of a colony's industry, and it was his duty to clothe and BOOK maintain every person in the state. No distinction of rank LXXXIX. was known among these Indians; their government might be regarded as a transition from barbarism to progressive civilization. It is true that the Indian had no excitement to emulation, for the industrious and the indolent had the same fare and the same enjoyments; but the sway of the monks was admirably adapted for these ignorant and fierce tribes; at all events the Indians lived happily under it, and were treated as children incapable of governing themselves; savages accustomed to rapine and bloodshed, or to live as the slaves of the Spaniards, regarded the Jesuits as their fathers and benefactors. Such a devotion to Complaints against the their masters was the chief cause of the hatred against that Jesuits. order. Father Aguilar complains, in his apology for his conduct, that Spanish officers wished the Indians not only to submit to the King of Spain, but to the Spaniards themselves, and even to their domestics and slaves. The poor Indian was thus forced to obey the caprices of a task-master and a negro, or was punished for having rebelled against his conquerors. The natives were baptized; they learnt the decalogue, and a set form of prayer; this was the commencement of that spiritual instruction, to which the cautious priests limited their first efforts. The Indians wove the cloth which they wore. They were instructed in the mechanical arts by Jesuits who came from Europe for that purpose. The men went barefoot, and the women's garment consisted of a single shift without sleeves, the climate rendered a warmer dress superfluous. The curates employed the moderate profits arising from agriculture, in purchasing instruments, utensils, and arms. The neophytes carried into the Spanish settlements, hides, Commerce cloth, tobacco, and Paraguay tea. These articles were de- suits. livered over to a procurator-general of the missionaries, who sold or exchanged them to the best advantage. This person was obliged to give an exact account of all his transactions, and, after deducting a very small sum as a compensation for his trouble, to employ the remainder in of the Je BOOK the most profitable manner for the Indians. The natives LXXXIX. converted by the missionaries were free, and placed under the protection of the King of Spain; every man paid willingly to the monarch the annual tribute of a dollar, as an acknowledgment of his dependence. They were not only obliged to join the Spanish standard in the event of a war, but to arm themselves at their own expense, and to contribute their assistance in erecting fortifications. Their services in the war against the Portuguese are well known. But the Catholic despots in Europe, regardless of the most sacred conventions, felt little remorse in treating their American subjects in a manner unexampled in the annals of nations. About the year 1757, a part of their territory was ceded by Spain to the King of Portugal, in exchange for Santo-Sacramento. The Jesuits were unwilling to accede to this treaty, or allow themselves to be transferred from one nation to another, without their own consent.The Indians had indeed recourse to arms, but they were easily repulsed and defeated with great slaughter. The weakness of their resistance proved sufficiently that dif Expulsion ference of opinion existed among their chiefs. The Jeof the Jesuits were driven out of America in the year 1767, and suits. their neophytes were placed on an equality with the rest of the native tribes. Since the expulsion of the order, other monks have been less eager in the cause of conversion, and the Indians have suffered increased hardships. Merchants and military commanders have begun anew their rigorous exactions. It is stated in a ministerial report,* addressed to his Catholic Majesty by an enemy of the Jesuits, that thirty villages, founded by them, contained, according to the most accurate census, 82,066 inhabitants in the year 1774. At the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits, their population exceeded 92,000 souls, but within these few years it has been reduced to less than the half of that number. The Portuguese, who were formerly confined within their own limits, have seized upon seven of these villages; * Reorganisacion de las Indias, etc. MS. BOOK and, to check their invasions, it has been found necessary to re-establish the military regulations of the Jesuits. The LXXXIX. inference derived from this statement is obvious; if the Indians have made any progress in civilization since the year 1767, if they enjoy any privileges, if a few individuals amongst them clothe themselves after the Spanish fashion, or if in certain districts they can acquire property, we observe only in these detached instances, some effects of that excellent institution which a tyrannical and blind policy has been unable to destroy. Santa Fe and the capital of the whole viceroyalty were Buenos Ayres. the principal towns in the government of Buenos Ayres, according to its former limits. The metropolis was the residence of a viceroy and a bishop; it was also the seat of a royal audience, and several other public institutions. Buenos Ayres was founded in 1535, by Don Pedro de Mendoza, who gave it that name on account of the salubrity of its climate. It