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Home , Inca Empire, Pedro de Mendoza, Sierra de la Plata

AND THE WHITE KING

When the Spanish adventurers Irala, Ayolas, Cabeza de Vaca, and Nufrio de Chaves explored the and traversed the Chaco, they fully realized that another white man had preceded them and that they were but following his trail. The true pioneer in that region in the early sixteenth century was Aleixo Garcia, whom all evidences agree was a Portuguese.1 History has found but little place for Aleixo. His has been a phantom figure, regarded by some as legendary. Well-known writers have ignored his existence, or, if they acknowledged it at all, have passed him by as an adventurer of small importance.2 Others have disposed of him in a single line or relegated him to a footnote.3 Surely this is injustice to a man who, virtually alone, had the ability to manufacture an Indian war in his own interest, to cause a considerable displacement among the Paraguay tribes, and to invade the Inca at the head of a native army several years before the coming of Pizarro. Aleixo Garcia did all this. What is more, he influenced the future pattern of and settle­ ment in both Rfo de la Plata and Paraguay. For many years after his death his memory lingered in the regions through which he passed. The historians’ neglect of Aleixo is all the more surprising because the evidence concerning him is reliable and fairly plenti­ ful.4 His progress can be traced in some detail, the limit of his 1 The Spanish form, “Alejo” Garcia, is encountered more often than the Portuguese “Aleixo.” However, it has seemed best here to use the form that the owner of the name would have used. In the same way, the unaccented Portuguese “Garcia” is preferred to the Spanish “Garcfa.” 2 Jos6 Toribio Medina {Juan Diaz de Solis [ de , 1897]) pays no attention to Aleixo Garcia and consequently falls into some serious errors. 3 Henry Harrisse {John Cabot, the Discoverer of North America and Sebastian, His Son [London, 1896]) has but two slight references to Aleixo, pp. 195 and 261. In neither case does Harrisse show any real knowledge of his career. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, Historia geral do Brasil antes da sua separagdo e independencia de (3.a edi^ao integral, 5 vols., Sao Paulo, 1927-1936), makes a little mention of Garcia in Vol. I, but errs heavily. 4 The two best analyses of this evidence are Manuel Dominguez, El alma de la raza (Asuncidn, 1918), and Enrique de Gandia, Historia critica de los mitos de la conquista amerieana (, 1929). Baron Erland Nordenskiold deals with the Aleixo Garcia

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Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 western advance is known, and both the place and manner of his death are attested by contemporary evidence. The first historian to write at any length about Aleixo Garcia was Ruy Diaz de Guzman, in a work entitled La , com­ pleted at the of La Plata (now ) in 1612.5 This nar­ rative, which fortunately can be checked from earlier sources, contains our main body of knowledge concerning the valiant Portuguese. Diaz de Guzman had few of the foibles of the pro­ fessional historian regarding documentation, and to all appear­ ances relied mostly on , at least in that part of his work which deals with Aleixo.6 But he lived close enough to the of the to have available a fairly fresh and accurate supply of verbal information, gathered either from the pioneers or from their immediate descendants.7 In general his story rings true, and the occasional errors in it are easily identified. It is even possible to see how some of them originated. Diaz de Guzman says that in the year 1526 Martim Afonso de Sousa, head of the Brazilian capitania of Sao Vicente, sent four Portuguese to travel inland and explore. With them went some friendly coastal Indians. The leader was one “Alejo” Garcia, a man well versed in several Indian tongues, including Guarani.8 They came to the Parana, crossed it, and then journied from one story in “The Guarani Invasion of the in the Sixteenth Century: An His torical Indian Migration,” The Geographical Review, IV (1917), 103-121, but his interest lies chiefly in the Indian movements. Somewhat misleading as to title is Mdrio Monteiro, Aleixo Garcia, descobridor portuguez do Paraguay e da em (Lisbon, 1923). Monteiro’s work is mainly a description of Paraguayan and Bolivian regions formerly visited by the author. The part concerning Garcia seems to be taken entirely from Dominguez. 6 Diaz de Guzmdn’s work, under the title “Historia argentina del descubrimiento, poblacidn y conquista de las provincias del Rio de la Plata, por Rui Diaz de Guzman,” is found in Pedro de Angelis, Coleccion de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las provincias del Rio de la Plata (2nd ed., 5 vols., 1910), I. 6 For i nstance, he shows no familiarity with Ulrich Schmidel’s narrative, which was the oldest historical account of the Rio de la Plata and which dealt with the expedition of in 1535, as well as with events for years after. Schmidel, a Suabian soldier originally in the employ of the Welsers, wrote in Europe after retiring to his home. In Diaz de Guzm&n’s day his work had been published only in Latin and German. Probably Diaz de Guzmdn knew' no German, and his Latin attainments were doubtless limited. 7 His father had come to with Adelantado Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1540, and had married the daughter of Domingo Martinez de Irala. Diaz de Guzmdn had thus grown up in the best-informed colonial circles. 8 “. . . el uno de estos cuatro Portugueses se llamaba Alejo Garcia estimado en aquella costa por hombre prdctico, as! en la lengua de los Carljos, que son los Guaranies, como de los Tupies, y Tamoyos. . . ” (Diaz de Guzman, op. cit., in Angelis, Coleccion, I, 21).

