FromColumbus to Acosta: Science, Geography,and the New World

KarlW. Butzer

Departmentof Geography,University of Texasat Austin,Austin, TX 78712, FAX 512/471-5049

Abstract.What is called the Age of Discovery peoples probably put observers with rural evokes imagesof voyages,nautical skills, and backgroundson an equal footingwith those maps. Yet the Europeanencounter with the steeped in traditionalacademic curricula.Last Americasalso led to an intellectualconfronta- butnot least,the essaypoints up the enormity tionwith the naturalhistory and ethnography of the primarydocumentation, compiled by of a "new" world.Contrary to the prevailing these Spanishcontributors during the century view of intellectualstasis, this confrontation after1492, most of it awaitinggeographical re- provokednovel methods of empiricaldescrip- appraisal. tion, organization,analysis, and synthesisas KeyWords: Acosta,Columbus, ethnography, geo- Medievaldeductivism and Classicalontogen- graphicalplanning, gridiron towns, historyof sci- ies proved to be inadequate. This essay ence, landforms,L6pez de Velasco, naturalhistory, demonstrateshow the agentsof thatencoun- New World landscapes, Oviedo, relaciones ter-sailors, soldiers, governmentofficials, geograficas,Renaissance, Sahagun, Spanish geogra- and missionaries-madesense of these new phy. landsand peoples; ithighlights seven method- ological spheres, by examiningthe work of The worldis so vastand beautiful,and containsso exemplaryindividuals who illustratethe di- manythings, each differentfrom the other. . . verse backgrounds,abilities, and interests -Francisco L6pez de G6mara(1552) characteristicof the period. These examples includethe observational skills of Columbus in Renaissance Science 1492,the landscapetaxonomy of his son Fer- nando, the biotic taxonomyof Oviedo, the HE Europeanencounter with the Amer- culturalrecording of Sahagun, the regionalge- Uicas in 1492 fallswithin what Western ographyof Cieza, thepervasive role of Velasco historianscall the Age of Discovery.Hu- in bothgeographical synthesis and townplan- manistshave long been fascinatedwith that ningat the governmentlevel, and finally,the encounteras a source of mythsand images overarchingscientific framework for the natu- (Green1968, III, pt. 1; Gerbi1985; Greenblatt ralhistory and peoples of the New Worldpro- 1991). Historiansof science in generaland of posed byAcosta in 1590.The evidencerehabil- geographyin particularare preoccupiedwith itatesthe reputationof Columbus who, likeso navigationand cartography(Kimble 1938, manyothers with little or no formaleducation, chaps. 5, 9-10; Parry1981; Jamesand Martin had a spontaneouscapacity to observe and 1981, 63-95; Nebenzahl 1990; Harley 1990; describe.The originsof NativeAmerican ste- Buisseret1992). The thesisof thisessay is that reotypesare identified,but there also were the Spanish encounterwith the New World remarkable"insider" studies that, in the case also had a far-rangingimpact on environmental of Sahagun,touched upon the semioticsof and culturalunderstanding. cultureand landscape.Although Sahagun and The boundless enthusiasmwith which the Acosta had scholarlytraining, the confronta- firstwriters described the landscapesand biota tion with new environmentsand unfamiliar of the New Worldwas integralto the Renais-

Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 82(3), 1992, pp. 543-565 ? Copyright1992 byAssociation of American Geographers

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sance, or reawakeningof Western civilization. It can be debated whetherRenaissance ge- ThatRenaissance marked an uneasytransition ographywas the revitalizationof a Classical fromthe Medievalto the modernworld, char- traditionor the spontaneousproduct of a new acterizedby manycross-currents of thought intellectualclimate. Two personalitiesof the and expression.One hallmarkof the Renais- later Middle Ages illustratethe problem. In sance was the rediscoveryof Classicalwritings 1410,the FrenchCardinal d'Ailly (1948) wrote a duringthe fourteenthand fifteenthcenturies worlddescription based almostexclusively on and theirtranslation from Greek into Latin, as Classicalsources; it beginswith a seriesof in- a new source of information,ideas, and es- terestingfigures for the astronomicalsubdivi- theticprototypes. But the resultinghumanistic sion ofthe globe, but his regionalchapters are resurgencedid not immediatelylead to more a mixof old fablesand obsoletetoponyms, for criticalanalysis, let alone philosophicalreas- whichendless fictionalor mythologicalexpla- sessment.The deferenceonce given to the nationsare offered.Quite unaffectedby such Bibleor Christiantheological authority shifted ballastfrom Antiquity, the Venetianmerchant- to thatof leadingClassical scholars, but empir- travelerMarco Polo (1958) lefta remarkable icalcontradictions to "new"authorities such as accountof his travelsin Asia (1271-95)that in- Aristotlewere onlyoffered with hesitation. At cludesvivid descriptions of landscapesand cul- itsworst, the rediscoveryof Antiquity led to an turalpatterns.1 Pierre D'Ailly and Marco Polo unproductiveantiquarianism that took prece- representtwo extremesamong precursorsof dence overnew observationsand stifledintel- theRenaissance, but the pattern remained.2 My lectualprogress. pointis notthat intellectual roots are unimport- Medieval science had already included a ant, but thatthe prevalentRenaissance para- componentof empirical, practical observation, digmoveremphasizes the significanceof Clas- butwas dominatedby scholastic discussions or sical antiquity,to the degree thatit obscures theexcerpting of older texts, seldom introduc- theacuity and originalityof Renaissanceobser- ing materialsderived from personal observa- vationalskills and comprehension. tion.The threerealms of naturalhistory, con- The discoverers,explorers, and observa- sistingof animals,plants, and minerals,had tionalscientists of the Renaissancewere at best been studiedin a compartmentalizedfashion, familiarwith a verylimited selection of Classical withouta grasp of fundamentalinterconnec- works,that were frequentlycited onlyfor ef- tions,except as an expressionof a divineplan. fect,sometimes in the finalstages of revision In manyways it was a period of introverted (see Cieza de Leon 1984,xxxiii, n. 12). Strabo, reflectionon theself-sufficient truths provided an available and obvious source, was barely by theology,and the individualwas partof an used, and Columbus'sconsultation appears to ahistoricalcycle of lifeand death,of suffering have been veryselective and froma derivative in the presentand anticipatedreward in the digestin hispossession (see Broc1980,18, 200; hereafter. Harley 1990, 37, 42). More influentialwas The rediscoveryof Antiquity provided a new Pliny's Natural History(1940-56), the de facto sense of history,identifying new role models encyclopediaof the Renaissance(Broc 1980, of scholars-not onlysoldiers or kings-who 15). Forcartography and navigation,the tables had made theirmark in a secularworld of the of geographicalcoordinates by Ptolemy(1932), living.Renaissance scholarship included indi- and the maps attributedto him, provideda vidualswho were motivatedand willingto em- director indirectdatum for most large-scale barkon a new search,with a freshcuriosity. chartsfrom the mid-1300sto the early1500s.' Only a minorityof these had both the talent Geographyduring this period was a partof and boldnessto emphasizethe empiricaland whatwas called cosmography(Waldseemuller the inductive,to reexaminedeductive theories 1966),which included astronomy and nautical critically,and to drawconclusions from direct science,particularly as applied to cartography. observationor experiment.Although time- Butbetween Waldseemuller writing in 1507 and honoredreligious beliefs set constraintsto dis- Munster (1968) in 1550, cosmographyalso cussion,the Renaissancewas the beginningof began to includewhat today would be called a spiritof freeenquiry, with renewed interest physicaland culturalgeography. inverification, accuracy, and systematicunder- The presentpaper is directedto the origins, standing. rapid growth,and crystallizationof physical

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromColumbus to Acosta 545 and culturalgeography as a consequence of ing and slave huntingactivities from 1434-48, the ColumbianEncounter. My argument is that punctuatedby incidental comments on indige- the Europeandiscovery of the New Worldre- nous customs; only its commercialprospects quired new observationaland descriptive stirredinterest in Portugal.To the creditof skills,as well as explicitdiscussion of environ- Columbus(Cristobal Colon), hisvoyage of 1492 mentaland culturalphenomena that could no inspiredmuch more than additional coastlines longerbe takenfor granted: things were either on theportolan charts. Even though he thought differentor similaron the otherside of the he was in EastAsia, Columbus recognized the ocean. Geomorphologysoon receiveda de- noveltyof the landscapes,flora, and people on gree of attentionthat it had neverbeen ac- the otherside of the ocean. Howeverobser- corded inAntiquity, and biogeographywas re- vantwere othercaptains or ship's pilotsof the invigorated. Ethnographic observations period,they lacked his abilityto describethe graduallyadded greaterdepth to the appreci- novel in waysthat would exciteacademic and ationof cultural phenomena, and theseseveral laycuriosity in Europe.4 geographicalstrands were integrated into what Columbus'scredentials as a scientificfigure could be called regionalgeography. All of this have long seemed unimpressiveto his critics. was abetted by the Spanish government's Born 1451 in Genoa under modest circum- officialrole in normativeurban planning. stances (his fatherwas a weaver),he went to The studyfocuses on Spain and the New sea as earlyas age fourteen.During the mid- World,rather than on researchdevelopments 1470she sailed the Mediterranean,perhaps on in otherparts of Europe.Renaissance geogra- a galleyin the service of France;about 1476-84 phyin Italy,Germany, and Francehas received he was based in Lisbonand the Madeiras,sail- some attention(e.g., Baker1963; Beck 1973; ing to West Africa,probably with slavers.5 All Broc 1980), but the originalityand qualityof we haveto attestto his learningare the surviv- Spanishgeography during the periodhas been ing lettersin his handwriting(see facsimiles underappreciated,even by Spanish authors reproduced in Thacher 1967, III, 84-490; with (see Becker1917; Martfinez1945; Arfja1972, discussionin Varela 1982, li-lvii); his script was versusMenendez Pidal1944), The emphasisis bold and sophisticated,varying in execution necessarilyselective, and severalkey authors accordingto theformality of the occasion,and have been chosenfor closer examination. This comparableto that of educated scribes and focuson individualsis notan attemptto create notaries of the time.6 Any doubts about new icons; itis essentialto elucidatethe inter- Columbus'sability as a cartographerand geom- ests, abilities,and limitationsof the period. eter are laid to rest by one of his diagrams The differencesamong the individuals selected showinga three-dimensionalprojection, con- also revealthe degree to whichthe evolution vertedfrom a sphere to a plane (see Harley of sixteenth-centurySpanish geographywas 1990,42, Fig. 36), which is found among his multilinear,not unilinear. Geography itself was annotatedcopies of Ptolemy,Marco Polo, and the unifyingtheme, rather than a by-product D'Ailly(see Taviani1985, 446-55; Harley1990, of thisscientific evolution. 34-43). His reporton the ThirdVoyage (1498- 1500)also makesnumerous references to Clas- sical authorsthen onlyavailable in Latin(see Observation:Christopher Las Casas 1965, I, 482-96). Columbus Columbuswas essentiallyself-taught, as he admittedin a letterof 1501to the monarchsof The discoveryof the New Worldinitiated an Spain: unprecedentedinterest in geographyand nat- In navigation[God] endowed me generously,of uralhistory. Somehow, earlier maritime discov- astronomyhe gave me whatwas needed, and the eriesby Europeans had failedto generateevoc- same of geometryand arithmetic,with the talent ativereports of new lands and peoples. Even of mindand hand to drawthis globe and upon it the explorationof West Africainstigated by thecities, rivers and mountains,islands and ports, all intheir proper place (Varela1982, 251; LasCasas Portugal'sPrince Henry "the Navigator"(see 1965,I, 31) (all translationsby author). FernandezArmesto 1987, 185-200) led to such drearyworks as the Cr6nicada Guine(Beazley Accordingly,he hewed to a pragmatic,carto- and Prestage1896-98), a leaden saga of seafar- graphictradition of the period,one concerned

