LETTERS ON PARAGUAY.
VOLUME IT.
LETTERS ON PARAGUAY:
COMPRISING
AN ACCOUNT OF A FOUR YEARS' RESIDENCE IN
THAT REPUBLIC,
UNUElt THE GOVERNMENT OF
THE DICTATOR FKANCIA.
BY
J. P. AND W. P. ROBERTSON.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1838.
LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and Sows.,
Starr. ford Street.
CONTENTS
THE SECOND VOLUME.
LETTER XXIX.
Page
Commissions for Paraguay — Carriage Equipment — and Tra-
velling— Arrival at San Lorenzo — A serious Alarm —
General San Martin — Battle of San Lorenzo . . 1
LETTER XXX,
Return to Assumption — Francia's Ascendancy — Arrest and
Banishment of Don Gregorio — The Compadre's De-
parture— Reception of the Buenos Ayres Envoy — Fran-
cia's Intrigues — The Congress of Paraguay — An Indian
Deputy — Dissolution of Congress — Francia is elected
First Consul — Anecdotes of Francia — His Change of
Manners— The Spaniards are prohibited from marrying
White Women — The Consul's Mode of equipping his
Troops ........ 17
LETTER XXXI.
THE JESUITS.
Sketch of their History— Their Traffic— Policy— Principles —
Cause of their Downfal — Expulsion — Francia's Opinion
on the subject— Their Wealth — Illustrated by a Statis-
tical Table of the Establishment of San Ignacio Mini —
Comments on this Wealth— Fraucia's Offer of Letters
Introductory to the Governors of Misiones — Remarks . 39
VI CONTENTS.
LETTER XXXII.
THE JESUITS.
Page
Difficulties which they had to encounter — the Paulistas or
Mamelukes — Establishment of the Colonies of Our Lady
of Loretto and of St. Ignatius — Their Abandonment and
Destruction — Perilous Adventures of the Colonists —
Their Re-establishment on the River Ybiqui, in Misiones
properly so called . . . . . .55
LETTER XXXIII.
THE JESUITS.
Their Mode of Government — Its first Principle — Second
Principle —Details — Details by Doblas— Third Prin-
ciple of Government — Community of Goods — Observa-
tions by Doblas on this subject . . . .66
LETTER XXXIV.
THE JESUITS MANNER OF THEIR EXPULSION.
Letter of Charles III. to Pope Clement XIII.— The Pope's
Reply — Advice of the King's Council — Clement XIII.
reprobates, Clement XIV. approves, the Conduct of the
Spanish King — Count Aranda's Instructions to the Vice-
rpy Bucareli — Bucareli's Measures — Result of them . 80
LETTER XXXV.
THE JESUITS.
State in which they left the Misiones — Causes of the Decay
of Misiones — 1st, Corruption — 2nd, Mai-administration
— Comparison between the Government of the Jesuits
and that of Spain — Statistical Table — Maladministra-
tion— Remarks of Doblas on this — Reflections — Con-
cluding Extract from Doblas 102
CONTENTS. Til
LETTER XXXVI.
THE JESUITS.
Page
Journey to Misiones— Pai Montiel, the hospitable Curate —
His Parishioners— The two Caciques— Towns on the
Route — Distance of the Journey — My Reception on the
Road — State of the Towns, generally — Candelaria, the
Capital of Misiones — Return to Assumption — Subse-
quent Ruin of Misiones 116
LETTER XXXVII.
THE YERBALES, OR WOODS OK THE PARAGUAY TEA.
Their Local — Men who worked in them — The Woods, Marshes,
&c. — Villa Real — Equipment for the Woods — Our Jour-
ney— Discovery of a Yerbal— Colonial Preparations —
The Tatacua— The Barbacua — Delivery of the Yerba —
The Packing — Process of collecting the Yerba — Patience
and Laboriousness of the Peons — Return to Assumption
— Nature and Results of the Operations in the Yerbales 134
LETTER XXXVIII.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE LETTERS OK W. P. R.
Departure for South America — Sailing from England in time
of War — Arrival at Madeira — Description of the Island
and Capital — Mr. Bellringer — Burriqueiros — Vicinity of
Funchal— The Vineyards 151
LETTER XXXIX.
A calm at Sea — Rio de Janeiro — The Commodore leaves
the Convoy to its Fate — Race for Buenos Ayres — Rats
on board of Ship — Striking upon Rocks — Exertion at
the Pumps — Cutting away of the Masts— The Wreck is
seen by Pharisees and Levites ; but passed by without
relief— Relieved at length by a Jew— Mr. Jacob, the
Good Samaritan . . 163
Vlll CONTENTS.
LETTER XL.
Page
Dismemberment of the Provinces of Rio de la Plata — General
Artigas — Journey to Santa F6 — The Major of Blanden-
gues — Thistles — Journey continued — Arrival at Santa
Fe — Artiguenos — Smoking — More of Candioti . .178
LETTER XLI.
Detention at Santa F6 — The Indians and their Caciques —
Plague of Locusts — Scarcity — A Price set upon the Head
of Artigas — Dinner given by the Governor — The Bis-
cachas — Departure for Assumption . . .193
LETTER XLII.
VOYAGE AQUAS ARRIBA.
Departure for Assumption — Hurricane in the Parana — Mode
of Navigation against the Stream — Discomforts of it —
Carneando, or procuring of Beef — Mosquitos — Winds —
The Vaqueano, or Pilot 204
LETTER XLIII.
Scenery of the Parana— Camelotes, or Floating Islands —
Landing on the Banks — The Crew of the Brigantine —
Amusements — Tigers — A domestic Tragedy — A long
Passage — Leaving the Brigantine — Landing at Cor-
rientes — A Perplexity — A fortunate Rencontre — M. Pe-
richon's Household 218
LETTER XLIV.
Political News — Leaving Corrientes— Its Hospitality — Paso
del Rey — Scenery of the Paso — Geronimo's Fears — Ar-
tiguenos— The Guard-house — Crossing the Parana —
Real Danger— Lost in a Wood — Tigers — The Curate of
Neembucu— Nightmare 235
CONTENTS. IX
LETTER XLV.
Page
Road by the Coast to Assumption— The Comandante's Let-
ter— Journey Coastwise — Loss and Recovery of my
Valize — Journey Coastwise continued — Arrival at As-
sumption ........ 252
LETTER XLVI.
J. P. R. RESUMES AND CONCLUDES.
Reading substituted for Society — Cervantes — A Paraguay
Shower-bath — An Arrival, and the Celebration of it —
The Dog Hero, a Pointer of the Malvinas, or Falkland
Islands Breed — Lord Byron's Dog Boatswain . .265
LETTER XLVI I.
Licence granted by the Consul to leave Paraguay — His
Motives for granting it — An important Audience —
Francia expatiates upon South America and a Union
between Paraguay and England — A curious Exhibition
— Francia's Oration — I am ordered to appear at the Bar
of the House of Commons — A Dilemma — Commissions
from the Consul — The Consul and his Chancellor of the
Exchequer — My second Departure from Paraguay . 277
LETTER XLVIII.
W. P. R. RESUMES.
Assumption — Kindly Intercourse with the Inhabitants — A
Monarchy and a Republic — Development of Francia's
Character — His Birth and Education — Formation of his
Character — Anecdotes of Francia — Summing up of his
Character . 291
X CONTENTS.
LETTER XLIX.
Page
ELECTION OF *RANCIA TO THE DICTATORSHIP.
His Initiatory Measures — Anecdote of Yegros, the Second
Consul — Francia's Manoeuvres — Institution of his Sys-
tem of Espionage — The Spy Orrego— Nature of my
Interviews with Francia — Tenor of his Conversation —
His Deportment to his Countrymen — His Habits —
Assembling of Congress — Members of it — The City
Members — The County ones — Meeting of Congress —
A Guard of Honour furnished — Francia elected Dic-
tator 303
LETTER L.
To OUR READERS 323
APPENDIX . 330
LETTERS ON PARAGUAY.
LETTER XXIX.
To J- - G , ESQ.
Commissions for Paraguay — Carriage equipment — and travelling
— Arrival at San Lorenzo — A serious alarm — General San
Martin — Battle of San Lorenzo.
London, 1838.
AFTER spending a month in Buenos Ayres, and
making arrangements there for more extended
operations to Paraguay, I prepared to return to
that country. I had in the meantime, however,
a great many commissions to execute for my
friends. Don Gregorio, first on the list of these,
wanted a cocked-hat, a capote, or cloak, a dress
sword, and half a-dozen pair of silk stockings.
Don Fulgencio Yegros, the president of the junta,
wanted abundance of gold lace, a pair of epau-
lettes, and an English saddle. General Caval-
lero wanted a white hat, and a military coat, cut
to measure by a Buenos Ayres tailor. Doctor
Mora wanted a number of law books; and Doctor
Bargas a new pig-tail, and an embroidered waist-
VOL. II. B
"2 COMMISSIONS FOR PARAGUAY.
coat. Even Doctor Francia wanted a telescope,
an air-pump, and an electrifying machine. The
wives and comadres of all these wanted things
innumerable : fashionable dresses, shawls, shoes,
and blonde. I have heard of a person who on
receiving numerous commissions of a similar
kind, took them all to the azotea, or flat roof of
his house, on a windy day. On the papers which
came " accompanied by a remittance,'* he placed
the ounces of gold sent for the purchases re-
quired. These commissions being proof against
the wind, remained in their places, and were exe-
cuted. The others, which were unaccompanied
by the necessary means for purchase, were left to
the mercy of the elements, and of course blown
away. But in my case, I had received from my
Paraguay friends so many substantial favours,
that I exposed their orders to no such test. I
labelled them all, and executed them most punc-
tually. My apartments were lumbered with
bandboxes, and deal boxes; with parcels, pack-
ages, and bales of every size and shape : so that
when I was about to start, the difficulty was to
contrive how I should carry them over the Pam-
pas. This difficulty, together with a latent de-
CARRIAGE EQUIPMENT. 3
sire for a more comfortable conveyance to Santa
Fe, than that on horseback, suggested the idea
of a carriage. I have already described to you
the two other modes of travelling to Paraguay,
viz., by the river, and on horseback; and I shall
now shortly depict to you the more comfortable
one than either, that of making the journey in a
four-wheeled conveyance of one's own.
Early in the morning of the day appointed for
setting off, there was drawn up to the door a
vehicle which had all the appearance of a moving
wigwam, or hide hut. It was an old-fashioned,
high-roofed, lumbering Spanish carriage, covered
over with untanned hide, except at the two little
apertures, called windows. There was ample
room in it for stowage ; and as I knew there
were no hotels on the road, everything which
could conduce to comfort was (nautically speak-
ing) stowed away in the ample lockers. To pro-
vide for the wants of a carriage journey across
the Pampas, not much less preparation is re-
quired than for a voyage by sea. Hams, tongues,
champagne, port, claret, cold fowls, cheese,
pickles, and brandy, were all put up as necessary
provision for the road. A batterie de cuisine
B2
4 CARRIAGE EQUIPMENT.
was accommodated on the cumbrous vehicle ;
and then, into a large sort of hide bag. swung
underneath it, were put many of the commissions
and presents I had for Paraguay. Others were
packed on the top of the coach, and some dangled
by its side. Even thus, we were not so lumbered
as those conveyances which, though so fearfully
overladen in this country, are, with no small lati-
tude of jockey phraseology, called light stage
coaches. If it be recollected, however, that in
my coach I was to travel over a vast plain, on
which were neither roads nor bridges ; that I
was to be dragged through pantanos (or quag-
mires), and almost literally to sail over rivers,
it will not be considered that it was too lightly
laden.
After the wheelers had been placed in the car-
riage, under the guidance of a coachman*, up
came four ill-clad Gaucho postilions, each on
his horse, with no other apparatus, in the shape
of harness, than a laso. This was attached by
one end to the girth of his saddle, and hooked
* The cochero, as he is called, is the chief postilion. He ma-
nages the two wheelers, while four postilions under his ciders
rule the other four hcrses used.
CARRIAGE TRAVELLING. O
on at another to the pole of the carriage. The
heads of the two horses between the wheelers
and the leaders were at least ten feet from those
of the former ; while the heads of the latter
stretched away fifteen feet beyond those of the
pair behind them. Altogether, the heads of the
leaders were forty feet from the hind wheels of
the vehicle. Preposterous as this mode of travel-
ling may appear, we soon experienced the benefit
of it ; for scarcely had we reached the outskirts
of the town, when we came to one of those fearful
bogs, or pantanos. They are masses of thick
mud from three to three and a half feet deep,,
and from thirty to fifty feet across. The leaders
plunged into the bog ; then followed the second
pair ; and both these being at the other side of
it, and consequently upon firm ground, before
the carriage entered the quagmire, they had
gained a footing on which to put forward their
strength. Under the lash and spur, and cheered
on by the shouting of the postilions, the horses
dragged us triumphantly through the pantano.
Had the harness been shorter, we must have
remained a fixture in the mire. It was in this
way that we successfully crossed all the bogs,
6 CARRIAGE TRAVELLING.
marshes, and rivulets which intervene between
Buenos Ayres and Santa Fe. When no such
obstructions occurred, we crossed the plain at a
hand-gallop, and at the rate of twelve miles an
hour. Many of the horses which drew us along
had never been in harness before ; and dire was
the plunging fo which they had often recourse,
before they would proceed with so strange and
unaccustomed a drag as our lumbering coach.
But I never, in one instance, saw the postilion
mastered by the horse. After a struggle of
longer or shorter duration, the latter was inva-
riably obliged to give in and proceed. He then
galloped, for five or six miles, at such speed, and
in such a fright and fume, that his courage was
damped, and he proceeded to the end of the
stage at his rider's own pace. He was then
considered as broken in for future post travel-
ling. In this way I proceeded, making the car-
riage at once my dining, sleeping, and dressing
room. With the appurtenances which I carried
de cuisine, and a servant who acted as cook, I
found the journey much more tolerable than any
I had hitherto made. At the different post-
houses at which we stopped to change, I got
ARRIVAL AT SAN LORENZO. 7
plenty of game. The partridge, large and small,
was abundant, generally not more than a few
hundred yards from the door.
On the evening of the fifth day, we reached
the post-house of San Lorenzo, distant about
two leagues from a monastery of that name, built
on the banks of the Parana, which are there pro-
digiously high and precipitous. Here we were
informed that orders had been received to allow
no passengers to proceed beyond that point, not
only because it was unsafe from the proximity of
the enemy, but because the horses were all re-
quired to be kept at the government's disposal,
and ready at a moment's warning, either to be
driven into the interior, or used on active service.
I had feared some such interruption all the way,
for we knew that the Marines were in consider-
able force in the river somewhere ; and when I
remembered my delinquency in breaking their
blockade, I was anxious to fall into the hands of
any party rather than theirs. But here we were,
and there was no moving either backward or
forward. All I could get the postmaster to agree
to was, that if the Marinos should make a de-
scent upon the coast, I should have two horses
ARRIVAL AT SAN LORENZO.
for myself and servant, and be at liberty to mi-
grate with his family into the interior, where
they knew the enemy could not follow them. In
that direction, however, they assured me the
danger arising from the Indians was as great as
any to be apprehended from the Marines; so
that Scylla and Charybdis lay fairly within my
view. I had now seen sufficient of South Ame-
rica, however, not to be dismayed by prospective
dangers. Before undressing for bed I made my
bargain with the postmaster, and when it was
closed I retired to the carriage, which I con-
verted into my abode for the night, and soon
fell fast asleep.
Not many hours afterwards, I was awakened
out of my sound repose by the trampling of
horses, clanking of sabres, and rough accents of
military command all around the post-house.
I saw dimly developed, in the midst of the dark
night, the swarthy countenances of two very
rough-looking troopers, at each window of the
carriage. I made no doubt I was in the hands
of the Marines. " Who is here ?" authoritatively
said one of them. « A traveller," I replied, — not
choosing at once to mark myself out as a vie-
A SERIOUS ALARM. 9
tim by confessing that I was an Englishman.
te Make haste/' said the same voice, " and come
out." At this moment, there came up to the
window a person whose features I could not in
the dark recognise, but whose voice I was sure I
knew, as he said to the men " Don't be rude ; it
is no enemy, but only, as the post-master informs
me, an English gentleman travelling to Para-
guay." The men retired, and the officer came
close up to the window. Dimly as I could then
discern his fine prominent features, yet combin-
ing the outlines of them with his voice, I said,
" Surely you are Colonel * San Martin, and if it
be so, behold here is your friend Mr. Robertson."
The recognition was instant, mutual, and cordial;
and he got a hearty laugh, when I described to
him the fright into which I had been thrown, by
taking his troops for a body of Marines. The
colonel then informed me the government had
got positive information that it was the inten-
tion of the Spanish Marine force to land that
very morning ; to pillage the adjoining country ;
and especially to sack the Monastery of San
* San Martin, at that time, was only colonel.
u3
10 COLONEL SAN MARTIN.
Lorenzo. He added, that, to prevent this, he
had been detached with one hundred and fifty
granaderos a cavallo, or mounted grenadiers of
his own regiment : that he had ridden (travelling
chiefly by night, in order to elude observation)
in three nights from Buenos Ayres. He said he
was sure the Marinos knew nothing of his ap-
proach ; and that within a very few hours he
expected to come in contact with them. " They
have double our numbers," added the gallant
colonel; " but I don't think, for all that, they
will have the best of the day."
" I am sure they will not," said I ; and forth-
with alighting, I began, with the servant, to
grope about for wine, wherewith to refresh my
most welcome guests. San Martin had given
orders that all the lights at the post-house should
be extinguished, to prevent the chance of the
Marines observing them, and so getting informa-
tion that an enemy was near. We managed,
however, very well, to drink our wine in the dark,
and it was literally a stirrup-glass ; for every man
of the little band stood by the side of his already-
saddled horse, and prepared to proceed, at the
word of command, to the hoped-for scene of
BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO. 1 1
action. I had no difficulty in persuading the
general to allow me to accompany him to the
monastery. " Only mind," said he, " that it is
neither your duty nor your business to fight.
I will give you a good horse, and if you see
the day going against us, be off at your speed.
You know sailors are no horsemen." To this
admonition I promised obedience; and, accept-
ing his proffered tender of an excellent horse, and
duly appreciating his consideration in regard to
me, I rode by the side of San Martin, as he moved
onward at the head of his men in dark and silent
phalanx.
Just before the dawn of day began to peep, we
reached, by a gateway on that side of the build-
ing which looked from the river, the monastery of
San Lorenzo. It was interposed between the Pa-
rand and the Buenos Ayres troops, and screened
all their movements from the view of the enemy.
The three sides of the convent that were visible
from the river appeared to be deserted ; the
windows were all shut, and everything was just
in the state in which the affrighted monks, in
their precipitate retreat a few days before, might
be supposed to have left it. It was behind the
12 BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO.
fourth side, and through the gate leading from it
into the quadrangle and cloisters, that the pre-
parations were made for the work of death.
Through this gate San Martin silently marched
his men ; and when he had drawn them up in two
squadrons inside of the square, they reminded
me, as the rays of morning scarcely yet reached
the gloomy cloisters among which they stood,
of the band of Grecians shut up in the womb
of the wooden horse so fatal to the fortunes of
Troy.
The gate was shut, that no chance passer-
by might see what was going on within. Colonel
San Martin, accompanied by two or three of his
officers and myself, ascended the turret of the
monastery, and by the aid of a night glass,
through a small postern window, endeavoured
to make out the force and movements of the
enemy.
Every moment gave clearer evidence of his
intention to land ; and as soon as it was broad day-
light, we discerned him busy embarking his men
in boats from the seven vessels of which his force
was composed. We could distinctly count about
three hundred and twenty sailors and marines
BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO. 13
land at the foot of the cliff, and prepare to march
up the long winding path, which afforded the
only communication between the monastery and
the river. It was evident, from the careless way
in which the enemy marched up the road, that he
was unaware of any preparations made to receive
him ; but San Martin and his officers descended
from the turret, and having made all ready for
an encounter, took their respective posts in the
court below. The men were then marched out
of the quadrangle, and stationed, entirely unper-
ceived, each squadron behind one of the wings of
the building.
San Martin came once more up to the tower ;
and, stopping scarcely a moment, ran down again,
after saying to me, " Now, in two minutes more,
we shall be upon them, sword in hand." It was
a moment of intense anxiety to me. San Martin
had given orders to his men not to fire a shot.
The enemy seemed under my feet, certainly not
more than a hundred yards off. His colours were
gaily flying, his drums and fifes were playing a
march of quick time ; when, in an instant, and at
full speed, the two squadrons of horse debouched
from behind the convent, and flanking the enemy
14 BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO.
on each wing, commenced with their glittering
sabres a slaughter which was instantaneous and
frightful. San Martin's troops only received one
volley, but that a very random one, from the
enemy ; for, close to him as the cavalry were, only
five men of them fell in the onset upon the ma-
rines. All the rest was rout, havoc, and dismay
among that devoted body. Pursuit, slaughter,
triumph followed the assault of the troops of Bue-
nos Ayres. The fate of the battle, even to an
untutored eye like mine, was not for three minutes
doubtful. The charge of the two squadrons in-
stantly broke the enemy's ranks, and from that
moment the gleaming sabres performed the work
of death so rapidly, that in a quarter of an hour
the ground was strewed with the wounded and
the slain.
One little troop of Spaniards had hurried to
the nearest point of the towering cliff; and there,
seeing in close pursuit of them a dozen of San
Martin's grenadiers, precipitated themselves over
the Barranca, and were dashed to pieces at the
bottom. It was in vain that the officer in charge
of the party called out to them to surrender, and
they should be spared. Their panic had com-
BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO.
15
pletely superseded the use of their reason ; and,
instead of surrendering as prisoners of war, they
took the frightful leap which hurried them into
another world, and gave their dead bodies to be
food for the vultures on that day.
Of the whole body of men which landed, not
above fifty escaped to their vessels. The others
were all either killed or wounded, while San Mar-
tin lost only eight men in the encounter.
A nervous excitement, arising out of the pain-
ful novelty of the scene, soon became my predo-
minant feeling; and I was very glad to quit the still
reeking field of action. I begged of San Martin,
therefore, to take my wine and provisions for the
benefit of the wounded men of both parties ; and,
bidding him a hearty adieu, I quitted the scene of
action, with regret for the slaughter, but admi-
ration of his coolness and intrepidity.
This battle (if battle it can be called) was, in
its consequences, of great benefit to all those who
were connected with Paraguay ; for the Marines
took their departure from the River Parana, and
were never afterwards able to enter it for the
purpose of committing hostilities.
Having already gone into full details, as well
16 BATTLE OF SAN LORENZO.
about Santa Fe, the Baxada, Goya, Corrientes,
Estancias, &c. &c., as about the journey from
the former place to Assumption, I shall simply
say, that I once more reached that capital, in a
month after the battle of San Lorenzo.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
17
LETTER XXX.
To J G , ESQ.
Return to Assumption — Francia's Ascendancy — Arrest and Ba-
nishment of Don Gregorio — The Compadre's Departure —
Reception of the Buenos Ayres' Envoy — Francia's In-
trigues— The Congress of Paraguay — An Indian Deputy —
Dissolution of Congress — Francia is elected First Consul —
Anecdotes of Francia — His change of Manners— The Spa-
. niards are prohibited from marrying white Women — The
Consul's Mode of equipping his Troops.
London, 1838.
ON my return to Assumption in 1813, though. I
had been absent not quite six months, I found
the Government of Yegros tottering to its fall.
The star of Francia was so high in the ascendant,
that everybody was now openly paying court to
him, pretty much in the fashion in which, under
similar circumstances, the same thing is done
everywhere else. For myself, I delivered all my
presents, and refused any remuneration for them ;
I entirely eschewed politics ; neither much con-
gratulated Francia on his prospects, nor con-
doled with Yegros on his ; but I remained, with
18 THE BUENOS AYRES' ENVOY.
both, on the good old terms of easy and occa-
sional intercourse. I hoped, in this way, to main-
tain my character for neutrality ; and to shelter
myself, in the privacy of my own concerns, from
the storm that was overhanging the political
horizon.
It happened about this time, that an Envoy of
the name of Don Nicolas Herrera was despatched
from Buenos Ayres, to endeavour to arrange a
treaty of amity and commerce with Paraguay.
This was the signal for Francia's being recalled
to power. No one thought that the affairs of the
country were safe in other hands than his, nor
that anybody but he had sufficient political saga-
city to frame a treaty with a foreign state. Buenos
Ayres, in consequence of the odium artfully ex-
cited against it by Francia, began to be consi-
dered not only as a foreign power, but as one of
which the policy was at direct variance with the
best interests of Paraguay. Mora, one of the
members of the junta, was civilly dismissed ; while
a less enviable fate overtook my poor friend, Don
Gregorio. He was arrested, and ordered to quit
the country in eight days. He was too clever
and popular to be longer tolerated in the same
ARREST OF DON GREGORIO. 19
place with the haughty doctor. Francia filled up
the vacancies thus created in the junta, by be-
coming himself at once a member of it, and its
assessor ; with power, as everybody at the time
understood, and very soon afterwards saw, to do
just what he pleased.
The first ominous instance of the chilling au-
thority which he had almost imperceptibly ac-
quired, was exemplified by the treatment of Don
Gregorio, the universal compadre, the zealous
friend, the powerful patron, of almost all the
principal people of Assumption. They one and all
deserted him ; not, certainly, because in his mis-
fortune they esteemed him less, but because
they esteemed their own safety more. Such were
the fears which they had already begun to enter-
tain of the ruthless and jealous temper of the
restored member of the junta, Francia.
Confiding, however, in my privilege of neu-
trality ; feeling grateful for the many favours I
had received at the hands of the proscribed man ;
struck by seeing, for the first time in my life,
from so close a view, the idol of yesterday become
the cast-away of to-day; convinced, moreover,
that Francia could have no fears of any political
20 ARREST AND
intrigue on my part, I waited on him ; and, so
far to his honour at this incipient point of his
career, I have to record an instance of permitted
intercession, which was never, even indirectly,
tolerated in the latter part of his cruel reign.
Having detailed to him my motives for desiring
to be permitted to visit Don Gregorio during the
eight days of his confinement, and to minister as
well to his present comforts as to his wants for
his voyage, Francia gave me permission to do
both. The sentinels who guarded his prisoner
were ordered to allow me ingress to him. I then
told Dr. Francia, that I presumed I might be
permitted to console Don Gregorio by being
allowed to become the medium of communication
between him and his comadres. Smiling at the
allusion, Francia said to me — " Mr. Robertson,
do what you please in the way of go-between in
this case. Don Gregorio has too many comadres,
and pays too much attention to them, ever to be
a formidable rival of mine : besides, he is a Cor-
dovez, and a charlatan ; and the Paraguayans
hate both. I think it proper to send him out of
the way, because he had the impudence, on my
leaving the government, to take the assessorship
BANISHMENT OF DON GREGORIO. 21
of it, knowing that I both hated and despised
him. But go,, in the meantime, and do what you
will. Only let him beware how he ever again sets
foot in Paraguay, even to revisit his comadres."
There was a sarcastic sneer upon Francia's
countenance as he uttered these words. It not
only spoke volumes, to me, of his inflexible cha-
racter, but made me take the first opportunity
I had of imploring Don Gregorio not to put it to
the test. I found my poor friend utterly cast
down, and all but inconsolable, till I delivered to
him the more pleasing portions of Francia's speech.
It is unnecessary to say how my visits, when Cerda
had, and could have, no other companion, alle-
viated his solitude; and it is altogether impos-
sible to tell how the many kind notes, and the
presents which I brought from his comadres,
lighted up his eye, and cheered him under the
grief of his approaching exile.
At length he embarked with everything he
could possibly desire ; but notwithstanding this,
his sighs and sorrow prevailed, till, as he moved
down the stream, from the place in which all the
tender chords of his heart had vibrated for many
years to the sympathies of hundreds around him,
22 RECEPTION OF THE BUENOS AYRES' ENVOY.
the kind and expatriated compadre and assessor
gave vent to his grief in an unrestrained flood of
tears.
Having now evidently determined to get rid
of all competitors for power, and the epoch ap-
proaching for the decision of the questions which
the Buenos Ay res' Envoy was to open, Francia
made all affected haste to call a Congress of
Deputies, which, from the different sections of
Paraguay, should assemble within three months
at Assumption.
In the meantime arrives Mr. Herrera, the Bue-
nos Ayres' ambassador. He is lodged in the old
custom-house, at once under the surveillance and
stewardship of the collector of customs. He re-
mains a week there, dining by himself, before he
has an interview with a single member of the
government; suspicion and vigilance attend his
every step ; he hears vague rumours of danger
to his person, and sees indubitable indications of
the folly of hoping for any alliance with a country
over which, even now, Francia exercised so potent
a sway.
All these results had been silently and cau-
tiously wrought out by that man's hidden and
FRANCIA'S INTRIGUES. 23
unwearied intrigue, or by his uncompromising
declarations to his creatures, that so he would
have it. He imbued the lower classes (of which
seven-eighths of the deputies to Congress were
to be composed) with a suspicion, deep and
strong, that the only object of Buenos Ayres in
sending an ambassador to Paraguay was that of
subjecting it to her own ambitious views, and of
embroiling it in her own revolutionary principles,
for the promotion of her own treacherous ends.
The time intermediate between the issuing of
the writs for election of the deputies to Congress,
and of their meeting in the capital, Francia suc-
cessfully employed in encouraging and increasing
the enmity of his countrymen to Buenos Ayres.
He gained over to his interest the officers in com-
mand of the troops, and made himself personally
and familiarly acquainted with the humblest de-
puty that came into town. The wily doctor
flattered the vanity, and stimulated the cupidity
of them all. The Indian alcalde, the small
farmer, the cattle-grazier, the petty shop-keeper,
the more wealthy merchant, and the substantial
hacendado, all became his prey. By large and
undefined promises of protection and encourage-
24 THE CONGRESS OF PARAGUAY.
ment to the order of men to which they respect-
ively belonged ; by one delay after another, never
appearing to originate with Francia, he fostered
the ambition of aspirants to power, and pro-
tracted the meeting of Congress for two months
beyond the appointed time. All this took place
after every deputy had arrived in Assumption.
Francia had thus an opportunity, not only of
increasing adherents, fortifying converts, and
deciding waverers, but of entailing upon the im-
poverished deputies such inconvenience and ex-
pense, as needed scarcely the aid of the Consul's
suggestions to determine them to come to a final
settlement of all their business, on the first day
of the meeting of the Congress.
Such a motley group of national representa-
tives was never, perhaps, before assembled to
deliberate, or rather to decide without deliber-
ation, on the fate of a nation.
Here was a " tape * " Indian alcalde, with an
antiquated three-cornered cocked hat, and an old
* The Indian called <s tape" is one who, with others of his
tribe, has been located, under Spanish dominion, in some wretched
village of mud huts, with the prhilege of appointing their own
local magistrates, under the superintendency of a couple of friars.
THE INDIAN DEPUTY. 25
red or brown wig that had been worn under the
said hat from its earliest days. The latter, too,
was rather brown, but so well adorned with
ribands, red, blue, yellow, pink, that not much
of the real colour was discernible. Black velvet
breeches, open at the knees, with silver buttons in
long and close array, and a finely embroidered
pair of drawers hanging out under them,, like the
ruffles of a gentleman's shirt from under his coat-
sleeves, were supported by a red sash tied round
the waist. To correspond with this, the alcalde
had garters of the same hue tied in visible
display round discoloured silk stockings ; and
large silver shoe- buckles completed this part of
his attire.
His horse was caparisoned in a fashion no less
unique. The ribands upon his tail, mane, ears,
and pendent from the peaks of an antiquated
court-saddle, covered with what had once been
red or blue velvet, streamed in variegated luxu-
riance from each and every point.
Mounted upon a charger thus adorned and
trained to dance, the Indian alcalde with a brass,
and sometimes gold-headed cane, emblematic of
his civic authority, would ever and anon set forth
VOL. II. C
26 THE INDIAN DEPUTY.
to parade the streets, pending the obstacles and
delay which preceded the actual meeting of the
Congress. His horse, attended by two pages,
one on either side of the now mounted deputy,
and both as much in want of the mere decencies
of dress as their master abounded in the super-
fluity of it, began a little preliminary dance ;
while the musicians, no better arrayed than the
pages, essayed to play the overture of a tune to
which the procession was to move on. The al-
calde's friends and dependents kept assembling
on horseback during this overture ; and with such
remnants of court finery as they could borrow
from the priest, or gather from the debris of their
chiefs decorations, — an odd bit of riband, parts
of the alcalde's Sunday- suit, a red handkerchief
bought expressly for the occasion, a small hat,
and a poncho, did a follower of the first rank
fall into the procession. The gradations of im-
portance of those who followed him were easily
to be inferred by persons skilled in Indian cos-
tume, from the gradual diminution as you de-
scended the scale of rank of some courtly badge
or ornamental device.
Thus escorted, the deputy moved on, till he
DISSOLUTION OF CONGRESS. 27
came in front of the Government House, where
Carai Francia was. Increasing there the rigidity
of his upright posture on horseback, with his
eyes immoveably fixed on his horse's ears, he
gave the Carai a horse- dance, a calabash- tune,
and finally made his reverential act of obeisance.
All this he performed on horseback, and then
took his departure in the same dancing, though
slow and measured, solemnity of state, in which
he had arrived in front of the Consul's window.
Processions of this kind, some of a better, but
none of a less grotesque class, as you advanced
from the Indian deputy to the more considerable
landholder, crowded the streets during the time
that elapsed between the assembling of the de-
puties and the actual meeting of the Congress.
It may be conceived with what anxious desire
this meeting was expected by the members elect,
all more or less encumbered with attendants,
away from their families, and short of money,
house-room, and provisions. When at last the
day of meeting was by Francia permitted to arrive,
that which every one had anticipated took place.
In a few hours after Congress met, the day's deli-
berations were closed by a rejection of all pro-
c 2
28 FRANCIA IS ELECTED FIRST CONSUL.
posals for an amicable intercourse with Buenos
Ayres. Then, one of Francia's colleagues in
the government, Cavallero, was dismissed, and
Francia was elected First Consul, with Yegros
(a mere cipher), as second, for one year. This
was in 1814; and the burlesque of national re-
presentation being performed, the Buenos Ayres
deputy left Assumption in fear and trembling
the next day; the congregational body dissolved
itself; and curates, country-gentlemen, Yerba
collectors, wood-cutters, Indian alcaldes, shop-
keepers, lawyers, traders, all joyfully resigned
their legislative functions. Every man arose
and saddling his beast, took his way to his re-
spective home.
From this moment Francia became de facto
the absolute and undisputed despot. Yet did
he not institute his system of terror all at
once. It was by gradual process and slow de-
grees that his heart got chilled, and that his
measures, first characterised by callousness, be-
came at length stained with blood. As he ad-
vanced to the plenitude of his power, and as his
fear of impunity diminished, his character, natu-
rally stern, waxed ferocious. No " compunctious
ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA. 29
visitings of nature" stopped the cruelty of his
course ; till, step by step, he reduced unhappy
Paraguay to the state of desolation and slavery
under which it now groans.
The following anecdotes will tend to show what
was the basis of Francia' s character ; and sub-
sequent records will elucidate how easily stern
integrity may turn to sullen despotism ; inflexible
determination be warped to unrelenting barba-
rity,
It has been already observed that Francia's
reputation, as a lawyer, was not only unsullied
by venality, but conspicuous for rectitude.
He had a friend in Assumption of the name
of Domingo Rodriguez. This man had cast a
covetous eye upon Naboth's vineyard, and this
Naboth, of whom Francia was the open enemy,
was called Estanislao Machain. Never doubt-
ing that the young doctor, like other lawyers,
would undertake his unrighteous cause, Rodri-
guez opened up to him his case, and requested,
with a handsome retainer, his advocacy of it
Francia saw at once that his friend's pretensions
were founded in fraud and injustice ; and he not
only refused to act as his counsel, but plainly
30 ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA.
told him that much as he hated his antagonist
Machain, yet if he (Rodriguez) persisted in his
iniquitous suit, that antagonist should have his
(Francia's) most zealous support. But covetous-
ness, as Ahab's story shows us, is not so easily
driven from its pretensions ; and in spite of
Francia's warning, Rodriguez persisted. As he
was a potent man, in point of fortune, all was
going against Machain and his devoted vineyard.
At this stage of the question, Francia wrapped
himself up one night in his cloak, and walked
to the house of his inveterate enemy, Machain.
The slave who opened the door, knowing that
his master and the doctor, like the houses of
Montagu and Capulet, were smoke in each other's
eyes, refused the lawyer admittance, and ran to
inform his master of the strange and unexpected
visit. Machain, no less struck by the circum-
stance than his slave, for some time hesitated ;
but at length determined to admit Francia. In
walked the silent doctor to Machain's chamber.
All the papers connected with the law-plea, —
voluminous enough I have been assured, — were
outspread upon the defendant's escritoire.
" Machain," said the lawyer, addressing him,
ANECDOTES OF FRANC1A. 31
" you know I am your enemy. But I know that
my friend Rodriguez meditates, and will cer-
tainly, unless I interfere, carry against you an
act of gross and lawless aggression ; I have come
to offer my services in your defence."
The astonished Machain could scarcely credit
his senses ; but poured forth the ebullition of his
gratitude in terms of thankful acquiescence.
The first " escrito," or writing, sent in by
Francia to the Juez de Alzada, or Judge of the
Court of Appeal, confounded the adverse advo-
cates, and staggered the judge, who was in their
interest. " My friend," said the judge to the
leading counsel, " I cannot go forward in this
matter, unless you bribe Dr. Francia to be silent."
" I will try," replied the advocate, and he went
to Naboth's counsel with a hundred doubloons
(about three hundred and fifty guineas), which
he offered him as a bribe to let the cause take its
iniquitous course. Considering, too, that his
best introduction would be a hint that this dou-
ceur was offered with the judge's concurrence,
the knavish lawyer hinted to the upright one
that such was the fact.
" Saiga V.," said Francia, " con sus viles pen-
32 ANECDOTES OF FRANC1A.
samientos, y vilisimo oro de mi casa." " Out with
your vile insinuations, and dross of gold from my
house."
Off marched the venal drudge of the unjust
judge ; and in a moment, putting on his capote,
the offended advocate went to the residence of
the Juez de Alzada. Shortly relating what had
passed between himself and the myrmidon, —
" Sir," continued Francia, " you are a disgrace
to law, and a blot upon justice. You are, more-
over, completely in my power ; and unless to-
morrow I have a decision in favour of my client,
I will make your seat upon the bench too hot
for you, and the insignia of your judicial office
shall become the emblems of your shame."
The morrow did bring a decision in favour of
Francia's client. Naboth retained his vineyard ;
the judge lost his reputation ; and the young
doctor's fame extended far and wide.
Alas ! that an action so magnanimous in itself
should be blighted by the record which historical
truth exacts, — that no sooner had Francia vin-
dicated the law and justice of his enemy's case,
than old antipathy revived ; and one of the many
victims, at a subsequent period, of the Dictator's
ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA. 33
displeasure, was the very Machain whom he had
so nobly served.
On occasion of the installation of the junta
which superseded^ in Paraguay, the authority
of Spain, the question was agitated by a num-
ber of the first citizens convened for the pur-
pose in the Government House, as to whether
the government of the country should be carried
on in the name of Ferdinand VII. Francia,
whose mind was made up that it should not,
entered the hall of deliberation at the warmest
period of the debate. Walking up to the table,
and taking his place beside several government
functionaries, he calmly laid a pair of loaded
pistols before him, and said, " These are the
arguments which I bring against the supremacy
of Fernando Septimo." From so daring and
practical an argument there was no appeal ;
and Francia thus, as it were, at the cannon's
mouth, forced his countrymen into the first
direct declaration in South America, of absolute
independence of Old Spain.
No sooner, by the tumultuous and unanimous
voice of Congress, was Francia seated in the first
Consular chair, than his air gradually gathered
c3
34 DECREE AGAINST THE SPANIARDS.
more of austerity; his measures were more di-
vested of conciliation ; his address became more
abrupt, his tone more imperative; and it was
evident to me, as well as to many others, that
he was already beginning to lift the mask which
he had too long reluctantly allowed to cover his
ambitious projects and designs. One ominous
feature of despotism now began to display itself
in Paraguay : every man feared to open his
lips to another on politics. Among the first
of Francia's legislative enactments was one of
singular degradation to the old Spaniards.
There had been some vague rumours, when
the Consul was living in retirement, that he was
less inimical to the Spaniards than was generally
supposed. These rumours were circulated by
his political opponents ; and in order, not only
to silence them on this subject, but to teach the
Spaniards how little reason they had to congra-
tulate themselves on the report, maliciously
spread, that he was their friend, he decreed that
within the territory of Paraguay they should
not be allowed to contract marriage, except with
negresses and mulattoes. If bitterly to mortify
the proud natives of Old Spain, men who had
DECREE AGAINST THE SPANIARDS. 35
hitherto looked down upon the best American
blood as only uncontaminated in so far as it was
mixed with their own, were Francia's aim, as doubt-
less it was, the plan he selected was most effectual.
The decree (or bando), published by sound of
drum and fife, came upon them like a thunder-
clap ; but although they felt so keenly this attempt
to degrade them, they were forced to restrain
every expression of indignation or even of chagrin.
Nor were the white and pure-blooded ladies of
Assumption less mortified than the Spaniards:
for not only were many marriages with them
on the tapis, but it had ever been considered
by the highest-bred damsels of the place a much
greater honour to be wedded to a Galician shop-
keeper, than to a Paraguay gentleman.
