CHAPTER XII.

THE LITTORINE PROVINCES.

SANTA FÉ--ENTRE RIOS--CORRIENTES--THE OLD JESUIT MISSIONS--PARAGUAY UNDER DR. FRANCIA.

De Garay founds _Santa Fé_, and meets with Spaniards from Peru. His subsequent Deeds and Death. The Government of the Rio de la Plata separated from that of Paraguay, and Santa Fé annexed to Buenos Ayres. Its former prosperity, and great capabilities, especially for Steam Navigation. _The Entre Rios_--constituted a Province in 1814, its Extent, Government, and Population--chiefly a grazing Country. _Corrientes_--its valuable natural Productions--mistaken ideas of the people as to Foreign Trade. The Lake Ybera--Pigmies, Ants, Ant-Eaters, Locusts, and Beetles. _The Missions_ now depopulated--their happy and flourishing state under the Jesuits. _Paraguay_--some Account of its former Prosperity and Trade, and the establishment of the tyrannical rule of Dr. Francia.

PROVINCE OF SANTA FÉ.

The first discoverers of La Plata, as has been already observed, fixed themselves in Paraguay, and established the seat of their government at Assumption, the capital of that province. In his way up the river, Sabastian Cabot built a fort, called Sancti-Espiritu, at the junction of the Carcarãna with the Paranã; Ayolas, a few years after, built another not far from it, to which he gave the name of Corpus Christi; but these, like Mendoza's settlement at Buenos Ayres, were very soon destroyed by the warlike nations which then inhabited the whole of the right bank of the river; and, for the first half-century, with their views solely fixed on making a nearer approach to Peru, the Spaniards concerned themselves but little about the conquest of the poorer lands they had left behind them. The ships, which during that time continued to arrive in the River Plate, with fresh adventurers from Spain, with an inland navigation before them, to Assumption, requiring as much time as the whole voyage out from Europe, were entirely dependent for the refreshments they required on the accidental good will of the natives. Once in the Paranã, if any accident befell them, for nearly a thousand miles there was not a single Christian port in which they could take refuge.

It was under these circumstances that Don Juan de Garay, a Biscayan hidalgo (in 1573), who had already greatly distinguished himself amongst his companions at arms in those parts, solicited and obtained permission to make a sally from Assumption, to endeavour to re-establish Cabot's fort at the mouth of the Carcarãna, and to found other settlements upon the right bank of the Paranã.

The whole force he could muster for this enterprise, when ready, consisted only of eighty men, a small party wherewith to attempt to seize upon lands defended by a numerous and warlike people, already elated by former victories over the Spaniards, though probably as large a one as his own means would allow him to equip; for in those days the whole charge of such undertakings devolved upon the projectors:--they were obliged to raise the means as they could, and their ultimate success of course were mainly depended upon the extent of their personal credit.

De Garay landed, in the first instance, with his followers, thirty or forty miles to the north of the river Salado, and, finding the natives disposed to be friendly, and the aspect of the country inviting, he determined there to make his first settlement, naming it Santa Fé de la Vera-Cruz.

The site originally fixed upon was where Cayestá now stands, upon an inferior branch of the Paranã; but, at a subsequent period, the Santa Fecinos removed lower down to the banks of the Salado.

Whilst part of his people were employed upon the works, De Garay embarked with the rest in a small brig which attended him, and descending the Paranã entered the Salado, and opened a communication with the natives established upon its banks. There an adventure attended him, which he little looked for. Just as he flattered himself he had established a friendly understanding with the Indians, their conduct was observed suddenly to change:--a great stir took place amongst them, and they began to betake themselves, to their arms, and to gather together in such numbers that the Spaniards, alarmed, and expecting to be attacked by them, were glad to get on board their little vessel, and make the best preparations they could for defence. From the mast-head fires were seen lighting in every direction, the well-known signal for war; and the man placed there to look out gave notice that the savages were pouring down towards them in vast numbers, not only by land, but by the river, in their canoes, apparently to attack them in their ship.

De Garay, pent up in a little creek, into which he had run his vessel, and believing his situation desperate, was exhorting his people at any rate to defend themselves to the last, when suddenly the man called out that he saw a cavalier, presently another, and another, and then several more, charging the Indians in their rear; nor was it long before they saw the whole host dispersed, routed, and flying before a party of horsemen. The Spaniards were as much astonished at this unlooked-for encounter as the Indians, nor could they imagine to whom they were thus indebted for their preservation at the moment they expected to have been overwhelmed without a chance of succour, though that they were some of their countrymen they could not doubt after seeing the horses.

The strangers were not long in making themselves known; they were soldiers from Tucuman, who, under their leader Cabrera, having founded the city of Cordova on the same day that De Garay had commenced his settlement at Santa Fé, were then scouring the country to take possession of it as belonging to his jurisdiction; De Garay in vain resisted this pretension, and claimed it as belonging to Paraguay, in right of prior possession and settlement: the others insisting with a superior force, he had no alternative but to temporise, and submit himself to Cabrera's orders, trusting to the higher powers to order the matter differently.

Fortunately for the settlement of this question ere it led to more serious consequences, the Adelantado Zarate opportunely arrived from Spain with a grant from the King, explicitly including in his government all settlements, which might be founded on either shore of the river for the distance of 200 leagues: he not only confirmed De Garay in his command at Santa Fé but took him into such especial favour, that, dying soon afterwards, he left him guardian of his only daughter; she, by his advice, married Don Juan de Vera and Arragon, who in consequence succeeded to the Adelantasgo, which greatly increased the influence of De Garay, who was immediately appointed lieutenant over all the Rio de la Plata, and furnished with full authority to carry into effect his own plans for reducing the Indians to subjection upon its shores. Armed with these powers he conquered some of the most warlike of the native tribes, and established the fame and power of the Spaniards far and wide throughout all those regions:--the last of his deeds was the foundation, in 1580, of the present city of Buenos Ayres, as has been before stated. Alter passing three years in superintending the laying out of the future capital of all those provinces, upon his return to Assumption, going incautiously on shore one night to sleep, he was surprised and killed by the savages. Paraguay lost in him one of her wisest and most valiant captains, whose death was greatly lamented, by the poor especially, to whom his beneficence was unbounded.

