CHAPTER XXXI.

THE CALAMITIES AND PERPETUAL MUTATIONS OF THE NEW COLONY AT THE RIVER SALADO.

Two-and-twenty days elapsed before we reached the situation appointed for the colony. Towards the east it has the bank of the river Salado; an extensive plain stretches itself towards the west, and on the north and south it is shut in by a wood. A plain, situated in the midst, scarce four hundred feet in extent, and sloping down from the high shore of the Salado, was chosen for the site of the colony. The river, though swollen with long rain, had something salt and bitter in the taste of its waters, and we all foresaw that when the sun's heat caused the flood to cease we should be in want of water for daily use. Barreda, contented with the situation that first offered, was displeased at hearing these true, though unpleasant observations, and angrily said—"Whoever dislikes this water, may go a hundred leagues off to drink of the Parana, for aught I care." Under his directions, two little huts were hastily built for myself and my companion, of stakes, covered with dry grass; a third of the same description was erected to serve as a temporary chapel. The Abipones were forced to lodge under the mats which they made use of in travelling. Without any further trouble, Barreda departed with his soldiers, and was declared the founder of a new town by the Governor of Tucuman, the Viceroy of Lima, and indeed every body.

Deserted in a vast wilderness, and delivered up to the savages, to misery, and continual perils, we were called miracles of patience and obedience by all the well-judging Spaniards; and indeed, had we had as many assisting hands as admiring eyes, ourselves and the Abipones would have been well provided for. Our huts were completely exposed to sun, rain, and wind, to serpents, toads, and dormice, and, what was most dangerous, to tigers. The place of door and window was supplied by two holes, before each of which we suspended a bull's hide. But neither materials nor tools for making tables were to be got. Great numbers of tigers lay hid within a neighbouring wood, and in wet weather used to creep into the tents of the Indians to shelter themselves from the rain and stormy wind; they also attempted to enter our huts sometimes, as we discovered in the morning from the marks of their feet, but were deterred by a mastiff dog, which we kept for a guard. The more tigers were pierced by the spears of the Abipones, the more seemed to flock thither, as if to revenge the deaths of their companions. Crowds of large dormice, impelled by hunger, resorted to us from the plain, and finding no eatables, gnawed every thing of wood, or flax, or wool in our house. The place also swarmed with large and venomous toads, which, if offended by a blow or kick, immediately squirted out their blinding urine. About sun-set they issued in crowds from their holes, and covering all the ground, rendered it as slippery to the feet as ice. These were the distresses of the place; what shall I say of our own?

Beef, and that wretchedly bad, was almost our only provision: though we sometimes tasted the wings of the emus which the Indians caught. We seldom or never used wine, except at mass. Our own privations, however, we could have borne with; the worst was our being destitute of the ordinary comforts and conveniences for the Indians. We had no provision to give them but ill-tasted beef, the oxen having grown extremely lean from the fatigues of the journey. Their daily employment, to pass away the time and to assuage their hunger, was hunting emus and collecting honey from under ground. Boars, stags, tamanduas, the fruits of palms and other trees, and eatable roots, all which abound in Chaco, are not to be found here. A numerous flock of sheep, which supplied us with wool for wearing-apparel, disappeared in one night: the Abipones, after diligently searching the woods and remoter plains, could discover no traces of them. Eight days after their disappearance one ram returned to the town, but what became of the rest is unknown to this day. Continual disturbances were added to our extreme poverty. As the highway leading out of Tucuman to Sta. Fè lay near the town, travellers frequently carried off our horses and oxen that were dispersed up and down the pastures. The same depredations were committed with impunity by parties of wandering savages. Many scouts were sent by Alaykin's hordesmen, who remained in their native place, to examine the situation of the town, and other particulars, to entice Malakin's people away, and to threaten them with hostile assaults and all sorts of extremities, unless they returned to the former colony. Malakin himself, however, remained firm, holding threats and promises in equal contempt, but not a few of his hordesmen were prevailed upon to revisit Alaykin's horde, afterwards rejoining us again and again. The perpetual going and returning of the savages was like the ebbing and flowing of the ocean. Alaykin, still unreconciled to the change of the town, infested all the ways between Cordoba and Sta. Fè with a great company of Abipones, and became highly formidable to all travellers. Of the Spanish merchants some were slain, some robbed, and others annoyed by vexatious detention.

I informed Barreda, by means of a trusty messenger, of the slaughter and rapine committed by the hostile Abipones, and of their threats and intentions, that he might, if possible, find some means of restraining their boldness, and providing for the security of the Spanish travellers. Troops of horse had indeed been repeatedly sent us, both to act as guards and to build our houses: yet the savages never made closer or more daring attacks upon our colony, never carried off greater numbers of horses and oxen, or caused us more trouble and danger than when these few soldiers were present. At length Barreda came himself with two companies of horse, and directed a couple of small rooms to be built for us of unbaked brick, and wooden beams; a third, of the same materials, but longer, was styled a chapel. We ourselves were not mere spectators, but strenuous assistants in the whole work:—laboriously occupied with mud and timber, we wearied both our hands and feet for whole days.

It grieved us greatly that buildings erected with so much labour should be occupied by us but a very few days. Shortly after, when, at the command of the Superiors, I removed to St. Jeronymo, my companion and the Indians were obliged to migrate elsewhere: the neighbouring rivers and lakes being exhausted by long drought, or at least impregnated with salt, and the plain being on the same account destitute of grass, it became necessary to remove the colony to the shores of the Dulce, many leagues distant, before the cattle and the inhabitants were destroyed by hunger and thirst. When settled there, the Abipones had nearly been overwhelmed in the night by a sudden inundation of the river, a greater than which none of the natives had ever witnessed. Thus they were obliged to remove their colony over and over again, one time to seek water, at another to avoid it. How calamitous and prejudicial these reiterated migrations were to the Indians, to the priests, and to the cattle, would be tedious to relate. After fourteen changes of the colony, they at last obtained a more fortunate situation on the western shore of the Rio Dulce, inhabited by Spaniards, and about fifty leagues distant from the city of St. Iago. More fertile pastures were no where to be found: so that within a few years the number of kine increased to thirty thousand, though many were yearly consumed in feeding the Indians, especially after Debayakaikin and his numerous hordesmen fled thither from St. Ferdinand. This new guest proved in reality an enemy to the colony by frequently involving it in broils, on account of his long quarrel with Ychoalay. At length, however, he bade farewel to the town of Concepcion, and retired, with most of his people, to their ancient retreats in Chaco, where, as I have related, he was slain in battle by Ychoalay.

The colony, freed from the disturbers of its peace, began at length to enjoy tranquillity; but the fruits never corresponded to the labour bestowed upon it for many years by the indefatigable Sanchez and his various companions. Many adults, however, especially when at the point of death, and a still greater number of infants, received baptism; the rest were civilized. The Spaniards accounted the friendship of this nation, formerly for many years their bitterest enemies, an immortal benefit; and learnt, at length, after they had lost us, that to our patience and industry they were chiefly indebted for it: for when, to the grief of all Paraguay, we were sent back to Europe, almost all the Abipones returned to their former savage state, and were not to be appeased by the Spaniards without the utmost difficulty.