Meantime my intercourse with the Consul not
only continued, but increased. I had frequent
citations to attend him at the Government House,
or, as it was officially styled, Palace. Our inter-
views were always in the evening, and were some-
times protracted till eleven o'clock. Francia's
greatest pleasure consisted in talking about the
" War Department ;" and he would go into the
most absurd minutiae with a positively childish
36 MODE OF EQUIPPING THE TROOPS.
delight. On one occasion the gunsmith came
in with three or four old muskets repaired.
Francia held them up one by one to his shoulder,
and pointing them, as in the act of firing, drew
the trigger. When the flint struck good fire,
the Consul was charmed,, and said to me, " What
do you think, Mr. "Robertson, will my muskets
carry a ball to the heart of my enemies ?"
Next, the master tailor presented himself with
a tight fit for a grenadier recruit. The man for
whom the coat was made being ordered in, and
stripped to try it on, got at length, after some
awkward attempts, his arms into it. The fit
was not a very soldier-like one in my eyes ; for
I thought the high waist, and the short — the very
short — tails of Francia's grenadier coat rather
uncouth. Still it was a fit, according to the
Consul's fancy, and he praised the tailor, and
told the soldier to mind how he ever got a
stain, or " mancha," upon it. Nodding to me,
he then said in French, " C'est un calem-
bourg, Monsieur Robertson, qu'ils ne compren-
dent pas."
Last of all, came in two sturdy mulattoes, one
with a grenadier's bearskin cap, and another
MODE OF EQUIPPING THE TROOPS.
37
with brown belts and cartouche box. They were
all fitted on the martyr of a soldier, into whose
hands, finally, Francia put one of the muskets.
He then said, " There, Mr. Robertson, this is the
style in which every one of my grenadiers shall
be equipped." Such exhibitions as these were
of frequent recurrence, and they always elicited
glee and good humour from Francia. His grena-
dier company was his great hobby \ and I never
saw a little girl dress out her doll with more
self-importance and delight than did Francia,
with his own hands, dress and fit out each indi-
vidual grenadier of his guard.
When done with such puerile manoeuvres, he
forthwith invited me to be reseated ; and he
would then resume his natural character. I was,
generally speaking, a listener to the subjects
which the Consul chose to propound. Nor was
I sorry to be this ; for my object was rather to
unravel his character, and obtain information,
than to lose my opportunities of doing both, by
speaking myself. On one of these occasions,
however, I initiated a subject of my own, in
which I not only felt a great interest, but on
38 THE JESUITS.
which I knew no one was so capable of giving me
ample and correct information as himself. That
was the subject of the Jesuits ; and in my next
letter I shall introduce you to the society of those
celebrated men.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R
39
LETTER XXXI.
To J G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS.
Sketch of their History —Their Traffic— Policy — Principles —
Cause of their downfal — Expulsion — Francia's opinion on
the subject— Their wealth — Illustrated by a Statistical Table
of the Establishment of San Ignacio Mini — Comments on
this wealth — Francia's offer of Letters Introductory to the
Governors of Misiones — Remarks.
London, 1838.
" SENOR CONSUL," I said, " from all that I have
heard, and read, the Jesuits seem to have origi-
nated, as well as given practical effect to a sys-
tem of government, political and ecclesiastical, in
Paraguay, such as never had a parallel. I know
that nobody is so well qualified as your Excel-
lency to clear up a subject which, to some people,
is enveloped in mystery, and to most is one of
conjecture or speculation. The accounts given
to us of the Jesuits are very contradictory. Some
40 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY
laud them to the skies; others load them with
vituperation : some ascribe their actions to prin-
ciples almost angelical ; while others are scarcely
content to classify them as the offspring of
angels, indeed, but of fallen ones. If your Ex-
cellency would do me the favour of entering
a little into the philosophy and truth of the case,
you would greatly oblige me."
The Consul was not a partisan of the Jesuits ;
and this accounted to me for the tinge of par-
tiality, and sometimes of asperity which coloured
many of his remarks, and more or less pervaded
his whole account of them. I shall give you,
together with the substance of what he told me
at various interviews, the information I have col-
lected from some other sources, as well as from
personal observation, on occasion of a visit I
made to the Misiones. The Consul represented
the Jesuits as " unos pillos ladinos," — that is,
" refined rogues. " Their founder, Ignatius
Loyola, he said, was one of the most bold and
astute men that ever breathed. Francia repre-
sented the apostolic see as ever ready to lend a
willing ear to projects of clerical aggrandizement ;
and certainly none that had ever been presented
OF THE JESUITS. 41
to its attention was so specious, or sustained by
such ability as that of Loyola. He began by
persuading the pope, that if certain clerical pri-
vileges and exemptions were conceded, he (Loy-
ola) would institute a society, which should sur-
pass all its predecessors in evangelizing the
heathen ; in bringing them into the fold of Christ,
and under the temporal dominion of the pope.
What Loyola promised, he performed. Numbers
of his emissaries were dispersed over Europe,
Asia, and Africa, and their success in propagat-
ing the gospel was considered miraculous. The
company of the Jesuits was in 1540 organised
into a religious body, or society, by formal autho-
rity of the pope ; and the first members of it that
came to America crossed the Atlantic in 1549
with the Portuguese expedition, which under the
command of Don Tomas de Soza, Governor of
Brazil, landed in that year at Bahia de todos los
Santos. This was called then the province of
Santa Cruz, but it is now designated that of
Bahia. There the viceroy shortly afterwards laid
the foundation of the town of this name, which
became thenceforward the residence of his Excel-
lency, and of an archbishop. From this point
4Z SKETCH OF THE HISTORY
the Jesuits penetrated a considerable way into
the interior, and after a few years more, many of
them crossed from the Island of St. Catherine, on
the Brazil coast, in south latitude 23°, till they
came to the banks of the Parana. In the mean
time they had fallen in with many tribes of wan-
dering but peaceful Guaranis, to whom they
began to preach. They set themselves up as the
descendants of St. Thomas, whom they repre-
sented as the immediate apostle of the Son of
God. They said that, by his authority, they
were delegated with a message of eternal peace
and happiness to the Indian race. These frau-
dulently-pious men so rang in the ears of their
early converts the story of St. Thomas, that, in
passing from one tribe to another, they soon pro-
pagated the imposture, till, in a few years, they
were enabled to put forth as a tradition which
they had received from the Indians themselves,
the fact that St. Thomas actually had landed in
America. He evangelized it, they said, not many
years after the apostles had been indued with
power from on high at Jerusalem. The credu-
lous and ignorant Indians not only promulgated
the story, but were proud of it ; until at length
OF THE JESUITS. 43
it was given out, as a matter of uninterrupted
tradition from father to son, that the apostle
St. Thomas had landed on the coast of Brazil,
travelled through the desert, with a cross in his
hand, and left, as he proceeded, upon the very
rocks, the indelible marks of his large naked
footsteps. It was thus that he was said to have
perpetuated the glorious memory of his journey
from the coast of Brazil to the River Parana;
thence to the Paraguay; and finally over the
Great Chaco, and the whole of Peru.
But the Jesuits did not stop here. They
practised on their credulous converts by telling
them that the unwieldy cross which their fathers
had seen in the hands of the apostle was hidden
by the unconverted Indians, or gentiles, in a
lake near Chuquisaca ; was there discovered,
and thence rescued, at a distance of fifteen cen-
turies of time, by the curate of the place, Padre
Sarmiento.
This historical anecdote is related by Don
Pedro Alvear, one of the Commissioners of His
Catholic Majesty for adjusting the boundary
lines between Spanish America and Brazil. The
account is taken from a manuscript of his in the
44 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY
possession of Sir Woodbine Parish. The Com-
missioner is in many points a very respectable
and accurate historian ; but the facility with
which he has lent himself to record the pious
fictions of the Jesuits may tend to show the hold
they had upon the respect and confidence of even
the first men in the country. Alvear seriously
resolves the problem of the long immersion,
without injury, of the miraculous cross, by assur-
ing the reader that it was made of holy wood.
He also informs him that many and stupendous
miracles have been performed by means of it.
The footing which, by pious fraud, the Jesuits
thus obtained in the country, they made good,
by a combination of wisdom and worldly tactics
seldom united. They worked so effectually, that
in about fifty years from the time of the landing
of their first stragglers on the coast of Brazil, they
had not only erected colleges and " casas de resi-
dencia" (habitations for themselves), at most of
the principal Spanish stations in South America,
but had fortified themselves by thirty establish-
ments of their own, containing 100,000 inhabit-
ants on the banks of the Parana and Uruguay.
Their vast estates constituted the finest part of
OF THE JESUITS. 45
the territory of the whole of this section of South
America. From this centre of operations, they
extended their influence far and wide. Their
" casa de temporalidades" (or buildings for their
offices and warehouses), occupied, in Buenos
Ayres, together with their college and other
buildings, a whole quadra (one hundred and
forty-four yards square) of land. So fearful were
those cautious and prudent men of anything
—even of the lightning of heaven — touching
their " temporalidades" (goods and chattels), that
the whole of their offices and warehouses were
made bomb-proof. They were secured by mas-
sive iron gratings ; and built in a style of solid-
ity, capaciousness, and splendour, to which there
was no parallel in the country.
I once occupied a wing of this " temporali-
dades" building for twelve months. While I
lived there, in 1811, the town of Buenos Ayres
was bombarded by the Spanish marines from
Montevideo ; and as the bombs and shells fell
fast and thick in all parts of the town, many of
the people, and especially of my own friends,
sought shelter under the bomb-proof roofs of the
former abode of the Jesuits. There they slept
46 TRAFFIC OF THE JESUITS.
for three or four successive nights ; and so secure
did they feel in the strongly-vaulted apartments,
that they danced and made gay, while the ma-
rines, from their shipping in the inner roads,
were throwing their shot and shells into the
town.
The traffic of the Jesuits with Buenos Ayres,
Assumption, and Corrientes was very great. Af-
fecting to govern all their establishments on the
principle of a community of goods, and having
persuaded the Indians that they participated
equally with their pastors in the advantages de-
rived from their labour in common, the Jesuits
made subservient to their own aggrandizement
the toil of a hundred thousand Indian slaves.
They instructed them in agriculture, and in the
mechanical arts ; they made of them soldiers and
sailors ; and they taught them to herd cattle,
prepare yerba, and manufacture sugar and cigars.
But while the churches and casas de residencia
were built with elaborate splendour, the Indian
architect and mason occupied mud hovels. While
the padres had all the conveniences, and even
luxuries, that could be furnished by the carpenter
and upholsterer; and while the churches exhi-
POLICY OF THE JESUITS. 47
bited fine specimens of architecture, carving, and
embroidery, the Indian workman had scarce a
table and a chair, very seldom a bed, and never
any other hanging or coverlet in his hovel than
a coarse poncho. The Indians made shoes, but
the padres alone wore them ; and exported the
surplus. Plenty of sugar, mate, cigars, sweet-
meats, and Indian corn, were annually sent to
Buenos Ayres ; but the poor Indian could with
difficulty get a meagre supply of salt to his yucca
root, and to his occasional meal of beef. The
soldiers were without pay, and the sailors without
resvard. The barks constructed by one class of
missionary subjects were first employed in carry-
ing away the articles produced by the sweat of
the brow of another, and then in bringing back,
as a return, finery for the churches, and luxuries
for the padres and their friends. It is true that
the Indian was fed and clothed out of the com-
mon stock of produce ; but so scantily and dis-
proportionately, that while his earnings might
amount to a hundred dollars (twenty pounds)
a-year, his food and raiment never cost one-half
of the sum. He was allowed two days in the
week, latterly three, on which to cultivate a small
48 POLICY OF THE JESUITS.
patch of ground for himself: but whatever this
produced went in diminution of the supplies
issued to him from the public stores. So that,
after all, it came to the same thing. The " com-
munity" (that is of the padres) was still the
gainer by the personal labour of the Indian.
Public expenditure was diminished by his indi-
vidual labour on his own account ; and while the
padres claimed and received great credit for this
liberal extension of time to the Indian for his
own benefit, they knew that their practical so-
phistry went still in support of their fundamental
principle — aggrandizement of the body.
It is from innumerable acts of this kind —
specious ostensibly, but altogether cunning and
selfish in reality — that the phrase " Jesuitical
fellow" has become a designation of no very
honourable import.
The downfal of the Jesuits is traceable to the
combination of priestly influence and of political
power which they possessed. So long as they con-
fined themselves to the care of their flocks, and
while their political situation was feeble, or preca-
rious, they went on and prospered : but when they
had made those flocks subservient to their aggran-
CAUSE OF THE DOWNFAL OF THE JESUITS. 49
dizement, and from year to year, by papal bulls
and royal concessions, had isolated and with-
drawn themselves from under the control at once
of diocesans, viceroys, and governors, they got
into a false position, and paved the way for their
own overthrow. They pestered the Court of
Madrid with their intrigues, and embarrassed the
local governments of America by their insubor-
dination ; till by command of King Charles, his
minister the Count of Aranda transmitted to
the viceroy, Bucareli, positive orders for their
expulsion from every one of their settlements in
South America. Simultaneously — on one and
the same day — the different and distant bodies
of Jesuits were seized, hurried off to Buenos
Ayres, and shortly afterwards sent to Spain.
Their property was confiscated by the Govern-
ment ; their authority was vested in the civil and
military power of the country ; and though the
establishments of Misiones have, through corrup-
tion and misgovernment, been gradually falling
to decay, and are now, some of them, in ruins, yet
Francia was of opinion, and so were many others,
that it was for the good of the country that the
Jesuits had been expelled.
VOL. II. D
50 EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS.
As for the property possessed by the Jesuits,
great as it was, it has, I am convinced, always
been underrated ; and for this reason : that those
who have made estimates of it have never taken
into account the value of the Indians. But in
them consisted the chief wealth, and from their
labour was derived, it may be said, the sum total
of the revenue of the Misiones establishments.
To overlook this point is to misconceive the
whole matter.
There were a hundred thousand Indian inha-
bitants in Misiones, including men, women, and
children; and I value them at forty pounds*
a-head, on this principle : that supposing only
thirty thousand of these to be working men, and
that they earned only twenty pounds a-year, of
which ten went for their own subsistence and
clothing, and ten to the "community" of the
Jesuits, these men earned, by the labour of their
slaves, 300,000/. per annum ; that is, the clear
gain arising from the labour of thirty thousand
working men at 10 1. each, 300,000/. Now if you
* These calculations were originally made in dollars ; but, for
the clearer understanding of them by the English reader, I put
them down in pounds sterling, calculating five dollars to the pound.
WEALTH OF THE JESUITS. 51
take the whole Indian population at a hundred
thousand, and value them, as property, at 40/.
a-head, this will give a sum of 4,000,000/. An
interest of 300,000 /. upon this amounts only
to seven and a half per cent. : which, in that
country, is a low interest. The fact is, however,
that the Jesuits got a great deal more, when
all their mercantile profits, arising from the
labours of the Indian, are taken into account :
but allowing the statement to stand simply thus,
the following may be taken as a correct, and
by no means exaggerated estimate of the wealth
of the Jesuitical body in the towns of Misiones.
There were thirty of these towns. Some of
them were on the eastern, some on the western
banks of the Parana. Of the Misiones, Candi-
laria was the capital ; but if we take the esta-
blishment of San Ignacio Mini, in the territory
of Entrerios, and in latitude south, 27° 15', as an
average of them, both in regard to population
and other property, by finding the value of that
establishment, and by multiplying the result by
thirty, we shall come to as near a demonstration
as figures can afford of the value of the whole
Misiones, at the time of the expulsion of the
D2
52 SAN IGNAC1O MINI.
Jesuits*. On this principle, the following cal-
culation will be found very accurate.
VALUE OF THE MISSIONARY ESTABLISHMENT OF
SAN IGNACIO MINI.
3500 Indians at . . £40 a-head £140,000
5000 head of homed cattle .8*.,, . 2,000
1600 horses . . . . 4*. , , . 320
2000 mares . . . . 2*. , , . 200
700 mules . . . . 8*. ,, 280
500 asses . . * . 4*. , , . 100
5000 sheep . . . . 2*. , , 500
Buildings, — that is, the church, and casa
de residencia ..... 20,000
Territory, four leagues square, or sixteen
leagues, at £40 ... . 640
Church ornaments and plate . . . 24,000
So that the value of this mision, or esta-
blishment, was .... 188,040
Let us, then, multiply this by 30; and
what will be the result? Why . £5,641,200
More than five million and a-half of our money ;
which was truly the capital possessed by the
* See, at the end of the volume, a statistical, tabular account of
the whole thirty establishments. This account was drawn up
officially by order of the viceroy Bucareli, at the time of the ex-
pulsion of the Jesuits from Entrerios, Paraguay, and other places,
in 1767.
SAN IGNACIO MINI. 53
Jesuits in Misiones alone; to say nothing of the
value of their sumptuous casas de temporalidades
and churches in every town of America. Now
this was certainly too great a capital for any
body of men to possess in that comparatively
poor country, especially as the influence arising
from it was increased by religious awe, political
importance, and the means of physical resistance.
Considering that the most wealthy merchants
in Assumption were not in possession of more
than seven or eight thousand pounds ; the shop-
keepers not of more than four or five, nor the
landed proprietors of more than three or four :
seeing, that all these, bent upon their own indi-
vidual aggrandisement, were incapable of being
associated, as a body, for any purpose of national
resistance, especially at the expense of their own
fortunes ; and not only so, but that a large por-
tion of them were absolutely in league with the
Jesuits ; it must be confessed that the latter had
a good deal more than their due share of influ-
ence in the country.
Every year was adding new proselytes to their
sect, and fresh adherents to their party : so that
what by their wealth, their religious and political
54 REFLECTIONS ON THE WEALTH OF THE JESUITS.
sway, and their growing interest with private
individuals, the measure of the expulsion of the
followers of Loyola, if at first it appear to have
been harsh, will not perhaps be found, upon re-
flection, to have been either uncalled for, or pre-
mature. There are still some lingering adher-
ents and partisans of theirs in Paraguay; and
these are looking for the advent of the padres,
as the Jews for that of the Messiah.
Having signified to the first Consul my desire
to pay a visit to the fast-decaying establishments
of the Jesuits, he said he should be happy to
give me letters to the governors of those which
were under the jurisdiction of Paraguay; and
through them, he informed me, I should find easy
access to all the information I might wish to
acquire.
I thanked his Excellency for such of the pre-
ceding information as I had obtained from him,
and also for his offer of letters introductory.
In one or two subsequent letters, I shall en-
deavour to give you such details as will perhaps
elucidate and confirm the preceding more general
sketch. Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
LETTER XXXII.
To J G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS,
Difficulties which they had to encounter— the Paulistas or Mame-
lukes— Establishment of the Colonies of Our Lady of Loreto,
and of St. Ignatius — Their Abandonment and Destruction —
Perilous Adventures of the Colonists — Their re- establishment
on the River Ybiqui, in Misiones properly so called.
Lond<m> 1838.
IN my two last letters I have endeavoured to
sketch to you, but in general terms, the origin,
rise, and downfal of the Jesuits. In this, and
two or three subsequent ones, I shall enter a
little more into details illustrative of what has
been already said.
I shall point out to you some of the difficulties
with which the early Jesuits had to contend, and
show their address in overcoming them. I shall
treat of their mode of governing the Indians ; of
56 PAULISTAS, OR MAMELUKES.
the manner in which the governors were expelled
from their possessions ; and of the state in which
they left them. I shall endeavour to trace the
causes of the decay into which they subsequently
fell ; and relating shortly what I myself saw on
my visit to them,, I shall conclude by a brief
account of the nearly total annihilation into which
they have since fallen.
In prominent connexion with the difficulties
opposed to the establishment of the first Jesuits
who landed in South America, were the hostile
and ferocious inroads made upon their infant
colonies by the Portuguese settlers in the pro-
vince of St. Paul, of which the capital bears the
same name. The foundation of this town was
laid about the year 1554; it is situated twelve
leagues inland of the seaport of San Vicente, in
lat. 23° 30' south, and in longitude 46° 30' west.
From the accession to its inhabitants of free-
booters and marauders of the worst description
from Portugal, and of pirates fitted out from
Holland, the town of St. Paul soon became a
terrible scourge to all the surrounding country.
The inhabitants, from being called Paulistas,
in consequence of the name which they had given
PAULISTAS, OR MAMELUKES. 57
to the capital of their colony, came ere long to
be styled " Mamelukes," as designating the
people most dreaded, from national associations,
by both Spaniards and Portuguese. By fire and
sword, lust, sacrilege, and robbery, the Paulistas
carried devastation in their train, and spread
terror and dismay wherever they came. Their
first inroads were made upon the defenceless
Guarani Indians. The able-bodied among these
were dragged from their homes to cultivate the
fields of the Mamelukes ; the wives and daugh-
ters of the aborigines were appropriated to the
invaders ; while the aged, infirm, and children
were invariably put to the sword.
During these excesses the Jesuits came to
the country ; and while some established small
colonies of Indians in Brazil, the greater number
crossed over to the banks of the Parana and
Uruguay.
The unheard-of barbarities of the Mamelukes
soon depopulated the surrounding country of
those tribes of Indians which had continued in
their aboriginal state, and had not united together
for mutual protection under the colonial system
of the Jesuits. No doubt the mildness of the
D3
58 PAULISTAS, OR MAMELUKES.
government and character of these, as compared
with the ferocious practices of the Paulistas, were,
in the first instance, very instrumental in bring-
ing over to the followers of Loyola the otherwise
incredible numbers of Guarani Indians that
sought shelter under their wing.
Enraged by the abstraction from their clutches
of the Indians, not less than excited by a thirst
for plunder, the Mamelukes invaded the mission-
ary establishments in Brazil, and not only sacked
the infant towns, and carried off the inhabitants,
but in the end literally uprooted the numerous
colonies established there, and killed or expelled
the Jesuits who had founded them.
Having done this, their predatory and savage
habits led them next to make incursions upon a
province called La Guayra, then belonging to
Spain, situated on the banks of the Parana, and
colonized chiefly by numerous missionaries at the
head of their respective reducciones or establish-
ments of Guarani Indians. What the Paulistas
had done to the Portuguese settlements in the
province of St. Paul, and elsewhere, they pro-
ceeded to do to the Spanish ones in La Guayra.
They ruined them one after another ; carried off
PAULISTAS, OR MAMELUKES. 59
the able-bodied Indians ; murdered the aged and
the children ; plundered the property ; burnt the
houses; and once more killed or dispersed the
Jesuits. All these facts, and many more, are
minutely detailed by the Commissioner Albear,
in his very interesting report, drawn up in his
official capacity, and entitled " Historical and
Geographical Account of the Province of Mi-
siones *."
The same person makes the following state-
ment:—"About this time (1630) the Paulistas
sold in the slave-market of Rio de Janeiro sixty
thousand Indian slaves, according to the official
report addressed to His Catholic Majesty by Don
Estevan Davila, who touched at that port on his
way to be installed in the government of Buenos
Ayres in 1637."
This account of the Paulistas was necessary, in
order to your understanding the difficulties, ge-
nerally, with which the Jesuits who first migrated
to South America had to contend; but I have
given it also, that you may the better compre-
hend the specific nature of the extremities to
* This report, in manuscript, is in the possession of Sir Wood-
bine Parish.
60 COLONIES OF LORETO AND OF ST. IGNATIUS.
which they were sometimes reduced, in order to
escape the barbarous and unmitigable hostility
of their enemies the Paulistas.
I select, by way of illustration, one instance,
out of many.
In 1610, the two first missionary settlements
in la Guayra were established ; one on the river
Pirapo (a branch of the Parana), and the other
at the distance of a few leagues. The name of
the first was Nuestra Senora de Loreto, and of
the second San Ygnacio Mini. They were su-
perintended by two of the company's most able
and zealous servants, Padre Antonio Ruiz de
Montaya, and Padre Cataldino, who both crossed
the country from Assumption, to take charge of
the infant colonies. They so increased in popu-
lation and importance as soon to become the
nucleus, around which most of the neighbouring
tribes of heretofore unsubdued Indians gathered.
Not only so, but those two towns became places
of refuge for the tape Indians that fled from the
other reducciones of the Jesuits in La Guayra, as
they were one after another destroyed by the
Paulistas. At length the townships of Loreto
and San Ygnacio were the only two left, with a
THEIR ABANDONMENT AND DESTRUCTION. 61
population of twelve thousand Indians, under the
superintendence of seven Jesuits, of whom the
chief was Padre Montaya. The Paulistas, there-
fore, strained every nerve, and put in action
every resource, for the destruction of these two
last, most important, and now devoted establish-
ments. The Jesuits, finding that resistance
would be impossible, determined on retreat.
This retreat, which, under ordinary circumstances,
common prudence and sober calculation would
have pronounced utterly impracticable, was, under
the apprehension of imminent destruction as the
only alternative, prepared for by the men who
conducted it with an alacrity which did honour
to their courage, and a prudence characteristic
of their coolness and prevoyance. They were
surrounded by enemies, — the Paulistas on one
hand, and many yet unsubdued tribes of Indians
on the other. They were watched, intrigued
against, and at length attacked, even by the
Spanish colonists on the west side of the Parana,
who, jealous of so large a population abandoning
the country, did everything in their power to
prevent it.
Yet in the midst of all these surrounding ob-
62 THEIR ABANDONMENT AND DESTRUCTION.
stacles and dangers, the Jesuits constructed
seven hundred balsas * ; they gathered up their
goods and chattels ; they embarked their penates,
closed their temples, and brought away the dead
bodies of three martyrs of their fraternity. They
then saw safely on board their flock of twelve
thousand Indians; and last of all, taking ship
themselves, they launched into the stream of the
Parana. They had sailed but a very short time
before the Paulistas entered, and the towns were
reduced to ashes.
The object of the Jesuits was to sail down that
river, and, uniting themselves with the Misiones
established in Entrerios and Parana, to preserve
their colony, and lay the foundations of two towns
of the names of those which, after residing in
them twenty years, they had been so reluctantly,
but so imperiously forced to abandon.
Having defeated or eluded their enemies, they
reached, in a few days, what appeared a greater
* The balsa is a vessel constructed by the junction of two
canoes. This is effected by means of strong bamboo canes, about
six feet in length, overlaying and fastened to both canoes, so as
to form what answers all the purposes of a deck ; while the
canoes maybe considered as the hull of the vessel.
PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COLONISTS. 63
obstacle on the part of nature to their progress,
than any that could be offered by man. That
was the Salto Grande, or Great Cataract of the
Parana, which I have described in a former letter.
It extends a distance of from fifteen to eighteen
leagues, rolling down its torrent with headlong
impetuosity, dashing its spray to a great height,
perforating the rocks, and roaring with a noise
resembling that of thunder.
The navigation of it could only have been
dreamed of by men in despair. Yet the Jesuits
made the attempt. They launched three hun-
dred of their empty balsas upon it, in the hope
that some of them might escape the fury of the
torrent, and that thus their colony, proceeding
by land, might find some of their little ships at
the other end of the cataract.
They were not slipped two minutes from their
moorings, before every one of them, in the pre-
sence, and to the dismay of the migratory band,
was dashed to a thousand pieces.
The colony was now constrained to abandon
the other four hundred balsas ; to take each man
his bundle on his shoulder and his staff in his
hand ; while the women bearing their helpless
64 PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COLONISTS.
children on their backs, and the Jesuits leading
the van, the whole company set their faces to the
arduous task of penetrating the almost imper-
vious woods, of fording the rivulets, of clearing
away the thorns and briars, of climbing and
descending the hills ; till at length, after a peril-
ous and laborious journey of eight days, they
got to the foot of the cataract. Here they were
obliged to encamp in the open air for several
weeks, in order to construct new balsas. They
lived upon such fruits and roots as they could
find in the woods, and upon such birds and ani-
mals as they could reach with their arrows, till
once more embarking, and the navigation being
now no longer obstructed by any impediment,
the Jesuits and their flock reached, about June
1632, the promised land for which they had
been so long making. Here, on a fertile terri-
tory laved by the river Ybiqui (a branch of
the Parana) they once more built the towns of
their favourite saints, Our Lady of Loreto, and
Ignatius.
They were then embodied as part of the great
family already established in the Misiones pro-
perly so called ; and the Guayra emigrants
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLONIES. 65
formed two of the thirty establishments from
which the successors of those Jesuits who con-
ducted this expedition were eventually expelled.
Many more hardships were encountered by the
Jesuits, and several lives lost, in their journeys
across the Great Chaco, and in their efforts to
form establishments in other places. But what
I have said shall suffice in illustration of the first
point of which I promised, at the commencement
of my letter, to treat : viz., the difficulties with
which the early Jesuits had to contend, their
fortitude in meeting, and their address in over-
coming them.
In my next letter I shall treat of the mode in
which the Jesuits governed their Indian subjects.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
66
LETTER XXXIII.
To J - - G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS.
Their Mode of Government — Its first Principle — Second Prin-
ciple — Details — Details by Doblas— Third Principle of
Government — Community of Goods — Observations by Doblas
on this subject.
London, 1838.
THE form of government instituted by the Je-
suits was as unique, as it was admirably contrived
to promote the ends they had in view. That
those ends were the complete subjugation of the
Indians, by peaceable means, and the rendering
of them subservient to the temporal aggrandize-
ment of the adherents of Loyola, I think the
following facts will pretty clearly show. That,
together with exaction of their labour, religion
was inculcated, order maintained, and a know-
ledge of the mechanical arts promoted among
the Indians, although very true, is nothing to
MODE OF GOVERNMENT OF THE JESUITS. 67
the point. These facts show, indeed, the wisdom
of the Jesuits, since, without some such founda-
tion, no rulers can expect to reap much benefit
from the exertions of their subjects. The Je-
suits, in establishing a good form of government,
sought the benefit and advancement of their own
order ; and, in moderation, that was a legitimate
aim. But the real question before us is not
this : it is, did they benefit the Indian f Did
they raise him progressively in the scale of so-
ciety ? Was the condition of the last colonists
better than that of the first converts ? I fear a
negative must be given to all these queries ; and
if we consider, in reference to the last, that the
Indians were a hundred and fifty years under the
exclusive and absolute sway of the Jesuits, with-
out the advance of a step in the acquisition of
either knowledge or property, we must surely
conclude that there could not have been those
pious and zealous endeavours to ameliorate their
condition (I mean that of the Indians), of which
we have heard so much.
The fundamental principle in government of
the Jesuits was, that they were a body distinct
from either the civil or ecclesiastical powers of
68 FIRST PRINCIPLE OF THAT GOVERNMENT.
the community at large. They professed, indeed,
allegiance, and offered homage to the king ; but,
de facto, they would not allow their institutions,
laws, or practical government, to be interfered
with, either by him, by his deputy the viceroy, or
by the bishop.
To take so high a standing, and to carry their
pretensions into operation with so high a hand,
required, of course, long perseverance, unceasing
and united effort, together with unwearied appli-
cations for new privileges, and the constant ex-
tension and abuse of them, in practice, when
obtained. Nor would these systematic plans
have succeeded as they did, unless aided by the
great distance at which the Jesuits were from
the source of both regal and papal authority;
nor unless, in addition to this, the politico-
religious body had been gradually rising to such
wealth by its traffic, and to such power from the
number and blind submission of its subjects,
as to make itself always respected, and often
feared by the surrounding governments of the
country.
Of any other such imperium in imperio I never
heard.
SECOND PRINCIPLE. 69
The next remarkable feature in the govern-
ment of the Jesuits was the strict, the complete
subordination in which each inferior of the order
lived to his superior. Not less remarkable was
the absolute sway exercised by the head of the
body over every member of it. The obedience
of the members of our physical frame to our voli-
tion, is the only simile by which I can illustrate
the subordination of the Jesuits to their supe-
rior or chief.
The company had one such superior who pre-
sided over the whole of the Misiones. His re-
sidence was at Candelaria, as being a central
point, from which he could readily visit the other
establishments around him. This superior had
two vice- superiors, or lieutenants, who lived, one
on the banks of the Parana, and the other on
those of the Uruguay. They assisted the supe-
rior in the administration of the affairs of the
various red ucciones, but in complete subordination
to him. In addition to these functionaries, who
conducted the more important business of the
community, each town had its own curate in par-
ticular, assisted by another priest, and sometimes
by two, according to its extent and population.
70 DETAILS.
The affairs, spiritual and temporal, of each
town were entirely committed to the care of its
respective curates. Of these, one ministered at
the altar, and taught scanty elements of reading
and writing to the neophytes. The other super-
intended the agricultural department, the herding
of the cattle, and the men engaged in the mecha-
nical arts, of which he was also the teacher.
The civil government and police of the Indians
was vested nominally in themselves, but really
in the curate. They had their mayor, judges,
and aldermen, or officers nearly corresponding to
these ; but without the approbation of the curate,
or pai, as they called him, not one single thing
could be done. The court of common council (so
to speak) met every day ; gave in their report to
the omnipotent pai; and receiving his instruc-
tions as to what they should do, proceeded to give
them rigid fulfilment.
On this subject Doblas says — " One of the
greatest points * with the curates, perhaps the
* " Memoria sobre las Misiones," published at Buenos Ayres
in November, 1836, by Don Pedro de Angelis. Don Gonzalo de
Doblas was appointed by the Viceroy Vertiz governor of the pro-
vince of Conception, in Misiones, in 1781. This was only four-
DETAILS BY DOBLAS. 71
greatest, was to keep up a perfect equality among
all the Indians, as well in matters of dress, as in a
regular attendance at work : so that the lord and
lady mayoress were required to be the first at the
spot selected for that day's labour, and were there
joined by the other workmen: — so it was with
the aldermen and their wives. Not one of them
was allowed to wear shoes, nor any distinctive
badge of clothing ; not even to vary the general
mode of wearing what they had. All were put
upon a footing of strict equality. The only dis-
tinction conceded to the lord mayor and aldermen
was a permission, on days of public festivity, to
carry their black wands, and to dress in suits
kept by the padres under lock and key, expressly
for such occasions, and for them only. The
caciques were generally the most miserable of
the whole community, and very rare it was to
teen years after the expulsion of the Jesuits; so that the governor
had the best opportunity of obtaining correct information. The
acuteness of his mind, the simplicity of his narrative, and the
impartiality of his judgment, all render him, in my opinion, one
of the best authorities, and most entertaining writers on Misiones.
The narrative of what he observed is lamentably correct and
amusing ; but his well-intentioned suggestions for amelioration
were speculative and impracticable.
72 DETAILS BY DOBLAS.
find one of them that could read. They never
gave them any public office, or, if they did, it
was on occasions few and far between. It came
to be known, at the time of the expulsion of the
Jesuits, that in the thirty townships there were
only found three cacique mayors. No doubt the
fathers feared that if they added to the veneration
entertained by the people for their caciques that
which would be connected by the conferring on
them of honourable offices, they might aspire to
more authority than was at that time altogether
convenient."
Doblas addresses his ' Historical Memoir ' to
his friend Don Feliz Azara ; and, in prosecution
of his remarks, goes on to say, —
" Now you see, my friend, that however excel-
lent a regime this might be, if practised by a
master towards his pupils, or by a father towards
his children in their nonage, it could never train
or form a people to anything like knowledge or
liberty. And yet these it has always been the
desire of his majesty to promote. But the prac-
tice was as I have recorded it ; and the conse-
quences have been such as were to be expected.
These consequences could be hidden neither from
DETAILS BY DOBLAS. 73
the curates nor their superiors ; but their private
interests occupied the place of first importance in
all they ever did ; and thus they adopted a me-
thod of their own, the grand object of which was
to keep the Indians aloof from everything that
could tend to rescue them from ignorance and
degradation.
" When men acted upon this regime, and upon
these principles of political economy, it cannot
be matter of surprise, that in the course of a hun-
dred and fifty years, which it is since these esta-
blishments were formed, such immense wealth
should have been found, as well in the churches,
as in that fund called ' the fund of the commu-
nity.' For my part, I am not astonished at this,
when I consider the vast fertility of this province;
the complete subjugation of the Indians ; that
they were absolutely shut out from all inter-
course with the Spaniards ; and that, knowing no
other authority than that of the Jesuits, they
became mere tools in their hands."
But perhaps the most characteristic trait of the
Jesuitical form of government was that by which
it is known as having been one of a " commu-
nity of goods." Bad as this system is generally
VOL. II. E
74 THIRD PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT.
allowed to be, even when fairly administered, —
that is, when an equal proportion of the produce
of the community is distributed to every indivi-
dual of it, — how great an imposture, as well as
fallacy, must not the system involve, when, with
the name, merely, of " community of goods," the
thousands of labourers get barely what is sufficient
for scanty clothing and coarse food, while their
small number of lords and masters absorb the
whole surplus for their own benefit, and that of
the society with which they are connected. In
using the word " society" here, I do not mean
the society of the Jesuits, as connected with the
Indians, still less as embodying them as a part
and portion of such society ; I speak of it as the
society or " community" of the Jesuitical priest-
hood alone. Out of the whole produce of the
" community's " labour, the Jesuit allowed the
Indian, as I have said, scanty clothing, coarse
food, a mud hovel for shelter, and nothing more.
But if this constitute community of goods, and
if there be anything meritorious in that system,
then the West India planter is as meritorious a
man, and carries out the principle as far, as the
Jesuit did ; for the planter, no less than the priest,
COMMUNITY OF GOODS. 75
must allow his community of slaves the necessa-
ries of life; otherwise they perish, and he is
ruined.
On the principle of the system, as well as on
the working of it, Doblas makes the following
just, and almost pathetic remarks. He is writing
of a period fourteen years subsequent to that of
the expulsion of the Jesuits ; but at a time when
all their principles, and as nearly as possible their
form of government, were preserved, though of
course not nearly so well administered as by them.
He had been speaking before of the forced
marriages which the Jesuits were ever making
among the Indians, seldom leaving the parties to
choose for themselves, and producing thus the
natural consequence of indifference between man
and wife.
" The same indifference," says Doblas to Azara,
" that husbands display towards their wives, wives
towards their husbands, both towards their chil-
dren, and these towards their parents, the Indians
show respecting any property they have ac-
quired, or may acquire. This is only a weight
and embarrassment to them, nor can in any way
be rendered useful. Suppose an Indian, not
E2
76 OBSERVATIONS BY DOBLAS.
spell-bound by the impressions made on his coun-
trymen, as a result of their training and educa-
tion ; suppose such an Indian to be of an active,
laborious disposition ; suppose that, stimulated
by a spirit of industry, as well as by the advan-
tages accorded to him by his township of a free
grant of arable land, and of bullocks with which
to plough it, he desires, by working on the days
allowed him by ' the community ' for this pur-
pose, to make the fertility of the soil subservient
to the amelioration of his condition in life. Well,
he ploughs up and prepares a large space of land,
and sows it with such seeds as he knows will
yield him the largest return of produce. The
year is propitious ; and in due season, after much
personal labour and pains, — because he has not
been able to hire the labourers of ' the commu-
nity' to assist him ; — because his wife, being also
employed by ' the community,' cannot help him ;
—and because he himself is obliged to labour the
half of his time for ' the community ;' — yet, in due
season, he reaps a crop three or four times greater
than he requires for the maintenance, during the
whole year, of his own person and family.
" Now, what is he to do with the surplus of
OBSERVATIONS BY DOBLAS. 77
this crop? Sell it to others? Who are these
others? The other Indians of his own town, or
of other towns. And these, what are they to give
him in exchange for his produce ? They have
nothing of their own, except some grain or vege-
tables of precisely the same kind of which the in-
dustrious Indian has already too much. He can-
not export his produce from the province, either
because he has not the means, or because the
expense of doing so would exceed the return.
" Seeing now the failure he has made the first
year, but yet unwilling to live in idleness, the
Indian, instead of sowing grain, determines the
second year to plant cotton, sugar-cane, and to-
bacco,— because he knows that cotton, honey,
sugar, and tobacco are all articles of commerce.
He puts in execution his design, and sees his
crops all thriving. The cotton-plant and sugar-
cane yield no produce, or very little, the first year ;
and for the tobacco, it is necessary, from the mo-
ment it begins to ripen till it is completely sea-
soned, and made ready for sale, not to leave it for
an instant. But our industrious and enterprising
Indian must at this very time give his labour to
' the community ;' so that the tobacco which ho
78 OBSERVATIONS BY DOBLA.S.
gathered in on the days appropriated to his own
labour, is lost during those on which he must
serve the padres ; and, in the end, he collects
nothing, or, if he does get a little, it is of bad
quality. On the following year, when he had
expected to reap some benefit from his cotton
and sugar-cane plantations, he is sent off as a
herd to the estancias, as a peon to theyerba-plan-
tations, or as something else to some other place,
on which he is constrained to remain for some
time. His whole labour has been in vain : he goes,
— he must go, — wherever he is commanded ; and
all on which he had placed his hope is abandoned,
and all on which he had set his heart is lost.
" Cattle the Indian can neither possess nor
breed ; because, in consequence of his continually-
required services to ( the community,' he cannot
herd them, and because all the other Indians,
being subject to similar regulations, he can hire
no man as a substitute." What a picture this!
and what a pity 'tis, 'tis true !
Au reste, the Jesuits amused the Indians by
granting to them occasional festive and holidays,
on which there was abundance of feasting and dis-
play: mass was regularly said, and young and
CONCLUSION. 79
old obliged to attend it. There was an hospital
for the sick, a school in which were taught the
elements of reading; and there were regular
hours devoted to prayer, singing, and the prac-
tice of church music. A considerable number of
Indians were taught the use of the sword and of
the musket ; and, as far as discipline goes, their
discipline as slaves superseded all necessity for
their discipline as soldiers, except as regards
platoon exercise and military evolution *.
