Chapter XI: The Last Half of the Seventeenth Century

I. _Juan de Barrenechea y Albis; Luis de Oviedo y Hererra;
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._

I

[Sidenote: _Cautiverio feliz_]

The colonial writers of the second half of the seventeenth century and the early decades of the eighteenth century continued to find their principal subjects in the military and civil affairs of the colonies. In Chile the chief topic was the interminable Indian wars. The _Cautiverio feliz_, by Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán, was so far successful that it served in some sense as a model for writers who wished to depart from a strictly statistical treatment of their subjects; for, while treating of the common theme, Pineda y Bascuñán gave indications of a certain degree of imagination, and his work appealed to a permanent human interest by presenting the elements of a good story, by its discussion and criticism of public affairs, and by its exposition of abuses and demands for correction.

[Sidenote: Juan de Barrenechea y Albis]

[Sidenote: _Restauración de la Imperial_]

The manuscript entitled _Restauración de la Imperial y conversión de almas infieles_, by Juan de Barrenechea y Albis, sometimes rises to a plane of a general interest. The author evidently set out to write an heroic novel, in which should figure elevated sentiments and an intense patriotism, the whole to be drawn on a background of Chilean history; the part of the history that was especially presented was an account of the campaigns of Governor Alonso de Sotomayor. But from this general theme Barrenechea sometimes turned aside to discuss the war, its objects, and the manner in which it had been carried on in Chile. In spite of the more or less dramatic action of the characters, the author shows that he is still dealing with realities by citing governmental decrees, by treating of the customs of the Indians and by raising inquiries as to the most efficacious method of restoring the churches in the destroyed towns. But the author, as a pious friar, could not be expected to leave his work merely as a story with a number of reflections on worldly affairs, and thus throughout the writing runs the conventional babble of his class, that here on earth all is misery, and that only beyond this life there will be no tears and no sorrow. There are introduced into each of these books more or less extensive passages in verse, on account of which the authors are regarded not only as prose writers but also as poets.

Juan Barrenechea was born in Concepción in 1669; was sent to Lima to study theology in the University of San Marcos, and after his return to Santiago became a lecturer on philosophy and theology in the Order of Mercy, to which he belonged. Later he was promoted to be the provincial of his order, and, having returned to Lima, wrote there the work already referred to.

[Sidenote: Oviedo’s _Santa Rosa_]

[Sidenote: The theme of the poem]

The metrical form of certain writings, as already indicated, does not necessarily exclude them from the realm of historical literature. Thus the “poema heroico” by Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, Conde de la Granja, on _La vida de Santa Rosa de Santa María_ is a bit of history, although in verse. The young woman who is celebrated in Oviedo’s verses was born in Lima in 1586 and died there in 1617. Her father, Gaspar Flores, was a member of the viceregal guard under the viceroy, the Marqués de Cañete. Her mother, a native of Lima, was a daughter of Francisco de Oliva, who was also born in Peru. She was baptized as Isabel, but her mother was accustomed to call her Rosa on account of her beauty. She was generally known by this name during her life, and when she was canonized she became Santa Rosa de Santa María. Her devotion to the Church and her religious zeal, manifesting itself sometimes in a state of nervous exaltation akin to hysteria, made a deep impression on persons who knew of her, and induced the ecclesiastical authorities to proceed to her beatification and canonization. Evidence of the depth of this impression is seen in the fact that Oviedo, Conde de la Granja, an officer of the army, and governor of Potosí, made her the subject of one of his principal poems, in the first octave of which he states his theme:

No canto las hazañas, las victorias
De varón inmortal, campeón guerrero,
Ni de la fama, célebres memorias,
Que en bronce y mármol, esculpió el acero;
De sagrada heroina canto glorias,
Que nació Rosa para ser lucero,
Y con humildo corazón profundo,
Triunfó de Lucifer, de sí, del mundo.

