94 



ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book I. 



trary, they were mod afliuLious and punctual in the dlfcharge of all 

 their duties as chriftians ; nor do I believe that in the prefent age 

 there are or have been, in any country, more zealous and fervent 

 difciples of Chrift. They became at laft apoftles themfelves, and 

 laboured much in the converfion of their barbarous neighbours; fome 

 of them, Charlevoix tells us, in that fervice fuffered even martyr- 

 dom *. 



In fhort the people, who were colleded by the Jefults in thofe 

 miflions, were entirely changed, and, from the wildeft of all barba- 

 rians of whom we read, were become tame, gentle, orderly and re- 

 gular in their life and condudt, and pradifing every virtue belong- 

 ing to human nature. This is attefted in a letter written by the go- 

 vernor of Paraguay to the King of Spain, of which Charlevoix has 

 (riven us the contents ti wherein he fays, ' That he had vifited all the 



* redudlions in his province ; and that he found them all in a ftate, 



* which could not be believed by any who had not feen it with his 

 ' own eyes : That nothing could be added to the policy and good 



* order in which they lived, to the innocence of their manners, and 

 ' the piety and union among them : That the tender affection and re- 

 ' fped, which they fliowed for their paftors, could not be exprefled ; 

 ' and that every one of them was difpofed to facrifice with pleafure 

 ' his life, and all that he pofleffed in the world, for the fervice of 

 * God and his Majefty'. To this account of them I will only add, 

 that as the greateft pleafure we enjoy in this life, is to love and to 

 be loved, the Indians of thofe miffions enjoyed that pleafure in a 

 very high degree, loving, as they did, their governors, and being fo 

 much beloved by them, a ching which very rarely happens. And 

 when to that we join their religion, the excellent government they 

 li-ved under, the vices of which they were cured, particularly their 



chief 



* Vol. II. p. 264. 

 ■ Vol. II, p. 261, 



