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

On the departure of the captives from Buenos Ayres, the town was restored to its former tranquillity, and shortly after increased by new supplies of Patagonians. For these a single town was prepared, four leagues distant, and named Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. The government of it was committed to Father Lorenzo Balda of Pampeluna, and to Father Augustino Vilert a Catalan. Three of the Patagonian Caciques, with eighty of their hordesmen, occupied this colony. A horde consists of three or four families, sometimes of more. Each family generally numbers four, five, and often more heads; for the Patagonians have many children, and polygamy is very common amongst them. They are docile beyond all the other southern tribes, and make less opposition to baptism, but I cannot commend the young men of this nation either for honesty or modesty. Scarce any commerce is carried on between the Spaniards and Patagonians. From a nation so populous, so tractable, and of so gentle a disposition, great accessions were reasonably expected to Christianity, but Satan confounded all these fair hopes. Cangapol, the potentate of that region, long beheld these Christian colonies with gloomy and envious eyes. Through them he thought that friendships would be formed with the Spaniards, the freedom of the southern nations endangered, and his own power in these parts gradually diminished, and ultimately suppressed. Hence he turned his whole heart and thoughts to hastening the destruction of the new town, and the banishment of the Fathers who taught the strange religion. In order to effect these purposes, as many savages as possible were associated in a contract of arms, and an expedition was at length undertaken. Matthias Strobl, being made acquainted with the route and immense number of the enemy, made a timely request by letter, to the Governour, for military succours from Buenos-Ayres, which city promised seventy provincial horsemen, but never supplied one. Thus having suffered a repulse from the Spaniards, whose interest it chiefly was to maintain these towns, by flying with his people, the Father eluded the enemy – eluded since he could not subdue. The towns, their flocks, and their herds were left. The neophytes and catechumens, all who were sincere in religion and friendly to the Spaniards, fled with the Fathers to the city of Concepcion. But this colony being daily harassed by hostile incursions, and but lazily defended by the Spanish guards, was entirely deserted on the 3d of February, 1753, a severe loss to the city. For the savages being now at full liberty to ravage where they would, the estates for two leagues distant from the city were presently left destitute of their guards, and the lands around the village of Magdalen, famous for large crops of wheat, of their cultivators, both having fled to safer quarters. In the city itself the most disgraceful trepidations often arose, sometimes from real danger, at others from the suspicion alone of an enemy. In the circumjacent estates and plains very many were despoiled of their substance, their cattle, and their life, by the assaulting savages. The light-armed cavalry, who were commanded to keep watch in the country and repress the enemy, suffered repeated losses. Waggons laden with silver from Peru, were often despoiled of their treasures, the soldiers who guarded and transported them being miserably butchered. The same savages have often proved fatal, always formidable, to the inhabitants of Barragan, a bay of the Rio de la Plata, where vessels are often drawn out and refitted. Those who went southward in great numbers for salt to the salt-pits, were sometimes slain to a man. Then at length the Spaniards perceived the utility of the southern colonies, after they had irrecoverably lost them. That so many thousand Indians who dwell in the southern parts, should be buried together in their darkness, is indeed a reflexion worthy of regret. Who will not deplore the infinite miseries of the Jesuits, who laboured for many years upon this people, the hardships of their journeys, their want of necessaries, the daily perils that threatened their lives, and the greatness of their labours, – labours almost fruitless, except indeed their sending to Heaven a considerable number of infants, baptized before their death, as also not a few adults? At first, before oxen and sheep were sent for their subsistence, the Fathers lived on horse-flesh, the daily food of those Indians. Father Thomas Falconer, who wandered over all the plains with his Indians to kill horse-flesh, having no plate of pewter or wood, always, in place thereof, made use of his hat, which grew at length so greasy, that it was devoured whilst he slept by the wild dogs with which the plains are over-run. Father Matthias Strobl's hut being set on fire by some villain or other, and the straw roof being already in flames, he would doubtless himself have perished, had he not been awakened from his deep sleep, by one who continued faithful to him, and rescued him from the conflagration. The town of Concepcion was situated in 322° 20´ longitude, and in latitude 36° 20´; that of Nuestra Señora del Pilar was distant from Concepcion seventy leagues to the south west; from Buenos-Ayres full an hundred and ten leagues; from the town of Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados only four.

