An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (1 of 3). Dobrizhoffer Martin
reverberated by their windings, bellows after this fearful manner. In the city of Cordoba itself, a hollow murmur, resembling the knocks of a pestle in a wooden mortar, is frequently heard by night. This low mournful sound runs from one street to another, and is called by the Spaniards el pison, or the paving-hammer. The ignorant vulgar believe that some spectre or goblin haunts the streets; as for me, I am convinced that it originates in subterraneous wind, which, forcing its way through the interstices of the earth, makes violent endeavours to find a vent; for I observed the lands near the city excavated and fissured in many places by earthquakes. The city of Salta derives its principal profits from the passage of mules. St. Iago del Estero, a very ancient city of Tucuman, was long the seat of a bishop, and afterwards of a governour. The houses are, however, neither large nor elegant. Pope Innocent the Twelfth transferred the episcopal see from hence to Cordoba. The city of St. Iago boasts some tolerably handsome churches. It is washed by the Rio Dulce, which, during its annual flood, rolls down mountains of sands; excellent bulwarks against the cannon of assailants, if the city were ever besieged. The inhabitants of the district of St. Iago are distinguished alike for the greatness of their valour and the scantiness of their means in the wars against the savages. From the trade in wax, which they collect in their distant woods, and from that in corn, they derive some profits, inadequate, however, to recompense them for the hardships they undergo. Their herds are few, from the scantiness of the pastures: for the plains, which are bounded on every side with sand, supply a slender provision of grass, by reason of the frosts in winter and the drought in summer. In winter, when the fields are bare, I have observed the horses cropping the branches of trees, nay, sometimes gnawing their trunks. Did not the Rio Dulce yearly overflow its banks, the soil would produce nothing esculent. This flood generally takes place about January, from the melting of the snows on the Chili and Peruvian mountains. The fertility of the soil is at that time incredible, producing abundant crops of corn, and water-pumpkins of great size and sweetness. Clouds of a remarkable hue announce the event to the natives. The woods around St. Iago abound in the alfaroba, which is converted into a drink, or a sweet-flavoured bread, and taken in either form is possessed of medicinal virtues. The Rio Dulce too supplies the inhabitants of its shores with food. Annually, but at no certain time, shoals of a fish called zabalo hurry down the river, and are taken by the hand, in such numbers that, during the period of their arrival, the lower orders need no other provision.
The city of St. Iago formerly numbered many Indian colonies within its jurisdiction, the ruins of which are now alone visible, the inhabitants having perished of want or the small-pox. Some little villages yet remain: Matarà, Salabina, Moppa, Lasco, Silipica, Lindongasta, Mañogasta, and Socconcho; they are governed by secular priests, and inhabited by a very few Indians, employed in the service of the Spaniards who live amongst them. Their condition is miserable, their barbarity beyond conception, their houses mere hovels, and their churches little better. The same may be said of all the villages remaining in the other districts of Paraguay.
The little town of St. Miguel, situated near the Chili mountains, is surrounded with hills, plains, large streams, and pleasant woods adorned with lofty forest trees, which supply the whole province with cedar planks, and timber fit for the largest houses. Rioja and St. Ferdinand, or Catamarca, little towns, buried amongst mountains, gain their principal returns from the culture of vines and red pepper, which is in daily use amongst the Spaniards. Not only meal, but even cheese, which, considering the multitude of cattle in the estates of Buenos-Ayres and Cordoba, is but seldom made, is seasoned so high with this powerful spice, that it acquires a deep red colour, and a pungency intolerable to an European palate. All the vine-yards in Paraguay scarce equal the number of fingers on both your hands; for although the climate and soil are extremely suitable to vines, they are uniformly destroyed by an army of ants, wasps, and wood-pigeons. The little wine that is made is deep-coloured, thick, and generous, though to Europeans newly arrived it smells somewhat like a drug. The new must squeezed from the grape is simmered on the fire till it obtains a consistence. Such is the scarcity of wine in the remote colonies, that we were sometimes unable to celebrate the Eucharist. For whatever is used at the table or the altar, is principally brought from Chili, by a long journey, and at great expense, and often is not to be had for love or money.
