* This is perhaps the first account of the levying of the tithe
in the New World.
--

So having started from the coast upon November 2, 1541, he arrived at Asuncion
on March 2, 1542, having accomplished a march of more than two thousand miles
with but the loss of a single man and without the slaughter
of a single Indian. Hardly had he arrived at Asuncion before he found himself
embroiled on every side. The Indians were in full rebellion,
the settlement of Buenos Ayres almost in ruins, and the officers
appointed by the King to collect the royal dues all hostile to him to a man.

After having consulted with the clergy to find if they thought it lawful
to attack the Guaycurus who had assailed the newly-founded town,
he received the opinion `that it was not only lawful, but expedient.'
Therefore he sent off an expedition against them, to which was joined a priest
to require the Guaycurus to become Christians and to acknowledge
the King of Spain. The propositions, not unnaturally,
did not seem reasonable to the Indians, who most likely
were unaware of the benefits which Christianity confers,
and probably heard for the first time of the King of Spain.
The Governor, who seems to have doubted of the humanity of the clergy,
called another council, which confirmed the previous opinion.
Strangely enough, this seems to have surprised him, for he probably
did not reflect that the clergy would not have to fight themselves,
and that the first blood ever spilt on earth was on account
of a religious difference.

Just before the expedition started it was found that the two Franciscan friars
who had come with him from Santa Catalina could not be found.