The Coming of the Franciscans to Venezuela in 1575

The Coming of the Franciscans to Venezuela in 1575Author(s): Lino G. CanedoSource: The Americas, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Apr., 1962), pp. 380-393Published by: Academy of American Franciscan HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/979729 .

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t Documents 2

THE COMING OF THE FRANCISCANS TO VENEZUELA IN 1575

\ /[Y dear friend, Father Carrocera, to whom the history of Vene- zuela and especially the history of the Franciscan Order in that

. . t . . .

country owes so muc , nac t le lappy 1C Fea ot umtmg m one article all that is known up to now, thanks in great part to the investigations of Father Carrocera himself, concerning the history of San Francisco in Caracas which, during almost three centuries as the center of the Franciscan Province of the Holy Cross of Hispaniola and Caracas, powerfully influenced the spiritual and cultural life of Venezuela. The church and friary of San Francisco not only are the best colonial monu- ments in Caracas but they are also witnesses of the most notable hap- penings and events of the republican period. In San Francisco of Caracas Bol1var received on October 14, 1814, the title of Liberator and in this church his remains were displayed in 1842 after they had been returned from San Pedro Alejandrino. The convent served until very recent times as the home of the University of Venezuela and at this moment it is the disiinguished Palace of the Academies. Its library, the best in Caracas, " which owns works which are scarce even in Europe " as the Bishop Mendez wrote in 1829, formed the basis for the National Library. For these reasons the convent and church of San Francisco deserve the study which Father Carrocera dedicated to them in the oicial publica- tion of the National Academy of History [Boletzn de lol; Acoldemio N;cional de Historia, XLI ( 1958), 459-478].

Father Carrocera did not intend to give us more than a synopsis of the main events which had taken place in San Francisco in its span of three centuries. True to this purpose, he omitted many details which he might have included. It would be unfair for me to attempt now to include such details. The only objective which I have in mind is to try to clarify one point which has always been confused and which Father Carrocera also leaves in some confusion. I refer to the date of the establishment of the first Franciscans in Venezuela and to the date of the foundation of San Francisco in Caracas. I believe that today this date can be ascertained from reliable documents with complete certainty.

380



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In a studyl published a few years ago I made known new data concerning the early arrival (from 1515) of the Franciscans on the coast of Cumana and on the island of Cubagua and some of the later attempts made by the same religious to establish foundations in Venezuela itself. Despite this, I have not been able to find any certain proof that the Franciscans were able to establish permanent foundations in Venezuela before the year 1575, the date of the arrival in Caracas of the group which was to found the Friary of San Francisco. As I understand the documents available today, this date must be 1575 and not 1574 according to the interpretation of Father Carrocera (p. 460). This point must be emphasized because it involves also the date of the famous Relaci6n of Governor Pimentel. It is well known that this important document when it was first published in the Boletan del Centro de Estrudios Ameri- canistas of Seville (Number 25, 1919) appeared with the erroneous date of 1572, apparently because of an error by a copyist. This error was connnued and even aggravated to a certain degree when this Relacion was reproduced in Venezuela in the Boletan de 1 Academia Nacionoll de 14 Historiol (Numbers 39-40, 1927).2 Of course, the obvious mistake has been noted for some ame both in Venezuela and in Spain, and the historians have made the proper adjustments. Carlos M. Moller, for

1 "Primeros intentos de evangelizacion franciscana en Tierra Firme (1508-1533)," Archivum franciscanum historicum, L (1957), 99-118. My later investigations confirm that the Franciscan attempts to evangelize the coast regions of eastern Venezuela and the island of Margarita continued after 1534. An effort was made to erect a friary close to the fortl-ess at Cumana. This project was abandoned apparently in 1537 in favor of the completion of one at Cubagua and of founding one on the island of Margarita.

The cedularios recently published by Enrique Otte in Caracas with the aid of the John Boulton and Eugenio Mendoza Foundations [Cedularios de la monarquia espcrriola relativos a la provincia de Venezuela (1529-1552), 2 vols., Caracas, 1959, and Cedulario de la monarquia espanola relativo a la isla de Cubagua (1523-1552), 2 vols., Caracas, 19611 do not change our conclusions. It should be remembered, however, that these cedularios; do not contain all of the cedulas issued during the years mentioned for Venezuela and Cubagua.

