THE PATAGONIAN INDIANS 135 



the consolidation of Argentine authority on the eastern 

 side gave a more regular form to the cattle-trade. 

 The convoys came to a halt at Antuco and Chilian 

 from which the Chilean buyers sometimes accompanied 

 the Indian tribes as far as the tolderias on the edge of 

 the Pampa. The trade in stolen cattle made use of 

 all the passes of the Cordillera, from the Planchon 

 pass below 35 S. lat., which Roca had covered in 1877 

 by the fortress of Alamito, to the source of the Bio Bio. 

 The one most used was the Pichachen or the Antuco 

 pass. On the tableland the cattle-tracks formed a regular 

 network with innumerable strands, spreading over a 

 width of about two hundred miles. The most northern 

 route started east of the Poitague district and, after 

 fording the Salado and the Atuel, and passing the 

 aguadas of Cochico and Ranquilco, entered the Cordillera 

 at the bend of the Rio Grande. Another track ascended 

 the Colorado and then reached the high valley of 

 Neuquen. A third crossed from the Colorado to the 

 Rio Negro, and, above the confluence of the Limay, 

 to the Rio Agrio or the Alumine. 



The first exact information about the range of the 

 Patagonian Indians is supplied by a group of bold 

 travellers who followed their tracks from 1870 to 1880 : 

 Musters, Moreno, Moyano, Ramon Lista, etc. Their 

 discoveries had already outlined the geographical 

 survey of Patagonia when the campaign of 1879-1883 

 opened it to colonization. 



The story of white colonization since 1880 shows us 

 several distinct streams of population. The first, 

 starting from the region of the Pampa, went from 

 north to south along the Atlantic coast, and gradually 

 extended its sphere toward the interior. The breeders 

 used the sea-route, the ancient Indian track with 

 recognized sources of water, to convey their first herds. 

 In 1884, the only spot inhabited on the coast between 

 the Rio Negro and the Deseado was the Welsh colony 

 on the Chubut. In 1886 Fontana reports ranches 



