HISPANIC
NOTES & MONOGRAPHS
ESSAYS, STUDIES, AND BRIEF
BIOGRAPHIES ISSUED BY THE
HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA
_HISPANIC AMERICAN SERIES_
I
OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR ON THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN SOUTH AMERICA
The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America.
The Spanish Dependencies in South America, 2 vols.
Spain’s Declining Power in South America.
South America on the Eve of Emancipation.
[Illustration: The Author of _La Araucana_
see page 158]
SPANISH
COLONIAL
LITERATURE
in
South America
BY
BERNARD MOSES, Ph. D., LL.D.,
_Professor Emeritus in the University of California,
Honorary Professor in the University of Chile_
[Illustration: THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA]
The Hispanic Society of America
LONDON : NEW YORK
1922
PRINTED AT THE
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
COPYRIGHT 1922 BY
THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA
PREFACE
No intelligent person is likely to deny the importance of official
documents as the basis of a nation’s history; but these documents do not
tell the whole story. There are social activities, currents of national
thought, and waves of popular sentiment, which are not fully described
either in laws or governmental proclamations. Tradition sometimes conveys
a knowledge of these aspects of society, but tradition undergoes such
modifications in the course of time that it does not render the same
account to all later generations or centuries. Only what is written
remains fixed.
Each century writes the literature it reads. This is especially true
of historical literature. It is also true that each century, in the
various forms of its literature, writes its own history; and it is to
this literature, not to the later critical writings that one must refer,
who would know how any given period of the past appeared to those then
living. It was once said of a distinguished modern historian of Rome that
he knew more about the affairs of Rome than the Romans themselves knew;
which was to say, that his works presented a view of Rome such as no
Roman ever had. The critical history of the society of any given period
of the past is so completely an artificial creation that it would hardly
be recognized by a member of that society. It takes its character, in a
considerable part, from knowledge, ideas, and emotions that were foreign
to him. Therefore, in order to know a nation’s life as known at any given
epoch, or to visualise the worldly show that passed before the thoughtful
contemporary mind, one should refer, not to the artificial creation of
the modern historian, with its twentieth-century atmosphere, but to what
men wrote of their own times or times near their own. Our ancestors’
vision of the world and the reaction which the world produced in their
minds are revealed in the various forms of their literature.
The material for an intellectual reconstitution of the view of their
society entertained by the Spanish colonists of South America is much
less abundant than that which the twenty-third-century historian will
have for reproducing our view of our times. There were in the Spanish
colonies no congressional or parliamentary debates, no popular orators
describing social conditions and setting forth economic and political
doctrines, no discussion of social programmes, and, more significant than
all else, no periodical press recording from day to day and from month
the events and ideas of the period in question. But in the books, the
reports, and the relaciones there is a larger mass of written evidence
than the comparatively rude state of colonial society would lead one to
expect; and it is the purpose of this book to point out the principal
documents of this colonial literature, and to introduce the reader to
the men of letters in the colonies who wrote under the inspiration of
their experience in the New World, whether their contributions were in
the realm of poetry, history, geographical description, or ecclesiastical
discussion. All this is brought together under a general title in which
the term “literature” is consciously expanded from its narrower meaning
to cover whatever was written on any of these general subjects; and by
helping the reader to a knowledge of this literature it is believed that
through it he will be enabled to acquire a more or less distinct view of
the colonial society as it appeared in any period to men of that period.
It is presumed that copies of this book will fall into the hands of
persons not completely versed in the Spanish language, and for this
reason a somewhat broad view of Spanish accentuation has been carried out
as an assistance in the pronunciation of such Spanish words and titles
as it has been found advisable to introduce. It will, moreover, be noted
that all titles and quotations from the texts of early colonial writers
are given in modernized Spanish.
The portraits here presented help to show that the intellectual life of
the colonies was not limited to a single class, but embraced friars,
parish priests, and bishops; private soldiers and officers of the army;
governors, judges, and viceroys.
It is not to be expected that a book covering the number and wide range
of facts here included will be without errors; but there are fewer errors
in this volume than would have appeared but for the valuable editorial
assistance of Mr. A. H. Wykeham-George, who suggested and formed the
Appendix, directed the preparation of the illustrations, and supervised
the passing of the whole through the press. For that assistance I take
this occasion to express my cordial appreciation; and at the same
time I would gratefully acknowledge the important contribution to the
undertaking rendered by Miss Janet Hunter Perry, Lecturer in Spanish at
King’s College, and the very friendly and helpful attention given by the
authorities of the British Museum, particularly by Dr. Henry Thomas,
Assistant Keeper of Printed Books.
BERNARD MOSES.
Paris, June 3rd, 1922.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION Page 1