Book: A Vanished Arcadia,

C >> Cunninghame Graham >> A Vanished Arcadia,




--
*1* Corregidores, regidores, alcaldes, etc.
*2* It is not to be supposed, however, that the Indians were kept
in ignorance. P. Cardiel (`Declaracion de la Verdad', p. 222),
quoting from the Cedula Real of 1743, says that `in every one of the towns
there is a school established to teach reading and writing in Spanish,
and that on that account a great number of Indians are to be met
who write well.' Cardiel adds, on the same page, `Dos de ellos
estan copiando ahora esto que yo escribo, y de mejor letra que la mia.'
*3* Dean Funes (`Ensayo Critico', etc.) puts the income from commerce
of the thirty towns at a hundred thousand dollars, and informs us that,
after taxation (to the Crown) had been deducted from it, it was applied
to the maintenance of the churches and other necessary expenses,
and by the end of the year little of it remained.
*4* Don Martin de Barua, in his memorial to the King (1736),
complaining of the Jesuits, puts the number of taxable Indians
at forty thousand. The Commission appointed to examine into the charges
in 1736, which reported in 1745 (a reasonable interval),
affirmed that the taxable Indians only numbered 19,116.
Each Indian paid an annual poll-tax of one dollar a year to the Crown.
In addition to that, every town gave one hundred dollars a year.
The salary of the priests was six hundred dollars a year
(Azara, `Voyage dans l'Ame/rique Me/ridionale').
*5* `Account of the Abipones'. London: John Murray, 1822.
--

All this relatively large population of Indians was ruled,
as has been seen, by a quite inconsiderable number of priests,
who, not disposing of any European force, and being almost always on bad terms
with the Spanish settlers in Paraguay on account of the firm stand they made
against the enslaving of the Indians, had no means of coercion
at their command. Hence the Indians must have been contented with their rule,
for if they had not been so the Jesuits possessed no power to stop them
from returning to their savage life. Azara,*1* although in the main
an opponent of the Jesuits, in the same way that a `good Liberal' of to-day
would oppose anything of a Socialistic tendency, yet has
this most significant passage in their favour. After enumerating
the amount of taxes paid by the missions to the Crown, he says `en faisant
le bilan tout se trouvait e/gal, et s'il y avait quelque exce/dant,
il e/tait en faveur des Je/suites ou des peoplades.'*2* Seldom enough
does such a result take place when the balance is struck to-day in any country
between the rulers and their `taxables'. Following their system
of perfect isolation from the world to its logical sequence,
the Jesuits surrounded all the territories of their different towns
with walls and ditches, and at the gates planted a guard to prevent
egress or ingress between the missions and the outer world.*3*
Much capital has been made out of this, as it is attempted to be shown
that the Indians were thereby treated as prisoners in their own territories.
Nothing, however, has been said of the fact that, if the ditches, palisades,
and guard-houses kept in the Indians, they also had the effect of keeping
the Spaniards out. When men who looked upon the Indians as without reason,
and captured them for slaves when it was possible, began to talk of liberty,
it looks as if the `sacred name of liberty' was used but as a stalking-horse
-- as greasy Testaments are used to swear upon in police-courts,
when the witness, with his tongue in his cheek, raises his eyes to heaven,
and then with fervency imprints a kiss upon his thumb.

--
*1* `Voyage dans l'Ame/rique Me/ridionale'. Paris: Denton, 1809.
*2* Pera/mas (`De vita et moribus sex sacerdotum Paraguaycorum,
Petrus Joanes Andrea', lxxxiv.) states that it appeared, from papers left
after their expulsion, that the income of the Jesuit College of Cordoba
just paid the expenses of administration (`era con escasa diferencia
igual a/ los gastos').

In the Archivo General of Buenos Ayres, legajo `Compan~ia de Jesu/s',
there is a document referred to by P. Hernandez in his introduction
to the work of P. Cardiel (`Declaracion de la Verdad'), which states
that in the year of the expulsion the income of the thirty towns
fell a little short of the expenses.
*3* Azara, `Voyage dans l'Ame/rique Me/ridionale'; also Funes,
`Ensayo Critico de la Historia del Paraguay'; and Padre Guevara,
`Historia del Paraguay, Rio de la Plata y Tucuman'.
--

