Part 5

From thence we sailed up the river Paranaw for four days' journey, and came to a people called Zchemiaisch Saluaischo,[74] who are small and thick set, and eat nothing but fish and honey. These people, both men and women, young and old, go about absolutely naked as they came into the world, so that they have neither linen nor anything else to cover their privities.

[74] It is impossible even to guess at what the author means by these words, which are not _Guaraní_.

They make war against the Machkuerendas. The flesh they eat consists of deer, wild swine, ostriches, and rabbits, which resemble rats, but without tails. This people is at a distance of sixteen miles from the Machkuerendas, and we made that journey in four days. We only passed the night among them, for they themselves had nothing to eat. They are just like our highwaymen or street-robbers at home.

They dwell about twenty miles away from the water, to the intent that their enemies might not easily fall upon them. But at this time they had come to the water five days before we did, in order to fish and to provide themselves because they were about to make war against the Machkuerendas. They number two thousand men.

We departed thence and came to a people called Mapennis,[75] who number ten thousand men. These people dwell scattered here and there in that country, extending for the space of forty miles either way. Yet they can all be gathered together either on land or water in two days time. They had more canoes or skiffs than any other people we had seen hitherto, and in one such canoe they can carry as many as twenty persons.

[75] Mepenes.

This people received us on the river in a hostile and war-like manner, with five hundred canoes, but with little profit to themselves from us, for we slew a goodly number of them with our guns, they having never in their lives before seen either a gun or a Christian.

But when we came to their houses, we could prevail nothing against them, seeing that they were a whole mile distant from the river Paranon[76] where our ships lay; and all their villages were surrounded with deep water from the lake, so that we could do them no harm, nor take anything from them, except that we took two hundred and fifty canoes, which we burnt and destroyed. Neither did we dare to go too far from our ships, for we feared that they might attack the ships from another side, therefore we returned. The Mapennis only fight upon the water, and are distant from the Zchemias Saluaischo, from whom we last came, ninety-five miles.

[76] Paraná.

From thence we sailed in eight days to a river called the Parabor[77] which we ascended and found there a numerous people named Kueremagbas,[78] having nothing to eat but fish and meat and St. John's bread,[79] or the herb fenugreek, from which also they make wine.[80] This people was very kind to us, and gave us every thing of which we were in need. They are very tall, both men and women.

[77] Paraguai.

[78] These Indians are the Mbaiás.

[79] Algarroba, the seed of the carob tree.

[80] The vegetable from which they made wine was not the fenugreek, but the carrot-bean (Prosopis dulcis mimosa).

The men pierce a little hole in their nose, in which they insert for ornament a small parrot's feather. The women have long blue stripes on their cheeks which remain all their lives through, and their privities are covered with a small piece of cotton cloth from the navel to the knees. From the Mapennis[81] to these Kueremagbas are forty miles; we remained three days among them.

[81] Mepenes.

Departing thence we came to another people called Aygais,[82] who also live on fish and meat. They are tall and erect. The women are nice-looking, painted, and have their privities covered in the same manner as explained before.

[82] Agazes.

When we came to them, they put themselves on their defence, and wished to make war against us by not allowing us to pass through. Finding this to be the case, and that there was no help for it, we put our trust in God, and then made our preparations to attack them by land and water; we fought them and killed a great number--fifteen of our men also being slain. God be merciful to them.

These Aygais are the best warriors that can be found on the water, but they are not so good at fighting on land. Before fighting, they caused their wives and children to flee to a place of safety, and concealed their provisions and other things. What happened to them at the last you will presently hear. Their place is near a river called Jepedij,[83] on the other side of the Parabor. It takes its source in the mountains of Peru, near a town named Duechkamin.[84] From the Kueremagbas to the Aygais there are thirty miles.

[83] Ipiti, the name of this river, signifies "red" in the Guaraní language; hence the Spaniards called it Rio Bermejo (Red River).

