CHAPTER XVI.

_PARAGUAY; EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM BUENOS AYRES AND PARAGUAY._

1649-1805.

From the date of the removal of Bishop Cárdenas as governor of _Paraguay_ [1648], that province had enjoyed freedom from internal dissensions; until, in 1717, _Don_ Diego Balmaceda was named governor by the Viceroy of _Peru_. His nomination was unpopular, and, after two years, serious charges were preferred against him before the Audience of _Charcas_, which that body were occupied during the three succeeding years in investigating. Meanwhile _Don_ Jose de Antiquera had obtained the provisional succession to the post of governor; and he hastened to _Paraguay_ to assume power. Balmaceda was, however, reinstated in authority, and he ordered the usurper to resign his pretensions. But meanwhile Antiquera had organized a considerable force, and he refused to submit to the orders of the Viceroy, and sent a party to _Corrientes_, who brought Balmaceda a prisoner to _Asuncion_.

On learning this rebellion against the Crown, the Viceroy sent instructions to the military commander of _La Plata_ to dispossess Antiquera of his authority, and to reinstate Balmaceda. On reaching the river _Tebicuari_, General Garcia de Ros found Antiquera too strong to be opposed. On his retiring, Antiquera, with a view to conciliating Zavala, the governor of _Buenos Ayres_, sent six hundred troops to assist him in the defence of _Monte Video_ against the Portuguese. This manœuvre, however, did not avail him, and Ros was sent a second time to assert the royal authority, with two hundred Spanish troops, backed by the forces of the Jesuit missions. The Jesuits had been expelled by Antiquera from _Asuncion_. On reaching the _Tebicuari_, Ros was encountered by Antiquera, with a force of three thousand men, and, being defeated, was compelled to return to _Buenos Ayres_.

[Sidenote: 1724.]

The rebellion had now assumed such proportions that it could no longer be trifled with, and Zavala received peremptory orders from the Viceroy to hasten to _Paraguay_ in person, and to send Antiquera to _Lima_ for trial. The latter, now aware of his desperate situation, prepared to defend himself. His followers, however, began to desert him, and in March 1725 he fled from _Paraguay_, and took refuge in a convent at _Cordova_. Thence he proceeded to _Bolivia_, intending to throw himself on the protection of the Audience of _Charcas_. But he was looked upon as a public enemy, and was arrested at _Chaquisaca_, and sent to be tried at _Lima_. He was brought before the Audience, but, although his guilt was patent from the first, it was not until the trial had lasted for several years that he was condemned to be executed. The 5th of July 1731 was the day fixed for his execution. By this time the public feeling had completely veered round in his favour, and, as it was feared a rescue would be attempted, the Viceroy gave orders to fire upon the prisoner. The order was answered by a volley of musketry, and the condemned man and two friars near him fell dead from their horses.

After the flight of Antiquera from _Paraguay_, the Jesuits had been permitted to return to _Asuncion_. They were met at the distance of twelve miles from the capital by a procession headed by the governor, the bishop, and the chief civil and military functionaries. But the return of the Jesuits was displeasing to many, more especially to those who had been the partisans of Antiquera. When the governor resigned, the people claimed the right of choosing his successor--a right which in certain emergencies had been granted them by Charles V. When the news of Antiquera’s execution reached _Asuncion_, the indignation of the people manifested itself by their falling on the Jesuits, and expelling them from the city.

[Sidenote: 1733.]

There were now two declared parties in _Paraguay_. That which was against longer submission to royal authority took the name of _Comuneros_; whilst those who were for the King were called _Contrabandistas_. On the resignation of Governor Barua, the _Comuneros_ improvised a government composed of a _junta_, with a president as the executive head. A hostile collision was now to be feared between the dominant party at _Asuncion_ and the nearest Jesuit “Reductions.” It was averted by the arrival of a new governor, _Don_ Manoel de Ruiloba. Reaching the missions, he sent forward overtures to the insurgents, which so far satisfied them that he was permitted to take possession of the government. One of his first acts was to attempt to disband the _Comuneros_; but this was vehemently resisted; and he found himself in open opposition to the most numerous party in the state. The rebels defied him, and civil war was commenced. In the first action the governor fell.

