THE EXPLORATION OF THE SALADO VALLEY
When poor Charles Mansfield made his journey up to the unknown Chaco,
he passed, on his way, a district equally unknown at that time: the
valley of the Salado River, which remained unexplored till 1863, when
Hutchinson, the African traveller, traced the river to its source.
Thomas Hutchinson, F.R.S., had been appointed British Consul at
Rosario in 1862, and, before leaving England, had been instructed by
the Foreign Secretary (Earl Russell) to take the first opportunity of
exploring the Salado and its basin, and to test the truth of the
report that the Indian territory there abounded in wild cotton.
It was not till the following year that he could spare time for a task
which might occupy an indefinite period; and then he ascended the
Parana by steamer as far as Parana City, rode across to Santa Fe,
which is on the Salado River, and there began to make inquiries.
Generally, a man on such an errand finds plenty of people ready to
pour cold water on his schemes and to draw his attention to
innumerable obstacles; but this time the reverse was the case. Though
he could find none of the inhabitants who had ever been more than a
few miles higher up than Santa Fe, when he returned to his hotel that
evening, the landlord informed him that a gentleman who was now in the
smoking-room had just arrived by private steamer from Buenos Ayres,
and had been asking the same question as himself: did anyone know
anything of the upper part of the Salado?
The stranger was one, Don Ruberta, a young Argentino engineer who had
studied in London; he had been making a survey of the Colorado and Rio
Negro, and aspired to do the same on the Salado. He proposed starting
on the following morning, and at once begged the Consul to accept the
hospitality of his little launch; and so it came about that outlying
Guaranis, Quitenos, and Chiquitos were enabled to behold a steam
vessel--and probably an Englishman--for the first time.
The crew, which consisted of a Portuguese engineer and three Zambos,
were as ignorant of the neighbourhood as their employer; but the main
charm in river exploration lies in the fact that, so long as rapids,
or dilemma-like forks, or mud-banks do not intervene, you have but to
follow your nose. On the first day they passed sundry Indians in
canoes, but these evinced no excitement or curiosity. Don Ruberta had
divided his coal into two parts, and meant, if necessary, to steam for
as long as the first half held out. At night the vessel stopped from
dark till dawn, to avoid mud-banks, and in order that the explorers
might miss nothing that could be of importance. By the middle of the
second day they came to a _rancheria_, or collection of Gaucho huts,
standing about a mile back from the left bank; and, as it looked as
if some valuable information might be obtained here, the two men
landed and strolled up the hill.
The place was a very large horse-farm, but the Gauchos could tell them
little or nothing of what they wanted to know, for their trade was all
with Santiago or Cordoba, and they never had occasion to use the
river. But one of the employes, a Quiteno Indian who hailed from the
Bolivian frontier, said modestly that he could tell the senors all
they needed to know about the river.
"Then will you come with me as pilot for a few days?" asked Ruberta.
"I will come--that is, if you are well armed. For there are wild
people higher up, who eat man's flesh; they run from guns, but they do
not fear arrows unless there are many bowmen. Then, too, there are the
river Chiquitos, who may blow poisoned darts at us unless we keep them
at a distance."
No objection was raised by the Gauchos, to whom Hutchinson gave a
small money present, and the Indian retired to "pack up." The luggage
with which he very shortly reappeared was doubtless cumbersome; but
then it comprised all that he needed, whether for a journey to the
United States, or for setting up housekeeping permanently. Over his
shoulders were slung bow, quiver, blanket, lance, and copper pot; in
one hand he carried a hatchet, a bundle of lassoes, and two bolas; in
the other, some spare thongs, a well-seasoned paddle, a pair of
stirrups, each as big and wellnigh as heavy as the skidpan of a
waggon-wheel, the sharpened angles of which did duty for spurs; while
at his belt hung a knife and a deer-skin pouch, the latter containing
flint and steel, palmetto-leaves, tobacco, and a little bag of dried
_mate_. Happy Quiteno; he was ready for any emergency; whether
fighting, boat-building, horse-catching, or beast-slaying! Of the
launch he had not much opinion; if it did not sink with all that
weight of machinery, it would catch fire at any moment; nothing would
persuade him to sleep in the tiny forecastle with the Zambos, and he
passed the night wrapped in his blanket on deck.
The _rancheria_, he said, was the last civilised spot they would pass,
for Tucuman was many days' journey away from the water; so was Salta;
and, after that, the river became only a stream, running through the
territory of the Aymaras. The cotton he knew nothing about, which,
from Hutchinson's point of view, was awkward, as it would mean many
landings and perhaps many fruitless searches.
The next morning the Consul woke soon after dawn, to find the guide
peering through the hatch of the little after-cabin where he and
Ruberta slept.
"The man-eaters have come," whispered the Quiteno; "they have been
watching us all night, I suppose. If you bring your gun you can kill
many of them."
Hutchinson went on deck and looked towards the nearer bank, which was
about eight yards away. Crouching behind the reeds were some fifty
Indians. He called out to them in Spanish; they made no answer, but
slunk backwards a few steps up the slope, so bringing themselves into
full view. They were of medium height, stark naked, with no ornaments
whatever, and armed only with short spears. The explorer had seen
Niger savages and Fuegians, but neither had the debased, abject look
of these men.