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with the makingof geographicallyrealistic Kelley1988, folio 24 vuelto45-25 recto1). Two mapsintended for the practicalworld of navi- sourcesderived from the lostdiary of the Sec- gation(see Campbell1987).7 ond Voyage(1493-96) offer the first description Columbus'sinsight and intellectualimpact of a mangrovecoast on the southernshores of deserve more sympathythan has been ac- Cuba; itwas repletewith cienegas and swamps corded himby Carl Sauer (1966,chap. 2) and fortwo leagues inland,with almost impenetr- KirkpatrickSale (1990,chap. 5), Whateverhis able thicketsof plantsand trees(F. Colon 1984, motivesand howeverannoying his use of hy- 189). "Accordingto Columbus this region is perbole,Columbus attempted to informabout completelysubmerged and coveredwith water the new landshe saw. His descriptionsof the and its coasts are marshyand full of trees" people and theirlifeways, incidental to hisnar- (Martyr1964, 139). rativesabout encounterswith the indigenous Finally,there are Columbus's instructive,if inhabitants,contain much useful ethnographic debatable,climatological ideas. He explained information(see Sauer1966, chap. 3) and novel the great heat of the Bahamas by theirlow insightson the physicalenvironments of the elevation and the prevailingeasterly winds New World. (Oct. 29). On the daily tropicalshowers, he Columbuswas untutoredin the sciences, noted that late in every day a cloud bank and his lackof botanicalknowledge frustrated formedon the westernpart of Jamaica,result- him:"I believethere are manyplants and trees ingin rainfor an houror less; thishe attributed (in the Bahamas)worth much in Spainas dyes to thegreat forests of the island, with reference or medicinalsbut I do not recognizethem, to his previousexperience on the Canaries, whichI greatlyregret" (see Spanishtranscrip- Madeiras,and Azores(July 1494, F. Colon 1984, tion of the FirstVoyage diary, by Dunn and 193-94).He appended a remarkableecological Kelley[1988, folio 15 recto,lines 25-28]). But note.On thoseAtlantic islands, "they have cut his lackof formaltraining did not preventhis so muchforest and treesthat hindered them fromventuring comparisons of the New World [fromexpanding cultivation] that such clouds palmswith those of WestAfrica or the Medi- and rainsno longerform as theyonce used to." terranean:"They have a greatnumber of palms The observationis tellingbecause itshows that of a differentkind than those of Guineaor our Columbuswas aware of and concernedabout own, of mediumheight, with smooth trunks environmentaldegradation on the recently-set- and verylarge fronds" (Dunn and Kelley1988, tled Madeiraislands. folio18 recto,13-16), nor from recognizing six Much in the mannerof more recentfield to eightdifferent classes of palms(1493 letter observers,Columbus repeatedlydrew analo- in Varela1982,141). He also notedthe distinc- gies betweenthe Old Worldand the New: a tivenessof the trees, fruits, and plantsof Cuba similartree but with larger leaves than a coun- and of Hispaniola(see Varela1983, 141). And terparton an AegeanIsland (Nov. 12); liveoaks he commentedon the unusualassociation of and arbutus(madrohos) as in Castile(Dec. 7), pines and palms growingin one rivervalley healthyriver waters as comparedwith pestilen- (vega),whose surfacealternated between level tialones of Guinea (Nov. 27), finelycultivated hills (montes llanos) and low plains (baxos) landsrecalling the plainsof C6rdoba (Dec. 14), (Dunn and Kelley1988, folio 29 recto,26-28; weatherlike April in Castile (Dec. 13),or moun- see also Humboldt 1845-47, II, 56). tainslike those of Sicily(Oct. 28). He likewisedemonstrated an intuitivegrasp Some ofthe comparisons were motivatedby of geomorphology.He found it remarkable naturalcuriosity, others by economics, and thatthe steep slopes of tall mountainswere othersstill by sheer aesthetics. They give point denselyvegetated and not rocky(Nov. 14 and to hisverbal paintings of an exuberanttropical 26, 1492), and that broad riversdebouching vegetation,nourished by an eternallyspring- intothe sea lacked sand or gravelbars (Nov. like climate,and inhabitedby peaceful and 27), bothphenomena that we would nowattri- naked innocents.Columbus thus created an bute to deep tropicalweathering. On another imageof an Edenicland that was at once prim- occasion he defineda cala (a local termfor itiveyet familiar, and in so doing his rhetorical drownedvalleys of the BalearicIslands and analogiesdelineated a powerfultheme in Euro- Sardinia;see Butzer1962) as "a narrowinlet pean humanisticthought. He demonstratedan where sea waterenters the land" (Dunn and abilityto observe,compare, and describe,and

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromColumbus to Acosta 547 there are suggestionsof partialcomprehen- executedin Spain,it laterhad greatimpact on sion.8It was his articulationand dissemination physicalobservation in the Americas. As recon- of hisideas, hisway of puttingwords together, structedfrom the survivingmaterials (F. Colon and his rhetoricthat provoked scientific inter- 1908-15),its purpose was to: est in a New Worldthat he himselfrefused to (a) Inventoryall settlements,their dependen- believewas new.Columbus, though at timesa cies or abandonedsites, any castles or mon- medievalvisionary and mysticand givento Bib- asteries, the distance to the municipal licalmetaphors and prophecies,demonstrated boundariesin differentquadrants, and the tenacityas an explorerand a longingfor great- jurisdiction(royal, aristocratic, monastic) to ness and discoverythat mark him as typically whichthey belonged. modernand, in thought,action, and results, (b) Determinethe numberof residenthouse- unlikeother of the greatpersonages of the holds (vecinos), presumablyas based on MiddleAges (Gerbi1985, 13). local tax rolls and providedby the town councils. LandscapeTaxonomy: Fernando (c) Recordthe qualityof land in each territory (casco); thisincluded location with respect Col6n to riversand mountains,types of land use, and over15 more-or-lessstandardized cate- in Fernando,born out of wedlock C6rdoba goriesof topographyand naturalor sponta- in 1488,was the son of Columbuswho had neous vegetations(Table 1). These charac- intellectualambitions, and who had a pro- teristicswere recordedalong all roadsin all found,if little-known, impact on Spanishgeog- directions,specifying rough distances to raphyfor a century.At the age of fivehe saw each change of land use or landscape, hisfather offat the docks of Sevilla, and aboard hence the designationof the projectas an in the FourthVoyage he servedas chronicler Itinerario(Itinerary). 1502-04(F. Col6n 1984,162, 288). In between, he was a page at the royalcourt and privately This effortwas fundedby the crown,with tutored,in partby a keyhistorian of the voy- salariespaid to a team of assistantswho trav- ages, the Italian humanistPeter Martyr(c. eled aroundthe country, following explicit but 1458-1526).At least some ofthe naturalhistory lost guidelines, presumablyissued by Fer- observationson the CentralAmerican coasts nando. were probablymade by Fernando,including Close to 10,000settlements (perhaps 80 per- the firstdescription of pineapples (F. Colon centof those in Spainat the time)were inven- 1984,317). He was on Hispaniolain 1509,after toried beforethe projectwas terminatedby whichhe was sentto Castileto study,"because royaldecree in 1523,possibly in retaliationfor he was inclinedto the sciencesand had many a renewedround of litigationagainst the gov- books" (Las Casas 1965, II, 370). Indeed, he ernmentinitiated by Fernandoin thatyear (De spentmuch of 1512-16 studying at the Spanish la Rosa1906; Ponsotand Drain1966; Arranz,in Franciscanmonastery in Rome,under the hu- F. Col6n 1984, 17). Incompleteand lacking manistPedro de Salamanca(De la Rosa 1906; officialsanction, the resultswere never col- Ponsotand Drain1966). lated intothe planned,alphabetical gazetteer Fernandowas precociousby anystandards. (Vocabulario),from which a land use and phys- He was captain-generalof the fleet sailing back ical map of Spain apparentlywas to be con- fromHispaniola in 1509; a yearlater he began structed.The notebooksof rawdata were left the complexlawsuits against the crown,in re- to gatherdust in the remarkableprivate library gardto thetitles and NewWorld revenues due of 15,300volumes and manuscriptsthat Fer- to the heirs of Columbus, who had died nando leftbehind at his death in 1539. When wealthybut frustrated in 1506; he proposeda thatlibrary was rescued,at theend ofthe nine- circumnavigationofthe globe a decade before teenthcentury, only 4,400 of the town invento- Magellan; and in 1517 he began what was ries and 5,000 of Fernando'sbooks had sur- probablythe mostambitious national project vived. yet conceivedfor Spain, a countrywidegeo- Nothinglike the Itineraryhad everbeen con- graphicalsurvey. ceivedbefore. However abortive or premature Althoughthis project was designedfor and it mayhave been, thissophisticated geograph-

