An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (1 of 3)

The name of the river Plata being spread throughout Europe in former times, many of the Spaniards flew to Paraguay, and after all found nothing but poverty, where they expected riches. Paraguay is surrounded by the provinces of Chili, Peru, and Quito, which abound in gold, silver, gems, and precious stones, neither of which is to be found in Paraguay. Some of them might perhaps be discovered, you will say, if properly searched for, but this I do not believe, knowing how sagacious and quick-sighted the Spaniards are in seeking for treasures concealed in the bosom of the earth; as, therefore, they have never hitherto endeavoured to dig for gold and silver, or have been unsuccessful in the attempt, I am firmly persuaded that there are none to be found; and the longer I remained in this country, the more was my opinion on that head strengthened by convincing proofs and experiments. In many places signs of hidden metal were sometimes discovered, but they served rather to drain the purses of the more credulous Spaniards than to enrich them. I will fairly relate whatever occurs to my memory relative to the attempts that were made to discover metals, and the ridiculous ideas that were entertained on this head. I was intimately acquainted with a merchant in the city of St. Iago del Estero, who had formerly been opulent, but was at that time reduced to ruin. Hoping to become as rich as Crœsus, he directed his whole thoughts and faculties towards discovering mines. Emissaries were hired to search in those places which were thought to contain metals. At much expense he undertook a journey to the Governour of Tucuman, who lived at a great distance, to obtain from him a right to dig for gold. He spent immense sums upon workmen, mules, provision, and other instruments necessary for searching the bowels of the earth, with no reward for his pains, except spending the riches that he already possessed, without obtaining those which he promised himself under ground, and remained ever afterwards indigent and derided by all. Yet deluded by his hopes, he had still to learn wisdom. He knew that about eighty leagues distant from the city of St. Iago, was a place named Hierro, which runs out into an extensive plain covered with rich grass. Not a stone or even a pebble is to be seen in the whole vicinity. Here and there appears out of the turf a plank, or the trunk of a tree, having the appearance of iron, except that by its shining it bears some sort of resemblance to silver. The good man now thought he had reached the summit of his wishes, for he swore that silver mixed with iron lay concealed in this place, to the great amusement of all that heard him. He gave a little piece of this metal, which he had eagerly snatched up, to a smith to be melted in the city. The Spaniards who were present privily slipped some pieces of silver money into the furnace. When, therefore, he beheld the melted mass, consisting of silver and that kind of iron flowing from the furnace, he thought himself the happiest of mankind. But understanding that he had been cheated, and cajoled, he flew into a rage, and threatened the authors of the deceit with every thing that was dreadful. An European smith, after carefully trying that exotic metal with fire, informed me that it was a sort of iron, but so hard and so brittle, that no art would be sufficient to bend or reduce it to any kind of form, and consequently that it was of no use whatever. I will tell you another anecdote of the same kind.

