There were, (who could believe it?) among the herd of Spaniards, men of so hardened a conscience as to whisper in the ears of the Indians, that the king had never enjoined the delivery of their towns, but that the Jesuits had sold them to the Portugueze. Such convincing proofs, however, had the fathers given of their good-will towards the Guaranies, that the pestilent falsehood never gained credit; some suspicions, however, were engrafted in the minds of the least wise. Many of the missionaries, who urged the migration with more fervour than prudence, had nearly been slain by the Indians in the phrenzy of their patriotism. Father Bernardo Nusdorfer, superior, as it is called, of the Guarany towns, and conspicuous for the magistracies he had held, for his venerable age, his thorough knowledge of the Indian tongue, and lastly, for his authority and favour with the people, visited the seven cities, exhorted them again and again, with every kind of argument, to respect the injunction of the Catholic King, and thought he had prevailed; but as the Indians are of a versatile and unsteady disposition, when the time for executing the decree arrived, unmindful alike of their promises and intentions they would not endure even the mention of the migration. When the Jesuit, Father Ludovico Altamirano, was sent in the king's name from Spain to Portugal, to hasten the delivery of the towns, the Indians would not acknowledge him as a Jesuit or a Spaniard, because they saw him differ in dress and diet. They even dared to pronounce him a Portugueze disguised in the habit of our order. Terrified at a report that the Indians were approaching him in the city of St. Thomas, he consulted his safety by flying in the night, and soon after I found him, to my great amusement, in the city of Santa Fé, out of danger, and hastening to the Abiponian colonies. Had the Indians shown as much alacrity in yielding to our admonitions, as the Jesuits evinced in endeavouring to inculcate obedience into their wavering minds, the business would have been happily effected without disturbance or delay; but we seldom gained attention, much less compliance. The public supplications in the market-place, undertaken for the purpose of persuading their minds, in which a priest of our order, crowned with thorns, in a mournful voice exhorted the by-standers, with threats and groans, to proceed with the emigration; these supplications had so good an effect, that the major part promised conformity: nor did the matter end in words. A journey was undertaken by the missionaries the next day, to mark out the limits of the new towns; but the remembrance of their birth-place soon after recurring, it was broken off.