The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

H15T0EY OF PARAGUAY. 293
8 ill hope to mould at pleasure the docile savages of South America, and in the
seclusion of that region, far from the jealous gaze of a perverted society, consti-
tute a new world obedient to the disciplinary laws introduced by them. The
scheme embraced the whole continent. Stationed at first in their college of S.
Paulo on the edge of the Brazilian plateau, and constantly recruited by zealous
missionaries drawn from all Christendom, they gradually subdued the vast inland
regions as far as the foot of the Andes and the entrance to the Amazonian
plains.
Historic Retrospect.
But the Jesuits had not arrived alone in these new lands, and they soon found
their work hampered by the presence of restless and unsympathetic white neigh-
bours. The Portuguese adventurers, the first to arrive, aspired to other things
besides creating model empires, and thought of little except enriching themselves
bv the capture of slaves and the quest of gold. Hence endless conflicts with the
" Fathers," who were gradually pressed back to that part of the continent of which
the
CO-
Paraguayan republic now occupies the centre. Here they at last found the
material suitable for their purpose, meek and pious neophytes, whose daily existence
mio-ht be re