Volume 1 — AN ACCOUNT OF THE ABIPONES. (continued 2)

To add weight to my oration, I presented each of my auditors with trifling gifts,—little knives, scissors, hooks, axes, mirrors, rings, ear-rings, and necklaces of glass-beads. I seemed to have borne down all before me, because I had mingled my oration with a copious largess. For it passes belief with what significations of joy and good-will towards me, on the breaking up of the assembly, each retired to his quarters. In a little while, Cacique Roy, to testify his gratitude, offered me some loaves, prepared, he said, on my account, by his old wife. These loaves were round, made of maize, thin, baked under the hot ashes, which they resembled in colour, and, in a word, so disagreeable that their very sight would disgust the most hungry European. Nevertheless, to temporize as much as might be, I praised the skill of the baker, and their great disposition to gratify me; and taking them in one hand, returned them pleasantly with the other, adding, that it would please me highly if his children would feast on these dainties to celebrate my arrival. The old man approved my counsel, 75and took back the loaves with the same joy as he had brought them. Strangers must indeed be cautious how they receive food offered by savages, who are very skilful in mixing it with poison, and though officious, always to be feared, as regarding other tribes with an hostile eye. Cacique Roy had a little house for himself and family separate from the rest; yet during the three days we spent with them, he passed the night in that vast dwelling I have named, whether anxious for the safety of his own subjects or of us, I know not. We spent our nights in the open air in the middle of the dwellings of the savages. I cautioned my men to sleep and watch by turns, lest we should be surprised in our sleep by the designs of many. But there was not a symptom or occasion of fear on either side, though the suspicion of danger never left us. On the following day, I sent four chosen men of my associates, with Arapotiyu, to slaughter an ox, which I had left at a distance, and bring its flesh to make a feast for the savages. Nothing could have been devised better calculated to raise their spirits; for the Americans never rejoice with more heartfelt glee, nor pay a more prompt obedience, than when their stomachs are full of beef. The Cacique had a pleasure in spending many hours of the day in familiar conversation with me. He 76told me ingenuously, that both he and his distrusted the Spaniards and Portugueze in every thing. To conciliate therefore his confidence and good-will towards me, I declared that I was neither a Spaniard nor a Portugueze. Which circumstance being strongly urged by me, the Cacique told all his hordesmen that I was neither of Spanish nor Portugueze extraction, which had the utmost effect in tightening the new chain of friendship and good-will towards me which bound their savage minds. I must here relate a circumstance which I cannot write without a blush, nor can it, I think, be read without a smile. As the Cacique was smoking tobacco through a reed, he opened at once his intentions and his ignorance to my Indians who were sitting with him. "I have conceived an affection," says he, "for our father, seeing for certain that he is not a Spaniard, and should like to enjoy his company as long as I live. Now I have a daughter, the prettiest girl in the world, and I am resolved to marry her to the father, that he may always stay in our family. This intention I have just broke to my wife, and she is of the same mind as myself." On hearing this foolish speech of the old man's, my Indians could not refrain from laughing; and being asked the cause, replied, "that the fathers always live celibate, 77and are interdicted from marriage by the most sacred law." The old man was thunderstruck; "An eyrae!" he exclaimed, with his tobacco reed suspended in the air, "what strange thing is this you tell me?" His astonishment was mingled with sighs, for he grieved that he could not accomplish his wishes. This ridiculous conversation I overheard walking behind among the trees, but dissembling my knowledge, asked my Indians, what the sudden laugh meant; but they were ashamed to repeat to me the Cacique's absurd proposal, and blushing held their peace. It is observable amongst the Guarany Indians, that if many are asked at once, no one answers. I therefore asked one of them separately, who related to me the whole conversation. I thanked the Cacique for his kind intentions towards me, and told him that I and all priests professed that kind of life which excludes wedlock altogether; but that though I could not be his son-in-law, he should always find me his most sincere friend, and, if he wished it, his companion and instructor in Christianity. When he had heard this he redoubled his astonishment and his declarations of affection.

Immediately on my entering the savage horde the preceding day, I had asked them to despatch messengers to acquaint the neighbouring 78Caciques of our arrival, and exhort them to visit us there. The next day about noon the armed savages arrived in great numbers with their families. Two Caciques led the troop. The first, who was called Veraripochiritù, equalled in height and fullness of body the length of his name, a man remarkable for nothing but gentleness and docility. His son, a handsome boy of ten years old, had all his face painted with small black stars. "You think," said I, "to adorn your face with these stars, but you have disfigured it most wretchedly. Come, behold yourself in this mirror." Having looked at his face a little while, he hastened to some water to wash it, and he, who with his naked limbs, had just before come to me a perfect Pyracmon, when he had wiped off the soot, seemed transformed into a Daphnis. I presented them all with the accustomed trifles, conversed familiarly with each, and very frequently with their Cacique Veraripochiritù, whom I found particularly disposed to our worship. The other Cacique, who appeared with his troop, was Tupanchichù, a man scarce forty years old, handsome and well made, but destitute of that fairness of face and candour of mind which the others boasted. Arrogant, crafty, and designing; under a placid countenance and a perilous suavity of speech, he contrived 79to cover his cherished purpose of slaying us, which was, however, discovered by others. On coming up he seated himself with me, and demanded, in an imperative tone, a portion of the herb of Paraguay. Some friendly interrogations having passed on both sides, I seized a favourable opportunity of discoursing on the Deity. "We already know," he observed, "that there is some one who dwells in heaven." To this I returned, "that God was the supreme creator and ruler; that he was a tender loving father, most worthy of our hearts and adorations; that it behoved them long ago to have known and understood what pleased and what displeased him." "Tell me, I pray you," said he, "what does displease God." "He abhors," I rejoined, "and terribly punishes adulteries, uncleannesses, lies, calumnies, thefts, homicides." "What," he enquired, interrupting me, with a haughty look, "does not God permit us to slay our enemies? Should we be such fools as not to defend ourselves against those that seek our lives? Such has been my custom if any one threatened mine." I endeavoured to convince the fanatical casuist of his error, and to instil into him a horror of human slaughter, with what success I know not. At that time I learnt from good authority, that this barbarous Cacique, who was feared by the 80whole neighbourhood as a formidable juggler, displayed in his tent an heap of sculls, whose former possessors he had taken off, partly by poison partly by violence.

At last the Caciques made a final resolve, and entreated me to get a colony founded for them in their native land, like those which the other Indian Christians had obtained. I consented to their wishes with the more pleasure, from perceiving the opportunities of seeking out other savages in the remoter forests, which a settlement in the woods of Mbaeverà would afford. Tupanchichù, though averse to the worship of Christ, durst not oppose the other two Caciques, men of more weight than himself as well from their age, as from the number of their adherents. He cunningly therefore pretended to assent, that he might the more certainly overturn the design of founding a colony. After having spent three days with them, I told them all that I intended to depart the next day, but that when I had procured cattle, and other necessaries for building and preserving the town, I would immediately return. To testify their good-will the Caciques made their sons accompany me to my town. The hypocritical Tupanchichù having no son grown up, associated with me his wife's brother, a youth of surpassing comeliness. Four sons of Cacique Roy came 81with me; Arapotiyu, the eldest, Avarendi, the second, and two who were yet boys; Gatò, a young captive of the Cacique's, also attended us. To these were added some married men, so that, altogether, eighteen savages accompanied us on our way. The Spaniards, whom we met advancing, when they saw me accompanied by so many naked savages, armed with bundles of arrows, and adorned with crowns of parrot feathers, after their first panic had subsided, paid me liberal applauses and congratulations. Finally we entered St. Joachim in triumph, and were hailed by the festive acclamations of the inhabitants. Our Indian guests were liberally treated, clothed, and largely gifted with knives, axes, glass-beads, and other trifles. After resting fourteen days they were sent back to their woods, attended by some of my Indians, Arapotiyu excepted. This youth, from the time when he first met me, would never suffer himself to be separated from my side. Having for some months tried his constancy and his acquaintance with every thing pertaining to Christian worship, I baptized, and, not long after, united him in marriage, according to the Christian rites. Though a new inhabitant of our city he surpassed in every kind of virtue, and he might have been taken for an old disciple of Christianity. His lamentations 82knew no end, when by the royal summons we were recalled to Europe, amid the tears of all the Indian colonies. The captive Gatò also remained with us in the city fully contented with his situation, and behaving so well that his conduct obtained him baptism and Christian wedlock. But not many months after he died of a slow disease.

Our Indians, returning from the woods of Mbaeverà, brought news that the quinsy was raging among the savages; that the jugglers, especially Tupanchichù, endeavoured to persuade the ignorant multitude that this pest was introduced by us, in order to inspire them with a hatred of the Christians. I immediately despatched letters to my provincial, in which I informed him of my journey, the savages I had discovered, and the intended foundation of a settlement. He approved my design, and when my return to the savages drew near, supplied my room in the town of St. Joachim with another father. The royal governour, also, D. Joseph Martinez Fontes, was made acquainted with what had been done and what was further intended, and requested to invest me with the power of founding the colony. But, alas! the devil interrupted this prosperous course of affairs, by means of two of his agents, the inhuman Tupanchichù and an opulent Spaniard. 83Attend and shudder at the detail of their villainy. An unexpected messenger arrives from Mbaeverà with the news that Cacique Roy had died of eating poisoned potatoes, administered by Tupanchichù, who, not content with the murder of the old Cacique, had attempted the life of his widow, that he might possess himself of the knives and other iron implements which her husband had left. This woman, despairing of safety in the forest, betook herself to the town with her family. The mother having been well instructed in the rudiments of the Christian doctrine, was baptized on the same day with her eight children and a single captive, to the great comfort of the by-standers;—as for me, my joy can scarcely be conceived. Though the iniquitous deed of Tupanchichù is worthy of universal execration, yet still more detestable appears the memory of that man who, actuated by the base desire of self-aggrandizement, dared to frustrate the colony we had in agitation.

