rived, who brought a parcel from the next posta to be forwarded
to the general; so that besides these two, our party
consisted of myself and guide, the lieutenant and his four
soldiers. The latter were strange beings; the first a fine
young negro ; the second half Indian and negro; and the
two others nondescripts ; namely, an old Chilian miner, the
colour of mahogany, and another partly a mulatto; but two
such mongrels, with such detestable expressions, I never
saw before. At night, when they were sitting round the fire,
and playing at cards, I retired to ifiew' such a Salvator Rosa
scene. They were seated under a low cliff, so that I could
look down upon them ; around the party were lying dogs,
arms, remnants of deer and ostriches ; and their long spears
were stuck in the turf. Further in the dark background,
their horses were tied up, ready for any sudden danger. If the
stillness of the desolate plain was broken by one of the dogs
barking, a soldier, leaving the fire, would place his head close
to the ground, and thus slowly scan the horizon. Even if
the noisy teru-tero uttered its scream, there would be a
pause in the conversation, and every head, for a moment a
little inclined.
AAffiat a life of misery these men appear to us to lead!
Tliey were at least ten leagues from the Sauce posta, and
since the murder committed by the Indians, twenty from
another. The Indians are supposed to have made their
attack in the middle of the night; for very early in the
morning after the murder, they were luckily seen approaching
this posta. The whole party, however, escaped, together
with the troop of horses; each one taking a line for himseK,
and driving with him as many animals as he was able to
manage.
The little hovel, built of thistle-stalks, in which they slept,
neither kept out the wind or rain ; indeed in the latter case
the only effect the roof had, was to condense it into larger
low ed to e scap e . H e to ld us th a t his legs w e re m a rk e d b y g r e a t weals,
w h e re th e th o n g h a d w o u n d ro u n d , as i f h e h a d b e e n flogged w ith a
w h ip .
drops. They had nothing to eat excepting what they could
catch, such as ostriches, deer, armadilloes, &c., and their only
fuel was the dry stalks of a small plant, somewhat resembling
an aloe. The sole luxury which these men enjoyed was
smoking the little paper cigars, and sucking maté. I used to
think the carrion vulture, man’s constant attendant on these
dreary plains, while seated on some little eminence, seemed
by its very patience to say, “A h ! when the Indians come we
shall have a feast.”
In the morning we aU sallied forth to hunt, and although
we had not much success, there were some animated chases.
Soon after starting the party separated, and so arranged their
plans, that at a certain time of the day (in guessing which
they show much skill) they should all meet from different
points of the compass on a plain piece of ground, and thus
drive together the wild animals. One day I went out hunting
at Bahia Blanca, but the men there merely rode in a
crescent, each being about a quarter of a mile apart from the
other. A fine male ostrich being turned by the headmost
riders, tried to escape on one side. The Gauchos pursued at
a reckless pace, twisting their horses about with the most
admirable command, and each man whirling the balls round
his head. At length the foremost threw them, revolving
through the a ir : in an instant the ostrich rolled over and
over, its legs fairly lashed together by the thong.
The plains abound with three kinds of partridge,* two of
which are as large as hen pheasants. Their destroyer, a small
and pretty fox, was also singularly numerous; in the course
of the day we could not have seen less than forty or fifty.
They were generally near their earths, but the dogs killed
one. When we returned to the posta, we found two of the
party returned who had been hunting by themselves. They
had killed a puma, and had found an ostrich’s nest with
twenty-seven eggs in it. Each of these is said to equal in
♦ Tw o sp e cie s o f T in am u s , a n d Budromia elegans o f D ’O rb ig n y , w h ich
c a n o n ly b e c a lle d a p a rtr id g e w ith r e g a rd to its h a b its .
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