MY STAY AT THE CITY OF ST. IAGO. THE VISIT OF OUR
CACIQUE, ALAYKIN, TO THE GOVERNOR OF SALTA.
After the customary salutations on both sides, I made my excellent
friend Barreda acquainted with the state of the colony. We held
continual consultations on the speediest remedies. In a few days a
courier was dispatched with letters to Martinez, Governor of Tucuman, at
Salta, whence the Governor sent another to Xexui, where the keepers of
the royal treasury reside. In the meantime, I was obliged to remain at
St. Iago, where I was by no means unemployed. Besides attending to the
business of the colony, I was almost daily occupied in confessing
Spanish and Negro penitents, who flocked to me from all quarters, as
being a stranger, and likely soon to leave the city. The Governor
Martinez had often and earnestly requested that Alaykin, and the other
Abiponian Caciques, might be sent to visit him at Salta, as he was in
hopes of being able to conciliate them by fair words, handsome
entertainment, and liberal gifts: but the savages are of a suspicious
and fearful temper, and always apprehend treachery and deceit in the
friendship of the Spaniards. Alaykin, though often invited, had
uniformly declined going: now, induced by what reasons I do not know, he
suddenly arrived, whilst I was at St. Iago, with two of the more
reputable Abipones, and after resting three days in that city, pursued
his journey to Salta. The provident Barreda sent two Spaniards with him,
one to act as guide, the other as interpreter, and both as defenders
against assailants. This journey was little approved either by Barreda
or myself; because we foresaw that should any one of the Abipones perish
amongst those rocks, either from the unwonted cold of a foreign clime;
or from tertian ague, which is very common there, on account of the
unwholesome water; or from any other cause; the whole Abiponian nation
would undoubtedly attribute it to the malignant arts of the Spaniards,
and this suspicion would be the origin of an immediate war. The first
day that the Abipones spent at St. Iago they were very near conceiving
suspicions injurious to the Spaniards. At that time the yearly rite was
solemnized of carrying about the holy wafer, some praying with a loud
voice, some singing, and others dancing, to imitate David when he leapt
before the ark of the covenant. To testify the public joy, very small
muskets were fired up and down the streets. The Abipones, as yet
ignorant of these ceremonies, would have sworn that the Spaniards were
saluting them with gunpowder, had I not made them sensible of their
error. At the time when the procession is passing through the streets,
men dressed in a ridiculous costume like merry-andrews, and called by
the Paraguayrians _Cachidiablos_, run about, and strike the common
people with a whip, if they trespass upon silence or religious decorum.
Suppose one of the Abipones, whilst walking about unarmed, had received
a single blow from these foolish harlequins, when would they have ceased
complaining of the injury done them by the Spaniards? What an argument
would it have been for breaking terms with them, and renewing the war?
It may be generally observed, that the savages, however friendly to the
Spaniards, can never sojourn long in their towns without endangering
this amicable disposition. They imagine injuries though they do not
receive any, and are often offended at a shadow.
Reflecting upon these things, I would not be persuaded by Barreda to
accompany the Abipones who were going to Salta, representing that if the
Governor reproached them with faults of which he might have been
informed by Father Sanchez, they would suspect me of having been their
accuser, and pronounce me deserving of the eternal hatred of the whole
nation. Alaykin was sumptuously entertained, and clothed by the Governor
at great expense, but with little profit; for on his return, when he
displayed his splendid dress of valuable scarlet cloth, and boasted of
all the honours heaped upon him by the Governor, "See!" said they, "how
we are feared by the Spaniards!" Thus acts of liberality and kindness
were foolishly construed into testimonies of fear. The lower orders of
Spaniards, too, were angry at beholding Alaykin bedecked in a beautiful
Spanish robe, "Look!" they exclaimed, "this is the reward which a fellow
who has merited the gallows an hundred times over, obtains for
plundering and burning our property." Alaykin himself, however, was so
little taken with the splendor of this Spanish dress, that he let it lie
and mildew in the chest, never appearing in the town with it but once,
and then, without shirt, shoes, or breeches, he was rather an object of
laughter than of admiration.
It is worthy of remark, that at the very time when Alaykin was
entertained in so friendly a manner by the Spaniards, some Abipones
broke into the estates of the Cordobans to carry off horses, but were
put to flight by a soldier. One of the fugitives, a hordesman of
Alaykin, was taken, and detained in prison at Cordoba; but at the
earnest request of Barreda and myself was suffered to return home, lest
the savages should avenge his captivity by the blood of the Spaniards.
About the same time it was announced that a company of Abipones had
attacked the St. Iagans in the Silvas del Hierro, as I have related
elsewhere. Although this incursion had been headed by Oaherkaikin, it
was attributed to the fellow-soldiers of Alaykin by ill-natured people,
who wished to get our colony and its founder Barreda into disrepute. But
this fable was afterwards detected by means of the captives, who, when
restored to liberty, declared that their comrades were slain, and
themselves made prisoners by the hordesmen of Debayakaikin.