1833.] AN ATTACK BY THE INDIANS. 55 



credit be it said, there was not a rancho between the Colorado and 

 Buenos Ayros in nearly such neat order as his. He had a little room 

 for strangers, and a small corral for the horses, all made of sticks and 

 reeds ; he had also dug a ditch round his house, as a defence in case of 

 being attacked. This would, however, have been of little avail if the 

 Indians had come ; but his chief comfort seemed to rest in the thought 

 of selling his life dearly. A short time before, a body of Indians had 

 travelled past in the night; if they had been aware of the posta, 

 our black friend and his four soldiers would assuredly have been 

 slaughtered. I did not anywhere meet a more civil and obliging man 

 than this negro ; it was therefore the more painful to see that he would 

 not sit down and eat with us. 



In the morning we sent for the horses very early, and started for 

 another exhilarating gallop. We passed the Cabeza del Buey, an old 

 name given to the head of a large marsh, which extends from Bahia 

 Blanca. Here we changed horses, and passed through some leagues of 

 swamps and saline marshes. Changing horses for the last time, we 

 again began wading through the mud. My animal fell, and I was well 

 soused in black mire a very disagreeable accident, when one does not 

 possess a change of clothes. Some miles from the fort we met a man, 

 who told us that a great gun had been fired, which is a signal that 

 Indians are near. We immediately left the road, and followed the edge 

 of a marsh, which when chased offers the best mode of escape. We 

 were glad to arrive within the walls, when we found all the alarm was 

 about nothing, for the Indians turned out to be friendly ones who 

 wished to join General Rosas. 



Bahia Blanca scarcely deserves the name of a village. A few houses 

 and the barracks for the troops are enclosed by a deep ditch and 

 fortified wall. The settlement is only of recent standing (since 1828); 

 and its growth has been one of trouble. The government of Buenos 

 Ayres unjustly occupied it by force, instead of following the wise 

 example of the Spanish Viceroys, who purchased the land near the 

 older settlement of the Rio Negro, from the Indians. Hence the need 

 of the fortifications; hence the few houses and little cultivated land 

 without the limits of the walls ; even the cattle are not safe from the 

 attacks of the Indians beyond the boundaries of the plain, on which the 

 fortress stands. 



The part of the harbour where the Beagle intended to anchor being 

 distant twenty-five miles, I obtained from the Commandant a guide and 

 horses, to take me to see whether she had arrived. Leaving the plain 

 of green turf, which extended along the course of a little brook, we 

 soon entered on a wide level waste consisting either of sand, saline 

 marshes, or bare mud. Some parts were clothed by low thickets, and 

 others with those succulent plants which luxuriate only where salt 

 abounds. Bad as the country was, ostriches, deers, agoutis, and arma- 

 dilloes, were abundant. My guide told me, that two months before he 

 had a most narrow escape of his life : he was out hunting with two 

 other men, at no great distance from this part of the country, when 

 they were suddenly met by a party of Indians, who giving chase, soon 



