Juan de Quevedo

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Juan de Quevedo (Bejori, c. 1450 - Barcelona, December 24, 1519) was a Spanish Franciscan priest and bishop. His antecedents are unknown.

At the request of King Ferdinand, husband of Queen Isabella, Pope Leo X, on August 28, 1513, appointed Quevedo bishop of Santa Maria de la Antigua, or Darien, on the Isthmus, and he thus became the first bishop on the mainland of America. Accompanied by several Franciscans, Bishop Quevedo on April 12, 1514, embarked at San Lucar with Pedrarias Dávila, who had been named governor of Darien. The expedition reached its destination June 30. Conflict between Quevedo and Pedrarias soon ensued. The bishop reacted strongly against cruel acts committed by the governor and his officers, not only against the Indians, but also against rivals, such as the beheading of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean.

Charges were also brought against Quevedo; Bartolomé de Las Casas accused him of having violated a trust, accumulated wealth, and neglected the Indians, but the veracity of Las Casas' accusations has not been established. Quevedo returned to Spain in (1518) and presented two memorials to King Charles. One was against Pedrarias, and the other advocated restricting the powers of all governors in the New World for the better protection of the natives. When these documents were shown to Las Casas, in spite of differences between the two, he offered to countersign them. Bishop Quevedo soon fell sick and died at Barcelona.

In spite of Quevedo's record as a champion of the rights of Native Americans, his views were still coloured by his time and his missionary fervour. He regarded all the aborigines of America to be a race of men whom it would be impossible to instruct or improve unless they were collected in villages or missions and kept under continual supervision.