2 The original, which is in reality a notarized copy made in the presence of Pimentel himself, is found in the Archivo General de Indias (AGI), Patronato, legajo 294, n. 12. In the same place there is a nineteenth-cenutry copy which is erroneously dated 1572 Apparently this was the copy used to prepare the first edition in which the original title is replaced with another which states, with manifest anachronism, that the Relaciort was written in 1572 in response to a questionnaire of 1577. The copyist read: ". . . it was begun on December 1, 1572." This was the origin of the first mistake. The document was published in the Boletin de la Academia Nacional de la Historia in two issues. In the first issue the title and text of the Seville edition are reproduced; but in the second the editor, misled perhaps by a hasty reading of the colophon, prefixed this note: " This narrative, which Don Juan Pimentel signed in Caracas on May 9, 1585, he began to write in 1572 and completed it because of the royal questionnaire of 1577." Thus the second error of date was introduced.



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example, correctly basing his conclusions on the Re1acion of Pimentel, wrote in 1953 that the first Franciscans arrived in Caracas in 1575.3 Nevertheless, in the article of Father Carrocera to which this note is addressed it is said, I do not know whether because of the distraction of the author or because of a printing error, that Governor Pimentel began to write his Relolcion

on December 1, 1577, bringing it to an end on the twenty-fourth of the same month and year even though in it it is erroneously asserted that it was begun on December 1, 1572, which is evidently inexact since the governor arrived at Caraballeda May 8, 1576, and his description was written as a reply to the royal command of May, 1577.4

This paragraph could once more confuse those who desire to use this famous Relolcion. In order to avoid this, it seems to me worthwhile to clarify the situation definitively.

The Relacion of Governor Pimentel "was begun on the 1st of December of the year 1578," as we read on its first page, of which a photographic reproduction is appended to this note. It was completed on December 23 of that same year, 1578. This is stated expressly in the colophon of the contemporaneous notarized copy in the archives of the Indies in Seville which is the text used in the editions mentioned above. The said colophon reads thus:

This description was completed on the twenty-third day of the month and year on which it was begun [interlinear: don Juan Pimentel. Regis- tered by me Diego de Leonls Picon] and this copy was made, and drawn up, corrected and compared with its original which remained in the power of the very illustrious lord Don Juan Pimentel on the ninth day of May, 1585, being present to see it corrected and compared the said lord Don Juan Pimentel, and it is certain and true and for this purpose I make here my sign in testimony of the truth.... [Sign] Juan de Amezaga, scribe of the government [Rubric]. This has been seen [Rubric ] .

The date of this copy, which we reckon as equal to the unknown

3 His study, "La iglesia de San Francisco de Caracas," appeared in the Boletin de la Academia Naciona de la Historia, XXXVI (1953), 298-302. Other authors had noted the error before Moller but his article is cited here because of the similarity of the themes. In another article, "La Santa Iglesia Catedral," Boletzn de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, XLIII (1960), 336, Father Carrocera insists on considering the Relacio'n of Pimentel as written in 1577.

4 Fray Cayetano de Carrocera, O. F. M. Cap., " El antiguo e historico Convento de San Francisco de Caracas y sus grandes transformaciones a traves de los siglos," Boletzn de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, XLI (1958), 459-478. Tlle reference is found on page 460.



First page, Relacion of Governor Pimentel



Last page, Relacion of Governor Pimentel



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original since it was made under the care and in the presence of Pimentel himself, has been an added cause of confusion about the date of the document as pointed out above. It was in reality very easy to make the mistake of assigning it three distinct dates: 1572, 1578, and 1585. We must now avoid adding a fourth date, 1577, which would be the third eroneous one. The Relclcion of Pimentel was written between December 1 and December 23, 1578. Of that there cannot be even the least doubt.5

From the document of Pimentel, dated in this fashion, we must begin in order to ascertain the year in which the first Franciscans came to Caracas and in which the Friary of San Francisco was begun. Pimentel says this:

In this city of Santiago de Leon there is a Friary of San Francisco with poorly-made walls. It was begun by Fray Alonso Vidal who came from Santo Domingo with other friars three years ago for that purpose. Father Francisco de Arta, the Commissary, who had come with seven friars upon order of His Majesty, found them engaged in this foundation. These eight friars are at present in this monastery and in the doctrinas of the natives.

We have, therefore, two expediiions: one led by Fray Alonso Vidal, which came from Santo Dominigo three years before the Relacion of Pimentel, that is in 1575; and the other sent at a later date, but before December, 1578, from Spain, by Philip II under the care of the Com- missary Fray Francisco de Arta.

