Maize, and various kinds of beans, roots, and melons, serve the Indians as a seasoning, or substitute for meat: I therefore exhorted the Abipones to cultivate the ground, but agricultural implements were wanting; we had scarcely any oxen fit for the plough; and were even unprovided with a supply of seed for sowing. Some bushels of maize were sent from the city, but they had been terribly gnawed by the worms; also a sack of beans, in coming from thence, had been wetted in the river from the carelessness of the sailors, and had already pushed out shoots. Who would believe that the neighbouring savages, our former enemies, supplied us with various kinds of seeds, which we had so long and vainly sought from the Spaniards? The country itself, as I declared at first sight, was unfavourable to plants, because it abounded in chalk. After much rain, it bore the appearance of a lake—when the waters subsided it became as hard and dry as a stone. Notwithstanding this, the Abipones did plough and sow great part of it, but they lost their labour; in the woods, however, where the soil is more fertile, and the sun's heat kept off by the shade of the trees, they reaped an abundant and easily-earned harvest of various fruits. I found the soil extremely favourable to the tobacco which I planted, but could never find a situation fit for sowing cotton. The alfaroba was only to be found in distant forests, but the want of it was supplied by abundance of honey. Other fruits, which grow quite common elsewhere, are extremely scarce here. The country near the shore abounds in stags, deer, and emus, the neighbouring rivers in crocodiles, water-wolves, and capibaris, but are mostly destitute of fish. It is a remarkable circumstance, that the river near the colony swarmed, for some days, with every kind of fish, which were easily caught with the hand, as they swiftly hurried down the stream: they are thought to have been conveyed into this river by intermediate pools, from the Rio Grande, at the time of the annual flood.
But it is quite clear to me, that the penury of the colony was not so much owing to the nature of the situation, as to the indigence of the founders. The other Fathers, who were sent to instruct the savages, received from the Governors and opulent citizens a plentiful supply of linen and woollen cloth, glass-beads, knives, scissars, rings, needles, hooks, ear-rings, &c. baits by which both the eyes and minds of the savages are taken. When I set off to found the colony, not so much as a pin was given me in the city of Asumpcion. The Spaniards of Sta. Fè and St. Iago supplied the Fathers with choice horses when they went to a new colony. The Spaniards of Asumpcion, on the contrary, robbed me of four excellent horses, for which I was indebted to the kindness of the Jesuits in the Guarany towns: yet the Governor neither made any enquiry after the thieves, nor indemnified me for the loss. Great scarcity almost always prevailed in the colony, because the supplies, which the Spaniards engaged themselves to pay, were very seldom and very sparingly sent, or, being brought by sailors, were long in reaching us, or were destroyed on the way from want of care. No assistance could be expected from the Guarany towns, which were so beneficial to other colonies, both on account of their distance and the calamities of that period. The small remainder of those little gifts, with which the liberality of my friends had supplied me, I used, in my distress, for the purpose of allaying the discontent of the Abipones, who had been induced by the promises of the Spaniards, and the hopes of bettering their fortune, to assemble in this colony, where they justly lamented to find themselves deluded, and in want of every thing.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
CONTINUAL TUMULTS OF WAR.
To our other miseries were added perpetual warlike commotions. The new Governor, Martinez, to ingratiate himself with the King, resolved upon sending two hundred soldiers against the neighbouring hordes of Mocobios and Tobas, out of those four hundred which had been chosen to found the colony. On his consulting with me, I dissuaded him from an expedition, the event of which appeared so uncertain, lest the new colony, which was but poorly stocked with inhabitants, should be involved in war, and perish in its infancy. With the same ardour I recommended it to my Abipones religiously to maintain peace with all; they, however, never had either power or inclination to continue in a state of quiescence. One tumult succeeded to another. Soon after the colony was founded, Ychoalay came, and in a friendly manner desired restitution of the horses lately taken from him. Enraged at receiving a refusal, he set off, with a chosen band of his people, to recover them by force. My Abipones, rendered obstinate by their inveterate hatred to Ychoalay, determined to withstand him to the utmost. Some employed themselves in conveying the horses to a place of greater safety, that they might not be seized by the enemy; whilst others roamed up and down the woods, seeking honey to make mead. I, meantime, was a prey to anxious cares, ignorant what course to pursue when the town should be attacked. Ychoalay, formerly so much my friend, was now become the most dreadful of enemies. "It would be wrong," thought I, "to take up arms against one who is only coming to recover his own; but if, as is most likely, victory declares in his favour, and he puts to death every inhabitant that comes in his way, unless I discharge upon Ychoalay all the lead and gunpowder I have in the house, my Abipones will suspect me of having acted in collusion with him, and will pierce me with spears and arrows." Suspended by these reflections, I stuck, as it were, between the hammer and the anvil, and resolved to do what should seem most advisable at the time.
