104 BAHIA BLANCA. [cHaP. Vv 
Salta, a distance in a straight line of nearly one thousand miles. 
This gives one a grand idea of the immense territory over which 
the Indians roam: yet, great as it is, I think there will not, in 
another half-century, be a wild Indian northward of the Rio 
Negro. The warfare is too bloody to last; the Christians killing 
every Indian, and the Indians doing the same by the Christians. 
It is melancholy to trace how the Indians have given way before 
the Spanish invaders. Schirdel* says that in 1535, when Buenos 
Ayres was founded, there were villages containing two and three 
thousand inhabitants. Even in Falconer’s time (1750) the 
Indians made inroads as far as Luxan, Areco, and Arrecife, but 
now they are driven beyond the Salado. Not only have whole 
tribes been exterminated, but the remaining Indians have 
become more barbarous: instead of living in large villages, and 
being employed in the arts of fishing, as well as of the chace, 
they now wander about the open plains, without home or fixed 
occupation. 
I heard also some account ofan engagement which took place, 
a few weeks previously to the one mentioned, at Cholechel. 
This is a very important station on account of being a pass for 
horses; and it was, in consequence, for some time the head- 
quarters of a division of the army. When the troops first arrived 
there they found a tribe of Indians, of whom they killed twenty 
or thirty. The cacique escaped in a manner which astonished 
every one. The chief Indians always have one or two picked 
horses, which they keep ready for any urgent occasion. On one 
of these, an old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking with 
him his little son. The horse had neither saddle nor bridle. 
To avoid the shots, the Indian rode in the peculiar method of 
his nation; namely, with an arm round the horse’s neck, and 
one leg only on its back. Thus hanging on one side, he was 
seen patting the horse’s head, and talking to him. The pur- 
suers urged every effort in the chace; the Commandant three 
times changed his horse, but all in vain, ‘The old Indian father 
and his son escaped, and were free. What a fine picture one 
can form in one’s mind,—the naked, bronze-like figure of the 
* 
oo Collection of Voyages. I believe the date was really 
1537. 
