It was not until August 1520 that Magellan, who had previously taken possession of Port San Julian in the name of the king of Spain, proceeded southward, and on October 21st he entered the strait which separates Patagonia from Terra del Fuego, and which bears his name. On the 20th of November he cleared the strait with his squadron, which, by the desertion of one ship and the loss of another, was now reduced to three vessels. Emerging triumphantly on the vast expanse beyond,—having been the first navigator to sail to it from the Atlantic, he had the right to bestow upon it the name of the Pacific Ocean.[J]
1526.
The name which, next to that of De Solis, deserves to be remembered in connection with the discovery of La Plata, is that of Sebastian Cabot, the son of John Cabot, a Genoese navigator, who, being then in the service of Henry VII., was the first European that set foot on North-American soil. Sebastian Cabot is said to have been born in England, Bristol being assigned as his birthplace. In 1497 he coasted the shore from Labrador to Florida. In 1526, Cabot, then chief pilot to the king of Spain, accepted the command of a squadron of four vessels fitted out by the merchants of Seville. In April of that year he set sail with the view of reaching China and Japan—then called Cathay and Cipango—by way of the straits discovered by Magellan in 1520; but, a mutiny breaking out in his command, he renounced his more ambitious enterprise and resolved to content himself with following up the discovery that had been made by the ill-fated De Solis.
Having entered the “Sweet Sea,” Cabot proceeded until he reached an island which he named after Gabriel. There leaving his vessels, he explored from a boat the coast of the mainland. A safe anchorage was afforded on the northern shore, where he found one of the Spaniards who had landed with De Solis, and who had escaped the cannibals. Throwing up a small earthwork to protect a portion of his men, he proceeded to explore the upper portion of the river. When he had reached the junction of the Paraná and the Uruguay he sent one of his officers with a vessel up the latter stream, whilst he himself ascended the former until he reached the Carcaraña or Tercero, where he erected a small fort called San Espiritu, leaving in it a garrison of seventy men. Still pursuing his course, he duly reached, after having surmounted countless difficulties, the junction of the Paraná with the Paraguay, nearly nine hundred miles from the sea. Having explored the Paraná a hundred and fifty miles further, he then returned to the junction and ascended the latter stream, and whilst there he received unexpectedly a welcome reinforcement from Spain. Cabot passed the following two years in friendly relations with the Guaranís, in whose silver ornaments originated the name of La Plata and thence of the Argentine Republic, the name having been applied by Cabot to the stream now called the Paraguay. That able and sagacious man now sent to Spain two of his most trusted followers with an account of Paraguay and its resources, and to seek the authority and reinforcements requisite for their acquisition. Their request was favourably received, but so tardily acted on that in despair the distinguished navigator quitted the region of his discoveries after a delay of five years.
1534.
The two earliest explorers of the Plata had been professional navigators; the commander of the third great expedition to that region was a courtier and a wealthy knight. Don Pedro de Mendoza, no doubt attracted by the name of the Silver Stream, undertook to plant the Spanish race on its shores on the following conditions, namely: That the region extending from the Plate to the Straits of Magelhães, a barren territory, was to be under his government; that he should pursue his way by peaceful or by warlike means across the continent until he should reach the ocean; that he was to be entitled Adelantado, and to receive a salary of four thousand ducats; that he was to be perpetual Alcalde of one of three forts which he was to establish; that to his heirs should be reserved the post of first Alguazil of the town where he should fix his residence; and that, should he capture another Montezuma or Atahualpa, he and his soldiers should receive two-thirds of the royal ransom. As a commentary on these ambitious views, Mendoza likewise took with him eight priests to teach and spread the unselfish doctrines of Christianity. His force consisted of some two thousand men with one hundred horses. Touching on his way at Rio de Janeiro, he thence proceeded along the coast and up the river Plata to the distance of one hundred miles. The flat southern shore was then in the possession of the Quirandis, a tribe which has long since disappeared before civilization. The green plains, unclothed by woods and unbroken by hills, displayed no natural feature from which the knight might derive a name for his town; but as the climate seemed of the best, he resolved to call it Buenos Ayres.
1534.
For some time the tribesmen supplied the invaders with food; but, with the fickleness of barbarians, they one day sent back their messengers mauled and empty-handed. This was a casus belli. The brother of Mendoza marched against the natives with three hundred foot-soldiers and thirty horsemen. Heretofore Spanish cavalry had, in their encounters with American aborigines, invariably been successful. The mailed warriors of Cortez or Pizarro had turned the scale of victory on many a day; but the cavaliers who charged with Diego Mendoza were met with a weapon now used for the first time against the horse and his rider. Bolas, or balls of stone, attached to each other, three together, by strips of hide, were hurled at the advancing centaur, which, entangled and stopped, came headlong to the earth. Don Diego and some horsemen were killed, and twenty footmen met their death in covering the retreat of their mounted comrades. The discipline of the infantry, however, enabled them to remain masters of the field.
After this encounter famine seemed to stare the followers of Mendoza in the face, and an expedition sent up the river in search of food was everywhere met with hostility. Mendoza now determined to proceed up the stream, and on an island he found an interpreter in one of the followers of Cabot. Buenos Ayres was meanwhile partly relieved by the return of an expedition that had been sent to procure provisions from the coast of Brazil. This was the extent to which the bright visions of Mendoza were destined to be realized. Tortured in body and broken in spirit, the knight left the scene of his misfortunes. On his homeward voyage he was still pursued by hunger, and his reason gave way before death came to his relief.