¹ Kirkpatrick, F. A., “Repartimiento-Encomienda,” HAHR, 19 (1939), 372–379 Google Scholar; Chamberlain, Robert S., “Castilian Backgrounds of the Repartimiento-Encomienda,” in Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 509 (Washington, 1939), pp. 19–66 Google Scholar; Simpson, Leslie Byrd, The Encomienda in New Spain; The Beginning of Spanish Mexico (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1950)Google Scholar; Zavala, Silvio, La encomienda indiana (Madrid, 1935)Google Scholar; Guinassi, Manuel Belaunde, La encomienda en el Perú (Lima, 1935)Google Scholar; Gibson, Charles The Aztecs under Spanish Rule; A History of the Indians in the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (Stanford, Calif., 1964), pp. 58–97 Google Scholar and Spain in America (New York, 1966), pp. 48–67; Lockhart, James, Spanish Peru, 1532–1560 (Madison, Wise, 1967), pp. 11–33 Google Scholar; Góngora, Mario, Encomenderos y estancieros (Santiago, 1970).Google Scholar These represent only the tip of the iceberg of encomienda-related studies.

² See, e.g., Lockhart, James, “Encomienda and Hacienda: The Evolution of the Great Estate in the Spanish Indies,” HAHR, 49 (1969), pp. 411–429 Google Scholar; and Keith, Robert G., “Encomienda, Hacienda and Corregimiento in Spanish America: A Structural Analysis,” HAHR, 51 (1971), pp. 431–446 Google Scholar; Bronner, Fred, “Peruvian Encomenderos in 1630: Elite Circulation and Consolidation,” HAHR 57 (1977), pp. 633–659.Google Scholar

³ Service, Elman R., “The Encomienda in Paraguay,” HAHR 31 (1951), pp. 230–252,Google Scholar and Spanish-Guarani Relations in Early Colonial Paraguay (Westport, Conn., 1971); Mérida, Jose L. Mora, Historia social de Paraguay 1600–1650 (Sevilla, 1973), pp. 141–208 Google Scholar; Chaves, Julio César, “Las ordenanzas de Ramírez de Velasco, Hernandarias y Alfaro,” Historia paraguaya, 13(1969–70), pp. 107–120 Google Scholar; and Susnik, Branislava, El indio colonial del Paraguay; El Guaraní colonial, 3 Vols. (Asunción, 1965–1971), I, pp. 9–44,Google Scholar 58–101.

⁴ The provincial elite until the 1770s was comprised of a number of families, most of whom traced their ancestry to the sixteenth century conquerors. These included the Yegros, Cabañas Ampuero, Franco de Torres, Caballero de Añasco, Caballero Bazán, Bogarín, Espínola, Benítez and others. Most were interrelated. Their elite status was displayed by their membership on the Asunción cabildo, holding commissions of senior rank in the provincial militia, and especially by the possession of encomiendas. This was not a totally closed group, although occasionally Spanish officials reported that it was. Until the second half of the eighteenth century, able non-Paraguayan creoles and most of the few Spaniards who came to the region were welcomed into this inner circle. Then, the dramatic increase in the number of migrants from Spain to Paraguay, especially Basques, caused a concomitant rise in the hostility of creoles, just as it did in Mexico. Velásquez, Rafael Eladio, El cabildo comunero de Asunción (Asunción, 1961), p. 5 Google Scholar; El gobernador del Paraguay al Fr. Dn. Julián Arriaga, Asunción, December 24, 1757, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain (hereafter AGI), Audiencia de Charcas, leg. 217; Brading, D.A., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763–1810) (Cambridge, Engl., 1971), pp. 111–113,Google Scholar 318–319.

⁵ Paraguayans described the location of these villages as follows: Ypané was 9 leagues from Asunción; Guarambaré was 1 league from Ypané; Ytá was 3 leagues from Guarambaré and 12 leagues from Asunción; Yaguarón was 2 leagues from Ytá and 14 leagues from Asunción. Caazapá was 50 leagues from Asunción; Yuti was 20 leagues from Caazapá and 70 from Asunción. The other three were Altos, 12 leagues from Asunción; Atirá, 2 leagues from Altos; and Tobatí, 5 leagues from Atirá. El cabildo de Asunción da noticia de los establecimientos, villas, y fuertes… Asunción, March 11, 1782; AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 295.

