Book: A Vanished Arcadia,

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Father Diaz Tano, one of the best and hardest-working missionaries
who ever entered Paraguay, besought the Governor to satisfy himself
and search their territory for gold and silver, and requested him
to call upon the Bishop for confirmation of the statements he had made.
This he did, and then, accompanied by his soldiers, began his search.
He gave out that the first man to find a mine should be
at once promoted to be captain and have a large reward.
After several days' march, and having found no mines,
letters were brought him from the Governor of Paraguay and from the Bishop.
The first informed him that he had heard rumours of mines,
but nothing certain. The second declined to specify the mines,
which thus were destined to remain for ever, so to speak, `in partibus'.
But he gave advice, and good advice is better than any mine,
whether of silver or of gold. He told the Governor to start
by turning out the Jesuits, and he would find the profits of their expulsion
just as valuable as mines.

Whether this also made the Governor pensive I do not know,
but, luckily, the Jesuits, who were concerned in exposing the imposture,
had come on Buenaventura, and brought him ironed to the Governor.
He, after having tried to make him confess his imposture without success,
condemned him to be hung. The Jesuits, with their accustomed humanity
(or ingenuity), begged for his life. This was accorded to them,
and once again Buenaventura received a good sound whipping for his pains.

Thus ended the journey of Don Jacinto, without profit to himself,
except so far as the experience gained. No doubt he saw and marked
the Jesuit towns, the churches built of massive timber or of stone,
and the contented air of Indians and priests, which always struck
all travellers in those times. He saw the countless herds of cattle,
the cultivated fields; enjoyed, no doubt for the first time since arriving
in South America, the sense of perfect safety, at that time to be experienced
alone in Misiones. But in despite of his exposure of the imposture,
the rumour as to the existence of the mines never died out,
and lingers even to-day, in spite of geological research in Paraguay.

Whilst this was going on in Misiones, in the remote and recently-converted
district of the Itatines, in the north of Paraguay, the example
set by the Bishop had borne its fruit. The Indians became unmanageable.
One of the chiefs broke into open rebellion, and wounded a Jesuit father
called Arenas at the very altar-steps. Soon the general corruption of manners
became almost universal throughout the district. This, I fancy,
must be taken to mean that the Indians reverted to polygamy,
for the Jesuits always had trouble in this matter, being unable
to persuade the Indians of the advantage of monogamy.

But most fortuitously, just as the general corruption
gained all hearts, a tiger rushed into the town, and, after killing
fourteen people and some horses, disappeared again into the woods.

The Jesuits, ever ready to take advantage of events like these,
called on the Indians to see in the visitation of the tiger
the wrath of Heaven, and to leave their wicked ways.

The Indians, always as willing to submit as to revolt, submitted,
and the good fathers `prirent le parti de faire un coup d'autorite/,
qui leur re/ussit,' as Charlevoix relates.

They decoyed the chief, his nephew, and son, into another district,
where they seized and shipped them off two hundred leagues
to a remote reduction across the Uruguay. The Spaniards used to say
of Ferdinand VII., when he had committed any great barbarity,
`He is quite a King' (`Es mucho Rey'), and the Indians of the Itatines
esteemed the Jesuits for their `coup d'autorite' in the same manner
as the Spaniards their King.

His usual luck attended Cardenas in his exile in Corrientes. This town formed
part of the diocese of Buenos Ayres, which happened to be vacant at the time.
He therefore took upon himself to act just as he had acted in Paraguay --
appointed officers of justice, held ordinations, and instituted a campaign
against the Jesuits of the town.

Whilst he was thus occupied in his favourite pastime of usurping
other people's functions, two citations were sent him
to appear before the High Court of Charcas. He disregarded them,
and sent a statement of his case by the hands of his nephew
to the Bishop of Tucuman. In the letter he set forth all his complaints
against the Governor of Paraguay, calling him a violator of the Church,
a heretic, and generally applying to him all those terms
in which a thwarted churchman usually exhales his rage.
Mixed up with this was a detailed accusation of the Jesuits,
to whose account he laid all his misfortunes whilst in Paraguay.
Lastly, he called upon the Bishop of Tucuman to summon a provincial council
to condemn the monstrous heresies which he attributed to the Jesuits,
reminding him that the Council of Trent had recommended
the holding of frequent provincial councils, and stating his opinion that,
unless a council were called at once, the Bishop would incur a mortal sin.

