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Exploration, Religion and Empire in the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-Atlantic World Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
‘Yu-ana es una manera de sierpe
de cuatro pies, muy espantosa de ver
y muy buena de comer’.
Abstract
Chapter 6 journeys through the main problems of American natural history. Once Spanish travelers had overcome the great feat of crossing the Atlantic, they encountered an alien nature, which, through an arduous process of description and classification, they transformed to align with their domestic world. Novelties such as the armadillo, iguana, or the pineapple, among many others, challenged the authorities and obliged the sixteenth-century naturalists to rethink natural history.
Key words: Natural History, Local Knowledge, New World, Translation, Botany
Nature in the New World
The conquest of the New World was not completed at sea. Arriving at the islands or coasts of the mainland of the Western Indies was the start of a new challenge. After the solitude of the sea and confinement of the ships, the travelers then had to confront lands of an undreamt expanse and an exuberant nature that was beautiful and hostile at the same time. As we have seen, the transatlantic route was a challenge full of obstacles, but once on land the Christians had to deal with the resistance of the natives who occupied those territories and the conquest of America turned into a violent invasion. The penetration of the continent entailed sailing along unknown and complex rivers, long journeys of exploration in tropical climates, and interminable treks through jungles, deserts, and long mountain chains. Despite the obvious natural wealth of the New World, Europeans lacked the know how that was needed to navigate the torrential rivers of America, to find food, fight off animals, and protect themselves from tropical climates. On land, many explorers, obsessed with gold, silver, and other riches of the New World, lost their lives or their minds.
The explorer needed to acquire new kinds of knowledge in order to survive, but he had a mission that was even more difficult: to take the riches of the New World to Europe. In America, Christians came across a part of the Creation for which there were no testimonies and a nature that could be only dominated with very hard work.
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