DISCOVERY OF DARIEN.
RODRIGO DE BASTIDAS—EXTENSION OF NEW WORLD PRIVILEGES—THE
ROYAL SHARE—JUAN DE LA COSA—SHIPS OF THE EARLY
DISCOVERERS—COASTING DARIEN—THE TERRIBLE TEREDO—WRECKED
ON ESPAÑOLA—SPANISH MONEY—TREATMENT OF BASTIDAS BY
OVANDO—ACCUSED, AND SENT TO SPAIN FOR TRIAL—HE IS IMMEDIATELY
ACQUITTED—FUTURE CAREER AND CHARACTER OF BASTIDAS—THE ARCHIVES
OF THE INDIES—THE SEVERAL COLLECTIONS OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
IN SPAIN—THE LABORS OF MUÑOZ AND NAVARRETE—BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
NOTICES OF THE PRINTED COLLECTIONS OF NAVARRETE,
TERNAUX-COMPANS, SALVÁ AND BARANDA, AND PACHECO AND CÁRDENAS.
The first Spaniard to touch the territory which for the purposes of my
work I have taken the liberty to denominate the Pacific States of North
America was Rodrigo de Bastidas, a notary of Triana, the gypsy suburb
of Seville.
[Sidenote: THE NEW WORLD OPENED TO SETTLEMENT.]
Although the discoveries of Columbus had been made for Castile, and
Castilians regarded their rights to the new lands superior to those
of any others, even other inhabitants of Spain; and although at first
none might visit the New World save those authorized by Columbus or
Fonseca; yet, owing to inadequate returns from heavy expenditures, and
the inability of the admiral properly to control colonization in the
several parts of the ever-widening area, at the solicitation of several
persons desirous of entering the new field of commerce and adventure at
their own charge, on the 10th of April, 1495, the sovereigns issued a
proclamation granting native-born subjects of Spain permission to settle
in Hayti, or Española,[III-1] as I shall continue to call the island,
and to make to other parts private voyages of discovery and trade, under
royal license. The regulations were that the vessels so sailing should
be equipped under royal inspection, that they should depart only from
the port of Cádiz, and that they should carry one or two crown officers.
The sovereigns retained, without payment, one tenth of the tonnage, and
were to receive one tenth of the gross returns. Settlers on Española
were to receive grants of land, and one year's provision; of the gold
they gathered they were to pay two thirds to the crown; on all other
products one tenth. Although this step was taken without consulting
Columbus, it was the aim of the sovereigns fully to respect his rights
in the matter; therefore, and in lieu of his property in one eighth of
all the tonnage, for every seven vessels thus privately adventured he
was privileged to despatch one on his own account. The admiral still
complaining, such parts of the proclamation as in any wise interfered
with his rights were revoked, and his former privileges confirmed, the
2d of June, 1497.[III-2]
Among those to take advantage of this permission, beside Bastidas, was
Alonso de Ojeda, who embarked with four vessels from Spain in May, 1499,
in company with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci, sailed along the
seaboard of South America from Paria and the Pearl Coast, discovered by
Columbus, to the gulf of Venezuela, so called because like Venice the
native villages were built over the water. At Cape de la Vela, Ojeda
left the coast and crossed to Española, whence he was driven off by
Roldan at the command of Columbus. He reached Spain in June, 1500; and
though his ships were crowded with slaves, after paying expenses there
were left but five hundred ducats to divide among fifty-five persons.
Sailing in a caravel of only fifty tons, a few days later than Ojeda,
were Pedro Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra, who, following the track
of Columbus and Ojeda to the Pearl Coast, thence crossed to Margarita,
returned to the main-land and coasted Cumaná, and finally returned to
Spain, arriving about two months before Ojeda, well laden with gold and
pearls. This was the first really profitable voyage, pecuniarily, to
the New World. Then there was Vicente Yañez Pinzon, who sailed in four
caravels in December, 1499, and shortly after Diego de Lepe, in two
vessels, both going to Brazil.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: VOYAGE OF BASTIDAS.]
Quite exceptional to the ordinary adventurer was Bastidas. He was a man
of standing in the community, possessed of some means himself and having
wealthy friends; he was intelligent and influential, and withal humane,
even Las Casas admitting that no one ever accused him of illtreating
the Indians.