The Bishop of _Buenos Ayres_, who happened to be at that time at _Asuncion_, was now elected governor; but he was a mere instrument in the hands of the _junta_, and was compelled to sign sweeping acts of confiscation against the Jesuits and the Royalists. Realizing his false position, he thought fit to embark for _Buenos Ayres_ to resume his episcopal duties. The rebels in _Paraguay_ had again to deal with Zavala, who had recently been appointed President of the Audience of _Charcas_, and who now blockaded _Paraguay_ on all sides. Taking with him six thousand trained troops from the missions, he advanced to the _Tebicuri_, and, meeting with no opposition, proceeded to _Asuncion_, where he was received with acclamations.

As Zavala’s rapid success had been gained by means of the Jesuits’ troops, it was but natural that the Fathers should follow in their wake. They were now more powerful and arrogant than ever, and it became pretty clear that it was their intention to reduce _Asuncion_ and all _Paraguay_ to the same state of blind obedience to their sway in which they held their missions. To contend against them so long as they retained the ear of the King was hopeless; and the Spanish colonists now undertook to enlighten their sovereign by exposing the false pretensions of the Fathers. The Jesuits were accused of a design of founding an empire, and they were shown to have created in South America a more absolute despotism than Europe had ever known.

The reign of the Jesuits, however, was then drawing to its close. Their expulsion from the Portuguese dominions has already been recorded, and it was not long before the Jesuits of Spain shared the fate which had befallen their brethren of Portugal and of France. We have here to review the circumstances of their expulsion from South America. Zeballas had been recalled from his high post on account of his sympathies with the devoted order.

[Sidenote: 1767.]

However strong may have been the reasons for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, their suppression in South America, although it may have been a necessary sequence of the first measure, had certainly an air of gross ingratitude, and seemed likely considerably to diminish the Spanish power in its colonies. The Jesuits had been the means of greatly extending the Spanish territories in the interior, and had thereby prevented the Portuguese from securing to themselves a still larger portion of the centre of the continent. They had raised many thousands of native troops who had often done good service in _Paraguay_, and who had fought successfully against the Portuguese both on the _Guaypore_ and at _Colonia_. They had likewise delivered the Spaniards of _La Plata_, _Paraguay_, and _Tucuman_ from their formidable native enemies, whom they had been able to conciliate. The very latest Spanish successes in _Rio Grande_ had been due in a great measure to their assistance.

But the expulsion of the Jesuits from their headquarters of _Paraguay_ had been included in the plan of the King of Spain and his counsellors, and four days after the issue of the royal decree banishing the order from the mother country, a ship of war was despatched to the _Plata_, with orders to the Viceroy to take immediate measures for the simultaneous seizure of all the Jesuits within his jurisdiction. The Viceroy, Bucareli, who received his orders on the 7th of June 1767, lost no time in carrying them into execution. Without delay he despatched sealed instructions to the governors and local authorities within his Viceroyalty, which were not to be opened until the 21st of July. On the following day all Jesuits were to be seized in the name of the King and sent to _Buenos Ayres_.

It may here be of interest to give a short account of the condition in which the royal order found the “Reductions.” They were now beginning to recover from the evils which had fallen upon them owing to the Treaty of Limits. But on account of that blind measure, together with illness and a subsequent war, their numbers were now reduced from one hundred and forty-four thousand to one hundred thousand. The Fathers possessed large estates and many negro slaves, who are said to have been treated with every consideration. Whatever civilization penetrated into the interior of the country was through the Jesuits. For example, one Father Schmid instructed the _Chiquitos_ not only in the common arts of life, but in working metals and making clocks. It is said that the _Moxo_ and _Paure_ missions displayed more civilization than did the important Spanish city of _Santa Cruz de la Sierra_; whilst to the Jesuits _Cordova_ owes its press. The Jesuits of the _Guaranís_ printed books in one of the “Reductions” before there was any printing press either in _Cordova_ or in _Buenos Ayres_.

The news of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain became public in _Buenos Ayres_ on the 3rd of July, being eighteen days before the time fixed upon for their arrest. Orders were therefore sent to the provinces to anticipate this measure; whilst the Fathers in the college at _Buenos_ were made prisoners on the same night. Those nearest to that city soon shared the same fate; and in the following month the college at _Cordova_ was likewise taken possession of, and its inmates sent to the capital, whilst their invaluable library was destroyed. Nowhere did the Viceroy’s troops meet with any resistance; and the captured Jesuits were transmitted to Spain in groups of some forty individuals, being thence sent on to the Papal States.

