It were to wrong the Paraguayrian ants, if, after having so minutely described all the mischief they commit, I were to be silent on their benefits. Some of the larger sort have a little ball in the hind part of their bodies full of very white fat, which, when collected, and melted like butter, is eaten with pleasure both by Indians and Spaniards. Other very small ants, in those shrubs which bear the quabyra-miri, deposit a wax naturally white, and consisting of small particles, which is used to make candles for the use of the altar, and when lighted exhales an odour sweeter than frankincense, but quickly melts, and though double the price of any other wax is sooner consumed. There are also ants that convey to their caves particles of fragrant rosin, which serve for frankincense. In certain parts of Asia small particles of gold are collected by the ants, from mountains which produce that metal. The inhabitants, in order to get possession of the gold, attack their caves, the repositories of this treasure, especially in the heat of the sun; but the ants stoutly defending their riches, they often return empty-handed, and sometimes are obliged to make a precipitate retreat. I have long wished that those Europeans who have to feed larks and nightingales would come to this country, and load their ships with ant-eggs: they would certainly return with great profit, and at the same time do a signal service to America. There are also incredible numbers of very large toads, especially in deserted, or but lately inhabited places. In the town of Concepcion, removed to the banks of the Salado, about evening all the streets were so covered with toads, that they were rendered as slippery as ice. They filled the chapel, our house, every place. They not unfrequently fell from the roof on to the floor, bed, or table. They could creep along the wall, and ascend and descend like flies. When the kitchen fire is kindled on the ground toads sometimes creep into the pans and kettles. Once, as I was pouring boiling water from a brass vessel into a gourd, to mix with the herb of Paraguay, I perceived that the water was bad, and of a black colour; and, on inspecting the vessel, found a toad boiled with the water, which had given it that dark hue, and was so swelled that it entirely choked up the mouth of the vessel. In the colony of the Rosary, which I founded on the banks of a lake, there was the same abundance of toads. Whilst I performed divine service the chapel swarmed with them, and though many were slain every hour of the day, for two years, their numbers seemed rather to increase than diminish. A species of toad, called by the Spaniards _escuerzos_, and much larger than European ones, are not only troublesome, but, when provoked, dangerous: for by way of revenge they squirt their urine at those by whom they are offended, and if the least drop of this liquid enter the eye it will immediately produce blindness. It is moreover