Chapter I: Preface

No intelligent person is likely to deny the importance of official documents as the basis of a nation’s history; but these documents do not tell the whole story. There are social activities, currents of national thought, and waves of popular sentiment, which are not fully described either in laws or governmental proclamations. Tradition sometimes conveys a knowledge of these aspects of society, but tradition undergoes such modifications in the course of time that it does not render the same account to all later generations or centuries. Only what is written remains fixed.

Each century writes the literature it reads. This is especially true of historical literature. It is also true that each century, in the various forms of its literature, writes its own history; and it is to this literature, not to the later critical writings that one must refer, who would know how any given period of the past appeared to those then living. It was once said of a distinguished modern historian of Rome that he knew more about the affairs of Rome than the Romans themselves knew; which was to say, that his works presented a view of Rome such as no Roman ever had. The critical history of the society of any given period of the past is so completely an artificial creation that it would hardly be recognized by a member of that society. It takes its character, in a considerable part, from knowledge, ideas, and emotions that were foreign to him. Therefore, in order to know a nation’s life as known at any given epoch, or to visualise the worldly show that passed before the thoughtful contemporary mind, one should refer, not to the artificial creation of the modern historian, with its twentieth-century atmosphere, but to what men wrote of their own times or times near their own. Our ancestors’ vision of the world and the reaction which the world produced in their minds are revealed in the various forms of their literature.

The material for an intellectual reconstitution of the view of their society entertained by the Spanish colonists of South America is much less abundant than that which the twenty-third-century historian will have for reproducing our view of our times. There were in the Spanish colonies no congressional or parliamentary debates, no popular orators describing social conditions and setting forth economic and political doctrines, no discussion of social programmes, and, more significant than all else, no periodical press recording from day to day and from month the events and ideas of the period in question. But in the books, the reports, and the relaciones there is a larger mass of written evidence than the comparatively rude state of colonial society would lead one to expect; and it is the purpose of this book to point out the principal documents of this colonial literature, and to introduce the reader to the men of letters in the colonies who wrote under the inspiration of their experience in the New World, whether their contributions were in the realm of poetry, history, geographical description, or ecclesiastical discussion. All this is brought together under a general title in which the term “literature” is consciously expanded from its narrower meaning to cover whatever was written on any of these general subjects; and by helping the reader to a knowledge of this literature it is believed that through it he will be enabled to acquire a more or less distinct view of the colonial society as it appeared in any period to men of that period.

It is presumed that copies of this book will fall into the hands of persons not completely versed in the Spanish language, and for this reason a somewhat broad view of Spanish accentuation has been carried out as an assistance in the pronunciation of such Spanish words and titles as it has been found advisable to introduce. It will, moreover, be noted that all titles and quotations from the texts of early colonial writers are given in modernized Spanish.

The portraits here presented help to show that the intellectual life of the colonies was not limited to a single class, but embraced friars, parish priests, and bishops; private soldiers and officers of the army; governors, judges, and viceroys.

It is not to be expected that a book covering the number and wide range of facts here included will be without errors; but there are fewer errors in this volume than would have appeared but for the valuable editorial assistance of Mr. A. H. Wykeham-George, who suggested and formed the Appendix, directed the preparation of the illustrations, and supervised the passing of the whole through the press. For that assistance I take this occasion to express my cordial appreciation; and at the same time I would gratefully acknowledge the important contribution to the undertaking rendered by Miss Janet Hunter Perry, Lecturer in Spanish at King’s College, and the very friendly and helpful attention given by the authorities of the British Museum, particularly by Dr. Henry Thomas, Assistant Keeper of Printed Books.

BERNARD MOSES.

Paris, June 3rd, 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION Page 1

CHAPTER II

EARLY WRITERS OF TIERRA FIRME

I. Bartolomé de Las Casas. II. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y
Valdés. III. Pascual de Andagoya. Page 28

CHAPTER III

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS OF THE CONQUEST OF PERU

I. Francisco de Xerés. II. Pedro Sancho. III. Tomás de San
Martín; Benito Peñalosa Mondragón. IV. Pedro Pizarro; Cristóbal
de Molina. V. Alonso Enríquez de Guzmán; Diego Fernández. VI.
Agustín de Zárate. VII. Pedro Cieza de León. VIII. Girolamo
Benzoni; Juan Fernández. Page 59

CHAPTER IV

PERUVIAN AND CHILEAN HISTORIANS, 1550-1600

I. José de Acosta. II. Garcilaso de la Vega. III. Pedro
Sarmiento de Gamboa; Polo de Ondegardo. IV. Cristóbal de
Molina; Cabello de Balboa. V. Pedro de Valdivia. VI. Alonso
de Góngora Marmolejo. VII. Pedro Mariño de Lovera. Page 102

