In such a vast multitude of horses, there is necessarily great variety. You will see some handsomer, stronger, and swifter than others, as in Europe. Those which have a broad breast, a small head, large and black eyes, short and pricking ears, wide nostrils, a bushy mane, a large and long tail, hairy feet, a small belly, a wide round back, straight slender legs and hard hoofs, not indented, like a comb; those which, with playful alacrity, provoke the rest to fight in the plain, leap ditches without the least hesitation, cross marshes quickly, and, as soon as they are released from the saddle and bridle, joyfully roll themselves on the ground, are esteemed superior to all others in Paraguay. Those born in rough, stony situations are preferred to the natives of a soft, clayey soil; for this reason, that if you remove a horse accustomed to such places, to soft, marshy plains, you will find him slacken his pace, and walk slowly and timidly for a long time. This fear is occasioned by the earth's yielding to their hoofs. But a horse bred on a soft soil, when brought to stony places, and gravelly roads, will often stumble and get lame—his hoofs being bruised, and even made bloody by the roughness of the stones. Horseshoes are never used in Paraguay, though that country abounds in rocks and stones. A horseshoe would cost more than any horse, on account of the dearness of iron, and moreover because blacksmiths are not even known here by name. The experience of many years has taught me that horses, wherever they are born, in a few months grow accustomed to any soil. Mares kept for the purpose of breeding have their manes and tails shorn by the Spaniards, that they may fatten sooner, for I know of no other reason. But horses kept for riding are adorned with a long bushy tail, which increases their beauty and value. Even the meanest negro slave would think it an indignity and a punishment were he ordered to ride on a horse that was deprived of its tail. The Indians think we are jesting when they hear us say that in Europe there exist men who cut off the tails of their horses, and reckon it an improvement; for they think that a handsome tail is not only a great ornament to a horse, but likewise his instrument of defence, with which he drives away the swarms of flies and gnats. A Spanish priest, of an advanced age, who had long been in a bad state of health, had in his possession a horse of an extremely gentle disposition, as well as of a quick and easy pace. This horse the old man made use of, in preference to innumerable others that he possessed, in all his necessary journeys. A certain Spaniard had long wished for the horse, and vainly offered to give for it whatever price the owner chose. Impatient of repulse, he dared to threaten that, unless the old man would sell the horse of his own accord, he should steal it from him. The owner, fearing that he would have very little difficulty in