Spanish America, Vol. II (of 2)

The furnaces in the mines of this province are supplied by the natives, who breed cattle, with cow-dung, to serve as fuel, which is used instead of wood, on account of the scarcity of that article, and proves a good substitute.

The inhabitants of this province amount to more than 26,000 souls, dispersed in fifteen settlements and towns.

Paucarcolla, the old capital, is situated on the banks of Lake Titicaca, and inhabited by a few Spanish families. The Inca Yupanqui, third emperor of Peru, added this place to his territories, the natives submitting voluntarily.

Puna, the present capital, stands on the shores of the lake in 16° 20' south latitude, 70° 26' west longitude, and is a rich and populous place, containing many illustrious families, with a beautiful church for the whites, and another for the Indians. The mines in the neighbourhood of this town were among the richest in Peru, but were abandoned on the death of their owner, who built the Spanish church. It is, however, said, that the rich mines of Salcedo or Laycacota are again in work. Puna is fourteen miles north-west of Chucuito.

The remaining districts towards the Peruvian frontier, and which were under the jurisdiction of the audience of Cuzco, until the formation of the new kingdom of Buenos Ayres, are Asangaro, Carabaya and Lampa.

Asangaro or Asangaro y Asila, is bounded on the north-east and east, by Carabaya, south-east and south by Laricaxa, south-west by Paucarcolla and lake Chucuito, and west and north-west by Lampa. It is sixty miles in length and as many in breadth, containing about 3000 inhabitants.

As it lies almost entirely on the Andes, which are here very high, its climate is cold, and the soil produces little else than grass to pasture the cattle, in which its trade consists. Papas, quinoas, and canaguas, grow plentifully in its plains; of the two last, the natives make an intoxicating liquor common in Peru, called chica, which is nearly the same as the spirit procured in Mexico from maize; and chica is also the principal beverage of the Indians inhabiting the Andes.

The chief towns of the same name are mere villages, but near Asila is a lead mine, which has been very productively worked; and in the parts of this province bordering on Carabaya, there are several silver mines, three of which are worked.

Carabaya is bounded on the north by the Peruvian frontier, east by the country of the independent Indians, and west and south by Asangara. The extreme parts of this province are sixty leagues from Cuzco, and its greatest extent is more than fifty leagues; but lying in a mountainous region, its climate is generally cold, though some of its valleys enjoy heat enough to mature the coca or betel; and it abounds in grain, vegetables, and rich pastures, which feed numerous herds of cattle. Carabaya contains silver and gold mines in great numbers, one of the former and two of the latter being in work.

The river which separates it from the Indian countries, contains much gold in its sand; and the Indians of Peru are said to come down in companies to this river, in order to collect sufficient metal to pay the capitation tax.

In the village of Poto is an office for collecting the royal duties on the mines, and the most famous lavaderos or washing places, are San Juan del Oro, Pablo Coya, and Monte de Anauca, two leagues from Poto.

The greatest gold mine is that of Aporama; the metal being twenty-three carats fine.

Carabaya, or San Juan del Oro, is the capital of this province, 150 miles south-east of Cuzco, in 14° 40' south latitude, and 69° 36' west longitude.

Lampa is bounded on the north and west by the Peruvian frontier, and on the south and east by Chucuito and Asangaro. It lies on the ridge named the Chain of Vilcanota, which separates Buenos Ayres from Peru; and its climate, though generally cold, is healthy. It carries on a considerable trade in cattle; and its silver mines are very numerous, but only two are worked to advantage.

The capital is a town of the same name, ninety miles south of Cuzco; in the vicinity of which are the richest mines of the province.

This town is in 14° 55' south latitude, and 81° 44' west longitude.

Pucara, a village in this province, is remarkable as containing the ruins of a fort built by the Peruvians, having two large stone reservoirs within it; some of the stones of which are three yards long and two broad, and not far from this fort is a fountain of warm water.

Having now described the northern and Andean districts or provinces of Charcas or La Plata, we must turn to those which lie on the coast of the Pacific, on the east, and those towards Paraguay on the west.

The viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres enjoys the advantage of possessing a province on the shores of the Great Southern Ocean, which, though at present nearly desert, may one day become of great importance. This province named Atacama, is bounded on the north by Arica in Peru, on the west by the Pacific or South Sea, on the north-east by Lipes, south-east by the government of Tucuman, and south by Copiapo, in the kingdom of Chili. It is divided into High and Low Atacama, and is of great extent, some parts of it being very fruitful, but intermixed with deserts, particularly towards the south, where there is an immense tract of untenanted land, which divides La Plata from Chili. The sea-coast of this province, is noted for the numerous fisheries established on it, and which supply a large fish, called Tolo, that forms the chief food of the inland districts of La Plata during Lent.

The inhabitants of Atacama are chiefly Indians, those who live in the settlements, amounting only to 2500.

Its chief town is Atacama, in a barren plain, surrounded by the lofty summits of the Cordillera, which are uninhabited, owing to the intense cold. This town is a small place, 100 miles from the South Sea, and 120 leagues from La Plata, in 23° 30' south latitude, and 69° 30' west longitude.

Crossing towards the east from this western boundary of Buenos Ayres, we find the provinces of Apolabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Chiquitos, Moxos and Chacos.

Apolabamba is bounded on the east by the province of Moxos, and on the west by Carabaya, commencing about sixty leagues from Cuzco in Peru, and extending eighty leagues from south-west to north-east. The country is mountainous, and intersected with rocks and precipices, consequently the roads are very rugged and difficult.

The principal cultivation consists in rice, maize, plantains, &c., which are the common food of the inhabitants. In the plains or valleys, some cacao and cotton are raised, but more grows wild than in plantations, and the forests are numerous and filled with wild beasts and monkeys of every kind. The people carry their produce to La Paz, where they procure what is necessary for their comforts.

Apolabamba is a newly planted colony, and consists mostly of settlements of Indians, who have been converted by the Franciscan missionaries. Seven villages are in a flourishing condition, and in order to defend these from the incursions of the surrounding tribes, the inhabitants are formed into a militia, governed by a Spanish officer.

Santa Cruz de la Sierra is a very large province including several districts; it is, as its name indicates, a mountainous country, and little inhabited by Spaniards, the chief places being the missions, which were first planted by the Jesuits. It borders on, or rather contains in its government, the countries of the Chiquitos, Guaranis, and other tribes, among whom a few missions are settled.

Its climate is warm, and the chief trade of its settlers consists in honey and wax.

The capital is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, eighty or ninety leagues east from La Plata. It was originally built farther to the south near the Cordillera of the Chiriguanos and was founded in 1548 by De Chaves; but the city having been destroyed, it was rebuilt on its present scite: it is however a place of little importance, though erected into a bishopric in 1605, the chapter consisting only of the bishop, dean, and archdeacon. The usual residence of the bishop is at Mizque Pocona, which is the chief town of a large district of the same name. This latter city, which is 100 miles south-south-west from Santa Cruz, is a small place in a valley about eight leagues in circumference, producing all kinds of grain and fruits, and in a warm climate; the woods and mountains affording large quantities of honey and wax, which constitutes a principal branch of the trade of the place.

There is also a lake two leagues in extent near this town, and the district of Mizque is the most populous part of the province.

The Rio Grande de La Plata is the finest river of Santa Cruz; it rises in some small lakes on the south, and running through the province into that of Moxos, enters the Piray by a broad mouth, and forms a good port at Pailas, north of the capital.

The province of Chiquitos lies to the north and east of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and embraces an immense extent of territory, which reaches to the Brazilian frontier on the Paraguay.

It was first colonized by the Jesuits who began their missionary establishments in this country towards the close of the seventeenth century, and their success was so great that in 1732 they had seven settlements, each containing more than 600 families. The Indians who inhabit Chiquitos are small-sized, active and brave, and have always resisted the endeavours of the Portuguese to carry off members of their community to slavery; many of them live peaceably in the missions, but others lead a wandering life amid the mountains and plains of their native land.

