CHAPTER VII.

OF THE EXPEDITIONS OF FRANCISCO BARREDA, GENERAL OF THE ST. IAGANS, AGAINST THE ABIPONES AND MOCOBIOS.

Astigi, a city of Andalusia, was his native place. He was born of a most respectable family, and had been in the King's service from his earliest years. He set sail from Cadiz for Paraguay, while yet a youth, bearing letters from the King, in the office of naval secretary. This voyage is often performed in three or four months, with a favourable wind; Barreda and his companions, miserably tost about the ocean, scarce reached the port of Buenos-Ayres on the tenth. Having dispatched their business in that city, all things were put in readiness for returning to Europe, and they entered the vessel. But just as they were going to raise anchor, a furious south wind encountered the ship, turned it on its beam-ends, and would have sunk it, had it not been held by steady anchors. The crew remained the whole night on a sand bank, expecting death every moment. The shades of night increased their fears and their danger. All must have perished, had not a boat arrived, at day-break, from the shore, which is three miles distant from the place where the ships lie at anchor. Barreda conceived such a horror of navigation, that, when his companions returned to Spain, he remained in Paraguay, reserved by the Almighty to repress the boldness of the savages, by whom he was more dreaded in his age, than the sea had been by him in his youth. He was removed from Buenos-Ayres to Salabina, a little town in the country of St. Iago, where his skill in writing rendered him very useful. He volunteered to accompany the soldiers in an incursion against the savages, and after having, in repeated campaigns, given signal proofs of wisdom and valour, was promoted first to command a troop of horse, afterwards to lead them against the savages, and lastly to be chief ruler, in the Governour's name, over the whole territory of the river Salado; in which station, he commended himself to the Royal Governour of Tucuman, by his many brave and noble actions, the chief of which was his prevailing upon the Vilelas to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. By means of his industrious efforts, ten thousand Vilelas quitted their lurking-holes in the woods, entered the new colonies, and received baptism. The small-pox, which broke out soon afterwards, cut off greatest part of them, and the survivors settled first in the land of Cordoba, and afterwards in the territory of St. Iago, where, as they daily decreased more and more under other masters, they were committed to the care of the priests of our order.

Barreda pursued the Abipones and Mocobios, who continued hostile, with the rigour of arms, as he had conciliated the peaceful Vilelas by gentle measures. If he did not entirely repress their boldness, he certainly restrained and punished it with frequent discomfitures. The Royal Governour, desirous of rewarding his merit, conferred on him the supreme administration, in his name, of all affairs, civil and military, in all the colonies of St. Iago. How well he answered to the good opinion entertained of him, you may discover from the circumstance, that he held this office for thirty years, and never laid it down till his death, equally beloved by all good men, and dreaded by the savages. Many declared that they saw nothing to object to in him but his goodness, which almost appeared carried to an excess. In the punishment of criminals, he showed himself more lenient, than hasty or severe; for he used to say he would rather suffer ten guilty men to escape unpunished, than punish one innocent man. Whenever he pronounced sentence, as a judge, he endeavoured to favour the Indian rather than the Spaniard, usually saying: _Hé de attender a la parte mas flaca_: I must defend the weaker side. He had a very gentle disposition, by which he conciliated all hearts; his person was handsome, and his body large and vigorous, so that it was easy to infer how great a soul inhabited it. In uprightness of conduct, in purity of mind, and in sincere piety, he excelled, or at any rate equalled all the civil and military commanders of his time. His love and reverence for the priesthood were very great. In the presence of hundreds of soldiers, and of my Abipones, he disdained not to honour my hand with a pious kiss; and to assist me as I was performing the sacred rites. He devoted himself entirely to promoting the advantage of the province committed to his care, so that he had no time to think of heaping up riches, which is commonly thought the chief business of Europeans in America. But though not very opulent, he was exceedingly liberal. In short, by the splendor of his virtues, and by his famous achievements against the savages, he obtained an immortal reputation, but at the same time excited the envy of cowards and sluggards; a fate which attends all eminent men, and is their constant inheritance. Noble actions however clearly refute the accusations of the envious. Barreda not only attended thirty expeditions against the Abipones and Mocobios, but headed them all himself except three. The number of his victories, such victories as are gained in America, was the same as that of his expeditions. You would have thought that fortune waited on his footsteps. But he used to impute his success not to fortune, but to the favour of the Almighty, and to the activity and sagacity of his soldiers; as if he himself had contributed little or nothing to the prosperous event of the war. Yet it is allowed on all hands that the success of these expeditions was chiefly owing to the prudence, industry, and caution of Barreda. But he was not one of those generals, who, to speak in the words of Livy, enter a contest, relying more on their courage, than on their strength. The desire of fame or booty never induced him to hazard an attack, unless he thought the hope of victory greater than the likelihood of the most trifling slaughter. In order to judge of this he carefully marked the situation of places, the numbers of his adversaries, and the opportunities of the journey and of the road. A band of scouts was daily sent forward, to discover the ambuscades of the enemy, to examine their dwellings and their numbers, or to surprize them unawares. Barreda detested any slaughter of the savages, if attended by that of his own soldiers. "Where I am present," he said, "every thing goes on well. But if," added he, "I were utterly to destroy all the savages in Chaco, at the expense of two soldiers only, verily, on my return to the city, I should expect to be saluted with mud and stones. The people are extremely desirous of the deaths of the savages, but expect their own soldiers to be immortal in every battle." As it had been clearly proved that Barreda was by no means rash in undertaking expeditions, the people of St. Iago with willing minds followed whithersoever he led, and under no leader did these excellent soldiers make more daring achievements.