The friends of the honest notary, among them Juan de Ledesma, were
ready enough to join him, pecuniarily, in a venture to the famous Pearl
Coast, as the South American shore of the admiral's third voyage was
now called. Obtaining from Fonseca's office a royal license,[III-3]
and enlisting the coöperation of Juan de la Cosa, already veteran in
western pilotage, Bastidas equipped two caravels,[III-4] embarked at
Cádiz in October, 1500, took on board wood, water, meat, and cheese at
Gomera, and steering a little north of the admiral's last track, came
to a green isle, which he called Isla Verde, and reached the mainland
near Venezuela. Coasting westward, he passed Santa Marta, and arrived
at the Magdalena River in March, 1501, so naming it on arrival from the
day, which was that of the woman's conversion. There he narrowly escaped
shipwreck. Continuing, and trading on the way, he found the ports of
Zamba and Coronados—the latter so called because the natives wore large
crowns—the islands of San Bernardo, Barú, and the Arenas, off Cartagena
Bay. Next he saw Fuerte and tenantless Tortuga, touched at the port of
Cenú, passed Point Caribana, entered the gulf of Urabá, and saw the
_farallones_, or craggy islet peaks, rising abruptly from the water
near the Darien shore. Thus far from Cape de la Vela he had discovered
one hundred and fifty leagues[III-5] of new seaboard. And because when
the tide was low the water was fresh, he called the place Golfo Dulce.
Thus came the Spaniards upon the isthmus that unites the two Americas;
and along it they sailed to Point Manzanilla, in which vicinity were El
Retrete and Nombre de Dios.[III-6]
[Sidenote: GLORIES OF THE ISTHMUS.]
It is a balmy beginning, this of these men from Spain, of that
intercontinental commerce which is shortly to bring destruction on one
side and retrogression on the other; a commerce which shall end only
with the next general cataclysm. Threading their way among islands
smothered in foliage, which seemed upon the glossy water-surface as
floating fragments of the thickly matted verdure of the mainland,
listening to notes unfamiliar to their ears, and seeing these strange
men and women so like and yet so unlike Spaniards, they find themselves
wondering whether they are in the world or out of it. We who so well
know our little planet and its ways can scarcely imagine what it was in
the darkness to be taken up at Seville, and put down amidst the magic
play of light and shade at Darien. Probably now the world was round; yet
still it might be fungiform, or crescent-shaped, or amorphous, having
a smooth or ragged edge, from which a fearful slipping-off might any
moment ensue. All they can know is what they see, and that they cannot
half know, for they can scarcely more than half see or feel or smell.
Some part of the perpendicular rays of the incandescent sun falling on
their toughened skins they can feel; some part of the water that from
the surcharged reservoirs of low-lying clouds so frequently and freely
pours upon the spot whence it is pumped by this same vertical sun. They
can turn their bewildered eyes toward the south and see beyond its clean
white border the mainland stretching off in billows of burnished green
to the far-away hazy horizon, where like a voluptuous beauty it imprints
a kiss upon the blushing sky; they may lie in the gray mist of evening
and dream, and dream, their minds—how many removes from the intelligence
of the impatient sea and the self-tuned life upon the shore? Or they may
drift about in the amber light of a soft vaporous morning without much
dreaming; one thing at least to them is real, and that is gold. Without
the aid of divine revelation they fathom the difference between the
precious solid substance and hollow brass. So do the savages, thinking
the latter much the prettier; and thus both sides, each believing the
others fools and well cheated, are happy in their traffic. The Spaniards
are enchanted less by the lovely garb in which nature everywhere greets
them than by the ease with which the golden harvest is gathered. Thus
all betokens the most flattering success when a luckless event casts a
shadow over their bright fortunes.