These are the oldest documentary evidences which we possess concerning the two Franciscans to whom it appears the honor must be ascribed of establishing the Franciscan Order in Venezuela. Fray Alonso Vidal does not appear on any of the lists of friars who were sent from Spain to Santo Domingo between 1567 and 1571 under the Commissaries Fray Andres de la Puebla, Fray Rodrigo Manrique, and Fray Francisco Paiino. We do not know with certainty the names of all the friars who formed these expeditions. Nor do we possess a list of any kind of the 35 friars who were sent in 1573 in charge of Father Commissary Francisco de Segura.6 It is not improbable that Father Vidal was among

5These geographical reports concerning the Indies correspond to a general plan announced in a cedula of Philip II issued at E1 Escorial, May 22, 1577. Governor Pimentel commanded that the order should be carried out while at Caraballeda, November 28 1578. Besides the report which he prepared for Caracas and its surrounding province, there are others from Venezuela such as that of E1 Tocuyo (December 13, 1578) Barquisimeto (January 2-May 3, 1579), and Trujillo (January 3, 1579).

6 There are reports on the first two of these expeditions in AGI, Contaduria, leg. 299,



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this last group. At any rate, it was Father Segura who arranged for the sending of the first group to go from Santo Domingo to Venezuela. In a letter dated April 25, 1576, in Santo Domingo Father Segura writes that a request for friars had come to him

from a town of the Province of Venezuela which is called Caracas or Santiago de Leon. I sent six and now I am sending others to another town which is called Trujillo of the same Province which also requested them. I give them, even though at the expense of this friary, because ignorant in the beginning of the conditions in that country and not finding in this land work for those whom I had brought with me, I began to send to other parts of the Indies those whom we could not accommodate here, nor whom could we keep here without diiculty. After having sent in this way many, I came to know that in that land of Venezuela or Caracas they had begun to build and were building pueblos for which they desired monasteries of our Order. They had requested friars from this house whom, in former times, they did not send because they did not have them, and they did not wish Dominicans nor members of other Orders even though these offered to go. And I came to know that that country pertained to this Custody since Vene- zuela is subject to the audiencia which your Majesty has on this island and suffragan to our archbishop. All of this having come to my atten- tion, I was very embarrassed because I had sent those friars to places from which I could not recall them and having where now they could be employed more profitably and more to their satisfaction, because all those who come to these part with good zeal all wish to go where there are Indians to convert or instruct as there are in Venezuela, and since there are none here, they do not wish to come here, and those who do come do not wish to remain because of the lack of order which they find here and other handicaps. The condition of that country has so distressed me that I, myself, wish that I and the friars whom I brought could go there. This I am unable to do because my age is 70 years and having sent away so many of the friars those whom I am now sending are at the expense of this convent. And even though the loss should

fols. 7, 10, 14, 61, 67, 74, 76, 82, 86, 94, 102. Nine of the friars brought over by Fray Andres de la Puebla were in Santo Domingo before August 30, 1567 as seen in AGI, Con- taduria, leg. 1052, fol. 36v. Fray Rodrigo Manrique had arrived with twenty friars before November 19, 1569 (loc. Cit-, fol. l9v.). Concerning the expedition of Fray Francisco Patino, see, AGI, Contaduria, leg. 304, fols. 42, 43, 44, 47, 50, 51, 79. One of the group of thirteen friars who came to Santo Domingo between the end of 1571 and the beginning of 1572 was Fray Antonio de Argamasilla, who was the custos until the beginning of 1572. See AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 71, lib. 3, fol. 3. Concerning the nature of the reform- commission given to Fray Francisco de Segura and the group of thirteen whom he was to bring with him, whose names are not known, consult the several cedulas of 1573 as given in AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 868, lib. 3, fols. 8 and llv, and Indiferente, leg. 2869, lib. 1, fol. 90v.



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be greater I will not hesitate to send as many as I can in the great confi- dence which I feel in the most Christian and holy determination of your Majesty to send us those who are more necessary as you have always done in all of your Indies. I have made known these facts to the President and the members of the Audiencia of your Majesty so that by their favor and decision the monasteries may be built which are requested and as they have advised me from Caracas so that the Bishop, who is a Dominican, will not hinder this, as they told me that he would.7

This letter not only states clearly the presence of Fray Alonso Vidal and his friars in Venezuela between the end of 1575 and the beginning of 1576 but it also explains what we read in the Relacion of the Province of Cuicas dated January 3, 1579, concerning the Franciscan Monastery of Trujillo:

There is a monastery of the friars of St. Francis which was founded three years ago. The church has not yet been built because of the great poverty of this country. It was begun by Fray Francisco de Fuen- labrada sent by the Commissary of Hispaniola. Afterwards came Father Commissary Fray Francisco de Arta with commission from his Majesty. He took possession of it and of the country and is at present in it with four friars. The monastery lies in the upper part of the town and out- side of it.8

