1833.] R. NEGRO TO R. COLORADO. 49 



country near Buenos Ayres, the Spaniards have only one small settle- 

 ment, recently established at Bahia Blanca. The distance in a straight 

 line to Buenos Ayres is very nearly five hundred British miles. The 

 wandering tribes of horse Indians, which have always occupied the 

 greater part of this country, having of late much harassed the outlying 

 estancias, the government at Buenos Ayres equipped some time since 

 an army under the command of General Rosas for the purpose of 

 exterminating them. The troops were now encamped on the banks of 

 Ihe Colorado ; a river lying about eighty miles northward of the Rio 

 Negro. When General Rosas left Buenos Ayres he struck in a direct 

 line across the unexplored plains ; and as the country was thus pretty 

 well cleared of Indians, he left behind him, at wide intervals, a small 

 party of soldiers with a troop of horses (a pasta), so as to be enabled 

 to keep up a communication with the capital. As the Beagle intended 

 to call at Bahia Blanca, I determined to proceed there by land ; and 

 ultimately I extended my plan to travel the whole way by the postas 

 to Buenos Ayres. 



August nth. Mr. Harris, an Englishman residing at Patagones, a 

 guide, and five Gauchos, who were proceeding to the army on business, 

 were my companions on the journey. The Colorado, as I have already 

 said, is nearly eighty miles distant ; and as we travelled slowly, we 

 were two days and a half on the road. The whole line of country 

 deserves scarcely a better name than that of a desert. Water is found 

 only in two small wells ; it is called fresh ; but even at this time of the 

 year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish. In the summer this 

 must be a distressing passage ; for now it was sufficiently desolate. 

 The valley of the Rio Negro, broad as it is, has merely been excavated 

 out of the sandstone plain; for immediately above the bank on which 

 the town stands, a level country commences, which is interrupted only 

 by a few trifling valleys and depressions. Everywhere the landscape 

 wears the same sterile aspect; a dry gravelly soil supports tufts of 

 brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes, armed with thorns. 



Shoitly after passing the first spring we came in sight of a famous 

 tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of Walleechu. It is 

 situated on a high part of the plain, and hence is a landmark visible at 

 a great distance. As soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight of it, 

 they offer their adorations by loud shouts. The tree itself is low, 

 much branched, and thorny ; just above the root it has a diameter of 

 about three feet. It stands by itself without any neighbour, and was 

 indeed the first tree we saw ; afterwards we met with a few others 

 of the same kind, but they were far from common. Being winter the 

 tree had no leaves, but in their place numberless threads, by which the 

 various offerings, such as cigars, bread, meat, pieces oi' cloth, etc., had 

 been suspended. Poor Indians, not having anything better, only 

 pull a thread out of their ponchos, and fasten it to the tree. Richer 

 Indians are accustomed to pour spirits and mate into a certain hole, 

 and likewise to smoke upwards, thinking thus to afford all possible 

 gratification to Walleechu. To complete the scene, the tree was 

 Burrounded by the bleached bones of horses which had been slaughtered 