CHAPTER V

ALONSO DE ERCILLA Y ZÚÑIGA: _La Araucana_ Page 158

CHAPTER VI

ERCILLA’S IMITATORS

I. Pedro de Oña. II. Juan de Mendoza Monteagudo. III.
Fernando Álvarez de Toledo. IV. Diego de Santistevan Osorio. Page 189

CHAPTER VII

JUAN DE CASTELLANOS Page 211

CHAPTER VIII

MARTÍN DEL BARCO CENTENERA: _La Argentina_ Page 222

CHAPTER IX

WRITERS ON CHILEAN HISTORY, 1600-1650

I. Alonso González de Nájera. II. Francisco Núñez de Pineda
Bascuñán. III. Caro de Torres. IV. Melchor Xufré del Águila. V.
Alonso de Ovalle. VI. Miguel de Aguirre. VII. Francisco Ponce
de León. VIII. Diego de Rosales. IX. Santiago de Tesillo. Page 243

CHAPTER X

WRITERS OF PERU AND NEW GRANADA, 1600-1650

I. Juan Bautista Aguilar. II. Francisco Vásquez; Toribio de
Ortiguera. III. Cristóbal de Acuña. IV. Diego de Torres Bollo.
V. Antonio de la Calancha. VI. Bernabé Cobo. VII. Alonso Mesía
Venegas. VIII. Pedro Simón. IX. Rodríguez Fresle; Alonso Garzón
de Tahuste. X. Pedro Fernández de Quiros; Gobeo de Victoria;
Fernando Montesinos. Page 288

CHAPTER XI

THE LAST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

I. Juan de Barrenechea y Albis; Luis de Oviedo y Herrera; Juan
del Valle y Caviedes. II. Ignacio de Arbieto; Jacinto Barrasa;
José de Buendía. III. Jerónimo de Quiroga; Anello Oliva;
Diego Ojeda Gallinato; Martín Velasco. IV. Lucas Fernández de
Piedrahita. V. Pedro Claver; Juan Flórez de Ocáriz. VI. Anales
del Cuzco. VII. Manuel Rodríguez; Samuel Fritz. Page 330

CHAPTER XII

THE EARLY YEARS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

I. Jorge Juan y Santacilla and Antonio de Ulloa. II. Alonso
de Zamora; José de Oviedo y Baños. III. Joseph Luis Cisneros
and Francisca Josefa de Castillo y Guevara. IV. Pedro José de
Peralta Barnuevo; Juan de Mira. V. Juan Rivero; José Cassani;
José Gumilla. VI. Some minor ecclesiastical writers. Page 360

CHAPTER XIII

ON PARAGUAY

I. Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; Ulrich Schmidel. II. Early
Sources of Information about Paraguay; Nicolás de Techo.
III. Pedro Lozano. IV. José Guevara. V. Dobrizhoffer; Pauke;
Falkner; Orosz; Cardiel, Quiroga, Jolís, Peramás, Muriel,
Juárez, Sánchez Labrador. VI. Juan Patricio Fernández; Matías
de Anglés. Page 395

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. Page 428

CHAPTER XV

GOVERNMENT AND LAW

I. Melchor Calderón; Francisco Falcón; Francisco Carrasco del
Saz. II. Nicolás Polanco de Santillana; Juan Matienzo; Juan
de Solórzano Pereira; Gaspar de Escalona y Agüero. III. The
brothers Antonio, Diego, and Juan de León Pinelo; Juan del
Corral Calvo de la Torre. IV. Jorge Escobedo y Alarcón; José
Rezabal y Ugarte. V. Alonso de la Peña Montenegro. Page 460

CHAPTER XVI

LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY HISTORIANS

I. José Eusebio Llano y Zapata. II. Miguel de Olivares; Pedro
de Córdoba y Figueroa. III. José Pérez García; Vicente Carvallo
y Goyeneche. IV. Geographical Description; Molina and Vidaurre.
V. Dionisio and Antonio Alcedo; Zamacola; Segurola; Martínez y
Vela. VI. Concolorcorvo. Page 491

CHAPTER XVII

OUTLOOK TOWARDS EMANCIPATION

I. The intellectual movement after the expulsion of the
Jesuits. II. Political Reformers. III. Poets. IV. Literary
periodicals: _Mercurio Peruano_, _Gaceta de Lima_. V.
Contributors to _Mercurio Peruano_. VI. _El Telégrafo
Mercantil._ VII. Tadeo Haenke. VIII. El Volador. Page 531