In the districts of Rioja and Catamarca there is very scanty pasturage, and consequently few cattle; a want compensated by the fertility of the soil, the productiveness of the trees, and the industry of the inhabitants, who dry figs, weave a kind of woollen garment in common use, dress ox and sheep hides to great perfection, and apply the leather to various purposes, as saddles, trunks, and similar articles, to be commuted for other goods. Xuxuy, a district of St. Salvador, situate on the Peruvian side of Tucuman, though far from populous, is the seat of the royal treasurers for the last mentioned country. In this place, the tertian ague and wens are common; a circumstance arising from the rivulets flowing from the neighbouring mountains. Talavera de Madrid, also called Esteco, a state formerly flourishing in vices as in wealth, situate on the bank of the river Salado, is said to have been swallowed up, in the last century, with all its houses and inhabitants, by a violent earthquake; the ill-fated pillar applied to the punishment of delinquents alone remaining in the market-place.
Fareja, a city of some note, though within the jurisdiction of Chichas in Peru, contains Jesuits from Paraguay, who, in the hopes of civilizing the Chiriguanàs, a barbarous race, always hostile to the Spaniards, have neither spared their labour nor their lives; five of them were butchered by these savages.
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, with its territory, though bordering on the eastern confines of Peru, is within the dominions of Paraguay. Its longitude is 314°, its latitude 21°. It has its own governour and bishop, to whom are subject the towns of the Chiquitos, savages for many years instructed by the Jesuits in religion, humanity, and the useful arts, amid their distant woods. In 1766, the ten towns of the Chiquitos, founded by men of our order, contained 5173 families, and 23,788 souls; but the number of deaths far exceeds that of births. Whether this paucity of issue is to be attributed to the climate, the water, their food – especially the land-tortoises they use so much – or to a natural sterility in the parents, let the learned judge. I have frequently heard, that had not the Jesuits yearly brought a multitude of savages from the woods, the towns must long since have been depopulated.
In each of the cities of Tucuman and Paraguay, the followers of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Pedro de Nolasco, as well as the Jesuits, have their own establishment. Nuns of various orders dwell in Cordoba and Buenos-Ayres, but no where else. The Spaniards account Tucuman the poorest country in America, because it is destitute of gold, notwithstanding its numerous herds of cattle of every description. This province has been honoured with the presence of St. Francis Solano. When he was called away to Paraguay, many whole states were left without a single priest. Francis Victoria, of the order of St. Dominic, first bishop of Tucuman, in 1581 found only five secular priests and a few religious, with not one presbyter who understood the language of the natives, though the province abounded in Indian colonies. Solicitous for the glory of God, this bishop wrote to request Father Juan Atienza in Peru, and Joseph Anchuela in Brazil, to send him a few Jesuits already tried by previous exertions in the Christian cause. Fathers Leonardo Arminio, an Italian; Juan Saloni, a Spaniard; Thomas Fields, an Irishman; Manuel Ortega, and Estevam de Grao, Portugueze, were sent by sea from Brazil, and being taken by the English, were for some time infamously treated, and at last exposed to the winds and waves in an open boat; but Providence happily guiding them, reached the port of Buenos-Ayres. From Peru, Fathers Francis Angulo and Alphonso Barzena had been already despatched into Tucuman. The last of these was created vicar-general by Victoria, who esteemed him so highly as openly to declare that he would himself vacate the bishopric could Barzena benefit by his abdication. To these have succeeded men of our order, one after another, for nearly two centuries. Summoned by the bishop and royal governour, sent from Europe by their Catholic sovereigns, and dispersed in every corner of Paraguay's immense extent, how strenuously they have toiled for God and their King, it is not my business to relate. Thousands of savages won over to God and the King, colonies founded on every side, churches built to the Lord, and numbers of Spanish cities imbued with learning and piety – these will testify that we have at least done something for the Antipodes, though many have left no stone unturned to blot out our very name. This is, however, beyond dispute; – that a far more abundant harvest might have been reaped from our apostolic labours, if the Europeans had not uniformly opposed every