I have already mentioned that the people of St. Iago possessed a singular skill at exploring, but that Landriel excelled in this respect is doubted by no one. Barreda made use of him for many years as the chief instrument of his victories; and by this penetrating discoverer of the savages he was accompanied wherever he went. Other Spaniards, too, out of the territories of St. Iago, took him for their guide whenever the savages were to be attacked or repelled. I will give you an account of a victory which Barreda gained chiefly by means of this man. As Landriel was on his way home from the woods, where he had been employed in collecting wax and honey, he fell in with Barreda, who had just set off on an expedition against the Abipones, with many hundred horse. "Tarry here awhile," said Landriel to him. "Let me carry home the mules loaden with wax and honey, and to-morrow I will return provided with proper horses, and conduct you straight forward to the dwellings of the Abipones. I saw them myself very lately, and was compelled by hunger to slay some of their oxen." Landriel was joyfully beheld by them all as a propitious star, and not listened to without inspiring confidence of victory. He stood to his promise, and returning the next day, was the life of the party, and the eye and right hand of Barreda. In a few days, as he knew the Abiponian horde to be at no great distance, he stations the forces which were proceeding into Chaco, in a secure place, whilst he himself, with another soldier, goes to discover whether the Abipones continued in the same place where he had first seen them. In the evening, leaving his horse to the care of his companion, he hastens alone and on foot to the place where he had lately espied the dwellings of the savages, but finds that they had changed their quarters. He knew that close by was a lake, affording great convenience for a savage horde. Thither he steals, and perceives from the number of fires that the Abipones, whom he sought, had settled there. Returning to the place where he had left his horse in the care of his companion, he finds that both were departed; for the soldier, imagining that Landriel must have been intercepted by the savages, from his staying so many hours, had consulted his own safety by flight. Barreda, and all the other soldiers, after vainly expecting Landriel's return for so long a time, began to entertain the same suspicions. They were not aware that Landriel had to return on foot, the same distance which he had gone on horseback. But when at length he returned safe, Barreda resumed his courage, and all the rest their hope of victory, especially when they understood that the retreat of the savages had been discovered.

The journey was now begun, forthwith, under Landriel's guidance; and when after many hours they had crossed a plain which was flooded to such a degree as to bear the appearance of a lake, the dwellings of the Abipones were seen, and instantly attacked. The very few men in the place could not stand the assault of the Spaniards, but preferred flight to combat. The Cacique who governed that horde, with most of the efficient men, were then absent: doubtless, had they been at home, the attack would not have proved entirely bloodless. Some of the Indians, however, who were slower in their flight, were slain, and a train of women and children taken captive. Various silver utensils, the fruit of much plunder, many hundreds of horses, and numerous oxen, were the booty of the Spaniards. The day being nearly ended, the Spaniards passed the night in the same place; not sleeping, but watching, and all the captives, many hundreds in number, were guarded in the fold where the horses had formerly been kept.

Amongst the captives were some Spanish women, who had been formerly taken in war by the Abipones; one of these persuaded the soldiers to return by a different, and more convenient way than that by which they had come, and this proposal was eagerly embraced by the soldiers, whose clothes were still wet with the water of their yesterday's journey. Meantime the report of the incursion of the Spaniards provoked to the desire of vengeance all the Abipones who dwelt in the vicinity. Exasperated by the captivity of their wives and children, they fell upon the last company of the St. Iagans, but met with a brave repulse. Some of the soldiers, however, forgetful of the danger, were nearly slain by the savages, whilst at a distance from their companions. One of them falling from his horse into a marshy place, would soon have been pierced with spears, had not Captain Gorosito succoured him by the intervention of a musket. The Indians, perceiving that their skirmishes had produced no effect, withdrew to their places of concealment, leaving the Spaniards to pursue their journey, without further molestation. Alaykin, ill enduring the loss of so many people and horses, began to think of establishing a peace with the inhabitants of St. Iago, and of requesting a colony for himself; both of which he obtained, by the intercession of Barreda. Numbers were slain, and about two hundred taken prisoners, in another excursion undertaken by Barreda against the Mocobios, most of whom, terrified by so much slaughter, took refuge in the town of St. Xavier, which had been founded in the territories of Sta. Fè, for the Caciques Aletin and Chitalin, and at that time contained about twenty families, but was wonderfully increased by the accession of those whom Barreda frightened into entering it, or freed from captivity and sent thither. I pass by many other expeditions of this kind which Barreda successfully conducted against the savages; some of them, however, I shall touch upon in treating of the affairs of Cordoba. Barreda always maintained that his assaults on the savages would have caused less effusion of blood, had his soldiers, though excellent in every other respect, paid more obedience to his orders. You shall now hear the complaints he made against them.