30 FROM SAN LUIS TO EOSARIO. 



December 21. — Started at daylight, and at 11.30 a. m. arrived at the little town of San Jose 

 del Morro. Weather clear. Wind strung from the northward. At the distance of twelve 

 miles from the river we passed a hut, and two miles farther on, a second — there being between 

 the two a marshy hollow, overgrown with long grass, called "cortaderas," from the edges of 

 the blades beino- serrated. Hence this pair of wretched huts, two miles apart, is dignified by 

 the name of "Las Cortaderas." At eighteen miles passed a dry river-bed, which, after leaving 

 the jiortaderas, is the only break in the plain. About fifteen miles to the northward of this 

 thf, - js an isolated range of hills, some ten miles long, lying south-southwest and north-north- 

 Pa.Nr On arriving within three miles of San Jose the pampa ceases, and the road leads over 

 rocky hills to the town. 



San Jose del Morro is at the southern point of a range of tolerably high hills, which does not 

 appear to be more than sixteen miles long, and tapers to the southward of the town till it 

 blends with the plain. Its appellation of "del Morro" comes from a high and solitary hill 

 jutting into the pampa from the range to the southward, which, from its form, is called "El 

 Morro." It is a compact place, walled and ditched on two sides to protect it against the Indians, 

 the other two sides being partially protected by a small stream of good water ; but the absence of 

 trees of any kind gives it rather a desolate appearance. It covers about four squares of ground, 

 one of which is the plaza. This has a neat little church on one side, that, singular to say, is 

 without a priest, and depends upon the curacy of San Luis; so that, when there is necessity for 

 clerical aid, the inhabitants have to send twenty-four leagues. On my second journey I took a 

 letter from a distressed woman to the curate of San Luis, requesting that he would come down 

 to perform a marriage ceremony. Besides the houses in the town proper, there are a number of 

 ' Jiuts scattered about, on the banks of the streamlet. The population is estimated at one thou- 

 sand, including in this number some two hundred soldiers, who are quartered there, and in the 

 small forts more advanced towards the Indian frontier. 



The best house in the town is that of a "New Yorker," named Van Sice, who, after establish- 

 ing several printing-presses in various parts of South America, and pursuing fortune in other 

 honorable ways, finally married an intelligent and very comely native, and settled down in 

 San Jose. His assortment of merchandise was the best I had seen on the eastern side of 

 the Cordillera, and he appeared to be doing a thriving business. 



Notwithstanding the little attention paid to religion in that part of the country, and the 

 great advantage it was for any woman there to obtain a husband so industrious, intelligent, 

 and "well to do in the world," Mr. Van Sice was obliged to turn Catholic^ and confess himself 

 — or, as he said, tell a pack of lies — before he could be married. I passed the siesta at his 

 house, and was very hospitably entertained. 



Nearly all the horses I had seen on the road had very thin tails, and were so different from 

 the droves of wild horses I had been led to anticipate, from reading narratives of travellers, 

 that I inquired about the matter, and learned that there are no wild horses on the pampa, or, 

 at least, none which had not owners ; and, as regards their tails, I was told they were plucked 

 once a year, the hair being about the most valuable part of them. With the exception of one or 

 two droves we passed on the day of our arrival at San Sose, all that I had seen since leaving Chile 

 were very ordinary looking animals. Of horses proper, however, but few were seen, as the 

 droves we had passed, grazing on the pamj^a, were composed almost entirely of brood-mares, 

 with their respective stallions. The horses are broken as soon as they are old enough, and 

 are either sold to drovers or used for travel, so that they are seldom seen grazing in herds. 

 Mares are very rarely ridden, and are only of value for breeding, or for their hair and tallow, 

 large quantities of which are exported from Buenos Ayres. 



W e saw a great number of biscachas on the road, but they only appeared early in the morn- 

 ing or late in the evening, when it was too dark to examine them. During the day they keep 

 in their burrows, at the mouths of which little owls are generally perched, apparently on duty as 

 sentinels. I suppose that, as they can only see at night, they are kept awake by the darkness 



