In the commencement of a journey they daily send out scouts in all directions, who, if they discover any traces of a foreign nation or any mark of hostile designs, immediately announce it to their fellow-soldiers. They generally choose a situation to pass the night in, which, being guarded behind, and on both sides by a lake, river, or thick wood, renders access difficult; where they cannot be surrounded on a sudden; and where a few can repel or elude the attacks of a great many. They lie down in a semicircular form. Each has his spear fixed at his head, and four or five keep up a fire burning in the midst, unless fear of the enemy obliges them to refrain from this comfort, lest the blaze or the smoke should betray them: though on some occasions, it was of use to multiply fires, in order to deceive the enemy; for from the number of them the number of men passing the night thereabout is usually argued. By this artifice Cortez is said to have imposed upon the Mexicans. Whilst some are indulging in sleep, others, appointed to keep watch, scour the plain on horseback, both for the purpose of bringing back the scattered horses, and, on the approach of danger of admonishing their sleepy comrades by sound of trumpet. I have been astonished to see with what activity and fidelity they performed all the offices of watchmen in our colonies. Whole nights have they spent in riding up and down the plains adjacent to the town, even in very boisterous weather, whenever the slightest rumours were spread of the approach of the enemy. By the nightly sound of horns and trumpets they signified that they were on the alert, and, by showing the enemy that their intentions were discovered, prevented them from making the attack: for it is usual with the savages never to attempt any thing except against the unprepared. During the whole seven years that I spent amongst the Abipones, I regularly found that whenever we passed sleepless nights in arms, for fear of an enemy, not so much as the shadow of one ever approached; and that when none of us suspected any thing hostile, a formidable swarm of savages fell upon our colony. An enemy is never more to be dreaded than when he is feared the least. CHAPTER XXXVII. OF THE ASSAULT, AND THE MEASURES PRECEDING IT.