[257] These were the towns of San Angel, San Nicolas, San Luis, San Lorenzo, San Miguel, San Juan, and San Borja.
[258] According to the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia (in the article titled “Reductions of Paraguay”) this treaty, signed in secret on 15 January 1750, was a deliberate assault on the Jesuit Order by the Ministers of Spain and Portugal, the latter of whom, Pombal, is said to have been responsible also for the false and libelous ‘Histoire de Nicolas I., Roy du Paraguai et Empereur des Mamalus’ (referred to in this chapter) which was distributed throughout Europe as another attack on the Jesuits. As anyone familiar with the situation could see that the Indians would not be happy about the treaty’s requirement to abandon their homes, it was a well-calculated, though detestable, move.—A. L., 1998.
[259] Most of the dates of the events subsequent to the cession of the seven reductions on the Uruguay are taken from ‘La Causa Jesuitica de Portugal’ (Madrid, 1768), written by Ibañez, a great enemy of the Jesuits. In it is also an account of the events in Paraguay between 1750 and 1756, called ‘Relacion de la Guerra que sustentaron los Jesuitas contra las tropas Españolas y Portuguesas en el Uruguay y Paraná’. No proof has ever been brought forward that the Jesuits as a body ever incited the revolt of the Indians, though undoubtedly Father Tadeo Ennis, a hot-headed priest, stirred up his own particular reduction to resist. It does not seem likely that the Jesuits could have thought it possible to wage a successful war against Spain and Portugal. The dates taken from Ibañez tally with original letters from the Marques de Valdelirios, the Spanish boundary commissioner, and others, which are preserved in the Spanish national archives at Simancas.
[260] Vide ‘Exc. por los cartas que recibi con los avisos, y llegada del P. Altamirano, entiendo acabará de persuadirse a que los Padres de la Campañia son los sublevados, sino los quitan de las aldeas sus Santos Padres (como ellos los llaman) no experimentarán mas que rebeliones insolencias y desprecios. . . .’—Letter quoted by Ibañez (‘Causa Jesuitica’), and also preserved at Simancas.
[261] The Marques de Valdelirios, writing to Don José de Carvajal from Monte Video, June 28, 1752 (Simancas, Legajo 7,447), says: ‘Estoy cierto de que los padres estan ya en la persuasion de que el tratado no se ha de dejar de executar.’ This being so, it was evident that the Marquis, at the date of writing, was of opinion that the Jesuits were not going to oppose the execution of the treaty, as he goes on to say: ‘Y es credible que con este desengaño trabajan seriamente en la mudanza de sus pueblos.’
[262] The instructions were prepared in 1768 by Bucareli for the guidance of Don Juan Joseph de Vertiz, his interim successor in the government of the River Plate, and were delivered to him in 1770 when Bucareli returned to Spain. They are printed by Brabo in his ‘Coleccion de Documentos relativos á la Expulsion de los Jesuitas’, Madrid, 1872, p. 320.
[264] This refers to the same subject, and prohibits any Spaniard from settling in an Indian town in any part of America.
[265] Dean Funes, ‘Ensayo de la Historia Civil del Paraguay’, etc., tome iii., p. 45.
[266] Dean Funes says ‘una difusa memoria’; but, then, even though friendly, churchmen and cats rarely forego a scratch. The proverb has it, ‘Palabras de santo, uñas de gato’.