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
rivers Parana and Paraguay, where yet remain the posterity of those who
aided the Spaniards endangered in Arecaya.
Concerning the ten towns of the Chiquitos I have spoken before. These
Indians, formidable from their warlike courage and mortally poisoned
arrows, whenever commanded by the royal Governours have uniformly proved
brave and faithful fellow-soldiers to the Spaniards against the savages,
and even against the Portugueze. Less in point of number, but highly
consequential to the tranquillity of the whole province, have been the
four cities of the Abipones, the two of Mocobios, one of Tobas, and
another of Mbayas, warlike and equestrian nations. To these add the
pedestrian nations, the Lules, Vilelas, Chiriguanos, Chunipies,
Homoampas, &c. converted by us to the Roman rites and discipline in
their own colonies. In language, manners, and religious observances,
they differ amongst themselves; they are all, however, attached to
agriculture.
Very many Indian towns have long since ceased to exist, sometimes from
the inconstancy of the Indians sighing for their native land, sometimes
from the malevolence, the avarice, or inertness of the Europeans. Father
Joseph Labrador is my authority, that seventy-three towns of various
Indians perished in the province of Chaco. In the present age, by much
labour of the Jesuits, three towns have arisen, at an immense expense,
for the southern savages, the inhabitants of the Magellanic territory,
all dedicated to the most holy mother of God. The first, named
Concepcion, is inhabited by the Pampas, and acted as a defence to the
inhabitants of Buenos-Ayres against the incursions of the savages. The
rulers of the newly-built town, Father Matthias Strobl from the province
of Austria, and Manuel Querini, a Venetian of noble family, were men of
distinguished piety, prudence, and fortitude. Both Fathers possessed
singular dexterity in managing the minds of the Indians. The
neighbourhood of the city, and of the Spanish estates, where there was
plenty of spirit and of bad example, incredibly retarded the conversion
of the savages to a better way of life. The Serranos and Patagonians,
who came backwards and forwards to visit the Pampas, won by the kindness
of the Father, and taken by the conveniences of life which the
inhabitants of the colonies enjoyed, began earnestly to desire a little
town of this sort in their native soil. Their wishes were immediately
gratified. Fathers Falconer and Cardiel, the one an Englishman of great
skill in medicine, the other a Spaniard, and a man of an ardent and
intrepid mind, travelled to their savage wildernesses, and having felt
the pulse of the people, looked about for an opportune situation,
wherein to establish the intended colony. At length the town was built,
and the Caciques Marike and Tschuan Tuya, with four-and-twenty hordesmen
belonging to them, settled therein; it was named Nuestra Señora del
Pilar. To govern this colony, Father Matthias Strobl, who knew a little
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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