The territory to the east of the _Uruguay_, which had been ceded by the boundary treaty to the Portuguese, contained seven “Reductions,” inhabited by about thirty thousand _Guaranís_, who had been bred up to servitude and domestic life. According to the terms of the treaty, these people, with all belonging to them, were to migrate into the Spanish territory. The Spanish King and his ministers had inserted this clause, or had agreed to it, in ignorance of the circumstances in which these Indians were placed. They were actuated, moreover, by feelings of regard to the Indians who were thereby affected. These had suffered much from the ravages of the _Paulistas_, and they had good reason to detest the Portuguese. To have left them, therefore, as subjects of the Crown of Portugal would have been ungenerous and offensive. It would likewise cut them off from the people of their own race. The negotiators were thus reduced to a choice of evils; but it had been decided that the exodus of these Indians was to take place within a year. The commissioner sent on the part of Spain to see the treaty carried into effect was the Marquis of Valdelirios; the Portuguese commissioner was Gomes Freyre, the governor of _Rio de Janeiro_ and _Minas Geraes_, who had himself experienced the inconvenience of an undefined boundary-line, and who is credited with having been the projector of the Treaty of Limits. The stipulation regarding the evacuation of the _Misiones_ within a year was necessarily unaccomplished, owing to the fact that the Spanish commissioners did not reach the _Plata_ until two years after the treaty had been signed. In the meantime, the Jesuits of _Paraguay_ had addressed a remonstrance on the subject to the Royal Audience of _Charcas_, and had obtained from that tribunal a statement in their favour. They next applied to the Audience of _Lima_, and the Viceroy forwarded one copy of their memorial to the court of Spain and another to the governor of _Buenos Ayres_. The governor was requested to deliver it to the commissioners on their arrival.