£C
ABORIGINES OF SOUTH
AMERICA
COLONEL GEORGE EARL CHURCH
ABORIGINES
OF
SOUTH AMERICA
BY THE LATE
COLONEL GEORGE EARL CHURCH
EDITED BY AN OLD FRIEND
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, K.C.B.
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ltd.
1912
Richard Clay & 8ons, Limited,
brunswick street, 8tamf0rd street, s.e.
and bungay, suffolk.
P
C56
■.
As monumental bronze, unchanged his look ;
A soul that pity touch'd but never shook;
Train'd from his tree-rock'd cradle to his bier,
The fierce extreme of good and ill to brook,
Impassive, fearing but the shame of fear,
A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear."
Gertrude of Wyoming.
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR
The lamented author of this work is well
known to geographers as an eminent authority
on South America, the author of an interesting
paper on the inland seas of that continent in
geological times, and of a very important one
on its physical geography. He had since applied
his great knowledge and powers of deduction
and classification to the preparation of a work on
the aborigines of South America. It remained
incomplete at his death, but the finished part
included all the Amazonian races and tribes
south of the great river, those of the Gran
Chacu, as well as the Araucanian, Pampas, and
Patagonian Indians.
Considering the amount of information now
collected together for the first time, the value
and interest of some of the author's conclusions,
and his eminence as a geographer, Colonel
Church's widow came to the conclusion that her
husband's intention ought to be fulfilled, and
that the manuscript should be published. It is
hoped that the story of the noble Indians of
South America, treated as Colonel Church's
vii
viii PREFACE
experience and knowledge enabled him to treat
it, will find many readers both in England and
in America.
In his Introduction Colonel Church presents
the reader with pictures both of the former
condition of the vast Amazonian basin, and of
its present state, covered with primeval forests,
traversed by innumerable rivers, and supporting
many wild tribes mainly as hunters and fishers.
The first chapter introduces the reader to the
original home of the Caraio race (Caribs), held
by Colonel Church to have been in Paraguay
and the rich country between that region and
the sea. Then the spread of this formidable
race over the greater part of South America is
described, until it extended its incursions to
Guiana, and finally to the Antilles. The
theory of its origin, of its conquests, and of
the number of tribes owing their ancestry to the
Caraio stock is most interesting, and in great
part original.
The two next chapters are devoted to the
Brazilian coast tribes, and to the Tapuyas, the
aboriginal races, who were attacked and driven
from their homes by the invading Caraios.
Next, Colonel Church takes us to the foot of the
Andes, and describes, very fully, the various
tribes, especially the Chiquitos and Mojos. His
next chapter is on Lowland Amazonia and its
PREFACE ix
tribes, including the great rivers flowing from
the Andes, an account of the voyages of the
early explorers, and of the labours of the mission-
aries. The chapter on the eastern slopes of the
Andes embraces accounts of the forest expedi-
tions of the Incas, and of the Spaniards soon after
the conquests, as well as those of later explorers
down to Dr. Heath in 1880. But this chapter
is not finished owing, no doubt, to the fact that
the work in that direction was still actively
proceeding at the time of Colonel Church's
death.
The seventh chapter contains a most interesting
account of the Chiriguanos, a tribe of valiant
warriors who maintained their independence
until quite recent times. There is also an account
of the treatment of the Indians in Tucuman, and
of the encomiendas. Then follows a full account
of the tribes in the Gran Chacu, and in the great
Argentine plain. The last chapter completes
the story of the Indians in the Gran Chacu, and
treats of the Araucanians, the Pampas Indians,
and the Patagonians. Here will be found a
description of a desperate battle with the Pampas
Indians, in which Colonel Church was himself
personally concerned. The burial ceremonies,
beliefs, use of the bolas, position of the chiefs
among these southern tribes are described, and
the work concludes with a description of the
x PREFACE
entire change in their mode of life caused by the
arrival of the horse on the pampas.
This very brief and inadequate review of the
contents of Colonel Church's book is merely
intended to show what a large field it covers, and
that it is full of interest not only to the ethnologist
and geographer, but also to the general reader.
But it must always be remembered that the
work is not finished, and that it is without the
author's final touches and corrections.
Clements R. Markham.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE
AUTHOR
Colonel George Earl Church was directly descended
from Richard Church, who was born at Oxford in 1608,
went to New England in 1630 and settled at Plymouth in
1632. His name is frequently mentioned in the records
of the colony. In 1633, he was admitted as " Freeman of
ye Incorporation of Plymouth in New England," and, a
few years later, he was granted permission by the court " to
come with ye Ancient Servants for a share of land at Saconett.' '
In 1636 he married Elizabeth Warren, one of the five daugh-
ters of Richard Warren, who reached Massachusetts on the
Mayflower.
Richard Church had five sons, Benjamin, Nathaniel,
Joseph, Richard and Caleb. The first, born in 1639, became
the celebrated Colonel Church of the French and Indian
Wars. His extraordinary and heroic exploits are matters
of colonial history. Between 1689 and 1704, he was Com-
mander-in-chief of five expeditions against the French and
Indians. The life of Colonel Benjamin Church incorrectly
gives his father's name as Joseph, but the Plymouth records
always refer to it as Richard. By these records we find : —
The above-named Richard Church, born in Oxford, England,
1608, married Elizabeth Warren : — their second son,
Nathaniel Church, born in Duxbury, 1641, married Sarah
Barstow : — their son, Richard Church, born in Scituate,
Massachusetts, in 1669, married Hannah (records
mutilated) : — their son, Richard Church, born in Scituate,
in 1697, married Anna (records mutilated): — their
son, Lemuel Church, born in Rochester, Massachusetts,
in 1721, married Bethia Clapp, whose mother, Mary
Winslow, was directly descended from Governor Winslow,
xii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE
of Massachusetts : — their son, Ebenezer Church, born in
Rochester, Massachusetts, in 1767, married Lois Bennett,
granddaughter of his uncle Richard : — their son, George
Washington Church, born in Rochester in 1811, died at
Mobile, 1838, married Margaret Fisher, of Edgarton, Martha's
Vineyard : — their son, George Earl Church, was born at
New Bedford, Massachusetts, December 7, 1835, married in
1882, Alice Helena Carter, nee Church — a very distant
relative. She died, without issue, in November 1898.
In 1843, the mother of Colonel Church removed to Provi-
dence, R.I., with her son George, whom she sent to the
Arnold Street Grammar School, which he attended until
thirteen years of age. He then went to the Providence
High School. Mrs. Church died in 1887. At sixteen, her
son commenced the study of civil and topographical engi-
neering, and for a time was engaged in the survey of town-
ships in Massachusetts, for the state map, and afterwards
as Assistant Engineer upon several railway enterprises in
Iowa. Before he was twenty-one he received the appoint-
ment of Resident Engineer of the Great Hoosac Tunnel of
Massachusetts. When the works were stopped, on account
of financial difficulties, he accepted the position of Chief
Assistant Engineer on a western railway ; but he was invited
not long after to go to the Argentine Republic, where he
became a member of a scientific commission sent by the
Government of Buenos Ayres to explore the south-western
frontier of the country and report upon the best system of
defence against the fierce inroads of the Patagonian and
other Indians living upon the Pampas and Andean slopes.
For this wild and dangerous expedition the Government
detailed a covering force of 400 cavalry. The commission
rode over 7,000 miles in nine months and fought two severe
battles with the Indians, one of which, on May 19, 1859,
was a midnight attack upon the little force by 1,500
picked warriors of the Huelches, Puelches, Pehuenches,
Pampas, Araucanians and Patagones. The attack was a
surprise — naked and mounted bare-back upon their splendid
horses, and with their long lances in line, they poured down
upon the expedition in a magnificent charge by moonlight.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xiii
Then, for three hours, it was a hand to hand fight, where no
quarter was given or asked. The Indians finally retired in
good order, with 3,000 head of cattle and horses as the fruit
of their daring raid. On the return of the Commission to
Buenos Ay res, each member presented a plan for the defence
of the frontiers; that of Mr. Church was published and
adopted by the Government.
On the news of the outbreak of Civil War in the United
States, Mr. Church, who was then engaged as Engineer on
the construction of the Great Northern Railway of Buenos
Ayres, resigned his position, returned home, and made
application to the Secretary of War for permission to go
before the West Point Examining Board to be examined
for a commission as Second Lieutenant of United States
Engineers. The application being refused, as contrary to
regulations, he went to Providence and was appointed
Captain of the 7th Regiment of Rhode Island Infantry,
which, soon after, joined the Ninth Corps of the Army of the
Potomac. The promotions of Captain Church were rapid.
His commissions date as follows : —
Captain, 7th R.I. Vols., July 27, 1862; Lieutenant-
Colonel 7th R.I. Vols., January 7, 1863; Colonel 11th R.I.
Vols., February 11, 1863; Colonel 2nd R.I. Vols., December
31, 1864.
This latter commission was given to him on expiry of the
term of service of the 11th R.I., but he was not mustered
into service upon it, as this famous regiment was not re-
cruited to the strength required before the close of the war.
In the charge on Mary's Heights, at the first battle of
Fredricksburg, December 1862, the lieutenant-colonel and
major of the 7th R.I. were killed, and, on the second day of
the battle, Captain Church was put in command of the
regiment, Colonel Bliss taking command of the brigade.
Colonel Church several times held a brigade command.
At the defence of Suffolk, when besieged by Longstreet,
he commanded the 11th R.I. Infantry and afterwards led
the van with a brigade of four regiments, part of a force of
14,000 men, in a successful raid for the tearing up of the
Seaboard and Roanoke and Norfolk and Petersburg rail-
xiv BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE
ways. He, then, with his brigade, covered the rear, fighting
several skirmishes as the force retired upon Suffolk. During
the Gettysburg campaign, in June 1863, he was placed in
command of the fortifications of Williamsburg on the
Peninsula, having under him his 11th R.I. Regiment, the
2nd Wisconsin battery, battery E of the 1st Pennsylvania
Artillery, and a squadron of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry.
WTiile awaiting the recruiting of the 2nd R.I. to a proper
strength to muster him into service, Colonel Church accepted
the position of Chief Engineer for the construction of the
Providence, Warren and Fall River Railway, which he
completed in April 1865.
About this time, the French invasion of Mexico was
deeply agitating the American mind. It drew from the pen
of Colonel Church " A Historical Review of Mexico and its
Revolutions," which the New York Herald paid him the
compliment of publishing entire in sixteen columns of its
edition of May 25, 1866. This review was, by Mr. Romero,
then Mexican Minister at Washington, sent to the American
State Department with the request to archive it as the best
outline of Mexican history ever written, and, with permission
of the author, he republished it in pamphlet form and caused
a copy to be laid upon the desk of every Senator and member
of Congress. It has been translated into German and
French and, twice, into Spanish. The writing of this review
resulted in Colonel Church going to Mexico to support the
Liberal cause under President Juarez, who, shorn of his
army, and with the mere shreds of a Government, had been
driven northward even to within sight of the frontier of the
United States. Colonel Church, accompanied by General
Lew Wallace, rode 900 miles from Matamorod to Chihuahua,
via Monterey, Saltillo and Parras, running the gauntlet of
Imperial raiding parties, bandits and an incursion of Apache
Indians from New Mexico. The latter killed 126 Mexicans
in three days along the route taken by our adventurous
travellers, and, finally, drove them to take refuge for one
night in a loop-holed mescal distillery.
Arriving at Chihuahua, October 21, 1866, Colonel
Church found President Juarez and his Cabinet and about
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xv
1,200 disorganized troops. Their artillery consisted of two
small howitzers differing in calibre. For lack of iron, they
were casting copper balls for them. Colonel Church re-
mained seven months with President Juarez and his Cabinet,
during which time he was quartered with General Ygnacio
Mejia, Minister for War. He shared their privations, their
defeats, their long marches and their successes until the
capture of Maximilian at Queretero. The campaign which
hemmed in the ill-fated Emperor and resulted in his capture
was planned by Colonel Church at Durango, and within an
hour of its being presented to the Minister for War, it had
been discussed at a Cabinet meeting and orders hurried off
to the several forces in the field to carry it into execution.
Two days before the storming of Zacatecas (January 27,
1867), the Imperialist General Miramon sent word to Colonel
Church that he would shoot him in the Plaza if he caught
him, and on the morning of the dashing assault of that ablest
of Imperial generals he nearly captured him; for having
given his own fast horse to President Juarez, Colonel Church
was the last to dash clear of the Plaza but under a shower
of bullets from a battalion of French Zouaves, while, only
300 yards distant, down the Bufa mountain road, came
Miramon thundering along at the head of 900 cavalry. The
race was for life — especially through the streets encumbered
with the debris of the Liberal army ; but across the country
south of the city, Colonel Church describes his ride as a grand
steeplechase for forty-two miles, in which he constantly
gained ground until Miramon gave up the pursuit and
returned to Zacatecas. Three days afterwards the Liberals
retook the city.
San Luis Potosi struck off five medals to commemorate
the recapture of that important city by the Liberal army —
one in gold for President Juarez, a silver one for each of the
Cabinet Ministers, and a silver one for Colonel Church, which
was presented to him with considerable ceremony.
Some forty-nine letters from Colonel Church were
published by the New York Herald giving his Mexican
experience while there. They describe the varying fortunes
of the Liberal cause from the day he arrived in Mexico until
xvi BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE
the surrender of Maximilian. On the capture of the latter,
Colonel Church rode 600 miles in six days to the Rio Grande
frontier, and hurried through to Washington hoping that
the Government would use its influence to save the life of
Maximilian, but his efforts were fruitless — Mr. Seward, who
was advised of his purpose, even denying him an interview.
Returning to New York, Colonel Church accepted employ-
ment on the editorial staff of the New York Herald, where
he remained for over a year; but while thus engaged, the
Bolivian Government sent General Quintin Quevedo, a
prominent member of its Diplomatic corps, to invite him
to undertake the long-cherished national project to open
the 3,000 miles of Bolivian tributaries of the Amazon to
navigation. These are separated from the navigable waters
of the lower river Madeira by about 300 miles of formidable
cataracts and rapids, principally in the territory of Brazil.
He accepted the invitation, but proceeded to Bolivia via
Buenos Ayres, opposite to which city on the Rio de la Plata,
at Colonia, he selected and prepared a proper site for a marine
slip for an American company. Then, with one servant,
he rode overland 2,000 miles from Buenos Ayres to La Paz,
the capital of Bolivia. Here, the required concession was
granted to him for the navigation of the Bolivian rivers.
He then returned to New York via Panama ; but soon after
his arrival, at the request of the Bolivian Government, he
returned to La Paz and thence went to Rio de Janeiro, via"
the Straits of Magellan, to obtain the right to construct a
railway to avoid the falls of the river Madeira which the
Bolivian Government had failed to negotiate as they had
agreed. The desired concession from Brazil was granted
to Colonel Church with but little delay. He then went to
New York and organized the National Bolivian Navigation
Company in June 1870, under charter from the United
States Government, and became President of the Company.
We find him soon after in London, where he organized the
Madeira and Mamore Railway Company under his Brazilian
concession, himself as Chairman of the Company. He then
raised over $6,000,000 to carry out the two enterprises and
contracted the railway works with a powerful English
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xvii
Contract Company. Again he went to Bolivia vid Peru
and the Tacora Pass of the Andes, reached the southern
capital, Sucre, via Oruro, went to Cochabamba and Santa
Cruz de la Sierra, a town at the head- waters of a tributary
of the Amazon, organized a canoe expedition of eighty-three
Indians and a few white men and descended the river Piray,
the Mamore and the falls of the Madeira. At the last fall,
San Antonio, he was met by a small exploring steamer which
he caused to be taken up the cataracts, she being hauled
three miles overland en route. At the fall of Pederneira,
he saved the lives of sixteen Indians who were clinging to a
wrecked canoe in mid-river ; while, at another rapid, his own
canoe was wrecked ; and, again, at the " Cauldron of Hell,"
he nearly lost his entire expedition. He returned to Europe
vid the river Madeira and Amazon.
The magnitude and promise of the project evoked the
bitter jealousy and opposition of the merchants of the
Pacific Coast, who held a commercial monopoly of the
district it was proposed to open by the new route. It was
suddenly discovered that an American Company held in
hand an enterprise which promised to penetrate South
America through its centre, turn its commerce from the old
forced channels into natural ones and powerfully affect the
political and inter-trade relations of several of the Spanish-
American States. The fierce jealousies combined on all
sides. The English Construction Company threw up its
contract and joined the bondholders in an attack upon the
railway trust fund, which they tied up, by injunction, in
the Court of Chancery. The Bolivian Government then
entered the lists and tried to seize the fund. Colonel Church
fought these heavy odds as long as there was an inch of
ground left to stand upon, and gained suit after suit from
1873 to 1878. The bondholders' committee then bribed
the Bolivian President Daza with £20,000 to take sides with
them, and instituted a new suit with the Bolivian concession
revoked. Even this new suit Colonel Church gained in the
Court of First Instance. The House of Lords finally
settled the question by declaring the enterprise impracticable,
although the Brazilian Government, which, throughout, had
b
xviii BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE
given its unwavering support to Colonel Church, had, months
before, at his request, issued a decree offering to supplement
the existing fund with all the money necessary to complete
the railway works. At the time the enterprise was broken
up there were 1 ,200 men at work on the railway line and a
locomotive running over the first section.
A few months after the wreck of his great enterprise, we
find Colonel Church en route from Washington to Quito,
under instructions from the then Secretary of State, the
Hon. James G. Blaine, to make a report to the United
States Government upon the political, social, trade and
general conditions of Ecuador. He also, on that voyage,
was entrusted by the English foreign bondholders of Ecuador
with full powers to negotiate the readjustment of the
National Debt of that country. He proceeded to Guayaquil,
vid Panama, crossed the Chimborazo Pass of the Andes,
remained at Quito three months, rode north as far as the
frontier of Colombia, and afterwards went to Lima, where
he remained for a time and wrote his report to the United
States Government, entitled Ecuador in 1881. This was
published (Ex. Doc. No. 69 of 47th Congress) as a special
message of President Arthur to Congress. The information
it contains is widely and often quoted. Colonel Church then
went to Chile and, vid the Straits of Magellan, to Uruguay
and the Argentine Republic, thence to Brazil, and returned
to the United States by the way of England.
Later, in London, he engaged in financial operations of
considerable magnitude connected with public works, and,
in 1889, contracted to build a railway in the Argentine
Republic for a million sterling. This work he completed
in two years, in the midst of the Baring crisis, which ruined
so many contractors for South American public works. In
1895, he spent three months in Costa Rica on behalf of the
foreign bondholders of that country; and, also, during his
stay there, made an elaborate report to the Costa Rica
Railway Company upon the condition of their line.
Although still engaged in the construction of railways in
the Argentine Republic, Colonel Church devoted much time
to literary pursuits. He was a member of several scientific
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE xix
and learned societies, including the American Society of
Civil Engineers, and he was a member of the Council of the
Royal Geographical Society for four years, and Vice-Presi-
dent, being the first foreigner, not an English citizen, ever
admitted to that honour.
In 1891, Colonel Church represented the American Society
of Civil Engineers at the International Congress of Hygiene
and Demography held in London; and, in 1898, at the
Bristol meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, he, as President of the Geographical Section,
read a paper on " Argentine Geography and the Ancient
Pampean Sea," which attracted great attention and was
pronounced by The Times " one of the most scientific papers
ever read before that Section." Numerous and extensive
articles have appeared in the Geographical Journal from his
pen, and, recently, one of its monthly numbers was almost
entirely occupied by his " Outline of the Physical Geography
of South America."
To his fine library of books in the several foreign languages
with which he was familiar he devoted all his spare time;
for he was a close student of history, geography and travel ;
but to fill in the details of his life would require a large
volume — extensive travels in Europe and in most parts of
America, and among the North and South American Indians,
numerous exciting adventures, where the stake was life,
had partially toned down the almost tireless physical forces
of this representative of one of the old Puritan families of
Massachusetts. Colonel Church married secondly in 1907,
Annie Marion, widow of Frederic Chapman, Esq. He died
at 216 Cromwell Road on January 4, 1910.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF
CONTENTS
PAOB
Preface vii
Biographical Notice of the Author . xi
Introduction
Romance of Amazonia— Boundaries of the forests — Origin of the
American race — Ancient seas and lakes — Central plateau. Its
rivers — Depression in the heart of the continent — Change in the
drainage of the inland seas — Great extension of Lake Titicaca in
ancient times — Former low level of the Andes — Forests annually
flooded— Great number of names of tribes — Foes on all sides —
Migrations frequent — Tribes supported by hunting and fishing —
Various regions in Amazonia.
CHAPTER I
Caraios or Cara'ibes 21
Original cradle of the Caraio race in Paraguay — Tupi-Guarani a
misnomer — Meaning of the name Tupi— Tupis really Caraios —
Spread of the Caraios — Caraios subdued Brazil, Guiana, Antilles —
Caraios met by Cabeza de Vaca — Their influence from La Plata to
Orinoco — The Page — Caraibes originally a religious caste — The
Spaniards called all cannibal tribes Caribs — Guaycuru group of
tribes — The Charruas — Caraio advances through Brazil to the
head waters of the Madeira — The Chirihuanos of the Caraio stock —
Caraios descended the Madeira and the Amazon to its mouth —
Dominant race in Brazil — Caraios under the name of Omaguas in
the upper Amazon — Tapuyas were the aborigines — Caraios expert
canoemen — Extent of Caraio incursions — Physique of the Caraios —
Personal appearance — Ornaments.
xxi
xxii CONTENTS
CHAPTER II
FAOB
Beazilian Coastal Tribes 53
Tapuya tribes, near the mouth of the Amazon — Tupinambas.
Extent of their country — Tobajaras of Caraio origin — Tribes along
the coast of Brazil — The Caytes : a terror to the Portuguese —
Caytes ate the first Bishop of Bahia — Goiatakazes — Tamoyos —
Goanazes — Carijos.
CHAPTER III
Taputas 64
Tapuyas and Caraios not the same race — Colour of Tapuyas —
Appearance — Cruelty — Cannibalism — Defeat of Tapuyas by
Caraios — Driven into the fastnesses of Brazil — Parts of the coast
occupied by Tapuyas when the Portuguese arrived — Aymor6s or
Aimbures a specially terrible branch of the Tapuyas with many
names — Aymores called Botocudos by the Portuguese — Description
of the Ayniores — Attacks on European settlers — Long defence of
their country — Difficulty in tracing the localities occupied by
different tribes — The Mundurucus — Island of Tupinambarana —
Tupis took refuge there from the Portuguese — Island of Maraj6,
Nu-Arawaks — Tupinambas — Portuguese raids.
CHAPTER IV
South-western Amazonia 88
Boundaries of the region — Accounts of missionaries — Strife
between Tapuya and Caraio tribes — Consequent variety of tribal
remnants — Chunchos — Expedition of Maldonado — Enumeration
of tribes — Madeira basin — Weapons of the tribes — Country of the
Chiquitos — Account of the Chiquitos — Chiquito language — Con-
fusing lists of tribes — Account of the Mojos, Canichanas, Cayubabas,
Itenes — Sirionos on the Mamore" — Yucacanes described — Visit to
the Mojos missions — Effects of Jesuit rule — Customs of the Mojos —
Explorers in the Madre de Dios region — Demoralization of the
tribes — Guarayo tribe — Pacaguaras, Araunas, Caraipunas, Pamas,
Zinabos, Chacobos — Reports of Colonel Suarez.
CONTENTS xxiii
CHAPTER V
PAOX
Lowland Amazonia 135
Regions traversed by the Purus, Jurua, Yavari — Powerful Caraio
tribe dominating — The Muras — Scourge of the Tapuya tribes —
Munduriicus below the Madeira mouth — Tribal hatred of the
Portuguese — Murus reduced by the missionaries — Punis and
Jurua explored by Chandless — Pammarys and Juberys on the
Purus — Cipos — Catauixis — Jamamadis — Hypurinas — Manete-
nerys — Cuj igenerys — Araunas — Religion — Feasts — Jurua river —
Game and fish abundant — Yavari — Repulse of boundary commission
by the Catuquinas — Communication between the Jurua and
Ucayali — Region of the Ucayali and Huallaga — Valleys of the
Morona and Pastaza — Basin of the Napo — Province of Maynas —
Early explorers — Account of the Cocamas — Pariaches — Arrange-
ments at Quito for teaching native languages — Franciscan
missionaries from Ocopa — Aguanas and Mayorunas — Aguanas on
the Huallaga — Jibaros changes in the course of time — Disturbance
caused by rubber collectors — Tribes of the Ucayali — Sala on the
Caribos — Huallaga Indians.
CHAPTER VI
Eastern Slopes of the Andes 194
From the sources of the Mamore to those of the Madre de Dios —
Incas always on the alert to resist invaders from the eastern forests
— The scenery — Inca roads in Antisuyu— Early Spanish expedi-
tions — Camporedondo — Maldonado — Tordoya— -General Miller —
Bovo de Revello — Voyage of Faustino Maldonado— Colonel La
Torre— Expeditions from Bolivia — The Tacana language— Dr.
Edwin Heath.
[This Chapter is Unfinished.]
CHAPTER VII
The Chiriguanos 206
Territory of the Chiriguanos— Early Spanish expeditions into the
Chacu— Derivation of the name of Chiriguano — War with the
Incas — Inca route for the invasion of Chile — Invasion by the
Viceroy Toledo — Failure of missionaries— Continued resistance of
the Chiriguanos — Invasion of Colonel Viedma in 1801 — Routine
of the missions — Obstinate resistance of the Chiriguanos — Spanish
rule in Tucuman — Encomiendas.
xxiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
PAGE
Tribes of the Gran Chacu 228
Missionaries' description of the personal appearance of the Chiri-
guanos — Their houses, food, chiefs, wars, religion and burial cere-
monies. Their fine qualities — The Guaycuru group of tribes — The
great Argentine plain. Its four divisions — Wandering Indians and
abundant game — Possible former continental area extending to
Antarctic lands — Mocobi-Tobas — Central and Southern Chacu —
Guaycurus — Mbayas — Matacos — Abipones.
CHAPTER IX
The Abipones and the Southern Tribes . . .263
Country of the Abipones — Personal appearance — Burials — Inca
influence in Catamarca and Tucuman — Cacanas and Calchaquies — A
warlike race — Their forts, stone idols, pottery — Lules — Inhabi-
tants of Argentine in remote times — Moluche or Araucanian race —
Divisions — Tehuelches — Author's personal experience of an Indian
raid — Burial ceremonies of Tehuelhets and Patagonians— Office of
chief— Musters on the Patagonian Indians — Beliefs — Use of bolas
— Tsoneca language— Introduction of horses.
Index 303
THE ABORIGINES OF
SOUTH AMERICA
INTRODUCTION
As we stand on the Andean threshold of
Amazonia, we receive impressions such as are
impossible in lands which have been tamed
down by civilization. We get nearer to God
than any prayer can place us, and there we fully
comprehend how infinitesimally unimportant we
are in the scheme of the universe. As our
thoughts wander over the vast area which
almost belts a continent x we are irresistibly
translated to the Age of Discovery and imbibe
its spirit of romance. We are bold navigators,
explorers and conquistador es : we play with the
destinies of barbaric kingdoms, and march
through wonderland in search of new empires
to conquer; like Orellana, we launch our craft
upon gigantic and mysterious rivers which seem
to flow interminably onward in search of the
ocean : all around us are tribes of wild men as
1 The area of South America is 6,798,000 square miles
and that of the Amazon valley 2,722,000.
B
2 LEGENDS, BARRIERS TO CONQUEST
savage as the puma and jaguar which they hunt :
we find that the lowlands are a forested world
floating on the bosom of the fresh-water sea which
Pinzon named Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce ;
and, overlooking all, we see the inland range of
the Andes with its resplendent crests and gigantic
counterforts, and, everywhere, nature working
on a grand scale tearing down and building up
with terrible vigour.
At the date of the discovery of the New World,
the human mind in Europe had been educated by
its religious teachers to its maximum power of
credulity, hence, for a period of two centuries
afterwards, easy credence was given to the
fantastic tales which peopled Amazonia with
bands of female warriors, and which told of the rich
empires of Paytiti, Omaguas and Enim, and of the
golden city of Manoa and its dorado king. Many
expeditions sailed from the shores of Europe to
conquer these fabled lands, and even the followers
of Pizarro, unsatiated with the plunder of Peru,
organized bands of adventurers to subdue
countries of such dazzling wealth. But, on
every margin of Amazonia, nature had placed
forbidding and formidable barriers, and if any
hardy and indomitable conquistador succeeded in
crossing the border, he found himself confronted
by countless obstacles, against which his courage
and endurance battled in vain.
BARRIERS SURROUNDING AMAZONIA 3
A broad belt of rugged, tropical, river-cut
country lies between Amazonia and the coast of
Brazil; the highlands, jungles and swamps of
the French, Dutch, English and Venezuelan
Guayanas almost forbid access to it from the
north; wild regions of southern Matto Grosso
and south-eastern Bolivia separate it from the
Plata valley; on the west and south-west are
the Andes piercing the clouds with an endless
line of cold, sharp teeth. From the Pacific
coast, it is no easy task to reach even the margin
of the primeval forests. For a distance of nearly
two thousand miles, from Santa Cruz de la Sierra
to Quito, innumerable torrential streams descend
the eastern slope of the inland cordillera, and,
constantly swelling in volume, present ever-
increasing difficulties to the penetration of the
great valley from the west.
Many learned works have been written on the
origin of man in the New World, and there have
not been wanting erudite scholars who locate the
Garden of Eden at the eastern base of the mighty
peak of Sorata or Illampu ; * others who can lift the
veil to an immensely remote antiquity and tell
us when man first appeared in South America ?
Its habitable areas were probably well populated
at a period coeval with the pliocene land mam-
malia, the remains of which are found in such
1 Notably Emetrio Villamil.
B 2
4 INLAND SEAS
abundance in south-eastern Bolivia, the Argentine
Republic and Brazil.
The relations of the South American aborigines
to each other were largely governed, at least for
many thousands of years, by the inland seas
which extended from the Ventana and Curumalal
mountains of Buenos Ay res to the water- divide
between the Amazon and Orinoco basins, if not
to the Caribbean sea. The aggregate area of
these — the Pampean sea, 1 the Mojos lake 2 and
1 Vide the writer's presidential address before Section E
of the British Association, 1898, on " Argentine Geography
and the Ancient Pampean Sea." This sea or gulf occupied
the central part of the Argentine Republic from the Parana
and Paraguay rivers on the east to the foothills of the Andes
on the west.
2 The drainage area of this ancient lake, which is that
of the Madeira river to-day above its falls, was about 400,000
square miles. A great part of it is now an immense plateau
which on an average lies about six hundred and fifty feet
above the lower Madeira and Purus rivers. The Andes form
its western and south-western rim, and, between the Mayu-
tata (or Madre de Dios) and Purus, push low hills north-east
towards the falls of the Madeira. On the eastern side are the
Matto Grosso highlands, and, on the south-east, the low
Chiquitos sierras overlooking the Gran Chacu. The great
rim of the basin has two breaks, one leads north-east to the
Amazon river and the other opens into the Plata valley.
The rivers Mayu-tata, Beni, Mamore, San Miguel and Itenez
or Guapore traverse this plateau and concentrate on the
falls above named. With their multitude of affluents, they
drain the slopes of the Andes from Cuzco south-east to the
water-divide with the Paraguay river. The mountains from
an elevation of about 10,000 feet down to their foothills are
forested, but, once at their base, the wooded country gives
INLAND SEAS 5
the Amazon sea x — was about 1,115,000 square
miles. Together, they separated South America
into two grand divisions — the Brazilian and
Andean. The inhabitants of each must have
had their own peculiar and distinctive ethno-
logical development, for communication between
them was barred by a width of about four hundred
miles of water. One land link alone, lying east
and west between 17° and 19° south latitude,
connected the two parts of the continent. The
difficulties of its transit were formidable, but it
place to immense open plains of rich alluvial soil, the bed of
the ancient lake. Its fertility is phenomenal, its countless
natural products are of the richest, its climate the best of
any part of Amazonia.
1 " Between eastern Brazil and the river Madeira, below
its falls, the general slope of the country is inland, from east
to west; and from British and Dutch Guayana to the Rio
Negro it is south-west. The lowering of Brazil in the direc-
tion indicated causes, in conjunction with the Andes, a
depression in the heart of the continent having an area of
about 400,000 square miles. It is probably the bed of an
ancient lake of such recent geologic age that, for several
months of the year, a greater part of it is still under water.
Roughly, its south-eastern boundary was the Madeira river
from the fall of Theotonio to the Amazon. Its north-
eastern margin followed, more or less, the course of the Negro
up to the mouth of the Uaupes. A line drawn thence to a
point on the Ucayali cut by latitude 7° defines its north-
western border. Its very irregular south-western shore
extended in gulfs up the branches of the Purus and Jurua
to the northern frontier of the Acre territory." — Ency. Brit.,
supplementary ed., article, "The Amazon," by G. E. Church.
6 EFFECT OF SUBSIDENCE
is still the only one in use. It separated the
Pampean sea from the Mojos lake and served
as a great inter-tribal bridge.
When the Amazon sea and Mojos lake were
almost drained by finding an outlet to the
Atlantic, nearly the entire lacustrine and fluvial
features of Amazonia underwent a marked trans-
formation. The gigantic rivers Madeira, Puriis,
Jurud and Rio Negro, and the Yapura and
numerous secondary streams, were formed from
the drainage of the eastern flanks of the Andes.
These crossed the old lake beds and gave to the
Amazon sufficient volume to keep its track open
to the ocean. The area previously occupied by
the Amazon sea became a dense forest, which,
even now, is yearly flooded to a width of four
hundred miles. It is in bold contrast to the
unforested part of the bed of the ancient Mojos
lake, over the black soil of which in the dry
season one may wander, as I can attest, for
hundreds of miles without finding a pebble.
Coexistent with these huge bodies of water, a
great lake, much larger than Lake Superior,
occupied part of the Andean plateau. It is
known as Titicaca, and is now not a tenth of its
former area. Its desiccation still continues.
At present, the rain-laden, north-east trade
winds, after crossing the Guayanas and northern
Brazil, beat themselves dry against the eastern
THE ANDEAN LAKE 7
flanks of the Andes, but when they were resatur-
ated from the Amazon sea and Mojos lake, and,
after sweeping across the narrow inland cordillera,
again refreshed from Lake Titicaca, they must
have carried sufficient moisture over the whole
Andean region to fertilize not alone its table-
lands, but, in connection with the Pampean sea,
the great north-western deserts of Argentina and
the arid belt of the Pacific coast, thus making
the whole of Peru, Bolivia and the Atacama
districts of Chile and Argentina a delightful and
fruitful habitat for man and animal life in
general.
Whether the Andes, since they were peopled,
have been much lower than they are to-day is
considered a moot question ; 1 but when, at
from twelve to fourteen thousand feet above sea-
level, one finds numerous artificial terraces in
Peru and Bolivia which are now utterly value-
less for purposes of cultivation, we may well
suppose that they were built by an ancient
race at a time when meteorological conditions
1 Darwin, in Chile and Peru, found evidences of ancient
sea beaches at a considerable elevation above sea-level.
David Forbes confirms this and says that, at Arica, the
ancient sea beaches rise to about 2,000 feet above the sea.
" For 550 miles of the Atacama desert, we have indisputable
evidence of the recent elevation of the whole of this coast.
. . . The series of saline deposits at from 7,000 to 8,000 feet
above the level of the sea are developed on a grand
scale."
8 CHANGE IN THE ANDEAN CLIMATE
and productiveness of the soil warranted their
construction. 1
As Lake Titicaca and other Andean lakes and
the inland seas slowly disappeared the climatic
conditions of South America underwent a radical
change : the Andean plateaux and Pacific coast
lands lost their fertility, thus imposing on their
inhabitants an increasingly severe struggle for
existence and causing the survivors to crowd into
the valleys and ravines that had partly escaped
the general desiccation.
With the alteration of the physical conditions
of the interior of the continent, the valleys of
the eastern slope of the Andes gradually became
1 Reclus, commenting upon the former condition of the
Titicaca basin, says : " At that time the climate appears to
have been much more humid than at present, and the whole
depression was filled by an inland sea, at a much higher level
than Lake Titicaca, as shown by the mountains skirting the
Oruro plain, where the overhanging whitish cliffs, apparently
deposited in water, stretch 200 miles away to the north."
According to Squier : The greatest length of the Titicaca
basin, almost due north and south, is about 600 miles; its
average width may be estimated at not far from 150 miles,
thus giving a total area of about 100,000 square miles. The
slope of this basin is gentle, towards the south. At or near its
northern extremity lies Lake Titicaca, a magnificent body of
fresh water and the recipient of several considerable streams."
My own estimate of the area of the basin is 106,000 square
miles. Lake Titicaca flows southward through the narrow
Desaguadero, a natural canal 170 miles long, into the small
shallow lake Aullagas or Poopo, which has no visible outlet.
The aggregate area of both lakes is now about 3,300 square
miles.
EFFECTS OF DENSE FOREST 9
accessible to the savage hordes of the lowlands,
abundant in the low-lying districts, if we may
judge of Amazonia as we find it to-day. The
countless rivers rewarded the fishermen only
during the cool season, when the water was clear.
Nuts, honey, wild fruits, roots, the pith of certain
palms, birds, monkeys, tapirs, deer, fish, alli-
gators, tortoises, anteaters, lizards, snakes and
other reptiles and grubs were the general diet of
the savage.
Immense areas of lowland forests, yearly
flooded, were appalling in their loneliness, and the
sun's rays could seldom penetrate the closely-
matted, perennial foliage which shaded the damp
earth. Man and beast were driven to the vicinity
of the river banks, where they led a gloomy,
stealthy existence, for nature nowhere held out a
caressing hand to them there, and all living species
waged relentless war against each other — a strife
in which man frequently showed himself to be the
inferior animal.
Throughout Amazonia, apart from its upper
Andean portion, the great rivers and their
myriad affluents and flooded areas, so cut the
country into sections that inter-tribal relations
were extremely difficult, and the formation of a
confederacy impracticable ; x and even growing
1 " The plan of government of the American aborigines
commenced with the gens and ended with the confederacy,
10 ANDEAN SECTION OF AMAZONIA
tribes, in their strenuous struggle for life, were
constantly disintegrating and throwing off their
fragments to other parts of the valley. Some-
times an entire community, having exhausted
the local food supplies, would suddenly change
its habitat and move, perhaps hundreds of miles,
generally by canoe, to another hunting ground —
and migration meant war. It is safe to assume
that they never could have emerged from their
savage state. Only the lofty Andean section of
Amazonia presented natural conditions which
enabled its occupants to reach the upper status
of barbarism. The degree of cold on the mountain
plateaux necessitating warm clothing and the
cultivation and storage of crops were alone
powerful stimuli to mental activity and social
advancement.
the latter being the highest point to which their govern-
mental institutions attained. It gave for the organic series :
first, the gens, a body of consanguinei having a common
gentile; second, the phatry, an assembly of related gentes
united in a higher association for certain common objects;
third, the tribe, an assemblage of gentes, usually organized
in phatries, all the members of which spoke the same dialect ;
and fourth, a confederacy of tribes, the members of which
respectively spoke dialects of the same stock language. It
resulted in a gentile society (societas) as distinguished from
a political society or state (ci vitas). The difference between
the two is wide and fundamental. There was neither a
political society, nor a citizen, nor a state, nor any civiliza-
tion in America when it was discovered." — Morgan's Ancient
Society.
VARIETY OF LANGUAGES 11
In savage Amazonia there were almost as
many tongues as there were gens, and sometimes
these changed their language according to locality
and temporary conditions of life; for nothing
round them was fixed and permanent, and no
common purpose, either of culture, social organiza-
tion, literature, agricultural pursuits, trade, con-
quest or defence gave any one of their languages
sufficient backbone to ensure its long continuance
or its extension among neighbouring tribes.
Everything among them was disintegration.
Under such conditions a lingoa geral could only
be forced on them by some powerful conquering
race, and, then, but partially, although the
Indian learns the language of other Indians with
extreme facility. Even the name of the gens,
phatry and tribe was constantly subject to
change ; for, among themselves, they frequently
took that of the chief or Cacique whom they
allowed to lead them in war or on important
expeditions, saying merely that they were " his
men " to distinguish themselves from the followers
of some other Cacique. The names of many of
these chiefs, often misspelt, have erroneously
crept into the long lists of so-called " tribes,"
although a larger part of the many hundreds of
perplexing tribal names with which explorers,
travellers and missionaries have embellished or
encumbered their works are simply nicknames
12 FOREIGN INVASIONS
conferred upon savage hordes by their scornful
neighbours.
Even though the dominant races of South
America, at the date of its discovery, may have
had their territorial possessions to a certain extent
defined, their control of them was rudely disturbed
during the period of the conquest ; for the whole
ocean frontage of the continent was assailed by
foreign invaders. With greed as merciless as it was
pious, they pushed inland with cross and sword to
civilize the savage and offer to him the consolations
of the Christian religion in exchange for his lands,
his freedom and his life. Wherever he sought
refuge, he met new foes armed with strange
weapons, against which his own primitive ones
were powerless. On the west and north-west,
the Pizarros, Benalcazars, Alfingers, Federmans,
Quesadas, Espiras * and their successors kept the
Andes in a blaze : on the Brazilian coast was the
lash of the Portuguese and the terrible half-
breeds, the " Mamalucos " of San Paulo : in the
Plata valley, the Spaniard made havoc among
the tribes as far north as the upper waters of the
Madeira affluent of the Amazon, while in Mis-
siones, Paraguay, the Mojos and Beni, the Jesuit
fathers, under the euphemistic but truthful name
of " Reductiones," corralled the Indians and re-
duced them mentally and physically to the level
1 George of Spires.
CONFUSION OF NATIVE RACES 13
of docile brutes. The whole southern slope of
Amazonia was turned into a slave-hunting field
and flamed with bondage and misery for the
savage as he understood life ; for, wild and fierce
as he was, he was assailed by a hunter who far
exceeded him in cruelty. Naturally, under such
conditions, tribal migrations took place even
more frequently than before, either as a whole
or in sections according to the size of the tribe,
and even races which had acquired considerable
cohesion and a certain degree of advancement,
such as the Caraio-Caraibes, were largely dis-
persed and their fragments obliged to seek
distant lands, where they dislocated weaker
tribes, forcing them, in the struggle for existence,
to, in turn, attack and oust others from their
hunting grounds. Thus, during nearly the entire
Colonial period, the native races were thrown
into more than abnormal confusion from which
they have never recovered.
It has been argued that the tribes of Amazonia
lacked the mental qualities necessary to enable
them to emerge from their savage state ; but the
question may be asked, What has civilized man
been able to accomplish during the four centuries
he has occupied the valley ? Does he also lack
the attributes or fitness to combat the forces of
nature, develop and utilize the resources of the
valley, and make it the home of one or more great
14 BRAZILIAN SEA-COAST AND ANDES
peoples ? In reality, with all his advantages,
he is worse fed there than were his aboriginal
predecessors. 1
It may be doubted if Amazonia, from the base
of the Andes to the Atlantic ocean, ever had a
population exceeding 500,000 Indians, the maxi-
mum it could support by hunting and fishing
supplemented by the forest food products. It
is natural, therefore, as their numbers increased
beyond the power of the country to sustain them,
that many tribes sought the Brazilian sea- coast
or else pushed up the Andes, seeking to solve
the food problem permanently by sharing with
the highland races their numerous herds of
llamas and alpacas.
In tropical countries, man finds it com-
paratively easy to migrate, if unopposed, from
low, hot lands to higher and cooler altitudes;
but, once adapted to these, he never descends
again willingly. Nothing can induce the Aymara
Indian to change his home from almost the snow-
line to the smiling valleys which lie within sight
down the mountain slope. If the Aymara or
1 " There are probably not twenty square miles of the
Amazon basin under cultivation, excluding the limited and
rudely cultivated areas among the mountains, at its extreme
headwaters, which are inaccessible to commerce. The
extensive exports of the mighty valley are entirely derived
from the products of the forest." — Ency. Brit., article,
" The Amazon," by G. E. Church.
HIGHLANDERS WILL NOT DESCEND 15
Quichua descends to the base of the Andes, on
either side, he soon loses his stamina and health ;
and this is also true of his llama and alpaca.
In Costa Rica the inhabitants of the uplands
dread a visit to the coast and can with great
difficulty be induced to take service there. While
in that country, in 1895, I studied this question
carefully. On the railway between Port Simon
and San Jose, only twenty-two per cent, of the
employes were Costa Ricans, the remainder being
nearly all negroes. Practically, the whole of the
former were employed at an elevation above 1,500
feet, and all of the negroes below that altitude. 1
An accomplished engineer officer says of the
hill tribes south of Peshawur : — " Under no
circumstances would these independent people
be driven to take refuge in the plains of India.
They might diverge amongst kindred people,
or they might migrate en masse to more remote
and more congenial regions in the hills; but
rather than be driven into the plains of India
they would suffer extermination." 2
It seems safe to assume that the lowlands of
Amazonia were not populated from the mountain
region, but that this was occasionally subjected
to invasions by herds of savages from the Andean
1 Royal Geographical Journal, July 1897, article, " Costa
Rica," by G. E. Church.
2 The Indian Borderland," by Sir Thomas Holdich.
16 STRUGGLE FOR THE BEST HOME
foothills. To defend themselves against their
ceaseless raids the Incas and perhaps their
predecessors found it necessary to construct
extensive fortifications at the heads of all the
valleys by which access might be had from the
east to the Andean plateaux.
The importance and strength of the several
tribes of Brazil at the date of the conquest
depended largely upon the climatic and physical
conditions of the districts they occupied. Bow
and war- club had been busy for thousands of
years in deciding to whom the most inviting
territory and the best hunting and fishing should
belong — 'twas the old, old story of the human
race.
Brazilian Guayana, lying to the north of the
Amazon river and between the valley of the Rio
Negro and the Atlantic, had few attractions.
It must have been a refuge for weak tribes who
could not hold their own in the contest for more
enticing lands. Forests do not appear except
in the river valleys and on their hilly margins.
The rolling table-lands are frequently stony and
sandy and covered with coarse grass and scrubby
bushes or groves of stunted trees ; numerous rapids
are found in all the rivers. This district is still
in the undisturbed possession of wandering hordes
of Indians whose scanty numbers find the food-
quest difficult.
REGION FROM NAPO TO RIO NEGRO 17
Further west, and extending to the base of the
Ecuadorian Andes, and lying to the north of the
Amazon river, is a forested section of Amazonia
in many respects far more habitable and food-
producing than Brazilian Guayana. It is watered
by the rivers Negro, Japura, 19a, Napo and many
large secondary streams, in the valleys of which,
generally along the river banks, numerous gens,
phatries and hordes had found a footing and a
precarious existence. They must have suffered
from frequent raids of the Caraibes who penetrated
the region, especially by way of the Rio Negro,
which formed a part of their grand war-route
from the Plata valley to the Caribbean sea and
the Guayanas, as will be shown hereafter.
Perhaps the Amazon slope of Ecuador was
found in general to be the least adapted to tribal
growth and savage prosperity, owing to the
exuberant vegetation, extremely hot, moist
climate, insect pests and vast swarms of bats. 1
Few of the wretched savage families that wandered
1 A Jesuit father, Chantre y Herrera, describing the Mis-
sions of the Maranon in the seventeenth century, writes —
" The bats kill domestic fowl and are the plague of these
regions. In some seasons their multitude is so great that
they leave nothing alive including live stock and swine.
In Borja they consumed all the animals, even a considerable
drove of hogs and a herd of nearly one hundred horned cattle,
not leaving one alive. They do the same in Jeberos and
Paran&pura." These vampire bats sometimes measure
two feet across their outstretched wings.
18 REGION, PURUS TO UCAYALI
over it found it possible to rise to the dignity of
a tribe, despite the long tribal lists given by
Velasco, Hervas, Vilavicencio and the mission-
aries of early times and accounts of recent
travellers. South of the Amazon river, and
occupying a greater part of the bed of the ancient
Amazon sea, between the Purus and Ucayali
rivers, were groups of almost amphibious Indians
whose territory was but little envied by the better
located tribes of Amazonia. It is a thickly
forested country, lying so low that the yearly
floods inundate a great part of it, leaving, here
and there, elevated areas where the nomads
may find lodgment. The Puriis and Jurua and
other streams drain this region. They are
probably as sluggish and crooked as any of the
great rivers of the world, as has been well shown
by the explorations of Chandless. The lowland
plateau of the Mojos and Beni, the former bed
of the Mojos lake, is described elsewhere. At
the time of the conquest, it was occupied by
sturdy tribes whose prowess was acknowledged
even by the Incas. The slopes of the Andes
and their foothills, as has been mentioned, were
well populated by fierce savages whose habitat
was much superior in natural resources to that
of their conquerors of the lowlands.
The Tocantins and its Araguay tributary define
the eastern boundary of the Amazon basin,
SERTAO OF BRAZIL 19
between which and the Atlantic coast the physical
character of the country is much more favourable
to tribal growth than any part of lowland Ama-
zonia. It became possible for tribes holding
certain portions of it to reach a considerable
degree of strength and importance, more especially
those which had access to the ocean shore.
From the basin of the Tocantins as far as the
river Madeira, are the remains of an undulating
sandstone plateau cut into sections by many
rivers, its irregular elevations, hilly and at times
highland ranges, mostly flat-topped, presenting
bold escarpments which overlook the streams
that constantly undermine them. The greater
part of this region, and the more broken and
mountainous one lying between the extreme
eastern drainage of the river Sao Francisco and
the Tocantins above its Araguay tributary, is
now known as the great wild land or sertao. 1 Its
rivers are bordered by forests, but the slopes of
the valleys are clothed with grass and scrubs.
The intervening plateaux are frequently open,
sandy and arid moorlands, rising from 1,000 to
2,000 feet above the sea, and are covered with
tufted grass, bushes, flowering plants, cacti and
dwarf palms. " In Goyaz," says Wells, " one
can travel several days without sighting a forest,
1 Sertao is an abbreviation of deseHao or desert. In
Brazil it generally means a wild, upland pasture country,
c 2
20 THE TAPUYAS
and the atmosphere of the breezy uplands is most
delightful and exhilarating. They sparkle in
the sunlight, are gemmed with fragrant flowers,
and are lively with the songs of birds."
The principal occupants of this immense sertao
area at the date of the dicovery were the Tapuyas,
the wildest savages of Brazil. They were so
called by the Caraios who had driven many of
them from the much coveted lands of the Atlantic
slope ; for these to the savage mind were a para-
dise, where the abundant products of the forests
and the soil could be supplemented by those of
the sea, and life was a continuous feast.
CHAPTER I
THE CARAIOS OR CARAIBES
A diversified and delightful region which
must have been especially attractive to the
aborigines of South America now forms the
States of Parana, Santa Catharina, Rio Grande
do Sul, Misiones and Paraguay, aggregating
twice the area of France. Its western portion
appears to have been the cradle of the Caraio
race, which at the time of the conquest had
not only spread over a large part of the area
indicated, but, by various routes, had overrun
the whole Atlantic slope of Brazil.
According to Ulrich Schmidel, 1 the Caraios of
1 Ulrich Schmidel accompanied the great expedition of the
Adelantado Pedro de Mendoza to the Rio de la Plata and
remained there from 1535 to 1552. During that period of
time, he was, as a common soldier, engaged in nearly all
of the stirring events incident to the conquest of the Plata
valley, including Paraguay. His account of them, although
rudely written, contains much valuable information regard-
ing the Indian tribes, especially the Caraios, and is justly
held in high esteem. A translation of Schmidel, published
in Buenos Ay res in 1903 by the " Junta de Historia y
Numismatica Americana,' ' and enriched by bibliographical
and biographical notes by General B. Mitre and annotated
21
22 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Paraguay could muster forty thousand bowmen,
and he estimated their territory at three hundred
square miles; but his miles were about four
English ones each, being seventeen and a half to
the degree. Their principal settlement was at or
near the site of the " Puerto de Nuestra Senora
de la Asuncion," now the capital of Paraguay. 1
Schmidel confirms the account of Cabeza de
Vaca as to the wonderful fruitfulness of the
home of the Caraios. He says : " They had
abundance of food, maize, mandioca, sweet-
potatoes, ground-nuts, fish, meat, deer, wild
pigs, guanacos, rabbits, geese, pheasants, honey
in great quantities, and much cotton " — it was
a veritable land of plenty.
