BIBLIOGRAPHY.

[1]This part has been translated into English by Buckingham Smith, and published in Washington in 1851.

TheVoyageof Ulrich Schmidt, and theCommentariesof Alvar Nuñez, are, as it were, the flint and steel which, when struck together, produce light.

The work of Schmidt, which in nearly all its details is in manifest contradiction to that of Alvar Nuñez, was published twelve years after theCommentaries, and was apparently written expressly to refute them, taking up the defence of Domingo de Irala, who is the principal figure of the picture, and whose seditious and immoral conduct had been denounced by Alvar Nuñez. The Hakluyt Society, in bringing together these two contemporary records of the Spanish conquest, leaves the reader to pass his own judgment on the issues raised.

This Society had published in 1874 another narrative, similar to that of Ulrich Schmidt, relating to the same historical period, the voyage of Hans Stade, also a German adventurer, who visited the southern coast of Brazil shortly after the sedition against Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in Paraguai. Though edited with notes and explanations by the gallant Captain, afterwards Sir Richard Burton,[2]these have not thrown the necessary light to show the motive of Stade’s voyage, nor other circumstances essential to form a clear and precise idea how this other German adventurer is entitled to a place in the history of the Province of the Rio de la Plata as well as in that of the conquest of Brazil.

[2]Sir Richard Burton died in Trieste on the 20th October last, while holding the office of H.B.M. Consul.

When Alvar Nuñez returned a prisoner to Spain, the king appointed another Adelantado to replace him and continue the Spanish colonisation from which he had been so violently severed. This new governor of the Rio de la Plata was Don Juan de Sanabria, who died before starting on the voyage, and only after many difficulties his son, Don Diego, sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda in 1549 with three ships. In one of these Hans Stade embarked, on conditions identical with those under which Ulrich Schmidt had gone to America with Don Pedro de Mendoza. The armada of Sanabria was dispersed on the voyage; its chief arrived at the Antilles, and only two of the ships reached their destination.

Sanabria, just like Alvar Nuñez, bore the king’s orders to establish himself in the ports of the Atlantic coast, in proximity with the Portuguese colony of San Vicente, to take possession of the island of Santa Catalina, to found in its neighbourhood a colony on the border of the sea, in order to penetrate thence by land, crossing the whole province of Guaira, or Paraná, till he arrived at Paraguai.

The enterprise of Sanabria was, however, very unfortunate. The colonists, when their resources failed them, divided. A considerable number took refuge in the colony of San Vicente, impelled by necessity, and seduced by the Portuguese governor, Thomé de Souza. Hans Stade went with these, and as he understood something of gunnery, abandoned the Spaniards, and entered the Portuguese service as an artilleryman, when his chiefs and companions returned to Spanish territory and founded the colony of San Francisco, in 26° 20′ of south latitude.

The first seventeen chapters of Stade’s book refer to his stay in the province of Sanabria; the remainder to the time he passed in San Vicente, and his captivity among the Tupis who inhabited the surrounding country.

These three books are, as it were, fragments of the history of the first few years of the conquest of one part of South America. The series, arranged chronologically, is asfollows:—

The special merit of these three works is that their authors were eye-witnesses and actors in the events they narrate.

It has seemed to me interesting and necessary to add to this volume an ethnographical map, which shows what were the indigenous tribes which occupied the country described by Schmidt, and the places in which the Guaraní family lived in that part of the province of Rio de la Plata, colonised in those days by the Spaniards. This map also shows, for the first time in the history of cartography, the demarcation of this same province entrusted by the King of Spain to his Adelantados, or governors, and the route opened by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca on his journey from the island of Santa Catalina to Asuncion, on the Paraguai.

The name of Rio de la Plata, given by the King of Spain to a territory so vast, and differing so widely now from what it was at the time of the conquest, creates some confusion and uncertainty in the mind of the reader of the events of that period. This can only be removed by a map which shows clearly what territories were held by the Spanishand Portuguese by virtue of the treaty of Tordesillas. Those who are cognisant of it are but few in number. When speaking or writing of the conquest of America, it is generally believed that the only title upon which were based the conquests of Spain and Portugal was the famous Papal Bull of partition of the Ocean, of 1493. Few modern authors take into consideration that this Bull was amended, upon the petition of the King of Portugal, by the above-mentioned treaty, signed by both Powers in 1494, augmenting the portion assigned to the Portuguese in the partition made between them of the continent of America. The arc of meridian fixed by this treaty as a dividing line, which gave rise, owing to the ignorance of that age, to so many diplomatic congresses and interminable controversies, may now be traced by any student of elementary mathematics. This line is shown on the accompanying map, and runs along the meridian of 47° 32′ 56″ west of Greenwich. The coast of the South American continent between the equator and the vicinity of the Tropic of Capricorn describes a great curve, closed on the west by the aforesaid dividing line, which enters the sea a little south of San Vicente, or Santos. West of this line were the Spanish possessions. A clear understanding on this point removes the confusion occurring at the present day, when the situation of affairs has undergone so marked a change, and explains how it is that Don Pedro de Mendoza, Alvar Nuñez, and Hans Stade remainedat points of the coast called of Brazil, mentioned by those travellers; and how Alvar Nuñez, without leaving the province under his jurisdiction and command, marched through Spanish territory, from Santa Catalina, across the whole of Guaira, or province of Paraná, to Asuncion on the Paraguai. The name “Brazil”, or “tierra del Brasil”, at that time referred only to the part of the continent producing the dyewood so-called. Nearly two centuries later the Portuguese advanced towards the south, and the name “Brazil” then covered the new possessions they were acquiring, thus introducing the confusion to which I have referred.

