The Map of the Yurumanguí Indians. Charting the Erasure of the Pacific Lowlands’ Indigenous Inhabitants, 1742–1780

Abstract

The little-known map of the Yurumanguí Indians, created in the late colonial period, preserves information about a remote gold-mining region in New Granada. This essay represents the first attempt to link this map to the previously known and partially published Misioneros de Yurumanguí case file, which documents the discovery, attempted reducción, and ultimate erasure of the indigenous inhabitants living along the Naya and Yurumanguí rivers in Colombia’s Pacific Lowlands between 1742 and 1780. Reconnecting this map to the documents that once accompanied it makes it possible to ascribe a date and an author to the map, as well as link the map to earlier scholarship on the Yurumanguí Indians. An examination of map and case file highlights failed attempts to implement Bourbon reforms in New Granada’s periphery, illuminating competing interests among miners, Franciscans, and colonial authorities, and suggesting that peripheral areas did not always equate to peripheral players or peripheral stakes.

La carte peu connue des Indiens Yurumanguí, créée vers la fin de l’époque coloniale, conserve des renseignements sur une région éloignée où se trouvaient des mines d’or en Nouvelle Grenade. Cet essai représente la premiére tentative de lier cette carte au dossier Misioneros de Yurumanguí, déjà connu et publié en partie, qui décrit la découverte, la reducción tentative, et l’effacement final des indigénes qui vivaient prés des riviéres Naya et Yurumanguí aux Basses-Terres du Pacifique en Colombie entre 1742-1780. En reliant cette carte aux documents qui autrefois l’accompagnaient il devient possible d’attribuer une date et un créateur à la carte, aussi bien que de lier la carte aux études érudites sur les Indiens Yurumanguí. Une étude de la carte et du dossier souligne les tentatives échouées de mettre en œuvre des réformes Bourboniennes dans la périphérie de la Nouvelle Grenade, éclaire les intérêts contradictoires des mineurs, des Franciscans, et des autorités coloniales, et suggére que les régions périphériques n’étaient pas toujours des protagonistes périphériques ou des enjeux périphériques.

Un mapa poco conocido de los indios Yurumanguí, creado a finales del periodo colonial, conserva información sobre una región aurífera remota de Nueva Granada. Este ensayo representa el primer intento de poner en relación este mapa con el dossier de los Misioneros de Yurumanguí, ya conocido y parcialmente publicado, lo cual documenta el descubrimiento, intentos de reducción, y finalmente la aniquilación de los habitantes indígenas de las quebradas de los ríos Naya y Yurumanguí en el litoral pacífico colombiano entre 1742 y 1780. El hecho de poder conectar este mapa con el dossier de los Misioneros de Yurumanguí, se hace posible atribuirle una fecha y un autor, así como relacionarlo con la historiografía sobre los indios Yurumanguí. El estudio del mapa junto con el dossier revela cómo fracasaron los intentos por implementar las reformas borbónicas en la periferia de Nueva Granada, arrojando luz sobre los intereses contradictorios de mineros, franciscanos y autoridades coloniales, y sugiere que zonas periféricas no siempre fueron sinónimos con actores periféricos o con intereses periféricos.

KEYWORDS:

• Pacific Lowlands
• Naya
• Yurumanguí
• indigenous inhabitants
• gold mines
• entradas
• Franciscans

MOTS-CLÉS:

• les Basses-Terres du Pacifique, la rivière Naya, la rivière Yurumanguí, les Indiens Yurumanguí, les indigènes, les mines d’or, les entradas, les Franciscans

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• litoral pacífico, Naya, Yurumanguí, indígenas, minas de oro, entradas, franciscanos

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I am grateful to Mauricio de Tovar at the Archivo General de la Nación in Bogotá (AGN) for his generosity with maps and resources, all of which have been indispensable for this study. I extend deep thanks to Freddy Quitian of the AGN Biblioteca for his research skills and friendship, and to the AGN archivists who patiently facilitated my viewing of maps and case files. María Alicia Uribe, Marianne Cardale Schrimpff, Diogenes Patiño, Zamira Díaz López, and Ana Henao have been generous colleagues in Colombia, and I thank them for help on diverse aspects of this project. I am also grateful to Yurany Perdomo in Cali for her invaluable research assistance and to José Carlos de la Puente for guidance and encouragement in locating archival documents. Matt Nielsen and Jay Harrison undertook a close reading of the manuscript and provided valuable insights and suggestions. Bill Fisher and Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez proffered help with term translations. I would also like to thank Alex Hidalgo, Ryan Kashanipour, Kevin Gosner, Martha Few, Dana Velázquez Murillo, Kris Lane, Mark Hanna, Bianca Premo, Christoph Rosenmüller, Max Deardorff, Kittiya Lee, Scott Sherer, and Andrea Pappas for their insightful feedback and encouragement on this larger body of work. The anonymous reviewers provided instrumental suggestions, for which I am most grateful. John M. Anderson of the Cartographic Information Center at LSU graciously tracked down an image for me, even at a time when the archive (and university) was closed. I would also like to thank Richard Weiner for his perceptive comments and his enviable efficiency. Any errors are, of course, my own.

