The share of Spain in the history of the Pacific ocean

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HENRY MORSE STEPHENS COLLECTION

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PAMPHLETS ON

ALASKA
AND THE PACIFIC.

1. Altamira y Crevea, Rafael.

The Share of Spain in the
history of the Pacific
Ocean. 1917

2. Bagley, Clarence B. The

Waterways of the Pacific
Northwest. 1917

3. Balch, Thomas Willing. The

Alasko-Canadian frontier.
1902.

4. Bolton, Herbert E. The Early

explorations of Father
Garces on the Pacific Slope.
1917

5. Bolton, Herbert E. New light

on Manuel Lisa and the Spanish
fur trade.

6. Dunning, William A. Paying fofc

Alaska, 1912.

7. Howay, F. W. The Fur trade in

northwestern development. 1917

8. Morrow, William W. "The Spoilers 11

1916

888600

3

.

9. Stephens, Henry Morse. The
Conflict, of European
nations in the Pacific.
1917

10. Teggart, Frederick J. The
Approaches to the Pacific
Coast. 1915

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THE SHARE OF SPAIN IN
THE HISTORY OF THE
PACIFIC OCEAN

BY RAFAEL ALTAMIRA Y . (JREVTEA,

UNIVERSITY OF MADRID

REPRINTED FROM "THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY"
BY H. MORSE STEPHENS AND HERBERT E. BOLTON.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1917, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

THE SHARE OF SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE
PACIFIC OCEAN 1

RAFAEL ALTAMIRA Y CREVEA

I REGARD it as useless to emphasize the importance which I
attach to this opportunity, offered by the meeting of the Historical
Congress, to recall in the presence of an audience so familiar
with the subject and so kindly disposed, the general outlines of
a considerable portion of Spanish colonial history.

In any case, reference to the useful work done in the past by
the nation to which one belongs amounts to authorization of our
right to exist and to continue our existence as associates in a com-
mon humanity struggling for the attainment of conditions more
and more civilized and prosperous. But the present occasion,
because of the many circumstances of which I shall speak later,
even if you know them well, increases notably the value of calling
up the past.

Such a finality of judgment as I may deliberately wish to give you
is not incompatible with the scientific character of the Congress.
No one can deny the Spaniards the right to concern themselves
with their own history in a scientific sense and for patriotic ends
as well as in the human one of mere investigation of the truth for
truth's sake. Nor in this case is there any contradiction between
the two lines of thought, since in last analysis what we desire is
that the world shall know the entire truth about our history, and
not a part of it exaggerated by unfavorable prejudices. When
the final balance has been struck we are confident that it will be
rather more advantageous for us than otherwise, as reasonably

1 The English translation of this paper has been made partly by my old friend
Professor William R. Shepherd of Columbia University, New York, partly by
Mr. Herbert I. Priestley, University of California. I give to both of them my
best thanks for their useful and accurate aid. The original Spanish version of the
paper follows, pp. 55-75.

34

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 35

might be supposed a priori of any people, in view of the very fact
that it is made up of men who carry in their hearts along with the
evil the good also of the species to which they belong.

Furthermore, the point of view to which I refer arises naturally
out of the topic itself, chosen at the particular request of our presi-
dent, since in a sketch necessarily brief one finds it impossible to
dwell on the details of recent investigation at once monographic
and specialized. My present duty is simply to indicate the main
lines of a complex development extending through several cen-
turies, to offer a kind of summary that for many of you will be
little more than a reminder of things already known, and for others
an orderly condensation of loose facts to which I shall add the
personal element of a historian's opinion.

It is not true, indeed, in this field, nor in the remainder of our
national history, that there are no new discoveries or researches
to be made ; on the contrary, you all know that much remains
to be done in this line. Even in the matter of inventories of ma-
terials available, a work which is well advanced (and you Ameri-
can historians have labored in this field with great assiduity and
felicitous results), these inventories themselves still remain to be
profitably utilized, since to know merely that a document exists
is not the same as to know, utilize, and disseminate its contents.
But the fact is that even in the matter of knowledge of the mate-
rials themselves, every day the investigation of the archives re-
veals to us something new, as I had occasion not long since to
prove, concerning the legislative history of our colonization. In
places other than the Archive de Indias there exist numerous
documents not yet used, and part of these refer especially to
California. But I repeat that this topic cannot be pursued here,
lest I digress from the general character of the exposition which it
is my duty to make now in your presence.

Of course the term " Pacific Ocean," as it appears in the title
of my address, must not be interpreted strictly as an allusion to
the history of the Spanish sea expeditions to this part of the world.
In the true geographical sense the Pacific includes all lands of
the continents bordering upon it and receiving from it some of its
conditions of life. Both elements are inseparable. To speak of
the work of Spain in the Pacific does not mean, in my judgment,

36 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

to speak of Oceania alone, but of America as well, of many an
American area on which we planted our foot, and among them of
this one where we now are.

This point agreed, it may be observed that the history of Spain
in the Pacific contains not only everything substantial in our work
of colonization, but in quantity and even quality the greater part of
it. One may say that here in this portion of the Pacific is the
spot where the Spanish people, especially in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and also in California in the eighteenth,
applied the maximum of their energies and afforded the greatest
proofs of their service in the civilization of the world. It is curi-
ous that it should have been so, but it was not merely a casual or
arbitrary occurrence. For some reason the action of the Span-
iards on the American continents took place above all on the
shores of this ocean, that is to say on the coast remote from Europe
and not in the Atlantic just opposite to them. Consideration
of the reasons connected with this fact, those at least visible to
us, is a primary point worthy of the attention of the true historian
who does not detain himself over minute details of erudition.

That this is true was due at first to the initial enterprise
that resulted in the discovery of America the westward
passage to the Indies. The barrier of new lands encountered
on the way, with all its attractiveness in wealth, actual and
dreamed about, and in the zest, so human then and now, for
domination, could not check the ultimate desire. One must
go onward toward the West, fulfil the thought of Columbus,
arrive at the real Indies. Thence came the efforts to find a passage
through, by the northwest, by the centre, by the south, the enter-
prise of Balboa, the projects for a canal, the multiple voyages of
Spanish sailors across the seas from the time of Magellan and
Elcano onward.

The direction taken by Columbus in his first journey also
brought the Spaniards to the Pacific. Had the course been shifted
somewhat to the northward, they, rather than the English, would
perhaps have colonized Virginia and New England at a consider-
able distance from the Pacific. Had it inclined more to the south-
ward, the great continental point of the Guianas and Brazil, to
the Spaniards would have been entrusted a task of another sort.

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 37

But Columbus in fact came to the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico
and hence directly to the point most easily penetrable to the
Pacific and fitted to become the centre of Spanish colonization
and activity.

A third fact planted us here, also, away from the Atlantic areas
in question, the fact, namely, of discovering in regions bathed
by the Pacific on one side, like Mexico, and in others adjacent
to it, advanced types of aboriginal civilization that abounded in
their appeal of wealth and glorious dominion.

The westward trend of Spanish endeavor, then, apart entirely
from the actual maritime enterprises on the Pacific, was also
determined by the enterprises, on the Atlantic side, of extraneous
activities which gave to France and England almost all to the
northward and to Portugal almost all to the southward, and to
the two nations first mentioned a great part, also, of the Antilles,
which, even if it were made up only of the smallest islands, pos-
sessed the greatest importance both numerically and commercially.
In regard to the south it is well known that the actual colonization
by Spain of the regions about the River Plate (not the voyages of
discovery, which are another matter) belonged to a period much
later and was far from reaching the intensity and proportions of
that in Mexico, Peru, Chile, etc.

But, since there came to be added to the field of history in the
eighteenth century as a matter of doctrine, the question of what
each people had contributed to the common labor of civilization
(not to say that this question had not arisen prior to the eighteenth
century), that which is of most import to general opinion, which
demands of history definite conclusions or at least materials upon
which to base conclusions, is to know what each nation has done
in every sphere of its activity upon which either favorable or
unfavorable opinion may be based concerning its contribution to
civilization.

It would be necessary to extend this paper beyond bounds
if I should attempt now to discuss this historical problem in rela-
tion to the entire work of Spain in America and the islands of
the seas. In my other works I have spoken of this matter, or
shall soon do so, hence I may be permitted to refer to them in
outline, omitting details (which are often of great importance),

38 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

a limitation imposed by the circumstance already alluded to of
the incompleteness of the publications yet issued in regard to
our history. The general outline I do believe has been clearly
traced, especially if it be borne in mind that our written history
has until now consisted in great part rather in the application to
the facts of preconceived judgments and moral considerations,
not always logical, than in quiet contemplation and balanced
judgment of all the facts in their ensemble, with their proper rela-
tionships and counterpoise just as reality presents them.

I omit, then, consideration of the motives of our colonial move-
ment, especially the characterization of it as a selfish, covetous
appetite for lucre, as if only the Spaniards had undertaken coloni-
zation for gain and the other nations for philanthropy, and as if our
actual civilization, so firmly established upon the bases of economic
well-being and the development of material interests, to which
so many things are often sacrificed, could convert into a defect
or even into a crime the pursuit of riches, especially when this
motive was accompanied by others, of which the history of Spain
offers many shining examples. Be whatever it may the opinion
in this regard, it is fitting not to forget one thing often remarked
upon, but which the exigencies of the argument demand should
be recalled again, and that is that the economic incentive (either
among mere fortune-hunters or among real merchants) carries
man to other planes of life. A Spanish savant, Professor Aramburu,
said upon a memorable occasion, referring to the Inquisition, in
a phrase the rhetorical brilliancy of which does not conceal a fund
of keen historical perspicacity, that it is not within the power of
man to prevent bonfires from giving light ; that is to say that fire,
though it burns, illuminates the means by which it will one day
come to be extinguished. So also it may be said, that although
he may not realize it, the gold-hunter or the merchant cannot
prevent the circumstance that with the merchandise with which
he ministers to indispensable necessities, should also be dissemi-
nated the ideas and the civilization of the people to whom he be-
longs things well outside his sphere, and often conveying great
moral elevation.

So then, although the Spaniards each and all of them who
came to America or to the Pacific, or the public powers of that

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 39

country and day, had had no other motive than covetousness,
they would also have necessarily produced fundamental elements
of civilization of other types, and it would be necessary to give
credit for them. But it is well known that Spain proposed other
things than the mere economic benefit of her discoveries, conquests
and colonization. Among them was the extension of her religion,
her culture, her spirit ; that is, to give all that she had, and that all
(much or little, correct in all things or mistaken in part) her very
own, which she might contribute to the common work, believing
in good faith that it was her best and desiring that all peoples
might participate in it and (as it always happens to every one,
since none can give more than he has) without the power humanly
to give anything else, so by that token without responsibility for
not having given more.