A certain merchant of Cordoba was involved in very great pecuniary difficulties, to extricate himself from which he forsook his old calling, and took up that of a physician, in which he was never properly instructed; – a metamorphosis by no means uncommon amongst the Europeans who reside in America. Deserters from the army and navy, if they exercise any handicraft trade, will never find a wife in Paraguay. To obviate this objection they apply themselves to merchandise. Whoever has his shop filled with tallow-candles, cheese, knives, needles, scissors, linen or woollen neck-handkerchiefs, and some flagons of brandy, is styled a merchant, immediately becomes noble, is esteemed superior to the vulgar, and fit to make any marriage connection, or hold any magistracy. Reduced to ruin, from merchants they suddenly become physicians. These ignorant quacks, who in Europe hardly know how to shave a beard, breathe a vein, cut the nails, apply cupping-glasses to the skin, administer an injection, or spread a plaster, give themselves out for Galens in Paraguay, and slay the rich with impunity at all hours of the day. Such an one was Bartholomew. Finding his purse no way filled by the diseases and deaths of others, and being universally dreaded, he at length changed his mind, forsook his gallipots, and turned his thoughts towards metals, the last anchor of his hopes. A vague report had been spread that in the mountains near Cordoba, signs of hidden gold had manifested themselves. Having consulted those persons who were best informed on this subject, obtained leave of the royal Governours, hired men to dig, and purchased cattle to maintain them, solely on the promise of reward, he explored, for some time, the bowels of the earth, but with no success, with great loss, and terrible expense, as it was necessary to convey both wood and water many leagues on the backs of mules. Overwhelmed with debts, which his hopes of discovering gold had led him to contract, this wretched man served to teach others that it is safer to seek for gold on the surface of the earth, than in the subterranean caverns of the Cordoban mountains. And indeed no one, that I know of, from that time forward ever thought of seeking there for mines of gold. A report was spread amongst the common people, that the Indians, before the coming of the Spaniards, had dug gold out of the mountains which surround the city Rioja. But every attempt of the Spaniards to find this noble metal in those mountains was uniformly unsuccessful. That small pieces of gold had been discovered in our times in the mountains near the city of Monte-Video, I was informed by Andonaegui, Governour of Buenos-Ayres. Though the Catholic King was made acquainted with this circumstance, no pains were ever taken to examine and excavate those mountains, it being thought that there was little hope, and perhaps no reality in the matter. Some one reported that amethysts had been found in the river Rosario, near the city of Monte-Video; but I thought that they either were not genuine, or had been brought thither from some other place, as no one was known to have taken the pains to seek for more in the same river.

The first Spanish inhabitants entertained a thorough belief that the province of Guayra was rich in metals; and there too, they promised themselves to find abundance of precious stones. They had not yet learnt that all that glitters is not gold nor diamonds either. On the shores of the Parana, they found some stones which they called cocos de mina. These stones in shape are sometimes round, sometimes oval; their surface is rough and hard, and of a dark colour. In size they are equal to a pomegranate, and sometimes to a man's head. Within the outer shell they contain little stones of various colours, and great value in the eyes of ignorant persons, who take them for crystal, amethysts, rubies, emeralds, &c. But they are deceived. Jewellers rate them about as high as Bohemian stones. They say that the cocos de mina, pregnant with these kinds of pebbles, burst with a noise as loud as that of a gun, when what they consider the noble burden which their womb contains is mature. This appearance and these properties are attributed to them by the vulgar, with what truth I know not, for though I have travelled over the greatest part of Paraguay, particularly the shores of the Parana, with eyes attentive to nature, I never saw a stone of this kind. I do not pretend to say that the coco de mina may not have its value in the other provinces of America, which produce genuine jewels, but I boldly deny that any inhabitant of Paraguay was ever enriched with one. The foolish credulity of certain persons, who, from this fallacious resemblance of jewels, hoped to gain riches, was punished with extreme poverty, as we all know. Xerez, Ciudad Real, and Villa Rica, cities formerly accounted fountains of metals and of riches, have all proved seminaries of indigence and misery. What was called Villa Rica, or the Rich City, was never opulent in reality, but only so in name, and the hopes it held out of discovering metals.

