2 Letter from Alonso de Illescas. Archivo General de Indias, Escribanía, 922b, f. 192v-193v. All following references from the Archivo General de Indias will use the abbreviation AGI followed by the section and folder and where applicable the folio or image number (in the case of digital images).

3 The name Campaz was used to reference native people residing between the Esmeraldas River and Bahia de Caraquez. It is difficult to tell what eventually became of the Campaz people. Many local denominations such as Campaz and Nigua fell out of usage during the colonial period. In some cases these were subdivisions of larger groups such as the Tsachila (Colorados) or Cayapas.

4 AGI, Escribanía, 922b, f.l9Zv-193v. “Haría todo quanto en mi fuese y procuraría traer de paz todos los naturales de questa provincia...”

5 Strict control over Africans was evinced by policies enacted early in the Viceroyalty of Peru, in 1538 the city cabildo of Quito prescribed the right to carry arms to blacks (either free or enslaved) and empowered Spaniards to kill any black who questioned or raised a hand to them: “qualquier negro que se tomare a palabras con español e alçare mano con armas o sin ellas.. .el dicho español le pueda matar. Libro primero de cabildos de Quito, ed. and transe, by José Rumazo Gonzales (Quito, 1934), pp. 390-391. Royal ordinances recorded in 1580 reflected concern with the very type of intermingling (as perceived by Crown administrators) occurring between Africans and Indians in Esmeraldas. The ordi nance explicitly forbade blacks from settling in or among native communities. The reasons noted by the Crown included, 1. reports of Africans abusing natives, taking and abusing their wives and daughters, 2. Africans corrupting the process of evangelization, 3. denying the Indians their liberty. See Collección de cédulas reales dirigidas a la audiencia de Quito, Tomo I—1538-1600. Volumen IX, Publicaciones del Archivo Municipal, vers. Jorge A. Garcés G.; introduction by Roberto Páez, J. (Quito, 1935), p. 357 Google Scholar.

6 The books of the Cabildos de Quito include a wide variety of ordinances prohibiting blacks from carrying arms and numerous prohibitions against their living among or intermingling with native people. See for example Collection de cédulas reales dirigidas a la Audiencia de Quito (Quito, 1935) p. 354. Another group of orders are contained in the Archivo Nacional Histórico (Quito), Cédulas, Caja 1.

7 Restall, Matthew’s edited volume Beyond Black and Red: African-Native Relations in Colonial Latin America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005)Google Scholar contains numerous articles examining African resistance within an African-native context. Also see Landers, Jane’ Black Society in Spanish Florida, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999)Google Scholar, Carroll, Patrick J., Blacks in Colonial Veracruz: Race, Ethnicity, and Regional Development (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991)Google Scholar, McKnight, Kathryn’s “Confronted Rituals: Spanish Colonial and Angolan ‘Maroon’ Executions in Cartagena de Indias (1634),” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 5:3 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Lokken, Paul’s “A Maroon Moment: Rebel Slaves in Early Seventeenth-Century Guatemala,” Slavery and Abolition 25:3 (December 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. An earlier set of studies addressing similar issues includes Lockhart, James’s Spanish Peru, 1532-1560; A Colonial Society (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968)Google Scholar, Bowser, Frederick’s The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524-1650 (Stanford, 1974)Google Scholar and Schwarz, Stuart’s Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

