Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal De Acuña’S Nuevo Descubrimiento Del Gran Rio De Las Amazonas (1641)

Gold, Landscape, and Economy in Cristobal de Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas (1641)

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

Daniel Dinca M.A.

Graduate Program in Spanish and Portuguese

The Ohio State University

2015

Dissertation Committee:

Professor Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar, advisor

Professor Ignacio Corona

Professor Fernando Unzueta

Daniel Dinca

2015

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how nature is represented and the functions it serves in the discourse of Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641) written by

Cristobal de Acuña, one of the first detailed published accounts about the “discovery” of the Amazon region by Europeans. I argue that in Cristobal de Acuña’s narrative, Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641), the narrating subject tries to persuade the Spanish Crown to acknowledge the great economic potential that the natural resources from the Amazon region have to offer, how they would add to the wealth of the Spanish

Empire and implicitly begin the Spanish efforts to colonize and evangelize the Amazon region. I claim that Acuña is “ahead of his time” and thinks like an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist proposing a new economic model for generating sustainable wealth: extraction and manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazon region under a “state-guided” capitalistic system. Acuña does not just describe the unique, exotic landscapes he encounters in his voyage down the Amazon River, but rather these landscape descriptions serve the purpose of emphasizing the economic value of nature in the region.

The elements of the Amazonian landscape seem to already possess connotations of richness and wealth ready for European appropriation and consumption. For example, in Acuña’s text the abundant trees are seen as timber that can be used to make boats at very low cost

ii while the sugar mills harvesting sugar cane on the Amazon River banks can generate a good return for their investment.

For the analysis of Acuña’s text I use two main theoretical concepts: landscape, from the field of Cultural Geography and capitalism from the disciple of Economics.

In order to understand Acuña’s early modern capitalistic mentality I employ the economic framework for early capitalism detailed by Frieden in the study “The Modern

Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview.” I claim that at a time when mercantilism was the main economic system in the Western World in the 17th century,

Acuña was proposing a new economic model, a “state-guided” form of capitalism. I also briefly discuss the economic systems in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries focusing on the role of gold and silver in the monetary system at the time, as well as the power struggles between Spain, England and the Netherlands in appropriating segments of the Amazonian landscape.

In addition to analyzing Acuña’s text I also examine an earlier narrative about the discovery and exploration of Amazonia, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación (1542) in order

iii to contrast early representations of the Amazonian landscape to those provided by Acuña almost a century later.

Dedication

This document is dedicated to my family.

Acknowledgments

I would like to first thank my dissertation advisor, Professor Ulises Juan Zevallos-

Aguilar. In his role as my new advisor he inspired me, encouraged me and guided me. I will always value the time under his guidance and I am appreciative of his insightful comments and encouragement to finish my dissertation.

I am grateful to Professor Ignacio Corona for his advice and for generously sharing with me his article on the concept of “pararepresentacion” that was helpful for my dissertation. Muchas gracias.

I extend my heartfelt thanks for Professor Fernando Unzueta for his positive attitude and for his moral support during the dissertation writing process. I also appreciate

Professor Unzueta’s comments during the defense of my prospectus, I ended up writing a whole new chapter as a result of his feedback.

I am grateful for the honest advice that Professor Holly Nibert offered me and for her sincere encouragement, on several occasions, to finish my dissertation.

I am thankful to Professor Maureen Ahern for inspiring me to pursue Latin

American Colonial studies and for guiding the first stage of the current dissertation project.

She was such an amazing professor and a good role model and is dearly missed.

I am grateful for the inspirational messages I heard from Greg Plitt, even though he left us too soon earlier this year. His videos messages encouraged me in my darkest days and are still inspiring me. I remember in particular Greg’s messages of not giving up on yourself or your dreams and of “hard work and sweat” today to have a better tomorrow.

I am also thankful to my family and friends who stood by me during this difficult time of writing my dissertation and understanding the time I had to sacrifice to complete my project.

vii

Vita

2000...... B.A. Spanish, The Ohio State University

2002...... M.A. Spanish, The Ohio State University

2002 to present ...... Graduate Teaching Associate and Lecturer

Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The

Ohio State University

Fields of Study

Major Field: Spanish and Portuguese

Primary concentration: Colonial Latin American Literatures and Cultures

Secondary concentration: Modern Latin American Literatures and Cultures

Minor: Film Studies

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii

Dedication ...... v

Acknowledgments...... vi

Vita ...... viii

Table of Contents ...... ix

List of Figures ...... xi

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 1: America – The Golden Landscape ...... 22

Chapter 2: First documented exploration of the Amazon River: Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación ...... 45

Chapter 3: The Economy in the 16th and 17th Centuries ...... 102

Chapter 4: Cristobal de Acuña’s Narrative and the Economic Potentiality of the Amazon

...... 126

Chapter 5: Landscape and Religious Discourse ...... 196

Conclusion ...... 216

Bibliography ...... 222

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in

Locis Emendatus (1594) ...... 29

Figure 1.2: Depicting America Mexicana and Peruana. Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594) . 34

Figure 1.3: Depicting Peruana and a cannibalistic feast present in the background.

Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro

Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594)...... 36

Figure 1.4: El Dorado- credit the British Library...... 40

Figure 2.1: A facsimile of the end of the document dated March 1, 1542. Document published along with Carvajal’s original relación by José Toribio Medina in 1894...... 49

Figure 2.2: Map of Orellana's route down the Amazon (after Medina 1934) ...... 65

Figure 2.3: Elaborate ceramic from the Marajo region dated between 1000-1500 AD., at the Penn museum. Photographed by John H. Walker...... 68

Figure 2.4: Ancient terraces in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia are indication of advance agricultural techniques that sustained a large civilization. Photograph by Clark Erickson.

...... 71

Figure 2.5: “Forest Island” in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia where mounds and ancient pottery was found. Photograph by Clark Erickson ...... 72

Figure 2.6: Intricate pottery discovered in the “forest islands” in Llanos de Mojos,

Bolivia. Photo by Asher Rosinger...... 73

Figure 2.7: Photograph by G. Miranda, FUNAI ...... 80

Figure 2.8: Map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled “Nieuwe Caerte van het

Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana” (1599)...... 84

Figure 2.9: Modified closeup from the map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled “Nieuwe

Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana” (1599)...... 86

Figure 2.10: Modified closeup from the map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled

“Nieuwe Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana” (1599). El Dorado is marked as a physical place on the map, where the city of Manoa is...... 87

Figure 3.1: Map of the Spanish Empire under Charles V (Credit: Cambridge University)

...... 104

Figure 3.2: Vieja friendo huevos by Diego Velázquez ...... 121

Figure 4.1: Map of the Indies drew by Lopez Velasco. It was originally published in

1601 by Antonio Herrera y Tordesillas (reprinted in 1726)...... 136

Figure 4.2: First Page of the Original Edition of Acuña’s Text Published in 1641 ...... 141

Figure 4.3: Acuña’s Dedication to Count Duke de Olivares ...... 149

Figure 4.4: Conde Duque de Olivares, Painted by artist Diego Velázquez.

Credit: Prado Museum ...... 150

Figure 4.5: Chapter LXI – Description of the Province of Worrier Tribe Yoriman ...... 159

xii

Figure 4.6: Continuation of Chapter LXI – Acuña Provides the Exact Location, in

Leagues, of Where This Amazonian Population is Located...... 159

Figure 4.7: Using google maps Gilda Mora was able to pinpoint the location that Acuña was writing about in Chapter LXI in the Amazon. (Photo credit: Gilda Mora) ...... 160

Figure 4.8: Above – Antrocaryon amazonicum. (Photo credit: Ymber Flores Bendezú)

...... 166

Figure 4.9: Below – The Fruit of the “Cedro” Antrocaryon Amazonicum. (Photo credit:

Anestor Mezzomo)...... 167

Figure 4.10: Drawing and Description of the Exotic Animal Manatee by Jesuit Juan

Eusebio Nierember. (From Historia Naturae) ...... 172

Figure 4.11: Cassava Roots, Also Known as Yucca. Photograph by Ariane Citron ...... 177

Figure 4.12: Depiction of a medicinal plant from Mexico in Rerum medicarum Novae

Hispaniae thesaurus by royal physician Francisco Hernández...... 179

Figure 5.1: Altamira oriole. Credit: Greg Lasley ...... 203

Figure 5.2: A Fragment of Ruiz de Montoya’s Conquista Espiritual ...... 213

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Introduction

Almost one hundred years after the ‘accidental discovery’ of the Amazon River during Francisco de Orellana’s voyage (1541), in 1639 a new expedition set out to travel from Quito down the Amazon River and explore what then was an inaccessible and little known territory. Cristobal de Acuña, a Spanish Jesuit who accompanied the expedition, wrote about the Amazonian landscape:

Hay en este gran río de las Amazonas cuatro géneros que cultivados serán sin duda

suficientes para enriquecer no a uno sino a muchos reinos, de los cuales es el

primero maderas, que fuera de haber muchas de tanta curiosidad y estima como el

mejor ébano, hay tantas de las comunes para embarcaciones que juntamente se

podrán sacar para otras partes, seguros siempre de que por muchas que se saquen,

jamás se podrán agotar. (101)

In this paragraph Acuña interprets the natural elements of the Amazon River in terms of their potentiality, in economic terms. One of the resources capable of “enriching not just one kingdom but many”, is the abundant trees that provide the timber used in construction of boats at low cost. This is one of the many examples of natural resources from the

Amazonian region that Acuña details in his narrative. Like a careful innovative capitalist, 1

Acuña outlines a plan for different ways of obtaining profit by harvesting and manufacturing the natural elements in Amazonia. These elements of the Amazonian landscape seem to already possess connotations of richness and wealth ready for European appropriation and consumption. In my dissertation I claim that Acuña is “ahead of his time” and thinks like an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist proposing a new economic model for generating sustainable wealth: extraction and manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazon region under a “state-guided” capitalistic system. Cristobal de Acuña in Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641), tries to persuade the

Spanish Crown to acknowledge the great economic potential that the natural resources from the Amazon region have to offer, how they would add to the wealth of the Spanish

Empire and implicitly begin the Spanish efforts to colonize and evangelize the Amazon region.

Regarding to context for Acuña’s voyage, it should be noted that Cristobal de

Acuña accompanied Pedro Tejeira’s expedition down the Amazon River and was instructed by Spanish authorities to give a detailed written account of the geographical features, flora, fauna and indigenous populations from Amazonia that he observed during his trip. Tejeira, a Portuguese captain, had just arrived in Quito with a group of soldiers in a voyage upstream the Amazon River and surprised the Spanish authorities since at the time it was not known whether the Amazon River was navigable upstream over such a long distance. Afraid that enemies of the Spanish Crown could follow the same river route to reach Spanish settlements (in particular the Dutch and the English), the Governor of Quito

decided to send Cristobal de Acuña, a Jesuit rector at a University in Quito, to accompany captain Tejeira’s expedition back. Acuña was instructed to record in writing everything he witnessed during the trip. At the time this expedition took place Portugal was part of the

Spanish Empire, which explains the camaraderie and trust between Acuña and his fellow

Portuguese crew members that he was traveling with. After a nine months voyage down the Amazon River, the expedition safely reached the Portuguese settlements close to the

Atlantic Ocean and Acuña later embarked for Spain where he presented his report to the

Spanish King and to the Council of the Indies in 1641. The report was published the same year by the Council of the Indies under the title Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las

Amazonas. Acuña’s book has had several editions published throughout the years, which seems to suggest there was an interest in the information it presented. Among them there was a 1682 French translation, a 1698 English translation, a German translation in 1729, an 1891 Spanish reprint of original published 1641 version, a Portuguese translation in

1941, a Spanish edition in 1945 and 1946, a 1986 edition part of Monumenta Amazonica project, and the most recent edition, published in 2009.

Regarding research written on Acuña in particular, to date there are very few scholarly publications on Acuña’s text; most of them are introductions (mainly biographical or historical prefaces) to the various editions of the book published throughout the centuries. To date there are no critical articles on Acuña’s narrative published in scholarly journals, except for a book review written by Vicente Francisco Torres in the journal Siempre! (2007) and a mention of Acuña’s narrative in the article “Imaginario y

Discurso: la Amazonía” published in Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana by Ana

Pizarro in 2005. In her study Pizarro focuses on how the imaginary in the Amazon area has been constructed over the centuries and even though Pizarro mentions that the richness of the Amazon was one of the ways in which this area was represented after its discovery, very few specific details about Acuña are given in the article. Pizarro’s main contribution is her claim that Amazonia is inhabited by an imaginary.

The most recent edition of Acuña’s book (2009) edited by Arellano et al suggests a renewed interest in Acuña’s narrative, even though the analysis that Arellano gives is more from a historical perspective. To date there are only 3 dissertations that mention

Cristobal de Acuña’s book but none of them focuses on the analysis of landscape and economy as I do in my dissertation. The first dissertation that mentions Acuña was published in 1950 by a doctoral student doing his PhD in history. In “The opening of the amazon 1540- 1640”, Walter Norman Breymann studied the discovery and exploration of the Amazon interior from a historical perspective. Stating that most historians have focused on such regions as Peru and have ignored the large Amazonian interior, Breymann argues that the Amazon, the dominant geographical feature of South America is key to the colonial history of the northern part of that territory: “the very concept of South America as a continent and the determinations of its size and proportions was greatly influenced by the discovery of the Amazon”. Breymann writes about some of the expeditions that took place in the valley of the Amazon (most notably the Orellana’s expedition and the legend of “El Dorado”). Breymann mentions Acuña in his dissertation and states that Acuña’s

narrative remains the classic and authoritative description of the Amazon in the 17th century. Breymann even argues, referring to the “status” of Acuña among the Portuguese expedition that he was an “official spy”, given that the Spanish viceroy wanted to prevent the Portuguese of having any information that the Spanish did not already possessed (214).

Breymann’s study offers important historical background information that I need for my dissertation, given that Breymann is one of the few scholars who studied Acuña. It is of interest in particular the role of Acuña sent by Audiencia de Quito as an official observer in Tejeira’s voyage and his status as the person in charge with preparing a report for the king of Spain. The choice of Acuña as a historiographer could not have been better,

Breymann notes, as Acuña was a trained missionary observer. According to Breymann,

Acuña was able to write a full record of events and a detailed description of the Amazonian river, something that members from previous expeditions were not able to do completely.

It was truly the first instance of careful, well-considered, well documented exploration on the Amazon: “There is literally no aspect of the geography, hydrography, and anthropology of the basin which is not touched by the alert Acuña” (215). Breymann’s observation is a

“confirmation” that Acuña’s book was indeed one of the first detailed descriptions of the

Amazonian region. I would further argue in Chapter 2 of my dissertation that, if previous expeditions in the Amazon (Orellana’s expedition) were describing a journey into the unknown, or were discovering the Amazonian region unplanned, “by accident”, Acuña’s expedition was a planned journey, and therefore he was able to write a lot more carefully about the landscapes he observed.

Also Breymann’s work helps understand the historical context that explains why most of Acuña’s copies of the his newly published book were destroyed shortly after publication; Portugal became independent from Spain in 1640 and Philip IV, Spain’s king at the time, was afraid that the information in Acuña’s report could be used by Portugal to take possession of the new lands in Amazonia, therefore he ordered the copies of the book destroyed. This statement made me think that if Portugal had become independent just one year earlier, Acuña’s voyage would not have been possible. As Breymann notes, even though the king ordered Acuña’s freshly published book copies destroyed, he forgot that the Portuguese captain Tejeira possessed the same information that Acuña had provided.

A dissertation titled “Geografías de conocimiento y poder: la construcción espacial de la Real Audiencia de Quito”, by Clara Valdano, mentions Acuña’s narrative as well.

Valdano recognizes Acuña’s intentions to evangelize the Amazon region, but she focuses more on the importance that the city of Quito had in Acuña’s text; specifically on how the city of Quito was an intellectual and religious center from which Acuña’s expedition started. Valdano states that the topography of the region becomes personified and takes human characteristics with the city of Quito becoming “a head” that served an important political function at the time. However, Valdano doesn’t use the word landscape in her analysis the same way I plan to analyze Acuña’s text, nor does she go into details about the economic potential of the Amazonian region from an economic perspective.

Another dissertation that deals with Acuña’s narrative was written in French by

Dominique Anne H. Linchet in 1995, titled “La Relation de la Riviere des Amazones” de 6

M. de Gomberville: La traduction au service du colonialisme, du patriotisme et de la propagande sous Louis XIV”. Linchet argues that Acuña’s text translated into French by

Marin Le Roy de Gomberville in 1682 was adapted and turned into a nationalistic propagandistic discourse that encouraged the French to colonize the Amazon region.

However, Linchet does not analyze Acuña’s narrative from the perspective of economic potentiality of the Amazonian landscape as I plan to do in my project but rather focuses on the translation process, Gomberville’s additional commentaries and nationalistic rhetoric, as well as the socio-historical context that surrounded the 1682 French translation of

Acuña’s text. Linchet mentions an anonymous preface to Acuña’s text and states that: “the explicit patriotism in the anonymous preface is an attempt to give confidence to the French colonial enterprise, to a public that lost the enthusiasm for an over the Atlantic enterprise”

(15). This statement could be proof that Acuña’s narrative was indeed used by other

European nations which were trying to appropriate and colonize the Amazonian landscape, as I discuss more in detail in Chapter 4 of the dissertation. Acuña’s version of text that

Linchet worked with for her dissertation was not the same as the one originally published into Spanish in 1641. In addition to the 200 page preface Linchet mentions that

Gomberville, who translated the Spanish version into French, presents the same content as

Acuña’s Spanish text and conserves the fidelity to the original. However, there are also differences which reflect the necessities found by his author in an effort to communicate a new message to an audience and culture different than the original culture: “This way we find additions to Acuña’s text, omissions, and modifications at the level of vocabulary and

in presenting the facts” (45). Linchet’s text can be useful to my dissertation mainly because it presents some historical facts necessary for understanding Acuña’s text in the context of its time and also as evidence that indeed Acuña’s text was used for colonization ventures by other European nations that planned on using it as a “guide” to explore little known territories of the Amazon region.

My project fits within a larger pattern of recent renewed scholarly interest in the relationship between discourse and nature; for example, El saber de los jesuitas, historias naturales y el Nuevo Mundo (by Millones Figueroa y Ledezma) a collection of studies concerning natural history and the Jesuits in the New World during the colonial period, was published in 2005. Acuña is only mentioned in the introduction and his text is not analyzed in their book. Another important study for my project is the essay written by

Margaret Ewalt titled “Father Gumilla, Crocodile Hunter? The Function of Wonder in El

Orinoco ilustrado”. Ewalt claims that knowledge does not remove wonder (admiratio), understanding through reason the causes of even the most marvelous effects in nature need not extinguish the passion of wonder; instead, this process heightens man’s wonder at and devotion to God. The concept of wonder is similar to what I have noticed in Acuña’s narrative and also in the narrative of another Jesuit, Andrés Perez de Ribas, who was contemporary to Acuña. For both Acuña and Perez de Ribas nature is a site of wonders; nature is God’s marvelous creation and even by just admiring and contemplating the unique nature in the New World, the Jesuits faith and devotion to God become stronger. I expand on these concepts more in Chapter 5 of my dissertation.

Ewalt also published Peripheral Wonders: Nature, Knowledge, and Enlightenment in the Eighteenth-century Orinoco (2008) and in the chapter “Colonization, Commerce, and Conversions: Mapping the Economic and Evangelical Values of the Orinoco” Ewalt also recognized the economic potential of the nature in Gumilla’s text. Nevertheless, since

Ewalt deals with a text written a century later after Acuña’s account, the concept of economy had changed since Acuña’s time. In the eighteenth century important theoretical treaties about economy were written, such as The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith that became a fundamental work for modern economics.

My dissertation answers some of the following questions: How is nature represented in Acuña’s narrative? How does Acuña try to persuade the Spanish Crown of the economic potential of natural resources in the Amazonian landscape that he was documenting? What stylistic and rhetorical tropes does he use in his narrative? What was

Acuña’s economic model for the perceived potentiality of the resources in the Amazon region? How are Acuña’s representations of the American landscape different than the ones depicted in Carvajal’s narrative almost 100 years earlier? How does Acuña’s description of El Dorado contrast with Carvajal’s, almost a century earlier? How is

Acuña’s text similar or different from other Jesuit writings that dealt with nature in the

New World, during the same time period? Did Acuña’s description of nature fit within a larger pattern of Jesuit writings on nature in Latin America or was it different? How did

Acuña portray his interactions with the numerous indigenous communities that he encountered? What connotations did he assign to these interactions?

In attempting to answer these questions I work with the most recent modern edition of Acuña’s text (Arellano et al 2009) but I also consult the original 1641 edition, available in a digitalized format. My hypothesis is that in Cristobal de Acuña’s narrative, Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran rio de las Amazonas (1641), Acuña is the first to assign an economic potential to many other natural resources he encounters in his voyage: medicinal plants, wood, fruits and other comestibles, cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, exotic animals, fish and even gold and tries to convince the Spanish Crown that these material riches would be profitable. Implicitly, this new found wealth added to the Spanish imperial treasury meant that the king could continue to fund the Jesuit enterprise and also allow it to colonize the

Amazon region. This emphasis by Acuña on the natural richness of the Amazon region is even more important as previous expeditions in the area did not speak of the abundance in natural resources, but rather, the lack of them. Hunger was a constant theme in La aventura del Amazonas written by Fray Gaspar de Carvajal, part of Orellana’s expedition (1541).

Also Carvajal provides many descriptions of gold and stories about El Dorado that are not present in Acuña’s narrative, even though both of them described the same region: the

Amazon River. Acuña noticed that the Amazon was already inhabited and modified by numerous native populations. In his voyage Acuña observed large densely cities, advanced agriculture practices, “terra preta” or the fertile Amazonian soil, among other things. For him, these were evidence for the feasibility of a capitalistic enterprise in the region. Just as a modern cultural geographer, Acuña noticed that the Amazon was not a deserted pristine wilderness, but rather a landscape filled with the human presence.

Within the historical context of its time, Acuña’s narrative seems to have merited even more relevance. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Habsburg Monarchs did not focus on extraction and exploitation of natural resources but rather emphasized more the tribute and the acquisition of precious metals for acquiring wealth (Weaver). Even more, Spain’s monopolistic commercial policies was one of the factors that contributed to the economic decline of the Spanish Empire in the 17th century ( Alvarez, “Spanish monarchy's monetary problems in the seventeenth century: small change and foreign credit”).

In contrast, Acuña was able to think “outside the box”, as an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist and argue that gold and riches can be found in the Amazonian landscape in the form of extraction and manufacture of the many natural resources and commodities. From this point of view Acuña can be regarded as an innovative capitalist that proposed an early type of capitalism, “state guided”, where a substantial proportion of the “stock” of real capital is in private hands but the government ( the Spanish Crown, in this case) still plays a powerful role in guiding the economy (Frieden 118). The importance of Acuña’s text also resides in the fact that it can be looked at as a foundation of a contemporary discourse that considers the Amazon a “never ending” source of natural resources. Additionally, the economic value of the new found natural resources along the

Amazon River becomes the basis for struggle of power relations in the text between

Europe’s main nations trying to assert control over the Amazon region: Spain, England and

The Netherlands.

Since my dissertation focuses on the relationship between landscape and economy, especially in Acuña’s narrative, I use two main theoretical concepts: one that deals with landscape, from the field of Cultural Geography and another one with capitalism from the disciple of Economics. Even though landscape can be defined, on a broader sense, as a

“product of one of the most enduring set of linkages: the relationships between the physical environment and human society” (Whyte) the way I use the landscape term in my dissertation has more to do with the cultural meaning attached to it.

Landscape, as formulated by Robertson, is viewed as a “cultural product”; landscape is not nature but nature transformed by humanity. This theoretical approach sees every landscape whether on the ground or imagined, as representation. For Robertson landscapes are products of human values, meanings and symbols, usually products of the dominant culture in society: “in this view all landscapes carry symbolic meaning because all are products of the human appropriation and transformation of the environment, whether physically, as in the draining of marshes or in the extraction of oil and gas, or in the meanings we give to landscapes such as the grand Canyon…” (Robertson 4).

Originally referred to as the physical feature of an area of land or a genre of painting

(Oakes), historically, the academic use of the term “landscape” and its cultural component that is encompasses started in the disciple of Cultural Geography. Carl Sauer attached the cultural meaning to landscape in his essay published in 1925 titled “The Morphology of landscape”. For Sauer, “man-made” cultural processes worked to shape natural surroundings, the result of which was the visible world around us: the cultural landscape. 12

It was the task of the geographer to provide a detailed description of an area and then meticulously uncover the layers of human activity that had shaped the visible landscape in particular ways. Sauer’s morphological approach quickly became engraved on the

American cultural geography scene through the founding of the so-called Berkeley School of Geography, at the University of California in the early 1930s. That approach to landscape dominated the American Cultural Geography through the 1950s.

The concept of landscape evolved over time, especially with the advent of critical perspectives such as Marxism, Feminism and the general rise of social theory in the 1970s and 1980s which brought a less particularistic, and the same time more politicized approach to landscape. It was understood by scholars that landscapes reflect societal power relations and could not simply be taken at face value as the sum of their material elements, in other words there is more to landscape than meets the eye. In addition, it became accepted that

“landscape does not merely reflect power in society; it also acts to reproduce, naturalize, as well as to contest, power relations” (Oakes 149). Dominant actors in society shape landscapes to reflect their ideals, concerns and priorities, while subordinate voices are literally written out of the landscape. In Acuña’s text for example we see one view point, euro-centrist, of appropriating the natural resources in the Amazon, the voices of the indigenous populations are not present.

This view that the dominant culture shapes and represents landscapes in a certain way is also presented in Robertson’s work, for whom landscape is one of the principal ways by which the powerful in society maintain their dominance through a process of 13

imposition and naturalization: “Landscapes, then, reveal represent and symbolize the relationships of power and control out of which they have emerged and the human processes that have transformed and continue to transform them” (4). Acuña is part of the powerful segment in society that tries “to naturalize” the Amazonian landscape. Acuña does not describe the Amazonian landscape as something to be admired and “left alone”, but rather as something that is to be appropriated and taken possession of, for economical purposes.

Just like Robertson, for Whyte the interpretation of landscapes can depend upon the values and attitudes of individuals: “a capitalist might interpret landscape in monetary terms, an artist in aesthetic terms and a scientist in ecological terms” (9). By the emphasis that Acuña places on the economic potentiality of the resources in the Amazon region, he has the mentality of a capitalist.

For exploring the claim that Acuña is a capitalist I am using economic concepts from Frieden’s study “The Modern Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview.”

This allows me to understand the characteristics of mercantilism - the main economic model from Acuña’s time and also to support my claim that Acuña is trying to shift beyond the mercantilist system. In order to comprehend the type of capitalism that Acuña proposes, I find useful the chapter “The Four Types of Capitalism, Innovation, and

Economic Growth” by Baumol, Litan and Schramm. This helps perceive Acuña as an

“innovative entrepreneur”, a term defined as: “individuals who search out and put into practice ideas that are significantly different from those previously offered. Innovative 14

entrepreneurs are important because they are a prime source of the innovations that spur much of the growth of the world's prosperous economies (118). As I discuss in Chapter 4,

Acuña does offer innovative ideas, such as building ships on the banks of the Amazon river that would supply not only the very fine wood at low cost, but also the labor force to be provided by the indigenous populations that inhabit the region in abundance. According to Baumol, Litam and Schramm no economy is perfectly capitalistic, there are always some means of production that are owned and operated by government, and some of those means of production may be used for purposes other than profit. This helps understand that even though Acuña had a capitalistic mentality, worried about profit, he also advocated for the

Spanish Crown to intervene in many aspects of the economic operations in Amazonia. Thus what Acuña proposes is a “state-guided” capitalism where the government still plays a powerful role in guiding the economy. I also use other modern theoretical concepts from the field of economics, the book Economics today: the micro view (Miller) in order to understand some of the economic processes that Acuña describes in his narrative. Terms such as “capitalism”, “supply and demand”, “capital gain”, “consumption”, “economic profits”, “incentives”, “money” , “labor force” “free market” and others related to early capitalism could be applied to understand Acuña’s narrative.

In sum, investigating Acuña’s text provides a unique look into landscape discourses in the colonial period in the New World, the connections between landscapes and economic discourses and how landscapes were appropriated and used during the Spanish colonization process in the 17th century.

Regarding a brief overview of the chapters, Chapter 1 reviews some of the socio- historical background for Acuña’s narrative, including previous expeditions to the

Amazon. Acuña’s travel narrative must be understood in the context of other voyages and explorations into the American territory, many of them setting out as expeditions in search of gold or other material riches. This chapter reviews some of the early explorations in the

American landscape in search of riches and examines how the American landscape was represented by these first explorers and also the economic impact Spanish conquests in regions of the American continent had. The chapter also analyzes some early depictions of the American continent, such as drawings in some early maps and argues that America was represented as a wild, untamed landscape but also full of gold and riches, an image that started to be solidified in the European imaginary. The American landscape is constructed as a land of abundance on the maps, through these drawings and in the narratives and reports of Europeans who were part of the expeditions of the New World.

Chapter 1 also explores the beginning and the origin of the mythical El Dorado that sent the Spaniards into a frenzy of later explorations in the newly discovered American continent that eventually led to the discovery of the Amazon. It mentions briefly some of the first expedition in the Amazon region in the 16th century.

Chapter 2 analyzes the report (relación) of Father Carvajal documenting

Orellana’s expedition (1541). If at first the Amazonian landscape is described as inhospitable and dangerous, it becomes a land of abundance in the presence of the native populations. The chapter also examines claims that Carvajal’s relación could be regarded

as an ethnographic report of the Amazonian region. Recent archaeological discoveries in

Amazonia seem to support what Father Carvajal mentions about this indigenous populations who were mastering the art of ceramics making, for example.

In this first narrative of the discovery of the Amazon, the landscape was constructed as a cultural process. Taking as example the mythical Amazonian women warriors, it forms an argument that Carvajal’s projection of these mythical figures onto the new found landscape was more powerful than reality itself, even today the river that Orellana and

Father Carvajal “discovered” bear the name of the mythical Amazon women. Fray Gaspar not only wants to convert the Amazonian landscape into a Spanish one, but the Amazonian landscape has already become Spanicised in the Carvajal’s mind, it has become a Spanish landscape ready for European settlements. The landscape Father Carvajal described was forever to be associated with the mythical Amazonian women and the legend of El Dorado.

This chapter also connects this first discovery and exploration of the Amazon River to

Acuña’s, claiming that the elements that Carvajal focuses on in his narrative: hunger, gold, the Amazon women and El Dorado are absent or barely mentioned in Acuña’s narrative.

This could imply that almost a century later Acuña had a pre-Enlightenment mentality, emphasizing reason and empirical observation.

Chapter 3 provides a brief overview of the complex economic processes taking place in Europe and the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries and will demonstrate how Cristobal de Acuña’s relación “Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las

Amazonas” inserts itself within a very specific capitalist economic discourse at the time it

was published in 1641. This Chapter discusses the monetary system in Spain in the 16th century and the main sources of income for the Spanish Crown as well as the role played by the imports of gold and silver from the American continent in the economy.

According Cameron and Neal in A Concise Economic History of the World, “Spain’s dominion was the most extensive and their wealth and power the greatest in the world by the 16th century” (132). Much of the wealth Spain accumulated by that time was done by

“plunder” and by exploitation of the landscapes found in the New World. Spain was particularly interested in the appropriation the gold and other precious metals that some of the indigenous populations they encountered had already possessed. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the economic system in the 17th century with an emphasis on the factors that contributed to the economic crisis in the Spanish Empire towards the end

1600s and continued in the next century.

I also examine the early capitalistic institutions such as the Trade Charter

Companies set up by Spain’s rivals, England and the Netherlands and the impact they had on increasing their economic profit while Spain’s monopoly and tight control of mercantilism sent it into an economic decline. It claims that Acuña did not follow this pre-established capitalist logic of mercantilism, but rather, as an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist was able to foresee that lasting profit from the New World resided not as much in the gold and silver that had limited quantities often found in inaccessible places, but rather in the exploitation and the “on site” cost reducing manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazonian landscape.

Chapter 4 demonstrates how Acuña, in a time when Spain was experiencing a difficult economic situation in the 17th century, was trying to convince the Spanish

Crown of the great potentiality that the Amazon region had to offer and how it would help the depleted Spanish treasury. At a time when England and the Netherlands were already engaged with mercantilism in parts of Amazonia, Acuña focuses on a different trend in capitalism, of obtaining profit from the harvest and manufacture of the natural resources found in the Amazon region. The Amazonian economic potential that Acuña emphasizes in his Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas would provide a profit and in turn material riches that would add to the treasury of the Spanish Crown.

This would also mean that the Spanish Crown could allow the “Company of Jesus” that

Acuña was a member of, to Christianize and evangelize the native populations of the

Amazon basin. Several evangelizing establishments (misiones) were already being set up by fellow Jesuits in the nearby regions, therefore a profit obtained from the natural resources of the Amazon could allow for an expansion of the missions.

Cristobal de Acuña’s text is the first foundational narrative that establishes the

Amazon region as a source of never ending riches, ready for the exploitation of its valuable natural resources and colonization. Acuña’s main focus in Nuevo descubrimiento is on the riches the Amazonian landscape can provide; this landscape is represented as fertile, abundant and highly populated. Acuña does not just describe these idyllic “paradise like” qualities of the Amazonian landscape but rather he sees them for their value in terms of what can be extracted or produced from the Amazon region. The chapter also examines

the claims that the Jesuits in the 16th and 17th centuries are credited with the development of modern science through their empirical observation of the phenomena in the natural world.