Notes

¹ Archivo General de la Nación, Bogotá, Sección Mapas y Planos, Mapoteca 3, Ref. 125. The map can be accessed through Archcidoc http://consulta.archivogeneral.gov.co/ConsultaWeb/imagenes.jsp?id=3252787&idNodoImagen=3252788&total=1&ini=1&fin=1

² AGN Curas y Obispos SC 21 44D 2 (1743–1781) (hereafter Curas y Obispos), fol. 24 r.

³ Curas y Obispos. The case file is comprised of representaciones, vistos, autos, decretos, notificaciones, informes, and cartas.

⁴ Reducciónes, or pueblos de indios, also served to transform local indigenous people into a Spanish policing force that could ideally defend the periphery and help curb contraband activity, Matt Nielson, personal communication 2020.

⁵ Curas y Obispos, fols. 198 r-200 v. Caizedo’s letter begins “En fuerza del superior orden de Vuestra Excelencia, he procedido a la formación del mapa, e incluyo el que instruya a Vuestra Excelencia por lo que toca a la situación, y habitación de aquellos indios infieles y los ríos principales en que se hallan situados.”

⁶ Caizedo, in one instance, mentions “mapas” (fol. 198 r), suggesting that the map of the Yurumanguí Indians may have been compiled from several pieces, or it may indicate there was another map. There is also a possibility that the map discussed here is a later, cleaner version, created after Caizedo penned the letter to the viceroy. In the letter, Caizedo does not reference numbers from the map, but provides detailed descriptions which are easily correlated to numbers and features on the map.

⁷ While we do not know what this indigenous group called themselves, I refer to them as the Yurumanguí, following nomenclature established in the 1940s. See Gregorio Arcila Robledo, “Vocabulario de los Indios Yurumanguíes,” Voz Franciscana XVI 179 (1940), pp. 341–43. The indigenous inhabitants of this region were named after the River Yurumanguí, though, as Manuel Serrano García notes, they extended north to the Cajambre River and south to the Naya River, see Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana en el Yurumanguí,” Historia y Espacio 45 (2015), p. 41. Their extent beyond the Yurumanguí River is also clear from documents in the case file.

⁸ Curas y Obispos, fols. 198 r-200 v.

⁹ Much of the scholarship for this area has focused on the history of Afro-Colombians. See Mario Diego Romero, Historia y etnohistoria de las comunidades Afrocolombianas del Río Naya (Cali: Gobernación del Valle del Cauca, 1997) and Francisco Uriel Zuluaga and Mario Diego Romero, “El Raposo y el centro-sur del Valle del Cauca,” Sociedad, cultura, y resistencia negra en Colombia y Ecuador, 2nd ed. (Cali: Universidad del Valle, 2009), pp. 149–98. Inhabitants today are largely Afro-Colombian with a minority of indigenous who reside along the lower part of the Naya and Tambor Rivers (Cholo-Emberá) and Paeces0 who live in the higher part of the Naya basin or watershed. See also Álvaro José Negret, et al. Estudio de viabilidad para la declaratoria de un corredor de conservación de las selvas húmedas del Pacifico colombiano. Informe de investigación (Popayán: Museo de Historia Natural Universidad del Cauca, 1996) and Francisco Celorio Mina, Historia del pueblo de San Francisco de Naya y costumbres antiguas comunes a otras regiones (Cali: Imprenta Departamental, 1971).

¹⁰ The Naya and Yurumanguí rivers, while weeks distant from the nearest urban centers, represented potentially profitable mining areas. As such, they attracted powerful and wealthy individuals from both Cali and Popayán.

¹¹ Marta Herrera, Ordenar para controlar. Ordenamiento espacial y control político en las llanuras del Caribe y en los Andes centrales Neograndinos, siglo XVIII, 3rd ed. (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2014), pp. 57–59.

¹² Herrera, Ordenar para controlar, pp. 62–64.

¹³ Herrera, Ordenar para controlar, pp. 66–69.

¹⁴ Kathleen Romoli, “El descubrimiento y la primera fundación de Buenaventura,” Boletín de historia de antiguedades 49 (1962), p. 115.

¹⁵ Romoli, “Buenaventura,” p. 115.

