On the other hand, how dangerous a thing it is to fire guns inconsiderately, we have often found on various occasions, but above all in a new Indian colony, where a few garrison soldiers guarded the borders of Tucuman, on account of the frequent incursions of the savages. This little town, the rebellious Mataguayos attacked about evening with all sorts of weapons. The soldiers, seized with a sudden trepidation, discharged all the fire-arms they could lay hands on at the savage band, but to their own injury, not that of the enemy, who, leaving their adversaries no time to load afresh, set fire to the houses with arrows headed with burning tow, and pierced the soldiers, who fled from thence into the court-yard, with barbed darts. Two Jesuit priests, who officiated there, Fathers Francisco Ugalde and Romano Harto, whilst attending to the salvation of the dying soldiers, underwent the fury of the savages within the palisadoes of the house. The first was mortally wounded with arrows, and buried in the ruins of the burning chapel, where he was entirely reduced to ashes, one little bone alone remaining, to which funeral honours were afterwards paid elsewhere. That his soul was received into Heaven is the opinion of all who are acquainted with his exceeding piety and mild integrity of conduct. Father Romano Harto, his companion, though wounded with two arrows which pierced deep into his side, crept under cover of night from the palings of his house into a neighbouring wood, and escaped the eyes and murderous hands of the savages. Weltering in blood, and tortured by the pain of his wounds and the burning thirst it occasioned, he passed the night out, of doors amongst the trees, during a furious tempest of rain, wind, and thunder. No one was at hand to lend him any aid. At day-break, crawling out into the plain, by God's mercy he espied a soldier who had fled from the massacre of the day before, and who carried him on his horse to the Spaniards at a very great distance, where he was completely healed. What, let me ask, was the occasion of so many deaths, and of so tragic an event? The unseasonable haste of a few soldiers in discharging their guns. The empty noise struck the air alone, and gave such courage to the Indians, that, laying aside fear, they rushed on more boldly, and denied the Spaniards the necessary time for loading their guns afresh. It was said, moreover, that many were destitute of gunpowder, and all certainly were so of courage, panic-struck at the sudden arrival of the savages, the burning of the houses, and the sight of so many deaths. The assaults of the savages must be repelled promptly but providently. Arms must be immediately resorted to, but something must always be reserved for the sudden chances of war: as the Indians, intent upon every opportunity of committing mischief, easily overcome the unarmed or those that manage arms unskilfully. Thus, if thirty artillery soldiers should undertake