⁶ In 1785, e.g., a treasury official counting tributary males put a mark beside the names of those in the 13–17 age group as well as those 18–49. He apparently reasoned that since they were regularly working alongside their fathers and older brothers, their masters, benefitting from their labor, should also pay the obligatory taxes. This was not only illegal but also unseemly. No record of tax payment for any but a male in the 18-49 age group, with the exception of a few men over 50 whom governors failed to declare jubilado, has been found; Visita de encomiendas de indios practicada por Pedro Melo de Portugal… en 1784 y 1785, Archivo Nacional de Asunción, Asunción, Paraguay (hereafter ANA), Sección Nueva Encuademación (NE), Vol. 14; Susnik, , El indio colonial, 1, 89.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid., 68–69; Service, , Spanish Guarani Relations, 84 Google Scholar; Padrón de la encomienda en Tobatí de Felipe Villagra, año de 1726, ANE, N.E., Vol. 166; Padrón de la encomienda en Atirá de Cristobal Villalba, año de 1726, ibid.; Padrón de la encomienda en Altos de José de Rodas, año de 1726, ibid. Eighteen years later Rafael de Moneda reported that there were Indians of every age and both sexes who were fugitives from the pueblos but were working in the service of Paraguayans. Informe del gobernador del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, April 18, 1744, AGI, Charcas, leg. 217. There are few examples of this phenomenon in the censuses of 1774–1802. The failure of census takers to list the ages of females causes problems in trying to discover which or how many women were capable of working. Neither are women recorded as ciega or lépera or impedida in anywhere near the same proportion as men.

⁸ In cases where the cacique’s line had died out or where the cacique had run away, an administrador or mantenedor was appointed for this purpose.

⁹ Padrón de la encomienda en Yaguarón de Felipe Fernández, año de 1774, ANA, NE, Vol. 163.

¹⁰ The nine encomienda towns had 123 caciques principales in 1726,11 of whom were fugitives. By 1774 the number declined to 70, with 4 fugitive caciques. In 1778 the total was 57 including 4 fugitives, and in 1784, the last year for which complete records are available for all nine towns, there were 67 caciques principales, 5 of whom were fugitives. I have arbitrarily listed the administradores and mantenedores in this category. No originaria had a cacique.

¹¹ All Paraguayan governors performed inspections of encomiendas. Present research has only uncovered a portion of these. The statistics in this paper come from Sección Nueva Encuademación in the Archivo Nacional de Asunción as follows: for 1725–26 (listed as 1726), Vol. 166; for 1774, Vol. 163 (mitarios and originarios of Villa Rica and Curuguaty) and Vol. 143 (originarios of Asunción); for 1778, Vol. 16; for 1784-85 (Usted as 1784), Vol. 14; for 1790, Vol. 61; for 1793 (originarios of Villa Rica only), Vol. 163; and for 1802, Vols. 1145, 1784, and 1785. The 1793 figure for Caazapá is from Carta de Felix de Azara al virrey, Buenos Aires, May 8,1799, AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 85. The figures for the 1750s are found in El gobernador del Paraguay da cuenta de la visita general…Asunción, September 16, 1750, ibid, leg. 303; and Relación de las encomiendas de indios mitarios de los pueblos de esta gobernación del Paraguay y originarios… Asunción, January 8, 1754, ibid., Charcas, leg. 217. Only the records in the ANA give names, ages of males, fugitives, and complaints.

¹² In 1779 a money economy was introduced; El virrey a José Antonio Caballero, Buenos Aires, June 8,1799, AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 85. Treasury records in ibid., legs. 451 and 456 indicate that a good many silver pesos found their way to Paraguay earlier.

¹³ Informe del gobernador del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, April 18,1744, AGI, Charcas, leg. 217; El obispo del Paraguay José Cayetano da cuenta de haber visitado segunda vez el obispado, Asunción, November 21, 1744, ibid., leg. 374; El obispo del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, September 8, 1747, ibid.

