by Hugh Thomas
Praise for
RIVERS OF GOLD
“Rivers of Gold has an unflagging narrative, a host of characters and a way of holding the reader’s attention.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Magisterial … Rivers of Gold would be an astonishing work by any author, yet its publication simply affirms Hugh Thomas’s record as one of the most productive and wide-ranging historians of modern times.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Written with enormous verve and panache … [Thomas] luxuriates in the details of people and places that bring his story to life.”
—The New York Review of Books
“Handsomely illustrated and written with verve … This sweeping narrative of the early years of the Spanish main is quintessential Hugh Thomas: big, bold, informative and meticulously researched. It is the kind of ‘history in the grand manner’ for which Thomas … is famous.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“Thomas puts his erudition to fine use … analyzing, with care and sensitivity, the thirty elastic years that utterly redefined Western civilization.”
—The Boston Globe
“Engagingly presented, this book clearly shows the author’s passion for his subject.”
—Booklist
“A fascinating account of man’s conquest of the sea, enabled by his heroism and unbounded imagination, and caused by his urge to discover the unknown as well as by his parallel thirst for gold, which gave rise to his baseness, brutality, and treachery. The author’s description of men and events is generally marked by acute observation, many worthful data hitherto ignored, and a rare sense of objectivity.”
—BENZION NETANYAHU
“No one writes better than Hugh Thomas on the heartbreaking clash of civilizations that produced the Spanish Empire. This book is an event in itself, full to the brim with knowledge, color, and deep understanding.”
—ANN WROE, author of
The Perfect Prince and Pontius Pilate
“Rivers of Gold is history in the grand manner. Hugh Thomas has written a vivid, dramatic, and compelling narrative of the rise of the Spanish Empire to world domination.”
—ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, JR.
“Hugh Thomas is a scholar not only thoroughly familiar with the written sources of Spanish history but also one personally acquainted with the regions where it unfolded. This lends his account of the discovery of America and of the early contacts with its peoples unique vividness as well as authority. Rivers of Gold is a masterly account of what is arguably the most important event in Europe’s millennial history.”
—RICHARD PIPES,
Baird Professor of History, Emeritus,
Harvard University
“Hugh Thomas has now retold this remarkable story—or at least the first thirty years of it—in a splendid volume, bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fascinating details, punctuated by well-chosen quotations from contemporaries and eyewitnesses, and accompanied by many maps and excellent illustrations. It is an ambitious project, magnificently carried out.”
—PAUL JOHNSON
2005 Random House Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 2003 by Hugh Thomas
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Trade
Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York
RANDOM HOUSE TRADE PAPERBACKS and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2004 and in the United Kingdom by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London in 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Hugh.
Rivers of gold : the rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan / Hugh Thomas.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-0-8041-5214-3
1. Latin America—History—To 1600. 2. Latin America—Discovery and exploration—Spanish. 3. Latin America—Discovery and exploration—Religious aspects. 4. Spain—History—Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479–1516. 5. Spain—History—Charles I, 1516–1556. 6. Spain—Colonies—America—History—16th century. I. Title.
F1411.T36 2004
980′.01—dc22 2003069316
Random House website address: www.atrandom.com
v3.1
To carry out the conquest of so many countries, to cross so many seas and so many rivers, valleys, forests and mountains, to travel down the Amazon from its headwaters in Peru to the Atlantic, as the astonishing Orellana did, to challenge Moctezuma and Atahualpa in their own countries, as Cortés and Pizarro did, to survive the march along the banks of the wonderful river Magdalena, some great idea was needed as well as human will (“human will not calm calculation”), something which focused the mind was necessary—just as some idea was necessary to sustain the Spaniards in their seven hundred years’ struggle against Islam.
AMÉRICO CASTRO,
The Structure of Spanish History
How many valleys and how many flowers, simple and delicious! How many sea coasts with very long beaches and most excellent ports! How many and what vast lakes! How many fountains both hot and cold, very close, some of them, and others farther away …!
GONZALO FERNÁNDEZ DE OVIEDO,
Historia general y natural de las Indias
Here I cannot forbear to commend the patient virtue of the Spaniards: we seldom or never find any nation hath endured so many misadventures and miseries as the Spaniards have done in their Indian discoveries; yet persisting in their enterprises, with invincible constancy, they have annexed to their kingdom so many goodly provinces, as bury the remembrance of all dangers past. Tempests and shipwrecks, famine, overthrows, mutinies, heat and cold, pestilence and all manner of diseases, both old and new, together with extreme poverty and want of all things needful, have been the enemies wherewith every one of their most noble discoverers, at one time or another, hath encountered.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH,
The History of the World
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Introduction
Book One
SPAIN AT THE CROSSROADS
1. “This city is a wife, whose husband is the hill”
2. “The only happy country”
3. “Great tranquility and order”
Book Two
COLUMBUS
4. “Only by monarchs”
5. “For God’s sake, tell me what song you are singing”
6. “A white stretch of land”
7. “Tears in the royal eyes”
8. “They love their neighbors as themselves”
9. “We concede the islands and lands discovered by you”
10. “As if in their own country”
11. “Mainland, no island”
12. “Whether we can sell those slaves or not”
13. “Malevolent jokes of the goddess Fortune”
Book Three
BOBADILLA AND OVANDO
14. “To course o’er better waters …”
15. “The greatest good that we can wish for”
16. “Teach them and indoctrinate them with good customs”
17. “Children must constantly obey their parents”
18. “You ought to send one hundred black slaves”
19. “And they leapt onto the land”
20. “Call this other place Amerige”
Book
Four
DIEGO COLÓN
21. “A voice crying in the wilderness”
22. “Infidels may justly defend themselves”
23. “Without partiality, love, or hatred”
Book Five
BALBOA AND PEDRARIAS
24. “They took possession of all that sea”
25. “A man very advanced in excess”
Book Six
CISNEROS
26. “King Fernando! He is dead!”