The answer Cardenas received from Tucuman was most ironically couched
in the best style that his long-suffering friend was able to command.
After addressing Cardenas as `your illustrious lordship',
he proceeded to demolish all his statements in such a manner as to argue
that he had had much practice with refractory priests in his own diocese.
He told him that the Jesuits were the only Order in Paraguay
that really worked amongst the Indians. He reminded him
that from that Order the `second Paul', i.e., St. Francis Xavier,
had himself issued. He asked him whether, as a churchman,
he thought the yearly sum of twelve thousand crowns given by the King
out of the treasury of Buenos Ayres towards the Jesuits' work
was better saved, or that the thousands of Indians whom
the Jesuits had converted should be lost to God. And as to heresy,
he said he was no judge, leaving such matters to the Pope;
but that no one accused the Jesuits of corruption in their morals,
or of any of the greater crimes to which the great fragility of human nature
renders us liable. He reminded him the Jesuits had made no accusation
on their part, but always spoke of him with moderation and respect.
And as to a provincial council, he said that it was impossible,
for the following good cause: The Bishop of Misque* was too infirm to travel;
the Bishop of La Paz was lately dead, and the see still vacant;
the Bishop of Buenos Ayres only just arrived, and too much occupied
to leave his diocese. Therefore, the only Bishops available
were himself and Cardenas, and that they never would agree.

--
* Misque is at least fifteen hundred miles from Tucuman.
--

`Moreover,' he remarked, `what is it that your illustrious lordship
wishes me to do?

`To advise a Bishop?

`God has only given me the charge of my own sheep. Your lordship knows
as well as I do how a Bishop should comport himself.'

He finished with a quotation, saying that a Bishop's state
was not to lie `in splendore vestium, sed morum; non ad iram,
sed ut omnimodum patientium.'

What Cardenas replied is not set down in any history which has come under
my observation, but what he must have thought is easy to divine.

The Governor of Paraguay, not content with having put his case before
the Supreme Court of Charcas, sent also to the Council General of the Indies
in Seville, detailing all the vagaries of the Bishop. The Jesuits also
empowered an officer to represent them there.

During these preparations, and whilst everyone was off his guard,
the Guaycurus endeavoured to surprise the capital, and would
have done so had not some regiments of Guaranis arrived in time
from the mission territory. This should have been an object-lesson
to those who always tried to show the Jesuits in the light of enemies
to the authority of the King of Spain. Nothing, however,
proved of the least avail, and though on several occasions the Spanish power
in Paraguay was only saved by the exertions of the Jesuits and their Indians,
the calumnies of Cardenas had taken too deep root to be dispelled.

Meanwhile, in Corrientes, Cardenas schemed night and day
to return to Paraguay. In his own city of La Plata naturally he had
some friends, and these did all they could to get him reinstated.
In spite of all their efforts, an order came from Charcas
for him to leave the city under pain of banishment.* Anyone but Cardenas
would have been disconcerted; he, though, pretended, as in the order
he was still styled Bishop of Paraguay, that before leaving for Charcas,
to present himself before the court, he had to go to Asuncion to name
a Vicar-General, and towards the end of 1646 he embarked upon the river
for Paraguay.

--
* `Que lo hagan salir de nuestros Reynos y Sen~orios como ageno y estran~o,
por importar assi para la quietud de aquellas Provincias,
y al servicio de su Majestad.'
--

The Governor was on the alert, and sent a vessel with orders to turn him back,
which order was carried out in spite of his remonstrances,
and he returned to Corrientes in a miserable state.

Then came another citation to appear at Charcas, and an intimation
that he was appointed Bishop of Popayan. As Popayan (in New Granada)
was at least three thousand miles from Asuncion, his joy at the appointment
must have been extreme.

His fortunes now seemed desperate; as he said himself in a letter to the King,
`at an advanced age he could not undertake so great a journey';
and on every side his enemies seemed to have got the upper hand.

In 1648 a change came over everything. Don Gregorio Hinestrosa
was removed from Paraguay, and a new Governor, Don Diego Escobar de Osorio,
appointed in his place. Immediately the news reached Cardenas
he set out for Paraguay. Arriving at Asuncion, his friends all met him
and took him in procession to the Cathedral. His first thought
was to renew his persecution of the Jesuits. Most unfortunately for them,
Don Juan de Palafox, Bishop of Puebla de los Angeles in Mexico,
who had himself in Mexico had many quarrels with the Jesuits,
wrote begging Cardenas and all the Bishops of South America
to join against them.

