The site of the present city of…
1537 CE
The site of the present city of Asunción may have been first visited by Spanish conqueror Juan de Ayolas, on his way north, up the Paraguay River, looking for a passage to the mines of Alto Perú (present-day Bolivia).
Later, Juan de Salazar y Espinosa and Gonzalo de Mendoza, relative of Pedro de Mendoza, are sent in search of Ayolas, but are unable to find him.
He manages to find another member of Ayolas' party, Domingo Martínez de Irala, holed up in the Puerto de la Candelaria, which had been founded by Ayolas earlier in February 1537.
Martínez had been commanding the rear guard when Ayolas's advance party was wiped out by the Payaguá.
On his way up, then down the river, de Salazar stops briefly to resupply his ships at a bay in the left bank near its junction with the Pilcomayo River.
He finds the natives friendly, and decides to found a trading post here, on August 15, 1537, the Christian celebration of the Assumption of Mary.
Accordingly, he names it Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción.
He then travels as far as …
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