This man, a Paraguayrian, but not of Spanish extraction, having amassed great riches, principally from trading in the herb of Paraguay, required a multitude of slaves to manage his concerns; and when he understood that numerous hordes of savages were discovered by me in the woods of Mbaeverà, and that a colony was to be built there, he conceived a design of 84transferring these savages, by some means or other, to his estate that he might use them instead of negroes who stood him at a great price. To this end, he selected men, versed in the Guarany tongue, to persuade the savages to that which he desired, directing them to gain over, with large presents, whomsoever words failed of affecting. These arts they put in practice, but without prevailing on a single man. And truly it was madness to expect it of the wood Indians, who, from the dread of slavery, shun the neighbourhood, yea the very shadow of the Spaniards; and who, now that their settlement had been thoroughly explored, began to despair of their safety—to fear lest that Spaniard, whose service they were unwilling to embrace, should sometime despatch an armed troop of soldiers to drive them into slavery and exile. This danger being daily and nightly before their eyes, they at length resolved to change their quarters and seek a retreat as distant as possible from their present abode, and accordingly, having burnt their hovels to ashes, they all migrated like runaways rather than travellers.

Being informed of this flight of the Indians, I set out thither with forty Christians, among whom was Arapotiyu, who was thoroughly acquainted with the circumjacent ways and woods. 85But after doing much and suffering more, we effected nothing: and having traversed the banks of the rivers Mondaỹ and Acaraỹ and the interjacent country, without detecting a trace of man, we were forced to remeasure our sorrowful and weary steps: which circumstance filled every honest breast with unspeakable grief. The Spanish and Indian Christians burnt with indignation against that man who had dared to devastate an harvest ripe for the shearers, and ready for the granary of the church.

In endeavouring to make these savages slaves he hindered them from becoming worshippers of the Supreme Being and disciples of Jesus Christ. But divine providence took vengeance on his crimes.

He had a number of hired men employed in the woods of Mbaeverà, upon the preparation of the herb tea, a great quantity of which, already prepared, awaited the mules which were to convey it to the city. Meanwhile it was kept in the hut of the Spanish labourers, an edifice situated on the banks of the river Acaraỹ, which were covered with reeds and tall grass. These were suddenly seized with an immense conflagration, kindled by the savages. The superintendant, fearing for his magazine, in order to extinguish the approaching flame, despatched eighteen of his comrades—to perish in the same 86conflagration; for a sudden blast of wind inflamed the whole surface so quickly that the Spaniards beheld themselves encircled with fire without an outlet left for their escape. Some leapt into the marshes, but they were almost dry;—some plunged into the mud, but all their endeavours were vain. They were not absolutely burnt, but suffocated, scorched and roasted, their garments, in general, remaining unhurt. The same evening thirteen miserably perished; the next day three more; the other two came to a still more wretched, because a more protracted end. The spies of the savages witnessed this destruction of the Spaniards, but afar off, lest themselves should be hurt; now more daring, from having perceived the fewness of the Spaniards, one, armed with arrows and a club, stole into the Spanish hut where only one man remained. "So," said the savage with a stern aspect, "you have dared to enter these woods, which were never yours! Know ye not that this is our hereditary soil? Are ye not content with having injuriously usurped immense tracts and innumerable woods, spite of the vain opposition of our ancestors? Should any one of us attempt your domains, would he return alive? No: and we will imitate your example. If, therefore, you are wise, if life is dear to you,—haste away,—advise your countrymen cautiously 87to shun our woods, unless they would be the cause of their own deaths." During this menacing speech the Spaniard remained silent, pale with expectation of the mortal stroke. To save his life, he offered, with a trembling hand, knives, axes, garments and other trifles within his reach; pacified by which the savage returned to his comrades who lurked hard by. The Spaniard, deeming any stay in these quarters extremely perilous, ran off, leaving, to its own fate, many thousand pounds of ready made tea.

I shall here record another excursion to the savages, which, though completed in less time than the former, was productive of more advantage. A company of Spaniards were employed in preparing the herb of Paraguay on the southern banks of the river Empalado. The trees from which these leaves were plucked failing, they commissioned three men to seek for the tree in request beyond the river. By accident they lit upon a hovel and a field of maize, from which they falsely conjectured that the wood was full of savage hordes. This occurrence affected them all with such fear, that, suspending the business upon which they were engaged, they kept within their huts, like snails in their shells, and spent day and night in dread of hostile aggression. To deliver them from this state of fear, a messenger was sent to St. Joachim, 88requiring us to search for the savages abiding there, and to remove them, when found, to our colony. I applied myself to the task without shrinking, and on the day of St. John the Evangelist commenced my travels, accompanied by forty Indians. Having taken a guide from the Spanish hut, and crossed the river Empalado, we carefully explored all the woods and the banks of the river Mondaỹ-mir̂i, and discovering at length, on the third day, a human footstep, we traced it to a little dwelling, where an old woman with her son and daughter, a youth and maiden of twenty and fifteen years of age, had lived many years. Being asked where the other Indians were to be found, the mother replied that no mortal besides herself and her two children survived in these woods; that all the rest, who had occupied this neighbourhood, had died long ago of the small-pox. Perceiving me doubtful as to the correctness of her statement, the son observed, "You may credit my mother in her assertion without scruple; for I myself have traversed these woods far and near in search of a wife, but could never meet with a single human being." Nature had taught the young savage that it was not lawful to marry his sister. I exhorted the old mother to migrate as fast as possible to my town, promising that both she and her children should be more 89comfortably situated. She declared herself willing to accept my invitation, to which there was only one objection. "I have," says she, "three boars which have been tamed from their earliest age. They follow us wherever we go, and I am afraid, if they are exposed to the sun in a dry plain, unshaded by trees, they will immediately perish." "Pray be no longer anxious on this account," replied I; "depend upon it I shall treat these dear little animals with due kindness. When the sun is hot, we will find shade wherever we are. Lakes, rivers, or marshes will be always at hand to cool your favourites." Induced by these promises, she agreed to go with us. And setting out the next day we reached the town in safety on the first of January. And now it will be proper to give a cursory account of the mother and her offspring. Their hut consisted of the branches of the palm-tree, their drink of muddy water. Fruits, antas, fawns, rabbits, and various birds, maize, and the roots of the mandiò tree afforded them food; a cloth woven of the leaves of the caraquatà, their bed and clothing. They delighted in honey, which abounds in the hollow trees of the forest. The smoke of tobacco the old woman inhaled, night and day, through the reed to which was affixed a little wooden vessel, like a pan. The son constantly chewed 90tobacco leaves reduced to powder. Shells sharpened at a stone or split reeds served them for knives. The youth, who catered for his mother and sister, carried in his belt two pieces of iron, the fragment of some old broken knife, about as broad and long as a man's thumb, inserted in a wooden handle, and bound round with wax and thread. With this instrument he used to fashion arrows with great elegance, make wooden gins to take antas, perforate trees which seemed likely to contain honey, and perform other things of this kind. There being no clay to make pots of, they had fed, all their lives, on roasted meat instead of boiled. The leaves of the herb of Paraguay they only steeped in cold water, having no vessel to boil it in. To show how scanty their household furniture was, mention must be made of their clothes. The youth wore a cloak of the thread of the caraquatà, reaching from his shoulders to his knees, his middle being girded with little cords, from which hung a gourd full of the tobacco dust which he chewed. A net of coarser thread was the mother's bed by night and her only garment by day. The girl in like manner wore a short net by day in which she slept at night. This appearing to me too transparent, I gave her a cotton towel to cover her more effectually. The girl folding up the linen 91cloth into many folds, placed it on her head to defend her from the heat of the sun, but at the desire of the Indians wrapped it round her. I made the youth, too, wear some linen wrappers, which in my journey I had worn round my head as a defence against the gnats. Before this, he had climbed the highest trees like a monkey to pluck from thence food for his pigs, but his bandages impeded him like fetters, so that he could scarcely move a step. In such extreme need, in such penury I found them, experiencing the rigours of ancient anchorites, without discontent, vexation, or disease.

