ZEPEDA, Francisco (thay-pay'-dah), Spanish missionary, born in La Roda, Mancha. about 1525 ; died in Guatemala in 1602. He entered the Dominican order in Ocafia, and was soon transferred to the missions in the province of Chiapa, where he became a thorough student and expert in the Indian languages of that province and Guatemala. After being prior of different convents, he was elected provincial in the chapter of 1593, and in the following year became commissary of the Inquisition in Guatemala. To unify the teaching of the Indians in the province, he was commissioned to examine and correct the different grammars that had been written by missionaries in the popular dialects or languages, and from them compiled his "Arte de los Idiomas Chiapense, Zoquense, Caldulense, y Cinacontlano" (Mexico, 1560).