CHAPTER XIX.

YCHOALAY, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SPANIARDS, TAKES A COMPANY OF HOSTILE ABIPONES, AND, ON ANOTHER OCCASION, FIGHTS SUCCESSFULLY WITH OAHERKAIKIN.

The Charruas, a fierce equestrian nation, after being long formidable to travellers on the eastern bank of the Parana, were at length made captive, for the most part, by a troop of horse from Sta. Fè, and assembled in a colony founded in the plain Cajasta, where they were instructed in the divine law by a priest of the order of St. Francis. These savages, formerly so slothful, were impelled by hunger to make great exertions in cultivating land. But the plains adjacent to the town, being in great part marshy, scarce afforded a place where seed could be sown with any prospect of a harvest, and the hill occupied by the colony seemed too small for the number of inhabitants. On which account, some Charruas were sent by the priest to explore the remoter plains, and endeavour to find a better situation for the colony. On their return, they communicated their discovery of a very numerous horde of Abipones near La Laguna Blanca. The Vice-Governor of Sta. Fè, when informed of this circumstance, judged habitations of hostile Abipones insufferable in a place where they had such a good opportunity of sallying forth to annoy the colonies of the Spaniards. He appointed a troop of his own horse to drive away that hostile horde, and wrote to us to request that Ychoalay, with his people and with the Mocobios, might join them.

The Vice-Governor's letter, which was delivered to us as we were at dinner, dispersed the cloud that overspread our minds, like a propitious star. Ychoalay got every thing in readiness the same evening, and set out the next day with a numerous company almost before sun-rise. There was not one amongst them all that did not follow him with a cheerful mind, not one that complained of want of horses. For although the enemy had taken great numbers of them but a very short time before, yet many, still lurking in the remoter pastures, escaped both their eyes and hands. Ychoalay rode on before the rest, and reached the plain specified by the Vice-Governor, where he found the Spanish horsemen on foot and fasting, their horses and oxen having left them in the night. Both were recovered by the sagacity of Ychoalay. Soon after, under the guidance of the Charruas, they hastened to the shores of La Laguna Blanca, which, however, they found already deserted by the Abipones, and whither they had removed was difficult to conjecture. Ychoalay was commissioned by the Spaniards to seek the abode of the fugitives. All places being diligently examined under his direction, the enemy's stations were at length discovered, and at the same time so closely besieged, that all hope of flight or victory being precluded, they every one yielded to the conquerors. They were deprived of their arms, and brought like captives to the town of St. Jeronymo, with a crowd of women and boys.

The event of this expedition exasperated the minds of all the Nakaiketergehé Abipones, as much as it elated those of our nation; and proved a stimulus to the enemies to pursue the war with still more pertinacity. That three of the most formidable of the captives, Zapancha and Pachieke, and a brother-in-law of Alaykin, whose face dwells in my memory, though not his name, were kept in chains in the port of Monte-Video, was what the Nakaiketergehes could never digest, and what they embraced every opportunity to avenge. A few months after, to omit other instances, seven inhabitants of St. Jeronymo were treacherously slain, whilst travelling, by the tribesmen of Oaherkaikin. Ychoalay, thinking these atrocities no longer to be endured, led a hundred and twenty-five Riikahés against Oaherkaikin, whose encampments were then forty leagues north of the town.

I, who was then removed to the town of St. Ferdinand, through which Ychoalay was to pass with his troop, had a good deal of trouble and anxiety on account of this expedition, fearing that our Yaaukanigas, who had long been hostile to Ychoalay, would take part with Oaherkaikin, and involve our town in the troubles of war. The day before Ychoalay and his company arrived, a scout of his, who had been sent forward to explore the roads taken by the enemy, and their places of concealment, came to me in the early part of the night. In the space of an hour he was followed by a second, and then by a third. The two latter returned at night to relate to Ychoalay what they had seen and heard, but the first, who was called Rochus Chiruilin, passed the night in my house.

The same day at noon, Ychoalay and his people arrived, in such an orderly band, with so much silence, and such decent habiliments, that I should have taken them for a troop of Spaniards. They were all furnished with iron spears, with hats, and Spanish saddles. A hill which slopes towards the town was the place where they chose to encamp. They were defended against sudden assaults by a wood behind, and by a ditch on each side, and had a full view of the plain beneath, where their horses were feeding, so that if any treacherous attack were meditated it would be immediately perceived. They passed the night in the open air, placed in a row describing the form of a semicircle, as that figure contributes much to the mutual defence of a few against many. When lying down they make use of saddles instead of a pillow, and the housings of their horses serve them for a mattress. Every one has his spear fixed in the ground close at hand. Four or six feed their fire, which is kept up to give light in the night; whilst others, who are appointed to keep watch for the security of the sleepers, and of the horses, traverse the plain on horseback, and if they observe any thing alarming or unusual, give notice of it to those who are reposing, by horns and trumpets.

