Rain continued without intermission for more than a month had converted the whole of the plain country into a lake. Most of the horses perished from their hoofs being softened by remaining in the water day and night, and those which survived could scarcely stand on their feet. Three hundred were left on the road, being unable to travel on that account. Many of the soldiers, who had come furnished with ten horses, had not one remaining on their return, and were forced to use others lent them by their companions. Amid these tumults, both of the weather and of the people, indignant at the very mention of a removal, a whole month passed away. Barreda, impatient of the delay, determined to set off without waiting for the cessation of the rain, accompanied by his own people, and those families of Abipones that chose to follow him. The day before the journey, four waggons were sent forward, laden with the domestic furniture of the town, and also with gates, and doors of houses; five pair of oxen, and twenty assisting horses were requisite to drag each of these waggons through a country full of water and marshes: at length, however, as no strength nor industry proved sufficient, it was found necessary to lighten the waggons of the doors and every thing of wood. When we were ready to depart, the Abipones sat quietly in their huts, all of which Barreda entered with me. I acted as interpreter, whilst he warned them in a melancholy and threatening tone, to consider again and again what they were doing; intimating that he should look upon those as his friends who followed us, but that they who remained would hardly escape the avenging hands of Ychoalay, and the Spaniards of Sta. Fè. All his efforts were vain. Mournful silence and sullen looks were their only reply. Barreda, not choosing to delay any longer, left the town with me, part of the soldiers being sent forward, part following us; but Father Sanchez was suddenly seized with an indisposition so that he could not join us till the morrow. Malakin, Ypirikin, and thirty families followed us on the first day of our journey.