INHABITANTS OF AEGENTINA. 413 



Pass. This frontier was divided into nine sections, each defended by a fortified 

 central camp held by a strong garrison. In 1876 a general forward movement 

 advanced the line in such a way as to efface all its curves, thus greatly reducing 

 its length, and annexing the native trysting grounds. 



This new chain of forts, extended along the eastern slopes of the Andes, made 

 all further resistance impossible, and nothing remained for the survivors except to 

 submit. But meantime the Pampeans had disappeared, and even the Pata- 

 gonians are d^^ing out, having fallen from about 30,000 before the border wars to 

 no more than 2,000 in 1893. The loss, however, can scarcely be regretted, for 

 long before their final reduction the Pampas Indians had been transformed to 

 mere predatory hordes, depending for their very existence on cattle-lifting raids 

 amongst the white settlers. " Even those who, like the more distant Pehuenches, 

 w'ere of Araucanian origin, bad sadly degenerated from the formidable warriors 

 sung by Ercilla. They had lost all the bolder traditions of savage warfare, and 

 had sunk to the level of mere marauders, though their inborn ferocity too fre- 

 quently showed itself in cowardl}^ murders committed on the defenceless. Unfor- 

 tunately their tohlcrias, or encampments, served as a refuge to the more lawless 

 elements among the native Argentines or Gauchos, and they were often led, as 

 well as instructed in the u^-e of firearms, by deserters and criminals flying from 

 justice. 



" Still, considering the paucity of their numbers and the poorness of their arma- 

 ment, it seems almost a national disgrace that they should have been allowed to 

 hold their own so long, and, indeed, to derive tribute, as they did, from the trea- 

 suries of civilised communities like Santa Fé or Buenos Ay res. It is the more 

 surprising because, like their kinsmen in North America, they were an expiring 

 race, and at the time of their final overthrow had been reduced to a state of semi- 

 starvation by the iron barrier of the frontier, which put an end to cattle-lifting on 

 a large scale, and prevented their replenishing the herds of horses which alone 

 made them formidable, 



" The internal dissensions, which so long distracted the Confedei'ation and para- 

 lysed its energies, must account for the lack of vigour shown towards these 

 intolerable savages, and the radical manner in which they have now been dealt 

 with is a happy augury that this country has at last reached the era of stable, 

 well-ordered government." * 



Of the Pampeans the Ranqueles (Panqual-che) were nearest to the Buenos 

 Ayrcs colonies, being followed southwards by the Puel-che of the Kio Colorado, 

 and westwards in the province of Meudoza by the numerous Araucanian tribes, 

 whose names terminate in the syllable (•//(', meaning " people." Such were the 

 Pehuen-che, Huilli-che, Payu-che, Tami-che, Pilma-che, Teghul-che, following in 

 their order along the chain of the Andes. The Molu-che occupied the central 

 regions, while the Tehuel-che, that is, " People of the East," roamed the Atlantic 

 coustlands from Magellan Strait to the Ilio Chubut, and ranged into Fuegia under 

 the name of Onas. 



* Rumbold, o}}. cit., p. 76. 