It will be seen that the communism of the missions was of a limited character,
and, though the land was cultivated by the labour of the community,
that the products were administered by the Jesuits alone. Though it
has been stated by many polemical writers, such as Ibanez and Azara,
and more recently by Washburne, who was American Minister in Paraguay
during the war with Brazil and the Argentine Republic (1866-70),
that the Jesuits had amassed great wealth in Paraguay, no proof has ever been
advanced for such a charge. Certainly Cardenas made the same statement,
but it was never in his power to bring any confirmation of what he said.
This power alone was in the hands of Bucareli (1767),
the Viceroy of Buenos Ayres, under whose auspices the expulsion of the Jesuits
was carried out. By several extracts from Brabo's inventories,
and by the statement of the receivers sent by Bucareli, I hope to show
that there was no great wealth at any time in the mission territory,
and that the income was expended in the territory itself.
It may be that the expenditure on churches was excessive,
and also that the money laid out on religious ceremonies was not productive;
but the Jesuits, strange as it may appear, did not conduct the missions
after the fashion of a business concern, but rather as
the rulers of some Utopia -- those foolish beings who think happiness
is preferable to wealth.

Nothing can give a better idea of the way of life of a Jesuit priest
and of his daily labours than the curious letter of Nicolas Neenguiru,
originally written in Guarani, but of which a translation is extant
in the National Spanish Archives in Simancas:*

--
* Archivo General de Simancas, Estado, legajo 7,450, folios 21 y 22, 5a,
Copia de las cartas (sin firma; la siguiente es de Nicolas Neenguiru/)
que se hallaron en letra Guarani/ traducidas por los interpreteo nombrados
en las sorpresa hecha al pueblo de San Lorenzo por el Coronel
D. Jose Joaquin de Viana, Gobernador de Montevideo,
el dia 20 de Mayo de 1756:

`El modo de vivir del Padre es, cerrar bien todas las puertas y quedarse
el solo, su Mayordomo, y su muchacho. Son ya Indios de edad,
y solo estos asisten solo de dia adentro, y a/ las doce salen afuera,
y un viejo es quien cuida de la Porteria, y es quien Sierra la puerta
quando descansa el Padre, o/ quando sale el Padre a/ ver su chacara.
Y aun entonces van solos, sino es con un Indio de hedad quien
los giua y cuida de el caballo y despues de esto a/ misa y a/ la tarde
al Rosario de Maria Santisima llamandonos con toque de campana,
y antes de esto a/ los muchachos y muchachittas los llama
con una campa/nilla y despues de eso el bueno de el Padre
entra ha ensen~arles la Doctrina, y el persinarse de el mismo modo,
todos los dias de fiesta nos Predica la palabra de Dios,
del mismo modo el Santo Sacramento de la Penitencia y de la Communion,
en estas cosas se exercitta el bueno del Padre y todas las noches se sierra
la porteria y la llave se lleva al aposento del Padre y solo se vuelve
a/ abrir por la man~ana quando entra el Sachristan y los cosineros. . . .

`Los Padres todas las man~anas nos dicen misas, y despues de misa,
se van a su aposento y hai cogen un poco de aqua caliente
con Yerva y no otra cosa mas; despues de esto sale a la puerta
de su aposento y ahai todos los que oyeron misa se arrimen
a besarle la mano, y despues de esto sale afuera a ver los Indios
si trabajan en los oficios que cada uno tiene, y despues se van
a su aposento a resar el oficio divino, en su libro, y para que Dios
le ayude en todas sus cosas. A las once de el dia van a comer un poquitto,
no a/ comer mucho solo coge cinco plattitos y solo beve una vez el vino,
no llenando un vaso pequen~o, y aguardiente nunca lo toman y el vino
no lo hai en nuestro pueblo, solo lo traen de la Candelaria
segun lo que envia el Padre Superior lo trahen de acia Buenos Aires. . . .
Despues que sale de comer y para descansar an poco, y mientras descansa
salen fuera los que assisten en la casa del Padre, y los que trabajan dentro
en algunas obras y tamvien el Sachristan y el cosinero:
todos estos salen fuera y quando no se toca la campana estan
serradas las puertas, y solo un viejo es el que cuida de las puertas,
y quando vuelvan a tocar la campana, vuelve este a abrirlas
para que vuelvan a entrar los que trabajan dentro,
y el Padre Coge el Brebiario no a ir a parte ninguna.
A la tarde tocan la campanilla paraque se recojan las criatturas,
y entre el Padre a/ ensenarles la doctrina christiana.'
--