The Voyage of Schmidtwent through several editions, all incorrect, and rendered more so by the so-called elucidations and notes by their early editors. It was translated and published in Latin, English, Spanish, and other languages. These translations, however, were not made directly from the German, in which it was written, and thus the inaccuracies contained in the original were increased as they were turned into other idioms by persons who had no knowledge of the history, nor the slightest notion of the language spoken by the natives of America.

The first translation was done into Latin by Professor Gotard Arthus, for Theodore de Bry’sCollection of Voyages, 1597; and when Levinus Hulsius prepared his collection, in 1599, he found so many defects in it, that, instead of adopting it,he preferred translating it afresh. This version, in which there are many alterations and suppressions of the original text, must in justice be described as not less defective than the preceding one, without, however, being quite so bad. The Latin version of Hulsius served for the subsequent translations into modern languages—for instance, for that inserted by Purchas in hisPilgrims.

From the same collection of Hulsius the work of Schmidt was translated from Latin into Spanish by Dr. Andreas Gonzalez de Barcia, and published with his insignificant and incorrect notes in Madrid, 1737, in hisColeccion de Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales. This is the version reproduced at Buenos Ayres a century later by Don Pedro de Angelis, compiler and editor of the manuscripts of the Argentine canon, Don Saturnino Segurola.

The translation now published by the Hakluyt Society, done directly from the original German, has the merit of presenting the work genuine and entire as it left the author’s hands. And as he was led into many errors of fact, proper names, geography, and chronology, the Society has done me the honour to ask me to explain them by notes and this brief Introduction.

The expedition of Don Pedro de Mendoza to the Rio de la Plata, and all the events referred to by Ulrich Schmidt, belong to the epoch of Charles V, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain. Although he was the son of a Spanish prince, this monarchwas born at Ghent, and had been educated by Flemings. His ministers, his counsellors, the bankers who supplied him with the funds for his wars, were Flemings. Great was the favour enjoyed in Spain and Portugal by those very wealthy bankers and merchants, Fugger and Welzer of Augsburg, and Erasmus Schetzen of Antwerp. The first two had opened branches of their business at Seville, the centre at that time of trade with America, and the third had done the same at Lisbon, the metropolis of the Portuguese colonies in the Indies. The house of Erasmus Schetzen, as Hans Stade tells us, had sugar factories in the recently colonised captaincy of San Vicente, since converted into the province of San Pablo. One of his agents, Peter Rosel, had established himself there, and had acquired, in the name of Erasmus, the great factory established by the grantee, Captain-Major Martin Affonso de Souza, together with other partners.[3]Charles V had made a gift of the whole province of Caracas to the bankers Welzer, and the affairs of the Fuggers were so vast that the family name was adopted into the Castilian vernacular asfucar, explained by the dictionary of the language to signify a person of great wealth.

[3]Fray Gaspar da Madre de Deos,Memorias para a historia da Capitania de S. Vicente, 1797.

Charles V had inaugurated his reign by showing his partiality for the Flemings, by whom he was surrounded, bestowing on the Baron de la Bresa, his counsellor and majordomo mayor, the first contractfor the exclusive privilege of introducing negro slaves into the West Indies, against the advice of his Spanish counsellors, who rejected the project of the famous protector of the Indians, Bartholomé de las Casas.[4]These favours shown to the Flemings gave rise to that picturesque phrase of Pedro Martyr de Anghiera, that the Flemings had gone with Charles V to Spain to destroy the vine after having gathered the vintage.[5]

[4]Antonio de Herrera,Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos, etc., Década 2, Libro 2, cap. 20; Quintana,Vida de las Casas.[5]P. Martyr,Opus Epistolarum, carta 703.

[4]Antonio de Herrera,Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos, etc., Década 2, Libro 2, cap. 20; Quintana,Vida de las Casas.

[5]P. Martyr,Opus Epistolarum, carta 703.

