Gaspar the Gaucho: A Story of the Gran Chaco, Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO.

  PARAGUAY'S DESPOT.

  Notwithstanding what I have said of the Chaco remaining uncolonised andunexplored, I can tell of an exception. In the year 1836, one ascendingthe Pilcomayo to a point about a hundred miles from its mouth, wouldthere see a house, which could have been built only by a white man, orone versed in the ways of civilisation. Not that there was anythingvery imposing in its architecture; for it was but a wooden structure,the walls of bamboo, and the roof a thatch of the palm called_cuberta_--so named from the use made of its fronds in covering shedsand houses. But the superior size of this dwelling, far exceeding thatof the simple _toldos_ of the Chaco Indians; its ample verandah pillaredand shaded by a protecting roof of the same palm leaves; and, above all,several well-fenced enclosures around it, one of them containing anumber of tame cattle, others under tillage--with maize, manioc, theplantain, and similar tropical products--all these insignia evinced thecare and cultivating hand of some one else than an aboriginal.

  Entering the house, still further evidence of the white man's presencewould be observed. Furniture, apparently home-made, yet neat, pretty,and suitable; chairs and settees of the _cana brava_, or South Americanbamboo; bedsteads of the same, with beds of the elastic Spanish moss,and _ponchos_ for coverlets; mats woven from fibres of another speciesof palm, with here and there a swung hammock. In addition, some booksand pictures that appeared to have been painted on the spot; a boundvolume of music, with a violin and guitar--all speaking of a domesticeconomy unknown to the American Indian.

  In some of the rooms, as also in the outside verandah, could be noticedobjects equally unlike the belongings of the aboriginal: stuffed skinsof wild beasts and birds; insects impaled on strips of palm bark; moths,butterflies, and brilliant scarabaei; reptiles preserved in all theirrepulsive ugliness, with specimens of ornamental woods, plants, andminerals; a singular paraphernalia, evidently the product of the regionaround. Such a collection could only belong to a _naturalist_, and thatnaturalist could be no other than a white man. He was; his name LudwigHalberger.

  The name plainly speaks his nationality--a German. And such was he; anative of the then kingdom of Prussia, born in the city of Berlin.

  Though not strange his being a naturalist--since the taste for and studyof Nature are notably peculiar to the German people--it was strange tofind Prussian or other European having his home in such anout-of-the-way place. There was no civilised settlement, no other whiteman's dwelling, nearer than the town of Assuncion; this quite a hundredmiles off, to the eastward. And north, south, and west the same formore than five times the distance. All the territory around andbetween, a wilderness, unsettled, unexplored, traversed only by theoriginal lords of the soil, the Chaco Indians, who, as said, havepreserved a deadly hostility to the paleface, ever since the keels ofthe latter first cleft the waters of the Parana.

  To explain, then, how Ludwig Halberger came to be domiciled there, sofar from civilisation, and so high up the Pilcomayo--river of mysteriousnote--it is necessary to give some details of his life antecedent to thetime of his having established this solitary _estancia_. To do so aname of evil augury and ill repute must needs be introduced--that of DrFrancia, Dictator of Paraguay, who for more than a quarter of a centuryruled that fair land verily with a rod of iron. With this samedemon-like tyrant, and the same almost heavenly country, is associatedanother name, and a reputation as unlike that of Jose Francia asHyperion to the Satyr, and which justice to a godlike humanity forbidsme to pass over in silence. I speak of Amade, or, as he is betterknown, _Aime_ Bonpland--cognomen appropriate to this most estimableman--known to all the world as the friend and fellow-traveller ofHumboldt; more still, his assistant and collaborates in those scientificresearches, as yet unequalled for truthfulness and extent--theoriginator and discoverer of much of that learned lore, which, withmodesty unparalleled, he has allowed his more energetic and moreambitious _compagnon de voyage_ to have credit for.

