Part 8

I went on shore at Baragan, whither the chevalier du Bouchage had already sent part of the timber we wanted. He found it very difficult and expensive to collect it at Buenos Ayres, in the king’s arsenal, and in some private timber-yards; the stores of both consisting of the timbers of such ships as were wrecked in the river. At Baragan we found no supplies; but, on the contrary, difficulties of many kinds; and every thing conspired to make all operations go on very slowly. The Encenada de Baragan is, indeed, merely a bad kind of bay, formed by the mouth of a little river, which is about a quarter of a league broad; but the depth of water is only in the middle, in a narrow channel; which is constantly filling more and more; and, in which, only ships drawing no more than twelve feet water can enter. In all the other parts of the river, there is not six inches of water during the ebb; but as the tides are irregular in Rio de la Plata; and the water sometimes high or low, for eight days together, according to the winds that blow, the landing of boats was connected with great difficulties. There are no magazines on shore; the houses, or rather huts, are but few, made of rushes, covered over with leather, and built without any regularity, on a barren soil; and their inhabitants are hardly able to get their subsistance; all which causes still more difficulties. The ships, which draw too much water to be able to enter this creek, must anchor at the point of Lara, a league and a half west. There they are exposed to all the winds; but the ground being very good for anchoring, they may winter there, though labouring under many inconveniences.

[Sidenote: 1767. October.]

I left M. de la Giraudais, at the point of Lara, to take care of what related to his ship; and I went to Buenos Ayres, from whence I sent him a large schooner, by which he might heave down as soon as he came into the Encenada. For that purpose, it was necessary to unload part of the goods she had on board; and M. de Buccarelli gave us leave to deposit them on board the Esmeralda and the Liebre. The 8th of October the Etoile was able to go into port; and it appeared, that her repair would not take so much time as was at first expected. Indeed, they had hardly begun to unload her, when her leak diminished considerably; and she did not leak at all when she drew only eight feet of water forward. After taking up some planks of her sheathing, they saw that the seam of her entrance was entirely without oakum for the length of four feet and a half, from the depth of eight feet of her draught upwards. They discovered likewise two auger holes, into which they had not put the bolts. All these faults and damages being quickly repaired, new railing put on the head, a new bowsprit made and rigged, and the ship being new caulked all over, she returned to the point of Lara on the 21st, where she took in her lading again, from on board the Spanish frigates. In that road she likewise stowed the wood, flour, biscuit, and different provisions I sent her.

[Sidenote: Departure of several vessels for Europe, and arrival of others.]

From thence, the Venus and four other vessels laden with leather, sailed for Cadiz, at the end of September, having on board two hundred and fifty Jesuits, and the French families from the Malouines, seven excepted, who having no room in these ships, were obliged to wait for another opportunity. The marquiss of Buccarelli transported them to Buenos Ayres, where he provided them with subsistence and lodgings. At the same time we got intelligence of the arrival of the Diamante, a register ship, bound for Buenos Ayres, and of the San-miguel, another register ship, bound for Lima. The situation of the last ship was very distressing: after struggling with the winds at Cape Horn during forty-five days, thirty-nine men of her crew being dead, and the others attacked by the scurvy, and a sea carrying away her rudder, she was obliged to bear away for this river, and arrived at the port of Maldonados seven months after leaving Cadiz, having no more than three sailors and a few officers that were able to do duty. At the request of the Spaniards we sent an officer with some sailors to bring her into the port of Montevideo. On the fifth of October the Spanish frigate la Aguila arrived there, having left Ferrol in March. She touched at the isle of St. Catherine, and the Portuguese had arrested her there at the same time that they stopped the Diligent at Rio Janeiro.

Footnote 53:

Buccarelli.

Footnote 54:

Virer en quille.

Footnote 55:

Chambekin.

_CHAP. VII._

_Accounts of the missions in Paraguay, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from that province._

Whilst we carried on our preparations for leaving Rio de la Plata, the marquiss of Buccarelli made some on his part to go on the Uraguai. The Jesuits had already been arrested in all the other provinces of his department; and this governor-general intended to execute the orders of his catholic majesty, in person, in the missions. It depended upon the first steps that were taken, either to make the people consent to the alterations that were going to be made, or to plunge them again into their former state of barbarism. But before I give an account of what I have seen of the catastrophe of this singular government, I must speak something of its origin, progress, and form. I shall speak of it _sine irâ & studio, quorum causas procul habeo_.

[Sidenote: Date of the establishment of the missions.]

