it furnishes of the author’s superstition, his credulity concerning the
reported miracles wrought by the image of the Virgin, and by divine
interference and predestination, where later generations have seen merely
a physical or worldly cause. The extreme to which he is led in this
direction, and the large number of miracles he discovers in the course of
events detract greatly from the historical character of his work. This
quality persuaded the English translator to conclude his translation with
the death of Caupolicán; “for in the course of the narrative so many
superstitious notions are inculcated, so many improbable miracles are
set forth as the basis of great undertakings, and the entire work is so
thoroughly permeated by a monkish spirit, that it would rather condemn
than recommend a project for its publication.”[101]
[Sidenote: Contents of the _Histórica relación_]
In spite of these defects the translator finds the work ‘so admirably
performed, that it may be a model for most relations of that kind’. The
author’s plan of his work is set forth in his preface, where he announces
the principal topics of the several books: “the first and second books
will show the natural state of the kingdom of Chile, both as to its
climate and products; the third will describe the qualities of its first
inhabitants; the fourth and fifth will describe the first entrance of the
Spaniards into it, and the conquest of it by them; the sixth will contain
the various events of the war; the seventh will show the first means of
peace attempted by Father Lewis de Valdivia; the last, the first means of
planting the Christian faith and its propagation among the Indians.”
[Sidenote: Ovalle’s mysticism]
But Ovalle’s experience in the mountains that look down upon the
agreeable valley of Central Chile called him back from his visions of a
fictitious spiritual world, and inspired him to present views of nature
in its most imposing forms. Passing along narrow trails, on the edge of
horrible precipices, descending into the shadows of deep wooded canyons,
in the presence of roaring mountain torrents throwing clouds of mist
into the clear air, his mysticism was for the moment clarified into a
soberer conception of the universal Creator. But ordinarily he was so
profoundly impressed by the wonderful and incomprehensible in nature and
the course of events that he found it apparently impossible to carry on
his narrative without interrupting it here and there to tell the story of
some miraculous manifestation. Montalvo affirms that “he did not know how
to treat of the earth without introducing into his narrative the events
of heaven.”[102]
The excellence of Ovalle’s style doubtless suggested the fitness of his
work for translation; it also persuaded the Royal Spanish Academy to
place it in the list of works quoted for illustration in the Academy’s
_Diccionario de la lengua castellana_.
In 1646 Ovalle was in Rome, attending the sixth general congregation of
the Jesuits, in his capacity as procurador of the vice-province of Chile.
This year he published his _Histórica relación_, which the same year
appeared in an Italian translation. The English translation was first
printed in 1703.
[Sidenote: Ovalle’s last years]
From Rome Ovalle returned to Spain, where he assembled the sixteen
priests who were to accompany him to America. Four years after the
publication of his _Histórica relación_, in 1650, he embarked for Chile
by way of Panama. At Paita, not meeting there the ship he expected
to take him to Callao, he set out overland for Lima, over an almost
trackless region and across the sandy wastes of the desert-like coast
lands, with little preparation for meeting his need of food and water. He
arrived in Lima suffering under a violent fever, from which he died a few
days later.
[Sidenote: Fantastic views of the Scriptures]
Ovalle’s fantastic interpretations of the Scriptures, as witnessed,
among many instances, by his notion that the gold of Ophir was brought
from Peru and Chile by Solomon’s fleet, did not prevent him from writing
clearly and rationally about the events of Chilean history. In the
following paragraph he describes the destruction of Concepción by Lautaro
and his Araucanians:
[Sidenote: Ruin of Concepción]
[Sidenote: Concepción abandoned]
[Sidenote: The city burned]
“Misfortunes seldom come alone; and so it happened to this afflicted
city, which, instead of receiving comfort from the approaching day, no
sooner did it appear, when the noise of drums and trumpets gave a warm
alarm of the enemy being at hand. Here the confusion increased; for now
the concern was not for the loss of others, but for every one’s own
safety, the danger threatening them so immediately. There was nothing
but disorder, no counsel nor resolution being to be found in the wisest.
They could not defend themselves, because they were overpowered in
numbers by the enemy; and the retreat, though necessary, was difficult,
because of the approach of the Indians. In this hard conflict at last
the resolution that prevailed was to abandon the city without pretending
to save any thing but their lives. They leave the city then, and all
the gold they had got together in such quantities; they go out in long
files, the mothers helping their little children along; the way that they
undertook was to the city of St. Iago, a long one, in which many rivers
were to be crossed, and hard passes to be gone through: this labour was
accompanied with the perpetual fright of the enemy’s pursuing them. Who
can relate the hardships of hunger and other sufferings through so
long a tract of mountains, deserts, and uninhabited countries? How the
women, the children, the old men could bear the fatigue, we must leave
to imagination to represent the true idea of these misfortunes! Let us,
therefore, return to the Indians. The Spaniards had hardly made an end of
abandoning the city when the Indians entered it; and not being able to
execute their rage upon the inhabitants, they did it upon the houses, to
which they set fire, and consumed them to the very foundation, killing
even the very animals which the Spaniards left behind them. Thus was lost
the city most abounding in gold and situated in the most populous part
of the Indian country; for it is said there were not less than a hundred
thousand Indians with their families, who were all employed in gathering
gold for the Spaniards, whom they enriched to that degree that Pedro de
Valdivia, if he had lived, would have had fifty thousand crowns of gold a
year, and others twenty and thirty thousand.”[103]
VI
[Sidenote: _Población de Valdivia_]
[Sidenote: Aguirre]
[Sidenote: Expedition against the Dutch]
About the middle of the seventeenth century a friar of the Augustinian
order, Miguel de Aguirre, became conspicuous at Lima not only as the
author of the _Población de Valdivia_, but also as a devotee of the
Virgin of Copacabana. He was born at Chuquisaca, and took his religious
vows very early. In 1641 he appeared at Lima, and entered the monastery
of his order in that city, and became there professor of arts and
theology. The distinction achieved by his lectures caused him to be
appointed to a professorship in the University of San Marcos. He became
also censor of the Inquisition. Pedro de Toledo y Leiva, Marqués de
Mancera (1639-1648) was then the viceroy of Peru. In order to provide
defence against the threatened invasion of the Dutch, he imposed various
taxes and called upon certain institutions to make contributions. Aguirre
was present at a meeting of the University of San Marcos on October
10, 1641, called to reply to the viceroy’s letter. Mancera’s plans
comprehended the building of a wall about Lima, and equipping a number
of warships to be sent to the coast of Chile. The defence appeared to
be especially necessary in view of the fact that the Dutch had taken
possession of Valdivia and intended to establish themselves within the
limits of Chilean territory. The viceroy fitted out a squadron of twelve
vessels, carrying eighteen hundred men and one hundred and eighty-eight
guns. These vessels set sail on December 31, 1644, and arrived at their
destination on the 6th of February, 1645, but before their arrival the
enemy had departed. The minute knowledge of the enterprise displayed by
Aguirre in his _Población de Valdivia_ (Lima, 1647), has suggested that,
with other ecclesiastics, he was a member of the expedition; in fact his
known advisory relation to the viceroy has given a certain support to the
opinion that he occupied an official position.
[Sidenote: The Virgin of Copacabana]
For three years longer, until the end of Mancera’s term in 1648, Aguirre
continued to perform his professorial duties at the university, and
when he resigned in that year, it was probably in anticipation of his
accompanying the viceroy to Spain; for in 1650 Mancera left Lima for
Madrid, taking Aguirre with him as his confessor. Aguirre for his
religious consolation and in order to be fortified against possible
ill fortune on the voyage, took with him an image of Nuestra Señora de
Copacabana. He proposed, moreover, to establish in Europe the cult of Our
Lady of Copacabana, in which the Indians about Lake Titicaca had appeared
to find a large measure of religious satisfaction.[104]
[Sidenote: Aguirre in Spain and Italy]
Soon after Aguirre arrived in Madrid Monseñor Gaetano, the apostolical
nuncio in Spain, appointed him his confessor, and the Supreme Tribunal
of the Inquisition nominated him to be one of its members. From Madrid
Aguirre went to Rome in 1655 as general procurador of the province of
Peru, and in spite of all of his other cares and occupations he kept
in mind his purpose to propagate devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana,
and the “American Virgin” was set up with an elaborate ceremony in the
Augustinian hospicio of San Ildefonso; one part of this ceremony was an
inaugural mass. Before he left Rome the image of the “American Virgin”
and her cult had been established at several places in the city. Aguirre
remained in Rome about a year and died in Madrid in 1664.
[Sidenote: Purpose of _Población de Valdivia_]
Although an advocate of devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana, he was
in reality more than this, he was a writer to whom his contemporaries
attributed great erudition. It is said, however, that his extensive
reading in the classics and the Latin ecclesiastical writings had caused
him to dislike the Spanish language, and even limited his power to use it
in its most approved form. His work called _Población de Valdivia_ was
far removed from subjects that engrossed his attention during the greater
part of his active years. It sets forth the dangers to which the southern
coast of Chile was exposed from foreign invasion; narrates the history of
the various Dutch and English expeditions during the preceding century;
gives an account of the preparations for defence made by the different
governors; and tells the story of the town of Valdivia, its conflicts
with the Indians, and the negotiations had with them. But the method
of treatment and the entire lack of literary skill displayed in the
composition have rendered an attractive subject devoid of all interest.
VII
[Sidenote: Ponce de León]
[Sidenote: _Descripción del reino de Chile_]
Another friar who wrote on Chile and Chilean affairs in the middle of the
seventeenth century was Francisco Ponce de León. His descent from the
noble houses of Arcos and Medina Sidonia gave him special consideration,
and in the official service of his order (the Order of Mercy), he had an
opportunity to visit various parts of South America. The most noteworthy
of his expeditions was his missionary journey into the valley of the
Marañón, where without stipend of any sort he spent three years preaching
to various tribes of Indians. He performed important official functions
as a member of his order and as a commissary of the Inquisition. Later
by the favour of the viceroy, Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marqués
de Guadalcázar (1623-1629), he was appointed general chaplain of the
military and naval forces, and served for five years in this capacity in
Chile. His principal literary production was _Descripción del reino de
Chile, de sus puertos, caletas, y sitio de Valdivia_, which was published
in Madrid in 1644. He wrote also _Conquistas y poblaciones del Marañón_,
but he was not able to secure its publication.
[Sidenote: _Mapa de Chile_]
[Sidenote: Olavarría and Méndez]
Another descriptive work on Chile was called _Mapa de Chile_, and was
attributed to a Franciscan friar named Gregorio de León. It is said to
have been printed, but no verification of this statement is at hand. In
the same class as the foregoing are the anonymous _Descripción y cosas
notables del reino de Chile_ and Miguel de Olavarría’s _Informe sobre
el reino de Chile, sus indios y sus guerras_.[105] This last mentioned
paper covers three topics, presenting a description of the cities, the
characteristics and condition of the Indians, and finally a brief account
of the history of Chile and its governors. Two other historical documents
belonging to this period may be noted, a _Relación_, written circa
1607 and still in MS., by Tomás de Olavarría, and _Discursos sobre la
centinela del reino de Chile_, by Andrés Méndez; the latter was published
in Lima in 1641.
[Sidenote: Indian policy]
[Sidenote: Defence or Conquest]
[Sidenote: Programme]
The policy of the European inhabitants of Chile respecting the Indians,
before the end of the sixteenth century, was simply to subdue them.
With the beginning of the seventeenth century it became necessary
to review this policy. The Indians had not been conquered; in fact,
many of the towns and military posts established by the Spaniards had
been swept away; the settlers had either fled or been destroyed; and
whatever property they had accumulated had been lost. Two main questions
had to be considered: should the Spaniards persist in the war for
conquest? and what should be the treatment of the Indians captured or
under Spanish domination? The encomenderos were in favour of holding
them as slaves, but another party advocated a more humane policy
and the adoption of an attitude of military defence. Opinions and
discussions on these questions determined the political atmosphere of
Chile in the first half of the seventeenth century. There were formed
certain definite propositions: that the Indians should be released
from personal servitude, or slavery, but that the existing relation
should be maintained for two years, a period to be used in collecting
voluntary labourers; that during this period all work in the mines
should be suspended, and there should be paid to the Indians elsewhere
engaged a daily wage, fixed beforehand, for their labour; that a new
rule respecting tribute should be published; that the Indian prisoners
held as slaves should be liberated, but that the three hundred held in
Lima should remain there until the end of the war; and that negotiations
should be undertaken with the view of introducing negroes to replace the
Indians.[106]
[Sidenote: Opposing views]
Although these recommendations received the enthusiastic approval of the
viceroy, it was found to be impossible to carry them out in Chile. Many
of the Indians, if left free, were averse to labour of any kind under
any conditions; the encomenderos resisted every attempt to liberate
them; still the audiencia of Chile, when it was established in 1609, was
instructed to abolish the personal service of the Indians. This order,
however, brought a reaction against the movement for emancipation, and
this reaction found a vigorous supporter in Francisco Lazo de la Vega,
when he became governor of Chile in 1629. He was an old soldier, who saw
a remedy for the unfortunate condition of affairs only in the exercise of
a sufficient amount of force to bring the Indians into subjection, and
consequently repudiated the plan of a defensive war.[107]
[Sidenote: Proposed state of troops]
The practical discussion of the relation of the Spaniards to the Indians
awakened an interest in the Indian languages, and promoted a study of
their grammar. The principal investigators in this field were the Jesuit
priests. Among these, Luis de Valdivia was the most prominent in the
affairs of Chile. He was a member of the commission that framed the
regulations providing for the abolition of personal service. He had,
moreover, advocated the reduction of military operations to a war of
defence, in which troops should be maintained, armed and equipped, in
such force as might be necessary; and the Jesuits were charged to carry
instruction in Christian doctrine to the Indians. The Jesuit, Luis de
Valdivia, as visitador-general of the province of Chile, was commissioned
to act with the governor in an effort to carry out the new policy.
