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

Think not that such egregious merits went unrewarded by royalty: he was honoured with the rank of commendador in the equestrian order of St. Iago, made knight of the order of St. Janeiro, and even created military governor of Madrid. Some years after, he received from King Charles the golden key, a mark of singular prerogative in the court. Rumours of the Paraguay disturbances having reached Spain, he was invested with the government of Buenos-Ayres, and commanded to sail thither, to compose the minds of the Guaranies, and forward the delivery of the seven towns, accompanied by five hundred regular cavalry-men, chosen from every regiment of light-armed horse which Spain possesses. To these were added seven companies of foot, consisting of runaway Germans, French, Italians, Poles, and even Russians, collected, a few years before, by a Spanish lieutenant at the surrender of Parma. Most of these were veterans – fierce warriors, fresh from European battles. As often, therefore, as Paraguay found them an enemy, they did not let their help be wanted; but being used to running away at home, they did not forget their old propensities amongst the antipodes, for they sometimes fled in troops, from the desire of marriage and a life of less hardship.

During the voyage, Zevallos was anxiously devising methods to tranquillize Paraguay, which he imagined to be embroiled with intestine war, and devoted to King Nicholas. On coming in sight of the shores of Buenos-Ayres, lest by a sudden landing he should endanger his men, he despatched some soldiers in a boat to feel the way before them. Perceiving a multitude assembled on the bank of the river Plata, they hailed them from afar with the usual interrogation of the Spanish guards, Quien vive?– Who reigns here? With one voice they exclaimed, that Ferdinand the Sixth was their king, and should remain so as long as they lived. This was more than enough to quiet the fears of the soldiers, who, deceived by European reports, imagined that King Nicholas would be dethroned with the utmost difficulty, and at the expense of their own and much foreign blood. Zevallos himself was astonished when he learnt that the Guaranies had long since been brought to submission. He had therefore no fighting with the Indians, but many contentions with the officers of the Portugueze faction, among whom the Marquis Val-de-Lirios held a distinguished place, as possessing, from royal investment, full power of determining every thing connected with the stipulated exchange of territory with the Portugueze. Equitable in other respects, but too studious of Queen Barbara's favour, he consulted principally the advantage of the Portugueze; while Pedro Zevallos, who laboured for the safety of his country, rather than the favour of his queen, endeavoured to oppose him. Having impartially investigated all the occurrences of the revolt previous to his coming, and discovered that many things had been written against the Guaranies and their missionaries, without foundation, and that others were basely exaggerated, he transmitted to the court a correct statement of the matter, standing forth, on a sudden, the vindicator and eulogist of those very Guaranies he had come to put down and punish.

Tucuman, another division of Paraguay, extends very widely in every direction: on the East it reaches the territory of Buenos-Ayres; on the West, the mountains of Chili; on the South, it is bounded by immense plains, running out as far as the Magellanic region; and on the North, by the district of Tariji. It has a governour and bishop of its own, the one of whom resides at Cordoba, the other at Salta, the capital cities. Cordoba is famous for the beauty of its houses, the number and opulence of its inhabitants, and a celebrated academy. In the richness of its pastures and the multitude of its cattle, it has no superior. Many thousand mules are annually exported from its estates to the Peruvian market. Lofty rocks rise in every part of the Cordoban district. A few leagues distant, on the banks of the river Pucara, which washes the city, is a place where lime is made. Coming to the place one night, when the sky was calm and the air tranquil, I heard terrible noises like the explosion of cannon. But the natives assured me, that these sounds were common to the neighbouring rocks and happened perpetually. The air, confined in the cavities of the mountain, and attempting a forcible passage through the chinks, when stopped by opposing rocks, and reverberated by their windings, bellows after this fearful manner. In the city of Cordoba itself, a hollow murmur, resembling the knocks of a pestle in a wooden mortar, is frequently heard by night. This low mournful sound runs from one street to another, and is called by the Spaniards el pison, or the paving-hammer. The ignorant vulgar believe that some spectre or goblin haunts the streets; as for me, I am convinced that it originates in subterraneous wind, which, forcing its way through the interstices of the earth, makes violent endeavours to find a vent; for I observed the lands near the city excavated and fissured in many places by earthquakes. The city of Salta derives its principal profits from the passage of mules. St. Iago del Estero, a very ancient city of Tucuman, was long the seat of a bishop, and afterwards of a governour. The houses are, however, neither large nor elegant. Pope Innocent the Twelfth transferred the episcopal see from hence to Cordoba. The city of St. Iago boasts some tolerably handsome churches. It is washed by the Rio Dulce, which, during its annual flood, rolls down mountains of sands; excellent bulwarks against the cannon of assailants, if the city were ever besieged. The inhabitants of the district of St. Iago are distinguished alike for the greatness of their valour and the scantiness of their means in the wars against the savages. From the trade in wax, which they collect in their distant woods, and from that in corn, they derive some profits, inadequate, however, to recompense them for the hardships they undergo. Their herds are few, from the scantiness of the pastures: for the plains, which are bounded on every side with sand, supply a slender provision of grass, by reason of the frosts in winter and the drought in summer. In winter, when the fields are bare, I have observed the horses cropping the branches of trees, nay, sometimes gnawing their trunks. Did not the Rio Dulce yearly overflow its banks, the soil would produce nothing esculent. This flood generally takes place about January, from the melting of the snows on the Chili and Peruvian mountains. The fertility of the soil is at that time incredible, producing abundant crops of corn, and water-pumpkins of great size and sweetness. Clouds of a remarkable hue announce the event to the natives. The woods around St. Iago abound in the alfaroba, which is converted into a drink, or a sweet-flavoured bread, and taken in either form is possessed of medicinal virtues. The Rio Dulce too supplies the inhabitants of its shores with food. Annually, but at no certain time, shoals of a fish called zabalo hurry down the river, and are taken by the hand, in such numbers that, during the period of their arrival, the lower orders need no other provision.

