James Mendoza, and the ill success of affairs at the river of Plate, and
being of a spirit that ever struggled against adversity, he resolved
to send thither another governor, with a supply of planters. Several
aspiring to the command, Alvar Núñez Cabeça de Vaca carried it, on
account of the great merits of his ancestors. For his grandfather, Peter
de Vera, had subdued the Canary islands for King Ferdinand, and governed
them; in which employment he behaved himself with such integrity, that
having spent his own estate, he was reduced to such distress, that he
gave his two sons in pawn to a Moor, for a sum of money to support his
dignity and maintain his government, and the king afterwards redeemed
them. One of these was father to Alvar we now speak of; who being in
his youth educated in his father’s and grandfather’s virtues, going
over into Florida under Pamphilo de Narvaez, to be the king’s treasurer
there, was shipwrecked on the coast of America, and fell into the
hands of the Indians; and authors of the first rank tell us, he was
so virtuous, that during his ten years captivity among the people, he
wrought several miracles, invoking the blessed trinity. This man being
appointed governor, embarked seven hundred men besides women and children
upon five ships, and sailing from Cadiz with a fair wind, when he came to
twenty-eight degrees of south latitude, landed in that part of America
with five hundred men, and sending the women and children with the rest
by sea, travelled himself by land, almost the same way Alexius García had
gone before, for three hundred leagues, discovering the country and, in
the year 1541, happily arrived at the city of Asunción, and what is most
remarkable, he lost not one soul in all that voyage and journey by sea
and land.”[163]
[Sidenote: Views of the common man]
It is noteworthy that some of the most striking accounts of exploration
in Spanish America were written by common soldiers. Bernal Díaz del
Castillo, Cieza de León, and Ulrich Schmidel are instances. They
interpreted the thoughts and sentiments of the subordinate class, and
help one to see how the private soldier or the common man viewed the
enterprises in which he was engaged. The position of men of this class
made a sharp contrast between their writings and the writings of leaders.
Schmidel’s narrative of his twenty years in America was written in
German, but in its Spanish translation it has been naturalized in the
region of which he wrote, and in which he spent the effective years of
his life.[164]
[Sidenote: Ulrich Schmidel]
[Sidenote: Mendoza’s Expedition]
The family of Schmidel has been known in Bavaria since 1364, and is said
to have been ennobled. The author’s father, Wolfgang Schmidel, was held
in high esteem by his townsmen, and was three times burgermeister of
Straubing. He died in 1511, leaving three sons, of whom the youngest,
Ulrich, was born in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Little
or nothing is known of his boyhood or youth. His narrative indicates
only a moderate degree of education. In 1534 he was at Antwerp, probably
sent thither as a commercial agent or dependant, and in that year he
enlisted as a soldier for service in the New World. At that time he was
probably about twenty-five years of age. The same year he arrived at
Cadiz, and departed for America with Mendoza’s expedition, destined for
the Río de la Plata, that had been discovered by Solís and explored by
Cabot. Mendoza’s fleet consisted of fourteen ships, having on board about
two thousand five hundred persons; of these one hundred and fifty were
soldiers. Two years after landing at the site of Buenos Aires a review of
the colony showed five hundred and sixty survivors; the greater part had
died of hunger. Schmidel witnessed the ravages of famine, the abandonment
of the settlement at Buenos Aires, the founding of Asunción; was with
Irala in the expedition towards Peru; served under Cabeza de Vaca, whom
he characterized as an adventurer and unfit for the enterprise in which
they were engaged; and took part in the rebellion of 1549. A letter
from his brother Thomas, who had held the inheritance from his father,
requested his return to Germany. His petition for a discharge was at
first refused, but was finally granted with favourable commendation for
the service he had rendered.[165]
[Illustration: Title page of the revised edition of Schmidel’s
“Warhafftige Historien,” Latin translation]
[Sidenote: Schmidel and affairs of Paraguay]
It has been denied that Schmidel was a soldier, but that view appears
hardly tenable in the face of his clear designation of himself as a
soldier. He was loyal to Irala, and took part in the revolt against the
governor. His relation to this undertaking sufficiently explains his
opinion of Núñez, and prepares one to find in his book a partisan account
of events in Paraguay during these troubled years. The following is
Schmidel’s reference to Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s arrival in Asunción
after the overland journey from the Atlantic coast:
[Sidenote: Arrival of Núñez Cabeza de Vaca]
“This commander was eight whole months on his way, for the distance is
reckoned to be five hundred miles from Asunción to the place or harbour
of Santa Catalina.
“He also brought with him from Spain his commission from H.I. Majesty,
and required that Domingo Martínez de Irala should yield up the whole
government to him, and that all the men should be obedient to him in
every respect. The commander, Martínez de Irala, and all the people
declared they were ready to obey, but with this understanding, that he,
Cabeza de Vaca, should before show and lay before them documents to prove
that he had received from His Imperial Majesty such powers and authority.
“But this the whole assembly could not obtain from him; only the priests
and two or three of the captains affirmed it, that Alvar Núñez Cabeza de
Vaca ruled and commanded; but we shall see hereafter how things went with
him.
“Now, this said Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca passed all the people in
review, and found that there were eight hundred men. At the same time he
made friendship with Martínez de Irala, and they became sworn brothers,
so that he, Martínez de Irala, was no less than before commander of the
people.”[166]
In another place Schmidel gives an account of the arrest and expulsion of
Governor Núñez Cabeza de Vaca:
[Sidenote: Governor’s arrest and expulsion]
“Thereupon it was resolved by all, nobleman and commoner, to meet in
council, with a view to take prisoner the chief commander, Alvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca, and to send him to H.I. Majesty, and to report to His
Majesty about his nice virtue, and how he had behaved towards us, and
how, according to his reason, he had governed; and other things besides.
“According to the resolution come to, these three gentlemen, namely,
the treasurer, or judge, the clerk, or master of the toll or custom,
and the secretary ordered by H.I. Majesty, whose names were Alonso
Cabrera, Francisco de Mendoza, García Vanegas, and Felipe Cáceres, taking
with them two hundred soldiers, went to his lodging, and arrested our
commander-in-chief, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, when he least expected
it. And this happened on St. Mark’s Day, 1543. They held prisoner the
said Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca for a whole year, until a ship called
a caravel, provided with victuals and a crew had been prepared. And
on board this ship the often-mentioned Cabeza de Vaca, with two other
officers on behalf of H.I. Majesty were conveyed to Spain.
[Sidenote: Irala’s election]
“After that we had to elect another who should rule and govern the
country until H.I. Majesty had time to designate one himself. And we
held it for good, as it was the meaning and the will of the community,
to nominate as chief Martínez de Irala, not only because he had formerly
governed the country, but especially because most of the soldiers were
satisfied with him.”[167]
II
[Sidenote: Knowledge of Jesuits in Paraguay]
[Sidenote: Letters from the padres]
[Sidenote: _Anuas_]
Knowledge of the early experience of the Jesuits in Paraguay was
communicated to Europeans exclusively by the Jesuits themselves; and the
history of the beginning of the missions was written by persons who had
been actually engaged in them, or on the basis of reports made by the
missionaries. It was, therefore, to be expected that historical accounts
framed under these conditions would show a strong partisan bias. The very
flattering picture which they presented of the redemption of the Indians
from the life of savage nomads naturally excited enthusiasm on the part
of persons who knew little or nothing of the labours, difficulties,
and discouragements of the missionaries in the wilderness. The first
information concerning these labours that reached Europeans was derived
from the letters of Padre Manuel de Ortega, Padre José de Catoldino,
Padre Ruiz de Montoya, and Padre Roque González that were scattered
about Europe. The _anuas_ were another source of information. These were
the product of a regulation that required every Jesuit house or college
to make a report on the work of its members for every period of four
months. These reports, sent to other provinces or centres of missionary
activity, were expected to serve as a stimulus for increasing the zeal of
other members of the order. They increased in number to such an extent
that it was found difficult to circulate them; it became necessary to
make summaries of them to be printed. Sometimes individual _anuas_ were
given special prominence. Those of 1626 and 1627, written by order
of Padre Nicolás Durán and signed at Tucumán on the 12th of November
1628, were translated into Latin and printed at Antwerp in 1636. They
were issued under the title _Litterae annuae Provinciae Paraquariae_.
From time to time others were given equal distinction; some by Padre
Schirmbeck were published at Munich in 1649 as _Messis paraquariensis_.
[Sidenote: Bollo’s _Breve relación_]
Additional information was derived from books written by missionaries.
Padre Diego de Torres Bollo’s _Breve relación del fruto que se recoge en
las Indias del Perú_ was a book of this kind. The author had been sent to
the New World as procurador for the province of Peru. At this time little
or no missionary work had been done among the Indians of Paraguay; the
Jesuit province of Paraguay had not then been organized; this region and
the pampas were still embraced in the province of Peru. Torres’ book was
early translated into Italian, French, German, and Polish.
[Sidenote: Ruiz de Montoya]
A second book and of greater importance was that by Padre Antonio Ruiz
de Montoya called _Conquista espiritual hecha por los religiosos de la
Compañía de Jesús en las provincias del Paraguay, Paraná, Uruguay y
Tape_. It was a volume of two hundred quarto pages, and was published
in Madrid in 1639. Montoya, as if defending himself against criticism
beforehand, on account of his style and lack of proper arrangement
of his material, confesses his rusticity imposed by long residence
among savages; and that he wrote from memory and without the documents
that ought to have guided his pen, so that the result was a mass of
information thrown together without system or order.
[Sidenote: Techo’s _Historia_]
[Sidenote: Gist of Techo’s book]
The project of writing a complete general history of the province
of Paraguay had been variously considered when it was taken up
energetically by Padre Juan Pastor, who had long been a missionary in
Paraguay. He completed it in two folio volumes in manuscript, but,
when he died in 1658, the work had not been published; and after Techo
had made large use of the manuscript in his history of the province of
Paraguay, the project to publish it was dropped. Nicolás de Techo was a
native of France, born in Lille. His name was Nicolas de Toict, and his
history bore the title _Historia Provinciae Paraquariae Societatis Jesu_.
It is divided into fourteen books, and makes a folio volume of four
hundred pages, beginning with a geographical description of the La Plata
region. Entering upon his main subject the author gives an account of
the mission of the first Jesuits from Peru and from Brazil in 1586. Then
follows an account in chronological order of the events within his field
until 1645. Techo probably intended to write another volume, but his plan
was apparently not carried out.
An English translation of this book was published in Churchill’s
_Collection of Voyages and Travels_ (IV, 638-749). The author, a Jesuit,
was naturally especially interested in the history of his order’s
missionary activity among the Indians, the foundation and growth of the
Paraguayan missions. The translator, referring to the “abundance of
miracles and other pious matters” with which the author had overloaded
his book, announces that he has taken care to eliminate these things in
his effort to make his translation “acceptable to the reader.” But in
the account of the dreadful famine during the first settlement at Buenos
Aires he seems to find no reason to expunge the story of the lioness,
which Techo relates in all sobriety:
[Sidenote: Story of the lioness]
“The provisions they brought being spent, there followed such a
terrible famine, that many fed upon man’s flesh, and things not to be
mentioned.... The cruelty of the barbarous people, the fear of wild
beasts, and the severity of the commanders suffered none to go out of
the works. Yet there was a woman, who weighing the misery of famine,
chose rather to expose herself to the inhumanity of the Indians and wild
beasts, than to suffer the torture of hunger; and therefore stealing out,
she wandered a long time about the fields, till at night she went into
a cave, where finding a lioness ready to whelp, she renewed her ancient
experience and had the boldness to play the midwife, much to her own
advantage, for the lioness laying aside her fierceness, fairly divided
her prey among her young ones and her midwife, till the latter fell into
the hands of the barbarians; and being after many accidents redeemed by
the Spaniards, was brought again to the fort. Being then condemned for
her rashness and disobedience, she was exposed without the works, to be
devoured by wild beasts, where she must have perished, had not God in His
providence so ordered it, that the lioness she helped to whelp, came up
to her first, and defended her innocent midwife against the rest.”[168]
[Sidenote: Andrés de León]
An early sketch of the south-eastern part of the Spanish possessions
was written by Andrés de León y Garabito, who was born in Lima, became
judge of the audiencia of Panama, and, in 1643, judge of the audiencia
of Charcas. Subsequently he was appointed governor of Paraguay. This
position he held until 1651, when he went to Buenos Aires as inspector of
the royal treasury in that province. He wrote of the origin, the defence,
the organization, and other particulars of that region.
III
[Sidenote: Pedro Lozano]
But the most prolific as well as the most trustworthy of the Jesuit
historians of Paraguay was the famous Pedro Lozano. It has been possible
to fix definite dates to but few events of his life. Very good reasons,
however, have been advanced to show that his boyhood was spent in
Madrid, and that he carried on his early studies there. As a youth, he
became a Jesuit, and arrived in America in the second decade of the
eighteenth century. In the New World he resided habitually at Córdoba,
in the Colegio Máximo and at the hacienda Santa Catalina; but he visited
Buenos Aires, the pampas, and the Andes; he examined the archives at
Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, and Salta; and the amount and quality of
his writings indicate that he could not have been much diverted from his
literary activity. Neither the date nor the place of his death has been
established beyond a question, but the evidence available points somewhat
clearly to the year 1752.
[Sidenote: _Descripción del Gran Chaco_]
Lozano’s interest comprehended not merely the events in the history of
his order, of which he was the official historian, but also the marvels
of nature among which his life was cast, as well as the languages, the
manners, the customs, and the religion of the natives. More than any of
his predecessors he appreciated the importance of official documents,
in the search for which he displayed remarkable zeal and energy. His
disposition to consider the forms and events of nature found expression
in his _Descripción corográfica ... del Gran Chaco_.
[Sidenote: _Conquista del Paraguay_]
[Sidenote: _Historia de la Compañía_]
In his _Historia de la conquista del Paraguay, Río de la Plata y Tucumán_
he brought together a vast amount of important material relating to the
history of South America, and the documents which he either refers
to or prints constitute a sound basis on which historians are able to
build. This was edited by Lamas, and published in Buenos Aires in 1873.
Lozano’s _Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay_
was published in Madrid in 1754. It consists of two folio volumes,
yet it covers only the first twenty-eight years of the province, and
ends with 1614.[169] Padre Pablo Pastells refers to the reliability
of its information, the justice of its criticism, and the character
of demonstration given to its statements, and affirms that for these
qualities Lozano stands above all others who have written on the history
of Paraguay.
