Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 2

Quito is one of the most lovely regions which the world possesses. Being in the centre of the Torrid Zone, it enjoys a perpetual spring. Nature has here gathered together all the influences which can modify the heat of the tropics, the neighbouring mountains being covered in their vast extent by snow; whilst constant breezes refresh the plains throughout the year. But, as might be expected, so elevated a region, and one having an atmosphere so charged with electricity, is often the scene of the most violent tropical thunder-storms, the terrors of which are not unfrequently added to by earthquakes. The excessive humidity at one time is often fatal to the cultivation of grain; whilst, on the other hand, contrasting seasons of heat produce dangerous maladies. Nevertheless, on the whole, the climate is a very healthy one. The air is perfectly pure, and is free from the presence of the disagreeable insects so prevalent in other parts of the continent.

The humidity of the atmosphere, and the action of the sun, succeeding each other in constant alternation, and being always sufficient for the development of plants, an almost perpetual succession of vegetation ensues; for no sooner is one plant gone than another begins to arise in its place. The trees are covered perpetually with green leaves, and adorned with sweet-smelling flowers, or laden with tropical fruits in every stage of development. This province was said to be the most populous in America. It possessed a number of towns with populations varying from ten to thirty thousand. The people of Quito had, fortunately for themselves, escaped the lot of labouring in the mines; since those which this district possessed were too poor to pay the expenses of working them. They must have been poor indeed, since the Spaniards consented to relinquish a mode of acquiring riches which cost them nothing but the blood of their slaves. Freed from this source of labour, the inhabitants of Quito were more usefully employed in manufactures, the produce of which was exchanged for wine and oil, and other commodities which were foreign to this elevated region. Notwithstanding, however, its natural advantages, Quito, in the latter part of last century, had sunk into an extreme degree of poverty.

This province possessed, in quinine, one production which has been ever since its discovery of the highest value to the human race, and which formed, in the colonial period, the sole article of export. The only precious portion of the quinquina tree is its bark, which requires no other preparation for its use than being dried. At one time the quinquina was supposed to be peculiar to the territory of Loxa, the finest quality being produced on the mountain of Caganuma. Later researches, however, prove that the same tree exists at Riobamba, at Cuenca, and at Bogotá. Europe is indebted for the introduction of this most precious article to the Jesuits, who made its invaluable qualities known at Rome in the year 1639. In the following year its use was established in Spain by Juan de Vega, physician to the Vice-Queen of Peru, its price being a hundred crowns a pound. The price which the invaluable article commanded and deserved, led, as a matter of course, to adulteration; and even the distant inhabitants of Loxa, being unable to supply the demand for genuine quinquina, filled up the void by a mixture of the bark of other trees. This proceeding, however, rebounded on themselves, since it deprived their special product of its unique reputation; whilst, at the same time, it led to a more diligent search for the same plant elsewhere. The natives of the region which furnished quinquina were in the habit of using a simple infusion of the bark in cases of fever, before they were taught by M. Joseph de Jussieu to produce the extract.

1728.

1731.

In the year 1728 a body of merchants of Guipuscoa received an exclusive right to the commerce with Caracas and Cumaná, on condition of their clearing these coasts of interlopers—that is to say, of the Dutch, who, from their island of Curaçao, monopolized the lucrative trade in the nuts of the cacao-tree, thus compelling the Spaniards to receive from abroad the produce of one of their own colonies. The new company, which was under the necessity of landing its cargoes at Cadiz, conducted its operations with such success that the above-mentioned reproach was soon removed; whilst the inhabitants of Caracas received such an impetus to their industrial life that, ere the company had been three years in existence, it was deemed expedient to detach from the Viceroyalty of New Granada the provinces of Venezuela, Maracaibo, Varinas, Cumaná, and Spanish Guyana, and to form them into a separate Captain-Generalship, the residence of the ruler being fixed at Caracas in Venezuela.

1771.

