They had never even heard of a benevolent Deity, the creator of all things, and were accustomed to fear and reverence the evil spirit, as I have shown more fully in a former chapter. Instructed by us they learnt to know and adore the one, and to despise the other. All those pitiful, superstitious, absurd opinions which had been sucked in with their mothers' milk, and, heard from the mouths of old women, as from a Delphic tripod, had received the ready assent of their infancy, they were commanded to look upon as ridiculous falsehoods, and at the same time to yield their belief to mysteries of religion, which surpass the comprehension of the wisest. It was somewhat hard immediately to forego notions which had been sanctioned by the approbation of their grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and to embrace laws brought from a strange land, and every way contrary to their habits of life. Formerly they had been permitted to marry as many wives as they pleased, and to repudiate them in like manner whenever it suited their fancy. To repress such unbounded liberty by the perpetual marriage tie, this was the difficulty, this was the great obstacle to their embracing religion, and their frequent incitement to desert it.
The custom of drinking had taken such firm root amongst the Abipones, that it required more time and labour to eradicate drunkenness than any other vice. They would abstain from slaughter and rapine, and superstitious rites; confine themselves to one wife; attend divine worship frequently; evince considerable industry in tilling the fields and building houses; yet after all this, it was scarcely possible to prevent them from assembling together, and intoxicating themselves with drink made of honey or the alfaroba.
The pernicious examples of the Christians, which often meet the eyes of the Abipones, frequently prevent them from amending their conduct. Paraguay is inhabited by Spaniards, Portugueze, native Indians and Negroes, and those born from their promiscuous marriages, Mulatos, Mestizos, &c. Amid such a various rabble of men, it cannot be wondered at that many are to be found who say that they know God, yet deny him with their deeds,—who, though they believe like Catholics, live like Gentiles, enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is their belly. Such licence in plundering, such shameless profligacy of manners, such impunity in slaughters and other atrocities, prevailed for a long time in the cities and estates, that, compared with them, the hordes of the most savage Indians might be called theatres of virtue, humanity, and chastity. These reprobates, either strangers or natives, infect the savages with the contagion of their manners, teach them crimes of which they were formerly ignorant, and prevent them from lending an ear to the instructions of the priests, when they daily hear and see words and actions so discordant to them in the old Christians. Indians returned from captivity amongst the Spaniards, Spaniards in captivity amongst the Indians, stranger from the cities, soldiers sent for the defence of the colonies, and Spanish guards appointed to take care of the cattle, were all certain plagues of the Abiponian colonies. I should never make an end were I to relate all I know on this subject. That the bad examples of the Christians greatly retarded the progress of religion amongst the Abipones, cannot be controverted. Let the old Christians of America become Christians in their conduct, and the Abipones, Mocobios, Tobas, Mataguayos, Chiriguanos, in a word, all the Indians of Paraguay will cease to be savages, and will embrace the law of Christ. This subject was treated of in the pulpit before the Royal Governor, Joseph Andonaegui, and a noble congregation, by the Jesuit P. Domingo Muriel, a Spaniard eminent for sanctity and learning, afterwards master of theology in the academy at Cordoba, and author of a most useful work intituled Fasti Novi Orbis, printed at Venice in the year 1776.
CHAPTER LXVI.
NO TRIFLING ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM THE ABIPONIAN
COLONIES, THOUGH FEWER THAN WERE EXPECTED.
