310 



AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



order to place more extensiv^e woodlands and more numerous cataracts between 

 themselves and their relentless persecutors. But in the terrible exodus they lost 

 more than half of their devoted adherents by epidemics, disasters, and hardships 

 of all kinds. 



JN^evertheless, they succeeded in gaining a refuge in the unknown lands on the 

 banks of the Uruguay, and of the Lower Parana, remote from the Spanish and 

 Portuguese settlements. . Here, and still farther west on the present Bolivian 

 plains, where dwelt the Mojos and the Chiquitos, the Fathers had at last the joy 



Fig. 130.— Jesuit Missions. 

 Scale 1 : 13,000,000. 



310 Miles. 



of realising on earth that " Kingdom of God amongst Men," for which they had 

 struggled so hard and endured so much. 



The term " reductions " given by them to their Indian stations explains the 

 object they had in view. They wished to " reduce " the natives, to withdraw them 

 from the influence of free nature, to regulate their lives by rites and ordinances- 

 To secure their goodwill they shrank from no expedients, not even from the 

 allurements of a generous diet. They were wont to say that the preachings of 

 St. Paul reached the ear of the heathen through the mouth. The natives were 

 beguiled also by music and the pomp of ceremony. When descending the streams 