Chapter 5 investigates the religious discourse in Acuña’s text. Acuña’s religious formation can be seen throughout the text; as part of my project I also look at the evangelizing rhetoric and the meanings assigned to the Amazonian landscape. The religious discourse is not as present in Acuña’s narrative as it is in other texts of the time, for example in Carvajal’s narrative or another text written by Perez de Ribas (a Jesuit contemporary with Acuña). By comparing other texts where the religious discourse and landscape are present, I try to understand how Acuña’s text relates to other Jesuit writings about landscape in different parts of the New World. In this respect, of particular importance are the narratives of Perez de Ribas and Ruiz de Montoya. This chapter also analyzes how the religious discourse is connected to the landscape and economy discourses. Acuña’s religious formation and he being part of the Jesuit order did not have an opposing view to Acuña’s emphasis on the “material riches” of the Amazon. While other religious orders had “poverty” vows at the time, the Jesuits were allowed to own property. Economic profit and religious discourse were not separate in Acuña’s narrative.

The rich natural resources harvested from the Amazonian landscape could help provide sustenance and a source of income for Acuña and his Jesuit brothers in their efforts to evangelize the region, as it was the case with other Jesuits in the region of Paraguay that

Ruiz de Montoya documents.

The conclusion summarizes the significance of my dissertation to the field of

Colonial Latin American Literatures and Cultures and proposes possible investigations for future projects of exploring the relationships between humans, the Amazonian landscape and economy in future studies.

Chapter 1: America – The Golden Landscape

Cristobal de Acuña’s voyage in the Amazonian landscape was one of the many expeditions that sought to explore what was then an unknown part of the newly

“discovered” American territory. This chapter reviews some of the socio- historical background for Acuña’s narrative, including previous expeditions in the Amazon. This is necessary since Acuña’s travel narrative must be understood in the context of other voyages and explorations into the American territory, many of them setting out as expeditions in search of gold or other material riches. However, unlike these early explorers in search of precious metals, Acuña claimed that gold could be found in the New World, specifically in Amazonia, in the form of manufacturing and extracting the many other natural resources, as I discuss at length in Chapter 4 of my dissertation.

There is a reason these first Europeans were looking for gold; gold was associated with wealth and a high social status. Since the Middle Ages most feudal lords, especially sovereigns, owned “war chests” that were filled with accumulated coins and bullion. Gold, because of its rarity and value became an important part of the European economic system and by the 16th century the methods of government finance were somewhat more

sophisticated, but the preoccupation with plentiful stocks of gold and silver persisted

(Cameron and Neal 130).

Trade or mercantilism was another important aspect of the European economy in the 15th and 16th centuries (128). The first voyage to the Americas was driven by economic impulse, by a desire to find new trade possibilities to reach the East by sailing west. According to Reid, in the Foreword to the collections of essays titled The

Discovery of American and Other Myths gold was on Christopher Columbus’ mind even before he reached the American continent; from the time when he tried to convince the

Spanish Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabela, to fund his expedition to a new route to the

East that would open up new trade ventures with Cathay and Cipango (Japan) (Reid xx).

The moment Christopher Columbus set foot on the American territory in October 1492, the quest for gold, riches or easily found and acquired wealth has been a constant theme and the reason for many discoveries, explorations, exploitations and eventually the conquest of the new found American continent.

I believe that the way Columbus viewed and interacted with the territory he

“discovered” set a precedent for other explorers and conquistadors who followed: that the

American landscape was a source of never ending wealth, to be exploited, appropriated and in the end, disregarded. Therefore, I would like to expand more on the first contact between Christopher Columbus and the newly “discovered” lands in order to understand

Columbus’ obsession with gold and its impact on the American landscape. After landing on the island of Hispaniola, Columbus picked up enough stories about gold from the native 23

populations he encountered that it made him return to these newly found lands for other trips (Reid xxii). Columbus obtained enough gold through barter on Hispaniola to ensure a warm reception when he met Isabela in Barcelona in 1493 (Burkholder 41). That made

Columbus even more ambitious to look for gold on his return trips to the Americas: “The second voyage, from 1493 to 1496, was no longer looking for gold; it was going after it.

With the second voyage, the conquest really began” (Reid xxii). From these early encounters the American landscape became associated with gold and wealth. European explorers, including Columbus, were obsessed with gold for a reason. Even the first settlers

(Spaniards immigrants that came with Columbus in his second voyage) pursued the objective of wealth, gold or other riches because these would open the way to social ascent and a good life (Burkholder 42). One of the first native populations Christopher Columbus encountered in the island of Hispaniola - the Taino1 population knew of the whereabouts of gold but they made little use of it except for small ornaments (Reid xxiii). These native inhabitants of Hispaniola did not view gold the same way the Spaniards did, nor was gold a part of their “economic system” like it was for Europeans.

For the native populations the landscape they lived in was abundant and they were self-sufficient: the rich soil, mild climate, life sustaining crops and other standard plantings, along with an abundance of fish and fruits, provided the natives with everything they needed. The geographer Carl Sauer, quoted in Reid’s Introduction, mentioned about the

Taino culture that Columbus encountered: “The economy worked because production of

1 Burkholder also refers to the inhabitants of Hispaniola as Tainos also as Arawaks (41). 24

the land was in balance with food taken from the water, and the bounty of waters also was great” (3). For the Tainos and other native populations in the regions (the Caribs, for example), gold did not have the same connotations of wealth as it did for Columbus. On the first voyage Columbus read from the gesticulations and some ornaments of the Indians that gold existed on the island in abundant quantities and he reported that as fact. However, the reality was different, as Reid argued: “in truth, while gold did exist… it was not widespread, plentiful o easily accessible – certainly not to any degree that would satisfy the Admiral’s by now burning expectations”. I will talk more later in this Chapter about the language barrier between Europeans and native populations and how that might have contributed to “hearsay” or cultural misunderstandings about gold that resulted in other later misinformed and sometimes failed expeditions into the American landscape.

As seen from this episode of Columbus’ first interaction with new found lands, the

American landscape started to become forever associated with gold, richness and it was an association that often times proved fatal when the reality was different. In the end, this obsession with gold was the demise of Columbus himself2: “what set the ruthless tenor of the conquest, however, was the extravagant expectations that Columbus had created in his

2 Columbus was given governorship over Hispaniola but that proved chaotic of the Spaniards and disastrous for the Tainos, many of whom were enslaved and perished. Columbus’ authority over the Spanish settlers had eroded and the revenue he had promised the Crown had not been realized. Orders came from Spain that he was to be replaced as a governor by Francisco de Bobadilla, and when Bobadilla arrived in Santo Domingo, in August 1500, his first act was to arrest Columbus and his brothers, Bartholomew and Diego and send them back to Spain in chains (Reid xxv). 25

quest for patronage…His obsession with fulfilling the promise of abundant gold kept him from giving any thought to the territories he was meant to be governing, or maintaining any authority over the settlers” (Reid xxvi). Although Columbus has been mythicized by history as the “discoverer”, he cannot be made to bear the blame for the greed and brutality of those who came after him, argued Reid. However, Columbus set a precedent for what I call an “expected easily acquired wealth”, forever associated with the American landscape.

After Columbus, Bobadilla became governor and gold production increased in

Hispaniola, although the expended mining brought greater disruption to Indian society and probably accelerated the population decline (Burkholder 45). The myth that Christopher

Columbus had established, that the Americas was rich in gold became very hard to dismantle. After Columbus, the exploration of the new found territories continued in the

“mainland” where other expeditions in search of wealth took place. The conquest of

Mexico was to give substance to the Spaniards’ dream of finding wealth and gold in the

New World and initiated a frenzy of later expeditions anxious to emulate this remarkable success. For Fernando Cortés the conquest brought riches, a title of nobility, fame and the

Castilian Crown secured new lands vassals and revenue. In contrast, for the native population, the conquest ushered in epidemic diseases, depopulation and centuries of sub servitude to foreign masters (Burkholder 51). The conquest of Mexico was driven in part by a search for gold3.

3 See Michael Wood’s essay on the Conquest of Mexico in the book Conquistadors 26

From New Spain- as Mexico was known after Cortes victory - the Spaniards sought to expand and enjoy the spoils of the newly discovered rich landscape. However, sometimes their projected expectations of a rich landscape filled with gold did not live up to their expectations. Some exploratory reports were embellished or contained pure fantasy. For example in 1539 Fray Marcos de Niza, a companion of Pedro de Alvarado

(the ruthless lieutenant of Cortes and conqueror of Central America), was commissioned to explore the regions of the north. After a rather delusory exploration, the friar returned with an astonishing report of the discovery of Cibola, one of the Seven Cities of medieval legend. Carl Sauer ( quoted in Reid’s instroduction) argues that “his report a mix of hearsay, fantasy, fact and fraud” (27). But on the strength of his report, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and others invested their fortunes and spent two years exploring the Colorado plateau in search of the legendary city4. They discovered the Grand Canyon, and ultimately explored as far north as Kansas. It was one of the longest and most arduous explorations ever accomplished in the Americas. Nowhere did they encounter the bounty of the New

World had seemed to promise. They returned destitute and defeated, and the Southwest was left relatively unspoiled for almost three hundred years thereafter. These expectations

4 Ahern mentions that Fray Marcos' news of large walled cities whose inhabitants dressed in cotton cloth and used dishes of gold spurred the departure of an army under the command of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540. With de Niza's Relación del descubrimiento de las siete ciudades, medieval geography migrated to the interior of the North American continent and the quest to find" otro México y otro Perú" reached fever pitch. 27

and wealth connotations of the American landscape had real consequences and ended in defeat or death for some of the explorers.

Some expeditions were more successful than others. Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of Peru was devastating of the Inca population and showed the shrewdness and greed that some Spaniards had and their will to go and grab riches and gold at any cost. For example, made prisoner by Spaniards, Atahualpa, the “Sapa” Inka monarch wanted to ransom himself and erroneously thought that by giving Spaniards the gold and silver they so much wanted, they would leave him alone by filling one room with gold and another twice with silver (Burkholder 61). As a result of Atahualpa’s ransom the Spaniards obtained an impressive amount of gold and silver5. Ornaments and other cultural artifacts, centuries old were stolen and divided amongst themselves by Pizarro and his men, this was only the beginning of a process of “appropriation” and exploitation of the American landscape and its riches. As stated in the documentary “The search for El Dorado”, for the Incas gold did not have the same monetary meaning as it did for Spaniards; for the Incas populations gold was sacred. After experiencing an unprecedented amount of gold from that endeavor, the

Spaniards had that idea that indeed the American landscape was rich in gold.

5 The Spaniards melted down 11 tons of worked gold to produce 13,420 pounds of 22-carat gold and obtained another 26,000 pounds of pure silver. Each infantryman present at Cajamarca received as his share the incredible sum of 45 pounds of gold and 90 pounds of silver. Francisco Pizarro received 630 pounds of gold and 1,260 pounds of silver. At the end Pizarro didn’t even keep his word and still killed Atahualpa, the Inka monarch (Burkholder 62). 28

Figure 1.1: Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594)

These newly found rich American territories and their discoveries started to be represented on maps. Some maps contained, besides the longitude, latitude and other geographical coordinates of the continents, some drawings that accompanying them. For

example, Linschoten drew Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus but also incorporated some woodcut drawings by Theodore de Bry6 (

Figure 1.1). In this map America Mexicana and America Peruana are the names used to distinguish Northern territories from South ones in the New World. The four continents are represented by four ladies. As Walter Mignolo notes in the Darker Side of

Renaissance about this map, the lady representing Europe has one of her feet “on the top of a T/O map, thus suggesting that Europe dominates the world” (278). Even though

Mignolo only briefly touches on the symbolism of this map it is important to analyze it further as it can offer clues on how the American landscape was represented and understood at the time in the European imaginary. Analysis of drawings has been done by other scholars from the Colonial Latin American Studies field, for example by Rolena Adorno who researched the drawings by Guaman Poma. Through an analysis of his drawings,

Adorno demonstrated that Guaman Poma often employed pictorial space in his drawings according to the Andean concepts of order and hierarchy7. Drawing analysis can offer a new level of meaning and understanding of a certain time period and can reveal attitudes

6 Theodore de Bry and his family, who refuged in Germany, depict mythologized figures and narrative scenes that promote the Black legend, the portrayal of Spaniards as cruel and inhumane conquerors of Native Americans. (187)

7 In her book, Guaman Poma: Writing and Resistance in Colonial Peru Adorno reveals Guaman Poma in the role of mediator, who chose to adopt a position “internal to the moral world of the king but external to the corrupt sphere inhabited by colonial explorers” (121). Adorno shows Guaman Poma subverting the invaders’ literary and social conventions at the time through his strategies in both the written text and accompanying drawings, clearly showing his rebellion and resistance to being subjugated and to the Spanish colonial rule. 30

of the dominant actors in society. As Susan Milbrath mentions in “Representations of

Caribbean and Latin American Indians in Sixteenths century European Art” images from the 16th century are also valuable for their ethnographic data, often revealing European attitudes towards the New World inhabitants (33).

Returning to the map Orbis terrarium it can be noticed that the lady representing

Europe wears a crown and a scepter, a sign of royalty. Besides, on her crown a small cross can be seen, symbol of the Christian supremacy. The lady representing Europe is

“hugging” the Cornucopia, “a horn of plenty”, symbol of abundance and nourishment.

Some of the foods present in this depiction of abundance are staple European foods, such as wheat and grapes. Besides, unlike the other ladies representing the rest of the continents, the European lady is fully clothed. Next to her lay some instruments used for measuring, a guitar, a helmet used in battle and a rifle; all these elements connote the idea of civilization and superiority in regards to the women representing America Mexicana and

Peruana. The landscape next to Europa further implies the idea of superiority; two men in elaborate clothing appear to have a conversation. The armies are fighting in the background and in front of them is a wisent or European bison, symbol of power8. On the far right side a shepherd sings to his sheep, while other animals peacefully graze, conferring

8 The European bison or wisent was once a symbol of royalty in Europe. However, because of its hyde and drinking horns was hunted the extension in the wild at the beginning of the 1900s. Only a small population remained in a small area in Poland and that population has been used to reintroduce the wisent to places where it once roamed freely (Sokolowski). This effort of reintroducing the bison can be seen as an effort to recuperate a part of a golden age in the European landscape. 31

an idyllic image. By contrast, the ladies representing the American Peruana and Mexicana are semi-naked, sitting on wild animals, which seems to connote inferiority and not part of the “civilized” world. As Mignolo notes, this representation of the Americas was not accidental, but served the purpose of controlling and colonizing an imaginary: “Putting the

Americas on the map from the European perspective was not necessarily a task devoted to finding the true shape of the earth, it was also related to controlling territories and colonizing the imagination of people on both sides of the Atlantic: Amerindians and

Europeans” (Mignolo, The Darker Side of Renaissance 281).

On this particular map, both America Peruana and Mexicana have their feet on a box full of gold, which implies the richness of these American landscapes. As this map suggests, America is represented as a wild, untamed landscape but also full of gold and riches, an image that has already been solidified into the European imaginary. Besides having her feet on a box of gold, America Mexicana is surrounded by fruits and other elements of the American landscape which seems to connote notions of prosperity. For example, next to the box of gold can be observed: squash, corn and other exotic fruits.

Corn, squash and other vegetables imported the New World were slowing being introduced in the European diet. The European culture itself underwent modifications as a result of the Colonization of the Americas and many foods, previously unknown in Europe were introduced and naturalized, eventually becoming important staples of diet. From America came potatoes, tomatoes, string beans, squash, red peppers, pumpkins and corn (Cameron and Neal 105). Therefore it is not surprising that America Mexicana was represented as a

second source of “Cornucopia”. The American landscape is constructed as a land of abundance on the maps, through these drawings and in the narrative and reports of

Europeans who were part of the expeditions of the New World. In the Orbis Terrarum map America Mexicana is the same size as the lady representing Europe (implying equality) but sits right underneath her, which implies a notion of inferiority but also the closes to the idea of “civilization”. America Mexicana is the closest, spatially to Europa.

Asia is represented as a clothed lady but by sitting on an animal, implies the notion inferiority. These ladies representing the continents are described in terms of what the landscapes they represent, have to offer. For example, Magallanica represents Australia and sits on an elephant surrounded by some exotic plants but no fruits or other riches.

Mignolo incorrectly says that Magallanica represents the South Pole (278); at a close inspection, under the title Magallanica the text TERRA AVSTRALIS is revealed. Besides, this map is featured as the first one to mention the Australian continent. Similarly, Africa sits on a big crocodile but no fruits or other riches are next to her. America Mexicana and

Peruana are the only continents next to Europe who are represented as being rich in material resources. The American landscape is constructed as a cultural process, as formulated by

Robertson but it is a landscape of abundance, of richness and gold, an imaginary that was to be associated with the American landscape for a long time. What is astonishing is that the “Mexican” lady sits on a large armadillo, which has exaggerated proportions and not accurate of this animal’s real size. This seems to suggest that whoever drew this map, has never seen an armadillo in person. These drawings or woodcuts were mainly made by

Europeans such as Theodore de Bry who have never traveled to the New World but were basing their renderings of the American landscape on chronicles written by people who traveled there and reported the things they found.

Figure 1.2: Depicting America Mexicana and Peruana. Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594)

Bernadette Bucher, who analyzed de Bry’s engravings extensively concluded that these illustrations speak more about Europe’s inability to overcome its ethnocentrism. The

problem with never having traveled to the New World is that those individuals doing the illustrations didn’t know how to represent the indigenous Americans populations, for example the people living in the new found continent are seen as having features of classical Greek or Roman models.

On the same map, America Mexicana is represented as three times the size of

America Peruana, which could connote a bigger importance given to the Mexican landscape. Important in these images is not only what is seen but what is not present. For example, unlike American Mexicana, America Peruana is not represented surrounded by fruits and vegetables, but rather only has her feet on a sack of gold. In front of her sits a toucan bird, with its extremely large beak, symbol of exoticism but no other riches (

Figure 1.3.). In the background of Americana Peruana it can be noticed that the Indigenous tribes depicted are cooking parts of human body, an idea associated with cannibalism9, which has a negative connotation and implies the notion of uncivilized. According to

Millbrath, the emphasis on cannibalism quite naturally created a negative impression, placing the natives in the class of monstrous races believed to inhabit the remote parts of

9 Cannibalism was one of the most commonly negative images associated with some of the indigenous populations of the New World and the idea of not being civilized and being inferior. Even though cannibalism was rare among indigenous populations, it was one of the favorite topics to be depicted for its shock value. Hans Staden, a German made prisoner in the lands of Brazil wrote “The True History of His Captivity (1557) in which he offers many descriptions of nature and cannibalistic rituals. Hans Staden begins to understand that cannibalism is a ritual towards the end of his narrative, however engravings based on his book depicted most inhabitants of the new World as cannibals regardless of where they were from, as this map incorrectly asserts that cannibalism was practiced in Peru. 35

the world. Also, the European emphasis on this “macabre” aspect probably reflected their need to see the natives as less civilized in order to justify their colonization efforts. For example, even though there were no known cases of cannibalism in the Andes, according to this portrayal of this type of imagery, the Andeans were perceived as cannibals.

Figure 1.3: Depicting Peruana and a cannibalistic feast present in the background. Modified close up of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Orbis Terrarum Typus De Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus (1594).

These negative depictions of the indigenous populations of the Americas are seen as plain racist by some scholars. For example Homi Bhabha defines the colonial discourse as:

Racist stereotypical discourse which inscribes a form of governmentality that is

informed by a productive splitting in its constitution of knowledge and exercise of

power. Some of its practices recognize the differences of race, culture, history as

elaborated by stereotypical knowledge, racial theories, and administrative colonial

experience, and on that basis institutionalize a range of political and cultural

ideologies that are prejudicial, discriminatory, vestigial, archaic, “mythical” and

crucially, are recognized as being so (171).

In the way this map portrays “the other”, it reinforces this racially discriminatory discourse where the “Indians” are represented as inferior, cannibalistic, an image of the indigenous populations based on bias and prejudice that in the Colonial times started to be applied to any indigenous group, no matter its origin. These images had disastrous effects, contributing to bias and racial prejudices against indigenous populations during the colonial time and even after.

As this map suggests the American landscape was inhabited with inferior groups of people but their landscape was perceived as rich in gold and abundant in natural resources.

Historically, the riches that the Spanish acquired from Mexico and Peru were unheard of before and immediately lured Spaniards away from more established colonies to explore the parts still unknown of the American landscape. What followed was a true a “gold rush”, Spaniards were on the quest for more gold. Something in particular that indigenous people talked about caught their attention – El Dorado, a place so rich that it was full of gold and where a prince covered himself in gold (Burkholder 74).

Michael Wood in his book Conquistadors quotes the historian Oviedo who, at the time, was writing about an intriguing tale of El Dorado: “I interviewed Spaniards who have been in Quito…and asked them why they call that prince “The Golden Lord or King”.

They tell me that what they have learned from the Indians is that the great lord or prince goes about continually covered in gold dust”. The prince, continued Oviedo “… was very great and very rich. Every morning he anoints himself with a kind of resin or gum to which the gold dust adheres, until his entire body is covered, from the soles of his feet to his head”

(190). This description of Oviedo served as the basis for De Bry making an engraving about El Dorado.

In this engraving, the myth of El Dorado10 is amplified, exaggerated and brought into the

European imaginary. The engraving depicts a landscape that is idyllic and orderly. Even though the prince is naked, there is a sense of order, there are no cannibalistic rituals present or anything out of the ordinary. The indigenous prince is being anointed with a resin and covered in gold with the help of two other men, just like Oviedo mentions in his description.

In the background can be seen an enormous pot, half buried into that ground, that is suggested to be made of gold. A man is seeing as reaching over to get a drink from this huge pot of gold. Two other natives are carrying cups, probably made of gold as well and

10 According to the legend, El Dorado, or the “golden one”, was the name given to the newly appointed ruler or heir to the crown of the Muisca tribe in present-day Colombia. The name derived from the ceremony celebrating the anointed one’s ascension to the throne. First the chief’s entire body was coated with a sticky substance and then gold dust was applied until he was completely covered. He thus became, literally, El Dorado, the “Golden One” or the “Golden Man.” (De Bruhl 44). 38

two other men peacefully drink from glasses made of gold in the hammock. Cups connote the idea of civilization and so does gold. In this particular scene gold transforms the landscape from uncivilized to civilized. If these natives had clothes on, the picture would resemble a social aristocratic gathering in Europe. Such imagery could have only enticed

Europeans in search of more gold to go locate this literally rich landscape. This engraving magnified the myth of El Dorado; if El Dorado was a prince in Oviedo’s report, because of the amount of gold in this picture (gold pot, gold cops, the that gold the prince is covered in), the whole landscape is transformed and becomes golden. It was not uncommon for the myth or El Dorado to have the same meaning for referring to a prince, a golden place or a city made of gold. (Burkholder 74)

According to De Bruhl the credulous Spaniards had “transformed” the golden man first into a city; then into a kingdom; and finally into an empire of fabulous wealth. An extensive literature grew up around this legend and there were even maps of the purported

El Dorado (44). I will refer to one of those maps in the next chapter.

Figure 1.4: El Dorado- credit the British Library.

However, the quest for El Dorado was not a myth for these Spanish conquistadors; it was a reality given that the Spaniards just “tasted” an impressive amount of gold in the conquest of Peru. According to Wood at the root of the amazing expansions in the New

World was the lure of gold; “the Age of Discovery was also the Age of Capital”. The bankers of Europe helped to finance the expeditions of the conquistadors (17). And of course, those bankers expected a return back. 40

Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro decided to take on the adventure and was determined to find gold and El Dorado. Little did he know his exploratory enterprise would end in disaster but it would also lead to the discovery of the greatest rivers and unique landscapes on earth: the Amazon!

The quest for El Dorado

Since my dissertation deals with travel narratives about the discovery of the

Amazon, I will mention briefly some of the expeditions that preceded Acuña’s in that region. In the introduction to La Aventura del Amazonas, Rafael Díaz correctly states that historically the Amazon was first discovered by the indigenous populations thousands of years before the Europeans explored the region:

El descubrimiento del Amazonas no puede limitarse, por tanto, a una fecha, como

si, con anterioridad a ella, la región no existiese o fuese simplemente un reducto de

naturaleza virgen. ...por tanto, lo que habitualmente se denomina descubrimiento

del Amazonas, de igual manera ocurre en lo que se refiere a otras muchas áreas del

mundo, es simplemente la parte de ese proceso que corresponde a los agentes

europeos, en este caso españoles, que abarca un periodo histórico de al menos siglo

y medio. (8)

I agree with Díaz and believe that instead of using “discovery”, more appropriately would be to use the term “awareness” during this period of European exploration in the American territories. This is when Europeans first became aware of these landscapes that had been a part of the American continent for hundreds of thousands of years. Discovery in this dissertation mainly refers to the European expeditions that made known through chronicles and other recorded documents the American landscape in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The “discovery” of the Amazon was preceded by “sightings” of the Amazons’ mouth opening in 1500 by the salesmen that were part of the expeditions of Vicente Yáñez

Pinzón. However, the most complete discovery and exploration was done between 1541 and 1542 by Francisco de Orellana who, accompanied by 57 men, did the first complete navigation of the Amazon, from the Andes in Ecuador to the Atlantic Ocean. Following

Orellana, in 1559, Pedro de Ursua received a royal license to undertake a new search for the El Dorado and organized his voyage into the Amazon from Peru, that turned into a terrible tragedy when Lope de Aguirre11, the power hungry lunatic, killed Pedro de Ursua and ended up himself getting killed (Burkholder 74).

11 According to De Bruhl, unlike the almost benign voyage of Francisco de Orellana (the first man to descend the Amazon), the voyage of Lope de Aguirre was marked by unspeakable crimes. It was a journey that remains unrivaled in the turbulent history of the Amazon region. Lope de Aguirre was a fifty year old Basque who had come out to the colonies in 1534 and in the succeeding twenty five years had variously been a tomb robber, mutineer, horse breeder and hired gun. He joined Ursua’s expedition –which because of subsequent events is better known to history as the Aguirre Expedition. Aguirre killed several people in the expedition, first Ursua’s lieutenant, Juan de Vargas, then Ursua himself and his mistress. In the end Aguirre killed his own daughter so that she would not

However, these expeditions in the Amazon were soon forgotten. According to

Rafael Díaz it was difficult for Europeans to establish colonies in Amazonia, given the immensity of the territory as well as the attacks from the various dangerous indigenous populations. The exploration of the Amazon was not retaken until the 17th century, when

European establishments in the northern coast of Brazil increased and then a discrete exploration of the natural resources in the region started (8). The Portuguese, French,

Dutch and British were competing for those strategic commercial places in the region and conflicts were inevitable. In 1639 a new expedition set out to travel from Quito down the

Amazon River to explore what then was an inaccessible and little known territory. Pedro

Texeira, a Portuguese captain, had arrived in Quito with a group of soldiers in a voyage upstream the Amazon River and surprised the Spanish authorities since at the time it was not known whether the Amazon River was navigable upstream over such a long distance.

Afraid that enemies of the Spanish Crown could follow the same river route to reach

Spanish settlements, the Governor of Quito decided to send Cristobal de Acuña, a Jesuit rector at a University in Quito, to accompany captain Teixeira’s expedition back. Acuña was instructed to record in writing everything he witnessed during the trip. At the time this expedition took place Portugal and Spain were not rival powers, which explains the camaraderie and trust between Acuña and his fellow Portuguese crew members that he was

have to witness the disgrace of his father. Aguirre was immediately shot dead by two of his companions. As De Bruhl mentions, Aguirre fits the profile of a psychopath. For some odd reason the figure of this psychopathic historical character has been represented in literature, theatre and film. 43

traveling with. After a 9 months voyage down the Amazon River, the expedition safely reached the Portuguese settlements close to the Atlantic Ocean and Acuña later embarked for Spain where he presented his report to the Council of the Indies in 1641. The report was published the same year by the Council of the Indies under the title Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas. Por el p. Christoval de Acuña. Acuña’s relación truly was the first detailed published narrative about the discovery of the Amazon.

I will analyze Acuña’s narrative in detail in Chapter 4 of this dissertation. However,

Orellana’s discovery and expedition was the first one that brought knowledge about the

Amazonian basin. Orellana’s voyage was documented by Fray Gaspar de Carvajal, a

Dominican monk who accompanied him and 57 other men. Even though it was not published until the 19th century, it offers a glimpse into the Amazonian landscape as it was first perceived by Europeans.

With this socio-historic context of other expeditions into the Amazon in mind, I would like to analyze Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s report. I am interested in finding out how the Amazonian landscape was represented in these first descriptions by Europeans who came into contact with it. This will be of importance since Cristobal de Acuña traveled approximately the same route as Father Carvajal and it will be interesting to see if, in almost

100 years, representations of the Amazonian landscape and its economic potentiality changed, or if they remained the same.

Chapter 2: First documented exploration of the Amazon River: Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación

“Not everything that Glitters is Gold”

Californian proverb

This chapter examines Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s relación since it documents the first discovery and exploration of the whole length of the Amazon River. Cristobal the

Acuña, almost a century later followed the same river route in the Amazonian territory as

Carvajal, but Acuña’s interpretations and representations of the Amazonian landscape are much different.

Gaspar de Carvajal was a Dominican friar who was a member, along with 57 other men, of Orellana’s expedition (Heaton x). Even though Carvajal wrote the report in 1542, it wasn’t published until 1894 when José Toribio Medina found in an archive the narrative that Carvajal wrote about Francisco de Orellana’s voyage down the Amazon River.

Toribio’s edition included the manuscript version of Fray Gaspar. A similar version distinct in text but similar in content to Medina’s was published just a few years earlier in the fourth volume of Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo’ Historia general y natural de las

Indias in 1855. In the introduction to this first edition of 1894, just like Father Carvajal

three centuries earlier, Medina made out what appears to be a plausible case for Orellana, pleading in favor of discarding the term “treason” in connection with the manner in which his hero got started upon his independent voyage of “discovery”. Medina’s version of

Carvajal’s account had the tile, just like the original manuscript: Relación que escribió Fr.

Gaspar de Carvajal, Fraile de la Orden de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, del Nuevo descubrimiento del Famoso rio Grande que descubrió por muy gran ventura el capitán

Francisco de Orellana desde su nacimiento hasta salir a la mar, con cincuenta y siete hombres que trajo consigo y se echó a su ventura por el dicho rio, y por el nombre del capitán que le descubrió se llamó el Rio de Orellana. Medina’s edition of Carvajal relación was translated into English by Bertram T. Lee for the American Geographical

Society, and was published in New Work by H.C. Heaton in 1934 (Diaz 17). This same

English translation was published throughout the years, with the most recent one in 2007.

Even though Carvajal’s report was not published until 1894, there is evidence that

Orellana’s expedition was known by Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, since in 1543 Oviedo wrote a letter to cardinal Bembo in Italy informing him of Orellana’s voyage (Diaz 16).

Besides, Wood mentions that Oviedo himself interviewed Orellana before he departed for

Spain after his journey into the Amazon. The version that I am using for the present analysis, edited by Rafael Díaz in 1986, was based off of the original first published edition by Medina in 1894.

In this report Father Carvajal documents very carefully not only the geographical features of the landscapes but also chronologically (using the dates of a religious calendar

mostly) what happened during Orellana’s expedition and the numerous indigenous populations he encountered. The expedition started with Gonzalo Pizarro, the half-brother of Francisco Pizarro (conqueror or Peru) who used his name and his new found wealth to equip a powerful expedition in the search of El Dorado. His goal was to find La Canela, the Land of Cinnamon, since cinnamon was a spice coveted by Spanish merchants and second, he hoped to find El Dorado, the land of gold (Wood 192). Pizarro did not come from a rich family and he was able to fund such a large expedition mainly because “like a

Mafia clan, the family had accrued vast wealth in a few years.” Pizarro was accompanied by 400 Indians to serve as guides, porters and laborers (Wood 193). However the journey proved very harsh: “after 6 weeks of marching deep in the Amazonia starvation had now set in, unaware of what was edible in the forest, the force of 200 to 300 men, with their remaining camp-followers, had eaten their supplies and started to kill and eat their dogs and horses while El Dorado was nowhere to be seen” (203). At this critical point in the expedition Orellana offered to take the boat and go on downriver to try to find food and save the expedition. Father Carvajal was the expedition’s diarist. Orellana left with 57

Spaniards, 2 African slaves, 3 harquebuses, a supply of powder and spare ammunition.

After 3 days, according to Orellana it was obvious from the speed of the river that he could never go back to meet Pizarro’s expedition, as promised. In a document dated March 1,

1542, members of the expedition who left with him downriver petitioned Orellana to take

over in a leading role as the new captain, expressing their loyalty to him1 .This documented was also to serve as a justification that Orellana was not a traitor, as Pizarro would later argue, but instead the expedition was forced by circumstances to continue on their voyage down the river and was unable to return and meet Pizarro.

1 Figure 2.1 is a facsimile, the end of a document dated March 1, 1542, in which the members of the expedition petition Orellana to take over as the new captain, expressing their loyalty to him. Document published along with Carvajal’s original relación by José Toribio Medina in 1894. This documented was to be used to justify that Orellana was not a traitor, as Pizarro was to argue, but instead the expedition was forced by circumstances to go on their voyage down the river and the members of the expedition chose to have Orellana as his captain. In his turn Orellana vowed to obey and render service to the Spanish king to God. 48

Figure 2.1: A facsimile of the end of the document dated March 1, 1542. Document published along with Carvajal’s original relación by José Toribio Medina in 1894.

The members of the expedition chose to have Orellana as their captain and in his turn

Orellana vowed to obey and render service to the Spanish king and to God. Father Carvajal was a witness to these events and wrote about them in his relación.

