Kitabı oku: «Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 2», sayfa 17

CHAPTER XVI.
PARAGUAY; EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM BUENOS AYRES AND PARAGUAY

1649-1805

From the date of the removal of Bishop Cárdenas as governor of Paraguay [1648], that province had enjoyed freedom from internal dissensions; until, in 1717, Don Diego Balmaceda was named governor by the Viceroy of Peru. His nomination was unpopular, and, after two years, serious charges were preferred against him before the Audience of Charcas, which that body were occupied during the three succeeding years in investigating. Meanwhile Don Jose de Antiquera had obtained the provisional succession to the post of governor; and he hastened to Paraguay to assume power. Balmaceda was, however, reinstated in authority, and he ordered the usurper to resign his pretensions. But meanwhile Antiquera had organized a considerable force, and he refused to submit to the orders of the Viceroy, and sent a party to Corrientes, who brought Balmaceda a prisoner to Asuncion.

On learning this rebellion against the Crown, the Viceroy sent instructions to the military commander of La Plata to dispossess Antiquera of his authority, and to reinstate Balmaceda. On reaching the river Tebicuari, General Garcia de Ros found Antiquera too strong to be opposed. On his retiring, Antiquera, with a view to conciliating Zavala, the governor of Buenos Ayres, sent six hundred troops to assist him in the defence of Monte Video against the Portuguese. This manœuvre, however, did not avail him, and Ros was sent a second time to assert the royal authority, with two hundred Spanish troops, backed by the forces of the Jesuit missions. The Jesuits had been expelled by Antiquera from Asuncion. On reaching the Tebicuari, Ros was encountered by Antiquera, with a force of three thousand men, and, being defeated, was compelled to return to Buenos Ayres.

1724.

The rebellion had now assumed such proportions that it could no longer be trifled with, and Zavala received peremptory orders from the Viceroy to hasten to Paraguay in person, and to send Antiquera to Lima for trial. The latter, now aware of his desperate situation, prepared to defend himself. His followers, however, began to desert him, and in March 1725 he fled from Paraguay, and took refuge in a convent at Cordova. Thence he proceeded to Bolivia, intending to throw himself on the protection of the Audience of Charcas. But he was looked upon as a public enemy, and was arrested at Chaquisaca, and sent to be tried at Lima. He was brought before the Audience, but, although his guilt was patent from the first, it was not until the trial had lasted for several years that he was condemned to be executed. The 5th of July 1731 was the day fixed for his execution. By this time the public feeling had completely veered round in his favour, and, as it was feared a rescue would be attempted, the Viceroy gave orders to fire upon the prisoner. The order was answered by a volley of musketry, and the condemned man and two friars near him fell dead from their horses.

After the flight of Antiquera from Paraguay, the Jesuits had been permitted to return to Asuncion. They were met at the distance of twelve miles from the capital by a procession headed by the governor, the bishop, and the chief civil and military functionaries. But the return of the Jesuits was displeasing to many, more especially to those who had been the partisans of Antiquera. When the governor resigned, the people claimed the right of choosing his successor—a right which in certain emergencies had been granted them by Charles V. When the news of Antiquera’s execution reached Asuncion, the indignation of the people manifested itself by their falling on the Jesuits, and expelling them from the city.

1733.

There were now two declared parties in Paraguay. That which was against longer submission to royal authority took the name of Comuneros; whilst those who were for the King were called Contrabandistas. On the resignation of Governor Barua, the Comuneros improvised a government composed of a junta, with a president as the executive head. A hostile collision was now to be feared between the dominant party at Asuncion and the nearest Jesuit “Reductions.” It was averted by the arrival of a new governor, Don Manoel de Ruiloba. Reaching the missions, he sent forward overtures to the insurgents, which so far satisfied them that he was permitted to take possession of the government. One of his first acts was to attempt to disband the Comuneros; but this was vehemently resisted; and he found himself in open opposition to the most numerous party in the state. The rebels defied him, and civil war was commenced. In the first action the governor fell.

