Note 258 — Chapter IX

According to the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia (in the article titled “Reductions of Paraguay”) this treaty, signed in secret on 15 January 1750, was a deliberate assault on the Jesuit Order by the Ministers of Spain and Portugal, the latter of whom, Pombal, is said to have been responsible also for the false and libelous ‘Histoire de Nicolas I., Roy du Paraguai et Empereur des Mamalus’ (referred to in this chapter) which was distributed throughout Europe as another attack on the Jesuits. As anyone familiar with the situation could see that the Indians would not be happy about the treaty’s requirement to abandon their homes, it was a well-calculated, though detestable, move.—A. L., 1998.