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The Evueví of Paraguay: Adaptive Strategies and Responses to Colonialism, 1528-1811

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Barbara Ganson
Barbara Ganson*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin, Texas
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Extract

The Evueví (commonly known as the “Payaguá”), a Guaycuruan tribe in southern South America, dominated the Paraguay and Paraná rivers for more than three centuries. Non-sedentary, similar in nature to the Chichimecas of northern Mexico and the Araucanians of southern Chile, the Evueví were riverine Indians whose life was seriously disrupted by the westward expansion of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Gran Chaco and Mato Grosso regions. This study will identify Evueví strategies for survival and analyze the nature of intercultural contact between the Indian and Spanish cultures. A study of the ethnohistory of the Evueví contributes to an understanding of the cultural adaptation of a non-sedentary indigenous tribe on the Spanish frontier whose salient features were prolonged Indian wars, Indian slavery, and missions. Such an analysis also provides an opportunity to analyze European attitudes and perceptions of a South American indigenous culture. Unlike other Amerindians, the unique characteristic of the Evueví was that Europeans perceived them as river pirates during the colonial era.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , April 1989 , pp. 461 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1989

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References

* The author wishes to thank Susan Deans Smith for her insightful comments in the direction of this manuscript, and to those many individuals who offered their suggestions and criticisms of earlier drafts, especially James Schofield Saeger, Alan Knight, Woodrow Borah, Vera Blinn Reber, Jerry Cooney, Gregg Urban, Richard Salvucci, and Peter Linder. Carolina Castillo was kind to prepare the map. My appreciation to the staff of the Benson Latin American Collection of the University of Texas at Austin. Special thanks to Tony Stroud and Elaine Ganson.

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4 Susnik, , Los aborigenes del Paraguay: Etnología del Chaco Boreal y superiferia (Asunción: Museo Etnográfico “Andrés Barbero,” 1978), 1:16–24, 93Google Scholar; Southey, Robert, History of Brazil, 3 vols.(1810; reprinted, Franklin, Burt, New York: Lenox Hill, 1971) 1:85 Google Scholar; Falkenhausen, Olga, “The Payaguá Indians,” p. 105 Google Scholar; Plá, , “The Pirates”, p. 31 Google Scholar; Schmidt, , “Los Payaguás,” pp. 136–8Google Scholar; Demersay, , Histoire physique, economique et politique du Paraguay, p. 360 Google Scholar; Susnik, , Apuntes de etnografía paraguaya (Asunción: Manuales del Mueseo Etnográfico “Andrés Barbero”, 1961), pp. 23–33.Google Scholar

5 Schmidt, , “Los Payaguás,” pp. 136–8Google Scholar; Boggiani, Guido, Comprendio de etnografía paraguaya moderna (Asunción: Talleres nacionales de H. Kraus, 1900)Google Scholar; Susnik, , El indio colonial, 3:104.Google Scholar

6 Susnik, , Los aborigenes del Paraguay, 1:97 Google Scholar; Plá, “The Pirates”, p. 35.Google Scholar

7 de Cáceres, Felipe and de Salazar, Juan, “Carta a S. M. dando relación de las cosas en esta tierra subcedida,” Asunción, June 1556,Google Scholar MG 724; Susnik, , Los aborígenes del Paraguay, 1:17.Google Scholar Falkenhausen stated that the Evuevi wore no clothing during the initial period of contact, but early chroniclers concur that they did.

8 Plá, , “The Pirates”, p. 11.Google Scholar

9 Metraux, , “Indians of the Gran Chaco,” p. 351 Google Scholar; Aguirre, , Diario 19(1950): 73–4Google Scholar; Azara quoted in Susnik, , Los aborígenes del Paraguay, 3: p. 120.Google Scholar

10 Metraux, , “Indians of the Gran Chaco,” p. 301.Google Scholar

11 Spain, Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, 4 vols (Madrid: Imprenta de Paredes, 1681), Libro VI, Título 2, ley vij.

