Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Igné-Chivré, Barthelemy

IGNE-CHIVRE, Barthelemy d' (een-yay- shee-vray), Spanish explorer, b. in Bruges in 1677 ; d. in Saint Acheul in 1746. He became a Jesuit in 1699, and was attached to the South American missions in 1703. After studying the Guarani idiom in Buenos Ayres, he was in 1714 sent by the provincial to make a thorough survey of the coun- tries that border on Paraguay river, and find a shorter way from Buenos Ayres to the missions of the Chiquitos. Accompanied by two other Jesuits, he left that city, 20 Jan., 1715, and ascended the Paraguay in a canoe for 500 miles, when he met a party of Layaguas Indians, who killed his com- panions and took him prisoner. He remained with them twelve years, but managed to win their affec- tion, and civilized them. The hostile Indians, that were formerly the terror of the Spaniards, submitted to the missionary, and he organized the missions of San Bias, which soon became the most prosperous of that region. He returned to Buenos Ayres in 1727, and was elected provincial of his or- der. In that capacity he greatly extended the influ- ence of the Jesuits, and devoted his time to the bene- fit of the Indians ; but his exertions in their behalf made him obnoxious to the authorities, who ordered him to leave the country in 1731. Returning to his native land, he became rector of the College of Saint Acheul in 1734, but resigned to devote his time to the arrangement of his notes, and published " De arte Lingua Layagua," which is the only monu- ment left of the language of that extinct nation (Mechelen, 1737) ; '• Douze ans de captivite chez les Indiens du Paraguay, avec une description de leur pays, les moeurs et coutumes de ces peuples " (2 vols., with charts, Mechelen, 1742) ; and " Historia General de las misiones de la Compania de Jesus en America," the best authority on the Jesuit mis- sions in South America (6 vols., Brussels, 1745).