This Palafox was afterwards beatified, and even in his lifetime enjoyed
the reputation of a saint, so that his letter greatly strengthened Cardenas.
Notwithstanding this, Palafox in subsequent works of his during the time
that he was Bishop of Osma (in Spain) said many things in praise of the work
done by the Jesuits in Paraguay.

The new Governor, himself a member of the Supreme Court of Charcas,
had never been before in Paraguay, and therefore resolved to treat the Bishop
(as Don Gregorio had done) with every respect due to his station.
The Bishop wanted nothing better, and saw at once he had another fool
to deal with. Therefore he made no secret of his intention of not complying
with the citation of the court at Charcas, and set himself at once
to preach against the Jesuits, and stir up popular resentment against them.
Unluckily, proof was wanting of the crimes he alleged they had committed,
so he resorted to the device of getting a petition signed by all and sundry,
asking for the expulsion of the Order from Paraguay. Like all petitions,
it was largely signed by women and by children and by those
who had never thought before about the matter, but liked
the opportunity to write their names after the names of others,
as sheep go through a gap or members give their votes (out of mere sympathy)
in the high court of Parliament.

This device having taken too much time, blank documents
were passed about for all to write upon whatever they imagined
to the disadvantage of the Jesuits. By an untoward chance, a bundle of these,
sent to the agent of the Bishop in Spain, was taken on the voyage
by an English corsair. The worthy pirate (no doubt a Protestant) was,
if we can believe the Jesuits, extremely scandalized at the bad faith of those
who used such means of wreaking their malevolence.

So all seemed once again to smile upon Don Bernardino, who no doubt resumed
his flagellations, his midnight services, and his saying of two Masses,
and once again became the idol of the people of Asuncion.

But in the north, in the wild district of Caaguayu,
hard by the mountains of Mbaracaya, close to the great `yerbales',*
the Jesuits had formed two towns amongst the Indians.
These two towns were destined to be the outposts of the country
against the incursions of the wild Indians from the Chaco.

--
* A `yerbal' is a forest chiefly composed of the `Ilex Paraguayensis',
from the leaves of which the `yerba mate', or `Paraguayan tea', is made.
--

The Bishop prevailed upon the Governor to let him turn out the Jesuits
and replace them by priests of another Order. This being done,
the Indians all deserted, leaving the district quite uninhabited.

The court at Charcas, hearing of this folly, sent an order to the Governor
to send the Jesuits back. A year was passed in ceaseless searching
of the woods and deserts for the Indians, but only half of the population
could ever be persuaded to return, and Father Mansilla, the ex-missionary,
died of the hardships that he underwent.

From that date down to the time of Dr. Francia (circa 1812-35),
the district remained a desert. Francia used it as a penal settlement,
and to-day, save for a few wild, wandering Indians, known as Caaguas,
and a sparse population of yerba-gatherers, it still remains
almost unpopulated.

Meanwhile, the general indignation against the Jesuits seemed to infect
all classes of the population. Certainly, the citizens of Asuncion
had good and sufficient causes of complaint against the Jesuits.
On several occasions the efforts of the Jesuits and their Indians alone
had saved the capital from the wild Indians, and benefits are hard to bear,
if only from their rarity.

Popular hatred, to the full as idiotic as is popular applause,
fell chiefly upon Father Diaz Tano -- he who had saved ten thousand Indians
for the King of Spain in his celebrated retreat before the Mamelucos
down the Parana -- and he was frequently insulted in the streets.
Father Antonio Manquiano, a quiet and learned man, was almost murdered
in open day by a furious fanatic, who fell upon him with
the openly expressed intent `to eat his heart'.

This was the moment Cardenas pitched on to declare the entire
Order of the Jesuits excommunicated. As he had been a year away from
the scene of his former exploits, people were not so used to excommunications,
and therefore took them seriously.

At this eventful juncture the Governor, Don Diego, died so suddenly
that suspicions of his having been poisoned were aroused.
Scarce was he dead than all the population assembled at the palace
to elect an interim successor. This was a most important thing,
as to communicate with Spain took, at the very shortest time,
about eight months. By acclamation the choice fell on the Bishop,
who thus found himself head of the spiritual and the temporal power at once.