The bishop, Fray Pedro de Agreda, probably refers to these friars, sent from Santo Domingo by Father Sepra, in his letter of February 10, 1576. After noting his opposition to the coming of friars and much more of Jesuits from Spain and repeating what he had said in an earlier letter from El Tocuyo, January 17, 1576, that "in this country at

7 The original letter is found in AGI, Santo Domingo, leg 96. Shortly after it was written, the religious whom Fray Francisco de Arta was bringing for Venezuela arrived in Santo Domingo. Segura, in a letter of April 30 (loc. cit.), expresses his pleasant surprise at their coming, although he did not favor the plan that Venezuela should become an independent custody and much less than Cuba should be elevated to the same rank, as was then intended. He felt that there were very few friaries and friars. The accounts of the royal treasury officials in Santo Domingo (AGI, Contaduria, leg. 1052, fol. 37v) show us that fourteen friars in all arrived: twelve besides Fray Francisco de Arta and two servants on the ship Trinidad with Alonso Parron as master and one friar more on a vessel of Gonzalo Vals Vello.

8Maria TeresaBermejo Z. (ed.), "Relacion geografica de la provincia de Cuycas, Trujillo, 3 enero 1579," Boletin de la Academia Nacional de la Historia, XXVII (1942) 289-308. The citation is found on page 297. One of the co-workers of Fray Francisco de Segura, whom he sent to Spain in 1576 (see the letter cited in note 7) as his pro- curator was Fray Cristobal de Maldonado, who is met again in 1592-1593 as guardian of the friary in Trujillo. He was succeeded in this post by Fray Juan Peraza (AGI, Con- taduria, leg. 1610).



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present there could well be two monasteries of Domincans and two of Franciscans," he gives this important news item:

And so one month ago from Santo Domingo came two fathers of each Order to see if there were room for them in this country. They were sent in by their prelates. They were well received by the citizens of the land and so shortly they will begin two or three convents here, and from them they can go among the doctrinas and some even remain in the convents. And so it will not be necessary that any should come from Spain, for I consider that that would be a great mistake, although I understand that the governor, Mazariegos, has written to your Majesty to this effect, but it is not wise.9

Governor Diego de Mazariegos (1570-1576) was worried by the lack of priests to care for the doctrinas in Venezuela. He wrote from Coro on October 29, 1571, that there were not six priests in his jurisdiction and he requested the king that " he command to come to this Province

9 AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 218. In his letter of January 17, he was responding to a cedula which cautioned him not to admit into his diocese priests or friars who had come without permission. He answers that he has not done this and that up to the present "ni cura ni fraile " had remained in that country. He admits, however, that because of the scarcity of priests he had used some of those who had landed there, such as those who came with the fleets of Juan Ponce, Diego Fernandez de Serpa, and Pedro de Silva, "que todos vinieron a parar en esta tierra." In another place of the same letter, the bishop states: " The persons at present in this jurisdiction are two Domincans, one called Fray Melchor Benavente and the other Fray Miguel de Vitoria. Both had come to the Indies with the permission of your majesty and later had come to this province for some reason. Since by the grace of God a short time ago I began some doctrinas, I have stationed them in two of these. Besides they assist from time to time in the villages of Christians...." He adds that in Trujillo since two years ago, the Portuguese priest P. Bartolome Fernandez was working alone. He is old but performs his duties very well. By this letter, Bishop Agreda was trying to thwart the efforts of Governor Mazariegos to bring religious.

Two years before,the same bishop had written to the king (Caracas, May 3, 1574) concerning the need for priests, that " when some friars come here, I try to keep them even though they may not be the best qualified so that they may celebrate Mass and administer the sacraments. Many times the villages would be without these sacred helps if it were not for some friars who take the place of the diocesan priests all of whom wish to pass on to the Nuevo Reino and to Popayan and to Qliito...." AGI, Santo Domingo, 218. (Author's italics.)

On the other hand, Oviedo y Banos (Historia [New York, 1940], p. 274), states that as a result of the efforts in Spain of Sancho Briceno (1570) on commission by Bishop Agreda and the city of Coro, several cedulas were sent to the Domincan and Franciscan superiors on Hispaniola, ordering them to send friars to Venezuela. Although it seems that these cedulas did not have the desired effect at that time, as Oviedo y Banos observes, they and other facts which we shall mention shortly may well explain the temporary presence in Venezuela before 1575 of some Franciscans. In this way, we can understand how two Franciscans took part in the first diocesan synod celebrated apparently by Bishop Agreda in 1574 and not in 1560 as has been stated even in recent times. Thus Fray Baltasar de Lodares, Los Franciscanos en Venezuela (Caracas, 1922), p. 4.



