Helen Maria William's Representation of Conquistadors

In her poem "Peru: A Poem, in Six Cantos," Helen Maria Williams tells the tale of the downfall of Peru and attributes this disaster to the Spanish conquistadors, who she believes are causing the problems with no regard for the Peruvian people.  Starting on line 170 in the first canto, Williams says:

 "Consum'd, and fading in its early prime.
But not in vain the beauteous realm shall bleed,
Too late shall Europe's race deplore the deed.
Region abhorr'd! be gold the tempting bane,
The curse that desolates thy hostile plain;
May pleasure tinge with venom'd drops the bowl,
And luxury unnerve the sick'ning soul" (170-176).  

This exact part of the poem is actually Peruvia's Genius, meaning the "general character, spirit, of a nation or age" (56, footnote 2) speaking about the conquistadors.  The "spirit" of Peru is upset with what the conquistadors are doing to her land.  She is saying that because of the conquistadors the entire land has been consumed and will be gone in its early prime because of the Europeans.  In addition, Peru hopes that the pleasure the Spanish get from ruining Peru will be tinged with drops of venom so that Peru is not destroyed in vain.  The spirit of Peru even asks for vengeance at the beginning of her prayer when she calls for the "avenging spirits of the deep" (151) and later asks they to make the "condors stray" (162).  She also wants the avenging spirits to "bid the stern foe retire with wild affright, / And shun the region veil'd in partial night...I read thy doom" (165-168).

Clearly, the Peruvian Genius is displeased by what the conquistadors are doing and what they have done to Peru, which is a fairly common theme with the Spanish conquerers of the time.  The Spanish have had a long history of exploring and taking from "new lands." As far back at 1519 Cortes was exploring Mexico and found gold in the Aztec Empire.  His success was what inspired many others to go out and search for their own land to take riches, including Francisco Pizzaro, who is featured in the poem.  He was basically in charge of Peru by 1533 and is one of the main people that Williams blames for the downfall of Peru.

The idea of the gold of Cortes is so popular, it was the main concept in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Francisco Pizzaro

As we can see with the Hollywood representation of the Cortes gold, there seems to be a theme long after the departure of the conquistadors that all of the gold and other resources they stole is not something they could have completely gotten away with.  In more recent years it has been reimagined that these items would have been cursed, since the native people had no other way of truly protecting themselves.  Even in Williams' poem, she speaks of the idea of cursing the Spanish and having their decline not be in vain.  It is some consolation for the Peruvian people that perhaps their decline may not be in vain.  Additionally, the idea that the gold of Cortes was such a powerful idea is important as to why so many places were forced to deal with the greed of the Spanish.  His fortune was even later a motivation for the British settlement of Jamestown.

This link talks more about conquistadors in general.

Discussion Questions
1. At the beginning of the poem, in the Genius speech, it talks very specifically about what the Spanish are doing by speaking specifically about their direct actions.  Later, in the regular cantos, the focus is more on the effects the actions have by focusing the story line on the Peruvians.  Why do you think Williams makes this change?
2. Why do you think Williams uses so many mythological beings, like Cora (one of the virgins of the sun) and the Peruvian Genius, to tell this story?