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92 j C H A P T E R F O R T Y- F O U R The Governor Takes Four Hundred Men on His Expedition By that season all the necessary items to carry out the proposed exploration were ready to go, as were the ten brigantines loaded with provisions and munitions. So the Governor collected four hundred select men, harquebusiers and crossbowmen, to go with him on the expedition . Half of them embarked in the brigantines, and the others, with twelve cavalrymen, were to go by land, along the riverbank, until the party should reach the port called Guaviaño. The Spaniards would be traveling through the towns and little settlements of the Guarani Indians, our friends, as that was the best way. The horses left, and so that they might not have to wait around in the ships, the Governor sent them off eight days before the rest of the party. They would be able to sustain themselves on land, and we wouldn’t have to waste anything feeding them on the river. The factor, Pedro de Dorantes, and the comptroller, Felipe de Cáceres, went with them. 1 Some eight days later the Governor embarked, leaving behind in Asunción Juan de Salazar de Espinosa as his lieutenant captain-general, so that in the name of Your Majesty he might sustain the country and govern it in peace and with justice. The Governor left in Asunción two hundred-odd soldiers, harquebusiers and crossbowmen, and everything necessary to guard the place well. There were also six horsemen. The Governor departed on the day of Our Lady of September, knowing the town’s church was newly reconstructed and very well at that. 2 The old church had burned, and he had worked on this new one with his own hands. The Governor left the port of Asunción with his ten brigantines and 120 canoes, carrying twelve hundred Indians, all warriors, and they looked very smart indeed as they sailed along in these vessels. They had The Governor Takes Four Hundred Men on His Expedition j 93 a tremendous stock of bows and arrows, and they were much painted up, with a lot of feathers and crests. They had metal discs, much polished, on their foreheads, gleaming as the sun struck them. The Indians say they wear these discs because they blind their enemies, and these men go forth to do their business with the greatest hubbub and pleasure in the world. When the Governor left the city, he instructed Captain Salazar to exercise all possible speed and industry in building the caravel the Governor had been planning so that it might be ready when he returned from his explorations. This ship would be used to give Your Majesty news of the Governor’s findings, and to this end he made sure everything was perfectly in place. Making good time, the Governor arrived at the port of Tapua, where the chiefs had come to greet him. He explained to them how he proposed to explore new lands. And to this end he begged them—and on behalf of Your Majesty, ordered them—to remain peaceful. For his part, they would certainly find he wanted only friendship and harmony with them— the conditions they had always enjoyed with each other. Proceeding in this fashion, the Governor promised always to treat the Indians well and be a boon to them, as he had always been. And after this he gave the chiefs and their children and their other relatives a lot of trade goods and trinkets he had brought along, leaving them contented and happy. ...

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