We sailed more than
fifteen hundred leagues. God knows how we got through that great mass
of water. I advise thee, O great King, never to send Spanish fleets
into that accursed river. God preserve thee in his holy keeping."
This letter was given by Aguirre to the vicar of the island of
Margareta, Pedro de Contreras, in order to be transmitted to King
Philip II. Fray Pedro Simon, Provincial of the Franciscans in New
Grenada, saw several manuscript copies of it both in America and in
Spain. It was printed, for the first time, in 1723, in the History of
the Province of Venezuela, by Oviedo, volume 1 page 206. Complaints no
less violent, on the conduct of the monks of the 16th century, were
addressed directly to the pope by the Milanese traveller, Girolamo
Benzoni.)
Lopez de Aguirre, or as he is still called by the common people, the
Tyrant, was killed at Barquesimeto, after having been abandoned by his
own men. At the moment when he fell, he plunged a dagger into the
bosom of his only daughter, "that she might not have to blush before
the Spaniards at the name of the daughter of a traitor." The soul of
the tyrant (such is the belief of the natives) wanders in the
savannahs, like a flame that flies the approach of men.* (* See volume
1 chapter 1.4.)
The second historical event connected with the name of Valencia is the
great incursion made by the Caribs of the Orinoco in 1578 and 1580.
That cannibal horde went up the banks of the Guarico, crossing the
plains or llanos.