In the year 1771 there were scattered on the banks of the Orinoco thirteen villages, which numbered amongst them four thousand two hundred Spaniards, half-castes or negroes, who possessed considerable property inland, besides twelve or thirteen thousand cattle, mules or horses. At the same period the Indians who had been detached from savage life were distributed in forty-nine hamlets. In all there were sixty-two centres of population, containing sixteen thousand six hundred people, three thousand one hundred and forty properties, and seventy-two thousand head of cattle.

Up to this period the Dutch from Curaçao monopolized the trade with this establishment. In return for the goods which they supplied, they received payment in tobacco, hides, and herds; all the affairs being concluded at St. Thomas. The Europeans and the negroes carried out their transactions themselves, but those affecting the Indians were conducted by the missionaries.

The province of Venezuela does not bear a high name for government, even amongst the States of South America; but, in estimating Spanish civilization in this quarter, it is only right to consider the state of things which it displaced. The tyranny, we are told, which was exercised by the savages along the banks of the Orinoco towards their women was such that infanticide of their female children became a common practice on the part of the latter; in order that their offspring might be spared a repetition of their own dreadful lot, which is thus described to a missionary by one of themselves:—

“Would that my mother had suffocated me at my birth! I should then be dead, but I should not have felt death, and I should have escaped the most miserable of lots. How much have I undergone, and who knows what sufferings are reserved for me! Figure to yourself, Father, the miseries which an Indian woman has to undergo amongst Indians. They accompany us to the fields with their bows and arrows: we go there bearing one infant which we carry in a basket and another at the breast. They go to hunt or to fish, whilst we dig the earth; and, after having undergone all the fatigue of culture, we have to undertake that of the harvest. They return in the evening unburdened: we bring, back roots for their food and maize for their drink. Once at home, they make themselves happy with their friends; whilst we go to gather wood and to bring water to cook their supper. When they have eaten, they go to sleep: we pass the greater part of the night grinding the maize and making their chica. And what is our reward for our vigils? They drink, and whilst they are in their cups they drag us by the hair and kick us about.

“You know, Father, if our complaints are well founded. What I tell you, you yourself see every day; but our greatest misfortune of all is one unknown to you. It’s a sad lot for a poor Indian woman to serve her husband like a slave, sweating with labour in the fields and deprived of repose at home. But it is still worse to see him, at the end of twenty years, take another wife, young, and without sense. He becomes attached to her, and she beats our children, orders us about, and treats us like servants; and if we make the slightest murmur of complaint we are beaten with the branch of a tree.... What has an Indian woman better to do than to withdraw her child from a servitude a thousand times worse than death! I repeat, Father, would to God my mother had loved me enough to bury me at my birth!”

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

In the year 1670 a party of buccaneers under Morgan reduced the castle of San Lorenzo at Chagres, and captured and burned the town of Panamá; for which reason the site of that settlement was transferred to the position it at present holds, being six miles distant from old Panamá. In the year 1680 the same Filibusters, under other leaders, having crossed the isthmus, took the city of Santa Maria; which proceeding led, five years later, to the closing of the mines of Cana. In the year 1698 one William Paterson undertook to establish a Scotch colony at Puerto Escaces on Caledonia Bay. Early last century several towns were established on the Atlantic Coast by Catholic missionaries, and likewise on the rivers flowing into the Gulf of San Miguel; but unfortunately all these were destroyed by the Indians, with whom, in 1790, a treaty of peace was concluded, in virtue of the terms of which the Spaniards abandoned all their forts in Darien.

Note.—Chapter IX. is chiefly founded on “Historia del descubrimiento y colonizacion de la Nueva Granada” (Paris, 1849), by J. Acosta; and “Memorias para la historia de la Nueva Granada” (Bogotá, 1850), by Antonio de Plaza.

CHAPTER X.

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY

1604-1792

1604.