The type of text that Father Carvajal wrote documenting Orellana’s expedition, is called relación, a very specific type of writing genre from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Relación is a first-hand account that would act as a legal deposition before the Crown’s ultimate authority. As Walter Mignolo points out: “en el contexto del grupo de textos que denominamos relaciones de la conquista y de la colonización, tiene el sentido más específico de relato/informe solicitado por la Corona (Mignolo 1982, 70). Relación was a form of writing common in the colonial period, from Cortés's Cartas de relación to Alvar

Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's account of his journey from Cuba to Florida and through what is now the southwestern United States, to Mexico (Boyer). According to Pagden, quoted in

Boyer’s article “Framing the Visual Tableaux in the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias” relaciones in general were formal in tone and constituted official reports of specific events. They served as instrumental building blocks in composing the fantasy of the American continent, and the construction in the imperial imagination of the

‘discovered’ countries to the west since most members of the royal court would have no first-hand experience of exploring the New World.

Besides, these relaciones were connected to the idea of economy, or the Crown granting certain rights or favors, as Mignolo mentions:

A su vez se supone que, a juzgar por los asientos capitulados, durante el periodo

que va de 1520 a 1572, rige más o menos explícitamente una disposición general,

para descubridores y pobladores, que se ponía en práctica cuando los pobladores o

descubridores solicitaban rentas, vasallos o tierras. En esta trayectoria, parece

de importancia la cédula de 1533 fechada en Zaragoza el 8 de marzo y firmada

por «La Reina y Samano, secretario». Este documento que se confecciona para

asegurar los frutos económicos durante el reinado de Carlos V… consta de siete

asientos, (divididos en cuatro y tres respectivamente) y es una de las primeras

manifestaciones de una regulación sistemática de las preguntas.

A relación had to follow a certain pattern2. How Carvajal narrates and describes the newly found lands and events in his relación was important to how the Spanish Crown viewed them and whether the Crown would grant the favors asked. Since these relaciones were written particularly for economic reasons (“para asegurar los frutos económicos durante el reinado de Carlos V”) the descriptions of gold and abundance associated with the new

2 Mignolo states the specific requirements for the relación: “Los primeros cuatro asientos, piden, en forma resumida: 1) que se informen de los nombres de todas las provincias, poblaciones, etc. 2) que se averigüe cuáles fueron los primeros conquistadores; 3) que se diga cuantas provincias hay pobladas de españoles, y 4) que se determine en que partes hay minas de metales, piedras, pesquería de perlas, etc. En los tres asientos restantes, se pide hacer memoria de repartimientos entre los conquistadores y pobladores, según la calidad de personas y servicios, estipulándose, específicamente: 1) que se determine que tributos podrá dar a la corona cada "encomendero; 2) que se determine que tierras convendrá reservar para pobladores que en adelante vayan a Indias, y 3) que se regule la justicia y hacienda en las provincias y cabeceras que quedaren en la corona” (72). 51

found landscapes are not random but serve a specific purpose in Carvajal’s relación, as I will discuss in this chapter. Thus, Carvajal’s relación had a double purpose: on one hand it tried to absolve Orellana of being a “traitor” and on the other to convince the King

Charles V of the potentiality of the Amazonian landscape that should be appropriated by the Spanish Crown under Orellana’s rule (my emphasis).

After being separated from Pizarro’s expedition Orellana claimed he could not go back but had to continue his trip down the Amazonian river, as I mentioned. Knowing this could be problematic once he reached the “sea” or returned to Spain, he drafted the document signed by the men accompanying him where they voluntarily chose Orellana to be their captain (

Figure 2.1). The other purpose of Carvajal’s relación that is not very obvious in the text, and is revealed through an analysis of the landscape discourse, is Carvajal asking the

Crown to grant Orellana the right to rule the new found territories. This could be verified by the fact that indeed upon the conclusion of the voyage and his return to Spain, Orellana was granted permission to colonize the new found territories in the Amazonian basin (to be named Nueva Andalucía) and later he returned to the region in an enterprise that was not successful (Wood).

From the beginning of his text Father Carvajal writes that Pizarros’ expedition was suffering from a lack of food and this is when captain Orellana stepped in to help and said he will go down the river and should he find any food, he will return with the food and if he didn’t return in 3 or 4 days than Pizarro should not worry about him.

But Orellana’s trip down the river to find supplies didn’t do any better, since, as father

Carvajal writes, they were travelling for 3 days and didn’t find any food or settlements.

Even more, they were in great danger of death because of the hunger they endured. This was a critical point for the journey, the men and Orellana decided to choose the lesser of 2 evils, they could either die or keep going down the river in hopes of finding some provisions. The hunger was so severe, write father Carvajal that they were eating nothing but leather, belts and soles of shoes, cooked with certain herbs and the men were so weak that they could barely stand up. Following is an excerpt that documents their dire situation:

A falta de otros mantenimientos, vinimos a tan gran necesidad que no comíamos

sino cueros, Cintas y suelas de zapatos cocidos con algunas hierbas, de manera que

era tanta nuestra flaqueza que sobre los pies no nos podíamos tener, que unos a

gatas y otros con bordones se metieron en las montañas a buscar algunas raíces que

comer, y algunos hubo que comieron algunas hierbas no conocidas, los cuales

estuvieron a punto de muerte, porque estaban como locos y no tenían seso; pero

como Nuestro Señor era servido que siguiésemos nuestro viaje, no murió ninguno

(44).

This paragraph is worth noting because it establishes the Amazonian landscape as inhospitable and dangerous. In its presence the men were almost dying of hunger and when they tried to eat some unknown plants, the men became sick and almost lost their mind.

Not only was the landscape unwelcoming but it “fought back” and harmed those tried to trespass and eat some of its plants for sustenance. The men who tried to eat those plants

were like mad and did not possess senses. What most likely happened to those men is that they ate some poisonous plants and became ill, symptoms of plant poisoning can include nervous excitement, hallucinations, delirium and other nervous system effects3 (Steger 71).

However, Providence intervened and none of those men died. From this point forward it is as if Orellana and his crew were the chosen ones to explore this vast unknown wilderness.

Even captain Orellana tries to uplift the spirts of his men by telling them to have faith in the Lord for since He discovered the river to them, he would see fit to bring them back to safety. I will talk more about the role of Providence Carvajal’s narrative in Chapter 5 of this dissertation.

On the 8th of January 1542 Orellana and his men were eating certain forest roots again and according to Father Carvajal they heard drums and were happy because they were now in an inhabited country and no longer could die of hunger. When they arrived at the first village the Indians got scared and ran and also left their food there. Then they ate what the Indians had prepared for themselves and drank their beverages. It is interesting that the way they found nourishment was by appropriating or “stealing” the food the

Indians left behind. This “illegal” appropriation of resources is a metaphor for what was

3 Most cases of poisonous plants poisoning affect the digestive and nervous systems. According to Steger, depending on the species of the plant and the amount ingested, symptoms can range anywhere from digestive disturbances, nervous excitement, hallucinations, drowsiness, convulsions, delirium, coma or can even be fatal. By the symptoms that Carvajal describes (“los cuales estuvieron a punto de muerte, porque estaban como locos y no tenían seso”) those men were likely experiencing a mild case of neurotoxicity due to the plants they consumed. 54

to come; the future conquest of the Amazon where Europeans were taking advantage of the rich landscape:

aquí comenzaron los compañeros a se vengar de lo pasado, porque no hacían sino

comer de lo que los indios tenían guisado para así beber de sus brevajes y esto con

tanta agonía que no pensaban verse hartos, y no se hacía esto muy al descuido,

porque aunque comían como hombres lo que habían menester, no olvidaban de

tener cuidado de lo que les era necesario para defender sus personas, que todos

andaban sobre aviso, las rodelas al hombro y las espadas debajo de los sobacos

mirando si los indios revolvían sobre nosotros (46).

When the native tribe came back, Orellana, who was able to speak some of their language, told them to have no fear. Then, Orellana met the Indian chief and he ordered that the chief be given clothes and other things. The Indians were very pleased with it and the good reception they received and asked Orellana to tell them what they needed. And the captain only asked for food: “el capitán le dijo que de ninguna cosa más que de comida lo mandase proveer; y luego el cacique mandó que trajesen comida sus indios, y con muy gran brevedad trajeron abundantemente lo que fue necesario así de carnes, perdices, pavas y pescados de muchas maneras” (46). The Amazonian landscape suddenly becomes a land of abundance in the presence of the native populations. It is a common theme, just like hunger is, throughout his narrative. In the presence of locals the landscape is abundant, in their absence, is a hostile environment without nourishment.

After asking the chief to summon the other chiefs in the region, the captain extended to them the same reception as the first and spoke to them about His Majesty, the Spanish

King and that he was taking possession of their land in the name of the Spanish majesty.

Although Orellana spoke some of the indigenous languages it is very unlikely that he was able to convey such abstract ideas as taking possession of their lands, or that the Indians were even able to understand that. I will return to this point of the language barrier between

Europeans and indigenous populations later in this chapter.

While Orellana and his crew were trying to build a stronger boat, the Indians came and helped, bringing them more food. The Indians were wearing some jewels and gold medallions and Orellana was shrewd enough and told his men not to look at the gold ornaments so that the Indians did not get the idea that the Spaniards valued those things.

The more indifference the Spaniards showed, the more gold did they put on, mentions

Carvajal. Even though the Spaniards’ priority was to reach the end of the river safely, this expedition started as a search for El Dorado and Orellana still had his eyes on the prized gold. The Indians also informed the Europeans about the existence of Amazon women and wealth to be found farther down the river, telling them about another overlord who, is said,

“possessed very great wealth in gold” (47). From his first encounter with these native tribes Orellana realized that their survival would depend on his ability to communicate with the native people. Talking to the natives Orellana discovered that he was traveling through the lands of a major Indian polity, a confederation of tribes called Aparia. As they were friendly the Spaniards were able to stop in this region, just below Iquitos, for two months.

Orellana and his men continued their voyage down the river, but not without suffering and “passing through many hardships and very extraordinary dangers” as father

Carvajal writes. Then, the expedition came upon some Indian settlements which were glad to receive the Spaniards, giving them turtles and parrots and other provisions of which they were sorely in need. Three days later some Indians in canoes got close to the boat and wanted to speak to captain Orellana. They were part of the same confederation of tribes called Aparia, and they brought food to Orellana and his men:

…y que por su mandado venían a nos traer de comer; y comenzaron a sacar de sus

canoas muchas perdices como las de nuestra España, sino que son mayores, y

muchas tortugas, que son tan grandes como adargas, y otros pescados. El capitán

se lo agradeció y les dio de lo que tenía, y después de se lo haber dado, los indos

quedaron muy contentos de ver al buen tratamiento que se les hacía y en ver que el

capitán les entendía su lengua. (52)

The Amazonian landscape became now the primary food source for Orellana and his men and they adapted their diet to that of the indigenous people they came in contact with. Fray

Gaspar de Carvajal uses comparisons for explaining some of exotic wildlife that became food for them. He is comparing the birds to other familiar edible birds from Spain and the turtles were as big as a battle shield. It was difficult for Father Carvajal to describe features of the new landscape, as it was for many other Spaniards who wrote about discoveries from the New World to an audience who had no previous knowledge about it. One of the most employed methods was to use comparisons of elements the Spanish were familiar with. 57

Such practice was very common among many cronistas at the time; for example in the essay “New World Phenomena in Oviedo’s Illustrations”, Kathleen Myers mentions that

Oviedo, the historian of the New World, used comparisons with European “analogues” for describing many exotic elements of the natural world, people or artifacts (193).

Father Carvajal acknowledges that the ability of Orellana to speak the natives’ language was a huge advantage for their survival in this unknown territory. Besides the language, the other thing that kept captain Orellana and his crew alive was that captain

Orellana was giving the natives gifts. Not understanding or respecting this cultural norm could have dire consequences. For example in the documentary “The Lost City of El

Dorado” in an interview with the Kalapalo tribe in the Amazon it is stated that the

Kalapalos are generous hosts but expect the guest to be generous as well. Percy Fawcett, a British coronel and explorer, was searching for El Dorado in 1925 in the Amazon and arrived at the Kalapalo village. Arriving with nothing and expecting the Indians to feed him would have not been very welcome and could have contributed to Fawcett’s death in the village4.

Orellana must have been aware of this cultural practice of bringing gifts for the

Indians populations he encountered or exchange ritual and in turn this could have been part of the reason his expedition was a success. Orellana was a great negotiator; it is mentioned

4 It is speculated that the Kalapalos “clubbed” Fawcett, his son and another explorer to death. Part of the reason was not understanding their culture, the language barrier and not bringing any gifts for the Indians. 58

that Orellana gave gifts to the Indian on 5 different occasions and in turn they provided him and his expedition with food

The gifts Orellana was giving the Indians were part of a more “hidden agenda” the captain had. Orellana did not act as a simple visitor trying to make his way through and reach the ocean, along the way meeting the Aparian populations. Orellana was acting as a true conquistador, wanting to take possession of those lands he was encountering. When the other overlords of the Aparian territory met captain Orellana, just as he did with the previous Indian tribe, he took possession of them and their lands in the name of His

Majesty, the King of Spain: “…y tomó posesión en nombre de Su Majestad en todos; y los señores eran veinte y seis y en señal de posesión mandó poner una cruz muy alta, con la cual los indios se folgaron, y donde en adelante cada día los indios venían a traernos de comer y hablar con el Capitán, que desto se folgaban mucho” (54). Orellana takes possession of the land by putting a big cross; the space is demarked with a powerful

Christian symbol. Patricia Seed mentions in the essay “Taking possession and reading texts, establishing the authority of Overseas Empires” that language and ceremony established the right of the Crown of Castile to a certain territory. The way the ritual or ceremony was performed was different, for example the Venetian John Cabot planted a cross and two flags on the coast of Cape Breton. Columbus himself had a “ritual landing” of bringing a royal banner and twin flags. Sir Gilbert Humphrey indicated his intent to an

English settlement by having a twig and a piece of English soil brought with him (112).

The result of the “taking possession” ritual was the same; it was a symbolic appropriation of the American landscape. Its symbolism was understood only by the dominant culture, because of the language barrier and a lack of common symbols. These rituals had a role of changing the American landscape. The new found landscape is constructed as a cultural process because in the mind of the European who performed these rituals the American landscape was no longer the same, it became part of a broader landscape – the European landscape. Additionally, taking possession of the American landscape also meant symbolically converting them into Christianized, European landscapes.

While Orellana was taking possession of the lands a continuing his voyage downriver, Gonzalo Pizarro decided to return to Peru, his men were dying of starvation.

On June 1542, 16 months after they had set out, the army staggered back over the Andes.

They were emaciated, half-naked skeletons in animal skins, each with only his sword and a walking stick to help him stand. “For Gonzalo Pizarro the expedition had been a disaster: a fortune spend, hopes of El Dorado dashed” (Wood 218). Orellana was wise to draw up the document that he and his men signed, claiming they were forced by circumstances to continue their voyage down the river. As Wood indicates, Pizarro had the intentions of follow up with his claims against Orellana, accusing him of being a traitor, but Pizarro had other more important things to deal with when he reached Quito, for his brother was killed in a revolt and he now had to defend the lands him and his family were granted.

But at that moment in time, Pizarro was far from Orellana’s mind as he was more concerned with his survival in the Amazonian wilderness. In the Aparian territory Orellana decides to build a Brigantine. The Aparians, who seemed to have been fascinated by their strange visitors, provided them with wood for the hull and mast, gum and wild cotton for caulking. Orellana’s men made sails from ‘Peruvian blankets’ and a small hut of palm leaves protected the sick from the sun and the precious supply of gunpowder from the rain.

“This second major stop on the journey lasted 57 days, from 26 February to 24 April, throughout which the Aparian women provided Orellana and his men with a wide range of local food: fish fresh water turtles and forest animals, cooked in the local style with hot peppers” (Wood 218). The Aparians, who engaged in long-distance trade were able to give

Orellana useful intelligence about the journey downstream. Their lands, they informed him, extended downriver for 80 leagues (250 miles of more) as far as a kingdom called

Machiparo. The Machiparo were hostile to the Aparians and it was regarded as certain that they would attack the Spaniards. Beyond Machiparo was an even bigger federation called

Omagua. This news explains why Orellana gave orders to repair and modify the San Pedro boat and to build a new bigger ship. Travelling in just the San Pedro, an open boat accompanied by small canoes, they would have stood little chance of resisting serious attacks (Wood 218).

Fray Gaspar de Carvajal mentions that it was God that inspired captain Orellana to build the Brigantine. We see once more that in the narrative the Providence intervenes in a successful outcome of this voyage. After leaving the territory of the overlord Aparia,

food was scarce since the Spaniards became dependent on the Indians feeding them. It was not long before hunger set in again and Fray confesses the hardships they were going through: “y no hallábamos a dónde comer, ni menos se podía tomar ningún pescado, así que nos era necesario comer nuestro acostumbrado manjar, que era de yerbas y de cuando en cuando un poco de maíz tostado” (59).

One can sense Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s ironic tone almost when he talks about the lack of food and how the Spaniards went back to the only thing they knew, “eating herbs/roots”, something they got used to by now. The expedition still did not know how to take advantage of the Amazonian landscape for sustenance but slowly they started doing so. “Maiz”, which is Spanish for corn is an American staple food in many parts of the

American continent. Later on, Carvajal confesses, the men in the expedition learned how to fish (59).

When Orellana reached the Machiparo territory – a country 200 to 300 miles long, they suffered violent attacks from the Indians. Their harquebuses didn’t work because the powder was damp so they had to defend themselves with crossbows. Then the Spaniards went on land to gather some food, especially turtles, but that task was not easy. The Indians attacked the Spaniards and many from the expedition were wounded and a man died a week later. The captain even gave them orders to retreat saying that nor was he or his companions engaged in conquering the land either, but his intentions were to explore the

Amazonian territory. When the time was right, God and his majesty would send him to

conquer it. Orellana makes clear here his intentions of colonizing the Amazonian region at a later time.

The Spaniards were able to fight the natives bravely “pero nuestros compañeros con las ballestas y arcabuces defendían tan bien los bergantines que hacían tener afuera aquella mala gente” (65). This is one of the few instances when Carvajal uses negative words to refer to the native populations he encountered, and it was mostly when the expedition was under the attack. Referring to the indigenous populations with negative terms was common among explorers and other writers from the New World; barbarous5 and savage were commonly used adjectives to describe the natives.

Carvajal is usually impressed with the native populations he comes in contact with and their advanced settlements and level of civilization. However, this particular indigenous group was “mala gente” because they attacked the expedition for 2 days and 2 nights without giving them a moment of rest, at the end of which time Orellana and his men reached the farthest limit of the dominions of the warlike Machiparo Indians.

As they were exiting the Machiparo territory Fray Gaspar was giving some information about the Machiparo territory, mentioning that it extended for more than eighty leagues and Carvajal even marveled at the sight of one settlement that stretched for 5 leagues and houses packed so close together, there was hardly any space between the

5 Pérez de Ribas uses a lot harsher language to refer to the indigenous populations he encounters. I talk more about his narrative in Chapter 5 of this dissertation. 63

houses: “y hubo pueblo que duró cinco leguas sin restañar casa de casa que era cosa maravillosa de ver” (67). We can see here a certain appreciation that Carvajal has for these people. Even though he called them “wicked” earlier, there are some aspects of their culture that he admires.

The theme of gold returns soon in the narrative. Fray Gaspar de Carvajal mentions that he heard from the Aparia lord that there was another lord in the Machiparo territory who possessed very great wealth in gold and silver: “y así nos lo decían los indios de la provincial de Aparia, que había un grandísimo señor la tierra adentro hacia el sur, que se llamaba Ica y que este tenía muy gran riqueza de oro y plata; y esta noticia traíamos muy buena y cierta.” (67)

Here we find the reference to gold again, even though the voyage was a struggle for survival, it was still in a way part of the quest for El Dorado. It is important to note that

Fray emphasizes that the news about the gold and other riches of this lord Ica was true.

This representation of the Amazonian landscape could be explained in terms of what

Corona calls a “pararepresentación” that also implies the notion of an ideal audience:

la pararrepresentación es, entonces, una función retórica del texto que, por un lado,

indica las condiciones pragmáticas en que se produce como texto, incluyendo la

posición de su autor/a y, por otro lado, indica a quienes se dirige: sus receptores

ideales. Tomando prestadas nociones de la teoría de la recepción se puede decir que

la pararrepresentación revela un horizonte de expectativas determinado y un lector

ideal específico.

As I have pointed out earlier in this chapter, the text that Carvajal wrote is characterized as a relación. One of the main features of the relación is that it was a document intended for the King of Spain. Carvajal seems to always keep this in mind while he describes and represents the American landscape. We find many instances where gold is present in the new found landscape; it was in the end an attempt to convince the King to colonize this region under the viceroyalty of Orellana.

Figure 2.2: Map of Orellana's route down the Amazon (after Medina 1934)

After exiting the Machiparo territory, Orellana and his expedition reached the Omagua territory (Figure 2.2). On May 12, 1542, Orellana passed the frontier between the 65

Machiparo and the Omagua empires, and he describes a formal crossing place like any modern border.

From this region onwards, the Spaniards saw wonderful ceramics in the villages.

One place had so much pottery that they named it “Pueblo de la Loza”. Here they explored some of the inland territories but did not venture too far away from the reassuring safety of the San Pedro and Victoria boats. They were back on the river, so wide that they could only see one bank at a time. In an Omagua village where they found food, they also found porcelain of various makes, both jars and pitchers, and the porcelain was the best that there was in the world. Fray Carvajal even goes as far as saying that is better than the one made in Malaga; the drawings and paintings on them were so accurately worked out that fray compares them to Roman artifacts. By putting them on the same level as European ceramics, Fray Carvajal shows a certain appreciation for that indigenous culture. The indigenous populations who produced them were no longer barbarians, the notion of civilization is implied: “porque es toda vidriada y esmaltada de todas colores y tan vivas que espantan, y demás desto los dibujos y pinturas que en ellas hacen son tan compasados que naturalmente labran y dibujan todo como lo romano…” (69). Fray Carvajal’s relación from this point of view could also be regarded as an ethnographic report of the Amazonian region. Recent archaeological discoveries in Amazonia seem to support what Father

Carvajal mentions about this indigenous populations who were mastering the art of ceramics making. Elaborated ceramics were excavated and found in the Amazonian region, as mentions Bernadette Arnaud in her article titled: “'Seated People' of the Rain

Forest”. Arnaud focuses on archeological research regarding some funerary urns made of ceramics that belonged to the Maraca cultures in the Amazonian territory. Arnaud adds that important discoveries of refined ceramics and other artifacts from Marajó Island towards the mouth of the Amazon and in the Santarém region to the south attracted the attention of collectors and, later, researchers. Marajó Island had been home to a culture that produced elaborate polychrome ceramics from the fifth century A.D. As the ceramic depicted in Figure 2.3 shows, it does indeed resemble quality ceramics and gives credibility to Carvajal’s claim that it is similar to the ceramic art of the Romans.

According to Arnaud, excavations beginning in 1948 in the Marajo region yielded jars; bowls; painted or incised plates with abstract, possibly mythological, decoration; and anthropomorphic funerary urns, the majority representing women (53).

Figure 2.3: Elaborate ceramic from the Marajo region dated between 1000-1500 AD., at the Penn museum. Photographed by John H. Walker.

Marajo island in the Amazon is not the only place where ceramics were found.

According to Fray Gaspar de Carvajal, the banks of the river were highly populated and

new archeological research has shown that pottery and manipulation of the Amazonian landscape for agricultural practices was common. Pottery, archeologist Erickson at the

University of Pennsylvania mentions, is an indication of civilization. In the article

“Amazonia: The Historical Ecology of a Domesticated Landscape” Erickson argues that the Amazon was not a pristine wilderness, as the romantic view of this Amazon seems to be imply. But rather, through the perspective of historical ecology, however, we see that nature in Amazonia more closely resembles a garden than a pristine, natural wilderness.

Rather than “adapt to” or be “limited by” the Amazonian environment, humans created, transformed, and managed cultural or anthropogenic (human-made) landscapes that suited their purposes. The cultural or anthropogenic landscapes range from the subtle (often confused with “natural” or “pristine”) to completely engineered (158).

According to Erickson the Amazon is not a pristine nature but a cultural landscape.

Archaeologists have demonstrated that much of Amazonia was occupied by dense populations of urbanized societies practicing intensive agriculture that significantly contributed to creating the environment that is appreciated today. “Evidence of landscape creation, transformation and management of domesticated, engineered, humanized landscapes in Amazonia includes: anthropogenic burning, settlements and associated landscapes, mounds, anthropogenic forest islands, ring ditch sites, Amazonian Dark Earth

(ADE), raised fields, transportation and communication networks and, water management, fisheries management, and agroforestry” (165). Denevan, quoted in Erickson’s article, estimates a pre-European conquest native population of 6.8 million for Amazonia.

To prove his point, Erickson’s attention was drawn to Bolivia's “Llanos de Mojos” in the Amazonian basin where numerous forest islands dotted across the savannah over

30,000 square miles, along with unusual terraces (Figure 2.4). When Erickson had a closer look at these islands he found mounds and the ground littered with prehistoric pot shards, a sign of early human habitation (Figure 2.5). These types of mounds were not found just in the llanos de mojos site, but other regions of the Amazon that indicate strong evidence of human settlements6.

Some of the pottery items found especially in the mounds on the islands included huge vessels that were too big for wandering nomads; it suggested permanent settlements, where hundreds or even thousands of people had once gathered for huge ceremonies.

These were signs of an advanced society - a civilization. From the air, the area appears to have been turned into a sophisticated system of agriculture where controlled irrigation was provided by a canal network. In an interview for the documentary the Secret of El Dorado,

Erickson mentions that the indigenous populations cultivated a variety of crops and lived in carefully engineered mounds above the savannah’s seasonal flood waters and ate staple

6 Farmers built mounds in the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia, Marajo Island and the lower and central Amazon basin and Pantanal of Brazil, the Llanos de Venezuela, Mompos basin of Colombia, Sangay in the Upano Valley and Guayas Basin of Ecuador, and the coastal plains of Guyana, Brazil, Uruguay, and Ecuador. Mounds were constructed of earth with the exception of the sambaquis of coastal Brazil which are primarily of shell. Excavations show that many mounds served multiple functions, often simultaneously. Mounds generally contain fill or layers of domestic debris (bones, shell, and other organic food remains, pottery, and stone tools) typical of settlements (168). 70

crops, like corn. Erickson believes the Mojos Plains were home to a society which had totally mastered its environment.

Figure 2.4: Ancient terraces in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia are indication of advance agricultural techniques that sustained a large civilization. Photograph by Clark Erickson.

Figure 2.5: “Forest Island” in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia where mounds and ancient pottery was found. Photograph by Clark Erickson

Figure 2.6: Intricate pottery discovered in the “forest islands” in Llanos de Mojos, Bolivia. Photo by Asher Rosinger.

Pottery and settlements remains were not found just in llanos de Mojos but other areas of Amazonia as well. These remains of pottery scattered around in different sites in the Amazon could also indicate that some of the Amazonian tribes were mobile, moving around. According to Roller, modern ethnographic accounts of native Amazonian prove that some populations are mobile, travelling and resetting other areas, and that the decision to be mobile has been shaped by sociocultural processes in the indigenous communities

(10). Other scholars take this point even further and claim that it was the people of 73

Amazonia who migrated into the Andes and established the great Inca civilization.

Archaeologist Guapindaia quoted in Arnau’s article argues: Until fairly recently, most specialists believed that migrants from outside the rain forest, particularly from the Andean region, peopled the Amazon in the prehistoric era. "The Amazonian Indians," Guapindaia says, "were not considered anything more than a degenerate, tropical version of Andean culture." Now scholars believe exactly the opposite: it’s the Amazon tropical low-lands that contributed to the development of agriculture and ceramics in the central Andes.”

These modern archeological discoveries seem to back Carvajal’s descriptions. The paragraph I quoted earlier where Carvajal describes the advance pottery making skills of the indigenous populations he comes in contact with is something that Erickson also quotes too at the beginning of the video “The Secret of El Dorado.”

This was not just an isolated site, Carvajal mentions that throughout his journey the populations they found were many, numerous living in very large villages “the farther we went, the more thickly populated and the better did we find the land…” (Heaton translation

202). Father Carvajal’s description of the landscape he encountered is abundant with descriptions of highly populated areas and an abundance of food and pottery. Besides ceramics, another thing that Carvajal kept finding in the village where he encountered the pottery was gold, another mark of a civilized culture: “Y también se halló en este pueblo oro y plata; pero como nuestra intención no era sino buscar de comer y procurar como salvásemos las vidas y diésemos noticia de tan grande cosa, no curábamos ni se nos daba nada por ninguna riqueza.” (70) 74

In this village they also found gold and silver, but as their intention was to search for something to eat, they were not interested in wealth. What started as a quest for gold, ended up in a quest for survival. The gold loses its value, the real gold becomes food that gives sustenance, there is a shift in the meaning of the word “gold”; there is a progression in Carvajal’s narrative, towards the end of the journey the gold loses its luster and appeal.

After traversing one hundred leagues through the dominion of the Omagua tribe confederation, Orellana and his men enter another “country” belonging to another chief named Paguana “who has many subjects and quite civilized ones”. The Indians who were inhabiting that village gave Fray and his men presents. It is interesting to note that the idea of civilized and abundance go hand in hand. Fray writes about that encounter: “...y es muy rico de plata, según los indios nos decían, y la tierra es muy alegre y vistosa y muy abundosa de todas comidas y frutas, como son piñas y peras, que en lengua de la Nueva España se llaman aguacates y ciruelas y guanas y otras muchas y muy buenas frutas” (71). The

Amazonian landscape acquires the connotations of abundance when populated by these civilized Indians. It is interesting to note that Acuña refers for the first time to the indigenous populations that he encounters in his voyage as “civilized”, not long after just comparing the skills of ceramic making of another Amazonian indigenous tribe to those of the Romans. These descriptions of the Amazonian landscape that Fray Carvajal provides are the first to establish the Amazonian landscape as a source of never ending abundance, something that Cristóbal de Acuña retook in the description of the same region, almost 100 years later.

Descriptions are important because, as Water Mignolo argues in The Darker Side of Renaissance:

A distinction is made between existence (or the materiality of what there is)

and the description of what there is. A description of the world is what makes it

relevant to us, not its mere existence. The domains that human beings can

perceive or describe are much more limited than what there is. Expanding

knowledge is, precisely, the human capacity of expanding the range of

descriptions without exhausting the ontological domains (227).

Carvajal’s descriptions of the Amazonian landscape is what turns it into a landscape of abundance, not its mere existence. Continuing their navigation the crew saw another river emptying into the one they were traveling and had the water “black as ink”, therefore they named it “Rio Negro”, the Black River, as father Carvajal writes. This river is still known with the same name today. However, shortly after being in this region Orellana and his men found hostile indigenous tribes who were attacking them. Father Carvajal was hit with an arrow and if it hadn’t been for the thickness of his clothes he could have been killed, he confesses. One of the tribes who attacked Fray Gaspar was made of woman warriors, the Amazons. Fray describes these women:

Estas mujeres son muy blancas y altas, y tienen muy largo el cabello y entrenzado

y revuelto a la cabeza; y son muy membrudas y andan desnudas en cueros, tapadas

sus vergüenzas con sus arcos y flechas en las manos haciendo tanta guerra como

diez indios; y en verdad que hubo mujer de estas que metió un palmo de flecha por

uno de los bergantines, y otras que menos, que parecían nuestros bergantines puerco

espín. (81)

These women Carvajal describes acquire mythical proportions in his narrative. Father

Carvajal must have been aware of the Greek mythology when he uses the name “Amazons” to refer to these women warriors. According to Fritze in Travel, Legend and Lore, the tale of the Amazons arose from encounters by patriarchal cultures with societies practicing matriarchal customs. The oldest and most elaborate myths derive from the ancient Greeks.

Greek legends and art describe the Amazons as fierce mounted warriors armed with bows and arrows. Some even credit the Amazons with being the first to use cavalry. From the

Greeks, the Amazon legend was passed on to medieval Christian scholars, who made them part of the pantheon of monstrous races encountered at the edges of the known world. The

Amazons were not physically monstrous. They were strange because they stood traditional patriarchy on its head with their military matriarchy.

In the article “Imagens perdidas no rio das Amazonas: Conquista e genero”

Maria Izilda S. de Matos argues that the myth of the Greek Amazonian women present in these early narratives such as Gaspar de Carvajal was seen as a “disorder.” The Amazon women living in this part of the New World territory were seen as bellicose, isolated, savage, with the capacity to organize their own government without the help of male counterparts and represented an “upside down” version of the European view of women

which were supposed to dedicate themselves to domestic chores such as raising children and not to participate in battle. (58)

In the European versions of the myth the Amazons also appeared fully and richly clothes rather than naked, as was typical for most “monstrous” less civilized races. These myths and tales led ancient and medieval travelers to expect to meet Amazons in the course of their travels. (Fritze). However, Father Carvajal described these women as being naked.

It appears that those amazons were simply the women of a jungle tribe who fought bravely alongside their men. It was difficult for some of the cronistas in the New World to describe accurately what they were seeing, especially objects and people observed at a distance were more difficult to be correctly identified. Angel Delgado-Gómez in the essay “European

Views of the New World” mentions that greatly distorted or idealized images of the Indians would seem to have been almost inevitable among the first reporters of the New World:

“Inevitable, because they lacked the opportunities for prolonged observation, much of what the early explorers could produce was a description of the Indians’ external aspect and behavior” (4). Fray Gaspar de Carvajal described a “distorted” version of the women warriors, first by saying they were the mythical Amazons and second by saying that the men of that village were “under the control” of the women warriors. It is possible that Fray

Carvajal’s description includes both reality and myth in his description of the Amazons.

