History of South America from its discovery to the present time:

Preface

It is a certain fact, unfortunately, that since Robertson, a respectable historian of the last century, no one has seriously undertaken to write the History of America, and especially of South America, of which the states, formerly Spanish colonies, with the exception of Brazil, are now republics almost unknown to Europeans. It must be confessed that their apathetic sons have not sufficiently exerted themselves to dissipate or rectify the erroneous and disdainful opinion that the Europeans have formed of our America, nor— and this is most important—to make known to each other nations and states closely related by origin, and natural allies by their interests, to all of whom, undoubtedly, days of prosperity and glory, of liberty and real aggrandisement, are reserved in the future, if they know how to profit by the lessons of history.

To meet this need we have decided to write the history of our Fatherland, South America, that country which Columbus thought was Paradise, and which is the jewel of the universe, without being terrified by the grave difficulties that it was necessary to confront in order to bring it to a successful issue ; difficulties, we confess, that we should not have attempted to overcome without the generous solicitude and lively desire by which we were animated to render by it a real service to our beloved country.

Let not our undertaking, then, be qualified as rash,

VI

PREFACE.

for if it is certain that the mere fact of attempting it is so, it is no less certain that some other term should be used since it is dictated by the truest patriotism.

Our History of South America, from its discovery by Columbus to our own times, although it is only a summary, is not so incomplete that it fails to include carefully all the facts of the history of our country, setting in relief the vicissitudes that it has passed through, in order that they may contribute to the advantage of future generations, in such a way that the children may learn from the sufferings undergone by their fathers.

We will not conclude without placing on record that our History of South America, if it is wanting in other qualities, is at least written with the most rigid impartiality and pervaded throughout by a judiciously democratic and ardently American spirit, being intended for all classes of society ; and that our wishes will be fulfilled if all our fellow-citizens study it with the generous solicitude with which we have written it, and with that of rendering themselves worthy of contributing some day to the prosperity of their country. — R C.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

Preface v

Part First. Chapter

I. The Discovery of America 1

II. The Conquest of South America 20

III. The Conquest of South America (continued) ... 46

IV. The Colonisation of South America 64

V. Emancipation of the Colonies of South America — Constitution of its Various Nationalities .... 91

Part Second

I. The United States of Colombia 117

II. The United States of Venezuela 140

III. The Republic of Ecuador 155

IV. Brazil 171

V. The Argentine Confederation 194

VI. The Oriental Republic of Uruguay 218

VII. The Republic of Paraguay 231

VIII. Bolivia 249

IX. Peru . 264

X. Chili 293

XI. Patagonia 315

XII. Tierra del Fuego 322

Conclusion 326

From the Conquest to the Present Time.

rbpayan kiiajon oJfrcca

Cur/rcn '

lahyba/

lyfr/irn

Lobos Is F>^

Trii)iHol|

'Undcc

, Pasco

C/llllU^ ftalua

S Snfvadrr

,U2CO lenxc

Ptuui

‘(inn bus

Mbquegu

^('cchahumbn

Oruro iiusaca

Cobi|a

MaiUones Hr ffcrrnftura (,

Paulo o

Hcnrad/tra. B (

UUamaren (

0 Rioja, \

Coquunltc a

Cordoba hi Pilot O f BUENOS°AIRES

JM Orion add

T£VID£0

(hrru

Jhlruhnnm •

Aranccjk ‘ CoUiCO P °

Valdivia

Chiton h\

Chapter I. The Discovery Of America

It is a certain and indisputable fact, admitted by historians, that’ in the tenth and eleventh centuries the ancient Scandinavians discovered, visited and even settled on the eastern coasts of North America. In the spring of the year 986 Eric the Red, who was banished from Iceland, directed his course to Greenland, and fixed his residence in Brattalid on the Ericsfiord.

The Scandinavians settled successively in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, as well as in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, keeping up communications with these countries until the middle of the fourteenth century, when they fell off and ceased because Greenland had become a desert through the Black Death, the ice preventing renewed communications with it until 1721, when a new colony settled there. Whether this or something else were the cause of the interruption of communications between the two counti’ies, certainly, in the fifteenth century, the traces, even if not the memory, of America had been completely lost.

It is also asserted that America was discovered before Columbus by the men of Dieppe, famous navigators of the fifteenth century, and it has been desired to prove that they visited it in 1488, reaching the mouth of the river Amazon ; and, according to the celebrated Lelewel, by the Pole, John Szcolny, who, being in 1476 in the service of the King of Denmark, discovered the coasts of Labrador. These unfounded claims only serve to prove once more how unjustly the very men who had formerly treated Columbus as a visionary wished to take the glory of his discoveries from him.

HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA.

Christopher Columbus, that grand figure which rises like a giant on the boundary of the middle and the modern ages, appeared precisely when the passion for enterprises to distant countries had reached its apogee, when the ambition of making discoveries incited to the perfecting of maritime science and formed new navigators, when, in fine, the discovery of a sea route to India was a general preoccupation in Genoa and Venice, in Spain and Portugal, in France and England.

Columbus, a humble and unknown Genoese sailor, was distinguished for his bravery and seamanship, as well as for his extensive knowledge in geometry, astronomy and cosmography, and, like many others, was seeking a new road to reach Asia. The writings of Eratosthenes, Strabo and Ptolemy, of Seneca, Aristotle and Alfergan, the relations of Marco Polo, especially, and of Sir John Maundeville, some passages of Scripture and perhaps the information or traditions that he might casually collect in a voyage to Iceland of the discoveries made four centuries previously by its inhabitants, led him to believe that, the earth being spherical, by sailing westwards he would arrive at the east of Asia. He did not suspect that America would obstruct his passage.

Columbus’ mind being stirred by such ideas, which from hypothesis passed to the firmest conviction, full of enthusiasm for science and with the highest degree of faith in his daring enterprise, he bent his steps towards Portugal to lay his ideas before John II., who had him examined by a commission of learned men and nobles, who declared him to be a presumptuous and visionary madman. Columbus returned to his country, which, like Venice and England, gave no better reception to his projects. Then it was that he turned to Spain, and on foot, with his son Diego, he arrived and begged food and shelter at the monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida (1484). New and painful trials awaited him in this country which he was to aggrandise to such an extent that the sun never set on her dominions. Overwhelmed with misery and repulsed by almost every one, he had to contend against incredulity and to put up with mockery, without their diminishing his immovable faith and his convictions. It was not without trouble that he succeeded in getting Cardinal Mendoza to present him to the king, who appointed a commission of

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

professors of science and theology to examine his proposition. The assertions of Columbus caused distrust in the theologians, by the mere fact of pointing out the existence of other worlds and other men not mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and this was sufficient to characterise his enterprise as vain and chimerical. For the space of eight years he contended against the scruples of the religious spirit which interposed themselves between the Crown and him, and had to bear the sarcasms of those great nobles of the Castilian court who were as ignorant as they were abject. It is right to confess that the sole support that his project met with was given by the monks of La Rabida, with their prior Fray Juan Perez, who furnished him with recommendations to Queen Isabella, as he had previously done to the king.

In Santa Fe, the queen heard Columbus explain his project and beg her to accept the gift of a new world. He was again dismissed with the contempt that always follows misfortunes in courts. With the bitterness that a great mind feels when it is not understood, Columbus turned his back on ungrateful Spain and prepared to start for France at the call of Charles VIII. just when Queen Isabella, giving way to the entreaties of Santangel and of Fray Juan Perez, who were able to awaken generous sentiments in her mind, decided to recall him, offering her private jewels to complete the sum of 300,000 crowns, which, with two ships, were considered sufficient for so bold an enterprise, and to which Columbus was to contribute an eighth part.

Columbus and his heirs were to exercise in perpetuity the office of admiral in all the lands and continents that he should discover or conquer in the ocean, he was to be viceroy and governor of the above-mentioned lands, sole judge in all questions that might arise in commercial matters between the countries discovered and Spain, and to have a tenth part of the profits after deduction of expenses. Such were the treaties, or conditions, stipulated between the Queen of Castile and the famous Genoese seaman.

Isabella the Catholic placed at the disposal of Columbus two caravels, vessels of light construction, open and undecked, and the three brothers Pinzon furnished him with the means of fitting out a third vessel. The Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina, after overcoming the opposition of the mariners of Palos, who considered those who risked themselves on this expedition

HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA.

as inevitably lost, left the above port on Friday, the third day of August, 1492, amidst the compassion or mockery of all who were present.

It is indubitable, as Reynaud justly observes, that if the Inquisition, then nascent, had arrived at the influence and immense power of which it shortly after gave us too many examples, Columbus, as heretical in geography as Galileo was in astronomy, would not have set out in search of a new world, but rather would have been condemned for having demonstrated the antipodes, as the latter was for having demonstrated the rotation of the earth ; for the Church never had other opinions about the shape of the earth than those of Moses and the prophets, and those of St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Jerome and the other fathers, sworn enemies of the sphericity of the earth, which they considered to be a plain surrounded by the ocean.