The forests in this country produce the cinchona, or Jesuit's bark, and many other useful substances; and the great inundation of the Paraguay, called Lake Xarayes, extends through the western parts of this province, which is also celebrated for containing the third great branch of the Andes, that leaves the main body between 15° and 20° of south latitude, and crossing the provinces of the Sierra sweeps round Chiquitos, between 15° and 23°, stretching from La Paz, Potosi and Tucuman, through Moxos, Chiquitos and Chaco, towards the government of the mines, and of St. Pablo in Brazil. The highest summits of this chain appear to be between 15° and 20° of south latitude, giving rise to many rivers which flow either into the La Plata or the Maranon.

San Josef de Chiquitos, the chief settlement of this province, is thirty-six miles north-west of Santa Cruz; and south of the Chiquitos Indians, are another tribe, named the Chiriguanos, whom the missionaries have in vain attempted to convert; they are the terror of the western provinces of Buenos Ayres, and are continually at war with the Chiquitos. In their country flows the river Parapiti, which rising near Cochabamba in 18° south latitude, is first called Conderillo, and receiving smaller rivers, assumes the name of Parapiti, and passing through a large lake it turns to the north; having pursued hitherto a south-east course into this lake, which is in 19° 50' south latitude. It is now called St. Miguel, and still running north assumes the name of Sara, and being joined by the united streams of the Piray and Plata, as well as several others from the province of Santa Cruz, it becomes a broad river, and in 14° south latitude, is called the Mamore, till 10° south latitude, when it leaves Peru or La Plata, and entering the Portuguese territories becomes the Madera, continuing under that name to south latitude, 3° 15', and 60° 40' west longitude, when it discharges its immense stream into the Maranon, after a course of 1400 miles.

Moxos or Mojos is an extensive territory bounded by the Portuguese government of Matto Grosso on the east, Cuzco and the Peruvian provinces on the west, and Chiquitos and Santa Cruz on the south. It extends on each side of the Mamore, and is chiefly inhabited by warlike and wandering tribes of Indians, who forbid access to its interior. This country contains the lake Rogagualo, a large body of water of an oval figure, formed by an arm of the Rio Beni, which rises near La Paz on the west side of the Andes, in 18° south latitude, and flowing north, enters the Ucayale, their united streams joining the Apurimac. The banks of the Beni have many settlements of the missionaries. This lake empties itself into the Mamore by a channel called De la Exaltacion, thus forming an immense island of the country lying between the Maranon on the north, the Madera and Mamore on the east, and the Beni and Ucayale on the west. From lake Rogagualo three other rivers take their rise and flow into the Amazons on the north; viz. the Jutay, the Juruay and the Puros.

There are several missionary villages in the province of Moxos: but the country is still under the power of the aborigines.

Chacos is another large territory, bounded by Chiquitos on the north; Paraguay on the east; the great plains of Manos on the south; and Tucuman and Tarija on the west. It is of immense extent, and chiefly inhabited by tribes of wandering Indians, having on its east the great chain of mountains on the banks of the Paraguay, and contains the great Rio Pilcomayo, which flows into the Paraguay near Asuncion.

The Jesuits made several attempts to colonise Chaco, but did not succeed, and little is known concerning its products or features.

The adjoining government to Los Charcas, which has now been described as fully as the nature of the work would admit, is, —

THE GOVERNMENT OF PARAGUAY

Paraguay is a very extensive government of Buenos Ayres, which is bounded by Chiquitos, Chacos, and Tucuman on the north-west and west; on the north it extends to Lake Xarayes; north-east and east it bounds the Portuguese territories; and south-east and south it is limited by the Parana, which separates it from the missions of Guayra in Buenos Ayres, its jurisdiction ending in the south of the city of Asuncion, in 26° 48' south latitude, and it is divided from Tucuman, or the Llanos de Manso, by the river Paraguay.

HISTORY, DISCOVERY, &c

The history of this province commences with its discovery by Sebastian Cabot, in 1526, who sailed up the Parana. This navigator was the son of a Venetian pilot, who was much employed in England, and by some accounts is said to have been born at Bristol, in 1477, and having been brought up to the same profession, went with his father, John Cabot, to the discovery of Newfoundland, and from thence to Florida. They had the honour of being the first navigators who saw the continent of America, Columbus not having discovered it till a year afterwards. Sebastian, after this voyage, made another to Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, in the service of Henry VII. of England, and reached the coast of Brazil, but was hindered from exploring it by the timidity of his coadjutor Sir Thomas Pert.

