3 1 ?
than the commercial hiflory of thefe countries. We find here not only the principalcommodities of every province diftin&Iy enumerated, but we are alfo' informed of theparticular places where they grow, their different qualities and degrees in value,the method of collecting and curing moll part of them, the manufactures of cot-ton, wool, and other materials, the produce of their mines and different kinds ofmetal, their potteries, and whatever elfe is the object of induilry and fkill: themanner of conveying them from one province to another, the great roads, the in-land and coafting navigation, their commerce with Spain , their contraband trade,the manner of introducing, and the great confumption, of European commodities andmanufactures, the advantages and diladvantages attending their prefent regulations, thedifcoveries that are yet to be made, and the improvements which may ftill take place inthe management of affairs in thofe countries: the fingular inventions of the natives forpalling great rivers, tranfporting their goods by the help of veffels of their own con-itruction, their adroitnefs in fome refpeCts, and their flupidity in others.—From the dueconfideration of this part of the work, the reader will perceive that in many things wehave been impofed upon, in former accounts; and that other things, in a long courfe ofyears, are very much changed from what they were. But inflead of old errors, wefhall find many new truths, and fome eftablifhed from example and experience, thatare of too great confequence not to be frequently remembered, and perfectly under-flood ; fuch as, that countries are not the better, and, which is ftill ftranger, are notthe richer, for producing immenfe quantities of gold and filver, fince this prevents theirbeing cultivated, expofes the natives to pafs their lives in the fevereft drudgery, and,after all, makes the digging of metal from the mine little more than drawing waterin a fieve; fince, in fuch countries, riches difappear almofl as foon as they are re-vealed. Induftry alone, in the old world and in the new, has the power of acquiringand preferving wealth, and this, too, without the trouble of mining. Befides, thoughnot infilled upon, it will be evidently feen, that feverity in government, and fuperftitionin religion, fubvert both liberty and morals, and are confequently in all refpeCls de-ftruftive of the happinefs of mankind.
The account given by our authors, of the millions which the Jefuits have eftablifhedin Paraguay , is as interefting as it is entertaining, and may be very juftly confidered asone of the mod curious and beft written parts of the whole performance; fince, at thefame time that it breathes all the deference and refpeCt poflible for the fathers, it informsus of a great variety of faCts of fo much the more confequence, as, at the time it wasWritten, nobody could forefee that the courts of Madrid and Lifbon would make fothorough a change as they have done in their fentiments in regard to this order; andtherefore the informations thefe gentlemen give us are the more to be relied on. Theyfhew us in what manner, and under what fpecious pretences the Jefuits acquired a kindof independent poffeffion of fo large a tract of country, and, except their annual tribute,an almofl abfolute dominion over an immenfe number of people. They acquaint usthat there is a civil government in every village, after the model of the Spanifh towns;but the magiflrates are chofen by the people, fubject only to the approbation of the fatherJefuit, who refides in and, in reality, governs the village. We learn from them, thatthe Jefuits draw from the people all the commodities and manufactures that are fit forforeign commerce, which are vended by a commiffary of their appointing, and the re-turns in European commodities made to and diftributed by them at their pleafure ; theytell us, that the church in every village is fpacious, and elegantly adorned; that, thoughthey are flyled villages, they are in effect large towns, and the houfes in them neat,commodious, and, in comparifon of the Spaniards’, very well furnifhed. We learn
from