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ical surveyrepresents the firstattempt to de- Table 1. Land Use and Landscape Classes velop and implementa comprehensivefield Utilized for the Geographical Survey of Spain approach to the culturaland physicalland- (1517) by Fernando Col6na scape. Arableland Withoutquestioning the pivotalrole of Fer- Wheatcultivation (tierra de pan or labores, nandoin conceptualizinghis geographical sur- labranza) vey,the concepts and terminologyused (Table Olive groves(olivares) Vineyards(viMas) 1) do not seem to have been his own. In his Irrigatedtracts (huertas) biographyof Columbus, Fernando Col6n Minorcategories, including almond, fig, citrus, (1984)employed a fairlysophisticated geomor- apple, etc. orchardsor groves phologicvocabulary, including terms such as Grazingland and degradedwoodland (monte bajo) montatia,collado (hill),peha (hilltop,cliff), Designatedpastures (dehesa) Ilanura (plain), planicie (plane), cienega Roughgrass and shrub(espartinas, monte de (marsh),fango (swamp), arroyo, espalda (high atocha) Sclerophyllousscrub (lentiscales, romerales, slope, mountaincrest), peiascosa (cliffed), matorrales) pedregosa (rocky)and quebrada (brokento- Thornyscrub (montes jarales) pography),none ofwhich are used in the Itin- Scruboak (chaparrales,marahales, carrascojas) erary(Table 1). Only Ilano, cerro,and aspera Palmettoscrub, possibly abandoned farm land (palmares) are common to both, while sierra, loma, Rockysurfaces with shrubs (berrocales) cuesta, derribadero,and doblado are exclu- sivelyfound in the Itinerary.Most important, Primaryor secondaryforest (monte alto) Deciduousoak (robledal) montein the Itineraryis exclusively used inthe Liveoak (encinal,carrascal) traditionalSpanish sense ofscrub or woodland Corkoak (alcornocal) vegetation,whereas for Fernando it was a hill Pine(pinal, pinar) or low mountain,equivalent to cerro.This sug- Topographyand landforms geststhat the vocabulary and possiblyalso the Floodplain(Ilano de riberadel rio,vega) systematicapproach should be creditedto Levelplain (Ilano, tierra Ilana, campina) Irregularplain (tierra doblada) unidentifiedSpanish collaborators.Certainly Rough,dissected topography (tierra aspera or the vegetation categories are those of derribadera) Spaniardswith rural backgrounds and, notsur- Flat-toppedhill (loma) prisingly,none of these termsare used by Hillor peak (cerro) Colon (1984)in his Caribbeanaccounts. Mountainand valleycountry (sierras y valles) Escarpment(cuesta) The onlypotential consultants of Fernando thatcan be identifiedare Pedrode Salamanca, aDerivedfrom F. Col6n (1908-15);see also De la Rosa whomhe metin Madridin June1517, or Anto- (1906);Ponsot and Drain(1966); Butzer (1988). nio de Nebrfja,whom he consultedat the Uni- versityof Alcaldat about the same time,six physical criteriacentral to Fernando's concep- weeks before he began the Itinerary(De la tion. Rosa 1906).9 Nebrfja(died 1522), is better Fernando's project, probably conceived known for firstattempting to standardize withina broader Spanish interest in the basic CastilianSpanish as a writtenlanguage (Green geography of the New World colonies (see 1968,111, 11-18), but he also had geographical Jimenez1965, I, 11-37, 267-77), was closely rep- interests:he wroteon atmosphericpressure, licated in New Spain in 1547-51 when emissar- workedon navigationalinstrumentation, and ies were sent out fromMexico Cityto assemble assembled an ambitiouschart for the longi- detailed informationon each Indian settlement tudes of Spanish cities, based on true time for taxation purposes. Some 940 such reports, differencesbetween them (Becker1917, 96, consisting of a paragraph or two of compact 122; Lopez Pifiero1979, 213-14). He mayhave data, are preserved and known as the Suma de stimulatedor encouragedFernando to attempt Visitas(Paso y Troncoso 1905a; also Borah and a nationalproject, but he had no evidentback- Cook 1960). No dated decree or officialexpla- ground in geomorphologyor botany.One nation is known. mustassume thatpragmatic Spanish rural ex- Most of the Suma accounts gave the number periencewas criticalin developingthe bio- of taxable households, the dimensions of the

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions From Columbus to Acosta 549 landsbelonging to thetown, and the natureof BishopLas Casas overthe character of the New Indianagriculture and handicrafts(as liablefor WorldIndians, whom he had refusedto ideal- taxes in kind),together with a descriptionof ize, and Las Casas intervenedto effectivelystop the topographicsetting-Ilano, espalda, sierra, publicationof the remainingvolumes (see and fragosa(rugged) are commonterms. Veg- Hanke, in Las Casas 1965, I, xxii-xxiii),which etationwas characterizedby such words as were not printeduntil the 1850s. sabana (open parkland)or monte(woodland); The bulkof Oviedo's workis devotedto the when trees were suitable for timber or historyof Spanishexploration and conquest, firewood,the accountsmay specify oak, pine, buteven his derivativeaccounts single out im- or key tropicalforms. Other featuresnoted portantgeographic and bioticdata, such as the include potentialpastures for livestock,the comparisonof the cold-temperatebiota of presence of wet lowlands (cienegas), and Patagoniaand Newfoundland(Alvarez 1957). springsor riverssuitable for irrigation.The Forareas Oviedo knewfirst hand, his accounts similaritieswith Fernando'sproject are too are substantiveas well as evocative;they teem close to be coincidental,demonstrating that with nostalgic,comparative images of town- the idea of the geographicalsurvey was by no scapes and landscapesin Spain or Italy(Gerbi means forgottenin the deliberationsof gov- 1985,188-94). In an era whenacademics wrote ernmentat the highestlevel. Surprising,too, in restrainedLatin, Oviedo deliberatelypre- is the implicationthat lower-placedofficials sentedhis materialsin Spanish,salting his text had thecompetence to makereliable observa- withvignettes of Spanishabuse ofthe Indians, tions of greatvalue forthe landscape recon- quips about greedyclerics or armchairhistori- structionof sixteenth-centuryMexico (see ans,and candidpersonal anecdotes. His enthu- Butzerand Butzerforthcoming). siasmfor the naturalworld is illustratedby an incidentfrom his travelsbetween Panama and Nicaragua (August 1527). Spottingwhat he BioticTaxonomy: Oviedo thoughtwere live oaks, in the mountains above theGulf of Nicoya,he notedthat the trees had Scientificresearch only began in the New no acorns.So he stoppedhis partyand had his Worldthirty years after Columbus's fateful voy- companions search the ground around the age, and itwas initiatedby an unlikelysource. treesuntil they found a dozen acorns: GonzaloFernandez de Oviedo (1478-1557)was And I ate them,though they were somewhatdry; a royalofficial with humanistic credentials who and theywere no morenor less thanin Spain-live once translateda novelof chivalrouslove into oaks in termsof the tree and the leaf,as well as Spanish.Raised at the Spanishcourt, he spent thefruit (Fernandez de Oviedo 1959,I, 298). threeyears as a soldierin Italy,where he be- It is probablyfair to say that Oviedo pos- came an aficionadoof the artsbefore settling sessed modestabilities for synthetic interpreta- in as a retainerand notary.But at age thirty- tion,and thathis primarycontribution in natu- five,he was sentto Panamaas royalinspector ral historywas analyticaland systematic. forthe gold foundries,and from1513-47, he Severalbroad themes preoccupied him: spenttwenty years in the NewWorld, working in CentralAmerica, Hispaniola, and Colombia (a) Domesticatedindigenous plants and their (Perez, in Fernandezde Oviedo 1959, I, xvi- utilizationby the Indians(book 7); ccxxxvi).From 1522 onward he devoted a (b) Wildfood or fiberplants, manipulated and dozen yearspreoccupied with natural history,10 exploitedby the Indians(book 8); forwhich he lackedany formal training. While (c) Taxonomiccomparison of neotropicaltrees in Madridin 1525, without his recordsin hand, and plantswith those of the Mediterranean he wrotea "summary"volume on the natural realm,according to physiognomy,leaf ar- historyof the Indies (Ferndndezde Oviedo rangements,leaf morphology,and fruits 1950),and in 1535this was republishedin ex- (books 9 and 11); pandedform as thecornerstone of hismassive (d) Recognitionof those genera or familieswith study(410 of 1,900printed pages, Ferndndez European counterparts, e.g., cherries, de Oviedo 1959).Oviedo completedthe whole grapes,nut trees, pines, oaks, palms; workat age 71. Buthe clashedrepeatedly with (e) Inventoriesof the neotropicalfauna, organ-

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ized under the categoriesof quadrupeds sionthat Oviedo reliedheavily on NativeAmer- (book 12), fishes(book 13), birds(book 14), ican informants,although he did not admitit. and insects(book 15), withthe recognition Oviedo's generalcontributions to understand- thatmost, but notall, of these diverseani- ingthe aboriginal inhabitants and theircustoms mals belonged to familiesrepresented in also have value. He had no illusionsabout the Old World. humannature, and was impartialin his criti- cismsof Spaniards and Indiansand theirfoibles Oviedo was thefirst to confrontthe dazzling (see also Gerbi1985, chap. 19). He heaped sar- profusionof unfamiliarplants and animalsthat casticabuse on Pedrarias,De Soto, and certain made New Worldbiogeography so dauntinga otherconquistadors noted for theirbrutality subject.Excited but unperturbed,he imposed (see also Salas 1954),and he blamedthe Indian orderthrough a taxonomywhich organized life demographiccollapse on Hispaniolasquarely formsinto morphologicalclasses and deline- on the Spaniards:forced labor and othergross ated commonalitiesand differenceswith Old abuses,the resultingsuicides, and on smallpox Worldforms. For unfamiliar genera or families, (Fernandezde Oviedo 1959,I, 67). His compar- he appliedindigenous names that, at thetime, ative analysisof Spanish explorationor con- were rapidlyacquiring an almostuniversal cur- quest of differentparts of the Americasnot rencyin the tropicalcolonies of Spain (J. D. onlyconvinced him of the common natureof Sauer 1976)-the "folk taxonomy"that was humanityin both world hemispheres,but he generally practiced before the binomial was the firstto recognizethat indigenous peo- Linnaeanclassification. His naturalhistory was ples of southeasternNorth America, the Carib- publishedpromptly, translated into several Eu- bean, and South Americahad varyingforms ropean languages, and had a profound and levelsof humanculture (i.e., culturalcom- scientificimpact. plexity,a concept later explicatedby Acosta Oviedo modeled his taxonomyon Pliny [1962, 6.19]). Ballesteros (1957) furtherdetects (1940-56),with whom he was familiar,rather an implicitrecognition of an historicalprogres- than on Theophrastus'smore sophisticated sion of culture. conceptionof plantmorphology and ecology, Like Columbus,Oviedo came to the New which he did not know. But unlike Pliny, Worldas an amateurand was promptlyfilled Oviedo's descriptionsand organizationwere withwonder by what he saw. But unlikeCo- based on years of empirical observation, lumbus,Oviedo became a dedicated scholar guided by two firmprinciples: accuracy and who producedthe first great scientific work on inductiveapproach.11 By virtue of his lack of theNew World. No less an authoritythan Hum- formaltraining, Oviedo brokethe mold of Me- boldt(1845-47, II, 298) believedthat the foun- dieval herbalists,who organizedtheir plants dations of modernphysical geography were alphabetically,not comparatively(Alvarez laid in the studiesof Oviedo and Acosta (see 1957).12 In consequence, he offereda bold, bi- below). ological macro-frameworkfor the New World as well as the firstsystematic study of natural historysince the time of Pliny(first century CulturalLandscapes: Sahagun A.D.). AlthoughOviedo seems notto have under- The biggestchallenge for the firstEuropean stood the principlesof ecology, his work is observersin the NewWorld was theencounter filledwith suggestions of ecological associa- withnew peoples possessed of unfamiliarand tionthat elevate it from taxonomy to biogeog- puzzlinglanguages, lifeways, beliefs, and val- raphy.His is the onlydocument we have that ues. The problem,then, has been to graspthe describesthe circum-Caribbean region in a rel- indigenousvision of an indigenousworld, to ativelyunmodified biotic state (Alvarez 1957). movefrom description to understanding.That Equallyimportant, Oviedo offereda detailed vision was elusive because Native American and focusedaccount of economicbotany that readingof the landscapewas set in a different remainsunique, and thatretains its importance cosmologicalperspective (see Licate1980), one for the culturalgeography of peoples in the whichcast the supernatural, the individual, and regionwho have become extinct.In reading the communityin unaccustomedinterrelation- these sections,one repeatedlyhas the impres- ships,and lentdifferent meaning to concepts

