Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1

The squadron which the Queen had ordered to proceed to South America under the joint command of the two admirals, sailed from Plymouth on the 28th of August 1595. But it was doomed to disaster throughout its course. One vessel, the “Francis,” was taken by the Spaniards; and whilst preparing to pass through the Virgin Islands, Hawkins became extremely sick, and soon breathed his last. At Puerto Rico a great shot struck the mizen-mast of Drake’s ship, whilst another shot knocked the stool on which he was seated from under him. Every preparation had been made for the defence of the harbour and town; but, in spite of a heavy fire, the English persisted in their desperate attempts, until they had lost some forty or fifty killed and as many wounded. They were, however, eventually compelled to retire, after having inflicted very severe losses on the enemy.

Drake now proceeded to the Caribbean shore and took the town of La Hacha, the inhabitants of which ransomed themselves for thirty thousand ducats. Rancheria and Rio de La Hacha were burnt down to the ground, as was likewise Santa Martha, after which operations Drake proceeded to Nombre de Dios, which was soon taken and destroyed, together with all the frigates and barques in the harbour.

It was now decided that an attempt should be made on Panamá, and for this purpose seven hundred and fifty soldiers were selected to march over the isthmus. “The march was so sore,” says Hakluyt, “as never Englishmen marched before;” and in the end it was deemed best, after the loss of between eighty and ninety men, to make their way back to the fleet.

1596.

On the 15th of January, Sir Francis Drake began to keep his cabin; and on the 28th of that month, at four o’clock in the morning, he departed this life. His body was conveyed to Puerto Bello, where it was solemnly committed to the deep.

. . . . . . . .

The third of the three great men who may be said to have created between them England’s position as Mistress of the Waves, and to have given the English navy the character which it bears, is Sir Walter Raleigh. Hawkins represents the old English unthinking, unreasoning, loyal, slave-hunting, religious skipper. Drake, in turn, represented a much higher phase of English sea-life. It is true that in his early days he commanded a vessel in one of Hawkins’ slave-hunting expeditions; but, to his great credit, he seems to have been so disgusted on this occasion, that he never afterwards soiled his hands by dealing in this unholy and abominable traffic. He was a corsair, but at the same time a conscientious man. At San Juan d’Ulloa and elsewhere he and his companions had suffered grievous wrongs and treachery at the hands of the Spanish authorities, wrongs for which he had in vain sought reparation at Madrid. He therefore conceived himself—and in this belief he was confirmed by a chaplain of his fleet—to be fully entitled to exact on his own account the reparation which was refused him by the Spanish Government; and it is to be noted that he sought simply reparation, and that he is, throughout his career, entirely exempt from charges of cruelty and of wanton depredation.

Hawkins and Drake were self-made men. They each rose to the rank of admiral from the manly class which furnishes our seamen before the mast. Raleigh, on the other hand, although not of aristocratic birth, and although not, strictly speaking, a seaman by profession, yet did almost everything towards the formation of the aristocratic element in our navy. It was the gifted favourite of Elizabeth who induced many a youth of the highest social circles to seek for distant ventures, and who thus created the tradition by which the noblest families of England, from that of the Queen downwards, devote one of their sons to the same toils, perils, and honours which, in degree, befall all ranks of our navy. Raleigh was ambitious for his country, for which, with prophetic vision, he foresaw its place as Mistress of the Deep. With the famous patent granted to him on March 25, 1584, to search out and take possession of new lands in the western hemisphere, we have only to deal in so far as it concerns Guyana.

1595.

Raleigh had already led the way to the planting of the English race in North America; he next directed his speculations towards the southern hemisphere, and projected an expedition to Guyana. As a preliminary measure he despatched a barque, under Captain Whiddon, to survey the coast of that portion of South America. The object he had in view was to explore and subdue Guyana, for the sake of the riches which it was supposed to possess. With a fleet of five ships, and with a gallant company of gentlemen, he sailed from Plymouth on the 6th of February 1595, and reached the Island of Trinidad, where he destroyed the new city of San Jose. There leaving his ships, he proceeded with barges, boats, and launches to explore the outlets of the Orinoco.

He toiled up the network of streams, through tropical thunder, lightning, and rain. He beheld the great river swelling like a sea between masses of luxuriant vegetation, profuse in tropical fruits and flowers, and looked down upon from a huge height by the snow-clad Andes and by the Condor; but he saw no gold, nor did he discover any mines. The setting-in of the rainy season put a period to his explorations; and, leaving behind him a man and a boy to serve as interpreters on his return, he set sail for England, taking with him a young Cacique.

. . . . . . . .

1616.