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Indian village to another until they reached the Paraguay, where they were well received by the local Guaranis. The Portuguese held a great council with the natives and persuaded two thousand of them to form a war party to go with the white men “to dis­ cover and reconnoiter those from which could be brought fine clothes and metal objects useful for both peace and war.” Needless to say, the country in question was the Inca empire, toward which Aleixo proceeded with his new allies. Guzman confesses to being in some doubt as to where they entered the Chaco and mentions two conflicting reports about the route fol­ lowed. In any event, the party ascended the Paraguay to a point well above the future site of Asuncidn before turning west­ ward. As they crossed the Chaco, the Guarani warriors fre­ quently had to fight hostile Indians, being sometimes victorious and sometimes worsted. Nevertheless, they pressed on and finally reached the Andean cordillera. They crossed the Inca frontier between Mizque and Tomina, and straightway fell on the people of the vicinity, killing and plundering promiscuously. By the time they reached the towns of Presto and Tarabuco, op­ position had so stiffened that Aleixo thought it best to retire. He conducted his retreat in good order and with small loss, carrying away a considerable amount of loot. The Inca thereupon fortified the frontiers of Charcas, to prevent such incursions in the future. Dfaz de Guzman says that in his own day, nearly a century later, this military architecture could still be seen. The Portuguese and Guaranis returned through a different part of the Chaco, laden with many precious objects of and copper. At length they came to the Paraguay, where Aleixo decided to wait and to send two of his white companions to report to Sousa at Sao Vicente. The messengers left, bearing specimens of the Inca spoil, but while they were gone some neighboring Indians conspired against Garcia and killed him, as well as many others. The cause of this treachery was the treasure, which the savages coveted. Dfaz de Guzman says that the killers spared the life of the leader’s son, a youth also named Aleixo Garcia, because of his tender years. Another account, presumably re­ liable, says that the Portuguese leader was eaten in a ceremonious way by his slayers.9 The principal errors of Dfaz de Guzman, in the narrative just summarized, relate to the origin and date of the expedition. Aleixo Garcia and his companions did not set out from Sao Vicente and 8 DomiDguez, op. cit.. p. 301.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 were not sent by Martim Afonso de Sousa. In 1526, the date which Diaz de Guzman assigns to the adventure, the capitania of Sao Vicente had not been founded, and Sousa did not come from Portugal to until 1531.10 It will not help to postdate the Aleixo Garcia expedition a few years to bring it within Sousa’s time, because Peruvian evidence shows that actually it must be placed somewhat before 1526. The Inca sources establish the fact that the emperor in whose reign the Portuguese-Guarani in­ vasion took place was . This ruler died in 1526, and the eastern raiders seem to have come not in the year of his death but a little earlier. It is easy to understand, however, why Diaz de Guzman connected the affair with Sousa, because the Portuguese governor did ultimately send into the interior an ex­ pedition which could well be mistaken for Aleixo Garcia’s. Aleixo and his Portuguese comrades were originally members of the Juan Diaz de Solis expedition.11 This left in 1515 and explored the Rio de la Plata, which for some years thereafter the Spaniards generally termed Rio de Solis. The leader was lost in an Indian fight on the coast of Uruguay and his ships returned to Spain. As they sailed northward, one vessel was wrecked off the Brazilian island of Yuru minrin (Santa Catharina) and eight­ een survivors remained,12 perhaps on the island and perhaps at Puerto de los Patos a short distance away on the mainland. They included Aleixo Garcia and three others whom we know by name; Enrique Montes, Melchor Ramirez, and a mulatto called Pacheco. With the exception of Ramirez, they are described in nearly all the documents as being Portuguese. Though Solis had com­ manded a Spanish expedition, he was Portuguese himself, and it is not surprising to find his countrymen serving in considerable numbers in his fleet. In Magellan’s case, a few years later, the situation was the same. 10 Historia da colonizagdo portuguesa do Brasil (3 vols., Oporto, 1921-1924), III, 133 ff. 11 Nordenskiold (op. cit., p. 119) believes they first reached South America with the Portuguese expedition of Cristdvao Jacques, about 1515. He cites as his documentary authority the letter of Luis Ramirez, a companion of Sebastian Cabot’s, who wrote from the Rio de la Plata in 1528. The letter, dated “Rio de Solis,” July 10, 1528, is published by Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen in Revista do Institute Historico e Geografico Brasileiro, 3rd series, XV (1888), 14-41 (hereinafter cited as “Ramirez letter”). From reading the letter, I, for one, do not receive the impression that Ramirez means any such thing. He does mention Jacques (p. 37) but in another connection. Earlier in his letter (p. 19) he plainly says that Melchor Ramirez and Henrique Montes, who were companions of Aleixo Garcia’s, came with Solis. 