[CHAPTER THE SIXTH.]
How the governor and his people advanced into the interior.
THE governor, having full information concerning those parts through which he had to enter in order to discover the land and relieve the Spaniards, and being supplied with all things necessary for his journey, on the eighteenth of October of the same year ordered the embarkation of the people that were to follow him in the discovery, with the twenty-six horses and mares which had survived the sea voyage; and he ordered them to cross the river Ytabucu and subdue it, and take possession of it in the name of His Majesty, as newly discovered land. He left in the island of St. Catalina one hundred and forty persons, who were to embark and go by sea to the river La Plata, where the port of Buenos Ayres is situated; and he charged Pedro Estopiñan Cabeza de Vaca, whom he left there in the capacity of captain of the said people, that before leaving the island he should supply and furnish the vessel with provisions both for the people he was taking with him, as well as for those in Buenos Ayres; and before his departure he gave many presents to the natives of the island, in order that they might remain, and some of them readily offered their services to accompany the governor and his people, to show the road and be useful in other ways; and their assistance happened to be very handy. On the 2nd November of the said year the governor ordered that all his people, besides the provisions carried by the Indians, should each take what he could carry for the road. And the same day he began his march, with two hundred and fifty arquebusiers and crossbowmen, very well trained in arms, twenty-five horses, the two Franciscan friars, and the Indians of the island; then he sent the vessel back to the island of St. Catalina in order that Pedro de Estopiñan Cabeza de Vaca might embark and go with his people to Buenos Ayres; and so the governor went on his way into the interior of the land, where he and his people underwent many troubles. In nineteen days they crossed great mountains, cutting roads through forests, to enable the men and the horses to pass, for all the land was uninhabited. And at the end of these nineteen days, having exhausted the provisions which they had carried when they began their march, and having nothing left to eat, it pleased God that, without the loss of a man, they discovered the first inhabitants, who are called “del campo”, where they found certain villages of Indians, whose chief lord was called Añiriri, and at one day’s journey from this people there was another whose chief was Cipoyay. And beyond this people again there was a third tribe of Indians, whose chief said that he was called Tocanguasú. And when the Indians knew of the arrival of the governor and his people, they went out to meet him laden with plenty of provisions, showing great joy at their arrival. The governor received them affably, and, besides paying the value of the provisions into the hands of the chiefs, he graciously gave them many shirts and other things, with which they remained satisfied. This is a people and tribe called Guaranís; they are cultivators, sowing maize twice in the year, and also cassava. They rear fowls as in our Spain, and geese; keep many parrots in their houses, and occupy much land, and the whole are of one language. They eat human flesh, as well that of their Indian enemies as of Christians; they also eat one another. This people is very fond of war, and they seek it; they are very vindictive. Of this people and their territory the governor took possession, in the name of His Majesty, as newly discovered land, and called it the province of Vera,[307] as it appears from the deeds of possession that were drafted before Juan de Aroaz, notary royal. And this being done on the 29th of November, the governor and his people left Tocanguasu. And after two days’ march, on the 1st of December, they arrived at a river called by the Indians Yguazu,[308] which means big water; here the pilots took the depth.
[307] Alvar Nuñez took the name of his mother’s family, ‘Cabeza de Vaca’; the name of his father, a descendant of the Adelantado of the Canary Islands, was ‘de Vera’.
[308] The Iguazu, or Yguassu, a large affluent of the Paraná, rises in the Sierra do Mar, near the city of Curitiba, and flows nearly due west. It forms the boundary of the provinces of Paraná and Santa Catharina.
[CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.]
Which treats of what happened to the governor and his people in his journey, and of the nature of the land.
