Antonio de la Hoz Berrío

Antonio de la Hoz Berrio (Segovia, 1527 – Santo Tomé de Guayana, present-day Ciudad Bolívar, 1597) was a Spanish military officer, governor and explorer known mainly for his participation in the conquest of the Americas.

There he founded San José de Oruña and Santo Tomé de Guayana, and organized three expeditions in search of the mythical El Dorado.

Biography

A Segovian of Biscayan origin, the son of Juan de Berrio and Ana de la Hoz, he is believed to have begun his military career at the age of 14, probably as the squire of some knight, first in the service of Charles I and later of Philip II. The military service record of Antonio de Berrio, who lost three brothers in the service of the Emperor, reflects the map of the main conflicts that Philip II had to face, as he inherited and expanded both the possessions and the political and military conflicts of his father.

Europe and Africa

The young hidalgo began his military life in Flanders, and saw combat for the first time at the Battle of Marciano, which ended with the capture of Siena in 1555. Later, from 1560 to 1563, by then an Ensign, he was posted to fight on the African coasts against the Berbers. His next posting was the fight against the Rebellion of the Alpujarras, facing the rebel Moriscos. Once the conflict in the mountains of Granada had ended, he was posted, now as Captain of a cavalry company, to guard the coasts of Granada, and was finally appointed Governor of the Alpujarras.

While Governor, Berrío married María de Oruña, the maternal niece of the adelantado and lawyer Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. The latter, who died in 1579, named Berrío and his wife in his will as successors and heirs to his titles and property. They received the news by the Mail of the Indies in 1580; Berrío was 53 years old, and his life, which seemed to be taking a calmer course, nevertheless returned to action.

Americas

On his arrival in the Americas, he was already Governor of El Dorado, a territory of 400 square leagues between the Pauto and Papamene rivers, granted by the Audiencia of Santafé in 1582. The title had been inherited from his uncle by marriage, the adelantado Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, founder of Bogotá and one of the principal figures among the conquistadors of New Granada. Berrio took on as a personal challenge, and would continue, the work begun by Jiménez de Quesada in his search for the myth of El Dorado.

Between 1583 and 1589 he carried out his first two expeditions, venturing into the hostile and wild regions of the Colombian plains and the Upper Orinoco. In 1590 he began his third expedition, managing to sail down the Orinoco until reaching the Caroní; it was then that Berrío believed he had found the passage he was seeking on his way to El Dorado, but in order to continue the expedition he needed men and provisions, so he set out for the island of Margarita in March 1591, having first built the small fort of Santo Tomé, the founding site of present-day Ciudad Guayana, exactly two leagues from the right bank of the Caroní, and having taken possession of the latter in the name of King Philip II.

On his arrival at Margarita, having first passed by the Island of Trinidad, which he considered a good future base for subsequent explorations, he was informed of the death of his wife. By 1595 Berrío was 68 years old and had spent his formidable inheritance on the expeditions; neither the governor of Margarita nor that of Caracas was willing to help him with new ventures, so he turned to the Crown. Berrío waited anxiously in Trinidad for the arrival of 300 men and the provisions and money he had requested in order to continue his search for El Dorado.

In April 1595 two ships arrived at the island, but they were not the requested reinforcements; rather, they were two English ships under the command of Walter Raleigh, known to the Spaniards as Guaterral. Spain and England were not at war, but relations were tense. Raleigh also suffered from El Dorado fever, even going so far as to study Spanish in order to read personally the chronicles about the Americas being published in Spain, and he himself acknowledged in 1596 that he had known of the search for El Dorado for many years. Raleigh presented himself with a delegation with friendly intentions, and at the first opportunity betrayed his promises and assaulted the town of San José de Oruña, founded by Berrío's lieutenant and commissioner, Domingo de Vera Ibargoyen. The stronghold, defended by 28 soldiers, was taken, and Berrío and his lieutenant, Álvaro Jorge, were taken hostage, after which Raleigh burned the town. His next act was to try to locate El Dorado by going up the Orinoco, with Berrío as guide. Berrío led them through the territories he himself had already explored years before; El Dorado still did not appear. Raleigh's expedition returned to Trinidad, and Berrio's release took place at the end of June 1595 on the coasts of Cumaná, in exchange for a prisoner exchange.

Berrío died at the age of 70 in Santo Tomé, which he himself had founded, in 1597, a few days after his son Fernando de Berrío arrived with the reinforcements of troops, provisions and money he had requested in order to continue the search for the myth of El Dorado. El Dorado fever also severely affected his son, who would actively continue the search.

As for Raleigh, he wrote a book famous in its time, titled "Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana", a chronicle of his expedition with Berrío. Raleigh could only bring back the book, no gold at all, which earned him a death sentence from James I, successor of the late Elizabeth I, which was suspended in favor of indefinite imprisonment in the Tower of London. After twelve years of captivity, Raleigh obtained his freedom, although all this time did not make him forget El Dorado; the fever drove him to undertake another expedition in its search, which ended in failure and, moreover, broke the agreement not to harm Spanish possessions in the New World, a result of England's new policy of alliance with Spain, which literally cost him his head at the hands of an executioner to satisfy the Spanish Monarch Philip III, on 29 October 1618.

See also

• El Dorado

References

• Pioneros de lo imposible. Hitos de la exploración contemporánea, ISBN 84-206-5896-0, 2005, pp. 33–44.

External links

• Biografía de Antonio de la Hoz Berrio at the Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish)
• Antonio de Berrio | La obsesión por El Dorado (in Spanish)
• Secuestro en el Orinoco | Antonio de Berrío y Walter Raleigh luchan por El Dorado (in Spanish)