WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 117 



a malicious insinuation. I lived, and taught, and 

 died in Brazil, where you state that none but the 

 good principles of my order were called into 

 action, and still, in most absolute contradiction to 

 this, you remark we believed the idolatry we 

 taught in Brazil. Thus we brought none but good 

 principles into action, and still taught idolatry! 



"Again, you state there is no individual to 

 whose talents Brazil is so greatly and permanently 

 indebted as mine, and that I must be regarded as 

 the founder of that system so successfully pur- 

 sued by the Jesuits in Paraguay; a system pro- 

 ductive of as much good as is compatible with 

 pious fraud. Thus you make me, at one and the 

 same time, a teacher of none but good principles, 

 and a teacher of idolatry, and a believer in 

 idolatry, and still the founder of a system for 

 which Brazil is greatly and permanently indebted 

 to me, though, by the by, the system was only 

 productive of as much good as is compatible with 

 pious fraud ! 



''What means all this? After reading such in- 

 comparable nonsense, should your countrymen 

 wish to be properly informed concerning the 

 Society of Jesus, there are in England documents 

 enough to show that the system of the Jesuits was 

 a system of Christian charity towards their fel- 

 low-creatures, administered in a manner which 

 human prudence judged best calculated to ensure 

 success ; and that the idolatry which you unchari- 

 tably affirm they taught, was really and truly the 

 very same faith which the Catholic Church taught 

 for centuries in England, which she still teaches 

 to those who wish to hear her, and which she will 