12 Hemming, John, Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978), p. 493.Google Scholar

13 Schmidel, , Wahrhafftige Historien einer Wunderbaren Schiffhart, 2 vols.(Graz: Akademische Druck U. Verlagsanstalt, 1962) 1:26–7Google Scholar; Schmidel, , Historia y descubrimiento del Río de la Plata y Paraguay (1881), pp. 33–6.Google Scholar

14 de Guzmán, Díaz, Historia Argentina, p. 25 Google Scholar; de Guzmán, Díaz, Anales del Descubrimiento, p. 101.Google Scholar

15 The Indian allies of the Spaniards who decimated the Evuevi population were probably Guaraní Indians. Martin del Barco Centenera was born in Extremadura about 1535. In 1572 he was a member of Juan Ortiz de Zarate’s expedition to Paraguay. He spent a total of twenty-four years in the New World, accompanying many explorers, including Juan de Garay who founded the second Buenos Aires in 1580. In 1596 Barco del Centenera returned to Spain. He wrote his epic poem in Lisbon in 1602. Arcediano d. Barco Centenera, Martín del, La Argentina o la Conquista del Río de la Plata. Poema Histórica 6 vols. (Buenos Aires: Imprenta del Estado, 1836), 11:28.Google Scholar

16 Cabildo Eclesiástico de Asunción. “Requerimiento al Cabildo Secular sobre amenazas de indios guaicurus y Payaguás,” April 2, 1613, MG 1411a. This estímate assumes there were 1,000 Evueví warriors and six family members per warrior.

17 de Andino, Juan Diéz, “Carta a S. M. sobre peligros que ofrecen Payaguás, Guaicurus, y medios para combatirlos,” Asunción, December 28, 1665,Google Scholar MG 880. Susnik notes that Evueví canoes varied in size from small ones for three men, large ones for up to twenty men, and “war” canoes, which generally carried ten men. Susnik, , Los aborigénes del Paraguay, 1:95.Google Scholar

18 Furlong, Guillermo, Joaquin Camaño, S. J. y su “Noticia del Gran Chaco”(1778) (Buenos Aires: Librería de la Piata, 1955), p. 121.Google Scholar

19 Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 11:151–3.Google Scholar

20 Aguirre, , Diario, 19(1948):117 Google Scholar

21 Ibid., p. 100. Aguirre observed that the Evueví generally enjoyed good health except for a virus which affected children in the 1780s. In Asunción in the late colonial period the following instructions were given for patrolling the streets by the Zelador of the city: “You are to put in prison those who are drunk in the streets as well as the Payaguás, especially if they are naked because of their dishonesty (?), and because of the bad example they give.” Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Sección Histórica, vol. 206.

22 Schmidel quoted in Schmidt, , “Los Payaguás,” p. 141 Google Scholar; Ruy Díaz de Guzmán wrote that the Spaniards lost only two men. de Gúzman, Díaz, Historia Argentina, p. 25.Google Scholar

23 de Gúzman, Díaz, Anales, pp. 126–9.Google Scholar

24 “Relación del Río de la Plata,” Asunción, March 9, 1545, MG 743; Schmidel, , Derrotero y Viaje, p. 81.Google Scholar In 1533 Cabot returned to Spain with news that a conquest of Peru would be a rewarding venture. But on his return, he was not granted the authority to lead an expedition to the Río de la Plata. Meanwhile, Pizarra carried out the conquest of Peru via Panama, not the Río de la Plata; Pierre Francois Charlevoix, Histoire du Paraguay, 1:55–6.

25 Pedro Dorantes, “Parecer que el factor dio de los que se devía hazer en la entrada del Paraguay. El parescer que dy sobre la prisión de los Agazes, el qual presente ante Pedro Hernández, scrivano,” Asunción, 1545?, MG 738e.

26 Service, Elman, “The Encomienda in Paraguay,” Hispanic American Historial Review 31(1951):233–4.Google Scholar As in other regions of the New World, the Spaniards in Paraguay found the Indians divided and did not hesitate to use one indigenous group against another to establish their rule.

