Rivers of Gold

by Hugh Thomas

  18. John of Saxony, the young Señor de Balançon, the Elector Frederick V of the Palatine, Fürstenberg, Max Sforza.

  19. Letters from Manrique and Lanuza as qu. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 58.

  20. The most famous remark of Maximilian to Charles was “Mon fils, vous allez tromper les Français, et moi, je vais tromper les Anglais.”

  21. “en lo cual se capta la fuerte tendencia ‘caballeresca.’ ” Qu. in Federico Chabod, Carlos Quinto y su imperio, Spanish tr. from the Italian by Rodrigo Riza, Madrid 1992, 56.

  22. Marino Sanuto, Diarii, 55 vols., Venice 1887, 20, 422, 324. This is a description by Lorenzo Pasqualigo in a letter: “de mediocre estatura delgado hasta lo imposible, pálido, muy melancólico … con la boca siempre … abierta.”

  23. The best portrait of Charles at this time is by Conrad Moit, c. 1517, in the Gruuthuse Museum, in Bruges. See also the fine portrait of the same time in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

  24. A recent life is that by Jean-Pierre Soisson, Marguerite, Princesse de Bourgogne, Paris 2002.

  25. Giménez Fernández [2:39] 1, 16. Contarini was later famous for his study of the Venetian constitution, De Magistralibus Venetorum.

  26. The best study of the influence of Chièvres is in Chabod [26:21], 55–61.

  27. “selon la raison en manière qu’ils devront raisonablemente contenter.”

  28. There is an anonymous picture of Croÿ in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in Brussels.

  29. Martyr discusses this [1:2] 1, 211, also 213.

  30. Count of Cedillo, El Cardenal Cisneros, gobernador del reino, Madrid 1921, 2 vols., 2, 30–31: “my muy caro e muy amado amigo señor.”

  31. Cedillo [26:30], 2, 87; Alonso de Santa Cruz, Crónica del Emperador, Carlos V, Madrid 1920–25, 5 vols., 1, 106–10: “no hay necesidad en vida de la reina, nuestra señora, su madre, de se intitular Rey, pues lo es; porque aquello sería disminuir el honor y reverencia que se debe por ley divina y humana a la reina nuestra señora, vuestra madre.… Y porque por el fallecimiento del rey católico, vuestro abuelo, no ha adquirido más derecho de lo que antes tenía, pues estos reinos no eran suyos.”

  32. Cedillo [26:30], 2, 99.

  33. Keniston [26:13], 26.

  34. Joseph Pérez, Carlos V, Madrid 1999, proposes the word.

  35. Chabod [26:21], 64.

  36. Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V, Valladolid 1604–06, vol. 1, 73–74.

  37. Cedillo [26:30], 2, 136–7.

  38. Fernández Álvarez [3:51], 171.

  39. Several of the men who would have led the “gente de ordenanza” would later be leaders of the comuneros: for example, Bravo in Toledo.

  40. AGI, Patronato, leg. 252, r. 1, doc. 1.

  41. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 112: “los remedios que parezcan ser necesarios.”

  42. Marcel Bataillon, Estudios sobre Bartolomé de las Casas, Barcelona 1976.

  43. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 128.

  44. CDI, 7, 14–65. This memorandum in the Archive of the Indies is written in Las Casas’s hand. See discussion in Hanke [16:14], 57.

  45. CDI, 10, 114ff.

  46. CDI, 1, 253ff.

  47. “que Dios le dé buen paradiso.”

  48. CDI, 7, 428.

  49. CDI, 10, 549–55.

  50. AGI, Patronato, leg. 252, r. 12, p. 2.

  Chapter 27

  1. “por evitar lo que podía en disfavor de la una o de la otra sentirse o decirse.”

  2. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 115.

  3. See their accomplished reports in CDI, 1, 247–411; also Las Casas [2:50], 3, 119.

  4. Bartolomeo Colón, as cit. in Henige [8:12].

  5. AGI, Patronato 252, r. 2, in CDI, 14–65.

  6. CDI, 23, 310–31.

  7. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 123: “vivir, estar y conversar los unos con los otros.” The word “Republic” had no antimonarchical connotations.

  8. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 138: “De quién nos hemos de fiar? Allá, vais, mirad por todo.”

  9. Dated Sept. 16, 1516, to be seen in Las Casas [2:50], 3, 1, 36.

  10. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 220.

  11. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 138.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Gil [3:37], 3, 226.

  14. Oficio 4, lib. 1, escribanía Francisco Segura, f. 33, January 3, 1506 (APS, 7, 237).

  15. Probably on Aug. 29, 1506 (see document in oficio 4, libro 2, escribanía Francisco Segura, f. 102–3, sin fecha, but “las escrituras anterior y posterior estan fechadas en 29 de agosto” [APS, 7, 379], cited, and, in the Spanish ed., reproduced in facsimile in my book The Conquest of Mexico, London 1993).

