720 GAUCHOS OF THE PAMPAS. 



hue, and welcomes back the cattle, who have Leen driven to 

 distant pastures. 



GAUCHOS OF THE PAMPAS. 



See the inhabitant of this region, — the bold Gaueho, 

 whether owner of thousands of heads of cattle, or the humble 

 peon or chasqui, servant or courier, — mounted on his fiery 

 steed. What command he has over it! How admirably lie 

 and the animal seem adapted to each other ! If a proprietor 

 or chief manager, he will probably be habited in a white shirt, 

 with wide trousers richly embroidered with deep lace ; the 

 chiripa — a piece of cloth covering the body and passing round 

 his legs — being tied with a band ; a poncho over his shoul- 

 ders ; boots of polished leather, or, it may be, of simple skin ; 

 his heels adorned with a pair of enormous spurs, of silver or 

 less valuable metal, w T ith rowels of prodigious circumference ; 

 with his rebenque, or horse-whip, in hand, made of cow-hide, 

 and set off by a handle of massive silver. All classes re- 

 siding on the Pampas, whether in Uruguay or the Far West, 

 are called Gauchos. 



Such in early life was General Urquiza, for some time 

 governor of his native province of Entre Rios. The term is, 

 however, applied generally to the lower orders. 



Hardy, and sparely built, like the Arabs of the desert the 

 Gaueho lives on horseback. For most nights the ground is 

 his bed and his saddle his pillow, a piece of hide or a poncho 

 his only covering. He will gallop thirty leagues a day with- 

 out fatigue. 



From his infancy he has been taught the use of the lasso 

 and bolas ; and in his boyhood learned to catch the fowls, 

 goats, and sheep about his father's rancho, or to capture part- 