The Bishop of Buenos Ayres, who happened to be at that time at Asuncion, was now elected governor; but he was a mere instrument in the hands of the junta, and was compelled to sign sweeping acts of confiscation against the Jesuits and the Royalists. Realizing his false position, he thought fit to embark for Buenos Ayres to resume his episcopal duties. The rebels in Paraguay had again to deal with Zavala, who had recently been appointed President of the Audience of Charcas, and who now blockaded Paraguay on all sides. Taking with him six thousand trained troops from the missions, he advanced to the Tebicuri, and, meeting with no opposition, proceeded to Asuncion, where he was received with acclamations.

As Zavala’s rapid success had been gained by means of the Jesuits’ troops, it was but natural that the Fathers should follow in their wake. They were now more powerful and arrogant than ever, and it became pretty clear that it was their intention to reduce Asuncion and all Paraguay to the same state of blind obedience to their sway in which they held their missions. To contend against them so long as they retained the ear of the King was hopeless; and the Spanish colonists now undertook to enlighten their sovereign by exposing the false pretensions of the Fathers. The Jesuits were accused of a design of founding an empire, and they were shown to have created in South America a more absolute despotism than Europe had ever known.

The reign of the Jesuits, however, was then drawing to its close. Their expulsion from the Portuguese dominions has already been recorded, and it was not long before the Jesuits of Spain shared the fate which had befallen their brethren of Portugal and of France. We have here to review the circumstances of their expulsion from South America. Zeballas had been recalled from his high post on account of his sympathies with the devoted order.

1767.

However strong may have been the reasons for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, their suppression in South America, although it may have been a necessary sequence of the first measure, had certainly an air of gross ingratitude, and seemed likely considerably to diminish the Spanish power in its colonies. The Jesuits had been the means of greatly extending the Spanish territories in the interior, and had thereby prevented the Portuguese from securing to themselves a still larger portion of the centre of the continent. They had raised many thousands of native troops who had often done good service in Paraguay, and who had fought successfully against the Portuguese both on the Guaypore and at Colonia. They had likewise delivered the Spaniards of La Plata, Paraguay, and Tucuman from their formidable native enemies, whom they had been able to conciliate. The very latest Spanish successes in Rio Grande had been due in a great measure to their assistance.

But the expulsion of the Jesuits from their headquarters of Paraguay had been included in the plan of the King of Spain and his counsellors, and four days after the issue of the royal decree banishing the order from the mother country, a ship of war was despatched to the Plata, with orders to the Viceroy to take immediate measures for the simultaneous seizure of all the Jesuits within his jurisdiction. The Viceroy, Bucareli, who received his orders on the 7th of June 1767, lost no time in carrying them into execution. Without delay he despatched sealed instructions to the governors and local authorities within his Viceroyalty, which were not to be opened until the 21st of July. On the following day all Jesuits were to be seized in the name of the King and sent to Buenos Ayres.

It may here be of interest to give a short account of the condition in which the royal order found the “Reductions.” They were now beginning to recover from the evils which had fallen upon them owing to the Treaty of Limits. But on account of that blind measure, together with illness and a subsequent war, their numbers were now reduced from one hundred and forty-four thousand to one hundred thousand. The Fathers possessed large estates and many negro slaves, who are said to have been treated with every consideration. Whatever civilization penetrated into the interior of the country was through the Jesuits. For example, one Father Schmid instructed the Chiquitos not only in the common arts of life, but in working metals and making clocks. It is said that the Moxo and Paure missions displayed more civilization than did the important Spanish city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra; whilst to the Jesuits Cordova owes its press. The Jesuits of the Guaranís printed books in one of the “Reductions” before there was any printing press either in Cordova or in Buenos Ayres.

The news of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain became public in Buenos Ayres on the 3rd of July, being eighteen days before the time fixed upon for their arrest. Orders were therefore sent to the provinces to anticipate this measure; whilst the Fathers in the college at Buenos were made prisoners on the same night. Those nearest to that city soon shared the same fate; and in the following month the college at Cordova was likewise taken possession of, and its inmates sent to the capital, whilst their invaluable library was destroyed. Nowhere did the Viceroy’s troops meet with any resistance; and the captured Jesuits were transmitted to Spain in groups of some forty individuals, being thence sent on to the Papal States.

