Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1

1612.

Permission was, however, granted to form a company for the purpose of colonizing Maranham, and certain gentlemen were appointed lieutenants-general in the West Indies and Brazil. The expedition was fitted out in Brittany, and sailed in March 1612; and, after a severe voyage, it reached the island of Fernando Noronha, whence it proceeded to Maranham. The islanders put themselves, as had been expected, under the protection of France, and their example was followed by two tribes on the mainland. The Cross and the French flag were planted side by side. Unfortunately, however, for the French, the Brazilian Government had just at this time turned its attention in the same direction; and before any tidings of the above proceedings had reached Madrid, orders had been sent out to prosecute the discovery and conquest of the river Amazons and the adjoining regions. The governor was ordered to fix his residence at Olinda in order to push on the expedition, to the command of which Geronymo de Albuquerque was appointed. He was later joined by Compos Moreno. Their progress, however, was slow, and in due time they came into collision with the French, of whose presence in that region the Brazilian authorities now for the first time became aware. It so happened that the officer who made the discovery was prevented by contrary winds from returning from Maranham to Pernambuco. He was driven to the Spanish Main, whence he set sail for Spain. On his arrival there he immediately despatched his pilot to Brazil to warn the authorities, whilst he himself proceeded for the same purpose to Madrid. In this way the colonial government heard of the French occupation of Mararnham not from Brazil, but from Europe.

Fresh instructions were now sent out to the governor, with stringent orders to direct his whole attention towards the island of Maranham. The preparations for that object were accordingly pushed forward with renewed vigour; and in course of time the expedition reached the port of Peria, in the vicinity of Maranham, to examine which a reconnoitering party was now sent out. From a deserter the Portuguese commander learned that the French meant to attack his vessels. He, however, contented himself with drawing them up on shore, and the French victory was confined to securing three of his six ships. The Portuguese, meanwhile, endured such sufferings that a conspiracy was formed amongst the soldiers to blow up the powder-magazine, and thus compel a retreat to Pernambuco by land. The question was, however, settled by the arrival of the French commander Rivardiere, with seven ships and many canoes, containing four hundred Frenchmen and four hundred natives. He forthwith ordered half his force to take possession of a hill which commanded the Portuguese encampment, whilst his native allies proceeded to entrench themselves by means of fascines which they had carried with them, and by means of which they kept themselves in communication with the fleet. Albuquerque, seeing that he was thus cut off from the hope of obtaining fresh water, had no alternative but to fight, although his force both of Portuguese and of natives bore a very small proportion to that opposed to him.

Of the two Portuguese chiefs, the one attacked the enemy on the beach; the other undertook to dislodge him from the hill, each having a force of seventy Portuguese and forty natives, whilst a small body was kept in reserve. The Portuguese attack was so well planned that the French on the hill, not perceiving their own danger, descended to the help of their countrymen, and were unexpectedly charged on the flank. After a short but severe struggle one of their commanders fell, and they retired to their entrenchments on the hill; but the Portuguese, following them, stormed these works likewise and put their defenders to the rout. Rivardiere was so confident in his superiority of numbers that he did not think it necessary to succour his men engaged until the moment had passed for doing so. The tide having now fallen, his canoes were left high and dry on the beach. He attempted to attack the fort, but the muddy shore kept his launches at a distance, and the invalids kept up a brisk fire upon him. One hundred and fifteen of his men were left dead on the field, whilst nine were taken prisoners.

A correspondence now took place between the commanders on either side, as a result of which the following terms were proposed namely, that there should be a truce till the end of the following year, whilst meanwhile two cavaliers, the one French, the other Portuguese, should proceed to France, and likewise two to Spain, to lay the matter before their sovereigns; and that when the determination of the two courts should arrive, the party which should receive orders to remove should evacuate the country, the prisoners meanwhile being released. Rivardiere further bound himself to withdraw his ship and allow free ingress to the supplies which the Portuguese expected. These articles were duly signed, and accordingly two vessels were sent with commissioners to France and Spain respectively.