27. “Go back and see what is happening”
Book Seven
CHARLES, KING AND EMPEROR
28. “The best place in the world for blacks”
29. “It is clear as day …”
30. “I was moved to act by a natural compassion”
31. “For empire comes from God alone”
32. “The new golden land”
Book Eight
NEW SPAIN
33. “I am to pass away like a faded flower”
34. “This land is the richest in the world”
35. “O our lord, thou has suffered”
Book Nine
MAGELLAN AND ELCANO
36. “Go with good fortune”
Book Ten
THE NEW EMPIRE
37. “The new emperor”
38. “From the poplars I come, mama”
APPENDIX A: FAMILY TREES
THE ALBAS AND THE COLUMBUSES
THE SPANISH ROYAL FAMILY
THE MENDOZAS
THE PONCES DE LEÓN
THE FONSECAS
APPENDIX B: THE COSTS OF BECOMING EMPEROR, 1519
APPENDIX C: REGISTERED VESSELS SAILING TO AND FROM THE INDIES, 1504–22
Suggested Reading
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
Other Books by This Author
About the Author
(Illustration credit col3.1)
Illustrations
Front Matter
col3.1 A sea battle. Engraving by Hans Burckmaier, c. 1520.
Frontispieces
1.1 Book One: The frontispiece of Amadís de Gaula, first edition, Saragossa, 1508 (British Library).
2.1 Book Two: Indians flee as Columbus makes landfall. Illustration in Columbus’s letter describing his discoveries, De insulis inventis epistola Cristoferi Colón, Basle, 1493 (Biblioteca Capitular, Seville: Mary Evans Picture Library).
3.1 Book Three: Philip the Fair greets Princess Juana. Engraving Der Weisskunig in the autobiography of Emperor Maximilian I (Cambridge University Library).
4.1 Book Four: A praying captain. Engraving by Hans Burckmaier, c. 1520.
5.1 Book Five: New World scene. Colored woodcut, Augsburg, 1505 (Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations).
6.1 Book Six: Cisneros’s polyglot Bible, compiled in Alcalá de Henares, and printed by Arnao de Brocar, 1517 (University Library of Salamanca: Oronoz).
7.1 Book Seven: A view of Tenochtitlan, in Eine Schöne Neue Zeitung, Nuremberg, 1520 (John Carter Brown Library, Rhode Island).
8.1 Book Eight: Hernán Cortés and Marina meet Moctezuma. Illustration Lienzo de Tlaxcala, c. 1560 (Archivo Planeta).
9.1 Book Nine: The Isle of Utopia. Engraving ascribed to Hans Holbein, in Thomas More, Republicae Statu, deque-Nova Insula Utopia, Basle, 1518 (Princeton University Libraries: Mary Evans Picture Library).
10.1 Book Ten: A German impression of Seville in 1522. G. Braum, Civitatis Orbis Terrarum (Archivo Iconográfico, S.A./Corbis).
Between this page and this page:
Our Lady of the Catholic Monarchs, Anon., c. 1490 (Museum of the Prado, Madrid: Bridgeman Art Library).
King Fernando. Detail from Our Lady of the Catholic Monarchs, Anon., c. 1490 (Museum of the Prado, Madrid: Bridgeman Art Library).
Queen Isabel. Detail from Our Lady of the Catholic Monarchs, Anon., c. 1490 (Museum of the Prado, Madrid: Bridgeman Art Library).
King Fernando. The Master of the Legend of the Magdalena (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Erich Lessing/Album).
Queen Isabel, Anon., c. 1500 (Royal Palace, Madrid: Oronoz).
Portrait of Germaine de Foix, Anon. (Museo Provincial, Valencia: Oronoz).
The tomb of the Infante Juan, sculpted by Domenico Fancelli (Church of St. Thomas, Ávila: Oronoz).
Philip the Fair by Juan de Flandes, c. 1500 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Erich Lessing/Album).
Princess Juana “la Loca” by Juan de Flandes, c. 1500 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Erich Lessing/Album).
The Archduchess Margaret by Bernaert van Orley (Royal Monastery, Brou).
Jacob Fugger by Albrecht Dürer, 1518 (Staatsgalerie, Augsburg: Erich Lessing/Album).
