183B.J ENCAMPMENT OF GENERAL ROSAS. 71 



river in order to follow a division of troops into the interior. 

 A more ludicrous spectacle I never beheld than the hundreds 

 and hundreds of heads, all directed one way, with pointed ears 

 and distended snorting nostrils, appearing just above the water 

 like a great shoal of some amphibious animal. Mare's flesh is 

 the only food which the soldiers have when on an expedition. 

 This gives them a great facility of movement ; for the distance 

 to which horses can be driven over these plains is quite sur- 

 prising : I have been assured that an unloaded horse can travel a 

 hundred miles a day for many days successively. 



The encampment of General Rosas was close to the river. It 

 consisted of a square formed by waggons, artillery, straw huts, 

 &c. The soldiers were nearly all cavalry ; and I should think 

 such a villanous, banditti-like army was never before collected 

 together. The greater number of men were of a mixed breed, 

 between Negro, Indian, and Spaniard. 1 know not the reason, 

 but men of such origin seldom have a good expression of coun- 

 tenance. I called on the Secretary to show my passport. He 

 began to cross-question me in the most dignified and mysterious 

 manner. By good luck I had a letter of recommendation from 

 the government of Buenos Ayres * to the commandant of Pata- 

 gones. This was taken to General Rosas, who sent me a very 

 obliging message ; and the Secretary returned all smiles and gra- 

 ciousness. We took up our residence in the raneho, or hovel, 

 of a curious old Spaniard, who had served with Napoleon in the 

 expedition against Russia. 



We stayed two days at the Colorado ; I had little to do, for the 

 surrounding country was a swamp, which in summer (December), 

 when the snow melts on the Cordillera, is overflowed by the 

 river. My chief amusement was watching the Indian families as 

 they came to buy little articles at the rancho where we stayed. 

 It was supposed that General Rosas had about six hundred Indian 

 allies. The men were a tall, fine race, yet it was afterwards 

 easy to see in the Fuegian savage the same countenance rendered 

 hideous by cold, want of food, and less civilization. Some 

 authors, in defining the primary races of mankind, have sepa- 



* I am bound to express, in the strongest terms, my obligation to the 

 Government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports 

 to all parts of the country were given me. as naturalist of the Beagle. 