The four colonies of St. Jeronymo, Concepcion, St. Ferdinand, and the Rosary, were so many schools where the assembled nation of the Abipones were civilized and instructed in religion. Spite of innumerable obstacles which had long retarded the progress of our efforts, we succeeded in banishing superstition and barbarism, and in softening their ferocious manners by apostolic gentleness. Those who had formerly lived like wild beasts on the products of plunder or the chase, laid aside their detestation of labour, and applied themselves to agriculture; they who had before appeared most active and skilful in plundering, became afterwards most indefatigable in tilling the fields, and building themselves houses. Ychoalay, Kevachichi, Tannerchin, and others, the terror of the Spaniards, and the most fortunate chiefs of the whole nation, became diligent above the rest in ploughing and building, on their removal to colonies, and exhorted their hordesmen, whom they had formerly encouraged in slaughtering the Spaniards, to follow their example. Almost all the inhabitants of St. Jeronymo, the capital town, and a great number in the other three colonies, received baptism. Many, both of the younger and older men, by the innocence of their lives, their attention to the Christian faith, their reverence for the church and for images, and their diligence in prayer and frequent use of the sacraments, gave solid proofs of piety towards God and the Saints; though the female sex always bore away the palm in the duties of religion. I have not time to relate every circumstance tending to verify what I have just advanced, but it would be wrong to omit them all.
Ychohake, a man distinguished by a hundred noxious arts, closed a life, infamous for crimes, by a noble death. Having long been declining, he desired to receive the sacrament a short while before his decease, and to evince his abhorrence of the superstitious rites of his nation, refused to admit any of the female jugglers, who usually attend the sick, into the house. For the same reason he desired by his last will that his horses and sheep might not be slain on his grave, according to the custom of the Abipones, but that they might be kept for the use of his little daughter. The more noble Indians dug his grave, at other times a female office, with their hands, in a place which they had desired us to point out in the chapel, and, rejecting the lamentations of the women and other savage ceremonies, interred him according to the rites of the Church of Rome. Ychoalay was bathed in tears, and said he had now no brother left. Hemakie, and many others, whose lives had been employed in robbing and murdering the Spaniards, died in my presence in a manner worthy of a Christian. An Abiponian girl, converted to Christianity, concealed herself for many nights in a wood frequented by tigers and serpents, to avoid being forced into a marriage with Pazonoirin, a bitter enemy to religion. Intemperance in drinking began to decrease; polygamy and divorce were no longer generally practised; and the savage custom of killing their unborn babes was at length condemned by the mothers themselves. Many chose rather to endure the want of things which could hardly be dispensed with, than obtain them by arts to which they had long been familiarized, but which were forbidden by the divine law.
It is an undeniable fact that these colonies, in which the Abipones were confined like wild beasts in cages, were highly advantageous to all Paraguay. By means of them security was restored to the public roads, through which merchants were in the habit of passing; and fresh estates were able to be founded and enriched with additions of cattle in places which had long been deserted for fear of the Abipones. By them too, the other savages, the Tobas, Mocobios, and Guaycurus, were prevented from continuing their usual inroads into the lands of the Spaniards, who were thus enabled to repose in safety and tranquillity in the bosom of peace, whilst we were keeping watch amongst the Abipones, and often exposing our lives to danger. I do not deny that many deserted their colonies, took up arms again, and, renewing their predatory excursions, plundered droves of horses from the undefended estates; but, as I have observed elsewhere, that was entirely the fault of the Spaniards themselves, who left none but women at home, having called out all the men to make war upon those seven Guarany towns, which, according to treaty, were to be delivered up to the Portugueze.
It is also most certain that many of the Abipones, after dwelling for years amongst us, still continued to reject baptism and religious instruction, and though blameless in other respects, obstinately adhered to their old customs. This grieved, but did not greatly surprize us: for were either the Jews, the Greeks, or the Romans immediately convinced by the Apostles who taught the law of Christ? Were the temples and the synagogues overthrown in a few years? No; that was a work of ages, perfected by the toils and blood of numbers, and we have not yet reached the goal. Alas! how small a portion of the globe has sworn allegiance to Jesus Christ; numbers without number still observing the law of Moses, of Mahomet, of Confucius, of Nature; others even paying worship to idols! An aged oak, with roots deep fixed in the ground, is not felled at one blow. To eradicate the ridiculous superstitions of the Abipones, their habits of wandering and of plunder, confirmed by the example of their ancestors, and become as it were a second nature, appeared to many a business of infinite labour, and almost desperate success: for experience shows that the equestrian savages are harder to be civilized than the pedestrian tribes: their inveterate habit of roaming about the whole province, and committing depredations, is a sweet poison, which insinuates itself deep into the very marrow, and is with difficulty expelled. So thought St. Xavier, who, though he left no stone unturned to convert the neighbouring nations of Asia, and even the remote Chinese and Japonese, to Christianity, never attempted to instruct the Badajas, an equestrian tribe in the bordering kingdom of Narsinga, or Bisnagur, foreseeing that in such an expedition he should lose the labour which, with greater and more certain success, he expended on other nations.