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twelve clerics who must be of the Theatines [Jesuits], who give good results, and ordained to celebrate Mass...." He returns to the same point in a letter of August 20, 1572, as well as in other communications. His plans to form reduciions and doctrinas met with the opposition of the encomenderos. Moreover, Bishop Agreda did not look upon him with favor.l° Nevertheless, it is likely that his letters together with those of the bishop had brought about in Spain the idea of sending a group of Franciscans directly from there. Here is where Fray Francisco de Arta comes upon the scene. He appears for the first time in the documents on December 6, 1575, on which date he was granted royal permission to go to Venezuela with fifteen Franciscans and two servants. On the same day the king commanded his officials in Seville to provide those things necessary for the voyage of these friars. Another royal decree of December 19, 1575, refers directly to the foundation of a friary in Caracas and grants an alms of three hundred ducats for that purpose. On that same day the royal officials in Venezuela were ordered to give the Franciscans the customary alrns of olive oil for the sanctuary lamp " in each monastery which they may found and which would be founded of their Order as well as an arroba and a half of wine each year to be pven to each religious priest to celebrate Mass." 11

In one of these royal decrees it is stated that the decree was issued at the request of Fray Francisco de Guzman who had occupied the post of commissary general of the Indies since 1572 in accordance with the new agreement made by the king and the minister general of the Order, the Frenchman Fray Crist6bal de Chefontaines. It is probable that the expedition of Fray Francisco de Arta to Venezuela was a result of the renewed interest of Father Guzman in sending friars to the Indies. This may be deduced from a memorial which Father Guzman presented to the Council of the Indies in the name of, and as a result of, the representations of Fray Pedro de Aguado, Provincial of the Nueva Reino de Granada, who must have arrived in Spain about the middle

10 Letters of Mazariegos are found in AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 193. There is a copy in volume 7 of the Coleccion Rionegro in the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Caracas. Agreda was still attacking Mazariegos even after he had left, as can be seen in his letter of November 13, 1576 in AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 218.

11 These cedulas may be seen in AGI, Indiferente, leg. 2869, lib. 1, fols. 157, ff. His stop in Santo Domingo is dealt with in note 7. In the appendix are published the two cedulas sent to the Audiencia and the royal officials of that island specifying the help which they should give the missionaries.

It is probable that the name should be written Arta since it is derived apparently from the name of the village Arta on Mallorca. However, since this is merely a conjecture it is preferred here to write the name as it appears in the documents, without the accent



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of 1575. Besides the favors which he requests for his Province, Aguado also asked that twelve friars be sent to the " Custody of Venezuela . . . since they did not have in that government any religious instruction up to the present day and the natives are still to be converted." 12

It is evident that the Commissary General, Father Guzman, could not have made this affirmanon as his own after December 1575 when the expedition to Venezuela of Fray Francisco de Arta and his companions was being prepared under his auspices. For this reason, this memorial must have been presented at an earlier date. It must also be remembered that the Franciscan Province of Santa Fe considered all of the territory of Venezuela within its boundaries.13

May all this be as it was, we know that Fray Francisco de Arta and his companions landed at Santo Domingo becween April 25 and April 30, 1576.14 They were already in Caracas before the end of that year because, I believe, Governor Pimentel can only refer to them in his letter of December 3, 1576:

Concerning the Franciscan friars whom your Majesty sent to this Prov- ince, eight have arrived with their Commissary. They are in this city where they have founded a monastery. I believe that they will benefit the natives even though there will be much diEculty since there are many different languages. For the moment, the Commissary does not wish that they should go to the doctrinas until they shall have founded and almost completed their monasteries, so that they might have a place to which to reiire when they return from the doctrinas. He has given two friars for the mines which is the more necessary since, because of the scarcity of priests, there was none among them.

In the account taken by Governor Pimentel of the funds expended by the royal ofiicials of Venezuela in 1577, there is an entry of 59,850 maravedis paid " for the transportation of the Franciscans friars who came to this Province by command of his Majesty." 15

Returning to the Friary of San Francisco in Caracas, it seems that it progressed very slowly. Both men and money were lacking. Besides, difficulties arose which are not clear at the moment but which, perhaps, are connected with the attitude of Bishop Agreda. He wrote on January 25, 1578,16 that the Franciscans sent there had left for Peru and for the

12 This memorial was published by Atanasio Lopez, O. F. M., Archivo Ibero-Americano, XVI (1921), 36-38.

13 Compare with the statement of Esteban de Asensio in his Historia memorial, cap. 1. 14 See note 7. 5AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 193; also AGI, Contaduria, leg. 1609.

