This was that _Imperium in imperio_ which once excited the astonishment of the world and the jealousy of princes: how little cause they had to be alarmed by it was best proved by the whole fabric falling to pieces on the removal of a few poor old priests: a more inoffensive community never existed. It was an experiment on a vast scale, originated in the purest spirit of Christianity, to domesticate and render useful hordes of savages who would otherwise, like the rest of the aborigines, have been miserably exterminated in war or slavery by the conquerors of the land. Its remarkable success excited envy and jealousy, and caused a thousand idle tales to be circulated as to the political views of the Jesuits in founding such establishments, which unfortunately gained too easy credence in a credulous age, and contributed, there is no doubt, to hasten the downfall of their order. Their real crime, if crime it was, was the possession of that moral power and influence which was the natural consequence of their surpassing knowledge and wisdom in the times in which they lived. With respect to their Missions in South America, nothing could be more inconsistent than the allegations made against them:--whilst accused, on the one hand, of aiming at the establishment of a powerful and independent supremacy, they were, on the other, at the same time, reproached with having systematically kept the Indians in a state of infantine tutelage. What would have been the consequences of the opposite system? How long would the Spanish rule in those countries have lasted had the Jesuits trained up a hundred thousand of the proper owners of the soil in any practical knowledge of the rights of man? How long would the Jesuits themselves have preserved their influence with them? The Indians loved the Jesuits, and looked to them as to their fathers, and great were their lamentations when they were taken from them, and replaced by the unprincipled Franciscan friars sent to them by Bucareli, the Captain General of Buenos Ayres:--the following memorials, addressed to him from the Missions of San Luis and Martires, will serve to throw some light on the true feelings of the people with regard to their old and new pastors. I have given a copy of one of the originals in Guarani in the Appendix, as a specimen of a language, which, of all the native tongues, was, perhaps, the most diffused in South America, and which, to this day, may be traced from the Paranã to the Amazons:-- No. I. _Translation of a Memorial addressed by the people of the Mission of San Luis to the Governor of Buenos Ayres, praying that the Jesuits may remain with them instead of the Friars sent to replace them._ (J. H. S.)