Oviedo’s poem on Santa Rosa consists of twelve cantos, and was published in Madrid in 1711. The form is sufficiently indicated by the foregoing stanza. The author describes the city of Lima and the grandeur of its position in the valley of the Rumac; he presents many events in the conquests of Peru: the idolatry of the Indians; the birth and youth of Santa Rosa; and enumerates her virtues with an extravagance of expression supposed to be consistent with the poetic form. In other cantos the author writes of the city of Quito, the kingdom of the Incas, the expeditions of Drake, Hawkins, and Spilberg, and the means of defence organized by the Peruvians. Among Oviedo’s other writings reference is made to a long poem on the passion of Christ (Lima, 1717) which sets forth various evil passions in society, such as envy, ingratitude, and the spirit of adulation.[137]

[Sidenote: Juan del Valle y Caviedes]

In the middle of the nineteenth century Odriozola published a collection of verses written by Juan del Valle y Caviedes in the last part of the seventeenth century. The author was born in Lima, and was the son of a rich Spanish merchant. At the age of twenty he went to Spain, where he remained three years, and at the expiration of this period the death of his father obliged him to return to Lima. Finding himself in possession of a considerable fortune, he entered upon a career of vicious and extravagant expenditure, wasting a large part of his inheritance and greatly impairing his health. After a severe illness he determined to reform his mode of life, married, and, in order to preserve the remainder of his property, he opened a shop for the sale of a thousand and one common and cheap articles. The death of his wife made him feel the need of consolation, and he sought it in alcoholic drink, by which he found oblivion of his sorrow in death in 1692, before he had completed his fortieth year.

[Sidenote: Valle y Caviedes’ poems]

His poems, extensively circulated in manuscript during his life, made him widely known, but in the course of the century and a half following his death he passed very largely out of the public memory. The two collections of these poems published by Odriozola were called _Diente del Parnaso_ and _Poesías serias y jocosas_. In an introduction to these poems as published, Ricardo Palma wrote: “Caviedes was a most unfortunate poet. Many times I have encountered his verses in periodicals of Peru or of foreign countries, either anonymous or signed by some vagabond, but never have I found under them the signature of the true author. In life Caviedes was the victim of quacks; and in death the victim of literary pirates.”

[Sidenote: On medical science in Peru]

The low state of medical science in Peru in the last half of the seventeenth century called forth from Caviedes numerous critical and satirical references to the ignorance and lamentable practice of Peruvian physicians. Viceroy Liñán y Cisneros (1679-1681), in his account of the state of the viceroyalty, made for his successor, the duke of Palata, refers to the miserable state of medical science and practice in Peru, the lack of revenue and the consequent abandonment of instruction in medicine, and the exposure of the health of the population to the mercy of pretentious ignorance. Gutiérrez wrote of Caviedes that he “had no convictions acquired by study hostile to the uncertainties of the science of medicine. He knew by observation that the disciples of Hippocrates kill when they make mistakes, and the instinct of preservation and love of life put terrible arms into his hands, against those who, in his view, had once brought him to the brink of the grave. His vengeance was cruel. Ill-will served him as a muse, and it cannot be denied that in many of his compositions there was manifest true inspiration.”[138]

II

[Sidenote: Sons of nobles sent to Peru]

In spite of the wealth which the New World had poured into Spain many of the noble families were poor in the seventeenth century, and some of these found it difficult to give their sons such an education as their talents and station demanded. Frequently young persons of this class secured positions as pages in the viceroy’s household, and were educated under his supervision, sometimes remaining in Peru and acquiring distinction in the affairs of the state or the Church. Some of them with the viceroy’s approval joined religious orders. Ignacio de Arbieto is an instance of one who became a Jesuit.

[Sidenote: Arbieto’s life and writings]

He was born in Madrid in 1585. At Lima he studied in the college of San Pablo, later taught Latin in the same institution, became professor of philosophy at Quito, was transferred to the college in Arequipa, where he became rector of the institution, returned to the college of San Pablo in Lima as professor of theology, was appointed rector of the college at Chuquisaca, and subsequently took up his duties as rector of the college of San Martín in Lima. After long service as professor and rector of various colleges of the Society, he died in Lima on August 7, 1676. During his last years he served as counsellor of the provincial, and at the same time was occupied in writing his _Historia del Perú y de las fundaciones que ha hecho en él la Compañía de Jesús_. A _Suma de las obras teológicas del P. Francisco Suárez_ is attributed to Padre Arbieto.