[Sidenote: _Las Revoluciones_]
Lozano’s _Historia de las revoluciones de la provincia del Paraguay_ is
the history of the conflict between the supporters and the antagonists
of the Jesuits in Paraguay, a conflict in which Antequera was the most
conspicuous figure. It appears thus from one point of view as a part of
the history of the Jesuits; from another point of view it is the history
of the rebellion of the Comuneros against the viceregal authority.
Lozano’s relation to one of the parties made it practically impossible
for him to be entirely impartial in his account of it; still the large
number of official documents introduced into the text of the narrative
helps the reader to avoid the possibility of sharing the author’s
prejudice.
[Sidenote: Lozano’s works]
The following is the list of Lozano’s works, printed and in manuscript,
according to Andrés Lamas, José T. Medina and others:
_Descripción corográfica del terreno, árboles y animales de las
dilatadísimas provincias del Chaco Gualamba._ 1733. In Córdoba (Spain),
4to, pp. 9 & 485, with map.
Copy of a letter written by a Jesuit missionary to Padre Juan J. Rico,
1740, 4to, pp. 59.
_Vida del P. Julián de Lizardi._ Printed in Salamanca in 1741; reprinted,
Madrid, 1832; new edition, Buenos Aires, 1901.
Letter to Padre Bruno Morales, dated Córdoba, November 1, 1746.
Letter to Padre Bruno Morales, dated Córdoba, March 1, 1747, containing
an account of the earthquake at Lima in 1746.
_Carta al Padre Juan de Alzola sobre los Césares._
_Meditaciones sobre la vida de nuestro señor Jesucristo_, written in
Italian by Padre Fabio Ambrosio Espindola, translated by Lozano. Madrid,
1747, two volumes, pp. 569 & 531.
_Historia de la compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay._ Madrid,
1754 & 1755. Two volumes, pp. 760 & 832.
_Historia de la conquista del Paraguay, Río de la Plata y Tucumán._
Buenos Aires, 1873 to 1875, five volumes, pp. 468, 396, 370, 489, 364.
_Máximas eternas puestas en lecciones_, written in Italian by Padre
Carlos Ambrosio Cataneo, translated by Lozano, Madrid, 1754; Madrid, 1776
& 1788; Valencia, 1884.
_Exercicios espirituales de San Ignacio_, written in Italian by Padre
Carlos Ambrosio Cataneo, translated by Lozano. Madrid, 1764, pp. 406;
reprinted 1776 & 1788.
_Diario de un viaje a la Costa de la mar Magallánica en 1745._ Buenos
Aires, 1836. Also published (in Latin) in Charlevoix, _Histoire du
Paraguay_ and in Prévost, _Histoire des voyages_.
Various documents communicated to Charlevoix; see Padre Muriel, _Fasti
novi Orbis_.
_Diccionario histórico-índico_, six volumes.
_Traslado de una carta dirigida al P. Luis Tavares_, Córdoba, June 12,
1739.
Letter on tithes, 1741.
_Observaciones sobre el manifiesto publicado por el P. Vargas Machuca._
_Representación hecha por la Provincia jesuítica del Paraguay al señor
Virrey del Perú a propósito del tratado con Portugal sobre los siete
Pueblos de las Misiones del Uruguay_, Córdoba, March 12, 1751 (MS. in the
library at Lima).
_Representación que hace al Rey N.S. en su Real Consejo de Indias el
Provincial de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Paraguay_, on the
same subject as the preceding, Buenos Aires, April 29, 1752.
Letter to the Procurador General on events in the province of Paraguay,
1752; in the library of Valladolid.
_Historia de las revoluciones de la Provincia del Paraguay_, (1721-1735).
Buenos Aires, 1905.
IV
[Sidenote: Padre José Guevara]
Padre José Guevara succeeded Lozano as the official historian of the
province of Paraguay. He was a native of Spain, born at Recas in the
archbishopric of Toledo on March 19, 1719. On December 31, 1732, he
became a novice in the Society of Jesus, and two years later, April
25, 1734, he arrived at Buenos Aires. Almost immediately thereafter
he entered upon his studies at Córdoba, and for many years this city
continued to be the principal seat of his activity. In 1743 he was a
teacher of Latin, and the next year he became a lecturer on theology.
Eight years later he was appointed to the position that had been held by
Lozano as historian of the province. After a residence of thirty-three
years in America he was removed to Italy under the decree of 1767, by
which the Jesuits were expelled from Spain and the Spanish dependencies.
At first he established himself at Faenza, but subsequently he obtained
the post of canon at Spello, near Perugia. Guevara died at Spello on
February 23, 1806.
[Illustration: Fr. GASPAR DE VILLARROEL.]
[Sidenote: Criticism in _Anales de la Biblioteca_]
[Sidenote: Guevara’s plagiarism]
The fifth volume of _Anales de la Biblioteca_ (Buenos Aires, 1908)
contains a new and complete edition of Guevara’s _Historia del Paraguay,
Río de la Plata y Tucumán_, superseding the incomplete copies issued by
Angelis and by Lamas. In the preliminary essay of this publication Paul
Groussac has subjected Guevara’s work to a severe critical examination,
in which he makes clear Guevara’s dependence on Lozano’s writings, not
merely the ordinary dependence of one writer on the results attained
by other investigators in the same field, but the dependence of the
plagiarist. The principal historical accounts of this south-eastern
part of America in existence before Guevara wrote were those of Techo,
Charlevoix, Lozano, and Centenera’s _Argentina_. Guevara’s dependence
goes so far that the whole substance of his book is found in Lozano,
except the final matter of the twelfth decade, which is drawn from Techo.
“The ordinary character of Guevara’s imitation consists in reproducing
more or less servilely the corresponding passage of Lozano. Especially
in the parts referring to the flora and fauna, the transcription, either
entire or fragmentary, is usually literal, without change of verb or
adjective. On the other hand, there are numerous suppressed passages,
arbitrary, brutal, really chopped out of the parts mutilated.” The
critic finds the copying not the chief offence, since it was a practice
generally observed in the Society, but the deceit of the preamble and
the author’s injurious silence respecting the historian to whom he owed
everything. But admitting that this severe judgment is well founded,
emphasis may be laid on the fact that Guevara’s style represents a
considerable advance over that of his predecessors in the same field. If
it may be regarded as consciously laboured, it certainly has the great
merit of clearness. The author does not give any indication of great
learning, or as in possession of an extensive variety of knowledge, but,
as Groussac suggests, he had nevertheless “sufficient attainments for the
satisfactory accomplishment of his task.”[170]
V
[Sidenote: Effect of Jesuit expulsion]
[Sidenote: Dobrizhoffer and Pauke]
One of the consequences of the removal of the Jesuits from Río de la
Plata was to deprive the world of much information concerning the early
events of that region. Some manuscripts were lost and others were never
written that would have been written if the members of the Society had
been permitted to continue their work undisturbed. Still a small number
of the exiles maintained an interest in subjects connected with the
country of their earlier labours. Among these there were four noteworthy
foreigners, men not of Spanish stock. Martin Dobrizhoffer, an Austrian,
went to Paraguay in 1748, and was a missionary among the Guaranís eleven
years, and among the Abipones for seven years. At Vienna he wrote a
History of the Abipones, which was published in Latin in 1784. A German
translation was published in 1783-4 and in 1822 an abridged translation
in English was published in London. Florian Pauke went to Paraguay with
Martin Dobrizhoffer in 1748. He was a missionary in the Chaco for fifteen
years. An extract from his writings was published in Vienna in 1829,
called _Padre Florian Paukes Reise_. In 1870 practically the whole of
his manuscript was published with the title of _Padre Florian Pauke, ein
Jesuit in Paraguay_.
[Sidenote: Thomas Falkner]
[Sidenote: _Description of Patagonia_]
[Sidenote: Gist of Falkner’s chapters]
Although Thomas Falkner was neither creole nor a Spaniard, his
long residence of thirty-eight years in South America entitles his
_Description of Patagonia and adjoining parts of South America_ to a
place among the writings of colonial origin. He was an Englishman, born
in Manchester in 1707. He was a surgeon, and embarked for South America
on a slave ship belonging to the South Sea Company. At Buenos Aires he
fell dangerously ill, and was cared for by Jesuits, who embraced the
opportunity to bring about his conversion. He entered the Society of
Jesus, and took his place as a missionary among the Indians in the region
between the Strait of Magellan and the Río de la Plata. He returned to
England in 1768, after the expulsion of the Jesuits. Six years later,
in 1774, his _Description of Patagonia_, edited by William Combe, was
published. It does not appear from the book itself what changes Combe
made in Falkner’s papers, but the style suggests more experience and
skill in writing than Falkner may be supposed to have had after nearly
forty years among the Indians and other persons, where no opportunity
presented itself for the use of the English language. The six chapters
treat of the soil and products; describe the Indian country and the
great river system of the south-east; Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland
Islands; the inhabitants of the country traversed; the religion, the
government, the policy, and the customs of the Moluches and the Puelches,
with some account of the Moluche language.
[Sidenote: Orosz’s writings]
Another member of this group was Ladislaus Orosz, an Hungarian. In 1727,
at the age of thirty, he went to Río de la Plata, taught philosophy
and theology in Córdoba, and after his expulsion from America returned
to his native province of Tyrnau, where he died in 1773. Two principal
manuscripts are ascribed to him. The first was _Decades quatuor virorum
illustrium Paraquariae_. This was printed in Tyrnau in 1759, and made
a folio volume of five hundred and fifty-two pages. The other work was
called _Decades quatuor aliae virorum illustrium Paraquariae_, and was
apparently printed but never circulated.
[Sidenote: Other expelled Jesuits]
There were many others who went into exile from the region of the Río de
la Plata and Paraguay. The more conspicuous among them were José Cardiel,
José Quiroga, José Jolís, José Manuel Peramás, Domingo Muriel, Gaspar
Juárez, and José Sánchez Labrador.[171] Cardiel’s literary contributions
include _Declaración de la verdad_ and _Breve relación de las misiones
Guaraníes_. Quiroga became known for his attainments in mathematics; was
a professor of mathematics in the college of San Ignacio in Buenos Aires;
and made a large number of maps of the southern part of South America
and, among others, a map of the viceroyalty of Buenos Aires. He left also
a treatise called _Observaciones astronómicas para determinar el curso
del río Paraguay_. Jolís was a Catalan, born in 1728. He was a missionary
in the Gran Chaco for ten years. His most noted literary production was
_Saggio sulla storia naturale della provincia del Gran Chaco_. José
Manuel Peramás wrote _Vidas de varones ilustres_ and _Annus patiens_, the
latter consisting of a diary of the journey of the exiles from Córdoba.
Domingo Muriel (sometimes in Latin as Cyriacus Morelli) left _Fasti novi
orbis_ and a continuation of Charlevoix’s _Paraguay_ under the title of
_Historia del Paraguay desde 1747 hasta 1767_. Gaspar Juárez was born in
Santiago del Estero in 1731, became a Jesuit in 1748, and died at Rome in
1804. His principal works are _Historia ecclesiástica del virreinato de
Buenos Aires_ and _Historia natural_, treating of the same region.[172]
[Sidenote: José Sánchez Labrador]
In 1910 there was published at Buenos Aires a part of the writings of
Padre José Sánchez Labrador. He was born at Guanda in the diocese of
Toledo on September 19, 1717. At the age of fourteen he entered the
Society of Jesus, October 5, 1731, and about the middle of the century
went to America. Established as a professor of philosophy and theology at
Córdoba, he won distinction and the high regard of his contemporaries,
but the call from the wilds appealed to him, and, abandoning his
professorship, he entered upon the life of a missionary to the Indians,
with all of its privations and dangers. In the midst of this service he
was overtaken by the decree of expulsion (1767). With hundreds of others
affected by this act, he was transferred to Italy, where thirty-two years
later (1799) he died at Ravenna.
[Sidenote: Labrador’s literary work]
During his travels and residence among the Indians Sánchez Labrador
acquired considerable knowledge of their language, translated the
catechism into the speech of the Mbayas, and began to compile a
dictionary of that language, carrying his work to the letter P in a fair
degree of completeness. The rest of his extensive writings treated of
either the natural history of Paraguay under the title _Paraguay natural
ilustrado_, or the progress of the missions in that region, this part of
the work bearing the title _El Paraguay católico_.
The first of these divisions comprehends information on the nature of
the country, the soil, the climate, the water, and the most prevalent
diseases; the plants, the fields, and the forests with various kinds of
trees; the animals, the birds, the fishes, the reptiles, and the insects.
The two volumes entitled _El Paraguay católico_, printed in Buenos Aires
in 1910, contain a great part of the important work left by Padre Sánchez
Labrador concerning the Indians of Paraguay and its provinces, as well as
accounts of his extensive journeys, his observations, and his reflections.
VI
[Sidenote: Juan Patricio Fernández]
The _Relación historial de las misiones de los Indios que llaman
Chiquitos_, attributed to Padre Juan Patricio Fernández, was first
published in Spanish in Madrid in 1726. It was republished in the
_Colección de libros que tratan de América raros o curiosos_, in 1895. It
treats briefly of the beginning and progress of missionary work in the
province of Chiquitos; the geography of the province and the customs and
character of the natives; the invasion and depredations by the Mamelucos;
the removal of the settlements; and events in the lives of some of the
leading missionaries.
The preface to the Buenos Aires edition of Pedro Lozano’s _Historia
de las revoluciones de la provincia del Paraguay_ affirms that Lozano
translated this work from the Italian original, by Padre Bandier, which
appears under the name of Padre Patricio Fernández. A mild controversy
has arisen about the authorship of this book, into which it is not
necessary to enter. The latest utterance observed takes issue with
Lozano, and supports the claim of Fernández.
