Captain from Castile (novel)

Last updated
Captain from Castile
CaptainFromCastile.jpg
First edition
Author Samuel Shellabarger
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Historical fiction
Publisher Little, Brown
Publication date
1945
Media typePrint
Pages503

Captain from Castile is a historical adventure novel by author Samuel Shellabarger originally published in 1945. [1]

Contents

The novel relates the adventures of young Spanish nobleman Pedro de Vargas during the early years of the 16th century, focusing mainly on his mistreatment by the Spanish Inquisition, his adventures in Mexico while serving as a captain during Hernan Cortés' conquest of the Aztecs, and his subsequent return to Spain.

Plot

Captain from Castile begins on the evening of June 28, 1518 when naïve 19-year-old Pedro de Vargas, the son of local war hero Don Francisco de Vargas, confesses a long list of minor sins to the local priest in Jaen, Spain. The next day, while attending church with his family, Pedro becomes infatuated with the local Marquis' daughter, Luisa de Carvajal.

As Pedro and his family leave church they are met by Diego de Silva, who enlists the help of Pedro in the search for his escaped Indian slave, Coatl. Pedro immediately guesses Coatl's location and sets off alone to find and capture him, but instead is convinced to aid the badly mistreated slave—who claims he is a king among his own people—in his escape.

Pedro then comes across and rescues the local tavern dancer, Catana Pérez, from being raped by several rough men and returns her to the Rosario tavern. There he stops for a drink and befriends Juan García, an adventurous merchant and wanted man, whose mother has been wrongfully taken by the Inquisition. Pedro agrees to deliver García's bribe for his mother's freedom to Father Ignacio de Lora, the head of the Jaen Inquisition, though he does not believe men of God can be bought.

However, when Pedro delivers the money he is surprised to find that Father Ignacio accepts the bribe and agrees to free García's mother. The next night Pedro has a romantic rendezvous with Luisa de Carvajal and when returning home is stopped by Catana's brother Manuel, who informs him that the Inquisition has taken his family and is hunting him. Pedro flees to the Marquis de Carvajal for help, but finds no help from the cowardly nobleman and so flees to the Rosario tavern where Catana begins plans to help him escape from Spain. However, Pedro is discovered and arrested there by the Inquisition.

The next morning Pedro is taken back to Jaen, where he witnesses the auto-da-fé at which, despite the bribe, Ignacio de Lora sentences García's mother to death by burning and also sees García (in disguise) manage to kill her before the sentence is carried out. Pedro soon learns that the family has been arrested because of accusations by Coatl's former master, Diego de Silva, who coveted the de Vargas property and whose men Pedro had beaten in defense of Catana's integrity. In an effort to get a confession from Don Francisco, the Inquisition tortures Pedro's sickly sister Mercedes and accidentally kills her.

Afterwards Pedro and his family are rescued from their cells by García and Manuel Pérez. During the escape Pedro is confronted by de Silva, whom he disarms, stabs, and leaves for dead. Afterward the family makes their way through the Sierra de Lucena toward Almería guided by Hernán Soler, a cutthroat to whom Catana sells herself in payment for his help. However, during their passage through the mountains, Pedro and García are separated from the others when they are attacked by the Inquisition's hunters. While Pedro's family escapes to Italy, Pedro and García travel to Cadiz and from there join an expedition to Cuba, where they join the company of Hernán Cortés departing for Mexico.

During their stay along the coast of Mexico, the Aztec king Montezuma sends Cortés a tribute of great gold ornaments and, because of his growing favour with Cortés, Pedro is entrusted with one of the guard shifts. However, during his watch, Pedro is called away to help calm down García, who is in a drunken madness. When Pedro returns to the gold, he finds a small pouch of emeralds has been stolen by way of a secret door. Pedro therefore sets out in search of the stolen stones and tracks them to a group of mutineers preparing a ship for escape back to Cuba. Pedro convinces one of them to repent and help him alert the army, but during their escape Pedro is wounded in the head and leg by a crossbow.