Villalta, who was under Juan de Ayola, suc-
cessor to Mendoza in his expeditions for the
discovery of new lands on the Parand and
Paraguay rivers, says that, ascending the latter,
they " reached the land of the Indians, Caraios,
who in other parts of the Indies are called Caribes.
These Indians, Caribes, welcomed the Christians
and gave them an abundance of food, such as
maize, sweet-potatoes, beans and abas, for they
by Lafone Quevedo, is probably the best of the many editions
which have been published since the original appeared in
German, in 1567.
1 This was founded by the Spaniards not later than 1538,
but, probably, August 15, 1537.
THE CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 23
are accustomed to labour and breed animals, for
in this way they get a living." They also de-
pended on the Caraibes for supplies " when they
had to descend the river to the Carios who in
other lands are called Caribes" — Carta de Fran-
cisco de Villalta, Biblioteca de la Real Accademia
de la Historia, Colecion Mufioz, 1536-56, quoted
in translation of Schmidel, Buenos Ayres, 1903.
Schmidel says, " The Caraios made longer voyages
than any nation of the Rio de la Plata. They
are great warriors by land."
Ethnologists now call the Caraios " Tupi-
Guaranis," a misnomer, for it is doubtful if ever
there was a Tupi or a Guarani race. When the
missionaries first landed on the Brazilian coast
and tried to ascertain the names of the tribes,
they found that nearly all of them called them-
selves " Tupis," but although not a racial name
the holy Fathers found it a useful one by which
to designate all of the aborigines who spoke
nearly the same language — a lingoa geral which
they rapidly utilized for the spread of the gospel. 1
" Tupi or Tupy primarily means paternal
1 Alencar in "0 Guar any" considers that the term
Guarany signifies indigina brasiliero. " At the time of the
discovery Brazil was populated by nations belonging to a
great race, which, a long time before had conquered the
country and expelled its previous occupants, the chroniclers
in general usually called this race by the name of Tupi, but
this designation was only given to some nations."
24 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
uncle, and secondarily companion, comrade and
fellow-countryman. The connection in the popu-
lar mind is clear, when we remember that their
relationship was only on the father's side, the
mother being, as it were, but the nidus or cradle
which lodged the child. After the father the
nearest of blood was the Tupi or father's brother,
and they had scant regard for fraternity. Nor
perhaps shall we err in considering that the
title of uncle, still a favourite amongst the
civilized peoples of Europe, came in ancient
times from the East. * Yd Ammi,' c O my
(paternal) uncle ! ' is heard every day amongst
the Arabic-speaking races." x
The Romans made an important difference
between the paternal and maternal uncle —
patruus and avunculus. In Spain, Portugal and
Brazil, the country people call any one uncle
whose name they do not know. Varnhagen 2
admits that the name Tupi, which has been given
to a race, means uncle only — thus "Tupi-mba,
good uncles, Tupi-aem, bad uncles, Tupi-ikis,
neighbouring uncles" Thevet calls them
Toupinambaux ; Jean de Lery, Toupinambaoults ;
Claude d' Abbeville, Tpoynambas ; Yves d'Evreux,
Topinambos and Tapinambos.
1 Sir Richard Burton in his Introduction to the Captivity
of Hans Stade.
2 See Trait ato Descriptivo do Brasil, note 231.
THE CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 25
The so-called Brazilian Tupis were in reality
Caraios or Caraibes and their offshoots.
But Varnhagen ! holds that the Tupinambas
were the primitive national trunk of the in-
digenous population of Brazil and that Tupi
means " those of the first generation." He
believes that the various divisions of the race
became known by different names according to
tribal characteristics, "such as Tupi-naem, Tupi-
ninquis, Tupi - nikis, Tupi - nanab&ranas, etc.,
but some Tupis called themselves Guaranis and
others Caribs or Carys. There was a unity of
race and tongue from Pernambuco to Porto dos
Patos, and from S. Vincente to the remote
sertaos at the sources of the Plata."
This tongue, according to the celebrated
Abbot Hervas, was not Tupi but " an excellent
dialect of Guarani from which it does not differ
so much as Spanish does from Portuguese."
Montoya 2 is as much disposed to call the
language Guarani as he is to call it Tupi, perhaps
leaning more to the former than to the latter,
and Varnhagen, in editing an edition of Montoya,
1 He finds " no distinction between the term Tupi and
Carib."— Hist. Geral, Vol. I, p. 57.
2 Montoya was a missionary at the Reduction of Loreto
near the River Paranapanema of Brazil. He wrote
important standard works on the " Tupi or Guarani, or
Guarani-Tupi " language.
26 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
mentions a Neapolitan missionary who, pre-
viously to Montoya, called the language
" Guarani."
Conto de Magalhaes, in O Selvagem, 1876, states :
"If in Paraguay any one said guarani nhehen
to translate the expression Guarani language, no
one would understand him, because, for the
people, the name of their tongue is ava nhehen,
literally the language of men" thus they alone
were men, and those who did not speak the same
language that they did were inferior beings
whose idiom " was as unintelligible as the notes
of birds. He who spoke the tongue of the
savage was their relative, of their blood, and
consequently their friend, and those who did not
speak it, their enemy."
The Caraio, to proclaim his prowess, boasted
that he was a " Guarani," meaning " a great
brave, a grand man, a warrior." " Ana carina
rote ! " — " We only are men ! " and " Amucbn
paporbro itbto nantb ! " "All the other people
are our slaves ! " were the haughty vaunts of
the Caraios or Caraibes who ultimately spread
over two-thirds of South America. Wherever
they marched or settled, throughout Brazil, the
Guayanas, the Orinoco valley and the Antilles,
they caused themselves to be respected as
superiors, and, had nature not forbidden it, they
probably would have organized an empire far
THE CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 27
more extensive and powerful than that of the
Incas.
The fierce struggle which was still going on at
the date of the Discovery between the Caraios
and Tapuyas for possession of the Brazilian
littoral indicates that the Caraios became one of
the great militant races of South America long
after an extensive empire flourished in the Andean
region and primitive savage hordes had overrun
Amazonia. One searches in vain for any
evidence that they reached it from the north-
west or by the way of Florida and the Antilles,
as many writers have supposed. 1 In the southern
1 Varnhagen believes that the race came in successive
waves from the north : Sir Richard Burton thinks that they
originated in the middle Amazon valley : the Abbe Velasco
would derive them from the Omaguas of eastern Ecuador :
Von Martins says " they probably migrated from the
countries on the Paraguay and La Plata north and north-
east as far as the river Amazon and the ocean, but were not
the only race occupying that vast territory."
According to Hervas : " It is probable that all the nations
which speak dialects of the Guarani language are off-shoots
of the Guarani of Paraguay or of the Guarani or Tupi of
Brazil."
" Where did the Tupis come from ? From the north,"
says Goncalves Diaz. " From the extremely fertile regions
of the Amazon and the countries between this river and the
Orinoco were the districts most populated and those which
offered most advantages to men almost without a home,
without arts, without agriculture and without clothing."
How such densely forested regions could be the " most
populated " and especially " without agriculture " he does
not explain.
28 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
part of the continent, the Spaniards first met
them at the head of the estuary of the Rio de la
Plata, where they held the islands in the delta
of the Parana with outlying settlements which
extended from the river San Salvador, in the
Banda Oriental, to the vicinity of Carcarafia or
beyond it to the north ; but from that point until
Paraguay was reached no Caraios were to be
found. According to Lafone Quevedo, it was
the Guaranis (Caraios) who destroyed the fort
of Sancti Spiritus established by Sebastian Cabot
on the Parana river, and he says " for me,
Charruds, Querandis and Guaranis are invading
races." " It is for me beyond doubt," says
Goncalves Diaz in a paper read before the Instituto
Historico do Brazil, "that the Tupi race, far
from being autochthonous, was the last or only
conquering race."
It does not appear necessary, with our present
A strong proof as to the original home of the Caraio race
is that their language is still found in its greatest purity in
Paraguay. During their conquests, as they spread over
Brazil, the Guayanas and the Orinoco valley, it was modified
by the many other tongues with which it came in contact
as well as by the changes incident to environment; this
was especially the case when the Caraibes disputed with the
Arawaks the possession of a large area of north-eastern
South America. Many Arawak words became incorporated
with Caraibe. It may be said that the greater the distance
from the parent hive a Caraibe tribe was found the more
its language became subjected to dialectic variations.
THE CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 29
knowledge, to consider the Caraios as an invading
race. The region which was their cradle was
better suited than any other east of the Andes
for the gradual development of those mental and
physical qualities which so boldly distinguished
them, at the date of the Discovery, from the other
peoples of South America; but it must have
taken a vast period of time to differentiate them,
even in a small degree, from their congeners ; but
a far shorter period than has been required for
the primitive savages of Asia and Europe to
evolve and define such very distinctive racial
and national characteristics.
The tribes of Amazonia, owing to the vast
tracts of forested lands which prevented the
extension of agricultural pursuits on an extensive
scale, obliged the savage tribes to split into
hordes, so that they might support life principally
by hunting and fishing. Difficulties of communi-
cation caused such tribal divisions to become
permanent, and lack of contact between them
resulted in constant differentiation of languages
until, as we have seen, these became almost
infinite in number and ever changing as all
tongues must be which have no written form.
So soon as two hordes ceased to be able to
converse with each other they became foes.
The changes in the shape of the mouth and
tongue, the alteration of the form of the facial
30 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
muscles incident to the character of food are
potent factors in the formation of a language-
mode of life forced by the surroundings of the
habitat of the tribe.
Language is by no means a safe clue to ethno-
logical descent, says Prof. Kirchoff. People talk
of the " Latin race." The Spaniards and the
Rumanians speak Romance, while the ancestors
of the Spaniards spoke Iberian; those of the
Rumanians, Thracian; the Danes conquering
Normandy adopted Romance, then crossing to
England they re-Germanized their language;
Africans, too, change their tongues as readily
as their clothes.
Even the tribes themselves recognized the
necessities incident to their environment, for
Vasconcellos (p. 51) relates that " with reference
to the change of languages the Indians said that
in the lapse of time, differences in places and
divisions among themselves on account of their
hatreds and wars, they were obliged to discard
the words of their country and avail themselves
of others newly invented."
The Indians whom Alvar Nunez Cabeza de
Vaca met, in his famous march from Santa
Catharina to Paraguay, were all Guaranis
(Caraios), and spoke the same language. 1
1 He treated them so well that they even came from
distant parts to supply him with provisions, and they brought
THE CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 31
De Lery tells us that the Caraios, among whom
he lived in southern Brazil for a considerable
period of time during the first half of the sixteenth
century, " were a people of nobler mien than
their neighbours. Among them were certain
leaders called Cara-ibes who were held in the
greatest reverence and esteem as Pages." *
The influence of the Caraibes over the people
was paramount. They were medicine-men, wise-
food, such as fowls and honey, as they passed along the
road, saying to the Spaniards that " provided they would
not be angry they would give them plenty to eat." Many
of the districts traversed were well populated. " The
Indians rear many fowls, geese and other birds and have an
abundance of game, such as boar, deer, tapirs, partridges,
quails and pheasants. They grow plenty of maize, potatoes,
cassava, peanuts and many other fruits, and, from the trees,
they collect a great quantity of honey."
1 Ferdinand Denis in a note to his edition of Yves d'Evreux
says : " The Caraibes of the American continent, who formed
an immense nation, were renowned throughout America for
their valour and perspicacity. Their Piayes, or, if one likes
better, their divines, influenced them above all those of
other nations. They were to the New World what the
Chaldeans were to the Old. Simon de Vasconcellos gives
us the proof of this intellectual supremacy; in the south of
Brazil, the Carai'be-bebe were nothing else but divines. . . .
Various names have been conferred upon them, such as
Piayes, Pages, Pagy, Boyes or Piaches."
The vet mentions that Page is equivalent to demi-god.
According to Montoya, " Carai is a word by which the
Indians universally honour their sorcerers. They applied
it to the Spaniards and very improperly to the name
Christian."
32 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
men, astrologers, prophets, sorcerers and devil-
propitiators ; for the Caraios firmly believed in the
all-pervading power of the evil spirit, Aygnan,
who took many shapes. The sun, moon and stars
obeyed their orders, they let loose the winds and
the storms for they possessed all the power of
the "cloud-compelling Jove," the most ferocious
beasts of the forests were submissive to them,
they settled the boundaries of hunting-grounds,
interpreted dreams and omens, were entrusted
with all secrets, were father confessors in all
private matters and exercised all the power of a
sacred priesthood. They held life' and death at
their disposal, but at times, if many of the sick
died, the Indians killed the Page. In general,
however, as Yves d'Evreux says, " they exercised
a prodigious influence from the mouth of the
Orinoco to that of the Rio de la Plata." Wher-
ever they appeared they were treated magni-
ficently, and the best of everything was given to
them. They went from village to village decor-
ated with the richest plumage, and three or four of
them were to be seen at all dances and reunions
sumptuously clad and with head-dresses and
bracelets made of brilliant feathers of different
colours. In each hand they held a rattle called
a maracd (a gourd containing pebbles), to which
they attributed a certain sanctity, saying that
it contained a spirit that spoke to them. They
THE CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 33
often took a reed, at the end of which they had
the herb petun (tobacco) dry and lighted. From
this they blew the smoke, in all directions, upon
the other savages, saying to them, " so that you
may overcome your enemies, receive all the
spirit of force"; and thus these master Caraibes
did several times in succession.
Claude d'Abbeville remarks : " These Caraibes
say and command nothing which is not executed
immediately by all of the people, even the most
aged, as we have frequently observed."
The Page is still a power in some of the wild
regions of Brazil and Amazonia, and preserves
all of the ancient customs of his caste. Some
fifty years or more ago an old friend * of mine
met a Page named Cuyaba, chief of a horde of
Cayowa Indians on the Paranapanema river, an
eastern branch of the Parana. He was a man of
middle age with bold, well-cut features, framed
with a dense, streaming mane of long black hair.
In his lower lip was a long thin cylinder of resin
resembling amber — a xerimbitd ; a great number
of black and white beads covered his chest in
regular rows, and from a broad girdle was sus-
1 Franz Keller, an eminent German Civil Engineer,
employed by the Brazilian Government in various explora-
tions from 1860 to 1870. His work, The Amazon and
Madeira Rivers, richly and most artistically illustrated by
himself, contains valuable information regarding the wild
tribes of Brazil.
D
34 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
pended an apron fringed with rich woven orna-
ments. Although he had never seen a white man
before, he did not deign to show the least surprise,
and took his seat at table with a quiet super-
cilious self-possession.
To cure a bad case of rheumatism " he sang
aloud his exorcisms, and shaking the maracd, the
sound of which is especially disagreeable to the
bad spirit Jurupari, danced round his patient,
a young Indian, the while smoking a cigar of
immense size and of peculiarly miraculous pot-
ency, the smoke of which he blew into the
sufferer's face and over his naked body.
Presently, he began to stroke and shampoo him
from top to toe with such wild energy that, in
a short time, the perspiration poured in streams
down his own and the patient's limbs. After
he had by a steady course of stroking from the
middle to the extremities, pretended to concen-
trate the disease in his fingers and toes, like one
of our jugglers, he pulled it out with a sudden
wrench, put it into his own mouth and swallowed
it with fearful grimaces. He then declared the
sick man to be cured, and as the latter without
any doubt felt some relief after all that kneading
and perspiring, the Indian public at large was
more than ever convinced of the efficacy of the
huge cigar, the maracd and the magical words, and
of Cuyaba's power over diseases and evil spirits."
CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 35
It is evident that the Cara'ibes were the
governing class, and that whatever leadership
the Caraios had in their warlike expeditions in
South America and the Antilles was probably
exercised by them. They formed, as it were,
a religious caste which absorbed supreme power
over the tribes, enslaving their thoughts and
controlling their actions. By the time the
Caraios had reached the valley of the Orinoco
and the northern shores of South America and
swarmed over the Antilles and the coast lands of
the Caribbean sea and Gulf of Mexico, they had
all become Cara'ibes or Great Carai. Thus the
Spaniards called them in those regions, and
finally adopted the word Carib to designate any
cannibal savage irrespective of race or tribe. 1
On the Atlantic seaboard, the Caraios took
possession of the coast belt of Brazil from the
vicinity of Uruguay far to the north-east of Rio
de Janeiro, marching from the south and gradually
displacing and driving to the interior the more
savage indigenous tribes of Tapuyas who were
the primitive people; but these tribes fought
desperately to retain their contact with the
1 Hcrrcra says of the expedition of Juan de Ayolas, after
it ascended the Parana river and discovered the mouth of
the Paraguay : " Continuing his route " (up the Paraguay
river) " with the same crews, they arrived at the land of the
Garioes (Caraios) Indians, which in other parts of these
Indias they call Caribes."— Dec. V, Lib. X, Cap. XV.
D 2
36 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
ocean. It does not appear that the Caraios
conquered any of the country to the south of
the Lagoa dos Patos. Here they came in
contact with a formidable nation of nomadic
savages, the Charruas, whose territory was Entre
Rios, the coast line of the present Uruguay, and
about ninety miles inland. The Jesuit fathers,
however, indicate that the Charruas were located
in Entre Rios, and that the portion of Uruguay
above mentioned was the field of their nomadic
excursions. The Charruas were of Guaycurii
stock, and Dobrizhoffer mentions them as being
joined with the Abipones and other Guaycurii
tribes of the Gran Chacu in their raids on the
Spanish settlements of Santa Fe. D'Orbigny
includes them in his Pampean Race.
According to Azara * the name Charnia first
appears in the famous Memoria de Diego Garcia,
1526. In 1530 Pero Lopez de Souza makes no
mention of Charriia : he met Beguoaa, Chanaa
or Chanas. The Charruas were so named by the
interpreters taken by the conquistador 'es from
Santa Catalina who spoke the lingoa geral, or
Guarani. Between Charriia and Abipon there
was little difference, and the latter, with the
1 Geografica Fisica y Esf erica de las Provincias del Para-
guay y Misiones Guaranies, por D. Felix de Azara, 1790
MS., en la Biblioteca Nacional de Montevideo. — R. R.
Schuller, ed.
CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 37
Frentones, Mepenes and Payagu&s, were tribes
of the great Guaycuru family. All the tribes
extending along the southern seaboard of
Uruguay, both margins of the Parana- Guazu and
the east margin of the Rio Paraguay to 19° S.
lat. were of Guaycuru stock. For three centuries
the Payaguas were the pirates of the Paraguay
and Parand rivers, descending especially from
the latter. At first the river Paraguay was
known as the Payagua from its domination by
the agile, vigorous and robust Payaguas.
The Guarani applied the name Mbegua to all
the tribes, not of his race, which lived from Cape
Santa Maria (south-east Uruguay) to the Rio
Bermejo. Those to the north of it he called
Guayacurus.
Just south of 20° S. lat. the Caraios in
their conquests met the Ou-etacas, probably
of Tapuya stock. They are described by de
Lery as " wild, savage and strange, and in con-
tinual war with their neighbours. Like dogs and
wolves, they eat meat raw. Even their language
could not be understood by the tribes in contact
with them — the Margaia, Cara-ia or Tououpinam-
baoult."
The Caraios x also threw off branches to the
1 Lafone Quevedo calls attention to the province of Caria,
which, in 1562, was included in the jurisdiction of the
kingdom of Chile on the eastern slope of the Andes, north
38 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
north-east of Paraguay, throughout the immense
drainage basin of the upper Parana, and crossing
the water-divide took possession of the best
lands in the valleys of the rivers Tocantins and
Araguay and their many branches. Yves
d'Evreux asserts that the Para river, the outlet
of the Tocantins, was thickly populated by
Tupinambas (Caraios), and von Martins mentions
that the Tochi or Cuchiwaras (Tupi tribes)
are said to have both come down the Tocantins
and settled at its mouth. It is certain that, by
the way of the Paranahyba tributary of the
Parana, they reached the Brazilian coast by
descending the great river Sao Francisco. 1
of Mendoza, thus showing that the Caraios had even
penetrated 700 miles south-west from Paraguay.
1 " The first inhabitants of Bahia de todos os Santos and
its confines, according to the accounts given by very old
Indians, were the Tapuyas, who are a very ancient caste
of people. These Tapuyas were driven away from Bahia
and the neighbouring coast by another race, their enemies,
who descended from the uplands. The fame of the
abundance of the earth and sea of this province reached
the Tupinaes " (Caraios) " and they made war, one people
against the other, until the Tupinaes conquered and drove
out the Tapuyas, and forced them to leave the margin of
the ocean and flee to the sertao without power to return
and again possess themselves of this land of which they were
once lords, which the Tupinaes acquired and ruled many
years, usually waging war on the border of the sertao with
the Tapuyas, the first possessors of the coast slopes, for the
Tupinamba, learning of the fatness and fertility of this land
and coming from beyond the river Sao Francisco, descended
CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 39
Moreover, they ascended the river Paraguay and
its Cuyaba branch, crossed the divide, descended
the Xingu and Tapajos and occupied the best
districts en route. To reach the Xingu l required
a land transit of about two hundred miles, but the
sources of the Cuyabd and Tapajos are only
separated by the narrow plateau ridge of Trom-
bador, in places but three miles wide. They
could readily make the portage with their canoes ;
for, to-day, large boats are dragged across the
watershed between navigable points on either
side.
From the upper Paraguay river, to the north
upon the territory of Bahia of which they made themselves
masters and held it until the arrival there of the Portuguese,
and from said Tupinambas and Tupinaes who have preserved
the memory of these events from generation to generation
this information has been acquired." — Noticia do Brazil, 1589.
1 Von den Steinlu and Claus, in 1886, found the valley of
the Xingu inhabited by eighteen different tribes although
the population did not exceed 2,000. Claus reached the
conclusion that among them are representatives of nearly
all of the principal groups of dialects of South America.
In 1887 the same explorers found the upper Xingu and
upper Tocantins tribes totally ignorant of the use of metals.
They were in the Neolithic age and used only stone axes.
Claus believes from their language and their pottery that
they belong to the once powerful and aggressive Carib
nation, and, in fact, to be a relic of the original stock of that
people who migrated from south to north. " One of the
nine tribes proved to be primitive Tupis speaking the
language on which the early missionaries founded the
lingoa geral"-~R. Geo. Sac. Journ., Vol. VIII.
40 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
of latitude 18°, the Caraios penetrated westward
across the Chiquitos sierras to the base of the
Andes near the site of the present Santa Cruz
de la Sierra, at the head waters of the Madeira
affluent of the Amazon. Thence, under the
name of Chirihuanos, 1 they took possession of
the beautiful lands of the Andean foothills for
a distance of at least three hundred miles to the
south-west.
Following the line of least resistance, the
Caraios overran the territory to the north of the
Chiquitos sierras, located one of their tribes, the
Guarayos, on the banks of the Rio San Miguel,
descended the Mamore branch of the Madeira
and the long series of rapids and cataracts of
the latter, and finally debouched into the great
Amazon itself. Among the cataracts and
between these and the river Purus they estab-
lished a colony of Caraipunas, the descendants
of which tribe were still there when I went down
the Mamore and Madeira in 1871.
The Caraios must have found it easier to reach
the Amazon by this route than by either the
Tapajos, Xingu or Tocantins, which great rivers
and their affluents are frequently obstructed by
1 In 1555, Domingo Martinez de Irala, writing to the
Council of the Indies regarding his expedition from Paraguay
to the confines of Peru, speaks of the Chirihuanos as Carios
$e la Sierra,
CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 41
rocky barriers, and are broken into torrents
and falls locally called cachoieras — the Xingu
alone a continuous series of four hundred miles
of rapids and formidable cataracts, while Chand-
less says of the Tocantins that " an uninterrupted
stretch of from fifteen to twenty miles is
considered very long." The Madeira river has
its entire obstructions concentrated in the two
hundred and forty miles of the " Falls of the
Madeira," above which the Mamore has six
hundred miles of continuously free navigation,
while below the last fall of the Madeira and the
ocean there is no obstruction whatever.
Moreover, food supplies were surer and much
more abundant by the Madeira route than by
any other; therefore it is safe to assume that
between the Plata valley and the river Amazon
and the whole of north-eastern South America
this was the Grand Avenue adopted by the
Caraios for war, trade and conquest.
So aggressive a people did not stop at the
mouth of the Madeira, but carried their exploring
and warlike expeditions down the Amazon to
the sea, probably being reinforced en route by
any Caraio tribes which had descended the
Tapajos, Xingu and Tocantins. Nearing the
ocean, they turned south-east and followed the
coast belt of Brazil until they joined hands with
that portion of their race which had pushed its
42 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
conquests along the Atlantic shore from south-
west to north-east. Thus they had encircled
Brazil south of the Amazon river and had
occupied the valleys of all of its principal rivers
east of the Madeira. They had cut the country
into sections, and made themselves the dominant
barbaric race of eastern South America.
By following their lines of march we dispel
many of the doubts and much of the speculation
regarding their origin and the directions from
which their invasions took place. 1 But it must
not be supposed that they remained in peaceful
occupation of the Brazilian littoral. Its posses-
sion meant endless warfare, not only against the
1 Misled by the idea that the Caraios first invaded South
America from the north, Varnhagen, in somewhat contra-
dictory terms, supports his views, in his Historia Geral do
Brasil, by the statement that " those of Bahia asserted that
they arrived there from the sertilo beyond the river Sao
Francisco. Those of Cape Frio pretend that they proceeded
from the Caribs from the south of Brazil. Those of S.
Vicente held that their ancestors were from Rio de Janeiro
and its vicinity. Finally, throughout the coast of Brazil,
there are traditions that the Tupis, no matter in what
district, had possessed themselves of it coming as con-
querors from the north after having forced southward other
Tupis who controlled it." He admits, in his L'Origine
Touranienne des Americains Tupi-Caribes, and proves that
" the Tupis and Caribes were the same race, the Tupis called
themselves Carys, and their immediate descendants in
Southern Brazil called themselves Cary-6s, while people of
the same language who inhabited the Antilles and the
neighbouring continent called themselves Caribes,"
CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 43
primitive savages, the Tapuyas, but against
successive hordes of other Caraios who, toughened
by the terrible hardships of the long march from
the parent hive, sought to share the delights of
what to them was the land of rest and promise.
The Caraios also ascended the Amazon from
the mouth of the river Madeira until they reached
the Rio Negro. This led them to the valley of
the Orinoco, which, doubtless, they penetrated
by the way of the Casiquiare canal, as well as by
crossing the narrow isthmus of Pimichin, which
is still in use, by an easy portage of ten miles,
for canoes and boats between the waters of the
Amazon and those of the Orinoco.
Availing themselves of the Rio Branco branch
of the Rio Negro, they opened facile communica-
tion with the present British Guayana by way of
the river Essequibo, the portage between the
two streams being very short and easy of transit.
They formed en route another Caraipuna settle-
ment to the eastward of the lower Rio Branco and
left, on the entire line of this their great northern
main avenue to the Atlantic ocean, numerous
evidences of its occupation by them. From the
Essequibo they continued their conquests until,
finally, they became the dominant race through-
out the region now known as British, Dutch and
French Guayana, as well as the coast region
lying between the latter and the mouth of the
44 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
river Amazon. This completed their mastery
of the Atlantic slope of South America from the
delta of the Orinoco almost to the entrance of the
estuary of the Rio de la Plata.
Continuing up the river Amazon, above the
mouth of the Rio Negro they established a
settlement near the lea or Putamayo river, and,
under the name of Omaguas, occupied a contin-
uous stretch of country on the banks of the
Amazon, and among its islands, for a distance of
several hundred miles. So thoroughly did they
leave their impress upon Amazonia that even
now, as Bates 1 says, " Tupi is spoken with little
corruption along the banks of the Amazon for a
distance of 2,500 miles." This being true of
the main river, it requires no stretch of the
imagination to believe that the Caraios ascended
all of its principal affluents and opened communi-
cations with the various indigenous tribes living
on their banks or within easy reach of them.
The tribes of the interior often made treaties
among themselves, as did the Caraios of the coast
belt of Brazil, but the latter rarely if ever made a
treaty with the former ; for, between the original
possessors of the soil and the Caraio invaders,
there existed continuous and remorseless hatred
and sanguinary reprisals. The Caraios grouped
all of the inland tribes under the name of
1 Naturalist on the Amazon,
CARAIOS OR CARAlBES 45
" Tapuyas-caa-pdras " or " opponents inhabiting
the jungles, and forests," meaning not only this,
but that they were " mild monsters " ; but it is
well to bear in mind that the Caraios, in their own
intertribal wars, also used the term Tapuyas to
designate their " opponents " without employing
the suffix caa-poras, which modified its meaning
in the manner stated. Every one not of the same
race they called " Tapuy" from taba, sl village,
and puya to fly : " those who fly the villages."
The European they termed "Tapuy tinga" or
" White barbarian." 1
The Caraios were imbued with maritime
instincts. And their extensive experience on
the great fluvial highways of the continent and
on the coast of Brazil made them expert canoe-
men. Their warlike expeditions frequently con-
sisted of a great number of canoes carrying from
1 One early Brazilian writer who travelled extensively
among the tributaries of the upper Amazon, says that Tapuia
is a corruption of Tapueia, which is the national name of a
people who spread along the margins of the rivers until they
even reached the sources of the Amazon (Revista Trimensal,
Vol. X, p. 487). Von Ihering makes the interesting statement
that " The name Tapuia, given to the tribes which were not
Tupis, only it appears for practical purposes, has been recog-
nized as well founded by recent investigations, which show us
that these numerous tribes are related, not only ethnographi-
cally, but in regard to their physical characteristics. The
cranium of the Tapuias is dolichocephalous and that of the
Tupi brachycephalous." — Anthropology of the State of S.
Paulo, Brazil, 1904.
46 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
thirty to sixty men each, but once they reached
the Caribbean sea they enlarged their craft so
as to carry from eighty to one hundred warriors
with provisions for long voyages — a remarkable
development considering their environment, the
scanty means at their command and their
ignorance of the use of metals. They explored
and traded along the sea-coast of Venezuela,
Colombia, the whole of the Caribbean sea, the
Antilles, and, probably, the entire Gulf of
Mexico including Florida. Their expeditions
must take rank with those of the Vikings along
the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Europe,
and although more slenderly equipped they were
quite as daring. They overran many of the
West India islands and left traces of their
language, culture and presence among them,
and before the time of the Discovery had con-
quered most of the lesser Antilles from Trinidad
to Puerto Rico, 1 and had made forays among the
Bahamas.
1 A profound student of the ethnology of the West India
islands says, in an address on " Prehistoric Porto Rico " :
" When Columbus landed on the island of Guanahami, the
first native words he heard belonged to a language which
was one of the most widely distributed of those of the New
World, a tongue which, with dialectic variations, was the
speech of our Central South America to the coast of Florida.
These dialectic differences in the speech of the Antilles
aborigines were small, the Caribs of the lesser West Indies
and the Lucayans of the Bahamas being linguistically of the
CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 47
Numerous writers have given us descriptions
of the Caraio-Caraibe-Tupi-Guarani type of man ;
but he varied in size, colour and personal
appearance according to the habitat of the
tribal division of which he was a member, as all
races do. It must not be overlooked that his
race was dominant over an area of several
millions of square miles, that, in certain regions,
it was largely sedentary, living principally by
agriculture; in others hunting alone was the
source of food, or hunting and fishing gave
sustenance; but on the Caribbean sea-coast
and among the Antilles the Caraibes were
practically a maritime people. We find them
in open country, forested uplands, inundated
lowlands, Andean foothills, great lake districts
or along thousands of miles of the banks of
rivers, and from the temperate to the torrid zone
in almost every imaginable climate. Absolute
uniformity of physical characteristics was there-
fore impossible, but the Caraio-Caraibe was always
a splendid type of man, the proud, forceful,
dominating savage, reserving all rewards of future
same stock, as has been repeatedly pointed out by several
writers ancient and modern. This same stock had left
traces of its language and peculiar culture on the Spanish
main along the coast of Mexico, which facts are significant,
but have led to erroneous views of the relationship of the
aborigines of Central America, Cuba, Hayti and Porto
Rico." — J. Walter Fewkes, Smithsonian Institute.
48 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
life for those who knew how to face privations
and struggles with indomitable courage.
D'Orbigny, who travelled extensively among
the Guarani tribes of Paraguay and Bolivia,
describes their colour as yellow, a little red and
very clear, without the brown appearance of the
people of the mountains and plains. The depth
of colour not always the same, its intensity
depending on locality. The Guaranis of Cor-
rientes and the Chirihuanos of Bolivia have a
colour much deeper because they inhabit the
plains or open country, while the Guarayos and
Sirionos living in forests, impenetrable to the
rays of the sun, resemble many of the people of
southern Europe. He gives the average height
of the Guarani at about five feet six inches, but
the women are generally small. The form of the
body among the Guaranis is massive, the chest
well rounded, large shoulders and haunches, the
limbs plump, round and without salient muscles,
the hands and feet small. The women could
not be more massive, broad and short. They
possess all that is required to give them vigour
for hard work and reproduction. Their neck
is always voluminous and well placed. The
Guarayos, in the depths of their beautiful and
humid forests, have had, without doubt, their
characteristics modified by local influence so
powerful and so productive.
CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 49
The Guaranis may be distinguished at a
glance from the Pampean tribes. Their head is
round, the forehead does not slope back, but,
on the contrary, is elevated. The face is almost
circular, the nose short and not very large, the
chin short and round, the mouth of medium
size and somewhat salient, the lips are rather
thin, the teeth beautiful and white, the eyes
small and expressive and always raised at the
outer angle, sometimes as if bride, the eyebrows
are well arched and the hair is long, coarse and
black.
Commenting on the effect of moral influences
upon the physiognomy of tribes of the same
nation, d'Orbigny says that, " Among the Siri-
onos, Chirihuanos and Guarayos every indivi-
dual is filled with the consciousness of his per-
sonal valour, while among the Jesuit missionaries
the spirit of servility stifles all sentiment of
self-respect and dignity."
Hans Stade remarks, " I have sailed along the
Brazilian coast about five hundred miles (leagues)
and have been at many places in the interior —
the people are a reddish-brown colour on account
of the sun which burns their bodies. They are a
well-shaped race."
Such is a description of the Caraios in their
original home. If we take them in the far-off
Antilles, as described by Rochfort about the
50 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
middle of the seventeenth century, we find them
" well proportioned, very agreeable and pleas-
ant faces, medium height, large shoulders and
haunches, plump and more robust than the
French. They have large round faces, most of
them with dimpled cheeks, medium size mouth,
perfectly white teeth, skin naturally of an olive
colour which extends even to the whites of their
eyes, which are somewhat small and black, the
same as the Chinese and the Tartars, but more
penetrating. The forehead and the nose are
flattened by artifice, but are not naturally so,
otherwise they would have the nose well formed
and the forehead prominent like ours. They
have large, flat feet because they go barefooted,
but so tough that they resist everything in the
forests and on the rocks. They all have black
hair. One sees beautiful girls and handsome
women among the Caraibes.
" In 1871, 1 met the Cacique and a few members
of a small tribe of Caraio stock (the Yacares) on
the river bank among the falls of the Madeira.
He was about five feet six inches high, and,
according to my journal, which I quote verbatim,
was a ' perfect model for a statue.' He ap-
peared as if carved out of glossy, light-brown
marble. He had a pleasant face, a good, full
forehead like those who were with him, and, like
them, the practical organs of the brain were
THE CARAIOS OR CARAIBES 51
immensely developed. His chest was full and
broad, and round his arms just below his
shoulders, and round his legs below the knees,
were tightly bound long ribands of palm.
Others, coloured black, bound his wrists and
ankles. Besides being ornamental, they were
supposed to give force to the muscles. Some
of my Indian canoemen wear tightly drawn
strings round the forearm, six inches above the
wrist, for the same purpose. The English navvy
does likewise, and in the East Indies the Wudder
working caste bind leather bands round their
wrists.
" The Cacique and his group were direct from
Paradise, only they did not bring their fig leaves
with them . They all wore tushes of the capivara,
one through the lobe of each ear, a string passed
under the chin and tied to each tash prevented
their being lost. Like some of the Indians on
the upper Amazon river, above the Madeira, the
Cacique wore two little tufts of red feathers
projecting horizontally on either side from the
gristle of his nose.
" The long, thick, black hair of these savages
was all cut alike, straight across the forehead,
then straight from the eyes back to the ears
and the rest hanging loosely behind the ears and
down the back. They all had good features
and pleasant faces, fine, white teeth and good
E 2
52 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
mouths with medium, but not heavy lips.
Their heads were larger than the average of
my canoemen, who are from the Mojos district
of Bolivia, and their eyes are black, bright,
pleasant and of medium size ; they lose sight of
nothing. They told us that they occupied the
country from the Abuna river to Girao falls,
having also two malocas on the east side just
above Tres Irmaos rapid. We could not ascer-
tain the number of their tribe, but it is not
numerous."
They were the wild Indians of the forest and
lived as Nature dictated; for they were her
children, and she nurtured them as best she could.
I looked at the splendidly built Cacique with
sympathy and admiration. He and several of
his tribe dined with me at my camp table in all
the modesty of a nakedness which they did not
realize, for civilization had not yet reached them
and taught them to be ashamed of themselves.
CHAPTER II
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES
From the mouth of the Amazon south-east
to the river Jaquaribe and inland to the eastern
margin of the valley of the Tocantins the popula-
tion of the vast region was numerous. When
the French and Portuguese undertook to subdue
and colonize it, they found fragments of many
tribes, but the mass, especially of the inland ones,
were of Tapuya stock. The geographical posi-
tion of this part of Brazil suggests that it had
become a land of retreat and recuperation for
many of the Tapuya hordes which had been
pushed down the valley of the Tocantins and the
Rio Sao Francisco by successive Caraio invading
armies on their way to the littoral which they
ultimately occupied and were called by the
European colonists Tupinambds. 1
1 " We know that among the so-called Tapuyas with
whom the historians have populated the space between Para
and the river Jaquariba, the Potiguares, Tobajaras, the
Tupinambds and even the Tamoyos predominated, tribes
which they confess belong to those which spoke the lingoa
geral in contradistinction to others who were the Indians of
53
54 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
From Maranhao to the river Parahyba the
country was occupied by the Tobajaras, or Taba-
jares as they are called by Yves d'Evreux.
They were descendants of the famous Tobas, and
the first Brazilian tribe which allied itself with
the Portuguese against the French. Like the
Tupinambas, whose name they sometimes took,
they were of Caraio origin. They lived in little
groups of malocas (large one-storey habitations),
which the Portuguese dignified by the name of
villages. " Toba " signified " village," and
" yara " meant " master " — masters of the villages.
They also, with their kindred the Caytes, pos-
sessed the country between the river Parahyba
and the Rio Sao Francisco, but had overrun this
area subsequently to its conquest by the Caytes.
The European invaders of Brazil found that
several powerful tribes held its littoral, each
having the northern and southern boundary of
its territory denned, and each clinging to all of
the hinterland it could defend against the
savages of the interior. Of the present division
of the country, the Pitigoares possessed the
region between the rivers Jaquaribe and Para-
hyba, which comprised a small part of south-
eastern Ceara and the coast of Rio Grande do
Norte and Parahyba.
the sert&o, the enemies of the tribes of the coast region."
■ — Goncalvcs Diaz ? Revista Trimewal,
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES 55
The Caytes 1 occupied the coast slope of
Pernambuco and Alagoas, between the Para-
hyba and the great river Sao Francisco as before
stated. They had for neighbours, on the south,
the Tupinambas. The country of the latter
extended from the Rio Sao Francisco to Bahia
de todos os Santos and its islands, and south to
the river Camamu. Bordering their lands on
the south were the possessions of the Tupiniquins,
or Tupinikins, whose southern frontier was the
river Cricare, now known as the San Mattheus,
in Espiritu Santos. This stream was the north-
ern frontier of the Goiatakazes, the southern one
being the river Parahyba, near Cape Sao Thome.
The coast and mountainous district of Rio de
Janeiro, between Cape Sao Thome and Angra dos
Reis, belonged to the formidable Tamoyos, or
11 ancestors." South of these were the Goay-
nazes, located on the ocean frontage of the Serra
do Mar, from Angra dos Reis as far south as the
bay of Cananeia at the south-east corner of Sao
Paulo. From there to the Lagoa dos Patos were
found the Carijos.
From Soares we learn that from the Lagoa dos
Patos to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata the
tribes were of Tapuya origin, a domestic, well-
conditioned people who did not eat human
1 Spelled in many ways — Caytes, Calhetes, Cahetes,
Cayetes, Caites, etc.
56 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
flesh, and, " though they lived so far from the
Tapuyas of the sertao of Bahia, they were all one
and had almost the same manners and customs." x
Such were the names of the grand divisions
only of the coast tribes and their territorial
possessions when the Portuguese first effected
a lodgment on the Brazilian coast. They were
not the original invaders who had driven the
primitive savages to the interior, but were mostly
Caraio tribes who had ousted others of their
own race by hard fighting, probably for many
generations. It was due to intertribal wars that
the Portuguese made such an easy conquest of
Brazil.
1 Gandavo thus comments on these coast tribes : " Al-
though divided into several nations, known by different
names, their form, manners, customs and religious cere-
monies are absolutely the same, and if any difference is
observable it is not worth attention nor consideration
among so many things equally true of all. These Indians
are of dark colour, smooth hair, the face as if petrified, and
resembling the Chinese a little. They are active, robust
and well made ; they are brave, do not fear death, are bold
in war and imprudent, cruel and vindictive. Their language,
along the whole coast, is the same, although it differs a little
at certain points; but one may always understand it, and
this as far as 27° S. lat., because farther on there
are other Indians that we do not know so well, and who
speak an entirely different tongue. The one in use along the
coast is very soft and easy for all nations to learn. There
are words used by men alone, and others only employed by
women." — Histoire de la Province de Sancta-Cruz. Pero de
Magulhanes de Gandavo, 1576.
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES 57
According to Soares, the Tupinaes, in ancient
times, held the whole sea frontage, 1 but were
driven from it principally by the Tupinambas.
The Tupinaes, forced back to the sertao, the
territory of the Tapuyas, were obliged to war
in front against their traditional opponents, and
in the rear against their own Caraio race until,
practically, they were exterminated. The old
men of this nation claim that the Tupinambas
and Tupinaes were all one in the remote past,
but when the latter occupied the sea-coast the
Tupinambas lived in the sertao.
The Pitigoares (Pytagoares, Potyguaras, Ptyi-
guaras, as spelled by different early writers)
could muster thirty thousand bowmen, they were
in continuous conflict with their relatives the
Caytes to the south of them, and, long after they
were driven from the coast, to the sertao by the
Portuguese, they continued their feuds. They
were very warlike and so skilful with the bow
that nothing escaped them. They were also
great fishermen and were always provided with
1 " It is an historic tradition that the Tupinaes, attracted
by the fertility of the land, descended from the sertao, and,
after obstinate and long wars, obliged the Tapuyas to emigrate
to the interior. There are those who say that the Tupinaes
emigrated from the temperate regions of the south in the
vicinity of the tropic, and that they communicated with the
Autochthons, who extended to Chile," — Colonel Accioli,
Eevista Trimensal, Vol. XII,
58 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
an abundance of food, both from the land and
sea. Their name signified " shrimpers."
The Caytes (caa, sl bush, and ete, good)
claimed that they came from a beautiful country
towards the tropic of Capricorn which they called
Cayte, and which was well forested with immense
trees, " and, because they were held to be the
most valorous and the greatest warriors of all
the other nations, they were known as Tupi-
nambas." * The Caytes were a terror to the
Portuguese navigators along the coast, and cap-
tured and ate the crew and passengers of
every vessel wrecked upon their shores. In
1556, they sacrificed and devoured the first
Bishop of Bahia, Pedro Fernandez Sardinha,
together with the Procurator of the Royal
Treasury, two canons of the see, two pregnant
women and some children, all of whom were
returning to Portugal in a French brig when
they were wrecked on the reefs in the Rio Sao
Francisco.
By constant war with their neighbours, and
with the Portuguese during the sixteenth century,
the Caytes were almost annihilated, a few only
being able to escape to the interior. They were
divided into many families, and, generally, took
the name of the locality which they inhabited,
such as Parana-enguares, or " inhabitants of
» Claude d'Abbeville,
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES 59
the shores," and Ybiapab-enguares, " those of
the mountains."
Of the Tupiniquins or " lateral neighbours,"
it is believed that they and the Tupinaes de-
scended all from the same trunk, that, although
they had their differences and their wars, they
were not really unfriendly to each other, they
spoke the same language, led the same life, and
had the same ceremonies and habits as the Tupi-
nambas. Soares states that " there is as little
difference between their language and customs
as there is between those of the inhabitants of
Lisbon and those of Beira; but they are more
domestic and truthful than any others of the
coast of this country and always aid the Portu-
guese against the Aymores,Tapuiasand Tamoios."
This last fact appears to have given the old
chronicler an extremely good opinion of the
Tupiniquins.
Next to the south come the Goiatakazes.
They had conquered their possessions from a
formidable tribe called the Papanazes, whom,
after long and bloody wars they drove back
inland. It is believed that the Goiatakazes,
Goaynazes and Papanazes were of the same tribe.
The Goiatakazes were of lighter colour than the
Tupiniquins, spoke a different language and were
very barbarous. They were great bowmen, and
did not fight in the forest but in the open,
60 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
They were wonderful swimmers, and armed with a
pointed stick allowed themselves to be attacked
by the shark, which they killed by thrusting the
stick down its throat. The shark's teeth they
used for arrow heads. In part, their manners
and customs were those of the Tupinambas,
although they were of Tapuya origin.
The Tamoyos were large, robust and valiant
men who boasted that they were the first in-
habitants of that part of America and the trunk
from which all others sprang. They hostilized
all other tribes except the Tupinambas, whom
they claimed as kinsmen and good friends, and
whose language and customs were the same as
their own. In fact, they called themselves
" Tupinambas," and were so termed by the
savages of Sao Vicente. They had, as southern
neighbours, a tribe of Termiminos, that is
" nephews or descendants."
Like the Aymara and Quichua races of the
Andes, they had single words expressing remote
degrees of relationship which would appear to
indicate that family ties were strong and much
cherished by them; for instance, Tamoi meant
grandfather, Cheramoiruba, my great- grandfather,
Cheruramoi, the grandfather of my father.
The Goaynazes maintained ceaseless strife
with the Tamoyos as well as with their Carijo
neighbours. They are represented as having
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES 61
been neither malicious nor false. They were not
in the habit of making war except to defend
their territory. They lived by hunting and
fishing, and by gathering wild fruits. Although
their language differed from the tribes on their
confines they could converse with the Carijos.
The old writers gave them different names —
Guianas, Goyana, Guayana, Goana, and, plural,
Goaynazes, Goayanazes and Guayanazes, pro-
bably meaning brothers or relatives. It is the
origin of the name Guayana, the proper designa-
tion for the several subdivisions of north-eastern
South America. We shall hereafter find a large
section of them in Brazilian and French Guayana,
under the name of Roncouyennes given to them
by the French colonists, although they there
called themselves Ouayanas or Gouayanos.
Many of the ceremonies, modes of life and
customs of the Goaynazes were the same as
those of the Tupinambas. Tradition has it that
they were once driven from their territory by
the Tamoyos, but that they returned to dispute
with them and the Carijos the possession of the
littoral.
The Carijos were found to be a domestic,
rather peaceful people of good size. They were
not cannibals, and lived by hunting, fishing and
the planting of mandioca and vegetables, like
the Tamoyos and Tupiniquins, and they had
62 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
houses well covered and protected by the bark of
trees. They warred in the open country against
their foes, especially the Goaynazes. Although
not of the same stock, their customs and cere-
monies were similar to those of the Tupinambas. 1
They bravely resented the European invasion of
their country. In 1533, they completely des-
troyed the gold-hunting expedition of Martin
Affonso, which attempted to penetrate to the
interior.
Before the Caraios overran Amazonia they
must have reached a certain degree of racial
cohesion, and the various tribes to some extent
must have acted in unison when they launched
out from the central hive ; but, as we have seen,
the interests and ambitions of the various
divisions of the race began to clash in proportion
to the value and abundance of the food-products
yielded by the several regions over which they
extended their conquests. In their original home,
they were largely an agricultural people, supple-
menting the products of their fields of maize and
vegetables by those of the chase, and therefore
taking the initial steps to a higher form of life;
but when they poured their hordes northward,
1 According to Ferdinand Denis, the Carijos more nearly
approached the agricultural tribes of the Guaranis, having a
real analogy in language and customs to that great people,
although their manners were softer.
BRAZILIAN COASTAL TRIBES 63
into lands less adapted to sedentary pursuits,
they retrograded ; and only afterwards, in certain
parts of the coast territory of Brazil, did they find
themselves, as regards agricultural possibilities,
approximately as well situated as they had been
in their original habitat ; but, as indicated, their
conquests entailed on them interminable war
with the original Tapuya owners of the soil, as
well as with their own kindred, over an impossible
satisfactory division of the maritime region.
AYhen they descended the rivers into the low-
lying lands of Amazonia, they had nothing but
the primary impulse and virility of the race to
carry them across its densely-forested, terribly-
flooded and purely hunting-and-fishing area to
the northern seaboard of South America, and it
is safe to assume, had they confined their con-
quests entirely to the Amazon valley, that they
would have degenerated until they became as
low in the scale of savagery as the tribes which
they found there. Were it possible suddenly to
populate that tropical region with one hundred
thousand civilized people, cut them off from
contact with the world, and give them only the
tools and weapons of the Neolithic age, they all
would become, in the course of a few generations,
Tapuyas-caa-p6ras ; for it requires no effort for
a so-called civilized man to revert to barbarism —
the savage would quickly crawl out of his skin.
CHAPTER III
THE TAPUYAS 1
Between the Tapuyas and Caraios there were
many contrasts which indicated that they were
not of the same origin. Their colour, habits,
ceremonies, languages and physical appearance
were widely different. Moreover, they had the
most invincible antipathy to each other. The
Tapuyas also were nomads without habitations
and agricultural pursuits except in rare instances,
and then only on a limited scale in comparison
to the Caraios. Another marked difference was
that the Caraios considered that fighting was
an attribute only of virility, and, therefore, their
women were not permitted to take part in com-
bats, while those of the Tapuyas were allowed
to fight beside the men. This may account for
the report given by Fr. Gaspar de Carbajal of
1 It is the opinion of Von Ihering (see his Anthropology
of the State of Sao Paulo) that the name Tapuya is well
founded by recent investigations which show us that these
numerous tribes are related, not only ethnographically, but
in physical characteristics. The cranium of the Tapuyas
is dolichocephalous and that of the Tupi-Guarani brachy-
cephalous.
G4
THE TAPUYAS 65
a battle which Orellana had with " Amazonas,"
or female warriors, as he descended the Amazon. 1
Neuwid makes the Tapuyas a dirty brown
colour, Von Tchudi a dirty, nearly bronzed
brown, and, by Barlaeus, we are told that the
Tapuya tribes, who were friends of the Dutch,
and inhabited the district of Ceara and Maranhao,
had very black hair, a robust appearance, for-
bidding faces and a wild look. They ran with
almost as much speed as the animals which they
hunted. Their reputation for cruelty was pro-
verbial, and they were greatly feared by the other
savages as well as by the Portuguese. They
were all cannibals and even ate the corpses of
their relatives, preserving their bones, which,
on solemn festivals, they reduced to powder,
which they soaked in water and then swallowed. 2
1 This battle is supposed to have taken place on the
southern side of the Amazon river a little above the Rio
Tapajos.