The city of St. Iago formerly numbered many Indian colonies within its jurisdiction, the ruins of which are now alone visible, the inhabitants having perished of want or the small-pox. Some little villages yet remain: Matarà, Salabina, Moppa, Lasco, Silipica, Lindongasta, Mañogasta, and Socconcho; they are governed by secular priests, and inhabited by a very few Indians, employed in the service of the Spaniards who live amongst them. Their condition is miserable, their barbarity beyond conception, their houses mere hovels, and their churches little better. The same may be said of all the villages remaining in the other districts of Paraguay.

The little town of St. Miguel, situated near the Chili mountains, is surrounded with hills, plains, large streams, and pleasant woods adorned with lofty forest trees, which supply the whole province with cedar planks, and timber fit for the largest houses. Rioja and St. Ferdinand, or Catamarca, little towns, buried amongst mountains, gain their principal returns from the culture of vines and red pepper, which is in daily use amongst the Spaniards. Not only meal, but even cheese, which, considering the multitude of cattle in the estates of Buenos-Ayres and Cordoba, is but seldom made, is seasoned so high with this powerful spice, that it acquires a deep red colour, and a pungency intolerable to an European palate. All the vine-yards in Paraguay scarce equal the number of fingers on both your hands; for although the climate and soil are extremely suitable to vines, they are uniformly destroyed by an army of ants, wasps, and wood-pigeons. The little wine that is made is deep-coloured, thick, and generous, though to Europeans newly arrived it smells somewhat like a drug. The new must squeezed from the grape is simmered on the fire till it obtains a consistence. Such is the scarcity of wine in the remote colonies, that we were sometimes unable to celebrate the Eucharist. For whatever is used at the table or the altar, is principally brought from Chili, by a long journey, and at great expense, and often is not to be had for love or money.

In the districts of Rioja and Catamarca there is very scanty pasturage, and consequently few cattle; a want compensated by the fertility of the soil, the productiveness of the trees, and the industry of the inhabitants, who dry figs, weave a kind of woollen garment in common use, dress ox and sheep hides to great perfection, and apply the leather to various purposes, as saddles, trunks, and similar articles, to be commuted for other goods. Xuxuy, a district of St. Salvador, situate on the Peruvian side of Tucuman, though far from populous, is the seat of the royal treasurers for the last mentioned country. In this place, the tertian ague and wens are common; a circumstance arising from the rivulets flowing from the neighbouring mountains. Talavera de Madrid, also called Esteco, a state formerly flourishing in vices as in wealth, situate on the bank of the river Salado, is said to have been swallowed up, in the last century, with all its houses and inhabitants, by a violent earthquake; the ill-fated pillar applied to the punishment of delinquents alone remaining in the market-place.

Fareja, a city of some note, though within the jurisdiction of Chichas in Peru, contains Jesuits from Paraguay, who, in the hopes of civilizing the Chiriguanàs, a barbarous race, always hostile to the Spaniards, have neither spared their labour nor their lives; five of them were butchered by these savages.