[Sidenote: Luis de Valdivia]
Luis de Valdivia arrived in Chile in 1593 with Gabriel de Vega, Fernando
Aguilera, Baltasar de Piñas and others, who constituted the first group
of Jesuits to visit that province. In 1622 he returned to Spain. During
the period of his retirement he wrote, in addition to other things,
a _Historia de la provincia castellana de la Sociedad de Jesús_, and
_Varones ilustres de la Sociedad_; later, a grammar and a dictionary
of the _lengua Allentiac_, and composed a treatise in that language on
Christian doctrine.[108]
VIII
[Sidenote: Diego de Rosales]
[Sidenote: _Historia de Chile_]
[Sidenote: Contents of Rosales’ _Historia_]
The Marqués de Baides (1639-1646) sought to establish peaceful relations
with the Indians by friendly conferences and treaties. In these
conferences (_parlamentos_) Padre Diego de Rosales rendered the governor
noteworthy assistance. This priest of the Society of Jesus won marked
distinction not merely for his untiring missionary labours among the
Indians of the frontier, but also for the excellence of his _Historia
general del reino de Chile_. Considering the absorbing character of his
practical activity, whether as missionary or in contributing to the
execution of the government’s Indian policy, one has ground for surprise
that the author found time for the production of a work that indicates an
extensive use of documents, particularly in the first of its two volumes.
This volume treats of the civil or secular events, and is divided into
ten books, of which the first is devoted to the primitive inhabitants
of Chile and to the early period of Spanish settlement. The second book
presents in greater detail the history of the different expeditions to
the coast of Chile made by Spanish seamen and by foreign adventurers,
giving an account also of the natural products of the territory whether
of value in industry or serviceable in medicine. The attention given to
the geography of the country was apparently encouraged by the decree
issued in Madrid on December 30, 1633, requiring the governors to make
maps of the several provinces, showing their temples, fruits, mines,
herds and fortifications, and indicating clearly and briefly the Indians
and Spaniards in each. From the third to the tenth book inclusive
Rosales presents an account of the political events of Chile down to
the administration of Governor Antonio de Acuña y Cabrera (1648-1656).
In treating of events prior to his own time, he says, “he escrito muchas
cosas por noticias de papeles y relaciones” but “en adelante escribiré lo
que he visto y tocado con las manos.”[109] Near the end of this part the
manuscript shows lack of a careful final revision and closes as abruptly
as if pages had been torn off.
[Sidenote: _Conquista espiritual de Chile_]
The second volume is entitled _Conquista espiritual de Chile_. Its
subject is not the general history of Chile, not even a general account
of the spread of Christian doctrine, but a collection of biographical
sketches of the Jesuits who had flourished in Chile prior to the date
of the author’s writing, “a theme in itself much less interesting,
and infinitely poorer in execution than the general history of the
kingdom,” and it is rendered obscure “by the interminable narration of
extraordinary and unheard-of marvels attributed by the Jesuit padre to
his associates in the mission or in the cloister, and clothed in language
without distinction, often low, almost always trivial.”[110] And this
volume, like the first, is incomplete; but, in spite of its general
views respecting Chilean affairs, it illustrates to a certain extent the
native manners and customs by its account of the circumstances of the
missionaries on their peregrinations among the Indians.
[Sidenote: Rosales’ life]
The events of Rosales’ life were not greatly unlike the events in the
lives of other persons subject to the régime of the Jesuits in America.
He was born in the beginning of the seventeenth century, entered the
Society in 1620, was sent to Peru, and subsequently to Chile. He became
rector of the college at Concepción; as procurador of the vice-province
of Chile he was sent to Rome and Madrid. After his return to Chile he
was charged with the affairs of the vice-province from 1662 to 1665. He
became vice-provincial in 1670.[111]
IX
[Sidenote: Santiago de Tesillo]
[Sidenote: _Restauración del estado de Arauco_]
There is only a limited known record of facts concerning the life of
Santiago de Tesillo. In 1624 he appeared in Peru as a soldier, a member
of the garrison of Callao, and it devolved upon the company to which
he belonged to repel the Dutch, who that year proposed to land on the
coast. Four years later he was promoted to be a sergeant and sent to
Chile. After his arrival in Chile he attained the rank of captain, and
for somewhat more than two years he was associated with his chief in the
capacity of secretary. Later Governor Francisco de Meneses entrusted him
with the confidential task of writing his defence in reply to charges
against him that had been presented to the government at Lima. This
appeared under the title _Restauración del estado de Arauco, y otros
progresos militares conseguidos por las armas de S. M._ (Lima, 1665). But
the friendly relation between the governor and Tesillo was ultimately
changed to one of hostility, and Tesillo was banished to a frontier fort.
In 1670 he was living at Concepción, and he is supposed to have died
three or four years later at the age of about seventy.
[Sidenote: _Guerra de Chile_]
[Sidenote: Character of Tesillo’s work]
His principal work, _Guerra de Chile, causas de su duración, medios
para su fin_, was completed in 1641, and published in Madrid in
1647. Its title suggests that the author proposed to treat his theme
philosophically, and thus initiate a departure from the chronicle-like
writings of his predecessors. Medina finds in the book certain
observations that reveal an elevated spirit, a judicial character,
judgments on men and affairs, and views more or less developed concerning
military operations, described from year to year from the beginning of
Lazo de la Vega’s administration to the arrival of his successor.[112]
In spite of its title, the characteristics of a chronicle are thus seen
to be distinctive features of some part of the work, and, like most of
the chronicles of the colonies, it fails to maintain a just perspective
of the subject, extensive accounts being sometimes given of unimportant
events, while events of greater importance suffer comparative neglect.
Still Tesillo is not merely a writer of chronicles; he set forth the
causes of movements, reasons for the continuation of the war, the
interests of the two belligerents, their conflicts, their methods of
warfare, the marching of the troops, the astuteness of the Indians, and
all this is done with striking impartiality.[113]
CHAPTER X
WRITERS OF PERU AND NEW GRANADA, 1600-1650.
I. _Juan Bautista Aguilar._ II. _Francisco Vásquez and Toribio
de Ortiguera._ III. _Cristóbal de Acuña._ IV. _Diego de Torres
Bollo._ V. _Antonio de la Calancha._ VI. _Bernabé Cobo._ VII.
_Alonso Mesía Venegas._ VIII. _Pedro Simón._ IX. _Rodríguez
Fresle and Alonso Garzón de Tahuste._ X. _Pedro Fernández de
Quiros, Gobeo de Victoria, and Fernando Montesinos._
I
[Sidenote: Peruvian topics]
[Sidenote: Aguilar defender of the Indians]
[Sidenote: _Restauración y reparo del Perú_]
Writers of Peru and New Granada in the first half of the seventeenth
century had no single absorbing topic, such as the Araucanian war
provided for the Chileans. Their attention was attracted by the abuses
which the Indians suffered under hard masters, the exploration of the
Amazon, the development of the religious orders, and the various
phases of progress in the colonies. Juan Bautista Aguilar was one of
those who appeared as defenders of the Indians. Their need of defence
grew partly out of the fact that in Peru the Indians were less war-like
than the Araucanians of Chile; they had been cowed by the rule of the
Incas, the encomenderos, and the corregidores; and, in many cases, even
the clergy and their concubines, taking advantage of a gentle-spirited
people, imposed grievous burdens upon them. Aguilar was archdeacon
of the cathedral of Arequipa, and in 1615 published, in folio, the
_Restauración y reparo del Perú_. In this work and in a report which he
sent to the king eight years later, he set forth the unfortunate state
of the Indians, their needs, and the scandalous treatment of them by
the corregidores, who enriched themselves by defrauding the Indians of
their property, and by employing them as labourers with little or no
compensation. This report was later sent from Spain to Peru, and Aguilar
caused it to be printed together with communications from many prelates
commending it. But the Spanish government in America, maintaining a
certain esprit de corps, tolerated the notorious extortions of the
corregidores, and remained generally unmoved by appeals for a more humane
treatment of the natives.
II
[Sidenote: Exploration of the Amazon]
[Sidenote: Vásquez’s _Relación_]
[Sidenote: Position of Vásquez]
The most notorious events associated with the discovery and exploration
of the Amazon were those connected with the expedition of Ursúa in 1560,
embracing the conspiracy and revolt of Lope de Aguirre, the projected
creation of an independent state under the nominal headship of Fernando
de Guzmán, the tyrannical domination of the expedition by Aguirre after
the murder of Ursúa and other members of the company, and the riotous
pillaging of Venezuelan towns. A reliable narration of these events is
the _Relación verdadera de todo lo que sucedió en la jornada de Omagua
y Dorado_, written by El Bachiller Francisco Vásquez, who was a soldier
of the expedition, but who refused to take the oath of allegiance to
Fernando de Guzmán, or alienate himself from the kingdom of Castile, or
renounce his loyalty to the king. Having served in this company until
his escape from it at Margarita, Vásquez wrote with personal knowledge
of the events he describes. His title of bachiller and the form of his
narrative indicate that, although a private soldier, he possessed a
degree of cultivation superior to that acquired by the majority of his
comrades. His account was still in manuscript when Bollaert translated
Simón’s _Sixta noticia historial_, which contained the history of Ursúa’s
expedition. From it Simón derived the principal part of his information
on the subject in question, and he did not hesitate to copy considerable
parts of it and present them as his own in his _Conquistas de Tierra
Firme_.[114]
[Sidenote: Ortiguera’s _Jornada_]
Another account of Ursúa’s expedition is found in Toribio de Ortiguera’s
_Jornada del río Marañón_. This is more extensive than Vásquez’s
narrative, and two of its chapters deal with the expedition of Gonzalo
Pizarro and Orellana. Like the narrative by Vásquez, it remained many
years in manuscript, but is now readily accessible in the _Nueva
biblioteca de autores españoles_.[115] Other narratives of Ursúa’s
expedition are found in Castellanos’ _Elegías de varones ilustres de las
Indias_ (Part I, Elegía XIV), and in Piedrahita’s _Historia general del
nuevo reino de Granada_.
The following paragraph is Francisco Vásquez’s description of Lope de
Aguirre:
[Sidenote: Vásquez on Lope de Aguirre]
[Sidenote: Character of Aguirre]
[Sidenote: A Lutheran]
“The tyrant Lope de Aguirre was a man about fifty years old, small
of stature and of an insignificant presence: ugly, with a small and
emaciated face; eyes, which, if he looked fixedly, were restless in
their sockets especially when he was offended. He had a keen and active
mind for an unlettered person. He was a Biscayan, and, according to his
statement, was born at Oñate in the province of Guipuzcoa. He was,
however, unable to find out who his parents were, more definitely than
what he communicated in a letter which he wrote to king Philip, in
which he affirmed that he was an hidalgo; but judging him by his acts,
he appears so cruel and perverse that there was not found or could be
observed in him any goodness or virtue. He was turbulent and determined,
particularly with his followers. He was a great sufferer from certain
difficulties, especially as to sleeping, so that during all the time of
his tyrannical rule he was seldom seen to sleep; except during a brief
period in the day, he was always found awake. He walked much, and always
burdened with considerable weight; he carried continually many arms on
his back; went about often wearing two heavy coats of mail, with a sword,
a dagger, and steel helmet, and carrying an arquebuse or a lance in his
hand. At other times he wore a breastplate. He was naturally an enemy of
the good and virtuous, and thus all virtuous and saintly acts appeared
to him as bad. He was a friend and companion of low and vile men, and
if one was a thief, or had a bad character, or was cruel, he was all the
more Aguirre’s friend. He was always cautious, inconstant, false, and
a deceiver; he was seldom known to tell the truth, and never, or very
seldom, kept his word. He was vicious, lustful, gluttonous with all and
often overcome with wine. He was a bad Christian, a Lutheran heretic or
worse, for he did and said the things we have told in this narrative, the
killing of priests, friars, women, and innocent persons for no fault, and
without giving them an opportunity to confess, although they requested
it, and preparations had been made. He had as a common vice commending
his soul and body to the devil, mentioning his head, his legs, his arms,
and all members. He never spoke a word without blasphemy and cursing
God and His saints. He neither knew how to speak well nor spoke well of
anybody, not even of his friends; he was a defamer of everything; and,
finally there was no vice that was not represented in his person.”[116]
III
[Sidenote: Cristóbal de Acuña]
[Sidenote: Acuña on the Amazon]
Eighty years after Ursúa’s expedition Padre Cristóbal de Acuña made the
journey of the Amazon, and recorded the results of his observations
and inquiries. Immediately before undertaking this voyage Padre Acuña
was the rector of the Jesuits’ college at Cuenca. The occasion of this
journey was offered by the appearance in Quito of the officers of the
expedition organized by Governor Noronha, of Pará. The commander of
the expedition was Pedro de Texeira, who arrived in Quito in 1638. He
remained in that city eleven months, while the bulk of the personnel
of the expedition continued in camp near Ávila. The viceroy finally
offered the needed supplies, and ordered Texeira and his followers to
go back to Pará by the way they came. He also ordered two Jesuits, on
their way to Spain, to accompany the expedition as far as Pará. These
were Cristóbal de Acuña and Andrés Artieda. _El nuevo descubrimiento
del gran río de las Amazonas_ was written by Acuña under orders he had
received to make careful observations, to set down the names of the
Indian tribes, to give an account of their manners and customs, to note
the rivers flowing into the Amazon, and to describe the natural products
of the country bordering on the river. The information gathered he was
required to report to the Council of the Indies, and it was contained in
a volume published in Madrid in 1641. When this voyage was undertaken,
Portugal was still united to Spain, but before the book was issued this
connexion had been dissolved. Referring to this subject Sir Clements R.
Markham, following the French translator, says, “The wretched government
of Philip IV, terrified lest the Portuguese should take advantage of any
information contained in Acuña’s book, and forgetting that Texeira and
all his officers knew quite as much about the Amazons as the Spanish
priest, ordered every copy of the work to be immediately and effectually
destroyed. It has consequently become exceedingly scarce.”[117]
[Sidenote: Service of Acuña]
Acuña was born at Burgos in 1597. In 1612, at the age of fifteen, he
entered the order of the Jesuits, and later was sent to America. Shortly
after his arrival in South America he became rector of the Jesuits’
college at Cuenca de Quito. He was called from this position for the
journey from Quito to Pará, which lasted about eleven months, from
January 16, 1639, to December 12 following. While waiting at Pará for
a ship to take him to Spain, he wrote his _Nuevo descubrimiento_, and
after its publication in Madrid in 1641 we find him at Rome as provincial
of the Jesuits. Later he returned to America, where he was appointed
calificador, or censor, for the Inquisition. He was living in Lima in
1675, and died there in that year.
