Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzálo Fernández de (1478–1557)

Spanish administrator and historian. In 1514 he was sent by Ferdinand, king of Spain, to St Domingo in the West Indies as inspector-general of the trade of the New World, and during his term of office he acted with great cruelty and barbarity to the Indians. On his return to Spain he published his Sumario de la Historia General y Natural de las Indias Occidentales/A Concise General and Natural History of the West Indies (1526). His principal work is the Quinquagenas, containing a full account of the most important persons in Spain, their lineage, arms, and revenues, together with a fund of private anecdote. Oviedo y Valdés was born in Madrid, Spain.