The two ships were found to be leaking badly. An examination was made,
when the bottoms were found pierced by teredos;[III-7] and thus before
they knew it their vessels were unfit for service. Hoping still to reach
Cádiz, Bastidas immediately set sail, touched at Jamaica for wood and
water, and continued his voyage as far as Contramaestre, an islet one
league distant from Española, where he was obliged to anchor and repair
his ships. Again embarking for Spain, he was met by a gale which threw
him back upon the island. Buffeted in a second attempt, he ran the
ships for safety into the little port of Jaraguá, where they filled and
sank, the loss in vessels, slaves, Brazil-wood, cloth, and gold, being
not less than five millions of maravedís.[III-8] For notwithstanding
the estimable reputation for piety, justice, and humanity which he
has always borne, the good Bastidas did not scruple gently to entrap
on board his ships, along the shore of Darien, several scores of
unsuspecting natives, to be sold as slaves; nor, having thus exercised
his virtues in the klopemania of the day, did he scruple to abandon
with his sinking ships the greater portion of these innocent wretches
in order to save the more of his gold, which was deemed of greater
proximate and certain value than the bodies or even the souls of the
heathen.
Thus observing everywhere, as perforce we must as we proceed, the
magnanimity and high morality with which our so prized and petted
civilization greeted weak, defenseless, and inoffensive savagism, we
are prepared when shipwrecked mariners are thrown upon a distant isle
inhabited by their own countrymen, subjects of the same sovereigns—we
are prepared by their reception, which we shall presently see, to
exclaim with uplifted hands, Behold, how these brethren love one
another!
After burning superfluous ammunition, the Spaniards gathered up
their valuables, and placing them on the backs of such captives as
for that purpose they had kindly permitted to live, set out in three
divisions over separate routes, so as to secure a more liberal supply
of provisions on the way, for Santo Domingo, distant seventy leagues.
In his license, as we have seen, Bastidas was authorized to trade only
in lands discovered by himself. But on the way his followers with their
trinkets had purchased food from the natives; for which offence, on
his arrival at Santo Domingo, Bastidas was seized by Bobadilla and cast
into prison. In vain did all the shipwrecked company protest that they
had bought only such articles as were necessary for their nourishment
during the march. To their affirmations the governor turned a deaf ear;
and as Bobadilla was about to depart for Spain, the notary was ordered
thither for trial, sailing in July, 1502.
Before the sovereigns Bastidas found no difficulty in justifying his
conduct; and so rich were the returns from his traffic with the natives
of Darien, that notwithstanding the unfortunate termination of the
adventure he was enabled to pay a large sum into the royal treasury. For
their important successes, to Rodrigo de Bastidas was awarded an annual
pension of fifty thousand maravedís, and to Juan de la Cosa a similar
sum with the title of alguacil mayor of Urabá, all to be paid them out
of returns from the new lands which they had found. "Such," remarks
Irving, "was the economical generosity of King Ferdinand, who rewarded
the past toils of his adventurous discoverers out of the expected
produce of their future labors."[III-9]
[Sidenote: ARCHIVES OF THE INDIES.]
The most fertile source of information relative to the early affairs
of America is the _Archives of the Indies_, a general term comprising
various collections in various places. From this source many writers
have drawn, and are still drawing; many documents have been printed,
and many yet remain to be printed. Altogether the collections are very
numerous, as the government required full records, and in some cases
copies, to be kept of official documents concerning discovery, conquest,
and settlement. The several council-chambers and public offices where
the business was transacted were the first depositories of these papers,
the chief places then being Seville, Cádiz, and Madrid. In 1566 Philip
II. ordered all collections, ecclesiastic and secular, to be united,
and deposited in the fortress of Simancas. Again in 1717, when all the
councils were consolidated in one, Felipe V., who founded the _Academia
de la Historia_, among other things for the gathering and preserving
of materials for history, directed all papers to be conveyed annually
to the _Archivo de Simancas_. These provisions could not have been
fully carried out, or else a very extensive system of copying must have
been practised; for later, when the Archives were thrown open to the
search of historians, the accumulation at Simancas, though large, did
not appear to be much greater than at some other places. Further than
this, there were family archives in the houses of those who had played
prominent parts in public affairs, and ecclesiastical relaciones in the
convents of the several orders, of little less importance than public
records. And while the government insisted on the making of complete
records, and observed great care in preventing their contents from being
known, especially to foreigners, little pains was taken to preserve
them from damage or destruction, or to arrange them for convenient
reference. Therefore when they came to light it was in the form of
bulky masses of unassorted, worm-eaten, and partially illegible papers.
