ft!
f l
I :
ried aivay by the Indians when young, and could now only
speak the Indian tongue. From their account, they must
have come from Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly
one thousand miles. This gives one a grand idea of the
immense territory over which the Indians roam: yet, great
as it is, I think there will not, in another half-century, be a
wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. The warfare is too
bloody to la st; the Christians killing every Indian, and the
Indians doing the same by the Christians. It is melancholy
to trace how the Indians have given way before the Spanish
invaders. Sohirdel* says, that in 1535, when Buenos Ayres
was founded, there were villages containing two and three
thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer’s time (1750) the
Indians made inroads as far as Lucan, Areco, and Arrecife,
but now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have
whole tribes been wholly exterminated, but the remaining
Indians have become more barbarous: instead of living in
large villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing, as
well as of the chase, they now wander about the open plains,
without home or fixed occupation.
I heard also some account of an engagement which took
place, a few weeks previously to the one mentioned, at
Cholechel. This is a very important station, on account of
being a pass for horses; and it was, in consequence, for
some time the head-quarters of a division of the army.
When the troops first arrived there, they found a tribe of
Indians, of whom they kUled twenty or thirty. The cacique
escaped in a manner which astonished every one. The chief
Indians always have one or two picked horses, which they
keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one of these, an
old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking with him his
little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. To
avoid the shots, the Indian rode in the peculiar method of
his nation ; namely, with an arm round the horse’s neck, and
one leg only on its back. Thus hanging on one side, he was
seen patting the horse’s head, and talking to him. The pursuers
urged every effort in the chase; the Commandant three
times changed his horse, but aU in vain. The old Indian
father and his son escaped, and were free. What a fine
picture one can form in one’s mind,—the naked bronze-like
figure of the old man with his little boy, riding like a
Mazeppa on the white horse, thus leaving far behind him the
host of his pursuers !
I saw one day a soldier striking fire with a piece of flint,
which I immediately recognised as having been a part of the
head of an arrow. He told me it was found near the island
of Cholechel, and that they are frequently picked up there.
It was between two and three inches long, and therefore
twice as large as those now used in Tierra del Fuego : it was
made of opake cream-coloured flint, but the point and barbs
had been intentionally broken off. It is well known that no
Pampas Indians now use bows and arrows. I believe a small
tribe in Banda Oriental must be excepted ; but they are
widely separated from the Pampas Indians, and border close
on those tribes that inhabit the forest, and live on foot. It
appears, therefore, that these arrow-heads are antiquarian*
rehcs of the Indians, before the great change in habits
consequent on the introduction of the horse into South
America.
* A z a r a h a s e v e n d o u b te d w h e th e r th e P am p a s In d ia n s e v e r u s e d
bows.
* P u r c h a s ’s C o lle c tio n o f Voyages.