[84] Neither at the time of Schmidt, nor afterwards, was there at the head of the Bermejo a people called Duechkamin. This may, perhaps, refer to Tomina, because, though this town is not situated within the system of the river Bermejo, it is not far from it, and this circumstance may have led Schmidt into error. M. Ternaux says in his _Collection_ that this town can be no other than Tucuman, but this proves his incompetency in this matter, as Tucuman was founded many years after Schmidt's voyage to the River Plate.

Departing from these Aygais we came to a people named Carios, fifty miles distant from the Aygais. There, by God's grace, we found plenty of Turkish corn and mandeochade, padades, mandeochparpij, mandepore, manduris, wacheku, etc. They have also fish and meat, deer, wild boar, ostriches, Indian sheep, rabbits, hens and geese, also plenty of honey, of which they make wine; and there is much cotton in the land.

These Carios have a large country, nearly three hundred miles in length and breadth; they are men of short stature, and more able to endure work and labour than the other natives.

The men have a little hole in their lips in which they put yellow crystals, called in their language Parabor,[85] two spans long and of the thickness of a quill or reed.

[85] _Parabor._ In Barcia's Spanish translation this word thus written by Schmidt was changed into _tembetá_, which was the one used by the Tapijs (Tupis). Both are Guaraní words, and they represent the same thing; but _parabog_, or rather _paraog_, is more picturesque and accurate. It means a cover in various colours.

This people, men and women, young and old, go completely naked as God created them. Among these Indians, the father sells his daughter, the husband his wife if she does not please him, and the brother sells or exchanges his sister. A woman costs a shirt or a bread knife, or a small hoe, or some other thing of that kind.

These Carios also eat man's flesh if they can get it. For when they make prisoners in war, male or female, they fatten them as we do swine in Germany. But if the woman be somewhat young and good-looking, they keep her for a year or so, and if during that time she does not live after their desires, they put her to death and eat her, making a solemn banquet[86] of it, and oftentimes this is combined with a marriage. Only old persons are put to work until they die.

[86] In orig.: "Pancket."

These Carios undertake longer journeys than any nation in the country of the Riodellaplata. They are wonderful warriors on land. Their villages or towns are situate on hills upon the river Paraboe[87]; formerly their city was called Lambere.[88]

[87] Paraguai.

[88] Lambaré.

Their town is made with two wooden palisades, each piece of timber being the thickness of a man. And one palisade is separated from the other by a space of twelve feet; the posts are driven down into the earth, six feet deep, and are above the earth nearly as high as one may reach with a sword.

They have also their forts. And at a distance of fifteen feet from this town wall they made pits as deep as the height of three men, one over the other, and put into them (but not above ground) lances of hard wood, with points like that of a needle; and they covered these pits with straw and small gravel, strewing a little earth and grass between, to the intent that when we Christians pursued them, or assaulted their town, we should have fallen blindly into these pitfalls. But at length they digged so many pits that they themselves fell into them.

For when our chief captain Johann Eijollas[89] commanded all our people, except sixty men who were left in the Parchkadienes[90] to guard them, and marched them in good order against their town Lambere, the Carios descried our approach at a gunshot distance, and they numbered forty thousand men armed with bows and arquebuses, and they begged us to go back to our Parchkadienes; if we did so, they would provide us with victuals and other necessaries, but if not they would act as our enemies. But it did not suit us nor our chief captain to do this, for the country and the people pleased us very well, as did also their food, for we had not seen nor eaten better bread during the last four years, fish and meat having been our only sustenance.

[89] Juan de Ayolas.

[90] Brigantines.

So the Carios took their bows and guns and received us therewith, and told us that we were welcome, but we refused to do them any harm. On the contrary, we told them for the third time to keep the peace, and that we wished to be their friends. But they did not take any notice of our words, because they had not yet tried our bows and guns. And when we came near them we fired at them, so that they heard it, and saw their people fall to the ground, although they saw not any bullet or arrow or aught else but a hole in their body; and they wondered and were frightened, and soon all took to flight, and fell one upon another like dogs. So they hastened to shelter themselves in their town, after two hundred of them had fallen into the above-mentioned pits.

