CHAPTER XII.

A COLONY FOUNDED FOR THE MOCOBIOS AFTERWARDS THE OCCASION OF ABIPONIAN COLONIES.

The Spaniards, weakened by daily slaughters, were extremely desirous of procuring a peace with the savages, whom, for so many years, they had proved unable to vanquish by arms. Instructed by the experience of other nations, they were persuaded that the friendship of the Abipones and Mocobios could never be either obtained, or preserved, unless these people surrendered themselves to our instructions in civilization and religion. And nothing was more desired by the Jesuits, than the discovery of some means whereby the savages might be induced to inhabit the colonies founded for them. The Royal Governors of cities were liberal in their offers of assistance; but they seldom, or in a very limited manner, fulfilled their promises. Satisfied when the Abipones were driven by our means, into a new town, and kept from plunder, they left the care of feeding and clothing them entirely to us. They thought it a mighty performance to build a few huts of wood and mud in a new colony, to serve as chapels and dwelling-houses for us and the Indians. These being completed in a day or two, by the hasty labours of the soldiers, they sent high-flown letters both to the Viceroy of Peru, and the court of Madrid, in which they declared themselves the founders of a new town, and the conquerors of a savage nation. But if those worthy Governors were really solicitous for the safety of the province committed to their care, and the firm establishment of the Indians whom they had delivered to our instructions, they should have made a point of furnishing every new colony with herds of oxen and flocks of sheep, with axes and other agricultural instruments, lest the savage inhabitants, from want of meat for daily consumption, of wool for weaving garments, and of ploughs for daily use, should be obliged to subsist by plunder or hunting, to wander without the colony, return to their native woods, and, destitute of all necessaries, to declare, that they looked upon war as more to their advantage than such a peace. But of this subject I shall treat more fully in another place. The city of Sta. Fè formerly cultivated, more than any of the rest, the friendship of the Abipones and Mocobios, some troops of whom, on the strength of a peace established between them, stationed themselves in the plains adjacent to the city, and were permitted to enter the market-place for the purpose either of buying what they needed, or of disposing of what they had taken from the other Spaniards, with whom they were still at variance. They frequently visited our college. By daily intercourse with the Spaniards their ferocity gradually disappeared, and Aletin and Chitalin, chief Caciques of the Mocobios, were rendered so tractable by the presents and conversation of the Jesuits, that they refused not to be instructed in the holy religion along with their people. The Spaniards and Jesuits thought they should be well repaid for their labours, could they but induce a nation so formidable for numbers and military valour, to submit to God and the King. A colony was founded by Father Francisco Burges Navarro, a few leagues from the city, and distinguished by the name of St. Xavier. At first it only contained twenty families, but received such accessions from multitudes of fresh comers, that it increased beyond the expectation of all. As they were but a few in the beginning, the Fathers, by the liberality of the Spanish, but still more of the Guarany towns, were enabled so fully to satisfy, not only the necessities, but even the desires of the savages, that, deserting their predatory habits, they all rejoiced in their fortune, and instigated their countrymen, who dwelt more towards the North, to embrace the same kind of life. The other Mocobios without the colony of St. Xavier, who, scorning the example of their countrymen, still continued to rove up and down their own territories, received a complete overthrow from Barreda, a few being slain, and about two hundred taken prisoners. Those who survived this slaughter, fled for fear, to the colony of St. Xavier, whither, likewise, the excellent Barreda afterwards sent many of his captives.

The colony, as it increased in the number of its inhabitants, made great progress in religious knowledge. Affairs assumed an extremely favourable aspect, much more so than, from the ferocity of the savages, could a short while before have been expected. Their native customs were exterminated; whatever savoured of barbarism and superstition was abolished, and succeeded by virtues of every kind. Persons of all ages received religious instruction and baptism, whenever they proved themselves worthy of it. They were as obedient in performing whatever was enjoined them, as docile in believing whatever they heard. Accustomed to spears and arrows, they nevertheless accounted it a pleasure to handle the plough and the axe, and to employ themselves in tilling the fields and in building houses. Two schools were opened, in the one of which children learnt the arts of reading and writing, and in the other were instructed in music, and taught to play upon the musical instruments used in churches. One of their masters was Father Florian Pauke, a Silesian, by whose instructions many were rendered musicians and singers, and formed an agreeable addition to divine service. This being known throughout the province, the Mocobian musicians were invited to the cities of Buenos-Ayres and Sta. Fè, where they chaunted mass and vespers, accompanied by a full band of instruments. The sweet symphony excited the admiration of all the Spaniards, and even drew tears from many of them, when they thought of the terror which, a few years before, the parents of the young musicians had inspired them with, whenever their savage trumpets and loud shouts were heard in repeated assaults.

