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._

I

[Sidenote: Spanish South America organised]

[Sidenote: Heads of the governments]

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, sixty or seventy years after the occupation of Peru, New Granada and the region of the Río de la Plata and its tributaries, the Spanish colonies of South America had acquired their early form of organization. Peru was under the government of a viceroy, whose jurisdiction was nominally coextensive with Spain’s possessions in South America; but in New Granada, Chile and the south-eastern provinces other centralized governments had been established, subordinated to the viceroy in certain particulars and directly dependent on the king in other respects. The head of each of these subordinate governments was known as governor, captain-general, or president as one or another of his principal functions was considered.

[Sidenote: Common ideas of the colonies]

As governor he was head of the civil administration, as captain-general he was chief of the army or the militia, and his title of president indicated his relation to the audiencia, a body that performed both administrative and judicial functions and in case of a vacancy in the governor’s office exercised the chief executive power in the dependency. At that time, moreover, a number of towns had acquired sufficient importance to have local governments consisting of a cabildo, or council, composed of regidores and two alcaldes, the alcaldes serving as justices of the peace and local executives. The occupation of the several districts by the Spaniards was at first a military occupation, a large number of the settlers were primarily soldiers, and their settlements were largely garrisoned posts. In this respect the beginning of the Spanish colonies in America presents a strong contrast with the British colonies, in which the colonists were almost all civilians.

The political relations that existed among the Spanish colonies and the common dependence of the colonies on Spain presumed their possession of common ideas and purposes; and the writers who appeared in the different provinces generally observed affairs from a common point of view. The question of the time of their appearance deserves rather to be considered than the place of their residence. This is, of course, pre-eminently true of writers who were ecclesiastics. The Jesuits of Peru, New Granada, or Chile, for instance, wrote rather as Jesuits than as citizens of one province or another. The case of the soldier in this respect was not greatly different from that of the ecclesiastic, and in the first and middle period of the colonial history the larger part of the writers who were not ecclesiastics were soldiers.

[Sidenote: Isolation of the colonies]

[Sidenote: Missions to Spain]

The long intervals between the sailings of vessels from Spain to America, or from America to Spain, made it extremely difficult for the king and the Council of the Indies to have correct information concerning the affairs of the Spanish dependencies. If the colonists wished an unworthy official removed or legislation reformed, it was necessary to send an agent to Madrid to enlighten the king and to persuade him to order the desired change. The difficulties of securing reforms by this method were very great; the long waiting for the departure of a ship, the weary weeks of the voyage from Chile around Cape Horn or over the Andes, across the Argentine plains, and by ship from Buenos Aires, or by way of Peru and the Isthmus, the interminable delays in obtaining an audience with the king or the Council of the Indies, the years sometimes spent by the authorities in reaching a decision regarding the proposition, and then the similar waiting and delays in securing the transmission of the decrees to America, in case the question was found to be of sufficient importance to warrant action by the supreme government. Priests were often found available for missions of this kind, for various reasons: they were presumed to be educated persons competent to present a case before the high authorities; they were supposed to have the confidence of the king; and it was assumed, in keeping with the rules of their profession, that they were not encumbered with families, and thus freer from bonds holding them to any given place than most secular persons. In the early part of the seventeenth century the Chileans departed from this practice, and selected a soldier, Alonso González de Nájera, to represent them before the king.

[Sidenote: Nájera’s _El desengaño y reparo de la guerra del reino de Chile_]

González de Nájera arrived in Chile in 1601, and passed almost immediately into service on the frontier, to a fort constructed on the Bio-Bio. He remained five years in this service, and during this period acquired extensive information concerning the most vital affairs of the province. In Madrid he rendered to the authorities an account of his observations and experience, and in this manner set forth the conditions of society and the government in Chile. From Spain he was sent to Italy where he completed his work called _El desengaño y reparo de la guerra del reino de Chile_. Regarding this work he affirms that he has not written a history as a consecutive narrative, but reasoned opinions and discourses on the points most essential for the support of the conquest in the kingdom of Chile.[94]

The title given by Nájera to his writing indicates his opinion that the directors of Chilean affairs had been deceived, and that he would undertake to show them their error. He presents a review of the state of the war, and proposes the means that appear to him most suitable for terminating it. In inquiring into these means he finds it especially important that the decree providing for the enslavement of the Araucanians should be maintained in force. Nájera’s work was finally published in Madrid, in 1866, in the Volume XLVIII of the _Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España_.[95]

II

[Sidenote: Pineda y Bascuñán]

