312 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



popular. When the order was suppressed, the Jesuits made no resistance, and 

 their expulsion was unattended by bloodshed. 



The reductions possessing no initiative or any vital force, these emasculated 

 communities melted away as soon as the controlling power was removed. Efforts 

 were made to keep them together in some places by other missionaries, in others 

 by the civil authorities ; but all in vain, and in 1801 not more than 14,000 

 Indians remained in the territories of the missions. Most of the congregations 

 had dispersed among the surrounding forests, while bands of brigands from 

 Uruguay invaded the villages, despoiled the churches, and carried off the cattle. 

 Then white traders and settlers were introduced, and in 1814 about 1,000 

 strangers from Argentina and Uruguay had merged in a general population with 

 the 8,000 Indians still remaining in the district. Lastly, in 1848, a presidential 

 edict declared the surrounding aborigines of the reductions " citizens of the 

 Republic." At present all traces have disappeared of the organisation established 

 by the Jesuits, and the still existing stations differ in no respects from the other 

 Paraguayan villages. 



The Pakaguayans. 



The inhabitants of the towns have been strongly Hispanified, and can scarcely 

 be distinguished from other mixed descendants of Spaniards and Guarani natives. 

 They speak both languages, and some of the periodicals contain articles and poems 

 in the lengua geral. 



From the very first the Basque people seem to have taken a large share 

 in the colonisation of Paraguay. Irala, who was governor of the country both 

 before and after the rule of Alvarez Nunez, belonged to the Euskarian nationality. 

 Palgrave assigns such a large proportion to the Basque element, that he goes so 

 far as to call the Paraguay people " Yasco-Guarani," instead of " Hispano- 

 Guarani." According to this writer the persons with light hair frequently met 

 in Paraguay are descendants of those light-haired Basques, who are still constantly 

 met in the Western Pyrenees.* 



On the other hand, Martin de Moussy believes that the tall and fair- 

 complexioned Hispano-Guarani, who constitute a considerable proportion of the 

 Paraguayan population, recall the type of the German soldiers who entered the 

 country with Schmidel at the time of the Conquest. In support of this view it 

 is stated that the blonde Paraguay women have a Teutonic physiognomy. 

 Their hair is described as really light, like that of the North European women, 

 not of that Spanish flame colour, which approaches a red or ruddy hue, and which 

 is met in all the other Argentine regions. 



But, whatever their origin, the Paraguayans are distinguished above all other 

 civilised peoples for their extremely docile disposition. Brutal orders issued by 

 brutal taskmasters are meekly obeyed without a word of protest, and, after sub- 



* Ulysses, or Scenes and Studies in Many Lands. 



