New-York tribune., 1902-01-08

A VANISHED ARCADIA. Being Some Account
OF the Jesults IN Patsguss, h Io Wiz ~ t0' MAJ
Octave PIP. xvi, 2s4 The Macmillan Company
There are few passages in the dark and
bloody history Of the Spanish rule in America
that give any relief to its gloom, or that help
us to believe that any of the instincts OF hu-
manity could have resided in the men OF SPAIN
One Of those few is contained in the story OF the
Jesuit missions in Paraguay; but that story IN
its ending, which is of the expulsion OF the
Jesuts and the destruction Of all their benlgnant
work seems only to enforce the detestation in
which the modern reader must hold the Spanish
policv and the men who carried 1t out MI
Cunninghame Graham has told the history OF
the Jesuit missions in great detail, foundlng II
upon original sources and mingng with his
narrative a keen sense Of sarcasm and viva
cious way Of commenting on the blasphemous
inconsistencies between Spanish faith and prac'
tice. He is concerned at the outset to defend
the Society of Jesus in its mission work; and
indeed not only his book, but much of the his
tory of missions and of colonization, bears him
out in his estimate of their disinerestedness and
wisdom in carrying their evangel
The Jesuits received royal patent in 1905
from Philip II TO convert the Indians in the
province of Guayra; and with their arrival I'M
mediately set the Spanish adventures who
dominated the country against them. The
colonists looked the Indians as slaves; the
Jesuits treated them as men. It is easy, says
Mr. Cunnnghame Graham. to understand the
fury this enkindled, and adds this characters
tic remark:
To-day the Furopean colonist in Africa labors
less TO enslave than to eXterminate the natives
but if a body of clergy OF any sect having the
abnegation and disregard of consequences of the
Jesuits of old should arise, fancy the fury that
would be evoked if they insisted that it We're as
truly murder to slay black man as IL Is 10
kill a whose skin is white Most fortu,
nately, our clergy Of to-day especially those or
the various churches militant in Uganda, tnlhFN
otherwise and hold that Christ was the first
inventor Of the color line
The system built up by the Jesuits for two
hundred years was able to hold the wandering
Indian tribes and to bring them into sem
blance of real civilization. 1t was based on a
policy of isolation-and il was this that reused
the opposition that finally led to its destruction
They established about thirty missions. The
life was practically a communistic one ana. as
Mr. Cunninghame Graham represents it. a most
attractive one. There in each mission. or
which there were about thirty, a church, often
adorned with rich affairs and statuary brought at
great expense from Spain; storehouse, ana great
houses for the Indians. accommodating often a
hundred families each. The Jesuits' greatest
difficulty with the natural Incidence of their
neophytes; but they succeeded. with the mex
haustible adaptability that has always charac-
terized Jesuit methods. in securing good results
in agriculture, cattle grazing weaving, tanning
carpentering and many other industries. 1t is
q most engaging picture:
To the tasks of agriculture the Jesuits mar
shalled their neophytes TO the sound of music,
and in procession to the fields. with a saint
borne high aloft the community each day at
sunrise took it's way. Along the paths, at stated
intervals, were shrines Of saints, and before
each Of them they prayed and between each OF
the shrines sang hymns. AS the procession ad-
vanced IT became gradually smaller, as groups
of Indians dropped off to work the various
fields, and finally the priest and acolyte re-
turned alone. At midday, before eating, they
all united and sang hymns, and then. after their
meal and sesta, returned to work till sundown,
when the procession again reformed and the
laborers, singing, returned to their abodes.
pleasing and Arcadian style of tillage, and diff
ferent from the system of the 'swinked" laborer
in more northern climes. But even then the
hymIal day not concluded, for after a brief
rest they all repaired TO church to sing the
rosary" and then to sup and to bed On rainy
days they worked at other industries In the
same half Arcadian, half communistic manner,
only they sang their hymns in church instead OF
in the fields
All lands and workshops we've the property Of
the community, and were worked in common,
the whole under the direction Of the two Jesuits
who lived in every town portion was set
aside for the maintenance Of widows and or
pbans; surplus capital was used to purchase
supplies. Each family received from the COM
mon stock sufficient for its maintenance during
good conduct. "a rude plenty was the order OF
the land" and the clinging kinship that exists
in all primitive peoples was fostered to their
advantage. The government was in appearance
democratic-there were various elected officials.
though they owed their election entirely to the
Jesuit Influences but, says the historian, moth
ing is further from the truth than that the Ind
fans were half slaves, nor has proof been ad-
vanced for the statement that the Jesuits
amassed great wealth from their Paraguayan
missions.
The story of the hostility to the Jesuit mission
work and its influence is long and complicated,
eliminating in the Vaccinations Of Antequera,
appointed Governor OF Paraguay in 1721; the
seventy years preceding were the halcyon period
Of the missions; the forty succeeding it were
times Of trouble and danger and bloodshed
The missions were invaded and deserted by their
peaceful inhabitants. In 1867 the edict was is
sued for the expulsion OF the Jesuits In 1870
Mr.. Cunninghame Graham visited the sites Of
their labors Some of the buildings have sur
vived, In ruins; the fields overgrown, few
scattered descendants Of tne Indians still in
habit the country. But of the Jesuts work
nothing Of significance is left to mark their
vanished Arcadia"