A native of Colombia in South America, he served in the Colombian army and in 1834 attempted a scientific survey of the territory between Socorro and the Magdalena River.

Seven years later he explored western Colombia from Antioquia to Anserma studying its topography, its natural history and the traces of its aboriginal inhabitants.

What he says in it of the writings of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada the conqueror of New Granada, is very incomplete and in many ways erroneous, but his biographies remain a guide to the student of Spanish-American history.

One year after the Compendio, another work called Semenario appeared at Paris, embodying the botanical papers of Francisco José de Caldas.

[1] He was the son of Josef Acosta and Soledad Pérez de Guzman and married Caroline Kemble Rowe.