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The Contribution of the Franciscan College of Ocopa in Peru to the Geographical Exploration of South America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Rudolph Arbesmann O.S.A.
Rudolph Arbesmann O.S.A.*
Affiliation:
Fordham University
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Extract

The expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Spain and its colonies in 1767 was a serious blow to the missions in Mexico and in Central and South America. Not everywhere, however, did the disappearance of the Jesuit missionaries from the scenes of their labors result in the collapse of the missions. The Franciscans, who had been among the pioneer missionaries of Peru and had played a prominent part in carrying the Cross into the most remote wilds of South America, came to the rescue in many places, and, efficiently and successfully, carried on the work of their predecessors. This is true not only with regard to the chief aim of their missionary activity—the Christianization and civilization of their converts — but also with regard to the important task of geographical exploration. Eduard Pöppig, the pupil of the great Alexander von Humboldt, unquestionably a witness above suspicion, who, during his extensive voyages of discovery in South America from 1827 to 1832, followed the mission trails of the Franciscans in Peru, makes the following judgment on their activity: “However well the Jesuits contributed to the civilization of the plain Maynas, however untiring they have been in throwing the first light upon the geography of the confluences of the Marañón (that is, of that part of the Amazon which flows within the Peruvian borders), yet their endeavours are not without counterpart. The Franciscans, probably less favored by the circumstances of time, began their work almost a century later than the former, but the results of their labors, although they lie in ruins, were not smaller, and today still fill us with admiration.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , April 1945 , pp. 393 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1945

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References

1 During the years 1767–1769, 2273 Jesuit missionaries were expelled from Chile, Peru, Quito, New Granada, Paraguay, Mexico, and from the Philippines; cfMundwiler, J. B. S.J., “Deutsche Jesuiten in spanischen Gefängnissen in 18. Jahrhundert,” Zeitschrift für Kath. Theologie, XXVI [1902] 639 Google Scholar. According to Huonder, A. S.J., Deutsche Jesuitenmissionäre des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, suppl. 74, Freiburg, 1899, p. 31 Google Scholar, the total number of those deported was 2617.

2 Reise in Chile, Peru und auf den Amazonenstrom während der Jahre 1827–1832, 2 vols., Leipzig, 183 5–36, II, 320.

3 Pérou et Bolivie. Récit de voyage suivi d’études archéologiques et ethnographiques et de notes sur l’écriture et les langues des populations indiennes, Paris, 1880, p. 247.

4 Libro de los Diarios de Fray Francisco Menéndez, ed. by F. Fonck, 2 vols., Valparaiso, 1896–1900; I: Viajes de Fray Francisco Menéndez á la Cordillera; II: Viajes de Fray Francisco Menéndez á Nahuelhuapi. This work will be cited hereafter as Fonck, I and Fonck, II.

5 “Paso Menéndez” and “Isla de Frai Menéndez” (Fonck, I, 41; II, 294).

6 For descriptions of the Jauja valley in colonial time, see Pedro de Cieza de León, La Crónica del Perú [publ. in Sevilla in 1553], chapter LXXXIV, in Viajes Clásicos, vol. 24, Madrid, 1922, pp. 274ff.; El Viajero Universal …, obra compilada de los mejores viajeros por D[on] P[edro] E[stala] P[resbytero], vol. 14, Madrid, 1797, pp. 141ff.

7 Lemmens, L. O.F.M., Geschichte der Franziskanermissionen, Münster, 1929, p. 303 Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., p. 295. Hospicios were larger mission stations, equipped with an infirmary and workshops, and usually the headquarters of the Superior of the mission district who directed from there the spiritual conquests (entradas espirituales) of the forests.

9 Cf. ibid., pp. 290 ff. The reader who wishes to have detailed information concerning this early period of the Franciscan missions in Peru may consult with profit: Diego de Córdova Salinas, O.F.M., Crónica de la religiosíssima Provincia de los Doze Apóstoles del Perú de la Orden de N.P.S. Francisco de la regular observancia, Lima, 1651, especially Book I, chapters 15–19, and 32–34 (pp. 106–128; 193–214); Amich, J. O.F.M., Compendio Histórico de los Trabajos, Fatigas, Sudores y Muertes que los Misioneros Evangélicos de la Seráfica Religion han pad ecido en las Montañas de los Andes pertenecientes á las Provincias del Perú, Paris, 1854 Google Scholar.

