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José de Acosta, SJ (1539 or 1540[1] inMedina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600 in Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-centurySpanishJesuitmissionary andnaturalist inLatin America. His deductions regarding the ill effects of crossing over theAndes in 1570 related to the atmosphere being too thin for human needs led to the modern understanding of a variety ofaltitude sickness, now referred to asAcosta's disease.
José de Acosta was born inMedina del Campo inSpain, about twenty-four miles fromValladolid, inOld Castile, on the left bank of the swampy river Zapardiel, and overlooked by the oldcastle of La Mota. The Acosta brothers were fellow townsmen of the conquistadorBernal Diaz, who told the story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.[2] Acosta was ofconverso background.[3] According to one scholar, he was "a heavy man of uncertain, melancholic temper."[4] His parents had five sons, Gerónimo, Christóval, José, Diego, and Bernardo. Four of the five Acosta brothers joined theSociety of Jesus. In 1553, at the age of thirteen, Acosta became a novice in the order at Medina del Campo. He was a lecturer in theology atOcana, and in April 1569, he was sent toLima, Peru, where the Jesuits had been established in the proceeding year.
At age 32, Acosta left Spain with several other Jesuits in 1570, landing atCartagena de Indias, and finally atNombre de Dios. He then journeyed through 18 leagues - about 62 mi (100 km) - of tropical forest, taking in the scenery, novel sights, and the clever antics of troops of monkeys inCapira. From Panama, he embarked for Peru to pursue missionary work. He expected to experience unbearably intense heat in crossing the equator, but found it to be so cool in March, that he laughed at Aristotle and his philosophy.[5]
On his arrival at Lima, he was ordered to cross theAndes, apparently to join theViceroy of Peru in the interior. He took the route, with fourteen or fifteen companions, across the mountainous province of Huarochiri, and by the lofty pass of Pariacaca, which was over 14,000 ft (4,300 m), where the whole party suffered severely from the effects of rarefied atmosphere. Acosta described these sufferings, which were to be repeated on the three other occasions of crossing thecordillera. Acosta provided one of the earliest detailed accounts ofaltitude sickness, and to link it to "air... so thin and so delicate that it is not proportioned to human breathing",[6] and a variety of altitude sickness is referred to asAcosta's disease.[7] He also described an attack ofsnow blindness and being subsequently cured by an Indian woman.
Acosta arrived in Peru two years afterDon Francisco de Toledo became Viceroy in 1568. Following Toledo's beheading of the IncaTúpac Amaru, the Viceroy devoted five years to tour every region of the Viceroyalty of Peru. He planned to settle in the country with the support of Acosta, thelicentiatePolo de Ondegardo, and JudgeJuan Ortiz de Matienzo. Acosta accompanied the Viceroy toCharcas and was present during his unsuccessful foay against theChirihuana peoples.[8]
At the time, the principal seat of the Jesuits was located in the little town ofJuli near the western shores ofLake Titicaca. Acosta observed thecomet of 1577, from November 1 to December 8. The Jesuits established a college in Juli, which included studies on native languages. Eventually, a printing press was established. Acosta remained at Juli and devoted much of his time preparing several manuscripts, which he later took back to Spain, including the first two books of theNatural History of the Indies. At Juli, Father Acosta received information respecting theAmazon River from a brother who had formerly been in the famous piratical cruise ofLope de Aguirre.[9]
Towards the close of the viceroyalty of Toledo, Father Acosta appeared to have relocated from the interior of Peru to Lima. Here he mentions superintending the casting of a great bell, for which there was difficulty in gathering fuel for the furnace, making it necessary to fell great trees in theRímac River'svalley. Viceroy Toledo was practically the founder of the University of St. Mark at Lima, where Acosta was to occupy the chair of theology. Here he was again able to display his abilities as a famed orator.
In 1571, Acosta went toCuzco as a visitor of the recently founded college of the Jesuits. He returned to Lima three years later to fill the chair of theology, and was elected provincial in 1576.
In 1579, the Viceroy dispatched a fleet underPedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, partly to chaseSir Francis Drake on the coast, and partly to explore and survey theStrait of Magellan. Acosta had conversations with the pilot of Sarmiento's fleet, and was allowed to inspect his chart, thus obtaining much hydrographic information, and particulars respecting the tides in the straits. He also conversed with the new Viceroy Don Martín Henríquez on the same subject.[10]
Acosta founded several colleges includingArequipa,Potosí,Chuquisaca,Panama andLa Paz, even when met with considerable opposition from the Viceroy Toledo. His official duties obliged him to investigate personally an extensive range of territory, so that he acquired a practical knowledge of the vast province, and of its aboriginal inhabitants. At the 1582 session of theThird Council of Lima, Father Acosta took on the role of historian. He delivered an eloquent and learned oration at its last sitting on October 18, 1583.
Shortly after the Third Council of Lima, he packed all his manuscripts, the literary labors of fifteen years, and commenced his voyage to Mexico. During the passage, he was a shrewd observer of nature and knowledge seeker. He learned from an expert Portuguese pilot that there were four often-visited ports[citation needed] of nomagnetic compass variation on the Earth, and that one of them wasCorvo Island in theAzores. Acosta landed at the port of Huatulco, at the western end of theGulf of Tehuantepec, in theOaxaca province, then journeyed by land to Mexico City, where he resided in 1586. He had opportunities of which he diligently availed himself for collecting information touching the civilization and religion of theAztecs and natural products of this country. His chief informant respecting the rites and festivals of the Mexicans was brother and Prebendary, Juan de Tobar.[11] For information on the Mexica, Acosta followed Juan de Tovar'sRelación del origen de los indios que habitan esta Nueva España según sus historias, a possible summary of Fray Diego Durán'sHistoria de las Indias de Nueva España e islas de Tierra Firme - in turn derived in part from an anonymous Nahuatl history of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, known as theCrónica X.[12]
Acosta had been called to Spain by the King in 1585, prior to being detained inMexico, in order to debate againstAlonzo Sánchez's plans to initiate aninvasion of China. He sailed home to Spain in the fleet of 1587, which contained a precious cargo, including twelve chests of gold each weighing 100 lb (45 kg), 11,000,000 pieces of silver, and two chests of emeralds each also weighing 100 lb (45 kg), in addition to loads of ginger, sarsaparilla, Brazil wood and animal hides.[13] In Spain he filled the chair of theology at the Roman college in 1594, head of the Jesuits College atValladolid, as well as other important positions. At the time of his death in his 60th year, he was rector of the college atSalamanca.
Aside from his publication of the proceedings of the provincial councils of 1567 and 1583, and several works of exclusively theological import, Acosta is best known as the writer of theHistoria natural y moral de las Indias,[14] as well asDe promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum salute (1588),[15]Doctrina Cristiana y Catecismo Para Indios (1585)[15] andDe Natura Novi Orbis.
Soon after the publication of theHistoria natural y moral, it was translated into various languages. It is chiefly theHistoria natural y moral that has established the reputation of Acosta, as this was one of the first detailed and realistic descriptions of theNew World. In a form more concise than that employed by his predecessors,Francisco Lopez de Gómara andOviedo, he treated the natural and philosophic history of the New World from a broader point of view.[16] In it, more than a century before other Europeans learned of theBering Strait, Acosta hypothesized thatLatin America's indigenous peoples had migrated fromAsia.[17] He also divided them into three barbarian categories. TheHistoria also describedInca andAztec customs and history, as well as other information such as winds and tides, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, and mineral resources in the New World.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "José de Acosta".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.