In 1580 the Jesuits were first admitted into these fertile regions, where they have afterwards, in the reign of Philip the third, founded the famous missions, which in Europe go by the name of Paraguay, and in America, with more propriety, by that of Uraguay, from the river of that name, on which they are situated. They were always divided into colonies, which at first were weak and few, but by gradual progress have been encreased to the number of thirty-seven, viz. twenty-nine on the right side of the Uraguay, and eight on the left side, each of them governed by two Jesuits, in the habit of the order. Two motives, which sovereigns are allowed to combine, if they do not hurt each other, namely, religion and interest, made the Spanish monarch desirous of the conversion of the Indians; by making them catholics, they became civilized, and he obtained possession of a vast and abundant country; this was opening a new source of riches for the metropolis, and at the same time making proselytes to the true Deity. The Jesuits undertook to fulfil these projects; but they represented, that in order to facilitate the success of so difficult an enterprize, it was necessary they should be independent of the governors of the province, and that even no Spaniard should be allowed to come into the country.

[Sidenote: Conditions agreed on between the court of Spain and the Jesuits.]

The motive on which this demand was grounded, was, the fear lest the vices of the Europeans should diminish the ardour of their proselytes, or even remove them farther from Christianity; and likewise lest the Spanish haughtiness should render a yoke, already too heavy, insupportable to them. The court of Spain, approving of these reasons, ordered that the missionaries should not be controuled by the governor’s authority, and that they should get sixty thousand piastres a year from the royal treasure, for the expences of cultivation, on condition that as the colonies should be formed, and the lands be cultivated, the Indians should annually pay a piastre per head to the king, from the age of eighteen to sixty. It was likewise stipulated, that the missionaries should teach the Indians the Spanish language; but this clause it seems has not been executed.

[Sidenote: Zeal and success of the missionaries.]

The Jesuits entered upon this career with the courage of martyrs, and the patience of angels. Both these qualifications were requisite to attract, retain, and use to obedience and labour, a race of savage, inconstant men, who were attached to their indolence and independence. The obstacles were infinite, the difficulties encreased at each step; but zeal got the better of every thing, and the kindness of the missionaries at last brought these wild, diffident inhabitants of the woods, to their feet. They collected them into fixed habitations, gave them laws, introduced useful and polite arts among them; and, in short, of a barbarous nation, without civilized manners, and without religious principles, they made a good-natured well governed people, who strictly observed the Christian ceremonies. These Indians, charmed with the persuasive eloquence of their apostles, willingly obeyed a set of men, who, they saw would sacrifice themselves for their happiness; accordingly, when they wanted to form an idea of the king of Spain, they represented him to themselves in the habit of the order of St. Ignatius.

[Sidenote: Revolt of the Indians against the Spaniards.]

However, there was a momentary revolt against his authority in the year 1757. The catholic king had exchanged the colonies on the left shore of the Uraguay against the colony of Santo Sacramento with the Portuguese. The desire of destroying the smuggling trade, which we have mentioned several times, had engaged the court of Madrid to this exchange. Thus the Uraguay became the boundary of the respective possessions of the two crowns. The Indians of the colonies, which had been ceded, were transported to the right hand shore, and they made them amends in money for their lost labour and transposition. [Sidenote: Causes of their discontent.] But these men, accustomed to their habitations, could not bear the thought of being obliged to leave the grounds, which were highly cultivated, in order to clear new ones. They took up arms: for long ago they had been allowed the use of them, to defend themselves from the incursions of the Paulists, a band of robbers, descended from Brasilians, and who had formed themselves into a republic towards the end of the sixteenth century. They revolted without any Jesuits ever heading them. It is however said, they were really kept in the revolted villages, to exercise their sacerdotal functions.

[Sidenote: They take up arms and are defeated.]

The governor-general of the province de la Plata, Don Joseph Andonaighi, marched against the rebels, and was followed by Don Joachim de Viana, governor of Montevideo. He defeated them in a battle, wherein upwards of two thousand Indians were slain. He then proceeded to conquer the country; and Don Joachim seeing what terror their first defeat had spread amongst them, resolved to subdue them entirely with six hundred men. He attacked the first colony, took possession of it without meeting any resistance; and that being taken, all the others submitted.

[Sidenote: The disturbances are appeased.]

At this time the court of Spain recalled Don Joseph Andonaighi, and Don Pedro Cevallos arrived at Buenos Ayres to replace him. Viana received orders at the same time to leave the missions, and bring back his troops. The intended exchange was now no longer thought of, and the Portuguese, who had marched against the Indians with the Spaniards, returned with them likewise. At the time of this expedition, the noise was spread in Europe of the election of king Nicholas, an Indian, whom indeed the rebels set up as a phantom of royalty.