[Sidenote: Arbieto’s successor]

[Sidenote: Barrasa’s _Historia de las fundaciones_]

The failure of Arbieto’s work to receive the approval of the General of the Society led to the demand that another person should be charged with writing the history of the Jesuit foundations. By vote of the provincial congregation of 1674 Padre Jacinto Barrasa was appointed to undertake the task, which he completed in a manuscript volume of 1350 pages to the satisfaction of the authorities; but this appears not to have been published. The book was more exclusively devoted to the affairs of the Jesuits than were most of the writings of the Jesuit historians. He treated neither of the political history of the country nor of its geography, affirming that these phases of the subject had been sufficiently presented by Calancha in his _Crónica moralizada_. His course with respect to the second subject was altogether unusual, for from the beginning even to the present geographical description has been a conspicuous feature of South American writings. The real theme of Barrasa’s book is sufficiently set forth in its title: _Historia de las fundaciones de los colegios y casas de la provincia del Perú de la Compañía de Jesús, con la noticia de las vidas y virtudes religiosas de algunos varones ilustres que en ella trabajaron_.

The fame acquired by Barrasa during his life rested chiefly on his work as a professor and as a preacher. Two volumes of his sermons were published in Madrid in 1678, and another volume in Lima in 1678.

Padre Barrasa died at the college of San Pablo in Lima on November 22, 1704.

[Sidenote: José de Buendía, the distinguished Jesuit of Lima]

Padre José de Buendía, as historian, sacred orator, and philosopher, is called “one of the literary glories of Peru in the seventeenth century.” His especially noteworthy _Vida del venerable padre Francisco del Castillo de la Compañía de Jesús, natural de Lima, 1615-1673_, (Madrid, 1693), became more widely known than his other works. Its value consists not merely in its account of the life of Castillo but also in its references to the history of Peru, and to the lives of many other Jesuits of the province. It contains, moreover, an account of the earthquake of 1787. This part was published by Odriozola at Lima in 1863.

[Sidenote: _La estrella de Lima_]

_La estrella de Lima_ was issued under the name of Francisco de Echave y Assu, but it is affirmed by Saldamando that its author was Buendía.[139] But whatever may be the decision on this point, the book itself has a recognized value for the history of Peru. It contains an account of the ceremonies attending the beatification of Archbishop Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo, later Santo Toribio; biographies of Mogrovejo and of succeeding archbishops; important references to bishops, inquisitors, councillors, judges, viceroys, and other persons whose illustrious lives contributed to the glory of Lima. It describes, moreover, the metropolitan church and cites an abundance of facts of historic interest. Buendía acquired distinction also by his sermons and “funeral orations.”

Padre José de Buendía was born in Lima in 1644, left the college of San Martín in 1665, taught philosophy in the college of San Pablo and at Cuzco, and died May 4, 1727. His life, apart from his writings has left no conspicuous record.

III

[Sidenote: Jerónimo de Quiroga]

[Sidenote: _Memoria de las cosas de Chile_]

[Sidenote: Quiroga’s _Compendio histórico_]

In 1643 rumours ran through the western colonies that the Dutch were preparing to invade Chile. The prospect of this invasion induced the viceroy of Peru to send a body of three hundred soldiers to strengthen the military forces already in the southern colony. Jerónimo de Quiroga, then a youth of eighteen, was a member of this company, and arrived in Chile near the end of the year. He apparently remained there in the service, for a few years later, at the age of thirty-three, he married a young woman of a prominent family of Santiago, and not long afterwards he was advanced to the rank of captain of cavalry. During the next thirty-five or forty years he rendered important services to the state in both military and civil undertakings. One of his military commissions was the taking of three thousand arms from Mendoza over the Andes to Concepción. He was a life member of the ayuntamiento of Santiago by royal confirmation. He had general charge of the construction of the cathedral for a period, and contributed largely towards the work from his own funds. He directed the fortification of Valparaiso and Concepción, and repaired the more or less ruined fortifications of the southern frontier.[140] He held various military commands, particularly that of chief of the militia of Chile for a period of seventeen years, and the governor turned to him for a method of reducing the Indians of the frontier to civilization. At the close of his military career, during which, especially in the later years, he encountered opposition and intrigue, at the age of seventy he turned to the task of writing the history of his country down to the events of his own time. His life in Chile had covered a considerable part of this period, and for this reason his book was properly called _Memoria de las cosas de Chile_. Medina reports that only an extract of the first part has been preserved, and that this was published in the twenty-third volume of the _Semanario erudito_ of Madrid in 1788. This extract was called _Compendio histórico de los más principales sucesos de la conquista y guerras del reino de Chile hasta el año de 1656_. The critical judgment respecting Quiroga’s style—his rapidity of narration, conciseness of expression, and the harmony and facility of his phrases—indicates the degree of loss suffered in the disappearance of the complete work.[141]

