OF THE EXPEDITIONS OF FRANCISCO BARREDA, GENERAL
OF THE ST. IAGANS, AGAINST THE ABIPONES
AND MOCOBIOS.
Astigi, a city of Andalusia, was his native place. He was born of a most
respectable family, and had been in the King's service from his earliest
years. He set sail from Cadiz for Paraguay, while yet a youth, bearing
letters from the King, in the office of naval secretary. This voyage is
often performed in three or four months, with a favourable wind; Barreda
and his companions, miserably tost about the ocean, scarce reached the
port of Buenos-Ayres on the tenth. Having dispatched their business in
that city, all things were put in readiness for returning to Europe, and
they entered the vessel. But just as they were going to raise anchor, a
furious south wind encountered the ship, turned it on its beam-ends, and
would have sunk it, had it not been held by steady anchors. The crew
remained the whole night on a sand bank, expecting death every moment.
The shades of night increased their fears and their danger. All must
have perished, had not a boat arrived, at day-break, from the shore,
which is three miles distant from the place where the ships lie at
anchor. Barreda conceived such a horror of navigation, that, when his
companions returned to Spain, he remained in Paraguay, reserved by the
Almighty to repress the boldness of the savages, by whom he was more
dreaded in his age, than the sea had been by him in his youth. He was
removed from Buenos-Ayres to Salabina, a little town in the country of
St. Iago, where his skill in writing rendered him very useful. He
volunteered to accompany the soldiers in an incursion against the
savages, and after having, in repeated campaigns, given signal proofs of
wisdom and valour, was promoted first to command a troop of horse,
afterwards to lead them against the savages, and lastly to be chief
ruler, in the Governour's name, over the whole territory of the river
Salado; in which station, he commended himself to the Royal Governour of
Tucuman, by his many brave and noble actions, the chief of which was his
prevailing upon the Vilelas to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. By
means of his industrious efforts, ten thousand Vilelas quitted their
lurking-holes in the woods, entered the new colonies, and received
baptism. The small-pox, which broke out soon afterwards, cut off
greatest part of them, and the survivors settled first in the land of
Cordoba, and afterwards in the territory of St. Iago, where, as they
daily decreased more and more under other masters, they were committed
to the care of the priests of our order.
Barreda pursued the Abipones and Mocobios, who continued hostile, with
the rigour of arms, as he had conciliated the peaceful Vilelas by gentle
measures. If he did not entirely repress their boldness, he certainly
restrained and punished it with frequent discomfitures. The Royal
Governour, desirous of rewarding his merit, conferred on him the supreme
administration, in his name, of all affairs, civil and military, in all
the colonies of St. Iago. How well he answered to the good opinion
entertained of him, you may discover from the circumstance, that he held
this office for thirty years, and never laid it down till his death,
equally beloved by all good men, and dreaded by the savages. Many
declared that they saw nothing to object to in him but his goodness,
which almost appeared carried to an excess. In the punishment of
criminals, he showed himself more lenient, than hasty or severe; for he
used to say he would rather suffer ten guilty men to escape unpunished,
than punish one innocent man. Whenever he pronounced sentence, as a
judge, he endeavoured to favour the Indian rather than the Spaniard,
usually saying: _Hé de attender a la parte mas flaca_: I must defend the
weaker side. He had a very gentle disposition, by which he conciliated
all hearts; his person was handsome, and his body large and vigorous, so
that it was easy to infer how great a soul inhabited it. In uprightness
of conduct, in purity of mind, and in sincere piety, he excelled, or at
any rate equalled all the civil and military commanders of his time. His
love and reverence for the priesthood were very great. In the presence
of hundreds of soldiers, and of my Abipones, he disdained not to honour
my hand with a pious kiss; and to assist me as I was performing the
sacred rites. He devoted himself entirely to promoting the advantage of
the province committed to his care, so that he had no time to think of
heaping up riches, which is commonly thought the chief business of
Europeans in America. But though not very opulent, he was exceedingly
liberal. In short, by the splendor of his virtues, and by his famous
achievements against the savages, he obtained an immortal reputation,
but at the same time excited the envy of cowards and sluggards; a fate
which attends all eminent men, and is their constant inheritance. Noble
actions however clearly refute the accusations of the envious. Barreda
not only attended thirty expeditions against the Abipones and Mocobios,
but headed them all himself except three. The number of his victories,
such victories as are gained in America, was the same as that of his
expeditions. You would have thought that fortune waited on his
footsteps. But he used to impute his success not to fortune, but to the
favour of the Almighty, and to the activity and sagacity of his
soldiers; as if he himself had contributed little or nothing to the
prosperous event of the war. Yet it is allowed on all hands that the
success of these expeditions was chiefly owing to the prudence,
industry, and caution of Barreda. But he was not one of those generals,
who, to speak in the words of Livy, enter a contest, relying more on
their courage, than on their strength. The desire of fame or booty never
induced him to hazard an attack, unless he thought the hope of victory
greater than the likelihood of the most trifling slaughter. In order to
judge of this he carefully marked the situation of places, the numbers
of his adversaries, and the opportunities of the journey and of the
road. A band of scouts was daily sent forward, to discover the
ambuscades of the enemy, to examine their dwellings and their numbers,
or to surprize them unawares. Barreda detested any slaughter of the
savages, if attended by that of his own soldiers. "Where I am present,"
he said, "every thing goes on well. But if," added he, "I were utterly
to destroy all the savages in Chaco, at the expense of two soldiers
only, verily, on my return to the city, I should expect to be saluted
with mud and stones. The people are extremely desirous of the deaths of
the savages, but expect their own soldiers to be immortal in every
battle." As it had been clearly proved that Barreda was by no means rash
in undertaking expeditions, the people of St. Iago with willing minds
followed whithersoever he led, and under no leader did these excellent
soldiers make more daring achievements.