Such was the mode of government of the
Jesuits.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
* The following is a translation of a curious passage from
Doblas:—
« Ut audivissem (Doblas loquitur), horis diversis noctu, tympa-
num pulsari, et precipue ad aurorem exorientem, inquisivi quor-
sum hie sonatus ? Dixerunt mihi semper consuetum esse totarn
gentem crebro suscitare secundum quietum : hujus usus originem
cognoscere volens, responderunt, propter notam indolem desidio-
sam Indiorum, qui, labore quotidiano defessi, initi sunt lechum
et dormiti per noctem totam, hoc modo officiis conjugalibus non
functis ; Jesuitas mandaverant ut, nonnullis horis noctu, tympa-
num pulsatum esset, in hunc modum incitare maritos.
80
LETTER XXXIV.
To J G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS MANNER OF THEIR EXPULSION.
Letter of Charles III. to Pope Clement XIII.— The Pope's Reply
— Advice of the King's Council — Clement XIII. reprobates,
Clement XIV. approves, the conduct of the Spanish King —
Count Aranda's Instructions to the Viceroy Bucareli — Buca-
reli's Measures — Result of them.
London, 1838.
THINGS being in the state already described, as
regards the Jesuits and their establishments,
Charles III., on the 27th of February, 1767,
issued a royal decree, banishing the Jesuits from
all his dominions; and on the 31st of March of
the same year, like the lady who, having asked
the Spectator whether she should marry or not,
told him in a postscript that she had determined
to do so, his majesty addressed the following
letter to Pope Clement XIII., soliciting his be-
nediction on the deed already done. We have
extracted this from a collection of Spanish manu-
LETTER OF CHARLES III. 81
scripts, hitherto unpublished, in the possession
of Sir Woodbine Parish*.
Letter written to Pope Clement XIII. by his Ma-
jesty Charles III., on occasion of the total
expulsion of the Jesuits from his kingdoms.
<( MOST HOLY FATHER,
"Your holiness is well aware that the first
duty of a sovereign is to watch over the peace
and preservation of his state, and to provide for
the good government and internal tranquillity of
his subjects. In compliance with this principle, I
have been under the imperious necessity of re-
solving upon the immediate expulsion of all the
Jesuits who were established in my kingdoms
and dominions, and to send them to the state of
the church, under the immediate, wise, and holy
direction of your most holy beatitude, most wor-
thy father and master of all the faithful.
" I should fall under the obloquy of throwing
a heavy charge upon the apostolic privy council,
by obliging it to exhaust its treasures in the sup-
porting of those poor Jesuits who happen to have
* We have elsewhere acknowledged our obligations to this gen-
tleman for the access we have had to his collection of manuscripts
and printed works relative to South America.
E3
82 THE POPE'S REPLY.
been born my vassals, had I not made previous
provision, as I have, for the payment to each
individual of a sum sufficient to maintain him for
life.
" On such understanding, I pray your holiness
to view this my determination simply as an indis-
pensable step of political economy, taken only
after mature examination, and the most profound
reflection.
" Doing me the justice to believe this (as I
pray you will), your holiness will assuredly grant
your holy and apostolic benediction on this mea-
sure, as well as on all my actions, which have for
their object, in the same way, the promotion of
the honour and glory of God.
(Signed) " Yo EL KEY *."
In reply to this communication, his holiness
addressed, on the 16th of February, 1767, a brief
to Charles III.; but though it commenced
thus, " To our dearest son in Jesus Christ, health
and apostolic benediction," it was full, not only
of remonstrance against the measure adopted,
and of vindication of the Jesuits, but of what
* Literally translated, "I THE KING;" such being the sign
manual of the kings of Spain.
ADVICE OF THE KING'S COUNCIL. 83
might be called condemnation of the king and of
his ordinance. " Is it," he exclaims,, " the Catholic
Charles IIL, whom we so much love, that is to fill
to the brim the cup of our bitter afflictions; to
overwhelm our unhappy old age with grief and
tears; and finally to precipitate us into the tomb ? "
In another place the pope writes thus : " We say it
in the presence of God and man, that the body,
the institution, the spirit of the company of Jesus
is absolutely innocent ; and not only innocent, but
that it is pious, it is useful, it is holy ; and all
this whether considered with reference to its laws,
to its maxims,, or to its objects. Those who have
attempted to detract from its merits, have only
called down upon their lies and contradictions
the contempt and detestation of all good and im-
partial men."
Notwithstanding this remonstrance, the papal
brief, having been sent to the extraordinary coun-
cil of his majesty, for their opinion upon it, was
rather roughly handled by that august body. In
their reply to Charles III., they state, " That, in
the first place, the brief is wanting in that spirit
of courtesy and moderation due to the king of
Spain and of the Indies ; " and they contend that
84 ADVICE OF THE KING'S COUNCIL.
" to enter into controversy upon the merits of the
case, would be to incur the most grievous incon-
venience of compromising the sovereign prero-
gative of his majesty, who is to God alone re-
sponsible for his actions." The pope is treated by
the council extraordinary with very little cere-
mony ; and so far from agreeing in opinion with
him about the Jesuits, they are loaded with vitu-
peration throughout.
" Padre Luis de Molina," says the council,
" altered the theological doctrines. Padre Juan
Aldiuno carried his scepticism so far as to doubt
the authenticity of the sacred writings. In China
and in Malabar they have rendered compatible
the worship at once of God and mammon. They
have lent a deaf ear to pontifical decisions. In
Japan they have persecuted the very bishops,
and other religious orders, in a manner so scan-
dalous, that it can never be blotted from the
memory of man ; while in Europe they have been
the focus and point d'appui of tumults, rebellions,
and regicides. These deeds, notorious to the
whole world, have been overlooked in the ponti-
fical brief.
" His majesty cannot be surprised at the
ADVICE OF THE KING'S COUNCIL. 85
pope's intercession for the Jesuits, because it is
well known to the king, not only what powerful
influence they have at the court of Rome, but that
they are under the declared protection of the
Cardinal Torregiani, secretary of state to his holi-
ness, as well as confidential intimate and coun-
tryman of his confessor and director, the general
of the company, Lorenzo Ricci."
So much, and much more, says the council re-
specting the Jesuits ; but I content myself with
one farther extract, having more immediate re-
ference to their doings in Paraguay.
" It is proven against them " (the document
states), " by the undeniable testimony of their
own papers, that in Paraguay they took the field,
with organized armies, to oppose themselves to
the crown ; and now, at this very time, have they
not been, in Spain, endeavouring to change the
whole government, to modify it according to their
own pleasure; and to promulgate and put in
practice doctrines the most horrible ? "
The extraordinary council concludes by humbly
recommendimg his majesty to give a decided
negative to the appeal of the pope in favour of
the Jesuits, and recommends " that he do neither
86 THE TWO CLEMENTS.
enter into farther correspondence, admit nego-
tiation, nor in any other way lend his royal ear
to any application whatever on their behalf."
This document is dated 30th April, 1767, and
signed by the Count of Aranda, and other mem-
bers of the council. The king followed their
advice. Clement XIII. died without sanc-
tioning the expulsion ; but on the 12th of Sep-
tember, 1773, six years afterwards, his successor,
Clement XIV., not only ratified the measure,
but issued a very long and complex brief, con-
sisting of forty-one articles, in which he set forth
all his reasons for approving of the royal edict,
exonerated the king, and in no indirect terms
insinuated many and weighty charges against
the Jesuitical body.
But to return to the mode of the expulsion of
the Jesuits from Paraguay. Very shortly after
the date of the royal decree to this effect (that is,
on the 1st of March, 1767), the Count of Aranda,
then minister of state of Charles III., despatched
a ship of war, called the Prince, to the River
Plate, with peremptory orders to the viceroy of
that day, Bucareli, to take immediate and execu-
tive measures for the simultaneously seizing of
BUCARELl's MEASURES. 87
the Jesuits in their various strongholds, espe-
cially in Misiones, and for the shipping of them
off to Europe.
Bucareli received this order on the 7th of June,
1767. So quickly, so effectually, and yet so
silently, did he plan his measures, that he found,
by transmitting, on the instant, secret and sealed
despatches to all the governors, cabildos, and
other functionaries within the viceroyalty, he could
fix on the 21st of July following as the day on
which those despatches were to be opened, and
on the 22nd as that on which the respective orders
contained in them all were to be simultaneously
executed. These orders were to the effect that
every Jesuit should be seized and sent to Buenos
Ay res.
Speaking of the anxiety under which he la-
boured; of the many calculations it was necessary
to make ; and of the many measures and precau-
tions it was needful to adopt, in order to give
effect to the royal decree, Bucareli thus writes
from Buenos Ayres on the 6th of September,
1767, to the Count of Aranda.
" With these and other cares pressing upon
me, I revolved in my mind the means of carrying
8S BUCARELI S MEASURES.
into execution the royal ordinance. I had to anti-
cipate all its consequences upon five hundred
Jesuits distributed over a distance of more than
seven hundred leagues; possessed of twelve col-
leges ; of one house of residence; of more than fifty
estancias, and places where they were building,
which are so many more colleges, and settlements
made up of a vast number of servants and slaves;
of thirty towns of Guarani Indians, with more than
a hundred thousand inhabitants ; and of twelve
thousand Abipones, Macobies, Lules, and various
other nations of Chiquitos ; not to speak of many
more,, of whom, on the Jesuitical principle of
keeping the Indians from all intercouse with the
Spaniards, we know nothing."
In another part of his letter, Bucareli says,
" The largest college, viz., that of Cordova, is
generally reputed as the head of the powerful
empire of the Jesuits. Empire it may truly be
called ; because, counting Indians, slaves, and
other servants, they have, in this vast country,
more vassals than the king."
So well concerted were the plans of Bucareli,
that on the 21st of July his sealed despatches
were opened at every point where there was an
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 89
establishment of the holy fathers ; and on the
22nd they were pounced upon, generally at mid-
night, by the civil and military authorities. They
were sent off, early in the morning, to Buenos
Ayres, as a point of general rendezvous. In a few
months most of them were shipped off for Spain,
— " remitted" as Bucareli expresses it, by forties,
fifties, and a hundred at a time, to be, by the king
of Spain, sent to Italy, as a present to Pope
Clement XIII.
Their goods and chattels ; their houses and
churches ; their land and cattle ; their silver and
gold ; their subjects and slaves ; all, all were
inventoried and taken possession of by the crown.
A government, the most extraordinary that ever
existed ; a community that had gone on increas-
ing and gathering strength, and wealth, and
power, for more than a hundred and fifty years,
was overthrown in a single night. This, too, at
a moment when each individual was aspiring to
advancement ; when the whole body was lording
it over the whole country ; and when every mem-
ber of it thought the house of the Jesuits built
upon a rock. Who, that should have told those
men, when they lay down to rest on the night of
90 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
22nd of June, 1767, that, next morning, before
the crowing of the cock, their houses should be
left desolate, their persons imprisoned, and their
worldly possessions given to the winds ; — who,
that should have told them this, would not have
been pronounced insane ?
Yet so it was : — with all their wisdom, caution,
calculation, strength, wealth, and double-dealing,
the Jesuits were out-jesuited at last. The Count
of Aranda and Bucareli were too much for them ;
they checkmated the followers of Loyola at the
moment these had calculated that a few moves
more would enable them to give checkmate to
the minister's and the viceroy's king.
You have already seen what different opinions
were entertained of the Jesuits, by the parties
which espoused, and by those that deprecated their
principles.
The following curious specimens of Indian
epistolary composition (extracted from manu-
scripts already referred to) will place the species
of intrigue and double-dealing that were at work
on both sides, in a still more striking point of
view.
Instigated by the Jesuits, you will see how
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 91
solemn a protest was entered by the Indians
against the expulsion of the holy fathers: moved
by the court party, you will perceive how the
Tapes lauded the viceroy, the bishop, and the
king, for so enlightened and benevolent a mea-
sure as that of the expulsion of the members of
the Loyola school.
First comes the letter of remonstrance against
the step : then follows that in approval of it.
The former is couched in the terms of which a
literal translation is herewith given. It is ad-
dressed to the governor of the missionary town
of Saint Luis, and runs thus : —
" The Lord bless your lordship. We, the
members of the court of lord mayor and alder-
men, as well as all the caciques and Indians, male
and female, the flock of the town of Saint Luis,
send greeting. Your lordship is our true and
real father. The lord mayor, Santiago Pindo,
and Don Pantaleon Cayuari, in their great love,
have written to us to send them some birds. As
regards winged birds, which we are requested to
send to the king, we are profoundly sorry that
we possess them not ; for they have their habi-
tation in the woods which God provided for them.
92 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
They fly from our approach, and it is a most dif-
ficult matter to comply with the request that has
been made. Nevertheless, we are ever the vas-
sals of God and of the king, and are ready to yield
obedience to the pleasure and commands of his
ministers. Have we not given repeated proofs
of this ? Have we not thrice gone to Colonia, lent
our services there, and worked hard in order to
pay tribute ? But now we are constrained to pray
God that a better bird than any of the woods, —
that is, the Holy Ghost, — may enlighten the
king, and that the Holy Guardian Angel may
preserve him.
" Thus, then, confiding in your lordship, most
honourable lord governor, — in you who are our
true father, — with tears in our eyes we implore
that the sons of Saint Ignatius, the holy fathers
of the company of Jesus, may for ever abide
among us. This favour it is our urgent request
that you ask for us at the hands of the king, and
for the love of God.
" The whole town, men, women, and children
with tears in their eyes, join us in our prayer.
In an especial manner, we poor souls desire to be
delivered from the dominion of priests and friars.
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 93
We love them not. The apostle Saint Thomas,
the minister of God, warned our ancestors, in
these very regions, against them. Priests and
friars care not for us. How much otherwise is it
with the sons of Saint Ignatius ! From the very
first they have taken a holy interest in our sires,
instructing and baptizing them, and presenting
them as an offering to God and to the king.
Again, therefore, we repeat, that priests and friars
we will not receive, and cannot, on any consider-
ation, love. The fathers of the company of Jesus
know how to bear with our weaknesses; and
under their care we are at peace with God and
with the king. Grant us our request ; listen,
O lord governor, to our prayer, and let it be gra-
ciously answered. We will, if you do, give a
larger tribute of yerba caamini.
" Remember, we beseech your lordship, that
we are not slaves. Our solemn declaration is, that
we like not the ways of the Spaniards. They are
beings who look to their own interest alone ; nei-
ther will one of them assist another in his work,
nor relieve him in time of need. This truth we
frankly state to your lordship, in the hope that
we may benefit by the communication. Should
94 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
it be otherwise, this town, as well as all the rest,
will be lost in the end. In spite of your lordship,
of our king, and of our God, hell will receive us
at last ; and then what consolation shall we have
at the hour of our death ? Our children are dis-
persed in the woods, as well as settled in the
towns ; and if they behold not the sons of Saint
Ignatius, they will wander about as marauders,
and make desolate the face of the land.
" Saint Joaquim, Saint Estanislaus, Saint Fer-
dinand, and the town of Timbd, are already
ruined, as we well enough know, and faithfully
tell your lordship.
" Adieu, then, to us, the mayoralty court !
How shall we restore to the king the towns in
that state in which they once were ?
" Now, then, our good lord the governor, let our
petition be granted, and God bless and prosper
you many years. This is the express represen-
tation of us the inhabitants of the town of Saint
Luis, 2$th of February, 1768, in the name of
your humble children of the whole town.
" I, Christoval Chora, Lord Mayor.
" I, Chrisanto Nerando, Judge of the First
Court.
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 95
i( I, Eustaquio Arapati, Judge of the Second
Court.
'•' I, Pasqual Pindo, Ensign Royal.
" I, Hermanegildo Curissi, senior Alderman.
e( I, Antonio Marangna, second Alderman.
" I, Don Bonifacio Agriara, third Alderman.
" I, Don Christoval Acatu, fourth Alderman.
« I, Borja Yrabuye, the Sheriff.
« I, Christoval Yabi, first Judge of the Holy
Brotherhood.
" I, Ignacio Yeguaca, second Judge of the
Brotherhood.
" I, Luis Ati, Secretary of the Court, in the
name of forty-one caciques."
So much for the Indian production in favour of
the Jesuits, prompted, no doubt, every word, by
the Jesuits themselves.
Now for the counter production, prompted not
less certainly by Bucareli and his adherents. It
is addressed by the Indians to Charles III., and
forwarded by the viceroy, under the following
note, to the Count of Aranda.
(i Most excellent and dear Sir,
" The judges and caciques of the thirty towns
situated between the famous rivers Uruguay and
96 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
Parana, have made a request, which I have
granted, to write a letter to our lord the king.
They have also petitioned me to present it to his
majesty, through the hands of your excellency,
which I now do, after having had it translated by
one of the best interpreters of the Guarani lan-
guage, in which it was originally written. I re-
quest, accordingly, that your excellency, should
you see no objection to this course, will place
the document in the hands of his majesty, our
lord.
" God preserve your excellency, &c.
" BUCARELI."
To this note Bucareli received from the Count
of Aranda the following reply.
" To his excellency Don Francisco Bucareli.
" Together with the letter of your excellency of
the "27th of March of this year, I have received
the dispatch which you inclose from the caciques
and civil functionaries of the towns situated be-
tween the rivers Uruguay and Parana; and I
have placed it in the royal hands of his majesty.
" I beg to intimate, that if your excellency
should not receive a reply by this conveyance, an
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 97
answer will be transmitted by the first vessel fol-
lowing for your port ; and that such opportunity
for writing cannot be distant.
"That God may preserve your excellency for
many years, is the prayer of
" The Count of Aranda.
" Madrid, September 9M, 1768."
The letter of the Indians, so opportunely trans-
mitted, and so graciously received, runs thus, and
it might be headed,
BUCARELI, PLAINTIFF, VERSUS THE JESUITS, DE-
FENDANTS.
" To OUR GOOD KING CHARLES THE THIRD.
" We give thanks to God, and may He grant
to your majesty perfect health, pleasure, and con-
tentment. May He, by His power, long preserve
the life of your majesty for the protection of us,
your poor vassals, in all our necessities and wants.
We, the thirty judges and thirty caciques of the
towns of Misiones, desire to appear before you
full of confidence, and to prostrate ourselves at
your majesty's feet, praying that God may have
you in His holy keeping, for the fulfilment of all
VOL. II. F
98 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
the pleasure of your majesty. With our whole
heart do we spread this letter out before your
royal throne. We have already seen enough to
assure us, good king, that the Lord, in His mercy,
has enlightened you as to our pitiable condition,
and moved you to relieve us from the arduous
life to which we were doomed.
" As we would receive the person of your ma-
jesty, so have we, with the greatest delight,,
received the priests and friars whom you have
appointed to rule over us. Many and repeated
thanks do we give your majesty for having sent
such a personage to govern us as his excellency the
captain-general Don Francisco de Paulo Buca-
reli. Through his love of God and of your ma-
jesty, the viceroy has given ample fulfilment to
all our most earnest desires. With pity has he
looked upon our poverty, and done all he could
for its alleviation. His kindness has been made
manifest to the whole world : he has clothed us
with garments, behaved to us, and invited us to
his board, as if we were gentlemen. He has
gratified the highest aspirations of our hearts.
We have received this saint, the creature of your
majesty, as at the hands of God. On the 4th of
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 99
November, the day of Saint Charles, we had high
mass celebrated for your majesty, by the lord
bishop, in the cathedral. We there ranked, with
indescribable exultation, as the intimate compa-
nions of his excellency the viceroy ; and when
the holy mass was over, we were conducted to the
palace. There we were seated at the dinner-
table, as equals with our good lord the bishop, with
his excellency the viceroy, and with many other
gentlemen of note, and dignitaries of the church.
" All this has his excellency the viceroy done,
even while representing the sacred person of your
majesty. With his own hands he helped us, and,
by his condescension, filled our hearts with joy.
" We have received him, accordingly, as we
would the sacred person of your majesty. For
the consolation of your poor vassals, we have
escorted him through all the towns of the Mi-
siones. Your majesty, our good king, we do not
see ; but we look upon your viceroy as your re-
presentative ; and we do honour to his pleasure
as such. To him, in person, and in the name of
your majesty, it is that we trust for the arrange-
ment of all our differences; and for the rescuing of
us from that miserable state of bondage in which,
F2
100 RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES.
like the vilest of slaves, we have been so long
held.
" For your majesty's enactment, making our
children eligible to the priesthood, we feel most
grateful. We will assuredly learn the Spanish
language ; and when, by the blessing of God, we
have acquired a thorough knowledge of it, we
will solicit an interview with your majesty; whom
God have in His gracious keeping many years."
Signed by the Indian authorities, as in the
preceding letter, with the addition of the
caciques.
You may not be able to trace in the two speci-
mens of Indian composition here given, the con-
sistency of the colonists of Misiones ; but you can
scarcely fail to detect the absolute state of servi-
lity to which they had been reduced.
Poor and wretched Indians ! such has been
their fate over the whole of not only South, but
North America. The English can lay no better
claim to good treatment of the aborigines, than
either the Spaniards or Portuguese. Humanity
seems to have been the pretext, slavery or exter-
mination the practice, of Europeans towards the
RESULT OF BUCARELl's MEASURES. 101
defenceless owners of the soil of America. The
conduct of the invaders of the New World is a
deep stain on the character of the Old. " Out"
— may we say with Lady Macbeth, to the blood-
stain upon her hand — " out, damned spot ! "
but spots like these, alas ! will never out.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
102
LETTER XXXV.
To J G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS.
State in which they left the Misiones — Causes of the Decay of
Misiones — 1st, Corruption — 2nd, Mai-administration — Com-
parison between the Government of the Jesuits and that of
Spain — Statistical Table — Mai -administration — Remarks of
Doblas on this — Reflections — Concluding Extract from
Doblas.
London, 1833.
BY the official table at the end of the volume, it
appears that the Jesuits possessed in their Mi-
siones of Entrerios and Paraguay, thirty towns,
containing
21,036 families,
88,864 inhabitants,
724,903 head of tame cattle,
46,936 oxen,
34,725 horses,
64,353 mares,
STATE OF THE MISIONES. 103
13,905 mules,
7,505 asses,
230,384 sheep,
and 592 goats.
But this, as you have seen by the extract from
Bucareli's report to the Count of Aranda, was
but a small portion of their aggregate wealth :
for they were spread over the whole of South
America, and had colleges, temporalidades, or
warehouses, houses of residence, lands, slaves,
Indian subjects, richly endowed and adorned
churches, together with a paramount influence,
the result of all this wealth, wherever they were
established. For the poorest and most isolated
of their establishments was never considered by
the people as one single possession, but as one of
a great whole ; and thus, wherever a priest of the
Order went, he was considered and treated as a
representative of the mass of his brethren, and
way was immediately made for him to exercise
as much authority as any of his colleagues could
practise at Cordova or in Misiones. A great
part of the wealth of the Jesuits consisted in the
gold and silver ornaments of their churches. To
the shrine of Santa Rosa (the patroness Saint
104 CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF MISIONES.
of the Indies) in the Misiones town of that name
were brought offerings of the precious metals,
and jewels in such abundance, that their value
was computed at one time at three hundred
thousand pounds. Santa Rosa was a sort of
South American Mecca, to which the faithful
made pilgrimages, and where they got a respite
for their souls from purgatory, at the expense
of sometimes half their fortunes.
As to the causes of the decay into which the
Misiones fell so shortly after the banishment of the
Jesuits, they are various. But they may be re-
solved into these two, — corruption, and mal-admi-
nistration. Many have taken occasion to infer,
from the prosperous state in which the Misiones
were under the Jesuitical regime, as compared
with the decay into which they sunk under their
subsequent governors, that therefore the system
of government of the Jesuits must have been ex-
cellent. No inference, however, could be more
fallacious.
That the adherents of Loyola managed their
colonies better than those who followed them,
there is, there cannot be, a shadow of doubt.
But after what has been said, it will scarcely
CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF MISIONES. 105
be thought that, because there was a still
lower abyss to which the Indians might be sunk
than that in which they had worked under the
Jesuits, these were therefore patriotic govern-
ors. As well might it be said that the system
of Old Spain in Paraguay was good, because
that of the ruthless Dictator has been tenfold
worse. This is not the proper view of the case.
The system of the Jesuits was excellent for the
promotion of their own ambitious views ; it was
baneful as far as the Indian was concerned. The
system of the governors, lay and clerical, who
superseded the Jesuits, was not only unavailable
for their own aggrandizement, but it was exe-
crable as regarded the Indian. When, in speak-
ing of the system of the last governors, I say it
was unavailable for their own aggrandizement,
I mean to say, generally and permanently : for,
on the first ousting of the Loyola body, the cor-
rupt subordinates charged with its execution
ran in upon the spoil, and recklessly plundered
whatever they could. The plate of the churches
went ; then the cattle went ; then the mer-
chandise in the stores went : so that those first
successors of the Jesuits did enrich themselves.
F3
106 CAUSES OF THE DECAY OF MISIONES.
But each follower of those first found less of the
spoil : the cattle were going, or gone ; the Indians
were deserting; the governor could only get a
small salary with his government ; and in twenty
years from the time of the expulsion of the Je-
suits, the least enviable of governments was one
in Misiones.
Permanently^ then, the governors of Misiones
who succeeded the Jesuits, while they bene-
fited not themselves, rendered galling, through
mal-administration, that yoke of the poor Indian
which had sat lightly on him under the Jesuits.
Thus it ever was with the aborigines of South
America. However much any party of Eu-
ropeans might be gainers, the wretched natives
were always sure to be losers.
To give you an idea of the rapid rate at which
spoliation, robbery, and mal-administration, to-
gether, must have proceeded, even during the
first four years after the expulsion of the Jesuits,
I extract the following official table from a pre-
liminary discourse on the work already referred
to of Doblas, by Don Pedro de Angelis * : —
* This accomplished writer, whose friendship I had the plea-
sure of enjoying in Buenos Ayres, has there published, in Spanish ,
STATISTICAL TABLE.
107
Statement of the number of Cattle in Misiones in 1768,
and of that found in 1772, showing the deficiency.
1768
Tame
Cattle.
Oxen.
Horses.
Mares.
Colts.
Mules.
Asses.
Sheep.
743,608
44,114
31,603
64,352
3256
12,705
7469
225,486
17/2
Deficit.
158,659
25,498
18,149
34,605
4619
8,145
5192
93,/39
584,909
18,621
13,454
29J47
4,560
2277
131,747
Having thus spoken of the corruption which
pervaded the Spanish government of the ex-
Jesuit colonies, I shall now shortly advert to that
mal-administration which was the result more
immediately of ignorance, and of attempts to do
what it was not in the nature of things should be
done. The Buenos Ayres government assumed
it to be necessary, that the system of the Jesuits
with the Indians should be followed up, even
under the change of administrators which must
necessarily take place. In this supposition they
were right ; for the Indians were not in a position
a voluminous, but highly interesting compilation of rare and ma-
nuscript works illustrative of the history of the united provinces
of Rio de la Plata. Mr. Angelis' own preliminary discourses,
eloquently written, are the most agreeable parts of his elaborate
work.— W.P. R.
108 RIAL-ADMINISTRATION.
to undergo any sudden transition from the state
of pupilage in which they had been kept for one
hundred and fifty years. But when the govern-
ment of Buenos Ayres went on to assume that
it could follow up the system of the Jesuits, here
it was entirely wrong ; and upon this rock of error
split all its schemes for preserving the Misiones
from present decay and ultimate ruin.
Instead of the one superior Jesuit, who had
governed with absolute sway all the Misiones, a
governor and three lieutenants under him were
appointed. Instead of the two curates appro-
priated by the Jesuits for the entire government
of each town, two curates were appointed for
spiritual concerns, and a temporal administrator
to manage the worldly possessions of the colony.
Great was the difficulty of making the Indians
understand how any mere layman should have
authority over them. They were continually ap-
pealing from him to the curates. These encou-
raged this spirit of adherence to their order, the
better to sustain their own authority, and aug-
ment their own gains. Hence, perpetual in-
trigues and hostilities between the lay admi-
nistrator and the clerical functionaries.
REMARKS OF DOBLAS. 109
On this subject, Doblas says — " At length the
Indians were made to understand that it was only
on matters connected with their salvation they
were to listen attentively to the curates ; but on
everything else to their lay administrator only.
This put no end, however, to the dissensions
between administrator and curates ; because, as
they both lived in the same house, and, as regards
their functions, were, to a certain extent, depend-
ent on each other, they never were agreed as to
what was the true balance of power.
" The curates wanted the Indians to attend
mass, and the counting of their beads, every day,
and at whatever hour the priests might choose.
This was often purposely made a very incon-
venient hour. Hereupon the laymen interposed
to prevent compliance, sometimes with reason,
and sometimes without it. The result was, that
the curate ordered the Indians that obeyed the
administrator to be flogged, and the adminis-
trator awarded stripes to those who obeyed the
curate. Both chastisements fell upon the miser-
able Indians, without farther delinquency on
their part, than that of not knowing exactly
110 REMARKS OF DOBLAS.
which party to obey, or of obeying the party they
liked best.
" Not even the mayor and aldermen escape this
cruel species of torture. They are often basti-
nadoed by order of both curates and lay admi-
nistrator, without knowing to which of them it
is their duty to adhere.
"From petty jealousies and personal feuds, in-
flammatory discords are every day kindled into
a flame. As the town is obliged to support the
curates, and as all provisions are under the con-
trol of the administrator, this person, when at
war, as he almost invariably is, with the curates,
takes advantage of this control to avenge him-
self. He makes them wait ; he gives them the
worst of every thing ; doles out to them the most
scanty supply ; and aggravates the hardship by
the infliction of innumerable petty grievances.
The curates, it is true, have not always justice
on their side; for they often exact rations so
superabundant, that they not only maintain with
them a number of servants, but six or eight ad-
herents.
" As in the towns there are no master-trades-
REMARKS OF DOBLAS. Ill
men to work for those who will buy what they
make ; and as not even a peon can be hired with-
out previous appeal to the administrator, because
all are subject to the law of community of goods ;
as the Indians do not understand what it is to
sell the produce of their labour, and there is thus
no way of being supplied with many actual neces-
saries, the practice observed is this : if any func-
tionary wants a pair of shoes, he calls in the shoe-
maker, gives him the leather, and says to him,
' make me a pair of shoes.' He makes and
brings them. If they give him anything, he
takes it, and if not, he goes his way without
making any demand. It is the same in every-
thing else. If the curate employs the shoe-
maker, being on bad terms with the adminis-
trator, the moment the latter knows what the
shoemaker is about, off he dispatches him to work
for ' the community,' in order to retard, or alto-
gether frustrate, the work for the curate. The
curate gets to know this : he bristles with ire ;
and the result of the whole matter is, that the
Indian shoemaker has to pay the penalty of
stripes from the curate, because forced by the
administrator to abandon his last."
112 REFLECTIONS.
Who, upon evidence such as this, can withhold
his pity and his sympathy from the unhappy Tape
Indians ? The policy of the Jesuits, in the first
place, for their own selfish and ambitious views,
reduces the Indians to a state of listless apathy
and imbecility, and keeps them in that state for
a century and a half : so that when Loyola's dy-
nasty comes to a close, the cupidity, the ignorance,
and the vindictive feelings of the new governors,
add to degradation, cruelty, and lay the founda-
tion of the last and melancholy state of the long-
suffering and enduring aborigines, — rapid exter-
mination.
This undeniable result clearly proves that the
system of conversion adopted and upheld by the
Jesuits in Paraguay was essentially unsound.
That system consisted not in gradually raising
the benighted neophytes to the same point of
civilization which their teachers had reached, — it
merely went the length of making them mecha-
nical instruments of gain to the brotherhood.
Their only praise is, that they met the docility
of the Indian with gentleness of treatment. But
however lofty might be their pretensions to ex-
emplary sanctity, and Christian-like love, their
REFLECTIONS. 113
shortcoming in the golden principle of " Do as
you would be done by," was so palpable and so
systematic, that while those pretensions must be
given to the winds, the impartial historian of
their career is bound to show forth their Indian
policy in its naked state, unadorned by the me-
retricious ornaments in which it has always been
clothed by the followers of Loyola and their
numerous partisans.
At the same time, all that has been said
against that body, is quite compatible (and, alas !
that it should be so) with their well-earned, their
undeniable reputation for wisdom, prudence, po-
litical sagacity, fortitude, patience, and perse-
verance.
One more extract from Doblas shall suffice to
complete this part of my subject, on which I think
I have said enough to give you a tolerably cor-
rect estimate of the state in which the Misiones
were left by the Jesuits, and that into which,
after their expulsion, they presently fell. I hope
I have also succeeded in laying open to you a
few of the causes of this latter calamity.
" If the Indians," says Doblas, " view with
indifference any property of their own, that which
1 14 CONCLUDING EXTRACT
belongs to ' the community' they behold with
abhorrence. The time, consequently, during
which they are employed in the production of
such property, they would as willingly spend in
the galleys. The habits to which they have
been trained, their great submission and humi-
lity, and the constant fear of the whip, are alone
sufficient to bend them to their hard task. But
even thus, it is with the greatest difficulty they
can be collected, and driven to their work. For
every operation, it is necessary to name an over-
seer. There are overseers of the weavers, of the
carpenters, of the smiths, of the cooks, of the
sextons, of the butchers, and of every branch,
in short, of occupation. The same system is
necessary in the working of the fields. Now, as
all are Indians, it is necessary to place over
those first overseers, others to watch over them.
This second class of overseers is generally taken
from among the judges and aldermen ; and
there is as little confidence placed in them as in
those they are appointed to superintend ; so
that, over all, it is necessary to appoint as over-
seer in chief, the mayor. But even the mayor,
as well as all the others, in order that any work
FROM DOBLAS. 115
may be done, must be watched by the admi-
nistrator ; and when the most is got that under
this complicated system of vigilance can be ob-
tained, it is not one-fourth of what the men could
naturally do.""
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
116
LETTER XXXVI.
To J G , ESQ.
THE JESUITS.
Journey to Misiones — Pai Montiel, the hospitable Curate — His
Parishioners — The two Caciques— Towns on the route —
Distance of the Journey — My reception on the road — State
of the Towns, generally — Candelaria, the Capital of Mi-
siones— Return to Assumption — Subsequent Ruin of Mi-
siones.
London, 1838.
RESOLVED myself to explore the region of Mi-
siones, of which I had heard so much, I borrowed
from a Paraguayan gentleman of the old school
his crazy lumbering carriage, on which I had first
set my eyes at the feast of Ytapua. The black-
smith and cartwright did their best to make it
hold together ; but they would never have suc-
ceeded, unless the peons had come to their
assistance with wet hide, and bound the carriage
with it from head to foot : so that when the hide
JOURNEY TO M1SIONES. 117
dried, the vehicle seemed as if in a strait jacket.
I was furnished with letters introductory, from
the Consul, and from several other friends to
every body of any note in the part of the country
which it was my intention to visit. Off we
started pretty much in the style in which I had
left Buenos Ayres ; with this difference, however,
that three peons drove before us a relay of thirty
horses, as there are no post-houses at which
to change in the route to Misiones. We had
also, instead of our tattered Pampa postilion,
Domeque's coachman of state, with his old
orange-coloured coat, cocked hat, and high boots.
That nothing might be wanting to command
respect on the road, I had, as outrider, my black
man, with his blue coat and red facings; and in
order to pave my way to the good graces of the
governors and curates, I carried a plentiful supply
of porter, wine, and spirits.
The first Indian town on the road to Misiones
is Yaguaron, about twelve leagues from As-
sumption ; but I had agreed to halt on the day
of my starting at the house of a very particular
friend, the curate of Ypane, distant only six
leagues from the capital. His name was Pai
118 PAI MONTIEL.
Montiel ; and on his countenance was depicted
as pleasing a combination as I ever saw of can-
dour, simplicity, benevolence, and sly humour.
The Pai was beloved by his flock, as well as by
his friends ; his habits were primitive ; and even
in that hospitable country his hospitality made
itself remarkable. It was so open-handed and
abundant, that the poor Pai was in continual
difficulties. In combination with his pastoral
charge, Pai Montiel superintended, on his own
estate, an extensive farming establishment. He
grew the sugar-cane, and had a mill for grinding
it; yucca-root, Indian-corn, cotton and tobacco
arose in great abundance around his house ; he
baked his own bread, and collected his own wild
honey. From his own cotton he made the cloth-
ing of his own household ; he reared his own
pigs and poultry, killed his own game, made his
own cheese and butter ; and was very celebrated
for his chipa.* He had ample paddocks for his
horses ; a great many servants who served him
for nothing; cows in abundance to supply his
dairy ; and oxen many, with which to plough his
* A very palatable bread, especially when just taken from the
oven, made from the Indian corn.
PAI MONTIEL. 119
rich lands. Yet withal this Pai Montiel was
poor. His rural munificence knew no bounds ;
so that what with charity to his parishioners,
entertainments to the rich, and presents to every-
body, the generous curate could seldom make
both ends meet.
On the morning on which I drove up to his
primitive, but capacious abode, I saw at a glance
that no ordinary preparations had been made for
the festivities of the day. Doctor Bargas and
the prior of the convent of St. Domingo accom-
panied me thus far on my journey ; and we found,
on arrival at Pai Montiel's, that the governor of
the district, two neighbouring friars, two Indian
caciques from the town of Ytape, on the river
Tibequari Mini, and two hacendados, had been
invited to meet us. The guests most honourable
to Pai Montiel were two decayed Spaniards, to
whom (though he detested their politics) he had
opened his own house as a home ; and whom he
fed, clothed, and supplied with money, without
either fee or reward.
Though we arrived before twelve o'clock, all
the preparations were made for dinner. The
country houses in Paraguay are not only built
120 PAl MONTIEL.
with a spacious corridor, which runs the whole
length of the front, but there is in the centre of
this corridor a yet more spacious recess, under
the roof of which the family may be said entirely
to live. It is breakfast-room, dining-room, draw-
ing-room, siesta-room, supper-room, and in not a
few instances, bed-room too. It is always the
coolest part of the house ; and during summer, it
is the only cool part. Here, covers were laid for
fourteen ; six or eight Tape Indians male and
female, were in attendance ; and the whole com-
pany, when relieved of the incumbrance of upper
garments and cravats, sat down to a repast,
which lasted nearly three hours. That of the
curate of Luxan was not to be compared to it,
any more than that of Candioti. It was, though
on a smaller scale, more like that of Ytapua.
But lest, were I to go into details, I might incur
the imputation of detaining you too frequently
in the way of mere description, over the good
things of the table, I shall content myself with
saying that the most exuberant abundance of
viands, served in the most savoury sauces, fur-
nished out our repast. Then followed the
dessert, consisting of cream, wild honey, pastry,
PAI MONTIEL' s PARISHIONERS. 121
new made cheese, pines, and every other tropical
fruit, all placed, or rather heaped on the table
together. Then came the water for ablution ;
then the cigars ; then the table was cleared ;
promptly a dozen hammocks were slung in the
corridor and in the recess ; and the whole com-
pany betook themselves to that siesta, for which
heat and repletion together had so well prepared
them.
In the evening, the recess and corridor were
lit up with variegated lamps ; and the parishioners
of Pai Montiel assembled to dance, play the
guitar, and sing. The prior of St. Domingo had
lent his band ; Pai Montiel went about, like the
good genius of the place: and anything more
refreshing, more delightful, than the footing on
which he was with the humblest of his flock, or
than the good-natured and unfeigned attention
which he showed them, I never witnessed. He
overcame all their scruples to eat and drink, and
to take some little present ; while his benevolent
countenance, his twinkling, cheerful eye, and
his ever passing of a joke, or paying of a compli-
ment, suited to the circumstances of the persons
of his simple congregation, as he blended with
VOL. II. G
122 THE TWO CACIQUES.
them, and encouraged them to hilarity, were
altogether charming.
At midnight, the villagers, each little troop
headed by their respective guitarero, retired
singing and dancing to their huts and cottages ;
and the next morning, with the benediction of
our munificent host, we started for Yaguardn.
The two Indian caciques had been invited by
Pai Montiel expressly for the purpose of con-
ducting us as far as their own town of Ytape ;
and they rode before us, accordingly, in the ca-
pacity of outriders. Acquainted with all the
woods, and with the best passes of the rivers
which intersected our path, the caciques not
only pioneered us along in good style, but they
helped the peons to keep together the horses of
our relay, which had a continual tendency to run
into the woods and disperse. Passing through
the small Indian towns of Yaguardn and Embi-
tinu, we halted for the day at Ytape. The
roads from Assumption to this place are some-
times so heavy with sand, and sometimes so
marshy, that it was with difficulty we accomplished
our journey of seventeen leagues in ten hours'
hard driving, not including stoppages. We were
THE TWO CACIQUES. 123
received, as usual, by the curates ; and a crowd
of poor and tattered Indians welcomed us next
morning on our arrival. There was nothing
worthy of remark in this town : it was a mere
collection of mud-hovels, built on the green
sward, with a little whitewashed church in the
midst of them. The curate had the religious
government of the community; and our two
cacique outriders, with four more of their coun-
trymen, coming to us in state, presented them-
selves with black rods in their hands, and were
introduced by the curates as the municipal body
of Ytape. I received them with all due honours,
plentifully regaled them, and shortly afterwards
continued my journey. The country, as we
travelled along, was beautiful; but it did not
vary in any of its features and characteristics
from that which I have already described on my
first entering Paraguay. On the third day,
passing through Cazapa, another Indian town,
we came to halt, for the evening, at Yuti, on the
river Tibiquari Guazu, having travelled this
day also a distance of seventeen leagues. We
crossed the river the next morning in a balsa.