[Sidenote: Anello Oliva’s _Varones ilustres_]

Of Padre Anello Oliva little appears to be known aside from the fact that he was born in Naples and became a member of the Society of Jesus. His principal work is entitled _Vidas de varones ilustres de la Compañía de Jesús de la provincia del Perú_. The sub-title describes the contents more fully, announcing that the first of the four books treats of the kingdom and provinces of Peru, the Incas, the discovery and conquest by the Spaniards; and that the three other books describe the lives of the Jesuits written, as one critic informs us, solely with the object of preserving the memory of the Jesuits the most distinguished in the virtues and in the observation of the rules of the Society, in order that they might serve as examples to their successors; but offering no interest to the historian, since they are limited, for the most part, to referring to the manner in which these distinguished Jesuits succeeded in reaching a high degree of perfection, and to eulogizing the merit which they attained.[142]

[Sidenote: _Histoire du Pérou_]

In 1857 M. Ternaux Compans published the first book of Oliva’s _Vidas_ in a French translation made from the unpublished manuscript, under the title, _Histoire du Pérou_. This book of Oliva’s work forms in some sense an introduction to the lives of illustrious men. The persons whose biographies made up the body of the work were Ruiz Portillo, José Acosta, Baltasar Piñas, Juan Sebastián, Rodrigo de Cabrevo, Juan de Atienza, Estevan Páez, Juan de Frías Herrán, Gonzalo de Lyra, and Juan Romero. The first book was printed in Lima from the original Spanish manuscript in 1895.

[Sidenote: Grandezas de Lima]

[Sidenote: Ojeda’s opinions]

Long and dull years of isolation in the dependencies and ignorance of the conditions of the older countries led the colonists to exaggerate or overestimate what they saw in the cities of South America. If they celebrated the accession of a king of Spain, it seemed to them that nowhere else had there been seen such magnificence. In writing, therefore, of the capital of Peru, Diego Ojeda Gallinato very naturally entitled his book _Grandezas de Lima_. This book, Mendiburu says, is extremely rare even in Spain, and that he had not been able to obtain a copy of it. But other writers who had used it give some notions of Ojeda’s opinions, particularly of the inhabitants of Peru, who appeared to him, especially those descended from Spanish ancestors, discreet, liberal, energetic, and possessed of most active minds; and what most excited admiration was to see how early intelligence dawned in the children.[143]

[Sidenote: Velasco’s _Arte de sermones_]

The grandiloquent style that prevailed in Spanish literature and in Spanish preaching incited the Franciscan friar Martín Velasco, to write his treatise on Rhetoric under the title, _Arte de sermones_, printed in Cadiz in 1675. Little is known of Velasco’s life beyond the fact that he was born in Bogotá, and lived in the Franciscan monastery of that city. The key to his doctrine appears to be contained in these two sentences: “Words are smoke and noise which do not go beyond their sense; and in serving for what they are, it is not they but the truth they utter that produces the effect. One should try, therefore, to utter much truth in few words after the manner of the Laconians, and not many words and little substance.”[144] If the teaching of the inconspicuous friar had had its merited influence much good might have come to Spanish speech even out of America.

IV

[Sidenote: Fernández Piedrahita]

[Sidenote: Piedrahita vicar general]

[Sidenote: _Historia de Granada_]

In the last half of the seventeenth century an historian of considerable merit appeared in the person of Bishop Lucas Fernández Piedrahita, who was born in Bogotá on March 6, 1624. Through his mother, Catalina Collantes, he held by birth a more or less distant relationship to a member of the family of the Incas in Peru. He studied in the Jesuit college of San Bartolomé, and received the degree of doctor from the University of Santo Tomás. The literary ambition of his youth manifested itself in the writing of a number of dramas that are not known to exist. He was appointed treasurer of the cathedral of Popayán, but before he entered upon the duties of that office he was made a prebendary of the metropolitan church in 1654. He was subsequently promoted to various offices in that church and after the death of Archbishop Torres he was elected vicar general and governor of the archbishopric; and he continued to hold the office of vicar general after the arrival of Arguinao, in 1661, the successor of Archbishop Torres. Piedrahita became the favourite preacher of the city, and through his influence and friendly relation with the president Dionisio Pérez Manrique, harmony was established between the ecclesiastical and civil officials. But the arrival of Cornejo as visitador introduced an element of discord into the community. Soon after the accession of Arguinao, Piedrahita was called to Spain to defend himself before the Council of the Indies against charges preferred by the visitador. His defence was so complete that the Council not only absolved him from fault, but also offered him the office of bishop of Santa Marta, and this appointment was immediately confirmed by the Pope. He remained six years in Spain, from 1663 to 1669, and during this period he wrote his _Historia general del nuevo reino de Granada_.