As the documentary l “Planeta amazónico”, part of the Amazônia, última llamada series states, there are indigenous tribes in the Amazon that have a matriarchal order. The women of these tribes, almost naked, are often seen fighting alongside with men.

Also, as a recent picture of an uncontacted tribe from the Amazon shows

(Figure 2.7), the indigenous people in the picture have long braided hair and their bodies are colored in different colors, in red and black. Is it possible that Carvajal may be describing a similar tribe, ready for battle who had their bodies painted white, instead of black or red. As we can see from Figure 2.7 disseminated by the organization FUNAI7, it is hard to figure out the gender of the people in this picture, since the picture was taken at a distance from a helicopter. And just like the indigenous tribes attacking father Carvajal’s brigantine with spears to the point that it looked like a “porcupine”, the people in the picture seem ready to attack the helicopter flying over them.

Since father Carvajal and Orellana were on their boats when they came under attack, it is quite possible that they were seeing the warrior women from a similar distance similar to how this picture was taken. Therefore, it is hard to distinguish the details, in

Figure 2.7 for example, the person painted in black looks like it could be identified as a woman. It is very possible that fray Gaspar witnessed a similar tribe, where women fought alongside with men but because of his limited power of observation he was left with filling in a cultural “informational gap” and this was done by including the myth of the Amazons in the description of the women warriors. Figure 2.7 is the closest we can get today, to an uncontacted tribe in the Amazonian landscape, just like Father Carvajal did centuries ago.

7 The National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), is the Brazilian government body that establishes and carries out policies relating to indigenous peoples. FUNAI is responsible for mapping out and protecting lands traditionally inhabited and used by these communities. It is charged with preventing invasions of indigenous territories by outsiders 79

Figure 2.7: Photograph by G. Miranda, FUNAI

For Europeans the novelty of Orellana coming into contact with the mythical amazon women was too difficult to overlook. Even though the women described by

Carvajal could be women fighting alongside men, or a case of “mistaken identity” it did not matter as much as Carvajal identifying them with the mythical Amazonian women.

The Amazonian landscape was constructed as a cultural process from the beginning,

Carvajal’s projection of these mythical figures onto the new found landscape was more powerful than reality itself, and proof of this is that even today the river that Orellana and

Father Carvajal “discovered” bear the name of the mythical Amazon women. When confronted with choosing between direct observation and previous knowledge or myth, these first explorers chose the myth. Anthony Pagden observed regarding sixteenth- century chroniclers: “When experience directly contradicted the text, it was the experience, which was unstable because of its very novelty, which was likely to be denied or at least obscured” (53). Jeremy Paden who quotes Pagden in his article “The Iguana and the Barrel of Mud: Memory, Natural History, and Hermeneutics in Oviedo's Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias” writes about the curious case of Oviedo wanting to send an iguana to Spain unsuccessfully thinking that iguanas in the New World eat dirt, despite having observed it for a while to try to understand its dietary habits8.

8 In 1546 Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo arrived in Spain eager to learn of the fate of an iguana he had sent several months earlier to the Venetian humanist Giovanni Battista Ramusio. Oviedo's table in Santo Domingo had often featured iguana and he desired that his colleague might also appreciate the gastronomic pleasures afforded by this animal. He describes iguana as ‘muy buena vianda cocida o asada de la misma manera que una gallina; y con sus especias e un pedazo de tocino y berza, no hay más que pedir en este caso para los que conoscen este manjar’ (Fernández de Oviedo 1959, 4:34–35). Attempting to figure out its dietary habits before dispatching it, Oviedo had the lizard tethered to a tree in the patio for over forty days. However, ‘nunca comió de cosa de cuantas se le dieron.’ Someone who did not know the herbivorous nature of iguanas informed him ‘no comían estos animales sino tierra’ (35). Oviedo accepted this statement as fully plausible and sent the iguana on to Ramusio with only a barrel of mud for sustenance during the trans-Atlantic voyage. Aristotle and other classical authorities believed in abiogenesis—the ability of lower life-forms, especially maggots, reptiles, and fish, to originate in and from mud—so it was highly reasonable to assume that such animals would also eat dirt. However, once the specimen reached Spain it was not sent on to Venice, for it was little more than a shriveled carcass. 81

For Oviedo, iguanas must eat dirt because that is what some of the Greek philosophers thought about reptiles. For Carvajal the women fighting alongside men in the landscape he was travelling through must be the mythical Greek Amazons. This speaks of the inability of some of the first European explorers to overcome their ethnocentrism and euro-centrism. European culture has looked up to the Greek philosophy for centuries.

When faced with new evidence from the New World that did not seem to follow the classical Greek ideas they were taught, these cronistas had a difficult time discerning the facts from mythological or authoritative texts.

When Father Carvajal saw the women warriors, to him the only explanation that made sense was that they must be the mythical Greek warriors, without giving any thought to another more plausible explanation. The myth is stronger than reality itself. This could also explain why even though the river that Orellana traveled on was known as river

Orellana after its discovery, by the end of the 1500s the river was known as the Amazon

River, named after the mythical Greek women. Even more, these mythical Amazon women started being represented in maps. In Figure 2.8, the Amazon women appear on the map as inhabiting the New World territory, only 50 years after Orellana’s journey. This map was drawn by a Dutch, Jodocus Hondius, following the account of Sir Walter Raleigh in the Amazon region. The Dutch became particularly interested in the Orinoco delta after learning of the expedition by Sir Walter Raleigh, the famous Elizabethan courtier who was searching for El Dorado in the lower Orinoco in 1595. Raleigh’s account, first published in English in 1596 and in Dutch in 1598, emphasized the lure of gold and other mineral

riches as well as the strong anti-Spanish feelings held by the indigenous people of the Wild

Coast (Meuwese 99). Raleigh gained intelligence about many native tribes in the region, just like Carvajal did 50 years earlier. In 1599 the Flemish cartographer Jodocus Hondius published a map in Amsterdam based on Raleigh’s report of the land of Guyana rich in gold (Figure 2.8). Hondius’ map depicted many geographic features such as rivers, the names of indigenous people as well as the presence of an Amazon warrior woman and, strangely enough, a headless man. Following their quick dissemination of the news of

Raleigh’s sensational expedition, adventurous Dutchmen set sail for the Orinoco delta and the Wild Coast in the second half of the 1590s (Meuwese).

Figure 2.8: Map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled “Nieuwe Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana9” (1599).

Guiana, with the broad and extensive rivers of the area seemed to promise an entry point to the imperial wealth of Spain, leading as it was imagined, directly to the mineral stores

9 The complete title of the map is: “Nieuwe caerte van het wonderbaer ende goudrijcke landt Guiana: gelegen onder de Linie Equinoctiael, tusschen Brasilien ende Peru: nieuwelick besocht door Sir Walter Ralegh, Ridder van Engelandt, in het jaer 1594, 95 ende 1596.” An original copy of the map can be found at the Library Geheugen Van Nederland.

of America’s interior (Schmidt 22). Guiana figured in multiple colonial initiatives of the late sixteenth century. In The Discovery of Guiana, Raleigh describes, in almost scholarly detail, the several prior attempts to unearth Guiana’s gold10. What is interesting about this map that Hondius drew depicting Raleigh’s voyage into the upper Amazonia, is that it gives a physical place for the location of El Dorado, close to Lake Parime even though later this fact was dismissed as not true. For 150 years from this date every map of Guiana shows the Lake Parime, until Alexander von Humboldt at the beginning of the 19th century showed that such lake did not exist (Meuwese).

This map marks not only the supposed location of El Dorado, but also an

Amazonian warrior woman depicted naked next to a headless man, or acephalous11. It is suggested that Raleigh himself did not see a headless man, but rather he heard stories from

10 Sir Walter Raleigh highlights the distinctions between the English and Spanish performances in America, emphasizing the deceit of the Spanish and the honesty and good treatment of the indigenous populations by the English. In The Discovery of Guiana Raleigh describes the exotic flora and fauna mentioning that the pineapple he ate was “the princess of fruits” (28). He also heard from the Spaniards that gold and El dorado was to be found in Manoa: “I have been assured by such of the Spaniards as have seen Manoa, the imperial city of Guiana, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, that for the greatness, for the riches, and for the excellent seat, it far exceeded any of the world, at least of so much of the world as is known to the Spanish nation. It is founded upon a lake of salt water of 200 leagues long, like unto Mare Caspium” (56). Although sightings of gold did occur, these failed to generate the cargoes and profits imagined. The expedition did not do very well (Schmidt 28). Raleigh went to search for El Dorado but was unable to bring back to England the wealth he had expected to find.

11 Schmidt argues that Raleigh most likely derived the description of the headless man from the fable-filled medieval travel writing, in particular Mandeville. Sir Raleigh enjoyed a certain privileged status at the court of Queen Elizabeth and had a personal library and was familiar with many medieval texts. 85

the natives and he also refers to the authority of Mandeville’s medieval travel narrative in his discussion of Ewaipanoma, that nation of headless men who so occupied the premodern

European imagination. It is interesting is that more than 100 years after Columbus’ discovery of the Americas, parts of the American landscape are still represented as inhabited by people with characteristics of monsters (Figure 2.9). In this map the Amazon woman is on the same level as the acephalus, a metaphor for the Amazonian women being equal to monsters but also for the indigenous populations in Amazonia still being represented as savages and inferior.

Figure 2.9: Modified closeup from the map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled “Nieuwe Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana” (1599). 86

Figure 2.10: Modified closeup from the map drawn by Jodocus Hondius Sr. titled “Nieuwe Caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrycke Landt Guiana” (1599). El Dorado is marked as a physical place on the map, where the city of Manoa is.

On one hand the Amazonian landscape is inhabited by these “monstrous” indigenous populations, on the other, the Amazonian landscape is represented as filled with gold. On the upper left side of the map, the region of Bogota is demarked as simply “Castillia de oro”, or Golden Castile. In the center of the map, under the rabbit (a symbol for good luck),

El Dorado is marked as a “city of gold” (Figure 2.10). Part of the caption reads, in Dutch:

“Manoa, this is the greatest city in the whole world.” The centrality of El Dorado on the map suggests that it is literally the center, the main attraction of Guyana in the New World.

Under the city there is the Lake Parime and the caption reads that the lake is located in the land of cannibals. Here once more we find the cannibalistic rhetoric, a negative portrayal of the indigenous populations. The map does give the names of some indigenous tribes (“Arwackas”12) in the region but does not represent any of them accurately, except for the exaggerated monstrous like attributes of the headless man and the Amazonian woman, two mythical creatures. Here again the Amazonian landscape is constructed in cultural terms representing the native populations in the New World as savage and inferior to the Europeans. As this map portrays, that the Amazonian landscape is full of gold, comes as no surprise since Carvajal constantly mentions gold in his narrative. Sir Walter Raleigh undertook the journey to find El Dorado based on stories from Orellana and other previous explorers in the region.

In his relación Carvajal constantly talks about gold and an abundance in natural resources. For example, as they continued their voyage, Orellana and his men ran into some cities that glistened in white with very fertile land, similar to Spain:

La tierra es tan Buena, tan fértil y tan natural como la de nuestra España, porque

nosotros entramos en ella por San Juan y ya comenzaban los indios a quemar los

campos. Es tierra templada, a donde se cogerá mucho trigo y se darán todos frutales:

demás desto es aparejada para criar todo ganado, porque en ella hay muchas yerbas

como en nuestra España, como es orégano y cardos de unos pintados y a rayas y

12 This is referring to the Arawaks or Tainos that Columbus mentions for the first time in his voyage. 88

otras muchas yerbas buenas; los montes desta tierra son encinales y alcornocales

que llevan bellotas porque nosotros las vimos, y robledales; la tierra es alta de fasta

la rodilla, y hay mucha caza de todos géneros. (83)

This very same fragment from Carvajal’s narrative is quoted in the scientific documentary “The Secret of El Dorado” as evidence that the Indigenous tribes inhabiting the Amazonian region were partially burning trees on the fields, resulting in a type of charcoal that was used to enrich the Amazonian soil called terra preta13. This type of very fertile rich soil in the Amazon was the result of careful human engineering. According to

Erickson, rather than adapt to limited soils, we now recognize the ability of Amazonian farmers to improve and manage marginal tropical soils through creation of settlement mounds, forest islands, raised fields, and Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE). ADE is a rich in typical domestic debris found in archaeological sites including potsherds, bone, fish scales,

13 According to Eduardo Neves (quoted in Mann’s article), an archaeologist at the University of São Paulo who is part of the Iranduba team, the oldest deposits of terra preta date back more than 2000 years and occur in the lower and central Amazon; terra preta then appeared to spread to cultures upriver. By A.D. 500 to 1000, he says, “it appeared in almost every part of the Amazon Basin.” Typically, black-soil regions cover 1 to 5 ha, but some encompass 300 ha or more. The black soils are generally 40 to 60 cm deep but can reach more than 2 m. Almost always they are full of broken ceramics. Indeed, terra preta is valuable enough that locals sell it as potting soil. To the consternation of archaeologists, long planters full of terra preta, complete with pieces of pre- Columbian pottery, greet visitors to the airport in the lower Amazon town of Santarém. Although they were created centuries ago probably for agriculture, researchers such as Woods believe patches of terra preta are still among the most desirable land in the Amazon. As a rule, terra preta has more “plant-available” phosphorus, calcium, sulfur, and nitrogen than surrounding oxisols; it also has much more organic matter, retains moisture and nutrients better, and is not rapidly exhausted by agricultural use when managed well. 89

shell, as well as charcoal. The extremely dark color and fertility is due to large quantities of charcoal and other organic remains that sharply contrast to the surrounding poor reddish tropical soils (171). The method for obtaining this type of soil is also called “slash and char” and is different than the “slash and burn” still practiced today in some regions in the

Amazon for agriculture. In “slash and burn” the trees and vegetation are burnt, the rich soil washes off in a few years resulting in a soil where agriculture cannot be cultivated, a big problem in Amazonia even today. More remarkable still, terra preta appears to be the product of intensive habitation by pre contact Amerindian populations. Mann points out that those indigenous populations in the Amazon practiced agriculture there for centuries but instead of destroying the soil, they improved it. The key to terra preta’s long-term fertility is charcoal and animal waste: Terra preta contains up to 70 times as much as adjacent oxisols. The charcoal prevents organic matter from being rapidly mineralized and over time, it partly oxidizes, which keeps providing sites for nutrients to bind to (Mann

920). Even more remarkably, recent scientific studies have shown that this type of “terra preta” soil can regenerate itself. The prehistoric Amazonian have transformed the earth soil into some of the best enriched the soil in the world, which in turn intensified the agriculture and in turned contributed to the development of great civilizations in the

Amazonian basin. It seems that father Carvajal does not exaggerate about the abundance of this land.

The Amazonian landscape is so abundant that it is compared to the familiar landscape from Spain. This paragraph it is impressive in regards to the number of elements

from the Spanish world that are present in the Amazon: oregano, cardos, robledales. Fray already sees this landscape as producing typical Spanish staple foods: “es tierra templada, a donde se cogerá mucho trigo y se darán todos frutales.” By juxtaposing these European elements from the natural world onto the New World landscape, Fray makes the landscape more familiar for his “ideal audience” and indirectly argues for the colonization of this region. For Robertson landscapes are products of human values, meanings and symbols, usually products of the dominant culture in society; in this case the Amazonian landscape becomes the product of the dominant Spanish culture. Here the Amazonian landscape becomes full of the meanings and symbols that Fray Gaspar carries with him, even the tropical climate becomes template, there is mention of wheat, a food staple of Europe, the land is good for raising cattle, and there are even mountains. The Amazonian landscape is transformed into an idealized European landscape.

Fray Gaspar de Carvajal was not alone in his desire to impose his European idealized cultural projections unto the American landscape. Kirkpatrick Sale, founder of the New York Green Party in the essay “The conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian legacy” argues that the Spanish invaders starting with Christopher

Columbus were careless and destructive of the islands where they first settled. It was the admiral’s design to export Castilian life to the Indies and to turn Espanola, as its name suggested into a Spanish island, with Spanish livestock, Spanish crops, Spanish food and drink: “we can tell, by the extent of provisioning records and the commentaries of the early travelers, that no thought was given to whether the foreign life-forms belonged in the

islands, whether they would prosper, whether they would damage the native species, it simply assumed that anything the Europeans wanted to grow would and should grow”

(205). These European obsession with imposing a landscape not belonging there unto another, are the result of ethnocentric and Eurocentric cultural views at the time, that assumed the European culture was superior and therefore the European landscape was also superior to the landscapes found in the New World. These views persisted well into the

19th century. For example, a group called the American Acclimatization Society was reportedly working on their pre-environmental impact project to introduce to the U.S. every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts. The Acclimatization Society released some hundred Starling birds in New York City’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891. By 1950 starlings could be found coast to coast, north past Hudson Bay and south into Mexico. This introduction of this invasive species had disastrous effects on the ecology and even on the economy of the United States14, according to Jane O’Brian in the article “The birds of

Shakespeare cause US trouble”.

What sense did it make for the Acclimatization Society to introduce these new

European species into the American landscape if it wasn’t for a cultural reason? Their actions were based on the idea that the European landscape was “superior”, something that the American landscape should “aspire” to be and therefore needs to be populated with

14 Scientists say there's a correlation between the increased numbers of starlings and a decline in native species such as the red headed woodpecker, purple martin and bluebird. Starlings were also to be blamed for some aviation accidents. 92

these European elements. The idea that the European landscape is superior to the American one (even though, from a biodiversity point of the view the American landscapes are much richer) was what made Carvajal write about that portion of the Amazonian landscape that

I commented on, that “la tierra es tan Buena, tan fértil y tan natural como la de nuestra

España”. The characteristics of this particular Amazonian landscape Carvajal just encountered have positive connotations such as good, fertile and natural only becomes is resembles the European landscape. Fray Gaspar not only wants to convert the Amazonian landscape into a Spanish one, but the Amazonian landscape has already become Spanicized in the Carvajal’s mind. It has become a Spanish landscape ready for European settlements.

The reality of what Carvajal sees is filtered through his perceptions, and he interprets the reality through codes of his cultural perspectives. Whenever he is faced with unknown situations, Carvajal borrows from his repertoire of the cultural information he already possess about the world and “fills in the gaps” for any information he does not understand with familiar information. This happens not just in the case of the Amazonian landscape that acquires characteristics of a European landscape, but also with regards to the indigenous populations he encounters. For example after writing about the landscape that is similar to the one from Spain, Carvajal resumes his description of the Amazon women. When Orellana was attacked by the so called Amazonian women, the captain took an Indian who was fighting with them prisoner. A few days later the Captain was interrogating the Indian and Fray Carvajal documents the conversation that Captain

Orellana had with the indigenous man. When the captain asked the captured Indian who

those women were, the Indian answered that they were some women that resided separated from men in the interior of the country. Additionally, the Indian being interrogated mentioned that the Amazonian women lived in dwellings made of stone that had doors.

When the women got pregnant, he continued, if they gave birth to a male child they will kill him and send him to his father, if they gave birth to a girl they would raise her “con muy gran solemnidad” and teach her the craft of battle15 (86). This description is very similar to descriptions of the behavior associated with the mythical Greek Amazon women that father Carvajal must have been familiar with. Carvajal also gives an additional description of the Amazonian women, that they are under the rule of a lady and their utensils for eating are made of gold and silver:

dijo más, que entre todas estas mujeres hay una señora que subjeta y tiene todas las

demás debajo de su mano y jurisdicción, la cual señora se llama Coñori. Dijo que

hay muy grandísima riqueza de oro y plata y que todas las señoras principales y de

manera no es otro su servicio sino oro y plata, y las demás mujeres plebeyas se

sirven en vasijas de palo, excepto lo que llega al fuego, que es barro. (86)

The theme of the gold comes up again and this time, the gold is possessed by the legendary

Amazon women. The questions rises how was the captain able to understand this complex information from the Indian captured? It is true that Orellana possessed some knowledge

15 The Amazons in the European myths lived without men, although at certain times they would get together with neighboring males for procreation. From babies born of these liaisons, the Amazons would raise the females to be warriors, while the males were given away, killed, or disabled (Fritze 11). 94

of the Indigenous languages but it is doubtful that the captain was able to understand these complex and sometimes abstracts sentences and ideas about the societal structure the

Amazon women lived in. As it happened with other European explorers, the Captain probably was able to understand what Alastair Reid calls “hearsay”. In other words, the

Captain heard what he wanted to hear, in the lack of a concise clear translation the Captain filled in the informational gaps with references he was familiar with, in this case information from European mythology about Greek Amazonian women and information about El Dorado, the gold and silver always present on his mind. Referring to Christopher

Columbus, Reid mentions about Columbus and early Spanish explorers that:

Over various landfalls, the Spaniards probably began to assemble a sketchy

vocabulary of native words, but there are signs in the journal that Columbus was

prone to the affliction of beginners in any language –an over willingness to

understand. Hearsay for Columbus was whatever he thought he heard, and hearsay

was the basis of his golden promises in a famous letter he addressed to Their

Majesties on the return crossing. (xxi)

The situation in which Columbus found himself trying so desperately to understand and make meaning of the language of the native people he encountered was not much different than that of Orellana and his men. Orellana was in a new unexplored territory, meeting some indigenous populations for the first time so it is doubtful that he was able to understand and communicate properly with them. And just like Columbus, the Captain heard about stories of gold and assumed that the Amazon women were eating with utensils

made of gold. These stories come from “second hand accounts”, the captain did not see the Amazon women eating with gold utensils. There are indications in Carvajal’s text that the communication between the Captain Orellana and the Indian he was interrogating was flawed and it is doubtful they were able understand each other properly. For example towards the end of the conversation that Orellana has with the Indian it is mentioned: “he said in addition that in this land, as we understood him, there were camels that carried them

(the inhabitants) on their backs, and he said that there were other animals, which did not succeed in understanding” (Heaton translation 221). Father Carvajal confesses that he was not able to understand part of the conversation, “which did not succeed in understanding”.

He also writes that he saw “camels” which is an additional proof that some of the content of the conversation was invented. The informational gap was filled with what the

Europeans thought they heard from the Indian man. Camels do not inhabit the landscape of the Americas; they live primarily in the northern African continent. Fray could have referred to llamas, but he must have been aware of what llamas looks liked since Gonzalo

Pizarro’s expedition started off from the Andean mountains. These conversational confusions contribute to cultural misunderstandings, such as thinking that the legendry

Amazonian women inhabit the American landscape or that the landscape is filled with gold.

It was a conversation misunderstanding that started the myth of El Dorado to begin with.

Orellana continued his journey and the closer they came to the sea (Atlantic ocean), the more populated the human settlements become: “pero no habíamos andado mucho, cuando a la mano siniestra vimos muy grandes provincias y poblaciones, y estas

estaban en la más alegre y vistosa tierra que en todo el rio vimos y descubrimos, porque era tierra alta de lomas y valles muy poblados…” (88). Once again father Carvajal makes the remark that the Amazon was highly populated as I discussed earlier in this chapter. Of ethnographic importance is the episode where, in this highly populated area, one tribe attacked Orellana’s convoy and one of the men who was part of the expedition, Antonio

Carranza was struck with a poisonous arrow and he later died. What most likely killed that man was an arrow dipped into a poisonous plant called curare16 that some tribes in the

Amazon use for hunting to this day.

After going through a strenuous indigenous attack, Orellana and his men realized they were closer to the sea, because the flowing of the tide extended to where they were.

Badly shaken, they made camp close to the Tapajoz River to make repairs to the San Pedro boat. Even though they saw the tide rise and fall, they were still 300 miles from the sea.

16 Curare is a name used to identify a variety of highly toxic (poisonous) extracts from some types of woody vines that grow in the Amazon basin. European scientists began studying curare in the late sixteenth century after explorers learned that Indians living along the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in South America had been using it for centuries to make poison-tipped hunting arrows. It was first described by Hakluyt in his "Voyages and Discoveries," in which he relates how Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595 met Indians of the Upper Amazon and brought back curare as well as tobacco to England. South American natives still use gum curare upon arrow tips to paralyze game in hunting. The arrows are dipped into it and allowed to dry. Slight wounds made in small animals with poisoned arrows produce generalized muscular paralysis and death within a few moments. When the muscles used for breathing became paralyzed, the animals died of suffocation. The edibility of the animal is not impaired, since curare is innocuous when taken into the alimentary tract (Bennett 424). These deadly arrows were sometimes used against the European explorers and soldiers. Natives called the poisonous plant ourari (or "woorari"), which became "curare" to the Europeans.

They were also suffering again from hunger and this is when the religious discourse returns in Carvajal’s relación. The Amazonian landscape becomes a site of miracles, for example a dead tapir17 came down the river, who had been dead only for a short time. For Carvajal it was a sign that God takes care of the expedition and provides with sustenance from the

Amazonian landscape:

Asimismo estando en esta necesidad, mostró Nuestro Señor el particular cuidado

que tenía de nosotros pecadores, pues quiso proveer en esta necesidad como todo

lo demás que tengo dicho; y fue así, que un día sobre tarde apareció que venía por

el rio una danta muerta tamaña como una mula, y…la trujeron y se repartió por

todos los compañeros; de manera que a cada uno le cupo de comer para cinco o seis

días, que no fue poco sino mucho remedio para todos (94)

Towards the end of his voyage the expedition’s diet became transcultured, they were no longer eating typical European foods but animals who inhabit the Amazonian landscape.

In addition, the Amazonian landscape also provides the tools they need to rebuild their ship, they were using tree vines and palm fiber as rope for the rigging. Anchors were improvised out of hardwood, with stone and metal tips. While they were repairing the boat,

17 The lowland tapir Tapirus terrestris is the largest herbivore in the Neo tropics and feeds on a large quantity of fruits, often ingesting the seeds and defecating them intact (Tobler). Tapirs look like pigs with trunks, but they are actually related to horses and rhinoceroses. Scientists believe that these animals have changed little over tens of millions of years. Tapirs have a short prehensile (gripping) trunk, which is really an extended nose and upper lip. They use this trunk to grab branches and clean them of leaves or to help pluck fruit.

they were also eating only edible snails and the reddish crabs which live at tide level18.

The crew was getting ready for the open sea, with no real knowledge on how to succeed in the voyage at the Atlantic Ocean. Just as they were approaching the sea their hunger was so severe that they almost died of starvation. The Amazonian landscape not only provides them with substance, once more, but is literally keeping them alive: “pero hallábamos algunas raíces que llamaban inanes, que a no las hallar, todos pereciéramos de hambre”

(95).

By the end of the journey Fray Carvajal does not refer to the indigenous populations with the names of “barbarous” but they are seen as people of great intelligence.

Fray Carvajal’s perception of these indigenous populations changed: “toda la gente que hay en este rio que hemos pasado, como hemos dicho, es gente de mucha razón y hombres ingeniosos, según que vimos y parecían por todas las obras que hacen, así de bulto como dibujos y pinturas de todas las colores, muy vivísimas, que es cosa maravillosa de ver”

(96). Once again, these indigenous populations are civilized. Orellana’s journey seem to have had a happy ending, worth of a Hollywood movie adaptation: After 8 months on the river, Orellana and his men finally reached the open sea. But now they had a 1200 mile sea journey in homemade boats. During bad weather the 2 ships became separated, San

Pedro having washed further out to sea, rounded Trinidad and made it to Cubagua on Sept

18 “Por la muchas hambre y poca comida que había, que no se comía sino lo que se mariscaba a la lengua del agua, que eran unos caracolejos y unos cangrejos bermejuelos del tamaño de ranas…” (94). 99

9th. But on Sept 11th, Orellana and Victoria reached the port of New Cadiz, having been drawn into the Gulf of Paria behind Trinidad. Forty seven members of the original expeditions were still alive. For a time the river itself was named the Orellana river- until the myth of the warrior women overshadowed the more prosaic facts of Captain Orellana’s voyage, and it became known as the River of the Amazons, as it still is today (Wood 227).

Orellana did make his way back to Spain and his tales of the river and his assurances that El Dorado did exist somewhere in the area he traveled to, had an impact in

Europe. Orellana was given permission for another expedition comprising ships, settlers and infantrymen to colonize the Amazon area, which was to be called Nueva Andalucía

(De Bruhl 39). From the beginning, two of his ships were lost in the journey on the

Atlantic. Having reached the American shores the enterprise was not successful and

Orellana died in the Amazon Rain Forest in November 1546 (40).

However, being the first Europeans to travel the length of the impressive Amazon

River, Orellana and Fray Gaspar de Carvajal left a legacy for centuries to come. Their journey into the unknown landscape was filled with danger and starvation but also with wonder. Carvajal’s narrative of their journey documents countless indigenous populations they met along the way and proof that the Amazonian river was highly populated, something recently proved by recent science. Carvajal in particular learned to appreciate these new found people and cultures; his most known legacy consists in constructing the

Amazonian landscape as a land of abundance, rich in gold but also projecting a European imaginary unto these new found territories. The landscape Father Carvajal described was 100

forever to be associated with the mythical Amazonian women and the legend of El Dorado.

Future expeditions into the Amazonian region still speak of El Dorado and the Amazonian women, as I shall discuss in Chapter 4 of this dissertation.

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Chapter 3: The Economy in the 16th and 17th Centuries

The discoveries and explorations of the territories in the New World in the 16th and

17th centuries were made possible and fueled mostly by an economic impulse, marked by the quest for precious metals and trading opportunities. This chapter will provide a brief overview of the complex economic processes taking place in Europe and the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries and will demonstrate how Cristobal de Acuña’s relación

Nuevo descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas inserts itself within a very specific economic discourse at the time it was published in 1641. I also discuss the specific capitalist system that Acuña advocates for appropriating the natural resources in the Amazon region.

Studies on the economy in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Spanish Empire are few and most of them are from the discipline of economics or the history of economics. Even fewer are those scholarly publications that link narratives of the discovery and exploration of the America with the economic processes taking place at that time. The beginning of this chapter will briefly explain the main economic process that took place in Spain and the New World in the 16th century. This will be followed by an analysis of the economic

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system in the 17th century with an emphasis on the factors that contributed to the economic crisis in the Spanish Empire towards the end 1600s and continued in the next century.

In the 16th century Spain’s economy was to be envied. As Cameron and Neal mention, in the sixteenth century Spain was “the envy and scourge of the crowned heads of Europe”. King Charles who ruled from 1516 to 1556 inherited not only the kingdom of

Spain made up by the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, but also other vast territories: the

Habsburg lands in central Europe, the “Low Countries” or Paises Bajos as they were called in Spanish (made up of Dutch or Flemish populations). The kingdom of Aragon also brought with it part of Italian territories south of Rome, including the island of Sicily. To this vast empire were being added the new found lands of America that the Spanish discovered and claimed possession for the Spanish Crown (132).

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Figure 3.1: Map of the Spanish Empire under Charles V (Credit: Cambridge University)

In 1519 Charles became a Holy Roman Emperor under the name of Charles V.

As Sir Walter Raleigh, an explorer and courtier for the English Crown was mentioning in his book in the Discovery of Guiana at the end of the 16th century, Spain indeed was slowly taking over the world: “the Spanish King vexes all the princes of Europe, and is become, in a few years, from a poor king of Castile, the greatest monarch of this part of the world, and likely every day to increase” (53). As Figure 3.1 shows, Charles V indeed possessed 104

a vast empire that, as I will discuss later in this chapter, was also the cause of many economic problems that the Spanish Empire started experiencing at the end of the 16th and continued well into the 17th century. But at the time when Charles V ruled, the Spanish

Empire was experiencing an economic prosperity.

The Hapsburg territories Spain possessed in Central Europe had significant mineral deposits that were extracted and included iron, lead, copper, tin, and silver.

However, the most important precious metal resources that helped the economy of the

Spanish Empire were the gold and silver gathered from its New World territories. The imports of gold and precious metals peaked in the last decade of the 16th century before they gradually started to decrease in the seventeenth century (Cameron and Neal 153).

Monetary System in the Spanish Empire in the Sixteenth Century

The gold and silver extracted and imported from the New World was valuable because accumulations of capital have been in the form of precious metal since medieval times. The importance of money, often in the form of gold or silver coins, was a characteristic of the medieval economy that was continued in the 16th century in Europe

(Laraz 18). The precious metals, due to their rarity accumulated great value, needed very little physical space and through their chemical composition were maintained unaltered by the passing of time and could be exchanged, at any time for a certain merchandise or service as necessary. 105

The main monetary system in the 16th century in Spain was the one established by the Catholic Kings in 1497. It was a “bimetallic” system based on gold and silver. The basic coin for gold was the ducat while the “real” was the silver unit and the abstract unit of account was called “maravedi”. A “real” was worth 34 maravedis and a ducat was 375

(Alvarez). The silver “real” also had several denominations, these were necessary for the commercial sector of the economy. For example a “real de a dos” or “peseta” was worth two reales, while a “real de a ocho” or “peso fuerte” was worth 8 silver reales and 272 maravedis. The purchasing power of each coin was based on its value in terms of maravedis. These nominal and intrinsic value of the coins were the variables used by the government to keep gold and silver in circulation and fluctuated according to the value of silver:

When the value of some coin in terms of commodities was higher than the value

given to the raw silver, people converted precious metal into coins, paying the cost

of producing them (bracceage) and the taxes charged by the king (seigniorage). It

allowed the people to increase their purchasing power. On the contrary, if the coins

were less estimated in units of account than the raw silver, people preferred to melt

the coins and to use the raw metal. In this case, the government had to increase the

nominal value of the silver coins in units of account or to reduce the official amount

of silver in each coin in order to stop the melt process. (Alvarez 7)

However, the Crown was not able to convince people to mint coins of every size and value.

