The estate was exhausted by the continual rapacity of these plunderers, and scarcely contained oxen sufficient to feed the Indians for two months. I declared in presence of the Vice-Governor that we should soon be forced to desert the colony from want of cattle, but he entreated me not to think of such a thing, saying, "If you depart, and suffer the Yaaukanigas to do the same, the malicious will say you have done so with the intention of involving us Spaniards anew in the calamities of war." "No one," replied I, "would be so foolish as to credit such a calumny. We cannot confine the savages within the limits of a little town, nor restrain them from their habit of wandering, unless we have plenty of provision at home." The Vice-Governor, convinced, or more probably alarmed by this speech, promised many things for the preservation of the colony, and had his powers corresponded to his wishes, this excellent man would doubtless have fulfilled his promises. The Provincial, informed by me of the ruin which threatened the colony from want of cattle, immediately sent me a thousand oxen, for the support of the Indians: by his liberality, and the supplies of the Guarany towns, an estate was founded on the opposite shore of the Parana, which, not being exposed to predatory incursions, abounded in cattle of every kind in the space of a few years. One thing is certain, that this colony of Yaaukanigas was not preserved by the support of the Spaniards, but chiefly by the vigilance and industry of the Jesuits, and that it was little indebted for assistance to the city of Corrientes, which, on the other hand, derived much advantage from it, remaining unmolested, from the time of its commencement, by the inroads of the savages dwelling in Chaco. Moreover the Corrientines, reduced almost to desperation by long war, were enabled to build ships, and waggons on the opposite shore of the river on which our colony stood, and which abounds in most excellent trees, and to enrich themselves by commerce without danger. In the year 1767, when we returned to Europe, the number of Christian Yaaukanigas was two hundred, the rest having died of small-pox and other diseases. The survivors, exasperated at the Spaniards on account of our banishment, burnt the church and the houses of the Fathers to ashes, deserted the colony they had inhabited for seventeen years, and returned to their ancient retreats and their old habits of plundering. A priest of the order of St. Francis, who had been substituted in our stead, scarce preserved his life by flying to the city. So unfortunate was the event of a colony that had cost us so much labour and misery, an event highly pernicious to the Corrientines and other Spaniards, against whom the Indians resumed their arms, soon after quitting the colony. CHAPTER XXXV. THE ORIGIN AND SITUATION OF A COLONY OF ABIPONES NAMED FROM S. CARLOS AND THE ROSARY.