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The Loss of the Flagship of the Armada Del Mar Del Sur (1654) and Related Aspects of Viceregal Administration*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Peter T. Bradley
Peter T. Bradley*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Extract

On the 18th October 1654 the squadron usually referred to as the Armada del Mar del Sur left Callao bound for Panama, carrying Crown and private bullion. It comprised, as capitana, the Jesús María de la Limpia Concepción of about 1150 tons and built at Guayaquil between 1641 and 1644, as almiranta, an ex-merchantman of 400 tons the San Francisco Solano, and a chinchorro whose task was to sail a little ahead seeking news of possible interlopers en route, assessing sailing conditions and watching out for land. As was usual practice, another chinchorro had previously been dispatched to warn the President of Panama of the impending departure of the squadron in order that he could ensure that the galeones would be waiting at Portobelo to take aboard the silver and other goods. The role and actions of these two chinchorros was to become a subject of considerable debate during the next few months.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , January 1989 , pp. 383 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to the British Academy for a grant which enabled me to undertake research in connection with this article. In the Archivo General de Indias (Hereafter AGI), Indiferente General, 2574, is contained the principal documentation on this incident. Unless otherwise stated, documents referred to are from this source.

References

1 This account is compiled from: Viceroy Salvatierra to Crown, 18 November 1654, Pedro Vázquez de Velasco, 28 December 1654 and 12 February 1655, Andrés de Villela, 4 September 1656 and 25 July 1657, “Sobre la causa de la perdida de la Capna de la Armada del mar del sur,” General Francisco de Sosa, 28 December 1654, “Hace relación muy por menor de todo el succeso de la perdida de la Capna del mar del sur,” copy of a letter of General Sosa, 19 November 1654, and Diego Andrés Rocha, fiscal of Quito, 19 December 1654. Villela states that the almiranta was the sister-ship of the Jesús María, the Santiago, but viceroy Salvatierra directly, and others indirectly, suggest otherwise.

2 Rocha, 19 December 1654.

3 Sosa, “Relación muy por menor,” 28 December 1654.

4 Salvatierra to Crown, 18 and 19 November 1654 and 1 January 1655.

5 Villela, 4 September 1656, Alba to Crown, 15 September 1655 and 24 August 1656. Alba to Crown, 20 May 1655 and 30 June 1656, AGI, Lima, 57.

6 “Relación sumaria de las barras y Rls que los Jueces Oficiales de la real haçienda … embiamos a los reinos de españa,” 17 October 1654, and Vázquez, 28 December 1654.

7 Sosa, “Relación muy por menor,” 28 December 1654.

8 “Testimonio del indulto q proveyo en Chanduy Don Pedro Vazquez de Velasco,” also reported in Salvatierra, 1 January 1655.

9 Vázquez, 2 December 1654.

10 Rocha, 29 January 1655.

11 Vázquez, 28 December 1654 and Bartolomé de Solórzano Panyagua, 29 December 1654.

12 Vázquez, 12 February 1655.

13 “Memoria de lo que se a sacado y manifestado de plata que venia en la capitana … y se remitio en el nauio del oro Ntra Sra de los Angeles.” A further account of this first installment of silver to Panama, “Memoria de la platta que llego a Panama en 20 de henº de 1655 en el nabio del oro,” refers to 994 ingots of private silver, estimating the total value of all forms of private silver shipped to be 1,403,303 pesos, and that of Crown silver 391,430 pesos.

14 “Memoria de la plata que remite, sacada y cobrada en la forma dha, en el nauio Santiago,” which refers to the second installment.

15 Archivo Nacional, Peru, Real Tribunal del Consulado, legajo 1, cuaderno 6A.

16 Alba to Crown, 14 December 1657.

17 Alba to Crown, 13 September 1659, AGI, Lima, 60, and “Relación que el Conde de Alba hace del estado del Perú,” AGI, Lima, 61, Chapter 20.

18 Tribunal del Consulado to Crown, 10 July 1657, and Alba to Crown, 24 August 1656.

19 Consulado to Crown, 26 August 1659.

20 “Copia del acordado del conss°,” 4 September 1660. Crown to Consulado and Crown to Alba, 2 October 1660, AGI, Lima, 573, book 25, fols. 369–372v and 372v–373v.