Don Garcia Raymon was once more appointed to the government of Chili, and received one thousand soldiers from Europe and a fourth of that number from Mexico. He thus found himself at the head of three thousand regular troops, besides auxiliaries. With such a force at his disposal, it was natural that he should once more invade Arauco, in which territory he erected a fort; the existence of which, however, was of short duration, it being abandoned to the Araucanians. Raymond divided his force into two parts, both of which were successively attacked and defeated by the new Toqui, Huenecura, so complete being the rout that every single person was killed or taken. Such was the dread entertained of the Araucanians that, in 1608, orders were issued from Spain that a force of two thousand regular troops should constantly be maintained on the frontier. For this purpose a sum of about three hundred thousand dollars was to be paid annually from the treasury of Peru.

1610.

In the following year the Court of Royal Audience was re-established at St. Iago. The Captain-General, Raymon, who once more took the field, ended his days at Conception, greatly regretted, not only by those whom he had commanded and governed, but likewise by the Araucanians, whom, when prisoners, he invariably treated with humanity. In consequence of the representations of a Jesuit missionary, named Louis Valdivia, respecting the injurious influence exercised by the long-continued struggle on the progress of conversion, the pious Philip III. sent orders to the government of Chili to discontinue the war and to establish peace, taking the Bio-bio as a frontier. Louis Valdivia returned to Chili in 1612, the bearer of a letter from the King to the Araucanian congress, with which he hastened to the frontier. In the presence of fifty chiefs he made known the object of his errand. He was thanked for his exertions, and received the promise of a favourable report to the Toqui.

So zealous was King Philip in the object of converting the Araucanians that, with the view the better to carry it out, he proposed not only to raise the missionary Valdivia to the episcopal dignity, but further to appoint him governor of Chili. But Valdivia’s was not a worldly ambition. He declined the King’s offers; whilst he obtained the nomination of a governor who was likely to carry out his views. This was no other than Rivera, who had been removed from St. Iago to Tucuman. Rivera now besought the Toqui to meet him at Paicavi in order to confer respecting peace. The Toqui brought with him to the appointed place a number of his Spanish prisoners, whom he released without ransom: his conditions were accepted by the governor, and all promised a speedy result; when the negotiations were interrupted by an unlooked-for accident.

Ancanamon was compelled, before concluding peace, to consult four of his chiefs. He was on his way to seek them, when he learned that his Spanish wife had taken the opportunity of his departure to make her escape and to take refuge with the governor with her two children. She brought with her two others, his wives, and likewise his two daughters, three out of the four having become Christians. This incident naturally changed the purpose of the Toqui, who at once returned to the Spanish quarters to seek the restoration of his family. This was, however, refused to him, on the ground of concern for their religious welfare, although, by the refusal, the object of the King of Spain in the negotiation with the Araucanians was imperilled. All that Ancanamon could obtain was the restoration of one of his daughters, who had not yet been baptized.

A new actor now appeared upon the scene in the person of the arch-Ulmen, Utiflami, who, out of gratitude to Valdivia for the release of one of his sons, undertook to manage the negotiation. He proceeded, with this object, to the quarters of the Toqui, taking with him three missionaries. On their appearance, however, Ancanamon was so exasperated that, without listening to their arguments, he ordered them to be put to death, together with Antiflami. Thus, out of care for the souls of the refugees, the negotiations for peace and proselytizing were brought to an end, and the war recommenced, with greater fury than ever. Ancanamon, desirous of avenging the affront he had received, never ceased to harass the Spanish provinces; and Rivera, up till his death in 1617, had no other opportunity of carrying out the special object with which he had been reappointed governor of Chili.

1618.

Rivera’s successor, Lope de Ulloa, had to encounter a daring adversary in the Toqui Lientur, who was invariably successful in his encounters with the Spaniards, till, worn out by age and fatigues, he resigned his command, in 1625, to Putapichion, who pursued a like daring course. The war continued, with occasional successes on either side, for many years longer. A new governor was appointed to Chili in the person of Don Francisco Laso, who, having failed to obtain peace, carried on hostilities continuously, until at length, in 1632, Putapichion was slain in battle.