2 Sir Richard Burton describes the Indians of Tapuya
descent whom he met in the great bend of the lower Sao
Francisco river : " The pure blood showed the well-known
signs — big, round Kalmuck heads, flat Mongol faces with
broad and distinctly marked cheek-bones, oblique Chinese
eyes, not unfrequently brides, rather brown than black,
and dwelling upon objects with a fixed gaze ; dark and thick
eyebrows, thin mustachoes fringing the large mouths full
of pointed teeth, and small beards not covering the massive
chins. The hair brought low down over the forehead was
that of the Hindu, jetty and coarser than in the pure Cau-
casian. The nose had an abominable cachet of vulgarity,
F
66 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
With exception of the Aymore division of the
Tapuyas, the Portuguese could learn but little
of the race from their Caraio enemies during the
first century after the discovery of Brazil, and
that little was extremely vague, for they dared
not penetrate to the interior of the country for
fear of being eaten. Only late in the seventeenth
century exploring and other expeditions began
to force their way inland and give account of
their voyages, but immense regions persisted in
retaining their secrets until even after the close
of the colonial period. All the information
gained confirmed the traditions that the Tapuyas
were the most ancient people, and had once held
the Atlantic coast belt from the mouth of the
Rio de la Plata to that of the Amazon and two
hundred leagues of the southern margin of the
latter river, as well as far inland from the entire
shore of the ocean.
When we consider the length and breadth of
the vast cordon occupied by so warlike and
formidable a people, we are able, in some degree,
small and squat, with broad, fleshy nostrils — in fact the
feature was all that an Arab's is not. They were well made
men, except that the trunk was somewhat too long and
large for the legs, and the shoulders seemed to project
horizontally just below the ears. The extremities showed
delicacy of size and form, and the skin was brown-yellow,
and ruddy only where exposed to the light and air." —
Explorations of the Highlands of Brazil.
THE TAPUYAS 67
to estimate the strength, persistence and power
of the barbaric Caraios invaders who, after
innumerable onslaughts, were able to break
through it and drive the Tapuyas back to the
fastnesses of Minas, Goyaz and Matto Grosso.
It is not improbable that the contending races
alternated for centuries in the possession of the
littoral, where, feeding lavishly on the good things
of earth, forest and sea, they acquired habits
of ease and luxury, and, naturally, lost some of
their warlike vigour, while the previous occupants,
less pampered in the sertao, hardened in fibre,
toughened by hardships, trained to severe en-
durance and animated by implacable hatred,
were being fitted to again try conclusions with
their mortal foes.
Among the Tapuyas, tribe followed tribe,
disorganized but having in view the same pur-
pose. They fought in their course whomsoever
they met, even their own kindred, taking no
note of identity of origin. It was a grand,
savage rush for the sea, and, during the sixteenth
century, it was still continued with obstinate
ferocity.
One of these great invasions had taken place
some time before the landing of the Portuguese
in Brazil. The hordes were composed of the
Goiatakazes, Papanazes and Goaynazes, all of
Tapuya stock. They succeeded in cutting their
F2
68 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
way through to the ocean, and the Portuguese
found them occupying certain stretches of the
coast lands as herein denned. The Goiatakazes
and a few sub-tribes had, however, been in
possession of their districts a sufficient length
of time to acquire some of the Caraio customs,
such as living in huts, making a few small
plantations of vegetables, and they also adopted
their method of burying the dead. Therefore
they had lost some of the brutality and ferocity
which distinguished other Tapuyas, and to a
great extent had even abandoned their canni-
balistic habits.
Thus, at the date of the Discovery, there were
two or three sections of the Brazilian coast in
temporary possession of the Tapuyas ; but, on the
other hand, it may be said there were Caraio
tribes occupying extensive strategic areas of the
interior, although the vast inland region of
Brazil as far west as the Rio Madeira was the
great Tapuya hive.
An unorganized mass of Tapuyas especially
terrible, even among the most redoubtable of
these primitive savages, was the Aymores or
Aimbures. They were widely spread, in scat-
tered groups, over the interior under a multi-
plicity of names which they gave themselves
or which other tribes had given them. In
Minas they were Crecman or Cracmum, a name
THE TAPUYAS 69
which they had adopted and the one by which
they were generally known. They were Inas
and Arary, and Naknanuks or inhabitants of
the sierra. They were Endgerecmung and Pejau-
rum on the Rio Doce, and Jequitinhona and
Guerens in parts of the Captaincy of Bahia and
even to-day on the Itaipe. To the northward,
they were Xamekrans, Pomekrans and Cranges
of Maranhao, and Timbiras of Para. They were
also the Guaimures of de Lait.
Some three centuries after the discovery of
Brazil, the Portuguese named them Gamellas or
Botocudos, on account of the large disk of very
light wood which they inserted in the lower lip
and lobes of the ears, and which, in Portuguese,
is known as a botoque, or bung, but which the
Tapuyas called an embure. They sometimes
increased it to frightful dimensions.
They eagerly devoured human flesh, and killed
their prisoners without mercy. They were taller
and of lighter colour, more robust and muscular,
broad shouldered and better proportioned than
the other Tapuyas. They generally had small,
bright, black eyes, but sometimes blue ones,
which they considered a mark of beauty; gross
lips and noses, and foreheads always sloping
back. The skin was yellow with the forehead
of a reddish tinge; but the Pomekrans and
Cranges, according to travellers who frequented
70 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
their country, were quite white. Their thick
hair was as black as coal. Their senses were pre-
eminently acute, and they were grossly sensual.
The earliest writers, Gandavo, Gabriel Soares
and Vasconcellos, agree that the Aymores were
the most brutal and inhuman of all Brazil, and
it is related that certain of the less powerful
bands, flying from their enemies, retired to the
wildest and most sterile regions of the sertao
where they could not be reached, and as they
lived there separated from contact with all other
people, their children and grandchildren, in the
course of time, lost the use of their mother-tongue
and formed another, understood by no other
nation, ugly, guttural and dragged out of the
chest. They were a gigantic people, robust and
forceful. They had no hair on any part of the
body except the head ; all the rest they plucked
out. They used bows of great size and were
such dexterous shots that not even a fly could
escape their arrows. They were extremely swift
runners, did not live in houses, villages or fixed
localities. They wandered through the forests
and fields like wild beasts, both men and women
entirely naked. They had no cultivated lands,
but sustained life by wild fruits and the hunting
of beasts and birds, which appeared to obey their
bows. They always attacked from ambush,
never in the open.
THE TAPUYAS 71
Says Gandavo, " Ordinarily, they lived dis-
persed, but they called each other together by
whistling like monkeys or sparrows. They gave
no quarter to any one, and were so prompt and
expeditious in their vengeance that sometimes
they cut pieces of meat from a man while he was
still alive and roasted them before his eyes. In
a word these savages are more sanguinary and
cruel than it is possible to express. The Portu-
guese have captured a few of them, but they
are so barbarous and of such a wild nature that
they have never been able to tame them."
D'Orbigny remarks that, in everything, the
Aymores resemble the yellow race of the coast
of China; Varnhagen holds that the Tapuyas in
general are identical with the Mongols of eastern
Asia, and Goncalves Diaz supports this view.
St. Hilaire and others have commented on their
Mongolic appearance.
About the middle of the sixteenth century, the
Captaincies of the Ilheos x and Porto Seguro
were thrown into consternation by the Aymor6s.
Assisted by their kindred, the Abatires and
Partaxos, they descended from the sertao and
made such a determined attack upon the Euro-
1 This Captaincy commenced at the island of Tinhare\
twelve leagues south of Bahia, and extended fifty leagues
south along the coast, ending at Porto Seguro, at the Rio
de Santa Cruz, at the mouth of which Cabral landed in 1500.
72 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
pean settlers and their Indian allies, the Tupini-
quins, that they broke through to the sea. They
found the Captaincy of Porto Seguro especially
inviting, on account of its forests and abundant
game. The district was a prosperous one; for
the Tupiniquins whom Pedro Alvarez Cabral
found there had readily accepted Portuguese
rule and enabled their masters to establish large
and flourishing sugar estates. But the Aymores
had resolved on a war of extermination, and,
by 1587, there remained but one sugar mill in
all the Captaincy, which for two centuries after-
wards was almost abandoned.
The Aymores clung tenaciously to the forested,
mountainous country extending from the ocean
inland to the river Jequitinhona, bounded on
the south by the river Doce, and after three
hundred years, up to about the middle of the
last century, the Portuguese had not completely
subjugated them. By 1560, so thoroughly had
the Aymores devastated the country that the
Governor, Mem de Sa, took the field against
them, and, in two severe combats, reduced many
of them to submission. Still they continued
their attacks reinforced by fresh hordes from the
interior. It was not until 1602 that a sufficient
number of them had surrendered to be formed
into reservations, in the vicinity of the Serra dos
Aymores which takes its name from them and
THE TAPUYAS 78
which extends from the Comarco dos Ilheos to
the river Macacu, and separates the chain from
the Serra dos Orgaos; still, from time to time,
they continued to inflict serious damages on
different parts of the district.
At a later date their reservations, before the
introduction of negro slavery into Brazil, were
turned into a slave-hunting field by the Portu-
guese. With sword, fire-arms and bloodhounds,
the Indians, their women and, notably, their
children were hunted down like wild beasts, and
" the better to train the bloodhounds for their
work, they were fed on Indians assassinated for
the purpose." x
Only very slowly did the Portuguese gain
ground in the rich valley of the Mucury, the
productiveness of which attracted the attention
of the Capucin fathers of the Missions of Maran-
hao, although its head waters could only be
reached by armed caravans. When bands of
adventurers attempted to penetrate the fast-
nesses of the Serra das Esmeraldas, now known
as the Cordillera dos Aymores, they were driven
back by the long and deadly arrows of the
Indians. Many such expeditions were defeated
so recently as the first half of the nineteenth
century.
1 " Noticia sobre os Selvogens do Mucury," Revista
Trimensal do Instituto Historico, Vol. XXI.
74 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
The defence which these formidable savages
made of their country recalls the equally long
and brilliant war of the Araucanians of southern
Chile against the Spaniards and their descendants.
The remnant of the Aymores now occupy the
neighbourhood of the Rio Pardo and the sources
of the Belmonte or Jequitinhona, Mucury and
a part of the province of Espiritu Santo, wan-
dering in the interior among the forests which
border the Rio Doce. They are rarely seen near
the coast.
The Tapuyas recognized but one great law,
the same lex talionis which safeguards the
natural rights of the whole of animal creation;
and this law, unsoftened by the teachings of
civilization, they applied relentlessly. 1
The Tapuya was Nature's spoiled child. There
was a wide difference between him and the bar-
barian of Andean Amazonia, who was obliged,
to a much greater degree, to solve the problem
of existence by accepting its penalties; for the
latter had to devise and carry out a plan having
for object the accumulation of food and its proper
storage for subsequent apportionment. This in-
volved the exercise of forethought, faith in the
result, prudence, self-denial, constancy of purpose
1 Nature never shows mercy. She will have none of it,
and the savage is so en rapport with her that he cannot
understand the meaning of the word.
THE TAPUYAS 75
and recognition of the rights of all in its just
distribution during the non-productive period of
the year, when Nature's hand is empty in those
bleak regions, and a day-to-day existence im-
possible. Tropical Nature subjected the Tapuya
to none of these exactions and, therefore, never
forced him to emerge from his savage condition.
She made him simply the dominating animal
among other animals on which he fed. Her
storehouse was sufficiently stocked with food
to supply his daily wants throughout the year.
All that she taught him was to develop sufficient
intelligence, strength, cunning and skill to kill
without being killed; and, in this, she made
him marvellously proficient. Had he imitated
the Indian of the Andes, she would have destroyed
rapidly his store of provisions. He was exactly
what Nature intended that he should be in the
habitat in which he found himself. The Portu-
guese considered him to be nothing but a brute
beast in human form. 1 Any effort on the part
1 During the first quarter of a century after the landing
of the Portuguese and Spaniards in America, they regarded
the Indians as belonging absolutely to the brute creation.
Their treatment of them continued to be so increasingly
atrocious that the good Friar Domingos Bentancos sent a
brother of his order, Friar Domingos Minaja, to Rome to
represent to the Pontifical Tribunal the terrible cruelties
to which the Indians were subjected. As a result, Pope
Paul III issued his famous bull, of June 9, 1537, declaring
all the Indians of the New World to be " real men " and
76 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
of the missionaries to catechize and civilize him
was defeated by his environment, for Nature and
he were such good friends that she never worried
him about the future. Hence, his savage happi-
ness must have been supreme, and he was never
troubled by what Huxley wisely calls " the
malady of thought."
For nearly two centuries after the Discovery,
general ignorance prevailed regarding the tribes
of the interior of Brazil. Any description of
those found in the sertao by modern explorers
has to be very carefully weighed if we desire
to reach conclusions of any value for historical
purposes. If to the dispersion of the Tapuyas
by the inroads of the Caraios we add the per-
turbations incident to the dislocation of both
capable of receiving the Christian faith ; and, " even if they
were not of the faith of Christ, they should not be deprived
of their liberty, nor ownership of their property, nor be
reduced to servitude.' ' It may be said that the conquis-
tadores took little heed of this humanitarian papal edict.
This bull somewhat contradicts that of Alexander VI,
issued in 1493, immediately after the discovery of America.
Of his " own pure will and plenitude of apostolic power "
he " conceded and assigned forever to the kings of Castile
and Leon and their successors all the islands and mainlands
discovered and which may hereafter be discovered towards
the west and south, with all their dominions, cities, castles,
places and towers, with all their rights, jurisdictions and
appurtenances," only reserving lands belonging to any other
Christian king or prince. It was in virtue of this bull
that all the Christian Powers proceeded to plunder the
heathen.
THE TAPUYAS 77
Tapuya and Caraio peoples by the raids and
conquests of the Portuguese and Spaniards, we
may realize the difficulty of denning the terri-
torial area occupied by any one of the Tapuya
tribes of the interior in the year 1500. Of
course, the present habitat of a few of them,
their strength, physical characteristics, language
and customs are factors of value in the solution
of the problem of ancient tribal importance. In
the region lying south of the Amazon river and
east of the Madeira there are still to be found
remnants of great tribes either of Caraio or
Tapuya stock, and others carrying traces of a
mixture of these; and, in Matto Grosso, even
an infusion of blood from the Pampean races of
the northern Gran Chacu of the Argentine
Republic.
One of the great southern affluents of the
Amazon, the Tapajos, 1 cuts Matto Grosso into
two almost equal parts. It was first descended
in 1748 by a miner, Sousa de Azevedo, on his
way to Para from Matto Grosso.
At a later date the region lying between the
Tapajos and the Rio Madeira and the Amazon
and Juruena was named, early in the last century,
Mundurucania, from its principal occupants, who
were a fierce and terrible tribe of nomadic
Indians known as the Mundurucus. They made
1 Tapajos, a corruption of Tapuya-assu, the Great Tapuyas.
78 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
such constant and sanguinary war upon the other
smaller tribes of the district, the Manes, Parin-
tintins, Muras and Araras, that, by the end of
the seventeenth century, they had almost ex-
terminated them. The Mundurucus, like the
Tapajos, and also the Carajas of the Xingu, and
the Muras, were of Caraio stock, a remnant of
the invasions from Paraguay. By the other
tribes the Mundurucus were called Pay-quiet,
which signifies decapilators, on account of the
custom which they then had of cutting off the
heads of their captives and embalming them in
a manner so as to preserve their original features
for an interminable period of time — a practice
still common to several tribes of the Amazon
valley, notably of the Jibaros of Ecuador.
The Parintintins were wild, nomadic cannibals
who roamed over the district on the right side
of the river Madeira below the fall of San Antonio
and extended eastward towards the Tapajos.
They were pure-blooded Caraios. Like some of
the savages on the lower Rio Negro they made
flutes from the tibiae of their enemies.
The Araras, who were a terrible fighting tribe
of Caraio stock, maintained their supremacy on
the lower Madeira even against the Mundurucus.
The Mundurucus also overran a considerable
extent of country between the Tapajos and
Xingu. In former times they waged a merciless
THE TAPUYAS 79
war with the Apiacos, a Caraio tribe occupying
the country about the junction of the river
Arinos with the Tapajos.
Towards the middle of the last century, under
the influence of the Brazilian authorities, the
Munduruciis settled down into tabas or villages,
and, in 1876, their twenty-one tribal divisions,
numbering about fourteen thousand Indians,
occupied twenty-one tabas.
When Bates x visited them about the middle
of the last century he noted the same lack of
uniformity in the shape of the head and features
which he had observed in other Amazon tribes.
They only resembled each other in their long,
thick, straight, jet-black hair, warm coppery-
brown tint of the skin and quiet, rather dull,
expression of countenance. He found no head
of the Mongolian type, broad with high cheek-
bones and oblique eyes, like an occasional
example among the canoemen of the river
Amazon. They were then the most numerous
and formidable surviving tribe of the Amazon
region and inhabited the shores of the river
Tapajos (chiefly its right bank), from 3° to 7°
S. lat., and the interior of the country as far
west as the Rio Madeira, but at times they
extended their forays as far eastward as the
province of Maranham. They have a tradition
1 Op. tit.
80 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
that they and the Mauhes originally formed one
tribe. The latter occupy the western side of the
Tapajos for some distance above the falls and
northward to the side channels of the Amazon
behind Villa Nova. They speak an entirely
different tongue from the Mundurucus. " The
points of resemblance between all the tribes
inhabiting the region of the Amazons are so
numerous and striking, that, notwithstanding
the equally marked points of difference which
some of them exhibit, we must conclude that
not only the Mundurucus and Mauhes, but all
the various peoples had a common origin —
that is, they are derived by immigration from
one quarter and one stock, the separate tribes
subsequently acquiring their peculiarities by long
isolation."
One of the most numerous tribes of the sertao
was the Cahyapos. It included several sub-
tribes — the Gradahus, Gorotires, Carahos and
others — and occupied an extensive district west
of the river Araguay, from the forests of the upper
Parana to the margins of the lower Xingu river,
including a part of Matto Grosso and Goyaz.
A great island, Tupinambarana, having an
area of about one thousand square miles, lies on
the south side of the Amazon about eighty miles
below the mouth of the river Madeira, and is
separated from the mainland to the south by a
THE TAPUYAS 81
labyrinth of streams and natural canals. This
island, according to the early historians, was
occupied by Tupis or Tupinambos, who, fleeing
from the persecutions of the Portuguese of
Pernambuco and Bahia in 1560, had crossed the
sertao and taken refuge there. Southey gives
a poetic account of their exodus from the
Brazilian coast to the interior, telling how the
Indians from eighty-four settlements banded
together, marched across South America to the
Peruvian Andes where they remained for some
time until one of them was punished by a
Spaniard for killing a cow. Revolting at this
indignity they all emigrated once more, descended
the Orellana and established themselves on the
island of Tupinambarana. This story is wholly
incredible. Bates * will not allow even that a
compact body of Indians wandered from the
sea-coast to the central parts of the Amazon,
and believes that " different tribes, having more
or less affinity with the Tupis, originally existed
in many places on the banks of the Amazons and
that they had frequent communication with each
other before the time of the Portuguese."
It is probable that the Caraios in their in-
vasions of the Amazon valley by the Madeira
river route occupied the island of Tupinambarana
centuries before the Portuguese landed in Brazil
1 The Naturalist on the River Amazon.
82 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
as it must have afforded them an excellent
and comparatively safe resting-place for the
recuperation of their warlike expeditions on the
way to the sea.
After the Portuguese had founded Belem do
Para (1616) and had driven the French and
Dutch from the districts round the mouth of
the Amazon, they commenced a war of exter-
mination against the tribes of its lower and middle
valley including the Tupinambaranas, sacking
and destroying their settlements and putting to
the sword all Indians whom they could not
enslave. To escape their merciless persecutors,
the various tribes split into fragments, and,
whenever possible, fled to the desert fastnesses
of the interior.
Fronting the Atlantic ocean is a small section
of north-eastern Brazil lying between the
estuaries of the Amazon and the Tocantins,
and insulated from the mainland, on the south-
west, by an extremely intricate network of
wide and deep natural canals which connect
the two great rivers. It is called the island of
Marajo, and is about the size of the kingdom of
Denmark. Nearly the whole of it is formed
from river silt, but stretches of older and higher
ground are found on its southern and eastern
border resting on rocky reefs. The south-western
half is, in general, covered with forested swamps
THE TAPUYAS 88
which are yearly flooded, and which riot in
flowering plants and superb tropical vegetation.
The remainder of the island is divided between
low-lying wooded districts and great, level
stretches of open pasture lands, which, although
flooded and turned into a labyrinth of lakes
during the rainy season, are dry during the
remaining months of the year. Countless birds
of gorgeous plumage, among them the scarlet
ibis and roseate spoonbill, fill the air; myriads
of ducks cover the marshes and lakes; jaguars
and pumas roam over the meadows and through
the jungles; the swampy regions are the home
of vast numbers of alligators, and anacondas
and other snakes are numerous.
When the Portuguese took possession of the
lands round the estuary of the river Tocantins
they found them occupied by Tupi tribes and
Nu-Arawaks. Certain of the former had been
in possession ever since the time of the original
Caraio descent of the Tocantins and the Amazon,
but the Nu-Arawaks had probably reached the
locality from the Guayana frontage of the
Caribbean sea. The Tupis also held the mari-
time belt to the south-east between the Para
river and the Rio Gurupi. There were several
tribes occupying Marajo, and they either derived
their names from, or gave them to, the principal
rivers of the island, such as the Mapuazes,
o 2
84 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Andjazes, Mocooes and others. Collectively they
were known as Nheengaybas, a name supposed
to have been conferred upon them by the Tupin-
ambas. They also possessed the eastern portion
of Brazilian Guayana (on the north side of the
Amazon), from the river Paru to the sea and
to the north as far as the river Oyapoc, although,
at some points of the Amazon littoral, there were
perhaps tribes of Caraio origin such as the Carai-
punas and others. The Nheengaybas were prob-
ably more or less mixed with Tupinambas or
in friendly alliance with them, especially after
the Portuguese invasion.
The great numbers of Tupinambas driven
from the Captaincy of Bahia fled to the valleys
of the Tapajos, Xingu and Tocantins, and,
during the seventeenth century, their settle-
ments were extensively raided by the Portuguese
of Para in quest of slaves. They captured many
thousands of Tupinambas and Potigoares and
in one year (1670) they enslaved 2,000 of them.
The fame of these slave expeditions naturally
spread among all of the Indian tribes of what-
ever nationality, and planted the seeds of revenge,
bloodshed and devastation.
Among the tribes of the island of Marajo were
the Mamayanazes, who were famous hunters,
swimmers and, in common with the Nheengaybas,
were expert canoemen. They possessed great
THE TAPUYAS 85
numbers of small craft called igaras from which
they derived the name of Igaruanas, practically
watermen in contradistinction to the tribes of the
interior. Many other river tribes fell under this
designation according to their skill in managing
canoes in travelling, fishing, or on warlike expedi-
tions. Their war-craft were sometimes forty to fifty
feet long, made from a single tree-trunk which
they hollowed with stone axes and fire. They
called them maracatins, from the maraca which
they suspended with cords from a kind of bow-
sprit. As they paddled the maracatin the
pebbles in the maraca rattled with a loud noise.
The Mamayanazes were allies of the Nheengaybas.
The missionary fathers found the Nheengayba
dialect one of the most perfect of the languages
of the lower Amazon, but quite distinctive from
the lingoa geral, which, however, all of the
Nheengaybas spoke. Of their own tongue they
were extremely tenacious and would not allow
their women to speak any other " even for
annual confession."
In a letter to the King of Portugal, dated
Maranhao, 1670, the Jesuit Padre Antonio Vieira
gives a graphic account of the defence of their
home by the Nheengaybas, and the intelligent
and even brilliant tactics, well suited to the
character of the country, which they employed
in their twenty years' war with the Portuguese :
86 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
" At first the Nheengaybas received our con-
querors in good friendship, but long experience
having proven that the false peace which they
offered resulted in declared captivity, they took
arms to protect their liberty and commenced
war against the Portuguese on all sides. They
used light, well-armed canoes, with which they
not only impeded but infested the avenues,
which, in this land, are all by water, and in which
they robbed and killed many Portuguese, even
assaulting the Christian Indians in their villages
and also killing or taking prisoners those who
were nearest to our forts; even the Portuguese
themselves in their own houses and estates, of
which many are still to be seen unoccupied and
deserted, were not safe against the Nheengaybas."
In the war which the government waged against
them with all their resources, they found them
" unconquerable on account of their daring,
caution, astuteness and constancy, and, more
than all, the unattackable character of their
country, which nature itself fortified and de-
fended ; for the island is composed of a confused
and intricate labyrinth of rivers and thick
forests, the former with a countless number of
entrances and outlets and the latter without
access or exit, where it is neither possible to
look for, nor find, nor follow, nor even see an
enemy, the Indians being entrenched in the
THE TAPUYAS 8T
jungle, aiming and using their arrows. And that
this flying and invisible mode of warfare should
cause no disturbance in their villages and among
their women and children, the first thing which
the Nheengaybas did, when they resolved on
war with the Portuguese, was to tear down their
houses and build others, widely distributed over
great areas of the interior, so that they could not
be assaulted together, and that, in case of danger,
one might advise the other. In this manner,
they spread over the whole island without con-
fining themselves to any part of it, all the forests
serving them as walls, the rivers as fosses, the
houses as donjons and every Nheengayba as a
sentinel."
" All this we gather from the personal observa-
tions of Padre Joao de Souto-Maior, who with
Padre Salvador do Valle in the year 1655,
navigated and trod these deserts of the Nheen-
gaybas."
Despairing of ever subduing such valiant and
intelligent foes, the Portuguese finally availed
themselves of the services of the good Padre
Vieira, and made peace with them.
CHAPTER V
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA
West of the upper Madeira and its Guapore
branch and south-east of the Rio Madre de Dios, is
a portion of Amazonia having an area of about
200,000 square miles. The most eastern foot-
hills of the Andes define its south-western
border and its south-eastern one is the low
water-divide, the Chiquitos Sierras, between the
Madeira and Plata valleys. Besides Chiquitos,
its plateau portion comprises a part of the
Bolivian Province of Caupolican, and the whole
of the present Department of the Beni, which
includes the Province of Mojos. It is one of
the most interesting sections of South America,
not only in a geographical but in an ethnological
sense.
But like all of the favoured lands of this earth
there were numerous contestants for their posses-
sion. Access to them from the east and north
was extremely difficult, and, from the lower
valley of the Amazon, they could be reached
only by ascending the formidable falls of the
Madeira or by crossing the great forests of
88
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 89
western Brazil. If any invading Tapuya savage
succeeded in his effort, he found himself con-
fronted by the bolder and more virile Caraio
tribes from the south, which had pressed north-
ward by comparatively easy routes, probably
by way of the Laguna Gaiba, on the upper
Paraguay river, and by the northern affluents of
this stream.
Whatever information we have of value re-
garding this area of country is largely confined
to the writings of the missionary fathers who
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
from the convents of Cuzco, Moquegua, Juli, La
Paz and Tarija, found their way down the Andes
into the wilds with infinite danger and sacrifice
to catechize their savage denizens. Much of
what they wrote is buried in the archives of
the convents mentioned, as well as in Spain and
the Vatican, but much has reached the light,
and, supplemented by the accounts of early as
well as by more recent explorers, has given us
data of considerable value.
It is probable that, for many thousands of
years, so favoured a region was the cock-pit of
numerous Tapuya and other savages from the
upper Amazon, western Brazil and the Plata
basin. Such a strife would result in the leaving
of a great variety of tribal remnants scattered
over its entire area, and a veritable confusion of
90 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
tongues. In fact, since the date of the Spanish
conquest, these conditions have attracted the
attention of missionary, explorer and ethnologist.
Even since the middle of the seventeenth
century, the geographical distribution of tribes
has greatly varied from time to time; some of
them appear to have clung to their lands with
great tenacity, but others have been restless
and nomadic, probably, in many instances,
impelled by the desire to escape from contact
with the European settlements and the ex-
actions, oppression and slavery which those who
remained in their vicinity invariably suffered.
The country to the west of the river Mamore,
as far as the lower slopes of the Andes, received
earlier attention from the Spanish conquerors
than that lying to the east of it. The first
accounts of the former come to us from the
reports of the adventurers who sought to find
in its wilds the fabled kingdom of Paytiti and
from the writings of the Jesuit and Franciscan
friars.
When the Spaniards first descended the eastern
slopes of the Andes abreast of Lake Titicaca,
they came in contact with the fierce and savage
Chunchos — a group of tribes occupying a district
called Chunchu lying to the north of Chuquiapo
(now La Paz) among the upper tributaries of
the Guarayuya (river of the Guarayos), the
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 91
Deamanu, Omapalcas or Diabeni, now called
the river Beni. The northern limit of their
territory was the river Tuiche, an affluent of the
Beni from the west. A Jesuit father who pene-
trated Chunchu in 1594 mentions that its length
from north to south was more or less fifteen to
twenty leagues, and its width from east to west
about forty leagues. He found that, after the
death of an old Cacique, the tribes had become
much dispersed. In the northern part of their
district was one called the Chiriguapunas. 1
The Chunchos as a compact group of people
no longer exist, their name has become general-
ized, and in Peru is now applied to all savage
Indians found to the east of the Andes.
It was not until after the expedition of Pedro
de Candia, followed by that of Pero Anzuras
de Camporedondo, and subsequently by several
brave missionary fathers from the Mercedario
Convent of Cuzco, all of whom acquired con-
siderable information regarding the upper Madre
de Dios and the. western part of the valley of
the Beni, that the famous Juan Alvarez Maldo-
nado made extensive explorations in these regions
which he undertook to conquer in 1567-1569.
He marched over a vast area of the country lying
to the west of the Rio Beni and south of the
Madre de Dios. Among the Indian tribes he
1 Relaciones Geogrdficas de Indicts.
92 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
mentions in the account of his expedition :
are the following :
" Commencing from the Cordillera at the back
of Chuquiapu (La Paz) are the Mojos of Yuroma,
and, bordering them, the Mojos of Mayaguize;
then the provinces of the Mayas and Yuqui-
monas, and the province of the Pacajes and that
of the Yumarinenos, and the province of the
Muymas, and that of the Chunchos and Guana-
paonas, and that of the Tirinas, and the province
of the Cabinas and Coribas, and that of the
Chimareras and the Guarayos, and the province
of the Marquires — this runs to the province of
Paytiti and Corocoros."
This enumeration would be from south to
north as far as the River Madre de Dios. At
the head waters of this stream and to the north of
it were the Manarios, a numerous tribe having
its eastern extension as far as the Rio " Paucar-
guambo," probably the Paucartambo. East
of this, as far as the Rio " Guariguaca " (the
Rio Amigos ?) were the Opataries, and then
commenced the province of the Capinas and
Cavanavas which extended north-east to the
province of the Cayanpuxes, its territory running
as far as the Rio Beni, at the mouth of the
Madre de Dios.
1 A MS. existing in the Archivo General de Indias, and
published at Sevilla, 1899, by Luis Ulloa.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 93
" On the south side of the last-named stream,
and forty leagues from the Cordillera of Peru,
is the province of the Aravaonas, then that of
the Toromonas, extending to the country of the
Calipas." Then came the Marupas, who occupied
the junction between the Beni and Madre de Dios.
" The Mojos, Pacajas, Yumarinenos, Chunchos,
Aravaonas, Toromonas, Celipas, Corivas, Chi-
maneras, Marupas, Cabinas, Capinas, all these
provinces are inhabited by people clothed in
cotton, and all having rites and ceremonies like
those of the Yungas l of Peru. Chunchos and
Aravaonas, with the others mentioned, wear
feathers and make images and things of rich
workmanship and very fine clothing."
"Mojos is a land of gold; the Yumarinenos
is a country of gold and silver — a warlike people
who defeated the Yuga of Peru."
" The arms of these tribes were the bow and
arrow, clubs, darts and shields ornamented with
feathers. Those of the forest fought dispersed,
but in squadrons when in open ground. The
Corocoros used blow-guns with little poisoned
darts. The Pamaynos fought with slings and
metal axes."
Describing this land of plenty, Maldonado
gives a long list of vegetables and fruits which
the Indians used for food. He also calls attention
1 Yungas, a Quichua word signifying hot, tropical valleys.
94 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
to the great quantity of game, large and small,
and to the abundance of fish in the rivers.
As early as 1586 Padre Diezo Martinez and
another from Santa Cruz de la Sierra entered
among the Chiquitos and Mojos; but it was not
until January 1692 that the spiritual conquest
of Chiquitos was really commenced, and then
under Padre Jose de Arce, who suddenly pre-
sented himself in the midst of the Pinocas, a
docile agricultural tribe.
Before the Chiquitos tribes were gathered into
missions, which were twelve in number, they
occupied, principally, the valleys among the
Chiquitos sierras between 17° and 18° 30'
S. lat., and the mountain slopes both on the
Plata and Amazon side; but scattered over the
Chiquitos province were numerous widely separ-
ated little family groups living among the forests,
each being known according to its habitat or
by the name of its Cacique for the time being —
thus their names constantly varied. The old
missionary fathers describe them as possessing
a district two hundred leagues in length from
the Chiquitos sierras northward, and one hundred
leagues wide, 1 overlooking Santa Cruz de la
1 Their territory extended north to about 16° S. lat. ;
beyond that was the country of the Mojos tribes, but it is
possible that Padre Fernandez included the latter as a
branch of the Chiquitos, with whom they had close affinity
in language, appearance and manners.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 95
Sierra on the west and extending to the east-
ward as far as the Laguna or Morass of Xarayes,
a vast region in the upper Paraguay valley
which is yearly flooded. D'Orbigny makes the
Xarayes Indians a branch of the Chiquitos.
Padre Fernandez ■ found the Chiquitos in-
genious, vivacious, intelligent, lovers of the
good, not inconstant nor inclined to evil, their
features similar to ours and colour olive. After
twenty years of age they let their hair grow.
The men were nude, but the women wore the
tipoy, a sleeveless shirt, and the Caciques also
used the same garment but shorter, They
pierced their ears and lower lip to insert feathers
or a tin ornament, and they wore feather belts.
They managed arms skilfully and fought with
bows and arrows and clubs or macanas, and were
valorous and warlike. The only government
which they respected was the advice of old
people. They enslaved their more pacific neigh-
bours. Polygamy was not allowed, but they
changed wives at will, and yet the Caciques had
two or three wives at once. They played a
game like pelota, but using only the head.
They recognized no Deity, but evidently be-
lieved in a happy hunting ground as they
interred the dead with food and bows and arrows.
They adored the moon, which they called
1 Historia de las Misiones de los Indios Chiquitos, 1726.
96 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
" Mother," and, in case of an eclipse, made a
tremendous noise, shooting a shower of arrows
into the sky, to defend it against the dogs which
they believed were harassing it and causing it
to bleed over its whole body, which was the
cause of the eclipse. When it thundered they
said that some dead man, living among the
stars, was angry.
The Chiquitos built their cabins of straw,
with doors so low that they could only be
entered by creeping in. Hence, it is said, the
Spaniards called the builders of them Chiquitos.
The average height of the Chiquitos exceeds
that of the Aymara, Quichua and Guarani races,
and they have broad shoulders, well-rounded
chests, and altogether belie the name of small
men or Chiquitos. 1 D'Orbigny 2 classified them
as of a pale brown colour, more olive than
yellow, with rather large, round heads, full face
and forehead, the nose slightly flat and short,
small, horizontal, vivacious eyes occasionally
a little bride, lips thin and beautiful teeth, chin
1 In an account of a voyage made in 1564 from Paraguay
to the Chare as, the writer states that the true name of the
Chiquitos is Tobacicoci. This is confirmed by a Jesuit
missionary of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 1596, who speaks
of the " Tovasicosis Indians, also known as Chiquitos."
A third says that, on the Rio Grande, the Chiquitos were
called Tapuimiri (Relaciones Geogrdficas de Indias, Peru,
1885).
2 Uhomnie A?nericain.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 97
round and short with a thin, straight beard,
hair long and glossy. They possessed vivacity,
gaiety, goodness, frankness, naivete, sociability,
extreme hospitality and had fondness for dances
and games.
North of the Chiquitos tribes and on the
great Beni plateau as far west as the Rio Beni,
was a multitude of fragments of tribes impossible
to classify. They were the despair of the Jesuit
fathers of the seventeenth century, who were
confounded and defeated to a great extent in
their efforts to gather them into Reductions,
owing to the great variety of languages which
they encountered, even at times, among those
belonging to the same tribe.
Padre Fernandez 1 complains that, "As regards
their language, to understand and learn it many
years are insufficient. I do not care to speak on
this point, but instead, let a Missionary be
heard, who writing in recent years from those
missions to a confidential friend, greatly laments
that, despite all the application which he devoted
to it, he could not learn it. He says, ' Every
group of cabins has an absolutely different and
difficult language, and, much more than all,
that of the Chiquitos, which gives me great
pain and discouragement, and it wants but little
to persuade myself that I cannot employ my
1 Op. cit.
98 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
sufferings and fatigues for the good of this new
Christianity, for want of a language. Up to the
present, the vocabulary is unfinished, it being
still in the C. (sic), and there are twenty-five
brochures. The grammar is terribly difficult, and
the art and distinction of the verbs is incredible.
... In five months that I have been here, I
have scarcely learned five conjugations, having
worked and sweated night and day. I judge
that those who ought to come here should be
saints, young and intelligent, for otherwise they
will do nothing. Those of other nations cannot
learn it, unless when they are children. Padre
Pablo Restivo, who, after studying Guarany for
a month, could administer our religion, has never
dared to preach in all the time that he has been
here. Of the oldest fathers, who have been
twenty-five years as Missionaries in these Re-
ductions, there is not one who knows the language
perfectly, and they say that, at times, the Indians
themselves do not understand each other. What
shall I say of pronunciation ? They throw words
out of their mouths four at a time, and as in-
comprehensible as if nothing was pronounced,' "
and Fernandez adds, " among these people, at
every step, one finds a group of a hundred
families having a completely different language
from their neighbours, so that there is an in-
credible variety of tongues . . . and to obviate
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 99
this impediment to the Holy Faith, it has been
made obligatory that all the Indians learn the
Chiquito tongue; which cannot be done further
on, for if the nations now undergoing conversion
exceed three to four thousand souls, it will be
necessary to make a new Reduction, and we shall
be obliged to accommodate ourselves to its
language ; for which the missionaries will require
to study, besides the Chiquito tongue, that of
the Morotocos, which is spoken by the Zamucos,
and that of the Guarayos who speak Guarany."
D'Orbigny finds that the Chiquitos and Mojos
tribes have more or less relationship to the
Pampean race, but when he hangs his compari-
sons of them upon a very slender thread, as
he often does in his efforts to trace similarity
of natural tendencies, physical characteristics,
manners and customs and languages, he causes
one to doubt the soundness of his conclusions.
But even so great a savant could not evolve
order out of the chaotic mixture of peoples
which he found in Chiquitos and Mojos. He
confines his accounts of them to the principal
tribes, and acknowledges that their subdivisions,
all bearing different names, are extraordinarily
numerous, and that even the small tribe of the
Baures had twenty fractions each possessing a
distinctive name. He mentions Padre Equinez
as giving the names of some thirty nations in-
H 2
100 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
habiting the Mojos territory in 1696. It is not
therefore surprising that the uncertain and vary-
ing lists of tribes recorded by missionaries,
conquistador -es and explorers have contributed
to confuse the ethnological problem of the region
in question and make it extremely difficult, if
not impossible, to solve.
No two lists are alike. For instance, let us
compare three of them : Padre Fernandez, towards
the end of the seventeenth century says, " The
number of tribes is very great, for the country
of the Manacicas (part of Chiquitos and Mojos)
is like a pyramid in shape, extending from south
to north at the extremity of which they live,
and in the middle of which are other people, as
discordant in their idioms as they are similar in
their barbaric life. At the base of this pyramid
are found, in the east, the Quimomecas, and, in
the west, the Tapacuras. . . . Afterwards, to
the east, are the Eirinucas, Moposicas, Zibacas,
Jurucarecas, Quiviquicas, Cozocas, Subarecas,
Ibocicas, Ozonimaaca, Tunumaaca, Zouca,
Quitesuca, Osaaca, Matezupinica, Totaica and
Quimomeca. On the west are the Zounaaca,
Quitemuca, Ovizibica, Beruca, Obariquica, Obo-
bococa, Monocaraca, Quizemaaca, Simomuca,
Piquica, Otuquimaaca, Oiutuuca, Bararoca,
Quimamaca, Cuzica and Pichazica. These groups
and perhaps many more still unknown, are
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 101
found at the foot of this pyramid, and from them,
towards the northern apex are the Quimiticas,
Zouca, Boviruzaica, Sepeseca, Otaroso, Tobaizica,
Munaisica, Zaruraca, Obisisioca, Baquica, Obobi-
zooca, Sofiaca, Otenenema, Otigoca, Barayzi-
punoca, Zizooca and Tobazica. On the confines
of these are the Zibacas, who, up to the present,
have never been assaulted nor robbed by the
Mamalucos, who have destroyed and desolated
the rest of the country which extends towards
the Rio Paraguay."
To the above Fernandez adds a list of many
neighbouring tribes.
D'Orbigny gives the following list of the
Chiquitos nations in 1830 : —
" Chiquitos, Samucus, Paiconecas, Saravecas,
Otukes, Curuminacas, Curaves, Covarecas, Cora-
becas, Tapiis and Curucanecas."
To Mojos, he assigns the Mojos Baures(d'o),
Muchojeones, Movimasd'o, Canichanas, Itonamas,
Chapacuras, Cayuvavas, Pacaguaras and Itenes.
To add to the confusion, the Bolivian Govern-
ment * designates the tribes of Chiquitos as
follows : —
" Bororoses, Cayubeos, Curaves, Curucanecas,
Curuminacas, Chiquitos, Guanas, Otukes, Pai-
conocas, Paunacas, Penoquies and Potoras ; and,
for Mojos, the Baures, Canichanas, Cayubabas,
1 Geografia de la Republica de Bolivia, La Paz, 1 905.
102 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Chacobos, Chapacuras, Itenes, Itonomas, Mojos,
Movimas, Pausernas, Carabecas, Sinabos and
Sirionos."
Fray Camposano told Philip II of Spain that
" Mojos had 170 provinces with many nations
speaking different languages." 1 They wore
bands or crowns of silver on their heads like the
llantos of the Peruvian Indians and painted their
bodies red and blue. Through the upper lip
and gristle of the nose almost all of them had
tembetas of silver or tin. They had no govern-
ment nor rational dogma nor God nor any
reward for virtue or chastisement for vice. The
most valiant were the most respected and their
patience under injuries was only dissimulation
for subsequent vengeance. Call him a thousand
opprobrious names and the Indian only smiled.
There was no special marriage ceremony.
Some had a dozen wives, and, to satisfy honour,
they threw bad women into the river tied hands
and feet. Very rarely any of them lived to sixty
years of age. Nursing children they took pity
on and buried with their mothers, and of twins
they killed one, the better to sustain the other.
They had a god whom they called Uchiabare.
Some worshipped the sun, others the moon or the
1 Historia de la Mision de los Mojos por Padre Diego
Francisco Altamirano de la Compana de Jesus, La Paz.
Original in the Archivo Nacional del Peru, 1625-1715.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 103
stars and they had particular gods according to
the variety of their languages.
" During their orgies which lasted for many
days they killed and ate each other without
respect for relationship, from which has originated
the multitude of tribes, for, divided into bands
and civil wars they formed separate settlements
each with its plaza and place to worship the
devil." For a new war they fasted and remained
temperate for a long period of time to make
themselves invincible.
Padre Altamirano, as Superior of all of the
province of Peru, visited Santa Cruz de la Sierra
in the year 1700. He tried to establish schools
in Mojos to teach a general language. He found
that Baures had 124 Indian settlements, and in
about 1708 it had twenty Reductions of 2,000
Indians each. Here and there were little hills
on which the settlements were founded, but in
the rainy season they were only just out of water
and were connected with each other by small
canals for canoe communication. The towns,
well formed, were built of houses thatched with
straw, had comfortable, clean rooms, and were
defended by earthworks, trenches and palisades.
Drunkenness and idolatry prevailed. The Indians
had as many wives as they could support, but
they chastised adultery and held honesty in
esteem. The men went naked and, at times,
104 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
adorned themselves with plumes. They had
no political nor moral union among the settle-
ments, there being no superior to govern them,
nor judge whom they feared, nor were there any
laws to restrain them, nor different classes
among the people. They were divided into as
many groups as settlements with continuous
hatreds, wars and discords in their efforts to
steal each other's women. The Caciques had no
jurisdiction, but some shade of superiority due
to their greater valour, and were allowed at
will to take women from their husbands with-
out repugnance or resistance. Their wars, which
lasted but a short time, were tumultuous, like
dog fights, and there were neither requirements
nor method of reconciliation, but there was no
security even for an hour against invasion,
especially when they were drunk, and their only
feast was to get the public together and have a
grand drunk, on chicha brava, for three days and
nights. For this orgie they had a great building
which contained all the Chicha stored in jars.
The feast was commenced by the Cacique drinking
a toast to the devil, to which all the rest responded,
then they played their musical instruments and
boasted of their warlike deeds, and, animated by
different stages of drunkenness, laughed, sang,
cried or got furious, and did other things which
shame forbids the pen to write. " It is a fact,"
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 105
says Altamirano, " exceeding ordinary credulity
that, at the end of the feast each one had con-
sumed more than 150 pounds of chicha " served
by the women in calabashes, as was their duty.
The men do nothing except to build huts, make
arms, hunt, fish and make war. The women
gather fuel, cook, weave cloth and hamacs,
cultivate the ground, and care for their children
much as animals care for their progeny. Both
men and women go naked, but some of the
married women dress. They do not realize
when they are naked. During war and feasts
they adorn themselves with feathers of various
colours, and wear two or three rock crystals
pendent through the lower lip. 1 They crown
themselves with a band of tiger skin. When
ill their sorcerers persuade them that a serpent
has taken possession of the body and suck the
1 Keller, when among the Cayowa Indians of the upper
Parana river, mentions the use of the xerimbitd among them,
and describes it as a cylinder of from twelve to fifteen centi-
metres in length, made of the transparent yellow resin of
the jatahy tree inserted into a thin bamboo tube. It is
afterwards polished, pointed at one end and provided with
a small horizontal piece at the other which secures it in the
perforated under lip. He mentions that 2,500 miles
in a straight line to the north-west, at the little hill of
Cerrito on the river Mamore near Exaltacion, three white
quartz xerimbitds five to six centimetres in length have been
found identical with some of the material fished out of the
Tibagy branch of the Parunapanema near Sao Pedro de
Alcantara.
106 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
infected part, rub green leaves round it and
pretend that they have captured the snake.
Each one is buried in his own hut. The only
mourning is the cries of his friends (which last
several days) who blacken their bodies with the
juice of certain plants. Those who do this
become his relatives in the next world and those
who fail to do it lose their relationship with him.
A Cacique is mourned in this way by the entire
village.
Regarding the Mobimas, Padre Altamirano
says that the missionaries first entered their
territory in 1693. Their total number of savages
was about 20,000, consisting of various tribes.
Their territory lay to the north and west of
Mojos between the rivers Mamore and Beni and
was traversed by the Apere and Maniqui rivers.
In the rainy season it was entirely inundated.
The people were poor, miserable, without govern-
ment, idolatrous, stolid, drunken, rude and the
wildest of their kind.
According to ancient accounts and the more
recent observations of d'Orbigny, the Mojos
tribes were a robust people of medium height,
mild, oval face, short nose, moderately full
forehead, mouth not large, with lips somewhat
projecting, and horizontal eyes. They were
hunters, fishermen and agriculturists.
A marriage lasted as long as the parties could
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 107
agree with each other. The husband killed his
wife if she miscarried, and also killed his children
if twins, saying that only beasts could bear a
plurality of offspring. Polygamy was permitted.
The women wove the wild cotton of the country,
both white and yellow, with much greater skill
than the Chiquitos, and their tipoys and hamacs
were more delicate in texture. The bark of the
ficus, worked until soft and pliable, also served
them, as it does to-day, for the tipoy. Nearly
all the Indians painted the body, and many
pierced the lower lip so as to insert a tembeta, and
the gristle of the nose and the lobes of the ears
for feather and other ornaments. The men wore
necklaces made from the teeth of their enemies
killed in war.
The Mojos tribe was the most numerous of the
Mojos group. They are supposed, according to
Fernandez, to have been so named by the
Spaniards. They occupied a belt of country,
between 13° and 16° S. lat., extending west
from the Guapore river to the country of the
Yuracares among the south-western affluents of
the Mamore. They were a kind, genial and social
people. Before the conquest they lived in large
villages upon the margins of rivers, lakes and
marshes, as well as among the forests. They
were excellent canoemen and made their craft
with fire and stone axes. They delighted in
108 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
merrymaking and dancing and were very musical,
using the flute of Pan made of bamboo. 1
Occasionally mothers buried their children
alive on account of their importunity, and some-
times, when a mother died, her children were
buried with her, if too young to dispense with
her care.
North of Mojos were the Itonamas, on the
lower stretch of the Itonama river. D'Orbigny
found them of a very different build from the
other Mojos tribes. They had broad shoulders
but the rest of the body was thin and slight and
the legs were slender. The forehead was small
and narrow and the eyes horizontal. They
spoke an entirely distinct language. The men,
women and children were steeped in vice and the
grossest sensuality.
North of the Mojos, south of the Itenes and
west of the Itonamas, were the Canichanas. They
lived in entrenched settlements from which they
raided their enemies' lands. D'Orbigny de-
scribes them as more massive than the Mojos
and of deeper colour, and having a hard, big
head ; the face oblong like the Tobas of the Gran
Chacu; full, low forehead, large nose, short and
1 When I was in the Mojos district the Indians, gaily
decorated with brilliant feathers, entertained me by playing
these enormous instruments, which were sometimes five to
six feet long.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 109
flat, big mouth, lips somewhat gross, eyes deep-
set, small and inclined, small ears, slight, arched
eyebrows, faces sad and repulsive. We are not
entirely agreed in this description. Those whom
I have seen were certainly no larger than the
Mojos. Their faces were not repellent, but not
so frank and expressive as those of the Mojos.
1 once reduced one of my Canichanas from
captain to simple paddler of my canoe for losing
his head and wrecking me in a cataract. For
coolness and skill, he was no match for the brave
Mojo Indian whom I then placed in command.
The Canichana, like the rest of his tribe, was very
fond of alligators — I was not !
In descending the Mamore river, my canoe, a
" Montana" was 24 feet long, 6 feet wide and
2 feet deep. Her displacement was 96 cubic
feet, equal to 5,760 pounds. The weight of
men, luggage, food and loose fittings may be
taken at 2,535 pounds, leaving 3,225 pounds as
actual weight of the canoe. The total weight,
therefore, was a little less than 3 tons net. She
was paddled by six Canichana Indians and six
of other Mojos tribes, seated in pairs. Their
paddles were of hard, very heavy wood 4 feet
4| inches long. The blade was oval in shape,
1 foot 4J inches long and 6 inches wide. To
test her speed I measured a length of 300 feet on
a suitable shore. She passed the line of the
110 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
stakes in 33 seconds at the ordinary rate of
paddling. The current, carefully registered, was
300 feet in 93 seconds. Thus the speed was
equivalent to about 3| miles per hour in still
water. With the heavy paddles described, my
Indians averaged 54 strokes per minute for hours
together, sometimes for ten hours per day. This
gives some idea of the tremendous endurance of
these people. Against the current, their stroke
was 48 per minute.