The Fathers of the Paraguayan missions, however, had still to be dealt with. Their first move was to cause an address to be signed by their Guaraní foremen, and to present it to the governor, praying that the Jesuits might continue to live with them. That this petition came from the Jesuits themselves, and not from the Indians, was apparent. Bucareli, accordingly, taking it as an indication that they did not mean to surrender without a struggle, took energetic measures to compel them to submit. Occupying the pass of Tebicuari, and sending a force to S. Miguel, he ascended the Uruguay at the head of a further force. By way of proving the worthlessness of the Guaraní petition on behalf of the Jesuits, he caused another document to be prepared and signed by the Indian judges and caciques of some thirty towns, expressing thankfulness to the King for having relieved them from their former arduous life. Whatever else these respective petitions may show, they certainly prove how thoroughly the Guaranís had learnt the lesson of implicit obedience to whatsoever instructions they might receive, irrespective of their convictions, if they had sufficient individuality left to possess any.

But by this time it was evident that resistance was hopeless. Many of the missions had fallen into the hands of the governor, and the Fathers did not venture to bring their disciples into the field. They were sent to Buenos Ayres, and shared the fate of their brethren who had preceded them. There was indeed no discretion left to the authorities in executing the measures for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions. One of the most able and conscientious of the number, the aged Father Chomé, being confined to his bed by illness, was carried from the Chiquito missions in a hammock to Oruro, where he died from the effects of the journey. Another missionary, Father Mesner, an old and infirm man, who had laboured for thirty years in the Chiquito “Reductions,” was sent on a journey of four hundred and fifty miles to Santa Cruz. After remaining there for five months, until the season for crossing the Andes had come, he was placed upon a mule, whilst riding upon which he died. It is right to add that the Spanish Minister, on learning these facts and others of a similar nature, indignantly reproved the South-American authorities for their inhumanity. In all one hundred and fifty-five Jesuits were expelled from La Plata, Tucuman, and Paraguay.

The suffering in the “Reductions” did not fall alone or chiefly on the Jesuits. Their system of government had been so absolute, and their disciples had been reduced to such a condition of being merely thoughtless animals or machines, that, when the guidance of the Fathers was withdrawn, the whole system established by them suddenly and absolutely collapsed. No plan of government suitable to the altered condition of affairs was devised by the Spanish authorities. Priests of the mendicant orders replaced the missionaries, but without their temporal authority. The missions were formed provisionally into two governments, and an administrator was appointed to superintend each “Reduction,” with which last measure the prosperity of these communities ceased. The administrators, ignorant of the Guaraní tongue, made their commands obeyed by the lash; and before a year had elapsed the Viceroy had the mortification to learn that the Guaranís, in order to escape from the intolerable oppression of their new masters, were making their escape in numbers to seek the protection of their old enemies, the Portuguese.

On learning this unexpected occurrence, Bucareli displaced the administrators and appointed others in their stead, but with no better result as regarded the Guaranís. As the governor and the priests disputed regarding their respective powers, the Viceroy decreed that the former was to reside at Candelaria, where he was to be assisted by a staff of administrators, under whom the Guaranís were to labour as of old for the benefit of the community. The end was that cruel and compulsory work made the Indians miserable or drove them into the woods. The arts introduced by the Jesuits were neglected; their gardens and fields lay uncultivated, and their once flourishing villages, which had contained the evidences of a civilization of a century and a half, were almost deserted.

1803.

From the date of the rebellion of the Comuneros in 1735 until the close of last century, Paraguay enjoyed uninterrupted peace and quiet. In the year 1796, Ribera Espinosa was appointed governor, who, by the aid of his agents, constituted himself a general exporter, monopolizing the whole trade of the country; so that the producers realized for their goods about a tenth of what these were worth in the markets of Buenos Ayres. This state of things naturally produced such grave complaints against Ribera’s government as to provoke the intervention of the Crown. He was recalled, and was replaced by a man of a very different character, Don Bernardo Velasco, who was destined to be the last Spanish governor of Paraguay.