10 Lemmens, op. cit., p. 295.

11 Juris Pontificii de Propaganda Fide Pars Prima, 7 vols., Romae, 1588–97, IV, 5–7.

12 The histories of the three colleges that played so important a part in the Christianization and civilization of South America have been treated in the following works: Historia de las Misiones de Fieles é Infieles del Colegio de Propaganda Fide de Santa Rosa de Ocopa, ed. by the missionaries of the same college, 2 vols., Barcelona, 1883; [Alexander Corrado, O.F.M.], El Colegio Franciscano de Tarija y sus Misiones. Noticias Históricas, Quaracchi, 1884; Ital. transl, by S. Villoresi, Quaracchi 1885; R. Lagos, O.F.M., Historia de las Misiones del Colegio de Chillán, precedida de una Reseña acerca de los primitivos Franciscanos en Chile, vol. I, Barcelona, 1908. A short account of the histories of the three colleges is given in Marcellino da Civezza, Storia Universale delle Missioni Francescane, 11 vols., Roma-Prato-Firenze, 1857–95, VIII-XI (four volumes in one), 632; 635; 641.

13 Montaña is due to a confusion of terms. Alexander von Humboldt found it amusing that montes (plantations) de cacao in Spanish maps had been translated with “cocoa-mountains.” The Montaña is rather the huge tropical forest region. A concise and excellent description of this territory which constitutes two thirds of the Peruvian Republic, and is politically divided into the five Departamentos of Loreto, San Martin, Madre de Dios, Huánuco, and Amazonas, can be found in R. Cavero, “La Selva Peruana,” in Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografía, LXXVII [1935], 192–209. Of course, the progress of civilization has changed many places in this territory. Iquitos, the capital of the Departamento of Loreto, for instance, has become an important commercial center where the business transactions of East Peru are carried out, and a regular boat-service with the Brazilian ports on the Amazon is maintained. However, there still remain many parts of the immense interior, “virgin, not yet penetrated, hitherto absolutely unknown to man” (ibid., p. 194).

14 At present, the Franciscan missions in Peru (Apostolic Vicariate San Francisco Solano de Ucayali) comprise the river-basins of the Ucayali, Apurímac, Mantaro, Ene, Chanchamayo, Perené, Tambo and Pachitea, and, therefore, the greater part of the old Ocopa missions. Soldán, José Pareja Paz Cf., Geografía del Perú, 2nd ed., Lima, 1943, p. 159 Google Scholar.

15 Concerning the ferocious and indomitable character of some of the numerous tribes in East Peru, cf. ibid., pp. 210f., where (pp. 197–206) a complete list of these tribes is given. To the Macheyengue (or Machillanga), for instance, there belonged Juan Santos Atahualpa who, in 1742, was the leader of the uprising in the Gran Pajonal—the territory within the triangle formed by the three rivers Perené, Tambo and upper Ucayali—during which the missions on the Cerro de la Sal (Chanchamayo and Perené Valleys) were wiped out (ibid., pp. 70; 200). Concerning the climate, cf. the experiences of Pöppig, op. cit., II, 293.

16 Maas, O. O.F.M., Las Ordenes Religiosas de España y la Colonización de America en la segunda parte del siglo XVIII. Estudios y otros Documentos, Barcelona, 1918, p. 82 Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 83.

18 Raimondi, A., Apuntes sobre la provincia litoral de Loreto, Lima, 1862, p. 48 Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., p. 56.

20 The instructions were published, for the first time, in the Mercurio Peruano V [Lima, 1792] 91 ff., and reedited by B. Izaguirre, O.F.M., Historia de las Misiones Franciscanas y Narración de los progresos de la Geografía en el Oriente del Perú. Relatos originales y producciones en lenguas indígenas de varios misioneros, 12 vols., Lima, 1922–26, VIII, 196–210.