The importance of the settlements he founded was soon apparent; and in 1620 they were formed into a government independent of that of Paraguay, under the name of the Government of La Plata; it comprised all south of the junction of the rivers Paranã and Paraguay. Santa Fé in consequence became a dependency of Buenos Ayres; an arrangement confirmed in every territorial settlement subsequently made by any competent authority.

In the domestic dissensions, however, which succeeded the establishment of the Independent Government at Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé took an active part, and disputed the right of the newly-constituted authorities to interfere in the nomination of the provincial administrations. Under these circumstances, in 1818, Lopez, a military officer who had particularly distinguished himself in his resistance to the Central Government upon this point, obtained the command of the province, in which he has ever since been continued. Various circumstances have concurred to leave him not only in undisturbed possession of this local authority, but to render him in later times a personage of some importance in the political history of the Republic. The jurisdiction he lays claim to for the soi-disant province of Santa Fé extends as far south as the Arroyo del Medio, to the west to the lakes of Porongos, and to the north as far as the lands of the Indians of the Gran-chaco, or Great Desert, against whom he has enough to do to defend himself.

In old times Santa Fé under the protection of the Central Government, which spared no expense in constructing forts and maintaining the forces requisite to keep the Indians in check, was the central point of communication not only between Buenos Ayres and Paraguay, but between Paraguay and the provinces of Cuyo and Tucuman: the wines and dried fruits of Mendoza and St. Juan were brought there to be carried up to Corrientes and Paraguay, which in return supplied the people of those provinces, as well as those of Chile and Peru, through the same channel, with all the yerba-maté they required, of which the annual consumption in those provinces alone was calculated at from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 lbs.

The _estancieros_ were amongst the richest in the Vice-Royalty; and their cattle-farms not only covered the territory of Santa Fé, but large tracts on the eastern shores of the river in the Entre Rios; from which they furnished by far the greater part of the 50,000 mules yearly sent to Salta for the service of Peru.

Their situation is now a very different one: the stoppage of the trade with Paraguay and Peru has reduced them to a wretched state of poverty; and their estrangement from the capital having left them without adequate means of defence, the savages have attacked them with impunity, laid waste the greater part of the province, and more than once threatened the town itself with annihilation.

The population has greatly diminished;--perhaps in the whole province there are not now more than 15,000 or 20,000 souls, a large proportion of which is of Guarani origin, the descendants of emigrants from the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, who abandoned them after the expulsion of their pastors in 1768.

This state of things is the more lamentable as Santa Fé might, under a different system, become one of the most important points of the Republic: once more under the decided protection of the Government of Buenos Ayres, not only might its own particular interests be vastly advanced, but the greatest benefits might result to the rest of the union.

Its situation offers striking facilities for carrying on a more active transit-trade between Buenos Ayres and the provinces north of Cordova. The river Salado, on which it stands, is known to be navigable for barges as high up as Matara, in the province of Santiago, and at no great distance from that city; if it were made use of there would be a saving of upwards of 250 leagues of land-carriage in conveying goods from Buenos Ayres to Santiago; but, even if this should turn out not to be so practicable as it is said to be, a direct road is open from Santa Fé which, passing by the lakes of Porongos, skirts the river Dulce, and falls into the high road from Cordova a few posts south of the city of Santiago; which, at the lowest computation, would still be 100 leagues short of the over-land route now used from the capital to the Upper Provinces by way of Cordova.

In any part of the world such a saving of land-carriage would be a considerable object; but in a country where the roads are just as nature has made them, and where the only means of transport for heavy goods are the most unwieldy of primitive waggons, drawn by oxen--the slowest of all conveyances,--not to speak of its expense, and the risks, independently of the wear and tear necessarily attending it, it becomes of the greatest importance. That it has not hitherto been available, is owing to the difficulties attending the navigation of a large river, not only against the current, but against a prevalence of contrary winds, which have rendered the passage of the Paranã up to Santa Fé even more tedious and expensive than the long over-land journey. But the introduction of steam-boats would at once obviate this, and enable the people of Buenos Ayres to send their heaviest goods to Santa Fé by water-carriage in less time than a horse can now gallop over the intervening country, for there is no reason in the world why the ordinary voyage thither should exceed at the utmost three days. I can hardly imagine a greater change in the prospects of a people than this would open to the Santa Fecinos.

There is, however, another point of view, of serious consequence to Buenos Ayres, in which for her own sake it concerns her to look to the advantages, if not to the necessity, of taking speedy measures to introduce steam-navigation upon the Paranã. Since the erection of the Banda Oriental into an independent state, the yearly imports into Monte Video have increased out of all ratio to the scanty population of that state:--it is very evident what becomes of the excess, and that not only the people on the eastern, but those on the western, shores of the Uruguay, are supplied through that channel. The government of Monte Video takes care so to regulate its duties as to make this a profitable trade:--whilst it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of Entre Rios and Santa Fé have quite as much right to traffic with their neighbours as those of Mendoza and Salta have to trade with Chile and Peru.

Buenos Ayres has already suffered a great loss of revenue in consequence, and this loss will yearly increase, to the great detriment of the national credit, for which she is responsible, and to the still further estrangement of the provinces from each other, unless she takes active means to counteract the evil:--those means are in her own hands. The introduction of steam-navigation, by establishing a cheaper communication between her own port and the Littorine provinces, will soon put an end to the profits of the over-land trade which is at present carried on through the Banda Oriental. It may, perhaps, be necessary, in the first instance, to grant some remission of the ordinary duties, in the shape of drawback or otherwise, upon goods reshipped for other parts of the republic in steamers, as well as upon all produce of the country received by the same conveyance in exchange:--but, whatever apparent sacrifice Buenos Ayres may make to promote this object, she may be assured she will be repaid a hundred-fold by the results.

