The Indies

Descubriéronse las Indias en el año de mil y quatrocientos y noventa y dos. Fuéronse á poblar el año siguiente de Cristianos Españoles, por manera que ha 49 años que fueron á ellas cantidad de Españoles, y la primera tierra donde entraron para hecho de poblar, fue la grande y felicisima isla Española que tiene seiscientas leguas en torno.

The Indies were discovered in the year 1492. Spanish Christians went to settle them the next year, so it is now forty-nine years since a number of Spaniards went there. The first land they entered to settle was the large and most fortunate island of Española, which is six hundred leagues around.

Así han curado de sus vidas y de sus ánimas; y por esto todos los números y cuentos dichos han muerto sin fé y sin sacramentos. Y esta es una muy notoria y averiguada verdad, que todos aunque sean los tiranos y matadores la saben y la confiesan, que nunca los Indios de todas las Indias hicieron mal alguno á Cristianos; antes los tuvieron por venidos del cielo, hasta que primero muchas veces hubieron recebido ellos ó sus vecinos muchos males, robos, muertes, violencias y vexaciones de ellos mesmos.

That is how much they have cared for their lives and their souls. And so all these millions have died without the faith and without the sacraments. It is a well-known and proven truth, and everyone knows and admits it, even the tyrants and killers themselves. The Indians in all the Indies never did any harm to Christians. Instead they thought the Christians had come from heaven, until first they or their neighbors had suffered many wrongs from them, many times: robbery, killing, violence, and abuse.

These Tiuitiuas are a verie goodlie people and verie valiant, and haue the most manlie speech and most deliberate that euer I heard of what nation soeuer. In the summer they haue houses on the ground as in other places: In the winter they dwell vpon the trees, where they build very artificiall townes and villages, as it is written in the Spanish storie of the West Indies, that those people do in the low lands neere the gulfe of Vraba: for betweene May and September the riuer of Orenoke riseth thirtie foote vpright, and then are those Ilands ouerflowen twentie foote high aboue the leuell of the ground, sauing some few raised grounds in the middle of them: and for this cause they are enforced to liue in this maner.

These Tiuitiuas are a very handsome and very brave people, and they have the most manly and most deliberate speech I ever heard, of any nation whatever. In summer they have houses on the ground, as in other places. In winter they live in the trees, where they build very skillful towns and villages, as the Spanish story of the West Indies says those people do in the lowlands near the Gulf of Urabá. For between May and September the river Orinoco rises thirty feet straight up, and then those islands are flooded twenty feet above the level of the ground, except for a few raised places in the middle of them. For this reason they are forced to live in this way.

Quinquaginta millibus miliarium Germanicorum in ætheris profundo sita est LEVANIA insula: iter ad eam hinc, vel ex eâ in has terras rarissimè patet: et cùm patet nostræ quidem genti facilè est; hominibus verò transportandis planè difficilimum, et cum summo vitæ periculo conjunctum: Nulli à nobis sedentarij adsciscuntur in hunc comitatum, nulli corpulenti, nulli delicati; sed legimus eos, qui ætatem veredorum assiduo usu consumunt, aut qui navibus frequenter Indias adeunt, pane biscocto, allio, piscibus duratis, et cibis abhorrentibus victitare sueti. Inprimis nobis aptæ sunt vetulæ exsuccæ, quibus indè à pueritia trita est ratio, hircos nocturnos, aut furcas, aut trita pallia inequitandi, trajiciendique per immania terrarum spacia. Nulli è Germania viri apti sunt: Hispanorum sicca corpora non respuimus.

Fifty thousand German miles up in the depths of the ether lies the island of Levania. The road to it from here, or from there to these lands, is very rarely open. When it is open, the trip is easy for our kind. But for carrying humans it is extremely hard, and it puts their lives in the greatest danger. We take no one into our company who sits still all day, and no one fat or soft. We choose people who spend their lives riding post-horses, or who often sail to the Indies, living on ship’s biscuit, garlic, dried fish, and other unpleasant food. Dried-up old women suit us best. Since childhood they have practiced riding by night on goats, pitchforks, or worn-out cloaks, and crossing huge stretches of land. No men from Germany are fit for it, but we do not turn down the dry bodies of Spaniards.

De esta ceremonia se tomó aquel nombre tan celebrado del Dorado, que tantas vidas ha costado i haciendas. En el Perú fué donde sonó primero este nombre dorado; i fué el caso que habiendo ganado a Quito, donde Sebastian de Benalcázar, i andando en aquellas guerras o conquistas, topó con un indio de este Reino de los de Bogotá, el cual le dijo, que cuando querian en su tierra hacer su rei, lo llevaban a una laguna mui grande, i allí lo doraban todo, o le cubrian de oro, i con muchas fiestas lo hacian rei. De aquí vino a decir el Don Sebastian “vamos a buscar este indio dorado.” De aquí corrió la voz a Castilla i a las demas partes de Indias, i a Benalcázar le movió venirlo a buscar, como vino, i se halló en esta conquista i fundacion de esta ciudad, como mas largo lo cuenta el padre frai Pedro Simon en la quinta parte de sus noticias historiales, donde se podrá ver.

From this ceremony came that famous name, El Dorado, the Gilded One, which has cost so many lives and fortunes. It was in Peru that the name was first heard. After Quito had been won, Sebastián de Benalcázar, who was fighting in those wars and conquests, came upon an Indian from this kingdom, one of the people of Bogotá. The Indian told him how they made a king in his land. They took him to a very large lake and gilded him all over, or covered him with gold. Then they made him king with great festivities. That is why Don Sebastián said, “Let us go and look for this gilded Indian.” From there the word spread to Castile and the rest of the Indies. It moved Benalcázar to come looking for him, and so he did, and he took part in the conquest of this kingdom and the founding of this city. Father Fray Pedro Simón tells this at greater length in the fifth part of his Historical Notices, where it can be read.

The public were informed that in the West-Indies and other places where this terrible malady had been, it was observed the blacks were not affected with it. Happy would it have been for you, and much more so for us, if this observation had been verified by our experience.

The public were informed that in the West Indies and other places where this terrible malady had been, it was observed the blacks were not affected with it. Happy would it have been for you, and much more so for us, if this observation had been verified by our experience.