SMALL-POX THE ORIGIN OF MANY CALAMITIES AND
BLOODY ATTACKS.
When all the Mocobios and most of the Tobas were departed,
Keebetavalkin, the Cacique of the latter, remained some months with us,
till he died of the small-pox, after having received baptism from me; a
circumstance which stirred up the Toba nation against us, and was the
occasion of my receiving a bloody wound. I shall give the particulars of
the whole affair. Our Abipones had caught the small-pox in Fulgentio's
estate, and on their return to the colony infected all the other
inhabitants, excepting only those who had already undergone that
disease: and it may be looked upon as a great blessing that a disorder,
generally fatal to the Americans, proved so in this case to only twenty
out of nearly three hundred who took the infection, though it raged from
the 14th of May, till November. What trouble it occasioned me, who was
obliged to perform the double part of physician and priest, exceeds
belief. Nearly all my Abipones were still in a state of barbarism—either
alien to the rites of the church, or impious deserters and despisers of
them. Hence day and night I was filled with anxiety, that if the
medicines I administered failed to prevent death, I might at least, by
sacred rites, endow the souls of my patients with a blessed immortality;
a matter of infinite art and difficulty. For, alarmed at the death of an
old woman, the first that fell victim to the disease, all but a very few
fled from the colony, vainly endeavouring to preserve their lives in
remote recesses. Some crossed the Rio Grande, travelled to a distance of
twenty leagues, and left to themselves, destitute of all aid and
medicine, every one recovered. I was thus separated from most part of
the colonists, being ignorant of their place of concealment, and
consequently unable to approach them without guides, which were not to
be procured. Some were only four leagues distance from the colony; the
followers of Oahari only one; and these two hordes I was daily obliged
to visit, with extreme difficulty, on account of the rivers and marshes
that were to be crossed, and imminent danger from wild beasts, and
wandering savages. To provide both for the minds and bodies of these
wretches, I had to administer their food and medicine with my own hands,
and to explain to them the heads of religion, that they might be in a
fit state for baptism, to receive which, it was only with the utmost
difficulty that they could be persuaded, entertaining a notion, common
to all savages, of its causing death. To recall apostates to repentance
who had repudiated their legitimate wives, and abjured religion, was a
still more arduous business. Yet to show you how powerfully the
compassion of God was exerted on this occasion, none of them departed
this life without receiving baptism, except one woman, who, when first
attacked by the disorder, resisted my exhortations that she would
undergo that ceremony, denying that she was in any immediate danger.
Having found, from experience, that the fatal period of this disorder
amongst the Abipones was not in its rise, but in its progress, I thought
proper to yield to the entreaties of both husband and wife, and returned
home in the firm determination of soon re-visiting my patient. But,
alas! scarce a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when, to my great sorrow,
I heard that she had suddenly expired. My grief, however, was consoled
by a sort of hope that I entertained of her eternal salvation, founded
upon her having been previously fortified by religious virtues,
detestation of sin, and a resolution to receive baptism whenever she
felt her life in danger; all which, if sincere, enabled me to draw happy
presages for her from the boundless compassion of God.
Whilst fatigued with continual attendance upon the sick, I was
frequently harassed with anxiety respecting the preservation of the
colony. Daily reports were spread of the approach of the enemy, and
evident marks discovered of their ambuscades, which, however, our
vigilance always rendered nugatory. That above all was a memorable day
to me, when, at the very time that an assault was hourly expected, a
messenger came from the distant horde of the Cacique, announcing that an
Abiponian woman, ill of the small-pox, had been two days in dangerous
labour. For a little while I hesitated what to do. "Left," thought I,
"without a defender, the house and sacred utensils will be seized upon
by the enemy; I myself, if I go out into the country, shall perhaps be
surprized and murdered by them, and in that case the Abipones will be
destitute of all religious aid. Yet if I remain at home, the mother and
her offspring will probably perish without baptism." Religious
considerations at length induced me to despise the uncertain rumour of a
hostile attack, for the sake of averting present and certain danger from
the woman and her offspring, and I set off accordingly on foot and
unarmed. A herb which, at my advice, was administered to the woman in
labour, proved efficacious beyond my hopes, for whilst I was visiting
the tents of the sick, she was happily delivered of a living child
marked with the small-pox, which I was determined upon baptizing
immediately, though the grandmother furiously opposed my design. "What,"
vociferated she, "will you destroy the infant as soon as it sees the
light with those destructive waters?" Finding her clamours of no avail,
she ran to the father, a son of Debayakaikin, who was lying in a tent
hard by covered with mats, to defend him from the cold, as if _he_ had
just been delivered of a child, and implored him to prevent me from
accomplishing my intent; but, more sensible than the rest, he replied
that the will of the Father must be acquiesced in. Disappointed of the
support she had expected from her son-in-law, the old woman was very
near assaulting me tooth and nail; but being appeased by my gentle words
and expostulations, she recovered her temper, and on my promising that
the child should not be buried in the chapel in case of its death,
declared that she would no longer oppose my design. The child ceased to
live the same day that it received new birth at the sacred font: the
mother recovered. This shows what a prejudice the Abipones have against
being buried within the sacred walls, and under a roof. Not one of the
Abipones who died of the small-pox, would have consented to receive
baptism, had I not appointed a burying-place in a wood for the dead at
the beginning of the contagion. This I did in imitation of the
Guaranies, who have cemeteries walled round, and adorned with an elegant
chapel, and long rows of orange and citron trees, solely for the
reception of those who die of the small-pox, lest the vapours arising
from their bodies should prove a fresh source of contagion. To provide
against this in our colony, I placed the cemetery in that direction from
which the wind blew seldomest.
