50 FROM ROSARIO TO MENDOZA. 



luinated — that is to say, there was a light over the door of each of the four principal houses in 

 the main street — in celehration of the election of electors for the presidency of the confederation. 

 The people were all up, and nearly all in the hotel were either drunk or gambling, or Loth. I 

 met there a Chilean acquaintance, bound to Buenos Ayres to embark for England, who gave me 

 very bad accounts of the condition of the post-horses farther on — as little encouraging to me as 

 my information on the same subject was to him. 



November 17. — Made a set of observations here, and, as had been done at Eosario and the 

 Villa del Eio Cuarto, tried the boiling-point apparatus. In Eosario it indicated the same 

 atmospheric pressure as the barometer, but in the Villa del Eio Cuarto, and at this place, very 

 much lower temperature. 



I had been desirous, from the time of my departure from Eosario until ray arrival in San Luis, 

 to fall in with a Colonel Baigorri — a great man among the Indians — from whom I wished to 

 obtain a safe conduct, in case opportunity should offer for me to penetrate into the Indian 

 country to the southward ; but before my arrival he had gone off among them. His nephew, 

 however, was there, engaged in the very characteristic occupation of trying to stab a man with 

 whom he had quarrelled over the gambling table, and to accomplish which he made several 

 unsuccessful efforts during the day. 



Colonel Baigorri is a Putano, or a native of San Luis de la Punta, who committed murder, 

 and, to escape the j^enalty, took refuge among the Indians, where he was kept for a while in 

 close captivity, but was allowed, subsequently, to accompany plundering parties, and on these 

 occasions committed more atrocities than the Indians themselves, after which he was granted 

 full liberty. He soon became a man of, great consideration among them, and was their pleni- 

 potentiary in all treaties or transactions with the diflerent towns or provinces on the frontier. 

 After the fall of Eosas — the late Dictator of the confederation — General Urquiza succeeded, 

 through Baigorri, in making a treaty with the Indians on a firmer basis than any they had had 

 before ; and ujd to the time I left the country, its conditions — paying a tribute in mares on one 

 side, and abstaining from predatory incursions on the other — had been strictly observed, and 

 the beneficial effects were apparent in the greater confidence with which people along the fron- 

 tier devoted themselves to raising cattle. Besides this, Urquiza had made Baigorri a colonel, 

 and his nephew a captain in the army, and, to create greater confidence between the two races, 

 had adopted the rather dangerous plan of placing one of the frontier forts under charge of the 

 former, who, I was told, would man it with Indians. 



November- 22. — Posted, on wretched horses, to El Balde. Found the post-house in charge of 

 a woman, who was the most shrewish vixen I had ever met. At first, she was all amiability; 

 but when I had satisfied her curiosity respecting the instruments, and commenced to hurry her 

 for the horses, stating that I was an officer on duty for the confederation, she inveighed vio- 

 lently against the government for requiring her to keep horses ; against travellers in a hurry j 

 and particularly against the drouglit, which had lasted so long that her animals were as lean 

 as skeletons. 



I had heard, before leaving San Iaus, that at the Desagitadero, the next post to the Balde, 

 the horses were worse than at any other point, and therefore asked the woman to inquire if any 

 of her neighbors had animals with which tliey would take me directly to Acorocorto, prom- 

 ising to pay double post-fare the whole way. After getting dinner, for which we paid roundly, 

 and waiting patiently two or three hours, I inquired the result of her efforts, and was informed 

 that an old man, whom I had seen about the house ever since our arrival, would take us for 

 double post as far as the Desaguadero, but that he would go no farther. It vexed me so much 

 to find that we had lost three hours by the humbugging of the woman — who knew as well as I 

 did that she was obliged to furnisli horses to the Desaguadero for single post charge— that I 

 lost all patience, and told her if she did not immediately give me horses I would send my ser- 

 vant to San Luis, and see what the government could do for her ; and, moreover, if she did not 

 stir herself, I would have her saddled and ridden to the devil. It was worth anything to see 