Don Joachim de Viana told me, that when he received orders to leave the missions, a great number of Indians, discontented with the life they led, were willing to follow him. [Sidenote: The Indians appear disgusted with the administration of the Jesuits.] He opposed it, but could not hinder seven families from accompanying him; he settled them at the Maldonados, where, at present, they are patterns of industry and labour. I was surprised at what he told me concerning this discontent of the Indians. How is it possible to make it agree with all I had read of the manner in which they are governed? I should have quoted the laws of the missions as a pattern of an administration instituted with a view to distribute happiness and wisdom among men.

Indeed, if one casts a general view at a distance upon this magic government, founded by spiritual arms only, and united only by the charms of persuasion, what institution can be more honourable to human nature? It is a society which inhabits a fertile land, in a happy climate, of which, all the members are laborious, and none works for himself; the produce of the common cultivation is faithfully conveyed into public storehouses, from whence every one receives what he wants for his nourishment, dress, and house-keeping; the man who is in full vigour, feeds, by his labour, the new-born infant; and when time has consumed his strength, his fellow-citizens render him the same services which he did them before. The private houses are convenient, the public buildings fine; the worship uniform and scrupulously attended: this happy people knows neither the distinction of rank, nor of nobility, and is equally sheltered against super-abundance and wants.

The great distance and the illusion of perspective made the missions bear this aspect in my eyes, and must have appeared the same to every one else. But the theory is widely different from the execution of this plan of government. Of this I was convinced by the following accounts, which above a hundred ocular witnesses have unanimously given me.

[Sidenote: Accounts of the interior government.]

The extent of country in which the missions are situated, contains about two hundred leagues north and south, and about one hundred and fifty east and west, and the number of inhabitants is about three hundred thousand; the immense forests afford wood of all sorts; the vast pastures there, contain at least two millions of cattle; fine rivers enliven the interior parts of this country, and promote circulation and commerce throughout it. This is the situation of the country, but the question now is, how did the people live there? The country was, as has been told, divided into parishes, and each parish was directed by two Jesuits, of which, one was rector, and the other his curate. The whole expence for the maintenance of the colonies was but small, the Indians being fed, dressed, and lodged, by the labour of their own hands; the greatest costs were those of keeping the churches in repair, all which were built and adorned magnificently. The other products of the ground, and all the cattle, belonged to the Jesuits, who, on their part, sent for the instruments of various trades, for glass, knives, needles, images, chaplets of beads, gun-powder and muskets. Their annual revenues consisted in cotton, tallow, leather, honey, and above all, in _maté_, a plant better known by the name of Paraguay tea, or South-Sea tea, of which that company had the exclusive commerce, and of which likewise the consumption is immense in the Spanish possessions in America, where it is used instead of tea.

The Indians shewed so servile a submission to their rectors, that not only both men and women suffered the punishment of flagellation, after the manner of the college, for public offences, but they likewise came of themselves to sollicit this chastisement for mental faults. In every parish the fathers annually elected _corrégidors_, and their assistants, to take care of the minutiæ of the government. The ceremony of their election was performed on new year’s day, with great pomp, in the court before the church, and was announced by ringing of bells, and the playing of a band of music. The newly elected persons came to the feet of the father rector to receive the marks of their dignity, which however did not exempt them from being whipped like the others. Their greatest distinction was that of wearing habits, whereas, a shirt of cotton stuff was the only dress of the other Indians of both sexes. The feasts of the parish, and that of the rector, were likewise celebrated by public rejoicings, and even by comedies, which probably resembled those ancient pieces of ours, called _mystéres_ or mysteries.

The rector lived in a great house near the church; adjoining to it were two buildings, in one of which were the schools for music, painting, sculpture, and architecture; and likewise, work-houses of different trades; Italy furnished them with masters to teach the arts, and the Indians, it is said, learn with facility: the other building contained a great number of young girls at work in several occupations, under the inspection of old women: this was named the _guatiguasu_, or the seminary. The apartment of the rector communicated internally with these two buildings.

This rector got up at five o’clock in the morning, employed an hour in holy meditation, and said his mass at half past six o’clock; they kissed his hands at seven o’clock, and then he publicly distributed an ounce of _maté_ to every family. After mass, the rector breakfasted, said his breviary, conferred with the corregidors, four of whom were his ministers, and visited the seminary, the schools, and the work-shops. Whenever he went out, it was on horseback, and attended by a great retinue; he dined alone with his curate at eleven of the clock, then chatted till noon, and after that, made a _siesta_ till two in the afternoon; he kept close in his interior appartments till it was prayer time, after which, he continued in conversation till seven in the evening; then the rector supped, and at eight he was supposed to be gone to bed.

