But the case was different with
the other native peoples, more especially with the Indians in the Chaco,
the wooded and swampy district on the opposite side of the river. These
showed themselves fiercely inimical to the new-comers, and it was seldom
that the Spaniards were without a feud of some kind to suffer at their
hands.
The new colonists had now time to look about them. Much had happened
since they had first landed on the shores of the River Plate, but the
main object of the expedition still remained clear to them. This was the
discovery of a road from the south-east to Peru. Ayolas determined to
take up this fascinating quest in person. Accompanied by a number of
men, he sailed up the river until he came to a spot at which he judged
that an attempt at the overland journey might well be attempted. Leaving
Domingo Martinez de Irala, his lieutenant, in charge of the ships and of
a force of men, Ayolas marched into the forest and disappeared into the
unknown. It was his fate never to return. His company, ambushed and cut
up by a tribe of hostile Indians, perished to a man.
It was months before Irala learned of the catastrophe. In the belief
that his chief was still in the land of the living, he waited with his
ships and men at the point where Ayolas had disembarked, varying his
vigil from time to time by a cruise down-stream in search of provisions.
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