78 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
nature. For when man begins to cultivate the soil, 
to introduce domestic cattle, and to slay a larger 
number of wild animals than he requires for food 
—and civilized man must do all that to create the 
conditions he imagines necessary to his existence— 
from that moment does he place himself in anta- 
gonism with nature, and has thereafter to suffer 
countless persecutions at her hands. After a cen- 
tury of residence in the valley the colonist has 
established his position so that he cannot be driven 
out. Twenty-five years ago it was still possible for 
a great cacique to gallop into the town, clattering 
his silver harness and flourishing his spear, to 
demand with loud threats of vengeance his unpaid 
annual tribute of cattle, knife-blades, digo, and 
cochineal. Now the red man’s spirit is broken; in 
numbers and in courage he is declining. During 
the last decade the desert places have been abun- 
dantly watered with his blood, and, before many 
years are over, the old vendetta will be forgotten, 
for he will have ceased to exist. 
Nature, albeit now without his aid, still maintains 
the conflict, enlisting the elements, with bird, 
beast, and insect, against the hated white disturber, 
whose way of life is not in harmony with her way. 
There are the animal foes. Pumas infest the 
settlement. At all seasons a few of these sly 
but withal audacious robbers haunt the riverside ; 
but in winter a great many lean and hungry in- 
dividuals come down from the uplands to slay the 
sheep and horses, and it is extremely difficult to 