Briefly, then, let us see what Spain accomplished in its general
activities throughout the continental areas bathed by the Pacific,
on this ocean itself and on its islands. As already observed, I
must avoid details, feeling assured as I do of knowledge of them
possessed by my audience, who for that reason can follow readily
the general treatment that I have in mind without seeking an
explanation of every fact mentioned.

In the first place, let us consider the fact itself of the expeditions
by land and sea which in a short time and in immense quantity
added to a knowledge of the planet. That result alone performed
a valuable service to civilization and the progress of the world;
but in its relation to the work of Spain it possesses a most important
significance, because, as has been pointed out very well by Torres
Campos in a treatise concerning California itself (and along with
him Fernandez Duro and others), the extension of Spanish effort
in that field shows that the Spanish people here were not merely
mine-hunters and warlike conquerors, but geographical explorers
to whom are due a long series of discoveries superior in this respect
to everything achieved in those centuries by other peoples in this
part of the world. The actual frequency of the voyages and the
abundance of accounts of them which everyone nowadays may read
and does read, have exhausted our admiration for those deeds with
which we are familiar. Only when some exceptional act of valor
is performed, like that of Scott for example, do we fix our attention

40 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

on it, regarding it as something heroic and worthy of making proud
the men who achieved it and the people to whom they belonged.
But in general we have lost or lowered considerably our ability
to appreciate the valor of effort in such undertakings, more diffi-
cult and appreciable in proportion as we go back into history and
encounter men who accomplished the same feats or even greater
ones than those of to-day, with fewer means and hence with a
greater expenditure of personal energy. And if to this trait in
the spirit of man to-day we add the neglect visited upon the his-
tory and remembrance of Spanish travellers, together with the
deliberate silence or unconscionable ignorance about them long
since common among foreign writers, one can understand how diffi-
cult it is now to give a clear idea of Spanish enterprises of the sort
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is evident also
that the public at large, creating as it does the collective opinion
about history, through what is supplied by specialists or met with
in the legends of common knowledge, is unable to-day to form a
definite idea of that great work of Spain in its entirety, because
of the lack of a picture of it which brings together and condenses
all its elements.

At this point it should be stated, furthermore, that the voyages
and discoveries undertaken by the Spaniards were not the fruit
of chance, or of a disordered action of individuals (even allowing
for the very respectable share of individual initiative in human
endeavor). Neither were they merely the fortuitous consequences
of attempts that had failed in some other direction, as many,
with pardonable error, asserted, including authors very favorably
disposed toward the colonial history of Spain. Quite to the
contrary. On the part of the elements directing Spanish action
in the New World and beyond and in the bent of mind visible
among the travellers themselves viewed as a body, there was some-
thing reflexive, systematic, and orderly that befitted the final
realization of an object upheld in spite of the more personal and
egoistic purposes of some of the discoverers. This purposeful
endeavor, as I have observed, had two main lines of action before
it : the one, to carry out the thought of Columbus in its original
form of arriving at the East Indies, establishing direct relations
between them and Spain and utilizing their products for Spanish

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 41

commerce; the other, to know well, in every aspect that might
be of interest (not only in the political and in the strictly economic
sense) the new lands that had been found, by bringing together
and centralizing the information constantly assembled by the
explorers.

The first object was not fully realized, because the Portuguese,
arriving from the East, had closed the way and prevented Spain,
despite lengthy negotiations known to everyone, from securing
more than a small portion of the island territory adjacent to Asia.
The commercial current setting in from this direction, instead of
moving toward Spain, that is, from East to West, by the Portu-
guese route itself, moved from West to East, that is, from China,
Japan, and the Philippines, and thence across the Pacific toward
America and eventually Spain, thus creating the first commer-
cial highway in that ocean and by Spanish effort. The day when
one knows well the history of that highway, of the mercantile
transactions associated with it, of its chief agency the Acapulco
galleon (and it is to be hoped that the promised work of Mr.
Schurz will make good progress in the matter concerning which
there is much yet unpublished to be seen) and of the other elements
that go to make them up, we shall see the importance it had, alike
in itself and as a precedent for modern development. Then, too,
we shall perceive how many Spanish enterprises in Oceania, appar-
ently disconnected and casual, were united from within by the
desire to subserve the great commercial object in question, seek-
ing out its main line and assuring it as much as possible. Other
enterprises were brought together for objects independent of this
and derived, partly from the consequences that every discovery
entails by giving rise to new geographical and cosmographical
problems, partly also from the general eagerness, very active
at that time in the minds of the Spanish pilots, captains, and
adventurers, to discover for the sake of the satisfaction of dis-
covery in itself, or for the advantages of conquest and the economic
utility. Finally, a third group was one set in action by the
necessity of knowing the coasts of the new ocean ; first, proceeding
from the Isthmus and New Spain to the north and south (with
new incentives at times like that which led to the several voyages
of Pizarro and his companions) ; then, also from Peru and Chile

42 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

to the south, for the purpose of connecting with the discovery
by Magellan, apart from the impulse in various senses afforded
by the eagerness to discover the maritime passage between the
two oceans.

Two points of capital interest are noticeable in this long history
of the discoveries and both were the work of Spaniards : one was
the discovery by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the vast importance of
which is recognized by the entire world, the epic valor of which
was sung by one American writer, Washington Irving, and to the
history of which a Spanish author, Altolaguirre, has just contrib-
uted a large amount of material ; 1 the other was rendered effective
by Magellan with Spanish money, ships and men, and led to
the first circumnavigation of the globe, with which deed is
connected the name of the Spaniard, Elcano. But the day when
these three glorious names, that everyone knows, and a few more
of like celebrity, are combined in the familiarity of popular
consciousness with all those who contributed with their efforts
and their successes greater or smaller to the secular work of dis-
covering the huge Pacific and most of its lands to the east and to
the west and within the vast sweep of its waters, everyone will
recognize then what only a few specialists know now. It is that
not merely the exploration of the American coast on the west,
with scant exception in the extreme north, was entirely
Spanish in its accomplishment, but a large portion of the islands
of the Pacific also owe their discovery to Spanish sailors who threw
themselves into the work with so much tenacity and vigor, un-
mindful of perils which, as one author has observed, caused more
than eighty per cent of them to perish in those hazardous voyages ;
and all this without producing in two centuries any stoppage of
the current of venture, while at the same time it left behind, in
spite of the misfortunes of many an expedition, a glorious record
of discoveries and descriptive studies.

I refrain from giving here a list of names, which might seem a
vain boast of erudition, useless indeed if merely a list is given,
and there is not space for more ; but I do wish to say once again
that in this matter all the data which have come down to us have

1 Angel de Altolaguirre y Duvale, Vasco Ntiiiez de Balboa (Madrid, 1914).

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 43

not been published, nor have those which are known been gathered
together, in spite of the valuable labors of Jimenez de la Espada,
Zaragoza, Ferreiro, Coello, Duro, Beltran, and other Spaniards,
Collingridge, Morgan, and a few others among foreigners who,
with sympathetic attitude toward Spain, have undertaken investi-
gations of this character. When that work, which is now lacking,
has been done, will be seen not only how much of our knowledge
of the Pacific is due to the efforts of the Spaniards whose now un-
known names will stand out in high relief, but also we shall know
how full of dramatic episodes and impelling curiosity is the history
of Spanish navigation, in which, that nothing should lack, there
were even women captains of expeditions ; and how in Peru there
were women who governed as viceroys during interregnums,
showing that our ideas and customs of those times were not repug-
nant to the spirit of feminism. It will also be seen how erroneous
is the affirmation made by some persons that the Spaniards were
not natural navigators since all the pilots of their expeditions
were foreigners, for it will be demonstrated that many native-born
Spaniards played principal roles in the development of precision
in cosmographical studies by writing works which were trans-
lated and copied in other countries of Europe by cartographers,
and it will be demonstrated that this advancement in cosmography
had created a propitious medium for the development of excellent
mariners.

With respect to the other purpose already mentioned, that of
determining as exactly as possible the knowledge of the newly
discovered lands in all aspects, it will suffice to notice, in order
that it may be apparent that the effort was made with a clear
idea of what was desired and a profound understanding of the
difficulty of the enterprise first, the well-matured plan of the
Relaciones de las Indias which our Jimenez de la Espada
issued so brilliantly in his well-known collection of documents
(afterwards continued in various other publications) ; and, second,
the making of the Padron de Indias definitely to correspond
with the Relaciones; finally, the systematic preparation of
purely scientific expeditions, such as the well-known one of Dr.
Hernandez in the time of Philip II. It is worthy of note that this
expedition, and others of those centuries, were not sporadic and

44 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

isolated, but were valuable links in a long chain, more or less
closely connected according to circumstances, but practically
uninterrupted ; the final episodes of these voyages were marked,
in the eighteenth century, by numerous expeditions of famous
Spanish naturalists (not considering that of Jorge Juan and
Ulloa). In the nineteenth century, as a conclusion of these, oc-
curred the expedition called the Pacific Expedition, in which was
laid the foundation of the fame of Jimenez de la Espada. Among
these voyages there should be found a place in which to group
also those of Bonpland and Humboldt for, while it is true
that these were performed by men of other nationalities, it is no
less true that they were assisted amply in their efforts by the
Spanish government.

In view of all this, it is not strange that, shortly after the begin-
ning of the discoveries, there should have been published not only
books like the short but interesting one of Enciso, but fuller
accounts such as the Geografia y Description de las Indias, com-
piled by the cosmographer, Juan Lopez de Velasco, thirty years
before the end of the sixteenth century, and in part derived from
the labors begun in the Council of the Indies to form the above-
mentioned Relaciones. 1 In this work there are many accounts
of the islands of the deep ocean (islas de Poniente), especially the
Moluccas, the Philippines, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Ladron
Islands, and the coasts of China, Japan, and the Lequios (Loo-
chow). In the same manner, and in the light of all that
scientific preparation, based on the numberless materials ob-
tained by travellers and missionaries (from the naturalists to
those whom we to-day would call sociologists) , one may appreciate
what rich treasures of all kinds exist in our chroniclers of the
Indies; in some, because they utilize that material, and in
others because they were prepared by the atmosphere of the
epoch to see the reality of the new world with a width of vision
and with a complexity of programme to which they never would
have been drawn by the learned traditions of the historiography
then dominant in the Old World.

When the history of all these facts shall be written in its en-
tirety, and placed before the public in proper form, adequate

1 First published in 1894, with additions and illustrations, by Don Justo Zaragoza.

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 45

proof will be presented that the Spaniards were predecessors of
navigators of other nations in voyages repeated later by foreigners,
aside from those which are exclusively and undisputedly Spanish.

