Of shipwrecks, fraudsters, and divers: Cartagena de Indias and the transformation of Spanish Caribbean labor and bullion flows, c. 1650–1660

ABSTRACT

Using the wreck of the galleon Nuestra Señora de Las Maravillas (1656) as a point of departure, this article analyzes the role of Cartagena de Indias as a logistical center for fraudulent silver salvaging and transportation in the Spanish Caribbean during the middle of the seventeenth century. After 1640, Cartagena's insertion into Atlantic maritime networks suffered from the collapse of Portuguese-led slave trading, the decline in legal silver circulation in Spanish ports, and expansion of other European colonial powers across the Caribbean. The article uses the cases made against officials and contractors involved in unauthorized silver salvaging in Cartagena to show how Caribbean-based Spanish merchants and administrators created trans-Atlantic bullion transportation networks independent of royal control. Like their legal counterparts, these unauthorized networks relied on specialized maritime labor from free and unfree divers of African and Amerindian origin, and sailors of all races. Simultaneously, maritime laborers' knowledge, often extracted under torture, formed the basis of prosecutors' cases against suspect colonial officials. By following these maritime linkages, this article highlights the centrality of maritime labor and communication logistics in the structural rearrangement of the Caribbean during the seventeenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• bullion circulation
• maritime labor
• silver salvaging

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank special issue editors Ida Altman and David Wheat, as well as general editor Dana Leibsohn, for their generous comments and suggestions. I am very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and their feedback, which helped me refine the focus of the article. I also thank James Torres, Molly Warsh, and Marcus Rediker, who generously provided multiple comments and suggestions on different versions of this essay.

Notes

1 Storms further battered the Jesús María, which, unable to set course for San Juan de Puerto Rico, went to Cartagena, where it could be repaired.

2 This was not, however, the deadliest maritime event of the seventeenth century for the Spanish fleets. The wrecks of the fleets of 1622 and 1627 had casualties in the thousands, but these accidents involved several vessels (Pérez-Mallaína Bueno 2015, 150–51).

3 The marginalia reads ‘Los minbres que se hundio el año pasado la flota de 54 [sic] capitán Dn Matias de Orellana.’ García de Céspedes 1606, f. 190v, upper left margin. Reference number 1-SIZE B606.C421r, John Carter Brown Library (Providence, RI).

4 ‘ … pocos se animaran á navegar, si todos la tubieran para leerla.’ ‘Compendio historial, e indice chronologico pervano, y del Nvevo Reyno de Granada, desde el principio de los descubrimientos de las Indias Occidentales, tocando varias cosas memorables de ellas, assi Eclesiasticas, como Seculares.’ Archivo Histórico Nacional-Madrid (AHN-M), Diversos-Colecciones 27, N. 52, f. 9v.

5 Several survivors provided their accounts of the wreck upon arriving to the port. 12 March 1656. ‘Declaración Doctor Dn Diego Portachuelo Rivadeneyra, capellán real por su mgd de la Sancta Yglessia Cathedral de Lima y su procurador general de corte,’ ‘Declaración de Gaspar de los Reyes Palacios, piloto de la carrera de las Indias que iba por ayudante de piloto de la nao almiranta de la real armada,’ ‘Declaración del capitán Diego Pérez de Vargas Machuca, ayudante de piloto del galeón Jesús María de que es capitán el almirante don Juan de Hoyos,’ Archivo General de Indias, Seville (AGI) Escribanía 634B.

6 Treasure hunters continued to visit the wreck for centuries, until mechanical looting of the remains in the 1970s destroyed the archaeological site. Private companies continued to prowl the site up until the early 1990s (Keith and Carrell 2009, 122). Sensationalized narratives of the looting are available in Marx 1982; Horner 1999.

7 Classic studies about silver extraction and circulation in the Americas include Bakewell 1971; Brading 1971; Hoberman 1991. More recent general works are Tutino 2011; Lane 2019.

8 The Council denied the proposal in 1626. ‘1622. Cartas y expedientes: Tribunal de Cuentas de Santa Fe. Carta de los contadores de cuentas del Tribunal de Santa Fe, Miguel Corcuera y Baltasar Pérez Bernal, sobre el ofrecimiento que ha hecho el capitán Alonso Turrillo de llevar negros a Cartagena. Acompañan una relación del costo aproximado de los negros de Guinea, Angola y Congo.’ AGI Santa Fe 52, N. 172.