8 The first professional modern history to include Esmeraldas was Suárez, Federico González’s Historia general de la República del Ecuador (Quito: Imprenta del Clero, 1893)Google Scholar. A large cache of related primary documents were transcribed and published in the 1940s by González, José Rumazo as Documentos para la historia de la Audiencia de Quito (Madrid: Afro Aguado, 1948)Google Scholar. Phelan, John Leddy dedicated a chapter to Esmeraldas in The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 19671) Google Scholar. In ethno-historical terms Alcina Franch concentrated on both the pre and post-contact societies of Esmeraldas. See Franch, José Alcina, “Penetración española en Esmeraldas tipología del descubrimiento.” Revista de Indias XXXVI: 143-144 (January-June 1976), pp. 65–121 Google Scholar; La arqueología de Esmeraldas (Ecuador): Introducción general (Madrid: Ministerio de Asunto Exteriores, 1979)Google Scholar and “El Problema de las Poblaciones Negroides de Esmeraldas, Ecuador.” Apertura: Boletín Oficial del Vicariato Apostolico de Esmeraldasl (1991) pp. 34-45. Szazdi, Adam’s article “El transfondo de un cuadro: ‘Los mulatos de Esmeraldas’ de Andrés Sánchez Galque” published in Cuadernos Prehis-pánicos 12 (1986-1987), pp. 93–142 Google Scholar is perhaps the most extensively documented examination of the Esmeraldeños engagement with Quito authorities. Salomon, Frank’s monograph Los Yumbos, Niguas y Tsatchila o “Colorados “: Durante la Colonia Española (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1997)Google Scholar examines the maroons in relation to interstitial native communities joining the littoral with the highland regions of Quito. Novoa, Rocio Rueda’s thesis from the Universidad del Valle del Cali published as Zambaje y autonomia: historia de la gente negra de la provincia de Esmeraldas, siglos XVI-XVIII (Quito: Abya-Yala, 2001)Google Scholar is notable for its emphasis on the intermingling of native and African elements in forming the Esmeraldas maroons’ ethnicity. Lane, Kris’s Quito 1599 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2002)Google Scholar has an excellent chapter describing the Esmeraldeños within an audiencia-wide context.

9 The literature on maroon societies across the Americas provides points of departure and similar scenarios in the Atlantic diasporic context. Some useful examples are: Paris, Scott, “Alliance and Competition: Four Case Studies of Maroon-European Relations,” Nieuwe West-Indische Gids, 55 (1981), pp. 174–224 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lokken, Paul, “Useful Enemies: Seventeenth-Century Piracy and the Rise of Pardo Militias in Spanish Central America,” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 5:2 (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 See Deboer, Warren R.. Traces Behind the Esmeraldas Shore (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996)Google Scholar. A well-rounded collection of essays on the archaeology of the Esmeraldas shore is available in the volume Primer encuentro de investigadores de la costa Ecuatoriana en Europa (Quito: AbyaYala, 1995). For a sense of overall demographic declines see Newson, Linda’s Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador (Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

11 Deboer, Traces, pp. 170-172. Also see Juan, and Villamarin, Judith, “Chiefdoms: The Prevalence and Persistence of ‘Señores Naturales’ 1400 to European Conquest” The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, vol.3, South America (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 607–612 Google Scholar.

12 See, for instance, de Cieza de Leon, Pedro, The Discovery and Conquest of Peru: Chronicles of the New World Encounter, trans. Cook, Noble David and Cook, Alexandra Parma (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 At this early date, the audiencia argued that the inefficiency of the overland route from Guayaquil resulted in the extremely high cost of Spanish goods in Quito, a speedier route would therefore reduce the cost of imports making Quito a larger market for commerce from the peninsula: “Letter from Hernando de Santillán” AGI-Quito 17, September 20, 1564.

14 Examining Quito’s desire for a closer port, an important consideration was the reduced cost of exporting high bulk, high volume goods like biscuits, hams, espadrilles, and gunpowder. Given its limited sources of mineral wealth; textiles and hacienda production were the key industries in Quito. Karen Powers states, “It was the only way that a relatively unendowed, peripheral Spanish population could earn enough specie to participate as consumers in the trans-Atlantic trade.” Powers, Karen Vierra, Andean Journeys: Migration, Ethnogenesis, and the State in Colonial Quito (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1995)Google Scholar. Also see Kris Lane’s “Mining the Margins” in Quito 1599, pp. 115-149.

