The Definitive Dwiggins no. 703C—How the Old World Found the New: Cartier, Cortes, Balboa, and Pizzaro

This is the third installment of a detailed account of each of the illustrations in How the Old World Found the New that I believe Dwiggins reworked in varying degrees. [1] They are presented in the order in which they appear in the book, preceded by notes on their probable source and, wherever possible, primary and secondary images. This installment covers pages 121 to 157 which deal with the exploits of Jacques Cartier, Hernando Cortes, Vasco Nuñez da Balboa, and Francisco Pizzaro.

List of reworked illustrations and their sources for pp. 121–157
p. 121 “An Old Picture of Cod Fishing and Drying in Newfoundland”

This illustration can be traced back to an image entitled “La Pesche des Morüés Vertes et Seches fur le Grand Banc et aux Costes de Terre Neuve” that was drawn by Nicolas de Fer on the side of a map of America in 1698. It is the only existing image of a Newfoundland cod fishing station. Herman Moll (c.1654–1732) copied Fer’s drawing as part of A New and Exact Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain (1715). He added letters and a legend. At some point thereafter Moll’s image was reversed and its elements rearranged. The part showing the twelve stages of curing and drying cod (B to M) were flopped and moved to the right while the fisherman (A) remained on the left. This is how the illustration appears in Narrative and Critical History of America edited by Justin Winsor (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1884), vol. IV, p. 3. And that is the version Dwiggins based his drawing on.

Cod fishing station in Newfoundland (1698). Detail from a map by Nicolas de Fer. Image from Penobscot Marine Museum.

“A view of a stage & also of ye manner of Fishing for, Curing, & Drying Cod at New Found Land…” from a map by Herman Moll (1715). Image from the Library of Congress.

“Early Fishing Stages” from Narrative and Critical History of America edited by Justin Winsor (New York and Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1884), vol. IV, p. 3.

“An Old Picture of Cod Fishing and Drying in Newfoundland” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 121. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after Nicolas de Fer and Herman Moll.

Dwiggins has eliminated most of the shading, discarded the legend, and improved the lettering.

p. 126 “Cartier and the Indians near Mount Royal”

This illustration began as a painting by Andrew Morris titled “Jacques Cartier—His First Interview with the Indians at Hochelaga” (1850) which was subsequently made into a chromolithograph and then into a halftone photoengraving. In the latter guise it appears in The Real America in Romance edited by Edwin Markham (New York: W.H. Wise, 1911), vol. III, p. 69, a possible source for Dwiggins’ rendition.

“Jacques Cartier, His First Interview with the Indians at Hochelaga, Now Montreal in 1535”. Chromolithograph by N. Sarony based on a painting by Andrew Morris. Image from the Library of Congress.

“Cartier’s Interview with the Indians at Hochelaga, Now Montreal” from The Real America edited by Edwin Markham (New York: W.H. Wise, 1911), vol. III, p. 69.

“Cartier and the Indians near Mount Royal” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 126. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after Andrew Morris.

Dwiggins’ version of Cartier’s meeting with the Indians at Hochelaga is austere. In simplifying the scene he diminished Mount Royal in the background and eliminated the canoe at the lower right. He has also misinterpreted a chest being carried by the two men at the far left, turning it into an unidentifiable elliptical item.

p. 132 “An Explorer’s Ship Caught in the Arctic Ice”

The original source for this illustration is ostensibly a woodcut from a 1598 book by Gerrit de Veer, but I have been unable to find an image from editions of de Veer that matches it. The illustration that Dwiggins must have worked from is in A Book of Discovery by M.B. Synge (London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1912) p. 270. The illustration was originally a depiction of Willem Barentsz’ ship caught in the Arctic ice, but it was later used to accompany a text about Henry Hudson, and in How the Old World Found the New it has become a generic scene. [2]

“The Breaking-Up of the Ice” from The New World Heroes of Discovery and Conquest… by D.M. Kelsey (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1904), p. 539. Illustration by WL.

“Barents’s Ship among the Arctic Ice” from A Book of Discovery by M.B. Synge (London: T. C. & E. C. Jack, Ltd., 1912) p. 270.