But I do not desire, nor could I well leave the present topic
without referring by way of a slight digression to a matter, the
importance of which has been during the current year raised to
a high degree of interest. I refer to the Panama Canal. Here,
less than in any other part of the world, do I need to extol the
value which the opening of the Canal will have in human history ;
but it is not for the purpose of lauding the enterprise that I here
make mention of it, but rather to point out the share which the
Spaniards have had in earlier efforts to effect what has been now
realized.

Here again is a subject which as yet lacks a definitive study.
The book recently produced by the learned Spaniard, Senor
Manjarres, 1 although it adds many notices to those already well-
known and oft-repeated, included in the handbooks of history,
does not .exhaust the accounts which might be adduced. Man-
jarres cites in his work twenty-one projects all Spanish (with
one exception that of M. de Fer de la Nouerre) from the
first project of Hernan Cortes to cut the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,
to that of the Deputy to the Cortes of Cadiz, Don Jose A. Lopez
de la Plata. To these there might have been added, among
those which are well known, that of Galve (sixteenth century), that
of the Consulado de Comercio y Navegacion (communication by
way of Patagonia) or even that which La Bastide (although that
was not a Spanish enterprise, according to the name of the author)
presented to Charles IV. Be whatever may the number finally
verified, two facts stand out sharply to link the name of Spain
perpetually to the great modern work accomplished, just as the
name of Balboa is perpetually associated with the discovery of
one of the oceans now united. The first is, that Spain contem-
plated from the very first years the opening of an artificial water-
way (since no natural one existed save at the extremes of the
continent) between the Pacific and the Atlantic; and that, in
the conception of the idea of this undertaking, as well as in the

1 Ram6n de Manjarr6s, Proyectos Espafloles de Caned Interocednico (Rev. de Arch.
Bib., y Mus. t Enero a Abril, 1914).

46 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

formation of projects for its realization, in explorations and pre-
paratory labors, to Spain also belongs the precedence. When
Champlain in 1600 conceived the idea of the canal, years had
already elapsed since Spaniards had not only had the identical
idea, in view of the need of such a waterway, and with direct
knowledge of the lands in which its construction was possible, but
had decided various projects for utilizing several practicable
routes (Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Panama). Spain did not in
the end construct the canal on account of the coincidence of nu-
merous causes, among which, in the eighteenth century especially,
was one of especial weight, that the new communication might
prove a source of international complications. But Spain never
ceased during three centuries to think of the project ; nor did she
ever, as Humboldt himself recognizes, prohibit speaking or writ-
ing about the piercing of the isthmus.

All these vast efforts toward understanding and getting benefit
from these new lands and seas produced, aside from the dis-
coveries themselves and the numerous problems which the needs
of the time suggested, a series of secondary but none the less im-
portant consequences, which must also be included in a sketch of
Spanish activities in the regions of the Pacific. These were,
succinctly stated, knowledge of geography and geology (in so far
as these fields of learning, until then without name or scope, could
be furthered by the observations of the explorers), of botany,
zoology, and mineralogy (with all the applied skill which mining
demands, in which the Spaniards realized considerable progress
by means of metallurgical methods of which some are still in use) ;
of native dialects (in which the studies of our missionaries are of
prime importance, as is well known, and of truly extraordinary
number) ; and of the customs, social organization, traditions and
history of the Amerinds, which keenly interested the Spaniards,
including those religious matters which departed most from Span-
ish tradition. As a result of all these labors in different fields there
remains the most ample and abiding source of materials for mod-
ern investigations. If to all this immense labor is added the inten-
tional introduction into America of over 170 species of plants
and animals here unknown hitherto, some of which throve and
became characteristically American; and if we add the introduc.

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 47

tion into Europe of trees and of plants such as the potato, the to-
mato, Indian corn, the pita, the aguacate, the batata, the Chilian
and Virginian strawberries, etc., we shall have a well-rounded
picture of the useful and civilizing labors, material as well as spirit-
ual, which the Spaniards effected in their contact with the new
lands discovered upon the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific.

This picture signifies, in fact, the introduction of European
civilization into America and many of the islands of the sea.
Before that, all that existed in America was prehistoric, in spite
of the material and artistic, advancement which certain civiliza-
tions present without having essentially passed beyond the actual
boundaries of the primitive. Through Spain, America became
incorporated in that Westward Movement which has come to be
the autonomastical civilizing mould of the greater part of the world.
Thus Spain was the first teacher (in order of time) of citizenship,
of the Christian life, and of classic culture elaborated anew upon
the fabric of the original European organization of the Middle
Ages.

And it is fitting to say that the importance of Spanish activities
in America is not only quantitative, but, in many of them, qualita-
tive. The long list of names which might be presented, Oviedo,
Acosta, Hernandez, Ximenez, Gomez Ortega, Sahagun, Herrera,
Lozano, Carmona, Mutis, Ruiz, Pavon, Azara, Sesse, Mocino,
Ulloa, Jorge Juan, Pineda, Malaspina, Medina, Saavedra, Barba,
Fernandez de Velasco, Contreras, Acuiia, Ovalle, Lopez Medel,
Elhuyar, and many others who might be named, is vindicated
by the judgment which the labor accomplished has merited in
modern times, from specialists not to be suspected of Spanish
leanings; men like Humboldt, Linnaeus, Lyell, Hoefer, Sonne-
schmidt, and many others. Of a transient, casual activity, product
of futile curiosity without scientific direction, it might not be said,
as it has of those Spanish activities to which I now refer, that
"no nation has made greater sacrifices for the . advancement of
botany " ; that in Oviedo and Acosta are found "the fundamentals
of what we to-day call natural science ; " that " since the foundation
of society, in no other epoch (as in that of our discoveries) had
widened so marvellously and suddenly the circle of ideas touching
the exterior world and relations of space;" or that the "Spanish

48 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

descriptions of American countries are distinguished for their
precision" (the judgment of Lyell), etc.

We may, then, rest assured of having contributed to the labors
of human science a treasure which warrants us to ask recognition
as distinguished collaborators.

There are certainly, along with these contributions, which are
now coming to be recognized by general opinion, other acts of ours
in all the colonies, hence in those to which this paper refeis, con-
cerning which we have for centuries been hearing terrible censures.
First of all, it is fitting to say frankly that although all the accusa-
tions against Spain should be true, especially with regard to treat-
ment of the natives, these censures would not invalidate the
importance of any of the services to civilization just enumerated.
In order that judgment upon a man or a country may be just,
it is necessary to impute to them all that they have done, both
good and bad. To pretend that since the latter exists all the
former is to be blotted out, is an injustice, and, moreover, an un-
reality. Each fact in history remains indelible, be what it may;
the neglect or the malice of man may obscure it for a time, but in
spite of that it shall not disappear from the debit or credit of its
author, upon whose responsibility or vainglory it shall forever
rest with an intrinsic value which nothing can countervail. All
that we have claimed remains, then, as has been stated ; let us
proceed to examine these other spiritual phases with which we are
now dealing.

After much discussion, a great portion of opinion has settled
upon this formula of compromise; Spain conceived and wrote
the most humane and elevated legislation for inferior peoples
which is known to history, but this legislation (as well as that for
governmental administration, which also interested the Spaniards)
remained a dead letter in spite of the existence and the propaganda
of numerous defenders of human rights, not only for the Indians,
but also for the negroes, it being granted that the first known
abolitionists were Spaniards.

I do not believe that this formula expresses the reality of events
as they occurred. Let it be noted that if it is accepted as valid,
it is equivalent to acknowledging that, save for a restricted minor-
ity of cultivated and generous men who conceived and issued

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 49

those laws, from the time of Queen Isabella, and who in the
professor's chair, on the printed page, and in the pulpit de-
fended the liberty and dignity of the Indians and negroes
save for these, that the mass of Spaniards were so cruel and
undisciplined, or were so thoroughly imbued with the general
ideas of contempt for inferiors and desire for their exploita-
tion which prevailed at that time in Europe (and indeed these
same ideas were applied by all the other colonizing powers) that
they neither complied with these laws, nor omitted a single oppor-
tunity to sacrifice to their selfishness and ferocity all the peoples
with whom they came in contact. We must, no doubt, acknowl-
edge this minority, which was as Spanish as the supposed majority
which cherished opposite sentiments and ideas, but I repeat that
this does not, in my opinion, convey the whole truth.

Note that I say the truth. I do not, by this token, take the
purely patriotic point of view, which tries to deny sentimentally that
which appears unfavorable to my native land ; I assume a scien-
tific point of view, in saying that that formula (which is indeed a
priori absurd, since it divides essentially the two spheres, that of
the ideal and that of practical life, as though they belonged to
distinct worlds) does not express the truth as it occurred. Many
North American writers accept the position that, with regard to
our colonial system, " many of its errors and shortcomings existed
because of the incompetence and venality of subordinate officials,"
and not from poor organization or the intention of the officers
of central government, of the viceroys and higher functionaries.
This, if true in general terms (allowing for exceptions among those
same higher functionaries, not all of whom were impeccable, and
it would suffice to mention a few names from Nueva Espafia,
Tierra Firme, Peru, etc.) that is, only to transfer the respon-
sibility, as in the previous case, and the evil intent, to those
beneath, who were in the majority, thus confusing in a single
sweeping judgment of venality and incompetence, all subaltern
employees.

Well, then, it is indubitable that this constitutes an error and
an injustice. It is not historically accurate to say that in Spanish
colonization there were two distinct worlds ; one above, endowed
with the grandest human ideas and intentions, another below

50 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

but much greater, for whom these ideas were a dead letter. The
actual fact is that in both classes there were humane, honorable,
and just people who knew how to be faithful to the spi it of the
laws (which were essentially our own, that is to say, they were
the product of our spirit and not of another people's). So were
there also those of the opposite character. Side by side with the
legislators, with the apostles like Las Casas, with the scientists
like Vitoria, there was a legion of people who were in immediate
contact with the natives, and hence were obliged to practice their
ideas missionaries, conquerors, encomenderos, miners, colonists
of diverse types who did not perpetrate cruelties nor even those
abuses and acts of exploitation which even to-day are considered
permissible or explainable among the most advanced peoples of
the earth, if practiced upon those who are economically or anthro-
pologically inferior. The historical question then is to establish
what number of abuses actually existed, and in what proportion
with the cases of humanity and faithful application of the laws
for natives did they occur. We must also take account along
with the irregularities of those measures taken by a central
government not impeccable no doubt, but conforming to the mode
of civilization then everywhere in vogue.

