His road no traveller must there pursue, Though suffering hence herself beneath the rising day; Many have represented the conduct of the Jesuits in this mission in a very bad light; but their reflections are not at all supported by the facts, upon which they build them. To judge property of the service they have done their people, we must not consider them on a parallel with the flourishing nations of Europe, but as compared with their neighbours, the savages of South America, or with the state of those Indians, who groan under the Spanish yoke. Considering the matter in this, which is the true light, it will appear, that human society is infinitely obliged to the Jesuits, for adding three hundred thousand families in a well regulated community, in the room of a few vagabond untaught savages, whom they found in the beginning of their mission. And indeed it can scarce be conceived that the government had not some very extraordinary perfection, which had a principle of increase within itself; which drew others to unite themselves to the old stock, and which continued, for so many years, to shoot out in a luxuriance of new branches. Nor can we, by any means, blame a system, which produced such salutary effects, and which has found that difficult, but happy way, that grand deside ratum in politics, of uniting a perfect subjection to an entire content and satisfaction of the people. This great and generous principle it is to be wished were studied with more attention by us, who content ourselves with railing at the diligence of an adversary, which, when founded on moral rectitude, we should rather praise and imitate; and who, in our own affairs, seldom think of using other instruments than force and money. European Settlements, Vol. II. p. 285. Benighted long, all sacred truth unknown, * These arts Ignatius' sons, these pious deeds Your duty done, you seek † no worldly store; Thrice happy they o'er whom you thus preside, * Vaniere, it may be said gives in this place, with partiality to his own order, a high-flown panegyric on the missionaries of Paraguay. But when we have seen him, in the whole tenor of the foregoing notes, supported by the able and well-informed author of the Settlements in America, it must be allowed, that our Poet does not exceed the bounds of truth, and pays a tribute of applause where it was justly due. †The extraordinary, and, indeed, wonderful commonwealth, established by the Jesuists, must have been conducted with wisdom, virtue, and benevolence, since it continued flourishing and increasing more than a century and a half, up to the time of its dissolution in the year 1767, when that glorious fabric vanished in a day. It appears that in the year 1757, by a convention between Spain and Portugal, part of the territory of Paraguay was assigned to the latter; but the Indians, who occupied the ceded country, refused to be transferred from one hand to another, like an herd of cattle, without their own consent. A fierce battle ensued, and the natives were defeated by well disciplined European troops. From that time, the Jesuists were beheld with a jealous eye by the Spanish court, and, at length, in 1767, they were seized by order of the King of Spain, and sent out of America, leaving the Indians to experience for the future the rigours of Spanish tyranny, instead of that mild and equitable government, which had for a length of time preserved peace and virtue, and, by consequence, public happiness. The present writer has been assiduous in collecting the notes, because Vaniere, who has proved himself the Historian of the Bees, Who taught by you, their industry employ, Who to their neighbours sacrifice their ease, And take their model from the REALM OF BEES. will also appear to be the faithful Historian of Paraguay; a subject more connected with the Bees than Virgil's Story of Orpheus and Euridice. [Thus far the translator and author of the notes on Vaniere. If the author had carried his researches a little further, he would have discovered the true cause of the suppression of the Jesuists, to spring not so much from the jealousy of the Spanish court, as from the intrigues of the adepts of Antichristian Philosophy, who saw in this society, from their assiduity in training up youth, &c. to virtue and science, the greatest obstacle to their impious systems, and views. For more information on this subject, consult Barruel's History of Jacobinism, vol. 1. page 43. The memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal, 2 vols. 8vo. Louis XVI. dethrone avant d'etre Roi par L'ab. Proyard. The Triumph of Religion, and the two Sisters, Paris and Vienna; lately published at Vienna, in Austria. Also Hist. Socit, J. Actoribus, Orlandino, Sachino, Juventio, &c. Bartoli, Hist. Soc. J. Europ. Asiat. Afri. Amer. Tamer, Hist. Martyr. & Confess. Soc. J. with the life of St. Francis Xaverius, translated into English by Dryden, and the History of the Church of Japan by F. Crasset.] ERRATA IN APPENDIX. In page xii. chap. 4. line 4, for notion read, motion. page xv. line 10, for Interpretors read, Interpreters. line 11, for Jerom read Jerome. page xxxix. chap. 3. line 13, for by a confession or made, read or by a con page cxvi. last line but one, for with Heretics read not to keep faith with 97, 23, instead of stating that Mr. Kohlmann delivered the articles to the police read to the owners. |