My worst and most intolerable grievance was, that the people assembled together almost every night, exclaiming with doleful yells, that the sanguinary Tobas were at hand, and imperiously calling upon me to arise for the defence of the colony, whilst I was burning with fever and totally helpless. Unable to stand on my feet, I was sometimes obliged to keep watch, sitting at the door of my hut, and leaning upon a gun, to relieve the fears of this faint-hearted crew, who placed more confidence in one musket than in an hundred spears. I was alive, but hardly conscious of my existence. At length, when the violence of the fever abated, and the use of my senses, though not of my limbs, was restored to me, I often crept through the tents of the sick, leaning on the arms of others, that no dying person might expire without religious consolation. Rapidly growing worse and worse, destitute of priest, physician, soldier, or guard, I was in daily expectation of death; but whether I was to receive it from the enemies' weapons, or the pertinacity of the fever, which lasted seven-and-twenty days, I remained in uncertainty, though well prepared for either, thinking death preferable to a life spent in such a manner. Fulgentio, to whom I wrote an account of the calamitous state of our affairs, returned for answer that neither priest nor soldiers could be sent us till after Easter. I suppose the good man was unwilling to deprive any Spaniard of the opportunity of beholding spectacles, or hearing sermons wherein the memory of our Saviour's sufferings were revived; yet the Governor would have given greater proofs of piety and prudence, had he, without taking account of those ceremonies, immediately dispatched a priest to me, who was dying, and a soldier to the colony, which was exposed to so much danger. On reading Fulgentio's letter, I cast away all hope of human aid, and confidently waited for the assistance of Heaven, which I at length obtained, and by which alone I was preserved. The continual fever being mitigated at the end of seven-and-twenty days, and converted into a tertian, my strength slowly returned, and on Palm Sunday I ministered again at the altar, though in danger of fainting every moment, from the extreme weakness of my head and feet.