Chapter II: Part 2

To corroborate my account I shall subjoin a few circumstances relative to this affair. From the seven towns which were garrisoned on their surrender by the Spaniards, upwards of thirty thousand Indians departed. Among all who witnessed these innocent exiles, their tender infants, and their feeble old men, not one but shed a tear of compassion. Fifteen thousand of the emigrants were received by the towns of the Parana, and lodged in hovels of straw,—they whose former homes had been of stone, well-built, and commodious. Nearly the same number were dispersed over the plains of the Uruguay, where numerous herds of cattle supplied the means of subsistence. The towns at length evacuated, were offered by the Spanish Governour to the Portugueze, but not accepted. Amongst other ways of accounting for this refusal on the part of the Portugueze, it was reported, that, after exploring the lands of the Uruguay, they found them destitute of the gold and silver they expected to find there. At this crisis of affairs died Barbara, Queen of Spain, a Portugueze by birth, and through an overweening attachment to her own country, a strenuous advocate for the exchange of lands in Paraguay. Not long after, Ferdinand the Sixth followed his consort to the tomb. Charles the Third succeeded his brother in right of inheritance. Whilst King of the Two Sicilies he had disapproved these treaties which settled the exchange of lands in America with Portugal; and on his succeeding to the throne, he utterly abrogated them, as fraught with danger to the monarchy. He restored the Guarany exiles to their towns, which now, alas! resembled Jerusalem after the return of the Jews from Babylon. They found their farms drained of cattle, their fields over-run with brambles and insects, their houses either burnt or miserably dilapidated; nay, they were sometimes terror-struck by the dens of tigers and the holes of serpents! Charles confirmed the Jesuits in their old administration of the Guarany colonies, of which the Portugueze party itself did not wish their utter deprivation. Had the King believed us the fomenters of the late war he would not have committed the Guaranies to our care and fidelity. About the same time, Zeno, Marquis de la Ensenada, was recalled from banishment to Madrid by the royal letters. This principal court minister had never admitted the exchange of lands agreed upon with the Portugueze, but had transmitted notices of it to Charles then King of Sicily. For this, if we may credit a report prevalent in Spain, the Marquis de la Ensenada was banished. That was not the happy time when you might think as you chose, and speak what you thought.

King Charles not only refused to acquiesce in the treaties ratified with the Portugueze, but immediately declared war upon that people; to the carrying on of which six thousand Guaranies strenuously applied themselves in the royal camp, under the conduct of Pedro Zevallos, who having occupied Colonia, carried his victorious arms into Brazil; but being stopped by the news of peace having been restored in Europe, testified in his letters to the King, that the success of his expeditions was greatly owing to the Guaranies. Suffer me, by way of episode, to draw a rude sketch of the immortal hero Zevallos. His father, the descendant of a noble family in Spain, was royal governour in the Canaries, and died in an insurrection, bravely fighting for the crown. The son, Pedro Zevallos, was handsome, tall, and well made, and the comeliness of his person was set off by the elegance and suavity of his manners. Courteous among his friends, and authoritative with his soldiers, he was neither ruffled with anger, nor soured with harshness. At every place and time he maintained the character of the pious Christian, the consummate general, the equitable judge, and, if need required, the dauntless soldier. During his leisure hours you might see him praying on his knees in the church for two hours together. Such was the innocence and integrity of his life, that envy, argus-eyed as she is, could never detect a stain to reprobate. So exemplary was his conduct, that the soldier and the christian never jarred, but harmonized together in one beautiful concord. The victories which have gained the Spanish hero the plaudits of his country, are rather to be attributed to his piety, than to his military skill;—to that heaven by which his undertakings were constantly favoured, and his slender resources rendered sufficient. In the keenness of his wit, the sagacity of his judgment, the courage and alertness of his mind, and the soundness of his loyalty, if one man ever excelled another, _he_ excelled. His steadfast aim was to benefit rather than please his sovereign, and both he effected, though more than once disgraced from the royal favour by the artifices of calumny. He did nothing without much previous consideration. To crown his purposes with success, he was master of the most admirable devices; was never at a loss to remove obstacles,—to anticipate dangers,—and either elude them by artifice, or overcome them by force. He never charged the future with the present business—never let slip a good opportunity: did nothing from impulse, every thing from reason; yet though never headstrong in attempting any thing, or hasty in attacking an enemy, in battles and sieges he was fierce and determined. Neither dejected by adverse nor inflated by prosperous circumstances, he always preserved an equal mind. By kindness and good example, he bound his soldiers to a prompt obedience; and this I conclude was the cause of his doing so much with such scanty resources. He was not content to have given his orders, he would himself overlook their execution. On the eve of an expedition, he used to inspect the waggons, carefully enquiring whether they were stored with the requisite arms and provisions, and if they were properly guarded. Rarely trusting to vague reports and uncertain answers, he examined every thing, as far as he was able, in his own person. Early in the night he inspected the different stations of horse-guards, regardless of sleep, as indeed he was of every other indulgence. He used to say, that vigilance in the general and obedience in the men, were the safeguards of the army, and the parent of victory, a maxim most happily demonstrated in his own person.

