Madrid, 1795).
--

Curiously enough, the remnants of several expeditions thus joined
to found the first permanent city in the territories of the river Plate;
not at Buenos Ayres, but a thousand miles away in the interior of the country,
where it seemed little probable that their attempt would prove successful.

To preside over the heterogeneous elements of which Asuncion was composed,
Domingo Martinez de Irala was chosen. He was a Biscayan,
a member of that ancient race which neither Romans nor Moors were ever able
to subdue. Nothing is known about his antecedents. Not improbably
he was a son of one of the innumerable small gentlemen with whom
the Basque provinces used to swarm. Almost every house in the little towns
even to-day has its coat of arms over the door. Every inhabitant
claimed to be a nobleman, and in the reign of Charles V. they furnished
many soldiers of repute in the wars of Europe and America.

The system of Irala was to conciliate rather than subdue the natives.
Isolated from help of every kind, the length of the voyage from Spain
precluding all idea of speedy succour in a rebellion, it was the only course
he could pursue.

From the very first he encouraged the soldiers to marry women of the country,
thus creating ties which bound them to the land.

Two Franciscan friars* set about at once to learn the language
and preach to the people. They also seem to have endeavoured
to reduce the Guarani language to writing. So, from several circumstances,
the early history of Paraguay was very different from that of every other