IDESCRIPTION OF A POST-HOUSE. 



39 



Spanish companions appeared to feel themselves 

 perfectly at home, and enjoyed it very much^ 

 quite in the style of the native Gauchos^ taking a 

 bone^ and using nothing but their teeth and 

 knives ; they proved to be brothers^ and here 

 we found our party increased by a friend of 

 theirs on horseback^ who was going to Mendoza, 

 and intended to keep company with us all the 

 way. The post-room we slept in was tolerable^ 

 having a door to it^ which is seldom to be met 

 with beyond the province of Buenos Ayres, and 

 which, when the reality of their dreary situation 

 is looked into, is not to be wondered at ; in fact, 

 it is more astonishing how or where they can get 

 the wood to build even the miserable hovels they 

 inhabit, when it is taken into consideration that 

 some of them are as far removed as three hun- 

 dred miles from any thing like a tree; nothing 

 but a wild plain covered with thistles and brush- 

 wood. As a description of this post will serve 

 for the two provinces of Buenos Ayres and 

 Santa Fe, I will give it. It does not require 



