he had remained three years he might transfer the task of
completing the colonization and conquest either to his heir or any other
person whom it might please him to appoint--and with it the privileges
annexed--if within two years the King approved the choice.

A king's ransom was now understood to belong to the crown; but as a
further inducement this prerogative was waived in favor of Mendoza and
his soldiers, who were to share it, first having deduced the royal
fifth, and then a sixth. If, however, the King in question were slain in
battle, half the spoils should go to the crown. These terms were made in
wishful remembrance of the ransom of Atabalipa.

He was to take with him a physician, an apothecary, and a surgeon, and
especially eight "religioners." Life is lightly hazarded by those who
have nothing more to stake, but that a man should, like Mendoza, stake
such riches as would content the most desperate life-gambler for his
winnings is one of the many indications how generally and how strongly
the contagious spirit of adventure was at that time prevailing.

Mendoza had covenanted to carry five hundred men in his first voyage.
Such was his reputation, and such the ardor for going to the Silver
River, that more adventurers offered than it was possible for him to
take, and he accelerated his departure on account of the enormous
expense which such a host occasioned. The force with which he set forth
consisted of eleven ships and eight hundred men. So fine an armament had
never yet sailed from Europe for America: but they who beheld its
departure are said to have remarked that the service of the dead ought
to be performed for the adventurers. They reached Rio de Janeiro after a
prosperous voyage, and remained there a fortnight, during which time the
Adelantado, being crippled by a contraction of the sinews, appointed
Juan Osorio to command in his stead. Having made this arrangement they
proceeded to their place of destination, anchored at Isle St. Gabriel
within the Plata, and then on its southern shore and beside a little
river. There Don Pedro de Mendoza laid the foundation of a town which
because of its healthy climate he named "Nuestra Senora de Buenos Aires"
("Our Lady of Good Air"). It was not long before he was made jealous of
Osorio by certain envious officers, and, weakly lending ear to wicked
accusations, he ordered them to fall upon him and kill him, then drag
his body into the plaza, or public market-place