The Jesuit Contucci, at that time Provincial and Visitor of Paraguay, being ordered, in the King's name, to appoint priests for the new colony, after consulting those persons who were best acquainted with the affairs of the province, conferred this charge upon me, on account of my acquaintance with the Abiponian tongue. I was therefore called to the Guarany town of Sta. Rosa, where the Provincial resided, on business of the colony, and soon afterwards ordered to hasten to the metropolis, where I had to wait from the 28th of August till the 24th of November, whilst the Governor was preparing every thing necessary for beginning the colony.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE COLONY.
The Governor distinguished the colony he was founding with the name of S. Carlos and the Rosary, that he might at the same time show his piety to the Virgin Mary, and ingratiate himself with Carlos the Third, King of Spain. He and I embarked on the 24th of November, 1763, and were saluted with guns on the banks of the Paraguay. Our company consisted of four hundred provincial soldiers; Fulgentio de Yegros conducted the cavalry by land, and the rest of the infantry were distributed into three ships and came with us. We went on shore every night, and at mid-day also, whenever we found a convenient landing-place. The Paraguay abounds in shoals and hidden rocks, yet the danger arising from them was not so great as the inconvenience occasioned by innumerable gnats, during our ten days' voyage. Fulgentio de Yegros, with his company of horse, awaited us at a place called Passo del Timbò. On our landing, crowds of Abipones swam from the opposite shore, which they inhabited, to salute us. Some hundred oxen, with the horses of the Spaniards, were sent over to us on the other side of the river. We spent three days in the same place, engaged in the business of crossing, and then pursued our voyage. About sun-set, a tempest arose, with loud thunder and stormy wind. Though we had entered the lake which serves as a port there, we were miserably tost about by the waves for many hours. This tempest was succeeded by heavy rain, which lasted three days, and confined us within the narrow limits of the ship; during this interval, we amused ourselves with watching the huge crocodiles that surrounded the vessel. The spot appointed for the colony was a league distant from the port; thither I went, on foot, and alone, from eagerness to take a view of the situation. The whole plain was deluged with water. Having taken an entire survey, I returned to the ship, and informed the Governor that the situation appointed for the colony appeared to me to be fitter for frogs than men, and that no kind of good grain was produced in the country.
Next day, leaving guards for the security of the ship, we rode out to the place in question. The small hut which Fulgentio de Yegros had constructed for the two priests, was at first sight pronounced uninhabitable by the Governor, under whose inspection another, somewhat larger, but in no other respect superior, was hastily built by the soldiers. Europeans will not be displeased to hear how these huts are constructed. Stakes are driven very deep into the ground, and reeds or withes fastened to them with twigs or thongs of leather. The empty spaces between each row of reeds are filled up with pieces of wood, or small bricks, on to which mud, well worked up with straw, and cow's dung, is plastered. The Spaniards call this sort of fabric a French wall, (tapia Françesa) and always adopt it when stones or bricks are scarce. If it is properly made, and whitewashed with lime or tobati, it will last, and can hardly be distinguished from a common wall. The grassy ground is the floor of the apartment. In this manner the cottages and chapels were generally constructed in the colonies of the savages. You shall now hear how they are roofed. The trunks of the caranday palms cut in half and hollowed out serve instead of slates or tiles. Frequently a roof is made with bundles of long dry grass tied to reeds placed underneath, in the same manner as, in other places, thatch is made of straw, which is not to be had in Paraguay; for the reapers cut down nothing but the ear of wheat, afterwards burning the stalk or stubble, the ashes of which serve instead of manure to fertilize the soil. Sometimes houses are covered with bundles of dry grass, rolled in soft mud, cemented together, and thus secure from being set on fire by the burning arrows of the savages. In the colony of the Rosary I found that roofs of this kind, though they afford some protection against fire, are not of the least use in excluding rain: for the mud with which the dry grass is plastered, gets so much softened by long rain, and affords such free access to heavy showers, that it seems to rain harder within doors than without. In short, the house built for me by the soldiers was hardly of any use: for the thongs, which they had formed of wet raw hides, soon putrefying, the reeds and mud plastered on them fell off, leaving the stakes quite bare; so that my hut presented the appearance of a bird-coop, but was afterwards laboriously repaired and rendered habitable by myself and my companion. I strengthened that side of the wall which looks towards the stormy south, with a plaster composed of mud, and the blood of oxen, which repels water like pitch. The chapel was very small, and entirely unornamented: some of my own handy-work imparted a little degree of elegance to the altar.
