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The Franciscan Inquisition in Yucatán: French Seamen, 1560*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Eleanor B. Adams
Eleanor B. Adams*
Affiliation:
The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Extract

In the mid-sixteenth century the peninsula of Yucatán, with the remnants of its ancient Maya glories sleeping in the bush, had little to attract corsairs or contraband traders. When, after nearly twenty years of struggle, the Spaniards finally overcame the resistance of the stubborn Maya in the 1540’s, French intruders had already made many profitable voyages to the Antilles and extended their activities to the coast of Tierra Firme. More than another decade was to pass before they Cast a speculative eye on the possibilities of this later acquisition of the Spanish Crown.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , April 1969 , pp. 331 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1969

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Footnotes

*

This article is a chapter from an unfinished book on non-Spanish intruders in the Caribbean area from Discovery to about 1610.

References

1 Probanza e informaciones ... sobre los daños y perjuicios hechos ... por los corsarios luteranos franceses; y precisión de fortificar aquellas costas, Yucatán, 1565, Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla (cited hereinafter as AGI), Justicia, leg. 1029, no. 9Google Scholar.

2 de Sosa, Alonso to the Emperor, Panamá, , November 24, 1554, Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de Ultramar, 2d ser., 14 vols. (Madrid, 1885-1928), vol. 6, p. 360; cited hereinafter as DIUGoogle Scholar.

3 AGI, Audiencia de México, leg. 19.

4 Gil, Manuel y Sáenz, (Historia de Tabasco, 2d ed.; San Juan Bautista, 1898, p. 74)Google Scholar states that pirates first took possession of Isla del Carmen at Laguna de Términos on October 26, 1558. Although he fails to give the source of this information and no evidence to support his statement has been found, some later historians have accepted it. Solís, Juan Francisco Molina, Historia de Yucatán durante la dominación española, vol. 1 (Mérida, 1904), p. 40 Google Scholar; Martínez, Hector Pérez, Piraterías en Campeche (Siglos XVI, XVII, y XVIII) (México, 1937), p. 18 Google Scholar. The fact that there was considerable activity in the Laguna de Términos area at this period in connection with the founding of the pueblo of Tixchel on Sabancuy Estuary makes it appear unlikely that the French could have established themselves at Isla del Carmen without attracting the attention of those who were engaged in moving the Acalan people to their new home. Scholes, France V. and Roys, Ralph L., The Maya-Chontal Indians of Acalan Tixchel (Washington, D. C., 1946), pp. 168–75 Google Scholar.

5 Probanza e informaciones . . . sobre los daños y perjuicios hechos . . . por los corsarios luteranos franceses . . ., AGI, Justicia, leg. 1029, no. 9; Información en que el Alcalde Mayor de Yucatán, Diego Quixada, da cuenta a S. M. de los excesos y estado de dicha provincia a su llegada, Mérida, October 6, 1561, DIU, Vol. 13, pp. 246–47; Proceso criminal por vía de la Santa Inquisición Ordinaria contra Juan Inglés y Pedro Bruxel y otros demás franceses sus compañeros, Archivo General de la Nación, México (cited hereinafter as AGN), Inquisición, tomo 32, exp. 1Google Scholar.

6 Duro, Cesàreo Fernández, Armada Española, 9 vols. (Madrid, 1895-1903), vol. 2, p. 462 Google Scholar; Wright, Irene A., The Early History of Cuba, 1492–1586 (New York, 1916), pp. 246–47 Google Scholar, Historia documentada de San Cristóbal de la Habana en el siglo XVI, tomo 1 (Habana, 1927), p. 36 Google Scholar. Gosselin dates an account of a battle “jusqu’au Perou” between a Spanish fleet and two French ships, the Barbe and the Marquerite of Dieppe, 1557. Gosselin, Edouard Hippolyte, Documents authentiques et inédits pour servir à l’histoire de la marine normande et du commerce rouennais pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Rouen, 1876), p. 158 Google Scholar. It seems likely that the reference is to this incident and that the date should read 1559. The treatment of Roelas’ prisoners was in accordance with an order dated December 31, 1557, that French prisoners should serve in the galleys, except for “captains, masters, and officers who might be taken in the navigation to the Indies, who were to be hanged or thrown into the sea.” Duro, Fernández, vol. 2, p. 462 Google Scholar. Although this had been inspired by a similar order concerning Spanish prisoners issued by Henri II, French resentment at the punishment meted out to Roelas’ captives was so great that the French ambassador advised the king to order the corsairs to put to death all prisoners they might taken on their way to or from the Indies. de la Roncière, Charles, Histoire de la Marine française (Paris, 1899), vol. 3, pp. 588–89.Google Scholar

7 Ducere, Edouard, Histoire maritime de Bayonne, Les corsaires sous l’ancien régime (Bayonne, 1895), p. 28 Google Scholar; AGI, Audiencia de Mexico, leg. 19, Audiencia de Guatemala, leg. 9.