The Canichanas have the reputation of being
the most skilful canoemen among the Mojos
tribes. D'Orbigny describes them as having
great energy and daring, and for being unscru-
pulous and taciturn, and of sad, unsociable
disposition, and of being brusque and impolite.
They made arms and canoes and wore cloth for
their tipoys, which they also made from the bark
of the ficus. They stood in great fear of evil
spirits. " From colour, form and height, they
tend towards the Mojos, but in manners and
features they resemble the Tobas and Mbocobis
of the Chacu. Their language places them after
the Mojos and Chiquitos," and he believes,
notwithstanding, that they belong to the Mojos
stock. They have some characteristics in
common with the Itenes, but they make a bold
contrast to the tribes which surround them,
who have a remarkable resemblance to each other
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 111
in character and physique. It may be suggested
that the Canichanas are the remnant of a
Tapuya tribe from Brazil, which sought refuge
in Mojos from the interminable strife between
their race and the Caraios. At all events, they
are an anomaly.
In early colonial times a tribe called the
Cayubabas was to be found to the north of the
Mobimas and west of the river Mamore. They
were a pleasant, sociable people, expert hunters
and canoemen. Like the Mobimas they were
apparently of Mojos stock. It is said that
they were once redoubtable warriors, fighting
with the lance and bow and arrow.
North of the Cayubabas, and holding the conflu-
ence of the Mamore and Beni, was another tribe
of Mojos stock, the Pacaguaras. The relations
of these two tribes were close and friendly,
although their languages were different. Both
tribes resembled each other in respect to their
hospitality and frank, kind natures, although
they were bold and enterprising.
The Itenes inhabited the district in the forks
of the Mamore and Guapore rivers, and north-
ward, on the Brazilian side, as far as the first
rapid of the Madeira — Guajara-Merim. They
were a brave, indomitable people, proud of their
independence and preferred death to submission
to Spanish or Portuguese rule. They were
112 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
bold hunters, expert fishermen and excellent
navigators. They understood weaving, and
showed great skill in the ornamentation of their
bows and arrows and other arms, and the making
of feather ornaments for the head. Their
women wore the tipoy. Their language is gener-
ally recognized to be the most euphonious,
laconic and sweet of all the tongues of the valley
of the upper Madeira, and all their words termin-
ate in vowels. In physique they are like the
Mojos, but their manners resemble those of the
Canichanas.
D'Orbigny draws attention to the Caraio
tribe, the Guarayos, 1 whom he found not far
from the west bank of the Rio San Miguel,
inhabiting the immense forests which separate
Chiquitos from Mojos at about 17° S. lat. They
occupy about 14,000 square miles of country.
The Guarayos still retain the tradition that they
came from the south-east and that they were,
probably centuries ago, friends of the Chiril-
wanos, from whom they separated after a series
of quarrels. It is, however, certain that they
have been in their present habitat since the
1 Padre Fernandez mentions a tribe of Guarayos who lived
on the banks of the river Paraguay near the laguna of
Xarayos, and others near the laguna Mamore, who fled
west and north. The latter are perhaps the ancestors of
the Guarayos now found between the lower Beni and Madre
de Dios.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 113
sixteenth century. They are of a light yellow
colour so clear that there is little difference
between them and a slightly brown white man.
The men generally are taller than the average of
the Guarani race, and the women, like the men,
are well proportioned. Physically they are
robust, of fine bearing, frank and graceful,
the body is rounded, the nose short and not
wide, and medium mouth. Their eyes, which
are not large, are always turned upwards at the
outer angle, and are expressive and spiritual,
the chin is round, the forehead fairly high, the
eyebrows well arched and the hair black, long
and glossy. What distinguishes them from other
Guaranis is that the men have a long, straight
beard covering the chin, the upper lip and part
of the sides of the cheeks.
The Guarayos are of Paraguayan origin, they
are of pale copper colour or dark brown, of
regular features and have the peculiarity, especi-
ally the women, of sitting on their feet, which
thus become twisted. 1 They are ferocious and
valiant, and prefer death rather than to surrender
to their enemies. In eastern Bolivia, they are
found on the upper Itonama, San Martin and
Serre, and they extend towards the Pilcomayo. 2
1 See Sinopsis Estadistica y Geogrdfica de Bolivia, tomo 1,
by J. T. Camacho.
2 It is noted hereafter (p. 118) that the Sirionos purposely
bend the feet of children outwards.
114 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
" The language of the Guarayos," says
d'Orbigny, " is the Guarani, and we were
astonished to find it but little different from that
of Paraguay or Corrientes, where we have
learned the most usual terms of that tongue.
" The character of these Guarayos responds
perfectly to their features. It presents the type
of goodness, affability, frankness and honesty,
hospitality and the pride of the free man who
regards all others as beneath him, even the
Christians, because he believes them to be slaves
who have vices unknown to him — thieving and
adultery. Good fathers, good husbands, al-
though grave by habit, they believe themselves
in their savage state, in the lap of abundance,
the most happy of men."
In their forest abode they build long spacious
cabins of octagonal shape, singularly like those
of the Caraibes of Hayti at the time of the
Conquest. 1 They are solidly constructed of
wood, and artistically covered with palm leaves.
Their arms are bows six feet long with arrows
of four feet, and war clubs with double edges.
Their canoes reach thirty feet in length and
twenty inches in width. They live by hunting,
fishing and agriculture. Polygamy is general
among them, and they marry young. They are
1 A picture of one of these cabins can be seen in Oviedo's
Historia General de las Indias.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 115
extremely jealous, and adultery is punished by
death of both man and woman. It is for their
brothers, not their father, to dispose of them in
marriage, which is very simple. He who would
marry paints himself from head to feet, and
armed with his club promenades for several days
round the hut of her whom he would espouse,
until on a day of feasting and drinking the
marriage is consummated. They never quarrel
and differences are rare. The women weave very
coarse cotton hamacs and costumes, and make pot-
tery to hold fermented drinks. The men go entirely
naked, and the women also except a tunic hang-
ing from the waist to half-way down the thigh.
Both sexes paint the body black and red with
considerable taste. As a distinctive sign of the
tribe they wear garters below the knee and beads
above the ankle. On fete days the men adorn
their heads with turbans made of the most
brilliant feathers, and wear ornaments in the
nose. The hair is never cut except that of the
women across the forehead. A few tattooed lines
on the arm and scars under the breast announce
puberty among the young girls.
Government is entirely patriarchal ; each group
of families has its chief, whose functions are
hereditary; but although he directs operations
in time of war he is only a councillor in time of
peace. They have only two severe laws — one
I 2
116 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
against theft which they abhor, and the other
against the adultery of women.
They revere a beneficent being, their Tamo'i
or Great Father, whom they love but do not fear.
He has lived among them, taught them agri-
culture. With much ceremony and song they
worship him, begging him for abundant crops
and fructifying rain. After death, from the
summit of a sacred tree which they plant near
their cabins, the Tamo'i takes them to the east,
where they return to life and enjoy all they
possessed on earth. When they are ill they
have recourse to their sorcerers or Payes. The
dead are interred in their own houses after their
bodies are painted as if for a feast. The head is
turned to the east; their weapons are burned
and with the body are placed in a deep ditch and
covered with branches of trees, 1 their parents
fast in sign of mourning.
Between the Guapay (Rio Grande) and Piray
branches of the river Mamore is a strip of terri-
tory 150 miles long from north-west to south-
east with an average width of about twenty-five
miles. It is densely forested with great trees
1 It is remarkable that Oviedo says absolutely the same
thing about the ancient inhabitants of Hayti, while his
descriptions of the ceremonies of the people of the Antilles
are almost in all respects similar to those of the Caraios
and their Guarayo kindred — thus confirming the identity of
the race.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 117
and a closely packed undergrowth. This area
is the home of a Caraio tribe known as the
Sirionos— indomitable and terrible savages, who,
through all the vicissitudes of Spanish rule,
have, up to the present day, preserved their
independence. They are as fierce and wild as
the pumas which share their hunting grounds.
At times they extend their excursions as far
north as the mouth of the Secure, affluent of the
Mamore, from which point communication with
the Guarayos is not difficult. On the south
they have easy contact with their kindred the
Chiriguanos. They have occupied the same
region certainly since the conquest, and probably
migrated from the cradle of their race many
centuries ago. They have the same light colour,
beautiful proportions and figure of the Guarayos,
and their language, although a corrupted form
of Guarani, enables them to converse easily with
the Chiriguanos.
They live entirely by the chase and have no
industry except the making of bows and arrows,
both from seven to eight feet in length, and the
former requiring great strength to bend it. In
fact, to do this, the savage lies down on the
ground, places both feet against the bow and
draws the cord with both hands, thus launching
the arrow with tremendous force. It is his
custom to hide in ambush in the jungle and drive
118 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
the arrow half of its length through any enemy
passing near. I once had occasion to travel
125 miles, more or less, through the dark and
forbidding forests of the Sirionos, part of the
way on horseback, and it was a peculiar and
disagreeable sensation to feel that, at any
moment, I might be spitted by one of their
death-dealing weapons. A short time previously,
on the same route, they had driven seven arrows
into a man, simply to rob him of a knife.
I was told by a Bolivian, who lived on the
border of their country and knew some of the
customs of the Sirionos, that the ankle of each
foot is bent outward when they are children, so
that they may tread upon the outer edge of the
foot, the idea being that the running power is
thus increased.
Between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la
Sierra is a part of the Tunari snowy range, the
gigantic northern wall of the Andean massif.
It overlooks the plains of the Mojos. On its
precipitous slope rise numerous sources of the
great river Mamore. Among them are the
Secure, Chumore and Chapare. For about one
hundred miles of their course they tear down the
mountains through grand tropical forests and
deep gorges until they reach the level country,
and, thence forward, are navigable to their
junction with the parent stream. The dense,
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 119
hot and humid forests along the foothills of this
region are the habitat of a tribe known as the
Yuracares, who are scattered in small families
which apparently seek hiding-places where the
vegetation is the thickest. They seem to be a
distinctive yet connecting link between the
peoples of the plains to the east and north and
those of the slopes and foothills of the Andes
lying to the north-west of them in the western
valley of the river Beni.
The Yuracares were first discovered in 1768.
Viedma 1 describes them as of good presence,
robust, but very lazy. Both men and women
wore tipoys made of bark, but some of cotton.
The men, but not the women, wore the hair
loose but cut across the forehead just above the
eyebrows. Both sexes, more especially the men,
wore many bead ornaments round the neck and
wrists. Their weapons were the bow and arrow ;
and " their language was very similar to that of
the Mojos."
According to d'Orbigny, the name Yuracares
seems to have been given to them by the
Quichuas, and signifies white man, from yurak
(white) and kari (man). Among themselves they
have been divided into two hostile tribes, the
Solostos (those of the east) and the Mansifios
1 See account of Francisco de Viedma, Cochabamba, 1878,
in Coleccion de Obras y Documentos of Pedro de Angelis.
120 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
(those of the western mountains). Their colour
is almost white in comparison to the Aymaras
and Quichuas, and has just a tint of yellow.
Many among them have the body covered with
large patches almost white, probably the same
cutaneous disease which affects many tribes of
the upper Amazon valley. They are the tallest
of all the mountain peoples, and their women
are finely proportioned. Everything about the
Yuracar£s indicates force and suppleness and
they are well set up. Their proud and arrogant
gait accords perfectly with their character and
the lofty idea which they have of themselves.
D'Orbigny writes : " We believe them to be the
best made of all the nations we have seen."
Their features are very fine and their faces full of
vivacity and pride and not wanting in a certain
expression of gaiety.
But here the physical characteristics of the
man are blemished by the most revolting savagery,
for they are haughty, impudent, aggressive and
fearless, cruel even among themselves; full of
superstitions, they cover themselves with wounds,
and martyrize their women and children. They
have no parental love and sometimes kill some
of their offspring simply to get rid of raising
them, or because they think they have too many.
They live only in families, and then without
mutual regard, each one living only for himself.
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 121
When a member of the family dies, they destroy
all of his property, abandon his cabin and his
grounds and then bury him. This is a remarkable
custom of the Yuracares when it is considered
that it is usual among the tribes of Amazonia to
equip the defunct with arms and other things for
the commencement of his future life.
They decorate their back shirts (tipoys) with
red and violet lines, straight and curved, but
never with figures of plants and animals, and
stamp their designs with pieces of sculptured
wood, a step in advancement unknown to the
Andean peoples, but they have no knowledge of
weaving. The women make pottery. They
pluck out the eyebrows and paint the face red
and black, especially the forehead and nose, and
on their feast days wear feather head-dresses; or
when on a visit cover the head with the white
down of the great harpy which they raise for the
purpose. Their knife is hung upon their back
hair. Although they have a chief of the family
they yield him no obedience and they are entirely
without subordination. They neither worship
nor respect any divinity and yet are very super-
stitious, and have a most extensive and com-
plicated mythology. Believing that all things
are formed by themselves they owe no thanks
to any one for them, and if asked who is their
good divinity they show you their bow and
122 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
arrows. The Yuracares of the present day are
scarcely the primitive savages which they were
a century ago, for their territory has been
invaded by the whites, especially from Cocha-
bamba, who have sought to open roads across
the Tunari range and down its northern slope
to reach and trade with the small towns now
scattered over the region of the Mojos.
In studying the Chiquitos and Mojos tribes
one must take into consideration that it was
long after the discovery of America before their
territory was penetrated by the conquistadores,
the missionary and the slave-hunter, 1 and that
1 Principal among these were the Mamalucos of the
Brazilian province of San Paulo. The old writers picture
them in lurid colours. They were the progeny of Indian
women by Portuguese, and a great number of outcast
Italians, Spanish, Dutch and the scum of all nations. Says
Fernandez, " They obeyed the King of Portugal when all
went well and God when in extreme need." For 130 years
they continued their infamies and destroyed or enslaved
hundreds of thousands of Indians, penetrating more than a
thousand leagues inland towards the south-western part of
Amazonia. In their first raids they destroyed fourteen
Reductions which the Jesuit fathers had established among
the Guaranis, who later on rallied and routed 5,000 of them.
The route to the upper valley of the Rio Paraguay and
Chiquitos and Mojos followed by the Mamalucos was by the
way of the river Tiete or Anemby, on which stream there was
an embarking place called Araraytabuaba distant four or
five days' journey from the city of San Paulo. Their ex-
peditions consisted generally of thirty to forty canoes, some
of them carrying three and a half tons of cargo. Owing to
the reefs and falls in Tiete where it was necessary to unload
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 123
our knowledge of them until the middle of the
seventeenth century is vague and conflicting.
No doubt, they had been profoundly disturbed,
especially by what had taken place in the Plata
valley. Before they could be carefully studied,
their modes of life, habits, tendencies of thought
and carry the goods overland, it took about twenty-five days'
hard work to reach the river Parana. From the mouth of
the Tiete, lat. 19° 20', they went down the Parana to the
Rio Pardo, one of its western branches, and ascending it,
with much difficulty, for from forty to fifty days on account
of its violent current, arrived at a portage where they
transported their canoes overland for a distance of four and a
half miles, and then launched them into the little and shallow
river Camapuan, at a small Portuguese settlement which
supplied carts, animals and food. Descending the Camapuan
for three or four days they reached the Cuchuy (or Cachuy),
by which, after six days of very difficult navigation they
came to the river Tacuary, which has a considerable volume
of water and which enters the Paraguay by three mouths at
about 19° 7' S. lat. It took them eight days to descend
the Tacuary, by the southern mouth of which they
finally found themselves in the great river Paraguay.
Ascending this for ten days they reached the Cheane in
lat. 18° 8'. It is an arm of the Porrudos from which it
branches off six to eight leagues higher up, and to reach the
Porrudos it took four days. Going up the latter for four
days they entered the Rio Cuyuba, up which after a twelve
days' voyage they reached the town of this name. From
Cuyaba to the pass of the Rio Paraguay was five days by
land and thenee to the river Jauru five days, and a further
period of five days to Matto Grosso. Thus from San Paulo
to Cuyaba they took from four to five months according to
the season, but made the return voyage more rapidly.
From the upper Paraguay river they penetrated Chiquitos
and Mojos by several routes.
124 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
and religious beliefs had been modified by the
rigid rule and teaching of the Jesuit fathers,
under which they lost nearly all of the pride,
spirit and elan of a free life and were obliged to
lead a nondescript existence which was neither
savage nor civilized. D'Orbigny, could give
us not much more than what he learned at the
various Reductions which he visited — missions
from which the Jesuit fathers had been expelled
more than sixty years previously. He saw but
little of the wild tribes of the Beni, Mojos and
Caupolican, who declined to bend their knees to
any but their own gods.
Even up to forty years ago when I visited some
of the Mojos missions, the effect of the Jesuit
and subsequently of the Spanish domination
was plainly visible on the faces of the Indians —
joy had been wrung out of them, they were
gloomy, silent and depressed; for, following
the government of the Jesuits and their system,
the political administrators of the Mojos had
left them not a single hope. Life held to their
lips nothing but its dregs, and yet, hidden in
their hearts, were sentiment and recognition of
kindly treatment ; for when I bade good-bye to
some threescore of them, representatives of
different tribes, who had been with me for a
couple of months, they stood on the river bank
crying like children and sobbing as if their hearts
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 125
would burst x — and my eyes were not the driest
of the company.
An interesting section of country lies between
the river Beni and the Madre de Dios, and is
roughly limited on the south-west by a line
drawn from the mouth of the Tambopata river
to where the 14° of latitude crosses longitude
68° west. This region was almost a terra in-
cognita until, about forty years ago, a few brave
and devoted Franciscan friars from the convent
of La Paz penetrated it and learned something
of the character of the tribes in its extreme
south-western position. After Heath, in a
rotten little canoe, made his daring exploration
of the lower Beni in 1879-80 the rubber collectors
began to occupy this part of the river and to
push their settlements up its Madre de Dios
branch. This resulted in the complete demorali-
zation of the tribes on the margins of both of
these great rivers, the dislocation of many of
their sub-divisions, and a general confusion among
those which were drawn upon, either through
1 This experience scarcely confirms the verse of Long-
fellow describing the Indians :
" As monumental bronze, unchanged his look ;
A soul that pity touch'd but never shook;
Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier,
The fierce extreme of good and ill to brook,
Impassive, fearing but the shame of fear,
A stoic of the woods, a man without a tear."
126 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
voluntary enlistment or by force, to enter the
service of the collectors of the precious gum.
Thus what little knowledge we have of the
aborigines of this district a few centuries ago is a
scrap obtainable here and there from the accounts
of the Spanish conquistadores supplemented by
recent reports of missionary fathers.
The great dominant tribe of the territory was
the Guarayo, centralized in the middle and
upper valley of the Rio Modidi branch of the
Beni, with nomadic fractions along the banks of
the lower part of the river Tambopata and even
so far west as the lower third of the Inambari,
both affluents of the Madre de Dios. Until
recent years, they also occupied the middle
section of the latter stream. Their fierce and
indomitable character, their knowledge of the
bad treatment to which neighbouring tribes
have been subjected by the Spaniards and his
descendants, have caused them to guard their
lands with extreme jealousy and make them
difficult to penetrate. In general, it may be
said that they occupy the north-western ex-
tensions of the table-land of the Beni and that
their original relationship and affiliations are to be
sought among the Caraio tribes to the south-east
of them which several centuries ago threw off
fractions into this district which they have held
ever since. They also overran the country
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 127
between the middle Madre de Dios and the
Aquiry branch of the river Purus, coming into
touch on the north-east with their kindred the
Caraipunas.
Years ago Colonel Labre, en route northward
from the middle Madre de Dios to the river
Aquiry, found in his first day's march a small
group of eighteen families of the Guarayo tribe
cultivating little patches of ground. They had
the same customs and habits as the Araunas.
Although they spoke a different dialect they could
converse with each other. He crossed the river
Cara-manu (Abuna) at the " Guarayo crossing,"
and accompanied by some Guarayos and
Pacaguaras arrived at a Guarayo village. It
contained many idols, ornaments and weapons
and a house of worship with two doors. After-
wards, traversing a country which had many
pathways and abandoned Guarayo settlements,
he arrived at one with sixty inhabitants. The
day following, he passed a large clearing four
miles in circumference with two deserted houses
in the middle of it and there found two large
kettles of burnt clay and many articles of
ornament in bags of woven straw. He also
met an Indian guarding some coca plantations.
When Colonel Labre explored the Ituxy
branch of the Purus he found that one of its
most numerous tribes were Guarayos. They were
128 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
just to the north of the habitat of their cousins
the Caraipunas. According to data given to
me by Colonel Pedro Suarez, who has travelled
much among the tribes of northern Bolivia, the
Guarayos whom he has seen have the same
practices, customs, economy administration and
government as their allies the Pacaguaras. " But
little is known about them, but it is believed that
they belong to the Caraipuna tribe." They have
a temple, in which they keep their idols. It is
adorned with plumes, arms, hunting and fishing
gear, earthen pots and human and animal faces.
The Guarayos and Caraipunas are quite different
from the Araunas. They love the water, swim
like fish and do not know what fear is. Their
frail, light canoes carry but three persons each
and look like children's toys ; but in them they
traverse the river Madeira with all of its falls
and rapids. These little craft are made from
the bark of the Brazilian nut tree. The head
and stern are cleverly gathered up and bound
with strong lianas, which are found hanging from
many forest trees. The character of these
savages is quite the opposite of that of the
Araunas — they are proud, intrepid and warlike.
Their arrows are smaller than those used by the
Araunas, whom they persecute and fight to rob
them of their women. They sleep in a sort of
night-dress of rough calico which they make
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 129
from cotton which they grow for clothing and
hamacs. The latter are made of strings and are
very wide.
14 The Guarayos * and their ethnographic affini-
ties have their origin in Paraguay. They are
of pale copper colour or dark brown, and have
regular features. A notable peculiarity in them
is that they have their feet a little bent in con-
sequence of the custom which they have of
sitting on them, and this defect is more pro-
nounced among the women. They are ferocious,
valiant and always prefer to die fighting rather
than surrender to their enemies."
The mass of the Caraipunas occupied the
middle section of the falls of the river Madeira
principally between the mouth of the Rio Beni
and the cataract of Theotonio. They extended
west and north-west towards the river Purus,
but, in connection with their relations the
Guarayos to the south-west of them, they
dominated at least 60,000 square miles of fine
territory.
Colonel Pedro Suarez holds that the Pamas,
Pacaguaras, Sinabos and Chacobos belong to the
Caraipuna tribe, which numbers perhaps 1,000
families all told. They are fond of agricultural
pursuits, and grow maize, sweet-potatoes, sugar-
1 Sinopsis Esiadtstica y Geogrdfica de la Republica de
Bolivia, La Paz, 1903.
K
130 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
cane, pineapples, and have some fruit trees, and
prepare mandioca flour. They have many
domestic animals and are fond of fishing; but
this highly agricultural tendency which they
inherit from their Caraio ancestors is more
applicable to the Caraipunas who inhabit the
high country which stretches eastward from the
river Orton to the falls of the Madeira. It is
traversed by roads in all directions. In this
district the Caripunas have both permanent
and temporary habitations. In the first, the
tribe congregates during the dry season, but the
second are located where abundant game and
fish are found. Each of the central villages is
composed of more than fifty families with a well-
formed trench surrounding the group of huts,
and the paths leading to it are well guarded, the
same as the entrenched settlements of the
Canichanas in Mojos. They also have an en-
closed hut in the centre of their villages where
their warlike implements are kept, and this
contains a great number of arrows and the
material for their manufacture. In religious
matters they do not seem to be as idolatrous and
superstitious as the Araunas, and no objects of
a religious character have ever been found in
their habitations. Still, they pay respectful
worship to the dead, and one of their big barracks
is reserved as a sort of burial-place for some of
SOUTH-WESTERN AMAZONIA 131
their brave warriors. Some of the belongings of
the defunct are hung over each grave, such as
bows, arrows, tambourines and flutes; and,
occasionally, skulls of their enemies as trophies.
On certain days, only men meet in this burial
place and dance over the dead to the accompani-
ment of melancholy tunes.
All of these savages recognize a Cacique or
captain of the tribe, and among the Caraipunas
the best warrior or hunter is chosen. In their
dances and on the eve of battle they adorn their
head, arms, breast and legs with bright-coloured
feathers. Says Colonel Suarez : "A Caraipuna
in his war-dress is really a very imposing person,
tall, muscular, well set up and proud. In place
of earrings he wears crocodile teeth, and through
his nose a small cane with red feathers at each
end in the form of a feather duster. His neck
and breast are covered with rows of fragrant
black seeds, from his shoulders hang feather
epaulettes, and the upper part of each arm is
tightly bound with black string. His weapons
are held in a kind of haversack made of palm
leaves and is strapped on his back. From this
the protruding arrows can easily be drawn out,
but he always carries his bow and six arrows in
his hands, and can shoot as many as twenty-five
in a minute."
They have three kinds of arrows — one for war,
K 2
132 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
another for hunting and a third for fishing, each
strictly devoted to its own purpose. The arrows
which have been shot at them by their enemies
they never pick up but tread on them to show
their contempt; but their own arrows with
which they have killed some of their foes they
hang up in their houses as trophies with the
blood stains on them, being in this respect
much like civilized men. Each savage regards
his blood-stained weapons with pride, treasures
them among his collections and never uses them
again, even though they be urgently needed. A
Caraipuna who falls in battle is immediately
carried to his village and buried.
Keller met some sixty Caraipuna warriors and
their families near the Fall of Theotonio. He
describes them as strong, well shaped and
middle size with long black hair hanging to their
shoulders. They wore the curved fore-teeth of
the capivara x in their ears, and both men and
women had little bunches of red feathers in
their noses. They waited for him under the
shady roof of orchid-covered figueiras, inter-
1 The capivara, a rodent about the size of a half -grown
pig, is found on the margins of most Amazonian streams.
The teeth, which I have seen the Indians use, arc a very-
hard polished ivory, are about three inches long, and a
quarter of an inch thick ; they are worn through the lobes of
the ears, and prevented from falling out by a string round
the end of each and passed under the chin.
SOUTHWESTERN AMAZONIA 183
spersed with slender palms and magnificent
fan-like strelitzas. In the first row stood the
Cacique, a strongly built, short man, about fifty
years of age, shouldering his long bow and two
or three arrows. His broad face, framed within
thick masses of lank, black hair, was, near his
mouth, painted black. Besides a thick cuirass
of beads and graceful trinkets in ears and nose,
he wore, with the dignity of a king, a beautiful
diadem of yellow and red toucan feathers.
" With a majestic motion of the head he invited
us to follow him, which we did surrounded by a
dense crowd of laughing, chattering squaws and
children and respectable old men and young
warriors. He led us along a narrow but carefully
cleaned path bordered by profuse vegetation —
tree trunks of gigantic size, graceful palms of
every variety, blooming creepers and bromelias,
orchids of the strangest forms, and light ferns.
The warm sunbeams broke through the dense
foliage at intervals, setting off some brilliant
flower, some scarlet feather ornament or the
white glittering beads on the brown skin of our
new friends."
A little more than half a mile from the river
was a clearing and three large cabins and a
small open shed which evidently served as a
meeting place for the men. Their arrow points
were of bamboo or hard wood and the sharpened
134 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
edges of a river shell which they considered to
be quite as effective as a knife. The parliament
house contained nothing but some long thin
drums, a few pretty baskets of palm leaves with
feather ornaments in them and some bows and
arrows, the former of the dark wood of the
paxiuba-palm and the latter made of the light
stems of the uba reed.
They buried their warriors in the cabins in
large earthen urns (or igagabas), which being
barely covered with earth probably contained
only the clean bones of the dead. They had
certain sacred musical instruments which they
used in their lamentations over the dead and
would not part with them like any profane object,
thus giving an exhibition of profound sentiment.
CHAPTER V
LOWLAND AMAZONIA
The thickly forested area of country traversed
by the rivers Purus, Jurua and Yavary and
numerous intermediate streams of considerable
magnitude may be designated as Lowland Ama-
zonia. It was probably the last of the great
sections of South America to be populated; for
the inland sea which once covered it was only
drained when the Amazon river had finally
carved its channel to the ocean. It is evident
that the tribes of Matto Grosso had no connection
across this sea with those of the Andean foot-
hills, and that their habits and modes of life
must have differed from them in many respects.
Even for thousands of years after the disappear-
ance of the Amazon sea, its streaming bed could
not have been an inviting home except for tribes
unable to hold their own in the contest for the
fairer surrounding regions.
The river margins of the entire district are
infested during the day with " piusu " flies, a
species of Trombidium, which make life almost
unbearable, while, from sunset to dawn, vast
135
136 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
and dense clouds of mosquitoes make sleep
impossible except under an almost air-tight
cotton-cloth screen. To escape these pests the
Indians had their malocas in the depths of the
forests, inland from the river banks.
The area in question, which is twice the size
of France, is still largely unexplored, and, in
fact, it was almost a terra incognita until, in
1864-67, Chandless ascended and mapped its
two main rivers, the Purus and Jurua, although
Serafim navigated the former 1,300 miles in
1852, and Urbano 1,600 miles in 1860. But
little was known regarding the wretched hordes
which inhabit the region until the middle of the
seventeenth century, and then only of the tribes
which were in immediate contact with the
missions of the upper Amazon. In the middle
of the last century there were but few Indians
for the first 300 miles up the Purus, and these
belonged to the ill-famed tribe of Muras. At
the beginning of the seventeenth century they
were a powerful Caraio tribe, portions of which
were to be found on the borders of the rivers
Trombeta, Negro, Codajaz, and other minor
northern affluents of the Amazon, and on the
Madeira, Purus, Coary and several smaller
southern tributaries. All of their settlements
were within easy reach of the Amazon, which
they dominated by their canoe expeditions for
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 137
a length of several hundred miles. They were
also the masters of the wonderful system of
natural canals which, west of the river Negro,
connect its lower reaches with those of the
Yapura and these again with the Amazon. So
late as the end of the eighteenth century it was
estimated that the Muras numbered 12,000
warriors. They were robust, strong, of fine
bearing, daring and cruel. They used bows
nearly nine feet long, which they bent with their
feet, thus shooting an arrow with tremendous
force. It will be remembered that we found the
Sirionos (Caraios) Indians of the upper Madeira
using a similar bow in the same manner.
The Muras were the scourge of all of the
Tapuya tribes in contact with them, and they
also waged constant war against their brave,
haughty and more numerous kinsmen the Mun-
duruciis to the east of the lower reach of the
river Madeira. Their hatred of the Portuguese
was implacable and justifiable, and for a long
term of years they defended their territory
against them with heroic valour, at times not
only defeating the government forces sent to
subdue them, but severely punishing the expedi-
tions of the Portuguese slave-raiders. No Portu-
guese craft could ascend their portion of the
Amazon unless well armed, and even then it
was sometimes plundered or driven back, for
138 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
the Muras intrepidly faced the musketry fire of
their foes.
But such prolonged and merciless warfare,
especially with the Mundurucus, so reduced and
exhausted the Muras that towards the close of
the eighteenth century they yielded to the
entreaties of the missionaries, who succeeded,
in 1787, in pacifying and reducing them to
Christianity.
Marcoy observed that, like the Quichuas of
the Andes, the Muras play on a flute with five
stops, and by its notes two Indians separated by
a river or igarape could carry on a conversation ;
" but, like the Quichuas, the major key is
banished from their melodies. Untutored man
has never more than a few sad notes to express
happiness and joy."
On the Puriis, above the river Jacare, Chand-
less found the territory of the Pammarys, who,
with the Juberys, were subdivisions of the old
tribe once called the Puru-purus, confined entirely
to the Puriis. They spoke the same language
and were afflicted with the same repugnant skin
disease. 1 Their skill at hunting was inferior.
1 " The primitive name given to the Purus Indians by
the Pammarys was the Wainy, the other savages who
inhabited the Purus giving different names according to
their dialect. Purus comes from Purii-puru or ' painted,'
or from Myra-puru, ' painted people.' In past times the
people of the Amazon and Rio Negro so called the savages
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 139
They were a waterside people, musical, merry
and peaceable, and were good fishermen. When
the river was in flood, they retired inland and
lived in mat huts on rafts moored in the middle
of lakes to escape the terrible pest of mosquitoes.
Five hundred miles up the Purus lived the
Cipos, a small friendly tribe. It is notable that
they were in constant communication with the
savages of the Jurua river, by way of a small
branch of the Purus called the Tapana. Between
the Purus and Madeira, especially on the rivers
Mucurin, Marii and Pacia, were the Catauixis,
a fine, handsome people with remarkably clear
complexion. They valiantly defended their own,
but were otherwise hospitable, peaceable, in-
dustrious and fond of agriculture. They made
pottery, neatly ornamented with geometrical
patterns.
From the Sepatynim branch of the Puriis
(762 miles up) to the Hyuacu (1,241 miles up)
were the Hypurinas, the most numerous and war-
like tribe on the river. Along their entire north-
western border, two days' march from the Purus,
was the territory of the Jamamadi, a land tribe
living on small streams only and not using canoes. 1
of the Paymary nation because they were covered with white
blotches." — Lembrancas e curioseidades do Valle do Amazonas,
por de Sousa.
1 As an example of the deadly effect of measles on the
Amazon tribes, Steere, in a visit he made in 1900 to a great
140 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
The Hypurinas, however, were both land and
river people. They were so fond of war that they
frequently challenged those of their own tribe
to battle. A few used the taqudra, an arrow
headed with bamboo, naturally poisonous, but
more the curabi, an unfeathered arrow with
poisoned head, notched and half cut through so
as to break off in the body. They naturally
distrust a stranger, but a few words in their own
language act like magic, and if they do not then
attack they will not do so afterwards; but this
is not so among themselves. They are a clean
people, quite contrary to the Pammary tribe.
Polygamy, in most tribes the privilege of the
Caciques, is general among the Hypurinas. In
their wars neither women nor children are spared.
Steere gives us a few of the customs of the
Jamamadi; like the neighbouring tribes, they
Jamamadi maloca, says that, " only nine months before, it
was the home of 130 people and was surrounded by carefully
kept fields of corn, sugar-cane and manihot. Then one of
the tribe who had been down the Purus brought back measles,
and soon they were dying faster than the living could bury
them. When the fever and eruption came on, they would
bathe in the river, and this seemed to drive the disease to
the lungs and throat, and they died of cough. Finally
those who could get away deserted the maloca and fled to
the woods, and many died beside the paths and the streams.
. . . After the disease had run its course scarcely 30 were
left alive. . . . Since they first came in contact with the
rubber gatherers and civilization, about thirty years ago,
they have become greatly reduced in numbers,"
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 141
wear nothing but the tanga, which is a little apron
of red cotton threads, 3 by 4 inches for the men
and 3 by 6 for the women, supported by a bark
cord round the loins; but in the case of the
women the cord is hidden under a belt of cotton
or bark cords about the width of three fingers
and coloured red with anatto.
Both sexes pierce the lobes of the ears and
the septum of the nose, and the men insert little
plugs of reed or resin in their ears. The women
use little disks of mother-of-pearl fastened to
small cords drawn through the ears and tied
behind the head. This is the form of fastening
also used by the Caraipunas of the Madeira.
Among the Jamamadi the hair is allowed to fall
down in front and is cut straight across the fore-
head two inches above the eyes, but on the
temples is cut from the level of the eyes to the
ears. Behind, it is cut at the neck. The men
have a narrow moustache and a few bristling
hairs on the chin. They generally wear a
narrow belt of cords with a tassel of feathers or
Anta's hoofs at one side. The women ornament
themselves with necklaces of monkeys' teeth
and bright shells and armlets of beads and bark.
On feast days the men wear curious crowns
shaped like a hat brim, they are about 2\ inches
wide and made of palm leaf with warp of bark
cord. To the outer edge of this is attached a
142 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
fringe of red and black toucan feathers. The
top of the head stands up through it. The chiefs
are distinguished by crowns made of numerous
tassels of red and black toucan feathers fastened
by short cords to a narrow band about the head.
The snuff-taking habit among them is general,
they toast green tobacco-leaves in a clay pot
and then spread them on sticks over the fire
until perfectly dry. The leaves are then pounded
to fine greenish-coloured dust in a heated mortar.
The red bark of the root of a certain shrub is
then burned and the ashes mixed with the snuff
in about equal parts. The snuff is then drawn
into the nostrils through a hollow bone about
six inches long. They raise corn and manihot,
pineapples, bananas and plantains, the pupunga
palm, tobacco, sugar-cane and a few other plants.
They are great hunters, their weapons being the
blowgun and poisoned arrows. The former is
made of heavy wood 10 or 12 feet long, round
and tapering and covered with rattan and is
in every respect like those of the tribes on the
Peruvian Amazon. The arrows are needle-like
splinters of palm wood. The poison, unlike
that of the upper Amazon, is fluid, and is heated
until it foams, when the points of the arrows are
passed through it and then through the fire
to dry. The poison is said to be made only by
the chiefs, who keep the formula secret. They
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 143
have a counter poison consisting largely of salt.
When hunting, they draw a broad band of bark
about the body below the ribs. The blowgun
is for birds and monkeys and game in the
trees, but the bow and arrow for game on the
ground.
All of the tribes bury or place some kind of food
by the grave of the dead. The Pammarys also
light a fire from time to time over the grave
and leave their dead buried, but the Hypurinas
disinter the bones, clean them, and have a
festival and funeral oration, the orator taking
the arm bone and recounting the glorious deeds
which the defunct had performed with it. After
this the bones are carefully guarded. They also
paint themselves, chiefly in black, with the roast,
unripe fruit of the genipapa according to indi-
vidual taste. From the hollow of the hand and
through a bone they inhale snuff, but they are
more fond of coca-" Ipadu" There can be no
question but that they are cannibals. Urbano
found the Canamary tribe on the river Hyuacii,
the upper limit of the Hypurinas — they are an
agricultural, pacific people on friendly terms with
the latter tribe, with whom they sometimes inter-
marry. At a point a week's journey farther up
stream an Indian path leads to the river Jurua,
supposed to be about ten days' journey for an
Indian family, but only four or five for men alone.
144 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Farther up stream were the Manetenerys, who
came eagerly to trade tobacco, balls of cotton,
thread, etc., for knives and fishing-hooks. Chand-
less was struck by the comparative civilization
of these Indians so far in the interior, who plant
and weave cotton and clothing although cut
off from communication with the outer world by
naked and suspicious savages. They had prob-
ably traded for many years with the Indians of
the Jurua, and the part of the tribe farther inland
have had or have communication with the
Ucayali. The men and women wear the tipoy,
but the women also have a second one as a
petticoat. Both sexes seemed to be on a perfect
equality, and the women frequently scold the
men and interfere with their trade. They are a
waterside tribe, constantly moving up and down
stream, although having fixed habitations. Their
canoes are heavy, thick-bottomed ubas, very
hard and admirably made of cedar-wood. Their
language is pronounced with remarkable distinct-
ness and is not guttural in the least. All the
tribe seemed to know more or less about the
Jurua, but only a few about the Ucayali. There
was some evidence that the Manetenerys were
formerly a tribe of the Ucayali who fled to the
east to escape the efforts of an Italian friar,
Padre Antonio, to settle them in villages.
Just above the Rixala branch of the Purus
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 145
and 1,618 miles from the mouth of the latter were
found the Canamary Indians. They are not a
fine-looking tribe nor were they so ill-mannered
and demoralized, nor were they thieves like
the Manetenerys; but their clothes were the
same although not so well woven, and their
canoes were not so well made. Properly speak-
ing, they do not belong to the Purus, but to its
Curumaha tributary, which is occupied by the
mass of the nation. Their language, decidedly
guttural, differs from that of the Manetenerys.
It may be doubted if these Canamarys have
any relationship with the Canamarys of the river
Hyuacu.
Above the Canamarys on the Curumaha river
are the Cujigenerys, who also wear clothes and
are not hostile; but beyond them was supposed
to be a naked savage tribe called the Espinos.
It is probable that the Canamarys were right
when they said that the way to the Ucayali was
still further up the Purus. The Canamary chief
stated that his tribe were not natives of the
Purus, but of a river further to the west. Found
no other tribe further up. Elevation of upper
Purus about 1,200 feet. The Hypurinas occupy
the main branch of the Purus, the Aquiry, for
ten days up and above them were the Capechenes.
Urbano describes these as tall, handsome, clear-
complexioned and disposed to be hostile.
146 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
In an exploration made in 1887 in search of
a transitable route between the middle Madre
de Dios and the river Aquiry Araiina villages
were first met with. The men wore their hair
long and plaited like the Chinese, and both sexes
wore girdles and petticoats. The explorers,
Labre and Mercier, report a rude form of govern-
ment and worship. Temples with numerous
idols of wood and stone were found, and the
Pajes were charged with all of the religious
ceremonies and duties. The idols were of three
kinds, some of them, a yard high, were of the
first class, cut from blocks of chonta wood and
carved with figures and adorned with beautiful
feathers. The second class, called " the guard,"
were formed of ten lances of the same wood two
yards long, well polished and terminating at a
point made of another piece of very fine wood.
The third class of divinities consisted of many
little stones, the origin of which could not be
verified. The first idols were gods of the wind,
the seasons, the sun and the moon, and among
them are many gods for the especial protection
of men. Those of little stones are intended to
benefit agriculture, maize, yuca, seeds, fruits
and the ripening of harvests, but among them
are the gods of rain, rivers and lakes. There are
also gods for fish and amphibious animals.
Women, because they are considered impure,
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 147
are not allowed to take part in the worship or
even to enter the temples and see the gods.
Feasts are celebrated with dancing as are also
the seasons of planting. On these occasions the
Araonas garland themselves with feathers. They
play ball, when belting themselves with the bark
of a tree, they receive the ball on the belly and,
with a strong movement, cause it to rebound.
Further to the north was a tribe of Guarayos,
and between them and the Aquiry river was a
tribe of the Canamarys. Roads crossed each
other in all directions and there were many old
abandoned villages and small cultivated fields.
It is evident that the country traversed must
have been, at one period of time, rather thickly
populated.
Entering the Purus from the south at latitude
7° 19' is the Ituxy, navigable for 370 miles to
the falls near the confluence of the rivers Enti-
mary and Huakery. For 200 miles up the
Ituxy the banks are generally low and subject
to floods, but above that the country is somewhat
undulating and drier with a good agricultural
soil, although nearly all forested. There are
many lakes along the valley of the Ituxy.
Labre, about 1875, estimated that on the
Ituxy and its tributaries there were about 8,000
Indians, divided into ten or more tribes, each
speaking its own peculiar dialect. They were
L 2
148 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
subdivided into small villages governed by one,
two or more chiefs. The most numerous tribes
were the Cachayhary, Canamary, Guarayos,
Ipurinan and Huatanary, the Pamanah, the
Cathanycy and Hyunah, the last two very
reduced, infirm and persecuted by the other
tribes. There were also other unknown tribes.
According to report the Hyunah were an offshoot
of the Araras, due to the fact that they paint
themselves in a similar way. They avoid contact
and commerce with other tribes and, by the
Pamanahs, are called Hyunah, which means
ferocious people.
It is probable that the great mass of the
Indian population of the Ituxy at that time were
to be found on the more elevated ground of the
upper half of the river and its affluents.
According to Suarez the Canamarys occupy
an extensive region along river margins and have
their plantations on the highest ground. Their
villages are numerous. They weave good strong
cotton cloth which they say lasts twenty years.
They worship the sun, and have habits and
customs similar to those of the Guarayos, the
Pacaguaras and Araunas.
The Jurud is a stream similar to the Purus
in being very tortuous, and many of its bends,
which have been cut off as the river gradually
straightens its course, are now lakes or back-
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 149
waters of horse-shoe shape. Its volume is about
two-thirds that of the Purus, and it is navigable
for steamers for several hundred miles up; but,
by canoes, its sources may be reached more than
eleven hundred miles from its junction with the
river Amazon.
The great valley of the Jurua, yearly flooded
in most parts to a considerable depth, could never
have afforded other than a fishing and hunting
ground for wandering bands of savages, whose
life must have been largely passed in canoes.
Game and fish are very abundant there, and
possibly the valley of the Jurua may have served
the tribes of the Purus as a hunting field during
the rainy season, as communication between the
two streams is then very easy and, as we have
seen in the case of the Indians of the Purus, is
utilized by several routes. A few remnants of
old tribes are still found on the Jurua x — a little
horde of Catauixis in about latitude 4° 30', and
supposed to have once been more numerous,
1 About 1870, the Abbe Durand found a tribe there, which
he called the Juruas. They were warlike and brave. The
women accompanied the men on their expeditions and
fought valorously by their side like veritable Amazons.
The tribe lived almost wholly on fish, which engendered
among them a species of leprosy which covered the body with
scales very like those of a fish — a general fish-skin disease
like that which afflicts some of the tribes of the river Purus.
They allay it by eating sarsaparilla. The Muras, who live
on game, do not have it.
150 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
is probably an offshoot of the tribe of that name
on the Purus. In language they are akin to
the Pammarys. In latitude 5° 30' a single
village of Aranas existed about fifty years ago,
and near 6° Chandless reported a numerous tribe,
the Culinos, extending probably far inland from
the right side of the Jurua, not a canoe people.
Ten days further up stream were the so-called
Conibos, who are the same as the Manetenerys
of the Puriis, and a week further up the Catu-
quenas, whose village was a day's journey inland,
and said by Chandless to be one of the most
widely scattered tribes of the Amazon. They
are fine, strong men, and only apron-clad.
The middle Jarua is separated from the middle
Purus by a distance of about 125 miles, this being
the shortest distance between the two rivers.
The warlike and strong tribes occupying the
intervening space are the Culinos of the former
stream, the Hypurinas of the latter, and between
these two the Jamamadi.
Near 7° S. lat. were a brave people, the Nauas.
Paul Marcoy describes the Jutahy (or Coiari)
as having seven tributaries, and as communicat-
ing with the Jandiatuba by the sources of the
Mutuanateiia, a branch of the latter. Some
Umaua families formerly inhabited the lower
Jutahy near the igarape Sapo, its first affluent.
Since their dispersion the Marahuas and Hua-
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 151
raycus have remained masters throughout its
length. Bound in friendship with the Culinos of
the Jandiatuba and the Mayorunas of the
Yavari these nations made use of the river
communications, and where the river terminates
they fasten their craft to the bank and go
overland.
The river Yavari, Yavary or Yahuari (from
the Yahuari palm), known to the savages as
the Xiqui, has, since the Treaty of San Ildefonso
in 1777, served as the boundary, first between
the territories of the Crowns of Spain and
Portugal, and afterwards between Peru and
Brazil. But little was known about it of scien-
tific value to geography or ethnology until, in
accordance with a treaty between the two last-
named countries, its exploration was undertaken
in August 1866 by a boundary line commission
under instructions from the two governments
interested.
After ascending the river for two days they
came to an old abandoned settlement of Ticuna
Indians, where they found but one remaining
family.
From right and left innumerable little streams
entered the main river from the almost level
plains, and countless trunks of trees, snags and
other obstacles barred their way, forcing them
finally to abandon their large canoes and take
152 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
to smaller ones, especially when passing through
the country of the Catuquinas savages, where the
river was only about sixty feet wide. Having
reached a point about 1,000 miles from the mouth
of the Yavari, where the river was only about
thirty feet wide and twenty inches deep, they
were attacked by about a hundred robust, naked,
yelling and painted savages, who poured upon
them a shower of arrows to which the Secretary
of the Brazilian Commission fell a victim, and
the Peruvian Secretary received four arrow
wounds, one of which made it necessary to
amputate his leg. Four other members of the
party were wounded. It is notable that the
Indian women fought alongside the men, and
" launching their poisoned arrows gave to the
attack a terrifying character." The Peruvian
Secretary, Paz-Soldan, reported that he did not
think that the savages were of the Mayoruna 1
tribe only, but probably a mixture of the Conibos
and Mayorunas, who inhabit the head-waters of
the Yavari. The expedition then retreated, and
reached Tabatinga, on the Amazon, after about
three months' absence. During the assault of
1 This tribe generally lives in the depths of the forest
and they are not a canoe people; hence it is difficult to
understand why they are called Mayoruna — Mayo, water
or river, and runa, man, in the Quichua tongue. The
Marahuas of the right bank of the Amazon and in the
valley of the Yavari are their kindred,
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 153
the savages many of the notes taken by the
Commission were lost.
It will thus be evident that to obtain any
knowledge of the tribes of the Yavari during
colonial times must have been extremely difficult,
and, in fact, nothing exists upon which any
reliance can be placed. It is believed that for
three centuries prior to the exploration above
described no adventurer dared ascend the Yavari
beyond 5° S. lat. About fifty leagues inland,
according to Paul Marcoy, the Yavari has
two branches, the Yavari-hassu and the nar-
rower Yavari-mirim. The left bank of the
former is inhabited by the Mayoruna and Mara-
hua savages, the right by the Huaraycus x and
Culinos, all buried in the forests and never
appearing on the Amazon. The latter are a
small tribe separated into many widely-scattered
families. At the time of the Portuguese con-
quest they inhabited both banks of the Igarape
Comatia, near San Pablo de Olivenca, a town on
the south side of the Amazon twenty miles above
the river Jandiatuba. They were renowned for
their fleetness in the chase and hunted with the
speed of bloodhounds.
In the early part of the last century the
missionaries learned from the Conibos of the
1 It is strange to find our old friends the Guaicurus of the
upper Plata valley with, perhaps, a branch tribe on the
Yavari.
154 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Ucayali that a large stream, inhabited by Indians,
was to be found immediately to the east and were
told that they communicated with them by
way of the river Tamaya, but Raimondi believed
this to be a mistake, and that, if the Ucayali
tribes had relations with the savages of a river
further to the east, it must have been with the
Jurua. My old friend, Tavares Bastos, recounts x
having been told by a Brazilian sub-lieutenant,
Borgas, that " after ascending the Jurua for
three months in a canoe in 1864 he reached a
point a little beyond which his Indian crew told
him there was a branch called Taranaca which
communicated with the Ucayali above Sarayacu.
Several Indians added that they had made this
curious voyage, entering the Jurua and coming
out into the Ucayali"; but I am inclined to
believe that it must have required a short
portage to cross the range of hills which, on the
east, run parallel to the Ucayali from 7° S. lat.,
and finally merge into the lofty Andes to the
east of Cuzco and lake Titicaca.
The fact is, however, that an easy connection,
now in use for trade purposes, exists between the
Amuenga branch of the Jurua and the Tamaya
branch of the Ucayali at about lat. 9° S. 2
1 In Valle do Amazonas, Rio de Janeiro, 1866.
2 The Conibos Indians of the upper Ucayali told Castelnau
that to the east five days was a river called the Aruita, which
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 155
A better authenticated natural canal unites
the head-waters of the Yavari and the Rio
Ucayali at about lat. 6° S. 1 On the latter
river Herndon employed an old pilot who had
passed through this cano, called the Yana Yacu,
in company with a Portuguese. It took them
two weeks and they returned by another called
the Maquia. The pilot claimed that there was
still another called the Yawarangi.
The numerous portages and natural canals,
between 6° and 13° S. lat., connecting the
Madre de Dios, Puriis, Jurua, Yavari, Ucayali
and Huallaga, must have served from time
immemorial as routes for war and trade between
the tribes of Lowland Amazonia and the more
advanced ones of the eastern slope of the Andes ;
and, hereafter, we shall see how important they
were as avenues through which to spread over
north-eastern South America a knowledge of
the power and progress of the Andean races,
which, in turn, gained useful information regard-
ing the savage hordes which so constantly
yielded nothing in volume to the Ucayali, and that its banks
were inhabited by the Amouncas. It was probably the
Jurua.
