From the very moment of Europe's discovery of the continents, early explorers and conquistadores produced written accounts and crónicas of their experiencesuch as Columbus's letters or Bernal Díaz del Castillo's description of the conquest of Mexico. During the colonial period, written culture was often in the hands of the church, within which context Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote memorable poetry and philosophical essays. Towards the end of the 18th Century and the beginning of the 19th, a distinctive criollo literary tradition emerged, including the first novels such as Lizardi's "El Periquillo Sarniento" (1816).