[CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH.]
How the Spaniards, left behind through sickness, on the river Pequiry, arrived at the town of Ascension.
THIRTY days after the arrival of the governor at the town of Ascension, as we have related, the Christians, both sick and sound, whom he had sent on rafts from the river Paraná, arrived at the harbour, one only being missing; and he had been killed by a tiger. They reported to the governor how the Indians of the river assembled in great numbers with their canoes, and while our men were descending on the rafts, came out and attacked them with loud cries and beating of drums, shooting a storm of arrows at them. Two hundred canoes surrounded them at one time, trying to board and take possession of the rafts in order to kill the Spaniards. For fourteen days and nights they never ceased fighting, being exposed all that time to a constant fire of arrows, both from those on shore as well as those in the canoes. The natives tried with long hooks to seize hold of the rafts, and drag them towards the shore, while the incessant shouting and cries of these men made so much din that one would have said the powers of light and darkness were at war with one another. They gave them no rest, for those in the canoes changed places with those on shore, these continuing the fight while the others rested. Twenty Spaniards were wounded, but not seriously; and all this time the rafts kept drifting down stream, borne along by a strong current. They descended so rapidly that rowing was unnecessary, and all their efforts were directed to prevent their being drawn to land, where the danger was greatest. Nevertheless, they were now and then exposed to great peril, owing to the whirlpools which caught the rafts and twirled them round; and it required all the skill of those that navigated them to prevent them being taken inshore by the eddies. In this way they continued their voyage for fourteen days without the possibility of finding succour or protection, always pursued by the Indians in their canoes, and a constant target for their arrows. At length they arrived near the village of Francisco, the Indian, who, with some of his men, came out to meet and succour the Christians. He brought them to an island near his village, and gave them food, for they were weary with the fatigues they had undergone, and starving. Here the wounded recovered from their wounds, and all rested, for the enemy had not dared to pursue them farther, and had withdrawn. Meanwhile the two brigantines sent for their relief arrived at the village. In these they embarked and arrived at the Ascension.
[CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH.]
How the governor, wishing to re-people Buenos Ayres, sent reinforcements to those who had come there in the ship ‘Capitana’.
ALVAR NUNEZ ordered two brigantines to be equipped with all diligence, and to be loaded with provisions and other commodities; and having manned them with some of the former colonists of Buenos Ayres who were acquainted with the navigation of the Paraná, he sent them to relieve the one hundred and forty Spaniards who were to have embarked at St. Catalina in the ship Capitana for Buenos Ayres; for, owing to the abandonment of this port, these people would be exposed to great danger. He ordered that the port should be immediately rebuilt in the most convenient place, as the colony was necessary for the safety and welfare of all the Spaniards in the province, as well for those who might come there in future, ships being obliged to anchor in this part of the river; here, too, brigantines have to be built to navigate the river for three hundred and fifty leagues to the town of Ascension.
The first two brigantines set out on the sixteenth of April. After they had started, the governor ordered two more to be built, and laden with provisions and people, to proceed also to the relief of the Spaniards, and to re-establish the port of Buenos Ayres. He gave special injunctions to the captains of these two vessels to treat the natives of the Paraná with kindness, and induce them by fair means to acknowledge the sovereignty of the King. He, moreover, directed them to take note of everything that occurred, in order that a full report might be sent to His Majesty. Having made these dispositions, Alvar Nuñez turned his attention to the service of God, and His Majesty, and to the pacification of the province. For the better accomplishment of these duties, he summoned a meeting of the monks and clergy residing in that province, as well as those that had come with him, and, in the presence of all the officers, the captains and the people, he entreated them, in kind but earnest words, to bestow special attention to the teaching of the Christian doctrines to the natives, subject to the King, and he caused certain passages of the Royal Charter to be read aloud, in which special mention was made of the treatment of the Indians. He further enjoined the monks, clergy, and other ecclesiastics, to take the Indians under their particular care, and to protect them from ill-treatment, and to inform him of anything done contrary to these orders—promising to supply all things necessary for this holy cause, and for the celebration of the sacraments in the churches and monasteries. And for this purpose he supplied them with wine and flour, and distributed among them the vestments he had brought for use in divine service; and he also gave them a barrel of wine for this use.