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j 135 C H A P T E R S I X T Y- T W O The Río Caliente On the fifth day of traveling along the route shown us by our guide, where we only made our way through arduous effort, we came to a little stream that flowed down off a mountain. Its water was very hot and clear and good. Some of the Spaniards began to angle in it and pulled out some fish. Our guide began to babble foolishly at this warm spring, telling us that it had been some time since he had been this way and that he therefore was not sure of his route, as none of the old paths he knew had reappeared. The Governor left the warm spring the next day, traveling along a route suggested by our guide. It was very difficult going, as we broke trail through the continual forests, jungles, and canebrakes of that country. At about ten o’clock that morning, two Indians of the Guarani tribe came out of the brush to speak to the Governor. They told him they belonged to the people who had remained in that deserted wilderness after the past wars theirpeoplehadengagedinwiththeIndiansoftheinterior.Theyhadgone to the forest after their tribesmen had been scattered and largely killed off. These men had stayed in the woods where we found them. Out of fear of the local Indians, they and their wives and children had hidden themselves in the thickest and hilliest part of the forest. The grand total of people in hiding was only about fourteen souls, and they confirmed what we had heard before: that two days’ journey away there was another small hut occupied by these same people—perhaps up to ten souls. The brother-in-law of the two Guarani men lived there. In the land of the Xarayes there were also other Guaranis who belonged to the same band as our two men, and those Guaranis and the Xarayes were at war. The two Indians were made very uneasy by the sight of the Christians and their horses, so the Governor instructed our interpreter to reassure 136 j C H A P T E R S I X T Y - T W O them and calm them down. He also wanted the interpreter to ask where their house was. “Very near here,” they said. Just then, up came their wives and children and some of their other relatives—about fourteen persons. The Governor obliged them to say how they kept themselves alive in that country and how many of them there were. “Well,” they said, “we grow corn, which we eat.” They also sustained themselves by hunting and by gathering honey and the wild fruits of the trees, which are found in great abundance in that place. “Very few of us remain from the time when our parents were killed and scattered to the winds.” This is what the oldest people of the tribe said, who from looking at them appeared to be about thirty-five years of age. We asked them if they knew the road that went from their lands to the interior and how long it would take to reach a populated place again. “We were very small when we last came down that road,” they said. “We never went back to it, we haven’t seen it since, and we remember nothing of it.” They didn’t know how far it went nor how long it would take us to get there. “But our brother-in-law (who lived in that other small house some two days’ journey from their own house) has been along that road many times. He knows it well and can tell you where it goes.” Seeing that these Indians knew nothing of the road that would take us farther along on our exploration, the Governor told them to go home. He gave all of them—men, women, and children—trade goods and trinkets, and with these they returned to their homes very happy. ...

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