Mints produced many big coins and therefore the short coins fell in short supply and were 106

greatly needed for every day transactions. To try and solve this problem, in the 16th century, the Spanish King introduced a coin called “billon1”, made of copper and a small part of silver. However, the main coins through the 16th and 17th centuries remained the coins made of gold and silver. This is the reason why conquistadors and explorers in the

New World risked so much to try and find these precious metals, especially gold. Because of their monetary value, possessing gold in the Spanish Empire at that time was the equivalent of wealth that would have been very difficult to achieve by hard work in the agriculture or other professions. Finding gold in the New World was the modern day equivalent of “winning the lottery”, it was the ticket to instant richness. That is why the

1 This “billon” coin was called “blanca” and it had a nominal value of 0.5 maravedis in terms of units of account. Even though it had less silver than the regular silver coins, its purchasing power was the same than them. It was something established not only by Castile’s legislation but also accepted by the market in general. This “billon” coin was always convertible to silver with an exchange rate fixed by the government. In terms of its value, it meant that sixty-eight “blancas” (34 maravedis) were the equivalent to a silver real (34 maravedis). The net profit of producing and minting the “billon” coin was 10 percent and the Monarchy was able to make a profit just by minting these coins. The circulation of the coins in the market was not easy; there were periods of shortages of these copper silver coins and excessive coining, depending of cost and net gains. However, issuing this sort of coins helped the Castilian markets with the small every day transactions. Merchants and other people receiving the “billon” coins in their trading activities were willing to accept them although they had smaller silver content because of their higher utility in conducting every day payments. These copper coins went through several changes but they continued having similar proportions of silver and copper until 1596. (Alvarez 8).

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myth of El Dorado survived for so long, because people searching for it2 lived in a time when gold was the highest monetary unit that could be exchanged for goods and services

(my emphasis).

The gold and silver that arrived from the New World helped the Spanish economy in the first half of the 16th century. However, not all gold from the New World was going to the king, most of it was going to private investors and the conquistadors themselves. According to Cameron and Neil: “The government acquired about 40% of the legal imports, even so in the last years of Philip’s reign his share of the precious metals accounted for no more than about 20 to 25 percent of his total revenue” (135). The gold and silver from America were not the main asset of Spain, nor its only source of economic prosperity. In “Monetary and Financial Innovations in the Spanish Empire: Lights and

Shadows” Carlos Alvarez argues that Spain in the 16th century was a flourishing center of international trade. And continues Alvarez that through its many territories in different parts of Europe, Spain was well connected internationally and the merchandises and trade arriving to Castile contributed to its economic prosperity. That was shown especially in the fact that Spain had the highest urbanization in the whole Europe at the time. This network of international trade that Spain was a part of, helped spread financial procedures to other parts of Europe. Soon Spanish merchants imitated advances in banking and credit

2 Modern economy still preserved from the medieval times the value of gold associated with the accumulation of capital and wealth. And people have not stopped searching for El Dorado. There is a case of a professor from the United States who still searches for El Dorado in the Amazon (Myth Hunters).

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from their more experience European counterparts: the Genovese, Venetians, Portuguese or Fleming merchants. Even more, international bankers started operating in Spain’s capital, Madrid and that was proof of how attractive the Spanish markets were for European investors. The Spanish Crown depended on these foreign bankers for financial services3.

First, financial services were needed by the military, as Spain was continuously involved in some type of warfare, mainly in Europe. But the private sector needed these international bankers as well, since credit was vital to Spain’s imperial expansion and the trade it started to develop with Europe and the Americas. (Alvarez 2014, 309)

3 Some of the most renowned bankers at the time were The German (such as the Fugger family) and Genoese (Spinola, Centurione, Grimaldi). These bankers often financed in advance the Spanish military expenses needed in the Netherlands, Germany and the North of Italy. These territories occupied by Spain were constantly revolting against the Spanish rule and Spain had to intervene many times. These European bankers who were financing the Spanish wars were later compensated with taxes collected from Castile and also with the silver from the New World. The reason why these bankers were needed was because the Spanish Crown collected taxes only once a year, however, maintaining the military enterprise had costs that had to be paid on a monthly basis. The Crown had to transfer money from Castile to different places in Europe in order to pay its armies with regularity in Antwerp (Germany) and Italy. These territories were far away from the centers where the main tax revenues were collected so if the king wanted to have credit in different places in Europe (often needed in different currencies), it was essential to have access to a big financial network of agents able to transfer money safely and quickly to different places (Alvarez 2014, 311). However, towards the end of the 16th century these bankers went bankrupt (especially the Fuggers, who were some of the wealthiest bankers in Europe at the time) when the Spanish Crown declared bankruptcy and was unable to pay its credit (Bayon). I will talk more in this chapter how replying on credit from financial investors and the constant warfare contributed to the decline of the Spanish economy.

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As I mentioned in this Chapter gold and silver were an important source of revenue for the Spanish crown and contributed to the economic prosperity in the 16th century (Camron and Neil). The source of gold and silver in the New World at first came from the loot that the conquistadors took from the native populations as a result of their conquests (for example Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, as mentioned in Chapter 2 of this dissertation). However, another important source of precious metals for the Spanish was the territories that they had just conquered. Starting with the16th centuries the

Spaniards started extracting the gold and silver from mines such as Potosi (Bolivia) or

Guanajato ( Mexico) that brought a large amount of precious metals that served as making the fragile Spanish economy stay afloat. This gold and silver that were coming from overseas served as a “helper” to sustain the unstable economy that was progressing throughout the Spanish Empire (Bayon 29).

A very important source of finances for both Charles V and Phillip II was borrowing. The lenders varied, many of them were German and Italian bakers, but also

Flemish and Spanish merchants and nobles. The precious metals from the Americas played an important role in this policy of borrowing since gold and silver were used as a security for the loans that the King took. For a while in the first half of the 16th century the Spanish empire was experiencing prosperity and was the envy of Europe, as Cameron and Neal mention. 110

However, this period of economic prosperity in Spain did not last long.

Maintaining such a large empire and defending its borders was costly. Besides, Charles V, as a ruler of the Holy Roman Empire made it a mission to reunify a Christian Europe at a time when several religious motivated conflicts were taking place in Europe. On one hand

Charles was trying to prevent the Ottoman Empire from expanding through Eastern Europe and take over the Western Europe. For this reason he fought the Turks in the

Mediterranean, as well as Hungary and Transylvania4 that were trying to be taken over and incorporated to the Ottoman Empire. But Western Europe posed its own unique problems.

The protestant princes of Germany, as well as the king of France, who had territorial interests in the Netherlands and Italy felt threatened by the increasing Habsburg Empire.

Charles V, unable to secure a lasting victory in the wars he was conducting, abdicated the

Spanish throne 1556, even though he was indirectly still giving advice to his successor, his son Phillip II from Yuste, where he had retired (Memoria de Espana 12). Philip II, who ruled from 1556 until 1598, continued most of his father’s crusades and additionally succeeded in adding England to the list of Spain’s enemies.5

4 In the 16th century Transylvania was recognized as an independent state by the Ottoman Empire, however it had to pay the Ottomans 10,000 ducats a year as tribute. Transylvania was at the fore front of preventing the Turks from advancing in Europe and it allied with the West against the Ottoman Empire especially under the ruler Mihai Viteazu. In the 16th century Transylvania also became part of the Habsburg Empire under Charles the V for a while (Bachman). 5 Spain’s feud with England had disastrous consequences when the “invincible” Spanish Armada of 1558 was defeated. (Neal 133). 111

Spain was involved, on a regular basis, in some type of war in a part of Europe and that put a lot of strain on Spain’s economy. The Spanish monarchs also had a tendency to display lavish court ceremonies and were invested in building monumental architecture which only increased Spain’s excessive spending. In order to finance the many wars and extravagant consumption, the kings Charles and Philip relied mostly on taxation. Most of the nobles were exempt from taxation and the poor people began being taxed, and it estimated that at the time the people living in Spain were the most taxed from the whole

Europe (Cameron and Neal 133).

Economy permeated every aspect of the life in the VII century: “La altura cultural del Siglo de Oro estuvo siempre estrechamente unida a lo social y a los conflictos humanos, políticos y religiosos. Casi todos estuvieron determinados por los altibajos de una economía que desde un discreto plano histórico marcó el rumbo de guerras.

Mecenazgos artísticos o el día a día de los españoles de la época” (Bayon 23).

Critics of the Royal Economic Policy

The dire economic situation at the time was documented by Luis Ortiz, the treasurer of the king who not only told the king what the main economic problems were, but also gave solutions. In Memorial para que no salga dineros de estos reinos de España

1558 Ortiz was writing that one of the main economic problems was that Spain was selling

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raw materials such as silk and iron very cheap, only to import and buy finished products at a price several times more expensive:

y por el semejante de la seda cruda en madeja de dos ducados que les cuesta una

libra, hacen rasos de Florencia y terciopelos de Génova, telas de Milán y otras de

que sacan aprovechamiento de más de veinte ducados en el fierro u acero de lo que

les cuesta un ducado hacen frenos, tenazuelas, martillos, escopetas, espadas, dagas

y otras armas y cosas de poco valor de que sacan más de veinte ducados y a veces

más de ciento y ha venida la cosa a tanta rotura que aún la vena de que se hace el

fierro llevan a Francia y allá vienen de poco acá herrerías nuevas todo en daño no

solo de nuestras honras (quoted in Laraz, 107).

Ortiz not only states specific problems that the Spanish economy was experiecing but he also proposes a solution. Not to export the raw materials and import the finish products:

“el remedio para esto es vedar que no salgan del Reino mercaderías por labrar ni entren en

él mercaderías labradas” (107). Ortiz laments that foreign nations take advantage of Spain:

que es vergüenza y grandísima lástima de ver y muy peor lo que burlan los

extranjeros de nuestra nación que cierto en esto y en otras cosas nos tratan muy

peor que a indios porque a los indios para sacarles el oro o plata llevámosles algunas

cosas de mucho o de poco provecho, mas a nosotros, con las nuestras propias, no

solo se enriquecen y aprovechan lo que les falta en sus naturalezas, mas llevanos el

dinero del Reino con su industria sin trabajar de sacarlo de las minas como nosotros

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hacemos y el remedio para esto es vedar que no salgan del Reino mercaderías por

labrar ni entren en él mercaderías labradas (quoted in Laraz 102).

For Ortiz another weakness of the Spanish economy was its incapacity of Spain to retain the precious metals from the New World: (therefore title, “para que no salga dinero de

España”). He also had other solutions, among them an incentive that people work and that the manufacture be done in the country.

Ortiz’s comments are part of the mercantilism theory at the time; according to

Hill the first international theory of trade, as mercantilism is often referred to, claimed that gold and silver were the basis for the national wealth and essential to a strong commerce.

Since gold and silver were the currencies of many European countries at that time, a country could earn more gold and silver by exporting goods while importing goods would result in a loss of the gold and silver towards that country where imports are coming from.

Therefore, it was in a country’s best interest to export more than it imported. However, this mercantilist theory is flawed from a modern point of view6. Ortiz also advocated for the crown to keep the gold that was coming from the Indies. But Philip II did not listen and he had to follow for bankruptcy.

6 Proposed in 1776, Smith’s theory was the first to explain why unrestricted, uncontrolled trade is beneficial to a country. Free trade refers to a situation where a government does not attempt to influence through policies or duties what its citizens can buy from another country or what they can produce and sell to another country. Smith argued that the invisible hand of the market mechanism instead of government policies should determine what a country imports and exports. The laissez faire attitude towards trade is what works best in the interest of a country (Hill 165). 114

This in part the reason why the previous metals such as gold and silver that arrived in Spain did not remain long there, but rather had to circulate throughout Europe, through different bankers. However in 1557 the borrowing burden became too much and the government was unable to pay a substantial portion of its debts and had to declare a sort of “national bankruptcy”. On eight occasions (in 1557, 1575, 1596, 1607, 1627, 1647,

1653 and 1680) the Spanish Hapsburgs declared royal bankruptcy. Each time a bankruptcy was declared it resulted in a disruption of every day commercial and financial transactions

(Cameron and Neal 135). The debt the monarchs acquired were passed on from generation to generation. For example, Bayon states in Breve historia del Siglo de Oro that Philip II inherited from his father (King Charles V) not only an immense territory but also a large debt, whose interest had increased to unexpected levels. However, sometimes there were hidden motives behind the bankruptcies that the Spanish monarchies declared: it seemed that the first bankruptcy that Philip II declared was a strategy to not pay the lenders the finances that his father, Charles the V, owed. (32)

Even after the bankruptcy the lack of money continued for a long time, affecting mostly the poor class people, who as mentioned previously in this chapter already had to pay high taxes. Poverty increased at the same time that the king was increasing his wars and combats, which could have been avoided, argues Bayon, but had their purpose of defending and reaffirming the Catholic faith. Davis argues that the reason King Philip II

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was able to spend so much of Spain’s treasure on wars was that there was no one who had authority to put a stop to his ambitious warfare plans. Unlike Spain, for example, in Britain there was a certain “financial check” by nobles and other aristocratic courtiers that had imposed certain limitations on how much the king or queen could spend on wars7.

Casa de contratación

Even though this gold was reaching la Casa de Contratación de Sevilla, an organization set up by the Crown to keep an inventory of the gold and silver coming from the New World it was not enough. La casa de contratación from Seville was closely monitored by the government. As Laraz argues, any commercial transaction with the

Indies had to be controlled by the Casa de Contratación, no imports or exports were allowed outside of its control (22). The casa also controlled any economic activity in the new world:

“Los oficios principales de la Casa fueron los de factor, tesorero y Contador, a los que luego se unió el de presidente… El derecho administrativo cubrió ampliamente incluso las más pequeñas operaciones de la relaciones económicas con el Nuevo Mundo.” (Laraz 23)

7Davis contrasts the constraints on the monarchy in England with Spain and France, and writes: “the financial check held back the crown from costly expenditure in wartime; the vast and ruinous outpouring of treasure which Philip II or Louis XIV were able to continue over long periods was not matched by any English monarch until the responsibility for war became largely a parliamentary one after the Revolution of 1688.” (210)

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However, this control that Casa de Contratación was exercising contributed to the demise of the Spanish economy, mainly because it was heavily taxed and also the king was taking his own tribute from the value of the merchandise exchanged. Davis for example shows that, unlike Spain, in Britain “most trade was carried on by individuals and small partnerships, and not by the Company of Merchant Adventurers, the Levant

Company .... or others of their kind. At least by 1600 there was quite free entry into the

British merchant class. In contrast, in Spain and Portugal, overseas activities were monopolies tightly controlled by their monarchies” (Davis 41).

This monopolizing control could explain why Spain as a nation was getting poorer at the same time that gold and precious metals were arriving from America. The

King was the main beneficiary of these precious metals. The control that the king had over the precious cargos was shown even in the way the cargos of precious metals were transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Spain adopted a very costly measure, of having the precious cargos from the American accompanied by armed convoys which put even more strain on the already low financial treasury. The maritime traffic between Spain and the

Indies was subject to escorted convoyed, with imprecise itinerary to avoid pirate attacks:

“el reglamento de 1543 dispuso que de allí en adelante solo navíos de cien o más toneladas serian admitidos al tráfico con Indias, en convoyes de diez navíos por lo menos… cada una de las cuales seria protegida por un navío de guerra.” (Laraz 23)

It was argued that reason was because the cargos came under attacks from pirates and pirates were also stealing and mounting attacks even in the ports were the cargos were

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supposed to be unloaded (Bayon 30). The problem of the pirates compounded the economic losses due to the loss of the precious cargos and it also contributed to a commercial instability in the New World.8 It could also have been that the fear of cargos being attacked by pirates became an excuse for the King to maintain his monopoly of the precious metals by securing their transport through armed convoys and very strict control inventory through Casa de contratación de Seville.

However, these precious metals did not stay in Spain for long. They were dispatched through Europe and went towards paying the outstanding debts of the king had.

It also dfinance the never ending wars that the Spanish Empire was leading, in an effort to maintain and increase its territories. Therefore this gold was never enough since, as mentioned earlier in the chapter. The Spanish crown kept declaring bankruptcy which only exacerbated the poverty of ordinary people. Francisco Quevedo, a poet from the 17th century summarized very well lyrically the trajectory of the gold coming from America in his poem “Poderoso caballero es Don Dinero”:

Nace en la Indias honrado

Donde el mundo le acompaña

Viene a morir en España

8 One of the most famous pirates at the time was Francis Drake who was who was enjoying the protection of the British crown. Drake ended up having a successful political career with the loot and money he obtained from being a pirate. (Bayon 30). This gave rise to serious diplomatic conflicts between Spain and England

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Y es en Génova enterrado.”

For Quevedo gold is born, mined from the Indies “with honor”, and comes to die or disappear in Spain, a symbol of the loss of value and luster. The gold is “buried” in

Genova, metaphorically referring to the bankers from Italy that the Spanish king borrowed money from and had to repay his debt.

These economic factors combined has a disastrous effect on the Spanish economy in general. While in Britain and Netherlands there was prosperity, in Spain there was poverty.

Economic Decline and Poverty

There was a growing poverty problem in Spain. Another thing that contributed to problems was that agriculture was mostly abandoned due to the men who were needed for war or those who immigrated to the new world. To this added the fact that some people from the countryside were working very hard for little profit and some of them immigrated to the cities. Besides, Most of the lands were in the hands of hidalgos or nobles that were not interested on their exploitation (Bayon).

There the unemployment was high and even the merchants who succeeded in being rich, once they reached a certain level of wealth, stopped working in their business.

Instead they aspired of being part of the nobility and aristocratic class. And belonging to an aristocratic class meant they should not be working: “Castilla estaba movida, de raiz, 119

por la convicción de ‘que el no vivir de rentas, no es trato de nobles’, y que cuanto tocaba la agricultura, al comercio y al trabajo, perjudicaba la nobleza” (Bayon 44).

That cultural mentality, that work was something to be done by lower classes contributed to the economic disaster that followed. Hard work in general was not appreciated or looked up to as a model for economic well-being. Some educated people at the time, such as Ortiz or Cellorigo were lamenting the situation Spain was in and blamed what they called ociosidad or idleness (Laraz).

If life in the country side was poor in the cities it reached desperation levels

(Bayon 56). For example in Madrid of the XVII century there was a huge contrast between the rich life style at the court with the extreme poverty, which contributed to an increase in delinquency. This general poverty in the city was well documented in some of the art work from the 17th century.

Diego Velázquez painted with much realism the poverty and economic situation in Spain. One his paintings, became the hallmark of poverty and economic conditions in

Spain. In this panting, an old woman is frying eggs, a cheap food. Besides, the expression on the people faces is one of helplessness.

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Figure 3.2: Vieja friendo huevos by Diego Velázquez

This dire economic situation that Spain was the result of several factors. This is important because it will help understand Acuña’s discourse on the riches of the New

World and how it related to the difficult situation that Spain was in.

The economical politics of the king and the constant debts resulted in what

Espina called a virtual richness, that did not correspond to the realities lived by everyday 121

people in Spain. The introduction of a copper coin, called vellon was not very successful, giving that it started to lose value starting with 1599. The monetary policy of the king failed to produce any real tangible improvements and resulted in what…..called a virtual richness, that did not correspond to the realities lived by everyday people in Spain:

Naturalmente esto sirvió para que los españoles más avisados entendieran que el

crecimiento de la riqueza en la Castilla del XVI y el XVII había llegado a

convertirse en virtual porque, al no invertirse los recursos en forma productiva, los

valores contables se separaban cada vez más de la productividad que se obtenía

realmente de los activos. Y ese carácter virtual llegó a impregnar toda la cultura de

la época: No parece sino que se hayan querido reducir estos reinos a una república

de hombres encantados que vivan fuera de su orden natural, como afirmaba Martín

González de Cellorigo en su Memorial de la política necesaria y útil restauración

a la república de España, del año 1600 (citado por Maravall, 159).

Se trata del mundo de encantamiento que en esas mismas fechas estaba siendo recreado por Cervantes en el Quijote (Espina 13).

The riches that were arriving from America were not invested. Compounding this problem were the high public debts but also those that were inherited by the king. The needs to finance the constant wars were the main source for domino effect of the monetary and inflation phenomena at the time. What made borrowing so much possible was the constant arrival of riches from the Americas that was arriving periodically at

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Casa de Contratación de Seville. This source of income was at the base of maintaining the credit for the short term “juros”, or loans throughout the 16th century, until the point where the amount of previous metals arriving from the new world and the debt was the same: “La cifra acumulada de metales llegados a Sevilla para la corona entre 1504 y 1594

(23,3 millardos de Mvds) coincide casi exactamente con el aumento del nominal de los juros durante el mismo período (21,4 millardos). La relación todavía es más significativa entre 1546 y 1595, período para el que la cifra acumulada de metal ascendió a 20,8 millardos de maravedíes y la de los juros a 18,9 millones.”( Espina 17)

The lack of transparency in the King’s financial practices explained why the market failed and the rising national debt, which ended up destroying the domestic financial system. Mercantilism was part of the income that secured those loans. However, Spain was unable like other Europeans powers to take full advantage of the trans-Atlantic trade, due to its monopoly. Spain’s economic situation was changed completely in the 17th century. The economic recession that began in the Spanish Empire in 1590 put the monarchy’s interests in direct opposition to those of the private sector. Instead of continuing the effort to keep the Castilian economy open, as had been the practice until then, the Crown adopted catastrophic measures that eliminated competition and closed the markets. The first sector that suffered the most was trade and its international connection

(Alvarez “Monetary and Financial Innovation in the Spanish Empire: Lights and

Shadows”, 312).

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The commercial monopoly that Spain instituted did not work in its favors. This tight control of the mercantile operations by the Spanish Crown was also observed by

Frieden: “This made the Spanish Crown more insistent on centralizing control and revenue and less willing to encourage the rise of powerful private actors than many other mercantilist rulers” (20). While England and The Netherlands were reaping the benefits of their Charter Companies though mercantilism, Spain was left behind.

Acuña does seem to provide a solution for increasing the wealth of the Spanish

Empire. However, he is able to think outside of the mercantilist economic system at the time. Acuña, by his focus on extracting and harvesting the natural resources in the

Amazon, at low cost, for profit thinks like an innovative capitalist. In “The Four Types of

Capitalism, Innovation, and Economic Growth” by Baumol, Litan and Schramm define an innovative entrepreneur defined as: “individuals who search out and put into practice ideas that are significantly different from those previously offered. Innovative entrepreneurs are important because they are a prime source of the innovations that spur much of the growth of the world's prosperous economies” (118). Acunna is also regarded as an early capitalist according to the economic study by Frieden titled “The Modern

Capitalist World Economy: A Historical Overview.”

As I discuss in Chapter 4, Acuña offers innovative ideas, such as building ships on the banks of the Amazon river that would supply not only the very find wood at low cost, but also the labor force to be provided by the indigenous populations that inhabit the

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region in abundance. However, Acuña was still suggesting that the Spanish Crown be in control of these economic operations. But a state’s interventions in the capitalist economic system is understandable; according to Baumol, Litam and Schramm no economy is perfectly capitalistic, there are always some means of production that are owned and operated by government, and some of those means of production may be used for purposes other than profit. This helps understand that even though Acuña had a capitalistic mentality, worried about profit, he also advocated for the Spanish Crown to intervene in many aspects of the economic operations in Amazonia and “a state guidance can contribute to economic growth—particularly during a period of take-off in an economy that previously had been essentially stagnant” (Baumol, Litam and Schramm

118). Thus what Acuña proposes a “state-guided” capitalism where the government still plays a powerful role in guiding the economy. I detail the specifics of the economic plan offered by Acuña in the next chapter, Chapter 4.

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Chapter 4: Cristobal de Acuña’s Narrative and the Economic Potentiality of the Amazon

Cristobal de Acuña’s text is a foundational narrative that establishes the Amazon region as a source of never ending riches, ready for the exploitation of its valuable natural resources and colonization. As I mentioned in the previous chapter Acuña is able to think outside the predominant mercantilist system at time and propose a long term alternative for obtaining profit: the investment and extraction of natural resources from the Amazon region using a “state-guided” form of capitalism.

As this chapter will discuss, the exploitation discourse of Amazonia started at the end of 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries not just by the Spanish Empire but by other

European powers as well: the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English in particular. If

Cristobal de Acuña was writing about the great potentiality of the Amazonian landscape, he was also witnessing helplessly while these other European nations, driven by mercantilism, were organizing trade companies and attempting to secure a piece of the

Amazonian landscape. While the Spanish monarchy, with its monopolist commerce policies was experiencing an economic recession, other rival countries were increasing their economic prosperity and benefitting by mercantilism with the New World. The

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membership of the trade companies and organizations that were set up by England and the

Netherlands were made by active members, usually merchants but also capitalists that had a wide range of interests, from nobles who had privileges to officers and other citizens

(Acemoglu, Daron and Johnson).

These economic processes driven by capitalism that started in the 16th and 17th centuries are not isolated to that specific time period, with no connection to our modern times. On the contrary, this economic potentiality of the Amazon that started in the

Colonial era has been exploited throughout the centuries especially by the West, in particular by more economically developed nations that treated the Amazon as a source of investment of their capital, as a source of enrichment for certain companies and nations while in the process destroying the Amazonian landscape and its unique ecosystems. This capitalistic centered view of valuing the Amazon region only in terms of the materialistic resources it has to offer, from wood to latex, to açai and even illegal traffic of wildlife, had no regard for the fragile unique ecosystem in the region. What took millions of years to develop are lost in a few years, by the constant capitalistic economic enterprise always tapping into an endless list of needs and wants. Local governments in charge of specific sections of Amazonia were not equipped or did not know how to handle the constant assault on the Amazonian natural resources, as Domínguez stated in “Amazonia: la última llamada”.

This chapter will demonstrate how Acuña, in a time when Spain was experiencing a difficult economic situation in the 17th century, was trying to convince the Spanish Crown 127

of the great potentiality that the Amazon region had to offer and how it would help the depleted Spanish treasury at a time when England and the Netherlands already started a campaign of appropriating natural resources from parts of Amazonia. Acuña focuses more in his Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas on the material riches that would add to the treasury of the Spanish Crown, even though he was also asking the Spanish

Crown implicitly to allow the “Company of Jesus” that he was a member of, to Christianize and evangelize the native populations of the Amazon basin.

Biographical Note and Context of Acuña’s Narrative

Ignacio Arellano, in the introduction accompanying Acuña’s latest edition of his narrative (2009) situates Cristobal de Acuña next to such well known writers from the

Colonial Latin America era as: Cristóbal Colon, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Bartolomé de las Casas or Bernal Díaz del Castillo (7). Acuña was a Spanish Jesuit, born in Burgos in 1597 who lived most of his life in the New World. Besides being the author of Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas, Acuña was also known at his time for being a missionary in Peru and founding, along with Figueroa and Bartolomé Perez, the

University of Cuenca in present day Ecuador. After the publication of his relación about the discovery of the Amazon in 1641, Acuña went to Rome as an attorney (procurador) of the New World province where he had lived and he also worked under the title of

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“calificador” for the Spanish Inquisition. He returned to America in 1644 and died in Lima in 1675 (Arellano 18).

Acuña was part of an expedition down the Amazon River in 1639; Pedro Tejeira, a

Portuguese captain, had arrived in Quito with a group of soldiers in a voyage upstream the

Amazon River and surprised the Spanish authorities since at the time it was not known whether the Amazon River was navigable upstream over such a long distance. Afraid that enemies of the Spanish Crown could follow the same river route to reach Spanish settlements, the Governor of Quito decided to send Cristobal de Acuña, a Jesuit rector at a

University in Quito, to accompany captain Tejeira’s expedition back. Originally Acuña’s brother, Juan Vázquez de Acuña, mayor of Quito, was asked if he could join the trip but he was unable to accompany Captain Pedro Tejeira in the voyage down the Amazon River.

Besides Acuña another Jesuit missionary, Andres de Artieda went along with Acuña in the voyage; the two missionaries started the trip on February 16th, finishing it on December

12th, after 10 difficult months of traversing the Amazonian region. Acuña finished organizing his notes of the voyage he undertook while waiting in Para for his trip to Spain9 that took place in March 1640. Once in Spain Acuña gave the King and the person assuming the duties of the king at that time, Conde Duque de Olivares, an account of his

9 At that time voyages to and from Spain were conducted only twice a year, one in March and the other one in September, accompanied by armed convoys, to protect the precious cargos that some of these ships were carrying (Laraz). 129

voyage in person, then presented his report to the Consejo de Indias, which order its immediate publication in Madrid in 1641 (Arellano 9).

Acuña’s report had as a main objective of the expedition the discovery of the region with the purpose of breaking the isolation of Quito. The route, opened by Francisco de

Orellana, remained unexplored for almost 100 years. The Spanish Crown understood that whatever initiative of discovery or settlement of the region was going to take depended on a report approved by the Consejo de Indias which would make possible a planned enterprise in Amazonia. The eye witness account here is very important. Captain Tejeira himself signed a certification testifying that: “vino en mi compañía desde la dicha ciudad

(San Francisco del Quito) hasta la del Para, el reverendo padre Cristóbal de Acuña con su compañero el reverendo padre Andrés de Artieda (Arellano 9). Captain Tejeira’s certification gives credibility to Acuña’s report, that the things he was describing about were not events invented, but rather things witnessed firsthand. Captain Tejeira adds: “Di esta certificación, firmado de mi mano y sellado con el sello de mis armas” (10). There was another certification, this time by Pedro de Santa María from the Orden de la Merced, who was another eyewitness of the voyage. Arellano notes as well the preoccupation of

Acuña with objectivity and the truth of his voyages, so that people would not think Acuña was describing “un mundo fabuloso, inventado literiamente” (26).

It was not uncommon for narratives from the New World to contain at least some elements of fictional or hearsay information, as I discussed in Chapter 1. Acuña was writing objectively, without many figures of speech. For this purpose, Pedro Tejeira’s 130

testimony that what Acuña witnessed and wrote about was true was significant, if Acuña wanted the king to pay attention to his claims about the Amazonian landscape.

Acuña fulfilled his duty of figuring out, the best he could, information not just about the mines of gold and other riches, but of the way of life of the native populations. He gave an accurate account of the Amazonian landscape at the beginning of its contact and clash with the Spanish civilization, at a time of fusion and transculturation. Acuña’s report was published in 1641 with the title Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas.

I will analyze the title of Acuña’s narrative more in detail later in this chapter but it should be noted that the concept of “discovery” in the 16th and 17th century had more the meaning of exploring, not necessarily finding a new land (Schmidt).

The concept is also strongly connected to finding new riches; to illustrate how common naming a narrative of exploration discovery at the time, I would like to give the example of Sir Walter Raleigh who went into an expedition of finding El Dorado in the

Guiana region (upper part of the Amazon). Raleigh’s published his report of the expedition in 1599 with the title Discovery of Guiana. To title an exploration narrative “discovery” was common, most of the explorations of the Amazon region in the 17th century had

“discovery” in its title. Laureano de la Cruz, a Franciscan also wrote a report to one of his superiors about the Franciscan missions in the Marañon River, a tributary of the Amazon.

Even though De la Cruz’s report was not published until 1900 when it was found in an archive, it had the original title: Nuevo Descubrimiento del rio de Maranon llamado de las

Amazonas hecho por la religion de San Francisco Ano de 1651. I will talk more about De 131

la Cruz’s report in Chapter 5 of this dissertation. Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas had the advantage that it was a narrative about the Amazon region that was published in his life time. One can only wonder how many similar “discoveries” were written in the 17th century, some lost or still awaiting to be discovered in archives throughout the world. However, Acuña’s Descubrimiento came close to not being published, for fear that Spain’s rival countries would use it to their advantage. For example,

Pellicer, a courtier, in one of his “Avisos” dated February 5th 1641 wrote that Acuña arrived at the Spanish Court from the “Indias Occidentales”. Pellicier notes the details of Acuña’s report as well: “…con ellos el P. Acuña y vino notando las Alturas, costas, grados, lineas, senos, calas, islas y rumbos de viaje. Tráelo todo demarcado, cuenta extrañas cosas de gentes, naciones, trajes, bárbaros nunca imaginados”. Pellicier ordered that Acuña’s report should not be published for fear that Spain’s enemies would use it and improve it for their navigation in the Amazon region: “hasele mandado no saque a luz nada, porque los enemigos no emprendan continuar esta navegacion y perfecionarla” (Arellano 20).

This preoccupation with Spain’s enemies being able to use this valuable information to their advantage is a testimony of the economic importance that these narratives of discovery had in Europe at that time. As I have discussed in Chapter 3, the material riches arriving from the New World territories really had an impact on the economy and wealth of a nation, as it happened with Spain in the first half of the 16th century. Spain’s rival powers, England and especially the Netherlands took notice and went in their own enterprises in the region and performed their own discoveries. I would

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discuss more the importance of this and of Sir Walter’s Raleigh in the Amazon region but for right now I would like to add that, based on this account of Sir Walter Raleigh the Dutch later embarked into their own expeditions of exploring the upper part of the Amazon region, following Sir Walter Raleigh’s book as a guide (Schmidt). Therefore the fear that was the information Acuña provided could have been used as a sort of intelligence by the rival powers for the colonization and exploitation of the natural resources in that region, is understandable.