The palisade of our house, which is necessary in every colony to defend it against the assaults of the savages, had been very negligently made by the soldiers, who were in such a hurry to get home that they left nothing finished. The Governor was equally desirous to return to the city: he could take no rest here: thick swarms of gnats tormented him with their stings; but a still worse grievance was the anxiety that preyed upon his mind lest they should be surprized by a sudden attack of the savages. Horsemen were therefore kept watching day and night, and at the door of his own hut he stationed a foot company of guards, besides four cannon; in the hut itself he kept forty large muskets, and some smaller ones, ready to be fired in a moment. So that he distrusted those very Abipones for whom he was founding the colony; and the feeling was mutual; for they, ever suspicious of the friendship of the Spaniards, thought themselves justified in their fears since the Governor had brought so many soldiers, and so few oxen to feed them on. "What need," said they, "of four hundred soldiers? Had no hostilities been intended against us, one hundred would have been more than sufficient. If he was resolved upon building a colony in this place, why did he not send more than three hundred oxen? The Spaniards will consume these, and what will they leave for us?" That they might not therefore be exposed to the treachery of the Spaniards, they pitched their tents three miles distant from us, in a place with a wood on one side, a river on the other, and a mound in front. It was in vain that I endeavoured to argue them out of these foolish fears, and I was equally unsuccessful in my attempts to tranquillize the suspicious mind of the Governor; who took every fly for an enemy, as what I am going to relate will sufficiently prove. Six Yaaukaniga youths came from St. Ferdinand to see the new colony. At my desire they immediately accompanied me unarmed to the Governor, and kissed his hands with great civility and respect. He, terrified at the appearance of these new guests, whom he mistook for enemies, or emissaries of the enemy, ordered all the guards to stand ready in arms, and after passing the night in the greatest anxiety, purified his soul by confessing to me early in the morning, and receiving the sacrament at my hands. On leaving the chapel, he informed me that he was going to depart immediately with all his people; and before noon, having hastily settled his affairs, he set off on what appeared more like a flight than a journey. The Abipones, receiving intelligence of this, flew from their tents, and hastened with all speed to the harbour to take leave of the Governor, whom they found already seated in the vessel, and who, interpreting this officious journey as a hostile pursuit, ordered the ship to be put from shore in such a hurry, that he left behind him a waggon which was to have been carried back to the city. A brave man in other respects, but a novice amongst the American savages, and well aware of the unsteadiness of their friendship, and the uncertainty of their faith, he may be deemed excusable in preferring fear and caution to risking his life.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
EXTREME INDIGENCE OF THE COLONY, AND ITS VARIOUS
CALAMITIES.
The Rosary, as it had been unaptly named, was, from its very outset, the most thorny of all colonies. All the Spaniards being departed with the Governor, I was left entirely in the power of the Abipones, and of the hostile savages who infested the neighbourhood; yet, depending on the protection of the Almighty alone, I never felt myself more secure. There was no colony of Christians within thirty leagues of us, from which we could expect succour against the hostile troops of Mocobios, Tobas, and Guaycurus, whose hordes were so near that the smoke of them could be discerned from our colony. My Abipones for some time obstinately refused to remove their tents to the situation appointed for the colony. The sudden departure of the Governor was the origin of this refusal and of a hundred suspicions,—"The Spaniards departed to-day," said they, "perhaps in the intention of returning to-morrow to murder us, when they hear that we are settled in the open plain." Seeing no houses built for them, as usual in other colonies, they took occasion to suspect every thing that was bad. Three days I spent unaccompanied, at the end of which, by much persuasion, I prevailed upon the Abipones to quit their retreat, and remove to the place where I was. They learnt from their spies that the Spaniards were at a great distance, and being delivered from their suspicions at length became more tranquil.
Wherever I turned my eyes I found necessaries wanting for myself and the Indians, without which life could not be supported nor the colony preserved. Almost all the sheep which the Spaniards contributed were useless from age and disease, and the falling off of their wool; indeed most of them died whilst the Governor was there, so that all prospect of obtaining wool from them to clothe the Indians entirely disappeared. The very lean and indifferent beef which was our principal and almost only food, afforded the Indians daily subject of complaint. The oxen, which were sent from the remote estates of the Spaniards, at intervals of a year, arrived emaciated, and half dead from the length of the journey, and, as no others remained, were immediately slain, without being left time to fatten. Their flesh, either boiled or roasted, was devoid of all taste and moisture, and better adapted to disgust than refresh the stomach. For my part, I loathed it so much, that during many months I tasted no other food than boiled cows' feet, though destitute of bread or any vegetables.
Fulgentio de Yegros had established a little estate for the use of the colony on the opposite shore of the river, but its pastures were by no means fertile, and so poorly was it furnished with cattle, that they scarce sufficed to feed the Abipones; consequently very few could be left to breed. The man sent by Fulgentio to guard the cattle was an infamous wretch, composed of nothing but fraud and falsehood, who used to slay the fattest cows for his own use, and sell the fat and suet to the Spaniards, whilst we in the colony were suffering the greatest want of both. He also fatigued the horses of the colony by hunting with them, or lending them to others for the same purpose, as if they were entirely at his disposal. I often accused him to the Governor, but he was never punished, though convicted of innumerable thefts. The man whom Fulgentio appointed to supersede him was honest, but not quite sane: he was agitated by continual terrors, and wherever he was, imagined that stones were being thrown at him by some unknown hand, even in the middle of the day. What diligence or accuracy could be expected from such a person in managing the estate? Our never having a proper guard for the cattle was the chief origin of all our miseries: for the Abipones think nothing wanting to their felicity if they have plenty of good meat, but if that be not the case will never rest easy in the colony.
It may also be reckoned amongst our misfortunes, that as the estate was on the opposite shore of the Paraguay, we had to convey across that vast river all the oxen necessary for our support. A ship, strong horses, dexterous horsemen, and much industry were requisite to effect that without the loss of many oxen.