Laso had greatly at heart the fulfilment of the promise which he had made to his King of putting an end to the war. From his talents and experience no one was more capable of doing so; but he had to do with an invincible people. Their love of their country has probably never been exceeded, and was so strong that life had no charm for them beyond the limits of Araucania. All prisoners were after a time deported by Laso to Peru. When they came in sight of land they threw themselves overboard, in the hope of swimming ashore, and many succeeded in this manner in effecting their escape. Even from Callao many escaped, following, with incredible fatigue, the immense line of coast which separated them from their native country.

1641.

The court of Spain, owing to the long duration of the war and the great losses on their side, declined to retain Laso any longer in command, and appointed as his successor Don Francisco Zuniga, to whom was reserved the honour of concluding peace. Zuniga arrived in Chili in 1630, and sought a personal conference with Lincopichion, the Toqui of the Araucanians. On the 6th of January of the following year a solemn treaty was concluded, putting a period to a war which had lasted for ninety years. The Marquis de Baydes was attended by ten thousand persons to the village of Quillin in Puren, the place fixed for the ratification; whilst Lincopichion came at the head of four hereditary Toquis and a large number of Ulmenes. The ratification was celebrated by a three days’ festival on either side, all prisoners being released.

1643.

Amongst the clauses of the treaty was one by which the Araucanians engaged not to permit the landing of any strangers upon their coast, nor to furnish such with supplies, and the prudence of this clause was not long in being made apparent. Three years previously the Dutch had made a second fruitless attempt to form an alliance with the Araucanians. Their squadron, consisting of four ships, was dispersed by a storm; and two boats’ crews were put to death. In 1643 the Dutch made a last attempt to possess themselves of Chili. Having set out from Brazil with a numerous fleet, they took possession of the deserted harbour of Valdivia, and began to fortify the entrance to the river. The Araucanians were invited to an alliance; but they honourably adhered to the terms of their treaty with the Spaniards, thus forcing the Dutch to retire in consequence of hunger. On their retreat a fleet under the command of the Marquis de Mancura, son of the Viceroy of Peru, arrived with ten ships of war, and fortified the harbour and the island which bears his family name.

1665.

From some cause which is not recorded hostilities once more broke out, after an interval of fifteen years, between the Chilians and their neighbours. They were continued with great violence for ten years, but were terminated, in 1665, by a more permanent peace; and from this time the records of this portion of South America are of a less stirring nature. In consequence of the war of the Spanish succession the French obtained, for a time, all the external commerce of Chili, its ports having been crowded with their vessels between the years 1707 and 1717. At this period many of this nation settled in the country, which possesses, in consequence, a portion of French blood.

1722.

A peace of upwards of fifty years’ duration had naturally given room for the development of a country possessed of such abundant natural advantages as is Chili. Its interruption was owing to the missionaries who were sent amongst the Araucanians, and to the officers who were appointed to protect them, whose presence and pretensions the Araucanians resented; and, in 1722, it was determined to have recourse to arms. The Toqui, Vilumilla, even at this late date adopted so vast a project as that of the expulsion of the Spaniards from Chili. Having killed three or four of the missionaries’ protectors, he despatched messengers to the Chilians in the Spanish provinces, inviting them to rise on the appearance of signal-fires. The native Chilians, however, declined to respond to the Toqui’s invitation. The Toqui, nothing daunted, set out at the head of his troops to attack the Spanish settlements; but he was careful to give information to the missionaries, in order that, by retiring from the country, they might avoid ill-treatment. It is unnecessary to give the details of this short war, which was terminated by the peace of Negrete, where the treaty of Quillin was once more confirmed, and the title of Captain of Friends or protector of missionaries abolished.

1742.

Chili was ruled over for fifteen years with wisdom and humanity by Don Gabriel Cano; and his successor received instructions to gather the Spanish inhabitants into more compact societies. For this purpose he founded, in 1742, the cities of Copiapo, Aconcagua, Melipilla, Rancagua, St. Fernando, Curico, Talca, Tutuben, and Angeles, and was rewarded by the dignity of Viceroy of Peru. From 1753 date Santa Rosa, Guasco-alto, Casablanca, Bella-Isla, Florida, Coulemu, and Quirigua; whilst at the same time a settlement was formed on the island of Juan Fernandez, which till then had been the retreat of pirates.