¹⁴ El gobernador del Paraguay Juan Rodríguez Cota al rey, Asunción, September 10,1699, AGI, Charcas, leg. 216; Informe del gobernador del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, April 18, 1744, ibid., leg. 217. That they did survive was because each village kept large cattle herds to feed its people.

¹⁵ All mitarias in the eighteenth century were held for two vidas, but it was possible to hold an originaria for a third lifetime. In 1705 the need for money forced Philip V to grant the right to purchase this concession. In 1726 there were 13 originarias in tercera vida and in 1774 there were 6.

^l6 Informe del gobernador Agustín Fernando de Pinedo al rey, Asunción, January 29, 1777, ANA, Sección Historia (SH), Vol. 142, No. 4. In rural societies a boy or girl becomes useful economically when he or she can pick something up when told to do so, at about age 6. Significant economic contributions, however, begin at about 13.

¹⁷ Informe del cabildo de Asunción, August 9, 1784, ANA, NE, Vol. 56. In the census records the mitayos bear surnames, almost always Guaraní and not Spanish surnames. The originarios are listed by first names only. In court cases originarios take the family name of their masters. One also finds different marriage and sex patterns for originarios: frequent marriages to slaves and pardos libres and a much higher number of solteras with children. But one does not find much evidence of frequent Spanish-Indian sexual relations in either type. The issue of such a union was legally a mestizo and thus exempt from encomienda obligations when he was so designated by the governor. Governors seemed to have observed this regulation consistently through the eighteenth century. Early in the century they called a child of a Spanish father and Indian mother “mestizo indio” and later simply “mestizo.“ Since no record has been found of a governor who freed the mestizos in the pueblos from their communal obligations, presumably these remained in force.

¹⁸ The customary claim was that a man was qualified by the nobility of his family; that he was legitimately descended from the conquerors and first settlers of the province; and that his ancestors, father, grandfather and even further back, had also rendered important political and military services. That they had done so at their own cost without salary or compensation from the government was always stated and repeated.

¹⁹ This was one of the ways in which the Paraguayan system grew increasingly oligopolistic and also how the few powerful families maintained their wealth and status. A typical case of this kind of occurence happened in 1721 when Diego de los Reyes awarded an originaria to Sebastian Fernández Montiel menor after his father, Maestre de Campo Sebastian Fernández Montiel made the application. Over thirty years later the two, listed as Sebastian Montiel el moso and Sebastian Montiel el viejo still held their encomiendas, the younger Montiel enjoying the service of 17 Indians including 4 tributarios and el viejo holding 19, also with 4 tributarios. Auto del gobernador, Asunción, March 17, 1721, ANA, NE, Vol. 9; Relación de las encomiendas de indios de los pueblos… y originarios, Asunción, January 18, 1754, AGI, Charcas, leg. 217. One can find numerous encomienda titles awarded during the eighteenth century in ANA, NE, Vols. 9,16,50,56, 73, 144, 149, 1020 and others, and in AGI, Charcas, legs. 254–256, 258.

²⁰ Through the 1720s the governor”s selection required confirmation from the Audiencia of Charcas and the Council of the Indies. Then this practice was discontinued.

²¹ This was no mere ritual obligation. Threatened continually in the colonial period, from the west and north by hostile Indians and from the east and north by Brazilians, Paraguayans lived in a constant state of military readiness. The contrast in martial skills between Paraguayans and their counterparts in a wealthier and long pacified region like Mexico is striking. Cardozo, Efraím, El Paraguay colonial; Las raíces de la nacionalidad (Asunción, 1959), pp. 189–195 Google Scholar; Israel, J.I., Race, Class and Politics in Colonial Mexico, 1610–1670 (London, 1975), pp. 80,Google Scholar 92.

