Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/84

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ALVARENGA
ALVORD

accompanied by a host of adventurers. Guatemala became highly prosperous under his government. Having authority to extend his conquests, he headed an expedition of 500 men to capture Quito, and landed near Cape San Francisco, whence he marched into the interior; but among the Andes he met the forces of Pizarro, prepared to resist his advance. Disclaiming any intention to interfere with his countryman's rights, he received 120,000 pieces of eight as an indemnification for his outlay and losses, and returned peaceably to Guatemala. Visiting Spain soon afterward, he appeased the emperor's displeasure at this affair, obtained the governorship of Honduras, and then fitted out from Guatemala a new expedition of discovery, consisting of 12 large ships, two galleys, 800 soldiers, 150 horses, and a large retinue of Indians. Sailing W. and N. W. along the Mexican coast, he was driven by stress of weather into the port of Los Pueblos de Avalos, in Michoacan. ere a messenger from the Spaniards of the interior asked his assistance in putting down a revolt of the Chichimecas of New Galicia. He landed with a portion of his force, made a rapid march to the encampment of his countrymen, and with them attacked the Indians, who were strongly posted in the mountains. The Spaniards were defeated and put to flight, and Alvarado was killed by the falling of his horse. The expedition was then abandoned.


ALVARENGA, Manoel Ignacio da Silva (ahl-va-rayn'-gah), Brazilian poet. He was professor of rhetoric in Rio Janeiro. His poems, which are graceful and full of local color, were published in Lisbon in 1799.


ALVAREZ, Bernardino (al'-vah-reth), Spanish adventurer, b. in Seville in 1514; d. in Mexico in 1584. He joined the army in his boyhood, but was dismissed for misconduct and transported to a penal colony in the Philippine islands. He escaped thence and went to Peru, where he amassed a large fortune, after the manner of the adventurers of the time. But, unlike most of them, he devoted this wealth to charitable objects. He founded the benevolent order of St. Bernardine, and in Mexico, Vera Cruz. Acapulco, and other cities of New Spain, established hospitals, which are served by an association named for St. Hippolite. His philanthropy made him famous among the people who have been benefited by his gifts.


ALVAREZ, Diego d', Mexican priest, b. in Guadalajara about 1750; d. in 1824. At the age of sixteen he had finished his studies in philosophy, theological sciences, and canon and civil law, which he then taught in the seminario conciliar of the city of Mexico. He was also learned in medicine, mathematics, oratory, architecture, music, chemistry, and agriculture. He wrote on a wide range of subjects, his works making twenty-three large volumes in manuscript, but only one of them, "Practica de la teologia mistica," was published.


ALVAREZ, Juan, Mexican soldier, b. about 1790; d. in 1867. He was of Indian blood, and exercised extraordinary influence over the Indians of southern Mexico. He was governor of Guerrero in 1858, and had little difficulty in rousing his mountaineers to insurrection. The outbreak took place at Acapulco, at the beginning of the following year. In the decree promulgated by Alvarez, in March, 1854, which became noted as the plan of Ayutla, Santa Anna's deposition was officially announced, and republican institutions were proposed. Santa Anna's power was overthrown in the battle of Saltillo, 22 July, 1855, and Gen. Carrera was intrusted with the government, which he relinquished in September in favor of Alvarez, whose nomination as president of Mexico was ratified by the assembly of Cuernavaea, which for that purpose he had convoked himself, 4 Oct., 1855. On 15 Nov. he made his entry into Mexico, escorted by a body-guard of Indians. His abolition of the privileges of the clergy and the army met with such opposition that he tendered his resignation, substituting in his place his former minister Comonfort, 11 Dec; and after procuring $200,000 from the national exchequer, and what arms and munitions he could get, he returned to southern Mexico.


ALVARO, or ALBO, Francisco, Spanish sailor, lived in the Kith century. He accompanied Magellan's expedition that sailed from Spain on 10 Aug., 1519, and kept a log-book, which recounts the fortunes of the fleet from the time they sighted the cape of Santo Agostinho on the coast of Brazil. The original is preserved in Simancas, Spain, and a copy is in the British museum. It was printed in the " Coleccion " of Navarrete, and is included in the documents given in the volume of the Hakluyt society, containing Lord Stanley's translations of Pigafetta and other records of Magellan's voyage.


ALVORD, Benjamin, soldier, b. in Rutland, Vt., 18 Aug., 1813; d. in Washington, D. C. 16 Oct., 1884. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1883, served in the Seminole war (1885-7), was instructor in mathematics at West Point until 1889, and was on frontier, garrison, and engineer duty until 1846, when he participated in the military occupation of Texas, and subsequently in the war with Mexico. He received the successive brevets of captain and major for gallantry in several of the more important engagements, and was chief of staff to Maj. Daily's column on the march from Vera Cruz to Mexico in 1847. He was made paymaster 22 June, 1854, and served as such until 1862, when he became a brigadier-general of volunteers, which grade he resigned 8 Aug., 1865. He was brevetted brigadier in the regular army in April, 1865. From 1872 till his retirement from active service in 1881 he was chief of the pay department with the rank of brigadier-general. He is the author of treatises on mathematics and many essays.


ALVORD, Corydon Alexis, printer, b. in Winchester, Conn., in 1812; d. in Hartford, Conn., 28 Nov., 1874. He learned his trade in Hartford, and in 1845 removed to New York, where he made a specialty of printing illustrated books, gaining a high reputation. His establishment on Vandewater st. was one of the most extensive in the country. Among its features were fonts of ancient and oriental letter, together with fonts of old-style type, which enabled him to make reprints or facsimiles of old books and newspapers. There were monster vaults deep under ground, and extending under adjacent buildings, forming a series of immense storage-rooms guarded by thick walls and iron doors as thoroughly protected as the treasury vaults. These were for the storage of stereotype plates and valuable engravings. He began a reprint of the old records of the city of New York, but the work was not finished, owing to changes in the recorder's office. In the reproduction of old books and papers he succeeded in copying the discolorations made by age, in a remarkable degree. He was an active member of the typographical society, and president of the typothetæ. He acquired a competence, which was subsequently lost through the misconduct of others. In 1871 he retired from business, went to Hartford, and devoted his remaining years to the preparation of a local history of Hartford and Winchester.