178 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
philosophy tho grandeur of which wo might admii'o, but for the sus- 
picion which, intrudes itself that tho Fathers regarded the whole as 
only a passing storm, and were unwilling to incur the odium of rebels 
for nothing. 
Or did they look upon their South American Missions as a milch- 
cow, which would give them the means of carrying out their ambitious 
plans in Europe? 
At any rate, the speculation in tho immense natural treasures of 
these countries was not a bad one. If, even at that early period of 
development, the opening trade in hides, cotton, Paraguay tea in the 
South, and cacao in the North, proved to be the soui’ce of so much 
wealth that the churches of the Missions abounded in plate, richly- 
ornamented sacred vessels, and chasubles, the remains of which arc 
stiU treasiired up and jealouslj’' guarded by the Mojos on the Beni as 
heritages of the good old times, what might not have been the con- 
dition of these unparalleled colonies, after the lapse of half a century ? 
The trade in Paraguay ten, which is so indispensable to high and 
low on the Eiver Plate, would alone have yielded an immense revenue, 
as it nowhere tlmves so well as it does there, not to sj)eak of the 
cattle and, in the Northern provinces, the sugar-cane, cotfee, cacdo, &c. 
The Missions would have become the grandest and the best- 
administered agricultural institutions the world had ever seen, for there 
can be no doubt that the Jesuits would have succeeded in bringing 
them down to oiu’ own time in almost unchanged condition; only a 
ceaseless stream of immigrants, a far-extending net of roads and rail- 
ways, and a general activity of trade (such as has been observed to 
spring up within the last ten years), might have interfered with the 
continuance of the patriarchal system : but, i:i any case, it would have 
taken some time to abolish it entirely. 
After all we have seen, the condition of the Indians during the 
prosperity of the Missions differed from real slavery only in the 
particulai* tliat they were not exposed for sale; and it almost soimds 
ridiculous when Jesuit authors like Charlevoix speak of Christian 
republics, in allusion to the institutions of early Chidstianity, The 
Indians certainly were held on about the same Ioav level as slaves. 
There was no private property in the community, save their trifling 
household goods ; the soil was cultivated jointly ; and they Avere 
strictly prohibited from selling to strangers the prodiice of their 