Among the soldiers of the early part of the seventeenth century who became writers, Francisco Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, a native of Chile, acquired a position of distinction. He was born in 1607. His father was a soldier, who for more than forty years was engaged in military campaigns on the frontier. Francisco’s school years prior to the age of sixteen were passed in the house of the Jesuits at Arauco. During these years he received instruction in Latin and such elements of philosophy as were then given in the schools. At the age of sixteen he left the school and was given a place in a company of Spanish infantry. In a battle with the Indians he was severely wounded and captured. During the seven months of his captivity his amiability and his friendly intercourse with the Indians immediately in charge of him saved him from the machinations of those who wished to take his life. He returned to the troops and was later promoted to the rank of maestre de campo. After his long military service he found himself in extreme poverty in the last years of his life. Finally he received from the viceroy an appointment as corregidor in Peru, where he died in 1682, before he had derived any advantage from the office that had been conferred upon him.

[Sidenote: _Cautiverio feliz_]

[Sidenote: Quality of Bascuñán’s book]

The anxieties of his old age in poverty appear to have been relieved by his recollection of the kindness he had received at the hands of his captors, and in this period he wrote of the adventures of his youth, and of his reflexions on the Spanish military system as applied in Chile. These were the general topics of his book called _Cautiverio feliz y razón de las guerras dilatadas de Chile_. This book was “one of the works most extensively read in Chile and even in Peru during the colonial period.”[96] It contains a record of the honourable service of a valiant and faithful soldier, and was rendered especially attractive by the story of the author’s captivity. But, in keeping with the spirit of his time, he departed from the plan of a simple narrative and undertook to impart moral and religious instruction and to make a display of erudition. This defect is recognized by Medina, who affirms that if the author had limited himself simply to relating in his admirably simple and true style the story of his adventures among the Indians of Arauco, his work would have merited a place in the literature of any of the most cultivated nations of any time.[97] Still he has been able to give a dramatic interest to his narrative by keeping alive in the reader’s mind the inquiry whether Maulicán who promised to secure his escape, or the caciques who proposed to kill him, will be successful. One of the objects of the author in writing this book was to set forth the manner in which the war was conducted in Chile and the fate of those who became victims of the injustice committed in this war, and at the same time to show the causes that made the Araucanian war interminable. In this part of the work he made use of his own experience, revealing by his narrative the repeated abuses and instances of neglect that contributed to keep the Indians on a war footing. This feature of the narrative throws an especially important side light on the Spanish administration of Chilean affairs.

[Sidenote: The verse in _Cautiverio feliz_]

Throughout the _Cautiverio feliz_ there are various passages in verse, some of which are translations from the poetical books of the Bible, or from Virgil, Horace, Ovid, or other poets, or are original verses written by Bascuñán. Eyzaguirre calls attention to the fact that while in some of these original verses there are “elevated ideas and a sublime conception,” in “almost none of them does the author sustain the elevation of thought to the end,” and cites as an instance the sonnet to the Virgin on his release from captivity. “At the first glance,” he writes, “one recognizes the notable difference between the last part, ordinary and commonplace in its conceptions as well as disagreeable in its rhythm and the rest of the composition which is certainly beautiful and majestic.”[98] The following is the sonnet in question (Discurso V, cap. xiv):

[Sidenote: Illustrative sonnet]

¿Quien hay, Señora, que valerse quiera
De vuestro santo nombre, que no alcance
Con lágrimas orando al primer lance
Lo que imposible al tiempo pareciera?

¿Quién hay que en vuestras manos se pusiera,
Virgen sagrada, en peligroso trance,
Que en el mayor trabajo no descanse,
Y su esperanza fin dichoso adquiera?

Bien manifiesto está en mi larga suerte,
Pues que entre tantos bárbaros contrastes
Quisistéis libertarme de la muerte.

Gracias os doy ya fuera de debates,
Estimando el favor, y si se advierte,
Jamás imaginado entre rescates.

LAUS DEO.

III

[Sidenote: Torres on Sotomayor]

[Sidenote: Torres’ career]

[Sidenote: Soldiers from Lima to Chile]