On the fourth evening of our journey we came to
124 TOWNS ON THE ROUTE.
the town of Jesus, the first of the late missionary
establishments on our route, and distant sixteen
leagues from the Tibiquari. From hence, on the
following day, we reached Ytapua, another town
of the Jesuits on the banks of the Parana, and
ten leagues in advance of the establishment of
Jesus, Here we were informed that the balsa
which was wont to be stationed there for the
conveyance across the Parana of carriages, had
been destroyed ; and that there was now so little
traffic between Paraguay and Candelaria, the
capital of Misiones, that it had never been thought
necessary to construct another balsa. Ytapud
is situated on the north bank of the Parand, in
Paraguay properly so called. Candelaria stands
on the south bank of that river, nearly opposite
to Ytapua, in the territory of Entrerios, and was
still considered, at the time of which I write, the
capital of all the Misiones settlements.
Anxious to push on to this place, to the go-
vernor and curates of which I was particularly
recommended, I left the carriage at Ytapua ; and,
embarking in a canoe, was soon paddled across
the stream by half-a-dozen Indians. The Pa-
rana is here about a mile and a quarter broad,
DISTANCE OF THE JOURNEY. 1*25
calm, pellucid, and richly wooded on both banks.
I reached the governor's house at noon on the
sixth day after having left Assumption. The
following is a statement of my rate of travelling,
and shows the distance between that capital and
Candelaria.
1st day, from Assumption to Ypane . 6 leagues
2nd „ Ypane to Ytape . .17
3rd „ Ytape to Yuti . . 17 „
4th „ Yuti to the town of Jesus 16 „
5th „ Jesus to Ytapua . . 10 .,
6th „ Ytapua to Candelaria . 3 „
In all ... 69 leagues.
In a straight line the distance is only fifty-six
leagues. Throughout the whole journey, I was
treated not only with the utmost hospitality, but
with a deference and respect, with which I could
have willingly dispensed. The natives, however,
of that part of the country, from high to low^
had been taught to look up with such awe to
any European, travelling in the way in which I
did, — especially as it was public functionaries of
some note alone who had been in the habit of
126 MY RECEPTION ON THE ROAD.
doing so, — that it would have been no easy
task to disturb their associations in my case.
I bore my honours as meekly as I could, be-
cause I knew I was not entitled to them; and
I bore them patiently, because the notion which
the people had erroneously formed of my dignity
made them exert themselves the more to let me
see whatever was to be seen. Not a town did I
stop at for the night, without being waited upon
by the lord mayor (and sometimes even the lady
mayoress) and aldermen. They had nothing to
distinguish them from their barefooted and
ponchoed fellow citizens, but their wands of
office and some tawdry piece of finery which they
would have been better without, except that it
pleased them. — Some wore ribbons round their
hats, in the style in which recruits are equipped
before they join their regiment: others had on
a bad fit of a Serjeant's coat, terribly the worse
for wear. I generally managed to relax the
respectful rigidity with which the body cor-
porate appeared before me, by making them
drink a few glasses of brandy, and smoke cigars.
I had also presents to distribute among them, —
STATE OF THE TOWNS, GENERALLY. 127
knives, buttons, small looking-glasses, &c., of
which they are passionately fond, and by the
donation of which I made many friends.
Sad, cheerless, desolate, was the appearance
of both themselves and their towns. Every
thing was falling to decay, — the church, the
college, the huts. Many of the latter were in
ruins ; the men stood listless at their doors ;
weeds and briars were everywhere springing
up; the population was dwindling away daily;
and it was with difficulty the two curates in each
town could scrape together enough, from the
labour of the whole community, scantily to feed,
and badly to clothe, the members of it.
But I proceed to give you a little more par-
ticular description of the town of Candelaria, the
seat of the governor- general, and the capital of
the Entrerios Misiones. From that you will be
enabled to infer what must have been the state
of all the rest. It was certainly, in no case
better; in many instances, it was a great deal
worse.
Candelaria, under the Jesuits, had three thou-
sand and sixty-four inhabitants ; they were now
diminished to seven hundred. It had a splendid
128 CANDELARIA.
church richly ornamented, a capacious college,
large gardens, and extensive chacaras, or culti-
vated grounds, around it. The church was now
in a state of dilapidation ; the rain was pouring in
through many apertures of the roof; the walls were
bare ; and even the altar was uncovered by a cloth.
Not having been whitewashed for years, the walls
were not only bare, but black. From the damp
parts of them, at not very distant intervals, there
oozed out a green mould, forming a soil, from
which depended nettles and other noxious weeds.
The college was pretty much in the same state ;
and what had once been a brick-laid patio, or
quadrangle, was so completely covered with grass
and weeds, that no trace of the original foundation
was discoverable. As for the unweeded garden,
" things rank and gross in nature possessed it
merely." Every fruit-tree had been hewed down
for firewood. Of the original huts and cottages,
scarcely a third of their number was standing ;
and of those that did remain, there was no line
so little observable as the perpendicular. They
were awry, some leaning to one side, some inclin-
ing to another ; and all indicating a speedy inten-
tion of laying their bones and dust in the lap
CANDELARIA. 129
of mother earth, and by the side of the tenements
that had already mouldered to decay.
The form of the towns of the Jesuits (I speak
of their time) was invariably the same. The
church and college formed one side of a large
square, of which the three other sides were made
up of Indian huts, having corridors in front to
shelter them from the sun and rain. From the
corners of those squares diverged, as usual, at
right angles, and all built after one fashion, streets
of other huts, which, though whitewashed outside,
were yet, from the habits of the Indians, very
filthy within. Around the town were chacaras, or
grounds inclosed for cultivation ; and in these did
the Indians work, one part of the week for " the
community," the other for themselves. All the
trades were carried on in the college. It was a
large and long building, having two quadrangles,
one on the right wing, and another on the left.
From these there were separate entrances to a vast
number of rooms. Here was the carpenter at
work, there the shoemaker, and again the weaver,
maker of beads, silversmith, &c. Many rooms
were appropriated to the storing of produce, as
G 3
130 CANDELARIA.
well as of the returns for it received from Buenos
Ayres ; and all was under the lock and key of the
two curates of the company of Jesus. Behind
this college, a capacious corridor extended along
the whole line of the building, looking upon the
extensive and well-stocked garden, which, walled
completely round,, ran a considerable way back.
It supplied the padres with fruit and vegetables
in the greatest abundance.
But now, none of these things were to be seen.
With all their hospitality, the governor and cu-
rates, even aided by the temporal administrador,
could only spread before me beef, poultry, cab-
bage, and Indian corn.
What was wanting in delicacies, however, was
made up for by every possible civility and kind-
ness. I was waited upon, as usual, by the cabildo ,
and on the following day, which was a holiday,
there were processions of dancing-horses, tilts,
and tournaments, according to the Indian fashion.
There were bull-fights, sham fights among the
Tapes themselves, and feats of horsemanship of
marvellous dexterity and address. In the after-
noon, an image of the Virgin Mary, to which the
RETURN TO ASSUMPTION. 131
Indians paid devout adoration,, was carried round
the square ; and at nightfall some rockets were
let off in honour of the saint.
With great reluctance the Indians proceeded
to their tasks in the fields next morning. They
could not be collected before nine o'clock ; and
they returned at eleven to eat a scanty dinner
of yucca-root, and sleep a long siesta of three
hours. Again they went to the fields for a couple
of hours ; and, coming home, lounged away the
rest of the evening in apathy and listlessness.
As I was beginning to catch the contagion
myself, I made my preparations to return next
morning. I rejoined the carriage at Ytapua;
and in six days, with my cortege, being always
escorted from town to town by two Indians, I got
back to Assumption. I was pleased that I had
explored the country of the Misiones ; and almost
regretted, upon the face of its dreariness, depo-
pulation, and decay, that the Jesuits were not
still its masters. There was, at any rate, in their
time, industry, increase of population, and of
wealth; comparative comfort to the Indian, and
the appearance of a cultivated country, — culti-
vated on bad principles, it is true, — but still, cul-
132 RUIN OF MISIONES.
tivated. There was discipline, regularity, order,
and subordination. All these had vanished at
the time of my visit ; and certain it is, that how-
ever blameable in its motives and principles was
the government of the Jesuits, the government
which followed, without one redeeming good qua-
lity, had many vices and defects from which the
other was exempt.
Since the state of things described in this letter
existed, the Misiones have been falling, from
year to year, into a state of deeper and deeper
ruin ; till there now remains scarcely a trace or
vestige of what they were. The wars of Artigas
desolated them ; the policy of Paraguay has
nearly annihilated them. From a hundred thou-
sand inhabitants, the population has dwindled
down to eight thousand ; the public buildings
are now not only dilapidated, but ruined; and
the scattered Indians are almost as much at a
loss for subsistence, as when they wandered in
the woods. Their towns have been repeatedly
burnt and sacked during the revolution ; and
their cattle, horses, sheep, and bullocks have all
RUtlS OF MISIONES. 133
been destroyed or carried away. The natives of
Misiones themselves have been pressed into the
armies of the revolutionary chiefs, and the wives
and children often left to perish.
Every vestige of property and of cultivation
has been swept away ; and the ruin of the Indians,
like the fall of the Jesuits, though not quite so
sudden, has been equally complete : it has been
incalculably more calamitous.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
134
LETTER XXXVII.
To J G , ESQ.
THE YERBALES, OR WOODS OF THE PARAGUAY TEA.
Their Local — Men who worked in them — The Woods, Marshes,
&c. — Villa Real— Equipment for the Woods — Our Journey —
Discovery of a Yerbal — Colonial Preparations — The Tatacua
— The Barbacua — Delivery of the Yerba — The Packing-
Process of collecting the Yerba — Patience and Laboriousness
of the Peons — Return to Assumption — Nature and Results
of the Operations in the Yerbales.
London, 1838.
I HAVE given you, in my last few letters, together
with an account of the Jesuits and of their esta-
blishments, a sketch of my tour to the Misiones.
I now proceed to give you, but in shorter com-
pass, a statement of what I observed on an excur-
sion, which immediately followed the other, to the
famous yerbales, or woods of the Paraguay tea.
This formed so extensive a branch of the com-
merce of the country, that, like a little China.
THE YERBALES. 135
Paraguay may be said to have supplied the whole
southern part of the New World with the refresh-
ing beverage. The accounts I had heard of the
mode of its preparation, and of the hardships
and privations of those employed to procure it,
stimulated me to what was considered a rather
arduous task, that of visiting the montes, or
woods of the yerba-tree. These were situated
chiefly in the country adjacent to a small, miser-
able town called Villa Real, about a hundred
and fifty miles higher up the river Paraguay than
Assumption. There being no land communica-
tion between the two places, but a most incommo-
dious and dangerous one, I determined to face
the attacks of the mosquitos, and to put my pa-
tience to the trial of stemming the rapid current,
rather than run the risk of having a rencontre
with a tiger, or of being swamped in a marsh.
I was invited by one of the great master yerba
manufacturers to sail with him in his smack
to Villa Real, and to accompany him by land
from thence to the scene of his operations in
the woods. Before I describe this, I will give
you some account of the men,' — masters and
labourers, — by whom the traffic was carried
136 WORKMEN IN THE YERBALES.
on. It was one of so arduous a nature, that,
though very lucrative, it was generally conducted
either by young beginners in the world, or by
low men, who, like miners, having got entangled
in a system of gambling, alternately made and
lost fortunes ; were always poor ; and finally died
in the yerbales. Exceptions to this rule there
were; but very few. Like their masters, the
peons were almost invariably gamblers too. They
were, therefore, no sooner out of the woods, than
they were obliged to return to them.
When a master-workman, or abilitado, wanted
to go to the " beneficios," or places where the
yerba-tree is found and prepared, he applied to
some merchant in Assumption, from whom he
got what was called an " abilitacion." This was
a loan, in goods and money, of a capital of two,
three, or four thousand dollars, as the case might
be. The amount was to be repaid by the abili-
tado to the merchant within a specified time, and
in yerba at a stipulated price.
Hiring, then, twenty or thirty, sometimes forty
or fifty peons, the master provided himself with
the things he knew they would most require in
the woods, — axes, knives, ponchos, tobacco, spi-
THE WOODS, MARSHES, &C. 137
Tits, caps, cotton cloth, coarse handkerchiefs, packs
of cards, &c. As the merchant in Assumption
had advanced money to the master, so the master
was obliged to do the same to his servants ; and
they generally all entered the woods largely in
his debt. He had charged them double for
everything ; and before they began to work, they
found their wages forestalled for two or three
months.
So impenetrable and overrun with brushwood
are these forests in many places, and so tenanted
in all by reptiles and insects of the most torment-
ing and often venomous description, that the only
animals capable of being driven through them
are bulls, which are necessary for the mainte-
nance of the colony of yerba-makers, and mules,
which are not less necessary for the conveyance
out of the woods of the tea, after it is manufac-
tured and packed.
With Miguel Carbonell, then, (a very coarse
Catalan,) who had spent a long life alternately
on the river and in the woods, I sailed from
Assumption still farther up the stream ; and we
arrived at Villa Real, in lat. 23° 20' south, on the
tenth day of our mosquito martyrdom on the
138 VILLA REAL.
Paraguay. We were now on the borders of a
territory inhabited by the Mbaya and Guaycuru
Indians. The latter is the fiercest of all the un-
subdued tribes in that quarter.
In two days after our arrival, we left Villa Real ;
and never was I more thankful than when we
did ; for if the pains and penalties of purgatory
be at all equal to those of that place, there
certainly cannot be much to fear beyond it.
The heat, the effluvia, the filth, the mosquitos,
the lizards, the serpents, the toads, the cen-
tipedes, the binchucas, the bats, the naked in-
habitants, the wretched huts, the squalid po-
verty,— all rendered my residence there, for two
days, not only painful, but loathsome in the high-
est degree.
Our cavalcade, as we departed, was rather a
grotesque one. Mounted upon forty mules rode as
many peons, with no covering but a shirt, a pair
of drawers, a girdle round their waist, and a red
cap on their head. Some of the mules were sad-
dled, some not : before us went a dozen sumpter
mules, laden with barrels of spirits, tobacco, and
other merchandize. Half-a-dozen of the peons,
a little way a-head, drove upwards of a hundred
EQUIPMENT FOR THE WOODS. 139
bulls, bellowing under the smart inflicted by
stinging insects ; while the Catalan, a capataz,
or overseer, and myself brought up the rear.
Our legs were cased in raw hide, to defend us at
once from the thorns of the underwood and from
the bites of the mosquitos. Our faces, with the
same object, were vizored in tanned sheepskin,
and our hands were fitted with gloves of the same
material.
The peons, it appeared to me, had their own
hides so tanned and hardened, as to require no
better protection from the insects ; for the most
I saw them occasionally do, though completely
exposed, was to give a little clap with their hand
on their face, to warn off a mosquito, or other
venomous gnat, which, had it fastened on me,
would have left a blister for a week.
With great difficulty we accomplished, the first
day, seven leagues ; and we bivouacked for the
night by a rivulet, on a little open space of green
sward. Here, by lighting immense fires, we
contrived to keep off the insects; and it was
curious to see with what sagacity both bulls
and mules kept within the sphere of the rare-
fied atmosphere, and thus avoided, in some de-
140 DISCOVERY OF A YERBAL.
gree, as well as ourselves, the all but insupport-
able attacks of the stinging and poisonous tenants
of the air.
At dawn of day we moved our camp, and pro-
ceeded through such obstacles as I will not ven-
ture to describe, because I could scarcely, without
incurring the penalty of having attributed to me
the exaggerations of a traveller, call upon you to
believe them.
On the fourth day, however, we emerged from
the tangled, thorny woods and endless marshes,
into a beautiful country, richly adorned with all
the finest specimens of Paraguay scenery; and
on the fifth day we came to a point of the north-
ern bank of the Ypane Guasu, about twenty
leagues from its junction with the Parana, and
thirty from Villa Real. Here a shout from the
overseer and peons proclaimed that they had
come upon a yerbal, or forest of the yerba-tree.
We were in the midst of an extensive valley,
well irrigated, and closely shut in, on all sides, by
wood of every description, from the shrub and the
orange-tree, to the most gigantic timber of the
forest. This was in the morning ; and half- an -
hour afterwards the cavalcade halted by a small
COLONIAL PREPARATIONS. 141
stream. The most active preparations were in-
stantly made for a permanent settlement ; by
which I mean an intended sojourn on that spot
for six months.
The sumpter mules were unloaded, the saddled
ones unsaddled ; they and the bulls were driven
to pasture by six or eight peons ; while twenty
of the remaining servants set, with all haste,
about cutting strong stakes with which to form
the pens for the cattle. Half-a-dozen peons
soaked a number of hides with which to fasten
those stakes ; while one part of the remainder
slaughtered a bull, and another part kindled
fires, for the purpose at once of roasting the
beef and of keeping off the insects. These ope-
rations commenced about ten o'clock in the morn-
ing. By sunset the bulls were safely pent up in
one corral, and the mules in another. Beside
this, a high stage was erected,, like that described
at the cottage of Leonardo Vera ; and before ten
o'clock at night the whole colony of yerba manu-
facturers, the master, the overseer, and myself,
were asleep, in mid-air, aloof from all attacks at
once of reptiles and of insects. The fires were
left blazing to keep off the yagiiars ; and for the
142 THE TATACUA.
first time since we left Villa Real, I enjoyed a
night's sound and undisturbed repose.
At dawn of day the peons were again at work,
Here one little band was constructing for our
habitation a long line of wigwams, and overlaying
them with the broad leaves of the palm-tree and
of the banana. There, other sets were making
preparations for the manufacturing and storing
of the yerba.
These preparations consisted, first, in the con-
struction of the tatacua.
This was a small space of ground, about six
feet square, of which the soil was beaten down
with heavy mallets, till it became a hard and
consistent foundation. At the four corners of
this space, and at right angles, were driven in
four very strong stakes, while upon the surface
of it were laid large logs of wood. This was the
place at which the leaves and small sprigs of the
yerba tree, when brought from the woods, were
first scorched, fire being set to the logs of wood
within it. By the side of the tatacua was spread
an ample square net of hide -work, of which, after
the scorched leaves were laid upon it, a peon
gathered up the four corners, and proceeded with
THE BARBACUA. 143
his burthen on his shoulder to the second place
constructed, viz., the barbacua.
This was an arch of considerable span, and of
which the support consisted of three strong tres-
tles. The centre trestle formed the highest part
of the arch. Over this superstructure were laid
cross bars strongly nailed to stakes on either
side of the central supports, and so formed the
roof of the arch. The leaves being separated,
after the tatacua process, from the grosser
boughs of the yerba-tree, were laid on this roof,
under which a large fire was kindled. Of this
fire the flames ascended and still farther scorched
the leaves of the yerba. The two peons beneath
the arch with long poles, took care, as far as they
could, that no ignition should take place ; and, in
order to extinguish this when it did occur, ano-
ther peon was stationed at the top of the arch.
Along both sides of this there were two deal
planks; and, with a long stick in his hand, the peon
ran along these planks, and instantly extinguished
any incipient sparks of fire that appeared.
When the yerba was thoroughly scorched, the
fire was swept from under the barbacua, or arch ;
the ground was then swept, and pounded with
144 DELIVERY OF THE YERRA.
heavy mallets, into the hardest and smoothest
substance. The scorched leaves and very small
twigs were then thrown down from the roof of
the arch, and by means of a rude wooden mill,
ground to powder.
The yerba, or tea, was now ready for use;
and being conveyed to a large shed, previously
erected for the purpose, was there received,
weighed, and stored by the overseer. The peons
worked in couples, except that they hired a third
peon, and paid him accordingly, to aid them in
superintending the operations of the barbacna.
These two peons got a receipt for every portion
of tea which they delivered to the overseer ; and
they were paid for it at the end of their stipu-
lated sojourn in the woods, at the rate of two
rials, or a shilling, for the arrobe of twenty- five
pounds.
The next and last process, and the most labo-
rious of all, was that of packing the tea. This
was done by first sewing together, in a square
form, the half of a bull's hide, which being still
damp, was fastened by two of its corners to two
strong trestles driven far into the ground. The
packer, then, with an enormous stick made of
PROCESS OF COLLECTING THE YERBA. 145
the heaviest wood, and having a huge block at
one end, and a pyramidal piece to give it a
greater impulse, at the other, pressed, by re-
peated effort, the yerba into the hide sack, till
he got it full to the brim. It then contained
from two hundred to two hundred and twenty
pounds, and being sewed up, and left to tighten
over the contents as the hide dried, it formed,
at the end of a couple of days by exposure to
the sun, a substance as hard as stone, and almost
as weighty and impervious too.
The whole process of the yerba manufacture
is pretty accurately delineated in the annexed
engraving.
I have hitherto described only the process of
making ready the yerba for use.
If you will accompany me to the woods, you
shall see how it is collected.
After all the preparations which I have detailed
were completed (and it required only three days
to finish them), the peons sallied forth from the
yerba colony by couples. I accompanied two of
the stoutest and best of them. They had with
them no other weapon than a small axe ; no other
clothing than a girdle round their waist, and a red
VOL. n. H
146 PROCESS OF COLLECTING
cap on their head ; no other provision than a
cigar, and a cow's horn filled with water; and
they were animated by no other hope or desire,
that I could perceive, than those of soon discover-
ing a part of the wood thickly studded with the
yerba-tree. They also desired to find it as near
as possible to the colonial encampment, in order
that the labour of carrying the rough branches
to the scene of operations might be as much as
possible diminished.
We had scarcely skirted for a quarter of a mile
the woods which shut in the valley where we were
bivouacked, when we came upon numerous clumps
of the yerba-tree. It was of all sizes, from that
of the shrub to that of the full-grown orange-
tree ; the leaves of it were very like those of that
beautiful production. The smaller the plant, the
better is the tea which is taken from it considered
to be. To work with their hatchets went the
peons ; and in less than a couple of hours they
had gathered a mountain of branches, and piled
them up in the form of a haystack. Both of
them then filled their large ponchos with the
coveted article of commerce in its raw state ; and
they marched off with their respective loads,
THE YERBA. 147
staggering under them pretty much in the way
in which you see a wheat or turnip- cart totter-
ing under its burthen in this country, or in that
in which I had seen my friends the ants nodding
toward their pyramids under their voluminous
burthens. Having deposited their first load
within the precincts of the colony, the peons
returned for a second, and so on till they had
cleared away the whole mass of branches and of
leaves cut and collected during that day. When
I returned to the colony, I found the peons com-
ing by two and two, from every part of the valley,
all laden in the same way. There were twenty
tatacuas, twenty barbacuas, and twenty piles of
the yerba cut and ready for manufacture. Two
days after that, the whole colony was in a blaze.
Tatacuas and barbacuas were enveloped in smoke;
on the third day, all was stowed away in the shed ;
and on the fourth, the peons again went out to
procure more of the boughs and leaves. During
the eight days that I witnessed these operations,
I was profoundly struck with the patient and
laborious perseverance of the workmen. Then,
for their abstemiousness, it was, if possible, still
more striking. Beef dried in the sun, and a
H2
148 RETURN TO ASSUMPTION.
few water-melons, constituted their whole fare,
with, at the close of day, a cigar and a glass of
spirits. Neither the perpendicular rays of the
sun, nor the everlasting attacks of insects and
reptiles, had the power of producing an inter-
mission of labour, or of damping merriment after
the toils of the day were brought to a close.
Prepared by fatigue for a sound rest, they all
mounted the stage to sleep ; and the sighs of the
evening breeze wafting away the last strains of
the guitar, and the last sounds of vocal melody,
left the whole company in a state of profound
repose.
After spending eight days in this incipient
colony I was provided with a canoe, in which,
avoiding a second visit to Villa Real, I was
paddled down the Ypane Guasu, and passing the
village of Belen, I reached in three days the
capital of Assumption.
I have already endeavoured to give you an
idea of the manner in which the yerba labourers
work. I shall now give you a notion of what
they gain, and of how they enjoy themselves.
Suppose a peon to go into the yerbales or
woods, for six months. It is calculated, and,
OPERATIONS IN THE YERBALES. 149
from what I saw, correctly, that in this time he
may produce eight arrobes, or two hundred
pounds of yerba a day.
This, at the rate of two rials, or a shil-
ling for each arrobe, would make his
wages per day, eight shillings ; and
this, for six months' work, at six
days in the week, would produce to £ s.
the labourer a sum of . . 57 12
But he has run in debt to his
master before he entered the
woods, the sum of . . £12 0
He has spent in the woods as
much . . , . 12 0
And for neither sum has he got
half its value : yet he is thus
indebted . . . 24 0
Like sailors when they come off a long
voyage, therefore, the yerba peon re-
turns home with . 33 12
Of this sum he spends in silver
ornaments for his horse . 12 0
In personal decoration . .50
And in gambling, the balance 16 12
£33 12
150 OPERATIONS IN THE YERBALES.
In a month he resells his horse-furniture and
personal apparel; in a fortnight after that he
is left without a farthing ; and in a week more
he is to be found again naked in the yerbales.
Mutatis mutandis, it is the same with his
master. The peon's ruin is measured by tens ;
that of his master by hundreds and thousands.
Both are slaves ; slaves alike of their vanity and
their passions. Having for a season gratified
these, they are both alike content to return to
the arduous task of working in the yerbales, and
of providing, by fresh sacrifices and fresh labour,
for the renewed gratification of those habits which
temporary indulgence, so far from having sub-
dued, has only fostered into more inveterate pro-
pensities.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
151
LETTER XXXVIII.
To J-
G , ESQ.
COMMENCEMENT OF THE LETTERS OF W. P. R.
Departure for South America — Sailing from England in time of
War — Arrival at Madeira — Description of the Island and
Capital — Mr. Bellringer — Burriqueiros — Vicinity of Funchal
—The Vineyards.
London, 1838.
IN the course of the preceding letters you have
had such ample details regarding Francia and
the Jesuits, so many views exhibited to you of
Paraguay, the Misiones, and the Yerbales, that
I think I may safely venture, as a second and a
secondary writer on these subjects, to shift the
scene for a moment, — to give you breathing time
ere I transport myself to the city of Assumption.
While following up my career at home, I re-
ceived letters from my brother, pressing me to
join him in Paraguay. His previous accounts
of that country, and of the facility with which a
152 DEPARTURE FOR
" fortune" might be made in it, together with
the grandeur which is attached, in every young
Scotchman's mind, to the idea of " going abroad,"
made me prepare with great alacrity to quit
my native soil. We pride ourselves very much
on strong national feelings, — on our deeply-
rooted amor patrice ; but somehow or other these
feelings are never allowed to restrain our desire
of travelling out of Scotland as soon as we can.
What is more strange, they are seldom strong
enough to induce us to return to our native coun-
try after we have once fairly left it. I fear our
love of country is something like our education
in Scotland — rather metaphysical.
Be that as it may, I bade a kind farewell
to my Home in August, 1813. Before setting
off, I made a parting visit to many old haunts
in the vicinity of Edinburgh. I took a last
look of all the curious streets, closes, and wynds
of the old town. I went up the Calton Hill,
to view the noble scenery which stretches all
around it ; I descended from the Castle to
Holyrood, walked over the King's Park, as-
cended, for the last time, Arthur's Seat, and
skirted the brow of Salisbury Craigs. I visited
SOUTH AMERICA.
153
Duddingstone, " Jock's Lodge/' and Portobello ;
and I devoted one entire day to Lasswade, and
thence, by the banks of the Esk, to Dalkeith.
Here, at the grammar-school, or, as we called it,
the high school, I had been educated, and spent
my earlier years. Our old teacher (Mr. Bell), a
celebrated man in his day, was still at his post.
He was the beau-ideal of a country schoolmaster
— Goldsmith's own ; and I now could look on
him with all the reverence, unmixed with any of
the fear which he commanded in our boyish days.
From the school I proceeded to the " Duke's
Park," the noble grounds of the Duke of Buc-
cleuch. I lingered over every well-known path,
and over each individual beauty of the scene:
the bridge,— the fall of the Esk,— the grotto,—
the hermitage, — the deep shrubberies, and the
smooth lawns, — the palace and its paintings, —
the fine old trees in the Park, and that wonder of
our early years, " the hanging leaves ;" — all were
retraced : and from so many objects which had
been the source of such unalloyed pleasure to
me, I parted with the reluctant regret which we
experience on separating from friends to whom
we feel we may never again be restored.
154 SAILING IN TIME OF WAR.
In those days steam was not. We then
thought we had reached the acme of perfection
when we launched a fine Berwick smack. By
such a conveyance I was carried from Leith to
London in eight days. So much has the morale
of travelling been improved since then, that I
have a distinct recollection of all the cabin pas-
sengers being engaged one morning in a battle
of pillows — the ladies against the gentlemen ;
and the pillows flying like so many bombs from
one sleeping-cabin to the other.
The younger travellers of the present gene-
ration, nurtured and going forth in peace, have
little idea of the stir and animation which at-
tended a sailing from England during the last
war. Now, a single ship takes her quiet depar-
ture from the docks of London or Liverpool, and
however long her passage may be, no " hair-
breadth 'scapes" are ever dreamed of. Then,
the general rendezvous was Portsmouth : mighty
fleets of merchantmen were gathered under the
wings of British men-of-war ; signals were to be
answered ; guns were to be attended to ; and,
in short, a high note of preparation was sounded,
ere, in those warlike times, any of the king's
subjects were allowed to cross the Atlantic.
SAILING IN TIME OF WAR. 155
I thus sailed from Portsmouth on the 23rd
August, 1813, in a beautiful ship called the
Marianne, and in a fleet of about eighty mer-
chantmen, bound for different parts of the New
World, under convoy of two fine frigates. On
the signal being given to get under way, all
was bustle on shore, all animation afloat. Every
vessel loosed her sails, and the two frigates, sail-
ing gallantly out under easy canvass, headed
their numerous convoy, as they swept out to sea
amid the acclamations of congregated thousands,
who witnessed our departure from the shore.
In sailing under convoy when the fleet is nu-
merous, the monotony of a long voyage is broken
in upon by a great variety of incident, and by a
continual observation and speculation upon the
movements of the floating community around you.
But it has this terrible drawback, that the pro-
gress of the finest ship is brought down to a level
with that of the dullest sailers in the fleet. Our
frigates were sometimes scudding under bare
poles, while the heavy clumps of our convoy,
crowding all sail, were unable to keep company.
Then comes the signal to lie-to ; and those vessels
which have distinguished themselves by their
156 ARRIVAL AT MADEIRA.
sailing qualities are ordered to take one of the
wretched laggers-behind in tow, — a task which
was often assigned to the Marianne, one of the
finest ships in the convoy.
We had, notwithstanding, a fine run to Madeira,
where a still more magnificent sight than the sail-
ing of our convoy from Portsmouth presented
itself to our view. Nearly two hundred sail of
merchantmen, and about twenty men-of-war —
line-of-battle ships and frigates, — lay in the bay
of Funchal; and when our own convoy sailed
towards the mass, and gradually mixed itself up
with it, the effect was really grand.
Then the scenery of the island, under the
shelter of which we came to anchor ! The bases
of the mountains are lashed by the surf of the
sea : Funchal, being hemmed in by the waves, is
pressed into the adjoining ravines, or runs its
narrow streets right up the acclivities. The
ascent of the hill is steep and rugged, — craggy
rocks and bold precipices everywhere frown
over the city and the bay. Yet with these fea-
tures are mixed up others of a softer descrip-
tion,— verdure, trees, vineyards, and mountain
rills ; while the whole face of the precipitous
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND AND CAPITAL. 157
ascent, rising from Funchal to the church of
Nossa Senhora do Monte, 2000 feet above the
level of the sea, is dotted with whitewashed
cottages and pretty villas, which at the distance
look as if they were pendent in the air, and
altogether inaccessible to the footsteps of man.
I think I may begin my "personal narrative "
from Funchal. You may conceive the scene of
confusion which its narrow streets (little better
than lanes) presented to us, when you consider
they were in the possession of the out-pourings of
twenty British ships of war, and of two hundred
and fifty to three hundred English merchantmen.
As far as the moving population went, the place
had all the appearance of a dirty third or fourth
rate English sea-port town. Post captains, skip-
pers, passengers, midshipmen., and tars, thronged
in every direction. There was not even standing
room in any one of the filthy little inns or gin-
shops of which Funchal could alone boast. Lodg-
ings were all let ; a bed was not to be- had for
love nor money. For a bottle of porter half-a-
crown was asked. It was the close of August,
and the heat in the pent-up streets was truly
frightful. Like hundreds of others, we knew
158 MR. BELLR1NGER.
nobody ; no house of entertainment was open
to us, even with money in our purses. We
wandered up and down the streets (my two fel-
low-passengers and myself), half baked, half-
roasted : and whereas we had anticipated a week's
delightful residence at the beautiful island of
Madeira, the less flattering prospect began to
dawn upon our unwilling minds, of being obliged
to languish out the seven days under an awning
on board of the Marianne. We might thus view,
but could not enter, the Hesperides which lay
before us.
I must here inform you that while I waited
the gathering of the convoy at Portsmouth, I
scraped acquaintance with a gentleman who bore
the singular name of Bcllringer. We were at
the same hotel, dined once or twice, and walked
out on the ramparts together. We were both of
the convoy swarm, whose " aims were various as
the roads they took ;'* too various by much to
admit of your asking any one you fell in with.
" whither bound ?"
Now as my fellow-passengers and myself were
taking our last stroll down the principal street of
Funchal, — tired, jaded, heated, and perfectly sick
MR. BELLRINGER. 159
of our occupation, — my eye caught the name in
large letters, over a large warehouse, of " Bell-
ringer." While admiring the " curious coinci-
dence," the identical Mr. Bellringer came to the
door, and immediately recognized his Portsmouth
coffee-house acquaintance. He had landed, like
ourselves, that morning : his establishment, a
large and flourishing one, was at Madeira; and
he immediately professed his desire to do what-
ever he could to render my short stay in the island
agreeable to me.
He ushered us all three up to a large, airy,
and handsome saloon on the first floor, the ground
floor, as in all the other principal houses in Fun-
chal, being appropriated to business. The most
delicious grapes, the finest oranges, the best wines,
were placed before us. What a contrast to our
despairing stroll in the streets ! Mr. Bellringer's
own house was full of visiters ; but he procured
us the very best accommodation with a respect-
able private family. The inmates were agreeable
North Americans ; and of the great heteroge-
neous mass of visitants thrown so suddenly on
Funchal, I do not think a single individual was
160 BURRIQUE1ROS.
more comfortably lodged and cared for than were
the passengers of the Marianne.
Madeira, as we now had an opportunity of see-
ing it, broke in upon our delighted vision as a
terrestrial paradise. A more charming climate
(when you begin to rise above Funchal), or a
more truly enchanting and varied piece of scenery,
I do not believe is anywhere to be found.
We spent all our time in making excursions to
the most interesting points of the island situated
around the town of Funchal. We breakfasted
every morning with our host and his nice family ;
after which, a basket of provisions being provided,
burriqueiros and ponies were ordered to the door.
The former are your conductors or runners ; and
one scarcely knows which most to admire, the
agility of these, or the strength and sure-footed-
ness of their little horses. They climb the steeps,
descend the ravines, thread the broken rocks,
and canter along the here and there unbroken
surface of the road, all with equal facility and
safety. But go as fast as you will, you can never
outrun your burriqueiro. With staff in hand,
he is ever skipping at your side or before you :
THE VINEYARDS. 161
the sun may be roasting, the mountain road may
be nearly perpendicular, it seems all pastime to
the merry burriqueiro, it seems literally impos-
sible to fatigue him.
Wherever you go, the vineyard and the cottage,
the handsome villa and the beautiful grounds, are
thickly set together. Then you come upon rocks
and rills, and the bolder and more sterile but
picturesque scenery of nature, contrasting finely
with the cultivated fields, the verdant table-lands,
the lofty trees, and the wild shrubs and ever-
greens ; which, with the fuchsia, the myrtle, and
the geranium, are scattered about in the utmost
profusion and beauty, and in all the richness of a
tropical vegetation.
The vine here, as in other wine-producing
countries, is trained low, and planted in large
fields : many of the cottages attached to these
vineyards we found on the sides of the roads
made on the acclivities of the hills. Every such
cottage has behind the door a pipe of vin du pays,
a light beverage, which you drink in jars. During
the heat of the day, when toiling up such steeps
as those which lead to the Mount Church, and
other surrounding places, we found the draught
162 THE VINEYARDS.
very refreshing. We varied our excursion every
day, visiting all the places most remarkable for
the beauty of their scenery. Towards after-
noon, we looked for the umbrageous tree, the
smooth sward, and the clear purling rill; there
we had our little pic-nic, and rested from the
agreeable labours of the day. We refreshed our
ever-contented and laughing burriqueiros, we
pastured our ponies ; and returning slowly in the
cool of the evening, we rejoined the agreeable
society of the family for whose acquaintance we
were indebted to my worthy friend Mr. Bell-
ringer.
When the agency of steam shall become power-
ful enough to wing you to Madeira in so many
hours, and bring you back again in so many
more, I advise you by all means to make a trip
there in the month of September.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
163
LETTER XXXIX.
To J G , ESQ.
A calm at Sea — Rio de Janeiro — The Commodore leaves the
Convoy to its Fate — Race for Buenos Ayres — Rats on board
of Ship — Striking upon rocks — Exertion at the Pumps —
Cutting away of the Masts — The wreck is seen by Pharisees
and Levites ; but passed by without relief — Relieved at
length by a Jew — Mr. Jacob, the Good Samaritan.
London, 1838.
CAPTAIN DICKSON, who led and commanded our
convoy, had not been to sea for ten years; and
to this cause was traced by many in the fleet the
sufferings we underwent by being becalmed for
three wearisome weeks on the line.
Certain it is, we got into an African bight, and
out of it we could not contrive to move. One
day the sun shot his vertical rays on our heads,
or at least on our awnings ; another we crept a
mile to the south of him ; a third we lagged a
mile to the north : throughout the thermometer
stood at about ninety -five of Fahrenheit ; and the
164 RIO DE JANEIRO.
most serious apprehensions were entertained at
last for the health of the numerous ships' crews,
who languished out their existence on salt pork
and short allowance of water under this oppres-
sive heat. At the end of the three weeks we fell
in with the long- desired, almost despaired of,
breeze, arid after a most uncomfortable passage
of ninety days we, about the 20th of November,
reached Rio de Janeiro.
Of this city, and of its splendid and unrivalled
bay, the account given in some of the early letters
of these volumes shall suffice. Having introduc-
tions to Rio, I was not reduced, in the still hotter
streets than those of Funchal, to the dilemma
from which Mr. Bellringer relieved me. I spent
a fortnight with a kind and hospitable friend *,
and in that time had an opportunity of seeing all
the united grandeur and beauty of the surround-
ing scenes. The features which nature here as-
sumes, may perhaps (with the exception of the
distant view of the Organ mountains) be more
properly classed with the beautiful than with the
grand: but it is the vast scale on which these
* Mr. David Stevenson, who is still a resident of Rio, and I
believe has not left it for twenty-six or twenty-seven years.
SLAVES.
165
beauties are harmoniously blended and gracefully
grouped together which renders the scene one of
both pleasing and imposing interest.
A fortnight of Rio towards the beginning of
December is quite enough even for the most
ardent admirer of the picturesque. The heat in
the city is intolerable. The mosquitos plague
you to death. Above all, in my case, the hateful
scenes which I was, on this my first visit to a
slave country, forced to witness of cruelty to the
unhappy negro, created in me an utter disgust
of the place. Such was the profound impression
made on my feelings in that early part of my
career, by the stroke of the lash and the shriek
of the victim, which ever and anon fell on my
unwilling ear, that to this day I fancy I can hear
the appalling sound as distinctly as I did twenty-
five years ago.
Those persons in England who still maintain
that slavery is by no means so bad a condition
for the negro, as pretended philanthropists have
asserted, can never have been transported at the
age of 20 years from the humane and happy land
in which they live, to a country where the slave is
coerced into blind and brute obedience, through
166 SLA.VES.
the repetition of agonizing wounds inflicted on
his uncovered body, by a heartless, relentless,
often vindictive executioner.
And let it not be said that that which took
place at Rio was not to be seen in our own set-
tlements. It is a too melancholy and too well-
authenticated fact that the Portuguese, the Eng-
lish, and the Dutch are all nearly alike noto-
rious for their rigid and unrelenting character,
when converted into owners of slaves. I do not
speak of those who have merely domestic slaves,
(though in many cases this class is badly enough
treated,) but of the proprietors of estates worked
by slaves ; of the man who has these unhappy
wretches by droves, and first brings them down
to the level of the beasts of the field, and then
uses them as badly as the worst used of the brute
creation. In many cases he does this, it is true,
through the agency of another ; but is he there-
fore the less amenable to the laws of humanity
for the suffering which in any case is reserved for
the tortured slave?
From the time we touched at Madeira, we had
gone on dropping portions of our convoy, bound
for intermediate ports ; so that when we sailed at
CONVOY LEFT BY THE COMMODORE. 167
last from Kio, our number was reduced to about
ten or a dozen vessels. The commander of the
frigate which accompanied us, seeing no danger
in these distant latitudes to be apprehended from
privateers, left us, when within two days' sail of
Cape Saint Mary, whence each merchant- ship
made the best of its way for the River Plate.
We were left exposed to the contingency, after
a four months' passage, of being taken by an
American privateer, and sent as prisoners of war
on another three months' voyage to the United
States. The bare possibility of such a thing
augmented our fears every hour; and you can
scarcely have an idea of the nervousness with
which we watched, and looked, and strained our
eyes for " strange sails " under the American
flag.
