In thirty days from their leaving Fort Villariño, the boats arrived

at the confluence of the River Neuquen, or Sanquel-leubú as it is

sometimes called by the Indians, from the huge canes or reeds which

overgrow its banks. This river was erroneously supposed by Villariño to

be the Diamante, and he did not hesitate to lay it down as that river,

and to express his belief that had he gone up it in twenty-five days

he should have found himself in the province of Mendoza. Subsequent

information has corrected this error, and shown it to be the river

_Neuquen_, which here joins the Negro, and which, rising a little above

Antuco, is increased by many other streams from the Cordillera, which

subsequently fall into it.

Villariño was blamed for not exploring this river, certainly by far the

most considerable affluent of the Negro. He seems to have satisfied

himself with merely ascending it in a little boat for about a couple of

leagues, which brought him to the place where the Indians are in the

habit of crossing it, and where he doubted whether there was sufficient

water at the time to allow the launches to go up, though, from the

vestiges of the floods along shore, it was evidently navigable at times

for much larger craft. His best excuse for not doing more was his

anxiety to reach the Cordillera before the state of the snow should

prevent his communicating with Valdivia. To make the best of his way

onward in that direction was now his main object; but the difficulties

he had as yet experienced were nothing to those which awaited him

in his further progress. The horses obtained from the Indians were

completely worn out, and after passing the Neuquen, the whole labour of

towing the boats along again devolved upon the men.

About a league above the junction of the two rivers, the latitude was

found to be 38° 44´. The course of the Negro shortly afterwards was

found to incline very much more to the south, apparently turned off

by the prolongation of a chain of hills from the north, which equally

determines the course of the Neuquen higher up, and as far as the eye

can reach from the point of its junction with the Negro.

Through these hills the Negro has either found, or forced a passage,

which on either side is bounded by steep, rocky escarpments, rising 500

or 600 feet above it; and here the stream ran with such violence, that

it was with the greatest difficulty the launches were dragged on, one

by one; a difficulty further increased by the shallowness of the water,

which made it necessary in many places to deepen the channel with

spades and pick-axes, and to unload the boats and carry their cargoes

considerable distances, before they could proceed[25].

All this caused incredible fatigue to the men, unaccustomed to such

service, and supported only on the dry and salt provisions they had

with them. Their legs became swelled with working for days together in

the water, and they were covered with sores from the bites of the flies

and mosquitos which hovered in clouds above its surface. The scurvy

broke out, and some of them became seriously ill: fortunately they fell

in with some apple-trees, the fruit of which was a great comfort to the

sick; but the snow-capped peak of the Cerro Imperial, as well as the

whole range of the Cordillera, was now in full view before them; and

the hope of being soon in communication with Valdivia gave them fresh

courage, and redoubled their exertions to reach their journey's end.

Two whole months were spent in making a distance of forty-one leagues

from the Neuquen. This brought them, on the 25th of March, to the foot

of the great range of the Cordillera, and to an island about a mile

and a half long, where the main stream was found to be formed by two

distinct rivers, there uniting from opposite directions; the one coming

from the south, the other from the north.

As they knew by their latitude, which a little before reaching this

point they had found to be 40° 2´ S., that they were already to the

south of Valdivia, Villariño had no hesitation as to which of these

rivers he should attempt to ascend. Before going on, however, he

determined on giving the men a day or two's rest, of which he availed

himself to make a short excursion in his little boat up the southern

fork, which turned out to be a river of some magnitude.

At its mouth, he says, even at that time, when the waters were at

their lowest, it was about 200 yards across, and about five feet in

depth; its course from the S.S.W., running with much velocity through

a deeply-cut channel over a bed of large rounded stones: the country,

as far as could be seen, was a desolate mass of gravel. Some little

way up, they found the burial-place of an Indian cacique, over which

two stuffed horses were stuck upon stakes, according to their custom;

further on, the shore was strewed with trunks of many large trees

brought down by the floods; they were of various sorts, but principally

pine and cedar, probably the same as is shipped in large quantities

from the opposite side of the Cordillera, and from Chiloe, for other

parts of Chile and Peru. From the Indians they subsequently learned

that dense forests of these trees were to be met with higher up the

river. How valuable they would be to the settlers on the Rio Negro, and

how easily they might be floated down to them!

Villariño named this river the Rio de la Encarnacion. By the Indians,

it is called Limé-leubú, or the river of leeches: indeed they call

the main stream so, during its whole course to the junction of the

Neuquen; after which, they give it the appellation of Curi-leubú, the

River Negro. They described it as proceeding from the great lake of

Nahuel-huapi,[26] where, in the year 1704, the Jesuits established

a mission, which was afterwards destroyed by some hostile savages,

and the Fathers murdered. The vestiges of their habitations and

chapel still remain, and that part of the country is called by the

Indians Tuca-malal, probably from some allusion to the ruins; the

inhabitants call themselves Huilliches, or the southern people.

Through them, to Villariño's surprise, the Pehuenches Indians, whom he

shortly afterwards fell in with, had already received accounts of the

establishment of the Spaniards at San Julians; the news had doubtless

been carried to them by the friendly Indians, with whom Viedma had been

in communication at that place, and whom he speaks of in his diary as

having gone northward on an expedition which lasted four months, to buy

horses from the Indians in that direction.

But if the Spaniards were surprised to hear these people speak of their

countrymen at San Julians, 600 miles off, they were much more so, to be

asked by them if the war between Spain and England was over. In this,

however, it turned out that they had a more direct interest than might

have been expected; certain articles of European manufacture which

they had been in the habit of purchasing from the Valdivians having

become scarce and dear, from the interruption of the trade of that

place with Spain in consequence of the war. Who would have supposed

that the Indians of Araucania could have known or cared whether England

and Spain were at war or not?

Having taken this cursory view of the Encarnacion, Villariño returned

to continue his voyage up the northern branch of the Negro, which is

called the Catapuliché by the Indians. It would perhaps be more correct

to consider, as they do, the Encarnacion as the upper part of the

Negro, and the Catapuliché as an affluent joining it from the opposite

direction. Its shallowness prevented their making much way up it; after

much labour and difficulty, in twenty days they had only advanced ten

leagues, and then all hope of getting further was at an end. This was

on the 17th of April, when they were in latitude 39° 40´, over against

Valdivia.

The Catapuliché runs along the base of the Cordillera, distant five

or six miles; it is joined by several streams from the mountains,

which irrigate the intervening slopes and plains, and form good

pasture-grounds for the Indians; and here they found their old

acquaintances, who had run away from them lower down the river; and

who, nothing abashed by what had passed, came at once to the boats to

beg for spirits and tobacco.

Villariño, restraining his indignation at their effrontery, renewed

his intercourse with them in the hope of obtaining their assistance

in reaching Valdivia; which, by their accounts, was not more than

two or three days' journey distant across the mountains. Deputations

arrived also from the Pehuenches, and Aucazes, Araucanian tribes

in the neighbourhood, who showed a great readiness to be of any

use;--they brought the Spaniards fruit and other necessaries, and

everything promised a speedy realization of their wishes to be placed

in communication in a few days with their countrymen on the shores of

the Pacific. At the moment, however, when they were looking forward

to the speedy accomplishment of this object, their hopes were blasted

by an unlucky quarrel amongst the Indians themselves, in which one

of their principal caciques, Guchumpilqui, was killed. His followers

rose to avenge his death, and Chulilaquini, the chief who killed him,

fled with his tribe to the Spaniards, earnestly soliciting their

protection; to obtain which the more readily, he told a plausible story

of a general league being formed amongst the Indians to attack them

on the first favourable opportunity, and that it was in consequence

of his refusal to join in this coalition, that the dispute had arisen

which cost Guchumpilqui, the principal in the plot, his life. As this

Guchumpilqui was the leader of the tribe they had met with on the

Rio Negro, whose manoeuvres had already impressed Villariño with the

belief that he meditated some such treachery, he was quite prepared to

credit Chulilaquini's tale; and thinking it at any rate advisable to

secure the aid of some of the savages, he too readily promised him the

protection he asked for. This brought the expedition to an end.

As soon as it was known that the Spaniards were disposed to take

the part of Chulilaquini, they were regarded as declared enemies,

and preparations were made to attack them. The Indians were bent on

avenging the death of their chief, and it was soon evident that, as to

communicating with the Valdivians under the circumstances, it was out

of the question. After some fruitless efforts, at any rate, to get a

letter conveyed across the mountains, Villariño was reluctantly obliged

to make up his mind to return. Since entering the Catapuliché, much

snow and rain had fallen, which had increased its depth as much as

three or four feet: it had become in fact a navigable river, instead

of a shallow stream. Their Indian allies helped them to lay in a stock

of apples, of which there are great quantities in all those parts,

and of piñones, the fruit of the pine-tree, which, taken out of the

husk, is not unlike a Barbary date in taste as well as appearance; and

with these supplies they once more got under weigh, the swollen stream

carrying them down rapidly and safely over all the shoals and dangers

which had cost them so much toil and difficulty to surmount as they

went up; the land too, had put on a new appearance after the rain, and

many places which appeared arid and steril wastes before, were now

covered with green herbage. With little more than an occasional oar

to keep them in the mid-stream, they went the whole way down to Carmen

without the smallest obstruction, and arrived there in just three weeks

from the time of leaving the Catapuliché, after an absence altogether

of eight months. Thus it was proved to be perfectly practicable to pass

by this river from the shores of the Atlantic to within fifty or sixty

miles of Valdivia on the Pacific, the mountain-range alone intervening.

To what beneficial account this discovery of an inland water

communication across the continent might in the last fifty years have

been turned by an enterprising people, it is difficult to calculate.

The Spaniards seemed rather desirous to conceal than to publish the

fact of its existence. Till the expedition of General Rosas in 1833,

against the Indians, no boat ever again went up the Negro higher than

Choleechel; and but that I obtained possession of Villariño's Diary

during my residence at Buenos Ayres, and published the substance of

it in the "Journal of the Geographical Society," his Enterprise would

probably have been consigned to perpetual oblivion.

Chulilaquini followed the boats, and settled his people within reach of

his Spanish friends, in the neighbourhood of Carmen; but the Indians,

in general, looked upon the new settlement with the greatest jealousy,

and became extremely troublesome.

In this state of things, Don Juan de la Piedra, who it has already

been stated was originally sent from Spain to take command of the

establishments in Patagonia, and who had never ceased to remonstrate

against the act of the Viceroy, which deprived him of that command,

was reinstated by orders from the government at home; and proceeded

in consequence to the Rio Negro, to resume his functions as principal

Superintendent (1785); over-anxious, perhaps, after what had passed,

to distinguish himself, instead of making any attempt to conciliate

the Indians, he boastingly took the field, and advanced into their

lands to attack them, with a force totally inadequate to the purpose:

the consequence was, that he was surrounded and totally defeated. He

himself perished miserably, and several officers fell into the hands of

the savages: happily for them, some relations of the victors were at

the same time in the power of the Viceroy, and the hope of recovering

them by exchange, induced the savages for once to save the lives of

their prisoners.

Amongst them was Don Leon Ortiz de Rosas, father of the present

Governor of Buenos Ayres, then a Captain in the King's service, who

turned his captivity to such good account, that he not only succeeded

in an extraordinary degree in conciliating the respect and good will of

the principal Caciques, but finally brought about a peace between them

and the Viceroy, which lasted many years, and deservedly established

the celebrity of the name of Rosas throughout the pampas.

The Spanish government for a short time took some interest in the

establishment on the Negro:--upwards of 700 settlers were sent there

from Gallicia, and large sums were spent upon it; but the expectations

formed of its importance were not realized. The colonists remained

satisfied to carry on a petty traffic with the Indians for skins,

instead of launching out upon the more adventurous speculation of

the fisheries upon the coast, and the authorities at Buenos Ayres,

finding them more expensive than useful, became indifferent about

them, and allowed them to sink into the insignificance of a remote and

unprofitable colony.

Thus, in 1825, when the war between Buenos Ayres and Brazil broke out,

there were hardly 800 inhabitants. The blockade of the river Plate

made it then a resort for the privateers of the Republic, and once

more brought it into notice. A small coasting trade is now carried on

with it, and many seal-skins are collected there to be sent to Buenos

Ayres, as well as those of the guanaco, hare, skunk, and other animals,

brought in by the Indians from the deserts further south: it has of

late years also furnished occasional supplies of salt for the Saladeros

of Buenos Ayres.

Had the government of Buenos Ayres been able to exercise any efficient

superintendence over the adjoining coast, the fishery of seals, and

seal elephants, might have become of importance; but in the absence

of all control, the unrestrained and indiscriminate slaughter of the

young as well as of the old animals has driven them from their former

haunts further south, where they are still found by the English and

North American fishermen, who know their _rookeries_, as they are

called; and in the proper season, take them in great numbers.

The Governor of Carmen is an officer appointed from Buenos Ayres, to

the Junta of which province the inhabitants name a representative.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] In a subsequent report of Viedma's, he says that, when the first

accounts of San Joseph's were brought to Monte Video, a merchant of

that place, Don Francisco de Medina, fitted out a vessel to go a

whaling there, the crew of which, in the first month, harpooned no less

than fifty fish within the port.

[20] Their day's journey is usually about four leagues when on a long

march.