²² I found a few cases of women getting encomiendas in first life. In one Doña María Moreno possessed a mitaria in Itá which had 30-40 tributarios. She supposedly renounced it when her husband inherited an originaria of 6-8 tributarios, because legally husband and wife could not each hold an encomienda. One can judge how persistently and successfully Paraguayan encomenderos evaded the laws by the censuses made in the 1750s and 1774. Both Doña María and her husband held these encomiendas in both years. Presentación de Francisco Xavier Rojas al gobernador, Asunción, January 11, 1753; ANA, NE, Vol. 9; Decreto del gobernador Jaime Sanjust, Asunción January 11, 1753, ibid. Earlier Governor Rafael de Moneda awarded an encomienda in Atirá to Doña Mariana de Insaurralde. Auto de merced real, Asunción, July 1, 1745, ibid., Vol. 144. This was but one of several ways in which the oligarchical families were able consistently to maintain encomiendas in the family, to consolidate smaller encomiendas, get new awards, and maintain a near monopoly over Indian labor.

²³ Encomenderos were frequently dilatory in paying these taxes, especially the media anata for male Indians reaching the age of 18. Occasionally governors would order mita services stopped until these obligations were met, but I found no case of a governor dispossessing an encomendero for non-payment of taxes.

²⁴ See, e.g., Presentación del gobernador a María Isabel Cavallero, Asunción, November 10, 1772, ANA, NE, Vol. 9. The año de demora was not paid by those acquiring an encomienda in second life.

²⁵ Azara’s figures, including the two non-encomenda Indian towns of Itapé and Areguá were as follows:

Felix de Azara al virrey, Buenos Aires, May 8, 1799, AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 85.

²⁶ Full censuses are available for Asunción originarios for 1726,1774 and 1778 and for Curuguaty only in 1774. Partial figures, listing the tributarios present and all others present are available for 1754, presumably from the 1750 census. For Villa Rica full censuses are available through 1793, after which time there were so few encomendados left that it was not worthwhile for the governor to travel there to record them. Caazapá was not listed in the 1790 visita nor in that of 1802, and Yuti was omitted in 1802. These latter two pueblos fell with the jurisdiction of Villa Rica and its vecinos held some encomiendas in these two pueblos.

²⁷ In 1726 there were 809 encomendados held by 57 Asunción encomenderos; of the total, 708 Indians were present during the visita. The comparable figures for Villa Rica in 1726 are 302 Indians (total) and 266 (present) held in 20 encomiendas. In 1774 in Asunción there were 779 (total) and 730 Indians (present). In Villa Rica in 1774 there were 162 (total) and 123 encomendados (present). For Asunción originarios and those 7 pueblos in its jurisdiction, 22% were adult males (present) and 5% were adolescent males (present). Of the fugitives, around 88% were adult males. These figures hold relatively steady throughout the century. For the originarios of Villa Rica and the mitarios of Caazapá and Yuti, situated closer to Brazilian frontier, the fugitive rate was significantly higher. Brazilians enticed these Indians across the border, founding new settlements for them. Treasury records indicate that they were especially skilled cultivators of tobacco. Fugitive rates for Asunción originarios and mitarios in the 7 pueblos under its jurisdiction generally run from 5-9%.

²⁸ See my “Origins of the Rebellion of Paraguay,” HAHR, 52 (1972), pp. 219–220, 229; and López, Adalberto, The Revolt of the Comuneros. 1721–1735: A Study in the Colonial History of Paraguay (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), pp. 47–81.Google Scholar

²⁹ El gobernador del Paraguay da cuenta sobre las vacantes de indios, Asunción, March 23,1709, AGI, Charcas, leg. 216; Real cédula, San Lorenzo, July 12, 1720, ANA, NE, Vol 1145; El obispo del Paraguay da cuenta, Asunción November 21, 1744, AGI, Charcas, leg. 374.

³⁰ Real cédula, Madrid, April 4, 1773, Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina (hereafter AGN), División colonia, Sección gobierno, Sala IX, C. 26, A. 4, N. 5.

³¹ Lynch, John, The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826 (New York, 1973), p. 7.Google Scholar There were certainly humantarian considerations involved, but their importance was secondary.

³² Specifically Ley 50, tit. 8, Lib. 6 of the Recopilación.

³³ Real cédula, Madrid, April 4, 1773, AGN, División colonia, Sección gobierno, Sala IX, C. 6, A. 5, N. 5.