Long years were to elapse before Sir Walter Raleigh again hoisted his flag on the Atlantic. When he did so, a new order of things had arisen in England, since thirteen years before he had been committed to the Tower, from which he emerged on the 19th of March 1616. The destination of the squadron which he now organized was again Guyana. A hundred noblemen and gentlemen hastened to join the standard of the renowned commander, whilst there was no lack of mariners eager to serve under an admiral whose capacity has never been exceeded by any one in the long list of our naval heroes.

On the 11th of November 1617, Raleigh, now sixty-five years of age, reached Guyana, after a voyage which was in every way disastrous, and which had left himself in impaired health and the force at his command in diminished strength. His spirit, however, was still sanguine, as he drifted towards the Orinoco between the islands, in one of which is laid the scene of “Robinson Crusoe.” On reaching the river, it was found impossible for the larger vessels, including Raleigh’s own ship, the “Destiny,” to cross the bar, and as he was in too enfeebled a condition to lead the expedition inland in person, he had to relinquish the command to another, whilst he himself remained cruising between the Orinoco and Trinidad, being so weak that he had to be carried about in a chair.

Meanwhile, a considerable force ascended the river, under Captain Kemys and Sir Walter’s son. Guyana certainly belonged to England, if to any foreign nation, since on the occasion of Raleigh’s former expedition the Caciques, who had welcomed him as their deliverer from their Spanish neighbours, had declared their allegiance to England. But during his long absence Spanish settlements had been formed in the country.

Kemys proceeded up the Orinoco, his orders being to make for the mines without offering molestation; but if he were attacked he was to repel force by force. When encamped for the night half-way to the mines, he was set upon by the Spaniards, who hoped to take him by surprise, but who were repulsed, and who retreated, closely pursued by young Raleigh, who fell in the pursuit. The existence of mines was, however, proved, since four gold refineries were found in San Pome.

But Kemys had lost heart. The passes were in the hands of Spaniards, as were the forests and the banks of the streams, so that his followers were constantly shot down by unseen enemies. Returning, therefore, down the river, he rejoined his chief, with what was literally a sentence of death to the latter. Kemys could not bear his friend’s reproaches, and, in utter despair, he took his own life.

Four months later Raleigh was again in England, and on the 28th of October of the same year he expiated on Tower Hill his want of success; the illustrious victim being offered up by the contemptible James as a sacrifice to the implacable vengeance of Spain.

Note.—Chapter XVII. is founded on

“Life of Sir John Hawkins,” by Samuel Johnson, 2nd edition, 1787.

“Hawkins, (Sir John). Two Voyages made to the West Indies,” Hakluyt, III.

“Sir Francis Drake; The World Encompassed” (Hakluyt Society). 1854.

“Voyages of Drake;” Hakluyt, II. IV.; Purchas, I. IV.

“Life of Drake,” by Barrow.

“Raleigh (Sir Walter); Discovery of Guiana” (Hakluyt Society). 1848.

“Discovery of Guiana,” by Musham (Hakluyt, II.).

“Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,” by James Augustus St. John. 1868.

APPENDIX

I

It would naturally be expected that in a work of this kind there should be some reference made to the long-pending discussion respecting the letter addressed by Amerigo Vespucci to Lorenzo de Medici, by which it would appear that Vespucci had visited the coast of Pária in the year 1497—that is to say, in the year previous to that of the first visit of Columbus to the South-American continent; and that therefore, supposing this visit to be established, Amerigo Vespucci, and not Columbus, was the first European discoverer of the South-American continent. This question is one of the very first importance as regards history or geography; since on its solution depends not only the question after whom the great South-American continent should be called, but likewise the fair fame of Vespucci’s name.

Since no new points have, to my knowledge, arisen of sufficient importance to disturb what seems to me to be the necessarily final judgment arrived at by Washington Irving, and which had previously been concurred in by Robertson, and which is to be seen in the Appendix No. X. to Irving’s work, entitled “The Voyages of the Companions of Columbus,” I must confine myself to referring my readers to what seem to me the irrefutable arguments therein brought forward. I may at the same time refer them to the arguments, in a contrary direction, in the “Viaggi di Amerigo Vespuggi di Stanislao Canovai; Firenze,” 1832.

II

The Italian traveller Benzoni, who has been referred to in the preceding pages, has been quoted by Robertson, Irving, and Helps; but, considering the unique position which he holds as being the first foreign critic of the proceedings of the Spaniards in South America, I scarcely think that his volume has received the full attention which it deserves at the hands of modern writers on Spanish South America. I would therefore draw attention to some extracts from his work, begging the reader to bear in mind that they proceed by no means from a man of the mould of Las Casas, but from one who, by his own confession, took part in a slave-hunting expedition. The author in question was nevertheless, as he states, a devout Christian, and he dedicates his history of the New World to Pope Pius IV.

