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[15],186,[21] leaves, lacking portrait facing p.1 and final leaf with printing ornament. Small quarto. Early mottled calf, spine gilt, leather label. Minor wear to hinges and corners. Some soiling and wear to lower corners of last few index pages. Earlier library ink stamps. Very good. One of the most important Spanish works on the Indies and New World military organization in the 16th century. It is a tactical manual by a Spanish veteran of the colonial South American frontier and the brutal wars against indigenous fighters, as well as a rich source of ethnographic and military detail. "The first manual of guerilla warfare ever published.[Vargas Machuca] advocated for the Americas the creation of commando groups to carry out search-and-destroy missions deep within enemy territory for up to two years at a time" - Parker. This work served as both a guide to aid Spanish officers in conquest, as well as a sometimes testy address to King Phillip II detailing Vargas Machuca's many services to the Crown, whom he felt never recognized him adequately for his service. The text is divided into four books, followed by a description of the Indies. The books describe: the qualities needed to lead, the preparation of soldiers and necessary materials, the duty of the soldier, and the settling of the land after conquest. Included are significant chapters on military medicine and natural history, although the real significance lies in the fact that "scattered throughout Milicia Indiana are unwitting fragments of indigenous and rural Spanish colonial history. Perhaps the main gap that this book helps to fill, if only partially, is the story of early and unconquered 'backcountry' New Granada" (Lane). Bernardo Vargas Machuca (ca. 1555-1622) was a Spanish soldier, born in Simancas. He took part in several campaigns in Old Granada and Italy before setting off for the Caribbean in 1578 to help chase down the famed pirate, Francis Drake. His first services in the New World are obscure, until he arrived in New Granada, present-day Colombia, in 1585, one of many re-conquistadors still hoping to find the golden city of El Dorado. While settled in New Granada he participated in many campaigns to put down native uprisings, becoming known for the ruthless and quick-striking tactics he describes in this text. These included campaigns in present-day Peru and Bolivia, and Colombia. In 1595 he returned to Spain, hoping to capitalize on his service to obtain promotion. Despite his best efforts, including the publication of this book, Vargas Machuca was unable to secure an encomienda or any other titles or appointments from King Phillip II. What positions he did manage to secure were in out-of-the-way locations relatively ignored by the Crown: one as paymaster of the three forts of Portobelo in Panama, and later as governor of Margarita Island in the Caribbean. Both appointments were short-lived and ill-starred, and in the end, Vargas Machuca, both broke and indignant, made his way to court once again to seek another appointment. In keeping with his bad luck, he died suddenly in Madrid of an unknown illness, shortly after being appointed governor of Antioquia, one of New Granada's declining gold districts. The Milicia Indiana is thus a manual of guerilla warfare, an appeal for promotion based on services, and a picture of the colonial New World at a time far less documented than the original conquest. The multiple bankruptcies of the Spanish Crown and the decline of bullion production from the Americas were leading the New World empire into a long, slow decline. It is this period of entropy, balanced by violent frontier conflict, that Vargas Machuca documents. The book is also a proposal: the indigenous uprisings in colonial Chile, long a thorn in the side of the Spanish, had broken out again, and he hoped to be appointed governor-general there, to suppress the rebellion with the tactics described in the book. He did not get the appointment. Besides this book, V. Seller Inventory # 40056
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