Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/75

 GUARANI

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GUARANI

163S all the twelve missions beyond the Uruguay were abandoned and their people consolidated with the community of the Jlissioncs Territory. In the last raid Father Alfaro was killed, which at last brought about tardy interference by the governor.

In the same year Father Montoya, after having successfully opposed both governor and Bishop of Asuncion m attempts upon the lil^erties of the In- dians and the mission administration, sailed for Europe, accompanied by Father Diaz Taiio, and suc- ceeded in getting from Urljan VIII a letter forbidding the enslavement of the mission Indians imder the severest church penalties, and from King Philip IV, the long-desired and long-refused permission for the Indians to Ije furnished with fire-arms for their own defence, and to be trained to their use by veteran soldiers who had become members of the Jesuit Order. When next the Paulista army, eight huntlred strong, entered the mission territory in 1641, a body of Christian Guaranf armed with guns and led by their own chief, met them on the Acaray river and in two pitched battles inflicted such severe defeat as put an end to the invasions for ten years. Differences with the Franciscans and with the Bishop of Paraguay on the old questions of jurisdiction and privilege, gave only a temporary check to the missions, now num- bering twenty-nine, but in 1G51 the war between Spain and Portugal, the latter represented in America by Brazil, gave encouragement to another Paulista attempt upon a scale intended to wipe out every mission at one blow and hold the territory for Portu- gal. And now the Spanish authorities roused them- selves and sent promise of help against the invading army, advancing in four di\-isi<>ns, but before any of the government troops covild reach the frontier the fathers themselves, arming their neophytes, led them against the enemy, whom they re]>ulsed at every point, and then turning, scattereil a horde of savages who had gathered in the rear in the hope of plunder. In 1732, the period of their greatest prosperity, the Guaran! missions were guarded by a well-equipped and well-drilled army of 7000 Indians. On more than one occasion this mission array, accompanied by their priests, defended the Spanish colony.

The missions, of which the ruins of several still remain, were laid out upon a uniform plan. The build- ings were grouped about a great central square, the church and store-houses at one end, and the dwelling houses of the Indians, in long barracks, forming the three other sides. Each family had its own separate apartments, l_iut one veranda and one roof served for perhaps a hundred families. The churches were of stone or fine wood, with lofty towers, elaborate sculptures, richly adorned altars, and statuary im- ported from Italy and Spain. The priests' quarters, the commissary, the staliles, the armoury, the work- shop, and the hospital, also usually of stone, formed an inner square adjoining the church. The plaza itself was a level grass plot kept cropped by slicep. The Indian houses were sometimes of stone, but more often of adobe or cane, with home-made furniture and religious pictures, often painted by the Indians them- selves. The smaller missions had two priests each, the larger more, the population varying from 2000 to 7000 in the different missions. Everything moved with military precision, lightened by pleasing cere- monial and sweet music, for both of which the Guarani had an intense passion. The rising sun was greeted by a chorus of children's hymns, followed by the Mass and breakfast, after which the workers went to their tasks. "The Jesuits marshalled ■ their neo- phytes to the sound of music, and in procession to the fields, with a saint borne high aloft, the community each day at sunrise took its way. Along the path, at stated intervals, were shrines of saints, and before each of them they prayed, and between each shrine sang hymns. As the procession advanced it became

gradually smaller as groups of Indians dropped off to work the various fields and finally the priest and acolyte with the musicians returned alone" (Graham, 17S-9). At midday each group assembled for the Angelus, after which came dinner and a siesta; work was then resumed until evening, when the labourers returned singing to their homes. After supper came the rosary and sleep. On rainy days they worked indoors. Frequent festivals with sham battles, fire- works, concerts, and dances, prevented monotony.

Besides the common farm each man had his own garden. In addition to agriculture, stock raising, and the cultivation of the mate or native tea, which they made famous, " the Jesuits had introduced amongst the Indians most of the arts and trades of Europe. Official inventory after the order of expulsion, shows that thousands of yards of cotton were sometimes woven in one mission in a single month. " In ad- dition to weaving they had tanneries, carpenter shops, tailors, hat makers, coopers, cordage makers, boat builders, joiners, and almost every industry useful and necessary to life. They also made arms, [low- der, and musical instruments, and had silversmiths, musicians, painters, turners, and printers to work their printing presses; for many books were printed at the missions, and they prodviced manuscripts as finely executed as those made by the monks in Euro- pean monasteries (Graham). The produce of their labour, including that from the increase of the herds, was sold at Buenos Aires antl other markets, under supervision of the fathers, who portioned the proceeds between the common fund ami the workers and help- less dependents, for there was no provision for able- bodied idleness. Finally "much attention was paid to the schools; early training was very properly regarded as the key to all future success" (Page, 503). Much of the instruction was in Guarani, which is still the prevailing language of the country, but Spanish was also taught in every school. In this way, as the Protestant Ciraliam notes (1<S3), "without employ- ing force of any kind, which in their case would have been quite impossible, lost as they were amongst the crowd of Indians", the Jesuits transformed hordes of cannibal savages into communities of peaceful, industrious, highly-skilled Christian workmen among whom idleness, crime, and poverty were alike un- known.

In 1732, the Guarani missions numbered thirty, with 141,252 Christian Indians. Two years later a visitation of smallpox, that great destroyer of the Indian race, swept off 30,000 souls. In 1765 a second visitat ion carried off nearly 12, OOOmore and then spread westwards through all the wild tribes of the Chaco. In 1750 a boundary treaty negotiated between Spain and Portugal transferred to the latter the territory of the seven missions on the Uruguay, and this was followed soon after by an official order for the re- moval of the Indians. The Indians of the seven towns, who knew the Portuguese only as slave-hunters and persecutors, refused to leave their homes, rose in revolt under their own chiefs and defied the united armies of both governments. After a guerilla war- fare of seven years, resulting in the slaughter of thou- sands of Indians and the almost complete ruin of the seven missions, the Jesuits secured a royal decree annulling the boundary decision and restoring the disputed mission territory to the Spanish jurisdiction. In 1747 two missions, and in 1760 a third were es- tablished in the sub-tribe of the Itatines or Toba- tines, in Central Paraguay, far north of the older mission group. In one of these, San Joaquin (1747), the celebrated Dobrizhoffer ministered for eight years. These were the last of the Guarani foundations.

The story of the royal edict of 1767 for the expul- sion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions is too much a matter of world history to be recounted here. Fearing the event, the viceroy Bucareli intrusted the