When Caro de Torres undertook to write his _Relación de los servicios de Don Alonso de Sotomayor_, he had the advantage of a full knowledge of his subject. He had long stood in intimate friendly relations with the governor, and their similarity of inclinations and tastes had established between them bonds of respect and sympathy. Torres was born in Seville about the middle of the sixteenth century. His early studies were made in his native city, whence he passed to the University of Salamanca. From the university, which he left prematurely owing to a quarrel with other students, he entered the army, served in Italy under the Marqués de Santa Cruz, and in 1583 under the same leader played a gallant part in the campaign of the Azores. Two years later he was in Seville, where Viceroy Torres was preparing to depart to assume the duties of his office in Peru. Caro de Torres’ adventurous spirit induced him to join the expedition. He arrived at Lima on the 30th of November, 1586. During the period of his military service he found time to acquire knowledge of Spain’s colonial enterprise in the Indies. The next year Thomas Cavendish appeared in the Pacific, and Caro de Torres was a member of the expedition that was sent against him. A few months later commissioners from Alonso de Sotomayor, the governor of Chile, arrived in Lima, requesting reinforcements for the defence of the Chilean coast and for proposed campaigns against the Araucanians. Responding to this request, the viceroy sent two companies of five hundred soldiers each, under Luis de Carvajal and Fernando de Córdova. Caro de Torres, with the rank of captain, was the second in command of one of these companies, and during this campaign began the long continued friendship between him and the governor Sotomayor. But shortly after this the soldier of many adventures entered the order of St. Augustine. The success of Sotomayor’s military enterprises secured his appointment to the post of governor, captain-general, and president of the royal audiencia of Panama, where he was associated with Caro de Torres, and this association was maintained after Sotomayor returned to Spain. When Sotomayor was about to die he charged his friend with the duty of watching over the interests of his family. Holding in memory this long and faithful friendship, and in possession of the documents relating to Sotomayor’s political career, Caro de Torres wrote his _Relación de los servicios de Don Alonso de Sotomayor_.[99]

[Sidenote: Torres’ _Relación_]

[Sidenote: Torres on military orders]

The significance of this work is solely in the importance of the subject, in the fact that it involves in its narrative a large number of events relating to one of Chile’s more distinguished governors. It deals with three phases of Sotomayor’s life: his career before he became governor, his administration in Chile, and his activity as governor-general of Panama, together with his retirement in Spain, but all with a minimum of literary skill and method. About half of the bulk of the book consists of documents introduced into the text. These documents, while they interrupt the narrative, give a certain importance to the work. In 1629, nine years after the appearance of the _Relación_, Caro de Torres published in Madrid an imposing folio on the _Historia de las órdenes militares de Santiago, Calatrava y Alcántara, desde su fundación hasta el rey don Felipe segundo, administrador perpétuo de ellas_. In spite of the fact that this book would not seem to appeal to many persons, it met a noteworthy approval in its day, and added to the reputation of its author.[100]

IV

[Sidenote: Águila’s _Compendio historial_]

[Sidenote: Águila joins the troops for Chile]

In Chile the Araucanian Indians continued yet many decades to menace the security of Spanish settlers, and the campaigns against them continued to furnish a theme for writers. A product of this state of affairs was Melchor Xufré del Águila’s _Compendio historial del descubrimiento, conquista y guerra del reino de Chile_. Águila accompanied at his own expense the expedition to Peru led by García Hurtado de Mendoza, after that officer had been appointed to the post of viceroy. On their arrival in America the members of the expedition were discouraged by the bad news received concerning the attitude assumed by the Indians. Águila joined the troops that were sent to Chile. He entered upon the campaign under an agreement with the viceroy that he would pay his own expenses, and that he might withdraw and return to Peru whenever he desired. Later, however, he sought from the king a certain remuneration for his services, preferably in the shape of a governmental office or the position of a corregidor. He had not only rendered military services but, at his own expense, had caused supplies to be introduced into Concepción to avert impending famine.

At the time of his withdrawal from the campaign against the rebellious Indians he had been wounded several times, and had had one of his legs broken. In his retirement he began to write of the events in which he had had part and those that had happened under his observation.

[Sidenote: Chilean defensive policy]

In 1612 he was elected an alcalde in the municipal council of Santiago, and later, enjoying the confidence of Governor Ribera, he was entrusted with various public commissions. In March of the same year, 1612, a new policy respecting the Indians was proclaimed. It provided that the government should adopt a plan of defence, instead of continuing campaigns for invading Araucanian territory, and the river Biobio should be the boundary line between the territory of the Spaniards and that of the Indians. The Spaniards were to maintain their forces armed and equipped, but they were to be used only for defensive operations. Águila, now an encomendero at Santiago, was the most vigorous opponent of this policy; and the Jesuit Valdivia, the most prominent advocate of it, complained of Águila’s opposition in his memorial to the king.

In the years subsequent to his military activity there is little known of the events of Águila’s life, but, after forty years in Chile, he published in 1630 at Lima his _Compendio historial del descubrimiento, conquista y guerra del reino de Chile_.

