the municipality. In 1854, with a population of 100, Alameda was incorporated. Its growth has been rapid since 1870. Pop., 1890, 11,165; 1900, 16,464.
ALAMINOS, ii'14-me'n63, Antonio de. A Spanish pilot, one of the first to take vessels to the North American coast. He was born at Palos, Spain. During the second decade of the sixteenth century he conducted Ponce de Leon, Hernandez de Cordova, Francisco de Garay, and
other voyagers who wished to reach the shores of
the northern continent. He is supposed to have
been the author of the earliest detailed map of
a part of what is now the United States, de-
signed to show the limits of claims by discovery.
This map was first printed bv Navarrete, Colec-
cion (M.adrid, 1829, III. 148).
ALAMO, a'la-m6, The. A Franciscan mis-
sion, built within the nresent San Antonio.
Texas (q.v.), about 1722," and occasionally used
after 1793 as a fort. It consisted of a church, an
inclosed convent yard about 100 feet square, a
convent and hospital building, and a plaza cover-
ing about two and one-luilf acres, and protected
by a wall 8 feet high and 33 inches thick. In
1831!, during the war for Texan independence, a
remarkable conflict occurred here between a
small company of Texans and Americans, includ-
ing Colonel David Crockett and Colonel James
Bowie, who held the fort under Colonel W. B.
Travis, and some Mexicans who attacked it un-
der Santa Anna (q.v.). After a bombardment
lasting almost continuously from February 23
to March 6, a small breach was made in the walls,
and early on the morning of the 6th the ilex-
icans assaulted in force. They were twice driven
back with great loss, but scaled the parapet in
the third attempt and a desperate hand-to-haml
conflict ensued, in which the Texans, though al-
ready greatly weakened by privations and fa-
tigue, fought with the utmost valor until only
five of their number remained alive. These were
captured and, on Santa Anna's order, weri'
killed in cold blood. Three women, two chil-
dren, and a negro boy alone survived out of
a garrison which, including a reenforcement of
thirty-two men that arrived on March 1, had
numbered about 180. The Mexican loss was
probably as large as 500, though Santa Anna, in
his untrustworthj' report, gave it as 70 killed
and 300 wounded. "Remember the Alamo!" be-
came a war-cry of the Texans, who finally de-
feated and captured Santa Anna at San Jacinto
(q.v.). In allusion to Ihe heroism shown by thr
small garrison. Alamo has been called "the Ther-
mopylae of America." Consult : J. L. Ford, Ori-
fiin and Fall of the Alamo (San tonio, 1896) ;
A. !M. Williams, Sam Houston and the War of In-
dependence in Texas (Boston. 1893) : and Cor-
ners. Sun Antonio de Bexar (San Antonio. 1890).
ALAMOS, a'la-mos.or REAL DE LOS (ra-al'
(la lus) ALAMOS (Sp.. the poplars or syca-
mores). A town in the .State of Sonora, Mexico,
125 miles northwest of .Sinaloa (Map: Mexico,
D 4). Of itself the town is unimportant, but
the region is famous for its silver mines. Pop.
about 10,000.
ALAN, -il'nn, Wii.i.tam. See Axlen, Wil-
i.ta:m.
AL'AN-A-DALE'. One of the companions
of Robin Hood (see Hood, Rohin) in the old
ballads and in Scott's Irnnhoe. In the former
he is a light-hearted young man. much addicted
to the "chanting" of roundelays, whom Robin
assists to elope with his love.
ALAND ISLANDS, a'land. An archipelago of some 300 small islands and rocks, in the Gov-