[Sidenote: Bishop of Santa Marta and of Panama]

In 1669 Piedrahita returned to America, and after his consecration entered upon the exercise of his functions as bishop of Santa Marta. Here he displayed many of the virtues of the primitive Christian teacher, visited and taught the Indians, distributed his income among the poor and lived in poverty. His charitable gifts left him hardly means for decent clothing. In 1676 he was promoted to the see of Panama, but before he left Santa Marta the town was taken by pirates, who, seeing the meanness of the bishop’s dress, concluded that by his apparently miserly habits he must have large accumulations concealed. The pirates, therefore, took the bishop and tortured him in order to make him reveal the hiding-place of his treasures; unsuccessful in this, they carried him off and brought him before the distinguished and courteous pirate Morgan, who received him with marked consideration, gave him a pontifical robe stolen at Panama, and caused him to be conducted to his new diocese. Here Bishop Piedrahita continued for twelve years the devoted life he had led in Santa Marta, and died at the age of sixty-four. The first part of his _Historia_ was published in Amsterdam the year of his death, 1688. According to Vergara, the second part was lost after the death of the author, since there was no one to care for its publication.[145]

[Sidenote: Piedrahita’s style]

With respect to his style, Piedrahita represents a considerable advance over the prose writers of South America who preceded him. He wrote clearly in what might not improperly be called modern Spanish. He had not, however, freed himself from the custom of his time, or the practice of writing long and irrelevant introductions to chapters or sections, the custom that induced the chronicler to begin his narrative with the creation of the world.

V

[Sidenote: Padre Pedro Claver]

[Sidenote: Slave-trade at Cartagena]

A striking subject for a biography was furnished by the life of Padre Pedro Claver, who was born in Cataluña in 1585 and died at Cartagena in 1654. He became a member of the Society of Jesus, entering upon his novitiate in 1602. For his work among the slaves at Cartagena he became known as the “Apostle to the Negroes.” Cartagena in the seventeenth century had a much larger population than at present, and, in relation to South America, was a much more important port; it was the port at which were landed most of the ships engaged in the African slave-trade. The ships arrived overcrowded, with their human freight in an indescribable condition. The victims of the slave-trader’s greed and inhumanity, in the long voyage in the tropics, had suffered untold misery from an insufficient supply of food, air and water, and at the end of the voyage the living, the moribund, and the dead were found packed in a mass of filth more foul than anything which the fancy can picture.

Padre Claver[146] spent forty years of a devoted life in efforts to relieve this misery,[147] and the story of this devotion was written by Alonso de Andrade.[148] A more extensive account of Claver’s life by José Fernández appeared in 1666. Another book relating to Cartagena is Luis Jodar’s _Vida de la Venerable Madre Catalina María de la Concepción, fundadora del Convento de Santa Clara de Cartagena_.

[Sidenote: Flórez de Ocáriz’s _Genealogías_]

The _Genealogías del nuevo reino de Granada_, by Juan Flórez de Ocáriz, is a curious monument of patient labour and mediæval ignorance, produced rather by manual labour than by intellectual effort. It fairly exemplifies the tradition and vices of early, and perhaps of some later, writings on genealogy, in pretending to establish a family connexion between persons of similar names, who lived in widely separated ages and in different parts of the world. But the introduction which takes up about half of the first volume contains important information on the local history of New Granada. An incentive to genealogical inquiry was furnished by the ambition of many creoles to magnify the social importance of their families. Two volumes of this work were published in Madrid in 1674-76; a third remains unpublished.