[Sidenote: Matías de Anglés]
[Sidenote: Anglés’ _Informe_]
The report made by General Matías de Anglés y Gortari, commissioned by
Viceroy Castel-Fuerte to inquire into the causes of the conflict between
the Paraguay comuneros and the misiones, is a document of considerable
importance for the history of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay and the
rebellion led by Antequera. After the rebellion had run a certain course,
and Antequera had been imprisoned in Lima, Anglés, who was the corregidor
of Potosí, visited Asunción and undertook, in the capacity of judge,
by personal investigation to gather information needed to fix the
responsibility for the state of war that had existed in the province. He
entered upon his inquiry with a mind measurably free from any partisan
bias; he had never visited Paraguay before; he had no acquaintances
among the inhabitants; and carried only a note of introduction from the
viceroy to Bishop José de Palos. This introduction, on account of the
Bishop’s partisanship, made it difficult for Anglés to maintain his
proposed impartiality. But observing the evident partisan character of
some of the evidence presented, he sought to correct it by testimony from
other sources. Whether he was entirely successful or not in reaching an
impartial conclusion, the _Informe_ remains a valuable contemporary view
of a serious provincial war. It was completed at Potosí, in May, 1731,
after the author’s return from Paraguay. Thirty-eight years later, in
1769, it was published in Madrid.
CHAPTER XIV
SOME ECCLESIASTICS AND THEIR RELIGIOUS BOOKS
I. _Bishop Lizárraga._ II. _Bishop Luis Jerónimo de Oré._ III.
_Bishop Gaspar de Villarroel._ IV. _Minor religious writers._
I
[Sidenote: Church as patron of learning]
[Sidenote: Bishop Lizárraga]
The mediæval tradition that the Church was the supreme patron of learning
was generally recognized in Latin America throughout the greater part
of the colonial period. Men of scholarly tastes and aspirations found
their greatest opportunities in ecclesiastical office, or as members of a
religious order, and many of those who attained the dignity of a bishop
became noteworthy also for their writings. One of the early names in this
list was that of Bishop Lizárraga, whose family name was Baltasar de
Obando. When he assumed the habit of the order of Santo Domingo in 1560,
he became Fray Reginaldo Lizárraga. He went from Spain to Lima with his
parents; thence to Quito among the first European settlers; and finally
he returned to Lima. He was living in Chuquisaca when Viceroy Francisco
de Toledo (1569-1581), committed the crime of taking the life of Tupac
Amarú and of furthering the extermination of the other members of the
Inca family.
From the post of prior he was appointed provincial of the newly-created
province in Chile. After Lizárraga’s service as provincial, he was for
a brief period a missionary in the valley of Jauja, and while there he
received notice of his presentation as bishop of Imperial. This office
had come to him through Viceroy García Hurtado de Mendoza’s (1590-1596)
recommendation to Philip II. The king’s letter of appointment was written
on June 7, 1597, and on June 12 one year later, Lizárraga replied,
accepting the offered dignity. His consecration was delayed until October
24, 1599.
[Sidenote: State of Chile]
[Sidenote: Lizárraga in Chile]
This was not an auspicious moment to be looking towards southern Chile
as a place of residence. The Araucanian war had assumed an unfavourable
aspect; Governor Loyola was dead; the Indians had organized a general
insurrection, and had laid siege to the towns in the diocese of Imperial.
The destruction wrought in this uprising and various other considerations
induced the bishop to hesitate to take up his episcopal duties. In May,
1602, he was still in Lima, but he arrived in Chile in December of that
year, or in January, 1603, thus between five and six years after his
appointment. The ruined condition of Imperial led to the removal of the
see to Concepción; and, in view of the discouraging prospect, the bishop,
a few weeks after his arrival, sent his resignation to the king, with the
request that it might be forwarded to the Pope. For this act the king
wrote to him a severe rebuke, calling upon him to regard his obligations,
to remain with his church, to mend the state of his diocese, to preserve
it for the Church, and to offer his consolation to his subjects. The
number of Europeans within the limits of the bishop’s jurisdiction was
small, and these for the greater part were poor and discouraged. The
bishop was about as poor as the others, and was obliged to live in a
cell offered him in the Franciscan monastery. Yet he showed zeal and
wisdom in the management of the diocesan affairs; more wisdom and zeal,
it is said, than one had reason to expect, considering the indifference,
hesitation, and timidity he had displayed in Lima. Nevertheless, he was
discontented in his office, and, with its annual revenue of only three
hundred dollars, he was able to maintain neither his church nor himself.
His recommendation, therefore, appears reasonable, that his diocese
should be united with that of Santiago, and he be permitted to return to
the monastery of his order. This plan was, however, not carried out, and
in 1608 he was presented by the king for the bishopric of Paraguay, to
succeed Martín Ignacio de Loyola, who was promoted to be archbishop of
Charcas. At the end of 1607, or at the beginning of 1608 he took final
leave of Chile.
[Sidenote: _Descripción y población de las Indias_]
The greater part of his writings deal with religious subjects. There
was a volume on the Pentateuch, two volumes on places mentioned in the
Scriptures, a volume of sermons, a treatise on the life and eminent
services of Jerónimo Loayza, the first archbishop of Lima. These and
most, if not all, of his religious productions, have remained unpublished.
Lizárraga’s most important work was rather secular than religious. It was
called _Descripción y población de las Indias_. Doubt has arisen as to
where this book was written, whether, as indicated in the text, in “the
valley of Jauja,” or in Chile. Medina has discussed the question, and has
reached the conclusion that it was written in Chile, during the second
sojourn of Lizárraga in that country, and from the number of known copies
of it, he infers that it must have enjoyed a certain popularity, if that
may be said of a manuscript necessarily confined to a few readers.[173]
[Sidenote: Contents of Lizárraga’s book]
Among the topics treated in this book are the geography of Chile and
Peru, the viceroys and the governors, the bishops and the provincials,
the territory of Cuyo, and the road over the cordillera. One notes in
this part of it the imposing effect of these mountains with their grand
panoramas and their majestic summits of eternal ice. Lizárraga, like many
other writers, was moved by the grandeur of nature here displayed. At the
same time some of his views suggest the crude faith of his generation.
For instance the appearance of the comet of 1577 he interpreted as an
announcement that God was about to punish the people for their sins, and
that Drake the same year was sent to inflict the punishment.
[Sidenote: Bishop of Paraguay]
As bishop of Paraguay, like the great majority of the priests who
attained episcopal rank in America, Lizárraga led a life of virtue
and devotion. He died at the age of eighty, and the time of his death
accorded with his own prophetic announcement: “a las seis de la tarde iré
a dar cuenta a Dios.”
[Sidenote: _Desengaño del mundo_]
In the last half of the sixteenth century, while the New World was
displaying to Europeans its magnificent scenery and its untold wealth,
there were persons, particularly among the clergy, who, in the midst of
the general hopefulness, assumed to be disillusioned respecting earthly
affairs. Julián Martel’s reflections of this character were set down
in a book entitled _Desengaño del mundo_. He was born in Granada, and
went from Spain to Peru as a member of the secular clergy, but he became
an Augustinian friar, and later rector of the college of his order and
prior at Lima. He was esteemed for his austere life and for his learning,
particularly for his knowledge of Latin and of the writings of the
Fathers of the Church.[174]
II
[Sidenote: Jerónimo de Oré]
[Sidenote: _Símbolo católico indiano_]
Two especially prominent writers among the ecclesiastics of the first
half of the seventeenth century were Luis Jerónimo de Oré and Gaspar de
Villarroel. Oré was the successor of bishop Lizárraga in the diocese of
Imperial. During the first period of his active life he was a zealous
missionary among the Indians; later he was in Spain and Italy, where
he appears as a writer; and this activity was followed by a period of
devotion to his duties as bishop of Imperial. He was born in Guamanga,
Peru, in 1554, and was the third of the four sons of Antonio de Oré, who,
besides these sons, was blessed with three daughters. He entered the
order of the Franciscans at Lima, and here won distinction through his
studies. His work called _Símbolo católico indiano_ was published at Lima
in 1598. It contains the matter of two distinct books, the first treating
of the mysteries of the Catholic faith, “a philosophico-theological
treatise on God and his attributes,” in a word, “the dogmas of the
Catholic church;” the second being a description of the New World and its
native inhabitants. Like certain later writers Oré would have the name of
the continent derived from Columbus instead of from Amerigo Vespucci.
[Sidenote: _Relación de los mártires_]
[Sidenote: _Rituale seu manuale peruanum_]
Shortly after publishing his _Símbolo católico indiano_ Oré went to
Spain, and in 1604 published, in quarto, _Relación de los mártires que
ha habido en la Florida_.[175] From Spain he passed to Italy, and in
Rome published a treatise on Indulgences, written in Latin. Three years
later, in Naples, was issued his _Rituale seu manuale peruanum_[176]
which contains the prayers and forms of the Roman ritual in Latin and
in Spanish, together with translations into Quichua, Aymará, and other
Indian languages. It was designed to govern the priests and missionaries
to the Indians in the administration of the sacraments, and to guide
them in giving instruction in Christian doctrine. On account of its
translation of the Roman ritual into the Indian languages of South
America, this work is of special importance for the study of these
languages.
[Sidenote: Garcilaso to Oré]
In 1612 Oré visited Garcilaso de la Vega in Córdoba, and Garcilaso
has given an account of this visit in his _Historia general del Perú_
(Madrid, 1722, II, 460): “He told me that in the Franciscan monastery in
Lima there were deposited five heads, that of Gonzalo Pizarro, that of
Francisco de Carvajal, that of Hernández Girón, and two others which he
could not identify; that that religious house had them on deposit, not
buried, but in keeping; and that he desired very much to know which of
them was that of Francisco de Carvajal, on account of the great renown
he had left in that kingdom. I said to him that he might know which of
them was Carvajal’s by the inscription there was on the iron cage; but
he informed me that they were not in iron cages, but free, each one by
itself, without any sign by which it could be identified.
[Sidenote: Oré and the priests for Florida]
“This monk, Luis Jerónimo de Oré, was going from Madrid to Cadiz, under
orders from his superiors and from the Council of the Indies to send two
dozen monks, or to go with them, to the kingdom of Florida, to preach the
gospel to these gentiles. It was not determined whether he would go with
the monks, or return, having despatched them. He requested me to give him
some part of my history of Florida, which those religious might take with
them for their information concerning the provinces and the customs of
the inhabitants. I gave him seven books; three were of the _Florida_, and
four were of our _Comentarios_, for which he acknowledged himself greatly
obliged.”[177]
[Sidenote: Some mystical books]
[Sidenote: Bishop of Imperial]
After his return from Cadiz to Madrid, Oré continued his religious or
mystical writings. Two of his books of this character were _Relación
de la vida y milagros del P. Fr. Francisco Solano_ and _Corona de la
sacratísima Virgen María_. The religious character of his writings had
doubtless much influence in causing him to be presented for the bishopric
of Imperial in Chile in 1620. The appointment by Philip III was
confirmed by Paul V, and near the end of 1620, or in the beginning of
1621, the new bishop arrived in Lima. Oré’s return to his native country,
clothed with literary and ecclesiastical honours, was naturally a source
of supreme satisfaction to his relatives and friends, with whom he spent
nearly two years; and finally, in 1622, he took possession of his church
at Concepción, and entered upon the exercise of his episcopal functions.
He continued to discharge the duties of his high office for a period of
five years, and spent a year of this time among the untamed inhabitants
of Chiloé and the adjacent islands, whom he found less docile than had
formerly appeared to him the Indians of Peru. He died in 1627.[178]
III
[Sidenote: Gaspar de Villarroel]
Fray Gaspar de Villarroel, another writer already referred to, was born
in Quito about 1587, of parents who were extremely poor, but who are
said to have descended from a noble family. His father was a lawyer,
and for a certain period was a judge in Cuzco. While his son was still
young, he removed from Quito to Lima in order that the lad might have
the advantage of instruction. In Lima he lived in extreme poverty, but
continued his studies.
[Sidenote: Villarroel in Spain]
The zeal of the father to attain a higher degree of education stimulated
the son to pay special attention to his own cultivation. Like many others
of his time, who would be scholars, Villarroel entered the Church and
assumed the habit of St. Augustine. This was in 1607-1608, and after
this event he turned with new energy to studies in letters and theology.
Later he received the degree of doctor. After a few years his attainments
warranted him in becoming a candidate for a professorship that was vacant
in the university at Lima. His rival, Pedro de Ortega Sotomayor, was
successful, but Villarroel’s candidacy made his merits so well known that
he was elected prior at Cuzco. This office he held until his departure
for Spain, a journey that he made by way of Buenos-Aires.
[Sidenote: _Semana Santa_]
Born and educated in America, Villarroel was unknown in Spain, where
there existed a strong prejudice against all creoles, against their
intellectual attainments, and their fitness for positions in the public
service. To allay this prejudice with reference to himself was one of
the purposes of this journey; and he took with him a manuscript for the
first volume of a work to be entitled _Semana santa, tratado de los
comentarios, dificultades y discursos literates y místicos sobre los
Evangelios de la Cuaresma_. This he caused to be published in Lisbon in
1631 with an adulatory dedication to the king. This work was a commentary
and an interpretation of passages from the Bible, involving much that
appears frivolous, sterile, and commonplace, when considered from the
viewpoint reached after these intervening three hundred years. A second
volume was published in Madrid in 1632, and a third and last volume in
Seville in 1634; in 1626 he published a commentary on the Book of Judges.
This was written in Latin, and contained an abundance of extracts from
the Scriptures and from the Fathers of the Church.
[Sidenote: Appreciation by the court]
These publications gave evidence of his spirit and his learning; they
made an impression on influential persons at the court; and García de
Haro, after he had heard him preach, became his enthusiastic champion.
Moreover, the court and other persons of distinction conceived an
especially favourable opinion of Villarroel; he was frequently called to
preach before the king and the Council of the Indies; the fashionable
applauded him; and the poetasters wrote verses in his honour. The
practical result of all this for Villarroel was his presentation in 1637,
after a residence of eight years in Madrid, as the bishop of Santiago. He
was consecrated the next year in his monastery in Lima.
[Sidenote: Villarroel’s pastoral influence]
In its isolation the limited society of Santiago, like other colonial
communities, was afflicted with social antagonisms. There was rivalry
between the civil and ecclesiastical officials, and the task that
devolved upon Bishop Villarroel was to establish and preserve a just
balance between the conflicting parties. This task he appears to have
performed with marked success. Herrera, the historian of Ecuadorian
literature, affirms that “he made himself not only notable among the
bishops of America for his wisdom, but also for his eminent virtues
and for his indefatigable zeal in the exercise of his pastoral
functions.”[179]
Villarroel’s benevolence and charity found ample opportunity for exercise
in the afflicted community of Santiago after the earthquake of May 13,
1647, when the earth is said to have trembled and fluctuated like the
sea. The shock caused a terrifying noise, threw down the houses and
churches, and killed six hundred persons in the ruins.