[Sidenote: Earlier Amazon explorers]
[Sidenote: Dwarfs and Amazons]
In writing this account of the great river of the Amazons Acuña
recognized that he was not the first to make this journey. He was aware
that Orellana and Lope de Aguirre had preceded him. He referred also to
various other attempts that had failed. In making clear and apparently
well grounded statements of physical conditions as they doubtless
appeared to him, the author at the same time shows an inclination to
accept as true the marvellous tales that were told him. His mind received
calmly the story of “a nation of dwarfs as small as little children,” and
another story of a “people who all have their feet turned the wrong way,
so that a person who did not know them, in following their footsteps,
would always walk away from them.”[118] He finds, moreover, “the proofs
of the existence of the province of the Amazons on this river are so
numerous, and so strong, that it would be a want of common faith not to
give them credit.”[119]
[Sidenote: Perpetuation of the race]
“There is no saying more common than that these women inhabit a province
on the river, and it is not credible that a lie could have been spread
throughout so many languages, and so many nations, with such an
appearance of truth.[120] The Amazon women are of great valour, and they
have always preserved themselves without the ordinary intercourse with
men; and even when these, by agreement, come every year to their land,
they receive them with arms in their hands, such as bows and arrows,
which they brandish about for some time, until they are satisfied that
the Indians come with peaceful intentions. They then drop their arms and
go down to the canoes of their guests, where each one chooses the hammock
that is nearest at hand (these being the beds in which they sleep); they
then take them to their houses, and, hanging them in a place where their
owners know them, they receive the Indians as guests for a few days.
After this the Indians return to their own country, repeating these
visits every year at the same season. The daughters who are born from
this intercourse are preserved and brought up by the Amazons themselves,
as they are destined to inherit their valour, and the customs of the
nation, but it is not so certain what they do with the sons.”[121]
IV
[Sidenote: Torres Bollo]
Torres Bollo and Calancha were two important writers who dealt
extensively with the progress of the religious orders.
[Sidenote: Torres Bollo’s offices]
[Sidenote: Torres Bollo in New Granada and Paraguay]
Diego de Torres Bollo’s known achievement in reorganizing and
administering Jesuit affairs in America contributed to the popularity
of his _Historia del Perú_. The most striking feature of his practical
activity was the creation of three Jesuit provinces out of the hitherto
existing single province of Peru. The last third of the sixteenth century
and the first third of the seventeenth century were his effective
years. He was born in 1550, at Villalpando, in old Castile. He studied
at Salamanca, and was later sent to Madrid to enter upon a mercantile
career, for which he seemed to find himself unfitted. He therefore
withdrew from this undertaking, and was admitted to the order of the
Jesuits in 1573. In 1581 he went to Peru. At that time he had already
become a priest; and the next year he was appointed superior of the
Jesuit establishment at Juli. Earlier that institution had been held
to be only a mission, but Torres caused it to be transformed into a
permanent residence of the order. He remained in Juli about three years,
and was afterwards appointed rector of the college at Quito. On his
arrival at Quito he found the inhabitants in revolt as a protest against
taxes imposed by Viceroy García Hurtado de Mendoza. Torres’ service in
allaying the disturbance was recognized by the king in a decree dated
August 18, 1593. His residence in Quito was, however, short, for he
was called to the college of Potosí, and held there the post of rector
until 1599. In that year he was appointed to accompany the visitador,
or inspector, of the province on his tour of inspection. The next year
he was elected by the provincial congregation at Lima to the office of
procurador, and proceeded to Rome and Madrid. At Madrid he received the
favour of the king and of the Duque de Lerma. Taking advantage of this
favourable reception, he used his influence to secure certain reforms in
American affairs: the abolition of the decree which forbade the planting
of vines in America and ordered the destruction of those that had already
been planted; the establishment of a college for the sons of caciques in
each bishopric of the Indies; the foundation of a college at Salamanca
for the education of sons of American nobles; and also the creation of
the Jesuit provinces of Nueva Granada and Paraguay.
Returning from Spain, he arrived at Lima on the 22nd of November,
1604, accompanied by fifty Jesuits, to be distributed among the three
provinces. The inspector Páez, with whom Torres had been associated,
had been appointed provincial, and Torres was now sent to New Granada
to organize the newly created province. On this journey he visited the
religious house at Cartagena, which he had founded in returning from
Europe, and at Bogotá he created the establishment called Santa Clara.
After three years spent in New Granada, visiting various parts of the
country, he returned to Lima in 1607, and then went to the region of the
south-east to organize the province of Paraguay. This province was made
to embrace Chile besides Tucumán and the region about the great rivers
that flow into the Río de la Plata, but Chile soon acquired a measure of
independence as a vice-province. He continued his labours as provincial
until 1618, when he retired to Buenos Aires. Later he was called to
Chuquisaca, and died there August 8, 1638.
[Sidenote: Torres Bollo’s principal works]
Torres’ practical achievements established his reputation during his
lifetime, and his writings have contributed to maintain the memory of his
distinction in later generations. His principal work was _Comentarios
del Perú; breve relación del fruto que se recoge de los indios_, which
appeared first in Italian (Rome, 1603) and immediately afterwards in
Spanish, Latin, French, and German. He is sometimes referred to as having
also written a _Historia del Perú y de los acontecimientos notables
acaecidos en los últimos años_, but this is really the same work as
the one quoted above. His other writings, though less well known, are
important as historical sources.
V
[Sidenote: Antonio de la Calancha]
Among the historians of the first part of the seventeenth century, who
wrote on the affairs of Peru, Antonio de la Calancha occupies a place of
special prominence. He was born in 1584 in Chuquisaca. His father was
Captain Francisco de la Calancha, a Spaniard; his mother was a creole.
At the age of fourteen he became a member of the Augustinian order in
his native city. About the same time Miguel de Aguirre, the author of
_Población de Valdivia_, was born in Chuquisaca, and also adopted the
habit of the Augustinians. From the monastery Calancha went to the
Augustinian college of San Ildefonso in Lima. Throughout his life the
monastery, either in Lima or elsewhere, remained the principal centre
of his activity, from which he went out almost daily to preach and to
confess nuns. He was prior in Trujillo when that city was ruined by the
earthquake of February 14, 1619. Later he held a similar office in Lima.
[Sidenote: _Crónica moralizada_]
Calancha’s principal and most widely known work is the first volume
of the _Crónica moralizada del orden de S. Agustín en el Perú_. It was
published in Barcelona in 1639. A second volume was completed about 1653,
and the next year the author died suddenly at the age of seventy.[122]
Under the title of _Histoire du Pérou_, a French translation of the first
volume appeared in Toulouse in 1653.[123]
[Sidenote: Topics of Calancha’s _Crónica_]
Calancha’s first volume embraces the history of the Augustinian order in
South America during nearly a hundred years following 1551; the founding
of monasteries of the order in Peru, Ecuador, New Granada, and Chile; the
succession of priors, and the monks and nuns who were distinguished by
their labours or their virtues. It deals, moreover, with the topography
and natural products of the country; with the antiquities and traditions
of the Inca empire; with the events of the conquest and the internal
conflicts of the invaders. The history of the Augustinians in Peru begins
with the landing of twelve friars at Callao near the end of May, 1551. A
month later these friars were installed in a house purchased with funds
from the royal treasury.
[Sidenote: Study of astrology]
Besides his inquiries in ecclesiastical history Calancha was attracted
to the study of astrology, from which he presumed to indicate the
forces determining the general character of different aggregations of
inhabitants within his horizon. Here is the diagnosis of the inhabitants
of Potosí:
“In Potosí the signs of Libra and Venus predominate, and thus most
of those who live there incline to be covetous, friends of music and
festivities, zealous in the pursuit of riches, and somewhat given to
lust; their planets are Jupiter and Mercury; the latter inclines them to
be wise, prudent and intelligent in their trade and exchanges, and by
Jupiter to be magnanimous and of liberal minds.”[124]
[Sidenote: Quality of the _Crónica_]
The delusions of his age were naturally shared by Calancha. His faith,
his superstitions, and his disposition to see the law of nature set aside
in a miracle at any moment seem to men of this more critical century
incompatible with his evident learning and intellectual ability. Yet with
all these qualities that seem to indicate a certain mental simplicity, he
wrote a great narrative. The nine hundred and twenty-two double-column
folio pages of the first volume, barring the record of the delusions and
superstitions of his times, do not suggest weakness, but remain as a
monument of intellectual vigor.[125]
VI
[Sidenote: Bernabé Cobo]
The natural history of America is especially emphasized by Bernabé
Cobo in his _Historia del nuevo mundo_. This work consists of three
parts, each part divided into a number of books. The fourteen books
of the first part deal with the universe in general, the geography of
Peru, the animal kingdom, plants, fishes, birds, insects, reptiles, and
quadrupeds; the animals and plants introduced by the Spaniards and their
increase; the nature, condition, and customs of the Indians, particularly
the Indians of Peru. The second part, in fifteen books, contains an
account of the discovery and occupation of the provinces of Peru; the
governors, the viceroys, the rule of the Spaniards, and the conduct of
the government with respect to the Indians; a description of Peru and
a description of America outside of Peru. The third part deals chiefly
with Mexico; the conquest and the general character of the country;
the governors; the foundation of the city of Mexico; and the dependent
islands as far as the Philippines.
[Sidenote: _Historia del nuevo mundo_]
The _Historia del nuevo mundo_, edited by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada,
was published in four volumes (1890-1895) at Seville. Extracts from it
had already been printed in Madrid and in Lima. These were a _Descripción
del Perú_, edited by Antonio José Cavanilles in the _Anales de historia
natural_ that was issued at Madrid between 1799 and 1804, and _Historia
de Lima_, edited by Manuel González de la Rosa, in the first volume of
the _Colección de historiadores del Perú_.
[Sidenote: Cobo’s Career]
[Sidenote: Cobo in Peru & Mexico]
Cobo had prepared himself for his somewhat ambitious undertaking by his
studies at the Jesuit college at Lima, by keeping in mind his plan for
many years, and by persistent and systematic observations and inquiries
during his many and extensive journeys. He was born in Lopero, a town of
Jaén in Spain, in 1582. He left Spain for America in 1596. He was carried
away on the current of emigration, moved by the desire for adventure and
wealth that set strongly towards Peru in the last half of the sixteenth
century. He visited the Antilles and Venezuela, and arrived at Lima in
the beginning of 1599. Through the influence of a Jesuit whom he met on
the voyage from Panama to Callao, he obtained a scholarship, and entered
the college of San Martín. Fifteen years later, in 1615, having been
admitted to the Society, he was sent to Juli, and for three years was
engaged in missionary work at Potosí, Cochabamba and La Paz. From 1618
to 1621 he was rector of the college at Arequipa, and afterwards, for
five years, resided at the house of the Jesuits in Pisco. From 1627 to
1630 he was the rector of the college at Callao; but at the end of this
service he was sent to Mexico, where he remained for twenty years. At a
date not known with certainty he returned to Lima, and died there on the
9th of October, 1657, at the age of seventy-five. During the sixty-one
years of his residence in America he gathered the detailed information
that was embodied in his _Historia_, which, with the exception of the
fragments already mentioned, remained in manuscript two hundred and fifty
years.[126]
In the seventh chapter of the _Historia de Lima_ Cobo gives a glimpse of
the valley of the Rimac as it appeared to him about a hundred years after
the conquest:
[Sidenote: Valley of the Rimac]
“The river of Lima is the larger, the other is called Caraguayllo, and
rises in the province of Canta, in the general cordillera, about twenty
leagues from the sea, into which it empties two leagues from the mouth
of the river of Lima. The irrigating ditches that lead out from these
two rivers are innumerable; they are distributed throughout the valley;
some are so big at their beginnings that they appear to be rivers of
considerable volume, which draw their water from the river of Lima; we
call them ditches of Surco, because they lead to a town of that name, the
lands of which they irrigate, as well as those of three other towns, and
altogether more than forty estates, or ranches, of Spaniards, residents
of this city, and there is among them an estate comprising two leagues of
land.
[Sidenote: The fair prospect of the Rimac valley]
“Through the efficiency of these canals, or ditches, which develop
and fertilize the country, it is at all times green, pleasant, and
delightful, offering to the view a fresh and serene spring; and all the
country estates have houses whither the residents of Lima were accustomed
to go for recreation (without misgivings lest rain might disturb their
fiestas and pleasures, for it never rains); they add greatly to the
beauty of the valley; especially are very marked the freshness and
verdure, which the olive trees, the plantains, and the cane fields give
to it. The innumerable gardens of fruit trees, such as orange, quince,
pomegranate and fig; vineyards and orchards with all kinds of the fruits
of the country and of Spain; the palms from afar seem to dominate the
other trees; and the alfalfa fields with their perpetual and luxuriant
freshness beautify all the environs of the city. They are so extensive
that they occupy a good part of this level region, for the alfalfa is
the common fodder of the horses and other work animals of the city and
country, so that this city has very agreeable surroundings on all sides.”
VII
[Sidenote: Classes of Jesuit writings]
[Sidenote: _Cartas anuas_; _varones ilustres_]
The most numerous of the Jesuit writings were the _Cartas anuas_, or
reports from the several districts concerning the work of the Jesuits
and the most important general events of the period covered; the _Vidas
de varones ilustres_, or the lives of distinguished Jesuits; and
_Cartas de edificación_. Padre Alonso Mesía Venegas’ _Historia de los
varones insignes de la provincia del Perú de la Compañía de Jesús_ is a
conspicuous instance of the writings of the second class. The author was
born in Seville in 1557; went to Peru with the family of Count Villar,
the viceroy, in 1585; was educated under Jesuit influence and entered
the order; became the procurador of Peru; and subsequently was appointed
the rector of the college in Cuzco. In the execution of his duties as
procurador he went to Rome and Madrid and on his return to America served
as rector of the college at Potosí. It was Venegas who carried to Europe
samples of quina, which had already been administered with beneficial
results to the Condesa de Chinchón, wife of the viceroy.
[Sidenote: Venegas suspected and banished]
For a period of three years, from 1637 to 1640, Venegas was established
at the college of San Pablo. Viceroy Mancera suspected him of being the
author of certain reports sent to Spain, describing acts of the viceroy
as arbitrary and unjust, and expelled him from Peru. A year later, the
really guilty person having been discovered, the order of expulsion was
revoked. Venegas then returned to the college of San Pablo, where he died
October 17, 1649.
