PROGRESS OF THE TOWN OF ST. FERDINAND, WHICH WAS
RETARDED BY DEBAYAKAIKIN.
The Yaaukanigas, in proportion as they have less estimable qualities
than the other Abipones, are more arrogant and untractable; yet we never
despaired of bringing them to a better course of life, and of this there
appeared some likelihood, so long as they were the sole inhabitants of
the colony. The more advanced in age discontinued their usual incursions
against the Spaniards, and employed themselves in agriculture. Their
dispositions grew milder from daily intercourse with us. After some
months' instruction we joyfully beheld an appearance of civilization
beginning to flourish amongst them; their horror of baptism insensibly
wore away, many infants and young people received it with the consent of
their parents, and numbers of women and girls crowded to partake of the
daily instructions in the rudiments of religion. But the old female
jugglers thought it a crime even to touch the threshold of the church,
and did their utmost to prevent others from entering it; and to compel
the boys, who were driving about on horseback, to attend divine service,
was a matter of some difficulty. One of the Yaaukanigas, a man advanced
in years, came with his family to be baptized at the very beginning of
the colony. The strict integrity of this excellent man obtained him the
name of _Juan Bueno_, and his wife, daughter, and female Negro captive
were equally exemplary in their conduct.
The great hopes that we began to entertain of the happy advancement of
religion and of the colony, were all nipped in the bud by the unlucky
arrival of Debayakaikin, who, fearing an attack from Ychoalay, fled
thither with a troop of his hordesmen, thinking himself secure in a town
under the protection of the Spaniards. Of Ychoalay's challenge to
Debayakaikin, and the pacification effected by means of the
Vice-Governor of Corrientes, I have spoken elsewhere; I shall now show
how pernicious Debayakaikin's visit proved to the colony of St.
Ferdinand. His voracious and turbulent followers, besides privately
slaying oxen and calves, to the great loss of the estate, involved the
colony itself in a war with its neighbours, the Mocobios and Tobas. A
party of Mocobios, leaving the town of Concepcion, surprized the
unfortunate Alaykin, about day-break, in the open plain, and after
slaying him and seven of his fellow-soldiers, in an engagement, they
roasted and devoured them on the spot. Many wounded Abipones saved their
lives by the swiftness of their horses, but the women and children fled
for security to the recesses of a neighbouring grove. Pachiekè, to
revenge his father's death, persuaded the Yaaukanigas and Debayakaikin's
hordesmen to undertake an expedition against the Mocobios, in which
although scarcely any blood was shed, yet the Mocobios, provoked by this
hostile incursion, conspired to the destruction of the whole colony.
Repeated assaults were made both by day and night, and continued for
many years with various fortune: out of many I will relate a few.
About day-break a vast company of Mocobios suddenly made their
appearance in the market-place. Some of them surrounded Debayakaikin,
who was drinking with most of his hordesmen; the rest meantime,
unopposedly, carried off droves of horses that were wandering up and
down the pastures. This vast booty, however, cost the lives of some; for
Pachiekè, brother of the Cacique Narè, mounting a horse, attacked the
hindmost company as they were departing, and pierced some with his
spear, which, on his return, he displayed smoking with recent blood. On
many other occasions, the Yaaukanigas, having expeditious horses at
hand, pursued the flying Mocobios, and deprived them not only of the
horses they had plundered, but of those they had used on the journey,
sending them home on foot to report the deaths of their comrades. One
time the plain was deluged to such a degree that it did not afford a
single spot where the Mocobios could lie down at night; they therefore
made themselves beds by twining twigs here and there amongst the boughs
of the trees, and in these hurdles laid themselves down to sleep, but
were surprized at night by the pursuing Yaaukanigas, who slew some,
wounded others, and carried off the whole of the booty. Would that they
had been equally successful on the eleventh of December! that day, so
fatal to my horses, will never be erased from my memory.
The day before, a Guarany, who guarded the cattle, announced that, early
in the morning, he had observed the footsteps of the enemy, and that
many horses were missing. Whilst the Yaaukanigas were vainly deploring
their loss, I, with my companion Father Klein, and two young men,
traversed the plain for some time on horseback. We saw that a troop had
passed the Rio Negro, from their footsteps impressed on the sand, and
from the grass being trodden down by the multitude of horses. No one
doubted that the enemy were by that time at a considerable distance, no
one therefore thought of pursuing them. I often blew a military trumpet,
and with a loud voice we uttered many pleasant sayings in the Mocobian
tongue; we were both seen and heard by the Mocobios, who were lurking
hard by, but not attacked, because they purposed making an assault on
the town next day. No suspicion of the enemy's intention being
entertained, we all slept soundly. But lo! and behold, the next day at
eleven o'clock the same Mocobios came in sight of the town to carry off
the remaining herd of horses. Most of the Yaaukanigas being engaged in
the chase, the rest in drinking, and we ourselves in sleeping, as usual
with the Spaniards at mid-day, the women assembled together and filled
the market-place and our court-yard with their lamentations; awakened by
which we flew to repel the enemy, each furnished with a musket, and
rendered, by this means, formidable to ever so numerous a foe. Father
Klein set off first, accompanied by two Abipones. As I was following, a
drunken Yaaukaniga took me by the shoulder, and said, in a fierce tone,
"Where are you hurrying? Why don't you remain to guard the town? It is
better that our horses should be taken than our wives and children."
"Let me alone," replied I; "both shall be taken care of."
I was now farther from the town than from the enemies, and seeing the
plain filled with them as with a swarm of locusts, could scarce persuade
myself that such a multitude could be kept in awe by two muskets.
Nevertheless I hastily tied on my slippers that I might be disencumbered
in running, if a precipitate retreat were necessary, and advanced
towards the savages whom I saw Father Klein approaching; but they,
terrified at the sight of the musket alone, took to immediate flight,
carrying off with them a numerous drove of horses. Although the enemy
was gone we did not think ourselves free from the danger of an attack, a
cloud of dust causing us to suspect that a troop of savage horse was
approaching within the woods. The armed Yaaukanigas stood for some time
in form of battle, till at length we saw an Indian bringing back the
remains of the horses which had escaped the hands of the plunderers.
Quickly mounting these horses they all hastened, about sun-set, to a
place some leagues distant, named Likinranala; for they knew that the
Mocobios would pass that way, and therefore entertained great hopes of
being able to chastise them, and to recover the horses. But they
returned next day empty-handed, having been eluded by the craftiness of
the enemy, who, forewarned by their spies, that our people were lying in
ambuscade, avoided that situation, and swiftly fled with their booty
through ways impeded with marshes and reeds, first disencumbering
themselves of the saddles, and whatever else might retard their flight;
which, as it could be made no use of, our people burnt. For my own part
I had to lament the loss of some excellent horses, though consoled by
the circumstance that this aggression had ended without slaughter on
either side, though there is reason to doubt that all the Mocobios
reached home without loss of blood, as weapons were cast at them in
their approach to the estate by some Yaaukanigas who guarded the cattle,
but with what success is not known.