12 Medina (op. cit., I, ccxc) gives the number as eleven. But Enrique de Gandia (op. cit., p. 162) finds good reason for concluding that there were eighteen survivors.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 While waiting in their fairly comfortable exile, the Europeans maintained constant touch with the local Indians. Aleixo Garcia must here have gained his celebrated knowledge of Guarani, for that large linguistic group, centering in Paraguay, extended all the way to the Atlantic coast. Through native channels, the fame of the Inca empire reached the castaways. Rumors came of a great white king, who wore good clothes like those of the Euro­ peans.13 In this king’s country was to be found a silver mountain range () where incalculable riches could be gain­ ed. To get to the of the Caracaraes, as the Guaranis called it, one would have to cross the Tierra de los Mbayaes, or Chaco. A report of the Inca empire circulating on the coast of Brazil need not have been altogether fantastic. As early as 1511, Vasco Nunez de Balboa had heard vaguely of this empire while still on the northern side of the Isthmus of Darien.14 The Guarani in­ formants of Aleixo Garcia and his friends certainly possessed a more substantial knowledge of the Incas than did the Indians whom Balboa encountered. Attracted by the riches of and Bolivia, the Guaranis had already once, and perhaps oftener, raided the frontiers of the western empire.15 Peruvian records of the pre-Spanish period have various accounts of invasions by more barbarous Indians from the east. A good example is that of the Chancas, whom Inca defeated near the middle of the fourteenth century.16 Incursions of this kind continued even after the Spanish conquest of Peru.17 Thus it can be seen that Inca wealth acted as the same bait to predatory South-American Indians as it later did to Spanish conquistadors. Aleixo Garcia decided to go in search of these riches, and several of his comrades, including the mulatto, Pacheco, elected to share the adventure.18 Others, including Montes and Ramirez, 13 Ramirez letter, loc. cit., p. 20. 14 The allusion here is to the celebrated incident in which the young , son 01 Comogre, told the Spaniards that if they wanted gold he could guide them to a land where there was more gold than “iron in Biscay”: “M£s oro que hierro en Viscaya” (Bartolome de las Casas, Historic, de las Indios [3 vols., Madrid, 1927], II, 524). It is generally sup­ posed that the junior cacique was retailing a rumor of the distant Inca empire. If this view is mistaken, Balboa certainly heard reports based on the Inca nation after he crossed the isthmus. 15 Julidn M. Rubio, fixploracion y conquista del Rio de la Plata. Siglos XVI y XVII (Barcelona and Buenos Aires, 1942), p. 38. 16 Philip A. Means, “The Incas: Empire Builders of the ,” National Geographic Magazine, LXXIII (1938), 237-241. 17 Alfred M^traux, Migrations historiques des Tupi-Guarani (Paris, 1927), pp. 21-22. 18 The size of the party was four, according to Guzman; six, according to Cabeza de Vaca; and five, according to Luis Ramirez. Apparently we have no way of determining the number with certainty.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 remained behind, probably because it seemed best not to lose touch with the Atlantic coast entirely. Early in 152419 the travel­ ling party left either Yuru minrin or Puerto de los Patos and jour­ nied through the present Brazilian of Santa Catharina to the Parana, which they crossed, and next traversed the intervening country to the Paraguay and the approximate site where Asunci6n was to be founded thirteen years later.20 We learn from a letter written in after years by Domingo Martinez de Irala that Aleixo Garcia’s group traveled by much the same route that Adelantado Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca later took from Santa Catharina to Asuncibn.21 This means that the journey was made by way of the falls of Iguassu, of which the Comentarios of Alvar Nunez fur­ nish such an interesting description, the first recorded impression of this wonder of nature.22 The strong presumption is that Aleixo Garcia discovered the falls, since there is no evidence that any white man saw them before him. In the neighborhood of the future Asuncibn, as Diaz de Guz­ man tells us, the adventurers were well received by the local Guaranis. To attack a sovereign as powerful as the white king seemed to be, numbers were essential, and here was the place to get them. Some negotiations took place preparatory to forming the expedition against the Incas. Of these dealings we have no details, but the natives were warlike and evidently quite willing to undertake the venture. We also do not know the extent to which Aleixo Garcia was in command of the two thousand savages who accompanied him, but the description of the later retreat in good order from Bolivia indicates that some measure of discipline existed. That the Portuguese condottiere must have needed help in managing his Indian henchmen is obvious. Probably the natives had war chiefs who directly supervised their men, while Aleixo Garcia and the other Portuguese acted as a general staff. After ascending the Paraguay to a point considerably above its juncture with the Pilcomayo,23 the Indian warriors and their white allies turned westward and entered the Chaco. They crossed the trackless wild by approximately the route that Juan 19 This is the deduction of Dominguez (op. cit., p. 297). 