V

[Sidenote: Alonso de Ovalle]

[Sidenote: Ovalle becomes a Jesuit]

Alonso de Ovalle became more widely known than most of the early colonial historians, partly from the fact that his _Histórica relación del reino de Chile_ was one of the first Chilean books of which translations were published in Europe. The author was a son of Francisco Rodríguez del Manzano de Ovalle, who was the holder of an entailed estate in Salamanca, and who went to Chile in command of certain troops that had been equipped at Lisbon. On this expedition he was accompanied by his cousin, Diego Valdez de la Vanda, who had been appointed governor of Buenos Aires. In Santiago Rodríguez del Manzano de Ovalle married María Pastene, a daughter of Juan Bautista Pastene, recognized for his services under Valdivia. Two sons of this marriage, Alonso and Jerónimo, born in the beginning of the seventeenth century, received instruction in the Jesuits’ school. By reason of their wealth as compared with the majority of Santiago’s primitive society they were conspicuous figures in the town. They were noteworthy for their fine horses with rich trappings, their ostentatious dress and the richness of their jewelry. The gentleness and docility of Alonso, his inclination to religious reflection and his wealth naturally suggested to his Jesuit instructors the desirability of attracting him to enter the order. Their zeal in this matter was stimulated by the knowledge that Alonso’s father was making arrangements to send him to Spain to take possession of the estate in Salamanca. The necessary steps for his initiation were hastily taken, and without the knowledge of his parents he took the vows and assumed the obligations of the Jesuits.

[Sidenote: Ovalle as missionary and professor]

When the father learned of the son’s act, he used every means to induce Alonso to withdraw from the order, and to persuade the provincial, Pedro de Oñate, to surrender him, but all without any result that was satisfactory to the family. The Jesuit authorities, moreover, in order to avoid any attempt that might be made to rescue the novice, determined to send him to Córdoba, in the province of Tucumán. This project came to the knowledge of Alonso’s relatives, who proposed to kidnap him on the journey over the Andes. But the Jesuits and their charges completely eluded the armed men sent to the mountain pass to intercept them. At Córdoba Alonso continued his studies, and at the end of his novitiate he was ordered to return to Santiago. Soon after his arrival in Chile he was ordained priest, and entered with zeal upon the work of his ministry. He undertook the moral and religious instruction of the negroes, and on Sundays preached in the public square of the town. He also went as a missionary to the Indians in various parts of Chile, and had unrealized projects of more extensive work, when the authorities of his order directed him to take up the duties of a professor of philosophy. A little later he was appointed rector of the Seminario at Santiago.

[Sidenote: Ovalle in Rome]

[Sidenote: _Relación de las paces_]

[Sidenote: _Histórica relación_]

His reputation for learning and religious devotion increased, and when a few years later it became necessary to treat with the general of the Society concerning questions relating to the vice-province of Chile, the members of the order in Chile resolved unanimously to send Alonso de Ovalle to Rome. He undertook the journey by way of Lima and Panama. At Lima he found that his reputation as a preacher and an orator had preceded him, and the people pressed with gratification to hear him. His presence later in Rome awakened a desire, even in the higher classes, to see him and to listen to his preaching. Towards the propositions of the Chilean Jesuits the general assumed a favourable attitude, and the business of the mission was accomplished without opposition. From Italy Ovalle went to Madrid, where he was received by the monarch. While in Spain he published two minor productions. One of these was called _Relación de las paces_, which was later embodied in his history of Chile. Another was _Memorial y carta_, designed to attract priests to the missionary field of Chile. A serious difficulty encountered in this enterprise was the profound ignorance that prevailed in all classes in Spain concerning Chile. At this time, eighty or ninety years after the settlement of the colony, Chile occupied an insignificant place in Spanish affairs; there were great patches of the population where even the name of Chile was unknown. It may, perhaps, be assumed that the _Histórica relación_ was written to abate this ignorance. The manuscript was submitted for publication on the occasion of Ovalle’s second visit to Rome.

The author writes as if addressing readers who were entirely ignorant of his subject. He treats extensively of the natural features of the country, the soil, the rivers, the lakes, and the mountains. He presents statistics of agricultural products, of the output of the mines, of the plants, fishes, and birds.

[Sidenote: Ovalle’s credulity]

A striking characteristic of the _Histórica relación_ is the indication it furnishes of the author’s superstition, his credulity concerning the reported miracles wrought by the image of the Virgin, and by divine interference and predestination, where later generations have seen merely a physical or worldly cause. The extreme to which he is led in this direction, and the large number of miracles he discovers in the course of events detract greatly from the historical character of his work. This quality persuaded the English translator to conclude his translation with the death of Caupolicán; “for in the course of the narrative so many superstitious notions are inculcated, so many improbable miracles are set forth as the basis of great undertakings, and the entire work is so thoroughly permeated by a monkish spirit, that it would rather condemn than recommend a project for its publication.”[101]

[Sidenote: Contents of the _Histórica relación_]

In spite of these defects the translator finds the work ‘so admirably performed, that it may be a model for most relations of that kind’. The author’s plan of his work is set forth in his preface, where he announces the principal topics of the several books: “the first and second books will show the natural state of the kingdom of Chile, both as to its climate and products; the third will describe the qualities of its first inhabitants; the fourth and fifth will describe the first entrance of the Spaniards into it, and the conquest of it by them; the sixth will contain the various events of the war; the seventh will show the first means of peace attempted by Father Lewis de Valdivia; the last, the first means of planting the Christian faith and its propagation among the Indians.”