But the terms of the convention were not long observed. After a while Albuquerque began to receive reinforcements; and finding himself in sufficient strength, he now informed Rivardiere that he had received instructions stating that these countries belonged to the Portuguese crown, and that he was therefore under the necessity of considering the treaty between them as annulled. The French commander now agreed to evacuate the island of Maranham within five months, on condition that the Portuguese should pay for the artillery to be left there, thus to enable him to pay for transports for his people. As security for his good faith he surrendered one of the forts, of which Albuquerque took possession; but from the length of time for which he stipulated before his withdrawal, it is probable that he calculated on something occurring meanwhile which might render that operation unnecessary.

1615.

Campos had meanwhile reached Lisbon, where he pressed upon the Government the necessity of sending out reinforcements without loss of time. He himself returned with adequate succours for that purpose to Pernambuco, where he found the governor busily employed towards the same end. Their united force amounted to nine hundred men, who were embarked in seven ships. Compos had left Maranham for Europe in January 1615, and he returned to that island early in October of the same year, the supreme command of the expedition being now given to De Moura, the late captain of Pernambuco. In flagrant breach of the second convention with Rivardiere, the French were now attacked in Fort St. Louis, whither they had retired. The French commander submitted unconditionally, and was allowed to sail for France with four hundred of his countrymen. By his incapacity in treating with the Portuguese when his superiority at sea put it within his power to cut off their provisions, the island of Maranham was lost to France.

The next enemy with whom the Portuguese had to contend were of a different race. The Dutch had begun to trade on the north of the Amazons, and had established factories on some of the numerous islands at its mouth. They had given out to the natives that a fleet would soon arrive to establish a colony, and when this intelligence reached Caldeira (a Portuguese officer who had been sent north from Maranham with two hundred men to establish a settlement on the Amazons), it was confirmed by the arrival of a large Dutch vessel. The ship was attacked by his orders, but the Dutchmen defended themselves so well that they could not be conquered save by setting fire to the vessel. This new Captaincy, which was called Pará, was disturbed with serious dissensions, which led to Caldeira, the governor, being put in chains by his mutinous garrison. The colony had likewise to encounter long-continued hostility on the part of the natives. A new governor was sent out from Lisbon, with orders to send home as prisoners both Caldeira and the officer who had accepted the government in his place from the mutineers. When this was done, the war against the natives was prosecuted, and they were successfully hunted down by a ruffian called Maciel, whose object seemed to be to exterminate them. If this were his purpose, it was still further assisted by the fearful havoc caused at this time amongst them by the small-pox.

1622.

In the year 1622 a new governor-general brought with him some Jesuits; but the appearance of these Fathers in Maranham excited a tumult against them; for, much to the credit of their order, it had set itself in systematic opposition to the iniquitous conduct of the Portuguese towards the natives. A compromise had to be arrived at, by which the Jesuits agreed, under pain of banishment and the confiscation of their property, not to interfere with the domesticated natives. As a wide belt of desolation had been placed round the Portuguese settlements by Maciel, it was somewhat difficult for the Fathers to find any other natives to exercise their influence upon. About this time much was done to explore the region of the Lower Amazons, in which service it is to be admitted that Maciel, who was now captain of Pará, was as energetic as he was ever savage in his bearing towards the Indians. At the river Curupá some of his people found Dutch, English, and French adventurers, who had made trenches for their defence, and had enlisted natives to assist them. From this post they were driven by Maciel, who destroyed their factories both on the Curupá and on the island of Tocujuz.

Having effected this congenial work, he returned to Belem, now called Parâ. His new conquests were considered at Madrid to be of such consequence as to deserve to be erected into a separate government, partly on account of the difficulty of communication between Maranham and Pernambuco. But the days were at hand when the natives were to be avenged by the arm of another European nation for the wrongs which they had suffered from Maciel and his like.

