The whole body of ordinances and regulations relating to the aboriginal people and their treatment by the conquerors is fully explained and discussed by Dr. Don Juan de Solorzano, a profoundly learned jurist, and member of the Council of the Indies, in his Politica Indiana (Madrid, 1648). The history of encomiendas in Peru is well and ably discussed by Enrique Torres Saldamando in the Revista Peruana (vol. ii. 1880).[1526]
The second Marquis of Cañete, who was viceroy of Peru in the last decade of the sixteenth century, was best known for his conduct of the Araucanian war, when, as a young man, he was governor of Chili. That famous war formed the subject of the epic poem of Alonzo de Ercilla, the warrior-poet. Born at Bermeo on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, where the house of his ancestors is still standing, Ercilla began life as a page to the prince of Spain, and volunteered to go out and serve against the Araucanians, when news arrived of an outbreak and the death of Valdivia. Born in 1533, he was only twenty-one when he set out for Chili under the command of the youthful governor Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza. Ercilla was present at seven regular battles, and suffered much from hardships during the harassing campaigns. He returned to Spain in 1562, after an absence of eight years. His Araucana[1527] is a versified history of the war, in which he describes all the events in their order, enumerates the contending chiefs, with a few lines to denote the character or special characteristic of each, and is minutely accurate even in his geographical details. He tells us that much of the poem was composed in the country, and that by the light of the camp-fires at night he wrote down what had occurred during the day. Ticknor looks upon the Araucana as an historical rather than an epic poem;[1528] and he considers the descriptive powers of Ercillo—except in relation to natural scenery—to be remarkable, the speeches he puts in the mouths of Araucanian chiefs often excellent, and his characters to be drawn with force and distinctness. Pedro de Oña, in his Arauco Domado,[1529] praises the governor, Hurtado de Mendoza, the future Marquis of Cañete; and Lope de Vega made his Araucanian war the subject of one of his plays.
The Life of the viceroy Marquis of Cañete (Garcia) was written by Don Cristóval Suarez de Figueroa, a man of some literary fame in his day. When the marquis returned from Peru broken in health, he was treated with neglect and ingratitude; nor had he received full justice from Ercilla for his youthful exploits,—at least so thought his heirs when he died in 1599; and they applied to Suarez de Figueroa to undertake his biography, placing all the viceroy’s family and official papers in the author’s hands. The result was the Hechos de Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, cuarto Marques de Cañete, which was printed in 1613.[1530] It was reprinted in the Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile,—a work published in seven volumes at Santiago in 1864, edited by Don Diego Barros Arana. This work contains a very full account of the administration of the marquis while he was viceroy of Peru.
Pedro de Valdivia has written his own history of his conquest and settlement of Chili, in his letters to the emperor, Charles V. They are preserved in the Archives at Seville among the documents sent from Simancas, and have been published by Claudio Gaye in his Historia de Chile (Paris, 1846), and also in the first volume of the Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile (Santiago, 1864). The first of Valdivia’s despatches is dated from La Serena, Sept. 4, 1545, and the second from Lima, June 15, 1548. In the third he reports fully on the state of affairs in Chili, and refers to his own previous career. It is dated from Concepcion, Oct. 15, 1550. There are two others, dated Concepcion, Sept. 25, 1551, and Santiago, Oct. 26, 1552, which are short, and not so interesting.
Some discontented soldiers brought a series of fifty-seven accusations against Valdivia, which were considered by the president Gasca at Lima in October, 1548,—the result being acquittal. The Acta de Accusacion was published at Santiago in 1873 by Barros Arana, together with Valdivia’s defence and several other important historical documents. That accomplished Chilian historian has also edited a very interesting letter from Pedro de Valdivia to Hernando Pizarro, dated at La Serena on the 4th of September, 1545, which fell into the hands of the president Gasca, and remained among his papers; and when he was at Seville in 1859, he discovered one more unimportant letter from the Chilian conqueror to Charles V., dated at Santiago, July 9, 1549. The first book of the records of the Santiago municipality, called the Libro Becerro, embraces the years from 1541 to 1557. It has been published in the first volume of the Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile, etc. (Santiago, 1861), and contains the appointment of Valdivia as governor of Chili, the founding of Santiago, with the nomination of the first municipal officers, ordinances for mines, and other important entries.
There is thus ample original material for the opening chapter of the history of Chili. Moreover, the first connected work on the subject was written by one of the early conquerors. Gongora Marmolejo served under Valdivia, and was an eye-witness of all the stirring events of the time. His history begins at the discovery of Chili, in 1536, and is brought down to the year 1575. Written in Santiago, it is addressed to the president of the Council of the Indies; and though the style is confused, and often obscure, the narrative has the merit of impartiality, and supplies many interesting details. It also has annexed documents, including a letter from Gonzalo Pizarro to Valdivia giving an account of events in Peru, down to the death of Blasco Nuñez de Vela. The Historia de Chile of Gongora Marmolejo remained in manuscript in the Biblioteca de Salazar (H. 45) until it was edited by Don Pascual de Gayangos, in 1850, for the fourth volume of the Memorial Histórico Español. It has since been published in the Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile.
The story of the surprise and death of the governor, Martin Garcia de Loyola, and of the subsequent formidable rising of the Araucanians in 1598, was written in the form of a poem by Captain Fernando Alvarez de Toledo. The work has no literary merit, and is only valuable as an historical narrative. The manuscript is in the National Library at Madrid, and it was published by Don Diego Barros Arana, in the Collection d’Ouvrages inédits ou rares sur L’Amérique (Paris, 1861). An interesting modern account of the death of the governor Loyola, entitled La sorpresa de Curalava, was written by the accomplished Chilian, Miguel Luis Amunátegui, and published as one of his Naraciones Históricas (Santiago, 1876).[1531]
The history of Chili, which follows Marmolejo in point of time, is by Cordova y Figueroa, a native of the country, and a descendant of Juan de Negrete, one of the followers of Valdivia. Cordova y Figueroa was born at Concepcion in 1692, served with credit in a war with the Araucanians, and is believed to have written the history between 1740 and 1745. Beginning with the expedition of Almagro, it comes down to the year 1717, and is the most complete history that had been written up to that date. The manuscript was in the National Library at Madrid, and a copy was made for the Chilian government, under the auspices of Don Francisco S. Astaburriaga, who was then minister to Spain. It was published in the Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile.
In this review of works on the conquest and first settlement of Peru and Chili, those which refer only to the history and civilization of the Yncas, or to geography and natural history, have been omitted, as they receive notice in the chapter on ancient Peru in the first volume of this History.
