Juan de Ayolas

Juan de Ayolas (* 1500 in Briviesca, Burgos, † 1537/8 in Candelaria in the Gran Chaco, Paraguay) was a Spanish Conquistador.

Biography

Juan de Ayolas was a participant of the starters in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1534 expedition of Pedro de Mendoza to South America, the Portuguese encroachment an end and ensure compliance with the territorial ownership of the two countries under the Treaty of Tordesillas ( 1494) should prevail. When his Mayordomo ( " steward " or " head servant " ) he founded in 1536 together with Mendoza the fort and the settlement of Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre, would later emerge from the city of Buenos Aires.

He also founded in June of the same year during a reconnaissance trip in the area of ​​the river Paraná the Fort of Corpus Christi in the southeast of present-day Paraguay. The journey was continued further along the Paraguay River; in February 1537, was founded at the mouth of the Río Blanco in the Paraguay River, the Fort of Candelaria (now Fuerte Olimpo ).

To find a passageway between the western Andean regions of Peru and Bolivia to Paraguay, Pedro de Ayolas came up before in the area of the Gran Chaco. On his return he found the fort Candelaria leave before - ultimately under mysterious circumstances, he and most members of his expeditionary force were killed there by Indians. Another version is that he had been killed already in the Gran Chaco. A search expedition under Juan de Salazar y Espinosa brought little clarity in the matter.

Honors

Due to its exposure was Juan de Ayolas by Pedro de Mendoza during his trip home to Spain, but on which he died in the Canary Islands, was appointed governor of the Karl V. newly overseas province of New Andalusia (later Río de la Plata and Paraguay). However, because of his expedition, on the death overtook him, he could not act in the office. He was succeeded by Domingo Martínez de Irala.

An approximately 17,000 inhabitants, in the south of Paraguay is named Ayolas.