Benzoni started for America in the year 1541, and there spent fourteen years of toil and travail. Landing at the Gulf of Pária, he proceeded to Cuba and other islands, returning thence to Acla, whence he crossed to Panamá, from which place he visited the kingdom of Peru. In this wandering course he passed fourteen years. Benzoni is the author who is originally responsible for the well-known story of Columbus and the egg. He states that whilst at Amaracapana (Book I. p. 8) Captain Calice arrived with upwards of four thousand slaves and had captured many more. “When some of them could not walk, the Spaniards, to prevent their remaining behind to make war, killed them by burying their swords in their sides or their breasts. It was really a most distressing thing to see the way in which these wretched creatures, naked, tired, and lame, were treated; exhausted with hunger, sick, and despairing; the unfortunate mothers, with two and three children on their shoulders or clinging round their necks, overwhelmed with tears and grief, all tied with cords or with iron chains round their necks, or their arms, or their hands. Nor was there a girl but had been violated by the depredators.”

At page 159, Benzoni observes that Spaniards have eulogised themselves too much when they tell us that they are worthy of great praise for having converted to Christianity the tribes and nations that they subjugated; for there is a great difference between the name and the being one in reality.

“The slaves are all marked in the face and on the arms by a hot iron with the mark of C;25 then the governors and captains do as they like with them; some are given to the soldiers, so that the Spaniards afterwards sell them or gamble them away among each other. When ships arrive from Spain, they barter these Indians for wine, flour, biscuit, and other requisite things. And even when some of the Indian women are pregnant by these same Spaniards, they sell them without any conscience. Then the merchants carry them elsewhere and sell them again. Others are sent to the island of Spagnuola (Hispaniola), filling with them some large vessels built like caravels. They carry them under the deck; and being nearly all people captured inland, they suffer severely the sea horrors; and not being allowed to move out of those sinks, what with their sickness and their other wants, they have to stand in the filth like animals; and the sea often being calm, water and other provisions fail them, so that the poor wretches, oppressed by the heat, the stench, the thirst, and the crowding, miserably expire there below. Now all that country around the Gulf of Pária and other places are no longer inhabited by the Spaniards.”

. . . . . . . .

“Finally, out of the two millions of original inhabitants (of Hispaniola), through the number of suicides and other deaths, occasioned by the oppressive labour and cruelties imposed by the Spaniards, there are not a hundred and fifty now to be found: and this has been their way of making Christians of them. What befell these poor islanders has happened also to all the others around: Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and other places. And although an almost infinite number of the inhabitants of the mainland have been brought to these islands as slaves, they have nearly all since died.”

. . . . . . . .

“And there being among the Spaniards some who are not only cruel, but very cruel. When a man occasionally wished to punish a slave, either for some crime that he had committed, or for not having extracted the usual quantity of silver or gold from the mine, when he came home at night, instead of giving him supper, he made him undress, if he happened to have a shirt on, and being thrown down on the ground, he had his hands and feet tied to a piece of wood laid across, so permitted under the rule called by the Spaniards the Law of Bajona, a law suggested, I think, by some great demon; then with a thong or rope he was beaten until his body streamed with blood; which done, they took a pound of pitch or a pipkin of boiling oil, and threw it gradually all over the unfortunate victim; then he was washed with some of the country pepper mixed with salt and water. He was thus left on a plank covered over with a cloth until his master thought he was again able to work. Others dug a hole in the ground and put the man in upright, leaving only his head out, and left him in it all night, the Spaniards saying that they have recourse to this cure because the earth absorbs the blood and preserves the flesh from forming any wound, so they get well sooner. And if any die (which sometimes happens) through great pain, there is no heavier punishment by law than that the master shall pay another (slave) to the king. Thus, on account of these very great cruelties in the beginning, some of them escaped from their masters, and wandered about the island in a state of desperation.”

1

The scene, well-deserving to be painted, might be described in the following lines:—

“As rolls the river into ocean,In sable torrent wildly streaming;As the sea-tide’s opposing motion,In azure column proudly gleaming,Beats back the current many a roodIn curling foam and mingling flood;Through sparkling spray, in thundering clash,The lightnings of the waters flashIn awful whiteness o’er the shore,That shines and shakes beneath the roar.”The Giaour.

2

“Valiant sea-captains! Great sea-kings!And thou, Columbus! my hero! greatest sea-king of all!”Carlyle.

3

Viaggi de Amerigo Vespucci.

4

“Voyages of the Companions of Columbus;” by Washington Irving.

5

Duke of Veragua.

6

Helps.

7

Navarrete.

8

Psalm ii. 8.

9

Vide Robertson.

