[233] In the long and interesting letter of Jaime Aguilar, the provincial of the Jesuits in Paraguay, to the King of Spain (Philip V., 1737), occurs the following passage:
‘Y si alguna vez, que no son muchas, se animan los Españoles a perseguir y castigar los Indios, muchos huyen de la tierra, o se esconden, por no ir a la entrada. . . . Otras (vezes) quando llegan allá, el Enemigo les quitan la Cavallada, dexandolos a pie y se vuelven a casa como pueden.’
This I have seen myself, not thirty years ago, on the frontiers of the Argentine Republic. The popular Argentine poem, ‘La Vuelta de Martin Fierro’, by José Hernandez (Buenos Ayres, 1880), has an illustration showing an expedition against the Indians returning. Some of the men are on foot; others are riding two on the same horse, and officers are animating their men with the flat of their swords.
[234] ‘Account of the Abipones’, p. 125.
[235] Brabo, ‘Inventarios’, p. ix.
[236] Francisco Xavier Brabo, ‘Inventarios de los bienes hallados á la expulsion de los Jesuitas’ (Madrid, 1872).
[237] The lists of cannons, guns, and arms of all kinds in the inventories of the Chaco towns, preserved by Brabo, serve to show not only the dangers to which the Jesuits were exposed, but also how thoroughly the Jesuits understood the fickle nature of those with whom they lived.
[238] Another priest, the list of whose effects Brabo has preserved in his ‘Inventarios’, had a book called ‘El Alivio de Tristes’. Even a Protestant may be excused for hoping that it merited its title.
[239] Cretineau Joly, tome v., chap. ii., p. 95. Your moral force is excellent in a civilized country; but your modern missionary usually prefers something more in accordance with the spirit of the times.
[240] The total number of cattle was 78,171, as against 698,353 in the towns of the Guaranís. See Brabo, ‘Inventarios de los bienes hallados á la expulsion de los Jesuitas’, Appendix, p. 668.