1 Raimondi says, " With the object of learning something
of the extensive plain between the Ucayali and Huallaga,
known as the Pampa del Sacramento, we went on foot from
Sarayaco to Yanayaco, where we embarked in a canoe and
descended the river Chipurana and entered the river
Huallaga,"
156 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
threatened the eastern border of the empire of
the Incas.
A line of highlands runs roughly from Borja,
near the Pongo de Manseriche, head of navigation
of the Amazon, to the Yavari river, crossing the
Ucayali at a point about 200 miles up stream from
its mouth. It forms the south-west side of a
forested region bounded on the north by the
Amazon and on the south-east by the Yavari.
The great area thus defined may be included in
Lowland Amazonia. It is doubtful if its average
height exceeded 300 feet above sea-level. It
is traversed by the rivers Ucayali and Huallaga,
and is furrowed by numerous minor streams.
Within its limits are many large and small lakes
and immense swamps and marshes. Much of
it is subject to minor floods, but during the rainy
season vast portions of it are inundated to a
considerable depth. It has a hot, humid and
unhealthy climate. In the wet season, violent
and long-continued storms of rain, accompanied
by thunder and lightning, sweep over it, inun-
dating vast areas, and even the fall of dew is
copious. Throughout Lowland Amazonia the
dry season is from the end of May to the middle
of October, when the rainy season is heralded by
the distant roll of thunder. In the forests, and
especially in the vicinity of the river banks, is an
extraordinary abundance of game, large and
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 157
small, and numberless monkeys of different
species. The rivers teem with fish and huge
alligators, while there is an immense variety of
birds, many of them of gorgeous plumage.
Truly the food-quest of the savage in this region
is easy, but he is tormented day and night and
bled incessantly by vast swarms of insects of
every imaginable kind.
The region above mentioned formed part of
Maynas, which, during the first half of the
seventeenth century, the Franciscan and Jesuit
friars, accompanied at times by a few Spaniards,
made heroic efforts to penetrate. 1
The missionaries claimed that Maynas covered
an irregular area of territory of the upper Amazon
valley. Its north-eastern boundary was the
water-divide between the rivers Putumayo and
Napo ; its eastern one was the Amazon, between
the Putumayo and Yavari, and the river Yavari
from its mouth to the head of navigation, from
1 The conquerors of Maynas made beasts of burden of its
savage denizens, " took their women from them . . . saying
that marriage did not exist among heathen. They gathered
them from many districts, seizing and bringing them in
great crowds, and divided them among the soldiers and
settlers, by whom they are called pieces. [I found this word
pieces still in use in the valleys east of and near Quito in
1880.] This resulted in painful mortality, for within a few
days scarcely the tenth part of them remained alive." —
Relation de las Misiones de la Compahia de Jesus en el pais
de los Maynas, por el Padre de Figueroa.
158 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
which its southern frontier, running westward,
cut the rivers Ucayali and Huallaga. From its
intersection with the latter stream the boundary,
with many deviations, ran north-west to the
Pongo de Manseriche, and then, with still greater
irregularity, northward and north-westward so
as to enclose, in the region in question, the valley
of the river Morona, most of that of the Pastaza
and the basin of the Napo, except the districts
drained by its head-waters.
Maynas was the source of many disputes
between the authorities of Peru, New Granada
and Quito. Before the promulgation of the
Layes de Indias (1680) it was administered from
Quito, of the Audencia of which it formed a
part; but much contention arose with the
Viceroyalty of Peru regarding its southern
limits. During the union of the crowns of Spain
and Portugal, from 1580 to 1640, the Portuguese
were active on the Amazon and advanced their
settlements to the valley of the Rio Negro, the
mouth of the Purus and even as far up the
Amazon as the Jurua. After the severance
of the union, the Portuguese frequently at-
tacked the Spanish settlements and missions of
Maynas. 1
1 Maynas was first discovered by Captain Alonso Merca-
dillo in 1538, but he only penetrated its south-western
border. At the bloody battle of Salinas in that year, in
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 159
The contest waged for possession of the upper
Amazon was disastrous to the Indian tribes and
the civil war between Almagro and Pizarro, Mercadillo
commanded the cavalry of Hernando Pizarro. The war
ended, he was authorized to lead a force into the wilds of
Amazonia to conquer the Chupachos and Incaicingas Indians.
Such expeditions gave to the Pizarros, and to their immediate
successors, a happy relief from the many rebellious and
turbulent spirits whose services they had been obliged to
enlist under promises which they were unable to fulfil. It
is evident that much care was taken to sift out the worst
element for such expeditions and to inflame the minds of
the adventurers with the marvels of El Dorado, of kingdoms
richer than Peru, and of the golden rewards which awaited
their prowess, knowing that few of them would ever return
to trouble the government of the viceroyalty. Mercadillo
led such a horde of desperadoes (185, including caballeros
and peones) into the valley of the Huallaga. His followers
mutinied, seized him, and sent him back a prisoner to Peru,
but not much information was gained regarding the inhabi-
tants of the region they penetrated. It is uncertain at what
point Mercadillo started on his quest of the Huancachu-
pachos or Chupachos, but probably in the vicinity of old
Huanuco. Raimondi locates the tribe in the basin of the
Huallaga " perhaps near Mayobamba," but their real habitat
is very undefined.
The results of Mercadillo's voyage were of doubtful value to
geography. He marched into the country to the west of the
lower Huallaga and then into the wild, almost intransitable,
region to the eastward, until his men, disgusted with his
stubborn determination to take no advice, but to persist in his
quest of the Incaicingas (two noses), deposed him. Detach-
ments of his expedition examined a considerable length of
the Huanuco, Huarixa, Rio de los Motilones Chupachos, or
Huallaga, and, according to Antonio Raimondi, the eminent
savant, one of Mercadillo's captains, Diogo Nunnes, descended
160 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
resulted in much perturbation among them and
many changes of habitat.
When New Granada became a viceroyalty
in 1718, all of the provinces of Quito were in-
corporated in it, and although in 1723 it was
suppressed it was re-established in 1739. From
this time, the Jesuit fathers, until their expulsion
from South America (1767-8), redoubled their
efforts to gather the Indians into Reductions.
These were often formed of contingents of
savages from widely separate tribes, whether
they belonged to the same tribal stock or not;
nor was any attention paid to difference in
language, culture and customs of the various
fragments of tribes thus united.
The first European to descend the Pongo de
Manseriche and upper Amazon was Juan de
Salinas Loyola. For his many services in the
conquest of Peru, this gallant, intelligent officer
was granted the right to discover, conquer and
govern an immense district, commencing twenty
the Amazon as far as Machiparo. The celebrated Americanist,
Jimenez de la Espada, confirms this in an extremely interest-
ing and learned paper published by him in the Boletin de la
Sociedad Geogrdfica de Madrid, tomo XXXVII.
About the middle of the sixteenth century a disastrous
expedition, headed by Gomez Arias de Avila, penetrated
the lower valley of the Ucayali river, crossing the Andes
from the west in search of the fabled land of Rupa-rupa, its
Dorado king, the Omaguas, and Paytiti (Tiger father).
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 161
leagues east of Loxa, Zamora and Jaen in the
Andencia of Quito. He devoted an ample fortune
to his task, founded several historic towns —
among them Valladolid, Loyola, Santiago de las
Montanas and Santa Maria de Nieve, and then
turned his attention to exploration. He equipped
an expedition of 250 men, at a cost to himself
of 50,000 ducats, and in July, 1557, left Loxa,
crossed the mountains and embarked at Santiago
on the Rio Santiago, near its mouth, some six
weeks later, with fifty-four soldiers of his retinue,
leaving the rest of his force at Santiago. Reach-
ing the Maranon he soon found himself in the
terrible whirlpools and rapids of the Pongo
de Manseriche, from which he emerged with
much wreckage and some loss of life. He
descended the Maranon to the Ucayali, 1 which
he entered at the end of September, 1557, and
named it the San Miguel. He ascended it more
than 300 leagues. After an absence of two
years he returned to Loxa by the same route,
reaching that city August 28, 1559, having made
one of the most daring voyages of which we have
any account in the history of Spanish America.
I have not found any mention of it in the accounts
which the Jesuit fathers give of their occupation
of Maynas in the early part of the seventeenth
century. They make it appear that they were
1 Ucayali, also known as the Paro, Apuparo and Cocama.
M
162 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
the first to reach Maynas by descending the
Marafion.
The description which Salinas gives of the
tribes he met is extremely interesting and
valuable, as, up to the time of his voyage, they
had not been harried either by the conquistador es
or the missionaries.
Near the junction of the Santiago river with
the Marafion he found the Cungarapas, speaking
a somewhat different tongue from the Indians of
Santiago, although they could understand each
other. Their country abounded in food of all
kinds and fruits and fish. There were a few
" sheep " (probably llamas). For clothing they
used cotton which they cultivated and wove.
They were very domestic and not at all warlike
in disposition. Each town had its cacique the
same as at Santiago, but there was no general
chief or ruler.
Descending the river he met savages just
below the Pongo de Manseriche of different lan-
guage and dress from those above the Pongo.
They were Capitaconas with such an invention
as regards noses not seen in the world. Padre
Raimondi (p. 156, Mis. del Marafion Esp.) formed
a town of these savages in connection with
Xebirero reductions on south side of the Amazon
in about 165°. He calls them Cingacachuscas on
account of their splitting the nose to accommo-
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 163
date their nose ornaments. Continuing down-
stream a further twenty-five leagues he reached a
province called Maynas, the inhabitants of which
were very bright and of fine appearance in
comparison with the ordinary people of the Indies.
They spoke a different tongue from the tribes
further up-stream and were intrepid and bellicose.
They dressed in cotton cloth much painted in
patterns, wove feathers of all colours with which
they trimmed their shields and lances and other
arms. Twelve to fifteen leagues further down
they reached the mouth of a river (the Pastaza),
which he ascended fifty leagues to a laguna called
Marcayo, where he found numerous Indians
speaking another language, and was hospitably
received. They wore cotton clothing much
painted. Returning to the Maranon he de-
scended it " 200 leagues " further without finding
Indians or towns. In this long stretch his
expedition suffered many hardships, especially
from want of food. Here he came to the mouth
of a great river, the Ucayali, which he entered
and ascended without finding any Indian settle-
ment until he reached the Benorini tribe one
hundred leagues up. Although presenting a
warlike front, they soon became pacific. Con-
tinuing on he found himself among the Cocamas
who had large, well-formed towns on the river
banks. The people were kindly and well clad
M 2
164 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
in cotton garments finely painted in elegant
patterns. They also wore feathers and adorned
themselves with gold and silver ornaments,
including plates on their breasts and wrists.
Gold and silver beads hung to their noses and
ears, and trinkets of silver adorned their heads.
They paid great respect to their chiefs. Food
of all kinds was abundant, also fruit and many
kinds of fish and game. They had earthenware
of the best, brighter and more elegant than
elsewhere in the world. Their language was
different from that of the other tribes he had
met. During his entire stay in their province,
which occupied seventy leagues of the river, and
where he found many towns and populated
margins of lagunas, he was entertained with
great hospitality.
Fifty leagues beyond, he came to a tribe called
the Pariaches, also differing in tongue from the
others, and which he found great difficulty in
understanding. It was a land of good towns
located on the river with inhabitants of pleasant
intelligent appearance as well in their costumes
as in other things. They wore cotton cloth
much painted and worked. Although un-
friendly at first, they soon became peaceful and
continued so during the stay of the expedition
among them. The country was fertile with
plenty of food, including fruit and great quantities
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 165
of fish. Their land is mountainous and forested ;
" the humidity is sufficient to create forests,
especially as during the rainy season the river
leaves its bed and inundates a great part of the
land." Salinas had insufficient men to explore
inland from the river, but he navigated 300
leagues up until he passed Pariache, and " al-
though in clothing, appearance and sustenance
the natives were all one, there was much difference
in language, and they could not converse without
interpreters. . . . They all wore ornaments of
gold and silver brought from elsewhere, there
being no precious metals in their country."
Beyond Pariache was another " province " 1
speaking another language and differently clothed,
very warlike and not so genial. Here Salinas
asked the Indians where Tcatara was to be
found, about which he had heard along his route.
They told him it was Cuzco of Peru, and brought
Indians to him who had been there and who
gave him a correct description of the city accord-
ing to their knowledge of it. Many men of his
expedition wished to continue on to Cuzco, but
the river was rising and the currents were so
impetuous that he found it impracticable to
navigate further. Retracing his route to San-
1 It seemed to be the custom among the early explorers
and missionary fathers to use the word province as synony-
mous with tribe,
166 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
tiago he reached there after an absence of two
years to find that he had long been given up as
lost or dead. 1
The Missionary Fathers among the tribes of
Maynas.
To the missionaries from the convents of
Quito and Cuenca we are indebted for extensive
information regarding Maynas.
After the foundation of San Francisco de
Quito by Almagro, August 28, 1534, a Franciscan
convent was established January 25, 1535, and
the fathers soon found under their spiritual care
some 4,000 Spaniards and 30,000 tributary
Indians. Which were the savages may be best
judged by the following, from the Ecclesiastical
History of Ecuador, by the Presbyter Suarez : —
" When the Spaniards failed to find the
treasure anticipated in Quito, they commenced
to torture and persecute the Indians to make them
reveal it. These, to escape torment, invented all
kinds of stories of the treasures of El Dorado.
Some of them were sentenced to death, notably
the famous Ruminaui and other celebrated
Regulos. Some they burned to death over a slow
fire, or mutilated them horribly, cutting off their
ears, noses, hands and feet. They tied others
1 An account of this remarkable and almost unknown
voyage is to be found in vol. iv. of Relaciones Geograftcas de
Indias. Publicalas el Ministerio de Fomento, Peru, 1897.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 167
back to back and threw them over precipices
or drowned them in rivers : others they shut
up in houses to which they set fire and roasted
the inmates."
The same author relates that, a few years
after the founding of the convent of San Fran-
cisco, the Padres succeeded in obtaining a
cedula from Charles V granting to the Indian
servants of the convent a league of land measured
from the back of the edifice towards Pichincha. 1
Later the Padres took into service several
Indians who were reduced to poverty and who
belonged to the family of the ancient sovereigns
of Quito : one was a son of Huayna-Capac, and
two were sons of Atahualpa. The name of one
of the latter is not known, but the other was called
Tupac Atauchi, who was heir to the crown as he
was the son of the principal consort of Atahualpa. 2
They were both very young at the death of their
father. Previously the convent is stated to have
received Chalcuchima, an uncle of Atahualpa and
Regulo of the Puruhaes Indians of the province
of Chimborazo.
In the latter part of the sixteenth century, the
Bishop of Quito ordered a translation of the
1 In making the ascent of the volcano of Pichincha, I
rode over this property and found some parts of it very
beautiful.
2 He was a son of the Inca Huayna Capac, half-brother
of the usurper Atahualpa. — C. R. M,
168 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
catechism and confessional to be made into the
language called the Llanos and Atallana common
to the provinces of Piura and Trujillo, which
then were included in his bishopric. Also into
Canar, spoken in the province of Azuay ; into the
Puruhaes tongue of Chimborazo, and into the
language of the Pastos, as well as that of the
Quillancingas, the ancient inhabitants of the
northern districts of the province of Imbabura.
The bishop also founded a school, under the
Dominican Order at Quito, to teach the Inca
tongue as being the most common, and no
ecclesiastic could be a curate unless he passed a
satisfactory examination in this language. Later,
its teaching, at the earnest solicitation of the
Jesuits, was transferred to their Order by Philip
II, they having become very proficient in it, and
the principals in preaching and confessing the
Indians. Its teaching was given, about 1602,
to the Jesuit seminary of San Luis, and Philip II
decreed " that no one should be admitted to the
sacred orders, and that no curate of the Indians
should be named unless he had previously studied
the language for an entire year."
The Jesuits had penetrated to Quito in 1586
from the College founded at Lima in 1567, by
Francisco de Borja, and had succeeded in estab-
lishing a convent at Quito about 1594. This
became famous for the number of missionaries
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 169
it sent to the country of the Maynas, the inhabi-
tants of which, as an old Friar says, " the devil
had hidden among the forests so that the evange-
lical light should not penetrate among them."
In 1633, Philip IV authorized the founding
of two other Jesuit Colleges, one at Popayan
and one at Cuenca. The latter was organized
in 1637 and, among the celebrated missionaries
it sent forth was the Padre Cristobal de Acuna,
whose narrative of his voyage up the Amazon is
important. 1 Quichua was also taught at this
college as being the tongue best known to the
interpreters for communication with the tribes
of the Amazon bordering the ancient Inca
empire. It appears that none of the Maynas
tribes spoke the Inca language. 2 Cristoval de
Saavedra, about the year 1620, wrote to the
Council of the Indies that the Maynas Indians
" spoke their maternal tongue, which is neither
Quichua nor Aymara, and making this known to
a Padre of the Company of Jesus who had been
in Brazil, he says that ' it is same that the
Indians speak there,' " that is the Caraio language,
or what was then called the Tupi-Guarani.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century
the missions of the Huallaga and Ucayali were
1 A very rare book, translated for the Hakluyt Society in
1860 by Sir Clements Markham.
2 Misi ones del Mar anon Espanol. Padre Lucas could not
converse with'the Jeveros, because he only spoke Inca,
170 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
under charge of the Franciscan friars of the con-
vent of Ocopa, 1 situated in the valley of Jauja,
a little to the south-east of the town of that name.
The Ocopa friars unsuccessfully petitioned the
then Viceroy to build a fort at the confluence of
the rivers Poguso and Mayro the better to protect
their labours. They were granted a yearly
subsidy of $10,000 in aid of their monastery.
From the several convents of Popayan, Quito,
Cuenca, Ocopa and some centres outside the
limits of Amazonia, many zealous missionaries
with very scanty means and armed only with
the courage of their religion, plunged into the
wilds of the Amazon. The history of their
efforts, however well intended, is one long record
of disaster, suffering, demoralization and almost
annihilation of the tribes or portions of tribes
which submitted to be gathered into missions.
1 In 1725, this convent, known as Santa JRosa dc Ocopa,
was founded as an hospicio de misioneros, in the valley of
Jauja in the little annex to a chapel. By persistent efforts
the Friars of the order succeeded in 1734 in obtaining a
royal cedula, authorizing them to build a college, and such
was their zeal that, twenty years after, Ocopa was counted
as one of the finest in the Viceroyalty. It was erected into
a College of Propaganda Fide in 1757-8 by a bull of Pope
Clement XIII and a cedula of Ferdinand VI. The mis-
sionaries afterwards had four hospices in the Archbishopric
of Lima — as follows, Lima, Huaylas, Huaman and Vitoc,
occupied by members of the order who were engaged in the
conversion of the Indians within their jurisdiction.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 171
The Marques de Castel Fuerte x remarks as
to the efforts of the missionaries : " The preach-
ing of the Evangel would be concluded by now,
or very advanced, if, in the Montanas, an in-
vincible obstacle to its progress had not been met,
these Montanas being a vegetable hell, which
holds its own against heaven; thus, in this
America, the forests are called which run from
south to north and divide the Orient from the
Occident. They are, in opposition to Nature and
reason, as productive of abundance as they are
rude."
" The Indians had a deadly hatred for the
Spaniards, those who went about desolating their
provinces. For them, the Christian religion was
that of their oppressors. If the missionaries
preached to them the practice of Christian
virtues, the licentious life of the conquistador es,
who professed the same religious beliefs, destroyed
all their teachings. Christianity was announced
to the Indians with the clang of arms and the
thunder of battle, and to their minds it was
linked with the sad memories of the disappearance
of their empires and the tragic death of their
monarchs — the loss of their country and even
of their own language. . . . How could the
unfortunate Indians love the religion of those
who tore their women from them, loaded them
1 Memorias de los Vireyes, Vol. Ill,
172 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
with chains, or forced them to be torn in pieces
by bloodhounds ? " 1
The devout, brave and frequently well-edu-
cated friars did not fail to note in their extensive
writings much of value regarding the culture,
habits, customs, language and appearance of the
indigenous peoples whom they met. Rude, vague
and confused as their accounts sometimes are,
it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, without
them to judge of the position which the various
races occupied in the upper valley of the Amazon
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
To describe the tribes which inhabited the
triangular section of Maynas (lying south of the
Amazon and west of the Yavari river) during
the first two centuries of the Spanish Conquest,
is an impossible task. The region, prior to the
date of the Discovery, had long been in dispute
between the Incas and its various savage
peoples who constantly threatened the imperial
frontier. Hordes of fierce Jibaros had possessed
themselves of the greater part of the lands lying
west of the Huallaga, and north-east of the foot-
hills of the Andes as far as the Amazon river.
But the great disturbing factor had been the
Caraibes, who had conquered nearly the entire
country on the northern side of the Amazon,
from the Rio Negro river to the slopes of the
1 Su^rez : His. Ecles. del Ecuador.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 173
Ecuadorian Andes, and had, it is believed, even
penetrated northern Peru by way of the Pongo
de Manseriche, 1 and had found the Huallaga
and Ucayali easy avenues to the Incarial out-
posts.
With the advent of the Spanish missionaries
and the conquistador es, new elements of confusion
appeared. To escape their persecutions, the
savages often changed their habitat, and, in one
instance, the Cocamillas of the Huallaga fled
to their kindred, the Cocamas on the Ucayali.
The missionaries gathered fragments of various
tribes into their Reductions, and, for the purpose
of instructing their catechumens, obliged them
all to learn and use the same language, while,
in a few generations, the various tribal types
which had been assembled in any single mission,
became merged, and a new tribe evolved often
taking the name of the mission, as was notably
the case in other parts of South America where
the Jesuit fathers established themselves.
Occupying the lower Huallaga and extending
eastward along the southern side of the Amazon
were two numerous nations, the Aguanas and
Mayorunas. The latter, of Caraio stock, also
held the great district from the Amazon, and lower
1 Jimenez de la Espada remarks that the Pongo de
Manseriche was " undoubtedly the door by which the Carib
race entered Peru." — Relac. Geo. of Peru. C. VII. Vol. 4.
174 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Ucayali south-east to the river Yavari. The
Spaniards called them the Barbados, as some of
them had beards, 1 due, perhaps, to their descent
from the Spaniards of the expedition of Pedro de
Ursua, during its long detention on the Ucayali
in 1560.
It seems that they lapped round the Cocamas
to the south and extended to within easy reach
of the Huallaga, to the south of the Cocamillas.
At times they advanced to the margin of this
river to trade with the other Indians, whom they
called with their musical instruments, and who
approached the river bank in canoes without
daring to land. Armed and ready for an attack,
they exchanged goods from the points of their
arrows and lances. Sometimes they terminated
their bartering by showers of arrows and chin-
ganazos. 2
The tribes of the Huallaga dared not navigate
the Mayoruna side of the river, nor enter the
territory occupied by the Mayorunas, who were
so fierce in war that eight or nine of them con-
1 To suppose that this was applicable to more than a very
few of them would be a mistake, and if any of them
really had beards they were certainly not pure-blooded
Mayorunas.
2 The chingana was a kind of lance used by most of the
tribes of the region. It has a dart about a foot long like
a pointed tongue, sharp on both sides. It is made of cane
and the point hardened by fire. It inflicted a terrible
wound.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 175
fronted even a squadron of Spanish soldiers
from Moyabamba, who entered their territory
armed with arquebuses. The handful of savages
would neither fly nor yield, and were nearly all
killed. For a long period of time it was im-
possible to have pacific communication with the
Mayorunas, and no one knew what language they
spoke; but finally a missionary, Padre Ray-
mundo, discovered that they spoke the same
tongue as a nation that lived on the Ucayali
with the Cocamas. He penetrated their lands
in 1654, and found their language was the same
as that of the Chipeo, Cheteo and Capanagua
tribes.
Padre Raymundo found that the men and
women went naked, that they had fine faces,
many of them were as white as mestizos, especially
in childhood " before they were toasted by the
sun." Many of the men had stiff, disorderly
beards, sometimes very thick. Figueroa gives an
account of their cannibalistic tastes, and it was
the custom to eat all of their relatives after death
served in the most revolting manner. He also
states that " their language is spoken by the
Omaguas, the Parianas and Yetes of the Rio de
Quito (the Napo), and even in Santiago the
Jibitaonas speak it. In time the lingoa geral
of the Incas will be introduced as has happened
in Maynas, Jibaros and Paranapura; and this
176 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
is important, because it is better suited to the
capacity of these Indians, sticks to them better,
and they speak it with greater facility."
South of the Mayorunas on the west side of
the Ucayali, and roughly 150 miles up stream,
were the Cocamas, occupying a country subject
to yearly inundations. Their tribal affilia-
tions extended westward on the same parallel
of latitude as far as the Cocamillas of the
Huallaga. They were the corsairs of the
upper Amazon, which they probably reached by
the natural canals which connect it with the
Ucayali. They equipped great war expeditions
of from forty to sixty large canoes, which they
managed with extreme dexterity. They were
head-hunters, and their favourite campaigning
grounds were between the mouth of the river
Pastosa and the Huallaga. They were a scourge
to other tribes, whom they almost destroyed by
repeated massacres. It was near the junction
of the Apena with the Huallaga that the cele-
brated missionary, Father Francisco de Figueroa, 1
was killed by the Cocamas about 1670. They
cut him limb from limb until he died.
The Gran Cocama was penetrated by mission-
1 In 1661 this earnest missionary gave an interesting
account of the missions of the Maranon. See Relation
de las Misiones de la Compahia de Jesus en el pais de los
Maynas, por el P. Francisco de Figueroa, Madrid, 1904.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 177
aries from Borja in 1644, accompanied by
twenty-five soldiers and friendly Jibaros, Maynas
and Cocamillas.
The Aguanas, like the Mayorunas, were on the
eastern side of the Huallaga, but occupied the
country for about ninety miles above the junction
of that stream with the Amazon. They were
of irreproachable valour, and guarded their lands
with the same fierce jealousy as their Mayoruna
neighbours. Figueroa recounts that Governor
Diego Vaca dared not penetrate their country
with sixty Spanish soldiers and a large contingent
of Indians. It was discovered about 1653 that
the Aguanas spoke the same tongue as the
Cutinanas and Maparinas of the Huallaga.
Padre Lucas de la Cueva, who visited them,
found them living in large malocas, and sleeping
in hamacs. One maloca alone had 180 hamacs,
and in others he counted 40 to 60. Wife,
husband and child occupied the same hamac
with a small fire on the ground near their feet.
They were free from sarna. The women wore
a little short frock from the waist, and the men
a shorter one curiously woven.
The names of many other minor " tribes "
found in the region between the Yavari and
Pongo de Manseriche adorn the works of the
missionary fathers; but, with rare exceptions,
they are meaningless, and only survived until
N
178 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
some new explorer rechristened them, raising
to tribal dignity a kaleidoscopic list of hordes
which never had a name. As an indication of
the condition of the missionary mind at that
period it is curious to cite the words of the
devoted Padre Figueroa regarding epidemics
among the savages :
" Two- thirds of all the Indians die from
diseases contracted from the Spaniards. Only
God knows the occult reasons of divine providence
that when the Evangel enters their houses the
result is so many pests and mortality. Only a
few can be conjectured, such as that his Divine
Majesty, at such a time, sends pests and death
as a chastisement for the slaughter of men and
other past sins of the nation, selecting certain
predestined ones for baptism during the applica-
tion of divine justice."
There are, to-day, but few of the once powerful
tribe of Mayorunas left. Paul Marcoy, in 1875,
estimated the number at only 500.
The missionaries of the seventeenth century
picture the Jibaros (Xeveros) as superior in
many respects to their neighbours. They were
constant in work, faithful, valiant and alert,
obedient and bravely faced danger and resisted
to the death rather than submit to an enemy.
The women were skilful in making pottery,
dishes and jars of all sizes. The men made
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 179
beautiful blowguns much appreciated by other
tribes, especially for hunting purposes, for by a
breath they silently wounded the game and
could kill an entire flock of turkeys one at a time.
They also wove baskets.
In the course of many centuries the valleys of
the Ucayali, Huallaga and Maranon must have
seen many changes among the peoples who have
occupied them. Prior to the founding of the
Inca empire, we must recognize as heretofore
stated that modifications of climate made it
necessary for portions of the inter- Andean popula-
tion to seek sustenance in the fertile regions of
the Amazon slope. These also served as a refuge
for large numbers of Indians during the Spanish
invasion and occupation of Peru. But they
were not only inviting to the mountain tribes,
but also to the savage hordes which constantly
pushed up the Amazon, more especially when
under pressure from wave after wave of Caraio
invaders determined to share in the gifts which
nature there had distributed with lavish pro-
digality. Hence, particularly in the valleys of
the Ucayali, Huallaga and Maranon, the culture,
habits and customs of the tribes and their
ethnological characteristics in general present
many varieties and partake, on the one hand, of
the barbaric advancement of the Andean races,
and, on the other, of the savagery of Tapuya and
Caraio stock of lower Amazonia.
N2
180 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
What is true of the north-eastern region of
Peru is also applicable in general to the south-
eastern one and of the upper waters of the rivers
Madre de Dios and the Beni, which also form a
part of the long belt of country occupied by the
Orient-Andean tribes which for thousands of
years served as a buffer between the barbarians
of the Cordilleras of the Andes and the savages of
lowland South America.
The Orient- Andean tribes have been much dis-
turbed in very recent times by the rubber
collectors, who have made their territory a
recruiting ground for labourers under a form of
service but little better, and, in some cases,
worse, that the mita and encomienda system of
Spanish colonial days, so that the greed of
commerce is rapidly civilizing them off the face
of the earth, and in several cases it has not
taken more than ten or fifteen years almost to
obliterate some small tribes and leave nothing
but a trace of their existence. Truly, aboriginal
man, in the New World, has not derived much
happiness and no benefit from the rule of his
Christian conqueror.
Since the advent of the rubber collector the
perturbations among the Orient-Andean tribes
have been such that an ethnological study of
them as they are to-day can give but little
satisfaction ; and, therefore, it is better so far as
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 181
possible to learn what we can of their condition
not later than 1880, unless it be of tribes which
have until very recently had but slight contact
with the white man.
The tribes of the Ucayali, about the year
mentioned, may be located as follows : —
Cocamas : west of the mouth of the Ucayali
and south of the Amazon, and extending west
to the Cocarnillas and south to lat. 5° 25' S. to
contact with the Omaguas.
Borgenos : on the eastern bank of the Ucayali,
facing the Cocamas, and between the rivers Supia
and Tapiche, about 5° S. lat.
Mayorunas (mayu, river, and runa, man in
Quichua) : east of the lower Ucayali ; the Borgenos
east side of river Tapiche and south side of
Amazon to the river Yavari, and south as far as
6° S. lat.
Conibos : between 5° and 6° S., occupying
both banks of the Ucayali.
Capanguas : between the Conibos and the
river Tapiche, which enters the Ucayali from the
east and runs nearly north and south.
Omaguas : west of the Conibos and south of
the Cocamas as far as the east and west stretch
of the Ucayali.
Pirros : in a small bend on east side of the
Ucayali and in lat. about 5° 50'.
Setevos : both banks of the Ucayali from
182 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
the Cunibos 6° S. lat., and as far south
as 7°.
Panos and Omaguas : both sides of the Ucayali
for a few miles, at about 6° 20' S. They are
in a missionary reduction.
Cumbassa and Chayavitas : a reduction on a
small western affluent of the Ucayali at about
6° 30' S.
Yurimaguas : a little reduction on the east side
of the Ucayali at about lat. 6° 40'.
Sensevos : east of the Yurimaguas.
Omaguas : a reduction at Sarayacu (river of
maize) on the western side of the Ucayali from
the Yurimaguas.
Conibos : between two small affluents of the
Ucayali (the Inahualla and Cuschabatai) at
about lat. 6° 50'.
Pirros : south-west of the Conibos, between
the same small rivers just mentioned.
Conibos : along west bank of the Ucayali from
lat. 7° to 7° 30'.
Sipibos : south of the Conibos on both sides
of the Ucayali from lat. 7° 30' to 8° 30', and
extend to the cordillera of the Huallaga.
Cashibos : * between 8° and 9° and occupying
1 The Cashibos are cannibals and constantly at war to procure
human flesh ; they are generally known as the Cara-pachos.
They kill and eat their old people, who look upon a natural
death as the greatest of misfortunes. They speak the same
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 183
the mid-region between the Ucayali and Huallaga
and north-west of the middle Pachitea. 1
Remos : between lat. 7° and 8° 40', about fifty
miles east of the Ucayali among the head-waters
of the rivers Roabulla, Tachitetca and other
small affluents of the Ucayali.
Cumbassa : a reduction on the east side of the
Ucayali along the north side of the little river
Callerria, about lat. 8°.
Amahuacas : along the head-waters of numer-
ous small affluents of the Ucayali from the east.
They lie east of the Conibos from lat. 8° 30'
to ll . 2
Conibos : from lat. 8° 30' to 10° on both sides
of the Ucayali.
Pirros : between lat. 10° and 11° on both sides
of the Ucayali and on either side of the lower
Urubamba.
language as the Panos, which seems to be general in a great
hart of this region.
1 These wild savages belong to the Pano nation, and once
held both banks of the Pachitea, but the remnants of them,
hunted by their kindred the Conibos, Sipibos and Setebos,
have their stronghold in the forested region between the
rivers Aguaitea and Pisqui in a part of the Pampa del
Sacramento. Some of their sub-tribes are found at the
ead- waters of the Pachitea.
2 Castelnau calls them Amouacas or Amojuacas, and says
they live three journeys to the east of the Ucayali on the
river Tawaya, by which communication takes place between
the Ucavali and Yavari,
184 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Chontaquiros : * the Urubamba, its Mishagua
branch, the divide between it and the Madre de
Dios and a part of the upper waters of the latter
and the " Isthmus Fiscarrala."
Campas : a large tribe south of the Pirros
Indians between the Apurimac and Quillabamba,
1 Castelnau calls these Indians the Chuntaquiros and says
that they are known on the lower river Urubamba as Pirros.
The Antis or Campas Indians call them Sinirenchis. " The
study of Indian tribes is rendered very difficult by the con-
fusion of their names ; the same people are almost always
designated by each neighbouring tribe by a different appel-
lation." This confirms what has been stated in our remarks
on the tribes of the Plata region.
u The Impeteneres live far inland from the right side of the
lower Urubamba, to which they descend once a year to get
stones to make hatchets and knives. They say that they
have no caillon in their country, and do not know the use
of iron." (1846) p. 346: "Junction of Ucayali and
Urubamba 240 metres above sea-level," mouth of Pachitea
152 metres. The Chuntaquiros call the Ucayali the Yamini.
The divers people of the Ucayali all wear the same costume
— a long open robe. It is extremely difficult to distinguish
any difference among these people. Bracelets formed of a
multitude of teeth of monkeys. They also make very pretty
pottery, generally of dark red colour, and ornamented with
patterns of lozenges white and black.
A missionary who had travelled throughout the Ucayali
and east of it said that the Paucartambo flowed parallel to the
Urubamba but did not join it. He said that the Impeteneres
of the Chuntaquiros were the same as the Amouacas of the
Sepibos, and he called them the Apouacas.
In general the Antis smear themselves with red, the Chun-
taquiros black. The Conibos are known by the deformity
of their heads, are fond of glass ornaments and little silver
ornaments, little collars and earrings.
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 185
and on both sides of these streams nearly as far
south as Cuzco. They also occupy the whole of
the Gran Pajonal in about 10° 40' S. lat., and 40
kil. west of the junction of Ucayali and Quilla-
bamba rivers, and between it and the upper
Pachitea.
Fr. Gabriel Sala (1897) describes the Gran Pa-
jonal as a uniform table-land 1500 metres above
sea-level, entirely surrounded by rough moun-
tains, 2000 to 2500 metres high. Its greatest
diameter is 25 kil. and it is crossed by pathways
in all directions. " The Campas are a great
tribe not yet deceived, exploited and subjugated
by the rubber collectors."
Sala met a horde of Conibos, more than thirty
in number. The children at the breast had the
forehead flattened between two boards, and the
Indians said, " We, the Cashivos and Conibos,
think it very pretty." He measured from the
point of the chin to the roots of the hair eight
inches on a child four months old, and from the
occiput to the forehead only four inches. All
their pottery and vestments were ornamented
with rectilinear figures, distinguishing the tribe.
Their singing was sad and monotonous. The
good Friar naively explains the missionary
method of converting an Indian to the true faith :
" Among our Indians, not only of the sierras
but of the forests, one must bend their will even
186 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
though it be by thrashing them with the lash, so
that sooner or later they are taught and their
understanding opens. This practice was followed
in the time of the Viceroys and is now the rule
at some points on the Ucayali."
The Mayorunas as late as 1852 had to defend
themselves occasionally against the Cocamas of
Nauta, who are great fishermen and boatmen and
who crossed from the north side of the Amazon
into the Mayoruna country to take home
prisoners, generally children. The Mayorunas
retaliated whenever opportunity offered.
Herndon met a Conibo dandy with his wife
and two children on the lower Ucayali. " He
was painted with a broad stripe of red under
each eye; three narrow stripes of blue were
carried from one ear, across the upper lip, to the
other — the two lower stripes plain and the upper
one bordered with figures. The lower jaw and
chin were painted with a blue chain- work of
figures something resembling Chinese figures.
Around his neck was a broad tight necklace of
black and white beads, with a breast-plate of the
same hanging from it and partly concealed by
the long gown or cushma. His wrists were also
adorned with wide bracelets of white beads, and
above these a bracelet of lizard skins set round
with monkeys' teeth. He wore a little silver
shield hanging from his nose, and a narrow, thin
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 187
plate of silver shaped like a paddle two and a
half inches long thrust through a hole in the
lower lip and hanging on the chin. He had been
to Cuzco, where he got his silver ornaments, and
said it was a journey of four moons."
" The Conibos, Shipebos, Setebos, Pirros,
Remos and Amajuacas are the vagabonds of the
Ucayali, wandering from place to place and
settling where they take a fancy. They are
great boatmen and fishermen."
Paul Marcoy describes his first meeting with a
band of Chontaquiros : " They were athletic, wide-
awake fellows. The sac they wore was shorter
than that of the Antis (Campos), while their
heads were hooded with a sort of cowl which
preserved both the head and shoulders from the
sun. Their faces were striped with black lines,
their eyes encircled with red paint in the fashion
of spectacles, besides which their hands and arms
up to the elbow, as well as their feet and legs as
high as the knee, were decorated with a coat of
black paint obtained from the fruit of the
genipahua"
Regarding the Campos Indians of the Tambo
branch of the Ucayali, the engineer Cipriani in a
report published in a Boletin of the Peruvian
Ministerio de Fomento, 1905, says : " They are
numerous, and although they belong to a single
tribe they are divided into tw r o fractions, the
188 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Cara-biris and the Cara-guas, who are the most
numerous, and who occupy a grand region on
the right margin of the Pampa Hermosa. These
fractions profess irreconcilable hatred for each
other and frequently engage in mortal strife."
Marcoy remarks of the Cocamas whom he
found near the mouth of the Ucayali that, like
the Jibaros, they came from the equatorial
country, having descended the Morona, Pastaza
and Chambira, which flow into the upper Maranon
from the north, and that they settled round the
lakes Sapota and Pucata in the Pampa del
Sacramento which commences on the north side
of the river Pachitea ; whence, a little later, they
removed to the Huallaga missions. There the
crossing of their race with the Balzanos and
Cumbazas rapidly modified the original type.
None exist now in the wild state, but " have a
gloss of civilization like garlic on the bread of
the mechanic."
When the mission of Omaguas, founded on
the right bank of the upper Maranon in 1697,
was abandoned, a portion of its inhabitants
ascended the Huallaga and settled in the Chris-
tian village of Cocamas, and later emigrated with
these to the Pampa del Sacramento. The fusion
of the two tribes caused a modification in the
original type of each, and, as Marcoy has said,
there have been no pure-blooded Omaguas in
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 189
Peru since the end of the eighteenth century.
The Peruvian Omaguas in Brazil are known as
XJmauas.
The Marahuas, a branch of the Mayoruna tribe,
and, like them, speaking Tupi, occupy the south
side of the Amazon about half-way between the
Ucayali and Yavari rivers. Some fractions of
them are found on the banks of the Yavari and
even on the Jurua ; they numbered all told, in 1870,
only about 300, while the Mayorunas, although
extending 200 miles along the Amazon and 90
up the Ucayali, then numbered but about 800.
They differed from each other in toilette. Follow-
ing the custom of the American savage when
separating from the parent tribe, the Marahuas
adopted a costume and ornamentation of their
own, and instead of shaving their heads and
marking the face with black figures, pieces of
silver and feathers of the ara, Marcoy found them
letting their hair float loose and the mouth bored
full of holes in which were inserted needles of the
palm six inches long.
The Huallaga
The Huallaga, which joins the Amazon to the
west of the Ucayali, rises high among the moun-
tains in about 11° S. lat., in lake Chiquiacoba
in the plains of Bombon, near the Cerro de Pasco.
For nearly the whole of its length it finds its way
190 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
through a succession of gorges, an impetuous
torrent running seldom less than six miles an
hour. Besides forty-two rapids it has other
formidable impediments even to canoe navi-
gation, among which are many floating trees
and snags. Large river steamers can ascend to
the Pongo de Aguirre, 140 miles, but canoe
navigation terminates at Tingo-Maria, 700 miles
above its mouth. Part of the lower river is
much broken up by islands, and from Yurimaguas
to the Amazon there are extensive lakes and great
districts subject to floods. The entire valley is
infested with vast clouds of ravenous mosquitoes.
The basin of the Huallaga has, therefore, never
offered many advantages for tribal occupation
and expansion, and must have been repellent to
Indian migratory peoples, always forcing them
to disintegrate to accommodate themselves to
the character of the country. The salt mines
near the mouth of the Huallaga must, however,
have been sought from far and wide by the tribes
of the upper Amazon and its tributaries.
This river, in recent times, is occupied by
christianized Indians gathered into missionary
reductions where different tribes and small un-
named hordes have become amalgamated and
consequently all distinctive tribal characteristics
have ceased to exist. The numerous rapids and
shallows between the head of canoe navigation,
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 191
615 geographical miles up-stream from Chasuta,
which is the head of steamboat navigation, 258
geographical miles above the mouth of the Hual-
laga, must have kept the tribes at all times very
distinctive.
Just below the mouth of the river San Miguel
de Sucumbios at the head-waters of the Putumayo
is the place called Concepcion Vieja, near which
is the hamlet of Tapacunti, where Senor Codazzi,
about the middle of the last century, met a mulatto
who lived there with his family. He made
yearly voyages by canoe down the Putumayo to
the Amazon, and thence ascending this river and
the Maranon to the mouth of the Huallaga went
up this stream a considerable distance to get salt,
with which he carried on a small trade. 1
1 See Raimondi's El Peru, Vol. Ill, p. 534. Nearly all
of the Indians of the Ucayali as well as nearly all of the
tribes of the upper Amazons and those of the Napo provide
themselves with salt from the lower Huallaga at Callanyacu
and Pilluana. They gather it in large pieces which they
reduce to powder into which they dip their meat and fish
as they eat. But the Campas of the upper Ucayali get their
salt from the Carro de Sal near the Rio Perene and suck bits
of it in their mouths. The Casibos, Remos and Amahuocas
eat no salt whatever and, according to Padre Lucioli, when
children of these tribes are taken prisoners by the whites or
by Indians who salt their food it at first makes them very ill,
causing violent fever and diseases of the skin ; but after a
time they become completely accustomed to it.
The greater part of the Indians use much pepper as a
condiment.
192 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Among the tribes of the Huallaga are :
The Cocamillas on the east side near its
mouth.
The Jibaros on the west side up the Apena
river to its head-waters and along the south side
of the Amazon.
The Aguanas : a mission on the east side of
the Huallaga, about 5° 30' S.
The Burgenos on the east side of the same
stream at the mission of Santa Maria, and a little
farther up at the mission of Yurimaguas.
They are also found on the south side of the
Amazon just below the mouth of the Huallaga,
and on both sides of the river Canapanos. Again
we find them at about 6° 10' lat. at a mission just
north of the river Cainarachi.
The Yumbos are at a mission at about 6° 15' lat.
on the Huallaga.
The Chasutas at 6° 20' S. lat. on same river.
The Paimas and Suchichi are west of the
Huallaga between its great bend to the south-
west and the river Cainarachi, which comes from
the south-west.
The Chumbasa at a mission at 6° 35' lat. on the
Huallaga.
The Cholones occupy the district between
7° and 10° S. lat. west from the Huallaga to the
Maranon.
The Indians of this tribe whom Herndon found
LOWLAND AMAZONIA 193
at Tingo-Maria, the head of canoe navigation on
the Huallaga, he pronounced as better in character
than any whom he afterwards met — " good-
tempered, cheerful and sober, and by far the
largest and finest looking of the aborigines."
CHAPTER VI
THE EASTERN SLOPE OF THE ANDES
The upper waters of the Mamore, north-west
to those of the Madre de Dios, does not yield in
ethnological interest to any part of the Amazon
valley. To the Incas, the portion north-west
of the upper Beni river was a source of such
anxiety that it kept them constantly on the alert
in dread that its numerous hostile tribes might
force the passes of the eastern cordillera and
threaten even Cuzco itself. This region is one of
the most healthy and beautiful in the world, and
nature has lavishly endowed it with precious
gifts. Great rivers with countless branches,
pillowed high among the snows, nourish lands of
incomparable fertility, and wind among the
Andean foothills, which are richly clothed with
exuberant vegetation. Magna Graecia never
offered a home which pandered to greater bodily
indulgence. Overlooking it all is a vast crescent
of snow peaks flanked by the gigantic domes
of Illimani and Illampu (the Resplendent), or
Sorata, of almost matchless magnificence. No
194
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 195
wonder that an old friend of mine * located
the Garden of Eden on the lower slopes of Sorata.
The most north-eastern hills of the Andes
which penetrate the Beni region terminate at
about 14° S. lat., in the vicinity of Tumupasa
and Ixiamas, thence one looks upon a plain of
unlimited horizon as level as the ocean. The
Andean boundary line of this plain, which is
that of the ancient Mojos lake, takes an irregular
course to the junction of the river Heath with
the Mayu-tata, and then north to the Acre.
South-easterly from Ixiamas, it runs sinuously
to Trinidad on the Mamore tributary of the
Madeira. It was the debatable frontier between
the Orient-Andean tribes and those of the
plains.
According to Garcilasso, the Inca Rocca, a
successor of Manco Capac, entrusted to his son,
Yahuar-Huaccac, an expedition of 15,000 men to
conquer this region, then called Antisuyu. He
easily penetrated from Cuzco to Paucartambo,
and thence with great difficulty to the Tono, a
little mountain tributary of the Mayu-tata, but
1 Emeterio Villamil. He belonged to a prominent family
of La Paz, Bolivia. He spoke thirteen languages fluently,
including the Aymara Indian tongue, his MS. essay on
which I have. He was the representative of Boh via, in 1870,
for the demarcation of the boundary line between Bolivia
and Brazil under the treaty made between those countries
in 1868.
o 2
196 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
no farther. Even the great Inca Yupanqui
sent a numerous well-equipped army to conquer
Antisuyu, but, in a campaign of several years'
duration, the remnant of it which the savage
tribes spared they absorbed. It is probable,
however, that the Indians of the Orient- Andean
slopes once held some slack allegiance to the
imperial authorities of Cuzco, as is evidenced
by the ancient military road which the Incas
opened by Suri and Camata. It passes near
Aten by the height of Altuncama, near
Apolobamba, and runs northward; then goes
through the gorge of Siliamas and continues to
San Jose de Chupiamonos. At the high points
of the pampa it has small fortifications. The
good Padre Fidel Codinach told me at the convent
of La Paz, in 1869, that near Ixiamas he " found
an Inca road running from the direction of Cuzco
towards the Rio Beni. It was about twenty-five
feet wide and long lengths of it, well paved, are
still visible." This was probably an extension of
the same road above mentioned.
Soon after the conquest of Peru by the
Spaniards the savage tribes at the eastern base
of the Andes completely resumed their inde-
pendence. The partial rule of the Incas was
forgotten among them, except on the Tono river,
where traces of Inca settlements can still be
found.
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 197
Only a short period of time elapsed from the
date of the Spanish conquest before an expedition
of note attempted to reach the Mayu-tata or
Madre de Dios. The conclusion of the civil war
between the Pizarros and Almagro in southern
Peru (in 1538) left Hernando Pizarro surrounded
by many dangerous and turbulent followers, of
whom he desired to rid himself. He therefore
authorized Pedro de Candia to lead a body of
300 men from Cuzco to conquer the Orient- Andean
region. Herrera says that Candia entered by
the slope which is limited on the north by the
river Opotari and south by the valley of Cocha-
bamba which is called the Mojos road, and that
finally he took the route across the Tono Andes,
and in Opotari, three leagues from Tono, found a
large town, thirty leagues from Cuzco. Thence,
after four days' march through a dense forest,
they were opposed by savage hordes, and after
infinite sufferings the expedition returned by the
way of Caravaya.
Pizarro then deprived Candia of his command
and allowed one of his most esteemed com-
panions, Pero Anzuras de Camporedondo, to
organize a force to conquer the province of Mojos
by the way of Caravaya, the Inca name of which
was Collahuaya. He gathered a large and
enthusiastic band of adventurers supported by
several thousand Quichua Indians and started
198 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
(in 1539) from the town of Ayaviri. He de-
scended the mountains to Sandia and San Juan del
Oro, centres for the working of the rich placers
of Caravaya, which had been worked in Incarial
times, but by which pass is unknown — probably
by one within about one hundred miles of the
river Tono. He then entered the present Bolivian
province of Caupolican, called Zama, from which
is derived the name of the town of Ixiamas or
Ysiama of to-day, in the north of the same
province.
Ixiamas, Tumupasa, Aten and Cavinas form
a large district, west of the middle Beni river,
occupied by Tacana Indians. The expedition
seems to have crossed this great river, which
they called the Amapalcas, and to have pene-
trated far to the south-east into the territory of
Mojos. It probably reached the Mamore river
a little to the south of the present town of
Trinidad. Then, sending out a small scouting
party, a great river was discovered running from
east to west, doubtless the Grande branch of the
Mamore. After five months of terrible hard-
ships, the expedition returned to the town of
Ayaviri, having lost 4,000 Indians and negroes
and 143 Spaniards. The former suffered from
hunger to such an extent that as fast as their
companions died the survivors ate them.
In 1567, the rival expeditions of Tordoya
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 199
and Maldonado, numbering several hundred
adventurers, penetrated to the head-waters of
the Mayu-tata. Here, for three days, they so
fiercely fought against each other in the dense
forests that nearly all of them were killed. The
few who remained alive were beset by the savages,
who killed Tordoya and captured Maldonado.
Other expeditions of minor importance followed
during the Spanish colonial period, but accom-
plished nothing.
In 1835, the English General Miller descended
from Cuzco to the forests of Paucartambo ; but,
during the first half of the past century, the
War of Independence and the general exhaustion
which followed left the tribes on the eastern slope
of the Andes to bury in oblivion the memories
of Spanish inroads upon their forest strongholds.
Several coca estates continued to exist, but were
constantly encroached upon by the warlike
Chuncho Indians.
In 1851, Lieutenant Gibbon of the United States
navy reached the Tono from the Andean table-
land. Sir Clements Markham penetrated into
the forests of Paucartambo in June, 1852, and
reached the hacienda of San Miguel, where he
found the good Padre Bovo de Revello, an Italian
Carmelite monk, with his little flock of neophytes.
He had changed the name of the river " Amaru-
mayu " of the Incas to Madre de Dios, for the
200 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
reason that the savages after having killed a
number of his people, had thrown the image of
the Virgin Mary into the water, which, after having
been carried down-stream by the current, was
found on a rock in the middle of the river. It
seems destined to retain the name conferred
upon it by the pious friar, although known to
the Incas as the Amaru-mayu or " Serpent river."