My three wood Indians wore their hair dishevelled, cropped, and without a bandage. The youth neither had his lip perforated, nor his head crowned with parrot feathers. The mother and daughter had no ear-rings, though the former wore round her neck a cord from which depended a small heavy piece of wood, of a pyramidal shape, so that by their mutual collision they made a noise at every step. At first sight I asked the old woman whether she used this jingling necklace to frighten away the gnats; and I afterwards substituted a string of beautifully coloured glass-beads, in place of these wooden weights. The mother and son were tall and well-looking, but the daughter had so fair and elegant a countenance, that a 92poet would have taken her for one of the nymphs or dryads, and any European might safely call her beautiful. She united a becoming cheerfulness with great courtesy, and did not seem at all alarmed at our arrival, but rather enlivened. She laughed heartily at our Guarany, and we, on the other hand, at her's. For as this insulated family had no intercourse with any but themselves, their language was most ridiculously corrupted. The youth had never seen a female except his mother and sister, nor any male but his father. The girl had seen no woman but her mother nor any man but her brother, her father having been torn to pieces by a tiger before she was born. To gather the fruits that grew on the ground or on the trees, and wood for fuel, the dexterous girl ran over the forest tangled as it was with underwood, reeds, and brambles, by which she had her feet wretchedly scratched. Not to go unattended, she commonly had a little parrot on her shoulder, and a small monkey on her arm, unterrified by the tigers that haunt that neighbourhood. The new proselytes were quickly clothed in the town, and served with the daily allowance of food before the rest. I also took care they should take frequent excursions to the neighbouring woods, to enjoy the shade and pleasant freshness of the trees, to which they 93had been accustomed. For we found by experience, that savages removed to towns often waste away from the change of food and air, and from the heat of the sun, which powerfully affects their frames, accustomed, as they have been from infancy, to moist, cool, shady groves. The same was the fate of the mother, son, and daughter in our town. A few weeks after their arrival they were afflicted with a universal heaviness and rheum, to which succeeded a pain in the eyes and ears, and, not long after, deafness. Lowness of spirits, and disgust to food at length wasted their strength to such a degree that an incurable consumption followed. After languishing some months, the old mother, who had been properly instructed in the Christian religion and baptized, delivered up her spirit, with a mind so calm, so acquiescent with the divine will, that I cannot doubt but that she entered into a blessed immortality. The girl, who had entered the town full of health and beauty, soon lost all resemblance to herself. Enfeebled, withering by degrees like a flower, her bones hardly holding together, she at length followed her mother to the grave, and, if I be not much deceived, to Heaven. Her brother still surviving was attacked by the same malady that proved fatal to his mother and sister, but being of a stronger constitution overcame 94it. The measles, which made great havoc in the town, left him so confirmed in health that there seemed nothing to be feared in regard to him. He was of a cheerful disposition, went to church regularly, learnt the doctrines of Christianity with diligence, was gentle and compliant to all, and in every thing discovered marks of future excellence. Nevertheless, to put his perseverance to the proof, I thought it best to delay his baptism a little. At this time an Indian Christian, a good man and rich in land, who, at my orders, had received this catechumen into his house, came to me and said, "My father, our wood Indian is in perfect health of body, but seems to have gone a little astray in mind: he makes no complaints, but says that sleep has deserted him, his mother and sister appearing to him every night in a vision, saying, in a friendly tone, 'Suffer thyself, I pray thee, to be baptized. We shall return to take thee away, when thou dost not expect it.' This vision, he says, takes away his sleep." "Tell him," answered I, "to be of good heart, for that the melancholy remembrance of his mother and sister, with whom he has lived all his life, is the probable cause of these dreams, and that they, as I think, are gone to Heaven, and have nothing more to do with this world." A few days after, the same 95Indian returns, giving the same account as before, and with confirmed suspicions respecting the fearful delirium of our new Christian. Suspecting there was something in it, I immediately hastened to his house, and found him sitting. On my enquiring how he felt himself, "Well," he replied, smiling, "and entirely free from pain;" but added, that he got no sleep at night owing to the appearance of his mother and sister, admonishing him to hasten his baptism, and threatening to take him away unexpectedly. He told me over and over again, with his usual unreservedness, that this prevented him from getting any rest. I thought it probable that this was a mere dream, and worthy, on that account, of neglect. Mindful, however, that dreams have often been divine admonitions and the oracles of God, as appears from Holy Writ, it seemed advisable, in a matter of such moment, to consult both the security and tranquillity of the catechumen. Being assured of his constancy, and of his acquaintance with the chief heads of religion by previous interrogatories, I soon after baptized him with the name of Lewis. This I did on the 23d of June, the eve of St. John, about the hour of ten in the morning. On the evening of the same day, without a symptom of disease or apoplexy, he quietly expired.

96This event, a fact well known to the whole town, and which I am ready to attest on oath, astonished every one. I leave my reader to form his own opinion; but in my mind I could never deem the circumstance merely accidental. To the exceeding compassion of the Almighty I attribute it that these three Indians were discovered by me in the unknown recesses of the woods; that they so promptly complied with my exhortations to enter my town, and embrace Christianity; and that they closed their lives after receiving baptism. The remembrance of my expedition to the river Empalado, though attended with so many hardships and dangers, is still most grateful to my heart, inasmuch as it proved highly fortunate to the three wood Indians and advantageous to the Spaniards. These last, having been certified by me, that, upon the immense tracts of woodland here mentioned, not a vestige of the savages remained, collected, during the three years they stayed, many hundred thousand pounds of the herb of Paraguay, from which they derived an amazing profit. Thus much on the Guarany towns of Taruma. If on this subject I appear to have written too much, let the reader be told that I have passed over many memorable things in silence.

The most recent colony in the jurisdiction of 97Paraguay, called Belen, is situated on the banks of the Ypaneguazù, to the north of Asumpcion. It was built in 1760 for Indians of the savagest kind, called Guaycurus or Mbayas. They are very expert horsemen, large and generally tall, hostile in the highest degree to the Spaniards, full of the absurdest superstition and arrogance, and, as appears from their clothing and manners, ignorant of the very name of modesty. Their only care is that of their horses and arms, in the management of which their skill is admirable. War, or more correctly pillage, is the occupation they reckon most honourable. In 1745, they laid waste the lands of Paraguay, with exceeding pertinacity. The greater part of the province was more employed in regretting the slaughters and the rapine, than in preventing them, nor could they devise any remedy for the evil. The soldiers were now baffled by their swiftness, now unexpectedly surprized by their designs, and now discomfited by their powerful assaults. The savages, elated by the daily victories they had gained for many years, could neither be restrained by the arms of the Spaniards nor appeased by fair words. At last, in the sixteenth year of the present century, the desired peace was at length brought about, and a colony founded in the place above-mentioned. To 98found and govern this, Father Joseph Sanchez Labrador was happily chosen. He spared no labour in learning the difficult language of the savages, and in bringing them round to civilization and christianity, both by daily instruction and by kindness. Would that the Father's diligence and patience had obtained a corresponding reward! The little grandson of the Cacique Epaguini, who presided over the colony, many infants, and, some adults whose lives were despaired of, received baptism; but the rest did little else than wander over the plains. Their fidelity, however, seems above all praise; for, after the conclusion of the peace, they never formed any design hostile to the Spaniards, who, whilst they feared the Mbayas as enemies, and remembered the slaughter they had sustained, promised mountains of gold for the maintenance of their colony; but when their fears subsided, they began to supply them sparingly, or at least tardily, with those things deemed necessary for living in a town, so that the proselytes would have died of hunger had not the fruit of the palm-tree and wild animals supplied the want of beef. Countless and incredible are the labours, cares, hardships, and perils even of their lives, with which Father Joseph Sanchez and his companions, Juan Garzia, and Manuel Duran, were harassed for 99many years. Duran, the person last named, was intended to begin a new colony for the Guañas or Chañas, a pedestrian tribe, subject to the Mbayas, exceedingly numerous on both sides the Paraguay. Being skilful agriculturists, they have already begun to cultivate the grounds and to raise themselves crops on the eastern shore of the Paraguay. In a soil so fertile, so opportune for the discovery of new nations, great progress in the Christian cause was expected from this docile, and populous nation. But he who had long employed himself in the foundation of the colony, when, with incredible labour, he had collected the necessaries for its preservation and completion, was summoned with his associates back to Europe.

Having now mentioned the Indian colonies within the domains of Paraguay, we will proceed to the other peculiarities of the province.

Notwithstanding the heat of the climate, the soil of Paraguay abounds in the most useful productions: cotton, the sugar cane, tobacco, honey, maize, mandioc, various kinds of pulse, potatoes of different sorts, medicinal plants, colours, frankincense, divers species of gums, balsams, palms, towering cedars, and other trees, both those that bear fruit, and those that serve for building of ships, houses, and waggons; it 100moreover abounds in horses, mules, oxen, and sheep. There is no vestige of metals or precious stones in this country, as the early Spaniards imagined. Parrots, monkeys of various kinds, antas, stags, deer, tamanduas, tigers, and lions: choice fish, emus, partridges, dogs, crocodiles, capibaris, and huge tortoises, are every where to be found in astonishing numbers. The countless myriads of serpents, snakes, ants, and other reptiles and insects, evidently noxious, we shall fully treat of hereafter. The production peculiar to this province, and consequently by much the most profitable, is the Herb of Paraguay; of the production, preparation, nature, use, and price of which I am now going to treat.