“An Explorer’s Ship Caught in the Arctic Ice” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 132. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Dwiggins’ version is clearly based on the one in Synge. He removed all shading, filled in details of the hull of the ship and its side, and simplified the rigging, but did not change the scene in any material way.

p. 136 “The Chief’s Son Rebukes the Quarreling Spaniards”

This illustration is derived from part 4 of America by Theodore de Bry (Frankfurt am Main: Johannes Feryabend, 1594). In some later versions it is titled “The unbridled lust for gold by Nunez de Balboa and the Spaniards angers the Native King Panchiaco.” The version of this scene in How the Old World Found the New is a straightforward redrawing.

“Ein herzlicher Sententz eines Indianers von der Christen Geitz” from part 4 of America by Theodore de Bry (Frankfurt am Main: Johann Feyrabend, 1594).

“The Chief’s Son rebukes the Spaniards” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 136.

p. 141 “Cortes’s Ships in a Cuban Harbor”

The original version of this illustration is supposedly a woodcut in Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del mar Océano que llaman Indias Occidentales by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (Madrid: Juan Flamenco and Juan de la Cuesta, 1601), but I have not been able to find in an online copy of the book. The only illustrations are on title pages of the two parts and none show the ships of Hernando Cortés in the harbor at Cuba. A copy of the illustration designed by Jan Karel Donatus Van Beecq (1638-1722) and engraved by Moyse Jean-Baptiste Fouard is in Histoire de la Conquete du Mexique by Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1691). It became the basis for subsequent depictions of this scene in later histories of the conquest of Mexico. [3]

“Isle de Cuba Port St. Jacques” from Histoire de la Conqueste du Mexique by Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1691). Design by Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq, engraved by Moyse Jean-Baptiste Fouard.

“Isle de Cuba, Port St. Jacques” from Histoire de la Conquête du Mexique by Antoine de Solis (The Hague: Adrian Moentjes, 1692), Tome I, Pag. 44.

“Cortes’s Ships in a Cuban Harbor” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 141. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq.

In Dwiggins’ rendition the second ship from the left has its sails facing forward rather than angled to the left. I have not seen this in any other version of the scene. [4]

p. 143 “Aztec Picture Writing”

This example of “Aztec” picture writing comes from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, a cloth painting made in 1593. A facsimile of it was published in 1892. [5] This particular scene shows the Spanish conquistadors (led by captain Nuño Beltran de Guzman) and their Tlaxcalan Indian allies attacking the Tarascan (Perumpechan) home city of Michoacán (Michuaca) in 1530. It was published by William Heinemann in London and Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York as a chromolithograph titled “The Battles of Cortes in Mexico”. [6]

“The Battles of Cortes in Mexico” chromolithograph (n.d.) from Alamy.com.

“Aztec Picture Writing” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 143.

Not only has the color been removed from the illustration, but Dwiggins has recropped the scene (completing the club at lower left), deleted some feathers from the bird, and reduced the amount of blood pouring from the dismembered body at the lower right.

p. 144 “Cortes Sinking His Ships”

This is another illustration based on a drawing by van Beecq from the 1691 Histoire de la conquête du Mexique ou de la Nouvelle Espagne by Antonio de Solís. There it is titled “Vaisseaux de Cortez desagrées et échouez par ses ordres.” In his version Dwiggins has remade the landscape in the background to add emphasis to the sunken ships.

“Vaisseaux de Cortez desagrées et échouez par ses ordres” from Histoire de la Conqueste du Mexique by Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1691). Design by Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq, engraved by Moyse Jean-Baptiste Fouard.

“Cortes Sinking His Ships” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 144. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq.

p. 149 “Cortes Directs the Capture of Montezuma”

Van Beecq is again the original source for this illustration of Cortés and Montezuma. The engraving in the 1714 edition of de Solis is by another hand. [7] Dwiggins’ version does not match either one exactly, but appears to have been based more on van Beecq, though undoubtedly from a secondary source.

“Moctezuma imprisoned by Cortes” from Histoire de la Conqueste du Mexique by Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1691), p. 325. Design by Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq, engraved by Moyse Jean-Baptiste Fouard.

Cortes and Montezuma from Histoire de la conqueste du Mexique by Antoine de Solis (Paris: H. Charpentier, 1714), Tom. I, Pag. 534. Illustration by unknown engraver.

“Cortes Directs the Capture of Montezuma” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 149. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after Jan Karel Donatus van Beecq.

