It is somewhat remarkable that whilst the system and labours of the Jesuits in _Paraguay_ are spoken of by most Protestant writers with almost unqualified praise, they are denounced in unmeasured terms by their Catholic rivals the Franciscans. It is not to be questioned that the early members of the order--the immediate disciples of Loyola--were actuated in their mission by no other motive than the most self-sacrificing and disinterested zeal; but these men were succeeded by others of a different stamp, and as time wore on the Jesuit rulers of _Paraguay_ might enjoy a life of indolence and luxury. During the first twenty-five years of their mission they founded no less than ten towns; but the historian Azara points out that these twenty-five years precisely coincides with the time when the Portuguese furiously persecuted the natives in order to sell them into slavery. The frightened fugitives took refuge in the region between the _Uruguay_ and the _Paraná_, and crowded into the Jesuit towns. During the following hundred years or more only one other town was established. Thus it appears that Portuguese rapacity had not a little to do with the establishment of Jesuit rule at _Paraguay_. The career of the Jesuits, however, was not destined to run on with uniform smoothness. A governor of _Paraguay_ was appointed whose policy and interest were not in unison with theirs. Cespedes was married to a Portuguese lady, whose sympathies were rather with her man-stealing countrymen than with the people ruled over by her husband. During his visit at _Rio de Janeiro_ on his way to his government, Cespedes, it is said, so far fell into the hands of the Brazilians as to make a bargain with them by which he was to assist them in kidnapping those whom he had been sent to govern and protect. He resolved to pass by land to _Asuncion_. The first point he reached within Spanish territory was _Loreto_, on the banks of a tributary of the _Paraná_. There the Jesuits awaited his coming with joyful anticipation, which was soon to be changed to dismay. The estates of the _Señora_ Cespedes in _Brazil_ were in need of labourers, and the conscientious governor made a pact with the slave-hunters to facilitate their operations on condition of receiving six hundred of their captives. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the missionary establishments of _Guayrá_ should have fallen an easy prey. The early neophytes were carried off by thousands and sold into slavery. Having no protection to look for at _Asuncion_, the remainder fled, to the number of twelve thousand. The Fathers accompanied them until they were, as they thought, at a safe distance in the region now known as _Misiones_. In their new _reductions_ the Jesuits continued their work of proselytizing, and, after the dismissal of Cespedes, tried various means of acquiring influence at _Asuncion_. Nor were they unsuccessful. The natives not