[Sidenote: _Gobierno eclesiástico pacífico_]
_Gobierno eclesiástico pacífico_, Villarroel’s most important work, was
written during his incumbency as bishop of Santiago. It was originally
published in 1656-7, and in 1737 Padre Francisco Vásquez de Sandoval
caused a new edition to be issued. This book treats of the prerogatives
and duties of holders of ecclesiastical and civil office. In it the
author makes manifest his desire for harmony and conciliation, and shows
that no opposition exists between the legitimate designs of the church
and the state. It is not possible to describe this treatise in terms
applicable to a modern work on government. It has the character of a
voluminous mediæval book, containing much that is relevant to the general
subject and much more that from the modern point of view is irrelevant.
It is interspersed with numerous and extensive quotations, and is
crowded with references to both pagan and Christian authors. According
to tradition, these two massive volumes were written within a period of
six months, but they were not published until ten years later than the
date assigned as that of their completion, and there are various reasons
for believing that the work of composition occupied at least some part of
these intervening years.[180]
[Sidenote: _Historias sagradas_]
_Historias sagradas y eclesiásticas morales_ was also written in the
years during which Bishop Villarroel was a resident of Santiago.
It was divided into fifteen _coronas_, each _corona_ into seven
_consideraciones_, and each of the latter into _historias_. The mystical
significance and religious use of these divisions are pointed out by
the author, but neither the explanation nor the book itself makes
any effective appeal to modern thinking; in fact, only the _Gobierno
eclesiástico pacífico_ retains a place among books at present useful.
Villarroel’s other works are important chiefly as illustrating the
mental attitude of a distinguished ecclesiastic of South America in the
seventeenth century.
[Sidenote: Villarroel: “Tengo a Lima en el corazón”]
[Sidenote: In Arequipa and Las Charcas]
In spite of the esteem in which he was held by the inhabitants of
Santiago, Villarroel felt himself an exile in Chile. His thoughts always
turned with longing towards Lima, the scene of his youth and early
manhood, and of the development of his religious life. “Tengo a Lima en
el corazón” was often the refrain of his conversation. But in spite of
absence the Spanish court had kept his memory green in Spain, and in 1651
he was promoted to the bishopric of Arequipa, where he enjoyed a larger
income and a more benignant climate, and where, by his control of more
extensive means, he was able to expand the field of his charity. Even
his library he distributed among various monasteries, and shortly after
his transfer to Las Charcas, as archbishop, he died leaving no earthly
possessions, and he was buried at the expense of his chaplain.
Bernardo Torres, chronicler of the Augustinians, asked him for data
concerning his life, and received this answer:
“Nací en Quito en una casa pobre, sin tener mi madre un pañal en que
envolverme; porque se había ido a España mi padre; entreme fraile, y
nunca entró en mi la frailía; porteme vano, y aunque estudié mucho, supe
menos delo que de mí juzgaban otros.”[181]
IV
[Sidenote: _Semana espiritual_]
[Sidenote: San Nicolás and Bautista de Toro]
Books like the _Semana espiritual con meditaciones del principio y fin
del hombre para cada día, y documentos de oración_, by Juan González
Gutiérrez (Madrid, 1656) and the numerous religious works of the friar
Andrés de San Nicolás have little significance except to illustrate the
prolific industry of certain ecclesiastical writers in the realm of
mysticism. San Nicolás’ _Historia general de los Agustinos Descalzos de
la Congregación de España e Indias_ (tomo I, Madrid, 1664), is, however,
accorded value as an account of the establishments of his order in Europe
and Asia, but it treats only briefly of the history of the order in
America. In spite of his voluminous writings San Nicolás appears to have
been little known in New Granada, and Vergara naively remarks that he
has considered this forgetfulness as a punishment inflicted by posterity
for the author’s lack of love for his country.[182]
[Sidenote: _El secular religioso_]
Another voluminous ecclesiastical writer of Bogotá was Juan Bautista
de Toro. The most important of his works is the big volume called
_El secular religioso_, published in Madrid in 1721, and republished
there in 1778. A feature of the work which the historian is bound
to consider is its denunciation of the injustice and greed of the
corregidores and the inhumanity of their treatment of the Indians.
In an article on _Curiosidades literarias_, Miguel Antonio Caro, in
_Repertorio colombiano_, calls attention to the fact that Toro wrote a
natural, simple and harmonious style at the time when “Gongorism with
the authority of the peninsular writers had passed to the Indies and
perverted completely the literary taste.”[183] The fact is also noted
that in spite of Toro’s constant eulogy of the Jesuits, and his energetic
condemnation of the conduct of Spanish officials in America, a second
edition of this book was issued from the royal press of Charles III.[184]
[Sidenote: Juan de Alloza]
In the seventeenth century mystical writings encountered fewer obstacles
to their publication, and were more extensively read in the Spanish
colonies than were books treating of purely secular subjects. The works
of Padre Juan de Alloza were chiefly of this kind. His _El breve oficio
del nombre de María_ was reprinted many times. His _El cielo estrellado
de María_ and his other books of a similar character found numerous
devoted readers. This was assured by the great reputation acquired by the
author in his lifetime. In gaining this reputation he had the advantage
of membership in an eminent colonial family. One of his brothers, who was
a priest at the cathedral, became rector of the University of San Marcos,
and died as bishop-elect of Santiago de Chile. Another brother in 1651
and in 1652 was also rector of the University, and an uncle, Gregorio de
Loaysa, was vicar-general of the archbishopric.
[Sidenote: No todos eran Alloza]
Juan de Alloza studied at the Jesuit school in Lima, passed to the
university, entered the Society of Jesus, and became the most forceful
preacher of his time. In a sermon delivered on the occasion of the
festival of St. Paul, he commented on the bad example set by the
viceroy’s speech and acts. For this he was reprimanded by the superior
ecclesiastical authorities, and his right to preach was withdrawn. The
viceroy, informed of this action, ordered that Alloza should be permitted
to continue his preaching. “If Alloza,” he said, “does not tell us the
truth, who will tell us what especially concerns us? Let him continue
in the pulpit, and let the first sermon which he pronounces be preached
in my palace.” Acting on the suggestion of this episode, a preacher of
another order undertook to exercise a similar freedom of criticism,
but he was called to account, and the viceroy, on imposing the merited
punishment, bade him remember “que no todos eran Alloza.”[185]
[Sidenote: José Silva]
Padre José Silva’s life falls principally in the first half of the
eighteenth century. He was born in Lima in 1703, became a Jesuit in 1720,
and died two years after the edict of expulsion. He served many years as
a professor of philosophy, part of the time in the University of Cuzco.
Besides a treatise on the civil law in two volumes, he wrote extensively
on ecclesiastical subjects; on the evils of Calvinism; on the necessity
and the existence of a divine revelation; and on the eucharist.
[Sidenote: Francisco de la Cruz]
Francisco de la Cruz, a Dominican, was not less prolific than Alloza as a
writer on religious questions. He was born in Granada, studied in Lima,
made his profession of faith in the monastery of his order in Cuzco in
1616, and became a professor in the University of San Marcos. Entrusted
with various important ecclesiastical offices he finally attained the
dignity of a bishop, and was charged with relieving the Indians of Potosí
from the burdens imposed upon them by the miners. In executing this
commission he aroused the hostility of the Spaniards, whose interests
were affected. The mystical character of his writings is sufficiently
indicated by some of the titles of his books, such as _De la concepción
de María_ (Lima, 1653), _Historia del rosario a coros_ (Alcalá, 1652);
and _El jardín de María_ (Salamanca, 1655).
[Sidenote: Juan Cajica]
[Sidenote: The manuscripts of Cajica]
In the vast mass of unpublished writings by ecclesiastics are comprised
the numerous manuscripts by Juan Cajica, an Augustinian who arrived in
Peru in 1573. His extensive knowledge of the native languages greatly
facilitated his missionary labours, and his diligence and persistence in
writing are made abundantly evident by the statement that he produced
thirty-two volumes. Twelve of these were designed to be printed in folio,
and twenty in quarto, all in Spanish. They were, however, never printed,
because, according to Calancha, the publication of them would have cost
one hundred thousand pesos, and no fund of that amount was available.
They treated extensively of religious instruction and of the doctrines
requisite for a knowledge of the Catholic faith.
[Sidenote: Juan Pérez de Menacho]
[Sidenote: Menacho’s writings]
Few writers of Peru achieved greater distinction while living than
Padre Juan Pérez de Menacho, who was born in Lima in the last half of
the sixteenth century. He studied in the schools of his native city,
and entered the Society of Jesus. He was called to a professorship of
philosophy in the University of San Marcos in 1601, and served in that
office for twenty years. Many statements were current during his life
concerning his marvellous memory and profound knowledge, among others
that he knew by heart the works of Thomas Aquinas; and these statements
were heard not merely in America, but also in Europe, where, referring to
him, it was affirmed that the mind of St. Thomas was in Peru. In later
centuries he passed to a certain extent out of public knowledge, largely
because the bulk of his works were never published.[186]
[Sidenote: _El perfecto confesor_]
_El perfecto confesor y cura de almas_ was a purely religious book of the
middle of the seventeenth century that had a certain vogue in its day. It
was written by Juan Machado de Chávez, who was born in Quito, and who was
educated in Lima and in his native city. He held various offices in the
Church, and was appointed bishop of Popayán in 1651, but died two years
later, before assuming the duties of his episcopal office. _El perfecto
confesor_ was published in Barcelona in two folio volumes about 1641. In
1661 Francisco Apolinar published in Madrid a summary of Dr. Machado’s
works.
[Sidenote: Fernando de Vergara]
[Sidenote: José de Vergara]
Fernando de Vergara Azcárate and his brother José de Vergara Azcárate,
added materially to the mass of ecclesiastical writings of the first half
of the eighteenth century. They were both natives of Bogotá. Fernando de
Vergara was born near the end of the seventeenth century, studied at the
college of San Bartolomé and entered the order of the Jesuits. He became
the rector of the Jesuits’ college at Cartagena, and, after his return
to Bogotá, he became the rector of the Jesuits’ college in that city,
where he died on October 12, 1761. José de Vergara was born on January
22, 1684. He inherited from his father the encomienda of Serrezuela,
which had been held by his grandfather. In 1703 he left the college of
San Bartolomé, and was appointed to the office of corregidor. After the
death of his wife and of all of his numerous children but one son, within
a period of two months,[187] he became a priest. He received the degree
of Doctor of Theology at the University of Santo Tomás, became the cura
of Topaga in 1726 and was transferred later to Socorro, where he died
in 1746. His surviving son conducted the negotiations at Socorro with
the rebellious comuneros. The works of these writers are noteworthy now
chiefly as indicating what subjects claimed the attention of colonial
ecclesiastics of superior education and standing.[188]
[Sidenote: Domingo Antomas, mystic]
Another Jesuit whose name is set down in the list of the mystics was
Domingo Antomas. From his birthplace, Carcar in Navarre, he went to
Chile, and in 1742 was assigned to the projected missions on the island
of Juan Fernández, where he remained a year. After his return to Santiago
he was charged with the direction of the monasteries of Carmen and
Rosas. While in the island he wrote his little book called _Arte de
perseverancia final en gracia_. José Torres wrote on the privileges and
prerogatives of the Spouse of the Mother of God. The most striking of the
works under consideration is Manuel Lacunza’s _La venida del Mesías en
gloria y majestad_, which Vicuña Mackenna describes as “an indecipherable
myth, of which all speak as if it were one of the nation’s titles to
glory, without having opened the volume.”[189] As the title indicates,
the book deals with the second coming of the Messiah, the millennium, the
Last Judgment, presenting pictures of the imagination that suggest the
visions of Milton.
[Sidenote: Manuel Lacunza]
Lacunza was born in Santiago in 1731; he entered the Society of Jesus at
the age of sixteen. After his expatriation, in 1767, he lived at Imola,
in Italy, until his voluntary withdrawal from the order, when he retired
to the suburbs of the city, and lived there for more than twenty years
the life of an anchorite, preparing his own food and permitting no one to
enter his habitation. He died there in 1801.
[Sidenote: Ignacio García]
[Sidenote: _Desengaño consejero_]
[Sidenote: _Respiración del alma_]
The influences of colonial life generally stimulated practical activity
rather than philosophical or religious reflection, but now and then minds
appeared so predisposed to mysticism that they could not be awakened out
of their dreams even by the uproar of the frontier. Among such persons,
Medina mentions Ignacio García, Domingo Antomas, José Torres, Pedro de
Tula Bazán and Manuel Lacunza. García was born in Galicia in 1696,
studied at Coruña, entered the order of the Jesuits, and completed his
academic career at Salamanca. His request for service in America having
been granted, he sailed from Cadiz for Buenos Aires, and made the journey
of nearly a thousand miles from that town across the plains and over the
Andes into Chile. The first field of his mission was Coquimbó. From this
place he was transferred to Santiago, but in 1730 he was in Concepción,
where he gave instruction in philosophy. This was the year that witnessed
the destruction of Concepción by an earthquake, and after that event
García returned to Santiago, where he performed the duties of a professor
of theology. He died in that city in 1754 as rector of the Colegio
Máximo. His work entitled _Desengaño consejero_ was published in Lima the
year of his death. In this he emphasized especially the need of fervent
prayer, confirming this by citations from the Scriptures, and proposing
exercises for meditation in retirement. Another work of a similar
character was called _Respiración del alma en afectos píos_, which set
forth the exercises needed to keep alive the spirit, as respiration keeps
alive the body. In view of approaching death he requested Padre Javier
Zevallos to present to bishop Alday the manuscript of a volume entitled
_Cultivo de las virtudes en el paraíso del alma_ (Barcelona, 1759).
CHAPTER XV
GOVERNMENT AND LAW
I. _Melchor Calderón, Francisco Falcón and Francisco Carrasco
de Saz._ II. _Nicolás Polanco de Santillana, Juan Matienzo,
Juan de Solórzano Pereira, and Gaspar de Escalona y Agüero._
III. _The brothers Antonio, Diego, and Juan de León Pinelo
and Juan del Corral Calvo de la Torre._ IV. _Jorge Escobedo
y Alarcón and José Rezabal y Ugarte._ V. _Alonso de la Peña
Montenegro._
I
[Sidenote: Spanish autocracy]
[Sidenote: British and Spanish colonies compared]
[Sidenote: Rôle of Council of the Indies]
[Sidenote: Public discussion]
The autocratic government under which the Spanish colonists in America
lived exercised a notable influence on the opinions and theories held
by colonial writers on politics in the seventeenth and the early part
of the eighteenth century; but in the later decades of the eighteenth
century the new creole-mestizo society, or party, revolted against
the hitherto current political philosophy and accepted doctrines that
had found expression particularly in the United States and in France.
