Note 159 — Chapter II · GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVERY.

Azara states that in his time (he travelled in South America from 1781 to 1801) the Guaycurû had nearly died out, only one man being left159. But according to Boggiani Guaycurû is a general name for the tribes that inhabit the Gran Chaco160, so this statement of Azara’s seems to apply to a small division of the Guaycurû only. Southey and Martius give some particulars about the slave system of the Guaycurû161; but Colini, who has taken great pains to ascertain the identity of these tribes, quotes these descriptions as referring to the Mbayás. Of the ancient Guaycurû he says: “In their combats they gave no quarter to the adult males; but they spared the lives of the youths, whom they educated after their customs and gave in marriage to their daughters, so as to augment the number of their tribe. Full-grown women were sold to the neighbouring nations, who made them slaves”162. The only captives whom they kept among them, the youths, were not slaves; so slavery probably did not exist among them.