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromColumbus to Acosta 551 or materialphenomena such as property, pacityof the Indians."The seeminglystrange labor,dwelling, food, or technology. behaviorscan be explained,he argued,by dif- In the unhappytradition of Europeanethno- ferentbeliefs and worldviews, and in thisrel- centrism,while some enlightenedindividuals ativistcontext, the New Worldpeoples did not soughtto understand,many others recklessly meritthe pejorativeconnotation of "barbaric." destroyedthe culturaldiversity that they en- But his ethnographicmaterials are so highly counteredin the "New" World. Not surpris- selected and sanitizedthat they retainlittle ingly,perhaps, some of the mostexplicit ac- value.13His dogmaticconclusions that human knowledgmentsof NativeAmerican creative sacrificeand cannibalismonce were universal capacityand achievementcome fromsome of traitsand thatthis demonstrated "a highercon- the menwho knewthem best-the conquista- cept of God" among 'the mostreligious peo- dors. HernanCortes, in hisletter of 1520 to the ples" (Las Casas 1967, II, chaps. 157, 185) are emperor,expressed wonder at the splendors particularlydisturbing. of Tenochtitlan(later, Mexico City),its mar- More solid contributionsto understanding kets,and thegreat temple in a classicdescrip- New World cultureswere advanced by the tion, expanded in 1552 by his biographer, earlyFranciscans in Mexico. Diego de Landa Lopez de Gomara (1966, 11147-58; see the controlledmissionary activities in the Yucatan prose of Simpson1964, 156-67). Indeed, most 1549-79,and althoughhe was responsiblefor of the ethnographicmaterials synthesized by burningcountless Mayan documents (see Lov- Fernandezde Oviedo (1959) came fromthe ell 1991),he also assembledan invaluableac- chroniclesof minor conquistadorsor their count of ancientMaya ethnography,history, morearticulate rank-and-file. Among the latter and religion.Based on his own experiencesas is Cieza de Leon (1985),who assembled the well as oral and writteninformation, this ac- firsthistory of the Inca fromoral testimony count included'the firstaccurate knowledge givenby Indianinformants. of the hieroglyphicwriting" (Tozzer, in Landa The mostsuccessful students of cultural phe- 1941, vii). Toribio de Benavente Motolinfa nomenaare found among the ranks of the mis- (1969,1971), one of the "firsttwelve" mission- sionaries.The firstof thesecame to theAmer- ariesto arrivein Mexico in 1524,also authored icas withColumbus on the Second Voyage. workswhich include a wealthof ethnographic Althoughworking with little christianizing suc- descriptionon the pre-ContactAztecs and cess on Hispaniola 1493-96, the obscure some of theirarchaeological sites. Yet unlike Jeronymitefriar Ramon Pane (Panet)evidently Pane,who slipsat timesinto an "insider"pre- listenedwith great care. He was able to re- sentation,Motolinia's mode remainsthat of an countthe origin myth, beliefs in the hereafter, "outsider." and ritualmedical practices, as well as obser- The main Dominican contribution,com- vationson ethnicand linguisticdistributions of pleted in 1581 by Diego Duran (1967),recon- the Tafnopeople (as in F. Colon 1984,205-29; structedAztec historical annals and theirritual see Wilson 1990 on theirculture). Even by calendar,based on indigenousinformants and modern anthropologicalstandards, this ac- manuscriptsources. His writingsare inter- countis remarkablyobjective, and qualifiesas linkedwith those of hisJesuit relative, Juan de a firsteffort to recordthe self-perspectiveof Tovar. A specialistin three indigenous lan- anotherpeople. Pane's account is comple- guages,Tovar was commissionedin 1576 by the mentedby the descriptiveethnography of the Viceroyof NewSpain to writethe historyof the Sevillanophysician for the expedition,Diego indigenouspeople he was to govern,"with the AlvarezChanca (Jane 1988, I, 20-73; Gerbi assistanceof the native historiansand their 1985,23-26). Although Las Casas (1967,11, 178) books" (Warren1973, 80). Althoughthis work maliciouslydescribed Pane as a Catalanwho was lost, it was used extensivelyin another spoke Castilianpoorly and was a bit simple- Jesuitstudy (Acosta 1962) of the indigenous minded,Las Casas himselffares poorly by com- civilizationsof the New World.These investi- parison. gations,encouraged by the government, signal LasCasas (1967)assembled a massivecorpus a periodof genuineand sensitivescholarly ac- of informationduring the 1540s-50s on the rit- tivitydevoted to Aztecsocial history, one which uals and customsof variousNew Worldpeo- presupposesthe existenceof indigenousdoc- ples in order'to demonstratethe rationalca- umentationwhich, like many of the missionary

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writings,has been destroyedor 'lost" in pri- has an entrance,vaulted, with cross beams, with a vatecollections. covering. . . (Sahagin 1969,XII, 270-71). The finestcultural research of the sixteenth Klor(1988) regards Sahaguin as "thefather of century,the greatFlorentine Codex, was ac- modernethnography," and he offersan in- complishedby the Franciscanfriar Bernadino sightfuldiscussion of Sahagu'n'smethodology de Sahagu'n(1499-1590). Born in a smalltown and the problemsof relatingindigenous con- of Leon, Sahaguincame in 1529 to Mexico, ceptions to European categories. Entering where he occupied his nextforty years with Aztec cultureas a participantobserver, Saha- Azteclinguistic and culturalstudies, materials gun saw the nativecultures as equal and, in thathave attractedthe attentionof a century someways, superior to importedEuropean cul- of internationalscholarship. Completed in tures.He graspedwhat is now called cultural finalform in 1579,the thirteen-volumework relativism,that each cultureis richin human (Sahagu'n1950-69) constitutes an encyclopedia information,and thatthe values embracedby ofAztec culture, recorded in theirNahuatl lan- the people who sharethat culture have merit. guage withabbreviated Spanish translations. He "remainedconvinced that the conquestof Rangingacross cosmology,philosophy, soci- the New World broughtonly one arguable ety,natural history, economic botany, and the gain: religion"(Nicolau and Cline 1973, 207; artifactualrealm, the materialsstem from de- Nicolau 1987). cades of in-depthinterviewing of indigenous The FlorentineCodex marksthe close ofsen- informantsin severaltowns, whose responses sitiveresearch into Native American cultures in to a structuredquestionnaire were transcribed HispanicAmerica. In 1577 the Inquisitionand in Nahuatland inthe cultural style of the infor- theCouncil of the Indiesbarred or suppressed mants.Of particularinterest to geographyare worksin nativelanguages by the missionaries. parts10-12, dealingprimarily with crafts and They ordered Sahagu'n's manuscriptsto be trades,markets and economy,architecture and turnedover, but fortunately they were saved by constructionmethods, medicinal plants, and the Inquisition'scensor in Mexico who held the Aztecperception and classificationof the differentviews (Nicolau and Cline 1973). This environment.These sections containalmost reversalof policy,directed from Rome, en- two-thirdsof the 1846 indigenousillustrations tailedfundamental changes in missionarystrat- (see Quifiones1988) found in the work,but egies whichthe Archbishop of Mexicoand the which so far have only been published as mendicantorders in New Spain strenuously simplifiedsketches (Glass and Robertson1975, butvainly resisted. From Motolinfa in the 1520s 190-92). to Sahagu'nin the 1580s,the goal had been Anexample best illustrates the complexity of conversion,not assimilation.When, in the culturalinformation encoded in whatto Euro- 1590s,that benevolentIndian policywas set pean perceptionis merelya materialobject. In aside, particularlyby the Franciscans,a steady explaining the term tecpancalli, a pre-Contact erosionof culturalintegrity ensued. palace, Aztec respondentsunraveled multiple The Spanishobservers of the sixteenthcen- levelsof meaningas theyconnected function turyhad greatdifficulty in findinga modelwith withphysical description: whichto view and understandthe diversityof NativeAmerican cultures. Through the widely Itmeans the house ofthe ruler,or thegovernment disseminatedelaborations of Martyr(1964), house,where the ruleris, where he lives,or where the rulersof the townsmen,the householders, Columbus'saccount of theTafno of Hispaniola assemble.It is a good place,a fineplace, a palace; as generous,guileless, and backwardfostered a place of honor,a place of dignity. . . . It is a the stereotypeof the AmericanNoble Savage. fearfulplace, a place of fear,of glory.... There In Mexico, Cortes and his soldiers stumbled is bragging,there is boasting;there are haughti- upona greatcivilization and createda different ness,presumption, pride, arrogance. There is self- praise,there is a stateof gaudiness. . . . It is a stereotype,a Cleverand DiscreetIndian gifted centerof knowledge,of wisdom . . . . It is some- in art and industry(Keen 1971,60). Las Casas thingembellished, a productof care, made with blindlyidealized the Indians. Motolinfiaac- caution,a productof caution,a deliberatedthing centedthe social inequalitiesand the poverty madewith deliberation; well made, the product of the hier- carvedstone, of sculpturedstone, plastered .... ofAztec Mexico, while Duran praised It is a red house, an obsidianserpent house . . .. archical,class-conscious spirit of Aztecsociety It has a deep footing,a deep foundation. .. . It (Keen1971,119-20). It remained for Sahagu'n to

