Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/702

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ZUSlGA Y ONTIVEROS
ZURITA

eminent in October, to the great sorrow of the na- tives, who thronged, weeping, round their benefac- tor to take leave of him. The settling of his pri- vate affairs and detentions in Panama and Paita delayed him for more than a year, and he did not enter Lima till 28 Nov., 1604. With great activity he concluded the preparations for the fleet that was about to be sent by royal order for the explo- ration of the South sea under Pedro Fernandez Quiros. It sailed on 21 Dec, 1605, and shortly afterward he died, without being able to execute numerous measures that he had prepared for the benefit of the country.


ZUSlGA Y ONTIVEROS, Felipe, Mexican mathematician, b. in the city of Mexico about 1720; d. there in 1780. He was a printer by trade, and had an establishment in his native city, but had a passion for mathematical studies, became proficient in that science, and, after examination, was appointed royal land-surveyor and hydraulic and mining engineer. He was author of the fol- lowing works, all printed in his establishment : " Efemerides calculadas y pronosticadas segun el Meridiano de Mexico (1752); "Explication del Pronostico de Mexico " (1753) ; " Respuesta satis- factoria a las Anotaciones hechas a las Efemerides Mexicanas " (1756) : and " Bomba hidraulica para levantar las aguas" (1770).


ZURILLA, Pedro de (thoo-reel'-yah), Spanish soldier, b. in Seville about 1500 ; d. near Asuncion, Paraguay, in 1544. He early entered military ser- vice, fought in Italy, and joined Pedro de Men- doza's expedition to the river Plate, assisting in the foundation of Buenos Ayres, 2 Feb., 1535, and serving as one of Juan de Ayolas's lieutenants in the expedition that explored Parana and Paraguay rivers. He participated in founding Asuncion, 15 Aug., 1536, and was a member of the common council of the new city. When Ayolas resumed the march forward, Zurilla commanded the rear- guard, and later was despatched to the ships that had been left in charge of Domingo de Irala, with the sick and to obtain supplies. But the soldiers refused to accompany him to rejoin his chief, and when news was received of Ayolas's death he was the first to propose the election of Irala as com- mander-in-cnief. After the arrival of the new governor, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, in 1542, when difficulties arose between the latter and Irala, Zurilla advised a compromise, and induced Irala to accept Cabeza de Vaca's offers to make the former deputy governor. After assisting Irala in subduing the Guaycurus, he was detached in 1544 against the Cacove Indians, whom he defeated in several encounters, and built the fortress of San Juan in their territory. While he marched against the Xarayes, who had rebelled, the Cacoves stormed the fort of San Juan, and, joining forces with the Xarayes, attacked Zurilla. The latter retreated about eighty miles from Asuncion, where he resist- ed the Indians till the arrival of succor, dying a few days later from the wound of a poisoned arrow.


ZURITA, or ZORITA, Alonso (thoo-ree'-tah), Spanish statesman, b. in New Castile about 1500; d. in Seville about 1570. He studied law, was ap- pointed in 1544 auditor of the audiencia of Santo Domingo, and was sent two years later to organize the administration of New Granada at Santa Marta and Cartagena. Returning to Santo Domingo in 1549, he was transferred a few months later to the audiencia of Los Confines or Comayagua, and, vis- iting nearly the whole country, organized cdurts of justice everywhere during a sojourn of three years. He was promoted member of the audiencia of Mexi- co in 1553, retired from active service about 1564, and then returned to Spain. He studied in Amer- ica the early history and antiquities of the Indians, and addressed several interesting memorials to the king, one of which was printed in the 2d volume of Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta's " Coleccion de documentos para la historia de Mexico " (Mexico, 1858-'66). Another memorial, preserved in the archives of San Francisco in Mexico, was utilized by Lorenzo Boturini and Father Clavigero, and is also mentioned in Jose Mariano Beristain's cata- logue, under the title of " Breve y sumaria Relaeion de los Caciques y Seiiores y sus maneras, y diferen- cia que habia de ellos en la Nueva Espana, Leyes y Costumbres de los Indios y Tributos que pagaban a sus Principes." An abridged copy of it was pub- lished in Jose F. Ramirez's " Coleccion de Docu- mentos ineditos relativos al Descubrimiento, Con- quista, y Colonization de las Posesiones Espafiolas en America y Oceania," but the original narrative was for the first time printed in its entirety in a French translation in Henry Ternaux-Compans's collection, under the title " Rapports sur les diffe- rentes classes de chefs dans la Nouvelle Espagne " (Paris, 1840). Zurita wrote also a treatise on taxa- tion and, according to Boturini, a " Narrative of Facts concerning New Spain," which is lost.


ZURITA, Fernando, Spanish- American missionary, b. in Huete, Spain, in the 16th century. He was graduated in theology at the University of Alcala, and, after his ordination, came as a missionary to this country, where he soon acquired the Indian language. He was the author of a book concerning the religion of the aborigines, " Theologicarum in Indis Questionum Enchiridion : ad IIlustrissimum Dominum Gemozium Zapata, Epis- copum Conchensera " (Madrid, 1586).


ZURITA, Pedro, Mexican Jesuit, b. in Puebla about 1690; d. in Oaxaca in 1739. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1712, and was very proficient in philosophy, which chair he held in the principal college of Mexico till 1727, when he was elected rector of the college in Oaxaca. He published "Elegia et Epigrammata in laudem Academiae Mexicana? in funere 111 mi. Dom. Nicolai Gomez de Cervantes" (Mexico, 1736); and the following are still in manuscript in the library of the University of Mexico : " Naturalis Philosophise Explanatio"; "Funiculus Theologian Scholastics " ; and "De Summa Trinitate et de Fide Divina."