8 AGI, Audiencia de Guatemala, leg. 9.

9 AGN, Inquisición, tomo 32, exp. 1.

10 DIU, vol. 6, pp. 373–74, 384, 392.

11 Conway, G.R.G., An Englishman and the Mexican Inquisition (Mexico, 1927), p. 159 Google Scholar; de Armas, Antonio Rumeu, Los viajes de John Hawkins a América (1562-1595) (Sevilla, 1947), pp. 230, 233Google Scholar; Williamson, James A., Hawkins of Plymouth (London, 1949), p. 115 Google Scholar. Because of the similarity in name, it may be worth noting that we also have references to a certain Jean le Blanc, captain of the royal navy, who, despite the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, was stationed off Cádiz to spy on the galleons from the Indies. This man went to Florida with Ribault in 1565 as flag-captain of the Trinité and died in the massacre by Menéndez de Aviles. La Roncière, vol. 4, pp. 46–47, p. 584 n.

12 AGI, Audiencia de Mexico, leg. 19.

13 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de América y Oceania, sacados de los Archivos del Reino, y muy especialmente del de Indias, 42 vols. (Madrid, 1864-84), cited hereinafter as DII, vol. 12, p. 56 Google Scholar; DIU, vol. 6, p. 373.

14 de Castellanos, Juan, Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias (Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 4, Madrid, 1914), p. 154.Google Scholar

15 AGN, Inquisición, tomo 32, exp. 1.

16 AGI, Audiencia de México, leg. 19.

17 La Roncière, vol. 3, p. 587 n.

18 Nobiliario de conquistadores de Indias (Madrid, 1892), pp. 62–63 Google Scholar. Fernández Duro (vol. 1, p. 214n) mentions this incident, but mistakes the year of the cédula for the one in which the encounter occurred.

19 See Davenport, F.G., European Treaties bearing on the History of the United States (Washington, 1917), vol. 1, pp. 219–21 Google Scholar.

20 La Roncière, vol. 3, pp. 583–84.

21 Ibid., pp. 587–89; Newton, Arthur Percival, The European Nations in the West Indies 1493–1688 (London, 1933), pp. 58–59.Google Scholar

22 Lemonnier, Léon, Sir Francis Drake (Paris, ca. 1932), p. 36.Google Scholar

23 Lowery, Woodbury, The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits of the United States, vol. 2, Florida: 1562–1574 (New York and London, 1905), pp. 24–27 Google Scholar.

24 The account of the attacks on Santa Marta and Cartagena in 1559 is based on “Elegía a la muerte de Joan de Bustos Villegas, segundo gobernador de Cartagena por provisión de la R. M.,” Castellanos, pp. 434–36, and testimony given in the inquisitorial proceedings against Juan Inglés et al. in AGN, Inquisición, tomo 32, exp. 1.

25 AGI, Justicia, leg. 1029, no. 9.

26 Mañé, J.I. Rubio, Archivo de la historia de Yucatán, Campeche y Tabasco, 3 vols. (Mexico, 1942), vol. 1, p. lxv Google Scholar.

27 The principal sources for the following account are AGI, Justicia, leg. 1029, no. 9; DIU, vol. 13, pp. 246–47; and AGN, Inquisición, Tomo 32, exp. 1. See also Menéndez, Carlos R., ed., El primer proceso instaurado por la Santa Inquisición en Yucatán, hace 379 años (Hombres y sucesos de otros tiempos, Cuadernos de Historia X, [Mérida, 1940], pp. 3–11 Google Scholar; first published in Diario de Yucatán, Jan. 1, 1940).

28 For the idolatry trials and related material see Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor B., Don Diego Quijada, alcalde mayor de Yucatán, 1561–1565, 2 vols. (México, 1938)Google Scholar, passim.