[21] Captain FitzRoy followed it for nearly 200 miles, and found it a

very considerable river the whole way,--never fordable, according to

the accounts he received. He must have been very near the lake when he

found himself obliged to turn back.

[22] In 1670 Sir John Narborough passed six months at San Julian's; he

also visited Port Desire, and took possession of it, with all due form,

for his master, Charles II.--Anson was also at both places in 1741, and

the account of his voyage contains views of that part of the coast, and

of the harbour of San Julian's.

Narborough, who is very precise in his description of the country,

gives an account of a geological fact, which is of some interest

now-a-days. He says, "Going on shore on the north-west side of the

harbour of San Julian's with thirty men, I travelled seven or eight

miles over the hills, &c. On the tops of the hills and in the ground

are very large oyster-shells; they lie in veins in the earth and in

the firm rocks, and on the sides of the hills in the country; they are

the biggest oyster-shells that ever I saw, some six, some seven inches

broad, yet not one oyster is to be found in the harbour."

[23] The Choleechel is not now a single island, but is divided into two

or three, by branches of the river which intersect it. These channels

may have been formed since Vallarino's voyage.

[24] Fort Villariño in the map.

[25] The river was probably unusually low even for the season; for

Villariño observes in this part of his journal, that it was nearly five

months since they had had a rainy day.

[26] Nahuel-huapi signifies the Island of Tigers according to Falkner.

CHAPTER VIII.

SURVEYS AND DISCOVERIES IN THE INTERIOR.

Malaspina Surveys the Shores of the Rio de la Plata in 1789.

Bauza maps the Road to Mendoza: De Souillac that to

Cordova. Azara, and other Officers, in 1796, fix the

positions of all the Forts and Towns in the Province of

Buenos Ayres. Don Luis de la Cruz crosses the Pampas, from

the frontiers of Conception in Chile to Buenos Ayres,

in 1806. Attempt at a new delineation of the Rivers of

the Pampas from his Journal. His account of the Volcanic

appearances along the Eastern Andes. Sulphur, Coal, and

Salt found there, also Fossil Marine Remains. The Indians

of Araucanian origin: Habits and customs of the Pehuenches.

Piedra's orders confined him to the east coast of Patagonia, as has

been shown in the preceding chapter; but in 1789 Spain sent forth an

expedition of much more importance, especially in a scientific point of

view.[27]

The ships employed were the _Atrevida_ and _Descubierta_, under the

command of the well-known Malaspina, who not only revised Piedra's and

Viedma's surveys of Patagonia, but, rounding Cape Horn, explored the

greater part of the coast of the Pacific, from its southern extreme

to the Russian settlements in the north-west. Malaspina, upon his

return, was thrown into a dungeon and deprived of his papers,--why, has

never transpired; nor was it till several years afterwards that those

admirable charts, the results of his labours, were published by order

of Langara, the Spanish Minister of Marine, which have since been so

useful to modern navigators in the South American Seas, and will long

be an honour to the Spanish navy. Malaspina's name, however, was not

permitted to be affixed to them, neither has the journal of his voyage

ever been published.

It is only very recently that the details have been discovered at

Buenos Ayres of the first portion of his work, viz., the survey, in

1789, of the whole of the northern and southern shores of the Plate, as

high up as the Paranã, in which nearly 150 points were fixed by him. In

the Appendix all those of any importance will be found, in a tabular

form, together with other positions, determined on good authority.

It was this survey, with the soundings afterwards taken by Oyarvide

(who lost his life in completing them), that furnished the materials

for the chart of the river Plate, officially published at Madrid in

1810: nor was this all that Buenos Ayres owed to Malaspina: upon his

return to Valparaiso from the north-west coast, he detached two of his

most intelligent officers, Don José Espinosa, and Don Felipe Bauza,

well known in this country, to map the road across the pampas; and by

them the true positions of Santiago in Chile, of Mendoza, San Luis,

the post of Gutierres on the river Tercero, and other points along

the line, were, for the first time, determined. Their map, so far as

it extends, is the best, and the only one of that line of country, I

believe, ever drawn by any one capable of taking an observation.[28]

Whilst they were thus engaged in fixing one part of the geography of

the interior, the Viceroy turned to account the temporary sojourn at

Buenos Ayres of some of the officers attached to the commission for

laying down the boundaries under the treaty of 1777 with Portugal, and

employed them in mapping other portions of the territory under his

immediate jurisdiction.

In 1794 M. Sourreyere de Souillac, the astronomer of the third division

of that commission, laid down the line of road from Buenos Ayres to

Cordova, and fixed the latitude of that city in 31° 26´ 14".

In 1796 Azara, with Cerviño and other officers employed on the same

service, made a detailed survey of the frontiers of the province of

Buenos Ayres, in the course of which they fixed the positions of

all the towns and forts of any importance between Melinqué, its

north-western extremity, and the most southern bend of the river

Salado, beyond Chascomus. That river they found to have its origin in

a lake in latitude 34° 4´ 45", longitude from Buenos Ayres 3° 36´ 32";

it is an insignificant stream, of trivial importance till joined by the

Flores.

Thus materials were collected for laying down a considerable portion of

country upon the very best authorities; but, like the surveys of the

coast, many years were suffered to elapse ere they were made available

to the public. Bauza's map was not published till 1810, and it was

only in 1822 that the positions fixed by Azara in 1796 appeared for

the first time as his in the "Statistical Register," published that

year at Buenos Ayres. De Souillac's might have remained unknown for

ever, had not Señor de Angelis lately brought them to light; as well as

Malaspina's "Fixed Points on the Shores of the River Plate."

But, after all, however valuable were these data in perfecting

a knowledge of the country already occupied, they led to no new

discoveries, and by far the greater part of the interior of the

continent, to the south of the Plate, remained unexplored, till Spain

becoming involved in the general war carried on between the great

powers in Europe, her colonial subjects on the shores of the Pacific

began to experience more or less inconvenience from the stoppage of

their ordinary trade. They found that the ships which used to visit

them direct from Europe for the most part ran into the river Plate,

rather than encounter the increased risk of capture in the longer

voyage round Cape Horn; and it became therefore to them an object of

considerable importance to shorten, if possible, the over-land journey

from thence to the opposite side of the continent, and particularly to

the southern parts of Chile.

This led to explorations being set on foot by the public authorities,

in the years 1803, 1804, and 1805, the result of which was, the

discovery of several new passes over the Cordillera, south of Mendoza,

one of which, the pass de las Damas, was examined by the same M. de

Souillac, already spoken of, who reported that at a very small expense

it might be made practicable for the passage of wheel-carriages. It

only remained to be shown whether or not it was possible to travel in a

direct line across the pampas from any of those passes to Buenos Ayres.

In this state of things, Don Luis de la Cruz, an enterprising officer

who had seen much of the Indians, offered to start from Antuco, in the

province of Conception, the most southern of the passes yet known, to

endeavour to reach Buenos Ayres by a straight course across the pampas.

This proposal was accepted by the Governor of Chile, and in order to

secure as far as possible the co-operation of the native tribes, which

indeed was absolutely necessary to the success of the undertaking, the

Caciques of the Pehuenches, who inhabited the country on the eastern

slopes of the Cordillera, were summoned to hold a grand parlamento,

or parley, to consider it. There had been long a friendly intercourse

between them and the Spaniards, who, moreover, had at times afforded

them protection from the attacks of their enemies; they therefore did

not hesitate on this occasion to intimate to them that they expected in

return all the good offices and aid which they could give to Cruz and

his party.

They attended at the time appointed, and after a grave discussion after

their fashion, which lasted several days, they agreed to take the

expedition under their particular protection, and see it safe to Buenos

Ayres; Cruz, on his part, engaging that the Indians who accompanied him

should be presented to the Viceroy, rewarded with suitable presents,

and sent back in safety to their friends at the conclusion of the

service. This pact was ratified with much formality; the hand of Cruz

being solemnly placed in that of the most ancient of the Caciques, to

signify that thenceforward he was under his special care.

Whist the expedition was preparing, Cruz spent a couple of days in

an unsuccessful attempt to get to the summit of the volcano in the

vicinity of Antuco, which he describes as being then in continual

action, and at times burning so strongly as to be visible from a very

considerable distance: but he was stopped, and obliged to turn back,

by a heavy fall of rain and snow, considered by the Indians as an

interposition of the Deity to prevent the examination of a region

which they held it to be forbidden to mortals to approach.

On the 7th of April (1806), all being ready, the party left the fort

of Ballenar, near Antuco, to commence their journey. It consisted of

twenty persons, viz., Cruz and four officers, a surveyor to measure the

daily distances, and fifteen attendants, besides their Indian escort;

having with them carts and horses and all things they might want on

the way. Striking across the pampas in as direct a course for Buenos

Ayres as the nature of the country would permit, in forty-seven days

they arrived at Melinqué,[29] the north-western frontier fort of that

province, having travelled, according to their measured daily journeys,

rather more than 166 leagues;--adding 68 more for the distance between

Melinqué and Buenos Ayres, made the total distance from Antuco to that

city, by this route, 234 leagues;--being 75 less than the ordinary

post-road from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza.

The narrative which Cruz subsequently drew up of this expedition is

extremely diffuse, and would be tiresome to most readers from the

extreme minuteness with which he has thought it necessary to detail the

daily discussions and parleys which, upon every trivial occurrence,

took place with the Indians.

In a geographical point of view, the most interesting part of it

is that in which he describes the rivers which he crossed after

descending the Cordillera; from which I have attempted in the map to

give an idea of them, differing, as will be seen, from that hitherto

adopted. In this I have been also much guided by the observations, in

my possession, of the late Dr. Gillies, my correspondent for many years

at Mendoza, who had himself been as far south as the river Diamante,

and had taken great pains to collect information respecting the

geography of that part of the country.

The old notion was, that nearly all the rivers south of Mendoza uniting

in one wide stream, to which the Diamante, as one of the principal

affluents, gave its name, ran direct south into the Rio Negro; and

this, as I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, was Villariño's

idea, and led him, without hesitation, to believe that the great river,

whose mouth he explored, and which, he says, he does not doubt would

have led him to Mendoza, was the Diamante.

From a careful examination of Cruz's journal, and other data in my

possession, I am satisfied this will be found to be an error, and that

the great river which flows into the Negro is the Neuquen, which Cruz

crossed on the sixth day after he left Antuco, at the place called

Butacura, and about eighteen leagues on his journey. The Neuquen[30]

is formed by many streams from that part of the Cordillera, all which

Cruz names, and the principal of which appear to be the Rinqui-leubú,

which descends from the mountain of Pichachen, and further north the

Cudi-leubú, the drain of many small rivers. No one, he says, doubts

that the Neuquen, from the junction of the Cudi-leubú, is navigable as

far as the Rio Negro, and thence to the ocean.

Proceeding in a north-easterly direction, Cruz fell in with another,

considerable river, as large, he says, as the Neuquen, called by the

Indians the Cobu-leubú,[31] whose sources they reported to be in the

Cordillera of Curriliquin, over-against the province of Maule, in

Chile; and they spoke of seven rivers which fell into it in its course

from the north to the place where the expedition crossed it. Cruz says

distinctly _it does not fall into the Neuquen_, but, changing its

southerly course about where they passed it, it ran eastward, in which

direction the travellers kept it in view, at times coasting it, for

several days, till at a place called Puelec it again turned towards

the south, taking thence, as the Indians affirmed, its course to the

sea. This river, there can be no doubt whatever, is the Colorado, which

falls into the sea a little to the north of the Rio Negro.

The hilly ranges of the Cordillera were found to extend about ten

leagues beyond the pass of the Cobu-leubú, above spoken of, after which

the pampas commence, which continue unbroken to Buenos Ayres.

Two days after passing Puelec, whence the river Cobu-leubú takes

a southerly course, and having gone about seventy-four leagues by

their daily computation from Antuco, the travellers reached the river

called by the Indians _Chadi_-leubú, or the _Salt_ River (probably a

continuation of the Atuel), which, uniting with the Desaguadero, or

Drain of the Diamante, about five leagues below where they crossed it,

discharges itself into a vast lake about ten leagues further south,

called by the Indians the Urré-lauquen, or the bitter lake.

In old times, according to Dr. Gillies, the Diamante, which he says

rises from the eastern base of Cauquenes Peak in the Cordillera, fell

into the Atuel a little below Fort San Rafael, where it will be seen on

reference to the map that the two rivers very nearly approximate; but

about twenty-five years ago it took another course, forming for itself

a separate channel, by which it discharges itself into the Desaguadero,

which carries to the south the waters of the rivers Tunuyan and

Mendoza, and is finally lost with the Chadi-leubú in the great salt

lake above mentioned.[32]

The Chadi-leubú, according to Cruz, was one of the most considerable

of the rivers he had yet passed. The people and houses crossed it

swimming, and the baggage was carried over in a balsa, a sort of

hide-raft. It formed the boundary of the lands of the Pehuenches, and

many were the debates which ensued amongst Cruz's Indian companions as

to the probable view which the tribes in the pampas beyond would take

of the expedition.

One day it was the dream of some old woman, another, the augury of

a soothsayer, that excited their doubts and alarms, and made them

hesitate as to the propriety or not of going on with the Spaniards.

