It appears from what I have related, how useful Ychoalay was to us in the dissemination of religion. It is incredible how anxious he was to preserve the safety of the town and of the Fathers. Any little injury committed or intended against the Fathers, by his people, he took to himself, and indeed avenged with more asperity than if it had been done to himself. Amongst a set of men addicted to strife and drunkenness, accustomed to slaughter from their boyhood, and madly attached to superstition, the lives of the Fathers must have been placed in a very precarious condition, had not his authority been a shield to them, and a bridle to the savages. If he perceived any danger impending from foreign foes, he would, even in the dead of the night, apprize the Fathers and his companions of it, that the common safety might be consulted on. He was always the first to explore the country, and to occupy the front of the army whenever force was to be opposed to force, often returning home wounded whilst his companions remained unhurt. It happened that the Abipones who inhabited the town of Concepcion, entertaining suspicions of the Spaniards, suddenly deserted it all in one day, leaving in the place only three men who had it in charge to murder the two Fathers Joseph Sanchez and Lorenzo Casado, by treachery, as soon as night set in. Ychoalay, learning the flight of the Abipones, and the danger of the Fathers, flew to the spot with no other company than that of the horse he rode on. He fixed his spear at the door of the Fathers, and offered himself for their defender. About twilight he spied the three assassins lying in wait, alarmed and put them to flight, and never saw them afterwards. He advised that the furniture of the house and the church should be carried away in a waggon, and about two thousand oxen driven to the town of St. Jeronymo, and assigned them a place in his little estate where they might safely feed. The journey was full of danger and inconvenience. Continual rain had transformed the whole country into a marsh, so that it seemed impassable to a waggon. The river Malabrigo, and other lakes were tremendously swelled by the incessant rain. But by the advice and assistance of Ychoalay, all obstacles were overcome; every thing that Father Sanchez wished to transport, conveyed to a place of safety; and the attempts of the runaway Abipones, who had hoped to seize every thing that the deserted town possessed, completely foiled. Martinez del Tineo, Governor of Tucuman, wrote a letter to Ychoalay, in which he commended his fidelity to the Fathers, and recompensed his services with a piece of beautiful scarlet cloth fit to be worn by any noble Spaniard. This cloth he devoted to the purpose of buying sheep, the wool of which he intended to have woven into garments such as the Abipones wear. To the persuasions of the Fathers that he would adopt the Spanish costume, Ychoalay replied, "Since I am an Indian, why should I