[Sidenote: Juan de Urquiza]
Another teacher and writer of Lima, whose death occurred at Porto Bello
twenty years later than that of Venegas, was Juan de Urquiza. He had been
engaged for twenty-four years in the college of Lima, and during this
period he wrote _Tractatus de profundissima sciencia_ and _Relación de la
fundación de la real audiencia del Cuzco_. The second of these documents
was published in Madrid in 1795.[127]
VIII
[Sidenote: Pedro Simón’s _Noticias_]
[Sidenote: Life of Simón: his journeys]
[Sidenote: Simón on Lope de Aguirre]
An instance of long-delayed publication is offered by that part of Pedro
Simón’s work which now forms the second, third, fourth and fifth volumes
of his _Noticias historiales de las conquistas de Tierra Firme en las
Indias occidentales_, written in the first half of the seventeenth
century and printed in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Simón
was born at Parrilla, near Cuenca, in Spain, in 1574, and began writing
in 1623 at the age of forty-nine. He was educated in the monastery of
San Francisco de Cartagena in Spain, and was sent to South America in
1604 to teach theology and the arts. The early part of Simón’s career
in New Granada thus fell in the long incumbency of President Juan de
Borja (1605-1626), whom he accompanied in the campaign against the
Pijaos Indians. The first part of his _Noticias historiales_ dealt with
the history of the early explorations of the territory now claimed by
Venezuela, and is based largely on information gathered on a journey
through that region. Embarking at Coro, he visited the Antilles, and
returned to Bogotá. Among other places reached in his travels were
Antioquía, Cartagena, and Santa Marta. During these journeys he collected
much of the material for his narrative directly from persons who
participated in the events in question, or who had lived near enough to
them to hear and remember the current tales about them. Other sources
were the writings of Castellanos and a manuscript of Bachiller Francisco
Vásquez. “Indeed page after page of Simón is transcribed word for word
from the manuscript of Vásquez.”[128] Still another source of information
from which Simón may have drawn was Ortiguera’s manuscript account of the
“Expedition down the Marañón” which does not differ essentially from that
of Vásquez. The narration of the events of this expedition constitutes
the most noteworthy section of the first part of Simón’s work. The four
volumes more recently published treat of the discoveries made through the
valley of the Magdalena, together with the discoveries, explorations, and
early history of the regions about Cartagena, Popayán, Antioquía, and
Chocó.[129]
[Sidenote: Death of Lope de Aguirre]
Simón’s account of the death of the bloodthirsty Lope de Aguirre
furnishes an indication of the general characteristics of our author’s
style and a suggestion of the voluminous details of his narratives:[130]
“The maestre del campo, seeing that he had the victory in his own hands,
despatched a mounted messenger to inform the governor and others as to
the satisfactory state of affairs, and then marched straight on Aguirre’s
quarters.
[Sidenote: Aguirre murders his daughter]
[Sidenote: Ledesme scorned by the traitor]
“The traitor, on seeing that he had been abandoned by all except Llamoso,
asked him why he had not gone with the rest, and taken advantage of the
king’s pardon? Llamoso replied that he and Aguirre had been friends in
life, and that he would live or die with him. Aguirre made no reply; he
was crestfallen and lost; he went into an apartment where his daughter
was (who was now a woman) in company with another female, named Tarralva,
of Molina de Aragón in Castile, who had come from Peru in company with
the traitors. She cannot have been of great age, for in 1612 I saw
her (she was then very young) in the city of Barquisimeto. The devil
instigated Aguirre to kill his daughter, so as to crown all his cruel
acts with this most bloody and unnatural one, that of the destruction
of his own flesh and blood. He said to her, ‘Commend thyself to God, my
daughter, for I am about to kill thee, that thou mayest not be pointed at
with scorn, nor be in the power of anyone who may call thee the daughter
of a traitor.’ Torralva tried to save the girl, and even managed to take
the loaded arquebuse from the hands of the father, which he was about to
fire at his victim; but Aguirre had a poniard, and with it he took her
life. Having done this, he rushed to the door of the apartment; but when
he perceived that the king’s forces were upon him, his very hands lost
the power of firing off his arquebuse at them, so as to sell his life
dearly; and, in the most dejected manner, he threw all his arms on the
ground, and went and leant upon a miserable barbacoa or bed place, that
was in the room (opposite that in which he had killed his daughter). One
of the first to enter (before the maestre del campo), was one Ledesme, a
sword-cutler and inhabitant of Tucuyo, who when he saw García de Paredes
enter, thinking to make himself of importance, said, ‘Here I have Aguirre
as my prisoner.’ The traitor replied, ‘I do not give myself up to such a
villain as you,’ and perceiving Paredes, said, ‘Señor maestre del campo,
I beg that you, who are a caballero, will respect my rank, and listen,
for I have many important things to say, for the good of the king’s
service.’
“García de Paredes replied that he should be respected; but some of
Aguirre’s former soldiers, fearing if he were allowed to live it might
go hard with them—for he might reveal what they had done during the
expedition—persuaded the maestre del campo that the best, safest, and
most honourable course was to cut off his head at once, and before the
governor’s arrival. This view of the case was not displeasing to the
maestre del campo, and so he told Aguirre to prepare himself for death,
and commanded two of his own Marañónes to shoot him down with their
arquebuses. This they did at once and the traitor fell dead at their
feet.... A soldier named Custodio Hernández now fell upon the dead body,
and, by order of the maestre del campo, cut the head off and taking hold
of the hair, which was very long, he brought it out to show it to the
governor, who was just arriving thinking to do him honour.”
IX
[Sidenote: Rodríguez Fresle]
[Sidenote: Fresle’s book]
A striking little book of this period, but published later, is _Conquista
y descubrimiento del nuevo reino de Granada_ by Rodríguez Fresle,
sometimes referred to as _El Carnero_. It was written in the first half
of the seventeenth century between April, 1636, and June, 1638, but it
was not printed until 1859. The author was born in Bogotá April 25, 1566.
His father was one of the conquistadores of the country. For a time he
was in the service of Alonso Pérez de Salazar, a judge of the audiencia
of his native city, and he accompanied him to Spain when he was promoted
to be fiscal of the Council of the Indies. His patron died, however,
six months after his appointment, and Rodríguez Fresle was left, as he
said, “como hijo de oidor muerto.” He was left in poverty, and remained
six years in Spain. After his return to New Granada he was engaged in
agriculture, but there appears to be little information extant concerning
the success of his undertakings in this field, or, in fact, concerning
the later years of his life, and the date of his death is unknown. For
a brief period of his later life, beginning the day he completed his
seventieth year, he was occupied in writing his chronicle. Vergara refers
to the author’s style as “natural y correcto, animadísimo a las veces”;
no writer of his time excelled him in the _local flavour which he knew
how to give_ to his lively narrative.[131]
[Sidenote: Garzón de Tahuste]
[Sidenote: _Poema heroico de San Ignacio_]
Two works by Alonso Garzón de Tahuste, belonging properly to this
period, were lost as manuscripts. They were _Sucesión de prelados y
jueces seculares del nuevo reino de Granada_ and _Historia antigua de
los Chibchas_. The first of these existed in two copies, one in Madrid,
used by Piedrahita, and the other in Bogotá, used by Zamora. Tahuste was
born at Timaná about 1558, studied in Bogotá, and was for fifty years
Cura Rector of the Cathedral of Bogotá, from 1585. The loss of these and
other manuscripts, many of which would have had very little influence
on the progress of literature, was to a certain extent due to the lack
of facilities for printing in New Granada, and in a measure also to the
neglect suffered by collections of books and papers in periods of social
disturbance. One of the poems of the last half of the seventeenth century
rescued from complete oblivion was the _Poema heroico de San Ignacio_ by
Hernando Domínguez Camargo. It was published in Madrid in 1666, although
not complete. It was written in octave stanzas, but does not rise above
the lower levels of mediocrity.[132]
X
[Sidenote: Quiros’ Voyages]
Interesting narratives of adventure are contained in the third volume of
Pedro Fernández de Quiros’ _Historia del descubrimiento de las regiones
austriales_, edited by Justo Zaragoza (Madrid, 1876). Parts of the
contents of these volumes were published by the Hakluyt Society (London,
1904) in an English translation by Sir Clements Markham, entitled, _The
Voyages of Pedro Fernández de Quiros 1595 to 1606_. One of the most
striking episodes of this work is the story of the dreadful voyage from
the Santa Cruz islands to Manila, setting forth the almost complete
destruction of the ship, the death of Adelantado Mendaña, the accession
of his widow to the chief command, the starvation and death that
exhausted and depleted the crew, and the hungry survivors’ final arrival
in the Philippines. Here they were at first uncertain whether they had
reached a friendly country or that of an enemy, for it had been reported
in Peru, “that Japan was preparing an attack with a great fleet.”[133]
[Sidenote: Half-starved crew in the Philippines]
But they found the natives to be “peaceful Christians who brought fowls
and pigs at two or three reals a piece together with palm wine, by
drinking which some of us talked various languages; also many cocoa
nuts, plantains, sweet canes, papayas, roots, water in bamboo joints,
and fuel. They took in exchange reals, knives, and glass beads, which
they value more than silver. During these days and nights the galley fire
was never put out, nor was there any cessation of kneading and cooking,
or of eating the boiled of one and the roast of another, so that they
were eating day and night.... The sick, being so little accustomed to
abundance of food, and eating without moderation, did themselves serious
harm; three or four even died of it.”[134] In fact, fifty died on the
voyage from Santa Cruz to Manila, where the vessel arrived on the 11th of
February, 1596.
[Illustration: Antonio de Mendoza, 2nd Viceroy of Peru 1551-1552]
Quiros was by birth a Portuguese and was born in Evora in 1565. He was
brought up in Lisbon, and at the age of twenty-four, in 1589, he married
Ana Chacón, of Madrid. Six years later he accepted the post of chief
pilot in the ship destined by Alvaro de Mendaña to take a colony to the
Solomon Islands. The prospects for a peaceful voyage were not favourable.
Mendaña’s wife and her two brothers and a quarrelsome old soldier as camp
master offered adequate material for misunderstandings and hostility.
The death of Mendaña and his brother-in-law Lorenzo Barreto, seemed
to diminish somewhat the elements of conflict, but the arbitrary and
unreasonable conduct of the widow in command, and the lack of discipline
kept the ship’s company in turmoil and sometimes carried it to the verge
of mutiny.
[Sidenote: Quiros and his great vision]
[Sidenote: Quiros furnished ships by the king]
Out of the experience of this voyage there came to Quiros the vision of
a great antarctic continent stretching across the southern part of the
earth from America to Asia. By proving to the world the existence of
this continent he hoped to obtain for himself a place with Columbus and
Da Gama in the list of the great discoverers. To acquire the means that
would enable him to carry out his proposed undertaking he visited the
viceroy in Lima, presented his project to the pope at Rome, and from
Clement VIII and the duke Sesa he received letters recommending him to
the Spanish government. In spite of the demoralization of the the court
and the rapid decline of the government towards bankruptcy there remained
still the hope of adding to the glory that Columbus had conferred upon
the nation; and through the council of State the king issued an order to
the viceroy of Peru instructing him to fit out two ships at Callao to
enable Quiros to undertake a voyage for the discovery of the antarctic
continent. The inevitable delays followed. Finally two ships were
prepared, and in December, 1605, Quiros was ready to set sail to realize
the object of his vision. A narrative of this voyage is found in the
_Historia_ edited by Zaragoza.[135]
Quiros’ return, his disappointment, the poverty of his later years, and
his many vain appeals to the king for further assistance are incidents
in the melancholy ending of a great visionary.
[Sidenote: Pedro Gobeo de Victoria]
The _Naufragio y viaje en las costas del Perú_, by Padre Pedro Gobeo de
Victoria, was one of the more widely circulated narratives of personal
adventure. The author, whose experience furnished abundant material for
his story, was born in Seville in 1560. He went to America at the age of
thirteen and during his journeys was at various times engaged in combats
with pirates, suffered shipwreck, and encountered about all the other
perils known to land or sea. After many years of a troubled existence, he
entered the order of the Jesuits at Lima in 1597. For thirteen years he
enjoyed a comparatively peaceful existence. He returned to Spain in 1610.
He died at Seville at the age of seventy. His book has been translated
into various languages. A Latin translation was published in 1647, of
which a new edition was issued in 1688. The first edition in Spanish
appeared in 1610.[136]
About the middle of the seventeenth century attention was again directed
to the history and institutions of the Inca Kingdom, this time by
Fernando Montesinos, who wrote _Memorias antiguas históricas y políticas
del Perú_. This treatise shows a large use of the imagination, and in
this respect differs from the writings of Cieza de León and Sarmiento.
The author passes in review some of the earlier writers on Peruvian
history. He laments the confidence given to Garcilaso de la Vega;
reproaches Xerés for his brevity; praises the accuracy of Zárate; finds
Cieza de León’s descriptions true; and regards Las Casas as merely a
declaimer. He sets down a long list of kings not discovered by other
historians. His imagination is inflamed by the idea of much gold, and
is given full play in his description of El Dorado, which he believes
to exist in the interior of the continent. His fancy, moreover,
determines the character of his work called _Ofir de España o memorias
antiguas y nuevas del Perú_. He finds Peru to have been the Ophir of
the Old Testament, and describes the route by which Solomon’s fleet
reached that country. But Montesinos descends to the dreadful reality
in his description of the auto de la fe held in Lima January 23,
1639. On this occasion eighty persons were sentenced, of whom twelve
were burned. Certain practical treatises on metals were the result of
his diligent literary activity; the titles of two of these are the
following: _Directorio de beneficiadores de metales y arte de ellos_
and _Conservación del azogue que se pierde sobreaguado entre lamas y
relaves_. The description of the auto de la fe was published in Madrid
in 1640. A translation of the _Memorias_ into French was published by
Ternaux-Compans in 1840, entitled _Mémoires historiques sur l’ancien
Pérou_. In 1920 an English translation was issued in London by the
Hakluyt Society.
CHAPTER XI
THE LAST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
I. _Juan de Barrenechea y Albis; Luis de Oviedo y Hererra;
Juan del Valle y Caviedes._ II. _Ignacio de Arbieto; Jacinto
Barrasa; José de Buendía._ III. _Jerónimo de Quiroga; Anello
Oliva; Diego Ojeda Gallinato; Martín Velasco._ IV. _Lucas
Fernández de Piedrahita._ V. _Pedro Claver; Juan Flórez de
Ocáriz._ VI. _Anales del Cuzco._ VII. _Manuel Rodríguez; Samuel
Fritz._
I
[Sidenote: _Cautiverio feliz_]
The colonial writers of the second half of the seventeenth century and
the early decades of the eighteenth century continued to find their
principal subjects in the military and civil affairs of the colonies. In
Chile the chief topic was the interminable Indian wars. The _Cautiverio
feliz_, by Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, was so far successful that it
served in some sense as a model for writers who wished to depart from a
strictly statistical treatment of their subjects; for, while treating of
the common theme, Pineda y Bascuñán gave indications of a certain degree
of imagination, and his work appealed to a permanent human interest by
presenting the elements of a good story, by its discussion and criticism
of public affairs, and by its exposition of abuses and demands for
correction.