This explains how the Spanish Government, exclusive and jealous of all foreign interference in its affairs in the Indies, allowed Germans and Flemings, with their vessels, their merchandise, and their men, to take part in such considerable numbers in the expedition of Don Pedro de Mendoza. The Flemings were at that time as much Charles’s subjects as the Spaniards, and the owners of the ships in which Schmidt and his countrymen sailed, were bankers—allies and favouritesof the young Emperor.

It appears that Schmidt was not enlisted among the soldiers of Mendoza, but came as anemployéof the house of Welzer and Niedhart, who owned the vessel which took him. Its factor was the Fleming Heinrich Paine, and it was manned by eighty Germans. The cargo was destined to exchange for the silver which Sebastian Cabot, after his recentvoyage of discovery, had made it believed in Spain, abounded among the Indians he had encountered on the Paraguai. The Rio de Solis then took the name of Rio de la Plata, and it was this magic word that raised the desires of so many in Spain to take part in the expedition of Don Pedro de Mendoza, that it was necessary to close the lists of applicants and hasten the departure of the armada, in order to calm the fever of emigration which prevailed on this occasion among persons desirous of making their fortunes rapidly. This expedition, as the historian Fernandez de Oviedo, who saw it sail from Seville, expressed it, “was a company fit to make a goodly show in Cæsar’s army and in any part of the world.”

Don Pedro de Mendoza began by establishing himself in the port of Los Patos, at the southern extremity of the island of Santa Catalina, which was included in his jurisdiction, as may be seen on the accompanying map. He then passed to the Rio de la Plata, and, on the 11th June 1535, laid the foundations of the city of Santa Maria de Buenos Aires. Soon afterwards he nominated as his second in command his intimate friend, Juan de Ayolas, and sent him with a detachment to explore the Rio Paraná, and open a road by means of this river to the Pacific Ocean, which was the advance or front limit of his province.

The brigantines, or little feluccas in which the explorer Ayolas set forth, were under the orders of the Biscayan, Domingo Martinez de Irala, and in hiscompany went Schmidt, but it is unknown in what character. In his book he acquaints us with the events that happened to that expedition, and all those in which he took part, almost always in the company of his captain, Irala, with whose fortunes he linked his own from the beginning. Our only authority for this statement is the adventurer himself who has given his name to the book. I know of no document mentioning Schmidt, nor is he noticed by the chronicler Francisco Lopez de Gomara, by his successor, Antonio de Herrera, in his history of the Indies, or by Ruy Diaz de Guzman, himself born on the Paraguai, a grandson of Domingo Martinez de Irala, or, finally, by Alvar Nuñez in hisCommentaries.

Schmidt relates that he was present at the foundation of Buenos Aires and its desertion six years afterwards, by order of Irala, who possessed himself of the command after the deaths of Don Pedro de Mendoza and his lieutenant Ayolas. Schmidt was also present at the events which took place during the governorship of the second Adelantado, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, from 1541 to 1544. He assisted at his violent overthrow and deportation under the direction of Irala, made all the journeys of exploration which, starting from Asuncion, ascended the Rio Paraguai to Matto Grosso, and explored all the country of the Cheriguanos, now known by the name of Moxos and Chiquitos, to the confines of Peru. He remained with Irala till the arrival on the Atlantic coast of the expedition of theAdelantado Sanabria, with whom Hans Stade sailed to America.

At the end of twenty years of travels and strange adventures, of combats with Indians, of anarchy, poverty, and disorder among the conquerors of Paraguai, when Domingo de Irala, by force of audacity and machiavelism, had definitely possessed himself of the government of this unfortunate colony, obtaining, a short while afterwards, the royal title of Governor, his faithful and inseparable companion Schmidt received a letter from the banker Niedhart, transmitted to him from Seville by the agent there of the wealthy Fugger, in which he begged him to return to Antwerp. Schmidt obtained leave of absence from his chief, set out on his journey, with six deserters and twenty of his Indian slaves, by the rivers Paraguai and Paraná to the river Iguazú, and thence crossed the province of Guaira by the route opened by Alvar Nuñez, arriving at the Portuguese colony of San Vicente. Here he met with the agent of Erasmus Schetzen, who gave him a passage to Lisbon in a vessel belonging to his principal, which was laden with a cargo of sugar and brazil wood. Schmidt landed at Antwerp on the 25th January 1554, as I have already said.