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.

Some years after, I was sent by the superior to the city of St. Joachim. The rumour concerning the Indians of Mbaeverà continued to spread, and with it the fear of the Spaniards, who durst not even approach the woods, which promised so abundant an harvest of the herb of Paraguay. Under the conduct of Vilalba, I set out with five and twenty Indians, through marshes and rivers. The bridges and other aids, prepared to secure the passage of the Spaniards, had long perished. Every obstacle however being overcome, we arrived at the place in question, and discovered the remains of the savage hut. The bones of apes, boars, and antas, a wooden mortar, a few grains of maize, and other things of this kind, were discovered there; a path leading to the river side, well trod with the naked feet of the Indians, was also visible; but not a single recent vestige could we any where detect, though for many days we attentively searched both the neighbouring woods, and the banks of the river Acaraỹ. After having traversed the mournful solitude eighteen days, and suffered what neither I can describe nor my reader credit, as no hope remained of finding the Indians, we returned to the town, the improvement of our patience being our only recompense. I walked the whole way, and often barefoot. Had I turned ever so little from the east to the south, we should have found the habitations of the savages, as was proved to me the following year. The Spaniards, being made acquainted with my diligent search of the forest of Mbaeverà, persuaded themselves that the savages had migrated elsewhere, and accordingly set out thither in great numbers. But, lo! in the course of their business, they perceived the savages dropping in upon them one after another. Conciliated by familiar discourse, and presents of beef and other trifles, they seemed to entertain no hostile sentiments, but visited the dwellings of the Spaniards in friendly guise. To enquiries concerning their place of abode, they replied that it was at a great distance, and could only be approached by crossing many marshes; a cunning answer, dictated by their fears for themselves and their wives, if visited by the Spaniards. Lest their footsteps should betray their resorts, in returning home they practised the following artifice: if they went by a southern, they returned by a northern road, and contrariwise, so that the Spaniards could not form an idea of the place where they lurked. And thus the savages and Spaniards suspected one other, and their mutual distrust increased every day.

