Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dispatched German agents to survey its
property. Federmann joined this contingent
in 1529 and was appointed captain of a
company of Spanish soldiers sent out on
reconnaissance. He quickly demonstrated
his qualities of audacity and endurance as
he confronted vast stretches of unknown
territory with great determination. Clearly,
however, his energy was as much fueled by
personal ambition as by a sense of duty.
After this initial probe into the wilderness
he was involved in several disputes with
superiors and was denied a free hand for
some time thereafter. Nevertheless, his use-
fulness could not be denied, and he was put
in charge of a large party of exploration,
including some 300 soldiers as well as native
auxiliaries, that set out from the Welser base
at Coro, on the Caribbean shore, in 1537.
They traveled for nearly 1,000 miles over
wide plains, regions of swampy terrain, and
ultimately into the Andes. In a remarkable
instance of chance encounter three Spanish
expeditions, coming from different bases
and obedient to different commanders,
arrived at the same spot in this great wilder-
ness and put in their rival claims to the sur-
rounding territory in 1539. Federmann
negotiated a cash compensation from G ON -
ZALO J IMÉNEZ DE Q UESADA , but their arrange-
ment was disrupted by the sudden
appearance of a force under S EBASTIÁN DE
B ELALCÁZAR , who demanded to be admitted
to their compact. The three leaders at length
agreed to refer their issues to the Crown,
and on returning to the nearest Spanish
port they embarked for Europe. Federmann,
the junior member of the triumvirate, lost
out to the arguments of the other two. Feel-
ing that the Welser bank had failed to give
him due support, he filed charges before
Spanish magistrates accusing his employer
of massive theft from the share of American
treasure that was due to the king-emperor.
Losing this case as well, he was charged with
numerous offenses against higher authority
and confined in a prison at V ALLADOLID ,
where he died while awaiting trial.
Amid the Spanish and Portuguese explor-
ers of the New World (as well as the occa-
sional Italian), the German presence
initiated by the Welser claims in Venezuela
stands out. And among these transplanted
Teutons, Federmann deserves special note
for his reckless, tireless pursuit of whatever
version of El Dorado he could obtain. A
memoir attributed to him reveals a striking
mixture of naïveté and fascinated curiosity
about the strange sites and peoples he
encountered on his marches across the
plains, jungles, and mountains of Venezu-
ela, C OLOMBIA , and P ERU . He was tough,
resourceful, and seemingly inexhaustible in
his energy but at the end proved an odd
man out in the struggle to win fame and
fortune in the Americas.
Feijoo, Benito Jerónimo (1676-1764)
Spanish essayist
A Benedictine who spent most of his long
life as a professor at the University of
Oviedo, Feijoo was an incongruous figure
in the narrow-minded setting of his time
and place. Proudly proclaiming himself a
“ciudadano libre de la republica de las letras”
(free citizen of the republic of letters), he
wrote on a wide variety of subjects. Ency-
clopedic in his interests and opinions, he
was less an expert in any one of the natural
sciences and human institutions that he
discussed than a champion of free investi-
gation and debate. He has been called “the
Spanish Voltaire,” and it was necessary for
 
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