While the government of the Spanish-American dependencies was in process
of development, many persons very naturally became interested in the
new laws and the gradual growth of the system. As new phases of the
organization appeared, new questions arose that attracted attention. In
the British colonies, where provision was made for a large measure of
popular local control, interest in governmental affairs found expression
in addresses, projects of law, and debates in popular meetings and
legislative assemblies, and through the still more popular exponent
of opinion furnished by the public press. In the enjoyment of these
facilities, there was almost no incentive to write or publish formal
treatises on political subjects. The Spanish colonies, on the other hand,
presented a very different state of affairs. The people had no voice
in the colonial government; the popular orator, except in the pulpit,
did not exist; there were no legislative assemblies; the viceroys,
the governors, the judges of the audiencia, and the corregidores were
appointed by the king or by the Council of the Indies acting for the
king; only the municipal council, when not dominated by a superior
authority, stood as a feeble representative of the people. The laws under
which the colonists were governed were framed and issued by the king
and the Council, who ruled autocratically through officials rendered
practically absolute by their distance from the supreme head of the state
and by the difficulties and the infrequency of the communication. Any
discussion of current political or governmental questions had, therefore,
to take the form of a treatise, a report, or a petition to the king or
the Council of the Indies. During the greater part of the colonial period
no facilities for publication existed except in Lima, the city of Mexico,
and Spain; for no printing presses existed in Spanish America, except in
these two capitals and certain Jesuit houses, until the last part of the
eighteenth century; and until the last decade of that century there was
no periodical in the South American dependencies through which public
questions might be discussed.
[Sidenote: Question of Chilean Indians]
The question as to what disposition should be made of Chilean
Indians captured in war with the Spaniards was raised very early and
continued under discussion for many decades. This was the subject of a
treatise[190] by Melchor Calderón, who went from Spain to Chile in 1555,
and who became a canon and the treasurer of the cathedral of Santiago de
Chile, later a commissary of the Inquisition and vicar-general of the
bishopric. In 1579 he was appointed a member of the cabildo of Santiago.
His book, published late in his life, in 1607, was designed to bring to
the attention of the viceroy the views of the more competent colonists
concerning the advisability of enslaving the rebellious Araucanians.
Calderón’s argument was that since the conquerors were able to kill the
Indians, it would be carrying out a more humane policy to enslave them.
[Sidenote: Diversity of opinions]
[Sidenote: Francisco Falcón]
[Sidenote: Critical view of policy]
There was a wide diversity of opinions concerning the treatment the
Indians ought to receive at the hands of the government. The severe
policy, supported by the encomenderos and the bulk of the secular
authorities, was generally opposed by the members of the clergy; but now
and then a secular writer appeared as the vigorous advocate of a just
and righteous treatment of the Indians. Such an advocate was Francisco
Falcón, who was a lawyer in Lima during the last part of the sixteenth
century. At the ecclesiastical council of Lima, of 1582, Falcón set
out with great force and freedom, verified instances of injustice,
oppression, and robbery by the Spaniards, and urged the council to take
remedial measures and to suppress with a firm hand “those detestable
excesses.” He raised the question of the right of conquest, and denied
that the Spaniards had any such right, or any reason to make war on the
natives. He declared that the encomiendas had been awarded only for such
a period as the emperor might wish to have them continued, and that
whatever these kingdoms produce for the king should be spent for the
Indians themselves, since there was no law allowing the removal of the
revenues from these kingdoms to supply the needs of other countries,
and before all the king should satisfy the needs of those by whom the
production is effected. Falcón maintained, moreover, that no more towns
of Spaniards should have been founded than were necessary “to support
and furnish a backing for the preachers of the gospel.” He condemned the
establishment of towns in regions already cultivated by the Indians. He
opposed the exaction of a tribute from the Indians greater than that
which they had paid to the Incas; at the same time he emphasized the fact
that the revenues collected by the Incas were expended in the kingdom,
and not sent to a foreign country.[191]
[Sidenote: Francisco Carrasco]
Another phase of the Indian problem was taken up by Dr. Francisco
Carrasco de Saz.[192] He discussed extensively the payment of tithes
by the Indians, and reached the conclusion that they should make this
payment. For the legal aspects of this question he was fitted by his
broad knowledge of law. In the practice of his profession in Lima he
acquired the reputation of being one of the ablest and most distinguished
lawyers of his time. He was rector of the University of San Marcos in
1613, and became fiscal of the royal tribunal called the Crusada. Later
he went to Panama as oidor, or judge, of the audiencia.
II
The judges, or oidores, of the audiencia were usually men of legal
knowledge. Nicolás Polanco de Santillana was a member of the audiencia of
Chile about the middle of the seventeenth century. He was in Santiago at
the time of the earthquake of 1647,[193] and, prompted by the questions
that arose concerning the attitude the government should assume in the
presence of such a disaster, he wrote _De las obligaciones de los jueces
y gobernadores en los casos fortuitos_, beginning and completing his book
while the city still lay in ruins about him. Polanco de Santillana is
accredited also with _Comentario a las leyes del título primero del libro
primero de la recopilación_; but both of these works appear to have been
lost. A colleague and contemporary of Polanco de Santillana, Machado de
Chávez, wrote _Discurso políticos y reformación del derecho_, and this
also has disappeared.
[Sidenote: Matienzo]
[Sidenote: _Gobierno del Perú_]
Three especially important works on politics in the colonies are
Matienzo’s _Gobierno del Perú_, Solórzano’s _Política indiana_, and
Escalona’s _Gazofilacio real del reino del Perú_. These are treatises
on government and law, dealing with the institutions and offices
through which the administration of the dependencies was carried on,
and describing the powers and processes of the civil and military
organization. Matienzo’s book is the earliest of these; it was written
prior to 1573, while the author was a judge of the audiencia of Charcas.
The two parts of the manuscript constituting this volume found their
way into the British Museum, and remained unpublished until 1910, when
they appeared in print under the auspices of the Faculty of Philosophy
and Letters of Buenos Aires. The volume was edited by Dr. José Nicolás
Matienzo, a descendant of the author. It forms an important addition
to the printed sources of knowledge relating to the early history and
organization of the Spanish dependencies in South America. The first part
treats almost exclusively of the Indians under the Incas and in their
subsequent relation to the Spaniards; while the second part treats of the
Spaniards and of the governmental institutions established by them in
America.
[Sidenote: Matienzo’s views]
Matienzo affirms the justice of the Spanish conquest, and some of the
grounds of his opinion are, that the Spaniards had received a concession
from the pope; that they found America not occupied by any civilized
power; that the Indians did not wish to receive the Catholic faith;
and that by this act the Indians were relieved from the tyranny of the
Incas. This point having been settled to the apparent satisfaction of the
author, he passed to the consideration of the various classes of the
Indians, classes indicated by the relation they are made to hold to the
Spaniards, and by the tribute they are required to pay. In justification
of the position of the encomenderos, who became the notorious oppressors
of the Indians, it is asserted that when Indians were assigned to
encomenderos the principal purpose was that “they might, with greater
facility, be taught our holy Catholic faith” (Cap. XIV).
After a detailed statement of the status of the Indians under the Laws of
the Indies Matienzo devotes the second half of his volume to an extensive
examination of the organization and operations of the government
established by the Spaniards in Peru, thus giving to the whole treatise
the character of a legal and historical exposition, of importance not
merely for its analysis of the laws and customs prevailing in the Spanish
colonies of South America in the sixteenth century, but also for its
presentation of the views entertained by a judge of the audiencia, and,
presumably, of other high secular officials.
[Sidenote: Audiencias]
The audiencia was not only a supreme court, but also a high
administrative body. In the vacancy of the viceregal office the audiencia
conducted the government in the interim. To increase the efficiency of
the administration, audiencias were established in certain provincial
capitals. In the fully developed colonial organization, there were,
in South America, audiencias in Panama, Bogotá, Quito, Lima, Charcas,
Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Santiago de Chile. Concerning the creation of
the audiencia, of which he was a member, Matienzo wrote:
[Sidenote: _Gobierno del Perú_ quoted]
“There are very important reasons for founding the audiencia of Charcas,
in addition to the one that had been established in the city of Lima;
for the Indians from the mountainous regions coming to Lima become ill
and many die from the effects of the climatic change; and, moreover,
for the Spaniards it is a great grievance to be obliged to go three
hundred leagues from those mountains to Lima, and five hundred leagues
from Tucumán and other places; and crimes ordinarily remain without
punishment, because of the distance from the court; and since the region
of Charcas adjoins the Chiriguanos, Indians hostile to the Spaniard
in neighbouring places, who have a great desire, if they were able to
do so, to return to Peru; and if the leaders were badly treated, they
might begin a war, and do a great amount of damage in the country. The
audiencia is there to resist them, and it is a great wall and defence.”
[Illustration: Title Page of Solórzano’s “De Indiarum jure”]
[Sidenote: Solórzano Pereira]
[Sidenote: _Política indiana_]
[Sidenote: Sources of _Política indiana_]
The second of the three important works mentioned is entitled _Política
indiana_, by Juan de Solórzano Pereira. He was a student, and later
an instructor, at Salamanca. In 1609 Philip III sent him to Lima as a
member of the audiencia in that city. Subsequently he became governor
of Huancavelica and inspector of quicksilver mining. After his return
to Spain and service in various offices, he was finally promoted, in
1629, to membership in the Council of the Indies. In the dedication of
his work to Philip IV he affirms that he was ordered to write, at his
discretion, on the subjects of law and government; moreover, that on his
return to Spain he caused to be printed two volumes in Latin entitled
_De Indiarum jure et gubernatione_, and that he was given to understand
that the king would be pleased and served if those books were translated
into Spanish, in order that they might be used by those persons who did
not understand Latin; and many persons by letter had expressed their
desire for such a translation. But on account of certain difficulties
attending the making and using a literal translation, he decided not
to bind himself to the letter of the Latin text, but to improve it by
adding to it in many places and by abbreviating it in others. In this
way was formed the text of _Política indiana_. In this form it treats of
the discovery, acquisition and retention of the Indies; of the natural
features of the continent; of the government; of the Indians, their
services under the Spaniards, and the tribute paid by them; of the tithes
and encomiendas; of the royal patronage; of the Church, the various
classes of ecclesiastical orders and their officers; and of the secular
magistrates: the viceroys, the presidents, the audiencias, and the
various councils and committees. The work thus appears as a digest of
the laws and decrees issued with application to the Indies prior to the
last quarter of the seventeenth century. While the bulk of the references
are to the _Recopilación de los leyes de las indias_, other writings,
such as those of Matienzo, Acosta, and Torquemada, are frequently cited,
and, in keeping with the fashion of the times, there is embodied a
profusion of citations from classical authors. With all its superfluous
display of learning _Política indiana_ still holds and will continue to
hold a conspicuous place among the books of the first order for students
of the laws and government of the Spanish colonies in South America.
[Sidenote: Gaspar de Escalona]
[Sidenote: _Gazophilatium regium Perubicum_]
The third member of this group is Gaspar de Escalona y Agüero. It is
not positively known where he was born. Three cities have contended for
the honour of being recognized as the place of his origin. Alcedo, the
author of the geographical and historical dictionary, and the historian
Cevallos affirm that he was born in Ecuador, but other evidence points
to Lima as his native town. Wherever the honour may rest, it was
in the schools of Lima and the University of San Marcos that he was
educated. He held a number of public offices: he was corregidor of Jauja,
governor of Castrovireyna, procurador-general of the city of Cuzco,
and oidor, or judge, of the audiencia of Chile. His principal work,
entitled _Gazophilatium regium Perubicum_, was printed in Madrid in
1647; the first part in Latin, and the second part in Spanish. It treats
particularly of matters of justice, of questions concerning the civil
administration and the treasury, and of the affairs of the army. Its
analyses and descriptions present minute details both of the organization
and the functions of the public offices.
These writers were not reformers after the manner of persons who aim to
supplant the established government by a new form of administration;
they were loyal to the system which they served, but this loyalty did
not withhold them from criticising the practical execution of the
existing laws; they condemned with severity the criminal exactions of
the corregidores of Indians, and other abuses due to the dishonesty of
officials and their remoteness from the centre of superior authority.
[Illustration: Juan de Solórzano Pereira]
[Sidenote: The three works compared]
[Sidenote: Escalona’s book]
Matienzo’s exposition presents the state of public affairs only thirty
or forty years after the conquest of Peru, and is the earliest attempt
to set forth systematically the immature political organization and
the social state of this part of the Spanish dominions. The author’s
undertaking was comparatively simple, and he carried it out simply; but
sixty or seventy years later, when Solórzano wrote, the colonial system
had become more fully developed; the volume of laws had been greatly
increased; and new institutions had been created. In the presence of
this more complex state of society, Solórzano undertook to present the
substance of these laws, to describe the institutions, and to make use of
earlier writings in forming an organized body of knowledge relating to
the colonies. Escalona Agüero, in his _Gazophilatium regium Perubicum_
(_Gazofilacio real del Perú_), supplements both the _Gobierno del Perú_
and the _Política indiana_. He describes the colonial institutions and
deals extensively with the officials, indicating the qualities they
are required to possess; gives minute directions for official action;
specifies the salaries attached to the various offices; presents an
elaborate description of official accounts, the method of keeping them,
and of the tribunal of accounts; discusses the mines and the manner of
distributing their products; and describes the system of taxation, with
special emphasis laid on the _Alcabala_, or tax on the price of articles
when sold. This book, printed in Madrid in 1647, consists of three parts;
the first part of one hundred and ninety-nine folio, double-column pages
is printed in Latin; the second part has three hundred and two pages
in Spanish. In this work the author has examined not only the laws and
regulations referring to what are ordinarily known as governmental
affairs, but also those relating to economic affairs.