[Sidenote: León y Bezerra]

A contemporary account of the events at Panama at the time of Morgan’s invasion (1670) was written by Bishop Antonio de León y Bezerra, who, having refused the office of Bishop of Panama three times, finally accepted it in 1672. The following year, after the death of the conde de Lemos the audiencia of Lima appointed Bishop León governor and captain-general of Tierra Firme, and in January, 1674, he assumed the duties of that office. In 1676, he was promoted to the post of Bishop of Trujillo, and a little later was transferred to the bishopric of Arequipa. He died in 1708.

VI

[Sidenote: _Anales del Cuzco_]

[Sidenote: Palma’s criticism]

An important source of detailed information concerning Peruvian history, particularly the history of Cuzco, is the anonymous chronicle entitled _Anales del Cuzco_ constituting four hundred and thirty-four pages of a volume edited by Ricardo Palma, and published in Lima in 1901. It covers a period of one hundred and fifty years, from 1600 to 1750. Although lacking the attractive style of Calancha and some of the other early writers, it nevertheless throws much light on many obscure points of local history. Ricardo Palma attributes to the writer “a certain independence of character and a standard of criticism not usual at that time,” and cites as an illustration the author’s condemnation of the extraordinary means employed by the preachers to terrify the Indians, such as frightful pictures of the devil and graphic representations of the sufferings of the damned in hell.[149]

The numerous paragraphs relating to ecclesiastical affairs point to the conspicuous place held by the events connected with the Church. The following quotation illustrates the style, in so far as the chronicle may be said to have any style, and also the avaricious disposition of certain colonial priests in administering the services of the Church.

[Sidenote: Priest Maturana’s exactions]

“Gaspar de Lagos, of the hospital parish, having died, the priest of the parish demanded five hundred dollars for the funeral service, and finally agreed to receive one hundred and eighty dollars. The widow of the deceased went, on the 30th of December (1743), at eight o’clock in the evening to Bishop Morcello, and showed him that it was impossible for her to pay this amount. The bishop decided that the interment in accordance with the widow’s wishes to be just, and, fixing the payment at sixty-one dollars, handed to the widow a paper stating this decision. Then, the widow went to the priest, Julián Maturana, and gave him the paper. The priest threw the paper on the floor and stamped on it, and said that the cross would not go out if she did not bring the one hundred and eighty dollars. The widow returned to the bishop, now after nine o’clock at night, and he ordered that they should bring the priest. The fiscal and the officer sought for him in the house of the bishop of Panama, where he was living, but they did not find him. The bishop then issued an order that the Franciscan fathers should conduct the burial properly as the widow required, and also ordered that the sixty-one dollars should be applied to the work of the cathedral.”[150]

VII

[Sidenote: Rodríguez’ _El Marañón y Amazonas_]

The book by Padre Manuel Rodríguez entitled _El Marañón y Amazonas_ and published in 1684 is a history of the discovery and reduction of the tribes that lived in the region of the great rivers. It undertook to set forth the praiseworthy as well as the unfortunate conduct of the conquistadores respecting temporal and spiritual matters, and in six books to present the data that had been acquired and the narratives that had been written concerning the discovery of the Amazon; the services the Jesuits had rendered and the missions they had founded; the progress made in the government of Mainas from its establishment by Diego Vaca de Vega; the journey of Captain Texeira to Quito and his return to Pará; the sources of the rivers and their union with the Amazon; the labours of missionaries and the tragic end of many of them; and an account of Acuña’s report. This work may still be considered as an historical document of value, and, barring its prolixity, a common failing of the age, is not without literary merit.[151]

[Sidenote: Padre Samuel Fritz]

Another traveller and missionary labourer in the region of the Amazon was Padre Samuel Fritz, a Bohemian Jesuit who entered the missions of Mainas in 1686. Besides founding a large number of new missions, he made important contributions to what was then known about the geography and languages of the lands adjacent to the Amazon and its principal tributaries. He made a map of the region, which was engraved and published in Quito in 1707.[152] He compiled grammars and dictionaries of several native languages and made a map entitled _El gran río Marañón o Amazonas con la misión de la Compañía de Jesús geográficamente delineado_.

[Sidenote: Ponce de León on _El Marañón_]

Among the unpublished contributions to the literature of the Amazon one may note the _Conquistas y poblaciones del Marañón_, by Francisco Ponce de León, who was a member of the order of Mercy, sometime provincial in Chile, and missionary among the Indians. The manuscript was at one time reported to be in Barcia’s library.