BY E. A.

HOPKINS.

WITH the single exception of the discursive narrative of MM. Humboldt and Bonplaud, the scientific world is entirely dependent upon the Jesuits for all the information hitherto obtained of this region of the South American Continent, surcharged as it is with every production conducive to the comfort or luxury of mankind. For ourselves, we are convinced that there is no part of the earth where the omniscient providence of God has so bountifully displayed the glorious beauty of his handiwork; for whether we study any of the departments of animated nature, or turn to the woods and forests, teeming with the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, we find that almost every object has been moulded in some superior form for the higher enjoyment of manthe noblest of His works, and the favorite of His creation.

Before we proceed, however, we must acknowledge our incompetency to do full justice to our topic. Our ambition is bounded by the hope that we may draw the attention of some one, more capable than we are, to the magnificent range of subjects which would so richly reward investigation in this almost unknown region of the world. To the scientific naturalist, or the adventurous traveller, better advice cannot be given than to say, "Go to Paraguay: there you will meet with governmental protection in the prosecution of your labors, and each citizen of the republic will be proud to offer you all hospitality and assistance."

Without being able, therefore, to add anything absolutely new on the Natural

Owing to the absence of the Editor from town, several typographical errors in the article on Paraguay, in the September number, were left uncorrected. The name of the author, Mr. E A. Hopkins, should also have been inserted.-ED.

History of Paraguay, we may do some service to the cause, by a condensed compilation from the published, but obsolete, works of some of the Jesuit fathers; occasionally using the advantages which we possess over them, from the more modern and complete forms of classification. But even of the accounts of the Jesuits, we shall be obliged to reject much that is entirely fabulous, and depend upon our own judgment and personal knowledge of the country, for the selection of those statements on which we can rely. For, from an attentive study of the works of those extraordinary men, combined with much information concerning them of a traditionary character, which we collected on the spot, in propria persona, we are compelled to adopt the conclusion, that, finding themselves at one time in almost exclusive possession of the richest portion of this continent, they sought to strengthen their influence with the court of Spain, by sending the most glowing accounts of its natural capacities and resources, in order to bring to their aid a larger supply of priests and treasure, and thus enable them to increase the establishments by which they expected to hold undisturbed sion. And when, at last, their schemes were detected, and they were swept from the scene of their labors in a single night, by the jealous government of Charles III., they then, for retro-active effect, published exaggerated details, not only of their own labors, but also of the country which they had been so anxious to retain. We say not this, because we feel the slightest inclination to detract from the wonderful deeds these men accomplished. The fact is too well established that, assisted by the combination of every talent, with every means of education and discipline, they have gone forth to all parts of the world,

and effected far more than any other organized body, whether religious or secular. But it is also an established fact that, astute as they have been and are, the growth of their ambition has been too rapid and monstrous for concealment; and hence they have never succeeded to the full measure of their designs. And now, wherever they go, their enemies far outnumber their friends, and the secrecy and ability of their endeavors are no security against their failure.

The prophetic eye of the great founder of the Jesuits soon turned towards the New World, as the best seat for their future power and stability. For, only nine years after the establishment of the order, their pioneers, accompanying the Portuguese expedition under the command of Don Tomas de Souza, governor of Brazil, landed at the port of Bahia. This occurred in 1549. According to Father Martin Dobrizhoffer, Francis Victoria, of the order of St. Dominic, and first Bishop of Tucuman, solicitous for the glory of God," called the first Jesuits into Paraguay from Brazil and Peru, in 1581.* This early beginning certainly has the merit of manifesting great ardor in the work before them. The first steps taken to practice upon the credulity of the simple-minded savages were completely successful; and wonderful stories are related of the miracles performed by the cross of St. Thomas, recovered from a lake near Chuquisaca, after an immersion of fifteen centuries! In about fifty years from their first landing, the efforts of these fraudulently pious men had collected thirty establishments of neophytes, containing one hundred thousand inhabitants, and located between the rivers Paraguay and Uruguay, the most delightful region of South America. From this centre, their influence ramified over an immense extent of country. The buildings erected by them were of the most substantial kind, and upon the exact models which they have always used in Europe. Those that were intended to contain their worldly goods were bomb-proof; but the churches were by far the most splendid and elaborate. We have wandered with astonishment over the ruins yet left by the civil wars, which, in our opinion,

* Account of the Abipones, vol. I., r. 47.

