A JOURNEY TO THE GRAN CHACO
The Gran Chaco, or "great hunting-ground" of Western Paraguay, is a
land of wooded plains and little patches of primeval forest, about
which astonishingly little is known even to-day. White men have never
yet explored more than the fringe of it, and it was to an Englishman
that the honour fell of being the first European in a period of forty
years to venture into the unknown region, as well as of proceeding
farther through it than any of his predecessors had done. This was in
1853, when Mansfield made his celebrated journey up the Paraguay
River.
Charles Blachford Mansfield, the dearly loved friend of Kingsley,
Maurice, Carlyle, and other great thinkers of a bygone generation, was
one of those men whose physical bravery and spirit of enterprise are
hidden from all but close observers by the shyness natural to a
scholar, and by the gentle earnestness of a man who takes life very
seriously. While travelling down the South American coast from
Pernambuco to Buenos Ayres, he incidentally heard much talk of this
mysterious hunting-ground from his fellow-passengers; but he no sooner
hinted at his desire to see it than he brought a hail of ridicule on
himself. Who but an Englishman would think of trying to go where the
Paraguayans themselves dared not venture?
The same doubts or ridicule assailed him when he spoke of his
intention to the Spanish skipper of the river steamer on which he took
a passage from Buenos Ayres to Corrientes.
"Ask the crew, Senor; some of them are of Indian blood; they will tell
you all about the Paraguay," said he scornfully.
To the quiet scientist, whose pursuits kept him mainly among people of
his own social standing, this crew was something of a revelation:
Zambos, blacks, Mestizos, Italians, Spaniards, most of them as dirty
and lazy and insubordinate as they were high. The negroes and whites
had never been farther up than Corrientes, but some of the half-bloods
had been as far as Asuncion, and these said unhesitatingly that even
if the Englishman could get canoemen to take him up the Paraguay to
the capital, every inch of the way was dangerous on account of the
uncivilised Guaranis; and that--supposing he reached Asuncion
alive--he would not be permitted to enter upon the Chaco.
"Take me as far as Corrientes and I will be responsible for the rest,"
said Mansfield. "At least I can but try."
The voyage up the Parana was monotonous, for the boat was seldom close
enough to either bank to admit of more than a confused view of the
country, and the solitary Englishman was relieved when the two days'
journey came to an end. On the second morning, when he went on deck
the boat was making a stop, and he profited by it to slip off shirt
and trousers and take a cool, delicious header into the river. Coming
to the surface again he glanced up at the steamer, for the crew were
all screaming one against the other; a charitable Zambo was heaving
him a life-belt which (on finding that there were no objectionable
reptiles anywhere near him) he laughingly refused. He had his swim,
swarmed up a rope, and reached the deck again.
"Did I not say he was possessed, or mad?" he overheard the skipper
growl in Spanish.
"What made the Senor do that?" asked the friendly Zambo soothingly.
"For pleasure, _amigo_; and in order to be clean. In my country it is
the custom to have a cold bath or a swim every morning."
The half-breed turned away, tapping his forehead gravely, and
communicated this piece of news to the white men, who seemed even more
astounded. Wash? What _for_, in the name of all the fiends? They had
scarcely ever heard of such an operation.
In Corrientes, Mansfield whiled away a few days in trying to obtain
further information about the Chaco; but without much success. The
civic authorities, from whom he had first to gain permission to move
any higher up the river, made little demur; privately they thought the
town would be well rid of a wandering maniac. They told him that he
might possibly find Indian canoemen who would take him to Asuncion,
though he would be almost the first Englishman who had ever been
there; but that he must assume entire responsibility for such a
venture; they would offer no hindrance, but no help either.
As luck would have it, while he was loitering on the jetty one
evening, a large canoe, manned by four Indians and laden with oranges
and plantains, ran alongside. That they did not belong to these parts
was evidenced by their great size, their strange dress and easy
motions, and by the number of native words with which their Spanish
was interlarded. A crowd of buyers gathered round them, and their
cargo was very soon disposed of; indeed, the townsfolk seemed only too
anxious to let them do their business and take themselves off again,
the brawny forest-giants being about as welcome here as Genseric's
Vandals were in Rome.
