infant weep for unknown joy; soon, yielding to an irresistible impulse, he fell at the foot of the cross, and mingled torrents of tears with the regenerating waters that were poured upon his head.

Thus the Christian religion realized in the forests of America what fabulous history relates of an Orpheus and an Amphion,a reflection so natural that it occurred to the missionaries themselves. Certain it is that their relation, though strictly true, wore all the semblance of a fiction.

CHAPTER V.

MISSIONS OF PARAGUAY, CONTINUED.

Christian Republic-Happiness of the Indians.

THE first savages who complied with the exhortations of the Jesuits were the Guaranis,-a tribe scattered along the rivers Paranapane, Pirape, and Uraguay. They formed a large village under the direction of Fathers Maceta and Cataldino, whose names it is but just to preserve among those of the benefactors of mankind. This village was called Loretto; and, in the sequel, as other Indian churches were successively established, they were all comprehended under the general name of Reductions. In a few years their number amounted to thirty, and they collectively composed that celebrated Christian commonwealth which seemed to be a relic of antiquity discovered in the New World. They confirmed under our own eyes the great truth known to Greece and Rome, that men are to be civilized and empires founded, not by the abstract principles of philosophy, but by the aid of religion.

Each village was governed by two missionaries who superintended the affairs, both spiritual and temporal, of the little republics. No stranger was permitted to reside there longer than three days; and, to prevent all such intercourse as was liable to corrupt

1 Charlevoix.

the manners of the new Christians, they were not permitted to learn the Spanish language so as to speak it, though all the converts could read and write it correctly.

In each Reduction there were two schools, the one for the first rudiments of learning, the other for dancing and music. The latter, which likewise served as a foundation for the laws of the ancient republics, was particularly cultivated by the Guaranis, who could themselves build organs and make harps, flutes, guitars, and our martial instruments.

As soon as a boy had attained the age of seven years, the two superiors began to study his character. If he appeared adapted for mechanical occupations, he was placed in one of the workshops of the Reduction, the choice of which was left to himself. Here he became a goldsmith, gilder, watchmaker, locksmith, carpenter, cabinet-maker, weaver, or founder. All these trades were originally established by the Jesuits themselves, who had learned all the useful arts for the express purpose of instructing the Indians in them without being obliged to have recourse to strangers.

Such of the young people as preferred agricultural pursuits were enrolled in the class of husbandmen; and those who still retained any strolling propensity, from their former way of life, wandered about with the flocks.

The women worked apart from the men, at their own homes. At the beginning of every week a certain quantity of wool and cotton was distributed among them. This they were to return on the Saturday evening following, ready for further operations. They were likewise engaged in rural employments, which occupied their leisure without exceeding their strength.

There were no public markets in the villages; but on stated days each family was supplied with the necessaries of life. One of the missionaries superintended the distribution, and took care that the shares should be proportionate to the number of persons belonging to each cottage.

The ringing of a bell was the signal for beginning and leaving off work. It was heard at the first dawn of day, when the children immediately assembled in the church, and their matin concert, like that of the birds, lasted till sunrise. The men and women afterward attended mass, and then repaired to their respective labors.

At the decline of day the bell again summoned the new

citizens to the altar, and evening prayers were chanted in two parts, accompanied by a full band.

The ground was divided into lots, and each family cultivated one of them for the supply of its wants. There was besides a public field called the Possession of God.1 The produce of this common field was destined to make up for the deficiency of bad crops, and to support the widows, orphans, and infirm. It likewise served as a fund for war. If, at the end of the year, any surplus remained in the public exchequer, it went to defray the expenses of the Church and to discharge the tribute of a gold crown paid by every family to the king of Spain."

A cacique or war-chief, a corregidor for the administration of justice, regidors and alcaldes for the police and the superintendence of the public works, composed the civil, military, and political establishment of the Reductions. These magistrates were elected by the general assembly of the citizens; but it appears that they were only permitted to choose out of a certain number of persons proposed by the missionaries. This was a law borrowed from the senate and people of Rome. There was, moreover, an officer called fiscal, a kind of public controller, elected by the elders. He kept a register of all the males capable of bearing arms. A teniente was the prefect of the children. He conducted them to the church, and attended them to the schools, carrying a long stick in his hand. He reported to the missionaries such observations as he had made on the manners, dispositions, and good or bad qualities of his pupils.