Many documents, mentioned by contemporary writers, are known to have
been lost, and their contents blotted from existence. Fernando VI.,
1746-1759, commissioned Burriel and Santiago Palomares to examine the
archives of the kingdom and to copy and form into a collection such of
the manuscripts as they should deem best. This collection was placed
in the _Biblioteca Nacional_ at Madrid. Other collections were made
during the two following reigns by Abella, Traggia, Velazquez, Muñoz,
Navarrete, Sans, Vargas Ponce, and Villanueva, which found lodgment in
various localities.
The early chroniclers of the Indies picked up their knowledge as best
they might, by observation, by conversation, and by the examination
of written evidence. Las Casas and Oviedo spent much time in the New
World; Peter Martyr had access to whatever existed, beside talking with
everybody who had been to America; Gomara copied much from Oviedo.
Everything was at the disposal of Herrera as crown historiographer,
as a matter of course, though he did not always make the best use of
his opportunities. Gashard affirms that both Cabrera and Herrera were
ignorant of the existence of many of the most valuable documents of
their day. Ramusio, Hakluyt, Purchas, and others, succeeded in getting
now and then an original paper on the Indies to print in their several
collections. Among the first English historians who attempted for
purposes of history to utilize the Archives of the Indies was William
Robertson, who published the _History of the Reign of the Emperor
Charles_, London, 1769; and in 1777, his _History of America_, 2 vols.
4to, several editions appearing subsequently also in 8vo. Robertson was
a Scotch clergyman of great learning and ability. His style was elegant
and vigorous, and he was by far the most philosophic writer on America
up to his time. Although his statements are full of errors, intensified
by dogmatism, but for which he cannot always be blamed, all who have
come after him have profited by his writings; and some of these, indeed,
have reaped richer rewards than he to whom they owed their success, and
with far less labor.
[Sidenote: ROBERTSON AND MUÑOZ.]
Early in his work Mr Robertson applied to the proper authorities at
Madrid, Vienna, and St Petersburg for access to material. Germany and
Russia responded in a spirit of liberality, but Spain would none of
it. In 1775 Robertson ascertained that the largest room occupied by
the _Archivos de Simancas_ was filled with American papers, in 873
bundles; that they were concealed from strangers with solicitous care,
Spanish subjects even being denied access without an order from the
crown; and that no copies could be obtained except upon the payment
of exorbitant fees. However, through the assistance of Lord Grantham,
English ambassador at Madrid, and by preparing a set of questions
to be submitted to persons who had lived in America, much new and
important information was elicited, and copies of certain manuscripts
were obtained. The letters of Cortés, and the writings of Motolinia,
Mendieta, and others, which Robertson used in manuscript, have since
been printed.
It is greatly to be regretted that the learned Juan Bautista Muñoz
did not live to complete his _Historia del Nuevo Mundo_, only the
first volume of which appeared. This was published in Madrid, in 1793,
bringing his work down to 1500. Muñoz was born near Valencia in 1745,
graduated at the University, and in 1779 was commissioned by the king
to write a history of America, all public and private material being
placed at his disposal by royal order. Many papers were wanting in
the archives of the department of the Indies in Madrid; whereupon he
went to Simancas, Seville, Cádiz, and other towns, armed with a royal
_cédula_, which opened to him family and monastic accumulations as
well as all public depositories. So great was the confusion in which
he found the royal archives, that it seemed to him as if they had been
disarranged purposely to hide what they contained. Even in the indices
of the _Archivo Secreto del Consejo de Indias_ there was scarcely
any indication of papers belonging to the earlier American periods.
Nevertheless, by persistent search, mass after mass of rich material was
unearthed in the secret archives as well as in the _Real Casa Audiencia
de la Contratacion_, the archives at Simancas, the royal libraries of
Madrid and the Escorial, the _Contaduría Principal_ of the _Audiencia de
Indias_ in Cádiz, the _Archivo General de Portugal_, the monastery of
Monserrate, the colleges of San Bartolomé and Cuenca at Salamanca, and
San Gregorio at Valladolid, the cathedral of Palencia, the Sacromonte of
Granada, and in the convents of San Francisco of Tolosa in Guipúzcoa,
Santo Domingo of Málaga, and San Acacio, San José, and San Isidro del
Campo of Seville, until it may be said of him that his efforts were
buried beneath the magnitude of their invocation. Then it was that he
found he had undertaken greater things than he could accomplish. Even
with the aid of government he could not master the confused masses;
for money and men unlimited cannot accomplish everything without time.
