Bernardo de Vargas Machuca


Bernardo de Vargas Machuca was a Spanish soldier, writer, naturalist, veterinarian and conquistador.

Biography

Bernardo de Vargas Machuca was born in Simancas, a town in the present-day Province of Valladolid, in 1555, to Juan Vargas, warden of the castle in that town, and Angela de Soto. He completed his studies in the city of Valladolid, enlisting at a very early age in the Spanish Army. He served in Italy and in the colonization of the Americas. During his stay in the American continent he lived in Bogotá, capital city of the New Kingdom of Granada.
After retiring from his military career he settled in the new capital of the Hispanic Monarchy, Madrid. During this period he wrote and published several works in which he collected his impressions and research, including Milicia y descripción de las Indias in 1599, also known as Milicia Indiana, a manual intended for Spanish officers serving in the New World. He also published in 1621 Compendio y Doctrina Nueva de la Gineta, one of the main studies on Jineta horsemanship of the time, dedicated to Count Alberto Fúcar, member of the German House of Fugger, and another essay written around 1603 titled Defensa de la conquista de las Indias, in which he refutes and rejects the ideas and arguments in Bartolomé de las Casas’s A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, although it was never published. He died in the Spanish capital in 1622.

Works

  • Milicia y descripcion de las Indias, 1599
  • Libro de exercicios de la gineta, 1600
  • Defensa de la conquista de las Indias, 1603
  • Compendio y doctrina nueva de la Gineta, 1621