CAPTIVE INDIANS. 133 



The war is waged chiefly against the Indians near 

 the Cordillera, for many of the tribes on this east- 

 ern side are fighting with Rosas. The general, 

 however, like Lord Chesterfield, thinking that his 

 friends may in a future day become his enemies, 

 always places them in the fc-ont ranks, so that their 

 immbers may bo thinned. Since leaving South 

 America we have heard that this war of extermi- 

 nation completely failed. 



Among the captive girls taken in the same en- 

 gagement there were two very pretty ones, who had 

 been earned away by the Indians when young, and 

 could now only speak the Indian tongue. From 

 their account, they must have come from Salta, 

 a distance in a straight line of nearly one thou- 

 sand miles. This gives one a gi'and idea of the 

 immense territory over which the Indians roain ; 

 yet, great as it is, I think there will not, in another 

 half century, be a wild Indian north of the Rio Ne- 

 gro. The warfare is too bloody to last ; the Chris- 

 tians killing every Indian, and the Indians doing 

 the same by the Christians. It is melancholy to 

 trace how the Indians have given way before the 

 Spanish invaders. Schirdel* says that in 1535, 

 when Buenos Ayres was founded, there were vil- 

 lages containing two and three thousand inhabi- 

 tants. Even in Falconer's time (1750) the Indians 

 made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco, and An-e- 

 cife, but now thoy are driven beyond the Salado. 

 Not only have whole tribes been exterminated, ' 

 but the remaining Indians have become more bar- 

 barous : instead of living in large villages, and be- 

 ing employed in the arts of fishing, as well as of 

 the chase, they now wander about the open plains, 

 without home or fixed occupation. 



* Purchas's Collection of Voyages. I believe the date was re- 

 ally 1537. 



M 