But all this danger was warded from us by a gracious Providence: for as Ychoalay was quickly travelling towards us, he fell in with a numerous horde of hostile Nakaiketergehe Abipones. A sharp skirmish ensued, which did not terminate without wounds and slaughter on both sides. Ychoalay had ten of his men wounded; and, that they might be the sooner and more certainly cured, hastened home, omitting the intended attack upon our colony, which was construed into a mark of fear by the inhabitants, and accordingly celebrated as a triumph with songs and drinking. The survivors of that routed horde took refuge, part with us, part in the town of St. Ferdinand, and showing their unhealed wounds, endeavoured, by that sight, to inflame their companions, who needed no such incitement, to speedy and effectual vengeance. Almost all immediately conspired against Ychoalay. A great company was formed of Yaaukaniga and Nakaiketergehe Abipones, who all set off to the town of St. Jeronymo, and that the blow might descend upon Ychoalay with the greater certainty from its being unforeseen, they gave out that their object was to hunt horses in the southern plains. But all these hopes and machinations came to nothing. By those very people, whom it was their intent to surprize and utterly exterminate, they were themselves surprized, partly slain, and partly put to flight. For, near St. Jeronymo, whilst, having left their saddles and supernumerary horses in a place called Tiger's Cave, and got their faces ready painted, they were meditating an assault upon the town, they fell in with Ychoalay, accompanied by a great number of his own Riikahes, of Christian Mocobios, and of Spanish horsemen, all delighted to have in their presence those whom they had that day set out to seek and slay in their retreats. Ychoalay could easily have destroyed this multitude of enemies, had they not preferred flight to combat. The fugitives owed their lives to the swiftness of their horses, to the ruggedness of the ways, and the lurking-holes of the forests; many however were slain, taken, and wounded by the pursuers. Ychoalay drove them before him to the town of St. Ferdinand, and being rendered formidable by the number of his fellow-soldiers, spread terror on all sides. The Nakaiketergehes, conspired to his destruction, though they saw their last efforts unaccompanied with success, conceived new hatred against him; and as in repeated skirmishes they failed to take away his life, consoled themselves with plundering him of innumerable horses. It cannot be matter of surprize that this nation entertained hostile feelings to Ychoalay, the slayer of their chief Cacique Debayakaikin, whose four sons dwelt in their colony, and whose hordesmen and fellow-soldiers, all but a very few of them had been.
Beside these intestine wars, the proximity of the Mocobios, Tobas, and Guaycurus, was always dangerous, and often exceedingly prejudicial to us. These savage nations, distinguished by their numbers and their power of doing mischief, contended that the plain which the colony occupied belonged to them, and had never been inhabited by Abipones. They feared and suspected the inhabitants of a colony which they knew to be in subjection to the Spaniards, and left no stone unturned to drive them from their new situation, which they endeavoured to effect sometimes by arts, sometimes by arms. Pretending peace and friendship, crowds of them came to visit our town, seemingly for the sake of civility, and were hospitably received by us, entertained for some days, and treated with little presents and plenty of beef. But abusing our kindness, though closely watched by me, they availed themselves of the opportunity to observe the number of inhabitants fit to bear arms, the pastures of the horses, and all the ways and means of access; aided by which knowledge, they afterwards flew, whenever it suited them, to alarm the colony, and to plunder horses, though this our vigilance generally prevented them from accomplishing. The frequent and secret hostilities of the savages caused us an immense deal of trouble; as we were often obliged to pass the night awake and in arms, for fear of the Oaekakalots, who, unlike other tribes, made their attacks in the night; and as no one could go out to hunt, or perform any other business, in the remoter plains or woods, on account of their being infested by the savages. That they might not start, on a sudden, from a neighbouring wood, and surprize the colony, I had an observatory erected in our court-yard, which proved of signal utility. Let me now relate some of the attempts made upon us by our savage neighbours.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
VARIOUS INCURSIONS OF THE MOCOBIOS AND TOBAS.