If the confederation of these provinces is to be a real one, and for joint benefit, they must pull together, and help one another. They possess, in a singular degree, within themselves, the means of mutual aid and support, and, if properly applied, they can hardly fail to insure them a great increase of individual prosperity and national importance.

The reverse of the picture has been foretold in words which no man can gainsay:--"_if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand._"

PROVINCE OF ENTRE RIOS.

The Entre Rios territory, bounded on three sides by the Paranã, and on the east by the river Uruguay, like Santa Fé, formed part of the intendency of Buenos Ayres till the year 1814, when the general government divided it into two distinct provinces, called the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes:--the separating line between them, for the present agreed upon, is that formed by the little river Guayquiraro, which falls into the Paranã in about latitude 30° 30´, and the Mocoreta, which runs in the opposite direction into the Uruguay.

The Villa del Paranã, or Bajada, opposite to Santa Fé, is, nominally, the capital town of Entre Rios;--which province is subdivided by the river Gualeguay into two departments, that of the Paranã and that of the Uruguay.

According to the Provisional Reglamento or Constitution drawn up in 1821, in imitation of that of Buenos Ayres, the governor should be chosen every two years by a provincial junta, composed of deputies from the several towns or villages, the principal of which, after the capital, are the Villa de la Concepcion on the Uruguay; and Nogoya, Gualeguay, and Gualeguaychú, on the rivers of the same name.

The population may be about 30,000 souls,--very much scattered,--and almost entirely occupied in the estancias or cattle-farms, in which the wealth of the province chiefly consists. Many of them belong to capitalists in Buenos Ayres:--they have the advantages of a never-failing supply of water, and of being safe from any inroads of the Indians,--the two great desiderata for such establishments in that part of the world,--whilst their proximity to Buenos Ayres ensures a ready sale for the produce.

These advantages made it a great cattle-country in the time of the Spaniards, but it was devastated and depopulated in the first years of the struggle for independence by the notorious Artigas and his followers, and became the scene of much bloodshed and confusion:--from that it had hardly begun to recover when the war, breaking out between the Republic and Brazil for the Banda Oriental, again made it the theatre, as a frontier province, of military operations, and unsettled the habits of the population. The years which have elapsed since the conclusion of that war have sufficed once more to cover the province with cattle, and there are gauchos enough to take care of them.

PROVINCE OF CORRIENTES.

The population of the province of Corrientes in 1824 was estimated at from 35,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. It is ruled by a governor elected by a junta of deputies,--how they are chosen I know not. His official acts are countersigned by a secretary, and in law matters he is assisted by an officer termed the assessor,--a point of form common, I believe, to all the provincial administrations, and derived from the practice of the intendents in the time of the Spanish rule.

The city of Corrientes was begun in 1588, soon after De Garay founded his settlements at Santa Fé and Buenos Ayres. Its position is in latitude 27° 27´, at the junction of the rivers Paranã and Paraguay, and it may also be said of the Vermejo, the mouth of which is not more than ten leagues distant from it:--it affords, in consequence, every facility for an active commercial intercourse with the most remote parts of the republic. The natural productions in these latitudes are similar to those of Brazil, and cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, indigo, and many other articles of the first demand in the markets of Europe, may be produced there in any quantity:--but the same difficulties to which I have already alluded, in speaking of the navigation of the Paranã, aggravated by increased distance, have hitherto prevented the people of Corrientes from profiting, as might have been expected, by these advantages, and have checked all inducement to industry; although they themselves, in their simplicity, ascribe the non-cultivation of their lands to different causes:--they think, with their neighbour Dr. Francia, that foreign ships might just as well go to them as to Buenos Ayres, and that they do not do so they ascribe to the policy of the metropolitan government, which they ungratefully reproach with refusing to throw open the navigation of the river to foreign trade in order to appropriate to their own purposes the revenue resulting from it,--regardless of the fact that the collection of those duties is the only means by which Buenos Ayres can ever expect to discharge either interest or capital of the heavy debts she has incurred in securing the independence, and in since upholding the honour and credit of the republic.

There can be no doubt that it will always be the true policy of the governors of Buenos Ayres to render those duties as light as possible, and especially to reduce, as far as they can, all charges upon the native produce from the provinces of the interior; but if they are to be placed, as they always have been, and from their geographical position always must be, in the vanguard of the republic, to bear the brunt of foreign wars, and all those expenses which must naturally arise out of their intercourse with other nations, they can never give up their right to avail themselves of the ordinary resources for meeting such exigencies which are placed within their reach.

If the expenses of the war with the mother country for their independence, and afterwards of that with Brazil for establishing that of the Banda Oriental, could be fairly apportioned amongst the population of the provinces, the people of Corrientes, as well as of all other parts of the interior, would soon see that the custom-house duties now levied at Buenos Ayres which affect them would go but little way to meet anything like the share of that national expenditure which might be justly charged against them.

It is, however, useless to enter into this discussion, when the truth is, that, whether Buenos Ayres chooses or not to declare the navigation of the Paranã free, the people of Corrientes may rest assured it will never answer to the shipping of foreign nations to avail themselves of it:--foreigners will purchase the productions of Corrientes and of Paraguay if placed within their reach at low prices, but they will not unnecessarily incur the risks and expenses of sending their own ships a thousand miles up a river against wind and tide, in quest of a cargo which may at all times be had in the seaports of Brazil.

Steam-communication will enable the Correntinos to compete with the Brazilians, and it is perhaps the only means by which they will be enabled to find any sale for their produce at such a rate as will make it worth the while of foreigners to seek for it, even in the market of Buenos Ayres. They have every facility for establishing it,--navigable rivers communicating with the farthest extremes of the republic,--and an endless abundance of wood of every kind for fuel.

