A few days after their arrival, an Abipon, who had long sojourned amongst the Mocobios, came in the dead of the night, and informed Oahari that the Tobas, accompanied by troops of Mocobios and Lenguas, had begun their journey, and intended speedily to attack us. The Cacique, comparing his own strength with that of the enemy, and seeing himself destitute of succour from the Spaniards, and unable to cope with such a multitude alone, immediately determined on flight; but that I might not suspect his departure to have been dictated by motives of fear, pretended to me that he was going to be absent for some days on a hunting excursion. Most of the inhabitants crowding after him, only a few women and children remained to be slain by the enemy, only four men to give them battle. What other person that had been placed in so dangerous and difficult a situation, would not have taken boat on the river, and fled to a place of greater safety? Who, indeed, could have censured his flight? I was well aware that the peril in which I stood would have excused such a measure, and detached from it every appearance of disgrace; but, fortified against all events, I determined to defend to the utmost the place committed to my care, lest the Spaniards should reproach me with cowardice, and declare me deficient in that native magnanimity by which the Germans have always been distinguished. I perceived that our security lay in continual vigilance, especially as smoke discerned at no great distance, and scouts discovered from our observatory, were manifest indications of the enemy's approach. The day before the assault, eight of our Abipones, all of tried valour, very opportunely returned to us in the evening: the colony, therefore, contained twelve fighting men, who, by the greatness of their courage, made up for the smallness of their number. After passing that night, as I had done many others, on the watch, walking up and down the court-yard of the house, at length, about two o'clock, I laid myself down, oppressed with sleep, and unable any longer to endure the extreme cold; first, however, warning the captain to appoint a most vigilant watchman in my stead. The good man assured me that it was his intention to do so, and swore that he had been unable to get any sleep for many nights through fear of the attack. He placed a man in the yard to watch, who, to shelter himself from the cutting air, withdrew into a corner of the house, and there fell fast asleep. Whilst he, therefore, was loudly snoring, whilst all the inhabitants of the colony were wrapped in slumbers, and the dogs mute, which, at other times, would bark at a strange fly, about four o'clock above six hundred savage horsemen drew near with cautious steps, and in the profoundest silence, by the light of the full moon. In the first attack the savages carried off, without opposition, sixty ploughing oxen which I had confined in stalls near my house. Part of them besieged the houses of the Abipones, that, being