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, with its territory, though bordering on the eastern confines of Peru, is within the dominions of Paraguay. Its longitude is 314°, its latitude 21°. It has its own governour and bishop, to whom are subject the towns of the Chiquitos, savages for many years instructed by the Jesuits in religion, humanity, and the useful arts, amid their distant woods. In 1766, the ten towns of the Chiquitos, founded by men of our order, contained 5173 families, and 23,788 souls; but the number of deaths far exceeds that of births. Whether this paucity of issue is to be attributed to the climate, the water, their food – especially the land-tortoises they use so much – or to a natural sterility in the parents, let the learned judge. I have frequently heard, that had not the Jesuits yearly brought a multitude of savages from the woods, the towns must long since have been depopulated.

In each of the cities of Tucuman and Paraguay, the followers of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Pedro de Nolasco, as well as the Jesuits, have their own establishment. Nuns of various orders dwell in Cordoba and Buenos-Ayres, but no where else. The Spaniards account Tucuman the poorest country in America, because it is destitute of gold, notwithstanding its numerous herds of cattle of every description. This province has been honoured with the presence of St. Francis Solano. When he was called away to Paraguay, many whole states were left without a single priest. Francis Victoria, of the order of St. Dominic, first bishop of Tucuman, in 1581 found only five secular priests and a few religious, with not one presbyter who understood the language of the natives, though the province abounded in Indian colonies. Solicitous for the glory of God, this bishop wrote to request Father Juan Atienza in Peru, and Joseph Anchuela in Brazil, to send him a few Jesuits already tried by previous exertions in the Christian cause. Fathers Leonardo Arminio, an Italian; Juan Saloni, a Spaniard; Thomas Fields, an Irishman; Manuel Ortega, and Estevam de Grao, Portugueze, were sent by sea from Brazil, and being taken by the English, were for some time infamously treated, and at last exposed to the winds and waves in an open boat; but Providence happily guiding them, reached the port of Buenos-Ayres. From Peru, Fathers Francis Angulo and Alphonso Barzena had been already despatched into Tucuman. The last of these was created vicar-general by Victoria, who esteemed him so highly as openly to declare that he would himself vacate the bishopric could Barzena benefit by his abdication. To these have succeeded men of our order, one after another, for nearly two centuries. Summoned by the bishop and royal governour, sent from Europe by their Catholic sovereigns, and dispersed in every corner of Paraguay's immense extent, how strenuously they have toiled for God and their King, it is not my business to relate. Thousands of savages won over to God and the King, colonies founded on every side, churches built to the Lord, and numbers of Spanish cities imbued with learning and piety – these will testify that we have at least done something for the Antipodes, though many have left no stone unturned to blot out our very name. This is, however, beyond dispute; – that a far more abundant harvest might have been reaped from our apostolic labours, if the Europeans had not uniformly opposed every measure conducive to the advantage of the Indians. Not a savage would now have been left in America, had every professor of Christianity conformed his life to its dictates, and joined his endeavours vigorously to ours.

The third division, from which the whole province takes its name, is that of Paraguay, so called from the river on which it borders. In regard to the laws of dominion its extent is immense; but from the dangerous vicinity of the savages on one hand, and the Portugueze on the other, the inhabitants, considering their number, are contracted into somewhat narrow limits. Extensive and fertile plains, both to the west on the opposite side of the river, and towards the north, are totally neglected, on two accounts – their distance from the metropolis, and the above-mentioned neighbours. The Corrientine country is accounted the southern boundary. The inhabitants are almost incalculably numerous. There are who assert their capability of bringing ten thousand soldiers into the field, Spaniards only: for if you count Indian natives, and all the herd of negroes, and other slaves, you might reckon up three times that number. But the majority of these deserve the motto – "Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati." Some one was heard to complain of the governours of Paraguay – that many soldiers were ranged under the banners, but few who were furnished with a musket, and still fewer who could manage one if they had it. The metropolis, Asumpcion, takes its name from the assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is situated in latitude 25° 8´ and longitude 319° 41´, on the banks of the Paraguay, which affords a convenient station for ships and an opportunity of commerce, but menaces destruction to the city; for the channel constantly nearing and nearing, undermines the bank and the houses situate thereupon. Neither splendid edifices nor city fortifications are here to be found. Many of the houses are of stone or brick, and roofed with tiles, but none of them are above one story high. The monasteries are nearly of the same description, possessing nothing by which you could recognise the church. The streets are crooked, and impeded with ditches and stones thrown out of their places, to the imminent peril both of men and horses. It has but one market-place, and that covered with grass. The governor and bishop have resided here since the time of Charles V. though neither has any proper seat. Besides grammar, the scholars in our college pay much attention to philosophy and theology. For the negroes, Indians, and mulattos, there is a separate priest and parish church. Even matrons of the higher rank, boys, girls, and all the lower orders speak Guarany, though the generality have some acquaintance with Spanish. To say the truth, they mingle both, and speak neither correctly. When the Spaniards first occupied this province, in which the Guaranies had previously settled, for want of Spanish women, they took the daughters of the natives in marriage. The couples presently caught each other's dialect; but as is usual with adults, who learn foreign tongues, the Spaniards miserably corrupted the Indian, and the Indian the Spanish language. Whence from the original two, a third dialect arose, in use at present.

