An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (1 of 3)Dobrizhoffer, Martin
History
An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, (1 of 3)
Dobrizhoffer, Martin
Abipon Indians; Jesuits -- Missions; Paraguay -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
mulattos, there is a separate priest and parish church. Even matrons of
the higher rank, boys, girls, and all the lower orders speak Guarany,
though the generality have some acquaintance with Spanish. To say the
truth, they mingle both, and speak neither correctly. When the Spaniards
first occupied this province, in which the Guaranies had previously
settled, for want of Spanish women, they took the daughters of the
natives in marriage. The couples presently caught each other's dialect;
but as is usual with adults, who learn foreign tongues, the Spaniards
miserably corrupted the Indian, and the Indian the Spanish language.
Whence from the original two, a third dialect arose, in use at present.
The major part of the Spaniards live in hamlets, farms, and little
villages, where the convenience of land and pasturage is greatest:
cities, except the metropolis, they have none. Villa Rica and Curuquati
are meagre places, mere shades of towns, the inhabitants being almost
obliterated, by frequent migrations, from fear of the Portugueze. Xerez
and Ciudad Real del Guayra, which once boasted the name of cities, have
long since been destroyed by the incursions of the Portugueze who,
assembled in the city of St. Paulo, enjoy, to this day, the finest parts
of Guayra, the Spaniards vainly lamenting the seizure of the noblest
part of their territory.
Of the ancient towns, where the Spaniards settled the Indians they had
subdued with arms, or won by religion, there remain Caazapà, Yuti,
Ytape, and Yta, which are governed by Franciscans. Caazapà contains
about two hundred families, and exceeds the rest in the number of its
herds. Ytape contains about twenty families; Yuti and Yta, somewhat
more. They are all governed by parish priests. Atira and Altos together
form one little town. Quarambare and Jobati are both inconsiderable.
Yaguaron consists of two hundred families. The Indian inhabitants are
mostly employed in the service of the Spaniards, and consequently in
populousness, morality, and the appearance of their churches, vastly
inferior to our Guaranies, who, exempted from private servitude, are
accountable solely to the Catholic King.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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