In their embarrassment, however, they made a notable discovery, which

was no other than that Cruz held constant communication with a spirit

which directed him in all his proceedings:--he was observed continually

to refer to it, and the spirit, which was his watch, was heard to give

out certain mysterious sounds whenever consulted. Cruz had no desire to

deceive them, but the impression was not to be got rid of, and it was

so far of use that it inspired them with fresh courage to go on.

It was determined, after much consultation, to send forward an embassy

to the Caciques of the Ranqueles tribes, who lived in the pampas

beyond, and especially to Carripilum, the most influential amongst

them, to announce the approach of the expedition, and its peaceable

objects, and to endeavour to propitiate them beforehand in its favour.

Fortunately, Carripilum was in good humour, and, in the belief that he

should get presents in proportion to the importance of the expedition,

not only received them with honour, but resolved to accompany them

himself to Buenos Ayres, where Cruz assured him the Viceroy would

welcome his arrival, and be glad to enter into treaties with him for

opening a new road through his territories for the Spaniards trading

between Buenos Ayres and Chile.

In twenty-nine days after passing the Chadi-leubú, and in forty-seven

after their departure from Antuco, the travellers arrived at the fort

of Melinqué, on the north-west frontier of the province of Buenos

Ayres; where, whilst halting to refresh themselves, and to allow the

Indians to celebrate their safe, arrival, according to their custom, in

beastly drunkenness, some straggling soldiers, flying from the rout,

brought in the disastrous intelligence of the landing of the British

troops under General Beresford, and the fall of Buenos Ayres.

The dismay of poor Cruz at this unexpected intelligence may be

easily imagined. Encumbered with a numerous party of Indians who had

accompanied him across the continent, far from their homes, in the

expectation of the rich presents they were to have upon their arrival

at Buenos Ayres, and relying upon promises which it was now totally out

of his power to fulfil, he was in the greatest embarrassment.

To proceed was out of the question; and as to going to Cordova, whither

it was reported the Viceroy had fled, it was evident that at such

a time matters of much more pressing importance would prevent his

attending to the objects of the expedition. His resources too were

utterly exhausted. The Indians, however, who soon heard reports of what

had happened, evinced a degree of good feeling which could hardly have

been expected from them under the sore disappointment of their own

expectations. Having heard from Cruz a confirmation of the bad news,

they at once expressed themselves satisfied that it was impossible

for him to fulfil his engagements towards them, and announced their

resolution to relieve him from any difficulty on their account by

returning whence they came. All they desired was, that he would duly

report to the Viceroy that they had faithfully, and as far as they

could, fulfilled their engagements, so that they might claim their

due reward in better times. The Pehuenches did not part without much

lamentation from their Christian friends, and they repeated again and

again their readiness to obey any orders the Viceroy might be pleased

to send them. Carripilum made the same protestations, and left one of

his relations to proceed with Cruz in search of the Viceroy, expressly

to make an offer of any aid which the Spaniards might desire from the

Indians against the common enemy.

Cruz found the Viceroy at Cordova, who received him with kindness,

and paid every attention to the Cacique who accompanied him. He was

equipped in a new suit of Spanish clothes, and after a time dismissed

with presents and every demonstration of the high estimation in which

the Viceroy held the services of Carripilum and his companions.

Don Luis himself, upon the recovery of Buenos Ayres, repaired thither,

and drew up the diary of his interesting journey, which, like those

of Villariño and Viedma, and many other interesting papers of the

same sort, was thenceforward consigned to oblivion in the secret

archivo.[33] The various important political events which shortly

afterwards began and rapidly succeeded each other were, however,

perhaps some excuse for its remaining unnoticed.

In describing the eastern parts of the Cordillera, Cruz says that, at

the time he was there, only the volcanoes of Antuco and Villarica were

in activity,[34] though the traces of others extinct might be seen in

every direction:--the evidences of their ancient eruptions, he says,

might be followed for thirty leagues continuously:--he speaks, amongst

other volcanic appearances, of hot springs resorted to by the Indians

for their medicinal qualities, and says so abundant is the sulphur in

all those parts that several rivers are strongly impregnated with

it; vast quantities also of bituminous substances are everywhere to

be seen, and beyond the Neuquen, he says, there is an abundance of

coal.[35] Nor is there good ground for doubting his assertion, since on

the opposite side of the Cordillera, in about the same latitude, coal

has long been known to exist, and has been occasionally used by the

foreign vessels trading with that part of Chile. Near the sources of

the Neuquen are mines of rock-salt: in the level lands, also, between

that river and the Chadi-leubú, salt may at all times be collected from

the surface of the ground, and the intermediate streams are all more or

less brackish from its influence.

Fossil marine remains appear to abound amongst the lower ranges of

the Cordillera which Cruz passed, not only strewed over the surface

at considerable elevations, but deeply imbedded in the soil, as

might be seen wherever sections were formed by the courses of the

mountain-torrents.

In addition to his description of their country, Cruz has added to his

journal some account of the manners and customs of the Pehuenches;[36]

those Indians who take their name from the abundance of pine-trees in

the lands they occupy, derive their origin from the Araucanian race

inhabiting the southern parts of Chile; as indeed do all the wandering

tribes found in the pampas from the frontiers of Mendoza and Cordova

to the Rio Negro in the south:--they all speak a common language,

and, if their customs in any degree vary, it will only be found to

arise from the greater or less distance they are removed from their

original stock, or as they are brought into occasional contact with

their Christian neighbours. Divided and subdivided into innumerable

petty tribes, or rather family groups, they wander from place to

place in quest of pasturage for the sheep and cattle which constitute

their sole possessions; continually quarrelling and fighting with

each other, and rarely united by any common object save to make some

occasional plundering expedition against the defenceless properties of

the Spaniards on the frontiers. Such at least are the habits of those

generally known as the Pampas, and Ranqueles, tribes; but of them I

shall speak more particularly in the next chapter.

The Pehuenches, whose customs Cruz describes, appear to be a somewhat

better race. They are not so far removed from their original stock in

Araucania; and their vicinity to the Spaniards of Chile, and friendly

intercourse with them, has had a manifest influence in modifying their

original habits.

In person they are described as fine men, stouter and taller than the

inhabitants of the plains, but, like all the Indians of the same stock,

in the habit of disgustingly bedaubing and disfiguring their faces

with paint. They wear a sort of cloak over the neck and shoulders,

with another square cloth fastened round the loins, and those who can

get them, little conical hats bought from the Spaniards, and the same

sort of boots as are made by the gauchos of Buenos Ayres from the dried

skin of a horse's leg fitted to the foot. The bridles of their horses

are beautifully plaited, and often ornamented with silver: spurs of

the same material are in great request amongst them, and are eagerly

purchased of the Spaniards.

The women as well as the men paint themselves: _their_ chief ornaments

consist of as many gold or silver rings as they can collect upon the

fingers, and large ear-rings, resembling both in size and shape a

common English brass padlock.

Their habitations consist of tents made of hides sewn together, which

are easily set up and moved from place to place. Their principal food

is the flesh of mares and colts, which they prefer to any other; if

they add anything in the shape of cakes or bread, it is made from maize

and corn obtained from the Spaniards in exchange for salt and cattle,

and blankets, of the manufacture of their women, for it is rarely they

remain long enough in the same place to sow and reap themselves.

Their Caciques or Ulmenes, as they call them, are generally chosen

either for their superior valour or wisdom in speech--occasionally,

but not always, the honour descends from father to son: they have but

little authority in the tribe, except in time of war, when all submit

implicitly to their direction.

They are not, however, entirely without laws and punishments for

certain crimes, such as murder, adultery, theft, and witchcraft. Thus

he who kills another is condemned to be put to death by the relations

of the deceased, or to pay them a suitable compensation. The woman

taken in adultery is also punishable with death by her husband, unless

her relations can otherwise satisfy him. The thief is obliged to pay

for what he is convicted of stealing; and, if he has not the means, his

relations must pay for him. As to those accused of witchcraft, they

are burnt alive with very little ceremony; and such executions are of

frequent occurrence, inasmuch as a man rarely dies a natural death but

it is ascribed to the machinations of some one in communication with

the evil spirit. The relatives of the deceased, in their lamentations,

generally denounce some personal enemy as having brought about his end,

and little more is necessary to ensure his condemnation by the whole

tribe: sometimes in his agony the unhappy victim names others as his

accomplices, and, if the dead man be of any importance amongst them,

they too are often sacrificed to his manes in the same barbarous manner.

As to their religion, they believe in a God, the creator and ruler of

all things, though they have no form of worship: they also believe in

the influence of an evil spirit, to whom they attribute any ill that

befalls them. They consider that God has sent them into the world to do

right or wrong as they please; that, when the body perishes, the soul

becomes immortal, and flies to a place beyond the seas, where there is

an abundance of all things, and where husbands and wives meet, and live

happily together again.

On the occasion of their funerals, that they may want for nothing in

the other world to which they have been used in this, their clothing

and accoutrements, and arms, are buried with them; sometimes a stock

of provisions is added; and when a Cacique is buried his horses are

also slain and stuffed with straw, and set upright over his grave. The

internment is conducted with more or less ceremony, according to the

rank of the deceased:--if he be a man of weight amongst them, not only

his relations, but all the principal persons of the tribe, assemble and

hold a great drinking-bout over his grave, at which the more drink, the

more honour.

They have great faith in dreams, especially in those of their ancients

and Caciques, to whom they believe they are sent as revelations for

the guidance of the tribe on important occasions; and they seldom

undertake any affair, either of personal or general importance, without

much consultation with their diviners and old women as to the omens

which may have been observed.

Marriage is an expensive ceremony to the bridegroom, who if obliged

to make rich presents, sometimes all he is worth, to the parents of

his love, before he obtains their consent. Thus daughters are a source

of sure wealth to their parents, whilst those who have only sons are

often ruined by the assistance which is required from them on these

occasions. Such as can afford it take more wives than one, but the

first has always precedence in the household arrangements, and so on in

succession.

When a child is born it is taken with the mother immediately to the

nearest stream, in which after both are bathed, the mother returns to

her household duties, and takes part in preparing for the feast that

follows.

In almost all these habits, the Pehuenches appear to fellow the

Araucanians, of whose manners and customs Molina has given a full

account in his History of Chile.

The mother of one of my servants lived seven years amongst these

savages, and confirmed Cruz's account on all the points I have here

stated. In general, she said, she was as kindly treated by them as was

possible under the circumstances:--she had been taken by the Pampas

Indians, and by them sold to the Pehuenches, that she might have less

chance of escaping and ever reaching her own home again. Men, women,

and children, she said, lived much more on horseback than on foot.

A knowledge of their language might assist much to make us better

acquainted with their country, for their nomenclature of places, as

well as of persons, is rarely insignificant. I have already stated that

the Pehuenches derive their name from pehuen, the pine-tree, which

abounds on the slopes of the Cordillera where they dwell. The Ranqueles

are so called from ranquel, the thistle, which covers the plains which

they inhabit. The Picunches take their name from picun, the _north_.

The Puelches signify the people to the east, and the Huilliches those

to the south: _che_ means people.

The following will serve as examples of some of the appellations

of their Caciques:--Culucalquin, the Eagle; Maripil, the Viper;

Ancapichui, the Partridge; Quilquil, the Little Bird; Guayquiante, the

Sun; Cari-mangue, the Condor; Antu-mangue, the Ostrich; Pichi-mangue,

the Vulture; Paine-mangue, the Old Condor.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] The only authentic notice which I believe has as yet appeared of

this important voyage is the very brief one attached to the "Collection

of Astronomical Observations by Spanish Navigators," published by Don

José Espinosa, chief of the Hydrographical Department of Madrid, in

1809.

[28] Carta esferica de la parte interior de la America Meridional

para manifestar el camino que conduce desde Valparaiso à Buenos Ayres

construida por las observaciones astronomicas que hicieron en estas

partes en 1794 Don José de Espinosa y Don Felipe Bauza, Oficiales de la

Real Armada--en la direccion hidrografica, año 1810.

[29] Position of Melinqué fixed by Azara, lat. 33° 42´ 24", long. from

Buenos Ayres 3° 30´ 38".

[30] _Neuquen_ or _Nehuen_ signifies the rapid river, according to

Angelis.

[31] Although in the copy of Crux's MS. in my possession, as well as

in Señor de Angelis's collection, the name of this river is written

_Cobu_-leubú; I suspect it to be an erroneous writing for _Colu_-leubú,

which signifies the great river. I believe this the more, as I find

that people who have journeyed south from Mendoza speak of it (at least

of what I suppose to be the upper part of the same river) as the _Rio

Grande_.

[32] The track laid down on the map from Fort San Rafael along the

northern bank of the Diamante, to its junction with the Desaguadero,

and thence southward into the Indian territory, was fixed by compass,

and given me by Dr. Gillies.

[33] An estimate, annexed to his journal, of the expenses which

he calculated would be requisite to make the road he had passed

practicable for carriages the whole way from Antuco to Buenos Ayres,

made them amount to no more than 46,000 Spanish dollars.

[34] Captain Fitzroy says that no less than four volcanoes, now in

activity, may be seen from Chile.

[35] If coal really exist at the sources of the Neuquen, which he

says is navigable to the sea, it is impossible to calculate on the

extent of its future influence upon the prosperity of the neighbouring

provinces whenever the people shall open their eyes to the power

of steam-navigation. As yet, it would appear as if the people of

Mendoza and San Luis had as little idea of the use even of a canoe as

the Indians themselves, otherwise it seems hardly credible that the

Spaniards should never have made the slightest attempt to send a boat

down any one of these rivers.

