In 1586 Fathers Alfonso Barcena and Angulo left the town of Santa Maria
de las Charcas (Bolivia) at the request of Francisco Vitoria,
Bishop of Santiago, who had appealed for missionaries to the Society of Jesus.
They reached the province of Guayra, and began their labours.
Shortly afterwards they were joined by Fathers Estezan Grao,
Juan Solano, and Thomas Fields; Solano and Fields had already visited
some of the wandering tribes upon the Rio Vermejo in the Chaco.

In 1593 others arrived, as Juan Romero, Gaspar de Monroy,
and Marcelino Lorenzana. Shortly after this they founded
the college in Asuncion. Then Fathers Ortega and Vellarnao penetrated
into the mountains of the Chiriguanas, and began to preach the Gospel
to the Indians.

In 1602 Acquaviva, seeing the necessity of common action,
called all the scattered Jesuits of Paraguay and the river Plate
to a conference at Salta to deliberate as to their future policy.* In 1605
Father Diego Torres was named Provincial of the Jesuits of Paraguay and Chile,
thus proving both the paucity of Jesuits in South America at the time,
and the little idea the General in Rome had of the immensity of the countries
he was dealing with.

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* Before this date the Jesuits in Paraguay had been under
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishops of Peru.
--

Torres arrived in Lima with fifteen priests, and almost at the same time
some others arrived at Buenos Ayres; both parties proceeded to Paraguay.
Already the Jesuits found themselves a prey to calumny.