³⁴ Informe del gobernador del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, February 18,1767, AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 142.

³⁵ Zinny, Antonio, Historia de los gobernantes del Paraguay, 1535–1887 (Buenos Aires, 1887), pp. 185–188 Google Scholar; Nómina de las personas en quien proveyó diez y siete encomiendas el gobernador del Paraguay, nd., AGN, División colonia, Sección gobierno, S. IX, C. 26, A. 4, N. 5; Auto del gobernador y teniente oficial real, Asunción, August 3, 1774, ibid.; Carta del gobernador del Paraguay a los señores gobernador y oficiales reales de Buenos Aires, Asunción, September 8,1774, ibid.

³⁶ Clearly mistaken is John Lynch’s assertion that “The encomienda continued undiminished during the early years of the intendant regime,” and that “the only real inroad on the encomienda system in Paraguay was effected by intendant Rivera;” Spanish Colonial Administration 1782–1810; The Intendant System in the Río de la Plata (London, 1958), pp. 176–177. Pinedo was in fact the initiator, the first to begin seriously to implement the anti-encomendero policy. Rivera later claimed exclusive credit. Lynch, without access to the records in the Paraguayan archive, came to a logical but unfortunately wrong conclusion.

³⁷ Padrón, ANA, NE, Vol. 163; Expediente en razón de la encomienda que poseía Francisco Xavier de las Llanas por queja de dichos indios, ibid., Vol. 170.

³⁸ Certificación del protector general de indios naturales, Asunción, September 18, 1774; ibid.; Auto del gobernador, Asunción, May 14, 1779, ibid., In this Utter appeal, Governor Melo de Portugal said the complaints were trivial and uncorroborated. Llanas pleaded strenuously on his own behalf. He argued that two of his accusers were mulattoes, by nature untrustworthy. He attacked the Indians’ complaints similarly, charging them with being Indians, of which they were of course guilty. Two favorable depositions from other encomenderos, he said, carried more credibility than did testimony of people of color. Pinedo had seen all this testimony and correctly assessed it. Llanas al gobernador, Asunción, February 1, 1779, ibid.; Testimonio de Francisco Gonzáles de Guzmán, Valle de Tapúa, September 4, 1774; ibid.; Testimonio de Francisco Xavier Leyba, ibid.

³⁹ One realizes that using only the 1726 census to establish a norm is a hazardous evidentiary procedure. The intention, however, is the reverse. The percentages serve to confirm the considerable evidence from the standard sources.

⁴⁰ The non-attendance at mass of the encomendados of Caazapá and Yuti was scandalous. The burden of working in the dangerous yerbales fell most heavily on them. They were often absent from their pueblo, and their priest, eight or ten months a year. El obispo del Paraguay da cuenta… November 21, 1744; AGI, Charcas, leg. 374.

⁴¹ Indians of an encomienda of Ytá in 1778 reported that they were punished for having complained during the prior visita, and they were afraid. Since their encomendero favored inflicting punishment with a saber rather than a whip, their fear is understandable; Padrón de la encomienda que posee en Ytá Fernando Larios Galván, año de 1778, ANA, NE, Vol. 16.

⁴² Informe del gobernador al rey, Asunción, January 29,1777, ANA, SH, Vol. 142, No. 4; Zubizarreta, Carlos, Historia de mi ciudad (Asunción, 1964), pp. 209–215.Google Scholar Pinedo made similar criticisms on other occasions, including once after leaving Paragauay; El gobernador del Paraguay al rey, Asunción, July 29, 1776, AGI, Charcas, leg. 142; Bando del gobernador, Asunción, April 23, 1776, ibid.; Informe de Agustín Pinedo al presidente de la audiencia de la Plata; Buenos Aires, May 23, 1778, ibid., leg. 295.

⁴³ Informe al rey, Asunción, January 29, 1777, ANA, SH, Vol. 142, No. 4.

⁴⁴ In this, as in other matters, Villa Rica stands apart, as do Caazapá and Yuti in a slightly different way.

