themselves home, as danger was nigh, and at the same time deterred the savages from approaching. Arriving at the town of St. Ferdinand, I was asked by one of the Abipones, which way I had come, and on my replying that I had passed through Sta. Lucia, "Alas!" said he, "that terrible Father lives there. He makes use of a huge musket; (alluding to the engine I have described.) Our horses could never support the thundering sound it emits, whilst we have laboured to approach it." Had he been candid, he would have added, that not the horses only, but also their riders, were often put to flight by the noise of that machine. Whilst this little town of Sta. Lucia remained in security, the other towns and estates of the Spaniards were utterly ruined, being either sacked by the enemy, or deserted by the Spaniards through fear of the enemy. Therefore, whilst the country near the shore was entirely divested of the dwellings of the Christians, the Abipones crossed the Parana at their pleasure, and traversed the land, more like fixed inhabitants, than occasional visitors. The Spanish scouts sent from the city were generally eluded by the savages, and frequently slain by them. But a troop of Spanish horse had remained for the defence of the estates situated near the rivers Sombrero, Sombrerillo, Peguahò, and Riachuelo, and of those nearer the city; they also served to guard the oxen brought from those estates to support the city. Wherever you set your foot in the surrounding fields, you may behold monuments of the cruelty of the savages;—here the remains of dilapidated buildings;—there, numerous crosses planted in the ground. If you enquire what those crosses mean, you will hear that thirty, forty or more bodies of miserable wretches, who were slain by the savages, were formerly buried there. They will show you, in another place, a field sadly noted by the blood and dead bodies of the Spaniards, who were slain in an unfortunate engagement with the savages.