Note.—Chapters V., IX., XV. and XVI. of vol. I. are founded on “History of Brazil;” by Robert Southey. Longman. 1810.

On “The History of Paraguay;” Charles A. Washburn. Lee and Shepard. New York. 1871.

On “Noticia Biografica De Fernando de Magallanes;” by Navarrete.

On “Lettres Édifiautes et Curienses,;” écrites des Missions Étrangères. Nouv. edit.; par Querbeuf.

On “La Plata;” Etude Historique; par Santiego Arcos. Paris. 1865.

On “History of the Indies;” by J. de Acosta; Hakluyt Society. 1880.

On works previously referred to.

And on “Voyage dans l’Amérigue Méridionale;” par Don F. de Azara. 4 vols. 8vo. 1809.

CHAPTER XVI.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS IN PARAGUAY

1608-1648

The town of Buenos Ayres, once permanently established, soon became a considerable place; and that notwithstanding its incommodious and unsafe harbour. Forty years after its foundation (1620) it was declared a separate colony, which was to comprise all the regions in La Plata below the confluence of the Paraguay and the Paraná. It likewise became the seat of a bishop, and in fifty years from its foundation numbered as many inhabitants as Asuncion. The colony of Tucuman had been founded in 1564, but it did not, like Paraguay, have the advantage of river communication with the ocean, nor did it benefit by the direction of a master mind such as that of Irala. Notwithstanding this, the jurisdiction of the governor of Tucuman was in 1596 extended over Paraguay. The governor deputed a very able substitute to administer the latter province in the person of Hernando Saavedra, whose capacity for administration is considered to have been only surpassed by that of Irala.

1608.

Saavedra, after much exploration in the territories inhabited by the native tribes, deemed that it would be better to attach rather than to weaken or exterminate them, and that for this purpose it would be advisable to use every means for converting them to Christianity. For this end he appealed to the court of Spain, and in 1608 Philip III. took the memorable decision of issuing the royal letters-patent to the Order of Jesus for the conversion of the Indians of the province of Guayrá, which district comprised both banks of the upper Paraná to the east of Asuncion. In this region the towns of Onteveros, Ciudad Real, and Villa Rica had been founded as early as 1554 by Don Ruy Diaz de Melgarejo.

1610.

Two Jesuit priests reached Asuncion in 1610, the modest vanguard of a formidable army. From the very date of their arrival they displayed the usual zeal of their order, and the first reduction was established on the upper Paraná. It was called Loreto, and the neighbouring natives were invited to resort thither, to receive instruction and to become members of the community, which was entirely under Jesuit control. As others of the order arrived, other reductions were formed. On reaching Asuncion the earliest Jesuit Fathers found the colony distracted by rivalries and controversies between the secular and the religious authorities. The first bishop of Paraguay was a Franciscan.

The policy which had been initiated and pursued by Irala of incorporating the natives with the governing body had fallen into at least partial disuse. Although the natives of Paraguay had not to complain of the same harsh treatment from their Spanish conquerors as had the Peruvians, their condition still left much to desire. They were not slaves in name, nor could they be purchased or sold, but they were nevertheless compelled to labour in the interest of others who had no responsibility for their care or support. The priests, as befitting their character, were willing and anxious to better their condition; but the colonists were loth to permit their interference in secular matters. Still their presence was not without its result, if only in its leading to its being considered more respectable to treat the natives as human beings rather than as the lower animals. Such being the state of society on the arrival of the Jesuits, whose professed object was the redemption of the natives, their coming was by no means welcomed by the colonists.

