56 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
other carnivores, which prey on the human species; 
and finding it ranged on their side, as it were, in the 
hard struggle of life in the desert, they were induced 
to spare it, and even to regard it as a friend; and 
such a feeling, among primitive men, might in the 
course of time degenerate into such a superstition 
as that of the Californians. 
I shall, in conclusion, relate here the story of 
Maldonada, which is not generally known, although 
familiar to Buenos Ayreans as the story of Lady 
Godiva’s ride through Coventry is to the people of 
that town. The case of Maldonada is circum- 
stantially narrated by Rui Diaz de Guzman, in his 
history of the colonization of the Plata: he was a 
person high in authority in the young colonies, and 
is regarded by students of South American history 
as an accurate and sober-minded chronicler of the 
events of his own times. He relates that in the 
year 1536 the settlers at Buenos Ayres, having 
exhausted their provisions, and being compelled by 
hostile Indians to keep within their pallisades, were 
reduced to the verge of starvation. The Governor 
Mendoza went off to seek help from the other 
colonies up the river, deputing his authority to one 
Captain Ruiz, who, according to all accounts, dis- 
played an excessively tyrannous and_ truculent 
disposition while in power. The people were finally 
reduced to a ration of six ounces of flour per day 
for each person; but as the flour was putrid and 
only made them ill, they were forced to live on any 
small animals they could capture, including snakes, 
frogs and toads. Some horrible details are given 
by Rui Diaz, and other writers; one, Del Barco 