During Pedro's recovery he receives a promotion to captain (making him the eponymous "Captain from Castile"), learns of Cortés burning his ships to prevent mutiny, and is reunited with Catana Pérez, who arrives aboard another ship.

Soon afterwards, the Spanish head inland towards Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire. Along the way Pedro and Catana fall deeply in love with each other. During their stay in Tenochtitlan, Cortés' company is joined by a new group including both Father Ignacio de Lora and Diego de Silva, who had survived his encounter with Pedro. The Spanish are treated like gods but eventually the Aztecs begin to rebel against the Spanish occupation and the Spanish are besieged within the city. During their desperate escape attempt, Pedro, Catana, and García almost escape but are left to die by de Silva.

While awaiting execution by the Aztecs, Pedro witnesses the death of Ignacio de Lora by burning and the miscarriage of his and Catana's first child. However, instead of being executed, Pedro, Catana, and García are taken out into the jungle by the Aztecs and transferred to the custody of another tribe ruled by Coatl, the slave Pedro helped to save.

After spending several months living among Coatl's people, Pedro becomes eager to return to Cortés. Coatl, as a parting gift, shows Pedro a cave filled with gold treasures which Pedro barters with Cortés to split between themselves, their friends, and the King of Spain. Cortés, now serving as governor of Mexico, has had a son with the native woman who accompanied the conquest of Mexico as his translator, Doña Marina. Pedro returns to Spain rich and world-wise with the King's share and acts as ambassador of Cortés. Upon his return he spurns the (as he now realizes) ambition-serving love of Luisa de Carvajal and is again confronted by Diego de Silva but this time turns the authorities against the greedy nobleman and in the end kills de Silva in a fight.

Thereafter the de Vargas family is pardoned and returns to Spain, where Pedro and Catana receive Don Francisco's blessing to be married. The story concludes with the old Don Francisco reflecting on the bright new age his son is entering into, where courage, honor, and love will blossom in the New World just as it had in the Old.

Film adaptation

The first half of the book was made into a successful film, Captain from Castile , in 1947. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hernán Cortés</span> Spanish conquistador (1485–1547)

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the king of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish explorers and conquistadors who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedro de Alvarado</span> Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala

Pedro de Alvarado was a Spanish conquistador and governor of Guatemala. He participated in the conquest of Cuba, in Juan de Grijalva's exploration of the coasts of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, and in the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés. He is considered the conquistador of much of Central America, including Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conquistador</span> Spanish and Portuguese colonialists of the early modern period

Conquistadors or conquistadores was a term used to refer to Spanish and Portuguese colonialists of the early modern period. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, establishing new colonies and trade routes. They brought much of the "New World" under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.

Doña Isabel Moctezuma was a daughter of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II. She was the consort of Atlixcatzin, a tlacateccatl, and of the Aztec emperors Cuitlahuac, and Cuauhtemoc and as such the last Aztec empress. After the Spanish conquest, Doña Isabel was recognized as Moctezuma's legitimate heir, and became one of the indigenous Mexicans granted an encomienda. Among the others were her half-sister Marina Moctezuma, and Juan Sánchez, an Indian governor in Oaxaca.

<i>Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España</i> 1568 book

Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España is a first-person narrative written in 1568 by military adventurer, conquistador, and colonist settler Bernal Díaz del Castillo (1492–1584), who served in three Mexican expeditions: those of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba (1517) to the Yucatán peninsula; the expedition of Juan de Grijalva (1518); and the expedition of Hernán Cortés (1519) in the Valley of Mexico. The history relates his participation in the conquest of the Aztec Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cristóbal de Olid</span> Spanish conquistador

Cristóbal de Olid was a Spanish adventurer, conquistador and rebel who played a part in the conquest of the Aztec Empire and present-day Honduras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuño de Guzmán</span> 16th-century Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was the governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525 to 1533 and of Nueva Galicia from 1529 to 1534, and president of the first Royal Audiencia of Mexico – the high court that governed New Spain – from 1528 to 1530. He founded several cities in Northwestern Mexico, including Guadalajara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fall of Tenochtitlan</span> 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital by the Spanish Empire and rival indigenous tribes

The fall of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, was an important event in the Spanish conquest of the empire. It occurred in 1521 following extensive negotiations between local factions and Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. He was aided by La Malinche, his interpreter and companion, and by thousands of indigenous allies, especially Tlaxcaltec warriors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Noche Triste</span> Event during the Conquest of Mexico

La Noche Triste was an important event during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, wherein Hernán Cortés, his army of Spanish conquistadors, and their native allies were driven out of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.

