Note 2 — Chapter V · EL RIO META

Castellanos was for a while a soldier and afterwards an ecclesiastic, enjoying a benefice in the town of Tunja, New Granada. Like Pope, he had an extraordinary faculty for versification, and, like him, “He spoke in numbers for the numbers came.” This does not, however, detract from his authority as a historian. Having taken an active part in many of the campaigns, which he describes, and, knowing intimately many of the earlier conquerors of that vast territory now known as the Republic of Colombia, few writers were better qualified than he to record the events so graphically depicted in his Elegias, or to portray the characters of those conquistadores who figure so prominently among his Varones Ilustres de Indias. The first part of his work was published in 1589. The second and third parts were published in 1850 by Rivadeneyra in the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles. The fourth part, discovered only a few years ago, was issued by D. Antonio Paz y Melia in 1887 under the title of Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada. In his introduction to this work, Sr. Melia gives an able résumé of all that is known or conjectured regarding Castellanos. For a critical estimate of the author of Las Elegias de Varones Ilustres, consult Jimenez de la Espada, in his study, Juan de Castellanos y su Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada, in the Rivista Contemporanea, Madrid, 1889. ↑