^ 1833.] WELL-BROKEN HORSES. 159 



have been stolen from himself. He challenged them ; they 

 answered him by drawing their sabres and giving chase. 

 The man, on his good and fleet beast, kept just ahead : as 

 he passed a thick bush he wheeled round it, and brought 

 up his horse to a dead check. The pursuers were obliged 

 to shoot on one side and ahead. Then instantly dashing on, 

 right behind them, he buried his knife in the back of one, 

 wounded the other, recovered his horse from the dying 

 robber, and rode home. For these feats of horsemanship 

 two things are necessary : a most severe bit, like the 

 Mameluke, the power of which, though seldom used, the 

 horse knows full well ; and large blunt spurs, that can be 

 applied either as a mere touch, or as an instrument of 

 extreme pain. I conceive that with English spurs, the 

 slightest touch of which pricks the skin, it would be 

 impossible to break in a horse after the South American 

 fashion. 



At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares are 

 weekly slaughtered for the sake of their hides, although 

 worth only five paper dollars, or about half-a-crown apiece. 

 It seems at first strange that it can answer to kill mares 

 for such a trifle ; but as it is thought ridiculous in this 

 country ever to break in or ride a mare, they are of no value 

 except for breeding. The only thing for which I ever saw 

 mares used was to tread out wheat from the ear ; for which 

 purpose they were driven round a circular enclosure, where 

 the wheat-sheaves were strewed. The man employed for 

 slaughtering the mares happened to be celebrated for his 

 dexterity with the lazo. Standing at the distance of twelve 

 yards from the mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager 

 that he would catch by the legs every animal, without 

 missing one, as it rushed past him. There was another 

 man who said he would enter the corral on foot, catch a 

 mare, fasten her front legs together, drive her out, throw 

 her down, kill, skin, and stake the hide for drying (which 

 latter is a tedious job) ; and he engaged that he would 

 perform this whole operation on twenty-two animals In one 

 day. Or he would kill and take the skin olT fifty in the 

 same time. This would have been a prodigious task, for it 

 is considered a good day's work to skin and stake the hides 

 of fifteen or sixteen animals. 



November 26M. — I set out on my return in a direct line 

 for Monte Video. Having heard of some giant's bones at 

 a neighbouring farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream 



