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Georg Hohemut Von Speyer’s 1535 Expedition
The Conquest
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Georg Hohemut Von Speyer’s 1535 Expedition:
From
1535 to 1538, Georg Hohemut, a German administrator and explorer, spent
three years wandering around the rainforests, mountains and plains of
northern South America. Like so many others, he was in search of the
legendary kingdom of El Dorado. Today he is remembered as an explorer
who charted parts of modern-day Venezuela and Colombia.
Georg Hohemut and the Welser Grant:
In
1528, Charles V of Spain conceded a vast swath of modern-day Venezuela
to the Welsers, a wealthy German banking family, to whom he owed a great
deal of money. The Welsers hoped to make money on the mostly-unexplored
land and sent a series of administrators there. After the first
administrator, Ambrosius Ehinger,
died in the jungles while searching for El Dorado, the Welsers sent
Georg Hohemut, a minor nobleman from the town of Speyer, to administer
the grant from the town of Coro. The Spaniards in Coro could not
pronounce his name, and generally referred to him as "Jorge de Spira" or
"Jorge de Espira," a corruption of the name of the town of his birth.
He arrived in 1534 and, like Ehinger before him, soon became caught up
in the search for the mysterious El Dorado.
Between 1535 and 1538 he searched in southwestern Venezuela and northern Colombia for “El Dorado,” in the company of Nikolaus Federmann and then with Philipp von Hutten. Against advice, Speyer had appointed Federmann his lieutenant. Accompanied by 450 regular troops and 1,500 friendly Indians, they set out on a journey of exploration to the interior. Leaving from the town of Rio Hacha, they followed the eastern flank of the cordilla following the existing salt trade route where it crossed the Andes and entered the lands of the Chibcha. The Chibcha were an advance culture whose realm had already been partially conquered by Jiménez de Quesada out of Santa Marta, now Colombia, under orders from Pedro Fernández de Lugo.
After marching together for about 200 miles, Speyer and Federmann divided into two parties, agreeing to meet afterward. Speyer experienced great hardships from hostile Indians, and the soldiers, unaccustomed to march under a burning sun, mutinied several times. When at last they reached the appointed place of meeting without finding any trace of Federmann, the soldiers were discouraged.
But Speyer animated them with the hope of discovering the riches of the El Dorado, of which the survivors of Ehinger's expedition, Federmann among them, had brought the first reports.
They continued the march to the south, but, when the rainy season set in, the overflow of the rivers impeded progress, and the consequent fevers decimated their ranks. Speyer persevered for a long time in his search for the El Dorado, until at last his progress was arrested by a mighty river, probably the Orinoco, or its confluent, the Apure, and early in 1539 he returned to Coro empty handed with only 80 ragged and sickly men out of the host he had led forth more than four years before.
Because of ill health he resigned as governor in 1539.
He set out immediately for Europe to lay his complaint against Federmann before the Welsers, but heard in Santo Domingo of the former's return to Spain, and was persuaded by the Real Audiencia to return to his government, where he died soon afterward. Speyer's narrative to Charles V, which he sent from Santo Domingo, is said to have been published, but no copy of it is known to exist. In 1900, it was hoped that the manuscript might be among the papers in the archives at Simancas which the Spanish government was then publishing.
In December 1540, after the death of von Speyer in June 1540, Hutten became governor (captain-general) of Venezuela. Hutten then continued the hunt in the interior. After several years of wandering, harassed by the natives and weakened by hunger and fever, he and his followers came on a large city, the capital of the Omaguas, in the country north of the Amazons, where they were routed by the Indians, and Hutten himself severely wounded. He led those of his followers who survived back to Coro, in 1546, to find that a Spaniard, Juan de Carvajal, had been appointed by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo to preserve order in Venezuela.
As the years had gone by with no news of Hutten and his followers, Carvajal had begun to feel secure in his position, and the return of the adventurers was not welcome to him. When he saw how diminished they were in number, he thought to force from them an acknowledgment of his authority. In this, however, he was unsuccessful, and a subsequent attempt to seize them was well nigh disastrous to himself, for he was wounded by a traveling companion of Hutten's, Bartholomeus VI. Welser (the younger).
Carvajal was forced to pledge the Germans safe passage to the coast. In their journey to the coast, the adventurers took no precautions against attack, and were easily captured by Carvajal in April 1546, who, after keeping Hutten and Welser in chains for a time, had them beheaded. Eight years after Hutten's death, the Welsers' grant was taken from them, and German rule in Venezuela ceased.