Hans Stade was a prisoner of the Tapiis, or Tupis, in the immediate vicinity of San Vicente, when Schmidt passed that way on his homeward journey, and only succeeded in obtaining his liberty one year later, embarking at Rio de Janeiro on one of theFrench ships which trafficked with the Indians occupying that magnificent bay. His adventures during his captivity were published at Marburg in 1557. It is very strange, therefore, that Schmidt should not make the slightest mention of his countryman, though he also was acquainted with Peter Rosel, agent of Erasmus Schetzen, in the Portuguese colony. It would seem most natural that they should have spoken on the misfortunes that had befallen Stade, and on the various fruitless efforts made to rescue him from captivity, and as to the means to be employed in order to restore him to his country. Not a word of all this do we find in Schmidt’s narrative.

The voyage of Ulrich Schmidt to the Rio de la Plata was published, as we have seen, at Frankfort-on-Maine in 1567, in the collection of Sebastian Franck, wherein also appeared for the second time that of Stade, side by side with his countryman Schmidt’s. This proves the interest taken in these narratives of travel in those days of theological controversies and religious wars, when the French Protestants were trying to set foot in Brazil, while Villegaignon, under the protection of Coligny, was taking possession of the port of Rio de Janeiro, one year after the abdication of Charles V and the accession to the throne of the sombre Philip II, whose tyranny became very soon insupportable in the Low Countries, which fell under his dominion by inheritance from his father.

The publication of these travels answered to the propaganda against Spain and the religious principles her soldiers were taking to the New World. The work of Stade had been written by Dr. Johann Dryandri, Professor of the University of Marburg, the centre of the ideas of Luther. That of Schmidt was adopted and published by his countryman, Sebastian Franck, who was a vehement Anabaptist, and by the Flemings de Bry and his friend Hulsius, one of the most active advocates of Church Reform, expelled from Ghent, his native place, by decree of the King of Spain during the most critical period of the struggle maintained by the Flemings for their national independence and their religious beliefs.[6]

[6]J. Asher,Bibliographical Essay on the Collection of Voyages and Travels edited and printed by Levinus Hulsius.

In those times there existed no periodical press or newspaper. The Spanish Government did not expose to the criticism of the world its colonial policy; silence was its inviolable rule. Availing himself of the right of his own defence, the Adelantado, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, deposed and accused by Irala and his party, had published, as we have seen, the narrative of his Government of the Rio de la Plata. Immediately afterwards there appeared in Germany the book of Ulrich Schmidt, containing the charges against Alvar Nuñez and the defence of the conduct of his enemy. These conquerors of Paraguai accused one another of disgraceful immorality and incapacity for the enterprizeentrusted to them by the King. Ambition, as we gather from these books, overcame in them all feelings of honour and duty; and violence, sedition, perfidy, and bloodshed, were the means by which they sought to attain their ends.

The publication of these recriminations in Protestant Europe, which looked on with fear at the growth of the power of Spain by her conquests in the Indies, was a natural incentive to those who groaned under her yoke. Having no periodical press, they availed themselves of the narratives of voyages, which were awakening curiosity with respect to countries that had fallen under her dominion. Everything for them was new and wonderful. The unknown races, their primitive customs, their savage life, their nakedness, their arms and food, the virgin nature and splendid vegetation of the tropics, the fruits and new animals, the game and fish, differing from those in the old world, all excited the imagination, and, at the same time, opened a vast field for censure, and for inciting the multitude against the enemy who was taking possession with such admirable ease of the new lands which raised the enthusiasm of the first discoverer to such a pitch that he believed they had contained the earthly Paradise.

How could they help devouring with avidity “the veritable historie and description of a country belonging to the wild, naked, savage, man-eating people”, narrated by Hans Stade, who had been their captive? How could they fail to be interested in“the true and agreeable description of some Indian lands and islands which have not been recorded in former chronicles”, by one who, like Schmidt, had first explored them “amid great danger”?

It seems to me impossible that in the class of people to which Schmidt and Stade belonged, there should have been found men capable of writing narratives, though of scant literary merit. The art of writing was very uncommon in the middle of the sixteenth century. We know by whom Stade’s work was prepared; but we have not the same information with regard to that of Schmidt, though there can be no doubt that both were written, not by those who appear as their authors, but by more learned persons, enemies to the Spanish Government,[7]upon data recorded, badly or well, by the adventurers themselves, and from what they heard from their travelling companions.

[7]Navarrete,Coleccion de los Viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del Siglo XV. Introduccion; Ilustracion 9.

The memory cannot retain for a long time names, and especially foreign names, and details of events happening in the midst of grave anxieties and dangers. For this reason Schmidt and Stade, who could not have taken notes at the time, ran into such great errors, that it is impossible to correct them with accuracy. The Castilian language is difficult to pronounce for men of Northern Europe, and much more is this the case with the Guaraní, which abounds with vowels and inarticulate sounds,with an accent at times guttural, at others nasal, or both combined. The Spanish Jesuit missionaries found themselves obliged to invent signs to represent these sounds. Nevertheless, there are words which, although pronounced in accordance with these signs, are now unintelligible to the natives.

