PRAIRIE AND PAMPAS INDIANS. 15 



asked, or granted, on either side. Indeed the saying 

 (which we have frequently heard expressed) that, " the 

 only good Indian, is a dead Indian," had at one time 

 become a regular western proverb. Of course there 

 could be but one ending to this state of things. The 

 Whites, constantly recruited by fresh arrivals of bands 

 of adventurous men, and armed with the improved 

 form of modern long range firearms, soon made short 

 work of the Red Skins; who, with the exception of 

 a few degraded remnants of their wild and warlike 

 forefathers, have now mostly followed the buffalo, to 

 what, let us hope, may prove " the happy hunting 

 grounds" of another and a better country. Meanwhile 

 the conquering flood of pale-faced warriors has surged 

 continuously onward, till it has overspread The Region 

 of The Great Plains from sea to sea, in North America. 



The same result has to a great extent followed upon 

 the Pampas in South America. The word " Pampas" 

 being simply the Spanish for " Prairies." The Indians 

 of the South were here bad enough too, at one time, 

 and it was very dangerous at certain seasons of the 

 year to cross some districts of country, owing to the 

 incursions of large bands of these wild people from 

 the southwards. They, too, killed everyone they met, 

 and carried off all cattle and horses belonging to the 

 settlers that they could lay hands on, in the same 

 way as their fiercer and more warlike namesakes 

 used to do in North America. But the Indians of The 

 Pampas could never be compared either in numbers, 

 or warlike skill, to those of The Prairies; though 

 they proved troublesome enough to the feeble govern- 

 ments and slender resources of the South American 

 Republics. The warrior plainsmen and Indian fighters 