[Sidenote: Ovalle’s mysticism]

But Ovalle’s experience in the mountains that look down upon the agreeable valley of Central Chile called him back from his visions of a fictitious spiritual world, and inspired him to present views of nature in its most imposing forms. Passing along narrow trails, on the edge of horrible precipices, descending into the shadows of deep wooded canyons, in the presence of roaring mountain torrents throwing clouds of mist into the clear air, his mysticism was for the moment clarified into a soberer conception of the universal Creator. But ordinarily he was so profoundly impressed by the wonderful and incomprehensible in nature and the course of events that he found it apparently impossible to carry on his narrative without interrupting it here and there to tell the story of some miraculous manifestation. Montalvo affirms that “he did not know how to treat of the earth without introducing into his narrative the events of heaven.”[102]

The excellence of Ovalle’s style doubtless suggested the fitness of his work for translation; it also persuaded the Royal Spanish Academy to place it in the list of works quoted for illustration in the Academy’s _Diccionario de la lengua castellana_.

In 1646 Ovalle was in Rome, attending the sixth general congregation of the Jesuits, in his capacity as procurador of the vice-province of Chile. This year he published his _Histórica relación_, which the same year appeared in an Italian translation. The English translation was first printed in 1703.

[Sidenote: Ovalle’s last years]

From Rome Ovalle returned to Spain, where he assembled the sixteen priests who were to accompany him to America. Four years after the publication of his _Histórica relación_, in 1650, he embarked for Chile by way of Panama. At Paita, not meeting there the ship he expected to take him to Callao, he set out overland for Lima, over an almost trackless region and across the sandy wastes of the desert-like coast lands, with little preparation for meeting his need of food and water. He arrived in Lima suffering under a violent fever, from which he died a few days later.

[Sidenote: Fantastic views of the Scriptures]

Ovalle’s fantastic interpretations of the Scriptures, as witnessed, among many instances, by his notion that the gold of Ophir was brought from Peru and Chile by Solomon’s fleet, did not prevent him from writing clearly and rationally about the events of Chilean history. In the following paragraph he describes the destruction of Concepción by Lautaro and his Araucanians:

[Sidenote: Ruin of Concepción]

[Sidenote: Concepción abandoned]

[Sidenote: The city burned]

“Misfortunes seldom come alone; and so it happened to this afflicted city, which, instead of receiving comfort from the approaching day, no sooner did it appear, when the noise of drums and trumpets gave a warm alarm of the enemy being at hand. Here the confusion increased; for now the concern was not for the loss of others, but for every one’s own safety, the danger threatening them so immediately. There was nothing but disorder, no counsel nor resolution being to be found in the wisest. They could not defend themselves, because they were overpowered in numbers by the enemy; and the retreat, though necessary, was difficult, because of the approach of the Indians. In this hard conflict at last the resolution that prevailed was to abandon the city without pretending to save any thing but their lives. They leave the city then, and all the gold they had got together in such quantities; they go out in long files, the mothers helping their little children along; the way that they undertook was to the city of St. Iago, a long one, in which many rivers were to be crossed, and hard passes to be gone through: this labour was accompanied with the perpetual fright of the enemy’s pursuing them. Who can relate the hardships of hunger and other sufferings through so long a tract of mountains, deserts, and uninhabited countries? How the women, the children, the old men could bear the fatigue, we must leave to imagination to represent the true idea of these misfortunes! Let us, therefore, return to the Indians. The Spaniards had hardly made an end of abandoning the city when the Indians entered it; and not being able to execute their rage upon the inhabitants, they did it upon the houses, to which they set fire, and consumed them to the very foundation, killing even the very animals which the Spaniards left behind them. Thus was lost the city most abounding in gold and situated in the most populous part of the Indian country; for it is said there were not less than a hundred thousand Indians with their families, who were all employed in gathering gold for the Spaniards, whom they enriched to that degree that Pedro de Valdivia, if he had lived, would have had fifty thousand crowns of gold a year, and others twenty and thirty thousand.”[103]

VI

[Sidenote: _Población de Valdivia_]

[Sidenote: Aguirre]

[Sidenote: Expedition against the Dutch]

