Page:Colonization and Christianity.djvu/142

 provinces of Portugal and Spain. He then divided the land into Repartimientos, as the Spaniards had done every where else; thus giving the country to the adventurers, and the people upon it as a part of the property. "The settlers," says Southey, "in the mean time, went on in those habits of lasciviousness and cruelty which characterize the Creoles of every stock whatever. He made little or no attempt to check them, perhaps because he knew that any attempt would be ineffectual, … perhaps because he thought all was as it should be, … that the Creator had destined the people of colour to serve those of a whiter complexion, and be at the mercy of their lust and avarice."

By such men, Yrala, Veyaor who founded Ciudad Real on the Parana, Chaves who founded the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Moxos, and the infamous Zarate, were the name, power, and crimes of the Spaniards spread in Paraguay, when the Jesuits were invited thither from Brazil and Peru in 1586.

This is one of the greatest events in the history of the Spaniards in the New World. With these men they introduced a power, which had it been permitted to proceed, would have speedily put a stop to their cruelties on the natives, and would eventually have civilized all that mighty continent. But the Spaniards were not long in perceiving this, and such a storm of vengeance and abuse was raised, as ultimately broke up one of the most singular institutions that ever existed, and dispersed those holy fathers and their works as a dream.

They were, indeed, received at first with unbounded joy. Those from Peru, says Southey, came from