Owing to some opposition on his return to England, he went to Spain, and offered his service to the king; his request was graciously attended to, and on account of his great skill, he was appointed pilot-major of the kingdom, an office of great honour in those days. In 1524, the Spanish merchants entered into a treaty with Cabot, to command an expedition to the Moluccas, which was to pass through the newly-discovered streights of Magalhaens. He undertook this voyage, and proceeded to the coast of Brazil, coasting it southward from the bay of Todos los Santos, till he arrived at the river La Plata, where he landed three of his chief officers, who had mutinied, on a desert island, and being unable, from want of provisions and the bad behaviour of his crew, to proceed farther to the south, he sailed thirty leagues up the river, and discovered an island, which he called San Gabriel; three leagues higher up he saw a large river, and named it San Salvador; here he landed his people, and built a fort, from which advancing in his boats he discovered another river, thirty leagues distant, called Zarcacana by the natives, on the banks of which he constructed another fort, and named it Santi Spiritûs.

He afterwards explored the river Parana, and sailing up it entered the Paraguay, where he found the natives tilling the ground. These people opposed his landing and in a skirmish with them he lost twenty-five men who were killed and three who were taken prisoners. Cabot wintered, however, in this country, and was joined by another adventurer, Jayme Garcia, who had been sent from Europe to explore the river, and returning together to the fort Santi Spiritûs, they dispatched a vessel with an account of their discoveries to Spain.

So long were the ministry in sending the necessary supplies to Cabot, that, tired of waiting, he returned to Spain, after an absence of five years, in the year 1531: but not being well received at court, he continued a few years in the Spanish service, and returned to England in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. In the following reign he was made grand pilot of England, with a pension of 166l. 13s. 4d. per annum; a sum in those times equal to 1000l. at present.

During the reign of Edward, and that of Philip and Mary, many privileges were granted to Cabot; he was made governor of the Russian company, and had the management of the expedition which sailed under Sir Hugh Willoughby to the North Seas.

The variation of the compass was first observed by this celebrated man, though Ferdinand Columbus in the life of his father, printed at Venice, in Italian, in 1571, asserts, that the admiral first noticed it on the 14th of September 1492. Cabot published a large map of his discoveries in North America, which was hung up in the gallery at Whitehall. He also wrote an account of his voyage in the North American seas, in Italian, which was printed at Venice in 1583 in one volume folio; and is very scarce.

Juan de Ayolas followed up the discoveries of Cabot in Paraguay, having had a commission, troops, and stores given him, in 1536, for that purpose, by Don Pedro de Mendoza, the first governor of Buenos Ayres.

By the orders of Ayolas, Juan de Salinas founded the city of Asuncion, but the conquest of the natives being attended with much difficulty, and Ayolas and his party having been murdered by them, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, the second governor of Buenos Ayres, undertook their subjugation in person. He had arrived with 400 men to take the chief command, in case of the death of Ayolas, and finding that this event had happened, he collected all the settlers in Buenos Ayres, and detaching Irala, who had acted as governor before his arrival, into the interior, with ninety men, to report on the state of the country, was so satisfied with what he had seen, that he set out with 200 Spaniards, and 1200 Guarani Indians, and entered Paraguay; but meeting with reverses, owing to the mutinous conduct of his troops, who were corrupted by Irala, he was forced to return, when he was deposed and sent to Spain; Irala then assumed the chief command, and by his conduct soon reduced the natives, and rendered the Spanish settlements secure.

The Indians were parcelled out to the conquerors, and in 1547, the city of Asuncion was erected into a bishopric.