9 c. 1659. ‘Relazion de algunas partidas sacadas a la letra de las quentas presentadas por los oficiales reales de Cartagena,’ f. 17. Partida 5. Bishop Lazárraga’s considerable wealth and its disappearance after his death created a lot of judicial speculation in Cartagena in the 1650s. AGI Santa Fe 217.

10 In the twentieth century, this period had been typified as one of continued crisis, but in the last few decades it has become quite apparent that rather than an absolute decline in silver production what occurred was a combination of localized (not general) production crises with a decline in the revenue-making capacity of the Spanish state. See Lamikiz 2023.

11 For several decades, mint employees in Potosí had been reducing the silver content in peso coins, thus devaluating the currency without royal authorization. See Dargent Chamot 2011; Lane 2019, 130–4.

12 The Council of the Indies later ratified Zapata as governor of Cartagena for a full five-year term. Zapata lobbied to receive an appointment as president of the audiencia of Santa Fe once his term as governor ended but he died before achieving that goal.

13 2 December 1652. Unnumbered. Letter from Pedro Zapata. AGI Santa Fe 199.

14 Additional letters were sent to the governors of Florida and Havana. See AGI Escribanía 634B, ff. 206–16v.

15 13 March 1656. Letter from Zapata to the king. AGI Escribanía 634B, f. 113v.

16 1651. ‘Expedientes sobre fortificaciones. Probanza de méritos de Juan de Somovilla Tejada.’ AGI Santa Fe 217. The salvage of the cannons is corroborated in a letter from Portuguese admiral Rodrigo de Lobo Silveira dated 15 July 1640.

17 1648. Mapa de la Isla de Santa Catalina. AGI MP-Panamá, 69.

18 ‘Relación de lo gastado en la compra y despacho del navio en que volvio Juan de Somovilla al buceo de la Almiranta.’ Unnumbered folios. AGI Contaduría 254. N. 1.

19 ‘Autos contra Lorenzo Soto escribano de su magestad que fue del primero buçeo de la plata de la almiranta Las Maravillas al bajo del Minbre.’ AGI Escribanía 634B. Pieza 38.

20 Although Zapata’s juicio de residencia (end-of-term inquiry) mentions several charges related to the salvage expedition, he does not seem to have been significantly affected in the process (Herráez Sánchez de Escariche 1946, 430).

21 ‘Autos originales sobre la comision que su magestad y real consejo despacho al licenciado Juan Dias Flores theniente general de Cartaxena de las Yndias sobre los proçedimientos de Sevastian Fz de Ganboa guardamaior de la çd y puerto de Cartaxena a pedimiento del señor fiscal del dho real consejo.’ AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 18.

22 c. 1659. ‘Relazion de algunas partidas sacadas a la letra de las quentas presentadas por los oficiales reales de Cartagena.’ AGI Santa Fe 217. Partida 6, f. 18v.

23 c. 1659. ‘Relazion de algunas partidas sacadas a la letra de las quentas presentadas por los oficiales reales de Cartagena.’ AGI Santa Fe 217. Partida 7, f. 7v.

24 Portichuelo and some of his companions became prisoners and were taken to London. Eventually released in Lagos, Portugal, the priest arrived in Seville on 6 October 1656, almost two years after leaving Perú (Portichuelo de Rivadeneira 1657, ff. 36v, 45 ss).

25 General Mountagu to secretary Thurloe, Vol. XLII, p. 577. ‘State Papers, 1656: September (5 of 7).’ A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, Volume 5, May 1656–January 1657. Ed. Thomas Birch. London: Fletcher Gyles, 1742. 424–36. British History Online. Web. 10 November 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/thurloe-papers/vol5/pp424-436.

26 7 January 1660. ‘Autos contra Don Juan de Ochoa y Ocampo cavo de las tres fragatas que fueron de segundo buçeo de la plata perdida en el plazel del Mimbre.’ AGI Escribanía, 634B, ff. 181–82. In 1653, the Cartagena Inquisition tribunal banished Enríquez Aponte for three years in 1653, although he received a suspended sentence. The reasons for his banishment are unclear, since the full casefile has not survived, and only a summary of the sentence exists. 20 March 1653. ‘Libro segundo de relaciones de causas de fe del Tribunal de la Inquisición de Cartagena de Indias.’ AHN-M Inquisición L. 1021, f. 317. ‘Juan Henrriquez de Oponte.’ This summary is also transcribed in Splendiani et al. 1997.