This task, the labor of the historical investigator, which will
slowly be finished as we come more and more to know the details
and can measure the exactitude of the allegations made up to
now, as well as the value of general and inexact statements (so
natural in those who preach a doctrine or complain of what seems
to them evil in the portrayal of which they need to accentuate
in order to command attention) this task, I say, will give
us an exact measure, or an approximate one, of the proportion
in which acts were good or bad. But however numerous the latter
may have been, they will never be able to invalidate the reality
or destroy the merit : first, of our laws of the Indies ; second, of
the long line of our humanitarian writers or of our jurists of refined
legal judgment; or third, of the long roll of our benevolent and
charitable men, humane toward the Indians, and faithful to pro-
fessional duty, whom our history unquestionably presents. It
would suffice to mention and this is only a part of this group
the list of our missionaries, really Christlike in their procedure, in

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 51

order that Spain's credit column might show a respectable balance.
California herself is not the part of America where with least
justice this memory might be invoked.

There would still remain, in this matter, something very impor-
tant to be done before arriving at a just appreciation of the facts ;
that would be the application to proved abuses (in peace or war,
through motives of conquest or economic relations) the criteria of
legal and moral judgment which the majority of mankind of that
day and of this apply to non-Spanish acts of the same category.
In the question of injuries to one's neighbor, there are but two
positions : the philanthropic, which must needs be pacificist,
and which has resulted in ill for all the nations of history; and
that which we might call the realistic, which recognizes what is
inevitable in human relations such as have been until now preva-
lent, or excuses that which everyone did and still continues doing.
If the first of these positions is sincerely adopted, truly many acts
of our conquest and colonization will be condemned, but by the
same token the same, or even worse acts at times, of the other
colonizing powers from the remotest antiquity until now will be
equally condemned. To apply to us exclusively this criterion, as
do many foreign writers, and some Spaniards as well who are less
nationalistic than desirous not to compromise themselves by
excusing deeds which their consciences now condemn, is notori-
ous injustice. But we must agree that a humanitarian judgment,
for example that of Reclus or Pi y Margall, is not the one professed
and is even less the one applied by the majority of men of all na-
tions, and even by governments themselves in most cases. The
world in general, then, cannot judge our history save by the criteria
which dominate it, and which every people applies to its own and
not to alien acts. It is hence necessary to judge those acts of our
history alleged reprehensible by the light of dominant practice in
order to place us upon an equality with others, and to ascertain
in each case the degree of responsibility which must be assumed
by government and people in the light of existing practice in the
epoch under contemplation. Only thus can we put ourselves on
a genuine basis whereupon the philanthropic criterion which has
its merits, though with due historic reservations raises yet
other questions which can only be asked by those who see affairs

52 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

in their universal aspects. It will always redound to our credit
that the ruling classes of Spain, in the colonization period, rejected
and even punished many acts which the general conscience of the
period held permissible, and which modern guiding minds some-
times defend or commit under the guise of solus populi, or as we say
in Spain, "for reasons of state," which are usually very flexible
and elastic.

And yet to that moral and judicial example which Spain during
those centuries gave to the world, we may add another spiritual
and practical lesson which is not, I believe, one of the least of our
labors in all parts to which we carried our activities, chiefly to
the New World. The lesson I refer to, there is perhaps no other
nation more apt to comprehend in all that it signifies for life than
the people of North America. It springs from a common fund of
moral qualities, that is, spirit and will, which both Spaniards and
North Americans have exhibited at various times when confront-
ing similar needs of life. These qualities are endurance in suffer-
ing, serenity in danger, energy in strife, force in struggle, and valor
in difficulties which made possible among you the epic of the West
and the Far West, and which shone with such remarkable lustre
among our discoverers and conquerors. So, that which was done
by the builders of this great republic upon the primitive shores of
the Atlantic finds its precedent in the work of the Spaniards of
the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, who, with
lesser material equipment, had to contribute more of the personal
element, more of physical energy. So our history in America, per-
haps distinctively on Pacific shores, will always remain an inex-
haustible source of those " professors of energy " from whom
modern decadent nations, lacking confidence in their own powers,
seek regenerative contacts. Men of such energies we had our-
selves in those days, and to-day as well, without noise or ostenta-
tion, but with positive efficiency in modern struggles among our
emigrants to various countries, as have ever been found in other
lands. Their example may serve not only for us, but for any
people whatsoever, either to ratify and amplify these qualities,
or to restore them. The having given the example is indeed a
credit to Spanish colonization.

This good work had, at times, moments of sublimity, when

SPAIN IN THE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN 53

energetic quality of soul was joined with kindness of heart and
sentiments of justice and fraternity. In such moments it pro-
duced effects like the colonization of California, realized, as
Torres Campos writes, "by a handful of men who knew how to
demonstrate the peculiar aptitude of our people for the work of
expansion and assimilation of the natives, which people of superior
culture and lofty spirit may bring about by peaceful measures
in favor of savages."

Upon this beautiful page of our history in the Pacific, which you
have learned to appreciate in such a noble manner, there are names
which cannot be pronounced without great respect and deep emo-
tion those of Junipero Serra and Salvatierra, whose letters
to Ugarte are a high example of serenity in the presence of
death and of manly persistence in the mission undertaken, until
his last moment, which in our days can only be compared with the
diary of the celebrated Captain Scott.

Let me be permitted to place under the shield of these great
names the completion of this labor. Through their efforts and
those of others, the history of the civilization of California is inter-
woven with that of my native Spain, and both have, for a long
period, a common field. This warrants the thought that we may
labor as companions, both Californians and Spaniards, in many
ways, and perhaps here we may begin the practical realization
of a project which I first advocated in 1909 to some Spanish- Ameri-
can republics 1 and which I now find advocated by Professor Ste-
phens. This is the establishment at the Archives of the Indies
of schools similar to those which all nations have created for the
study of the Secret Archives of the Vatican. The idea has already
made some progress in some places in Spain, which are not of least
influence, and certain preparation has been made in the official
world. I should indeed congratulate myself if the result of my
visit to San Francisco might be the realization of that which I
consider, equally with Professor Stephens, as a prime necessity of
our common investigation, and a bond of intellectual confraternity
between our two nations.

And I think that these historical labors in search' of the truth

1 The material features of this proposal may be seen in my book Mi Viaje d
America. Madrid, 1910.

54 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

of the past, will not be the only common work to be done in the
future by the United States and Spain, in order to realize the ideals
of humanity and civilization which, I am sure, can only be reached
through friendly cooperation by all the peculiar qualities of spirit
and energy that the history of each people has produced.

LA PARTE DE ESPANA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCEANO

PACIFICO l

RAFAEL ALTAMIRA Y CBEVEA

CONSIDERO intitil explicar la importancia que concede a esta
ocasion, proporcionada por el Congreso historico que celebramos,
de recordar ante un auditorio tan competente y tan bien dispu-
esto, las grandes lineas de una parte considerable de la historia
colonial espanola.

En todo momento, la evocacion de la obra titil realizada en
lo pasado por el pueblo a que pertenecemos, equivale a la legiti-
macion de nuestro derecho a ser y seguir siendo miembros de la
humanidad en la lucha por un estado cada vez mas civilizado y
prospero; pero la ocasion presente, por muchas condiciones de
que luego os hablare, aunque bien las comprendeis por vosotros
mismos, aumenta de un modo considerable el valor de esa evoca-
cion.

Esta finalidad que deliberadamente quiero comunicarle, no es
incompatible con el caracter cientifico del Congreso. No se
ptiede negar a los espanoles el derecho de preocuparse de su his-
toria en un sentido critico y de orientacion patriotica, tanto como
en el humano de la pura averiguacion de la verdad por la verdad
misma, ni hay en este caso contradiccion entre ambas cosas,
puesto que, al fin, lo que nosotros queremos es que el mundo
sepa toda la verdad de nuestra historia, no una parte de ella ex-
agerada por prejuicios desfavorables, confiados en que el balance
final ha de ser nos mas ventajoso que contrario, como en razon y a
priori puede pensarse de todo pueblo por el solo hecho de estar
compuesto de hombres que lie van en su espiritu, con lo malo lo
bueno tambien de la especie a que pertenecen.

1 The Spanish original of the preceding address.
55

56 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

For otra parte, ese punto de vista a que me refiero viene por
si mismo impuesto en la formulacion del tema, hecha a peticion
especial de nuestro Presidente ; ya que en un trabajo de conjunto,
y forzosamente breve, es imposible detenerse en las minucias de
la investigation nueva, necesariamente monografica y particular-
izada. El seiialamiento de las grandes lineas de un hecho com-
plejo y que abarca varies siglos, se impone aqui, a modo de resumen
que para muchos de vosotros sera un simple recuerdo de cosas
sabidas y para otros una condensation ordenada de datos sueltos
a que el expositor anadira el aporte personal de sus reflexiones de
historiador.

No es ciertamente que en esto como todavia en lo mas de
nuestra historia nacional no quepan novedades y trabajo de
rebusca erudita; por el contrario, todos sabeis que aun queda
mucho por hacer en este orden. Aun en los particulares respecto
de los que el inventario de los materiales disponibles esta hecho 6
muy adelantado (y vosotros, los historiadores americanos, habeis
trabajado en esto con gran asiduidad y resultados felices), queda
por hacer el aprovechamiento de aquellos, ya que no es lo mismo
saber que existe un documento y conocer, utilizar, y divulgar su
contenido. Pero es que aun en el orden del conocimiento de los
materiales mismos, todos los dias la investigation de archives
nos revela algo nuevo, como no hace mucho he tenido la ocasion
de comprobar en punto a la historia legislativa de nuestra colo-
nization, en lugares que no son el Archive de Indias pero guardan
numerosa documentation aun no aprovechada, parte de ella es-
peci. Imente referida a California. Pero repito que nada de esto
cabe hacer ahora, para no apartarnos del caracter general de la
exposition que tengo el deber de hacer ante vosotros.

Por de contado, la apelacion de Oceano Pacifico aplicada a
mi tema, no puede ser interpretada estrictamente, reduciendo
aquel a la historia de las expediciones maritimas de los espanoles
en esta parte del mundo. Tambien pertenecen al Pacifico, en
recto sentido geografico, todas aquellas tierras del continente que
corresponden a la vertiente del Mar del Sur y de el reciben condi-
ciones de vida. Ambos elementos son inseparables. Hablar,
pues, de la obra de Espana en el Pacifico, no es a mi juicio hablar
solo de Oceania, sino tambien de America, de muchas regiones

ESPAfrA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCfiANO PAClFICO 57

americanas en que pusimos el pie y, entre ellas, de esta en que
nos hallamos.

Convenido este punto, observemos que nuestra historia en el
Pacifico no solo contiene todo lo sustancial de nuestra obra co-
lonizadora, sino, en cantidad y aun en calidad, lo mas de ella.
Puede decirse que aqui, en estas regiones del Pacifico es donde
el pueblo espanol de los siglos XVI y XVII sobre todo, y tambien
respecto de California, en el XVIII, aplico el maximo de sus ener-
gias y dio las mayores muestras de sus servicios & la civilizacion
del mundo. Es curioso que asi hay a sido, pero seguramente
no casual y arbitrario. Por algo nuestra accion en el continente
americano, se produjo sobre todo del lado de este mar, es decir
en la costa opuesta a Europa, y no en el Atlantico, en la que mi-
raba a nosotros ; y la consideration de las causas a lo menos,
las visibles para nosotros de ese hecho, es ya un primer punta
digno de la atencion del verdadero historiador que no se para
ante el pormenor erudito.

