SIMON, Pedro Antonio, Flemish historian, born in Cambrai about 1560; died in Colombia, South America, about 1630. He entered the Franciscan order, and was sent, about 1590, as a missionary to New Granada, where he resided successively in Guacheta, Bogota, Serrezuela, Zipacoa, and Meuqueta, on Funza river, about fifteen miles north from the present city of Bogota. Father Simon became the historian of the Muiscas or Chibeha Indians, among whom he lived for many years. His most interesting work contains a summary history of all the tribes that lived in the ancient empire of Cundinamarca, and describes their civilization, their arts, their monuments, and their manners. It contains also an analysis of the Funza dialect, which is altogether unknown to-day, and of which the only monument left is Simon's history, and of the Bogota or Chibcha dialect, which had nearly superseded the other dialects at the time of the Spanish conquest. Simon's work is the only one that gives details concerning the early history and condition of the tribes living in Cundinamarca before the conquest, as all other works that relate to that country have been lost, among them the "Historia de la Nueva Granada " by the missionaries Medrano and Aguado, and the part of the "Elojios de Varones ilustres de Indias" of Castellanos that is devoted to Cundinamarca. The only one left referring to Cundinamarca is the incomplete relation of Lucas Fernandez de Piedrahita (q. v.). Simon's work relating to Venezuela was published under the title "Noticias historiales do las Conquistas de Tierra firme" (Madrid, 1627). The two other parts relating to Cundinamarca are yet in manuscript, the second in the library of the Royal historical society, and the third in the National library of Madrid. Henri Ternaux-Compans, although he says he purchased them, can only have obtained copies, which he used for his " Essai sur l'ancien Cundinamarca " (Paris, 1842).