16 AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 218. We have a synopsis of the letter made in the office



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Nuevo Reino and with them their prelate who seemed to him " very greedy." Only four or five had remained. In the same letter he praises his brother Dominicans and asks that more should come.

It is impossible to separate the truth from exaggeration in this letter. Agreda was without doubt a man of extreme emotion. But it is perfectly believable that the number of Franciscans was small. We know that Fray Alonso Vidal returned to Spain in this year to get more friars. Twelve were granted him but of these only three arrived in Venezuela.17 Despite all this, some friars must have come to Venezuela during these years or the total given us by Bishop Agreda for the year 1578 is not exact. According to a letter of Agreda's successor, Juan de Manzanillo, also a Dominican, written at Coro January 30, 1582, the statistics of the Franciscans in Venezuela were as follows: (1) San Francisco de Caracas with four or five friars " without counting those who are in the doctrinas." These numbered eight or nine of which five or six were in the care of the Franciscans. (2) Trujillo, four or five friars in the convent together with three more in charge of six doctrinas. (3) El

which received it. Of the letter itself, there is only the last page unless perhaps the remainder of the letter is scattered through the bundle. This is a possibility since the bundle is made up of loose papers without pagination and without any apparent order.

17The documents concerning the organization and the trip of the group of Fray Alonso Vidal are found in AGI, Contratacion, leg. 4683, fols. 381-382, 391v, 393v, and leg. 5538, fol. 12, and in Contaduria, leg. 1053, fol. 17. The dates of these documents range from December 1579 to March, 1580. In AGI, Contadurla, leg. 1053, fol. 10v, are noted the payments of the royal ofiicials in Santo Domingo on October 27, 1580, to the Friary of San Francisco of that city for the medicines and the sustenance of " the twelve friars of Saint Francis who came to this city enroute to the province of Caracas . . . for the entire time that they were in this city . . . four pesos . . . for each day for each friar from June 23 of the said year to October 11, on which day they sailed to continue their voyage to the province of Caracas." According to this statement, twelve friars of the group-that is, all of the original members, less one-should have sailed from Santo Domingo for Caracas in October, 1580. Yet, Fray Francisco de Rojas, who was a member of that expedition even though his name does not appear in the ofiicial lists which are now at our disposal (a fact which should persuade us to use caution when appraising these lists) said in 1587 that of the twelve friars "no more than three arrived, the remainder died because of the bad weather." Rojas asked that thirty more friars be sent. AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 221.

The trip of Fray Alonso Vidal to Spain began before January 9, 1579. He carried good credentials, among them a letter of Bishop Agreda. But the bishop with his customary fickleness soon changed his mind and, in a letter of the same date written at Nueva Valencia, rectified his recommendation, writing, among other things: "Afterwards I learned here with certainty that his Order took his habit from him and that he is even considered a mestizo. He is not educated but has only the external appearances of learning. After his departure certain lapses have come to light and on this account it would be better that he should not return to this country." AGI, Santo Domingo, leg.



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Tocuyo, two or three doctrinas under the care of the Franciscans who have besides a convent. Nevertheless, Bishop Manzanillo complains that the friars were abandoning the country and going to the Neuvo Reino.lS

Among those Franciscans who could have landed in the meanume in Wenezuela we can consider the fifteen who were brought in 1580 to Santo Domingo by Fray Alonso de las Casas.l9 One of these religious, Fray Gonzalo Carrillo, signed at El Tocuyo on January 22, 1587, the credentials of Fray Francisco de Rojas calling himself " Commissary of the Province of Venezuela." We know also that Fray Alonso de las Casas, a Commissary of the Province of the Holy Cross during these years, resided for some time, about 1584, in Venezuela, a territory which, whatever degree of autonomy it may have enjoyed with respect to the cetral authorities who resided normally in Santo Domingo, does not appear to have succeeded in achieving complete independence from them. What happened apparently was that the capital of the Franciscan Province little by little was transferred to Caracas.20 Even more, the role played by this Commissary in the foundation of San Francisco de Caracas seems to have been of great importance. The pastor and vicar of Caracas, Father Bartolome de la Canal, stated in the informacion of 1593, upon the request of the Commissary Fray Alonso de Miruena who was anxious to obtain royal help for the building of the church, that " after that convent had been transferred to the site where it is now,

18 AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 218. Rionegro (Vol. VIII, fol. 7) dates what seems to be the same letter as of January 30, 1581. The difference in dates does not diminish the value of the testimony as far as our point is concerned.

