likewise printed in Mexico, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Bib. Mex. Guat, 155, but I have been unable to find any mention of such works, excepting that given by Alcédo, Bib. Am., MS., ii. 1159-00, entitled Respuesta d la Apologia, Mex. 1742, relating to the monopoly of quicksilver.
About forty years after the publication of the Theatro Americano, there appeared in Spain the first general geographical and historical encyclopædia of America, the Diccionario Geografico-Historico de las Indias Occidentales ó America. Madrid, 1786-9, 5 vols. 4to. The author, Antonio de Alcedo y Bexarano, was born at Quito, during the rule of his father, Dionisio de Alcedo, president and captain-general of that province. Returning to Spain soon after the author's birth, his father was appointed to the presidency of the audiencia at Panamá, whence he departed in 1742. After studying in the Jesuit college of that town till 1752, Antonio entered the Spanish guards in Spain as cadet, and pursued a course of mathematics in the Imperial college of Madrid, and later that of medicine in the college of Montpellier. A few years afterwards he began the collection and preparation of material for his Diccionaro, which employed all the time he could spare from his varied duties during the next twenty years. Meanwhile he had risen to lieutenant, while still a minor, and took part in the operations against Gibraltar. In 1784 he received the rank of captain, and later that of colonel. About 1794 he was appointed political and military governor of the city of Alciras, with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1800 he rose to that of marescal de campo, and in 1802 was made military governor of Coruña.
The Royal Academy of History made him one of its members in 1784, and subsequently he received similar honors from the society Cantabrica, and that of the city of Valencia. Alcedo Bib. Am., MS., i. 27-9.
For the compilation of his Diccionario, Alcedo has drawn upon a variety of sources. The articles relating to the English and French possessions of North America are taken from the American Gazetteer, Lond. 1762; the greater portion of those relating to South America from Coleti's Dizionario Storico-Geográfico, Venice, 1771; but the information relating to New Spain is said to come from over three hundred works on America, in various languages. In addition to these, numberless documents were examined and much information received from intelligent residents of the Indies, to whom he submitted his work. The result of these labors was a work whose value was immediately recognized, and though in many respects defective when compared with later encyclopædias, owing to the numerous valuable authorities used, and now lost or inaccessible, it remains a standard work. The desire of stimulating commerce between Spain and her American possessions, by collecting the most full and accurate information possible, was one of the chief motives of the author, but this laudable desire was well nigh frustrated by the Spanish government, which, in order to prevent this information from spreading among foreign nations, ordered the suppression of the work. A few copies, however, escaped, but though the work at once became very rare no reprint was ever attempted, owing chiefly, no doubt, to its subsequent translation into English. The growing importance of English trade with America, which had increased enormously since the American revolution, and the necessity for more extensive information induced G. A. Thompson, one of her