CHAP. XXI.

CABOT PROCEEDS UP THE PARANA-ERECTS ANOTHER FORT CALLED SANTUS SPIRITUS, AND AFTERWARDS FORT CABOT-ITS POSITION-CONTINUES TO ASCEND-CURIOSITY OF THE NATIVES AS TO THE EXPEDITION -PASSES THE MOUTH OF THE PARANA-ENTERS THE PARAGUAY-SANGUINARY BATTLE THIRTY-FOUR LEAGUES UP THAT RIVER-THREE HUNDRED OF THE NATIVES KILLED, WITH A LOSS TO CABOT OF TWENTYFIVE OF HIS PARTY-MAINTAINS HIS POSITION-GARCIA ENTERS THE

RIVER-INTERVIEW WITH CABOT-MISTAKES OF CHARLEVOIX, &c.— CABOT RETURNS TO THE FORT SANTUS SPIRITUS."

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HAVING Completed the Fort, and taken every precaution for the safety of the ships at St Salvador, Cabot resolved to ascend the Parana. Leaving, therefore, a party under the command of Antonio de Grajeda, he proceeded in the boats and a caravel cut down for the purpose. The point at which he next paused and built a second Fort, is not a matter of doubt. It was on the south bank of the Parana, near a river called by the natives Zarcaranna or Carcaranna. This name was subsequently changed by the Spaniards into Terceiro. On the map of De la Rochette, already referred to, and also on that of Juan de la Cruz Canoy Olmedilla,* it is designated at the early stages as Terceiro, but lower down, gathering strength, it re-assumes the aboriginal title. The Fort stood not immediately on the bank of this river but some miles further up the

"Mapa Geografica de America Meridional dispuesto y gravado por de Juan de la Cruz Canoy Olmedilla, Geogfo. Pensdo. de S. M. Individuo de la Rl. Academia de Sn. Fernando, y de la Sociedad Bascongada de los Amigos del Pais ; teniendo presentes varios mapas y noticias originales con arreglo á observaciones astronomicas Año de 1775. Este Mapa de los Dominios Españoles y Portugueses en America Meredional, es una copia literal y exacta de un Mapa Español mui raro; compuesto y gravado en Madrid, año 1775, de orden del Rey España, por Dn. Juan de la Cruz Cano y Omedilla, Geofo. Pedo. de S. M. C. Londres, Publicardo por Guillermo Faden, Geografo del Rey, y del Principe de Gales, Enero 1. de 1799.'

Parana, as appears by the earliest maps, and by the small but admirable one of D'Anville, in vol. xxi. of the "Letters, Edifiantes et curieuses."* On the great map of De la Rochette its position is marked with much precision. There is laid down the "Cart Road" from Buenos Ayres to Sante Fe, which passes through El Rosario and S. Miguel; then comes "el Rincon de Caboto, Fort destroyed;" then Calcachi, and, a little beyond this last, the river Monge. The same representation is made, substantially, by Juan de la Cruz Canay Olmedilla. The only remark of Cabot with regard to the natives of this quarter which Herrera repeats is, that they were intelligent ("gente de buena razon").

He left in this fort a garrison under the command of Gregorio Caro, who had commanded the Maria del Espinar, one of the ships of the squadron, and proceeded in person further up the river. His force must now have been inconsiderable, consisting, as it did, originally, of only one hundred and fifty men, increased perhaps by the gentlemen volunteers. Besides the loss of three principal officers, and inevitable mortality, he had weakened his numbers by leaving garrisons in two forts. Yet his plan was, undoubtedly, a prudent one of thus forming points on which he could fall back, in case of disaster, and break the force and rapidity of a rush towards the vessels. Herrera furnishes no account of his intermediate movements until he reaches the Parana. The incidents which occurred during that long and interesting route are therefore unknown, except from a slight glimpse given in the conversation reported in Ramusio. In ascending the river, Cabot is there represented as "fyndynge it every where verye fayre and inhabited with infinite people which with admyration came runnynge dayly to oure shyppes."+

"Lettres Edifiantes et curieuses ecrites des Missions Etrangers par quelques Missionaires de la Campagnie de Jesus." The work is in the King's Library, British Museum (title in Catalogue Epistolæ).

† Richard Eden's Decades, fol, 255. The original in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 415. "Trovandolo sempre bellissimo et habitato da infiniti popoli che per maraviglia correvano à vedermi."

On reaching the junction of the Parana and Paraguay, he saw that the direction of the former was to Brasil, and, therefore, leaving it on his right he ascended thirty-four leagues up the other.