Three days after setting sail Columbus arrived at the Canaries, being obliged to remain a month in these islands to repair the many damages that the ships had sustained, for they were in such a condition that it was considered difficult, if not impossible, tor them to support a voyage that, doubtless, would be as long as it was dangerous. On the 6th of September, after taking on board fresh provisions, Columbus really began the voyage to discover the New World, sailing to the west, leaving all the courses hitherto followed by navigators and entering an unknown sea.

The incidents of this voyage, which are known to every one, the numerous dangers that were run, among which not the least were the ignorance and pusillanimity of the crews, give an extraordinary grandeur to the figure of Columbus. The poor men thought themselves lost in a boundless sea and the unknown froze them with terror; first they begged and then demanded that he should return. Columbus, who united the talent of governing and directing the passions of others to an insinuating spirit, an indefatigable perseverance and great self-command, sometimes consoled them, by reanimating their courage, now describing to them in the most brilliant colours the lands they were going to discover, now the fame and riches they were going to acquire ; at other times he took the tone of authority and threatened them with the anger of their sovereigns if, by their

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

cowardly conduct, they should frustrate so noble an undertaking, the object of which was to extend the glory of God and exalt the Spanish name above that of all the nations of the earth. Nevertheless, the thousand incidents that at every step gave promise of meeting with land turned out deceptive, and the dismay and despair of the navigators increased every moment. The wished-for Cipango of Marco Polo only appeared on the map that was constantly being added to by Columbus ; they had run much more than the 750 leagues that he had reckoned were necessary to reach it, without making out any shore. At last at ten o’clock on the night of 11th October, Columbus, who was on the forecastle, observed at a certain distance, and pointed out to his companions, a light which was moving as if it were carried from one part to another. A lowly pharos which announced the presence of a new world !

At two o’clock on the morning of the 12th, Rodrigo de Triana, a seaman of the Pinta, which always sailed ahead of the little fleet, gave the anxiously desired shout of “ Land ! land ! ” without much belief being placed in it, because they had often been deceived by false appearances. They waited for day with the agitation that anxiety and impatience produce, and at daybreak they clearly distinguished, two leagues to the north, an island resplendent with verdure. They all sang the “ Te Deum,” and with tears of joy and every sign of sincere repentance prostrated themselves before Columbus, begging him to pardon their ignorance, their incredulity and their insolence.

At sunrise they lowered the boats, and Columbus, in full dress, holding the royal standard in one hand and his sword in the other, landed first, knelt down and kissed the earth, of which he took possession in the name of the Crown of Castile and Leon. The natives, full of fear and dread, looked on in silence at all these to them unintelligible ceremonies without foreseeing, unhappy wretches ! the calamities and desolation which had commenced at that moment for their country. “ I,” says Columbus in his diary, “ because they had great friendship for us, because I knew that they were people who would give themselves up and be converted to our holy faith by mildness rather than by force, gave some of them some red caps and glass beads, which were put on their necks, and other

HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA.

things, many of small value, with which they were very pleased, and became so friendly that it was a marvel. They afterwards came swimming to the ships’ boats where we were, and brought us parrots and balls of cotton thread and assegais and many other things, and exchanged them for other things that we gave them, such as little glass beads and small bells. In short they took all and gave of what they had with good will. But it appeared to me that they were very poor. The men all go as naked as they were born, and also the women, although I saw more than one rather young, and all the men I saw were young, for I saw none more than thirty years old ; handsome bodies and very well built with very good faces, their hair almost as coarse as that of a horse’s tail, and short ; the hair fell over their eyebrows, except some behind that they wore long and which they never cut. Some of them paint themselves black, though they are of the colour of the natives of the Canary Islands, neither black nor white, and some paint themselves white and some red and some with what they find, and some paint their faces and others the whole of the body, some the eyes alone and some only the nose. They do not carry arms nor are they acquainted with them, for I showed them some swords and they took hold of them by the blade and cut themselves through their ignorance. They have no iron, their spears are shafts without iron, some of them have a fish’s tooth for a head and others other things.

“ . . . They came to the ship [diary of 13th October] with canoes which are made of the trunk of a tree, like a long boat, and all of a piece, and carved in a wonderful manner according to the district, some of them so large that forty or forty-five men came in them, and others much smaller, there were even some in which only one man came. They rowed with a paddle like a baker’s peel and went wonderfully well, and if the canoe capsizes, immediately they all begin to swim, and right it and bale it out with gourds that they carry with them. And I, who was observant and trying to find out if there was any gold, saw that some of them wore a little piece of it hanging from a hole in the nose, and by signs I was able to understand that by going to the south, or going round the island by the south, there was a king there who had large cups of it and had very much.”