The indefatigable Muñoz worked faithfully; the king complained of the
meagre results; the author died doing his best, and his work to this
day remains undone. During his labors he made an extensive collection
of papers, memorials, and other manuscripts relating to America, known
as the _Coleccion de Muñoz_, which he once intended to publish, but this
with a portion of his history was left in manuscript. Irving states that
the papers of Muñoz were left with Señor Uguina, and Ternaux-Compans
claims to have obtained all of Uguina's manuscripts; but Prescott
asserts that the collection of Muñoz was deposited in the archives of
the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, and was there augmented by the
manuscripts of Vargas Ponce, obtained chiefly from the archives of the
Indies at Seville. Prior to 1793 the _Archivo General de Indias_ was
established at Seville, and a large quantity of old papers conveyed
thither from Madrid and Simancas. About 1810 the archives at Simancas
were sacked by Napoleon; in 1814 the remnant was re-arranged and
classified.
Before the death of Muñoz, Navarrete was commissioned by the king to
search the archives for documents relating to the doings of the Spanish
navy. By him personally, or under his direction when occupied in other
duties, the search was continued from 1789 to 1825. The results of these
labors were as follows: before 1793, twenty-four folio volumes of copies
from the Royal Library at Madrid, the collections of the marquises
of Santa Cruz and of Villafranca, of the dukes de Medina Sidonia and
del Infantado, and from the _Biblioteca de los estudios reales de San
Isidro_, and the _Biblioteca alta del Escorial_; after 1793, seventeen
volumes of copies from the _Archivo General de Indias_, including the
papers in the _Casa de Contratacion_ in Seville, the _Colegio de San
Telmo_, the _Biblioteca de San Acacio_, and from the collection of the
Conde del Aguila. With this material, increased by subsequent researches
in the libraries of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid, and other
public institutions, and in many private collections, particularly
that of the Duke of Veraguas, and with access to the Muñoz collection,
Navarrete began in 1825 the publication of his _Coleccion de los Viages
y Descubrimientos, que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del
Siglo_ XV., in 5 vols., Madrid, 1825-37, in which he printed over 500
documents, many of them of the highest importance. As this collection
constitutes one of the chief authorities upon the early affairs of
Darien, a brief notice of the author may not be out of place.
[Sidenote: MARTIN FERNANDEZ DE NAVARRETE.]
Martin Fernandez de Navarrete was born in 1765 in Ábalos in old Castile.
He entered the seminary of Vergara in 1777, where he studied Latin and
mathematics and displayed some literary taste. In 1780 he joined the
navy, was stationed first as a midshipman at Ferrol, joined Córdoba's
squadron in 1781, and cruised in the summer of that year on the English
coast. He did good service before Gibraltar in September, 1782, and
in the battle off Cape Espartel the 20th of October following. In
1783, having been promoted to a naval ensigncy, he was appointed to
the Cartagena department, and cruised in consequence against the Moors
during the years 1784-5. On the close of the Algerine wars he studied
the higher mathematics, navigation, and manœuvring with Gabriel de
Císcar, distinguishing himself in these branches. In 1789, his health
forcing him to quit active service, he was commissioned by Carlos IV.
to examine the archives of the kingdom and collect manuscripts relating
to marine history; a work for which his zeal and knowledge particularly
fitted him. This was the beginning of his famous Collection of Voyages,
although its first volumes did not appear till thirty-six years after.
When the war broke out between France and Spain in 1793, he joined the
squadron commanded by Juan de Lángara, who appointed him his chief aid,
_primer ayudante_, and secretary. He was still at sea, in 1796, when war
was declared against England; but in 1797, Lángara being named minister
of marine, and unwilling to lose his young secretary, he brought him to
Madrid, giving him a place in the department. Here, in 1802, Navarrete
published, as a preface to the _Relacion del Viage hecho por las goletas
Sutil y Mexicana_, a résumé of Spanish discoveries on the Californian
and Northwest coasts, that has been much cited in the English-American
disputes about the Oregon boundary. Meanwhile his merits were recognized
in Madrid. In 1807 he was named _ministro fiscal_ of the supreme council
of the admiralty court, he holding already the rank of captain. But
in this year came the French invasion, overturning all things. Madrid
fell in 1808. In 1812 Navarrete was found in Cádiz; in 1814 in Murcia.
