APPENDIX. 437 



he might have guides, in case it were necessary to retire to their country 

 again, and also to show that he would not absolutely refuse the assistance 

 they had offered him. Forty Indian captains accompanied us in our march 

 from the toldos, and formed the escort of the General. 



A few days after the commencement of our march, we were lost in an 

 hitherto unexplored desert ; and none of the Indians knowing whither to pro- 

 ceed, the General undertook to guide us by a pocket-compass and small map 

 which he had in his possession. We were reduced to the most miserable 

 condition ; our provisions were entirely expended, in a country where water 

 was extremely scarce, and in which no living creature was to be found, ex- 

 cept serpents and other venomous reptiles. However, we continued our 

 march, satisfying our hunger by killing and eating such horses as were unable 

 to proceed farther ; and after two days we came to a lake, the water of 

 which was salt as that of the sea. Neither our men or horses were able to 

 proceed on the march, so much had they suffered from the heat of the wea- 

 ther and want of water. The General gave orders that each troop should be 

 divided into parties of five soldiers, and each party dig a well at a consider- 

 able distance from the brink of the lake, which was effected with much 

 labour ; and when they were sunk about five feet deep, the water began to 

 spring : it was nauseous, and very brackish. However, it was a luxury ; and 

 we indulged ourselves so much with it, that we became very ill, and passed 

 a most miserable night. From these wells fifteen hundred horses were also 

 supplied, but many of them died that night. Next morning we took a quan- 

 tity of water in barrels for our own use, and giving our horses again to 

 drink, we continued our course by the compass. As there are no rivers in 

 that part of the country, the lakes at an immense distance from each other, 

 and almost universally of salt water, our fatigues were the same during our 

 march as what have been already described, unless that use made our hard- 

 ships more familiar to us, and consequently more supportable. At length, 

 after a march of thirty-three days, we arrived on the frontier, some leagues 

 farther northward than we had expected. We came to a farm-house on the 

 frontiers of Cordova, where we found abundance of cattle, and a chacra well 

 stocked with every kind of vegetables ; which relief was most timely, as we 

 should not have been able to continue our march two days longer, so much 

 had we suffered from hunger and fatigue. 



We had scarcely dined, when a guerilla of Cordoveses presented them- 

 selves ; and as our horses were unfit for service, we waited their near approach. 