`The manner of living of the father is to shut all the doors, and remain alone
with his servant and his cook (who are Indians of a considerable age),
and these only wait on him; but by day only, and at twelve o'clock,
they go out, and an old man has care of the porter's lodge,
and it is he who shuts the gate when the father is asleep,
or when he goes out to see his cultivated ground, and even then they go alone,
except it be with an old Indian, who guides them and attends to
the (father's) horse; and after that he goes to Mass,
and in the evening to the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin,
calling us together by the sound of the bell, and before that
he calls the boys and girls with a small bell, and after that
the good father begins to teach them doctrine and how to cross themselves.
In the same way, on every feast day, he preaches to us the Word of God,
in the same way the Holy Sacrament of Penitence and of the Communion;
in these things does the good Father employ himself, and every night
the porter's lodge is closed, and the key taken to the Father's room,
which is only opened in the morning in order that the sacristan and the cooks
may enter. . . .

`The Fathers every morning say Mass for us, and after Mass they go
to their rooms, and then they take some hot water and `yerba' (`mate'),
and nothing more; after that he comes to the door of his apartment,
and then all those who heard Mass come to kiss his hand,
and after that he goes out to see if the Indians are diligent at their tasks,
and afterwards they go to their room to read the divine service for the day
in his book, and to pray that God may prosper him in all his affairs.
At eleven o'clock they go to eat a little, not to eat much, for he only has
five dishes, and only drinks wine once, not filling a little glass;
and spirits they never drink, and there is no wine in our town,
except that which is brought from Candelaria, according to that
which the Superior sends, and they bring it from somewhere
near Buenos Aires. . . . After he has finished eating, to rest a little
he goes into the church; afterwards -- yes, he retires to rest a little,
and whilst he is resting those who work in the father's house go out,
and those who do any kind of indoor work, and also the sacristan and the cook:
all these go out, and as long as the bell does not ring the doors are shut,
and only an old man guards the gate, and when they ring the bell again
he opens the doors so that those who work indoors may go inside,
and the father takes his breviary and goes nowhere. In the evening
they ring the bell so that the children may come home, and the father comes in
to teach them Christian doctrine.'

Perhaps the foregoing simple description, written by an Indian in Guarani,
and translated by someone who has preserved in Spanish
all the curious inversions of the Guarani, presents as good
a picture of the daily life of a mission priest in Paraguay
as any that has ever been given to the public by writers much more ambitious
than myself or Neenguiru. Nicolas Neenguiru, the writer of the letter,
afterwards figured in the war against the Portuguese,
and several of his letters are preserved in the archives of Simancas,
though none so interesting and simple as that I have transcribed.

Dobrizhoffer, in his history of the Abipones, says of him that he was
a simple Indian, whom often he had seen put in the stocks for petty faults;
at any rate, he seems to have been one of those Indians whom the Jesuits
had at least favourably impressed by the system they employed.
After the manner in which he wrote, hundreds of Indians must have thought,
or else the missions, placed as they were, surrounded on all sides by enemies,
could not have endured a single day. What was it, then,
which raised the Jesuits up so many and so powerful enemies in Paraguay,
when in the districts of the Moxos* and the Chiquitos
where their power was to the full as great, amongst the Indians,
they never had a quarrel with the Spaniards till the day they were expelled?
Many and various causes contributed to all they underwent,
but most undoubtedly two reasons must have brought about their fall.

--
* Perhaps the entire isolation of the Jesuits in these two provinces
accounts for their absolute quiet; and if this is so, it goes far to prove
that they were right to attempt the same isolation in Paraguay.
The comparative nearness of the Spanish settlements
frustrated their attempts in this instance.
--

Since the time of Cardenas, the report that the Jesuits had rich mines,
which they worked on the sly, had been persistently on the increase.
Although disproved a thousand times, it still remained; even to-day,
in spite of `science' and its wonderful discoveries, there are many
in Paraguay who cherish dreams of discovering Jesuit mines. Humanity loves
to deceive itself, although there are plenty ready to deceive it;
and if men can both forge for themselves fables and at the same time
damage their neighbours in so doing, their pleasure is intense.
I take it that many really believed the stories of the mines,
being unable to credit that anyone would live far from the world,
surrounded but by Indians, for any other reason than to be rich.
But let a country have rich minerals, even if they exist but in imagination,
and it becomes a crime against humanity to shut it up. So that
it would appear one of the reasons which induced hatred against the Jesuits
was the idea that they had enormous mineral wealth, which either
they did not work or else worked in secret for the benefit of their society.