  16. Oficio 4, lib. 3, escribanía Francisco Segura, f. 286 (1506) (APS, 7, 388).

  17. Oficio 4, lib. 4, escribanía Francisco Segura, f. 201, Oct. 20, 1506 (APS, 7, 432).

  18. See, for example, in the records of the Casa de Contratación, Ladero Quesada [16:42], 34, 35, 36.

  19. Oficio 4, lib. 1, escribanía Mateo de la Cuadra, f. 176v, Feb. 14, 1511 (APS, 7, 703).

  20. Oficio 4, lib. 3, escribanía Manuel Segura. f. end of the leg., Sept. 23, 1506 (APS, 1/177).

  21. Oficio 4, lib. 1, escribanía Manuel Segura, f. 493, 496, 499 (1516) (APS, 7, 793).

  22. Otte [15:83], 134.

  23. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 144–45.

  24. Otte [15:83], 133.

  25. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 141. “A la mi fé, padre, porque así me lo dieron por destruición, conviene saber que si no los pudiese captivar por paz que los captivase por guerra.”

  26. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 373.

  27. Population statistics are discussed to great effect in Henige [8:12], especially 81.

  28. Antonio de Villasante, Andrés de Montemarta, and Diego de Alvarado, who had come with Colón in 1493; Pedro Romero, who seems to have come in 1499; Gonzalo de Ocampo and Juan Mosquera, who had come with Ovando in 1502; Jerónimo de Agüero, Miguel Pasamonte, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, and Marcos de Aguilar, who had all come in Diego Colón’s day, as well as merchants, such as Antonio Serrano and Juan de Ampiés, and a few churchmen (Fray Bernardo de Santo Domingo, a Dominican who had come in 1510 with Pedro de Córdoba; and Fray Pedro Mexía, provincial of the Franciscans).

  29. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 326ff., 331.

  30. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 152.

  31. “Desde esta ysla, se arme para ir por ellos a la ysla de cabo verde y tierra de guinea o que esto se pueda hazer por otra cualquiera persona desde esos reinos para los traher acá.”

  32. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 79.

  33. José Antonio Saco, Historia de la Esclavitud de la Raza Africana en el nuevo mundo, 4 vols., Havana 1938, 1, 75–78.

  34. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 555.

  35. AGI, Indif., Gen., leg. 419, lib. 7.

  36. Ibid. For Portugal, see Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 35, fn 103.

  37. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 154.

  38. AGI, Justicia, leg. 43, no. 4. See testimony of Antonio Cansino in the residencia vs. Zuazo.

  39. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 166.

  40. It seems that Charles was helped to embark on this journey thanks to a loan of 100,000 florins from King Henry VIII, who was, of course, married to Charles’s aunt, Catherine. See Fernández Álvarez [3:51], 1, 50.

  41. Summarized in Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 359–64.

  42. “respecto a la importación de esclavos negros a las Indias y dar licencia para llevarlos a los nuevos pobladores no es conveniente abrir la puerta para ello, y habrá que esperar a la llegada de su alteza.”

  43. The printing was complete in 1517, but the Pope only gave approval for it to be made available in 1520. The printer was Arnao Guillén de Brocar, publisher of the work of Nebrija who became concerned with the Bible but quarreled with everyone. Cisneros had paid heavily for Hebrew manuscripts. The Latin text was by Juan de Vergara and Diego López de Zúñiga; the Greek by a Cretan, Demetrius Ducas, and Hernán Núñez de Guzmán; the Hebrew was the work of two
conversos, Pablo Coronel and Alfonso de Zamora.

  44. Fernández Álvarez [3:51], 1, 71–78.

  45. Zuazo to Cisneros in Muñoz Collection, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, qu. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 121, fn 394.

  46. This motto had been adopted by Charles as his, striking out the “ne” in front that limited his domain to the world this side of the Pillars of Hercules.

  47. Kellenbenz [3:32], 234. Wolf Haller von Hallerstein (1492–1559), after 1531 became treasurer-general to Queen Mary of Hungary. His house in Brussels was at the corner of the modern Place Royale and the Rue de la Régence, the site of the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

  48. Laurent Vital, “Relación del primer viaje de Carlos V a España,” in J. García Mercadal [2:57], 1, 675–77.

  49. Vital [27:48], 678.

  50. “Se hacian muy soberbios y entraban por la fuerza en las huertas y en las posadas y maltrataban a los huéspedes, mataban a los hombres por las calles sin tener temor alguno de la justicia y finalmente intentaban todo lo que querían y se salían con ello.”