The leaves cut from the tree Caà, and parched at a slow fire, got the name of the Herb of Paraguay, from a sort of resemblance to the herb tea, which, like itself, is drunk infused in boiling water. The tree caà grows no where spontaneously but in woods about two hundred leagues from the city of Asumpcion. Like reeds, it thrives best in a moist swampy soil. In form and foliage, except that the leaves are softer, it resembles the orange tree, but far exceeds it in size. Its flowers are small and white, with a calyx composed of five leaflets. The seed is very like American pepper, except that 101three or four small whitish, oblong kernels appear beneath the skin. The boughs, which are cut off from the trees with a bill, are parched for some time on beams laid cross-wise over the fire; after which the leaves, with the smaller twigs, are spread on the ground, and beat to powder with sticks. When prepared by this less laborious method, it is called yerba de palos, because it is composed of leaves and leaf-stems, and their fibres, which are in a certain degree woody. An arroba (which is twenty-five pounds) of this herb, is sold in the forest for nearly two German florins; in the city of Asumpcion, from the expense of carriage, the price is double. The caà-miri is sold at a double price, being prepared by our Guaranies, with more labour and accuracy; for they carefully separate and throw aside the leaf-stems and larger fibres. After parching the leaves at a slow fire, they pound them gently in a wooden mortar, taking care not to beat them too small. For the more entire they remain, the more taste and smell they possess; if pulverized very small, they lose both. Caà-miri signifies the small herb, being made by the Indian Guaranies of the tender parts of the leaves, the leaf-stems and all the particles of wood being excluded; it is not, however, reduced to powder, like that of the Spaniards. The herb, when properly prepared, 102exhales a very pleasant fragrance, without the admixture of any thing else; but if it be sprinkled with a little of the leaves or rind of the fruits of the quabira miri, the odour is doubled, the flavour improved, and the price increased. Add to this, that the herb is of a gummy nature, and in parching it, care must be taken that it be not over-dried. Merchants, when they would try the quality of the herb, put a little of it into the palm of their hand, and blow upon it; when much of the herb flies off, they judge it to be too high dried, and deprived of juice and virtue; but when it adheres to the hand as if glued there by a natural gum, they value it highly. In consequence of the bitterness natural to the herb, it is drunk with sugar. The Indians, however, and the lower orders amongst the Spaniards, drink it unmingled with any thing. Though the caà is only found in the remotest parts of Paraguay towards the N. E., it affords a beverage not only to the Paraguayans, but to the Peruvians and the inhabitants of Chili, who never cease sipping it from morning to night. This nectar of Paraguay is relished by every rank, age, and sex, and is to them what chocolate, coffee, Chinese tea, and spirits are to other nations. The herb, after having been conveyed on mules from the remotest roads of Paraguay to the distant kingdoms of Peru and Chili, from 103the difficulties of the journey, and the heavy tolls, which send great returns to the royal treasury, is sold at its journey's end, at a greatly increased price.

The vessel in which it is taken is made of a hide, or of a gourd split in half, and, amongst the higher orders, plated all round with silver. Into this vessel they put a common table spoonful of the herb, stir it up for some time with sugar and cold water, and then pour the hot water upon it. Many drop in the juice of a citron or lemon. The herb thus prepared is strained through a silver pipe, annexed to which is a little globe, finely punctured; this is done lest any particle of the herb, which is noxious to the stomach, should slip down the throat with the liquor. Others use a narrow wooden pipe or slender reed for this purpose. The Indians, who are not in the habit of straining it, often swallow unintentionally a quantity of the herb, green concrete balls of which are sometimes said to be found in the bowels of the deceased. However this may be, it is most certain, that the warm water in which the herb has been steeped too long, cannot be drunk with safety to the health. Water of this kind grows black, and is only used by ink makers to deepen the blackness of their ink.

The moderate use of this herb is wholesome 104and beneficial in many ways. For when taken with caution, it acts as a diuretic, provokes a gentle perspiration, improves the appetite, speedily counteracts the languor arising from the burning climate, and assuages both hunger and thirst, especially if the herb be drunk with cold water without sugar. If any one wishes to perspire freely, he needs no drug: let him drink an infusion of this herb, as hot as possible, and then lie down. If his stomach appear in want of an emetic, he has only to take the same herb in tepid water. On the other hand, it cannot be doubted, that by the immoderate and almost hourly use of this potation, the stomach is weakened, and continual flatulence, with other diseases, brought on. I have known many of the lower Spaniards who never spoke ten words without applying their lips to the gourd containing the ready-made tea. If many topers in Europe waste their substance by an immoderate use of wine and other intoxicating liquors, there are no fewer in America who drink away their fortunes in potations of the herb of Paraguay.

In the remotest forests, many thousands of men are employed unceasingly in the preparation of this herb during every part of the year, and many thousands of oxen are annually consumed in these labours. But who shall number 105the multitude of mules, not only occupied in transporting the herb, but destroyed by the asperities and the length of the journey? Hence they who hire the labourers that collect the herb, who supply oxen, mules, and the various iron implements, seldom grow rich, and they who are hired for this business live amidst constant wretchedness. The merchants who import it into Peru and Chili are the only gainers, and their gains are immense. If in all Paraguay there are a few opulent men, they have amassed their wealth from dealing in the Herb of Paraguay, and in mules, which they export into Peru and Chili. The marketing of the other Paraguayrian productions is attended with infinite labour, and little or uncertain profit. I have often heard the Paraguayrians complain of the scarcity of the caà tree; but I must own their lamentations always appeared to me very ridiculous, when they themselves are the occasion of it. For when, after the usual manner, they ought only to cut off the boughs, for the sake of a readier profit they fell the trees themselves; this being very generally done, the trees are yearly diminished in great numbers. The Indians, more provident, only crop the superfluous and luxuriant boughs, the tree itself being left alive and uninjured for succeeding years.

To spare time, expense, and labour, we 106planted the caà within sight of the Guarany Reductions, and from them, in a very short time, the largest forests have arisen. If the Spanish agriculturists would but imitate this piece of industry, how much would their fortunes be benefited! But the planting of woods of this kind requires art, and patience, and the labour of many hands. The seed of the caà being exceedingly glutinous, must be washed in water till that native gluten be thoroughly removed; which if you neglect, your time will be lost, and your hopes frustrated. The ground in which you mean to sow the prepared seed must be copiously drenched with water, and almost rendered muddy. These premises having been cautiously attended to, you may think yourself fortunate, if, at the end of four months, any sign of germination appear; the seed being sown very deep. While the plants are yet young, they must be transplanted, and set at great and equal distances, lest one impede and injure the other. A ditch, two feet deep and as many broad, must be dug, to receive and retain the rain-water; and in the middle of each ditch the plants are to be placed singly. As long as the plants are tender, they must be defended against the hoarfrost and cutting south winds by a little thatched tent. This is moreover indisputable, that the trees which are planted and reared by human 107care, never grow so high as those of nature's own setting in the forests. Those however which are planted and cultivated by us, in three or four years time produce a plenteous crop of leaves, so that the labour attending artificial woods is sufficiently repaid by the after-profit. Woods are likewise sown by various birds, which swallow with great avidity the seeds of the herb-tree; these being, by reason of their natural gluten, indigestible, pass through them, and falling into moist ground, become the daily origin of new trees, and gradually of forests.

I have often been asked, why the herb of Paraguay is never exported to Europe, and I have answered, on many accounts. In the first place, very little more is prepared than suffices the Americans. If, moreover, the Spaniards of Paraguay gasped after commerce and gain, they might export not only this herb, but many other profitable commodities. Their ships, especially in time of war, are few; their security none. Add to this, that in a few years it spoils, and losing its original fragrance smells like Russian shoe-leather; when in this state, it is used by the Paraguayrians to die cloth black. The Europeans, moreover, having never so much as tasted the herb, have no desire to fetch it from America, which they would certainly do, if acquainted with its virtues. Oh! 108how I burn with resentment whenever I read that the Jesuits monopolize the herb of Paraguay! It has ever been free to all, without distinction, to sell as well as to drink this much spoken of herb. There is no part of the year that the Spaniards do not despatch to the cities of Corrientes, Santa Fé, and Buenos-Ayres, many thousand pounds of it, thence to be transported, in huge vessels, to the different ports of Tucuman, Peru, and Chili, not one of the Jesuits daring to arrogate the right of opposing them. The Indian Guaranies, inhabitants of the thirty-two Reductions which were under our administration, only make the herb caà-miri, selling it for the use of the higher orders. As the preparation of it is much more laborious, it is entirely neglected by the Spaniards, who confine themselves to the coarser herb caà de palos; and the quantity of herb annually sold by the Spaniards exceeds that disposed of by the Indians as much as the whole hand does the little finger. For the Guarany towns are not permitted by the laws to sell above a certain quantity; but the Spaniards are under no such restriction. In most parts of Paraguay there is no currency of money, and the herb is the usual medium of exchange. But of this trade we pay an annual poll-tax in the Guarany towns, and are besides obliged to fit out our churches, which are highly 109ornamented, and procure for our Indians the necessary iron implements. Nor can the superintendents of colleges, who exchange the cattle of their estates, and other natural productions for the herb, and that again for implements, instead of money, be justly accounted herb-merchants. For the founders of the colleges did not leave estates paying rent, nor sums of money put out at interest, as is usual in Europe, but plains and cattle of various kinds, for the support of the members and the repairing of the dwellings and churches. The productions of the estates and plains are there in the place of money, with which necessaries are to be procured. This exchange, which, unless we preferred dying of want, was absolutely necessary, either ignorance or malice has designated trafficking. How many and how ridiculous are the clamours that have been raised against the Portugueze Jesuits by these lying pamphlets, because they sold sugar brought them from Brazil, when, in fact, they had received no other means of subsistence from the founders of their college!

We must now say something of the tobacco plant, in which the soil of Paraguay is very fertile. This is sown both in the plains and woods, and succeeds equally well in either, though some prefer the tobacco grown in woods. Its leaves, when dried a little in the air, and fastened into 110bundles with a twig, are chewed by some, smoked by others, and by a very few taken in the form of snuff. For the higher ranks use the snuff made at Seville only, though the price of a pound is at least four Spanish crowns, and often still more in Paraguay. Certain it is that the Paraguayrian tobacco in fragrance falls short of that brought from Virginia, or the island of Cuba. The first leaves that ripen, in Paraguay, are very large, often exceeding an ell in length; those which are plucked afterwards decrease more and more. The smoke of the tobacco is generally inhaled without any tube or vessel, in the following manner:—A leaf, not perforated in any part, is squared, to the length and breadth of the middle finger. In the middle of this is laid another little leaf compressed by the finger, and rolled up, together with the exterior and larger one. Light one end of this, put the other into your mouth, and draw in the smoke. The Spaniards smoke their tobacco with more cleanness and less cost, carrying about with them a deposit of several of those folds, called zigarros, and lighting them at their pleasure. The common people roll up the tobacco, cut small, in a paper, or in a maize leaf, and light it; but that this smoke injures the human head is beyond a doubt. Not only the soldiers and sailors, and the common people, as in Germany, 111but even the higher orders, often smoke tobacco.