A remarkable physical feature in this province is the great lagoon of Ybera, extending in width about thirty leagues parallel to the course of the Paranã, from which it is supposed to derive its waters by some underground drainage, for no stream runs into it. Spreading far and wide to the south it occupies the enormous space of about a thousand square miles, and supplies four considerable rivers--the Mirinay, which runs into the Uruguay; and the Santa Lucia, the Bateles, and the Corrientes, which discharge themselves into the Paranã. It was Azara's opinion, from the general aspect of the country, that the Paranã itself at some former period took its course through this lake, and might again resume its ancient channel. At present it is hardly possible to explore any part of it from the prodigious quantity of aquatic plants and shrubs by which it is for the most part covered.

What a store of lacustrine deposits is here forming for the examination of future geologists!

Connected with this lake is the tradition, which has been handed down by early Spanish writers, of a nation of _pigmies_ who were said to have lived in islands in the midst of it, a tale which the first discoverers, who were generally as ignorant as they were brave, seem to have as implicitly believed as that a race of giants once occupied other parts of the same continent.

Both tales are easily traceable to their true origin, and neither of them is without a plausible foundation.

The bones of extinct animals of monstrous size, so frequently met with, gave rise, as well they might, to the story of the giants. The _pigmies_ are a race unfortunately not yet extinct, and are palpably the _ants_, whose marvellous works (especially in the part of the country I am speaking of), vying with those of man himself, are no less calculated to have occasioned at first sight, amongst credulous people, the most far-fetched conjectures as to their origin. I have made some allusion, in speaking of the course of the river Paraguay, to their ingenious contrivances in the lakes of Xarayes (where also the pigmy tribes were said to have dwelt), but those are nothing compared to the works of the ants of Corrientes and Paraguay, where whole plains are said to be covered with their buildings of dome-like and conical forms, rising five and six feet and more in height, and formed of a cement hard as a rock, and impervious to the wet. Man's vanity might easily prompt him to mistake them for works of his own kind in miniature; but, all-presumptuous as he is, nothing he has ever yet constructed in all the plenitude of his power is comparable to the works of these little insects. The Pyramids of Egypt do not bear one half the relative proportion to his own size which the ordinary habitations of these ants do to theirs.

Their works under ground are no less extraordinary: Azara has described with his usual minuteness the various species which he fell in with. There is one amongst others which is winged, and the swarms of which are so prodigious, that he says he rode for three leagues continuously through one of them. This was in about the latitude of Santa Fé, where they particularly abound, and where the people catch them and eat them. The hind parts it seems are very fat, and they fry them into a sort of paste or omelette, or, mixed up with sugar, make sweetmeats of them.

They are a sad pest to the agriculturist and a great nuisance when they get inside the houses. At Buenos Ayres they are very troublesome: I tried myself every means in vain to get rid of them; their ingenuity always baffled us; no contrivance could keep anything in the shape of sweetmeats or dried fruits or such things out of their clutches; and as to the quantity of sugar they would carry off in a very short time, it was incredible: we thought to escape them by placing our stores upon tables, the legs of which were surrounded by water, but they threw straws and sticks into the water, and so made themselves bridges to cross by. If we hung them from the ceiling they climbed the walls and descended by the ropes which suspended them. In our garden they committed terrible depredations; and in the summer-season it was always necessary to keep a couple of men constantly employed for the sole purpose of destroying their nests. We observed that they could not exist in the sun; so that, if a basin of sugar were half filled with them, as was constantly the case, by putting it into the sun it was presently cleared of every one of them.

The Jesuit father Guevara, in his account of Paraguay, speaks of a species not noticed by Azara, found about Villa Rica, which deposits upon certain plants small globules of white wax, which the inhabitants collect to make candles of. The utility they are of in this respect, he says, in some measure compensates for the damage they do to the husbandman. Against their depredations, St. Simon and St. Jude, and St. Bonifacio[53], have been by turns elected in due form to be the special guardians and protectors of all good Catholics.

Fortunately, however, in those regions where these insects most abound, an all-wise Providence has also placed a most remarkable animal--formed, as it would appear, expressly for the purpose of destroying them and preventing their overrunning the land--the tamandua, or, as we call it, the ant-bear.

I hardly know any animal which exhibits more striking evidence of design on the part of the Creator: slow and sluggish in all its movements, without power of escape, and apparently without the ordinary means of self-defence, its long trumpet-shaped snout solely formed to contain the singular prehensory organ with which it is furnished for the purpose of taking its diminutive prey, being entirely destitute of anything like the teeth of other animals; it would be speedily exterminated by the beasts of prey which abound where it is found, were it not--as if to compensate for these deficiencies--providentially supplied with strong sharp claws, and such courage and muscular power to use them, as enables it to defy every assailant. When attacked it throws itself upon its back, and in that posture will make so desperate a resistance, that it is a match either for the jaguar or tiger, its fiercest enemies.

The ants are not the worst plagues in these countries: destructive as they are, they are not to be compared with the locusts; though, happily (and indeed were it otherwise, all man's labour would be vain), they are only occasional visitors. When they do come they lay the land utterly desolate.

I once witnessed one of their visitations, and, but that I had myself seen the extent of the devastation caused by them, I certainly would not have believed it.

They made their appearance at first in a large dense cloud, hovering high in the air, as if hesitating where to descend. All the shovels and pots and pans in Buenos Ayres were put in requisition to make a clatter to affright them, but in vain; down they came, to the consternation of the owners of every quinta, or garden, in the neighbourhood of the city. They soon spread for several miles over the surface of the land, and so thickly that it was like driving over gravel to go amongst them;--that, I well remember was just my impression upon going out upon the high road in a carriage whilst they were on the ground. They had then been at their work of destruction two or three days, and were for the most part so gorged as to be quite incapable of moving; in a day or two more they had literally not left a blade of grass or a green leaf to be seen; some of those that were not then dying of satiety began to devour one another. This was early in the year 1826. Though they were always as thick as grasshoppers, I never saw at Buenos Ayres what was termed a flight of locusts but that once, in nearly nine years.