15 José Alcina-Franch, “Penetración,” pp. 65-121.

16 Cabello Balboa notes the numerous failed attempts to establish a permanent settlement, including one by Sebastian Garcilaso de la Vega, father of one of colonial Peru’s first Mestizos and noted author. de Balboa, Miguel Cabello “Verdadera descripción y relación larga de la Provincia y Tierra de las Esmerladas, contenida desde el cabo comunmente llamado Pasao, hasta la bahía de la Buena Ventura, que es en la costa del Mar del Sur Reino de Pira; dirigida al muy Illustre Señor Licenciado Jhoan López de Cepeda de el Consejo de su majestad y su Presidente en la provincia de los Charcas, Reinos de Pira; hecha por Miguel Cabello Balboa, clérigo; donde se contiene una breve suma del alzamiento y rebelión de los indios de la provincia de los Quixos y de la entrada del inglés en el Mar del Sur,” in y Caamaflo, Jacinto Jijón, ed., Obras vol.I (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1945), pp. 7–76 Google Scholar.

17 There is a question of whether the audiencia’s proposal was that Illescas should, like a gobernador de indios, have authority limited to natives and his followers. Cabello makes clear that Illescas was to be gobernador de estas provincias, thereby giving him authority over anyone residing or entering the region. The audiencia’s sincerity may be doubted here. Cabello stated his low opinion, referred disparagingly to the mulattos and natives as mal habidos (badly living) and as esta canalla (this riffraff or mob). He referred to Illescas as a regente (regent) and commonly denigrated him as the “nuevo y negro gobernador” (the new and black governor). Cabello, Verdadera descripción, pp. 39, 41-42.

18 Miguel Cabello Balboa, “Report to the Crown,” in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, p. 394.

19 Soon after Cabello’s expedition, a letter to the crown from two Quiteño conquistadores stated that the very first benefit of conquering Esmeraldas was, “the bringing of many Indians into the service of God and into your royal service,” Letter from Diego de Arcos and Ñuño Ruiz de Rojas to the Crown, AGI-Quito 07.

20 A first hand report of the balseros and their working conditions was recorded around 1570. It relates that the up-river journey to the highlands took a total of three days, during which the balseros are not allowed to sleep or rest along the way. The author points out that “some cruel Spaniards” don’t allow the rowers time to eat either, forcing them to take their meals while they row the raft upstream. The author, as if to mitigate the abuse, points out that a culture developed around the hard work of moving the balsas upstream, “. . . with all this they always sing in their language and with much rejoicing.” Leiva, Pilar Ponce, ed., Relaciones Historico-geografìcas de la Audiencia de Quito (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1992) p. 62 Google Scholar. On the Island of Puna, Don Diego Tomaia, a native cacique, provisioned ships utilizing the port of Guayaquil, greatly enriching himself in the process. See Szaszdi, Adam, “D. Diego Tomala, Cacique de la isla de la Puná” in Estudios sobre política indigenista Española en América (Valladolid, 1977)Google Scholar.

21 Cabello de Balboa, Verdadera descripción, pp. 53-54.

22 The most extensive source on the López de Zúñiga expedition is contained in a single legajo: AGI-Escribania 922b.

23 Venegas gave the reason for the expedition as: por el mucho bien/que se seguirà de conquistrar y/ pacificar los yndios que ay en la/ dna provincia y allanar y traer/ de paz un negro que en la dha/ provin cia a mucho tiempo que esta/ alçado: AGI-Escribania 922b.2.71r-72v. Pedro de San Martin, the ringleader of the soldiers that mutinied had many witnesses that gave testimony like Manuel Vazquez who stated that: pedro de san martin persuadio/muchas vezes al governador y alos sol/dados que hiziesen salidas la tierra/adentro para que se procurasen/algunos naturales lo quai se hizo con/mucho cuydado myentras estuvieron/los soldados para ello y xamas pu/dieron a ver ningún natural: AGI-Escribania ‘ 922b.2.170r-173r.

