Vincent emparan
Vicente Ignacio Antonio Ramón de Emparan y Orbe (Azpeitia, January 5, 1747 - El Puerto de Santa María, October 3, 1820) was a Spanish nobleman, soldier, and politician noted for his Governor and Captain General of Venezuela.
Birth and affiliation
Born in Azpeitia (Guipúzcoa) on January 5, 1747, he was the legitimate son of José Joaquín de Emparan and XIV lord of the house of Emparan de Azpeitia, and María Ana Orbe y Zarauz, niece of Andrés de Orbe y Larreátegui to whom King Felipe V granted the title of Marquis de Valde-Espina of Castilla.
His brother Francisco continued with the estate of Emparan. Others of his brothers excelled in military and political careers. Agustín Ignacio was a knight of the order of Carlos III, Manuel Antonio was a ship captain, Miguel José was a brigadier of the Spanish Royal Navy and Pedro de Emparan (or Amparan), settled in Venezuela performing the position of ordinary mayor when Vicente was appointed Governor of the province of Cumana. His descendants became related to the family of the hero of Venezuelan independence Antonio José de Sucre, Grand Marshal of Ayacucho and General José Tadeo Monagas, President of Venezuela.
The Emparan and Orbe family, lords of the towns of Azpeitia and Ermua and of the Marquesado de Valde-Espina, are direct descendants of the house of Loyola, the house of Balda, the house of Butrón, the house of Haro, the house of Burgundy and by this family line of the monarchs of the kingdoms of Asturias, Castilla, León, Aragón, Navarra, Portugal, the Capetian dynasty of France, the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Germany, the Plantagenet house of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, the house of Normandy and the house of Uppsala.
Military and political career
He entered the Royal Military Academy of Mathematics and Fortification of Barcelona at the age of 15, obtaining the rank of lieutenant in the army in 1764. He served in the Cantabria regiment. He successively destined for Barcelona, Zaragoza and Oran. He applied to join the Royal Navy in 1768. The petition was approved on May 16, 1769.
In the course of twenty years (May 16, 1769 to March 27, 1789), he was on board the ships of the line, reaching the rank of ship captain. In the Second Cevallos expedition to Río Grande in 1776 with the rank of frigate lieutenant, he was in the squadron of ships commanded by Lieutenant General Francisco Javier Everardo-Tilly, Marquis of Casa Tilly together with lieutenant Nicolás Estrada. This naval campaign was larger than all those carried out throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as 8,500 infantry soldiers and 600 horse dragoons embarked on 97 transport artillery ships and 19 warships, counting 632 cannons. The expedition was a success, since it took the fort of Colonia del Sacramento, in present-day Uruguay, and occupied the island of Santa Catalina (today owned by Brazil), giving way to the Treaty of San Ildefonso between Spain and Portugal.
In 1779 he participated in the siege of Gibraltar in the first naval campaign of the English Channel aboard the ship San Pablo that was part of the squadron of Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova, under the command of the captain of the ship Carlos de la Villa. In the year 1783 he participated in the Bombardment of Algiers in command of one of the three divisions of the squadron for whose good performance he deserved recognition from King Carlos III. Later, he was commissioned as ambassador to make peace with the Algerians. This was achieved with the treaty signed on June 14, 1786 by King Muhammad V ben Othman of Algiers and Lieutenant General José de Mazarredo Salazar, and the piracy against Spanish trade and the slave trade in the coastal regions of Morocco was terminated., Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and the Mediterranean Sea, he embarked on the frigate Loreto, with its command, for its disarmament in the Arsenal de la Carraca.
With the rank of captain of the ship, he embarked on June 12, 1789 from the port of Cádiz, on the frigate Nuestra Señora de la Paz, commanded by Federico Gravina. He traveled to Portobelo (Panama) as governor of that place. Later he was appointed governor of the Province of Nueva Andalucía, later called the Province of Cumaná between the years of 1792 and 1804. Upon the arrival of the German naturalist Alejandro de Humboldt in Cumaná in 1799, Emparan offered him his support. As Humboldt had not yet obtained the promissory note from him, Emparan advanced him the necessary money to carry out his expedition. Humboldt would later write about the encounter he had with Emparan in his work Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent :
"...The captain of the Pizarro led us to Don Vicente Emparan, governor of the province to present to him the passports that had been given to us by the first State Secretariat. He received us with frankness and this noble simplicity that has always characterized the Basque nation. Before he had been appointed governor of Portobelo and Cumaná; he had distinguished himself as captain of ship in the royal navy. Its name reminds one of the most extraordinary and saddest events that the history of maritime wars presents. When the last break between Spain and England, two brothers of the knight Emparan were beaten during the night in front of the port of Cadiz, believing enemies one of another. The battle was so terrible that the two boats went to pique almost at the same time: a small part of the crews could be saved and the two brothers had the misfortune to recognize themselves shortly before their death..."
