THE HISTORIES AND HISTORIANS OF CENTRAL AMERICA TO 1850

259 Pages·017.448 MB·English

by  PARKER, FRANKLIN DALLAS

COPYRIGHTED
by
FRANKLIN DALLAS PARKER
1951
THE HISTORIES AND HISTORIANS OF
CENTRAL AMERICA TO 1850
BY
FRANKLIN DALLAS PARKER
A.B., Greenville College, 1939
A.M., University of Illinois, 1949
THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY
IN THE GRADUATE COLLEGE OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 1951
URBANA. ILLINOIS
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THE GRADUATE COLLEGE
JUNE 2, 1551
I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY
SUPERVISION BY JERAmLXU -TJALLAS _EABKEE
F.NTTTT.FD THE HISTORIES AND HISTORIANS OF OCT
-_.TQ-185GL_.
BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF. D0GT_OE__
j> Al.-X U 'Z c" , j/J tyis^Msj
t
In Charge of Tlwhis
7- «••
Head of J/enarlmcnt
Recommendation concurred inf
rt\&^tJL
Committee
3-&JU* 1 'CTaiAAysr^SW^
on
Final Examinationf
>flAa~J Q
t Required for doctor's degree but not for master's.
M440
Table of Contents
Prefaae vi
I. Before the Sixteenth Century 1
A. History in the Making 1
B. History in the Writing 8
II. First Half of the Sixteenth Century 10
•A. History in the Making 10
B. History in the Writing^ 17
1. The Letters of Cortes and Alvarado 18
a. Fourth letter of Hernan Cortes 18
b . Two letters of Pedro de Alvarado 19
o. Fifth letter of Hernan Cortes 20
d. Prooeso de reaidenoia 21
Z. The EarliesTT"Spanish Histories 22.
a. Pietro Martire d'Anghiera ^ 22
b. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes 24
a. Bartolome1 de las Casas 28
d. Pasoual de Andagoya SO
III. Seoond Half of the Sixteenth Century 33
A. History in the Making 33
B. History in the Writing 36
f
1. The Books of the Q,uiche and Gakchiquel 37
a. Popol Vuh 37
b. Memorial de Solola 46
f
o. Tltulo "de los seffores de Totonioapan 55
&•' TltTiIoslTe los antiguos nuestros antepasados 5?
e. Others 58
2. Four More General Histories 58
a* Francisoo Lopez de Gomara 58
b. Girolamo Benzoni 61
o. Bartolome de las Casas 63
d.' Bernal Diaz del Castillo 66
IV. First Half of the Seventeenth Century 77
A. History in the Making 7 7
B. History in the Writing 79
1. One History of the Indies 80
(Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas)
2. One History of Hew Spain 84
(Juan de Torquemada)
3. One History of Guatemala 86
(Antonio de Reraesal)
in
IV
4. Travel and Description 93
a. Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa 94
b. Thomas Gage 95
c. Juan Diez de la Calle 96
5. Lost or Little Known Works 97
V. Second Half of the Seventeenth Century 99
A. History in the Making 99
B. History in the Writing 102
1. The Major Historians 103
a. Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman 103
b. Juan de Villagutierre y Soto Mayor 109
2. The Secondary Writers 111
a. Fernando Espino 112
b. Antonio de Molina 113
c. Agustin Cano 114
d. Andr6s de Avendafto y Loyola 114
3. Lost or Little Known Works 115
VI. First Half of the Eighteenth Century 117
A. History in the Making 117
B. History in the Writing 119
1. The History of the Franciscans 121
(Francisco de Asis Vazquez de Herrera)
2. The History of^the Dominicans 126
(Francisco Ximenez)
3. The "Curious" Book 134
(Isagoge hist6rico apologetico general)
4. Biography 137
a. Antonio de Siria 137
b. Isidro Felix de Espinosa 137
o. Ram6n Leal 128
5. Travel and Description 138
(John Cookburn)
6. Lost or Little Known Works 140
VII. Second Half of the Eighteenth Century 142
A. History in the Making 142
B. History in the Writing 145
1. The Three New Developments 145
a. Juan Jose Eguiara y Eguran 145
b. Edward Long 146
c. Antonio de Alcedo y Bexarano 148
2. The Three Brief Acoounts 149
a. Felipe and Carlos Cadena 149
b. Mariano Lopez Ray6n 150
VIII. First Half of the Nineteenth Century 152
A. History in the Making 152
B. History in the Writing 161
1. Histories of the Colonial Period 164
a. Domingo Juarros y lacunza 164
b. Jose Mariano Beristain y Martin de Souza 169
V
c. Francisco de Paula Garcia Pelaez 170
2. Histories of the National Period 174
a. Manuel Jose Arce 174
b. Francisco Morazan 177
c. Rafael Carrera 179
d. Manuel Montufar y Coronado 180
e. Alejandro Marure 183
f. Estado politico 186
g. Pedro Francisco de la Rocha 187
h. Dooumentos para escribir 188
1. Convenei6n provisional 188
«j. Vicente Fillsola 188
3. Travel and Description 189.
a. George Henderson 190
b. Orlando W. Roberts 191
c . Henry Dunn 192
d. George Alexander Thompson 193
e. J. Haefkens 195
f. George Washington Montgomery 19 6
g. John Lloyd Stephens 197
h. Thomas Young 200
i. Robert Glasgow Dunlop 201
j. Frederick Crowe 202
k. John Eaily 204
1. The Modern Traveller 206
m. Philippe Francois de Larenaudiere 207
n. Felipe Molina 208
o. Thomas Strangeways 208
p. John Hale 209
q. Eastern Coast of Central America Commercial ana
Agricultural Company 210
r. Compagnie Beige de Colonisation 210
s. Bericht 211
t. Alexander von Billow 211
4. Biography 212
(Antonio Jose de Irisarri)
5. An Essay on History 213
(Jose Cecilio del Valle)
IX. Conclusion 217
Bibliography 220
Preface
The need for an organized study of Central American historiog
raphy is immediately obvious to anyone who attempts to write some
portion of Central American history. It is well illustrated, es
pecially for those students who will begin their study with helps
available in the English language, in the treatment accorded the
work entitled Resena historica de Centre-America by a standard text
and a standard bibliography of Latin American history. The text
book lists the Resena historica as a five-volume work written by
two men, Lorenzo Montufar and Rivera Maestre, and published in 1878.
The standard bibliography comments that the Resena hist6rica is one
of the "most comprehensive" books on Central American history. Ac
tually, the Resena hist6rica is a work of seven volumes published
