Bernal Diaz

7/30/2019 Bernal Diaz

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100 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEWepochal biography of Dom Pedro that would one day be written. Hislife of his father, he declared, presented only a partial picture of thegreat era, the center of which must always be the emperor himself.But Joaquim Nabuco anticipated a great deal of the work of thisfuture imperial biographer and Um Estaldista do Imperio has been atreasure trove for all interested in nineteenth century Brazilian his-tory. Brilliant and revealing sketches and appraisals of the imperialstatesmen afford information difficult to find elsewhere.The author was never satisfied with his work and before his deathmade many alterations in the manuscript which have now been givento the publishers by his heirs. The revision is in many respects anew work, and is liberally annotated, both with contributions fromthe pen of Joaquim Nabuco himself, taken from his revised nail-uscript, and those of the editor Mauricio Nabuco.

For the sake of clarity the holders of titles under the empire aredesignated by their titles, instead, of by their original names, as wasthe case in the first edition. The new work also includes a helpfulreference list of all the imperial cabinets from 1837 to 1878.

The Nabuco:'sappear to write biography easily. Ill 1929 the samepublishers issued a life of Joaquim Nabuco by his daughter, Se-nhorina Carolina Nabuco,1 now a leader in advancing feminism andeducation in Brazil. This work is being translated by the Argentineambassador in Brazil, Senor Ramon Chrcano, as the first of a seriesof popular editions of Brazilian books to promote cultural relationsbetween the two republics. Senhorina Nabuco's work is also beingtranslated into English.

FREDERIC WILLIAM GANZERT.University of Utah.

BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, ENCOMENDEROThe relationship of the encomendero, of the Indies to his Indian

proteges has been studied heretofore mainly from two sources, thelaws of the Indies and the controversial matter contributed usuallyby ecclesiastics. Defenders of the encomnienda,on the other hand,such as Gines de Sepulveda and Bernardo de Vargas Machuca, withtheir historical and legalistic approach, make sad reading. There-fore, from Bartolome de las Casas down to Sir Arthur Helps, theIA Vida de Joaquim Nabuco, por sua FElha Carolina Nabuco (Sao Paulo,Oompanhia Editora Nacional, 1929).


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NOTES AND COMMENT 101conquistador has taken a fearful beating where his treatment of theIndians was concerned. The royal cedulas, which created the en-comienda, attempted to make of the conquistador a guardian of theIndians and a sort of lay missionary-a responsibility which he waslittle fitted to assume-and it should cause no surprise to learn thathe took his spiritual obligations lightly. And yet I find it difficultcompletely to swallow the image of the scowling monster, whip inhand, so fiercely denounced by interested ecclesiastics and so ablypainted by Diego Rivera. The long centuries of comparative peaceand increase under the Spanish colonial regime must mean that therelationship of the conquistadores and their descendants with theIndian elements was generally cordial. Let me hasten to add thatit is not my purpose to defend the military parasitism represented bythe encomenderos. Indeed, the record of the early years, during whichthey sought to enrich themselves by imposing crushing tributes onthe Indians, is sufficiently bad to justify the temptation to mount one'smoral high horse and have a tilt at them. I wish here only to offeran exception to the general notion of the character of the encomendero-an exception which must have had many parallels.

To go back a bit-in my attempt to discover what the real rela-tionship of the encomendero to the Indian was I spent several monthsin the archives of Mexico examining the voluminous records of theJuzgado General de Indios. I began my search with the assurancethat numerous complaints against encomenderos must have been pre-sented before that remarkable tribunal, which operated from 1574 tothe end of the Spanish regime. I found, indeed, thousands of com-plaints against Spaniards of every other class, but not a single specificcomplaint against an encomendero. True, the Juzgado was estab-lished after the reform brought about by the New Laws and suchevidence is purely negative. So, it would be hazardous to concludefrom it that the encomendero, after the middle of the sixteenth cen-tury, turned into a gentle patriarch, intent on the welfare of hischarges. But it does strengthen my growing belief that, after theharsh days of the military conquest, the new parasite class settledrather easily into the fat life of the country squire, and that it isvery likely that the conquistador and his descendants (being human)identified themselves with local community life and took some pridein the well-being of their charges. This role came the more easilysince their interest was identical with that of the Indians upon whosetributes they lived.


