Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Mosquera, Ruy Garcia

MOSQUERA, Ruy Garcia (moss-kay'-rah), Spanish adventurer, b. in Seville in 1501; d. in Asuncion, Paraguay, in 1555. Nothing is known of his life before 1526, when he served under Sebastien Cabot (q. v.) in the expedition that sailed from Cadiz in January, 1526, for the river Plate. In 1530, when Cabot determined to abandon his establishment and return to Europe, Mosquera urged the advisability of continuing the establishment in the hope of better times, and as a result Cabot left him behind with Nuño de Lara and 170 men. The Spaniards made a truce with the Indians, and promoted good relations. Mangóre (q. v.), cacique of the Timbu tribe, conceived a passion for Lucia, the wife of Sebastian Hurtado, one of the garrison, and during the absence of Lara and Mosquera captured and burned the fort and carried off Lucia. He met with the Spanish forces on their return, and Lara and the greater part of the Spaniards perished, only a few escaping with Mosquera in a small boat, in which they descended the river Plate to the ocean. They built a fortress near Cape Santa Maria, and, being threatened by the Portuguese, Mosquera attacked them and drove them beyond San Vicente, which he plundered. He established himself afterward in the island of Santa Catharine, but when Pedro de Mendoza (q. v.) arrived in 1535 and founded Buenos Ayres, Mosquera, with his colonists, sailed to join his countrymen and after the destruction of Buenos Ayres settled in Asuncion, where his descendants still live.