On. XY. SOUTH AMERICA. 171 



fi^rcafcst part of the several casts. As tiie city itself is 

 but small and irrc^^iilar, nothing; better can be ex- 

 pected in Villa Rica, and other towns a,nd viilag^es. 

 Its houses are indeed intermixed with ii^ardens and 

 plantations, but without anv symmetry. It is the re- 

 sidence of the governor of the province^ who had 

 formerly under his jurisdiction, part of the towns 

 composing the missions of Paraguay ; but a few years 

 siüce they were separated from it, and are now an- 

 nexed to the government of Buenos Ayres ; but with- 

 out any change in the ecclesiastical government, in 

 the city of Assumption is a cathedral, whose chapter 

 consists of the bishop, dean, archdeacon, treasurer,- 

 and two canons. The parishes of the city of Villa 

 Rica, and of the other towns depending on this go- 

 vernment, are served by the Franciscans : but in the 

 missioiiary towns they are solely under the care of the 

 Jesuits; and these composing the greater number of 

 towns in this province, I shall speak particularly of 

 them, still keeping to that conciseness I have observed 

 in the other jurisdictions. 



The missions of Paraguay, besides those in the 

 province of that name, include also a great many 

 of Santa Cruz dt3 la Sierra, Tucuman and Buenos 

 Ayres. Within a century and a half, the epocha 

 of their first cstablislmient, they have been the means 

 of bringing into the bosom of the cluirch, many 

 Indian nations, who lived in the blindness of ido- 

 latry, and the turpitude of the savage customs trans- 

 mitted to them by their ancestors. The first in- 

 stance of this apostolic zeal was the spiritual con- 

 quciitof the Gruanarics Indians, soi;ie of who^n inha- 

 bited the banks of the rivers I'rnguay and Parana; 

 and others are near a hundred leagues u\) the countries 

 N. W. of tlie Gnayra. The Portuguese, then only 

 intent on the improvement of their colonies, in vio- 

 lation of the most sacred laws, did not even afler 

 the conversion cf these people, cease from making 



incuisioiJs^ 



