Aboriginal Race of America. 159 
terity in the use of them unknown to any other tribe, and in 
some instances, under the direction of the Spaniards, have 
become comparatively good mariners. 
De Azara mentions a curious fact in illustration of the pre- 
sent inquiry. He declares that when his countrymen disco- 
vered the Rio de la Plata, they found its shores inhabited by 
two distinct Indian nations, the Charruas on the north, and 
the Patagonians on the south ; yet, strange to say, these rest- 
less people had never communicated with each other for war 
or for peace, for good or for evil, because they had neither 
boats nor canoes in which to cross the river. 
The Indian is not defective in courage, even on the water ; 
but he lacks invention to construct better vessels, and tact to 
manage them. When he has been compelled to defend him- 
self in his frail canoe, he has done so with the indomitable 
spirit of his race; yet, with all his love of war and strata- 
gem, I cannot find any account of a naval combat in which 
Europeans have borne no part. 
The Payaguas Indians at one period took revenge on the 
Spaniards by infesting the rivers of Paraguay, in canoes 
which they managed with much adroitness ; and, darting from 
their lurking places, they intercepted the trading vessels 
going to and from Buenos Ayres, robbing them of their goods, 
and destroying their crews without mercy. Such was their 
Success in these river piracies, that it required years of war 
and stratagem on the part of the Spaniards to subdue them. 
The only example of a naval contest that I have met with, 
is described by Dobrizhoffer to have taken place between the 
so-called Mamalukes of St Paulo, in Brazil, and their ene- 
mies, the Guaranies. The former were a banditti derived 
from the intermarriage of the dregs of Europeans of all 
nations with the surrounding Indians ; and, assisted by two 
thousand of their native allies, they came forth to battle in 
three hundred boats. The Guaranies, on the other hand, had 
five ships armed with cannon. But it is obvious, from this 
_ Statement, that European vessels and European tactics gave 
the battle all its importance. It took place on the river 
Mborore, in Paraguay ; but, after all, both parties finding 
themselves out of their element on the water, at length aban-- 
