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New World Interlopers: The Portuguese in the Spanish West Indies, from the Discovery to 1640*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Henry H. Keith
Henry H. Keith*
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
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Extract

The roots of Spain’s policy of attempted exclusion of the foreigner from her New World possessions, whether in trade or in immigration, reach deep into the Iberian religious consciousness of the fifteenth century. The religious pulse of the Catholic Kings was beating strongly and quickly as a result of the coincidence of the momentous events of the year 1492: expulsion of the Jews, conquest of Granada from the Moors, and the discovery of the New World. It is not surprising that the Spanish conception of religiosity should have been linked inseparably with the attitude of exclusion of the foreigner. Expulsion of the hated infidel-foreigner Moor from Spain was integrally associated with the Jews, since the latter had often been in close cooperation with the former (The fact that they had also cooperated with their rulers in Christian-held parts of Spain was swept aside in wake of the religious zeal of the Reconquista.). On the one hand, there was the religious cause of Catholic Christianity to be served, and, on the other, the secular goal of the consolidation of Castilian rule throughout the Spanish portion of the Iberian Peninsula.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , April 1969 , pp. 360 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1969

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Footnotes

*

This is a revision of a paper written in 1962 at the University of California (Berkeley) in Professor Engel Sluiter’s graduate seminar. All manuscript sources cited are from transcripts in his personal archive, for access to which I hereby wish to express my appreciation.

References

1 Ortiz, Antonio Domínguez, La clase social de los conversos en Castilla en la edad moderna (Madrid, 195?), pp. 22–25.Google Scholar

2 Morales-Carrion, Arturo, Puerto Rico and the Non-Hispanic Caribbean: a Study in the Decline of Spanish Exclusivism (Rio Piedras, 1952), p. 1.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Hanke, Lewis U., “The Portuguese in Spanish America, with Special Reference to the Villa Imperial de Potosí,” Revista de Historia de América, LI (June, 1961), 1–48 Google Scholar. The author points out in this excellent study that historians are now studying the rather considerable participation of Spaniards in the exploits of the bandeirantes of São Paulo. We are in need of studies of the nationals of both countries and their activities in each other’s New World colonies. Little or nothing has been completed in researching the activities of Spaniards in Portuguese America, but at least a beginning has been made in evaluating the role of the Portuguese in Spanish America. In addition to Professor Hanke’s pioneer study cited above, there are two additional studies of significance: the work of Canabrava, Brazilian Alice P. dealing with the Portuguese commercial activity in Rio de la Plata region, entitled, O comercio português no Rio da Prata, 1580–1640 (São Paulo, 1944)Google Scholar; and in another area of Spanish America, Venezuela, the reader should consult the interesting work of Saignes, Miguel Acosta, Historia de los portugueses en Venezuela (Caracas, 1959)Google Scholar.

6 Scelle, Georges, La traite négrière aux Indes de Castille (Paris, 1906), I, 176 Google Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 303.

8 Saco, José Antonio, Historia de la esclavitud . . . (Barcelona, 1879), p. 175 Google Scholar. Saco notes that the slaver arrived from Brazil carrying not only Negroes but also Whites, accompanied by their wives: “No de Africa de pueblo alguno español sino del Brasil recibió Puerto-Rico en 1538 algunos negros y cuarenta y cinco blancos, de los que muchos acompañados de sus mujeres. Vivian en el Brasil, do. era Gobernador Juan Alonso de Sosa. . . .” The Indian inhabitants dealt severely with them, however: “Alzáronse los indios, cortaronles el agua, quemaron las labranzas, mataron algunos portugueses, e huyendo los que escaparon hicieron su navegación costa á costa, por falta de grandes naves que los llevasen a Portugal.” Two of the three Portuguese ships (carabelones) remained in Puerto Rico, with 140 slaves, while the third made its way to Santo Domingo.

9 Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias (Madrid, 1681), IV, Book IX, Title XXXVIII, Law XXIIGoogle Scholar.

10 Ibid., Law V.

11 Archivo General de Indias (hereinafter cited as AGI), Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 36.

12 Pierre, and Chaunu, Huguette, Seville et l’Atlantique, 1504–1650 (Paris, 1956), IV, 346 Google Scholar. This letter was written by one Gregorio de Palma Hurtado to the Council of Indies describing the ways in which the contraband trade was carried on by the Portuguese from Cartagena. He complained vehemently that the Portuguese in Cartagena dealt directly with their counterparts in Portugal “enbiando por la via del Brasil grandissimas cantidades de mercaderias sin pagar, y lo mismo hacen en todos los navios de armazones que hacen para lebar negros e enbiando en ellos tambien sin pagar derechos todos los generos de que son avisados que ay falta en las dichas Indias.” He further complained that after the flota had visited Tierra Firme, a ship laden with tobacco, silver, and “muchos pasageros Portugueses con grandes cantidades de hacienda” was dispatched to Lisbon. The Chaunus refer to the leader of the Portuguese contrabandists in Cartagena, Jorge Fernández Gramajo as “chef d’un État” (p. 347).

13 Ibid.

14 Dominican Republic, Archivo General de la Nación, Relaciones historicas de Santo Domingo (Ciudad Trujillo, 1944), II, 111.Google Scholar

15 AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 116.

16 lbid., 100.

17 Ibid.

18 Wright, Irene, “Rescates: with Special Reference to Cuba, 1599–1610,” Hispanic American Historical Review, III (1920), 333–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19 Ibid.

20 AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 100.

21 Ibid.

22 Fernández, Manuel Tejado, Aspectos de la vida social en Cartagena de Indias durante el seiscientos (Seville, 1954), p. 197 Google Scholar. The author points out that the Inquisition in Cartagena spent most of its time trying the cases of Portuguese Jews (conversos) in the seventeenth century: “Al llegar a este punto es interesante hacer notar que todos los judíos que aparecen en los procesos expuestos, tanto los proprios reos como los testigos y las personas con quienes unos y otros tuvieron comunicación religiosa, son portugueses.”

23 Ibid., p. 198. In Tejado Fernández’ opinion, the Inquisition was set up largely for the purpose of keeping conversos (who were mainly Portuguese) from flocking to the Indies: “El trasplante de la Inquisicion a aquellas latitudes era razón de más para que los conversos no afluyeron en gran numero.”

24 Lea, Henry Charles, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies (New York, 1922), p. 229.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 421.

26 Medina, José Toribio, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición de Cartagena de las Indias (Santiago, 1899), p. 48 Google Scholar.

27 Tejado-Fernández, pp. 149–152.

28 Toribio Medina, pp. 222–226.

29 AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 155.

30 Haring, C.H., Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), p. 104 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Dominican Republic, Archivo General de la Nación, Relaciones, II, 73.

* The act of paying a penalty, called the composición, to local officials which allowed the payer to remain in residence in the community. It often meant that the payer was granted a reprieve from the threat of deportation; it was temporary, however, and might have to be paid several times with no guarantee that one could avoid eventual expulsion.

32 AGI, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 1.

33 Ibid., 155.

34 Ibid., 193.

35 Ibid., 100.

36 Ibid.

37 Konetzke, Richard, “Legislación sobre inmigración de extrangeros en América durante la época colonial,” Revista Internacional de Sociologìa, III (July-December, 1945), 269–299 Google Scholar.