29 Hernáez, P. Francisco Javier, Colección de bulas, breves y otros documentos relativos a la iglesia de América y Filipinas, 2 vols. (Bruselas, 1879), vol. 1, pp. 377–92 Google Scholar; Scholes and Adams, vol. 1, pp. 21–23. See also Greenleaf, Richard E., Zumárraga and The Mexican Inquisition 1536–1543 (Washington, D.C., 1961), pp. 8–13 Google Scholar.

30 The spellings of some of these names are not consistent in the manuscript. Variants include Buxel, de Fretier, Fox, Atholin de la Pina (Reulin del Spino), Lajere, and Laxeri. In any case most of them are Hispanicized renderings of the French forms. For the sake of convenience an arbitrary choice of spelling has been adopted for use in the text.

31 This was probably Chesapeake Bay.

32 Priestley, Herbert Ingram, The Luna Papers. Documents relating to the Expedition of Don Tristan de Luna y Arellano for the Conquest of La Florida in 1559–1561, 2 vols. (Deland, 1928), vol. 2, pp. 176–79 Google Scholar, Tristan de Luna, Conquistador of the Old South; a Study of Spanish Imperial Strategy (Glendale, Calif., 1936), pp. 163–64 Google Scholar. Although we have no record of English voyages to the Florida area at this period, references in the Admiralty records indicate that some such enterprises were undertaken by Englishmen in close cooperation with French owners and sailors. See Marsden, R.G., “Voyage of the ‘Barbara’ of London, to Brazil in 1540,” English Historical Review, vol. 24 (1909), pp. 96–100 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Fernández Duro, vol. 1, pp. 321, 418.

34 It is a curious coincidence that a merchant named Juan Oliver had been residing in Cuba for six or seven years at the time Sores attacked Havana in 1555. This Oliver was said to be French, and when he was a prisoner of Sores the latter sent him to demand the surrender of the alcaide. In December 1555 Juan Oliver was listed as one of the survivors of the French attack and was apparently still living in Havana. If by any chance this man had later joined the corsairs, his best policy would certainly have been to behave as Oliver did in Yucatán, having as little as possible to say, conforming to Catholic custom, and disassociating himself from actual participation in any irreligious acts or conversations.

35 Under Spanish law a man did not attain majority until he reached the age of 25.

36 Apparently Ponce is referring to the rope which some of the penitents were sentenced to wear when they performed public penance.

37 S. J., Mariano Cuevas, Historia de la Iglesia en Mexico, vol. 2 (Tlalpam, D. F., 1922), pp. 484-85Google Scholar.

38 Miles Philips, who appeared in an auto de fe in Mexico City a few years later, describes “certaine fooles coats which they had prepared for us, being called in their Language S. Benitos, which coats were made of yellow cotton & red crosses upon them, both before & behind . . ., and so about eight of the clocke in the morning, we set foorth of the prison, every man alone in his yellow coat, and a rope about his necke, and a great greene Waxe candle in his hand unlighted.” Hakluyt, Richard, The Principal Navigations, Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation, Hakluyt Society, Extra Series, vol. 9 (Glasgow, 1904), p. 427 Google Scholar. Cf. Obregón, Luis Gonzalez, Mexico viejo, noticias históricas, tradiciones, leyendas y costumbres (Paris and México, 1900), pp. 107-08Google Scholar. The coroza was a paper cap painted with appropriate symbols in accordance with the seriousness of the offense.

39 Gonzalez Obregón, p. 677.

40 Medina, José Toribio, La primitiva Inquisición americana (1493-1569), 2 vols. (Santiago de Chile, 1914), vol. 1, p. 294 nGoogle Scholar.

41 AGN, Inquisición, tomo 126.

42 AGN, Inquisición, tomo 150.

43 Scholes and Adams, vol. 2, pp. 220–21.

44 Ibid., pp. 255–56, 301–02, 368, 371, 381.

45 AGI, Audiencia de Mexico, leg. 367.

46 Priestley, , The Luna Papers, vol. 1, p. 193 Google Scholar.

47 Ibid.; vol. 2, pp. 149, 157, 177; Tristan de Luna, pp. 163–65.

48 Proceso contra Sebastian de Peña Redonda, AGN, Inquisición, tomo 32, exp. 6.