"...The governor of Cumaná expressed great satisfaction with our resolve to remain in Nueva Andalucía for some time, whose name was, at the time, almost unknown in Europe, and that in its mountains and on the banks of its many rivers they enclose a lot of objects worthy of attracting the attention of the naturalists. The knight of Emparan taught us cotton dyed with indigenous plants, and beautiful furniture, for which the country's wood was used exclusively; he was keenly interested in everything that was related to physics, and asked, with great admiration ours, we did think that, under the beautiful sky of the tropics, the atmosphere was less azotic than in Spain, or if the speed with which the iron was only oxidized in these effects. The name of the homeland, pronounced on such a distant coast, would not have been more pleasing to the ears of a traveler who were for us the words of the archetic, of oxide, of iron, and of hygrometer... The Knight of Emparan loved the sciences very much so that he would be surprised that we went so far to collect plants and to determine the position of some places by astronomical means. It did not therefore imply other reasons in our journey than those set forth in our passport; and the many attentions and proofs of consideration that dispensed us, during our long stay in their government, contributed to a favourable welcome in all parts of South America..."
Emparan's work as governor of Cumaná was formidable. The work of the Venezuelan historian Ildefonso Leal mentions his tenacious work in eastern Venezuela, in building hospitals and schools; his intention to modernize the ports, to modernize agriculture and to beautify the parish churches and to give Caracas a new printing press to improve the edition of the only newspaper published at that time in the capital:
"...It is good to say and remember it: Emparan constitutes one of the most cult rulers of the colonial period. He was, as Grisanti points out, a school navy, a physics expert and a botanist. The prestigious German naturalist Alejandro de Humboldt notes that Emparan loved the sciences too much, he treasured great books (including the Navigation Treaty of Mendoza) and was keenly interested in astronomy, and, moreover, he possessed the remarkable trait of generosity, to the end of facilitating money so that research on the flora and fauna of the region of Nueva Andalucía would not be interrupted..."
He founded several towns in eastern Venezuela at no cost to the royal treasury: San Vicente de Carapa, Santa Gertrudis, San Pedro del Pao, Santiago del Orinoco, Santa Catalina de Carito, San Simón de Maqueta, San Jacinto de Úrica, and it gave beginning to the Royal Port in the Gulf of Paria. He builds churches, three hospitals: one in Barcelona and two in Cumaná, leaving the Cumaná general hospital funds for its maintenance and care for the sick, with a doctor and apothecary that he had come from the Cádiz college.
In the year 1804, he resigned his position as governor of the Province of Cumaná and traveled to Spain. Four years after his arrival, during the war of independence, Napoleon Bonaparte's army invaded his homeland and on May 26, 1808, the invading government named him Captain General of Venezuela, an appointment that he did not accept. In an unpublished document cited in the book by historian Ángel Grisanti, Emparan expresses the following:
"Being in Madrid, at the entrance of the enemies in 1808, I was surprised by the intruder government that appointed me Captain General of Caracas, of which I sought to exempt myself, but seeing that in no way were my apologies admitted, I went unsuccessfully and introduced myself in Seville to the Board of those I requested several times gave me destiny in the army. Established the Central, instead of the destination that I expected, appointed me Captain."
Appointment as Captain General of Venezuela by the Central Supreme Board
Other evidence that clarifies the origin of his appointment as Captain General of Venezuela is a document found in the General Archive of the Indies, Seville, Spain, where the Supreme Central Board defended the rights of the King of Spain Fernando VII, resolves and orders that Vicente de Emparan, elected captain general of the province of Venezuela, be allowed to embark for his destination on His Majesty's ship San Leandro. The order was signed in the Real Alcázar of Seville on March 30, 1809.
By accepting the appointment, he confirms his fidelity and loyalty to the King of Spain Ferdinand VII. Emparan, promoted to the rank of field marshal, immediately embarked in Cádiz on April 1, 1809, heading for his destination, arriving in La Guaira (Venezuela) a month later. In Caracas he assumes the position and remains until April 19, 1810 when he renounces the legitimate authority conferred by the Central Supreme Junta, abandoning the Province of Venezuela. Leaving Venezuela, Emparan went to Philadelphia (United States) from where he sent a report to the Spanish government on the events of April 19. Later, he left for Spain.
In the city of Puerto de Santa María, on October 3, 1820, he died at the age of 73 without leaving any descendants, having been named a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of San Hermenegildo. A year earlier he had visited his hometown, Azpeitia.