CHURRUCA Y ELORZA, COSME DAMIAN DE, one of the most distinguished naval officers whom Spain has over produced, was born at Motrico, a sea-port of the province of Guipuzcoa, on the 27th of September 1761. He was intended for the church, but in a stay which - he made at the palace of Rodriguez de Arellsno, archbishop of Burgos, he met with a naval officer a nephew of the prelate, and from his conversation took a warm attachment to the sea, which he adopted as a profession. His first service, after studying at Cadiz and Ferrol, was in the American war, and he distinguished himself in rescuing from the waves some of the sufferers of the floating batteries at Gibraltar. His knowledge of astronomy afterwards recommended him to an appointment with Don Ciriaco de Ceballos in the expe dition under Cordoba, sent out by the Spanish government to survey the straits of blagellan, and his diary of the exploration of Tierra del Fuego, which was published at Madrid in 1793, is considered a model of works of the kind. In 1791, though only of the age of thirty, and captain of a frigate, he was appointed to the command of a similar expedition to survey and lay down the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, but the breaking out of the war between France and Spain prevented his execution of more than a part of the plan. lie however took back with him to Cadiz four-and-thirty charts of the coasts of Cuba, Hayti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, &c., only a few of which have been yet published, but those few aro esteemed among the choicest products of Spanish hydrography, which as is well known holds a high rank.
They were made use of for the French charts of the Autilles pub lished shortly after, and Churruca had a brilliant reception from Napoleon, then first consul, when not long afterwards sent by his government to Brest. He was bitterly mortified by another corn plimeut paid him by the French, who, on the Spaniards agreeing by treaty to give up to them six vessels which they should select, chose for one of them the Conquistador,' Churruca's ship, which it had been for some years his constant study to improve and rendes efficient. On the 20th of October 1805 Churruca was in command of the ' San Juan,' and left Cadiz in company with the French and Spanish fleets under Villeneuve and Gravina, on the next day took place the battle of Trafalgar. He had written to a friend a few days before, "If you hear that my ship is taken, know for certain that 1 am dead." His right leg was carried off by a cannon-ball, and he died three hours after with his flag still flying, but soon after his decease the ship surrendered. The English victors, according to the account of Churruca's Spanish biographer, Captain Don Francine Pavia, showed a respect to the memory of the fallen commodes which did them honour, and it is well to remember that all of the brave who fell at Trafalgar, were not on one side only. A public Fountain was dedicated to the memory of Churruca in 1312 in tho great square of Ferrol.