José de Garro

"[3] For four years, from 1675 to 1678, Garro served as governor of the isolated province of Tucumán, dependent to the Real Audiencia de Charcas and part of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

[4] During his tenure, he organized three punitive expeditions to Chaco, with no major consequences except the foundation of Fort El Pongo to the east of Jujuy to protect that city.

After earlier Spanish failures, Garro had proposed to the viceroy of Peru, the Duke of La Plata, and the King of Spain that the Mapuche chiefs and elders be invited to a conference where they were to be imprisoned so that Araucanía could be pacified relatively bloodlessly.

Nevertheless, Garro was known for his moral leadership, for which he was known as "El Santo" ("The Saint"), particularly in the exile of two audencia judges, Sancho Garcia Salazar and Juan de la Cueva y Lugo, for sinful conduct.

Notable privateers operating in the area at this time included Englishmen Edward Davis and Charles Swan in 1684, Englishman William Knight in 1686, and Jean Strong in 1690.

[10] With the depopulation of the Isla Mocha, the man in charge of the project, Jerónimo de Quiroga, recorded that the local indigenous people: "went in baskets of bulrush a distance of 12 leagues all without losing a thing.