Paraguay also abounds in numerous flocks of sheep, no ways differing from those of our country. Some of the Guarany colonies have counted thirty thousand, others fewer, according to the number of inhabitants and the size of the pastures. The wool was used chiefly for the clothing of the male Indians, for the women covered themselves with a piece of white cloth made of cotton. An Indian is never content unless he has his belly well filled, and his body well covered; so that a number of sheep and oxen seemed requisite to the preservation of these colonies, the latter supplying meat for food, and the former wool for clothing. Sheep, on account of their tenderness, demand greater care than the larger cattle. Hence we were extremely solicitous to supply them with diligent and faithful shepherds, whom we frequently admonished to bring the flock at stated hours to the folds, which being furnished with a roof, though not with walls, commodiously defended them against the night dew, the heat of the sun, and the attacks of lions and tigers; not to send the sheep into the plain till the sun and wind had dried up the dew; carefully to keep them from marshy places, from the dewy grass, and from thistles and thorns; for too much moisture affects sheep with a mortal cough, and thorns tear their wool; and, lastly, to look about anxiously for pastures abounding in nitre, wholesome grass, and plenty of water. Shepherds should take great care to collect the young lambs, as soon as they are yeaned, and remove them to a safe place, where they may be suckled and licked by their mothers. Should this precaution be neglected, they will certainly be crushed under foot by the old sheep. It is also proper to see whether they are afflicted with worms, which are often bred in the wool. It conduces much to the enriching an estate to distribute the whole flock, consisting of ten or thirteen thousand sheep, into lesser companies, and to assign to each separate folds, pastures, and shepherds, that the care being divided amongst many, each may perform his own office more easily and completely. By these arts the estates of the Guaranies daily gained such accessions of sheep as an European will hardly credit.