1833.] EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS. 95 



than the scene of their bivouac. Some drank till they were 

 intoxicated; others swallowed the steaming blood of the cattle 

 slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being sick from drunken- 

 ness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared with filth and 

 gore. 



Nam sitmil expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus 

 Cervictsn inflexain posuit, jacuitque per antrtim 

 Immensus, saniera crucians, ac frusta cruenta 

 Per sonmura commixta mem. 



In the morning they started for the scene of the murder, with 

 orders to follow the " rastro," or track, even if it led them to Chile. 

 We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped into 

 the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been missed. 

 One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole history. Sup- 

 posing they examine the track of a thousand horses, they will soon 

 guess the number of mounted ones by seeing how many have 

 cantered; by the depth of the other impressions, whether any 

 horses were loaded with cargoes ; by the irregularity of the foot- 

 steps, how far tired ; by the manner in which the food has been 

 cooked, whether the pursued travelled in haste; by the general 

 appearance, how long it has been since they passed. They con- 

 sider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight, quite recent enough to be 

 hunted out. We also heard that Miranda struck from the west 

 end of the Sierra Ventana, in a direct line to the island of Chole- 

 chel, situated seventy leagues up the Eio Negro. This is a 

 distance of between two and three hundred miles, through a 

 country completely unknown. What other troops in the world 

 are so independent ? With the sun for their guide, mare's flesh 

 for food, their saddle-cloths for beds, as long as there is a little 

 water, these men would penetrate to the end of the world. 



A few days afterwards I saw another troop of these banditti-like 

 soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of Indians at the 

 small Salinas, who had been betrayed by a prisoner cacique. The 

 Spaniard who brought the orders for this expedition was a very 

 intelligent man. He gave me an account of the last engagement 

 at which he was present. Some Indians, who had been taken 

 prisoners, gave information of a tribe living north of the Colorado. 

 Two hundred soldiers were sent; and they first discovered the 

 Indians by a cloud of dust from their horses' feet, as they chanced 

 to be travelling. The country was mountainous and wild, and it 



