74 BAHIA BLANCA. [CHAP. v. 



Some Indians, who had been taken prisoners, gave information of a 

 tribe living north of the Colorado. Two hundred soldiers were sent ; 

 and they first discovered the Indians by a cloud of dust from their 

 horses' feet, as they chanced to be travelling. The country was moun- 

 tainous and wild, and it must have been far in the interior, for the 

 Cordillera were in sight The Indians, men, women, and children, 

 were about one hundred and ten in number, and they were nearly all 

 taken or killed, for the soldiers sabre every man. The Indians are 

 now so terrified that they offer no resistance in a body, but each flies, 

 neglecting even his wife and children ; but when overtaken, like wild 

 animals, they fight against any number to the last moment. One dying 

 Indian seized with his teeth the thumb of his adversary, and allowed 

 his own eye to be forced out sooner than relinquish his hold. Another, 

 who was wounded, feigned death, keeping a knife ready to strike one 

 more fatal blow. My informer said, when he was pursuing an Indian, 

 the man cried out for mercy, at the same time that he was covertly 

 loosing the bolas from his waist, meaning to whirl it round his head 

 and so strike his pursuer. " I however struck him with my sabre to 

 the ground, and then got off my horse, and cut his throat with my 

 knife." This is a dark picture ; but how much more shocking is the 

 unquestionable fact, that all the women who appear above twenty years 

 old are massacred in cold blood ! When I exclaimed that this appeared 

 rather inhuman, he answered, " Why, what can be done ? J They breed 

 so!" 



Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most just war, 

 because it is against barbarians. Who would believe in this age that 

 such atrocities could be committed in a Christian civilized country? 

 The children of the Indians are saved, to be sold or given away as 

 servants, or rather slaves for as long a time as the owners can make 

 them believe themselves slaves ; but I believe in their treatment there 

 is little to complain of. 



In the battle four men ran away together. They were pursued, one 

 was killed, and the other three were taken alive. They turned out to 

 be messengers or ambassadors from a large body of Indians, united in 

 the common cause of defence, near the Cordillera. The tribe to which 

 they had been sent was on the point of holding a grand council ; the 

 feast of mares' flesh was ready, and the dance prepared: in the 

 morning the ambassadors were to have returned to the Cordillera. 

 They were remarkably fine men, very fair, above six feet high, and all 

 under thirty years of age. The three survivors of course possessed 

 very valuable information ; and to extort this they were placed in a 

 line. The two first being questioned, answered, "No se" (I do not 

 know), and were one after the other shot. The third also said, " No 

 s6 ; " adding, " Fire, I am a man, and can die ! " Not one syllable 

 would they breathe to injure the united cause of their country I The 

 conduct of the above-mentioned cacique was very different : he saved 

 his life by betraying the intended plan of warfare, and the point of 

 union in the Andes. It was believed that there were already six or 

 seven hundred Indians together, and that in summer their numbers 



