Journal from a Jesuit frontier.

• Author: Bach, Caleb

The collision between indigenous and foreign cultures in Latin America produced numerous encounters suffused with circumstances that would tax the imagination of even the most overactive magic realist. Many remarkable episodes occurred in the Jesuit province of Paraguay (present-day Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, plus frontier zones of Bolivia and southern Brazil), where, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Soldiers of Christ established fifty-seven mission settlements for more than 100,000 natives. Although the Spanish crown abruptly expelled the Society of Jesus from the continent in 1767, the so-called holy experiment left an enduring mark upon the lives of both the indigenous peoples of the region and the priests who returned home to Europe. Several of the latter wrote lengthy accounts of their exploits and misadventures, among them a Jesuit named Florian Paucke.

In the wake of the Jesuits' expulsion, Paucke took up residency in Bohemia. Referring to his diaries and sketches accumulated during fifteen years with the Mocobi Indians of Argentina, he wrote a massive two-volume account, which he entitled Hacia alla (fuimos) amenos y alegre, para aca (volvimos) amargados y entristecides [We went there agreeable and happy and returned bitter and saddened]. Still important to historians and anthropologists alike, the work contains detailed, insightful observations of daily life at a Jesuit reduction (from reducir, meaning to concentrate) but is especially notable for its many annotated watercolors that document local flora and fauna, farming and ranching techniques, and the appearance and customs of the indigenous peoples.

Aside from the valuable information they contain, the images are aesthetically appealing, possessing a charming naivete. Indeed, in 1993, the Museo de Arte Hispanoamericano "Isaac Fernandez Blanco" in Buenos Aires hosted an exhibition of some of Paucke's narrative sketches, which normally reside at a Cistercian monastery in Zwettl, Austria.

Scholars generally agree that the Jesuits managed to recruit as future missioners some of the best and brightest young men of Europe. At first the majority were Spaniards and Italians, but as ranks of the spiritual army grew, the Jesuit generals (the order was organized along military lines) were obliged to consider candidates from Reformation-tainted regions north of the Alps, including Bavaria, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Poland, Croatia, the Tirol of Austria, Switzerland, and even France and England. A review of Jesuit rolls for priests serving in Paraguay confirms this broad range of ethnic diversity--Bruno Morales, Ladislao Orosz, Nicolas Plantic, Thomas Falkner, Martin Dobrizhoffer, Josef Hayochaver, Blasius Reichinger, Francis Szerdahelvi, and Domenico Zipoli.

Paucke was Silesian, born September 24, 1719, at Witzingen, today a town near Wroclaw, Poland. The future diarist was only seventeen years old when he signed on with the Jesuits. Evident in his account is the mix of religious zeal, youthful idealism, and taste for adventure in far-off places that shaped his decision. Little could he know that it would take another sixteen years of preparation before he was assigned to a mission. The process began with five years of courses in theology and humanities at colleges run by the Order at Breslau, Nysa, and Prague.

Still, not yet an ordained priest, nonetheless his request for a posting to Paraguay was granted, and by early 1748 he and a Jesuit from Bohemia, Tadeo Enis, were on their way: Vienna, Graz, Venice, Leghorn, Cadiz, and finally Lisbon, by land and sea an arduous trip of seven months. In the Portuguese capital Paucke and Enis joined what would, in retrospect, be called "the bright mission of 1748," an especially enterprising cohort of some fifty-six Jesuit priests, students, and laymen that, in time, would distinguish itself for its inspired, devoted service. In the company of four oxen, twenty-fee cows, twenty pigs, and eight hundred chickens (much of it protein for the crossing), the...