author

Francisco Morillo

A Franciscan friar and firsthand chronicler of colonial South America, he is remembered for an unusually vivid account of an expedition along the Bermejo River in 1780. His writing preserves both the hardships of the journey and a rare on-the-ground view of the Gran Chaco frontier.

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Diario del viaje al rio Bermejo

Diario del viaje al rio Bermejo

by Francisco Morillo

About the author

Fray Francisco Morillo is known for Diario del viaje al río Bermejo, a narrative based on his experience as chaplain on an expedition sent to explore the Bermejo River in 1780. The work has been preserved in historical editions and is now widely available through public-domain and library projects.

From the surviving descriptions of the text, Morillo was a poor religious friar who joined the journey through the region of the Gran Chaco, recording the landscape, river travel, and the difficulties faced by the expedition. His diary is valued less as a polished literary work than as a direct, eyewitness account of a little-known frontier world.

Some historical references also identify him as the doctrinero of San Bernardo de Vértiz after the expedition. Clear biographical details beyond his role as a friar and diarist are limited in the sources I could confirm, which makes his journal the main window into his life and work.