_A South American Dictator_
The early history of Paraguay is almost identical with that of other
South American States. Spain, its conqueror and coloniser, chose a
psychological moment for the work--that enchanted period in the history
of mankind when the world was opening grand visions to poets and
inspiring warlike adventurers on mighty quests through uncharted seas
and in lands unmarked by the footsteps of civilisation. It would have
been well for the honour and glory of Spain had these adventurous
mariners and soldiers been inspired with the spirit of Arthur’s knights,
for then the history of Paraguay would not have begun amidst scenes of
brutality and bloodshed.
The earliest Spanish settlement in Paraguay was at Asuncion, under the
leadership of Dominges Irala, and the treatment which he and his
followers meted out to the Indians was similar to that which the
luckless natives experienced at the hands of the colonists throughout
the continent. The Indians were reduced practically to a state of
slavery by their taskmasters, whose relationships with the tribal women
were of none too scrupulous a character, so that when the Jesuit
missionaries arrived they found many abuses, which they did their best
to abolish. The long period during which the fathers administered the
country was one of comparative peace, and it was only when the religious
order was banished from the country that discord and strife arose.
Paraguay was separated from the province of Buenos Ayres in 1620,
although the government of both States was administered from Lima, the
Peruvian capital. When the spirit of liberation began to stir the
colonies to rebellion against the Spanish government, the enthusiasm of
Bolivar, the Liberator, quickly spread through the length and breadth
of the land, and the mother country, with her national spirit exhausted
and her exchequer depleted by the costly Napoleonic Wars, was incapable
of preventing the secession of her oversea dominions. One by one the
countries, which are all independent republics to-day, broke away from
her rule, and in the year 1811 the autonomy of Paraguay was proclaimed
after a bloodless revolution. This State was the last to join in the
general movement, and then only after having refused the proffered
assistance of the La Plata provinces, even going the length of repulsing
by force the advance of General Belgrano, who came to invite their
co-operation against the Spanish rule.
A few months afterwards, however, they changed their attitude, and
followed the example of the other States. Velasco, the Spanish Viceroy
of the province, made little or no resistance and was allowed to occupy
a position in the new Government.
This first revolution was but the precursor of a long series, not yet
ended, the initial independent Government being soon displaced by
another revolt, bloodless like the first, and a wealthy gaucho--Don
Fulgencio Yegros--became President, occupying the position for a short
period, with Dr. Francia as his adviser. In the following year another
change took place, and Francia became First Consul. For a period of
nearly thirty years this strange personality guided the destinies of the
new State entirely single handed.
Little is known of his origin and early history, but his reign of terror
is remembered to this day, and was a period of much meaning in the
history of the country.
Francia seems to have been of French or Portuguese extraction, and was
educated at Cordova, in Tucuman. His original intention appears to have
been to enter the Church, but he exchanged his theological studies for
those of the law, and on his return to Asuncion soon acquired a
reputation as an upright and honest lawyer, a hater of injustice, and a
hermit. He became one of the chief advisers during the formation of the
republic, and soon rose to the position of the head of the State,
successively styling himself Consul, Dictator, and finally Supreme and
Perpetual Dictator. In this position Francia soon gave evidence of his
remarkable personality, one of his first acts of policy being to isolate
Paraguay from the rest of the world. Erecting guardhouses along its
frontiers and forts upon its rivers, he succeeded in keeping the State
“a field enclosed” all through his long reign. Not a single native was
allowed to leave the country, and the few foreigners who succeeded in
entering had the greatest difficulty in leaving. A few trading vessels
were permitted to enter the river ports, but only when provided with the
Dictator’s licence, and under the most drastic restrictions and
supervision. As the years wore on Francia grew more and more despotic,
retiring within himself and eschewing company until he was as completely
isolated from the rest of his kind as his country was from the rest of
the world.
The masses of the people accepted his fearful rule with docility and
complaisance, but the more educated classes, whose opposition and
political intrigues endangered the tyrant’s supremacy, were treated with
the greatest severity, wholesale executions being of frequent
occurrence.
But against such excesses towards the political classes must be set the
many beneficent measures he inaugurated for preserving the peace and
increasing the prosperity of his country. Obtaining arms from abroad, he
disciplined his soldiers and struck terror into the hearts of the
bandits and highwaymen who infested the territory. He went about the
city making personal surveys, and taking levels in connection with the
improvements he undertook.
Since the expulsion of the Jesuits the Church had sadly deteriorated and
fallen low in its influence for good upon the population, and his
efforts were untiring in endeavouring to arouse the clergy to a proper
sense of their secular duties. He himself held advanced and enlightened
views which inspired him with contempt for the supine Church and its
sensual, indolent priesthood. He never attended Mass, and consistently
refused to profess adherence to a faith in which he had no belief, but
his absolute honesty and devotion to the best interests of his people
were unquestionable, and his methods saved the country from many years
of anarchy. Purging the State of dishonest servants, he set an example
which other republics might follow with advantage, and his benevolence
to the poor and weak was only equalled by his severity towards the rich
and strong.
In appearance this singular man was lean, tall, saturnine, and
forbidding, whilst his qualities were a blend of those associated with
Cromwell, Napoleon, and Robespierre. He filled his subjects with an
abiding dread, and they almost feared to mention his awful name. During
his lifetime he was “El Supremo,” and during the years immediately after
his death he was referred to as “El Defuncto.” Few save his bodyguard
dared to approach him, and when he passed through the streets he ordered
the people to retire within their houses and close all doors and windows
upon pain of death, whilst anyone found loitering in the road leading
from the palace to the barracks of San Francisco, almost the only one he
traversed, was severely beaten by the soldiers. He frustrated numerous
plots made for his assassination, and many weird stories are told of him
and his peculiar relations with his subjects. One old lady used to
relate how when a child she was sent one day to the market-place to buy
oranges, and was returning with her apron filled with them when hastily
turning a corner she came unexpectedly upon the dreaded Dictator. She
immediately fell upon her knees and begged for her life, the oranges
meanwhile scattering in all directions. Francia smiled, and gently said,
“Go, my daughter, you have done no wrong,” then rode upon his way.
On another occasion a funeral procession crossed the road as he
approached, and the bearers immediately dropped the bier, priests and
mourners hiding themselves behind the hedge at the roadside until he had
passed.
When in the year 1820 a plague of locusts (a common scourge of the
country) destroyed all the crops and ruin and starvation stared the
people in the face, the Dictator issued orders to the agriculturists to
at once sow fresh patches of land, enforcing his decree with the threat
of heavy penalties, with the result that a fairly good harvest was
secured, and the discovery made that the country was capable of yielding
two good harvests in each year.
It was only when the hand of death relieved Paraguay from the rule of
the Dictator and tyrant that the people breathed more freely. His body
was interred in the “Iglesia de la Incarnacion” in Asuncion, but the
following day it was discovered that vandal hands had scattered the
bricks of the tomb and removed the remains. What became of them still
remains a mystery, but the explanation of the priests, “that the evil
one had carried them away,” has long ceased to be regarded as
satisfactory.