ii8 SKILL IN BOLA THROWING. [ciiAr. 



Indians eat much salt, their children sucking it like sug'£ 

 This habit is very different from that of the Spanish 

 Gauchos, who, leading the same kind of life, eat scarcely 

 any : according to Mungo Park,"*^ it is people who live on 

 vegetable food who have an unconquerable desire for salt. 

 The Indians gave us good-humoured nods as they passed at 

 full gallop, driving before them a troop of horses, and 

 followed, by a train of lanky dogs. 



September 12th and 13M. — I stayed at this posta two days 

 waiting for a troop of soldiers, which, General Rosas had 

 the kindness to send to inform me, would shortly travel to 

 Buenos Ayres ; and he advised me to take the opportunity 

 of the escort. In the morning we rode to some neighbouring 

 hills to view the country, and to examine the geology. 

 After dinner the soldiers divided themselves into two parties 

 for a trial of skill with the bolas. Two spears were stuck 

 in the ground thirty-five yards apart, but they were struck 

 and entangled only once in four or five times. The balls 

 can be thrown fifty or sixty yards, but with little certainty. 

 This, however, does not apply to a man on horseback ; for 

 when the speed of the horse is added to the force of the arm, 

 it is said, that they can be whirled with effect to the distance 

 of eighty yards. As a proof of their force I may mention, 

 that at the Falkland Islands, when the Spaniards murdered 

 some of their own countrymen and all the Englishmen, a 

 young friendly Spaniard was running away, when a great 

 tall man, by name Luciano, came at full gallop after him, 

 shouting to him to stop, and saying that he only wanted to 

 speak to him. Just as the Spaniard was on the point of 

 reaching the boat, Luciano threw the balls ; they struck 

 him on the legs with such a jerk, as to throw him down 

 and to render him for some time insensible. The man, 

 after Luciano had had his talk, was allowed to escape. He 

 told us that his legs were marked by great weals, where the 

 thong had wound round, as if he had been flogged with a 

 whip. In the middle of the day two men arrived, who 

 brought a parcel from the next posta to be forwarded to the 

 general : so that besides these two, our party consisted this 

 evening of my guide and self, the lieutenant, and his four 

 soldiers. The latter were strange beings ; the first a fine 

 young negro ; the second half Indian and negro ; and the 

 two others nondescripts ; namely, an old Chilian miner, the 

 colour of mahogany, and another partly a mulatto ; but two 



* " Travel* ia Africa," p. «33. 



