SMITH, Buckingham, antiquarian, born on Cumberland island, Georgia, 31 October, 1810; died in New York city, 5 January, 1871. He was graduated at Harvard law-school in 1836, and practised his profession in Maine, but soon returned to his family estate in Florida, where he was a member of the territorial legislature. He was United States secretary of legation in Mexico in 1850-'2, acting as charge d'affaires in 1851. During his residence there he made a thorough study of Mexican history and antiquities and Indian philology, and collected many books and manuscripts. He was secretary of legation at Madrid in 1855-'8, made important researches in the Spanish libraries and archives respecting the colonial history of Florida and Louisiana, and rendered valuable services to George Bancroft, Jared Sparks, and Francis Parkman. He settled in Florida in 1859, became a judge, and served several terms in the state senate. A part of his library was bought by the New York historical society after his death. He edited translations of the "Narrative of Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca" (Washington, D. C., 1851 ; improved ed., New York, 1873);" The Letter of Hernando de Soto" and " Memoir of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda," of each of which 100 copies were printed (Washington, 1854" collected and published in Spanish under the title of " Coleccion de Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida y Zierras Advacentes," Madrid, 1857) ; "A Grammatical Sketch of the Here Language" (New York, 1861) ; a "Grammar of the Pima or Nevome, a Language of Sonora, from a Manuscript of the 17th Century" (St. Augustine, 1862) ; "Doctrina Christiana e Confesionario en Lengua Ngvome, e sea la Nevome" (1862); "gudo Ensayo, tentativo de una Prevencional Description Geographica de la Provincia de Sonora" (1863) ; "An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Documents concerning a Discovery of North America claimed to have been made by Verrazzano" (1864); and a volume of translations of "Narratives of the Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida" (1866). He also wrote for the magazines concerning the early history and writers of Florida.