⁴⁵ See Chaves, Julio Cesár, El supremo dictador; Biografía de José Gaspar de Francia, 4a. ed. (Madrid, 1964), pp. 29–31.Google Scholar Numerous documents in the AGI reveal Indians in the former Jesuit missions and in the pueblos of Paraguay in the late eighteenth century begging for clerical administrators. Laymen came to the villages with large families to support, and this support came from the Indians. The larger an administrator’s family, the more he had to extort from the people of the pueblo. Clerics came alone, and their demands were less burdensome.

⁴⁶ Informe al rey, January 29, 1777, ANA, SH, Vol. 142, No. 4. The conclusion that there was something personal involved in Pinedo’s denunciation of the Paraguayan elite is inescapable. His assertion that the evil reputation of the encomienda prevented the conversion of such hostile nations as the Mbayá, Payaguá, Guaycurú, and others is remarkably similar to Jesuit allegations in the 1720s.

⁴⁷ See Burkholder, Mark A. and Chandler, D.S., From Impotence to Authority: The Spanish Crown and the American Audiencias, 1687–1808 (Columbia, Mo., 1977), pp. 91–92,Google Scholar for Secretary of Marine and the Indies Arriaga’s policy toward creole oidores.

⁴⁸ Pinedo grossly overstated the case. Most encomenderos actively served in the militia.

⁴⁹ Informe al rey, Asunción, January 29, 1777, ANA, SH, Vol. 142, No. 4.

⁵⁰ Quevedo, Roberto, Antequera; Historia de un silencio (Asunción, 1970), pp. 69–73 Google Scholar; Acuerdo del cabildo, Asunción, January 1, 1777, ANA, SH, Vol. 138.

⁵¹ Informe al rey, Asunción, January 29, 1777, ibid., Vol. 142.

⁵² Burkholder, and Chandler, , From Impotence to Authority, pp. 89–98.Google Scholar

⁵³ Informe del cabildo al gobernador, Asunción, February 17,1774; AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 48; Acuerdo del cabildo, Asunción, July 26, 1774, ibid.

⁵⁴ Certificación del escribano del gobierno al rey, Asunción, May 29,1776, ibid.; El cabildo al rey, Asunción, January 29,1777, ibid.; Petición del cabildo al virrey, Asunción, February 23, 1778, ibid.

⁵⁵ Informe del cabildo al gobernador intendente, Asunción, August 9, 1784, ANA, NE, Vol. 56.

⁵⁶ Ibid.; Velásquez, Rafael Eladio, El Paraguay en 1811 (Asunción, 1965), p. 77 Google Scholar; Chaves, , El supremo dictador, p. 70.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ There were two large encomiendas in Altos employed by the local bureaucrats. The governor’s encomienda in 1774 included 316 Indians, including 74 adult males and 17 adolescent males. The encomienda listed as belonging to Su Magestad, the services of which the local treasury official enjoyed, numbered 167 Indians with 43 adult males and 12 adolescent males.

⁵⁸ The figures in parentheses represent the number of Indians present at the visita plus the fugitives. Some of these were actually gone from the village in their encomendero’s service. Some are listed simply as fugitivo, while others are listed as fugitivo muchos años, and a few are called fugitivo en las provincias de abajo. Most are listed simply as “fugitive.”

⁵⁹ Factor y administrador de reales rentas de tabaco al director general, Asunción, February 13, 1784; AGN, División Colonia, Sección Gobierno, Paraguay, Tabacos y Naipes, 1784–87, S. IX, C. 20, A. 7, N. 7.

⁶⁰ A few encomiendas fall into both categories, although at different times. Some depositos which were not renewed later became vacante between 1784 and 1790.

⁶¹ Certificación al rey del escribano del gobierno, Asunción, May 29, 1776, Buenos Aires, AGI, leg. 48.

⁶² José Coene al gobernador intendente, Asunción, August 6, 1795, ANA, NE, Vol. 71; Queja de don Casimiro Coene, cacique principal al gobernador intendente, ibid.