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromColumbus to Acosta 553 recognizethe linkagesbetween the worldof also exemplaryand can be reproducedin trans- appearancesand the cognitivestructures be- lation: neath it that influenceindividual and group The region of Collao has many snow-capped actions,a discoverymade possibleby his lin- wastes and mountains,as well as plainscovered guisticanalyses. But Sahagu'n himself was only withgood pasturesthat serve the domesticlive- rediscoveredin the 1880s, and his semiotic stockwandering across them. In the middleis a lake, possiblythe largestand widest in [South conceptualizationof culture and landscape America],and mostof the townsof Collao lie next should attractpostmodern cultural geogra- to it.The cultivatedland [and anythingof value]is pherstoday (see Rowntree,et al. 1989,213-14). foundon large islandswithin the lake, because these are deemed saferthan the towns,which lie alongthe roads. This regionis so cold thatnot onlydoes it lack Regionaland Synthetic fruitorchards, but maize is not grownbecause it Geography:Cieza de Le6n willnot ripen, for the same reason.There are great numbersof birds of many kinds in the reed The talentto integrateenvironmental and marshesof this lake, includinglarge ducks and otherfowl, and twoor threekinds of tasty fish .... culturalinformation inspatial and logicalterms The lake is so largethat its circumference is 330 maybe inbornrather than learned,at least if km and its depth [accordingto Captain Juan PedroCieza de Leon is takenas an example. Ladrillero,going out withhis brigs]25 fathomsor Cieza (1984) was raised in Llerena,an Ex- so, more in some parts,less in others.This size, and the waves raisedwhen the wind blows,sug- tremadurantown of 5000inhabitants when he gestsan embaymentof the ocean. It is not known and hisparents embarked at Sevillefor Colom- whyso muchwater is held in this lake or where bia in 1535.At the timehe was eitherthirteen thatwater comes from:although there are many or seventeenyears old (his books give two streamsand arroyosflowing into it, this seems versions),but within a yearhe was campaign- inadequate,mainly because thelake is also drained [bya deep riverthat flows strongly] . . . Possibly ingup and downthe Andes as a commonsol- the Deluge leftthis water behind because, as I see dier. In describingthe hardships,he com- it,it should be saltyrather than fresh if it had been plained of the exorbitantprice of a piece of partof the ocean, and furthermorethe sea is 300 paper,implying that he was takingnotes. His kmaway .... The lake is terse, informative,and evocativeprose indi- great of Collao called Titicaca,after thetemple built on it . . . (Cieza 1984,chap. 103). cates an educated man; but that education musthave been largelyinformal, acquired on Cieza's accountrivals the regionalgeographies hisown and on-the-go.He died young,in 1554, ofthe nineteenthcentury, which is all themore justas hisintroductory volume to a four-tomed remarkablebecause Cieza was untrainedand historyof Peruwas published.This first book, had no mentorsor rolemodels. Although Clas- whichrelates a district-by-districtgeography of sical geographerslike Strabo providedgood the Andean world from Panama to Bolivia regionaldescriptions, they lacked the ability to (Cieza 1984),is of particularinterest here. shiftthe scale ofvision, to gatherso muchhard Againand again he describesthe dramatic observationaldata, to analyze interrelation- physicalenvironment, its diversity, and thecul- ships,or to systematicallytreat a large region turallandscapes and subsistenceforms of its accordingto a particularset of criteria. variousecozones. In one paragraphhe sweeps A verydifferent type of regionalgeography, the readerfrom the mangrovecoasts and rain embracingmost of the New World,was at- forestsof the Pacificslope into the snow- tempted1571-74 by L6pez de Velasco (1971), topped high ranges,describing the semiarid whose similarlack of formaleducation is dis- intermontanevalleys in between. He directs cussed below in relationto governmentgeog- attentionto variationsin rainfalland vegeta- raphy.The Geografiay descripcionuniversal de tion,windward and lee slopes, habitableand las Indias was assembled from reportsand uninhabitedregions, and the tortuousroads mapson the New Worldand EastIndies in the thatbind them together. His superb account of officeof the Councilof the Indies. Dedicated the environsof Quito (Cieza 1984,chap. 40), to the king,and evidentlyintended to inform withits descriptionsof plantedcrops, Indian the government,Velasco tallieda totalof 200 populations,livestock economy, and the sur- Spanish settlementsin the Americas,with roundingnetwork of towns,is too longto ex- 32,000Spanish households and 4000other set- cerpt.The cogent reporton Lake Titicacais tlersand miners;there also were 8000 Indian

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townsand 1.7 millionIndian "tributaries" liable whichhe putto good use. In the courseof his to tax or workdemands as well as 40,000Afri- traveland sojourns,he compileda wealthof can slaves,not counting people ofpartial black papers,maps, reports, and first-handobserva- ancestry. tions. Velasco's is a classic regionalgeography, a Vazquez came froma poor,rural background coherentwork of synthesis.First the coastlines in the olive-growingcountry just west of of a regionare described,much in the manner Sevilla.Equipped with a primarilyreligious ed- of a navigationalchart, followed by an outline ucation,and lackingthe conceptual rigoror of the topography,a descriptionof the envi- analyticalskills of Velasco, Vdzquez compen- ronment,a summaryof the maincultural phe- satedfor his shortcomingsby a readyappreci- nomena, and a systematicaccount of towns ationfor complex landscapes and a livelyinter- and agriculturalactivities. Miscellaneous est in the ruraleconomy. He provides,for pointscover topics such as climaticconstraints example,unique quantitative data on wineand to settlementor agriculture.Historical digres- oliveoil productionin Peru; he also remainsa sions or travelers'"tales" are few. Unlike key source for demographicdata. The Com- Cieza, who wrotespontaneously on the basis pendiumspans the Hispanicdominions, and of direct observation,Velasco presenteda his regionaldescriptions brim with quality, sys- more"academic" synthesis. tematicinformation. He was unsparinglycriti- The work'srigor and systematicsmake it a cal of what he regardedas short-sightedand volume of lastinghistorical scientific interest, abusiveadministration of the indigenouspeo- as is shownby Menendez Pidal's (1944) recon- ples, by both churchand state; yet his own structionof a New Worldgeography for about attitudewas paternalistic,and unrelievedby 1570,based primarilyon Velasco. The moder- sophisticationfor other cultures. At the time of nityof hissecular and empiricalsynthesis, con- his suddendeath, his manuscriptwas in press, ceived at a globallevel through its inclusion of and like so manyothers, it remainedunpub- oceanic navigationand East Asia (Lopez de lished. Velasco 1971, 29-49, 273-309), contrasts with To theworks of Cieza, Velasco,and Vazquez the continuinguse of an obsolete Ptolemaean can be added a varietyof othertravel reports frameworkand a theologicalparadigm to the or regionalhistories, with enlighteninggeo- end of the centuryfor presentingnew geo- graphicalintroductions. Collectively they show graphic informationin Central Europe thatsynthetic as well as analyticalgeography (Menendez Pidal 1944, 4; see also Ptolemy was an integralpart of what would now be 1966; Mmnster1968, Buttnerand Burmeister described as scientificthinking in sixteenth- 1979). Unfortunately,Velasco's prototypefor centurySpain. Thatnormative geography was syntheticgeography remained unpublished espoused in governmentcircles should there- untilthe fourthcentenary of Columbus'svoy- forecome as no surprise. age. AlthoughVelasco's work had no impact on geographicalscholarship, it deserves to be consideredas a precursorto Carl Ritterand GovernmentGeography and EliseReclus. Town Planning:Lopez de Velasco Thisfirst epoch of Spanishgeographical in- quiryaptly concludes withanother compen- The role of Spanish governmentpolicy in diumof a New Worldregional geography, that urban planningis relativelywell known(see fallsa littlebeyond our periodof examination. Stanislawski1947), but disagreement continues The Carmelitefriar Antonio Vdzquez de Es- on the relationof theoryand practiceand the pinosa (c. 1570-1630)traveled through most of originof the Spanishgridiron plan. HispanicAmerica for fourteen years (1608-22), Thefirst unambiguous government decree in perhapsto evaluatepossibilities for his order regardto townlocation and morphologydates to engage in missionarywork. Doubtless to November1513 (CDI 1883,vol. 39, 284-85, Vdzquez(1969) had importantbackers because 295-97);it instructed Pedrarias, the governor of he had fullfreedom of movement,access to Panama,to choose a townsite on the coast or privilegedinformation (such as the salariesof alonga riverto facilitatetransport, making cer- high church officials),and dispositionover tainthat the locationwas healthy,near wood- reams of municipaland economic statistics, land (forfuel) and good soil (to cultivate),and

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions From Columbus to Acosta 555 not liable to flooding;once the site was se- begunin 1531,also conformsto the ideal type lected,the streets,plaza, church,and house of grid layout(Yfiiez 1991), and manyother lotswere to be laid out in an explicitly"regu- examplesin variousparts of HispanicAmerica lar" (ordenado)manner, from the verybegin- predate1573. ning.A geometricgrid is evidentlymeant, but The ordinancesmerely articulated and legal- no particulararrangements are specifiedfor ized a systemalready well establishedand in the variouscomponents. Cortes (1963, 589-90) commonuse (Hardoy1978). But the prescribed receivedalmost identical instructions in 1523, modelwas notalways followed. Most such grid thatadded the caveat to avoid locationsthat townsare moreor less axiallyoriented to the were excessivelywindy, foggy, or steep. cardinal points, not at 450 to them, while the Butthe detailsfor the gridironformat were churchand publicbuildings were always on the only specifiedin the "laws for settlement," plaza (or on one of two plazas). Hardoy(1975) proclaimedin 1573(Ordenanzas 1973, 112-25). examined292 maps for 134 Spanish Colonial These ordinancescalled for towns to be organ- towns,only 22 of whichwere foundedbefore ized along fourmain streets running at right 1600; he foundthat only 42 percenthad been anglesto a centralplaza and openingto four plannedfrom the outset,another 32 percent externalgates; eightadditional streets should were graduallymodified to conformto a regu- divergefrom the cardinal directions at thecor- lar plan, and 26 percent evolved spontane- ners of the plaza. Diagonal alignmentof the ously. In short,the ordinanceswere not very square and axial streetswas thoughtto avoid effectiveafter 1600. directexposure to unpleasantwinds. The town Some authorsargue that the HispanicAmer- square was to be rectangular,with a ratioof ican grid plan was influencedby (or even 1:1.5, varyingfrom 60 by90 m to 240 by460 m, groundedin) the Romanarchitect Vitruvius or dependingon the initialand expectedsize of Classicaltown models, and Mendoza's remod- the town. One ordinancespecified that, ac- elingof MexicoCity was indeed influencedby cordingto Mediterraneancustom, the church the Italianarchitect and planner,Leon Battista shouldbe on the highestpoint and notneces- Alberti(1404-72), who drew manyideas from sarilyon the plaza, withthe public buildings Vitruvius(Tovar 1985). But mostnew townsin located between the two (Ordenanzas1973, Europefounded after about 1200 alreadyhad 124). Where possible, locationon a riveror some formof regularlayout long beforethe coast was recommended,with sanitation dic- delayed publicationof Alberti'sbook in 1485 tatingthat craft centers be located near the (e.g., Hardoy 1975; Kubler 1978; Benevolo water. 1980).14Considering the inordinate role of lead- Theseordinances are remarkablein that they ing conquistadorsor administratorsin deter- dictatenorms for urban planningmore than miningthe actual formsof the firstplanned two centuriesbefore the rectangularsurvey townsin the New World,it seems more rea- began to create checkerboardtown plans in sonableto attributeurban evolution to adapta- the U.S. The approximategrid plan forSanto tion of alreadyfamiliar Spanish prototypes to Domingo(1502) was laid out withoutinstruc- newopportunities and requirements:the avail- tionsto thateffect (see CDI 1879,vol. 31, 17). abilityof abundantspace; the need to quickly The 1522foundation document for Nata, Pan- establisha fewdozen initialsettlers; the prior- ama specifieda traza("trace"), implying a reg- ityof economic over defensivestrategies, fa- ular layout,and informsus thatthe principal voring level terrainand the conjunctionof streetsof Nata convergedon the churchand kitchengardens with dwellings on a singlelot; publicbuildings "according to and because of and proximityto vitalColonial institutions: the the order and manner that the traza is governmentbuildings, the church, and various identified[on the ground]"(Domrnguez 1977, shops (see also Hardoy1978). Instead of an 36). Mexico City-Tenochtitlanwas firstrebuilt endlessand inconclusivesearch for specific in- in 1523-in a locationnotorious for flooding tellectualizedantecedents, it seems morepro- and an unhealthyenvironment; it was then ductiveto explicateparticular urban histories drasticallyremodeled according to a strictgrid (e.g., Butzer1989), and to explorethe function plan after1538, not in responseto special in- of the cityas an instrumentof colonization structions,but according to theplan of Viceroy (Hardoy 1978; Morse 1987). Mendoza (Tovar1985). The newcity of Puebla, The drivingforce behind the formulationof