Another Jesuit, Ruiz de Montoya, contemporary to Acuña, who was on a evangelizing mission in the area of Paraguay (that I will discuss more in Chapter 5 of this dissertation) also advised that Acuña’s work should not be published, so that the Dutch would not use it to their advantage: “no imprime nada, porque así se lo han mandado, porque no lo entiendan los holandeses, que ya lo tienen corrido y tienen más noticia de ello que nadie” (Quoted in Arellano’s introduction on page 20). Even after its publication in

1641 the copies of Acuña’s book that were printed were ordered to be destroyed by the

Spanish King Phillip IV, notes Breymann, since Portugal had just become independent from the Spanish occupation. The Spanish Crown was fearful that Acuña’s relación contained important information about the disputed region of the Amazon that the

Portuguese would use to their advantage, forgetting that the Portuguese Captain Tejeira had accompanied Acuña in his voyage and the Portuguese had the same information about the Amazon that the Spanish had. However, some copies of Acuña’s published book survived and Acuña’s Nuevo Descubrimiento was were quickly translated into other

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European languages. Just like Sir Walter Raleigh’s narrative 40 years earlier, Acuña’s book became a success, almost as if Europeans had developed a “literary taste” for the intriguing, mysterious and full of adventures narratives about the Amazon region, filled with naked Indians who practiced strange rituals in the midst of an exuberant and wondrous nature. Acuña’s book has had several editions published throughout the years, which seems to suggest there was an interest in the information it presented, especially shortly after its publication. Among them there was a 1682 French translation, a 1698 English translation, a German translation in 1729, an 1891 Spanish reprint of original published

1641 version, a Portuguese translation in 1941, a Spanish edition in 1945 and 1946, a 1986 edition part of “Monumenta Amazonica” project, and the most recent edition published in

2009 under the guidance of historian Ignacio Arellano.

Relación

Just like Carvajal’s narrative, Acuña’s can be categorized as a relación. It was a type of narrative mandated by the Crown’s administration in order keep track of its vast new territories it had acquired in the New World and especially of its natural resources and precious metals. Therefore Carvajal and Acuña’s narratives that describe the “discovery” and exploration of Amazonia must be understood within this larger context of trade, of economic potentiality, of exploring the territories of the New World in order to find riches, trading opportunities so much coveted by the Spanish Crown. As shown in the previous

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chapter the Spanish Crown was in control of many of the Spanish Empire operations, including its economic activities. The King established Casa de Contratación of Seville that had a say in who was allowed to conduct commercial activities in Spain and its

American territories and also regulated how the discovery and exploration of the new found lands was to be conducted. Since America provided an important source of income for the

Spanish Crown, it was important to know where such riches were located, so that later expeditions could go and obtain them (my emphasis). That is the reason why the King dictated a very specific set of rules for these relaciones of discovery, such as Acuña’s, on how they were supposed to be written. I mentioned in Chapter 1 the requirements for the format of relación in the 16th century that included, that Mignolo mentions in “Cartas, crónicas y relaciones del descubrimiento y la conquista”: “3) que se diga cuantas provincias hay pobladas de españoles, y 4) que se determine en que partes hay minas de metales, piedras, pesquería de perlas, etc.” (Mignolo 72). In the 17th century the format of the relación changed but still kept the main emphasis on the categorizing and inventory of the natural resources. López de Velasco, an administrator for the Crown reedited the questionnaire and format of the relaciones towards the end of 17th century. Based on the information he obtained from the relaciones Lopez de Velasco drew a map of the Indies

(Figure 4.1) that helped the management and colonization efforts in the New World. Part of the Amazon River was already charted on this map.

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Figure 4.1: Map of the Indies drew by Lopez Velasco. It was originally published in 1601 by Antonio Herrera y Tordesillas (reprinted in 1726).

This new questionnaire10 for writing a relación, that wad edited and distributed by

Velasco in the New World had precise instructions: the information complied about a

10 El cuestionario pide: 1. Primeramente, en los pueblos de los españoles se diga el nombre de la comarca o provincia que están, y que quiere decir el dicho nombre en lengua de indios y porque se llama así.

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specific region was to begin with the name of the province, followed by who discovered it, the climate and geography of the region and especially if the land was abundant: “4. Si es tierra llana o áspera, rasa o montosa, de muchos o pocos ríos o fuentes, y abundosa o falta de agua, fértil o falta de pastos, abundosa o estéril de frutos y de mantenimientos” (Mignolo

“Cartas, crónicas y relaciones del descubrimiento y la conquista” 72). The emphasis is again on the natural resources that the region could provide but also on a lack of them.

Whether the land was fertile or not was equally important for the Crown, so that it wouldn’t waste precious resources in regions that did not yield any productivity. The Coronado expedition that I mentioned in Chapter 1 was a good example of “wasting finances” for years in the hopes of finding riches and the famed seven cities. Regarding the format of the relación, Arellano mentions that these type of questionnaires were at the base of the modern science of Statistics (12). The sections of the new questionnaire set up in the 17th

2. Quien fue el descubridor y conquistador de la dicha provincia, y por cuya orden y mandamientos se descubrió, y el año de su descubrimiento y conquista, lo que de todo buenamente se pudiere saber. 3. Y generalmente el temperamento y calidad de la dicha provincia o comarca, si es muy fría o caliente o húmeda o seca, de muchas aguas o pocas, y cuando son más o menos, y los vientos que corren en ella, que tan violentos y de que parte son, y en que tiempos del año. 4. Si es tierra llana o áspera, rasa o montosa, de muchos o pocos ríos o fuentes, y abundosa o falta de agua, fértil o falta de pastos, abundosa o estéril de fructos y de mantenimientos. (...) 7. Las leguas que cada ciudad o pueblo de españoles estuviere de la ciudad donde residiere la Audiencia en cuyo distrito cayere o del pueblo donde residiere el gobernador a quien estuviere sujeta; y a qué parte de las dichas ciudades o pueblos estuviere. (...) 9. El nombre y sobrenombre que tiene o hubiere tenido cada ciudad o pueblo, y por qué se hubiere llamado así (...) y quien le puso el nombre y fue el fundador della. Etcetera. (Mignolo title 72). 137

century that Mignolo mentions in his article is not complete. Arellano, in his introduction to Acuña’s text, includes extra information referring to documenting the natural resources in the region to be explored, that was part of the new format for relaciones: “árboles y granos, los llevados de España y si se dan y como y cuantos. Yerbas medicinales, animales de la tierra y los traídos de España. Minas piedras preciosas, salinas” (13). The emphasis here is not just on the native resources of the American landscape but also on the plants and animals brought from Spain. This shows not just that the American landscape has been colonized by the Spaniards but that it has also been transformed by the settlement and colonization process. It suggests that less than a hundred years after the discovery of the

Americas, the Spaniards made this landscape a second home; as I argued in Chapter 1, the

American landscape became spanicised. The questionnaire written by Juan López de

Velasco had 50 questions, according to Mignolo, which could explain the organization of the chapters of the books in Acuña’s relación. La relación, structured around the questionnaire acquired a very unique narrative form that places it within a new genera of literature, with very specific characteristic as Mignolo observes:

Pero el resultado es que, estos libros, no se ajustan ni a las cartas (aunque sea

obvio decirlo) ni tampoco a las «historias» (de las que nos ocuparemos en el

apartado siguiente). Sino que se ajustan, más bien, al modelo del informe o

recopilación general de noticias sobre Indias de las cuales el cuestionario, y las

relaciones que de él se obtienen, son un paso intermedio para la composición de

los compendios y las descripciones que, por cierto, no escribirán los

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gobernadores y los vicerreyes, ni menos “los vecinos”, sino los hombres de letras.

En este sentido, estos libros, con las diferencias del caso y las distinciones

necesarias, pueden considerarse como parte del grupo de textos que

denominamos relaciones de la conquista y de la colonización. Su rasgo distintivo,

en el orden pragmático es, como dijimos, ser obra de hombre de letras; y en el

aspecto sintáctico-semántico, responder a una organización que no se basa en

modelos de la tradición clásica, sino en modelos forjados por las necesidades del

caso: recoger y ordenar la información sobre las nuevas tierras conquistadas.

(title 75)

One of the main features of the relación is its organization, these type of narratives were dictated by necessity of officials representing the Spanish Crown for exploration and colonization purposes. The other important feature was that these relaciones were written by “letrados”, or educated individuals who already had knowledge not just about a good writing process, but also about literature in general. Cristobal de Acuña was an intellectual who had a vast cultural knowledge about the world in general. Besides, he was part of a knowledge sharing system that the Jesuits had in place, as I will discuss later in this Chapter.

Cristobal de Acuña had a very important task; he had a precise set of instructions on how to organize and write the information that he was the one documenting during his voyage down the Amazon River.

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The Acuña’s text edition that I am using for my analysis in my dissertation is the most recent edition published in 2009 by Arellano. This edition is a modern transcription of the original published in 1641. In comparing both editions I found no changes between the two editions, even the chapters are the same. I will also be quoting some sections from

Acuña’s original text published in 1641, especially when analyzing the front page of

Acuña’s narrative (Figure 4.2). The original text of Cristobal de Acuña (1641) is available on microfilm at the library “Brasilien-Bibliothek der Robert Bosch GmbH” in Stuttgart,

Germany. A digitalized copy of this first originally published edition is available on

Google Books.

Arellano’s text follows this edition very precisely, including numbering the chapters, the only difference being that some of the words are transcribed in modern characters. On the first page or the cover of Acuña’s narrative (see Figure 4.2) the first words to appear are the title of the book, in an old version of the Spanish language: NVEVO

DESCUBRIMIENTO DEL GRAN RIO DE LAS AMAZONAS. I will analyze the word

“Nuevo” separately since it holds particular importance for deciphering Acuña’s text. After the title, Acuña’s name POR EL PADRE CHRSTOVAL is shown underneath. Just like with the title, the words following on the page are in smaller characters and the way they are arranged in the page conveys order and structure,

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Figure 4.2: First Page of the Original Edition of Acuña’s Text Published in 1641 141

something that appears indeed throughout Acuña’s whole narrative. The title of Acuña’s narrative and his name are followed by “Al CUAL FUE Y SE HIZO POR ORDEN de su Majeſtad.” Surprisingly, “su majestad”, has a smallest font of the words on the cover, which seems to suggest a lack of importance. By contrast, “AL EXCELENTISSIMO SENOR

CONDE” is in caption letters which connotes a higher degree of respect and attention given to this particular person. Acuña’s book is, in fact, dedicated to the Conde Duque de

Olivares. This reflects the political situation in Spain at that time; when Acuña wrote his report Conde Duque (Count- Duke) de Olivares was in charge of the political functions of the Spanish Empire, he was assuming the role of the king as a valid, or prime minister11.

Even though this information is valuable for understanding Acuña’s narrative and especially his motives, both Arellano and Breymann who have researched Acuña, do not mention it.

Acuña shows a very keen sense of judgement and knows exactly who held the power in Spain at the time, not Philip IV (known but his inability the rule), but Conde

Duque de Olivares. Even though Acuña’s report was directed by his Majesty, Philip IV, it is Conde Duque the “ideal reader” that Acuña had in mind when he wrote the relación.

11 Gaspar de Guzmán as Conde Duque de Olivares was a man of great power in the first half of the 17th century in Spain. A valid was a favorite of the king and more than a prime minister. Conde Duque went to great lengths to keep the actual king, Philip IV out of the political arena by building “El Palacio de Buen Retiro” where the King could indulge in some of his passions: art, hunting, literature and daily theatre plays of important play writers at the time (Memoria de España, Episode 13). 142

This can be illustrated not just in the change of the font size in letters and style on the cover page of Acuña’s narrative, with king Philip IV being assigned the smallest font letters, but at the beginning of his relación Acuña has a whole page, una dedicatoria to the Count

Duke of Olivares (that I will briefly talk about in this chapter).

Returning to Figure 4.2, towards the lower part of the page the text “AL

EXCELENTISSIMO SENOR CONDE” shows how important Count Duke is for Acuña, by the inclusion of the superlative “excelentissimo”. While this form of addressing someone shows profound respect “Tratamiento de respeto y cortesía que, antepuesto a señor o señora, se aplica a la persona a quien corresponde el de excelencia”, according to the Real Academia Española, Acuña does not use this adjective for the King. Also

“excelentissimo” seems to convey one of the highest degree of respect and adulations, since by definition, “excelente” implies very good. Therefore, “excelente” is one of the adjectives that usually does not have a superlative. It is grammatically correct to use “very excellent” (Bichieru lecture notes). Towards the end of the first page of Acuña’s book, two angels are holding an emblem with the acronym IHS. According to the Modern

Catholic dictionary, IHS is referred to as a “Christogram” or “monogram”; IHS is an abbreviation of the name of Christ (Iesus Himinum Salvator). It comes from Latin and is actually associated with the “Company of Christ” that Acuña was a member of. This

Christian symbolism on the front of page of the book emphasize the strong affiliation that

Acuña had with the religious order that he was a part of, something that can be found throughout his narrative. The Christogram “HIS” and the word “NVEVO” are the letters

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with the biggest font on the page. This seems to suggest they have the biggest their importance in Acuña’s narrative. The word “Nuevo” is at the top center of the page, in bold and caption letters. As it has been discussed by other scholars who have analyzed text layout and visual imagery in texts from the field of Latin American studies, Colonial era

(Mignolo and Adorno), the top center position is usually connected with the idea of power and superiority. By placing the word NVEVO at the top of the page, written with the biggest letters and characters found on the cover, the word “Nuevo” acquires a significant importance. I appears not just on the cover of Acuña’s book but also throughout his narrative. According to the Real Academia Española, the word “Nuevo” has several meanings: “recién hecho o fabricado”, “que sobreviene o se añade a algo que había antes”,

“distinto o diferente de lo que antes había o se tenía aprendido”. One of the most common semantic meanings of “Nuevo” is that it adds to what has been previous. It is something different than what was known previously and in a certain way “Nuevo” negates what has been previous. For Acuña, it is almost as if the other previous reports about the Amazon discovery are not relevant anymore and out of date. Now his report is the new authority in the field (my emphasis). Just like modern textbooks, when a new edition appears on the market, it is the one that counts and previous editions are not that important or used that much. Acuña does not emphasis the word “new” just on the cover of his book to convey the importance and novelty of his narrative. Rather just three pages following the title of his book there is a section named “Al lector” where Acuña explains the objectives of his

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narratives to the reader and the word “Nuevo”, capitalized in some instances, acquires new meaning and reinforces the word “Nuevo” on the tile page:

Deseando, pues, sacar a vista de todos el Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las

Amazonas, a que por orden de si majestad fui, como después verás, y temiéndome

de que, aunque por lo Nuevo seria apetecido, con todo no dejaría de padecer recelos

en lo puntual, quise asegurarte lo uno a lo otro. Lo primero con prometerte un nuevo

mundo, naciones nuevas, reinos nuevos, ocupaciones nuevas, modo de vivir

nuevo, y, para decirlo en una palabra, un rio de agua dulce navegado por más de

mil y trecientas leguas, todo, desde su nacimiento hasta su fin, lleno de novedades.

(54) [my emphasis].

This section lets the reader know what he can expect from his text; it seems Acuña wrote this section dedicated to “a common reader” for the publication of his report, given that the tone is more familiar, colloquial and uses and addresses the form “tu”. This contrasts with the “Usted” and “Su majestad” that appears many times in his dedication to Count Duke of Olivares.

Acuña is a great narrator. Throughout his narrative he was trying to convince the

Conde Duque de Olivares of the potentiality of the Amazon. In the “Al Lector” section he is trying to convince the regular reader of the great value of this book, by offering something new that a reader had not read before: “new world”, “new nations”, “a new way of life”! Father Acuña’s power or persuasion is impressive, he knows what a reader would expect to hear (something new, unheard of before), just like he seems to know what a king 145

or a valid would want (riches, wealth) and then he structures his rhetoric in such a way to convince his prospective readers of his message. Arellano claimed that Acuña acts like a

“modern archeologist” in his narrative by his objective power of observation. I would claim that his strategies for “selling” the Amazon landscape to the king and (as this last example showed), relies on strategies that modern sales people use. The book uses to get the attention of his readers: indirect persuasion, connecting with the customer on a personal level, figuring out what the customer needs and finding a way to address those needs, without focusing on the sale itself.

Conde Duque Dedication

Acuña dedicates his book to Conde Duque de Olivares (Figure 4.3). As I mentioned, since the Count Duke was acting on behalf of the king, making important political decisions in consultation with the king, the dedication to the Count Duke in

Acuña’s narrative is important because is one of the few instances in the text where Acuña makes his agenda clea. He wanted the riches of the Amazon region for the Spanish Crown but also with the hopes that him and his fellow Jesuits would be able evangelize the

Amazonian landscape.

The dedication starts by, just like he did in the title, Acuña addressing Olivares with the form of respect “excelentissimo”. While it is true that this particular form of respect was common at the time for addressing monarchy and political figures, as I mentioned,

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Acuña takes this level of respect to a whole new level, literally by using very large caption letters, in “bold” characters for addressing the Count Duke. By means of rhetorical questions, Acuña praises the leadership of Conde Duque but also acknowledges the difficulties of his new duties:

Quien, por celoso que se ostente de los acrecentamientos de su rey, no se retirara,

recelando nuevas dificultades, sino el que, cuanto mayores más las apetece para que

más luzga su amor, más fidelidad? Y quién, para decirlo de una vez, sino el

excelentísimo señor Conde Duque, podrá patronizar tan grandiosa empresa, de que

depende la conversión de infinitas almas, el acrecentamiento de la real corona, y la

defensa y guarda de todos los tesoros del Perú” (52).

Acuña gives the Conde Duke an opportunity to patronize, to be in charge of an Enterprise that would accomplish multiple objectives: the conversion of souls, the increase of the wealth of the Spanish Royal Crown and the defense of the hidden treasures of Peru. At the time when Acuña wrote his report in the Colonial era, “El reino de Peru” encompassed a large territory, to which Acuña wanted to add the annexation of the Amazon region. These objectives of a colonizing enterprise in the region corresponded to certain cultural aspects that the Count Duke also valued. He was religious, continuing the religious wars and he was interested in increasing the wealth of the Spanish Crown, since, in turn, that would increase his own wealth as well. Count Duke of Olivares was an individual who valued

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wealth (even though not as much as the King Philip IV) and is often portrayed in lavish clothing, to symbolize his wealth and social status (Figure 4.4).

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Figure 4.3: Acuña’s Dedication to Count Duke de Olivares 149

Figure 4.4: Conde Duque de Olivares, Painted by artist Diego Velázquez. Credit: Prado Museum

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Acuña is enticing the Conde Duque in this dedication to a colonization enterprise not just by offering treasures that “have yet to be found”, but by asking the Count to defend the treasures already found Peru. As I mentioned in Chapter 1, Peru was a main source of gold and silver during the conquest of the New World and well into the 17th century the mines of Potosi were still providing an important revenue of silver (Bakewell). By painting these images of the treasures already found Peru, Acuña is tapping into a reality at the time.

The evidence that the gold and silver from Peru did help the Spanish economy for a while.

This way, the Count would be more inclined not just to colonize the Amazon region adjacent to Peru, but to defend the source of wealth that Peru had. Acuña states the briefness of his report and how important the Amazon region would be for the Spanish

Crown:

En manos pues de vuestra excelencia ofrezco este Nuevo descubrimiento del gran

rio de las Amazonas, a que por orden de su majestad fui, con cuidado averigüé, y

con toda puntualidad recopilé en breves hojas, siendo digno de volúmenes enteros,

para que añadida esta preciosa piedra a la corona de nuestro gran rey Filipo Cuarto,

que Dios nos guarde, por tan sublime artífice, mejor asiente, más luzga y para

siempre permanezca. (52)

Acuña uses a metaphor associated with richness, a precious stone, for referring to the

Amazon region. By adding this precious stone to the Crown of the King, it would mean that one more territory would be added to the vast Spanish empire. Acuña is trying to

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convey how valuable this addition of the Amazonian landscape would be for to the

Spanish Crown.

After the dedication to the Count Duke and the certification of Pedro Tejeira, that vowed for the truthfulness of the information contained in Acuña’s report, Acuña opens the first Chapter of his narrative with the title: “Numero I” and subtitle: “Noticias de este gran rio”. Unlike Carvajal’s relación, that is one continuous narrative with no break between Chapters, Acuña’s text is very well organized. Each Chapter is brief, numbered with Roman numerals and is followed by a title.

Previous voyages in the Amazon

In Chapter I, Acuña situates the Amazon region geographically and describes it in terms of its utility for transportation between the two sides of the South American continent: “Ni por la fertilidad de las tierras y temples apacibles de su habitación, sino principalmente por entender con no pequeños fundamentos que él era la única canal y como calle mayor, que corriendo por el riñón del Perú, se sustentaba de todas las vertientes que al mar del norte tributan sus encumbradas cordilleras” (62). Acuña constructs the Amazon landscape from the beginning as a geographical feature that could open up possibilities for transportation and trade: it is the only canal to go from Peru to sea.

In Chapter II titled “Descubre Francisco de Orellana este rio” surprisingly Acuña does not write about Orellana’s merit for having discovered the Amazon River, nor any

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aspect of Orellana’s journey and discovery, such as the exotic natural world, the many hardships, stories of gold or even the presence of the Amazon women. But rather, Acuña focuses on Orellana’s second trip to the Amazon (even though the title of the chapter conveys the notion of Orellana’s first voyage to the river). In this chapter Acuña focuses on the result, the “rewards” of Orellana’s first daring expedition, that the Spanish King gave him three ships and permission to settle the Amazonian region. Therefore Acuña was fully aware of the power of these reports of discovery had in terms of being granted monetary gains, prestige and the rights to settle the newly discovered territories. This could be, in part, the reason Acuña titled his narrative, the “New Discovery”, almost superimposing his new discovery on the previous one done by Orellana, desiring and expecting a similar reception and treatment from the King, as Orellana did:

Estos deseos solicitaron el corazón de Francisco de Orellana a que el año de mil y

quinientos y cuarenta, en cierta embarcación y con algunos compañeros, se fiase de

las corrientes de este gran rio, que desde entonces tomó también el nombre de

Orellana, y pasando a España, por la relación que de sus grandezas dio, la cesárea

majestad del emperador Carlos Quinto le mandó dar tres navíos con gente y todo

lo necesario para que le devolviese a poblar en su real nombre, a que salió el año

de cuarenta y nueve, si bien con tan adversa fortuna que, muriéndosele la mitad de

los soldados en la Canarias y islas de Caboverde, con los demás que cada día se le

iban disminuyendo, llegó a la boca de este rio tan falto de gente que le fue fuerza

mayor dejar dos navíos que hasta aquel punto había conservado… Y así

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reduciéndose todos a una sola embarcación, se retiraron por la costa de Caracas,

hasta dar en la Margarita, adonde acabaron todos, y con ellos las esperanzas de que

su majestad entrase en posesión de lo que tanto se deseaba y en si prometía. (62)

Acuña’s focus on Orellana’s success at the Court after his first discovery and his return to the Amazon River for a second one, is key in this paragraph for later understanding Acuña’s reasons for describing so many riches in the Amazon in his own narrative. By saying that with the end of Orellana’s expedition also ended the hopes for what the King Carlos V so much wanted, Acuña is almost implying that he would like to continue that mission of establishing the king’s domain in the Amazon region that Orellana was attempting but was unsuccessful. Throughout his narrative Acuña is “inciting” the king to take possession of this wondrous Amazonian landscape, before other rival powers do.

However, Acuña also includes a historical inaccuracy in this paragraph. Not every single member of Orellana’s return expedition to the Amazon died; some members survived, including Orellana’s wife who gave testimony of what happened during that second failed voyage (Wood). Nonetheless, by stating that every single member of the expedition died there, Acuña places himself as the one capable of continuing the enterprise started by Orellana. By indirectly stating that he would be able to continue the colonizing enterprise started by Orellana in the Amazon region, Acuña had his own “personal agenda” in mind. By providing a service to the King and being in good graces with Crown administration, Acuña knew that, in turn, he would be taken care of by the King or the

Count Duke. The painter Diego Velázquez, for example went from a poor painter to

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become the Royal painter and a title of nobility by befriending Count Duke of Olivares, who introduced him to King Philip IV (Memoria de España 14). Hence, it was not unusual for those who were in good graces with the Count Duke de Olivares to have certain privileges, especially regarding their jobs, or oficios.

Even though Acuña’s report did not have the immediate result of what he had hoped

(the colonization efforts from the Spanish Crown in the region Acuña described), it did yield some good outcomes for Acuña personally. First, his report was published shortly after Acuña presented it, which seems to suggest that both Olivares and the Spanish King were pleased with the report Acuña had wrote. Very few of the relaciones from the New

World were published at the time they were originally written or in the life of their author(s). For example, Carvajal’s relación was not published until the 19th century, even though it was the first one to document the Amazonian landscape. Acuña’s report, by being truly the first Spanish text about the discovery and exploration of the Amazon to be published shortly after it was written, makes it almost as if the Amazon was discovered for the first time by Acuña. Knowledge of Orellana’s expedition and Carvajal’s written report certainly existed during that time, by means of letter correspondence and personal interviews, such as the interview historian Oviedo personally had with Orellana (Wood).

Acuña was not sent back to colonize the Amazon, as he had hoped, but he did become

Calificador de la Inquizicion and also Procurador of the province where he had lived, shortly after the publication of his narrative. Those were important administrative duties

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that surely entailed a certain amount of wealth and a relatively good life, especially for a

Jesuit in a time when poverty was widespread in the Spanish empire.

It could be argued that the report about the discovery of the Amazon River that

Acuña wrote and was later published made Acuña known to the Royalty at the time, it helped Acuña make a name for himself. It was one more addition to an already an accomplished career, by having funded a University in the New World where he became rector.

Besides Orellana’s, Acuña mentions other voyages or unsuccessful exploration attempts into the Amazon in the first chapters of his narrative. For example some

Franciscans monks tried to evangelize an indigenous population in a part of Amazonia but they came under attack and had to escape and stay alive. After mentioning these previous explorations Acuña writes about the circumstances on how he came to join Captain

Tejeira’s expedition:

Viendo el licenciado Suarez de Poago, fiscal de la Real Chancillería de Quito, ya

de partida la portuguesa armada, y considerando como fiel ministro de su majestad

los muchos útiles y ningunos inconvenientes que se podían seguir de que dos

religiosos de la Compañía de Jesús la acompañasen, notando con cuidado todo lo

digno de advertencia en este gran rio, con cuya noticia pasasen a España para dar

cierta relación de todo en el real Consejos de las Indias, y siendo necesario al rey

nuestro señor en su real persona, como lo pensó el fiscal, así lo propuso en el real

acuerdo… (77).

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However, the decision that Father Acuña to accompany captain Tejeira in his voyage back to the Amazon’s mouth, was not that harmless (“ningunos inconvenientes que se podian seguir”), according to Breymann. The Spanish authorities at the time were taken by surprise by captain Tejeira’s visit upstream the Amazon River. The large Portuguese military expedition that came announced up the river produced anxiety and confusion among the Audiencia de Quito, who distrusted the Portuguese motives (Breymann 211).

A fact that Acuña left out of his narrative is that Audiencia de Quito was eager to send captain Tejeira back downstream the Amazon river from where he and his expedition came from, arguing that the large Portuguese army would be needed in the struggle against foreigners at the mouth of the Amazon. This was at a time when Portugal was occupied by Spain and the Portuguese colonies became part of the Spanish Empire as well, even though not for long. Breymann argues that status of Acuña and the other Jesuit were those of “spies”, the Spanish Viceroy did want the Portuguese to have any information about the river that he already did not possess. The voyage, however, did accomplish charting the river’s course and establishing its navigability as a transit route (212).

Acuña starts describing the Amazon River, giving accurate information about its main geographical features, starting with Chapter XIX titled Nacimiento del rio de las

Amazonas. In a chapter that follows, Su curso, latitud y longitud Acuña offers objective almost scientific like information about the river’s length and its tributaries:

Tiene de largo desde su nacimiento hasta que desagua en el mar mil y trescientas

y cincuenta y seis leguas castellanas bien medidas, y según Orellana, mil y

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ochocientas. Camina siempre culebreando en vueltas muy dilatadas… de latitud y

anchura es muy vario porque por unas partes se esplaya una legua, por otras dos,

por otras tres y por otras mucho más, guardando tanta estrechura en tantas leguas,

para con más licencia, dilatado en ochenta y cuatro de boca, ponerse barba a barba

con el mar océano (83-84).

According to Arellano, the information that Acuña provides about the length of the

Amazon is more accurate than the one Orellana previously gave; Acuña estimated the length of the Amazon to be 6800 kilometers while Orellana claimed it was more than 9000.

The accuracy of the information that Acuña provides about the Amazon region was also noted by Breymann. According to him Acuña was able to write a full record of the events and a detailed description of the Amazonian river, something that members from previous expeditions were not able to do completely. It was truly the first instance of careful, well considered, well documented exploration on the Amazon: “There is literally no aspect of the geography, hydrography, and anthropology of the basin which is not touched by the alert Acuña” (215). In fact, the information that Acuña gives about the Amazon is so precise, that Gilda Mora was able to trace Acuña’s route on her website

(eldoradocolombia.com) by means of modern technology, such as using Google maps and only relying on information provided by Acuña’s Nuevo descubrimiento original text

(Figure 4.5, Figure 4.6, and Figure 4.7). The Choice of Acuña as a Historiographer could not have been better as Acuña was a Trained Missionary Observer.

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Figure 4.5: Chapter LXI – Description of the Province of Worrier Tribe Yoriman

Figure 4.6: Continuation of Chapter LXI – Acuña Provides the Exact Location, in Leagues, of Where This Amazonian Population is Located.

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Figure 4.7: Using google maps Gilda Mora was able to pinpoint the location that Acuña was writing about in Chapter LXI in the Amazon. (Photo credit: Gilda Mora)

Acuña provides detailed information about the Amazonian landscapes in terms of the geography, wildlife and indigenous populations just like he was asked but he constructs most of these descriptions as cultural products (theoretical framework formulated by

Roberston) in terms of the economic potentiality they have to offer. For example in

Chapter LXI (Figure 4.5 and Figure 4.6) Acuña states that the indigenous tribes of

Yoriman are warrior nation that even the Portuguese army was afraid of: “comienza la más nombrada y belicosa nación de todo el rio de las Amazonas y con quienes en sus primeras entradas atemorizaban a toda la armada portuguesa.” (p 135) However, even 160

though the bellicose people belonging to this nation instilled fear in the army, Acuña and his expedition were still able to trade with them: “y se echa de ver que fían de su valor, pues con gran seguridad entraban y salían entre los nuestros, viniendo cada día al real más de ducientas canoas cargadas de niños y mujeres con frutas, pescados, harinas y otras cosas que con abalorios, agujas y cuchillos se les rescataban.” (136).

Just like in Carvajal’s narrative the Amazon is still populated with a large number of people. However, what has changed is how these populations are represented, even though feared they are able to trade with Europeans. In exchange for fruits, fish or flour the Europeans were giving the natives beads, needles and knifes something that these indigenous populations so much needed. Acuña has a merchant mercantilist mentality from this point of view; trade is based on the premise that the products that one country can’t produce, another country that produces them in abundance should be able to trade and have accessibility to both products. Mercantilism is part of the trade theory. Started in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, mercantilism advocated that countries should encourage exports and discourage imports and “its echoes remain in modern political debate and in the trade policies of many countries” (Hill 163). Acuña emphasizes in many instances how they traded with the Indians and he thinks this kind of trade would be beneficial for the Spanish Crown.

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Acuña’s main focus in Nuevo Descubrimiento is on the riches the Amazonian landscape can provide. This landscape is represented as fertile, abundant and highly populated. In Chapter XVII titled “El rio de las Amazonas es el mayor del orbe” Acuña incorporates the Amazonian landscape into the rich Empire of Peru: “Es el famoso río de las Amazonas que corre y baña las más ricas, fértiles y pobladas tierras de todo el imperio del Perú, el que de hoy en adelante podemos, sin usar de hipérboles, calificar por el mayor y más celebre del orbe” (79). His description of this Amazonian landscape are almost idealized, are compared to an earthly paradise, as he does in chapter Chapter XXIX:

El clima de este rio y todas las provincias a él circunvecinas es templado, de suerte

que ni hay calor que enfade, ni frío que fatigue, ni variedad que sea molesta… ni

tampoco hay en este rio aires corruptos que con repentinas calidades dejan lisiados

a aquellos a quienes más hieren, como a costa de su salud y a veces de la vida, los

sienten muchos casi en todo lo descubierto del Perú. Y a no tener la plaga de

mosquitos, de que abunda en muchos parajes, se pudiera llamar a boca llena un

dilatado paraíso (97-98).

The Amazonian landscape is constructed by Acuña as an idealized place, an “earthly

Paradise” where only mosquitos seem to bother. Even though Acuña followed the same river route down the Amazon as Orellana, there are no mentions of hardships, of attacks from Indians or of hunger that are constantly present in Carvajal’s relación. Even the presence of feared Indian warriors is not intimidated, as Acuña described in Chapter LXI.

These Indians can still be “domesticated” since the Spaniards are able to do business and

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trade with them. The Amazonian landscape did not physically changed in almost 100 years since Orellana first traversed it. What has changed is how the Amazonian landscape is constructed. In the 17th century in Acuña’s narrative, it has become an idealized place, filled with riches.

Arellano also observes the concept of an “earthly paradise” in Acuña’s narrative.

The wondrous natural world, the mild climate and idealized descriptions do convey the notion of an “earthly paradise” indeed. According to Diego Ledezma in his dissertation

“El paraiso en América: Un aporte de los jesuitas en las historias naturales 1591-1668”,

Christopher Columbus was the first one, through his diaries to place the Indies in the New

World, geographically, as the possible place of the Garden of Eden (14). The mild climate, the strange and majestic nature, these idealized descriptions of nature and a wondrous natural world were the reasons that made writers from the 16th century say that these were the attributes of Eden. Bartolomé de las Casas emphasized the “paradise like” qualities of the Indies as well.

