_VICEROYALTY OF NEW GRANADA; CAPTAIN-GENERALSHIP OF VENEZUELA._
1535-1790.
For some time after the disastrous failure of the attempt of Las Casas
to found a colony on the _Pearl Coast_ of _Cumaná_, the northern portion
of Spanish South America, from the _Orinoco_ westwards, is almost lost
to history. The powers working for good had signally failed, and the
powers of evil seemed to have it almost all their own way. The regions
discovered by the Spaniards were so vast, in proportion to the numbers
of the discoverers, that many of them were long lost to view, and
probably to memory. Such was the fate of the territory which borders the
_Orinoco_, a great river flowing from the _Cordilleras_, and which
throws itself and its many tributaries by forty outlets into the ocean.
It was in the year 1535 that the Spaniards first attempted to ascend
this stream; but, not finding the mines they sought, they looked on it
with indifference. Nevertheless, the few Europeans there sown applied
themselves with such energy to the culture of tobacco that they were
enabled to supply, yearly, some cargoes of this plant to the foreign
vessels which came to purchase it. But this traffic was forbidden by the
mother-country; whilst some enterprising corsairs twice pillaged this
establishment, which could not defend itself. These disasters caused it
to be forgotten.
Lying behind these extensive coasts to the westward in the interior, is
the region to which the Spaniards gave the name of the kingdom of _New
Granada_, the name being applied in consequence of a resemblance which
was detected between the plain around _Santa Fè de Bogotá_ and the royal
_Vega_ which adjoins the historical Moorish capital. _New Granada_ was a
most extensive region, comprising as it did the entire country from sea
to sea in the north, lying between 60° and 78° longitude, and from 6° to
15° of latitude.
[Sidenote: 1526.]
_Bogotá_ was attacked, from the south, by Benalcazar, the governor of
_Quito_; whilst Ximenes de Quesada, who had disembarked at _Santa
Marta_, marched against it from the north. They did not fail to meet
resistance, which, however, was no match for Spanish discipline, arms,
and valour; and the above-named leaders had the renown of adding another
grand possession to the South-American dominions of their sovereigns. In
the course of time the more distant provinces, of which _Bogotá_ was the
centre, became subject to its government. There were, however, a number
of the inhabitants of this vast and varied mountainous region who either
retained, throughout, their barbarous independence or who regained it
from time to time.
[Sidenote: 1535.]
Ximenes de Quesada came to America about the year 1535, in the suite of
the Governor of _Santa Marta_, by whom he was selected to lead an
expedition against the _Chibchas_, who dwelt on the plain of _Bogotá_
and around the head waters of the _Magdalena_. Setting out in April 1536
with eight hundred men, he succeeded in pushing his way through the
forest and across innumerable streams. He contrived to subsist for eight
months, during which he traversed four hundred and fifty miles, enduring
meanwhile the very utmost exertions and privations that human nature
could support. It was not given to this leader to meet with an adversary
sufficiently powerful or wealthy to confer upon him by his capture the
splendour which has attached itself to the names of the conquerors of
_Montazuma_ and of _Atahualpa_; but it may be doubted whether, in so far
as may be judged by reading the accounts of their several exploits, one
or the other of those adventurers had more difficulties to surmount than
had Ximenes de Quesada.
When he and his men had at length reached _Barranca_, they were arrested
by a downpour of rain, which literally covered the country; but, in face
of such discouraging circumstances, Ximenes persisted in proceeding.
Sending on a party of twelve men, under Captain San Martin, he remained
with the rest of his detachment, sleeping at night in the tops of trees,
and subsisting on a small allowance of maize and horse-flesh daily.
On the return of San Martin with a favourable report of a cultivated
country beyond, Ximenes boldly determined to pass over the mountains of
_Opon_, in which attempt he lost twenty-one men in gaining a height of
five thousand five hundred feet above the sea. He had recourse to ropes
for pulling his horses up. On the summit a land of abundance awaited
him; and as, like other Spanish conquerors of the New World, he held the
convenient creed that the heathen had been given to him for his
inheritance, he felt no scruple at all from the fact that the region
which he and his followers meant to appropriate afforded the means of
subsistence to a numerous population, which it would be necessary to
dispossess.
