Chapter VI

CHRONICLING PERIOD GONE BY.--CHARLES THE FIFTH.--GUEVARA.-- OCAMPO.--SEPÚLVEDA.--MEXIA.--ACCOUNTS OF THE NEW WORLD.-- CORTÉS.--GOMARA.--BERNAL DIAZ.--OVIEDO.--LAS CASAS.--VACA.-- XEREZ.--ÇARATE.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, it is obvious that the age for chronicles had gone by in Spain. Still it was thought for the dignity of the monarchy that the stately forms of the elder time should, in this as in other particulars, be kept up by public authority. Charles the Fifth, therefore, as if his ambitious projects as a conqueror were to find their counterpart in his arrangements for recording their success, had several authorized chroniclers, all men of consideration and learning. But the shadow on the dial would not go back at the royal command. The greatest monarch of his time could appoint chroniclers, but he could not give them the spirit of an age that was past. The chronicles he demanded at their hands were either never undertaken or never finished. Antonio de Guevara, one of the persons to whom these duties were assigned, seems to have been singularly conscientious in the devotion of his time to them; for we are told, that, by his will, he ordered the salary of one year, during which he had written nothing of his task, to be returned to the Imperial treasury. This, however, did not imply that he was a successful chronicler.[885] What he wrote was not thought worthy of being published by his contemporaries, and would probably be judged no more favorably by the present generation, unless it discovered a greater regard for historical truth, and a better style, than are found in his discussions on the life and character of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.[886]

[885] Antonio, Bib. Nov., Tom. I. p. 127, and Preface to
Epístolas Familiares of Guevara, ed. 1673.

[886] See the vituperative article _Guevara_, in Bayle.

Florian de Ocampo, another of the more distinguished of the chroniclers, showed a wide ambition in the plan he proposed to himself; beginning his chronicles of Charles the Fifth as far back as the days of Noah’s flood. As might have been foreseen, he lived only so long as to finish a small fragment of his vast undertaking;--hardly a quarter part of the first of its four grand divisions.[887] But he went far enough to show how completely the age for such writing was passed away.[888] Not that he failed in credulity; for of that he had more than enough. It was not, however, the poetical credulity of his predecessors, trusting to the old national traditions, but an easy faith, that believed in the wearisome forgeries called the works of Berosus and Manetho,[889] which had been discredited from their first appearance half a century before, and yet were now used by Ocampo as if they were the probable, if not the sufficient, records of an uninterrupted succession of Spanish kings from Tubal, a grandson of Noah. Such a credulity has no charm about it. But besides this, the work of Ocampo, in its very structure, is dry and absurd; and, being written in a formal and heavy style, it is all but impossible to read it. He died in 1555, the year the Emperor abdicated, leaving us little occasion to regret that he had brought his annals of Spain no lower down than the age of the Scipios.

[887] The best life of Ocampo is to be found in the “Biblioteca
de los Escritores que han sido Individuos de los Seis Colegios
Mayores,” etc., por Don Josef de Rezabal y Ugarte (pp. 233-238);
but there is one prefixed to the edition of his Crónica, 1791.

[888] The first edition of the first four books of the Chronicle
of Ocampo was published at Zamora, 1544, in a beautiful
black-letter folio, and was followed by an edition of the whole
at Medina del Campo, 1553, folio. The best, I suppose, is the one
published at Madrid, 1791, in 2 vols. 4to.

[889] For this miserable forgery see Niceron (Hommes Illustres,
Paris, 1730, Tom. XI. pp. 1-11; Tom. XX., 1732, pp. 1-6);--and
for the simplicity of Ocampo in trusting to it, see the last
chapter of his first book, and all the passages where he cites
Juan de Viterbo _y su Beroso_, etc.

Juan Ginez de Sepúlveda was also charged by the Emperor fitly to record the events of his reign;[890] and so was Pero Mexia;[891] but the history of the former, which was first published by the Academy in 1780, is in Latin, while that of Mexia, written, apparently, after 1545, and coming down to the coronation at Bologna, was never published at all.[892] A larger history, however, by the last author, consisting of the lives of all the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar to Maximilian of Austria, the predecessor of Charles the Fifth, which was printed several times, and is spoken of as an introduction to his Chronicle, shows, notwithstanding its many imperfections of style, that his purpose was to write a true and well-digested history, since he generally refers, under each reign, to the authorities on which he relies.[893]

[890] Pero Mexia, in the concluding words of his “Historia
Imperial y Cesarea.”

[891] Capmany, Eloquencia Española, Tom. II. p. 295.

[892] I say “apparently,” because in his “Historia Imperial y
Cesarea,” he declares, speaking of the achievements of Charles
V., “I never was so presumptuous as to deem myself sufficient
to record them.” This was in 1545. He was not appointed
Historiographer till 1548. See notices of him by Pacheco, in the
Semanario Pintoresco, 1844, p. 406. He died in 1552.

