HISPANIC NOTES & MONOGRAPHS ESSAYS, STUDIES, AND BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES ISSUED BY THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA _HISPANIC AMERICAN SERIES_ I OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR ON THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN SOUTH AMERICA The Establishment of Spanish Rule in America. The Spanish Dependencies in South America, 2 vols. Spain’s Declining Power in South America. South America on the Eve of Emancipation. [Illustration: The Author of _La Araucana_ see page 158] SPANISH COLONIAL LITERATURE in South America BY BERNARD MOSES, Ph. D., LL.D., _Professor Emeritus in the University of California, Honorary Professor in the University of Chile_ [Illustration: THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA] The Hispanic Society of America LONDON : NEW YORK 1922 PRINTED AT THE SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS STRATFORD-UPON-AVON COPYRIGHT 1922 BY THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA PREFACE No intelligent person is likely to deny the importance of official documents as the basis of a nation’s history; but these documents do not tell the whole story. There are social activities, currents of national thought, and waves of popular sentiment, which are not fully described either in laws or governmental proclamations. Tradition sometimes conveys a knowledge of these aspects of society, but tradition undergoes such modifications in the course of time that it does not render the same account to all later generations or centuries. Only what is written remains fixed.