Georg von Speyer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg von Speyer (* 1500 in Speyer, Rhineland; † 11 June 1540 in Coro, Venezuela) was a German conquistador in New Granada, now Venezuela and Colombia. His birth name was Georg Hohermuth but he chose to call himself after his place of birth. He is sometimes referred to as Jorge de la Espira, his name in Spanish. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528 - 1546), the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles I of Spain.Biography
As a boy, he entered the banking house of Anton and Bartholomeus V. Welser, of Augsburg, and worked his way up as their confidential agent, accompanying in the latter capacity the fleet that was armed by the Welsers in 1528, and sent under Ambrosius Ehinger to conquer New Granada. Returning to Europe after Ehinger's death, Speyer was among the young fortune seekers solicited by the Welsers to colonize New Granada in 1534. Speyer obtained from Charles V the appointment of governor of New Granada, despite the claims of Nikolaus Federmann, who had been Ehinger's lieutenant. He armed a new expedition in Spain and the Canary Islands, and on 22 February 1534, landed at Coro.Between 1535 and 1538 he searched in southwestern Venezuela and northern Colombia for “El Dorado,” in the company of Nikolaus Federmann and then with Philipp von Hutten. Against advice, Speyer had appointed Federmann his lieutenant. Accompanied by 450 regular troops and 1,500 friendly Indians, they set out on a journey of exploration to the interior. Leaving from the town of Rio Hacha, they followed the eastern flank of the cordilla following the existing salt trade route where it crossed the Andes and entered the lands of the Chibcha. The Chibcha were an advance culture whose realm had already been partially conquered by Jiménez de Quesada out of Santa Marta, now Colombia, under orders from Pedro Fernández de Lugo.
After marching together for about 200 miles, Speyer and Federmann divided into two parties, agreeing to meet afterward. Speyer experienced great hardships from hostile Indians, and the soldiers, unaccustomed to march under a burning sun, mutinied several times. When at last they reached the appointed place of meeting without finding any trace of Federmann, the soldiers were discouraged.
But Speyer animated them with the hope of discovering the riches of the El Dorado, of which the survivors of Ehinger's expedition, Federmann among them, had brought the first reports.
They continued the march to the south, but, when the rainy season set in, the overflow of the rivers impeded progress, and the consequent fevers decimated their ranks. Speyer persevered for a long time in his search for the El Dorado, until at last his progress was arrested by a mighty river, probably the Orinoco, or its confluent, the Apure, and early in 1539 he returned to Coro empty handed with only 80 ragged and sickly men out of the host he had led forth more than four years before.
Because of ill health he resigned as governor in 1539.
He set out immediately for Europe to lay his complaint against Federmann before the Welsers, but heard in Santo Domingo of the former's return to Spain, and was persuaded by the Real Audiencia to return to his government, where he died soon afterward. Speyer's narrative to Charles V, which he sent from Santo Domingo, is said to have been published, but no copy of it is known to exist. In 1900, it was hoped that the manuscript might be among the papers in the archives at Simancas which the Spanish government was then publishing.
Philipp von Hutten
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philipp von Hutten (December 18, 1505 – May 17, 1546) was a German adventurer, and an early European explorer of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528 - 1546), the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles I. of Spain.Biography
He passed some of his early years at the court of the Roman emperor Charles V. Charles granted the province of Venezuela, or Venosala as Hutten calls it, to the Welser family of Augsburg, and Hutten joined a band of 600 adventurers, under Georg von Speyer, who sailed out to conquer and exploit the province in the family's interest. The party landed at Coro in February 1535 and Hutten accompanied von Speyer on his long and toilsome expedition into the interior in search of treasure (El Dorado).In December 1540, after the death of von Speyer in June 1540, Hutten became governor (captain-general) of Venezuela. Hutten then continued the hunt in the interior. After several years of wandering, harassed by the natives and weakened by hunger and fever, he and his followers came on a large city, the capital of the Omaguas, in the country north of the Amazons, where they were routed by the Indians, and Hutten himself severely wounded. He led those of his followers who survived back to Coro, in 1546, to find that a Spaniard, Juan de Carvajal, had been appointed by the Audiencia of Santo Domingo to preserve order in Venezuela.
As the years had gone by with no news of Hutten and his followers, Carvajal had begun to feel secure in his position, and the return of the adventurers was not welcome to him. When he saw how diminished they were in number, he thought to force from them an acknowledgment of his authority. In this, however, he was unsuccessful, and a subsequent attempt to seize them was well nigh disastrous to himself, for he was wounded by a traveling companion of Hutten's, Bartholomeus VI. Welser (the younger).
Carvajal was forced to pledge the Germans safe passage to the coast. In their journey to the coast, the adventurers took no precautions against attack, and were easily captured by Carvajal in April 1546, who, after keeping Hutten and Welser in chains for a time, had them beheaded. Eight years after Hutten's death, the Welsers' grant was taken from them, and German rule in Venezuela ceased.