South America

by W. H. Koebel

The temperament of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, however, was of too refined and trusting an order to deal with the turbulent and somewhat treacherous elements which abounded at Asuncion. After a while a revolt occurred, brought about probably by the Governor's objection to the wholesale plundering and enslavement of the Indians by the Spaniards. The populace turned strongly against the Governor. Cabeza de Vaca was flung into prison, and sent a prisoner to Spain, after which drastic procedure Irala was once again elected Governor by the colonists. Doubtless Cabeza de Vaca possesses the chief claim to sympathy of all those who had to do with Paraguay at this early period of its existence; yet at the same time it is impossible to refrain from admiration of the sheer determination and willpower with which Irala pursued his career.

For years Irala's position remained utterly precarious. He was the chosen of the colonists, but not of the Court of Spain, which alone possessed any legal right to appoint a person to so high an office as his. No exalted personages were more jealous of their privileges than these. Several times Irala was on the point of losing his Governorship, but on each occasion the measures he adopted, aided by good fortune, tided him over the crisis, and left him continuing in the seat of authority. In the end, after undergoing innumerable anxieties, Irala at last succeeded in obtaining the Royal Licence for the Governorship of Paraguay.

All the while his energy continued undiminished, and it was due to him that the colonization of the country made such rapid strides. The means by which this end was effected were, from the modern point of view, entirely dubious, for it was Irala who instituted in Paraguay encomiendas, or slave settlements, into which the natives of the country were congregated in order that their labour might be employed in agriculture and similar occupations. This, however, was the ordinary procedure of the period, and, as historians have already pointed out, Irala's faults, although serious enough, were really nothing beyond those of his age. In any case, his name stands as that of one of the most powerful of the conquistadores. During the later years of his office a comparatively undisturbed era obtained, and he held the reins of the Paraguayan Government with a firm hand till his death, which occurred at the age of seventy-one.

On Irala's death, it was only natural that those elements of discord and jealousy which his strong personality had kept in check should break out, and cause no little confusion and strife. For a while the Governorship of Paraguay was sought by many, and the conflicting claims led to numerous disputes, and even occasional armed collisions. One of the most notable of the Governors who succeeded Irala was Juan de Garay. It was this conquistador who was responsible for the second and permanent founding of the city of Buenos Aires. Garay was a far-seeing man, who, having established a number of urban centres inland, saw clearly the importance of a settlement at which vessels from Europe could touch on their first arrival at the Continent.

So the stream of white men, having been in the first instance swept by the force of circumstances rather than its own desire from the coast in a north-westerly direction, began now to roll back towards the coast once again, without, however, yielding up any of the territories which it had occupied in the interior.

In 1580 Juan de Garay determined that the supreme effort should be made. He led an expedition down the stream, and on the spot where Pedro de Mendoza had founded his first ill-fated settlement he built the pioneer structures of the second town of Buenos Aires. The wisdom of this move was evident to all, provided the place were able to withstand the attacks of the surrounding Indians. In this the garrison succeeded, and Buenos Aires, having now taken firm root, began the first slow growth of its development, which eventually made of it the greatest city in South America.

In the meantime much had been effected towards the colonization of the land to the west of the Andes. As has been related, Almagro's unfortunate expedition returned, dejected and diminished in numbers, from the apparently inhospitable soil in the south. This disaster lent to Chile an unenviable but entirely undeserved notoriety. Pedro de Valdivia was the next to venture into these regions. Valdivia naturally enjoyed several advantages over his predecessor, for he knew now, by the other's experiences, the dangers and perils against which he had to guard. In consequence of this his expedition met with considerably more success than had been anticipated. Marching southward across the great Atacama Desert, he penetrated to the fertile regions of the land, and founded the town of Santiago.

All this was not effected without encountering the hostility of the local Indians, and the inhabitants of the new town carried their lives in their hands for a considerable while after the foundation of the city. Perhaps, indeed, no pioneers experienced greater hardships than did those of Chile. For the first few years of its existence every member of the new colony became accustomed to live in an unceasing condition of short rations, and it was on very poorly furnished stomachs that the garrison was obliged to meet and to repel the attacks of the natives. In the end, however, the seeds which had been brought by the adventurers took root and grew. Provisions became fairly abundant, and the settlements in the neighbourhood of Santiago were now firmly established.

Valdivia, determined to extend his frontiers, marched to the south. It was in the neighbourhood of the Biobio River that he first encountered the Araucanian warriors of the true stock. Here his forces met with a rude awakening. In discipline and fighting merit the companies of the Araucanians stood to the remaining tribes of South America in the same relation as did the Zulu regiments to the other fighting-men of Africa. A furious struggle began which was destined to last for generations and for centuries. But at no time were the fierce Araucanians subdued, although it fell to their lot to be defeated over and over again, as, indeed, proved the fate of the Spaniards likewise.

Some notion of the tremendous vigour with which these wars of the south were waged may be gathered from "La Araucana," the magnificent epic written by Ercilla, the Spanish poet, who composed his verses hot from the fight, his arms still weary from wielding the sword.