¹⁶ See Romoli, “Buenaventura,” and Alonso Valencia Llano, “Los orígenes coloniales del puerto de Buenaventura,” Historia y Memoria 9 (2014), pp. 221–46.

¹⁷ This biodiversity encompasses many endangered species, including the spectacled bear.

¹⁸ Development in the Naya area has been underway only since the 1960s, driven largely by the coca trade. Today the area is littered with landmines, or IEDS (improvised explosive devices). https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/demining-colombia/.

¹⁹ Isabella Bernal, “En mula y en lancha, recorrimos la ruta más agreste del narcotráfico,” Pacifista, 2 January 2017, https://pacifista.tv/notas/en-mula-y-en-lancha-recorrimos-la-ruta-mas-agreste-del-narcotrafico/.

²⁰ “ … la frontera de la frontera, el último límite antes de que la naturaleza someta por completo al hombre,” Isabella Bernal, “En mula y en lancha,” 2017.

²¹ Three mountain chains vertically divide Colombia alone; all are at least 15,000 feet at their summit and extend more than 1,000 kilometers at their base. These are the Cordillera Occidental (15,630 feet), the Cordillera Central (17,598 feet), and the Cordillera Oriental (17,750 feet).

²² This is based on the recorded travel time of Pedro Agustín de Valencia and that of Sebastian Lanchas de Estrada, Curas y Obispos, fols. 34 v-35 r and 143 r-144 r.

²³ Curas y Obispos, fol. 34 v.

²⁴ Curas y Obispos, fols. 34 v-35 r and 143 r-144 r.

²⁵ AGN Visitas SC. 62 4D6 Visitas Cauca, Raposo y Dagua, Diligencias de Visita (8 July 1761–26 April 1762), fol. 595v.

²⁶ AGN, Militias y Marinas, SC 37 tomo 126 (March-April 1776), fol. 203 v, “como este país es intraficable por tierra lo mas de el por la aspereza de sus impenetrables bosques, y todo se trafica por mar y ríos en canoas, no se da paso que no sea a fuerza de mucho dinero y continuados peligros de la vida … ” García Valdez’s title can be loosely translated as “lieutenant in the company of Spanish forasteros from the city of Popayán.” This was a military regiment posted to the Americas during the viceroyalty composed entirely of peninsular Spaniards. In this instance, forastero alludes to a nonnative outlander or incomer. I thank Bill Fisher and Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez for translation help with this title.

²⁷ Anthony McFarlane, Colombia before Independence: Economy, Society, and Politics under Bourbon Rule (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 28.

²⁸ McFarlane, Colombia before Independence, p. 192.

²⁹ McFarlane, Colombia before Independence, pp. 194–195. The extent of the second viceroyalty encompassed territories of modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador.

³⁰ This is discussed in McFarlane, Colombia before Independence, pp. 198–199 based on a letter Viceroy Eslava wrote to Marqués de la Ensenada (15 September 1746), AGI Santa Fe 572. Nevertheless, the viceroyalty lasted from 1739 to 1810 with 12 viceroys overseeing its governance.

³¹ Mutis would go on to head the illustrious Royal Botanical Expedition.

³² The need for reform was due to the financially devastating wars preceding the reign of Charles II (1661–1700), Allan Kuethe and Kenneth Andrien, The Spanish Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century: War and the Bourbon Reforms, 1713–1796 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 1–3.

³³ Kuethe and Andrien, Spanish Atlantic World, p. 3.

³⁴ McFarlane, Colombia before Independence, pp. 63, 236.

³⁵ In 1765, Cali’s cabildo successfully pleaded with the viceroy that the estanco (aguardiente, or cane brandy, monopoly) be abolished due to the excessive amount of rioting in town and outside of it. Anthony McFarlane, “Civil disorders and popular protests in late colonial New Granada,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 64.1 (1984), pp. 17–54.

³⁶ The term “Yurumanguíes” was first used by Franciscan friar Gregorio Arcila Robledo, “Vocabulario,” pp. 341–43.

³⁷ Linguistic terms were compiled by Franciscan friar Cristóbal Romero and are found in Curas y Obispos, fols. 218 v-221 r and 231 r-233 r.

³⁸ Gregorio Arcila Robledo, “Vocabulario,” pp. 341–43.

³⁹ Sergio Elias Ortíz, “Los indios Yurumanguíes,” Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades 32: 371–374 (1945), pp. 731–48. The ethnographic descriptions are referenced in Romero’s Historia y etnohistoria, pp. 45–47. For Lanchas de Estrada’s diary, see Curas y Obispos, fols. 146 r-148 v.

⁴⁰ E. Aubert de la Rue and Edmond Bruet, “La hoya del Río Naya. Estudio geológico y minero,” Revista de la Universidad del Cauca 1 (1943), pp. 137–60.