Finally, the village was divided into several quarters, each of which had a superintendent. As the Indians are naturally sluggish and improvident, a person was appointed to examine the agricultural implements, and to compel the heads of families to cultivate their lands.

In case of any infringement of the laws, the first fault was punished by a secret reprimand from the missionaries; the second by a public penance at the door of the church, as among the early Christians; the third by the discipline of the whip. But, during

1 Montesquieu was mistaken in supposing that there was a community of property in Paraguay. Here we see what led him into this error.

2 Charlevoix's Hist. of Paraguay. Montesquieu has estimated this tribute at one-fifth of the capital.

the century and a half that this republic subsisted, we scarcely find a single instance of an Indian who incurred the lastmentioned chastisement. "All their faults," says Charlevoix, "are the faults of children. They continue such all their lives in many things, and have likewise all the good qualities of childhood."

The indolent were sentenced to cultivate a larger portion of the common field; so that a judicious economy had made the very defects of these innocent creatures subservient to the general prosperity.

In order to prevent licentiousness, care was taken to marry the young people at an early age. Women that had no children retired, during the absence of their husbands, to a particular building called the House of Refuge. The sexes were kept separate, very much as in the Grecian republics. They had distinct benches at church, and different doors at which they went in and out without intermingling.

There were fixed regulations for every thing, not excepting dress, which was decent and becoming, yet not ungraceful. The women wore a plain white tunic, fastened round the waist. Their arms and legs were uncovered, and their loosely-flowing hair served them instead of a veil.

The men were habited like the ancient Castilians. When they went to their work they put a white frock over this dignified dress. Those who had signalized themselves by acts of courage or virtue were distinguished by frocks of a purple color.

The Spaniards, and the Portuguese of Brazil in particular, made incursions into the territory of the Christian Republic, and often carried off some of its citizens into slavery. Determined to put an end to these depredations, the Jesuits, by delicate management, contrived to obtain permission from the Court of Madrid to arm their converts. They procured the raw materials, established foundries for cannon and manufactories of gunpowder, and trained to war those who were not suffered to live in peace. A regular military force assembled every Monday to perform evolutions and to be reviewed by the cacique. There were prizes for the archers, the pikemen, the slingers, the artillerymen, and the musketeers. The Portuguese, when they returned, instead of finding a few straggling and panic-struck husbandmen, were

met by battalions which cut them in pieces and pursued them to their very forts. It was remarked that these new troops never receded, and that they rallied without confusion amid the fire of the enemy. Such was their ardor that they were often hurried away by it in their military exercises, and it was found necessary to interrupt them for fear of accidents.

Paraguay then afforded an example of a state exempt both from the dangers of a wholly military constitution, like that of Lacedæmon, and the inconveniences of a wholly pacific community, such as that of the Quakers. The great political problem was solved. Agriculture, which sustains, and arms, which preserve, were here united. The Guaranis were planters though they had no slaves, and soldiers without being ferocious,immense and sublime advantages, which they owed to the Christian religion, and which neither the Greeks nor the Romans had ever enjoyed under their system of polytheism.

In every thing a wise medium was observed. The Christian Republic was neither absolutely agricultural, nor exclusively addicted to war, nor entirely cut off from letters and commerce. It had a little of all, and a great number of festivals. It was neither morose like Sparta, nor frivolous like Athens. The citizen was neither oppressed with toil nor intoxicated with pleasure. Finally, the missionaries, while they confined the multitude to the necessaries of life, were capable of distinguishing among the flock those children whom nature had marked for higher destinies. According to Plato's plan, they separated such as gave indications of genius, in order to initiate them in the sciences and letters. This select number was called the Congregation. The children belonging to it were educated in a kind of seminary, and subjected to the same rigid silence, seclusion, and study, as the disciples of Pythagoras. Such was the emulation which prevailed among them, that the mere threat of being sent back to the inferior schools plunged a pupil into the deepest distress. It was this excellent institution that was destined one day to furnish the country with priests, magistrates, and heroes.

The villages of the Reductions occupied a considerable space, generally on the bank of a river and in an agreeable situation. All the houses were uniform, built of stone, and of a single story; the streets were spacious and straight. In the centre of the vil