CHAPTER XX

_A South American Dictator_

The early history of Paraguay is almost identical with that of other South American States. Spain, its conqueror and coloniser, chose a psychological moment for the work--that enchanted period in the history of mankind when the world was opening grand visions to poets and inspiring warlike adventurers on mighty quests through uncharted seas and in lands unmarked by the footsteps of civilisation. It would have been well for the honour and glory of Spain had these adventurous mariners and soldiers been inspired with the spirit of Arthur’s knights, for then the history of Paraguay would not have begun amidst scenes of brutality and bloodshed.

The earliest Spanish settlement in Paraguay was at Asuncion, under the leadership of Dominges Irala, and the treatment which he and his followers meted out to the Indians was similar to that which the luckless natives experienced at the hands of the colonists throughout the continent. The Indians were reduced practically to a state of slavery by their taskmasters, whose relationships with the tribal women were of none too scrupulous a character, so that when the Jesuit missionaries arrived they found many abuses, which they did their best to abolish. The long period during which the fathers administered the country was one of comparative peace, and it was only when the religious order was banished from the country that discord and strife arose.

Paraguay was separated from the province of Buenos Ayres in 1620, although the government of both States was administered from Lima, the Peruvian capital. When the spirit of liberation began to stir the colonies to rebellion against the Spanish government, the enthusiasm of Bolivar, the Liberator, quickly spread through the length and breadth of the land, and the mother country, with her national spirit exhausted and her exchequer depleted by the costly Napoleonic Wars, was incapable of preventing the secession of her oversea dominions. One by one the countries, which are all independent republics to-day, broke away from her rule, and in the year 1811 the autonomy of Paraguay was proclaimed after a bloodless revolution. This State was the last to join in the general movement, and then only after having refused the proffered assistance of the La Plata provinces, even going the length of repulsing by force the advance of General Belgrano, who came to invite their co-operation against the Spanish rule.

A few months afterwards, however, they changed their attitude, and followed the example of the other States. Velasco, the Spanish Viceroy of the province, made little or no resistance and was allowed to occupy a position in the new Government.

This first revolution was but the precursor of a long series, not yet ended, the initial independent Government being soon displaced by another revolt, bloodless like the first, and a wealthy gaucho--Don Fulgencio Yegros--became President, occupying the position for a short period, with Dr. Francia as his adviser. In the following year another change took place, and Francia became First Consul. For a period of nearly thirty years this strange personality guided the destinies of the new State entirely single handed.

Little is known of his origin and early history, but his reign of terror is remembered to this day, and was a period of much meaning in the history of the country.

Francia seems to have been of French or Portuguese extraction, and was educated at Cordova, in Tucuman. His original intention appears to have been to enter the Church, but he exchanged his theological studies for those of the law, and on his return to Asuncion soon acquired a reputation as an upright and honest lawyer, a hater of injustice, and a hermit. He became one of the chief advisers during the formation of the republic, and soon rose to the position of the head of the State, successively styling himself Consul, Dictator, and finally Supreme and Perpetual Dictator. In this position Francia soon gave evidence of his remarkable personality, one of his first acts of policy being to isolate Paraguay from the rest of the world. Erecting guardhouses along its frontiers and forts upon its rivers, he succeeded in keeping the State “a field enclosed” all through his long reign. Not a single native was allowed to leave the country, and the few foreigners who succeeded in entering had the greatest difficulty in leaving. A few trading vessels were permitted to enter the river ports, but only when provided with the Dictator’s licence, and under the most drastic restrictions and supervision. As the years wore on Francia grew more and more despotic, retiring within himself and eschewing company until he was as completely isolated from the rest of his kind as his country was from the rest of the world.

The masses of the people accepted his fearful rule with docility and complaisance, but the more educated classes, whose opposition and political intrigues endangered the tyrant’s supremacy, were treated with the greatest severity, wholesale executions being of frequent occurrence.

But against such excesses towards the political classes must be set the many beneficent measures he inaugurated for preserving the peace and increasing the prosperity of his country. Obtaining arms from abroad, he disciplined his soldiers and struck terror into the hearts of the bandits and highwaymen who infested the territory. He went about the city making personal surveys, and taking levels in connection with the improvements he undertook.

Since the expulsion of the Jesuits the Church had sadly deteriorated and fallen low in its influence for good upon the population, and his efforts were untiring in endeavouring to arouse the clergy to a proper sense of their secular duties. He himself held advanced and enlightened views which inspired him with contempt for the supine Church and its sensual, indolent priesthood. He never attended Mass, and consistently refused to profess adherence to a faith in which he had no belief, but his absolute honesty and devotion to the best interests of his people were unquestionable, and his methods saved the country from many years of anarchy. Purging the State of dishonest servants, he set an example which other republics might follow with advantage, and his benevolence to the poor and weak was only equalled by his severity towards the rich and strong.

In appearance this singular man was lean, tall, saturnine, and forbidding, whilst his qualities were a blend of those associated with Cromwell, Napoleon, and Robespierre. He filled his subjects with an abiding dread, and they almost feared to mention his awful name. During his lifetime he was “El Supremo,” and during the years immediately after his death he was referred to as “El Defuncto.” Few save his bodyguard dared to approach him, and when he passed through the streets he ordered the people to retire within their houses and close all doors and windows upon pain of death, whilst anyone found loitering in the road leading from the palace to the barracks of San Francisco, almost the only one he traversed, was severely beaten by the soldiers. He frustrated numerous plots made for his assassination, and many weird stories are told of him and his peculiar relations with his subjects. One old lady used to relate how when a child she was sent one day to the market-place to buy oranges, and was returning with her apron filled with them when hastily turning a corner she came unexpectedly upon the dreaded Dictator. She immediately fell upon her knees and begged for her life, the oranges meanwhile scattering in all directions. Francia smiled, and gently said, “Go, my daughter, you have done no wrong,” then rode upon his way.

On another occasion a funeral procession crossed the road as he approached, and the bearers immediately dropped the bier, priests and mourners hiding themselves behind the hedge at the roadside until he had passed.

When in the year 1820 a plague of locusts (a common scourge of the country) destroyed all the crops and ruin and starvation stared the people in the face, the Dictator issued orders to the agriculturists to at once sow fresh patches of land, enforcing his decree with the threat of heavy penalties, with the result that a fairly good harvest was secured, and the discovery made that the country was capable of yielding two good harvests in each year.

It was only when the hand of death relieved Paraguay from the rule of the Dictator and tyrant that the people breathed more freely. His body was interred in the “Iglesia de la Incarnacion” in Asuncion, but the following day it was discovered that vandal hands had scattered the bricks of the tomb and removed the remains. What became of them still remains a mystery, but the explanation of the priests, “that the evil one had carried them away,” has long ceased to be regarded as satisfactory.