Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
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.
* 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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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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62 Azara, , Descripción é Historia, 1: 227.Google Scholar
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64 Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 11:152–3.Google Scholar
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67 “Teatino” was probably Father Sanchez Labrador’s nickname. Labrador, Sánchez, El Paraguay Católico, 2: 161.Google Scholar
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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
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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
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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