A COLONY INHABITED BY THE YAAUKANIGA ABIPONES,
AND DISTINGUISHED BY THE NAME OF ST. FERDINAND
AND ST. FRANCIS.
The city of Corrientes, brought to extremities by the depredations of
the savages, had long been desirous to follow the example of the other
cities, and found a colony of Yaaukaniga Abipones, which might defend
them against the inroads of the Tobas and Mocobios. A little town was at
length prepared under the directions of the Vice-Governor Patron, and
with the consent of Ychoalay, who at first opposed the design. The
Indians had themselves made choice of a situation, which, though not the
most opportune, was approved by the Spaniards, from their being unable
to meet with a more eligible one. It is a small piece of plain ground,
two leagues distant from the western shore of the Parana, a little below
its junction with the Paraguay. Towards the east it has the city
Corrientes in front, and behind it flows the Rio Negro, the waters of
which are so bitter and salt that the very beasts refuse them. It is
surrounded on every side by woods and pools, all destitute of fresh
water, but swarming with leeches, crocodiles, and various kinds of large
snakes. This whole tract of land runs out into plain ground, partially
interrupted with marshes and woods, and affords rich and wholesome
pasture for cattle, especially where a grove of caranday palms is
extended for many leagues along the shore of the Parana. The soil, if
tilled, returns every kind of seed with interest. The trees are laden
with a variety of fruits, and resound with the singing of parrots and
other birds, and the chattering of apes. Boars, stags, deer, various
kinds of rabbits, capibaris, ducks, plenty of honey, alfarobas, and
noble trees, affording wood for making ships, waggons, or houses, are
every where to be seen. But tigers, alas! continually infest this place;
the climate, which is excessively hot, abounds in whirlwinds, lightning,
and rain; and the air, pregnant with noxious vapours proceeding from the
stagnant waters of adjacent marshes, as well as with innumerable gnats,
renders life unpleasant, and night intolerable to the inhabitants.
Yet here did the Yaaukanigas, for many years, make their abode. Their
Cacique, Narè, was a man of noble birth and distinguished prowess, but
not otherwise remarkable either for greatness of mind or body, and
notoriously addicted to women and drinking. Fonder of ease than of
business, he on all occasions betrayed a very indolent disposition. He
was thought, however, to have redeemed this vice of his nature by some
appearance of virtue, on account of the fidelity with which he adhered
to the peace he had granted the Spaniards; though this his followers,
eager for booty, attributed to fear rather than to virtue. He had many
younger brothers, amongst the most famous Pachiekè, a man endowed with
great boldness and equal sagacity, who made himself much dreaded in the
course of the war with the Spaniards: but who, by intemperance in
drinking, and frequent repudiations of his wives, had sullied his
reputation for valour. He entertained a great affection for Nicolas
Patron, who always partook of his deliberations when war was treated of.
We thought his sagacity of no less importance than his bravery, when the
enemies were to be dealt with. Besides Narè, some of the Yaaukanigas
followed Oahari and Kachirikin, men in the prime of their age, and
equally distinguished by their noble family and skill in plundering.
There was a great succession of priests of our order in the
administration of this colony: they all came full of health, but their
strength being exhausted, were generally recalled to recruit. It is
incredible what dangers and distresses were endured by Fathers Thomas
and Joseph Garzia, the first founders, amongst these ferocious savages.
Kachirikin, the most insolent of them, because he was not allowed to
slay cows at his pleasure, attempted to catch Father Garzia with a
halter, in the sight of the Spaniards. These men were succeeded in a few
months by Fathers Joseph Rosa and Pedro Ebia, who departed, the one
grievously affected in his feet, the other in his head. At last, Father
Joseph Klein, a Bohemian, though often ill in health, proved equal to
the burden, and sustained it to the end. What he did and endured for
about twenty years may be easier conceived than described. He was able
to overcome every kind of danger and misery, fearlessly despising the
one, and patiently enduring the other. He employed the annual subsidies
advanced by the Guarany towns, in establishing a rich estate on the
opposite bank of the Parana, from the profits of which he obtained every
thing necessary for feeding and clothing the Indians. I must here renew
my former complaint, that although the Spaniards derived so much
advantage from the peace and friendship of the savages, they did little
or nothing towards preserving their colonies, so that the whole weight
of anxiety respecting the support of the Indians, devolved upon our
shoulders. If it had depended upon the citizens of Corrientes alone,
this colony would most certainly have perished in its infancy from want
of food and necessaries of every sort. For nearly all the sacred
utensils, for our whole stock of cloth for clothing the Indians, and of
cattle in the estate, we were indebted to the liberality of the
Guaranies.
Joseph Klein often spent many months in this town without any companion,
but he was assisted at different times by Fathers Gregorio Mesquida,
Juan Quesada, and Dominico Perfeti, a Roman, to whom, he having been
long in a bad state of health, I was ordered by the Provincial to
succeed. Leaving St. Jeronymo, after spending two years there, I was
obliged to sail, for some days, against the stream on the river Parana,
in a wretched boat; the rest of the way from the little town of Sta.
Lucia to the city of Corrientes I travelled on horseback. The storminess
of the weather, the consequent marshiness of the roads and swelling of
the rivers, together with the neighbourhood of the savage Charruas,
rendered the journey extremely difficult, and, on many accounts,
dangerous. I was honourably conducted, by the then Vice-Governor, to the
colony of St. Ferdinand, on my first approach to which many things
presented themselves to my observation which could not but be
unpleasing—a place surrounded on all sides by marshes, lakes, and close
impending woods; air burning day and night; and a very small apartment
furnished with two doors but no window, and roofed with the bark of the
palm, so badly cemented, that, whenever it rained, you were as much
wetted in the house as if you had been out of doors. At dinner, water
was taken from a neighbouring ditch where numbers of horses, dogs, and
other animals daily drank and bathed, which received all the filth of
the town, and was full of leeches and insects of different kinds. When I
considered these things I no longer wondered that the health of my
predecessors had given way, and that the Indians themselves had so often
to contend with tertian fevers.
Although I had remained uninjured amidst a hundred calamities during the
former years, yet this situation had well nigh proved fatal to me. The
origin of my complaint was this. Towards sun-set the air was filled with
innumerable gnats, which intruded into my apartment when supper was
brought in, and by their stings and their loud hissing prevented me from
gaining a moment's rest. I passed whole nights without sleep, walking up
and down the court-yard for the sake of fresh air, which brought on a
loathing of food. Continual want of rest and sustenance reduced me to
such an emaciated state that I was literally nothing but skin and bone.
Some thought I could not survive above three months, but these sad
presages were prevented from being fulfilled by the humanity of the
Provincial, at whose command I was removed to the old towns of the
Guaranies. It was not without tears that I bade farewell to the
Abipones, amongst whom I had lived for five years, and with whose
language I was become pretty well acquainted; but the idea of returning
to them, when restored to health, mitigated my grief at parting. After
four months spent in the town of Sta. Maria Mayor, on the shores of the
Uruguay, the inveterate nausea departed, sleep and appetite returned,
and my health was completely re-established. After spending nine years
amongst the Guaranies, whose language, which is much easier than the
Abiponian, I soon learnt, I was again called out to found a colony for
the Abipones in Timbo, but returned at the end of two years. In short, I
performed the part of a missionary for eighteen years, spending seven
amongst the Abipones, eleven amongst the Guaranies.