The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545

Contents

j vii Contents Translator’s Note xiii Translator’s Acknowledgments xxi CHAPTER ONE: A Word About the Commentaries of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca 1 CHAPTER TWO: We Leave the Island of Cape Verde 3 CHAPTER THREE: The Governor and His Fleet Arrive at Santa Catalina, in Brazil, Where the Company Disembarks 5 CHAPTER FOUR: Nine Christians Come to the Island 7 CHAPTER FIVE: The Governor Makes Haste on His Journey 9 CHAPTER SIX: The Governor and His People Begin Their First Ventures into the Interior 11 CHAPTER SEVEN: What the Governor and His People Went By Along the Road, and What Sort of Country It Is 13 CHAPTER EIGHT: Hardships Along the Way for the Governor and His People, and the Kinds of Pines and Pine Cones in That Land 17 CHAPTER NINE: The Explorers Starve, but Save Themselves with Worms, Which They Get from Some Canes 19 CHAPTER TEN: The Indians Are Afraid of Horses 22 CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Governor Travels by Canoe on the Río de Iguaza, and the Men Carry Their Canoes on Their Shoulders for a League to Bypass a Bad Stretch of the River at Some Rapids 24 CHAPTER TWELVE: They Make Rafts to Carry the Sick 27 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Governor Arrives at the City of Asunción, Where He Finds the Christian Spaniards He Had Come to Help 29 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Spaniards Who had Fallen Ill on the Río de Piqueri Arrive in the City of Asunción 32 viii j C O N T E N T S CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Governor Sends Help to the People Who Had Gone in His Flagship to Buenos Aires to Assist in the Resettlement of That Port 34 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: They Kill the Enemies They Capture, and Then Eat Them 36 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Governor Concludes a Peace with the Agaces Tribe 38 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The Settlers Complain About Your Majesty’s Officials to the Governor 41 CHAPTER NINETEEN: They Complain About the Guaycuru Indians to the Governor 42 CHAPTER TWENTY: The Governor Asks for More Details About the Complaint 43 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Governor and His People Cross the River, and Two Christians Drown 46 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Spies Go Out by Order of the Governor to Follow the Guaycuru Indians 48 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Following the Enemy, the Governor is Advised that They Are Just Ahead 50 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: A Jaguar Causes an Uproar Between the Spaniards and the Indians 52 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: The Governor and His Men Catch Up with the Enemy 54 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Governor Breaks His Enemies 57 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The Governor Returns to the City of Asunción with All His Men 59 CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: The Agaces Indians Break the Peace 61 CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: The Governor Sets One of the Guaycuru Prisoners Free and Sends Him to Fetch the Others 63 CHAPTER THIRTY: The Guaycurues Come to Give Their Allegiance to His Majesty 64 CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: The Governor, Making Peace with the Guaycurues, Returns His Prisoners 66 CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: The Aperues Indians Come to Make Peace and Give Their Allegiance 68 CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Sentence Is Passed on the Agaces, with an Opinion Offered by the Clerics, the Captains, and Your Majesty’s Officials 70 CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: The Governor Again Helps the People of Buenos Aires 71 Contents j ix CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Three Christians and Some Indians Come Back from Their Explorations 74 CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: Boards Are Cut for Brigantines and a Caravel 75 CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Indians of the Countryside Return to Be of Service 76 CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: The Town of Asunción Burns 80 CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: The Return of Domingo de Irala 82 CHAPTER FORTY: What Gonzalo de Mendoza Wrote 85 CHAPTER FORTY-ONE: The Governor Helps Gonzalo de Mendoza’s Men 87 CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: Four Christians Die of Their Wounds in a War 88 CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: The Friars Flee 90 CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: The Governor Takes Four Hundred Men on His Expedition 92 CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: The Governor Leaves Behind the Supplies He Is Carrying 94 CHAPTER FORTY-SIX: He Pauses to Talk with the Natives of That Port 95 CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN: He Sends for an Interpreter for the Payaguaes 98 CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT: The Horses Embark from the Port 99 CHAPTER FORTY-NINE: How They Killed Juan de Ayolas...