From eight of the clock in the morning, the time of the people was taken up either in cultivating the ground, or in their work-shops, and the corregidors took care to see them employ their time well; the women spun cotton; they got a quantity of it every Monday, which they were obliged to bring back converted into spun yarn at the end of the week; at half an hour past five in the evening they came together to say the prayers of their rosary, and to kiss the hands of their rector once more, then came on the distribution of an ounce of _maté_ and four pounds of beef for each family, which was supposed to consist of eight persons; at the same time they likewise got some maize. On Sundays they did no work; the divine worship took up more time; they were after that allowed to amuse themselves with plays as dull as the rest of their whole life.

[Sidenote: Consequences drawn from it.]

From this exact detail it appears that the Indians had in some manner no property, and that they were subject to a miserable, tedious uniformity of labour and repose. This tiresomeness, which may with great reason be called deadly or extreme, is sufficient to explain what has been told to us, that they quitted life without regret, and died without having ever lived or enjoyed life. When once they fell sick, it seldom happened that they recovered, and being then asked whether they were sorry to be obliged to die, they answered, no; and spoke it as people whose real sentiments coincide with their words. We can no longer be surprised, that when the Spaniards penetrated into the missions, this great people, which was governed like a convent, should shew an ardent desire of forcing the walls which confined them. The Jesuits represented the Indians, upon the whole, as men incapable of attaining a higher degree of knowledge than that of children; but the life they led, prevented these grown children from having the liveliness of little ones.

[Sidenote: Expulsion of the Jesuits from the province of Plata.]

The society were occupied with the care of extending their missions, when the unfortunate events happened in Europe, which overturned the work of so many years, and of so unwearied patience in the new world. The court of Spain having resolved upon the expulsion of the Jesuits, was desirous that this might be done at the same time throughout all its vast dominions. Cevallos was recalled from Buenos Ayres, and Don Francisco Buccarelli appointed to succeed him. [Sidenote: Measures taken at the court of Spain for this purpose.] He set out, being instructed in the business which he was intended for, and with orders to defer the execution of it till he received fresh orders, which would soon be sent him. The king’s confessor, the count d’Aranda, and some ministers, were the only persons to whom this secret affair was entrusted. Buccarelli made his entry at Buenos Ayres in the beginning of 1767.

[Sidenote: Measures taken by the governor-general of the province.]

When Don Pedro de Cevallos was arrived in Spain, a packet was dispatched to the marquis of Buccarelli, with orders both for that province, and for Chili, whither he was to send them over land. This vessel arrived in Rio de la Plata in June, 1767, and the governor instantly dispatched two officers, one to Peru, and the other to Chili, with the dispatches from court, directed to them. He then sent his orders into the various parts of his province, where there were any Jesuits, viz. to Cordoua, Mendoza, Corrientes, Santa-Fé, Salta, Montevideo, and Paraguay. As he feared, that among the commanders of these several places, some might not act with the dispatch, secrecy, and exactness which the court required, he enjoined, by sending his orders to them, that they should not open them till on a certain day, which he had fixed for the execution, and to do it only in the presence of some persons, whom he named, and who served in the highest ecclesiastical and civil offices, at the above-mentioned places. Cordoua, above all, interested his attention. In that province was the principal house of the Jesuits, and the general residence of their provincial. There they prepared and instructed in the Indian language and customs, those who were destined to go to the missions, and to become heads of colonies; there their most important papers were expected to be found. M. de Buccarelli resolved to send an officer of trust there, whom he appointed the king’s lieutenant of that place, and on whom, under this pretext, he sent a detachment of soldiers to attend.

It now remained to provide for the execution of the king’s orders in the missions, and this was the most critical point. It was dubious whether the Indians would suffer the Jesuits to be arrested in the midst of the colonies, and this violent step must at all events have been supported by a numerous body of troops. Besides this, it was necessary, before they thought of removing the Jesuits, to have another form of government ready to substitute in their stead, and by that means to prevent confusion and anarchy. The governor resolved to temporize, and was contented at that time to write to the missions, that a corregidor and a cacique from each colony should be sent to him immediately, in order to communicate the king’s letters to them. He dispatched this order with the greatest quickness, that the Indians might already be on the road, and beyond the missions, before the news of the expulsion of the Jesuits could reach thither. By this he had two aims in view; the one, that of getting hostages of the fidelity of the colonies, when the Jesuits would be taken from thence; the other, that of gaining the affection of the principal Indians, by the good treatment he intended for them at Buenos Ayres, and of instructing them in the new situation upon which they would enter; for, as soon as the restraint would be taken away, they were to enjoy the same privileges, and have the same property as the king’s other subjects.

[Sidenote: The secret is near being divulged by an unforeseen accident.]