21 Sobreviela’s diaries of these three expeditions are edited ibid., VII, 28–92; 119–134; 157–280. The same volume (pp. 135–156) contains also Sobreviela’s report concerning the progress of the missions of Huánuco, Cajamarquilla, Tarma, Jauja, Huanta, and Chiloé. The dates concerning the foundations of the pueblos mentioned above are according to Raimondi, Apuntes, pp. 79; 75; 73; 70; and Izaguirre, op. cit., VII, 3 68. A concise account of Sobreviela’s exploration of the Huallaga is given by A. Raimondi, El Perú, 6 vols., Lima, 1874–1913, II, 422–426.

22 Cf. Raimondi, Apuntes, p. 77.

23 Diary in Izaguirre, op. cit., VIII, 196–210; cf. Raimondi, El Perú, II, 431–435.

24 Cf. ibid., pp. 435–43 8.

25 Cf. ibid., pp. 438–441.

26 Fonck, I, 102.

27 Father Sobreviela’s letter can be found in Medina, J. Toribio, Historia de la literatura colonial de Chile, 3 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1878, II, 513 Google Scholar, n.

28 Fonck, II, 341.

29 Ibid., 343.

30 The Mercurio Peruano de Historia, Literatura y Noticias Públicas was published by the Sociedad Académica de Amantes de Lima from 1791–1794. It appeared twice a week, each number containing four folios in large 8°; the numbers of four months constituted one volume. The importance of the periodical was soon recognized in Europe. Joseph Skinner’s work, The present state of Peru, comprising its Geography, Topography, Natural History, Mineralogy, Commerce, the customs and manners of Inhabitants, the state of Literature, Philosophy, and Arts, the modern travels of the Missionaries in the unexplored mountainous territories, etc., etc., London, 1805, is but an extract of the first four volumes of the Mercurio. The German edition of the periodical by Justus Bertuch carries the title: Peru, nach seinem gegenwärtigen Xustande dargestellt aus dem Mercurio Peruano, Weimar, 2 vols., 1807–8, the first volume being an adaptation of Skinner’s extract by Ch. “Weyland, the second a translation of the remaining volumes of the Mercurio by E. A. Schmidt. For an evaluation of the Mercurio, see Raimondi, EI Perú, II, 452 f. Alexander von Humboldt warmly welcomed the new periodical and deposited a complete set of it in the Royal Library of Berlin (cf. ibid., p. 419, n. 1).

31 This contribution is written by Sobreviela himself.

32 Sobreviela’s map has been reproduced for this article from Raimondi, El Perú, II, Append.

33 On this interesting member of the Sociedad Académica de Amantes de Lima, see Raimondi, El Perú, II, 453.

34 With this may be identical Voyage au Pérou, par Sobreviela, Girbal et Barceló, transl, by Henry, Paris, 1809, 2 vols., atlas, cited by Fonck, II, 342, who in turn refers to M. Paz Soldán, Geografía del Perú.

35 In 1795 (four years after the publication of Sobreviela’s map), the Franciscan missionary, Fray Joaquín Soler, drew another map of the Montaña; cf. H. J. Mozans [John Augustine Zahm], Along the Andes and down the Amazon, New York and London, 1911, p. 458, n. 2. Nine exact maps had been drawn by members of Ocopa college until 1824; cf. Lemmens, op. cit., p. 3 04.

36 Op. cit., p. 45 8.

37 El Perú, II, 418 f.

38 Lemmens, op. cit., p. 304.

39 Raimondi, Apuntes, p. 104.

40 Ibid., p. 105; Lemmens, op. cit., p. 303.

41 Raimondi, Apuntes, p. 105.

42 Ibid., p. 105; Lemmens, op. cit., p. 303.

43 Raimondi, Apuntes, p. 106.

44 Lemmens, op. cit., p. 303.

45 Cf. his description, op. cit., Il, pp. 289–314.

46 A quechua word; originally the name of a Peruvian god and of a famous inca, then the name given to all Spaniards who, because of their extraordinary powers (fire-arms, horses), were thought to be descendants of the god (cf. R. Lenz, Diccionario Etimolojico de las voces Chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas Americanas, 2 parts, Santiago de Chile, 1904–10, II, 768 f.