Notwithstanding the hardness and obstinacy of the equestrian nations, they were by no means to be neglected by the Apostolic labourers of Paraguay, as their conversion and civilization were of the greatest importance to the safety and tranquillity of the whole province. But many artifices must be made use of by those who have to instruct or deal with them in any way. They must be advised, admonished, and corrected, with singular mildness, and some indulgence; with them the maxim festina lentè should be put in practice, lest premature fervour and severity should suddenly destroy the hopes of future fruits. You will alarm the savages who have but just quitted the woods, and make them fly you, if, burning with the spirit of Elijah, you imprudently strive to abolish their rude, barbarous manners, and conform them exactly to the rule of Christian discipline, at the first trial. But though indulgence was always our aim, we did not think proper to connive at any thing contrary to religion, or injurious to others, which it was in our power to prevent. To procure immortal life for dying infants, we often incurred danger of death from the opposing savages, who would rush upon us with spears, foolishly imagining that the ceremony of baptism accelerated dissolution. Even now I tremble at the remembrance of that night when Father Brigniel hastened to baptize an infant which he understood to be at the point of death, I accompanying him, and carrying the torch. Cacique Lichinrain, the father of the child, could be induced by no entreaties, threats, or expostulations, to suffer his little son to be baptized; which as he was endeavouring to effect against the will of the Cacique, the furious Kevachichi laid hands on him, and pulled him back, the rest of the by-standers expressing great indignation, and threatening us with every thing that was dreadful. The Cacique held his almost expiring son tight with both arms, and covered him all over with his clothes, so that he was entirely concealed. We, therefore, returned home without accomplishing our purpose: the infant, however, soon after recovering, put an end to our grief. How often, surrounded by swords and arrows, have we flown to prevent a crowd of drunken Abipones from rushing to mutual wounds and slaughter! If you read the annals of either India, you would be convinced that the Jesuits, who instructed the savages in the divine law, must have united apostolic severity with mild indulgence, whenever they had to contend for the glory of God, and for integrity of conduct. Above all admiration, and almost beyond belief, are the examples of magnanimity which the men of our order, employed in taming the ferocious nations of Paraguay, have left to posterity. What has not been endured and attempted for the love of God, by Roque Gonzalez, Barsena, Boroa, Ortega, Mendoza, Ruyz de Montoya, Mazzeta, Cataldino, Diaztaño, Lorenzana, Romero, Yegros, Zea, Castañares, Machoni, Strobel, Andreu, Brigniel, Nusdorffer, Cardiel, Fons, and their numerous imitators, many of whom ended an Apostolic life with a bloody and honourable death! I shall here subjoin a list of the names of those who were slain by the savages, or on their account, at various times and places. As I have not at hand the most approved historians of Paraguay, Father Nicolas del Techo, Doctor Francisco Xarque, and Pedro Lozano, who have given an accurate account of all these matters, I may perhaps omit some who deserve to be enrolled in this class of brave men; but I will faithfully record the names of all those who are mentioned in my notes.
P. Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz, born in the city of Asumpcion; P. Alonzo Rodriguez, and P. Juan de Castillo, killed by the Guaranies in Caarò, in the year 1628, Nov. 15th.