The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE RIEAGUAY MISSIONS. 309
The Paraguay Missions.
In the reduction of the Paraguay and Chaco Indians the chief instruments
had been the Jesuits, who devoted themselves to this work for two centuries, in
the face of tremendous obstacles, which at last became insurmountable. Of these
difficulties the most formidable were not hunger, thirst, famine, epidemics, or
the savage aborigines, but their own kindred, the white settlers, soldiers, civilians,
rival religious and secular missionaries. They aimed at constituting theocratic
communities amongst the aborigines, who were regarded by the white adventurers
as mere game and legitimate prey, although to be sure. Pope Paul III. had, in
1537, officially declared that the Indians were " real human beings, capable of
understanding the Catholic faith and of receiving the sacraments."
Nevertheless, in most of the churches they were denied the communion on
the ground of inherent stupidity, ignorance and depravity. The kidnappers
organised themselves in bands to capture whole tribes, killing the aged and
infirm, and driving the able-bodied men before them at the point of the lance
like droves of cattle. Hence the Jesuits who grouped the natives in orderly
communities, were regarded as usurpers of the pubHc property, and every effort
was made to deprive them of this human live-stock. They were also detested as
"aliens," a charge to which their very organisation exposed them, for their
country was the Catholic, that is, the " Universal " church. Whatever their
accidental nationality, whether Spaniards or Portuguese, French or Italians,
Germans or Slavs, thej' recognised none of the political divisions introduced into
the Xew World ; and to them it mattered little whether their Indian congrega-
tions were regarded as belonging to the " ilost Christian King," or to " His
Most Faithful Majesty."
In many local insurrections they had also to suffer from the jealousy of other
religious orders, Dominicans, Franciscans, Merceiiarios or " Brothers of Mercy,"
and in the towns they were expelled from their churches, while their congrega-
tions were reduced to servitude. Then, after succeeding, in the teeth of these
persecutions, in founding their theocracy, their neophytes were reported to have
brought them great quantities of gold, and a yell of hatred was raised on all
sides against them. But the Jesuits had amassed no gold, and although thej'
possessed substantial wealth in their plantations and live-stock, it had no value
unless maintained b}' continuous labour.
After their arrival at Bahia in 1549 their missions were gradually spread
southwards to Porto Seguro, to Piratininga and S. Paulo. But the great field
of their operations lay farther inland, along both banks of the Upper Parana,
about the presumed frontiers of the Spanish and Portuguese domains. In this
secluded region they succeeded in civUising over 100,000 natives ; but the kid-
nappers were still on their track, and in the three years, from 1628 to 1631, the
Paulistas, themselves nearly all Indians on the mother's side, were reported to
have captured 60,000 within the territory of the missions. Then the directors
of the Guavra reductions saw that they would have to migrate still to the west, in