THE NEGRO. Ill 



ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 



All Indians, of every age and sex, make their offerings ; they 

 then think that their horses will not tire, and that they them- 

 selves shall be prosperous. The Gaucho who told me this 

 said that, in the time of peace, he had witnessed this scene, 

 and that he and others used to wait till the Indians had 

 passed by, for the sake of stealing from Walleechu the offer- 

 ings. The Gauchos think that the Indians consider the tree 

 as the god himself; but it seems far more probable that they 

 regard it as his altar. 



THE NEGRO. 



WE determined to pass the night at one of the post- 

 houses, a day's ride from Bahia Blanca. This posta was com- 

 manded by a negro lieutenant, born in Africa; and, to his 

 credit be it said, there was not a ranch o between the Colo- 

 rado and Buenos Ayres in nearly such neat order as his. He 

 had a little room for strangers, and a small corral for the 

 horses, all made of sticks and reeds ; he had also dug a ditch 

 round his house as a defence, in case of being attacked. This 

 would, however, have been of little avail if the Indians had 

 come; but his chief comfort seemed to rest in the thought 

 of selling his life dearly. A short time before, a body of 

 Indians had travelled past in the night ; if they had known 

 of the posta, our black friend and his four soldiers would 

 assuredly have been slaughtered. I did not anywhere meet 

 a more civil and obliging man than this negro; it was there- 

 fore the more painful to see that he would not sit down and 

 eat with us. 