When he had surmounted the natural difficulties in his path, his
remaining force consisted of but one hundred and sixty-six men, with
sixty horses. On March 2nd, 1537, he resumed his advance; and, as
usually happened, the mere sight of his horsemen terrified the Indians
into submission. At _Tunja_, according to the Spanish historians, he was
treacherously attacked whilst resting in the palace of one of his
chiefs. That he may have been so is of course possible; but the fact
would commend itself the more readily to our belief had it been narrated
by a _Chibcha_ writer. In any case, the chief was taken, and, after
much slaughter, Ximenes found himself the absolute possessor of immense
riches, one golden lantern alone being valued at six thousand _ducats_.
From _Tunja_ Ximenes marched upon the sacred city of _Iraca_, where two
Spanish soldiers accidentally set fire to the great Temple of the Sun.
The result was that, after a conflagration which lasted for several
days, both the city and the temple were utterly destroyed.
But the inhabitants of this new region of the votaries of the Sun were
not yet fully subdued; and, on his return towards _Tunja_, Ximenes had
to encounter the force of twelve thousand desperate natives. His arms
and his horses were again successful; and, after his victory at _Borja_,
he received the submission of several _caciques_, and was enabled to
divide among his soldiers no less a booty than forty thousand pounds in
gold and eighteen hundred emeralds.
Ximenes de Quesada was neither more nor less particular than was Cortez
or Pizarro in the means which he employed in order to gain his end. His
object at present was to obtain information as to the retreat of a
chief, whose property it was his intention to appropriate. With this
view he seized upon two youths, whom he ordered to be tortured. One of
them died under the operation; but by the other, who was either stronger
or less courageous, Ximenes was conducted to the retreat of the chief,
who was killed in the skirmish which ensued. His people fought
desperately for their independence, but were overcome by the invaders,
by the aid of an alliance with a pretender to the succession.
This traitor to his country’s and his race’s cause soon met the fate
which he deserved. Imitating the Roman policy of sparing the weak and
battling the powerful, the Spaniards in America were ever on the watch
to take advantage of local jealousies; to which cause they owed their
conquest of _Mexico_ and many of their successes in the southern
continent from _Peru_ to _Araucania_. On this occasion the aspirant to
the _Chibcha_ crown swore allegiance to the King of Spain, the proof
required of his sincerity being that he should deliver up the treasures
of his predecessors. In the usual vaunting style of a barbarian king, he
undertook to fill, within six weeks, a whole room with gold and
emeralds. That he should have failed to do so was probably inevitable;
but that his failure was owing to bad faith to the Spaniards was
obviously an absurd imputation. He had, however, aroused their lust for
plunder, and his fault was not to be forgiven. He was accordingly put to
death with those refinements of cruelty of which the Spaniards were such
masters.
On the 9th of August, 1538, was founded the city of _Bogotá_. Ximenes
was soon here joined by Frederman, a subject of the Emperor Charles V.,
with one hundred and sixty soldiers, with whom he had been engaged in
conquering _Venezuela_; and likewise by Benalcazar, the conqueror of
_Quito_. This latter warrior had crossed the continent in triumph at the
head of a hundred and fifty Spaniards, together with a multitude of
native followers.
In such a wholly-unprecedented state of affairs, it is not to be
wondered at that these Spanish captains, elevated severally from a
humble condition to the rank of independent generals and governors,
should have departed from all subordination, and should have taken for
their principle that might makes right. Accordingly, it was the first
idea of Benalcazar to combine with Frederman in order to expel Ximenes
from his conquests. But, as he might perhaps have foreseen, the same
idea had already occurred to the other, and the adventurers from
_Venezuela_ were, in consideration of the payment of ten thousand
_dollars_ to Frederman, enrolled amongst the forces of Quesada.
Benalcazar, in turn, entered into an arrangement with the two others to
appoint a governor of all their territories during their absence from
America, for the purpose of laying their claims before Charles V. In
this representation they were not all equally successful. Benalcazar was
declared independent of _Pizarro_, and was made governor of _Popayan_;
Ximenes de Quesada was fined to the amount of one thousand _ducats_; was
banished for one year, and was suspended for five years from office;
whilst Frederman was judged to be an interloper, and obtained nothing.
Shortly afterwards, however, the Emperor remitted the punishment against
Ximenes, and appointed him marshal of the kingdom of _New Granada_. On
his return to _Bogotá_ in 1551, he, to his credit, exhibited an energy
in protecting the people of the country against their invaders, equal to
that which he had displayed in effecting their conquest.