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the 1573 ordinancesand the role of govern- series); (4) compilationof a New World re- mentin marshallinggeographical information gionalgeography, based in parton the parish was JuanL6pez de Velasco (c. 1530-99).He reports;(5) developmentof a geographicand came from the remote village of Vinuesa ethnographicquestionnaire dispatched to all (Soria),where his familyowned some houses districtmagistrates in the New World(in final and irrigatedfields; checks of studentenroll- form1577) (Edwards 1969; Cline 1972); (6) the mentsat variousinstitutions of highereduca- questionnaire produced relaciones geograficas tionconfirm that he lackeda formaleducation for some 500 communities(mainly 1577-86), (Perez-Rioja1958). According to hislast wi 1, his now availablein fourteenpublished volumes, sisterin Vinuesalived in poverty;some of his coveringparts of Mexico,the Antilles,and the moneywent to hersons thatthey might go to widerAndean region(Aculia 1984-88; Latorre America-somethingthat he had been unable 1920; Jimenez 1965; Edwards 1980); and (7) a to do. Despite such impediments,Velasco parallelset of questionsdirected to townsin wroterespectable works on astronomy,a nav- Spain, which generated relaciones topograficas igationguide to the AtlanticOcean, and a re- foranother 636 communities(Nader 1990). In gional geographyof the New World (see additionto thesediversified and substantialini- above); he also becamea nationalauthority on tiativesin governmentgeography and policy, thespelling and pronunciationof the Castilian Ovando and Velasco seem to have provided language.Velasco probablyreceived a rudi- indirectsupport for the ethnographicresearch mentaryeducation from the parishpriest in of Durdn,Tovar, and Sahagu'nin Mexico. Vinuesa,and then began to workas a young The degree to whichthe Renaissancespirit governmentclerk in Madrid. By 1565 it appears of rationalizationpervaded this effortcan be thathe was an assistant,possibly responsible judgedby Velasco's thirty-eight questions (with forlegal work at theCouncil of the Indies.The twelvemore for coastal locations)(see Cline proverbialself-made man, Velasco had no rank 1972, 234-37). Question 4, for example, re- in his status-conscioussociety nor the oppor- quested informationas to whetherland was tunityto travel. plainor rough,open or forested;with many or His profoundinfluence on Spanish geo- few streams or springs, and abundant or graphicalplanning and policywas exertedin- deficientwaters; fertile or lackingin pastures; directly,through the authorityof his patron, abundantor sterilein crops and sustenance. Juande Ovando y Godoy, the distinguished Site and location of each town was to be juristand statesman.Appointed to revampthe specified;was the site high or low, level or Councilof the Indies in 1569-71,Ovando fo- sloping(question 10)? Other questionsasked cused his reformson improvinggeographical about distanceto the nearestmountains; the understandingand developing a coherent natureof adjacent riversand theirsources; body of legislation(Cline 1972; Gonzalez, in lakes or springsserving the town; volcanoes, L6pez de Velasco 1971,v-xxxvi). Velasco im- caves, or othernotable natural phenomena in plementedthis effort and was appointedcos- thevicinity; native trees common to thedistrict mographerand chroniclerto the Council to and theirpotential economic use; wildanimals thatend. AfterOvando's death,Velasco was and birds; informationon mineralresources, removedfrom a positionof influencein 1577 mines,or quarries;and, forcoastal locations, as the policiesof churchand stateshifted. data on shore topography,offshore reefs, Ovando apparently served as a "front"for tides,and storms.These biophysicalquestions Velasco's precocious initiatives,which in- were complementedby requestsfor informa- cluded: (1) reorganizationand codificationof tionon crops,soils, livestock, town plans, and the legislationapplicable to the Americas(by the like. Ethnographicquestions covered In- 1571); (2) formulationof the comprehensive dian languages,pre-Contact government and "laws of settlement"(in 1573); (3) solicitation religion,native dress, mannerof warfare,and of local reportsfrom parishes in the New pastand presentmeans of subsistence. World,through the various bishops, to provide The relaciones therefore solicited a broad data on the Indian population,frequently corpus of informationappropriate to the ad- amplifiedby geographicalinformation (1571) ministrativeneeds of governmentpolicy. The (see Paso y Troncoso1905b, c, forthe Mexican reportssubmitted by the magistratesor clergy

This content downloaded from 128.62.59.252 on Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:52:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions From Columbus to Acosta 557 were generallyquite good sincetheir accounts once-prosperoustown of Old Castile,Acosta were based on interviewsof long-termresi- studiedphilosophy at the universityof Alcala dents in Spanishtowns and nativeelders in de Henares1559-67. The fifteenyears 1572-87 Indian towns. In addition, many of the were spentin theAmericas, almost exclusively relacionesincluded local pictorialmaps, many in Peru,but he had close contactswith Tovar drawnby NativeAmericans, that illustrate six- and Durdnin Mexico fromwhom he derived teenth-centurycultural or symbolic land- mostof his ethnographicinformation. scapes, and sometimesinclude exquisite detail In his Historia natural, Acosta made on vegetation.Collectively the relacionespro- significantoriginal observations on physical videan inestimableresource of analytical infor- phenomena,e.g., the latitudinalorganization mationon landscape change and indigenous of worldclimates in whichhe recognizedthat culturalgeography (see Edwards1975; Bustos the rainyseasons of the tropicswere linkedto 1988; E. K. Butzer1989). But that should not let the zenithof the sun (high-sunrains) (Acosta us lose sightof the fundamentalfact that the 1962,2.7), contraryto the opposite argument relaciones,like other efforts of Velasco as the of Aristotle.He notonly reaffirmed Columbus firstgovernment geographer, were designed to and G6marato the effectthat the torridzone facilitateimperial administration and policyat was quite habitable,but explained that equato- boththe meso- and macroscales.In Madrid,by rialclimates were moderatedby relatively short the 1570s,more complex modes of geograph- days and abundantrainfall, especially where ical understandinghad begun to supersede complemented by coastal breezes (Acosta mapsas a tool of government. 1962,2.10-11). He conceptualizedthe system- Velasco's influence on sixteenth-century atic decrease of temperaturewith elevation in scientificobservation thus was enormous.Not tropicalmountains (Acosta 1962, 2.12) and thus onlydid he playa catalyticrole in government, anticipatedthe montaneecozonation of Hum- buthe also challengedothers to followsimilar boldt. norms.Indeed, Antonio de Ciudad Real(1976), Buthis majorcontribution rests in his expo- a Franciscanfriar traveling through Mexico in sitionof a scientificand ontologicalframework 1584-89 as secretaryto a visitinginspector, forthe New World.The firsthalf of his book seems to have modeled his accounton parts focuses on the naturalworld, and there he ofthis questionnaire, noting the environments makestwo basic points(O'Gorman, in Acosta he traversed,land use aroundeach town,and 1962,xliii-xlvii): (1) How theAmericas form an crops grownin the variousmonasteries. Simi- integralpart of the universe,in relationto the larly,requests for land deeds in Mexico in- globaldistribution of seas and continents,and creasinglyincorporated environmental infor- the habitablerealm; (2) How theAmericas are mation, so much so that the land-grant formedof the same four physicalelements documentscan be used to reconstructthe veg- (earth,water, air, fire)and the same natural etationof the sixteenthcentury (Butzer and orders(mineral, vegetal, animal) as the other Butzerforthcoming). Yet Velasco was indebted continents.The second halfof his work, on the to the earlierefforts of FernandoColon: in humanworld, is similarlystructured according manyways he merelyimplemented the initia- to two arguments(O'Gorman, in Acosta1962): tivesof Colon's Itinerario,a concept that finally (1) Thatthe NewWorld peoples are an integral bore richfruit sixty years later.15 partof the supernaturalworld as well as of humankind,that is, spiritual,physical, feeling, and rationalcreatures; (2) Thatthe New World A ScientificFramework: Acosta peoples have theirown history(in partoral), makingthem part of a universalhistory. As the intellectualferment of the sixteenth This all may seem self-evidenttoday, but centurybegan to diminishwith growing reli- Acostawas the firstEuropean to explicitlyrec- gious orthodoxyand censorship(Kamen 1985, ognize thatNew Worldphenomena existed in chap. 5), it remainedfor the Jesuitscholar Jo- theirown right.Building on ideas alreadyex- seph de Acosta(c. 1540-1600)to place theNew pressed by Lopez de Velasco (1971,2), he at- Worldinto a newscientific framework. The son tributedthe divergenceof the Old and New of a merchantfamily in Medinadel Campo, a Worldpeoples to migration,surmising that the