27 Benítez, Luis G., Historia cultural: una reseña de su evolución en el Paraguay (Asunción: El Arte, 1966), p. 27.Google Scholar

28 Service, , Spanish-Guaraní Relations in Early Colonial Paraguay (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1954), p. 83 Google Scholar; Service, , “The Encomienda,” p. 247.Google Scholar Most colonial histories have described the relationship between the Spaniards and the various Guaraní tribes as idyllic. Service suggests that the acculturation of the Guaraní occurred by 1600 which is highly questionable. A new study on Spanish-Guaraní relations during the early colonial period is needed.

29 Ibid.; Susnik, , El indio colonial, 1:10–11.Google Scholar The Guaraní did not pay tributes in currency or kind, as in most of Spanish America, because “as things were, they served the Spaniards when they wished and as they wished and came to aide the Spaniards not as an obligation or service payment but as relatives.”

30 López, Adalberto, “The Economics of Yerba Maté in Seventeenth Century South America,” Agricultural History 48(1974):497.Google Scholar

31 de Andino, Juan Díez, “Carta a S. M. contando datos autobiográficos,” Asunción, April 30, 1682,Google Scholar MG 1033; de Aquino, Francisco, “Relación breve del modo de vivir y guerrear de las naciones guaicurus y Payaguás,” Asunción, February 6, 1613,Google Scholar MG 1448a; de Góngora, Diego, “Carta a S. M. sobre la guerra a fuego y sangre a los guaicurús y Payaguás,” Buenos Aires, March 2, 1620,Google Scholar MG 1668.

32 Worcester, Donald E. and Schaeffer, Wendell G., The Growth and Culture of Latin America: From Conquest to Independence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 170,Google Scholar 179, 181.

33 Ibid.: Hemming, Red Gold, pp. 395–6; Sarmiento, Alonso y Figueroa, , “Carta a S. M. sobre fundación de un fuerte,” Asunción, August 1, 1660,Google Scholar MG 1182; Whigham, Thomas Lyle, “The Politics of Commerce in the Upper Piata, 1780–1865.” (Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1985), pp. 34–5.Google Scholar

34 de Andino, Juan Díez, “Proceso de Juan Mongelos Garcés,” Candelaria, April 4, 1676,Google Scholar MG 1194L; Velázquez, Rafael Eladio, El Paraguay en 1811; Estado político, social, económico, y cultural en las postrimeras del periódo colonial (Asunción, 1965), p. 24 Google Scholar; Felipe IV, “Cédula Real a Juan Díez de Andino, governador interino del Paraguay, mandando comunicarse con el virrey lo conveniente para el reparo de los daños Payaguás,” Madrid, September 9, 1662, MG 1207a. This alliance appears to have been a product of the decline in population among Chaco Indian tribes.

35 According to available sources, it is not clear how an alliance was formed among the Guaycuruan tribes.

36 de Aquino, Francisco. “Relación breve del modo de vivir y guerrear de las naciones guaicurus y Payaguás,” Asunción, February 5, 1613,Google Scholar MG 1448a; MG 1411a; The Spaniards often referred to the Mbayá as “Guaicuru.” According to one ecclesiastical report, the Chaco tribes intended to set fire to Asunción and carry away all the women and children, and kill all the other residents. Corona, Juan Bautista, “Información de los sacerdotes y religiosos fidedignos de la Asunción sobre la necesidad de defensa contra los indios enemigos,” Asunción, April 4–15, 1614, MG 1415 b.Google Scholar

