the Paraguay, which he had passed in going up, and ascende it as high as the junction of the river Vermejo, in lat. 26° 54', where he was attacked by a warlike tribe, the Payaguas, or Agaces, as the Spaniards called them, who came down with 300 canoes against him ; and although Cabot bravely put them to flight, with great slaughter, it was not without the loss of his next in command, Miguel Rifos, besides another officer and fifteen of his men, who were slain by the savages.

These Indians, who were much the most formidable and warlike people he had yet met with, when once they had experienced the superiority of the white men, seemed only anxious to secure their friendship and alliance. Not only did they then bring them supplies of provisions, but, to their surprise, they produced a quantity of gold and silver ornaments, which they offered to the Spaniards in exchange for the glass beads and other European baubles which they had brought with them. According to their own account, they were spoils of war obtained some years before by their nation in an inroad which they had made into Peru during the government of the Inca Huayna Capac, the father of Atahuallpa, who died at Quito in 1525. So says Herrera, author of the Historia de las Indias, quoting from Cabot's reports to the Emperor; adding that, "besides the gold and silver which they had brought from Peru, from the friendly terms he had established with the Indians, Cabot further obtained from them many secrets relative to those lands."

*

Nor is it difficult to imagine what wonderful accounts those untutored savages would relate of the wealth and power and civilization of an Empire so strikingly contrasting with their own miserable barbarism, and what intense interest they must have excited in Cabot, whose whole life had been devoted to the cause of discovery, and who, from his previous employment, was, as it happened, the most competent perhaps of all men in existence to appreciate the full value of the information in question. In his office of Piloto Mayor it had been his especial duty to examine and weigh the various reports which, after

*Herrera, Decade IV. lib. 8. cap. 11.

CHAP. I.

AND INFORMATION OF PERU.

7

Balboa's first discovery of the Pacific, were continually sent to Spain from Mexico, relating to a land abounding in gold and silver in the far south, precisely in that direction which was now pointed out by the Indians of the Vermejo, and the existence of which seemed to be satisfactorily corroborated by the samples of the precious metals and works of art which they had themselves acquired there. There can, I think, be no doubt that Cabot was himself fully satisfied that he had discovered the way to that long-looked for region by the Paraná, although the intervening distance to be traversed through wild regions and savage tribes, which the natives described as equal to 500 leagues, was manifestly more than he could attempt without a much larger force than he had then at command.

With a view to obtain the further aid which was requisite, he now, therefore, determined to send home to the Emperor an account of his proceedings and of the all important intelligence he had obtained. An unexpected circumstance made it the more necessary for him to do so without delay. Another individual had made his appearance in the river, Don Diego Garcia, who, in ignorance of Cabot's proceedings, had been sent out to the Paraná expressly to follow out De Solis's original discovery; and although Cabot, with his usual good sense and management, avoided any collision with him as to his authority, his pretensions were such as to render a reference to Spain absolutely

necessary.

He lost, therefore, no time in returning to San Espíritu, whence he despatched two of his officers to Spain, one of whom was an Englishman, George Barlow by name, with a full report for the information of the Emperor of all that he had heard and seen, and "of the vast riches which might be looked for from these newly-discovered regions." He availed himself of the same opportunity to send home some of the Guarani Indians to do homage to his Imperial master, and a selection of the gold and silver ornaments from Peru, which he had obtained as above mentioned.*

*Herrera says they were the first specimens of gold and silver brought from

the Indies. He must have meant from Peru.

Cabot has been rather severely censured by some of the Spanish historians, and others who have followed them, for having given the name of Rio de la Plata, "The River of Silver," to the Paraná from these discoveries, although the fact that he was the author of that name is by no means clear. But, supposing it to be so, when we consider the strong conviction which must have been upon his mind that some of its great tributaries from the west, if not the parent stream itself, were connected with the countries of gold and silver pointed out to him in that direction, and of which he had the samples before him, there seems, I think, quite sufficient to have justified at the time an appellation, the correctness of which has only been impugned by the result of information long. subsequently obtained. That the accounts of a region abounding in gold and silver were no invention of Cabot's to give undue importance to his discoveries in the eyes of the Emperor, as has been unjustly alleged against him, is proved by the fact that Ayolas, who after him was the first European to reach the shores of the Paraguay River, received there from the natives precisely the same accounts "of a people afar off in a land rich in gold and silver," and "who," they added, “ were as civilised as the Christians themselves." * So says Schmidel, who was with him.

The sight of the gold and silver appears to have been sufficient to satisfy the court of Spain of the importance to the crown of Cabot's discoveries, and to have secured for him a full approval of his having abandoned for them the more mercantile objects of the voyage to the Moluccas.