Dwiggins has removed the entire background and filled out the figures at right and left. He has also changed the countenances of Cortés, the man in the middle with upraised arm, and Montezuma.

p. 152 “A Peruvian Sailing Raft”

This drawing of a primitive sailing raft has been described as being Caribbean, Peruvian, and from the South Seas. It is derived from a woodcut in La Historia del Mondo Nuouo by Girolamo Benzoni (Venice: F. Rampazetto, 1565). There its title is “Il modo di pescare, & nauigare nel di Mezogiorno” (The method fishing and navigating the Mezzogiorno Sea). It was reproduced by the Hakluyt Society in their 1857 translation of Benzoni’s text. The version in How the Old World Found the New is virtually identical with the only difference being the rendering of the left paddle blade.

“Il modo di pescare, & nauigare nel mare di Mezogiorno” from La historia del Mondo Nuovo by Girolamo Benzoni (Venice: Pietro e Francesco Tini, fratelli, 1572).

“A Peruvian Sailing Raft” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 152

p. 157 “Llamas Carrying Loads on a Mountain Side”

The original version of this illustration is an engraving by the indefatigable Theodor de Bry in part 4 of America (1590) which was replicated many times, sometimes flopped as it is in the version in How the Old World Found the New. An early flopped (and cropped) version appeared in The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America, Commonly Call’d the West-Indies… by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (London: Jeremiah Batley, 1726), vol. IV, p. 357. There the caption was “The Sheep of Peru. The manner of their Carrying Burthens, & of appeasing them, when they grow sullen.” (Other versions describe the llamas as carrying silver from Potosi.)

“De Indicis Ovibvs, Metalla ex Montanis Exportantibus” from Americae, pars quarta… (Frankfurt am Main: Johann Wechel, 1590).

“The Sheep of Peru” from The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America, Commonly Call’d the West-Indies… by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (London: Jeremiah Batley, 1726), vol. IV, p. 357.

“Carneros del Perú, que dizen llama, uij Provechosos, ij su naturalez” from Historia general de las Indias Ocidentales… Tomo tercero by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (Antwerp: Juan Bautista Verdussen, 1728), Tom. III. Aquatint by P.B. Bruttats.

“Llamas Carrying Loads on a Mountainside” from How the Old World Found the New by Eunice Fuller Barnard and Lida Lee Tall (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1929), p. 152. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins after P.B. Buttats after Theodore de Bry.

Since Dwiggins’ illustration is flopped from de Bry’s, he must have worked from a later reversed copy such as the engraving by P.B. Bruttats in Historia general de las Indias Ocidentales… by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (Antwerp: Juan Bautista Verdussen, 1728). (The flopped engraving in the 1726 English edition of Herrera could not have been a model since it has been cropped at the left and the figure attending to the stubborn llama is sitting down instead of squatting.) [8] Dwiggins’ version is noticeably lighter in tone and clearer in content. In cropping the scene he has increased the emphasis on the llamas (and eliminated the Spaniard shooting a llama in the distance). He has also clothed the lead Indian.

In every instance where Dwiggins has cropped or reframed an illustration he has strengthened the scene compositionally and accentuated its narrative focus.

Notes
1. See The Definitive Dwiggins no. 702 for an analysis of the different categories of redrawing that Dwiggins undertook for the various illustrations.
2. For the use of the illustration in connection with Henry Hudson see The New World Heroes of Discovery and Conquest… by D.M. Kelsey (Philadelphia: National Publishing Company, 1904), p. 539.
3. The Google Books scan of Histoire de la Conqueste du Mexique by Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (Paris: Estienne Michallet, 1691) does not show this engraving or any others. But it does appear in Histoire de la Conquête du Mexique, Ou de la Nouvelle Espagne par Fernand Cortez by Antoine de Solis (The Hague: Adrian Moentjes, 1692).
4. The illustration in Fernando Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico, 1485-1547 by Francis Augustus MacNutt (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909), p. 104, copied from Antonio de Solis, has no change in the ship’s sails.
5. Explicación del Lienzo de Tlaxcala by Alfredo Chavero (Mexico City: Oficina Tipográfica de la  Secretaría de Fomento, 1892). I have been unable to find a digital copy of this book.
6. The chromolithograph was printed by the Bibliographisches Institut in Leipzig. The online image of it at Getty Images does not provide a date. The chromolithograph is reproduced in black and white in The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference… edited by Charles G. Herbermann et al (New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 1913), Vol. 10: Mass–Newman, p. 257.
7. Histoire de la conqueste du Mexique, ou de la Nouvelle Espagne,
par Fernand Cortez by Antoine de Solis (Paris: H. Charpentier, 1714), vol. II, p. 534.
8. There are other discrepancies in this engraving as well such as fewer llamas in the background and no people in the tents.

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