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Return to First Page ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume LI (Spring 1992)
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Prostitution.(9) There is also much admiration for the aboriginals, even though it fastens mainly upon their personal courage.(10)Ranjel (or Oviedo) criticizes the expedition for paying so little attention to the conversion of a people whose faith "would have surpassed that of the conquerors if they had been taught."(11)
How much of this is Rajel, and how much Oviedo? Is it a primary source at all? It is an important question, for information critical to many matters-the expedition's experiences with, and attitudes toward, the aboriginals, is but one-hinges upon it, and the answer is not simple.
There are some clues. By the late sixteenth century, one may recall, the great debate sparked by Bartoleme de las Casas over the morality of the conquest was well under way; Oviedo, while taking the position that the benefits-to crown; church, and abuses both of people and office. Further , he knew the conquistadors, having spent decades in their company. That experience, as Alberto Salas has noted, tended to awaken one rather abruptly from fantasies about heroes of medieval romance. Indeed, his History was written in part to help others keep a clear head on these matters.(12) Ranjel, on the other hand, whose own life and
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9 Ibid. 105, 113-114; on prostitution : 108,115,117,121-122. The Gentleman of Elvas does make one passing reference to "female slaves" of an Indian ruler. He does not say what their fate was to be. Elvas, 69-70.
10 Ranjel, 80, where he refers to the Apalaches in the area of the first winter encampment (in the vicinity of Tallahassee) as "bravest of men[with] great courage and boldness," is an example. He also notes the quality of the thread that Indian women made from what he identifies as "mulberry bark" (88).
11 Ibid., 139. The question of what the twelve priests did with their days during this expedition has been an ongoing puzzle. They appear prominently just twice, first when they perform a "dry mass" after their ceremonial materials are destroyed in battle, and then when they help raise a huge cross at Casqui, shortly after crossing the Mississippi River. Aside from that, they seem to have been somewhat less than energetic in their mission. The two efforts to emphasize their activities, Michael Kenny, The Romance of the Floridas: The Finding and the Founding (1934: reprint, New York, 1970), 39-52, and Francis Borgia Steck, "Neglected Aspects of the De Soto Expedition,"Mid-America,n.s.,4(July,1952): 3-26, inadvertently underscore the opposite point.
12 Salas, "Fernandez de Oviedo,"in Tres Cronistas de Indias, Pedro Martir de Angleria, Gonzalo Fernadez de Oviedo, Fray Bartolome de las Casas (Mexico City,1959),83.