Asuncion was, however, for the meantime spared, for the scene of action of the first Jesuit Fathers was at some three hundred miles’ distance in the three settlements above mentioned. Of these settlements, and of the reduction of Loreto, scarcely a vestige now remains. The early settlers suffered so much from the natives and from the hostile Portuguese, that the province was abandoned. Twice was the site of Villa Rica changed, and the present town of that name dates from 1678. The Fathers then descending the river, established themselves in the district of Misiones, on the left bank of the Paraná, a district which is at the present day, and has long been, in dispute between Brazil and her neighbour. The early success of the Jesuits in converting the natives was very remarkable; but it may be as well to remember that it is the Jesuits themselves, and not independent writers, who have chronicled the fact. The Paraguayans, they say, not only embraced the faith, but voluntarily entered the reductions, and accepted the rule of the spiritual teachers. Before their coming the name of the foreigner had been terrible. The Spaniards, disappointed in finding gold, had taken possession of the territory, forcing the Paraguayans to a lot of unrequited drudgery. The Jesuits, however, had come to live and to die amongst them, seeking nothing for themselves but to be allowed to teach the arts of civilization and to show the way to paradise. It is not surprising that the contrast between their ways and those of their secular countrymen should have won the natives’ confidence. Indeed, as one of the conditions granted by the crown to the founders of the reductions was that these were to be free from all colonial control, the Paraguayans would at first sight seem to be the gainers by entering them. It was one of the principles of the order that the natives should not be subjected to unrecompensed labour.

It is somewhat remarkable that whilst the system and labours of the Jesuits in Paraguay are spoken of by most Protestant writers with almost unqualified praise, they are denounced in unmeasured terms by their Catholic rivals the Franciscans. It is not to be questioned that the early members of the order—the immediate disciples of Loyola—were actuated in their mission by no other motive than the most self-sacrificing and disinterested zeal; but these men were succeeded by others of a different stamp, and as time wore on the Jesuit rulers of Paraguay might enjoy a life of indolence and luxury. During the first twenty-five years of their mission they founded no less than ten towns; but the historian Azara points out that these twenty-five years precisely coincides with the time when the Portuguese furiously persecuted the natives in order to sell them into slavery. The frightened fugitives took refuge in the region between the Uruguay and the Paraná, and crowded into the Jesuit towns. During the following hundred years or more only one other town was established. Thus it appears that Portuguese rapacity had not a little to do with the establishment of Jesuit rule at Paraguay.

The career of the Jesuits, however, was not destined to run on with uniform smoothness. A governor of Paraguay was appointed whose policy and interest were not in unison with theirs. Cespedes was married to a Portuguese lady, whose sympathies were rather with her man-stealing countrymen than with the people ruled over by her husband. During his visit at Rio de Janeiro on his way to his government, Cespedes, it is said, so far fell into the hands of the Brazilians as to make a bargain with them by which he was to assist them in kidnapping those whom he had been sent to govern and protect. He resolved to pass by land to Asuncion. The first point he reached within Spanish territory was Loreto, on the banks of a tributary of the Paraná. There the Jesuits awaited his coming with joyful anticipation, which was soon to be changed to dismay. The estates of the Señora Cespedes in Brazil were in need of labourers, and the conscientious governor made a pact with the slave-hunters to facilitate their operations on condition of receiving six hundred of their captives. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the missionary establishments of Guayrá should have fallen an easy prey. The early neophytes were carried off by thousands and sold into slavery. Having no protection to look for at Asuncion, the remainder fled, to the number of twelve thousand. The Fathers accompanied them until they were, as they thought, at a safe distance in the region now known as Misiones. In their new reductions the Jesuits continued their work of proselytizing, and, after the dismissal of Cespedes, tried various means of acquiring influence at Asuncion. Nor were they unsuccessful. The natives not unnaturally preferred their rule to that of the civil authorities, and consequently the reductions grew powerful. The result was that the government became jealous, and that the Franciscans, headed by the bishop, took means to rid themselves of their successful neighbours and rivals.

