left the Indian settlements, and advanced across a mountainous region,
through dense thickets of reeds, where our people underwent much
trouble, because, up to the fifth of the month, they met with no
settlement, and had to suffer much from hunger; and they kept themselves
alive with great difficulty, besides having to open roads through
the reed jungle. In the hollows of these reeds there were some white
worms,[311] about the length and thickness of a finger; the people fried
these for food, obtaining sufficient fat from them to fry them in very
well; all ate of them, and thought it excellent food. And from the
hollows of other reeds they collected good drinking water, and were much
comforted by it. They used to search for these worms during their march,
in order that they might have enough to eat, and so provide for their
necessities and hunger in their journey through that inhospitable
region. They crossed, with great difficulty, two wide and very deep
rivers, flowing towards the north; and the following day, being the
sixth of January, after marching through uninhabited country, they
encamped for the night on the bank of another deep river, with a very
strong current and with plenty of reed thickets, where the people
gathered the worms and subsisted upon them. So they pursued their
journey, and the next day they passed through a very good region, well
watered and abounding in game, such as boar and deer, and they killed
some and divided it among the people. That day they crossed two small
rivers, and it pleased God that none of the Christians fell sick, and
everybody kept on marching in good condition, cheered by the hope that
they would soon reach the town of the Ascension, and the Spaniards whom
they were going to relieve. From the sixth to the tenth of January
they passed many Indian Guaraní settlements, all of whom received them
peacefully, and greeted them joyfully; the inhabitants of each village,
with their chief, accompanied by their wives and children, came laden
with provisions, from which the Spaniards derived great help. But the
monks Bernardo de Armenia and Alonzo his companion went in advance to
collect provisions; and when the governor and his people arrived, it
happened that the Indians had nothing more to give; and the people
complained to the governor of this, as they had oftentimes done before,
and he warned the monks not to do so, and not to take along with them
certain Indians, of all ages, who were of no use, and to whom they
gave food; but the monks declined to obey. Then all the people were
ill-disposed towards them; but the governor favoured them, as they were
engaged in the service of God and His Majesty. At length the monks
separated themselves from the people, and, against the will of the
governor, took another road. He directed that they should be brought
back from the Indian settlements, where they had taken refuge; and had
he not so ordered their withdrawal, they would have come to grief. The
tenth of January, continuing their march, they passed many rivers and
rivulets, and other bad passages, great sierras and mountains, and
thickets of reeds abounding with water; every sierra[312] having a
fertile valley and a river, besides other streams and forests. In all
this land there is plenty of water, because it is under the tropic, and
the direction of their route on these days was west.
[311] The "reeds" of the text must certainly be bamboos, and the larva
or grub found in them answers to that of the _Calandra palmarum_, a
species of weevil which is still cooked and eaten in the way here
described.
[312] Sierra is a chain of mountains.
CHAPTER THE TENTH.
_Of the fear the Indians had of the horses._
THE fourteenth of January, continuing their journey among settlements
of Indians of the nation of Guaranís, all of whom came to meet the
Spaniards with much pleasure, bringing maize, fowls, honey, and many
other commodities; and as the governor always paid them to their
contentment, they brought such a profusion that the surplus remained on
the road. All their people go naked, men as well as women; they had a
great fear of the horses, and asked the governor to tell the horses not
to be angry with them; and in order to appease them they brought
them food. So they arrived at a wide river of mighty waters called
Yguatú,[313] a very noble river, abounding in fish and bordered by
forests; on its shore there is a settlement of Guaranís, who sow maize
and cassava, as in other parts they had already passed through; and they
came out to receive the governor, being aware of his coming, and of
the good treatment they would receive; and they brought plenty of
provisions. In all that land there are pine trees of many different
kinds, with fruits like those I have spoken of. And the Indians waited
upon the governor and his people, because he always treated them well.
The Yguatú flows due west in the twenty-fifth degree, and may be as
large as the Guadalquivir. Its banks (according to the accounts of
the natives, and as I saw with my own eyes) are populous, and the
inhabitants are the richest people of all that land and province, both
for agriculture and stock-raising. They rear plenty of fowls, geese,
and other birds; and they have abundance of game, such as boar, deer,
_dantas_,[314] partridges, quails, and pheasants; and they have great
fisheries in this river. They grow plenty of maize, potatoes, cassava,
_mandubies_, and many other fruits; and from the trees they collect a
great quantity of honey. From this settlement the governor decided to
write to the officials of His Majesty, and to the captains and people
residing in the town of the Ascension, to let them know that by order
of His Majesty he was on the way to relieve them, and sent two native
Indians of that land with the letter. While staying on the river
Pequiry,[315] a dog bit a certain Francisco Orejon, citizen of Avila in
Spain, in the leg; and fourteen other Spaniards fell sick because of the
long journey. These remained with Orejon, in order to follow by short
stages. The governor recommended them to the natives, in order that
these might favour them, and guide them on the way to follow him when
they recovered their health. And in order that they might do this the
more willingly, he gave many presents to the chief and other natives,
who were much pleased with them. All this country, through which the
governor was marching with his people making his discoveries, is filled
with large fields abundantly watered by rivers, rivulets, and springs,
well shaded by trees and cultivated. It is the most fertile land in the
world, adapted for cultivation and colonization. Many parts of it are
conveniently situated for sugar refineries; and the country is full of
game. The inhabitants are of the nation of the Guaranís, who eat human
flesh, and are all agriculturists and rear geese and fowls. They are a
domesticated people, friendly towards the Christians, and with a little
trouble would accept our holy Catholic faith, as experience has proved.
