[301] The river, island, and bay of San Francisco in the province of Santa Catharina.
[CHAPTER THE THIRD.]
Which treats of how the governor arrived with his armada at the island of Santa Catalina, in Brazil, and disembarked his troops there.
WHEN the governor had arrived with his army at the island of Santa Catalina, he ordered the disembarkation of all the people that he had brought with him, and the twenty-six horses, being all that had survived the sea voyage of the forty-six taken on board in Spain, in order that they might all recover on land from the hardships they had undergone in their long sea voyage, and that he might take command and inform himself of the native Indians of that land who might, perhaps, know how the Spaniards whom he had come to succour were circumstanced in the province of Rio de la Plata. And he gave the Indians to understand that he was sent by His Majesty to bring help, and he took possession of the land in the name and on behalf of His Majesty, and also of the harbour called Cananea, which is on the coast of Brazil, in twenty-five degrees, more or less. This harbour is fifty leagues from the island of Santa Catalina, and during all the time that the governor remained in that island he treated all the Indians, natives of that and other parts of the coast of Brazil (vassals of His Majesty) with great kindness. By these Indians he was informed that at fourteen leagues from the island, at the place called Mbiaça[302] there were two Franciscan monks, named Friar Bernardo, a native of Cordova, and Friar Alonzo Lebron, a native of Gran Canaria; and in a few days these monks came to where the governor and his people were, in great fear of the Indians, who sought to kill them, because certain of the dwellings of the Indians having been burned, these had in revenge killed two Christians living in that land. And the governor, well informed of all that had happened, did his best to appease the Indians, and gave refuge to the monks, and established peace among them; and he charged the monks to teach the Christian doctrine to the Indians of that land and island.
[302] Mbiazá; cf. supra, pp. [35] and [83].
[CHAPTER THE FOURTH.]
How nine Christians came to the island.