19 Reference to the supplying of provisions and equipment for this group are dated in February and March, 1580, and can be found in AGI, Contratacion, leg. 4683, fols. 387-388, 390v-391, and leg. 5538, fol. 11. The friars came from New Castille. Payment for the transportation of the friars in accordance with a cedula issued in Madrid, April 22, 1580, was listed by the royal officials of Santo Domingo among the accounts paid in 1580, but there is no other date. AGI, Contaduria, leg. 1053, fol. 36.

20 Already on September 24, 1580, Fray Alonso de las Casas, Commissary of the Prov- ince of the Holy Cross of Hispaniola and " of the territories of Caracas and Venezuela," had promulgated in Santo Domingo some rules for the Poor Clare monastery of that city. These were to cause him some trouble later on and even, according to a letter of those nuns of August 8, 1584, were the reason why the President of the Audiencia, Cristobal de Ovalle, exiled him to Caracas, " whence he frets us." (The letters of these nuns are found in AGI, Santo Domingo, leg. 96, ramo 3.) While it is prudent to reserve judgment concerning the accusations of the nuns against this friar, their letters do point up the fact that Fray Alonso de las Casas was in Venezuela in 1584. Evidence for the rules issued for the Poor Clare monastery is found in Fray Jose Torrubia, Chronica de la religion de N. P. S. Francisco. Novena parte (Rome, 1765), lib. I, cap. 19, n. 135. Torrubia had access to the general archives of the Franciscan Order. He was a chronicler of good critical judgment.



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which was done by the Commissary, Fray Alonso de las Casas, there was no church in which to celebrate the Divine Office." 21 This would prove that the convent of San Francisco de Caracas, contrary to what is customarily afiirmed, was not originally established on the site which it occupies at present. The map which accompanies the Relacion of Pimentel wuold not reflect the Caracas of 1578 but most probably that of 1585, the date of the notarized copy mentioned above.

After the transfer to its definite location, the constructon of the friary and of the church went ahead with a certain amount of regularity. The governor, Luis de Rojas, wrote to the king on December 10, 1586: 'A very large room has been completed for the friars of the Blessed St. Francis and I have gathered alms from the citizens for the church as-hich will be very beautiful." Naturally, the work of construction progressed slowly. So there is no reason to be surprised if we find petiiions and requests for donations for the work in succceeding years. Thus, in 1590, the governor, Diego de Osorio, wrote to the king that, of the 2,000 ducats which his Majesty had granted for the convent of San Francisco de Caracas, " 300 pesos of gold were being paid to finish the wall of the monastery. One room has leen completed in it and there is still lacking the chapel of the church." 22 From the year 1593 we have the informacion already cited above of the Commissary Fray Alonso de Miruena (a survivor of the expedition of Jimenez de Quesada to Dorado) and the designs of Ruiz Ullan, which gave great impetus to the work. Nevertheless, the construction was not completed in 1598 as we know from a testimony given in that year by Fray Juan Ortiz de Valdivieso. It is also known that the city council of Caracas agreed on May 22 of that same year to give a certain amount to the convent of San Francisco " so that with it the church of the same convent might be finished." 23

21 The declaration of Fray Miruena was dated in Marchs 1593 and is found in AGIs Santo Domingos leg. 15. The " room " where the friars were living had been constructed some seven years earliers that iss towards the end of 1585 or the beginning of 1586. Martin de Gamizs an old inhabitant of Caracass refers in his declartion to the time when " the friars moved to the said monastery and room which had been built."

22 The letter of Rojas as well as that of Osorio are found copied in the Coleccion Rionegro (Academia Nacional de la Historias Caracas) Vol. VIIIs fols. 88v and 135 respectively. Both are said to be copies of their originals in the Archives of the Indies. The letter of Rojas is indeed found there (AGIs Santo Domingo, leg. 193) but the reference given in Rionegro for the letter of Osorio does not seem to be exact and it has not been possible to locate the original and compare it with the copy.

23 The testimony of Fray Juan Ortis de Valdivieso was given in May, 1598, and is found in AGIs Santo Dolriingos leg. 15. The regidor Mateo Dias de Alfaro adds the detail that the church had been begun four years before. With the donations gathered



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Here I come to an end, for my desire was only to clarify the date when the Franciscans were established in Venezuela for the first time. It seems to be clear that this did not take place uniil 157S, perhaps very close to the end of that year, by a group of friars sent from Santo Domingo by the Commissary of the Custody of the Holy Cross, Fray Francisco de Segura, and under the direction of Fray Alonso Vidal. Shortly thereafter, in 1576, there arrived directly from Spain the group led by Fray Francisco de Arta who took command of the undertaking more or less independently of the Franciscan authorities on Hispaniola. I insert in the appendix the text of the two royal decrees relanve to this last expedition.

