sh agent and
procurator-general, and in 1785 ambassador at Rome. During his long
residence there he distinguished himself as a collector of Italian
antiquities and as a patron of art. He was also an able and active
diplomatist, took a leading share in the difficult and hazardous task of
the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, and was instrumental in securing
the election of Pius VI. He withdrew to Florence when the French took
possession of Rome in 1798, but acted on behalf of the pope during his
exile and after his death at Valence in 1799. He was afterwards Spanish
ambassador in Paris. In that post it was his misfortune to be forced by his
government to conduct the negotiations which led to the treaty of San
Ildefonso, by which Spain was wholly subjected to Napoleon. Azara was
friendly to a French alliance, but his experience showed him that his
country was being sacrificed to Napoleon. The First Consul liked him
personally, and found him easy to influence. Azara died, worn out, in Paris
in 1804. His end was undoubtedly embittered by his discovery of the ills
which the French alliance must produce for Spain.

Several sympathetic notices of Azara will be found in Thiers, _Consulat et
Empire_. See also _Reinado de Carlos IV_, by Gen. J. Gomez de Arteche, in
the _Historia General de Espana_, published by the R. Acad. de la Historia,
Madrid, 1892, &c. There is a _Notice historique sur le Chevalier d'Azara_
by Bourgoing (1804).

His younger brother, DON FELIX DE AZARA (1746-1811), spent twenty years in
South America as a commissioner for delimiting the boundary between the
Spanish and Portuguese territories. He made many observations on the
natural history of the country, which, together with an account of the
discovery and history of Paraguay and Rio de la Plata, were incorporated in
his principal work, _Voyage dans l'Amerique meridionale depuis 1781
jusqu'en 1801_, published at Paris in 1809 in French from his MS. by C. A.
Walckenaer.

AZARIAH, the name of several persons mentioned in the Old Testament. (1)
One of Solomon's "princes," son of Zadok the priest (1 Kings iv. 2), was
one of several Azariahs among the descendants of Levi (1 Chron. vi. 9, 10,
13, 36; 2 Chron. xxvi. 17). (2) The son of Nathan, a high official under
King Solomon (1 Kings iv. 5). (3) King of Judah, son of Amaziah by his wife
Jecholiah (2 Kings xv. 1, 2), also called Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 1). (4)
Son of Ethan and great-grandson of Judah (1 Chro