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102 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEWDocumentation for such a thesis is not easy to procure, for theencomendero was not given to keeping books or to writing memoirs

about so prosaic a subject. The one witness I can call at present tomy support is none other than Bernal Diaz del Castillo. No one whohas read the astonishing True History of the Conquest of New Spainand Guatemala will contend that Bernal Diaz, in his sympathies andprejudices, was anything more than a good conquistador (leaving toone side his great narrative gift). He was a brave soldier, but with-out distinction; a good Catholic, but with no urge toward mysticismor fanaticism; he was perpetually hard up and was not behind hiscomrades in begging a bonus from al ungrateful sovereign; he was anencomendero, a solid citizen, and regidor perpetuo of the noble andloyal city of Santiago de Guatemala. In short, one may search therecords in vain for any mark that distinguished Bernal Diaz fromhis fellows. From the above I am tempted to conclude that his atti-tude toward the Indians of his encomienda differed in no essentialrespect from theirs. That he differed,violently with those later com-ers in the matter of exploitation of the Indians is clear, not only inthe evidence I shall submit later on, but in a passage of the True His-tory. After describing the severe punishment meted out by Cortezto one Fulano de Mora for stealing two chickens from, the Indians,Bernal Diaz proceeds to lecture his readers:He querido traer esto aqui a la menioria para que vean los curiosos letores, y

aun los sacerdotes que agora tienen cargo de administrar los santos sacranientosy dotrina a los naturales destas parties, que torque aquel soldado tom6 dos ga-Ilinas en pueblo de pa-z amia le costara la vida, y para que vean agora de qu6manera se han de haber con los indios e no tomatles sus haziendas.1

Bernal Diaz was encomendero of several communities in Guate-mala: Tepeaco, Guanagazapa, and Hueymango, in Izeuintepec (mod-ern Escuintla), and some territory in Sacatepequez. In January,1579, a certain Martin Ximenez, who described himself as an honbredel canpol, applied to the audiencia for a grant of six caballecias ofland in Izeuintepec, within the boundaries of the pueblo of Gua-nagazapa and in the encomienda of Bernal Diaz. The president of theaudiencia, Garcia de Valverde, commissioned one Juan de Morales,receptor of the audencia, to examine the land in question. Morales,after what seems to have been a perfunctory examination, recom-

1 Verdadera y notable Relaci6n del Descubrimiento y Conquista de la NuevaEspaina y Guatemala, I. 94 (2 vols. Guatemala, 1933). (Italics nime.)


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NOTES AND COMMENT 103mended that the grant be allowed. The whole business was done sohastily and the witnesses called were so unanimous in their approvalthat it has the air of connivance of some sort. At any rate, theaudiencia made the grant over the protests of the Indians and thelatter filed suit for recovery, appealing to Bernal Diaz to representthem before the audiencia. The suit dragged on for two years andwas finally decided for the Indians. It will be examined in some de-tail, as it shows rather definitely the economic and sentimental tie-upbetween Bernal Diaz and the Indians, of his encomienda.

The lands which Xime'nez coveted and which he humorously de-scribed as tierra esteril y de ningund promecho lay along the Micha-toya River. Morales arrived there, hired two interpreters, one forpopulico and the other for mexicano, appointed an attorney for theIndians, and gave the latter two days in which to make any protest.The first suspicious note was sounded by the attorney for the Indians,one Francisco Cuello, mestizo. In a letter to the audiencia of January26 he protested against the haste with which Morales was proceedingand stated that the proper Indian officers of Guanagazapa were all injail in the capital, and that he, moreover, was not a properly quali-fied attorney for the Indians, as he knew no law and could neitherread nor write. The Indians themselves filed a protest with theaudiencia, claiming that the land in question was necessary for theirmaintenance and that Morales had not given them time to testify intheir own defence. Here follow many folios of charges and counter-charges, protests, and accusations, all mutually contradictory, whichleave the reader in as grave a state of perplexity as they must haveleft the audiencia. Bernal Diaz came into the litigation (he was thenabout eighty-six) with a letter to the president of the audiencia,March 12, 1579. Since it contains practically all the arguments whichhe later repeated many times, I shall quote it at some length.

