Aleixo Garcia

Aleixo Garcia
Born	Date unknown Alentejo, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	1525 Near Paraguay River
Nationality	Portuguese
Occupation	Explorer, conquistador
Known for	First European to reach the Inca Empire

Aleixo Garcia, also known in Spanish as Alejo García (d. 1525 Paraguay) was a Portuguese explorer and conquistador who explored the Rio de la Plata in service to Spain, and later the Paraguay and Bolivia.

He was possibly a member of the failed expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís, seeking to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. After reaching the mouths of the Uruguay and Paraná, it was apparent that the Rio de la Plata was not such a strait. At this point, de Solís was killed - on testimony of his crew - by cannibal Indians (variously identified as the Charrúa or Guaraní) and his lieutenants opted to return to Spain.

On their return, some of their boats were shipwrecked off Santa Catarina in present-day Brazil. Among the 11 or 18 Spanish and Portuguese survivors was Aleixo Garcia, a Portuguese adventurer who had previously made contact with the Guaraní. With them were also the Portuguese sailors Henrique Montes (a veteran of the Gonçalo Coelho and Amerigo Vespucci expeditions) and Francisco Pacheco, and the Spanish sailor Mechior Ramirez. Alejo de Ledesma and Francisco Chaves were also among them. Melchior Ramires, in turn, would assist and guide Cristóvão Jacques on his voyage of exploration to Río de la Plata and the Parana river in 1521, returning again to Santa Catarina.

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