Description of the mission territory and towns founded by the Jesuits—Their endeavours to attract the Indians—Religious feasts and processions—Agricultural and commercial organizations Chapter VII Causes of the Jesuits’ unpopularity—Description of the lives and habits of the priests—Testimony in favour of the missions—Their opposition to slavery—Their system of administration Chapter VIII Don José de Antequera—Appoints himself Governor of Asuncion—Unsettled state of affairs in the town—He is commanded to relinquish his illegal power—He refuses, and resorts to arms—After some success he is defeated and condemned to be executed—He is shot on his way to the scaffold—Renewed hatred against the Jesuits—Their labours among the Indians of the Chaco Chapter IX The Spanish and Portuguese attempt to force new laws on the Indians—The Indians revolt against them—The hopeless struggle goes on for eight years—Ruin of the missions Chapter X Position of the Jesuits in 1761—Decree for their expulsion sent from Spain—Bucareli sent to suppress the colleges and drive out the Jesuits—They submit without resistance—After two hundred years they are expelled from Paraguay—The country under the new rule—The system of government practically unchanged Chapter XI Conclusion A Vanished Arcadia Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607 to 1767 Chapter I Early history—State of the country—Indian races—Characteristics of the different tribes—Dobrizhoffer’s book—Various expeditions—Sebastian Cabot—Don Pedro de Mendoza—Alvar Nuñez—His expedition and its results—Other leaders and preachers—Founding of the first mission of the Society of Jesus With the exception of the French Revolution, perhaps no event caused so much general controversy at the end of the eighteenth century as the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and Portugal and their colonial possessions. As no definite charges were ever brought, at least in Spain, against the members of the Company of Jesus (King Charles III. having kept the reasons _ocultas y reservadas_ and the proofs _privilegiados_), curiosity is to some extent not satisfied as to the real reason of their expulsion from the Spanish possessions in America.