Diego de Rosales ( Madrid, 1601 - Santiago, 1677) was a Spanish chronicler and author of ''Historia General del Reino de Chile''. He studied in his hometown, where he also joined the Society of Jesus. He came to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

in the year 1629, without having taken his last vows still being sent to the residence that the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

s had in Arauco. He served as an Army chaplain in the

Arauco War The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía. The conflict began at first as a reaction to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force Mapuche ...

during the government of Don Francisco Laso de la Vega and, in 1640, was ordained a priest in Santiago. During this time, he acquired his knowledge of the language and customs of the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sh ...

. He was close to the governors Francisco López de Zúñiga and Martín de Mujica y Buitrón, accompanying them and participating in the parliaments held in 1641 and

1647 Events January–March * January 2 – Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong County, Xichong by a Qing archer after having been betrayed one of his officers, ...

during the Arauco War. In 1650, Governor Antonio de Acuña Cabrera tasked him to conduct a journey to the Pehuenche tribes east of Villarica and later to Lake Nahuelhuapi. During the

Mapuche uprising of 1655 The Mapuche uprising of 1655 ( es, alzamiento mapuche de 1655 or ) was a series of coordinated Mapuche attacks against Spanish settlements and forts in colonial Chile. It was the worst military crisis in Chile in decades, and contemporaries even ...

, he was in

Boroa Boroa, is a town in Araucanía, Chile on the shores of Cautín River. The region near the town south of the Cautin River between the Boroa and Quepe Rivers was the Moluche aillarehue of Boroa. The site of the town was founded as a Spanish fort ' ...

, long besieged by the Mapuche until January 1656, when it was abandoned. He was taken to Concepción and appointed rector of the Jesuit college in the city, where he stayed until 1662. He was then appointed superior of the Jesuit Province of Chile, having moved to Santiago. He held this office until 1666 and then assumed the rectorship of the Colegio Máximo of the order in the capital. He took up the direction of the Jesuits again between 1670 and 1672.

Work as a chronicler

In 1674 he finished writing his ''Historia General del Reino de Chile''. His first two books describe the geography, fauna, flora, and the life and customs of the natives. The second part deals with the history of the Kingdom from the arrival of Diego de Almagro until the General Rising of 1655. However it was not published until 1877 in Valparaiso, due to

Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna (August 25, 1831 – January 25, 1886) was a Chilean writer, journalist, historian and politician. Vicuña Mackenna was of Irish and Basque descent. Biography Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna was born in Santiago, the ...

, who acquired it in 1870 in London. Diego de Rosales ''Historia'' documents a series of events such as the

Dutch expedition to Valdivia The Dutch expedition to Valdivia was a naval expedition, commanded by Hendrik Brouwer, sent by the Dutch Republic in 1643 to establish a base of operations and a trading post on the southern coast of Chile. With Spain and the Dutch Republi ...

.Rosales 1878, p. 219. Diego de Rosales is also known to have written a chronicle about the Society of Jesus in Chile, which was called ''Conquista Espiritual del reino de Chile''. It was a series of biographies of the main missionaries of the order, combined with the descriptions of their personalities with tales of miracles, appearances and all sorts of wonders common in the minds and documents of the time. Unfortunately, this manuscript has only survived in part. In his works Rosales used chiefly second hand sources such as those of Garcilaso de la Vega. Comparison to other written work have shown that Rosales writings are prone to errors and exaggerations.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosales, Diego De 1601 births 1677 deaths 17th-century Spanish Jesuits Chilean historians Jesuit historians and chroniclers People of the Arauco War Spanish chroniclers Jesuit missionaries in Chile