"Attached to the college, which was usually a very large building, were the workshops and storehouses of the town, which were thus under the immediate eye of the Fathers. The buildings in which the Indians themselves were accommodated were very extensive but low-roofed structures, being some sixty yards in length and ten in breadth. The majority of the buildings were contrived of great blocks of the locally found _Tacurú_ stone, which for the purpose of cutting possesses the very unusual advantage of being comparatively soft when first taken from the earth, hardening little by little as it is exposed to the air. The magnificent woods of the neighbouring forests were frequently employed in addition, and the ubiquitous _adobe_ was made to serve here and there. All the buildings were very solidly tiled. "So much for the general description of one of those Jesuit towns of which only the ruins now remain, all but swallowed up by the encroaching verdure of the forest. In their neighbourhood was nearly always a stone-lined spring, welling out into a pool planted about with palms, and thus presenting a most agreeable appearance. Near this would be the chapels of the 'Stations of the Cross.' "Finally, it must be said that many of these centres which were most exposed to the raids of the hostile Brazilian inhabitants of San Paolo were strongly fortified, being surrounded by a deep ditch and a solid wall of hardened mud. "Each of these towns was in charge of two Jesuits, not too large a number, it must be admitted, to have control of a town the population of which was probably about four thousand. These, however, were assisted by numerous Guaraní officials, and their management appears to have been conducted with exemplary smoothness. "Having now obtained a glimpse of the plan and aspects of a Jesuit mission town, it is time to consider some attributes that are at least as important--its inhabitants. Proceeding downwards along its hierarchy from the two Jesuit Fathers in charge--who were responsible only to a superior of their own order who travelled continually to and fro between the various towns--we arrive at the higher Guaraní officials. At the head of these was a _cacique_, who in a sense acted as Governor of the place, although his office was under the closest supervision of the two Jesuits in charge. There were also _corregidores_, _regidores_, _alcaldes_, and many other officials, whose posts corresponded more or less with those held by Spaniards in the somewhat cumbrous municipal scheme that obtained in the peninsula. "In order that the position of these dusky dignitaries should be properly emphasized they were raised above the law which decreed perfect equality of dress for all, and on feast days their uniforms were wont to be sufficiently gorgeous to distinguish them from the rest.