  Though no name sounds more agreeably to my ears than that of AimeBonpland, I cannot here dwell upon it, nor write his biography, howevercongenial the theme. Some one who reads this may find the task bothpleasant and profitable; for though his bones slumber obscurely on thebanks of the Parana, amidst the scenes so loved by him, his name willone day have a higher niche in Fame's temple than it has hitherto held--perhaps not much lower than that of Humboldt himself. I here introduceit, with some incidents of his life, as affecting the first characterwho figures in this my tale. But for Aime Bonpland, Ludwig Halbergermight never have sought a South American home. It was in following theexample of the French philosopher, of whom he had admiringly read, thatthe Prussian naturalist made his way to the La Plata and up to Paraguay,where Bonpland had preceded him. But first to give the adventures ofthe latter in that picturesque land, of which a short account willsuffice; then afterwards to the incidents of my story.

  Retiring from the busy world, of which he seems to have been somewhatweary, Bonpland took up his residence on the banks of the Rio Parana;not in Paraguayan territory, but that of the Argentine Republic, on theopposite side of the river. There settled down, he did not give hishours to idleness; nor yet altogether to his favourite pursuit, thepleasant though somewhat profitless one of natural history. Instead, hedevoted himself to cultivation, the chief object of his culture beingthe "yerba de Paraguay," which yields the well-known _mate_, orParaguayan tea. In this industry he was eminently successful. Hisamiable manners and inoffensive character attracted the notice of hisneighbours, the Guarani Indians--a peaceful tribe of proletarianhabits--and soon a colony of these collected around him, entering hisemploy, and assisting him in the establishment of an extensive"yerbale," or tea-plantation, which bid fair to become profitable.

  The Frenchman was on the high-road to fortune, when a cloud appeared,coming from an unexpected quarter of the sky--the north. The report ofhis prosperity had reached the ears of Francia, Paraguay's then despotand dictator, who, with other strange theories of government, held thedoctrine that the cultivation of "yerba" was a right exclusivelyParaguayan--in other words, belonging solely to himself. True, theFrench colonist, his rival cultivator, was not within his jurisdiction,but in the state of Corrientes, and the territory of the ArgentineConfederation. Not much, that, to Dr Francia, accustomed to make lightof international law, unless it were supported by national strength andbacked by hostile bayonets. At the time Corrientes had neither of theseto deter him, and in the dead hour of a certain night, four hundred ofhis myrmidons--the noted _quarteleros_--crossed the Parana, attacked thetea-plantation of Bonpland, and after making massacre of a half-score ofhis Guarani _peons_, carried himself a prisoner to the capital ofParaguay.

  The Argentine Government, weak with its own intestine strife, submittedto the insult almost unprotestingly. Bonpland was but a Frenchman andforeigner; and for nine long years was he held captive in Paraguay.Even the English _charge d'affaires_, and a Commission sent thither bythe Institute of France, failed to get him free! Had he been alordling, or some little _viscomte_, his forced residence in Paraguaywould have been of shorter duration. An army would have been despatchedto "extradite" him. But Aime Bonpland was only a student of Nature--oneof those unpretending men who give the world all the knowledge it has,worth having--and so was he left to languish in captivity. True, hisimprisonment was not a very harsh one, and rather partook of thecharacter of _parole d'honneur_. Francia was aware of his wonderfulknowledge, and availed himself of it, allowing his captive to liveunmolested. But again the amiable character of the Frenchman had aninfluence on his life, this time adversely. Winning for him universalrespect among the simple Paraguayans, it excited the envy of their vileruler; who once again, and at night, had his involuntary guest seizedupon, carried beyond the confines of his territory, and landed uponArgentine soil--but stripped of everything save the clothes on his back!

  Soon after, Bonpland settled near the town of Corrientes, where, safefrom further persecution, he once more entered u
pon agriculturalpursuits. And there, in the companionship of a South American lady--hiswife--with a family of happy children, he ended a life that had lastedfor fourscore years, innocent and unblemished, is it had been useful,heroic, and glorious.