the child should not be buried in the chapel in case of its death, declared that she would no longer oppose my design. The child ceased to live the same day that it received new birth at the sacred font: the mother recovered. This shows what a prejudice the Abipones have against being buried within the sacred walls, and under a roof. Not one of the Abipones who died of the small-pox, would have consented to receive baptism, had I not appointed a burying-place in a wood for the dead at the beginning of the contagion. This I did in imitation of the Guaranies, who have cemeteries walled round, and adorned with an elegant chapel, and long rows of orange and citron trees, solely for the reception of those who die of the small-pox, lest the vapours arising from their bodies should prove a fresh source of contagion. To provide against this in our colony, I placed the cemetery in that direction from which the wind blew seldomest. The trouble and anxiety that I underwent in continual attendance on the sick, during seven months, may easier be imagined than described. The principal and most numerous horde, that of the Cacique Oahari, which I was daily obliged to visit, could not be reached without crossing a river, both shores of which were marshy. As it was a matter of much time and labour to extricate the horses from this mud, I generally performed the journey on foot, speedily rowing myself over in a boat. This daily habit of walking, during a period of many months, rendered my feet so horny, that I was often obliged to cut pieces of skin from the soles of them with a pair of scissars: for the leathern leggings which we wore to defend us from gnats and other insects, though extremely convenient in riding, used to rub and gall the feet of pedestrians, especially when they were hardened with perspiration. How often have I had to travel amid rain and thunder, or beneath the scorching heat of the sun, through an extensive plain, afflicted with gnats, mud, and the snares of wandering savages, that no good office might be wanting to the wretched crowd of dying Abipones, for whose sake I loved to undergo danger and fatigue! Often, at this period, so great a number were confined to their beds by the disease, that those in health were scarce sufficient to take care of the sick, to bury the dead, and to mourn for them with the usual ceremonies. No one's death afforded greater cause for lamentation than that of the wife of Oahari, and daughter of Debayakaikin; a woman in the flower of her age, distinguished for high birth, and second to none in elegance of person and sweetness of manners. A few years before, having been dangerously bitten by a serpent, she had received baptism in the town of Concepcion. I, for my part, ascribed the death of this excellent woman not so much to the small-pox, as to a crowd of juggler-physicians, by whom she was always surrounded, whenever I visited her tent to prepare her for death by religious aid.