ALARCON, Hernando de, a Spanish navigator of the 16th century, known only in connection with the expedition to the coast of California, of which he was leader. He set sail on the 9th May 1540, with orders from the Spanish court to await at a certain point on the coast the arrival of an expedition by land under the command of Vasquez de Coronado. The junction was not effected, though Alarcon reached the appointed place and left letters, which were afterwards found by Diaz, another explorer. Alarcon was the first to determine with certainty that California was a peninsula and not an island, as had been supposed. He made a careful and exact survey of the coast, sailed a considerable distance up the Rio del Tizon (Colorado), and was thus able, on his return to New Spain in 1541, to construct a map of California, which, according to M. Duflot de Mofras, scarcely differs from one of the present day.

ALARCON Y MENDOZA, Juan Ruiz de, one of the most distinguished Spanish dramatists, born at Tasco in Mexico about the close of the 16th century, was descended from a noble family belonging to Alarcon in Cuença. Nothing is known with certainty of his early life, but it is probable that he was educated at one of the Spanish universities. In 1622 he had taken up his residence at Madrid, and in 1628 he was appointed to the office of relator (reporter) of the royal council of the Indies, which afforded him a competency. In the same year he published the first volume of his comedies, dedicating it to “the rabble” in a daringly contemptuous address. A second volume of comedies appeared at Barcelona in 1634, in which he brought charges against several poets of appropriating his productions. About the same time he was successful in an open competition for a dramatic libretto to be played at ths fêtes in honour of Philip IV. These two facts, combined with his haughty disdain both of the public and of his literary brethren, made Alarcon very unpopular; and he was scur-rilously lampooned by most of the poets and dramatists of the day, Calderon honourably distinguishing himself by his silence. A further injustice was done him in the piracy of his works by other and better known authors than himself. To such an extent was this carried that Alarcon’s reputa-, tion as a dramatist was almost extinct even before the close of his life, and it is only quite recently that it has been revived. The date of his death is given, on doubtful authority, as 1639. Alarcon holds a foremost place among Spanish dramatists, being surpassed only, if at all, by Lope de Vega and Calderon. He is distinguished by the correctness of his language, the harmony of his verse, and the elevation of his ...