A Vanished Arcadia: Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607-1767Cunninghame Graham, R. B. (Robert Bontine)
History
A Vanished Arcadia: Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607-1767
Cunninghame Graham, R. B. (Robert Bontine)
Jesuits -- Paraguay; Paraguay -- History -- To 1811
demand of Spanish governors against the Chaco Indians, the Payaguás,
and even against the distant Calchaquis, in what is now the province of
Jujuy. Even when an English pirate, called in the Spanish histories
Roque Barloque (explained by some to be plain Richard Barlow), appeared
off Buenos Ayres, the undaunted neophytes shrank not a moment from
going to the assistance of their co-religionists against the ‘Lutheran
dog’.[193] Lastly, all Spanish governors and writers, both
contemporaneous and at the end of the eighteenth century, seem to
forget that if the Jesuits had an army of neophytes within their
territory the fact was known and approved of at the court of
Spain.[194] But it appears that Calvin had many coadjutors in his
policy of ‘Jesuitas aut necandi aut calumniis opponendi sunt.’[195]
When a Jesuit army took the field, driving before it sufficient cattle
to subsist upon, and with its _caballada_ of spare horses upon its
flank, it must have resembled many a Gaucho army I have seen in Entre
Rios five-and-twenty years ago. The only difference seems to have been
that the Gauchos of yesterday did not use bows and arrows, although
they might have done so with as much benefit to themselves, and no more
danger to their enemies, than was occasioned by the rusty,
ill-conditioned guns they used to bear. The Indians were armed with
bows, and in their expeditions each Indian carried one hundred and
fifty arrows tipped with iron. Others had firearms, but all bore bolas
on their saddles, and carried lazos and long lances,[196] which, like
the Pampa Indians, they used in mounting their horses, placing one hand
upon the mane, and vaulting into the saddles with the other leaning on
the lance. The infantry were armed with lances and a few guns; they
also carried bolas, but they trusted most to slings, for which they
carried bags of hide, with a provision of smooth round stones, and used
them dexterously. On several occasions their rude militia gave proofs
of stubborn valour, and, as they fought under the Jesuits’ eyes, no
doubt acquitted themselves as men would who looked upon their priests
almost in the light of gods. But agriculture and cattle-breeding were
not all the resources of the missions; for the Jesuits engaged in
commerce largely, both with the outer world and by the intricate and
curious barter system which they had set on foot for the mutual
convenience of the different mission towns. In many of the inventories
printed by Brabo, one comes across the entry ‘Deudas’, showing a sort
of account current between the towns for various articles. Thus, they
exchanged cattle for cotton, sugar for rice, wheat for pig-iron or
tools from Europe; as no account of interest ever appears in any
inventory as between town and town, it seems the Jesuits anticipated
Socialism—at least, so far as that they bought and sold for use, and
not for gain. Although between the towns of their own territory all was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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