112 AN INDIAN MAZEPPA. [chaK v. 



must have come from Salta, a distance in a straight line 

 of nearly one thousand miles. This gives one a grand 

 idea of the immense territory over which the Indians roam ; 

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

 century, be a wild Indian northward of the Rio Negro. 

 The warfare is too bloody to last ; the Christians 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 villages containing two and three thousand in- 

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

 made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco, and Arrecife, but 

 now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have 

 whole tribes been exterminated, but the remaining Indians 

 have become more barbarous : instead of living in large 

 villages, and being employed in the arts of fishing, as 

 well as of the chase, they now wander about the open 

 plains, without home or fixed occupation. 



I heard also some account of an engagement which 

 took place, a few weeks previously to the one mentioned, 

 at Cholechel. This is a very important station on account 

 of being a pass for horses ; and it was, in consequence, 

 for some time the headquarters of a division of the army. 

 When the troops first arrived there they found a tribe of 

 Indians, of whom they killed twenty or thirty. The 

 cacique escaped in a manner which astonished every 

 one. The chief Indians always have one or two picked 

 horses, which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. 

 On one of these, an old white horse, the cacique sprung, 

 taking with him his little son. The horse had neither 

 saddle nor bridle. To avoid the shots, the Indian rode 

 in the peculiar method of his nation ; namely, with an 

 arm round the horse's neck, and one leg only on its 

 back. Thus hanging on one side, he was seen patting 

 the horse's head, and talking to him. The pursuers 

 urged every effort in the chase ; the Commandant three 

 times changed his horse, but all in vain. The old 

 Indian father and his son escaped, and were free. What 

 a fine picture one can form in one's mind — the naked, 

 bronze-like figure of the old man with his little boy, 

 riding like a Mazeppa on the white horse, thus leaving 

 far behind him the host of his pursuers ! 



* Purchas's "Collection of Voyages." I beUeve the date was really tS37' 



