i84 A VOYAGE TO Book VIL 



ters of thofe Spaniards or inhabitants of other nations, 

 v7hofe countries are fituated conveniently for trading 

 vnth Paraguay, by infinuating that they are univer- 

 faliy fraudulent and diffolute : but, on the other 

 hand, among fuch numbers, it would be very flrange 

 if there were not fome ; and one fingle perfon of 

 fuch a characler would be fufficient to infed a whole 

 country. And who could pretend to fay, that, if 

 free admiflion were allowed to foreigners, there might 

 not come in, among a multitude of virtuous, one of 

 fuch peftilent dilpofitions ? Who can fay that he 

 might not be even the very firft ? Hence it is that 

 the Jefuits have inflexibly adhered to their maxim of 

 not admitting any foreigners among them : and in 

 this they are certainly juftified by the melancholy 

 example of the other miffions of Peru, whofe decline 

 from their former happinefs and piety is the efred of 

 an open intercourfe. . 



Though in the feveral parts of Paraguay, where 

 the miffions have been always fettled, there are no 

 mines of gold and filver ; feveral are to be found in 

 fome adjacent countries under the dominion of the 

 king of Spain but the Portuguefe reap the whole 

 benefit of them : for having encroached as far as the 

 lake Xarayes, near which, about twenty years ago, 

 a rich mine of gold was difcovered ; they, without 

 any other right than polTeffion, turned it to their 

 own ufe : the miniftry in Spain, in confideration of 

 the harmony fubfifting between the two nations, and 

 their joint intereft, forbearing to make ufe of any- 

 forcible methods. 



V. Bifhopric of the audience of Charcas, 

 Buenos Ayres. 



The ecclefiaftical jurifdidion of the bifliop of 

 Buenos Ayres extends to all the countries under the 

 temporal government of the fame name ; and this 

 begins on the oriental and fouthern coaft of that part 

 of Americaj and extends wellward as far as Tucu- 