It was succeeded a few days afterwards by a flight of small black beetles, which came down like hail, and were swept up by shovels-full in our balconies: it was a small insect, about the size of an earwig, and was said to have the same habits; they worked their way into the house in great numbers, where they fell into a sort of torpid state, in which they became an easy prey to the ants, who upon this occasion were our active allies, and helped us to get rid of them.

THE OLD MISSIONS OF THE JESUITS.

To the eastward of Corrientes are the depopulated ruins, all that remain, of the once famed Missions of the Jesuits, the greater part of which were situated on the shores of the Paranã and Uruguay, where the courses of those rivers nearly meet.

When the order was expelled from South America in 1767, there were a hundred thousand inhabitants in the thirty towns in those parts under their control. In those situated east of the Paranã, not a thousand souls remained in 1825, according to an account I received from the officer who was in command there at that period, and they were I believe shortly afterwards swept off during the war with Brazil for the occupation of the Banda Oriental. The other towns beyond the Paranã, being within the jurisdiction of Paraguay, have fared little better under Dr. Francia.

This was that _Imperium in imperio_ which once excited the astonishment of the world and the jealousy of princes: how little cause they had to be alarmed by it was best proved by the whole fabric falling to pieces on the removal of a few poor old priests: a more inoffensive community never existed.

It was an experiment on a vast scale, originated in the purest spirit of Christianity, to domesticate and render useful hordes of savages who would otherwise, like the rest of the aborigines, have been miserably exterminated in war or slavery by the conquerors of the land. Its remarkable success excited envy and jealousy, and caused a thousand idle tales to be circulated as to the political views of the Jesuits in founding such establishments, which unfortunately gained too easy credence in a credulous age, and contributed, there is no doubt, to hasten the downfall of their order.

Their real crime, if crime it was, was the possession of that moral power and influence which was the natural consequence of their surpassing knowledge and wisdom in the times in which they lived.

With respect to their Missions in South America, nothing could be more inconsistent than the allegations made against them:--whilst accused, on the one hand, of aiming at the establishment of a powerful and independent supremacy, they were, on the other, at the same time, reproached with having systematically kept the Indians in a state of infantine tutelage.

What would have been the consequences of the opposite system? How long would the Spanish rule in those countries have lasted had the Jesuits trained up a hundred thousand of the proper owners of the soil in any practical knowledge of the rights of man? How long would the Jesuits themselves have preserved their influence with them?

The Indians loved the Jesuits, and looked to them as to their fathers, and great were their lamentations when they were taken from them, and replaced by the unprincipled Franciscan friars sent to them by Bucareli, the Captain General of Buenos Ayres:--the following memorials, addressed to him from the Missions of San Luis and Martires, will serve to throw some light on the true feelings of the people with regard to their old and new pastors.

I have given a copy of one of the originals in Guarani in the Appendix, as a specimen of a language, which, of all the native tongues, was, perhaps, the most diffused in South America, and which, to this day, may be traced from the Paranã to the Amazons:--

No. I.

_Translation of a Memorial addressed by the people of the Mission of San Luis to the Governor of Buenos Ayres, praying that the Jesuits may remain with them instead of the Friars sent to replace them._

(J. H. S.)

"God preserve your Excellency, say we, the Cabildo, and all the Caciques and Indians, men, women, and children, of San Luis, as your Excellency is our father. The Corregidor Santiago Pindo and Don Pantaleon Cayuari, in their love for us, have written to us for certain birds which they desire we will send them for the King:--we are very sorry not to have them to send, inasmuch as they live where God made them--in the forests,--and fly far away from us, so that we cannot catch them.

"Withal we are the vassals of God and of the King, and always desirous to fulfil the wishes of his ministers in what they desire of us. Have we not been three times as far as Colonia with our aid!--and do we not labour in order to pay tribute!--and now we pray to God that that best of birds--the Holy Ghost--may descend upon the King, and enlighten him, and may the Holy Angel preserve him!

"So, confiding in your Excellency, Señor Governor, our proper father, with all humility, and with tears, we beg that the Sons of St. Ignatius, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, may continue to live with us and remain always amongst us. This we beg your Excellency to supplicate of the King for us for the love of God:--all this people,--men, women, and young persons, and especially the poor,--pray for the same with tears in their eyes.

"As for the friars and priests sent to replace them, we love them not. The Apostle St. Thomas, the minister of God, so taught our forefathers in these same parts,--for these friars and priests have no care for us. The Sons of San Ignatius, yes,--they, from the very first, took care of our forefathers, and taught them, and baptized them, and preserved them for God and the King:--but for these friars and priests, in no manner do we wish for them.

"The Fathers of the Society of Jesus know how to bear with our weaknesses, and we were happy under them for God's sake and the King's:--if your Excellency, good Señor Governor, will listen to our prayer, and grant our request, we will pay larger tribute in the _yerba caa-mini_.[54]

"We are not slaves, and we desire to say that the Spanish custom is not to our liking,--for every one to take care of himself, instead of assisting one another in their daily labours.[55] This is the plain truth which we say to your Excellency, that it may be attended to:--if it is not, this people, like the rest, will be lost. This to your Excellency, to the King, and to God,--we shall go to the Devil!--and at the hour of our death where will be our help?

"Our children, who are in the country and in the towns, when they return and find not the Sons of San Ignatius, will flee away to the deserts and to the forests to do evil. Already it would seem that the people of San Joaquim, San Estanislaus, San Ferdinand, and Tymbo, are lost,--we know it well, and we say so to your Excellency:--neither can the Cabildos ever restore these people for God and the King as they were.

"So, good Governor, grant us what we ask,--and may God help and keep you. This is what we say in the name of the people of San Luis, this 28th of February, 1768.

"Your humble servants and children." (Signed by the members of the municipality.)

No. II.

_Complaint of the people of Martires of the conduct of the priests sent to them after the expulsion of the Jesuits._

(J. H. S.)