The election was absolutely illegal, as the Spanish law
provided that, if a Governor of Paraguay should chance to die,
the nomination of an interim successor should rest first
with the Viceroy of Peru, and failing him with the High Court of Charcas.

Cardenas based his election on the pretended edict of the Emperor Charles V.,
but, if he had a copy of the edict, never produced it. As usual,
`good men daring not, and wise men caring not', but only fools and schemers
taking part in the election, no serious opposition to his usurpation
was encountered.

Cardenas never doubted for a moment that the function of a Governor
was to govern, and he began at once to do so with a will.

Xarque, a Spanish writer, gives the following curious description of how
he set about to get the people on his side to expel the Jesuits:*

--
* Xarque, book ii., cap. xl., p. 30.
--

Preaching one day in the Cathedral, after the consecration
he turned towards the people, and, showing the holy wafer, said,
`Do you believe, my brethren, that Jesus Christ is here?'
All, being true believers, answered as one man that such was their belief.
In the same way as at a scientific lecture, when the lecturer
holds up some substance, and says, `You all know well that
calcium tungstate or barium hydrocyanide has this or the other property,'
the hearers nod assent like sheep, being afraid to contradict
so glib a statement from so eminent a man.

Then said Cardenas, `Believe as firmly that I have an order from the King
to expel the Jesuits.' The people all believed, and Cardenas forgot
to tell them that by the expulsion of the Jesuits twenty thousand Indians
would pass into his power, whom he could then distribute amongst his friends
as slaves, as he proposed to divide the Indians of the missions
amongst the Paraguayan notables to win them to his side.

Being at the head of everything in Asuncion, Cardenas no longer hesitated,
but ordered an officer, Don Juan de Vallejo Villasanti,
with a troop of soldiers to march to the college of the Jesuits.
This he did, and finding the gates all barred, he burst them open,
and, entering the college, signified to the rector an order from the Governor
(duly countersigned by the Bishop) to leave the city with all his priests,
and to evacuate all the missions on the Parana. The rector answered
that the Jesuits had a permission from Philip II., renewed by his successors,
to found a college, and Father Tano exhibited the documents.
Villasanti, who had but little love for documents, snatched the parchments
from his hand, and the soldiers forced the Jesuits in a body
to the port like sheep. There they were tied and thrown into canoes
almost without provisions, and sent off down the river to Corrientes,
the certain haven of the party in Paraguay which has got the worst
of an election or a revolution, and wishes to gain time.

Arrived in Corrientes, Don Manuel Cabral, a pious officer,
received them in his house, and, curiously enough, the population
welcomed the Jesuits with enthusiasm, and pressed them earnestly
to build a college in the town.

Their college at Asuncion was treated like a town taken by storm:
pulpit and font, confessionals and doors, all were torn down and burnt,
and, with a view of justifying what was done, the Bishop's partisans
spread a report that, as the Jesuits were heretics, their temple was unclean.

The population, more artistic in its instincts than the Bishop,
refused to allow the altar, which had been brought from Spain,
to be destroyed. Besides the altar, there were also statues
of San Ignacio and San Francisco Xavier. These the Bishop wished
to turn into St. Peter and St. Paul. With this design he gave them
to an Indian carpenter to work upon. The poor man did his best,
but only managed to turn out two monstrous blocks, which looked like
nothing human.

A statue of the Blessed Virgin which had the eyes turned up to heaven
the Bishop wished to alter, and replace the head by another with the eyes
turned down to earth, as being more befitting to the statue's sex.
The people, less mad or superstitious than the Bishop, refused to allow it,
and the image, too, was placed in the Cathedral.

In 1649 the expulsion of an Order so powerful as were the Jesuits caused
some commotion through the world at large. Miracles happened opportunely
to strengthen waning faith. A fire placed round their church,
though it destroyed, refused to blacken; and ropes fixed
to the tower of the church, although attached to windlasses,
refused to pull it down, so that the tower and church, though gutted,
still remained almost intact, and, on the Jesuits' return,
were easily repaired, and served as a monument of victory.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a mitre, as poor Cardenas found out.
His popularity suffered some decrease by the lack of treasure found
in the Jesuits' college, for he had always dangled millions in prospective
before the people's eyes to engage them on his side, and, most unluckily,
he had no millions to bestow. So, to make all things right,
he sent Fray Diego Villalon* to Madrid to represent his interests.

