Notwithstanding what I have said of the Chaco remaining uncolonised and
unexplored, I can tell of an exception. In the year 1836, one ascending
the Pilcomayo to a point about a hundred miles from its mouth, would
there see a house, which could have been built only by a white man, or
one versed in the ways of civilisation. Not that there was anything
very imposing in its architecture; for it was but a wooden structure,
the walls of bamboo, and the roof a thatch of the palm called
_cuberta_--so named from the use made of its fronds in covering sheds
and houses. But the superior size of this dwelling, far exceeding that
of the simple _toldos_ of the Chaco Indians; its ample verandah pillared
and shaded by a protecting roof of the same palm leaves; and, above all,
several well-fenced enclosures around it, one of them containing a
number of tame cattle, others under tillage--with maize, manioc, the
plantain, and similar tropical products--all these insignia evinced the
care and cultivating hand of some one else than an aboriginal.
Entering the house, still further evidence of the white man's presence
would be observed. Furniture, apparently home-made, yet neat, pretty,
and suitable; chairs and settees of the _cana brava_, or South American
bamboo; bedsteads of the same, with beds of the elastic Spanish moss,
and _ponchos_ for coverlets; mats woven from fibres of another species
of palm, with here and there a swung hammock. In addition, some books
and pictures that appeared to have been painted on the spot; a bound
volume of music, with a violin and guitar--all speaking of a domestic
economy unknown to the American Indian.
In some of the rooms, as also in the outside verandah, could be noticed
objects equally unlike the belongings of the aboriginal: stuffed skins
of wild beasts and birds; insects impaled on strips of palm bark; moths,
butterflies, and brilliant scarabaei; reptiles preserved in all their
repulsive ugliness, with specimens of ornamental woods, plants, and
minerals; a singular paraphernalia, evidently the product of the region
around. Such a collection could only belong to a _naturalist_, and that
naturalist could be no other than a white man. He was; his name Ludwig
Halberger.
The name plainly speaks his nationality--a German. And such was he; a
native of the then kingdom of Prussia, born in the city of Berlin.
Though not strange his being a naturalist--since the taste for and study
of Nature are notably peculiar to the German people--it was strange to
find Prussian or other European having his home in such an
out-of-the-way place. There was no civilised settlement, no other white
man's dwelling, nearer than the town of Assuncion; this quite a hundred
miles off, to the eastward. And north, south, and west the same for
more than five times the distance. All the territory around and
between, a wilderness, unsettled, unexplored, traversed only by the
original lords of the soil, the Chaco Indians, who, as said, have
preserved a deadly hostility to the paleface, ever since the keels of
the latter first cleft the waters of the Parana.
To explain, then, how Ludwig Halberger came to be domiciled there, so
far from civilisation, and so high up the Pilcomayo--river of mysterious
note--it is necessary to give some details of his life antecedent to the
time of his having established this solitary _estancia_. To do so a
name of evil augury and ill repute must needs be introduced--that of Dr
Francia, Dictator of Paraguay, who for more than a quarter of a century
ruled that fair land verily with a rod of iron. With this same
demon-like tyrant, and the same almost heavenly country, is associated
another name, and a reputation as unlike that of Jose Francia as
Hyperion to the Satyr, and which justice to a godlike humanity forbids
me to pass over in silence. I speak of Amade, or, as he is better
known, _Aime_ Bonpland--cognomen appropriate to this most estimable
man--known to all the world as the friend and fellow-traveller of
Humboldt; more still, his assistant and collaborates in those scientific
researches, as yet unequalled for truthfulness and extent--the
originator and discoverer of much of that learned lore, which, with
modesty unparalleled, he has allowed his more energetic and more
ambitious _compagnon de voyage_ to have credit for.