24 The use of the term mulatto to describe people of African-native mixture is a matter of some contention is Latin American colonial studies. By the time that Quiteños began calling the people of Esmeraldas “negros y mulatos” another term “zambo” or “zambaigos” was gaining use in Peru. For an excellent elaboration see Queija, Berta Ares, “Mestizos, mulatos, zambaigos (Virreinato del Perú, siglo XVI)” in Negros, mulatos, zambaigos: derroteros africanos en los mundos ibéricos (Seville: Escuela de Estu dios Hispano-Americanos, 2000)Google Scholar. In Esmeraldas, however, “mulatos” remained in use, possibly as a reminder by authorities of the fugitive slave associations of the maroon communities. By the end of the 16th century, Quiteños reported that the descendants of the first fugitive Africans, intermarried with local native women could be considered “mulatos o zanbahigos.” However, subsequent documentation for the seventeenth century continued to use the term “mulato” to denote the maroon communities. I surmise that by the end of the sixteenth-century the term “los mulatos” and more specifically “ los mulatos de Esmeraldas” had become a term with incorporated features. They were not any mulatos, but rather a recognized entity. Over the long-term the term, it seems, fell out of usage and by the nineteenth-century Stevenson would write: “The natives of Esmeraldas, Rio Verde, and Atacames, are all zambos, apparently a mixture of negroes and Indians.” Stevenson, W. B. Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years’ Residence in South America (London: Hurst, Robinson and Co., 1825), vol. 2, p. 387 Google Scholar.

25 Deboer notes this process was underway before the Spanish entered (Deboer, p. 193-194). Indeed, some lowland natives claimed provenance from the highlands either in the pre or post-conquest period. Cabello Balboa additionally mentioned reports of highland origins of lowland native communities (Cabello, Verdadera descripción, p. 16).

26 Cabello, Verdadera descripción, p. 60.

27 Massive rainfall in Esmeraldas occurs during a longer wet-season (December through June) than in the south of Ecuador (January through April). More importantly, each season dumps an average of 2000 millimeters (about 80 inches) compared to the Guayaquil area which receives only 200-500 millimeters (from 8 to 20 inches): Newson, Life and Death, p. 61.

28 A member of Cabello’s expedition, Juan de Caceres Patino, described one of the mulatto interior settlements as lying near the hill country, possibly close to what is today called the Chindaul mountains. This region was within forty miles of the coast yet nearly impossible for Spanish soldiers to access: Cabello, Verdadera descripción, p. 46.

29 Numerous soldiers described the difficulties of the voyage downriver to the mulattos’ settlement. Pedro de Arévalo, one of the expedition captains, described being caught for six hours along a turbulent stretch of the Guayllabamba River. As the vanguard of the expedition, it’s probable that the mulattos detected Arévalo’s arrival well in advance. AGI-Escribania 922b, f. 95v-97v.

30 Letter from Fray Alonso de Espinosa to the Crown, in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, p. 11.

31 Letter from Fray Alonso de Espinosa to the Crown, in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, p. 10.

32 Letter from Alonso de Illescas, AGI-Escribania 922b, f. 192v-193v.

33 Ordinances, AGI-Quito 209L1, f73v-75v. This order specifically called for the audiencia to send Espinosa to Spain with a note to warning them that the viceroy will be empowered to make further decisions on the matter of Esmeraldas’ colonization.

34 “Order that it be committed to persons that know how to choose the settlements and port areas . . . and who love and are jealous of serving God and your majesty and the souls and universal good of these miserable Indians and mulattos. And that they know how to treat and care for them with love and Christian charity and that they abhor all avarice and disordered greed and in everything procure their good and that of your majesty and his vassals. . .” AGI-Quito 9R3N21p004.

35 The testimonies relating to the 1605-1607 raids are contained in the Jowdy-Duque de Infantado Microfilm Collection (Conde de Montesclaros Papers), Roll 2, libro 15, expedientes 6-7, Esmeraldas, 1605-1607, located at the DeGoyler Library, Southern Methodist University.