I have no sort of doubt, that both the commencement and progress of the fresh colony, under God, were chiefly owing to the exertions and good example of Aletin and Chitalin. The former, who was remarkable for the gentleness of his disposition and for natural probity, never neglected any thing conducive to the improvement of his people. He was always the first to attend divine service in the morning, and the holy institutions for teaching Christianity at mid-day. Standing by the little chapel with a brazen bell in his hand, he called to the performance of their religious duties, those very people, whom he had formerly animated by sound of trumpet to slaughter the Spaniards. If any violation of integrity came under his notice, he either immediately corrected it himself, or requested one of the Fathers to do so, whom he always honoured with the promptest obedience, and manifested the utmost alacrity in serving. In this alone he claimed pre-eminence above the rest, that, though the eldest of them all, he ever laboured the most both at home and abroad. Chitalin, who was more illustrious amongst his own countrymen for high birth and military fame, possessed such acuteness of intellect as occasioned Father Bonenti, the companion of Father Burges, to say we had the greatest reason to thank God, that this Indian Chitalin was devoid of book learning: for were this not the case, he of himself would be sufficient to deceive all mankind. But though of a very lively temper, in the prime of his years, arrogant, and proud of military fame, he submitted to the divine law and the will of the Fathers, and by so doing induced many to amend their conduct. Inconceivable is the importance attached to the examples of the Caciques by the Indians. The adage that the character of the king determines that of his people, is no where more true than in America. The third Cacique of St. Xavier, who received the name of Domingo at his baptism, though younger than the two former, was superior to them both. Many years after the rest had entered the colony, he, with a troop of horse, spread terror and desolation throughout the land of Cordoba. Incensed at his countrymen on account of the peace they had established with the Spaniards, he long persecuted their town with the utmost virulence, and when the opportunity for slaughter was wanting, carried off droves of horses from the pastures of the city. Father Burges daily besought the Almighty to convert this mischievous man to a better course of life; his prayers were at length heard, and entering the colony, Domingo exceeded the rest in usefulness and good conduct as much as he had previously done in ferocity and the disposition to mischief. Some years afterwards, he obtained the captain's staff, as a reward of his merits, from Pedro Ceballos, Governor of Buenos-Ayres.

The example, authority and vigilance of such Caciques, caused this town, so lately composed of a barbarous and blood-thirsty rabble, to become a seminary of Christian piety. The strict observance of the marriage ceremony, the remarkable modesty of the youth of both sexes, their prompt obedience, industry, and concord, together with the extreme good-will they manifested towards the priests, excited the admiration of the Spaniards, who had not yet quite forgotten their ancient barbarism. They desired baptism both for themselves, and for their children, as soon as they were born, though formerly, by an error common to all savages, they had considered it mortally dangerous. In the three last days of Lent, after hearing of the agonies of our Saviour, they all felt an eager desire to inflict tortures on themselves. Many cruelly lacerated their bodies, others carried crosses, like supplicants, as they had formerly seen practised by the Spanish penitents in the city of Sta. Fè. Nor could the young lads be restrained from following the example of their elders. Knotted leathern thongs supplied the place of scourges; and when crosses were wanting, they took yokes of oxen, axle-trees of waggons, heavy beams, or any timber at hand, to be applied to the purpose of making them. They seemed to take amazing pleasure in mangling their flesh. One of them, seeing the backs of his companions streaming with blood, cried, "See! how we are changed by the teaching of the Fathers! how unlike we are grown both to our former selves, and to our ancestors! Accustomed from boyhood to shed the blood of others, we now voluntarily shed our own, and most justly. It is right that we punish ourselves for the numerous droves of horses that we have plundered, and slaughters that we have committed." According to the custom of the equestrian savages, the Mocobian mothers used frequently to kill their own offspring. By the extermination of this cruelty in mothers, together with the abolition of polygamy and divorce, the colony was enriched by a numerous progeny, though often diminished by the ravages of the small-pox. Father Francisco Burges, the founder, and for many years the Governor of this colony, was succeeded, or assisted by Miguel Zea, Joseph Cardiel, Joseph Garzia, Bonenti, Manuel Canelas, Joseph Brigniel, Joseph Lehmann, Pedro Pol, and Florian Pauke my successor when I was removed to the Abipones; from whose labours another colony of Christian Mocobios, distinguished by the name of Pedro and Pablo, took its rise. Over this colony presided the Cacique Amokin, who till that time had terribly infested the territories of the Spaniards with his Mocobios. You may have heard of a colony of Mocobios of the name of St. Xavier, situated near the city Esteco in Tucuman, in the last century, and it appears not foreign to my purpose to relate the origin, state, and ruin of it, in this place. A great sedition was stirred up in Tucuman, at that time, by the Indians, and the Spaniards employed all their forces to repress the tumult. The city Esteco seemed doomed to destruction, unless the continual hostilities of the Mocobios were put a stop to. Alfonzo Mercado, Governor of Tucuman, thinking that peace might be more easily obtained without war, sent two Jesuits to pacify the Mocobios, and these legates were able to obtain, by fair words, what those who sent them could never have extorted by the sword. The savages promised peace, and maintained it, whilst Mercado was Governor of Tucuman, but receiving information that he had been succeeded by Angelo de Paredo, they renewed their hostilities. The Governor, to avenge the slaughters they had already committed, and to prevent them from attempting fresh, armed all the forces of the Spaniards, and of the tame Indians, and after twice entering Chaco, took and slew some companies of Mocobios. Although this expedition proved so fortunate, it by no means tended to establish the tranquillity of the province: for the survivors, though less numerous yet with redoubled spirit and courage, dared every thing against the victorious Spaniards, the memory of the slaughter they had suffered exasperating their desire of vengeance, and supplying the place of numbers. Angelo de Paredo, therefore, softened by experience, adopted gentler methods to tranquillize the minds of the Mocobios. By gifts and conciliatory measures, he at length effected so much, that some companies of them, laying aside all enmity, settled in the neighbourhood of Esteco, and bore the appearance of a colony, which went by the name of St. Xavier. And as true religion is a strengthener of peace, and a certain instrument of good works, great pains were taken to induce them to embrace the Catholic religion. Father Diego Altamirano, a Jesuit, descended from a noble Spanish family, together with Father Bartolome Diaz, a native of Paraguay and well skilled in the languages of the Indians, were chosen to instruct these savages, but not permitted to reside amongst them by the provident Governor, who, fearing the ferocity of their disciples, wished to ensure the lives of the missionaries. On this account, they passed the night at Esteco; so that they were obliged to ride eight leagues every day in going and returning; as that city was four leagues distant from the settlements of the savages. Until a chapel could be built there, a very large cross was erected, near which the law of God was daily expounded. The Fathers spared no pains to civilize this nation, but the character which they gained for singular patience was the only reward of their labours: for the Governor, who looked for the harvest, almost before the sowing was finished, destroyed the colony under various pretexts. The Mocobios who inhabited it, together with the other savages whom he had taken in his last expedition into Chaco, he distributed amongst the Tucuman cities in the service of the Spaniards; by which liberality he secured the good-will of the people, and remunerated them for their assistance in the excursions undertaken against Chaco; but the savage tribes, thus torn from their native soil, conceived new hatred of the Spanish name, and have persisted to this very day in revenging the injury done them by the Governor, continuing ever hostile, ever mischievous to the whole province.

