46 Through the Brazilian ^Wilderness 



The Guarany-speaking Paraguayan is a Christian, and 

 as much an inheritor of our common culture as most of 

 the peasant populations of Europe. He has no kinship 

 with the wild Indian, who hates and fears him. The 

 Indian of the Chaco, a pure savage, a bow-bearing sav- 

 age, will never come east of the Paraguay, and the Para- 

 guayan is only begiiming to venture into the western in- 

 terior, away from the banks of the river — ^under the lead 

 of pioneer settlers like Rickard, whom, by the way, the 

 wild Indians thoroughly trust, and for whom they work 

 eagerly and faithfully. There is a great development 

 ahead for Paraguay, as soon as they can definitely shake 

 off the revolutionary habit and establish an orderly per- 

 manence of government. The people are a fine people; 

 the strains of blood — ^white and Indian — ^are good. 



We walked up the streets of Concepcion, and inter- 

 estedly looked at everything of interest: at the one-story 

 houses, their windows covered with gratings of fretted 

 ironwork, and their occasional open doors giving us 

 glimpses into cool inner courtyards, with trees and flow- 

 ers ; at the two-wheel carts, drawn by mules or oxen ; at 

 an occasional rider, with spurs on his bare feet, and his 

 big toes thrust into the small stirrup-rings; at the little 

 stores, and the warehouses for matte and hides. Then 

 we came to a pleasant little inn, kept by a Frenchman 

 and his wife, of old Spanish style, with its patio, or inner 

 court, but as neat as an inn in Normandy or Brittany. 

 We were sitting at coffee, around a little table, when in 

 came the colonel of the garrison — for Concepcion is the 

 second city in Paraguay. He told me that they had pre- 

 pared a reception for me ! I was in my rough hunting- 



