MASSACRE OF INDIAN WOMEN. 131 



aiiimals, they fight against any number to the last 

 moment. One dying Indian seized with his teeth 

 the thumb of his adversary, and alkiwed his own 

 eye to be forced out sooner than relinquish his 

 hold. Another, who was wounded, feigned death, 

 keeping a knife ready to strike one more fatal 

 blow. My informer said, when he was pursuing 

 an Indian, the man cried out for mercy, at the same 

 time that he was covertly loosing the bolas from his 

 waist, meaning to whirl it round his head and so 

 strike his pursuer. " I however struck him with 

 my sabre to the ground, and then got off my horse, 

 and cut his throat with my knife." This is a dark 

 picture ; but how much more shocking is the un- 

 questionable fact, that all the women who appear 

 above twenty years old are massacred in cold blood ! 

 When I exclaimed that this appeared rather inhu- 

 man, he answered, " Why, what can be done 1 

 they breed so !" 



Every one here is fully convinced that this is the 

 most just war, because it is against barbarians. 

 Who would believe in this age that such atrocities 

 could be committed in a Christian civilized country 1 

 The children of the Indians are saved, to be sold 

 or given away as servants, or rather slaves, for as 

 long a time as the owners can make them believe 

 themselves slaves ; but I believe in their treatment 

 there is little to complain of 



In the battle four men ran away together. They 

 were pursued, one was killed, and the other three 

 were taken alive. They turned out to be messen- 

 gers or ambassadors from a large body of Indians, 

 imited in the common cause of defence, near the 

 Cordillera. The tribe to which they had been sent 

 was on the point of holding a grand council ; the 

 feast of mares' flesh was ready, and the dance pre- 

 pared : in the morning the ambassadors were to 