[36] Pehuen signifies a pine-tree.

CHAPTER IX.

PROGRESS OF INLAND DISCOVERY.

Ignorance of the Buenos Ayreans respecting the lands south

of the Salado previously in their Independence. Colonel

Garcia's expedition to the Salt Lakes in 1810. The

Government of Buenos Ayres endeavours to bring about an

arrangement with the Indians for a new boundary. Their

warlike demonstrations render futile this attempt. March of

an army to the Tandil, and erection of a Fort there. Some

account of that part of the country. The coast as far as

Bahia Blanca examined, and extension of the frontier-line

as far as that point. The hostility of the Indians makes

it necessary to carry the war into the heart of their

Territories. General Rosas rescues from them 1500 Christian

captives. Detachments of his army occupy the Choleechel,

and follow the courses of the River Negro and of the

Colorado till in sight of the Cordillera.

Having given some account of the explorations of the Old Spaniards

beyond Buenos Ayres, I shall now proceed to state what has been done

by their successors since their independence. It is inconceivable

the ignorance which, up to a very recent period, existed amongst

even the higher classes of the people of Buenos Ayres respecting the

Indian territories which immediately bounded their own lands to the

southward. It is indeed only by a laborious investigation of the

history of their frontiers, and of the steps taken from time to time

to advance them, that we can even now obtain any tolerable notion of

the physical features of that part of the continent. This, however,

is worth the trouble, as it will furnish materials for laying down

a considerable portion of country hitherto most imperfectly and

erroneously described in all existing maps.

One of the first attempts made by the Independents to acquire accurate

data respecting the country to the south of the Salado appears to have

been in 1810, on the occasion of one of the periodical expeditions

to the great salt lakes in the south. Those expeditions formed a

singular exception to the ordinary supineness and indisposition of the

Spaniards to cross their own frontiers. They consisted of large convoys

of waggons dispatched under direction of the municipal authorities

to collect salt for the yearly supply of the city, escorted by a

military force to protect them from the Indians. Of their apparent

importance some idea may be formed from one, of which an account has

been preserved, and which took place during the time of the Viceroy

Vertiz, in 1778, composed of 600 waggons, with 12,000 bullocks, and

2600 horses, and nearly 1000 men to load them, besides an escort of

400 soldiers. The Indians, on these occasions, were propitiated by

suitable presents, and, as the caravans never deviated from their

object, they became habituated to them, and, instead of regarding them

with jealousy, in general rather looked forward with eagerness for the

annual tribute in the shape of presents which the Spaniards were ready

to pay them for an unmolested passage across their territories. They

even lent the people their assistance at the salt-lakes to load their

waggons in exchange for beads and baubles from Buenos Ayres.

The Viceroy occasionally attached some pieces of artillery to the

troops, and generally availed himself of the opportunity to make a

salutary display amongst the savages of the military discipline and

power of the Spanish soldiers, which no doubt had its due effect;

but no one thought of turning these expeditions to any further

account:--they never departed from the same direct and beaten track

across the pampas, and not the slightest pains were taken to collect

any further information respecting the country beyond, at least in the

time of the Old Spanish rule.

The members of the National Government, set up in 1810, were animated

by a different spirit: they foresaw with the dawn of their new

destinies the prospect of their becoming a commercial people, and the

consequent necessity of giving such encouragement to the extension

of their pastoral establishments as would tend to the multiplication

of the staple commodities of the country. The extension of their

frontiers, and their due protection by military posts were consequently

among the first objects of their attention; and when the annual

expedition to the Salinas was about to set out, they took care to

select an officer for the command of it qualified to reconnoitre

the country and to collect such information as might assist them

in determining upon their future plans for an extension of their

territorial jurisdiction.

Colonel Garcia, the officer in question, had previously seen much

of the Indians on the coast of Patagonia. He was of a conciliatory

disposition, and was on many other accounts eminently qualified for the

task committed to him. From the diary of his expedition, which is in

my possession, it appears that the caravan or convoy placed under his

charge, on this occasion, consisted of 234 waggons, with 2927 bullocks,

and 520 horses attached to them. His attendants, including soldiers,

were 407: they had also two field-pieces with them. Nor was this

considered a large party, compared with former expeditions with the

same object; indeed Garcia soon found to his cost that his force was

hardly sufficient to secure him common respect from some of the many

Indian Caciques, who, from the time of his leaving the frontier fort

of Cruz de Guerra to his arrival at the Salinas, successively besieged

him with their importunities for presents, especially of tobacco and

spirits, and kept him in continual alarm lest they should attempt to

carry off by force what they could not obtain by other means. Each who

presented himself called himself master of the lands they were passing

through, and expected corresponding presents to purchase his permission

to pass forward. Nor was this the worst: it appeared that something had

given rise amongst the Indians to a suspicion of the ulterior objects

of the Buenos Ayreans; and, under an impression that they projected

a forcible settlement in their lands, the Ranqueles tribes from the

plains south of San Luis and Mendoza, under their principal Cacique

Carripilum (the same spoken of in the foregoing chapter), had collected

their forces with the secret determination to endeavour to cut off

the whole party. Fortunately the fidelity of some of the Puelches,

or Eastern tribes, who hate and are continually at variance with the

Ranqueles, enabled Garcia to discover and disconcert their hostile

plans, and finally, though with considerable difficulty and danger,

to accomplish his object, and return with his convoy of salt-carts in

safety to Buenos Ayres.

Amongst the results of this expedition was the determination by

observation of seventeen points along the line of road from the

Guardia de Luxan, in lat. 34° 39´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 1° 2´,

to the Great Salt Lake in lat. 37° 13´, long. west of Buenos Ayres 4°

51´;[37] the whole distance travelled being 97 leagues, or, adding 24

for that from Luxan to the capital, 121 from Buenos Ayres. The journey

out occupied 23 days, and the return 25; altogether the party was

absent just two months, viz., from the 21st of October to the 21st of

December.

The only features which seem worthy of remark along the road are the

numerous lakes, which appear to be the collections of the streams from

the western ramifications of the Sierra Ventana; the most considerable

of which is the Laguna del Monte, in lat. 36° 53´, long. from Buenos

Ayres 3° 57´; its name, the Lake of the Wood, is taken from a large

island upon it covered with fine timber; it is formed by the river

Guamini, and other streams from the mountain group so called; its width

was estimated to be three or four leagues, and in the rainy season

it forms one with the lakes of Paraguayos, extending more than seven

leagues to the south-west.

Although, the Laguna del Monte was salt, it was observed that the

waters of some of the smaller lakes in its immediate vicinity were

perfectly sweet. The same observation was made at the Salinas; the

sweetest water was abundant in the immediate vicinity of the Great Salt

Lake.

Shortly before reaching the lake of Paraguayos, the Sierra de la

Ventana and its ramification, the Guamini, were seen and particularly

observed: the Sierra Guamini bore south 15° east, and the Ventana

south-east a quarter east. There they were met by several of the

best-disposed of the Caciques and their followers, who supplied

them with cattle in exchange for the articles they had with them.

They accompanied them to the Salinas, which they reached two days

afterwards; and to them they owed their protection from the hostile

Renqueles and Carripilum, whose treachery they discovered and exposed.

Speaking of the character of these Indians, Garcia says they are

remarkable alike for their cowardice as for their ferocity: their

warfare is a system of continual deceit and treachery, and their stolen

victories are always signalized by savage cruelties. Nothing could

exceed their submissive obsequiousness to the Spaniards from the moment

they knew they had an intimation of their hostile intentions, and were

upon their guard against them. The prevailing vice amongst them all,

even the best of them, is drunkenness,--the Caciques set the example

upon every occasion; and it is seldom that their orgies end without the

loss of lives, for in their cups they are always quarrelsome:--then the

slightest offence is remembered, and they draw their knives, wounding

and killing one another, and falling upon all, even their nearest

relations, who would attempt to restrain them. Of all the Indians the

Ranqueles are the worst:--they may be called the bush-rangers of the

pampas:--if they cannot rob the Spaniards they will make war upon the

other tribes, to carry off their horses and cattle. The Puelches, on

the contrary, or eastern people, at that time settled about the Salinas

and the mountains towards the coast, were found to be more peaceably

disposed: they were the possessors of large herds and flocks of their

own, and the manufacturers of many articles in demand amongst the

Spaniards, such as ponchos, skin-cloaks, bridles, and feather-brooms,

which they used to sell to them at Buenos Ayres and on the frontiers.

The extent of the Great Salt Lake is not given, and Garcia says it

was impossible to ride round it from the thick woods which lined its

banks; but, from an eminence a little to the south, he got a general

view of it, as well as of the country for a considerable distance.

Looking towards the south, as far as he could see, was one immense

level plain, covered with pasturage: to the eastward, in the distance,

some woods were visible, which, he was told, extended to the hilly

ranges of Guamini and La Ventana. On the opposite side, to the westward

of the lake, was a vast forest of chañar, algaroba, and an infinite

variety of other trees, which the Indians told him extended with little

interruption for three days' journey in that direction; and they added

the singular circumstance that, about a day and a half off in the midst

of it, upon a hilly range of some extent, were to be seen the ruins of

the brick buildings of some former inhabitants (antigua poblacion),

though, as to who they might have been, or when they ceased to exist,

they had not the smallest notion, neither had they any tradition which

could throw light upon it. The fruit-trees, they said, which, had been

planted there, had multiplied exceedingly, so that it was a great

resort of the Indians in their journeys across the pampas, to gather

figs, peaches, walnuts, and apples, and other fruits, of which there

was an abundance for all that went there. Wild cattle also, they said,

were in the surrounding forest, but they were not so accessible, and

were difficult to follow up through the woods. Colonel Garcia hazards

no conjecture as to who could have been the settlers in this secluded

and remote spot, nor has any one else obtained since any further

account of them. The age of the trees might perhaps throw some light

upon the date of the buildings, and I imagine that the names alone of

those I have mentioned are sufficient to indicate that they must have

been of European introduction, and consequently that those who planted

them must have done so subsequently to the discovery of that part of

the world by the Spaniards. Nothing, I was told, existed at Buenos

Ayres which could throw any light whatever upon the subject.

Had the practice continued of carrying on these expeditions, it is

probable that the Buenos Ayreans would have become better acquainted

with the southern part of the pampas; but, upon the opening of an

unrestricted trade, the importation of salt from the Cape de Verd

Islands and other countries rendered it unnecessary for the government

to put itself to any expense about them; and, as individuals without

the protection of the troops would not run the risk of encountering the

Indians, the Salinas ceased to be resorted to, and the people of Buenos

Ayres became reconciled to purchasing of foreigners an article of which

they have an inexhaustible supply within their own territory.

Garcia proposed to the government to form a military settlement at the

Salinas, to be the central point of a line of frontier to be drawn

from the river Colorado across the pampas to Fort San-Rafael on the

river Diamante, south of Mendoza. This he conceived would effectually

check the depredations of the Ranqueles and their thievish associates,

whilst the friendly and well-disposed Puelches Indians to the south,

he was tolerably assured, would at that period have been glad to have

been brought under the immediate protection of the government of Buenos

Ayres. The principal Caciques of the latter were three brothers, from

the vicinity of Valdivia, where in their early life they had learned

to respect the Spaniards, and to appreciate the benefits of keeping

up a friendly and well-regulated intercourse with them. Nowhere had

the king's officers taken such pains to conciliate the native tribes

as in Chile, and so well had that system of treating them answered,

that, in the present case, these brothers declared there was nothing

they desired more than the permanent establishment of a more intimate

connexion between them and the people of Buenos Ayres, and that they

would gladly place themselves and their followers under the immediate

protection of the government.

But Garcia's plan embraced more than could be done at once by the

rulers of Buenos Ayres; and partly, perhaps, on that account, and

partly because all their disposable forces and means were shortly

afterwards required to carry on the struggle for their independence, it

was, with many other projects laid aside, and many years elapsed ere

any further step was taken.

Nevertheless the results of their new political condition developed

themselves, as was anticipated, and the increase of their trade led

to the extension of their pastoral establishments. Although the

government took no measures for their protection, the people of the

country began to occupy the lands to the south of the Salado, which

soon brought them into contact and collision with the Indians, who,

on their part, looked with a very natural jealousy upon settlements

planted without their concurrence on lands which from time immemorial

they had been accustomed to consider as exclusively their own. The

more peaceable tribes retired to the fastnesses in the mountains to

the south, but the Ranqueles and other migratory hordes retaliated by

carrying off the cattle and plundering those who had thus intruded

themselves within their territories. In these marauding expeditions

they were often joined by some of the vagabond gauchos, deserters

from the army, and such wretches flying from the pursuit of justice

as, in times of civil commotion especially, are to be found in all

countries. By those unprincipled associates they were soon taught to

look with less dread upon the fire-arms of the Buenos Ayrean militia,

and even to use them, whenever, either by the murder or robbery of some

defenceless estanciero, they fell into their hands. Nor was this the

worst. During the unhappy civil dissensions which broke out between

Buenos Ayres and the provinces, some of the unprincipled leaders of

the reckless factions which divided the Republic sought alliances

with the Indians,[38] the fatal consequences of which they only too

late discovered. Like bloodhounds it was impossible to restrain them.

