As for Paraguay being the kingdom of the Jesuits, it is the dream—the stupid fiction of Bernardo Ybañez, a Spaniard, twice expelled from our society. It would be endless to mention all whose vile detractions have calumniated the towns and the missionaries of the Guaranies. To refute them, I oppose the histories of Father Nicolas del Techo; _La Conquista Espiritual_ of Father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya; the history of Father Pedro de Lozano; the familiar epistles of Father Antonio Sepp to his brother; the French original of Father Francis Xavier Charlevoix, (for the German translation is wretchedly mutilated and corrupted); the annual accounts of Paraguay, printed at Rome; and the letters of Philip the Fifth—his two epistles to the Jesuit missionaries of Paraguay, dated from the palace of Buen-retiro, the 28th of December, 1743; the letter, printed with them, of the illustrious Joseph de Peralta, bishop of Buenos-Ayres, in which, himself an eye-witness, he acquaints the same Philip with the state of the Guarany colonies. These important documents translated into Latin, and published in 1745, are every where on sale:—from a perusal of them you may learn, that the Guaranies are not only obedient to the Catholic King, but especially prompt in their repulsion of his enemies, exceeding the other American nations in the extent of their services. The sedition of the Guaranies dwelling near the banks of the Uruguay, may perhaps be objected; but what was the cause? Exasperation against the royal decrees, which delivered up seven of the finest towns of Paraguay to the Portugueze, and obliged thirty thousand of their inhabitants to migrate into solitude, or seek a precarious livelihood among the other colonies. Long and vigorously did the Indians oppose the mandate, not through hatred of the king, but love of their country. What! do we think the Spaniards, French, or Germans would act otherwise, if compelled by the command of their sovereigns to relinquish their native land to enemies? For dear to every one is his country; particularly so to the Americans. Hence, though no one can approve the repugnance of the Indians of the Uruguay, who does not think it, in some measure, worthy of excuse and pardon? They erred in understanding, rather than in will; for their loyalty to the Catholic King was sound and lively. No eloquence of the missionaries could induce them to believe themselves condemned by their good king, to a perpetual and miserable exile from their native soil, in favour of the Portugueze, their enemies. "In nothing," (said they in their letters to Joseph Andonaegui, the royal governour,) "in nothing have we or our ancestors sinned against our monarch—never have we injured the Spanish colonies: how then shall we, unoffending subjects, believe ourselves sentenced to exile by the will of our gracious sovereign? Our grandfathers, great grandfathers, and in like manner all our brothers have frequently fought