Keebetavalkin, Cacique of the Tobas, and chief of all the physicians in Chaco, for some time companion of the Abipones and Mocobios, in the towns of St. Jeronymo and St. Xavier, but generally a wanderer, and now a spy upon our affairs in the name of his countrymen, spent two months amongst us with his wife and daughters. Not one of my people was attacked with the small-pox but he had this savage Æsculapius to suck and blow him; till from being continually in contact with the sick, he at length imbibed the deadly poison himself, being now at an advanced age. The sick man took care to be frequently removed from one situation to another, in the hope of relief, as dying persons in our country are wont to do. When on the point of death, he desired to be placed in a little wood near the colony; a hut was accordingly constructed for him in that place, of the boughs of trees, but so low that I could not converse with him, as he was lying down, without stooping. There being no longer any room to doubt of his extreme danger, after he had been properly instructed and prepared, I baptized him in the early part of the night, and he expired next day some hours before noon. The ferocious Tobas, when informed of the baptism and death of their Cacique, accused me, who had administered the one, of being the cause of the other, and resolved to avenge him by arms, as I had openly foretold before we were made acquainted with the intention of the Tobas; for I knew that to these stupid savages baptism appeared more destructive than small-pox, or the most subtle poison. The affair was not confined to threats alone: a few days after, the revengeful Tobas drove away more than five hundred horses from our pastures, in the dead of the night, and would doubtless have slain some of our people had an opportunity offered. Our Abipones, complaining of this loss of horses, flew to Asumpcion, and besought the Governor to allow some Spanish horse to sally forth with them for the purpose of chastizing the plunderers; and their entreaties seemed almost needless, in requesting what had long been the Governor's own desire. From what we shall relate hereafter, you will find the small-pox to have been the occasion of mutual incursions and slaughters, and of the shedding of my blood. CHAPTER XLI. FOUR HUNDRED SPANISH HORSEMEN, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ABIPONES, OVERCOME A NUMEROUS HORDE OF TOBAS.