21 Vázquez, 12 February 1655.

22 Archivo Nacional, Peru, Real Tribunal del Consulado, legajo 1, cuaderno 6A.

23 Consejo to Crown, 2 May 1656. Unlike the almiranta which foundered on unknown shallows off Cabo Garachiné in June 1631, her counterpart of 1654 strayed into known dangerous waters. Documentation on the earlier incident is to be found in AGI, Lima, 43.

24 Pedro Carrillo, 16 April 1655.

25 Ibid., and Bartolomé de Solórzano Panyagua, reporting comments of Vázquez de Velasco, 29 December 1654.

26 Sosa, 19 November 1654.

27 Pedro de Meneses, 15 November 1654.

28 Crown to Salvatierra, 20 May 1656, AGI, Lima, 573, book 25, fols. 28v–30.

29 “Papel sin firma,” AGI, Lima, 59. See also Crown to Alba, 7 July 1656, AGI, Lima, 573, book 25, fols. 56v–59v.

30 Licenciado Caamaño de Figueroa, 1 January 1655. “Testimonio del estado en que estaua la causa de la perdida de la capitana,” 18 August 1656, AGI, Lima, 59. Juan de Valdés y Llano, fiscal oí Lima, 31 December 1654, Vázquez, 24 January and 12 February 1655, and “Copia de cinco capítulos de una carta de Don Pedro Vázquez,” 28 December 1654.

31 Bradley, Peter T., “Maritime defence of the Viceroyalty of Peru (1600–1700),” The Americas, 36, no. 2 (1979), 155–75Google Scholar. Vazquez, 28 December 1654 and 24 January 1655. Sosa, “Relación muy por menor,” 28 December 1654.

32 Main sources for this section are: Villela, 4 September 1656 and “Testimonio del estado …,” AGI, Lima, 59.

33 Consejo to Crown, 2 May 1656, Licenciado Gil de Castejón, 14 August 1659 requesting the arrest of Sosa, report of his custody, 7 October 1659 and Sosa’s comments.

34 Vázquez, 28 December 1654.

35 Alba to Crown, 23 June 1660, “Copia del memorial que el Prior y consules de Lima dieron al … virrey,” 20 October 1660, and “Relación de los papeles que se traen sobre las medidas que han de tener los nauios,” AGI, Lima, 61. For a recent discussion of ship construction in Spain and the question of optimum measurements, see Phillips, C.R. Six Galleons for the King of Spain, Baltimore, 1986, especially chapter 3.Google Scholar

36 Vicente, M.E. Rodríguez, El Tribunal del Consulado de Lima en la primera mitad del siglo XVII, Madrid, 1960, chapter IX.Google Scholar

37 Alba to Crown, 15 September 1655, AGI, Lima, 59.

38 Alba to Crown, 28 August 1656, AGI, Lima, 58.

39 Alba to Crown, 1 July 1657, AGI, Lima 59, and Josephe, and Mugaburu, Francisco, Chronicle of Colonial Lima, Norman, 1975.Google Scholar

40 Alba to Crown, 4 September 1658 and 15 September 1659, AGI, Lima, 60. 1 December 1659, 31 March and 2 May 1660, AGI, Lima, 61.

41 “Raçón de las cantidades de barras, reales, platta labrada y otros géneros que an manifestado traer por altto las personas que binieron enbarcados en el galeon capitana.”

42 With a letter of Alba to Crown, 30 June 1655, AGI, Lima, 57.

43 Alba to Crown, 12 June 1656, AGI, Lima, 58.

44 Crown to Alba, 18 March 1660, AGI, Lima, 585, book 24.

45 Alba to Crown, 20 June 1657, AGI, Lima, 59.

46 Alba to Crown, 19 July 1656, AGI, Lima, 58.

47 Alba to Crown, 15 September 1655 and 20 June 1657, AGI, Lima, 59, and 19 July 1656, AGI, Lima, 58.

48 Alba to Crown, 20 June 1657, AGI, Lima, 59.