"Speak to them in your tongue. Tell them we mean no harm," he said.
The Quiteno obeyed, and it was plain that they at least partially
understood him.
"The dogs!" he said scornfully. "They think our boat is alive. May I
kill them, Senor?"
"Rubbish. Tell them I and my friend are coming on shore after
breakfast.--Ah, Senor Don; here are the cannibals, you see."
"What do they say?" asked Ruberta, laughing.
"The dogs!" reiterated the guide. "They say that my people kill and
eat them;" and he would have unslung his bow, but that Hutchinson
stayed him.
"Tell them we will do them no harm, and that we are only coming to
look for flowers; but that if they attempt to injure us we shall kill
them." This menace was more to the Indian's taste, and he delivered
the latter part of it with unction.
"They say they are not afraid of _you_, gentlemen, because you have no
bows. It is I whom they fear."
The crew had now come on deck, and at their appearance, one by one
from the bowels of the boat as it were, the savages retreated still
farther. The Zambo cook, as usual, laid the explorers' breakfast on
deck.
"Let's test them with a little Christian diet," said Ruberta, flinging
a bunch of bananas towards the inquisitive crowd, who at once
scrambled for it. Those who succeeded in getting one of the fruits ate
it greedily, rind and all, which told a tale: there was no fruit about
here, and the savages, not having energy or courage to travel, had
never tasted such a delicacy. Hutchinson cut off a thick round of cold
ham and threw it after the bananas. The man who captured it took a big
bite, and while he coughed and spluttered at it, his neighbour
snatched the remainder from him, and was soon coughing in like manner.
They had never tasted salt.
"Try them with bread," said Ruberta to the cook, who took a steaming
cake from his frying-pan and threw it on the bank. But no one picked
it up. Already the smoke from the engine-funnel had surprised if not
terrified them.
"They think it is alive," said the Quiteno, "because it steams. They
are not men, Senors; they are monkeys; they do not understand half
what I say to them, and I suggest that your excellencies should kill
them all."
Hutchinson had already taken it for granted that they did not
understand all that was said, for accustomed to listening attentively
to uncivilised speech, he had detected in theirs that continual
repetition of certain sounds, which argues a scanty vocabulary. When
breakfast was finished he filled his pipe, and Ruberta rolled up a
cigarette; this brought the Indians a pace nearer again, and made them
stand on tiptoe; but when one of the white men struck a match they
sprang back again, and, at sight of the smoke issuing from the
strangers' lips, they set up a chorus of little shrieks that
suggested even more fear than surprise; and was repeated with double
vigour when the Quiteno and the crew also "lit up." That an Indian, of
all people, had never seen smoking told a tale in itself.
"Now draw in, Pedro," said Ruberta to his engineer, who backed his
engine, making towards a natural landing-place which had been observed
on the previous night. "Diego; tell them once more we will not hurt
them."
The Quiteno repeated the message, which seemed to be received with
indifference; but, as he leapt ashore, every spear was poised, and
levelled at him.
"Come back. Ask them what's the matter," said Hutchinson.
Diego jumped back to the deck.
"They are saying that I want to kill them with my spear and arrows."
"Well, then, let them see you lay them down."
"I cannot go without my arms, Senor."
"Stupid fellow; borrow Senor Pedro's revolver, but hide it in your
pouch; if they see it, they'll want it, because it shines." Then the
explorer, versed in the ways of such people, held up a string of
bright beads. He might as well have held up a turnip, for all the
excitement or cupidity it created; and some scarlet cloth met with no
better reception.
"Shall I try them with these, Senor?" said the Zambo cook, coming aft
with a small basket of yesterday's fish which he had been keeping for
bait.
_That_ they understood; their eyes brightened a little--a very little;
and, as the half-breed threw each raw and anything but fresh fish to
them, it was scrambled for and greedily devoured.
The Quiteno now jumped a second time; the Indians started distrustfully,
but did not threaten him with their spears, and the two white men
followed him, their hands prudently on their hidden revolvers. The
savages chattered excitedly, but still made no offensive motion.
"Ask them about the cotton, Diego," said the Argentino. "Tall yellow
flowers, with purple spots, tell them."
"Yellow? What? Flowers? We eat them," was the lucid reply which Diego
obtained.
The truth was, the poor wretches were so degraded and helpless, that
apart from obeying such elementary instincts as eating and killing,
they knew nothing, thought nothing, understood nothing. They ate
anything that they could chew or swallow: flowers, roots, slugs,
beetles, and such fish, birds, or reptiles as they had the wit to
kill; perhaps they filled their stomachs with mud upon occasion, as
many savages are said to do; perhaps they actually were cannibals,
and, like some of the Fuegians, ate their dead relatives instead of
burying them. Altogether it was a sad spectacle; sadder still if one
reflects that they may possibly have had in their veins the blood of a
once powerful people.
