Kleist, Cortés, and the Great Santiago Earthquake of 1647

It is generally agreed that the sources of Heinrich von Kleist's bloody tales are European, but Juan LePuen argues that, for those interested in the genesis of "Michael Kohlhaas" or "The Earthquake in Chile," such colonial American documents as Hernán Cortés's letters to Charles V make for lines of inquiry of no less promise than that of more conventional European sources.