Finding no gold and silver in those parts of Paraguay which their feet had traversed and their eyes beheld, they persuaded themselves and others that these metals were concealed in the native soil of the Guaranies, whom the Jesuits had undertaken to instruct in religion. From this false conjecture, how many lies have been coined, who many calumnies launched against us! By the royal authority and at the desire of the Jesuits, there were sent men commissioned to search diligently if any metal existed in the Guarany territories. These explorers were attended, in the capacity of guide, by a Guarany deserter, a man of bad character. This rogue had been induced, by the gifts and liberal promises of some enemy of the Jesuits, to declare that he had seen gold mines at the banks of the Uruguay, in the land belonging to Concepcion, a town of the Guaranies, and that this place was strengthened like a fort with strong holds, warlike machines, and a numerous garrison. Thither they directly hastened, and when they were a very few leagues distant from that golden spot, the knavish Indian, fearing the punishment of his falsehood, which must be discovered next day, fled away in the night; but being taken in the town of Yapeyù, by the missionary himself, was sent back, chained and guarded, to the Spaniards from whom he had deserted. The cheat respecting those gold mines and fortifications was thus brought to light, and the phantoms raised by falsehood and calumny disappeared. The Spaniards examined every corner far and near; after which they unanimously and publicly declared that no mines existed in that place, nor indeed that any one, who considered the nature of the situation, could rationally expect them to be produced there. The Indian was punished for his perfidy. Certain Spaniards, who had thus falsely accused the Jesuits, were declared calumniators, punished with confiscation of their goods and public infamy, and pronounced incapable of holding any office in the state. By these royal fulminations calumny was for a little while repressed; yet the ridiculous suspicion that mines were buried amongst the Guaranies was not yet extinct; it was even propagated amongst the more credulous Europeans.

I have often laughed at beholding the eagerness and solicitude with which the Spaniards, who visited the Guarany towns, gathered up all the little worthless stones they met with on the way, and which, on account of their various colours, they thought to be emeralds, amethysts, or rubies. Every thing that was found on the Guarany soil they took for gold and jewels. Diamonds, which nature has denied to every part of Paraguay, were reported to abound in the land of the Guaranies. In the Gazeta de Madrid, I read this article, dated London. "They write from Brazil that the Jesuits of Paraguay have brought their diamond mines to such a degree of perfection, that it is greatly to be apprehended the diamonds of Brazil will decrease in value." I submitted this paragraph to the perusal of Charles Murphy, Governour of Paraguay, and I cannot tell whether it excited his laughter or his indignation the most. I would have bought the smallest particle of a diamond at any price, to cut the glass for the various uses of the church, but could never meet with any one who possessed such a thing, and was, consequently, always obliged to make use of a flint instead. If the savages at the straits of Magellan have any metal, they must have got it from the mountains where every one knows that metals are found. But the province of Chili differs as much from Paraguay, as Austria does from its neighbour Hungary. The one abounds in gold and silver, the other is absolutely destitute of both. The Portugueze in Cuyaba, in Matto Grosso, and in the fortlet of Sta. Rosa, collect sands from various rivers, out of which they pick very small particles of gold, formerly with the connivance of the Spaniards, and since the last declaration of peace with their open consent. For the Portugueze always contended that the above-mentioned territories were comprehended within the limits of Brazil, whilst the Spaniards annexed them to Paraguay, or their own Peru. That you may perceive the truth of what I say, I will fairly describe the liberality of nature towards Paraguay. You shall see and laugh at its treasures.

At the close of the last century, Father Antony Sepp found out a method of extracting a small quantity of iron from stones named ytacurù, by dint of a very hot fire kept up for twenty-four hours. But he had scarcely any imitators, for the quantity of iron obtained was so inconsiderable, in proportion to the labour and firewood spent upon it, that it was not thought worth the trouble. These stones, which are composed of a number of very small pebbles, are of a dusky colour, mottled with black spots. In our times, somewhat more iron has been brought in the Spanish ships, but even now it is sold at a price incredible to Europeans. All the Guarany youths, on their marriage-day, and the married people at the beginning of January, receive from the Jesuit, the priest of the town, a common knife to use at table. This donation is more expensive than Europeans may imagine, as some of the towns contain four thousand inhabitants, some six or seven. Yet, notwithstanding the dearness of iron, none of us ever thought of procuring a trifling quantity of it, with immense labour, from the stones named ytacurù.

