or in what place Caëperlahachin died, I am still ignorant. The liberty of wandering at will, the abundant supply of food and clothing, the multitude of horses, the power of being as idle and profligate as they chose, and the completest impunity, where neither law nor censure is to be apprehended, bind the Spanish captives to the Abipones with so sweet a chain, that they prefer their captivity to freedom, forgetful of their relations and their country, where they know that they must live in obedience to the laws, and labour daily, unless they choose to endure stripes and hunger. I have known captives of so bad a disposition that their masters were glad to get rid of them without ransom. In many of the captives you would look in vain for the least trace of a Christian, or even of a man. Very few of the Abipones have many wives at a time, though they account polygamy lawful; the captives, seldom content with one, marry as many Spanish or Indian captives as they can. For the Abiponian women scorn to marry either Spaniards, or Indians of any other nation, unless, by the splendour of their achievements, namely, slaughters and rapine, they be reputed Abipones in nobility. The men too, accounting themselves more noble than any other nation, never deign to marry the Spanish captives, much less to have any clandestine intercourse with them: so that their virtue would be safer in captivity amongst the savages, than in freedom amongst their own countrymen, could they escape the seductive arts of their fellow captives. In confession, I found most of the female Spaniards, after a very long captivity amongst the Abipones, guilty of no trespass upon the laws of chastity. They all agreed in confessing that no woman need go astray amongst these savages, unless she herself chose it. I can say as much for the continence of the young men, who had been long captives amongst them.