"To our most excellent Governor:--

"Blessed and praised be the holy sacrament! God our Lord grant you a long life and health on earth, and happiness hereafter in heaven. So we pray him,--we, the Corregidor, Cabildo, and Caciques of the people of the Holy Martyrs,--who, casting ourselves with all humility at your feet, give praises to God and to our King, and to you, Señor Governor, for having come by his command, as his deputy, amongst us.

"Holding you in the highest reverence, we make known to you that all this people are perfectly obedient to the orders of our Catholic King, trying to esteem and respect the spiritual pastors sent to us, in nothing failing in our duties towards them, with all due respect, as they are the ministers of God.

"But, although this is our behaviour, they are not satisfied with us:--for two or three days they were pleased with our humility, and no longer.

"It has happened that the Corregidor, wishing to execute the orders of the Governor, the Curate has said,--'This man wrongs you:--in what light do you look upon his authority compared with that of your priests? The King himself is only a superior governor, and shall be food for the worms, and nothing more:--I fear no one.' Saying so he ordered fifty stripes to be given to an Indian; and a poor woman he ordered to be tied to a post, and flogged. He goes about with a stick in his hand to beat us, and a few days past he punished an Indian with blows in the church itself, before all the people:--another he beat in the square, saying,--'If I kill him I shall do no great harm.'

"The Administrator alone sometimes protects us from these punishments, saying to him, with proper respect,--'Father, you have no business to interfere in temporal matters,'--and for this he is not well with him. This officer endeavours to observe the commands of God and of the King for the good of this people, and in nothing have we to complain of him. He helps us on all occasions, and much we stand in need of it, Señor Governor.

"But God and the King have appointed you for our comfort, and so we make known to you our difficulties. We are fearful lest the people should lose their obedience and respect for the King's orders, when they hear the priests call the mandates of the King, and of his Governor, words of no consequence:--and so for your guidance we tell you the truth, which God knows, and is testified to by all this people. Santos Martires, 16th April, 1768."

(Signed by the Cabildo, &c.)

Bucareli, on receipt of the first of these simple documents, sent it to Spain, with the ridiculous announcement that he considered it as the forerunner of a rising in favour of the Jesuits, and had, in consequence, ordered a chosen body of troops to proceed immediately from Paraguay and Corrientes to the neighbourhood of the Missions to be in readiness to put down the expected insurrection: thither too he proceeded himself to take the field in person against the rebels.

He found them not in arms but in tears:--the Jesuits, though he could not believe it, had brought up the Indians in obedience, and in the love of their King as well as of God,--and, having said their say, they resigned themselves submissively to the orders of their newly-appointed superiors,--giving thanks to the King for having sent a personage of such importance as Bucareli to take care of them. Bucareli met, in fact, with not the slightest opposition from the Indians, in substituting his own system of administration for that of the Jesuits, which he had been amongst the foremost to find fault with.

The efficacy of his own measures may be judged by their result:--he sent them civil governors, and appointed Franciscan friars for their spiritual pastors:--the misrule of the first, and the little respect inspired by the latter, compared with the uniformly exemplary lives of their predecessors, brought about in little more than a quarter of a century, the entire ruin and depopulation of these once happy and prosperous communities. The Indians, as they themselves predicted in their letter to him, when there was no longer sufficient wisdom in their governors to prevent it, were lost both to God and the King.

In saying this I do not pretend to dispute that the institutions of the Jesuits were not, in many points, defective, like all others of man's creation; they were, however, framed under very remarkable and novel circumstances, for which great allowances must be made in any comparison of them with the social systems of Europe; if we look at the good they did, rather than for the evil which they did not, we shall find that, in the course of about a century and a half, upwards of a million of Indians were made Christians by them, and taught to be happy and contented under the mild and peaceful rule of their enlightened and admirable pastors,--a blessed lot compared with the savage condition of the unreclaimed tribes around them.

PARAGUAY,

strictly speaking, has no place in this book, being, as it is for the present, a distinct and separate Republic; but, like the Missions, it is impossible to pass so near it without some allusion to its former prosperity, and to its present very singular condition under the despotic rule of Dr. Francia.

It was in Paraguay that the first conquerors of the country fixed their abode and the seat of their government:--it was there also, attracted by the same inducements of a genial clime and a profusion of natural productions to satisfy all man's wants, that the Jesuit fathers laid the original foundations of their celebrated establishments just spoken of. Its population, before it ceased to be a province subject to the government of Buenos Ayres, was estimated at 200,000 souls, and the yearly value of its surplus produce, exported for consumption to Buenos Ayres and the interior provinces, fell little short of a million and a half of dollars. Eight millions of pounds of Paraguay tea were annually sent to Santa Fé and Buenos Ayres, besides a million of pounds of tobacco, large quantities of timber for every purpose, cotton, sugar, molasses, spirits, and a variety of other articles.

The yerba-maté, or tea, which forms the principal article in the list, is as much in general use and demand throughout all the provinces of La Plata, Chile, and many parts of Peru, as the teas of China are in Europe. The plant which produces it (the _Ilex Paraguayensis_) is an evergreen about the size of an orange-tree, which grows wild and in great abundance in the dense forests in the northern and eastern parts of the province, whither the people repair yearly in numerous gangs to collect it. The difficulties of penetrating the woods to reach the yerbales, as they are called, are considerable, but they are amply repaid by the certain profits of the adventure. The whole process of preparing and packing it for market is performed on the spot. The tender branches and twigs, being selected, are roasted quickly over a fire till the leaves are crisp; and then, after being partially crushed or pounded, are rammed into hide bags, called serrons, containing 200 lbs. each, which, when sown up, are ready for sale.

The Jesuits cultivated the plant, of which there are three species, in their Missions; and by attention produced a better quality of tea, called _caa-mini_, than that from the wild plant collected in the woods.

From the practice of reducing the leaf nearly to dust probably originated the general custom in South America of sucking the infusion when made through a tube, at one end of which is a strainer, which prevents the small particles of the tea-leaves from getting into the mouth: it is usually made very strong, very hot, and very sweet with sugar; its properties seem to be much the same as those of the China tea. The Spaniards learned to use it from the Guarani Indians.