[Sidenote: Juan de Barrenechea y Albis]
[Sidenote: _Restauración de la Imperial_]
The manuscript entitled _Restauración de la Imperial y conversión de
almas infieles_, by Juan de Barrenechea y Albis, sometimes rises to a
plane of a general interest. The author evidently set out to write an
heroic novel, in which should figure elevated sentiments and an intense
patriotism, the whole to be drawn on a background of Chilean history; the
part of the history that was especially presented was an account of the
campaigns of Governor Alonso de Sotomayor. But from this general theme
Barrenechea sometimes turned aside to discuss the war, its objects, and
the manner in which it had been carried on in Chile. In spite of the more
or less dramatic action of the characters, the author shows that he is
still dealing with realities by citing governmental decrees, by treating
of the customs of the Indians and by raising inquiries as to the most
efficacious method of restoring the churches in the destroyed towns. But
the author, as a pious friar, could not be expected to leave his work
merely as a story with a number of reflections on worldly affairs, and
thus throughout the writing runs the conventional babble of his class,
that here on earth all is misery, and that only beyond this life there
will be no tears and no sorrow. There are introduced into each of these
books more or less extensive passages in verse, on account of which the
authors are regarded not only as prose writers but also as poets.
[Illustration: From the first edition of Oviedo Herrera’s _Vida de Sta
Rosa de Sta María_]
Juan Barrenechea was born in Concepción in 1669; was sent to Lima to
study theology in the University of San Marcos, and after his return to
Santiago became a lecturer on philosophy and theology in the Order of
Mercy, to which he belonged. Later he was promoted to be the provincial
of his order, and, having returned to Lima, wrote there the work already
referred to.
[Sidenote: Oviedo’s _Santa Rosa_]
[Sidenote: The theme of the poem]
The metrical form of certain writings, as already indicated, does not
necessarily exclude them from the realm of historical literature. Thus
the “poema heroico” by Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, Conde de la
Granja, on _La vida de Santa Rosa de Santa María_ is a bit of history,
although in verse. The young woman who is celebrated in Oviedo’s
verses was born in Lima in 1586 and died there in 1617. Her father,
Gaspar Flores, was a member of the viceregal guard under the viceroy,
the Marqués de Cañete. Her mother, a native of Lima, was a daughter
of Francisco de Oliva, who was also born in Peru. She was baptized as
Isabel, but her mother was accustomed to call her Rosa on account of her
beauty. She was generally known by this name during her life, and when
she was canonized she became Santa Rosa de Santa María. Her devotion to
the Church and her religious zeal, manifesting itself sometimes in a
state of nervous exaltation akin to hysteria, made a deep impression on
persons who knew of her, and induced the ecclesiastical authorities to
proceed to her beatification and canonization. Evidence of the depth of
this impression is seen in the fact that Oviedo, Conde de la Granja, an
officer of the army, and governor of Potosí, made her the subject of one
of his principal poems, in the first octave of which he states his theme:
No canto las hazañas, las victorias
De varón inmortal, campeón guerrero,
Ni de la fama, célebres memorias,
Que en bronce y mármol, esculpió el acero;
De sagrada heroina canto glorias,
Que nació Rosa para ser lucero,
Y con humildo corazón profundo,
Triunfó de Lucifer, de sí, del mundo.
Oviedo’s poem on Santa Rosa consists of twelve cantos, and was published
in Madrid in 1711. The form is sufficiently indicated by the foregoing
stanza. The author describes the city of Lima and the grandeur of its
position in the valley of the Rumac; he presents many events in the
conquests of Peru: the idolatry of the Indians; the birth and youth of
Santa Rosa; and enumerates her virtues with an extravagance of expression
supposed to be consistent with the poetic form. In other cantos the
author writes of the city of Quito, the kingdom of the Incas, the
expeditions of Drake, Hawkins, and Spilberg, and the means of defence
organized by the Peruvians. Among Oviedo’s other writings reference is
made to a long poem on the passion of Christ (Lima, 1717) which sets
forth various evil passions in society, such as envy, ingratitude, and
the spirit of adulation.[137]
[Sidenote: Juan del Valle y Caviedes]
In the middle of the nineteenth century Odriozola published a collection
of verses written by Juan del Valle y Caviedes in the last part of the
seventeenth century. The author was born in Lima, and was the son of a
rich Spanish merchant. At the age of twenty he went to Spain, where he
remained three years, and at the expiration of this period the death of
his father obliged him to return to Lima. Finding himself in possession
of a considerable fortune, he entered upon a career of vicious and
extravagant expenditure, wasting a large part of his inheritance and
greatly impairing his health. After a severe illness he determined to
reform his mode of life, married, and, in order to preserve the remainder
of his property, he opened a shop for the sale of a thousand and one
common and cheap articles. The death of his wife made him feel the need
of consolation, and he sought it in alcoholic drink, by which he found
oblivion of his sorrow in death in 1692, before he had completed his
fortieth year.
[Sidenote: Valle y Caviedes’ poems]
His poems, extensively circulated in manuscript during his life, made
him widely known, but in the course of the century and a half following
his death he passed very largely out of the public memory. The two
collections of these poems published by Odriozola were called _Diente
del Parnaso_ and _Poesías serias y jocosas_. In an introduction to
these poems as published, Ricardo Palma wrote: “Caviedes was a most
unfortunate poet. Many times I have encountered his verses in periodicals
of Peru or of foreign countries, either anonymous or signed by some
vagabond, but never have I found under them the signature of the true
author. In life Caviedes was the victim of quacks; and in death the
victim of literary pirates.”
[Sidenote: On medical science in Peru]
The low state of medical science in Peru in the last half of the
seventeenth century called forth from Caviedes numerous critical and
satirical references to the ignorance and lamentable practice of Peruvian
physicians. Viceroy Liñán y Cisneros (1679-1681), in his account of the
state of the viceroyalty, made for his successor, the duke of Palata,
refers to the miserable state of medical science and practice in Peru,
the lack of revenue and the consequent abandonment of instruction in
medicine, and the exposure of the health of the population to the mercy
of pretentious ignorance. Gutiérrez wrote of Caviedes that he “had no
convictions acquired by study hostile to the uncertainties of the science
of medicine. He knew by observation that the disciples of Hippocrates
kill when they make mistakes, and the instinct of preservation and love
of life put terrible arms into his hands, against those who, in his view,
had once brought him to the brink of the grave. His vengeance was cruel.
Ill-will served him as a muse, and it cannot be denied that in many of
his compositions there was manifest true inspiration.”[138]
II
[Sidenote: Sons of nobles sent to Peru]
In spite of the wealth which the New World had poured into Spain many
of the noble families were poor in the seventeenth century, and some
of these found it difficult to give their sons such an education as
their talents and station demanded. Frequently young persons of this
class secured positions as pages in the viceroy’s household, and were
educated under his supervision, sometimes remaining in Peru and acquiring
distinction in the affairs of the state or the Church. Some of them with
the viceroy’s approval joined religious orders. Ignacio de Arbieto is an
instance of one who became a Jesuit.
[Sidenote: Arbieto’s life and writings]
He was born in Madrid in 1585. At Lima he studied in the college of San
Pablo, later taught Latin in the same institution, became professor of
philosophy at Quito, was transferred to the college in Arequipa, where
he became rector of the institution, returned to the college of San
Pablo in Lima as professor of theology, was appointed rector of the
college at Chuquisaca, and subsequently took up his duties as rector of
the college of San Martín in Lima. After long service as professor and
rector of various colleges of the Society, he died in Lima on August 7,
1676. During his last years he served as counsellor of the provincial,
and at the same time was occupied in writing his _Historia del Perú y de
las fundaciones que ha hecho en él la Compañía de Jesús_. A _Suma de las
obras teológicas del P. Francisco Suárez_ is attributed to Padre Arbieto.
[Sidenote: Arbieto’s successor]
[Sidenote: Barrasa’s _Historia de las fundaciones_]
The failure of Arbieto’s work to receive the approval of the General
of the Society led to the demand that another person should be charged
with writing the history of the Jesuit foundations. By vote of the
provincial congregation of 1674 Padre Jacinto Barrasa was appointed to
undertake the task, which he completed in a manuscript volume of 1350
pages to the satisfaction of the authorities; but this appears not
to have been published. The book was more exclusively devoted to the
affairs of the Jesuits than were most of the writings of the Jesuit
historians. He treated neither of the political history of the country
nor of its geography, affirming that these phases of the subject had
been sufficiently presented by Calancha in his _Crónica moralizada_.
His course with respect to the second subject was altogether unusual,
for from the beginning even to the present geographical description has
been a conspicuous feature of South American writings. The real theme
of Barrasa’s book is sufficiently set forth in its title: _Historia de
las fundaciones de los colegios y casas de la provincia del Perú de la
Compañía de Jesús, con la noticia de las vidas y virtudes religiosas de
algunos varones ilustres que en ella trabajaron_.
The fame acquired by Barrasa during his life rested chiefly on his
work as a professor and as a preacher. Two volumes of his sermons were
published in Madrid in 1678, and another volume in Lima in 1678.
Padre Barrasa died at the college of San Pablo in Lima on November 22,
1704.
[Sidenote: José de Buendía, the distinguished Jesuit of Lima]
Padre José de Buendía, as historian, sacred orator, and philosopher, is
called “one of the literary glories of Peru in the seventeenth century.”
His especially noteworthy _Vida del venerable padre Francisco del
Castillo de la Compañía de Jesús, natural de Lima, 1615-1673_, (Madrid,
1693), became more widely known than his other works. Its value consists
not merely in its account of the life of Castillo but also in its
references to the history of Peru, and to the lives of many other Jesuits
of the province. It contains, moreover, an account of the earthquake of
1787. This part was published by Odriozola at Lima in 1863.
[Sidenote: _La estrella de Lima_]
_La estrella de Lima_ was issued under the name of Francisco de Echave y
Assu, but it is affirmed by Saldamando that its author was Buendía.[139]
But whatever may be the decision on this point, the book itself has
a recognized value for the history of Peru. It contains an account
of the ceremonies attending the beatification of Archbishop Toribio
Alfonso Mogrovejo, later Santo Toribio; biographies of Mogrovejo and of
succeeding archbishops; important references to bishops, inquisitors,
councillors, judges, viceroys, and other persons whose illustrious
lives contributed to the glory of Lima. It describes, moreover, the
metropolitan church and cites an abundance of facts of historic interest.
Buendía acquired distinction also by his sermons and “funeral orations.”
Padre José de Buendía was born in Lima in 1644, left the college of San
Martín in 1665, taught philosophy in the college of San Pablo and at
Cuzco, and died May 4, 1727. His life, apart from his writings has left
no conspicuous record.
III
[Sidenote: Jerónimo de Quiroga]
[Sidenote: _Memoria de las cosas de Chile_]
[Sidenote: Quiroga’s _Compendio histórico_]
In 1643 rumours ran through the western colonies that the Dutch were
preparing to invade Chile. The prospect of this invasion induced the
viceroy of Peru to send a body of three hundred soldiers to strengthen
the military forces already in the southern colony. Jerónimo de Quiroga,
then a youth of eighteen, was a member of this company, and arrived
in Chile near the end of the year. He apparently remained there in
the service, for a few years later, at the age of thirty-three, he
married a young woman of a prominent family of Santiago, and not long
afterwards he was advanced to the rank of captain of cavalry. During
the next thirty-five or forty years he rendered important services to
the state in both military and civil undertakings. One of his military
commissions was the taking of three thousand arms from Mendoza over the
Andes to Concepción. He was a life member of the ayuntamiento of Santiago
by royal confirmation. He had general charge of the construction of
the cathedral for a period, and contributed largely towards the work
from his own funds. He directed the fortification of Valparaiso and
Concepción, and repaired the more or less ruined fortifications of the
southern frontier.[140] He held various military commands, particularly
that of chief of the militia of Chile for a period of seventeen years,
and the governor turned to him for a method of reducing the Indians
of the frontier to civilization. At the close of his military career,
during which, especially in the later years, he encountered opposition
and intrigue, at the age of seventy he turned to the task of writing the
history of his country down to the events of his own time. His life in
Chile had covered a considerable part of this period, and for this reason
his book was properly called _Memoria de las cosas de Chile_. Medina
reports that only an extract of the first part has been preserved, and
that this was published in the twenty-third volume of the _Semanario
erudito_ of Madrid in 1788. This extract was called _Compendio histórico
de los más principales sucesos de la conquista y guerras del reino de
Chile hasta el año de 1656_. The critical judgment respecting Quiroga’s
style—his rapidity of narration, conciseness of expression, and the
harmony and facility of his phrases—indicates the degree of loss suffered
in the disappearance of the complete work.[141]
[Sidenote: Anello Oliva’s _Varones ilustres_]
Of Padre Anello Oliva little appears to be known aside from the fact that
he was born in Naples and became a member of the Society of Jesus. His
principal work is entitled _Vidas de varones ilustres de la Compañía de
Jesús de la provincia del Perú_. The sub-title describes the contents
more fully, announcing that the first of the four books treats of the
kingdom and provinces of Peru, the Incas, the discovery and conquest
by the Spaniards; and that the three other books describe the lives of
the Jesuits written, as one critic informs us, solely with the object
of preserving the memory of the Jesuits the most distinguished in the
virtues and in the observation of the rules of the Society, in order
that they might serve as examples to their successors; but offering no
interest to the historian, since they are limited, for the most part, to
referring to the manner in which these distinguished Jesuits succeeded in
reaching a high degree of perfection, and to eulogizing the merit which
they attained.[142]
[Sidenote: _Histoire du Pérou_]
In 1857 M. Ternaux Compans published the first book of Oliva’s _Vidas_
in a French translation made from the unpublished manuscript, under the
title, _Histoire du Pérou_. This book of Oliva’s work forms in some
sense an introduction to the lives of illustrious men. The persons whose
biographies made up the body of the work were Ruiz Portillo, José Acosta,
Baltasar Piñas, Juan Sebastián, Rodrigo de Cabrevo, Juan de Atienza,
Estevan Páez, Juan de Frías Herrán, Gonzalo de Lyra, and Juan Romero. The
first book was printed in Lima from the original Spanish manuscript in
1895.
