CHAPTER XLV.

HOW ARDUOUS A TASK IT IS TO PERSUADE THE ABIPONES TO ENTER COLONIES, AND TO EMBRACE THE RELIGION OF CHRIST.

Having given a plain and faithful description of the superstitious rites of the Abipones, of their native vices, ferocious temper, and wars both domestic and foreign, I appeal to the judgment of my reader whether it be not a business of more time and labour to transform these savages into Christians, than to carve a Mercury out of a solid block, and whether it be due subject of wonder, that such astonishing efforts on the part of the Jesuits should be attended with so little success; which however was by no means despicable, if the difficulties of the undertaking be properly appreciated. I shall now clearly state, for your consideration, in what these difficulties consisted, and why it was so arduous a task to instruct the equestrian savages in civilization and Christian discipline.

Ever wandering, ever abroad, the Abipones from childhood were unaccustomed to home, and to remaining in any one fixed place. Wherever the hope of booty, the necessity of hunting, or danger of the enemy called them, thither they went on swift horses, subject to no authority which could either prohibit their departure, or enforce their speedy return; for the obedience which they paid their Caciques was entirely spontaneous. They thought it insufferable to depend on the will of another within the narrow limits of a colony, and to be confined to their houses, like a snail to its shell. Though free to range up and down the nearer plains and woods at pleasure, they found them, from being frequented by other hordes, despoiled of those fruits and wild animals to the use of which they had so long been accustomed, that, if deprived of them, even when plentifully supplied with better food, they complained of being starved and miserable. While they lived uncontrolled, like the birds which fly up and down, liberal nature spontaneously offered them food without need of agriculture: but as all things are not produced in all soils, they were constantly under the necessity of migrating from place to place, and this change of abode, and variety of hunting, seemed to contain a sort of charm for them.

In each of the colonies beef was distributed amongst the inhabitants at stated hours of almost every day; but by reason of the poverty of the pastures it was often lean, often insufficient, and sometimes (which however happened but seldom) there was none at all: for where could the Missionary get beef if he wanted oxen, and if the Spaniards were as slow and niggardly in supplying the colonies of the savages, as they had been forward in founding them? They were extremely solicitous that the Abipones and Mocobios should be tamed like wild beasts, and guarded in the towns from slaying the Spaniards, but took very little care to prevent them from dying of hunger. In the towns of St. Jeronymo and St. Ferdinand, the estates were sometimes reduced to such a wretched condition that, having nothing left for their support, the Abipones with their families were forced to go out into the neighbouring plains for the sake of hunting. After they had been two or three months absent, the fields which our entreaties had prevailed with them to plough, were covered with tares or browsed on by beasts, and the loss of the expected harvest induced a necessity either of roving or starving; a very pernicious alternative: for in repeated wanderings, often of many weeks, civilization and the knowledge of the rudiments of religion, so laboriously instilled into them, were forgotten, and they gradually relapsed into their former barbarism. The deficiency of sheep and oxen was certainly the chief cause which retarded the progress of Christianity in these colonies. If, according to St. Paul, amongst other nations faith enters by the ear, with the savages of Paraguay it can only be thrust in by the mouth. Hence our anxiety lest cattle should fail us; hence our grief to find that they could so seldom be obtained or preserved.

This scarcity of sheep and kine originated sometimes in the niggardliness of the Spaniards, sometimes in the gluttony of the Abipones, who, not content with the ordinary portion of meat awarded to all, often slew oxen, and still oftener young cows and calves, without our knowledge or consent, for their own private eating. If we detected and reprehended them, saying that the estate would be drained by these secret depredations, "That is no concern of your's, Father," they would reply; "the Spaniards must send more; they promised to do so when, at their request, and for their convenience, we entered this colony. If they fail to perform their promises, we are also freed from our engagements, and shall return to our old way of putting them to death." Providently reserving the cows for breed, we ordered that none but the superfluous bulls or steers should be taken to the shambles; but the Indians, careless of the future, wanted to eat the young heifers because they were fatter: "When bulls bring forth," said I, "the cows shall be killed." This refusal affronted them very much, and they threatened to desert the colony. If the Jesuit, either fearing the threats of the Indians, or desirous of obtaining their good-will, leave the herd at their discretion, he will see the estate suddenly destitute of cattle; if he firmly refuse to comply with their wishes, the town will be as suddenly stripped of inhabitants: in the one case, he will be accused of prodigality, in the other of parsimony, so that whichever way the Missionary acts, he is sure to incur blame—should he avoid Charybdis, he will hardly be able to escape Scylla.