Fernando regained his throne, however, May 14, 1814; four months after
which event Navarrete returned to Madrid. In 1815 he proposed from his
place in the Spanish Academy that new system of orthography which has
been adopted for its dictionary. He interested himself also in the fine
arts, and as secretary of the Academy of San Fernando contributed many
valuable papers to its Transactions. Soon after his return to Madrid,
being little pleased with the stormy and veering statesmanship of the
day, he retired as much as possible from politics, and began to collect
materials for his life of Cervantes—an excellent and very complete work
published by the academy, with its edition of _Don Quijote_, in 1820.
Honors continued to cluster around the historian. Toward the close
of 1823 he was appointed director of the hydrographic department, and
he became for many years in fact, if not in name, the great and chief
naval authority of Spain; and this without prejudice to his literary
activity. In 1825 appeared the first two volumes of his Collection of
Voyages; the third appeared in 1829; the fourth and fifth in 1837; while
the sixth and seventh were still unfinished at the author's death. On
the publication of the _Estatuto Real_, in 1834, he received a place in
the new peerage, and sat afterward as senator for his own province, in
almost every legislature. But his studious life and pacific character
were hardly destined to shine in a political career, nor was it for
the interest of science that they should. In the winter of 1844, in
the seventy-ninth year of his age, Navarrete died. The Academy issued
a posthumous work of his in 1846, a dissertation on the history of
the nautical and mathematical sciences in Spain. A collection of his
smaller works, _Coleccion de Opúsculos_, was begun in 1848 by his son.
The two volumes which have already appeared consist mainly of short
biographies of Spanish navigators and literary men, previously scattered
in periodicals and in the transactions of the various academies and
societies. Navarrete was a man of learning and research, as clearly
appears; inclined somewhat to verbosity; tiresome to most readers,
though pronounced _elegante y castizo_ by his contemporaries. Of the
historical value of his works, however, there is but one opinion.
Humboldt speaks of his Collection of Voyages as 'one of the most
important monuments of modern times,' and calls him 'the most accurate
historian of the geographical discoveries on the New Continent.' The
Baron de Zach, M. de Berthelot, Prescott, Helps, Irving, and Stirling,
have all given him much consideration. Indeed, the friends of Navarrete
cannot complain that he has not been honored. Decorated with grand
orders, member in high place of many academies and societies, his
lot was more fortunate than is usual among literary men. The parts
of Navarrete's collection which bear most directly upon this history
are: _Relacion de Diego de Porras_, i. 282-96; _Carta que escribió D.
Cristóbal Colon_, i. 296-313; _Relacion hecha por Diego Mendez_, i.
314-29; _Cartas de Colon_, i. 330-52; _Viages Menores_, iii. 1-74; _Real
cédula por la cual, con referencia á lo capitulado con Diego de Nicuesa
y Alonso de Hojeda_, iii. 116-17; _Noticias biográficas del capitan
Alonso Hojeda_, iii. 163-76; and the _Establecimientos ó Primeras
Poblaciones de los Españoles en el Darien_, including instructions to
Pedrarias, letters of Vasco Nuñez, memorial of Rodrigo de Colmenares,
and the relation of Pascual de Andagoya, iii. 337-459.
Scarcely was Navarrete's _Coleccion de Viages_ put to press, when
Washington Irving heard of it, and went to Madrid with the intention
of translating it into English. But he soon saw that with less labor
he could accomplish a work which would yield him greater returns.
Navarrete, who had already collected the material and prepared the way,
was still disposed to lend the genial American every assistance; it was
necessary for him to make few original investigations; so that under the
circumstances the _Life of Columbus_ was by no means a difficult task
for so ready a writer. Humboldt visited Madrid before coming to America,
but seems to have consulted no important historical documents not in the
possession of others. Prescott obtained from the collections of Muñoz
and Navarrete 8000 foolscap pages of copies, most of which having any
importance have since been printed by Icazbalceta, Alaman, and others.
