CHRISTOPHER D', a Spanish Jesuit, born at Burgos. He was admitted into the society in 1612, being then but 15 years of age. After having devoted some years to study, he went to America, where he assisted in making converts in Chili and Peru. In 1640 he returned to Spain, and gave the king an account how far he had succeeded in the commission he had received to make discoveries on the river of the Amazons; and the year following he published, at Madrid, in a quarto volume, a description of this river, entitled Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas. He was ten months together upon this river, having had instructions to inquire into every thing with the greatest exactness, that his Majesty might thereby be enabled to render the navigation more easy and commodious. He embarked in a boat at Jaen in Quito with Peter Texiera, who had already been so far up the river, and was therefore thought a proper person to accompany him in this expedition. They embarked in February 1639, but did not arrive at Para till the December following. It is thought that the revolution of Portugal, by which the Spaniards lost Brazil, and the colony of Para, at the mouth of the river of the Amazons, led to the suppression of Acuna's narrative; for, as it could not be of any advantage to the Spaniards, they were afraid it might prove of service to the Portuguese, by instructing them in the navigation of that great river. M. de Gomberville, the possessor of one of the few copies that escaped, published a French translation at Paris in 1682, in 2 vols. 12mo. Acuna appears to have returned to Peru, and to have died there; but the year of his death is uncertain.