Opening a Transatlantic World
When Christopher Columbus reached the Bahamas in 1492, he opened sustained contact between Europe and a hemisphere that would soon be christened “America.” This transatlantic connection brought dramatic changes to the lives of both Europeans and Native Americans, many of them well underway before the fifteenth century ended.
From their initial formulation, Columbus’s plans were essentially commercial enterprises, promising substantial returns for everyone involved. When India and the Spice Islands proved out of reach, the Admiral and his crews turned their attention to resources at hand, principally gold and native labor. Though some raised their voices and their pens in defense of the rights of Native Americans, they never succeeded in preventing Indian subjugation and exploitation.
Waves of Spaniards who roamed Caribbean lands in search of wealth were soon followed by equally avaricious English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese. A generation of European contact with the Caribbean shattered the region’s native cultures, and the Caribbean experience would provide a model for subsequent European actions in North and South America.
Theodor de Bry. America, pt. 2. Brevis Narratio Eorvm Qv in Florida. T. de Bry, 1591.
De Bry and his sons, Dutch Protestant engravers living in Frankfurt to escape Spanish domination of their homeland, embarked on a monumental project to edit and illustrate volumes chronicling European expeditions to the Americas. Their celebrated engravings are among the first detailed images of the New World. By 1634, they had published thirteen parts comprising thirty books. The de Bry engravings depicted Native Americans in a Classical style, contributing to the Western idea of Indians as “noble savages.” They also cast Spaniards as savages who killed and mutilated native people. These engravings served as powerful propaganda instruments in the contemporary struggle against the Spanish Empire. Their frequent reproduction in subsequent publications would preserve the anti-Spanish message for decades to come. Here, in a plate adapted from the work of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, the Timucua Indians in Florida are shown hunting, wearing deer disguises.
Bartolomé de las Casas. Den Vermeerderden Spieghel der Spaensche Tierannije Geschiet in Westindien. Amsterdam: Cornelius Lodewijcksz, 1621.
Las Casas first sailed to Hispaniola in 1502, and was ordained a priest in Santo Domingo sometime between 1510 and 1513. Disturbed by the desperate conditions of the native population, he became a passionate advocate on their behalf.
Las Casas’s criticism of Spanish rule was well received in Protestant Europe. His Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (The Destruction of the Indies: A Brief Account) was first published in 1552. This Dutch edition, bound with eight other pamphlets, includes an account of Spaniards torturing a Mexican chief to extort precious metals. The illustration was designed by Dutch engravers to shock readers.
Hernán Cortés. Praeclara Ferdinadi Cortesii de Noua Maris Oceani Hyspania Narratio Sacratissimo. Norimberga: Fridericum Peypus, 1524.
Acting on the authority of the governor of Cuba, and subsequently on his own, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec empire between 1519 and 1521. During this period, he wrote five letters to Charles V, detailing his exploits and making a case for both the legitimacy of his actions and his future privileges in the Spanish colonies.
The second letter describes the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, a huge metropolis, protected and enriched by its location at the center of a vast lake. The letter reached Spain in 1521 and was published in 1522. A Latin translation, shown above with an engraving of Charles V, was published in Nuremberg in 1524.
Francisco López de Gómara. La Historia General de Las Indias. Anuers: Martin Nucio, 1554.
Gómara, a priest from Seville who never visited Mexico, was the first historian to write a book about its conquest. Secretary and chaplain to Cortés from 1541 until his death in 1547, Gmara wrote his History, first published in 1553, as a commemoration of his employer’s achievements. Bartolomé de las Casas, who disapproved of Gómara’s unconditional support of Cortés’s ruthless treatment of the Indians, vigorously condemned it. Perhaps because of Las Casas’s objections, Spain’s Prince Philip quickly suppressed the book. This prohibition, however, had little effect on its circulation throughout the rest of Europe. The edition shown above, published in Antwerp, includes the first known depiction of a buffalo, probably drawn from a description.
Gaspar Prez de Villagrá. Historia de la Nueua Mexico. Alcala: Martinez Grande, 1610.
Villagrá was an officer and chronicler of Juan de Oñate’s expedition to conquer and colonize New Mexico. A formidable group of soldiers, colonists and livestock crossed the Rio Grande in May 1598, and Oñate (ca. 1550-1626) established the headquarters of this first European settlement west of the Mississippi at San Juan pueblo that July. Failure to discover precious metals quickly diminished the size of the expedition, and native resistance produced a series of skirmishes, culminating in a pitched battle at Acoma pueblo where some 800 Indians died. In 1613, Oñate returned to Mexico City to account for his conduct. He was fined and forever banished from New Mexico for using excessive force during the Acoma rebellion. Villagrá’s chronicle of these events was composed in epic verse.
Lionel Wafer. A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. London: James Knapton, 1699.
Wafer, a Scotsman, began his career on the high seas as a ship’s surgeon. An encounter with Captain Edmund Cook in Jamaica led him to join Cook’s privateering expedition to the Isthmus of Panama (1679-81), to troll those waters in search of Spanish ships laden with gold and silver. In crossing the isthmus, Wafer was injured by an explosion of gunpowder. Unable to walk, he was left behind with Cuna Indians, who apparently accepted him. He eventually made his way back to the coast, rejoining his buccaneering cohorts. Subsequently charged with piracy, he spent two years (1688-1690) in a Virginia prison. His book, published when he returned to London, contains a wealth of information about the natural history of the isthmus, and the daily life and shamanistic practices of the Cuna.