so considerable and so deserving a part of your Royal patrimony, that I doubt if your Majesty has any other that excels it. It often happens, that the crops are not sufficient for their subsistence; which is partly owing to their not sowing seed enough, as they content themselves with little. But, there is a further quantity of seed sown, every year, for the widows, the orphans, the sick; and especially those employed in necessary occasions at a distance from home, for whom more is sown than for the three other purposes. Of the crops produced by this last seed, a portion is laid up to answer unexpected calls, which are likewise answered by cattle reared apart for the use of the sick. In short, of all the private or publick crops nothing is sent to the other provinces; and this, because, in spite of the greatest precaution, they are never sure of having enough for the current year. These Indians, likewise, derive great advantages from the leaves of a tree, which they dry, with a gentle heat, and afterwards reduce into powder. This is what they call Paraguay Herb. A certain portion of it is daily distributed to each of them; for it is now become as indispensably necessary as food itself.

This, however, is the only produce of their lands they dispose of, to procure themselves a great many things, which their country does not yield. What remains is employed in the service of God and that of your Majesty; namely, in purchasing embelishments for their churches, ornaments for their altars, sacred vessels and other necessaries for the celebration of the divine mysteries, and another use equally indispensable. Besides the Missionaries actually employed in the Reductions, there must be a reserve always in readiness to help or succeed them. I saw two of them die during my visitation. Now, it costs a great deal more to support these supernumeraries, and defray their voyages, than is allowed by the truely royal piety of your Majesty. It is incredible, how high the charges of an embarkation run, especially in time of war, when the new Missionaries meet with long delays at Cadiz. Now, to answer all these calls, the Neophytes lay by a certain portion of what their commerce produces.

They allot another portion to purchase horses, arms, military stores, cloathing for the soldiers and others called out into your Majesty's service. There is, at present, a great number of them at work on the fortifications of Montevideo. They are likewise obliged to keep constantly on foot a body of militia, to guard against sudden surprizes, and for the defence of their cattle against the parties, which are perpetually hovering about them, and continually forming ambuscades to plunder, massacre, or make slaves of them. These expences put together very often reduce them to such straits, that it is impossible for the Agents of the Missions to give them all the relief they stand in need of, especially in bad years.

It is for these reasons, I imagine, that these Indians have been exempted from tithes; and they enjoy this privilege in common with those under the direction of the religious of St. Francis. For this reason, when some persons would have had me exact them from the former, I did not think proper to take their advice, as the produce of their labour and their commerce does not

go all to themselves, as it does to those, who cultivate the ground in the other Provinces of Paraguay, and in those of Peru and Chili; part of it being expended in the service of God, and that of your Majesty; for, next to the service of God, the chief attention of the Missionaries is to promote your Majesty's; and they have so zealously trained up their Neophytes in it, that, though a famine and the small pox have lately carried off great numbers of them, you may still rekon on twelve or fourteen thousand men, in constant readiness to act in any capacity, and in any place, your Majesty may think proper to employ them; as they have done of late years in the Province of Paraguay, where they gave the most surprizing proofs of courage, and of their loyalty and attachment to your Royal person; having supplied themselves, at their own expence, with horses, arms, ammunition; and chearfully exposed themselves to the greatest dangers. I thought it my duty, Sire, to give you a plain and sincere account of all these matters, that your Majesty, when well informed of every particular relating to these poor Indians, may be graciously pleased to acknowledge their loyalty and their services, and likewise reward the zeal and fatigues of the Evangelical labourers who direct them.

Besides the Reductions I have all this time been speaking of, there is another, the first foundations of which were laid by the Fathers of the Company among the Pampas, who, of late years, committed great disorders in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, and on the road between it and Chili. Don Miguel de Salcedo, your Governor of Rio de la Plata, having raised a squadron of horse, sent out along with it a Jesuit, whom he charged to treat with those Infidels, who are settled, in great numbers, on this side of America, and on the borders of Chili; and his project has been crowned with success. The Missionary spoke to these Mountaineers, and engaged them to make peace with the Spaniards, and send four of their Caciques to Buenos Ayres to sign it. One of the articles is, that they should restore all the captives carried off by them within these few days. Other Caciques are arrived at Santafé, and have earnestly applied to the Rector of the College there, for two of his Religious, to instruct their whole nation in the principles of the Christian Religion, which they are desirous to embrace. The Provincial has granted their request; and it looks as if all this happened, in consequence of a special dispensation of Providence, so that I trust in God's mercy, the former will, at least, let us live in peace; and the latter, by embracing our Holy Faith, open a wide door to the propagation of the Catholick Religion in these vast countries.

It is proper, Sire, I should here take notice, that, having been to hold a visitation at Corrientes, which lies eighty leagues from the Reductions I had just left, I passed, as the Scripture expresses it, from the greatest heat to the greatest cold; that is to say, that, after being an eye witness of the most fervent piety among the Indians, I could discover nothing but lukewarmness and coldness among the Spaniards. This country is more miserable even than that of Santafé; for, though its lands are very fertile, the sloth of the inhabitants keeps them very unhappy. Their whole employment is to tear each other to pieces; and there prevails among them the greatest corruption of manners.

I was obliged to drive out of it to Buenos Ayres, and Corduba, several men, who, though they had wives at these places, maintained at Corrientes a scandalous commerce with other women; which was one of the sources of the dissentions that prevailed here.

