Petrus Manchossa Tribus Furbius Justiciam Administrat (Pedro Mendoza's Band Administers Justice)
- de Bry workshop
de Bry workshop, Petrus Manchossa Tribus Furbius Justiciam Administrat (Pedro Mendoza's Band Administers Justice), 1599. Engraving; 13 × 9¼ in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2000.378.
In 1535, during his military expedition to establish a colony in Río de la Plata, Pedro de Mendoza and his men ran short on supplies. Desperately hungry, three soldiers stole a horse and butchered it for food. For this crime they were hanged. This engraving from part eight of Theodor de Bry’s America (1599) shows the three men in the foreground hanging from the gallows as soldiers cut them down limb by limb. The soldier at the center of the scene carries the legs of the unfortunate prisoners off to a tent to be cooked and eaten, such was the desperation in Mendoza’s camp. In the background the three soldiers can be seen capturing and butchering the horse that would lead to their deaths.
– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022