The major part of the Spaniards live in hamlets, farms, and little villages, where the convenience of land and pasturage is greatest: cities, except the metropolis, they have none. Villa Rica and Curuquati are meagre places, mere shades of towns, the inhabitants being almost obliterated, by frequent migrations, from fear of the Portugueze. Xerez and Ciudad Real del Guayra, which once boasted the name of cities, have long since been destroyed by the incursions of the Portugueze who, assembled in the city of St. Paulo, enjoy, to this day, the finest parts of Guayra, the Spaniards vainly lamenting the seizure of the noblest part of their territory.

Of the ancient towns, where the Spaniards settled the Indians they had subdued with arms, or won by religion, there remain Caazapà, Yuti, Ytape, and Yta, which are governed by Franciscans. Caazapà contains about two hundred families, and exceeds the rest in the number of its herds. Ytape contains about twenty families; Yuti and Yta, somewhat more. They are all governed by parish priests. Atira and Altos together form one little town. Quarambare and Jobati are both inconsiderable. Yaguaron consists of two hundred families. The Indian inhabitants are mostly employed in the service of the Spaniards, and consequently in populousness, morality, and the appearance of their churches, vastly inferior to our Guaranies, who, exempted from private servitude, are accountable solely to the Catholic King.

In the dominions of Paraguay are three other towns, founded and preserved by men of our order. St. Joachim, situate in latitude 24° 49´, and longitude 321°, on the banks of the Yù, which, in 1767, numbered 2017 Christian inhabitants, named Ytatines or Ytatinguays. As early as 1697 about four hundred persons were discovered in the neighbouring woods of Taruma, by Father Bartholomew Ximenez and Francisco Robles, and assembled in the town of Nuestra Senhora de Sta. Fè, 150 leagues distant from Sta. Fè, where they held the Christian religion many years. But love of freedom at length bore them back to their original forests, whence they were in vain recovered, by fathers of our order, in the year 1721. In the place called Taruma, a little town was built for them, which, in 1723, contained three hundred souls. But partly from the poorness of the pastures, partly from the disturbances raised by the Spaniards, on occasion of Joseph Antequera's obtruding himself upon them as governour, the Ytatines were again removed to Nuestra Senhora de Sta. Fè, where they remained ten years, and bore a good report. But the bloody insurrection of the neighbouring Spaniards, famine, and the wasting pestilence of the small-pox, compelled them, in 1734, to take refuge in the forests they had formerly occupied. On the instant, Fathers Sebastiano de Yegros, Juan Escandon, Felix Villagarzia, and Luke Rodriguez, were sent to explore the lurking-places of the fugitives, and, after a laborious journey of eighteen months, returned unsuccessful. At length, in 1745 accident effected what labour could not. By the command of the superiors, Father Sebastiano de Yegros began the search, and after a forty-nine days journey of matchless difficulty, found the Ytatines in the woods of Tapebo. No opposition being made on their parts, a town was built for them in their native soil. Cattle of all kinds, clothes, axes, household furniture, and a few masters of music, and other arts, being sent from the old town, every thing went on favourably.

