262 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



and fire refuse in the lake formations of the Upper Plei- 

 stocene \ But nevertheless there seems no doubt that it 

 was extinct before the coming of the Spaniards, and that 

 the Pampas horses of South America are all descended from 

 Andalusian horses introduced by the Spaniards in 1535, when 

 the city of Buenos Ayres was founded by Don Pedro de 

 Mendoza. The place, however, was almost immediately deserted, 

 the inhabitants passing over to Paraguay by water in such 

 haste, and with such lack of means of transport, that they were 

 unable to carry along with them all the horses brought from 

 Andalusia ; five mares and seven horses were left behind on the 

 plain. The city was re founded in 1580 by Don Juan de Garay, 

 accompanied by sixty colonists from Paraguay. " These in- 

 dividuals found that a considerable breed had already sprung 

 from the above-mentioned mares, and set about domesticating 

 those which they were able to catch '^." The ministers of State 

 opposed this, asserting that they belonged to the king. After 

 protracted litigation it was decided in 15.96 that the wild 

 horses should be the property of whosoever should take the 

 trouble to capture them. This is the origin of the innumerable 

 herds of wild horses which are met with to the south of the 

 La Plata as far as Rio Negro, and even throughout Patagonia. 

 These horses were at first, as now, called alzada and cimarrona, 

 but the Querandese (commonly known as Pampas Indians) 

 having given them the name of bagualada, the Spaniards 

 adopted this name, and these horses are generally known as 

 baguales. 



In Azara's time there were also baguales to the north of the 

 river La Plata. These horses seem to have descended from 

 some mares abandoned by the Spanish settlers of San Juan 

 Bautista, a town founded by John Romero in 1553, right 

 opposite Buenos Ayres, where the San Juan debouches into 

 the La Plata. It was soon attacked by Indians, and the 

 inhabitants crossed the river into Paraguay and were obliged, 



1 H. F. Osborn, The Century Magazine, Nov. 1904, p. 13; Sir H. H. Johnston, 

 British Mammals, p. 274. 



- Azara, Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the River 

 La Plata (translated by W. P. Hunter), pp. 4-5. 