Afterwards we Christians came to their town and assaulted it, but they resisted as well as they could for three days. Not being able to hold out any longer, and fearing besides for their wives and children whom they had with them in the town, they prayed for mercy, promising that they would do anything for us if only we would spare their lives. Also they gave to our commander, Johann Eijollas, six women, the eldest of whom was only eighteen years old.

They also gave him six deer and other wild beasts, and besought us to remain with them, and they gave to every soldier two women to wait on him, and to wash and cook for him. Besides which they gave us food and all the necessaries of life; so that peace was then concluded between us and our enemies.

After that the Carios were compelled to build us a great house of stone, earth, and wood, in order that if in the meanwhile they were to revolt against us we Christians might have a place of refuge in which to defend ourselves.

We took this town on the feast of the Assumption, in the year 1539, and therefore it is called Noster Signora desumsion.[91]

[91] Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion. Schmidt's chronology is often mistaken. Lambaré, with its population, was taken by Juan de Ayolas on the 15th of August 1536. Asuncion was founded in the following year by Juan de Salazar.

In this skirmish sixteen men fell on our side, and we abode there two months. These Carios are distant from the Aygais[92] thirty miles, and from the island Bone Speranso, _i.e._, Good Hope, where the Thijembus[93] live, about three hundred and fifty-five miles.[94]

[92] Agazes.

[93] Timbus.

[94] Buena Esperanza was situated about lat. S. 32° 33′; Asuncion is in 25° 17′.

And so we made a covenant with the Carios, they agreeing and promising to make war along with us, and to aid us with eight thousand men against the Aygais.

After our chief captain had decided all this, he took three hundred Spaniards and these Carios, and went down the river, and afterwards by land for thirty miles, to a place where the aforesaid Aygais live, of whom and of their treatment of us we have spoken.

We found them at the same place where we had left them, and we fell upon them by surprise in their houses while they were asleep, between three and four o'clock in the morning, for the Carios had sought them out and watched them, and we killed everybody, young and old, for it is the custom of the Carios, when they make war and are victorious, to kill all without any mercy or pity whatsoever.

We took also more than five hundred canoes or skiffs, and we burnt down all the villages we found, and wrought very much damage besides. Four months afterwards, some Aygais[95], who had not taken part in this skirmish, because they were not then at home, came and asked for mercy, and our commander was obliged to grant it them by order of H. I. Majesty, who gave orders to pardon every Indian up to the third time, but if one of them brake the peace for the third time he should become a prisoner for life or a slave.

[95] Agazes.

After that we continued for six months in this town, Noster Signora Desumsion, in German "Unser Frawen Himmelfahrt", and had a good rest.

Then our commander Johann Eijollas[96] inquired of the Carios about a people called Peijembas,[97] and they answered: it was from this town Desumsion to the Peijembas[97] one hundred miles distance up the river Parabol.[98]

[96] Juan de Ayolas.

[97] Payaguás.

[98] Paraguai.

Our commander then asked the Carios how the Peijembas[97] lived, and what provisions they had, and from what they abstained; also what kind of people they were, and of their habits. Their answer was, that the Peijembas[99] had nothing else but fish and meat, and also St. John's bread and fenugreek.[100] From this fenugreek they make flour which they eat with their fish; they also make wine of it, and this wine is as sweet as mead in Germany.

[99] Payaguás, _vide supra_, p. 15.

[100] Algarroba.

Our chief captain Johann Eijollas having heard all this from the Carios, ordered them to load five ships with provisions of Turkish corn and other things which were in the country; this had to be done in two months' time, and by that time he and his men would also equip themselves, and in the first place go to the Peijembas,[99] and afterwards to a people called Carch Karaisch, and the Carios promised to be always obedient, and to fulfil in all particulars the captain's orders.