[Sidenote: Grandezas de Lima]
[Sidenote: Ojeda’s opinions]
Long and dull years of isolation in the dependencies and ignorance of
the conditions of the older countries led the colonists to exaggerate
or overestimate what they saw in the cities of South America. If
they celebrated the accession of a king of Spain, it seemed to them
that nowhere else had there been seen such magnificence. In writing,
therefore, of the capital of Peru, Diego Ojeda Gallinato very naturally
entitled his book _Grandezas de Lima_. This book, Mendiburu says, is
extremely rare even in Spain, and that he had not been able to obtain
a copy of it. But other writers who had used it give some notions of
Ojeda’s opinions, particularly of the inhabitants of Peru, who appeared
to him, especially those descended from Spanish ancestors, discreet,
liberal, energetic, and possessed of most active minds; and what most
excited admiration was to see how early intelligence dawned in the
children.[143]
[Sidenote: Velasco’s _Arte de sermones_]
The grandiloquent style that prevailed in Spanish literature and in
Spanish preaching incited the Franciscan friar Martín Velasco, to write
his treatise on Rhetoric under the title, _Arte de sermones_, printed in
Cadiz in 1675. Little is known of Velasco’s life beyond the fact that he
was born in Bogotá, and lived in the Franciscan monastery of that city.
The key to his doctrine appears to be contained in these two sentences:
“Words are smoke and noise which do not go beyond their sense; and in
serving for what they are, it is not they but the truth they utter that
produces the effect. One should try, therefore, to utter much truth in
few words after the manner of the Laconians, and not many words and
little substance.”[144] If the teaching of the inconspicuous friar had
had its merited influence much good might have come to Spanish speech
even out of America.
IV
[Sidenote: Fernández Piedrahita]
[Sidenote: Piedrahita vicar general]
[Sidenote: _Historia de Granada_]
In the last half of the seventeenth century an historian of considerable
merit appeared in the person of Bishop Lucas Fernández Piedrahita,
who was born in Bogotá on March 6, 1624. Through his mother, Catalina
Collantes, he held by birth a more or less distant relationship to a
member of the family of the Incas in Peru. He studied in the Jesuit
college of San Bartolomé, and received the degree of doctor from the
University of Santo Tomás. The literary ambition of his youth manifested
itself in the writing of a number of dramas that are not known to exist.
He was appointed treasurer of the cathedral of Popayán, but before he
entered upon the duties of that office he was made a prebendary of the
metropolitan church in 1654. He was subsequently promoted to various
offices in that church and after the death of Archbishop Torres he was
elected vicar general and governor of the archbishopric; and he continued
to hold the office of vicar general after the arrival of Arguinao, in
1661, the successor of Archbishop Torres. Piedrahita became the favourite
preacher of the city, and through his influence and friendly relation
with the president Dionisio Pérez Manrique, harmony was established
between the ecclesiastical and civil officials. But the arrival of
Cornejo as visitador introduced an element of discord into the community.
Soon after the accession of Arguinao, Piedrahita was called to Spain
to defend himself before the Council of the Indies against charges
preferred by the visitador. His defence was so complete that the Council
not only absolved him from fault, but also offered him the office of
bishop of Santa Marta, and this appointment was immediately confirmed by
the Pope. He remained six years in Spain, from 1663 to 1669, and during
this period he wrote his _Historia general del nuevo reino de Granada_.
[Sidenote: Bishop of Santa Marta and of Panama]
In 1669 Piedrahita returned to America, and after his consecration
entered upon the exercise of his functions as bishop of Santa Marta. Here
he displayed many of the virtues of the primitive Christian teacher,
visited and taught the Indians, distributed his income among the poor and
lived in poverty. His charitable gifts left him hardly means for decent
clothing. In 1676 he was promoted to the see of Panama, but before he
left Santa Marta the town was taken by pirates, who, seeing the meanness
of the bishop’s dress, concluded that by his apparently miserly habits he
must have large accumulations concealed. The pirates, therefore, took
the bishop and tortured him in order to make him reveal the hiding-place
of his treasures; unsuccessful in this, they carried him off and brought
him before the distinguished and courteous pirate Morgan, who received
him with marked consideration, gave him a pontifical robe stolen at
Panama, and caused him to be conducted to his new diocese. Here Bishop
Piedrahita continued for twelve years the devoted life he had led in
Santa Marta, and died at the age of sixty-four. The first part of his
_Historia_ was published in Amsterdam the year of his death, 1688.
According to Vergara, the second part was lost after the death of the
author, since there was no one to care for its publication.[145]
[Sidenote: Piedrahita’s style]
With respect to his style, Piedrahita represents a considerable advance
over the prose writers of South America who preceded him. He wrote
clearly in what might not improperly be called modern Spanish. He had
not, however, freed himself from the custom of his time, or the practice
of writing long and irrelevant introductions to chapters or sections,
the custom that induced the chronicler to begin his narrative with the
creation of the world.
V
[Sidenote: Padre Pedro Claver]
[Sidenote: Slave-trade at Cartagena]
A striking subject for a biography was furnished by the life of Padre
Pedro Claver, who was born in Cataluña in 1585 and died at Cartagena
in 1654. He became a member of the Society of Jesus, entering upon his
novitiate in 1602. For his work among the slaves at Cartagena he became
known as the “Apostle to the Negroes.” Cartagena in the seventeenth
century had a much larger population than at present, and, in relation to
South America, was a much more important port; it was the port at which
were landed most of the ships engaged in the African slave-trade. The
ships arrived overcrowded, with their human freight in an indescribable
condition. The victims of the slave-trader’s greed and inhumanity, in
the long voyage in the tropics, had suffered untold misery from an
insufficient supply of food, air and water, and at the end of the voyage
the living, the moribund, and the dead were found packed in a mass of
filth more foul than anything which the fancy can picture.
Padre Claver[146] spent forty years of a devoted life in efforts to
relieve this misery,[147] and the story of this devotion was written by
Alonso de Andrade.[148] A more extensive account of Claver’s life by José
Fernández appeared in 1666. Another book relating to Cartagena is Luis
Jodar’s _Vida de la Venerable Madre Catalina María de la Concepción,
fundadora del Convento de Santa Clara de Cartagena_.
[Sidenote: Flórez de Ocáriz’s _Genealogías_]
The _Genealogías del nuevo reino de Granada_, by Juan Flórez de Ocáriz,
is a curious monument of patient labour and mediæval ignorance,
produced rather by manual labour than by intellectual effort. It fairly
exemplifies the tradition and vices of early, and perhaps of some later,
writings on genealogy, in pretending to establish a family connexion
between persons of similar names, who lived in widely separated ages
and in different parts of the world. But the introduction which takes
up about half of the first volume contains important information on
the local history of New Granada. An incentive to genealogical inquiry
was furnished by the ambition of many creoles to magnify the social
importance of their families. Two volumes of this work were published in
Madrid in 1674-76; a third remains unpublished.
[Sidenote: León y Bezerra]
A contemporary account of the events at Panama at the time of Morgan’s
invasion (1670) was written by Bishop Antonio de León y Bezerra, who,
having refused the office of Bishop of Panama three times, finally
accepted it in 1672. The following year, after the death of the conde
de Lemos the audiencia of Lima appointed Bishop León governor and
captain-general of Tierra Firme, and in January, 1674, he assumed the
duties of that office. In 1676, he was promoted to the post of Bishop
of Trujillo, and a little later was transferred to the bishopric of
Arequipa. He died in 1708.
VI
[Sidenote: _Anales del Cuzco_]
[Sidenote: Palma’s criticism]
An important source of detailed information concerning Peruvian history,
particularly the history of Cuzco, is the anonymous chronicle entitled
_Anales del Cuzco_ constituting four hundred and thirty-four pages of
a volume edited by Ricardo Palma, and published in Lima in 1901. It
covers a period of one hundred and fifty years, from 1600 to 1750.
Although lacking the attractive style of Calancha and some of the other
early writers, it nevertheless throws much light on many obscure points
of local history. Ricardo Palma attributes to the writer “a certain
independence of character and a standard of criticism not usual at that
time,” and cites as an illustration the author’s condemnation of the
extraordinary means employed by the preachers to terrify the Indians,
such as frightful pictures of the devil and graphic representations of
the sufferings of the damned in hell.[149]
The numerous paragraphs relating to ecclesiastical affairs point to the
conspicuous place held by the events connected with the Church. The
following quotation illustrates the style, in so far as the chronicle may
be said to have any style, and also the avaricious disposition of certain
colonial priests in administering the services of the Church.
[Sidenote: Priest Maturana’s exactions]
“Gaspar de Lagos, of the hospital parish, having died, the priest of the
parish demanded five hundred dollars for the funeral service, and finally
agreed to receive one hundred and eighty dollars. The widow of the
deceased went, on the 30th of December (1743), at eight o’clock in the
evening to Bishop Morcello, and showed him that it was impossible for her
to pay this amount. The bishop decided that the interment in accordance
with the widow’s wishes to be just, and, fixing the payment at sixty-one
dollars, handed to the widow a paper stating this decision. Then, the
widow went to the priest, Julián Maturana, and gave him the paper. The
priest threw the paper on the floor and stamped on it, and said that the
cross would not go out if she did not bring the one hundred and eighty
dollars. The widow returned to the bishop, now after nine o’clock at
night, and he ordered that they should bring the priest. The fiscal and
the officer sought for him in the house of the bishop of Panama, where he
was living, but they did not find him. The bishop then issued an order
that the Franciscan fathers should conduct the burial properly as the
widow required, and also ordered that the sixty-one dollars should be
applied to the work of the cathedral.”[150]
VII
[Sidenote: Rodríguez’ _El Marañón y Amazonas_]
The book by Padre Manuel Rodríguez entitled _El Marañón y Amazonas_ and
published in 1684 is a history of the discovery and reduction of the
tribes that lived in the region of the great rivers. It undertook to
set forth the praiseworthy as well as the unfortunate conduct of the
conquistadores respecting temporal and spiritual matters, and in six
books to present the data that had been acquired and the narratives that
had been written concerning the discovery of the Amazon; the services the
Jesuits had rendered and the missions they had founded; the progress
made in the government of Mainas from its establishment by Diego Vaca de
Vega; the journey of Captain Texeira to Quito and his return to Pará;
the sources of the rivers and their union with the Amazon; the labours
of missionaries and the tragic end of many of them; and an account of
Acuña’s report. This work may still be considered as an historical
document of value, and, barring its prolixity, a common failing of the
age, is not without literary merit.[151]
[Sidenote: Padre Samuel Fritz]
Another traveller and missionary labourer in the region of the Amazon
was Padre Samuel Fritz, a Bohemian Jesuit who entered the missions of
Mainas in 1686. Besides founding a large number of new missions, he
made important contributions to what was then known about the geography
and languages of the lands adjacent to the Amazon and its principal
tributaries. He made a map of the region, which was engraved and
published in Quito in 1707.[152] He compiled grammars and dictionaries of
several native languages and made a map entitled _El gran río Marañón o
Amazonas con la misión de la Compañía de Jesús geográficamente delineado_.
[Sidenote: Ponce de León on _El Marañón_]
Among the unpublished contributions to the literature of the Amazon one
may note the _Conquistas y poblaciones del Marañón_, by Francisco Ponce
de León, who was a member of the order of Mercy, sometime provincial in
Chile, and missionary among the Indians. The manuscript was at one time
reported to be in Barcia’s library.
CHAPTER XII
THE EARLY YEARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
I. _Jorge Juan y Santacilla and Antonio de Ulloa._ II. _Alonso
de Zamora and José de Oviedo y Baños._ III. _Joseph Luis
Cisneros and Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara._ IV.
_Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo and Juan de Mira._ V. _Juan Rivero,
José Cassani and Pedro Gumilla._ VI. _Some minor ecclesiastical
writers._
I
[Sidenote: French in South America]
[Sidenote: Feuillée and Frezier]
[Sidenote: Juan and Ulloa]
The dependence of Philip V on Louis XIV opened to the French an
opportunity for commerce and scientific investigation in Spanish South
America. In the first fifteen years of the eighteenth century French
merchants took advantage of their opportunity and sent an unprecedented
amount of exports in a large number of ships from French ports to the
ports of Chile and Peru. In these early decades of the century the French
undertook also scientific investigations in South America. Feuillée and
Frezier led the way, and they were followed by La Condamine’s expedition
to Ecuador, in which Spanish co-operation was represented by Jorge Juan
and Antonio de Ulloa. After the completion of the measurements near
Quito Juan and Ulloa made elaborate inquiries into the political and
social condition of the colonies. The results of these observations and
researches were set forth in two important documents: _Noticias secretas
de América_ and their _Relación histórica del viaje a la América_.
[Sidenote: _Noticias secretas_]
The former is an extensive report designed for the instruction of the
king. It was not generally known until it was published in London by
David Barry in 1826. It is the most frank and searching examination
of the affairs of the colonies that has come down from the colonial
period. It presents the abuses of the courts, the civil employees, the
corregidores, and the clergy. It treats, moreover, of the contraband
trade, the frauds that appeared in the various branches of the
administration, the scandalous acts of the officials, and the oppression
and cruelty of the Spaniards in their dealing with the Indians. It
describes the state of the ports and the lack of arms and of other means
for defending the coast against invaders, and sets forth the increasing
hostility between the Spaniards and the creoles. It makes exceedingly
damaging specifications as to the treatment which the Indians received at
the hands of the corregidores, the manufacturers, and the priests. The
following passages from the _Noticias secretas_ illustrate this subject:
“It was ordered that the corregidores might introduce a quantity of such
articles as were suited to the needs of the Indians and distribute these
articles among them at moderate prices, in order that, having implements
for labour, they might shake off the apathy which is innate in their
constitution, and make the exertion requisite for paying their tribute
and supporting themselves.
