TEHUELCHE METHODS OF HUNTING iii 



good vegas of rich grass exist. In winter, of course, the tropillas 

 become very thin and in poor condition, but at that season they 

 have infinitely less work to do, as there is hardly any hunting, and 

 the camp is usually stationary for the coldest months. 



The hounds of the Indians are something like our lurcher 

 breed. In the tents they lie about among the rugs and bedding. 

 They are irreclaimable thieves and very cowardly. A good 

 guanaco hound is, however, of very great value, for a pair of 

 accomplished hounds, skilled in the chase, represent a capital upon 

 which an entire family can live. 



One of the strongest feelings which I brought away with me 

 from Patagonia was a hatred of the trader who battens upon the 

 failings of the Tehuelches. If he hears of a festival or any tribal 

 ceremony, he arrives upon the spot with drink. He sells liquor 

 in exchange for horses, and when his customers are well steeped 

 in the poison he brings, he makes some magnificent bargains. 

 His influence is far-reaching and fatal as far-reaching to the 

 picturesque and harmless race out of whose degradation and 

 death he makes his living. Savage races may survive war and 

 internecine struggles, and the decimation not infrequently caused 

 by a cruel rule such as was T'Chaka among the Zulus, but they 

 never survive the Civilisation of the Bottle. The horrors of the 

 wars of history would pale beside the cold-blooded slaughter, the 

 gradual, malignant, poisoning processes which the most self- 

 satisfied and religious nations of the world allow to continue year 

 after year, I should say century after century, among 'the aboriginal 

 tribes, who live nominally under their protection. The pioneer 

 trader with his stores of cheap maddening liquor is free to sell as 

 much as he pleases, although it is a well-known fact that such 

 trading means ruin and extermination to the unhappy ignorant 

 folk who buy. The sin after all is national rather than personal, 

 for the trader has his living to earn, whereas the nation which is 

 responsible for allowing him liberty to traffic puts out no hand to 

 stay the evil. I do not in the least bring any charge against the 

 Argentine Government ; we British are guilty of the same crime 

 or carelessness, and in some of our dependencies terrible object- 

 lessons of precisely the same kind can be observed. 