20 The city was founded by Juan Salazar de Espinosa and was baptized “Nuestra Senora Santa Marla de la Asuncion” (Rubio, op. cit., p. 136). 21 “Carta a S. M. el rey.—1 de marzo de 1545,” in R. de Lafuente Machaln, El gobernador Domingo Martinez de Irala (Buenos Aires, 1939), pp. 453-465 (hereinafter cited as “Irala letter”). 22 Comentarios de Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, chap. xi. 23 Dominguez (op. cit., p. 298) believes that the army ascended the Paraguay to a river port now called Corumbd, and turned westward from there.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 de Ayolas followed in 1537, in an expedition that was plainly in­ spired by Garcia’s. Ayolas on that occasion had an Indian guide who had been with the Portuguese party.24 This information does not help us much, because except for the starting point and the destination we are decidedly in the dark regarding the Ayolas itinerary. But the Indian guide, whose existence is attested by Domingo Martinez de Irala, serves as additional documentation for the earlier Aleixo Garcia adventure.25 We know of at least two Indian peoples through whose terri­ tory Garcia passed on his way to Bolivia. The first of these, the Chanfis, were bitter enemies of the Caracaraes (Incas), near whose frontiers they lived.26 Instead of trying to conquer the Chanes, who did not seem worth the trouble, the invaders easily bought their alliance with gifts.27 The Tarapecocies, who lived close by, were won over in the same way.28 Contingents of Chants and Tarapecocies joined Aleixo Garcia against the Incas, and later ac­ companied him in his retreat back to the Paraguay from Bolivia.29 For the details of the raid into the Inca empire we have to rely mainly on what Ruy Diaz says, though we can add a little from Peruvian accounts. After crossing the frontier, the marauders began raiding and plundering, and they killed all those in their path. They penetrated to the towns of Presto and Tarabuco, which are located a few miles apart in the present Bolivian depart­ ment of Chuquisaca. By this time they had driven about sixty miles into Huayna Cfipac’s empire and had collected a rich assort­ ment of plunder. Sarmiento de Gamboa, who later wrote of these events from Inca sources, says that the Chiriguanos30 stormed and 24 Irala letter, loc. cit., p. 453. Irala’s antique phraseology is “. . . hallo . . . un esclavo que abia sido de un gargia xptiano [cristiano] ... el qual se ofreeio de guiarle donde el dicho gargia hubo el dieho metal, y con esta rrelacion determino de seguyr cl camino quel esclavo le decia. ...” 26 Apparently all that can be known of the Ayolas route is that the expedition left Candelaria on the Paraguay, reached Charcas, and returned to Candelaria, where Ayolas and his remaining followers were massacred (Rubio, op. cit., pp. 130-133). 26 Comentarios de Cabeza de Vaca, chap. lvi. 27 Ibid., chap. lv. 28 Ibid., chap. lxx. 29 Cabeza de Vaca (ibid., chaps, lv and lvi) speaks of them as inhabiting villages on the Paraguay at the time of his own ascent of the river in 1543. He encountered a head man (“principal”) of the Chanfe, a man about fifty years old, who described their arrival with Garcia following their retreat from Bolivia. The Indian said that his people were afraid to return to their old home because they feared the Guaranis they would have to pass on the way. 30 The name of that branch of the Guaranis which seemingly made up most of Aleixo Garcia’s army (Nordenskiold, op. cit., p. 103)

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 captured the large frontier fortress of Cuzco-tuyo, where the Inca ruler had a garrison.31 Meanwhile, the Charcas Indians, thor­ oughly aroused to their danger, had commenced arming and mass­ ing to exterminate the invaders, and the emperor himself had taken alarm. Huayna Capac, though now old, had always han­ dled military affairs vigorously. He seems to have been personal­ ly engaged in another campaign at that time, but he sent trained officers to handle the Charcas emergency. From Inca reports it would seem that even after this the result remained in doubt for a time. One account says that Huayna Capac finally had to detach twenty thousand men to expel the intruders.32 Apparently his general, Yasca, succeeded in capturing a number of Guaranis, whom he sent to where the ruler was then residing.33 No writer from the Inca side shows any knowledge of a white man accompanying and directing the invaders, which is an im­ portant reason for believing that Aleixo Garcia and the other Portuguese kept well in the background.34 They must have been seen by many Incas, but as they had been shipwrecked at least eight years earlier their European clothes had obviously been replaced long since by native garb. Their beards, if they wore them, failed to attract attention. The Europeans also lacked firearms, since any use of these would have impressed the Incas and have caused them to be remembered. Within a few years, Pizarro’s followers came bringing such weapons into Peru and Bolivia, easily within the memory of those Incas who had ex­ perienced Aleixo Garcia’s invasion. The situation in Bolivia at length grew too hot for Garcia to handle with his limited numbers. He decided to retire, though only temporarily, to place his plunder in safety, gather reinforce­ ments, and return for a larger foray. As Diaz de Guzman relates, he drew off in good order, saving the lives of most of his warriors. 