Nor is it sufficient to satisfy the Abipones in the article of food; whatever they took it into their heads to wish for, though perhaps it could not be found in any shop at Amsterdam, they used to require at our hands, and that not in a supplicatory, but an imperative tone. Day and night they trod our threshold in crowds, and wearied our ears with the constant repetition of "Father, give me a hat, a knife, an axe, a ring, glass-beads, salt, tobacco, &c." If to any of their requests you reply, though with great mildness and the most perfect sincerity, that you are not in possession of the thing in question, they will rudely accuse you of stinginess and falsehood—nay, I have sometimes heard worse. One of the older Abipones, not a bad man in other respects, desired me, in an imperious manner, to furnish him with a knife; I gently replied, that I had none just then, but would give him one as soon as the expected supply arrived from the city. "If I were to meet you in the field with this lance," rejoined he, smiling, and taking up a lance that was lying near, "you would hardly dare to tell me that you had not a knife." These perpetual and unreasonable requests of the Abipones are not however to be wondered at. Poverty rendered them importunate, arrogance, bold. Now learn from whence this arrogance proceeded. They knew that they were feared by the Spaniards. The slaughters which they had perpetrated, the terror which for many years they had spread throughout the whole province, the victories which they had gained, were yet fresh in their memory. They spoke of it as of a favour extorted from them by the prayers and promises of the Governors, that they had laid aside arms for a while, to settle in a wretched colony, and insisted upon it that the advantages resulting from this measure were entirely on the side of the Spaniards. At every refusal which our poverty compelled us to make them, they complained that they were richer and happier whilst at enmity with the Spaniards, than now that they were their friends. "Alas! how senseless were our chiefs and old men," said the Abiponian youths, full of discontent, and panting for plunder, "in granting peace to the Spaniards! Here we are forced to pine miserable and inglorious in this little town; whereas formerly, by plundering estates, or merchants' waggons, we furnished ourselves with enough to last many months, more than we can now obtain either by entreaty or artifice." Mindful of former booties, they thought they were imposing great obligations on the Spaniards when they remained quietly in a colony, and ceased to rob, burn, and murder, and looked upon every instance of liberality in their former adversaries as a small return for their own concession of peace.

It certainly ought to be reckoned amongst the noble victories of our age, that the Abipones who, from the time of Charles the Fifth, had continued to defy the arms of the Spaniards, when so many other nations of Paraguay were put under the yoke, have at last been induced to enter colonies. The fruitlessness of innumerable expeditions undertaken against them at length convinced the Spanish soldiers that the Abipones were an overmatch for all the force and cunning of the Europeans, by their craft, their swiftness, and above all by the situation of the places they occupied, the nature of which itself defended, and rendered them invincible. Their stations served for strong-holds, thick woods for walls, rivers and pools for fosses, lofty trees for watch-towers, and the Abipones themselves for guards and spies. To prevent the possibility of their ever being utterly exterminated, they were separated into various hordes, and dwelt in different places, both that they might mutually warn and assist one another, and that, if any danger were apprehended, that they might with more certainty avoid the enemy. Indeed the old complaint of the Spaniards was, that they had more difficulty in finding the Abipones, than in conquering them when found. Though to-day you learn from your spies that they are settled in a neighbouring plain, you will hear to-morrow that they are removed to a great distance from their yesterday's residence, and are buried amidst woods and marshes. Whenever the savages have any suspicion of danger, they mount swift horses, hasten to places of greater security, and, sending scouts in all directions, generally disconcert the plans of the enemy by unremitting vigilance. I do not think the Abipones are much to be censured for having delayed to enter our colonies so long: for whilst they live in towns, banished from their lurking-places, and exposed to attacks of every kind, they think they have sold their liberty and security, incapable of any firm reliance on the faith and friendship of the Spaniards, which the cruelty and deceit formerly practised towards their ancestors have taught them to suspect.

I can truly say, that my most earnest endeavour was to inspire the Abipones with love and confidence towards the Spaniards. "Had they not come to Paraguay," said I, "you would still be unacquainted with horses, oxen, and dogs, all which you take such delight in. You would have been obliged to creep along like tortoises. You could never have tasted the flesh of oxen, but must have subsisted entirely on that of wild animals. How laborious would you think it to hunt otters without hounds, which likewise by their barking prevent you from being surprized by the enemy in your sleep! Horses, your delight, your deities, if I may be allowed to make use of the expression, your chief instruments of war, hunting, travelling, and sportive contests, have been bestowed on you by the Spaniards. But all this is nothing in comparison with the light of divine religion kindled for you by that people, whose anxiety for your happiness has led them to offer you teachers of Christianity brought from Europe in their ships, and at their expense. From all this, it is evident what love and fidelity you ought to show to the Spaniards, who have conferred such benefits on you, and are so studious of your welfare. I do not mean to deny that they once turned their arms against yourselves and your ancestors, but you, not they, were the aggressors. The Spaniards will henceforward return love for love, if, ceasing to cherish hatred and suspicion towards them, you will cultivate their friendship by all the means in your power." These ideas I constantly strove to inculcate into the minds of my disciples, but though none of them ventured openly to contradict me, they gave more credit to their eyes than their ears, to the deeds of the Spaniards than to the words of the Missionaries, and sometimes in familiar conversation during our absence whispered their sentiments with regard to the Spaniards, who, they said, attend solely to their own interests, and care little for the convenience of the Indians; preserve peace only so long as they fear war; and are most to be dreaded when they speak the fairest; whose deeds correspond not with their words, and whose conduct is inconsistent with the law they profess to observe. When reproved for stealing horses from the estates of the Spaniards, they denied it to be a theft, affirming that their country was usurped by the Spaniards, and that whatever was produced there belonged of right to them. Your whole stock of rhetoric was exhausted before you could eradicate these erroneous notions from the minds of the Indians, which, however, by excessive toil was at length effected; for all of them knew that, unless they promised peace and sincere friendship to the Spaniards, they would never be received into our colonies, and have the benefit of our instructions. All the Indians in America intrusted to our care were soldiers and tributaries of the Spanish Monarch, not slaves of private individuals. This is to be understood not only of the Guaranies and Chiquitos, but also of the Christian Mocobios, Abipones, and all the other nations which we civilized in Paraguay.

