But the expulsion of the Jesuits from their headquarters of _Paraguay_ had been included in the plan of the King of Spain and his counsellors, and four days after the issue of the royal decree banishing the order from the mother country, a ship of war was despatched to the _Plata_, with orders to the Viceroy to take immediate measures for the simultaneous seizure of all the Jesuits within his jurisdiction. The Viceroy, Bucareli, who received his orders on the 7th of June 1767, lost no time in carrying them into execution. Without delay he despatched sealed instructions to the governors and local authorities within his Viceroyalty, which were not to be opened until the 21st of July. On the following day all Jesuits were to be seized in the name of the King and sent to _Buenos Ayres_. It may here be of interest to give a short account of the condition in which the royal order found the “Reductions.” They were now beginning to recover from the evils which had fallen upon them owing to the Treaty of Limits. But on account of that blind measure, together with illness and a subsequent war, their numbers were now reduced from one hundred and forty-four thousand to one hundred thousand. The Fathers possessed large estates and many negro slaves, who are said to have been treated with every consideration. Whatever civilization penetrated into the interior of the country was through the Jesuits. For example, one Father Schmid instructed the _Chiquitos_ not only in the common arts of life, but in working metals and making clocks. It is said that the _Moxo_ and _Paure_ missions displayed more civilization than did the important Spanish city of _Santa Cruz de la Sierra_; whilst to the Jesuits _Cordova_ owes its press. The Jesuits of the _Guaranís_ printed books in one of the “Reductions” before there was any printing press either in _Cordova_ or in _Buenos Ayres_. The news of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain became public in _Buenos Ayres_ on the 3rd of July, being eighteen days before the time fixed upon for their arrest. Orders were therefore sent to the provinces to anticipate this measure; whilst the Fathers in the college at _Buenos_ were made prisoners on the same night. Those nearest to that city soon shared the same fate; and in the following month the college at _Cordova_ was likewise taken possession of, and its inmates sent to the capital, whilst their invaluable library was destroyed. Nowhere did the Viceroy’s troops meet with any resistance; and the captured Jesuits were transmitted to Spain in groups of some forty individuals, being thence sent on to the Papal States.