When the crowd had dispersed, Mansfield approached the Indians and
asked if they were going up the river again. They stared at him, more
in wonder than in ill-humour.
"Yes," said one of them at last. "To-morrow." (No one in South America
ever yet did anything "to-day"; has not _manana_ fever become a
byword?)
"I want to come with you. I will pay you well, if you will take me and
my luggage up to Asuncion."
The savages hesitated, muttered among themselves, and at length one
remarked half-sulkily that it was a long journey; nearly two hundred
miles. The Senor was doubtless in a hurry, and speaking for themselves
they objected to being hurried. They would want to kill deer to take
back with them; perhaps to catch fish as well. Mansfield said that
that would be no objection, and, in the end, they agreed to set off
with him in the morning.
Their respect for the stranger increased somewhat when, the next day,
his luggage appeared, and was found to contain a very excellent
double-barrelled gun; they themselves had only spears and bows, and
were inclined to pooh-pooh firearms except for fighting. Who ever saw
a gun kill a manatee, they asked; or a cayman, or even an inia
(fresh-water dolphin)? The boat pushed off and swung rapidly round the
bend of the river, and out of sight of civilisation. Then the
Englishman began to cultivate his crew's acquaintance. Physically they
formed a striking contrast to any of the town Indians he had seen; all
were naked but for a waist-cloth of deer-skin; their hair, done in
either one or two plaits, reached almost to their heels, though not
one of them was under six feet three. At first they were very reserved
with their employer, but when, treating them like children, he began
to distribute sweet cakes and other confectioners' ware, such as they
had never beheld, their tongues were loosed, one topic led to another,
and they soon forgot to be shy or suspicious.
On the first day they showed no disposition to stop or land till
night-time, and as they hugged the left bank all the way, Mansfield
had the advantage of seeing what was to be seen without the delays
that he had anticipated. Whatever else happened on this hazardous
journey, starvation would surely be kept at a distance, for in that
vast forest through which the Paraguay runs, are no less than four
hundred and fifty varieties of birds, from eagles to creatures the
size of a thumb-nail, together with deer innumerable; while the fish
in the stream almost plead to be caught. Mansfield already knew enough
of the climate to be aware that, even in summer, when the sun has
gone in, warm coverings are necessary; and he had supplied himself
with a pair of good blankets, thinking that he would be expected to
sleep in the canoe. But, at sundown, the Indians ran inside a tiny
creek and three of them took up their bows and arrows, while the
fourth clambered up the bank, spear in hand. Mansfield started to ask
questions, but was immediately frowned into silence.
The Indian disappeared behind a thick curtain of bush and creeper, and
was followed by one of his friends, who stood on the bank within
sight; while the other two remained in the boat, standing like
beautiful copper statues, their bows bent, their eyes fixed on the
trees or the bank. After a little rustling behind this natural
curtain, there came the sharp click of a flint and, a little later,
the crackling of burning grass; but not till a great burst of smoke
arose, followed by a roaring flare, did the other Indians drop their
weapons.
"That will keep the jaguars away," said one of them. "They come down
to drink just about this time."
"Were you afraid that one of them might spring out on your comrade?"
asked Mansfield.
"Who knows? It is not only they that have to be guarded against. Do
you hear that noise? That is a puma; ocelots sometimes will spring
upon us from a tree; a tapir will attack us if her young one is with
her. And what of the snakes and the alligators?"
"Then why land at all for sleeping?"
The Indians shivered. "Have you never heard of water-boas? The
Paraguay is full of them; by day they rarely come up; but at night!
Come; our fire is big now; we are going to moor the boat and land."
When he got ashore, the traveller found that a whole bush formed the
substance of the fire; a little dry grass had been laid to the
windward side of it, and the bush, being of a resinous nature, soon
flared up like an oil-barrel. The fire-maker was returning from
collecting fuel, and had both arms full of fallen wood, with which he
banked up a solid fire before the bush could roar itself out. The
Englishman had his own opinion on the wisdom of lighting fires in such
overgrown spots, and was not surprised when, during that river
journey, they passed many patches--some over a hundred acres in
extent--where almost every tree had been consumed by some recent
conflagration.
"So there are water-serpents here, are there?" he asked as they seated
themselves as near to the fire as was consistent with comfort.