Vilalba, alarmed for his own safety, informed me how matters stood, and assured me of success in discovering the savages if I would only renew the attempt. I undertook the journey without delay. But scarcely had two days elapsed, when all the rain in heaven seemed combined to overwhelm us, and after eight days of misery, compelled us to return, from the certainty of still greater wretchedness, if we proceeded. Twenty days the obstinate rain continued, yet we did not think our business desperate, and on returning to the town, I impatiently awaited an opportunity of renewing it. Not long after, I undertook a third expedition, which proved successful. At length I reached my post, discovering three tolerably populous hordes, over whom presided as many caciques; Roy, Tupanchichù, and Veraripochiritù. The first hut we met with was built of palms, interwoven with dry grass, opening by eight doors and containing sixty inhabitants. Here and there hung nets which are used both to sleep and sit in. Each family has its own fire, on the hearth around which stand a multitude of pots, gourds, and mugs. They are generally handsome, particularly the youths; from never being exposed to the sun their faces are fair. The males of every age shave their heads, a circle of hair being left on the crown. At seven years old they have their under lip pierced, and insert a reed of the thickness of a quill into the hole. All of whatever sex or age hang a common triangular shell in their ears. The men go almost naked, wearing nothing but a narrow girdle round their loins, but the women are covered from head to foot, with a white garment manufactured from the bark of the Pinò. These savages ornament their heads with crowns of long parrot feathers, disposed with considerable elegance. Their arms consist of barbed arrows, with which they shoot even little birds on the wing with great dexterity. They maintain themselves and their families by the chase. They often lurk in thickets, for the purpose of shooting or ensnaring antas, which they inveigle by a skilful imitation of their bray; nor are they wholly averse from agriculture. In these woods there is an amazing produce of maize, and other fruits, as also of tobacco. On going to bed they put their pots full of flesh or vegetables on the fire, that their breakfasts may be ready when they awake: for at earliest dawn, the males, from seven years old and upwards, traverse the woods with a bundle of darts, in search of that game, on which they must subsist for the day. The mothers put their babies in wicker baskets, and carry them on their shoulders, when they travel in the woods. From the hives with which the trees abound, they collect quantities of most excellent honey, serving both for meat and drink. Their name for God, in the Guarany tongue, is _Tupà_, but of that God and his commandments, they care little to know. They are as ignorant of the worship of idols, as they are of the Supreme being. The spirit of evil they call Aña or Añanga, but they pay him no adoration. The magicians, or more properly imposters, who arrogate to themselves full power of warding and inflicting disease and death, of predicting future events, of raising floods and tempests, of transforming themselves into tigers, and performing I know not what other preternatural feats, they religiously venerate. Like other Americans, they think polygamy allowable, but rarely avail themselves of the license: from which circumstance, repudiation is frequent among them. Marriage with the most distant relations they shun as highly criminal. They inclose their dead in large vessels of clay, according to an old Guarany rite. What their fate after this life may be, they never trouble themselves to enquire. They do not feed on human flesh to my knowledge, though the neighbouring Indians reckon it a delicacy. Every stranger whatsoever, Indian, Spaniard, or Portugueze, they suspect of hostile intentions, and receive in arms, believing every other race their enemies and designers on their freedom. They harboured the same suspicion with regard to me and my Indian comrades, when they saw us coming.