About the middle of the seventeenth century a friar of the Augustinian order, Miguel de Aguirre, became conspicuous at Lima not only as the author of the _Población de Valdivia_, but also as a devotee of the Virgin of Copacabana. He was born at Chuquisaca, and took his religious vows very early. In 1641 he appeared at Lima, and entered the monastery of his order in that city, and became there professor of arts and theology. The distinction achieved by his lectures caused him to be appointed to a professorship in the University of San Marcos. He became also censor of the Inquisition. Pedro de Toledo y Leiva, Marqués de Mancera (1639-1648) was then the viceroy of Peru. In order to provide defence against the threatened invasion of the Dutch, he imposed various taxes and called upon certain institutions to make contributions. Aguirre was present at a meeting of the University of San Marcos on October 10, 1641, called to reply to the viceroy’s letter. Mancera’s plans comprehended the building of a wall about Lima, and equipping a number of warships to be sent to the coast of Chile. The defence appeared to be especially necessary in view of the fact that the Dutch had taken possession of Valdivia and intended to establish themselves within the limits of Chilean territory. The viceroy fitted out a squadron of twelve vessels, carrying eighteen hundred men and one hundred and eighty-eight guns. These vessels set sail on December 31, 1644, and arrived at their destination on the 6th of February, 1645, but before their arrival the enemy had departed. The minute knowledge of the enterprise displayed by Aguirre in his _Población de Valdivia_ (Lima, 1647), has suggested that, with other ecclesiastics, he was a member of the expedition; in fact his known advisory relation to the viceroy has given a certain support to the opinion that he occupied an official position.

[Sidenote: The Virgin of Copacabana]

For three years longer, until the end of Mancera’s term in 1648, Aguirre continued to perform his professorial duties at the university, and when he resigned in that year, it was probably in anticipation of his accompanying the viceroy to Spain; for in 1650 Mancera left Lima for Madrid, taking Aguirre with him as his confessor. Aguirre for his religious consolation and in order to be fortified against possible ill fortune on the voyage, took with him an image of Nuestra Señora de Copacabana. He proposed, moreover, to establish in Europe the cult of Our Lady of Copacabana, in which the Indians about Lake Titicaca had appeared to find a large measure of religious satisfaction.[104]

[Sidenote: Aguirre in Spain and Italy]

Soon after Aguirre arrived in Madrid Monseñor Gaetano, the apostolical nuncio in Spain, appointed him his confessor, and the Supreme Tribunal of the Inquisition nominated him to be one of its members. From Madrid Aguirre went to Rome in 1655 as general procurador of the province of Peru, and in spite of all of his other cares and occupations he kept in mind his purpose to propagate devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana, and the “American Virgin” was set up with an elaborate ceremony in the Augustinian hospicio of San Ildefonso; one part of this ceremony was an inaugural mass. Before he left Rome the image of the “American Virgin” and her cult had been established at several places in the city. Aguirre remained in Rome about a year and died in Madrid in 1664.

[Sidenote: Purpose of _Población de Valdivia_]

Although an advocate of devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana, he was in reality more than this, he was a writer to whom his contemporaries attributed great erudition. It is said, however, that his extensive reading in the classics and the Latin ecclesiastical writings had caused him to dislike the Spanish language, and even limited his power to use it in its most approved form. His work called _Población de Valdivia_ was far removed from subjects that engrossed his attention during the greater part of his active years. It sets forth the dangers to which the southern coast of Chile was exposed from foreign invasion; narrates the history of the various Dutch and English expeditions during the preceding century; gives an account of the preparations for defence made by the different governors; and tells the story of the town of Valdivia, its conflicts with the Indians, and the negotiations had with them. But the method of treatment and the entire lack of literary skill displayed in the composition have rendered an attractive subject devoid of all interest.

VII

[Sidenote: Ponce de León]

[Sidenote: _Descripción del reino de Chile_]

Another friar who wrote on Chile and Chilean affairs in the middle of the seventeenth century was Francisco Ponce de León. His descent from the noble houses of Arcos and Medina Sidonia gave him special consideration, and in the official service of his order (the Order of Mercy), he had an opportunity to visit various parts of South America. The most noteworthy of his expeditions was his missionary journey into the valley of the Marañón, where without stipend of any sort he spent three years preaching to various tribes of Indians. He performed important official functions as a member of his order and as a commissary of the Inquisition. Later by the favour of the viceroy, Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Marqués de Guadalcázar (1623-1629), he was appointed general chaplain of the military and naval forces, and served for five years in this capacity in Chile. His principal literary production was _Descripción del reino de Chile, de sus puertos, caletas, y sitio de Valdivia_, which was published in Madrid in 1644. He wrote also _Conquistas y poblaciones del Marañón_, but he was not able to secure its publication.