Most Illustrious Lord: I, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, citizen and regidor of thiscity and encomendero of the pueblo of Guanagazapa . . . say that it has cometo my notice that some days past a certain Martin Ximernez (who is in partner-ship with a priest called the Bachelor Antonio Lopez) presented a petition toyour Lordship in which he begs a grant of six caballerias of land within theboundaries of the said pueblo of Guanagazapa. Your Lordship ordered an in-vestigation made and an escribano named Juan de Morales went, and the Indiansof the said pueblo protested it, because truly the lands which he begs are wherethe Indians have their fields of maize, cacao, peppers, and other vegetables, andthey are the navel of the best lands of their a.neient holdings, and they needthem. And, because the Indians protested, the said Morales threatened that if


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104 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEWthey did not give them up he would throw them into jail. And now I am told thatyesterday, Monday, the said Ximenez made a petition demanding the said landsand that your lordship has ordered the priest who has charge of the pueblo togive his opinion.

To this I reply and swear that if the said lands were [could be granted]without harm to the Indians I myself should have asked the former governorsfor them for my six legitimate sons. But, as I have said, these lands arewhere the Indians have their fields of maize, peppers, and cacao, fromn which theypay their tribute, and it is their ancient holding, and that is why I have not askedfor them, because it would mean the destruction of the Indians....

I beg and supplicate your Lordship not to give the said lands. to any one,because I understand that the one who is behind all this is the said BachelorAntonio Lopez, priest, and because the Indians, and I, as their encomendero, havenot been heard. Otherwise, they will be destroyed and I shall receive great injuryand loss. And if your Lordship hears through evil falsifiers that the lands canbe granted without damage and that your Lordship can give them (I know trulythat you will not give them, because it would do great harm tq the Indians), Ibeg that out of regard for the notable services I have rendered his Majesty andall Christendom, if you do make a grant of the said lands to any one, you willgrant then to my six legitimate sons, for his Majesty has ordered that we are tobe preferred. And so now, in the name of my said sons, I protest [the grant of]the said lands, [and beg that] they either remain in the possession of the Indians,their owners, or that they be granted to my sons....(signed) Bernal Diaz del Castillo.Guatemala, March 12, 1579.2

On the following day five of the old conquistador's legitimate sonsfiled a petition for the lands in their own name. It is signed byBartolome Becerra, Mateo Diaz, Pedro del Castillo, Juan Becerra, andGeronimo del Castillo, the sixth legitimate son, Francisco Diaz delCastillo, being absent.

There is a hiatus of eight months in the record of the suit untilDecember 12, 1579, when the president issued an order of ruego yencargo to Rodrigo de Acosta, the parish priest of Guanagazapa, to as-certain if two (possibly a scribal error) caballerias of land could begranted to Martin Ximenez without damage to the Indians. Thepriest promptly replied that six or even more caballerias could begranted without injury.

2 This letter and all the material cited below have been drawn from theArchivo Colonial de Guatemala, from a portfolio labeled " Autos de MartinXimenez estante en esta corte sobre las quatro cauallerias de tierra que pide enterminos del pueblo de Yzquintepeque, la-s quales tienen contradichas Franciscode Valverde e los yndios de los pueblos de Huanagaqapa e los de Huemango".(55 ff. Italics mine.)


