Read Ebook: The Conquest of the River Plate (1535-1555) by N Ez Cabeza De Vaca Alvar Active Th Century Schmidel Ulrich Dominguez Luis L Editor

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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 Nu?ez 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, 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, 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.

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

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 Guaran?; and in the province of La Plata, described by Alvar Nu?ez and by Schmidt, the Guaran?s 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 unimportant groups, 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: Qu?rand?s, Chan?s, Charuas, Yar?s, Arechan?s, Minhu?nos, Timb?s, Tobas, Mocob?s or Mbocoys, Abipones, Agaces, Mepenes, Mbai?s, Payagu?s, Guaicur?s, Cheriguanos, Xarayos, Itatines, Guat?s, Cariy?s, Tapiis; all these are Guaran?s. I do not treat of the other principal tribes, situated in the interior of the country between Paran? and the Andes, because they do not concern the narratives of Schmidt and Alvar Nu?ez.

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.

Letter of the Admiral Christopher Columbus to Luis de Sant?ngel, Contador Mayor de los Reyes Catholicos. 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 Indians and the horrible cruelty with which they were treated, commending in this way their perils and their labours in the military and spiritual conquest.

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 Nu?ez, 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.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

ULRICH SCHMIDT.

ULRICH SCHMIDT'S voyage 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, K?nigreich, Provinzen, Insulen, auch f?rnehme Stedt und M?rckte , 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 gena?t auss rechtem grundt der Cosmography vnd Geometry erfunden, angezeigt werden. Dessgleichen auch etwas von New gefundenen Welten, vnd aller darinn gelegenen V?lcker, ihrer Religion vnd Glaubens sachen, ihrem Regiment, Pollicey, Gewerb, handtierung vnd andern gebreuchen mehr, etc., auss etlichen glaubwirdigen B?chern mit grosse m?he vnd arbeyt, etc.

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

"Warhafftige vnd liebliche Beschreibung etlicher f?rnemen Indianischen Landtschafften vnd Insulen, die vormals in keiner Chronicken gedacht, vnd erstlich in der Schiffart Vlrici Schmidts von Straubingen, mit grosser gefahr erk?ndigt, vnd von ihm selber auffs fleissigst beschrieben vnd dargethan."

First edition, Frankfort, 1599; and second edition , 1625.

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

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

"Sammlung von 26 schiffahrten in verschiedene fremde L?nder durch Lev. Hulsium und einige andere aus dem Holl?ndischen ins Deutsche ?bersetz 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:

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 admirandae 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. Noribergae, 1599. Impensis Levini Hulsii." 4to.

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

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."

"Historia y descubrimiento del Rio de la Plata y Paraguay."

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

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

"Histoire v?ritable d'un voyage curieux fait par Ulrich Schmidel, de Straubing, dans l'Am?rique ou le Nouveau Monde, par le Br?sil, et le Rio de la Plata, depuis l'ann?e 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 visit?s. Ouvrage ?crit par lui-m?me, et publi? de nouveau apr?s corrections des noms de villes, de pays et de rivi?res."

ALVAR NU?EZ CABEZA DE VACA.

THE first edition of this important narrative of the Adelantado Alvar Nu?ez 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 Nu?ez Cabe?a de Vaca, de lo acaecido en las dos jornadas que hizo ? las Indias." Valladolid, 1555. 1 vol. Small 4to.

The second part of this book is entitled:

"Comentarios de Alvar Nu?ez Cabeza de Vaca, por Pedro Hernandez, escribano del Adelantado."

L. L. D.

THE MAP.

L. L. D.

A true and agreeable description of some principal Indian lands and islands, which have not been recorded in former chronicles, but have now been first explored amid great danger during the voyage of ULRICH SCHMIDT of Straubing, and most carefully described by him.

A true and agreeable description of some principal Indian lands and islands, which have not been recorded in former chronicles, but have now been first explored amid great danger during the voyage of ULRICH SCHMIDT OF STRAUBING, and most carefully described by him.

IN the first place, when setting forth from Antorff, I came in fourteen days to Hispania, to a town called Calles, to which one reckons four hundred miles by sea. I saw before that town a balena, or whale, thirty-five paces long, out of which thirty tuns--of the capacity of herring tuns--of fat had been extracted.

Antwerp.

Cadiz.

Near the said town of Calles there were fourteen great ships, well provided with all ammunitions and necessaries, which intended to voyage to Riodellaplata in India. Also there were two thousand five hundred Spaniards and one hundred and fifty Germans, Netherlanders, and Saxons. And our chief captain was called Petrus Manchossa.

Rio de la Plata.

Don Pedro de Mendoza.

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