Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1 of 2

by Robert Grant Watson

The Guaranís were of two classes—hunters and fishermen. The former ignored the use of saddles, but passed their time for the most part on the horses which had followed the Spaniards. The fishermen adored a demon who manifested itself in the form of a large bird. It was at length determined by the Jesuits to attempt to penetrate to the Chiquito settlements of their brethren by way of the Uruguay river; and two Fathers, accompanied by thirty Paraguayan disciples, set out with this object from Asuncion. They had ascended about a hundred leagues when they were met by a boat, carrying Payaguas, who, being placed between two enemies, implored the aid of the Jesuits. To the west were their sworn foes, the Guaycurus; to the east were the Brazilian slave-hunters. This natural cry for help was interpreted as a prayer for admission within the Church’s pale, and one of the Fathers remained with his converts at the Lake of Uberada, while the other proceeded alone towards Peru.

The sudden conversion of the natives, however, which had resulted from terror, lasted only as long as the Jesuits and their party remained sufficiently strong to overawe them. Left with one Father and fifteen Paraguayans, they obtained leave to depart for the purpose of bringing others to share the Father’s instruction. On their return in sufficient numbers to overpower him, fourteen of his Paraguayans were put to death, one being reserved as interpreter; one of the Spanish boatmen was likewise spared to steer the Payaguas to their former haunts. There the interpreter was put to death in the defence of his master, who, however, together with his brother Jesuit, was almost immediately afterwards murdered by the Guaycurus.

About the same period there were in Buenos Ayres some twenty thousand Africans who could not speak Spanish. In order to be able to administer spiritual food to these, Father Chomé studied the tongue of Angola, in which in the course of three months he acquired such proficiency that he was able to persuade himself that the Africans understood his attempts to expound the doctrines of Christianity. His linguistic powers marked him out for service in Peru, but his destination was changed to Paraguay. He was conveyed thither in a covered cart, carrying with him his own bedding and provisions. The neighbourhood of Santa Fè was then infested by the Guaycurus, who were even daring enough to attack that town. They gave no quarter, and carried as trophies the scalps of their victims. Their weapons were bows and arrows, lances and darts, which rebounded by means of a string fastened to the projector’s thumb. Issuing from their ambuscades, and giving utterance to wild cries, they inspired still further terror by their aspect, being enclosed in a suit composed of feathers. They had already attained perfection in horsemanship, now falling flat on the animals’ necks, now swinging their persons beneath their girths and holding on by their feet, or throwing themselves from one side to the other as occasion might require. If it seemed desirable to abandon their steeds and take to the river or thicket, they were as fishes in the former, and could defy the thorns of the latter.

Beset by these savages, Father Chomé was indebted to his escort for his arriving without accident at Santa Fè, where he was still two hundred and twenty leagues from the nearest of the reductions. The carts in use were but little suited to a country intersected by streams, and where bridges were unknown. On reaching a stream the waggon was unloaded and attached to the tails of horses, who struggled as best they could to the opposite shore. Such travellers as could not swim were committed to small boats formed of a single ox-hide, with the almost unnecessary injunction to sit still in them. In the pelotas, too, the loads were transported. From Santa Fè Father Chomé proceeded towards his destination on horseback.

After the greater part of the Guaranís had embraced Christianity, a section still refused to listen to the voice of the missionaries, and sought an asylum in the adjoining mountains. Their grieved would-be converters for a while consoled themselves with the reflection that the sudden change from the burning pampas plains to the snows of the Andes would suffice to exterminate the heathen; but when they were disappointed in this pious wish, and when the tribesmen, who had, on the contrary, increased in numbers, ventured to murder some Dominicans, the vengeance of the authorities was roused, and their mountains were invaded, with the result that many hundreds of them were made prisoners or slain.

The Jesuit missions, where were renewed the innocence and piety of the early Christians, numbered towards the close of the seventeenth century forty large establishments, the most considerable of which included from fifteen to twenty thousand souls. The chief of each mission and the judge were chosen year by year. The fruits of the land were placed in public magazines, from which each family received its allotted share. So remarkable was the innocence of the Guaraní converts that the Fathers own that their pupils’ confessions seldom or never revealed anything to call for absolution. They denied to the Paraguayans any share of inventive genius, but claimed for them on the other hand the greatest powers of imitation. They could make tables, print or copy books, imitate the finest writing, construct musical instruments and watches, draw plans and engrave maps. It was not without labour that their conversion was brought about; but once effected, it was sincere and lasting, and there were no bounds to the attachment they evinced towards their spiritual fathers.

