640 ULLOA*S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



ranles ; and with the produce, a frefh flock of goods is laid in. The principal inten- 

 tion of this is, that the Indians may have no occafion to leave their own country, in 

 order to be furnilhed with neceflaries ; and by this means are kept from the contagion 

 of thofe vices, which they would naturally contrad: in their intercourfe with the inha- 

 bitants of other countries, where the depravity of human nature is not corredled by 

 fuch good examples and laws. ^ 



If the civil government of thefe towns be fo admirably calculated for happinefs, the 

 ecclefiaftical government is ftill ,more fo. Every town and village has its particular 

 prieft, who, in proportion to its largenefs, has an affiftant or two of the fame order. 

 Thefe priefts, together with fix boys who wait on them, and alfo fing in the churches, 

 form in every village a kind of fmall college, where the hours are under the fame 

 regulation, and the exercifes fucceed each other with the fame formalities as in the 

 great colleges of cities. The mofl laborious part of the duty belonging to the prieft, 

 is to vifit perfonally the chacaras or plantations of the Indians ; and in this they are 

 remarkably fedulous, in order to prevent the ill confequences of that flothful difpo- 

 lition fo natural to the Guaranies ; who, were they not frequently roufed and flimu- 

 lated by the prefence of the prieft, would abandon their work, or, at leaft, perform 

 it in a very fuperficial manner. He alfo attends at the public flaughter-houfe, where 

 every day are killed fome of tlie cattle ; large herds of which are kept for the public 

 ufe by the Indians. The flefti of thefe beafts is dealt out by the prieft, in lots pro- 

 portionable to the number of perfons each family confifts of; fo that every one has a 

 fufficiency to fupply the calls of nature, but nothing for wafte. He alfo vifits the 

 fick, to fee that they want for nothing, and are attended with that care and tendernefs 

 their ftate requires. Thefe charitable employments take up fo great a part of the day, 

 as often to leave him no time for aflifting the father coadjutor in the fervices of the 

 church. One ufeful part of the duty of the latter is to catechize, and explain fome 

 portion of fcripture in the church every day in the week, Thurfdays and Saturdays 

 excepted, for the inftrudtion of the young of both fexes ; and thefe in every town are 

 not lefs than two thoufand. On Sundays all the inhabitants never fail to attend divine 

 fervice. The prieft alfo vifits the fick to confefs them ; and if the cafe requires it, to 

 give them the viaticum ; and to all thefe muft be added, the other indifpenfable 

 duties of a prieft. 



By the ftridtnefs of the law thefe priefts ftiould be nominated by the governor, as 

 vice-patron, and be qualified for their fundlion by the confec ration of the bifhop ; but 

 as among the three perfons recommended on fuch occafions to the governor, there will 

 of confequence be one, whofe virtues and talents render him moft fit for the office ; 

 and as no better judges of this can be fuppofed than the provincials of the order, the 

 governor and bifhop have receded from their undoubted rights, and the provincials 

 always collate and prefer thofe whofe merits are moft confpicuous. 



The miflions of the Guaranies are alfo under one fuperior, who nominates the 

 affiftant priefts of the other towns. His refidence is at Candelaria, which lies in the 

 centre of all the miffions; but he frequently vifits the other towns, in order to 

 fuperintend their governments ; and at the fame time, concerts meafures that fome of 

 the fathers may be fent among the heathen Indians, to conciliate their affedions, and 

 by degrees work their converfion. In this important office he is alfifted by two vice- 

 fuperiors, one of whom refides at Parana, and the other on the river Uruguay. All 

 thefe miffions, though fo numerous and difperfed, are formed as it w^ere into one 

 college, of which the fuperior may be confidered as the mafter or head 5 and every 