37 Metraux, , “Chaco Indians,” p. 202–3Google Scholar; de Góngora, Diego, “Carta a S. M. sobre la guerra de fuego y sangre a los guaicurus y payaguás,” Buenos Aires, May 2, 1620, MG 1668; MG 1448a; MG 1411aGoogle Scholar; Animated by the spirit to save Indians souls, Franciscan and Mercedarian missionaries had accompanied the first explorers to the Río de la Plata as part of Spain's policy to extend Christianity in the New World. In 1550 the crown established a bishopric in Asunción. Franciscan and Mercedarian friars also founded convents in Asunción which served as schools for the principal sons of Indians and the mestizo children of Spanish settlers. Fray Luis de Bolaños, a Franciscan missionary, succeeded in systematically converting the Guaraní in the area of Asunción. Besides mastering the Guaraní language, he established eighteen Indian missions between 1580 and 1593, including Altos, Aregú, Atyf, Caazap, Guarambaré, Itá, and Yaguarón. A Franciscan missionary attempted to convert Indians in the Chaco, but he apparently was unsuccessful due to the wide variety of languages spoken, and their “hostile,” non-sedentary nature. Jesuit priests did not enter the province until 1588, and not in any great force until after 1609. In 1715 a group of Evueví killed two Jesuit missionaries, Father Joseph Arce and Father Bartholomé Blende, who worked among the Avá-Chiriguanos in southeastern Bolivia region. These two missionaries (who spoke several native languages, including Evueví) had been travelling by river boat with Quati, a Evueví cacique who was interested in becoming a Christian, and a group of young Evueví warriors. Suddenly, as Father Blende steered the helm, a Evueví named Francisco Guarayo, lanced the two Jesuits along with the other warriors. The Indians then cut off their heads and placed their cadavers on an island near the shore of the Paraguay River. The warriors then proceeded to divide among themselves the religious ornaments which were originally meant for the Chiquito missions, and they burned the wood boat to remove its metal parts. Metals were scarce in the province and of great value. Later the colonists discovered these objects in some of the Evuevi’s huts (tolderías). According to a Jesuit account published in 1726, Quati, the principal leader, killed some of the young warriors who were responsible for the death of the missionaries. The other warriors, however, fled the village, leaving their goods behind during the pursuit. These warriors sought refuge in Mato Grosso where the Portuguese had penetrated, most likely among the other bands of Evueví, the Sarigué. Reyes Balmaceda, Diego de los, “Carta a S. M. sobre fundación de San Agustín de Arecutacu y un fuerte en la banda opuesta,” Asunción, July 24, 1719,Google Scholar MG 1138; Balmaceda, , “Carta a S. M. sobre los daños causados por los Payaguás y medidas para reprimirlos.” Asunción, July 24, 1719,Google Scholar MG 1157; Fernández, , Relación Historial, 1:140, 332–5,Google Scholar 11:120. According to a letter writen in Asunción on 30 April 1717, one of the missionaries, Father Blendé, was only captured by the Evueví, and later escaped along with another Spaniard.

38 MG 1668.

39 MG 1448a.

40 While raiding may have been the Chichimecas’ sole livelihood, the Mbayá and Evueví fished, hunted, and gathered food and were Indian traders. As in Paraguay, the Spanish crown implemented a presidio policy in northern Mexico which was somewhat successful in “pacifying” the Chichimeca tribes. Powell, Philip Wayne, Soldiers, Indians and Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550–1600 (Berkeley: University of California, 1952), pp. 46,Google Scholar 53–4, 67, 141–9.

41 MG 1157; The Evueví may have also stolen missionaries' crosses to emulate other reducciones. While travelling along the river the Jesuit missionary, Father Patricio Fernández, observed large crosses alongside Evueví huts much to his surprise.

42 Reber, Vera Blinn, “The Araucanians-America's Early Resistance Movement,” (M.A. Thesis: University of Wisconsin, 1966), pp. 19,Google Scholar 37–8, 46; Stouder, Martha, “The Araucanian War: Its Beginnings, 1550–1625,” unpublished paper, University of Texas, Austin, 1985, p. 11.Google Scholar The Evueví and the Mbayá were not known to have practiced cannibalism unlike the Araucanians and the Chichimecas. All the tribes, however, killed missionaries according to Spanish colonial official reports.

