In 1910 there was published at Buenos Aires a part of the writings of Padre José Sánchez Labrador. He was born at Guanda in the diocese of Toledo on September 19, 1717. At the age of fourteen he entered the Society of Jesus, October 5, 1731, and about the middle of the century went to America. Established as a professor of philosophy and theology at Córdoba, he won distinction and the high regard of his contemporaries, but the call from the wilds appealed to him, and, abandoning his professorship, he entered upon the life of a missionary to the Indians, with all of its privations and dangers. In the midst of this service he was overtaken by the decree of expulsion (1767). With hundreds of others affected by this act, he was transferred to Italy, where thirty-two years later (1799) he died at Ravenna. [Sidenote: Labrador’s literary work] During his travels and residence among the Indians Sánchez Labrador acquired considerable knowledge of their language, translated the catechism into the speech of the Mbayas, and began to compile a dictionary of that language, carrying his work to the letter P in a fair degree of completeness. The rest of his extensive writings treated of either the natural history of Paraguay under the title _Paraguay natural ilustrado_, or the progress of the missions in that region, this part of the work bearing the title _El Paraguay católico_. The first of these divisions comprehends information on the nature of the country, the soil, the climate, the water, and the most prevalent diseases; the plants, the fields, and the forests with various kinds of trees; the animals, the birds, the fishes, the reptiles, and the insects. The two volumes entitled _El Paraguay católico_, printed in Buenos Aires in 1910, contain a great part of the important work left by Padre Sánchez Labrador concerning the Indians of Paraguay and its provinces, as well as accounts of his extensive journeys, his observations, and his reflections. VI [Sidenote: Juan Patricio Fernández] The _Relación historial de las misiones de los Indios que llaman Chiquitos_, attributed to Padre Juan Patricio Fernández, was first published in Spanish in Madrid in 1726. It was republished in the _Colección de libros que tratan de América raros o curiosos_, in 1895. It treats briefly of the beginning and progress of missionary work in the province of Chiquitos; the geography of the province and the customs and character of the natives; the invasion and depredations by the Mamelucos; the removal of the settlements; and events in the lives of some of the leading missionaries.