Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay. Richard Francis Burton

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СКАЧАТЬ Thompson, C.E. (Chap. Y.), computes the Paraguayan army

      in April, 1865, at about 80,000 men.

      10 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

      tinct types. The few hundred " Whites ^^ forming the aristocracy of the land^ are descended from the blue blood of Spain and Biscay through Guarani and other red- skin women^ and they have kept themselves tolerably pure by intermarriage,, or by connexion with Europeans. The nobility, therefore, is Spanish ; the mobility is not. The mulatto or ^^ small ears " is a mixture of the white with the Indian or the Negro, the third and fourth breeds ; as usual, he is held to be ignoble : an " Indian^^ might enter the priesthood ; not so the mulatto. The same was the case in the United States, and in the Brazil — the instinct of mankind concerning such matters is everywhere the same. It is only the philanthropist who closes his ears to the voice of common sense.

      It is a mistake to consider the Paraguayans as a homogeneous race. The Whites or Spaniards preponde- rated in and about Asuncion ; whereas at Villa Rica the " Indian element was strong. About 1600-1628, the " Mamelukes of S. Paulo having seized and plundered the nearest Reduction of Jesus and Mary in the province of La Guayra, distant only 900 miles from their city, the people fled to Central Paraguay, and their descendants, the Villa Ricans, are still known as Guayrenos. In the southern and south- eastern parts of the country the blood was much mixed with Itatins"^ or Itatinguays, a clan which also migrated from the banks of the Yi River to the seaboard of Brazilian S. Paulo. When independence was declared, the negroes who were household servants did not exceed 2000 — others reduce them to 1000. The Consular Government decreed the womb to be free, and forbad further import. Until very lately, however, slaves were sold in Paraguay.

       Thej may be called so from their original settlements, Ita-tin, mean-

      ing a white stone.

      INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 11

      The Paraguayo — not Paragueno, as some travellers write the word — is, then^ a Hispano-Guarani, and he is, as a rule, far more " Indian'^ than Spanish. Most of the prisoners with whom I conversed were in fact pure redskins. The figure is somewhat short and stout, but well put together, with neat, shapely, and remarkably small extremities. The brachycephalic head is covered with a long straight curtain of blue-black hair, whilst the beard and mustachios are rare, except in the case of mixed breeds. The face is full, flat, a ad circular ; the cheekbones are high, and laterally salient; the forehead is low, remarkably contrasting with the broad, long, heavy, and highly-de- veloped chin ; and the eyes are often oblique, being raised at the exterior canthi, with light or dark-brown pupils, well- marked eyebrows, and long, full, and curling lashes. The look is rather intelligent than otherwise, combined with an expression of reserve ; it is soft in the women, but in both sexes it readily becomes that of the savage. The nose is neither heavy nor prominent, and in many cases besides being short and thin it is upturned. The masticatory ap- paratus is formidable, the mouth is large and wide, the jaws are strong, and the teeth are regular, white, and made for hard work. The coloration is a warm yellow lit up with red ; the lips are also rosy. In the " Spaniards," the complexion, seen near that of the pure European, appears of that bleached- white with a soup9on of yellow which may be remarked in the highest caste Brahmans of Guzerat and Western Hindostan. The only popular deformity is the goitre, of which at Asuncion there is one in almost every family ; the vulgar opinion is that all who suffer from it come from the uplands. Obesity is rare, yet the Paraguayan is ebrius as w^ell as ebriosus, and his favourite " chicha" beer of maize or other grains, induces pinguefaction. Until the late war, he was usually in good health. The only medicines known

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      to the country were contained in various manuscripts of simple recipes^ written by Sigismund Asperger, a Hungarian priest J who spent (says Azara) forty years amongst the missions of La Plata^ and who, after the expulsion of his order^ died, aged 112. The Paraguayan is eminently a vegetarian, for beef is rare within this oxless land, and the Republic is no longer, as described by DobrizhofFer^, the " devouring grave as well as the seminary of cattle.^^ He sickens under a meat diet; hence^ to some extent, the terrible losses of the army in the field. Moreover, he holds with the Guacho, that ^' Carnero no es carne^ — mutton is not meat. Living to him is cheap. He delights in masamora (maize hominy), in manioc, in the batata, or ^' Spanish potato/^ grown in Southern Europe ; in various preparations of cow^s milk^ and in fruity especially oranges. Of course he loves sweetmeats, such as " mel,^^ or boiled- down cane-juice, not the common drained treacle. His principal carbonaceous food is oil of " mani^^ — the Arachis, here the succedaneum for the olive — and the excellent fish of the Paraguay river : the latter aliment has of late years become an especial favourite, as the ready phosphorus- supplier to the brain, and " ohne phosphor keine gedenke.^' Concerning the Paraguayan character, authors greatly differ, though mostly agreeing that in some points it is singular and even unique. ^^ He is brave because he is good,^ said Mr. Mansfield, overjoyed to find a man and yet a vegetarian, free, moreover, from the " disgusting vice of shopkeeping.' " Un peuple vertueux et vaillant,^^ endorses General Pacheco. " Paraguayo,^^ is now applied by the Brazilian to a stubborn mule, to a kicking horse, or to a drunken man : the women give the name to their naughty children. On the other hand, the Spanish Paraguayans call the Brazilians " Rabilongos," the long-tailed (monkeys) ; and the Guarani speakers " Cambahis,^^ or niggers. In

      INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 13

      Argentine land the Luso- American is always talked of as Macaco, the ape. Travellers have noticed the manifold contradictions of the national mind — such as its " Indian^' reserve mixed with kindness and seeming frankness; its hospi- tality to, and dislike of, foreigners ; the safety of the purse, not of the throat, throughout the Republic; and its ex- cessive distrust, mefiance, and suspicion, concealed by ap- parent openness and candour. Some of our countrymen employ Paraguayan captives as shepherds and labourers ; they are found to work well, but the man will, if possible, lie all day in his hammock or about the hut, and send his wife afield. Personally, I may state that in every transaction with Paraguayans — of course not the upper dozen — they invariably cheated or robbed me, and that in truthfulness they proved themselves to be about on a par with the Hindu. Even the awful Marshal President was not safe from their rascality.

      It is pretended by his enemies that Dr. Francia, the better to sustain his despotism, brought about amongst a semi- Republican, semi-patriarchal race, a state of profound immorality, in the confined sense of the word, and that to the encouragement of low debauchery he added that of gambling. The fact is, he ruled the people by systematising the primitive laxity and the malpractices which he found amongst them ; and in autocracies generally, the liberty conceded to society is in exact inverse ratio to the strictness with which political latitudinarianism is curbed. Dr. Francia rose to power over a nation of ^vhom each member was profoundly satisfied with his family, his native valley, his country ; with his government, which he adored, and with his religion, to him the only one upon earth. The con- tempt of mankind was the beginning of his wisdom. He asserted, as do his friends, that Paraguay has no other fault but that of being the strongest and the most prudent of

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      States, and that all who speak against her are actuated by mere envy and jealousy. A serf, the descendant of mere serfs — Yanaconas and Mitayos* — a fervent patriot more- over, the only freedom to which he aspired was that of morals. Everywhere the woman of Guacho-land takes a most matter-of-fact view of a subject into which most peoples of the world attempt to infuse a something of poetry and romance. Love is with her as eating and sleeping — a purely corporeal necessity. Like Rahel Varnhagen, she is constant : she always loves some one, but not the same. As everywhere in South America^ marriage is not the rule, and under Dr. Francia it was forbidden, or rather it was conceded under exceptional circumstances СКАЧАТЬ