The early history of America has few romantic tales of love and devotion,
but there is one woven in with the history of the settlement of Buenos
Ayres, the modern Argentina, which is told by all the historians of the
time, and which exists as the one striking love romance of the Spanish
conquest. It has been doubted, it is true, but it will not to do to
dismiss all the chivalrous tales of the past on the plea that historical
critics have questioned them.
It may not be generally known to our readers that the man who explored and
took possession of the great rivers of Buenos Ayres for Spain was
Sebastian Cabot, he who, many years before, had with his father discovered
North America in the service of England. It was in the year 1526 that he
sailed up the noble river which he named the Rio de la Plata, a name
suggested by the bars of silver which he obtained from the Indians on its
banks. Sailing some hundred miles up the Paraguay River, he built at the
mouth of the river Zarcaranna a stronghold which he named the Fort of the
Holy Ghost. Some three years later Cabot set sail for Spain, leaving Nuno
de Lara as commander of this fort, with a garrison of one hundred and
twenty men.
These historical details are important, as a necessary setting for the
love-romance which followed the founding of this fort. Lara, being left
with his handful of men as the only whites in a vast territory peopled
with Indians, felt strongly that in his situation prudence was the better
part of valor, and strove to cultivate friendly relations with the nearest
and most powerful of these tribes, the Timbuez. His success in this
brought about, in an unexpected manner, his death and the loss of the
fort, with other evils in their train.
[Illustration: COFFEE PLANT IN BLOSSOM.]