5.

Barren alike of glory and of gold

That region proved to them; nor would the soil Unto their unindustrious hands unfold

Harvests, the fruit of peace, and wine and oil, The treasures that repay contented toil

With health and weal; treasures that with them bring

No guilt for priest and penance to assoil,

Nor with their venom arm the awakened sting Of conscience at that hour when life is vanishing.

6.

But, keen of eye in their pursuit of gain,
The conquerors looked for lucre in this tree:
An annual harvest there might they attain,
Without the cost of annual industry.

'Twas but to gather in what there grew free, And share Potosi's wealth. Nor thence alone, But gold in glad exchange they soon should see From all that once the Incas called their own, Or where the Zippa's power or Zaque's laws were known.

7.

For this, in fact, though not in name, a slave,
The Indian from his family was torn ;

And droves on droves were sent to find a grave

In woods and swamps, by toil severe outworn,

No friend at hand to succor or to mourn,
In death unpitied, as in life unblest.

Oh miserable race, to slavery born!

Yet, when we look beyond this world's unrest, More miserable then the oppressors than the op

pressed.

8.

Often had Kings essayed to check the ill
By edicts not so well enforced as meant:
A present power was wanting to fulfil
Remote authority's sincere intent.

To Avarice, on its present purpose bent,
The voice of distant Justice spake in vain;
False magistrates and priests their influence lent
The accursed thing for lucre to maintain:
Oh fatal thirst of gold! oh foul reproach for Spain !

9.

Oh foul reproach! but not for Spain alone,
But for all lands that bear the Christian name!
Where'er commercial slavery is known,

Oh! shall not Justice, trumpet-tongued, proclaim
The foul reproach, the black offence, the same?
Hear, guilty France! and thou, O England,
hear,

Thou who hast half redeemed thyself from shame! When slavery from thy realms shall disappear, Then from this guilt, and not till then, wilt thou be clear.

10.

Unchecked in Paraguay it ran its course,
Till all the gentler children of the land

Well nigh had been consumed without remorse. The bolder tribes meantime, whose skilful hand Had tamed the horse, in many a warlike band Kept the field well with bow and dreadful spear. And now the Spaniards dared no more withstand Their force, but in their towns grew pale with fear, If the Mocobio or the Abipon drew near.

11.

Bear witness, Chaco,- thou, from thy domain
With Spanish blood, as erst with Indian, fed!
And Corrientes, by whose church the slain
Were piled in heaps, till for the gathered dead
One common grave was dug, one service said!
Thou too, Parana, thy sad witness bear
From shores with many a mournful vestige spread,
And monumental crosses here and there,

And monumental names that tell where dwellings were!

12.

Nor would with all their power the Kings of Spain,
Austrian or Bourbon, have at last availed
This torrent of destruction to restrain,
And save a people everywhere assailed

By men before whose face their courage quailed,
But for the virtuous agency of those

Who with the Cross alone, when arms had failed, Achieved a peaceful triumph o'er the foes,

And gave that weary land the blessings of repose.

13.

For, whensoe'er the Spaniards felt or feared
An Indian enemy, they called for aid
Upon Loyola's sons, now long endeared
To many a happy tribe, by them conveyed
From the open wilderness or woodland shade,
In towns of happiest polity to dwell.
Freely these faithful ministers essayed
The arduous enterprise, contented well

If with success they sped, or if as martyrs fell.

14.

And now it chanced some traders, who had felled The trees of precious foliage far and wide On Empalado's shore, when they beheld The inviting woodlands on its northern side, Crossed thither in their quest, and there espied Yeruti's footsteps: searching then the shade, At length a lonely dwelling they descried, And, at the thought of hostile hordes dismayed, To the nearest mission sped, and asked the Jesuit's aid.

15.

That was a call which ne'er was made in vain
Upon Loyola's sons. In Paraguay,

Much of injustice had they to complain,
Much of neglect; but, faithful laborers they
In the Lord's vineyard, there was no delay
When summoned to his work. A little band

Of converts made them ready for the way; Their spiritual father took a Cross in hand To be his staff, and forth they went to search the land.

16.

He was a man of rarest qualities,

Who to this barbarous region had confined
A spirit with the learned and the wise
Worthy to take its place, and from mankind
Receive their homage, to the immortal mind
Paid in its just inheritance of fame.

But he to humbler thoughts his heart inclined: From Gratz, amid the Styrian hills, he came, And Dobrizhoffer was the good man's honored name.

17.

It was his evil fortune to behold

The labors of his painful life destroyed;

His flock, which he had brought within the fold,
Dispersed; the work of ages rendered void;
And all of good that Paraguay enjoyed
By blind and suicidal Power o'erthrown.
So he the years of his old age employed,

A faithful chronicler, in handing down

Names which he loved, and things well worthy to be known.

18.

And thus, when exiled from the dear-loved scene, In proud Vienna he beguiled the pain