In Brazil the Portugueze twist the tobacco leaf into ropes, which, prepared in different ways, are either used as snuff, or chewed or smoked. It is incredible how highly this Brazilian tobacco is extolled by medical men, and how eagerly it is sought by Europeans. The Spaniards themselves every year consume an astonishing quantity to provoke saliva. By the traffic in tobacco alone, many millions have been lost by the Spaniards to the Portugueze, the sole venders of an article in such demand. To restrain so great an annual exportation of money to foreigners, it was provided by the Catholic King Charles III. in the year 1765, that the Spanish and Indian Paraguayrians should henceforth prepare their tobacco in the manner of the Portugueze, as being no wise inferior to the Brazilian, and that it should be sold at the price fixed by the royal governours, the whole profits accruing to the royal treasury. The king's order was universally, though unwillingly complied with, the new manufacture costing them much labour, with little or no gain to the labourers. I will give you an account of the whole process:—The tobacco leaves are accounted ripe when their ends turn yellow, and wither, and are plucked before noon, as being 112moister at that time. They are then suspended from reeds that they may dry a little, and remain some hours under the shade of a roof. The stem which runs through the middle of the leaf is either beaten down with a bat or removed entirely. The leaves thus prepared are twisted into ropes, by means of a wheel, and then rolled upon a cylindrical piece of wood. This cylinder, with its tobacco, is placed under the shade of a roof in such a manner that it may receive the heat of the sun, and yet not be touched by any of its rays. The tobacco, thus compressed spirally upon the cylinder, exudes a black, glutinous juice, which falls drop by drop into a hide placed underneath. This juice flows daily through, and in like manner is daily poured again upon the folds; and when the whole mass is thoroughly penetrated by the liquor, it will be necessary to roll the spiral folds daily back again from one cylinder to another. By this method, the lowest part of the tobacco nearest the first cylinder is transferred on the next to the surface, imbibes the juice equally, blackens, and grows rich like lard. To effect this, the translation from one cylinder to another, and the sprinkling of the tobacco, must be diligently continued for many weeks. The sweetness of the smell will mark the completion of the process. To prevent its drying, it must be kept in 113a moist place, apart from every thing which might taint it with any other smell. Tobacco prepared in this manner is chopped by the Portugueze into small pieces, which they roast in a new pot placed on the hot coals, and stirring them with a round stick, reduce them to the finest powder—the future delight of every nose in Portugal.

Thus, though the trade in the herb of Paraguay, in tobacco, cotton, and sugar, and the abundance of different fruits, might offer to the colonists of Paraguay manifold opportunities of acquiring wealth, yet very few opulent men are to be found. They have many means of wealth, but still more impediments. From the very infancy of this province to the present time, bloody seditions, civil wars, contentions, and pernicious enmities to the royal governours and bishops, have miserably diminished the riches of the Spaniards. Add to this, that the savage Guaycurus, Lenguas, Mocobios, Tobas, Abipones, and Mbayas, wretchedly wasted the province with massacres and pillage, without leaving the miserable inhabitants a place to breathe in, or the means of resistance. To elude their designs, little fortlets are every where erected on the banks of the Paraguay, fitted up with a single cannon, which, being discharged whenever the savages come in sight, admonishes the 114neighbours to fight or fly, according to circumstances. The fortlets not being very far distant from one another, the repeated explosions of guns quickly signifies the approach of an enemy descried from afar, to the metropolis itself. As this province is destitute of a regular soldiery, the settlers themselves are ordered sometimes to watch in these fortlets, sometimes to march against the savages. Being every year pressed for some months with the burdens of the militia, they are forced, during frequent and long absences, to neglect their substance, their families, their agriculture, and their commerce. In this you may see the chief origin of their poverty. Besides the equestrian savages, who is ignorant of the calamities brought upon this province by the barbarous Payaguas? These atrocious pirates, infesting the rivers Paraguay and Parana, had for many years been in the habit of intercepting Spanish vessels freighted with wares for the port of Buenos-Ayres, or conveying them from thence, and of massacring the crews. At length Raphael de la Moneda, the royal governour, repressed the audacity of these pirates, and after repeated successful excursions along the river, obliged them to crave a peace, of which their living quietly on the shore of the Paraguay within sight of the city of Asumpcion, was a principal condition. For many 115years they have kept to the convention; but no persuasions of the bishops, the governours, or the priests, could ever prevail upon them to embrace our religion. They are tall, and extremely muscular. The frightful appearance which nature has given them they increase with adscititious ornaments. In the under lip, which is perforated, they fix a long tube, sometimes of wood, sometimes of shining copper, reaching down to the breast. To the flap of one of their ears they tie the wing of a huge vulture. Their hair is stained with a purple juice, or with the blood of oxen. On their neck, their arms, and the calves of their legs, they wear strings of glass beads. They paint the whole body from head to foot with a variety of colours. The females, of every age, are decently covered with woollen garments woven by themselves. The males think themselves handsomely arrayed if they be elegantly painted; and formerly frequented both their own settlement, and the Spanish city and houses, in a state of complete nakedness; which being considered offensive to Christian decency by the governour Raphael de la Moneda, he provided that a quantity of coarse cotton should be distributed amongst the adult savages, with this edict, that if any of them thenceforth entered the city naked, he should be punished at the pillory in the market-place with fifty strokes. One 116of them had brought fish to the house of a Spanish matron to sell, in exchange for which he received a fruit called mandubi. Having no sack to put them in, he held them in the bottom of his garment lifted up as high as the loins. On departing, when he had reached the door of the room, he began to think within himself that this mode of proceeding would be punished by the governour with a public whipping, if he should hear of it. Alarmed by this consideration, he returns to the matron, repeats the word Moneda, with his finger in a threatening attitude, and having let down the fore part of his garment, pours the fruit on the ground, puts them into the hind part, and joyfully carries them off; thinking that by this method he might walk through the market-place decently and unpunished. They use their own language, though, from their constant intercourse with the Spaniards, the majority can stammer a little Spanish and Guarany. They abound in nuptial, funeral, natal, and military rites, and in the absurdest superstitions. Their weapons are a bow and arrows, long spears, and a club; but their craft is more formidable than their arms. Each family has its canoe, a narrow one indeed, but very long. They are managed with a single oar, pointed at the end like a sword, and fly at the slightest impulse in any direction. Their 117velocity is owing to their structure. The keel touches the water for little more than three palms in the middle; the remainder, towards the prow and poop, is curved like a bow, and rises out of the water. Both ends of the canoe are sharp alike, and either serves for poop or prow, as seems good. When the river is stormiest, they trust themselves and their families, without fear, to its waves. If ever the boat is upset by an unusually strong wave, which happens but seldom, the Payagua gets astride the boat, and thus pursues his way. How often, from the shore, have I beheld the Payagua struggling and laughing amid the foaming waves of the tumultuous river, and expected every moment to see him swallowed up by the eddying waters! They plunge into the lowest depths of the water, and after remaining under a surprising time, emerge at an immense distance, loaden with fish. They have two sorts of canoes; the lesser for fishing and daily voyages, the larger for the uses of war. These latter will hold forty warriors. If their designs be against the Spaniards, many of them join together in one fleet, and are the more dangerous from their drawing so little water, which enables them to lurk within the shelter of the lesser rivers, or islands, till a favourable opportunity presents itself of pillaging loaden vessels, or of disembarking and 118attacking the colonies. These savages, though more like beasts than men in their outward appearance, do nevertheless in the contrivance of their designs discover amazing subtlety. For many years they continued to pillage the Spanish colonies, and all the ships that came in their way, from the city of Asumpcion, forty leagues southwards. To the cities of Asumpcion and Corrientes, to the vicinity of Buenos-Ayres, and to the Guarany and Spanish towns, I appeal as witnesses. Heaps of dead bodies, crowds of boys and girls driven away, houses reduced to ashes, wares, and all kinds of precious furniture carried off, and churches laid waste—these are the monuments of the barbarous ferocity of these pirates: documents of their deceit yet fresh in the memory of man, on my coming into Paraguay. Many tribes of Payaguas yet remain, who, though bound by no tie of friendship to the Spaniards, cause them no apprehension, because they live remote from the city of Asumpcion, on the northern parts of the Paraguay, and on the shores of the rivers flowing into it, which the Spaniards seldom visit. But the Portugueze who dwell in Cayaba are sometimes taken, and sometimes slain by Payaguas still practising piracy.

