Chapter 14 — the Jesuits of Paraguay

Cacambo has been with Candide since Cadiz. He has been a choirboy, a sacristan, a sailor, a monk, a peddler, a soldier, a lackey. He loves his master because his master is a good man. He proposes the chapter's solution: they were on their way to fight against the Jesuits in Paraguay; let them go and fight for them instead. The Fathers will be delighted to have a captain who knows the Bulgarian drill. He paints the Jesuit kingdom in a famous deadpan: more than three hundred leagues across, divided into thirty provinces; the Fathers own everything, the people own nothing; a masterpiece of reason and justice.

They reach the first checkpoint. The advance guard summons the Commandant. They are disarmed. A sergeant tells them the Commandant cannot speak to them — the Father Provincial does not permit Spaniards to open their mouths in his absence. Cacambo objects: the captain isn't Spanish; he is German; he is dying of hunger. The Commandant brightens at the news of a German and orders them brought to his arbor.

The arbor is decorated with a green and gold marble colonnade, hung with cages of parakeets, hummingbirds, fly-birds, and guinea-hens. Breakfast is served on gold dishes. The Paraguayans outside are eating maize from wooden bowls in the open sun. The Commandant is a handsome young man. The astonishment when he and Candide finally look at each other is total. So you are a German? Yes. From which part? From the filthy province of Westphalia, says Candide; from the castle of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. The young man cries out. They embrace. They weep torrents. The Commandant is the young Baron, Cunégonde's brother, presumed murdered with the rest of the family. He has come back from the dead. Candide brings him still better news: Cunégonde is alive, with the Governor of Buenos Aires.