Our fears, however, proved to be groundless,
and all the vessels reached the mouth of the
Plate about the same time. Here a race for
Buenos Ayres commenced ; and away went the
Marianne, — with an ignorant skipper, a dark
night, and a dangerous navigation, — in the hope
of taking the lead of all the other vessels.
Now you must know that before we left Lon-
168 RATS ON BOARD OF SHIP.
don, rats had got into our ship ; and during the
passage they, week by week, gave increasing in-
dications of their prolific nature. They multi-
plied rapidly upon us ; and, as their numbers
augmented, they grew bolder and bolder. At
last we were obliged, during the night, to have
cudgels by the side of our berths, in order,, when
at roost, to dispute, vi et armis, the possession of
our mattresses with these daring invaders of our
repose.
Our water had not been looked to before
leaving Rio ; and when too late to remedy the
evil, we found the contents of the three or four
pipes we had on board with a very fetid smell.
To lessen the effluvia, the bungs were taken out
during the day, and replaced during the night,
lest the rats should take possession of our butts
as well as of our beds.
At twelve o'clock, then, on the dark night on
which we were running up the river, my fellow-
passenger and I "turned in," each with our
respective stick, to wage the accustomed war with
our hostile intruders, which now sturdily, and by
half- dozens at a time, asserted their right to
share our beds. I lay down flattering myself
STRIKING UPON ROCKS. 169
that my sea troubles were drawing to a close;
that a new and more interesting scene was about
to open upon me; and that it would cause to
fade away before it the ennui engendered by four
mortal months at sea, cooped up with uncon-
genial souls, and exposed to the caprice and
petty tyranny of a vulgar, and would-be domi-
neering skipper.
Towards two o'clock I was exerting in the dark
all my now well-tried skill to maintain my little
fortress (z. e. my berth) against a vigorous assault
of my besiegers the rats ; when rut, rut, rut, went
the keel of the ship, scraping against some other
substance ; then bump we went upon a ledge of
rocks, and there we stuck hard and fast ! The
very rats were frightened with the shock, and
scampered off; while my phlegmatic companion,
slowly sitting up in his berth, deliberately but
with great emphasis said, " Thank heaven, the
rats will all be drowned."
We hurriedly dressed and went on deck, where
immediately on the vessel's striking, all had be-
come confusion and noise. There stood our gal-
lant ship, immoveable, hemmed in among the
rocks ; and one of these under-water enemies of
VOL. II. I
170 EXERTION AT THE PUMPS.
safe navigation had pierced her through and
through. The water thus finding free ingress,
the ship began rapidly to fill. The night was
dark as pitch, — a storm was gathering, — and
neither master nor mate, nor man on board had
the remotest idea of where we were.
The weather was insufferably close and sultry,
with luckily an almost imperceptible breeze. All
hands, passengers included, were called to the
pumps, and with unceasing exertion did we ply
them. The first effect of this, in an atmosphere
which carried the thermometer to eighty, was to
create an intense thirst. The very sight of even
the brackish, almost briny fluid we were pumping
up, increased our desire to drink. We had just
two butts of water left. One was tapped ; and
faugh ! it filled the air with a pestilential smell :
the other, — more horrible than the first! The
bungs had been left out, — the rats had got in ;
several of their bodies lay at the bottom; their
hairs thickened the water; and the taste — the
sickening taste of it — I will not attempt to
describe.
But what will stand against a raging thirst?
Buckets were placed at the top of the companion-
CUTTING AWAY OF THE MASTS. 171
ladder ; a man was stationed there to make and
deal out grog, a mixture of indifferent rum with
this horrible stygian water. At first we pressed
our nostrils as we drank; but as our thirst in-
creased, and as the perspiration made its way
from every pore of our bodies, we quaffed the
poisonous stuff as if it had been nectar, instead
of a mixture of rats, rum, and putrid water.
The morrow dawned, and showed us the beach
at a distance of seven or eight miles. The clouds
began to dissipate, and the sun to cast his burn-
ing rays upon us. Had a pampero come on in-
stead, as it threatened, we had been all dead
men. But our state was critical enough without
that. The water gained fast upon us ; we fired
minute-guns, and hoisted a flag of distress ; they
were of no avail to us. Still we continued work-
ing at the pumps, though too evidently to no pur-
pose ; and at length, the vessel beginning to fall
very much over, the fatal order was given to cut
away the mainmast.
There are few things more affecting than the
cutting away of the masts of a ship at sea.
Hark! the carpenter's sturdy arm lays in the
first heavy blow of his axe at the root of the tall
i 2
172 CUTTING AWAY OF THE MASTS.
mainmast. It is like the first solemn toll of the
bell announcing death. The carpenter's mate
gives the next stroke, and then comes a regular
succession of thick and fast falling blows, hacking
and hewing at the trunk. A creaking, a crazing
is heard ; till at length, with an impetuous and
crashing noise, down comes the gallant mast, and
prone over the side of the ship it stretches its
stately length. Fallen from its high estate, it
lies a useless and a floating wreck upon the
waters. Havoc seems to have stalked from stem
to stern, and gloomy Desolation sits at the helm,
exulting over the completion of her work.
Clinging by the side of the ship, now almost
completely heeled over, we stood around in mourn-
ful silence during the death-like operation. The
master of the vessel, barbarous though he had
shown himself as a man, and ignorant as a sailor,
claimed our compassion in this his extremity;
for he wept during the whole process of cutting
away the mast. All were more or less affected,
and little wonder ; the whole ship presented an
appearance which no one could well contemplate
without very painful emotions.
Pretty early in the morning we dispatched off
WE ARE SEEN, BUT NOT RELIEVED. 1 73
our largest boat, with our mate and four of our
crew, for the shore, to reconnoitre, and they took
some valuable property with them. At midday
there was still no appearance of their return ;
and we began to get uneasy, as well for their
safety as for our own, should a pampero compel
us to land.
To our great relief, however, as we commenced
cutting away our mast, a sail hove in sight, one
of our convoy bound for Buenos Ayres. Our
distress signal was flying; our minute-guns an-
nounced our danger; and we doubted not we
should be relieved.
We were, however, mistaken. The people on
board saw us, and passed by on the other side.
Another vessel came still closer to us, again we
hoped, and again were disappointed. Yet a
third past, almost within hail of us. Our mast
was by this time cut away, and seemed to call
for mercy. In vain : they, too, looked upon our
wounds, and passed by on the other side.
The day was drawing to a close ; and giving
up all hope now of relief from the companions of
our convoy, we began, although our boat had not
returned, to look to a disembarkation on the wild
174 WE ARE RELIEVED BY A JEW.
shore before us. We were again fearful of being
overtaken by the desolating pampero. At this
juncture another vessel came up, but at a wide
distance from our position. In this case we in-
dignantly resolved not even to fire a gun. Yet,
by and by, we discovered that the vessel had
come to anchor ; and next, to our no small joy,
we saw a boat hoisted out, and, well manned,
proceeding to our wreck of a ship, once the
finest of the convoy.
And, behold ! he who relieved us — was a JEW.
I wish I could record his name in a less obscure
corner than this letter affords : it was Mr. Jacob,
the owner of the ship Quebec, who, having him-
self seen our flag of distress, hasted in his boat
to our relief. He told us that we were wrecked
off " Punta de Piedras," or the Eocky Point ;
that he thought part of the cargo might yet be
saved, and that for this purpose he would give
whatever assistance he could. He added, that
it would give him the greatest pleasure to carry
the passengers in his own vessel to Buenos
Ayres.
Our boat had now returned from the shore,
and brought the welcome intelligence that one
MR. JACOB. 175
of the commandants of that part of the country
had engaged to protect whatever portion of the
cargo we could land ; and in the event of a pam-
pero's rendering an abandonment of the vessel
necessary, he offered to send the master and
crew overland to Buenos Ayres.
Mr. Jacob therefore left one of his boats to
assist in landing cargo, and taking the two other
passengers and myself, with all our luggage and
personal property, onboard of his ship, he enter-
tained us most hospitably, carried us in safety
to our friends, and peremptorily refused any, the
slightest remuneration for all that he had done.
" He had only," he said, " performed a simple
duty ; and what he had done for us, he knew a
Christian, under similar circumstances, would do
for him." We had had painful reason to doubt
the universality of this christian-like doctrine.
We were forced to confess that we had met with
" the priest" and " the Levite," but constrained
to acknowledge, as we were delighted to pro-
claim, that in Mr. Jacob alone had we witnessed
the bright conduct of " the good Samaritan."
I will not conclude without stating that our
friend Mr. Jacob did, though unsought for, meet
176 MR. JACOB.
with his reward at Buenos Ayres. The story,
of course, was immediately made public. Mr.
Jacob was kindly received and entertained by
all the English residents; and a cargo, at a
handsome freight, was provided for his vessel,
before the same was done for any other of the
convoy in which we came *.
A week afterwards the Marianne went to
pieces, and nearly all her cargo, of the value of
fifty thousand pounds, was lost.
I must not omit to mention the tragical and
singular end of the rats. As the water rapidly
filled the hold and the cabin of the ship, the
affrighted vermin were chased from their various
holes and hiding-places, till, at last, with one
simultaneous rush from below, they swarmed
upon the deck, and precipitated themselves on
all sides, into the river. They swam about us in
hundreds, as long as their strength permitted
* One of the most active iu showing his sense of Mr. Jacob's
disinterested conduct was Thomas Fair, Esq., now of Coldstream,
to whom I myself went recommended. Be it permitted to me to
add, of one whose uninterrupted friendship my brother and myself
have enjoyed for upwards of twenty-five years, that no British
resident in South America ever lived there more universally re-
spected and esteemed than Mr. Fair.
MR. JACOB. 177
them. They gradually, however, disappeared,
and, one and all, sunk into that watery grave to
which my fellow-passenger had so prophetically
consigned them.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
i3
178
LETTER XL.
To J G , ESQ.
Dismemberment of the Provinces of Rio de la Plata — General
Artigas — Journey to Santa F6 — The Major of Blandengues
— Thistles — Journey continued — Arrival at Santa Fe —
ArtigueSos — Smoking — More of Candioti.
London, 1838.
AFTER the details which have already been given,
I do not think it necessary to detain you at this
time in Buenos Ayres. My object, on arrival
there, was to proceed forthwith to Paraguay ;
and, notwithstanding the disturbed and un-
settled state of much of the intermediate country,
I determined to take my journey to the land of
the Jesuits. The nature and extent of the dis-
turbances, however, to which I allude, I will first
shortly sketch to you.
The dismemberment of the provinces of Rio
de la Plata as constituted by Old Spain, began
KIO DE LA PLATA. 179
with Paraguay. But that territory could at no
time be said to have formed a portion of the
" United Provinces/' as created by the patriots.
It never gave in its adhesion to them, but esta-
blished, on the ruins of the power of Spain, an
independent government of its own.
The first great intestine feud was raised by
General Artigas, the most extraordinary man,
after Francia, that figures in the annals of the
republic of the river Plate.
Artigas came of a respectable family ; but
was, in his habits, only a better sort of Gaucho,
of the Banda Oriental. He was wholly unedu-
cated, and, if I mistake not, learned only at a
late period of his life, to read and write. But
he was bold, sagacious, daring, restless, and
unprincipled. In all athletic exercises, and in
every Gaucho acquirement, he stood unrivalled,
and commanded at once the fear and the admi-
ration of the surrounding country population.
He acquired an immense influence over the
Gauchos ; and his turbulent spirit, disdaining
the peaceful labours of the field, drew about him
a number of the most desperate and resolute of
those men, of whom he assumed the lead, and
180 GENERAL ARTIGAS.
in command of whom he took to the trade of a
contrabandista, or smuggler.
He would march with his band by the most
rugged roads, and through apparently impene-
trable woods, into the adjoining territory of
Brazil, and thence bring his contraband goods
and stolen herds, to dispose of them in the
Banda Oriental. This was under the rule of
Old Spain. Every effort of the Governor of
Montevideo to put the bold smuggler and his
band down, was not only unavailing, but always
ended in the defeat of the forces sent against
him. The country even then belonged to Ar-
tigas. He would meet, engage, and rout the
king's troops ; till at length, his very name
carried terror with it. But he was a strict dis-
ciplinarian ; respected the property of those who
did not interfere with him, and only attacked
those who presumed, or dared to throw impedi-
ments in the way of his illegal traffic. He was
the Robin Hood of South America.
The governor of Montevideo finding Artigas's
power constantly on the increase, at length
sought his friendship in the king's name. Ar-
tigas, tired of his marauding life, listened to the
GENERAL ARTIGAS. 181
overtures made to him. A treaty was formed ;
and, as a consequence of it, he rode into Monte-
video with the king's commission of Captain of
Blandengues, or mounted militia of the country.
His band of contrabandistas became his soldiers ;
and he thenceforward kept the whole country
districts of the province in an order and tran-
quillity which they had seldom before enjoyed.
In this situation did the revolution in Bue-
nos Ayres find Artigas ; and in 1811 or 1812, he
deserted from the king's service in the Banda
Oriental, and joined the patriots. He was con-
sidered to be a great accession to the cause ; and
when Montevideo in 1813 was besieged by a
Buenos Ayres force, under the command of Ge-
neral Alvear, Artigas served under him with the
rank of Colonel.
A new and wider field now opened itself up to
the view of this ambitious and unprincipled chief.
His haughty and overbearing spirit could no
longer brook an inferior command under a Bue-
nos Ayres General, and in the face of his own
paysanos, on whom, since the King of Spain's
authority was disputed, he began to look as his
own legitimate subjects. Besides, the more po-
182 GENERAL ARTIGAS.
lished and civilized of the Buenos Ayres chiefs
looked down upon him as on a semi-barbarian,
and treated him without the respect which he
considered due to his rank. So he hated them
all. He tampered with the troops under his
command. They were all Orientales *, and ad-
hered to him to a man. He laid his plan with
his usual sagacity : he silently abandoned the
siege during a dark night, with his eight hundred
men ; and when it was reported to General Al-
vear in the morning, Artigas was many leagues
off with what he now called " his army." This
was at the close of 1813.
As Artigas advanced upwards in the direction
of Entrerios, the whole Gaucho population flocked
to his standard. At first he only called on Bue-
nos Ayres to give the country a change of govern-
ment. He averred that the executive was cor-
rupt, the commanders of the patria forces imbe-
cile. But the general government, looking on
Artigas as a traitor to the cause, detached a body
of troops from the siege against him, under
General Quintan a, who, on coming up with the
* Natives of the province of Montevideo, called the Banda
Oriental, or East Side (of the Plata).
JOURNEY TO SANTA FE. 183
deserters, attacked them, and was defeated by
Artigas.
A force of five hundred men under the Baron
Holdenberg, a German, in the service of the
Republic, also crossed from Santa Fe to the
Bajada, and marched against the quondam con-
trabandista, now the Lord Protector Artigas.
His force had already swelled to between two
and three thousand men ; and on learning this,
as well as the defeat of Quintana, the Baron
retreated towards the Bajada. But that point
had in the interim been occupied by twelve hun-
dred of Artigas's troops, and this force having
attacked and defeated Holdenberg, he capitu-
lated, and delivered up himself and all his men
as prisoners of war.
Such was the state of affairs shortly after I
arrived in Buenos Ay res. General Alvear con-
tinued the siege of Montevideo, while Captain
Brown (since Admiral Brown, renowned during
the Brazil war), blockaded the port. Don Ger-
vasio de Posadas, an old gentleman of great
respectability and good family, was then Director
of the united provinces.
After a month's agreeable residence in Buenos
184 THE MAJOR OF BLANDENQUES.
Ayres, and when I was turning my thoughts to
the best mode of proceeding to my ulterior des-
tination of Paraguay, Don Luis Aldao, the hos-
pitable nephew of Candioti, arrived from Santa
Fe. He proposed returning very shortly, and
I gladly accepted his offer to take me under his
wing.
For a " chapeton," one little better than a
" maturango, " (such were the contemptuous
names by which the true Gaucho designated the
European who attempted to mount a horse), —
the task I undertook was an arduous one. Don
Luis was one of the most accomplished " Gentle-
men Gauchos" of his day, and one of the hardest
riders on the road. The season was the com-
mencement of February, when the burning sun
has scorched and withered up every vestige of
vegetation.
However, I resolved to try, and off we set.
Never did I see on horseback a finer or more
graceful-looking young man than the nephew of
Candioti. His figure was tall and slender, and
being a major in a Blandenque or yeomanry corps,
he dressed a la militaire. His eye was large, dark,
and penetrating ; his forehead high, his skin,
THISTLES. 185
though tanned, was clear, and his cheek lightly
flushed ; his features were handsome and intel-
ligent, wearing withal a serious air, approaching
to sadness, which was somewhat at variance with
his real character. I may here remark, that
many of the young South Americans with whom
I got acquainted, were fond of play, and I often
used to think that the anxiety attendant on that
pursuit, gradually gave a sombre and pensive
cast to their countenance.
We set off, well accoutred, well attended, and
well mounted, on the morning of the llth of
February. After emerging from the quinta and
chacara- grounds, some six leagues from the capi-
tal, we came upon the cardales, or " thistleries"
which, at the time I speak of, reached to Arroyo
del Medio, the boundary of the province of Buenos
Ayres. Since then they have gone on extending
their dominions on all sides ; and they seem des-
tined to become at last the great vegetable usurp-
ers of the whole Pampas.
When I left Scotland I thought I had left the
country, par excellence, of thistles behind me.
I now found that those of my native land, as
compared with the " thistleries" of the Pampas,
186 THISTLES.
were as a few scattered Lilliputians to the serried
ranks of the Brobdignagians. From one post-
house to another, a lane was cut out through these
huge thistle-fields, which hemmed you in on either
side as completely as if you were riding between
walls fifty feet high : you saw as little in the one
case as you would in the other. The cattle find
shade in these cardales, and are often lost among
them for days: they afford a good shelter for
highwaymen, and, when at their highest growth,
they are a favourite resort for gentlemen of the
road. They tower above your head, and in many
cases hide the post-house from your view, till you
come close upon the door. In short, Pampa
thistles, like all things else in South America,
are on a large scale *.
There is as regular a thistle-harvest as of any
* A worthy citizen of London, in a large company, some years
ago, asked one of our old South American friends, the late General
Paroissien, what sort of a country South America was ? The
question was a wide one. " Sir," said the General, " everything
in South America is on a grand scale. Their mountains are stu-
pendous,— their rivers are immense, — their plains are interminable,
— their forests have no end, — their trees are gigantic, — their miles
are thrice the length of ours, — and then" — (here the General
took a doubloon, a gold coin the size of a dollar, out of his pocket,
and laid it on the table) — " look at their guineas." The quod
erat demonstrandum was irresistible.
JOURNEY CONTINUED. 187
other crop ; they are ripe for cutting about the
close of February. They are hewn down, made
up in great bundles, and carried away in waggons
to the nearest towns, to be used as fuel, princi-
pally by bakers for their ovens.
The first day we got over twenty-three leagues
(we started late in the day), and sore and stiff I
was : the second day twenty-six leagues ; sorer :
the third day my sufferings came to a climax,
for after doing twenty-nine leagues, we had to
perform five more in the dark, at a trot ; and the
horses being unaccustomed to this pace, my
already unhappy body was shaken to atoms;
every bone in it seemed to me to be removed
from its place, with every jog which the horse
gave me. We travelled from five in the morn-
ing till near eleven at night.
On the fourth and last day, I expected not
to be able to proceed on with Don Luis; yet
strange to say, I got up perfectly well, without
an ache. We did the remaining thirty-three
leagues with ease, and thus accomplished the
whole, one hundred and sixteen, in little more
than three days and a half.
188 JOURNEY CONTINUED.
The kindness of Seiior Aldao during the whole
journey was quite extraordinary. He was con-
stantly at my side ; procured any little comforts
(they were not many) which the road afforded ;
selected and himself tried my horse at every post-
house, to see that he had easy paces ; gave his
whole assiduous attention to my every want ; and
endeavoured, in short, by all possible means, to
diminish the fatigue of our rapid and trying
journey. He had, in the highest degree, what
is a characteristic of the South Americans at
large — kindness and hospitality to strangers,
joined to well-bred and even graceful manners,
in rendering to them their services.
I was too intent on getting to our journey's
end, to make many remarks on the country through
which we passed. You already know, however,
how little of an interesting kind it offers to the
eye of a traveller. I was chiefly struck with the
beauty of the situation of the little town in the
territory of Buenos Ayres, called San Nicolas de
los Arroyos. It stands on a fine sloping bank of
the Parana, and, as its name imports, the rivulets
which on every side of the town flow into the
ARRIVAL AT SANTA FE. 189
parent- stream, and almost encircle it in their
course, give the place a highly picturesque ap-
pearance.
We went directly to Aldao's house on our
arrival at Santa Fe ; but the following morning
I took up my abode with the only English resi-
dent in the town, an old and intimate friend of
my brother *.
I found I was completely fixed at Santa Fe,
without any certainty as to when I could pursue
my route to Paraguay. The Artiguenos (so
Artigas's troops and followers were called) had
complete possession of the whole eastern side of
the La Plata and the Parana, from the outskirts
of Montevideo up to Corrientes. The most
frightful disorder and anarchy prevailed through-
out his vast dominions. The name of Arti-
guefio, in fact, was held to be equivalent to that
of robber, as well as of murderer ; and any idea of
travelling one hundred and sixty leagues through
a country in possession of these marauders was
not to be dreamt of. The pasos precisos, or
* Mr. John Postlethwaite, a truly estimable man, but now,
alas ! no more. He resided for upwards of twenty years iu South
America, and died at sea. on his return to his native country.
190 ARTIGUENOS.
narrow gorges of the river, where the channel was
hemmed closely in between an island and the
main land of Entrerios, were all kept by armed
Artigueno forces, so that vessels could not pass
upwards without extreme danger ; and as the
Parana in its periodical swelling caused a tur-
bulent and rapid current, no canoe could with
any safety attempt the long voyage between
Santa Fe and Assumption.
So I set myself down quietly for the present
with Mr. Postlethwaite in Santa Fe. I began
here assiduously to cultivate the speaking of the
Spanish language grammatically ; and spent, for
this purpose, my whole time in the society of the
natives. By their kind assistance, I was able,
at the end of six weeks, to speak, though not
correctly, yet with sufficient fluency to enable me
to carry on conversation without embarrassment.
At Buenos Ayres, in two months, by mixing
chiefly with English society, I had made no pro-
gress whatever in the Spanish.
The day after our arrival Aldao was laid up
with a bilious attack, in consequence of the raging
heat of the sun during the whole of our gallop
from Buenos Ayres. I called in the evening and
SMOKING. 191
found the family, with the exception of Aldao
himself, entertaining their visiters, and holding
their tertulia in the patio; most of the ladies
smoking their hideous-looking cigars. At the
feet of each lady (not, however, including the
young unmarried ones), sat a mulatilla, a female
mulatto slave, nine or ten years of age, with a
large roll of Paraguay tobacco, and from this
the mistresses themselves made their immense
cigars on their own laps. The gentlemen were
served with small cigars by the lady of the house ;
and, in addition, we had abundance of mate, fruit,
panales, wine, and water deliciously cool ; it was
drawn from the algive, a great and deep tank or
reservoir, with which the front patio of the best
class of houses is furnished.
Towards ten o'clock, and when the moon threw
her soft but clear light into the patio, from a
cloudless sky, — " a majestical roof, fretted with
golden fire," — Don Francisco Candioti, the pa-
triarch of Santa Fe, rode into the centre of our
coterie. He was dressed pretty much in the
style described in the first volume of these letters,
with the difference, however, of a very handsome
nightcap, which he wore instead of a hat. From
192 CANDIOTI.
his right wrist, and slung by a short leather
thong, depended a costly rebenque, or short
hunting-whip, the handle of which was of mas-
sive and beautifully- chased silver. He would
not alight, but, bringing his right leg over the
peak of his saddle, taking his rebenque in his
hand, patting his boots with the thong, — and,
leaning on the neck of his horse, as he smoked
his cigar the while, — there he sat, quite a son
aise, from ten till midnight, the most jocose and
garrulous of the company.
He was pleased to compliment me on my per-
formance of the journey ; and, indeed, it appeared
that I could not have brought a better recom-
mendation to his good graces than the certificate
of a hard gallop. He was full of sly and sarcastic
remarks on the renowned Gaucho, his nephew,
in consequence of the indisposition he suffered ;
which, though arising from bile, the uncle con-
trived to make the tertulianos believe was the
effect of lastimadura, or saddle sickness.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
193
LETTER XLL
To J — — G , ESQ.
Detention at Santa Fe — The Indians and their Caciques — Plague
of Locusts — Scarcity — A Price set upon the head of Artigas
— Dinner given by the Governor — The Biscachas — De-
parture for Assumption.
London, 1838.
Six weeks was I detained in Santa F£, during
most of which time an embargo was laid both on
vessels and individuals wishing to proceed "aguas
arriba," or up the river. Such were the fears
entertained of Artigas and his myrmidons. The
town of Santa Fe was governed by a Buenos
Ayres general, and garrisoned by Buenos Ayres
troops; for the Santa Fecinos themselves were
suspected of a leaning to Artigas. The fact is.
that the Buenos Ayres officers generally treated
the provincials as inferiors, and hence grew up a
dislike, almost a hatred, of the Portefios.
VOL. II. K
194 THE INDIANS AND
Santa Fe was an entre-depot for Paraguayan
and other produce bound for Cordova and Peru ;
and these latter countries she supplied with vast
herds of mules, which were chiefly reared on
Entrerios' estancias : so that the present non-
intercourse with the opposite and higher regions
of the country, pressed with peculiar severity on
the trade of Santa Fe. Three other local evils, —
the Indians, a plague of locusts, and a great
drought, — augmented the sufferings of that pro-
vince.
The Indians of the Gran Chaco, during my stay
at Santa Fe, were committing great ravages on
the surrounding country ; and, all the troops being
engaged in other quarters, the savages met with
so little resistance, that they sometimes ap-
proached within six or eight leagues of the town.
They drove away the cattle, burnt the houses,
often murdered the men, and always made captives
of the females at the estancias which they attacked.
At last a force was sent out against them, and
then the Indians proposed a peace. The Santa
Fecinos were too weak to refuse it, even while they
dreaded the treachery of the barbarians. A great
" palaver " was held ; a treaty was framed ; and
THEIR CACIQUES. 195
all the principal caciques came to the city to have
the peace ratified.
About fifteen of these caciques rode into town,
and very much excited my curiosity. They were
a fine set of men, tall, well made, and of a dark
copper-colour. They were mounted on beautiful
horses, gaudily caparisoned ; and their own per-
sons were adorned, after a barbarous fashion, with
a profusion of morris-bells, beads, and short silver
tubes, laid in rows and devices over their ponchos
and mantles. Their uncouth caps were stuck
full of many-coloured feathers : they were scantily
clothed in dyed and party-striped cotton-manu-
factures of their own; and some of them wore
silver ornaments bored through their lips and
ears. Their weapons were old swords, clubs, and
bows and arrows.
The ratification of the treaty was proclaimed
by repeated discharges of artillery, which greatly
pleased the barbarians ; and copious draughts
of aguardiente administered to them at the same
time, pleased them still more. They swung
on their horses, raised horrid yells, or, dismount-
ing, they half-danced, half staggered on the
ground. This was done in procession through
K2
196 PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS.
the town during the forenoon. In the after-
noon they joined their forces, lying ten leagues
off; and the conclusion was, that as these now
" friendly" Indians returned to their tolderias, or
encampment of wigwams, they committed every
kind of outrage, and carried off whatever they
could rob on their line of march.
I need not describe to you what has been so
often described by others, — a plague of locusts.
I should have to darken the air, and obscure the
sun with them, just as other travellers have done
before me ; and I could only tell you that the
locusts of Santa Fe, like the locusts of Egypt and
of other countries, eat up everything that is green,
and leave fields and orchards, gardens and orange-
groves, bare, and brown, and fruitless. Their
hosts seem to be divided into great armies, one
of which lights on some particular spot, and in
an incredibly short space of time, strips it of every
vestige of vegetation. The poor people, as they
see some such army approaching, sally out with
drums, brass pans, rattles, and every other con-
ceivable thing with which they can make a noise.
The din of these they increase with discordant
yells and cries ; and in this way they often pre-
SCARCITY. 197
vent the attack of the assailants. But what is
thus spared to-day, is devoured to-morrow ; and
the grim aspect of Desolation alone, which they
themselves have created, can effectually drive
the locusts from the scene of their devastating
work.
Such desolation gloomily brooded over Santa
Fe before I left it ; and a drought of several weeks
having destroyed many flocks and herds, and
driven others to seek pasture in more distant
lands, a scarcity, approaching to famine, in the
town was the last result. It was with difficulty
we got beef or poultry to purchase, and anything
green was not to be had.
Some old women, who lived near to us, having
a pretty good stock of poultry, and finding their
value every day to advance, refused to sell at any
price, hoping to reap at last a golden harvest
from their hens. This so provoked our next-
door neighbours (two Paraguayans), that they
had recourse to the following curious, though not
honest device, to supply themselves now and then
with a dinner. During siesta hours, when not a
soul stirs abroad, these gentlemen would sally
forth with a quantity of Indian corn, and begin-
198 A PRICE OFFERED FOR ART1GAS' HEAD.
ning to throw it down before a half-famished
hen, they laid a train to their own door, and
into their patio. The hen, unconscious of its fate,
would follow, picking up the grain, till thus lured
into the patio, it was there beheaded, to serve
for next day's dinner. The astonished and now
frightened old women, finding their poultry thus
mysteriously to disappear, came to terms, and the
ensnaring system was discontinued.
My great desire to get to Assumption, and the
monotonous inactivity of my life in Santa Fe,
began, after a month, to render my residence
there irksome and tedious. Yet the affairs of the
Banda Oriental looked every day worse. Such
was the exasperation of feeling at Buenos Ayres
against Artigas, that a proclamation was issued
offering six thousand dollars, or twelve hundred
pounds, for his head ; a proceeding which had the
natural effect of incensing the Protector and all
his followers in the highest degree. The reward
was proclaimed with beat of drum by a notary,
acting as herald, in the public places of Santa Fe ;
but there the measure was generally and justly
condemned, as at once impolitic and impotent.
By showing the vindictive feelings of the For*
THE GOVERNOR'S DINNER. 199
tefios, it only increased the popularity of the
Protector.
The governor of Santa Fe, who had kept the
port closed during the whole course of my stay,
at length agreed to relax his order in favour
of a Paraguay brigantine, on condition of the
consignees giving bond, under heavy penalty,
that the vessel should touch at no port in posses-
sion of Artigas, or of those recognising his au-
thority. There was, indeed, no danger of in-
fringement ; for the master and his crew were too
much afraid of the Artiguenos to place themselves
voluntarily in the power of such marauders. I,
of course, determined to take my passage in this
brigantine to Assumption.
A short time before we were ready to depart,
the governor invited Mr. Postlethwaite and my-
self to a grand dinner ; and many of the fashion-
ables of Santa Fe were asked to meet us.
About thirty to forty guests sat down at table,
in the large ill-furnished dining-room of the
government-house. We had military men, law-
yers, a padre or two, doctors and merchants, with
several of their cara sposas, and as many of their
daughters. Don Francisco Candioti was a distin-
200 THE GOVERNOR'S DINNER.
guished personage at this conviie, or banquet, and
his nephew Aldao ranked among the merchants.
Notwithstanding the general scarcity which pre-
vailed, good things of every kind were placed in
abundance on the table. Famines and scarcities
keep low company ; and never, as far as I have
seen, are admitted to the presence of governors,
or heads of either states or provinces.
Three things very particularly carried away
my attention at the dinner : — first, the extremely
free nature (to use the very gentlest expres-
sion) of the conversation which was adopted with
the ladies, young and old : it was such as to
make me, with my unsophisticated English feel-
ings about me, blush at every turn, although
such modesty, whenever it was observed, caused
a hearty laugh.
The next thing that surprised and pleased me,
was the great facility which all the gentlemen
present possessed in producing improvisatore
verses. Almost all their toasts were thus given,
and with a readiness, a precision, and often an
elegance, which quite astonished me. I found the
talent afterwards to be general throughout South
America, as it is, I believe, in Italy and Spain.
THE GOVERNOR'S DINNER. 201
The third South American custom (and this
one confounded me), was that of the guests pelt-
ing each other at table with pelotitas, or bread-
balls, of the size of a pea. They threw them off
with the middle finger and thumb, with generally
unerring aim, and in such prodigious numbers,
that the floor was literally invisible in many parts
of the room. All at table, without a single ex-
ception, mixed in the fun, and with increasing
eagerness as it advanced. I have very often since
seen the same thing, but never to such an extra-
ordinary extent as at the governor of Santa Fe's
table*.
A great quantity of wine was drunk during the
dinner, which, with the dessert and the battle of
the pelotitas, lasted from three till seven o'clock.
All this time the ladies remained in the dining-
room. A great deal of what we now term skylark-
ing took place, — romping and other freaks ; till at
* This custom I have seen degenerate into ill-mannered fights
when whole loaves have been thrown with violence by one at
another. In one case a candlestick was made a missile of. But
it is due to the South Americans to say, that this abuse of their
not very polished, but innocent and well-intended custom, was
introduced by some of the young and riotous Englishmen who
first went among them.
K 3
202 THE BISCACHAS.
last some of the most excited with wine proceeded
to acts of indecorum, which, even in that latitu-
dinarian country, could not be tolerated. We
therefore moved to the salon, where an excellent
band of military music was placed. Dancing was
kept up till twelve o'clock; and that, though just
the hour at which our dancing begins, is a very
late one for the Santa Fecinos at which to close
the hilarity of their day.
Towards the middle of March the river had
risen to a very great height, and advantage was
taken of the unusual swelling, to annihilate many
colonies which had encroached very much on the
neighbourhood of Santa Fe. These were bisca-
cheras, or burrows of the biscacha, a destructive
and altogether useless animal. It has some-
thing of the conformation of the rabbit, but is
larger and much coarser. A great number of
canals were dug from the banks of the river
leading to the beds of biscacheras which were
spread around. The water being let in upon
them, the biscachas were either drowned in their
burrows, or, being forced out, were killed by large
groups of peons and boys collected with staves
and other weapons for the purpose.
DEPARTURE FOR ASSUMPTION.
203
I have here given you such little details of my
long stay in Santa Fe as I have thought worthy
of remark. A few days after the governor's dinner,
notice was given me that the brigantine of Caniza
was ready to sail for Assumption.
Yours, &c.
W. P. E.
204
LETTER XLII.
To J G , ESQ.
VOYAGE AGUAS ARRIBA.
Departure for Assumption— Hurricane in the Parana— Mode of
Navigation against the Stream — Discomforts of it — Car-
neando, or procuring of Beef — Mosquitos — Winds — The
Vaqueano, or Pilot.
London, 1838.
You have had a full account of a voyage " aguas
abaxo," or down the river; but one " aguas arriba,"
or up the river, is a different affair, in my opinion,
and I think you will come to the same conclusion
before I have finished my description of it.
The vessel in which I was about to sail was
called Nuestra Sefiora del Carmen, and her
owner was a Paraguayan, resident in Assumption.
The master or patron was an old Spaniard, and
the vaqueano, or pilot, as is invariably the case,
was a native of Paraguay. The crew was divided
into sailors and peons. The former were the
higher class, and received the better pay. They
performed the duty properly belonging to sailors,
DEPARTURE FOR ASSUMPTION. 205
and were some of them old Spaniards, some
Creoles ; they were eight in number. The peons
were all Paraguayans, an amphibious race, neither
wholly seamen, nor wholly landsmen, but par-
taking of both. Twelve fine fellows they were,
and their duties will be detailed as we go along.
On the 23rd of March, our brigantine was
towed to near the mouth of the branch of the
Salado on which Santa Fe stands, and there she
lay hidden among the trees. It was arranged
that the passengers were to join her, as soon as
a south wind should set in, and with this we were
to pass the Bajada during the night. In the
same way, the patron proposed to clear all the
pasos precisos *, of which I have already spoken.
The south wind set in on the 25th, and on that
day eleven passengers, beside myself, bade adieu
to Santa Fe. Among the number were the two
hen-decoyers. We were paddled out to the ship
in canoes ; and as soon as night set in, we hoisted
our sails, and stood over for the channel of the
Parana. Aided by the darkness and by the in-
creasing breeze, we passed the Bajada in safety.
The wind during the night began to abate,
* Page 189,
206 HURRICANE IN THE PARANA.
and by ten o'clock next morning it was scarcely
sufficient to enable us to stem the current. The
dark and lowering sky gave evidence of a coming
storm. The thunder rolling heavily at first in
the distance, became louder and more distinct;
and the lightning, which began by casting its
faint reflections on the far horizon, illuminated
by degrees the masses of clouds which hung
heavily above us and around us.
At length the whole fury of the storm broke
suddenly over our heads. One great gleam of
lightning, accompanied, not followed, by a clap
of thunder loud enough to waken the dead, made
us all start ; and these were instantly followed by a
hurricane so terrific, that ere we could take shelter
against it, or prepare for it, every stitch of canvass
we had set was blown to atoms. Our ship was
hurried up against an island, our bowsprit tear-
ing and crashing the boughs of trees which
opposed its progress. Now the lightning was
almost one continued flash, and the thunder
rolled and cracked and pealed about us in a
way to astonish even the Paraguayan crew and
passengers, though so much accustomed to tro-
pical storms of this kind. The hurricane was of
HURRICANE IN THE PARANA. 207
short duration. It was succeeded by a rain quite
in keeping with the other features of the storm.
It poured down an almost unbroken sheet of
water ; and so it continued unabated for an hour,
the thunder and lightning accompanying it with
the same intensity throughout. The storm in
fact lasted all day, with now rain, now heavy
squalls, and the electric fluid always. Of the
danger which it brought with it we were made
sensible by seeing, very near to where we lay,
one tree completely cleft, and two or three more
scorched by the lightning.
The storm subsided, but our sails had been
blown to tatters ; and, no such visitation as a
hurricane having been anticipated, there was on
board of " Nuestra Senora del Carmen," no spare
sails. What were we to do ? the remnants which
had been blown hither and thither about the
island were carefully collected; and, setting all
his men to work, on these " shreds and patches,"
the patron contrived to remake a small main-sail
and a top- sail. With these we were to make our
way against 800 miles of current, three knots per
hour strong. This canvass, with a good breeze,
and without a current, might have carried us at
208 NAVIGATION AGAINST THE STREAM.
the rate of five knots ; deducting therefore three
for the current, we had the comfortable prospect,
with a fair wind, of making a progress of two
miles per hour.
With a fair wind, — that was the rub. We were
to advance two miles an hour with a fair wind ;
but where were the fair winds to be had ? The
prevailing ones were from the north ; those from
the south, which we wanted, were few and far
between: so that the patron answered our re-
grets about the sails by saying, if we would give
him fair winds, we should not have cause to com-
plain of his want of canvass.
I soon found by sad experience indeed that
scarcity of sails was a minor evil on our voyage
"aguas arriba." The everlasting north winds,
barraduras, windings of the river, and fears of
the enemy, would all have combined, without
any scarcity of canvass, to make our passage a
dismally long one.
When the weather was calm, our peons betook
themselves to our two canoes, and warped our
vessel up in this way. One canoe went a-head first,
with a coil of rope, which was let out as the canoe
advanced ; and the end of this rope being made
MODE OF NAVIGATION. 209
fast to a tree, the vessel was hauled up. Meantime
the second canoe went a-head from the tree, and
made fast another coil ; so that the two canoes,
working alternately, kept the vessel always on the
move. By this operation we sometimes made six
miles in a day, never more ; and when the north
wind was strong, even the warping was laid aside,
and we were tied to a tree. Sometimes, too, we
had a wide crossing to make, over which our
warping tackle would not reach, and then again
we were — tied to a tree.
We were thus "tied up " sometimes for eight
days together : then would come the long-looked-
for south wind ; and after we had enjoyed it per-
haps for a day, — sometimes only for a few hours,
— our dreams of advancement were put an end
to by a barradura, or getting on a sand-bank.
In going up the river, the vessel is never un-
loaded, to lighten her, as in coming down. If
we cannot "back out," or edge off the bank,
soundings are taken, and the vessel is lifted out
of her barradura. This is effected by fixing two
long, and very strong, logs of wood on either
side of the vessel, the end which projects from
210 NAVIGATION AGAINST THE STREAM.
the water being forked. They are called hor-
cones, or trestles. On these a purchase is ob-
tained by means of blocks and ropes attached to
them, and thus the vessel is hoisted up between
the horcones. It is a laborious and often a
most tedious operation, perhaps of a whole day ;
and as the wind sometimes dies away in the
mean time, we leave the bank, and again — tie to
a tree.
The most provoking of all our detentions were
those caused by windings of the river. These
are so completely circular at some places, that a
fair wind at one part of them becomes quite a
foul one at another. Then we must warp ; then
the warping is a slow, a very slow, operation;
then before we get round to the right point, the
wind has shifted to the wrong point, and then —
we tie to a tree.
A difficulty, not general to the upward navi-
gation, but arising out of particular circum-
stances, attended us. Those points which we
thought might be watched by the Artiguenos,
we could only pass in the dark. If we came near
one of these pasos precisos in the morning, we
DISCOMFORTS. 211
were obliged to hide till night — tied to a tree ;
and if the wind shifted, why — till another south
wind came — we continued to be tied to a tree.
Such were some of the difficulties I found in
making a voyage aguas arriba. The retardation
of our voyage I considered the greatest evil, but
it was by no means the only one.
The cabin of our brigantine — filthy and un-
comfortable— was about twelve feet by eight ;
and into it were crammed twelve passengers.