I would argue that the landscape Acuña describes in his text is not just an “earthly paradise”, but a paradise filled with riches, it is more similar to a biblical “promised land” where honey and milk flow. Acuña does not just describe these idyllic “paradise like” qualities of the Amazonian landscape but rather he sees them for their value in terms of what can be extracted or produced from the Amazon region. For example, even though

“the trees are without number, so tall that they touch the sky and frighten with their size”,

Acuña’s representation of the trees does not stop there. Rather, he continues the 163

descriptions of the impressive Amazonian trees by seeing as a valuable commodity, as wood for building ships. Acuña thinks like an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist:

Los árboles en este rio son sin número, tan altos que se suben a las nubes, tan

gruesos que pone de espanto: cedro medí con mis manos de treinta palmos de

circuito. Son todos por la mayor parte de tan buenas maderas que no se pueden

desear mejores, porque son cedros, ceibos, palo hierro, palo colorado y otros

muchos reconocidos ya en aquellas partes y experimentados por los mejores del

mundo para fabricar embarcaciones (100).

Acuña shows a very keen sense of observation. Not only does he know the trees by name and the kind of species they belong to, but he measured one of the trees to find out its circumference. Arellano states that Acuña had an exceptional power of observation, clear and concise style and who even possessed a modern anthropological perspective of the

Amazonian landscape:

Acuña, dotado de un poder de observación privilegiado, escribe con sentido del

rigor y capacidad de síntesis, hondamente persuadido de la importancia de su

testimonio, sin gangas retóricas ni envaramientos, anotando con claridad cuanto

veía, a veces se diría que extraña y muy precozmente imbuido de una visión

antropológica moderna, abierto al universo de lo diferente y con rapidez penetrante

en aquella selva de imágenes absolutamente nuevas, con señorío, facultad y arbitrio

para registrarlas y comprenderlas (8).

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In this sense Acuña acts as a scientist, a biologist by providing not only the name for some species of plants, but also its physical characteristics. The “cedro” tree that Acuña mentions is different than the European “cedro”, as Arellano states (even though Arellano does not provide any other additional information about this tree). However, unlike its

European relative, it only grows in the Amazon basin and also bears edible fruit12 (Figure

4.8. and Figure 4.9.). Upon my further investigation, the type of cedar tree that Acuña describes is indeed similar to the European cedar but only by the cracks in its bark.

12 This tree, from the family Anacardoaceae is known by its cientific name as Antrocaryon Amazonicum or Popartia amazonicum. In common language the tree is referred to as “jacaiaca”, “fruta-de-cedre”, “cedrorana” or simple “cedro” (in Brazil). It is a tree that grows primarily in the humid forests and unlike the European cedar tree it has not been found at altitudes higher than 100 m. It is widely spread in the lower canopy in the Amazon and it is up to 30 m high, a deciduous tree with the bark fissured, as in the “cedro” (Cedrella odorata). The fruit it produced is drupe, the skin is yellow and the interior is fleshy and juicy. The pulp is mildly acid but pleasant. The pulp may be consumed fresh but it often used for making a juice or ice cream flavoring (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 37). 165

Figure 4.8: Above – Antrocaryon amazonicum. (Photo credit: Ymber Flores Bendezú)

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Figure 4.9: Below – The Fruit of the “Cedro” Antrocaryon Amazonicum. (Photo credit: Anestor Mezzomo)

This capability of Acuña to describe elements of the natural world objectively by observation is close related to the attributes of a scientist. In Jesuit contribution to Science:

A History Agustin Udias claims that the Jesuits in the 16th and 17th centuries are credited with the development of modern science through their empirical observation of the phenomena in the natural world. Acuña is mentioned in this study and Udias even argues that Acuña, along with other Jesuits in the New World was one of the first naturalists and geographers.

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In another study “Mapping Jesuit Science: The role of Travel in the Geography of

Knowledge” Harris also argues that the knowledge of the natural world that the Jesuits produced was knowledge that arose in the course of their work, their ‘profession’ as Jesuits and was tightly related to their travels as agents of the Society (214). This traveling of the

Jesuits and their sharing of information is also connected to an economic aspect, according to Harris. Jesuit traveling enabled the Society to operate with increase effectiveness in remote corners of the world either by understanding something about the local climate or by retailing this information to curious patrons back in Europe and winning their financial support (216). Scientific knowledge production was taking place especially in the society’s most highly trained and trusted members holding key academic positions in the largest and most prestigious universities. Acuña himself was a rector at the University he had founded and had access to an ample knowledge from many texts and different academic disciplines.

This could explain also the knowledge that Acuña had about the economic processes taking place in the 17th century, including the Dutch intrusion and expansion into the South American continent that he debates in his text, as I will discuss later in this chapter. Being part of the Jesuit network also made writing the relación for the Spanish king easier since Acuña he had already been trained by the Jesuit order on how to write regular reports to superiors about their Jesuit missions. There were rules for the composition, editing and circulating of Jesuit newsletters according to Harris. This circulation of various Jesuit documents among different members of the society allowed for an unprecedented exchange of information. For example this allowed Juan Eusebio

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Nieremberg (1595•1658), a Jesuit professor at the “Colegio Imperial” in Madrid to publish a general book about natural history, Historia Naturae13 (History of nature) in 1635 with abundant information about flora and fauna of the New World, based mostly on Jesuit sources (Harris 113). Thus Nieremberg, who had never traveled to the New World and lived in Castile most of him life, was able to accurately depict, in both text and images, plants and animals from the America due to correspondence and reports of fellow Jesuits from the other side of the Atlantic.

I have looked at some of his work from Historia Naturae and the accuracy and descriptions of some of the figures depicting New World wildlife is impressive. The type of detailed drawing that the Jesuit Nieremberg has in Historia Naturae is close to what would be expected for a scientific drawing from the 18th century. The task to describe wildlife that only was found in the New World to a European audience has been a daunting task since the American continent was first discovered, as I discusses in Chapter 2 for some of the depiction of indigenous people in the 16th century. However Jesuit Nieremberg depicts elements of the natural world from America in a very accurate way. For example in Figure 4.10 Nieremberg described a manatee. Even though the drawing that accompanies the description is not completely accurate by today’s standards, it still provides a good representation of what a manatee looks like for someone who has not seen

13 Nieremberg wrote this book in Latin. The original title is: Historia natvrae, maxime peregrinae, libris XVI distincta. In quibus rarissima naturae arcana, etiam astronomica, & ignota indiarum animalia, quadrupedes, aues, pisces… 169

this creature before. Below the drawing of the manatee Nieremberg also included a textual description. Interestingly Nieremberg starts the description of the manatee with the following sentence in Latin “in genum monstrum manati est” (manati is part of the monster category –my own translation). Such large, unusual creatures like a manatee were taping into an European imaginary already dominated by monsters in the New World. However,

Nieremberg succeeds in giving an accurate description and behavior of the manatee: “The head is like an ox and it has small eyes comparing to the size of its body and in place of limbs has some wings which helps it to swim. It is covered in leather, has no scales, and this animal is shy, is afraid of floods and prefers rich banks where it feeds on grass” (my translation). This strange looking creature that looks and behaves like a cow but lives underwater has perplexed many who had the chance to observe it.

Acuña also describes the manatee in his narrative in Chapter XXV titled “Pescados de este rio, y del pejebuey.” Acuña refers to the manatee with the name of “pejebuey”, which in literal translation from Old Spanish would mean “ox fish”. Acuña gives a similar description of the manatee like Nieremberg did, even though Acuña’s is more detailed. It is possible that Acuña had previous knowledge about the manatee if not from Nieremberg from another sources. This would be an example of the constant traveling and sharing of information that was an essential part the Jesuits developing the natural history as a science.

As mentioned earlier, the Jesuits were part of a network of shared information that “enabled the Society to serve as a conduit for exotic knowledge and objects was itself in part sustained by the knowledge thus gained” (Harris 216). Traveling allowed for the

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circulation of information and Jesuits in different part of the world have access to it. This what allowed Nieremberg to describe the manatee, even though he had never traveled to the New World, which in turn could have informed Acuña of the existence of the manatees and Acuña himself, while traveling in the Amazon was able to provide an even more detailed description of the animal based on direct observation, in turn this information would be added to the already existing knowledge about the manatee.

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Figure 4.10: Drawing and Description of the Exotic Animal Manatee by Jesuit Juan Eusebio Nierember. (From Historia Naturae)

Acuña description of the manatee is not much different than the one given by

Nieremberg; Acuña writes:

Es tan grande como un becerro de año y medio, y en la cabeza, a tener astas y orejas,

no se diferenciara de él; tiene por todo el cuerpo algunos pelos, no muy largos, a

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modo de cerdas blandas, y muévese en al agua con dos brazos cortos que en forma

de palas le sirven de remos, debajo de los cuales muestra la hembra sus pechos, con

que mantiene con lecho los hijos que pare (91).

However, unlike Nieremberg, Acuña adds some details to the description of the manatee.

Acuña has the advantage of describing the animal from close empirical observation. Thus,

Acuña is able to add that the manatee is covered by a type of soft bristles and is also a mammal by the way it feeds its young. But the most unusual thing Acuña observes about the manatee, just like with a lot of other resources from the Amazon, is that the manatee meat tastes good: “no hay persona cuando le come no le tenga por sazonada carne” (91).

Acuña describes this animal too in terms of its utility, usefulness from an economic perspective and he adds:

Del cuero, que es muy grueso, hacen adargas los guerreros, tan Fuertes que, bien

curado, no le pasa la bala de arcabuz. Sustentase este pescado solo de hierba que

pace, como si fuera buey verdadero, de donde cobra su carne tan buen gusto y es

de tanta sustancia que con pequeña cantidad queda una persona más satisfecha y

con más fuerzas que si comiera doblado de carnero (91).

The manatee’s skin can be manufactured into a shield, so strong that not even a cannon ball can pass through it. But the most important quality of the manatee is its meat, very tasty and it satiates hunger better than lamb. Again Acuña introduces the discourse of abundance; in a time where in Spain the economic situation was so dire that the a common persons’ diet was made of soup and bread and many people could not afford meat

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(Memoria de España 14). In the Amazonia even the meat from such an unusual animals as the manatee could provide a solution to hunger. Since Acuña’s main purpose of the narrative was to convince the king to colonize the region, having an abundance of food was an important factor for a possible colonization.

Acuña describes plenty of elements belonging to the Amazonian landscape that could be used as food. The manatee is not the only source of meat; In Chapter XXVIII

Cazas del monte y aves de que se sustentan, Acuña includes other animals that are part of the Indians’ diet and he represents these types of meat in a favorable manner. He mentions the tapirs “dantas” that also provided sustenance for father Carvajal also almost a century earlier, adding Acuña: “dantas, que son del tamaño de una mula de un año y muy parecidas a ella en el color y disposición, y el gusto de la carne no se diferencia del de la vaca, aunque toca algo en dulce” (95). Acuña also compares the meats of the various edible animals to those that he is familiar with from Europe. If the meat of the tapir is similar to beef, only sweeter, the meat of a type of wild boar is not only healthy but their meat tastes similar to the domestic swine in Europe:

hay también puercos montaraces, no jabalíes, sino otro género muy diverso, que

tiene el ombligo en el lomo14, de que están pobladas casi todas las Indias. Es muy

buena carne y muy sana, como también lo es la de otra especie de estos mesmos

14 Arellano identifies this animal as “saino” o “baquira” (95) 174

animales, que se hallan en muchas partes, muy semejantes a los caseros nuestros”

(95).

This attempt of Acuña to constantly compare the meat of exotic Amazonian animals to that of similar domestic animals from Europe is not just to familiarize his reader with these new types of meat but also to imply that the meats and other comestibles derived from Amazonia are so similar and abundant, that Amazonian could become a second home for Europeans. As I discussed in Chapter 2 of this dissertation, Carvajal was doing something similar when he was comparing the Amazonian landscape to the European one.

By projecting European landscape attributes on the Amazonian landscape, there is a process of converting the untamed wild landscape into a spanicised one, the landscape becomes more familiar in the European imaginary and Amazonia becomes a second

Europe. In fact, when Orellana was sent back in the failed colonization attempt of the

Amazon, that region was to be called “Nueva Andalusía”, just like the Spanish colonies in the New World were called Nueva España. These meats of exotic animals from the

Amazon are not only similar, but in some cases better than the meats found in Europe: “hay venados, pacas, cotias, iguanas, yagotis y otros animales propios de las Indias, de buenas carnes y de tan buen gusto que poco se echan menos las regaladas de Europa” (96). Besides meats, that was a prized food item for Europeans in the 17th century, due to the lack of it, the Amazon also housed an impressive variety of fruits and vegetables ready for European consumption. Acuña writes about these:

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Las viandas que acompañan este pan, y vino, son muchas, no sólo de frutas, como

Plátanos, Piñas, Guayabas, Avíos, Castañas muy sabrosas, que llaman en el Perú

Castañas de la Sierra, y a la verdad más parecen esto, que no aquello, si bien las

llaman así por nacer en unos cocos que se asemejan al erizo de Castaña, tienen

Palmas de diversos géneros que producen unos sazonados cocos, y otras sabrosos

dátiles, que aunque silvestres, son de muy buen gusto, y otras muchas diferencias

de frutas, propias todas de tierras calientes. Tienen también raíces de mucho

sustento, como son batatas, yuca mansa que llaman los Portugueses, Macachera,

Caras, criadillas de tierra, y otras que asadas o cocidas, no sólo son tan gustosas,

sino substanciales. (51)

This description of abundance of food for any Spaniard from the lower classes from Spain, where hunger was constant and daily survival was the main worry, would indeed seem a rich “earthly Paradise”. These types of narratives of abundance like Acuña’s contributed to the immigration of Spaniards to the Americas and it was usually poor folks like the

Pizarros who came to the New World in search of a better life.

The paragraph starts with the description of bread and wine, typical staple foods but also foods with spiritual connotations for Catholics. The fruits are exotic ones that the

King might be familiar with such as bananas, pineapples and guavas. Then, just like Father

Carvajal when faced with having to describe unfamiliar foods, Acuña had to use words that

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the Spanish were familiar with in Peru. After naming these exotic fruits, Acuña mentions other staple foods from the Amazon region, such as potatoes, yucca15, and truffles.

Figure 4.11: Cassava Roots, Also Known as Yucca. Photograph by Ariane Citron

The way Acuña describes these various exotic fruits and vegetables, is as if he was selling these foods himself at the market, by using such words that convey the meaning of tasty and pleasant taste several times: “muy sabrosas”, “sabroso”, “de muy buen gusto”,

15 Macaxeira, mandioc or cassava are the same names of a root place that is the basic staple food in Brazil (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 177

“de mucho sustento”, “gustosas”, “substanciales”. Not only is the food from the New

World tasty but also substantial, an adjective used in conjunction with satisfying hunger.

Acuña doesn’t just enumerate the fruits and roots, but, by using these adjectives he makes them more appealing to the “consumer”, his ideal reader like a modern advertiser would today. Acuña (un)consciously did what in modern economics would be coined persuasive advertising: “to attract customers attention”, “intended to induce a consumer to try the product and, as a consequence, discover a previously unknown taste to it” (Miller

563). Acuña did not possess these products, the fruits and vegetables he is describing, but he was willing to help the King obtain them and enter in their possession, as he mentioned at the beginning of his dedication to Conde Duque de Olivares. Acuña is using the products of the Amazonian landscape in order to try and advertise the Amazonian landscape to the king, as a place that would improve the Spanish economy that was in decline and also alleviate the hunger of his subjects.

Besides meat, fruits and vegetables Acuña also includes a valuable resource for the

Spanish Crown: medicinal plants. The Spanish administration valued these plants very much since the medicine of those time relied heavily on the use of medicinal plants.

Francisco Hernández, the royal physician, spent 7 years in Spain gathering information about the plants in the Mexico region, many of them with medicinal properties. According to historian Cañizares-Esguerra (8) wrote 15 volumes of writings and illustrations of 3,000 new plants (Figure 4.12). Hernández used the network of colonial hospitals in Mexico in order to test the medical properties of hundreds of these plants. 178

Figure 4.12: Depiction of a medicinal plant from Mexico in Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus by royal physician Francisco Hernández16.

16 The names of plants are provided in the indigenous language Nahuatl and also in Latin. This particular plant is the vanilla plant used both as medicine and for flavoring. 179

With the help of indigenous Nahua intellectuals who were trained in writing Latin and Franciscan missionaries Hernandez was able to use centuries of Aztec knowledge in the fields of botany and medicine. It is not surprising that Acuña writes about the plants found in the Amazon region:

En estos incultos bosques tienen los naturales librada para sus dolencias la mejor

botica de simples que hay en lo descubierto, porque aquí se coge la más gruesa

cañafístula que en parte alguna, la zarzaparrilla más perfecta, las gomas y resinas

saludables más en abundancia, la miel de abejas silvestres más a cada paso y tanto

que apenas se llega a paraje donde no la haya, gastándola no solo en medicinas,

para que es muy saludable, sino también sustentándose con ella… (99).

Trees

But in these “bosques”, the most valuable resource is the trees. In the same

Chapter XXXI where he described the Amazonian “cedro” and a variety of other trees,

Acuña focuses on the economic value that these trees could provide:

Porque son cedros, ceibos, palo hierro, palo colorado y otros muchos reconocidos

ya en aquellas partes y experimentados por los mejores del mundo para fabricar

embarcaciones; las cuales en este río, mejor y con menos costo que en parte

ninguna, se podrán acabadas y perfectas echar al agua, sin que se necesite de nuestra

Europa sino hierro para la clavazón. (100) .

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Acuña describes these trees as a lodger or merchant would, in economic terms: these trees are valuable because boats can be made from them. Acuña thinks like a capitalist, by worrying about the cost to make the boats (“mejor y con menos costo”). By producing the boats next to the river, production costs would be lower, since the boats would be made on the banks of the river, near the water. The only thing that would be needed from Europe, adds Acuña, are the iron nails. Also, one of the most important economic resource for making the boats would be “cheap labor”, and as Acuña states, there are many indigenous populations that could provide the labor force for the shipyard: “y aquí finalmente está la multitud de gente que después diremos, con lo que no falta nada para fabricar cuantos galeones se quisieren poner en astillero” (101).

According to a theory of economics labor is defined as a productive contribution of humans who work and has been a part of the capitalist free market system. The need for labor is to increase productivity and in economics theory the demand for labor is a “derived demand”. It means that factors of production are rented or purchased not because they give any intrinsic satisfaction to the firm’s owners but because they can be used to manufacture output that is expected to be sold at a profit (Miller 622).

For this reason the demand for labor was so important, especially in the colonial times, but it helped productivity by reducing costs. As it happened with the mines of

Potosi, discussed in the previous chapter, the Spaniards found a way of manipulating the

Andean mita system into a forced labor system and it is estimated that millions of indigenous men died in the mines of Potosi (Bakewell). Another form of forced labor was 181

slavery. Labor was a precious commodity that it paved the way for the industrial revolution.

Slaves from West Africa were especially valuable in parts of the Americas because they could perform heavy manual work in hot condition – something to which many Native

Americans proved unsuited for (Bakewell 75). This type of labor force and was especially important in the Americas for the extraction of precious resources, such as the sugar cane in Cuba and Brazil. Acuña is against slavery in his narrative and even describes an episode where he prevented Portuguese soldiers from bringing some native indigenous tribes from

Amazonia on their boat as slaves. However, Acuña is not clear on what role would these indigenous populations would have in their boat making production, if their status would be similar to that of slaves.

Acuña’s capitalistic mentality can also be seen in the following chapter where he outlines a plan for enriching not just one kingdom but many: “hay en este gran rio de las

Amazonas cuatro géneros que cultivados serán sin duda suficientes para enriquecer no a uno sino a muchos reinos, de los cuales es el primero maderas…hay tantas de las comunes para embarcaciones…seguros siempre de que por muchas que se saquen, jamás se podrán agotar” (101). Reiterating the same ideas as in the previous chapter, that the Amazonian wood would be good for building ships, Acuña adds that no matter how many ships would be built. The supply for making them will is endless. It is here that we see the never ending potentiality of the Amazonian region, an idea that wracked havoc in the modern times when the Amazonian rainforest started to be exploited and it came to be realized that in actuality

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the Amazonian resources are limited. The other resource that Acuña sees in chapter XXII for enriching the king is cacao:

Este tan estimado fruto en la Nueva España y en donde quiera que saben qué cosa

es chocolate; el cual beneficiado, es de tanto provecho que a cada pie de árbol

corresponde de renta todos los años horros de todos gastos, ocho reales de plata, y

véase bien con cuan poco trabajo se cultivaran estos árboles en este rio, pues sin

ningún beneficio del arte, sola la naturaleza les llena de abundantes frutos (102).

Just like he did when he mentioned the economic profit that can be obtain from the timber of trees for making boats, Acuña states not just how the harvest of this particular natural resource would bring a profit but he also calculated the costs which were very little and the profits were eight silver reales per cacao tree. As stated in the previous chapter “a real de a ocho” was one of the most valuable at its time so surely the production of cacao would bring a profit.

The third resources that would bring a profit is tobacco, given the climate would be well cultivated on the banks of the Amazon River. The 4th and most important resource for Acuña is the sugar cane:

Las mayores que, a mi ver, se debieran entablar en este rio son las del azúcar, que

es el cuarto genero más noble, más provechoso, más seguro y de mayores

acrecentamientos para la corona real, y más en tiempos que tanto ha caído el trato

del Brasil, se debiera tomar más a pechos y procurar luego a los principios entablar

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muchos ingenios que en breve tiempo restaurasen las pérdidas de aquellas costa

(102).

Acuña seems to be very much up to date with the major economic trends at the time, and knows that harvesting the sugar cane can bring great profits for the Spanish

Crown. He is even giving suggestion to restore the production facilities for the sugar cane that became ignored once the Portugal was annexed to Spain.

Mercantilism and Spain’s Rival Nations

Acuña was aware not only of the great economic potentiality of the Amazon region, but also that Spain’s rival nations in the 17th century were attempting to conquer and settle in in parts of the Amazon region. Towards the end of his narrative, in

“Memorial presentado en el real Consejo de las Indias sobre el dicho descubrimiento despues del rebellion de Portugal” Acuña urges the King to start the conquest of the territories Acuña had just reported on. For fear the Portuguese, now independent from

Spain, would ally themselves with the Dutch and take possession of the Amazon:

¿Pues qué, si unidos con el holandés como lo están muchos del Brasil, intentasen

semejante atrevimiento? Ya se ve el cuidado que pudiera dar. Y que el holandés

desee muchos años ha, y aun que procure con veras señorearse de este gran rio, es

cosa tan cierta que no dudó afirmarlo y publicarlo Juan Laeth, autor holandés en

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el libro que intituló Utriusque Americae, que sacó a la luz el año de treinta y tres,

donde en el libro 17 cap.15, in fine, dice estas palabras…. (168).

Acuña’s fears were well founded. Breymann stated that the Dutch had intentions of conquering the amazon and take advantage of their natural resources at the beginning of the 17th century. Myths such as El Dorado served to bring Europeans down to the northwest coast of Brazil where the Amazon was of interest to them both as an area for both exploitation and inland passage. The geography of the region also seemed to help the

“intruders”. The isolation of the mouth of the Amazon river and the difficulty with which either the Spanish political center in Peru or the Portuguese one on the coast or Brazil were able to prevent attacks, made it an attractive feature for the envious European nations

(179). Acuña is aware of the great economic benefits that the Amazon region offers and is constantly preoccupied that other European powers would come to the Amazon region and start trading with the natives and soon would be establishing colonies there. He urges the

Spanish Crown to take possession of the rich Amazonian landscape before the Dutch do:

De donde se colige bien claro que el dilatar el holandés la conquista de este gran

río de las Amazonas de que en entrambos lugares habla el autor, es a más no poder,

y no porque le falten deseos y estima de los mucho que en ejecutarlo ha de interesar.

Prevenga pues vuestra majestad tan graves daños que este su fiel vasallo le propone

y no permita se dé lugar a que algún día lloremos perdidas en lo que el presente nos

ofrecen crecidas ganancias [my emphasis] (169).

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The Dutch, Spain’s enemy came to the Amazon as settlers, not just as explorers.

Dutch ships used to come to the coasts of Brazil, by crossing the Atlantic Ocean to a point south of the mouth of the Amazon. Their purpose was trade with the natives, however, by

1600 the Dutch was ready to build fortified trading stations and built 2 forts at the cross of the Xingu River and the Amazon, 80 miles up the Amazon River: “The Dutch were convinced that great profit awaited their enterprise in the valley” (Breymann 183).

The Dutch and English intrusions in the Amazonian region were motivated by economic reasons. In the article “The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth” by Acemoglu et al, it is claimed that the economy in the 16th century is credited with shaping our current modern economy. The origins of the current rapid economic growth and the associated Industrial Revolution are generally considered to lie in the economic, political and social developments of Western Europe that took place in previous centuries, starting especially with the 16th century. This economic growth is associated with the discovery of the New World and over the Atlantic trade that followed.

It is argued by these authors that profits from the Atlantic trade and colonialism strengthened new merchant groups and opened the way for changes in political institutions.

It put a pressure on expropriation by the monarchy and other established groups and encouraged commerce and production for the market that also enabled the emergence of new forms of organization and new technologies (Author? 2). Countries where the monarchy was absolutist and monopolized overseas trade like Spain and Portugal, experienced only limited gains from Atlantic trade. In this article Spain is seen almost as

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an “exception” to the growth that most western European nations experienced as a result of the Atlantic trade. Acuña was witnessing the profits of the trade of the other nations and how they were commercializing the products from Amazon region and tried to convince the Spanish king to impulse the commerce and appropriation of these natural resources as well, but the Spanish king at the time apparently was not interested in such enterprises.

According to Breymann the Dutch had strong intentions of settling the Amazon region, but due to constant attacks from native tribes and the Portuguese were not very successful in lasting colonization settlements. However, they did succeed in establishing trading posts and forts at Nassau and Orange in the Amazon (Author? 182). The Dutch also colonized for a long term part of Guyana and some islands in the Caribbean.

Similarly, the English saw the potential that the New World had to offer in terms of economic profits, especially the gold and silver. Besides, Spain’s monopolistic trade with the America and their very rigid rules regarding commerce made the English to start trading direct with the New World. They were contraband type of activities but also in exploring the territories that were not well guarded or settled by the Spaniards and the

Amazon region was one of them (Laraz).

Spain was not the only European power at the time to search for trading opportunities and riches, especially in the Amazon region. Another rival power, England, was catching up with Spain. Towards the end of the 16th century the voyage made by Sir

Walter Raleigh in the Guiana region was published under the tile Discovery of Guiana

(1596) as I mentioned earlier in the chapter. Translated into several languages, Raleigh’s 187

text became one of the most known and circulated narratives about the exploration of the

Amazonian River before Acuña’s in 1641, even though Raleigh explored the upper northwestern part of Amazonia. The scholar Ana Pizarro mentions that texts such as

Raleigh’s contributed to the construction of Amazonia that became “internalized” through the diffusions of this narratives in Europe:

Estos textos son significativos de la construcción de la imagen occidental, que se

internacionaliza a través de la difusión que adquieren estos relatos en Europa. El

texto de Walter Raleigh de su viaje a la Guayana y el Orinoco fue traducido de

inmediato al latín, lengua franca de la época, publicado en 1599 por Theodore de

Bry y traducido al alemán, francés, holandés e italiano (65).

Sir Walter, for example, heard from native populations in Guiana about the existence of Amazon women and headless men and according to Schmidt, that information could have been based on medieval travel literature, such as Manville. However, Raleigh’s narrative was taken at face value and based on it Joducus Hondius drew the map that I mentioned in Chapter 1, that depicts a physical place for El Dorado and the Amazon women. The Amazon woman depicted next to the headless man perpetuated the myth of

Amazonian native inhabitants as barbaric and uncivilized.

I argue that the importance of Raleigh’s narrative resides more in the fact that it kept alive the legend of El Dorado and that gold was to be found in the Amazonian region and it also documented intrusions and explorations in the Amazon region by foreigners that

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Acuña so much feared. In his narrative, Raleigh also provides a different point of view than that of Spanish explorers, describing them as greedy and famous for their bad treatment of the indigenous populations. But his text also had many things in common with previous travel narratives in the Amazonia, such as the search for El Dorado and a focus on investigating its natural resources. El Dorado or the search for easily acquired wealth is the common thread in these explorations of the Amazonian landscape. The

Amazonian landscape had been built as a cultural product starting with Orellana and

Gaspar de Carvajal; each expedition describing information and “building”, adding to existing knowledge from previous expeditions, without questioning the reliability of the facts of those who traveled in the region before. The amount of gold and silver that Pizarro obtained from Peru became a myth in itself and a reality at the same time that fueled the legend of El Dorado.

For example, Sir Walter Raleigh in his Discovery of Guiana (1596) mentions other

Spanish expeditions in the region, such as Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana

(whom he calls Oreliano), along with attempts of traversing the region by Diego de Ordas and Pedro de Ursua. However, this information that Sir Walter provides contains numerous inaccuracies, both historical and geographical (Schmidt). This is a reflection of the uneven flow of information pertaining to Spanish exploration in the Amazon region, sometimes intentionally kept out of enemy hands.

Raleigh not only mentions previous expeditions in the Amazon but also writes about the deeds of Francisco Pizarro and the loot of gold and silver they obtained from 189

their conquests. Quoting a report by Francisco Lopez, Raleigh writes about the conquest of Peru: “and in the 117 chapter, Francisco Pizarro caused the gold and silver of Atabalipa to be weighed after he had taken it, which Lopez set down in these words following:

“Hallaron cincuenta y dos mil marcos de buena plata, y un million y trecientos y veinte y seis mil y quinientos pesos de oro” (53). The inclusion of the original Spanish text (even though he translates the paragraph into English) is meant to add credibility to the report

(just like how Acuña did with captain Tejeira’s certification) stating how much gold Spain obtained from the conquest of Peru. Raleigh follows that historical fact by another observation that reveals almost an envious tone of the amount of gold and silver that Spain obtained from the New World and how that particular fact helped Spain becomes the biggest economic power at the time.

Now, although these reports may seem strange, yet if we consider the many millions which are daily brought out of Peru into Spain, we may easily believe the same. We find that by the abundant treasure of that country the Spanish King vexes all the princes of

Europe, and it becomes, in a few years, from a poor king of Castile, the greatest monarch of this part of the world, and likely every day to increase if other princes forslow (neglect) the good occasions offered, and suffer him to add this empire to the rest, which by far exceedeth all the rest. If his gold now endanger us, he will then be unresistible (53).

Raleigh states not only about the impressive amount of gold and riches that Spain possessed as a result of the conquest of the New World, but also his concern that the wealth of the Spain endangers England. Raleigh’s fear is that the gold provided Spain so much 190

economic power that Spanish empire would conquer even England “and suffer him to add this empire to the rest” (53). In fact Raleigh was famous for his dislike of Spaniards. The envy that the wealth the Spaniards generated from the New World definitely attracted the attention of other nations in Western Europe, especially that Spain was not the only country to use gold and silver as their currencies (in fact most countries were, as Breymann mentions). This influx of riches from the New World put the English, French and the Dutch at a disadvantaged and therefore they retaliated with the many foreign attempts and intrusions in the American territory via the Amazon River. The economic rivalry and competiveness drove these explorations in Amazonia. Besides, courtiers such as Sir Walter thought that the Spaniards were undeserving of such wealth by their bad treatment of the native populations. In contrast to the cruel Conquista practiced by the Castilians, Raleigh argued for a softer, “courteous conquest” of the Americas. According to Schmidt, Raleigh became the “signal figure” in Elizabethan England’s challenge to Hapsburg Spain.

Raleigh’s anti-Spanish sentiment is what contributed eventually to his end17.

17 According to Schmidt, after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 Raleigh did not enjoy the same privileges at the court. After a series of political intrigues by his enemies, Raleigh was arrested and place in the Tower, ironically on false charges of conspiring with the Spanish. But the thought of returning to Guiana did not leave Raleigh’s. Just like Orellana did, Sir Walter wanted to return to the New World in search of the elusive gold. In March 1616 he was given permission to sail back to Guiana, under the condition that he could commit no offense against Spain. Raleigh made one final desperate voyage to the New World in the spring of 1617. In bad health and pain, accompanied by his son Walter and his old lieutenant Keymis, Raleigh endured a mission that produced one catastrophe after another, just like Orellana’s but no gold. His son got into a battle with the Spaniards and was killed. In addition poor weather, rampant disease, a foolish and

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Raleigh’s report offers a unique snapshot at a moment in time, a look at how other nations viewed Spain and what determined other countries to start exploration and colonizing enterprises of their own. It was during this time period, towards the end of the

16th and beginning of 17th centuries when the British started to begin their efforts to explore and settle the northern American territory (Mancall). Sir Walter wanted to compete with the Spaniards in their quest for gold and riches and went on a journey in the northern

Amazonian region, to Guiana. He writes “the empire of Guiana is directly east from Peru towards the sea and lieth under the equinoctial line, and it hath more abundance of gold than any part of Peru, and as many or more great cities than ever Peru had when it flourished most” (53). Based on this narrative of Sir Walter Raleigh, the region of Guiana became a power struggle territory disputed through the centuries by Spain’s rival powers: the British, the Dutch and the French. Guiana had a tumultuos history, the three modern

Guiana states are a proof of these disputed territories in the upper part of the Amazon region18.

unsuccessful battle with the Spanish troupes did not make Raleigh’s last voyage a success. Upon his return to England, empty handed, Raleigh was arrested and resentenced to death (37).

18 In the region Guiana British, Dutch and French explorations of the area continued throughout the early seventeenth century while the Spanish were busy colonizing the Mesoamerica and Andean regions. As European explorers penetrated the area looking for the golden El Dorado and traders exchanged sugar, coffee, gold, timber and slaves, the permanent settlers of Guiana continued developing their own identity and sense of place in the midst of their isolated exclusion. It was the Dutch who made the first permanent attempts at colonization, first exploring the area under the command of Abraham Cabeliau in 1598, then establishing a permanent trading and salt mining settlement in Guiana in

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It is almost as if these powers were fighting for the only landscape the Spanish left neglected in the southern American continent. As these excerpts from the Sir Walter demonstrate, gold and silver were the base for most of the exploration and discoveries in the New World. The wealth that Spain acquired from Mexico and Peru became the envy of the British. As Sir Walter Raleigh so eloquently mentioned about the King of Spain.