When once the weakest points were shown them, they burst in upon

the frontier villages, murdering in cold blood the defenceless and

unprepared inhabitants, and carrying off the women and children into a

slavery of the most horrible description.

It was manifest that the impunity with which these outrages were

committed arose mainly from the total absence of any protection on

the part of the government for those settlers who had advanced their

estancias beyond the old forts within the line of the Salado, and the

public voice called loudly for some prompt remedies for the evil,

the most efficacious of which appeared to be the adoption of some

one of the many plans from time to time proposed for a new line of

military posts to cover the rural population south of that river; the

hilly ranges of the Vuulcan, especially, seemed to present a natural

frontier which it appeared only necessary to occupy to secure the

object; but the information respecting all that part of the country

was still exceedingly imperfect; and it was determined, therefore, in

the first instance, to send out an exploratory expedition to examine

them. This led to Colonel Garcia being again called upon to proceed

to the south, with the double object of endeavouring to induce the

Indians to enter into an arrangement with the government of Buenos

Ayres for a new boundary as the basis of a general pacification, and of

acquiring precise information as to the most eligible positions for the

establishment of military posts in the hilly ranges in that direction.

The communications he had had twelve years before with the leading

Caciques of the tribes inhabiting the country eastward of the Salinas

led him vainly to hope that those tribes at least might be brought to

acquiesce peaceably in the views of the government, and, provided they

were left in possession of the lands they occupied in the vicinity of

the Sierra Ventana, that they would not oppose the occupation by the

Buenos Ayreans of the more northern line of the Vuulcan and Taudil; but

Garcia was not aware of the great change which had taken place in the

feelings and policy of the Indians, from a variety of circumstances,

since his journey to the Salinas in 1810.

The messengers, however, sent forward to announce his mission were

well received, and a respectable deputation, headed by Antiguan, one

of their principal chiefs, was sent forward to meet and to conduct the

ambassador and his suite to their toldos at the foot of the Sierra

Ventana, where the Caciques of the Puelches proposed the negociations

should be opened, promising to invite thither at the same time

representatives from all the tribes of the Pampas, not excepting the

Ranqueles, and the Huilliches or People of the South, inhabiting the

lands as far as the rivers Colorado and Negro.

Under this escort, and accompanied by Colonel Reyes, an engineer

officer, and about thirty persons, soldiers and peons, Colonel Garcia

set out from Lobos for the Indian territory on the 10th of April,

1822. On the 12th they crossed the Salado at a place where its depth

allowed of the safe passage of carts, and where its width was not

above thirty or forty feet; this was some way above the junction

of the Flores, after which it becomes a river of more consequence,

its breadth extending to 300 yards in the winter season, when it is

impassable except in canoes. The next day they crossed the Saladillo

at the pass of Las Toscas; this stream falls into the Salado a little

above the river Flores, towards which they proceeded through a country

much intersected by swamps, which obliged them to deviate continually

from their direct course. When near the Lake de las Polvaderas, Colonel

Reyes, being desirous to take an observation, produced his sextant,

which led to an unexpected but serious manifestation of alarm and

suspicion on the part of the Indians. Some foolish person, it appeared,

when they were setting out had told them that the commissioners had

with them instruments through which they could see all the world at

once, and nothing would satisfy them, when they saw them brought out,

that the Spaniards were not in direct consultation with the gualichù,

or devil himself. It was impossible to do away with this notion of

theirs, which led to the inconvenience of obliging the officers

afterwards to take their observations by the stars at night instead of

by the sun in the day-time.

About two leagues beyond where they crossed the Flores they verified

its junction with the Tapalquen in a vast marsh. The Flores is in fact

but the drain of the waters of that river; it was found to be more

brackish than even the Salado. In the thick jungles along its banks

many tigers were seen, which, however, excited little apprehension

compared with the horseflies and mosquitos, from whose venomous attacks

there was no escape. They followed the Tapalquen till they came in

sight of the Sierra, distant ten or twelve leagues, the Amarilla Hills

bearing south-south-east, and those of Curaco south-south-west; between

these two groups runs one of the passes frequented by the Indians in

their journeys to the Ventana, where the travellers halted, and in the

night, whist their Indian guides were asleep, by an observation of

Mars, determined the latitude to be 36° 45´ 10"; the longitude they

fixed at 54° 13´ from Cadiz; variation 17° 10´.

The following morning, making a pretext for lagging behind out of sight

of their Indian friends, they reconnoitred the pass, and determined

with a theodolite the height of some of the hills in its immediate

vicinity; the highest point of the Amarilla, or Tinta group, called

Lima-huida, south-east of the pass, was 200 feet, and the two peaks of

Curaco, which they had seen at a distance the day before, measured,

the one 270, and the other about 200 feet. A small guard-house or fort

would effectually close this pass against the Indians.

To the south of this part of the chain, the country is a succession

of hills and dales, watered by many streams from the Sierra, and

apparently well adapted for an agricultural settlement. Taking a course

about south-south-west, on the third day after leaving the pass of

Curaco they came in sight of the second range of mountains, called

the Sierra de la Ventana, and arrived at the toldos of Antiguan their

conductor, whose people, apprized of their approach, came out in great

numbers, men, women, and children, to receive them. Antiguan lost no

time in despatching messengers in every direction to summon the general

meeting of the Caciques, whilst Colonel Garcia encamped with his little

party on the borders of a lake, where it was determined that the grand

parlamento, or parley, was to be held. Thither they were attended by a

friendly old cacique, Lincon, whom Garcia had known and made a friend

of on his former expedition, and to whose advice and assistance they

were in the sequel very essentially indebted. From him they learnt

that the chiefs of the Ranqueles were far from peaceably disposed, or

inclined to take part in any treaties with the government of Buenos

Ayres for their lands; and that there existed generally amongst the

Indians much jealousy and distrust of the Spaniards, in consequence

of the measures they had of late been taking with respect to them. He

warned them, also, not to be surprised at any warlike display which

might be made at the approaching meeting, as it was probable that the

Caciques would avail themselves of the opportunity to show the number

of fighting men they could command.

It was fortunate they had some such notice of what they were to expect;

for when, in two or three days afterwards, the Indians assembled, they

certainly made an appearance much more like a general gathering of

armed forces for war than of negociators for peace.

On the day appointed for the general conference, a body of about 200

men made their appearance at an early hoar, formed in battle array, and

slowly advancing towards the commissioners' tents to the sound of horns

(cornetas). On arriving within a short distance, they broke into small

parties, uttering loud shouts, and charging over the plain, making cuts

and thrusts in the air right and left with their swords and lances,

and then wheeling about and riding round and round their leader, who

apparently directed these manoeuvrings. The principal object of all

this, the commissioners were told, was to drive away the gualichù, or

evil spirit, whose secret pretence they apprehended might otherwise

maliciously influence the approaching negociations.

The trappings of some of the horses of these warriors were curiously

ornamented with beads, and hung, about with little bells. Several of

them wore sort of helmet, and a buff coating of hide, so well prepared

as to be perfectly soft and flexible, though several times double; the

helmets made of it are so tough as to resist the cut of a sword, and

sometimes are bullet-proof.

This was but the advanced-guard of a numerous host which afterwards

came in view, covering the horizon, and making really a very imposing

appearance. Altogether there might be something more than 3000

fighting men regularly marshalled under their respective Caciques in

nine divisions. Though these Indians belonged to the _soi-disant_

friendly tribes, the commissioners could not fail to be struck at once

with the quantity of arms and accoutrements amongst them, which were

manifestly the spoils of war and of their own countrymen murdered on

the frontiers. Their whole demeanour, too, was insolent and arrogant in

the extreme, partaking infinitely more of defiance than any real desire

for a permanent peace, which caused many misgivings to Garcia and his

officers as to the result of their mission.

After a variety of martial manoeuvrings, on a given signal a great

circle was formed, in the midst of which the Ulmenes or principal

Caciques, taking their places, commenced the parlamento by a

preliminary discussion amongst themselves as to whether or not they

should enter into any negociations whatever with the government of

Buenos Ayres without the Ranqueles. On this point there were great

differences of opinion, the most sagacious of the speakers shrewdly

prognosticating, that, unless the peace was to be a general one, it

was useless to enter into it, inasmuch as, if hostilities continued

between the Spaniards and any of the tribes, the rest could hardly

fail, sooner or later, to be involved in them. The majority, however,

only anxious to share at once the presents which they understood the

Spaniards to have brought with them, and of which they probably feared

that any co-operation of the Ranqueles tribes would deprive them of a

portion, called aloud for an immediate treaty, and the commissioners

were conducted, almost by force, to the place of deliberation, where

a scene of great confusion took place, every one desirous to speak at

once, and calling for the presents. The circle was broken, and, the

Indians rushing in upon them, the officers with difficulty extricated

themselves from the press.

After a time the authority of the Caciques was restored, and the

conference resumed; the sole result of which was, that the majority

present insisted upon treating at once with the Buenos Ayreans on their

own account, after which they said the commissioners might proceed to

negociate, as they could, separately with the Huilliches, or southern

tribes, and with the Ranqueles. All this was rather a dictation, on

the part of the Indians, than any mutual agreement; but it was evident

there was to be no alternative, and the commissioners, putting the

best face upon it, proceeded to distribute the greater part of the

presents they had brought for the occasion,--the possession of which,

it was perfectly clear, was the main, if not the sole object of the

savages in entering at all into discussions with them. These Indians

all called themselves _Pampas_ and Aucases. The latter term, which

signifies _warriors_, seems to be assumed by many of the tribes of

Araucanian origin.[39] In the course of their parleys with them, so far

from finding them disposed, as Garcia had flattered himself, to treat

for a new and more advanced boundary-line, they vehemently complained

of the encroachments already made by the Buenos Ayreans, and insisted

upon their withdrawing the establishments already formed to the south

of the Salado. Garcia found it useless to argue with them; and, as

his personal safety would probably have been endangered by a positive

refusal, he thought it better to temporize, and to promise to lay their

representations before the government of Buenos Ayres on his return,

contenting himself to stipulate that there should be peace in the mean

time.

Having obtained all they could get, the Caciques took their leave,

leading off their followers to their respective toldos. The next day

they were succeeded by another and distinct party of the Huilliches

or southern people, who, though summoned to the general conference,

had not been able to arrive in time to take part in it. This tribe

presented even a more martial appearance than the others, and Colonel

Garcia, describing them, says, no regiment of cavalry could have made

a more regular or better figure than these strikingly fine men. They

were naked from the waist upwards, and wore a sort of helmet surmounted

by feathers (a distinguishing feature in the dress of this tribe),

which added to their extraordinary stature. Their Cacique Llampilco,

or the _black_, was upwards of seven feet high, and many others were

equal to him, and even taller. Most of them were armed with very long

lances, and, like the pampas tribes, had their faces bedaubed with red

and black paint; but their language was different, and, Garcia says,

identical with that of the people from the southern part of Patagonia,

from whom he imagines them to have sprung, and to the old accounts of

whose height he refers.[40] He speaks of them as a superior and finer

race of men in every respect than the others; admirable horsemen,

and brave in war, without the cruelty of the pampas tribes, sparing

their prisoners, and treating strangers with kindness and hospitality.

They had come from the lands south of the Ventana, about the rivers

Colorado and Negro, where they had located themselves, according to

their own account, to avoid collision with the Spaniards, with whom

they professed their great desire to establish a solid peace. They

spoke with contempt and detestation of the marauding habits of the

pampas tribes and of the Ranqueles, and offered at any time to assist

in chastising them. This party consisted of 420 fighting men. They

conducted themselves very differently from the others, and with great

propriety, receiving thankfully what was given to them.

After their departure, the commissioners removed to the lake where

the Cacique Lincon's people were located, and which bore his name.

Its situation was about five leagues from the mountain-range beyond,

something more than three to the west of that on which the conferences

had been held, and about five and a half from one named after

Pichiloncoy, another friendly Cacique, of whom more hereafter. From

this place, looking to the north-west, one boundless plain presented

itself to the eye. The Ventana mountain bore south-west, extending its

lesser ramifications to the west-south-west, as far as the Curumualà,

a small group of hills which may be seen running west to the more

elevated range of Guamini; an extensive plain running between them.

The highest part of the Guamini bore west 10° north, and was lost in

the boundless pampas beyond.

A stay here for a few days gave them a tolerable insight into the

manners and customs of the natives. Nothing could exceed the laziness

and brutality, in general, of the men, who, looking upon the women

as inferior beings, treated them as the most abject slaves. Not only

were they obliged to attend to all the ordinary duties of the family,

but upon them also, devolved the care of their husbands' horses, and

even the tending of the sheep and cattle. Polygamy was permitted,

and, according to his means, it appeared that a man kept more or less

wives, which, so far from causing jealousy, seemed generally a source

of satisfaction to the ladies themselves, inasmuch as it led to the

lightening by subdivision of their domestic labours. Unless engaged in

some predatory excursion, or in hunting deer and guanacoes, and other

smaller animals, for their skins, the men seemed to pass their whole

time in sleeping, drinking, and gambling, the habitual vices of all

the tribes:--they are passionately fond of cards, which they obtain

from the Spaniards, and will play for ever at dice, which they make

themselves ingeniously enough, and, like gamesters in other parts of

the world, will stake their all upon a throw, reckless of reducing

their families to utter destitution.