And, judging from the nature of the soil, it is certain that if there
are mines of silver anywhere, it is here they may be found.
[313] The Yguatú is an oriental affluent of the Paraná, entering this
river at 25° lat. S. The name is not to be found in modern maps.
[314] Anta or tapir.
[315] The Pequiry flows into the Paraná ninety miles north of the
Yguassu; the governor of Paraguai founded on its margin the town of
Ciudad Real de Guaira in the sixteenth century, destroyed afterwards
by the Paulistas.
CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.
_How the governor navigated the river Yguazú, in canoes, and how, in
order to avoid a cataract of that river, he carried the canoes one
league by hand._
THE governor having left the Indians of the Pequiry very friendly and
peaceful, continued his journey with his people through the interior,
passing many settlements of Guaranís, all of whom came to meet him with
plenty of provisions, showing great joy at his coming. And to all their
chiefs he distributed presents, and even the old women and children came
to greet them, laden with maize and potatoes. And the inhabitants of
villages which were one and even two days off along his line of march
did the same, and all brought commodities; and for some distance before
the villages were reached they cleared and swept the road, dancing and
making great merriment on seeing the Spaniards. What increases their
pleasure and contentment is to see their old women merry, because they
are wont to do as these tell them, and are more obedient to them than to
the old men. The last day of January, continuing to advance into the
interior of the province, they arrived at the river Yguazú, and before
arriving at this river they traversed an uninhabited region without
finding any settlement of Indians. This is the same river they crossed
at the beginning of their journey, when they left the coast of Brazil.
It is also called in that part Yguazú. It flows from east to west, and
there are no settlements on its banks. Here they took the altitude and
found it to be twenty-five and a half degrees. Before arriving at the
river Yguazú, they learned from the natives that it fell into the
Paraná, also called Rio de la Plata; and that between this river Paraná
and the Yguazú the Indians killed the Portuguese whom Martin Alfonzo de
Sosa[316] had sent to discover that land, who were slaughtered while
crossing the river in canoes. Some of these Indians who had so killed
the Portuguese warned the governor that the Indians of the Pequiry river
were bad people and our enemies, and that they were lying in wait to
seize and kill us during our passage of the river. Because of this the
governor held a council, and decided to secure both banks of the river,
he with part of his people descending the Yguazú in canoes, and entering
the Paraná, while the remainder of the people with the horses went
by land, and took up a position on the bank in order to overawe the
Indians; all the people were then to pass to the other side in the
canoes, and this was accordingly effected. The governor himself with
eighty men embarked in canoes and descended the Yguazú, the remainder of
the people and the horses proceeded by land, as we have said, and all
joined on the river Paraná. The current of the Yguazú was so strong that
the canoes were carried furiously down the river, for near this spot
there is a considerable fall, and the noise made by the water leaping
down some high rocks into a chasm may be heard a great distance off, and
the spray rises two spears high and more above the fall.[317] It was
necessary, therefore, to take the canoes out of the water and carry
them by hand past the cataract for half a league with great labour.
Having left that bad passage behind, they launched their canoes and
continued their voyage down to the confluence of this river with the
Paraná. And it pleased God that the people and the horses that went by
land, as well as those in the canoes with the governor, all arrived at
one time. On the bank of the Paraná there had assembled a great number
of Indian Guaranís, all decked with parrots' feathers, painted red and a
variety of other colours, holding their bows and arrows and all massed
together for battle. The arrival of the governor and his people in the
manner we have described caused much fear among them and threw them
into confusion. We began to speak with them through interpreters and to
distribute a number of presents among their chiefs; and as they were
covetous people, delighting in novelties, they began to be appeased and
to approach us. And many of them helped us to cross to the opposite
bank.[318] When we had passed, the governor ordered rafts to be made by
lashing the canoes by twos together; and in two hours they were ready,
all the people and the horses reaching the other side without being
interfered with by the natives. This river Paraná, at the place where
we crossed it, was a long cross-bow shot wide, very deep and rapid; in
passing it one of the canoes upset and one Christian was drowned, the
current having drawn him under, and he never rose to the surface. The
strength of the current and great depth form many whirlpools.