Ten years later he commanded a force, organized to repel an attack from
the ruler of _Venezuela_; shortly after which he was appointed
_Adelantado_ of the kingdom of _New Granada_. He devoted three years,
and an enormous amount of toil and money, to an absurd expedition in
quest of the fabled _El Dorado_. To the search of this myth were devoted
three hundred Spaniards, two thousand Indians, and twelve hundred
horses; of which martial array only twenty-four men and thirty-two
quadrupeds returned, mutely to tell the tale of the supreme folly of
their leader.
Of the life of a man who had shown himself possessed of such great
qualities, in whatsoever way they had been applied, as had Ximenes de
Quesada, all prominent details are interesting. It may therefore be
noted that, after having founded in 1572 the city of _Santa Agueda_,
this conqueror and knight-errant died of leprosy, leaving behind him
debts to the amount of sixty thousand _ducats_, which circumstance would
seem to have rendered it somewhat unnecessary for him to insert in his
will his desire that no expensive monument should be erected over his
grave. His body was transferred to _Bogotá_.
The importance of _New Granada_ in the eyes of the Spaniards lay in its
being the source whence the best emeralds were procured. Many of these
had found their way into _Peru_; but the rude conquerors, who were under
the impression that emeralds were as hard as diamonds, having submitted
them to the test of the hammer, came to the conclusion that they were
valueless. In this manner many were destroyed; and the loss became the
greater owing to the fact that it was impossible to discover the mine
whence the _Incas_ had procured them. The discovery of _New Granada_
luckily supplied this important want. The provinces of _Popayan_ and
_Choco_ had the further merit of supplying gold; which was found on the
surface of the earth, and which could therefore easily be gathered by
the simple means of washing.
[Sidenote: 1718.]
The court of Madrid was dissatisfied that a region which had been lauded
as possessing great natural advantages should furnish it with such few
commodities, and those in so small quantities. It drew therefrom the
conclusion that the country under the superintendence of the Viceroy of
_Peru_ was too vast for all parts of it to receive due attention, and
that the development of the northern region would be better assured
under a separate government. Accordingly, in the year 1718, the
Viceroyalty of _Peru_ was divided into two portions, the northern
region, from the frontiers of _Mexico_ as far as to the _Orinoco_, and
on the Southern Sea from _Veragua_ to _Tumbez_, forming the Viceroyalty
of _New Granada_, of which the capital was _Bogotá_. To this region,
likewise, was assigned the inland province of _Quito_. The Viceroyalty
of _New Granada_, in fact, comprised what now forms the Republic of
_Venezuela_, the United States of _Columbia_, and the Republic of
_Ecuador_.
Although this was undoubtedly a step in the right direction, its good
results were not at once apparent. It might have been foreseen that it
would take some time as well to form capable administrators as to call
order out of confusion, and to instil the habits of industry into
people long used to idleness and free-living. Nevertheless, the change
of things was not without effect, and the good results became by degrees
apparent in Spain. Here, as elsewhere in those imperfectly-controlled
regions, smuggling was the rule; and it is said that half of the gold
amassed by the colony was fraudulently sent abroad, chiefly by way of
the rivers _Atrato_ and _Hache_. With a view to stopping this traffic,
forts were erected on these streams; which, however, were ineffectual in
securing the end in view.
Communication between one province and another, even between one town or
village and another, was difficult or impracticable. Every traveller was
more or less exposed to be robbed or to be killed by the independent
Indians; but these enemies, formerly fierce and implacable, yielded by
degrees to the efforts of the missionaries, and to the acts of good-will
on the part of the strangers, which replaced the barbarities of a more
savage age. Notwithstanding the bounties of nature in this region, many
of its provinces drew their subsistence from Europe or from North
America. The cost of transport from place to place forbade the culture
of grain in the interior beyond the amount requisite for each individual
locality.
[Sidenote: 1774.]
The town of _Santa Fè de Bogotá_ is situated at the foot of a height at
the entrance to a vast plain. In 1774 it possessed three thousand two
hundred and fifty families, or about sixteen thousand inhabitants. It
was the residence of an Archbishop, holding a jurisdiction of immense
extent, and who, as Metropolitan, was inspector of the dioceses of
_Quito_, _Panamá_, _Caracas_, _Santa Marta_, and _Carthagena_. It was by
way of the last-named place, although it was distant three hundred
miles, and by the river _Magdalena_, that _Santa Fè de Bogotá_
communicated with Europe; whilst the same route led to _Quito_.