⁴¹ Paul Rivet, “Un dialecte Hoka Colombien. Le Yurumangi,” Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris 34: 1 (1942), pp. 1–59. Hokan refers to a supposed grouping of languages spoken mainly in California, Arizona, and Baja California. For problems with Rivet, see William T. Poser, “The Salinan and Yurumanguí data in language in the Americas,” International Journal of American Linguistics 58, 2 (1992), pp. 202–29.

⁴² Ernesto Guhl, “La costa del Pacífico entre los ríos Dagua y Naya,” Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Colombia 8, 1 (1948), pp. 99–113.

⁴³ Guhl in María E. Bonilla, “Solamente se ve lo que sabe. Entrevista con Ernesto Guhl,” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico 21. 1 (1984), pp. 29–30.

⁴⁴ Because Yurumanguí is an extinct language, too little documentation exists to permit adequate classification of it. Lyle Campbell, “Classification of the indigenous languages of South America,” The Indigenous Languages of South America. A Comprehensive Guide, eds. Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyte, 2012), pp. 69–70, 114. See also Alexandra Aikhenvald, “Languages of the Pacific Coast and South America,” The Vanishing Languages of the Pacific Rim, eds. Osahito Miyaoka, et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 190–191 and Willem Adelaar and Pieter Muysken, The Languages of the Andes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 60–61. Nevertheless, early efforts were made to tie Yurumanguí to known language groups. See Čestmír Loukotka and Johannes Wilbert, Classification of the South American Indian Languages. Reference Series 7 (Los Angeles: Latin American Center, University of California, 1968).

⁴⁵ Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana,” pp. 39–61.

⁴⁶ Using the map and information from the case file would also have facilitated historical archaeology for this group. The map, informed by Caizedo’s letter, presents locations and distances that offer a rough sense of where dwellings were situated. (The house cluster identified as no. 9 on the map is the only place that might constitute a node, see Figure 12. All roads, including the one that leads to the peak of Las Cruces (no. 7) meet here.) Lanchas de Estrada mentioned that indigenous people trade (tienen comercio) with those on the other side of the cordillera, Curas y Obispos, fol. 244 v.

⁴⁷ Illicit commerce referred to illegal trade with foreigners in Spanish America. Contraband, in contrast, referred to cargo of Spanish or Spanish American origin, which was forbidden in Spanish American ports, see Lance R. Grahn, The Political Economy of Smuggling. Regional Informal Economies in Bourbon New Granada (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997), p. 13. See also Caroline A. Williams, Between Resistance and Adaptation: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonisation of the Chocó, 1510–1753 (Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2005), p. 181, ff. 10.

⁴⁸ Curas y Obispos, fols. 17 r-17 v.

⁴⁹ Otarola is noted as a natural del reino de España, Archivo Central de Cauca (hereafter ACC) Sig. 7892 Col. J II −10 cv (1758–1772), fol. 5 r.

⁵⁰ ACC Sig. 3998 Col. CI-21 mn (1743), fols. 1 r, 2 v-3r. His petition was directed to the Gobernador y Capitán General de Popayán.

⁵¹ ACC Sig. 3998 Col. CI-21 mn (1743), fol. 3 v. Otorola’s request to use indigenous labor, while not unprecedented, was somewhat unusual. However, Cristóbal de Mosquera, a vecino of Popayán, used both indigenous and African labor, see Peter Marzahl, Town in the Empire. Government, Politics, and Society in Seventeenth-Century Popayan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978), p. 27, ff. 20 and 26.

⁵² Curas y Obispos, fols. 15 r-17 v.

⁵³ ACC Sig. 9650 Col. C III −24 g (1753), fol. 4 v-6 r.

⁵⁴ Curas y Obispos, fol. 17 v and ACC 9650 Col. C III −24 g (1753), fols. 5 r-6 r.

⁵⁵ Curas y Obispos, fol. 18 r. The decree, “sobre la reducción y pacificación de los indios infieles,” is dated 25 June 1748.

⁵⁶ Curas y Obispos (10 January 1751), fols. 17 r-17 v.

⁵⁷ Curas y Obispos, fols. 19 r-20 r.

⁵⁸ Curas y Obispos, fols. 20 r-21 v. 2,000 pesos was a significant sum. For a breakdown of costs and Otorola’s list of expenses, see Curas y Obispos, fols. 25 r-27 v.

⁵⁹ Curas y Obispos (15 March 1751), fol. 33 v “en atención a los inconvenientes que pueden resultar de que se facilite la comunicación de la ciudad de Popayán con la Mar del sur, se declara débanse suspender la apertura que se intenta concluir desde la referida ciudad (Popayán) al Río Naya … como de los perjuicios que en la extracción de sus oros pueden acarrearse del fácil comercio por la mar .”