The Fathers of the Paraguayan missions, however, had still to be dealt with. Their first move was to cause an address to be signed by their _Guaraní_ foremen, and to present it to the governor, praying that the Jesuits might continue to live with them. That this petition came from the Jesuits themselves, and not from the Indians, was apparent. Bucareli, accordingly, taking it as an indication that they did not mean to surrender without a struggle, took energetic measures to compel them to submit. Occupying the pass of _Tebicuari_, and sending a force to _S. Miguel_, he ascended the _Uruguay_ at the head of a further force. By way of proving the worthlessness of the _Guaraní_ petition on behalf of the Jesuits, he caused another document to be prepared and signed by the Indian judges and _caciques_ of some thirty towns, expressing thankfulness to the King for having relieved them from their former arduous life. Whatever else these respective petitions may show, they certainly prove how thoroughly the _Guaranís_ had learnt the lesson of implicit obedience to whatsoever instructions they might receive, irrespective of their convictions, if they had sufficient individuality left to possess any.

But by this time it was evident that resistance was hopeless. Many of the missions had fallen into the hands of the governor, and the Fathers did not venture to bring their disciples into the field. They were sent to _Buenos Ayres_, and shared the fate of their brethren who had preceded them. There was indeed no discretion left to the authorities in executing the measures for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions. One of the most able and conscientious of the number, the aged Father Chomé, being confined to his bed by illness, was carried from the _Chiquito_ missions in a hammock to _Oruro_, where he died from the effects of the journey. Another missionary, Father Mesner, an old and infirm man, who had laboured for thirty years in the _Chiquito_ “Reductions,” was sent on a journey of four hundred and fifty miles to _Santa Cruz_. After remaining there for five months, until the season for crossing the _Andes_ had come, he was placed upon a mule, whilst riding upon which he died. It is right to add that the Spanish Minister, on learning these facts and others of a similar nature, indignantly reproved the South-American authorities for their inhumanity. In all one hundred and fifty-five Jesuits were expelled from _La Plata_, _Tucuman_, and _Paraguay_.

The suffering in the “Reductions” did not fall alone or chiefly on the Jesuits. Their system of government had been so absolute, and their disciples had been reduced to such a condition of being merely thoughtless animals or machines, that, when the guidance of the Fathers was withdrawn, the whole system established by them suddenly and absolutely collapsed. No plan of government suitable to the altered condition of affairs was devised by the Spanish authorities. Priests of the mendicant orders replaced the missionaries, but without their temporal authority. The missions were formed provisionally into two governments, and an administrator was appointed to superintend each “Reduction,” with which last measure the prosperity of these communities ceased. The administrators, ignorant of the _Guaraní_ tongue, made their commands obeyed by the lash; and before a year had elapsed the Viceroy had the mortification to learn that the _Guaranís_, in order to escape from the intolerable oppression of their new masters, were making their escape in numbers to seek the protection of their old enemies, the Portuguese.

On learning this unexpected occurrence, Bucareli displaced the administrators and appointed others in their stead, but with no better result as regarded the _Guaranís_. As the governor and the priests disputed regarding their respective powers, the Viceroy decreed that the former was to reside at _Candelaria_, where he was to be assisted by a staff of administrators, under whom the _Guaranís_ were to labour as of old for the benefit of the community. The end was that cruel and compulsory work made the Indians miserable or drove them into the woods. The arts introduced by the Jesuits were neglected; their gardens and fields lay uncultivated, and their once flourishing villages, which had contained the evidences of a civilization of a century and a half, were almost deserted.

[Sidenote: 1803.]

From the date of the rebellion of the _Comuneros_ in 1735 until the close of last century, _Paraguay_ enjoyed uninterrupted peace and quiet. In the year 1796, Ribera Espinosa was appointed governor, who, by the aid of his agents, constituted himself a general exporter, monopolizing the whole trade of the country; so that the producers realized for their goods about a tenth of what these were worth in the markets of _Buenos Ayres_. This state of things naturally produced such grave complaints against Ribera’s government as to provoke the intervention of the Crown. He was recalled, and was replaced by a man of a very different character, _Don_ Bernardo Velasco, who was destined to be the last Spanish governor of _Paraguay_.

In the year 1803 the King of Spain issued a decree constituting the country lying between the _Paraná_ and the _Uruguay_, which included all the missions, a separate province, which was called _Misiones_, of which Velasco was appointed governor. In 1805, the same officer was appointed governor of _Paraguay_, another of the same name being instructed by him as his lieutenant in _Misiones_.