The province of _Quito_ was likewise of immense extent, but was for the
most part covered with forests, or composed of marshes or deserts,
inhabited here and there by wandering savages. Spaniards can only be
properly said to have occupied and governed a valley of some eighty
leagues in length and fifteen in breadth, formed by two branches of the
_Cordilleras_.
_Quito_ is one of the most lovely regions which the world possesses.
Being in the centre of the Torrid Zone, it enjoys a perpetual spring.
Nature has here gathered together all the influences which can modify
the heat of the tropics, the neighbouring mountains being covered in
their vast extent by snow; whilst constant breezes refresh the plains
throughout the year. But, as might be expected, so elevated a region,
and one having an atmosphere so charged with electricity, is often the
scene of the most violent tropical thunder-storms, the terrors of which
are not unfrequently added to by earthquakes. The excessive humidity at
one time is often fatal to the cultivation of grain; whilst, on the
other hand, contrasting seasons of heat produce dangerous maladies.
Nevertheless, on the whole, the climate is a very healthy one. The air
is perfectly pure, and is free from the presence of the disagreeable
insects so prevalent in other parts of the continent.
The humidity of the atmosphere, and the action of the sun, succeeding
each other in constant alternation, and being always sufficient for the
development of plants, an almost perpetual succession of vegetation
ensues; for no sooner is one plant gone than another begins to arise in
its place. The trees are covered perpetually with green leaves, and
adorned with sweet-smelling flowers, or laden with tropical fruits in
every stage of development. This province was said to be the most
populous in America. It possessed a number of towns with populations
varying from ten to thirty thousand. The people of _Quito_ had,
fortunately for themselves, escaped the lot of labouring in the mines;
since those which this district possessed were too poor to pay the
expenses of working them. They must have been poor indeed, since the
Spaniards consented to relinquish a mode of acquiring riches which cost
them nothing but the blood of their slaves. Freed from this source of
labour, the inhabitants of _Quito_ were more usefully employed in
manufactures, the produce of which was exchanged for wine and oil, and
other commodities which were foreign to this elevated region.
Notwithstanding, however, its natural advantages, _Quito_, in the latter
part of last century, had sunk into an extreme degree of poverty.
This province possessed, in quinine, one production which has been ever
since its discovery of the highest value to the human race, and which
formed, in the colonial period, the sole article of export. The only
precious portion of the _quinquina_ tree is its bark, which requires no
other preparation for its use than being dried. At one time the
_quinquina_ was supposed to be peculiar to the territory of _Loxa_, the
finest quality being produced on the mountain of _Caganuma_. Later
researches, however, prove that the same tree exists at _Riobamba_, at
_Cuenca_, and at _Bogotá_. Europe is indebted for the introduction of
this most precious article to the Jesuits, who made its invaluable
qualities known at Rome in the year 1639. In the following year its use
was established in Spain by Juan de Vega, physician to the Vice-Queen of
_Peru_, its price being a hundred crowns a pound. The price which the
invaluable article commanded and deserved, led, as a matter of course,
to adulteration; and even the distant inhabitants of _Loxa_, being
unable to supply the demand for genuine _quinquina_, filled up the void
by a mixture of the bark of other trees. This proceeding, however,
rebounded on themselves, since it deprived their special product of its
unique reputation; whilst, at the same time, it led to a more diligent
search for the same plant elsewhere. The natives of the region which
furnished _quinquina_ were in the habit of using a simple infusion of
the bark in cases of fever, before they were taught by M. Joseph _de_
Jussieu to produce the extract.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1728.]
[Sidenote: 1731.]
In the year 1728 a body of merchants of _Guipuscoa_ received an
exclusive right to the commerce with _Caracas_ and _Cumaná_, on
condition of their clearing these coasts of interlopers--that is to say,
of the Dutch, who, from their island of _Curaçao_, monopolized the
lucrative trade in the nuts of the cacao-tree, thus compelling the
Spaniards to receive from abroad the produce of one of their own
colonies. The new company, which was under the necessity of landing its
cargoes at Cadiz, conducted its operations with such success that the
above-mentioned reproach was soon removed; whilst the inhabitants of
_Caracas_ received such an impetus to their industrial life that, ere
the company had been three years in existence, it was deemed expedient
to detach from the Viceroyalty of _New Granada_ the provinces of
_Venezuela_, _Maracaibo_, _Varinas_, _Cumaná_, and Spanish _Guyana_, and
to form them into a separate Captain-Generalship, the residence of the
ruler being fixed at _Caracas_ in _Venezuela_.
