Note 259 — Chapter IX

Most of the dates of the events subsequent to the cession of the seven reductions on the Uruguay are taken from ‘La Causa Jesuitica de Portugal’ (Madrid, 1768), written by Ibañez, a great enemy of the Jesuits. In it is also an account of the events in Paraguay between 1750 and 1756, called ‘Relacion de la Guerra que sustentaron los Jesuitas contra las tropas Españolas y Portuguesas en el Uruguay y Paraná’. No proof has ever been brought forward that the Jesuits as a body ever incited the revolt of the Indians, though undoubtedly Father Tadeo Ennis, a hot-headed priest, stirred up his own particular reduction to resist. It does not seem likely that the Jesuits could have thought it possible to wage a successful war against Spain and Portugal. The dates taken from Ibañez tally with original letters from the Marques de Valdelirios, the Spanish boundary commissioner, and others, which are preserved in the Spanish national archives at Simancas.