All places being full of peril and fear, and exposed to the machinations of the enemy, many of the Abipones, weary of a life embittered in so many ways, crossed the river with their families, and went to the estate of Fulgentio de Yegros, who received them with great pleasure, and usefully employed them in his service. The women were occupied in shearing sheep and spinning the wool; the men in guarding cattle, and other rural tasks; receiving, as the best recompense that could be given them, abundance of beef. Very few, meantime, remained with me in the colony. This was thought a good opportunity for an attack by the Mocobios and their allies, and indeed our destruction would have been inevitable, had I not providentially abstained from my usual custom of sleeping in the afternoon. The particulars of the affair deserve to be related:—I had gone on foot, and alone, to the bank of the river to try the new boats and rowers, and that I did not fall asleep on my return, after being fatigued with three hours' walking in the heat of the sun, can only be attributed to heavenly interposition. At two o'clock in the afternoon, a boy who was sitting on the steps of the observatory suddenly exclaimed, "The savages are coming!" As I was walking in the yard, I spied a troop of Mocobios, who presented themselves in the market-place, armed and painted, as for a battle, disposed in regular ranks, and unaccompanied with any women or children; all which betokened hostile intentions. The boy I mentioned, with six old women and a lame Abipon, were the only persons that remained with me in the town. Snatching up my arms, and guarding the door, I performed the part both of commander and garrison; and, little as I am, was more than sufficient to terrify so many horsemen. As soon as ever they saw me present the musket they turned their backs, and slowly receding through the market-place, sat down in a little wood near the tents of the Abipones. Aware that the Americans supply by craftiness any defect in courage, and that they often renew the attack when their adversaries imagine them completely intimidated, and on their return home, I remained armed in the same place, and kept an eye on their motions. When a quarter of an hour had elapsed in this manner, I approached the Mocobios on foot, and with no one but the boy for my companion, to ascertain whether they were to be considered as friends or foes. I accosted them unarmed, but received very laconic replies to the questions I put them; and their sullen and threatening-looks discovered that they were ill-disposed towards us. As we were conversing, a quantity of smoke rose up in that part of the shore where the Spaniards cross the Paraguay; being asked by the Mocobian Cacique whence or from whom I thought that fire proceeded; I replied from the Spaniards; and that I was in expectation of two hundred soldiers, whom the Governor had promised to send to build houses in the colony. Struck with this news, the savages were afraid to execute what they had planned to our destruction, fearing that any acts of hostility perpetrated by them would be avenged by the Spanish horsemen, whom they thought approaching. At this conjuncture a cloud of dust appeared in that direction by which the Mocobios had come, and by the shining of their spears, we knew the savage horsemen; perceiving which, the Mocobios instantly leapt on to their horses; an additional proof of their evil intentions. The boy pulled my gown, saying, "Let us go, Father, lest we be taken;" and indeed I began to entertain the same apprehension myself. Civilly taking leave of the Mocobios, I returned home with slow steps, to avoid betraying my suspicions, and resuming my weapons, posted myself at the door, and awaited the event.
Without delay a numerous company of Tobas, headed by Cacique Keebetavalkin, drew out in the market-place. All were laden with arms of every description, and painted with dark colours; but without saying a word about the occasion of their coming, they sent their horses to pasture, and sat down to pass the night with the troop of Mocobios. I approached, and accosted these new comers, unfurnished with weapons of any sort, bearing myself towards them altogether as towards friends, though they could not, in any light, be accounted other than enemies, certain to do us a mischief, unless we conducted ourselves towards them with great liberality and caution. I took care to have an ox immediately slain for their supper, from the same motive that one would stroke an unruly horse, or throw a piece of meat to a surly mastiff. Not to be quite unprepared for treachery on their part, we passed a sleepless night, keeping the strictest watch both with our eyes and ears, and holding our weapons in readiness to repel violence were it offered. I performed divine service early in the morning, without ringing of bells, and with the greatest quietness, lest the savages, discovering that I was engaged at the altar, and being thus delivered from their apprehension of the musket, should attempt hostilities against us with impunity. All my precautions, however, proved unavailing; for a crowd of savages surrounded me as I was pronouncing the formula of the divine consecration. A Mocobian juggler stole in first by a door adjoining the altar. After standing awhile behind me, he jumped back several times to his companions, who were near the door, making mimic gestures, and tossing about his arms in a ridiculous manner. They conversed together for some time by signs. Imagine what must have been the state of my mind in this interim—I expected death every moment.
Having accurately performed divine service to the end, I presented the savages, as if they had politely come to visit me, with any little gifts that were at hand, but failed to elicit from them what their intentions were, though I could not but suspect them to be of the very worst nature; for they examined every corner of my house, impudently attempted, in my presence, to pull up the stakes with which it was surrounded, and tried whether they could burst open the wooden door of the chapel with their shoulders. Meanwhile, I smilingly looked on, and took especial care to prevent the suspicions of my mind from appearing in my countenance; knowing that the greatest coward is inspired with courage if he perceives himself an object of terror. I boasted of our intrepidity and skill in archery, displayed a store of arms, and a variety of leaden bullets, and descanted upon the wonderful power of the musket, which reaches the most distant objects, and penetrates and demolishes the hardest substances. The Governor, on leaving the colony, had given me, for the defence of the inhabitants, one of those very small cannon which are fixed to the prows of ships; to load this, he had furnished me with eight charges of gunpowder, fifteen bullets, but only one iron ball, weighing scarce half a pound, which, to deprive them of all inclination to assault the colony, I gave to the savages to handle and look at. When they came to visit me in my apartment, "Oh, how heavy it is," they exclaimed: "what a hole it would make in a man's body!"