Nor must you think that the care of taming and instructing the southern nations has been neglected till our time. This business was taken up by the Catholic kings, and us Jesuits, in the last century. Every method was vainly tried to unite them to Christ and the Catholic King. Omitting the rest, Fathers Nicholas Mascardi and Joseph Quilelmo, indefatigable teachers of the holy religion in that place, were murdered by their cruel, unmanageable disciples. Nothing daunted by the ferocity thus manifested in the savages, our companions, both of Chili and of Paraguay, left no stone unturned to enlighten these uttermost corners of South America with the torch of the gospel; but the attempt was ever vain and unrewarded, save by the immortal glory which their apostolic magnanimity and fortitude gained them. In the year 1745, a ship was despatched by Philip the Fifth from Cadiz to Paraguay, for the purpose of inspecting the shores of Magellan, and the neighbouring land. If any post or commodious station offered itself, it was to be fortified against an enemy. If they discovered the quarters of any savages, a colony and religious instruction were to be awarded them. Three Jesuits, therefore, were destined by the King for this perilous expedition. Father Joseph Quiroga, Father Joseph Cardiel, and Father Matthias Strobl. From the military guard of the city of Monte-Video, twenty-five soldiers were chosen for the defence of the ship and the crew. They weighed anchor in the port of Monte-Video, on the 17th of December, 1745, and set out with prosperous gales and minds full of hope.

Whatever land or water came within his observation, was diligently explored, and carefully noted in the journal of the voyage by Father Quiroga, who, in a boat, examined the harbour, the rivers, the lakes, the depth or shallowness of the water, the sandbanks, and the rocks between them; in short, every thing dangerous or favourable to the navigation of the Spaniards. Fathers Strobl and Cardiel, meantime, taking a divided route, on foot, in various directions, attended by a certain number of soldiers, traversed the plains remote from the shore, and accurately examined their nature, and whether any sign of human habitation, or convenience for the same appeared, often ascending the steepest mountains with this view. Not unfrequently they receded many leagues from the shores, in the hope of finding Indians. Father Strobl, after having proceeded four leagues without seeing a man, or any sign of man's habitation, abandoned all hope, and sent a soldier to tell Father Cardiel, who had travelled many leagues, and was quite spent with so much walking, that he thought it highly imprudent to prosecute the journey they had begun – that they might not improbably fall in with a numerous troop of savage horse, by whom they, a few wearied footmen, would undoubtedly be all cut to pieces – that he had himself long wished to fall in the cause of religion, but that he neither could nor would place the lives of others in such peril – and that even were they free from this danger, and were no enemy to meet them, yet, as their provisions were already consumed, if they prosecuted their journey, both themselves and their companions must perish of hunger. Father Cardiel however, always intrepid, dissuaded the return, urging that the habitations of the savages must be near, principally on this ground, that he saw a whitish dog barking at his men, but which soon after ran away, hastening, as might be believed, to his master. In spite of these arguments, both Fathers returned with their companions to the ship. There the matter being prudently discussed, and all the officers consulted, it was finally resolved that Father Cardiel, at his earnest desire, should be permitted to repeat the journey, on this condition, that he should set out with four and thirty men, soldiers as well as sailors, who were willing to follow him of their own accord, and with provisions sufficient to last them eight days. The journey was begun on the 20th of February, and each day they travelled about eight leagues. For the most part, they walked in a narrow and almost obliterated path of the Indians. Drinkable water was every where at hand. Except emus, and a few huanacos, no beasts were any where seen. On the fourth day of their journey, about evening, they perceived a high hill, from the top of which they beheld a plain, entirely destitute of grass and trees. They all thought the cold of the night air intolerable; for though shrubs were at hand to supply their fires, yet when the side nearest to it grew warm, the other, being exposed to the most piercing wind, seemed frozen. Amidst all this cold, the courage of the soldiers daily inflamed more and more, but their bodies were observed sensibly to fail and break down. Their shoes being worn by the roughness of the roads, many of them crept along with naked, and not a few with wounded feet. Father Cardiel too was first afflicted with nephritic pains, and afterwards with such a debility in his feet, that he could not advance a step without crutches. With all this, however, the ardent desire of discovering the habitations of the savages never cooled. But their provisions, which were destined for an eight days' journey, being now, after five days, in great measure consumed, they were obliged to hasten back again to the ship. One effect however was produced by this calamitous journey – it was now finally determined, by ocular demonstration, that the hordes of the savages were at a great distance from the sea; and that immense tracts of land bordering upon the shore were uninhabitable, as destitute either of fresh water, grass, or trees, or of all together; so much so at least, that, except a few emus and huanacos, you could find scarce any sort of beast. All things, therefore, having been considered, since there was no opportunity of erecting a colony for the Indians, or a fortress for the Spaniards, they unanimously resolved upon a return; to be conducted, however, in such a way, that they should repeatedly disembark and explore those places they were obliged to pass by in coming. At length, on the 4th day of April, about sun-set, they cast anchor in the port of Buenos-Ayres. The journal which Quiroga had made of the shore and harbours, soon after printed and published at Madrid, with plates of whatever seemed remarkable, will be of the highest use to Spaniards hereafter in navigating this turbulent sea. I may here add, that Father Joseph Cardiel, not having discovered the savages of the coast of Magellan, either in his naval or his pedestrian journey, set out on horseback in search of them, with a few companions. But their pains were as fruitless as before. After wandering much and long over these solitary plains, and consuming all the provisions he had brought with him, he was reduced to such straights as to be obliged to feed on grass, unless he preferred dying of emptiness, the extremity of which obliged him to return to Buenos-Ayres, his business left unfinished, but himself, for his signal fortitude, his magnanimity, and apostolic ardour, truly deserving of honour and imitation.

