CHAPTER XXII.

THE CACIQUE DEBAYAKAIKIN SLAIN BY YCHOALAY IN BATTLE, AND HIS HEAD SUSPENDED FROM A GIBBET.

Ychoalay, not content with the name of an excellent defender, undertook an excursion against Debayakaikin, the chief of the Abiponian plunderers. Rejecting the subsidiary troops of Spaniards and Mocobios, he only admitted into his company the bravest and most approvedly faithful of his own people. When after some days' journey he perceived that Debayakaikin's horde was near at hand, "Let us return," exclaimed he: "a panic which I cannot account for, has got possession of my mind. This unusual tremor portends something disastrous. Come, let us return." His companions, revering these words as if they had been spoken by an oracle, were just going to turn round, when "Holla!" cries another, "are you not ashamed to return home with empty hands? I know that the horses of Pachieke are pasturing undefended in a neighbouring field. What hinders us from carrying off the whole drove, to indemnify ourselves for those which he robbed us of on his departure?" This advice was approved of, and having possessed themselves of the booty, they prepared for their return. Pachieke, in the mean time, happening to ride that way, sees the plain void of horses, and quickly suspecting the truth of the matter, from the footsteps of the plundering Riikahés, flies to Debayakaikin, laments the loss of the horses, asks for assistance, and expresses great hopes of being able to pursue and chastise the enemy. Without delay, all the neighbouring Abipones, with their Cacique Debayakaikin, eagerly pursue Ychoalay, whom, having overtaken, they challenge to the fight. As usual, the whole of the infantry joined battle. Both sides fought furiously for some time, till victory declared in favour of the Riikahés: for Debayakaikin, the Hector of his people, was slain with a spear by Ychoalay; many of his followers received the same fate from those of his adversary, and indeed, according to common report, not one of the enemy would have escaped alive, had not the conqueror prevented his soldiers from slaying the rest, declaring that he thought no blame attached to the common herd of Indians, who had only taken up arms in obedience to their leader. Pachieke, flying with his people, more solicitous for his own preservation than for that of Debayakaikin, plainly manifested that his chief courage was displayed against the unarmed and unprepared.

Ychoalay cut off the heads of Debayakaikin, and four of his most noble associates, and carried them home as trophies. Having entered the town, he ordered a gibbet to be erected in the market-place, and the five heads to be suspended from it. In the same place, surrounded by his troops, he harangued the multitude from his horse. "Behold," said he, pointing to the gibbet, "the chastisement of faith so often violated! Behold the trophy of our valour! Now feed your eyes with the spoils of hostile chiefs, who, for a length of time, have scarce permitted you to breathe, and on whose account, alas! we have endured so many sleepless nights, difficult journeys, and painful wounds. This ever various and uncertain warfare, this conflict of so many years' continuance, has at length been terminated to-day, when we, not even thinking of a battle, and to say the truth, retreating, have had a glorious victory thrust, as it were, upon our hands. Something must doubtless be attributed to fortune, but allow me to say, still more to our valour. The whole affair was conducted in such a way as gave me no reason to repent my choice of fellow-soldiers, nor you to be ashamed of the leader you fought under. He who has so long been threatening your lives, having at length received his death-blow from this spear, can now no longer threaten or inspire terror. This is the head which once devised so many treacheries. Now insult the perfidious one; but lest the same fate attend any of you likewise, be ever regardful of your faith pledged to the Spaniards, and obedient to me who am so anxious for your welfare. I do not consider the vile remnant of our enemies of sufficient importance to be deserving of our fear. The most warlike are dead. The survivors are either cowards or runaways, and owe their present existence merely to having escaped our eyes and hands. The streams dry up when their spring is exhausted, and after the head of the snake has been cut off, the rest of the body, though it may move, is incapable of doing any mischief, and wastes away in a few hours. After the extinction of their leaders, whose heads you here behold, the inimical faction, either from despair of victory, or apprehension of utter ruin, will, by degrees, grow milder, and, laying aside all enmity, accept our friendship." Nearly to this effect, did Ychoalay, who, from a leader, had become an orator, hold forth, and attract to himself the eyes and ears of all; for no one doubted that his words answered to his deeds, and his tongue to his hands. Do not imagine that I have composed this oration myself, and put it into the mouth of the savage. Many years' experience has proved to me that the Americans can discourse on subjects suited to their capacities, not only with prolixity, but with elegance, and embellish their assertions with metaphors, similes, and figures of speech. They are certainly much more copious and fluent in their language than the rustics of our country.

The four sons of Debayakaikin repaired at first to Ychoalay's horde, but quitted it soon after, and took to a wandering course of life. But neither of them, though sufficiently advanced in years, was thought worthy to succeed his father in the office of Cacique. The whole nation, divided into small parties, lived together under their own authority. Some followed Oaherkaikin, others Pachieke, but many chose for their leader Revachigi, a man of low birth, and few years, but in noble actions, and endowments of mind and body, superior to any veteran.

The Nakaiketergehes, though dispersed in various hordes, prosecuted the war against the Riikahés, with minds ever unanimous, and strength as far as possible united, the recent slaughter of Debayakaikin stimulating them to vengeance. Pachieke, pertinaciously hostile to the Cordobans, was at length slain in an ambuscade in the country, and his death was a fresh occasion for hostile excursions against the Spaniards. It would be endless to relate the ever-varying successes of this war, by which the town of St. Jeronymo was terribly afflicted, the progress of religious and domestic affairs retarded, and the patience of the fathers wonderfully exercised. But though they had to contend, during twenty years, with scarcity, daily danger of their lives, and hostile machinations, they never thought for a moment of deserting the colony, and at last succeeded so far that they joyfully beheld more than eight hundred persons initiated into the rites of the Church of Rome, besides Ychoalay. If to these you add the infants or adults baptized by them, when dying of the small-pox, or other diseases, you will judge that they had no despicable fruits of their Apostolic labours.