We had barely standing-room when we were all
in it together. During the whole of the passage
it was not free from the smell of stale tobacco-
smoke ; for, with twelve men from a land of that
herb, — having fifteen hours of idleness to get rid
of every day, — you may imagine how they fumi-
gated the ship.
Very little stock, with the exception of my
own, had been put on board the Carmen, either
by her patron or by her passengers. Mine very
soon disappeared. For the crew, ship's provi-
sion was salt, and for the passengers salt and
galleta> — a harder sea-biscuit than any my teeth
had ever come in contact with: the principal
212 "CARNEANDO," OR PROCURING BEEF.
subsistence of both crew and passengers was to
be procured on the voyage.
Our vaqueano knew every estancia along the
whole line of river border we had to traverse, as
well as he knew his own house. In ordinary
times every one of these estancias might be
visited, and ample supplies of beef procured ; but
now politics were mixed up with the question of
supplies; the vaqueano was obliged cautiously
to pick out those estancias least likely to have
any connexion with the Artigueiios ; and to
such only the canoes were sent to carnear.
Tocarnear, or "to procure beef,'' is this. The
two canoes, with four peons in each of them, pro-
ceed to an estancia, and the leader of the ex-
pedition makes a bargain for the oxen he wants.
In ordinary seasons a couple of animals only are
taken at a time; but we made our voyage in
extraordinary times, so we wanted extraordinary
supplies. Our men generally bargained for five
or six head. These were brought and delivered
to them alive in the corral. Our river gauchos,
assisted by the people of the estancia, then
slaughtered the animals, Head them, cut them
CARNEAKDO. 2] 3
up, and carried the whole to their canoes. They
became our butchers; and right glad we were
when we could employ them in this capacity.
It was a feast and a fast with us alternately
throughout. The fears entertained of the Arti-
guenos ran through the whole ship ; and it was
hunger alone which ever forced the river- butchers
off to carnear. They were generally a whole day
over the operation ; and I cannot describe to you
the intense anxiety with which their return was
looked for. We were constantly in the alarm of
seeing the canoes return full of armed Artiguenos ;
and instead of fat ribs of beef, we were terrified
with the thought of being obliged to look upon
gleaming sabres, or to listen to the sound of
bullets whizzing about our ears.
When the canoe did return with the veritable
ribs of beef, great was our contentment, and in-
stantaneous were the preparations made to satisfy
our craving hunger*. The day following that on
which we had sent to carnear, was also one of
* The quantify of beef which on such occasions the crew con-
sumed was monstrous and incredible. I must beg- leave to shun
the predicament into which a statement of the number of pounds
eaten by each man would bring my character for veracity.
214 MOSQUITOS.
fresh beef " a discretion," but by the third day
it came to us in the shape of charque, — the beef
cut into thin layers and strips, and dried over
ropes in the sun, pretty much as our laundresses
dry clothes in this country ; only the shirts, hand-
kerchiefs, and petticoats were all beef.
As we drew to a close of this charque, it was
dry, ill-flavoured, and unpalatable — sometimes
not eatable: and then was to be enacted over
again, the interlude of our hopes and our fears
and our anxieties, attendant on the motions of
our river- butchers.
These trips kept us alive on various occasions
in every sense of the word ; and at other times
we were kept very much on the qui vive by
enemies, to me more terrible than the Arti-
gueiios ; for, after all, I saw nothing of the latter,
and the others were my constant assailants. I
mean the mosquitos. This buzzing insect is bad
enough anywhere ; but on a South American
river, during a close, and sultry, and breezeless
night, the mosquito is a demon which torments
you with indefatigable assiduity. In such case,
in such a place, I have found nothing impervious
to the mosquito. Line yourself with "ses triplex"
WINDS. 215
and he will get at you, — sting you, — sing at your
ear, — sting you again, — blister you, — and in short
do all that lies in his power to drive you mad.
On the Parana the north wind brings the mos-
quito ; the south wind (being cold) drives it away.
The former was our sirocco. It would go on
gradually increasing in force and in heat, till at
last it appeared to be the hot blast of a furnace.
Then comes the storm from the opposite and
surcharged point of the heavens, followed by the
pampero, which, with its cold blast from the frigid
zone of the south pole, clears the atmosphere,
and gives renewed life to animal creation.
We used to watch the coming of the pampero
with intense anxiety. No wonder ; for it was to
relieve us from a long and total stoppage of our
voyage, to scatter the hosts of hungry mosquitos
which assailed us, and to infuse into us a hope
of at last reaching Assumption.
On such occasions commenced the arduous
duties of our old vaqueano. He was then the
all-important man on board. As soon as we
began to make way with the breeze, he would
seat himself on the bowsprit, and there, fixed and
216 THE VAQUEANO, OR PILOT.
immoveable as a rock, he would remain as long
as the south wind lasted. He had two of his
peons on either side of the vessel taking sound-
ings with long tacuaras, or bamboo canes. His
orders to them were given, and his inquiries of
them made in the Guarani language. His sus-
tenance as he thus fulfilled the duty of pilot,
consisted almost entirely of mate and cigars.
Not only during the day, but through the live-
long night, he kept his vision strained on the
face of the waters, and by the colour of the sur-
face and the ripple upon it, he guided the vessel,
even in utter darkness. He looked like the wizard
of the river, scanning his own element, and steer-
ing us by some necromantic art through all the
intricacies of the winding current. The sand-
banks of this great river are constantly shifting
and all the skill of the vaqueano is called into
play to ascertain, as he goes along, the move-
ments which have taken place, so as to direct the
vessel into the channels which have been opened
up anew.
I have known our vaqueano to be thus seated
and thus watching the waters, without any inter-
THE VAQUEANO, OR PILOT. 217
mission, as far as I could learn, for three days
and three nights consecutively. That was the
longest period to which a south wind ever ex-
tended with us.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R
VOL. ir.
218
LETTER XLIII.
To J G , ESQ.
Scenery of the Parana — Camelotes, or Floating Islands — Landing
on the Banks — The Crew of the Brigantine — Amusements —
Tigers — A domestic Tragedy — A long Passage — Leaving the
Brigantine — Landing at Corrientes — A Perplexity — A for-
tunate Rencontre — M. Perichon's Household.
London, 1838.
THE desagremens of our voyage, like those of
the voyage of life, were many : but as in this
latter our pains and our sorrows are sprinkled
throughout with pleasures, so during our partial
sojourn on the waters of the Parana, we were not
left without an occasional solace during the many
weary days which we spent on board of Nuestra
Senora del Carmen.
The Parana is one continued line of beauti-
ful scenery from its source to its mouth. From
Santa F£ to Corrientes, the part of it which at
this time I traversed,, the most striking feature
of that scenery is decidedly the islands of the
SCENERY OF THE PARANA. 219
river. They are really innumerable. During
the whole of our voyage, I cannot recollect one
place where we had the Gran Chaco on one side,
and Entrerios or Corrientes on the other, with a
clear stream between. All the way up we found
islands of every form and size interposing them-
selves between the two river borders. There is
not only a succession of these islands, but they
lie abreast of each other; some in long narrow
strips, running parallel with two or three others
of smaller dimensions, and some commencing
opposite the middle of a succeeding island, and
terminating opposite the centre of another. Thus
we were always hemmed in by an endless and
intricate chain of islands and islets ; the channel
sometimes finding its devious way through their
windings, sometimes going to' the west, and
anon returning to the east side of the river.
The islands are diversified, verdant, um-
brageous, beautiful. The trees on them are
generally small, but almost all evergreens ; the
flowering shrubs and wild flowers luxuriate in
every corner ; while the endless variety of creep-
ers, or more properly of climbers, ascending to
the tops of the larger trees, and thence gracefully
L2
220 SCENERY OF THE PARANA.
throwing out their flowers, which remain pendent
in the air, contribute greatly to the beauty of
their water-girt abodes. I found many varieties,
also, of the air-plant, at once the most delicate
and fragrant of the floral tribe.
Most of the islands are very low, and many
of the smaller ones marshy. With very few
exceptions, they are inundated during the height
of the periodical rise of the river. This of course
renders them uninhabitable by man, but they
are the abode of all the wild animals and of the
various feathered tribes peculiar to the country.
The tiger (or ounce), the lion (the puma), the
cayman, a great variety of the monkey race,
with squirrels, and other small animals, are to be
found in abundance in these islands ; while all
the birds, mentioned in a former letter, common
to this country and to Paraguay, everywhere met
my view as we sailed along, and more particularly
when the channel wound its way through the
clustering islands.
When these are laid under water by the
swelling of the Parana", it frequently happens
that large portions of the islands get detached
from their main body, and float down the river.
CAMELOTES, OR FLOATING ISLANDS. 221
The thick and strong interlacing of the roots of
the vegetable matter thus detached, keeps the
whole bed together ; so that the camelotes
(that is the name given to them) descend the
stream for many leagues. Sometimes a tiger or
lion, not unfrequently two or three, are on these
camelotes when they break off from their parent
island; and the animals in such cases seem
always terror-stricken on their floating habita-
tion. We saw one tiger thus situated, but at a
considerable distance. Although we fired at
him he did not move, afraid, seemingly, to leave
the spot on which he stood fixed.
It is a historical fact, that many years ago,
such a camelote as I now describe, carried three
tigers with it down to the vicinity of Montevideo.
They entered the town at daybreak. A pulpero,
or vender of spirits, happened to have opened
his door at this early hour, and to be engaged
in some business behind his counter which kept
him stooping down for some time. On rising up,
one of the tigers which had entered, sprang upon
hftm. I do not recollect if his, or any other life
was lost, but several people were lacerated before
the three tigers were destroyed.
222 LANDING ON THE BANKS.
I used frequently to land both on the larger
islands and on the main-land of Entrerios and
Corrientes. The fears entertained by my not
very courageous fellow-passengers (almost all
Paraguayans) of tigers and Artigueiios, seldom
allowed them to accompany me. The scenery to
them was nothing. They were contented to play
malilla, sip their mate, and smoke their cigars
on board.
Sometimes, when we lay under a cliff, I con-
trived, with many remonstrances on the part of
the patron, to get to the summit ; and then I
enjoyed, in all its beauty, the noble scenery of
the majestic river which flowed at my feet. In
such places it was generally a mile and a half to
two miles broad.
One of my amusements was to go a-head with
the canoes when we were warping the vessel up,
and to learn to paddle. It is a delightful exer-
cise : the strength and dexterity and symmetry
of action with which the Paraguayans gave im-
pulse to the airy skiff, was only to be seen to be
admired.
On one or two occasions I accompanied our
carneadores or river-butchers. I saw nothing
THE CREW OF THE BRIGANTINE. 223
where we went but the peaceful occupation of
the Estanciero, and I was received where I thus
landed, with the characteristic hospitality and
welcome of the country. These trips, indeed,
convinced me that our dangers were greatly ex-
aggerated.
During the whole of the voyage, under every
contre-temps, where there was often little to
eat, and much hard work to perform, the crew,
and particularly the Paraguay peon part of it,
was always a contented, happy, and merry set of
men. I never heard a grumble nor a complaint
from one of them.
When we warped the vessel up, and in this
operation we were engaged during half of our
voyage, these men would work hard from daylight
till sunset, taking only during the day a beef-
breakfast, a dejeuner sans fourchette. As the
sun went down, the brigantine was brought to
her tying-place, generally, and wherever it could
be so managed, under the shelter of a high bar-
ranca, which rendered approach from the land
impossible. At the base of these cliffs ran a
belt of trees and tangled underwood.
A plank was then placed from the vessel to
224 THE CREW OF THE BRIGANT1NE.
the river-bank, and all the crew jumped gaily
on shore. Three or four fires were immediately
kindled, and they not only served to cook the
supper of the crew, but to supply the burning
brands, by throwing of which among the bushes
and the trees, the prowling tiger was sent back
to his lair. By means of the ascending smoke,
too, the mosquitos were driven away, and we re-
mained undisputed masters of the field.
It would be difficult for you to imagine any-
thing more picturesque than the scene which on
such occasions, and particularly on a fine moon-
light night, was presented to my view. The
great body of pellucid water gliding silently down
with the light of the moon sleeping gently on
its unruffled bosom, — the thickly- wooded islands
clearly defined around me, but mingling farther
off with the water and the banks, and forming
in the distance a chiar'-oscuro, — the bold and al-
most projecting cliffs which, hanging over our
bark, threw its tall masts into the shade, — the
figures of half-clad Paraguayans, as, gathered
round the fires, the glare of the flames lent a
savage aspect to their swarthy complexions;—
formed a tout ensemble which might have well
AMUSEMENTS.
225
employed the pen of a Byron, or the pencil of a
Claude Lorraine.
After the peons had finished their simple sup-
per, which was invariably such beef as we had,
roasted at their fires on the river banks, they
sang their wild ballads accompanied by the
guitar. Some of their airs are full of pathos,
and the men often sang agreeably in concert.
Their toil, their hard condition in life was for-
gotten. Their concerts were not brought to a
close, on some occasions, before midnight; and
then, returning to the vessel, each man laid him
self down on the deck wrapped in his poncho,
and was soon unconscious whether he slept on a
downy bed with damask curtains in a tapestried
chamber, or on the hard plank of a brigantine
on the river Parana, and under the wide blue
canopy of heaven.
I had a flute and double flageolet with me,
with which I was wont to beguile some of the
tedious hours of our long passage. I got ac-
quainted, by degrees, with a few of the simple
and plaintive native airs of the Paraguayans, and
with one or other of those instruments accom-
panied their voices. As the smooth but mighty
L3
226 TIGERS.
stream in the stilly night, and " in those deep
solitudes/' silently sped its course past our ship,
the effect of the combined music was extremely
good.
We very often amused ourselves with our fish-
ing-lines, sometimes with our guns ; and what
we obtained either from the waters or the woods,
served to give some variety to our usual beef
dinners.
One night we had a hunt extraordinary. As
we lay tied to a tree, and just as we were retiring
to rest, an alarm was given. We all ran on
deck, and found that a cayman had got into the
canoe, which it completely filled. Axes, pikes,
rusty sabres, and guns, were in requisition in
a moment, and blows, thick and heavy, soon
began to fall on the hide of the cayman. Many
wounds he received. But he moved his huge
body by the stern of the canoe into the river,
and we lost him. This was the only cayman I
saw.
We were seldom permitted to go far from our
vessel, owing to the danger arising from tigers.
Along the course of the river's banks we fell in with
many little rude crosses, each intended to show that
A DOMESTIC TRAGEDY. 227
in its neighbourhood some human victim to the
rapaciousness of that savage animal had there
perished. One of these simple but affecting
memorials, which had not been long erected,
commemorated a bereavement which formed quite
a domestic tragedy. A young Paraguay lover,
having gained the consent of his sweetheart to
marry him, determined in the first place to make
a voyage to Buenos Ayres and back, that he
might the better set up in the world. The bro-
ther of his betrothed accompanied him, as a
fellow peon. On their return, part of the crew
was engaged one evening, in the way I have al-
ready described, in cooking their supper on shore,
when a half-famished tiger, which had stealthily
crept to within three or four yards of the place,
sprang into the circle which the men had formed.
The young lover was one of them, and on him the
tiger seized. The simultaneous cry of the others,
the agonizing shriek of the victim, startled in a
moment those who were on board. The friend
and destined brother-in-law of our unhappy
lover was there. He seized a musket, — fired, —
and although he had of course taken his aim
at the tiger, he shot his friend through the heart.
228 A LONG PASSAGE.
The sad and only consolation of the unfortunate
marksman was that the wounds already inflicted
by the tiger must have proved mortal. The
death of her lover, detailed in all its horrors,
reached the ears of the poor girl in Paraguay.
She drooped, grew melancholy, gradually lost
her health ; and an early death attested the
fidelity of her affection for the man who had first
won her heart, and who had so tragically preceded
her to an unconsecrated grave.
When we had been thirty-two days on board
of Nuestra Senora del Carmen, we were just
seventy-five leagues from Santa Fe *, having
thus averaged something less than two leagues
and a half a day. This was on the 26th of
April; and that day our peons were sent to car-
near, our vessel, as usual on such occasions, lying
hidden behind an island. On their return they
informed us that they had fallen in with a Para-
guay vessel in the main channel, bound for the
Bajada ; and one of them put a slip of paper into
my hands, which he said he had received from a
* It is a curious fact, that the same distance which occupied
us a month and two days, may now be travelled in England in
ten hours.
LEAVING THE BRTGANTINE. 229
passenger on board the vessel which they had
spoken.
The writing was in English, and ran thus : —
" Mr. Wm. Robertson, I am Andres Gomez Ros-
pigliozi — your servant."
This laconic epistle was enigmatical enough,
and all I could make out of it was, that Don
Andres Gomez, my brother's Spanish assistant,
already mentioned in these letters, was on board
of the vessel spoken with. The only further
elucidation of the matter which I could get from
the peons was, that Don Andres had affirmed
" que no havia novedad en el rio," — that all was
right in the transit of the river.
I determined, therefore, at all hazards, to leave
the brigantine at Corrientes, even if I left it
alone. I began to sound my numerous com-
panions as to the disposition of any of them to
land with me. Not one of them inclined to do
so. In spite of Gomez's encouragement, one
and all deprecated my proposal of throwing
myself into the lion's jaw ; as they considered I
should do, if I landed among the Artiguefios at
Corrientes. It was with the utmost difficulty
I prevailed on the patron to promise to put me
230 LANDING AT CORRIENTES.
on shore. He considered he would be aiding
and abetting in my murder, and placing in jeo-
pardy himself, his vessel, his passengers, and
crew. He did, however, in the end, consent to
land me in the manner in which I am about to
detail.
We arrived off Corrientes on the 14th of May,
the winds having favoured us more during the
latter than the early part of our voyage. The
whole distance is about one hundred and eighty
leagues, which we thus accomplished in fifty days.
The pilot steered our vessel over to the Chaco
side during the dusk of the evening, and there
she again lay hidden. The wind was neither
strong nor favourable enough to enable them to
make the travesia, or crossing to the river Para-
guay that night, and the patron accordingly de-
termined to wait where he was the better pleasure
At four o'clock on the morning of the 15th, I
was on deck with a little valize in my hand, ready
to step into our best canoe, manned by six of
my concert singers, picked out by myself. All
the good-natured peons had pressed their ser-
vices on me to paddle my canoe on shore. Al-
LANDING AT CORRIENTES. 231
most all the passengers were up to bid me good-
by ; they were sipping their mate and smoking
their cigars ; and some of them showed un-
feigned concern for my precarious fate.
It was almost pitch dark, and we had four
leagues to paddle across to Corrientes. But my
gallant little crew sped the fragile canoe swiftly
and silently over the face of the waters. Not a
word was spoken. A fear of the Artiguenos was
in the heart of every one of my men. But they
made the port with precision, landed me on
the beach at half-past five, still dark, and then,
according to the strict orders of the patron, they
instantly paddled off again for the vessel.
I stood alone on the beach, with my valize in
my hand, somewhat irresolute how to proceed.
I was in a country totally unknown to me ; I had
not a single acquaintance in the town ; I was
without a passport, so indispensable in those
countries ; and I had come from the territory of
a declared enemy.
However, I knew there was a M. Perichon,
the friend and agent of my brother in Cor-
rientes, and to him I determined to address
myself as soon as broad daylight should enable
232 A PERPLEXITY.
me to find his house. Not having intended to
land at Corrientes, I had no letter for him.
At the dawn of day I began to walk slowly from
the river-side to the centre of the town. Not a
soul was stirring. The whole population seemed
to be wrapped in profound repose. I had ex-
pected to be challenged by sentinels, if not to be
openly attacked by some prowling Artigueno;
but no sentinel was to be heard, no Artigueno to
be seen.
" Surely," said I to myself, "if anarchy, rapine,
and bloodshed were stalking over the land, as
we have been told, people could never sleep so
soundly in their beds as they do here." I still
walked on ; and turning into a principal street,
I at last saw a person standing yawning at his
door, in dressing-gown, drawers, and night-cap.
Guess my wonder as I drew near to this indi-
vidual, to see him first stare me in the face, and
then to hear him exclaim with unfeigned asto-
nishment — " Robertson ! por amor de Dios, de
donde sale V. ?" " Where, in the name of won-
der, have you come from ?"
It was M. Perichon himself, the only man
astir, I believe, at that hour, in all Corrientes.
A FORTUNATE RENCONTRE.
233
That I should have thus happened to light upon
him was fortunate enough. He mistook me (as
many others had done) for my brother ; and as I
went up to him, courteously bowing, he stared still
more, and began, I believe, to fancy that he had
got up in a dream. The true state of the case,
however, soon flashed upon him. He welcomed
me with the greatest cordiality ; ushered me
into his house, and then called loudly to his
wife in her bed-room, " Pastora ! Pastora ! Get
up ! get up ! here is Don Guillermo, the bro-
ther of Don Juan, dropped, I believe, from the
moon ! "
You have seen the flooding of some principal
street in a city after a heavy pour of rain during
a summer thunder-storm : where first one over-
charged aqueduct throws in its waters, and then
another still stronger swells the main canal ; till
at length the increasing and impetuous stream
rushes down the street and collects itself into one
vast pool at some central point of the town.
In such wise did the household of the worthy
Perichon pour gradually into the sala in which
we were seated. First, the tide set in with
Dona Pastora, his wife, only half-dressed, full of
234 M. PERICHON'S HOUSEHOLD.
wonder at the apparition, and overflowing with
her Guarani exclamations of " Guah ! Ba-eh !
Ba-eh pico!" Then sailed in her pretty un-
married sister, her hair in papillotes, and her
slender form in a morning wrapper ; and she
held up her hands in admiration on seeing " the
picture of Don Juan." Next, the current was
swelled by the " Ama de Haves," or housekeeper,
a fat old lady of colour, with a mate for Don Guil-
lermo. After her trundled a little urchin in his
night-shirt, rubbing his half-opened eyes; and
so, one after another, brother-in-law, children,
slaves, and relatives, came sweeping into the
common centre, overwhelming me with the rapid
course of their exclamations, questions, congra-
tulations, and welcomes.
Having got thus unexpectedly into such good
quarters, and among so many warm, though
newly found friends, I shall detail my further
proceedings in my next letter.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R
235
LETTER XLIV.
To J G , ESQ.
Political News — Leaving Corrientes— Its Hospitality — Paso del
Rey — Scenery of the Paso — Geronimo's Fears — Artiguenos
— The Guard-House — Crossing the Parana — Real Danger
—Lost in a Wood— Tigers— The Curate of Neembucu—
Nightmare.
London, 1838.
I SAT down to an early, but sumptuous and
abundant breakfast, with the hospitable Peri-
chon and his large family. As I recounted to
him all the fears and alarms under which we had
skulked from Santa Fe to Corrientes, he often
interrupted me with carcajadas de risa — guffies of
laughter. He assured me that all these alarms
had been groundless ; that the navigation of the
Parana was uninterrupted and free from all
danger ; that the brigantine might have put
into Corrientes and obtained supplies without
the slightest chance of interruption to her voy-
236 POLITICAL NEWS.
age ; and that the whole country was in quiet
possession of Artigas. " Since you left Santa
Fe," added Perichon, " your friend Candioti has
acted as a mediator with that chief on the part
of Buenos Ayres, and has brought about an
amicable adjustment between the Protector and
the Central Government of the united provinces.
How long the treaty may last, is another affair."
Perichon confessed at the same time, that though
the towns were quiet under Artigas's governors,
the country was in many places disturbed and
distracted by armed Artiguenos, whose lawless
aggressions it was found impossible altogether to
repress.
Perichon also informed me that " Andres Go-
mez, my servant," had left Corrientes on the
2] st. of April, one of the chief objects of his mis-
sion being to assist me in getting to Paraguay :
and that he had arrived on the 28th at the
Bajada, thus performing, in seven days, a voyage
downwards, which it had taken us fifty days to
accomplish upwards.
I had left the brigantine, resolved, if possible,
to set forward that very day for Paraguay ; and
to this resolution I adhered in spite of all the
LEAVING CORRIENTES. 237
pressing remonstrances of Perichon and of his
kind household. I resisted even the persuasive
looks of the pretty sister-in-law, whose papillotes
were now exchanged for dark ringlets, and who
assured me there was to be a delightful tertulia
at the governor's that very evening, where, of
course, I should be expected.
After breakfast I waited with Perichon on
the governor, Colonel Mendez, and was kindly
received by him. He expressed his regret that
I could not attend his tertulia ; ordered a spe-
cial passport to be made out for me ; and he
offered me, though I declined to accept the favor,
two of his own guard as far as the Paso del Rey,
the limit of his province. This Mendez was one
of the most respectable of Artigas's officers ; and
I received many kindnesses at his hands at a
subsequent period, when Corrientes became our
head-quarters.
M. Perichon procured everything necessary for
my journey to Paraguay ; a recado, and all its
accompaniments ; a poncho, straw hat, huge
spurs, a pair of pistols, two chifles, or large
horns, filled with brandy; wallets, which were
stuffed with good things by Mde. Perichon ; the
238 CORRIENTES HOSPITALITY.
best post-horses, and a trusty guide, called Gero-
nimo, who was to accompany me as far as Neem-
bucu.
I found the governor and several gentlemen
of Corrientes had been invited by Perichon to
meet me at dinner. We sat down to it at one
o'clock, and a very convivial meeting we had. The
honest, good-natured face of Governor Mendez
dissipated all my Artigueno antipathies; and I
filled a bumper with the general applause of the
company, to a perpetual alliance between the
Protector Artigas and the government of Buenos
Ayres.
When my guide Don Geronimo arrived with
the horses, he came into the dining-room, and
made one of the party, apparently as a matter
of course. I found the people of the interior to
be altogether divested of the pride of grades.
In the present instance, to judge from the inter-
course at table, it would have been difficult for
you to say which was the governor of the pro-
vince, and which the guide of the casual tra-
veller.
It was near four o'clock ere we started ; and
then it was with so many hearty adieus, and so
THE PASO DEL KEY. 239
many kind expressions of regret, that you might
have fancied I had been born and bred a Cor-
rentino, instead of being, as I was, an acquaint-
ance of only a few hours.
The Paso del Rey, or King's Ferry, is the
point at which the traveller crosses the Parana,
which here divides Paraguay from the province
of Corrientes. From the town of this name the
Paso is distant seven leagues, and I was ex-
tremely anxious to cross that evening, feeling
very little desire to pass the night on the side
guarded by the Artiguenos. The country is
sometimes open, and sometimes scattered with
small trees of natural growth, mostly of the
mimosa tribe. As you rejoin the banks of the
Parana, however, the plantations get thicker, and
you end at last in deep, and in many places,
impervious woods.
After a hard gallop, and on emerging from one
of these woods, we found ourselves on the banks of
the noble Parana. Its breadth is here about two
miles, and no island intervenes between the oppo-
site banks. The Paraguay border I saw was as
thickly wooded as the one on which we stood.
The sun was fast going down, and the great
240 GERONIMO'S FEARS.
waters of the majestic river flowed along its
banks in solemn silence, and in grandeur undis-
turbed. As I viewed distinctly, from a rising
bank, the mighty stream which lay before me,
and the deep, dark, and impervious woods which
stretched along its banks as far as my eye could
reach, I was struck with a reverential awe. The
vastness of the scene, — the deepness and gloom"
of the solitude, — the unbroken silence which
reigned throughout, — were all alike impressive,
and all equally calculated to lift the soul from
the contemplation of Nature to the adoration of
Nature's God.
My reveries were interrupted by Geronimo,
who felt altogether uneasy under our actual posi-
tion. As we galloped along he had dilated on
the horrors of the Artigueiios, and he had ex-
pressed his fears that we might meet some of
them at the Paso del Rey. He now told me that
we must bend our way to the canoero's, or ferry-
man's hut, — though he was afraid we were too
late to cross ; and in that case he saw nothing
for it but that we should instantly return to Cor-
rientes.
The fact is, that Don Geronimo was a great
ARTIGUENOS. 241
coward, in spite of the pistols and sword with which
he was armed. While he kept pouring his fears
into my ear, we came upon the hut in question,
and here we found only a boy, who, to the inqui-
ries of Geronimo, replied, that both the canoeros
had gone from home. We had scarcely received
this answer, when we heard the galloping of
Worses and clanking of sabres behind us. We
turned round (Geronimo as white as a sheet), and
in another moment two Artiguenos proper threw
themselves from their saddles, and came up to
us on foot, trailing their steel-scabbard sabres
along the ground, and jingling their huge iron
spurs as they walked.
" Good evening, friend," said I, in the blandest
tone, turning round in my saddle to the first who
approached, — " Good evening."
" Who are you 9 " said the Artigueno, gruffly ;
" where's your passport ? " — I pulled it out. —
"Well, well," he added; " come along with us."
So saying, he and his companion remounted,
and led the way to a hut which, having been con-
verted into a guard-house, lay on the border of
the wood.
These two Artiguenos were really savage and
VOL. n. M
242 ARTIGUENOS.
fierce-looking men. Their beards were black and
bushy; their hair hung thick and matted from
under old foraging-caps ; and their small,, dark
eyes scowled from beneath very shaggy eyebrows.
Their blue jackets, with red facings, were all the
worse for wear; their shirts (which apparently had
never been washed) were open at the collars, and
showed each a rugged and bronzed neck beneath.
Tawdry waistcoats, — a sort of kilt, called a chi-
ripa, — ample drawers under this, and botas de
potro, from the feet of which their bare toes pro-
truded,— completed their attire. Each carried a
carbine in his hand, and each had a long knife
stuck in his girdle; while his sabre kept dan-
gling and clattering by his side.
My friend Geronimo quailed beneath the
glances of these myrmidons, and I confess I was
anything but satisfied myself with their looks.
But I felt assured that, by bringing the Gover-
nor's passport properly into play, all would go
smoothly with us.
I commenced by asking the spokesman, whe-
ther he thought they could not themselves paddle
us across the river in the absence of the canoeros ?
The Artigueno doggedly replied, that that was
ARTIGUENOS. 243
no part of their duty. " But then," said I, " here
is a special passport from my good friend Colonel
Mendez, and he assured me I should meet with
every assistance from you at the ferry."
This brought us to the guard-house, where we
found two more Artiguefios. They took the pass-
port, and turned it upside and down, for not one
of them could read a word. Then they thrust it into
my hand, and desired me to read it to them, which
I did. Hereupon, leaving us outside, they retired
all four to the hut, and began to hold a consulta-
tion in a low tone of voice.
From the moment I proposed to the Arti-
guefios that they should ferry us across, Gero-
nimo was in a fever ; and when he saw them enter
the hut, he could no longer contain his terrors ;
he grasped my arm quite convulsively, and stam-
mered out that they were deliberating as to how
they should put us to death. " Let us mount,"
he said ; " Oh, let us mount, and return to Cor-
rientes. If you do not, be assured, when we are
halfway across the Parana, they will shoot us, and
throw our bodies into the river."
I upbraided my conductor for his cowardice,
M2
244 THE PARANA.
and told him all the danger existed in his own
brain. "At any rate," I said, "when we get into
the canoe we shall be equal numbers. Do you
keep your hand on your pistol, and if you see
any appearance of foul play, be ready to act
with myself."
The Artiguenos came out, and I believe they
had only been consulting as to the maximum of
the charge they could make for ferrying us across.
" We do not understand paddling well," said
the original spokesman ; " but if you like, as you
are our Governor's friend, we will do our best to
get you to the other side. The Governor knows,"
added the Artigueno, with a grim smile, " that
we can pull the trigger of a carbine much better
than we can paddle a canoe."
Our recados were taken from our horses, and
placed in the canoe, towards the centre of which
the Artiguenos took their stations and their pad-
dles. Geronimo and I got in, and sat near the
stern, pulling our horses after us, and then hold-
ing them by the reins of their bridles in our left
hands, as the animals swam on either side of the
canoe. I exhorted Geronimo,, by my looks, to
keep an eye on the movements of the Artiguenos,
REAL DANGER.
245
and thus we launched into the current of the
great stream.
The Artiguenos, I fancy, never had a thought
of doing us any harm ; but unskilled in the art
of stemming the tide, they allowed it gradually
to sweep our canoe to leeward of the opposite
ferry, so that by the time we reached the bank
we were nearly two miles below the landing-place.
The Artiguenos, however, had done their best
They demanded two dollars, and, when I gave
them four, they took the increased pay with the
same taciturnity, and the same stern rigidity
of feature which they had maintained during
my whole intercourse with them. Geronimo
thought himself not safe from them till the last
faint sound of their retiring paddles died away
upon his ear.
Yet it was only here that our real danger be-
gan. The banks of the river, as I have said, are
lined by a broad and thickly-interlaced belt of
wood. The shades of night were fast falling
around us, and Geronimo made all haste to saddle,
and to get through the wood while he could yet
see his way to thread its mazy and entangled
246 LOST IN A WOOD.
paths. He had many misgivings, and I soon
found we were engaged in an arduous enter-
prise.
We had to make a path for ourselves through
briars and thorny acacias, and underwood of
every kind. These lacerated our legs very much,
and the boughs of the trees not only scratched
our faces at every turn, but they greatly im-
peded our progress. The horses got frightened
and restive, — Geronimo got confused and dis-
tracted,— he invoked every saint in the calendar
— he made vows and promises of masses and wax
candles to St. Jerome in particular. He was full
of ejaculations to the Virgin Mary, under all the
different names she obtains in the devout Catholic
church. Nuestra Sefiora del Socorro nos Ayude !
Santa Maria purisima, nos favoresca ! O ! siempre
bendita Madre de Dios ! ten piedad de nos ! In
the midst of these and a thousand other excla-
mations, the poor fellow kept pressing back the
boughs so as they might not scratch me ; — he
went before, and, as well as he could, he made the
road for me. It was all in vain, — the darkness
was increasing, and Geronimo at last exclaimed
TIGERS. 247
in despair, — " We shall be lost, — we shall be de-
voured by the tigers, — let us endeavour to hasten
back to the river-side."
We scrambled back through briars and bushes,
and prickly trees, and reached the banks of
the placid river safely enough, albeit much lace-
rated, especially poor Geronimo, who made a
very piteous figure. However, he gave many
hearty thanks to the Virgin, when he found we
were at the river-side. Here I discharged a
pistol with a large dry wadding, and Geronimo
immediately began to kindle a fire. My expe-
rience on board the brigantine had taught me
the necessity of this precaution. We broke down
and gathered together dry boughs and sticks, and
heaped them on our bonfire. Then we tossed
the burning brands among the bushes, and stirred
the sparks and the flames as high as we could
into the air. Our exertions, which were inces-
sant, were by no means thrown away. Half-an-
hour, or less, after our fire had been fairly lit,
we heard the roar of a tiger in the distance.
My flesh creeped as another growl, in another
direction, gave proof indubitable that we were
surrounded by beasts of prey. They sometimes
248 TIGERS.
came very near to us, and then their deep roar
fell horribly distinct on my ear, and might well
have appalled a stouter heart than my own.
We redoubled our efforts with our fagots. Our
horses stood ready saddled on the brink of the
river : they trembled excessively when they heard
the tigers, and seemed quite as well aware of
their perilous situation as we of ours. Our pistols
were in our belts, and we every now and then
fired a bullet into the thicket, as an additional
check upon the savage animals which we so much
and so justly feared.
Never did I spend a more anxious night; never
did one appear to me so long ; and never did I
feel more truly thankful to God, than when, to-
wards three o'clock, the fainter sound of the tigers'
growl gave indication of their retiring to their
lairs, or of their seeking other haunts in which to
prowl about for prey.
We did not venture to move till it was broad
daylight, and then, with the total cessation of
danger, Geronimo's courage revived. I must do
him the justice to say, that he showed even more
solicitude about me than about himself during
the night. He now passed his jokes upon the
THE CURATE OF NEEMBUCU. 249
woful plight which our figures by daylight pre-
sented, but he said all would be put to rights
when he got to the house of " his brother, the
curate" of Neembucu. He was in no small
degree proud of the learning and abilities of " my
brother, the curate ;" and he divided his loqua-
cious humours between him and the tigers. The
Artiguenos came in for an occasional reminis-
cence ; and, indeed, he went on embellishing the
whole matter in such wise, as to make it clearly
appear at last that we were a couple of heroes,
who had faced both Turks and tigers with unde-
niable courage and bravery, and had won impe-
rishable laurels on both banks of the Parana.
We soon and easily cleared the wood with the
daylight. We changed horses at a post-house on
the other side of it, and before noon we rode up
to the really neat cottage of " my brother the
curate," in the village and port of Neembucu,
which is prettily situated, as has already been
mentioned, on the Paraguay.
"My brother the curate" was the simple-hearted
pastor of a simple little flock, and he listened in
wonder and dismay to the magniloquent account
which Geronimo gave him, Falstaff-like, of our
M3
250 NIGHTMARE.
terrible adventures. In the mean time, his two
domestics were busy preparing dinner for us,
which was on the table by twelve o'clock. Im-
mediately after it, I very gladly accepted of the
worthy curate's offer of his bed. I had been for
thirty-six hours without repose, passing rapidly
from one scene of excitement to another ; so
that my frame now felt that it could no longer be
sustained without " tired Nature's sweet restorer,
balmy sleep."
Over- excitement and over-fatigue, however, are
far from procuring the soundest sleep. Even
the soft couch and cool chamber of the curate of
Neembucu did not secure to me immediate re-
pose. I first tossed myself from one side to an-
other, and then the scenes I had just witnessed
came before me in the shape of the most fantastic
and perplexing dreams. Here, I saw Perichon
in papillotes sitting on the back of a tiger, and
bringing it up to attack me ; there, his pretty
sister-in-law, with his nightcap drawn over her
ringlets, was waltzing with one of the grizzly
Artiguenos. Now, I was stemming the tide of
the Parana on horseback, with Dona Pastora on
a pillion behind me, exclaiming, " Ba eh pied ! "
NIGHTMARE.
251
Anon, I was on board of the brigantine, tied to
a tree, and watching Geronimo as he sailed down
the river on a camelote.
Exhausted Nature at length taking her right
course, these jumbling visions gradually faded
away ; and ere long I fell into a profound and
undisturbed repose.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
252
LETTER XLV.
To J G , ESQ.
Road by the Coast to Assumption — The Comandante's Letter —
Journey Coastwise — Loss and Recovery of my Valize — Jour-
ney Coastwise continued — Arrival at Assumption.
London, 1838.
WHEN I awoke I could by no means conceive
where I had got to. I was in utter darkness,
and I had to trace my course, step by step, from
the brigantine, before I could recollect that I lay
in the comfortable bed of " my brother, the cu-
rate" of Neembucu.
I had slept a siesta of seven hours. On getting
up I found the curate and Geronimo seated at
the porch of the little cottage doorway, with their
mate and cigars, enjoying the cool of the evening.
It was near eight o'clock,— Geronimo was still
over our adventures ; and he was just protesting,
as I joined them, that nothing would ever tempt
ROAD BY THE COAST TO ASSUMPTION. 253
him again to leave Corrientes with an English-
man— in the afternoon.
The kind and courteous curate, — I afterwards
knew him well, — conducted me forthwith to the
Comandante, Don Jose Joaquin Lopez, who had
long been expecting my arrival, and who now
waited for me at his own house. I was received,
with the usual demonstration of cordial regard,
and all was arranged for my proceeding onwards
the following morning.
There are two distinct roads from Neembucu
to Assumption ; one by the Misiones, and an-
other by the banks of the Paraguay — by the
" coast," as it is there called. The first route is
circuitous, but the roads are comparatively good.
The distance is called one hundred and thirty
leagues. The " coast" road only measures about
eighty-five leagues, but it passes through many
marshes, swamps, and large shallow sheets of
water. It was in a peculiarly bad state on the
present occasion, from the unusual height to
which the Paraguay had risen, and from the inun-
dations of the surrounding country which had
followed. The Comandante pressed me to take
the circuitous route; but a saving of forty-five
254 THE COMANDANTE'S LETTER.
leagues tempted me to travel by the other ; and
as the thing could be done, by the coast I de-
termined to go.
The Comandante picked out the best man he
had in his service to accompany me as my guide
and man-at-arms on the road. He was, indeed,
a very fine and handsome young fellow, — brave,
intelligent, active, yet altogether modest and
unassuming in his deportment.
I had quite a parting scene with my kind and
tender-hearted friend Geronimo, in the morning.
I considered it a positive duty, in paying him his
" honorario," — his fee as my guide, — to take into
account the risks he had run of his life with Arti-
guefios and tigers, and to increase the amount in
a due proportion. Geronimo was very grateful,
and he returned to Corrientes, pleased in the
extreme with the issue of a journey, which at one
time had threatened so disastrous an end.
The Comandante, a plain, honest soldier, gave
me, before I started, a letter which I am tempted
here to translate literally, as it now lies before
me. We intend to give in the Appendix one
or two more of his epistles, which were all the
productions of a learned personage called Araujo,
THE COMANDANTE'S LETTER. 255
who held the situation of private secretary to the
Comandante.*
" Villa del Pilar (Neembucu),
l&th May, 1814.
" My esteemed Friend,
<e The presence of the bearer, your dear bro-
ther, has been one of the happiest moments which
Fate could prepare for me, since it has enabled
me to offer my humble services to him as I have
done : but I feel an accompanying regret that
they have not been accepted entirely as I de-
sired ; for I implore you to believe I would my-
self have been his guide, in order to insure his
safety, in which I feel deeply interested. No-
thing farther need be said by one who ranks
himself among the happy number of your friends,
— one who truly esteems you in the most super-
lative degree, and who for ever kisses your hand.
" JOSE JOAQUIN LOPEZ.