  51. Santa Cruz [5:7], 1, 165–7: “inconversable y enemigo de la nación española.” The word inconversable surely should have a future.

  52. Fernández Álvarez, [3:51], 80.

  53. Vital [27:48], 699.

  54. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 405.

  Chapter 28

  1. See Bartolomé and Lucile Bennassar, Valladolid au Siècle d’Or, Paris 1964, 474–77. For the javelins, see Marcelin Defourneaux, La vie quotidienne au Siècle d’Or, Paris 1964, 152.

  2. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 167.

  3. AGI, Patronato, leg. 170, r. 22, qu. extensively by Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 398ff.; he considered the marginalia by Fonseca, etc.

  4. The first Spanish edition of Utopia was not until 1627.

  5. Utopia, published in 1516, was published in Basle in 1518.

  6. “… como el rey era tan nuevo … y había cometido todo el gobierno de aquellos reinos a los flamencos sudidichos … y ellos no cognosciesen las personas grandes ni chicas y muchas más las cosas tocantes las Indias, como más distantes y menos conocidas.”

  7. A portrait of Le Sauvage in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in Brussels, by Bernard van Orley, the court painter to the Archduchess Margaret, shows him considerate, if elderly.

  8. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 34.

  9. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 168.

  10. These included Pánfilo de Narváez, Velázquez’s second in command in Cuba; Gonzalo de Guzmán, who had also gone to Cuba, though he still had an encomienda in La Española; Gonzalo de Badajoz, who had been in Darien with Nicuesa and then Pedrarias; Cristóbal de Tapia, the ex-alcaide of the fortress in Santo Domingo and enemy of Ovando, who was among the earliest settlers in La Española to found a sugar mill, in Vega Real; as well as Sancho de Arango, a procurador of Puerto Rico.

  11. “los indios no tienen capacidad natural para estar por sí.”

  12. AGI, Patronato, leg. 173, no. 2, r. 2, doc. 3, f. 5: “sería más la costa que el provecho.”

  13. “de Castilla vayan o dejen llevar negros a los vecinos.”

  14. “Si las yslas que oy están pobladas, vuestra alteza permitiesse que se despoblasen de los vezinos sería muy grand pérdida, porque por aventuras están otras yslas y tierras mucho más ricas e mejores que las descubiertas, por descubrir.”

  15. Bernal Díaz del Castillo [15:45], 86ff. The route home was chosen by the pilot Alaminos, a great specialist in the Gulf of Mexico. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 156.

  16. See ch. 34.

  17. These ships were the flagship, the San Sebastián, another caravel also called the San Sebastián, a third called the Trinidad, and a brigantine called the Santiago. Later the brigantine dropped out and was replaced by the Santa María de los Remedios.

  18. The detail in the description of Grijalva’s journey in Oviedo [2:43], 2, 132 ff., is such that it seems possible he had access to a private account.

  19. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 173.

  20. And last bishop, too! See Father Raphaël de la Vierge Marie, Description de la belle église et du couvent royal de Brou, manuscrit between 1692 and 1696, and between 1711 and 1715, Bibliothèque de la Société d’émulation de l’Ain, Bourg-en-Bresse. Marie Françoise Poiret prints, in her excellent Le Monastère de Brou, Paris 2001, 10, a letter of Jan. 1512 from the chief accountant, Étienne Chivillaird, to Gorrevod about his difficulties in satisfying everyone.

  21. André Chagny, Correspondence politique et administrative de Laurent de Gorrevod, 1517–1520, 2 vols., Lyons 1913, 1, 361.

  22. “… ninguna cosa los mata sino la tristeza de spiritu de verse en tanta servidumbre y cautiverio y del mal tratamiento que les hazen, tomando las mujeres y las hijas que lo sienten mucho, y hazerles trabajar demasiado y el comer no en tanta abundancia como fuera menester.”

  23. “… ytem han dar sus altezas largamente licencia para poder llevar esclavos negros, cada uno quantos quisiere …”

  24. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 424ff.

  25. “sea quitar los yndios a Vuestra alteza, y al almirante, y a mí, y a las otras personas que no los han de tener, y a los jueces …”

  26. CDI, 34, 279–86, the accuracy of which transcription is discussed by Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 139, fn 443.

  27. “la mejor tierra del mundo donde nunca hay frio ni calor demasiado, ni que de pena. Siempre verde … todo se crea; ninguna se muere … cañaverales de azúcar de grandísimo tamaño.”

  28. Zuazo’s letter is in CDI, 1, 292–98.

  29. It had also been an Aragonese tradition to discuss business at dinner—as King James I the Conqueror regularly did (see Fernández-Armesto [4:49], 15).

  30. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 174.

