Note XIV‑1 — Chapter XIV · THREATENED DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES. 1526-1543.

Benzoni spells the word Achla and states that the town was situated at a distance of about two bow-shots from the shore. Mondo Nuovo, 77. For a description of its site see Hist. Cent. Am., i. 418, this series. Girolamo Benzoni, in 1541, joined the Spaniards in their forays for gold and slaves, and traversed the Central American provinces. Regarded doubtless as an interloper he does not appear to have met with the success he expected, and in 1556 returned to Italy determined to vent his spite by an exposé of Spanish greed and cruelty. In 1565 he published the work entitled La Historia del Mondo Nuovo, dedicated to Pius IV., and containing 18 wood-cuts, with his own portrait on the frontispiece. The second edition, somewhat amplified, appeared in 1572, followed by quite a number of reprints and translations, particularly in German and Latin. The well known version by Chauveton, doctor and protestant preacher at Geneva, the Novæ Novi Orbis Historiæ, Geneva, 1578, was frequently reissued. The dedication praises Benzoni for exactitude and impartiality, and notes by other writers are added to confirm and explain the text. De Bry gave further value to this version by means of maps and fancy plates. Purchas, among others, treated it with less respect in offering merely 'Briefe extracts translated out of Ierom Benzo.' Amends were made for this slight in 1857, when the only full English version was issued by Admiral Smyth, under the auspices of the Hakluyt Society. The rendering is somewhat faulty, however, and the corrections of Benzoni's uncultured style and misspelled names not always an improvement.

Benzoni had evidently the intention of writing a more imposing general history of the New World, though it dwindled into a short narrative. There is an apparent effort at moderation, particularly with regard to himself, yet the disposition to exaggerate, or to lie, as Thevet intimates, crops out even in his sarcasms, and yielding to credulity he allows a great part of the narrative, on events or phenomena, to become merely the record of jangling and weird rumors current among gossips. This he partly admits by saying: 'In molte cose ho trouato che vna parte non conforma con l'altra, à causa che ogn'uno fauorisce il suo capitano, et più dico, che in questi paesi si trattano poche verità.' lib. iii. fol. 128. 'Lo mas de su narracion sacó de los autores precedentes con bastante fidelidad, pero comunmente sin juicio ni examen. En los principios está lleno de errores.' Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, tom. i. xxi.-ii. Robertson refers to him as a discontented detractor. He does not feel well affected toward Las Casas, despite their common aim, but calls him a vain man, incapable of carrying out his reform promises. Whatever may be said against the work, much of the material is valuable, as it embraces facts glossed over by the chroniclers, and gives the personal observations of a man not imbued with Castilian partiality. Indeed, Pinelo calls him an 'Autor poco afecto à los Españoles,' Epitome, tom. ii. 589, and they very naturally have returned the compliment by neglecting him.

A contemporary of Benzoni as traveller and author is the Frenchman André Thevet, who claims to have travelled for 17 years round the world, to acquire a proper knowledge of men and things, and who is credited with having mastered 28 languages. The result of his observations was issued at Paris in 1558 as, Les singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement nommée Amerique, containing philosophic dissertations on natural and moral history in the Levant, Africa, and America, and remarkable chiefly for credulity and want of critique. It attained several editions which are now sought for their rarity, among them, Historia dell'India America, di Andrea Tevet. Venice, 1561. He also wrote the Cosmographie universelle, Paris, 1575, 2 vols. folio, which is even more valueless, and admired only for its wood-cuts; the Cosmographie du Levant. Lyon, 1556; and the Cosmographie moscovite, published only in Paris 1858; and he left several other pieces in manuscript. De Thou refers to him rather severely as follows: 'Fuit patriâ engolimensis, professione primó Franciscanus, dein, cum vix litteras scìret, abjecto cucullo ex monacho celeberrimus planus religiosis et aliis peregrinationibus primam ætatem contrivit, ex quibus famâ contractâ, animum ad libros seribendos ineptâ ambitione applicavit, quos alieno calamo plerumque exacatos et ex itinerariis vulgaribus atque hujusmodi de plebe Scripturis consarcinatos miseris librariis pro suis venditabat: nam alioqui litterarum, antiquitatis atque omnis temporum rationis supra omnem fidem fuit imperitus, ut fere incerta pro certis, falsa pro veris et absurda semper sciberet.' Hist., lib. xi.