106 TORIANO INDIANS. Sept 



ten feet deep: and in this way we found no difficulty in obtain- 

 ing an ample supply. 



Three months before our visit to Argentina, a number of 

 Indians had been surprised and taken prisoners by Rodriguez ; 

 and among them was the famous old cacique, Toriano, whose 

 mere name was a terror to the frontier settlers. The commandant 

 attacked their 'tolderia"" (encampment) just before sunrise — 

 when the young men were absent on an expedition — and made 

 prisoners of the old men, women, and children. Toriano was shot 

 in cold blood; with another cacique, and several Indians of infe- 

 rior note : and his head was afterwards cut off, and preserved for 

 some time at the fort, in order to convince his adherents of his 

 death. Toriano was a noble Araucanian, upwards of seventy 

 years old when surprised asleep and taken prisoner by his mer- 

 ciless enemies. So high was his acknowledged character as a 

 warrior, that his followers supposed him invincible ; and until 

 convinced by the melancholy spectacle seen by their spies, 

 they would not believe him gone. 



Perhaps it is not generally known, that many of the most 

 desperate incursions upon the Buenos Ayrean colonists have 

 been made by flying troops, or hordes of Indians, whose head- 

 quarters are in the Cordillera of the Andes, or even on the 

 west coast, between Concepcion and Valdivia. Mounted upon 

 excellent horses, and acquainted with every mile of the coun- 

 try, they think lightly of a predatory or hostile excursion 

 against a place many hundred miles distant. 



We returned to the Beagle without another delay among 

 the mud-banks, and found the rising grounds (heights they 

 could not be called), nearest the ship, occupied by the troop 

 of gaucho soldiers. As they did not interfere with us, our 

 surveying operations were begun, and carried on as usual. Mr. 

 Darwin, and those who could be spared from duties afloat, 

 roamed about the country ; and a brisk trade was opened with 

 the soldiers for ostriches and their eggs, for deer, cavies, and 

 armadilloes. 



My friend's attention was soon attracted to some low cliff's 

 near Point Alta, where he found some of those huge fossil 