The trouble and anxiety that I underwent in continual attendance on the
sick, during seven months, may easier be imagined than described. The
principal and most numerous horde, that of the Cacique Oahari, which I
was daily obliged to visit, could not be reached without crossing a
river, both shores of which were marshy. As it was a matter of much time
and labour to extricate the horses from this mud, I generally performed
the journey on foot, speedily rowing myself over in a boat. This daily
habit of walking, during a period of many months, rendered my feet so
horny, that I was often obliged to cut pieces of skin from the soles of
them with a pair of scissars: for the leathern leggings which we wore to
defend us from gnats and other insects, though extremely convenient in
riding, used to rub and gall the feet of pedestrians, especially when
they were hardened with perspiration. How often have I had to travel
amid rain and thunder, or beneath the scorching heat of the sun, through
an extensive plain, afflicted with gnats, mud, and the snares of
wandering savages, that no good office might be wanting to the wretched
crowd of dying Abipones, for whose sake I loved to undergo danger and
fatigue!
Often, at this period, so great a number were confined to their beds by
the disease, that those in health were scarce sufficient to take care of
the sick, to bury the dead, and to mourn for them with the usual
ceremonies. No one's death afforded greater cause for lamentation than
that of the wife of Oahari, and daughter of Debayakaikin; a woman in the
flower of her age, distinguished for high birth, and second to none in
elegance of person and sweetness of manners. A few years before, having
been dangerously bitten by a serpent, she had received baptism in the
town of Concepcion. I, for my part, ascribed the death of this excellent
woman not so much to the small-pox, as to a crowd of juggler-physicians,
by whom she was always surrounded, whenever I visited her tent to
prepare her for death by religious aid.
Keebetavalkin, Cacique of the Tobas, and chief of all the physicians in
Chaco, for some time companion of the Abipones and Mocobios, in the
towns of St. Jeronymo and St. Xavier, but generally a wanderer, and now
a spy upon our affairs in the name of his countrymen, spent two months
amongst us with his wife and daughters. Not one of my people was
attacked with the small-pox but he had this savage Æsculapius to suck
and blow him; till from being continually in contact with the sick, he
at length imbibed the deadly poison himself, being now at an advanced
age. The sick man took care to be frequently removed from one situation
to another, in the hope of relief, as dying persons in our country are
wont to do. When on the point of death, he desired to be placed in a
little wood near the colony; a hut was accordingly constructed for him
in that place, of the boughs of trees, but so low that I could not
converse with him, as he was lying down, without stooping. There being
no longer any room to doubt of his extreme danger, after he had been
properly instructed and prepared, I baptized him in the early part of
the night, and he expired next day some hours before noon. The ferocious
Tobas, when informed of the baptism and death of their Cacique, accused
me, who had administered the one, of being the cause of the other, and
resolved to avenge him by arms, as I had openly foretold before we were
made acquainted with the intention of the Tobas; for I knew that to
these stupid savages baptism appeared more destructive than small-pox,
or the most subtle poison. The affair was not confined to threats alone:
a few days after, the revengeful Tobas drove away more than five hundred
horses from our pastures, in the dead of the night, and would doubtless
have slain some of our people had an opportunity offered. Our Abipones,
complaining of this loss of horses, flew to Asumpcion, and besought the
Governor to allow some Spanish horse to sally forth with them for the
purpose of chastizing the plunderers; and their entreaties seemed almost
needless, in requesting what had long been the Governor's own desire.
From what we shall relate hereafter, you will find the small-pox to have
been the occasion of mutual incursions and slaughters, and of the
shedding of my blood.