68 



BUENOS AY RES. 



Buenos 

 Ayres. 



Death of 

 Ira! a in 

 1557. 



of the In- 

 diaus. 



blishment of encomiendas, and to reduce the natives 

 under their power. With this view, Ciudad Real 

 was founded in the province of Guayra, in 1557, 

 where 4-0,000 Indians were trained to habits of in- 

 dustry ; and a few years after, the encomienda of 

 Santa Cruz de la Sierra was established in Los Chi- 

 quitos, comprehending nearly 60,000 inhabitants.- 

 Of this system, however, Irala did not live long to 

 promote the effects ; but being seized with a fever, 

 he died at Assumption in 1557, after nominating his 

 son-in-law, Don Gonzalez de Mendoza, lieutenant- 

 general and commander of the province, until the 

 emperor's pleasure should be known. Mendoza sur- 

 vived his exaltation scarcely a year ; and his death 

 was succeeded by rebellions and civil dissensions 

 Dissensions throughout the province. The Spanish chiefs, am- 

 among the bitious of wealth, and impatient of controul, and far 



Spanish removed from the authority of the parent state, of- 



chiefs, and . 



oppression ten disputed for pre-eminence. One governor refu- 

 sed to acknowledge the supremacy of another, and 

 frequently retained, or seized by violence or fraud, 

 dignities to which a successor had been appointed. 

 But, amidst .the fierceness of contention, the Indians 

 found no relief from their intolerable bondage. Ex- 

 posed to the arbitrary exactions and capricious 

 cruelty of their task-masters, they were fast has- 

 tening to extinction ; and had not some farther re- 

 gulations been adopted by the Spanish court, its pos- 

 sessions in this country would soon have been con- 

 verted into an uninhabited desert. The preservation 

 and increase of the Indian population, however, was 

 chiefly owing to the labours of the Jesuits, who, by 

 their mildness and humanity, not only reduced them 

 under the dominion of the cross, but established a 

 political government amongst them, of which pro- 

 mises and persuasion were the principal engines of 

 authority. 



It was in 1586 that the Jesuits first made their 



tion of the appearance in Paraguay ; though, previous to their 

 i ntr duction into this country, they had been many 

 years employed in propagating the gospel in Brasil, 

 which Father Joseph Anchieta, in the phraseology 

 of these times, had filled with the odour of his holi- 

 ness, and the splendour of his miracles. Their la- 

 bours, however, were for a time confined merely to 

 the conversion of the natives, without attempting to 

 form any permanent establishments. They visited 

 many of the Indian towns and villages ; and follow- 

 ing the wandering Guaranis through their forests, 

 and into the recesses of their mountains, disposed 

 many thousands' of them to receive the gospel. They 

 managed with astonishing address the most fierce and 

 untractable of the Indian nations, with whom both 

 force and fair measures had previously been found 

 unavailing ;*and their mediation was often success- 

 fully exerted in repressing the cruelty of the Spa- 

 niards, and in restraining the desertion of those that 

 formed their encomiendas. But their interference, 

 (for they continued to plead with unshaken constan- 

 cy the cause of the oppressed Indians,) sometimes ex- 

 posed them to obloquy, and even ill-treatment from 

 the Spaniards, who regarded the natives as their law- 

 ful property, which they had acquired by their va- 

 lour, and which they were determined to maintain 

 against every other authority. The exertions of 



Introduc- 



Paraguay 

 in 1586. 



' 



" 



these men in the cause of religion and humanity, hi- Bueno* 



therto desultory, were now directed to more deter- Ayres. 



minate objects, the establishment of reductions a- *" 



mong the natives. In 1609, Father Torrez, the pro- They esta- 



vincial of the Jesuits, received full power from the blish re- 



governor of Paraguay, which was sanctioned by the Auctions 



bishop, to collect their newly converted Indians into 



townships, which were to be independent of all the 



other Spanish establishments ; to civilize and to in- 



struct them ; and to oppose, in the king's name, all 



who should endeavour to subject them to personal 



service. They were only to acknowledge the sove- 



reignty of the king of Spain, of whom they were 



to be considered as the immediate . vassals. This 



power was afterwards confirmed by Philip III. and 



his successors ; and such were the zeal and labours 



of the Jesuits, that, in the course of 20 years, they 



had established 21 reductions upon the Parana and 



the Uraguay. Their success, however, was suddenr 



ly interrupted in 1630, by the devastations of the 



Paulists, or Mamelukes, (of whom some account has 



been given in the History o/'BnASiL, vol. iv. p. 422,) 



who, by their impetuous and reiterated eruptions, 



almost obliterated the effects of their labours in Pa- 



raguay. The Indians, with their native weapons, 



were unable to resist the fire-arms of their invaders, 



and the Jesuits were compelled to fly, with their neo- 



phytes, from the province of Guayra, and to retire 



to their missions upon the Uraguay. In these in- The t 



roads, many of the fathers lost their lives, though, 



in general, the Mamelukes abstained from personal 



violence to the ministers of religion ; and, in two 



years, 60,000 of the converted Indians are calcula- 



ted to have been destroyed, or carried off. These 



disasters the Spaniards beheld with indifference, if 



not with complacency. They had considered the 



settlements of the Jesuits as encroachments upon 



their property ; and they even rejected repeated and 



earnest applications for assistance. They soon, how- 



ever, felt the effects of their imprudence. The Ma- 



melukes, disappointed by the removal of the missions, 



advanced with the same hostile spirit towards the en- 



comiendas, devastating their lands, and carrying off 



the inhabitants ; and the cities of Ciudad Real and 



Villa Rica were razed to the ground. The provincial 



governments still remained insensible to the situation 



of the Jesuits, and could be induced, neither by the 



claims of policy nor humanity, to defend them against 



their enemies. The only resource, therefore, which 



remained, was to apply to the Spanish court. A de- The Jesuits 



putation was accordingly dispatched, who plead the obtain per- 



cause of their American brethren with such a warmth mi * sion 5 

 i i 11 i fr, Arm their 



of colouring and persevering address, that, in Io39> converts 



they obtained leave to embody and arm their Indian with mus- 

 converts in the European manner. This important 

 privilege soon restored stability and tranquillity to 

 the reductions. The neophytes, trained under the 

 direction of some lay Jesuits, who had formerly been 

 inured to a military life, in their turn became formi- 

 dable to the Mamelukes, who, in a short time, found 

 it dangerous to appear in the neighbourhood of these 

 settlements. ' They also rendered very important ser- 

 vices to the Spanish governors, who frequently call- 

 ed upon them for assistance on difficult emergencies. 

 On these occasions, however, they were always com- 



