A Vanished Arcadia

The full title of this book is A Vanished Arcadia: Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay, 1607 to 1767. It is a historical essay published in 1901 by the Scottish writer, traveler, and social activist R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Drawing on his firsthand experiences in South America and a large body of documents, the author recounts how the Jesuits, beginning in 1607, established "reducciones" (mission settlements) in Paraguay and surrounding regions: the missionaries gathered the Guaraní into settlements, organized farming, herding, crafts, and music education, and formed armed forces to defend against slave raiders from Spain and Portugal, keeping these communities relatively autonomous and isolated from the outside world for a considerable period. The book presents both the daily order of this "half-pastoral, half-monastic" society and its conflicts with the colonial authorities, merchants, and slave hunters, as well as the process by which the entire system rapidly collapsed, its population scattered, and its villages fell into ruin after the Spanish king ordered the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. Graham's prose carries a strong sense of nostalgia and regret, while he does not conceal the paternalistic discipline and controversies of the missionary system. The book has long been regarded in the English-speaking world as an important popular work for understanding the Jesuit mission territories of Paraguay; Voltaire once called that period one of humanity's golden ages, and this book is both an elaboration and a reflection on that judgment.