84 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



provided. As I stood there, examining all these things, my mind 

 kept running upon the cow which I had killed, and which I was 

 now more than half afraid might have belonged to the Indians. If 

 such proved to be the case, I knew that they would resent it very 

 bitterly, and even perhaps attempt to make some sort of reprisals 

 upon our horses. The idea of saying nothing about it. were my sur- 

 mise as to the chance of its having been their property correct, struck 

 me as being the least troublesome course to pursue ; but nothing 

 is more abhorrent than dealing in this way with aboriginal tribes. 

 Personally, I should look upon picking the pocket of a civilised 

 person as, in comparison, almost a meritorious action. I may as 

 well say at once that I told them of the matter of the cow through 

 the vaqtteano or guide whom I hired from their tents, and offered to 

 pay for it if it happened to be their property. The vaqtteano, how- 

 ever, said that no cow of that colour belonged to their herd, and, 

 taking into consideration that she was six years old and unmarked, 

 I made my mind easy on this point 



I shall now break off from the thread of my narrative and 

 give a description of the Tehuelches, detailing the facts which I 

 gathered about them during my residence in Patagonia. I will 

 only preface it by saying that few peoples are more interesting to 

 study than the Tehuelches, of whom various travellers have given 

 such widely differing accounts. 