To the royal jurisdictions of Buenos-Ayres and Rio de la Plata, of Tucuman and Asumpcion, 119must be added a region named Chaco. Its length is 300 leagues, its breadth 100. Tucuman, the region De las Charcas, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and the rivers De la Plata and Paraguay surround Chaco; on both sides it is bounded by the mountains which stretch from Cordoba to the Peruvian silver mines at the cities of Lipes and Potosi, thence to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and lastly to the lake Mamore, where they terminate. This territory, throughout its whole extent, enjoys a salubrious climate, and a rich fertile soil. Here it gently swells into pleasant hillocks, there sinks into fertile vallies, affording rich pasturage to horses and cattle of all kinds. It is adorned with woods, and a variety of excellent trees. On the Peruvian side, stones and rocks that seem to threaten the skies, cover immense tracts of land. Towards the south, it is utterly destitute of stones, pebbles, or sand, though you dig to the depth of fourteen feet. Incredible multitudes of strange beasts, birds, amphibious animals, and fishes present themselves to the eye. Besides lakes and rivulets, the ground is watered by noble rivers, which overflow the banks and inundate the sloping plains to a great extent. The most considerable stream in Chaco is the Rio Grande, or Vermejo, which has its source in the Peruvian mountains, and is increased by the accession of many rivers, till it shortly becomes 120navigable for small ships. It flows down in a very deep channel, with the most rapid course; washes the cities of Guadalcazar and Concepcion, long since devastated by the savages, and at about thirty leagues distance from thence, mingles its waters with the Paraguay, a little before its junction with the Parana. The waters of the Rio Grande, which abound in fish, are pronounced by authors to be salubrious, especially to those who labour under a difficulty of urine, or any disease of the bladder. The second place to this river is occupied by the Pilcomayo, which also flows from the Peruvian mountains. The distance between it and the Rio Grande is reckoned at thirty leagues. It is not navigable at all times, nor in all places. Nearly eighty leagues from its junction with the Paraguay, it splits into two arms, forming an island of as many leagues in length. The first of these arms which flows into the Paraguay, within sight of Asumpcion, is called by the Guaranies Araguaaỹ, or the wise river; possibly because the greatest sagacity is requisite to effect its navigation. The whole island is annually flooded, so that both branches of the river coalescing into one channel, it must be attributed to fortune, rather than to skill, if any pilot pass over the opposing shallows, and the meanders of its waters in safety. 121The other arm, which retains the name of Pilcomayo, unites with the Paraguay at about the distance of nine leagues to the south of Asumpcion. The waters of the Pilcomayo are, for the most part, extremely foul.

The Rio Salado derives its origin from the mountains of Salta. In sundry places it changes both its channel and its name. At first it is called Rio Arias, presently Rio Passage, and afterwards, in the neighbourhood of the castle de Val Buena, Rio Salado. Beyond the city of Santa Fè, it assumes the name of Coronda, and finally, under this name, loses itself in the mighty waters of the Parana. For a length of way, its waters are not only sweet, but very famous for their salubrity, which, however, tributary lakes and rivers corrupt with such filth and saltness, that, for the space of many leagues, the very beasts refuse to touch it. It may be worth while to notice the origin of its saltness. The neighbouring plains abound in the shrub vidriera, the ashes of which reduced to a calx are employed in the making of glass. The vidriera resembles the juniper; the berries are small and cylindrical, green, nearly transparent, and joined one with another, being in place both of boughs and leaves. If I remember rightly, it bears no fruit. The rain falling 122upon these shrubs, contracts a saltness, and flowing down the country, communicates it to the lakes and streams, which enter rivers sweet at their source, and miserably taint them. The palm tree (carandaỹ) under which salt-petre is produced, has the same effect as the vidriera. But though the waters of the Rio Salado be salt, they are pellucid, and in the deepest parts the excellent fish, with which this river abounds, are perceptible at the bottom. Its channel is deep, and contained within narrow, though lofty and precipitous banks, through which it quietly flows, unnavigable, except near Santa Fè. Between the Salado and Dulce flows the rivulet Turugon, which, being girt with woods, even in the driest weather, affords plentiful and sweet waters to the traveller, as it is neither interrupted by shallows, nor tainted with salt. It is not far distant from the little Indian town Salabina. The Rio Dulce, which is the Nile of the territory of St. Iago, after proceeding a little southerly, overflows its banks, and is finally received by the lake of gourds (Laguna de los Porrongos) between Cordoba and Santa Fè. Not many leagues distant is the white lake, (Laguna Blanca,) where the Indians and Spaniards affirm that howlings, as of bulls, are heard in the dead of the night.

The rivers and streams of lesser note which 123belong to Chaco, are the Centa, the Ocloyas, the Jujuy, the Sinancas, the Rio Negro, the Rio Verde, the Atopehenra Lauate, the Rio Rey or Ychimaye, the Malabrigo or Neboque Latèl, the Inespin or Naraheguem, the Eleya, &c.; who shall number them all, when they are almost innumerable, and often unnamed? Most of these, after a long drought, become almost dry, a no uncommon occurrence in Chaco. You may often travel many leagues where not even a bird could discover a drop of water. On the other hand, when the sky is prodigal of its hoard, the brooks seem rivers, and the rivers seas, whole plains being inundated. During many journies of many weeks, when we had to contend with water, mud, and deep marshes, there was often not a palm of dry land where we could rest at night. The Spanish soldiers who were with me sometimes ascended high trees, and perching there, like birds, enjoyed some portion of rest during the night. Several of them lighted a fire there to heat their water. But the calamity was far more intolerable when we had to ride, without resting day or night, for many leagues, under a burning sun, before we reached a situation where we could obtain water for ourselves and our horses. At other places, you might traverse immense plains without seeing a twig to light a fire with. 124Wherever you turn, you meet with an army of gnats, serpents, and noxious insects, besides lions, tigers, and other formidable wild beasts.

This is the face of the province called Chaco! which the Spanish soldiers look upon as a theatre of misery, and the savages as their Palestine and Elysium. Hither the Indians fled, when the Spaniards first laid the yoke on the inhabitants of Peru. To escape the dreadful hands, nay the very sight of the Europeans, they betook themselves to the coverts of Chaco. For there they had mountains for observatories, trackless woods for fortifications, rivers and marshes for ditches, and plantations of fruit trees for storehouses; and there a numerous population still eludes the attempts of the Spaniards. It appears very probable, that these lurking-places in Chaco were tenanted by indigenous tribes, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards; and if so, it is indubitable that the new arrivers joined themselves to the natives, in the hope of security. Several tribes formerly existed in Chaco, but of these the names alone, or very slender relics remain. Of this number were the Calchaquis, formerly very numerous, famous for military ferocity, and hostile to the Spaniards. At present, a very few survive in a corner of the territory of Santa Fè, the rest having long since fallen victims to war, or the 125small-pox. Nearly the same fate has swept away the equestrian tribes of the Malbalaes, Mataras, Palomos, Mogosnas, Orejones, Aquilotes, Churumates, Ojotades, Tanos, Quamalcas, &c. The equestrian nations remaining in Chaco, and still formidable to the Spaniards, are the Abipones, Natekebits, Tobas, Amokebits, Mocobios, Yapitalakas, or Zapitalakas, and Oekakakalots, Guaycurus, or Lenguas. The Mbayas dwelling on the eastern shore of the Paraguay call themselves Eyiguayegis, those on the western Quetiadegodis. The pedestrian tribes are the Lules, the Ysistines Foxistines, who speak the same language, to wit the Tonocotè, and have been, for the most part, converted by us, and settled in towns: the Homoampas, Vilelas, Chunipies, Yooks, Ocoles, and Pazaines, who are in great part Christians: the Mataguayos, whom we have so often attempted to civilize, but who always proved indocile: the Payaguas, the Guanas, and the Chiquitos. By the annual excursions of men of our order to the woods, savages speaking various languages, as the Zamucos, Caypotades, Ygaronos, &c. were added to the colonies of the Chiquitos.

The Chiriguanos, a nation very famous for number, fierceness and obstinacy, can scarcely, I think, be referred to Chaco, as the majority of them inhabit the territories of Tarija and Peru. 126Their language, which is somewhat remarkable, is a dialect of the Guarany, very little corrupted. Tradition reports, that they formerly migrated from the southern shores of the Parana and the Paraguay, to these northern tracts of Peru, through fear of the vengeance which threatened them from the Portugueze, for having murdered their countryman Alexo Garzia. This cause of their migration some reject, and contend that near a hundred years before the murder of Alexo Garzia, they had been attacked, but not vanquished, by the Inca Yupangui. This is, at any rate, most certain, that the Chiriguanos, except a few who now profess Christianity, are, at this day, hostile to the Spaniards, and formidable to the whole neighbourhood far and wide.

I shall here cursorily mention the other nations yet remaining in Paraguay, without the limits of Chaco: the Guaranies, by far the most numerous of all, inhabiting thirty-two large towns, on the shores of the Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and all of them sincerely attached to the King, and the Catholic Faith; as also the Ytatinguas, who occupy two colonies in the woods of Taruma. Other little towns, also, administered by secular Presbyters, or Franciscans, are inhabited by Christian Guaranies. The Tobatinguas, Tapes, and Caayguas, still 127hidden in the coverts of woods, have assumed these names from the mountains, rivers, or forests which they tenant, but are in reality Guaranies, and use the Guarany tongue. The Guayaguis are a populous nation, entirely different from the Guaranies in language, customs, and fairness of complexion. They wander over the remote forests on the banks of the Mondaỹ-guazù. They leap from tree to tree, like monkies, in search of honey, little birds, and other provision. Destitute of clothing and settled habitations, a timid race, they pass their lives without injuring any one. On the craggy rocks overhanging the river Tebiguarỹ Miri, and the little city Villa Rica, dwells a race of savages, called by the Spaniards Guaycuruti, from the fairness of their faces; men tall of stature, and armed with a club, and arrows. Troops of these occasionally descend into the plain beneath their mountains, and with their missiles or clubs kill the mules and horses of the Spaniards, and cutting them into pieces, transport them on their shoulders, and feast most luxuriously upon them at home. When, therefore, this carnage of horses and mules had brought devastation on the Spanish estates, it was unanimously agreed to examine the lurking-places of the savages, and either lead them away captive, or cut them off by massacre. The expedition was weighty, 128but brief. For on the very first day, some unaccountable panic induced them to return. To these horse-eaters I join the Indian man-eaters, who wander in the woods between the rivers Parana and Uruguay, as also on the shores of the Mondaỹ-guazù, and Acaraỹ, constantly intent on the chase of men, whose flesh they infinitely prefer to that of any beast. They have been sought after by men of our order, often with great hardships, often at the peril of their lives, but always in vain. The extensive plains, the forest labyrinths, the difficult recesses of the Yguazu, Ygatimi, Carema, Curyi, Acaraỹ, Monday, &c. abound in hives of wood Indians, who, though differently named, according to the places where they reside, may in general be referred to the Guarany nation.

