Sierra de la Plata

Lore & Background

The legend began in the early 16th century when castaways from the Juan Díaz de Solís expedition heard indigenous stories of a mountain of silver in an inland region ruled by the so-called White King. The first European to lead an expedition in search of it was the castaway Aleixo Garcia, who crossed nearly the entire continent to reach the Andean altiplano. On his way back to the coast, Garcia died in an ambush by indigenous people in Paraguay, but survivors brought precious metals back to corroborate their story.

The legend inspired other expeditions, all of which ended in failure. However, numerous expeditions allowed Spanish conquistadors to deeply explore the South America portion south of Brazil. The outposts founded during the expeditions gradually evolved into Buenos Aires and Asunción, and the lands colonized by the Spanish became the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.

Eventually, a Spanish expedition traveling from Peru in 1545 found the Cerro Rico de Potosí in Bolivia, a massive silver deposit deep in the Andes. It is possible that the legend of the Sierra de la Plata was based on the silver mines of Cerro Rico de Potosí.

Reader's Guide

The Sierra de la Plata legend was a driving force behind the Spanish exploration and colonization of the Río de la Plata region. Although no expedition ever found the mythical mountain, the search led to the founding of key settlements such as Buenos Aires and Asunción, and the establishment of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. The legend also gave its name to the Río de la Plata ("Silver River") and the country of Argentina (from the Latin argentum, "silver"). The eventual discovery of the Cerro Rico de Potosí in 1545 may have been the real-world basis for the myth, as it was a massive silver deposit in the Andes. The story of the Sierra de la Plata thus represents a blend of indigenous lore and European ambition that shaped the early colonial history of South America.