Paraguayans who had submitted themselves to the Jesuits’ absolute sway were thus cunningly made the artificers of the chains that bound them. It is going considerably in advance of the period now in question to advert to the reigns of Francia and the second Lopez, but it may be permitted here to point out that, in thus inducing a system of utter mental and moral imbecility, the Jesuit Fathers are undoubtedly responsible for the untold misery which was brought about under these tyrants, and which at length resulted in the extinction of the Paraguayan race. The Jesuits have been their own historians; therefore the following details, written by themselves, must be read with the reflection that there was no contemporary critic to bequeath another side of the picture. Quitting the lower banks of the _Plata_, already covered with innumerable cattle on boundless plains which showed a perpetual verdure, the Jesuits, on their way to their destination, were shocked, on touching at the island of _S. Gabriel_, by beholding a tribe of idolaters who inspired terror in their neighbourhood and probably still more at home, since we learn that they put their women to death on attaining the age of thirty. After traversing about a thousand miles of river they reached the _Guaraní_ missions, comprising thirty settlements. On the western coast, and further to the north, were the _Chiquito_ missions, with which the others maintained a correspondence, which until the early part of the eighteenth century could only be effected by way of _Peru_, along a route of eight hundred leagues, intersected by streams only fordable at certain seasons. The shorter way from the _Plata_ to the _Chiquito_ missions was jealously closed by the _Guaranís_. The _Guaranís_ were of two classes--hunters and fishermen. The former ignored the use of saddles, but passed their time for the most part on the horses which had followed the Spaniards. The fishermen adored a demon who manifested itself in the form of a large bird. It was at length determined by the Jesuits to attempt to penetrate to the _Chiquito_ settlements of their brethren by way of the _Uruguay_ river; and two Fathers, accompanied by thirty Paraguayan disciples, set out with this object from _Asuncion_. They had ascended about a hundred leagues when they were met by a boat, carrying _Payaguas_, who, being placed between two enemies, implored the aid of the Jesuits. To the west were their sworn foes, the _Guaycurus_; to the east were the Brazilian slave-hunters. This natural cry for help was interpreted as a prayer for admission within the Church’s pale, and one of the Fathers remained with his converts at the Lake of _Uberada_, while the other proceeded alone towards _Peru_.