would stroke my shoulder, and say in a sweet tone, You are indeed a captain, Father; by which honourable appellation they wished me to understand that it was unlike a captain to refuse a man any thing. As those things which they asked me for were not always in my possession, nor could indeed be found in any shop at Amsterdam, I told them I was no captain, that they might bear a refusal with good humour, and attribute it to poverty, not to ill-nature. But it was all in vain. They construe a Father's excuse into a falsehood, and exclaim, not without much laughter on both sides, What a liar, what a miser you are! I found that those caciques had abundance of followers who were active and successful in the acquirement of booty, free from sordid avarice, and fond of displaying an unbounded liberality towards their hordesmen. Kaapetraikin and Kebachin had crowds of soldiers in their service, because they were distinguished for dexterity and assiduity in depredation; the same men, when decrepit with extreme age, inadequate to undertaking excursions, and consequently poor, found none but relations continue in their hordes. I must not omit to mention that the Abipones do not scorn to be governed by women of noble birth; for at the time that I resided in Paraguay, there was a high-born matron, to whom the Abipones gave the title of _Nelar̂eycatè_, and who numbered some families in her horde. Her origin, and the merits of her ancestors, procured her the veneration of others. The Catholic kings themselves, and their governours, acknowledge the rank of the caciques of every nation, and dignify them with the title of nobility, prefixing the word _Don_ to their names, according to the Spanish fashion. It is also customary, throughout the whole of Spanish America, for the Indian caciques, after they have received baptism, and sworn allegiance to the Catholic king, to retain, and transmit to their posterity the dominion they possessed when savage, over the savages subject to their power: which is also observed amongst the Guaranies, with this provision, however, that the caciques themselves and the Indians under their authority, are obliged to obey the corregidor, and other magistrates of the town. In every Guarany town, there are a number of caciques, who, if men of abilities, are often promoted to the office of magistrates, that the Indians may not suspect the Europeans of despising their nobility. There were five caciques in the town of St. Joachim, over which I presided. Their names were Don Ignatius Paranderi, Don Miguel Yeyù, Don Marco Quirakerà, Don Joseph Xavier, and Don Miguel Yazukà; which last performed the office of corregidor for many years. Though a native of the woods, he was both exceedingly attached to Christian discipline, and intrepid in guarding it; indeed he was above all praise; which is certainly very uncommon and wonderful, as, to say the truth, we have often found the caciques more stupid than the common