A far earlier "socialistic" system flourished in this part of South America. The story of the Jesuit missions is one of great interest, but with a sad ending, and we may cast a glance at it here. "It was in 1588 that the first Jesuits arrived in Paraguay, where they met with a warm welcome at the hands of the colonists, between whom and the missionary Fathers a bitter feud was eventually destined to spring up. These early workers made a cosmopolitan company, counting among their number Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians and Scots, besides other nationalities. Setting dauntlessly out into the forests of Paraguay, they passed from tribe to tribe, making converts of the Indians in a fashion sufficiently wholesale to receive some condemnation at the hands of their detractors. However much or however little the average Guaraní may have understood of his actual reception into the Christian faith, the perils and hardships of the early missionaries remained the same, and these were undoubtedly sufficient to tax the resolution of any but the most single-hearted pioneer. "Little by little, as more Jesuits arrived from abroad to assist in the work, and as the numbers of the Guaraní converts grew, began the definite foundations of that society of the Paraguayan missions which was feared and hated by those Spaniards outside its borders who imagined, rightly or wrongly, that its presence was the cause of much material wrong to themselves. This country of the Jesuits had every right to be known as a State. It administered its own laws and authority, and was subject to none of the local colonial officials, a circumstance that undoubtedly gave rise to numerous outbursts of jealousy. It was, moreover, rigidly shut off from the outer world, and, although travellers were permitted to pass, closely watched, from one of its towns to another, none but the Jesuit administrators were in the least conversant with the affairs of the community, and with the events which were happening in the State. It is this latter circumstance, of course, which has been responsible for so many of the disputes concerning actual facts--arguments which have arisen both during the period of the Jesuit dominion and after the expulsion of the Fathers. But in any case no dispute has ever arisen concerning the fact that this land of the Jesuits was a self-governing State, whether it be known by any of the various names which have been applied to it--a republic, an empire, or a socialistic community pure and simple.