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80 j C H A P T E R T H I R T Y- E I G H T The Town of Asunción Burns Early one Sunday morning in the following year, three hours before daybreak on the fourth day of February of 1543, a straw house in the city of Asunción caught on fire. From there the flames jumped to many other houses. There was a cool breeze that morning, and the fire spread with such force that it was frightful to see. The Spaniards were distraught and unsettled, as they believed the Indians were doing it to drive them out of the country. The Governor issued a call to arms to deal with the threat. He ordered people to take up their weapons to defend themselves and their interests in the country. The Christians ran out with their arms and escaped the flames. However , all their clothing was burned, and more than two hundred houses went up in smoke. No more than fifty houses were left intact, and that was only because they were located in the middle of a stream. More than four or five thousand fanegas of corn kernels were burned. 1 This corn is the wheat of the country, of course, and a lot of meal made from it was also lost. The flames wiped out other foodstuffs such as chickens and pigs in great quantity and left the Spaniards so stripped naked, lost, and destroyed that they had nothing to cover their bare skins. And the fire was so big that it lasted for four days. It burned underneath the surface of the ground for a fathom, and the walls of all the houses collapsed with the force of it. 2 We later found that an Indian woman in the service of a Spaniard had touched off the conflagration. Her hammock had caught on fire, and, shaking it to and fro, she tossed a spark into the straw walls of the house. As they themselves were made of straw, the place burned down. The Town of Asunción Burns j 81 Well, since everything was lost to the Spaniards and their houses and possessions burned to bits, the Governor assisted them with what was left of his own belongings. Being of considerable service, he gave food to those who had none, buying supplies from his own store of provisions. He then helped them build new houses with real walls so that they would not burn so easily on an everyday basis. 3 The Spaniards found themselves in a great fix, and because of it they had everything rebuilt in just a few days. ...

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