But a sudden terror interrupted the prosperous course of the new colony. The Guaycurus or Mbayas began to devastate the neighbouring estates of the Paraguayrians with slaughter and depredation. The Ytatines, thinking the marauders already upon them, lost all sense of safety. Alarmed by perpetual rumours of the enemy's approach, they spent their nights without sleep, and in open daylight still dreamt of peril. To this another distress was added: the want of water. The Fathers therefore judged it expedient to remove twenty-five leagues southwards, where the intermediate forests could protect them against the Guaycurus, and afford them a constant supply of water. In 1753, having left their church, and the residence of the Fathers, they built a town on the spur of the moment, which was regulated after the model of the Guarany colonies, increased by the accession of new families, and settled on a good foundation. To this city I devoted eight years of unregretted labour. When D. Manuel de la Torre, Bishop of Asumpcion, payed us his accustomed visit, he beheld with admiration the rigid Christian discipline, the accuracy of divine worship, and universal good order established among men so lately inhabitants of the woods. D. Carlos Murphy, an Irishman, and governor of Paraguay, was delighted during his five days' visit at my house with the dexterous management displayed by the Indians as well of their musical instruments, as of their weapons.

Another colony in the jurisdiction of Paraguay, that of St. Stanislaus, is the offshoot of St. Joachim. For the Ytatines, discovered by the joint efforts of the Indians and the Fathers of St. Joachim in woods situate between the rivers Caapivarỹ, Yeyuỹ, and Tapiraguaỹ, were prevailed upon to assemble in one place and embrace the Christian religion. Arduous, indeed, was the task of persuading them to leave their native woods; for, accustomed to the shade of towering trees, they shun the exposed and sunny plain, where they think their lives and liberties daily endangered. Father Sebastiano de Yegros lived a year in the woods with the savages; at the end of which time, he persuaded them to relinquish their woods, and occupy the plains bordering on the river Tapiraguaỹ, whither Fathers Manuel Guttierrez and Joseph Martin Mattilla bought cattle and the necessaries of subsistence, and in 1751 erected a chapel and dwellings. Softened by the kindness and liberality of the Fathers, they became docile and conformable to Christian discipline. In my visits to this town, I could not but admire the gentle disposition and compliance with divine regulations, displayed in a people bred in woods and thickets. In a few years the town was increased by the accession of Indians, won over by Fathers Antonio Planes, Thaddeus Emis, a Bohemian, and Antonino Cortada, after arduous journeys amid pathless wilds. This colony lies in latitude 24° 20´, and in longitude 321° 35´. In 1767 it contained upwards of two thousand three hundred inhabitants, who had formerly wandered over those woods, where the Spaniards gather the herb of Paraguay. So that from the towns of St. Joachim and St. Stanislaus, a lucrative trade is opened to the whole province by the removal of the savages; since which the Spaniards can fearlessly traverse the woods that produce the herb in question.

In confirmation of this, I will cite a remarkable instance. The remote forest of Mbaeverà abounds in the trees of the leaves of which the herb of Paraguay is made. To prepare this, a multitude of Spaniards, with the necessary oxen, horses, and mules, are sent from the city of Asumpcion. The forest through which their journey lay, a tract blocked up with mingled trees and reeds, and impeded with twenty-six rivers, and as many long marshes, is full eighty leagues in extent, in which space you will rarely find ten paces of plain land. To render this passable, it was requisite to fell trees, to throw bridges over the rivers, to give the marshes consistence with bundles of boughs, and to level the declivities. When these things had been effected with equal labour and expense, huts were required to receive the Spaniards, hedges to inclose the beasts, and a frame work formed of stakes partly driven into the ground, partly laid cross-wise, to roast the leaves on. The necessary preparations made, the Spaniards were sent to the woods where the leaves were gathered. But their superintendant Vilalba lit upon a hovel, which, though empty, evidently belonged to the savages. Struck with the unexpected occurrence, he hastened to his companions with the news, which instigated them to immediate flight, and to think of saving their lives instead of gathering the herb of Paraguay. Nor do I, on this account, think them to be accused of cowardice or sloth. For in seeking the trees from which they lopped the branches, they did not traverse the woods in one body, but separately, and when they returned home, they were loaded with burthens. Moreover from carrying no weapon but the knife they used, they were always undefended from the assault of the savages. Abandoning therefore the business on which they had come, they returned to the city on their mules and horses. Vilalba, quitting his associates, turned aside to the city of St. Joachim, and related to the Fathers what he had seen and done, conjuring them to endeavour by every possible means to bring the savages to their town. The Fathers readily began the attempt. But, perceiving themselves unequal to such a journey, dispatched a chosen band of Indians, under the conduct of Vilalba, to search out the savages, and sound their inclinations. After some days, having imprudently consumed their provisions, they turned back before they had even approached the station, which the Indians were supposed to hold. So that the glory of finding these savages was reserved to the author of this work.