[Sidenote: Distribution by Corregidores]
“The articles of distribution are chiefly mules, foreign and domestic
goods, and produce. The corregidores who are attached to the viceroyalty
of Lima must necessarily go to that city to take out a licence and to
receive their despatch from the viceroy in order to be inducted into
office; and as Lima is the principal depôt of the trade of Peru, it is
in that city that an assortment of articles for distribution is to be
made, and for this purpose they take the goods required from the shop of
some merchant or trader on credit, at an exorbitant price; for, as the
traders are aware of the enormous profits the corregidores make in the
sale, they raise the prices of the goods in order to have a share in the
speculation. The corregidores have no money before they come into office,
and, being unable to purchase for cash, they are obliged to submit to
any terms which the creditor may prescribe, since they are under great
obligations, on account of the money which the merchant is to lend them
for the purchase of the mules required for transportation.
[Sidenote: Corregidor’s wares]
[Sidenote: Despair of the Indians]
“As soon as the corregidor comes within his jurisdiction, the first
act of his administration is to take a census of the Indians according
to their towns and villages. Proceeding to this duty in person, and
taking with him the articles of merchandise to be distributed, he goes
on, apportioning the quantity and kind he selects for every Indian,
and affixing to each article its price, just as suits his caprice, the
poor Indians being wholly ignorant of what is to fall to their lot, or
how much it is to cost them. As soon as he has finished distributing in
one village, he transfers the whole assortment to the cacique, with an
exact inventory of the articles belonging to each individual, from the
cacique himself to the most humble of all those who are to pay tribute;
and the corregidor proceeds to another village in order to continue
the distribution. It is a time of anguish both for the cacique and the
Indians, when they look at the quantity, quality, and prices of these
goods. In vain does the cacique remonstrate, and to no purpose do the
Indians raise their clamours; on the one hand, they maintain that their
means are not adequate to such a quantity of merchandise as is assigned
to them, being absolutely unable to pay for it; again, they urge that
goods of such a description are utterly useless to them, and that the
price is so exorbitant as to exceed anything they had ever paid before.
The corregidor remains inexorable and the Indians are obliged to take
whatever has been allotted to them, however repugnant it may be to their
wishes, and however straitened they are for want of means to make the
payments; for these payments become due simultaneously with the tribute
money, and the same penalty is imposed for failure to meet one as the
other. All the payments of the first distribution must be made within
two years and a half, to make way for the second, which usually does not
contain so many wares as the first” (p. 240).
The statement concerning the textile works is equally positive:
“In former years woollen manufacture was confined to the province of
Quito; but it has been recently introduced into other districts, although
the articles manufactured in the provinces south of Quito are nothing
but coarse cloths of very ordinary texture. In Cajamarca there are looms
for the manufacture of cotton goods....
[Sidenote: Indians in the obrajes]
[Sidenote: Punishment of the Indians]
“The labour of the obraje, or manufactory, begins before the day dawns,
at which time every Indian takes his place at the piece which is in
process of weaving and the tasks of the day are distributed as may be
expedient; and when this process is concluded, the owner of the house
closes the door, and leaves them immured as in a prison. At midday the
door is opened for the women to go in with their scanty allowance of
food, which is soon partaken, and they are again locked in. When the
darkness of the night no longer permits them to work, the owner goes
round to gather up the stints; those who have not been able to finish,
in spite of apologies or reasonings, are punished with indescribable
cruelty: and those unfeeling men, as if transformed into merciless
savages, inflict upon the wretched Indians lashes by the hundred, for
they use no other method of counting; and to complete the punishment,
they remand them again to the workshop: and although the whole
building is a prison-house, a portion of it is reserved for fetters and
instruments of torture, where they are punished with greater indignity
than could be practised towards the most delinquent slaves....
“We frequently met the Indians on the highway, tied by the hair to the
tail of a horse, on which a mestizo is mounted, who is conveying them
to the workshops, and perhaps for the trivial offence of having evaded
the tyranny of the overseer, from fear of punishment. Let what will be
said of the cruelty practised by the patrons (encomenderos) towards
the Indians at the commencement of the conquest, we cannot persuade
ourselves, after what we have witnessed, that it could ever have been
carried to the extent it now is by the Spaniards and mestizos.” (pp. 276,
279.)
Some paragraphs of the _Noticias secretas_ refer to the immorality of the
clergy:
[Sidenote: Corruption of the clergy]
“The persons who compose the two orders of the clergy are guilty of such
licentiousness, that making due allowance for the frailties to which
human nature is liable and the weakness to which men of every class are
subject, it would appear that those ecclesiastics regard it as their
peculiar privilege to go before all others in the career of vice; for
while they are under the most sacred obligations not only to practise
virtue, but to correct the errors incident to frail nature, it is they
who, by their pernicious example, sanction the practice of iniquity, and
in a measure divest it of its heinous nature.
“The parish priests are extremely vicious in their habits; but, whether
it happens that an error or crime in them attracts less notice, or
whether they are more careful to conceal it, or for both reasons, which
is the more probable, disgraceful as the consequences are known to be,
they never reach such a degree of scandal as do those of the monks; for
the latter, from the first step they take, and even without leaving the
monasteries, pursue a course of conduct so notorious and shameful that it
becomes offensive in the extreme, and fills the mind with horror.
[Sidenote: Fandangoes of the religious]
“The fandangoes or balls are usually devised by the members of the
religious orders, or more properly by those who call themselves
religious, although, in fact, they are far from being so; for it is they
who pay the expense, who attend in company with their concubines, and
who get up the fray in their own houses. Simultaneously with the dance,
the immoderate use of ardent spirits begins, and the entertainment is
gradually converted into acts of impropriety so unseemly and lewd, that
it would be presumption even to speak of them, and a want of delicacy to
stain the narrative with such a record of obscenities; and, letting them
lie hid in the region of silence, we shall only remark that, whatever the
spirit of malice could invent in respect to this subject, great as it
might be, it could never fathom that abyss into which those corrupt minds
are plunged, nor give any adequate idea of the degree of excess to which
debauchery and crime are carried.” (pp. 490, 497.)
[Sidenote: _Relación histórica_]
The _Relación histórica_, by Juan and Ulloa the result of extensive
journeys of investigation made by order of the king, was originally
published in Madrid in 1748. It has been reprinted many times, and
translations of it have appeared in various languages. An English
translation was issued in London in 1758, entitled _A Voyage to South
America_. A small volume by Ulloa called _Entretenimientos_ (1772) treats
of the geography and productions of Peru and Ecuador, the antiquities of
these countries, the customs, language, and religion of the Indians, with
suggestions as to the means of increasing the population of America.
[Sidenote: Ulloa’s public career]
In the course of his public career Ulloa rose to the rank of
lieutenant-general. He was born in Seville in 1716. His studies prepared
him for the position of an officer in the navy, and when Philip V granted
the request of Louis XV to be permitted to send a body of scientists to
measure an arc of the meridian under the equator in Ecuador, Antonio
de Ulloa and Jorge Juan were appointed to join the commission. Ulloa
gained distinction by his scientific investigations, and became a member
of the scientific societies of London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm.
From time to time he was charged with various official duties by the
government of Spain, and in 1763, when Louisiana was ceded to Spain,
Ulloa was appointed to take possession of the country and organize its
administration, thus becoming its first Spanish governor.
[Illustration: Antonio de Ulloa]
[Sidenote: _Relación_ and _Noticias_]
The _Relación histórica_ is an excellent account of Spanish South America
as it was near the middle of the eighteenth century, by two men who,
although special commissioners appointed by the king, were apparently
more disposed to tell the truth than to please their royal master.
Designed for the general public, this work is less severe in tone than
the _Noticias secretas_, which was written for the instruction of the
king and his ministers. Here is a description of the fair at Porto Bello
from the _Relación histórica_.
[Sidenote: The fair of Porto Bello]
“The town of Porto Bello, so thinly inhabited, by reason of its noxious
air, the scarcity of provisions, and the barrenness of the soil, becomes,
at the time of the galleons, one of the most populous places in all South
America. Its situation on the isthmus, betwixt the south and the north
sea, the goodness of its harbour, and its small distance from Panama
have given it the preference for the rendezvous of the joint commerce of
Spain and Peru, at its fair.
“On advice being received at Carthagena, that the Peru fleet had unloaded
at Panama, the galleons made the best of their way to Porto Bello, in
order to avoid the distempers which have their source from idleness. The
concourse of people, on this occasion, is such, as to raise the rent of
lodging to an excessive degree; a middling chamber, with a closet, lets,
during the fair, for a thousand crowns, and some large houses, for four,
five or six thousand.
“The ships are no sooner moored in the harbour than the first work is to
erect, in the square, a tent made of the ship’s sails, for receiving the
cargo; at which the proprietors of the goods are present, in order to
find their bales, by the marks which distinguish them. These bales are
drawn on sledges to their respective places, by the crews of every ship,
and the money given them is proportionally divided.
[Sidenote: Arrival of gold from Perú]
“Whilst the seamen and European traders are thus employed, the land
is covered with droves of mules from Panama, each drove consisting of
above an hundred, loaded with chests of gold and silver, on account of
the merchants of Peru. Some unload them at the exchange, others in the
middle of the square; yet amidst the hurry and confusion of such crowds,
no theft, loss, or disturbance is ever known. He who has seen this place
during the tiempo muerto, or dead time, solitary, poor, and a perpetual
silence reigning everywhere, the harbour quite empty, and everyplace
wearing a melancholy aspect, must be filled with astonishment at the
sudden change, to see the bustling multitudes, every house crowded,
the square and the streets encumbered with bales and chests of gold,
and silver of all kinds; the harbour full of ships and vessels, some
bringing by way of Río de Chape, the goods of Peru, as cacao, quinquina,
or Jesuit’s bark, vicuña wool, and bezoar stones; others coming from
Carthagena, loaded with provisions; and thus a spot, at all other times
detested for its deleterious qualities becomes the staple of the riches
of the old and new world, and the scene of one of the most considerable
branches of commerce in the whole earth.
[Sidenote: Organization of the trading]
“The ships being unloaded, and the merchants of Peru, together with the
president of Panama, arrived, the fair comes under deliberation. And
for this purpose the deputies of the several parties, repair on board
the commodore of the galleons, where, in presence of the commodore, and
the president of Panama, the former as patron of the Europeans, and the
latter, of the Peruvians, the prices of the several kinds of merchandise
are settled; and all preliminaries being adjusted in three or four
meetings, the contracts are signed, and made public, that everyone may
conform himself to them in the sale of his effects. Thus all fraud is
precluded. The purchases and sales, as likewise the exchanges of money,
are transacted by brokers, embarking their chests of money, and those of
Peru, sending away the goods they have purchased in vessels called chatas
and bongos, up the river, Chagre; and thus the fair of Porto Bello ends.”
(Eng. tr. I, 101.)
II
[Sidenote: Alonso de Zamora]
[Sidenote: Character of Zamora’s book]
Alonso de Zamora is conspicuous among the historians who wrote in the
early part of the eighteenth century: His _Historia de la provincia
de San Antonino del nuevo reino de Granada del orden de Predicadores_
(Barcelona, 1701) is called a first volume, but there is no adequate
evidence that a second volume was ever written. The author was born
in Bogotá in 1660. He entered the Dominican order in his native city,
studied at the University of St. Thomas, and subsequently undertook
the work of a missionary. His fame as a theologian and as a writer and
preacher doubtless contributed to his appointment, in 1690, as chronicler
of his order. He was especially commissioned to write a general history
of the ecclesiastical province, then under the direction of the
provincial Antonio Choche. At this time Quesada’s _Compendio historial_
was still in existence, and Zamora used it as a source of information. In
1696 he completed his manuscript and sent it to Spain for publication. In
view of the circumstances under which Zamora wrote and the nature of his
subject, one might very well expect that his book would be a panegyric
on the history and character of his order; and the book justifies such
an expectation. The author magnified the influences and services of
ecclesiastics in promoting civilization in America, which secular opinion
had tended to belittle. In his style and the arrangement of his material
he falls short of the excellence attained by Piedrahita.[153]
[Sidenote: Oviedo y Baños]
[Sidenote: _Conquista de Venezuela_]
A higher standard was reached by José de Oviedo y Baños in his _Historia
de la conquista y población de la provincia de Venezuela_. This author
was born in Bogotá in 1674, but spent the greater part of his life in
Venezuela, and died at Caracas, where his _Historia_ was written. The
first volume was printed in Madrid in 1723. The complete work was issued
in the _Biblioteca de los americanistas_ (Madrid, 1885), in two volumes,
preceded by an introduction by Cesáreo Fernández Duro, in which he says
that this narration was made with the impartiality and the high critical
spirit of the true historian and forms a source from which those who
study the history of Caracas are compelled to draw. Diego, a brother of
José de Oviedo, was an oidor in Guatemala, then promoted to the audiencia
of Mexico, and later was a member of the Council of the Indies. He wrote
a commentary in two volumes on the _Recopilación castellana_.
[Sidenote: The bishop of Caracas]
[Sidenote: Vicente de Oviedo]
Diego de Baños y Sotomayor, an uncle of the historian, became bishop of
Caracas. Educated in Bogotá, he was instrumental in bringing some rays of
intellectual light into Caracas after decades of obscurity. He founded
the Colegio Seminario de Santa Rosa, and left as evidence of his literary
activity the _Constituciones sinodales del obispado de Venezuela_,
published at Madrid in 1698. Another writer bearing the name Oviedo, but
of a family distinct from the foregoing, has left a long list of volumes
on ecclesiastical subjects. This was Vicente de Oviedo. He studied at
the college of San Bartolomé in Bogotá, and for more than forty years
was parish priest in various towns of the viceroyalty of New Granada.
Efforts to secure the publication of his encyclopedic work in eleven
volumes met with the insurmountable opposition of the Spanish government,
the grounds of this opposition being utterances unfavourable to the
dignity of the monarchy.[154]
[Sidenote: Medrano’s _Granada_]
To the period embracing the end of the seventeenth century and the
beginning of the eighteenth century belongs the _Historia del nuevo
reino de Granada_, by Francisco de Medrano, of the Franciscan order. But
these were unfruitful years in the literary history of New Granada. The
principal literary products were chiefly such as were especially demanded
by readers in the colonies, sermons and lives of saints.[155]
III
[Sidenote: Cisneros of Venezuela]
The publisher of the “collection of rare and curious books treating of
America” issued in 1912, as the twenty-first volume of the collection,
Joseph Luis Cisneros’ _Descripción exacta de la provincia de Venezuela_.
The editor of this reprint sets forth his conclusions concerning the
author, which he holds were justified by the text of the work itself.
