it was too late, an appeal was made to Charles III. to preserve Paraguay from entirely losing the Jesuits. : And what was the character of this Missionary sovereignty? -for a sovereignty it practically was. The work was originally connected with that noble indignation against Spanish cruelty towards the Indians, which has so often been the glory of Roman priests. The Jesuits would imitate Las Casas; they, too, would be Protectors of the Indians and while, as Macintosh says, even the tolerant Quakers "dealt out to Indians little more than penurious justice," and the Puritans, until the days of John Eliot, were little better than barbarians in their dealings with the unhappy native tribes, the Jesuits, from first to last, treated the Indians with tender and solicitous humanity. "They began," says Chateaubriand, "by obtaining from the Spanish court the liberty of the savages," in the face of the settlers' opposition; and "having triumphed over malignity and cupidity, and meditating one of the noblest designs that the heart of man has conceived, they embarked for Rio de la Plata." When they reached the river Paraguay, their missionary toils commenced. They dispersed among the forests, each with his breviary under the left arm and a large cross in the right hand, and for his provision simply trust in God." They went on in the spirit of their own St. Francis Xavier, who plunged into the Japanese deserts with an exulting "In exitu Israel" on his lips. Through marshes and forests, through the haunts of wild beasts and savage men, through scenes of beauty and terror, "lustrous woodland" and cavernous dells, they pressed forward. One of them, Lizardi, was found pierced with arrows, and torn by birds of prey: beside him was the breviary, opened at the Office of the dead. The brother-Jesuit who found the corpse buried it, and sung Te Deum on the grave. Sometimes the Guaranis gathered round the priest, and looked up to the sky as he spoke of God and heaven; sometimes, in a panic, they fled as from an enchanter; he followed "extending his arms in the Name of Jesus Christ," and imploring them to listen: if they would not, he left his cross fixed in an open place, and hid himself, while the savages drew near to gaze at the mysterious emblem. Then the spiritual hunter emerged from his ambush, and fell on the prey which was again delivered into his hands. The missionaries, throughout their whole course, found in sacred music a powerful auxiliary. After they had surmounted the first difficulties, and gained over the first body of Guarani converts, they made their catechumens instrumental in attracting others."They embarked with the neophytes in canoes, and rowed up the rivers, raising a sacred chant." Begun by the Jesuits, and taken up by the newly baptized, the holy song rose up with like power to the Alleluia and the Litanies, with which our own Augustine and his companions commenced their attack on Saxon heathenism. The Indians heard, and were fascinated: they would come to the bank of the stream, and some would plunge into the water, and follow within sound of the music. Chateaubriand describes them as seized and subdued by the sweet influences thus put forth, awakened to a sense of social virtue and humanity, then sinking at the foot of the Cross, and blending their tears with the regenerating water. Charlevoix says that the Jesuits learned by experience not to baptize adult proselytes until after a long probation, on account of their légèreté. 66 The Fathers Maceta and Cataldino were the founders of the first Guarani town: others speedily arose; and these new settlements were known by the general name of Reductions. They had a threefold character-religious, manufacturing, military. Every reduction had straight streets; the houses were white, and covered with tiles; and there was a large, handsome stone church, served by two of the fathers. It is singular that, with all their variety of public buildings, they had no hospitals. There were in each town two schools, one for dancing and music, one for the rudiments of learning;" (we give Chateaubriand's account;) "as soon as a child completed his seventh year, the two priests studied his character." Those who showed a turn for mechanics were placed in a public workshop; and these were of various kinds. The first instructors in the different trades were the Jesuits, who, with characteristic versatility, learned the trades themselves, to prevent their dependents from having recourse to other teachers. Thus there were to be seen Indian goldsmiths, watchmakers, locksmiths, joiners, carpenters, weavers, metal-founders. If the youth preferred agriculture, the order of labourers would receive him. If "the vagrant humour of past days" was yet strong within him, he was allowed to follow the flocks. Women were employed at various works, within their dwellings, apart from the men. A day in the Reductions began with a gathering of the children in the church at early dawn. They joined in a short service until sunrise. After this, Mass was celebrated, and attended by the adults, who then dispersed to their occupations: and at the close of day the bells announced that time of Ave Maria, so beautifully described in Southey's "Tale of Paraguay." The people again repaired to church, where vespers were sung in choir. The Catechism was repeatedly gone through, in public and private. "The churches," says says Chateaubriand, "were very beautifully ornamented." The walls were covered by pictures; and wreaths filled up the interstices between the painted forms, on which the worshippers gazed so fondly. On a feast day, scented waters were sprinkled around in the nave, and flowers were scattered through the sanctuary. Corpus Christi day was welcomed by festival dances, and the Host was borne under arches formed of boughs, amid a profusion of rich flowers, and attended—as if to symbolize the homage of all nature-by chained wild beasts, and many a "gorgeous Indian bird." Flowers, bells, music, and all possible demonstrations of love and reverence, welcomed the priest as he visited his people. "The Indians," says Ranke, "manifested singular pleasure in the externals of devotion. They were never weary of attending Mass, of singing vespers, and of waiting in the choir for the performance of the service. They had a talent for music, and took an innocent delight in decorating their churches. . . . . In their dreams they beheld the joys of paradise. The Queen of Heaven appeared to the sick in all her glory and majesty, surrounded by youthful attendants, who brought refreshment to the fevered and fainting sufferer: or she appeared alone, and taught her worshipper a song of her crucified Son, whose head is bowed down even as yellow ears of corn.'