Deserted in a vast wilderness, and delivered up to the savages, to misery, and continual perils, we were called miracles of patience and obedience by all the well-judging Spaniards; and indeed, had we had as many assisting hands as admiring eyes, ourselves and the Abipones would have been well provided for. Our huts were completely exposed to sun, rain, and wind, to serpents, toads, and dormice, and, what was most dangerous, to tigers. The place of door and window was supplied by two holes, before each of which we suspended a bull's hide. But neither materials nor tools for making tables were to be got. Great numbers of tigers lay hid within a neighbouring wood, and in wet weather used to creep into the tents of the Indians to shelter themselves from the rain and stormy wind; they also attempted to enter our huts sometimes, as we discovered in the morning from the marks of their feet, but were deterred by a mastiff dog, which we kept for a guard. The more tigers were pierced by the spears of the Abipones, the more seemed to flock thither, as if to revenge the deaths of their companions. Crowds of large dormice, impelled by hunger, resorted to us from the plain, and finding no eatables, gnawed every thing of wood, or flax, or wool in our house. The place also swarmed with large and venomous toads, which, if offended by a blow or kick, immediately squirted out their blinding urine. About sun-set they issued in crowds from their holes, and covering all the ground, rendered it as slippery to the feet as ice. These were the distresses of the place; what shall I say of our own?