The Abipones raged with still more violence and pertinacity against those colonies which look towards the south, and are near the territories of Cordoba. Zumampa, Las Barrancas, and El Oratorio, for a long time witnessed the cruelty of the savages. A whole village was destroyed, while some of the inhabitants were slain, and others made captive, scarce one or two surviving. This country is intersected by a high road, through which waggons loaden with Peruvian money frequently pass to Buenos-Ayres. The certainty of booty and great facility of committing depredations had attracted the Abipones to these parts of the province, to the great annoyance of merchants, who were thus necessitated either to lose their merchandise, or to bring soldiers at a great expense to defend the waggons and their drivers, who often lost their lives as they were endeavouring to defend the lives and properties of others.
These and many other things of this kind were committed by the Abipones against the inhabitants of St. Iago, who knew not that they had to deal with a people accustomed to leave nothing unrevenged. They frequently eluded the attempts of the enemy by vigilance, oftener warded them off by dint of brave exertions. They often returned slaughter for slaughter, wounds for wounds. They had made such frequent inroads into Chaco, and so many successful invasions of the hordes of the savages, that the soldiers were scarce sufficient to guard the captives. I cannot commend the soldiers of St. Iago without launching out into the praise of their general, Barreda. Excuse me if I make some tribute to my love for this man, and appear somewhat prolix in what respects him but fear nothing in regard to veracity. Barreda is indeed my friend, but truth still more so.
CHAPTER VII. OF THE EXPEDITIONS OF FRANCISCO BARREDA, GENERAL OF THE ST. IAGANS, AGAINST THE ABIPONES AND MOCOBIOS.
Astigi, a city of Andalusia, was his native place. He was born of a most respectable family, and had been in the King's service from his earliest years. He set sail from Cadiz for Paraguay, while yet a youth, bearing letters from the King, in the office of naval secretary. This voyage is often performed in three or four months, with a favourable wind; Barreda and his companions, miserably tost about the ocean, scarce reached the port of Buenos-Ayres on the tenth. Having dispatched their business in that city, all things were put in readiness for returning to Europe, and they entered the vessel. But just as they were going to raise anchor, a furious south wind encountered the ship, turned it on its beam-ends, and would have sunk it, had it not been held by steady anchors. The crew remained the whole night on a sand bank, expecting death every moment. The shades of night increased their fears and their danger. All must have perished, had not a boat arrived, at day-break, from the shore, which is three miles distant from the place where the ships lie at anchor. Barreda conceived such a horror of navigation, that, when his companions returned to Spain, he remained in Paraguay, reserved by the Almighty to repress the boldness of the savages, by whom he was more dreaded in his age, than the sea had been by him in his youth. He was removed from Buenos-Ayres to Salabina, a little town in the country of St. Iago, where his skill in writing rendered him very useful. He volunteered to accompany the soldiers in an incursion against the savages, and after having, in repeated campaigns, given signal proofs of wisdom and valour, was promoted first to command a troop of horse, afterwards to lead them against the savages, and lastly to be chief ruler, in the Governour's name, over the whole territory of the river Salado; in which station, he commended himself to the Royal Governour of Tucuman, by his many brave and noble actions, the chief of which was his prevailing upon the Vilelas to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. By means of his industrious efforts, ten thousand Vilelas quitted their lurking-holes in the woods, entered the new colonies, and received baptism. The small-pox, which broke out soon afterwards, cut off greatest part of them, and the survivors settled first in the land of Cordoba, and afterwards in the territory of St. Iago, where, as they daily decreased more and more under other masters, they were committed to the care of the priests of our order.