from 1878 to 1887. The author is one man named Lorenzo Montufar y
Rivera Maestre, one of Central America's most distinguished histo
rians. And far from being one of the most comprehensive works of
its sort, the Resena hist6rioa despite its great length and nonre-
strictive title contains a narration of only thirty-two years in
Central American history.
When the student goes beyond the elementary listings, he will
recognize that misinformation such as the above is limited mostly
to those authors whose attention has been concentrated upon Latin
America as a whole rather than on any particular portion, and whose
vi
vii
schedule of work has not permitted a genuine examination of all the
books listed. The student will find, however, that in consulting
the works dealing exclusively with Central America in place of the
more general works, he has traded misinformation for a dearth of
information. Few of the larger Central American histories in Span
ish present an organized bibliography of any sort. The three-vol-
XimG History of Central America by Hubert Howe Bancroft, while it
contains a wealth of material on historiography in its footnotes,
is more than sixty years out of date and deals only with the large
but nevertheless limited inventory of works which Bancroft had at
his immediate disposal. The reviews of Central American literature
which have been published include treatments of the most important
native historians, but omit the general works which include original
data on Central America, the valuable books written by foreigners,
and generally the lesser historical works written by Central Ameri
cans themselves.
The purpose of this study is to fill the need for an organized
treatment of Central American historiography. An effort has been
made to include, roughly according to the date of their composition,
all the works which are of significance to the student of Central
American history today, except those which have been written since
1850. Two more chapters are planned, which will bring the work
down to the present time.
To justify any claim to completeness in a study such as this,
the author must make known the standards by which he has been guided
in the selection of materials. Certain limits have had to be set,
in order that there be consistency in the type of works included.
viii
An analysis of the author's conception of his title wjJJ. .explain
the limits he has had in mind. (1) The name "Central America" is
taken to include the present republics of Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, those which for fifteen years,
from 1823 to 1838, formed the five states of the provincias Unidas
del Centro de America. Territory such as the Mexican states of
Chiapas and Yucatan or the republic of Panama, once administered
from Guatemala City but not included in these five states at the
time of independence, is not considered a part of the subject. (2)
The phrase "to 1850" is taken to limit the number of histories to
those written before or during that year. The dates of publication
in many cases are later than 1850, sometimes even for the first edi
tions. (3) The word "historians" is taken loosely to mean all those
who wrote or edited the books considerea here as "histories." (4)
The word "histories" is taken in general to include any book which
is in some way an original contribution to modern knowleage concern
ing Central American history. In making the decisions as to which
books fall into this category, the following arbitrary rules have
been followed: (a) Every attempt at historical writing made by a
native of Central America is to be considered. (b) General his
tories are to be included only if they have presentea new informa
tion on Central America not easily available at the time they were
published. (c) Books of travel and description are to be discussed
if they help in some way to explain the people of Central America
or their actions, but not if they deal exclusively with the lay of
the land or the flora and fauna. (d) Biographies are to be recog
nized if their subjects are natives of Central America or persons
IX
born elsewhere whose careers lay in Central America. (e) Documents
and official reports are to be considered only m connection with
their publication for historical purposes, except in a few in
stances where memorable events have been covered by a publishea
transcript of the proceedings.
Other miscellaneous features of the study are as follows: (1)
At the opening of each chapter, in the section called "History in
the Making," an attempt has been made to introduce many proper names
in their historical setting in order to avoia excessive interrup
tions for that purpose in the later text. (2) For the general his
tories discussed, bibliographical data has been given only for the
most recent editions in Spanish and English, and the most recent in
the original language in the few cases where that language is not
Spanish. For every history written in or chiefly about Central
America, however, an attempt has been made to include the data on
every edition. (3) The treatment accordea each historian and his
history has in general included biographical data on the author and
an analysis and critical review of the book. The governing purpose
in all this has been to provide an understanding of the worth of
each book in the study of Central American history. Although the
critical opinions of others have been exammea, and in some cases
discussed in the text, the author alone is responsible for the judg
ments given here. They sometimes but not always differ from the
judgments of others. Frequently, they are the only written opinions
available .
With the exception of a few very rare books and several scarce
editions of books otherwise available, the literature discussed has