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

Columbus gave the name of San Salvador to this island, although it is better known by that of Guanahani which the natives gave it. It was one of the Bahamas, surrounded by the innumerable islands of the Bahama banks, that Columbus thought were the 7488 mentioned by Marco Polo. Following the indications of the islanders he determined to direct his course towards the south, not doubting to meet with the country of gold and spices, the India of his constant thoughts. He discovered various islands and landed on three of them, to which he gave the names of Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Fernando and Isabel ; in them the islanders indicated that they got the gold equally from the south. Going on again in this direction he soon discovered a country so extensive that he doubted whether it were continent or island ; the inhabitants of San Salvador who were aboard his vessels told him it was called Cuba, and Columbus gave it the name of Juana. Its magnificent vegetation, its flowers, its fruits and its birds of brilliant colours struck his imagination so vividly that it carried him so far as to assure the Catholic kings that that country was the most beautiful that human eyes had ever seen, in which he should wish to live for ever and in which it could not be conceived there was either pain or death. The Spaniards, having explored the interior of the country, observed that the land was cultivated in many parts, and much better than in the islands hitherto discovered. They met with many huts scattered about and, besides, a town in which dwelt more than a thousand inhabitants who, although they went naked like those of San Salvador, and received them with the same respect and fear, appeared to have much more intelligence. They made Columbus understand that the gold that served them for ornaments was found in Cubanacan, or the interior of Cuba, which caused him, ignorant of their language, unaccustomed to their pronunciation, and, above all, blinded by the idea that he had formed of the position of the Indies, to suppose that they were speaking of the great Khan, and that therefore he could not be very far from the kingdom of Cathay described by Marco Polo.

Nor was gold found in the island of Cuba in sufficient quantity to satisfy the greed of the Spaniards, the Cubans pointing out to them another island situated to the eastward, and which they

HISTOEY OF SOUTH AMEEICA.

designated by the name of Haiti, as the part in which a metal so precious abounded. Columbus was preparing to set sail for this point when Alonso Pinzon, the captain of the Pinta, which was the best sailer in the squadron, left it, with the intention of taking possession of so rich a country before anybody else. Columbus sailing towards the south-east arrived on 6th December at Haiti, one of the most beautiful islands in the world, destined to feel terribly the rigour of a cruel domination. He gave it the name of Hispaniola, and its inhabitants, who very much resembled those of Guanahani and Cuba by their nakedness, their ignorance and simplicity, were so affable, credulous and hospitable, and the Spaniards had such an ascendency over them, that Columbus wrote to the sovereigns : “ If Your Highnesses should order me to take them all and keep them prisoners in their own island nothing would be more easy than to do so They had much gold, which they received from their neighbours, and which they gave to the Spaniards in exchange for little bells, glass beads, pins and other objects of no value. This did not satisfy Columbus and his companions, who wished to know where the mines of the precious metal were situated, asking all the natives of the country with whom they could hold communication, and these pointed out to them a mountainous country called Cibao, at some distance and situated to the eastward. He thought that the country he had discovered was close to the most eastern boundaries of Asia, and that Cibao was no other than Cipango, a name given by Marco Polo and other travellers to the islands of Japan. Always the phantom of Asia, as Lamartine observes, interposing itself between America and him, to rob him, for a chimera, of a great reality ! On the 24th December Columbus turned his prow towards the point indicated, and because the pilot had left the helm to an inexpert steei’sman, the Santa Maria, earned by a current, struck a rock and sprung a leak near the keel. Thanks to the calmness and skill of Columbus whom the shock awakened, to the succour given by the boats of the Nina, and the help of the natives, not only the crew but also the cargo were saved.

Columbus was afflicted ; only the Nina remained of the three ships that composed his small fleet, since it must be remembered that Pinzon had disappeared with the Pinta, Columbus believing that he had returned to Europe in order to arrive before him and

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

claim the glory of the expedition ; and although he had a strong desire to return to Spain and announce his success, it was not possible to embark in one caravel the crews of two. He thought then of leaving part of his people on the island that they might learn the language of the natives, explore the country and endeavour to discover the mines, at the same time that they would serve as a base for a colony that he intended to found in order to secure the great advantages that his discoveries promised. When he proposed this plan to his company it was accepted with enthusiasm, thirty-eight voluntarily offered to remain in Hispaniola, at the head of whom he placed Diego de Aranda, invested with the same powers that he himself had received from the Catholic kings. He also obtained the consent of the cacique to leave his people in the island, under pretext of defending him against the caribs or cannibals, and to build a fort which was finished in ten days, with the help of the poor islanders, who themselves forged the first link of the chain that was so cruelly to bind America to Spain.

