1833.] EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS. 101 



the night here ; and it was impossible to conceive any thing 

 more wild and savage than the scene of their bivouac. Some 

 drank till they were intoxicated ; others swallowed the steaming 

 blood of the cattle slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being 

 sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared 

 with filth and gore. 



Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus 

 Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum 

 Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta 

 Per somnuni commixta mero. 



In the morning they started for the scene of the murder, with 

 orders to follow the " rastro," or track, even if it led them to 

 Chile. We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped 

 into the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been 

 missed. One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole 

 history. Supposing they examine the track of a thousand horses, 

 they will soon guess the number of mounted ones by seeing how 

 many have cantered ; by the depth of the other impressions, 

 whether any horses were loaded with cargoes ; by the irregularity 

 of the footsteps, how far tired ; by the manner in which the food 

 has been cooked, whether the pursued travelled in haste ; by the 

 general appearance, how long it has been since they passed. 

 They consider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight, quite recent 

 enough to be hunted out. We also heard that Miranda struck 

 from the west end of the Sierra Ventana, in a direct line to the 

 island of Cholechel, situated seventy leagues up the Rio Negro. 

 This is a distance of between two and three hundred miles, 

 through a country completely unknown. What other troops in 

 the world are so independent ? With the sun for their guide, 

 mares' flesh for food, their saddle-cloths for beds, — as long as 

 there is a little water, these men would penetrate to the end of 

 the world. 



A few days afterwards I saw another troop of these banditti- 

 like soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of Indians at 

 the small Salinas, who had been betrayed by a prisoner cacique. 

 The Spaniard who brought the orders for this expedition was a 

 very intelligent man. He gave me an account of the last engage- 

 ment at which he was present. Some Indians, who had been 

 taken prisoners, gave information of a tribe living north of the 