In the year 1803 the King of Spain issued a decree constituting the country lying between the Paraná and the Uruguay, which included all the missions, a separate province, which was called Misiones, of which Velasco was appointed governor. In 1805, the same officer was appointed governor of Paraguay, another of the same name being instructed by him as his lieutenant in Misiones.

CHAPTER XVII.
BRAZIL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; ARRIVAL OF THE BRAGANZAS

1776-1806

1776.

In tracing the course of the progress of Brazil it should be mentioned that in the year 1776 the fort of Nova Coïmbra was founded on the Upper Paraguay, in the province of Matto-Grosso, as a protection against the formidable tribe of the Guaycurús, which people, it is estimated, inflicted upon the Portuguese the loss of four thousand lives and three millions of cruzados. It should also be mentioned that about the same time the Academy of Sciences and Natural History was founded at Rio de Janeiro. One of the first meetings of this body was made remarkable by the statement of an army surgeon who had served in the war of the Seven Reductions, that a Spaniard who had been in Mexico had pointed out to him the cochineal upon several varieties of the cactus in Rio Grande. It was found soon afterwards in the island of S. Catherine, and plants with the insects were brought to the botanic garden of the Academy.

1777.

The attention of the Brazilian Government was, however, soon turned from this discovery to cares of a different description. Don Joseph Moniño, subsequently Count Florida Blanca, had recently been appointed Minister of Spain; and he sought the opportunity of distinguishing his administration in the pending disputes with Portugal concerning the limits of Brazil. He was urged on by Zeballos, now appointed the first Viceroy of La Plata and sent thither with a force of nine thousand men, with twelve ships of war and a transport. The first object of the expedition, which reached the coast of Brazil in February 1777, was the possession of Sta. Catherina, an island about thirty-six miles in length and from four to ten in breadth. The Portuguese had several times endeavoured to establish themselves on this island, but in vain. They, however, considered it as belonging to Brazil; and at length some families were transported thither from the Azores. At the date of the expedition it was defended by a fort and garrison, represented by the Spaniards as strong and numerous.

The enemy landed about nine miles from the capital of the island; but no resistance was made, and every fort and battery was deserted without firing, or even spiking, a gun. The governor fled to the mainland, his timorous example being followed by the garrison; and although he was now safe he, for unexplicable reasons, thought fit to capitulate and surrender to the King of Spain not the island of St. Catherine alone, but likewise all its dependencies upon the mainland. After this capitulation, Zeballos despatched orders to the governor of Buenos Ayres to march against Rio Grande with all the force he could collect. Don Juan de Vertiz accordingly set out for Sta. Teresa with two thousand troops and some cavalry; but the Viceroy, owing to contrary winds, was unable to enter Rio Grande, and therefore made for Monte Video, whence he proceeded without delay against Colonia.

The commandant of the latter place had long been aware of his risk, and had applied to Rio de Janeiro for reinforcements and provisions; but these had not reached him, having fallen into the hands of the enemy’s cruisers. Nor was this the only misfortune which befell him, for one of his despatches had likewise been captured, in which it was stated that his garrison could not hold out longer than the 20th of May. Zeballos reached Colonia two days after this date, when the Portuguese had only five days’ supply of food left them. Resistance seemed useless; and, at the recommendation of a council of war, an officer was sent to propose terms of capitulation. He was detained the entire day, and at nightfall sent back by Zeballos with the reply that when his works were finished he would communicate the orders of his sovereign. When his batteries were in order, he informed the Portuguese that he had been sent to punish the insult which they had committed by invading Rio Grande in time of peace; and they were required to surrender at discretion. They had no choice but to submit, and were treated with much inhumanity.