The first whom we discovered in the woods was a fine young man holding a bird like our pheasants, expiring in his hand. I approached the astonished youth, complimented him upon his singular skill in archery, and, as gifts prevail more with the Indians than fine words, presented him with a piece of roast meat, which he devoured with all the avidity of hunger. This unexpected breakfast dissipated the alarm which the sudden appearance of strangers had excited. His name was _Arapotiyu_, or the morning: for in the Guarany tongue _ara_ signifies _day_, _poti_ the _flower_, and _yu_ whatever is _yellow_ or _golden_; so that by the golden flower of day they express the morning. And from this _morning_ we discovered that the _sun_, Captain Roy, the principal cacique of the vicinity, was the youth's father. For whatever questions I put to him, he quietly answered, and said, that his father was occupied in hunting, not far distant. "Come then," said I, joyfully, "conduct us to him as quickly as possible." To this the youth willingly assented, keeping close to my side the whole way. Having proceeded through the woods for the space of an hour, we beheld an emaciated old man, armed with an immense knife, and creeping at a snail's pace, accompanied by two youths (his son and a captive) furnished with a bundle of arrows. The Indian Christians who were with us bent their bows and the points of their arrows to the ground, to testify friendship, on approaching him; one of the more aged of my companions kissed the left cheek of the cacique, as a sign of peace, and explaining the reason of our coming, said, "God save thee, brother! See, we are come to visit you as friends, for we think you akin to us. And this father-priest, whom we attend, is the minister of God himself. He teaches us, feeds us, clothes and tenderly loves us; for when he buries our dead, wrapped in a white cloth, he chaunts over us." My Indian would have spoken more, but the old man interrupted him with an ironical and angry exclamation of _Hindo!_ repeated several times. He vehemently denied that any relationship existed between them, and regarded us with the most wrathful aspect, supposing us to be Spanish or Brazilian Portugueze Indian-hunters. Then addressing himself to me, he angrily said, "You are come in vain, father-priest: we don't want a father-priest. St. Thomas long ago prayed enough for our land. All kind of fruits grow in plenty here." For the rude savage thought the presence of a priest useful only in procuring fertility to the soil. "Granting," I replied, "that St. Thomas was formerly in your territories, yet whatever he taught your ancestors of the Supreme Deity and his laws has long since escaped your memories. I am ready to repeat his instructions. But, bless me, good old man, why do we stand talking in the mud? why don't we sit down on the trunk of the tree, which is out of the swamp?" Accordingly we sat down, and I detailed to him the occasion and the hardships of my long journey. To win the good-will of the surly old man, I ordered a choice piece of roast meat to be brought him, which he greedily seized and devoured. His hunger appeased, his jealous mind began to soften, and I tried all ways to find an entrance to his heart. To this end, I offered him some snuff, but pushing it from him with both hands, he answered, "_Aquihiye_," I fear it, supposing it magical powder, possessed of the power of charming. I then opened to him my design of visiting his horde, but he argued it to be impossible. "My residence," says he, "is very far distant from hence. Three rivers, as many marshes, and the worst possible roads intervene." "By this argument," answered I, "you can never divert me from my purpose, who, after a journey of so many days, have succeeded in overcoming so many rivers and marshes, and such woods." "But you must know," opposed the old man, "that my health is not very good, and that I feel myself unequal to the journey." "I can easily believe that," was my answer, "when I am daily made sensible of my own ailments. And no wonder: the badness of the weather, the copious rains, the wet forest, the muddy roads, the long marsh, which I crossed up to the knees in water, the steep mountains which I ascended, the want of food, and the continued walking from day-break till past mid-day, how could they fail to produce ill health? But though we are thus debilitated, yet I think we have strength enough left to carry us to your home, where we can rest ourselves. We will take it easily: let those who are stouter go before; we that are infirm will follow slowly after." "You would keep away from my dwelling," answered the old man, "if you knew the peril that awaits you there. My countrymen are of an evil disposition; they want to slay, slay, slay all strangers." "Though your countrymen," answered I, laughing, "resemble your portrait ever so accurately, I need feel no apprehension on that account. With you, the terror of the vicinity far and near, with one so illustrious for valour and great deeds as you, for our friend and protector, what mortal durst attempt to injure us? With you at our side we will fear nothing." By this apparent confidence, by these praises, I won the old man's heart, and found him my friend. In a cheerful tone, he exclaims "It is well!" and orders the two youths to hasten home forthwith. "Tell our countrymen," says he, "that a father-priest is here, who makes much of me, and a company of Indians who affirm that they are of our blood. Charge the women not to be frightened at the stranger's approach, but to sweep the house diligently, according to my particular desire." About sweeping the house, thought I to myself, I care little; but that the savages might possibly take it into their heads to discharge all their quivers of arrows upon us, that was indeed a reflexion that disturbed me not a little.

Away went the messengers like the wind. The old cacique and I pursued their footsteps at a slower pace, beguiling the inclemency of the weather and the asperities of the journey by familiar conversation; and whilst the majority of Europeans were feasting luxuriously, (for it was the third day of the carnival,) _we_, sitting on the margin of a river, restored our exhausted strength by a draught of cold water. About sun-set, the vast hut I described appeared in view. A crowd of the natives, fitted out with bows and arrows, and crowned with parrots' feathers, attended our arrival and addressed us with the usual salutation _Ereyupa_, Now thou art come: to which I returned the accustomed _Ayù anga_, Now I am come. One of them approached me, and, as if angry with himself for having forgotten his crown, ran back for it, and returned with it on to greet me. As I was standing with some of my companions at the door of the house, there arose a mighty trepidation amongst the women and children. "There is nothing at all to be afraid of, dear sisters," said the eldest of my Indians. "You see before you your relations, the descendants of your ancestors. Not one of us harbours an evil thought towards you. I am the chief and director of them all." "What the old man has told you," said I, "is perfectly true. No one present is evilly disposed towards you but myself. I am a terrible fellow; for" (putting on a fierce countenance and uttering a hiss) "at one mouthful I intend to devour two or three children." This pleasantry changed all their terror into laughter. The women returned to their stations, and with one accord entreated me to enter the house. "You will never persuade me to that," replied I. "I see you have dogs and whelps amongst you, and where dogs are there must fleas be also: now there is nothing I dread so much as fleas, because they are disturbers of sleep, which, after the fatigues of a long journey, I feel myself sorely in want of. But I will not go far from your residence. In this open spot, where I may see and be seen by all, I am resolved to station myself." And truly, for the sake both of decorum and security, I spent three days and nights in the open air, though the weather was occasionally rainy.