It is a trite proverb in Spain—_La mentira es hija de algo_, falsehood is the daughter of something. Those pernicious rumours which spread far and wide, like a pestilence, generally originate in some trifle of no consequence. Such was the fable of King Nicholas, which sprang from an ignorance of the Guarany language, was perpetuated by malice, and spread over all the world. _Tubicha_ signifies _great_ among the Guaranies; and _Mburubicha_, King or Cacique. Among the companies of Indians sent to plough the land, to cut and carry wood, or to ferry on the river, there is always a chief, who directs their motions, and whom they address by the title of _Ñanderubicha_, our chief or captain. In this manner the Uruguayan Indians called their leader, Nicholas Neengirù, _Ñanderubicha_, our captain; which, being heard by the Spaniards of Asumpcion, who speak a confused jargon of Spanish and Guarany, they ignorantly and wickedly asserted that the Indians called Nicholas their king. I must not here omit to mention, that, from the ignorance of the Spanish and Portugueze interpreters, the most unfavourable opinions of our affairs and the most execrable calumnies have often arisen. These men, from their ignorance of Latin and Guarany, have frequently misinterpreted our letters to governors, acquainted with Spanish only; so that deeds and expressions, entirely innocent, have been construed into crimes. Let us now return to Nicholas, whom error and malice have gifted with an imaginary sceptre. He was born in the city of Concepçion; his ancestors were Guarany Indians, and he had married, many years before, a Guarany woman in the city of Concepçion, where also he had held many and various offices. Father Ignatius Zierhaim boasts that this celebrated Nicholas, monarch of Paraguay, was publicly whipped, when a young man, by his orders, himself being vicar of the place. Nicholas was a tall man, with a good countenance, but grave and taciturn; his face was good-looking, though marked with a large scar. Think then how ridiculously fable must have been added to fable, when this Nicholas was made out a lay-brother of our order. Only five of this description were with us at that time, whereof two were physicians, the third had the charge of providing apparel, the fourth was employed in painting churches, and the fifth was a feeble old man, whose maladies exercised our patience and his own. None of them bore the christian or sur-name of Nicholas, and they were all Europeans. Persons of Indian extraction were never adopted into the number of priests or brothers. The Indians are none of the wisest, I own, but they are not such idiots as to crown a layman in preference to the priests, whose dignity and wisdom they rank so high, if the madness of choosing their own king _had_ possessed them. Allowing the Jesuits, in a fit of insanity, to have aimed at the sovereign power, they would not have elected an uneducated layman, but some priest of distinguished virtue and prudence.