176 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RmCRS. 
and creepers of tliose forests, one might decorate doorways “ fit to he tlie V 
gates of Paradise.” i 
Under high arches covered with palm-leaves and magnificent fruits 
and fiowers, brilliantly coloiu’ed paiTots and macaAvs, toucans, snoAv-Avhite 
herons, and demure-looking falcons were chained up. Even the yellow 
puma, and the black and the spotted jaguar, were exposed in cages ; and 
the scaly iuhabitants of the neighbouring rivers AA^ere to be seen liAung 
in large basins. The procession itsclf^with its long train of musicians, | 
and fantastically-clad SAVord-dancers Avearing aureolas of long arara 
feathers, and carrying gold-embroidered canopies, banners, siUer crosses, 
&c,, and followed by the AA'hole male j)opulation, armed partly Avith guns ‘ 
and partly with bows and arrows — ^must, indeed, have presented an 
imposing spectacle, eA'en to minds less impressionable than those of i 
the Mojos. 
* L 
Other shoAVs, Avhich gratified their taste for the pomp of solemn , 
sights, and at the same time served to keep up their required military I 
exercises, Avere the sham fights, Avhich Avere held once a week on the 
sqiiare before the church and the collegio ; and in Achich the whole I 
population, capable of bearing arms, had to take part. Horse and foot ^ 
then engaged each other imder the command of richly accoutred loaders, i 
the whole being dnected by the CoiTejidor as commander-in-chief ; and ( 
the combatants are said sometimes to have warmed up to such a degree | 
that it has been judged necessary to separate them by force. 
These exercises — contimied AAUth eA^en more zeal when the Spanish 
Government had, on Montoya’s request after the invasion of the 
Paulistas, proAuded the Indians Avith fire-arms — enabled the Jesuits not I 
only to send the latter back with bloody heads, but also frequently to 
assist the Spanish Government in the wars after the separation of 
Portugal from Spain; AAdien, in Uruguay especially, there Avere hot 
fights about the so-called Colonia. This severity of discipline and of j 
military regularity did not apply only to their exercises. Their whole I 
life Avas punctually regulated in the Eedneciones ; and to each hour Avas 
allotted its particular function,* which was rigidly maintained. At 
dawn of day, a bell called the Indians to prayer ; and, after the aa’IioIc 
population had assembled on the large square, the musicians plajnng tlie I 
t * U.sq\ie eo illie omnes res, vel maxime privatfe, ad certain quandam nomium et 
I oonstantom directie orant, lit secundum morem in Bolivia traditum conjuge.s ludiimi 
media noete soiio tiiitinnnlnili ad exerceiidnm cnitmn excitarentur. 
