86 RIO NEGRO TO RIO COLORADO. 



established at Baliia Blanca. The distance in a 

 straight line to Buenos Ayres is very nearly five 

 hundred British miles. The wandering tribes of 

 horse Indians, w^hich have always occupied the 

 greater part of this country, having of late much 

 harassed the outlying estancias, the government at 

 Buenos Ayres equipped some time since an army 

 under the command of General Rosas for the pur- 

 pose of exterminating them. The troops were now 

 encamj)ed on the banks of the Colorado, a river 

 lying about eighty miles northward of the Rio Ne- 

 gro. When General Rosas left Buenos Ayres he 

 struck in a direct line across the unexplored plains : 

 and as the counti'y was thus pretty well cleared of 

 Indians, he left behind him, at wide intervals, a small 

 party of soldiers with a troop of horses (a jiosta), 

 so as to be enabled to keep uj) a comniunication 

 with the capital. As the Beagle intended to call 

 at Bahia Blanca, I determined to proceed there by 

 land ; and ultimately I extended my plan to travel 

 the whole way by the postas to Buenos Ayres. 



August Will. — Mr. Harris, an Englishman resi- 

 ding at Patagones, a guide, and five Gauchos, who 

 were proceeding to the army on business, were my 

 companions on the journey. The Colorado, as I 

 have already said, is nearly eighty miles distant ; 

 and as we travelled slowly, we were two days and 

 a half on the road. The whole line of country de- 

 serves scarcely a better name than that of a desert. 

 Water is found only in two small wells : it is called 

 fi'esh; but even at this time of the year, during the 

 rainy season, it was quite brackish. In the sum- 

 mer this must be a distressing passage, for now it 

 was sufficiently desolate. The valley of the Rio 

 Negro, broad as it is, has merely been excavated 

 out of the sandstone plain ; for immediately above 

 the bank on which the town stands, a level country 



