18^ A VOYAGE TO Book VII. 



All these missions, though so numeious and dispersed, 

 are lormed as it were into pne college, of which the 

 superior may be considered as the master or head ; and 

 every town is like a family governed by a wise and af- 

 fectionate parent, in the person of the priest. 



In the missions of the Guaraníes, the king pays the 

 stipends of the priests, which, including that of the 

 assistant, is three hundred dollars per annum. This 

 s un is lodged in the hands of the superior, who every 

 month supplies them with necessary food and appa- 

 rel, and on any extraordinary demand, they apply 

 to him, from whom they are sure of meeting with 

 a gracious reception. 



The missions of the Chiquito Indians have a 

 distinct superior; but with the same functions as he 

 who presides over the Guaraníes ; and the priests also 

 are on the same footing, but have less anxiety and la- 

 bour; the industry and activity of these Indians, saving 

 them the trouble of coming among them to exhort 

 them to follow their em.ployments, or of being the 

 storekeepers and agents in disposing of the fruits of 

 their labours ; they themselves vending them for their 

 own advantage. i.. 



All these Indians are very subject to severaL con- 

 tagious distempers ; as the small-pox, malignant fe- 

 vers, ar.d others, to which, on account of the dread- 

 ful havock attending them, they give the name of 

 pestilence. And to such diseases it is owing, that 

 these settlements have not increased in a manner pro- 

 portional to their numbers, the time since their esta- 

 blishment, and the c^uietuess and plenty in which these 

 people live. 



TiiE missionary fathers will not allow any of the 

 inhabitants of Peru, whether Spaniards, or others. 

 Mestizos, or even Indians, to come within their mis- 

 sions in Paraguay. Not with a view of concealing 

 their transactions ÍTom the world; or that they are 

 afraid kai others shuuld supplant them of part of the 



products 



