CHAPTER XVII.

CONCERNING REPEATED EXPEDITIONS UNDERTAKEN BY YCHOALAY AGAINST OAHERKAIKIN, AND THE OTHER ABIPONES NAKAIKETERGEHES.

Ychoalay, on returning from Sta. Fè, was highly incensed when he heard of the events that had taken place in his absence, and bitterly reproached his countrymen for their want of diligence in watching the enemy whilst they were approaching, and of energy in repelling them, when present. He continually revolved in his mind the injury done to his town by Debayakaikin, and not being able to digest it, appointed a new excursion against him. Hastening therefore to the city of Sta. Fè, he requested soldiers to attend him on the purposed expedition, but obtained only thirty, which the Royal Vice-Governor was chiefly actuated to grant by the consideration, that the death of the Spaniard slain by Debayakaikin's soldiers ought to be revenged by the arms of Spaniards. The soldiers sent on the Vice-Governor's account, however, little interested about the success of the expedition, wished to remain as guards in the town of St. Jeronymo, whilst Ychoalay went with his people against the enemy: but on his sternly declaring that guards for the Abiponian women in the absence of their husbands were neither necessary, nor even endurable, they at last began the journey with the other company of Abipones. But, alas! how short a one did it prove! The ways had been rendered impassable by the spreading inundations of so many rivers, and the whole country was flooded to such a degree, that not a turf appeared on which the horsemen might lie down, or their horses take pasture. All hope of further progress being at a stop, they were obliged to return to the town, and thus an expedition undertaken with so much noise, was terminated in three days, without any advantageous result. Ychoalay, though naturally of an iron constitution, was seized, on his return home, with a burning fever, and a kind of small-pox, called by the Spaniards _Las viruelas bobas_. Without waiting for his complete recovery, he set off, with a small troop, against Oaherkaikin, by whom he was wounded, in a bloody skirmish, with two arrows, as I have related in a former part of this work.

The wounds that had been inflicted, though now healed, exasperated Ychoalay's mind, and stimulated him to a fresh excursion against Oaherkaikin. Not only all the Abipones of the towns of St. Jeronymo, and Concepcion, but numbers of Christian Mocobios followed Ychoalay. They penetrated to the enemies' stations and fought long and desperately. Debayakaikin himself was dangerously wounded in the side with a spear, and would have been slain by Ychoalay had not some one else thrown himself before him. Although both armies had fought with equal success, and though victory inclined to neither side, yet Debayakaikin, alarmed at his wound, and the ferocity of those who had inflicted it, did not like to engage any more with Ychoalay, and sought how he might avoid the dangerous necessity of meeting him again in the field. He also began to entertain suspicions of his neighbours the northern Mocobios, ever since his colleague Kaapetraikin, with his two sons and three other Abipones, had been treacherously murdered by them whilst passing the night in the open plain. For the benefit of his affairs, therefore, he removed with his whole horde to the colony of St. Ferdinand, the residence of the Yaaukaniga Abipones, by means of whose friendship and the support of the Corrientine Spaniards, he trusted to enjoy tranquillity. But in avoiding Charybdis, he fell upon Scylla.

For Ychoalay, deeming this union with the Yaaukanigas a measure pursued with no peaceful intention, and far from conducive to the advantage of his own town, went thither with a great number of Abipones and Christian Mocobios, and denounced battle against his implacable foe, Debayakaikin. The provident care of the Fathers prevented them from coming to blows. They sent to Corrientes for the Vice-Governor Patron, who, though he came accompanied by a number of soldiers, was more desirous to perform the office of peace-maker, than to espouse the cause of either of the enemies. Things fell out according to his wish. Peace was established on the following conditions, which were dictated by Ychoalay; that Debayakaikin should restore the three spears which he had taken from Ychoalay in the first engagement, as well as the captives from the estate of St. Jeronymo; that he should not devise frauds against the colonies of the Spaniards, and the Indians in amity with them; and that he should remain quiet and harmless in the colony of St. Ferdinand, bearing it in mind that, if he departed to any other place, war would be renewed against him. Debayakaikin's present trepidation compelled him eagerly to embrace these conditions, which, however, he neglected at his pleasure, when free from fear. He was repeatedly attacked in the town itself, and robbed of all his horses by the northern Mocobios, under pretext of some injuries they had received from him. His countrymen with their place of residence did not change their line of conduct, continuing still intent upon secretly plundering and slaughtering the Spaniards; which Debayakaikin foresaw would neither remain long concealed from Ychoalay, nor be tamely endured by him. In continual fear therefore of his enemies, the Mocobios in the north, and in the south of Ychoalay and his allies, who were still nearer to him, he removed with his people to the more distant town of Concepcion, then near the colonies of St. Iago: which, though contrary to the conditions of the peace, was digested in silence by the Abipones Riikahés, till fresh injuries, like a hostile trumpet, stirred them up to fresh rage, and fresh contests.

Some Abipones complained to Ychamenraikin, that as they were returning from hunting wild horses, they had been scourged and plundered by some of Debayakaikin's people. Moreover they announced that a very numerous horde of Nakaiketergehes had been discovered by them in the country between the cities of Sta. Fè and St. Iago. The Cacique pronounces this station dangerous to travelling Spaniards, and an infringement upon the peace established, and exclaims that he will set out the next day, and discover these hostile Abipones. The Christian Mocobios are called upon, and within a few hours a company of almost three hundred men is assembled. After a few days' journey they discovered the hostile horde, but did not make a sudden attack upon it. Not to appear deficient in courtesy, they sent forward two heralds to desire the enemies, in a friendly manner, instantly to restore the horses they had unjustly carried off, and to ask pardon for the injury they had committed. The blast of trumpets, by which twenty men challenged three hundred to the fight, was their answer. From words they proceeded to blows. Ychamenraikin, the Commander in Chief, and the foremost in the foremost rank, was pierced by an arrow in the left eye, and instantly expired. Inconceivable was the fury that inflamed the minds of the soldiers, at sight of their dead leader. "Come on," was the universal cry: "let none of the enemy depart alive." Their hands answered to their tongues: for all the spearmen rushed at once upon the adverse army. In truth, twenty might thus have been destroyed with little difficulty by three hundred, had they not with incredible firmness opposed themselves as a wall to their adversaries. Though wounded all over, they still continued to oppose spears to spears, and weapons to weapons, not receding a hair's breadth from the line of battle. The victors cut off the heads of those most renowned for valour, and carried them home as trophies. Two, who fell amongst the dead bodies and, being thought lifeless, had, the one an ear, the other a finger cut off by a Mocobio, appeared a few months after alive, in the town of St. Ferdinand.

All the men being slain, the Mocobios, irritated by the death of their Cacique, took delight in venting their fury on the women, who had taken refuge in a neighbouring wood. Forty women and children were slain, and many taken captive; which cruelty, as it was exercised towards the defenceless, we all condemned in the strongest manner. Many of our Abipones and Mocobios were wounded, but none slain except Ychamenraikin. The bones of this Cacique, after being stripped of the flesh, received the last obsequies, accompanied by the tears of the whole town, and by funeral rites, as has been related elsewhere.