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continentswere connected or almost con- singledout here, togetherwith many others, nectedin unexploredArctic latitudes: representa wealth of originaland empirical theone (world)and the other are joined and are observationand analysisof new environments continuousor at least approach each other and are and unfamiliarpeoples, all withina span of veryclose . . . because the Arcticor NorthPole three generations.Separately or in tentative hasnot been discovered and the full extent of the formsof synthetic integration, they laid out the land is unknown.... thefirst settlers travelled to theIndies ... without componentsof a scientific,geographical un- reflection,progressively shifting locations and ter- derstandingof that "New" World.This was a ritories,some occupying those already found, oth- veritableRenaissance or rebirth,that easily sur- erslooking for new ones, so thatin the course of passed any Classical prototypes,and the timethey came to fillthe lands of the Indies with so manygroups, peoples, and languages(Acosta challengeto deal withall thatwas novel put 1962,1.20). people with ruralbackgrounds on an equal footingwith those steeped in academiccurric- Other,popular fables such as the LostTribes ula. or Atlantiswere rejected.As a creationisthe Giventhe exuberantenvironmental descrip- was puzzled bythe differentdegrees of diver- tionsof a Columbus,an Oviedo, or a Cieza, or gence betweenthe Old and New Worldfau- the love of natureexhibited by Acosta (1962, nas, and theabsence of largemammals on the 1.3), itis difficultto understandhow John Elliott Caribbeanislands, suggesting that can claimthat: throughnatural instinct and divine providence dif- ferentkinds (of animals) went to different regions, Itis as ifthe American landscape is seen as no more doingso wellin somethat they remained, or if than a back clothagainst which the strangeand theymoved on, they did notsurvive or diedout perenniallyfascinating people of the New World intime (Acosta 1962, 4.36). are dutifullygrouped. This apparent deficiency in naturalisticobservation may reflect a lackof inter- Itcan be arguedthat this concept of diverging est amongsixteenth-century Europeans, and espe- migrationanticipates biogeography and even ciallythose of the Mediterraneanworld, in land- geographicalspeciation, but without its evolu- scape and in nature(1970, 20). tionaryimplications. A moresatisfactory solution to thedilemmas Foran influentialhistorian of Spain,the ethno- of naturalhistory noted by Acosta was not centricdismissal of South Europeaninterest in forthcominguntil Darwin, while the originof the naturalworld is inexcusable.More import- New Worldpeoples has onlybeen unraveled ant, the inabilityof such a fine humanistto duringthe twentieth century. Although Acosta graspthe intellectualexcitement of geographi- remainedentrenched in Aristotelianthinking, cal observationand perceptionof that new his synthetic,ontological framework stands worldis deeplydisturbing. midwaybetween Medieval attemptsto con- Unfortunately,the Spanishcontributions of structa cosmologicalorder and moremodern thesixteenth century to geographyand related effortsto layout a new,scientific counterpart. had minimal Publishedin 1590,his ideas were disseminated scientificresearch impacton the Germanrevival of the field duringthe early bytwenty-five foreign editions during the next nineteenthcentury. Humboldt (1845-47, II, 298) two centuries(Lopez Pifiero1979, 295). readily acknowledged the importance of Oviedo and Acosta,but did not know Cieza. Retrospect Furthermore,Fernando Colon, Sahagu'n,Lopez de Velasco, Vdzquez, and the relaciones It is evidentthat Columbus's encounter with geogrficas remainedunpublished and inac- whatcame to be calledthe New Worldhad an cessible, primarilyas a resultof officialxeno- immense intellectualimpact on thoughtful phobiaor religiouscensorship. The curtainthat Spaniardsin manywalks of life,with and with- began to close in 1577stifled free inquiry, and out formaleducation. These includedsailors the qualityof Spanish researchdeclined long and soldiers,clerks and clergymen,and a few beforethe precipitousfall in Spanishscholarly men of letters.They were connectedless by publicationabout 1640(see Lopez Pifiero1979, academic linksor traditionsthan by a sponta- 377-86). The geographythat reemerged in neous capacityto observe and describe,to Spain during the mid-1700sstood in the compareand classify.The authorsand works shadow of the French Enlightenment(see

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Capel 1982), and it did not regain its original information.Munster (1968), Waters (1958), Har- vitalityuntil well into the present century. vey (1987),Campbell (1987), Harley (1990), and Nebenzahl (1990) are recommendedfor those readersinterested in the cartographyof the pe- Acknowledgments riod.The unexpecteddeath of BrianHarley will undoubtedlydelay preparation of volume 3 of his Developmentof the ideas discussedhere was fa- and David Woodward'smonumental History of cilitatedby free access to the libraryof Juan F. Mateu Cartography,which will treat the Age of Discov- (Valencia),discussion with Jos6 M. L6pezPifiero (Va- ery. lencia),and ManualGonzalez Jim6nez and Fernando 4. Questionspersist whether the diaryof the First Drazdel Olmo (Sevilla),and participationin thesym- Voyageis heavilyedited, incomplete, or even a posium"El Nuevo Mundo y los procesosde difusion selective summaryof Columbus's originalby de la cienciay la t6cnicadurante el perfodocolonial" BishopLas Casas (see Fuson1983; Henige1991). at the UniversidadInternacional Men6ndez Pelayo These issuesdo notaffect the materialsselected (Valencia),September 1991. JamesT. Abbottpro- here,which clearly do notstem from Las Casas, vided majorassistance with the librarysearch. Car- who laterparaphrased the same biophysicaldata ville Earle(Baton Rouge), W. George Lovell(Kings- in a singularlylifeless and ineptmanner (see Las ton),Geoffrey J.Martin (New Haven), and CarlaRahn Casas 1965,I). Phillips(Minneapolis) offered valuable, constructive 5. Columbus'sbackground, prior to hisappearance criticism.Periodic Saturday breakfasts with Los Ami- at the Spanishcourt in the late 1480s,has been gos de la Fronterain San Antonioand Austinoffered inhot dispute since 1517. The idealizedbiograph- a livelyforum of discussion,especially with Addn icaldata for before 1488 all derivefrom Fernando Benavides,Robert Benavides, and ElizabethJohn. Col6n (1984)and Las Casas (1965),who used the same documentation,almost all ofwhich has dis- appeared and thus cannot be authenticated.If Notes the lostcorrespondence with the Florentinecar- tographer Paolo Toscanelli (1397-1482), as 1. MarcoPolo (1958)can be citedfor descriptions claimed by Col6n (1984,66-71) and Las Casas of "Tartar"transhumance and the springsnow (1965, I, 62-66), were verifiable,it would date meltin Armenia(chap. 22), the landscapeshe Columbus's interestin circumnavigationand, passed in the PamirMountains (chap. 47); mov- moreimportant, his scholarlyactivities, back to ingsands coveringtracks in the Lop Nor (chap. before1481. Las Casas (1965, I) refersto these 56),the bustle of lifeand urbanlayouts of Peking letterson seven differentoccasions, implying and Hangchow(chaps. 85 and 153),and a series thathe had themin hand. Fora lucidbut critical of well-tendedChinese landscapes(chaps. 107- analysisof Columbus'scareer, see Phillipsand 58). Evendata he obtainedby hearsay for Zanzi- Phillips1992; the authoritativebiography is by barand Madagascar(chaps. 192-93) are remark- Taviani(1985). ablyaccurate, such as a descriptionof giraffes. 6. Letterssecurely attributed to Columbusare writ- The "chapters"refer to the Bennedettosubdivi- ten in the scriptknown as humanisticacursiva sions, used by some but not all of the many (see Arribas1965, I, 166-67and plate101), char- availableeditions. On theexpanding geographi- acteristicof the royalcourt in about 1500. cal horizonsof MedievalEurope, see J. Phillips 7. No mapsby Columbus have been authenticated, (1988). buthis younger brother Bartolom6 is reputedto 2. Forexample, the Germancartographer Munzer have been the authorof severalnautical charts (1952)gave a valuableand remarkablyobjective (F. Colon 1984,85-86; Las Casas 1965,I, 153-54). eyewitnessaccount in 1494-95of the Muslim "BecauseColumbus dominates the documentary townsand people of recentlyconquered Gra- record,we knowless aboutthe other men on the nada, withoutquoting a singleClassical author voyage, but his observations . . . can stand as a or historicalsource. By comparison, a moreeru- generaldescription of theirexperience" (Phillips dite Portuguesetraveler, Barreiros (1952), trav- and Phillips1992, 157). The geographicalcompe- eled throughSpain in 1542, toefashion a self- tence of contemporarycartographers becomes styledchorography that was littlemore than a apparentin the case of Andresde Morales(died pretextto displayhis familiaritywith Classical 1517),a ship piloton Columbus'sThird Voyage. literature;observations become littlemore than Morales was commissionedto make a map of incidental. Hispaniolain 1508 (see colorcopy in Milanich and 3. The Ptolemy(1932) edition, in Englishtransla- Milbrath1989, 68), and informationfrom his re- tion,has been criticized,but it is one ofthe very portis preservedin Martyr(1964, 349-55), subse- fewthat is accessibleand notwritten in Latinor quentlyevaluated by Carl Sauer (1966,41-48). Greek.The fifteenth-centurymaps it reproduces The map is remarkablydetailed and accurate, presumablygo backindirectly to third-centuryor showingthe key mountainchains in fifteenth- earlierprototypes, to illustratethe regional infor- century,North Italian technique (see Harvey1987 mationavailable in Antiquity.By contrast, Ptol- forexamples). Sauer rateshighly the information emy(1966), in Latinwith commentary and maps on indigenousterritorial organization and land bySebastian Munster, is a good exampleof how use, but the abbreviatedtopographic descrip- these principleswere used to redrawthe same tionspreserved in Martyrare also intriguing.Mo- mapsduring the early 1500s, using contemporary ralesappears to have had accurateviews on the

