134 PATAGONIA AND SHEEP-REARING 



attacking Buenos Aires, or from approaching the 

 Patagonian coast in the district of San Jose.^ 



As far back as we can go, the life of the Indians 

 seems to have been deeply influenced by their relations 

 with the whites. The Aucas brought to Choele Choel, 

 not only the products of their industry, but also objects 

 stolen or bought from the Christians on the Pampa, 

 The report of Musters, who followed a Tehuelche tribe 

 from Santa Cruz to the country of the Manzanas (" land 

 of apples "), shows clearly that the attraction of the 

 Nahuel Huapi region for the Indians was less due to 

 its natural resources than to the presence of the 

 Chilean settlements at Valdivia, from which came 

 across the passes of the Cordillera certain quantities 

 of brandy. 



The Indian never took to cattle-breeding. His 

 herd never consisted of more than mares and a few sheep. 

 But trade in stolen cattle quickly became the chief 

 occupation of the tribes. It would, however, be a 

 mistake to imagine that the thievish Indian was 

 merely and always a dreaded enemy of the ranches of 

 Carmen. They sometimes had recourse to his services 

 and profited by his misdeeds. After the Revolution, 

 it was the Indians who helped to fill once more the 

 ranches of the Rio Negro, bringing runaway cattle 

 which had remained in the San Jose district. Later, 

 Carmen bought the cattle stolen by the Indians at 

 Buenos Aires. From 1823 to 1826 the number of the 

 cattle sold by the Indians to the colonists on the Rio 

 Negro is estimated at 40,000. Hence the breeders 

 of Carmen had, as regards the Indians, alternate periods 

 of armed conflict and complicity. 



But Chile was always the great market for stolen 

 cattle. Raids {malones) and the crossing of the Cordillera 

 by convoys began in the eighteenth century, and con- 

 tinued throughout the nineteenth, until 1880, when 



» Informe de D. Basilio Villarino d Fr, de Viedma, Coll. de 

 Angelis, v. 



