Under These
Difficulties, The Soldiers Entreated Him To Turn Back, Which He Refused,
And Went Into A Haven On The South Side Of The Straits, In Lat.
53 deg.
S.
where he ordered Roderigo de Isla to land, with 60 of the people, to
explore the country; but the people mutinied against Alcazava, and slew
him; and, having appointed such captains and officers as they thought
proper, they returned back. In their voyage homewards, one of the ships
was lost on the coast of Brazil, and such of the Spaniards as escaped
drowning, were killed and eaten by the savages. The other ship went to St
Jago, in the island of Hispaniola, and thence returned to Seville, in
Spain[79]. In the same year, Don Pedro de Mendoca went from Cadiz for the
river Plata, with twelve ships and 2000 men, being the largest armament,
both of ships and men, that had ever been sent from Spain to the new world.
Mendoca died on his return to Spain, but most part of his men remained in
the country on the Rio Plata, where they built a large city, containing
now 2000 houses, in which great numbers of Indians dwell along with the
Spaniards. From this place they discovered and conquered the country to a
great extent, even to the mines of Potosi and the town of La Plata[80],
which is at the distance of 500 miles from Buenos Ayres.
Cortes having learnt, in the year 1536, that his ship, of which Fortunio
Ximenez was pilot, had been seized by Nunnez de Guzman, sent three ships
to Xalisco, while he marched thither by land with a respectable force; and,
on his arrival there, he found his ship all spoiled and rifled. When his
small squadron was come round to Xalisco, he went himself on board, and
left Andrew de Tapia to command his land force. Setting sail from thence,
he came, on the first of May, to a point of land, which he named Cape St
Philip, and, to an island close by this cape, he gave the name of St Jago.
Three days afterwards, he came to the bay where the pilot Ximenez was
killed, which he named Bahia de Santa Cruz, where he went on land, and
sent out Andrew de Tapia to explore the country. Cortes again set sail,
and came to the river now called _Rio de San Pedro y San Paulo_, where the
ships were separated by a tempest. One was driven to the bay of Santa Cruz,
another to the river of Guajaval, and the third was stranded on the coast
near Xalisco, whence the crew went overland to Mexico. After waiting a
long while for his other two ships, Cortes made sail, and entered into the
gulf of California, otherwise called _Mar Vermejo_, or the Vermilion Sea,
and by some, the sea of Cortes. Having penetrated 50 leagues within that
gulf, he espied a ship riding at an anchor, and, on his approach towards
her, had nearly been lost, if he had not received assistance from that
other ship.
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