Por de pronto, inclinaba a que asi fuese, la influencia del intento
inicial que produjo el descubrimiento de America : el paso a las
Indias por el (Este. La barrera de tierras nuevas encontradas en
el camino, por mueho que atrajera con sus riquezas reales y sonadas
y con el afan (I tan humano antes y ahora !) de la domination, no
podia borrar el anhelo final. Era preciso seguir hacia el (Este,
completar el pensamiento de Colon, llegar a las verdaderas Indias,
y de alii los intentos para buscar el paso por el N. O., por el Centro,
por el Sur, la empresa de Balboa, los proyectos de canal, las
navagaciones multiples de nuestros marines mas adelante, a
partir de Magallanes y Elcano.

La direction tomada por Colon en su primer viaje, nos arras-
traba tambien a venir a la vertiente del Pacifico. Algo mas al
Norte, hubieramos quiza sido los colonizadores de Virginia y
Nueva Inglaterra a una distancia considerable del Pacifico;
algo mas al Sur, la gran punta continental de las Guayanas y el
Brasil, nos hubiera empenado su labor de otro genero ; pero
Colon vino a la entrada del golfo de Mejico, y por alii, derecha-
mente al punto mas facilmente penetrable para llegar al Pacifico
y hacer de el centro de nuestra colonization y nuestras expedi-
ciones.

58 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

Un tercer hecho nos fijo aqui tambien, apartandonos de las
regiones atlanticas mencionadas, y fue el del hallazgo, en tierras
que el Pacifico bana por un lado, como Mexico, y otras plena-
mente correspondientes a el, de civilizaciones indigenas adelanta-
das que brindaban con solicitaciones de riqueza y de dominacion
gloriosa.

Y en fin, la determinacion principalmente occidental de nuestra
obra aun descontando todo lo que significa la accion maritima
por el mismo Pacifico se vio cumplida por la interposicion,
del lado del Atlantico, de actividades extranas, que nos tomaron
casi todo el Norte (Francia e Inglaterra sobre todo), con todo el
Sur (Portugal) y una gran parte de las Antillas que no por ser
la de las islas mas pequenas dejaba de tener importancia numerica
y comercial grandisima. Sabido es, en cuanto al Sur, que
nuestra verdadera colonizacion de las regiones del Plata (no las
expediciones de descubrimiento, que son otra cosa) corresponde
a tiempos relative men te ultimos, y estuvo lejos de alcanzar
la intensidad y las proporciones de la de Mejico, Peru, Chile,
etc.

Pero, desde que en el siglo XVIII vino a plantearse en el terreno
de la historiografia, de una manera doctrinal, la cuestion de lo
que cada pueblo habia significado hasta entonces y significaba de
momento, en la obra comun de la civilizacion (sin que sea esto
decir que la pregunta no estuviera tambien presente en la inteli-
gencia de los hombres anteriores al XVIII), lo que mas importa
a la opinion general, que pide a la Historia conclusiones y juicios,
6 materia para ellos, es saber que ha hecho cada nacion en cada
una de las esferas de su actividad que pueda fundar un juicio
favorable 6 adverso de su colaboracion humana.

Seria extender mucho este travajo y salirse de los limites que
corresponden a su enunciacion, plantear ahora este problema
historico relativamente a la obra entera de Espafia en America y
Oceania. En otros trabajos mios he hablado de esto 6 hablare"
pronto y a ellos me remito, siempre con la reserva en punto a
los detalles (a veces, de mucha importancia, claro es) que impone
la circumstancia ya recordaba de lo mucho que aun queda por
publicar y di vulgar en cuanto a nuestra historia. Las lineas ge-
nerales si creo que ya se dibujan claramente, sobre todo si se tiene

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OC^ANO PAClFICO 59

en cuenta que ellas han consistido en buena parte hasta hoy
(en que ya se construye cientificamente nuestra historia), mds
en la aplicacion a los hechos de criterios preconcebidos y con-
sideraciones morales no siempre esgrimidas con logica, que en
la contemplation serena y la estimation equilibrada de los he-
chos todos en su enlace, relation y contrapeso natural, tal como
la realidad los muestra.

Dejo, pues a un lado la consideration del movil de nuestro
movimiento colonizador, sobre todo en cuanto al reducirlo a un
apetito codicioso y egoista de lucro, se ha querido hacer de esto
una acusacion contra Espana, como si solo los espanoles hubiesen
realizado empresar coloniales por lucro y el resto de los pueblos
por filantropia, y como si nuestra civilization actual, tan firme-
mente establecida sobre las bases del provecho economico y del
desarrollo de los intereses materiales los que tantas cosas se
sacrifican a menudo, pudiese convertir en defecto y casi en delito,
la persecution de riquezas, y por tanto, la presencia de este movil,
juntamente con otros tambien (y Espana ofrece grandes ejemplos
de esto) en la historia de un pafs. Pero tengase sobre esto la
opinion que se quiera, conviene no olvidar, al hablar de ello, una
cosa repetidamente observada y dicha, pero que las exigencias de
la argumentation obligan a tener presente ahora, y es que con el
incentivo economico (ya de los simples buscadores de riqueza,
ya de los verdaderos comerciantes), el hombre lleva donde va
otros elementos de vida. Un pensador espanol, el profesor
Aramburu, ha dicho en ocasion memorable, y refiriendose a la
Inquisition, una frase en que la brillantez retorica no oculta un
f ondo de aguda perspicacia historica : la frase de que no esta en
poder del hombre evitar que las hogueras alumbren, es decir,
que dan, a la vez que fuego que quema, luz que ilumina incluso
los caminos por donde el fuego llegara a ser apagado ; y asi tam-
bien podria decirse que aunque en ello no piense, el buscador
de oro, y el comerciante no pueden evitar que con ellos y con los
bultos de las mercaderias que acuden a satisfacer necesidades in-
dispensables, vayan tambien las ideas y la civilization del pueblo a
que pertenecen, es decir cosas de muy otra esfera y, d veces, de
una gran elevation moral.

Asi pues, aunque los espanoles todos y cada uno de los que

60 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

vinieron a America y al Pacifico, y entre ellos, los Poderes publicos
de la Espafia de entonces no hubieran tenido otro movil que
el de la codicia, hubieran producido necesariamente, tambien,
hechos fundamentales de civilizacion en otros ordenes, y seria
precise contarselos en su haber. Pero a mayor abundamiento, es
bien sabido que Esparia se propuso otras cosas que el mero pro-
vecho economico en sus descubrimientos, conquistas y coloniza-
ciones, y entre ellas, la de extender su religion, su cultura, su
espiritu, es decir, dar todo lo que tenia y era; mucho 6 poco,
acertado en todo 6 equivocado en parte, pero lo suyo, lo que podia
aportar a la obra comun, creyendolo de buena fe lo mejor, queri-
endo que todos los pueblos participasen de ello y, en todo caso,
como a todo sujeto ocurre, puesto que nadie da mas que lo que
tiene, sin poder humano de dar otra cosa, y, por tanto, sin responsa-
bilidad de no darla.

Veamos, pues, en breve resumen, que cosas hizo Espana en su
accion general sobre las tierras continentales que bana el Pacifico
y sobre este mismo mar y sus islas. Repito que he de prescindir
de detalle, reposando en el conocimiento de ellos que tiene el
publico a quien me dirijo y que por ello puede seguir la exposition
general a que me contraigo sin necesidad de explicar cada hecho
aludido.

En primer lugar, consideremos el hecho mismo de las expedi-
ciones terrestres y maritimas cuyo efecto f ue afiadir en poco tiempo
y en cantidad inmensa, al conocimiento del planeta, partes
considerables de el. En si mismo, ese efecto es ya un servicio
considerable a la civilizacion y al progreso del mundo; pero en
relation con la obra espanola, tiene una signification especial
hnportantisima, porque, como ha hecho muy bien observar Torres
Campos en un trabajo relativo precisamente a California (y con
el Fernandez Duro y otros), la extension de nuestros esfuerzos
en aquel sentido, demuestra que no fue el pueblo espanol aqui
solo un buscador de minas y un conquistador guerrero, sino un
explorador geografico a quien se deben descubrimientos numerosisi-
mos, superiores en este respecto a todos los hechos en aquellos
siglos por otros pueblos en esta parte del mundo. La frecuencia
actual de los viajes, y la abundancia de las relaciones que a ellos

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCtfANO PAClFICO 61

se refieren y que hoy puede leer y lee todo el mundo, nos ha gastado
la admiracion respecto de estos hechos con que nos hemos
familiarizado. Solo cuando se produce un acto excepcional de
valor, como el de Scott, v. gr., paramos la atencion en ello, consid-
erando que es algo heroico y digno de enorgullecer a los hombres
que lo realizan y al pueblo a que pertenecieron. Pero en general,
hemos perdido 6 apagado mucho la cualidad de apreciar el valor
del esfuerzo de tales empresas, mas dif iciles y estimables a medida
que remontamos en la historia y encontramos hombres que
realizaron las mismas y aun mayores hazanas que los de hoy, con
menos medios y por tanto, con mayor derroche de energfa personal*
Y si a esta disposition espiritual del hombre de hoy anadiremos el
descuido en que hemos tenido la historia y recordacion de nuestros
viajeros, asi como el silencio deliberado 6 el desconocimienio
inconsciente que respecto de ellos se ha advertido por lo general
durante mucho tiempo, en los escritores extranjeros, se com-
prendera que cueste hoy trabajo darse cuenta de lo que fueron
nuestras empresas de este genero en los siglos XVI y XVII y
que el gran ptiblico, que es quien forma la opinion colectiva en
punto a la historia, a traves de lo que le proporcionan los es-
pecialistas 6 lo que encuentra en las leyendas que forman el saber;
vulgar, no pueda hoy formarse una idea de conjunto de aquella
gran labor espaiiola, por falta de cuadro en que esten reunidos y,
condensados todos sus hechos.

Conviene ahora aiiadir que los viajes y descubrimientos es-
panoles no fueron frutos del hazar, ni de una desordenada accion
individual (aun dada toda la parte respetable que corresponde en
el hacer humano a las iniciativas individuales), ni fortuitas
consecuencias de intentos desgraciados que habian tenido otro
objeto, como con excusable error han dicho incliiso autores muy
favorables a nuestra historia colonial. Fueron por el contrario,,
de parte de los elementos directores de nuestra accion en Indias
y en la misma orientation general de los viajeros mismos consid-
erados en conjunto, algo reflexivo, sistematico y ordenado con-
forme a una finalidad que se mantuvo siempre aun por bajo de los
objetivos mas personales y egoistas de algunos descubridores.,
La finalidad era de una parte, como ya dije, completar el;
pensamiento de Colon en su intencion inicial de llegar a las Indias.