⁶⁰ Curas y Obispos, fols. 32 r-32 v.

⁶¹ Otorola is described as “ausente o muerto en el reino del Peru,” ACC Sig. 11,392 Col. J I − 17 mn (1760), fols. 19 r-19 v.

⁶² ACC Sig. 11,392 Col. J I − 17 mn (1760). In addition to mines, associated houses, slaves, and tools were sold.

⁶³ Valencia is described as one of the richest men in Popayán, German Colmenares, “Popayán: Una sociedad esclavista, 1680–1800,” Historia económica y social de Colombia, vol. II (Medellin: La Carreta, 1979), p. 83.

⁶⁴ Gustavo Arboleda, Diccionario biográfico y genealógico del antiguo Departamento del Cauca (Bogotá: Librería Horizontes, 1962). The large sum of money that Valencia invested in this business prompted Fernando VI to name Valencia treasurer in perpetuity.

⁶⁵ Curas y Obispos, fols. 34 r, 57 v. Valencia later proposed to reduce and evangelize the indios infieles living in the mountains nearby (1760), see also fols. 64 r-65 r.

⁶⁶ The witnesses’ testimonies were overwhelmingly favorable; they saw the proposed road as neither detrimental to the king nor to the people of the province. On the contrary, the road would benefit everyone, Curas y Obispos, fols. 44 v-54 v. “Excelentísimo señor. El fiscal de S.M a esta vista dice: que en atención a resultar de la información que está en estos autos no traer inconveniente la apertura del camino a los ríos de Naya y Yurumanguí, y antes sí, conocidas utilidades, puede vuestra excelencia si es servido conceder a don Pedro Agustín de Valencia la licencia que solicita. Santa Fe 11 de agosto de 1757,” Curas y obispos, fol. 57 v.

⁶⁷ Curas y Obispos, fols. 34 v-35 v. The subtext here is always that, with greater efficiency (i.e. a road, more slaves, etc.), a greater quantity of gold can be mined, resulting in higher revenues for the Spanish crown.

⁶⁸ For Valencia, the road was also a business venture that would render his mines more profitable. With a road, he would have easier access to supplies and a more substantial labor force, resulting in a greater yield of gold mined along the Yurumanguí, which could then be directed toward Popayán.

⁶⁹ Curas y Obispos, fols. 64 r-65 r. See also fols. 83 v-84 r. Valencia had agreed to help fund the road as well as missionizing efforts (fols. 81 r-83 r), contributing 200 pesos a year (fol. 127 v).

⁷⁰ Curas y Obispos (1761), fol. 80 r. Here, Valencia also provided credentials for Lanchas de Estrada, who is described as “capitan de la pacificación y reducción de los indios gentiles que habitan las cabeceras y montañas de los ríos de Yurumanguí, Cajambre, y juez de balanza de la real Casa de la Moneda de esta ciudad … ” Curas y Obispos, fol. 244 r.

⁷¹ For Lanchas de Estrada’s diary and descriptions of the Yurumanguí Indians, see Curas y Obispos, fols. 143 r-148 v. This, together with the language dictionary compiled by friar Cristóbal Romero, Curas y Obispos, fols. 218 r-221 r, and the map (AGN SMP 3. Ref. 125) constitutes the last documentary evidence of this now extinct group.

⁷² Curas y Obispos, fol. 81 v. Much of the Misioneros de Yurumanguí case file deals with the Colegio de Popayán’s inability to take on this project as they were overcommitted in other areas already. The alternative, the Colegio in Cali, did not have the requisite experience or expertise. For more on the challenges facing the Franciscans in the area at this time, see Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana.”

⁷³ Larrea is credited today as the author of the Novena of Aguinaldos, or the novena, a set of prayers recited in Colombia, parts of Ecuador, and Venezuela during the nine days preceding Christmas.

⁷⁴ Curas y Obispos (17 April 1767), fol. 93 v, see also fol. 123 r. El colegio of Cali had not a single mission assigned to them, hence Larrea’s interest in the Yurumanguí reducción going to the friars in Cali. Larrea had a vested interest in the success of the Colegio de Misiones de San Joaquín de Cali, as he had founded it just a decade earlier, in 1757. See Serrano García, “La mission Franciscana,” p. 47. Discussion of establishing a convent of Franciscans, and specifically a colegio de misiones, began in 1750, with its founder suggested as Larrea. Construction on the convent began in 1760. See Gustavo Arboleda, Historia de Cali. Desde los orígenes de la ciudad hasta la expiración del periodo colonial (Cali: Biblioteca de la Universidad del Valle, 1956), vol. 2, pp. 217, 300–302.

⁷⁵ Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana,” p. 47.