It seems to me beyond all doubt that Guaraní was the general language of the whole of America to the east of the Cordillera of the Andes, from the sea of the Antilles to the extreme south of the continent. There were various dialects, as might be expected in a language without a literature, spoken by tribes living apart and hostile to one another. Traces of it occur north of the Amazon, as well as in the pampas of Argentina, and especially in Paraguai and in Guaira, the chief centre of the race in the days of the Spanish conquest. In Paraguai and its immediate vicinity the tongue spoken is nearly as pure as in the time of the Spanish missionaries Anchieta and Ruiz de Montoya, who wrote the vocabulary, and tried to adapt the language to grammatical principles and rules.

In the numerous notes I have placed at the foot of the pages, I have corrected the errors of Guaraní nomenclature committed by Schmidt, whenever they bear some resemblance to the true names of tribes and places referred to. Some errors were noticed by L. Hulsius (or Hulse) in 1599, who indicated those of well-known places and names, which in the first German edition appeared disfigured. For instance,“Demerieffe” for “Tenerife”, and “Petrus Manchossa” for “Don Pedro de Mendoza”. But neither Hulsius nor the other editors could correct them accurately, because they did not know a single word of the language of the natives, nor of that of their Spanish conquerors. These errors are still greater in the Latin version from which the Spanish and other translations were made.

The errors of Schmidt went so far in names of persons that he did not write correctly those of his chiefs, not even that of Domingo Martinez de Irala, under whose immediate orders he served for twenty years. Schmidt repeatedly insists on naming him Martino Domingo de Eyollas. Another of his chiefs was Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, whom he always names Abernunzo Cabessa de Bacha. The most curious thing is, that the editors who attempted to correct these errors, were not free from similar faults; even M. Camus,[8]who, in correcting that of Cabeza de Vaca, rendered it by Alvare Nugnez Cabera di Vacha; and M. Ternaux Compans, who supposed the settlement named “Duechkamin” by Schmidt, to be Tucuman,[9]because he did not know that neither the city nor the province of this name were founded at the moment to which he is referring.

[8]Mémoire sur la Collection des Grands et Petits Voyages, par A. G. Camus, 1802.[9]Voyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique, etc., vol. v.

[8]Mémoire sur la Collection des Grands et Petits Voyages, par A. G. Camus, 1802.

[9]Voyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique, etc., vol. v.

I believe that in my notes I have removed allthese blunders, leaving some of them as they are, because they are incomprehensible and have no importance for history or geography.

In all this, and in chronology, the work of Schmidt is extremely defective, so much so, that I am unable to understand how the Spanish geographer Azara, recommending the merits of this adventurer, should have affirmed the following enormity in hisVoyages dans l’Amérique Méridionale:—“Je fais grand cas de ce petit ouvrage, à cause de son impartialité et de l’exactitude des distances et des situations, choses en quoi personne ne l’égale.”[10]I do not accept this judgment, and in my notes and observations the reader will see if I have good reason for differing from Azara, whose merits I recognise, as I also know his grave faults.

[10]Voyages dans l’Amérique Méridionale, par Don Felix Azara; Paris, 1809; Introduction, p. 20.

Azara is one of the few who deny that the country was inhabited by a multitude of various nations, as many writers have asserted, and nevertheless enumerates and describes no less than thirty-two nations and more than fifty tribes. I maintain there was only one nation, the Guaraní; and in the province of La Plata, described by Alvar Nuñez and by Schmidt, the Guaranís were divided into twenty-one tribes, who differed only in their habits, or their arms, or in the nature of the country inhabited by them. These are the tribes entered on my ethnographical map. The others, mentioned by the writers in question, would be merely unimportantgroups, designated by the name of their chief, or by some nickname applied to them by their neighbours or enemies. The tribes I record are the following: Quîrandís, Chanás, Charuas, Yarós, Arechanés, Minhuános, Timbús, Tobas, Mocobís or Mbocoys, Abipones, Agaces, Mepenes, Mbaiás, Payaguás, Guaicurús, Cheriguanos, Xarayos, Itatines, Guatós, Cariyós, Tapiis; all these are Guaranís. I do not treat of the other principal tribes, situated in the interior of the country between Paraná and the Andes, because they do not concern the narratives of Schmidt and Alvar Nuñez.

To the errors of Schmidt in nomenclature and distances must be added others of fact, doubtless more important. These also are rectified in the notes, which the reader will find in the corresponding place. In these, however, I have not touched on the subject of cannibalism attributed to the natives, because this deserves separate treatment here.