36 Salomon places this province within what would become the region of the Tsatchila (or Colorado) Indians. The groups residing in Cotongo and Bolo are somewhat of a mystery. Salomon proposes that Bolo may have been Bola Niguas. He also states that the name “Caravilas” is an enigma, but that it could denote a group of the “Colorado” Indians.

37 Testimony of Don Alonso Garcia, his version was told to him by an Amerindian named Pedro Pinga, Jowdy-Duque, f.lv.

38 Declaration of three Nigua Indians, Jowdy-Duque, f. 8v. For an examination of a similar case of violent execution see Kathryn McKnight, “Confronted Rituals.”

39 Price, Richard, ed. Maroons Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Fray Hincapié, predicator to the mulattos, said as much, when he testified, “there is no need to spend any more on them” [for their loyalty], Jowdy-Duque, f 4r.

41 Deboer, Traces, p. 194.

42 Salomon, Frank, Los Yumbos, Niguas y Tsatchila o “Colorados”: Durante la Colonia Española (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1997), chapter 3Google Scholar.

43 Testimony of Maria Mangache (Jowdy-Duque, f.3r) Testimony of Father Hincapié (f. 5v).

44 Cabello, “Verdadera Descripción,” p. 64.

45 Hincapié, Jowdy-Duque, f. 4г.

46 Salomon, Yumbos, pp. 62, 72-73.

47 Testimony of Fray Tellez, Jowdy-Duque, f. 20v.

48 Report by Tellez and Arévalo, Jowdy-Duque, ff. 20v-22r.

49 According to the documents, the agricultural labor that was avidly desired involved producing staples like corn, and probably included tubers as well as a variety of lowland fruits. That these goods could also be produced for a profit is well indicated by an entry found in a Hackke rudder of the late 17th century. The instructions regarding Bahía de San Mateo, the nearest inlet to the maroon communities makes clear both the dangers therein as well as the advantages that ships could gain in procuring needed supplies:

50 Letter from Padre Fray Hernando de Hincapié. Archivo Nacional Histórico: Quito, Fondo Especial, Caja 1.

51 “Report of the route and port to the South Sea by Cristóbal de Troya Pinque,” in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, pp. 40–53 Google Scholar.

52 Troya Pinque in Rumazo, Documentos, vol.4, p. 44 Google Scholar.

53 Troya Pinque in Rumazo, Docņmentos, vol. 4, p. 47 Google Scholar.

54 Troya Pinque in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, p. 51 Google Scholar.

55 Troya Pinque in Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, pp. 49–51 Google Scholar.

56 Whitehead, Neil, “The Crisis and Transformations of Invaded Societies: The Caribbean (1492-1580)” in The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. Ill, South America, Part 1, p. 868 Google Scholar. See also Felix Bolaños Barbarie y canibalismo en la retórica colonial: los indios Pijaos de Fray Pedro Simón (Bogotá: CEREC, 1994)Google Scholar.

57 Whitehead, “Crisis and Transformations,” p. 868.

58 The term colonial tribe is defined by Mary Helms as “societies that originated as recognizable entities as a direct result of colonial policies.” Key aspects of such social entities involve their “middle men” position often placing them in “pivotal” positions between Europeans and native societies and at times between European powers as well. See: Helms, Mary W., The Cultural Ecology of a Colonial Tribe, Ethnology VIII:1 (January 1969), pp. 76–84 Google Scholar.

59 Petition from Martín de Fuica, Rumazo, Documentos, vol.4, p. 80.

60 See Report of Martín de Fuica to the Audiencia of Quito, January 26, 1615, Rumazo, Documentos, Vol. 4, pp. 74-75Google Scholar. Auto dictado por el Pesidente de la Audiencia de Quito (12 April 1616) (Rumazo, Documentos, vol.4, pp. 99-101).

61 Petition of the mulattoes Juan, Baltasar, and Jerónimo de Illescas, Rumazo, Documentos, vol. 4, p. 112.

62 W. В. Stevenson, Historical and Descriptive Narrative, vol. 2, chap. XIII.