THE CACIQUE DEBAYAKAIKIN SLAIN BY YCHOALAY IN
BATTLE, AND HIS HEAD SUSPENDED FROM A GIBBET.
Ychoalay, not content with the name of an excellent defender, undertook
an excursion against Debayakaikin, the chief of the Abiponian
plunderers. Rejecting the subsidiary troops of Spaniards and Mocobios,
he only admitted into his company the bravest and most approvedly
faithful of his own people. When after some days' journey he perceived
that Debayakaikin's horde was near at hand, "Let us return," exclaimed
he: "a panic which I cannot account for, has got possession of my mind.
This unusual tremor portends something disastrous. Come, let us return."
His companions, revering these words as if they had been spoken by an
oracle, were just going to turn round, when "Holla!" cries another, "are
you not ashamed to return home with empty hands? I know that the horses
of Pachieke are pasturing undefended in a neighbouring field. What
hinders us from carrying off the whole drove, to indemnify ourselves for
those which he robbed us of on his departure?" This advice was approved
of, and having possessed themselves of the booty, they prepared for
their return. Pachieke, in the mean time, happening to ride that way,
sees the plain void of horses, and quickly suspecting the truth of the
matter, from the footsteps of the plundering Riikahés, flies to
Debayakaikin, laments the loss of the horses, asks for assistance, and
expresses great hopes of being able to pursue and chastise the enemy.
Without delay, all the neighbouring Abipones, with their Cacique
Debayakaikin, eagerly pursue Ychoalay, whom, having overtaken, they
challenge to the fight. As usual, the whole of the infantry joined
battle. Both sides fought furiously for some time, till victory declared
in favour of the Riikahés: for Debayakaikin, the Hector of his people,
was slain with a spear by Ychoalay; many of his followers received the
same fate from those of his adversary, and indeed, according to common
report, not one of the enemy would have escaped alive, had not the
conqueror prevented his soldiers from slaying the rest, declaring that
he thought no blame attached to the common herd of Indians, who had only
taken up arms in obedience to their leader. Pachieke, flying with his
people, more solicitous for his own preservation than for that of
Debayakaikin, plainly manifested that his chief courage was displayed
against the unarmed and unprepared.
Ychoalay cut off the heads of Debayakaikin, and four of his most noble
associates, and carried them home as trophies. Having entered the town,
he ordered a gibbet to be erected in the market-place, and the five
heads to be suspended from it. In the same place, surrounded by his
troops, he harangued the multitude from his horse. "Behold," said he,
pointing to the gibbet, "the chastisement of faith so often violated!
Behold the trophy of our valour! Now feed your eyes with the spoils of
hostile chiefs, who, for a length of time, have scarce permitted you to
breathe, and on whose account, alas! we have endured so many sleepless
nights, difficult journeys, and painful wounds. This ever various and
uncertain warfare, this conflict of so many years' continuance, has at
length been terminated to-day, when we, not even thinking of a battle,
and to say the truth, retreating, have had a glorious victory thrust, as
it were, upon our hands. Something must doubtless be attributed to
fortune, but allow me to say, still more to our valour. The whole affair
was conducted in such a way as gave me no reason to repent my choice of
fellow-soldiers, nor you to be ashamed of the leader you fought under.
He who has so long been threatening your lives, having at length
received his death-blow from this spear, can now no longer threaten or
inspire terror. This is the head which once devised so many treacheries.
Now insult the perfidious one; but lest the same fate attend any of you
likewise, be ever regardful of your faith pledged to the Spaniards, and
obedient to me who am so anxious for your welfare. I do not consider the
vile remnant of our enemies of sufficient importance to be deserving of
our fear. The most warlike are dead. The survivors are either cowards or
runaways, and owe their present existence merely to having escaped our
eyes and hands. The streams dry up when their spring is exhausted, and
after the head of the snake has been cut off, the rest of the body,
though it may move, is incapable of doing any mischief, and wastes away
in a few hours. After the extinction of their leaders, whose heads you
here behold, the inimical faction, either from despair of victory, or
apprehension of utter ruin, will, by degrees, grow milder, and, laying
aside all enmity, accept our friendship." Nearly to this effect, did
Ychoalay, who, from a leader, had become an orator, hold forth, and
attract to himself the eyes and ears of all; for no one doubted that his
words answered to his deeds, and his tongue to his hands. Do not imagine
that I have composed this oration myself, and put it into the mouth of
the savage. Many years' experience has proved to me that the Americans
can discourse on subjects suited to their capacities, not only with
prolixity, but with elegance, and embellish their assertions with
metaphors, similes, and figures of speech. They are certainly much more
copious and fluent in their language than the rustics of our country.
The four sons of Debayakaikin repaired at first to Ychoalay's horde, but
quitted it soon after, and took to a wandering course of life. But
neither of them, though sufficiently advanced in years, was thought
worthy to succeed his father in the office of Cacique. The whole nation,
divided into small parties, lived together under their own authority.
Some followed Oaherkaikin, others Pachieke, but many chose for their
leader Revachigi, a man of low birth, and few years, but in noble
actions, and endowments of mind and body, superior to any veteran.
The Nakaiketergehes, though dispersed in various hordes, prosecuted the
war against the Riikahés, with minds ever unanimous, and strength as far
as possible united, the recent slaughter of Debayakaikin stimulating
them to vengeance. Pachieke, pertinaciously hostile to the Cordobans,
was at length slain in an ambuscade in the country, and his death was a
fresh occasion for hostile excursions against the Spaniards. It would be
endless to relate the ever-varying successes of this war, by which the
town of St. Jeronymo was terribly afflicted, the progress of religious
and domestic affairs retarded, and the patience of the fathers
wonderfully exercised. But though they had to contend, during twenty
years, with scarcity, daily danger of their lives, and hostile
machinations, they never thought for a moment of deserting the colony,
and at last succeeded so far that they joyfully beheld more than eight
hundred persons initiated into the rites of the Church of Rome, besides
Ychoalay. If to these you add the infants or adults baptized by them,
when dying of the small-pox, or other diseases, you will judge that they
had no despicable fruits of their Apostolic labours.