NAMES OF PERSONS MENTIONED. 215 



so mucli importance that in 1829 he was elected Governor of the 

 country (Argentine Confederation). Mr. Darwin met him in 1833, 

 on the Rio Colorado, when he was conducting in person the war 

 against the Indians. He says : 



" General Rosas intimated a wish to see me ; a circumstance which 

 I was afterward very glad of. He is a man of an extraordinary char- 

 acter, and has a most predominant influence in the country, which it 

 seems probable he will use to its prosperity and advancement. [' This 

 prophecy has turned out miserably wrong,' adds Mr. Darwin, in 1845.] 

 He is said to be the owner of seventy-four square leagues of land, and 

 to have about three hundred thousand head of cattle. His estates are 

 admirably managed, and are far more productive of corn than those 

 of others. He first gained his celebrity by his laws for his own es- 

 tancias, and by disciplining several hundred men so as to resist with 

 success the attacks of the Indians. There are many stories current 

 about the rigid manner in which his laws were enforced. One of 

 these was that no man, on penalty of being put into the stocks, should 

 carry his knife on a Sunday. This being the principal day for gam- 

 bling and drinking, many quarrels arose, which, from the general man- 

 ner of fighting with the knife, often proved fatal. One Sunday the 

 Governor came in great form to pay the estancia a visit, and General 

 Kosas, in his hurry, walked out to receive him, with his knife as usual 

 stuck in his belt. The steward touched his arm, and reminded him 

 of the law ; upon which, turning to the Governor, he said he was ex- 

 tremely sorry, but that he must go into the stocks, and that, till let 

 out, he possessed no power, even in his own house. After a little 

 time the steward was persuaded to open the stocks and to let him 

 out ; but no sooner was this done than he turned to the steward and 

 said, * You now have broken the laws, so you must take my place in 

 the stocks.' Such actions as these delighted the Gauchos, who all 

 possess high notions of their own equality and dignity. 



"General Rosas is also a perfect horseman an accomplishment 

 of no small consequence in a country where an assembled army 