⁶³ Coene’s wealth undoubtedly explains why he got an encomienda in deposit. In 1804, at the age of seventy five, he testified that he came from Ghent, was currently an hacendado, owning three cattle estancias, one house, a chacra, and over forty slaves. Exactly how he made his money is unknown, but treasury accounts from the 1760s show that he was then active in the tobacco trade. Declaración de José Coene, Asunción, November 20, 1804; ANA, SH, Vol. 194.

⁶⁴ The first figure represents those present at the visita and the numbers in parentheses represent those who were present plus the fugitives listed by name. Even after an encomienda became vacant, the census takers continued to list them in encomienda groupings. There was a major epidemic in 1778. This was responsible for fluctuations in some villages in that year. Its effects much later were still noticeable in others. Felix de Azara al virrey, Buenos Aires, May 8,1799; AGI, Buenos Aires, leg. 85.

⁶⁵ In the other three encomienda pueblos different trends can be perceived. In 1726 in Caazapá, there were 1275 ( 1372) encomendados; by 1774 they had declined to 752 (830); in 1778 there were 675 (753); and in 1784 there were 706 (788). In Yuti in 1726 there were 1233 ( 1407); by 1774 the number decreased to 631 (656); in 1778 it rose slightly to 645 (674); in 1784 it was 688 (719) and in 1790 there were 619 (676) encomendados. Ypané decreased also but by 1790 its population had nearly returned to its 1726 total. The figures are: for 1726,183 (203); for 1774,159(165),for 1778,153(163), for 1784–85, 144 ( 158); and for 1790, 187 (200). Since it was such a small pueblo, however, the fluctuations are not necessarily indicative of anything in particular.

⁶⁶ See, e.g., Chaves, Julio César, La revolución paraguaya de independencia; Relato y biografías de los próceres (Buenos Aires, 1961), pp. 67–103 Google Scholar; García, Benigno Riquelme, El ejército de la independencia (Asunción, 1973)Google Scholar; Moreno, Fulgencio, Estudio sobre la independencia del Paraguay (Asuncion, 1911).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Promotor defensor de real hacienda Juan Francisco Decoud al gobernador intendente, Asunción, August 23, 1804; ANA, N.E., Vol. 1145; Auto del gobernador intendente, Asunción, August 24, 1804, ibid.; El corregidor y cabildo al gobernador intendente; Y tapé, February 8, 1803, ibid.

⁶⁸ Auto del gobernador intendente, Asunción, March 5, 1802; ANA, NE, Vol. 1784; Auto del governador intendente, Atirá, March 28, 1802, ibid.

⁶⁹ Martin José Aramburu y José Joaquín Goyburu al gobernador intendente, Asunción, November 3, 1802; ANA, NE, Vol. 1145; Decreto del gobernador intendente, Asunción, November 6, 1802; ibid.; Informe de Juan Francisco Decoud al gobernador intendente, Asunción, January 5, 1803, ibid.

⁷⁰ Carta de Ramón Penayos al gobernador intendente, Partido de Tacuarí, December 30,1811, ANA, SH, Vol. 215 No. 7; Yegros, Cavaliere, Mora, Larios Galván al presidente y vocales de la superior junta de gobierno, Asunción, January 18,1812, ibid.; Velásquez, , El Paraguayen 1811, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Voltaire, Candide (Various editions); Grahame, R. B. Cunningham, A Vanished Arcadia (London, 1901)Google Scholar; Carlyle, Thomas, “Dr. Francia,” Carlyle’s Works, 20 Vols. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, (Boston, 1884), IV, pp. 205–263.Google Scholar

⁷² Mander, John, The Unrevolutionary Society (New York, 1967), pp. 26–31.Google Scholar

⁷³ Williams, John Hoyt, “Paraguayan Isolation: A Reappraisal,” HAHR, 52 (1972),pp. 102–122.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Respuesta del fiscal al consejo, Madrid, October 10, 1733, AGI, Charcas, leg. 258.

⁷⁵ This approach was suggested over fifteen years ago by McGann, Thomas F., “Southern South America,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, Vol. 18 (April, 1962), p. 379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁶ Bronner, , “Peruvian Encomenderos,” pp. 657–659.Google Scholar