230 DESCRIPTION OF THE PAMPERO. 



The most imposing spectacle presented by the Deserts of South 

 America is that of their frequent hurricanes. As the Simoom to 

 the Sahara, so is the Pampero to the Pampas. Its approach is fore- 

 told by signs which the native's experienced eye readily recognizes. 

 All at once the air seems stricken motionless, and over the solitude 

 broods a solemn silence. A cloud white and light as snow a cloud 

 " no bigger than a man's hand " rises in the south-west. It 

 advances, and as it advances enlarges its proportions. Other clouds 

 appear, and all gather into one imposing mass. The dust rises and 

 whirls round in thick columns suspended between heaven and earth. 

 Lower and lower descend the congregated vapours, until they envelop 

 the earth in a funeral shroud, whose folds the hurricane incessantly 

 agitates, and which the forked lightnings seem to rend in fragments. 

 Suffocating gusts of a fiery wind traverse space. And now the sudden 

 tempest stoops down from the summit of the Andes, and sweeps the 

 Savannah with resistless fury. Enormous masses of sand, upgathered 

 by the rafale, obscure the clearness of day; at noon the earth is 

 covered with a darkness that may be felt. The thunder mingles its 

 roar with the strident voices of the storm. All that lives, all that 

 breathes, is at the mercy of the unchained elements, which are 

 as pitiless in their wrath as a roused people. Thousands of animals 

 perish in the Savannahs ; and prostrate, with his face to the earth, 

 man tremblingly awaits the expiring breath of the grand convulsion ! 



The horses and cattle of Europe are replaced in the Pampas of 

 South America by the herds of guanacos and llamas which covered 

 them at the epocfi of the Spanish conquest. Their owners, descendants 

 of the Spaniards intermingled with the native races, possess many of 

 the characteristics of the Arab. 



Like the llanero of Venezuela, the guacho of the Pampas realizes 

 the idea of the ancient centaur ; and from the throne of his saddle, 

 to which hangs the inseparable lasso, he surveys the plains where he 

 is lord -and king with the fiery glance of a free and independent spirit. 

 He owes scant allegiance to any established authority, and under the 

 blue sky of heaven enjoys the blessings of uncontrolled freedom. 