After this second success Zeballos was preparing to advance on Rio Grande when he received official information that a preliminary treaty of limits had been signed at Madrid. By it Portugal ceded Colonia with all its claims upon the northern bank of the Plata, and acknowledged the exclusive right of the Spaniards to the navigation of that stream and likewise of the Uruguay as far as to the mouth of the Pepiri Guazú. The Spanish line of frontier was to begin at the mouth of the Chui, where fort S. Miguel stood. Thence it went to the sources of the Rio Negro, which, with all other rivers flowing into the Plata or into the Uruguay below the mouth of the Pepiri Guazú, now belonged to Spain. The Rio Grande was assigned to Portugal. The Uruguay missions were to remain as they were, and a line was drawn fixing the frontier so as to protect them, the commissioners being instructed to follow the line of the tops of the mountains and so to arrange the boundary that the rivers from their source should flow always within the same demarcation. The lakes Mirim and Manqueira and the land between them, and the narrow strip between the latter and the sea, became neutral territory, which was not to be occupied by either people. The Portuguese were not to go further south than the river Tahim, nor the Spaniards further north than the Chui. The artillery taken at Rio Grande was to be restored, as was Sta. Catherina.

This treaty was looked upon with much pride by Florida Blanca as having settled a dispute which had lasted for two centuries and a half. The demarcation between the two territories from the mouth of the Pepiri northwards was in every respect the same as in the former Treaty of Limits which had been cancelled. It should be stated that by this time Pombal had fallen into disgrace, on the death of King Jozé. Many of the measures of that minister were now annulled, amongst them the companies of Maranham and Pernambuco. These had, however, done their work by the increased impulse which they had given to commerce, more especially to the growth of cotton, which they had promoted at Maranham, and which was extended to Pernambuco.

It is scarcely necessary to refer to the hostilities which, simultaneously with those of Colonia, had broken out between the Portuguese and the Spaniards on the Matto-Grosso frontier, and in which the Guaycurús were involved. This powerful tribe, however, soon made peace with the Spaniards, and at a later period this peace was extended to the Portuguese.

1789.

In another quarter of Brazil we find the first dawn of rebellion in the province of Minas Geraes, where in the year 1789 a conspiracy broke out with the view of declaring that captaincy a separate commonwealth. Fortunately, however, this plot was nipped in the bud, the chief conspirators, including the prime mover, being condemned to be hanged. The latter, however, was the only one upon whom the capital sentence was executed.

1801.

When the governor of Rio Grande had received advice of the war which had broken out in Europe, he did not wait for instructions from the Viceroy, but issued a declaration against the Spaniards, who were attacked both on the western frontier and towards the south. The fort of Chui was surprised and sacked, as were the Spanish forts upon the Gaguaron and their establishments towards the Jacuy, whilst at the same time a movement was made upon the seven “Reductions.” The Portuguese, who were formerly the objects of hatred, were received as liberators by the Guaranís, so effectually had the Jesuits’ successors done their work of estranging them from Spain. The commander was permitted by the Portuguese leader to retire with his men, but he and they were made prisoners by another band whom they met on their march.

But these colonial hostilities were of short duration, peace having been concluded between Portugal and Spain before they were effected. The Portuguese, however, insisted on retaining the seven “Reductions,” on the ground that they were not specified in the Treaty of Badajoz; and they accordingly remained a portion of Brazil. At the time of these last-mentioned hostilities, the Spaniards and Portuguese likewise appeared in arms against each other on the upper waters of the Paraguay, where Nova Coïmbra was besieged by the former and the fort of S. Jozé destroyed by the latter.

By the Treaty of Madrid, which followed that of Badajoz, France obtained from Portugal a cession of territory on the side of Guyana. As the limits of this cession were subsequently annulled, the frontier reverting to the Oyapok, no advantage would be gained by detailing them. Brazil fortunately remained at peace when the revolutionary war was renewed: but that war was to have a momentous influence on the destinies of the great Lusitanian colony, bringing about as it did the removal of the Braganzas from Portugal to Rio de Janeiro. By this event the last-named city became the seat of government of the Portuguese dominions; and there can be no doubt that it was owing mainly to the presence of the royal family that, whilst the Spanish dominions in South America, on their separation from the mother-country, became divided into as many as nine separate states, the empire of Brazil has remained one and undivided to the present day.

That vast empire had continued to make marked progress during the eighteenth century. Amongst the old captaincies none, it is said, had undergone greater change than had Pará, where the people had been reclaimed from their former chronic state of turbulence and insubordination. The slavery of the Indians was at an end, which was one great step in advance, although it was reserved for another century to witness, as it may be hoped, the extinction of negro slavery. As regards the Indians, however, the regulations decreed by Pombal for their protection had been disregarded. That statesman had wished that the aborigines should be placed on a position of equality with the Brazilians of Portuguese race—a measure which might possibly have been carried out by the aid of the Jesuits, but which with their expulsion became impossible. As it was, the Indians were governed with a high hand by the directors, who had been appointed with the view simply of guiding them.

