The first attempt of the Portuguese to explore the interior of this continent, was equally unfortunate. The reports of the immense riches which the Spaniards had gained in Peru, had reached the ears, and excited the avarice, of the governor of Brasil. Ile dispatched Alexis de Garcia, a man of courage and ability, to penetrate, by an overland journey, into that country. Garcia, with his son and only three Portuguese com panions, constituted the expedition. They reached the Paraguay, and engaging a number of Indians, whom they found upon its banks, to follow them, they passed that river, and entering the empire of Peru, collected sonic gold and a considerable treasure in silver. Return ing to the Paraguay, Garcia, with a view of establish ing a settlement in the country, dispatched two of his companions to Brasil with an account of his journey, and some ingots of gold and silver as evidences of his success. Sixty Portuguese, and a party of Brasilians, were immediately sent, under the command of George Sedenno, to form the new colony ; but before their arrival, Garcia with his companions had been massacred by the natives, who had made his son a slave, and taken possession of all his treasure. These Indians had sus pected his design, but determined to resist the intrusion of strangers into their country. The Portuguese were consequently so harassed upon their march, that they found it impossible to proceed ; and after losing their commander and several men, they retreated towards the Parana, in attempting to cross which, most of them were drowned.
These disasters prevented, for a time, any similar attempts at conquest in this quarter, until 1526, when Sebastian Cabot, grand pilot of Castile, who had been dispatched by the Emperor Charles V. upon a voyage of circumnavigation by the Straits of Magellan, anchored in the La Plata, then called Rio de Solis, near the islands of San Gabriel. Having received the most flattering description of the riches and beauty of the country from some Spaniards whom he found in the port of Patos, and who had deserted from the army of Solis, he de termined to relinquish the original object of the expe dition, and to accomplish farther discoveries upon the Paraguay. After an unsuccessful attempt of one of his captains to explore the river Uraguay, which he took for the true Rio de Solis, he proceeded up the Parana, and built a small fort at the mouth of the Rio Tercero. This fort he garrisoned with sixty soldiers, and called it Santi Espiritu, or the Fort of the Holy Ghost. He then followed the course of the river as high as 27,1 degrees of latitude, where he met with some Indians, who wore in their cars small pieces of gold and silver. These they exchanged with the Spaniards for some European trifles, but could give them no information where these metals were to be found, except that they had received them from some of the tribes upon the Paraguay. Cabot immediately mounted that river, but a party of his men being cutoff by the natives, who had deluded them on shore, with the promise of sheaving them their riches, he returned to Santi Espiritu. Satis fied that the pieces of gold and silver which he had obtained from the Indians on the Parana, were the pro duce of the mines in the neighbourhood, he gave to the river the name of Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver ; and dispatched Ferdinand Calderon to Spain, to inform the emperor of his discoveries and operations. The
emperor was so delighted with the appearance of the pieces of silver, which were the first that had been brought from America to Spain, that he not only ap proved of Cabot's deviation from his original instruc tions, and of all that he had hitherto done, but he ordered a great armament to be fitted out for accom plishing the complete conquest of the country. Six years, however, elapsed before this armament was ready for sea ; and, during that time, the fort of Santi Espiritu had been destroyed, and the country entirely evacuated by the Spaniards.
Cabot, after waiting two years, and despairing of rein forcements, resolved upon returning to Spain, and ap pointed Nuno de Lara governor of the fort in his absence, with 110 men. Hitherto a good understand ing had been carefully cultivated with the natives, who frequently visited the Spaniards, and supplied them plentifully with provisions ; and since the departure of Cabot, Lara had assiduously applied himself to promote and to maintain it. Its continuance, however, was not of long duration, and was interrupted by a circumstance equally unforeseen and unsuspected. Mangora, cacique of the Timbuez, in the course of his frequent visits to Lara, had become violently enamoured of Miranda, a Spanish lady, and wife of Hurtado, one of the principal officers of the fort. Accustomed to the unrestrained indulgence of his inclination, the Indian thought only of getting her into his power ; and frequently pressed I furtado to pay him a visit, and bring his wife along with him. The lady, however, had suspected the design of Mangora, and warned her husband of her ap prehensions ; blt as it was the interest of the Spaniards to live in good terms with the cacique, Hurtado de clined the invitation in the politest manner. But the Indian was not to be duped by this evasion, and deter mined, as lie could not succeed, by cunning, to accom plish his purpose by force. He accordingly chose an opportunity when Hurtado was absent with a detach ment of forty soldiers in search of provisions, to surprise the Spanish garrison. Having posted a body of his bravest subjects in ambuscade near the fort, he ap proached with a few followers under the friendly pre tence of bringing refreshments. Mangora was received as usual with every demonstration of cordiality; but he had no sooner gained the gate, than he gave the signal to the ambuscade, when the fort was immediately filled with Indians. A dreadful scene of carnage ensued. Every Spaniard was massacred, but in the midst of the slaughter the treacherous cacique fell by the hand of Lara. Miranda, four other women, and four children, the only survivors, were carried before Siripa, the brother and successor of Mangora, who be ing also struck with her beauty, conceived the same violent passion for her which had proved so fatal to his brother. His behaviour, however, was tempered with a gentleness and lenity, which could not have been ex pected from a savage ; and though she repelled all his offers with the utmost disdain and acrimony, yet he continued to treat her with great moderation and respect.