n of historica
l reality; "The victors
experience history as a coherent, end-directed story told by their own power" (Quint 9). But unlike La Araucana, epic history is not the point of departure, but rather, the desired destination. Like Onate before him, Villagra relies on a historically ch
arged conquest genre to reinvest his conquest with heroic significance. The Historia charts a discursive epic journey where the heroism and high moral character of the conquistadors will be progressively "discovered" by its privileged reader, the monarch. The literary frame of a perilous journey is constant throughout: "Worthy Sir, we have embarked upon our voyage and are now upon the high seas. Land has disappeared from sight, and our safety now depends upon the course we take and the management of our ship. Hearken well to my words that nothing may be lost which otherwise might prove of value from this voyage" (72). King and poet are "brought to safety," of course, by the secure and wise leadership of Onate and his captains. Each canto is framed by a moral lesson that prompts the king to read each episode "properly." Endless platitudes, maxims, and other moralizing observations riddle the text; Villagra takes no chance that the king will fail
to appreciate the wisdom and virtue of the Spanish soldiers at every moment in the tale. The text becomes a lesson book on military heroism, virtue, and honor. The Historia, I suggest, is a countertext to the very Ordinances of Discovery. But how indeed can a poet-soldier justify lecturing to his king on the matter of morals? Above all other narrative strategies, the fundamental authority of his text appeals not to the classics, nor to the persuasiveness of the epic model of history, but to the provenance of his authorial voice. Here Villagra capitalizes on another trope of New World writing: the appeal to eyewitness experience.-As Pagden writes, "It is the T who has seen what no other being has seen who alone is capable of giving credibility to the text" (89). Having no other claim to authority, Villagra stakes the authority of his heroic tale first and last on his status as witness: "Hearken, O mighty King, for I was witness of all that I here relate!" (42). As Pagden also remarks. New World writings are repeatedl
y punctuated by what Michel de Certeau has called the modalities of witnessing ("It was obvious," "It was evident," etc.) (Pagden 89; de Certeau 1986, 68). In Villagra's text, these markings strategically and progressively move the place of his writing from the royal court, where the king has authority, beyond the frontier of empire, well beyond the prescriptions of colonial authorities and pre
Dr. Meason served in the U.S. Army Individual Ready Reserve and was discharged in 1982. He currently resides in Socorro, NM. He and his wife, Joan, have two grown sons, John and Paul.