31 Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, (trans, and ed. by Sir , Hakluyt Society, Cambridge; 1907), p. 165. 32 Juan de Santa Cruz -yamqui Salcamayhua, “An Account of the Antiquities of Peru,” in Narrative of the Rites and Laws of the Incas (trans, and ed. by Clements R. Markham, London: Hakluyt Society, 1873), p. 109. 33 Sarmiento de Gamboa, op. cit., p. 166. 34 Nordenskiold (op. cit., p. 109) mentions a leader of the Chiriguanos named “Topayn- gayupanqui,” and cites Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti as an authority for this. But ex­ amination of the Spanish version of Juan de Santa Cruz shows that “Topayngayupanqui” is merely a variant spelling of Tupac Inca Yupanqui and has nothing to do with any captain of the Chiriguanos (“Relacidn de Antiguedades deste reyno del Peru,” in Colec- cion de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Peril, 2a. Serie, Vol. IX [, 1927], 199).

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Accompanying him on his retreat to the Paraguay were those Chants and Tarapecocies who had joined the invasion at the last moment. The Inca province of Charcas was left terrified and in arms. Dfaz de Guzman’s statement that Huayna Capac took measures to strengthen his frontier defenses receives confirmation from Peruvian sources.35 Aleixo Garcia’s progress from Yuru minrin to the neighbor­ hood of Charcas and back to the Paraguay had totalled about a thousand leagues.36 The doughty Portuguese had found his white king and silver mountain range—at least in substance, if not in the identical form he had anticipated. His was the first European party to cross the great interior waste of South America. At the time Aleixo Garcia campaigned in the Charcas vicinity, Pizarro, and Almagro were engaged in the first of their three southward expeditions. On that occasion they advanced no farther than Punta Charambira on the west coast of .37 Aleixo Garcia and the majority of his allies returned safely to the Paraguay, laden with the spoil which Dfaz de Guzman de­ scribes as consisting of clothing, ornaments, and silver crowns.38 The leader evidently decided to establish a camp by the river, and in the meantime to communicate with his European friends on the coast. He sent twelve Indians as messengers, bearing two or three arrobas of silver.39 They also carried letters, in which Aleixo Garcia described the results of his expedition and urged the others to come and take part in another which he was preparing against the Inca realm. Montes and Ramirez received the letters but did not care to risk their lives in the perilous hinterland, being intimidated by the dangers their bolder friends had experienced and seemed ready to face again.40 The treasure also reached the Atlantic coast, where it remained for some time in the possession of Montes and Ramirez. But most of it was later lost in the sea during an attempt to load it aboard a Spanish ship which came that way in 1526.41 35 Philip A. Means, “A Note on the Guarani Invasions of the Inca Empire,” The Geographical Review, IV (1917), 482-484, 36 Dominguez, op. cit., p, 299. 37 See Robert Cushman Murphy, “The Earliest Spanish Advances Southward from Along the West Coast of South America,” The Hispanic American Historical Review, XXI (1941), 22. Almagro reached this point on June 24,1525, and then turned back to the north. 38 Dfaz de Guzm4n, op. cit., p. 22. 3S An arroba amounted to about twenty-five pounds. 40 Ramfrez letter, Zoe. cit., p. 22. 41 Ibid.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Meanwhile, Aleixo Garcia with the other Portuguese and nu­ merous Indians had been killed in an Indian uprising. Our sources do not state clearly whether the Guaranis who murdered Aleixo were the same ones he had conducted against the Incas, or others. What is certain is that the white leader was slaughtered for the sake of his treasure and the slaves he had brought from the in­ terior.42 Aleixo Garcia died on the left bank of the , about fifty leagues above the site of the future city of Asun- ci6n.43 We can establish the date of his death with some relia­ bility as the latter part of 1525. Sebastian Cabot came to Yuru minrin in October, 1526, and at that time Montes and Ramirez were able to report the murder as having taken place a good while earlier.44 According to Ruy Diaz de Guzman, Aleixo left a son, also named Aleixo Garcia, whom the Indians spared because of his youth. None of the contemporary documents mentions such a lad, and his existence appears improbable. If he was the child of a European marriage, he must have come to America with his father in the Solis expedition of 1515, ten years earlier. A boy old enough