Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, (1478-1557), warden of the fortress and port of Santo Domingo of the Island of Hispaniola, also served his emperor, Charles V, as the official chronicler of the first half-century of the Spanish presence in the New World. His monumental General y Natural Historia de las Indias, consisting of three parts, with fifty books, hundreds of chapters and thousands of pages, is still a major primary source for researchers of the period 1492-1548. Part One, consisting of 19 books, was first published in 1535, then reprinted and augmented in 1547, with a third edition, including Book XX, the first book of Part II, appearing in Valladolid in 1557. Book XX, which was printed separately in Valladolid in 1557 (the year of Oviedo's death), concerns the first three Spanish voyages to the East Indies. While it might be expected that the narrative of Magellan's voyage would predominate in Book XX, Oviedo devoted only the first four chapters to this monumental voyage. The remaining thirty-one concern the two subsequent and little-known Spanish follow-up expeditions to the Moluccas 1525-35. The first, initially led by García Jofre de Loaysa, set out from Coruña to follow Magellan's route through the Strait and across the Pacific. A second relief expedition under Alvaro Saavedra was sent out in search of Loaysa's company from the Pacific coast of New Spain in 1527. In each venture only one vessel reached the Spice Islands. Oviedo's narrative offers many details of the 10 years of hardships and conflict with the Portuguese, endured by the stoic Spanish, and of the growing unrest it provoked among their indigenous hosts. The news that Charles V had pawned his claim to the King João III of Portugal allowed a very few of the Spaniards to negotiate a passage back to Spain via Lisbon, while others remained in Portuguese settlements in the East Indies. The reports made by the returnees to the Consejo de Indias were integrated by Oviedo into his narrative, expanded and enriched by personal interviews. His chronicle includes much information about the indigenous culture, commerce, geography and of the exotic fauna and flora of the Spice Islands.
About the Author: Professor Glen Frank Dille (1940-2019), was a veteran of the United States Air Force, serving as Captain in the Vietnam-era. He received his BA and MA from the University of Colorado (Boulder), and his Ph. D from Tulane University in New Orleans. He took up a position in Spanish Language and Literature at Bradley University, Peoria in 1978, retiring in 2005 with the conferred rank of Professor Emeritus. Specializing in Early Modern Spanish Literature, he published La Comedia llamada Serafina: an Anonymous Humanistic Comedy of 1521, in 1979, followed by Antonio Enríquez Gómez, 1988, a study of the work of the dramatist, poet and novelist (1600-1663). Professor Dille was a distinguished translator. Writing from the Edge of the World: The Memoirs of Darien, 1514-27, 2006, makes available Oviedo's account of his service in Panama. The General and Natural History of the Indies., Book 50, Misfortunes and Shipwrecks in the Seas of the Indies, Islands, and Mainland of the Ocean Sea (1533-1548), appeared in 2011. These two editions, together with Professor Dille's translation of portions of Book XX in this present volume, provide welcome access to some of the treasures of a huge text which is still largely available only to readers of Spanish.