In each toldo, or tent, which is made of hides stretched upon canes,

and easily removeable from one place to another, five or six families,

barely separated from each other, perhaps twenty or thirty persons in

all, were closely huddled together in the most horrible state of filth

imaginable; indeed, in many respects, they were but little removed in

their habits from the brute creation. If fuel was scarce, as was often

the case in the pampas, they cared not to cook their meat, but ate it

raw, and always drank the warm blood of every animal they killed:--like

beasts of prey, there was no part, even to the contents of the stomach

and intestines, which they would not greedily devour.

They were superstitious in the extreme, and the credulous dupes and

tools of a few artful men, who are to be found in every tribe, and in

reality direct all its concerns by pretending to foretell the future,

and to divine the cause of every evil. They are called _machis_,

or wizards, and there is no tribe without them, and which does not

implicitly submit to their decisions and advice. Their word is law,

and the Cacique even, equally with the rest, submits to it. The

commissioners themselves were nearly made the victims of the malice

of some of these wretches, who probably anticipated a share of the

plunder, if they could have induced their countrymen to destroy them.

The old Cacique, named Pichiloncoy, already mentioned as living near

the toldos of Lincon, and whose life was of great consequence to his

tribe, fell seriously ill, and, according to custom, the machis were

assembled to pronounce on the nature of his complaint, and to denounce

those whose evil machinations or influence could have reduced him to

such a state, for in all such cases some one must be responsible, and,

once denounced, his life is seldom spared if the patient dies. In this

case the machis unanimously ascribed the old Cacique's illness to

the presence of the Christians, who, they declared, had brought the

Gualichù, or evil spirit, with them, probably deriving the notion from

the report spread by their guides respecting the supernatural powers

of the instruments they were known occasionally to consult. If the old

man had not fortunately recovered it might have gone hard with them,

for their lives would certainly have been in great peril. As Garcia

observes, it would have been a pretty ending of their embassy to have

been sacrificed to the manes of old Pichiloncoy by the mad machis.

Notwithstanding the excessive nastiness and filth of their general

habits, the women seldom failed to perform their daily ablutions,

repairing the first thing in the morning to the neighbouring lake to

bathe with their children, although the cold was so intense, that

the snow nightly beat through their tents during the whole time the

commissioners were there. Amongst these females were some Christian

girls, captives, whose fair skin was but too strong evidence of their

origin, and who seemed from habit to suffer as little from the

severity of the cold as their dusky mistresses. Their unfortunate

lot excited the strongest feelings on the part of the commissioners,

whose interposition to obtain their liberation they pleaded for, as

well they might, with tears and the most earnest entreaties. Nor were

the officers backward in urging upon the Caciques every argument to

induce them to give them up; but it was amongst the greatest of their

disappointments to find all their efforts on this point unavailing.

The Caciques declared they had no power in a case touching the spoils

of war, which, according to their laws, were the sole property of the

individual captors, to whom they referred them to make the best bargain

they could. These brutes, on being applied to, demanded in general so

extravagant a ransom as to destroy at once every hope on the part of

the poor women themselves of its ever being raised, their relatives in

general being of the labouring classes employed in the estancias on the

frontier; in many cases they too were no longer in existence, having

perished in the same inroads of the savages which had deprived them of

their liberty.

In expectation that the treaties to be made with the Indians would have

led to the immediate liberation of all prisoners, some poor people had

obtained leave to follow in the train of the commissioners, in the

hope of finding their wives and daughters, and carrying them back

with them; and a most affecting sight it was, as may well be imagined,

to witness their meeting again, and tender embraces after so cruel

a separation; but it was piteous indeed to behold their subsequent

despair on finding that the interference of the commissioners was

unavailing, and that the purchase-money demanded for the prisoners was

totally beyond what they could ever hope to raise. The parting again of

these poor people was perhaps one of the hardest trials to which human

nature could be subjected. Husbands and fathers forced to leave their

wives and daughters to the defilement of brutal savages, with scarce a

hope of ever being able to obtain their release; it need hardly be said

that force was necessary to separate them, and to restrain the men from

acts of violence which might have compromised the safety of the whole

party.

If slavery as carried on by Christian nations appears so revolting

to all our better feelings, and excites our strongest sympathies on

behalf of the negro, whose condition, after all, is often perhaps in

reality ameliorated by being brought under the protection of humane

laws, and within the pale of Christianity, what must it be when the

case is reversed, when the Christian woman, brought up in at least the

decent and domestic habits of civilised society, falls into the power

of a savage, whose home is the desert, and who, though little removed

in his own habits from a beast of prey, looks down upon the weaker sex

as an inferior race, only made to be subject to his brutal will and

caprice?

Though the unhappy condition of these poor women excited the

sensibility of the commissioners for an instant, it roused also their

more manly feelings, and satisfied them that the government of Buenos

Ayres owed it to its own honour, and to humanity, to act with energy,

and make some effort of force to rescue these poor victims from the

consequences of their own supine and too lenient policy. It was indeed

evident that any attempt to secure a permanent and satisfactory state

of peace would be futile without such a demonstration as would act upon

the fears of the Indians, and oblige them to submit to such terms as

the government might determine to impose upon them.

Under this conviction the officers would have returned at once to

Buenos Ayres, had they not been earnestly solicited by the inhabitants

of some other toldos about the Sierra Ventana to visit them before

their departure; a request they acceded to in the hope of its enabling

them to acquire some geographical information with regard to that range.

On the 2nd they set out with old Lincon, who insisted upon

escorting them as far as the place of rendezvous. Their course lay

west-south-west, through an undulating country, rich in pasturage, and

studded with small lakes, about which were generally found small groups

of Indians with their cattle. These lakes in the summer season are

for the most part dry, and then the Indians remove within reach of the

mountain-streams. Towards evening they pitched their tents on the banks

of a stream called the Quetro-eique, the Ventana about two and a half

leagues distant, where they found a large encampment of Indians, who

received them with rejoicings. As far as the eye could reach the plains

were covered with their cattle and sheep.

Whilst waiting for the assembling of the Caciques, the officers devoted

two or three days to surveying: following up the Quetro-eique about

three and a half leagues, they traced it to its sources on the side

of the Ventana. The height of the principal mountain, so called, they

determined by measurement to be 2500 feet above the level of the plain

from which it rises.[41] To the north-west a chain of low hills extends

as far as a break by which they are separated from the minor group

called the Curumualá. Through this break run two small streams, the

one called Ingles-malhuida, from the circumstance of an Englishman

having been put to death by the Indians there, the other Malloleufú, or

the White River; the course of both is from south-west to north-east,

running nearly parallel with the Quetro-eique, and all, according to

the Indian accounts, losing themselves in extensive marshes beyond. The

rivers Sauce-grande and Sauce-chico, which fall into Bahia Blanca,

rise from the southern declivities of this range, according to the same

authority. Beyond the Curumualá is the group of the Guamini, the most

westerly part of this range. An observation taken from their tents

on the Quetro-eique gave the latitude 37° 50´; longitude from Cadiz

56° 20´; and thence a clear day gave them a general view of the whole

range. The Ventana bore south 18° west, prolonging its ramifications

to south 40° west. The Curumualá south 60° west, extending to 80°. The

Guamini extended through 30° as far as west 10° north. The whole range

may be described as running from south-south-east to north-north-west.

The variation by repeated calculations was 18° 30´, at the other

range it had been found as stated to be 17° 10´, and at the Lake of

Polvaderas 16° 30´ east.[42]

When the Caciques and their followers were all assembled there might

be about 1500 men, who were paraded by their chiefs much in the same

manner as before described. The same ceremonies to drive away the

gualichú, and the same preliminary discussions amongst themselves,

before they commenced their parleys with the officers; and these

terminating precisely in the same unsatisfactory and indefinite manner.

The presents it was evident were the only objects contemplated by the

savages, and, when these were not produced quite so quickly as they

expected, an attempt was made to seize them by force, and the officers

themselves would have been stripped, if not sacrificed, had not old

Lincon bravely protected them, and killed upon the spot with his own

hand two of the most forward of the assailants: cowed by the old man's

intrepidity, and the preparations of their escort to defend themselves,

the wretches slunk away, and so ended in blood and confusion the

labours of the commissioners. To old Lincon they owed their lives, and

subsequent safety on their road back to Buenos Ayres, whither they were

glad to return as fast as they could, under an escort furnished by him

and some of the more friendly tribes of the Huilliches.

Their route homeward was by the Sierra Amarilla, on the eastern slope

of which rises the river Barancas, which they followed some way: before

it emerges from the mountains it is joined by the Quetro-leufú, and

both together form the Tapalquen. Beyond the Sierra Amarilla was seen

that group called by the natives the Huellucalel, from which proceeds

the river Azul, the waters of which, running parallel with those of

the Torralnelú and Chapaleofú, are lost in the marshes sixteen or

twenty leagues distant towards the Salado. Crossing the Tapalquen, they

once more found the beaten track to the Guardia del Monte, which they

reached in safety on the 28th of May, after an absence of about six

weeks.

In reporting the results of their mission they recommended that the

range of the Vuulcan should be at once adopted as the boundary of the

province in that direction, and that a chain of military posts should

be established upon it, extending from the sea-coast as far west as

the Laguna Blanca, with a sufficient force to overawe the savages and

afford efficient protection to such settlements as might be made within

that line.

The government, at last roused to the conviction of the necessity of

some vigorous demonstration of physical force, in order to re-establish

something like that salutary fear of the superior military power

and discipline of the Christians, which, in old times, had, to a

certain degree, restrained and kept the savages in order, adopted

the suggestion, and preparations on a considerable scale were made

for carrying it into effect. The construction of a fortification on

the Tandil was determined upon, and the governor himself prepared to

superintend the work, and take the field against the savages with an

adequate force. The little army assembled for this purpose was ready

to march about the close of February, 1823. It consisted of 2500 men,

seven pieces of artillery, with a considerable accompaniment of carts

and waggons, and everything requisite for the establishment of a

permanent military settlement.

Instead of following the track of Garcia and his companions, by the

Tapalquen, after a consultation with some guides, who professed to

be well acquainted with the intervening country, General Rodriguez

determined upon marching direct across it to the Tandil; an attempt,

as it proved, more adventurous than prudent. On the 10th of March the

troops left the Guardia del Monte, and had hardly crossed the Salado

when they found themselves in the midst of apparently interminable

swamps, thickly set with canes and reeds higher than their horses'

heads. It was with great difficulty that the waggons and artillery

were dragged through; nevertheless they foundered onwards as far as a

lake, to which, from the clearness of its waters, they gave the name

of Laguna Limpia; but there it became absolutely necessary to halt in

order to reconnoitre the country before proceeding further. So far

they had been grossly misled by their guides, whose only knowledge

of the country it appeared had been acquired in excursions in quest

of nutrias, which little animals are found in vast numbers in these

swamps; but nutria catching and the march of an army accompanied by

heavy waggons and artillery are very different things, and the wonder

is that all the guns and baggage were not left behind in the bogs. The

marshes themselves are formed by the streams which run into them from

the hilly ranges further south, and which seem not to have sufficient

power to force their way through the low lands either to the Salado or

to the sea-coast. Beginning from the morass in which the Tapalquen

joins the Flores, they extend far eastward, and render useless a

considerable tract of country south of the Salado.

The scouts returning brought accounts that they had found the river

Chapeleofú, the course of which it was determined to follow to the

Tandil, where it was known to rise; but they had hardly left the Laguna

Limpia when they were beset by a new danger, which, for a short time,

threatened a frightful termination to the expedition. A sweeping wind

blew towards them clouds of dense smoke, followed by one vast lurid

blaze, extending across the horizon, and indicating but too clearly

the approach of one of those dreadful conflagrations, not uncommon in

the pampas after dry weather, when the long dry grass, and canes and

thistles, readily igniting, cause the flames to extend rapidly over the

whole face of the country, involving all in one common and horrible

destruction. The gauchos, on the first indication of danger, have

sometimes sufficient presence of mind to set fire immediately to the

grass to leeward, by which they clear a space on which to take refuge

before the general conflagration reaches them; but there is not always

time to do this, much less to save the cattle and sheep, great numbers

of which perish in the devouring element. Upon the present occasion

the guides seem to have lost their wits as well as their way; and, but

for the fortunate discovery of a small lake near them, into which men

and beasts alike rushed, dragging the carts with them, the whole army

would have been involved in the same tragical end. There, up to their

necks in the water, they remained for three hours, during which the

fire-storm raged frightfully round them, and then, for want of further

fuel, subsiding, left a desolated waste as far as the eye could reach,

covered with a black stratum of cinders and ashes.

After these dangers the army continued its march along the western

bank of the Chapeleofú, through a country which improved every step

they advanced towards the sierras beyond. Picturesque and fertile,

the lands seemed only to require to be taken possession of to form a

most valuable addition to the territory of Buenos Ayres. The wandering

tribes of Indians usually dwelling there had, to all appearance,

abandoned them, and withdrawn further south, no doubt in alarm at the

preparations made by the Spaniards to occupy them.

The wild guanacoes, and the deer, and the ostriches ranged in

thousands over the pastures of their native regions, and, with hares,

partridges, and armadilloes, afforded abundant sport to those sent out

to shoot them. For some days the army was almost entirely subsisted

upon them. Vast quantities of armadilloes, especially, were caught by

the soldiers. One memorable afternoon's chase is recorded, in which

upwards of 400 were taken; and a more delicate dish than one of these

little animals, roasted, in his own shell, I will venture, from my

own experience, to say, is not to be had in any part of the world.