62 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

Orientales, establecer relacion directa de ellas con Espafia y
aprovechar sus producciones para nuestro comercio; de otra,
conocer bien, en todos los aspectos que pudieran interesar (no
solamente en el politico y en el estrictamente economico) las
nuevas tierras que se habian encontrado, reuniendo y centralizando
los informes que iban recogiendo los exploradores.

Lo primero no se cumplio totalmente, porque los Portugueses,
llegando por el Este, habian cerrado ya el camino, sin que cupiese
a Espafia, no obstante largas negociaciones de todos sabidas
mas que aprovechar una parte pequena de las tierras oceanicas
proximas al Asia. La corriente comercial que de aqui previno,
en lugar de orientarse respecto a Espafia, de E. a O., por la misma
ruta portuguesa, se oriento de O. a E., desde China, Japon y
Filipinas hacia America y de aqui a Espafia, a traves del Pacifico,
estableciendose asi la primera ruta comercial de este mar por
obra espanola. El dia en que se conozca bien la historia de esa
ruta y de su movimiento mercantil, en su corriente principal de
la nao de Acapulco (y es de esperar que el anunciado trabajo de
Mr. Schurz adelante bastante en la materia, respecto de la cual
hay todavia mucho inedito que ver) y en los demas elementos que
las formaron, se vera la importancia que tuvo, en si y como pre-
cedente de desarrollos mas modernos y se advertira como muchas
empresas espanolas en Oceania aparentemente sueltas y sin nexo,
estaban interiormente unidas por el interes de servir a aquella
finalidad mercantil, buscando su linea mejor y asegurandola lo
mas posible. Otras empresas se agrupan por finalidades indepen-
dientes de aquella y derivadas ya de las consecuencias que cada
descubrimiento trae consigo, planteando nuevas cuestiones geo-
graficas cosmograficas, ya del afan general, muy vivo entonces,
en el espiritu de nuestros pilotos, capitanes, y aventureros, de
descubrir por la satisfaction del descubrimiento mismo 6 por el
provecho de la conquista y la utilidad economica. Un tercer
grupo, en fin, es el motivado por la necesidad de conocer las costas
del nuevo mar, primero, a partir del istmo y de Nueva Espafia,
hacia el Norte y hacia el Sur (con nuevos incentives, a veces,
como el que produjo los varios viajes de Pizarro y sus companeros) ;
luego, tambien desde Peru y Chile hacia el Sur, para enlazar
con el descubrimiento de Magallanes, aparte lo que empujo en

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCfiANO PAClFICO 63

varies sentidos el afan de buscar el paso maritime entre los dos
mares.

Dos mementos capitales hay en esta larga historia de des-
cubrimientos y los dos corresponden a espanoles; el inicial de
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, cuya importancia capitalisima reconoce
el mundo entero, cuyo valor epico ya fue cantado por un escritor
norte-americano, Washington Irving, y a cuya historia acaba de
anadir numerosa documentation un autor espanol, Altolaguirre, 1
y el de Magallanes, hecho con dinero, barcos, y hombres espanoles,
y origen de la primera circumnavegacion a que va unido el nombre
de nuestro Elcano. Pero el dia que a estos tres nombres gloriosos
que todo el mundo conoce, y algunos pocos mas que gozan de esa
condition, se unan en la familiaridad del conocimiento popular
todos los que concurrieron con su esfuerzo y con sus exitos may-
ores 6 menores a la obra secular del descubrimiento del inmenso
Pacifico y las mas de sus tierras, al E. al O. y en el grandioso
ambito de sus aguas, se reconocera por todos lo que ahora solo
saben algunos especialistas y es que no solo la investigation de
las costas americanas del (Este, con muy corta exception en el
extremo Norte, fue puramente espanola, sino que tambien lo
fue la de una gran parte de las islas del Pacifico a cuyo descubri-
miento se lanzaron con tanto teson y arrojo nuestros navegantes,
sin recelo de los peligros, que como ha hecho observar un autor,
mas del 80 por ciento de ellos perecieron en aquellos arriesgados
viajes, sin que en dos siglos cesase la corriente de ellos y dejando,
a pesar del infortunio de muchas expediciones, un rastro glorioso
de hallazgos y de estudios.

Renuncio a dar aqui una lista de nombres que pudiera parecer
alarde de erudition, infitil, ademas, si se limita a esto (y para otra
cosa no hay espacio) ; pero si quiero decir que, una vez mas,
ocurre en esto que ni estan publicados todos los datos que ha
llegado a nosotros, ni reunidos en un conjunto, los que ya se saben,
no obstante las valiosas aportaciones de Jimenez de la Espada,
Zaragoza, Ferreiro, Coello, Duro, Beltran y algun otro entre
los espanoles, y Collingridge, Morgan, y pocos ma's entre los
extranjeros que con animo simpatico a Espana han emprendido

1 Vaaco Nufiez de Balboa, por Angel de Altolaguirre y Duvale. (Madrid, 1914.)

64 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

investigaciones de este orden. Cuando esa labor que ahora falta
este hecha, se vera no solo lo mucho que al esfuerzo espanol debe
el conocimiento del mar Pacifico y sus aledanos, sacando a luz
y poniendo de relieve nombres hoy obscuros 6 de poca resonancia,
sino tambien cuan llena de episodios dramaticos 6 de alta curi-
osidad se halla esa historia de las navegaciones espanolas en la
que, para que nada falte, hasta hay mugeres capitanas de expedi-
ciones, como en el Peru hubo virreinas con mando efectivo en
interregnos en que nuestras ideas y costumbres no repugnaban el
feminismo mas. Tambien se advertira entonces cuan equivocada
es la afirmacion sostenida por algunos, de que los espanoles no
eran propiamente navegantes, porque todos los pilotos de sus
expediciones eran extranjeros, revelandose la existencia y el papel
principal de muchos nacidos en Espana donde el desarrollo y
precision adquiridos entonces por los estudios cosmograficos,
traducidos y copiados en otros paises de Europa, y por los
cartograficos, habian creado un medio propicio a la formacion de
buenos marines.

En cuanto a la otra finalidad antes senalada, a saber, la de
determinar lo mas exactamente posible el conocimiento, en todos
ordenes, de las nuevas tierras descubiertas, bastara recordar,
para que se vea como a ello presidio una clara conciencia de lo
que se deseaba y un saber profundo de la complejidad del intento,
de una parte, aquel plan de las relaciones de Indias tan sabia-
mente madurado y que dio a conocer de tan brillante modo nuestro
Jimenez de la Espada en su conocida coleccion de aquellos docu-
mentos (continuada despues en otras varias publicaciones) ; de
otra, la formacion del padron de Indias con ellas estrechamente
relacionado, y, en fin, la preparation sistematica de expediciones
puramente cientificas como la bien sabida del Dr. Hernandez en
tiempo de Felipe II. E importa advertir que esta expedition y
alguna otra de aquellos siglos, no fueron iniciativas esporadicas
y como perdidas, sino eslabones, mas 6 menos valiosos, de una
larga cadena, variadamente intensa segun las circunstancias,
pero propiamente ininterrumpida y cuyos ultimos episodios estan
senalados, en el siglo XVIII, por las numerosas expediciones de
naturalistas espanoles de todos conocidas (aparte las de Jorge

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OC^ANO PAClFICO 65

Juan y Ulloa) y en el mismo siglo XIX, como tlrmino de ellas,
por la llaniada del Pacifico (1862-66) en que comenzo a tejerse
la legitima fama del Jimenez de la Espada. Y aun cabria agrupar
en alguna medida a todos estos viajes, los de Bonpland y Hum-
boldt, pues si es cierto que los realizaron hombres de otras naciones,
no lo es menos que en ellos se vieron amplimente asistidos y
ayudados por el gobierno espanol.

Con todo esto, no es estrafio que poco despues de iniciados
los descubrimientos, se pudiesen escribir, no solo libros como
el breve pero interesante de Enciso, sino amplios y nutridos de
noticias como la Geografia y description universal de las Indias f
recopilada por el cosmografo Juan Lopez de Velasco, 1 treinta anos
antes de finalizar el siglo XVI y en parte derivada de los trabajos
emprendidos en el Consejo de Indias para formar las Relaciones
antes citadas. En ella hay ya muchas noticias de las islas oceanicas
(islas de Poniente), en especial las Molucas, de Filipinas, de
Nueva Guinea, Salomon, Ladrones y las costas de China, Japon
y Lequios. Del mismo modo, a la luz de toda esa preparation
cientifica y sobre la base de los innumerables materiales que iban
aportando los viajeros y los misioneros, se comprende de una
manera razonada la existencia del rico caudal de noticias de todo
genero (desde las naturalistas a las que hoy diriamos sociologicas),
que se encuentra en nuestros cronistas de Indias ; en unos porque
aprovechan aquel material, en otros porque estaban preparados
por el ambiente de la epoca a ver la realidad del mundo nuevo con
una amplitud y complejidad de programa a que no les hubiera
llevado nunca la pura tradition erudita de la historiografia domi-
nante en el Viejo Mundo.

Y en fin, cuando la historia de todos estos hechos pueda ser
totalmente escrita y trascienda en divulgaciones bien orientadas
al gran publico, quedara totalmente determinada la precedencia,
que en muchos descubrimientos luego repetidos por extranjeros,
corresponde a los espanoles, aparte los que son exclusivos suyos
y nadie les disputa.

Pero no quiero ni podria abandonar este orden de cosas sin
hacer parrafo aparte de un asunto cuya importancia propia ha

1 La Geografia y Descripcidn Universal de las Indias, por Juan L6pez de Velasco. Se
public6 por primera vez en 1894, con adiciones 6 ilustraciones de D. Justo Zaragoza.

66 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

recibido en este mismo ano un elevado suplemento de interes
circunstancial. Me refiero al canal de Panama. Aqui menos
que en ninguna parte del mundo, necesito realizar el valor que
para la historia humana tiene el hecho de la apertura del canal ;
pero no es para dedicarle ditirambos para lo que yo lo traigo aqui
a colacion, sino para precisar la parte que en sus antecedentes
corresponde a los espanoles.

