Mitre, the most careful of Argentine historians, says:--"The embryonic body-politic with its democratic instincts contained, however, all the vices inherent to and proceeding from its Colonial origin and environment. The deserts, the solitude, the sloth, the sparse population, the lack of moral cohesion, the corrupt customs among the general mass, the absence of ideals, and above all, the profound ignorance of the people were causes and effects, which producing a semi-barbarity alongside of a weak and sickly civilization, concurred at an early age to viciate the organism". He goes on to say:--"The Colony and the Spanish Crown were not homogeneous. Thus during the long and ruinous wars waged by Spain in the XVII and XVIII centuries, Spanish America was neutral or indifferent, and was not moved by sentiments of patriotism, as happened among the British Colonies where the Mother-country was concerned". He further says:--"Unity of religious belief was the only factor which gave certain cohesion; but the clergy in the River Plate, with rare exceptions, was below the general average, without hierarchy, prestige, power or influence. Because of this, the Argentine clergy was revolutionary and republican when the Colony revolted, quite the reverse of what happened in the rest of Spanish America". A brief reference to the history of printing in the Argentine will be illustrative of the intellectual development of the period. The first book printed in South America was finished in 1705 in the Guarany language on a press made in the Jesuit Missions of the Upper Paraná. As a matter of coincidence, one of the first books published in North America was the translation of the New Testament into the language of the Massachusetts Indians in 1661, or forty-four years earlier, by John Elliot. In 1767, under permission granted by the authorities in Perú, presses and type were brought from Spain at an expense of 2,000 "pesos" and were set up in Córdoba, the University city of the Argentine. The first book printed was also a Jesuit production, this time in Latin, and it was the only book there produced, for the Jesuits were soon after expelled. Vértiz, a native of Mexico and the most progressive of the Argentine Viceroys, wanted to introduce printing in Buenos Aires, and in 1780, after considerable correspondence, bought this Córdoba press at its estimated value of 1,000 "pesos", which, history says, was promptly paid. It was transported from Córdoba to Buenos Aires in one ox-cart, the charge being 40 "pesos". There were eight cases of type weighing 2785 pounds, one iron and one wooden press, all in bad order, so much so that the Viceroy subsequently reported that the repairs cost 1,812 "pesos". On November 21, 1780, Viceroy Vértiz published a decree establishing the "Royal Press of the Foundling Asylum" on the corner of Moreno and Perú streets. This was the only press in the Argentine until 1812 when two other small and incomplete outfits were acquired.