In the city of Ascension, which is by the river Paraguai, in the province of Rio de la Plata, on the 3rd March, in the year of Our Lord, 1545, appeared before me, public notary, and the legal witnesses, being in the church and monastery of Our Lady of Mercy, Redeemer of captives, Captain Hernando de Ribera, conquistador in this province, and deposed as follows: When Señor Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, governor and adelantado and captain-general in the name of His Majesty, of the province of Rio de la Plata, was in the port of Los Reyes, whence he started on his exploration last year (1543), he commissioned me to take one brigantine, and a certain number of men, and explore up a certain river called Ygatu, which is an arm of two great rivers, viz., the Yacareati and the Yaiva, flowing, according to the reports of the Indians, through the settlements of the interior; and I, Hernando de Ribera, having arrived at some Indians called Xarayes, in consequence of information received from them, left the brigantine in a safe haven, and entered the interior of the country with forty men, in order to see and examine it with my own eyes. And having pursued my journey past many Indian settlements, and obtained from their inhabitants and other natives who came to see me, full reports touching the land, I examined and sifted these statements, in order to learn the truth, being moreover, acquainted with the language of the Carios, and therefore able to hold intercourse with those tribes.