87.8k views
2 votes
How does the comment by the observer reflect the Jesuits' effects on Native Americans?

An Observer Comments on South America after the Jesuits' Expulsion, 1800s
Still, in America . . . I hope to show the Order did much good, and worked amongst the Indians like apostles, receiving an apostle's true reward of calumny, of stripes, of blows, and journeying hungry, athirst, on foot. . . . My only interest in the matter is how the Jesuits' rule acted upon the Indians themselves, and if it made them happy — more happy or less happy than those Indians who were directly ruled from Spain, or through the Spanish Governors of the viceroyalties . . . the best right that a man can have is to be happy after the way that pleases him the most. And that the Jesuits rendered the Indians happy is certain. . . . All that I know is I myself, in the deserted missions, five-and-twenty years ago often have met old men who spoke regretfully of Jesuit times, who cherished all the customs left by the company. . . . None of the Jesuits were ever tried; no crimes were charged against them; even the reasons for their expulsion were never given to the world at large. Certain it is that but a few years after their final exit from the missions . . . all was confusion.
—R.B. Cunningham Graham, A Vanished Arcadia, 1924

1 Answer

2 votes

The observer emphasized a negative impression against the Jesuits’ effects on Native Americans based on the old natives whom he spoke about how they regretted the presence of the Jesuits. In addition, all they got is uncertain and unanswered truths. Moreover, the observer is confused whether the Native Americans are truly happy or displeased with the influences of the Jesuits.

User Sznrbrt
by
6.5k points