"Yes; some of them thirty feet long, or even forty. They will
sometimes upset a whole canoe, or will lift a man out of his seat
and drag him to the bottom." This may or may not be an Indian
exaggeration, but it is certainly a fact that the anaconda and his
many brethren in the Paraguay make no trouble of carrying off a calf
or small deer that has come down to drink.
"To-morrow we must kill something," said another Indian as he
unwrapped a slab of _carne seca_, or dried beef, from a strip of grass
matting. "This is all that is left. See after the water, one of you."
A redskin had brought a great pot full of water from the river, and
this he wedged nicely on the fire where the ashes were the most
solid. Mansfield sighed; were they going to make chocolate, a drink
which he loathed? By the time the beef was eaten, together with the
French bread which the explorer had brought as a special luxury for
his guides, the water boiled; and it transpired that they were not
going to drink chocolate, for one of the men produced from a bag a
great handful of dry, curled leaves, whipped the pot off the fire and
dropped the leaves into it, stirring the whole vigorously with a
stick.
The leaves were the _yerba mate_--generally abbreviated to _mate_--or
Paraguay ilex; a sort of holly which occupies exactly the same
position among the South Americans as tea does with the Chinese.
Another Indian cut five hollow stalks of a plant that looked to the
scientist suspiciously like hemlock; but he supposed the man knew what
he was doing, and accepted the one that was offered to him. As soon as
the decoction was sufficiently stirred, the redskins thrust their
stalks into the almost boiling liquid and began to suck greedily at
it. Mansfield took his place in the circle round the pot when its
contents had cooled somewhat, and found it exceedingly refreshing,
though rank and bitter to anyone not used to it. But as he drank more
freely, he became aware that, like many other good things, it may
become a curse instead of a blessing to a man; for he soon found
himself growing drowsy under its influence; but the Indians, more
accustomed to it, were equal to his share as well as their own, and
emptied the pot unmovedly. On later occasions he saw natives quite
stupid or unconscious through over-indulgence in the beverage.
He rolled himself in his blankets and was soon asleep; but he was
awakened at daybreak by the ceaseless chatter of the monkeys in the
trees overhead. The Indians were already astir, packing up their
weapons and cooking-utensils, and showing generally that this was the
most energetic period of the day with them. The most noticeable
feature of their behaviour now was that they had become as careless
and bold as, over night, they had been vigilant and calculating; and
this point perhaps marks more strongly than any other the difference
between the Indians north and south of the Mexican frontier. The
attacks in the dark, the night marches so common among the northern
redskins, are almost unknown in the south and centre; and in all
likelihood this has arisen from the comparative scarcity of nocturnal
animals in the north. For one square mile of the Amazon contains more
animals of the cat tribe than a hundred miles of the Mississippi, and
the only beasts likely to be abroad after dark, apart from a few
pumas, are the wolves, of which the North American Indian has no
fear.
Mansfield and two of the guides had got into the canoe, when those on
the bank held up each a warning hand and fitted an arrow to his bow. A
rustling noise came from among the trees and a very graceful though
short-legged deer came bounding from between them. No deer ever moved
at such a speed unless frightened or pursued, and the Englishman was
not surprised to see a dark-skinned animal rise from the ground some
few feet behind the fugitive and fall full on its back with a snarling
roar that a good-sized lion could scarcely have beaten. A confident
smile played over the faces of the Indians in the boat, who took no
more notice of the slayer than they would have done of a rabbit.
[Illustration: STOCKING THE LARDER
As they watched from the canoe a graceful deer darted out of the thicket
closely pursued by a full-grown jaguar. No sooner had he slain his prey
than the two Indians coolly approached and planted one arrow in his neck
and another in his ribs, and while one of them dragged away the carcase
of the deer, the other put an end to the jaguar with his spear.]
"Why should not the _tigre_ save us the trouble of hunting?" said one,
disdaining all pretence at silence.
Just then the roar was repeated, this time more ear-splitting than
before; the yell of a beast in great pain. Mansfield peered
through the bushes and saw the Guaranis walking in very leisurely
manner towards the place where the deer had fallen. Almost as its
assailant--a full-grown male jaguar--put an end to its struggles
by taking the head between its immense paws and breaking the neck,
two arrows had pierced him simultaneously; one through the ribs and
the other through the neck, and the howl which the watchers in the
boat had heard was his last.
