To solve the seeming enigma of Rufino Valdez travelling in the company
of the Tovas Indians, and on friendly terms with their young chief--for
he is so--it will be necessary to turn back upon time, and give some
further account of the _vaqueano_ himself, and his villainous master; as
also to tell why Naraguana and his people abandoned their old place of
abode, with other events and circumstances succeeding. Of these the
most serious has been the death of Naraguana himself. For the aged
cacique is no more; having died only a few days after his latest visit
paid to his palefaced protege.
Nor were his last moments spent at the _tolderia_, now abandoned. His
death took place at another town of his people some two hundred miles
from this, and farther into the interior of the Chaco; a more ancient
residence of the Tovas tribe--in short, their "Sacred city" and
burying-place. For it is the custom of these Indians when any one of
them dies--no matter when, where, and how, whether by the fate of war,
accident in the chase, disease, or natural decay--to have the body borne
to the sacred town, and there deposited in a cemetery containing the
graves of their fathers. Not graves, as is usual, underground; but
scaffolds standing high above it--such being the mode of Tovas
interment.
Naraguana's journey to this hallowed spot--his last in life--had been
made not on horseback, but in a _litera_, borne by his faithful braves.
Seized with a sudden illness, and the presentiment that his end was
approaching, with a desire to die in the same place where he had been
born, he gave commands for immediate removal thither--not only of
himself, but everything and even body belonging to his tribe. It was
but the work of a day; and on the next the old settlement was left
forsaken, just as the hunter-naturalist has found it.
Had the latter been upon the banks of that branch stream just three
weeks before, he would there have witnessed one of those spectacles
peculiar to the South American pampas; as the prairies of the North.
That is the crossing of a river by an entire Indian tribe, on the move
from one encampment, or place of residence, to another. The men on
horseback swimming or wading their horses; the women and children
ferried over in skin boats--those of the Chaco termed _pelotas_--with
troops of dogs intermingled in the passage; all amidst a _fracas_ of
shouts, the barking of dogs, neighing of horses, and shrill screaming of
the youngsters, with now and then a peal of merry laughter, as some
ludicrous mishap befalls one or other of the party. No laugh, however,
was heard at the latest crossing of that stream by the Tovas. The
serious illness of their chief forbade all thought of merriment; so
serious, that on the second day after reaching the sacred town he
breathed his last; his body being carried up and deposited upon that
aerial tomb where reposed the bleaching bones of many other caciques--
his predecessors.
His sudden seizure, with the abrupt departure following, accounts for
Halberger having had no notice of all this--Naraguana having been
delirious in his dying moments, and indeed for some time before. And
his death has caused changes in the internal affairs of the Tovas tribe,
attended with much excitement. For the form of government among these
Chaco savages is more republican than monarchical; each new cacique
having to receive his authority not from hereditary right, but by
election. His son, Aguara, however, popular with the younger warriors
of the tribe, carried the day, and has become Naraguana's successor.
Even had the hunter-naturalist been aware of these events, he might not
have seen in them any danger to himself. For surely the death of
Naraguana would not affect his relations with the Tovas tribe; at least
so far as to losing their friendship, or bringing about an estrangement.
Not likely would such have arisen, but for certain other events of more
sinister bearing, transpiring at the same period; to recount which it is
necessary for us to return still further upon time, and again go back to
Paraguay and its Dictator.
Foiled in his wicked intent, and failing to discover whither his
intended victims had fled, Francia employed for the finding of them one
of his minions--this man of most ill repute, Rufino Valdez. It did not
need the reward offered to secure the latter's zeal; for, as stated, he
too had his own old grudge against the German, brought about by a still
older and more bitter hostility to Halberger's right hand man--Gaspar,
the gaucho. With this double stimulus to action, Valdez entered upon
the prosecution of his search, after that of the soldiers had failed.
At first with confident expectation of a speedy success; for it had not
yet occurred to either him or his employer that the fugitives could have
escaped clear out of the country; a thing seemingly impossible with its
frontiers so guarded. It was only after Valdez had explored every nook
and corner of Paraguayan territory in search of them, all to no purpose,
that Francia was forced to the conclusion, they were no longer within
his dominions. But, confiding in his own interpretation of
international law, and the rights of extradition, he commissioned his
emissary to visit the adjacent States, and there continue inquiry for
the missing ones. That law of his own making, already referred to, led
him to think he could demand the Prussian's wife to be returned to
Paraguay, whatever claim he might have upon the Prussian himself.
For over two years has Rufino Valdez been occupied in this bootless
quest, without finding the slightest trace of the fugitives, or word as
to their whereabouts. He has travelled down the river to Corrientes,
and beyond to Buenos Ayres, and Monte Video at the La Plata's mouth.
Also up northward to the Brazilian frontier fort of Coimbra; all the
while without ever a thought of turning his steps towards the Chaco!
Not so strange, though, his so neglecting this noted ground; since he
had two sufficient reasons. The first, his fear of the Chaco savages,
instinctive to every Paraguayan; the second, his want of faith, shared
by Francia himself, that Halberger had fled thither. Neither could for
a moment think of a white man seeking asylum in the Gran Chaco; for
neither knew of the friendship existing between the hunter-naturalist
and the Tovas chief.
It was only after a long period spent in fruitless inquiries, and while
sojourning at Coimbra that the _vaqueano_ first found traces of those
searched for; there learning from some Chaco Indians on a visit to the
fort--that a white man with his wife, children, and servants, had
settled near a _tolderia_ of the Tovas, on the banks of the Pilcomayo
river. Their description, as given by these Indians--who were not
Tovas, but of a kindred tribe--so exactly answered to the
hunter-naturalist and his family, that Valdez had no doubt of its being
they. And hastily returning to Paraguay, he communicated what he had
been told to the man for whom he was acting.
"El Supremo," overjoyed at the intelligence, promised to double the
reward for securing the long-lost runaways. A delicate and difficult
matter still; for there was yet the hostility of the Tovas to contend
against. But just at this crisis, as if Satan had stepped in to assist
his own sort, a rumour reaches Assuncion of Naraguana's death; and as
the rancour had arisen from a personal affront offered to the chief
himself, Francia saw it would be a fine opportunity for effecting
reconciliation, as did also his emissary. Armed with this confidence,
his old enmity to Halberger and gaucho, ripe and keen as ever, Valdez
declared himself willing to risk his life by paying a visit to the Tovas
town, and, if possible, induce these Indians to enter into a new
treaty--one of its terms to be their surrendering up the white man, who
had been so long the guest of their deceased cacique.
Fully commissioned and furnished with sufficient funds--gold coin which
passes current among the savages of the Chaco, as with civilised
people--the plenipotentiary had started off, and made his way up the
Pilcomayo, till reaching the old town of the Tovas. Had Halberger's
estancia stood on the river's bank, the result might have been
different. But situated at some distance back, Valdez saw it not in
passing, and arrived at the Indian village to find it, as did the
hunter-naturalist himself, deserted. An experienced traveller and
skilled tracker, however, he had no difficulty in following the trail of
the departed people, on to their other town; and it was the track of his
horse on the way thither, Halberger has observed on the edge of the
influent stream--as too well he now knows.