REDUCTIONS
695
REDUCTIONS
in accordance with ecclesiastical practice of the times,
very good. The members of the religious socie-
ties received Communion monthly, many of them
weekly. The early marriages (boys were obliged
to marry at 17, girls at 15), strict discipline, and
surveillance fostered chastity among the natives,
which aided the natural increase of the race, ordinarily
not very fruitful (the average number of children in
each family was four). Careful control and strict
segregation of all objectionable elements did the rest.
"Such innocence prevails among these people",
Bishop Faxardo wrote, 20 May, 1720, from Buenos
Aires to Philip V, "who are composed exclusively of
Indians naturally inclined to all kinds of vices, that
I believe no mortal sin is ever committed there,
the viligance of the shepherds foreseeing and pre-
venting even the slightest fault" (Charlevoix, loc.
cit.. Ill, 94). A number of authentic testimonials
of bishops and royal visiting inspectors speak with
the greatest admiration of the religious zeal, the de-
votion, purity of morals, Christian brotherly love,
and conscientiousness of the Indians, as well as the
unshirking devotion and the edifying lives of the
priests (see Charlevoix, loc. cit., Pieces justificatives;
"Lettres edif.", loc. cit., 401; Cardiel, loc. cit., 118).
G. Schools and
Education. — Each
Reduction had, at
least during the
later period, an ele-
mentary school with
Indian teachers
educated by the
Fathers; there at
least the boys, above
all the sons of the
caciques and the
more prominent In-
dians, from whose
ranks the heads of
the villages and
other officials were
mostly taken, could
learn reading, writ-
ing, and arithmetic.
In this respect also
the Reductions were
in advance of the Spani-sh colon}^ Even Bucareli,
who later carried out the decree of expulsion in such
relentless fashion, acknowledged the work of the
Reduction schools (Brabo, loc. cit., 222; cf. Cardiel,
loc. cit., 284; Peramas, loc. cit., 37). Boys who were
especially gifted also received instruction in Latin
sufficient to enable them to perform sexton's duties
and to read at table in the "college". The schools
for singing and music were conducted very success-
fully, so that each Reduction had a capable church
choir and orchestra.
The accusation that the Jesuits studiously pre- vented the Indians from learning Spanish, in order to preserve their secrets the more securely and to prevent intercourse with the colonists, is untrue, as Bucareli attests, and is, besides, altogether absurd, since the Guarani language, then as now, was the com- mon language of the Spaniards also. The women knew no Spanish (.see Stein-Wappseus, "Handb. de AUg. Geogr. und Statist.", 7th ed., Leipzig, 1858, I, 3, 1160; also Regger and Longohamps, "Essai hist, sur la r^vol. du Parag.", Paul, 1827, 266). The fathers surely sought to introduce the Spanish lan- guage in their own interest, although it was very dif- ficult for the Indians to learn and very unpopular with them; still they followed the jus indicum (Tit. I, c. vi, leg. 18) which did not oblige the natives to learn Spanish. What the Jesuits have done for the science of languages in Paraguay has been collated and briefly dealt with by J. Dahlmann, S.J., in his
Portal
Reduction S. Borja
book "Die Spraohkunde und die Missionen" (Frei-
burg, 1891), 79.
H. Discipline and Penal Regulations. — The Indians were like children; it was necessary to accustom them to Christian morals and love of work by mildness linked with sever- ity. The daily rou- tine, marked by the ringing of the bell, the strict segrega- tion of the sexes in public community life demanded by the jus indicum, to- gether with a pru- dent .system of sur- veillance demanded by the commingling of older Christians, neophytes, and the new arrivals con- stantly coming in from the wilderness, helped to achieve this result. Another precaution was the segregation, as far as possiljle, of the Indians from the Spaniards, and from the encomienda Indians, who were mostly of questionable moral character, a measure which UUoa (loc. cit., 549), referring to the sad experi- ence in Peru, considers entirely appropriate, and the observance of which the missionaries of the Gran Chaco even to-day deem necessary (see"Kathol. Missionen", 1909-10, 135and 157). Regarding the penal discipline, even Azara, who is so averse to the Jesuits, admits "that they exercised their authority with a mildness and moderation [suMvidad y moderacidn] which one must admire" (" Descripcion 6 Hist, del Paraguay", 2 vols., Madrid, 1847, c. ciii, n. 16; UUoa, loc. cit., I, 544). Minor offences, such as laziness, public dis- turbances etc., were punished by sentences of fasting or a few blows with a whip, transgres- sions of a more se- rious character by arrest and confine- ment in jail on small rations. Refractory women were con- fined for a time in the cotiguazu, or house for the wo- men. To prevent abuse of authority on the part of the In- dian officials, they were not permit- ted to inflict pun- ishment of any kind without having pre- viously reported the case in question to the Fathers. Capi- tal punishment was never inflicted. Crimes deserving
capital pimishment, .,
u- u 1 u i Niche
which occurred but Reduction Jesua
very rarely, were
punished by expulsion from the Reduction and sur- render of the perpetrator to the Spanish author- ities. The fact that these tribes, so enamoured of liberty, did not undertake a single uprising against the missionaries, while on the other hand revolts among the encomienda Indians were very frequent, and the additional circumstance that two or three Fathers were sufficient to keep a population of 1000 to 2000