Among the equestrian nations out of Chaco, the first place is held by the Guenoas, who reside between the rivers Uruguay and Plata, and the Pacific Ocean, without, however, having any fixed settlements. This very numerous nation comprehends the Charruas, the Yaros, Bohanes, Minoanes, and Costeros, all horsemen, and of the most barbarous manners. These savages, as dwelling nearest the Rio de la Plata, and being, as it were, the door-keepers of all Paraguay, have ever given the most trouble to the new arrivers from Spain, to whom they are 129hostile in the highest degree. In 1750, the soldiers of Santa Fè, to revenge their frequent violation of the stipulated peace, surprized the perfidious Charruas, about morning, as they were sleeping in their tents. Many were slain, and the rest led into captivity with their families. On the western shore of the Parana, a village was built for them, about twenty leagues distant from the city, a priest given them to instruct them in religion and humanity, and a guard of soldiers added to secure his personal safety, and prevent their flight. The savages were chiefly supported by the flesh of wild horses, with which the neighbouring plains are overrun. Tamed by hunger and misery, the Charruas applied themselves to agriculture, and yielded conformity to their priest, who, fearing nothing farther for his own security, and that of the colony, desired that the soldiers might be removed, as he found their presence totally useless to himself, and extremely prejudicial to his proselytes. This good man, who was a Franciscan, knew that he should lose both cost and labour, if the Indians observed the manners and discourse of the soldiers incongruous with the precepts issued from the church. On the fear of hostile aggression, soldiers are sometimes sent from the city for the defence of a new colony; but we dreaded the coming of the soldiers, 130more than that of the savages. For the former by their licentiousness do more harm to the women, than the savages could do to the colony with all their weapons. About the end of the last century, men of our order, by their eloquence and kindness, so far brought over the barbarous Yaros, who form a large part of the Quenoas, that, collected in a little town dedicated to St. Andrew, they suffered themselves, for some time, to be instructed in religion; but at the instigation of a certain famous juggler, they returned to their old haunts. Being asked the cause of their flight, "We don't like," said they, "to have a God who knows and sees all we do in secret. It is our fixed resolve and pleasure to enjoy our old liberty of thinking and acting as we like." The massacres committed by these worst of savages, in the territories of Corrientes, Santa Fé, and Monte-Video, alike exceed belief and calculation.

That immense plain which stretches out to the south west of Buenos-Ayres, is inhabited by equestrian savages. They have not all the same name or language. By the Spaniards they are either called Pampas,—dwellers in champaigne country; or Serranos,—mountaineers. From the Indians of Peru, they receive the general name of Aucas, to wit, enemies, or rebels. In reality, however, they 131are divided into Puelches, Peguenches, Thuelchùs, (whom we call Patagonians,) Sanguelches, Muluches, and Araucanos, the masters of the Chili Alps. Horrible names!—but far more horrible are the dispositions, deeds, manners and opinions of those who bear them. The country tenanted by these savages stretches an hundred leagues from north to south—from east to west full two hundred; is almost destitute of wood and water, but abounds in wild animals. Multitudes of emus wander over these solitudes. The horse supplies them with food, clothes, lodging, bed, arms, medicine, thread, and what not? Of the hide they make their couch, clothing, boots, tents, saddles, and thongs which serve alike for bridle and weapons. The sinews of the horse they use instead of thread, for the purposes of sewing. They drink melted horse-fat, and wash their heads, first with the blood of these animals, and afterwards with water, in the idea of its strengthening them. They twist horse-hair into ropes. They are terribly addicted to drunkenness, and expend their whole property in purchasing brandy from the Spaniards. When I resided in Buenos-Ayres, to sell this pestilent liquor was a crime, the absolution of which was reserved for the Bishop alone. For a single flagon of brandy, the young maid is often sold by her parents as 132a wife to some savage suitor. As soon as the first potation is prepared of the alfaroba mixed in water, they flock to their burying-places, not without many ceremonies, and sprinkling them with this beverage, utter the tenderest lamentations, for pity that those entombed beneath cannot enjoy their nectar. In war, these savages are extremely formidable to the neighbouring Spaniards. Fleet horses, a sword, a spear, and three stone balls covered with leather, and suspended from as many thongs, which they hurl with great dexterity, are their weapons, and weapons by no means to be despised.

The Southern savages, when wrought to the highest pitch of bitterness, leave their enemy, mutilated in both feet, and writhing on the ground, like a worm, to the tortures of a protracted death. This is their most familiar threat, when angry. Those whom they despatch at a single blow, they think kindly and humanely treated. Actuated by an irrational kind of pity, they are wont to bury their dying ere the breath has left them, to shorten their pains. At other times, when they see a man struggling in the agonies of death, they paint him with various colours, and adorn him with blue beads. They compose the corpse in such a manner, that the knees touch the face. His 133horses, ornamented with small copper bells, glass beads, and emu feathers, they lead round the tent of the deceased, for a certain number of times, after which they kill them. The same fate awaits his dogs. The bodies of the horses are fastened to the grave with stakes, from which are suspended many coloured garments. They believe that the souls both of men and emus inhabit subterraneous tents. See! what multitudes of nations are yet remaining in Paraguay! numerous others, moreover, whose names exist alone in histories and maps, have perished long since from various causes. Of this number are the Caracaras, Hastores, Ohomàs, Timbus, Caracoas, Napigues, Agazes, Itapurus, Urtuezes, Perabazones, Frentones, Aguilotes, &c.

In this place we may add, that within the ample confines of Paraguay, there is scarce known a single nation upon which the Jesuits have not bestowed their labours, and for which, whenever it was permitted, a colony was not founded. Above all, the nation of the Guaranies, though never to be vanquished by the arms of the Europeans, evinced such docility and obedience to the instructions of the Jesuits, and such submission to God and the Spanish monarchy, as could neither be gained nor expected from the other Americans. The Guaranies owe it to the exceeding benevolence of the 134Spanish Kings, that they have ever sent them Jesuits from Europe to teach them religion, that they have liberally supported them, that the annual tribute exacted from them has been lightened, and that they have protected them against envy and calumny by their royal letters. No time can erase the memory of such benefits. No one, however, will deny that the Spaniards, on the other hand, owe much to the Guaranies educated under our discipline. They have been partakers in all the wars which the Spaniards have waged in Paraguay against foreign or domestic foes, and have had a great share of all their victories. Again and again have all the Indian nations secretly conspired to the destruction of the Spaniards. And doubtless so great a number of rebels must ultimately have triumphed over so small a band as the Spaniards, had not our Guaranies, embracing the royal party, strenuously opposed the arms and purposes of its opponents. From one instance which I shall produce, you may judge of the rest.

In the years 1665 and 1666, the Indians almost universally harboured designs of expelling the Spaniards from the whole province. Already were the torches of sedition and tumult scattered in every corner of Paraguay. The royal Governour Alphonso Sarmiento, alarmed by these rumours, hastened from Asumpcion, 135with a little band of soldiers, to the town of Arecaya, about sixty leagues distant, situate on the banks of the Yeyuy; a place of the inhabitants of which he entertained some suspicions. The greater part of them were in a state of slavery to private Spaniards, and but little content with their lot. Pretending friendship, however, they received the Governour with honour, and he, suspecting no turbulence for the present, took up his quarters on the skirts of the town, in huts of boughs and straw. In the dead of the night the Indians surprized the Spaniards with every species of weapon, and cast fire upon their huts. Some of the Spaniards were slain and more wounded; most of their clothes were burnt, their gunpowder was exploded, and some of their guns were taken by the enemy. In the trepidation excited, the soldiers betook themselves to the neighbouring church, where they thought for a little while to remain in safety. But destitute of meat and drink they must have perished of thirst and famine. The holy water was converted into a remedy for their thirst. The enemy blockading the walls, they had no opportunity of escape, no means of obtaining provision. At last, the danger of the Governour and his comrades being told to the Guarany Ytatinguas in St. Ignacio and Nuestra Señora Santa Fè, Father Quesa, who 136presided over both these colonies, set out immediately with about two hundred of his Indian horsemen, in the view of assisting the Governour. After travelling incessantly for twenty-four hours, they entered Arecaya, where the Indian rebels were slain or taken prisoners by the Christian Guaranies, and the Spaniards brought forth to freedom and security. Out of the company of Guaranies three horsemen were chosen to carry the Governour's letters to Asumpcion, in which he informed them of what had happened, and what steps must be taken for his own safety and that of the province. The court of Madrid was immediately apprized of the fidelity and zeal of the Guaranies, whom the Catholic King honoured with gracious letters, which are still preserved in the register of Nuestra Señora a Santa Fè. It appears from sufficient authority that a sedition raised by factious and warlike nations, with a view to the destruction of all the Spaniards, would have broken out had they not stood in awe of the strength and immutable fidelity of the Guarany nation towards the King. On this very account they were exposed to the hatred of the savages hostile to the Catholic King. The Guaycurus for many years harassed these two towns of the Ytatinguas, and compelled them, at length, to exchange their station for one surrounded by the 137rivers Parana and Paraguay, where yet remain the posterity of those who aided the Spaniards endangered in Arecaya.

