HISTORY. 495 



the Horse, and employed his powers to terrify and subdue 

 their victims. Wherever these merciless invaders established 

 their unjust dominion, the Horse was carried, and he multi- 

 plied with a rapidity unknown in the richest parts of the 

 ancient continents. And now, after the lapse of little more 

 than three centuries, he is found naturalized from the frozen 

 Straits of Magellan to the snows of Labrador, under every 

 variety of climate and country. From the oppressors he has 

 passed to the victims ; and the most savage tribes of the in- 

 terior, from Patagonia to the Missouri and Columbia, have 

 been enabled to appropriate this gift of Providence, and em- 

 ploy it for their mutual destruction. 



The most remarkable circumstances attending the history 

 of the Horse in Spanish America, is his escape from human 

 control, and multiplication in the state of liberty. This first 

 took place, according to Azara, about the year 1535, when 

 the city of Buenos Ayres was suddenly abandoned by its in- 

 habitants, who in their flight left behind them on -the plains 

 five horses and seven mares, which had been brought from 

 Andalusia. These soon multiplied and gave origin to those 

 innumerable herds which people the boundless plains south- 

 ward and westward of the Rio de la Plata ; while others, 

 escaping from the settlements north of the same river, mul- 

 tiplied in Paraguay and other parts of the interior. These 

 emancipated horses are at times in little herds, a stallion 

 attaching himself to a certain number of mares ; but these 

 smaller herds likewise congregate into herds so vast in num- 

 bers as to strike the beholder with amazement. Many thou- 

 sands may often be seen together, acting upon a principle of 

 apparent subordination and union. 



Certain of the troop assume the guidance of the rest, place 

 themselves in the van when the herd migrates to new ground? 

 and, when danger is threatened, give the signal to advance 

 or fly. They gallop boldly up to the traveller and objects 

 that are new to them, unlike to the wilder race of Tartary y 

 who station sentinels around the troop, and fly from the sight 



