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32 j C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N The Spaniards Who had Fallen Ill on the Río de Piqueri Arrive in the City of Asunción ThirtydaysaftertheGovernorhadreachedthecityofAsunción in the manner I had mentioned, the Christians he had earlier sent off on rafts down the Río Paraná arrived. Some were healthy and some were ill, these latter having fallen under the weather while on the river, but they were all road-weary. And of all these fellows, only one was dead, killed by a jaguar. 1 From these men fresh off the Paraná, the Governor learned for certain that the Indians along the river had come together and sent out a general call to arms all across the country. The tribesmen went out on foot along the banks of the river and by canoe on the river itself. From the river’s shores, other Indians had come out to meet them, an enormous number of men on rafts going downstream, and then with tremendous shouts and much beating of drums they had attacked our men, showering them with thick waves of arrows. The Indians converged on the Spaniards with more than two hundred canoes, aiming to slip in among the Spanish rafts, seize them, and kill our men. And for fourteen days and their nights the fighting raged without a stop. There weren’t even small breaks in the action, and the Indians on land shot volley after well-coordinated volley of arrows at our men, following the lead of the warriors who were attacking by canoe. Then they brought out some big grappling hooks. They tried to snag the Spanish rafts with these and drag them to shore so that they could fight our men hand to hand. With all this action, the uproar and howling from the Indians was so terrible that it seemed heaven and earth had joined together. Some of The Spaniards Who had Fallen Ill on the Río de Piqueri j 33 the Indian troops on shore and those in the canoes switched places; some rested while others fought, and it was so well planned they never stopped, creating a lot of hardship for our Spaniards. The Spaniards suffered about twenty wounds—just small scratches, nothing dangerous. And while all this fighting was going on, the rafts continued , day and night, to make their way downstream. The river’s current was so strong it simply carried them along, with our men doing very little steering. They just kept their craft away from the shore, where all the trouble was. However, the river’s grasping whirlpools put them in danger many times, spinning the rafts around freely. Had the men in charge not guidedthemwithafirmhand,thewhirlpoolswouldhaverunthemashore, where the Spaniards would have been captured and killed. And so, with no chance of help or shelter of any kind, the Indians chased our men for fourteen days in their canoes, shooting arrows at them and fighting with them day and night. They finally came close to the homestead of the Indian we mentioned earlier named Francisco (who was a slave and the servant of some Christians in those parts), who, with certain of his own people, had set out upstream to help our Spaniards. He conducted them to an island in the river close to his own town, where he brought them provisions. With all the hardships of their continuous battle, they had arrived very tired and hungry, and on the island their wounded were able to rest and recuperate. The hostiles withdrew and never dared attack them again. And just then, two brigantines we had sent to help them arrived, and our men boarded them and were brought back to Asunción. ...

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