1S33.] INDIAN STORIES. iii 



in the morning the ambassadors were to have returned to 

 the Cordillera. They were remarkably fine men, very fair, 

 above six feet high, and all under thirty years of age. The 

 three survivors of course possessed very valuable informa- 

 tion ; and to extort this they were placed in a line. The 

 two first being questioned, answered, "No s6 " (I do not' 

 know), and were one after the other shot. The third also 

 said, '* No s6 ; " 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 different : 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, therefore, between the Indians, extends 

 from the Cordillera to the coast of the Atlantic. 



General Rosas's plah 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 assistance 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 attack, because the plains are then 

 without water, and the Indians can only travel in particular 

 directions. 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 treaty 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 so doing, they themselves are to be exterminated. 

 The war Is waged chiefly against the Indians near the 

 Cordillera ; for many of the tribes on this eastern side 

 re fighting with Rosas. The general, however, like Lord 



hesterfield, thinking that his friends may in a future day 

 become his enemies, always places them in the front ranks, 

 so that their numbers may be thinned. Since leaving South 

 America we have heard that this war of extermination 

 ( ompletely failed. 



Among the captive girls taken in the same engagement, 

 there were two very pretty Spanish ones, who had been 

 carried away by the Indians when young, and could now 

 only speak the Indian tongue. From their account they 



