FOUNDING OF BUENOS AYRES.

463

rying out many of Yrala's original projects for extending Spanish authority over neighboring countries, by forming reductions and founding villages and towns, De Garay, hearing that the Pampa Indians were distracted by tribal dissensions, thought it a propitious time to descend the river and found a town near the mouth of La Plata. The frequent disasters to vessels from Spain had shown the absolute necessity of a port where ships and boats ascending and descending the river might find a safe harbor, or rest and refreshment after a long voyage. He effected a landing without opposition near the Riachuelo; selected a site in the vicinity of Mendoza's former settlement for the new city, which was commenced on the festival of the Holy Trinity, 1580, with the name of "Cuidad de la Santissima Trinidad." For the port the name given by Mendoza, of "Santa Maria de Buenos Ayres," was retained.

It must not be supposed, however, that the works of the town were continued without molestation from the savages. Though absent when the expedition first arrived, the Querandis, when they learned of this fresh invasion of the white man, assembled all the tribes in alliance with them from far and near; and, led by Tabobá, the greatest warrior of the country, bore down upon the founders of the new city. De Garay's men boldly sallied forth from their intrenchments, and a fierce sanguinary battle followed, the savages only giving way when they saw the fall of their chief. They then fled in every direction, closely pursued by the Spaniards; and so great was the slaughter, that the scene of the conflict, near the Barracas, upon the Riachuelo, is to this day known as Matanza, or the "Killing Ground." The lands on the river side, from Buenos Ayres to Baradero on the Parana, with the neighboring Indians, who soon gave in their submission, were divided among sixty-five of De Garay's followers.

For three years the governor continued to occupy himself with great energy in strengthening the new settlement and regulating its affairs; and before his return to Paraguay he had the satisfaction of dispatching a vessel to Spain with an account of his conquest; but, above all, freighted with a cargo of the first products ever exported from La Plata-hides and sugar; the first as an evidence of the extraordinary adaptation of the pampa country for the raising of horned cattle, the original stock having only been introduced thirty years before.

In returning to Asuncion in 1553, De Garay, having incautious

464

SEPARATION FROM PARAGUAY.

ly ventured to sleep ashore, near the site of San Espiritu, was murdered by a party of Minuas. His death was greatly deplored throughout Paraguay, and his name is associated with that of Yrala as one of the bravest, discreetest, and most beneficent of the first rulers of that country. From the permanent establishment of the town of Buenos Ayres the conquest of La Plata may be regarded as achieved, the foundation of towns which still exist in its various provinces having previously been made. But for many years the colonists were disturbed by the open hostility or treacherous attacks of the Indians.

Owing to the rapid increase of European population, all the country south of the confluence of the Paraguay and Parana was in 1620 separated from Paraguay, and the government of the "Rio de la Plata" established, with Buenos Ayres for its capital. At the same period Pope Paul V., at the request of the Spanish sovereign, Philip III., made it the seat of a bishopric.

Arrival of the Jesuits in South America.-A pious Fraud.-Early Missionaries.St. Francis Solano.-Chaco Indians.-Fathers Cataldino and Marcerata proceed to Guayra. Foundation of Loreto.-St. Ignatius, St. Thomas, and the twelve Missions.-Establishment and Destruction of the Uruguay Reductions.-Mamelucos of St. Paul.-Persecutions of the Indians.-Attack upon Guayra.-Retreat of the twelve Thousand to the Salto Grande.-Descent of the Falls.-Peace at last.-Renewal of the Uruguay Reductions.-Bickerings between Ecclesiastics and Laymen.-Retreat of another twelve thousand.-Fathers De Montoya and Tano are dispatched to the Continent: their Missions are crowned with Success.-Fire-arms and papal Briefs.-Another Attack of the Mamelucos.-Battle of Acaray.-Triumph of the Reduction Indians.-Don Bernardin de Cardenas.Excommunications.-Penitence of the Governor.-Deposition of the Bishop.Return to Asuncion.-The Dictator.-Cardenas is relieved of his assumed Authority and retires to La Plata.-Defeat of the Mamelucos and Guaycurus.Services of the Reduction Indians.