Much cruelty was practised towards the unfortunate natives, till the arrival of the first bishop of Paraguay, in 1554, who brought with him laws and regulations for their protection; but however wise and humane these ordinances were, they did not totally restrain the colonists from ill using their vassals; and it being found that Paraguay and the territories then discovered, were not sufficient to supply Indians enough to work in the plantations, Parana or Guayra was conquered, and the city of Ciudad Real being founded, 40,000 of the natives were reduced to slavery; and in a few years after, the Spanish power was extended over Chiquitos, on the left of Paraguay, where 60,000 of the natives were compelled to labour for the profit of their employers.

The year 1556 was a new era for the aborigines, as in that epoch the Jesuits made their appearance in Paraguay, and taking a method directly contrary to that of the conquerors, they reduced the natives by the arts of persuasion alone. They showed them how industry would conduce to their comfort; and having, by an uniform course of mildness and conciliation, reclaimed them from their native woods and wandering way of life, they settled them in towns and villages, which soon increased and flourished under their guidance.

The number of these settlements was astonishing, and so completely had these priests gained the affections of the natives, that their government and power was absolute and unlimited. The principal missions of the Jesuits, or rather the Jesuit government, was not however in Paraguay, but in Uruguay, an immense district of Buenos Ayres, on the south of the Parana; and in describing that country, some further account of their possessions will be given.

Their order being expelled from the Spanish dominions, in 1767, the countries they possessed in South America were divided into governments, and priests of other orders were appointed to take charge of the ecclesiastical affairs.

Climate, productions, features, &c.– The climate of Paraguay is in general moist and temperate, though in some parts it is cold, and white frosts are common in those places in July and August.

The temperate parts abound with all kinds of grain, beans, pease, melons, cucumbers, and European vegetables; asparagus is found wild, and there is a remarkably fine sort of vine, of which good and healthy wine is made, magueys, sugar-cane, maize, from which the Indians make their favourite drink; potatoes, a fruit resembling the almond, which produces an excellent oil; the European fruits; tobacco, and cinchona, or Jesuit's bark, sarsaparilla, rhubarb, jalap, sassafras, guiacum, dragon's blood, cupay, whose oil is used in medicine, nux vomica, vanilla, cacao, the timbabi, supplying a fine yellow gum, which is run into moulds, and formed into beads, necklaces, crosses, &c. Cedar, the curi or pine, from whose red knots, which contain a varnish, the Indians make images; the algarrobo, or carob tree, which is converted into bread, and the Paraguay tea or matté, a plant which rises about a foot and a half high, with slender branches, and leaves something like those of senna; of this there are two kinds, one called Paraguay, the other Caamina, or Yervacamini, which last sells for one-third more than the other.

So useful is this western tea, that the mines would stand still, if the owners were to neglect to supply the workmen with it; and every person in Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, consider themselves wretched, if not able to procure it; two millions of piastres worth of this herb, being sold from the province of Paraguay every year. It is infused and made nearly in the same way as Chinese tea, excepting that the branches are put in with the leaves, and that it is drank out of the vessel it is made in, through a silver or glass pipe, as soon as possible; as if it stays too long, it is supposed not to be good. The smell, and colour of this drink, is nearly as fine as that of the best Indian teas.

The pomegranate, peach, fig, lemon and orange, flourish in Paraguay, as do the cocoa-nut and other palms. The native fruits have among them the jujuba, the chanar, the yacani, the quabira, from which candles are made for the churches; the quembe yielding a delicious pulp; the mammon growing on the trunk of a tree, and resembling a melon; the tatay, having a fruit like the mulberry; the alaba, with a delicious fruit; the anguay, whose pips are of a rich violet colour and triangular shape, are used by the Indian women for necklaces; the tarumay resembling the olive; the molle, yielding a fragrant gum; the bacoba, banana, anana, manioc, the cotton tree, which grows to a great size and is very common; the zevil, whose bark is used in tanning; the ceibo, with flowers of a purple colour; the izapa, whose leaves distil a copious supply of water; the ant-tree, which is the chosen resort of these insects; the umbu, with an immense and spreading head; the willow; the ambay, used in striking fire; the arucuy, a shrub yielding a strong scarlet dye; indigo, cochineal, nacalic, whose beautiful yellow is used by dyers and painters, and reeds of great size, besides an infinite number of other trees and plants, all useful in their kind, and an immense assemblage of beautiful flowers.