<i>Montezumas Daughter</i> 1892 novel by H. Rider Haggard

Montezuma's Daughter, first published in 1892, is a novel by the Victorian adventure writer H. Rider Haggard. Narrated in the first person by Thomas Wingfield, an Englishman whose adventures include having his mother murdered by his Spanish cousin Juan de Garcia, a brush with the Spanish Inquisition, shipwreck, and slavery. Eventually, Thomas unwillingly joins a Spanish expedition to New Spain, and the novel tells a fictionalized story of the first interactions between the natives and European explorers. This includes a number of misunderstandings, prejudice on the part of the Spaniards, and ultimately open war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martín Enríquez de Almanza</span> Fourth viceroy of New Spain (r. 1568–1580)

Martín Enríquez de Almanza y Ulloa, was the fourth viceroy of New Spain, who ruled in the name of Philip II from November 5, 1568 until October 3, 1580.

Alonso de Estrada was a colonial official in New Spain during the period of Hernán Cortés' government, and before the appointment of the first viceroy. He was a member of the triumvirates that governed the colony for several short periods between 1524 and 1528, in the absence of Cortés.

Gonzalo de Salazar was an aristocrat, and leader of several councils that governed New Spain while Hernán Cortés was traveling to Honduras, in 1525−26.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire</span> 16th-century Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire, ultimately reshaping the course of human history. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and his small army of soldiers and indigenous allies, overthrowing one of the most powerful empires in Mesoamerica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Otumba</span> 1520 battle during the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs

The Battle of Otumba was fought between the Aztec and allied forces led by the Cihuacoatl Matlatzincátzin and those of Hernán Cortés made up of the Spanish conquerors and Tlaxcalan allies. It took place on July 7, 1520, in Temalcatitlán, a plain near Otumba during the development of the Conquest of the Aztec Empire. The result of the battle was a victory for the Spanish, which allowed Cortés to reorganize his army, having suffered casualties a few days before in the episode known as La Noche Triste. A year later, by reinforcing his army with new men and supplies, and creating alliances with the indigenous peoples who had been subjugated by the Aztec, Cortés managed to besiege and conquer Tenochtitlan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ángel de Villafañe</span> Spanish conquistador

Ángel de Villafañe was a Spanish conquistador of Florida, Mexico, and Guatemala, and was an explorer, expedition leader, and ship captain, who worked with many 16th-century settlements and shipwrecks along the Gulf of Mexico.

<i>Captain from Castile</i> 1947 film by Henry King

Captain from Castile is a 1947 American historical adventure film. It was released by 20th Century-Fox. Directed by Henry King, the Technicolor film stars Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, and Cesar Romero. Shot on location in Michoacán, Mexico, the film includes scenes of the Parícutin volcano, which was then erupting. Captain from Castile was the feature film debut of Jean Peters, who later married industrialist Howard Hughes, and of Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels, who later portrayed Tonto on the television series The Lone Ranger.

Alonso Valiente was a Spanish conquistador. He was Hernán Cortés' cousin and secretary. He was one of the first governors of Mexico City. He was also the first encomendero of Tecamachalco, and he contributed to found Puebla de los Ángeles, where he also served as mayor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monument to Hernán Cortés (Medellín)</span> Monument in Medellín, Spain

The Monument to Hernán Cortés is an instance of public art dedicated to Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztec Empire, erected in his native town of Medellín, Spain. It consists of a bronze rendition of Cortés designed by Eduardo Barrón on top of a stone pedestal this made him famous.

Gómez de Alvarado y Contreras was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. He was a member of the Alvarado family and the older brother of the famous conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.

References

  1. "Non-Stop Adventure". Time . 8 January 1945. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  2. "Captain from Castile". afi.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.