I believe there is not a single author of history and travel, at the time of the conquest of America, who has not admitted the assertion, and repeated it, that the natives wereanthropophagi. Even the namecannibalswas invented in the early years of the conquest. When Christopher Columbus established himself in Hayti, he asked the feeble, unarmed, and hospitable Indians he found there, for some information concerning other islands and their inhabitants, and they informed him that further onthere were perverse men who made war upon them to rob and enslave them. These Indians of Hayti gave the name ofCaribandCanibato the islands inhabited by their enemies, calledCaribes.

Columbus says, in the unique autograph document that is known concerning his first voyage of discovery,[11]that these Indians are held in all the islands to be very fierce, and that they eatlive flesh(carne viva). He considers them, however, on the whole, equal to the others. This is the first origin of the tale of cannibalism, for the letter of Columbus, in which this statement is made, was immediately translated into Latin and published at Rome, and in this translation the Spanish words,comer carne viva, were interpreted by the Latin phrase,carne humana vescuntur. Long afterwards (from 1527 to 1559) the celebrated Bartholomé de las Casas wrote hisHistoria de las Indias, in which he gave an abstract of the journal of Columbus’ first voyage. In his summary, Las Casas relates what Columbus says, amplifying, correcting, or abridging, as he found convenient; and there the great discoverer appears repeatedly speaking of Indians who ate human flesh.

[11]Letter of the Admiral Christopher Columbus to Luis de Santángel, Contador Mayor de los Reyes Catholicos. (NavarreteColeccion de Viages, tomo i, p. 167.) An identical letter was addressed by Columbus to the Contador Rafael Sanchez.

This alteration of the text of the letter of Columbus was repeated by the conquistadores and missionaries to justify the enslaving of the Indiansand the horrible cruelty with which they were treated, commending in this way their perils and their labours in the military and spiritual conquest.

Cannibalism, under its name ofAnthropophagy, originated with the fable of Polyphemus, and I am convinced that it is a calumny spread abroad from the time of Saint Jerome, when this brutality was attributed to the Scotch, down to the present day, when it is asserted that there are cannibals in Oceania and Africa.

I do not say this in defence of the Indians, but for the honour of human nature, not so bad as the creative genius of poets and authors of fiction have supposed it to be. That barbarous Indians are treacherous; that when they slay their enemies they will tear them to pieces and burn them, is beyond dispute. But that they will eat their flesh is a slander and a despicable falsehood founded on interested motives. I have yet to find the man who will tell me in good faith he has seen the Indians eat human flesh. Schmidt does not say it, nor does Alvar Nuñez, nor any other of the historians of America, though all repeat the tale; and there are some who, even at the present day, believe that the Fuegians, those unhappy savages of the extreme south of the continent, are cannibals.

In my new historical work, shortly to be given to the press, I shall treat of this interesting subject more at large; for the present I limit myself to the denial of a deed which I could only credit were I to see it with my own eyes.

These tales of cannibals and of Amazons, of giants and of pygmies, met with by certain travellers in unknown countries, are the brilliant spangles wherewith to dazzle the eyes of the vulgar anxious for marvels, and disposed to believe that in other parts there are men with tails, and women warriors who live without men, and monsters which have only existed in mythology and in fable.

I hope the readers of this Introduction, and of the notes, will be indulgent with respect to style, bearing in mind that what they read is a translation from the Spanish language in which I write.

I cannot terminate without giving my thanks to Mr. E. Delmar Morgan, Honorary Secretary of the Hakluyt Society, for the active co-operation he has afforded me in the preparation of this work.

Luis L. Dominguez.

16,Kensington Palace Gardens,London, November1890.

ULRICHSCHMIDT’Svoyage to the River Plate was published for the first time, in a Collection of Voyages, edited by the booksellers, Sebastian Franck and Sigismund Feyerabend, in the middle of the 16th century, at Frankfort-on-Main. The title of this collection is:

“Warhafftige Beschreibunge aller theil der Welt, darinn nicht allein etliche alte Landtschafften, Königreich, Provinzen, Insulen, auch fürnehme Stedt und Märckte (so denn allen Welt-beschreibern bekant seind), mit fleiss beschrieben werden, sondern auch sehr viel neuwe, so zu vnsern zeiten zu Wasser durch vil sorgliche und vormals vngebrauchte Schiffarten erfunden seyn, welche im andern disem nachfolgenden Buch von Schiffarten genañt auss rechtem grundt der Cosmography vnd Geometry erfunden, angezeigt werden. Dessgleichen auch etwas von New gefundenen Welten, vnd aller darinn gelegenen Völcker, ihrer Religion vnd Glaubens sachen, ihrem Regiment, Pollicey, Gewerb, handtierung vnd andern gebreuchen mehr, etc., auss etlichen glaubwirdigen (fürnehmer Scribenten) Büchern mit grosse mühe vnd arbeyt, etc.“Durch Sebastian Franck von Wörd, zum ersten an tag geben, jetst aber mit sondern fleiss auff ein neuwes vbersehen, vnd in ein wolgeformtes Handtbuch verfasset. AnnoMDLXVII.”

