132 A FRONTIER INCIDENT 



when I was a boy, for a reason to be stated 

 by-and-by. 



The Indians were invading the southern frontier 

 of the province of Buenos Ayres, and troops in small 

 bands were being hurriedly sent to that part. One 

 of the officers sent from the capital, a colonel, on 

 arriving at the frontier station and village of the 

 Azul, was put in command of a contingent of two 

 hundred men and ordered to proceed to a spot 

 about sixty or sixty-five miles further south, and to 

 take with him five hundred horses over the number 

 required for his own men, to supply fresh mounts 

 to other contingents which had already been sent to 

 the same place. Before reaching his destination he 

 came to an estancia which had been abandoned by 

 its owners, where there was a large corral — a cattle 

 enclosure made of upright posts eight or ten feet 

 high, placed close together. Here he stayed for his 

 troops to change horses and roast their meat, as it 

 was about noon and the men were hungry. By-and- 

 by the scouts he had sent out returned at full speed 

 to report that a considerable body of Indians had 

 been spied coming towards them. The colonel at 

 once ordered his men to drive the horses into the 

 corral, and having got them in, he next ordered the 

 men to go in after them and to place themselves all 

 round the line of posts and open fire upon the Indians 

 as soon as they came within firing distance. In a 

 very short time the Indians appeared, lying on their 

 horses and uttering their usual yells, and the horses, 

 maddened with terror, began to rush round, and, 