Concerning the ten towns of the Chiquitos I have spoken before. These Indians, formidable from their warlike courage and mortally poisoned arrows, whenever commanded by the royal Governours have uniformly proved brave and faithful fellow-soldiers to the Spaniards against the savages, and even against the Portugueze. Less in point of number, but highly consequential to the tranquillity of the whole province, have been the four cities of the Abipones, the two of Mocobios, one of Tobas, and another of Mbayas, warlike and equestrian nations. To these add the pedestrian nations, the Lules, Vilelas, Chiriguanos, Chunipies, Homoampas, &c. converted by us to the Roman rites and discipline in their own colonies. In language, manners, and religious observances, they differ amongst themselves; they are all, however, attached to agriculture.

Very many Indian towns have long since ceased to exist, sometimes from the inconstancy of the Indians sighing for their native land, sometimes from the malevolence, the avarice, or inertness of the Europeans. Father Joseph Labrador is my authority, that seventy-three towns of various Indians perished in the province 138of Chaco. In the present age, by much labour of the Jesuits, three towns have arisen, at an immense expense, for the southern savages, the inhabitants of the Magellanic territory, all dedicated to the most holy mother of God. The first, named Concepcion, is inhabited by the Pampas, and acted as a defence to the inhabitants of Buenos-Ayres against the incursions of the savages. The rulers of the newly-built town, Father Matthias Strobl from the province of Austria, and Manuel Querini, a Venetian of noble family, were men of distinguished piety, prudence, and fortitude. Both Fathers possessed singular dexterity in managing the minds of the Indians. The neighbourhood of the city, and of the Spanish estates, where there was plenty of spirit and of bad example, incredibly retarded the conversion of the savages to a better way of life. The Serranos and Patagonians, who came backwards and forwards to visit the Pampas, won by the kindness of the Father, and taken by the conveniences of life which the inhabitants of the colonies enjoyed, began earnestly to desire a little town of this sort in their native soil. Their wishes were immediately gratified. Fathers Falconer and Cardiel, the one an Englishman of great skill in medicine, the other a Spaniard, and a man of an 139ardent and intrepid mind, travelled to their savage wildernesses, and having felt the pulse of the people, looked about for an opportune situation, wherein to establish the intended colony. At length the town was built, and the Caciques Marike and Tschuan Tuya, with four-and-twenty hordesmen belonging to them, settled therein; it was named Nuestra Señora del Pilar. To govern this colony, Father Matthias Strobl, who knew a little of those languages, was removed thither by the mandate of the Superior. Though daily vicissitudes occurred, yet hopes of the happiest progress shone through them. But an unforeseen event almost proved fatal to the new raised colony. Thus it was: a murder happening to be committed in the territory of Buenos-Ayres, soldiers were sent by the Governour to detect the assassins. Cacique Yahati, a Serrano, accompanied by fifteen persons of both sexes, in travelling to the city, fell in with the soldiers, and without any foundation for the conjecture, was carried off on the suspicion of this murder, and kept closely confined in prison with his people in the city. With how incensed a mind the inhabitants of the town bore so great an injury done to their countryman, of whose innocence they felt assured, can scarcely be expressed. The life of Father Matthias Strobl was placed 140in the most imminent danger. Cacique Marike, who, though blind in both eyes, possessed the greatest authority among them, was immediately delegated by the infuriated people to make the just demand of their captive's liberty from the Spanish Governour, and to declare instant war, in the name of the whole nation, against the Spaniards if he should refuse. This threat filled Joseph Andonaegui with distracting cares, conscious, as he was, of the slender forces he had to oppose to so numerous a foe. The examination of the murder being resumed, and the witnesses being heard again and again, the innocence of the imprisoned Cacique at length appeared, some credible Spaniards asserting, that at the very time when the murder was committed he was engaged in a certain shop in the city. Which being proved, after a causeless captivity of four months, they were immediately granted their liberty and the power of returning to their friends by the equitable Governour. These things fell out on my third visit to Buenos-Ayres, about the beginning of the year 1748. Through an Indian interpreter I had a good deal of conversation with the blind Cacique Marike, and on my playing to him in my chamber, on the viol d'amour, he took such a liking to me, that he earnestly entreated me to go to their colony, as an assistant to Father 141Matthias Strobl, who was growing aged. Both my feet, I confess, itched for the journey; I answered, however, "Pleased indeed should I be to mount my horse, and accompany you to the Magellanic lands. But men of our profession cannot go where we will, except we be sent by the command of our captain, (the provincial.") "Where, pray, does your captain dwell?" eagerly inquired Marike. "In this very house," returned I. On hearing this he immediately caused himself to be led into our provincial's chamber, and with importunate but vain entreaties, begged me for his companion. The provincial replied, that I was now appointed to another station, but promised to send me in two years to his colony, and the provincial would have stood to his promise, had not my labours been needed amongst the Abipones.

On the departure of the captives from Buenos Ayres, the town was restored to its former tranquillity, and shortly after increased by new supplies of Patagonians. For these a single town was prepared, four leagues distant, and named Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. The government of it was committed to Father Lorenzo Balda of Pampeluna, and to Father Augustino Vilert a Catalan. Three of the Patagonian Caciques, with eighty of their hordesmen, 142occupied this colony. A horde consists of three or four families, sometimes of more. Each family generally numbers four, five, and often more heads; for the Patagonians have many children, and polygamy is very common amongst them. They are docile beyond all the other southern tribes, and make less opposition to baptism, but I cannot commend the young men of this nation either for honesty or modesty. Scarce any commerce is carried on between the Spaniards and Patagonians. From a nation so populous, so tractable, and of so gentle a disposition, great accessions were reasonably expected to Christianity, but Satan confounded all these fair hopes. Cangapol, the potentate of that region, long beheld these Christian colonies with gloomy and envious eyes. Through them he thought that friendships would be formed with the Spaniards, the freedom of the southern nations endangered, and his own power in these parts gradually diminished, and ultimately suppressed. Hence he turned his whole heart and thoughts to hastening the destruction of the new town, and the banishment of the Fathers who taught the strange religion. In order to effect these purposes, as many savages as possible were associated in a contract of arms, and an expedition was at length undertaken. Matthias Strobl, being made acquainted 143with the route and immense number of the enemy, made a timely request by letter, to the Governour, for military succours from Buenos-Ayres, which city promised seventy provincial horsemen, but never supplied one. Thus having suffered a repulse from the Spaniards, whose interest it chiefly was to maintain these towns, by flying with his people, the Father eluded the enemy—eluded since he could not subdue. The towns, their flocks, and their herds were left. The neophytes and catechumens, all who were sincere in religion and friendly to the Spaniards, fled with the Fathers to the city of Concepcion. But this colony being daily harassed by hostile incursions, and but lazily defended by the Spanish guards, was entirely deserted on the 3d of February, 1753, a severe loss to the city. For the savages being now at full liberty to ravage where they would, the estates for two leagues distant from the city were presently left destitute of their guards, and the lands around the village of Magdalen, famous for large crops of wheat, of their cultivators, both having fled to safer quarters. In the city itself the most disgraceful trepidations often arose, sometimes from real danger, at others from the suspicion alone of an enemy. In the circumjacent estates and plains very many were despoiled of their substance, their cattle, and 144their life, by the assaulting savages. The light-armed cavalry, who were commanded to keep watch in the country and repress the enemy, suffered repeated losses. Waggons laden with silver from Peru, were often despoiled of their treasures, the soldiers who guarded and transported them being miserably butchered. The same savages have often proved fatal, always formidable, to the inhabitants of Barragan, a bay of the Rio de la Plata, where vessels are often drawn out and refitted. Those who went southward in great numbers for salt to the salt-pits, were sometimes slain to a man. Then at length the Spaniards perceived the utility of the southern colonies, after they had irrecoverably lost them. That so many thousand Indians who dwell in the southern parts, should be buried together in their darkness, is indeed a reflexion worthy of regret. Who will not deplore the infinite miseries of the Jesuits, who laboured for many years upon this people, the hardships of their journeys, their want of necessaries, the daily perils that threatened their lives, and the greatness of their labours,—labours almost fruitless, except indeed their sending to Heaven a considerable number of infants, baptized before their death, as also not a few adults? At first, before oxen and sheep were sent for their subsistence, the Fathers lived on 145horse-flesh, the daily food of those Indians. Father Thomas Falconer, who wandered over all the plains with his Indians to kill horse-flesh, having no plate of pewter or wood, always, in place thereof, made use of his hat, which grew at length so greasy, that it was devoured whilst he slept by the wild dogs with which the plains are over-run. Father Matthias Strobl's hut being set on fire by some villain or other, and the straw roof being already in flames, he would doubtless himself have perished, had he not been awakened from his deep sleep, by one who continued faithful to him, and rescued him from the conflagration. The town of Concepcion was situated in 322° 20´ longitude, and in latitude 36° 20´; that of Nuestra Señora del Pilar was distant from Concepcion seventy leagues to the south west; from Buenos-Ayres full an hundred and ten leagues; from the town of Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados only four.