“Durch Sebastian Franck von Wörd, zum ersten an tag geben, jetst aber mit sondern fleiss auff ein neuwes vbersehen, vnd in ein wolgeformtes Handtbuch verfasset. AnnoMDLXVII.”

The book of Schmidt appeared in the second part of this collection under the following title:

“Warhafftige vnd liebliche Beschreibung etlicher fürnemen Indianischen Landtschafften vnd Insulen, die vormals in keiner Chronicken gedacht, vnd erstlich in der Schiffart Vlrici Schmidts von Straubingen, mit grosser gefahr erkündigt, vnd von ihm selber auffs fleissigst beschrieben vnd dargethan.”

The next edition was published, in 1599, by de Bry in his great collection known asGrands et Petits Voyages, which appeared in German and Latin. The Latin title is:

“Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam Occidentalem et in Indiam Orientalem 25 partibus comprehensæ a Theodoro, Joann Theodoro de Bry, et à Math. Merian publicatæ. Francofurti et Oppenheimii, De Bry et Merian, 1590, 1634. Americæ Pars VII.—Schmidel, Verissima et jucundissima descriptio præcipuarum quarundam Indiæ regionum et Insularum, quæ quidem nullis ante hæc tempora visæ cognitæque iam primum ab Vlrico Fabro Straubingensi, multo cum periculo inuentæ et ab eodem summa diligentia consignatæ fuerunt, ex germanico in latinum sermonem conuersa, autore M. Gotardo Arthvs Dantiscano. Illustrata verò pulcherrimis imaginibus, et in lucem emissa, studio et opera Theodorici de Bry piæ memoriæ, relictæ viduæ et filiorum. Anno ChristiM.D.XCIX.”

First edition, Frankfort, 1599; and second edition (three plates printed in the text), 1625.

The title of the German abridged edition of de Bry’s collection is:

“America, das ist Erfindung vnd Offenbahrung der Newen Weldt, deroselbigen Völcker Gestalt, Sitten, Gebräuch, Policey vnd Gottesdienst, in dreissig vornehmtste Schiffahrten kürtzlich vnd ordentlich zusammen gefasset vnd mit seinen Marginalien vnd Register erkläret: Durch M. Philippum Zieglerum von Würzburg, E.C. Vnd vber die Vorigen mit vielen newen vnd nothwendigen Landtaffeln vnd Kupfferstücken auffs schönste gezieret, vnd in Truck gegeben von Johan-Theodoro de Bry, Buchhandlern vnd Bürgern zu Oppenheim. Gedruct zu Franckfurt am Mayn, durch Nicolaum Hoffmann.AnnoMDCXVII.”

In 1598 Levinus Hulsius had begun to publish his great collection of voyages, entitled:

“Sammlung von 26 schiffahrten in verschiedene fremde Länder durch Lev. Hulsium und einige andere aus dem Holländischen ins Deutsche übersetz und mit allerhand Anmerkungen versehen.”Frankfort, Nurnberg, Oppenheim and Hanover, 1598 to 1660.

“Sammlung von 26 schiffahrten in verschiedene fremde Länder durch Lev. Hulsium und einige andere aus dem Holländischen ins Deutsche übersetz und mit allerhand Anmerkungen versehen.”

Frankfort, Nurnberg, Oppenheim and Hanover, 1598 to 1660.

Schmidt’s voyage appeared in this collection, in 1599, under this title:

“Warhafftige Historien Einer Wunderbaren Schiffart, welche Vlrich Schmidel von Straubing, vonanno1534 bissanno1554,in Americamoder Newenwelt beyBrasiliaundRio della Platagethan. Was er in diesen Neuntsehen Jahren aussgestanden vnd was für seltsame Wunderbare Länder vnd Leuter gesehen: durch ermelten Schmidel selbs beschrieben, an jetst aber an Tag geben mit Verbesserung vnd Corrigierung der Stätt, Länder vnd Flussnamen, dessgleichen mit einer nothwendigen Landtaffel, Figuren vnd anderer mehr Erklerung, gezieret Durch Levinvm Hulsivm.Noribergæ, Impensis L. H.1599.”

This book was reprinted by Hulsius in 1602 at Nurnberg, and in 1612 at Frankfort-on-Main.

There are 16 plates in the British Museum copy, but the map and two plates are missing. In this edition, dedicated to Johann Philip, Bishop of Bamberg, the following epilogue occurs:“And so after the lapse of twenty years, through the special grace and providence of Almighty God, I have returned to the place whence I set out; but meanwhiles I have in my peregrination of these Indian nations experienced no little danger to body and life, great hunger and misery, care and anxiety, sufficiently made known and set forth in this historical narrative. I say therefore let praise, honour and thanks be given to Almighty God who has helped me to come back once more so happily to the place whence I full twenty years before had started.”