⁷⁶ Curas y Obispos, fols. 98 r, 126 r. Tamayo is described as “un seglar imbuido por un impulso evangelizador.” Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana,” p. 46.

⁷⁷ Curas y Obispos, fol. 107 r.

⁷⁸ Curas y Obispos, fols. 127 r-127 v.

⁷⁹ Matt Nielson, “Unruliness at the Margins. Environment and Politics in the Lower Orinoco Basin, 1600 s-1700 s,” Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of History, Carnegie Mellon, 2019, pp. 211–212.

⁸⁰ Curas y Obispos, fol. 128 r.

⁸¹ See Curas y Obispos, fols. 218 v-221 r and 231 r-233 r.

⁸² On 29 August 1768, Valencia reported to the viceroy that, to complete the project, more money would be needed, Curas y Obispos, fol. 166 v. This sentiment is also expressed in a letter of Friar Romero, Curas y Obispos, fols. 136 r-137 r.

⁸³ Friar Romero in his report (16 June 1768), cited the difficulty of trying to organize and Christianize the Yurumanguí Indians who, by choice and custom, lived far apart and in an area that was difficult to get around, Curas y Obispos, fols. 158 v-159 r. Romero also noted their adherence to ritual activity including drinking, dancing during planting and harvest, and other things. Curas y Obispos, fols. 161 r-161 v.

⁸⁴ Curas y Obispos (16 July 1768), fols. 161 v-162 r; Larrea commented on this as well, see fol. 168 r (28 August 1768). The number of indigenous inhabitants in this area before this time is difficult to gauge. In the later sixteenth century, the numbers of indigenous living near the mountains of Cali plummeted from 8000 to 600, according to Fray Gerónimo Escobar, “Gobierno de Popayán. Calidades de la tierra” [1582], in Relaciones histórico-geográficas de la Audiencia de Quito, siglos XVI-XIX, tomo I, ed. Pilar Ponce Leiva (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1991), p. 346.

⁸⁵ Curas y Obispos (10 October 1768), fol. 170 r. Later in the case file, this disease is referred to as viruela, or smallpox, fol. 310 r.

⁸⁶ Curas y Obispos (20 February 1770), fols. 187 r-187 v.

⁸⁷ Curas y Obispos, fol. 187 r. Infanticide, which was practiced by indigenous and enslaved women as a means to resist Spanish colonial oppression, is discussed in Londa Schiebinger, Plants and Empire. Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, chapter 3. This practice is also discussed by Marta Echeverri as a strategy to bring cruel masters and abhorrent living and working conditions to the attention of colonial authorities, see Echeverri, “‘Enraged to the limit of despair.’ Infanticide and Slave Judicial Strategies in Barbacoas, 1788–98,” Slavery and Abolition Vol. 30, No. 3, September 2009, pp. 403–426.

⁸⁸ Curas y Obispos, fols. 171 r-171 v, 187 v.

⁸⁹ Curas y Obispos, fol. 187 v. In a letter from Larrea to the viceroy (20 February 1770), Larrea noted “la providencia más necesaria es la de la apertura del camino, sin ella es muy difícil que tengan incremento las conversiones.” Larrea understood that without a road there could be no mission, and that without a mission, the perpetuation of the Colegio of Cali was hard to justify, see Serrano García, “La misión Franciscana,” p. 54.

⁹⁰ On 20 February 1770, Larrea wrote “ … se puede abrir con facilidad un camino muy breve y muy derecho. El sujeto de más eficacia y de imperio para abrir el camino es don Manuel Caizedo, alférez real de Cali. Me persuado de que con 500 pesos que contribuyan las reales cajas para los gastos necesarios, dejará el alférez real el camino abierto, porque tiene genio para ello,” Curas y Obispos, fol. 187 v.

⁹¹ Curas y Obispos (17 November 1770), fols. 250 v-252 r.

⁹² According to Manuel de Caizedo, his great-grandfather undertook the pacification of indigenous groups in the Chocó in 1684 (Curas y Obispos, fol. 281 v). This bears mention as Manuel de Caizedo continued this family tradition by involving himself in the very late pacification and reducción of the indios infieles in the Naya and Yurumanguí area (Curas y Obispos, fols. 198–200, 251 v). See also discussion in German Colmenares, Cali: Terratenientes, mineros y comerciantes, siglo XVIII (Cali: Universidad del Valle, 1975), pp. 40–41, 101, 126.

⁹³ Colmenares, Cali. Terratenientes, p. 135. This post was purchased, not elected.

⁹⁴ This was Francisco Gerónimo de Mondragón, cura y vecino of the pueblo of Noanamá, ACC Sig. 11,392, fol. 66 v-67 v.

