BY WHAT MEANS THE ABIPONES RENDER THEMSELVES
FORMIDABLE, AND WHEN THEY ARE JUSTLY TO BE
DREADED.
Naturally fearful, they render themselves formidable by art. They make
up for the want of native bravery by the noise of their trumpets, the
craftiness of their ambuscades, by their astonishing swiftness, their
painted faces, and many-coloured plumes. They adorn their heads with
feathers of various birds, either erected like a crest, or bearing the
appearance of a crown. They paint their faces sometimes white or red,
but more commonly black. Soot, scraped from pans and kettles, is
generally used for this purpose. In travelling, when soot is not to be
got, they make a fire, and use its smoke and ashes to paint themselves
with. The fruit of the tree Urucuy̆ furnishes them with materials for a
red paint: but on sudden occasions they prick their tongues with a
thorn, and daub their faces with the blood that flows plenteously from
the wound. They do not all paint in the same pattern. Some darken the
forehead only, some one cheek, and some both. Some streak the whole face
with spiral lines; others only make two circles round the eyes; and
others again blacken the whole of the face. This custom is common to
many other nations of Paraguay, especially the equestrian ones.
The Abipones render themselves formidable to the eyes, as well as to the
ears of their enemies; for they prelude every battle with trumpets,
flutes, horns, and clarions, differing in sound, materials, and form.
The horn instruments bellow, the wooden ones clatter, and those of bone,
which are made of the leg of some large bird or quadruped, emit a very
shrill whistle, while those of reeds have a ridiculous creaking sound.
Others again, consisting of the tail of the armadillo, to which a reed
is prefixed, fill the whole air, to a great distance, with a horrible
roaring. I want words to describe the construction and use of all the
different trumpets. This is very certain, that the Abipones have more
trumpeters than soldiers in their armies. These terrible-sounding
instruments they accompany with a savage howl, made by striking their
lips with their hands. When rushing to battle they cry aloud, _Laharàlk!
Laharàlk!_ Let us go, let us go; as the Guaranies say, _Yahà! Yahà!_ and
the Mocobios, _Zokolák! Zokolák!_ Whilst the Abipones are in battle,
they carry their eyes to every side of the field, to aim, or avoid
weapons, and with a hoarse and tremulous voice threateningly repeat
_Hò-Hò-Hò_, by which they endeavour to provoke the enemy, and excite
themselves to anger. In European camps also, trumpets, pipes, and drums
are doubtless used to animate and govern the army, and to inspire fear
into the enemy. But no one will deny that more victories have been
gained by silence than by noise. Would that the Spaniards of Paraguay
would bear this in mind! for they, like the savages, begin the attack
with loud vociferations. Barreda, General of the St. Iagans, often
complained to me that he could never induce his soldiers to refrain from
shouting when they attacked the hordes of the savages, and to approach
them in silence and by stealth, that being caught unawares, they might
be prevented from taking either to flight or arms.
It is much to be lamented that the terrific appearance and horrid
clamours of the savages are dreaded so greatly by the Spanish countrymen
of Paraguay. We have often seen not only their ears and eyes struck, but
their minds disturbed to such a degree, that losing all self-possession,
they thought no longer of methods whereby to repel force by force, but
eagerly watched for an opportunity of flight to provide for their lives,
though not for their fame or security: for the savages grow more daring
the more they are feared and fled from. In the towns themselves how
often has a trepidation arisen, when the inhabitants, frequently from
mere report alone, understood that the Abipones, rendered terrible by
their blackened faces and their whole accoutrement, were flying thither
on swift horses, shouting to the deadly sound of trumpets, brandishing
an enormous spear in their right hands, laden with bundles of arrows,
breathing fire and slaughter, and with their ferocious eyes threatening
an hundred deaths, captivity, and wounds. You might have seen crowds
pacing up and down, and lamenting approaching death, before they had
even from a distance beheld the enemy from whom they were to receive it.
Not only the unwarlike sex, but men distinguished with military titles,
flew to the stone churches, and to the most hidden retreats; while, had
they dared to show their faces, and present a gun to the enemy, the
savages would easily have been put to flight, and their panic terror
would have ended in laughter. Not many years ago it was reported one
Sunday afternoon in the city of Buenos Ayres, that a numerous company of
Southern savages had rushed into some street of the city. The fear
excited by this false rumour so occupied the minds of all, that they ran
up and down the streets almost distracted, uttering the most mournful
cries. In hurrying to a place of more security, one lost his wig,
another his hat or cloak, from the violence of his haste. Meantime the
garrison troops, who had been sent to search the whole city, announced
that not a shadow or vestige of the enemy was to be found; tidings which
restored serenity to the disturbed minds of the inhabitants, and filled
them with shame for their foolish alarm. Scenes of this kind were
extremely frequent in the cities of Sta. Fè, Cordoba, Asumpcion, Salta,
&c. whilst the savages were overrunning the province with impunity. A
ridiculous event that took place in the city of Corrientes is peculiarly
worthy of relation. About evening a report was spread that a troop of
Abipones had burst into one of the streets, and was employed in
slaughtering the inhabitants. Upon this news numbers crowded to the
church, which was furnished with strong stone walls. The head captain
himself, an old man, mingled with the crowd of lamenting females, and
gave himself up to groans and prayers. "Here, here," said he, "in the
house of the Lord, and in the presence of Jesus Christ, must we die."