There was not one of the Abiponian guests who did not run to my house to ask me how I did; for, having lived two years in the town of St. Jeronymo, I knew and loved them all. Ychoalay, by reason of our old intimacy, conversed with me in a friendly manner for some hours every day. All my anxiety and my arguments were directed towards persuading him to baptism. I expatiated on the perils to which he was going to expose his life. But he, confiding in the number and fidelity of his fellow-soldiers, would not allow that he stood in any danger, and owned himself too much engaged in warlike cares to be in a fit state for pious thoughts of that kind. I was also anxious on another account. I knew that my Yaaukanigas were inimical to Ychoalay, but amicably inclined towards their neighbour Oaherkaikin, and feared that they would assist the one against the other. But I advised them not to take part with either, if they wished to consult their own interest. I united threats with entreaties to deter them from attempting any thing against Ychoalay, who, though he did not stand in need of their assistance himself, would, I was well aware, be greatly incensed at their lending any to Oaherkaikin. This I repeatedly declared to the chief men of the town, and at length, forgetting their old grudge, they suffered themselves to be persuaded. Some of the younger went to be close spectators of the fight, but they carried no weapons.

In the mean time, Oaherkaikin, being at length informed of Ychoalay's journey, informed him, by means of a messenger, of his present place of abode, whither, he said, Ychoalay might come, and welcome; that he himself had never bestowed a thought on flight or terror; and that his soldiers were few, but such that every one of them seemed to him capable of slaying many. The day before Ychoalay left us, his chief emissary Hapaleolin intercepted Kepakainkin, a tribesman and brother-in-law of Oaherkaikin. As his wife was a Nakaiketergehe, whilst his brothers dwelt amongst the Riikahés, he sometimes joined one tribe, sometimes the other, and, on this very account, incurred the hatred of both. Fearing the arrival of Ychoalay, he withdrew from Oaherkaikin's horde, which was shortly to be attacked, under pretext of watching the motions of the enemy; but in reality with a treacherous design, which he put in execution, of meeting with the Riikahés, and conducting them to the horde of Oaherkaikin: however, he was only a spectator of the fight, and afterwards deserted Oaherkaikin's town, and betook himself to that of St. Jeronymo.

The horde of Oaherkaikin was a few leagues distant from the town of St. Ferdinand, nor did it contain more than twenty men able to bear arms, the rest being at that time employed in harassing the colonies of the Spaniards. But the small number of those who resisted were defended against all assaults by the natural situation of the place. Behind, and on each side, they had a wood, and in front a marshy field, which rendered access difficult, and fighting dangerous to the enemy. Ychoalay, with his usual intrepidity, left his horse, and struggled through the deep mud, till he arrived near enough to reach the enemy with arrows. The younger part alone followed their leader: for the rest, despairing of a victory amongst so many straits, marshes, and woods, from their horses, as from an orchestra, beheld their companions bravely fighting at a distance. The desertion of the old men, however, increased the boldness of the young ones, and more furiously inflamed their anger against the enemy. Oaherkaikin received three deep gashes, and his brother was dangerously wounded in the throat by an arrow. Of the rest scarce one departed from the field of battle without a severe wound. Though streaming with blood, not one of them seemed to remove his foot from his standing place, or his hand from the bow; which was extremely honourable both to the conquered and to the conquerors. Ychoalay, who remained unhurt amid this storm of arrows, had only three of his people wounded, and those had previously received baptism. On their return to the town, I examined and dressed their wounds. Hapaleolin was pierced by an arrow in the side, and a Spaniard, named Lorenzo, one of the voluntary captives of the Abipones, in the arm. Rochus Chiruilin had the tendon of his great toe hurt by an arrow, and remained seven weeks in my house till I had completely healed him. Whilst the battle was yet raging, some followers of Oaherkaikin arrived from the estates of Sta. Fè, whence, after slaughtering the Spaniards, they brought many hundreds of horses, all of which Ychoalay took, and restored to their owners; besides these, a multitude of horses, which Oaherkaikin had in the neighbouring pastures, also fell into his hands.

These events having taken place in the absence of the curate, Father Joseph Klein, I sent both for him and the Vice-Governor of Corrientes, fearing the doubtful event of Ychoalay's expedition, and the disturbances which would, in all probability, ensue in our colony. He came on the evening of the next day with my companion, accompanied by ten Spanish horsemen, and, in a friendly manner, saluted Ychoalay, who returned from the skirmish a short time after, and who, at first sight, requested the Vice-Governor, Nicolas Patron, that those ten horsemen, who were all excellently armed with muskets, might be added to his Abipones, as he purposed returning immediately to destroy Oaherkaikin, the implacable enemy of the Spanish nation. But the Vice-Governor disapproved of his intention, and endeavoured to dissuade him from it. He said that to join battle with the wounded, appeared to him repugnant to humanity, and that however advantageous such a victory might be, it would be entirely devoid of glory. After many arguments on both sides of the question, Ychoalay at length yielded to the Vice-Governor's suggestion, that if Oaherkaikin preferred peace to war, he should enter this colony, refrain from slaughter and rapine, and promise peace and friendship to all the colonies of the Christians; but on his refusing these conditions, should be given to understand that Ychoalay would instantly return to meet him in the field of battle. These things were announced to him by a Yaaukaniga horseman, by whom he replied, that the proposed conditions met his approbation; that, at present, neither himself nor his wounded companions had strength or horses sufficient to undertake the journey; but that when their wounds were thoroughly healed, he, with his companions, wives, and children, would remove to our colony. Oaherkaikin kept his word: for when Ychoalay had gone back to his own people, he and his numerous family, before their wounds were even scarred over, came to the town of St. Ferdinand. This observance of the promised peace, however, did not outlast the fear which had induced it; when released from that, he changed both his mind and his place of residence, continuing ever a plunderer, ever the chief of the Abiponian plunderers.