[Sidenote: _Mapa de Chile_]

[Sidenote: Olavarría and Méndez]

Another descriptive work on Chile was called _Mapa de Chile_, and was attributed to a Franciscan friar named Gregorio de León. It is said to have been printed, but no verification of this statement is at hand. In the same class as the foregoing are the anonymous _Descripción y cosas notables del reino de Chile_ and Miguel de Olavarría’s _Informe sobre el reino de Chile, sus indios y sus guerras_.[105] This last mentioned paper covers three topics, presenting a description of the cities, the characteristics and condition of the Indians, and finally a brief account of the history of Chile and its governors. Two other historical documents belonging to this period may be noted, a _Relación_, written circa 1607 and still in MS., by Tomás de Olavarría, and _Discursos sobre la centinela del reino de Chile_, by Andrés Méndez; the latter was published in Lima in 1641.

[Sidenote: Indian policy]

[Sidenote: Defence or Conquest]

[Sidenote: Programme]

The policy of the European inhabitants of Chile respecting the Indians, before the end of the sixteenth century, was simply to subdue them. With the beginning of the seventeenth century it became necessary to review this policy. The Indians had not been conquered; in fact, many of the towns and military posts established by the Spaniards had been swept away; the settlers had either fled or been destroyed; and whatever property they had accumulated had been lost. Two main questions had to be considered: should the Spaniards persist in the war for conquest? and what should be the treatment of the Indians captured or under Spanish domination? The encomenderos were in favour of holding them as slaves, but another party advocated a more humane policy and the adoption of an attitude of military defence. Opinions and discussions on these questions determined the political atmosphere of Chile in the first half of the seventeenth century. There were formed certain definite propositions: that the Indians should be released from personal servitude, or slavery, but that the existing relation should be maintained for two years, a period to be used in collecting voluntary labourers; that during this period all work in the mines should be suspended, and there should be paid to the Indians elsewhere engaged a daily wage, fixed beforehand, for their labour; that a new rule respecting tribute should be published; that the Indian prisoners held as slaves should be liberated, but that the three hundred held in Lima should remain there until the end of the war; and that negotiations should be undertaken with the view of introducing negroes to replace the Indians.[106]

[Sidenote: Opposing views]

Although these recommendations received the enthusiastic approval of the viceroy, it was found to be impossible to carry them out in Chile. Many of the Indians, if left free, were averse to labour of any kind under any conditions; the encomenderos resisted every attempt to liberate them; still the audiencia of Chile, when it was established in 1609, was instructed to abolish the personal service of the Indians. This order, however, brought a reaction against the movement for emancipation, and this reaction found a vigorous supporter in Francisco Lazo de la Vega, when he became governor of Chile in 1629. He was an old soldier, who saw a remedy for the unfortunate condition of affairs only in the exercise of a sufficient amount of force to bring the Indians into subjection, and consequently repudiated the plan of a defensive war.[107]

[Sidenote: Proposed state of troops]

The practical discussion of the relation of the Spaniards to the Indians awakened an interest in the Indian languages, and promoted a study of their grammar. The principal investigators in this field were the Jesuit priests. Among these, Luis de Valdivia was the most prominent in the affairs of Chile. He was a member of the commission that framed the regulations providing for the abolition of personal service. He had, moreover, advocated the reduction of military operations to a war of defence, in which troops should be maintained, armed and equipped, in such force as might be necessary; and the Jesuits were charged to carry instruction in Christian doctrine to the Indians. The Jesuit, Luis de Valdivia, as visitador-general of the province of Chile, was commissioned to act with the governor in an effort to carry out the new policy.

[Sidenote: Luis de Valdivia]

Luis de Valdivia arrived in Chile in 1593 with Gabriel de Vega, Fernando Aguilera, Baltasar de Piñas and others, who constituted the first group of Jesuits to visit that province. In 1622 he returned to Spain. During the period of his retirement he wrote, in addition to other things, a _Historia de la provincia castellana de la Sociedad de Jesús_, and _Varones ilustres de la Sociedad_; later, a grammar and a dictionary of the _lengua Allentiac_, and composed a treatise in that language on Christian doctrine.[108]

VIII

[Sidenote: Diego de Rosales]

[Sidenote: _Historia de Chile_]

[Sidenote: Contents of Rosales’ _Historia_]