When the Viceroy's power was overthrown in 1810, the province of Paraguay refused to acknowledge the central government set up at Buenos Ayres to succeed him, and an army was in consequence sent to reduce it to obedience; but the Paraguay troops defeated the Buenos Ayrean general, Belgrano, who was glad to capitulate, and be permitted to return whence he came. Emboldened by this success, which gave them an idea of their own consequence beyond any they had before entertained, they proceeded at once to assert their absolute independence, not only of Buenos Ayres, but of the mother country, and to declare Paraguay a free and sovereign state, a step beyond any at that time contemplated, perhaps even by the rulers of Buenos Ayres themselves, who, though self-elected, continued to act in the King's name up to 1816, the date of their declaration of independence at Tucuman.

This proclamation of the independence of Paraguay was followed in the first instance by the setting up of a triumvirate government, of which Francia was the secretary, and soon became the secret mover of the whole machine. A sort of Mephistopheles, he was not long ere he set the members of the government by the ears, and by his intrigues brought about their resignation.

Then came the convocation of a general assembly of deputies from all the towns and villages of the province, to consider what was to be done under the circumstances. By these poor ignorant people thus dragged from their homes, Francia, a person in authority, a lawyer, or learned man,--for the terms are synonymous in the language of Paraguay,--living like an ascetic, and affecting a sort of cabalistical knowledge, was looked upon with a kind of reverential awe, as a person of wonderful acquirements and sagacity, whose opinions were eagerly sought to guide them in the weighty matters they were called upon to discuss, whilst on his own part he was not behindhand in maturing his plans and securing his influence.

When the Congress met he laid before it the following project for a government, which, as he anticipated, was regarded as the _ne plus ultra_ of wisdom, and was adopted by acclamation (_por acclamacion_). I give the document entire, not only because it has never before appeared in English, but as the best evidence of the low cunning of the projector, and of the extreme simplicity and subserviency of those who adopted it, believing all the time that they were a free and independent people.

_Plan for a Constitution proposed by Dr. Francia to the General Congress of Paraguay, and adopted by acclamation._

"ARTICLE I.--The two citizens Don Fulencio Yegros and Don José Gaspar de Francia shall alone constitute the government, with the title of 'Consuls of the Republic of Paraguay.' They shall have the rank and honours of Brigadier-Generals, and their commissions as such shall be signed by the President of this Congress.

"Art. II.--They shall wear, as the insignia of their Consular dignity, a hat bound with blue, and the tri-coloured scarf of the Republic. They shall have the like and equal jurisdiction and authority, which they shall exercise uniformly and conjointly. In consequence, all acts of the Government shall be signed by both.

"Art. III.--Their first duty shall be the preservation, security, and defence of the Republic, with all the vigilance, judgment, and activity required under existing circumstances.

"Art. IV.--There shall henceforward be no Presidency.

"Art. V.--All the forces of the Province shall be under the joint command in chief of the two Consuls.

"Art. VI.--Nevertheless, all the active and effective troops of every grade, as well as all the arms and ammunition, shall be equally divided, and placed at the disposal, half and half, of each Consul, and each shall have his own separate barracks and magazines under his own command.

"Art. VII.--There shall be two battalions of infantry, each to consist of three or four companies for the present, or of more if necessary; so that each Consul shall have his separate battalion, of which he shall be the chief and commandant exclusively: he shall also have the command of one of the two companies of artillery; Consul Yegros shall command the first, and Consul Francia the second; the latter shall form his own battalion, towards which he shall be at liberty to take the fifth part of that commanded by Consul Yegros.

"Art. VIII.--The officers and men of these corps shall be approved of by their respective Chiefs, the said Consuls; but all officers' commissions shall be signed by both jointly, though they may be proposed by their own commanders respectively: in like manner, if it should be necessary to try them for any offence, it shall be before the two Consuls jointly.

"Art. IX.--The Consuls shall preside over the tribunals in turn for four months at a time each, with the title of 'Consul in Turn,' and not 'Consul Presiding,' lest that designation should give rise to mistakes. Consul Francia shall take the first turn, and in all cases, when the turn comes round, a notice of it, signed by both, shall be inserted in a book, and sent to the Cabildo of the city for their information.

"Art. X.--A chamber shall be set apart in the Government House for the Tribunal of the Consuls: it shall be open during the hours of office, and its forms shall be regulated by the Consul in Turn for the time being.

"Art. XI.--The Secretary shall take cognisance of such cases on which doubts may arise, and which are not hereby provided for.

"Art. XII.--It is left to the will and prudence of the two Consuls to regulate by common accord all that may be requisite for the due despatch of the business of the State, in all its branches; as well as to appoint one or, if necessary, two secretaries; also to create a superior tribunal of appeal, to determine, according to law, as a Court of Last Resort, such cases as it may be necessary to refer to it.

"Art XIII.--If either of the two Consuls should die or resign, the other shall proceed within a month to call together the General Congress of the Province, which shall consist of _one thousand Deputies_, chosen, like the present, by popular election; and it shall be a fundamental, general, perpetual, and invariable law and rule, that henceforward such General Congress of the Province shall assemble every year, convoked in the same manner, and to consist of the aforesaid number of one thousand representatives; and the day for their meeting shall always be on the 15th of October: and the necessary convocation and summonses shall be issued in consequence by the middle of every month of September, in order that the Province may duly, and at least once a year, meet as a free and sovereign people, to deliberate on what may be most conducive to the general good, to improve, if necessary, its government, to provide remedies for abuses, and to take all such measures as may be suggested by the wisdom of experience.

"Art. XIV.--These rules shall be observed until altered by any future Congress, and shall be copied into the Book of the Resolutions of Government.