As the strangers advanced, the Indians drew off, walking backwards and
at a similar pace to theirs. The bank gave on to a shrub-dotted plain,
covered with flowers of all colours, and, in patches, with giant
thistles. Snipe started up from the ground at the sound of the
voices; in the distance were a few ostriches and wild cattle; but as
the only weapon which the natives seemed to possess was this kind of
club with a fish-bone point bound to it with a strip of fish-skin, it
is probable that neither birds nor beasts suffered much at their
hands.
This visit was not thrown away, for Hutchinson soon found enough wild
cotton to encourage the hope that there was more in the neighbourhood.
Meanwhile, Ruberta asked how the savages caught their fish. It turned
out that they had even forgotten how to make lines, let alone hooks;
they had no boats, and were dependent on spearing such fish as came
under the banks from time to time. Where the poor souls lived was a
mystery; not a habitation of any sort was visible. Only once more did
they show anger or animation. Diego was questioning them, when all of
a sudden they stopped and extended their spears, as if to bar the
intruders' passage; and, for a moment, their wooden expression gave
place to something like ferocity and rage.
"What have you been saying to them?" asked Hutchinson anxiously.
"I merely asked what they had done with their women and children."
The question was indiscreet, as the explorer could have told him; but
their mode of answering it was interesting, as showing that the poor
fellows had some little sense of proprietorship, if not of the duty of
protecting those who should be dependent on them. Most likely they had
sent the women and children away, on finding that strangers were in
the neighbourhood--a sign of suspicion, if not of meditated war,
common among all Indians from the Eskimos to the Fuegians.
"They needn't think we're likely to want to marry into their tribe,"
said Ruberta. "I think we have seen about enough of them now. Let's
get rid of them." He drew his revolver and fired into a flock of wild
duck that were making for the water. A startled scream rose from all
the Indians; they turned and fled for perhaps fifty yards; then
stopped and looked back; but just then the three Zambos who were
loitering on the bank began running towards their employer, thinking
the report was a danger signal; and this completed the panic of the
savages, who fled over the nearest hill and were seen no more.
The launch proceeded another two days' journey up the river, and this
brought the travellers in sight of the distant peaks of the Andes. It
was a positive relief here to meet with Indians who could help
themselves, after the animal-like beings seen lower down. They began
to pass canoes, and sometimes neat and prosperous villages peopled by
Christian Guaranis and Quitenos; and now, as Ruberta wanted to stop
and make geological researches, Hutchinson decided to continue the
journey by land, and, taking Diego with him, agreed to return to the
launch in a few days' time.
Diego enlivened the journey; he chatted, hunted, introduced his master
to various wandering Indians, as well as surprised him by his
dexterity in the use of the bolas. He had consented to leave his
paddle, cooking-pot, and spear in the boat, but could not be
prevailed upon to part with his lassoes, bolas, and stirrups. Such
Indians as he are almost lost without a horse, and he showed
Hutchinson before long that he meant to have one. As though to keep
his hand in, he practised from time to time on the ostriches with his
bolas, bringing down the ungainly birds with perfect ease from a
distance of sixty or seventy yards. The weapon used for such work as
this was lighter than that described in the last chapter, and
consisted of only two joined thongs, the balls being pebbles covered
with leather.
At the next village Hutchinson found that an ox-waggon was about to
start for the spot which he wished to reach, and, having little
admiration for the domestic horses of the neighbourhood, and no
ambition to ride one of the wild ones which Diego was so confident of
catching, he resolved to travel in this manner. But Diego had a soul
above such a conveyance, and, that very evening, while the oxen were
being unyoked, he stole away towards a small group of horses that were
browsing on the plain. It was becoming a question of "do or die" with
him now, for every step was taking the travellers farther from the
region where horses are to be seen in any numbers. The Consul had many
times seen a lasso used from the saddle, but he could not understand
how Master Diego proposed to catch a horse while he was on foot; and
he watched him eagerly through his field-glass.
Crawling on his belly, the Quiteno patiently worked his way towards
the nearest horse, and no sooner did the animal turn his back on him,
than he sprang up, and the noose had secured him. So far, so good;
but did Diego expect the animal to follow him like a pup on the lead,
or a donkey in the shafts? thought the Consul. The horse gave a wild
spring, and, for a second, the Indian was almost dragged off his feet;
then he began to "play" his capture.
Diego was a fine-looking man, over six feet high, and with limbs as
hard as a stone, though they were so slender; and he had no hesitation
in pitting his own strength against the horse's. With infinite
patience he stood, the centre of a circle, while the frightened
creature ran off his first fit of energy, round and round his captor;
then, having spied a clump of trees not far away, the Quiteno let
himself be dragged towards these; and, before the horse had realised
that he was running to his doom, the lasso had taken a turn round the
nearest trunk and was soon hitched there immovable.
By morning the prisoner was in a humbler frame of mind, and, under
pressure, submitted to be loose-hobbled; Diego vaulted on to his back
without thought of saddle or bridle, and, holding his mane, buffeted
him so mercilessly over the face and withers, that Hutchinson was
tempted to serve him the same. Less than half an hour of this
management made the animal sufficiently tractable to submit to being
saddled; and, with the skid-pan stirrups, the rest was perfectly
easy--and disgusting.