their conduct first entailed upon nearly all parts of wretched South America. At San Borja, on the left bank of the Uruguay, we measured the remains of one of these churches, and found it to be one hundred paces long, and sixty wide. Moreover, the sculptured stone and carved wood-work were equal to anything of the This meakind which we had ever seen. surement would make it one of the largest buildings constructed on this continent; and it is said to have been capable of containing thirteen thousand persons. We also visited two of these churches in Paraguay, which are kept in good repair. They are located at Santa Rosa and Santa Maria, and were passed by with contempt by that universal robber, Francia, on account of their poverty. Yet they each contain from thirty to fifty arrobas* of gold and silver. The bells of these churches bear the date of 1599; and not only these, but also a small organ, and all the carved gold and silver, adorned with precious stones, which embellish the various altars and images of the saints, were the product of Paraguayan workmen.

These Jesuits affected to govern all their establishments on the principle of a community of goods. They instructed their Indian "brethren" to the precise extent which rendered them most useful as slaves, and least rebellious as subject-members of their "Christian Republic." But, whilst their "godly preceptors and "masters in Christ" erected churches and casas de residencia, with all the pomp and splendor which wealth could command, the simple-minded architects rested their weary limbs in mud hovels. Whilst the ghostly comforters" luxuriated on the fat of the land, the Indian workmen tasted not the "milk and honey" which their toil had produced. Whilst the padres taught them to work the farms of the society; to raise sugar, maté, tobacco, corn, and sweetmeats; to watch the cattle, to tan hides and dye cotton, to make shoes, and manufacture garments; the former alone enjoyed the benefit, and the barefooted, half-clothed neophyte lived on yucca root, and such supply of hope as their corrupt Christian education may have left to them.

* A Spanish arroba is twenty-five pounds. † Mate is the admirable tea-plant of Paraguay.

However much our admiration may be excited by the unprecedented exertions of the Jesuits for the benefit and advancement of their own order, we must say that their system was poorly calculated to promote the happiness of the Indian. Such Christian instruction as they gave him, could raise him but little in the scale of humanity. Such Christian example as they exhibited, was as little likely to illustrate the true doctrine of an eternal life; and in seeking to deceive mankind with foolish stories of their self-denying and disinterested zeal for the conversion of the heathen, they have forfeited the praise which they might have justly earned by their wonderful and successful labors for their own aggrandizement. Now they stand before the world in the light of false prophets-wolves in sheep's clothing-which have deluded and cursed, for so many generations, the fair lands of which they took possession. In proof of our assertion, we shall give the reader some idea of this "Christian Republic," as it is presented in the work of Father Charlevoix, which, on its title-page, states that these establishments of the Jesuits are allowed to have realized the sublime ideas of Fenelon, Sir Thomas More, and Plato!

The Guarani Indians seem to have been more distinguished by the favor of the Jesuits than any other tribe. And the Fathers Joseph Cataldino and Simon Maceratoe, Italians, exacted from the Bishop and Governor of Paraguay, before their departure for the Guarani territory, full power, not only to build and govern as they should see fit, without any dependence upon the Spaniards in whose neighborhood they might settle; but also to oppose, in the king's name, all who should, on any pretence whatever, desire to subject the new Christians to any personal service.* From a manifesto of their designs before their departure, we learn that these fathers did not desire to interfere with any advantages which the Spaniards might derive from the Indians in a lawful manner; but that it was the king's intention to prevent their being treated as slaves; besides which, they regarded slavery as utterly forbidden by the law of God. The avowed design was to make them men, that

* Hist. of Paraguay, vol. I, p. 245.

they might be better enabled to make them Christians. In the same document we find that the fathers did not think it allowable to make any attempt upon the liberty of the Indians, to which liberty they had an incontestible right. But they wished to make their converts sensible that they rendered their liberty prejudicial to themselves by making a bad use of it; and that they must therefore learn to restrain it within just bounds. Hence the Jesuits only desire them to pay obedience to a prince, who is anxious to become their protector and father; and hope they will submit to his yoke with joy, and bless the day when they became his subjects. All this promised very fairly; but let us see how the promise was fulfilled.

