The Conquest of the River Plate (1535-1555). active 16th century Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_0782132c-dbb2-5345-a32c-a2e20cb0c1c0">[133] Gonzalo Mendoza.
This commander, Conssaillo Manchossa, asked Martin Domingo Eijolla for six trusty soldiers, whom he could rely upon; and they were promised him. So he took me and six Spaniards, and also twenty more soldiers and seamen.
Departing from Bonas Aeieres, we came in a month’s time to St. Catharina, and finding the above-mentioned ship which had arrived from Spain, and the commander, Albernunzo Gabrero, with all his men, we were greatly rejoiced, and stayed there for two months, loading our ship with rice, manioc, and Turkish corn, so full that we could not take any more.
Then having sailed with both ships and the commander, Albernunzo Gabrero, and all his people from S. Catharina towards Bonas Aeieres in India, we arrived at twenty miles from the river Paranaw Wassu.[134] This river is forty miles wide at its mouth, and has the same width for eighty miles, until one reaches a harbour called S. Gabriel, where the river (Parana) has a width of eight miles.
[134] In early times this river was called Rio de Solis, and afterwards also Paraná Guazú. Its mouth, as we have before stated (supra, p. 6), is 188 miles wide between Capes Santa Maria and San Antonio. The width of the Paraná proper, where it empties into the Plate, at the end of the Delta, is twenty-five miles, between the island of Martin Garcia and Point San Fernando.
Having arrived as before said, to within twenty miles of this river, on All Saints’ eve, the two ships approached at night close to one another, and the one spoke the other, asking if we were in the river Paranaw; our seaman said we were in that river, but the other one said we were at a distance of twenty miles from it.
For when two, three, or more ships sail in company, they always come together at sunset, and ask one another how long they have sailed day and night, and what wind they intend taking at night, in order that they may not separate from one another.
After this our skipper again addressed the master of the other ship, asking if he would follow him, but the other said that it was already night, and he would therefore stand out to sea till next morning, and would not make the land by night; this skipper was indeed somewhat wiser than ours as the event afterwards proved.
While our ship continued on its way that night, having parted company with the other, great storm-winds arose at sea, so that we saw the land by twelve or one o’clock, before we could anchor.
And when the ship had touched the ground, we having notwithstanding a full mile to make in order to reach land, knew of no other counsel save to appeal to God Almighty that He might be merciful and take pity on us. That same hour our ship was broken into many thousand pieces, and fifteen of our men and six Indians were drowned. Some taking hold of large pieces of timber swam out, and I with five of my companions escaped on the mast. But of the fifteen drowned we could not find one. God bless them and us all. Amen.
We had afterwards to go on foot one hundred miles,[135] having lost all our clothes and victual, and had to sustain ourselves with such roots and fruits as we could find in the fields, until we came to the haven called S. Gabriel, where we found the aforesaid ship with her captain, which had arrived there thirty days before us.
[135] The distance which Schmidt and his companions would have had to walk, in a straight line between Cape Santa Maria, where it is probable that the shipwreck took place, and the island of San Gabriel, would have been 255 English miles.
When this mishap had been reported to our commander, Martino Domingo Eijolla,[136] he and all his men were very sorry, for they thought we had all perished, and they had already caused masses to be said for our souls.
[136] Domingo Martinez de Irala.
As soon as we had arrived at Bonas Aeieres,[137] our commander, Martin Domingo Eijolla, ordered the captain of our ship and the pilot to come before him; and if there had not been much intercession on behalf of the pilot he would have been hanged. He was, however, condemned to stay for four years on the bergentin ships.
[137] Buenos Ayres.
All the people being together at Bonas Aeieres, our chief captain ordered that the bergentin ships should be made ready, and that all the soldiers should be in them together, and that they should burn the great ships; preserving, however, the iron tackling. After this had been done, we sailed once more up the river Paranaw, and came to the town Noster Signora Desumsion, where we remained two years, waiting further orders from H. I. Majesty.
Meanwhile, another chief commander named Albernunzo Cabessa de Bacha,[138] came from Spain, appointed by H. I. Majesty, with four hundred men and thirty horses, in four vessels, two of which were large ships, and the other two Karabella.[139] These four ships arrived in Brazil at the haven called Wiessay, or S. Catherina,[140] to seek provision of victual, and when the commander had sent the two Karabella to sail eight miles distance from that port to seek for victuals, such a storm befell them that they were both compelled to remain at sea, and they perished, being broken all to pieces, but the men escaped.[141] When the chief captain heard of this, he durst not put to sea with the other two ships; but, since they were unseaworthy, he had them broken up, and came to us in haste by land to Riodellaplata, to the town Noster Signora desumsion, on the river Paraboe, and brought not more than three hundred out of the four hundred men with him, the remainder having died of hunger and disease.[142]
[138] Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.
[139] Caravels.
[140] Mbiaçá or Santa Catalina. Mbiaçá was the name of the country opposite the island, and at Schmidt’s time it was not Brazil, but a part of the Government of the River Plate. That is why Barcia’s Spanish translation says that Alvar Nuñez arrived in Brazil and Santa Catalina, which is perfectly correct.
[141] Cabeza de Vaca does not say that the two ships were wrecked, but that they had to put back to S. Catherina on account of bad weather. Cf. his Comentarios, infra.
[142] When the Emperor was made acquainted of Don Pedro de Mendoza’s death, he appointed another Adelantado to take his place, in case the Lieutenant-Governor whom Mendoza had left there had died too. The new Adelantado was Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, famous for his shipwrecks and adventures in Florida. Alvar Nuñez sailed from Spain in November 1540. He brought with him orders to take possession of the sea-coast belonging to Spain, south of the Portuguese Capitania de San Vicente. He first took possession of the ports of Cananea, San Francisco, and Santa Catalina, all pertaining to Spain. This island was given to the Adelantado as a personal gift for the term of twelve years, on condition of maintaining its possession and keeping there the Indians who inhabited it. Alvar Nuñez stopped there several months. In May 1541 he sent