All things having now been arranged, and the ships provided with victual, our commander ordered all the people to assemble, and out of the four hundred men, took three hundred well armed; and the remaining one hundred were left in the aforesaid town Vardellesse,[101] _i.e._ Noster Signora Desumsion, where the said Carios live. And then we went up the river and found at a distance of five miles from these Carios a village on the river Paraboe. The people here brought to us Christians, victual, in the shape of fish, meat, hens, geese, Indian sheep, and ostriches.

[101] _Vardellesse_ must be a Germanized form of the Spanish word _Fortaleza_ (fortress).

Coming at last near a village of the Carios, which is called Weybingen,[102] and is at a distance of eighty miles from Noster Signora Desumsion, we took from them victual and other things which we could obtain from them.

[102] There is no village of that name in Paraguai.

From there we came to a mountain called S. Fernando, which resembles the Bagenberg; there we found the said Peijembas, who are at twelve miles distance from Weybingen, and they met us peaceably, and received us with false hearts, as we shall see hereafter.

They took us into their houses and gave us fish and meat and also fenugreek, and so we abode there for nine days.

Then our commander sent to ask their chief if they knew a folk named Carchkareisso.[103] He replied that they knew nothing indeed of such a people but what they had heard of them by report, and that they dwelt far away in the country, and that they had much gold and silver, but that they (the Peijembas) had never seen any of them.

[103] Guaycurús.

They also told us that these Carchkareisso[103] were wise men, like as we Christians are, and that they had plenty of victuals, such as Turkish corn, manioc, manduis, padades, wachekew, mandeochparpü, mandeochade, mandepare,[104] etc., and several other roots, the flesh of Indian sheep called amne,[105] an animal resembling a donkey, but that it has feet like kine and a thick and coarse skin, and that they had plenty also of deer, rabbits, geese, and hens; but that none of the Peijembas[106] as has been said, had ever seen all this, but only knew it by report of others. But we found afterwards how things were situated.

[104] Manduvis, potatoes, papas, etc.

[105] Anta, or tapir.

[106] Payaguás.

Having learned all this, our chief commander required to have some Peijembas to go with him into that country, whereupon they readily offered themselves, and presently their chief appointed three hundred Peijembas to accompany us to carry our victual and other necessaries. Our commander ordered these people to prepare themselves, for he would be starting in four days, and of the five ships he ordered three to sail, and on the other two he left fifty men of us Christians, whom he ordered to wait there during his five months' absence, and that if within that space of time he returned not unto us, that we should go back with these two vessels to Noster Signora Desumsion. But it so happened that we abode among these Peijembas for six months, and never heard anything in the meanwhile of our commander Johann Eijolla,[107] and we grew short of victual, so that we were compelled to return with our temporary commander Martin Domingo Eijolla[108] to the town Signora, according to the orders of our chief commander.

[107] Juan de Ayolas.

[108] Domingo Martinez de Irala.

How our chief commander Johann Eijollas made his voyage shall be presently recorded.

First, when he departed from the Peijembas,[109] he came to a folk named Naperus,[110] who are on friendly terms with the Peijembas; they have nothing but fish and flesh, and are a people of considerable numbers. Our commander took with him some of these Naperus to show him the way, for they were to pass through divers countries, and many nations, with great difficulty and penury of all things, and meet with much resistance; so much so that nearly one-half of the Christians died during this voyage. Finally, when he had come to a people called the Peijssennas,[111] he could not go any further, but was compelled to turn back again with all his people except three sick Spaniards, whom he left among the Peijssennas.

[109] This word Peiembas is not Guaraní. It must be the _Payaguás_, one of the tribes occupying the right bank of the river Paraguay, to which Schmidt refers here, or perhaps the _Mbaiàs_, the tribe adjacent to them.

[110] Yaperús, a tribe of the Payaguás.

[111] The Peyssennas are the same as the Peiembas. I believe the author is referring to the Payaguás.