10

Note.—“Y esta fue la empresa de Fernando Magallanes, caballero portugues, cuya osodiía y constancia grande en inquirir este secreto, y no menos feliz suceso en hallarle, con eterna memoria puso nombre al estrecho que con razon por su inventor se llama de Magallanes.”

“Historia natural y moral de las Indias,” by José de Acosta, Lib. III., cap. 10. The dangers attending the passage of the Strait of Magellan caused the Isthmus of Panamá to be long preferred as a route to Chili and Peru. Its very existence came to be doubted. “Las frequentes desgracias que padecieron las expediciones al estrecho de Magallanes y los crecidos gastos que causaban, hicieron preferible á canimo tan largo y peligroso el tránsita y conduccion de las mercaderiás por el ismo desde Nombre de Dios ó Portobelo hasta Panamá, fortificondo el primer punto para asegurarlo de los ataquos de los corsarios; y aunque despues de la expedicion de Juan Ladrillero, que salió del puerto de Valdivia en Noviembre de 1557, continuaron los vireyes del Perú y gobernadores de Chile empresas semejantes para reconocer el estrecho y facilitar su navigacion, ni aun memoria de ellas se ha conservado por haberse perdido algunos de los descubridores, y retrocedido otros sin conseguir el objeto que se propusieron. De aqui resultó el total abandono de aquella navigacion por mas de veinte años, llegando á olvidarse los anteriores viages al estrecho, hasta dudar de su existencia, cuniendo la opinion de haberse cerrado por algun terremoto ú otro accidente del mar y de las tempestades.”—Navarrete, Tomo IV., Prólogo, p. xiii.

Acosto writes previously to 1589: “El estrecho, pues, que en la mar del sur halló Magallanes, creyeron algunos, ó que no lo habia, ó se habia ya cerrado, como D. Alonso de Arcila escribe en su Araucana; y hoy dia hay quien diga que no hay tal estrecho, sino que son islas entre la mar, porque lo que es tierra firma se acaba alli, y el resto es todo islas, y al cabo de ellas se junta el un mar con el otro amplísimamente, ó por mejor decirse es todo un mismo mar. Pero de cierto consta haber el estrecho y tierre larguísima á la una banda y á la otra, aunque la que está la otra parte del estrecho al sur no se sabe hasta dónde llegne.”

The authority of Ercilla, cited by Acosta, is the most respectable, says Navarette, and the most trustworthy, that could be given, since he accompanied Don Garcia de Mendoza in 1558 in his expedition along the coast of Chili as far as Chiloë, and then passed with ten soldiers, after surmounting great difficulties, in a small boat, to the opposite coast, there writing his name on a tree.

The following is the inscription commemorating this incident:—

“Acqui llegó donde otro no ha llegadoDon Alonso de Ercilla, que el primeroEn un pequeño barco deslastrado,Con solos diez, pasó el desaguaderoEl año de cincuenta y ocho entradoSobre mil y quinientos, par hebrero,A las dos de la tarde el postrer dia,Volviendo á la dejada compañía.”“Araucania,” canto xxxvi., oct. 29.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Magallánes, Señor, fue el primer hombreQue abriendo este canimo le dió nombre.“Por falta de pilotos, ó encubiertaCausa quizá importante, y no sabidaEsta secreta senda descubierta,Quedó para nosotros escondidaOra sea yerro de la altura cierta,Ora que alguna isleta removidaDel tempestuosa mar y viento airadoEncallando en la boca la ha cerrado.”“Araucania,” canto i., octs. 8 y 9.

The expedition of Magellan was on his death brought to a glorious termination by Juan Sebastian de Elcano, with reference to whom Oviedo writes as follows:—

“El cual, y los que con él vinieron me paresce á mí que son de mas eterna memoria dignos que aquellos argonáutas que con Jason navegaron á la isla de Colcos en demanda del vellocino de oro.”

“Hist. general de las Indias,” part 2, lib. 20, cap. 1.

11

History of the Conquest of Peru; by William H. Prescott. Bentley. 1850.

12

See Ovalle.

13

On July 8th, 1730, and May 24th, 1751. On this account New Conception was founded November 24th, 1764.

14

Fernandez, lib. II. c. 18.

15

The Abbé Ignatius Molina.

16

Vide p. 94.

17

Ovalle states that Caupolican, previously to his barbarous execution, desired with great concern to be baptised, and that he received the absolution.—Relation of the Kingdom of Chile, Book v., chap. xxiii.

18

The present Valdivia is merely a garrison.

19

Hawkins, in Hakluyt.

20

Hakluyt.

21

Hakluyt. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Drake, judiciously omits all mention of his hero’s share in this slave-hunt.

22

Hakluyt.

23

It had previously been passed by Brouwer in 1642. See page 39, vol. ii.

24

“Purchas,” from Curder’s narrative.

25

The initial letter of the Emperor Charles V.