Out of the Cordoban mountains, they sometimes dig talc, a sort of softish white stone, very light, and of no firmness. It consists of slender laminæ, so that it may be divided with a knife into small plates, and is sometimes dipped in water. When slightly burnt, it assumes the softness of paper and the colour of silver, and is used to make little images and other figures to adorn poor churches. Out of the numerous leaves of which this stone is composed, you will find few entirely white and transparent, for most of them are darkened with black or yellow spots. The better ones supply the place of glass in windows and lanterns; for that article was extremely scarce and dear, in 1748, when I arrived in Paraguay. I could not see one glass window in the chief colleges of the province, nor in the towns of the Guaranies. Every one made his own window of the stone talc, (which is difficult to procure,) of paper, or linen cloth; and as these substitutes were torn away by every shower or boisterous wind, was continually under the necessity of making repairs. But in the last years of my residence in Paraguay, a quantity of glass was brought thither in the Spanish ships, and the price being reduced, the houses and churches shone with glass windows. In the churches, where they look towards the south, instead of a glass window, they place a hard, white, and transparent stone, which is a kind of alabaster, and is brought at a great expense from Peru, its native soil. For the south wind, which is excessively violent in South America, at the first gust breaks all the glass that opposes its fury, often levelling whole houses, breaking enormous masts of large ships, and tearing up lofty cedars by the roots. Stones fit for making lime are to be met with in almost any part of Paraguay, but they are not found in the territories of the Abipones and Guaranies. The shores of the Paraguay and other rivers afford gypsum. The Guaranies, who dwell at a distance from these shores, make use of burnt snails' shells, or of a chalk like fuller's earth, which they call tobaty, in whitening their houses. At the banks of the greater Tebiguarỹ, I sometimes saw marble of a black colour, spotted with green, but of very small dimensions. I know not whether any other marbles or remarkable stones are concealed in the bosom of the earth elsewhere. Red and black flints, containing plenty of fire, and extremely fit for muskets, may be seen in many places, especially at the banks of the Uruguay; but instruments to cut them, and fit them for the use of muskets, are wanting. Whether Paraguay produces alum, sulphur, and mercury, I do not know.

Many have committed mistakes who have written concerning Paraguay, in that country itself. They have liberally bestowed treasures upon it, not because it really possesses them, but because they have dreamt of them in a country utterly destitute of all metals. The blind man dreamt that he saw, as the Spanish proverb goes, and he dreamt of what he desired. El çiego soñaba que veia, y soñaba lo que queria. To this number belongs Martin del Barco, Archdeacon in the city of Buenos-Ayres, who, in his poem intituled Argentina, y Conquista del Rio de la Plata, affirms that pearls are formed in some lake, near which the Abipones inhabit. The oldest of the Indians, the most distinguished for experience and veracity, who were born in that neighbourhood, and had dwelt there for many years, all answered, with one accord, that they had never seen any pearls, nor heard any thing about them from their ancestors. Would not these savages, who continually adorn their necks, arms, and legs, with glass beads brought from Europe, with little round globes made of cockle-shells, with the seeds and kernels of various fruit and the claws of birds, would not they have grasped eagerly at pearls, which are naturally so bright, had they ever met with any? We may therefore safely pronounce this lake, said to produce pearls, a mere fable, long since expunged from history by all sensible persons.

Silver vessels are seen in the houses of the Spaniards, and silver utensils in the churches of the cities. In the Guarany colonies, not only the altars, but sometimes the very ceilings are gilded. This I do not deny. But all that gold and silver was not created in the bowels of Paraguay, but brought from the provinces of Chili or Peru. The Guaranies make very large brass bells for their own churches, or for those of the Spaniards; but the people of Chili supply them with brass. No money is coined in any part of Paraguay in the name of the King, or of any other person.

