In the River Plate and Paraguay there were about 400 Jesuits, of whom 300 were priests. The other hundred, according to Ibañez (‘Republica Jesuitica’), were ‘mostly poor devils who were in want of food, and came into the Order for a meal.’ Ibañez rarely spoke the truth, not even when it would have been expedient to do so; and certainly amongst these ‘poor devils’ could not have been included Asperger, the writer on Indian medicines, and other distinguished men who inhabited the Paraguayan missions as lay brothers.
[315] Dean Funes, ‘Ensayo de la Historia Civil’, etc., vol. iii., book v., cap. ix.
[316] The fine library was dispersed, and many priceless MSS. treating of the discovery and conquest, and of expeditions by the Jesuits amongst tribes of Indians now extinct, were lost. Nothing seems to have been preserved except matter which the dispersers thought might prove incriminating to the Jesuits. It is a well-known principle to judge and condemn a man, and then to search for evidence against him. The books were kept in a place known as La Granja de Santa Catalina, and a man of letters, Dr. Don Antonio Aldao, was charged to catalogue and remit them to the capital. Dean Funes says (book v., cap. ix., p. 156) that he complied with his instructions (‘verificóla felizmente y con arreglo a sus instrucciones’), but, anyhow, most of the books were lost. It is a common phrase amongst doctors, ‘The operation was entirely successful, but the patient unfortunately succumbed.’ Amongst the books was the celebrated ‘Monita Secreta’, used by Ibañez in his charges (after the expulsion) against the Jesuits.
[317] Dean Funes (‘Ensayo de la Historia Civil’, vol. iii., cap. viii.) seems to have gauged the feelings of the Governor when he says: ‘Temblo de susto Bucareli considerando en riesgo una conquista, que debia aumentar su gloria y su fortuna.’ ‘Su fortuna’ is delicious, and shows your true conqueror’s melancholy.
[318] The Tebicuari forms the northern boundary between the territory of Misiones and the rest of Paraguay. It is a large river, and in my time (1872-1875) was bridgeless, and had to be crossed in canoes, whilst the horses swam, or were towed behind the canoes with ropes.
[319] Yapeyú was the largest of all the missions. The name signifies a chisel in Guaraní.
[320] Bucareli, in a letter to El Conde de Aranda (Brabo, ‘Coleccion de Documentos relativos á la Expulsion de los Jesuitas’, Madrid, 1872), says in reference to the perils by which he imagined himself surrounded: ‘El misero diminuto estado de la tropa, por el atraso de sus pagas y la falta que encontré de caudales en estas cajas, era una urgencia que me atormentaba.’
[321] This war, undertaken by a fool (Lopez) against enormous odds, served to show what a people even when in the wrong, and in a bad cause, can do when it believes itself to be fighting for national liberty. As a matter of fact, Paraguayan liberty was not threatened for an instant, and Lopez declared war against both Brazil and the Argentine Republic out of mere ambition to be a second Napoleon. His solitary qualifications for the character were that, like his prototype, he was fat and loved women. The war commenced in 1865 and finished in 1870, and left the country almost a desert. So lonely was it, that I have often in those days seen tigers calmly walk across a road in mid-day, and a shout or a pistol-shot but little quickened their movements.
[322] Capilla was the name given in Paraguay to some of the smaller villages which had a chapel, the chapel (capilla) being more important than the houses.
[323] El V. P. José Pignatelli, in his ‘La Compañia de Jesus en su Extincion y Restablecimento’, says that the Paraguayan Jesuits were all sent to Faenza.