III
[Sidenote: Antonio de León Pinelo]
A more voluminous writer on politics than any of the foregoing appeared
in the person of Antonio de León Pinelo, who dealt with the legal and
governmental affairs of the Spanish dependencies. The circumstances of
his early life are still obscure. An article on him in the _Mercurio
peruano_ throws no light on the date or the place of his birth, and other
available sources offer very little definite information; but it is
inferred from statements in his life of Santo Toribio that his childhood
and youth were passed in Lima, and that, with his younger brothers, Juan
and Diego, he studied at the University of San Marcos. Having completed
his studies at the university, he went to Spain; there his talents and
learning were recognized, and he was appointed _Relator_ of the Council
of the Indies. In 1624 he published a discourse on the importance, the
form, and the arrangement of a collection of the laws of the Indies, and
under the authority of the Council of the Indies he compiled two volumes
of these laws. In accomplishing this task he encountered the notorious
confusion and contradictions prevailing in the body of laws and decrees
issued for the government of Spain’s possessions in America.
[Sidenote: Pinelo’s works]
The project to publish these two volumes met apparently insurmountable
obstacles, but, in accordance with a previous plan, the compiler formed
an abridgement of their contents, which was called _Política de las
Indias_. Three other works appear to have been drawn largely from
the original compilation. These were _Bulario índico_, _Tratado de
las confirmaciones reales_, and _Historia del supremo concejo de las
Indias_. Pinelo’s bibliography of authors who had written on the Indies
was entitled _Biblioteca oriental y occidental_, and was published in
Madrid in 1629. It was reprinted in three folio volumes in 1737 under the
direction of the minister Andrés Gonzales de Barcia.[194]
[Sidenote: _Del oficio y potestad_]
Antonio de León Pinelo mentions Gutierre Velásquez Altamirano, who was
a professor of law in the University of San Marcos while Pinelo was a
student there. Later Altamirano was appointed oidor of the audiencia of
Guatemala, but died in Madrid before assuming the duties of his office.
As a native of Lima, and as a student of law, he very naturally became
interested in the government of the colonies, and wrote a work entitled
_Del oficio y potestad del vicario del príncipe, y gobierno universal de
las Indias_, which was apparently never published.
[Sidenote: Diego de León Pinelo]
[Sidenote: Oppression of the Indians]
Antonio’s brother, Diego de León Pinelo, became a professor in the
University of San Marcos and rector of that institution for the years
1656 and 1657. He was appointed Protector of the Indians, and later
fiscal of the audiencia of Lima. His extensive knowledge of legal
and ecclesiastical matters was generally recognized, and many of his
writings on juridical subjects were made public. In 1660 the Council of
the Indies sent Padilla’s letter to the viceroy, the letter treating of
the grievances, frauds, and acts of injustice under which the Indians
suffered. At the same time the king ordered that a commission should
be formed to examine the evils referred to, and seek a remedy. In
obedience to a request from the viceroy Diego de León Pinelo set forth
the misfortunes and extortions imposed upon the Indians. Pinelo’s report
and Padilla’s letter were printed at Lima. The amount of attention given
to this subject by the viceregal government may be inferred from the fact
that the decrees, complaints, and claims issued during Alva’s term as
viceroy, between 1655 and 1661, filled, when written, twenty-five books
with 9,660 leaves. The attention bestowed upon this subject gives some
indication of the extent of the abuses and excesses perpetrated by the
corregidores and parish priests.[195]
[Sidenote: Juan de León Pinelo]
The second brother of Antonio, Juan de León Pinelo, who, as already
indicated, studied at the University of San Marcos, became a cura at
Potosí, and later went to Spain with Antonio. He was subsequently
transferred to Puebla de los Angeles, and became a canon in the
Cathedral of that city. His writings, published and unpublished, deal
chiefly with ecclesiastical questions.[196]
[Sidenote: Corral Calvo de la Torre]
Juan del Corral Calvo de la Torre, born in the town of La Plata, in Upper
Peru, studied in Lima, and was granted the title of advocate by the
audiencia. He became a member of the audiencia in Santiago in 1698, and
while occupying this position prepared his extensive work, designed to
be three volumes in folio, under the title of _Expositio ac explanatio
omnium legum Recopilat Indiarum_. But his application for permission to
publish it received from the king the following reply:
[Sidenote: Royal refusal of manuscript]
“El Rey. Don Juan del Corral Calvo de la Torre, oidor de mi Audiencia
del reino de Chile. En carta de 1º de marzo del año próximo pasado, dais
cuenta del método que habéis observado en la ejecución de los comentos y
exposiciones de las leyes de las Indias, teniendo ya acabados dos tomos,
y el primero remitido a Lima, y para enviar el segundo; y habiéndose
visto en mi consejo de las Indias, con lo expuesto por su fiscal, se ha
considerado que la aprobación que pedís de esta obra, como el que sea
su impresión de cuenta de mi real hacienda, se debe suspender por ahora
hasta tanto que se vea y reconozca, en cuyo caso, y siendo digna de darse
a la prensa, se podrá ejecutar en España, para cuyo efecto la podréis ir
remitiendo en las ocasiones que se ofrecieren. De Madrid a 25 de mayo de
1726. Yo el Rey.”
[Sidenote: _Estado político del reino del Perú_]
A subject similar to Escalona’s is treated in an anonymous publication of
ninety-two folio pages entitled _Estado político del reino del Perú_; but
the treatment is of a very different character, and it is written with a
very different purpose. Escalona aimed to set forth a comprehensive and
impartial view of the political structure, and to describe it as it was
defined by law. The _Estado político_, on the other hand, is designedly
critical, as may be inferred from certain phrases from the long
sub-title, such as “government without laws, officials without industry,
treasures without poverty, fertility without cultivation, wisdom without
esteem, militia without honour, cities without patriotism, and justice
without a temple.” After these and other similar phrases, the author ends
his title-page with the remark that “these attributes constitute a grave
detriment to this kingdom, and as a remedy two expedients are proposed
to his Majesty by a loyal vassal who writes them, solely moved by a true
love of his prince and natural Lord, and for the greater good of the
kingdom of Peru and of his Patria Lima.” The first of these expedients
was a reform in the militia, or the military affairs of the kingdom; the
second was a reform in the commercial affairs.[197]
[Sidenote: The _Memorias_ by the viceroys]
The formal treaties on government and law are supplemented by a number
of public documents that have been printed. Important among these are
the _Memorias_ and _Relaciones_ delivered by the viceroys to their
successors. They present contemporary accounts of public affairs, the
actual state of the government, recent changes, and projects for future
modifications.[198]
IV
[Sidenote: Escobedo y Alarcón]
[Sidenote: Escobedo’s official positions]
A large number of the colonial writers on law and government were at the
same time practical administrators. This has contributed to make their
literary productions reliable and worthy of confidence as sources of
information concerning the political affairs of the dependencies. In the
last half of the eighteenth century Jorge Escobedo y Alarcón appeared
in this double capacity. He was appointed a judge of the audiencia of
Charcas in 1776; he held an important post in the government of Potosí;
he was the superintendent of the mint, the mines, the bank, and the
royal treasury of that city. He participated in the defence of Potosí
against the insurgents of 1780, and thus helped to make that town an
asylum for the threatened inhabitants of the neighbouring region during
the rebellion of Tupac Amarú. He was promoted to the position of a
judge of the audiencia of Lima, and in 1782 Charles III appointed him
visitador-general of the courts of justice and of the royal treasury
of the viceroyalties of Peru and Río de la Plata. He became political
governor and intendant of the province of Lima, and in this capacity
he was president of the municipal council for the years 1785 and 1787;
and at the same time he presided over the superior council of the
treasury, which he created, and his administration of these offices was
signalized by important reforms. And during these active years of his
life he wrote on the development and exploitation of the mines, on the
former repartimientos of the corregidores, and on the means of aiding
the Indians without imposing upon them the burdens which that system
entailed. These and some of his other writings were published in Lima in
1784. After the conclusion of his work in America, Escobedo retired to
Spain, and in 1805 he was president of the second division of the Council
of the Indies.
[Sidenote: Rezabal y Ugarte]
[Sidenote: Rezabal’s _Biblioteca_]
José Rezabal y Ugarte was one of the later writers on legal and political
questions. Although a native of Spain, the greater part of his life was
spent in America. He studied at Salamanca, and in 1777 he was appointed
judge of the audiencia of Chile. In 1780 he was transferred to Lima, and
in 1787 he became a member of the audiencia of Cuzco. In 1792 the king
appointed him regent of the audiencia of Chile. This career naturally
fixed his attention particularly on affairs of administration, and
while oidor in Chile he prepared instructions for inferior municipal
officials, compiling for this purpose a large number of ordinances
bearing on this subject. He compiled also two thousand royal orders
designed for the government of America, which had been issued subsequent
to the publication of the _Recopilación de las leyes de las Indias_. He
discussed, moreover, the king’s rights in the matter of secular medias
anatas, and the obligations of service under certain Castilian titles.
This report was published in 1792.[199] Among other writings were a
dissertation on the various forms of money referred to in the Laws of
the Indies, a treatise on the introduction of negroes into America, and
various subjects relating to their utility and their government; and a
work dealing with the status of regents of audiencias in America, their
creation in 1776 and their powers and prerogatives. His _Biblioteca_ of
the writers who had belonged to the four greater colleges of Salamanca
was published in 1805. Rezabal died in Chile in 1800.
V
The fact that the Church was embodied in the state in the Spanish
dependencies sometimes led ecclesiastics to discuss political questions,
or governmental problems involving the Church. An instance of this is
found in Villarroel’s _Gobierno eclesiástico pacífico_.
[Sidenote: Alonso de la Peña Montenegro]
[Sidenote: Doctrineros de Indios]
Moreover, it is to Bishop Alonso de la Peña Montenegro that we are
indebted for an important treatise of this character, presenting what
may properly be called the constitutional position of the Church as a
part of the colonial organization, as determined by decrees, rules, and
regulations, particularly those affecting the doctrineros de Indios.
We have here in great detail the provisions elaborated and approved by
superior authority for fixing the duties of priests and missionaries in
the exercise of their functions in America, as well as the obligations of
all persons within the sphere of their ministerial influence. Although
the reciprocal obligations here defined may not in all cases have been
observed, still these provisions make clear the theory and expectation
of the superior authorities with respect to the ecclesiastical part of
the social organism. It is true that the inquiries of Juan and Ulloa
regarding this subject, which have been set down in their _Noticias
secretas de América_, throw much light on the departure of many priests
from the rules and regulations by civil or ecclesiastical authority,
nevertheless the law stands although it may be sometimes violated.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical functionaries]
The author describes the parish and the parish priest, discusses the
manner of electing the doctrineros de Indios, or missionaries to
the Indians, and shows the participation of the civil authority in
ecclesiastical affairs by pointing out the fact that “no archbishop,
bishop, prebend of any cathedral, doctrinero de Indios, or parish priest
in a parish of Spaniards may be appointed without first having been
presented by his Majesty, or persons empowered to represent him.”
[Sidenote: Topics of Peña’s treatise]
In this treatise other subjects of vital importance were considered,
such as the appointment of members of the regular clergy to the position
of missionary or parish priest; the mortal sin of accepting a mission
without knowing the language of the Indians; instruction in Christian
doctrine; questions concerning revenues and alms; preaching to the
heathen and their conversion; the functions of the priests respecting
the wills, or last testaments, of the Indians; the tribute, idolatry,
witchcraft, and drunkenness of the Indians; projects for extending the
dominion of the Church; the relation of the Indians to mining and work
in manufacturing establishments; provisions regarding discipline and the
ritual; and the vast array of problems that had arisen in the process of
organizing the church and adapting its ministrations to a people who had
no share in the heritage of Christian traditions.[200]
CHAPTER XVI
LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HISTORIANS
I. _José Eusebio Llano y Zapata._ II. _Miguel de Olivares and
Pedro de Córdoba y Figueroa._ III. _José Pérez García and
Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche._ IV. _Geographical description;
Molina and Vidaurre._ V. _Dionisio and Antonio Alcedo,
Zamacola, Segurola, and Martínez y Vela._ VI. _Concolorcorvo._
I
[Sidenote: Llano y Zapata]
[Sidenote: Zapata’s precocity]
[Sidenote: The Cadiz volume and letters of Zapata]
A notable figure of Peru in the eighteenth century was José Eusebio
Llano y Zapata. He was born in Lima, where his father held the office of
alcalde in 1690 and again in 1708. He appeared as the most precocious
mind of his time in Peru. At the age of nineteen he had published papers
on various topics in medicine, physics, and literature; and before he
was twenty-five he had added to these, among other writings, a panegyric
on Marcellos, bishop of Cuzco, the true method of preserving health, the
nature and origin of comets, a discussion on the books of Judith and
Isaiah, and the moral philosophy of Seneca. He possessed an extensive
knowledge of languages, and, as evidence of his interest in this branch
of study, he founded at Lima a public school for instruction in Greek.
In pursuit of knowledge of natural history he made extensive journeys
throughout South America during a period of five years, and afterwards
went to Spain, where he completed his most important book: _Memorias
histórico-físicas-críticas-apologéticas de la América meridional_, in
four volumes. The first volume (_Reino mineral_) was printed, the MSS.
of others have disappeared. In the second, the author is known to have
treated of the vegetable kingdom, “from the most magnificent tree to the
most humble plant”; in the third, of the animal kingdom, from the highest
to the lowest; in the fourth, the author described certain geographical
features of South America, particularly the great rivers, and in all
parts attention is given to the historical phases of the subject. A
little volume published at Cadiz in 1759 contains the preliminary
discourse of the first volume of the _Memorias_ and a number of Zapata’s
letters.
A more extensive collection of Zapata’s letters began to be published
at Cadiz in 1764. They present important details of a great variety of
subjects in the history of South America during the two centuries of
Spanish rule then completed.
[Sidenote: Support of Spanish system]
Zapata was an ardent champion of the designs and spirit of Spain’s
government of America. He praised the zeal of the conquistadores, excused
in some measure their faults, excesses, and avarice. He denounced the
writings of Las Casas as false and exaggerated, and condemned them
as utterances unworthy of a Spaniard. At the same time he showed an
appreciation of the Indians, maintaining that under a proper system of
instruction they would have manifested in the course of time “las fuerzas
del espíritu y la eficacia de la razón.”[201]
II
[Sidenote: Olivares’ career]
[Sidenote: _Breve noticia de la Compañía de Jesús_]
The _Historia militar, civil y sagrada de lo acaecido en la conquista y
pacificación del reino de Chile_ by the Jesuit Miguel de Olivares is one
of the more important works of the eighteenth century on Chilean history.
