[82] In Paraguay it was not unusual for foreign Jesuits to hispaniolize their names; thus, Smith became Esmid. But it was more usual to add a Spanish name, as appears to have been the case with P. Vansurk Mansilla. Father Manuel Querini, in his report to the King of Spain in 1750, mentions the names of Boxer, Keiner, and Limp, with many other French, English, and German names, amongst those of priests at the various missions.
[83] Montoya, ‘Conquista Espiritual’. Also Charlevoix.
[84] It is certain that the Guaranís, like many other Indians, were polygamists, and Xarque, in his ‘Vida Apostolica del P. Joseph Cataldino’, thus explains the matter: ‘El tener tanto numero de concubinas, no solamente lo ocasiona su natural lascivo, sino tambien, el vicio de la embriaguez, pues teniendo tantas criadas tenian con mas abundancia su cerveza y vino.’ Thus Xarque seems to agree with the late Miss Mary Kingsley, who in one of her books (though she says nothing about the ‘natural lascivo’ of the negroes of the West Coast of Africa) seems to attribute the polygamy of the negroes to the difficulty a man experiences, in the countries in which she travelled, in getting his food prepared by one wife.
[85] Charcas is situated in what is now Bolivia, and was extremely inconvenient for all dwellers on the eastern side of the Andes to reach. Whether this was a masterpiece of policy calculated to discourage lawsuits, or whether it was merely due to Spanish incuriousness and maladministration, is a moot point.
[86] The Indians of the missions were not allowed to possess firearms at this period.
[87] ‘Paraguay’, Dr. E. de Bourgade la Dardye; English edition by George Philips junior (London, 1892). The Indians call it Salto de Canandiyú, which, according to Azara, was the name of a cacique whom the first Spaniards met there.
[88] ‘Descripcion y Historia del Paraguay’, Madrid, 1847.
[89] ‘Y es un espantoso despeñadero de agua’, etc. (‘Descripcion del Paraguay’, tomo i., p. 39).
[91] At least, I have been unable to discover any other account by an eye-witness.