to be taken on such a voyage would certainly have been grown by 1525, or at least of an age to make him worth kill­ ing by the not overly squeamish Guaranis. If he was the offspring of some Indian romance of Aleixo’s, he must have been very young indeed at the start of the white-king quest, and we can hardly imagine his being taken along. In neither case does an Aleixo Junior fit the picture, and it seems best to dispense with him. The remarkable career of Aleixo Garcia had taken him from the Atlantic to Paraguay seventeen years before Cabeza de Vaca made his more famous overland march through the same country.45 Garcia antedated Cabot by four years in the discovery of the Para­ guay, and he explored the Chaco thirteen years before Ayolas.46 Thirteen years also elapsed between the Garcia raid on Charcas and the first appearance there of any of Pizarro’s followers.47 Historically more important than these individual exploits of pioneering and exploring was the beginning of the quest of the white king and the Sierra de la Plata, later undertaken by so many conquistadors. By the time these better-known explorers of inland South America commenced their work, the trail blazer was gone, though by no means forgotten. His history did not altogether end with his death. 42 Ibid.-, Diaz de Guzm&n, op. cit., p. 22. 43 Dominguez, op. cit., p. 301. 44 Ramirez letter, loc. cit., p. 21. 45 Dominguez, op. cit., p. 302. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid,

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 About the time Aleixo Garcia set out for Bolivia from the Atlantic, Sebastian Cabot, pilot major of Spain and successor to Solis, signed a capitulacion with Emperor Charles V, by which he undertook to go to the Moluccas and to make other oriental dis­ coveries.48 The biblical Tarshish and Ophir, as well as Marco Polo’s Cipangu and Cathay, were named in the agreement as objectives of the expedition. But Cabot evidently did not take all this very seriously. From the beginning he apparently meant to explore the Rfo de Solis, from which rumors of wealth had come. On April 3, 1526, he left San Lucar de Barrameda with his fleet and in June arrived at Pernambuco, Brazil. A small Portuguese factory already existed there, and Cabot entered into long and mysterious conversations with the factor, who gave him a tall story of the riches to be obtained in the Rfo de Solis.49 Some of the pilot major’s captains suspected the Portuguese of deceiving the gullible Cabot in order to deflect him from the East Indian search.50 This would have been a normal proceeding in those , but it appears that good faith prevailed for once and that the factor meant what he said. He told Cabot that to obtain fuller data he should go to Puerto de los Patos, where there were two Christians, a Portuguese named Enrique Montes and a native of Lepe named Melchor Ramirez. These men would be able to give him an accurate account. We see from this that within a few months of the death of Aleixo Garcia some report of his ad­ ventures had spread as far as Pernambuco. Cabot decided to follow the Portuguese advice and accordingly sailed to Puerto de los Patos, arriving in October.51 He found not only Montes and Ramirez but fifteen other white men who had been left there by the Spanish ship San Gabriel a short time be­ fore.52 This vessel was a deserter from the fleet of Comendador Garcia Jofre de Loaisa. The latter had been sent from Spain to follow the Magellan route into the Pacific and to the Spice Islands. Near Magellan’s Strait, the San Gabriel, commanded by Rodrigo de Acuna, had left the fleet without the formality of a farewell. The commander’s later story was that he had intended to try for the Moluccas by the Cape of Good Hope route.53 Whatever his intentions, he sailed northward to Puerto de los Patos and en- 48 Jos<3 Toribio Medina, El veneciano Sebastian Caboto, al servicio de Espana ... (2 vols., Santiago de Chile, 1908), II, 1. 49 Ibid., p. 235. 50 Ibid., p. 225. 51 Ramirez letter, loc. cit., p. 19. 62 Ibid. 53 Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, ed., Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los espanoles (5 vols., Madrid, 1825-1837), V, 235.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 countered “two Spaniards,” who are not named but who were obviously Montes and Ramirez.64 They told him that there had earlier been nine others who had “gone to the wars,” clearly a reference to the Aleixo Garcia party.65 An attempt was made to load the Bolivian treasure aboard the San Gabriel, only to have it lost in the sea.56 Relations grew bad between Rodrigo de Acuna and the two exiles, whether due to the treasure or not, and the ship finally sailed away leaving them and fifteen members of the crew who wished to remain.57 The San Gabriel continued her voyage toward the north and met with strange adventures which have no place in the present narrative. But it is safe to conclude that she was responsible for spreading the report of treasure to Pernam­ buco, where Cabot heard it. When the pilot major reached the abode of Montes and Ramirez they told him their story, including the part about the white king and the silver mountain range. They added some details of their earlier visit with Solis to