Andrew, the hero of the Tyrol, was born in 1767 at St Leonard in the valley of Passer. Till his forty-second year he had been merely known as an industrious and thriving innkeeper, of great intelligence and probity of character. When the treaty of Presburg transferred the Tyrol from Austria to Bavaria, the Tyrolese had every variety of insult and outrage to endure from the Bavarians and their French allies. The consequence was, that when war again broke out in 1809 between France and Austria, the Tyrolese rose to a man in the cause of the House of Hapsburg; and, putting themselves under the command of Hofer, defeated the allied French and Bavarians in repeated engagements, and at length drove them out of the Tyrol. Till the close of the war Hofer administered the internal government of his native country with much ability and integrity. When the fortune of war again laid Austria prostrate at the feet of Napoleon, the Tyrol was once more made over to the Bavarians; but it was only after the most heroic resistance on the part of the mountaineers that they were able to make good their footing in the country. Hofer was obliged to fly, and a price was set upon his head; but though he contrived to elude the search of his enemies for some time, he was at length taken, January 27, 1810. He was sent to Mantua for trial by court-martial, and was condemned and ordered for execution within twenty-four hours. He died, as he had lived, a hero; and the spot where he fell is still visited by his countrymen as a sacred spot. The Austrian Emperor Francis testified his gratitude to Hofer by ennobling his family, and erecting a splendid monument to his memory in the church of Innspruck.