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The paper aims to analyze the Spanish expedition headed by Ruy López de Villalobos, that left from New Spain in 1542. Two documents provide different points of view about the same expedition: (i) one official report, written by García Descalante Alvarado in Lisbon, in 1548; (ii) one letter, written by the Jesuit Cosme de Torres (1510-1570) from Goa (India), in 1549. The comparison of the texts shows how the rivalry between the Spanish and the Portuguese kingdoms were running at the time in the Pacific Ocean. Besides, the second document was edited during the 16th century, which reveals the discursive component in that rivalry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient and integrated use of slave workforce that the Society of Jesus was able to implement in the regions of the old province of Paraguay, has been repeatedly pointed out in different research work as a key factor in the economic development of the congregation. However, studies focused on the subsequent management of these Temporalities reveal a certain failure to sustain and control this structure of slave work so as to guarantee profitable results, despite some continuity in its productive organization. From a comparative perspective, this paper considers these studies so as to reconstruct demographic characteristics and the different forms of productive employment of those slaves confiscated from the Jesuits in the city of Buenos Aires, together with the particularities of their sale during the early stages of the administration of the Junta de Temporalidades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]