Yep, original sources are the best, but sometimes hard to find. In the Honduras This Week article to which I gave a clickie, a quote from Father C. E. Ronan, Dept. History, Loyola Univ., Chicago, says, in an article in The Arizona historical quarterly "Arizona and the West," (Univ. Ariz.): "The word gringo was mentioned in Spanish literature as early as the eighteenth century. ... In his famous Diccionario, compiled sometime before 1750, Terreros y Pando, a Spanish historian, states that gringo was a nickname given to foreigners in Malaga and Madrid who spoke Spanish with an accent, and that in Madrid, the term had special reference to the Irish." He goes on to give the quote from the Diccionario. Father Ronan is also the source for the statement I posted about Spanish soldiers in Mexico being called gringos. He goes on to quote the use of the word in Peru in 1838-42. A play in Madrid in 1834 has this line: "Que es eso? Contais en gringo?" If anyone has these references, let us know.