The region on which he was now entering presented a new aspect. For the first time, the natives were found engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and, with the feeling that springs from exclusive property, they regarded the strangers with jealousy. The tribes in this quarter are marked, both on the old and the recent maps, as distinguished for ferocity and as the deadliest enemies of the Spaniards and Portuguese. A collision soon took place. Three of Cabot's men having, incautiously, strayed from the main body to gather the fruit of the palm tree, were seized by the natives. There followed a fierce and very sanguinary battle. Three hundred of the natives were killed, and Cabot lost twenty-five of his party.* He would seem to have maintained his position, for, among the incidents occurring below, to which it is time to turn, we find the commander of the lower fort apprised, by letter, of what had taken place.

The Portuguese Diego Garcia now re-appears in the narrative of Herrera. That personage, who had left Spain in August 1526, after touching at the Canaries and Cape de Verds proceeded to the coast of Brasil, and is found in January 1527+ at the Abrolhos shoals. He visits the Bay of All Saints, the Island of Patos (now St Catherine), all places at which Cabot had touched, and finally the La Plata. We are now without dates, except that in ascending the river Good Friday is mentioned as the day of his departure from Santus Spiritus. Of his previous history nothing is known, except from the anecdote told by Herrera of the fraud on his employers in hiring the principal vessel to the slave-dealer at Cape Vincent. We might charitably conclude that he was looking for Juan

*Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.

† Ib., Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.
+ Ib., Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.

de Cartagena and the French priest; but, unfortunately for his fair fame, those persons were put on shore by Magellan, at Port St Julien, in Patagonia, some fifteen degrees to the southward of the La Plata.

He found the ships of Cabot at St Salvador, as we left them, under the charge of Antonio de Grajeda, whose anxious vigilance was increased by a letter just received from Cabot, announcing the bloody affair above, and probably sent down with the wounded. Grajeda, seeing strangers approach, supposed that they were the mutineers whom Cabot had put on shore, the two brothers Roxas and Martin Mendez.* Under this impression, he manned his boats, and proceeded in force against them. At the moment of collision, Diego Garcia caused himself to be recognized, and the parties returned amicably together to St Salvador. Garcia here sent away his ship to fulfil the contract about the slaves, and brought his remaining small vessels to St Salvador, which was found, on examination, to offer the most secure harbour. Proceeding up the river with two brigantines and sixty men, he reached the Fort of Santus Spiritus, and required the commander, Gregorio Caro, to surrender it, as the right of discovery belonged not to Cabot, but to himself, under the orders of the Emperor. The answer of Caro was, that he held the Fort in the name of the Emperor and of Sebastian Cabot; but that he was willing to render it useful, in any way, to the new-comers. He begged, as a favour, of Garcia, that if, on ascending the river, he found that any of the Spaniards had been taken, he would use his efforts to ransom them, "because, although he knew that Cabot had defeated the Indians, yet it was impossible but that some must have been taken." It is plain, from

* Here occurs the expression from which it is inferred, that the two mutineers whose names are so nearly alike were brothers, "vieron dos naos de Sebastian Gaboto cuio Teniente era Anton de Grajeda que salio con ciertos Canoas i un Batel armados pensando que eran los dos Hermanos Roxas i Martin Mendez, que iban contra el porque Sebastian Gaboto, por inquietos, los havia dexado en una isla desterrados entre los Indios." Herrera, Dec. iv. lib. i. cap. i.

† "Porque aunque sabia que Sebastian Gaboto havia desbaratado los Indios era imposible que no huviesen peligrado algunos." Herrera, Dec. iv lib.i. cap. i.

U

these expressions, that Cabot was known to have made good his stand. Caro personally pledged himself to the repayment of whatever Garcia might find it necessary to advance in the way of ransom; and he begged, if Cabot had fallen, that Garcia would not leave them in that country.*

On arriving at the junction of the Parana and Paraguay, Garcia, instead of proceeding to support Cabot, turned into the former river, about which he makes a report that Herrera declines to insert, as Nunez Cabeca de Vaca had subsequently examined it with greater care. At length, he reached the Port of Santa Ana, the name given by Cabot to his last position. Herrera, although not accurate as to distances, determines the place of meeting, by stating it to have been where the Indians had killed twenty-five Spaniards; and having his own authority for fixing that point thirty-four leagues up the Paraguay, we may suppose that Cabot, after chastising the natives, had come to a good understanding with them. He was employed, as we shall hereafter have reason to conclude, in diligently collecting information about the region from which had been brought the precious metals that he saw in this quarter.

Of the circumstances attending the interview at Santa Ana nothing is known; but Garcia, doubtless, repeated the remonstrance which he had addressed to the commander of the fort.

It was not in the character of Cabot, or consistent with his standing in Spain, to struggle for lawless, or even doubtful, power, and he descended the river in company with Garcia.

In the absence of any evidence as to these points, imagination has been drawn upon. Charlevoix, as has been already stated, supposes Garcia to have been sent into the La Plata by the Captain-General of Brasil, thus betraying an entire ignorance of the precise statement of Herrera, and of the fact that there was no such officer as he speaks of, until many

• “Que si hallase muerto a Sebastian Gaboto le rogaba que no los dexasse alli." Ib.