In 1860, the gallant Peruvian, Faustino Maldo-
nado, with a scantily equipped party of only
twelve men, essayed the task of descending the
Amaru-mayu throughout its length. He reached
the Tono, built a raft, fought his way through
the savage tribes, entered the Beni and, soon
after, the Madeira, where in the cataract called
the Caldeir&o do Inferno, or Caldron of Hell,
he lost his life. I was nearly wrecked there in
1871. It is a terrible combination of reefs, rapids
and whirlpools about a mile and a half long.
It is not surprising that Colonel La Torre,
Prefect of Cuzco, pronounced the " Madre de
Dios " the broad, open tomb for explorers. It
received him also, in his expedition of 1873. He
reached a point near the main river, and died
pierced by thirty-four Indian arrows.
Besides the numerous efforts made to explore
and occupy the region of the Amaru-mayu by
descending the Andes to the east of Cuzco, many
expeditions, during and after the Spanish colonial
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 201
period, attempted to reach the lower Beni and
Mayu-tata districts by way of the river Beni
from La Paz, and from Sandia in Caravaya.
The Franciscan convent at La Paz was
especially zealous in its efforts to establish
missions in the territory indicated, and clung
tenaciously, but not always successfully, to any
foothold it gained. Cavinas, on the middle
Beni, appears to have been its main outpost.
In 1560, Diego Aleman, a resident and one
of the founders of La Paz, organized a company
of adventurers to discover the lands watered by
the Mayu-tata. He descended the mountains
north of Cochabamba, but, on the borders of
Mojos was routed and made prisoner by the
Indians. Then followed the licenciados Balboa
and Garces, who reached the Mayu-tata but
returned on account of insufficient resources.
The information gained caused Padre Miguel
de Urrea to try his fortunes. After remaining
for a considerable period of time, he was killed
by the Sabainas. Then followed the curate
Calacoto, who was forced to return without
result.
Padre Rafael Sains, in his Memoria historica
del Colegio de San Jose de La Paz a (unpublished),
1 See " Limites de la Provincia de Caupolican 6 Apolo-
bamba," por Carlos Bravo, La Paz, 1890, in my Bolivia
Nordoeste.
202 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
says that Pedro de Alegui Urquiza obtained from
the king a privilege to conquer Caupolican.
With a strong expedition he founded his first
town, San Juan de Sahagun de Mojos, and then
Apolobamba, and pressed on to Aquachile, an
Indian town, where he died of fever. His dis-
heartened followers then abandoned the two last-
named places and retired to Mojos.
Padre Gregorio Bolivar, in 1620 and afterwards
in 1631, penetrated northward from La Paz into
the lower Beni and Mayu-tata, but was never
heard of again. In 1629, the Jesuit friar,
Bernardo Rheus, from the Andes of La Paz
reached a point to the north of Apolobamba and
perished by the hands of the savages. The
Dominican monk Tomas de Chares wandered, for
fourteen years, alone to the north of Cochabamba
in Mojos and the Beni. He returned to the
convent of La Paz, and died about 1656. Friar
Domingo Alvarez de Toledo took up the work,
and, by the way of Caravaya, went forty leagues
northward into the territory of the Toromona
savages in the Mayu-tata basin.
From Padre Rafael Sains we learn that Gabriel
Gonzales undertook the conquest of Paytiti in
1670, but returned after a fruitless expedition.
Several missionaries, whose names he gives,
reached the lands of the Araunas in 1680, where
they remained two years, and retired disconsolate
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 203
at the ill success of their mission. Seven more
then went from Sandia, and under most dis-
heartening difficulties founded ten reductions,
or Indian settlements, in two years, some of
which were afterwards abandoned. From this
time forward, the persistent missionary fathers,
especially those of the convent of La Paz, generally
held the ground they had gained, but never found
it possible to effect a permanent lodgment in
the basin of the Mayu-tata. It is probable that
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries they
possessed much more information than the geo-
graphical world in general regarding northern and
north-western Bolivia, and that the convents of
Cuzco, Moqueguo, Juli on lake Titicaca and
La Paz still contain much unpublished data
describing the country, the course of the rivers,
and manners and customs of the Indian tribes.
The intrepid Padre Mancini, who resided from
1850 to 1864 in Mocetenes and northern Caupoli-
can, directed his steps westward from his mission
station, and, alone, with cross in hand, travelled
over an immense extent of unknown country,
visiting many Indian tribes, such as the Guaca-
naguas, Machins, and Toromonas. He then
turned northward, remained for a time with the
Araunas, crossed the Mayu-tata, and entered the
country of the Pacaguaras, lying between that
river and the Puriis. He made a rude map of
204 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
his peregrinations which I saw at the Recoleta
convent of La Paz (in 1869), to which he
belonged.
In 1866, two Franciscan friars, from the same
convent, reached the Mayu-tata, five days' journey
north-west of their mission at Cavinas. I often
met one of these good men at the above-named
convent, Padre Fidel Codinach, a native of
Spain, of half Spanish, half French blood, who
gave me much information regarding the valley
of the Mayu-tata and many notes from his
journal. Between the Madidi branch of the
Beni and the Mayu-tata, besides a considerable
district north of the latter river, all of the tribes
speak the Tacana language. It is almost totally
different from either Quichua or Aymara. The
Tacanas cannot count beyond six. With refer-
ence to their lands, they are unsurpassed in
beauty, as much for their topography as for
their fertility and richness; they cover a broad
space, about four degrees of latitude and about
eight of longitude. The position is exceedingly
agreeable — now extensive groves, which are
suddenly replaced by delightful pasture lands,
now by brooks, rivers and lakes filled by numer-
ous kinds of fish. The most perfect salubrity
of climate exists, despite the warm temperature.
The groves are delightful and filled with all that
gives pleasure — the leafy and productive almond
tree (probably the Brazil nut), " the aromatic
EASTERN SLOPES OF THE ANDES 205
gum, and the palm ranging from the highest to
the lowest, from the royal to the smallest. Hidden
riches exist in these lands, grateful and filled
with perfume, gum and wax abundant and varied.
Here are found cabinet woods, medicinal plants
and many other valuable products, without
mentioning the great mineral wealth of the
district."
In 1880-1881, Dr. Edwin R. Heath explored
and mapped the Beni river from Reyes to its
mouth. With a rotten old canoe and two
Indian paddlers he descended the river, fixed
the mouth of the Mayu-tata, and solved what
had been a great South American geographical
problem for centuries. The commercial effect
upon the region was marvellous, and to-day it
is the great producing area of the finest rubber
shipped from the Amazon valley. I have com-
mented on the resultant effects of rubber pro-
duction upon the Indian tribes of the Orient-
Andean region, and the consequent difficulties
which beset an ethnological study of them in
their present condition.
[The lamented death of the author while the work con-
nected with the exploration of the Beni and its tributaries
was in progress, prevented the completion of this chapter.
Had he been spared, he would doubtless have dwelt upon
the Bolivian expeditions, on the labours of the Peruvian
officers and surveyors employed by the Commission of
Vias Fluviales, and on the recent work of Captain Fawcett
connected with the Peru-Bolivian boundary.]
CHAPTER VII
THE CHIRIGUANOS
The Chiriguano country, up to a very recent
date, comprised the whole north-western border
of the Gran Chacu from the upper waters of the
Rio Bermejo to north of Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
say from 22° 80' to 16° 30' S. lat., and the spurs
and foothills of the Andean Massif to within
a short distance of the present cities of Tarija
and Chuquisaca — a beautiful region, the area
of which may be estimated roughly at 60,000
square miles.
On the Chacu side, the Chiriguanos had
the sometimes hostile, sometimes friendly, in-
domitable Tobas, implacable enemies of the
whites. On their Andean frontier were tribes
which the Incas had subjugated but which thd
Chiriguanos constantly harassed. The Incas
caused forts to be built at various points to
guard their vassals from the raids of these
terrible savages, and prevent the payment of
tribute to them.
During colonial days the Spaniards confined
their route of conquest to the immediate vicinity
206
THE CHIRIGUANOS 207
of the Parana and Paraguay rivers, and did not
cross the inhospitable Chaco except far to the
north, on the borders of Chiquitos, with a view
to open a transitable route between Paraguay
and Peru. Their first expedition was headed
by the Governor of Asuncion, Juan de Ayola,
in 1537. From the bank of the Paraguay river,
at 21° S. lat., at a point now called Fort Olimpo,
he penetrated westward and was massacred with
his whole following by the Indians. From that
time to 1560, several other Spanish expeditions
took up the task but entered the country much
further to the north, generally from the Laguna
Gaiba. Irala led one as far west as the present
site of Santa Cruz de la Sierra at the base of the
Andes, the northern outpost of the Chiriguanos.
But their Chacu frontier has remained unas-
sailed up to the present day. On the Peruvian
side their war-like fame preserved them from
attack, although they often raided the province of
Chichas, robbing haciendas and killing travellers,
and threatening the security of trade between
the Plata provinces and those of Peru.
At length in 1574, the Viceroy, Francisco de
Toledo, caused the founding of the town of
San Bernardo de la Frontera in the valley of
Tarija, and conceded to Luis de Fuentes, a
distinguished Spaniard, a large area of country
extending thirty leagues eastward into the
208 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
territory of the Chiriguanos; but he found it
impossible to subdue them, and they waged
continuous war against his settlement of Tarija,
defining their frontier by a blood-red line.
Confederated with the Calchaquies, they
blotted out five towns — San Miguel, Cahete,
Nueva Cordoba, Londres and Nieva.
In 1575, the Dominicans founded a convent
at Tarija to be followed later by the Augustins,
and afterwards by the Franciscans.
The isolation of the Chiriguanos from the field
of general disturbance during colonial times,
enabled them to preserve their distinctive char-
acteristics better than any other section of the
Caraio race, and the accounts which we have of
their virility, intelligence, independence of spirit,
love of liberty and intrepidity enable us to under-
stand why, prior to the conquest, the Caraios
became dominant from the Atlantic coast of
South America to the base of the Andes.
According to the Friars of Tarija, Chiriguano
is a composite term meaning estericol frio (cold
excrement), an opprobrious name given to them
by the ancient vassals of the Incas, but they,
with boastful antonomasia, call themselves Aba,
which signifies man. The women they call
cuna, the boys cunumi and the Christians Cardi. 1
1 The name of their own race, which means able, expert,
sagacious.
THE CHIRIGUANOS 209
In general the white inhabitants of the frontier
of Tarija make use of these terms with the same
meaning.
The friars of Tarija differ from Don Lorenzo
Suarez de Figueroa as to the derivation of
Chiriguano. The latter in his Relacidn de la
Ciudad de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, of which he
was Governor, says, regarding the Chiriguanos,
" The proper name of these people is Carlo, from
which is derived the name Caribes which they
bear, and which means ' eaters of human flesh.'
They also call themselves Guaranis and Guarans
which signifies c warriors.' They are also known
as Chiriguanaes, which means mestizos, their
children by Indian women of other nations. It
is said that their origin and beginning is the
coast of Brazil, and that they have gone on
covering many parts and provinces, populating
lands where there are many other tribes so as to
exercise their natural cruelty against the human
race." 1
Padre Lozano estimates that, at the beginning
of the eighteenth century, the Chiriguanos could
put a force of from 25,000 to 35,000 armed
warriors in the field, apart from a vast number
of women and children.
During the early days of the conquest they
1 Relaciones Geogrdficas de Indias, Peru, 1885. Original
(1586) in the Archivo de Indias, Patronato Real,
p
210 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
soon learned that any tribe which accepted the
rule of the invader was doomed to slavery, and
that the white man was the very essence of
lying and dishonesty ; that, coiled in the breviary
of the friar, was the lash of the Spaniard whom
Atahualpa had trusted. Hence it is not sur-
prising to find one of the missionaries regretting
the " extreme repugnance of the Chiriguanos to
receive Christian civilization, and his indomitable
tenacity in maintaining his independence."
The religious teachers who penetrated the
wilds of South America with such devotion and
courage frequently praise the docility and fine
qualities of the tribes which welcomed their
teaching and submitted to be formed into re-
ductions or missions, but, with regard to the
tribes which remained recalcitrant, they too
often found no words or epithets sufficiently
severe to depict their barbarism and degradation.
These facts must not be forgotten when studying
their writings.
Garcilaso de la Vega remarks that the Chiri-
guanos " were never conquered by the Inca
kings." His account of what the spies of the
Inca Yupanqui reported regarding them is re-
volting, and, in the light of subsequent knowledge,
must be rejected as very improbable, if not wholly
untrue, like much that we find in his Royal
Commentaries of the Incas. The ambitious
THE CHIRIGUANOS 211
Yupanqui undertook the conquest of the Chiri-
guanos with a well-equipped army of 10,000 men,
commanded by captains selected from his own
family. They descended from the Andean
plateau and, after a futile campaign of two
years' duration, the remnant of the force returned
to the mountains badly defeated. This occurred
about the middle of the fifteenth century.
It is worthy of notice that when this great
Inca conqueror made war against the Chiri-
guanos he was, according to Garcilasso, projecting
the conquest of Chile by way of the desert of
Atacama, but there are strong reasons to believe
that the route which he opened for his far
southern expedition was " by the way of Chuqui-
saca, Jujuy and the valley of Salta, and from
there, by the gorge of Escoipe, up the slope of
the Obispo, through Angastaco, Tolombon,
Balasto, Hualfin, Conando and San Francisco
to Copiapo. This is confirmed by the accounts
of the first Spaniards who penetrated that dis-
trict, and by the fortifications, tambos and
Ingahuasis which abound there." x Montasinos 2
relates that the Inca " sent many officials in
advance to open and make a main road from the
Charcas to Chile by way of the Chiriguanos, for
there was already one from Cuzco to the Charcas."
1 See Tesoro de Catamarquenismos, by Lafone Quevedo.
2 Memorias Antiguas Historiales y Politicas del Peril.
p 2
212 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
"This," says Lafone Quevedo, " is none other than
the famous Inca road which, passing by Chicuana
and the opening of San Francisco, reached
Copiapo. It is the same road traversed by
Almagro and other conquistador es of the south."
There is no doubt that this was the best possible
route which could be selected for the invasion of
Chile. It ensured supplies which were unobtain-
able along any road which could be opened
through the arid, bleak, unpopulated and almost
intransitable mountain region lying further to
the west as far as the Pacific coast ; but no doubt,
to the mind of Yupanqui, there was one great
objection to it — the country of the terrible
Chiriguanos bordered it on the east for hundreds
of miles and, at any moment, it would be in
their power to cut communications with Chile
and jeopardize the existence of the Inca army;
and to show in what respect the Chiriguanos
were held by the Incarial tribes, we may quote
Garcilasso, who says, " Owing to their fierceness
and cruelty they are feared by all their neigh-
bours, and a hundred and even a thousand men
will not stand up against ten Chiriguanos.
Children are quieted and silenced by their very
name."
Hence, as a preliminary to his great southern
campaign, Yupanqui found it imperatively neces-
sary to try to drive the Chiriguanos further
THE CHIRIGUANOS 213
afield, but although his army was defeated he
probably inflicted such losses upon them that
they left his communications with Chile un-
molested.
In 1556, Andres Manso, when he founded the
town which he called La Rioja, sent a captain,
Luis de Cabrera, to locate another to be called
La Barranca, on the bank of the river Guapay
or Grande. These settlements were in Chiri-
guano territory. The chronicles do not relate
what the relations became between the colonists
and the Indians, but doubtless they were no
exception to the rule, and resulted in the de-
struction of the " odious colonies " and the
massacre of every inhabitant of them except
Cabrera, who escaped. The camps settled by
Manso himself are still known as the Llanos
de Manso.
The Chiriguano country was afterwards in-
vaded by a Spanish army. Father Corrado
relates that the Indians having heard of the
decapitation of Tupac Amaru by order of the
Viceroy of Peru, determined to avenge his
cruelty by making him ridiculous. Thirty of
them presented themselves at the government
house at Chuquisaca, making humble reverence
at the oratory in the reception room, and, with
great devotion, presented several crosses to the
Viceroy, assuring him that they had received
214 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
them from the angels who had descended from
the skies to preach to them and had sent them
to beg for missionaries to teach them the Christian
faith. The delighted Viceroy ordered them to
be received in procession in the cathedral, and,
in common with the clergy of the city was
stupefied at the prodigy. He ordered mission-
aries to be sent as they had requested. But
his pride was terribly wounded when, on the
first tempestuous night, the deputation from the
Chiriguanos clandestinely disappeared with all
the food which they had accumulated, joined
their friends who awaited them near the city
and fled to their Chacu stronghold. The burlesque
thus perpetrated against the dignity of the
Viceroy had the result which the Chiriguanos
had probably anticipated. It so enraged him
that he determined to subdue them. At the
head of a large force of Spanish troops and
Indian auxiliaries with abundant arms, ammuni-
tion and supplies, he invaded their country, but
suffered an ignominious defeat and was obliged
to retreat, with the loss not only of his supplies
but of his personal baggage. He fled by such
a difficult road that his followers had to carry
him in a litter while the Chiriguanos followed on
his heels, derisively shouting to the bearers to
" throw the old woman out of the basket that
they might eat her alive."
THE CHIRIGUANOS 215
For many years after the ridiculous adventures
of the Viceroy Toledo, the Chiriguanos raided
the Gran Chacu border of the Andes wherever
they found a town to harass or a Spaniard to
be killed; in fact, for nearly three centuries
these redoubtable Caraio warriors collected a
blood tribute from the invaders of their lands.
So bitter and devastating were their ferocious
attacks that, in 1584, Don Felipe, King of
Castile, issued a formal declaration of war
against them, saying that they had even reached
a point within two days' march of La Plata
(Chuquisaca), where they killed a friar of the
order of San Francisco, and he instructed " the
President and Oidores and the Captains expert
in the mode of warfare of the Chiriguanos to
make organized war against them with fire and
sword, giving as slaves any whom they might
capture."
From the Missionary College of Tarija we
derive much information regarding the Chiri-
guanos, the efforts to found missions among them
and their manners, habits and culture. 1
Prior to the expedition of the Viceroy Toledo,
a Carmelite friar and others had penetrated the
Chiriguano district, but were obliged to return.
Even the Jesuits, up to the time of their
1 Vide, El Colegio Franciscano de Tarija y sus Misiones,
for dos Misioneros del misino Colegio, Quaracci, 1884.
216 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
expulsion from South America in 1767, had
succeeded in forming but one small reduction
among them.
In 1607, the Padres Samaniego and Oliva
travelled among the tribes of the Rio Guapay,
and Padres Ortega and Villanao among those on
the Chaco frontier of Tarija, but after two years
they returned despairing of converting any of
the Indians to the Christian faith.
About two years later, at the instigation of
the Indians themselves, Friars Augustin Sabio
and Francisco Gonzales reached the Chiriguano
villages of Tambavera and Tayaguasu, where
they were cordially received, and commenced
their labours. They built a church, embellished
it with sacred images and religious decorations,
and every day, " convoked the savages to hear
the celestial doctrine, but like seed fallen on
stony ground it took no root." The Chiriguanos
revolted, sacked the church and the houses of
the friars and split open the head of the inter-
preter with a machete.
More than twenty years passed before the
evangel was heard among them again. In 1631
three Franciscans, Gregorio Bolivar, Juan San-
chez and Luis de Jesus, left Cochabamba for
the Indian country, equipped only with an
ornament for saying mass. They disappeared
among the Andean gorges and were never heard
THE CHIRIGUANOS 217
of again. Years afterwards, some Chiriguanos
told the Spaniards that the friars had been bound
to trees and filled with arrows.
Jesuit friars tried it next, some by the way of
Tomina and others by Santa Cruz de la Sierra,
but they returned convinced of the futility of
their efforts. Among them was Friar Cipriano
Baraza, who for four years had made famous
progress in missionary work among the Mojos.
His success led him to attempt the spiritual
conquest of the Chiriguanos in 1679, but the
hostility of his reception caused him to return to
the Mojos. A few years later the brother of Friar
Baraza arrived at Tarija to take charge of the
missionary college founded by the Marquis of Tojo
in 1690, for the religious subjugation of the tribes
of the Gran Chacu, and especially the Chiriguanos.
Hardly were the sons of San Ignacio installed
in their college when two of them, Arce and Zea,
plunged down the mountain slopes to explore
the field of their labours and traverse it from
the Rio Bermejo to Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
They were hospitably received, and when re-
turning promised the Indians to visit them
again. The result was that the Jesuits estab-
lished a mission on the river Guapay, where the
Indians were more docile than those near Tarija,
for here the only response they gave to the
friars was that they would burn them alive if
218 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
they dared to plant missions in their territory.
Undismayed, however, the courageous Padre
Arce, in 1691, founded the mission of San
Ignacio, about thirty leagues from Tarija. The
savages received the missionaries with mockery
and laughter, and refused them the slightest
service. After three years of fruitless sufferings
the friars returned to their college.
In 1696, owing to the raid which the Brazilian
slave hunters made on the Mojos reductions, "the
old suspicion was revived among the Chiriguanos
that the missionaries were only the precursors
of the Spaniards, who would come and enslave
them." This well-founded belief so impressed
them that they fired the church and chased the
friars away.
With the eighteenth century came further
strenuous effort, and this time the Dominicans
and Augustins succeeded in founding the re-
ductions of Nuestra Senora del Rosario, San
Miguel, Santa Rosa, and a fourth, in the valley
of Salinas, called Santa Clara. About the same
time, the Presbyter, Cristoval Nunez, in 1700,
established another on the Chiriguano frontier,
called Tomina.
Meantime a storm was brewing. The Indians
of the Tarija frontier had become convinced
that the chain of reductions which the missionaries
were founding " was for the purpose of deliver-
THE CHIRIGUANOS 219
ing them to the Spaniards." In 1727, with pre-
concerted action, their hordes swept along the
Andean slope and carried fire and devastation
fromTarija to Santa Cruz dela Sierra, destroying
the missions, burning the churches and driving
the friars back to the mountains. With a view
to chastise them for their audacity, and lower
their pride, the Viceroy at Lima caused the
provincial militia to make severe reprisals. The
troops made a campaign of four months' dura-
tion, during which period of time " they burned
many Chiriguano villages, destroyed the crops,
killed 300 Indians, and captured 1000 more."
The Chiriguanos were, for a time, submissive
but unconquered. At the request of a small
fraction of them on the left bank of the Guapay,
two padres commenced a small reduction on the
little river Piray, at a point about thirty miles
north-west of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
In 1732, three Jesuit friars, Lizardi, Pons and
Chome, from Paraguay, arrived at Tarija with
the avowed purpose of conquering the Chiri-
guanos, and penetrated among them with great
intrepidity, but, as the result of their perilous
wanderings, the Provincial wrote, " Humanly
speaking, there is no hope whatever of the
conversion of the Chiriguanos, Manus Domini
non est abbreviata; but they will sooner allow them-
selves to be cut in pieces than become Christians,
220 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
so great is the horror they have for this name."
The Provincial determined that " such obstinate
and indomitable people should be left to the
malignity of their hearts." He evidently could
not realize that hereditary instincts and mode of
life during long centuries had taught these savages
to prefer a cup of chicha to-day rather than the
chance of a feast with the gods after death.
The Chiriguanos did not forget the punishment
ordered by the Viceroy. In May, 1735, a band
of them assaulted the little colony of Santa
Ana, sacked the chapel, killed a Spaniard, tore
off the sacred robes of the Padre Lizardi, de-
stroyed the images of the saints, shot that of
the immaculate virgin full of arrows and then
cut off its head and hands. Then reducing the
town and church to ashes they took the Padre
Lizardi and twenty-three neophytes a league
from the town, stripped the venerable friar of
his clothing, seated him on a rock and shot
thirty-three arrows into him, one of which pene-
trated his heart. In the same year they also
revolted, and burned the church at the mission
on the Rio Piray and threw the bells and images
into a laguna.
Only in the valley of Salinas had the mission-
aries succeeded in preserving a single reduction,
but it was constantly menaced. A few neophytes
under their Padre Pons had been forced to wander
THE CHIRIGUANOS 221
for three years among the valleys of the Bermejo
and Orosas, and had been driven away from their
settlements five times before they rested at
their reduction of Nuestra Sefiora del Rosario.
Such were the results of the efforts to effect the
spiritual subjugation of this small fraction of the
Caraio people up to 1755, when the Franciscans
founded their College of Propaganda Fide at
Tarija.
The Franciscans devoted themselves with much
tact and ardour to the conversion of the tribes
which had proven so inflexible to the teachings
of their predecessors, and, up to 1796, under
terrible difficulties and disappointments, suc-
ceeded in founding several important missions
among the Chiriguanos and Chaneses, but always
under ridicule from the Indians, who protested
against having the Christian religion imposed
upon them. So that, when the missionaries
thought themselves well established, the Indians
rose in defence of their liberties and threatened
to destroy all of the missions. The storm kept
gathering until 1799, when it broke in barbaric
fury. The Chiriguanos blotted out completely
six of the principal reductions, burning the
churches and sweeping everything from the
earth, despite the precaution which had been
taken to garrison some of them with Spaniards ;
but the attempt to destroy the remaining four
222 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
missions was frustrated by the Spanish troops
which held them. In one case, at Tapuitd, the
Indians were repulsed in their assault, which
lasted seven hours. But they haughtily retired
vowing that " the war would not cease until
they had stripped every estate of its cattle, had
sacked and destroyed every settlement and
driven back to the river Guapay every Christian
in their lands."
The arrival of the Captain General Viedma on
the scene with an army of 2,000 men enabled the
missionaries in the month of April, 1801, to
restore five of their reductions, and the following
June he marched against the Chiriguanos intent
on the destruction of their villages. He burned
a few of them and then beat a hasty retreat, the
Indians following and ridiculing him with the
heads of two of his distinguished captains stuck
on lances. In 1804 the Chiriguanos again raided
some of the missions, especially those of the
Obaig and the river Paropiti, but the persistent
Franciscans restored them during the following
year.
In 1810 Friar Antonio Tomajuncosa, Com-
missary and Prefect of the missions, wrote from
the College of Tarija that the Jesuit fathers after
seventy-seven years of efforts to reduce the
Indians had only succeeded in baptizing 324
souls of all ages, and had left but one mission
THE CHIRIGUANOS 223
at the time of their expulsion from South
America, while subsequently the Franciscans
had twenty-two missions and 16,425 converts
among the Chiriguanos and neighbouring tribes
as the result of their labours of fifty-five years'
duration. This was hardly a fair comparison,
taking into consideration that the Jesuits had
opened the road for the Franciscans.
The celebrated bull of Pope Alexander VI, in
1493, giving all the heathen world to the Christian,
had evidently sunk deeply into the missionary
mind, for the devout Fr. Tomajuncosa com-
plains that, " Only an entirely apostolic spirit
can live among these unfortunate savages, and
perform among them the offices of Father, Master,
Judge and Administrator."
The same worthy padre narrates the spiritual
routine to which the Indians were obliged to
conform at the missions * and it is probable that
it was but little varied in any part of South
America : — "To make Christians of them, morn-
ing and evening are dedicated to teaching them
our Catholic religion. At sunrise, they are called
to the church and there they recite the Christian
doctrine and commend themselves to God, one
day in Spanish and the next in their own tongue.
1 Coleccion de Obras y Documentos relativos a la Historia
Antigua y Moderna de las Provincias del Rio de la Plata,
por Pedro de Angelis. Buenos Ayres, 1836.
224 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Mass follows, and then they retire to their houses.
At sunset they reunite, recite the doctrine and
holy rosary and again commend themselves to
God, and having sung something devout they
go to rest.
" In the new missions, all the prayers are said
by the priests, and when, after several years, the
young men are well instructed, the priest causes
prayer to be recited by one of them in his pre-
sence. Sundays, and on the principal feast days,
some point of the Christian doctrine is explained
to them. Every year, during Lent, they are
examined in it, and all who are capable of doing
so comply with the precepts of the confession
and communion."
Such was the life of solemn routine to which the
missionaries endeavoured to subject the man who
had been nature's spoiled child for many thou-
sands of years. Truly, the task which they
undertook was a difficult one.
From 1810 to 1882 the Chiriguanos refused to
accept any religious teaching, and in 1811 the
neophytes entirely deserted the reduction of
Tariguea, about fifty miles to the south of
Tarija, and fled to their tribe Cuaymbu, while
the Mataguayos of Ceuta, near Oran, were no
less obstinate in their determination to resume
their freedom. It was in the early years of this
period that the colonial war of independence from
THE CHIRIGUANOS 225
Spain took place. It naturally 'caused great
perturbations among all the missions in Spanish
America. Its effect upon those on the borders
of the territory of the Chiriguanos was disastrous,
especially when the patriot troops under General
Belgrano captured Salta and penetrated Alto
Peru to the missions of Acero, Iti, Tayarenda,
and Tapera.
The missionaries and their neophytes adhered
to the royal cause, the result being that many of
the friars were imprisoned by the patriots, and
the neophytes left without guidance. Some of
the reductions were pillaged and others were
destroyed by the Chiriguanos and Tobas, and
the remainder were often the scene of bloody
strife for a long term of years. The neophytes
fled to their tribes in the forest, " and soon forgot
the holy doctrines they had received."
Tranquillity came again with the Proclamation
of Independence, and the Franciscans resumed
their almost superhuman labours, although always
more or less hostilized by the Chiriguanos. They
rebuilt many of their churches in the thirteen
reductions which they reoccupied. The total
population of these in 1883 was 3,299 souls
against 15,812 in 1813. Four missions on the
frontier of Sauces, on the upper Parapati river,
were completely lost and not a vestige of them
remained.
226 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
To those who may condemn the Indians for
their fierce resistance to the establishing of
missions among them and their frequent baptism
of them in blood and flame, it may be well to
recall the lesson which, in colonial days, the
Spanish rulers of the neighbouring province of
Tucuman kept constantly before them. The
province was of vast area, extending from Para-
guay to the Chilian Andes. " The Governors
of Tucuman, from Francisco de Aguirre, had
encomendado the Indians to the conquistador es in
recompense for their services according to orders
of the king. Encomiendas x were instituted en-
tirely for the benefit of the Indians that they
might receive protection from those to whom they
were granted more as fathers and protectors
than masters." They consisted of a certain
number of Indians assigned to each Spanish
settler, and they were supposed to pay a fixed
tribute and to be protected and benefited in
various ways. " Their masters forgot their obli-
gations in great part and assumed despotic
dominion over the miserable Indians, and sought
to enrich themselves by the work to which they
assigned to them without paying any attention
to the orders of the king, nor to the laws of
justice and humanity. They invented iniquitous
1 Apuntes Historicos de Salta en la epoca del Coloniaje, por
Mariano Zorreguieta.
THE CHIRIGUANOS 227
measures to hoard riches at the cost of the lives
of the Indians. One was to assign them to
places remote from their fields, forcing them to
excessive labour, which their masters held as
of small account, and paying with the lash the
smallest fault.
"The Indians lived, deprived of their liberty
without being masters of their wives or children,
to serve everybody irrespective of age or sex.
Innumerable tribes perished, worn out in the
efforts to satiate the avarice of the foreigner.
The overseers also exploited them without re-
muneration, by augmenting their work." . . .
Thus all of the tribes responded to the missionary
fathers, " that Christianity for them was the
surest road to the loss of liberty and slavery to
the Europeans." 'Tis the old, old story of the
whole of Spanish America and Brazil, and it
required the eloquent and burning pen of Las
Casas to elaborate it in all its enormity.
Q2
CHAPTER VII
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU
The missionary fathers of Tarija describe the
Chiriguanos as tall, strong and perfectly de-
veloped; the head large, round and covered
thickly with stiff black hair, which does not
grow grey except in extreme old age. One very
rarely sees a bald head among them. The face
is very broad, but the forehead is not large.
The cheeks are somewhat full and the eyes
oblique and black, the nose gross and roman,
mouth large, lips full, chin round and having
a few hairs. They are of light brown colour, or
rather, that of old parchment which has been
smoked for a time.
The men cut their hair over the forehead as
far as the temples, leaving the rest to grow, which
curiously folds round the head, and which is
bound with a wide, long band, ordinarily red, which
they call yapiciiana. The few hairs of the beard
and under the arms and on other parts of the
body they pluck out with care and cut the eye-
brows and eyelashes. They do not trouble
228
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 229
themselves much about clothing, for when they
are children they go naked, and, when grown
up, any rag suffices, and, lacking this, a handful
of grass. Those who are best off, especially in
their travels, wear a vestment of skins and a
short loose clout made of skins of the peccary.
A gala robe called tiru they wear on feast days.
It is wide and long and covers all the body. To
adorn themselves and preserve the skin as they
say, they frequently anoint the body with a
kind of foetid oil extracted from the fruit of the
palmacristi, and paint the face and legs an intense
red with a rude preparation from the seeds of
the achiote (Bixa Orellana) or of the flower of
the amaranthus. But their special adornment,
which distinguishes them from all the other tribes
of the Chacu, is what they call tembeta, and which
is a species of button which they wear in the
middle of the lower lip. This they pierce from
infancy, 1 and the hole is gradually enlarged up
to two or three centimetres diameter. The
tembeta is of wood or tin, and usually a little green
stone or some blue earthenware substance is
set in it. Inside the lip it has two little flanges.
They are immensely proud of this decoration.
1 The ceremony of piercing the lip is performed by one of
the most respectable old men of the village. The boy, when
he has received the tembeta, is subjected to a rigorous retire-
ment and fast for five days.
230 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
The women do not cut their hair, except in
exceptional circumstances, but allow it to hang
in tresses over their shoulders. The coquettes
make an oval tonsure on the crown, from which
the hair, growing straight and thick, forms a
fringe similar to that of certain birds which they
consider a great adornment and which they call
yattira. Their clothing is the tipoi or mandu
which falls to the knees. They are fond of
wearing ornaments on the forehead and neck
made of small shells and coloured pebbles. The
tiru of the men and the tipoi of the women is
of cotton dyed a dark turquoise or a rough
yellow.
The Chiriguanos do not like to live in large
settlements, they prefer to distribute themselves
in small villages a short distance apart, which
are almost always situated on high ground along
little streams of water. Each of these villages
is composed of a group of eight or ten sheds built
round a more or less regular square. They are
very simple, and are composed of a single room,
sufficiently large for all domestic purposes. The
walls are of poles and cane plastered with mud,
and the roof is of straw. To resist the tropical
rains and winds they make the roof very steep
so that it nearly touches the ground, and so that
the almost continuous smoke inside may escape
from the aperture at the top, which is as long as
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 231
the roof. The women keep the interior of the
house scrupulously clean and sweep it frequently.
Fire is never wanting in a Chiriguano habita-
tion, and the first thing they think of when
travelling, is to make one either of flint and
tinder or by rapidly revolving a small stick
in the cavity of another until a spark ignites a
little roll of cotton near it.
The furniture of their houses is very simple,
bedsteads of cane and a few hamacs, a good
supply of pots, water jugs, jars and yambuis l
all of rough earthenware. They also have plates
and wide, deep earthen dishes, mates and porongos
(great water jars), curiously carved and painted
for feast days and the service of distinguished
guests.
Their food is simple, maize prepared in a
variety of ways, beans, sweet potatoes and
pumpkins which they cultivate in small quanti-
ties. They also gather various wild herbs which
they season with red pepper. In addition to the
products of the chase, they are extremely fond
of fish. The drink for which they have a great
predilection they call cangui, generally known
along the Andes and in South America as chicha,
a kind of beer made of maize. It is turbid,
1 Some of these jars are three feet in diameter and the same
in height. I have seen much larger ones among the Indians
of the Beni department, adjoining the Chiriguano territory.
232 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
cooling and nutritious and has a bitter sweet
taste. It is food and drink to the Indians, their
delight and passion, and, as a Chiriguano told
a missionary, " It is our father and mother."
They give a yearly feast to their friends from
the villages of the vicinity after the harvest.
Weeks before it takes place, they half bury, in
the centre of the plaza, great jars of cangui. On
the eve of the entertainment they prepare them-
selves by bathing, plucking out the eyelashes,
anointing and colouring their foreheads, hands
and feet, arranging their gala tirus and nandiis
(ostrich plumes), their wide yapiclldnas, collars
and bracelets. The invited guests wait all night
a short distance from the village, and, at the
break of day, enter it on the run, and with wild
cries attack the jars of cangui which are
uncovered at that moment. Then, seated in
hamacs and on bamboo benches, they drink in
silence for a couple of hours and then commence
to dance and sing.
As directors of the bacchanalian chorus two old
men stand in the middle of the square holding the
yandugua, which is a great mass of ostrich plumes
arranged in the form of a parasol. The men
are grouped about them, and, at a short distance,
the women form a circle joining hands. The
dance commences, the men bow a little and then
straighten the right knee in unison with the
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 233
movement of the yandilguas constantly agitated
by the directors. The dance of the women
consists in alternately taking a step backwards
and another forwards, accompanying it with a
slight inclination of the body. It is impossible
to describe the chaunt. The music and the
dance, accompanied by frequent libations, cease
at nightfall, to commence with renewed spirit
the following morning. Ordinarily, the orgy
continues for many days, for when the jars in
the plaza are exhausted they are replenished from
others in store.
Every town recognizes a Chief or Cacique, who
is called a tubicha (great), and there are even
over-lord caciques who rule a district. If the
Cacique proves of rough nature or by words or
actions displeases his followers, these refuse
to obey, and abandon him, giving adherence to
another whom they proclaim chief.
An especial decoration of the Cacique in ancient
times, and even now in some villages, was the
yattira or tuft of hair on the top of the head
and strings of green pebbles suspended from the
ears. It is also their privilege to use the yandugua
in dances, feasts and public functions, and the
iguirape, which is a flat baton sculptured and
decorated with capricious figures. The Cacique
gives hospitality to strangers and endeavours to
keep peace in his village. He exhorts them at
234 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
times in the silence of the night, and announces
public feasts or arete by placing in the plaza a
great jar of canglli. It belongs to him, in any
public calamity, to call together the medicine men
or sorcerers, and order the execution of the author
of any witchcraft, and to prohibit mourning for
his death. One of his special attributes is to
announce war, march at the head of his warriors,
and treat for peace at the opportune time.
Their favourite arm is the arrow, which they
shoot with admirable skill a hundred yards or
more, while they dodge that of their adversary
with wonderful agility. It is their custom to
assault towns at early morn and with infernal
yells. Their first attack is so furious that they
are unable to sustain it for a long period of time.
The heads of their enemies killed in battle, or
at least their scalps, or an ear or other member of
the body, they carry to their villages in triumph,
where they remain exposed to the weather and
to the mockery of the women and children.
Morning and night, while the expedition lasts,
the women remain in the villages, and, in a kind
of procession round the plaza, sing lugubriously
while inclining the body.
The proof that they were once cannibals is
indisputable. The ancient abas were accustomed
to employ their prisoners in domestic service
until they became fat; then they sent them for
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 235
wood and, as they returned, they killed and
quartered them. They then roasted the pieces
at a fire made from the wood provided by
the victim. Sometimes they tore out his heart,
and if any one refused to eat a piece of it
raw they called him cuna or woman, a terrible
appellation among them.
Abortion is frequent, especially among the
unmarried women instigated by the old ones,
who administer potions for the purpose. If a
deformed child is born, they kill it almost
without exception, and if twins they only
allow one to live, so that it may have all the
milk.
They lead a lazy life and sow their maize, gener-
ally yielding an abundant crop, but once a year.
The head of each family has his piece of cultivated
land apart, and his ownership is respected and
all the village unite to aid him in its cultiva-
tion, but, in return for their labour, he treats
them to several jars of cangui, so that agriculture
among them is a prolonged feast. The women
are rarely idle. Besides their ordinary domestic
duties, they gather the harvest, transport it
on their shoulders, weave cotton, dye, and make
pottery.
Although without temples, altars or idols,
they recognize superior power, one of whom is
supreme and thunders from the sierras and sends
236 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
the rain. They also respect the tutelary deities
of the forests, plains, hills and streams, whom
they fear and to whom they give the name of
lya. They also believe in evil spirits, whom they
call ana, and of whom they have great terror,
especially during the small hours of the night.
But, above all, they dread their sorcerers or
magicians, called ipaye. 1 Of these, there are
benefactors who cure the sick, bring rain and
dispense all good, whom they hold in reverence
almost as gods. To cure the sick, the ipaye,
after smoking, sucks the affected part of the
patient with great force and pretends to draw
out the evil — the tupicho — which ordinarily
consists of a little worm or a small pebble or
some other nonsensical thing which he had
secreted in his mouth.
To exorcise public calamities, the ipaye smokes
the ceremonial cigar, and then, followed by the
entire village, in the direction of the smoke,
digs in the ground and takes out the malefic
influence with the skull of some small animal
stuffed with little bones and wax. They have
various ceremonies according to the evil they
undertake to remedy. Sometimes their inter-
vention is of a diabolic nature. They are not
alone the most respected but the richest among
the Chiriguanos, for credulous followers prodigally
1 The pajes of the parent Caraios.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 237
remunerate them, and, with great good-will,
deprive themselves of everything to propitiate
them. The malign ipayes were the authors of
all evil : they chased away the clouds to prevent
rain, called the tigers, locusts and all plagues,
and caused all infirmities and death. The Chiri-
guano believed that he would never die unless
the ipaye infused into him a morbid desire for
death. Even if he fell under the claws of a tiger
or the bite of a snake, only the ipaye was the
real cause of his death, who had changed himself
into a wild beast or a reptile for the purpose of
killing him. So great was his abhorrence for such
an ipaye that sometimes in ungovernable fury
he fell on him and made him pay for his evil
influences with his life, killing him with club or
arrow, and burning his body to ashes. Such
executions were frequent.
In case of an eclipse of the sun, they believe
that a wild beast is trying to devour it and,
should he be successful, eternal night would
cover the world. They make a great noise to
frighten him away, play their flutes and whistles,
beating their water- jars and gourds.
Like many other South American tribes they
practise the couvade.
No ceremony accompanies marriage among
them. After a certain period of time a Chiri-
guano selects one of his many loves, who accom-
238 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
panies and serves him until death separates them.
In case of divorce, the wife has to leave all that
she has received from her husband, even if it
leave her naked. It appears that in ancient
times, but not often to-day, polygamy was
customary. Bigamy is more common, generally
with mother and daughter, or with two daughters,
for the interest to possess the most beautiful
moves them to add the most ancient. But
although they ignore the relationship of consan-
guinity it is repugnant to them to marry their
cousins.
Their burial ceremonies exceed all others in
solemnity. When a person is at the point of
death, all his relatives gather round him with
tears and lamentations, and the women, with a
thousand caresses, try to prevent the departure
of the spirit by strongly compressing his chest
and mouth. When he gives his final gasp the
cries increase beyond measure. Then they
arrange the corpse, comb the hair, paint the fore-
head, dress it in the best tiru, crown the head
with the finest yapicuana, and, thus adorned with
all the ornaments used by him in life, they seat
the body on the ground so that the chin remains
between the knees and the arms crossed upon
the legs. The widow, or the nearest relative,
sustains the corpse in her arms, and the others,
seated or standing, form a circle round it cele-
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 239
brating the obsequies with clamorous cries. This
lugubrious ceremony lasts a day, but more if the
defunct is a Cacique or very beloved person.
Meanwhile, an excavation eight or ten feet deep
is made in the house and in this an urn is placed
and the body deposited therein, with the face
turned to the east. Close beside it or in its
bosom a calabash filled with water or cangiii is
arranged, and a lighted wick so that the dead
person will not want for refreshment and light
during his journey. At times also, so that he
may have companionship, they add a live parrot.
Then they cover the rude tomb with a similar
jar inverted, and over this earth is deposited,
on top of which they lay a knife, axe, arrows
and other things which belonged to the
departed.
The nearest relatives cut off their hair and place
it on the sepulchre, leaving it there ten days,
during which period of time they remain seated
around it with their heads covered with dirty
cloth and uttering ceaseless lamentations. Mean-
time they eat nothing but the insipid atiruru.
Should they eat aticUi the fountain of their tears
would dry, and if they took cangiii their
entrails would burn. The mourning does not
cease here, but continues for months and even
years, according to the quality of the defunct
and the affection in which he was held. Their
240 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
hours for mourning are about midday, sunset and
after midnight, during the silence of which rises
from their cabins sad and prolonged cries which
last until daybreak.
The soul of the departed one changed to
aria wanders for a time in the vicinity of the
town until it takes its departure for Iguoca, 1
which is the Chiriguano elysium. There^ in
company with other anas it passes a happy
existence, constantly singing, dancing, playing
musical instruments and drinking cangui. After
this the ana undergoes a number of trans-
formations.
There is a tribe identical in customs and
language called the Chaneses incorporated with
the Chiriguanos. Persistent tradition has it that
they are the remains of a nation which the latter
nearly exterminated in remote times, reserving
only the children whom they brought up in their
habits and language. Multiplying greatly, these
obtained their emancipation and formed villages
among, but apart from, those of their masters.
Despite perfect equality they readily distinguish
each other. The Chiriguanos call the Chaneses
" Tapi" a word meaning descent from something
1 Iguoca is a small saline district north of the Rio Pilco-
mayo, between Guacaya and Ingre. It is surrounded by
mountains. When obliged to cross it, the Chiriguanos
walk, and assume great modesty of demeanour, and if they
speak, look or laugh they pay the fault with death.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 241
bought, and treat them individually as Chiramui,
chiyari, "my slave," while the Chaneses honour
the Chiriguanos with the title of cheya, " my
master."
The Tarija missionaries, in 1757, found 2,000
Chaneses 1 at the reduction of Pilipiti, being
harassed by the Chiriguanos.
In 1885, there still remained about 40,000 to
46,000 Chiriguanos, but about 1875 it may be
said that their Christian neighbours had sub-
jugated any fractions of them which still strove
to maintain their position, and, according to
Padre Cardus, " possessing themselves of their
lands and leaving them without hope of ever
reasserting their independence." Still they
made one more effort, which in 1892 obliged the
Bolivian Government to send a military expedi-
tion into their country, and in a sanguinary
combat the Indians were terribly punished.
Thus the Chiriguanos are now partially civilized.
In 1872, I met a band of two hundred naked
Chiriguano warriors, and nowhere, among the
many Indian tribes I have known on the western
continent, have I seen men of such fine physique
1 Lafone Quevcdo, in his Los Indios Chanases (which he
spells with an a) y su Lengua, fixes the habitat of a tribe of
Chaneses on the western side of the river Parana in early
colonial days. Were these the Indians whom the Chiri-
guanos nearly exterminated, making prisoners of their
children ?
it
242 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
and manly bearing, except, perhaps, among the
Sioux of North America as they were fifty
years ago.
The independent spirit, courage, endurance,
intelligence, fortitude and determination of this
savage race as herein demonstrated must lead
us to believe that when they launched out from
their primitive Caraio habitat to overrun vast
areas of South America no other tribe or com-
bination of tribes could arrest their march.
Between the Chiriguanos and their Caraio
kinsmen of Paraguay lay the vast area of the
Gran Chacu, extending as far north as the
Chiquitos and Sunsa sierras. It was occupied
by a great number of consanguineous tribes,
forming what Lafone Quevedo 1 calls " the
great family Chacu Guaycuru, consisting of
Abipones, Mocovies, Tobas, Agaces, Payaguaes,
Caduveo-Mbayas and others, easily grouped in
a single family."
From 19° S. lat., a vast plain stretches
southward to the Straits of Magellan and now
forms a part of the territory of the Argentine
Republic. It also includes the provinces of
Corrientes and Entre Rios and the entire Republic
of Uruguay. Its area is about 900,000 square
miles. The portion south of the great Rio
Negro is known as Patagonia, a cold, arid, shingle-
1 La Baza Pampeana y la Baza Guarani.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 243
basalt-and-sandy country, so dry that it absorbs
the drainage waters of the eastern slope of the
Andes and allows but few rivers to reach the sea.
The sandy region extends north to the Colorado
river and thence north-west towards San Luis
and Mendoza. But north-east of the Colorado
are the vast and fertile pampas extending
throughout the Province of Buenos Ayres and
north into Santa Fe, Cordoba and Santiago del
Estero. Sometimes in Corrientes, Entre Rios
and Uruguay there are undulations reaching the
dignity of hills, especially in the latter country
where the ridges sometimes rise to an altitude
of 1,500 feet above sea level. North of the
Salado river, and as far as 19° S. lat., and
from the Andes to the Paraguay is the Gran
Chacu section, parched and almost waterless in
the dry season, and much of it inundated and
intransitable during the rainy months, when the
great streams, swollen by the melting snows of
the Andes, cross it, overflow the country far
and wide, and wander through the forests which
occasionally break the monotony of the plain.
Thus we have four grand divisions to the
enormous area of southern South America — the
Patagonian, Pampean, Gran Chacu, and Entre
Riano — Uruguayan. Before the conquest they
abounded in many kinds of game, especially
deer, guanacos and ostriches. When the
12
244 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Spaniard occupied the Atlantic margin of this
illimitable hunting field, he found that it was
the home of wandering tribes of savages as
fleet of foot as the game they hunted. The
physical characteristics and modes of life of the
various tribes varied less than the general
features and climatic conditions of the grand
divisions of the region I have roughly outlined.
The origin of these people is an immensely
interesting problem. Dim rays of light break
in upon it as we learn more of the geological
structure of Patagonia and its fossil fauna.
Possibly it once formed part of a now submerged
continental area extending southward to Antarctic
lands and, perhaps, connected with Australia
and Africa, at a period when climatic conditions
made it a pleasant abode for man.
It would be an endless task to chronicle the
names of tribes with which the early writers
have populated the region under consideration.
As in other parts of South America, their lists
are totally unreliable. They shrink the more
they are analysed.
At the date of the conquest the number of
Patagonian, Pampean and Chacu Indians may
have reached 60,000 at the most, or about one
man to fifteen square miles, but it should not be
overlooked that their hunting grounds had to
be shared occasionally with Araucanian tribes
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 245
from the Andes and Chile. When the Spaniards
landed in Uruguay, it had, according to Aranjo x
4,000 population. This gave eighteen square
miles for each Indian, who also had excellent
fishing along the Uruguay coast.
The Mocobi-Toba nation. — The Tobas still
restlessly wander over and claim as their own a
large area of the central and southern Chacu.
They form a part of the great ethnic family,
the Chacu- Guay cur u, and speak a dialect of the
Mocovi-Abipon tongue. They are in direct con-
tact with the Guaranis on the one side and the
Chiriguanos on the other. Travellers among
them describe them as an indomitable people of
admirable beauty of physique, virile and proud.
Padre Cardus pictures them as tall, muscular
and strong, with piercing eyes, bold and sus-
picious. They speak easily and fearlessly, are
vivacious, astute, haughty, valiant, daring
and fierce. Even their language seems to have
been invented exclusively for their serious and
arrogant character, and their speech is always
imperious and proud. They have an implacable
hatred for the white man. All of them are
splendid horsemen and mount without saddle or
stirrups.
Boggiani says the women are tall and fat, and
that when young their features are not disagree-
1 La Civilization Uruguaya.
246 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
able, but become repulsive from the custom of
cutting the hair so short and disfiguring them-
selves with an extremely complicated system of
tattooing, covering the entire face. The men,
however, are not tattooed, but paint themselves
with urucu. In this, however, he disagrees with
the account of a missionary of the College of
Tarija, who says that the men are also tattooed,
but only in vertical lines and on the eyelids, nose
and chin. Both men and women puncture the
lobes of the ears, gradually enlarging the hole
so as to admit a cylinder of seven centimetres
diameter. The women are fond of adorning their
arms with bands of palm leaf.
They meet death with perfect coolness when
they fall into the hands of their enemies, and there
is no example of one of them having begged for
his life even when submitted to ferocious tortures.