He became “from a poor king of Castile, the greatest monarch of this part of the world, and likely every day to increase” (53). Raleigh’s ambitions enterprise in Amazonia is driven by an impulse to rival and “outdo” Spain in their appropriation of gold in the New

World and Cristobal de Acuña has good reasons to worry about these rival appropriations of the Amazonian landscape.

Acuña focuses mostly o the exploitation of natural resources as the new source of income that were to replace gold and silver, but he does mention that gold is found in abundance in the Amazonian region. However, he gives logical reason why the gold should be found in this part of the American territory:

1616. Britain and France concentrated their colonizing activities in the Antilles islands northwest of Guiana at first but explored the Guiana region as well. Sir Walter traveled in the region in 1595 and again in 1616. The area from this point forward was colonized by the French, British and Dutch in a give and take power struggle. The legacy of these struggles and the slow cultural assimilation of this land persists together in the cultural expressions of the modern states sharing an inherited history. The British colony Guyana achieved its independence in 1966. Suriname, the Dutch Guiana, followed suit in 1975. French Guiana still remains some sort of colony of France and it stands as the only colony on the mainland of another continent (Meuwese 7). 193

Y no digo esto al aire y sin fundamento, llevado solo, como pensara alguno, de la

afición que maestro a engrandecer este rio, sino estribando en la razón y en la

experiencia: esta la tengo del oro que en algunos indios de este rio encontramos y

de las noticias que dieron de sus minas; aquella me obliga a formar este argumento.

El rio de las Amazonas recibe en sí las vertientes todas de las tierras más ricas de

la América, pues por la banda del sur desaguan en él caudalosos ríos, que

descienden de cerca de Potosí unos, otros de Guanuco, cordillera que se avecinda a

la ciudad de Lima, del Cuzco otros y otros de Cuenca y Jibaros, que es la tierra más

rica de oro que hay en lo descubierto (104).

Acuña uses logic and claims that gold can be found in the region due to these rivers coming from the mountains. They contain rich minerals which have gold in them. Acuña is very cautious to write about the presence of gold and, unlike in Carvajal’s narrative gold is not abundant. Acuña only writes about gold when he is able to document it. For example in Chapter LVIII, titled minas de oro, Acuña describes a village where there is gold and bases his claim on evidence of the gold ornaments that the natives in that tribe wear: “por

él se entra en el Iquiari, que es el río del oro, donde del pie de una sierra que allí está, le sacan los naturales en grande cantidad, y ese oro todo en puntas y granos de buen tamaño, de los cuales forman a fuerza de batirlo las planchas que ya dijimos cuelgan de las orejas y narices” (133).

If Pizarro and Orellana based their expedition on the myth of El Dorado, Acuña does not do the same. His empirical observation offers clue that gold indeed was to be 194

found in the amazon, but not in the quantities that the Europeans had imagined based on the stories about El Dorado. In fact, Acuña is very cautious about confirming the place of the Golden Lake or El Dorado: “Entre estas naciones que todas son de diferentes lenguas, según las noticias que por parte del Nuevo Reino de Granda hay, está el deseado Lago

Dorado que tan inquietos tiene los ánimos de toda la gente del Perú. No lo afirmo de cierto pero algún día querrá Dios que salgamos de esta perplejidad.” (135)

Acuña hopes that one day the mystery of the Golden Lake will be solved. In this way Acuña “breaks” with previous narratives on the Amazon region and he does not perpetuate the myth of gold like previous texts have. For example Sir Walter’s Raleigh narrative is filled with stories of gold in Guyana but Raleigh himself was not able to bring much gold to England. Even though gold is not plentiful in the Amazon to enrich the

Spanish kingdom, gold can indeed be found in the form of many natural resources that the

Amazonia provides and that Acuña described in his narrative. A visionary and with a capitalist mentality ahead of his time, Acuña was able to figure out that wealth resides in mercantilism and also in the harvest and manufacture of the natural resources that the

Amazonian landscape has to offer.

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Chapter 5: Landscape and Religious Discourse

One of the main features of many of the narratives of the discovery and exploration in the New World in the 16th and 17th century is the presence of religious discourse, often present alongside with descriptions of the American landscape. The cronistas, especially in the 16th century were very pious and had a strong Christian Catholic faith. Their devotion to God was a daily reality that permeated many aspects of their culture and daily lives.

This chapter will examine some of the functions the religious discourse has in

Acuña’s and Carvajal’s narratives in order to see how the religious discourse is connected with economic discourse. Economic profit and religious discourse were not separate in

Acuña’s narrative. The rich natural resources harvested from the Amazonian landscape could help provide sustenance and a source of income for Acuña and his Jesuit brothers in their efforts to evangelize the region, as it was the case with other Jesuits in the region of

Paraguay that Ruiz de Montoya documents. In order to see if the religious discourse was something isolated present only in the discoveries of the Amazon or not, I will analyze two

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additional texts; one contemporary with Carvajal (by a layman named Hans Staden) and the other one, contemporary with Acuña by another Jesuit, Perez de Ribas.

As I already mentioned in Chapter 1, the religious discourse permeated the text of

Gaspar de Carvajal. Father Carvajal himself, who wrote the relación was a Dominican monk, who often accompanied captains and conquerors in the New World. The friars were allowed to preach, hear confessions and grant dispensations without specific licenses from the bishop (Schwaller 61). According to Schwaller, the Dominican order, that Carvajal was a member of, just like the Franciscans, were mendicant orders. That meant (especially in the case of the Franciscans) that they took a vow of poverty and they supported their activities only through alms and gifts, including support from their Orders back in Spain.

This will be very important for understand the religiosity of Carvajal to that of Acuña since the philosophy of the religious orders they were part of was reflected in how they employ religious tropes in their narratives.

Father Carvajal used the Christian calendar to record the dates of the events that he was witnessing, for example he records such dates as: “el domingo después de la Ascensión de Nuestro Señor” (68) or “miércoles, vísperas de Corpus Cristi, siete días de junio”.

Sometimes father Carvajal also mentions the secular date, after the date from the religious calendar but many times he doesn’t, he is expecting his ideal reader to understand this common religious code.

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The whole reality of the voyage in the Amazon was understood in terms of religion.

For example, Fray Gaspar de Carvajal mentions that it was God that inspired the Captain to build the Brigantine. The Providence, God saves the crew in many instances by means of miraculous ways: “aquí se conoció muy particular y generalmente que usó nuestro Dios de su misericordia, pues sin entender ninguno como hizo la merced divina y con su inmensa bondad y providencia divina se remedió y se socorrió, de manera que el bergantín se adobó y se echó una tabla, y a este mismo tiempo huyó la gente de guerra…” (93). Father Carvajal confesses that the voyage itself was guided and brought to a safe end by Saviour jesus

Christ: “por todas estas cosas suplió nuestro maestro y redentor, Jesucristo, al cual teníamos por verdadero piloto y guía, confiando en su Sacratísima Majestad que El nos acarreara y llevara a tierra de cristianos” (96).

Landscape Is a Site of Miracles

In many narrative or exploration landscape is often described as a site of miracles, a sign that the Providence chose Spain on a missionary duty. Often, the Amazonian landscape is a site of miracles, a sign of God’s intervention. A miracle, by definition, is altering the normal way of how events or natural phenomena is expected to occur. Fray

Gaspar de Carvajal, gives as an example the time of Lent when the companions confessed their sins to him and to the other friar. For that specific event Fray Gaspar de Carvajal also preached every Sunday and on the week preceding Easter. Even more, Carvajal reminded

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Orellana and his men that they were Christians and had a duty to render service to God and the Emperor in carrying their voyage and bearing the hardships until they were to complete the trip. To this end a miracle happened during the “Semana Santa”, or holly week before

Easter, when Catholics were supposed to fast. It just happened that on those days the

Indians could not find any food for them but they found food right on time for Easter:

Una cosa nos aconteció en este pueblo no de poco espanto, y fue que el miércoles

de Tiniebla y el Jueves Santo y Viernes de la† nos hicieron los indios ayunar por

fuerza porque no nos trajeron de comer hasta el sábado víspera de Pascua, y el

Capitán les dijo que porque no nos habían traído de comer, y ellos dijeron que

porque no lo habían podido tomar; y así el sábado y domingo de Pascua, y domingo

de Quasimodo, fue tanta la comida que trajeron, que la echábamos en el

campo…(57).

Here this miracle was a renewal of their faith, that God is with them and they should still observe the Christian Holidays even though they were in an unknown territory with unsure outcome. The Amazonian landscape becomes a place for miracles especially that

God makes sure to provide the expedition with food. Often, when they were also suffering from hunger, the religious discourse returns in Carvajal’s relación. For example a dead tapir came down the river, who had been dead only for a short time. For Carvajal it was a sign that God takes care of the expedition:

Asimismo estando en esta necesidad, mostró Nuestro Señor el particular cuidado

que tenía de nosotros pecadores, pues quiso proveer en esta necesidad como todo

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lo demás que tengo dicho; y fue así, que un día sobre tarde apareció que venía por

el rio una danta muerta tamaña como una mula, y…la trujeron y se repartió por

todos los compañeros; de manera que a cada uno le cupo de comer para cinco o seis

días, que no fue poco sino mucho remedio para todos (94).

Carvajal is sure to emphasize that the tapir had been dead only for a short time and it was enough to feed the expedition for a few days.

The Amazonian landscape as a place where miracles happen is not unique only to

Carvajal. A layman, a merchant from Germany traveled to the coast of Brazil just 6 years after Carvajal concluded his voyage and was captured by an indigenous tribe, Tupinamba,

(who according to him, planned on eating him). Hans Staden finally succeeds to escape and later writes the book in German with the title: Zwei Reisen nach Brasilien 1548-1555:

(Warhaftige Historia und Beschreibung eyner Landtschafft der wilden, nacketen, grimmigen Menschfresserleuthen, in der Newenwelt America gelegen, vor und nach

Christi Geburt im Land zu Hessen unbekant, biss uff dise 2 nechst vergangene Jar, da sie

Hans Staden von Homberg auss Hessen durch sein eygne Erfarung erkant. The book was soon published in German and became a success in Europe. His narration also served as information for the exaggeration portrayal of the indigenous people of America as cannibals. Translated into English with the title Hans Staden the True History of His

Captivity (1557), it was also known as Two Voyages to Brazil. Just like Carvajal, Staden mentions miracles that happened while he lived amongst the natives. In his narrative landscape is part of the religious discourse; it is often through the elements of nature that

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miracles take place. At one point the natives ask Staden to ask his God to stop the rain so that they could catch fish and Staden conformed to their wishes:

Thus moved, I prayed to God from the depths of my heart, that he might show his

power in me and make plain to the heathen that he was with me at all the times. As

I finished my supplication the wind, blowing mightily, carried the rain towards us,

so that it was raining heavily some six feet away from us, but on the place where

we stood we felt nothing. The savage Parwaa spoke saying: “Now I see that you

have indeed prayed to your God and we caught a number of fish”. When we

returned to the huts the two men told the others what had happened when I spoke

to my God, and they were all amazed (115).

Almost as if in an episode from Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative, Staden is able to perform miracles. And just like with Carvajal, this was a sign that the Providence was with him. The case of Hans Staden is interesting because he was not a Spaniard and he was not a member of a religious order, like Carvajal was. However, Hans Staden displays a similar level of religious rhetoric in his narrative. This would point to the fact that the religion was a common thread that united several cultures in Europe but also became the reasons for conflicts when the schism between the Catholics and Protestants took place.

But the religious discourse was not something that was characteristic exclusively to the 16th century. A century later, Andres Pérez de Ribas was describing the American landscape in a different part of the American territories, in the provinces of Sinaloa. He 201

described the Jesuit missionary work in that part of Mexico in his extensive book Historia de los Triunfos de Nuestra Santa Fe entre gentes las más bárbaras y fieras del Nuevo Orbe

(1645). Writing about the climate of Sinaloa, he states: “Las lluvias son cortas, en particular por la costa, porque en ellas se contenta el cielo con enviarle tres o cuatro aguaceros al año; y en lo demás comienzan las aguas por el mes de junio, y se acaban por septiembre: disponiéndolo Dios así, para que fuesen tolerables los calores de los meses más rigurosos del año” (122). The American landscape is the way it is because of Divine intervention; it rains in those particular summer months because God made it that way.

Maureen Ahern in the article “Transformative Topographies: The Natural World in

Historia de los Triumphos de la Santa Fee by Andres Perez de Ribas, S.J. (1645)” also notices that the natural and cultural landscapes of the vast northern mountains and deserts of New Spain, as a site of wonder, an ‘enredo maravilloso de naturaleza’ in Perez’s words and as Ahern mentioned: a “marvelous puzzle of nature that his narrative would purport to decipher” (162).

Perez de Ribas also finds the explanation for other elements in the natural world as a work of the Providence. For example in the way a certain bird builds its nest he writes:

Y más cuando remata el nido en lo bajo y lo cierra, y hace tan ancho que caben en

su fondo los polluelos y la madre; ¿sobre qué estriba este pájaro para tejerlo, y

rematarlo en el aire, porque no hay allí rama sobre qué pararse, o sentarse? ¿Y quién

le dio el arte para enlazar este fondo, pendiente tan fuertemente de los hilos de unas

yerbas, que con el continuo peso de los polluelos no se desaten ni rompan? La 202

solución de este maravilloso enredo de naturaleza, la da con la obra la sabiduría de

Dios, que es su autor, y supo dar a un pajarito esta facultad y traza, para criar al

fresco sus polluelos, y defenderlos de las serpientes y culebras, que no pueden llegar

a su nido… (125)

The bird that Perez de Ribas described was an oriole (Figure 5.1.)

Figure 5.1: Altamira oriole. Credit: Greg Lasley

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The landscape becomes a place for the marvelous; God gave the bird the wisdom on how to build the nest. Margaret Ewalt claims that knowledge does not remove wonder

(admiratio), understanding through reason the causes of even the most marvelous effects in nature need not extinguish the passion of wonder. Instead, this process heightens man’s wonder at and devotion to God. The concept of wonder is similar to what I have noticed in Acuña’s narrative and the other texts I am citing in this chapter. For Acuña, Carvajal and Perez de Ribas nature is a site of wonders. Nature is God’s marvelous creation and even by just admiring and contemplating the unique nature in the New World, their faith and devotion to God become stronger. These cronistas constructed the New World landscape as a site of miracles.

Landscape becomes an even greater manifestation of God’s power and his wondrous creation when Perez de Ribas sees a tree and reads it as a metaphor for the Holy

Trinity:

…y con dificultad se puede entender, si este tronco bajó de lo alto, como algunos

piensan, y se entró en la tierra para sustentar la rama, o nació de la tierra y raíz de

la planta, y cuando ya la rama tendida pedía esa ayuda, se unió con ella; y de

cualquier manera que sea, el nacer o brotar una misma rama de dos troncos, y esos

apartados y distintos el uno del otro, bien se ve cuán singular cosa sea, y lo tenemos

muchas veces a vista (126).

According to David Yetman, quoted in Book I of Perez de Ribas, this tree could be Ficus cotinifolia or Ficus Insipida, “both of which have enormous pole-like aerial roots and

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produce edible fruits” (86). Perez de Ribas interprets this tree through his religious ideology and sees the tree as a manifestation of his Christian faith, a metaphor for the mystery of the Trinity and affirms: “Y podemos decir que quiso Dios en esto dejar en la naturaleza un rastro de cómo el Espíritu Santo emana del Padre y del Hijo, personas realmente distintas, a quien sea la alabanza de tales obras.” (126).

According to Daniel Reff, one of the researchers who translated this book into

English, in the introduction to the Perez de Ribas’ book argues that like any ethnographer,

Perez De Ribas also bore the weight of his culture during the actual writing of the Historia, when he made often unconscious decisions regarding metaphors, conventions, and other vehicles of expression and meaning (12). I observe that in the majority of cases these metaphors are pertaining to the religious discourse. This cultural framework for Perez de

Ribas and other cronistas was the Catholic religion.

In Cristobal de Acuña Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas the religious discourse is present but not to the extent of the other narratives analyzed in this

Chapter. In my analysis of two additional Jesuit narratives from the same time period of

Acuña’s, that have as primary focus the religious discourse and landscape, I found them abundant with religious language and tropes but not in Acuña’s narrative. One of the texts

I examined was written by a Franciscan monk and was titled Nuevo Descubrimiento Del

Rio De Marañón (1653) Llamado De Las Amazonas: Hecho Por La Religion De S.

Francisco, Año De 1651, Siendo Misionero El Padre Fr. Laureano De La Cruz Y El Padre

Fr. Juan De Quincoces. In Fray Laureano de la Cruz the religious discourse is present on 205

almost every page, while in Acuña appears on only a few pages. Upon further investigation

I realized Acuña was not unique in describing the amazon region in the 17th century. What was unique is that his report was published in his life time and is the most well know. Fray

Laureano de la Cruz’s narrative was forgotten in an archive and was not published until the 19th century. Acuña writes about the religious discourse in his narrative too, but it is more in connection with missions to evangelize the region. Talking about the same river

Marañon that de la Cruz’s narrative is focused on, Acuña writes:

Es este río de tal, que más de trescientas leguas de donde en cuatro grados desagua

en el principal, se recela su navegación, así por su profundidad… más con las

grandes noticias de los muchos bárbaros que sustenta, mayores dificultades allanan

los celosos de la honra de Dios y del bien de las almas, en busca de las cuales

entraron a él a los principios del año de mil y seiscientos y treinta y ocho, dos

religiosos de mi religión, por los mainas , de quienes tuve muchas cartas en que no

acaba de encarecer su grandeza y las innumerables provincias de que cada día iban

teniendo mayores noticias… (119).

As Acuña mentions, he was aware from two other Jesuits in the region that the

Amazon had a great potential for converting and evangelizing the natives. But as I mentioned often in this dissertation, Acuña’s narrative stands out for its excessive focus on the natural resources and economic potential of the Amazonian landscape, something that needs to be understood within the context discussed in Chapter 4 of this dissertation.

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The limited use of the religious discourse for Acuña can be justified by the fact that he had to follow the format of the relación, which by the end of the 16th century had 50 questions, as Mignolo mentioned. Acuña tried to be as objective as possible in order to secure the colonization of the region that Acuña so much desired. The religious rhetoric is present especially at the beginning and end of Acuña’s relación. Acuña’s emphasis on the natural riches of the region meant that if the Spanish crown would colonize the region, then he could possibly establish missions in the Amazonian region. For Acuña the religious discourse and the economic one went hand in hand. The abundance of food and other resources was a sign of God’s greatness but also that he cares about Jesuits. The natural resources were also necessary for maintaining the religious orders that the Jesuits were establishing. Unlike the Franciscan missionaries, the Jesuit Order was not a mendicant one, according to Schwaller in the History of the Catholic Church in Latin America. Individual

Jesuits could have personal wealth, although they traditionally gave it to the order. But more importantly is that the order itself could acquire property and other forms of wealth, unlike the Franciscans (69). Acuña’s narrative is one of the many that documents the Jesuit presence in many parts of Latin America in the Colonia era.

Jesuits in the New World

The Jesuit order had important contributions in Colonial Latin America and is credited with the diffusion of information, setting Universities but also missions until their

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expulsion from the Americas in the 18th century. Ledezma notes, for example the Jesuits’ contribution to many universities in South America:

Con el fin de ocuparse de estos los jesuitas fundaron en 1573, en la Ciudad de

México, el Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo. Establecieron allí la enseñanza de

las humanidades, la filosofía y la teología, siguiendo el modelo del Colegio

Romano y de las universidades de Paris, Alcalá y Salamanca. En la ciudad de

Lima, por su parte, habían creado en 1568 el Colegio Máximo de San Pablo, para

la formación de los propios jesuitas pero abierto en algunos periodos a estudiantes

seglares. El prestigio académico del Colegio San Pablo de Lima lo convirtió en

un centro cultural de importancia continental. Su biblioteca llegó a ser la más

importante de todo el virreinato peruano "con más de 25000 volúmenes en

filosofía, teología, idiomas, historia, ciencias naturales, física, matemáticas y

medicina". Debido a la creciente demanda de españoles y criollos, la Compañía

de Jesús fundó en 1582 otro colegio en Lima, el de San Martin, dedicado

exclusivamente a la enseñanza de estudiantes seglares (23).

According to Bakewell, the presence of religious orders general in the New World in the 16th century was more concentrated on the fringes of the new Spanish Empire. Even through the clerics’ main task was to evangelize the natives, since oftentimes they were the only outsiders in constant contact with the natives, they came to be seen, by others and themselves as agents of imperial power (318). In the main colonial centers priests, usually

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from Spain were in charge of parishes, however on remote area the clerics influence and authority was much greater (319).

The Franciscans were the first friars to have a significant impact in New Mexico.

The Jesuits, that Acuña himself was a member of, arrived late in the Americas, starting around the year 1570. Since by that time other friars were already in place in centralized area, the Jesuits focused their evangelizing efforts on the frontier. They were seen especially in remote areas, such as the Andes, New Granada or Paraguay (320). The Jesuit reducciones in Paraguay are the most renowned evangelizing attempts in the South

American, mainly because the high degree of organization that the Jesuit friar and priests exercised of the indigenous communities of Guarani, which they gathered in a type of missionary villages. The first ones date back to 1610 and many were built according to a grid lock set up by the colonial law for new cities. The Jesuit priests brought musical instruments from Europe and taught the natives different crafts, including printing and some of them even had hospitals where European and indigenous medicine was practice.

The Jesuit communities were autonomous, and they isolated their mission areas from secular settlements and administrative authorities to the best they could. This in the end was one of the reasons that led to their expulsion from the Americas, the fear that the Jesuits had created independent states and the government was not pleased with it.

In this particular region of present day Paraguay, the main product the Jesuit cultivated was yerba mate, the market for mate extended from Rio de Plata up to the

Andean region and with the profits made the Jesuits paid their Indian’s tributes to the 209

crown. This is very important for understanding the reasons behind Acuña focus on the economic potential of the amazon region. I argue that Acuña must have known of the

Paraguay missions since they were taking place when Acuña was in the New World.

Besides, as Harris mentions, the Jesuit communities were well connected within themselves. The Jesuits, by their 4th vow were expected to travel and preach at short notices and assignments took Jesuits back and forth across binderies in different communities

(224). This made it very likely that Acuña had knowledge of the reducciones in Paraguay and seeing the great potentiality of the Amazon he might have wanted to establish additional missions in the region. That’s why he mentions that there are thousands of

“bárbaros” waiting to be evangelized and at the end of the narrative he writes: “podrá parecer grande en los ojos de su majestad, a cuyos pies y a los de vuestra excelencia ofrezco para esta conquista mi persona y las de otros muchos de mi religión, si de nosotros se quisiere servir vuestra excelencia, cuya vida prospere el cielo con los aumentos que su persona celo y fidelidad merecen (53).

The religious discourse is very subtle, Acuña is very diplomatic in his approach.

At the conclusion of his dedication for Conde Duque de Olivares, Acuña states that the nations along the immense river of the Amazon could make a new and powerful empire under the shadow, rule of the Count Duke. Acuña offers his personal conquest and that of many others of his religious order. By “otros muchos de mi religion” he is referring to other members of the Company of Jesus. This shows one of the motifs behind Acuña’s emphasis on the natural resources in his narrative. The Spanish Crown would have a new empire but

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Acuña and other Jesuit members would help the conquest, mostly likely the “spiritual” conquest. Since many Jesuit missions were autonomous and self-sustaining, it is possible that the many resources Acuña was mentioning in his relación could also serve to fund and support Jesuit missions in the Amazon. At first, Acuna’s motif for the potentiality of the

Amazonian landscape is not very clear, but through the context of the Jesuit missions at the periphery of South America, becomes clear.

Acuña needed to crowns protection, if he and other members of his Jesuit order were to have successful missions in the Amazon. Other missions in the not far land from the Amazon of Paraguay came under constant attacks from Portuguese bandeirantes looking for Indian slaves. Since the population in the Guarani reducciones reached at one point 141,000, the Indians it houses provided a precious commodity for the capitalistic enterprises in the region: free labor in the form of slaves (Bakewell 321).

Jesuit missionaries who were in these reduccioned were asking the Spanish King for help. For example Ruiz de Montoya traveled to Spain to request the King that he allowed the Indians in the reduccioned to be armed and be able to protect themselves from the Portuguese attacks. The report he wrote to the King was published with the title

Conquista espiritual hecha por los religiosos de la Compañía de Jesús en las provincias del Paraguay, Paraná, Uruguay y Tape, escrita por el p. Antonio Ruiz de Montoya and was published in 1639, at the time when Acuña was in his voyage down the Amazon river.

In this fragment (Figure 5.2), Montoya implores the king to help him and the people of his mission: 211

De las villas de San Pablo, Santos, San Vicente, y otras villas, que se han forjado de gente, cuyas acciones obligaron a huir de la luz de la justicia, me han obligado a dejar aquel desierto, y soledad, y acudir a la Real Corte, y pies de su Majestad, caminando a pie de dos mil leguas, con el peligro, y riesgo al mar, ríos, y enemigos que es notorio, a pedir instantemente el remedio de tantos males que amenazan muy grandes estorbos de su Real servicio, y dijera mejor, daños y peligros de perderse la mejor joya de su Corona Real.

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Figure 5.2: A Fragment of Ruiz de Montoya’s Conquista Espiritual

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This paragraph is a testament, of the struggle of these early Jesuits for securing the control of the territories they were evangelizing in the New World. While no colonized situation is ideal, the Jesuits did at least try to find a safe haven for the indigenous populations. Other options would have been, as this episode shows, having to serve as slaves for outlaws without receiving the level of care they did from the Jesuits. The style in this paragraph is eloquent and Montoya asks, just like Acuña, indirectly for help from the Spanish Crown. If Acuña wanted the crown to secure the Amazonian lands, Montoya asks indirectly for help against those who fled from the light of the justice (Bandeirantes).

Just like in Acuña’s case, when the Jesuits have to ask for help from the Crown, the religious discourse is not present as much as in those narratives that mainly narrate certain accomplishments of the friars or their missions, as it was the case with the other Jesuit narrative by Perez de Ribas. Rather, both Acuña and Montoya are more reserved, more objectives in their description and writing style they are using.

As a result of Montoya’s plea with the Spanish Crown and Council of the Indies he was able to arm his Indians. In 1641 a force of about 4,000 Guarani under the command of the governor of Paraguay beat the Portuguese bandeirantes into retreat and not only did they defend the Jesuit reducciones, but also secured blocking the Portuguese advance into

Spanish territory (Bakewell 321). In this sense, argues Bakewell, the Jesuit missions acted as a way of stabilizing the empire’s frontiers. However, the good relations between the administration and the Jesuits did not last long. In America, the Society’s efforts and achievements at a time of strong political centralization were regarded with suspicion and

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even subversion. The increasing control that the Jesuits were able to secure in large areas, especially in Eastern Paraguay made them the suspects of creating an independent state, within a state, and that eventually led to their expulsion from America in the 18th century

(Bakewell 371).

As this chapter mentioned, the religious discourse is present in many reports and narrative from the 16th and 17th centuries. The American landscape is a manifestation of

God’s greatness, these writers marveled at the unique nature in the New World.

But the American landscape is also populated with native people that needed to be saved and converted to Christianity. Acuña sees the potential of the Amazonian landscape in both economic terms that would help the Spanish Crown with material riches but also as a source for evangelizing the native populations.

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Conclusion

In my dissertation I claimed that Cristobal de Acuña’s text is a foundational narrative that establishes the Amazon region as a source of never ending riches, ready for the exploitation of its valuable natural resources and colonization. I demonstrated how

Acuña, at the time when the main economic system in Europe was mercantilism and Spain was experiencing an economic recession, Acuña proposed a “state-guided” capitalist solution for obtaining profit: harvesting and manufacturing the natural resources found in the Amazon region under the guidance of the Spanish Crown.

In Chapter 1 reviewed some of the socio-historical context for Acuña’s voyage. I claimed that other narratives of discovery and exploration of the American territory established the American landscape as full of gold and material riches. I also analyzed some early depictions of the American continent, such as drawings in some early maps and argued that America was represented as a wild, untamed landscape but also full of gold and riches, an image that started to be solidified in the European imaginary. Acuña’s voyage in the Amazon was preceded by other expeditions in search of the mythical El

Dorado.

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In Chapter 2, I analyzed the report (relación) written by Father Gaspar de Carvajal

Father documenting Orellana’s discovery of the Amazon River (1541). I claimed in this first narrative of the discovery of the Amazon, the landscape was constructed as a cultural process populated by stories of gold and mythical Greek warrior women, the Amazons. I stated that later expeditions in the Amazon, such as Sir Walter Raleigh’s Discovery of

Guayana 1596 continued these fabulous representations of the Amazonian landscape.

However, I claimed that even though Carvajal and Acuña traversed the same physical geographical landscape, its representations are different in their narratives. I showed that elementst Carvajal focuses on in his narrative such as hunger, gold, the Amazon women and El Dorado are absent or barely mentioned in Acuña’s narrative. This could imply that almost a century later Acuña had a pre-Enlightenment mentality, emphasizing reason and empirical observation of the Amazonian landscape.

Chapter 3 provided a brief overview of the complex economic processes taking place in Europe and the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries, discussing the monetary system in Spain in the 16th century. In particular I focused on the main sources of income for the Spanish Crown and the role played by the imports of gold and silver from the

American continent and how they were driving the economy in Spain for a while. I also analyzed the factors that contributed to the economic crisis in the Spanish Empire in the

17th century provided a description of early capitalistic institutions such as trade Charter companies set up by Spain’s rivals, England and the Netherlands and the impact they had on the economy of those countries. I claimed that Acuña did not adhere to mercantilism

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as a sustainable source of generating income for the Spanish Crown. I discussed some economic theory that explained what kind of capitalism Acuña advocated for taking advantage of the wealth of natural resources from Amazonia for producing a profit.

In Chapter 4, linking it with Chapter 3, I demonstrated that Acuña did not follow the pre-established capitalist logic of mercantilism, but rather, as an innovative entrepreneurial capitalist he was able to foresee that lasting profit from the New World resided not as much in the gold and silver that had limited quantities but in the exploitation of the natural resources from the Amazonian landscape “on site”. I proved how Acuña was worried about production costs and advocated that boats could be built on the banks of the

Amazon River from the numerous exotic trees by using the supply of the labor force provided by indigenous populations.

Chapter 5 demonstrated that Acuña’s religious formation and he being part of the

Jesuit order did not have an opposing view to Acuña’s emphasis on the “material riches” of the Amazon. Economic profit and religious discourse were not separate in Acuña’s narrative. The Amazonian landscape was represented as a site of miracles and also as a sign that the Providence chose Spain on a missionary duty.

The rich natural resources harvested from the Amazonian landscape could help provide sustenance and a source of income for Acuña and his Jesuit brothers in their efforts to evangelize the region.

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My projects dissertation contributes to the Latin American field of studies in several ways. First I analyzed a text that even though was popular at the time it was published, judging by the number of translations over the years, has received little attention by modern scholars. It is my hope that Cristobal de Acuña’s narrative will generate future studies and is added to the wealth of texts already studied from the Latin American Colonial field.

Analyzing Acuña’s narrative through the discourses or landscape and economy, as I did in my dissertation, offers new perspectives for understanding and interpreting the exploration and colonization of the Amazonian region. My study is important also given the recent focuses on Amazonia, brought by ecological and exploitation issues that questions relationships between landscapes.

According to Ana Pizarro in “Imaginario y Discurso: La Amazonia” (2005) certain areas of literary and Latin American Studies have received more attention than other, with the Amazonian cultural space being largely ignored. However, paradoxically, the

Amazonian landscape is at the fore front of discussions brought especially by the capitalist exploitation of the natural resources and destruction of the Amazonian landscape. This exploitation of Amazonian for monetary gains also focused the attention on the relationship between humans and their environment and exposed the capitalistic enterprise and lack of modern control of regulations for preserving the Amazonian landscape. Several cultural productions, including a series of documentaries about the amazon called Amazonia la

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Ultima llamada by Dominguez brought into question the modern relationships between globalized economy, the Amazonian landscape and its people.

Considering how relevant this topic is for our present time, I would like to continue the process of exploring the relationships between humans, the Amazonian landscape and economy in future studies. One line of investigation would be to analyze other early narratives of the Amazon exploration from the 16th and 17th centuries, looking at narratives from other languages and examine if similar capitalistic ideas about the exploitation of the

Amazonian landscape were present.

The other possibility for a future project is to look at how notions of landscape and economy have changed overtime in the Amazon region, working with later texts in

Amazonia, such as Gumilla’s El Orinoco ilustrado in the 18th century and seeing what role did Amazonia and its economy play in the nation building states of that time. I would also like to examine representations in literature and other cultural productions of how the economic potential of the Amazon region has changed overtime, especially in the 19th and

20th centuries. For example the novel La voragine ( The Vortex) by Rivera and Forlandia by Sguiglia deal with the decadence associated with failed projects of exploitation of natural resources from the Amazon.

I would also be interested in exploring how similar exploitation projects are represented in other cultural productions, such as film, music and social media. How are issues such as medicinal driven explorations into the Amazon, “bio-piracy”, modern day

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deforestation and “environmentally conscious” harvest of exotic fruits from the Amazon questioned and interpreted in our lives?

Amazonia yields great potential not only in terms of its natural resources, as early cronistas such as Acuña claimed, but also from a scholarly perspective, of exploring the rich cultural and literary productions in this unique region of South America.

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