ARAWAKS
681
ARAWAKS
worked the crops, without doniestio animals, in an
enervating climate, could have been nearly as numer-
ous as, for iiLstance, Las Casas asserts. The extermi-
nation of the Antillean Arawaks under Spanish rule
has not yet been impartially written. It is no worse a
page of history than many tilled with Knglish atroci-
ties, or than tho.sc which Icll how the North American
al)origines have been disposed of in order to make
room for the white man. The Spaniards did not,
and could not, yet know the nature and possibilities
of the Indian. They could not understand that a
race |ihysically well-endowed, but the men of which
had no conception of work, could not be suddenly
changed into hardy tillers of the soil and miners.
And yet the Indian had to l)e made to labour, as
the white population was entirely too small for de-
veloping the resources of the new-found lands. The
European attributed the inaptitude of the Indian
for physical toil to obstinacy, and only too often
vented his impatience in acts of cruelty. The Crown
made the utmost efforts to mitigate, and to protect
the aborigine, but ere the period of experiments was
over the latter had almost vanished. As already
stated, the Arawaks, presumably, held the Lesser
Antilles also, until, previous to the Columbian era,
the Caribs expelled them, thus separating the
northern branch from the main stock on the southern
continent. Of the latter it has been surmised that
their original homes were on the eastern slope of
the Andes, where the Canipas (Chunchos or Antis)
represent the Arawak element, together with the
Shipibos, Piros, Conibos, and other trilx-s of the
extensive Pano group. A Spanish officer, Petlro
de Candia, first discovered them in 1538. The
earliest attempts at Christianizution arc due to the
Jesuits. They made, previous to 1602. six distinct
efforts to convert the Chunchos, from the side of
Hulinuoo in Peru, and from northern Bolivia, but all
these attempts were failures. There are also traces
that a Jesuit had penetrated lho.se regions, in 15<S1,
more as an explorer than sus a missionary. Notwith-
standing the ill-success accompanying the first ef-
forts, the Jesuits persevered, and founded missions
among the Moxos, one of the most southerly branches
of the Arawaks, and also among the Baures. Those
missions were, of course, abandoned after 1707.
During the past century the Franciscans ha\c taken
up the field of which the Jesuits were deprived, es-
pecially the missions among the Pano or Shipibo
tribes of the Beni region in Bolivia. The late
Kather Rafael Sanz was one of the first to devote
liim.sclf to the difficult and dangerous task, and ho
was ably followed by Father Nicolas Armentia, who
Ls now IJishop of La Paz. The latter has also done
very good work in the Held of linguistics. Missions
among the Cioajiros in Columbia, however, had but
little success. Of late the tribe has become more
approachable. The Arawaks of the upper Amazo-
nian region were probably met by Alonzo Mercadillo,
in 1537, and may have been seen by Orcllana in
1538-39. The .\rawak tribes occupying almost ex-
clusively the southern banks of the Amazon, they
were reached by the missionaries later than the tribes
on the north bank. Franciscans accompanied Juan
de Salinas Loyola (a relative of St. Ignatius) in
15(11. But the results of these expeditions were not
pennanent.
In the heart of the Andean region the Friars of the Order of Our Ladv of Mercy (Mercedarios) were the first to establish pennanent mi.ssions. Fray Francisco Ponce de Leon, "Commander of the convent of the city of Jaen de Bracamoros", and Diego Vaca de Vega, Ciovemor of Jaen. organized in Kilo an expedition down the Marailon to the Maynas. In Hilo they founded the Mission of San Francisco Borja, which still exists as a .settlement. The first baptisms of Indians took place 22 .\Iarcli, 1620. The
year following. Father Ponce made an expedition
lower down the Amazon, Ijeyond the mouth of the
Rio Huallaga where ho came in contact with the
Arawak tribes, to whom he preached, and some of
whom ho baptized. The FranciscaiLs entered from
the direction of Jauja or Tarma, towards Chancha-
mayo, in 1631 and 16.35. The first foundation was
at Quimiri, where a chai^el was built. Two years
later the founders. Fathers Geronimo Xim^nez and
Cristoval Larios, died at the hands of the Cainpjis
on the V6r6n6 River. Work was not interrupted,
howe\er, and three years later (16-10) there were es-
tablished alx)ut the salt-hill of Vitoc seven chapels,
each with a .settlement of Indian converts. But in
1742 the appearance of Juan Santos Atahualpa occa-
sioned an almost general uprising of the aborigines.