THE French soldier who, at the siege of Pampeluna, brought to the ground its gallant defender, little thought what a work he

466

THE JESUITS IN LA PLATA.

was consummating. The wounded, disabled, suffering founder of the Jesuit order, while perusing the holy and miraculous life of the Savior, instead of the adventures of knights-errant, could have had but a faint consciousness how deeply the new spirit was moving him, and how perfect a regeneration he was about to impart, not only to his own inner being, but to thousands and ten thousands of God's unredeemed creatures. But the same voice that arrested the persecutor on his way to Damascus here spoke through the pages of Holy Writ, and converted a brave soldier and his few followers into the most dauntless champions of Christianity the world has seen since the days of Paul. And thus Ignatius Loyola founded an order, probably the most complete and united in itself on record, but into the history of which enter dif ferences, divisions, and disputes, inviting either to the partisan who would unite in the enthusiasm or bitterness of one cause or the other, or to the impartial writer who would censure or applaud in an equal measure of justice. For where one has found pious zeal, unwearying devotion, and every worldly sacrifice wherewith to stamp an imperishable glory upon the deeds of Loyola's sons, another has presented a picture of selfish designs, base intrigues, secret plottings, and inordinate ambition.

That portion of the history of the Jesuits to be considered here conveys a very favorable sense of the mission marked out for many of the fathers. Whatever their European wranglings may have been, they scarcely extend to the reductions of South America. How low soever may have been their court intrigue, according to writers well informed or not, in the supplanting of ministers and strife for offices of power, a lofty calling awaited the Jesuits in the vast region of Paraguay. Pascal, Pombal, Choiseul, Aranda, Louis XV., Madame de Pompadour, Charles III., and the like, may have applied all the asperities of their respective languages to depreciate the Jesuit influence, but on this side of the Atlantic their work was holy. "It

Montesquieu, in speaking of the company of Jesus, says: is to its glory to have been the first to associate in those regions the idea of religion with that of humanity; in repairing the devastations of the Spaniards it undertook to cure one of the greatest sores that have ever infected the human race.' 11-X

Voltaire admits that, "The establishment in Paraguay of the

*Esprit des Lois, liv. iv., chap. vi.

PIOUS FRAUDS.

467 Spanish Jesuits alone seems, in some respects, to be the triumph. of humanity."*

Then let the means serve the end, and though the fathers may at times be found erring from a path strictly scrupulous, let it be borne in mind that it is for purposes not unworthy of good men.

About half a century from the discovery of the western continent, and nine years after the followers of Loyola had been organized into a religious body, a few Portuguese Jesuits accompanying the expedition of Don Thomas de Soza, Governor of Brazil, landed at Bahia de todos los Santos. They were the first of that order destined to fulfill the duties of the missionary among the aborigines of South America; and, faithful to their vocation, they were soon engaged in the arduous task of converting them to Christianity. These fathers are supposed to have facilitated their labors by a pious fraud. They came as the descendants of St. Thomas, the apostle of Christ, as chosen delegates to proclaim eternal peace and happiness to all those who would bow to the cross and come within the pale of the great Mother Church.

The supernatural and the marvelous are alluring to minds darkened by ignorance and superstition. Savonarola comprehended the springs of human impulse when he declared to a bigoted multitude that he was gifted with something more than the ordinary powers of man, for strange was the devotion of his followers even to the fiery ordeal. So also did the Indians believe that St. Thomas, the subject of every missionary's discourse, had assumed the guardianship of the land. So did they credit and adopt, as one always familiar to them, the tradition to which the Jesuitic teachings gave rise that St. Thomas had landed on the coast of Brazil, journeyed throughout the vast country of the Guarani race, preaching, cross in hand, Christianizing savages, and taming wild beasts; then, that he traversed the grassy deserts of the Grand Chaco; and finally crossed the Andes into Peru, when he must have descended, like the setting sun, into the Pacific, as we hear of him no farther. There was still another mystery connected with this mission of the apostle. It was taught and believed, that the cross he bore had been hidden by some unconverted Indians in a lake near Chiquisaca, and there found by a Padre Sarmiento.†

* Essai sur les Mours.

+ Don Pedro Alvear, commissioner appointed for adjusting the boundary line between Spanish America and Brazil.