Venezuela—the search for El Dorado
This Spanish overseas empire began to take a variety of forms.21 A special case was to be found in a region offered to German merchants and bankers as compensation for loans given to King Charles.
Although Charles enjoyed a much larger income than other European monarchs and even increased his wealth by exploiting the new Spanish overseas provinces, his court expenses and the cost of his many wars in Europe considerably exceeded his income; his coronation in 1519 as Holy Roman Emperor was particularly expensive.22 Without the unexpected blessing of gold from Mexico, he would have been bankrupt from the very start of his reign.23 But now that he again was creditworthy, he took out loans like a champion, largely from the Augsburg banks of the Fugger and Welser companies. They lent the king more and more with hopes for the treasure Charles would find in the New World. However, because the emperor never had the cash to pay his immense debts, he instead repaid the loans by ennobling the heads of the lending families and giving them lucrative commercial privileges. Eventually the Fuggers and Welsers claimed to be directly involved in the exploitation of America, the former acquiring land in the south and the latter in the north of South America. They were supposed to explore, conquer and subdue the land, found cities and trading outposts, as well as convert the Indians to Christianity. In return, they were given permission to exploit their provinces as they saw best. The achievements of Cortes thus aroused a lust for gold which stretched even north of the Alps, and rumours of unbelievably rich Indian states reached Europe, with Germans dreaming of conquering a second Mexico.The Fuggers did not get a chance because Diego de Almagro, whom we will meet later, arrived in Chile before them (in 1535—1536) and conquered the country for himself and for the Spanish Crown.
The Welsers enjoyed greater success, actually setting up their own state on the basis of a contract signed in 1528 with Charles V. This state was named ‘Little Venice’ (in Spanish, Venezuela), because Venice at the time had the reputation of being the richest of all cities.24 Whereas Cortes envisaged the founding of a permanent colonial state, the Welsers did not really intend to develop the country and to govern it for long-term benefit, but rather to exploit it as quickly as possible. The terrific treasures the Spaniards found in Mexico, coupled with the legends of an even richer chieftain in the south—the myth of El Dorado (the golden man), a chieftain possessing an incredible amount of gold—incited the greed. This myth probably goes back to a Muisca chieftain, who from time to time had his whole body covered in gold dust for cultic reasons and then took a bath in the mountain Lake Guatavita (in today’s Colombia) while some of his vassals threw more golden artefacts into the water.25The Welsers knew, however, that they were not the only ones searching for El Dorado. Since the Spaniards had already started expeditions from today’s Colombia and Ecuador,26 there was no time to waste. The Welser governors did not wait to establish a state infrastructure of any significance, but instead directly launched into expeditions into the depths of South America since there was no agreed border in the south. The exact ways they explored are unknown today, but under the guidance of Nikolaus Federmann they explored the region of today’s Bogota in 1537,27 and under Philipp von Hutten they later reached the northern border district of today’s Ecuador.28
The Welsers’ expeditions through the almost impenetrable jungle involved unimaginable exertions and determination. One example is the expedition of the first governor, Ambrosius Alfinger.29 On 7 June 1531, Alfinger set out from Porto Coro together with 200 foot-soldiers and 40 horsemen.30 The first cruelties happened in the Upar Valley (Valledupar) where the Coanao Indians lived.
Some of the Indians brought gold on Alfinger’s request, while others fled. The governor had those who escaped recaptured to blackmail them for ransom; those who did not pay up were tortured, a common practice among the neighbouring Spaniards of Santa Marta. The conquerors then moved on to the Pacabueyes where they found greater acceptance. Through presents and theft, they amassed a golden treasure of 30,000 pesos in a single week.31 This is thought to have included, along with earrings, bracelets and golden figurines, the gilded sarcophagus of an Indian princess. Alfinger ordered that the gold be brought back to the coast by an escort, but the sarcophagus proved to bring no luck to the conquistadors. Captain Vascuna Pauxoto, responsible for leading the escort, did not keep to the known path to the coast but chose a route through unexplored areas that he expected to be a shortcut—a fatal error. Disaster struck when the Indian carriers ran away, leaving Vascuna’s soldiers to carry a burden of approximately 130 kilograms by themselves. The small brigade lost its way in the jungle and suffered from hunger. Soon their swords became blunt from being used to clear their route and from harvesting food from stubborn palm branches. Fighting exhaustion, they managed to reach a river over which they intended to float on rafts; but the river proved itself to be a death trap. Some did not want to admit failure and became victims of nature and of hostile Indians in the next days. On the brink of starvation and insanity, the rest of the brigade wanted to bury their gold. Should they meet friendly Indians, they thought that they could recover the treasure, or otherwise the survivors could later unearth the hoard with new recruits. Vascuna refused the plan for more than one week but eventually relented, and the gold was buried.The conquistadors kept moving for as long as they could but soon they were no longer able to make their way through the jungle. They turned around, dug up the gold and tried to find their way back to Alfinger.