These are that Cisneros was born in Venezuela some time between 1710
and 1715; that he was a trader and, as an agent of the Royal Guipuzcoa
Company, for a period of twenty-five years traversed and retraversed the
province of Venezuela, buying and selling a great variety of commodities;
that he made a number of visits to the island of Curaçao, the province
of Maracaybo and Santa Marta in New Granada; that he made three trips on
the Orinoco to the Dutch towns of Essequibo and Surinam; and that his
book was published at Valencia in Venezuela, in spite of the opinion of
Arístides Rojas that the Valencia announced on the title-page as the
place of publication was the Valencia of Spain, not the Venezuelan city.
The author displays, as he might be expected to do considering his
occupation, extensive and detailed information concerning the state
and the products of the country, the markets, and the prices, and this
feature of his little book constitutes it a contemporary contribution to
the economic history of the province of Venezuela under Spanish rule.
Moreover, the simplicity of of the style and the presence of terms
especially in use among traders would seem to offer further evidence of
the writer’s practical experience in commercial affairs.
[Sidenote: Trade of Venezuela]
The following reference to the foreign trade of the province, taken
in connection with his remarks on the internal commerce, indicate a
practical familiarity with Venezuela’s economic conditions.
“The city of Caracas has a population of somewhat more than twenty-six
thousand, in which there are many illustrious families known in Europe;
it carries on commerce with the Royal Guipuzcoa Company, which takes the
products of the province in exchange for clothing and food-stuffs, which
it brings from Spain; it has also trade with Mexico, comprising a large
amount of cacao carried from the port of La Guayra to Vera Cruz, bringing
back the greater part of its compensation in silver bullion, and the rest
in copper, flour, and various products of that country. At present there
are fourteen ships engaged in this trade.
[Sidenote: Caracas and the Islands]
“The city or province has also commerce with the Canary Islands, which,
in the same manner, receive cacao, loading their ships with it for
the return voyage; they are also desirous of getting silver pesos,
of which they carry away large quantities given to them in exchange
for the products of their country, which are fine wines, grapes and
certain liquors, with all kinds of dried fruit. They also introduce
great quantities of taffeta, stockings, and all kinds of silk, a ship
arriving once a year. Caracas has, moreover, trade with the Windward
Islands, Havana, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Margarita, and Cumaná. The
Venezuelans carry on this commerce by sending out certain amounts of
cacao, hides, tallow, and various other products of the province not
desired by the Royal company, and bringing back in return silver bullion
and products of those islands.” (p. 59.)
[Sidenote: Francisca Josefa de Castillo]
The large majority of the men who have hitherto figured in the literary
history of New Granada have either been members of the religious orders
or functionaries of the Church in some other relation. In the person of
Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara a nun appears, who, according to
Menéndez y Pelayo, “wrote in prose worthy of Santa Teresa.” She was born
in Bogotá on October 8, 1671, entered the convent of Santa Clara at Tunja
in 1689, and died there in 1742. She was afflicted with rickets, and
was an invalid from her childhood. In the convent she was encouraged by
her confessor to write her sentiments and reflections on her life. Her
papers sent to her confessor in obedience to his suggestion gradually
accumulated, and were later published in two more or less independent
works. These were _Vida de la venerable madre Francisca Josefa de la
Concepción, escrita por ella_, and _Sentimientos espirituales de la V.
M. Francisca Josefa_. Francisca’s early reading is said to have been
largely plays, but in the convent she read the writings of Santa Teresa.
Confined by her parents and by those persons who controlled her activity
to the limited education that was thought to be becoming a woman in
the Spanish colonies, her native intelligence enabled her to obtain a
profound insight into certain phases of life, and to acquire a style of
writing that persuaded the Colombian critic, Vergara, to declare that
“Madre Castillo is the most notable writer whom we possess; her style and
her language place her by the side of Santa Teresa.”[156]
[Illustration: Jorge Juan y Santacilla]
IV
[Sidenote: _Lima fundada_]
[Sidenote: Peralta’s writings]
In the “poema heroico” called _Lima fundada o conquista del Perú_, we
have an echo of the earlier historical narratives in verse. The author,
Pedro José de Peralta Barnuevo Rocha y Benavides, was born in Lima in
1663, and during a great part of a long life he was a member of the
University of San Marcos, at first as professor of mathematics. He was
rector of the university for the years 1715, 1716 and 1717. He served
as cosmographer from 1708 to 1748. He was a lawyer, directed an academy
which he had founded, was for many years engineer-in-chief of Peru, and
in this capacity planned and directed important works at the port of
Callao. For his great and varied learning Peralta’s contemporaries appear
to have held him in high esteem, and later opinion has confirmed their
view. The statement in Mendiburu’s _Diccionario histórico-biográfico del
Perú_ is that Peralta “was a master of six languages, and in the most
of them he wrote poetry correctly and in good taste; he was well versed
in sacred and profane history, was a profound mathematician, chemist,
botanist, and student in medicine; and his studies in jurisprudence
and canonical and theological matters he carried as far as the first
professors of his time.” (VI, 265.) The long list of his work, moreover,
suggests unusual capacity and attainments.[157]
[Sidenote: Quality of _Lima fundada_]
_Lima fundada_, in ten cantos embracing somewhat more than ten thousand
lines, treats of the conquest of Peru from Pizarro’s invasion to the
overthrow of Almagro. In order that the thought may seem to move on an
exalted plane, and the stanzas differentiate themselves from ordinary
prose, the statements of fact are often made vague and roundabout, and
the narration is abundantly sprinkled with intensifying adjectives.
The hero is always “the great Pizarro” or “the great marquis,” and
the soldiers are the “illustrious troops.” Large numbers of Grecian
mythological characters are drawn into the service; the names of Ulysses,
Alcibiades, Trajan and Socrates are woven familiarly into the lines; and
the impression is made that the author knew too much to be a successful
poet. Persons who seek for an elevated and inspiring form of genuine
poetry in these three hundred and eighty pages of verses will hardly find
it.
[Sidenote: _Armas antárticas_]
The twenty cantos of _Armas antárticas_ constitute a document that is
properly classed with _Lima fundada_. It was written by Juan de Mira.
Unless printed since my latest information concerning it, it is still in
manuscript in the National Library of Madrid. It was probably written in
Lima between 1612 and 1615, and the writer’s aim appears to have been to
prevent the deeds of the Spaniards in conquering, pacifying and defending
Peru from “remaining hidden in the darkness of forgetfulness.”[158]
The opening octave makes a general announcement of the author’s theme:
Las armas y proezas militares
De españoles católicos valientes,
Que por ignotos y soberbios mares
Fueron a dominar remotas gentes,
Poniendo al verbo eterno en los altares
De oráculos gentílicos, espanto
Eran del indio, ahora mudos, canto.[159]
[Sidenote: Gathering the ransom]
And the following lines describe the gathering of the gold for
Atahualpa’s ransom:
... al instante
Chasquis despacha el inca a diferentes
Partes, para quel oro rutilante
Traigan con brevedad todas sus gentes;
No hay noble, no hay cacique, no hay infante,
No hay niños, no hay mujeres, no hay sirvientes
Que así como las próvidas hormigas
No traigan a la sala sus espigas.[160]
V
[Sidenote: Missions of the Llanos]
Among the Indians of the Llanos the Jesuits undertook to carry out a
plan of missionary effort similar to that carried out in Paraguay. The
region was divided into a number of districts, or partidos, the partido
of Casanare, that of the Orinoco, and that of the Meta. These were under
the general government of a procurador, who was under the superior
direction of the provincial appointed at Rome to govern the province of
Bogotá. During his term of three years the provincial was required to
visit the missions at least once, or to send an inspector bearing the
title of vice-provincial, who was commissioned to inquire into the state
of the missions and to examine their records and accounts. In the last
decades of the seventeenth century and later the government supported at
each mission a small number of soldiers to assist the missionaries and
to ward off hostile attacks. The success of these missions depended upon
the establishment of such conditions that they would be economically
independent, and for this purpose the missions became proprietors of
extensive herds.
[Sidenote: Rivero’s _Historia de las misiones_]
[Sidenote: Rivero as a missionary]
Juan Rivero’s _Historia de las misiones de los llanos de Casanare y
los ríos Orinoco y Meta_, written in 1736, is an important source of
information concerning the history of these missions. It was printed in
Bogotá in 1883, after it had remained in manuscript about one hundred
and fifty years. The author was born in Miraflores de la Sierra, in
Spain, August 15, 1681. He entered the Society of Jesus as a youth, and
was sent to Bogotá in 1704. He began his missionary work at Tunja, but,
on account of illness caused by the low temperature of the plateau, he
was transferred to the college at Honda and later to that at Mompox.
He was still moved by a desire for missionary work among the Indians,
and, therefore, petitioned his superiors to send him to the Llanos.
His petition was granted, and in 1720 he set out for the plains of
Casanare. He became exceptionally proficient in a knowledge of the Indian
languages, which he was able to make use of in the confessional and in
preaching. He held vigorously to the opinion that the Indians could be
readily induced to adopt the faith of the Church, and that this act would
transform them into civilized men and women. Like many of his countrymen
and later workers for social betterment, he was a single-force reformer.
[Sidenote: Cassani and Gumilla]
Other writers took up the subject that had engaged the attention of
Rivero and wrote of the region of the Orinoco. Padre José Cassani,
writing of the missions, used Rivero’s manuscript extensively, making it
the basis of his work. Cassani’s _Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía
de Jesús del Nuevo Reino de Granada_ is uncritical and disfigured by
marvellous credulity. It was published in 1741. Gumilla’s _El Orinoco
ilustrado_ was also published in 1741, and a second edition was issued
in 1745. On the title-page of his book Gumilla describes himself as a
“member of the Society of Jesus, missionary, superior of the missions of
the Orinoco, Meta, and Casanare, calificador and consultor of the Holy
Tribunal of the Inquisition of Cartagena of the Indies, synodal examiner
of the bishopric of Cartagena, some time provincial of the province of
New Granada, and actual procurador of the missions and the provinces.”
The title-page furnishes, moreover, a sufficient account of the contents
of the book: “Natural, civil, and geographical history of this great
river, and of its abundant tributaries; government, uses, and customs
of the Indians, with new and useful accounts of animals, trees, fruits,
oils, resins, herbs, and medical roots.”
VI
[Sidenote: Torres’ _Crónica de la provincia peruana_]
[Sidenote: _Tesoros de las Indias_]
[Sidenote: Nicolás de la Rosa]
Each of the religious orders had its chronicler, whose writings
necessarily involved more or less extensive accounts of the secular
events of the societies in which they were established. Bernardo Torres,
an Augustinian, secretary of the province of Lima, prior of the monastery
of Chuquisaca, and sometime professor in the University of San Marcos,
wrote the _Crónica de la provincia peruana_, in eight books, which was
published in Lima in 1657. A continuation of this work in two volumes,
extending to the year 1721, was written by Padre Juan Teodoro Vásquez.
The Dominican Antonio de Aguiar wrote the history of the Dominicans.
Domingo Marín, in his _Estado de los misiones en Chile_, undertook to
defend the Jesuits against their detractors. The Dominican, Meléndez,
set forth the achievements of his order in _Tesoros verdaderos de las
Indias_. The Franciscan, Francisco Javier Ramírez, following a suggestion
from Aguiar, magnified the services of the Franciscans in the _Cronicón
sacro-imperial de Chile_. The _Floresta de la santa iglesia Catedral de
Santa Marta_, by Ensign José Nicolás de la Rosa, derives its historical
data from the writings of Piedrahita, Simón, and Zamora and certain
documents from the cathedral. In addition to the topics suggested by the
title, it contains items of information concerning the Indians inhabiting
the region about Santa Marta. In spite of its indifferent literary
quality and “pésimo gusto literario,” it has been twice printed, once in
1756 and again in 1833. After 1767 ecclesiastical writers in the colonies
lacked both the breadth of vision and the literary attainments of their
predecessors.[161]
[Sidenote: Antonio Julián]
[Sidenote: _La Perla de América_]
Antonio Julián is hardly less widely known than Cassani and Gumilla.
He lived for many years in New Granada, chiefly at Santa Marta. He
travelled extensively in the province, but left America before the
expulsion of his order. Neither the place nor the date of his birth is
known. In his enforced retirement from his missionary labours he wrote
a number of works concerning the part of the Indies with which he had
become especially familiar. Of these the most frequently referred to is
_La Perla de América, Provincia de Santa-marta reconocida, observada y
expuesta en discursos históricos_. It was published at Madrid in 1787.
Of the others, not printed, perhaps the most noteworthy is _Historia
geográfica del río Magdalena, y de todas las provincias que le tributan
de una banda y otra sus ríos_.
[Sidenote: Juan Bautista Sánchez]
Few Jesuits who had entered the American field were withdrawn before
1767. Juan Bautista Sánchez shared in the enforced migration under the
decree of expulsion. He was born in Peru, and entered the Society in
1729 at the age of fifteen. In Peru he acquired distinction, serving as
rector of the Jesuit colleges of Cuzco and Lima. He died in 1774 after
a residence of seven years in Europe. The list of his writings seems to
indicate that his official duties did not encroach largely upon his time
for writing.[162]
CHAPTER XIII
ON PARAGUAY
I. _Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; Ulrich Schmidel._ II. _Early
sources of information about Paraguay; Nicolás de Techo._ III.
_Pedro Lozano._ IV. _José Guevara._ V. _Dobrizhoffer; Pauke;
Falkner; Orosz; Cardiel; Quiroga; Jolís; Peramás; Muriel;
Juárez; Sánchez Labrador._ VI. _Juan Patricio Fernández; Matías
de Anglés._
I
[Sidenote: Núñez Cabeza de Vaca]
[Sidenote: Nicolás de Techo]
The earliest important book on the south eastern part of Spanish South
America, known as Paraguay, is _La relación y comentarios_ of Alvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca. It was published at Valladolid in 1555. It treats of
the appointment of Alvar Núñez de Cabeza de Vaca to be the governor of
the colony planted by Mendoza in that region; of the fitting out of the
vessels, the voyage, and the landing at Santa Catalina; of the departure
of the main body of the men overland; the sending of the women and
children to the Río de la Plata by sea and the arrival at Asunción; of
the events at Asunción, the return of Irala from an exploring expedition,
the revolt of Irala and his followers, and the imprisonment and
expulsion of the governor. Nicolás de Techo, in his _Historia Provinciae
Paraquariae Societatis Jesu_, gives the following account of Alvar Núñez
and his promotion to the governorship of Paraguay:
[Sidenote: Techo on Núñez Cabeza de Vaca]