In the year 1765, a large merchant-ship freighted to the value of some millions, destined to Callao, a harbour of Lima, was stranded and lost off the island of Terra del Fuego. The crew fortunately escaped, and reached the island in a boat, the ship gradually foundering. Part of the provision, the cannon, and other necessaries for supporting life, were providently got out of the leaking vessel. A hill, neighbouring to the sea, was occupied by the shipwrecked Spaniards, and fortified by I don't know how many cannon. These being discharged, a troop of the Indian inhabitants was seen advancing from afar. They were entirely naked, and each kept rubbing his belly with his hands. On a second explosion, they all fell on the ground, still continuing, however, to rub their bellies. This ridiculous action of the savages the Spaniards were in doubt whether to construe into a sign of friendship, or of hostility. As no one understood their language, they were invited by gentle tones, friendly nods, and little gifts displayed to them, till at length they approached the station of the Spaniards, still rubbing their bellies without intermission. Which custom surprizing the Spaniards, they now call them Rascabarrigas, or the belly-rubbers. To conciliate the minds of the islanders, elegant weapons, food, and various other little gifts were offered them; except, however, some strings of glass beads, nothing was accepted by the savages, who feared some fraud from the strangers. They were, however, peaceable and quiet, so that the Spaniards mixed amongst them, without fear of injury or hostile designs, and solicitous only respecting the means and opportunity of sailing back to their friends. It was resolved to build a vessel after their own model, sufficient for the number of the shipwrecked. Trees adapted for ship-building abounded in this island, nor did they want workmen or carpenters' tools. The Indians themselves faithfully indicated the places which supplied the hardest and largest wood, and with more good-will than usefulness assisted the Spaniards in cutting and sawing the beams; but after three or four strokes of the axe, or lifts of the saw, they retired fatigued, being utterly unaccustomed to labour. The Spaniards, however, longing to revisit their native soil, made up for the deficiencies of the Indians, by their own sedulity. And now when every thing was ready and prepared, iron nails were wanted to fasten the joints of the ship. But the sea, bringing up various chests from the foundered ship with the tide, one was found amongst them full of the requisite nails, a circumstance looked upon by all as a signal favour of Providence. Some of the tackling, which they had prudently taken from the lost ship, proved of great service. With these aids the finishing stroke was put to the little vessel, in which, after a prosperous voyage of about a thousand leagues, they arrived safe at the harbour of Monte-Video. All this which I have written on the shipwreck and navigation of the Spaniards was related to me in the city of Santa Fé, by an old Biscayan, builder of the foundered ship, companion of all their perils, and architect of the vessel constructed in the island. In the year 1788, when with my companions I was awaiting my passage to Europe, at Buenos-Ayres, a ship set sail from that port, for Terra del Fuego, with two priests, who being liberally provided with every thing from the royal treasury, were ordered to establish a settlement in that island, and to teach the natives religion. But not long after, they returned to Buenos-Ayres in the same ship, without effecting their business. What was done, or attempted, and what was the occasion of their hasty return, I know not: but I heard the groans of the noble Spaniards, who earnestly desired the Jesuits for this momentous expedition: they, however, were recalled, God knows why, that same year to Europe. In succeeding years the Spaniards have wished to subdue and instruct that island, which lies near to the Maloine islands, in south lat. 51° 30´, and west long. 60° 50´ from the meridian of Paris. This isle, named from St. Maló, a town of Bretany, was taken possession of with the labour and expense of Louis Antoine de Bourgainville, then colonel of foot, and of Messieurs de Nerville and de Arboulin, his relatives, and in the year 1763, or more probably 1764, delivered to some loyal and industrious families of Nova Scotia, to be civilized. Three years after, to wit in 1767, it was sold for eighty thousand Spanish crowns to the Catholic King Charles, who thought that this colony of strangers, as neighbouring to the provinces of Peru and Chili, so rich in gold and silver, might prove dangerous to his monarchy, in case of war, and cause a disunion between the Spanish and French monarchies. The French families being transported to Europe, their places were supplied, for the most part, by Spanish convicts, scarce one of whom did not prefer a prison, or speedy death, to the constant and lasting calamities of this province. Philip Ruiz Puente, of the king's war-ship La Liebre, who brought out new settlers, warlike implements, and provisions, was appointed to the government. He was accompanied by another ship of war, La Esmeralda, commanded by Matteo Callao. – This captain, returning in the same, from the Maloine islands, to Monte-Video, transported me, with one hundred and fifty of my associates, back to Europe. We had with us the Frenchman Nerville, who had just discharged the government of that unhappy island; from him, as well as from the Spaniards employed there, I learnt most of what I have written on this subject.