The rivers and lakes swarmed with wild and water-fowl of every sort,

named and nameless, from the snipe to the beautiful black-necked swan

peculiar to that part of the world.[43]

An observation was taken on the Chapeleofú in latitude 37° 17´ 34";

shortly after which the army left its course, and marched eastward to

the Tandil, where they encamped, and whence the surveying officers

reconnoitred the surrounding country, and determined upon the site for

the new fortification.

The position of the fort constructed there has been fixed by repeated

observations in latitude 37° 21´ 43"; longitude, west of Buenos Ayres,

39´ 4"; variation 15° east. It stands upon a small eminence, one of

a lower group of hills which skirts the more elevated range beyond,

and from which it is divided by the bed of a streamlet, which, after

passing the works, about a quarter of a league to the eastward, and

being joined by another from the westward, forms the river Tandil,

which runs north till lost in the marshes in that direction already

spoken of. It is screened to the west and north-west by a range of

hills rising 300 or 400 feet above it, the summits of which are

strewed with large masses of quartzose rock, having a very remarkable

appearance when seen from a distance. The highest part of the range

of the Tandil, about two leagues to the south-east of the fort, was

ascertained to be about 1000 feet above the level of a small stream

which runs along its base. It is visible from a distance of forty

miles. The height of this part of the range gradually falls off till

lost in a wide plain or vale, about twelve miles eastward of the

fortification.

The climate in winter was found to be very cold; the prevailing

winds from the south and south-west.[44] In the month of April the

thermometer was twice 1-1/2° below freezing-point; but variations of

20° and even 30° in the course of the day were of common occurrence.

In that month (April) the highest of the thermometer was 68°, the

lowest 28-1/2°; in May the highest was 61°, the lowest 31°; in June

the highest was 72°, the lowest 39°; in July the highest was 79°,

the lowest 41°. In the summer the heat was almost insufferable,

particularly in the low lands; but in the spring and autumn, which are

the best seasons, the weather was found temperate and very agreeable.

Whilst the fort was building on the Tandil, communications were

opened with the Indians residing near the Ventana, proposing to

them to join in active operations against the Ranqueles tribes--the

Spaniards thinking, as on other occasions, to invoke the tribes in war

with each other, and to profit by the weakening of both parties; but

the Indians were this time upon their guard. They saw clearly enough

that the march of such an army into their territory could have only

one object,--the forcible occupation of their lands,--and they took

their measures accordingly with their usual astuteness and cunning.

Assenting, apparently, to the general propositions made to them, they

invited the Buenos Ayrean general to repair with his principal officers

to the neighbourhood of the Ventana, there to enter into the definitive

treaties. They probably hoped by some _ruse_ to get the governor

himself into their hands, and were greatly disappointed at his only

sending his second in command, General Rondeau, to treat with them.

Rondeau marched into their territory with a force of 1000 men, passing

to the west of the Tinta mountains, and, after going some distance,

was met by the principal Caciques, with a large assemblage of their

fighting men; and here commenced a negociation, in which the Buenos

Ayrean general was fairly outwitted. The Indians, affecting distrust,

proposed that some officers of consequence should be sent to them as

hostages during the conferences, offering, on their part, to place

some of their principal Caciques in the power of the general. Rondeau

fell into the snare, and took his measures so badly, that, before the

exchange was made, his officers were suddenly made prisoners, and

carried off at a gallop, enveloped by a cloud of Indians, who were soon

out of sight. His cavalry was in no condition to follow the savages

into the pampas, and he returned to the Tandil with the conviction that

the Puelches tribes, as well as the Ranqueles, were combined in one and

the same determination to have no more friendly intercourse with the

Christians.

After this affair nothing further was attempted, except to send out a

party to explore the continuation of the range of the Tandil to the

coast, of which the following was the result.

It has been already said that the range of the Tandil gradually

declines to the eastward till broken by a wide vale, which commences

about twelve miles from the new fortification; the vale in question

extends for a distance of forty-two miles:--many streams run through

it, some few of which, inclining towards the coast, fall into the sea,

though the greater part of them are lost in swamps in the low lands

which intervene. It is the greatest break in the chain, and, from its

rich pastures, a favourite resort of the Indians. They call it the

Vuulcan, which signifies, in their language, an opening; and thence

the sierra, which bounds it to the eastward, also takes its name. In

many maps it is written Volcan, which has led to the erroneous idea of

there being a volcano in those parts.

From the Vuulcan the range runs in a continuous line for thirty-six

miles towards the sea, presenting, for the most part, towards the north

the appearance of a steep dyke or wall. On the summits are extensive

ranges of table-land, well watered, and with good pasturage, to which

the Indians, who are well acquainted with the craggy ravines which

alone lead to them, are in the habit of driving their horses and

cattle, knowing that the nature of the ground requires but little care

to prevent their straying. At a short distance from the coast the hills

break off in stony ridges, running down to the sea, and forming the

headland of Cape Corrientes, in latitude 38° 6´, and further south a

line of rocky cliffs, which bounds the shore as far as Cape Andres.

Upon the borders of a lake a short distance from Cape Corrientes were

discovered the remains of the settlement formed by the Jesuits in the

year 1747,--a site chosen with all their characteristic sagacity,

well suited for an agricultural establishment, of easy access to

the sea, and with great capability of being rendered defensible. It

is a striking proof of the indomitable nature of the pampas tribes

that all the efforts of the missionary fathers to reduce them to

habits of order and industry only ended in disappointment, and, after

years of fruitless endeavours, to their being obliged to fly from

an establishment where their lives were no longer safe. The Indians

of the pampas, like the Arabs of the desert, inseparable from their

horses, and wild as the animals they ride, were not, like the more

docile people of Paraguay, to be subjected to the strict rules and

discipline which it was the object of the fathers to introduce amongst

them. The vestiges of their buildings, and the fruit-trees planted by

them, are the only evidences remaining of their pious but unavailing

labours.

Although this spot was in many respects a very inviting one for an

agricultural settlement, it wanted the principal requisite of some

tolerable roadstead or harbour to facilitate any direct communication

from Buenos Ayres by sea with the new line of frontier, an object of

great importance if possible to secure. The coast was vainly explored

in search of one from Cape Corrientes some way to the south, and to

the north as far as the great lake called the Mar-chiquita, which

empties itself into the sea by a narrow channel, capable, perhaps, of

being deepened by artificial means, so as to form a harbour for small

vessels; but even this seemed extremely doubtful, and depending on a

further examination and survey, which the officers were not at the time

prepared to undertake.

Under these circumstances, it was thought advisable to postpone the

construction of any further works till a more accurate survey of the

coast should be made. This was subsequently commenced, and carried

as far as Bahia Blanca, which was reported to be the only situation

from the Salado on all the line of coast intervening which combined a

tolerable harbour for shipping with the capability of being made a good

defensible position. Although this was far beyond the line of frontier

at first contemplated, which only reached to the range of the Vuulcan

and Tandil, other considerations eventually determined the government

of Buenos Ayres to extend their boundary to that point. Not only did

it appear that Bahia Blanca was the only place capable of being made a

harbour on the coast, but the want of some such harbour to the south

became more than ever apparent when the war broke out with Brazil, and

the River Plate was placed under blockade by the emperor's fleet; and,

although that war at first necessarily diverted the attention of the

government of Buenos Ayres from the completion of their original plan,

it forced upon them a more enlarged view of their position, and led

to the final adoption of an infinitely better boundary-line than that

which was first thought of merely as a check upon the Indians.

The line in question, which was finally adopted in 1828, and which

forms the present nominal frontier of the province of Buenos

Ayres towards the pampas, will be found upon the map drawn about

north-north-east, from the fort built on the river Naposta, which

falls into Bahia Blanca, to the Laguna Blanca, another point occupied

as a military position, at the western extremity of the range of the

Tapalquen; thence it runs north by the fort of Cruz de Guerra to

Melinqué, the north-west point of the province. It will be obvious,

on reference to the map, that, whilst this line embraced within it an

infinitely greater extent of country than that at first projected,

it was in reality, being straight, a shorter one, and required less

defences than the ranges of the Tandil and Vuulcan, supposing all the

passes to be fortified.

The whole area of the territory within this line and the Arroyo del

Medio, which separates the province of Buenos Ayres to the northward

from that of Santa Fé, comprises about 75,000 square English miles.

The Indians would listen to no terms of accommodation, and fought for

their lands; whilst, unfortunately for the people on the frontier, the

civil dissensions which broke out at the close of the Brazilian war

once more drew off the forces of the government, and exposed them to

the inroads of the savages, before the fortifications on the frontier

could be completed and sufficiently garrisoned for their defence. The

devastation they committed in consequence was frightful; but it was

signally avenged in 1832 and 1833 by General Rosas, who, at the head of

the largest force that ever entered their territory, marched southward

as far as the rivers Colorado and Negro, scoured the whole intervening

country, and put thousands of them to death. Many tribes were totally

exterminated, and others fled to the Cordillera of Chile, where alone

they were safe from the pursuit of the exasperated and victorious

soldiers.

That the Buenos Ayreans had ample cause for these hostilities may be

judged from the number of Christian slaves whom they succeeded in

rescuing from the hands of the savages; upwards of 1500 women and

children were retaken by General Rosas' troops, who had all been

carried off in some or other of their marauding incursions, their

husbands, sons, and brothers having been in most instances barbarously

butchered before them. Many of these poor women had been in their hands

for years; some taken in infancy could give little or no account to

whom they belonged; others had become the wretched mothers of children

brought up to follow the brutal mode of life of these barbarians.

General Rosas fixed his head-quarters on the river Colorado, midway

between Bahia Blanca and the settlement of Carmen on the river Negro.

Thence he detached a division of his forces, under General Pacheco, to

the south, which established a military position on the Choleechel, now

called Isla de Rosas, on the Negro, which river was followed to the

junction of the Neuquen. Another detachment marched under the orders of

General Ramos along the banks of the Colorado as far as latitude 36°

and 10° longitude west of Buenos Ayres, according to his computation,

from whence he saw the Cordillera of the Andes and believed he was

not more than thirty leagues from Fort Rafael on the Diamante.

Unfortunately not the slightest sketch was made of the course of this

river, respecting which, therefore, we have no new data beyond a

corroboration of the accounts obtained by Cruz, in 1806, of its being a

great river, which runs without interruption direct from the Cordillera

to the sea.[45] Of the Negro, General Pacheco has been kind enough to

send me a sketch, which strikingly confirms the general course of the

river as laid down by Mr. Arrowsmith, from Villariño's diary.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] The latitude of the Great Salt Lake was taken from about the

centre of the north side of it, where the party were encamped.

In 1786 Don Pablo Zisur, a lieutenant in the Spanish navy, had fixed

the north-east angle of the lake in lat. 37° 10´, and 4° 36´ west of

the meridian of Luxan (Guardia); according to him the lake of Cabeza

del Buey is in lat. 36° 8´, and the Guardia de Luxan in 34° 36´. Azara

fixed it in 34° 38´ 36".

[38] In the life of the _Carreras_, given in the Appendix to Mrs.

Graham's account of Chile, there is an account of some of these Indian

forays in conjunction with Carrera's troops, particularly of their

surprisal of the town of Salto, and the carrying off from thence of 250

women and children, after butchering all the men, in spite of every

effort of their unnatural allies to prevent it.

[39] Villariño found the Indians in the Cordillera opposite to Valdivia

calling themselves Aucases.

[40] Garcia seems to have believed that the language and origin of this

people was different from the other Indians he fell in with. There is

no proof, however, adduced of the difference of language, and I suspect

they were only a further-removed branch of the Araucanian family, as

were the Indians Viedma found at San Julian's in 1782.

[41] Captain Fitzroy determined it to be 3350 feet _above the level of

the sea_, from which its true distance is 45 miles.

[42] At Buenos Ayres the variation in 1708 was 16° 45´ east; in 1789 it

was 16° 30´; and in 1818 it was 12-1/2 east.

[43] A collection of the birds of those regions would form a most

interesting addition to any museum. A large proportion of them are, I

believe, quite unknown in Europe.

[44] An accident to the barometer prevented the officers making a

series of observations with that instrument, which would have been of

considerable interest. They made, however, good use of the thermometer,

of which a daily register was preserved.

[45] I understand, however, that General Ramos has expressed his

opinion that it is not navigable for more than _forty leagues_ from its

mouth.

CHAPTER X.

GEOLOGY OF THE PAMPAS.

Geological Features of the Southern compared with those of

the Northern Shore of the Plata. The Pampa Formation,

probably derived from the Alluvial Process now going on, as

exhibited in the Beds of the Plata itself and other Rivers.

Fossil remains of land Animals found in it, above Marine

Shells. Such Shells where met with, and of what Species.

Mr. Bland's Theory of the Upheaval of the Pampas from the

Sea, founded on the Deposits of Salt in them:--The presence

of such Salt may be otherwise accounted for. Account of the

Discovery of the Gigantic Fossil remains sent to England by

the Author.

I cannot leave the pampas without a few words upon their geological

features, and upon the remarkable contrast exhibited in the appearance

of the country on the northern and on the southern shores of the Plata.

