104 guns, attempted to
take Colonia, in front of Buenos Ayres, from the Spaniards. Having
shelled the place for four hours, Macnamara expected every moment to
see a white flag hoisted, when, by some mishap, the _Lord Clive_ took
fire, and 262 persons perished. The Spaniards fired upon the poor
fellows in the water, only 78 escaping to land. Macnamara was seen to
sink. His sword was found a few years ago by a Colonia fisherman, who
presented it to the British consul at Montevideo. Most of the Irish
names still extant in the Argentine provinces, such as Sarsfield,
Carrol, and Butler, are probably derived from these captives. Among
the descendants of the survivors of Macnamara's expedition may be
mentioned the ablest lawyer ever known in Buenos Ayres and for many
years Prime Minister, the late Dr. Velez Sarsfield, and also Governor
O'Neill.

The year 1586 saw an expedition of a very different character,
consisting of the first Jesuits sent to convert Paraguay, under the
direction of Father Thomas Field, an Irishman, and son of a Limerick
doctor. Their vessel fell into the hands of English privateers off
the Brazilian coast, but the sea rovers respected their captives, and
after sundry adventures the latter landed at Buenos Ayres, whence
they proceeded over land to Cordoba. The year following they set out
for Paraguay, where Father Field and his companions laid the
foundation of the Jesuit commonwealth of Misiones, which had such
wonderful development in the following two centuries as to cause
Voltaire to admit that "the Jesuit establishment in Paraguay seems to
be the triumph of humanity."

Another Irish Jesuit, Father Thaddeus Ennis, appears in authority in
Misiones shortly before the downfall. In 1756, when Spain ceded San
Miguel and other missions to Portugal, Father Ennis was entrusted
with the removal lower down to Parana of such tribes as refused to
become Portuguese subjects.

Yet another Jesuit, Father Falkiner, son of an Irish Protestant
doctor in Manchester, who had himself studied medicine, was one of
the most successful travellers and missionaries of the 18th century.
Among his friends in London was a ship-captain who traded from the
coast of Guinea to Brazil, carrying slaves for the company recently
established by Queen Anne's patent, and he it doubtless was who
prevailed on the young physician to try a seafaring life. In one of
his voyages as ship surgeon, from Guinea to Buenos Ayres, he fell ill
at the