Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the equally erroneous name of the River of Silver. In 1520, Ferdinand
Magellan passed along the coast of Argentina and around the south-
ernmost point of South America to Asia on the first circumnavigation
of the earth. He bequeathed his name to the straits at the tip of the
Southern Cone through which ships still pass between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans.
To lay claim to its hoped-for wealth and also to keep the Portuguese in
Brazil from settling the Río de la Plata, the Spanish Crown in 1534 com-
missioned a colonizing venture. A Spanish nobleman with no prior expe-
rience in the Indies, Pedro de Mendoza, led this voyage of 1,600 men and
THE FIRST BATTLE
BETWEEN EUROPEANS AND
THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF
RÍO DE LA PLATA, 1536
These [Querandí] brought us daily their provision of fish and meat
to our camp [at Buenos Aires], and did so for a fortnight, and they
did only fail once to come to us. So our captain, [Pedro de Mendoza],
sent to them a judge, named [Juan Pavón], with two foot-soldiers, for
they were at a distance of four miles from our camp. When they came
near to them, they were all three beaten black and blue, and were then
sent back again to our camp. [Pedro de Mendoza] . . . hearing of this
from the judge's report . . . sent Diego, his own brother, against them
with three hundred foot-soldiers and thirty well-armed mounted men,
of whom I also was one, straightaway charging us to kill and take pris-
oners all these Indians and to take possession of their settlement. But
when we came near them there were now some four thousand men,
for they had assembled all their friends. And when we were about to
attack them, they defended themselves in such a way that we had that
very day our hands full. They also killed our commander, Diego [de
Mendoza], and six noblemen. Of our foot-soldiers and mounted men
over twenty were slain, and on their side about one thousand. Thus did
they defend themselves valiantly against us, so that indeed we felt it.
Source:
Schmidel, Ulrich.
The Conquest of the River Plate (1535-1555)
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1891), pp. 7-8.