. . . . The monks only complain that the bad example and cruelty of the Spaniards corrupted the natives, and obstructed the work of conversion." This he says of the South American missions generally; and he adds, that the records of the Paraguay mission "are peculiarly worthy of notice, the Jesuits having always kept the Spaniards at a distance from that country." Still it is clear that the example of that corruption, which long before occasioned the sarcastic proverb about Moorish works and Spanish faith, was occasionally mischievous to the converts of Paraguay. The religious element was undoubtedly predominant in this "happy Christendom," as it was called by Muratori. The Reductions were called by sacred or ecclesiastical names: the first, characteristically enough, was called Loretto; the second, St. Ignatius; and Charlevoix (who wrote in 1756, when there were thirty Reductions) mentions the names of Incarnation, Assumption, Three Kings, St. Francis Xavier, Holy Archangels, &c. The readers of Southey's poem will recollect the name of St. Joachim's Reduction. A religious discipline was established: for the first offence, a secret reprimand; for the second, penance at the church door; for the third, chastisement with the rod. But "during the century and a half that this Republic existed, scarcely a single case can be found of an Indian deserving this latter punishment." "All their faults, "Charlevoix declared, "are the faults of children." Faxardo, Bishop of Buenos Ayres, writing to Philip V., delivered a remarkable opinion: "Sire, in 66 these numerous tribes, composed of Indians naturally inclined to every kind of vice, there reigns such innocence that I do not believe a single mortal sin is committed among them." Drunkenness was a besetting sin with the Indians when first converted: their teachers succeeded in producing a genuine horror of it. "Wine," said one of the Indians, "is the best thing that comes from Spain, but it is a poison to us." Some displayed such tenderness of conscience as to be hardly prevented from publicly confessing their sins in the church. Congregations, or confraternities, were formed; one for those between twelve and thirty, which was called by the name of St. Michael; and others, called by the names of St. Mary, and the Holy Sacrament, &c. No one was allowed to be enrolled in these Societies who was not distinguished by charity, by zeal for good order and for conversion of unbelievers, and by assiduity in approaching the sacraments." (Charlevoix.) The dread of expulsion from these sacred brotherhoods was a powerful restraint from sin. Chateaubriand says, "The spirit of cruelty and revenge, the self-abandonment to the grossest vice, which characterise the Indian hordes, were transformed into a spirit of sweetness, patience, and chastity." Children of fair promise were educated with special care; and the threat of sending away any one of them back to the common school, after he had been admitted into the congregation seminary, would throw him into utter despondency. From this class, "the flower of the flock," the Jesuits were wont to recruit the body of trusted officers. Baptism was administered on Sunday evening, with triple immersion. On Monday service for the dead was celebrated in the chapel of the cemetery—a large square piece of ground, with palm and cypress-trees close to the wall, and alleys of citron and orange stretching across and overshadowing the graves. Charlevoix dwells with fondness on the unselfish character of his spiritual children; on their "cordiality, unity, predominant charity; their affectionate solicitude for each other; their joy at seeing an increase in the worshippers of Jesus." He tells us that they emulated each other in assisting the Jesuits to found new Reductions, and in helping new missionaries to learn their language. Great pains were taken by the Jesuits to infuse the principle of charity. Father Gonzalez, an eminent Jesuit and martyr, would exhort them to submit to the sweet yoke of the true God, who took a body capable of suffering, who died to save all men, who raised Himself up, who reigns in heaven; whose ministers' sole anxiety was to teach the Indians to live like men, and to lead them on to everlasting happiness. Chateaubriand tells us that the "Christian Republic" at first suffered many attacks from the Spanish and the Portuguese of Brazil. Consequently, they obtained leave from Madrid "to arm their neophytes," and the result was a gallant repulse of the intruders, who were chased to their nearest stronghold. He adds that this commonwealth was neither altogether military like Sparta, nor purely pacific like the Society of Friends. Its members were cultivators without having slaves, (for the Jesuits were determined foes of slavery,) and warriors without being ferocious. Again, that it escaped the moroseness of Sparta, and the frivolity of Athens. By adopting the term republic, its eulogists do not mean that it was independent of the Spanish monarchy; on the contrary, Charlevoix insists that the Jesuits and their dependents were absolutely subject to the King of Spain, and that Philip IV., in 1749, called them faithful vassals. He adds (but this statement must be cautiously received) that they were not less amenable to Episcopal than to royal authority; that the visits of the Bishop were often asked for long before they were granted; that when the spiritual father actually came, he was received with prostrations and Te Deums, and his confirmation services attended with the utmost devotion. A writer in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" takes a different view of their loyalty to the Spanish crown. Having described the Jesuits in Paraguay, as neither so bad as their enemies nor so good as their friends describe them, as exacting uniform labour and implicit obedience, and giving in exchange the blessings of a gentle, wise, and paternal government, and perfect social equality, he proceeds to charge them with designing an independent empire, which should eventually extend itself throughout South America. He observes that they kept up an entire separation between their neighbours and their subjects, forbidding private traders to enter the territory, and public envoys to converse with the Indians. They also avoided giving the Indians any knowledge of any European language. The view here presented to us, of a benignant but ever-watchful despotism, is borne out by Southey's lines : "They on the Jesuit, who was nothing loth, While he speaks of Paraguay as "a sunny spot in history's mournful map," and describes the "mild pupils in submission's |