These fathers proceeded forthwith to form two "reductions" for the reception of Indian proselytes, which were peopled so fast that they immediately conceived the design of a "Christian Republic," which might revive the happiest days of primitive Christianity in the heart of this barbarous country.* The first step was to baptize the heathen; the next, to make them swear unlimited obedience to the king. And finally, in 1649, in return for being honored with the title of "His Catholic Majesty's most faithful subjects," they were required to pay an annual capitation tax to the sovereign, of one dollar for each man. This last arrangement was an excellent piece of policy, because it attached the crown of Spain to the interests of the Jesuits, and thus assisted them materially in the prosecution of their plans. After this important point was secure, we soon find out, from Father Charlevoix, that it becomes quite lawful to abridge the liberty to which the Indians so lately had an incontestible right; that the limited understanding of their neophytes required the Jesuit fathers to enter into all their affairs, and direct them in their temporal as well as in their spiritual concerns; and, furthermore, that the punishments consist of nothing but prayers, fasting, confinement, and sometimes whipping, at the sole discretion of their spiritual guides. How rapidly the sublime ideas of Fenelon, Sir Thomas More, and Plato, were now devel

Hist. of Paraguay, ubi supra., p. 250, † P. 260.

oped! How affecting the analogous and sympathetic Christianity of the punishments by prayer and whipping! Nay, we are informed by Don Antonio Ulloa, in his Voyage to South America, that the liberties of these Indians have been so well preserved, and their minds so well guarded from superstitious fear, by love and veneration for their pastors, that if the latter could be guilty of inflicting an unjust punishment-not a supposable case the suffering party would impute it to his own demerits, being firmly persuaded that the priests never do anything without a suffi

cient reason!

In the gradual advancement of this "Christian Republic" to perfection, the next step was to hinder the new Christians from having any intercourse with the Spaniards; not allowing any conversation, and studiously abstaining from teaching them the Spanish language. This, of course, was an excellent precaution. For now the Indians could never come to a proper understanding of their enslaved condition. Nor was it likely they would rebel, or create factions, and so trouble the holy fathers, since no knowledge could reach them but that which the Jesuits thought fit to impart, and nothing could disturb that contentment, under a full sense of their blessings, which was their chief virtue.

Our author, Father Charlevoix, must have slumbered in a most pleasurable forgetfulness of all common sense on the part of his readers, when he put such a mass of contradictions into the shape of a book, as we find in the volume before us. We are told, a little further on, that the Indians learned in a surprising manner whatever they were directed to acquire; that to hear them read Latin, which was taught them for the service of the churches, one would suppose they understood every word of it; that they copied manuscripts in a very fine hand, which in point of beauty and exactness would do honor to the best copyists of Europe; that their morals could hardly escape corruption, were they to communicate with the Spaniards, but, nevertheless, the orders of Philip V. that they should be taught Spanish, were disregarded, not for this

Ib. pp. 262, 263.

reason, but because of the great reluctance of these otherwise most dutiful and obedient children, to learn this language, notwithstanding the facility with which they read and wrote the Latin. The next sentence informs us, that these Indians are by nature of a very limited capacity, and understand nothing but what falls immediately under the senses. The next states that they acquired, as it were by instinct, all the arts to which they had access; but then they were directed, says our author, only to such as would exempt them from having recourse to foreign assistance. It was enough to show them a crucifix, a candlestick, a censor, and give them the requisite materials; and thereupon they would make so good an imitation, that it would be difficult to distinguish the copy from the original. They have been known, proceeds the Rev. Father, to make, on bare inspection, the most intricate organs; also astronomical spheres, and Turkey carpets. They engrave upon brass, after giving it a due polish, all the figures traced before them. Furthermore, they have an uncommon taste for music, and perform upon, as well as make, all sorts of musical instruments. So strong, indeed, was their affection for harmonious sounds, that the first Reductions were peopled, according to our author,* by the power of melody, and not by the influence of the Gospel as taught by the Jesuits; thus realizing what fable relates of Amphion and Orpheus. We also discover among these wonderful Indians, who are so stupid and of such limited understanding, gilders, painters, sculptors, artists in gold, silver and other metals, clock-makers, carpenters, joiners, weavers, and founders; in a word, they exercised all the arts that could be useful to them-of which usefulness the sapient Jesuits were the self-constituted judges. Our author even boasts, that the churches erected by these Neophytes would not disgrace the largest cities of Spain, either in regard to the beauty of their structure, or the richness and good taste of their sacred vessels and ornaments of every kind.

The churches were " useful," but the houses of the Indians were of small account; therefore they were mean and rude, undoubtedly assisting them to an ever-present

* Ib. p. 261.