And in the Latin edition of this same collection, a new version of Schmidt’s book was published under this title:

“Vera historia admirandæ cujusdam navigationis quam Huldericus Schmidel, Straubiugensis, ab anno 1534 usque ad annum 1554 in Americam vel novum mundum justa Brasiliam et Rio della Plata confecit, quid per hoce annos 19 sustinuerit, quam varias et quam mirandas regiones at homines viderit. Ab ipso Schmidelio Germanice descripta: nunc vero, emendatis et correctis urbium, regionum et fluminum, nominibus, Adjecta etiam tabula geographica, figuris et aliis notationibus quibusdam in hanc formam reducta. Noribergæ, 1599. Impensis Levini Hulsii.” 4to.

In 1707 a Dutch translation was published at Leyden in the collection of the bookseller Van der Aa, entitled:

“Naaukeurige versameling der gedenk-waardigste Reysen na Oost en West-Indien, mitsgaders andere Gewesten gedaan; Zedert Jaarhet 1535 tot 1541,Te Leyden, door Pieter van der Aa, 1706-7.” Fol. and small 8vo.

Schmidt’s voyage appears in vol. 48 of the smaller edition under this title:

“Gedenkwaardige Scheeps-Togten na Rio de la Plata in’t Zuyderdeel van America, en Verscheydene andere voorname Americaanische Landschoppen, verrigt onder der Spaanschen Admiraal Pedro de Mendoza, Anno 1535, en de Volgende Jaren.... Bescheven door Ulrich Schmidt van Straubingen.... Nu aldeerst uyt’t Hoogduytsch vertaald.”

The first edition in the Spanish language of the book of Schmidt appeared in the first volume of the collection entitled:Historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, que juntó, tradujo en parte, y sacó á luz, ilustrados con eruditas notas y copiosos indices, Don Andreas Gonzalez de Barcia. 3 vol., fol., Madrid, 1749. It is entitled:

“Historia y descubrimiento del Rio de la Plata y Paraguay.” (Translated from the Latin edition of Hulsius.)

This version of Barcia was reprinted, with all his notes, in the third volume of theColeccion de obras y documentos relativos á la Historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, ilustrados con notas y disertaciones, by Pedro de Angelis.—Buenos Aires, 1835-37. 6 vols., fol. The title of Schmidt’s book in this collection is:

“Viaje al Rio de la Plata y Paraguay, por Ulderico Schmidel,” 1836.

A French translation of the Latin edition of Hulsius was published in 1837 in the collection entitledVoyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique, publiés pour la première fois en français, par H. Ternaux-Compans.—Paris, 1837-41, 20 vols., 8vo.

The work of Schmidt is in the first volume, under this title:

“Histoire véritable d’un voyage curieux fait par Ulrich Schmidel, de Straubing, dans l’Amérique ou le Nouveau Monde, par le Brésil, et le Rio de la Plata, depuis l’année 1534 jusqu’en 1554, ou l’on verra tout ce qu’il a souffert pendant ces dix-neuf ans, et la description des pays et des peuples extraordinaires qu’il a visités. Ouvrage écrit par lui-même, et publié de nouveau après corrections des noms de villes, de pays et de rivières.”

Thefirst edition of this important narrative of the Adelantado Alvar Nuñez was published at Valladolid in 1555, in one small 4to. volume, together with his account of his travels and shipwrecks in Florida, which had been edited some years before. The general title of this book is:

“La relacion y comentarios del gobernador Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca, de lo acaecido en las dos jornadas que hizo á las Indias.” Valladolid, 1555. 1 vol. Small 4to.

The second part of this book is entitled:

“Comentarios de Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, por Pedro Hernandez, escribano del Adelantado.”

The second edition of theComentariosis in the second volume ofHistoriadores Primitivos, by Barcia. Madrid, 1749.

The third edition is in theBiblioteca de Autores Españoles, by Rivadeneyra, vol. 22. Madrid, 1863.

Ternaux-Compans published a translation into French in the third volume of hisVoyages et Relations. Paris, 1837-41.

L. L. D.

The dividing line between Spanish and Portuguese territories in the accompanying map differs only in one-and-a-half or two degrees of longitude from that drawn by M. Adolpho de Varnhagen in hisHistoria Geral do Brazil. The question about the present boundary of those territories has been settled by modern treaties.

It must also be remarked that the boundaries of the ancientProvince of Rio de la Plata, in 1534, were very soon modified by the Spanish Government, who did the same thing by the four other Provinces into which the Continent of South America south of the equator was divided in that year.

L. L. D.

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