MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 363
^if cotton, of a quarter of a hun- of the fird Incas, and to have ci- dred weight each, which the Indians vilized nation?, and convened fouls, Bianufaftureinto ftutFs. There are in order to acquire fubjefts. ^lio great quantities of tobacco According to a very exa6l ac- produced: but the chief article is count, talcen in the year 17^4, there the herb Paraguay, for it grows were then 32 towns of the Guara- cnly in the dillncls of the miflions, nies, which were reckoned to con- and there is a vaft confumpcion of tain about 30,000 families; and as this herb in all the provinces of the new coiiverts v.ere continually Chili and Peru, efpeclally of that increahng, they were then about called Canini, which is the pure layirg the foundations of three new Ifaf, the infufion of which is called towns. There were alio then fevea mate, and is drank by the inhabi- very populous towns inhabited by tants of Lima twice a day in lieu of the converted Chiquito Indians, and ^ea or chocolate : the mate, which they were preparing to build others is made by the infufion of the ftalk, for the reception of the new con- is no: fo much elteemed. verts of that ration which were
'Tis now about a century and a daily made,
half iince thefe miflions were lirft The miffions of Paraguay are
fet on foot by the Jefuiti; : the bad furrounded on all fids with wild
r.ianagement of the Porcuguefe or unconverted Indians, forr.e of
greatly favoured the viewi of thefe whom live in fiiendlhip with the
fathers. There was a nation of towns, but others harrafs them by
Indians called Guaranies, feme frequent incurfions. The father
whereof were fettle J upon the banks mituonaries frequently vifit thefe
of the rivers Uruguav and Parana, Indians, and preach to the.Ti, and
and others an hundred leagues from theie expediiions they feldom
higher up in the country to the return without bringing along with
north welt of Guayra: the Portu- them fome new converts to incor-
t>uffe frequently ca.T.e upon them, porate with their civilized iubjecls.
and by force carried away as many In the performance of this duty
as they thought proper to their they fomecimes penetrate an hun-
plantations, and made fiaves of dred leagues into the wild uncul-
them : offended by fuch treatment, tivated tracts, where wild Indians
the Guaranics rciolved to quit their range, and it is cbferved that they
fettlements in the neighbourhood of meet with the leaft fuccefs amongft
the Portuguefe, and to remove in:o thofe nations with whom any fugi-
the province of Paraguay. Accord- tive Meftizos, or Spaniili criminals,
ingly a migration of 12000 perfons have taken refuge. The diligence
great and fmall enfued. Thefe the of thefe fathers is certainly worthy
jefuits loon converted, and, hav- the imitation of the Proteitant
ing had the like fuccefs in con- cl.rgv.
verting about an equal number of Every town has its curate, who
the natives of Tape, a diftrid in is afTsfted by one, and very often by
Paraguay, they united the two na- two priefts of the fame order,
tipns, and laid the foundation of accordirg to the largenefs and ex-
jheir future dominion. Thefe fa- tent of the town and its dilirift.
toers feem to have trod in the fteps 1 hefe two or three priells, toge- ther