Bust of Charles I of Spain by Konrad Meit (Gruuthusmuseum, Bruges: Erich Lessing/Album).
Two panels, showing the meeting at Remesal between Philip the Fair and King Fernando, and a festival held in honor of Philip the Fair (Château de la Follie, Ecaussinnes).
The conquest of Oran. Photograph of a fresco by Juan de Borgoña (Mozarab Chapel, Toledo Cathedral: Oronoz).
The arms of conquest: sword for horsemen, pike, and crossbow (Museo de Ejercito, Madrid).
The Spanish Kings and Cardinal Mendoza enter Granada in 1492. Photograph of an altar carving (in the Capilla Grande, Granada: Oronoz).
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, by Christophe Amberger (Palacio de Liria, Madrid: Oronoz).
Íñigo López de Mendoza by Jorge Inglés (Palacio del Infantado, Guadalajara: Oronoz).
Our Lady of Granada, Cristi II, c. 1500 (Museo del Castillo, Gerona: AISA).
Between this page and this page:
An auto-de-fe by Pedro Berruguete, c. 1490 (Museum of the Prado, Madrid: Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis).
Pope Adrian VI by Cristofano dell ‘Altissimo (Uffizi Gallery, Florence: Scala Picture Library).
Bust of Cardinal Cisneros by Bigarny (University of Madrid: Erich Lessing/Album).
Portrait of Guillaume de Croÿ, Anon. (Musée des Beaux Arts, Brussels: Erich Lessing/Album).
Mercurino de Gattinara by Jan Vermeyer (Musée des Beaux Arts, Brussels: AISA).
Paolo Toscanelli’s Map, a planisphere of 1474 (National Library, Florence: Scala Picture Library).
Our Lady of La Antigua (Seville Cathedral).
Portrait of a man believed to be Christopher Columbus, c. 1446–1506, by Sebastiano del Piombo (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Bettmann/Corbis).
Amerigo Vespucci, in the Madonna della Misericordia by Domenico Ghirlandaio (Church of Ognissanti, Florence: Archivi Alinari).
Cardinal Fonseca. Detail from Retablo in Palencia Cathedral by Jan Joest de Calcar (Palencia Cathedral: Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic).
Portrait of Fernando Magellan, Anon. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: Scala Picture Library).
Medal showing Hernán Cortés by Christoph Weiditz, c. 1528 (British Museum), and a drawing of Cortés by Weiditz, c. 1528 (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid).
Preparations for the voyage, in the Trachtenbuch of Christoph Weiditz, c. 1528 (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid).
Arms of conquest: sword of the Gran Capitán (Real Armería, Madrid); falconet, lombard (Museo del Ejercito, Madrid); armor of Charles V (Real Armería, Madrid).
The Wheel of Fortune in a tapestry in the Honores series, from the workshop of Pieter van Aelst, after a cartoon by Bernaert van Orley (La Granja, Segovia).
Golden objects from the Americas (Museo del Banco Central de Costa Rica, San José).
Between this page and this page:
Indigenous peoples, in the Trachtenbuch of Christoph Weiditz, c. 1528 (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid).
Engraving of Francisco de los Cobos, Anon., 1537, in Catálogo de Barcía (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid).
Sancho de Matienzo. Photograph from the Retablo del Convento de San Jerónimo, Villasana de Mena, Burgos, destroyed in the civil war, 1936 (Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic).
&
nbsp; Laurent de Gorrevod, window of the church at Brou.
Bartolomé de las Casas (Archivo de Indias, Seville).
Scenes from Castile, in the Trachtenbuch of Christoph Weiditz, c. 1528 (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid).
Scenes from the Florentine Codex, Fray Bernardino de Sahagún (Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence).
Gold from New Spain (Museum of National History, New York).
Maps
Spain in 1492
The conquest of Granada
The Canary Islands
Summer winds of the Atlantic
Early maps by Behaim (1492) and Juan de la Cosa (1500)
Columbus’s first voyage, 1492–93
Columbus’s second voyage, 1493
The division of the world in 1493, 1494
Columbus’s third voyage, 1498
Cabral’s voyage to Brazil and India in 1500
Columbus’s fourth voyage, 1502
What was known and unknown in 1511
The Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico
The new towns founded in Cuba by Diego Velázquez, 1511–17
The first mainland colony, at Darien
Núñez de Balboa discovers the Pacific in 1513
Pedrarias in the Isthmus, 1514–19
The Europe of Archduchess Margaret
The voyage of Hernández de Córdoba, 1517
The voyage of Juan de Grijalva, 1518
The expedition of Hernán Cortés, 1519
The voyage of Magellan and Elcano, 1519–22
Known lands in the Americas, 1522
Introduction
Vasco Núñez de Balboa wrote to the Spanish King, Fernando, in 1513 that in the settlement of Darien, in the Gulf of Urabá, now in Colombia, there were rivers of gold. They had more gold, he added, than health, and indeed were more short of food than of gold. The letter led to a gold rush to Central America from Castile. But both there and elsewhere in the Americas the search for gold was combined with the pursuit of souls for Christianity, a thirst for knowledge about the New World, and the desire for glory.