The following extract, translated from Azara, may give some further idea of the system pursued by the Jesuits. The historian’s knowledge is derived from eye-witnesses, and his statements of fact, though not his conclusions, agree with those of the Fathers:—

“The thirty-three Jesuit missions were ruled in the following manner: Two Jesuits resided in each pueblo. The one called the cura had either been provincial or rector in their colleges, or was at least a grave padre. He did not exercise any of the functions of a cura, and frequently did not know the language of the Indians. He occupied himself only with the temporal administration of all the property of the pueblo, of which he was the absolute director. The spiritual department was confided to another Jesuit, called compañero, or vice-cura, subordinate to the first. The Jesuits of all the pueblos were under the superintendence and vigilance of another, named the superior of the missions, who had, moreover, the power to confirm from the Pope. To control these pueblos they had no laws, either civil or criminal; the only rule was the will of the Jesuits. Though in each pueblo there was an Indian called a corregidor, and others called alcaldes and rejidores (mayor and aldermen), that formed a municipal body like that which they have in Spanish colonies, no one of them exercised the least jurisdiction, and they were only instruments that served to execute the will of the curas, even in criminal cases. The curas who inflicted the punishments were never cited before the king nor before any of the ordinary tribunals. They compelled the Indians of both sexes and of every age to labour for the community, without permitting any person to labour at all for himself. All must obey the orders of the cura, who stored up the produce of the labour, and who had the charge of supplying food and clothing to all. From this it is seen that the Jesuits were absolutely masters of everything; that they completely disposed of the surplus stock of the whole community; and that all the Indians were equal, without distinction, and unable to possess any private property. There could be no motive of emulation to induce them to exercise their talents or their reason, since the most able, the most virtuous, the most active, was not better fed or clothed than the others, nor would he obtain any enjoyment that was not common to all. The Jesuits have persuaded the world that this kind of government was the only one suitable for the Indians, and had rendered happy those who were like children, and incapable of taking care of themselves. They add, that they direct them as a father governs his family, and that they collect and keep in the storehouses the products of the harvests, not for private use, but to make a proper distribution to their children, who, incapable of provision, do not know how to preserve anything for the sustenance of their families. This manner of government had appeared in Europe worthy of such great encomiums, that the lot of these Indians has almost come to be envied. But this is done without reflecting that these same Indians in a savage state did know how to support their families, and that individuals of the same Indians that had been subjugated in Paraguay lived an age before in a state of liberty, without knowing of such community of goods, without the necessity of being directed by any person, nor of being incited or forced to labour, and without a public storehouse or distribution of the harvest; and that, too, notwithstanding they had to support the charge of the commanderies that took the sixth part of their annual labour. It seems, then, they were not such children, nor were they so incapable as the Fathers tried to make them appear. But were such incapacity certain, from their not having sufficient time in a century and a half to correct such defects, one of the two following causes appears reasonable,—either the administration of the Jesuits was contrary to the civilization of the Indians, or they were such a people as were incapable of emerging from their primitive state of infancy.”

Previously to the foundation of the Jesuit reductions, posts had been established in various parts by the Spaniards for purposes of trade and local government. Several of these were in the neighbourhood of the Jesuits’ settlements. But the order would not tolerate the presence of Europeans near them. They complained in pathetic tones of the hardships endured by the natives at the hands of the avaricious Spanish superintendents, who not only exacted from them one-sixth part of their produce, but showed them a pernicious example in the way of morality, and thus interfered with the Jesuits’ religious teaching. These complaints having been forwarded to the court of Spain, the superintendents were withdrawn and their posts abolished, thus leaving the Jesuits in sole control of the territory of Misiones. This decision is the more remarkable, inasmuch as the Jesuits were not only not under Spanish rule, but were not even for the most part of the nation which had produced their founder. Nor did they pay tax or tribute to the crown.

But the exercise of absolute power within their own territory did not satisfy the ambitious order. They sought to make their influence felt and visible everywhere, and in so seeking paved the way for their downfall. Their first idea was to gain control over the rising generation by giving gratuitous instruction to the youth of wealthy families; and, warned by their previous experience, they prepared themselves against future reverses by raising from amongst their neophytes a very considerable standing army. They could at a very early period of their reign bring into the field a force of some seven thousand men.