[316] Martim Affonzo de Sousa held a captaincy on the extreme southern
part of the coast of Brazil, for the Portuguese Government, in 1531.
This was the Capitania de São Vicente.
[317] The Salto do Iguaçu, or fall of the Iguassu, is a succession
of leaps made by this river at about eight miles from its mouth.
The difference in level above and below the falls is 58 mètres.
(_Subsidies, etc., to the Physical Map of Brazil_, Homem de Mello,
Rio de Janeiro, 1876, p. 29; Azara, _Viajes_; Martin de Moussy,
_Description de la République Argentine, etc._)
[318] _I.e._, to the right bank of the Paraná.
CHAPTER THE TWELFTH.
_Which treats of the rafts that were made to carry the sick._
WHEN the governor had passed the river Paraná he was greatly
disappointed at not finding the two brigantines which he had ordered by
letter the two captains who were at the Ascension to send, these vessels
being much needed to protect the passage for the transport of the sick
and those who were fatigued with the long journey. As there were many
incapable of marching who could not safely be left behind in the midst
of so many enemies, who might soon pluck up courage to attempt some
of their treasonable practices, he arranged to send the sick down the
Paraná on the rafts, entrusting them to the care of an Indian chief
named Yguaron, to whom he gave presents. This man offered to take charge
of the sick in person and bring them to the village of Francisco, a
servant of Gonzalo de Acosta, in the expectation that by the way they
would meet the brigantines, and would be received and entertained by
them; meanwhile this Indian, Francisco, who had been brought up among
Christians and who lived on the bank of the Paraná, four days' journey
from the point of their departure, according to the information of the
natives, would look after them. So the governor ordered them to embark,
and they were about thirty men, and he sent with them fifty arquebusiers
and crossbowmen for their protection. And as soon as he had sent them,
the governor, with the remainder of his people, continued his journey by
land towards the town of the Ascension, to reach which he would have
to travel nine days according to the information given by the Indians
inhabiting the banks of the Paraná. Possession was taken of this river
in the name of His Majesty, and the pilots took the altitude and found
it to be twenty-four degrees.[319]
[319] This is an error. The mouth of the river Yguazú is in 25° 35′
lat.
The governor and his people advanced across the country, passing
settlements of the Guaranís, all of whom received him well, and came
forth to meet him laden with provisions, as usual. In this march they
crossed large marshes, and other bad places, and rivers, and had to
build bridges and overcome many difficulties. After the passage of the
Paraná the Indians accompanied them from village to village, showing
great friendship and goodwill; they did them many good offices, both
in serving as guides, and providing them with food. For all this the
governor rewarded them generously, and made them well satisfied. During
the march a Spaniard came from the town of Ascension to meet the
governor, and took back tidings to his fellow-countrymen, and the people
there, of his arrival; for, owing to the straits they were in, their
desire to see him and his people was very great; and they could hardly
believe that he would do them such a service until they had seen him
with their own eyes, even though they had read the letters he had
written to them. This Christian informed the governor of the situation,
and of the danger the people were in, of the deaths that had happened
both of those who went with Juan de Ayolas, as well as many others
slain by the natives, and of their great tribulation and discouragement,
especially since the evacuation of Buenos Ayres; for they had long
expected relief from Spain, and when at length that port was abandoned,
they had given up all hope of deliverance. He also related many other
losses that had been sustained in the country.
CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.
_How the governor arrived at the Ascension, where the Spaniards
lived whom he had come to relieve._
HAVING learned of the above-mentioned Spaniard of the death of Juan de
Ayolas and his companions, and of the deaths of other Christians, of
the extremity of the survivors in the town of Ascension, and of the
abandonment of Buenos Ayres, whither he had left orders that the ship
_Capitana_ should proceed with the one hundred and forty men from the
island of St. Catalina; considering, too, the danger in which those
might be who arrived by sea, when they found that port deserted by the
Christians and in the hands of a large number of Indians, he made all
the haste he could to reach Ascension in the quickest time possible, in
order that he might infuse new courage into those who remained there,
and restore confidence among the friendly Indians. All the natives of
the parts he was now travelling through make their houses of straw and
wood, and many of those from the district round Ascension spoke to the
governor in our own Castilian tongue, bidding him and his Spaniards
welcome. Their reception of him was as cordial as any met with
heretofore. They cleared and swept the road, formed processions
with their wives and children, waited his arrival with presents of
provisions: maize, wine, bread, potatoes, fowls, fish, honey, and game,
all prepared; and they distributed these gifts among his men. In token
of peace they raised their hands, and, in their own language, some, too,
in ours, welcomed the governor and his people. Along the route they
entered into conversation with us, and were as cordial and familiar as
though they were our own countrymen, born and bred in Spain.
