In other parts of the country the subjugation was not so peaceful. Those Spanish troops who crossed the Andes and entered Argentina from that direction pursued different tactics. Gold was sought and everything was sacrificed to that one ambition. The conquerors were determined to acquire wealth, or at least to secure a means of livelihood without the necessity of manual labour. The natives were maltreated if they resisted, and enslaved when once subdued. Where agriculture was attempted these Indians were compelled to do the work, with no compensation except the right to live. The priests were always ready to accompany the soldiers on the most arduous campaigns. Without raising a hand against indiscriminate slaughter they held up the crucifix to the survivors, and then turned about and risked their own lives to spread the Christian faith into hitherto untrodden regions. Even the desolate interior of Patagonia was not too distant or too inaccessible for these indefatigable missionaries. Sword in one hand and the cross in the other these teachers of religion spread the doctrines of their church over the whole of the La Plata basin and the rest of South America, and gave Roman Catholicism such a grasp on the continent that it will probably never be broken. The one difficult thing to understand is how the Church of Rome could countenance the harsh and bloody methods of subjugation pursued under the very eyes of its commissioned representatives, and the violation of all the ethics of humanity as well as Christianity, unless it was simply the spirit of the age with which even the heads of the Church were also imbued. The Jesuits founded schools for the natives, in their settlements, but the other orders did not do this, although they aided in inculcating orderly ways among them. The alliance of Church and State still exists in Argentina. The second article in the constitution reads as follows: “The federal government supports the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church.” This condition exists in all the republics of South America, except Brazil. The president and vice-president must be members of that church. Religious liberty prevails and absolute freedom of worship is guaranteed to all persons of whatever belief. Protestant or Jew has the same right to erect a place of worship as the Roman Catholic. The alliance of Church and State, however, tends to weaken each. It oftentimes drags down the high office of the Church to the low level of politics and tends to cheapen its influence. It sometimes ties up the government in ways that work to its detriment. It will be better for the Church as well as government when this alliance is separated. It will probably not be many years before the final break will come in Argentina, and it is to be hoped that it will come peaceably and without a rupture of peaceful conditions.