From the time of Charles V. there seem generally to have been
chroniclers of the kingdom and chroniclers of the personal
history of its kings. At any rate, that monarch had Ocampo and
Garibay for the first purpose; and Guevara, Sepúlveda, and Mexia
for the second. Lorenço de Padilla, Archdeacon of Málaga, is also
mentioned by Dormer (Progresos, Lib. II. c. 2) as one of his
chroniclers. Indeed, it does not seem easy to determine how many
enjoyed the honor of that title.

[893] The first edition appeared in 1545. The one I use is of
Anvers, 1561, fol. The best notice of his life, perhaps, is the
article about him in the Biographie Universelle.

Such works as these prove to us that we have reached the final limit of the old chronicling style; and that we must now look for the appearance of the different forms of regular historical composition in Spanish literature. But before we approach them, we must pause a moment on a few histories and accounts of the New World, which, during the reign of Charles the Fifth, were of more importance than the imperfect chronicles we have just noticed of the Spanish empire in Europe. For as soon as the adventurers that followed Columbus were landed on the western shores of the Atlantic, we begin to find narratives, more or less ample, of their discoveries and settlements; some written with spirit, and even in good taste; others quite unattractive in their style; but nearly all interesting from their subject and their materials, if from nothing else.

In the foreground of this picturesque group stands, as the most brilliant of its figures, Fernando Cortés, called, by way of eminence, _El Conquistador_, the Conqueror. He was born of noble parentage, and carefully bred; and though his fiery spirit drove him from Salamanca before his education could be completed, and brought him to the New World, in 1504, when he was hardly nineteen years old,[894] still the nurture of his youth, so much better than that of most of the other American adventurers, is apparent in his voluminous documents and letters, both published and unpublished. Of these, the most remarkable were, no doubt, five long and detailed Reports to the Emperor on the affairs of Mexico; the first of which, and probably the most curious, dated in 1519, seems to be lost, and the last, belonging, probably, to 1527, exists only in manuscript.[895] The four that remain are well written and have a business-like air about them, as well as a clearness and good taste which remind us sometimes, though rarely, of the “Relazioni” of Machiavelli, and sometimes of Cæsar’s Commentaries. His letters, on the other hand, are occasionally more ornamented. In an unpublished one, written about 1533, and in which, when his fortunes were waning, he sets forth his services and his wrongs, he pleases himself with telling the Emperor that he “keeps two of his Majesty’s letters like holy relics,” adding, that “the favors of his Majesty towards him had been quite too ample for so small a vase”;--courtly and graceful phrases, such as are not found in the documents of his later years, when, disappointed and disgusted with affairs and with the court, he retired to a morose solitude, where he died in 1554, little consoled by his rank, his wealth, or his glory.

[894] He left Salamanca two or three years before he came to the
New World; but old Bernal Diaz, who knew him well, says: “He was
a scholar, and I have heard it said he was a Bachelor of Laws;
and when he talked with lawyers and scholars, he answered in
Latin. He was somewhat of a poet, and made couplets in metre and
in prose, [en metro y en prosa,]” etc. It would be amusing to
see poems by Cortés, and especially what the rude old chronicler
calls _coplas en prosa_; but he knew about as much concerning
such matters as Mons. Jourdain. Cortés, however, was always fond
of the society of cultivated men. In his house at Madrid, (see
_ante_, p. 537,) after his return from America, was held one of
those _Academies_ which were then beginning to be imitated from
Italy.

[895] The printed “Relaciones” may be found in Barcia,
“Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales,” (Madrid,
1749, 3 tom., folio,)--a collection printed after its editor’s
death and very ill arranged. Barcia was a man of literary
distinction, much employed in affairs of state, and one of
the founders of the Spanish Academy. He died in 1743. (Baena,
Hijos de Madrid, Tom. I. p. 106.) For the last and unpublished
“Relacion” of Cortés, as well as for his unpublished letters, I
am indebted to my friend Mr. Prescott, who has so well used them
in his “Conquest of Mexico.”

The marvellous achievements of Cortés in Mexico, however, were more fully, if not more accurately, recorded by Francisco Lopez de Gomara,--the oldest of the regular historians of the New World,[896]--who was born at Seville in 1510, and was, for some time, Professor of Rhetoric at Alcalá. His early life, spent in the great mart of the American adventurers, seems to have given him an interest in them and a knowledge of their affairs which led him to write their history. The works he produced, besides one or two of less consequence, were, first, his “History of the Indies,” which, after the Spanish fashion, begins with the creation of the world, and ends with the glories of Spain, though it is chiefly devoted to Columbus and the discovery and conquest of Peru; and, second, his “Chronicle of New Spain,” which is, in truth, merely the History and Life of Cortés, and which, with this more appropriate title, was reprinted by Bustamente, in Mexico, in 1826.[897] As the earliest records that were published concerning affairs which already stirred the whole of Christendom, these works had, at once, a great success, passing through two editions almost immediately, and being soon translated into French and Italian.

[896] “The first worthy of being so called,” says Muñoz, Hist.
del Nuevo Mundo, Madrid, 1793, folio, p. xviii.