43 Reber, , “The Araucanians,” pp. 24,Google Scholar 28.

44 MG 1207a; de Asunción, Cabildo, “Carta a S. M. sobre fundación de algunos fortines para cntener a los indios guaicurus y Payaguás,” Asunción, December 19, 1661.Google Scholar (MC 281. See also MG 1182, Nogués, Alberto, “El Castillo de Arecutacuá,” Historia paraguaya, 8–10 Google Scholar(1963/1965):57. It is difficult to assess the worth of the presidio system in Paraguay. As in New Spain the use of military force, as exemplified by the presidio system, was not the best way to achieve peace on the frontier. Powell, Soldiers, Indians, and Silver, pp. 148–9.

45 Cabildo de Villarrica del Espíritu Santo, “Carta representando la imposibilidad de aplicar las ordenanzas de Alfaro.” March 26, 1612, MG 1436; MG 1448a; MG 1668. Alfaro, a royal inspector who represented the spirit of Spanish theologians such as Bartolomé de las Casas, had had a first-hand look at the living conditions of the Indians, and was greatly concerned about the decline in their population. In 1611 he issued eighty-five ordinances which were confirmed by Philip III in a royal decree dated 1618 Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias (1681) Book VI, Title 2; de Alfaro, Francisco, “Hordenanzas fechas por el señor licenciado don Francisco de Alfaro de Su Magestad de la real audiencia de la Piata para la governación del Paraguay y Río de la Plata y ciertos concernientes,” Asunción, October 11, 1618,Google Scholar MG 1419. Alfaro had visited the Mbayá reducción the Jesuits had founded in the Chaco.

46 MG 1415b.

47 de Indias, Consejo, “Dictamen sobre division de las provincias del Río de la Plata y Paraguay,” Madrid, September 14, 1617,Google Scholar MG 1422.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid.; Recopilación de leyes de las Indias (1681) Book VI, Title 2, Law 8.

50 Góngora, Mario, Studies in the Colonial History of Spanish America (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 128–9.Google Scholar

51 Powell, , Soldiers, Indians and Silver, p. 108.Google Scholar

52 Góngora, , Studies in Colonial History, pp. 128–31.Google Scholar The Requerimiento of 1513 which related to the Antilles, made it easy for the Spaniards to justify the conquest of Indians in the New World.

53 Ibid.; Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias, Book VI, Title 2, Law 8; Zavala, Silvio, Los esclavos indios en Nueva España (Mexico City: El Colegio Nacional, 1967), p. 179.Google Scholar

54 Susnik, , Los aborigénes, 3:112 Google Scholar; Velázquez, Rafael Eladio, “Caractères de la encomienda paraguaya en los siglos XVII y XVIII” Historia paraguaya 19(1982): 145–6.Google Scholar As governor of the province Juan Díez de Andino was sent specifically to fight against the Evuevís between 1664 and 1671, MG 1194L; Jesuítas, Los Padres, “Dictamen sobre necesidad de hacer guerra”, Asunción, February 22, 1613,Google Scholar MG 1448c. As late as 1686, the colonial governor of the province, Francisco de Monteforte, emphasized the need for a war on the Evueví claiming that the Portuguese in Brazil assisted “there great harmful enemies of the province.” de Monteforte, Francisco, “Carta a S. M. en que solicita recursos para la guerra contra los Payaguá y Portuguese,” Asunción, July 12, 1686,Google Scholar MG 494. Paraguayan colonists were under constant pressure not only from the Chaco tribes, but also the Portuguese in Brazil who carried away an estimated 30,000 Guaraní Indians during the seventeenth century.

55 MG 880.

56 MG 1194L. The Guaycuruans had attacked Caáguazú and the Jesuit mission at Aguaranambi in 1676, during which more than six hundred persons of all sexes and ages were killed, in addition to the burning and sacking of homes, and the stealing of horses. 332–5, II: 120.

57 57 MG 1157; MG 1138.

58 Francisco Javier Barzola, “Carta al governador Carlos Morphi dando cuenta de todo lo acaecido en esta misión. San Francisco de los Layanas en el Chaco,” November 14, 1769, MG 107c; Hemming, , Red Gold, pp. 396–7.Google Scholar

59 de Barúa, Martin, “Carta a S. M. sobre sus relaciones con los indios Payaguás,” Asunción, March 18, 1730,Google Scholar MG 1009. Another plausible reason why the Evueví decided to accommodate themselves to the Spanish world was because the MbayáVEvueví alliance may have disintegrated for unknown reasons by the early 1700s. Susnik describes the inter-ethnic relations between Chaco Indian tribes in greater detail, but based on the fragmentary evidence, it is difficult for an ethnohistorian to obtain an understanding of the exact nature of indigenous alliances.

