132 BAHIA BLANCA. 



have returned to the Cordillera. They were re- 

 markably fine men, very fair, above six feet high, 

 and all under thirty years of age. The three sur- 

 vivors of course possessed very valuable infonna- 

 tion, and to extort this they v^ere placed in a line. 

 The two first being questioned, answered, " No se" 

 (I do not know), and were one after the other shot. 

 The third also said " No se ;" adding, " Fire : I am 

 a man, and can die !" Not one syllable would 

 they breathe to injure the united cause of their 

 country ! The conduct of the above-mentioned 

 cacique was very difl'erent: he saved his life by 

 betraying the intended plan of warfare, and the 

 point of union in the Andes. It was believed that 

 there were already six or seven hundred Indians 

 together, and that in summer their numbers would 

 be doubled. Ambassadors were to have been sent 

 to the Indians at the small Salinas, near Bahia 

 Blanca, whom I have mentioned that this same 

 cacique had betrayed. The communication, there- 

 fore, between the Indians, extends from the Cor- 

 dillera to the coast of the Atlantic. 



General Rosas's plan is to kill all stragglers, and 

 having driven the remainder to a common point, to 

 attack them in a body, in the summer, with the as- 

 sistance of the Chilenos. This operation is to be 

 repeated for three successive years. I imagine 

 the summer is chosen as the time for the main at- 

 tack, because the plains are then without water, 

 and the Indians can only travel in particular direc- 

 tions. The escape of the Indians to the south of 

 the Rio Negro, where in such a vast unknown 

 country they would be safe, is prevented by a trea- 

 ty with the Tehuelches to this effect — that Rosas 

 pays them so much to slaughter every Indian who 

 passes to the south of the river, but if they fail in 

 Bo doing, they themselves are to be exterminated. 