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patternof ocean currentsin the NorthAtlantic, shareswith Erasmus is hisfrequent use of satire and laterserved as ChiefPilot in the Casa de to criticizeSpaniards in generaland churchmen Contrataci6nof Sevilla(Becker 1917, 81, 90-91). in particular.The SpanishErasmian movement, Thatinstitution in Sevillawas the keyEuropean especiallyas representedby Juan Lufs Vives centerof navigational science from 1508 onwards (1492-1540),may, however, be pertinent,with its (Broc1980, 194-96). For insights into its curricu- emphasison inductiveargument. lumfor ship pilots, see Lamb(in Medina1972). 11. Ideal scientificprocedure, according to Hum- 8. An earlyappreciation of Columbus'sobserva- boldt(1845-47, I, 65-70)proceeds from accurate tionsis givenby Humboldt(1845-47, I, 296-97, observationand descriptionto understanding, 335; II,55-57, 277, 299-304, 325; IV,233, 250, 253, via analogyand induction,a viewworth remem- 261),who lauds his poeticdescriptions, and in- beringin a timewhen empiricaland inductive terpretshis observationson botany,wind pat- researchare denigratedby some socialscientists. terns,and magneticdeclination; but at times,I In praisingOviedo's "incrediblevirtuosity in suspect,he readstoo muchinto the statements botany,"J. D. Sauer (1976,n. 16) statesthat he of Columbus.For a humanisticevaluation, see "was farahead of his onlymodel, Pliny, in accu- Gerbi(1985, chap. 2), who also emphasizesthe racyand originality."Also in regardto accuracy, Genoan navigator'sfeeling for nature, as wellas Ferrando(1957) emphasizes that Oviedo's dataon hisfocus on differencesor affinitiesbetween the the PacificOcean were extractedwith great care biotaof the Indiesand the Old World.It is sur- fromtrustworthy sources, providinga realistic prisingto readin Sale (1990,102)that Columbus's pictureof exactlywhat was knownto Europeans languageis "opaque and lifeless";I can only about its coastlinesand islandsc. 1550. There inferthat Sale did notsample the evocative orig- were no imaginaryislands on Oviedo's mental inallanguage, in favorof a "flat"English transla- map. tion.Sale (1990,101) lamentsthe absence of an 12. ThatOviedo did not knowthe workof Aristotle, exultantdescription of "old-growthtropical for- Theophrastus,or Dioscorideson plants(Butzer est" fromthe Bahamas,a curiousgaffe for a forthcoming[b]), nor the late Medieval herbal professedecologist, both in viewof the subcli- literature,is readilyexplained by the factthat maxwoodlands of these low, hurricane-lashed these were onlyused in the medicalcurriculum islands and of their considerableindigenous of the time(Alvarez 1957). He was also unaware populationin 1492. When Sale (1990,101) further of the agriculturaltreatise of GabrielAlonso de faultsColumbus for not writing about melodious Herrera(1970), published in 1513. Far more ortho- birdsongs with due excitement,I can onlycon- dox as a botanistwas FranciscoHerndndez, Philip cludethat Sale did not readthe journal carefully II's personalphysician, who was sentto the New afterthe entryfor October 28 (a scantten of his World to collect medicinalplants (Goodman fortyreferences are subsequentto thatdate). 1988,234-37). He spentsix years (1571-77) collect- Onlya superficialreader or an ideologuecould ing,drawing, and describingthousands of spe- concludethat Columbus "cares littleabout the cies on Hispaniolaand Cuba, and especiallyin featuresof nature"(Sale 1990,102). Mexico (Somolinos 1960-84),but died shortly 9. There is some ambiguityin FernandoCol6n afterhis return.L6pez Pifiero(1991) shows that (1908-15,1) aboutthe initialentry that the Itiner- Fernandez'sillustrations were probably drawn by arywas "begun"August 3, 1517,as to whether indigenousartists. thismeant the projector the writing(see De la 13. To make his case, Las Casas (1967)gleaned an Rosa 1906vs. Ponsotand Drain1966). Since Fer- endlesslitany of bestialcustoms from the Classi- nandohad onlyreturned from Rome in October cal authorsand earlychurch fathers, to showthat 1516and was in Spainwithout interruption until Old World peoples were more depravedthan late in 1519 (when he began his peregrinations those of the New World.But all too manyof his throughoutwestern Europe in searchof books Old Worldcomparative "data" are no morethan [see Arranz,in F. Col6n 1984,31-37]), his major ethnocentrichearsay about foreignpeoples or role in thiseffort appears to date from1517-19. practitionersof otherreligions. For a moresym- 10. O'Gorman(1946) believes that Oviedo's conver- patheticpresentation of this complex personality, sion to science beganwith his tripto the court see Friedeand Keen (1971). In regardto ritual of CharlesV in Brussels(1516-17), where he de- cannibalismin the New World,it is appropriate livereda formalcomplaint against the injustices to cite Phillipsand Phillips(1992, 295, n. 22): "To of PedrariasDdvila, Panama's notorious gover- denythat cannibalism existed, one needs to as- nor. In Belgium,Oviedo was exposedto Erasm- sume thata wide rangeof Europeancommenta- ianthought, if not seminars by Erasmus (c. 1466- torssimply made up thestories, an interpretation 1536) himself,who taught at Louvain from thatdefies reason, logic,and the availableevi- 1517-21.This Renaissancephilosopher, a close dence." friendof ThomasMore, emphasized a humanis- 14. Thereis an extensiveliterature on urbanplanning tic ratherthan a dogmaticChristianity, based on in Colonial LatinAmerica, and several of the the New ratherthan Old Testament.According above referenceshelp identifylarger collections to O'Gorman(1946), Oviedo began to see the of papers,mostly in English.A wealthof trans- Europeanenterprise in the New World as a prov- lateddocuments related to the Spanishcolonial identialmission that it was his vocationto de- enterprise,including many of the ordinancesor scribe.I havetrouble discerning a utopian thread decrees cited here, can be found in Parryand in Oviedo's history,and theonly obvious trait he Keith(1984), a treasuretrove for students inter-

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ested in exploringthe possibilitiesof historical References geographicalresearch in the region. 15. The linkbetween Velasco and Col6n appearsto be the notedcartographer Alonso de SantaCruz Square bracketsgive dates of originalpublication or (1505-67),who was appointedcosmographer to manuscripttermination. the Casa de Contrataci6nin Sevilla1536 (see Acosta, Joseph de. 1962 [1590]. Historia natural y Carriazo1951). He workedin Sevillauntil 1564, moralde las Indias. Ed., withcommentary by when he movedto Madridat the king'srequest. EdmundoO'Gorman. Mexico City: Fondo de Althoughthere is no documentationto provethe CulturaEcon6mica. Facsimile ed. with English point,Ovando's relianceon Velasco after1569 commentaryand anthology by Barbara G. offersa plausiblescenario that Velasco had al- Beddal. Valencia: Hispaniae Scientia,Albatros readyacquired astronomic and geographicexpe- riencewhile working for Santa Cruz in Madrid. Ediciones,1977. In 1572,Santa Cruz's greatmap collectionwas Acufina, Rene de, ed. 1984-88. Relaciones transferredfrom his old residencein Sevillainto geograficasdel Siglo XVI,10 vol. Mexico City: the possessionof Velasco, as the new royalcos- Institutode InvestigacionesAntropol6gicas, Uni- mographer.In his Librode las longitudes(com- versidadNacional Aut6noma de Mexico. pleted ca. 1557), Santa Cruz notes that he Ailly,Pierre d'. 1948 [1410]. Imago Mundi by Petrus plannedto writea geography,while in hisIslario Ailliacus.Trans. EdwinF. Keever.Wilmington, general(completed ca. 1560),he impliesthat he NC: Linprint. was workingon a Generalgeograffa e historia Alvarez L6pez, Enrique. 1957. La historianatural en (Carriazo1951, clxv).Velasco would have been aware of these plans and have had access to Fernandezde Oviedo. Revistade Indias17:541- whatevernotes that had been compiled, al- 601. thoughno suchmaterials are separatelyinvento- Arija Rivares,Emilio. 1972. Geograffade Espafa II: riedfor Santa Cruz's estate(see Carriazo1951). Historiade la geograffaesparola. Madrid: Es- AlthoughVelasco's geographywould not have pasa-Calpe. been possiblewithout Santa Cruz's maps, there Arribas Arranz, Filemon. 1965. Paleograffadocu- is no reasonto doubtthat his scientific organiza- mentalhispAnica. 2 vol. Valladolid:Universidad tion was his own. In 1556 or 1557 Santa Cruz de Valladolid. prepareda setof instructions for explorers in the Baker, J. N. L. 1963. of Ox- New World, consistingof seventeen points The history geography. (Jimenez1965, 272-77; Carriazo 1951, clxix- ford:Oxford University Press. clxxiii),evidently a direct antecedent to theques- Ballesteros Gaibrois, Manuel. 1957. Fernandez de tionnaireof Ovando and Velasco, in termsof Oviedo, etn6logo.Revista de Indias17:445-67. inventoryingenvironmental features and ethno- Barreiros,Gaspar. 1952 [1542]. Corograffade algu- graphicdata. Itemthree instructs the responsible nos lugares.In Viajesde extranjerospor Espara officialsto clarifythe situationof new lands,"if y Portugal,ed. J. GarcfaMercadal, vol. 1, pp. theyare mountainousor level, or if theyare 945-1046. swampyor fullof lakes,or ifthey are unhealthy Beazley, Charles R., and Prestage, Edgar. 1896-98. forthe nativesor forforeigners" (Jimenez 1965, the 274). Itemstwelve and sixteeninquire whether The chronicleof discoveryand conquestof thenative peoples havelearned men and books, Guinea.London: Hakluyt Society, reprinted New suggestingthat indigenous histories be obtained York:B. Franklin,n.d. in orderto translatethem into Spanish (Jimenez Beck, Hanno. 1973. Geographie: Europaische En- 1965,276)-a remarkableperspective not found twicklungin Texten und Erliuterungen.Frei- in Velasco'squestionnaire. These instructionsof burg:Karl Alber. SantaCruz, much like the ordenanzasfor town Becker, Jeronimo. 1917. Los estudios geogrAficos planning,form part of a chainof ideas, as can be en Espara. Madrid:Real Sociedad de Geograffa. seen fromthe instructionof ViceroyMendoza, Leonardo. the givenin MexicoCity in 1538to FrayMarcos for Benevolo, 1980. The historyof city. his explorationof Cibola; he was instructedto Cambridge,MA: MIT Press. makeobservations on the people as well as of Borah, Woodrow, and Cook, Sherburne F. 1960. "theclimate of the land; thetrees and plantsand The populationof CentralMexico in 1548:An domesticatedand wild animalsthey have; the analysisof the Suma de Visitasde Pueblos.Ibero- natureof the land,if it is rough(aspera) or flat Americana43. Berkeley:University of California (Ilana);the rivers,if they are largeor small. . . " Press. (Jimenez1965, 20). PerhapsMendoza even influ- Broc,Numa. 1980. La g6ographiede la Renaissance enced the scope of the Suma de Visitasin 1547 (1420-1620). Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, (see above). Itis interestingthat Santa Cruz uses monteand montuosanot for woodland/wooded, Comit6des travauxhistoriques et scientifiques as in prevailingSpanish usage, but like F. Col6n, (SectionGeographie, 9). formountain/mountainous-a tantalizing hint for Buisseret, David. 1992. Spain maps her "New a possibleconnection with Col6n, who would World."Encounters: A QuincentenaryReview 8: have knownSanta Cruz, as a fellowSevillano 14-19. withshared interests. Bustos, Gerardo. 1988. Libro de las descripciones:

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