In the course of my visitation, which was of several hundred leagues, I confirmed, in my diocese, and that of the Assumption, twenty thousand souls; and I should have had twice that number to confirm, if the plague, by which, as I have already taken notice, the Reductions have of late years been visited, had not carried off great numbers of every age and both sexes. The Religious of St. Francis have three Reductions in my diocese, which, to fulfill my obligations, I likewise visited. They are well governed. The Indians in them are well instructed, and divine service performed with great piety and devotion; but the churches are poor, and not so much frequented as those of the Fathers of the Company. Having asked the reason of this difference, they assigned two; the first was, that part of their lands have been given in command; and that the Encommenderoes are private persons, who often draw from them as many Indians as they please of both sexes, to employ them in the cultivation of their own estates and farms. Thus, these Encommenderoes not only take them from their pious exercises, and disable them from assisting at divine service, but even leave them no time to till and sow their own grounds, or build their churches. Accordingly, these towns grow thinner and thinner every day, as great numbers of the inhabitants die in the service of their Encommenderoes. The second reason was, that they are exposed to the incursions of the Payaguas, who murder or carry off a great many of these Indians. I thought it my duty to give your Majesty these informations, that you may be graciously pleased to apply to so many evils the remedies your wisdom shall judge properest to remove them.

39. LETTER FROM FIGUEROA TO PALACIOS (RELATIVE TO THE MISSION TO THE CHIQUITOS)

[1745? Father Pierre François Xavier Charlevoix, The History of Paraguay (1769), II, 370-371. Published by Lockyer Davis, London.]

A royal decree by Philip V of Spain to Don Francisco Xavier Palacios, oidor of the Audiencia of Charcas, ordered that the Chiquitos Indians should be received by him as vassals of the crown. He was at the same time ordered to make a survey of the Chiquitos missions. It was while on the way to the Chiquitos country that Palacios received the following letter from Don José de Figueroa, Marqués del Valle Umbrosso. Father Charlevoix wrote very highly of the latter. "No one

could be better acquainted," he declared, "with Spanish America than this Nobleman, who was born at Lima; had visited all the provinces within the jurisdiction of Peru; and served with great distinction in New Spain." The Chiquitos agreed to become vassals of the king of Spain and to pay him the same tribute which was paid by the Guarani Indians.

I shall think myself extremely happy in your Lordship's meeting with all the success you can desire in the affair you are going about to the Chiquites; but I cannot conceive a more difficult task, than that of taking such a list of these new Christians, as may serve to regulate, exactly, the tribute that is to be imposed upon them. I know their country well enough to be able to assure you, that, as often as southerly winds reign there, they bring with them epidemical disorders, which are constantly followed by a great mortality; so that the Reductions, instead of growing every year more and more populous, are often in danger of becoming much thinner. After all, Sir, you will be greatly pleased to meet with Christians perfectly well instructed in their religion, and all the duties of a civil life; but you will, above all, be surprized at their skill in all the mechanical arts, and the dexterity with which they go through their military exercises. You will be equally charmed with their musick, every part of which they execute to the greatest perfection. They play very well on all manner of instruments; and their ballets would please even in France and Italy. It must, indeed, be owned, that the Fathers of the Company are the only men in America, who know how to operate such wonderful changes. You will meet with a charming people; with a divine worship in all its splendor; with true Christians animated by all the zeal of the primitive Church.

These are, Sir, the riches, which these Apostolical men come in quest of to the new world; and in which their empire in Paraguay consists. It is only by immense labours, that they have thus acquired children to the Church, and subjects to the King, in men, who, before they fell into their hand, resembled wild beasts more than human beings; that they have formed them into a Republick, over which Religion and reason have an absolute sway, and which, every day, peoples Heaven with Saints. I cannot too earnestly beseech your

1 The History of Paraguay, II, 369.

Lordship to shew these Missionaries all the kindness in your power; and I am thoroughly satisfied, that they will propose nothing to you, which is not for the greater glory of God, according to the Spirit of their Holy Institute.

40. DECREE EXTENDING THE TENURE OF ENCOMIENDAS1

[February 1, 1636. Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, XXV, 145-147.]

"The natives with whom the Spaniards came in contact in the New World," declared Hackett, "were from the first regarded as wards of the crown. As a consequence the Catholic kings felt obliged not only to provide a strong protective power for the Indians, but to convert and civilize them. Also it was inevitable that the exploitation of their labor should at the same time be attempted. The chief means by which it was hoped to attain these ends was the encomienda system. This system had its beginning in the island of Española. After an uprising of the natives in 1495 they were put under tribute by Columbus- either a hawksbell of gold or an arroba (twenty-five pounds) of cotton being required of them every three months. This proving excessive, the tribute was reduced by one-half and later commuted to personal labor on the farms of the Spaniards. Still later, in 1497, Columbus allotted to the Spaniards the cultivated lands of the Indians. With these allotments, known as repartimientos, and later as encomiendas, went the forced labor of the Indians. In 1502 the crown authorized the collection of tribute from the natives, but ordered that they should receive wages for their labor." The encomienda system began in New Spain in 1522. In 1536 it was made general for the Indies. The New Laws, as we have seen, abolished it in 1542. It was restored by their repeal in 1545; and it was not until the eighteenth century that the system ceased to exist. The

1 Reprinted by permission of the publishers, The Arthur H. Clark Company of Cleveland, from The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Cleveland, 1903 to 1909. 2 Historical Documents . . ., 26-27.