On sufficient grounds have I bestowed the epithet unhappy on an island, which is, nevertheless, by some Frenchmen pronounced equal to the Fortunate Islands: and no wonder, for do we not always cry up the goods we want to sell? Attend to what I have learnt on good authority, respecting the island of St. Maló. It was never habitable either by Indians, or beasts, so destitute is it of every thing pertaining to the support of life. Rushes instead of trees, moss instead of grass, marsh and mud for earth, cold always the most severe for air, and night almost perpetual, with darkness and clouds, instead of sun, are what it offers to the new inhabitants. The longest day lasts but a very few hours. From its propinquity to the antarctic pole, it generally rages with furious south winds, whirlwinds, and tempests. The frost, joined to almost perpetual snow, is on this account the more intolerable, because throughout the whole island, which is far from extensive, there is not wood sufficient to make a fire, or build a hut, unless it be brought from Terra del Fuego, which cannot be done without danger. The goats which the French had brought, either from the want of pasture, or the noxious qualities thereof, soon perished. The corn, from the ooziness of the soil, never attained maturity, the stalk being always stunted, and the ear seldom formed at all. Hence, the European supplies being now consumed, frequent famine was added to their other miseries. Provision was afforded them by the water-fowl called by the English, Penguins. In place of bread, powder and shot were given to the Spanish soldiers and others to shoot birds with. These, though at the coming of the French exceedingly numerous, yet partly from being constantly shot, partly from being scared away, were so diminished, that the succeeding Spaniards were deprived of this solitary benefit of that most sterile island. Nevertheless, it must be confessed, that this island, though calamitous to its inhabitants, is of service to the Spaniards, as affording a refuge to vessels in distress, an harbour capable of containing a moderate fleet, and convenience for procuring water. The places open to the attack and ascent of an enemy, were fortified by a mound and a tier of cannon. Antonio Catani, then colonel of foot, commanded the small garrison. But in discoursing on the devastated cities of Paraguay, I have suffered myself to be carried away into the lands of Magellan. Let me now return to the straight road.