[897] The two works of Gomara may be well consulted in Barcia,
“Historiadores Primitivos,” Tom. II., which they fill. They were
first printed in 1553, and though, as Antonio says, (Bib. Nov.,
Tom. I. p. 437,) they were forbidden to be either reprinted
or read, four editions of them appeared before the end of the
century.

But though Gomara’s style is easy and flowing, both in his mere narration and in those parts of his works which so amply describe the resources of the newly discovered countries, he did not succeed in producing any thing of permanent authority. He was the secretary of Cortés, and was misled by information received from him, and from other persons, who were too much a part of the story they undertook to relate to tell it fairly.[898] His mistakes, in consequence, are great and frequent, and were exposed with much zeal by Bernal Diaz, an old soldier, who, having already been twice to the New World, went with Cortés to Mexico in 1519,[899] and fought there so often and so long, that, many years afterwards, he declared he could sleep with comfort only when his armour was on.[900] As soon as he read the accounts of Gomara, he set himself sturdily at work to answer them, and in 1558 completed his task.[901] The book he thus produced is written with much personal vanity, and runs, in a rude style, into wearisome details; but it is full of the zealous and honest nationality of the old chronicles, so that, while we are reading it, we seem to be carried back into the preceding ages, and to be again in the midst of a sort of fervor and faith which, in writers like Gomara and Cortés, we feel sure we are fast leaving behind us.

[898] “About this first going of Cortés as captain on this
expedition, the ecclesiastic Gomara tells many things grossly
untrue in his history, as might be expected from a man who
neither saw nor heard any thing about them, except what Fernando
Cortés told him and gave him in writing; Gomara being his
chaplain and servant, after he was made Marquis and returned to
Spain the last time.” Las Casas, (Historia de las Indias, Parte
III. c. 113, MS.,) a prejudiced witness, but, on a point of fact
within his own knowledge, one to be believed.

[899] See “Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva
España, por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, uno de los
Conquistadores,” Madrid, 1632, folio, cap. 211.

[900] He says he was in one hundred and nineteen battles (f. 254.
d); that is, I suppose, fights of all kinds.

[901] It was not printed till long afterwards, and was then
dedicated to Philip IV. Some of its details are quite ridiculous.
He gives even a list of the individual horses that were used on
the great expedition of Cortés, and often describes the separate
qualities of a favorite charger as carefully as he does those of
his rider.

Among the persons who early came to America, and have left important records of their adventures and times, one of the most considerable was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo. He was born at Madrid, in 1478,[902] and, having been well educated at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, as one of the pages of Prince John, was sent out, in 1513, as a supervisor of gold-smeltings, to San Domingo,[903] where, except occasional visits to Spain and to different Spanish possessions in America, he lived nearly forty years, devoted to the affairs of the New World. Oviedo seems, from his youth, to have had a passion for writing; and, besides several less considerable works, among which were imperfect chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella and of Charles the Fifth, and a life of Cardinal Ximenes,[904] he prepared two of no small value.

[902] “Yo naci año de 1478,” he says, in his “Quinquagenas,”
when noticing Pedro Fernandez de Córdoba; and he more than once
speaks of himself as a native of Madrid. He says, too, expressly,
that he was present at the surrender of Granada, and that he saw
Columbus at Barcelona, on his first return from America in 1493.
Quinquagenas, MS.

[903] “Veedor de las Fundiciones de Oro,” he describes himself in
the Proemio of his work presented to Charles V. in 1525 (Barcia,
Tom. I.); and long afterwards, in the opening of Book XLVII. of
his Historias, MS., he still speaks of himself as holding the
same office.

[904] I do not feel sure that Antonio is not mistaken in
ascribing to Oviedo a _separate_ life of Cardinal Ximenes,
because the life contained in the “Quinquagenas” is so ample; but
the Chronicles of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Charles V., are
alluded to by Oviedo himself in the Proemio to Charles V. Neither
has ever been printed.

The most important of these two is “The Natural and General History of the Indies,” filling fifty books, of which the first portions, embracing twenty-one, were published in 1535, while the rest are still found only in manuscript. As early as 1525, when he was at Toledo, and offered Charles the Fifth a summary of the History of Hispaniola, he speaks of his desire to have his larger work printed. But it appears, from the beginning of the thirty-third book and the end of the thirty-fourth, that he was still employed upon it in 1547 and 1548; and it is not unlikely, from the words with which he concludes the thirty-seventh, that he kept each of its larger divisions open, and continued to make additions to them nearly to the time of his death.[905]

[905] He calls it, in his letter to the Emperor, at the end of
the “Sumario” in 1525, “La General y Natural Historia de las
Indias, que de mi mano tengo escrita”;--in the Introduction to
Lib. XXXIII. he says, “En treinta y quatro años que ha que estoy
en estas partes”;--and in the ninth chapter, which ends Lib.
XXXIV., we have an event recorded with the date of 1548;--so
that, for these three-and-twenty years, he was certainly
employed, more or less, on this great work. But at the end of