1833.] EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS. 101 
the night here; and it was impossible to conceive any thing 
more wild and savage than the scene of their bivouac. Some 
drank till they were intoxicated ; others swallowed the steaming 
blood of the cattle slaughtered for their suppers, and then, being 
sick from drunkenness, they cast it up again, and were besmeared 
with filth and gore. 
Nam simul expletus dapibus, vinoque sepultus 
Cervicem inflexam posuit, jacuitque per antrum 
Immensus, saniem eructans, ac frusta cruenta 
Per somnum commixta mero. 
In the morning they started for the scene of the murder, with 
orders to follow the “rastro,”’ or track, even if it led them to 
Chile. We subsequently heard that the wild Indians had escaped 
into the great Pampas, and from some cause the track had been 
missed. One glance at the rastro tells these people a whole 
history. Supposing they examine the track of a thousand horses, 
they will soon guess the number of mounted ones by seeing how 
many have cantered; by the depth of the other impressions, 
whether any horses were loaded with cargoes; by the irregularity 
of the footsteps, how far tired; by the manner in which the food 
has been cooked, whether the pursued travelled in haste; by the 
general appearance, how long it has been since they passed. 
‘They consider a rastro of ten days or a fortnight, quite recent 
enough to be hunted out. We also heard that Miranda struck 
from the west end of the Sierra Ventana, in a direct fine to the 
island of Cholechel, situated seventy leagues up the Rio Negro. 
This is a distance of between two and three hundred miles, 
through a country completely unknown. What other troops in 
the world are so independent? ‘With the sun for their guide, 
mares’ flesh for food, their saddle-cloths for beds,—as long as 
there is a little water, these men would penetrate to the end of 
the world. 
A few days afterwards I saw another troop of these banditti- 
like soldiers start on an expedition against a tribe of Indians at 
the small Salinas, who had been betrayed by a prisoner cacique. 
The Spaniard who brought the orders for this expedition was a 
very intelligent man. He gave mean account of the last engage- 
ment at which he was present. Some Indians, who had been 
taken prisoners, gave information of a tribe living north of the 
