The Pampean race spread over the whole of modern Argentina and beyond. They include the Patagonians and Puelches of the south and many tribes, such as the Charruas, in the river regions of the north. These all belong to the branch of the Pampean proper.
The Chiquitean branch is of less importance, comprising the foreign Indians of Paraguay—the unfortunate people who were so cruelly harried by the Paulistas in the seventeenth century. The Moxeans are an interesting branch, but they do not properly belong to our subject, for they inhabit the unexplored forest tracts on the confines of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.
The Brasilio-Guaranian race is very extensive, spreading from the north of Argentina over the whole of Brazil. They are a rude race, civilised by the Jesuits, but probably the paternal form of government was the highest to which they were adapted, and when their protectors departed they retrograded. Their physical characteristics are described as follows:[19] "The traits of the Guaranies can be distinguished at the first glance from those of the Pampean tribes; their head is round and not compressed sideways, nor does their forehead recede; it is, on the contrary, high, and its flatness in some of the tribes is due to artificial causes. Their face is almost circular, the nose short and rather large with nostrils far less open than those of the plain races. Their mouth is of moderate size, but slightly projecting; their lips are somewhat thin, their eyes small and expressive, ... their chin is round, very short, and it never advances as far as the line of the mouth; their cheekbones are not prominent in their youth, but in later life they project somewhat; their eyebrows are well arched and very narrow. Their hair is long, straight, coarse, and black, and their beard, among the tribes of Paraguay and the Missions, is reduced merely to a few short bristles, straight and scanty, growing on the chin and upper lip." The Guaranies were more important in the earlier days when both their subjection and protection were grave problems. Those who still live in their original state are to be found in the primitive forests of the north, where it is difficult to disturb them.
The religion of these rude tribes was tolerably uniform and, as might have been expected, was on a much lower grade than that of the Incas, who worshipped the invisible God Pachacamac, the creator of all things. In general they believed in Quecubu, an evil spirit, but (what is curious) they did not think it necessary to propitiate him in any way, nor, again, did they worship or supplicate the Creator of the world in which they had a shadowy belief. They believed that man was perfectly free in his actions and that neither good deeds nor evil deeds would affect the action either of the Creator or the evil spirit. This Epicurean apathy was tempered by a belief in a future life—the translation to a paradise of delight beyond the seas. Such ritual and religious observances as they had appear to have centred in their medicine-men, who interpreted dreams and omens and the like. If we consider their extreme barbarism, we may judge that their religion was singularly free from the taint of cruel rites and gross superstitions, but it seems to have been weak and cold. The majority of the tribes, even the most savage, have now nominally embraced Christianity.
It is thus possible to form some idea of the condition of the aborigines at the time of the appearance of the Spaniards, but to obtain any knowledge of the events in South America during the centuries immediately preceding that event is a flat impossibility, and it is probably safe to say that the veil will never be uplifted, for the relics we have are of prehistoric not of modern man. Nor, in all probability, do we lose much by our ignorance, for judging by the actual state of the inhabitants of the extra-Andine regions of South America, when the Spaniards found them, we may repeat the disparaging verdict of Thucydides upon ancient Greece—that looking back as far as we can we are inclined to believe that the ancients were not distinguished, either in war or in anything else.
The history of Argentina may be held to begin with the advent of the Spaniards.
CHAPTER III
THE EUROPEAN CONQUEST
Compared with Mexico and Peru the southern portions of the New World at first excited little interest, because they produced neither gold nor silver. Yet even here the discoverer was very early at work, and achievements less showy but on an almost equally grand scale have to be recorded. In 1515 Juan Diaz de Solis was sent out on a voyage of discovery by the King of Castile, who wished to counteract Portuguese influence on the east coast of South America, and Solis was the first European to sail up the River Plate, which he named after himself. But he trusted to the natives, who proved treacherous. They invited him to land, and when he had accepted their invitation they attacked and killed him and every man in the boat-crew, and afterwards roasted and devoured them in the sight of their companions. It was long before the Spaniards touched on that coast again, and the name of Solis had no permanence in the land which he discovered.
Some ten years later a more fortunate expedition was made by the Englishman Cabot. In the service of the King of Spain he left Seville with four ships, intending to make a search for the islands of Tarsis, Ophir, and Eastern Cathay by the newly discovered Straits of Magellan. The little fleet touched at Pernambuco and remained there for three months. The Spaniards still appear to have had a design to check the Portuguese in Brazil, but Cabot evidently found them too strong in that quarter, so, says Purchas,[20] "he thought good to busy himself in something that might be profitable; and entered the year 29 discovering the River of Plate, where he was almost three years; and not being seconded, with relation of that which he had found, returned to Castile, having gone many leagues up the River. He found plate or silver among the Indians of those countries, for in the wars which these Indians had with those of the kingdoms of Peru they took it, and from it is called the River of Plate, of which the country hath taken the name."