1773.

Don Antonio Gonzaga, whilst governor of Chili, undertook to bring the Araucanians to live in cities, with the only result, however, of forcing that brave people to take up arms once more in defence of their liberties. An accommodation was at length arrived at, by which things reverted to their previous state, the Araucanians, in acknowledgment of their autonomy, being conceded the right of keeping a minister-resident in St. Iago. Thus has this brave people, although inconsiderable in point of numbers, succeeded in maintaining its independence, after having cost Spain a greater sacrifice of blood and treasure than sufficed for all her conquests in the New World.

1792.

The Spaniards in Chili now confined their views to consolidating their settlements in the region lying between the southern frontiers of Peru and the Bio-bio, a sufficiently extensive area, since it occupied the space between degrees 24 and 36½ of southern latitude. This territory was divided into thirteen provinces. The Captaincy-General of Chili likewise included the fortress of Valdivia, the archipelago of Chiloë, and the island of Juan Fernandez. The Captain-General12 was responsible to the King alone, unless in case of war, when he had to act in subordination to the Viceroy of Peru. The provinces were respectively governed by prefects, who possessed jurisdiction over both civil and military affairs. In each provincial capital there existed a municipal magistracy called the Cabildo. The inhabitants were divided into regiments, which were obliged to march to the frontier or to the sea-coast in case of war. In the year 1792 there were in the royal service fifteen thousand eight hundred and fifty militia troops; and besides this regular force there were likewise city bands of militia; and in addition to both there was a sufficient force of imperial troops to provide for the defence of the country.

Chili was divided into the two dioceses of St. Iago and Conception, the bishops resident in these cities, respectively, being suffragans to the Archbishop of Lima. The Court of Inquisition of Lima had a commissioner at St. Iago. The first ecclesiastics in Chili were the monks of the Order of Mercy, who were soon followed by Dominicans and Franciscans, and later by Augustins and Hospitalers of St. John of God. The Jesuits who were introduced in 1593, with the nephew of their founder, were expelled in 1767. St. Iago and Conception were the only cities which, in the colonial period, contained convents of nuns. The churches were more remarkable for the wealth which they displayed than for their architecture.

The population of Chili presented the usual mixture of Europeans, Creoles, Natives, Negroes, and Mustees, or half-castes. The Creoles, or colonial Spaniards, displayed a laudable desire for education, to complete which they, in many instances, proceeded to Lima. The peasantry, though for the greater part of Spanish origin, wore the Araucanian costume. Their lot was a happy one. Possessed of perfect liberty, and dwelling in a delightful climate, they lived on the produce of a fertile soil, and were robust, healthy, and lively. The language of the country was Spanish, excepting on the frontiers, when Araucanian or Chilian was likewise spoken. Lima was the Paris of South America, and prescribed the fashions for Chili. It may be added that Chili alone, of all the American provinces, could boast of two of its citizens being exalted to the dignity of Grandee of Spain.

The Chilians had the reputation of being exceedingly hospitable to strangers, and of having been such good masters to their negro slaves that the greatest punishment which could be inflicted on these latter was to lose their protection; and it is stated that in many instances they refused to avail themselves of the liberty afforded to them. The masters exercised over them an authority similar to that of the Roman pater-familias over his familia. In correcting their faults the degree of punishment was left to the master, unless in cases of capital crime. The word slavery, so repugnant to our ears, may imply widely different conditions of existence. Domestic slavery amongst the Turks, for instance, may mean that the slaves are treated merely as children—that is to say, that although a certain restriction is placed upon their movements, they receive every kindness and care, whilst as Moslem they may appeal to the laws of the Koran, &c. Very different, however, was the lot of the field labourer in the transatlantic colonies or of the mines in Peru. By all accounts the lot of the Chilian slave was of the former character, and affords a pleasing contrast to that of the natives of Mexico in the hands of the conquerors.