60 Ibid. ; Aguirre, Diario 19(1948), p. 72; Dobrizhoffer, , An Account of the Abipones, 1:116 Google Scholar; Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 1:158, 239.Google Scholar Schmidt notes that according to Azara, the Evueví lived in peace with the Spaniards since 1740, when the Tacumbués came to live near Asunción. Schmidt, , “Los Payaguás,” p. 152.Google Scholar Susnik notes that a number of Sarigués settled near Asunción around 1730. Although the Evueví are reported to have attacked the Mocovies missions of San Javier and Santa Barbara in 1763, these raids may have been carried out by the northern division of the tribe, rather than the Indian traders who settled in the area of Asunción. Susni, , El indio colonial, 3:127–130.Google Scholar

61 de la Moneda, Rafael de Torre, “Carta sobre el progreso de los portugueses en el norte y el sometimiento de los Payaguás,” Asunción, July 16, 1743,Google Scholar MG 1007; Dobrizhoffer wrote that Governor Rafael de la Moneda distributed cotton cloth among the tribe. Dobrizhoffer, , An Account of the Abipones, 1:114–5.Google Scholar Governor Martín de Barúa’s correspondence with the king shows that they arrived in the capital to conduct trade in the 1730s.

62 Azara, , Descripción é Historia, 1: 227.Google Scholar

63 Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 11:152–3.Google Scholar Sánchez Labrador set down specific conditions which all groups mutually agreed upon: the Evueví could live at a distance from the mission if they would maintain peace with the Mbayá, Guanés, and other indigenous tribes; they could not wander along the river, causing harm and destruction; they would be at peace with the colonists, and stop killing and robbing them, otherwise, the Mbayá and Spaniards would eliminate them using auxiliary Chiquito Indians (the Spaniards were experts at using one tribe against another); the Evueví could not cut down timbó” trees in Belén to construct their canoes, only trees along the banks of the river; they could not borrow hatchets and other tools; they would plant corn, tobacco, cotton, and other crops under the instruction and assistance of Father Sánchez Labrador who would also give them seeds; if they wanted to become Christians, the Spanish missionary would visit them at least twice a week to give them religious instruction; and lastly, when they had demonstrated that they could behave, Father Sánchez Labrador would request another Jesuit missionary to come live with them and form their own reducción; Saeger, James Schofield, “Another View of the Mission as a Frontier Institution: The Guaycuruan Reductions of Santa Fe, 1743–1810,” Hispanic American Historical Review 65 (1985):500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The Mbayá through their alliance with the Evueví had learned their techniques of warfare, and even posed a threat to the riverine tribe.

64 Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 11:152–3.Google Scholar

65 Arredondo, Nicolase, “Carta al governador intendente del Paraguay en que comunica notas relativas e depredaciones hechas en Guarepotí e Iguamandijú por los Payaguás, Sarigués y Mbayás Guazús,” Buenos Aires, January 13, 1760, MG 1831Google Scholar;

66 Caraman, Philip, The Lost Paradise: An Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay, 1607–1768 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1975), p. 281.Google Scholar

67 “Teatino” was probably Father Sanchez Labrador’s nickname. Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 2: 161.Google Scholar

68 MG 107a.

69 de Indias, Consejo. “Resumen sobre conversión de los Payaguás,” Madrid, December 24, 1797,Google Scholar MG 826.

70 MG 107a; Aguirre estimated their population in his diary which detailed his experiences in Paraguay from 1784 to 1796. Aguirre, , Diario, 19(1948): 117.Google Scholar

71 de Castillana, Lorenzo Suárez, “Carta del Dean de Córdoba del Tucumán informando sobre la necesidad de reducción de los indios Payaguás.” Buenos Aires, July 12, 1791,Google Scholar MG 323a. Carlos IV, “Cédula real al governador intendente del Paraguay mandando que informe sobre la conveniencia de la reducción de los indios Payaguás,” Madrid, March 12, 1792, MG 323b.

