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 people were reckoned of no account in the mere tracing of a boundary line between two countries, this appears to be one; and if ever the retribution of heaven was displayed in this world, it would seem to have been in the persons of the monarchs who issued this brutal order, and suffered it to stand, spite of the cries of the thousands of sufferers. Happy in each other, while they thus remained insensible to the happiness of these poor Indians, the queen was consumed by a slow and miserable malady, and the king, a weak man of a melancholy temperament, sunk heart-broken for her loss.

But meantime, commissioners and armies of both Spanish and Portuguese were drawing towards the confines of the doomed land, to carry into effect the expulsion of its rightful inhabitants. The Jesuits behaved with the utmost submission and propriety. Finding that they could do nothing by remonstrance, they offered to yield up the charge of the Reductions to whatever parties might be appointed to receive it. The natives appealed vehemently to the Spanish governor. "Neither we nor our forefathers," said they, "have ever offended the king, or ever attacked the Spanish settlements. How then, innocent as we are, can we believe that the best of princes would condemn us to banishment? Our fathers, our fore-fathers, our brethren, have fought under the king's banner, often against the Portuguese, often against the savages. Who can tell how many of them have fallen in battle, or before the walls of Nova Colonia, so often besieged? We ourselves can shew in our scars, the proofs of our fidelity and our courage. We have ever had it at heart to extend the limits of the