Excepting a few cities, which carry on commerce with European ships, or with the neighbouring people of Peru, and Chili, and the Portugueze, money is used very rarely, if at all, its place being supplied by the exchange of commodities, as amongst the ancients. Horses, mules, oxen, sheep, tobacco, cotton, the herb of Paraguay, sugar, salt, various kinds of grain, fruits, vegetables, the skins of animals, &c. are used instead of money in Paraguay; with these all necessaries are purchased, and the usual stipends and taxes paid to the bishops, priests and governours, especially in the district of Asumpcion. The prices of all natural productions are regulated by the magistrates, and are diligently learnt and observed both by the seller, and the purchaser. In a very few towns, where money is used, we find only three kinds of silver coins, namely, the peso fuerte, peso de plata, or patacon, which is equal in value to a Spanish crown, or to two German florens: the real de plata, and the medio real de plata; the first of which is equivalent to five German groschen, the other to seven cruitzers and a half. You never see any gold or copper money. The Indians in the towns entrusted to our charge are entirely unprovided with money, and the Jesuits likewise, except that we had fourteen silver pieces, or as many rials, or medios reales de plata, in every town. For these pieces of money, according to the custom of the Spanish church, in public weddings, are given by the parish priest to the bridegroom, and by him to the bride, as a dowry, but are afterwards returned again to the priest, that the same money, and the same nuptial rings, may serve over and over again. I think that you may aptly apply to Paraguay what was said of Germany by Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum: Argentum et aurum propitii, an irati Dii negaverint, dubito. If liberal nature had there created gold and silver, if art and industry had discovered those metals, the Spaniards would long since have left off breeding cattle, and cultivating the celebrated herb, both irksome employments. The Indians, who must then have been occupied in digging metals, would have shunned both the religion and friendship of the Spaniards, since they found them coupled with slavery; and we Jesuits should never have induced so many savages to embrace our religion; so that the want or ignorance of metals may be reckoned amongst the divine blessings and advantages of Paraguay.

Though Paraguay is entirely destitute of metals, yet it can by no means be called a poor country. It abounds in things necessary for human subsistence, and especially in all kinds of cattle. The whole world does not contain a country more numerously supplied with oxen, horses, mules, and sheep; which were formerly brought to Paraguay, and in the course of two hundred years increased marvellously, both on account of the richness of the pastures, and the unbounded liberty they possessed of wandering up and down the plains, both by day and night, at every time of the year. The quantity of kine which exists there is scarce credible to a European. Fifty years ago, when all the plains were covered with wild oxen, travellers were obliged to send horsemen before them to clear the way, by driving away the beasts which stood threatening them with their horns. It is, therefore, no wonder that at that time a full grown ox was sold for five groschen, (a real de plata,) as appears from the old books of valuations. Every Spaniard who intended to enlarge his estate hired a troop of horse, who brought him eight, ten, or more, thousands of cows and bulls from the country, within a few weeks. Do you desire to be made acquainted with the shape of the Paraguayrian oxen? In height they equal those of Hungary, and generally surpass them in the size of their bodies, though not of the same, but of various colours. With a sort of ferocious arrogance they imitate stags in the manner of holding their lofty heads, and almost equal them in swiftness. Unless a long drought have impoverished the pastures, every ox yields such a weight of fat, that two robust men are sometimes scarce able to carry it. The fat of oxen is always used instead of butter in culinary preparations; for the cows are very seldom milked, on account of their ferocity; the taming of them is a long and laborious process, and consequently odious to the slothful Spaniards and Indians. When tamed, they will not suffer themselves to be milked, unless their feet are tied and their calf is standing beside them. Sometimes the mothers are sent with their calves to the pastures, return home at evening of their own accord, and are separated at night, unless their milk has been exhausted by the calves – on which account milk and cheese are very seldom used in Paraguay, butter scarcely ever. A butcher and shambles are words unknown to the Paraguayrians. Every one slays his oxen at his pleasure. The poorer sort do not buy pounds of meat, as is customary in Europe, but a part of a slaughtered ox, which they generally owe to the liberality of the rich. Two or three young men are sufficient to kill the most furious bull. One throws a noose of leather over his neck, another casts one round his hind legs, and cuts the nerve of one of them, then, leaping on his back, fixes a knife in his neck; thus the ox falls, despatched at one blow.