  31. Keniston [26:13], 47; Las Casas [2:50], 3, 170. Conchillos had been dismissed.

  32. Keniston [26:13], 33.

  33. Las Casas [2:50], 170–71.

  34. Francisco López de Gómara, Anales de Carlos V, English and Spanish texts intr. by R. B. Merriman, London 1912, 256. “Codicioso y escaso … holgaría mucho de jugar a la primera y conversación de mugeres.”

  35. Santa Cruz [26:31], 1, 170; see also Cortes [5:53], 4, 260ff.

  36. See Fernández Álvarez [17:19], 58.

  37. Chabod [26:21], 85.

  38. Santa Cruz [26:31], 1, 169.

  39. Qu. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 434–45.

  40. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 181–82.

  41. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 172.

  42. This was March 22, 1518.

  43. At Calatayud, Charles had had a disconcerting experience. Walking in the street, a laborer had called out: “Shut your mouth, your Highness! The flies around here are very naughty!”

  44. For example, the Codex Vindobonensis, an early copy of Cortés’s letters to King Charles V.

  45. See Antonio Rodríguez Villa, El emperador Carlos V y su corte, según las cartas de don Martín de Salinas, Madrid 1903.

  46. Chabod [26:21], 86.

  47. This was published by Fabié in Appendix 4 of his life of Las Casas. See also Bataillon [22:46], 326–31.

  48. Qu. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 444.

  49. “Para facilitar el aumento de la mano de obra esclava se preconizaba la libertad para la importación de esclavos negros bozales por mercaderes o por vecinos e incluso la organización de la trata de negros por la corona; y que concede igualmente libertad de importación de esclavos indios de las islas lucayos y de tierra firme, se organizen por la Corona la captura y venta de indios caribes.”

  50. Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 156–59, summarizes.

  51. Gil [3:37], 1, 184. A marco was a measure of eight ounces.

  52. Elliott [1:25], 137.

  53. This is the argument of Giménez Fernández [2:39], 2, 209.

  54. Charles de Poupet (Popeto) (Laxao), Lord of “Poligni,” who had been with Charles VIII at Naples, then moved to support Felipe el Hermoso; he was afterwards with Maximilian and was preceptor of the Archduke Ferdinand. He was o
ne of Charles V’s instructors, later in his inner council. He recommended in 1523 that people other than Spaniards should be encouraged to go to the Indies. He became protector of Las Casas by 1520, and “Cavallero de nuestro consejo,” supporter of Hernando Cortés’s, c. 1522, then ambassador of Charles to Portugal for the wedding with Isabel in 1525.

  55. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 187.

  56. Las Casas [2:50], 185.

  57. Las Casas [2:50], 3, 177.

  58. For Gorrevod’s ambition, see Giménez Fernández [2:39], 1, 284, and 2, 613ff.; also Georges Scelle, La Traite négrière aux Indes de Castille, 2 vols., Paris 1906, 1, 149–50.

  59. The grant is in AGI, Indif. Gen., leg. 419, lib. 7, 121; Scelle [28:58], 1, 755, publishes the grant: see Deive [6:36], 235.

  60. AGI, Indif. Gen., 419 1.7 of Oct. 21, 1518. In addition to the signatures indicated in the text, there is, following the “Yo el Rey,” the sentence “Señaladas [signed by] de Obispo y de Don García de Padilla.…” The obispo (bishop) was Fonseca. The most serious study of this contract is by Enrique Otte, “Die Negersklavenlizenz des Laurent de Gorrevod” in Spanisches Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, Erste Reihe, 22, Munster 1965.

  61. Chagny [28:21], 1, 123: “je ne sache autre chose digne d’écrire.”

  62. See Carande [16:36], 2, 85ff.

  63. AGI, 46, 6, I, f. 58, qu. Scelle [28:58], 1.

  64. Scelle [28:58], 1, 154–56.

  65. The complicated affair of the resale of the contract is masterfully handled in Otte’s article [28:60].

  66. Rozendo Sampaio Garcia, Aprovisionamiento de esclavos negros na América, São Paulo 1962, 8–10. The name sometimes appears as Forne, Fornes, sometimes as Fornis.

  67. Oficio 15, lib. 2, escribanía Bernal González Vallesillo, f. 507, June 18, 1515. Here we hear how Pedro de Aguilar received from Francisco de Grimaldi and Gaspar Centurión eight pipes of wine from Guadalcanal and four empty skins consigned in the name of Juan de Córdoba to be taken in the nao Santa María de la Antigua (APS, 1/1206). In Oficio 15, lib. único, escribanía Bernal González Vallesillo, f. 134, Feb. 7, 1516, Luis de Covarrubias, master of the San Antón, and the biscuit maker Luis Fernández obliged themselves to pay Francisco de Grimaldi and Gaspar Centurión 72.5 ducats for what they had provided for the ship to take them to Cuba (APS, 1, 1245).