city, and more than three hundred senators, beside many others of the common people, fell fighting before the door of the church. A great many of the Abipones were slain and wounded. The Guaranies took a Spaniard, who had grown up amongst the Abipones, having been taken captive by them at an early period of his life, and who had offered to be their leader in this as in many other expeditions. What must have been the feelings of the Jesuit priest, Francisco Maria Rasponi Bergomas, long curate of the town, when, on looking out of the church before he had taken off his sacred robes, he perceived the heaps of dead bodies, and the streets swimming with blood? Who can express his horror? This bloody fight elated the minds of the Abipones, in proportion as those of the Guaranies were depressed by it. With greater boldness and frequency, they continued to slaughter the Indians, and to seize the cattle, both in the estate, and in the fields adjoining the city. In one day, four thousand oxen and immense droves of horses became the prey of these rapacious thieves. Let not those that read this accuse the Fathers who presided over the town of sloth or inactivity: nothing was omitted by them which seemed advisable for the security of their people. All access was forbidden the enemy by means of ditches and palisades, and additional guards armed with muskets. Scouts were dispatched every day to explore the roads. Sentinels were placed in suspected situations, as in a watch-tower. But what did all this avail? Those who were commanded to watch and to guard behaved as usual: danger was frequently the nearest when every thing was thought in the utmost security. They said their accustomed _Nama[(r]aichene_, "we shall be safe," and when they felt drowsy, slept without care or apprehension. Thence it often happened that whilst they ought to have watched for the public safety, unmindful even of their own, they were surprized and slaughtered by the Abipones. In the town of St. Iago, while the people were attending divine service, the Abipones came, and of the many hundred who were keeping watch, part they slew, and part they led into captivity, having, at the first onset, carried off some hundred horses. As numerous bloody incursions were repeated within sight of the same town, few days passed without fears, or alarming reports. The same fate befel Nuestra Senhora de Fè for many years; on which account Juan Baptista Marquiseti, a man of our order, and curate of the place, surrounded it on all sides with ditches to keep out the savage horsemen, and supplied the Indians with a sufficient quantity of muskets: and his labours were amply repaid, for at length these tumults abated. Forty Indian soldiers sent from this town, and as many from the town of Sta. Rosa, to keep guard over their respective estates, perished on the fifth of February, a very few only escaping by the swiftness of their horses. On that day, alas! how great