And now, gentle reader, a word in your ear! If the Guarany insurgents were indeed encouraged by the Jesuits, could they not have effected more against the royal forces? Destitute of the counsels and presence of the Fathers, they did their business stupidly and unprosperously; a circumstance mightily advantageous, both to the Spaniards and Portugueze, whose victory was owing to the bungling management of their opponents. About the beginning of the disturbances, one Joseph, Corregidor of S. Miguel, was elected general of their forces against the Portugueze. This Joseph, an active and courageous man, behaved like a good soldier but an execrable general, for he was as ignorant of military tactics as I am of the black art. On his falling in a chance skirmish, Nicholas Neengirù, many years Corregidor of the city of Concepçion, succeeded. Under his conduct the war was poorly carried on; and the affairs of the Uruguayans gradually declining, the seven towns were delivered up to the royal forces. But, reader, when you utter the name of Nicholas Neengirù, uncover your head and bend your knee, or rather, if you know all, burst into laughter. This is that celebrated Nicholas Neengirù whom the Europeans called King of Paraguay, whilst Paraguay itself had not an inkling of the matter. At the very time when the feigned majesty of the King of Paraguay employed every mouth and press in Europe, I saw this Nicholas Neengirù, with naked feet, and garments after the Indian fashion, sometimes driving cattle before the shambles, sometimes chopping wood in the market-place; and when I considered him and his occupation, could hardly refrain from laughter.
But mark the progress of King Nicholas's fate. To obtain for the base fiction an appearance of truth, a person in the kingdom of Quito was bribed to get money coined and stamped with the name of King Nicholas. This base money was issued both in Europe and America, and no one could doubt its being coined in Paraguay by the pretended king, where, from the want of bullion, the Catholic kings themselves had no mint. The deceit however at length appeared; on March the 20th, 1760, the artificer of the coin wrote a letter to the King, in which he confessed – "that he was compelled by the secret stings of conscience to divulge his crime," &c. This letter detected the venal wretch who instigated him to coin the money of King Nicholas.
The fame of King Nicholas and the money issued in his name gave reasonable apprehension to the Court of Madrid; but Pedro Zevallos, who was sent with an army to reclaim Paraguay, soon perceived that it was all a false alarm, and declared the same in letters to the king. If any one doubt my veracity, let him examine the Madrid newspapers, published in the October of 1768, where he will find these words: – "Whatever has been rumoured of King Nicholas is certified to be a fabulous invention." If you require yet stronger evidence, attend to what follows. The tumults in the Uruguay being settled, Nicholas went himself to the Spanish camp, and appearing, of his own accord, before the royal governour, Joseph Andonaegui, gave him an account of all his proceedings. He was quietly heard, dismissed unpunished, and continued in his office of Corregidor. Had he been even suspected of affecting the crown of Paraguay, how different would have been his treatment! Loaded with fetters, – locked in a horrible dungeon, – he would have expiated his crime by some fearful punishment, and perhaps been torn limb from limb. But let us trace the story to its source.
It is a trite proverb in Spain —La mentira es hija de algo, falsehood is the daughter of something. Those pernicious rumours which spread far and wide, like a pestilence, generally originate in some trifle of no consequence. Such was the fable of King Nicholas, which sprang from an ignorance of the Guarany language, was perpetuated by malice, and spread over all the world. Tubicha signifies great among the Guaranies; and Mburubicha, King or Cacique. Among the companies of Indians sent to plough the land, to cut and carry wood, or to ferry on the river, there is always a chief, who directs their motions, and whom they address by the title of Ñanderubicha, our chief or captain. In this manner the Uruguayan Indians called their leader, Nicholas Neengirù, Ñanderubicha, our captain; which, being heard by the Spaniards of Asumpcion, who speak a confused jargon of Spanish and Guarany, they ignorantly and wickedly asserted that the Indians called Nicholas their king. I must not here omit to mention, that, from the ignorance of the Spanish and Portugueze interpreters, the most unfavourable opinions of our affairs and the most execrable calumnies have often arisen. These men, from their ignorance of Latin and Guarany, have frequently misinterpreted our letters to governors, acquainted with Spanish only; so that deeds and expressions, entirely innocent, have been construed into crimes.
Let us now return to Nicholas, whom error and malice have gifted with an imaginary sceptre. He was born in the city of Concepçion; his ancestors were Guarany Indians, and he had married, many years before, a Guarany woman in the city of Concepçion, where also he had held many and various offices. Father Ignatius Zierhaim boasts that this celebrated Nicholas, monarch of Paraguay, was publicly whipped, when a young man, by his orders, himself being vicar of the place. Nicholas was a tall man, with a good countenance, but grave and taciturn; his face was good-looking, though marked with a large scar. Think then how ridiculously fable must have been added to fable, when this Nicholas was made out a lay-brother of our order. Only five of this description were with us at that time, whereof two were physicians, the third had the charge of providing apparel, the fourth was employed in painting churches, and the fifth was a feeble old man, whose maladies exercised our patience and his own. None of them bore the christian or sur-name of Nicholas, and they were all Europeans. Persons of Indian extraction were never adopted into the number of priests or brothers. The Indians are none of the wisest, I own, but they are not such idiots as to crown a layman in preference to the priests, whose dignity and wisdom they rank so high, if the madness of choosing their own king had possessed them. Allowing the Jesuits, in a fit of insanity, to have aimed at the sovereign power, they would not have elected an uneducated layman, but some priest of distinguished virtue and prudence. An anonymous Frenchman, in a book intitled, Nouvelles Pièces intéressantes et nécessaires, says, page 18, "I will now show you the origin of Nicholas, King of Paraguay, being supposed a lay-brother. Some Spanish countrymen happened, in the course of conversation, to mention the late insurrection on the banks of the Uruguay." "Verily," says one, "if the Jesuits be wise, they will put the government of the Indians into the hands of Joseph Fernandez, a lay-brother of theirs." This Joseph was a native of Spain, formerly lieutenant of some light-armed cavalry of the king's, and a man of great military science. We never find a story lose by carrying. The vain supposition of putting the Indians under the conduct of this lay-brother was reported in such a manner that what one said should be done, another said was done, and the rest giving implicit credit to their asseverations, a prodigious tale grew out of nothing. This Joseph Fernandez, during the disturbances of the Uruguay, was master of the public school at Tucuman, and necessarily remarked by the whole of this populous town, if he intermitted his attendance for a single day. Having held the office of school-master many years, he managed an estate in the neighbourhood of the city, and so diligent was he in the exercise of his calling, that I could swear to his never having seen the land of the Guaranies of which he was reported King.
To corroborate my account I shall subjoin a few circumstances relative to this affair. From the seven towns which were garrisoned on their surrender by the Spaniards, upwards of thirty thousand Indians departed. Among all who witnessed these innocent exiles, their tender infants, and their feeble old men, not one but shed a tear of compassion. Fifteen thousand of the emigrants were received by the towns of the Parana, and lodged in hovels of straw, – they whose former homes had been of stone, well-built, and commodious. Nearly the same number were dispersed over the plains of the Uruguay, where numerous herds of cattle supplied the means of subsistence. The towns at length evacuated, were offered by the Spanish Governour to the Portugueze, but not accepted. Amongst other ways of accounting for this refusal on the part of the Portugueze, it was reported, that, after exploring the lands of the Uruguay, they found them destitute of the gold and silver they expected to find there. At this crisis of affairs died Barbara, Queen of