Our chief commander therefore, Johann Eijollas being _salvo mendo_, _i.e._ in good health, had come back with his men to the Naperus, where he stayed until the third day, because the men were faint and overtired with the journey, and because they had no further supplies.

But the Naperus, understanding this, resolved with the Peijembas, and made an agreement with them to the effect, that they would kill and make away with the chief commander Johann Eijollas and all his men, and they did so afterwards, for when Johann Eijollas was going with his Christians from the Naperus to the Peijembas, and had gone about half-way, they were attacked unawares, and with loud cries by the Naperus and their allies the Peijembas, who fell upon them like mad dogs, as they were passing through a forest; and they were mercilessly and miserably slaughtered, sick and faint Christians as they were, including their commander Johann Eijollas,[112] so that not one of them escaped. God have mercy on their souls!

[112] Juan de Ayolas.

Now as we fifty men had gone to the town Noster Signora Desumsion, and were waiting there for our commander Johann Eijollas and our soldiers, to know how things had gone, we heard tidings from an Indian who had been a slave to the late Johann Eijollas, and had been brought by him from the Peijssennas, and who had escaped because of his knowledge of the language. But although this man told us minutely all that had happened from beginning to end, we would not believe him.

And having remained during a whole year in the above-named town, Noster Signora, we were unable to gather any certain information as to how it had fared with our soldiers; only the Carios told our commander Martin Domingo Eijolla[113] that the general report was, that our Christians had all perished at the hands of the Peijembas.[114] But we would not yet believe it until we should hear from a Peijemba himself that it was true. After two months the Carios brought to our commander, Martin Domingo Eijolla, two Peijembas whom they had taken captive. These Peijembas being asked if they had really slain them all, denied it most emphatically, and said that our chief commander and his men were not yet gone away from their land.

[113] Domingo Martinez de Irala.

[114] Payaguás. These were the Indians who killed Juan de Ayolas and all his people, according to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in his _Comentarios_, _infra_, and Ruy Diaz de Guzman in _La Argentina_; also Herrera, _Década_, v, libro 7, capitulo 5.

Our commander then obtained permission from the judge and the provost-marshal that the two prisoners should be put to the torture in order that they might tell the truth; and by his order they were tormented in such a manner that they were compelled to confess that they had killed the Christians and their chief.

In consequence thereof our commander Martin Domingo Eijolla had them judged, and ordered the two Peijembas to be tied to a tree around which a great fire was made in order to burn them.

Meanwhile it seemed good to us Christians to elect Martin Domingo Eijolla for our chief commander (especially because he had behaved so well against the war-people), until H. I. Majesty should give further orders.

Then Martin Eijolla ordered to prepare four parchkadienes,[115] and taking one hundred and fifty soldiers, the others being left in the aforesaid town of Noster Signora, he gave us to understand that he would gather together the other people who had been left among the Peijembas for reasons before mentioned,[116] and the one hundred and sixty Spaniards left at Bonas Aeieres[117] in the two ships, and bring them to the town Noster Signora Desumsion. Then he, Martin Domingo Eijolla, departed with these four brigantines down the rivers Parabol and Paranon.[118]

[115] Brigantines.

[116] On account of sickness, _cf. ante_, p. 26.

[117] Buenos Ayres.

[118] Paraguai and Parana.

Now before we came to the Thijembas,[119] it was resolved by the Christians who waited there for us, namely, by a captain named Franciscus Ruis, and Johann Paban, a priest, and a secretary named Johann Ernandus,[120] governors of the Christians, that they would kill the chief of the Thijembus, and certain other Indians, and they verily performed this impious and mischievous deed, and put from life to death the Indians who had rendered them for so long a time so many services before we came down there with Martin Domingo Eijolla.

[119] Timbus.

[120] These names are Francisco Ruiz Galan, Juan Pavon and Juan Hernandez; Juan Pavon was not a clergyman, but an alcalde.