The Comandante having made up his despatches
for his Excellency the Consul of the republic, I
took leave of him on the 17th, and set forward,
accompanied by my new guide Francisco.
* The style is to be taken as the general one of the Co-
mandante's secretary to all his correspondents. Every one of
them was laid under a similar load of high-flown eulogium.
256 JOURNEY COASTWISE.
I had soon very practical proof of the soundness
of the Comandante Lopez's advice, not to take
the road which I had chosen. We had only ad-
vanced a few leagues from Neembucu, when we
found ourselves in the marshy land. We waded
for hours together through apparently intermin-
able lakes, or great shallow pools of water.
Patches of dry land were to be seen only here
and there, with miserable huts upon them. We
skirted the woods which ran all along the banks
of the Paraguay, but of the river itself we never
got a sight.
At the distance of every three or four leagues
we came upon what were now swollen and wide
rivers, though in ordinary times most of them
were but rivulets easily fordable. In such cases
we had to cross either in a balsa or a pelota.
The former is a safe and easy mode of ferry-
ing; the balsa consisting (as you have already
been told) of two canoes made fast together.
But the pelota is always a nervous sort of affair.
It consists simply of a square hide, tied at the
four corners, so as to form a kind of bag. In
this our recados were first placed, and then I
squatted down in the centre with orders to sit
JOURNEY COASTWISE. 257
perfectly still. A hide rope being attached to
the pelota, Francisco stripped, plunged into the
river, and taking the rope in his mouth, swam
across, pulling me in the pelota after him.
With great exertion and perseverance we made
out seventeen leagues the first day, and at the
close of it we took up our night's lodging at a
miserable rancho or hovel, the damp mud floor of
it being our bed. Two-thirds of the day we had
been up to our saddle-girths in water, and I
found we had the same sort of travelling to ex-
pect till we should get to the Angostura, nine
leagues from Assumption.
The second day we came to a swollen laguna
or lake, which we found was not fordable, and
where there was yet neither balsa nor pelota nor
ferryman. Francisco galloped back a couple of
leagues, and from the top of a covered waggon,
which we had observed standing on one of the
dry patches, he cut a square piece of hide, moist-
ened it, doubled it into four, and thus brought a
boat for me under his saddle. He then formed
it into a pelota, and though it scarcely held me,
I successfully crossed the laguna in this portable
conveyance.
258 LOSS AND RECOVERY OF MY VALIZE.
I crossed several other lakes in it ; but at last,
on a somewhat rapid stream, I got carried into an
eddy, — the pelota was upset, — I tumbled into the
river, — and with some difficulty Francisco pulled
me on shore. I would trust to the pelota no
more : from that time forward, when there was
no balsa, I stripped, and crossed the rivers and
lakes on my horse's back ; guiding him with the
bridle in one hand, and with the other holding
on by the mane.
We now and then got out of the marshes, and
penetrated the natural woods of the country.
Even here the land was in many places saturated
with water, and the travelling everywhere was
irksome and laborious. I could never contrive
to make more than sixty miles in a day.
The second day, when we had just done wading
through one of the pestilential and mosquito-
covered marshes, Francisco to his horror dis-
covered that my valize, which had been fastened
behind his recado, was gone. My money was in
it, and we were in the only part of Paraguay where
money was requisite towards travelling. Fran-
cisco was au desespoir. He thought however
that some of the tangled branches of the trees of
LOSS AND RECOVERY OF MY VALIZE. 259
a wood through which we had passed, must have
jostled the valize from him. Back he went,
therefore, through bog and marsh and stream,
while 1 sat down under a palm-tree to await his
return. After he was gone, my nearest neigh-
bours were the tigers and lions of the forest;
and I was not without my fears that some of
them might pay a passing visit to the place
where I had taken up my temporary abode.
In a couple of hours Francisco returned with
the valize, which he held up in triumph as he
waded through the Canaveral, or marsh ; and we
resumed our journey. When we got to the next
post-house, however, Francisco, with a serious
and respectful air thus addressed me: — "My
patron, when I returned to look for your valize,
I promised to Nuestra Sefiora de Mercedes (Our
Lady of Favours) that if she should permit
me to find it, I would light up four candles at
her shrine in the Capilla, which is about three
leagues from this spot, and that I would have a
mass said for the poor souls now in purgatory.
I pray you to remain here while I go and fulfil
my vow, and I will return with all possible
despatch."
260 LOSS AND RECOVERY OF MY VALIZE.
"Francisco," I replied, with due seriousness,
" I am very glad to observe the proper regard
which you pay to your religious duties; and I
myself am so much interested in your present
purpose, that I desire it may be postponed till
we get to Assumption, and there, in the cathedral,
twelve candles shall be lighted, three masses
shall be said, and the bishop himself shall know
that it is in fulfilment of your promises to Nues-
tra Sefiora de Mercedes."
Honest Francisco demurred ; it was very kind,
— he felt for ever obliged to me, — but what I
proposed was not the accomplishment of his pro-
mesa, which at the Capilla alone could be fulfilled.
I positively objected to this dreadful loss of time.
Francisco was grieved and astounded that I
should care so little about the safety of his soul ;
and the issue was, that I was obliged to remain
three hours at the post-house, while the scrupu-
lous and devout Francisco conscientiously fulfilled
his duties at the Capilla.
I believe we made a narrow escape of our lives
next morning. I was anxious to start very early,
— at the dawn of day, — but Francisco strongly
objected, as we had, immediately after leaving
JOURNEY COASTWISE,, CONTINUED. 26 J
the post-house, to cross a wood, where there is
always danger of tigers till the sun is above the
horizon. While we stood at the door of the hut,
waiting for broader day, a shower fell, and we
shortly after set forward on our journey. We
entered the wood, and on the very outskirts of
it, Francisco quietly called my attention to the
distinct prints of the feet of two tigers, left where
the rain had fallen. These enemies must have
crossed our path a quarter of an hour before
ourselves.
The part of the republic which I traversed,
is a narrowed, yet marked exception to the
general character of the whole country. Fer-
tility, abundance, hospitality, are its great and
leading features everywhere, except in the marshy
lands which lie along the river Paraguay, and at
Francia's two Botany bays, — Curuguati and Te-
vego.
The marshes of which I speak of course re-
duce the soil to sterility, and the country through
which I passed is very thinly inhabited by fami-
lies who derive a wretched and precarious live-
lihood from the cutting of timber on the banks
of the Paraguay. They are the refuse of the
262 JOURNEY COASTWISE, CONTINUED.
population, and live in squalid poverty. During
four days that I travelled, I never once undressed;
and for two entire days we subsisted on the hard
Indian corn given to horses, and on mani, a
dry unsavoury nut, the produce of a tree growing
everywhere in that part of the interior. The
men were rude in their manners, and half savage
in their looks. Poverty and filth, with a dogged
sort of apathy on the part of the inmates, were
the characteristics of every wretched hovel I
entered.
Scanty as was the population of this little
plague-spot of Paraguay, many of its wretched
inhabitants had been forced by the unusual se-
verity of the inundations, and by consequent
famine, to the uplands, where they were always
hospitably received and cared for by their more
thriving and richer countrymen. Yet hunger
alone forces the costeros, or people on the marshy
banks of the river, from their own miserable
patches of ground to the sunny and luxuriant
uplands which lie close to them ; and the moment
the waters so far subside as to allow them to be-
come again "hewers of wood," they return to
their accustomed mode of life.
JOURNEY COASTWISE, CONTINUED. 263
Early on the afternoon of the fourth day, we
quitted at last the marshy lands, and got on the
rising ground of the Angostura, — a narrow pass
of the river, nine leagues from Assumption.
Here I came in view of the Paraguay for the
first time since I had left Neembucu. It flows
rapidly down the Angostura, amid a profusion
of the richest woodland scenery. A short way
above, the noble river > Pilcomayo empties its
great tributary waters into the Paraguay, and
this is again enriched by numerous smaller
affluents. Downward it flows, till the celebrated
Vermejo, a little below Neembucu again gives
a vast accession of water to the parent stream,
which it carries to Corrientes. Here it loses its
own name, and makes one body with the Parana.
Here also, or a little higher up, on a scale of the
most magnificent grandeur, the junction of the
Paraguay and the Parand takes place. The
proper name of Corrientes is San Juan de las
Siete Corrientes, — St. John of the Seven Cur-
rents.
The country, from the Angostura to Assump-
tion, after what I had seen and suffered in the
marshes, appeared to me to be nothing short of
264 ARRIVAL AT ASSUMPTION.
a terrestrial paradise. But it has already been
described to you : I galloped along till we came
to one of the deep and shaded pathways which
form the approaches on all sides to the city ; and
on the 20th of May, nine months from the time
of my leaving Portsmouth, I shook hands with
my brother in Assumption, and so finished my
long and eventful journey.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
265.
LETTER XLVI.
To J- - G , ESQ.
J. P, R. RESUMES AND CONCLUDES.
Reading substituted for Society — Cervantes — A Paraguay Shower-
Bath — An Arrival, and the Celebration of it — The Dog Hero,
a Pointer of the Malvinas, or Falkland Islands, Breed —
Lord Byron's Dog Boatswain.
London, 1838.
I HAD now been nearly three years in Paraguay;
and, with the exception of a short trip to Buenos
Ayres, I had rarely in all that time seen an
English face, spoken an English word, or com-
muned, otherwise than by letter, with an English
friend. Intimate as I was with the inhabitants
of Paraguay, and indebted as I felt to them for
their kindness, my position was, to a great ex-
tent, one of isolation. That I might not become
wholly estranged from my own country, country-
men, and language, I spent a good deal of time
in my library, among those dumb but instructive
VOL II N
266 CERVANTES.
companions, my English books. I laughed over
Gulliver's Travels, and much admired the irony
of the " Drapier." I went to Pope for satire, to
Addison and Steele for humour, to the Rambler
for philosophy, and to Goldsmith for pathos and
simplicity. These and others of our best Eng-
lish authors, I often read with a pleasure height-
ened, perhaps, by the circumstance of their being
the only English classics that had ever pene-
trated into those remote regions. But I was con-
strained, after all, to acknowledge, that for a com-
bination of everything choice and excellent in
literature, I had read no book, in any dead or
living language with which I am acquainted, that
excelled Don Quixote. I mean Don Quixote in
his Spanish garb, not the knight errant in his
English dress. Homer and Virgil I have read in
their own beautiful languages; but I confess I have
not derived from them anything like the pleasure
which the masterpiece of Cervantes has afforded
me. Give me a conversation on the road be-
tween the Andante Cavallero of La Mancha, and
his panzudo squire Sancho Panza : or let me
hear the courteous and learned knight addressing
a discourse to the Cavallero del Verde Gavdn ; or
A PARAGUAY SHOWER-BATH. 267
give me an apostrophe to Dulcinea, or a descrip-
tion of the armies of sheep ; give me any part, in
short, of Don Quixote, clothed in the magical
diction of Cervantes, and you give me all that
imagination can conceive of excellence, that
reason can require of depth and propriety, that
humour can sketch of ludicrous and bewitching,
or that eloquence can demand of polish, energy,
and simplicity. Well might Cervantes, when he
laid on the shelf the grey goose-quill with which
he wrote Don Quixote, address all who should
dare to take it from its place with a " Tate, tate,
folloncico !"
But, leaving Cervantes, I must proceed to an
incident in my narrative, of a domestic kind,
which led to a conclusion of the sort of otium
cum dignitate with which I was pursuing my
literary recreations in Paraguay.
The houses in Assumption which have patios,
or courts, have also long spouts which project
from their flat roofs, to carry off from these the
rain. During a heavy shower, which generally
follows a protracted period of insufferable heat,
these spouts pour their cool, clear, and liquid
N2
268 A PARAGUAY SHOWER-BATH.
contents into the patio. Down falls the water
upon the brick pavement with a splash, the very
sound of which refreshes and cools the body.
Before the advent of such showers, you lie pant-
ing in your hammock, and gasping for breath.
Exhausted nature during the night, half asleep
half awake, dreams of suffocation, of unslaked
thirst and burning siroccos; but in blows the
south wind, and down fall the refreshing waters,
and Elysium opens upon the senses, — almost
upon the view, — of the sufferer in a tropical
climate.
It was my invariable practice, when, by the
double agency of wind and water, the atmosphere
got thus cooled, to go into the patio, whether it
might be by day or by night, to undress, and so
let the water from one of the largest spouts souse
ine for ten minutes from top to toe. The trans-
ition was such as you may imagine would be
that from the burning sands of Libya to the
coolest groves of Arcadia.
After the shower-bath I have described, a negro
servant was wont to bring and throw over me a
linen sheet, with which he rubbed and dried me
AN ARRIVAL. 269
under the corridor. Ia then retired, if at night,
to rest, if during the day, to my library ; and I
found these immersions, though entirely depre-
cated by the natives, the best mode of invigorat-
ing the system in that relaxing climate.
It was on one of these occasions, — in the even-
ing,— when after my spout- bath I had had my
glass of wine and my pine- apple (one of the
finest and most abundant of Paraguay's fruits),
and when in refreshed indolence on the sofa, I was
dropping asleep even over Don Quixote, that my
negro Juan ran into the room, astonishment and
delight depicted in his countenance, and called
out aloud, " Mi amo, mi amo, el Senor Hermano
de su merced." — " My master, my master, here
is your brother." Close at his heels appeared
the party announced. I thought the whole an
apparition, a prelude to my fast-coming dreams-
But when I was closely hugged by my own flesh
and blood, I became sensible that it was my
brother indeed ; and starting from my couch, I
received him into my arms with an enthusiasm
of feeling which had long lain dormant in the
quiet and somewhat sluggish regions of Para-
guay.
270 CELEBRATION OF THE ARRIVAL.
I had been some weeks looking for such a
visit ; but the obstacles interposed to its realiza-
tion, by Artiguefios, revolutions, non-intercourse
acts, pirates and banditti, had not only sickened
me, by giving rise to " hope deferred," but made
me wish that the risk of realizing my most earnest
desire should not be run. My brother had run
it, however, and succeeded. Home, — the family
circle, — the narrative of his "hair-breadth 'scapes,"
— his language, look, manners, — all were alter-
nately the subjects of my wonderment, and of our
mutual discourse. One bottle of claret followed
another. The intoxication of a meeting after a
six years' absence, in an isolated region, distant
seven thousand miles from our paternal abode,
ourselves being the only two Englishmen within
a thousand miles of the spot where we embraced,
— the intoxication of such a meeting bade defiance
to any other. How many bottles of claret we
drank I know not; but this I know, that the
glare of day found us still in conversation over
our wine and fruit ; and that my negro Juan,
without understanding a word of what was said,
stood all the night and all the morning in admi-
ration and wonder of the manner in which it
THE DOG HERO. 271
was said. He laughed as we laughed; he ran
to fetch another bottle of Bordeaux long before
the one on the table was finished ; and as the
animation of our discourse increased, he frisked
about, rubbed his hands, opened his capacious
mouth, and displayed his white teeth, in rare
contrast with his usual sedate habits, and sombre
cast of thought.
There was another witness of that night's
arrival, and he took a lively interest in the scene.
That friend was a dog, a native of the Malvinas,
or Falkland Islands, and had been introduced into
Paraguay by the old Spanish governor Velasco.
His name was Hero ; and his breed, I think, was
the finest in the world. All fidelity, love, and
obedience to his master, this dog left me not for
an instant. He was at my heel all day, and
slept by my bed all night; but upon no other
mortal being would he cast a cheerful look ; nor
for any other mortal man do a civil thing. His
tail only wagged in his master's presence ; voli-
tion seemed suspended in his absence. I have
shut him up by himself, with, as his only com-
panions, three or four live partridges in the room.
They were as if they had been not. The dog
272 THE DOG HEKO.
sat moaning at the door through which I had
passed ; but the moment I re-entered, he made
an immovable set at the game.
Yet this dog instantaneously acknowledged my
brother. He licked his hand, hearkened to his
voice, followed his steps, and obeyed his com-
mands. He recognised, it would appear, a cer-
tain family resemblance ; and on his immoveable
principle of fealty to his master, he yielded will-
ing homage to his kith and kin.
The true Malvinas pointer combines, in the
highest perfection, all the qualities and instincts
of the pointer, the setter, the Newfoundland dog,
and the water-spaniel. His scent, courage, and
endurance are only surpassed by his sagacity,
fidelity, and attachment. He is a small-sized
dog, generally of a liver-colour, with beautiful
points, and long silken ears. His speed is pro-
digious ; and if he has once ranged a field with-
out coming to a point, you may stake your exist-
ence on it, that in that field there is not a single
bird. If well trained, a whistle brings him from
any distance, however far he may be out of sight ;
and if he strays from his master, he traces him
by his scent through all the mazes, and over all
THE MALVINAS POINTER. 273
the distance he may have travelled. Then, for
his utility, no sportsman who has ever shot be-
hind a Malvinas dog, can admire, he can scarcely
endure, another. When shooting in Paraguay,
your bird often falls in the very midst of a dense
prickly-pear fence, so irascible and impenetrable,
as to forbid every attempt at extricating the
game. The Malvinas pointer alone is equal to
the task ; and when he is shot over by a master
that he knows will kill his bird, the undaunted
quadruped will sacrifice his life rather than leave
the prize. I have seen Hero struggle for half
an hour in one of those terrible thicksets, and
come out at last, bleeding, with the partridge in
his mouth. When engaged in a search of this
kind alone it is that he is disobedient. Neither
coaxing nor threats will seduce him from his
pursuit.
I remember, one day towards sunset, having
winged a pato real, or royal duck, as he was
rising from the lake to his roost in the woods.
Hero saw him fall, plunged into the water, and
in a few minutes was engaged in the struggle of
death with his victim. But the royal bird,, large,
and vigorous of body, being only winged, splashed
N3
274 THE DOG HERO.
in the water, dived under it, and by other stra-
tagems and efforts, kept Hero so long off, that the
close of day began to shut the combatants out
from my view. In vain I whistled, in vain I
called ; the dog that crouched under my feet,
and humbly licked my hand at other times, lent
a deaf ear to my remonstrances against his re-
maining in the lake. As night was coming on,
I rode off with my negro Juan from the spot. I
knew that my dog would find his way home.
Two hours afterwards, accordingly, I heard his
yelping, barking, and scraping of feet at the
gateway. There I found the faithful animal, co-
vered with mud and dust, with the pato real, or
royal duck, having trundled his aquatic prey a
distance of two miles from the marsh in which
he had first engaged with it. The moment I
appeared, the gallant Hero, with every demon-
stration of joy, resigned his dead foe into my
hands, and crouching down in submissive affec-
tion at my feet, seemed to implore my forgive-
ness for his being out at so late an hour. The
next day the highly-flavoured pato real was
roasted, served in good style, and Hero had the
wounded wing to pick.
THE MALV1NAS POINTER. 275
There was nothing which I attempted to teach
this dog that he did not learn. He took his les-
sons from my brother with the same docility and
perseverance as from myself, but from no one else.
We used to derive great amusement from his
curious tricks and sensible performances; and
on finishing them, as he always did with eclat,
he was wonderfully pleased to receive our caresses
in full payment of his exertions.
Poor Hero ! He died ; died of starvation ; and
I dare not tell you of the sorrow and indignation
with which the event filled me. He came to
his sad end from the barbarous neglect of the
captain of a ship to whose care he had for a few
days been intrusted.
I cannot help here quoting part of the epitaph
inscribed by Lord Byron on the monument erected
by him to the memory of his dog Boatswain. I
was forcibly struck, on first reading it, by the
vivid expression of the feeling of the poet. With
the vituperations poured upon man I had nothing
to do; but in his tribute to the dog, which
Hero's death led me again to peruse, I sincerely
sympathised.
276 LORD BYRON'S DOG BOATSWAIN.
" When some proud son of man returns to earth,
Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,
The sculptors art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below.
When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,
Not what he was, but what he should have been.
But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone —
Unhonour'd falls — unnoticed all his worth."
" Ye who perchance behold this simple urn,
Pass on — it honours none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend's remains these stones arise ;
I never knew but one — and here he lies/'
The inscription which precedes the verses, if
you recollect, is antithetical and pungent in the
extreme.
" Near this spot
are deposited the remains of one
who possessed beauty without vanity,
strength without insolence,
courage without ferocity,
and all the virtues of man without his vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning flattery
if inscribed over human ashes,
is but a just tribute to the memory of
BOATSWAIN, a Dog."
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
277
LETTER XLVII.
To J-
-, ESQ.
Licence granted by the Consul to leave Paraguay — His Motives
for granting it — An important Audience — Francia expa-
tiates upon South America and a Union between Paraguay
and England — A curious Exhibition — Francia's Oration —
I am ordered to appear at the Bar of the House of Commons
— A Dilemma — Commissions from the Consul — The Consul
and his Chancellor of the Exchequer — My second Departure
from Paraguay.
London, 1838.
A MONTH brought my brother acquainted with
all the natives of Assumption ; and having my-
self long meditated a voyage to England, I de-
termined in two months more to leave him in
the management of our concerns in Paraguay.
But the port of Assumption was again closed
against all egress ; and in order to effect my
intended voyage, it was necessary to have re-
course to the special favour of the Consul Fran-
cia.
278 LIBERTY TO LEAVE PARAGUAY.
I took all the necessary steps to insure this,
and I was, after a few weeks of manoeuvre, per-
mitted to leave, by special licence from himself,
a place hermetically sealed against the exit of all
others. His object in having heretofore been so
gracious, and in then granting me the highest
favour he could bestow, was at length apparent
and avowed. The interview at which he laid
open to me the secret imagery of his heart was
characterised by so much naivete, \vhile at the
same time it displayed an ignorance so complete
of diplomatic forms and ceremonies, that I shall
give you the substance of it in nearly his own
words.
I had explained to Francia that it was my
intention to proceed, if possible, from Buenos
Ayres to England. It was his most earnest
desire that I should; and you will see from his
own views, as developed by himself, what mighty
prospects were dawning upon his mind, and what
gigantic projects were already buzzing in his
busy head, in the anticipation of his being able
to connect, by a league offensive and defensive,
the empire of Great Britain with the republic
of Paraguay.
AN IMPORTANT AUDIENCE.
279
" His Lordship the Consul/' said a young
ensign, who had been despatched from the palace
by Francia, " His Lordship the Consul desires
immediately to speak to you."
Off I marched with the aide-de-camp. On
arrival at the palace, I was received with more
than ordinary kindness and affability by the
Consul. His countenance was lit up into an
expression that almost approached to that of
glee ; his scarlet cloak depended in graceful
folds from his shoulder ; he seemed to smoke
his cigar with unusual relish ; and quite in op-
position to his usual rule of burning only one
light in his small and humble audience-chamber,
there blazed in it on that evening two of the best
mould candles. Shaking hands with me very
cordially, " Sit you down, Senor Don Juan,"
said he. He then drew his chair close to mine,
and desired I would listen very attentively to
what he had to say. He addressed me thus : —
" You know what my policy has been with
respect to Paraguay ; that I have kept it on a
system of non-intercourse with the other pro-
vinces of South America, and from contamination
by that foul and restless spirit of anarchy and
280 FRANCIA ON SOUTH AMERICA.
revolution which has more or less desolated and
disgraced them all. Paraguay is in a more
flourishing (pingiie) state now, than any of the
countries around it ; and while here all is order,
subordination, and tranquillity, the moment you
pass its boundary, the sound of the cannon, and
the din of civil discord salute your ears. As
may naturally be anticipated, these internal
broils paralyse industry, and chase prosperity
from the land. Now, whence arises all this?
Why, from the fact that there is not a man in
South America but myself, who understands the
character of the people, or is able to govern them.
The outcry is for free institutions ; but personal
aggrandizement and public spoliation are the
objects alone sought. The natives of Buenos
Ayres are the most fickle, vain, volatile, and
profligate of the whole of Spain's late dominions
in this hemisphere ; and therefore I am resolved
to have nothing to do with the Portenos. My
wish is to promote an intercourse with England
direct ; so that whatever feuds may distract the
other states, and whatever impediments they may
choose to throw in the way of commerce and
navigation, those states shall themselves be the
A CURIOUS EXHIBITION. 281
sole sufferers. The ships of Great Britain, tri-
umphantly sweeping the Atlantic, will penetrate
to Paraguay ; and, in union with our flotillas,
will bid defiance to all interruption of commerce,
from the mouth of the Plate to the lake Xarayes.
Your Government will have its minister here,
and I shall have mine at the Court of St. James's.
Your countrymen shall traffic in manufactures
and munitions of war, and shall receive in ex-
change the noble products of this country."
At this point of his oration the Consul
rose with great emotion, but evident delight,
from his chair, and calling to the sentinel at the
door, desired him to order in the Serjeant of the
guard. On appearance of this person the Doctor
gave him a significant and peremptory look, and
told him emphatically to bring " that." The
serjeant withdrew, and in less than three minutes
returned with four grenadiers at his back, bear-
ing, to my astonishment, among them, a large
hide package of tobacco of two hundred weight,
a bale of Paraguay tea of similar dimensions and
exterior, a demi-john of Paraguay spirits, a large
loaf of sugar, and several bundles of cigars, tied
and ornamented with variegated fillets. Last of
282 FRANCIA'S ORATION.
all, came an old negrcss with some beautiful spe-
cimens of embroidered cloth made from Para-
guay cotton, and used there by the luxurious as
hand-towels and shaving-cloths.
I thought this very kind and considerate;
for though I could not but wonder at the some-
what barbarian ostentation in the mode of making
the present, yet I never doubted that the accu-
mulated native productions, now arranged in
order before me, were intended as a parting ma-
nifestation of the Consul's regard. Judge, then,
of my surprise (you will see it cannot bear the
name of disappointment), when, after ordering
his soldiers and the negress out of the room with
a " vayanse " (begone), he broke forth in the fol-
lowing strain : —
" Senor Don Juan, these are but a few speci-
mens of the rich productions of this soil, and of
the industry and ingenuity of its inhabitants. I
have taken some pains to furnish you with the
best samples which the country affords of the dif-
ferent articles in their respective kinds ; and for
this reason : you are now going to England ;
you know what a country this is, and what a
man I am. You know to what an unlimited
FRANCIA'S ORATION. 283
extent these productions can be reared in this
Paradise, I may call it, of the world. Now, with-
out entering upon the discussion, as to whether
this continent is ripe for popular institutions,
(you know, I think, it is not,) it cannot be de-
nied that, in an old and civilized country like
Britain, where these institutions have gradually
and practically (not theoretically) superseded
forms of government originally feudal, till they
have forced themselves upon legislative notice, in
a ratio proportioned to the growing education of
the majority, they are those best adapted to se-
cure the greatness and stability of a nation. And
that England is a great nation, and that its
people are knit together as one man, upon all
questions of momentous national concern, is un-
deniable.
" Now, I desire that as soon as you get to Lon-
don, you will present yourself to the House of
Commons, take with you these samples of the
productions of Paraguay; request an audience
at the bar; and inform the assembly that you
are deputed by Don Gaspar Rodriguez de
Francia, Consul of the republic of Paraguay,
284 FRANCIA'S ORATION.
to lay before it these specimens of the rich pro-
ductions of that country. Tell them I have
authorized you to say that I invite England
to a political and commercial intercourse with
me ; and that I am ready and anxious to receive
in my capital, and with all the deference due
to diplomatic intercourse between civilized states,
a minister from the Court of St. James's ; I
also will appoint to that Court an envoy of my
own.
" Such a treaty of commerce and political alli-
ance may then be framed, as shall comport at
once with the dignity and interests of the great
empire of England, and with those of the rising
state which I now rule. Paraguay will be the first
republic of South America, as Great Britain is
already the first of European nations. The alli-
ance seems, therefore, natural ; and how beneficial
for the European state, you, Senor Don Juan,
can fully elucidate and explain."
Such were the terms, and almost the words, in
which Francia delivered himself of his views and
aspirations in reference to an alliance with Great
Britain. I stood, as you may imagine, aghast,
A DILEMMA. 285
at the idea of being appointed a minister ple-
nipotentiary, not to the Court of St. James's,
but to the House of Commons. I was charged
especially not to take a private interview with
the head of the executive : " For," said Francia,
" I know well how apt great men in England
are, unless under the fear of responsibility to
the House of Commons, to treat questions even
so important as this, with levity or disregard.
" Present yourself," continued he, " at the bar
of the house, and there deliver my message, as of
old the ambassadors of independent states deli-
vered theirs to the senate of Rome. According
to the reception which they shall give to you,
one of their countrymen, and above the suspi-
cion, therefore, of being a witness in my fa-
vour, shall be the reception (acogimiento) which
I will extend to their ambassador to this re-
public."
Never in my life was I more puzzled how to
act, or what to say. To refuse the Quixotic mis-
sion, and thus incur at once the Consul's displea-
sure, and draw down upon my own devoted head
the ruinous consequences of it, was an alternative
too horrible to be thought of. The only other
286 A DILEMMA.
was acquiescence ; and to this I came, in spite of
the strong sense of the ludicrous which pressed
itself upon me, as I drew a picture of myself
forcing my way to the bar of the House of Com-
mons ; overpowering, with half-a-dozen porters,
the Usher of the Black Rod ; and delivering, in
spite of remonstrance and resistance, at once my
hide-bound bales of Paraguay merchandise, and
the oration, verbatim, of the First Consul. But
Assumption was a great distance from St. Ste-
phen's. I therefore bowed assent to Doctor Fran-
cia's proposition, and trusted to the chapter of
accidents for providing me, when the time should
come, with a suitable apology for having been
unable to get into the predicament which he had
so graciously prepared for me.
Having taken leave, the serjeant and grena-
diers, heavily laden, followed me home ; where I
not a little astonished the new-comer, my brother,
with the account of the diplomatic interview to
which I had been called. I bade defiance to his
scepticism on the subject, by making the soldiers
unload at his feet the ponderous physical evi-
dence, by which I sustained the truth of my
tale.
COMMISSIONS FROM THE CONSUL. 287
At a subsequent interview, Francia made out
a long list of commissions for me to execute. I
was to bring him gold lace, a cocked-hat, a dress-
sword, a pair of double-barrelled pistols, sashes,
sabres, soldiers' caps, musical and mathemati-
cal instruments, with a very protracted detail of
et cceteras. About the procuring of these, how-
ever, I had by no means so many misgivings, as
in regard to my power of persuading Mr. Speaker
and the House of Commons to accede to the
political and commercial league, of which the
Consul was so full.
Thus did matters stand. I was to sail in a
fortnight, with an exclusive licence for the ex-
portation of my property and person, and upon
an understanding that, if I proceeded home, I
should there do my endeavours to bring about
an intercourse between England and Paraguay,
which I was about as likely to effect, as a junction
between any two of the planets the most remote
from each other in our system.
A circumstance occurred, during our interview,
curiously illustrative of the growing despotism,
the abrupt manner, and rude disregard of pro-
priety, which Francia was taking daily less pains
288 THE CONSUL AND HIS
to conceal, whenever his capricious humour was
at variance with anything said or done by those
around him. The question with him was not
how unconsciously offence might be given ; it was
enough that it was taken. He stopped not to
inquire whether it was the result of ignorance, or
even of well-meant deference and assiduity. His
irritable and jaundiced temper sought, at the
moment, something on which to vent its spleen ;
and the innocent and guilty were alike immo-
lated at Ihe shrine of his caprice. In the in-
stance referred to, while Francia was dilating to
me upon his prospective alliance with Great Bri-
tain, the sentry announced as being in the lobby
the minister of finance. This office was then
united with that of director of customs ; though the
double functionary was no better than a subor-
dinate clerk of the Consul. It was the duty
and the daily practice of the financial minister
to be in attendance, at a certain hour, in the
lobby of the haughty doctor, at once to give an
account of the transactions of the day, and to
take instructions for the morrow. The hour
of this accustomed interview was now occupied
by Francia in the opening up to me of day-
CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER. 289
dream projects, much more fraught with import-
ance to him than the routine account of a day's
receipt and expenditure of the treasury,, albeit,
on ordinary occasions, this was exacted, to the
last maravedi, with scrupulous and inquisitorial
severity.
" El Senor Tesorero aguarda" (Mr. Trea-
surer waits), said the sentinel. " Que aguarde"
(let him wait), replied the consul. Two hours
did the consul's harangue to me, and subsequent
explanations, occupy ; and when, at the close of
it, he saw me off, escorted by the grenadiers with
the tobacco and yerba-bales on their shoulders,
the treasurer was still pacing up and down the
corridor of the palace, and waiting, as he had
been ordered to do, his master's farther com-
mands. Upon seeing Francia come out, the
minister of finance went up to him, and most re-
spectfully taking off his hat, asked him if he were
that night to give in his accounts ? " Take him
to the guard-house," said the supercilious despot.
" Did I not tell the fellow (el bribdn) to wait ?
and now he must needs ask questions."
Off was the Chancellor of the Exchequer
marched to the guard-house, and there, on a
VOL. n. o
290 MY SECOND DEPARTURE.
bullock's raw hide, in company with the soldiers,
was he constrained to ruminate all night on
the danger of breaking in upon the consul's
associations, even for the purpose of rendering
an account of his stewardship.
Such was now the state of affairs; so singular,
so anomalous, that though myself the most fa-
voured and the least suspected individual in the
country, I was truly happy in the prospect of
escaping from under the jealous glance and ca-
pricious rule of a man, who was hatching cock-
atrice' eggs, from which was destined to spring
a Pandora's brood of grievances to desolate his
country, without the bequeathment even of hope
to alleviate the anguish of his terror-stricken and
paralysed vassals.
A fortnight after my interview with Francia, I
left the Republic for Buenos Ayres, thence to
make good my return to England. When I got
to the former place, however, I found that it was
not so to be ; and, even at the expense of relin-
quishing my diplomatic mission to the House of
Commons, I prepared to return to Paraguay itself.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
291
LETTER XLVIII.
To J G , ESQ.
(W. P. R. RESUMES.)
Assumption — Kindly Intercourse with the Inhabitants — A Mo-
narchy and a Republic — Development of Francia's Character
— His Birth and Education — Formation of his Character —
— Anecdotes of Francia — Summing up of his Character.
London, 1838.
MY brother has informed you that three months
after my arrival at Assumption, he took his de-
parture for Buenos Ay res.
I was now on a footing of greater or less inti-
macy with all the principal families and person-
ages of the city and its vicinity. I appeared to
be a welcome guest wherever I chose to visit. All
jealousies of our mercantile character and opera-
tions had disappeared ; and, indeed, so far from
any feeling of that kind showing itself, the kind-
hearted inhabitants, by innumerable little acts of
o2
292 INTERCOURSE WITH THE INHABITANTS.
personal attention and courtesy, showed an evi-
dent desire to render agreeable to me my resi-
dence in the country.
As I intended to remain for a few years at
Assumption, I sedulously cultivated, on my part,
a kind and frank intercourse with all, — old Spa-
niards as well as Paraguayans ; and by continu-
ing in my dealings the liberality which my bro-
ther had always kept up in his, I repaid, as far
as I could, the cordiality with which I was every-
where received.
There were two or three very agreeable families
in the place, and some really well informed men,
with whom I got something more intimate than
with the mass. At the same time, the political
surveillance which now every day penetrated more
and more into the very bosom of domestic life,
made it absolutely necessary that my intercourse
with those about me should be of a general and
open kind ; such as to leave no room for sus-
picion that I mixed myself up, in the remotest
way, with the fears and the jealousies, which were
already entertained in many quarters, of the now
all-powerful Doctor Francia.
This extraordinary man had been, from the very
A MONARCHY AND A REPUBLIC. 293
day of my arrival, the object of greatest interest to
me, even in a place so full of interest to a stranger
as was Paraguay. I had come straight from
England, where an ancient monarchy is firmly
established, to a country professing the purest
republicanism. But the moment I began to look
into Francia's government, many of my illusions
about South American liberty were dispelled.
He who ran might read, by the rule of Francia,
how empty and delusive a mere name might be.
In England we had monarchy, but happily based
on free institutions. In Paraguay they boasted
of a republican form of government, but the des-
potic will of one man ruled and enslaved the
community at large.
With this despotic chief I was suddenly brought
into terms of intimacy : my fortunes, to a certain
extent, were to be placed in his hands; and,
without compromising my own character, I was so
to guide and govern my conduct, as to maintain
the good will, if not to win the favour, of the all-
powerful consul.
I gradually fell into the same sort of intimacy
with him which he had extended to my brother.
It was a remarkable circumstance, that during
294 DEVELOPMENT OF FRANCIA's CHARACTER.
our whole stay at Assumption, we never could
perceive that he allowed the least approach to
familiarity on the part of any other respectable
individual. Indeed I am sure he had (at that
period) no intimacy but with ourselves. I never,
in all my intercourse with him, met at his house
a third party who was admitted to a seat, or to
join in our conversation. Any interruption to
our tete-a-tete was casual. The consul invited
nobody merely to visit him (as far as I could
learn) during my stay, except myself.
My own peculiar position, therefore, even more
than simple curiosity, led me to investigate Fran-
cia's character as closely as I could. His public
acts were before me ; but I wanted, as much as
possible, to get at the springs of action, — the
impulses, passions, or principles by which he was
guided, — a knowledge of which could alone en-
able me to form a just or correct estimate of the
man who, it became clearer to us, day by day,
was about to exercise whatever influence he
pleased over the destinies of every living soul in
Paraguay.
Francia's father, as alleged by himself, was a
Frenchman ; but generally believed to be a For-
FRANCIA'S BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 295
tuguese, who, having emigrated to Brazil, had
gone to the interior and ultimately settled in
the Misiones of Paraguay. Here he married a
creole, by whom he had a pretty large family.
Jose Gaspar was his first son, and was born
about the year 1/58.
Young Francia was originally intended for the
church, and he received the rudiments of his
education at one of the indifferent conventual
schools of Assumption. Thence he was sent to
the University of Cordova de Tucuman. Having
no taste however for theology, he turned, at
college, to jurisprudence, and took his degree of
Doctor in the faculty of law with great eclat.
Returning to Assumption, which he never
thenceforward left, he entered on his profession ;
and as an acute lawyer and eloquent advocate he
soon stood alone. His fearless integrity gained
him the respect of all parties. He never would
defend an unjust cause ; while he was ever ready
to take the part of the poor and the weak, against
the rich and the strong.
But his manners were generally, and especially
to his own countrymen, distant and haughty ;
his studies were incessant ; and general society
296 FORMATION OF FRANCES CHARACTER.
he shunned. He never married; his illicit in-
trigues were both low and heartless ; he had no
friends ; he looked with cold contempt on every
one around him ; and he thus gradually grew
into that austerity of habit and inflexibility of
character which so strongly marked his career in
after-life.
Francia was vindictive., cruel, and relentless.
These were the detestable but leading qualities
of his character. But he not only never forgave
an injury, real or supposed, — he gradually marked
out all those whom he believed, in his own mind,
to be secretly opposed to his tyranny, as his vic-
tims ; and whenever these were doomed in the
gloomy recesses of his jealous and suspicious
heart, their destruction, sooner or later, invariably
followed.
In saying this, I am anticipating the career of
Francia. As you have already been told, he
began to exercise his cruelty cautiously, step by
step ; imperceptibly almost, as regarded the de-
grees of increasing severity by which that cruelty
was marked. Up to the time of my leaving
Paraguay, although Francia had then been Dic-
tator for a whole year, he had not put one in-
dividual to death.
ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA. 297
But he was, as I have said, vindictive, cruel,
relentless, from the very commencement of his
career. Two or three anecdotes of the earlier
part of it will fully illustrate the truth of this
assertion.
Many years before Francia became a public
man, he quarrelled with his father, though I
believe the latter was in the wrong. They spoke
not, met not for years ; at length the father was
laid on his death-bed, and before rendering up
his great and final account, he earnestly desired
to be at peace with his son Jose Gaspar. This
was intimated to the latter, but he refused the
proffered reconciliation. The old man's illness
was increased by the obduracy of his son, and
indeed he showed a horror of quitting the world
without mutual forgiveness taking place. He
conceived his soul to be endangered by remain-
ing at enmity with his first-born. Again, a few
hours before he breathed his last, he got some of
Francia's relatives to go to him, and implore him
to receive the dying benediction of his father.
He refused : they told him his father believed
his soul could not reach heaven unless it de-
parted in peace with his son. Human nature
o3
298 ANECDOTES OF FRAUCIA.
shudders at the final answer which that son re-
turned : — " Then tell my father that I care not
if his soul descend to hell." The old man died
almost raving, and calling for his son Jose
Gaspar.
Soon after Francia became Dictator, as, on
his accustomed ride to the Quartel, or barrack
outside the town, he passed the door of an old
Spaniard, Don Jose Carisimo, his horse stumbled
slightly on crossing a gutter which was some-
what out of repair. The Dictator sent word to
Carisimo to have it put to rights ; but by some
accident the repair was not finished next after-
noon, when Francia again passed. The moment
he got to the barrack, he ordered Carisimo, who,
though not rich, was a very respectable old
gentleman, to be thrown into the common prison,
and put in heavy irons, from which he was told
he would be released when he paid a fine of
ten thousand dollars, or two thousand pounds !
Carisimo had not the money, and his family
hoped that ere long the Dictator, seeing the
offence was so trifling, would relent. They knew
not as yet the man. Old Carisimo was corpu-
lent, and the irons which he wore pressed into
ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA.
299
his flesh. The fact was reported to Francia.
"Then/' said he, "let him purchase larger ones
for himself:" and accordingly the wretched wife
of the prisoner was left to perform the sad office
of ordering her husband's fetters. The ten thou-
sand dollars were ultimately raised by Carisimo's
friends and paid to Francia, and the prisoner was
then set at liberty.