The other reason was the question of slavery. Once get it well into your head
that you and yours are `reasoning men'* (`gente de razon'),
and that all coloured people are irrational, and slavery follows
as a natural sequence; for `reasoning men' have wit to make a gun,
and on the gun all reason takes it stand. From the first instant
of their arrival in America, the Jesuits had maintained a firm front
against the enslavement of the Indians. They may have had their faults
in Europe, and in the larger centres of population in America;
but where they came in contact with the Indians, theirs was the sole voice
raised upon their side.

--
* For `reasoning men', and how this monstrous superstition
still prevails in Venezuela, see the charming book of S. Perez Triana,
`De Bogota al Atlantico', etc., pp. 156-158 (Paris: Impresa Sud Americana).
A really interesting book of travels, without cant, and without an eye
on the public. Strange to relate, the author seems to have killed nothing
during his journey.
--

In 1593 Padre Juan Romero, sent from Peru as Superior to Paraguay,
on his arrival gave up an estate (with Indians in `encomienda')
which his predecessors had enjoyed, alleging that he did not wish
to give the example of making profit out of the unpaid labour of the Indians,*
and that without their work the estate was valueless.

--
* Charlevoix, book iv.
--

On many occasions, notably in the time of Cardenas, the Jesuits
openly withstood all slavery, and amongst the concessions
that Ruiz Montoya obtained from the King of Spain was one declaring
all the Indians to be free.*1* If more examples of the hatred
that their attitude on slavery called forth were wanting,
it is to be remembered that in 1640, when Montoya and Tano
returned from Spain, and affixed the edict of the Pope on the church doors
in Piritinanga, threatening with excommunication all slave-holders,
a cry of robbery went forth, and the Jesuits were banished from the town.
But in this matter of slavery there is no saying what view any one given man
will take upon it when he finds himself in such a country as America was
during the time the Jesuits were in Paraguay. Don Felix de Azara,
a liberal and a philosopher, a man of science, and who has left us
perhaps the best description both of Paraguay and of the River Plate,
written in the eighteenth century, yet was a partisan of slavery.*2*
In a most curious passage for a Liberal philosopher, he says:*3*
`The Court ordered Don Francisco, Judge of the High Court of Charcas,
to go to Peru in the character of visitor. The first measure which he took,
in 1612, was to order that in future no one should go to the Indians' houses
with the pretext of reducing them (i.e., to civilization),
and that no `encomiendas' (fiefs) should be given of the kind
we have explained -- that is to say, with personal service (of the Indians).
I cannot understand on what he could have founded a measure
so politically absurd; but as that judge favoured the `ideas of the Jesuits',
it is suspected that they dictated his conduct.'

--
*1* `Conquista Espiritual', Ruiz Montoya.
*2* `Voyage dans l'Ame/rique Me/ridionale'.
*3* Azara, `Viage al America Meridional', tomo 2, cap 12. `La corte
ordeno/ a Don Francisco de Alfaro oidor de la Audiencia de Charcas
pasar al Peru/ en calidad de visitador. La primera medida
que tomo/ en 1612 fue ordenar que ninguno en lo sucesivo pudiese
ir a casa de Indios, con el pretexto de reducirlos,
y que no se diesen encomiendas del modo que hemos explicado,
es decir con servicio personal. No alcanzo sobre que podia fundarse
una medida tan politicamente absurda: pero como este oidor favorecia
las `ideas de los Jesuitas', se sospecho/ que por aquel tiempo
que ellos dictaron su conducta.'
--

What stronger testimony (coming from such a man) could possibly be found,
both that the Jesuits were opposed to the enslaving of the Indians
and that their opposition rendered them unpopular? In the same way,
no doubt, some modern, unwise philosopher, writing in Brussels,
would uphold the slavery and massacres in Belgian Africa
as evidences of a wise policy, because the end condones the means,
and in the future, when progress has had time to fructify,
there will be workhouses dotted all up and down the Congo, and every `native'
will be forced to supply himself, at but a trifle above the cost in Belgium,
with a sufficiency of comfortable and thoroughly well-seasoned wooden shoes.

So it appears that the aforesaid were the two chief reasons
which made the Jesuits unpopular with the Spanish settlers in Paraguay.
But in addition it should be remembered that there were in that country
members of almost all the other religious Orders, and that,
as nearly every one of them had quarrelled with the Jesuits in Europe,
or at the best were jealous of their power, the enmities begun in Europe
were transmitted to the New World, and constantly fanned
by reports of the quarrels which went on between the various Orders
all through Europe, and especially in Rome.

