THE BOER COLONY 75 



decidedly gloomy ; for the same beds we had explored for 

 two months were repeated here, in the same order, and 

 about the same thickness, and there was no indication that 

 we could expect anything new to turn up. The others 

 even rallied me on my long face. 



However, we began the descent (much easier and faster 

 than the ascent), and soon came to a small house made of 

 adobe bricks. It belonged to an English-speaking Boer. 

 In another hour we saw a similar house, and found we were 

 in the midst of the Boer Colony. It seems that after the 

 war, some 600 families of Boers, many of the heads, men 

 who had been prisoners in Bermuda, and all men who had 

 been active in the campaign, rather than return to Africa, 

 had moved to Patagonia where they obtained from the 

 Argentine Government a tract of land on the upper Chico 

 River. Each man had received a league of land for 2,500 

 pesos, on condition that he live on it and make certain 

 improvements, namely a house, a well, some fence, etc. 

 After three years he was to receive a title, and begin paying 

 instalments on the price. So they took their families and 

 moved here, and have made some of the best settlers in the 

 country, for they were used to frontier life, and to sheep. 

 Then their standards of living are high, their houses being 

 built mostly of sun-baked bricks, neatly finished inside, 

 with floors and attractive fireplaces, so built that the fire 

 is on about the level of the floor, and either side is raised to 

 make shelves where things can be placed to keep warm. 

 There are always some books and pictures about. They 

 are a people who have considerable religious training, 

 straightforward in their dealings, and very temperate. 

 These big fellows all tell you they are not strong enough to 

 drink whiskey. 



They have been there six years now, having come into a 

 country entirely unsettled and without roads, and have 

 built their houses, roads and considerable fence. When 

 they came most of them had to camp in tents, and live on 