⁹⁵ With Caizedo’s involvement, the road’s destination and power dynamics shifted from Popayán to Cali.

⁹⁶ Caizedo alleged that, for opening a road to this area, he was given rights to mine by the viceroy but was unable to present documentation in support of this, ACC Sig. 11,391 Col. J I − 17 mn (31 October 1775–20 April 1776), fol. 18 r.

⁹⁷ Curas y Obispos (29 October 1774), fols. 302 v-303 r. See also Curas y Obispos (March 1775), fol. 308 r “ … el fatal estado en que se halla el camino de la montaña de Yurumanguí cuya apertura ofreció hacer de su peculio Manuel de Caizedo … ” This is corroborated in ACC Sig. 11,391 Col. J I − 17 mn (31 October 1775–20 April 1776), fol. 13 r “ … Manuel de Caycedo no ha abierto camino alguno para las cordilleras de Naya y Yurumanguí como lo ofreció a su excelencia … ”.

⁹⁸ Curas y Obispos, fol. 310 r. The efforts of the priests to establish the mission was useless “ … pues no han hallado indios infieles con que poderlos poblar .”

⁹⁹ Laid paper, made from linen pulp from the flax plant, was in use from the twelfth to nineteenth century. This is one of hundreds of maps catalogued by Vicenta Cortés in the 1960 s. Cortés dated it to after 1700, working from the faint signature of Manuel de Caizedo at bottom right, whom she proposed as the rubricador, or map maker. Vicenta Cortés, Catálogo de mapas de Colombia (Madrid: Cultura Hispánica, 1967), p. 83, ff. 36.

¹⁰⁰ The ship, near the Cajambre River (no. 24) and the canoe, near the Naya River (no. 4) are not noted in the legend.

¹⁰¹ Curas y Obispos, fols. 34 v-35 r and 143 r-144 r.

¹⁰² Curas y obispos, fols. 244 r-245 r, 12 November 1770.

¹⁰³ Curas y obispos, fols. 281 r-281 v, letter from Manuel de Caizedo to viceroy Pedro Mesía de la Cerda, 25 October 1771. From Cali, one might travel via the Cauca River to the road’s beginning near the Jamundí or Claro river. Traveling these rivers to their sources takes one to the Farallones de Cali from where a road might facilitate a connection to the Yurumanguí or Cajambre rivers. Caizedo proposed the cost would be 500 or 600 pesos.

¹⁰⁴ This detailed ethnographic description can be found in Curas y Obispos, fols. 146 r-148 v and is transcribed in Elías Ortíz, “Los indios Yurumanguíes.”

¹⁰⁵ Curas y Obispos, fols. 146 r-146 v.

¹⁰⁶ While this design is useful for areas where flooding is common, this same type of structure is also used at well-drained sites, perhaps to protect inhabitants from predatory animals or people. Robert C. West, The Pacific Lowlands of Colombia. A Negroid Area of the American Tropics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957), p. 116.

¹⁰⁷ Curas y Obispos, fol. 147 r.

¹⁰⁸ Curas y Obispos, fol. 148 r.

¹⁰⁹ Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 v.

¹¹⁰ Curas y Obispos, fol. 148 r.

¹¹¹ Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 v.

¹¹² Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 v.

¹¹³ Curas y Obispos, fol. 147 v. They also ate a thick, white worm, fol. 146 v.

¹¹⁴ See discussion in Nielson, Unruliness, p. 52.

¹¹⁵ Curas y Obispos, fols. 198 v-199 r. Distances separating no. 9 and no. 10 are a half league (perhaps two miles), while 10 and 11 were separated by more than a league (over four miles). The distance between house 11 and 12 was more than a league and a half (or approximately five miles).

¹¹⁶ Curas y obispos, fol. 147 v.

¹¹⁷ For an enlightening read on ancient roads, see Marianne Cardale Schrimpff, Caminos prehispánicos en Calima. El estudio de caminos precolombinos de la Cuenca del Alto Río Calima, Cordillera Occidental, Valle del Cauca (Calima: Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Nacionales, 1996).

¹¹⁸ This journey took three days, Curas y Obispos, fol. 34 v.

¹¹⁹ The figure on the bow wields a long pole while the one at the stern uses a spade-shaped oar. These are still in use in this region today.

¹²⁰ Caizedo underscored that he had walked every inch of the area depicted in the map, “toda la tierra que comprende el mapa, sin camino, se halla sin conocerse, pues únicamente se ha transitado por el que va dibujado y eso lo ejecuté yo … ” Curas y Obispos, fol. 200 r.

¹²¹ Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 r. Damajagua was also used as a blanket, Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 v. Damajagua is a type of hibiscus whose bark was used by the Taínos and other indigenous groups to make clothes, mats, etc. I thank Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez for this information.

