The Conquest of the River Plate (1535-1555). active 16th century Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
and went down the river, and afterwards by land for thirty miles, to a place where the aforesaid Aygais live, of whom and of their treatment of us we have spoken.
We found them at the same place where we had left them, and we fell upon them by surprise in their houses while they were asleep, between three and four o’clock in the morning, for the Carios had sought them out and watched them, and we killed everybody, young and old, for it is the custom of the Carios, when they make war and are victorious, to kill all without any mercy or pity whatsoever.
We took also more than five hundred canoes or skiffs, and we burnt down all the villages we found, and wrought very much damage besides. Four months afterwards, some Aygais[95], who had not taken part in this skirmish, because they were not then at home, came and asked for mercy, and our commander was obliged to grant it them by order of H. I. Majesty, who gave orders to pardon every Indian up to the third time, but if one of them brake the peace for the third time he should become a prisoner for life or a slave.
[95] Agazes.
After that we continued for six months in this town, Noster Signora Desumsion, in German “Unser Frawen Himmelfahrt”, and had a good rest.
Then our commander Johann Eijollas[96] inquired of the Carios about a people called Peijembas,[97] and they answered: it was from this town Desumsion to the Peijembas[97] one hundred miles distance up the river Parabol.[98]
[96] Juan de Ayolas.
[97] Payaguás.
[98] Paraguai.
Our commander then asked the Carios how the Peijembas[97] lived, and what provisions they had, and from what they abstained; also what kind of people they were, and of their habits. Their answer was, that the Peijembas[99] had nothing else but fish and meat, and also St. John’s bread and fenugreek.[100] From this fenugreek they make flour which they eat with their fish; they also make wine of it, and this wine is as sweet as mead in Germany.
[99] Payaguás, vide supra, p. 15.
[100] Algarroba.
Our chief captain Johann Eijollas having heard all this from the Carios, ordered them to load five ships with provisions of Turkish corn and other things which were in the country; this had to be done in two months’ time, and by that time he and his men would also equip themselves, and in the first place go to the Peijembas,[99] and afterwards to a people called Carch Karaisch, and the Carios promised to be always obedient, and to fulfil in all particulars the captain’s orders.
All things having now been arranged, and the ships provided with victual, our commander ordered all the people to assemble, and out of the four hundred men, took three hundred well armed; and the remaining one hundred were left in the aforesaid town Vardellesse,[101] i.e. Noster Signora Desumsion, where the said Carios live. And then we went up the river and found at a distance of five miles from these Carios a village on the river Paraboe. The people here brought to us Christians, victual, in the shape of fish, meat, hens, geese, Indian sheep, and ostriches.
[101] Vardellesse must be a Germanized form of the Spanish word Fortaleza (fortress).
Coming at last near a village of the Carios, which is called Weybingen,[102] and is at a distance of eighty miles from Noster Signora Desumsion, we took from them victual and other things which we could obtain from them.
[102] There is no village of that name in Paraguai.
From there we came to a mountain called S. Fernando, which resembles the Bagenberg; there we found the said Peijembas, who are at twelve miles distance from Weybingen, and they met us peaceably, and received us with false hearts, as we shall see hereafter.
They took us into their houses and gave us fish and meat and also fenugreek, and so we abode there for nine days.
Then our commander sent to ask their chief if they knew a folk named Carchkareisso.[103] He replied that they knew nothing indeed of such a people but what they had heard of them by report, and that they dwelt far away in the country, and that they had much gold and silver, but that they (the Peijembas) had never seen any of them.
[103] Guaycurús.
They also told us that these Carchkareisso[103] were wise men, like as we Christians are, and that they had plenty of victuals, such as Turkish corn, manioc, manduis, padades, wachekew, mandeochparpü, mandeochade, mandepare,[104] etc., and several other roots, the flesh of Indian sheep called amne,[105] an animal resembling a donkey, but that it has feet like kine and a thick and coarse skin, and that they had plenty also of deer, rabbits, geese, and hens; but that none of the Peijembas[106] as has been said, had ever seen all this, but only knew it by report of others. But we found afterwards how things were situated.
[104] Manduvis, potatoes, papas, etc.
[105] Anta, or tapir.
[106] Payaguás.
Having learned all this, our chief commander required to have some Peijembas to go with him into that country, whereupon they readily offered themselves, and presently their chief appointed three hundred Peijembas to accompany us to carry our victual and other necessaries. Our commander ordered these people to prepare themselves, for he would be starting in four days, and of the five ships he ordered three to sail, and on the other two he left fifty men of us Christians, whom he ordered to wait there during his five months’ absence, and that if within that space of time he returned not unto us, that we should go back with these two vessels to Noster Signora Desumsion. But it so happened that we abode among these Peijembas for six months, and never heard anything in the meanwhile of our commander Johann Eijolla,[107] and we grew short of victual, so that we were compelled to return with our temporary commander Martin Domingo Eijolla[108]