LINO G. CANEW, O. F. M. Academy of American Francisc;r7s History, Washington, D. C.

Real cedula al presidente y oidores de la Audiencia de Sznto Domingo, recomendandoles que favorezcan a fray Francisco de Arta y a los quince religiosos franciscanos que llevaba consigo para Venezuela.-Madrid, 12 de febrero de 1576.

AGI. Indiferente 2869, lib. I, fol. 160v

EL REY.-Presidente y oidores de la nuestra Audienacia Real que reside en la siudad de Santo Domingo de la Isla Espanola. Sabed que por orden nuestra se llevan a la provinacia de Venecauela quinze religiosos de la Orden de San Francisco, y va por su comisario fray Francisco de Arta; los cuales van a esa isla para que della sean aviados y encaminados a la dicha provinacia de Veneacuela, y porque nuestra voluntad es que lo sean y se les haga buen tratamiento en el tiempo que se detuvieren en esa isla, os m and o que pro ve ais como asi se haga y cumpla, dando orden como los dichos religiosos y su comisario sean aviados para la dicha provincaia de Veneacuela como conviniere para su segura navegaacion y buen viage; y por lo que conviene su ida a aquella tierra al serviacio de Dios nuestro Senor y nuestro y bien de los naturales della, entendereis en esto con cuidado, y en el cumplimiento de las sedulas y despachos quo se han mandado dar para la provision de lo nesesario a los dichos religiosos. Fecha en Madrid a do ace de hebrero de mill y qui-

since that time, they have been able to bring the work "hasta enrasarla." The grant voted by the City Council is recorded in Actas del Cabildo de Caracas (Caracas, 1943), I, 493. In the royal account books of Venezuela for the years 1592-1598, several entries appear for the Friary of San Francisco of Caracas and a few for the church. In 1598, the community there numbered eleven friars. See AGI, Contaduria, leg. 1610, fols. 2, 3, 5, and 21 of the part entitled "Data."



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nientos y setenta y seis anos.-YO EL REY.-Por mandado de Su Magestad, Antonio de Erasso.-Senalada de los senores del Consejo.

II

Real cedula a los Oficiales Reales de Sornto Domingo, mandandoles pagcrr el vsie, desde 41Zg a Venezuela, de Fray Francisco de Arta y quince religiosos frsnciscanos que Tlevaba consigo.-Madrid, 20 de febrero de 1576.

AGI. lndiferente 2869, lib. I, fols. 160v-161.

EL REY.-Nuestros Oficiales que residis en la aciudad de Santo Domingo de la Isla Espanola. Sabed que habemos dado liacenacia a fray Francisco de Arta, de la Orden de San Francisco, para que pueda pasar a la provinacia de Veneacuela con quine religiosos de la dicha Orden, y por una nuestra acedula mandamos que en la dicha provinacia se pagase el flete de la llevada dellos, y porque se nos ha hecho relaacion que, por no haber navio para la dicha provinacia, van fletados a esa isla, vos mandamos que en llegando [fol. 161] a ella pagueis al dueno o maestre del navio en que fueren lo que oviere de haber por el flete, conforme al conacierto que hovieren hecho los oficiales de Sevilla, que con esta nuestra acedula y carta de pago del dueno o maestre del dicho navio, y la iguala que ovieren hecho los dichos oficiales, mandamos que os sean resacebidos y pasados en cuenta los maravedis que asi le dieredes y pagaredes, y desembarcados ay [ahi] los dichos religiosos los aviareis para la dicha provinacia de VeneSuela, igualando el flete dellos, que por la presente o su treslado signado mandamos a los muestros oficiales de la nuestra hacienda de la dicha provinacia que luego paguen en ella lo que concertaredes que se haya de dar del flete por la lleva da de los dichos religiosos desde esa isla a la dicha provinacia, que con el treslado signado de esta acedula y testimonio del conacierto que hiacieredes y cartas de pago del dueno o maestre del navio en que llevaren los dichos religiosos, mandamos les sean resacebidos y pasados en cuenta los maravedis que asi dieren y pagaren. Fecha en Madrid a XX de hebrero de 1576.-YO EL REY.-Refrendada de Antonio de Eraso; senalada del Consejo.