the great southern river, and said that if Cabot were to explore the Rio de Solis he would certainly get to the place where Aleixo had been. They had little of the treasure left to show, but they did let Cabot see a few pieces of metal they had managed to save.58 This, to all appearances, was what finally caused the pilot major to explore the Rio de la Plata, and not the fact that he had lost one of his ships, which is commonly given as the reason. Cabot turned into the river, ascended the Parana, entered the Paraguay, and progressed as far as the mouth of the Pilcomayo. That he was trying to duplicate the adventure of Aleixo Garcia is obvious. What he had not counted on was the extent of the Chaco, which had to be crossed to reach the promised land. Every­ where he went the Indians told stories of the white king and the silver mountains, and of Aleixo Garcia as well. One member of his expedition wrote that certain of the savages were afraid of the newcomers because they thought their object was to take venge­ ance for the deaths of the other Christians who had been killed in 64 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 66 Ramirez letter, loc. cit., p. 21. 67 Ibid. \ Navarrete, op. cit., V, 236. Neither Montes and Ramirez, in their conversa­ tions with Cabot, nor Rodrigo de Acuna, in his report to the king, seems to give a straight­ forward story of what happened between. There was considerable fighting, the castaways being helped by numerous local Indians. Acuna does not mention the treasure, though it certainly figured in the affair. This omission, plus the armed hostility which occurred, suggests that the ship commander may have tried forcibly to rob the maroons. 68 Ramfrez letter, loc. cit., p. 21.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 the Aleixo Garcia massacre.59 Cabot found some natives who had accompanied Aleixo into the hinterland. Ultimately, as is well known, Cabot was joined by Diego Garcia of Moguer, who likewise had abandoned an expedition to the Spice Islands to succumb to the lure of the white king and the silver range. The two leaders, despite mutual hostility, decided to join forces, and for a time they explored the river together. Diego Garcia, in a Memorial written later, showed some knowl­ edge of Aleixo, and even gave reason to think that the latter was his kinsman.60 Cabot and Diego Garcia, however, were not pre­ pared to go as far as Aleixo had gone, and finally gave up the expedition and returned to Spain. A few years later, in 1530, King John III of Portugal sent Martim Afonso de Sousa with a fleet to plant a colony in Brazil.61 Sousa reached Brazil early in 1531 and made his way southward along the coast by easy stages. The main result of his expedition was the founding, at Sao Vicente, of the first official Portuguese colony in the New World. At Cananea, Sousa encountered two white men who for years had lived among the savages.62 This pair undertook to lead an expedition inland for him, promising to be back in ten months with four hundred slaves laden with silver and gold.63 Sousa detached eighty of his men to go on this quest, and for over a year heard nothing of them. Eventually, just be­ fore returning to Europe in 1533, he learned that they had been massacred by Indians.64 The whole project sounds like one in­ spired by the story of Aleixo Garcia. Slaves bearing treasure naturally were what contemporaries knew best and discussed most frequently in their tales concerning Aleixo. Some knowledge of the fate of Sousa’s party caused Ruy Diaz de Guzman, eighty years later, to confuse it with the adventure of Aleixo Garcia, whom he supposed to have been the commander sent out by Sousa. More than one modern Brazilian and Argentine historian has fallen into the same error. The fame of the Sierra de la Plata spread through Spain and Portugal. The fact that the Pizarros invaded Peru and slew the ™ Ibid., p. 35. 60 Published by Varnhagen, Revista do Institute Histerieo e Qeogrdfico Brasileiro, 3rd series, XV (1888), 6-14. The statement that seems to refer to Aleixo is on p. 14. 61 Historia da colonizag&o portugudsa do Brasil, III, 133 ff. 62 Not to be confused with Montes and Ramfrez at Puerto de los Patos. White men living with the Indians on the Brazilian coast were no especial rarity at this time. 63 Historia da colonizagdo portuguesa do Brasil, III, 144. M Ibid., Ill, 148.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 white king in the person of Inca in 1532, did not lessen the desire to reach the sierra from the Atlantic side. To deal fully with the aftermath of the Aleixo Garcia expedition would involve undue expansion of the present small study. But a few incidents may be summarized as illustrations. Adelantado Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires in 1535, but he had come to the Rfo de la Plata mainly to seek the silver range. Scarcely had the city been established than Mendoza undertook an expedition up the Parana in person. Though fail­ ing health soon made him abandon his venture and sail for Europe, he entrusted the finding of the sierra to his young lieutenant, Juan de Ayolas. The latter crossed the Chaco and reached Bolivia, being guided by an Indian who had previously gone with Garcia.63 Ayolas took considerable