An ox-hide, which measures three ells from the head to the tail, and is called by the Spaniards a legal hide, is bought by merchants at six German florens, though a whole live ox is sold for only two florens amongst the Guaranies, and for four amongst the Spaniards; for the labour employed on hides, even before they are dressed, increases their price. They are carefully fastened to the ground, to be dried, with wooden pegs, under shelter, in a place where the fresh air is admitted; and lest moths should gnaw or strip them of their hairs, for thirteen or, at least, eight days, the dust which ingenders these insects must be diligently beaten from them with a stick. This labour, which was often continued for many months, whilst some thousands of them were disposed of, is rated very high by the Spaniards who sell them. It is incredible what art and industry are employed in stretching hides, which come a little short of three ells, to the usual size, though when made as thin as paper they are totally useless to European curriers, on account of whose complaints this stretching of hides has long since been prohibited. The Spaniards, finding that the trade in hides was by far the most profitable to them of any, were possessed with a blind rage for killing all the oxen they could lay hands on. For this purpose, troops of horse were perpetually traversing those plains which abounded most in wild cattle. The horsemen employed have each separate tasks assigned them. Some furnished with swift horses attack a herd of oxen, and with a long spear, to which is added a sharp semicircular scythe, disable the older bulls by cutting the nerve of the hinder foot; others throw the halter on them whilst they are staggering, and others follow behind to knock down and slay the captive bulls. The rest are employed in stripping the hides off the slaughtered animals, conveying them to an appointed place, fixing them to the ground with pegs, and taking out and carrying away the tongues, suet, and fat. The rest of the flesh, which would suffice to feed a numerous army in Europe, is left on the plain to be devoured by tigers, wild dogs and ravens; and indeed one might almost fear lest the air should be corrupted by such a quantity of dead bodies. In an expedition of this kind, lasting several weeks, the person at whose expense it is undertaken is supplied with some thousands of hides. This custom of hunting and slaughtering oxen, being continued for a whole century, exhausted almost all the plains of wild cattle. You no longer saw those public and immense herds of innumerable oxen, which belonged to no one in particular, but might be appropriated to the use of any. It must be attributed to the extensiveness of the plains, and the fertility of the soil, that in the Paraguayrian estates the number of oxen is still so great that Europe may envy, but cannot hope to equal them. At this day a fat ox may be bought for four florens amongst the Spaniards, and two amongst the Guaranies. In the first years that I spent there one floren was the universal price, but as the number of herds was daily decreasing, the price increased in proportion. I have known Spaniards who possessed about an hundred thousand oxen in their estates. The town Yapeyù, which was dedicated to the three kings, contained fifty thousand; that of S. Miguel many more, but not one superfluous. At least forty oxen were daily slaughtered to satisfy the appetites of seven thousand Guaranies. Add to these the oxen which are privily slain by the Indians, either in the town or the estate, and those which are daily consumed by hostile savages, by tigers, wild dogs, and worms which are bred in the navels of calves. Every merchant's ship transports thirty, and sometimes forty, ox-hides into Europe. Who can reckon the number of hides daily employed in manufacturing ropes, building hedges and houses, and making trunks, saddles, and wrappers for the herb of Paraguay, tobacco, sugar, wheat, cotton and other things? The common people amongst the Spaniards have no other bed than an ox-hide stretched upon the ground, which is also the case with an innumerable crowd of negro slaves. Beef is the principal, daily, and almost only food of the lower orders in Paraguay. Moreover that quantity of meat which would overload the stomach of a European is scarce sufficient to satisfy the appetite of an American. A Guarany, after fasting but a very few hours, will devour a young calf. An Indian, before he lies down to sleep, places a piece of meat to roast at the fire, that he may eat immediately when he wakes. Place food before him, and the rising and the setting sun will behold him with his jaws at work and his mouth full, but with an appetite still unsatisfied. Such being the voracity of the inhabitants, and so continual the slaughters of innumerable oxen, you will agree with me that Paraguay may be called the devouring grave, as well as the seminary of cattle.