Indignant at words so unbecoming a soldier, the secular priest, a brave
man in the prime of his years, exclaimed as he arrived, "I swear by
Christ that we shall not die. The enemies must be sought and slain." So
saying he leapt upon a horse, and armed with a gun hastened to succour
that part of the city where the enemies were said to be raging. But lo
and behold! when he arrives there, he finds the inhabitants all sound
asleep, not even dreaming of the Abipones! Such was the terror excited
in the Paraguayrians, not merely by the figures and presence of the
Abipones, but by the very report of them.
Two things which long experience has taught me, I greatly wish impressed
on the minds of all. The first is, that the Indians are never less to be
dreaded than when they present themselves most terrible, and with the
greatest noise. For all that frightful preparation only betrays the
fears of the savages. Distrusting their courage, strength, and arms,
they think that paint of various colours, feathers, shouting, trumpets,
and other instruments of terror, will forward their success. But any one
with a very moderate share of courage, and stock of armour, will despise
all this as unworthy of fear. This is my first maxim. My second is, that
the Indians are never more to be feared than when they seem most afraid.
They sometimes lurk concealed, uttering no sound, and giving no
intimation of their presence; but this silence is as sure a prognostic
of an attack, as a calm is, in the ocean, of an impending storm. They
arrive on a sudden, and surprize the self-secure. They imitate death,
whose ministers they are, by coming when least expected. In the heat of
battle, the Abipones often take to flight, in the design of enticing the
Spaniards to pursue them, that they may slay them, when they are
separated and their ranks disturbed, though unable to do so as long as
they are in order. Hence it not unfrequently happens, that they who
thought themselves the victors are vanquished by the fugitives. They fly
to marshes, woods, winding-ways, defiles of mountains, rocks, or bushes,
which places the excellence of their steeds, and their skill in riding
and swimming enable them quickly to cross; while the pursuing Spaniards,
incumbered by their clothes and baggage, and often destitute of proper
horses, are easily pierced with spears whilst separated from one
another, and struggling with the water, the mud, and the other
difficulties of the way. Not to mention other artifices, after
committing slaughters, plundering houses, and killing the inhabitants,
the Abipones feign departure, and seem to be hastening their flight; but
when they are supposed many leagues distant, renew the assault, surprize
the surviving Spaniards, and kill all they can. So that it is a certain
fact, that the Indians are never more formidable than when they seem
most afraid.
A very small number of Abipones are to be feared by the Spaniards,
however numerous, if they be reduced to straits, surrounded on every
side, and left no way of escape; for then they dare the utmost in their
own defence. They convert every thing they lay their hands on into
weapons. Terror inspires them with sagacity and courage, and
consequently is more to be dreaded than the most magnanimous spirit. I
have many instances of this in my mind, but it will be sufficient to
relate three. An Abipon, with arrows, and, when these were consumed,
with sticks, supplied him by his wife, did so much execution against the
soldiers of St. Iago, by whom he was surrounded, that he maintained his
post, and when, after many wounds inflicted and received, he fell at
length, was highly extolled for his valour by the very Spaniards against
whom he had fought. Nachiralar̂in, Chief of the Yaaucaniga Abipones,
spread the terror of his name throughout the colonies of Paraguay.
Accompanied by a crowd of his followers, called _Los Sarcos_, or more
properly _Garzos_, from their grey or blue eyes, Nachiralar̂in afflicted
the country of Cordoba, Sta. Fè, Corrientes, and Paraguay, for many
years, with slaughter and pillage, till he was at length taken and slain
at the shores of the Tebiguary̆, by two hundred soldiers from Asumpcion.
Shut up and besieged in a wood with fourteen Abipones, he fought with
such obstinacy against the company of Spaniards, that he did not fall
till after a contest of several hours. Some of his fellow-soldiers could
not be prevented from escaping. It was never without disgust that I
heard this victory boasted of by those present at the engagement; you
would have thought they were speaking of the bloody battles of
Thrasymene, Caudinæ Furculæ, Blenheim, &c. Certainly the leader
Fulgentio de Yegros obtained great celebrity at that expedition, and was
afterwards raised to the highest honours in the army, and to the
government of the province itself. Add to these instances, that twenty
wood-Abipones when attacked in the open plain by three hundred Christian
Mocobios and Abiponian catechumens, chose to lose their lives before
they would quit their station. Incredible is the obstinacy with which
these few contended against numbers. The place which they had chosen at
the beginning of the fight they every one occupied in death. From this
it is evident, that a few, though inferior in number, arms, and
strength, may prove formidable to a multitude, if, besieged by a
surrounding company, and confined by the narrowness of the place, they
have no room left them for escape. Scipio judged wisely that a flying
enemy should be allowed a passage. This precept is generally obeyed by
the Paraguayrian Spaniards, who often yielded the savages more liberty
of escape than need required. This Barreda found in an hundred
expeditions which he headed against the Abipones and Mocobios. These
savages display much prudence in the choice of the situation of their
hordes. They generally choose a place which has a wood close behind, a
lake, river, or marsh in front, and pasture for their horses on both
sides. Barreda told me that whenever hordes so situated were to be
attacked, he ordered his men to besiege them on the part towards the
wood, that the savages might not, as usual, find their security there;
but that the soldiers never obeyed his orders, well knowing that if they
deprived the enemy of an opportunity of escape they should have a most
dangerous conflict, and a very doubtful victory.