Tambien es este asunto en el cual hace falta un estudio defi-
nitive. El que recientemente le ha dedicado el erudito espaiiol
Sr. Manjarres, 1 aunque afiade muchas noticias a las ya conocidas
y repetidas incluso en manuales de historia, no agota las que
podrian aducirse. Veinte-un proyectos cita Manjarres (espanoles
todos con excepcion de uno, el de M. de Per de la Nouerre) en su
trabajo, desde la idea inicial de Hernan Cortes referida al istmo
de Tehuantepec, hasta el del diputado de las Cortes de Cadiz, D.
Jose A. Lopez de la Plata ; pero aun hubiera podido afiadir, entre
los conocidos, el de Galve (siglo XVI), el del Consulado de Co-
mercio y Navegacion (comunicacion por Patagones), y aun el de
La Bastide (aunque no es espanol por su autor) presentado a
Carlos IV. Sea cualquiera el inmenso total de los que al fin
se averiguen, dos cosas resultan claros y enlazan eternamente el
nombre de Espafia a la gran obra moderna, como enlazado va
en la persona de Balboa al del descubrimiento de uno de los mares
ahora unidos ; la una, que Espana penso siempre, desde los prime-
ros tiempos, en abrir una via de agua artificial (puesto que natural
no la habia sino en los extremes del continente) entre el Pacifico
y el Atlantico, y que en la concepcion de la idea de esta obra, tanto
como en la determinacion de proyectos para realizarla y de explo-
raciones y trabajos que la preparasen, a ella corresponde la pri-
macia. Cuando Champlain tuvo la idea del canal, en 1000, hacia
anos que gentes espafiolas habian, no solo tenido esa misma idea,
sobre la base de la necesidad de semejante via y del conocimiento
directo de las tierras en que era posible, sino que habian deter-
minado varios proyectos en relacion con trayectorias diferentes
aprovechables (Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, y Panama). Espafia
no hizo al fin el canal, por concurrencia de diversas causas, entre

l Proyecto8 Espafloles de Canal Interocednica, por Ram6n de ManjarrSs. (Rev.
de Arch., Bib. y Mus. Enero a Abril 1914.

.

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCfiANO PACIFICO 67

las que en el siglo XVIII especialmente parece haber tenido valor
la de los recelos de que la nueva via fuese motive de complicaciones
internacionales ; pero ni ceso de pensar en el durante tres siglos,
ni, como Humboldt mismo reconoce, prohibio nunca que se hablase
y escribiese acerca de la ruptura del istmo.

Toda esta enorme cantidad de esfuerzos dirigidos al estudio
y aprovechamiento de las nuevas tierras y los nuevos mares,
produjo, aparte los descubrimientos mismos y el planteamiento
de los problemas de todo genero que sugerian a la mentalidad
las necesidades de entonces, una serie de consecuencias derivadas,
pero no menos importantes, que tambien hay que incluir en el
cuadro de la obra espaiiola en las regiones del Pacifico. Estas
consecuencias fueron, sucintamente dichas, el conocimiento de la
geografia y geologia (hasta donde esta esfera del conocer, sin
nombre ni campo propio entonces, cabia en las observaciones de
los exploradores) , de la botanica, la zoologia y la mineralogia
(esta, con todas las aplicaciones que la mineria exigia y en que
los espafioles realizaron progresos y novedades considerables,
mediante la introduccion de metodos metalurgicos algunos de los
que aun se emplean) , de los idiomas indigenas (en que los estudios
de nuestros misioneros son capitales, como es sabido, y en numero
verdaderamente extraordinario) y de las costumbres, organization
social, tradiciones e historia de los amerindos, que interesaron
vivamente a los espafioles incluso en los particulares religiosos
que mas se apartaban de la ortodoxfa espanola, hasta el punto de
formar la agrupacion de sus trabajos en este orden, la fuente
mas amplia y segura para las investigaciones modernas. Si a
toda esta inmensa labor se une el servicio que representa la
introduccion deliberada en America de especies vegetales (unas
170) y animales aqui desconocidas y algunas de las cuales se
convirtieron despues en autonomaticamente americanas y el
traspaso a Europa de arboles y plantas como la patata , el tomate,
el maiz, la pita, el aguacate, la batata, el freson de Chile y fresa de
Virginia, etc. se tendra el cuadro complete de la obra util,
civilizadora, tanto en el orden material como en el espiritual,
que realizaron los espanoles en su contacto con las nuevas tierras
descubiertas del lado del Atlantico y del Pacifico.

Ese cuadro signifies, de hecho, la primera implantation en

68 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

America y en parte de las islas oceanicas, de la civilization europea.
Antes de Espafia, lo que en America se encuentra es prehistoria,
no obstante el adelanto material y artistico que algunas
civilizaciones ofrecen, sin haber roto, en lo fundamental, el limite
propio de lo primitivo. Con Espana, America se incorpora al
movimiento occidental que ha venido a ser el molde civilizador
por antonomasia, de la mayor parte del mundo y asi ella fue la
primera maestra en el orden del tiempo de la vida ciudadana, de
la vida cristiana y de la cultura clasica reelaborada sobre el fondo
de la original formation europea de la Edad Media.

Y conviene decir que la importancia de la obra espanola en
America no esta solo en la cantidad de los trabajos que la forman,
sino tambien en la calidad de muchos de ellos. La larga lista de
nombres que pueden sefialarse Oviedo, Acosta, Hernandez,
Ximenez, Gomez Ortega, Sahagun, Herrera, Lozano, Carmona,
Mutis, Ruiz, Pavon, Azara, Sesse, Mocifio, Ulloa, Jorge Juan,
Pineda, Malaspina, Medina, Saavedra, Barba, Fernandez de
Velasco, Contreras, Acuna, Ovalle, Lopez Medel, Elhuyar, y
tantos otros que cabria citar, esta avalorada por el juicio que
la labor realizada ha merecido en tiempos modernos a especial-
istas no sospechosos de patrioteria espanola, como Humboldt,
Linneo, Lyell, Hoefer, Sonneschmidt y muchos mas. De una
obra de acarreo y casualidad, fruto de una curiosidad futil y sin
direction cientifica no cabria decir, como de la espanola de estos
generos a que me refiero ahora se ha dicho, que " ninguna nation
ha hecho mas sacrificios en pro de los adelantos de la Botanica " ;
que en Oviedo y Acosta se halla " el fundamento de lo que hoy
llamamos fisica del globo"; que "desde la fundacion de las
sociedades, en ninguna otra epoca (como en la de nuestros des-
cubrimientos) sehabia ensanchado repetidamente, y de un modo tan
maravilloso, el circulo de ideas en lo que toca al mundo externo y a
las relaciones con el espacio" ; que "las descripciones espanolas de
los paises americanos se distinguen por su precision'' (juicio de
Lyell), etc. Podemos, pues, estar seguros de haber aportado a
la obra de la ciencia humana un caudal que nos autoriza & pedir
titulo de colaboradores distinguidos.

Hay ciertamente, al lado de estos puntos que ya van siendo

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OC^ANO PAClFICO 69

reconocidos por la opinion general, otros de nuestra accion en
las colonias todas y por tanto en las regiones a que se refiere
este trabajo, respecto de los cuales venimos oyendo hace siglos
censuras terribles. Ante todo, conviene decir con franqueza que
aun en el caso de que fueran verdad todas las acusaciones que se
han hecho contra Espana, singularmente en cuanto al trato de los
indigenas, ellas no invalidarian la importancia de ninguno de los
servicios a la civilizacion antes enumerados. Para que el juicio
de un hombre 6 de un pais sea justo, hay que computarles todo lo
que hicieron, lo bueno y lo malo. Pretender que por existir esto
ultimo se debe borrar todo lo otro, es una injusticia y, ademas,
una irrealidad. Todo hecho queda indelible en la historia, sea
como fuere ; podra la negligencia 6 la malicia de los hombres ob-
scurecerlo por algun tiempo, pero no por eso desaparece del haber
6 el deber de su autor, sobre cuya responsabilidad 6 vanagloria pe-
sara eternamente, con propio valor que nada puede contrarrestar.

Queda, pues, en pie, todo lo consignado anteriormente, y ven-
gamos a examinar esta otra parte espiritual a que ahora nos
refer imos.

Despues de mucho discutir, una parte considerable a la opinion
ha venido a fijarse en esta formula intermedia : Espana concibio
y escribio la mas humana y elevada legislacion de la historia re-
lativemente a los pueblos inferiores, pero esa legislacion (asi como
la de gobierno, que interesaba tambien a los mismos esparioles)
fue letra muerta, a pesar de la existencia y la propaganda de
numerosos defensores del derecho humano, no solo con respecto a
los Indios, sino tambien con respecto a los negros, dado que los
primeros abolicionistas conocidos son espanoles.

No creo que esa formula expresa la realidad de las cosas ocu-
ridas. Notese que si se acepta como buena, equivale a reconocer
que, salvo una exigua minorfa de hombres ilustrados y generosos
(los que en el gobierno del pais concibieron y redactaron aquellas
leyes, desde la misma reina Ysabel, y los que en la catedra, en
el libro y en la predication defendieron la libertad y la dignidad
de los indigenas y de los africanos), la masa de los espanoles
fue tan cruel e indisciplinada 6 estaba de tal modo imbuida
en las ideas generales de desprecio y explotacion del inferior
que predominaban entonces en Europa (y bien las aplicaron

70 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

todos los demas pueblos colonizadores) , que ni cumplieron aquellas
leyes, ni perdieron una sola ocasion de sacrificar a su egoismo y a su
ferocidad todas las gentes con quienes se rozaban. Algo es, sin
duda, el reconocimiento de aquella minoria, tan espafiola como
la supuesta mayoria de contraries sentimientos e ideas ; pero repito
que no es, a mi juicio, toda la verdad.

Notad que digo la verdad. No me coloco pues en un punto de
vista patriotico, que procura negar sentimentalmente lo que aparece
desfavorable a su patria, sino en un punto de vista cientifico,
diciendo que aquella formula (que ya es absurda a priori, pues to
que divide radicalmente las dos esferas, la de la idea y la de la
vida practica, como si perteneciesen a mundos distintos) no
expresa la verdad de lo ocurrido. Ya se acepta por muchos
tratadistas norte-americanos, en materia de nuestro sistema co-
lonial, que "muchos de sus errores y maleficios existieron a causa
de la incompetencia y venalidad de los funcionarios subaiternos "
y no de la mala organization 6 la intension dafiada de los gover-
nantes metropolitanos 6 de los virreyes y funcionarios superiores ;
lo cual, si en terminos generales puede ser verdad (caso aparte de
excepciones en esos mismos funcionarios superiores, que no fueron
todos impecables, y bastaria citar algunos nombres de Nueva
Espaiia, Tierra Firme, Peru, etc.), no hace mas que trasladar,
como en el caso anterior, la responsabilidad y la maldad, a Ibs de
abajo, que son tambien los mas, confundiendo pues, en un solo
juicio de "venalidad e incompetencia," a todos los funcionarios
subaiternos.