I have already mentioned that the people of St. Iago possessed a
singular skill at exploring, but that Landriel excelled in this respect
is doubted by no one. Barreda made use of him for many years as the
chief instrument of his victories; and by this penetrating discoverer of
the savages he was accompanied wherever he went. Other Spaniards, too,
out of the territories of St. Iago, took him for their guide whenever
the savages were to be attacked or repelled. I will give you an account
of a victory which Barreda gained chiefly by means of this man. As
Landriel was on his way home from the woods, where he had been employed
in collecting wax and honey, he fell in with Barreda, who had just set
off on an expedition against the Abipones, with many hundred horse.
"Tarry here awhile," said Landriel to him. "Let me carry home the mules
loaden with wax and honey, and to-morrow I will return provided with
proper horses, and conduct you straight forward to the dwellings of the
Abipones. I saw them myself very lately, and was compelled by hunger to
slay some of their oxen." Landriel was joyfully beheld by them all as a
propitious star, and not listened to without inspiring confidence of
victory. He stood to his promise, and returning the next day, was the
life of the party, and the eye and right hand of Barreda. In a few days,
as he knew the Abiponian horde to be at no great distance, he stations
the forces which were proceeding into Chaco, in a secure place, whilst
he himself, with another soldier, goes to discover whether the Abipones
continued in the same place where he had first seen them. In the
evening, leaving his horse to the care of his companion, he hastens
alone and on foot to the place where he had lately espied the dwellings
of the savages, but finds that they had changed their quarters. He knew
that close by was a lake, affording great convenience for a savage
horde. Thither he steals, and perceives from the number of fires that
the Abipones, whom he sought, had settled there. Returning to the place
where he had left his horse in the care of his companion, he finds that
both were departed; for the soldier, imagining that Landriel must have
been intercepted by the savages, from his staying so many hours, had
consulted his own safety by flight. Barreda, and all the other soldiers,
after vainly expecting Landriel's return for so long a time, began to
entertain the same suspicions. They were not aware that Landriel had to
return on foot, the same distance which he had gone on horseback. But
when at length he returned safe, Barreda resumed his courage, and all
the rest their hope of victory, especially when they understood that the
retreat of the savages had been discovered.
The journey was now begun, forthwith, under Landriel's guidance; and
when after many hours they had crossed a plain which was flooded to such
a degree as to bear the appearance of a lake, the dwellings of the
Abipones were seen, and instantly attacked. The very few men in the
place could not stand the assault of the Spaniards, but preferred flight
to combat. The Cacique who governed that horde, with most of the
efficient men, were then absent: doubtless, had they been at home, the
attack would not have proved entirely bloodless. Some of the Indians,
however, who were slower in their flight, were slain, and a train of
women and children taken captive. Various silver utensils, the fruit of
much plunder, many hundreds of horses, and numerous oxen, were the booty
of the Spaniards. The day being nearly ended, the Spaniards passed the
night in the same place; not sleeping, but watching, and all the
captives, many hundreds in number, were guarded in the fold where the
horses had formerly been kept.
Amongst the captives were some Spanish women, who had been formerly
taken in war by the Abipones; one of these persuaded the soldiers to
return by a different, and more convenient way than that by which they
had come, and this proposal was eagerly embraced by the soldiers, whose
clothes were still wet with the water of their yesterday's journey.
Meantime the report of the incursion of the Spaniards provoked to the
desire of vengeance all the Abipones who dwelt in the vicinity.
Exasperated by the captivity of their wives and children, they fell upon
the last company of the St. Iagans, but met with a brave repulse. Some
of the soldiers, however, forgetful of the danger, were nearly slain by
the savages, whilst at a distance from their companions. One of them
falling from his horse into a marshy place, would soon have been pierced
with spears, had not Captain Gorosito succoured him by the intervention
of a musket. The Indians, perceiving that their skirmishes had produced
no effect, withdrew to their places of concealment, leaving the
Spaniards to pursue their journey, without further molestation. Alaykin,
ill enduring the loss of so many people and horses, began to think of
establishing a peace with the inhabitants of St. Iago, and of requesting
a colony for himself; both of which he obtained, by the intercession of
Barreda. Numbers were slain, and about two hundred taken prisoners, in
another excursion undertaken by Barreda against the Mocobios, most of
whom, terrified by so much slaughter, took refuge in the town of St.
Xavier, which had been founded in the territories of Sta. Fè, for the
Caciques Aletin and Chitalin, and at that time contained about twenty
families, but was wonderfully increased by the accession of those whom
Barreda frightened into entering it, or freed from captivity and sent
thither. I pass by many other expeditions of this kind which Barreda
successfully conducted against the savages; some of them, however, I
shall touch upon in treating of the affairs of Cordoba. Barreda always
maintained that his assaults on the savages would have caused less
effusion of blood, had his soldiers, though excellent in every other
respect, paid more obedience to his orders. You shall now hear the
complaints he made against them.