Between the years 1837 and 1841 Henri Ternaux-Compans published at
Paris twenty volumes of _Voyages, relations, et mémoires originaux
pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique_, containing,
beside translations of several rare and then unobtainable works,
some seventy-five original documents, several of them from the Muñoz
collection, and others obtained from the Spanish archives in some
unexplained way, possibly not wholly disconnected with the French
campaign on the Peninsula. Among his translations are documents relating
to the conquest and settlement of Central America and Mexico, the
relations of Cabeza de Vaca and Ixtlilxochitl, Oviedo's History of
Nicaragua, Zurita's Report on New Spain, and Ixtlilxochitl's History of
the Chichimecs. Ternaux-Compans also published _Recueil de documents
et mémoires originaux sur l'histoire des possessions espagnoles dans
l'Amérique_, Paris, 1840; and _Bibliothèque américaine_, a catalogue of
books on America appearing prior to 1700.
The project of printing original papers selected from national and
family archives was agitated in Spain by Campomanes, Jovellanos,
Villamil, and others, who collected and wrote much upon the subject. The
scheme was delayed by the political disruptions incident to the early
part of the century, by which the archives became badly scattered. In
1842, under the auspices of the _Academia de la Historia_, was begun
the publication, at Madrid, of a _Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos para
la Historia de España_, with the names of Martin Fernandez Navarrete,
Miguel Salvá, and Pedro Sainz de Baranda on the title-page. Navarrete
lived to see only the fifth volume; Salvá and Baranda continued the
publication to vol. xxiii., after which, Salvá edited alone to vol.
xxxii., when he was joined by the marquises of Pidal and of Miraflores.
After vol. xlvii., Pidal's name was dropped, and with vol. lvii. Salvá
and the Marqués de Fuente del Valle appeared as editors. In connection
with documents relating to the general history of Spain is here printed
a vast amount of matter about America, and the doings of Spaniards in
that quarter.
[Sidenote: TERNAUX-COMPANS, ALAMAN, AND OTHERS.]
During the next score of years floods of light are let in upon the dark
recesses of hidden treasures, the spirit of unearthing which extends
to Mexico. I may mention incidentally Ramirez, who, in his _Proceso de
Residencia contra Alvarado_ and _Nuño de Guzman_, gives some original
Mexican documents not elsewhere published. Alaman, at the close of his
_Disertaciones_, prints about forty original documents on the time of
the Conquest, some of them from the collection of Navarrete, and others
from original sources, such as the Hospital de Jesus in Mexico. The
_Documentos para la Historia de México_, Mexico, 1853-7, in 21 volumes,
was made chiefly from Mexican sources, and is specially valuable
for north-west Mexico. Icazbalceta's collection includes fifty-three
documents, with few exceptions _inéditos_, the existence of several
of which, such as a letter of Cortés, and the relation of Tapia on the
Conquest, was then unknown. Most of them were obtained through Gonzalez
de Vera, of Madrid; only two or three were found in Mexico. Thus far
Icazbalceta's collection refers exclusively to the sixteenth century.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, for his _Histoire des Nations Civilisées du
Mexique_, Paris, 1857-9, one volume of which is devoted to a history
of the Conquest from an Indian stand-point, seems to have relied
on his Nahua manuscripts, the standard histories, and a few Spanish
manuscripts. Although much thus far had been done, it seemed little to
the savans of Spain in comparison with what yet might be accomplished.
And it was with this feeling that the government authorized the printing
of any documents in the _Real Archivo de Indias_ affecting the history
of America down to the end of the seventeenth century. The publication
of this new series of papers was begun at Madrid in 1864 under title of
_Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista
y Colonizacion de las posesiones Españolas en América y Oceanía,
sacados, en su mayor parte, del Real Archivo de Indias_. Joaquin F.
Pacheco, Francisco de Cárdenas, and Luis Torres de Mendoza were editors
at the first. After vol. iii. the first two names were dropped, and
after vol. xii. the third, the work being thenceforth continued,
_competentemente autorizada_. By this publication alone were placed
within easy reach of all the world hundreds of the richest treasures
of the Archives of the Indies, twenty for every one that the writer of
thirty years ago could reach.