56 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



other carnivores, which prey on the human species; 

 and finding it ranged on their side, as it were, in the 

 hard struggle of life in the desert, they were induced 

 to spare it, and even to regard it as a friend ; and 

 such a feeling, among primitive men, might in the 

 course of time degenerate into such a superstition 

 as that of the Californians. 



I shall, in conclusion, relate here the story of 

 Maldonada, which is not generally known, although 

 familiar to Buenos Ayreans as the story of Lady 

 Grodiva's ride through Coventry is to the people of 

 that town. The case of Maldonada is circum- 

 stantially narrated by Rui Diaz de Guzman, in his 

 history of the colonization of the Plata : he was a 

 person high in authority in the young colonies, and 

 is regarded by students of South American history 

 as an accurate and sober-minded chronicler of the 

 events of his own times. He relates that in the 

 year 1536 the settlers at Buenos Ayres, having 

 exhausted their provisions, and being compelled by 

 hostile Indians to keep within their pallisades, were 

 reduced to the verge of starvation. The Governor 

 Mendoza went off to seek help from the other 

 colonies up the river, deputing his authority to one 

 Captain Ruiz, who, according to all accounts, dis- 

 played an excessively tyrannous and truculent 

 disposition while in power. The people were finally 

 reduced to a ration of six ounces of flour per day 

 for each person ; but as the flour was putrid and 

 only made them ill, they were forced to live on any 

 small animals they could capture, including snakes, 

 frogs and toads. Some horrible details are given 

 by Bui Diaz, and other writers; one, Del Barco 



