Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Wise, Henry Augustus

WISE, HENRY AUGUSTUS, an American naval officer; born in Brooklyn, N. Y., May 12, 1819; entered the navy as midshipman in 1834, and rose to chief of the bureau of ordnance in 1866. Under the pseudonym of “Harry Gringo,” he wrote “Los Gringos; or, An Interior View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia” (1849); “Tales for the Marines” (1855); “Scampavias, from Gibel-Tasek to Stamboul” (1857); “The Story of the Gray African Parrot” (1856), a book for children; and “Captain Brand of the Centipede” (1860). He died in Naples, Italy, April 2, 1869.