Travelling in this way, it pleased God that on the eleventh of March,
being one Saturday, at nine o'clock in the morning, in the year of grace
1542, we arrived at the city of Ascension, where we found the Spaniards
living whom we had come to relieve.
This town is situated on the bank of the Paraguay, in twenty-five
degrees south latitude. Before entering it the governor was met by all
the captains and people resident there, who showed incredible joy at his
arrival, declaring they had never believed, or even expected that they
would be relieved, so great were the dangers and difficulties of the
road never before explored; as for the sea-route _viâ_ Buenos Ayres, by
which they had hoped succour might have reached them, their expectations
from this quarter had also vanished since the Indians had taken the
aggressive with the idea of soon capturing and making an end of them.
Moreover, so long a time had elapsed since any Spaniards had landed
there, that they were in despair.
The governor received them all at an interview, spoke very kindly with
them, and informed them that he had come by His Majesty's orders to
succour them. Thereupon he showed his credentials and powers to Domingo
de Irala, and the officers Alonzo Cabrera, controller, a native of Loja;
Philip de Caceres, accountant, of Madrid; Pedro Dorantes, factor, of
Bejar, and to other captains and inhabitants of that province. These
documents were read out to the clergy and soldiers present, and by
virtue of them they recognized him as governor, and signified their
obedience as to a captain-general of the province, appointed by His
Majesty. The insignia of justice were given up to him, and were
redelivered, in the name of His Majesty, to the magistrates who should
administer civil and criminal law in the said province.
CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.
_How the Spaniards, left behind through sickness, on the river
Pequiry, arrived at the town of Ascension._
THIRTY days after the arrival of the governor at the town of Ascension,
as we have related, the Christians, both sick and sound, whom he had
sent on rafts from the river Paraná, arrived at the harbour, one only
being missing; and he had been killed by a tiger. They reported to the
governor how the Indians of the river assembled in great numbers with
their canoes, and while our men were descending on the rafts, came out
and attacked them with loud cries and beating of drums, shooting a
storm of arrows at them. Two hundred canoes surrounded them at one time,
trying to board and take possession of the rafts in order to kill the
Spaniards. For fourteen days and nights they never ceased fighting,
being exposed all that time to a constant fire of arrows, both from
those on shore as well as those in the canoes. The natives tried with
long hooks to seize hold of the rafts, and drag them towards the shore,
while the incessant shouting and cries of these men made so much din
that one would have said the powers of light and darkness were at war
with one another. They gave them no rest, for those in the canoes
changed places with those on shore, these continuing the fight while the
others rested. Twenty Spaniards were wounded, but not seriously; and all
this time the rafts kept drifting down stream, borne along by a strong
current. They descended so rapidly that rowing was unnecessary, and all
their efforts were directed to prevent their being drawn to land, where
the danger was greatest. Nevertheless, they were now and then exposed to
great peril, owing to the whirlpools which caught the rafts and twirled
them round; and it required all the skill of those that navigated them
to prevent them being taken inshore by the eddies. In this way they
continued their voyage for fourteen days without the possibility of
finding succour or protection, always pursued by the Indians in their
canoes, and a constant target for their arrows. At length they arrived
near the village of Francisco, the Indian, who, with some of his men,
came out to meet and succour the Christians. He brought them to an
island near his village, and gave them food, for they were weary
with the fatigues they had undergone, and starving. Here the wounded
recovered from their wounds, and all rested, for the enemy had not dared
to pursue them farther, and had withdrawn. Meanwhile the two brigantines
sent for their relief arrived at the village. In these they embarked and
arrived at the Ascension.
CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.
_How the governor, wishing to re-people Buenos Ayres, sent
reinforcements to those who had come there in the ship 'Capitana'._
ALVAR NUNEZ ordered two brigantines to be equipped with all diligence,
and to be loaded with provisions and other commodities; and having
manned them with some of the former colonists of Buenos Ayres who were
acquainted with the navigation of the Paraná, he sent them to relieve
the one hundred and forty Spaniards who were to have embarked at St.
Catalina in the ship _Capitana_ for Buenos Ayres; for, owing to the
abandonment of this port, these people would be exposed to great
danger. He ordered that the port should be immediately rebuilt in the
most convenient place, as the colony was necessary for the safety and
welfare of all the Spaniards in the province, as well for those who
might come there in future, ships being obliged to anchor in this part
of the river; here, too, brigantines have to be built to navigate the
river for three hundred and fifty leagues to the town of Ascension.