¹²² Curas y Obispos, fol. 147 r. It is not clear if this habit intensified with the incursions of the Spaniards.

¹²³ Curas y Obispos, fol. 146 v.

¹²⁴ Curas y Obispos, fol. 148 r.

¹²⁵ Marianne Cardale Schrimpff, “The People of the Ilama Period,” in Calima and Malagana. Art and Archaeology in Southwestern Colombia, ed. Marianne Cardale Schrimpff (Bogotá: Pro Calima Foundation, 2005), p. 63.

¹²⁶ These lands were not explored by Caizedo nor were they visited by Franciscans or miners who made entradas to this region, Curas y Obispos, fol. 199 r.

¹²⁷ Curas y Obispos, fol. 199 r.

¹²⁸ Curas y Obispos, fol. 147 v. The Yurumanguí fought with spears (dardos) seven feet in length and defended themselves with strong, tightly woven shields which were three and a half feet in diameter, fol. 146 r.

¹²⁹ Mark Monmonier, How to Lie with Maps (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). See also J. B. Harley, “Silences and Secrecy. The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe.” Imago Mundi 40 (1988), pp. 57–76 and J. B Harley, The New Nature of Maps. Essays in the History of Cartography (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).

¹³⁰ Curas y Obispos, fols. 170 r-170 v.

¹³¹ Curas y Obispos, fols. 187 r-187 v.

¹³² Curas y Obispos, fols. 198 r-200 r.

¹³³ Curas y Obispos, fol. 200 r.

¹³⁴ Curas y Obispos, fol. 200 r.

¹³⁵ “ … que con celo de buen vasallo emprendió el conocimiento de aquellos desiertos se le ha encargado la apertura del camino que no se conceptúa difícil a las habitaciones de los infieles … ” ACC Sig. 12,015 Civil IV–II g Moreno y Escandón Estado del Virreinato (1772), fols. 13 v. For the full transcription, see German Colmenares, Relaciones e informes de los gobernantes de la Nueva Granada (Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura del Banco Popular, 1989), vol. 1, pp. 168–169.

¹³⁶ For more on this map, see Sergio Mejía, “Moreno y Escandón’s Plan Geográfico del Virreinato de Santafé de Bogotá, 1772,” Imago Mundi 68. 1 (2016), pp. 35–45.

¹³⁷ Guido Barona et al. eds, Estado de Cauca: Tomo II, Antiguas provincias del Chocó, Buenaventura, Cauca y Popayán; Obra dirigida por el General Agustín Codazzi. Vol. 1 (Cali: Colciencias, Grupo de Estudios Ambientales, GEA, Universidad del Cauca, 2002). The Comisión’s map of Cauca, from 1864, offered the first detailed and official look at the Pacific Lowlands.

¹³⁸ Juan and Ulloa spent time in Popayán, described in book VI, chapter III, where they were struck by the large number of inhabitants resulting from the intermarriage of whites and blacks, in contrast to very few indigenous castes, Jorge Juan and Antonio J. Ulloa, Relación histórica del viaje á la América Meridional (Madrid: Antonio Marin, 1748), p. 338. They also observed that the wealthy people in Popayán, despite the great cost, danger, and inconvenience of transport, owned European furniture, which had to first travel by sea and then overland and by river into the interior, Juan y Ulloa, Relación, p. 336. While the Chocó is mentioned, it is not clear they traveled there and neither Buenaventura nor neighboring parts of the Pacific coastal region enter into their narrative. Given the difficulty of access, it seems unlikely their itinerary would have taken them there. They are also silent about information on mines, military installations, and other strategic information, see Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes. Travel Writing and Transculturation, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2008), p. 20.

¹³⁹ The furthest west they ventured was Neiva and Popayán, see map in Benjamin Villegas, ed., Mutis and the Royal Botanical Expedition of the Nuevo Reyno de Granada (Bogota: Villegas Editores, 1992).

¹⁴⁰ Thomas A. Sprague, “Humboldt and Bonpland’s Itinerary in Colombia,” Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) 1 (1926), pp. 23–25.

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Notes on contributors

Juliet Wiersema

Juliet Wiersema is Associate Professor of Pre-Hispanic and Spanish Colonial Art History, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas, San Antonio. She is author of Architectural Vessels of the Moche. Ceramic Diagrams of Sacred Space in Ancient Peru (UT Press, 2015) and has published articles in English and Spanish on Andean ceramics and architectural representation. Her recent research examines Spanish colonial cartography and the stories it tells about ethnicity, placemaking, persistence, and erasure. Funded by a generous National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship, she is working on a book that explores little-known manuscript maps from Colombia’s Pacific Lowlands, eighteenth-century New Granada. [email protected]