them all. The stone house
of the Adelantado was the only dwelling which escaped destruction. At
the same time, and with the same weapons, they attacked the ships and
burned four; the other three got to a safe distance in time and at
length drove them off with their artillery. About thirty Spaniards were
slain.

The Adelantado now left a part of his diminished force in the ships to
repair the settlement, giving them stores enough to keep them from
starving for a year, which they were to eke out as best they could; he
himself advancing up the river with the rest in the brigantines and
smaller vessels. But he deputed his authority to Juan de Ayolas, being
utterly unequal to the fatigue of command--in fact he was, at this time,
dying of the most loathsome and dreadful malady that human vices have
ever yet brought upon human nature.

About eighty-four leagues up the river they came to an island inhabited
by the Timbues, who received them well. Mendoza presented their chief,
Zchera Wasu, with a shirt, a red cap, an axe, and a few other trifles,
in return for which he received fish and game enough to save the lives
of his people. This tribe trusted wholly to fishing and to the chase for
food. They used long canoes. The men were naked, and ornamented both
nostrils with stones. The women wore a cotton cloth from the waist to
the knee, and cut beauty-slashes in their faces. Here the Spaniards took
up their abode, and named the place "Buena Esperanza," signifying "Good
Hope." One Gonzalo Romero, who had been one of Cabot's people and had
been living among the savages, joined them here. He told them there were
large and rich settlements up the country, and it was thought advisable
that Ayolas should proceed with the brigantines in search of them.

Meantime Mendoza, who was now become completely crippled, returned to
Buenos Aires, where he found a great part of his people dead, and the
survivors struggling with famine and every species of wretchedness. They
were relieved by the arrival of Gonzalo Mendoza, who, at the beginning
of their distresses, had been despatched to the coast of Brazil in quest
of supplies. Part of Cabot's people, after the destruction of his
settlement, had sailed for Brazil and established themselves in a bay
called Ygua, four-and-twenty leagues from St. Vicente. There they began
to form plantations, and continued two years on friendly terms with the
adjoining natives and with the Portuguese. Disputes then