| dc.description.abstract | The article, as formulated in its title, deals with the report prepared by a Jesuit Francis Burges, who was the
Attorney General of the Paraguay Province. The presented document was written around 1703 and has been kept in the
Royal Library of the Academy of History in Madrid. It consists of 36 pages and nine chapters, which informed about
various aspects of the so-called Chiquito Republic (the present south-eastern part of Bolivia in the Department of
Santa Cruz de la Sierra). Among others, it described rich flora, fauna and tropical climate which was responsible
for many diseases unknown in Europe, everyday life, mentality, beliefs and customs of the members of the Chiquito
tribe, the conquest of the Chiquito land by the Spaniards, the arrival of Jesuits who built missions there, and
Indian fights with Brazilian gold prospectors and slaves called “paulists” or “bandeirantes”. The report was
concluded with Burges’s request to King Philip V for support and financial help indispensable to maintain missions
and develop them further. | en_EN |