To record every Indian town which has been overturned in Paraguay, and the causes and periods of the fall of each, were a task of infinite time and labour. It appears on record that upwards of four hundred towns, which formerly stood around Guadalcazar, a city of Tucuman now destroyed, utterly perished. Within the limits of the cities Cordoba, Rioja, St. Iago, St. Miguel of Tucuman, Corrientes, and Asumpcion, I might almost say that innumerable colonies have fallen to the ground. Those which remain are mere shadows of towns, consisting of a few miserable inhabitants – miserable, for they are slaves to Spanish individuals. Before I relate the devastation of many of our Guarany towns by the Mamalukes, inhabitants of Brazil, allow me to make a few premises. The soldiers, fresh arriving from Spain, subdued the lands and nations bordering on the Parana and Paraguay only: as for those more remote, they did not want courage to explore them, but means. Not a few of the Guaranies were enlightened by the torch of the Gospel, chiefly by the Franciscan Fathers, and, if circumstances permitted, placed in colonies. St. Francisco Solano and Lewis Bolaños were famous for their apostolic expeditions in that age; but the want of associates like themselves, and of successors, rendered them unequal to the harvest which lay before them; and infinite was the number of Guaranies which lurked within the coverts of the woods and shores – a multitude hostile, on every opportunity, to the Spaniards, then few in number. In 1610, Ferdinand Arias, the governor both of Buenos-Ayres and Asumpcion, marched out with numerous forces against the Guaranies inhabiting the banks of the Uruguay, but alarmed by their numbers and ferocity, returned to the city. Not by the fire-vomiting arms of soldiers, but by the sweet eloquence of the Fathers, by love, not by fear, were the Guaranies vanquished. In the same year, Father Marcello Lorenzana, a Spaniard, and master of our college at Asumpcion, at length prevailed upon the Guaranies who wandered between the Paraguay and Parana, to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, in the large town which he had built for them, under the illustrious name of St. Ignatius Loyola. Near about the same time, Fathers Giuseppe Cataldino and Simone Mazzeta, Italians, Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, an American Spaniard, and their successors, in after years, Roque Gonzalez, a Spaniard of Paraguay, Pedro Romero, Diego Boroa, &c., all Jesuits, explored the province of Guayra, as also those forest and mountain coverts toward the river Uruguay, which had proved inaccessible to the Spanish soldiery, where they discovered many thousands of Guaranies, who were assembled in colonies, and brought over to God and the Catholic King.

These rapid progresses in the Christian cause have been miserably retarded by the Mamalukes from Brazil, a bordering country, and principally from St. Paulo. The Mamalukes are a set of people born of Portugueze, Dutch, French, Italians and Germans, and Brazilian women, celebrated for skill in shooting and robbing, ready for any daring enterprize, and thence distinguished by the foreign name of Mamalukes: for it was their constant custom to carry off the Indians, led by the Fathers into the freedom of the children of God, into the hardest slavery. By their incursions, repeated for a number of years, they overthrew the towns of Asumpcion in Ỹeyuỹ, of Todos Santos in Caarõ, of the holy Apostles in Caazapaguazù, of St. Christopher on the opposite side of the Ỹgaỹ, of St. Joachim in the same place, of Santa Barbara, on the western bank of the Paraguay, and of St. Carlos in Caapi. The Guarany inhabitants of these colonies, with the exception of a few who escaped by flight, were led away to Brazil, chained and corded, in herds, like cattle, and there condemned to perpetual labour in the working of sugar, mandioc, cotton, mines, and tobacco. The sucking babes were torn from the bosoms of their mothers, and cruelly dashed upon the ground by the way. All whom disease or age had rendered imbecile were either cut down or shot, as being unequal to the daily march. Others, in sound health, were often thrown by night into trenches prepared for them, lest they should take advantage of the darkness, and flee. Many perished by the way, either from hunger or the hardships of a journey protracted for many leagues. In this hunting of the Indians, they sometimes employed open violence, sometimes craft, equally inhuman in both. They generally rushed into the town in a long file, when the people were assembled in the church at divine service, and, blocking up every street and corner, left the wretched inhabitants no way of escape. They frequently disguised themselves as Jesuits, wearing rosaries, crosses and a black gown, and collected companies of Indians in the woods. Many towns that were liable to the treacherous hostilities of the Mamalukes, such as Loretto, St. Ignatius, &c. were removed to safer places, by a journey of many months, and with incredible labour, both of the Fathers and of the Indians. Nor did the Mamalukes spare our colonies of the Chiquitos and Moxos, nor others in the lands of the Spaniards, which were administered both by the secular and regular clergy. The Indian towns settled on the banks of the Yeyuỹ, in Curuquati, and many others, were entirely destroyed by the Mamalukes. The same fate attended Xerez, Guayra, (Ciudad real,) Villarica, &c. cities of the Spaniards. Who can describe all the devastation committed in Paraguay? Hear what is said on this subject in the collection of Lettres Curieuses et Edifiantes: – "It is asserted," say they, "that in the space of one hundred and thirty years, two millions of Indians were slain, or carried into captivity by the Mamalukes of Brazil; and that more than one thousand leagues of country, as far as the river Amazon, was stripped of inhabitants. It appears from authentic letters, (sent by the Catholic King – in the year 1639, 16th Sept.) that in five years three hundred thousand Paraguayrian Indians were carried away into Brazil." Pedro de Avila, Governour of Buenos-Ayres, declared that Indians were openly sold, in his sight, by the inhabitants of the town of St. Paulo, at Rio Janeiro; and that six hundred thousand Indians were sold, in this town alone, from the year 1628 to the year 1630.