CHAP. II. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN PARAGUAY. 21 and marched into the interior, never to return. From an Indian who escaped, accounts were subsequently received that the whole party, after obtaining a rich booty from some of the tribes bordering on Peru, had been treacherously massacred on their way back by the Payagúa Indians. Yrala, who commanded the vessels which had taken them up the river, after waiting for them in vain for nine months, had been forced, from want of provisions and the state of the vessels, which were opening at every seam from exposure to the sun, to proceed down the river again to Paraguay, the people of which, after a signal victory obtained over them by Ayolas in his way up the river the year before, had promised fealty and obedience to the Conquistadores. There, whilst the Spaniards were engaged in strengthening their position at Assumption, to their great joy the ships arrived from Spain, which had been despatched in consequence of Mendoza's dying injunctions, with necessaries of all kinds, besides a reinforcement of 200 men, and supplies enough to last them two years. Nor were the spiritual wants of the settlers on this occasion lost sight of: together with the means of celebrating Divine Service, several Franciscan friars were sent out to them by the Emperor's particular direction. He also at the same time desired a free pardon to be promulgated in favour of some unhappy wretches who, it was understood, were living as outcasts from their Christian comrades, under ban of punishment for having, during the prevalence of the dire famine at Buenos Ayres, lived like cannibals on human flesh. About the same time Francisco Ruiz, the officer whom Mendoza had left in charge of the shipping at Buenos Ayres, with orders to forward his instructions to Ayolas, had come to the determination to proceed himself in search of him with the people left under his command; these, about 150 in number, with the garrison of Corpus which he also took up with him, reached Paraguay shortly after the vessels from Spain, and thus were collected together at Assumption the whole of the Spaniards in the Rio de la Plata-in all, about 600 individuals. The Emperor had given orders that, in the event of the death of Mendoza's lieutenant, the settlers were to assemble and elect their own governor, pending his pleasure; and as there was no longer any doubt as to the fate of Ayolas, they proceeded to do so. Their choice fell almost unanimously upon Don Domingo Martinez de Yrala, who was in all due form proclaimed Captain-General of the Rio de la Plata (August, 1538).* Buenos Ayres was totally abandoned, and Assumption, which was made the seat of government, under his vigorous rule soon became a place of importance. *"Porque siempre se habia mostrado justo y benévolo, especialmente con los soldados."-Schmidel, cap. 26. The first Settlement at Buenos Ayres attacked by the Indians in 1535. From a print published by Schmidel (who was there at the time). Yrala CHAPTER III. 1538-1550. The Spaniards in Paraguay intermarry with the Guarani Women Consequences Cabeza de Vaca appointed Adelantado His extraordinary March across Brazil Subdues the Guaycurús Expedition up the Paraguay River Reaches the Xarayes, and obliged to return Conspiracy against him - Is deposed and sent back to Spain Yrala Succeeds in reaching Peru Is ordered back by re-elected Governor the President La Gasca. So far the Conquistadores had little but an empty name to boast of. In the four years they had been in the Rio de la Plata, from the mismanagement and incapacity of the Adelantado and his officers, they had experienced nothing but disasters, defeat, and disappointment. Under such circumstances it was a fortunate provision of the Emperor's which left to their own choice the selection of the individual best qualified to direct their future proceedings. Yrala, their new Governor, was in many respects well worthy the confidence so unanimously reposed in him. He was a gentleman by birth, from Vergara in Spain, brought up in the military service, and distinguished amongst his comrades by his soldier-like qualities. He had proved himself an enterprising and indefatigable commander-kind and considerate to his people, and abounding in those daring and generous feelings most likely to endear him to his followers. His personal prowess was something marvellous, and had been signalised on various occasions, but especially in a late encounter with the Payagúas, the most warlike enemies the Spaniards had yet met with, in which he had slain with his own hand no less than twelve of their warriors, who had furiously fallen upon him at once in the hope of overpowering him by main force. His first object was to strengthen and secure the settlement which he (or rather Ayolas) had commenced at Assumption. The lines of a city were laid out, a church and other public buildings were erected, a police was established, and the groundwork laid of the first municipal institutions in that part of South America. The position of the Spaniards at Assumption was a great improvement on their late condition at Buenos Ayres. Instead of starving, they found themselves in a land abounding with the necessaries of life. The natives of Paraguay, more civilised than the nomade inhabitants of the Pampas, whose sole subsistence was on fish and the deer which they caught with their slings and bolas, were an industrious race, cultivating their lands, and growing for their own use large quantities of maize, of casava, and of the batate or sweet potato; they had fish and fowl, and the flesh of a great variety of wild animals, in abundance; plenty of honey, of which, as well as of the casava, they made a fermented liquor; and cotton, of which their women wove cloth sufficient to provide them with the light and scanty covering required in that hot climate. All these were at the disposal of the Spaniards, whose superiority, after some ineffectual attempts at resistance, being fully established, the submissive natives resigned themselves and all that belonged to them to the mercies of the conquerors. They worked heartily at the fortifications which were to perpetuate their own subjection, and as the walls rose above their own heads, so no doubt did their respect for their new masters. The Spaniards repaid them by parcelling out their lands, and taking their daughters to live with them; and although at first these unions, as may be supposed, were of a very irregular character, there is no doubt they contributed materially to secure the permanent establishment of the dominion of the conquerors. The simple natives, who regarded them as a superior race, were rather eager than averse to cultivate such connexions, believing that any ties which allied them to the white men would add to their own importance. Nor were they mistaken: the irresistible growth of female influence, seconded by a rising generation in whose behalf the voice of nature spoke in every house, soon produced their natural effects upon CHAP. III. INDIAN CONSPIRACY FOILED. 25 the relative position of the conquerors and their new vassals, greatly to the advantage of the latter. The Spaniards, anxious to promote the interests of their offspring, secured for them a participation in their own rights and privileges: they bequeathed to them their names and possessions; and thus the children of the Guarani women became not only a numerous but a very influential class in the lands of their Indian ancestors. What is still more remarkable, they have perpetuated their own language amongst the descendants of the conquerors, and to this day Guarani, almost to the exclusion of Spanish, is spoken by all classes throughout Paraguay. The Spaniards had been little more than a year established at Assumption when the whole colony was saved, by the devotion of one of these women, from a conspiracy to massacre them, got up by the caciques of some neighbouring tribes. Invited by the Spaniards to witness the ceremonies of the holy week, which they were preparing to celebrate with all the splendour in their power, they introduced some hundreds of their followers into the city, intending to fall upon the Spaniards whilst engaged in their devotions on Good Friday, when they calculated on their being unarmed and unprepared to resist them. The plot was well laid, and for a short time was kept secret with Indian fidelity, whilst the Spaniards, entirely off their guard, and only thinking of the ceremonies in which they were engaged, were rather gratified than otherwise at the number of their visitors, who they probably regarded as so many converts in prospect to Christianity. But, as the day drew on, the Indian lover of a Guarani girl, who was living with one of the Spanish captains, sought her out and urged her to fly with him from the impending danger, to satisfy her of the extent of which he revealed to her the whole plot, and the hour and manner of its intended execution. Alarmed more for her master's safety than her own, after extracting from her countryman all he knew, the girl feigned compliance with his wishes, and, hurrying home under pretence of securing her child and some trinkets, gave full warning to the Spaniards of their danger, and then returned to the In Н |