--
* This Villalon has left some curious memoirs in the case which he submitted
to the Council of the Indies which sat in Seville.
--

The Jesuits upon their side were not inactive. By virtue of
a brief of Gregory XIII. they had the privilege of appointing an official
called a judge conservator in cases where their honour or their possessions
were attacked. Therefore Father Alfonso de Ojeda was sent to Charcas
to arrange about the case. At Charcas they found that Cardenas
had been before them, and had instituted proceedings against their Order
in the High Court. Father Pedro Nolasco, Superior of the Order of Mercy,
was appointed judge conservator. He at once summoned the Bishop
to appear before him, and arranged to try the case and hear the evidence.

Cardenas having refused to appear, sentence went by default against him.
The High Court, being convinced that the pretended edict
of the Emperor Charles V. did not exist, appointed Don Andres Garabito de Leon
to be interim Captain-General of Paraguay, and gave him power, if necessary,
to restore order by force of arms. The court then issued a decree
summoning Cardenas to appear at once at Charcas and give his reasons
why he had had himself made Governor and had expulsed the Jesuits
from Paraguay. It then communicated with the Marquis of Mancera,
Viceroy of Peru, who quite concurred in its decision as to Cardenas.

Apparently upon the principle which prevails amongst Mohammedans
of always appointing, first an officer, and then a caliph to that officer
to do the work, the High Court of Charcas also appointed a commander
to proceed to Paraguay, pending the time that Don Andres should feel inclined
to start himself. As the caliph's name was Sebastian de Leon,
it is not improbable that he was a relation of the first-appointed man.

Don Sebastian de Leon seems to have been in Paraguay already,
for both Charlevoix and Xarque agree that he and his brothers,
after the expulsion of the Jesuits by Cardenas, had retired to an estate
some distance from Asuncion. At the estate the news of his appointment
reached him, and must have placed him in a most difficult position
as to what to do.

On several occasions in the various rebellions which occurred in South America
during the Spanish rule, men were appointed to quell rebellions,
pacify countries, and restore order, and all without an army or any forces
being placed at their command. This was the case with
the celebrated La Gasca, who was sent from Spain to put down
the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, and succeeded in so doing,
though he left Spain without a single soldier in his train.
In this connection it is to be remembered that none of the rebellions in
Spanish America from the days of Charles I. (i.e., the Emperor Charles V.)
to those of Charles III. were for the object of separation
from the metropolis, but merely risings against Governors sent out from Spain.
It seems that both in Peru and Paraguay the very name of the imperial power
was able to draw hundreds of men to the standard of whatever officer held
a commission from Madrid, such as that held by Garabito de Leon or by La Gasca
on the Parana.

At first Don Sebastian did not show himself in Asuncion,
but sent out messengers on every side to summon soldiers, requisition horses,
and collect provisions. He also sent to Corrientes to tell the Jesuits
he was ready to reinstate them in their possessions.

Don Bernardino meanwhile was preparing for the great adventure of his life.
He seems to have believed most firmly that no power on earth
had any right to remove him from the governorship of Paraguay.
In a letter which he addressed to Don Juan Romero de la Cruz*
he says he is on the point of distinguishing himself
by heroic exploits and great victories; that he had on his side
justice and force (a most uncommon combination); that the entire capital
was favourable to him; and that he was resolved neither to readmit the Jesuits
nor to recognise Don Sebastian de Leon as Governor.

--
* Charlevoix, book xii., p. 115.
--

Asuncion was once again convulsed, and all was preparation for the holy war.
The Bishop had given out that angels were to help him,
and this so reassured his soldiers that they provided themselves with cords
to bind the Indians in the army of Don Sebastian Leon, thinking they
would fall an easy prey to them. This matter of the cords explains, perhaps,
why the population of Asuncion was almost unanimous in favour of the Bishop.

In the army of Don Sebastian, as well as the militia of the province,
marched three thousand Indians from the Jesuit reductions on the Parana.
The Spaniards of the capital were all determined not to kill any of them,
but keep them alive for slaves, and hence the cords with which
they armed themselves.

The sacred generalissimo led out his army from Asuncion in person,
celebrating Mass himself, and then heading his troops
like many another Spanish ecclesiastic has done before and after him,
and continued doing even to the latest Carlist war.

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