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.