The owner of the house in which we lived,
Don Pascual Echagiie, was a native of Santa Fe,
but married to a Paraguayan lady of good family,
and settled in Assumption. A pasquin on the
Dictator was found one morning, stuck on the
wall of the house in which our landlord resided
with his family. To suppose that Echagiie him-
self had stuck it there was monstrous and ab-
surd. Yet that day he was thrown into prison
and into chains. His unhappy wife, after her
husband had languished in solitary confine-
ment for some months, contrived to get an in-
terview with the Dictator. She threw herself at
his feet. Her tears and her sobs choked her
utterance. "Woman," said the stern and im-
moveable tyrant, " what do you want here ?"
" Oh my husband ! my husband !" was all that
300 ANECDOTES OF FRANCIA.
the unhappy lady could articulate. Francia then
turned to his guard, — " Order," he said, " another
barra de grillos (heavy fetter) to be placed on
Echagiie, and an additional one every time that
this mad woman dares to approach me." The
wretched husband, like many other victims, died
in his prison, and in his chains.
Francia's word was a law more irrevocable
than were ever the laws of the Medes and the
Persians.
A shipwright of the name of Soloaga, a Buenos
Ayrean, was busily engaged in building a small
vessel for me. One evening, as I was examin-
ing the work going forward, an order from
the Dictator came to Soloaga to look out for
some half-dozen of planks, wanted for I don't
know what government job. "I can do it in the
morning," said Soloaga to me, for he was much
interested at the moment in showing me all the
fine points of the vessel. I recommended him to
fulfil the Dictator's order on the instant, but he
delayed.
Next morning early he was called up by the
Dictator, and asked if he had picked out the
wood wanted. Soloaga was just on his way, he
UP OF FRANCIA'S CHARACTER. 301
said, to do it. "Sir," said the Dictator impa-
tiently, "you are a useless member of society
here, for you do not serve the Patria. Leave it
therefore within twenty-four hours." The man
had been married and established in the country
for years, and was carrying on an extensive busi-
ness. " Sefior Excelentisimo," he began ; but
Francia stamped his foot, and sternly added,
"Leave the Republic within twenty-four hours,
and quit my presence this moment." Wife,
children, work, property, all were abandoned ;
and in twenty- four hours Soloaga was on his
way to Corrientes, never to return to Paraguay.
These domestic incidents will perhaps convey
to you, more distinctly than mere abstract de-
lineation could do, the cruel, callous, pitiless
nature of the man. His ambition was as un-
bounded as his cruelty. His natural talents
were of a higher class than those which had
been displayed by any one of his countrymen in
either a public or private capacity. His education
was the best which South America afforded ; and
he had much improved that education by his
own desire to increase his general attainments.
He possessed an exact knowledge of the cha-
302 SUMMING UP OF FRANCES CHARACTER.
racter of the people of Paraguay. He knew
them to be docile, simple, and ignorant, easily
guided to good or to evil, and without moral or
physical courage to resist oppression. He was
sagacious, astute, patient, and persevering. No
moral or religious principle was allowed to stand
between him and his plans : his end was absolute
imperious sway ; and in using his means for at-
taining it, he was prepared to view the commis-
sion of crime without fear, and to inflict every
suffering which human nature could endure with-
out pity and without remorse.
These were the elemental parts of the cha-
racter of the governor and of the governed ;
and by these have been upheld, for twenty-five
years, the extraordinary tyranny under which,
during all that time, Paraguay has groaned.
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
303
LETTER XLIX.
ToJ G , ESQ.
ELECTION OF FRANCIA TO THE DICTATORSHIP.
His Initiatory Measures — Anecdote of Yegros, the Second Con-
sul— Francia's Manoeuvres — Institution of his System of
Espionage — The Spy Orrego — Nature of my Interviews with
Francia — Tenor of his Conversation — His Deportment to his
Countrymen — His Habits — Assembling of Congress — Mem-
bers of it — The City Members — The County oiies — Meeting
of Congress — A Guard of Honour furnished — Francia elected
Dictator.
London, 1838.
DURING the last four months of the joint con-
sulate of Francia and Yegros, the latter took
absolutely no part in the government of the
country ; while the former not only engrossed
all the executive power, but was busily though
secretly engaged in his manoeuvres to carry into
effect, with every appearance of legality, what he
had already determined should at any rate take
place — his appointment to a Dictatorship of the
Republic.
304 ANECDOTE OF YEGROS.
Yegros, an illiterate Estanciero, although dig-
nified with the titles of Consul, and General of
the armies of the Republic, could in no possible
way cope with Francia; and he gradually and
quietly resigned himself to the obscurity into
which the First Consul was determined he should
sink.
I met Yegros once or twice at the Govern-
ment house before the conclusion of his consul-
ship ; but he then showed nothing save a timid
deference to Francia. The former really knew
as little about state affairs as the meanest of the
few government understrappers whom Francia
at this time employed. Of his general ig-
norance Yegros one day gave my brother and
myself, in the presence of Francia, an amusing
instance.
We had received letters from Buenos Ayres,
and were giving the Consuls the latest news
from Europe. We mentioned among other things
that the Emperor Alexander had joined the ge-
neral alliance against Napoleon, and that several
vessels loaded with arms and munitions of war
had been despatched from England to Russia.
" Malhaya ! " said Yegros, after considering a
FRANCTAS MANOEUVRES.
305
while, " Malhaya soplara un viento sur, largo
y recio, que traxese todos estos buques aguas
arriba !" " I wish to goodness a long and strong
south wind would blow, and force all these ves-
sels up the river !" Yegros fancied that if the
south wind blew long enough, it would force
every vessel bound for the Baltic up the Para-
guay, and into the port of Assumption.
" Just consider," said Francia, after his com-
panero, his companion, as he called him, was
gone, "if such an animal, such a fool as that be
capable of governing a republic."
Francia went on drilling, clothing, cajoling,
bribing, and augmenting his troops, particularly
his quarteleros. He observed the most rigid
economy in every department of the state ; and
he kept accumulating government treasure very
fast. He encouraged all the lower classes to
look to him for favour and employment, and he
sowed discord and jealousies among the better
portion of the community by every underhand
means to which he could have recourse.
He commenced a system of espionage which
he every day extended and ramified, and by
306 SYSTEM OF ESPIONAGE.
which at last he so distracted and alarmed every
family in Assumption, that the whole population
fell an easy prey to the terrors with which his
stealthy watchfulness of their movements in-
spired them.
I had, unknown to Francia, an opportunity
of observing- the manner in which he placed
spies upon the actions of those whom he either
feared or suspected, and who gradually became
the victims of his jealousy.
The principal reconocedor, or examiner of yerba
in Assumption, was a man of the name of Orrego,
who kept a pulperia, or public-house. He was
a joyous and good-natured looking little man,
not much more than five feet high, with a portly
body, a round and laughter-loving face, and a
look of easy indifference and simplicity which
would have made you believe him altogether
incapable of guile or deceit. He used to wear
a gaudy- coloured handkerchief about his head,
with a small coarse hat stuck on the top of it.
His calador, or long steel probe, sharp at the
end and hollow in the centre, with which he
pierced and drew out samples of yerba from the
THE SPY ORREGO.
307
serons, was always in his hand, and he went gos-
sipping about, in the prosecution of his business,
received by all, and suspected by none.
As we had more business to do than almost all
the other merchants put together, Orrego was
constantly employed by us, and very much de-
pendent upon us for an income.
This little man, I found, was one of Francia's
principal and most confidential spies. Seeing
the open favour shown to me by Francia, and
knowing that I would not betray him, he could
not help boasting to me of the secret intimacy
which he was permitted with the Consul. He
was "reconocedor del Gobierno," or Govern-
ment inspector of yerba, and this lulled any sus-
picion which might arise from his being fre-
quently seen with Francia.
Little Orrego, when his public-house was filled
with the lower orders, would hold forth in elo-
quent strains of Guarani, in praise of "Carai
Francia ;" and when going about the stores or
warehouses and shops of the better citizens, he
caught up all that was said of the Consul without
appearing to listen to a single word. While a
conversation was going on, I have seen the little
308 THE SPY ORREGO.
fellow astride over a bale of yerba, — striking
the hard substance under him with his calador, —
half whistling or humming a tune, in apparent
abstraction of all that was going forward, and yet
drinking in every word that was uttered around
him.
" But Orrego," said I one day, " I hope you
do not betray your friends." He fidgeted, and
looked uneasy. " Ah !" said he, " Carai Francia
is a hard man to deal with. I do my best to let
things go on as quietly as possible, but I dare
not deceive the Consul. He has many others
employed beside myself, and / do not know who
they are ; if through any of them I was detected
in a falsehood, or in anything like equivocation,
you know what would be the result to me."" I
knew indeed but too truly that the result would
be imprisonment and irons for life. Orrego was
a cunning though a good-hearted little man ;
and you will perceive what an admirable sort of
tool he was with which to work out dark ends
like those of the First Consul. Most of the spies
I believe were chosen with the same keen ob-
servation of character, more particularly as de-
veloped in Paraguay.
MY INTERVIEWS WITH FRANCIA.
309
When I was myself in company with Francia,
he seldom or never permitted me to see the dark
side of his character. Any business I had to
transact with him I always did by calling on him
in the early part of the day. My visits to him
in the evening were always of his seeking. Be-
fore the Dictatorship, the message invariably
delivered to me by an officer or one of his body-
guard was, " Suplica el Sefior Consul que se vaya
V. a casa del Gobierno," — " The Consul begs that
you will go to the Government House." And
after he became Dictator it was " Manda el Su-
premo que pase V. a verlo," — " The Supreme
orders that you go and see him."
He always received me with great urbanity,
in his small dark and dismal-looking room, situ-
ated at the extremity of a low, black corridor.
One tallow candle generally stood on a small
round one-legged table, at which not more than
three persons could be seated. This was the
dining-table of the absolute lord of that part of
the world. A mate and a cigar, handed by an
old and ill-dressed negress, or by a black man,
the only servants Francia had, were the refresh-
ments to which he invited me. I once sent him
310 INTERVIEWS WITH FRANCIA.
a dozen bottles of porter (more highly thought
of by me in Assumption than you would think of
a hogshead of Lafitte in England), and three
days afterwards, on paying a visit to his Excel-
lency, the first bottle which had been drawn, half
full, and without a cork, was brought in, and a
wine-glass was filled with Meux's "entire sour,"
'and presented to me. I told Francia that we
drank porter from tumblers, and that a bottle
once opened must at once be finished. Francia
smiled : " I thought," said he, it was rather sour
to-day at dinner; but come, we shall drink a
bottle in English style."
His dinner consisted generally of two common
dishes ; or of one, with a little caldo, or broth ;
and water was his beverage. One forenoon his
frugal meal was placed on the table before I had
taken my departure. I took up my hat. " I do
not ask you," said the Dictator with some con-
sideration for my comfort ; " I do not ask you
to ' hacer penitencia*,' for I know a good and sub-
stantial dinner, and plenty of wine every day are
indispensable to an Englishman."
* ' To do penance;' a general mode among Spaniards of asking
you to stay to dine, if you happen to be with them at their dinner-
hour.
FRANCIA'S CONVERSATION. 311
Francia's conversation was chiefly of a political
nature ; and he himself was the centre of per-
fection to which all his observations pointed. If
he touched on scientific or literary subjects, it
was still to boast of some acquirement of his own.
His vanity, under a thin skin of pretended indif-
ference to fame or applause, oozed out at every
word he pronounced. His own government, — his
own political sagacity, — his wisdom, — his ac-
quirements,— he constantly contrasted with those
of others, and as constantly to his own advan-
tage. Paraguay was a Utopia realized, and Fran-
cia was the Solon of modern days.
He spoke contemptuously of all Europe, with
the exception of England. Paraguay and Eng-
land— England and Paraguay ; — these were the
enlightened countries which he wished to see
united, like the Siamese twins, firmly and irrevo-
cably in one.
He could not bear to hear of the celebrity,
glory, or renown, of any South American but
himself. General San Martin, the great and
honest champion of South American independ-
ence, and General Alvear, at that time the sue-
312 FRANCIA'S CONVERSATION.
cessful and energetic leader of the fortunes of
Buenos Ay res, he hated with a deadly hate. It
was when speaking of them, alone, that I used
to see all the malignity of Francia's character.
He always began his discourses about these his
celebrated contemporaries with affected and bit-
ter contempt; but he invariably ended with vio-
lent and passionate declamation.
When not on the subject of South America,
Francia's manner was pleasing, and often jocose.
He no doubt felt it to be a relief to have one
who could place himself on a footing of equality
with him — one who was not afraid of him. Every
other living soul in Assumption was. Sometimes,
while conversing with me, his guard would an-
nounce visitors ; they were often sent away,
sometimes admitted. In this latter case, Francia
assumed a cold and stern inflexibility of feature.
He stood erect. The crouching applicant came
to the door. " What do you want ?" Francia
would abruptly and harshly say. The want was
expressed with tremour, or with profound rever-
ence. " Bien — retirese," — " Very well — retire."
The self-constituted intruder would retire accord-
FRANCIA'S DEPORTMENT AND HABITS. 313
ingly, too happy to escape from the presence of
the haughty Consul; and then the latter would
turn to me and resume his discourse *.
Francia could seldom keep to his chair while
he was talking. He would walk up and down
the room with his cigar, or stop in front of me
as I sat. and in this way lay down his propo-
sitions or urge his arguments.
Before he became Dictator he had commenced
a custom, which he thenceforward regularly
kept up, of riding from the Government House
to the Barracks, outside of the town. As if he
would not be an exception to the character which
he gave his countrymen, of having defective
necks, he always rode with his head bowed down
to his breast. He was attended by a few of his
Quarteleros, but he rode in gloomy silence, and
seldom returned the salutation of those he met.
He came back at sunset in the same taciturn way.
I have thought these slight details of Francia's
* Francia used to be much annoyed at the abject fear in which
his coun'r^men stood of him, but which he himself had produced.
He used to say, — I do not know whether the saying was borrowed
or original, — " that he thought every Paraguayan wanted a bone
in the back of his neck, fur he never knew one who could hold
up his head."
VOL. II. P
314 ASSEMBLING OF CONGRESS.
habits at the time I became acquainted with him,
might amuse you, and serve also as a starting-
point from which his dark and despotic career
during his dictatorship might be traced.
As the joint Consulship expired in October,
1814, Francia took measures for calling together
a new Congress about that time. The Yegros
and Cavallero party were already much dispi-
rited ; and the unceasing energy with which
Francia and his myrmidons had been preparing
to give the coup de grace to Paraguay liberty
left them with little or no doubt of his unqualified
success.
Francia proposed, — and as a necessary con-
sequence it was resolved, — that the new Congress
should consist of the monstrous and really laugh-
able number of one thousand deputies. It was
decimating the country of its heads of families,
to bring that number of members of Parliament
to fulfil their legislative duties in the metropolis :
but Francia s fiat had gone forth, and the thing
was to be done.
In September the motley multitude began to
give increased activity to the streets of Assump-
tion. As might have been expected, more than
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 315
one half of the knights of the shire and bur-
gesses of the smaller towns, could neither read
nor write — wore neither stockings nor shoes.
Every one had a horse, but every one had not a
coat, much less a court-suit,, in which to attend
the levee of the-at-present condescending Consul.
A jacket of white dimity, very short, and exces-
sively tight ; a bespangled waistcoat, still shorter
than the jacket; knee-breeches of crimson velvet-
een, with highly embroidered drawers hanging
down to the ankle ; a blue silk sash, such as you
see worn by itinerant voltigeurs ; potro-boots
open at the toes ; large silver spurs on the heels ;
a very small coarse hat half covering the head ;
and an immense queue of plaited black hair
hanging down the back ; — such was the singular
costume of many of the gentlemen of the House
of Commons which Francia had summoned for
the august purpose of creating a Dictatorship.
I do not think there were twenty Paraguayans
(and not one out of Assumption) who knew what
a Dictator meant. President, Consul, Director,
Protector, and Dictator, were with them synony-
mous terms with the old-fashioned name of Go-
vernor, as constituted by Old Spain.
p2
316 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.
The city of Assumption, if I mistake not, was
to return some sixty or eighty members to repre-
sent its complicated interests in the millenary
assemblage of legislators.
There was one bitter, irreconcilable enemy
of Francia with whom I was intimate. He had
been my fellow-traveller in the Carmen from
Santa Fe ; and he and his family (they were my
next-door neighbours) had been more than com-
monly kind to me. His name was Manuel
Domecque.
He came into my house one morning when I
knew the nominations to the great Congress were
in process of issue. No popular election took
place : the Government made out the lists, and
these were adopted, as a matter of course, by
the municipal and other local authorities.
Domecque was full of indignation, not un-
mixed with alarm. " What do you think," said
he, " this picaro, this villain Francia has done ?
He has named me a member of his Congress ;
and not only me, but all those whom he considers
his greatest enemies in Assumption ! What are
we to do ?"
I advised him, for I felt alarmed for his safety,
THE CITY MEMBERS. 317
to accept the nomination, and to vote for Francia.
Poor Domecque saw as well as I did, the neces-
sity of adopting my advice. Francia named his
enemies because he knew he had a majority with-
out them, or in spite of them. If they voted for
the Dictatorship he would always turn round and
tell them that they had seen the propriety of
investing some one with absolute power; that
that absolute power they had placed in his hands ;
and that it was for him exclusively to determine
how it ought to be used. If they voted against
him, and he gained the day, they were all lost
men. Sooner or later, Francia would destroy
every one of them.
The Consul's influence and sway in the country
districts was unbounded ; hence his desire to
swamp the votes of Assumption, and one or two
other towns, in those of the numerous representa-
tives of the rural districts.
Another reason for his calling together such
an overwhelming mob of senators was, that three-
fourths of them were poor men, having families
depending on them for their daily bread. Such
men could not afford to spend their time in cities,
even with the magnanimous purpose of serving
318 THE COUNTY MEMBERS.
the patria. Charity, very literally with them,
began at home; and therefore, they might all
be emphatically termed anti-protracted-sessions-
members. This was what Francia desired. He
wanted his work done effectually, but quickly.
Of the thousand Legislators of Paraguay,
about six or seven hundred were collected toge-
ther, driven into town by the comandantes, — as
Pat drives his pigs along the road — unwilling
and grumbling travellers.
Many were the droll scenes which I witnessed
with these representatives. Our name was now
well known in Paraguay, our intimacy with Carai
Francia had been bruited abroad ; so I had nu-
merous visits from honourable members as they
poured into the city. Most of them, instead of
discussing politics with me, began by asking how
they could dispose of yerba or tobacco ; all of
these primitive legislators having brought a small
quantity of one or other, or both of these pro-
ductions to pay their expenses in town. They
had, happily, no electioneering bills to pay. In
the pure and incorruptible republic of Paraguay
we had no East Retford questions to puzzle us ;
no Gattons nor Old Sarums to disfranchise.
MEETING OF CONGRESS.
319
Schedule A's and Schedule B's were things un-
heard of in the land of the Jesuits; and the
only question which disturbed the duly chosen
representatives of the great body of the people
of Paraguay was, how they could get a fail-
price for the calculated hundred dollars' worth
of tobacco which they had brought to enable
them to subsist till they were allowed to return
to their respective counties and paternal estates.
It was found necessary to convoke the Con-
gress in the church of San Francisco, no other
building being capacious enough to contain the
august assemblage.
All matters of form, election, and etiquette,
were settled at two preliminary meetings ; and
on the 3rd of October the Parliamentary busi-
ness commenced. The proceedings were opened
by Mr. Speaker about nine o'clock in the morn-
ing; and notwithstanding all the precautions
which Francia had taken, some awkward inquiries
began to be made about the propriety of a Dic-
tatorship. The services and abilities of Francia
were spoken of in the highest terms ; indeed, he
was loaded with the most extravagant and hyper-
bolical praises ; but it was doubted whether a
320 A GUARD OF HONOUR FURNISHED.
Dictatorship would conduce so much to his glory
as a more limited power, assisted by a national
Congress. Hereupon debates commenced, and
heats ensued.
I went up myself to the church about twelve
o'clock. The doors were shut, but great con-
fusion seemed to prevail within. At last, one of
the dimity-jacketed members came out wiping
his forehead, and seeming to have suffered much,
either from the heat of the church or of the
debate.
" How go things within, my friend ?" said I
to the representative.
" Why," replied the honest member, " to tell
you the truth, these are matters which I do not
pretend at all to understand ; but if I may judge
from the noise (los gritos) — todo va bien — all
goes well."
About two o'clock, as the members of Con-
gress were still in warm debate, Francia got im-
patient, and very politely sent a numerous guard
of honour to wait on the members. The troop
was well armed, and quite surrounded the church.
The hint was sufficient even for the clod-pated
deputies in dimity jackets ; besides, the dinner-
CONGRESS DISSOLVED.
321
hour was past, and hunger, as well as the mous-
taches of the Quarteleros hastened a decision.
At this juncture one of the most energetic of
Francia's partisans rose, and in a stentorian voice
called silence. " Gentlemen," said he, " why
should we waste our time here ? The Carai
(Lord) Francia wishes to be absolute. He ought
to be absolute ; and I say" (here he struck the
table at which he stood with his whole force),
" he SHALL be absolute ! "
The question was forthwith put to the vote,
and without one dissentient voice, Francia was
invested with the Dictatorship for three years.
The Congress dissolved itself instanter; the
Quarteleros marched to the Government House
with flying colours ; and Francia heard, with
the malignant sneer of a devil on his face, that
Paraguay was all his own.
The insensate populace celebrated, with mirth
and music, and festive meetings that night, the
decision of the Congress. Alas ! the low sobs
and moanings of those who were destined soon
to be bereaved widows and wretched orphans —
the heavy sighs of the prisoners, and the groans
p 3
322 FRANCIA ELECTED DICTATOR.
of those whose blood was ere long to irrigate
the streets of Assumption — ought alone to have
announced that Francia was DICTATOR OF PA-
RAGUAY !
Yours, &c.
W. P. R.
323
LETTER L.
To OUR READERS.
IT often happens in regard to a book, as it does
in regard to a fox-chase.
You shall see, in the latter case, a splendid
company take the field in high spirits, as they
anticipate an excellent day's sport. Renard
breaks cover, and off he runs at a gallant pace.
The huntsman sounds his horn ; the hills and
valleys re-echo the music of the hounds; the
field of sportsmen clear the fences, and take, at
flying leaps, the brooks and the gates. At
first in close array, they make a goodly show
of courage and perseverance. But there are
ploughed fields to traverse ; long detours to
make ; now a hunter gets short of breath; anon,
his rider ; the pace is too hard for some, too
slow for others ; the dogs are frequently at fault ;
the drizzle becomes a rain, or the light sleet
324 TO OUR READERS.
ends in heavy snow ; many are already far from
their homes ; and many, engaged at a distance
to dinner, cannot longer tarry. From one cause
or other, one after another leaves the field ; and
it is only perhaps half-a-dozen of the more per-
severing that, undeterred at once by tedium and
fatigue, are fairly " in at the death."
Just so it is with a book and its readers.
Having gathered around him a goodly list of
subscribers (and few take the field with a more
select yet numerous company than ourselves),
your author's production at length breaks cover.
The newspapers, with trumpet-tongue, proclaim
that the sport has commenced, and off in pursuit
of it starts the whole of the company. But
sometimes the author, like the fox, runs too fast,
at others too slow, and anon his readers are " at
fault." There are rough passages through which
they find it heavy work to travel ; detours that
they have not patience to make. Some stop at
one place, and some at another. One by one,
they drop off. The dinner-party recalls many ;
the length or the dreariness of the way many
more ; till at length, of five hundred readers who
started at first, perhaps not a dozen are " in
TO OUR READERS.
325
at the death ;" that is, reach the end of the
book.
It is obviously the select and patient number
alone who have come thus far, that we can expect
to know how much we thank them for their cour-
tesy ; for though we address ourselves gratefully
to all, including those who have accompanied us
but a short part of the way, as well as those who
have been content through the medium of "skip,"
to fall in with us only at certain points of the
country ; yet we cannot know that such expres-
sion of our acknowledgments will meet the eye
of these latter classes.
Dropping simile, however, — to all our readers
who do see this our parting address, we desire
to unfold the following '* plain, unvarnished
tale."
When first we sat down to edit anew these
letters, our chief difficulty lay in the selection
from those in our possession, of the matter to
which we would give a place in our book.
After as careful a scrutiny and estimate as we
could make, we thought we should be able, in
this our first series, to bring down the life of the
Dictator Francia to the present time. In this
326 TO OUR READERS.
anticipation we have been disappointed. We
could only have realized it by a curtailment,
after we had gone to press, of much matter
and of many incidents which we thought essen-
tial, as well to the continuity of our story, as to
the unity of plan upon which we set out. Should
the fiat of the public not go forth against it, this
plan is, to publish in succession, collections and
extracts from the many letters and documents in
our possession, connected with various sections
of America and its inhabitants.
In these two volumes, or first series of letters,
we have been unable to proceed beyond the elec-
tion of Francia to the Dictatorship of Paraguay.
But it is our intention, in one forth-coming
volume, to be entitled Second Series, and bound
uniformly with this, to trace the career and finish
the history of that cruel tyrant and bad man.
The volume in question will contain, in like
manner, reference to scenes, adventures, and per-
sons, which want of space has excluded from the
series now published.
If it should appear to some of our subscribers
that more delay has taken place than they were
led to expect in the publication of these •' Letters
TO OUR READERS. 327
on Paraguay," they will perhaps admit as an
apology in extenuation of the involuntary fault,
the following simple and authentic story.
On one of those desperate nights of January
last, when every inanimate substance in nature
was congealed ; when the roads were covered
with snow, and the footpaths overlaid with slides,
one of the authors of these " Letters on Para-
guay " was travelling in that conveyance for all,
an omnibus, from London to Kensington. He
had his manuscript under his arm, having got it,
after perusal, from the publisher. He got down
from the omnibus ; but in getting upon the foot-
path, he placed his foot on a slide, and came
down upon the ice. He was stunned for a mo-
ment by the severity of the blow, and so acute,
when he got up, was his pain, that he limped
away from the scene of his calamity, without even
a thought about the MS. Unconsciously to him,
it had slipped, when he fell, from under his arm.
Scarcely, however, had he proceeded many mi-
nutes on his way, when up to his bewildered
conviction arose the fact that he had lost his
manuscript. Back he went to the ill-fated spot
where he had fallen : search was made in vain ;
328 TO OUR READERS.
the MS. was gone. Next morning, handbills
and newspapers proclaimed the loss, and offered
the necessary reward ; but never again did we
set our eyes upon our lost sheets.
Some of our friends were facetious on the ca-
tastrophe. One said the MS. had only gone to the
trunk-maker a little before its time ; another, that
it must have found its way to Mr. Tegg at last ;
while a third, more considerate, said he thought
the loss a gain, as we should thus be saved the
expense, as well as the mortification, of publish-
ing a book that might never be read.
Now, although we recollected that of the MS.
of Cyd Hamet Benengeli, the first part was found
by Cervantes as an envelop to a pound of
butter, and that the remainder he purchased
from the grocer at the cost of a few maravedis ;
yet unable to flatter ourselves that the merit of
our lost MS., even should it be now in the gro-
cer's shop, would ever stimulate a Cervantes to
edit it, we have been ourselves constrained, from
the same original documents, to compile anew
the seven hundred long pages which were irre-
trievably lost on a winter's night.
THE AUTHORS.
TO OUR READERS.
329
SINCE writing this work, a report has reached
Europe of the death of Doctor Francia. We
believe he had entered his eightieth or eighty-
first year. Should the report be confirmed, we
hope to be enabled to give, in our second series,
some authentic particulars of the close of that
singular man's life.
6th August.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
331
2 : :s
r-i -• m
.-I a» to
;^;-Ha»<5»Sacro-H
) »n>o>cn>r...»o>i-.cO(»o
r-T — T f-T r-T n — " co*
52,2
51
Tji^c
o as «
n
oo— < c; — — — «
r-oo co r-»Ci t^-* >
155 aj
•§£
i g-s
l-l
u:i:ii.|j«
332 APPENDIX.
The following is a translated specimen of the epistolary
style of Pai Montiel, the hospitable curate. The
originals of this and of one of the subsequent letters
are annexed. It is not easy to do justice to them in a
translation.*
4- t
San Lorenzo.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
THE great designs of Providence, and his paternal love in
distributing equal rights to his creatures, are abundantly
manifest in his dealings with us in our native home.
We, the South Americans, had long experienced, by
his divine will, a most wretched lot; but, at length,
through his inscrutable mercy, he has unveiled to us the
glory of our imprescriptible, inalienable rights. In spite
of the power of so many enemies, who have cruelly con-
spired to extinguish them, our constancy and confidence,
as we have reposed in the arms of his providence, have
been crowned with the highest proof of his holy love, in
the great achievement of the capture of Montevideo,
the arsenal of military stores, and golden key of our
Americas.
* The hyperbolical and inflated compliments which pervade
some of these letters must be attributed to the heated imagina-
tion of the writers, and to the flowery style in which they endea-
vour to give it expression. It is not because they are addressed
to this or to the other individual ; all to whom they write come
in for a like share of overwhelming panegyric.
f The Spaniards generally commence their letters with a cross.
APPENDIX. 333
God be praised, and all those who have contributed
to so interesting a result !
Praised especially be they who directed the naval
operations ; to whom, being as they were, English
Europeans and English Americans, I desire, as repre-
sented by your person, to offer up my heart full of ju-
bilee and full of gratitude, for which no mortal tongue can
find adequate terms of expression. How can language
portray my feelings on occasion of this prodigious achieve-
ment, of which I have this moment received the news !
Long live the Consul Francia ! Long live the republic
of Paraguay ! Long live Buenos Ayres ! Lnng live all
European and American English gentlemen ! Long live
Admiral Brown ! Long live the smack that brought the
glorious news. Long live Don Andres Gomez ! Long
live the Englishman that overtook the smack with the
account ! Long live Don Juan and Don Guillermo !
Long live Pat Montiel, to rejoice by the side of Don
Juan Robertson, his friend ! Finally — Long live all de-
cided Americans ; and perish all European Spaniards,
with all their adherents ! Long, a thousand times long,
live Pai Montiel, to quaff half a dozen goblets of
Bacchus in the banquet-room of his friend Don Juan
Robertson. Hip — hip — hip — hurra !
Your friend,
PA} MONTIEL.
P. S. — To the simplicity of the South Americans, it
seems more polite, because indicative of more fami-
liarity, to write upon paper of which the edges are not
cut, than on that of which they are.
334 APPENDIX.
Original of the preceding Letter.
San Lorenzo.
ESTIMADO AMIGO,
LA grande obra de la Providencia ofrece en nuestros
hogares la prueba mas evidente de su amor paternal en
distribuir los derechos de igual suerte a sus criaturas.
Nosotros los Americanos del Sur, quienes experi-
mentavamos, a su Divina presencia, la suerte mas des-
graciada, hoy por sus altas misericordias nos descubre
las glorias de nuestros derechos imprescriptibles, y a
pesar del poder de tantos enemigos que conspiraban
cruelmente ahogar nuestros derechos, nuestra constancia
con la confianza en los brazos de su providencia nos
han sellado con las expresiones de su alto carino en la
grande empresa con Montevideo, plaza depositaria y
Llave de oro de nuestros Americas.
Dios sea alabado, y todos los que han contribuido a
este efecto tan interesante, especialmente los que hacian
fuerzas navales, por lo que siendo como eran Yngleses
Europeos e Yngleses Americanos, a ellos en la persona
de vmd., se dirige mi corazon lleno de jubilo, lleno de
reconocimiento, que no cabe en lenguage expresion de
tan to prodigio, por una nueva tal como esta, que en este
instante me aseguran.
Viva el Consul Francia ! Viva la republica ! Viva
Buenos Ayres ! Vivan los caballeros Yngleses Europeos
y Americanos ! Viva el Comandante Bru ! Viva la
balandra que condujo tal noticia! Viva Don Andres
APPENDIX. 335
Gomez ! Viva el Yngles que dio alcanze a la balandra
eon esta noticia ! Vivan Don Juan y Don Guillermo !
Viva Pai Montiel para regocijarse al lado de su amigo
Don Juan Robertson ! Vivan — por conclusion — todos
los Americanos decididos y mueran los Europeos Es-
panoles con todos sus seqiiaces. Viva mil veces Pai
Montiel para sorberse media docena de copos de Baco
en la sala de su amigo Don Juan Robertson ! Viva !
Viva! Viva !
Su Amigo,
PAI MONTIEL.
P. 0. — La sencillez de los Americanos del Sud gua-
dua por mejor politica expresarse en papel sin cortar.
Vale.
SPECIMEN NO. 1 OF THE EPISTOLARY STYLE OF THE
COMMANDANT LOPEZ, OF NEEMBUCU, OR THE VILLA
DEL FILAR, A FRONTIER TOWN IN PARAGUAY.
MY MOST DELECTABLE FRIEND,
YESTERDAY Don Augustine David presented tome your
introductory letter ; and T instantly complied with your
directions by giving him a recommendation to a person
who, in consequence of our reciprocal friendship, I feel
assured will serve him with zeal and efficacy.
Do not hesitate, nor let the remotest delicacy inter-
vene, to occupy me incessantly as far as my inutility
326 APPENDIX.
can stretch to serve you. You have long known that I
esteem you for your excellent conduct and noble senti-
ments. How shall I thank you for the supply afforded
to my son, and for your having even offered him more ?
This has sealed anew upon my heart impressions of the
most lively gratitude; and, together with the remem-
brance of the favours and services with which you have
already overwhelmed me, makes me feel that if I did
not testify my acknowledgments of them, as far as lies
in my feeble power, you might justly hold me in the
predicament of ingrate.
Dispose, on every occasion, according to your own
good pleasure, of the sincere and refined attachment
which, with bowels of affection, is dedicated to you by
your invariable friend, faithful patriot, and assured ser-
vant, who kisses your hands.
JOSE JOAQUIM LOPEZ.
SPECIMEN NO. 2 OF THE COMMANDANT'S STYLE.
*
Villa del Pilar (Neembucu).
MY MOST DELECTABLE FRIEND AND DEAR SlR,
I AM apprised of the whole contents of your esteemed
letter of the 13th instant; and, while I am sensibly
affected, on the one hand, by the account of your indis-
position, from which, by Divine assistance, you have no
doubt recovered, I have, on the other, experienced the
greatest delight on hearing of the happy arrival of Don
APPENDIX. 337
Guillermo, under circumstances which must indis-
putably be productive of all the glory typified by an
exalted friendship, based upon sweetest brotherhood
and harmony.
I know not how to express my gratitude for the im-
mense benefit you have conferred upon me, and great
zeal you have shown in the management of my law-
plea. It is notorious to me that you have placed it in
the hands of a great, a learned, and a polished man ; for
I have been overwhelmed with delight on perusal of his
representation, setting forth the solid reasons upon which
my legal claim is based.
I am beholden to you beyond measure for the advance
of the fifty dollars which you have made to my agent ;
and I pray you now, and for ever, to consider me not
among the fortunate number of your friends, but of your
loyal slaves.
I have no news to communicate beyond those of which
you are already aware; and it only remains for me to
inform you that I have had the honour of receiving under
my protection the Cavallero Don Estevan Maria Peri-
chon, with a brother-in-law of his, whose brother, Don
Cayetano Martinez, was assassinated while a prisoner in
the barracks of Corrientes. These relatives of his have
taken refuge here, fearful of experiencing a similar fate
at the hands of the troop of militia under the command
of Aguiar (an Artigueno) .
Place me at the disposal of Don Guillermo ; and I
pray that neither you nor he will keep me idle here ; for
my desire is every moment to be occupied in your ser-
VOL. II. Q
338 APPENDIX.
vice, being, as I am, your loyal and invariable friend,
who kisses your hands.
JOSE JOAQUIN LOPEZ.
Original of the preceding Letter.
*
Villa del Pilar (Neembucu).
Ml DILECTISIMO AMIGO Y SfiNOR,
Quedo impuesto de todo el contenido de su apreciada
de 13 del corrte. y al paso de serme sensible el accidente
de en ermedad suya, de que mediante los Divinos auxi-
lios habra ya recuperado la salud ; por otra parte se me
imprimio un gran goze con la noticia de la feliz llegada
de Don Guillermo, en circumstancias de que indispensa-
blemente se hallaran en las glorias que representa la
fina amistad de una dulce armonia, y fraternidad.
No se como explicar mi gratitud por el beneficio
grandioso, y mucho esmero que ha hecho para conmigo
en el litis, cuya secuela me es notorio puso a manos de
un gran hombre docto y fino ; pues me he* engolfado
en la lectura de la copia del escrito con las solidas razones
que patentisan el derecho.
Agradesco en suma el suplemento de los cincuenta
pesos dados al apoderado, y por ahora, ya puede vmd,
y para siempre, contarme, no entre el numero dichoso
de sus amigos sino de sus leales esclavos. Por ahora
no corren noticias algunas que las de que7 fiie* vmd.
participe; y solo me resta decirle que tengo el honor
APPENDIX. 339
haya venido a tomar mi proteccion el Cavallero Don
Estevan Maria Perichon, con un cunado suyo, cuyo
hermano llamadose Don Cayetano Martinez, fue ase-
sinado, estando en el quartel preso. Han venido estos
temerosos de que procedan tambien con ellos los mili-
cianos, cuyo Gefe es Aguiar.
Pongame vmd. a la disposicion de Don Guillermo ;
quien, y vmd. no me tengan aca osioso, pues desea
momentaneamente servirles su leal e invariable amigo,
Q. S. M. B.
JOSE JOAQUIN LOPEZ.
SPECIMEN OP THE EPISTOLATORY STYLE OF THE COM-
MANDANT'S SECRETARY.
Villa del Filar (Neembucu).
My ESTEEMED FRIEND AND DEAR SlR,
With the greatest complacency and joy I lifted my
eyes upon your esteemed letter of the 31st of last month,
addressed to his Honour the Commandant, in whose
absence, and in consequence of the confidence reposed
by him in me, I opened your communication. The
result is very fortunate, for the vessel arrived the day
before, and I delivered your packet and letters to the
supercargo, Don Hilarion Martinez, and took his receipt
for both. This I immediately dispatched to the fron-
tier, where his Honour the Commandant now is, in
Q2
340 APPENDIX.
order that he may take the earliest opportunity of satis-
fying you by the transmission of it, in testimony of the
reciprocal friendship you enjoy.
The moments on which my heart loves to expatiate
are those when, from an impulse of prudence, or effect
of generosity, in spite of my ignorance, arising from
want of literal* studies, men do me the inconceivable
honour of committing to my charge commissions in
which they feel an interest : consequently, with active
energy does my spirit propend to fulfil their precepts,
especially when enjoined by a personage whose conduct,
like yours, invariably noble and enlightened, is testified
by the various credentials, over which, with rejoicing,
I have so often pondered.
With this exordium of my highest regard, do you,
with all confidence, and from whatever distance, make
use of the absolute inutility, but immeasurable good -will,
which are cordially offered to you by a faithful patriot,
and unalterable friend, who kisses your hands.
MANUEL MATIAS ARAUJO.
Shortly after the abrupt dismissal, by the government
of Paraguay, of the envoy from Buenos Ayres, Don
Nicolas de Herrera (as mentioned in vol. ii. p. 28), th
latter state, as an act of retribution, at once, for her
envoy's treatment and her rejected proposals of alliance,
* He means « literary."
APPENDIX.
341
levied very heavy duties on all the produce of Paraguay.
To every remonstrance against this measure a deaf ear
was lent by Buenos Ayres; and, having written myself
on the subject to my friend Mr. Herrera, then principal
Secretary of State at that place, I received from him a
letter, of which the following is a translation : —
'* The new duty, I admit, is heavy ; but, believe me,
circumstances imperiously demand it. If the Paraguay
Congress of the 1st of October had better understood its
own interest, it would have avoided the imposition of
so heavy a tax. But every one knows best his own
affairs.
" There was once in Buenos Ayres (let me give you
a little anecdote), a captain Banfi, a man celebrated for
wit and drollery. He occupied the first floor of a house,
of which the rooms on the ground one were tenanted by
a wealthy shoemaker, who had a splendid shop.
*' Banfi observed that the journeymen, in order to vex
and disturb him at siesta time, sang aloud, and made
the devil's own noise with their hammers. Tired of this
nuisance, the captain went down stairs one day during
the siesta hour, and with the greatest politeness begged
of the master and journeymen shoemakers to do him the
favour not to be so very zealous in the prosecution of
their work and amusement at a time when people gene-
rally wanted to sleep. But the shoemakers replied,
' That every one was at liberty to do what he pleased
in his own house.'
" Banfi said not a word ; but, on the following day,
he ordered a huge caldron of boiling-water, and at
342 APPENDIX.
siesta time began copiously to irrigate the floor of his
chamber. The water penetrated through the crevices of
the floor, and falling upon the heads of the noisy shoe-
makers, scalded some and drenched others; so that,
rushing out into the street, they began, with shouts and
yells, to remonstrate against the outrage, and they
threatened to have the Captain up before the governor.
Banfi, who was waiting the result in his balcony, replied
to them, with provoking composure, Well, my friends,
do so ; and I will answer the governor's rebuke by say-
ing, ' That every one is at liberty to do what he pleases
in his own house. ' "
(Signed) NICOLAS DE HERRERA.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
Stamford Street.
BINDING LIST SEP 15 1945
V
- — II
University of Toronto
Library
DO NOT
REMOVE
THE
CARD
FROM
THIS
POCKET
Acme Library Card Pocket
LOWE-MARTIN CO. LiMITBD
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11