47 Op. cit., II, 329.

48 Ibid., p. 3 06.

49 W. Smyth and F. Lowe, Narrative of a journey from Lima to Pará, London, 1836, pp. 203 ff. In 1846, the French explorer, F. de Castelnau, stopped there (cf. Expedition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud, 7 parts, Paris, 1850–61, part I: Histoire du voyage, vol. IV, pp. 371 ff.). In 1851, the American explorer, W. L. Herndon, who made a complete survey of the main branch of the Amazon system, fell sick at Sarayacu and was full of praise for the hospitable kindness of the Franciscan missionaries: “I was sick here, and think that I shall ever remember with gratitude the affectionate kindness of these pious and devoted friars of St. Francis” (Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, 2 vols., Washington, 1854, I, 201). In 1859, Sarayacu had 1,030 inhabitants. The missionaries had opened a school where they taught “a great number of children” (Raimondi, Apuntes, pp. 102 ff.).

50 Cf. Lemmens, op. cit., pp. 304 f.

51 Pedro González de Agüeros, O.F.M., Description historial de la Provincia y Achipiélago de Chilóe, Madrid, 1791, pp. 156–70; cf. Fonck, II, 136 f.; 140 (where two missionaries—Mata and Fernández—are mistakenly omitted). Menéndez gives a short summary of these events at the beginning of his first diary (Fonck, I, 3 f.) : “In 1771 the college of St. Ildefonsus of Chilián ceded the missions of Chiloé to the College of St. Rose of Ocopa because of scarcity of Religious, and because of the great difficulty it had in supplying these islands with priests. I was among the fifteen priests whom the college of Ocopa sent to Chiloe.”

52 Report in Fonck, II, 155 f.

53 Agüeros, op. cit., p. 171.

54 Ibid., p. 172.

55 Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile, Santiago de Chile, 1906, p. 370. Medina (ibid.) mentions also a visit of Agüeros to Concepción in Chile in 1784.

56 Saggio di Bibliografia Geografica, Storica, Etnografica Sanfrancescana, Prato, 1879, p. 9.

57 Fonck, II, 141, n. 1.

58 For an appreciation of this important work, see Diego Barros Arana, Historia general de Chile, 16 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1884–1902, VII, 169, n. 3; $54 f.; Medina, Historia de la literatura Colonial, I, xxviii; lix f.; II, 460 ff. We call to the attention of our readers the curious fact that, according to Agüeros, the name of Chiloé was, at least at his time, pronounced Chiloe.

59 A description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of South America, Hereford, 1774, facsimile print by A. E. S. Neumann, Chicago, 193 5.

60 The Recurso is now in the British Museum; cf. Barros Arana, op. cit., VII, 5 5 5, n. 64; Medina, Historia de la literatura colonial, II, 461, n. 15.

61 Cf. ibid., p. 460, n. 14. With the Representación in the British Museum may be identical a report of Agüeros, dated June 1792, in the Collection of documents of the Viceroy of Peru in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile. The report is concerned with the means that should be taken to give better religious service to Chiloé. Cf. Fonck, II, 142, n. 1.

62 Fonck, I, 4 f.

63 Esploraciones Jeográficas e Hidrográficas de José de Moraleda i Montero, Santiago de Chile, 1888, p. 42 5; cf. the shorter report by Agüeros, Descripción, p. 181. Concerning Moraleda, see Medina, Diccionario Biográfico, pp. 5 50 f.

64 Darwin, Charles Robert Cf., Reise eines Naturforschers um die Welt, German ed. by Carus, Julius Victor, Stuttgart, 1875, pp. 282 Google Scholar S.

65 Descripción, pp. 217 ff.: “Extracto de la expedición que los Padres Fr. Benito Marín y Fr. Julián Real … hicieron a últimos del año 1778 y principios del de 1779.”

66 Ibid., pp. 23 8 f. The escalera was an apparatus by which pirogues could be transported overland. The one on the isthmus of Ofqui had been constructed by the Jesuit explorer Father José García who, a few years before the expulsion of the Jesuits, had undertaken several successful expeditions to the Gulf of Peñas. Marín and Real found the escalera in bad condition. Cf. Fonck, II, 104; 147.

