10 Account of a Journey across the 



are a very ignorant^ thievish and deceitful set of savages. The 

 traveller requires to be constantly on the look-out or his pro- 

 perty will be stolen : if he has carried anything to eat or drink 

 and does not share it with these ruffians^ they abuse him, call 

 him a bad Christian, and take it away ; nay, murders are fre- 

 quently committed and gloried in under these circumstances : 

 and such were the people with w^hom I was once for seven 

 months, the only stranger save one Frenchman ! 



Early on the 6th of March we crossed the river de las 

 Conchas, twenty-one miles from Buenos Ayres, on an old, 

 rickety, dangerous wooden bridge, the only bridge of any de- 

 scription that we met with in a journey of nearly 1200 miles. 

 The care that was taken to prevent accidents consumed three 

 hours in passing it, immediately after which we entered a 

 grassy plain, diversified by no change of scenery, except a 

 forest of tall thistles {Carduus marianus) six to ten feet high, 

 mingled with a coarse species of Erigeron, At mid-day we 

 halted and were here joined by a large carriage conveying the 

 family of the owner of the waggons and his servants. 



While stopping here I strolled a little way and found the 

 first specimen worth gathering, it was an Eupatorium, with 

 broad cordate leaves and tricoloured flowers, which I had how- 

 ever seen before at the Rio Negro, Banda Oriental. 



7th. This day we performed the extraordinary distance of 

 five leagues, all the way being over a grassy plain, where no 

 water could be had, except at one solitary Rancho, w^here they 

 gave us some excellent water, drawn from a depth of only 1 1 

 feet below the surface. I took the opportunity of ascertain- 

 ing the depth of all the wells (which are however few in num- 

 ber) that we saw, and found that by digging about 20 feet at 

 most, an abundance of fine water can always be procured. 

 So lazy are the people, however, that they generally prefer 

 using what they can obtain from some filthy stagnant pool, 

 to taking the trouble of sinking a well ; one hindrance, how- 

 ever exists in the want of materials for cradling such pits, as 

 they have nothing for the purpose but bones. At night we 

 were deprived of sleep by the clouds of mosquitoes which is- 

 sued from a stinking marsh close to which we had encamped. 



8th, Four hours were occupied this morning in crossing 