If, when ill, the paje tells him that he cannot be
cured he is at once killed by the blow of a club
on the head. When it is suspected that an old
Toba is approaching death, the women seize
him and bury him alive and, when they believe
that he has breathed his last, they cover his
grave with branches as a protection against wild
beasts.
Those who know the Tobas best confirm
d'Orbigny's description of them : " They are
robust with large legs, broad shoulders, full
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 247
chest, and the body not slender. . . . Their
features resemble those of the Charruas, a large
head, a broad but not full face, a projecting
forehead, the nose is broadened by wide nostrils,
and, in old age, they have pronounced cheek-
bones, the mouth is large and the teeth splendid.
They have small ears and eyes, the latter some-
times bride's at the external corner. The hair,
when not plucked out, is like that of all the
American aborigines. Altogether their features
are most serious and accord perfectly with the
taciturnity of the man."
The Gucty curies. 1 — These tribes were of Chacu
origin and were a valiant and warlike people of
great physical strength and endurance. They
were restless nomads and lived entirely on game
and fish, and like the other Chacu tribes were not
anthropophagi. They spoke a guttural language
quite different from that of the Caraios. The
Spaniards found them ferocious and irreconcilable
enemies on whom they could never impose their
yoke.
The Chacu-Guaycurus were of necessity a
nomadic and predatory race. The country they
occupied was, for a part of the year, extensively
1 This nickname, conferred on certain Chacu tribes by
the Guaranis, has been perpetuated by so many authors
since the conquest that, to avoid confusion, it is necessary
to adhere to it.
248 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
inundated, then, for several months, so dried and
parched that it was difficult to find sufficient
water for the everyday wants of the savages,
forcing them frequently to quench their thirst
from stagnant pools, swamps or saline lagunas.
The men shaved their heads, leaving only two
concentric rings of hair with a tuft in the middle
of the crown, and they wore feathers of various
birds on the head. They always wore a broad
bracelet made from the skin of some animal so
as to protect the wrist against the recoil of the
bowstring. They plucked out all the hair on
the body, including the eyelashes and eyebrows,
saying that it improved the sight.
Their arms were bows, arrows, clubs and a
knife made of the jaw of the palometa or of the
piranya fish. This was fixed to a stout wooden
handle and had the appearance of a saw. It was
a terrible weapon.
At fourteen years of age the boys dyed their
bodies black, and from that time wore the tembeta
in common with the men. Dobrizhoffer says
that the Guaycuriis pierced and enlarged the
lobes of their ears until the rim sometimes hung
down to their shoulders. The women shaved
their heads quite bare. They practised abor-
tion and infanticide among the unmarried women
because the child had no known father. Matri-
mony was monogamic. The women were tattooed
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 249
differently from the men. The caciqueship was
hereditary and on the death of a Cacique his
eldest son succeeded him. They paid great
attention and gave much care to the children of
their Cacique.
Apart from the wars which they waged against
all unfriendly tribes, they incessantly made war
on the Guaranis of Paraguay and even after the
Spanish occupation of that country it was
found difficult to defend it against their numerous
devastating attacks which sometimes terrorized
Asuncion itself. The Caduveo-Mbaya branch of
the Guaycurus was the most formidable and
troublesome. They now occupy the region to
the east of the Paraguay river in Matto Grosso
between the rivers Apa and Miranda, but,
according to missionary accounts, they once
held both sides of the Paraguay, and made wild
work among the Portuguese settlements of Matto
Grosso as well as those of the Spanish colonists in
Paraguay.
The main body of the Mbayas did not cross to
the eastern side of the Rio Paraguay until the
beginning of the eighteenth century, and even
up to 1760 they alternated between the two sides
of the river. Previous to the eighteenth century
they occupied the northern Chacu between 19°
30' and 22° S. lat., and in their raids attacked
the Spanish settlements in Tucuman, Santa Cruz
250 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
de la Sierra and Paraguay. Although great
nomads they divided the country among them-
selves for hunting grounds and other purposes.
They avoided quarrels, and disunion among them
was rare. 1
In 1865, they allied themselves with Brazil
in the war which that country, the Argentine
Republic and Uruguay waged against Paraguay.
It is said that the Abipones considered them
brave, while they regarded all the other Chacu
Indians as of little account. Travellers among
the Mbayds describe them as a sturdy race, finely
formed, of medium height, independent character,
generous and faithful to their word.
Their independent character was written on
their serious faces. The women, however, were
not so well proportioned as the men, but were
amicable, kind, intelligent and domestic. They
were expert makers of pottery, which they orna-
mented with beautiful designs, and they wore
cotton cloth and were famous for the hamacs
they made. Azara describes them as very
seductive and the least honest of all the Indian
women of the many tribes he knew, and their
husbands had but little jealousy. They would
not submit themselves to maternity before the
age of twenty-five years. As among the Chacu
1 Etnografia del Chaco. Manuscrito del Capitan de Fragata
Juan Francisco Aguirre, 1793, por Enrique Pena.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 251
tribes, they practised abortion to such an extent
as to threaten the extinction of the tribe. Azara
and Castelnau comment particularly on this
practice among them.
In former times, before the introduction of
the horse among them, they made extensive
voyages by canoe.
The men wore the tembeta, cut their hair across
the forehead and round the head, leaving a
crown like that of the missionaries, and wore
plumes round the head and wrists, and they
coloured the body in fantastic patterns with
urucu, and with the juice of the genipapo mixed
with charcoal. Elegant bracelets and bands
adorned their legs.
Both men and women plucked out their
eyebrows and eyelashes, and tattooed them-
selves with designs which Castelnau pronounced
artistic and odd, but they never coloured corres-
ponding parts of the body with the same pattern.
On the breast of every woman was tattooed the
same device — the tribal totem. They had many
servants, semi-slaves, whom they treated well.
These they had captured in war or bought from
other tribes.
Their matrimonial customs were similar to
those of the Guaycurus. Parents had great love
for their children, but rarely corrected them.
It was their custom, like that of many tribes
252 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
in North and South America, to abandon the sick
and infirm who could not keep up with an expedi-
tion on the march.
When ill, the Mbaya kept a strict diet, and
confided himself with perfect faith to the Medicine-
man or paje, who violently squeezed the afflicted
part, or smoked on it, or sucked it, spitting out
the saliva. In fact he went through many
extraordinary performances to eject or drive out
the evil spirit which was always the cause of the
malady. The funeral services, especially of any
Indian having many possessions, were elaborate,
and on his tomb were deposited his arms and
properties, probably for use in the next world.
The relatives of any one who died changed their
names.
After the Caduveo-Mbayas had become an
equestrian people, like the rest of the Guaycurus,
they carried their devastating forays as far north-
ward as Cuyaba in Matto Grosso, and from the
upper waters of the river Paraguay to those of
the Parana. Taught by their kindred, the
Payaguaes of the Rio Paraguay, they were
already expert canoemen. They threw them-
selves across the route of the slave and trading
expeditions of the Paulistas, between Sao Paulo
and Cuyaba, and made bloody reprisals on them.
In 1725 they destroyed one of their fleets loaded
with merchandize and killed 600 men, and from
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 253
that time to the close of the century made
countless attacks on the Portuguese settlements
in Matto Grosso and on the borders of Goyaz.
It is estimated that during this period of time they
killed some 4,000 Portuguese and captured im-
mense quantities of booty. The minor tribes
which occupied the region in question also
suffered severely or were driven to seek refuge
elsewhere.
The Mataguayo or Matacos
Before the advent of the Spaniards, various
tribes of the Mataguayo type roamed over the
extensive region between the rivers Bermejo
and Pilcomayo and, at times, extended their
hunting excursions far to the south-west. They
bordered the Chiriguanos and even wandered
along the Chacu foothills of the Andes, as far
south as the slopes of the cordillera of Aconquija,
to the west of Tucuman. Matacos, Tobas,
Abipones, and affiliated tribes seemed to share
the great central Gran Chacu as a common
hunting-field, although the Abipones roamed
southward to the parallel of the Mar Chiquito,
and even into the north-west part of the province
of Corrientes. It is difficult to give any of these
fierce nomads a fixed habitat; they were as
uncertain of abode as the game they followed,
254 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
which was driven from place to place by the
rains, winds and droughts.
According to Pelleschi, 1 the Mataco has a
broad chest, is bull-necked with well-marked
muscles, strong limbs, large head and broad
face with high cheek-bones. His lips are full,
his forehead, seldom wide, is hidden by unkempt
hair. His feet are shapely and his hands small
and well-knit ; especially is this the case among
the women. The eyes are nearly always slightly
oblique and some very fine, round and horizontal.
The nose is round and straight, with wide nostrils
and not very prominent. The hair is smooth
and black, and the children up to ten or twelve
years have reddish hair, " a curious atavistic
trait, which calls to mind the theory of Salles,
that primitive man must have had red hair."
The above description of the Matacos also
serves for the Tobas, only the latter are taller
and their forehead appears broader, perhaps
from the fact that they draw the hair back
under their customary head-band. The skin of
all these Indians varies in colour from new
copper to mud; but occasionally some have
blotches or dark spots. The Chiriguanos, how-
ever, are of a rather lighter shade, approaching
the colour of bronze.
The Matacos had a certain ethnic relationship
1 Eight Montlis in tlie Gran Chacu, 1880.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 255
with the Guaycuriis or Frentones, of whom
Padre Techo 1 (1608) says that they extended
their forays to the frontiers of Peru, and he also
states, what is an item of particular interest,
that, compared with their neighbours, the
Matacos were very docile, and that " when the
Spaniards first penetrated the Chacu they found
that many Indians from Tucuman and Peru,
fearful of the new regime, retired to this district,
and it is attested (1628) that even now some of
them speak the Aymara language, the vulgar
tongue of the Bolivians. Among the nations
most known were the Taimvias, Mataguayos,
Tobas, Mocovies and Abipones . . . and various
divisions of tribes who differed more in language
than in habits and customs. One of their
prevailing superstitions was for each man to
select one from a number of fishes as patron and
protector of his life, and such was his adoration
that he preferred to die of hunger rather than
take a mouthful of fish of that species. They
lived in perpetual war with the neighbouring
tribes."
According to Padre Juan Pastor, 2 there was
a great drought in Tucuman in 1533 resulting
1 Historia de la Provincia Jesuitica del Paraguay, quoted
by Lafonc Quevedo, in his Introduction to Pelleschi's Los
Indios Matacos.
2 See Lozano, Description Chorografica del Gran Chaco.
256 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
in starvation and pestilence. For three years,
under instruction of their sorcerers, the Indians
assembled from all parts of the Province and
made sacrifices to their idols, and held great
orgies to the sound of flutes, drums and gourds
having pebbles within. Counselled by their
sorcerers they migrated to the Chacu.
It is believed that the Taimvias were the
Fenguas, Payaguaes and others who wore the
tembeta. Padre Techo relates that another priest
who penetrated far into the Chacu in 1641
found the Matacos much given to drunkenness,
and, as regards funeral rites, after three days of
banqueting followed by an hour of tears and
then by hilarity, they gave a ball and indulged
in a general orgy. They had a custom of
presenting ostriches to the leader at their
mortuary feasts. Lafone Quevedo remarks on
this as something more than curious, in view
of the fact that " in the burial-places of the
Calchaqui region we find the suri or ostrich as
an adornment on the sepulchral urns, as may
be verified in the National Museum of La
Plata."
Padre Pastor afterwards visited the Abipones,
among whom he conversed in the Tonocote and
Gararani tongues with such good results that he
started a mission, and, in continuing the missions
among the Mataguayos, it was found, two years
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 257
later, that the general language of the Chacu
was the Tonocote, which was neither Toba nor
Quichua, for " Padre Juan Oloris spoke the
language of the Incas and learned the Toconote,
which was that of the Chacu mission.
As early as 1594 Barzana x wrote : " The
Toconote tongue is spoken by all the peoples
who serve San Miguel de Tucuman and those
who give service to Esteco, nearly all those
of the Rio Salado and five or six of the Rio del
Esteco. In this language the Company has
three Padres workers and confessors, and by
means of the art and vocabulary which they
formed, they have caused thousands of infidels
to submit to our Lord, not only in all the towns
of Esteco and Tucuman, but also in the Rio
Bermejo, because with this tongue, not only have
all the Toconote nation submitted to the faith,
but also a great part of the nation called Lules,
spread over many regions . . . and so warlike
that had the Spaniards not appeared this nation
alone with its continuous conquests would have
finished with the Toconotes. Many of them
know the Toconote language and all of them have
been catechised in it. Their own has not been
1 Letter of P. Alonso de Barzana of the Company of Jesus
to P. Juan Sebastian, his Provincial, Asuncion del Paraguay,
Sept. 8, 1594. Relaciones Geograficas de Indios, Vol. II.,
Appendix.
258 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
reduced to precepts, for although one people,
they have divers tongues, because not all of
them reside in the same district."
Abbot Jolis, in his history of the Gran Chacu,
1789, relates that he found at a town called
Matara, thirty-six leagues to the east of Santiago
del Estero, seven hundred to eight hundred
Mataraes (Mataco) Indians encomendados to the
noble family of Ureyola, and " what I know
myself is that none of them then spoke the
Toconote language, but only that of Cuzco or
Peru." Padre Jolis was in charge of the mission
of Macapillo in 1767.
Lafone Quevedo believes that the Matacos are
descended from Guaycurii fathers and Lulu
mothers and the Tobas a mixture of Guaycurus
and Matacos; that the Guaycurus have linguistic
relationship with the Gauranis; and that the
Mataco has something of Guarani, and of Chacu
Guaycuru, Toba and Mocovi is clear, because
all of them prefix their pronominal particles;
but it is rare to find a trace of Quilma which is
more subfixing than any other tongue, and that
all of these linguistic anomalies are explained if
we agree with Montesinos that, more or less five
hundred years before our era, there were grand
invasions of Peru from Brazil and Tucuman.
Quevedo rightly says that " according to the
existing languages, everything is a mixture in
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 259
the Chacu," and consoles his, no doubt, vexatious
studies of the subject by quoting Quatrefages : x
" On the other hand, in questions of this nature
the physical characteristics in all respects reach
far beyond the others. A nation changes its
language, customs, industries at times at the end
of a very short period, but the cut, the skin, the
form of the head it cannot lose with the same
rapidity." He believes that there is no doubt
that the language of the Matacos is the Toconote
spoken by the most numerous peoples of the
Argentine and Bolivian Chacus. " It is curious
that nearly all the names by which we know the
indigenous tribes of the Americans are nicknames,
like Guaranis for example, and the Matacos are
no exception to the rule. The Tobas call them-
selves Ntoconitt, and the Matacos Uicquu. In
the future, when it may be proven that the cq
of the Mataco is a modification of tt perhaps it
will be seen that Uicq and JJuitt are nothing but
variations of the same word meaning Man"
" The savage is eminently a man of conscience
and complies with his duties with the regularity
of a machine. It is the civilized man who has
taught him to profess one faith and put in practice
another."
The Matacos are still in contact with the de-
scendants of the Spaniards on the frontier of Salta,
1 Hommes Fossiles et Hommes Sauvages.
s 2
260 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
but on that of Tarija are known as Noctenes, 1 a
corruption of Octenai, & name conferred by the
Chiriguanos, and which appears to be a corruption
of Heuennyei, which is the name the Mataguayos
there give to themselves. According to a mission-
ary who lived among them for many years the
features and colour of the Mataguayos, Matacos
and Noctenes are the same and differ but little
from the Chiriguanos except much in customs and
entirely in language. They do not like to form
their settlements in the open country, but always
prefer the cane-brakes and the forests. Their
huts are round and about six feet high, and
absolutely unclean. When the site gets full of
fleas, other insects and filth, they burn the hut
and build another near by. 2
The men and women shave the head entirely
with the sharp jaw of a fish. They pluck out the
beard, eyebrows and lashes. For gala days, as
well as to make themselves look formidable in
war, they colour the forehead and chest with
powdered charcoal.
1 See El Colegio Fco. de Farica, op. cit.
2 Some forty years ago, near Salta, I met a band of about
fifty Matacos. They were the most unintelligent, dirtiest
and degraded Indians I have ever seen. Their huts were
extremely filthy. One old man seated in the ashes and
nearly naked had a hide thong tied tightly round his chest,
apparently to soften the effect of a bad cough. They had
gone from the Chacu to work in a sugar plantation for a few
weeks.
TRIBES OF THE GRAN CHACU 261
Their chosen food is fish, lacking which they
eat wild fruits and roots which are not poisonous,
and they also eat, without repugnance, lizards,
locusts, crickets, rats and eggs, even when rotten.
They sustain hunger admirably, and when they
can get no other food they lie on the ground and
eat any herb or leaf of the woods.
The Mataguayos are timid and cowardly, but
extremely revengeful, and never forget an injury.
They shun war, but defend themselves. Their
ordinary arm is the arrow. They recognize no
authority or law. A child obeys its parents if it
likes. Although they love their children they
have no control over them, but they hold old
people in great respect. All the work falls on
the women, who are simply slaves. They do not
marry near relatives, and, at times, marry into
other tribes, especially with the Tobas. Polygamy
is extremely rare. Abortion is frequently practised
and is procured by striking blows on the stomach.
Sometimes they kill a nursing baby and inter it
with the body of its mother so that it may
continue to receive milk.
The medicine men are called yegu, and are
respected and feared. When there is an epidemic,
all the yegus assemble and, seated at a short
distance from the huts, break into a melancholy
chant, accompanying it with a rattle (the maracd),
thus putting the pest to flight.
262 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
A common infirmity among them is the sarna,
but that which makes the greatest ravages among
them is pleurisy. When the patient is dying
the yegu has him removed to the burial-place, and,
to save him from his final agony, his friends drown
him. They then place him in a deep grave, cover
him with branches and grass on which they spread
earth. Then returning to his hut, they break all
the utensils it contains, take it down and rebuild
it over his grave, around which his relatives gather
and make a most lugubrious clamour.
CHAPTER IX
THE ABIPONES AND THE SOUTHERN TRIBES
The Abipones now exist only in name. There
were, perhaps, 5,000 of them left when Dobriz-
hoffer was among them about the middle of the
eighteenth century. They occupied the country
to the north of a line drawn from Santa Fe, on
the river Parana, to the Mar Chiquito and Cor-
doba. Their hordes sometimes crossed the
Salado and disputed with the Mataguayo-
Mataco and Mocobi-Toba tribes the possession
of the Gran Chacu, although linguistically they
could claim relationship with those tribes as
well as with the Payagua-Guaycuru-Mbaya tribes.
It is said that Abipones could be found in the
territory of the Tobas towards the end of the
seventeenth century. The Spaniards included
them among the Frentones, because, in common
with several other nations on the west side of
the Parana and Paraguay rivers, they increased
the height of the forehead by shaving the whole
front of the head. They may be grouped as a
part of the great and warlike Guaycuru family, to
263
264 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
which it is believed that the Cacano, Calchaquies,
Charruas, Agazes and others also belonged. The
linguistic family which they represent is com-
plicated beyond measure, and the mysteries of
the dialects spoken by the tribes mentioned, as
well as those of the extreme northern Chacu, seem
almost to defy the ethnologist.
According to Padre Techo's account of the
visit of Padre Juan Pastor to the Abipones in
1641, they were a finely-formed, muscular race.
Their arms were the club, lance and arrow, but,
in addition to these, they used the formidable
weapon known as the bolas, common to the Pata-
gonian and Pampean tribes. They painted the
entire body and spotted it like a puma, to inspire
terror, and the most esteemed among them wore
ostrich feathers in the nose, lips and ears, pierced
for the purpose. Baldness (artificial) was con-
sidered an adornment, and no one could occupy
high rank unless he had killed an enemy. To
attain this rank the Abipon had to undergo the
severest torture to all parts of the body without
signs of pain.
When a Cacique died they all changed their
names, fasted for a month, and wept night and
day. Fasting consisted in eating no fish, but
all the meat obtainable. In a family, they killed
all but two children, one of whom was cared for
by the mother, the other by the father, the better
ABIPONES 265
to prevent them from falling into the hands of
enemies ; but the parents were glad to rear other
children so soon as the first two were able to take
to the war-path.
Padre Lozano generalizes his description of
the Chacu tribes, although selecting a few of the
principal ones for special comment on their
manners and customs. Dobrizhoffer x seems to
have had great admiration for the Abipon. He
tells us that the shape of this savage was perfect
and without deformity or blemish; his smah\
black eyes had an immense range of vision. He
was tall, had an aquiline nose, every hair on the
face and body was plucked out, but he wore
thick, raven-black locks which hung down his
shoulders. In common with the Tobas, he
plucked out the hair from his forehead to the
crown of his head, and the baldness thus created
was a religious mark of the nation. The heads
of widows were shaved and they wore a black
hood until married again. The head of a widower
was cropped and he wore a little net-shaped hat
until his hair grew once more. All the men cut
off their hair to mourn the death of a Cacique.
1 An Account of the Abipones of Paraguay, by P. Martin
Dobrizhoffer, English trans. He was born at Gratz in
Styria in 1717, and in 1736 entered the Jesuit order, went
to South America in 1749 as a missionary, where for eleven
years he officiated among the Guarani reductions, and
seven years among the Abipones.
266 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
They preserved the tattooing customs of their
ancestors, and also wore the tembeta and con-
sidered themselves well decorated when they had
a brass pipe about the size of a goose-quill hanging
from the lip to the breast, but this object made
them look formidable on account of their great
stature, and with their bodies painted in various
colours and hair stained blood red. In one ear
the wing of a vulture was fixed and strings of
glass beads were hung round the neck, arms, knees
and legs. They were great swimmers and bathed
every day in lake or river. " Their boldness
exceeds the belief of Europeans. From San
Fernando to Corrientes they swam across that
vast sea composed of the united streams of the
great Paraguay and the great Parana, with their
horses swimming beside them."
They claimed that all the cattle of the Spaniards
belonged to the Indians of right, because raised
on the lands forcibly wrested from their ancestors.
As an example of how some savages greatly
modify their language, the Abipones constantly
abolished words and substituted new ones, this
custom being due to their funeral rites and their
dislike that anything should remind them of the
dead, especially appellative words bearing any
resemblance to the name of the deceased. Like
many other tribes in various parts of South
America, they had one language for use of the
ABIPONES 267
warriors and a common tongue for the use of
women.
On the death of one of the tribe, his friends
took out his heart and tongue and gave them to
a dog to devour, so that the author of his death
might soon die also. They inter the body,
wrapped in a hide, in a shallow grave, and fill it
in with thorny boughs to keep off pumas. On
the grave they place an inverted vessel that the
defunct may have something to drink from in case
of need, and they fixed a spear near by in the
ground for his use in war and the chase. In case
of the death of a Cacique they killed his best
horses near the grave, a custom common to most
of the Chacu equestrian tribes. If they could
recover the body of one of their warriors killed in
battle, they stripped it of flesh and sometimes
carried the bones immense distances for burial,
believing that the remains of a dead companion
should rest among his ancestors. 1 All of their
1 Humanity seems to share this instinct with other
animals. Travellers have observed in Asia, Africa and else-
where that many have their Golgotha, sought for from long
distances at the approach of death. Guanacos notably,
have dying-places in southern Patagonia and on the banks
of the rivers Santa Cruz and Gallegos, where the bones of
countless dead generations of them are found. Darwin and
Fitzroy have observed this, and Hudson, in his Naturalist
in La Plata, says : "It looks less like an instinct than the
superstitious observance of human beings who have know-
ledge of death and believe in a continued existence after
268 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
obsequies for the dead show an intense love and
regard for the deceased, in respect for whom they
not only change all their own names but never
mention his.
It may be inferred from a remark of Dobriz-
hoffer, that " History gives no account of the
proceedings of the Abipones in the fifteenth
century, before they settled in the Chacu," that
they had previously occupied other lands, prob-
ably further to the south or west.
A careful study of the Abipones leads one to
adopt the opinion of d'Orbigny, that " From
their physical characteristics they cannot be
separated from the Tobas; it is the same as
regards their moral character, their customs, their
language and their religion. With regard to the
last, we even find intimate relationship with the
Pat agones and Puelches."
The present provinces of Catamarca, Tucuman
and Salta were, at the date of the discovery,
populated by various tribes which were slowly
being taught to accept the language of Cuzco.
The Incas had already established military
colonies in Tucuman, and from the Andean
districts of Alto Peru, Incarial subjects had
dissolution ; of a tribe that in past times had conceived the
idea that the liberated spirit is only able to find its way to
its future abode by starting at death from the ancient dying-
place of the tribe or family."
ABIPONES 269
migrated as far south as the province of La
Rioja.
In Catamarca, the languages were Quichua
and Cacana, but the latter has left but little
trace of its existence. Atacacuma tribes were
found in the extreme north-eastern parts of the
same province. It appears that Cacana was
spoken by the Calchaquies and Diaquitas
throughout the valley of Catamarca and over a
large part of La Rioja, and among tribes of the
neighbouring districts among the sierras and
lowlands. The Diaquita territory consisted of
all the valleys of the upper river Saladillo and
part of the west of Ambato, and also a part of
south-eastern Tucuman.
There was also an important people called the
Toconotes, which it is known had given their
language to many inferior tribes extending from
San Miguel del Tucuman to the Rio Bermejo
and nearly the whole line of the Rio Salado.
Their dialect belonged to the Mataco-Mataguayo
group of languages. Lozano, in his Gran Chacu
Gubamba, divides the Toconotes into " Great
Lules " and " Small Lules," the latter main-
taining the distinctive name of Lules, but the
former having three divisions, the Toquistines,
Yxistines and Oxistines; the Great and Small
being relentless enemies. Padre Barcena (1594)
maintains that the missionaries employed the
270 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Toconote tongue to convert a great part of the
Lules, who were wild nomads who roamed far
and wide over the western Chacu, the flail of
other tribes. They were, however, affiliated
with the Toba fraction of the Guaycuriis, and
were composed of diverse, but consanguineous
tribes, all understanding the Toconote language.
Although the Quichua tongue was spread as
far south as Catamarca, La Rioja and Santiago
del Estero, it is probable that its extension was
more generalized by the Jesuits than by the
Incas ; for when the missionaries first penetrated
these regions they found that they had also
become the refuge of many tribes who had
sought protection there from the domination of
the Spanish conquerors during the first century
after the conquest.
The whole north-western part of Argentina
offers a field for ethnological study, probably not
exceeded in importance and interest by any other
equal area of South America. Vestiges are
found there of a numerous race which existed
long anterior to Incarial times, and who had
subdued or driven out its previous inhabitants
of the Stone age. In the province of San Juan
even troglodyte caves are to be seen; in the
provinces farther to the north are numberless
ruins of towns and cemeteries of great age,
while the numerous and extensive fortifications
ABIPONES 271
scattered over the country speak of the existence
of a people of remote times who had attained a
certain degree of advancement, but who evidently
found it necessary to protect themselves against
attack from their savage neighbours.
The Spaniards found many such ruins of
ancient edifices throughout Catamarca which bore
no resemblance to those of Peru, and which had
been built by a race that had been conquered by
the warlike Calchaquies, who had submitted to
Incarial rule or influences. The Calchaquies
occupied nearly the entire province of Catamarca,
the eastern part of Tucuman and the whole west
and north-west of Salta. Between the years
1536 and 1550 these formidable warriors met,
and disastrously defeated, three Spanish armies
sent to subdue them, and for a century after-
wards they warred against their invaders with
varying fortunes until finally, in 1664, the last
tribe of them surrendered and were expatriated
to the vicinity of the city of Buenos Ayres,
where they gave their name to the locality of
their settlement, known as Quilmes.
Ameghino 1 gives us some account of this
valiant race : Their country was well supplied
with roads, their houses were built of stone or
of rushes and straw. Their Caciques were
elected by the notables, but, as a formality,
1 Op. cit.
272 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
their principal chiefs were confirmed by the
Incas to whom they gave a mild form of volun-
tary allegiance.
Although they worshipped the sun they had
many idols, especially little ones which they hung
to their necks.
When a Calchaqui fell ill, his relatives remained
near him during the entire period of his illness,
and, around his bed, they stuck many arrows to
keep death away. If he died, they buried him
in a funeral urn (a custom not usual in Peru)
with his domestic animals, his clothing and many
objects; then they burned the house; for they
held the place to be one of death which might
return.
Their bows were the height of the men who
used them, but they also made use of spherical
bolas beautifully polished.
Their pots, jars and dishes were finely modelled
in various forms and capriciously painted in
bright colours, and were not inferior to those of
Peru; and they sculptured great stone idols,
fantastic human and animal figures, square and
circular fonts, large stone globes and two kinds
of stone hatchets, many mortars, some of which
were cut in solid rock and others of separate
stones adorned with curious reliefs of animals
and monsters, and double-headed lizards.
The wool and cotton fabrics which they
ARAUCANIAN RACE 273
skilfully manufactured were dyed with vegetable
colours.
Beside some human remains found in an
ancient grave in Catamarca was a small pot of
toasted maize in a perfect state of preservation,
its flavour perfectly preserved, and according to
an accepted legend among the actual inhabitants
of those districts, this food was destined for the
defunct during his voyage to the seaside, where
he would return to life.
The Moluche or Araucanian Race
To account for the distinctive characteristics of
the Chacu tribes in comparison to their Caraio
neighbours it is necessary to take note of the
Araucanos and Patagonians, both of which names
are of Spanish origin. The former call themselves
Moluches or warriors, from molun, to "wage war."
The Spanish name given to them is one of reproach,
meaning wild, savage, rebel, or bandit.
According to Padre Falkner, 1 the Moluches held
both the Pacific and Atlantic slopes of the Andes
from the confines of Peru to the Straits of Magellan.
Their people included three grand divisions — the
Picunches, Pehuenches and Huilliches. The first
were the " Northern people" hom picun, "north,"
1 A Description of Patagonia and the adjoining parts of
South America, by Thomas Falkner, 1774. From 1740 to
1767 he lived many years among the Patagonian tribes.
274 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
and che, " people," and extended from Coquimbo to
a little south of Santiago in Chile. " They were
the most valiant and the biggest bodied men of
all the Moluches, especially those to the west of
the cordillera."
South of these were those of the second division,
the Pehuenches, or Pine tree people, whose territory
reached Valdivia and a little beyond ; and thence
to the Straits of Magellan were the Huilliches, who
were divided into four tribes — the first, the
Huilliches proper, extended to Chiloe and lake
Nahuelhuapi and spoke Araucanian; the second
the Chonos, possessed the archipelago of Chiloe;
the third, the Poy-yuss or Payes, were between
lat. 48° and 51°, and thence to the Straits
were the Kay-yus or Kayes. These last were
also known as Vutu (or big) Huilliches, because
larger in body than the others called Pichi (or
small) Huilliches. The language of the Big
Huilliches was a mixture of Moluche and Tehuelche.
The Moluches of the Pacific slope of the Andes
called their kindred of the Atlantic side Puelches
or Eastern people.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, the
northern limit of the Puelches was roughly a line
drawn from Coquimbo to Cordoba and thence to
Buenos Ayres and east to the Atlantic ocean.
The Puelches bore different names according to
locality ; those to the north were called Taluhets,
PAMPAS INDIANS 275
(het meaning people) ; west and south of these were
the Diuihets, and to the south-east were the
Chechehets, and south of these last were the
Tehuelhets, Tehuelches or Patagones, as they are
called in Europe.
A greater part of the Taluhets were destroyed
in inter-tribal wars and wars with the Mocovies.
There were formerly some of them on the rivers
Lujan and Conchas near the site of the city of
Buenos Ayres. Together with the Diuihets they
were known to the Spaniards as Pampas.
The Diuihets had the Pehuenches as neighbours
on the west from 35° to 38° of latitude, and
extended their wanderings along the Sanquel and
Colorado rivers and northward to Cordoba and
east to the Plata estuary.
The Chechehets roamed along the valleys of the
rivers Colorado and Negro and through the Pampas
of Buenos Ayres eastward to the sea. Although
of a pacific disposition, they were bold and active
in war.
The Tehuelhets occupied the western part of
the great Patagonian plain and the eastern foot-
hills of the Andes. They were the most restless
and nomadic race of South America and, at times,
made warlike excursions a thousand miles to the
north-east. Falkner says of them that " neither
extreme old age, blindness, nor any other distem-
per, prevented them from indulging this inclination
T 2
276 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
to wander. They are a very strong, well-made
people and not so tawny as the other Indians;
some of their women are even as white as the
Spaniards. They are courteous, obliging and
good-natured, but very inconstant and not to
be relied on in their promises and engagements.
They are stout, warlike and fearless of death,
are by much the most numerous of all the Indian
nations of these parts, and are as many as all the
rest put together. They are the enemies of the
Moluches and are extremely feared by them, and
if they had been as well provided with horses as
the Moluches, the latter, who are so terrible to
the Spaniards, would have been long since
destroyed.
" All the Tehuelhets speak a different language
from the other Puelches and the Moluches."
When the chiefs of the principal tribe of the
Tehuelhets declared war they were at once joined
by the other Tehuelhets and by the Chechehets
and Huilliches and by those Pehuenches who live
most to the south a little lower than Valdivia.
All the tribes of the Tehuelhets were, by the
Moluches, called Vucha-Huilliches or Great
Southern people. They called themselves Tehuel-
Kunny, meaning the same thing.
Owing to the treacherous slaughter of a band
of friendly Huilliches by the Spaniards in 1740,
near the Vuulcan (opening) mountains in the
PAMPAS INDIANS 277
south-east part of the province of Buenos Ayres,
the Tehuelches, joined by the Huilliches and
Pehuenches, made a series of well-organized forays
against the whole Spanish frontier from Cordoba
to the southern side of the Plata estuary and to
within four leagues of the city of Buenos Ayres.
They blotted out the farms and cattle estates
over a length of many hundred miles, desolating
the country, killing the Spanish settlers, capturing
their women and children and twenty thousand
head of cattle and many horses. The Spaniards
being properly punished, sued for and obtained
terms of peace.
Again, in 1767, the Indians, under renewed
provocation, again entered the field and swept
off numerous herds of cattle. Of two parties of
Spaniards who pursued them only ten men
escaped.
In 1832-33, General Rosas marched southward
from Buenos Ayres, crossed the Colorado and
reached the Rio Negro, massacring the Indians
by hundreds along his route and inflicting on them
a blow which they long remembered, but from
which they slowly recovered and repaid with their
customary savage ferocity.
In 1847, the last estancias towards the south
reached the Quequen Grande, in the district of
Toberia, and up to 1850 the settlers had already
covered the country with hundreds of thousands
278 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
of cattle for a distance of eighty leagues to the
south of the city of Buenos Ayres; but from
year to year the Indians harassed their estates,
drove off their herds and kept the whole frontier
in terror, slowly gaining ground to the north-
ward, until, in 1852, they actually proposed to
make a treaty with the Government to recognize
the Saladillo river, about thirty leagues to the
south of the Plata river, as the boundary line
between the Argentine and Indian territory.
Up to about 1878-80 they made continuous
raids against the outlying estates, until the
Argentine Government organized a strong expedi-
tion under General Roca, and drove them back
to the south of the rivers Colorado and Negro.
The vast numbers of horned cattle and horses
which the Indians captured they generally drove
through the low pass in the Andes (4,920 feet
above sea-level) at the head-waters of the Rio
Negro, and sold them in Valdivia, which carried
on, the same as in colonial times, an extensive
European trade in hides bearing the brands of the
Buenos Ayrean estancieros.
It may be of interest to give my personal
experience of one of these Indian raids : In 1858
I was the junior member of a" Scientific Com-
mission," organized by the provincial Govern-
ment of Buenos Ayres to explore its south-
western frontier and devise a system of defence
PAMPAS INDIANS 279
against the inroads of the savages. After riding
several thousand miles, we terminated our field-
work and found ourselves at the then convict
settlement of Bahia Blanca, preparatory to
embarking for the Rio de la Plata. The town
then contained not more than 1,200 inhabitants.
It consisted almost entirely of adobe houses
built round a plaza about 600 feet square. On
one side of this was Fort Argentina, a polygon
282 yards in diameter with twenty-four sides. It
was a bastioned work, originally of burnt bricks
and constructed in 1828-31 by M. Parchappe,
a French engineer, afterwards employed by the
French Government in Algeria. It was com-
pletely dilapidated when I saw it, but its walls
had been repaired with adobes. The ditch was
filled with rubbish, sand and dirt. A good horse-
man could spur over ditch and rampart. A
single gun of light calibre, mounted on its south-
western parapet, was the only warlike implement
in sight, with exception of the swords and old
muskets with which about a dozen soldiers of
the garrison were armed. Within the enceinte,
a number of huts served as a shelter for convict
prisoners and for the townspeople in the event of
an Indian attack. In the town, about twenty
pulperias did a good retail business in bad rum.
On one side of the plaza was a half -ruined church.
The good Padre's only pride was two broken
280 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
bells which called the few repentant sinners of
the town to prayers. Some little vegetable
gardens, irrigated from the river Naposta, were
to be seen in the northern and western suburbs,
and several Government and private corrals
or cattle-pens at various points. During the
rule of Rosas a ditch had been cut from a
point, on the east branch of the Naposta,
in a south-west direction to the bay, and an
embankment thrown up on the town side. The
river water being turned into the ditch, formed an
effectual protection against the Indians who
might attack from the south-west. But, in
1859, this work was all in ruins, as well as the
wire fences which had been stretched across all
the entrances to the town.
The sole support of the inhabitants was derived
from the 400 troops, mostly cavalry, who served
as a defensive force against the Indians.
Such was the condition of this outpost of
civilization when, on the 19th of May, 1859,
a turbulent wave of 1,500 splendidly mounted
savages, of Puelche, Patagonian and southern
Araucanian tribes, broke in upon it by moonlight
about three o'clock in the morning. Their tactics
were by no means unintelligent; they first
quietly surrounded the town, possessed them-
selves of all its outlets, and proceeded to gather
their harvest. They collected all of the droves
PAMPAS INDIANS 281
of horned cattle which were feeding in the
vicinity and from the various corrals, making up
a herd of about 5,000 all told, including 2,000
horses, leaving only a few miserable brutes
unable to keep up with the mass in the flight
across the desert. All this they did without
disturbing the sleepy garrison. By the time they
awoke, a contingent of the savages, with the
plundered wealth, was pushing south-westward
with all speed towards the far-distant fords of the
Rio Negro at the island of Choele Choel, their
usual crossing place.
Suddenly an alarm-gun from the fort awakened
the drowsy denizens of the town, and the troops
rushed in disorder to the plaza and the streets
armed with old Tower muskets and sabres.
The Indians were almost naked, but a few had
shirts on. They were mounted bare-back on
superb horses bridled by a thong tied round the
lower jaw. Their arms were long lances and
bolas.
Thus far, they had done their work with
stealthy quietness, so as to give as much start
as possible to the captured herds ; but, when the
alarm-gun sounded, their tactics changed, and
they let loose the spirit of revenge " for wrongs
unpunished and for debts unpaid." With shout
and whoop and infernal yells, and quivering
lance and swinging bolas, the wild warriors
282 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
charged down the streets towards the plaza,
where I soon found myself taking part in what
resembled from its irregularity a vast tiger
fight. It seemed as if all the fiends from hell
had broken loose, and to add to the terrors of
the night the savages had fired the town, and
the lurid flames and smoke mingled with the
moonlight, threw uncanny lights and shades
over the scene. It was a hand-to-hand fight
where quarter was neither asked, nor given, nor
expected. How splendidly the Indians rode and
fought ! Several times I stopped to admire
their courage and horsemanship, which almost
irresistibly impelled me to take sides with them.
The battle lasted until daybreak, when they
retired to the base of an amphitheatre of hills
within sight of the western outskirts of the
town. There they halted to rest. They had
left sixty-two of their number dead in the
streets and plaza, but had taken all of their
wounded with them.
They were supposed to be under the leadership
of the renowned chief Calficura. He certainly
handled his forces with skill and forethought,
and the fact that he remained resting for several
hours within easy reach of the town, as if challeng-
ing a fight in the open, shows the contempt in
which he held his foe. We saw his warriors
take their midday meal, about 1,200 of them,
PAMPAS INDIANS 283
as nearly as I could judge, their horses feeding
near them. They evidently delayed their de-
parture to give as long a start as possible to
the detachment which was driving their booty
inland. About mid-afternoon all of them
mounted their horses, and in open order faced
the town in a long single line. We thought that
it meant another assault; but, no, they gave
us the best circus performance I have ever wit-
nessed. The two wings faced inward to the
centre, and at a given signal each wing rode
past the other at a tearing gallop. Then they
reversed the movement and returned to their
original position in line. This manoeuvre they
repeated several times with bolas whirling and
lances waving as if preliminary to a charge.
Sometimes the riders were erect on their horses
and at others only the head of the Indian could
be seen under the horse's neck, his body being
completely concealed. After this display of fine
horsemanship, the whole line broke to the rear
in twos from the centre, and rode over the hills
to the west. Slowly the mysterious desert
seemed to absorb its wild children and put its
protecting arms round them, and, as the last
one disappeared across the threshold of his
home, a far-off memory told me that, as I had
become civilized, I had left behind me not a few
savage virtues and many grand sensations.
284 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
The Indians killed at Bahia Blanca were finely
made, muscular men of medium height, full,
rounded chest, broad shoulders, small wrists and
beautifully shaped hands and feet, the former with
tapering fingers and long finger-nails. Coarse,
matted, black hair covered their heads and hung
loosely over their low foreheads. They had high
cheekbones and large, savage-looking mouths —
the head of a devil united to the body of a
god.
The Indians when attacking but one man with
their lances ride in single file. If the first misses
him he passes on and turns in a long circle, and
so the attack is continued by the others.
When on a long and rapid war expedition, they
cut the lungs from a mare or a bovine animal and
blow them full of salt through the trachea, then
hang them to the horse's mane and appease their
hunger as they gallop on.
Each family of the Moluches and Puelches had
its totem or coat of arms — the tiger, lion, guanaco,
ostrich, etc. They have numerous deities.
Their wizards were of both sexes, and it is
remarkable that they used the maracd, which they
said told them many secrets and made all they
said oracular. Each wizard had two demons, the
souls of dead sorcerers, in attendance on him and
these gave him clairvoyant powers not only as
to what was passing elsewhere but regarding
PAMPAS INDIANS 285
future events, and also to cure the sick by driving
off the demons who tormented them.
When one of the tribe died, a distinguished
woman was selected to make a skeleton of him.
The bones were stripped and buried, then taken
up within a year, cleansed and removed to the
ancestral burial-place. This custom was strictly
observed by the Moluches and Diuihets, but the
Chechehets and Tehuelhets or Patagones, place
the skeleton high above ground, on canes and
twigs to whiten in the sun and rain.
The horses of the deceased were killed so that
he might be able to ride through the " Country of
the Dead."
When the bones were removed they were packed
in a hide and taken on a favourite horse of the
defunct, properly decorated, to the final burial-
place, even if it were three hundred leagues distant
where the last ceremony was performed.
The Moluches, Jaluhets and Diuihets buried
their dead in a square pit about six feet deep :
the bones were fastened together in their natural
position, then clothed and adorned with beads and
feathers. The skeletons were placed in a row in
a sitting posture, with the lance, bow and arrows,
bolas and other properties of the departed. The
pits were covered with tree trunks and a woven
mat of cane and twigs, which was then topped with
earth.
286 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
An old matron was chosen from each tribe to
take care of these graves and she was held in great
veneration. Every year it was her duty to open
these dreary habitations and to clean and clothe
the skeletons. Every year newly made chicha
was poured on the graves and the good health of
the dead was drunk, generally the sepulchres were
near their usual habitations and round the former
the dead horses of the deceased were placed, raised
on their feet and supported by sticks.
The Patagonians differed somewhat from the
other Indians ; they dried the skeletons and carried
them a great distance from their habitations into
the desert by the sea coast, and set them, duly
adorned, in order above ground under a hut or tent
surrounded also by the skeletons of their horses.
The office of Cacique was hereditary not elective,
and the sons of Caciques could assume the dignity
if they could get followers. The Cacique decided
differences and punished offences. He harangued
the tribe on their behaviour and their injuries
and how they should avenge them. He extolled
his own prowess and if not sufficiently eloquent
had an orator who supplied his place. 1 War was
decided by a council of the principal Indians and
1 Luis de la Cruz says that the Pehuenches were very fond
of oratory and greatly admired any speaker who made
elegant use of their language; and other travellers have
noted the inclination of the Caciques of Tehuelhets to make
long speeches to their followers.
PAMPAS INDIANS 287
the wizards. When for the purpose of a general
war alliances were made an Apo or Commander-
in-Chief was chosen.
The Caciques could levy no contributions, and
if any Indian did not like his chief he could seek
the protection of another, but every Indian,
under penalty of slavery, had to submit to a
Cacique. If war was made by the Moluches and
Puelches against the Spaniards of Buenos Ayres,
the Puelches chose the Apo; but if against the
Spaniards in Chile, the choice of Apo belonged
to the Moluches.
The Indian purchased his wife of her parents,
and seldom had more than one, despite his right
to buy as many as he could support.
They reared their children in absolute indul-
gence of every whim.
Their arms were bows and arrows, lances of
a species of solid bamboo four to five yards long
and bolas. On foot, they used a square bull's-
hide shield. They also wore a helmet of bull's-
hide, and a tunic of Auta hide, which was arrow
and lance-proof.
Luis de la Cruz, in his account of his residence
among the Pehuenches x (1806), says that they
paint their faces in different designs, according
to the taste of the individual, red, black, blue
and white. Their skin is naturally black,
1 See Pedro de Angelis, i. 1.
288 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
inclining to red; their average height about
5 1 feet, the face round, nose usually flat, mouth
better made and smaller than that of the Peru-
vian. The teeth white and hard, legs muscular
and well formed, feet and hands small, hair
abundant. Many octogenarians retain all their
hair and teeth, and their features remain un-
altered. They are selfish, suspicious and
malicious.
The Cacique has no authority either to reward
or punish, and they yield him no respect, except
for his personal prowess and his deeds.
It appears that the Pehuenches varied their
burial customs somewhat from the other tribes,
although in principle and sentiment the same.
On the death of one of their number they fastened
his body in a sitting posture to his best horse, and,
followed by another horse carrying his effects,
they took him to the sepulchre of his ancestors,
where, moving the old bones to one side, they
laid him on a rough bed and covered him from
breast to feet. Near at hand they placed the
bridle of his horse, his saddle, spurs, machete
and pots of food, spoon, jars of water and
chicha, if they had any. They then placed a
covering of twigs over him, and on this a horse-
hide, which they covered with earth. The horses
which took him and his effects to the grave they
killed and left near by.
PATAGONIANS 289
In case of the death of a very important
member of the tribe the ceremonies were much
more elaborate.
In this account of 1806, as well as in that of
Padre Falkner, it is interesting to note the changes
which the introduction of the horse made in
the customs of the tribes.
In the various accounts of Patagonia extant
numerous tribes are recorded in addition to
those named by Padre Fslkner, which are, no
doubt, tire most trustworthy. Here, as else-
where in South America, the confused list seems
to have arisen from the custom of small parties
of Indians combining to hunt or fight under a
particular chief, and describing themselves, when
met, by his name and as his men.
Musters, 1 who learned the language of the
Tehuelhets, describes them as altogether distinct
in race, language and character from the Arau-
canians and Pampas Indians. 2 He divides them
into two great sections — the northern and
southern, with a slight difference in accent, but
1 Captain Musters, whose acquaintance I made at Sucre,
Bolivia, in 1872, gives us a most valuable account of his
" year's wanderings over untrodden ground from the
Straits of Magellan to the Rio Negro." He joined a tribe
of the Tehuelhets (Tehuelches) and was the first white man
to ride from north to south through the heart of Patagonia.
2 See At Home with the Patagonians, by George Chaworth
Musters : London, 1871.
290 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
speaking the same tongue. But the southern
were taller and finer men than the northern, and
more expert hunters with the bolas. The northern
Tehuelches roamed over the district between the
cordillera and the sea, from the upper Rio Negro
to the Chupat, and, at times, as far south as the
Santa Cruz river. The southern portion ex-
tended from the latter stream to Punta Arenas,
on the Straits of Magellan. The two sections of
the race were much intermixed and frequently
intermarried, although they always preserved
their clannish divisions and opposed each other
in frequent quarrels.
The Pampas Indians had their headquarters
at the salinas north of the Rio Negro, and
extended south to the Chupat. The Tehuelches
called them Tench. Several clans of this nation
wandered over the plains north of the Rio Negro,
and made frequent forays against the Argentine
settlements as far north as Santa Fe, Cordova
and Mendoza.
A third tribe appeared, by their language and
physique, to be a branch of the Araucanians of
Chile. The Tehuelches called them Cherma.
They were less migratory and more civilized
than the Tehuelches. Their habitat was north-
east of and near lake Nahuel-Huapi, and the
authority of their chief extended north as far
as Mendoza and was absolute. These were
PATAGONIANS 291
evidently the Pehuenches described by Padre
Falkner and Luis de la Cruz, and owed their
superior civilization to their long contact with
the Spaniard.
Musters found them superior as warriors to
the Tehuelches, " and even at the time of our
visit to them they had Tehuelche slaves." A
party of young Pampas Indians whom he met
were of mixed Tehuelche and Pampa blood.
They were of a different type from the Tehuelches,
generally shorter, although as muscular and
apparently more broadly built, and of lighter
complexion, cleaner and smarter in their persons.
It is evident that these various tribes had a
close relationship with each other, and that they
frequently united for warlike purposes as well
as for raids against the Spanish settlements,
for, while Musters, with his party of Tehuelches,
was with the Araucanians (Pehuenches) of the
upper Rio Negro, a message arrived from Calfi-
cura, the great chief of the Pampas, encamped
at Salinas, inviting the Araucanians and Tehu-
elches to join him in a foray against the Buenos
Ayrean frontier, saying literally, " My horse is
ready, my foot is in the stirrup, my lance is in
my hand, and I go to make war against these
Christians, who tire me out with their falseness."
The Tehuelche had great strength of arm.
His instep was very high, his complexion a
u 2
292 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
reddish-brown. He carefully plucked out his
scanty beard, moustache and eyebrows. He was
neat and cleanly, especially in his tent, and was
fond of bathing, even in an icy cold river, and
was a powerful swimmer and good diver. Both
sexes smeared their faces with paint as a pro-
tection against their being chapped by the wind.
The paint was made of red ochre or black earth
mixed with grease from the marrow-bones of
game; but for a birthday, dance or feast they
adorned themselves with white paint or powdered
gypsum, which they rubbed on their hands, and
with them made five white finger-marks on the
chest, arms and legs.
The women secured their mantle at the throat
by a large silver pin with a broad disk. 1
On the birth of a child, the doctor or wizard
of the tribe bleeds himself with bodkins in the
temple, fore-arm or leg. Mares are slaughtered,
a feast is given, and a dance follows. The child,
shortly after birth, is smeared over with damp
gypsum. The mother is able to travel on horse-
back the same day or the following one, and the
child is most tenderly cared for by the parents. 2
1 This fact is of great interest, for the custom must have
reached Patagonia from Peru. All the Quichua and Aymara
women wear the same ornament even at the present time, but
sometimes the pin has a spoon-shaped end instead of a disk.
2 This vigour of the Patagonian Indian woman reminds
me of that of her Mexican sister. When I was campaigning
PATAGONIANS 298
Nicknames among the Tehuelches were uni-
versal, and there were no hereditary names.
The men treated their wives with great kindness
and affection, and, like all South American tribes,
were exceedingly indulgent to their children.
No arrow-heads were found south of the
Rio Negro, where they abound. The Tehuelche
lance was entirely different from the Araucanian
or Pampean, and only used when fighting on
foot. It was a shaft of strong bamboo cane
about 18 feet long, with a blade 18 inches in
length. Their favourite weapon for war or the
chase was the bola. 1
with Juarez against Maximilian, we left Chihuahua for
Durango, escorted by sixty-two cavalrymen and officers.