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NOTES AND COMMENT 105The month of January saw no less than five petitions and protests

by Bernal Diaz and his Indians against the grant. The only newmatter they contain is the charge that all the witnesses called byJuan de Morales were intimate friends of Ximenez and that Acostawas unfriendly to the Indians of his parish, who were suing to havehim removed for extortion and for his ignorance of their language.

On February 13, 1580, the Indians of Guanagazapa gaveIBernalDiaz a power of attorney to represent them in their suit for the re-covery of their lands. On the twenty-third they filed another protest,the gist of which was that they needed the land because they had tomove their milpas every two years on account of the heat and becausetheir land "got tired". They denied Ximenez 's statement to theeffect that they were so few in number that they did not need the land,saying that when they were first given to their encomendero theynumbered only twenty families, but now they numbered eighty fam-ilies. Moreover, they were not bringing this suit at the behest oftheir encomendero, as charged; indeed, they had contested the grantfrom the beginning.And if our encomendero helps us, and his sons the same, it is right and what hisMajesty commands, and if the lands are to be given to any one they should begiven to our encomendero and to his sons, who will look after us and do us noinjury.

The blunt hand of the old conquistador seems all too apparent inthis last sentence. Osorio, the attorney for Ximenez, denied in toltothe allegations of the Indians (March 1); he begged more time inwhich to gather evidence (May 6); he presented his probanza (June16). Bernal Diaz swung into action with three petitions (July 1, 8,and 28) in which he blasted in turn all the allegations of his op-ponent, adding that Ximenez wanted the land for an indigo factoryand that, moreover, Ximenez was a vagabond without property andtherefore entitled to no consideration.

Osorio made the expected rebuttal on August 12, and the conclud-ing argument was made on August 18 by Bernal Diaz in a longletter to the president. He reviewed the whole history of the caseagain, adding little with which we are not already familiar, repeatingthat Ximenez wanted the lands for an indigo factory and was actingmerely as the agent for one Alonso Rhmirez de Vargas. Says BernalDiaz:


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106 THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEWBesides, the great damage and pestilence which come from the odor of indigo

are well known, and Indians have died and are dying from it, which your High-ness should command to cease. And as to what he says about the Indians notyet having received any damage from it up to the present, I say that we begrestitution of the lands before they suffer it... And as to what lie says aboutmy defending the Indians and about my not wishing any Spaniards to enteramong the Indians of my encomienda, I say it is false and contrary to the truth,because it is well known that in Sacatep6quez most of the wheat fields of theSpaniards are on the lands of my encomienda. . . . Your Highness should notpermit these lands to be taken from the Indians and given to a vagabond, forthey are a pueblo of more than three hundred persons....

The record of the suit ends with the laconic statement, signed bythree members of the audiencia on August 31, 1580, that the landshave been restored and that the parties are given twenty days inwhich to file proba.nzas.To sum up: the suit shows clearly the identity of interest ofBernal Diaz and the Indians of his encomienda., for any diminutionof their revenue producing lands meant a, corresponding loss to him.;it also shows that the Indians regarded him as their natural protectorand that he regarded himself in the same light. It shows, moreover,that the audiencia concurred in his opinion and, by reversing its orig-inal stand, regarded his argument as generally valid. I might add,by way of postscript, that had it not been for the stout fight put upby Bernal Diaz the Indians would assuredly have lost their lands.

LESLEY BYRD SIMPSON.University of California,Berkeley.

HISTORICAL ACTIVITIES IN PANAMAOn May 29, 1935, the University of Panama was formally estab-lished and solemnly inaugurated the following October. It thus be-came the youngest Hispanic American university. Under the activeguidance of the first rector, Dr. Octavio Mendez Pereira, the newuniversity has undertaken a number of projects of keen interest tostudents of Hispanic American affairs. Panama was fortunate inobtaining the services under extremely favorable terms of a numberof German scholars, living in exile from their homeland. This groupof some half dozen persons constitutes the nucleus of the faculty ofthe National University. Among them are Franz Berkenau in his-tory, formerly of the University of Leipzig; Richard Behrendt, in

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Bernal Diaz