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 advance guard of the Patagonian tribes was full of menace. An odd arrow flew and an odd gun responded. General Roca, despairing of being able to approach the savages so as to open negotiations, was preparing for a great violent action when the missionaries insistently asked him for permission to make a fresh pacific overture with them. By the aid of gestures—for no one had an idea of the Patagonian tongue—they succeeded in making them understand they had peaceful intentions. Afterwards, having succeeded in exchanging signs rather than words, they persuaded these wild people that their idea of opposing by force the penetration of the Argentines was vain, since, though they had lances and arrows, the whites had rifles that killed before the whites entered into action. And thus the chief heads, Sayuhueque and Yancuche, surrendered and recognized the Argentine authority, accepting the conditions imposed upon them. The cacico Namuncura retired with 400 lances to an angle of a distant territory. The conditions of the Argentine government were very benevolent: foods were guaranteed for three years, until the tribes should have learned agriculture, then tracts of ground to cultivate and make profitable."

And thus His Eminence proceeded detailing missionary successes "by blood and by perspiration", as Don Bosco had foretold so long before. Now it was a sick call of 1,500 miles on horseback, again catechising, baptizing,