Page:The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hesse.pdf/154

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IN EASTERN BRAZIL.

35

Moreover he said, "that you may therefore know it, it is called St. Catherine's harbour, which name has been given to it by the first discoverers."

Then we were glad, for that was the harbour which we sought, and in which we were although we had not known it, also we had arrived there on St. Catherine's Day. Know ye hereby how God helps and saves those who are in trouble, and who call earnestly to Him.

Then he asked us whence we came. We said that we were the king's ships from Spain, and we purposed sailing to the Rio de Platta,^[1] also that there were more ships on the way, and we hoped (if it pleased God) that they would also soon arrive, for here we intended to meet. Then he declared himself well pleased and thanked God, for he had three years previously been in the province of Rio de Platta and had been sent from the place called La Soncion,^[2] held by the Spaniards, down to the coast, which is some three hundred miles journey, in order to induce the tribe known as Carios, and who are friends of the Spaniards, to plant roots called mandioca, so that the ships might there again (if it happened that they were in want) obtain provisions from the savages. Such had been the orders of the captain who took the last news to Spain; he was named

is still applied to many debouchures of streams in the Brazil. The Noticia (chapter 66) mentions the Jumirim as the name of the (southern) S. Francisco. The maps show a Sahy-merim or Lesser Sahy (the Sahy Guassú or Greater being a little north), a stream whose mouth, in S. lat. 26 deg., divides the modern provinces of Paraná and Santa Catharina.

↑ Rio de la Plata.
↑ The capital of Paraguay, Asuncion, whose name has often been before Europe during the five years' war which ended in the heroic death of President Lopez. Old authors sometimes confound the Assumption of the Virgin (N. S. August 15), when the place was taken from the Carijós by Juan de Ayolas, with the Ascension of the Saviour kept in May, the last Thursday but one before Whitsunday.

[1] Rio de la Plata.

[2] The capital of Paraguay, Asuncion, whose name has often been before Europe during the five years' war which ended in the heroic death of President Lopez. Old authors sometimes confound the Assumption of the Virgin (N. S. August 15), when the place was taken from the Carijós by Juan de Ayolas, with the Ascension of the Saviour kept in May, the last Thursday but one before Whitsunday.

[1]

[2]