It cannot be doubted but that this colony was planted by the Governor in a most inauspicious season; for at the very time that he committed the Mocobios to the religious instructions of the Fathers, he persecuted their countrymen in Chaco with the utmost bitterness; nor was the situation of the colony approved by prudent persons. The city Esteco, which was a few years after destroyed by an earthquake, abounded in public vices proportionable to its wealth and power. The neighbouring Mocobios, who were more powerfully impelled to vice by the example of the licentious and intemperate, than to virtue by the exhortations of the Fathers, thought themselves justified in doing what they saw practised openly and with impunity by the Christian inhabitants of the city. This, amongst others, was the principal reason why the town of St. Xavier, founded in our times, was removed to thirty leagues distance from the city of Sta. Fè, that examples of wickedness, which are never wanting in the most virtuous cities, might not meet the eyes of the Mocobios. The Fathers were obliged to be extremely careful in preventing their Indian disciples from associating promiscuously with other Christians, in many of whom they would discover vices and impurities which they themselves were utterly ignorant of, or regarded with execration: for Spaniards are not the sole inhabitants of Paraguay; a mixed breed of Spaniards, Negroes, and Indians, are commonly to be seen there. Persons of good character, and respectable family, are never denied access to our colonies; on the contrary, they are well received by us, and permitted to lodge in our houses, sit at our tables, and survey any part of the town at their pleasure. But it was ordered by royal enactments that none of the dregs of society should gain admittance into the Indian towns, such being the very men most calculated to pervert or delude the stupid Indians. To keep the town clear of these nuisances, no care and vigilance on the part of the Fathers could be deemed superfluous. Fellows of this description, though perhaps devoid of any evil intent in their coming, seldom depart without the commission of mischief: for they either cajole the Indians out of their clothes, and other property, or corrupt them by indecent jokes and actions, or, as is frequently the case, steal and carry home young men, marriageable girls, and even married women, to serve as domestic slaves, and often for worse purposes. Within two years seventy boys and girls were carried into captivity from the town of St. Stanislaus. The Bishop and Governor, when informed by me of the fact, threatened the raptors with I know not what; but vain was anger without strength, in a province where holy prelates had formerly been cast down by the seditious citizens, and Governors confined in chains and a prison.

The Abipones, on account of their old friendship with the Mocobios, were hospitably received and liberally treated in their visits to the town of St. Xavier. Pleased with the gifts and conversation of the Fathers, they at length began to approve that kind of life which the Mocobios had adopted. Kebachin, a man of high reputation amongst the Abipones, promised to induce his fellow-hordesmen to request colonies for themselves, of the Spaniards. Debayakaikin, chief of the Abiponian Caciques, at length desired to live under our discipline, in the territories of Sta. Fè; but when the Governor of that city pointed out the banks of the river Salado, to build the new colony upon, the Abipones disapproved of that situation, and a business of so much import was consequently suspended: for Ychoalay, who possessed much more penetration than the rest, said that the Spaniards had pitched upon that situation with a design of rendering the Abipones subservient to their will, as they had done with regard to the remainder of the Calchacuis in Carcarañal. The dread of slavery disconcerted these useful measures, to the great disadvantage both of the Spaniards, and of themselves. By what means the whole Abiponian nation was settled in four colonies, remains to be circumstantially related.