67 Agüeros, Descripción, pp. 243 ff.: “Segunda expedición hecha a los referidos Archipiélagos de Guaitecas y Guaianeco, por los Religiosos Misioneros P. Fr. Francisco Menéndez y P. Fr. Ignacio Bargas … a fines del año de 1779 y principios del de 1780, segun consta de la carta escrita al P. Fr. Julián Real por el citado P. Fr. Francisco Menéndez.”

68 Barros Arana, op. cit., VII, 184.

69 XV [1890] 3–71; cf. Fonck, II, 163, n. 1.

70 Pedro de Angelis, Colección de obras y documentos relativos á la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, 2nd ed., vol. I: Derroteros y viages á la Ciudad Encantada, ó de los Césares, que se creía existiese en la Cordillera al sud de Valdivia, Buenos Aires, 1910, p. 358.

71 Cf. The Gentleman’s Magazine, XXXIV [June, 1764] 304.

72 De Angelis, op. cit., I, 384 ff.: “Informe y díctamen del Fiscal de Chile sobre las ciudades de los Césares y los arbitrios que se deberian emplear para descubrirlas.”

73 Op. cit., pp. 112 f.

74 Op. cit., p. 39, n.

75 De Angelis, op. cit., I, 378.

76 Fonck, II, 163, n. 1.

77 Ibid., II, 161. At the beginning of the same diary he says that the Viceroy “ordered him to return to Chiloé only with the object of discovering Lake Nahuelhuapi and exploring five leguas of the territory around” (p. 164).

78 Cf. ibid., 303; 31$; 363; 367; 408; 410 ff.; 415 ff.; 437 ff. Only on p. 309 he departs from his characteristic suspension of judgment and seems to be influenced by the Derrotero of Roxas.

79 Ibid., I, 16 ff.

80 Ibid., I, 64.

81 Cf. George Chaworth Musters, At Home with the Patagonians, London, 1873, pp. 123 ff.; Francisco J. Cavada, Chiloé y los Chilotes. Estudio de folklore y lingüística de la Provincia de Chiloé, Santiago de Chile, 1914, pp. 87 f. There exists an extensive literature on the Enchanted City of the Caesars in Spanish. We refer the reader to the latest comprehensive book which deals with the subject, Enrique de Gandía, La Ciudad Encantada de los Césares, Buenos Aires, 1933. A short account of the origin and the development of the legend can be found in J. A. Zahm, Through South America’s Southland, New York and London, 1916, pp. 352 ff.; Barclay, W. S., The Land of Magellan, London, 1926, pp. 99 Google Scholar ff.

For the sake of completeness we add that also Father Fernández and Fray Sánchez, whose expedition we have mentioned above, had set out to discover the legendary city. “Because of information which had been spread about that whole province [Chiloé] that, to the east of it and on the other side of the Cordillera, existed a city, or a settlement of Europeans, Father Norberto Fernández and lay-brother Felipe Sánchez set out for its discovery” (Agüeros, Descripción, p. 181).

82 According to a note of Father Lucas de Martorell, O.F.M., to Fonck in 1884, taken from the Libro de las Incorporaciones i Desincorporaciones in the Archives of Ocopa. Cf. Fonck, II, 144, n. 1.

83 Ibid.: “Father Menéndez … attended the mission in Huanta and, in 1771, went to the missions of Chiloé. There he served as Misionero circular, preaching every year in all the chapels, hearing confessions, and enduring the hardships on land and on the sea for which Chiloé is known …” From the same note we learn that Menéndez was named President of the Chiloé missions in 1783. He filled this post until 1787 (Fonck, II, 158).

84 Talador is a technical term, used in Llanquihue and Chiloé, denoting a man who is an expert in searching for a path through the impenetrable forests of those territories.

85 Fonck, II, 318 ff.

86 Ibid., p. 220.

87 Ibid., pp. 301 ff.

88 Gay, Claude, Historia Física y Politica de Chile, 30 vols., Paris, 1844–71 Google Scholar, part II: Documentos, vol. I, pp. 314 f.; cf. Miguel Luís Amunategui, La cuestión de límites entre Chile i la República Argentina, 3 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1879–80, III, 337 f.

89 Op. cit., p. 521.

90 Fonck, II, 451.