Though no name sounds more agreeably to my ears than that of Aime
Bonpland, I cannot here dwell upon it, nor write his biography, however
congenial the theme. Some one who reads this may find the task both
pleasant and profitable; for though his bones slumber obscurely on the
banks of the Parana, amidst the scenes so loved by him, his name will
one day have a higher niche in Fame's temple than it has hitherto held--
perhaps not much lower than that of Humboldt himself. I here introduce
it, with some incidents of his life, as affecting the first character
who figures in this my tale. But for Aime Bonpland, Ludwig Halberger
might never have sought a South American home. It was in following the
example of the French philosopher, of whom he had admiringly read, that
the Prussian naturalist made his way to the La Plata and up to Paraguay,
where Bonpland had preceded him. But first to give the adventures of
the latter in that picturesque land, of which a short account will
suffice; then afterwards to the incidents of my story.
Retiring from the busy world, of which he seems to have been somewhat
weary, Bonpland took up his residence on the banks of the Rio Parana;
not in Paraguayan territory, but that of the Argentine Republic, on the
opposite side of the river. There settled down, he did not give his
hours to idleness; nor yet altogether to his favourite pursuit, the
pleasant though somewhat profitless one of natural history. Instead, he
devoted himself to cultivation, the chief object of his culture being
the "yerba de Paraguay," which yields the well-known _mate_, or
Paraguayan tea. In this industry he was eminently successful. His
amiable manners and inoffensive character attracted the notice of his
neighbours, the Guarani Indians--a peaceful tribe of proletarian
habits--and soon a colony of these collected around him, entering his
employ, and assisting him in the establishment of an extensive
"yerbale," or tea-plantation, which bid fair to become profitable.
The Frenchman was on the high-road to fortune, when a cloud appeared,
coming from an unexpected quarter of the sky--the north. The report of
his prosperity had reached the ears of Francia, Paraguay's then despot
and dictator, who, with other strange theories of government, held the
doctrine that the cultivation of "yerba" was a right exclusively
Paraguayan--in other words, belonging solely to himself. True, the
French colonist, his rival cultivator, was not within his jurisdiction,
but in the state of Corrientes, and the territory of the Argentine
Confederation. Not much, that, to Dr Francia, accustomed to make light
of international law, unless it were supported by national strength and
backed by hostile bayonets. At the time Corrientes had neither of these
to deter him, and in the dead hour of a certain night, four hundred of
his myrmidons--the noted _quarteleros_--crossed the Parana, attacked the
tea-plantation of Bonpland, and after making massacre of a half-score of
his Guarani _peons_, carried himself a prisoner to the capital of
Paraguay.
The Argentine Government, weak with its own intestine strife, submitted
to the insult almost unprotestingly. Bonpland was but a Frenchman and
foreigner; and for nine long years was he held captive in Paraguay.
Even the English _charge d'affaires_, and a Commission sent thither by
the Institute of France, failed to get him free! Had he been a
lordling, or some little _viscomte_, his forced residence in Paraguay
would have been of shorter duration. An army would have been despatched
to "extradite" him. But Aime Bonpland was only a student of Nature--one
of those unpretending men who give the world all the knowledge it has,
worth having--and so was he left to languish in captivity. True, his
imprisonment was not a very harsh one, and rather partook of the
character of _parole d'honneur_. Francia was aware of his wonderful
knowledge, and availed himself of it, allowing his captive to live
unmolested. But again the amiable character of the Frenchman had an
influence on his life, this time adversely. Winning for him universal
respect among the simple Paraguayans, it excited the envy of their vile
ruler; who once again, and at night, had his involuntary guest seized
upon, carried beyond the confines of his territory, and landed upon
Argentine soil--but stripped of everything save the clothes on his back!
Soon after, Bonpland settled near the town of Corrientes, where, safe
from further persecution, he once more entered upon agricultural
pursuits. And there, in the companionship of a South American lady--his
wife--with a family of happy children, he ended a life that had lasted
for fourscore years, innocent and unblemished, is it had been useful,
heroic, and glorious.