The Jesuits appealed to Spain and likewise to the Pope, with the result that their representative obtained for them a royal grant, which rendered the missions independent of the government of Paraguay. They were likewise permitted to provide the natives with firearms, to be used in self-defence. When the next raid was made by the slave-hunters, they were so well received that, though they were a thousand in number, few escaped to tell of their surprise and defeat. The missions were no more troubled by men-stealers from Brazil.

1644.

But the Jesuits had still to contend with the rival ecclesiastics of Asuncion. The Bishop of Paraguay, Cardenas, was at this time a prominent figure. He is said to have hated the Jesuits with a fervour which is seldom more evoked than in religious animosities; but he by no means confined his attention to them. It was an age when all men dreaded the curse of Rome, and Cardenas was nothing loth to use this terrible weapon. Amongst others who fell under his ban was Hinostrosa, the governor of the colony, who had ventured to differ from him upon some matter which does not appear. The people were scandalized at the governor’s disgrace; and in fear of a tumult the bishop withdrew from the capital. He was followed by the penitent governor, who sought and obtained the removal of the anathema. The bishop having now the civil as well as the spiritual power virtually in his hands, lost no time in making it felt by the Jesuits. They were prohibited from preaching within Asuncion, and their schools were closed. But if the governor was subdued by the ecclesiastical authority, the Viceroy of Charcas and his council were not. The governor of Paraguay was severely reprimanded for having submitted himself to an arrogant prelate, who was in turn denounced, and was compelled to retire for some years from Asuncion.

1648.

On his return to that city, the governor died; and as in this emergency the choice of a successor lay with the people, the Bishop Cardenas was now elected to rule in his stead. Once more he was in possession of full power, and once more he lost no time in proclaiming his determination to use it for the expulsion of the Jesuits. Having, under threats of excommunication, collected a large crowd of people capable of bearing arms, he demanded the surrender of the Jesuits’ College. In vain its rector protested that his order exercised their rights under a royal grant. The doors were forced open, and the priests and neophytes were driven out. These having been brought to the river, were placed in boats and cast adrift without sail or oar. The college was then sacked, and the statues of Loyola and Xavier dragged from their pedestals. This violence was the natural prelude of the bishop’s own fall. He was summoned for trial before the Grand Council of Peru, and finally deposed from all authority.

The deposition of Cardenas was the signal for the recall of the Jesuits, and for some time to come they were masters of the situation. There still existed, however, continual jealousy and discord between them and the Franciscans; and the civil authorities were disposed to side with the latter. The Jesuits nevertheless applied themselves with undiminished earnestness to acquire power in Asuncion. By establishing and controlling the schools, they obtained the direction of the rising generation; and the missions were by this time rich and nourishing. Outside the reductions the natives preferred the Jesuit rule to that of the civil authorities, as the former repudiated slavery; whilst within the reductions the servitude to which they were subjected was disguised under another name. It was labour for the common benefit.

The systems of the Spanish governors and of the Jesuit Fathers, respectively, were widely different, and require some explanation. From the first advent of the former a mixed race gradually sprung up. The Spaniards brought with them few if any women, and if a certain proportion of Spanish ladies arrived later they were not in sufficient numbers to affect the general rule, which was that the Spanish settlers were allied to Guaraní wives. Thus was formed the modern mixed Paraguayan race. In a very short time, therefore, by means of the ties of relationship, a strong sympathy grew up between the Spaniards and the Guaranís or those of Guaraní blood, and a recognition of this fact formed the basis of the plan of government founded by the great Irala. The lot of the natives of Paraguay, as compared with the natives of the other Spanish dominions in the New World, was far from being a hard one. There were no mines to work. The Spaniards came there to settle, rather than to amass fortunes with which to return to Europe. The country was abundantly fertile, and such wealth as the Spaniards might amass consisted in the produce of their fields or the increase of their herds, which were amply sufficient to support them. Consequently all they required of the natives, for the most part, was a moderate amount of service as labourers or as herdsmen, whilst in return they were in a position to impart to the Paraguayans many of the arts of civilization.