The author was born in Chillán, in Chile, in 1674. It is believed that
he went to Spain, and was there ordained priest; but in whatever manner
he may have passed the early years of his life, there appears to be
conclusive evidence that in 1700 he was in Chile, engaged as a missionary
in the region between the Maipo and the Maule. A little later he was a
missionary in the valley of Quillota, and still later he was preaching
in Valparaiso. Between 1706 and 1720 he was continuing his missionary
labours in various fields. In 1722 he was living in Santiago, and in 1730
at Concepción. Through his journeys he acquired much knowledge of Chile,
of its geography, of its inhabitants and of the conditions under which
rude settlements were growing into civilized communities. In 1736 he was
in Santiago, gathering and putting into order the sources of information
that furnished the basis of his _Breve noticia de la provincia de la
Compañía de Jesús de Chile_, a work not designed at that time for
publication, but only as material which a future historian might use.[202]
From this task he turned again to his missionary labours at first in the
province of Cuyo and later, from 1744 to 1758, in Araucania. During this
period he added extensively to his knowledge of the country as well as of
the language and customs of the Indians.
[Sidenote: _Historia militar, civil y sagrada_]
[Sidenote: Fate of Olivares’ manuscript]
Olivares was apparently induced to undertake his _Historia militar, civil
y sagrada_ by the encouragement of certain other Jesuits who had seen
his manuscript on the Jesuits in Chile. This larger work was begun at
Chillán in 1758, continued in Santiago, and a clean copy of it made in
Concepción in 1767. Thus, after nine years of work, it was completed the
year in which the author, together with the other members of his order,
was expelled from the colonies. Olivares at that time was ninety-two
years of age; but his great age did not prevent his inclusion with the
others under the decree of expulsion. The first stage of his journey to
Europe was from Chile to Peru. He remained two months in Lima. Here, by
order of the viceroy, Manuel de Amat y Juniet, his manuscripts were taken
from him, but by the intercession of José Perfecto Salas, who had lived
in Chile, Olivares recovered the first part of his _Historia_. But on
his departure from Callao he was obliged to leave the second part in the
hands of Peruvian officials. His companions in exile at Imola wished to
spread in Italy a knowledge of the history and social affairs of Chile,
and for this purpose they desired to make use of Olivares’ manuscript and
very naturally raised the question of procuring the second part. In 1788
Olivares caused the first part of his manuscript to be presented to the
king of Spain through the Spanish ambassador at Rome, and at the same
time communicated to the king the fact that the second part was in Peru,
and expressed his desire to obtain it in order to complete it and to add
to it his final corrections. But this was a wish not to be fulfilled. The
second part was, indeed, found and sent to Madrid in 1790, but the author
had already fallen under the weight of more than a hundred years.
[Illustration: Ambrosio O’Higgins, 36th Viceroy of Peru 1796-1801]
[Sidenote: Olivares’ sources]
[Sidenote: Character of Olivares’ work]
The manuscript sent to the king of Spain in 1788 is the part of Olivares’
work which has determined his place in the literature of the colonies.
It is not known what was the fate of the second part sent from Chile to
Madrid in 1790 by Governor Ambrosio O’Higgins. In writing his _Historia
militar, civil y sagrada_, Olivares used the works of Antonio de Herrera,
Ovalle, Ercilla, Xufré del Águila, Tesillo, and Bascuñán, as well as the
_Voyage_ of Frezier, the writings of Juan and Ulloa, the chronicle of
Techo, the description of the bishopric of Santiago by José Fernández
de Campino, and the manuscript history by Córdoba y Figueroa, which,
according to Medina, “served as his principal guide.” Documents in the
archives were not accessible to him, and this limitation of his sources
made certain errors inevitable; but his experience and observations
enabled him to present especially valuable descriptions of the country
and the customs of the Indians. In his pages, moreover, one may find
independent judgments regarding the defensive military operations, and
on the extent of success achieved by the missionaries in their efforts
to convert the Indians. Compared with his work on the Jesuits in Chile,
the history written later shows a more marked maturity of judgment and a
greater degree of originality. “But anyone who may wish to examine the
book on the Jesuits will find in it not only a mass of facts most useful
for a knowledge of the history of the Jesuits in Chile, but also for a
complete understanding of the political and civil history.”[203]
[Sidenote: Historians of the 18th century]
[Sidenote: Córdoba’s _Historia de Chile_]
The Chileans of the eighteenth century, who wrote on the history of
their country, show a somewhat clearer conception of the proper nature
of history than their predecessors. One of the books of this time was
_Apuntes de lo acaecido en la conquista de Chile, desde sus principios
hasta el año de 1672_, by José Basilio de Rojas y Fuentes, of whose life
too few facts are known to constitute the basis of a biography. Of Pedro
Córdoba y Figueroa, the author of a _Historia de Chile_, much more is
known. He was a descendant of one of the early conquistadores, and was
born in Concepción in 1692. Having passed under the instruction given
by the Jesuits in his native town, he embraced the career of a soldier,
acquired official rank in 1734, became a member of various expeditions
against the Araucanians, participated in at least three parlamentos, or
conferences, with the Indians, and was finally established at Concepción,
where he held the office of alcalde. The fact that little mention is made
of him during the period between 1739 and 1751 suggests that these were
tranquil years of his life. During this time he was making his historical
studies, using such works on Chilean history as had been printed at that
time, and certain manuscripts, some of which, Medina says, are not now
known.[204] His work, the product of these studies, has been commended
as showing patient investigation and judicious criticism. He was,
however, afflicted with a common infirmity of this time, the desire to
show his erudition respecting subjects quite foreign to the history of
Chile, in the field of Latin classics and the writings of the Fathers of
the Church.
III
[Sidenote: José Pérez García]
[Sidenote: García’s social position]
Two writers on Chilean history during the last years of the colonial
period were José Pérez García and Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche. Pérez
García was born in 1721, at Colindres, a little town in Spain near
Santander. His parents are described in their letters patent of nobility
as “_caballeros nobles, hijodalgos de sangre y naturaleza_.” He acquired
only the limited education ordinarily obtained by young persons who
intended to devote themselves to commerce. At the age of twenty he
left Spain for America in company with an older brother, who made a
considerable fortune in Upper Peru, and also conducted a commercial
house in Buenos Aires. For ten years Pérez García remained in that city
engaged in mercantile pursuits. Here he laid the basis of the fortune
that later insured his independence. About the middle of the century
he went to Chile, and continued his activity in mercantile affairs in
Santiago. Here his recognized honesty and his wealth acquired for him
an honourable position in the community, and his marriage with María
del Rosario Salas y Ramírez, the daughter of a rich Spanish merchant,
added to his fortune, and fixed his intimate relations with the most
conspicuous elements of Chilean society. After his withdrawal from active
business he continued to live in Santiago. In his retirement he sought
unsuccessfully from the king the rank and title of lieutenant-colonel,
not with a view of exercising the functions of command, but for the
sake of the social distinction this title would confer. One of the
characteristic features of this colonial society is seen in the
importance attached to titles and distinctive rank.
[Sidenote: Contents of García’s book]
[Sidenote: Lack of literary skill]
[Sidenote: Ground of García’s superiority]
For six years in the first decade of the nineteenth century Pérez García
was engaged in writing his _Historia general, natural y militar, civil
y sagrada del reino de Chile_, completed, as he announced on the last
sheet of his manuscript, March 19, 1808. The first part of this book is
taken up with references to the Virgin as the “discoverer, conqueror,
and colonizer of the kingdom of Chile”; with a discussion of the origin
of the Americans, with an inquiry as to the probable population of this
continent before the Noachian flood, and with the question as to the
presence of the Apostle Thomas on this continent. This part has neither
interest nor historical value. And, considering the author’s lack of
literary training, one ought not to be disappointed in finding the
writing crude and the language in many instances incorrect. “But the
real merit of Pérez García’s manuscript,” according to Barros Arana’s
judgment, “resides in the historical narrative which constitutes about
three-quarters of the whole work. This writer has prepared himself with
a profound study of the chronicles, those in manuscript as well as those
in print, and of the documents that came to his hands, and although with
complete neglect of literary forms, he was able to make a book which
has a true value and which may be consulted with profit now, after many
documents have been discovered, and after the history of the conquest and
colonization have begun to be rewritten with the new light which they
furnish. The reason of the superiority of the history of Pérez García
over those that preceded it is found in the fact that the author has not
always accepted as unquestionable truth what he found written by other
authors; that he has attempted to verify the statements for himself and
by means of comparing those narratives with the documents; and that
finally he has corrected in many points numerous errors, and has set
down facts from his own investigations that are not found in the other
chronicles.”[205]
[Sidenote: Carvallo’s work]
[Sidenote: Carvallo and O’Higgins]
The work by Carvallo was entitled _Descripción histórico-geográfica del
reino de Chile_. On account of the extensive investigations on which
it is based and its independent spirit it may be properly classed with
the writings of Pérez García. Both of these authors were, moreover,
distinguished from many of their predecessors by their secular status.
García was a merchant and Carvallo was a soldier. As a soldier Carvallo
was subordinated to Ambrosio O’Higgins while that officer was in general
command of the southern frontier, and afterwards when he had become
governor and captain-general of Chile. The friendly relation that at
first existed between them was later changed to hatred and hostility, by
which O’Higgins was moved to use his influence to obstruct the execution
of Carvallo’s plans. This is seen in the failure of Carvallo to obtain
the office of corregidor in Peru for which he had applied, and also in
the objections raised by O’Higgins to granting Carvallo leave to go to
Santiago to consult authorities for his proposed history of Chile, as
well as in his later refusal to grant his request for permission to go
to Madrid to secure its publication. When Carvallo proposed to abandon
his military career and enter a monastery, he requested that in his
ecclesiastical position his military salary might continue to be paid to
him. This O’Higgins firmly and definitely refused. But by persistence
and a subsequent petition he succeeded in obtaining O’Higgins’ permission
to go to Santiago; and directly from the government in Spain he obtained
leave to go to Madrid.
[Sidenote: Life of Carvallo]
[Sidenote: Carvallo’s project to write a history]
The life of Carvallo was that of a vigorous and restless spirit in revolt
against the narrowness and monotony of Chilean social conditions in the
last half of the eighteenth century. He was born in Valdivia in 1742, the
son of the governor of the district, and the youngest of three brothers.
Until his twentieth year he was under the instruction of Jesuits; he then
entered the military service, in which he continued for many years in his
native city, where he married and became the head of a numerous family.
The dull routine of garrison duties in a stagnant colonial town irked
him. Hoping to find an open field for his ambition, he sought and secured
his transfer to the frontier. At this time the project of President
Guill y Gonzaga to establish towns or forts on territory not previously
occupied by the Spaniards provoked the opposition and hostility of the
Indians. It would be difficult to imagine a more complete contrast to
Carvallo’s life at Valdivia than that presented by his experience on the
frontier; but the freer life of the frontier had its compensations; he
found there abundant material for the diary which he kept throughout the
whole period of his military career. The writing of this diary is said to
have suggested to him the project to write a history of Chile. Moreover,
daily contact with the Indians for more than thirty years gave him a
secure basis of judgment concerning the long conflict which furnishes
the main theme of Chilean history; he acquired sufficiently the Indians’
viewpoint to enable him to discern the unjust features of the Spanish
policy respecting them, and by his spirit of impartiality he was led to
oppose the governors and to point out their abuses and unworthy conduct.
When Carvallo finally obtained permission directly from the government in
Spain to visit Madrid, O’Higgins sent to Buenos Aires an order for his
arrest, but the order arrived too late to prevent Carvallo’s departure,
and he was consequently able to pass a number of years in the Spanish
capital, where he completed his History of Chile in 1796.
[Sidenote: Carvallo at Madrid]
At Madrid Carvallo was able to command influence sufficient not only to
defeat the efforts of those who wished to excite hostility to him at the
court, but also to secure the favour of the king and incorporation in the
army at Buenos Aires. It is not definitely known how long he remained
at Madrid, long enough, however, as already indicated, to complete his
manuscript, the narrative of which extends to 1788, to the end of the
_interim_ government of Tomás Álvarez de Acevedo. He was not able to
secure its publication, but before it was printed it was extensively
used as a source by later writers. Two of the volumes of Gay’s _Historia
física y política de Chile_, as pointed out by Amunátegui, “are a simple
transcription of some of the books of Carvallo’s work.”
[Sidenote: Carvallo’s death and legacy]
Early in the nineteenth century he entered upon his duties as captain
in the army at Buenos Aires; the date of this event is sometimes given
as 1803. When the famous junta gobernativa was formed, May 25, 1810,
Carvallo took up the cause of the revolution with great enthusiasm, but
his failing health prevented him from rendering the efficient service
he had desired to give. He died in 1816. Some time after his death
Juan Arias, his son-in-law and sole heir, appeared at Buenos Aires to
receive his meagre inheritance. The following is Arias’ report of his
conversation with the officer in charge of Carvallo’s affairs:
“My friend, your father-in-law is dead.”
“I am already aware of that misfortune.”
“He declared that you were his sole heir.”
“I have read the will, and I wish you would please to order
that the poor articles of his property may be given to me.”
“These articles were reduced to his clothing in use and a few
silver spoons.”
“Where shall I be able to get them?”
“My friend, as you were not here, I gave the clothing to some
Chilean immigrants, who were in want.”
“But the spoons?”
“I sold them and used the proceeds in causing masses to be
said for the eternal repose of Carvallo.”
“Besides the clothing and the spoons, I am especially
interested in the manuscript of a History of Chile, which my
father-in-law had written. Please let me know where that bundle
of papers is.”
“I sold it for two hundred pesos on account of masses for the
departed Carvallo.”[206]
IV
[Sidenote: Some geographical descriptions]
Throughout the colonial period geographical description held a prominent
place among the writings of Spanish Americans. _Descripción de Chile_,
by Ponce de León, _Población de Valdivia_, by Miguel de Aguirre and
_Explicación de la plaza y puerto_, by Pedro de Moreno, are among early
works of this kind. Ponce de León and Aguirre wrote in the seventeenth
century, while Moreno’s _Explicación_ was published in 1731. A little
later Pedro Usauro Martínez de Bernabé wrote an account of the presidio
and city of Valdivia. This author arrived in Chile very young, and at
the age of seventeen, in 1749, he was already under military training.
