FROM MENDOZA TO SAN LUIS DE LA PUNTA. 23 



at eight arrived at a scattering settlement called Las Catitas, consisting of some half a dozen 

 houses, about which there are a few small, cultivated fields. Turned to the south-southeastward 

 at a bridge across a large acequia^ or ditch for irrigating, and continued along, between pastures 

 on the left, and thinly wooded country on the right, to a farm-house on the one hand, and the 

 post-house of La Dormida^, off among the woods, on the other; afterwards, five miles through 

 uncultivated country, and aroixnd a low hill to a grove of Algarrobas, on the banks of the Tunu- 

 yan, where we stopped to get dinner and pass the siesta. 



My leg was very much swollen, and so painful that I was obliged to make a cushion on the 

 horse's neck with a blanket, and ride lady-fashion. The weather till noon was rainy, and the 

 road very slippery. Wind from the northward. After noon it cleared up. 



The Tunuyan, at our stopping-place, is a third of a mile wide, full of sand-flats, and appa- 

 rently shallow, with a current of about three miles an hour. A number of ducks and cranes 

 were feeding- on its flats, and there are said to be fish of good quality in it. 



At 4.30 p. M. set out again, and at 8.30 arrived at a small town called Acorocorto, or La 

 Villa de la Paz. The first six miles of the road is by the river, sometimes over its flats, and at 

 others through tolerably thick groves of Chanares, Algarrobas, and Retamos; the remainder is 

 at a little distance from the stream, and leads through groves of the same wood. At two-thirds 

 of the way passed a couple of huts on the right, occupied by goat-herds ; and about three miles 

 before arriving we found the guard in one of a collection of huts. Here we were ])i\t under 

 charge of a soldier, who led us on a wild goose chase through mud-holes and bushes to the 

 town, where he left us, after notifying the comandante of our arrival. 



Our first impressions of Acorocorto were anything but favorable. It had rained very hard 

 there, and the whole town appeared to be one great mud-pool. The only lodging-place we 

 could find was at a wretched pulperia ; where, besides the grog-shop, there was but one room, 

 which was lumbered with casks of aguardiente, sacks of grease, horse-gear, and a variety of 

 other articles. Into this we were all tumbled with baggage and saddles, and passed the night, 

 of course very indifferently^ the only redeeming point in its experience being a good supper. 

 Mr. Blanchard had shot several partridges and plovers along the road, and having found a dry 

 spot in the yard on which to make a fire, he turned to — Frenchman-like — and prejsared for us a 

 most savory mess. 



In addition to the discomfort of our quarters, we had other reasons to be doleful. In the 

 efforts to conquer an unbroken mule, one of our best peons, by some inexplicable means, man- 

 aged to run a knife through his foot ; and on entering the yard of the pulperia, Aldao got a 

 severe wound just above the knee cap, from the roasting-spit, which had been foolishly left 

 sticking out from one of the loads ; so that we now counted three cripples in three days' travel. 



December 10. — A fine day rendered our prospect less gloomy; and Acorocorto, instead of 

 being a mud-puddle, really turned out to be a town — if the existence of one principal street and 

 one or two cross-streets, sufiiciently built on to make their limits and direction known, are 

 enough to constitute one. It has a large plaza, bounded on one side by the government house, 

 embracing the barracks and prison, and on the opposite side by two or three dwellings ; the 

 two remaining sides being partially marked out by mud-walls. The houses are of one story, 

 built of enormous adobes (about four feet long by two feet thick*), are without windows, and 

 have nearly flat parapeted roofs. Only one or two in the town are whitewashed. 



I suppose the population of the place and its environs to be about five hundred, including 

 some twenty-five or thirty soldiers, kept here by the province of Mendoza — of which this is the 

 most easterly settlement— to prevent incursions of the Indians. 



There is but little cultivated land about it, and that is principally planted in alfalfa. It is 

 irrigated by water from the Tunuyan, which passes about two miles south of the town. 



* These large adobes are made on the spot they are intended to occupy ; and when the first course is sufficiently hardened to 

 bear the weight, another course is moulded on top of it, and so on. 



