WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 163 



hordes of America'ns ? to clothe the naked ? to encourage 

 the repenting sinner? to aid the dying Christian. The 

 fathers of the Society of Jesus did all this. And for this 

 their zeal is pronounced to be the most fanatical, directed 

 by the coolest policy. It will puzzle many a clear brain to 

 comprehend how it is possible, in the nature of things, 

 that zeal the most fanatical should be directed by the 

 coolest ^policy. Ah, Mr. Laureate, Mr. Laureate, that 

 " quidlibet audendi " of yours, may now and then gild the 

 poet, at the same time that it makes the historian cut a 

 sorry figure ! 



Could Father Nobrega rise from the tomb, he would 

 thus address you : — " Ungrateful Englishman, you have 

 drawn a great part of your information from the writings 

 of the Society of Jesus, and in return you attempt to 

 stain its character by telling your countrymen that ' we 

 taught the idolatry we believed ! ' In speaking of me, you 

 say, it was my happy fortune to be stationed in a country 

 where none but the good principles of my order were called 

 into action. Ungenerous laureate, the narrow policy of the 

 times has kept your countrymen in the dark with regard ro 

 the true character of the Society of Jesus; and you draw 

 the bandage still tighter over their eyes by a malicious in- 

 sinuation. 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 contra- 

 diction to this, you remark we believed the idolatry we 

 taught in Brazil. Thus we brought none but good prin- 

 ciples 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 pursued by the Jesuits in Paraguay ; a system 

 productive of as much good as is compatible with pious 



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