The aldeas or settlements established by the Jesuits had undergone great depopulation, owing to the marking out of the limits as laid down in the treaty. In so vast a country, and with such imperfect means of transport, it was inevitable that the work of marking out the borders should be a tedious one, and many natives, who were required for the service of the commissioners, sank in the course of years from the labours imposed upon them or from the fevers to which they were exposed. On the departure of the Jesuits the Indians found themselves emancipated from all moral restraint. The directors did not care to exercise any, nor did they show them an example, whilst the new priests were without power. The bishop of Pará, who between the years 1784 and 1788 went over his extensive diocese, laments the decay of the aldeas and the degraded condition of the Indians.

There were twelve towns at the close of last century on the left bank of the Amazons under the government of Pará, amongst them being Faro to the far west, Obidos, Alemquer, Montalegre, Outeiro, Almerin, Mazagam, Villa Vistoza, and Macapa. The settlements on the southern side of the great river were more numerous and more important. They included Samtarem, which in 1788 contained 1300 inhabitants, and Villa Franca, which contained a similar number; also Mundrucus, so called from the tribe of that name who had begun to cultivate the arts of civilization. Towns and settlements were likewise increasing upon the river Zingu. Vieiros, Souzel, and Pombal contained in 1788 about 800 inhabitants each; whilst Gurupa, which was considered the key of the Amazons, contained 400 of European blood. Melgaço, Oeyras, and Portel were likewise considerable settlements inhabited by Indians in the same captaincy. Cameta was, with the exception of Pará, the largest town in the State, containing about 6000 white inhabitants. The communication between this place and Pará was carried on by one of those natural canals which are so narrow as only to afford a passage for canoes.

The province of Rio Negro, after the edict by which the Jesuits were removed, seems to have suffered no detriment from that measure. Its most remote establishment was distant from Pará four hundred and eighty-five leagues, which, in ascending the river, was accounted a journey of nearly three months.

Pará itself had become a populous and flourishing city, the cathedral and the palace being built on a grand scale. The Jesuits’ College had been converted into an episcopal palace and a seminary, which boasted professors of Latin rhetoric and philosophy. The city possessed a judicial establishment, a theatre, a hospital, a convent of Capuchins and likewise one of Carmelites. Ships for the navy were constructed at Pará, and timber was exported to Lisbon for the use of the arsenals. Amongst its exports were Oriental and other spices, cacao, coffee, rice, cotton, sarsaparilla, copaiba, tapioca, gum, India-rubber, chestnuts, hides, and molasses.

It unfortunately happened that the Portuguese sent to this magnificent province were of the lowest description, and who, on finding themselves in so luxuriant a locality, gave way forthwith to incurable indolence. Bishop Brandam draws a dark picture of their mode of life, and a still darker one of that of their slaves. There was a brighter side, however, to the picture of society as it existed at this time at Pará. The establishment of a wealthy colonist was so extensive as often to exceed in number the population of a town. For instance, that of Joam de Mores included more than three hundred persons, thirty sons or daughters, with their children, sitting down every day at the family dinner-table. The estate contained a pottery, a sugar-plantation, and several nurseries of cacao. The negroes were treated like children, and were well looked after. Such treatment of slaves, however, in this province, was the exception.

Passing to the adjoining captaincy of Maranham, S. Luiz was accounted the fourth city of Brazil in commercial importance, the number of ships leaving it annually towards the close of the century being nearly thirty, the result of the cultivation of rice and cotton. The population of the city was estimated at twelve thousand. The Carmelites, the Mercenarios, and the Franciscans had each a convent here. The opulent merchants possessed large estates and numerous slaves, some of them having as many as a thousand or fifteen hundred. Alcantara, on the opposite side of the bay, was a large and prosperous town, as was Guimaraens, ten leagues to the north. The interior of the province was ill peopled.