But if it were the case that the Jesuits excited feelings of hatred
in their neighbours, yet they certainly had the gift
of attaching to themselves the Indians' hearts. No institution,
condemned with contumely and thrust out of a country
where it had worked for long, its supposed crimes kept secret,
and its members all condemned unheard, could have preserved
its popularity amongst the descendants of the men with whom it worked,
after more than one hundred years have passed, had this not been the case.

I care not in the least for theories, for this or that dogma
of politicians or theologists, but take my stand on what I heard myself
during my visits to the now ruined Jesuit missions in Paraguay.
Horsemen say horses can go in any shape, and, wonderful as it may seem,
men can be happy under conditions which no writer on political economy
would recognise as fit for human beings. Not once but many times
have aged Indians told me of what their fathers used to say about the Jesuits,
and they themselves always spoke of them with respect and kindness,
and endeavoured to keep up to the best of their ability
all the traditions of the Church ceremonies and hours of prayer
which the Jesuits had instilled.

That the interior system of their government was perfect,
or such as would be suitable for men called `civilized' to-day,
is not the case. That it was not only suitable, but perhaps the best
that under all the circumstances could have been devised for Indian tribes
two hundred years ago, and then but just emerged from semi-nomadism,
is, I think, clear, when one remembers in what a state of misery and despair
the Indians of the `encomiendas'* and the `mitas' passed their lives.
That semi-communism, with a controlling hand in administrative affairs,
produced many superior men, or such as rise to the top
in modern times, I do not think; but, then, who are the men,
and by the exercise of what kind of virtues do they rise
in the societies of modern times? The Jesuits' aim was to make
the great bulk of the Indians under their control contented,
and that they gained their end the complaints against them
by the surrounding population of slave-holders and hunters after slaves
go far to prove.

--
* For `mitas' and `encomiendas', see foregoing chapters.
--

Leaving upon one side their system of administration,
and discounting their unalterable perseverance, there were two things
on which the Jesuits appealed to the Indians; and those two things,
by the very nature of their knowledge of mankind, they knew appealed
as much to Indians as to any other race of men. Firstly (and in this
writers opposed to them, as Brabo* and Azara,** both agree),
they instilled into the Indians that the land on which they lived,
with missions, churches, herds, flocks, and the rest, was their own property.
And in the second place they told them they were free, and that they had
the King of Spain's own edict in confirmation of their freedom,
so that they never could be slaves. Neither of these two propositions
commends itself to many writers on the Jesuits in Paraguay,
but for all that it seems to me that in themselves they were sufficient
to account for the firm hold the Jesuits had on their neophytes.

--
* Brabo, `Inventarios de los bienes hallados a la expulsion de las Jesuitas'.
** `Voyage dans l'Ame/rique Me/ridionale'.
--

The freedom which the Indians enjoyed under the Jesuit rule
might not have seemed excessive to modern minds and those attuned
to the mild rule of the Europeans of to-day in Africa. Such as it was,
it seemed sufficient to the Guaranis, and even, in a limited degree,
placed them above the Indians of the Spanish settlements,
who for the most part passed their lives in slavery.




Chapter VIII

Don Jose de Antequera -- Appoints himself Governor of Asuncion --
Unsettled state of affairs in the town -- He is commanded
to relinquish his illegal power -- He refuses, and resorts to arms --
After some success he is defeated and condemned to be executed -- He is shot
on his way to the scaffold -- Renewed hatred against the Jesuits --
Their labours among the Indians of the Chaco



From the departure of Cardenas in 1650, to about 1720,
was the halcyon period of the Jesuit missions in Paraguay.
During that time things went on in the missions after the fashion
I have attempted to describe. The people passed their time
in their semi-communistic labour, sweetened by constant prayer;
their pastors may or may not have done all that was possible to instruct them
in the science of the time; but, still, the Indian population
did not decrease, as it was observed to do from year to year
in other countries of America and in the Spanish settlements in Paraguay.*
During this period the Jesuits had made repeated efforts, but without much
real success, to establish missions amongst the wild equestrian tribes
in the Gran Chaco upon the western bank of the river Paraguay.
Nothing, apparently, pointed to the events which, beginning in the year 1721,
finally led to their expulsion, or, at least, furnished additional reasons
to King Charles III. to include the Jesuits in Paraguay in
the general expulsion of their order from the dominions of the Spanish crown.

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