The taller of the Indians dragged the deer's carcase free, while his
companion contemptuously drove his spear-blade into the expiring
jaguar, and the venison was quickly butchered and brought in triumph
to the canoe. The two hunters chuckled as they got into the boat; they
had now enough food for to-day's needs and meant to take it easy:
another difference between the Indian who lives within the tropics and
him who lives outside; only hunger or strict business will prompt the
one to exert himself to go a-hunting; the other is a sportsman born.
No event worth chronicling befell the little crew till, a day or two
later, they were within ten miles of Asuncion. The canoemen were
dipping their paddles lazily, and Mansfield himself was inclined to
doze, for it was getting towards the middle of the day, when a
horrified whisper, which he could not catch, passed from mouth to
mouth. In an instant the Guaranis threw off their lethargy, and the
explorer saw that a look of terror had come into every eye; the
paddles flew through the water, the men straining till the sweat
streamed down their faces, and till their veins swelled as though they
must burst.
He spoke encouragingly to them, but obtained no answer; the Indians
only paddled the faster, till their panic began to communicate itself
to him; for it is always the unknown that is most terrifying. Two
minutes passed, and they did not abate their speed or answer the
questions put to them. Surely it could not be anything so very awful,
for, only ten minutes before, a schooner-rigged vessel had overtaken
them on its way up the river; whatever the peril was, she seemed to
have escaped it. Mansfield had known what danger was, for he had
worked like a hero among the poor of South London during the cholera
outbreak of five years before; but, when the third minute had passed,
he found that the suspense was becoming unbearable. A minute is a
short time, but those who have passed through great danger or
uncertainty know that it can sometimes seem like a week.
"Well; now what was it?" he asked, breaking into a laugh as the men,
uttering exclamations of relief, rested on their paddles and wiped
their brows.
"Hornets!"
"_Hornets?_"
"You laugh, Senor. God help us if they had followed us. Did you not
hear their murmurings? Some fiend-begotten monkey had disturbed their
nest; 'tis to be hoped he has got his reward. Two of my brothers were
stung to death last year in less than a minute by a swarm of them; and
there is a man of our tribe who is stone-blind through them."
* * * * *
Asuncion is, to-day, a town of only forty-five thousand inhabitants,
and had not then half that number. With the exception of W. P.
Robertson and a few other bold traders, Charles Mansfield was probably
the only Englishman who had then set foot inside it. He made it his
head-quarters for the next two and a half months, and, during that
time, made various excursions into the Gran Chaco.
On one occasion he joined a party of Indians who were going out there
deer-hunting; and, though there was nothing specially new to him in
their methods, he was enabled to examine the country under favourable
circumstances. No doubt there was something in the report of its
inhabitants being dangerous; for the men with him were hardy, fearless
fellows, well used to bearing arms; and even these would not attempt
to reach the more distant of the inhabited regions.
To him the hunting was more wearisome than agreeable, for it consisted
mainly in crawling along on hands and knees mile after mile--so it
seemed--till the sportsmen were within bowshot of a herd, which
promptly fled before a single arrow could be launched at them. The
crawling began again, and in course of time another or the same herd
was reached, and these fled at the first discharge of arrows. The
carcases were collected and hidden, and the creeping was begun afresh,
but no more herds were overtaken. Then the Indians had recourse to a
very common though unsportsmanlike dodge; they concealed themselves,
shortly before sundown, by a river where, as the wind was, the deer
would not scent them when they came down their usual path to the
water. But, further disappointment, a thunderstorm came on, the deer
spent the night under the trees, and the Indians went home disgusted.
With the practical eye of a real philanthropist, Mr. Mansfield noted
all the advantages of this great and fertile hunting-ground--or as
much of it as he was able to see. He returned to England full of a
great project for colonising the Chaco and educating the Indians--a
scheme which was never carried out. For, only a few months later,
while he was performing a chemical experiment, a naphtha-still
ignited; and, while pluckily trying to throw it into the street to
save the house from catching fire, he sustained injuries which caused
his death, at the early age of thirty-six.