American Demons

A Poor Nobleman

Pedro de Mendoza's soft flesh rotted in fever. The fleet leader killed a boy with a bone shoehorn. A critical remark cost a boatswain the pain and disgrace of fifty lashes. As a deterrent, Mendoza had delinquents pilloried and left to rot in the devices on deck. He interpreted a too low degree of submissiveness as insubordination. He prevented mutinies by carefully humiliating the crew.

The fleet, after a stormy dispersal, found itself in the sweet sea, as some called the Río de la Plata. Locals were frightened by the "proud and violent appearance of the stranger". That's why there were no approaches. No Pocahontas in sight.

The quotes are from Pero Vaz de Caminha. He took part as a writer in Mendoza's nautical campaign (Terminus technicus).

Mendoza's snooty terror regime incited his henchmen. It motivated them to commit violent acts. The usurpers also attacked those who accidentally came too close to them. In return, "hordes of warlike Guaranì" surrounded the 'discoverers' over a wide area. Mendoza only knew one recipe".

A military campaign should break resistance.

The conquistador sent "the infantry and the flower of the knighthood", four hundred men in all. He entrusted the expedition to his brother Diego. Three days later twelve miserable ones returned, the others lay in the pampas to the delight of the vultures. The Guaranì had used a swamp for their purposes, a narrow place that offered the "discoverers" little scope. This is where the disadvantages of complicated weapons and the advantages of less complex solutions emerged.

The powder pans got wet and the muskets failed. The horses, weaned from the reins on the crossing, bucked. In vain Diego and his cavaliers threw themselves at the enemy. More than one ancient family died out that day."The Guaranì fought with their bodies more than with other means of combat. However, they were crushed by the monotony of a man who considered it his job to set up a post in their area - Nuestra Senora Santa Maria del Buen Aire. It was starving people who founded Buenos Aires. It is said that Mendoza did not disdain meat from his brother's corpse, so degraded was this colonist "born to rule."

The locals first smelled morning air. The situation in the swamp gave them confidence. They still had the advantage. Shamans predicted victory outright. The Guaranì ran into a fence that the new residents had planted in the landscape. They reduced Buenos Aires to rubble. The colonists retreated and founded the Corpus Christi fortress on the spot where Sebastian Cabot had assumed his El Dorado was right in front of the palisade and therefore renamed the Solís River "Rio de la Plata" (Silver River).What remained of Cabot's station was a crumbling tower. The refugees stood him up again. Today, an annual pilgrimage commemorates their escape. These were cut offs and scattered people who called a ruin Buenas Esperanza and immediately sent out a raiding party to explore the area. I'm jumping ahead to shorten the point. Every child knows that the Guaranì didn't stay in the race. Sixty years after they had all but wiped out the Spaniards and turned the rained-out and pissed-out remnants into cannibals, they became wards of their enemies. Jesuits had to protect them. Caminha calls this "a sad ending to history".

To continue elsewhere

Don Juan d'Oyola leads an exploratory expedition commanded by Mendoza. D'Oyola is another youngest, luckily for him at least a legitimate son with a big name. You can't get a job with that name. So, where to take it from and not steal it? There is almost nothing for a poor nobleman. Except war, everything is beneath him.

An illegitimate half-brother serves on the platoon. Alano has his back for his brother who is entitled to inherit. It's more dangerous than cleaning boots, but it's also more fun. During the skirmishes, you hardly ever know who you're fighting against, because you can't see the enemy for the trees. There is only forest. The enemy could jump out of the ground next to you or fall to the ground like an apple. A snake could get involved. Under such conditions, every d'Oyola keeps a cool head. That's the only thing a d'Oyola can do. He can't get a boot off his leg without a servant. He's not well-read. He also picks his nose when someone looks. He speaks Spanish to everyone, whether you understand him or not. He stands in the forest and waits for things to come - with a cool head. Everyone else has hot heads.Juan d'Oyola and his Alano report to Domingo Martínez de Irala, who catches up with the train with the news that the first governor of Paraguay, our Pedro de Mendoza y Luján, fell overboard on a trip to Spain in a state of mental derangement. He cursed his overseas company until his last breath. He was found "sick, broken, gloomy," finally dead.