[Sidenote: 1771.]
In the year 1771 there were scattered on the banks of the _Orinoco_
thirteen villages, which numbered amongst them four thousand two hundred
Spaniards, half-castes or negroes, who possessed considerable property
inland, besides twelve or thirteen thousand cattle, mules or horses. At
the same period the Indians who had been detached from savage life were
distributed in forty-nine hamlets. In all there were sixty-two centres
of population, containing sixteen thousand six hundred people, three
thousand one hundred and forty properties, and seventy-two thousand head
of cattle.
Up to this period the Dutch from _Curaçao_ monopolized the trade with
this establishment. In return for the goods which they supplied, they
received payment in tobacco, hides, and herds; all the affairs being
concluded at _St. Thomas_. The Europeans and the negroes carried out
their transactions themselves, but those affecting the Indians were
conducted by the missionaries.
The province of _Venezuela_ does not bear a high name for government,
even amongst the States of South America; but, in estimating Spanish
civilization in this quarter, it is only right to consider the state of
things which it displaced. The tyranny, we are told, which was exercised
by the savages along the banks of the _Orinoco_ towards their women was
such that infanticide of their female children became a common practice
on the part of the latter; in order that their offspring might be spared
a repetition of their own dreadful lot, which is thus described to a
missionary by one of themselves:--
“Would that my mother had suffocated me at my birth! I should then be
dead, but I should not have felt death, and I should have escaped the
most miserable of lots. How much have I undergone, and who knows what
sufferings are reserved for me! Figure to yourself, Father, the miseries
which an Indian woman has to undergo amongst Indians. They accompany us
to the fields with their bows and arrows: we go there bearing one infant
which we carry in a basket and another at the breast. They go to hunt or
to fish, whilst we dig the earth; and, after having undergone all the
fatigue of culture, we have to undertake that of the harvest. They
return in the evening unburdened: we bring, back roots for their food
and maize for their drink. Once at home, they make themselves happy with
their friends; whilst we go to gather wood and to bring water to cook
their supper. When they have eaten, they go to sleep: we pass the
greater part of the night grinding the maize and making their _chica_.
And what is our reward for our vigils? They drink, and whilst they are
in their cups they drag us by the hair and kick us about.
“You know, Father, if our complaints are well founded. What I tell you,
you yourself see every day; but our greatest misfortune of all is one
unknown to you. It’s a sad lot for a poor Indian woman to serve her
husband like a slave, sweating with labour in the fields and deprived of
repose at home. But it is still worse to see him, at the end of twenty
years, take another wife, young, and without sense. He becomes attached
to her, and she beats our children, orders us about, and treats us like
servants; and if we make the slightest murmur of complaint we are beaten
with the branch of a tree.... What has an Indian woman better to do than
to withdraw her child from a servitude a thousand times worse than
death! I repeat, Father, would to God my mother had loved me enough to
bury me at my birth!”
* * * * *
In the year 1670 a party of buccaneers under Morgan reduced the castle
of _San Lorenzo_ at _Chagres_, and captured and burned the town of
_Panamá_; for which reason the site of that settlement was transferred
to the position it at present holds, being six miles distant from old
_Panamá_. In the year 1680 the same Filibusters, under other leaders,
having crossed the isthmus, took the city of _Santa Maria_; which
proceeding led, five years later, to the closing of the mines of _Cana_.
In the year 1698 one William Paterson undertook to establish a Scotch
colony at _Puerto Escaces_ on _Caledonia Bay_. Early last century
several towns were established on the Atlantic Coast by Catholic
missionaries, and likewise on the rivers flowing into the Gulf of _San
Miguel_; but unfortunately all these were destroyed by the Indians, with
whom, in 1790, a treaty of peace was concluded, in virtue of the terms
of which the Spaniards abandoned all their forts in _Darien_.
NOTE.--Chapter IX. is chiefly founded on “_Historia del
descubrimiento y colonizacion de la Nueva Granada_” (Paris, 1849),
by J. Acosta; and “_Memorias para la historia de la Nueva Granada_”
(Bogotá, 1850), by Antonio de Plaza.