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A Sixteenth-Century German Colonizing Venture in Venezuela
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
SPAIN AND THE SPANISH conquerors still are, too often, the scapegoats of too many would-be historians. The Spaniards, according to them, were the grasping, greedy, bloody and cruel destroyers of the wonderful Indian civilizations. They murdered or enslaved the mild, long-suffering Indians, practically decimating them in all the countries of Latin America. This, of course, will not stop the same authors from telling us a little later, in their well-informed books, that Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico, etc., suffer from indianismo and are predominantly peopled by Indians. The “Black Legend,” while tottering under the blows of writers like Bandelier, Lummis, Bolton, Simpson and others—who, knowing Spanish, were able to consult primary sources—still fascinates the textbook writers of the time. They seldom can find a good word for anything Spanish—agriculture, industry, commerce, culture, religion—while every flaw in the Spanish system is played up for the scandal of the weak and the joy of the wicked.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1953
References
1 Pereyra, Carlos (Historia de la América Latina [8 vols., Madrid, 1925], VI, 36)Google Scholar says Juana la Loca.
2 Wilgus, A. Curtis (The Development of Hispanic America [New York, 1942], p. 105)Google Scholar estimates this at about twelve tons of gold.
3 Gil Fortoul, José (Historia Constitucional de Venezuela [4 vols., Caracas, 1942], I, 24)Google Scholar says 780 men. This may be a misprint.
4 González, Eloy G., Historia de Venezuela (2 vols., Caracas, 1943), I, 69.Google Scholar
5 Quoted in González, op. cit., I, 70.
6 Quoted in Gil Fortoul, op. cit., I, 24.
7 Fray Pedro de Aguado, Cronica de la Conquista de Venezuela, ch. XI, quoted in Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 38-39.
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11 Castellanos, quoted by Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 39. The translation would read: “Some people pretend that this stroke was not dealt by an Indian hand; but whatever the cause, no surgeon was able to cure him.”
12 Fray Pedro de Aguado, quoted by Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 39.
13 José de Oviedo y Baños, quoted by Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 41.
14 The transfer was made between November 20, 1530 and February 17, 1531.
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18 Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 45.
19 Castellanos, quoted by Pereyra, op. cit., VI, 45. The translation reads: “With or without food everybody was satisfied in Federmann’s company. I believe he had so well gained their good will that they would have followed him to hell. He was a born leader, and in plenty or in extreme need, there was never disunion in his camp, nor was there ever a lack of mercy in his breast.”
20 Bayle, op. cit., p. 115.
21 “Jiménez de Quesada,” in Grandes de España (Madrid, 1945), p. 126.
22 Chapman, Charles Edward, in Hispanic America (New York, 1938), p. 57 Google Scholar, explains the peace settlement as follows: “They did not break into triple combat, however, partly because the enterprise of each was to some extent tinged with illegality, for Benalcázar was at outs with Pizarro, Federmann with his employers the Welsers, and Quesada with Fernández de Lugo, from whom he now wished to make himself independent.”
23 The number of soldiers according to the book on Jiménez de Quesada, p. 125, was: Belalcazar, 162 men; Federmann, 163 and two priests; Quesada, 166 men and two priests.
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27 “Did Utre really discover El Dorado? There is no doubt that he believed to have done so, as did also believe his daring companions. As they had given absolute credence to what their guides had told them about the enormous quantities of gold which were stored in the temple of the Omaguas, they at once concluded that the cacique of this tribe could not be anything but the ‘King of El Dorado’.… As for the city of the Omaguas which, as they tell us, was so large that it extended beyond the power of human vision, it was nothing but a creation of the imagination, as exaggerated as the victory of 39 Europeans over 15,000 Indians.” ( Manso, J. A., Boletín de la Unión Panamericana, [March, 1912], pp. 259-260.Google Scholar)
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