On the north side the formation is of clay-slate, gneiss, and granite,

of which the islands in the river above Buenos Ayres are also composed,

particularly Sola, Las Hermanas, and Martin Garcia, where the granite

is quarried for the pavement of the city. On the southern side every

trace of rock is entirely lost, and for hundreds of miles inland not

even the smallest pebble is to be met with.

As far as we are yet acquainted with it, the whole of that vast level

called the pampas, reaching from the eastern terminations of the Andes

to the shores of the Plata, appears to be one immense bed of alluvium

tranquilly deposited during the imperceptible lapse of ages; the delta

perhaps, not of one, but of numerous rivers, originating in a once more

general diffusion of the waters from the Andes before their courses

were defined by their present channels. Some such process of formation

appears still to be going on in many parts of the pampas, where muddy

streams and streamlets, the collections from the mountains in the south

and of the rainy seasons, too sluggish to force a way through the

level country, inundate the plains, and gradually deposit the alluvial

sediment, together with a prodigious quantity of decomposed vegetable

matter, in the swamps and morasses, until accumulations of fresh soil

take place in sufficient quantity to throw off the waters again in

some other direction. The bed of the Plata, itself the reservoir of a

hundred rivers, is, from all I could learn, gradually silting up, and,

wide as it is at the present day, along its shores, and particularly

above Buenos Ayres, may be distinctly traced the evidences of the

waters having once occupied a bed of infinitely greater extent. Every

observation tends to the inference that this now mighty estuary may,

centuries hence, be reduced to similar bounds and rules to those which

govern the outlets of the Amazons, the Mississippi, the Nile, and the

Ganges. Nor will this require, perhaps, so long a period as might at

first be imagined.[46] If we except the narrow channel between the

Chico and Ortiz banks, below Buenos Ayres, the average depth of the

river between that city and Monte Video does not exceed twenty feet.

The prodigious quantity of mud and detritus brought down by it is well

known,--the whole river, wide as it is, is at times discoloured by it.

Now, if but enough of this sediment is deposited to cause the small

annual increase of only half an inch in the bed of the river, it will

not require 500 years to form a delta, which, in the language of the

country, will be nothing more or less than an extension of the existing

pampas.

Such, I conceive, may have been the origin of the far spread formation

of the present pampas or plains, throughout which are to be found the

fossil remains of gigantic animals of long lost species, such as the

megatherium and mastodon, and other monsters yet unnamed, which in

former ages may have grazed upon the abundant pastures produced in the

rich loamy lands saved from the waters; whilst beneath, in strata of

marine shells, are no less incontestable evidences of the ancient bed

of the ocean.

It cannot be expected that, in a country so uniformly level as the

pampas, sections of sufficient depth will frequently occur to exhibit

the underlying strata. They must be looked for at the outlying

extremities of the formation, where the upper bed thins out,--to use a

geological term. Now there is nothing that I know of to interrupt the

uniformity of the stratum between the southern shore of the Plata on

the one side, and the eastern base of the Andes on the other, and at

both these extremes marine remains are strikingly exhibited.

General Cruz, in his journey from Antuco to Buenos Ayres (noticed in

chapter viii.), in passing through the valleys in the lower ranges

of the Cordillera, immediately before reaching the pampas, was

exceedingly struck with the abundance of marine remains thereabouts. He

says, in his diary, "In all the hills and valleys under the Cordillera,

as far as the river Chadileubu, a great quantity of marine remains are

met with, some of them constituting a sort of limestone. Not only may

these remains be observed upon the surface, but also at great depths

below it, in the sections formed by the torrents as they descend from

the mountains: there can, therefore, be no doubt that the waters of the

sea once occupied the place of the land in those parts."

Proceeding eastward, by the base of the mountain ranges of San Luis and

Cordova, which bound the pampas to the north, we have the testimony

of water-worn rocks and beds of shells in that direction, from

Schmitmeyer, Helms, and other travellers, at Portezuela and on the

banks of the Tercero; and beyond the Sierra de Cordova, on the great

river Paranã, near Santa Fé, Mr. Darwin found in the cliff which skirts

the river a stratum of marine shells distinctly exposed a little above

the level of the water, and with the alluvial bed over it, forty or

fifty feet thick, containing bones of extinct mammalia.

Here, then, I think, we may trace, all but continuously, the northern

and western shores of a gulf, which must have been nearly as large as

that of Mexico, and not very unlike it, perhaps, in general outline.

Travelling south from Santa Fé, along the shores of the Plata, which

bounds these pampas on the east, we find, at distances varying from one

to six leagues inland from the river, and from fifty to one hundred

and fifty miles from the sea, large beds of marine shells, which the

people of those parts quarry for lime. From these deposits I have

myself specimens of _Voluta Colocynthis_, _Voluta Angulata_, _Buccinum

Globulosum_, _Buccinum Nov. Spe._, _Oliva Patula_; _Cytheræa Flexuosa_?

_Mactra_? _Venus Flexuosa_, _Ostrea_, &c. In some places these shells

are so compact as to form a sort of limestone, easily worked when

first dug out, and hardening afterwards on exposure to the air. The

church of Magdalena upon the coast is built of this material. They are

generally in good preservation, and some of the species appear almost

identical with those found upon the coasts of Brazil; others, on the

contrary, found with them are not known. There is one, found generally

by itself, unmixed with others, which is particularly interesting on

this question, as strikingly proving the gradual growth of the pampas;

it is the small _mya_, named _potamo-mya_ by Sowerby, usually found in

estuaries at the junction of the fresh and salt water, and the existing

type of which is now to be met with at the mouth of the Plata; but

the bed from which my fossil specimens were taken is at the Calera

de Arriola, to the north of Buenos Ayres, nearly 150 miles from its

present habitat; and there (I think manifestly proved by these little

shells) must have been once the mouth of the mighty estuary, which is

now more than 150 miles below it.

I must not omit to state that all these marine deposits are found in

situations more or less above the present level of the ocean; this, in

the neighbourhood of the Cordillera, which is so continually liable

to volcanic disturbances, may be accounted for; but it leads to other

speculations in the flat alluvial plains towards the Plata, where

the phenomenon of an earthquake is utterly unknown, and where the

apparently perfect horizontality of the strata would seem to negative

the idea of any violent action by which it might have been upheaved.

Mr. Bland, one of the North American Commissioners sent to Buenos

Ayres in 1818, reasoning upon the quantity of saline matter found

in the pampas, hazards, as he says, the conjecture that the pampa

formation "may have been gently lifted just above the level of the

ocean, and left with a surface so unbroken and flat as not yet to have

been sufficiently purified of its salt and acrid matter, either by

filtration or washing:" and undoubtedly such saline matter does exist

very extensively over this formation. Many of the running waters, as

their names denote, are rendered brackish by it; and lakes which have

no outlet become saturated with it, and deposit it in regular beds,

where in the dry season it may be collected in any quantity. But it

does not necessarily follow that it has been left there by the ocean:

we know that salt abounds in the Andes, and that extensive beds of it

occur, particularly in those parts of them from which we may conjecture

that the greater part of the waters of the pampas are derived; and if

for a moment we can suppose the pampas themselves to have originated

in sedimentary deposits from those mountain chains, we must I think

equally admit that the alluvial soil washed down can hardly fail to

be impregnated with so soluble a substance as the salt which abounds

in them. In a country of more varied surface we might expect the

briny particles to be carried off by the streams and lost in the sea;

but in the dead levels of the pampas the greater part of the streams

themselves are lost long ere they reach the ocean. The waters deposit

their sediment over the surface, and the salt is left to amalgamate

with the mire of the marshes, until perhaps again the rains collect

it, and either partially carry it off in brackish streams, or deposit

it in the basins of the inland lakes, in which it is so abundantly

found. That it is a superficial deposit I think is proved by the fact

that (as elsewhere noticed) in the immediate vicinity of some of the

saline lakes and rivers in the pampas, and where the surface of all the

surrounding country appears to be incrusted with salt, the people dig

wells, and find perfectly fresh and potable water, as I understand,

at a depth of from twenty to fifty feet. The same may be said to

occur throughout the city of Buenos Ayres, where all the wells which

do not penetrate the _tosca_ produce water more or less brackish,

whilst those which go below it are sweet. Some of the best water I

ever tasted was from a well sunk in the sandy stratum below the clay

at Mr. Brittain's quinta outside the city. Further, I imagine that the

discovery of the remains of land animals so generally throughout this

formation is in itself conclusive of its deposition _subsequently_ to

the existence of the ocean in those parts, the ancient bed of which it

must very considerably overlie.

To speak of the megatherium alone, its remains have been found in all

parts of the pampas, from the river Carcaraña, in the province of

Santa Fé, to the south of the Salado, a distance of nearly 300 miles

in a direct line, and in all the intermediate country. Such remains

are much more common than is supposed, and I am satisfied might

frequently be met with if searched for during the dry season, or after

long droughts, either in the banks of the rivers, or in the beds of

some of the numerous lakes which are then dried up. All the remains I

sent home were so discovered, and so were those sent to Madrid by the

Marquis of Loreto, which were found in the bed of the river Luxan, a

short distance to the north of the city of Buenos Ayres. The great

skeleton I obtained was discovered in the river Salado, to the south

of Buenos Ayres, after a drought of unusually long continuance, by a

peon in the service of the Sosa family, who, attempting to cross the

river at an unfrequented spot, was struck by the appearance of a

large mass of something standing above the surface of the water, and

which, supposing at first to be some part of the trunk of a tree, he

determined to get out if possible: in this he was assisted by some of

his brother peons, who, throwing their lassoes over it, succeeded in

dragging it out, fortunately without injury, for it proved to be nearly

the entire pelvis of the megatherium: with it were also brought up

several of the other bones, and amongst them some of the vertebræ. To

the peons the pelvis luckily appeared to be useless: turn it which way

they would, they all agreed that it did not make half so comfortable

a seat as either a bullock's or a horse's head; but the vertebræ

did not so easily escape, and in a place where not a stone is to be

seen, were eagerly seized upon as excellent substitutes to boil their

camp-kettles upon. The smaller ones being best suited to the purpose

were the first to disappear, which may account for the deficiency of

all the cervical vertebræ as well as of many of the smaller bones

of the feet and other parts. After a time it was suggested that the

pelvis and some of the largest bones should be sent as curiosities to

the owner of the estancia on which they were found, Don Hilario Sosa,

at whose house in Buenos Ayres I first saw them. He was good enough,

seeing my great anxiety to obtain possession of them, after exhibiting

them to his friends, to place them at my disposal, and to allow me

to send people to his estancia to search for the remainder of the

skeleton: by their exertions many other portions of it were saved; and

but for the destruction of some by the country-people, as described,

and of others which, having been taken out in the first instance, had

remained exposed for some months to the sun, and had become so brittle

in consequence as not to bear removal, the skeleton would have been

tolerably perfect. As it is, it was very fortunate that amongst the

parts preserved were some of those which are wanting in the skeleton at

Madrid, especially the bones of the tail, which singularly corroborate

the anticipations of Cuvier, whose description of this remarkable

monster was drawn from a representation of that specimen, the only one

known to exist till mine reached Europe.

M. Cuvier was not I believe aware of the grounds which now exist for

supposing that the animal was covered with a coat of mail, like the

armadillo, which has led other comparative anatomists to ally it to

that family. There were no remains of such a shell appertaining to

the specimen at Madrid, neither were any found with the bones which I

have spoken of as discovered in the Salado. Portions, however, of a

shelly covering in a fossil state, which must have belonged to some

gigantic animal, had been at various times dug up in the pampas, which

had excited the attention and speculations of the curious. Even father

Falkner in his account of the country speaks of them:--he says, that

he himself found the shell of an animal composed of little hexagonal

bones, each bone an inch in diameter at least, and the whole shell

nearly three yards over: it seemed to him to be in all respects, except

its size, the upper part of the shell of an armadillo.

The researches I set on foot after finding the skeleton in the Salado

led to fresh discoveries, which, if they do not identify these shells

with the megatherium, must lead us to conclude that these regions were

once inhabited by other gigantic animals no less extraordinary. When

the country-people saw the eagerness with which the big bones from the

Salado were sought for, they were not backward in speaking of other

places where similar remains had been met with, and were still, as they

believed, to be found. Upon this information I once more despatched my

agent to the south of the Salado, and the governor, Don Manuel Rosas,

taking an interest in the matter, was good enough to furnish him with

a letter of recommendation to the local authorities, desiring them to

give him not only protection, but every assistance he might need to

ensure his success. In little less than three weeks we were repaid

by the discovery of two more enormous skeletons on the estancias of

the governor himself, called Villanueva and Las Averias, and in both

instances with the novelty of their being encased in a thick coating or

shell resembling that of the armadillo. The first, found at Villanueva,

though still of gigantic proportions, appears to have been very much

smaller than that which had been taken out of the Salado: it was

discovered in the bed of a small rivulet, and upon exposure to the

air nearly all crumbled to dust. The only portions it was possible to

preserve being part of a scapula, a small portion of the jaw with one

small but perfect tooth remaining in it, and a fragment of a hind leg,

with some of the feet bones. The shell lay, as Mr. Oakley, my agent,

described it, a little below the principal mass of the bones, looking

like the section of a huge cask; the form of it when first discovered

appeared natural and perfect, but it would not bear to be lifted out of

its bed, and broke into small pieces and crumbled away immediately.