A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

The colony of Assumption was the first establishment in the province after the fort of St. Anna, and suffered much from the various neighbouring nations of barbarous Indians, principally the Guaycurus and Payagoas, who were as numerous as they were ferocious and brave. It was, however, rendered defensible by the augmentation of its settlers. Defective in gold and silver mines, which attracted so many people to Peru and Mexico, this fine country, so advantageously situated, remained for many years after its discovery almost unnoticed.

The middle and eastern parts were the conquests of the Jesuits, by the introduction of Christianity amongst their possessors, the Guaranis. These priests, knowing, from experience, the relaxation of European morals, and how much it prevailed amongst the American colonists, determined to catechize only those Indians who were at a distance from the Europeans, in order that the proselytes should not know practices contrary to the precepts to be taught. The perfection with which they soon spoke the Guaranitic idiom, and the docility of this tribe of Indians, concurred equally to carry into effect this wished-for object.

In a few years the Jesuits reduced the various hordes of this nation to a settled life, in large aldeias, or villages, denominated reduçōes, the number of which, in the year 1630, had arrived at twenty, with seventy thousand inhabitants. Those who had advanced to the Upper Paranna, with the intention of extending the spiritual conquest, were obliged, by eight thousand Paulistas, to fall back, in 1631, to the south of the Maracajú Serra. The Jesuit, Montoya, relates, that he and his colleagues retired from above to below the seven falls of the Paranna, with two thousand Indians, when the Paulistas invaded the Upper Paranna, and that the latter continued hostilely to visit the reduçōes of the Lower Paranna; and that, in 1637, one hundred and forty Paulistas, with one thousand five hundred Indians, attacked the reduçōes of Jesu Maria, St. Christovam, and St. Anna, and retired with seven thousand prisoners.

The Jesuits next reduced the Tappes to the eastward, and continued to civilize those two nations, by teaching them all the useful arts, thus forming the celebrated Guaranitic empire, which moderate calculators never raised to more than two hundred thousand inhabitants; and it is said they were able to carry into the field an army of forty thousand men. One authority states that between the rivers Uruguay and Paraguay was established a powerful republic, comprising thirty-one large villages, inhabited by one hundred thousand souls; but Guthrie raises the population of these missions to three hundred and forty thousand families, making a surprising and incredible population of thirteen hundred thousand inhabitants.

It is said the word Guarrannis means Guerreiros, (warriors,) and that this people, in former times, wandered about, carrying destruction to every part within their reach, and obtaining many prisoners, thus acquiring greater numbers and power. Their language and name became common to divers tribes, whom these religious teachers introduced into their associations, from different parts, by which they greatly augmented the population of this republic. The exchequer of the catholic crown furnished annually forty to fifty thousand ducats to the missionaries employed in this conquest, inasmuch as the Indians did not render their agriculture and industry adequate to the expenditure and support of the country, the public receipts of which the Jesuits were the receivers and appropriators. When the villages and temples were completed, each man, from eighteen to fifty years, paid annually a capitation of two gold pieces. The captains (caciques) were exempted from this tribute as well as their first born, (primogenitas,) and twelve men more in each mission destined to the service of the church. In 1634, when there was already thirty reduçōes with one hundred and twenty-five thousand Christian Indians, the number that paid tribute only amounted to nineteen thousand one hundred and sixteen. In 1649, with a view of gaining more subjects, and to avoid any desertion to the territory of the crown of Portugal, where there was no capitation, the Indians were alleviated from one-half of this tribute. Four years previously was conceded to them the power of exporting the matte, upon certain conditions, in order that they might become less chargeable to the capitation. The concession of this liberty was a means of feeding the cupidity of the Jesuits, by the intervention of the curates of the reduçōes serving them as a cloak through the Indians, to carry on a great trade in this commodity, to the prejudice of the merchants at Assumption, whose complaints produced two decrees; the one apprizing the chief priest of Paraguay of the exorbitant quantity of matte which its padres had traded in; the other prohibiting the Indians from carrying more than twelve thousand arrobas annually to that city.

Each of the reduçōes, otherwise called missions, was a considerable town, laid out with straight streets. The houses, generally of earth, were whitened, covered with tiles, and had verandas on each side, in order to preserve them from the sun and rain. On seeing one, a correct idea might be formed of the whole. Each mission had only a mother church, generally of stone, magnificent and richly ornamented, some being entirely gilded. A vicar and a curate, both Jesuits, were the only ecclesiastics exercising the parochial functions, being, at the same time, inspectors of all civil economy; under whose direction there were magistrates, (corregedores,) elected annually; a cacique, or chief, elected for life; and other officers, each with his jurisdiction. With the exception of these, every individual of both sexes wore a shirt reaching to the ancles, usually of white cotton. They cultivated matte, the cotton tree, and such provisions as prospered best in the country. The whole was deposited in warehouses, from whence it was distributed daily to the people. Each family received an ounce of matte, four pounds of meat, and a certain measure of Indian corn, and more if it was judged necessary. All passed under the review of the magistrates or of other subordinate persons. The curates lived commodiously, near to their churches, and contiguous to their dwellings were two spacious houses; one destined for schools of reading, painting, architecture, music, and having shops for different manual occupations; the other was a recolhimento, or receptacle for a great number of young girls, who were engaged in different works, under the inspection of matronly women, already instructed. The women received on Monday a certain portion of cotton, which they were to return in the spun state on Saturday. The curate, accompanied by certain officers and masters, went daily at eight o’clock to visit the schools and shops. The signal of the last Avi Marias was also that of the rosario, or counting of beads, at which all assisted.

All superfluities were exported, with a large quantity of tallow, hides, and matte, and with the proceeds they paid the capitations, and obtained in return requisite European articles.

It is calculated that the Indians possessed near two million head of cattle.

Such was the condition of the reduçōes, or missions, which constituted the pretended Guaranitic state, in 1768, when the Jesuits were expelled and their people delivered over to the direction of the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Mercenarians. The last is an order of friars instituted in Arragon by King James for the redemption of captives.

The Marquis of Bucarelli, governor of Buenos Ayres, wishing to go personally, accompanied by the best troops of Europe which he could collect in that capital, to execute the orders of his sovereign relative to the missions, which were repugnant to the feelings of the Indians, wrote, before he commenced his march, to all the vicars to send to him the chief (cacique) and head magistrate of each mission, in order that he might communicate to them advices from his Majesty. On their arrival at Buenos Ayres he unjustly retained them as hostages, with a view of obviating any difficulty that might arise. In Yapegú, which is the first mission, was presented to him the celebrated chief, Nicolau, who in Europe passed for the sovereign of the Guaranitic republic, and who was not able to proceed in the train of the others, in consequence of the infirmities of old age, being then seventy. The Europeans and their descendants began to frequent the missions, and the Indians to have mutual relations with them, and to learn from them many of the most familiar words, also some relaxation from the more correct morals and manners of the Jesuits. The population, in consequence, soon began to diminish, as well as the neatness and cleanliness of their houses and temples.