plunder from Charcas, but on his return to the Paraguay was massacred with his entire party. Next, Asuncibn was founded and Domingo Martinez de Irala became de facto governor of the Spanish colonists there. Irala, as his writings reveal, knew the story of Aleixo Garcia and intended to follow his trail westward at the first opportunity. But, before circumstances made this possible, news came that Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, of recent North American fame, had been ap­ pointed adelantado and was on his way to Asuncibn. Alvar Nunez disembarked at Garcia’s island of Yuru minrin in 1541 and marched overland to Paraguay, travelling by the same route the Portu­ guese free-lance had used seventeen years earlier.66 Though un­ successful as a governor, he explored the upper waters of the Paraguay, and in doing so encountered many Indians who re­ membered Aleixo Garcia.67 Alvar Nunez wished to go where Garcia had been and tried to procure guides from the natives, but the particular group he was interested in finding was reported as having left the country.68 It is evident from the adelantado’s description that Aleixo Garcia, though now dead for nearly twenty years^ had left a great name in the region. Members of one tribe told Alvar Nunez that they felt friendly toward Christians “ever since Garcia had been in the country and had compacted with them.”69 Other Indians said that Aleixo, following his great ad­ venture, had returned to Brazil.70 This gratuitous piece of misinformation is hard to explain, since the natives, and presum­ ably the white men, knew perfectly well what had happened to 66 See footnote 24. 66 Irala letter, loc. cit., pp. 458, 461. 67 Comentarios de Cabeza de Vaca, passim. 68 Ibid., chap. lvii. 69 Ibid., chap. lxx. 79 Ibid., chap. 1.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Aleixo. Our guess must be that Alvar Nunez’s informants had had a hand in the Garcia slaying and wished to conceal the fact. The adelantado, if he knew better, gave no sign of his knowledge. Ill health forced him to return to Asuncion and to abandon all hope of making an expedition to the Sierra de la Plata. Irala deposed Alvar Nunez in 1544 and again became governor of Asuncion, eventually having his position legalized by the Spanish crown. In the course of his administration, he made two expeditions across the Chaco toward the sierra. It was by now a little late to find Indians who had been involved in the Aleixo Garcia affair, but the aim and destination remained the same as before. Irala’s lieutenant, Nufrio de Chaves, this time went as far as Lima. He entered into negotiations with the governor of Peru, Pedro de la Gasca, from whom he learned that Spanish ex­ peditions from the Paraguay would not be tolerated by the new masters of the Inca realm.71 Hence, it was the tightening hold of Pizarro’s successors on the Bolivian highlands that finally put an end to the Sierra de la Plata quest. In both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the story of Aleixo Garcia has occasionally been cited for diplomatic purposes in South America. In 1855, the Brazilian statesman Pimenta Bueno advanced the thesis before the senate of his country that the frontiers of Dom Pedro’s empire should be advanced to the rivers Ipane and Igatimi in Paraguay. He seems to have reached this conclusion from reading Guzman’s La argentina, where he learned that Aleixo Garcia, a Portuguese proceeding from Bra­ zilian territory, had discovered the Paraguay.72 When, later in the century, Brazil and Argentina engaged in the Misiones dispute, one of the points raised was that of the itinerary of Cabeza de Vaca from Santa Catharina to Asuncion on a march that was a repetition of Garcia’s.73 Not many years ago, during the Bolivian-Paraguayan dispute over the Chaco, Paraguay’s claims made reference to the priority of Aleixo’s discoveries. In the text adopted for official purposes by the National Council of Education of Paraguay, it is stated that thirteen years before the founding of Asuncion, Aleixo Garcia, with four companions, discovered the Parana and the Paraguay and crossed the Chaco.74 This version also says that he was 71 Rubio, op. cit., p. 233. 72 Dominguez, op. cit., p. 304. 73 Alegato de la Reptiblica Argentina sobre la cuestion de Umites con el Brasil en el territorio de Misiones sometida al presidente de los Estados Unidos (Washington, 1894), p. 27. 74 Manuel Dominguez, El Chaco Boreal fue, es y sera del Paraguay (Asuncion, 1927), pp. 10-11.

Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article-pdf/26/4/450/749460/0260450.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Portuguese and a native of Alemtejo. It is to be suspected that the Paraguayans erred in assigning a birthplace to Aleixo, for aside from his Portuguese nationality nothing is known of his origin. It is hoped that enough has been presented in the foregoing pages to warrant the promotion of Aleixo Garcia from semi-leg­ endary to full historical status. Once this is conceded him, it be­ comes apparent that for intrepidity and ability few of the conquis­ tadors can be held to surpass this almost forgotten Portuguese. Charles E. Nowell. University of Illinois.

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