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

by Robert Grant Watson

The Bishop of Buenos Ayres, who happened to be at that time at Asuncion, was now elected governor; but he was a mere instrument in the hands of the junta, and was compelled to sign sweeping acts of confiscation against the Jesuits and the Royalists. Realizing his false position, he thought fit to embark for Buenos Ayres to resume his episcopal duties. The rebels in Paraguay had again to deal with Zavala, who had recently been appointed President of the Audience of Charcas, and who now blockaded Paraguay on all sides. Taking with him six thousand trained troops from the missions, he advanced to the Tebicuri, and, meeting with no opposition, proceeded to Asuncion, where he was received with acclamations.

As Zavala’s rapid success had been gained by means of the Jesuits’ troops, it was but natural that the Fathers should follow in their wake. They were now more powerful and arrogant than ever, and it became pretty clear that it was their intention to reduce Asuncion and all Paraguay to the same state of blind obedience to their sway in which they held their missions. To contend against them so long as they retained the ear of the King was hopeless; and the Spanish colonists now undertook to enlighten their sovereign by exposing the false pretensions of the Fathers. The Jesuits were accused of a design of founding an empire, and they were shown to have created in South America a more absolute despotism than Europe had ever known.

The reign of the Jesuits, however, was then drawing to its close. Their expulsion from the Portuguese dominions has already been recorded, and it was not long before the Jesuits of Spain shared the fate which had befallen their brethren of Portugal and of France. We have here to review the circumstances of their expulsion from South America. Zeballas had been recalled from his high post on account of his sympathies with the devoted order.

1767.

However strong may have been the reasons for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, their suppression in South America, although it may have been a necessary sequence of the first measure, had certainly an air of gross ingratitude, and seemed likely considerably to diminish the Spanish power in its colonies. The Jesuits had been the means of greatly extending the Spanish territories in the interior, and had thereby prevented the Portuguese from securing to themselves a still larger portion of the centre of the continent. They had raised many thousands of native troops who had often done good service in Paraguay, and who had fought successfully against the Portuguese both on the Guaypore and at Colonia. They had likewise delivered the Spaniards of La Plata, Paraguay, and Tucuman from their formidable native enemies, whom they had been able to conciliate. The very latest Spanish successes in Rio Grande had been due in a great measure to their assistance.

But the expulsion of the Jesuits from their headquarters of Paraguay had been included in the plan of the King of Spain and his counsellors, and four days after the issue of the royal decree banishing the order from the mother country, a ship of war was despatched to the Plata, with orders to the Viceroy to take immediate measures for the simultaneous seizure of all the Jesuits within his jurisdiction. The Viceroy, Bucareli, who received his orders on the 7th of June 1767, lost no time in carrying them into execution. Without delay he despatched sealed instructions to the governors and local authorities within his Viceroyalty, which were not to be opened until the 21st of July. On the following day all Jesuits were to be seized in the name of the King and sent to Buenos Ayres.

It may here be of interest to give a short account of the condition in which the royal order found the “Reductions.” They were now beginning to recover from the evils which had fallen upon them owing to the Treaty of Limits. But on account of that blind measure, together with illness and a subsequent war, their numbers were now reduced from one hundred and forty-four thousand to one hundred thousand. The Fathers possessed large estates and many negro slaves, who are said to have been treated with every consideration. Whatever civilization penetrated into the interior of the country was through the Jesuits. For example, one Father Schmid instructed the Chiquitos not only in the common arts of life, but in working metals and making clocks. It is said that the Moxo and Paure missions displayed more civilization than did the important Spanish city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra; whilst to the Jesuits Cordova owes its press. The Jesuits of the Guaranís printed books in one of the “Reductions” before there was any printing press either in Cordova or in Buenos Ayres.

The news of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain became public in Buenos Ayres on the 3rd of July, being eighteen days before the time fixed upon for their arrest. Orders were therefore sent to the provinces to anticipate this measure; whilst the Fathers in the college at Buenos were made prisoners on the same night. Those nearest to that city soon shared the same fate; and in the following month the college at Cordova was likewise taken possession of, and its inmates sent to the capital, whilst their invaluable library was destroyed. Nowhere did the Viceroy’s troops meet with any resistance; and the captured Jesuits were transmitted to Spain in groups of some forty individuals, being thence sent on to the Papal States.

The Fathers of the Paraguayan missions, however, had still to be dealt with. Their first move was to cause an address to be signed by their Guaraní foremen, and to present it to the governor, praying that the Jesuits might continue to live with them. That this petition came from the Jesuits themselves, and not from the Indians, was apparent. Bucareli, accordingly, taking it as an indication that they did not mean to surrender without a struggle, took energetic measures to compel them to submit. Occupying the pass of Tebicuari, and sending a force to S. Miguel, he ascended the Uruguay at the head of a further force. By way of proving the worthlessness of the Guaraní petition on behalf of the Jesuits, he caused another document to be prepared and signed by the Indian judges and caciques of some thirty towns, expressing thankfulness to the King for having relieved them from their former arduous life. Whatever else these respective petitions may show, they certainly prove how thoroughly the Guaranís had learnt the lesson of implicit obedience to whatsoever instructions they might receive, irrespective of their convictions, if they had sufficient individuality left to possess any.

But by this time it was evident that resistance was hopeless. Many of the missions had fallen into the hands of the governor, and the Fathers did not venture to bring their disciples into the field. They were sent to Buenos Ayres, and shared the fate of their brethren who had preceded them. There was indeed no discretion left to the authorities in executing the measures for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions. One of the most able and conscientious of the number, the aged Father Chomé, being confined to his bed by illness, was carried from the Chiquito missions in a hammock to Oruro, where he died from the effects of the journey. Another missionary, Father Mesner, an old and infirm man, who had laboured for thirty years in the Chiquito “Reductions,” was sent on a journey of four hundred and fifty miles to Santa Cruz. After remaining there for five months, until the season for crossing the Andes had come, he was placed upon a mule, whilst riding upon which he died. It is right to add that the Spanish Minister, on learning these facts and others of a similar nature, indignantly reproved the South-American authorities for their inhumanity. In all one hundred and fifty-five Jesuits were expelled from La Plata, Tucuman, and Paraguay.