104 



FOKTALEZA ARGKNTINA. 



Sept. 



thought we were very suspicious characters, especially Mr. 

 Darwin, whose objects seemed most mysterious. 



In consequence, we were watched, though otherwise most 

 hospitably treated ; and when I proposed to return, next 

 morning, to the boat, trifling excuses were made about the 

 want of horses and fear of Indians arriving, by which I saw 

 that the commandant wished to detain us, but was unwilling 

 to do so forcibly ; telling him, therefore, I should walk back, and 

 setting out to do so, I elicited an order for horses, maugre the 

 fears and advice of his major, who gave him all sorts of warn- 

 ings about us. However, he sent an escort with us, and a troop 

 of gaucho soldiers were that very morning posted upon the 

 rising grounds nearest to the Beagle, to keep a watch on our 

 movements. 



We afterwards heard, that the old major's suspicions had 

 been very much increased by Harris's explanation of Mr. 

 Darwin's occupation. ' Un naturalista' was a term unheard of 

 by any person in the settlement, and being unluckily explained 

 by Harris as meaning < a man that knows every thing,' any 

 further attempt to quiet anxiety was useless. 



As this small settlement has seldom been visited by strangers, 

 I will describe its primitive state. In the midst of a level 

 country, watered by several brooks, and much of it thickly 

 covered with a kind of trefoil, stands a mud -walled erection, 

 dignified with the sounding appellation of ' La fortaleza pro- 

 tectora Argentina.' It is a polygon, 282 yards in diameter, 

 having about twenty-four sides, and surrounded by a narrow 

 ditch. In some places the walls are almost twenty feet high, 

 but in others I was reminded of the brothers' quarrel at the 

 building of ancient Rome, for there is a mere ditch, over 

 which a man could jump. It is, however, said by the gauchos, 

 that a ditch six feet wide will stop a mounted Indian, and that 

 their houses require no further defence from attacks of the 

 aborigines. How, or why it is that such excellent horse- 

 men do not teach their horses to leap, I cannot understand. 



Within, and outside the fort, were huts (ranchos) and a few 