Ahora bien, es indudable que en esto hay un error y una in-
justicia. No es exacto historicamente que en la colonization
espafiola haya habido dos mundos distintos ; uno superior, dotado
de las mas grandes y humanas ideas e intensiones, y otro inferior
pero mucho mas extenso para quien eran aquellas letra muerta.
La verdad real fu6 que en ambos hubo gentes humanitarias,
honorables y justas que supieron ser fieles al sentido de nuestra
legislation (que por algo es nuestra, es decir, por algo salio de
nuestro espiritu y no del de otro pueblo), como en ambos las
hubo de contraria condition. Al lado de los legisladores, de
los apostoles como Las Casas, de los cientfficos como Vitoria,
hubo una legion de personas, de las que inmediatamente estaban

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCfiANO PAClFICO 71

en contacto con los indigenas y tenian pues que practicar sus
ideas misioneros, conquistadores, encomenderos, mineros, coloni-
zadores, de diversas layas, que no realizaron crueldades, ni
siquiera aquellos abuses y explotaciones que todavia hoy consideran
licitas 6 explicables los pueblos mas adelantados del mundo, con
respecto al inferior economica 6 antropologicamente. La cuestion
historica en este punto se halla pues en precisar que numero de
abuses hubo realmente, y en que proporcion se hallaron con los
casos de humanidad y fiel aplicacion de las leyes en punto a los
indigenas, asi como los que en el orden del gobierno senalaron
al lado de los irregularidades una administracion dentro de su
propio concepto, no impecable, sin duda, pero adjustada a los
moldes corrientes que la humanidad usaba entonces en todas
partes.

Esta labor, propia del historiografo investigador y que len-
tamente se ira completando a medida que conozcamos mas y mas
pormenores de hechos y que depuremos la exactitud de todos los
aducidos en contrario hasta hoy, asi como el valor de las dec-
lamaciones generates e imprecisas, tan naturales en los que pre-
dican una doctrina 6 se que j an de algo que les parece mal y cuya
pintura necesitan acentuar para que la atencion de las gentes se
fije en ellas, esta labor, digo, nos dara la medida exacta 6
con la mayor aproximacion posible de la proporcion en que
estuvieron las practicas buenas y las malas. Pero por muy
numerosas que estas hayan sido, no podran nunca invalidar la
realidad y el merito : 1, de nuestras leyes de Indias ; 2, de la
nutrida serie de nuestros escritores humanitarios y de nuestros
juristas de alto sentido del derecho ; 3, de la larga serie de hom-
bres benevelos, caritativos, humanos en el trato con los inferiores
y celosos cumplidores de su deber profesional que incuestionable-
mente ofrece nuestra historia. Bastaria presentar y solo es
una parte de ese grupo la lista de nuestros misioneros verdadera-
mente cristianos en su proceder, para que el haber de Espafia en
este respecto contase con una partida considerable ; y no es Cali-
fornia la region de America donde con menos justicia y verdad
puede invocarse este recuerdo.

Quedaria, por ultimo, en esta materia algo muy importante
que hacer para llegar a una justa apreciacion de las cosas : y es

72 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

la aplicacion a los hechos de abuso comprobado (en paz y en guerra ;
por motives de conquista 6 de relation economica), de los criterios
de juicio moral y juridico que la humanidad de entonces y la de
hoy, en su inmensa mayoria, aplica a hechos no espanoles de la
misma naturaleza. En materia de danos al projimo no hay
mas que dos posiciones : la filantropica, que necesariamente ha
de ser pacifista y de cuya aplicacion saldrian mal parados todos
los pueblos de la historia, y la que podriamos llamar realista, que
aprecia lo que es inevitable en las relaciones humanas tal corno
se han llevado hasta aqui, 6 escusa lo que todos hicieron y siguen
haciendo. Si se adopta el primero sinceramente, claro es que
resultaran condenados muchos hechos de nuestra conquista y
colonization, pero con igual motives los iguales quiza peores
a veces, en su genero de las demas naciones conquistadoras y
colonizadoras desde la mas remota antiguedad hasta los momentos
actuales. Aplicarnos exclusivamente ese criterio, como nos lo
han aplicado muchos escritores extranos y nosotros tambien, a
lo menos una gran parte de nuestra opinion moderna, menos
patriotera que celosa de no aparecer comprometida con la
aprobacion 6 escusa de hechos que su conciencia actual rechaza,
es una notoria injusticia. Pero convengamos tambien en que
el criterio humanitario v. gr. de un Reclus 6 de un Pi y Margall
no es ni el profesado, ni mucho menos el practicado por la
inmensa mayoria de los hombres en todos los paises del mundo y
aun por los gobiernos mismos en los mas de los casos. El mundo,
pues, en general, no puede juzgar nuestra historia sino con el
criterio que en el domina y que cada pueblo aplica para juzgar
sus hechos propios ya que no los ajenos. Sera pues precise con-
siderar los hecho tildados de reprobables en nuestra historia a la
luz de ese criterio dominante, para colocarlos en situation de
igualdad con todos los otros analogos, y depurar, en cada uno, el
grado de responsabilidad que toca al individuo ejecutor y al
pueblo de que era ciudadano, habida consideration del medio
ambiente en cada epoca; y solo asi nos colocaremos en un terreno
real, sobre el que la aplicacion del criterio filantropico que
tambien cabe, aunque con las debidas reservas historicas plantea
otras cuestiones distintas que solo tienen derecho a formular los
que ven asi las cosas siempre y para todos. Siempre resultara

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OCfiANO PAClFICO 73

en nuestro haber, que las clases directoras espanolas, en los tiempos
de la colonizacion rechazaron y persiguieron muchos hechos que
la conciencia general de la epoca estimaba licitos y que a veces
los directores modernos defienden 6 realizan a titulo de "salus
populi" 6 como decimos en Espafia, "por razon de Estado,"
que suele ser una razon muy comoda y elastica.

Y todavia, a ese ejemplo juridico y moral que Espafia dio en
aquellos siglos a los pueblos del mundo, puede anadirse otra
ensefianza de orden espiritual y practice que no es, a mi juicio,
de las menores que ofrece nuestra obra en todos partes a donde
llevamos nuestra actividad y principalmente en estas regiones del
Nuevo Mundo. Esa ensefianza a que me refiero ahora, quiza no
hay otro pueblo en el mundo mas apto para comprenderla en todo
lo que significa para la vida, que el pueblo norte-americano. Nace
esto de un fondo comun de cualidades, morales, quiero decir de
voluntad y de espiritu, que espafioles y norte-americanos han
demostrado en momentos distintos de su historia y ante iguales
necesidadas de la vida. Esas cualidades son la fortaleza en el
sufrimiento, la serenidad en el peligro, la energia en la lucha, el
empuje en el avance, la valentia y desprecio de las dificultades
en todo momento; las que hicieron posible entre vosotros la
ep^peya del West y el Far- West y las que brillaron por tan alto
modo en nuestros " descubridores " y "conquistadores." Asi,
lo hecho por los creadores de esta gran Republica sobre la base
del primitivo hogar costero al Atlantico, encuentra su precedente
en la obra de los espafioles del siglo XVI, XVII y XVIII, que
con menos medios materiales, tuvieron que poner en ella mas
elemento personal, mas gasto de energia del sujeto. Asi nuestra
historia en America, y quiza mas en estas partes del Pacifico, sera
siempre manantial inagotable de esos "profesores de energia"
con que los pueblos modernos decadentes 6 desconfiados en su
propio poder, piden un contacto regenerador. Profesores asi
los tuvimos entonces tambien hoy, sin ruido, pero con igual
positiva eficacia respecto de las luchas modernas en nuestra emi-
gracion a diversos paises, tantos y tan buenos y sugestivos
como tiempos despues cabe encontrarlos en otros paises. Su
ejemplo puede servir no solo para nosotros, sino para todo
pueblo que quiera, 6 ratificar y ampliar sus cualidades 6 res-

74 THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY

taurarlas ; y el haberlo dado, ya es una buena obra de la Espaiia
colonial.

Esa buena obra tuvo, a veces, momentos sublimes, cuando el
temple energico del alma se unia a la bondad de corazon y al sentido
de la justicia y la fraternidad. Entonces producia hechos como
el de la colonizacion de California, realizada, como ha escrito
Torres Campos, por "un puiiado de hombres que supieron de-
mostrar las aptitudes singulares de nuestro pueblo para la obra
de la expansion y de la asimilacion de los indigenas, y lo que gentes
de superior cultura y espiritu elevado pueden hacer por medios
pacificos en favor de los salvajes." En esa hermosa pagina de
nuestra historia en las regiones del Pacifico, que vosotros habeis
sabido apreciar de un modo tan noble, hay nombre que no pueden
pronunciarse sin un gran respeto y una honda emocion, el
del P. Junipero Serra, de un lado, y el de aquel P. Salvatierra,
cuyas cartas al P. Ugarte son un alto ejemplo de serenidad ante
la muerte y de persistencia varonil en la mision emprendida, hasta
el ultimo momento, que en nuestros dias tan solo puede compararse
con el diario del celebre Captain Scott.

Seame permitido poner bajo la egida de estos grandes nombres
la terminacion de este trabajo.

Mediante ellos y otros mas, la historia de la civilizacion de
California se enlaza con la de mi patria espanola, y ambas tienen,
por algun tiempo, un campo comun. Esto autoriza a pensar que
podemos trabajar como companeros, los eruditos californianos
y los espanoles en muchas cosas, y que tal vez, aqui podria co-
menzar la realizacion practica de un proyecto que en 1909 expuse
por primera vez en algunas republicas hispano-americanos, 4 y que
ahora veo igualmente defendido por el profesor Stephens, a saber,
el establecimiento, en el Archive de Indias, de escuelas seme-
j antes a las que todas las naciones han creado para el estudio de
los Archives Secretes del Vaticano. La idea encontraria camino
ya hecho en algunos lugares de Espana que no son de los que
menos pueden influir en el exito de ella, y cierta preparation
incluso en el terreno oficial. Yo me congratularia mucho con que
el resultado practice de esta visita mia a San Francisco fuese
la realizacion de lo que considero, al par del profesor Stephens 9

* Los terminos de el pueden verse en mi libro Mi Viaje d America.

ESPAftA EN LA HISTORIA DEL OC&ANO PAClFICO 75

como una necesidad de nuestras comunes investigaciones y como
una prenda de fraternidad intelectual entre ambos paises. Y aun
creo que esa labor historica en busca de la verdad referente al
pasado, no ha de ser la unica obra comun que en lo futuro reali-
zaran los Estados Unidos y Espaiia. Otras hay que a las dos
naciones obligan en punto al deber que ambas tienen de impulsar
el cumplimiento de los ideales de humanidad y civilizacion, cosa
que, sin duda alguna, solo puede lograrse mediante la amistosa
colaboracion de las cualidades originales que la historia ha de-
mostrado en cada pueblo.

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