Proceeding west by land, he fell in with several nations, among whom he found a great deal of wrought gold and silver ; but he was unable to discover whence they ob tained it.
As soon as Alvarez was made acquainted with this circumstance, he resolved upon undertaking a similar expedition in person, and of opening a way into Peru. Leaving Los Reyes with 300 Spaniards, and provisions for twenty days, he directed his course westward through a woody country, sometimes so impenetrable, that he was obliged to cut a passage for his troops. On the sixth day he reached the banks of a ri‘er, whose waters were very warm and transparent. Here several nations sent deputies to him with compliments and provisions, while others attempted to oppose his passage. Proceeding on, he is said to have come to a large town, ol 8000 houses or huts, in the centre of which stood a wooden tower, containing a monstrous serpent, which was deifi ed by the Indians. The capture of this town, and the destruction of its divinity, terminated the expedition ; for he was compelled to return by the murmurings of his troops, who refused to accompany him farther.
The moderation and upright conduct of Alvarez to wards the Indians, and his determined firmness in resist ing the avarice and tyranny of his countrymen, had in creased the partisans ol Irala, who now resolved upon his removal. He was seized on the 26th of April 1544, and afterwards sent prisoner to Spain, accompanied with many grievous accusations, which, however, were never substantiated. But it was not until after eight years de lay, that he was fully acquitted, and rewarded with a pen sion of 2000 gold crowns, and a scat in the council of the Indies, and in the royal audience of Seville.
The humane and temperate proceedings of Alvarez were soon forgotten under the usurpation of Irala. The Indian villages became scenes of pillage and oppression, which produced frequent revolts ; and even the Spanish colonists themselves were not free from the rapacity of his soldiery. Tyrannical and suspicious, he was conti nually surrounded with spies ; and imprisonment or death was inflicted upon all, who were suspected of con veying intelligence of his conduct, either to Spain, or the viceroy of Peru. His measures, however, though often severe, were executed with firmness and decision, and tended greatly to the extension of the Spanish pow er in America.
In 1547, the city of Assumption was erected into a bishopric by Pope Paul III. ; but it was not until 1554, that the bishop Francis Pedro de la Torre arrived with his retinue in Paraguay. Ile was accompanied by three vessels full of men, arms, and ammunition, under the command of Martin de Urua, who brought out a com mission from the emperor, continuing Irala in his go vernment ; and also various orders and regulations re specting the encomiendas and personal services of the Indians. Of these encomiendas we have already given
some account at p. 792, when speaking of the converted Indians ; and though they were intended by the empe ror to guard this class of his American subjects against the caprice and tyranny of the Europeans, yet they were often made the instruments of the most cruel bondage. —The number of Indians, already reduced or converted, were insufficient to supply all the Spaniards who laid claim to their sevices ; new settlement were consequent ly resolved upon, and detachments were sent out to dis cover proper situations for the establishment of eneo miendas, and to reduce the natives under their power.
With this view, Ciudad Real was founded in the pro vince of Guayra, in 1557, when 40,000 Indians were trained to habits of inuustry ; and a few years alter, the encomienda of Santa Cruz de la Sierra was established in Los Chiquitos, comprehending nearly 60,000 inhabi tants.-01 this system, however, Irala did not live long to promote the effects ; but being seized with a fever, he died at Assumption in 1557, after nominating his son in-law, Don Gonzalez de Mendoza, lieutenant-general and commander of the province, until the emperor's pleasure should be known. Mendoza survived his ex altation scarcely a year ; and his death was succeeded by rebellions and civil dissensions throughout the pro vince. The Spanish chiefs, ambitious of wealth, and impatient. of controul, and far removed from the autho rity of the parent state, often disputed Lb, pre-eminence. One governor refused to acknowledge the supremacy of another, and frequently retained, or seized by violence or fraud, dignities to which a successor had been ap pointed. But amidst the fierceness of contention, the Indians lound no relief from their intolerable bondage. Exposed to the arbitrary exactions and capricious cru elty of their task-masters, they were fast hastening to extinction ; and had not some farther regulations been adopted by the Spanish court, its possessions in this country would soon have been converted into an unin habited desert. The preservation and increase of the Indian population, however, was chiefly owing to the la bours of the Jesuits, who by their mildness and humani ty, not only reduced them under the dominion of the cross, but established a political government amongst them, of which promises and persuasion were the prin cipal engines of authority.