is built in the middle of a plain, on the south side of the river Plata, about seventy leagues from its mouth. The town is fortified, its streets are broad and well paved, but the harbour is much exposed to the wind, and the river near it is full of rocks and shallows. For that reason large vessels unload at three leagues from the port, and then sail for the bay of Barragan, and wait for freights. Their cargoes are put into lighter vessels, that enter the city by Buenos Ayres river, which is more easily navigated and better adapted for the unloading of goods. It happens sometimes that the waters of that small river do not reach a certain level, and on these occasions no vessel can pass the bar. There are few places where different sorts of provision are more plentiful than at Buenos Ayres. Butcher's meat is distributed to the poor; merchants frequently buy cattle for the sake of their hides. Poultry is comparatively dear, two fowls cost as much as an ox. The town is the great outlet for all the commerce of the interior, and the produce of Chili and Peru pass from thence to Europe. Vicuna wool is brought from the, Andes, copper from Coquimbo, gold from other parts of BOOK LXXXIX. of the hus Chili, and silver from Potosi. The population of Buenos Ayres amounts to sixty thousand souls; its inhabitants were among the first in the Spanish provinces that distinguished themselves in the cause of independence. The creoles in this city submitted with reluctance to the government of the Spaniards, but such as resided in the country were more obedient. It must ever be a subject of regret, that so little attention has been paid to the education Character or moral improvement of the people. Almost all the conbandmen. verted Indians, more than half the inhabitants of Paraguay, and the greater number of those on the banks of the Plata, subsist by agriculture. But that profession is not without its toils; and it is only followed by those that have not a sufficient fund for trade, or are unable to purchase land. If a labourer cannot find employment as a shepherd, he is forced to till the ground. The dwellings of the husbandmen are built in forests, or in lands as yet little improved by art; they are at best small and lowly huts placed at a great distance from each other; their roofs are rudely covered with straw, the walls are formed by stakes fixed into the ground, and the vacant spaces between them are filled up with clay. The shepherd is worse clad, more ignorant and depraved than the husbandman. That sort of life has nearly brought the Spaniards that follow it to a state of barbarism. The shepherds are numerous; it has been computed that they tend twelve millions of oxen, three millions of horses, and a vast number of sheep, besides those animals in a wild state, over which their charge extends. Their herds are divided into as many flocks as there are proprietors. A pasturage, containing four or five square leagues, is considered at Buenos Ayres as one of a very small size, and in Paraguay it is not thought to exceed the ordinary dimensions. The shepherd, accustomed from his infancy to idleness and independence, cannot suffer the least restraint or inconve nience. Patriotism, modesty and humanity are unknown among these degraded colonists. Employed in slaughtering animals, they can shed, without remorse, the blood of their fellow creatures. They seem to have acquired total BOOK insensibility from the solitude of the desert. A love of LXXXIX. gaming is their predominant passion; seated on the ground, with his horse's bridle bound round his feet, lest it should be stolen from him, each man has a knife fixed in the earth, that he may be ready to use it against any one whom he suspects to have played unfairly. A person stakes his whole property on a single game, and loses it with indifference. Their good qualities are common to every savage. They welcome and maintain the stranger without inquiring into the motives of his journey; they may steal horses or other articles of less value from travellers, but never think of taking money, because to them it is useless. These Tartars of the new world live on horseback; they hate every occupation that deprives them of their favourite exercise. Strong and healthy, they attain sometimes to a very advanced age; but their bravery and valour are apt to make them regardless of life, and fearless of danger. There are besides, some inhabitants of these Banditti. immense plains that refuse to labour, and disdain to serve any master. These wanderers gain their subsistence by plunder; they have carried off women from Buenos Ayres, and, what is more remarkable, some of their wives, like the Sabines, have refused to return home. To provide for the wants of his family, one of these men hastens to the Spanish frontiers, takes away as many horses or oxen as he can, and disposes of his booty in Brazil. The produce enables him to bring whatever articles his family may require. Such was the condition of a great many inhabitants in the Spanish provinces ; it is to be hoped that recent changes, and the improvements likely to follow them, may tend to reform the national character. The vegetable and animal productions of the immense Producplains round Buenos Ayres differ from those of Para- ions of guay, The climate is well adapted for the different Ayres. Buenos |