Driven mad by hunger, they ate an Indian girl. They buried the gold a second time. They were now faced with a struggle for mere survival. Some had faces swollen from illness, others went blind and Captain Vascuna himself suffered from a tumour. At first he limped along, but proved unable to continue; his comrades waited for several days for him to bounce back, but to no avail. In the end they had to leave their leader behind, together with any others unable to walk. When the rest of the escort finally reached the river again, a well-armed canoe fleet of Indians awaited them. The Indians welcomed them in friendly fashion and gave food to the Spaniards, promising to bring more supplies. Rescue was so close, but the conquistadors decided that the Indians had set a trap. They tried to capture the Indians who stayed with them and hold them hostage for their safety. However, the Spaniards were too weak to carry out the plan successfully, and some of the Indians escaped. Now the Spaniards expected an attack and withdrew to a small hill. When there was no attack, they killed the unlucky captives they still held and ate them. Afterwards they moved on to where they assumed Alfinger to be. No one ever heard of them again.However, they had left behind one soldier, Francisco Martin, as his feet were infected by worms. Martin dragged himself back to the river on hands and knees and lay there for six days. Then he saw Captain Vascuna together with another man on the other side of the river, but they could not get to one other. So Vascuna and his comrade continued on their way, never to be seen again. Two days later the absolutely desperate Martin threw himself onto a tree trunk floating in the water. He drifted along until he saw smoke emanating from somewhere, struggled to the shore and crept directly to the smoke until he was found by Indians who then took care of him. Martin, fluent in an Indian language spoken on the coast, pretended to be an Indian native from there. Although the Indians did not really believe his story, it nevertheless saved his life.
But what happened to Alfinger? After waiting some time, the Welser governor slowly moved on into the interior of the country, where the chieftains of the region paid homage to him. Again he received gold, but only a small amount. He had given Vascuna three months to complete the expedition, but five months had now passed, and the proconsul began to worry. In June 1532 he sent his most experienced officer to the coast together with twenty men to find out what had happened to Vascuna. Though he was not able to discover the fate of the gold transported there, he at least could convince more than eighty volunteers to follow him back to Alfinger.
El Dorado’s empire always seemed so close, and yet always located just on the other side of the next mountain. Because Alfinger had been away from the coast for quite some time now, he decided not to pursue other rumours about rich treasures, but to move back to Coro. To avoid a mutiny of his men, who already complained about the loss of Vascuna’s treasure, he decided to explore an unknown way to the coast, searching for more gold. This again turned out to be a fatal decision. His brigade crossed the American Cordillera, repeatedly engaging in skirmishes with the Indians. All starving, some frozen because they were not prepared for a frosty snowdrift, and without a guide or interpreter, the group continued on its way, moving northwards. Alfinger himself led the vanguard to find the best route. One day he unexpectedly landed in an ambush. He and his companions were able to survive and get back to their compatriots, but they, too, had been attacked. Arrows rained down on the troops; a poisoned arrow hit Alfinger in the neck, and four days later the German governor was dead. He was buried under a tree in a valley that still bears his name.
The now noticeably declining troops reached Maracaibo in November 1533. On their way the conquistadors met and freed Francisco Martin and learned about the fate of Vascuna. The survivors collected, by robbery, blackmail and presents, the amount of gold they had lost through him. Yet no expedition ever found the legendary El Dorado.
Since the Welsers put all their eggs in one basket, hoping to find an immensely rich land they could plunder, they did not succeed. Because they neglected the development of the region they acquired, and were considered foreign competitors by the Spaniards, their control of Venezuela soon lost the favour of the Crown. Eventually Charles V broke the Venezuela contract with the Germans. The international experiment to settle the emperor’s debts and at the same time to strengthen Habsburg rule in America had practically failed by 1546.