The Emperor, says the Jesuit Guevara, the historian of Paraguay, "received the messengers of Cabot with great condescension, holding long converse with them relative to the countries they had visited, the interest of the audience being greatly heightened by the presence of the Guarani chiefs with their strange and peculiar Indian physiognomy, of whom the Emperor took particular notice, putting to them many questions respecting the manners and customs

* "De una nacion que habitaba lejos en una provincia rica de oro y plata," &c. "Y por relacion de otros anadian que

eran tan sabios como los Cristianos," &c.-Schmidel.

CHAP. I.

HIS MESSENGERS REACH SPAIN.

9

and religious rites and observances of their race; all which," adds the same author, "greatly inclined his Imperial Majesty to favour Cabot and to send him further assistance to enable him to prosecute his discoveries; but other grave matters which about that time called him to Italy, prevented his then carrying out his intentions." *

There were other circumstances perhaps which contributed to the delay. Francisco Pizarro had arrived in Spain shortly before the messengers of Cabot (in May, 1528), to give an account in person of his own marvellous adventures and discoveries. Sailing from Panamá southward along the shores of the Pacific, he had actually reached the confines of that mighty Empire of the Incas, of the existence of which Cabot could only report the rumours which had been given him by the Indians from afar. Further, Pizarro came to offer, not to ask, assistance to prosecute his discoveries, a point of great importance to Charles in the exhausted state of his treasury, which could ill spare any pecuniary aid at that moment for such extraordinary services, whilst the messengers of Cabot were in no position to make similar propositions: they came to seek aid at the expense of the government, and had no chance of obtaining it from any other quarter. Pizarro, in return for his offer to add this region of promised wealth to the Spanish dominions, had already obtained from the Emperor the grant of a government, the boundaries of which were yet to be known; and, with the imperfect information before him, it may be fairly supposed that Charles may have hesitated ere he took measures to promote the advance of Cabot into Peru from another quarter, lest he should clash with his followers.

*"Llevában tambien un donativo de plata para el Emperador, y algunos Indios que pasaban á dar la obediencia en nombre de sus naciones. Los agentes de Gaboto fueron admitidos con soberana dignacion conferenciando largamente con ellos el Cesar, é inquiriendo varias curiosidades concernientes á diferentes materias. Concurrieron al agrado del Recibimiento los Guaranis, Embajadores caracterizados con fisionoma peregrina y modales Indicas, que llamaban la atencion del Monarca, informandose largamente sobre sus genios, ritos, y costumbres.

Mas que todo admiró su grande entendimiento el artificio de los tejidos y delicadeza de labor, maniobra de artificio superior á lo que prometia la torpeza de sus

manos.

“Todo lo cual inclino el Emperador á favorecer á Gaboto y enviarle socorro de gente para la prosecucion de la conquista, pero como la monarquia se hallaba embarazada con la alianza de Inglaterra y Francia y el año de 29 gravísimos negocios sacaron de España para Italia el Cesar, este projecto no llegó entonces á ejecucion."-Historia del P. Guevara.

Whatever may have been his first inclinations, the result was, that the Emperor did nothing, and Cabot was left in the Paraná in anxious uncertainty as to the fate of his messengers, until, his patience being fairly exhausted, he resolved to return to Europe to submit his discoveries in person to his Imperial master.

He reached Spain in 1530, after an absence of nearly five years, a few months after Francisco Pizarro had sailed on his return to Peru with all the powers which the Crown could give him.

We are left to imagine the extent of Cabot's disappointment at finding upon his arrival that the information to which he attached so much importance had been forestalled by the realization of the discovery of Peru by the Spaniards from Panamá. He seems, however, to have been a singularly disinterested person, wrapt up in the cause of discovery, the great object of his whole life and labours; and although no man had more distinguished himself in his particular calling, he was apparently but little ambitious of titular honours for himself, or likely to regard with feelings of envy such a man as Pizarro. The good Cabot, "el buen Gaboto" of the Argentina, "that most gentle and courteous person," as he is elsewhere described by a contemporary, could have had no wish to wade through scenes of blood and injustice to earn the dubious honour of being called a "Gran Conquistador," nor is there anything, considering all we know of the character of the man, to surprise us that he seems to have chosen to resume, when it was offered to him, his old office of Piloto Mayor, in preference to any other employment. By doing so, in all probability, he not only consulted what was best suited to his own inclinations and abilities, but placed himself in the best possible position for furthering the object which, it may be supposed, he had most at heart-that of directing public attention to the new regions he had himself discovered, and to the Paraná, as a way to Peru. With that in view, it is clear he had only to bide his time and wait for further intelligence from Pizarro; nor was it long in coming.

In January, 1534, just four years after the departure of