27 AGI Contratación 971 N. 1 R. 2; AGI Contratación 5581 N. 215. By 1661, Enríquez Aponte was in the House of Trade jail at the same time as Somovilla and other contractors in the silver-salvaging case, but for an unrelated reason: he had captured an English vessel off the coast of Africa and, instead of delivering the king’s share of the prize, had kept the action secret. He died in prison in 1662. See AGI Indiferente 438, L. 20, ff. 81v–83v; AGI Indiferente, 439, L. 21, f. 146v.

28 Bans adopted that specific Spanish name after Governor Zapata, who acted as his godfather. AGI Indiferente, 438, L.19, f. 355v. It is likely that Spanish authorities misinterpreted the embassy’s scope and purpose and saw it as an invitation to increase missional work. Historian Robin Law has suggested that the confusion might have been mutual, and that the king of Allada might have assumed that he was dealing with the Portuguese, or that the king of Spain and the king of Portugal were still the same person. See Law 1991; Tardieu 1995; Pinto and Law 2020.

29 1 November 1656. Unnumbered. ‘Testimonio del quaderno de libramientos de 6264 pesos y otros 563 pesos que gasto el capitán Juan de Somovilla en la isla de Puerto Rico de la plata del buçeo.’ AGI Contaduría 254.

30 Juan de Ochoa’s expedition did not cross the Atlantic, but instead returned directly to Cartagena and moved the silver inland through Getsemaní, a prime location for contraband in the city. Once there, royal slaves had to clean the silver until treasury officials deemed it clean enough for the royal arks. AGI Escribanía 634B, ff. 109v, 375.

31 ‘Causa criminal Contra Lorenço de Soto scrivano sobre averlo sido del primero buçeo de la plata,’ AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 74.

32 ‘ … y que los demas unos se an huido y otros se an muerto.’ AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 76v.

33 AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 68.

34 AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 83.

35 AGI Escribanía 592A, ff. 62v, 78v.

36 AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 62v.

37 AGI Escribanía 592A, f. 81.

38 AGI Escribanía 634B, f. 71.

39 20 February 1663. ‘Testimonio del quaderno de libramientos de 6264 pesos y otros 563 pesos que gasto el capitán Juan de Somovilla en la isla de Puerto Rico de la plata del buçeo.’ AGI Escribanía 592A. ‘Causa criminal contra Lorenço de Soto scrivano sobre averlo sido del primero buçeo de la plata.’ AGI Contaduría 254, f. 68.

40 29 September 1656. ‘Testimonio del quaderno […] A los buzos indios sueltos.’ AGI Contaduría 254.

41 20 August 1659. ‘Autos entre partes de 1659, 1660 y 1661. Autos de Jorge de Salazar y Antonio González, indios naturales de Isla Margarita y buzos, con el gobernador de nao Juan de Somovilla Tejada, sobre que les pagase el buceo que hicieron en el casco de la Almiranta de galeones que se perdió en Las Mimbres.’ AGI Contratación 853.

42 13 April 1658. ‘Cédula: para que los governadores de las Indias obliguen a trabajar en la armada de la guarda dellas los ofiziales de carpinteria y galafateria por el preçio a que se les acostumbra pagar sus jornales.’ Archivo del Museo Naval-Madrid (AMN) 0043, N° 191.

43 1650–1661. ‘Caja de Puerto Rico. Cuentas de Real Hacienda y autos hechos sobre ellas.’ AGI Contaduría 1078.

44 Gil de Soria, ‘Lo dicho bajo tormento es de mayor fe y crédito.’ AGI Escribanía 592A, ff. 150v–51, 154.

45 ‘Autos contra Lorenzo Soto escribano de su magestad que fue del primero buçeo de la plata de la almiranta Las Maravillas al bajo del Minbre.’ AGI Escribanía 634B, f. 19.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leonardo Moreno-Álvarez

Leonardo Moreno-Álvarez is a Visiting Lecturer in World History at the University of Pittsburgh. He specializes in the maritime history of the colonial Spanish Caribbean. His book manuscript, tentatively titled ‘Caribbean Babylon: the rise and fall of Cartagena de Indias (1578–1700),’ studies the port’s economic and social history using maritime labor and trade as a lens to understand broader changes in Iberian Atlantic trade and defense.