T'ntil then the missions had progrc.s.sed remarkably.
Some of the most savage tribes, like the Conibos,
became at least partly reduced to obedience, and
led a more sedate, orderly life. In 1725 the College
of Ocopa wa-s founded. All these gains (except the
College of Ocopa and the regions around 'rarma
and Cajamarquilla) were lo.st until, after 1751,
Franciscan missionaries again began to enter the
lost territory, and even added new conquests among
the fiercest Arawaks (Cashibos) on the I'cayali.
Conversions in these regions have cost many mar-
tyrs, not less than sixty-four ecclesiastics having
perished at the hands of Indians of Arawak stock
m the years between 1637 and 1706. Missionary
work among the Arawaks of CJuyana and on the
banks of the Orinoco, began, in a systematic man-
ner, in the second half of the seventeenth century,
and was carried on from the Spanish side among
the Maypures of the Orinoco, from the French side
along the coast and the Kssequibo River. Wars
between France, England, and Holland, the in-
different, systemless ways of French colonization,
but chiefly the constant incursions of the Caribs,
interrupted or at least greatly obstructed the progress
of missions. Ethnologically the Arawaks vary in
condition. Those of Guyana seem to be partly
sedentary. They call themselves Lokonono. They
are well built. Descent among them is in the female
line, and they are polygamous. They are land-
tillers and hunters. Their houses are sheds, ojxjn
on the sides, and their weapons bows, arrows, and
wooden clubs. Their religious ideas are, locally
varied, those of all Indians, animism or fetishism,
with an army of shamans, or medicine-men, to uphold
it. Of the Campas and the tribes comprised within
the Pano group, about the same may be stated, with
the difference that several of the tribes composing
it are fierce cannibals (Cashibos and Conibos). It
must be observed, however, that cannibalism is, under
certain conditions, practised by all the forest tribes
of South .\merica, .as well as by the Aymanl of
Bolivia. It is mostly a ceremonial practice and, at
the bottom, closely related to the custom of scalping.
The "IvCttcrs of CoUimbu-*" contain the earliest informa- tion about the American Indian.-^, and those describetl in his first letter. 22 I-'ebrilary, 149.3. were Arawaks. The report of Tray Roman Pane is found in the work of H krnando Colon. the Spanish orieinal of which has not yet been founil. but an Italian version of it was published in I57I. There are several eilitions. (Quotations above are from Uislorie del Siffnor D. Hemaitito Colomlm. Nellr qunh «' ha pnrticolare, & vera reUt' twne delta vila. r de' fniti delV Ammiraglio D. Chriatoforo Colombo Sua Padre (Venice, 1I17.S1. the translation is by Alfonso Ulloa. A first Spanish re-translation wa-s published by (lonzalez Hlirria in lliflnrindorm primiliinit de Indwa (Mailriil. I749>; a Frenrli version bv the AbW Hrasseur dc Bourboura ap- pears appeiide^l to the Rclnlian de« ehogea de Yuetitan iParus. 18(i4). and there is a secoml print in Spanish of recent date. Las Casas. UUtorin de Ui« Iwluig (two eilitions, one in the Dontmrnton para la Uititorui de Eapaila)', lim-iasimn Hrlaeitin de la Destrui/eion de laa Irulina (Seville, l.').'>2). numerous eili- tions an<l translations into various lanKuases; CinoLAMo Uknzoni. Ilialoria dr< Hondo S uoro (Venice. LSCvli; Ger- man translation, I.ITO; French, 1.587; Knulish. Haekluvt .Society, lliatory ul the New World (Uindiin, 1S57). Other sources: Ovikdo y Valdkz, llutorui gericrat \i natural de la*
