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In the prefatory note of the 1631 Madrid edition entitled Obras propias, y traduciones latinas, griegas y italianas Luis de Leon speaks of his poems slightingly as mere playthings of his youth, now brought together at the request of an anonymous friend perhaps Benito Arias Montano to whom they had been ascribed.
D. Luis de la Cruz, "Descripcion de la Naturaleza de los Terrenos que se comprenden en los Andes, poseidos por los Peguenches y los demas espacios hasta el rio de Chadileuba," p. 62, in Pedro de Angelis, Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata, vol. i. Apparently the Peguenches are an Indian tribe of Chili.
The obras pias were pious legacies which usually stipulated that two-thirds of their value should be advanced at interest for the furtherance of maritime commercial undertakings until the premiums, which for a voyage to Acapulco amounted to 50, to China 25, and to India 35 per cent., had increased the original capital to a certain amount.
These were in such demand, that, at a later period, Comyn saw people pay $500 for the right to ship goods, the value of which scarcely amounted to $1,000. The merchants usually borrowed the money for these undertakings from the obras pias, charitable foundations, which, up to our own time, fulfil in the Islands the purposes of banks.
Though it is undoubtedly true that his poems as a whole were not published till 1631, four isolated pieces of his strayed into print as early as 1574 when they were included by Francisco Sanchez, el Brocense, in the notes to his edition of the Obras del excelente poeta Garci-Lasso de la Vega. At that date Luis de Leon was in the secret prison-cells of the Inquisition at Valladolid.
These, from their resemblance to the "antiguas obras de Moros," which the muleteers used to point out, presented another feature strongly reviving my Spanish recollections.
As he had natural talent, boldness, and great self-possession, and knew how to make use of the society in which he found himself, he launched into business with his wife's money, filling contracts for the government, by reason of which he was made alderman, afterwards alcalde, member of the Economic Society, councilor of the administration, president of the directory of the Obras Pias, member of the Society of Mercy, director of the Spanish-Filipino Bank, etc., etc.
Jose Guevara, "Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata, y Tucuman," pp. 16 sq., in Pedro de Angelis, Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata, vol. ii. The two accounts appear to be identical; but the former attributes the custom to the Chiriguanos, the latter to the Lenguas.
They purchased with the resources of the obras pias the articles required in the province; and they were entirely dependent for their capital upon these endowments, as they almost always arrived in the Philippines without any means of their own. The natives were forced to sell their produce to the alcaldes and, besides, to purchase their goods at the prices fixed by the latter.
With these words, I close what I have to say here on this subject and commend these pages to the indulgent judgement of my readers. The following works, or articles, may be usefully consulted by the student of Spanish. EDITIONS. LUIS DE LEON: Obras, ed. XXXV, XXXVII, LIII, LXI, and LXII; De los nombres de Cristo, ed. E. Wallace, Chicago, 1903; La perfecta casada, ed.
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