"Art. XV.--The Consuls shall immediately appear before the present Sovereign Congress to swear to observe faithfully, and to cause to be observed, these rules and regulations. The same oath shall be also forthwith administered by their order to all the officers of the troops, and by the officers to the soldiers, whereof a proper record shall be inserted in the archives of the Congress; and whoever shall refuse to take the said oath shall be dismissed the service, and punished as though he had broken it.

"Art. XVI.--The Province adopts the forms, as well as the number of Representatives assembled in the actual Congress, and the Government shall make no change in either one or the other.

"_Done and Signed at Assumption, the 12th October, 1813._"

Francia, having thus obtained one-half the power he aimed at, was not long ere he secured the other. When the thousand deputies met, in virtue of the 13th article of the Constitution, it was intimated to them that the substitution of one Governor for a pair of Consuls would be a great improvement; and Don Gaspar was, as a matter of course, elected sole Dictator, of the Republic of Paraguay.

His nomination in the first instance was for three years; at the expiration of which time he took care to have his power confirmed for life. The Deputies who passed this act, in their simplicity, returned to their homes exulting in an arrangement whereby they were saved all further trouble, whilst the tyrant they had set up commenced a reign which, for systematic selfishness, cruelty, and unrestrained despotism, is almost unparalleled in the history of any country.

His first object, as may be supposed, was to put down all opposition; and this he did by imprisoning, banishing, or putting to death every individual of wealth or influence who could in any way interfere with him in the exercise of his despotic sway:--his spies were in every house, the most trivial expression of dissatisfaction was construed into treason, and ere long no man dared to speak to his neighbour for fear of being denounced: thus he silenced by terror all opposition from within; and, lest any should be attempted from without, he proceeded to restrict the communication with the adjoining provinces, and at last to establish a system of non-intercourse which for nearly twenty years he has rigorously enforced, and will doubtless continue to do so as long as he lives. The only trade, if trade it can be called, which of late years has been carried on, has been upon his own account, and such as has been necessary to further his own policy of habituating the lower classes to look to him, and to him only, for the supply of all their wants. His mode of managing this business is as singular as all the rest of his proceedings. When he wants an assortment of foreign goods, a permit is sent over to the adjoining province of Corrientes for a vessel to proceed to the opposite port of Nembucú; on her arrival there, the invoice of the cargo is immediately forwarded to him at Assumption, from which, after selecting such articles as he requires, he orders a quantity of yerba-maté to be put on board in payment. There is no appeal from his own valuation: no one is allowed to go on shore, and the ship is sent back as soon as the yerba is delivered:--the article itself is in such demand, from his having stopped the trade in it, that the people of Corrientes are glad to get it upon his own terms. He is the owner of several shops or stores, in Assumption, from which the goods are afterwards retailed, by his permission, to those who may stand in need of them.

In the same manner for a short period he allowed a peddling traffic to be carried on between the Brazilian Missions beyond the river Uruguay and the port of Ytapua, opposite to Candelaria, but that he altogether stopped about ten years ago.

His revenue chiefly arises from properties confiscated by his own arbitrary judgments, and from tithes in kind upon all articles of produce, the right to levy which is yearly sold by the government to the best bidder in each department; the contractors generally underlet them to others, and they are in consequence rigorously exacted.[56] The principal expenditure is in the maintenance of a large militia force, in which every person capable of bearing arms is enrolled and called upon to do duty in turn. Francia is of course commander-in-chief of the army, as he is the head of the church, the law, and every other branch of the administration.

When I arrived in the River Plate, in 1824, I found that many British subjects had been for several years detained in Paraguay by this monster against their will; and it became my duty in consequence to make a representation to him upon the subject, and to apply for their liberation. This I was fortunate enough to obtain, together with the release of many other Europeans, whom, that it should not appear that he was granting any special favour to the English, he allowed at the same time to depart; amongst the rest Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, two Swiss gentlemen, who have since published a highly-interesting account of their detention, and of the state of the country.[57]

He made, however, an exception of M. Bompland, the well-known companion of Baron Humboldt, whom he had some years before caused to be seized and carried off by an armed force, sent across the Paranã for the purpose, whilst engaged in his own inoffensive pursuits in the province of Corrientes. As there was no accredited French agent at Buenos Ayres at the time, I took upon myself to make another application to Francia, specially in favour of an individual in whose fate I could justly say that all the scientific world was interested; and I further offered to guarantee the fulfilment of any promise M. Bompland might himself choose to make, in case of his liberation, to return at once to Europe. I wrote in the same sense to M. Bompland, and enclosed my letter, open, to the Dictator, to forward to its destination if he approved of it. But, instead of doing so, he returned it to me, with a rude intimation that that must close our correspondence.[58]

I believe he was disappointed at finding that I could not concur with him in his notion of opening a direct trade between Great Britain and Paraguay, on which it appeared he had long set his heart, the rather as he expected thereby to be able to show to his own subjects his independence of his neighbours, and especially of the Buenos Ayreans.

That so extraordinary a state of things should so long have existed is I believe entirely to be ascribed to the miserable weakness of the adjoining provinces, which, had they been able to make the slightest combined effort, might long ago have put an end to the tyrannical rule of this crazy old despot. Nature will probably do this ere long, when it may be expected that Paraguay will once more join the confederation of her sister provinces.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] The same saints are invoked to keep down the rats--another plague of these countries--attracted, no doubt, by the smell of beef everywhere, as they are in the _abattoirs_ of Paris. The eleven thousand Virgins were the guardian angels against the locusts.

[54] The best sort of tea, in which the Indians paid their annual tribute to the Crown.

[55] The Indians, under the system of the Jesuits, had been accustomed to work _in community_ for a common stock, out of which all the wants of every individual were regularly and adequately provided for.

[56] A commutation of these tithes for a fixed revenue was agreed upon between the church and the municipal government of Assumption at an early period of the Spanish rule in that country.

[57] The Reign of Don Gaspar de Francia in Paraguay, being an account of a six years' residence in that Republic, by Messrs. Rengger and Longchamps, translated, 1827.

[58] M. Bompland has since obtained his liberty, after a detention of nine years.