But let us suppose the Abipones to have been prevailed upon to enter a colony, and accept the friendship of the Spaniards; ye saints, what numerous and almost insurmountable obstacles remain to be overcome in effecting their civilization! From boyhood they had spent their whole time in rapine and slaughter, and had acquired riches, honours, and high-sounding names in the pursuit. How hard then must it have been for them to refrain their hands from the Spaniards, to sit down in a colony indigent and inglorious, to cut wood instead of enemies' heads, to exchange the spear for the axe and the plough; with bended knees to learn the rudiments of religion amongst children; and in some sort to become children themselves! These were arduous trials to veteran warriors, who remembered the time when they were formidable, not to one little town only, but to the whole province; and though many of the more advanced in age gradually laid aside their ferocity, and conformed to the discipline of our colonies, we often had to experience the truth of the apophthegm,

_Naturam expelles furcâ, tamen usque recurret._

The greatest difficulties were to be encountered in taming the old women and the young men: the former, blindly attached to their ancient superstitions, the source of their profits, and stay of their authority, thought it a crime to yield up a tittle of the savage rites; the latter, burning with the love of liberty, and disgusted with any sort of labour, strove by plundering horses to acquire renown, that they might not seem to have degenerated from the valour of their ancestors.

They had never even heard of a benevolent Deity, the creator of all things, and were accustomed to fear and reverence the evil spirit, as I have shown more fully in a former chapter. Instructed by us they learnt to know and adore the one, and to despise the other. All those pitiful, superstitious, absurd opinions which had been sucked in with their mothers' milk, and, heard from the mouths of old women, as from a Delphic tripod, had received the ready assent of their infancy, they were commanded to look upon as ridiculous falsehoods, and at the same time to yield their belief to mysteries of religion, which surpass the comprehension of the wisest. It was somewhat hard immediately to forego notions which had been sanctioned by the approbation of their grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, and to embrace laws brought from a strange land, and every way contrary to their habits of life. Formerly they had been permitted to marry as many wives as they pleased, and to repudiate them in like manner whenever it suited their fancy. To repress such unbounded liberty by the perpetual marriage tie, this was the difficulty, this was the great obstacle to their embracing religion, and their frequent incitement to desert it.

The custom of drinking had taken such firm root amongst the Abipones, that it required more time and labour to eradicate drunkenness than any other vice. They would abstain from slaughter and rapine, and superstitious rites; confine themselves to one wife; attend divine worship frequently; evince considerable industry in tilling the fields and building houses; yet after all this, it was scarcely possible to prevent them from assembling together, and intoxicating themselves with drink made of honey or the alfaroba.

The pernicious examples of the Christians, which often meet the eyes of the Abipones, frequently prevent them from amending their conduct. Paraguay is inhabited by Spaniards, Portugueze, native Indians and Negroes, and those born from their promiscuous marriages, _Mulatos_, _Mestizos_, _&c._ Amid such a various rabble of men, it cannot be wondered at that many are to be found who _say that they know God, yet deny him with their deeds,—who, though they believe like Catholics, live like Gentiles, enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is their belly_. Such licence in plundering, such shameless profligacy of manners, such impunity in slaughters and other atrocities, prevailed for a long time in the cities and estates, that, compared with them, the hordes of the most savage Indians might be called theatres of virtue, humanity, and chastity. These reprobates, either strangers or natives, infect the savages with the contagion of their manners, teach them crimes of which they were formerly ignorant, and prevent them from lending an ear to the instructions of the priests, when they daily hear and see words and actions so discordant to them in the old Christians. Indians returned from captivity amongst the Spaniards, Spaniards in captivity amongst the Indians, stranger from the cities, soldiers sent for the defence of the colonies, and Spanish guards appointed to take care of the cattle, were all certain plagues of the Abiponian colonies. I should never make an end were I to relate all I know on this subject. That the bad examples of the Christians greatly retarded the progress of religion amongst the Abipones, cannot be controverted. Let the old Christians of America become Christians in their conduct, and the Abipones, Mocobios, Tobas, Mataguayos, Chiriguanos, in a word, all the Indians of Paraguay will cease to be savages, and will embrace the law of Christ. This subject was treated of in the pulpit before the Royal Governor, Joseph Andonaegui, and a noble congregation, by the Jesuit P. Domingo Muriel, a Spaniard eminent for sanctity and learning, afterwards master of theology in the academy at Cordoba, and author of a most useful work intituled _Fasti Novi Orbis_, printed at Venice in the year 1776.