author
Francisco Morillo
A Franciscan friar and chronicler of the late 18th century, he is remembered for a vivid account of an expedition down the Bermejo River in the Gran Chaco. His writing offers a rare firsthand glimpse of exploration, river travel, and frontier life in colonial South America.
1 Audiobook
Diario del viaje al rio Bermejo
by Francisco Morillo
About the author
Francisco Morillo is known as Fray Francisco Morillo, a member of the Franciscan order and the author of Diario del viaje al río Bermejo. His work is tied to an expedition in 1780, when he served as chaplain on a journey connected with the exploration and navigation of the Bermejo River.
Morillo's reputation rests mainly on that diary, later published in Buenos Aires in 1837. The book is valued less as polished literary writing than as a direct, eyewitness record of travel through a difficult and little-known region of the Gran Chaco, with details on the landscape, the river route, and the people involved in the expedition.
Because so little biographical information is easy to confirm, he remains a somewhat shadowy historical figure. Even so, his journal has endured as an important source for readers interested in colonial-era exploration and the history of northern Argentina and the Bermejo basin.