The Marqués de Baides (1639-1646) sought to establish peaceful relations with the Indians by friendly conferences and treaties. In these conferences (_parlamentos_) Padre Diego de Rosales rendered the governor noteworthy assistance. This priest of the Society of Jesus won marked distinction not merely for his untiring missionary labours among the Indians of the frontier, but also for the excellence of his _Historia general del reino de Chile_. Considering the absorbing character of his practical activity, whether as missionary or in contributing to the execution of the government’s Indian policy, one has ground for surprise that the author found time for the production of a work that indicates an extensive use of documents, particularly in the first of its two volumes. This volume treats of the civil or secular events, and is divided into ten books, of which the first is devoted to the primitive inhabitants of Chile and to the early period of Spanish settlement. The second book presents in greater detail the history of the different expeditions to the coast of Chile made by Spanish seamen and by foreign adventurers, giving an account also of the natural products of the territory whether of value in industry or serviceable in medicine. The attention given to the geography of the country was apparently encouraged by the decree issued in Madrid on December 30, 1633, requiring the governors to make maps of the several provinces, showing their temples, fruits, mines, herds and fortifications, and indicating clearly and briefly the Indians and Spaniards in each. From the third to the tenth book inclusive Rosales presents an account of the political events of Chile down to the administration of Governor Antonio de Acuña y Cabrera (1648-1656). In treating of events prior to his own time, he says, “he escrito muchas cosas por noticias de papeles y relaciones” but “en adelante escribiré lo que he visto y tocado con las manos.”[109] Near the end of this part the manuscript shows lack of a careful final revision and closes as abruptly as if pages had been torn off.

[Sidenote: _Conquista espiritual de Chile_]

The second volume is entitled _Conquista espiritual de Chile_. Its subject is not the general history of Chile, not even a general account of the spread of Christian doctrine, but a collection of biographical sketches of the Jesuits who had flourished in Chile prior to the date of the author’s writing, “a theme in itself much less interesting, and infinitely poorer in execution than the general history of the kingdom,” and it is rendered obscure “by the interminable narration of extraordinary and unheard-of marvels attributed by the Jesuit padre to his associates in the mission or in the cloister, and clothed in language without distinction, often low, almost always trivial.”[110] And this volume, like the first, is incomplete; but, in spite of its general views respecting Chilean affairs, it illustrates to a certain extent the native manners and customs by its account of the circumstances of the missionaries on their peregrinations among the Indians.

[Sidenote: Rosales’ life]

The events of Rosales’ life were not greatly unlike the events in the lives of other persons subject to the régime of the Jesuits in America. He was born in the beginning of the seventeenth century, entered the Society in 1620, was sent to Peru, and subsequently to Chile. He became rector of the college at Concepción; as procurador of the vice-province of Chile he was sent to Rome and Madrid. After his return to Chile he was charged with the affairs of the vice-province from 1662 to 1665. He became vice-provincial in 1670.[111]

IX

[Sidenote: Santiago de Tesillo]

[Sidenote: _Restauración del estado de Arauco_]

There is only a limited known record of facts concerning the life of Santiago de Tesillo. In 1624 he appeared in Peru as a soldier, a member of the garrison of Callao, and it devolved upon the company to which he belonged to repel the Dutch, who that year proposed to land on the coast. Four years later he was promoted to be a sergeant and sent to Chile. After his arrival in Chile he attained the rank of captain, and for somewhat more than two years he was associated with his chief in the capacity of secretary. Later Governor Francisco de Meneses entrusted him with the confidential task of writing his defence in reply to charges against him that had been presented to the government at Lima. This appeared under the title _Restauración del estado de Arauco, y otros progresos militares conseguidos por las armas de S. M._ (Lima, 1665). But the friendly relation between the governor and Tesillo was ultimately changed to one of hostility, and Tesillo was banished to a frontier fort. In 1670 he was living at Concepción, and he is supposed to have died three or four years later at the age of about seventy.

[Sidenote: _Guerra de Chile_]

[Sidenote: Character of Tesillo’s work]

His principal work, _Guerra de Chile, causas de su duración, medios para su fin_, was completed in 1641, and published in Madrid in 1647. Its title suggests that the author proposed to treat his theme philosophically, and thus initiate a departure from the chronicle-like writings of his predecessors. Medina finds in the book certain observations that reveal an elevated spirit, a judicial character, judgments on men and affairs, and views more or less developed concerning military operations, described from year to year from the beginning of Lazo de la Vega’s administration to the arrival of his successor.[112] In spite of its title, the characteristics of a chronicle are thus seen to be distinctive features of some part of the work, and, like most of the chronicles of the colonies, it fails to maintain a just perspective of the subject, extensive accounts being sometimes given of unimportant events, while events of greater importance suffer comparative neglect. Still Tesillo is not merely a writer of chronicles; he set forth the causes of movements, reasons for the continuation of the war, the interests of the two belligerents, their conflicts, their methods of warfare, the marching of the troops, the astuteness of the Indians, and all this is done with striking impartiality.[113]