For many years later he was in service as a member of the garrison of
Valdivia, and through his long service in this region he became familiar
with the natural peculiarities and the state of affairs in the southern
part of Chile. The extent and accuracy of his observations, and his
ability to attain general views based on these observations give his
writings a certain superiority over many of the works in this field.
[Sidenote: Ciudad encantada de los Césares]
Belief in the tradition of the “Ciudad encantada de los Césares” was
rife in Martínez’s time, and, having had some part in an investigation
designed to make clear the grounds of the popular belief, he wrote
_Reflexiones críticas político-históricas sobre los nominados Césares_.
He had also in mind to free his countrymen from their illusion; for at
Valdivia he had knowledge of those who had faith in the tradition, and of
the expeditions organized to discover the famous city of the Césares.
[Sidenote: Pinuer’s _Relación_]
[Sidenote: Orejuela’s Commission]
This tradition was exploited by Ignacio Pinuer, who conducted an
expedition organized to search for the famous city. Pinuer was born
in Valdivia, and this tradition interested him from his boyhood. In
his mature years he was brought into frequent communication with the
Indians, and from them he sought confirmation or explanation of it.[207]
His expedition was naturally fruitless, but his _Relación sobre una
ciudad grande de españoles situada entre los indios_ (1774), has kept
alive the memory of his undertaking. A part of this _Relación_ is
contained in Pedro de Angelis’ _Colección de documentos_, reproduced
from the _Semanario erudito_ of Madrid. Another document relating to
this expedition is Benito Delgado’s _Diario_. Delgado was the chaplain
of the expedition, and his account was addressed to Governor Joaquín
de Espinosa. Gay, the historian, printed it in _Historia de Chile_
(_Documentos_, I, 431-485). But even when this tradition was gradually
losing its hold on the minds of Chileans, the court of Spain was still
influenced by it, and commissioned Manuel José de Orejuela to continue
the search. But in spite of his royal patent Orejuela encountered
opposition in America. The viceroy of Peru and the governor of Chile
recognized the folly and absurdity of the enterprise, and persuaded him
to relinquish his projected expedition.
[Sidenote: Order for information]
Before the delusion concerning a city of the Césares had run its course,
the government in Spain ordered the officers of the royal treasury
at Santiago and the corregidores to formulate information concerning
districts under their direction. As results of this order there appeared
a number of reports or statistical accounts covering various parts of
Chilean territory. One of these was José Fernández Campino’s _Relación
del obispado de Santiago de Chile_, a dry statistical description of
central Chile. Another similar production was Pedro González de Agüeros’
_Descripción historial de Chile_, which was published in Madrid in 1791.
[Illustration: Juan Ignacio Molina]
[Sidenote: Juan Ignacio Molina]
In the preface to the second volume of his history of Chile Molina
affirms that when he undertook that work he had in his possession the
first volume of Olivares’ manuscript, and that he was in constant
expectation of receiving from Peru the second volume, but that this
volume, on which he had confidently relied, he had never received, and
in consequence he had been compelled to seek from various other sources
the information which it would have furnished. Although Molina lived long
in Chile, and wrote the geographical, natural, and civil history of that
country, his work was originally published in Italian. The first part,
treating of natural history, was issued in Bologna in 1782. A Spanish
translation appeared in Madrid in 1788. The second part, treating of the
civil history, appeared several years later. Like Olivares and the other
Jesuits, he was expelled from America in 1767.
[Sidenote: Vidaurre’s _Historia de Chile_]
Another contemporary writer who suffered the same fate was Felipe
Gómez de Vidaurre. As in the case of Molina, Bologna became Vidaurre’s
residence in exile, and here he wrote his _Historia geográfica, natural
y civil del reino de Chile_, the imperfection of which is in a large
measure due to the fact that he wrote at a distance from the scenes he
described, and without the documentary and other requisite authorities.
Vidaurre’s work is divided into eleven books, the first relates to
geography, the second, third, and fourth to natural history, and the
others treat of political events. Critics appear to have found this book
not without merit, but not equal in merit to the writings of Olivares and
Molina.
V
[Sidenote: Dionisio de Alcedo y Herrera]
[Sidenote: Dionisio de Alcedo’s works]
Dionisio de Alcedo, although less widely known than his son, nevertheless
played an important rôle in the affairs of the colonies, and made certain
contributions to the published information concerning the Indies. He
was born in Madrid, and, in 1706, he left Spain for Peru. In 1708,
while returning to Europe, he was taken prisoner by the English. Having
been liberated and sent to Quito, he arrived there in time to accompany
Bishop Diego Ladrón de Guevara to Lima, where provision had been made
for Guevara’s succession to the viceregal office after Castelldosrius.
During the succeeding years Alcedo was charged with important and
commissions until he was finally appointed, in 1728, president of the
province of Quito. This post he held until 1737. He was thus at the
head of the government of Quito when the French commissioners with Juan
and Ulloa began their observations and measurements under the equator.
Subsequently, having returned to Spain, he was appointed president and
commanding general of Panama. He served in this capacity from 1743 to
1749. He retired from this office in consequence of charges presented
by the judges of the audiencia, which proved, however, to be entirely
unfounded. He retired to Spain in 1752, and died there in 1777 at the
age of eighty-seven. Two works by Dionisio de Alcedo y Herrera were
published in Madrid. The first was _Aviso histórico político geográfico
con noticias particulares de la América meridional_ (1741); the second,
_Compendio histórico de la provincia, partidos, ciudad, astillero, ríos,
y puerto de Guayaquil_ (1741).
[Sidenote: Antonio de Alcedo’s _Diccionario_]
Antonio de Alcedo, a son of Dionisio de Alcedo, born in Quito in 1735,
availed himself of material presented by his father and by various
writers on America, and compiled the well-known _Diccionario geográfico
de las Indias_, which was published in five volumes at Madrid in the
years 1786 to 1789. This was later translated into English, with various
additions and corrections, the translation thus becoming more valuable
than the original. It was designed to embrace descriptions of the
provinces, the cities, and the most striking natural features of the
whole of America, but the parts devoted to British America, as might very
well be expected, are less important than those treating of Latin America.
[Sidenote: Zamacola, priest of Arequipa]
The activity of Juan Domingo de Zamacola, a priest of Arequipa, appears
to have been divided between building and writing. He made considerable
and important additions to church edifices in Arequipa, and his written
work deals extensively with the affairs of Peru. In a descriptive
itinerary from Buenos Aires to Arequipa he gave an account of the towns
and the roads on the way. Another work contained an account of the events
of the revolutions in the provinces of Peru between 1780 and 1785.
He also wrote a “narrative of the earthquake at Arequipa of May 14,
1784,” also a diary of the visit of Bishop Pedro Chávez de la Rosa to
the provinces of Tarapacá, Tacna, and Moquegua, containing an abundance
of statistical information. Of a similar character was his work on the
history and geography of Arequipa, and that on the foundation of the town
of San Fernando in the valley of Socaboya. In a lighter vein were his
satirical papers against idleness, against “the women who smoke,” against
luxury, and against the use of colours on the face.
[Sidenote: Segurola’s _Diario_]
An enlightening account of one phase of the war known as the rebellion
of Tupac Amarú is found in the _Diario de los sucesos del cerco de la
ciudad de La Paz en 1781_. It was written by Sebastián de Segurola, a
brigadier in the royal army, in command of the forces in La Paz during
the siege, and was printed in the first volume of the _Archivo boliviano_
(Paris, 1872). It recounts in a series of daily entries the flight of
the Spaniards to La Paz from the neighbouring towns, the fortification
of a certain part of the city, the gathering about the city of great
bodies of Indians, the gradual diminution of food within the city, the
consumption of the bulk of the horses and mules, and even the utilizing
of rawhide trunks as food; until finally, after facing famine for months,
the besieged saw loyal troops on the heights around the city and were
assured of relief.
[Sidenote: Career of Segurola]
The author of this diary was a Spaniard born in the province of Guipuzcoa
on January 27, 1740. He joined the army at the age of eighteen, and
after eighteen years of service left Spain for America in the force
commanded by Zeballos, when that officer, as viceroy of the newly created
viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, went to defend the Spanish settlements
against the encroachments of the Portuguese. Segurola had been decorated
with the cross of Calatrava and appointed corregidor of the province
of Larecaja; and after the conclusion of Zeballos’ campaign he entered
upon the duties of his provincial office, taking up his residence at the
town of Sorata, later destroyed by the Indians in the rebellion. While
at Sorata he learned of the outbreak of hostilities, and on January 1,
1781, he took command of the forces at La Paz and in the neighbouring
provinces, as directed by the president of the audiencia of Charcas.
After the rebellion Segurola remained at La Paz in the office of governor
and intendant that had been provided for in the reformed organization
of the viceroyalty. He was married in 1786, but his wife died two years
later at the birth of a second daughter. His death occurred the following
year. In recognition of his loyalty and his distinguished services, he
was admitted to the order of Santiago, appointed field-marshal, and
president of the audiencia of Charcas, but the notification of these
honours reached La Paz a few days after his death.
[Sidenote: _Anales de Potosí_]
In this first volume of the _Archivo boliviano_ appears also an important
document relating to the marvellous history of the city of Potosí, a city
that had been called into existence by the rich mines of Upper Peru. This
document is entitled _Anales de la Villa Imperial de Potosí_, and was
written by Bartolomé Martínez y Vela, a resident of Potosí. It is one
of the principal historical sources of Vicente G. Quesada’s _Crónicas
potosinas: costumbres de la edad mediæval hispano-americana_, and of the
author’s chapter called a _Mining Town in Upper Peru_.[208]
[Sidenote: The _Diario_ of Segurola]
The _Diario_ of Segurola contains the story of a critical event in the
Indian insurrection of 1780 and 1781, namely, the siege of La Paz. The
position of that city at the bottom of a great ravine in the inter-Andean
plateau gave a certain theatrical setting to the event. From the rim of
the cañon the Indians could look down into the city, and the inhabitants
from the fortified part of the town could watch the movement of the enemy
from day to day. The diary is an account of the flight of Spaniards from
neighbouring towns to La Paz as a place of refuge; of the formation of
a line of intrenchments enclosing the densely populated area of the
city, and of an exhausting defence continued for many months. Some idea
of the character of the narrative may be derived from the following
translations of daily entries:
[Sidenote: March 27, 28, and 29, 1781]
“March 27, 1781.—This day the Indians attacked with great force all
parts of the city, setting fire to the houses that were outside of the
trenches, assaulting these and the wall, from which they were repulsed
with great vigour. This engagement lasted from 11 o’clock in the morning
till 4 in the evening. At this hour the rebels retired with much loss,
which was given at more than one hundred and fifty killed, without a loss
on our part.
“March 28.—It was recognized to-day that the number of Indians who
approached was considerably increased. At 8 o’clock in the morning they
attacked all parts of the city, aided by some guns which they fired,
and at the same time they went on burning the houses outside of the
fortifications, and we resisted them with great valour. The attack lasted
until five o’clock in the afternoon, when the enemy retired with more
than three hundred and fifty dead, according to our calculation, and on
our side we had only two.
“March 29.—The Indians have been coming down from all sides since
daybreak, and at ten o’clock assaulted the city with desperation, and
this attack, repulsed by us, lasted till half-past five in the afternoon,
at which hour they retired with a loss of more than one hundred and fifty
men, and we had the misfortune, by the bursting of a cannon in one of the
forts, to have three killed and several severely wounded, and among the
killed was Captain José de Roxas.”
[Sidenote: Martínez y Vela on Doña Clara]
[Sidenote: The elegance of Doña Clara]
[Sidenote: Doña Clara in poverty]
In the troubled life of Potosí, Martínez y Vela found an abundance of
incidents that enabled him to give his _Anales_ a piquant flavour not
usually discovered in chronicles. The following is his entry for the year
1690.
“This year died in Potosí, that famous Señora, Doña Clara, commonly
called Amaltea, or Achacosa, who was at first a great sinner, extremely
rich, vain, and proud, and later very poor, humble, and virtuous. At
the age of twelve she became very well known not only in Potosí and
everywhere in Peru, but her fame extended also to Spain. She was,
moreover, beautiful, very discreet, lively, and agreeable; nature had
bestowed upon her all its gifts; she sang sweetly, played and danced
gracefully. She exercised a very great influence, since besides her great
patrimony as a woman of excellent standing she acquired at the cost of
her virtue immense wealth in gold, silver, jewels, precious stones,
pearls, and rich ornaments. She controlled everything, even the wills of
her associates, and was vain in the extreme; the various rooms and patios
in her house were sprinkled every day with scented water. The neatness of
her stables was such that one never saw in them even a straw. Continually
every day perfumed water was kept boiling in the porch and reception
rooms, in apple-shaped receptacles of silver, and there were braseros of
the same metal. She had as many chemises of fine linen from Holland and
Cambray as there are days in the year, and she put on a fresh one every
night. She had four rich bedsteads of wood and bronze with feather-beds
and draperies of beautiful cloths, and she changed from one to another
every three months. In a word, she was the most affluent woman in Potosí,
but these goods were acquired by a violation of the will of God, and in
the end pleasures of the world are such that even before they pass their
retribution appears; thus it happened to this famous woman; for in a
short time, by means it would be long to relate, she saw herself without
gold, silver, jewels, pearls, servants, and ornaments and what was more,
without even an old dress to hide her nakedness, and even more lamentable
still, her poverty was so great that she had not even a crust to eat,
and lived by charity, she whose weekly expenses in her house amounted
to two thousand pesos in daily banquets and other worldly pleasure. She
received from charity a skirt and an old chemise, cast-off finery, which
was no longer of use. She washed the clothes of strangers, because they
gave her food, she who had been disgusted on seeing a little spot on her
dress. She worked for even the humblest for a piece of bread, she who had
had white servants and many black female slaves, such an abundance of
servants, that two of them were employed solely in wiping up with towels
the spittle with which those who came to visit her had soiled the floor.
Finally she expiated in this life the disorders of her past, and suffered
with admirable patience her labours, giving by her experience a lesson to
the proud, the rich, and the avaricious, and thus she died very poor in
material goods, but rich in virtues. She was buried by the charity of her
noble and pious neighbours. I present this case to undeceive and correct
those who believe themselves secure in the possession of their temporal
goods.”
VI
[Sidenote: _El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes_]