DISCOVERY ABOUT CONQUISTADOR BREAKS GROUND; AUTHOR CO-WRITES MANUSCRIPT

A retired Southeast Missouri State University professor of foreign language broke new ground in the travels of an ancient voyager, and her discovery launched a new venture.

Frances Crowley, an internationally renowned author of Latin American history, was asked to include the biography and genealogy of writer/voyager Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca in the University of Alabama publication, The De Soto Chronicles.

The manuscript is a collection of writings on De Soto's exploration of the southeastern United States and will be presented in 1992 as part of the University of Alabama's 500th anniversary celebration of the discovery of the Americas.

"The idea with the manuscript is to show the historical relationship of Spain to Latin America and the United States," Crowley said.

Her work focuses on the Spanish presence in Latin American history. According to Crowley's Garcilaso biography published in 1971, Garcilaso was the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador who became a historian and crusader for his native Peru.

Crowley discovered new information about Garcilaso by chance at Indiana University-Bloomington in 1965.

"I happened upon the English translation (by Daniel Archdeacon) of a Spanish Armada manifest at their library," she said. "In that translated manifest, I found new information regarding Garcilaso, which connected him with the Spanish Armada."

In her previous biographical research of Garcilaso, Crowley found no mention of his connection with the Spanish Armada. Her discovery prompted a visit to Portugal in 1984, where she found Garcilaso's name listed as a captain in the Santa Cruz manifest.

In 1987, she reviewed Fernandez Duro Cesareo lists of ships in the Spanish Armada at the British Museum in England. Garcilaso appeared as a captain of the San Francisco, which confirmed her findings in Portugal. Garcilaso's preface to the Duke of Portugal supplied further confirmation of Garcilaso's lengthy stay in Portugal.

"There, in his own words, I read that he had been in Portugal and that he owed his life to the Portuguese," she said. "Unfortunately, he did not write about the incident that nearly cost him his life. I believe that Garcilaso was repaying an obligation to the Portuguese. It also proved that he had been in Portugal much longer than was previously assumed."

Crowley's findings have been published in Hispana and Humanitas, a publication of the University of Lima. In the 1980s, she lectured on Garcilaso and Latin American history at the University del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the University of Lima, Peru.

Lawrence Clayton, professor of Latin American history at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, invited her to become one of the seven editors of the four-volume De Soto Chronicles after hearing her presentation at Lima.