72 de Portugal, Pedro Melo, “Carta a Silvestre Collar sobre el expediente promovido por Joquín de Alós referente a tres reducciones de indios Payaguás y guanás,” Madrid, October 8, 1794,Google Scholar MG 441.

73 Millé, Andrés, La Orden de la Merced en la Conquista del Peru, Chile y el Tucumán y su Convento del Antiguo Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires: Pellegrini Impresores, 1958).Google Scholar

74 de Sotomayor, Martin, “Oficio del provisor del Paraguay dando cuenta de la conversión de los indios Payaguás,” Asunción, November 19, 1792,Google Scholar MG 1741a; Aguirre, , Diario, 19(1948):116–22.Google Scholar

75 MG 1741a. For some of the parents, the baptism of their children only meant an opportunity for them to acquire new clothing, since they brought their children to be rebaptized on November 5. Aguirre, , Diario, 19(1948): 118 Google Scholar; Susnik, , Los aborigénes, 3:128.Google Scholar

76 de la Alcudia, Duque. “Carta al Señor Governador Intendente del Paraguay sobre conversion y establecimientos formados de Indios Payaguá, debido al zelo del Padre Fray Inocencio Cañete,” Madrid, August 10, 1793,Google Scholar MG 1741b; de la Alcudia, Duque, “Carta a Martín de Sotomaior, provisor y Vicario General del Obispado de Paraguay sobre conversion de Indios Payaguá de las riberas del Paraguay,” Madrid, August 10. 1792,Google Scholar MG 1741c.

77 Alós, Joaquín, “Informe a S. M. sobre la facilidad de reducir a los indios Payaguás,” Asunción, December 19, 1792,Google Scholar MG 288a.

78 MG 441.

79 MG 826.

80 Aguirre, , Diario, 20(1949): 151–5.Google Scholar

81 Ibid.: 153.

82 Cañete, Inocencio, “Carta a S. M. en que informa sobre la conquista espiritual de los indios Payaguás del Paraguay,” Asunción, December 19, 1795,Google Scholar MG 442a; Cañete, “Carta a S. M. sobre la conversión y reducción de Payaguás”; “instalaciones primeras en el Potrero, cerca de la Capital,” 1797?, MG 846.

83 Azara, Informes de Don Félix Azara sobre varios proyectos de colonizar el Chaco, in de Angelis, Pedro, Collection de Obras y Documentos, (1836) 4:4.Google Scholar

84 Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 2: 44.Google Scholar

85 Ibid.

86 Dobrizhoffer, , An Account of the Abipones, 1:118.Google Scholar

87 Ibid. The death of Ayolas and his men lingered in the memories of the colonists during the eighteenth century.

88 Lorenzo Suárez de Castillana, “Carta del Obispo del Paraguay en que informa a S. M. sobre la conveniencia de reducción de los indios infieles del Gran Chaco,” Córdoba del Tucumán, October 16, 1793, MG 1126.

89 Washburn, History of Paraguay, 1:44.

90 Of the 1,200 Evueví at the beginning of the century, some may have intermarried with other indigenous tribes, blacks, mulattoes, or Paraguayans as a consequence of their integration into the regional economy and Paraguayan society. Susnik, , Los aborigenes del Paraguay, 111:129–130,Google Scholar 134–140. Susnik notes that the Evueví never engaged in agricultural pursuits during the nineteenth century.; Plá, p. 34; Demersay, , Histoire, p. 364–6Google Scholar; Mansfield, , Paraguay, Brazil, and the Plata, p. 502 Google Scholar; Evueví participation in the Paraguayan War is mentioned in the UNESCO Microfilms of the Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Sección Nueva Encuademación, volume 347 and in Kolinski, Charles, The Dictionary of Paraguay (Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1973), p. 76.Google Scholar