It was in 1508 that the Spaniard, Juan Diaz de Solis, discovered the estuary of the Plata, the _Mar dulce_; and in 1516 he returned, thinking, after the discovery of the South Sea, by Nuñez de Balboa in 1513, that this might be the strait, so sought by the navigators of the time, by which that sea might be reached, but on landing he was killed by the arrows of the Charrua Indians. He had discovered no strait, but a spot assuredly well suited for colonial settlement. The first attempts were abortive: that of Sebastian Cabot, who built the fort of the Sancti-Spiritu (1527), and that of Diego Garcia. It was then that the discovery of some ornaments of silver, worn by the people of the country, gave the river its name; known first as the Rio de Solis, it was now called the Rio de la Plata. The Indians destroyed the fort and killed the colonists. Eight years later a wealthy private gentleman, an officer of Charles V., Don Pedro de Mendoza, undertook to establish a settlement at his own cost, on the condition of being appointed governor of all territories that might be found as far as 200 leagues from the ocean; and in 1535 he sailed with fourteen vessels and two thousand men. He laid the first foundations of the colony of Buenos Ayres, and he rebuilt the fort of the Sancti-Spiritu, while his lieutenant, Ayolas, in 1536, founded the station of Asuncion, on the Rio Paraguay. The post of Buenos Ayres was abandoned. After the death of Mendoza and Ayolas the new colony was governed by Martinez de Irala for a space of nearly twenty years; reinforced by fresh emigrants, it barely held its own against the losses inflicted upon it by the Indians. Irala, by a voyage of three years’ duration, succeeded in putting himself in touch with the Spaniards of Peru. Conquerors coming from Chili across the Andes, the Spaniards founded among others, despite the hostility of the Indians, the following stations: Santiago del Estero (1552), Mendoza (1560), Tucuman (1565), Cordoba (1573), Salta (1582), and Jujuy (1592). These at first were little more than camps entrenched. But Santiago del Estero was erected into a bishopric, and so remained until 1700, in which year the episcopal throne was transferred to Córdoba. In the eastern regions, in 1573, Governor Juan de Garay built Santa Fé, re-occupied Buenos Ayres, which was christened, on the 11th of June 1580, Cuidad de la Trinidad y Puerto de Santa Maria de Buenos Ayres (the City of the Trinity and the Haven of Holy Mary of the Fair Winds), and founded Corrientès in 1588.