ULLOA S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 3I7 



than the commercial hiftory of thefe countries. We find here not only the principal 

 commodities of every province diftin6lly enumerated, but we are alfo informed of the 

 particular places where they grow, their different qualities and degrees in value, 

 the method of collefting and curing moll part of them, the manufadures of cot- 

 ton, wool, and other materials, the produce of their mines and different kinds of 

 metal, their potteries, and whatever elfe is the objeQ: of induflry and {kill : the 

 manner of conveying them from one province to another, the great roads, the in- 

 land and coafting navigation, their commerce with Spain, their contraband trade, 

 the manner of introducing, and the great confumption, of European commodities and 

 manufadlures, the advantages and diladvantages attending their prefent regulations, the 

 difcoveries that are yet to be made, and the improvements which may ftill take place in 

 the management of affairs in thofe countries : the fmgular inventions of the natives for 

 palling great rivers, tranfporting their goods by the help of veffels of their own con- 

 Ifrudion, their adroitnefs in fome refpeds, and their llupidity in others. — From the due 

 confideration of this part of the work, the reader will perceive that in many things we 

 have been impofed upon, in former accounts ; and that other things, in a long courfe of 

 years, are very much changed from what they were. But inftead of old errors, we 

 Ihall find many new truths, and fome eftabliflied from example and experience, that 

 are of too great confequence not to be frequently remembered, and perfectly under- 

 flood ; fuch as, that countries are not the better, and, which is ftill ftranger, are not 

 the richer, for producing immenfe quantities of gold and filver, fince this prevents their 

 being cultivated, expofes the natives to pafs their lives in the fevereft drudgery, and, 

 after all, makes the digging of metal from the mine little more than drawing water 

 in a fieve ; fince, in fuch countries, riches difappear almoft as foon as they are re- 

 vealed. Induftry alone, in the old world and in the new, has the power of acquiring 

 and preferving wealth, and this, too, without the trouble of mining. Befides, though 

 not infifted upon, it will be evidently feen, that feverity in government, and fuperftition 

 in religion, fubvert both liberty and morals, and are confequently in all refpeds 'de- 

 ftruftive of the happinefs of mankind. 



The account given by our authors, of the miffions which the Jefuitshave eftabliflied 

 in Paraguay, is as interefting as it is entertaining, and may be very juftly confidered as 

 one of the moft curious and beft written parts of the whole performance ; fince, at the 

 fame time that it breathes all the deference and refpeft poffible for the fathers, it informs 

 us of a great variety of fafts of fo much the more confequence, as, at the time it was 

 written, nobody could forefee that the courts of Madrid and Liftjon would make fo 

 thorough a change as they have done in their fentiments in regard to this order ; and 

 therefore the informations thefe gentlemen give us are the more to be relied on. They 

 fhew us in what manner, and under what fpecious pretences the Jefuits acquired a kind 

 of independent poffeffion of fo large a trad of country, and, except their annual tribute, 

 an almoft abfolute dominion over an immenfe number of people. They acquaint us 

 that there is a civil government in every village, after the model of the Spanifli towns ; 

 but the maglftrates are chofen by the people,/ fubjedt only to the approbation of the father 

 Jefuit, who refides in and, in reality, governs the village. We learn from them, that 

 the Jefuits draw from the people all the commodities and manufadlures that are fit for 

 foreign commerce, which are vended by a commiffary of their appointing, and the re- 

 turns in European commodities made to and diftributed by them at their pleafure ; they 

 tell us, that the church in every village is fpacious, and elegantly adorned ; that, though 

 they are ftyled villages, they are in effeft large towns, and the houfes in them neat, 

 commodious, and, in comparifon of the Spaniards', very well furnilhed. We learn 



from 