After enjoining on his people the strictest union and discipline, as well as care in avoiding all cause of complaint with the natives of the country, cultivating their friendship, but not on that account trusting them blindly, and having promised them to return very quickly with reinforcements, Columbus left the nascent colony on the 4th of January, 1493, taking with him some natives of the islands that he had discovered, all the gold that he had collected in them, a small quantity of all the productions that might become objects of commerce, some unknown birds and other curiosities proper to excite the wonder of Europeans. Sailing towards the east, he skirted the north coast of the island, and on the 6th sighted the Pinta, with which Pinzon had explored, during the six weeks that his absence had lasted, the north coast of Haiti, without making any discovery of importance. He set out with him on his return to Europe, and the voyage was favourable until the 14th of February, when a violent tempest parted them again. During the fortnight that the storm lasted, what mortal agony must Columbus have suffered, who, after seeing the desire of his whole life realised, and when he was taking, as it were, to Europe a new world, and with it the most eloquent refutation of those who had treated him

HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA.

as a visionary, and the justification of success to those who protected him, saw his certain and inevitable loss, without leaving behind him anything more than the fame of an imprudent and deceived adventurer ! In order to avoid this, he wrote some short accounts of his discoveries, put them, wrapped in balls of wax, into barrels, which he threw into the sea, in hopes that the waves, so contrary to him, would carry them to the shores of some civilised country.

But at last the wind dropped and the sea became calm, and he was able to reach the Azores, where the Portuguese received him in an infamous manner, imprisoning half his crew, because the King of Portugal had commanded them to seize Columbus wherever he might be found, because he had deprived him of a discovery which had been ottered to him and which he would not accept, or had usurped possessions which had been conceded to him by the Pope. Nevertheless, when he arrived at Lisbon, he was received with all the marks of distinction that were due to the discoverer of the New World.

At last, on the 15th of March, Columbus disembarked at Palos, where, when the people knew the happy result of the voyage, the joy was so general that they set the bells ringing, fired salvoes of artillery, closed the shops and all ran to embrace those who were considered lost, and to venerate as an extraordinary man him who seven months before had served them for a jest. In the evening of the same day Pinzon arrived, who, expecting that the admiral was dead, was boasting of being the discoverer ; but, on seeing his hopes frustrated, and the triumph of Columbus, he died of disappointment a few days later.

Columbus hastened to inform the sovereigns of his arrival and discoveries. Ferdinand and Isabella, who were then at Barcelona, commanded him to proceed immediately to that city, since they desired to hear from his own lips the particulars of his expedition. His journey was a continuous ovation — a veritable triumph — and he entered Barcelona in great state. The sovereigns received him seated on their thrones, and caused him to be seated in their presence, not as a great man, but as a grandee of Spain.

The account given by Columbus and his companions of the newly discovered countries, to which, erroneously, the name of

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

West Indies, which they still preserve, was given, and especially the specimens of their fertility and riches which they had brought, awakened so much enthusiasm and infused such brilliant hopes that the Spaniards, including the circumspect Ferdinand, being blinded by greed and ambition, thought to carry forward immediately the conquests and discoveries, the preparations for the second voyage being made with unusual celerity. This new armament was composed of seventeen ships, some of large tonnage, in which 1500 persons embarked, among whom were many gentlemen and clergymen, with provisions, scientific and artistic instruments, seeds, horses and other domestic animals which they thought might succeed in the climate of the Indies.

But Pope Martin V. had conceded to the King of Portugal all the countries that should be discovered from Cape Bojador and Cape Nun to the Indies, and Spain, by making her own the countries discovered by Columbus, was infringing the rights of Portugal, whose king sent a squadron to occupy them. Before the fleet sailed it was necessary for the Catholic kings to secure for themselves the right of property and possession in the new countries ; for which purpose, following the example of the Portuguese, and knowing the superstition of the age, they applied to Rome, from whence, by his bulls, the vicar and representative of Christ, Alexander VI., a man stained with every kind of crime, conceded to Spain the islands and mainland discovered or to be discovered in the western ocean, investing the Crown of Castile with a right over vast regions to which, as Robertson observes, he not only had no title, but was ignorant of their position and even of their existence. It was, nevertheless, fitting to respect the concession made to Portugal, and by another bull of the 4th of May, 1493, the Pope supposed a line drawn from pole to pole at the distance of 100 leagues west of the Azores, conceding to the Portuguese all that lay to the east of this line, and to the Spaniards all the countries situated to the west of it.