Historia General y Natural de las Indias Vol. 1

of the princes, and very shortly gave unequivocal proofs of their love for letters, a love that also took root in the breast of the most illustrious Castilian ladies, among whom were distinguished, along with the two daughters of the Count of Tendilla, Doña Lucia de Medrano and Doña Francisca de Lebrija, who worthily emulated the fame already acquired by Doña Beatriz de Galindo, teacher of the Catholic Queen.

Brilliant was the result that such decided protection produced in the republic of letters, with all studies taking an unusual flight: theology and jurisprudence, philosophy and literature, eloquence and history, powerfully supported by philology, received ardent worship, thus preluding the glorious days of the great century that is not in vain called among us the Golden Age. The number of important works carried out in this most happy era is truly prodigious, with the cultivators of history playing no small part in such an extraordinary movement; and finally, the enlightened cohort of geniuses who dedicated their pens to illustrating, in life, the immortal reign of the Catholic Monarchs is worthy of signaled applause.

In this age and in this court, then, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo is born, educated, and flourishes, who, animated by the liveliest gratitude, consecrates his entire life to the memory of those Sovereigns and to the service of their descendants. Caressed in his youth by friendly fortune; exposed in his manhood to the blows of misfortune, and condemned to always lead a laborious and wandering existence, Oviedo presents to us in his numerous writings the most evident proof of what activity and good desire can attain, and what will and constancy can do. Impelled by these powerful motives, he observes and examines everything, asks and inquires about everything, writes and keeps everything in his records, which accompany him everywhere from childhood, and which, even at the risk of his life, he manages to save, like another Caesar, whether in the crossing of deep torrents and rushing rivers, or in the center of inaccessible thickets, or in the midst of scorching deserts, or finally in the unknown shoals of the Ocean. His observant and reflective talent, his profound love for truth, and the religious worship he pays to history put the pen in his hand: for Oviedo, the magnitude of the enterprise matters nothing; always counting on the firmness of his will, if he considers the object of his vigils useful and meritorious, nothing intimidates him in undertaking his projects, nothing discourages or dejects him in the middle of his tasks, reproducing them time and time again with indefatigable tenacity and elevated effort. Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, if he does not appear to our view as the most eloquent and learned interpreter of the great era we have sketched, is therefore the most vivid reflection of the instincts and hopes of that nation, which, no longer fitting within its native confines, was flooding Europe, Africa, and America at the same time, always spurred by the stimulus of glory, and always prodigal with blood and exploits.

A native of the Valdés valley in the Asturias of Oviedo, Gonzalo Fernandez was born in Madrid in August of 1478 4, without it being possible for us to point out the name of

4 Referring to a quarrel that occurred in Barcelona in the year 1493 between Don

Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza and another knight, Oviedo continues the dialogue he holds with another character: "Sereno: How old would you have been then?... ALCAIDE: I was born in the year 1478 and this was the year 1493; I must have been a little over 14 years old. Sereno: That was an age for you to keep in your memory what you have said. ALCAIDE: I remember better what you have heard than what happened a few days ago." (Bat. y Quing., National Library, Cod. Y. 59, folio 602). In chapter XXIX of book VI of the 1st Part of the Hist. gen. y nat. de Ind., Oviedo himself says, speaking of the year 1548: "One thing I will say here that although I am seventy years old, etc;" and later he added: and I completed them in the month of August in which I am; but this clause that we underline was later erased by him, although it can be easily read in the original. (Royal Academy of History, Salazar Cod., vol. I, folio 181, amended 128).