Their wives and sweethearts, numbering perhaps three
dozen all told, marched on foot. We started from the
former city on the 10th December, 1866, and reached the
latter on the 26th of the same month. The distance by
road was about 600 miles, and when we arrived at the city
of Durango the women belonging to our escort were all there
waiting for us. During the journey, they could be seen
every day scouring the country a mile or two on either flank,
foraging for their husbands, as we had a very meagre com-
missariat. En route, one of the women gave birth to a child.
A companion put it in a shawl over her shoulder, and the
mother continued trotting along, and reached Durango
with the rest.
1 On the Scientific Expedition mentioned on p. 278 I took
many lessons of the Gauchos in the use of this weapon, and
realized how formidable it might be in expert hands. It
was at the time of the conquest used by all of the tribes
which occupied the open areas of the Plata country, from
294 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
Among the Tehuelches, they called the evil
spirit gualichu and made propitiatory offerings
its northern frontier to the Straits of Magellan. Later it
was adopted by the Argentine " cow-boy," the Gaucho, as
a most efficacious arm for capturing any quadruped.
The bolas were also extensively used by the Indian tribes
of Uruguay and the southern part of Rio Grande do Sul, in
Brazil, and in these districts the grooved bola is occasionally
found. It is a sphere or spheroid with a groove cut round
it, and is often met with on the plains of central Patagonia,
where, when they find one, the Indians treasure it as the
weapon used by their ancestors.
There were many forms and sizes of bolas, but, in general,
they may be reduced to three, and consisted of three thongs
made of hide, or of ostrich or guanaco sinews, plaited in four
plaits, and about seven or eight feet in length. At one of
the ends of each thong a globular stone, about the size of a
billiard ball, was suspended in a hide bag and the other ends
were united. This set of bolas was used principally for
hunting the guanaco, deer, puma and any large game. By
holding one bola in the hand, the others were swung round
the head with great velocity while running or on horseback,
and, from a short distance, launched at the animal it was
sought to capture. I have seen a powerful Gaucho bring
down a horse at a distance of fifty yards or more. The
weapon, when it leaves the hand, revolves in a circle, each
thong 120° distant from the others, the circle thus covering
a diameter of from 14 to 16 feet. Whenever one of the
balls is arrested by an obstacle the whole three wind so
tightly round it that it is frequently quite difficult to dis-
entangle them. A wild bull or a horse having his legs thus
ensnared drops helpless to the ground.
For hunting ostriches, a single thong, with a bola at each
end, was used. Musters says it was not an uncommon
feat for an Indian to bring down an ostrich at a distance of
more than 70 yards. A third form was the bola perdida
(the lost bola), because it was generally used but once. It
PATAGONIANS 295
to him. The gualichu, says Musters, waited
outside of the toldo (tent) and was prevented
from molesting the inmates by the spells of the
sorcerer, but he enters into different parts of the
bodies of the people and causes illness which the
wizard cures. In case of a headache the doctor
takes the patient's head between his knees and,
after certain incantations, shouts in his ear
exhorting the devil to come out. There are
many forms of gualichus, who live in woods,
rivers, among rocks and in subterranean places.
" The religion of the Tehuelches is distinguished
from that of the Araucanians and Pampas by
the absence of any trace of sun worship." . . .
" There is no doubt that they do believe in a
good Spirit, though they think he lives ' careless
of mankind.' They have no idols or objects of
worship nor — if a year's experience can enable
one to judge — do they observe any periodical
religious festival on which either the good or
evil Spirit is adored. The mention of this by
other travellers can only be explained by con-
fused accounts which have attributed Arauca-
nian customs to the totally distinct Patagonians."
was a sharp-pointed stone covered with hide, except the
point, and attached to a thong about three feet long, with
a knot at the end, so that it might not slip from the hand.
It was a deadly missile in the hands of a skilful savage, and
was principally used in warfare.
296 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
As regards the Tsoneca language spoken by
the northern Tehuelches, Musters remarks, " It
is needful to state most distinctly that it is
altogether different from either Pampa or Arauca-
nian. Though able to converse in Tehuelche,
I could not at all understand the Pampas." At
that time the number of the pure Tehuelches,
both Northern and Southern, in Patagonia did
not exceed 1,500 men, women and children,
according to a careful computation.
On the death of a Tehuelche all of his dogs and
other animals were killed and all of his belongings
placed in a heap and burned. The body was
sewn up in a mantle and buried in a sitting
posture, its face to the east, and a cairn of stones
was erected over the grave. Their idea was that
the dead should be completely forgotten, although
as they passed the cairn of a distinguished chief
or hero they added a stone to it.
Summarizing his opinion of the Tehuelches,
Musters says, " They certainly do not deserve
the epithets of ferocious savages, brigands of the
desert, etc. They are kindly, good-tempered,
impulsive children of nature, taking great likes
or dislikes, becoming firm friends or equally
confirmed enemies. . . . Don't give yourself airs
of superiority, as they do not understand it. . . .
As you treat them so they will treat you."
The constant union of the Moluche tribes of
PATAGONIANS 297
southern Chile with the Puelches of the Atlantic
slopes of the Andes for the purpose of hunting
or for warlike expeditions seems to indicate a
very close racial kinship between them. Prior
to the conquest, as the Indians were all on foot,
tribal inter-communication was attended with
great difficulties, and a combination of several
thousand Indians for a distant expedition must
have been almost impossible, for this required
the accumulation, preparation and transporta-
tion of supplies through an enemy's country by
means which did not exist. The necessities of
the food quest, whether in time of war or peace,
must have forced them to divide their tribes
into very small groups or even into single families,
the quantity of game in any given area of
country dictating the size of the group and the
extent of its nomadic movements, and limiting
the power of the savage to improve his social
status. They fed almost entirely on game, such
as the guanaco, deer and a few smaller animals,
ostriches and aquatic birds, and a few rodents.
All of these they were obliged to follow ceaselessly,
as they changed their feeding ground according
to the seasons and rains, droughts, inundations,
winds and other natural causes. Consequently
the life of these hunters must have been nomadic
to the highest degree.
Under such conditions racial culture was kept
298 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
at its lowest grade, and the whole intellect of the
individual was devoted to the one problem of
inventing hunting implements and reducing the
impedimenta of the family to a minimum as it
roamed over the Pampas or the arid wastes of
Patagonia. No invention was of any value which
might reduce the rapidity of the movements
of this savage ; for his existence depended on his
speed as a hunter. He must have been one of
the most rapid runners in the world to capture
such game, and his life made him an athlete
probably superior in physique to any other
Indian of South America. Of course such a
struggle for existence developed in him a courage,
strength and endurance which made him a
formidable adversary, willing and even eager to
try conclusions in the open against all comers.
But the Spaniard arrived on the scene, and
with him the horse.
The horse was introduced into the Pampas of
Buenos Ayres by the great expedition of Pedro
de Mendoza (1535-6). Five mares and six
stallions were the first which were turned loose,
and, together with others which were lost or
strayed, they multiplied with geometric rapidity,
and, before the end of the sixteenth century,
vast herds of them roamed over the plains. 1
1 Padre Falkner comments on the marvellous increase
in their number : — " The wild horses have no owners, but
INTRODUCTION OF HORSES 299
During the government of Hernando Arias
de Saavedra, soon after the conquest, 100 horned
cattle and two troops of stallions and mares
were disembarked on the coast of Uruguay, and
before many years had passed they had so
increased in numbers that they obstructed the
roads, and travellers had to drive them off.
Their multitude was such that, in the year 1700,
a bull was worth but two reals (about a shilling),
a horse one real, and a mare half a real, or three
wander in great troops about those vast plains which are
terminated to the eastward by the province of Buenos Ayres,
and the ocean as far as the mouth of the Red river (the
Colorado) ; to the westward, by the mountains of Chile and
the first Desaguadero; to the north, by the mountains of
Cordova, Yacanto and Rioja; and to the south by the
woods which are the boundaries of the Tehuelhets and
Diuihets. They go from place to place against the current
of the winds, and in an inland expedition which I made in
1744, being in these plains for the space of three weeks, they
were in such vast numbers that, during a fortnight, they
continually surrounded me. Sometimes they passed by
me in thick troops on full speed, for two or three hours
together, during which time it was with great difficulty that
I, and the four Indians who accompanied me on this occasion,
preserved ourselves from being run over and trampled to
pieces by them."
The country just back of the Atlantic coast of Buenos
Ayres was a famous hunting-ground of the Indians. " It
swarmed with an incredible number of wild horses, and on
this account the Tehuelhets, Chechehets, and sometimes
all the tribes of the Puelches and Moluches, assembled here
to get their stock of provisions. . . . When they have taken
what is sufficient they return to their respective countries."
300 ABORIGINES OF SOUTH AMERICA
pence. Finally they became so abundant that
they belonged to anybody who would kill them.
Naturally, as they increased in numbers, the
Indians became possessed of them and learned
their use. Not only did they acquire them from
the wild herds, but from the estancias of the
Spanish settlers. Lozano (1733) says that the
Chacu tribes, in twenty years, captured more
than 15,000 horses from the Spaniards, and that
they soon became such expert riders that they
excelled the Spaniards in horsemanship. With
the aid of a lance, and with the horse at full
gallop, they vaulted on his back from either side
and from behind.
The horse appears to have radically changed
the habits, customs and modes of life of the
Pampean tribes. With him as an adjunct to
their own matchless physical powers and endur-
ance they began to look far afield. They found
that he greatly facilitated the food quest, made
it possible to concentrate the tribal sections into
masses, and to make tribal combinations for
war which, with his aid, could be carried to far
outlying regions which they had never before
penetrated. Their little home properties and
tent comforts could be increased and were no
longer impedimenta on the march. To invent
or acquire these awakened their dormant intel-
lectual powers. The horse, in fact, caused
INTRODUCTION OF HORSES 301
the Indian to extend his lines of thought, learn
something of the life and habits of distant
peoples, exchange ideas with them, plunder or
trade with them — in short, take the initial steps
in civilization. 1
1 Without the aid of the horse, it may be doubted if
mankind could have emerged from barbarism, and when
his strength was utilized to move the wheel and axle (the
greatest invention ever made) civilization was assured.
c
SEP 6 1968
%
INDEX
Abatires, 71
Abipones, 16, 242; former extent
of their country, 263 ; description
of them, 264, 265; interments,
267 ; strong feeling that their chiefs
must rest with their ancestors,
267; identified with the Tobas,
268
Aborigines : origin, antiquity, 3
Abuna river, 52
Acre territory, 5 (n.)
Acuna, Father Cristobal de : his
narrative of a voyage up the
Amazon, 169
Affonso, Martin : expedition de-
stroyed by the Carijos, 62
Agaces, 242
Aguanas, 173, 192; account of, 177
Aguirre, Pongo de, on the Huallaga,
190
Aleman, Diego : expedition, 201
Alligators as food, 9; Canichanas
Indians fond of it, 109
Almagro, 166, 197
Altamirano, Father : his account
of the Mojos, 103 ; of the Mobimas
106; Amajuacas, 187
Alvarez de Toledo, Domingo : mis-
sionary in Caravaya, 202
Amaru-mayu, Inca name of the
river Madre de Dios, 199
Amazon, ancient sea, 5, 6, 7
Amazon river, water divide be-
tween, and the Orinoco, 4, 4 (».)
passim
Amazonia, 1 ; barriers to entrance,
3; food supply, 9; cut up by
rivers, 9; tribes — their numerous
languages, 1 1 ; population, 14 ;
reason for tribes splitting into
hordes, 29; Lower Amazonia de-
scribed, 135, 156; mosquitoes,
136; line of highlands from
Borja (Pongo de Manseriche) to
the Yavari, 156
Amazons, battle with, 64, 65
Amouncas, a tribe on the Jurua,
according to Castelnau, 155 (n.)
Anapalcas, 198
Andean plateau, 6
Andes, 2, 3, 4 ; once lower, since they
were inhabited, 7; adapted for
progress, 10; eastern slopes,
beauty and charm of the region,
194, 204
Andjazes on Marajo Island, 84
Ant-eaters as food, 9
Antilles (see Caribs)
Antisuyu, Inca name for eastern
forests, 195
Antonio, Father, and the Mane-
tenerys, 149
Apena, tributary of the Huallaga,
176
Apiacos, 79
Apolobamba, an Inca road near,
196 ; founded by Urquiza, 202
Aquachile, 202
Aquiry river, 145
Araguay river, 18, 38
Aranas, 150
Araucanians (see Pehuenches)
Araunas, 128, 130; account of,
146; reached by missionaries,
202, 203
Aravaonas, 93
Arawaks disputed with the Caraios
the possession of N.-E. South
America, 28 (n.)
Arce, Father Jose, mission to
Chiquitos, 94
Argentina, 7 ; fossil mammalia, 4 ;
inland sea, 4; importance and
interest of ethnological studies
in the N. W. part, 270
Arms of the Indians : Aymores, 70 ;
Corocoros, 93; Pamaynos, 93;
Chiquitos, 95; Sirionos, 117;
Guarayos, 117; Caraipunas, 128,
129, 131, 132; Muras, 137;
303
304
INDEX
Hypurinas, 140 ; Jamamadis,
142; Araunas, 146; Mayorunas,
174; Chinganas, 174; Jibaros,
179; Chiriguanos, 234; Guaycu-
rus, 248; Pampas, 287; Pata-
gonians, 293
Asuncion, capital of Paruguay on
the site of the principal settle-
ment of the Caraios, 22, 207
Atahualpa, 202
Aten, 196
Author : descending the Mamore
river, 40; meeting with the
Cacique of the Yacar6s, 50; his
canoe-men, 109; journey among
Sirionos, 118; ascent of Pichin-
cha, 167 (».); nearly wrecked,
200; acquaintance with mission-
aries, 204; meeting with Chiri-
guano warriors, 241; present at
a battle with the Pampas Indians,
279—284
Avila, Gomez Arias de, expedition,
160 (n.)
Ayaviri, 198
Aymara Indians, will not willingly
change their homes, 14
Aymores : Brazilian coastal tribe,
59; of Tapuya origin, 66; their
many names, 68, 69; called
Gamellos or Botocudos by the
Portuguese, 69; described, 69;
attack on Portuguese, 71, 73
Aymores, Cordillera dos, 73
Ayola, Juan de, 22; expedition,
207
Azara, Felix de, quoted, 36
Bahia de todos os Santos, Tapuyas
the first inhabitants, 38 (w.)
Balboa and Garces, Licentiates,
expedition to Mayu-tata, 201
Barraocas, a Chiquito tribe (Fernan-
dez list), 100
Barayzipunocas, a Chiquito tribe,
100
Baraza, Cipriano, Jesuit, among the
Mojos, 217
Barbudos, Spanish name of Mayo-
runas, 174
Bates quoted, as to spread of Tupi
language, 44 ; as to Mundurucus,
79; as to migrations of Tupis,
81
Bats (see Vampires).
Barzana, Jesuit, quoted, 257
Baures, Mojo tribe (d'Orbigny), 101
Belgrano General, in Alto Peru, 225
Beni Plateau, multitude of frag-
ments of tribes, confusion of
languages, 97
Beni river, 4 (n.), 18; region of, 90,
91; region between, and the
Madre de Dios, 125; rubber
collectors, 125, 198; explored by
Dr. Heath, 205
Bermejo river, 206
Berucos, Chiquito tribe (Fernandez),
100
Birds for food, 9
Boggiani, Padre, on the Tobas, 245
Bolivar, Padre Gregorio, 202, 216
Bolivian Government, list of Chi-
quito tribes, 101; sanguinary
conflict between government
troops and the Chiriguanos, 241
Borgenos, position on the Ucayali,
181
Borgas, Brazilian officer, quoted, as
to ascent of the Jurua, 154
Bororoses, Chiquito tribe, 101
Botocudos (see Aymores).
Boviruzaicas, Chiquito tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Bovo de Revello, Father, in the
montana of Paucartambo, 199
Brazil coast, 3; fossil mammalia,
4, 5 (n.); tribes, 16, 49; struggle
for littoral between Caraios and
Tapuyas, 27; Caytes, 55; tribes
when Portuguese came, 56;
position of Tupinaes, 57; dis-
tribution of Caraios and Tapuyas
at the time of the discovery, 68
Burgefios, Huallaga tribe, 192
Burton, Sir Richard, views as to
origin on the Tapuyas, 65; of
Caraios, 27 (n.)
Cabeza de Vaca Alvar Nunez, 22;
march from Santa Catherina to
Paraguay, 30 ; treated the Caraios
well, 30, 31
Cabinas, 92
Cabot, Sebastian, his fort destroyed
by Guaranis, 28
Cachayhary tribe, 148
Cahyapos, 80
Calchaquies, 208, 271, 272; pottery,
textiles, idols, 272
INDEX
305
Caldeir&o do Inferno on the Madre
de Dios: death of Maldonado,
200; author nearly wrecked, 200
Calipas, 93
Camata, Inca road at, 196
Camporedondo, Pero A. de, expedi-
tion, 91, 197
Camposano, Friar, on the Mojos, 102
Campos Indians, 187
Canamary tribe on the Purus, 143,
145, 147, 148
Canapanos river, 192
Candia, Pedro de, 91, 197
Canichanas, Mojo tribe (d'Orbigny),
101; account of, 108, 110, 111;
fond of eating alligators, 109;
entrenched settlements, 130
Ganoes : of the Caraios, 128 ; of the
Indians of the island of Marajo, 84,
85; on the Mamore, size, 109;
crew, 109, 110; of the Guarayos,
128
Capanguas on the Ucayali, 181
Gapinas, 92
Gapitaconas, 162
Gapivaras, 51, 132 (n.)
Carabecas, Mojo tribe, 102
Carahos, 80
Caraios or Caraibes, 13; penetra-
tion to the region east of the
Ecuadorian Andes, 17, 49, 53;
their grand war route, 17 ; cradle
of their race, 21; Schmidel on the,
21 (n.)j Numbers, 21 (w.); prin-
cipal settlement in Paraguay, 22 ;
fruitfulness of their country, 22;
their pride as conquerors, 26;
fierce struggle with Tapuyas, 27 ;
opinions as to their origin, 27 (n.);
their limit at Carcarana, 28 ; first
met by Spaniards on the Parana,
28 ; destroy Cabot's fort,
28; language purest in Para-
guay, 28, 32; treated well by
Cabeza de Vaca, 30, 31; their
Pages (priests), 31 (n.); meaning
of the word, 31 (n.); on the
Tocantins and Araguay, 38;
descended the San Francisco
river, 38; penetrated to foot of
the Andes, 40; reached the
Amazon by the Madeira, 40; en-
circled Brazil, 42; dominant
barbaric race of South America,
42; went up to Rio Negro, 43;
X
in Guiana, 43, 44; maritime in-
stincts, 45; those of the Antilles
described, 49; Yacares, 50;
Tupinambas of Caraio stock,
54; overran Amazonia, 62, 63;
contrasted with the Tapuyas,
64; Guanayas, 112; conquests
north of, the Amazon, 172;
wave after wave of them, 179;
Mayorunas, Chiriguanos, 209
Caraipuna tribe, 40, 128, 129; ac-
count of, 130, 131 ; their arms,
132 ; Keller's description of them,
132-134, 141
Caravaya, 197, 201, 202
Carbajal, Fray Gaspar de, on the
battle with the Amazons, 64, 65
Cashibos on the Ucayali, 182
Castel Fuerte, Marquis of, Viceroy
of Peru, remarks on the missions,
171
Castelnau quoted, 155
Catamarca, 269; remains of a pre-
Incarial race, 271
Catauixis on the Purus, 139, 149
Cathanycy tribe on the Ituxy, 148
Catuquenas on the Jurua, 150
Caupolican, 88, 198, 202, 203
Cavanavas, 92
Cavinas, 198; main outpost of the
La Paz missions, 201
Cayanpuxes, 92
Cayowa Indians of the upper
Parana, 33, 105 (w.)
Caytes, 54, 55, 57, 58
Cayubeos, Chiquito tribe, 101
Cayuvavas, Mojo tribe (d'Orbigny),
101; account of, 111
Ghacu, 110 {see Gran Chacu)
Chacu-Guaycuru group of tribes;
the Abipones, Mocovies, Tobas,
Agaces, Payaguaes, Mbayas,
242 ; arms, 248 ; wars, 249
Chacobos, Mojo tribe, 102, 129
Chalcuchima, 167
Chambira river, 188
Chandless on the Punis, 18, 41,
136, 138, 150
Chaneses identical in customs and
language with the Chiriguanos,
240
Chantre y Herrera, Jesuit, on the
vampires of the Maranon, 17 (w.)
Chapacuras, Mojo tribe (d'Orbigny),
101
306
INDEX
Chapare river, 118
Chares, Tomas de, Dominican :
wanderings in the Mojo region,
202
Charruas, an invading race, 28;
their territory, 36
Chasutas on the Huallaga, 192
Chayavitas, 182
Chechehets, name of S.-E. Pampas
Indians, 275
Chichar, province of, 287
Chili : evidence of land having been
raised, 7 (n.); Inca route for
conquest of , 2 1 1 , 2 1 2 ; inhabitants
(see Moluches)
Chiloe, 274
Chimareras, 92
Chimborazo province, 167
Chingona, a kind of lance, 174
Chipurana river, 155 (n.)
Chiquitos, missions to, 94; account
of the Indians, 95, 96; lists of
sub-tribes according to Fer-
nandez, 104; d'Orbigny, 101;
the Bolivian Government, 101
Chiriguanos, 40, 49 ; of Caraio race,
200; extent of territory, 206;
meaning of the word, 208, 209 ;
Lozanos estimate of their num-
bers, 209; determined resistance
to Spanish dominion and missions,
210; defeat of the Viceroy
Toledo, 214; fierce raids against
the Spaniards, 215; treatment of
missionaries, 216; incursions and
reprisals, 219, 220; failure of
the Jesuits, 219, 221; failure of
Viedma's invasion, 222; refuse
religious teaching, 227 ; descrip-
tion of men — dress, 229 ; button
in lower lip, 229; habitations
described, 230; furniture, 231,
food, 231; festivals, 232; chiefs,
233; weapons, 234; labour in
the fields, in the house, 235;
religion, 236-239; burial cere-
monies, 238-239; numbers in
1885, 241; their last effort at
independence, 241
Chiriguapunas, 91
Cholones on the Huallaga, 192
Chontaquiros on the Ucayali, 187
Chumbasa, 192
Chumore river, 118
Chunchos, 90, 91, 92, 93
Chuquisaca, 206
Church, Colonel (see Author)
Cingacachuscas in Maynas, 162
Cipos on the Purus, 139
Coary river, 186
Cocamas, 163, 173, 174; account of,
176, 181, 186; Marcoy on the,
188
Cocamillas, 173, 174, 176, 181-
192
Cochabamba, 118, 197, 201
Codajaz river, 136
Codazzi quoted, 191
Codinach, Padre Fidel, of La Paz,
196; account of an Inca road,
206
Concepcion Vieja, 191
Conibos on the Ucayali and Jurua,
150, 153; Castelnau's informa-
tion from 154, 155; a Conibo
dandy, 186, 187
Corabecas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(d'Orbigny), 101
Coribas, 92
Corocoros, 92
Corrado, Father, quoted, 213
Cozocas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Cuchiwaras, 38
Cuenca, missionaries from, 166
Cueva, Father Lucas de la, 177
Cujigeneryo, a Purus tribe, 145
Culinos, 150, 151, 153
Cumbazas, 182, 188
Cungarapas, 162
Curav6s, Chiquito sub-tribe (d'Or-
bigny), 101
Curucanecas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(d'Orbigny), 101
Curumaha river, 145
Curumalal Mts., Buenos Ayres, 4
Curuminacas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(d'Orbigny), 101
Cutinanas of the Huallaga, 177
Cuyaba river, 39
Cuzco, 4 (».)» 89; Mercedario mis-
sionaries from, 91; prefect slain
by Indians, 200; convent at,
probable existence of documents,
203
Cuzicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Darwin, evidence that land has
risen in Peru and Chile, 7
INDEX
307
Deer, source of food for Indians, 9
Diaz, Goncalves quoted, 27 (n.), 28,
71
Diuihets, name of Pampas Indians
to W. and S., 275
Dobrizhoffer on the Charruas, 36;
Abipones, 264
Doce river, 74
Dorado, El, 2, 160 (n.), 166
D'Orbigny includes Charruas in his
Pampean race, 36; quoted, 49,
96; his lists of the Chiquito and
Mojo tribes, 101, 106, 108; his
account of the Canichanas, 110;
describes the Guaranis, 48; Abi-
pones, 268
Durand, Abbe, account of Jurua
tribes, 149 (n.)
Ecuador, region to the east, 17;
ecclesiastical history of, 166. See
Quito
Eirinucas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Enim, 2
Entimary river, 147
Esmeraldas, Serva das, 73
Espinos, savage naked Purus tribe,
145
Falkner, work on Patagonia quoted,
273, 287; on the character of
the Patagonians or Tehuelhets,
275
Fernandez, Padre, mission to the
Chiquitos, 95; difficulty in learn-
ing languages, 97; his list of
Chiquito sub-tribes, 100
Figueroa, Francisco, killed by the
Cocamas, 176 ; on epidemics, 178
Figueroa, Lorenzo Suarez de, his
account of Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, 209; meaning of the word
Chiriguano, 209
Figueroa, Padre, his account of the
Maynas missions quoted, 157 {n.);
on the Mayor un as, 175
Fish as a source of food, 9
Flies (see Piusu)
Food, sources of, in Amazonia, 9;
of Guarayos, 114; Chiriquanos,
231; Mataguayos, 261
Franciscans in Maynas, 157; their
convent at Quito, 166; estate on
Pichincha, 167; employ descend -
X 2
ants of Incas, 167 ; their mission
college at Ocopa, 170
Frentones, tribe of the Guaycuni
family, 37
Fruits (wild), 9, 93
Fuentes, Luis de, concession of
Chiriguano territory, to, 207, 208
Gaiba lagoon, 207
Gamellas (see Aymores)
Gandavo, Pero de Magalhanes
quoted, 56 (n.)
Garces (see Balboa)
Garcia, Diego, " Memoria " (1526),
36
Garcilasso de la Vega quoted, 210
Gibbon, Lieut., U.S.N., 199
Girno falls, 52
Goaynazas, Tapuya stock, 59, 67
Goiatakazes, Tapuya stock, 59, 67,
68
Gonzales, Gabriel, expedition to
Paytiti, 202
Gorotires, 80
Goyaz, 19
Gradahus, 80
Gran Chacu, 4, 206; failure of
missions, 216; description, 243;
mixture of languages, 259; cap-
ture of horses by Indians of, 300 ;
tribes (see Chacu -Guaycurii)
Grubs for food, 9
Guacanaguas, 203
Guanacos, special burial-places of,
267 (n.)
Guanapaonas, 92
Guanas, Chiquito sub-tribe, 101
Guapay river, 213
Guapore river, 4 (n.)
Guaranis, meaning of the word, 26 ;
distinguished from Pampa In-
dians, 49, 114. See Tupi
Guarayo, tributary of the Beni, 126
Guarayos, 40, 49, 92, 112; account
of, 113; language, 114, 115;
religion, 116; account of, by
Suarez, 128, 147, 148
Guayanas (Guiana), 3, 5 (n.), 6, 43
Guaycurii tribes of the Gran Chacu,
36, 37; account of, 247. S»e
Chacu- Guaycuriis
Head-dress and ornaments : Ya-
cares, 50, 51; Mojos, 105; Keller
on the xerimbita, 105; Itenei,
308
INDEX
112; Guarayos, 115; Yuracares,
121; Hypurinas, 141; Jamama-
dis, 141, 142; Conibos, 186; lip
ornament {terribeta), 229, 266;
Mataguayos, 260 ; Abipones, 266
Heath, Dr., exploration of the Beni,
125, 205
Heath river, 195
Herndon, Lieut., U.S.N., quoted,
155, 186, 192
Hervas, list of tribes, 18; Tupi
language, 25 ; on the origin of the
Caraios, 27
Honey, 9
Horse : five mares and six stallions
let loose by Mendoza in 1535, 298 ;
vast herds before the end of that
century, 298; two troops of
mares and stallions landed on the
coast of Uruguay, 299; great
numbers captured by Chacu
Indians, 300; radically changed
the habits, customs and mode of
life of the Pampean and Pata-
gonian Indians, 300
Huakery river, 147
Huallaga river, 155, 156; missions,
169; Indians of, 176, 177, 192;
account of, 190
Huaraycus, 150, 153
Huatanary tribe, 148
Huayna Capac, 167
Huilliches, tribes from Valdivia to
the Strait of Magellan in four
divisions, 274
Hypurinas, tribe on the Purvis, MO-
US
Hyuacu river, 139, 143, 145
Hyunah tribe, 148
Ibocicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
19a on Putumayo river, 17
Igaras, small craft used by Indians
of Marajo Island, who were hence
called Igaruanas, 85
Illampu, 3, 194
Illimani, 194
Incas : defences from attacks of
Amazonian Indians, 16, 194, 206;
invasion of the eastern forests,
195, 196; military road, 196;
never conquered the Chiriguanos,
210, 211; route for the conquest
of Chile, 211, 212; murder of the
Inca Tupac Amaru by the
Viceroy Toledo, 213; colonies in
Tucuman, 268 ; extension of their
language to south, 270. See
Franciscans
Inland seas of South America, 4, 5
Interments: Abipones, 26; Mojos,
106; customs of Yuracares, 121;
Caraipunas, 134 ; Pammarys,
143; Hypurinas, 143; Chiri-
guanos, 238; Moluches, 285;
Patagonians, 286, 288, 296
Ipurinan tribe, 148
Irala expedition, 207
Itenes, Mojo sub-tribe (d'Orbigny),
101; account of, 111; language,
112
Itenez river, 4
Itonamas, Mojo sub-tribe (d'Or-
bigny), 101 ; account of, 108
Ituxy river, 147 ; tribes on, 148
Ixiamas, 195
Jacary river, 138
Jaen, 161
Jamamadis on the Purvis, 139, 140 ;
account of, 141, 150
Jandiatuba river, 150, 151, 153
Japura river, 17
Jaquariba river, 53 (n.)
Jesuits : Father Chantre y Herrera
on bats, 17 (n.); in Paraguay,
effects of their domination, 124;
in Maynas, 157 ; efforts to gather
the natives into reductions, 160;
falsely claim the discovery of
Maynas, 161, 162; teaching of
Quichua transferred to, at Quito,
168; convents at Quito, Cuenca,
Popayan, 169; college at Juli,
203 ; failure with the Chiriguanos,
217 ; extension of the use of
Quichua to the south by, 270
Jibaros, 78, 172 ; language, 175, 177 ;
account of, 178, 179, 192
Jolis, Abbe, history of the Chacu,258
Juberys on the Purvis, 138
Juli, 89 ; college of Jesuits, 203
Jurua river, 5 (n.); formed, 6, 18,
135, 149 ; explored by Chandless,
136; connected with the Purvis,
139; communication with the
Ucayali, 154; portages, 155
Jurucarecas, Chiquito sub tribe
(Fernandez), 100
INDEX
809
Juruena, 77
Jutahy river, 150
Keller : note on his services, 33 (n.) ;
on the xerinibita or stone cylinder
for the lower Up, 105 ; description
of the Caraipunas, 132, 133
Kirchoff, Professor, quoted, 30
Labre, Colonel, on the Arauna tribe,
127, 146, 147
Languages : numerous in Ama-
zonia, 11; Tupi language, 25;
Caraio language, 28 (n.); not a
safe clue to ethnological descent,
30 ; changes in, 30 ; extent of the
Tupi-speaking region, 44; con-
fusion in Chiquitos, 97; of the
Canichanas, 110; of the Itenes,
112; Guarayos, 114; school for
Quichua at Quito, 168; Caraio
same as Tupi-Guarani, 169; of
the Mayorunas, 175; area in
which Tacana is spoken, 204;
Toconote in the Gran Chacu, 257,
259, 264
La Paz, 89, 125; Franciscan con-
vent zealous in mission work,
201 ; probable existence of, in
edited documents, 203
La Torre, Colonel, Prefect of Cuzco,
slain by Indians, 200
Leprosy, 149 (n.)
Lizards as a source of food, 9
Loxa, 161
Loyola, town founded, 161
Loyola, Juan de Salinas, first to
descend the Pongo de Manseriche,
160; extent of the grant to, 161 ;
expedition, 161
Lozano, Padre, 209, 265, 300
Machins, 203
Madeira river, 4 (n.), 5 (n.); formed,
6, 12, 19; falls, 41, 50; river, 68,
128, 136
Madre de Dios river, 4 (».)> 91, 92,
125, 155, 194; descent of, by
Maldonado, 200
Maldonado, Juan Alvarez, expedi-
tion into the eastern forests, 91,
92 ; his enumeration of tribes, 92,
93 ; list of vegetables and f ruits,93 ;
expedition into the Montana,
199
Maldonado, Faustino, descent of the
Madre de Dios, and death, 200
Mammalia, fossil, 4
Mamalucus of San Paulo, 12; their
atrocities, 122 (n.), 123
Mamayanazes, tribe on Mare jo
Island, 84
Mamore river, 4 (n.), 40, 90, 109,
118, 194, 198
Manarios, 92
Mancini, missionary from Caupoli-
can, 205
Manes, 78
Manoa, 2
Mamseriche, Pongo de, 156, 158,
161, 162, 173 ; first descent of, 160
Mansifios (see Yuracares)
Manso, Andres, 213
Manetenerys on the Purus, 143;
originally supposed to be from
the Ucayali, 144
Maparinas of the Huallaga, 177
Mapuazes on Marajo Island, 83
Marahuas, 150, 153; branch of the
Mayorunas, 189
Marajo Island described, 82; fauna,
83 ; inhabitants, 83, 84
Maranhao, 54 ; missions, 73
Maranon river, 161, 163
Marcayo lagoon, 163
Marcoy, Paul, on the Muras, 138;
on the Jutahy and Yavari rivers,
150,153; Mayorunas, 178; Oma-
guas, 188; Chontaquiros, 187
Markham, Sir Clements, his edition
of Acuna, 169 (n.); his journey
into the montana of Paucar-
tambo, 199
Marquires, 92
Martinez, Padre, among the Chiqui-
tos and Mojos, 94
Mard river, 139
Marupas, 93
Mataguazos or Matacos, 253; de-
scription, 254, 256; Lafone Que-
vedo on their descent, 258, 260,
261; food, 261; character, 261;
diseases, 262
Matezupinicas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(Fernandez), 100
Matto Grosso, 3, 4 (n.), 67, 135
Mayas, 92
Maynas : its boundaries, 157 ; cruel
treatment of natives, 157 (n.);
discovered by Mercadillo, 158,
310
INDEX
and Loyola, 161 ; Jesuit claim,
162, 163; information from mis-
sionaries, 166; languages, 169
Mayorunas, 151, 152 (w.), 173, 174;
territory, 174; account by mis-
sionaries, 175; few left, 178, 186
Mayro river, 170
Mayu-tata river, 4 (n.), 195 (same
as Madre de Dios)
Mbayas, 242, 249, 250, 251
Mbocobis, 110
Mendoza, Pedro de : expedition to
the Rio de la Plata, 21, 22; intro-
duced horses, 298
Mercadillo, Alonso de, discoverer of
Maynas, 158 (n.); account of his
expedition, 169 (n. )
Mercedarios of Cuzco (see Cuzco)
Mercier, on the Arauna tribe, 146
Miller, General, expedition into the
montafia of Paucartambo, 199
Missions : to the Mojos and Beni,
12; Maranhao mission, 12; in-
formation from missionaries, 89;
Mercedarios from Cuzco, 91 ;
Franciscans in the Beni region,
125; Maynas, 166; disastrous
result of missions, 170; value of
writings of missionaries, 172;
from La Paz, 201, 202, 203;
failure in the Gran Chacu, 216,-
217; failure of Jesuits, 221. See
Jesuits
Mitre\ General, his annotation of
Schmidel, 21 (n.)
Mobimas, tribe of the Mojos, 101,
102. See Movimas
Mocetenes, 203
Mocooes on Marayo Island, 84
Mocobi-Toba nation in the Gran
Chacu, 245
Mocovies, 242, 275
Mojos, 18, 52; of Yuroma, 92, 93;
d'Orbigny's list of sub-tribes, 101 ;
account of, by Camposano, 102;
by Altamirano, 102, 103, 105;
drinking bouts, 104, 105 ; account
of, by d'Orbigny, 106, 107; mis-
sions, 124, 217 ; defeat Aleman,201
Moluche race (see Araucanians) :
extent of territory — three divi-
sions : Picunches, Pehuenches,
Huilliches, 273; their totem,
284; wizards, 284
Monkeys as a source of food, 91, 157
Monocaracas, Chiquito sub -tribe
(Fernandez), 100
Montesinos, on the Inca road to
Chile, 211
Moposicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Moquegua, 89, 203
Morinas, Mojo sub-tribe (d'Orbigny),
106; account of, by Altamirano,
106
Morona river, 158, 188
Mosquitoes in lowland Amazonia,
136
Mayobamba, 175
Muchojeones, Mojo sub-tribe (d'Or-
bigny), 101
Munaisicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Munduruciis, 77, 78 ; settled, 79, 80 ;
war with Muras, 138
Muras, 78, 136; Caraio stock, 136;
their territory, 136; account of,
137 ; scourge of the Tapuyas, 137 ;
reduced by wars, 138
Musters, Captain, R.N., on the Pata-
gonians or Tehuelets, 289-296
Mutuanatena river, 150
Muymas, 92
Nahuelhuapi lake, 274
Napo river, 17, 157, 158
Nauta, 186
Negro, Rio, formed, 6, 17, 136;
Portuguese advanced their settle-
ments to, 158
New Granada made a viceroyalty,
160
Nheengaybas : inhabitants of Ma-
rajo Island, 84, 85; defence of
their homes, 85; account of, by
the Jesuit Antonio Vieira, 85, 86
Nu-Arawaks, 83
Nuts as a source of food, 9
Obisisiocas, Chiquito sub-tribe, 101
Obobococas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(Fernandez), 100
O-copa, mission college at, 170 (n.)
Oiutuucas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Oliva, Padre, 216
Omaguas, 2, 27 (n.), 160 (n) ; Caraio
origin, 44, 181, 188; language,
175; now a mixed race, 188,
!89
INDEX
311
Opotari, 97, 197
Orellana, 1
Orinoco, 4 ; Caraios on, 44
Osaacas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Otarosos, Otenenemas, Otigocos,
Otukes, Ovizibicas, Ozonimaacas,
all Chiquito sub-tribes, 100, 101
Ou-etacas, 37
Pacaguaras, Mojo tribe (d'Orbiguy),
101; account of, 111; Suarez on,
128, 129, 203
Pacajas, 92, 93
Pachitea river, 188
Pacia, 139
Pacific coast, 3
Pagis or Poges, wizards of the
Caraios, 31, 32, 33
Paiconocas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Paimas, 192
Palms, pith used for food, 9
Pamanah tribe, 148
Pamas, 129
Pammarys, on the Puriis, 138
Pampa del Sacramento, 155 (n.)
Pampean inland sea, 4, 6, 7
Pampean tribes, 49, 243, 244;
divided into Taluhets, Diuihets,
Chichihets, 275; attacked by
Generals Rosas and Roca, 277,
278; author's account of their
gallantry, 279-284; interments,
285 ; change of mode of life from
arrival of horses, 297-301
Panos, on the Ucayali, 182
Papanazes, 52, 67
Para founded, 82
Paraguay, 4 (n.), 21; river, 22;
expeditions, 207
Parahyba river, 54
Parana, 21
Paranapura, 175
Pariaches, 164
Parintintins, on the Madeira, 78
Partaxos, 71
Pastaza river, 158, 163, 188
Paucartambo, 195, 199
Paunacas, Chiquito sub -tribe, 101
Pausernas, Mojo sub-tribe, 102
Patagonia, 242; names of tribes,
275; interments, 286; chiefs,
286; arms, 287. SeeTehuelches,
Musters
Payaguaes, 37, 242
Paytiti, 2, 90, 92, 160 (n.), 202
Paz-Soldan, secretary Boundary
Commission, 152
Pehuenches, south of Picunches,
274; interments, 288. See Arau-
canians
Pelleschi on the Matacos, 264
Penoquies, Chiquito sub-tribe,
101
Peru, 2; evidence of land having
risen, 7
Pichazicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Pichincha, estate of Franciscans on,
167
Picunches, N. branch of Moluches,
from Eoguimbo to Santiago, 274.
See Moluches
Pilcomayo river, 113
Pinzon, his fresh- water sea, 2
Piquicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Pirros on the Ucayali, 181, 187,
182
Pitigoares, 54, 57
Piusu fly (species of Trombidium),
135
Pizarro, Hernando, 197
Pizarro's followers, 2
Poguso river, 170
Pongo de Manseriche (see Manse-
richei)
Popayan, Jesuits at, 169
Portuguese : easy conquest of
Brazil due to inter-tribal wars,
56; cruelty to natives, 72, 73,
76; papal interference, 76 (n.),
82, 84; half-castes called Mama-
lucos — their atrocities, 122 (n.);
hatred of Muras for Portuguese,
137; advance to the Rio Negro,
138
Potiguares, 53 (n.), 54
Potoras, Chiquito sub-tribe, 101
Pucata lake, 188
Puelches, 274; Pampas Indians —
branch to N. called Tuluhets,
to W. and S. Diuihets, S.-E.
Chechehets, 275
Puruhaes, 167
Puru-purus, 138
Purus river, 4 (n.), 5 (n.); formed,
6, 133 ; Indians on, 18 ; explored
by Chandless, 136; tribes of,
312
INDEX
137-147; connected with the
Jurua, 139; portages, 155
Putumayo river, 17, 44, 157, 191
Querandis, an invading race, 28
Quevedo, Dr. Lafone, annotator of
Schmidel, 21 (n.); on destruction
of Cabot's fort, 28; extent of
spread of Caraios to S., 37, 211,
(n.); on the Inca route to Chile,
212; name of Chacu-Guaycuru
for the Chacu tribes, 242 ; on the
Matacos, 258
Quichua language taught at Quito,
169; extended south to Cata-
marca, 270
Quimitos, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Quimomecas, Quitemucas, Quite-
sucas— Chiquito sub-tribes, 100
Quito, 3; Maynas administered
from, 158; incorporated in New
Granada, 160; grant to Loyola
in jurisdiction of, 161 ; Franciscan
convent, 166; atrocities of
Spaniards at, 166; bishop of,
promoted study of native lan-
guages, 168; Jesuits at, 168
Quiviquicas, Chiquito sub-tribe,
100
Quizemaacas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(Fernandez), 100
Raimondi, Padre, quoted, 154, 155
(n.); on the Mayorunas, 175
Reclus on the Titicaca basin, 8 (n.)
Relationships, many names for,
60
Religion : Chiquitos, 95, 96 ; Mojos,
102, 106; Yuracares, 121, 122;
Guarayos, 128; Araunas, 146;
Chiriguanos, 237 ; Patagonians,
295
Remos on the Ucayali, 183, 187
Rheus, Bernard, Jesuit, perished
north of Apollobamba, 202
Rio Grande do Sul, State, 21
Rio Negro (see Negro)
Rixala branch of the Purus, 144
Roads, Inca (see Incas)
Roca, General, attack on the
Pampas Indians, 270
Rochfort on the Caribs of the
Antilles, 49
Roots as a source of food, 9
Rosas, General, massacre of Pampas
Indians, 277
Rubber collectors on the Beni, 126;
on the Purus, 140 (n.); disturb-
ance of tribes by, 180, 205
Rumi-naui sentenced to death,
166
Rupa-rupa, fabled land, 160
Saavedra, Cristoval de, quoted,
169
Saavedra, Hernando Arias de,
299
Sabainas, 201
Sacramento, Pampa del, 188
Sains, Padre Rafael, 202
Sala, Father Gabriel, quoted, 185
Salinas, his account of the Indians
of Maynas, 162, 165
Salt, provision of, 191 (n.)
Samucus, Chiquito sub-tribe
(d'Orbigny), 101
San Antonio, fall of the Madeira,
78
San Francisco river in Brazil, 19,
38
San Ildefonso treaty, 151
San Jose de Chupiamonos, Inca road
at, 196
San Juan del Oro, 198
San Martin river, 113
San Miguel de Sucumbios, 40,
191
San Miguel river : Ucayali so
named by Loyola, 4 (n.), 161
San Paolo, Mamalucos of, 12
San Salvador river, 28
Sancti Spiritus fort destroyed, 28
Sandia, 198, 201, 203
Santa Catherina State, 21, 30
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 3, 40, 118,
206
Santa Maria de la Mer Dulce, 2
Santa Maria de Nieve, 161
Santiago de las Montanas, 161
Santiago river, 161
Sapota lake, 188
Saravecas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(d'Orbigny), 101
Sarayacu on the Ucayali, 154
Schmidel, Ulrich, with Mendoza's
expedition to the Rio de la Plata,
account of the Caraios — his
editors, 21 (n.)
Secure river. 117, 118
INDEX
313
Sepatynim branch of the Puriis,
139
Sepesecas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Serafin (see Purus)
Serre river, 113
Sertao, meanings of the word,
19 (n.)
Setebos on the Ucayali, 181, 187
Shipebos on the Ucayali, 181, 187
Siliamos Gorge, 196
Simomucas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Sinabos, Mojo sub-tribe, 102, 129
Sirionos, 49; Mojo tribe, 102;
locality, 116; Caraio stock, 117;
account of, 117; the author's
journey among, 118
Slave-hunting, 13
Snakes as a source of food supply,
9
Solostos (see Yuracares)
Sorata, 3, 195
Sousa, Pero Lopez de, 36
Southey quoted, 81, 148
Soutomaior, Padre JoHo, traversed
Marajo Island, 87
Spaniards, early expeditions into
the eastern forests, 91, 92; atro-
cities at Quito, 166; Indians had
a deadly hatred of, 171; cruelty
in Tucuman, 226, 227
Stade, Hans, quoted, 49
Steere on the Purus tribes, 140
Suarez, Presbyten, his ecclesiastical
history of Ecuador, 166
Subarecas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Suchichi, 192
Suri, Inca road near, 196
Tabatinga, 152
Tacana Indians, 198; occupy a
beautiful country, 204
Taluhets, name of Pampas Indians
to N., 274
Tamaya river between Yavari and
Ucayali, 154
Tambopata river, 125
Tamoyos, 53 (n.), 59, 60
Tapacunti, 191
Tapacuras, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Tapajos river, 39, 40, 77, 84
Tapana channel between Puriis and
Jurua, 139
Tapiis, Chiquito sub-tribe (d'Orbi-
gny), 101
Tapirs as a source of food supply,
9
Tapuyas : so-called by the Caraios,
20; occupants of the Sertao, 20;
struggle with Caraios, 27, 43;
first inhabitants of Bahia, 38 (n.);
position — character, 55, 56, 74,
75; contrasted with Caraios,
64; described by Burton, 65 (n.),
and by others, 65, 67 ; driven into
fastnesses by the Caraios, 137;
Muras the scourge of, 137
Taranaca, branch of the Jurua,
154
Tarija, 89, 206; attacked by
Chiriguanos, 208 ; convent
founded, 208; Franciscan college
of " Propaganda fide," 221
Tavares Bastos, quoted, 154
Teatara, 165
Tehuelhets or Tehuelches, name of
the Patagonian Indians, 275;
account by Falkner, 276, 277;
incursions, 277; extent of wan-
derings, 290; superstitions, 295;
character, 296. See Musters
Terribeta, lip ornament, 229
Theotonio fall of the Madeira, 5 (n.),
129, 132
Ticuna Indians, 151
Tingo Maria on the Huallaga, 190,
193
Tirinas, 92
Titicaca lake, 6, 7, 8, 8 (n.); size,
8(n.)
Titu Atauchi, Inca prince, 167
Tobas, 54, 110, 206, 242; described
245; same as Abipones almost,
268
Tobagaras, 53 (n.), 54
Tobazicas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Tocantius river, 18, 19, 38, 40, 41,
53, 83
Tochi, 38
Toconote language in the Chacu,
258; people, 269
Toledo, Don Francisco, Viceroy of
Peru's invasions of the Chiri-
guanos, 207; murder of Tupac
Amaru, 213; disgraceful defeat,
214
Tomajuncosa, Father, on failure of
the Jesuits, 222, 223
314
INDEX
Tono river, tributary of the Madre
de Dios, 195, 196, 197
Tordoya expedition, 198, 199
Toromonag, 93, 202, 203
Tortoises as a source of food supply,
9
Totaica, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Totems of Pampas Indians, 284
Toucans' feathers for crowns, 142
Trade wind, former effects, 7
Tribes in Amazonia, numerous, 1 1 ;
European foes on all sides, 12, 13 ;
confusion of names and languages,
100
Trinidad on the Mamore, 178
Trombeta river, 136
Tucuman.cruel treatment of natives,
226-227 ; Inca colony in, 269
Tuicha, 91
Tumupasa, 195
Tunari, snowy range in Bolivia,
rivers flowing from, 118
Tununuacas, Chiquito sub-tribe
(Fernandez), 100
Tupac Amaru, 213
Tupi-Guarani, a misnomer for
Caraio, 23
Tupinaes, 57
Tupinambarana island on the
Amazon, 80; Tupis took refuge
there, 81, 82
Tupinambas, 25, 38, 53; Caraio
origin, 54, 57; in valleys of
Tapajos, Xingu and Tocantins,
84
Tupiniquins, 59, 72
Tupis : meaning of the word, 23,
24; in reality Caraios, 25; Mon-
toya on the language, 25 ; origin,
27 (n.); a conquering race, 28,
39 (n.); Southey's account of the
flight of, 81; found on the
Tocantius, 83. See Caraios.
Uaupes river, 5 (n.)
Ucayali river, 5 (n.), 18, 154, 155,
156, 161, 163; missions 169;
tribes, 181-183
Umana tribe, 150
Urbano (see Purvis)
Urquiza Pedro de, privilege to
conquer Caupolican, 202
Urrea, Pedro Miguel de, killed by
the Sabainas, 201
Ursua, Pedro de, expedition, 174
Uruguay, horses landed on coast,
299
Vaca, Diego, 177
Valladolid founded, 161
Valle, Padre Salvador do, traversed
Mara jo Island, 87
Vampires, their numbers and
voracity, 17 (n.)
Varnhagen quoted, 24, 25; on
origin of Caraios, 27 (n.)
Vasconcellos, Simon de, quoted, 30
Velasco, list of tribes, 18
Viedma, Captain General, his attack
on the Chlriguanos, 222
Vieira, Antonio, Jesuit on Moray's
Island, 85, 88 ; made peace with
the Indians, 87
Villalta, 22
Villamil, Emeterio, notice of, 195
(n.)
Villavicencio, list of tribes, 18
Von Martins, opinion as to origin
of Caraios, 27 (n.)
Weapons (see Arms)
Xingu river, 37, 38; tribes in
valley of, 39 (n.); rapids, 41
Yacares, description, 50, 51
Yanayaco, 155 (n.)
Yapura or Japura river, 6, 137
Yavary river, 135; boundary be-
tween Spain and Portugal, 151;
ascended by the Boundary Com-
mission in 1861, 151; described,
152; commission attacked and
driven back, 152; communica-
tion with Ucayali, 155; por-
tages, 135; Mayorunas on the, 174
Yumarinenos, 92, 93
Yumbos on the Huallaga, 192
Yuquimonas, 92
Yuracares, 119; Solostos and
Mansifios, account of, 120, 121
Zama, old name of Caupolican, 198
Zaruraoas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Zibacas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 100
Zizoocas, Chiquito sub-tribe (Fer-
nandez), 101
Zoucas and Zounaaoas, Chiquito
sub-tribes, 100
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